#cause I need to start another Marco fic

[quinloki]

I am officially unwell about Marco and it's about to be all y'all's problem.

[cozage]

Your current Ace fics have me craving domestic bliss! Could you do an ace x fem!reader where their baby is getting vaccines and poor ace is just falling apart and Marco and reader are trying to comfort the baby and ace

OH Domestic bliss indeed. This is a great comfort moment in the midst of all the angst. Characters: Ace x fem reader Cw: vaccinations, needles, and clinics. Total word count: 1.3k

Crybaby

“Ace, please-”

“I’m just saying she doesn’t look good!” He argued. “We can always hold off another day! What if the vaccines just make her body exhausted and she gets more sick?”

You rolled your eyes. “That’s not how vaccines work.”

“I’m just looking out for her!”

You shot him a look as the two of you entered into the clinic. “Rogue is fine, Ace. Just behave, or I’ll ask Marco about your vaccine updates too.”

Ace’s eyes got wide and he nodded, keeping his mouth shut as the two of you walked into the small waiting room. You knew it was unfair to threaten him with vaccinations. He was terrified of needles. But this was going to be hard enough with one crybaby. You didn’t need two of them. 

“Marco!” you called back to him. “We’re here!”

“Come on back!” he called, and the three of you went back to the small examination room. 

Marco’s eyes lit up when you walked in holding your baby. 

“There she is,” he cooed, reaching out to take her from you. “How is my little princess?”

“She didn’t sleep great last night,” you admitted, handing her off easily. “She’s been pretty fussy the past few days.”

Marco held Rogue up, making faces and funny sounds to get her laughing. She instantly obliged, giggling and shrieking with joy. 

You smiled watching the two play together. “You’re so good with her,” you said. “How do you do it?”

“It’s the hair,” Ace joked, still standing in the doorway. He refused to come in any further than that. 

You laughed at his cheap shot and beckoned him over to you. You knew clinics were scary for Ace, but this was Marco. He was one of the most trustworthy people on the ship. 

Ace came reluctantly, and you interlaced your fingers with his to give him support. You could feel him relax just a bit, which made you feel a bit better. 

“Alright,” Marco said, finally bringing Rogue back down onto his lap. “6 month check up, right? And vaccinations. Anything else?”

“Check to see if she’s sick first-” Ace started, but quickly grew quiet when you squeezed his hand. 

“Right, right,” Marco said, pulling out his stethoscope. “Mom, I’m gonna have you take the baby back if that’s okay. I think she’ll respond best if she’s in your hands.”

“Sure,” you said, unclasping your hand from Ace’s and reaching for Rogue. You scooped her up and blew a raspberry at her, causing her to erupt into a fit of giggles. 

“Ah, she likes that, huh?” Marco grinned. 

“It’s her new favorite thing.” You sat on the cold examination table and plopped Rogue in your lap. 

Ace was still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room where you had left him. You beckoned him over once again, but this time he looked around nervously, refusing to join you. 

“Ace,” you said gently. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I think maybe we should wait on the vaccinations,” Ace said, looking at Rogue with a concerned gaze. 

“She’ll be okay,” you said, waving your hand again to try and get him to join you. 

“She probably won’t even feel it,” Marco agreed. “The cold stethoscope will be more jarring for her than the vaccines.”

“I just think-”

“Ace.” Your voice wasn’t hostile, but it was stern. The two of you had talked about this. You lived on a giant ship in the middle of the sea with hundreds of other pirates. Rogue needed her vaccines. 

“One day isn’t going to make a big difference,” Ace argued. 

“Exactly,” you said back. “Which is why we’re doing them today.”

Marco watched the two of you with an amused look. It was clear to him you both had had this discussion several times already. 

“Why don’t we do the exam first, just to make sure everything is okay,” Marco offered. 

Ace seemed to be okay with that, and finally joined you all at the exam table. 

Marco put his stethoscope up over his ears and held the other part out as you raised Rogue’s shirt. He tickled her stomach a few times to get her smiling, and you could see Ace relax a little bit in the corner of your eye. 

Ace was always at such ease when Rogue was smiling. His emotions seemed to be an amplified version of whatever she was feeling. When she couldn’t sleep well, he tossed and turned in your bed. Whenever she cried, it took him hours to calm down. He was so in tune to your all’s daughter that you were almost jealous. 

“Do you want to listen?” Marco asked, looking to Ace.

“Me?” Ace asked. “Oh..oh no, I couldn’t.”

“Go ahead.” Marco handed off the stethoscope to his fellow commander, and you saw Ace actually smile for the first time today as he listened to his daughter’s heartbeat. 

“Now we’re going to check her ears, nose, and throat.” Marco took back his stethoscope and pulled out another piece of equipment, showing Ace how it worked and allowing him to look when he could. 

“Just about everything looks good,” Marco said, rolling back to his desk on his stool to make some notes. 

“Just about?” you and Ace asked in synchronicity. Your grip involuntarily tightened around your daughter, concerned by Marco’s words.

“She’s got a minor ear infection.” Marco grabbed a small container from a cabinet and rolled back to you. “Put two drops of this in her left ear every morning and every night for a week. It’s nothing to be concerned about, I promise.”

You nodded and took the ear medication, but Ace looked like he was going to be sick. 

“What if it gets worse?” He asked. You could hear his breathing start to grow more rapid. 

“Then come see me, man.” Marco laughed and patted Ace on the shoulder. “You guys know your kid, and you know you can come see me anytime. But it’s minor. It would probably go away on its own, but we want to keep the little princess as comfortable as possible, right?”

“Right,” Ace agreed, but you could see his mind was racing with worst-case scenarios already. 

“Now for the not-so-fun part,” Marco said, opening a drawer and grabbing three containers and three needles. He smiled at your child in your lap. “Ready, Roguey?”

Ace looked panicked. “Marco, if she’s sick-”

“Won’t harm her at all,” Marco hummed, opening the sterile packaging and filling the needle with the first vaccination. 

“But if she’s already in pain-”

You reached your hand out and grabbed Ace’s, holding it tightly. He finally resigned himself to being the minority in this argument, and grew quiet. 

“Roguey, Roguey,” Marco sang, poking at her body with his finger and making her giggle. He continued to give her funny faces and sing to her, and then quickly slid the needle under her skin and pushed the vaccine into her system. 

Rogue stiffened in your lap for a moment, and you braced yourself for her tears, but Marco continued to sing and poke at her body, and she quickly forgot about whatever strange sensation she had just felt. 

Marco administered the second and third vaccine in a very similar way, keeping her so occupied she wasn’t even sure what had happened. When it was all over, he placed a hot pink bandage across her arm and nodded in satisfaction. 

“You’re girl is a total badass,” Marco said. “Normally the kids start crying by the second one, but look at that. No tears here.”

“I think Ace is crying enough for both of them,” you grumbled, but you gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. 

Ace hastily wiped his tears from his eyes and shook his head. “I’m not crying!” he said, though his voice was watery. “She did so well! I’m proud, that’s all.”

“Yeah well,” Marco winked at Rogue, a big smile on his face. “That’s what happens when you have two badass parents.”

[cyborg-franky]

Hello,Franky! I'm here to ask if you can do a Yandere Marco fic?(⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

Ohoh it has been a second since I did a yandere. But I also have these written.

Yandere Headcannons Stowaway  Yandere Headcannons [N/SFW] Seasons Yandere Harpy Marco 

======

Marco x GN Reader SFW [Tho it's a little IMPLIED for rude things] YANDERE THEMES WC: 800

Marco wasn’t a jealous man by nature, happy to see his partner flourish and make friends. He smiled watching as you laughed with Thatch, your hand on his arm as you threw your head back in another howling laugh at the joke the chef had made. Marco loved your laugh, seeing you happy made his heart sing. 

But once a month he became someone else, the phoenix inside of him riled up and angry. He was seething with jealousy, an emotion Marco wasn’t used to and wasn’t always sure how to deal with it, especially in a healthy way. He could feel flames roll over his shoulders when he saw you getting close to others, how Ace wrapped his arm around your shoulders and leaned in to whisper something.

Oh, he knew Ace was just a friendly guy and would never encroach on what was his but the phoenix was louder than his rational thinking as he strode over to where you and Ace stood, chuckling at whatever stupid childish thing Ace had said. 

You blinked when Marco’s eyes narrowed, staring down his nose at you with a look of contempt, his lip curled into a sneer as Ace quickly straightened up and jumped back, his arm falling from your shoulder as he cleared his throat. “Hey, Marco,” He nodded politely but Marco’s scathing look was focused solely on you as he replied to Ace without his usually chipper tone. “I think you have duties to be attending to, right?” 

The way those beautiful blue eyes continued to stare you down, causing you to wriggle in discomfort, wilting under the heat from his stare. He was such a laid-back person, you’d never seen him mad. The edge in his voice was causing the hairs on the back of your neck to stand, an unpleasant sensation thrummed through you as he clicked his tongue against his teeth when Ace hadn't made any move on leaving you two alone, Marco took his heated stare off of you, fixing it on Ace instead.

“Well?” 

“Oh, Y-yeah,” you could tell how taken aback Ace was at the dismissive way Marco spoke to him, probably feeling the intensity of piercing blue eyes narrowed at him because he almost tripped on his foot when he excused himself.

“And you,” he started when Ace had scurried out of earshot. “Flirting instead of doing your tasks yoi,” He hummed in thought as he slid his arm around your waist, pulling you towards him, using his grip on you to direct you back to his office. “You think taking a longer break is okay because you can’t help yourself?” 

You hated how it was worded like a question but the glint in his eye as he pulled you against him told you he didn’t want your excuses, there was nothing you could say to get out of this. You stammered uselessly and let out an awkward chuckle. “S-sorry.”

“Oh little bird, you think sorry is good enough? I think you need to make up for the time you’ve cost us yoi.” 

Your feet couldn’t keep up with his long elegant strides of haste, his arm left your waist in favor of gripping your wrist painfully. His skin was cold, the phoenix and his rational brain fighting the war for dominance within him. You stumbled when he tugged you into his office, slamming the door behind you both.

“You just can’t be trusted out of my sight, can you?” Marco sighed, tilting his head to one side to watch the emotions flitter across your face as you felt yourself backed against the wall. Unable to take your eyes off the shimmering blue of Marco’s predatory gaze, his half-lidded eyes and lazy smirk firmly in place as you stammered again. He chuckled and put his hands on the wall behind you, boxing you in.

Marco smirked when you closed your eyes, trying to briefly escape the unbearable tension that threatened to drown you. “Well?” he pushed for an answer, you didn’t know what he wanted you to say but standing there like a cornered mouse about to be snatched up in the talon of a hawk wasn’t going to do you any favors. 

“I’m sorry,” you blurted out, cracking open an eye to catch his reaction. His smirk faltered for a second, so fast you thought you’d been seeing things. “Sorry?” he hummed to himself before pushing your legs apart with his knee keeping it between your thighs. “Little bird, you are going to have to show me how sorry you are, I’m your boyfriend after all yoi.” 

“H-how?” you wished you hadn’t asked when you saw the smirk grow, something flashing behind his eyes, not entirely him, nor human. He leaned in, warm breath fanning across your skin, you could feel his lips move, sending a tremble of confused feelings throughout you. “I have some ideas…”

[meraki-yao]

Taylor Nick Variant Universe Brain Rot Part 2

Remember this? When I went unhinged and started coming up with an iPartment-inspired Taylor/Nick characters crossover rom-com universe???

WELL I GOT AROUND WORLD BUILDING, BUT I KIND OF NEED SOME HELP/INPUT

And yes I handwrote my ideas on paper that is my real handwriting I just think better when I write physically

So three parts:

Part 1: Family Relations

Explanation:

I made some of the characters relatives because of convenience and because it was fun

Henry's family follows the movie version, so Henry's surname is Hanover-Stuart Fox

Both the King from RWRB and the King from M&G are named James lol (the former James III of the UK; the latter James I&VI of England and Scotland), both bear the name Stuart but it's fucking weird for brothers to have the same name so I made Hanover-Stuart a joint surname only for Catherine and her children: Henry's Grandfather is a Hanover, Henry's Grandmother is a Stuart, George's lover/sugar daddy is Henry's Grandmother's younger brother

Robert (Cinderella; Nick) is from a (trashy) musical theatre movie and since Arthur Fox is an actor, I gave him a stage actress sister who's Robert's mother: Henry and Robert are cousins

During the pillow talk scene in RWRB Alex mentioned his father has a sister so I made said sister Marco's (The Kissing Booth; Taylor) mother: Alex and Marco are cousins

Part 2: Jobs/Studies

Explanation

Alex and Henry are what they are

At the end of KB3 Marco said he wanted to go to New York and become a musician so yeah

Robert is from a musical so might as well make that his study

Being a sugar baby is the best way I can translate George's situation into a modern setting

Henry's parents are as they are, with the modification that Catherine is a professor at Oxford

Oscar Diaz is as he is

Arthur's sister/Robert's mother is a stage actress

Questions/Input/Help Please

What music school in New York can Marco go to? I only know Julliard but it seems a little too unrealistic

I don't know how the American government system so if Ellen isn't president what position can I put her in? Senator too? Or something else?

What job works for Henry's grandfather and James Stuart? Does old money work? What's a modern substitute for a monarch?

George was historically a really good dancer and we're gonna see that in M&G, does it make sense to translate that into a club dancer or something? I ask as someone who has never in her life gone to a club

Part 3: Living Arrangements

Explanation:

I want them to be roommates? The fic and the show that inspired this idea was the characters living in two neighbouring apartments: 1 with 4 residents and 1 with 3 residents

I kind of want to start with all of Nick's characters in one apartment and all of Taylor's in another, then maybe mix it up as relationships develop

So for the 4-person apartment right now I have Henry and Robert

For the 2 or 3-person apartment I have Alex and Marco

George, as a sugar baby, has James giving him a luxurious loft where he lives on his own

Question:

I... don't really know how apartments in New York/ the states work? My understanding of an apartment is like one complex with a living room, dining room, bedrooms, kitchen and washrooms, and one floor of one building has a couple of those for each floor. Is the States the same? 'Cause yall live in houses and we don't really have that here? The building my apartment is in has 42 floors and each floor has 8 apartments.

Suggestion for roommates for each apartment? I need 2 Nick characters and 1 Taylor character who would be reasonable enough to share a new York flat with college students

Final Question:

Suggestion for a name for this universe/fic?

Tagging @luainthewild @henryfoxisgenderqueerandautistic

[mebiselfandi]

Title: I’m Not Scared

Summary: Marco gets stranded at Kylian’s apartment due to a storm and comforts him when he gets scared of the thunder.

Pairings: Marco x Kylian, Verbappe

Tags: fluff as usual, it’s a lil(like thiiiiiiiis🤏🏾 much) spicy for like 2 quick sentences so just heads up

Small authors note: had to beat this plot with a stick. Got tripped up by so much dialogue(my arch nemesis) especially considering I was going by not so educated guesses on Marco’s dialogue. Literally started the Neymessi tea fic halfway through and finished cause I couldn’t figure this out.

WARNING THIS IS A ROMANTIC SHIP SO DON’T BE SPOOKED BY THE CONTENTS!!

“Ah shit,” Marco muttered under his breath.

When he’d agreed to take Kylian back to his apartment after practice was cut short he hadn’t thought the rain would get this bad. The hail beating down on the window proved his thoughts wrong. It had already been 4 hours since he’d gotten there and the rain was only getting worse. The skies had been prematurely darkened by the clouds and the rolling waves of rain that threatened to break the walls down.

“It’s getting worse,” Kylian muttered back, tensing a little after a particularly loud burst of thunder. He looked away from the series that played quietly on the tv and to Marco who sat with his feet up on the table on the other side of the sofa. “I think you might have to stay the night” he added as Marco turned his head to look at him through sleepy eyes.

“Yeah, you’re right. I can sleep on the couch,” Kylian looked ready to protest, “really it’s fine. I don’t mind. Just bring me a blanket, okay?”

“Fine,” Kylian sighed, slightly annoyed. But even he was starting to feel sleepy and in no mood to argue against Marco. He knew he’d lose against him anyway. He got up and stalked off to get him a blanket. Marco burrowed deeper into the sofa and pulled his oversized sweater tighter around his body as he tried to ward off the cold from the weather. He let his eyes flutter shut for a few seconds as he waited for Kylian to come back.

————————

Marco rubbed at the slight ache in his neck as he groaned awake. It was so dark he couldn’t see a thing. No light filtered in from the street lights outside. The storm, which seemed to have doubled in strength, must have blacked out the whole district. He fished out his phone from his pocket and winced as he switched it on to check the time; 00:27. Shit, he’d been asleep for almost 4 hours. He moved the blanket which Kylian must have covered him with in his sleep to the side and maneuvered gracelessly to his feet. He silently regretted wearing shorts as he realized how freezing and in need of another blanket he was before he lost all feeling in his toes. He stumbled through the dark in the direction he knew Kylian’s room to be; only bumping into a chair and a haphazardly discarded sneaker on his way.

“Kylian?” He whispered quietly into the inky blackness of Kylian’s room. He was sure the other man had long fallen asleep by now and had he been slightly more awake he’d have felt bad for disturbing his sleep. Although he considered it fair. He was only in this predicament due to Kylian being too stubborn to get his stupid license. Really the man was 24, it was getting ridiculous.

“Hm,” Kylian answered almost immediately. Strange. Was he already awake?

“It’s freezing, I need another blanket,” he spoke over the cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning. He slowly walked towards Kylian’s bed blindly before stopping when he felt the soft thud of the mattress against his knees. He sat down on what he assumed was the end of the bed and looked at where Kylian’s head ought to be.

“I don’t have any more spare blankets. Just get in,” Kylian said. His voice seemed to waver a little but surely Marco was imagining things.

Marco heard Kylian slowly move to tug the blanket up on one end. He crawled on the bed till he could feel the corner Kylian was holding up for him before climbing under the multiple blankets and sheets next to Kylian. He let out a soft sigh as he pulled up the blankets to his chin and nestled into the warm space next to Kylian. He was just starting to feel the caresses of sleep when suddenly a very loud whip of lightning cracked in the distance, shaking the whole building. Kylian’s hand flew out and grabbed Marco’s under the sheets in a tight, clammy hold.

“I’m sorry,” Kylian breathed shakily as he began to let Marco’s hand go from his vice grip but Marco didn’t let him. He held on tighter to Kylian’s hand as he properly interlinked their fingers together.

“It’s okay,” Marco replied as he suddenly felt slightly more awake. “You’re scared of the storm?” It was phrased more as a statement than a question.

“No, of course not. Don’t be silly. You think I’m scared of a little rain?” Kylian replied gruffly. But the small whimper and the little squeeze he gave Marco’s hand at the next crack of thunder betrayed him.

Marco let out a small sigh that sounded almost like a chuckle before he shifted closer towards Kylian. “Stop being an idiot and come closer,” he mumbled somewhat sleepily. He felt the blankets shift around as Kylian ambled closer to him until they were pressed arm to arm in the middle of the bed. They lay there in silence until Kylian took in another sharp breath at the next flash of lightning. Marco nudged Kylian’s leg with his socked foot, “c’mon, talk to me. Unless you plan on jumping out of your skin all night?” He poked jokingly. He turned on his side to face Kylian when the man stayed silent. “Hey,” he whispered soothingly as he reached a hand blindly in front of him until it made contact with the soft, cold-nipped skin of Kylian’s cheek. He felt Kylian’s eyelashes flutter against his thumb as he stroked the ridge of his cheekbone. Kylian’s skin was cool to the touch but it felt so warm under the gentle ministrations of Marco’s hand.

“It’s just…it’s-it’s too loud,” he started voice wavering a little. He finally turned on his side to face Marco before continuing, “which I know is ironic, I know, considering I’m surrounded by crowds louder than this almost constantly but- the dark. The lights went out not long after you fell asleep then my phone died an hour later. I can’t stand the dark…you don’t know what could be out there you know?”

“Why didn’t you wake me up? I would have stayed up with you,” Marco asked quietly. He could feel Kylian’s warm breath fanning his face in soft, irregular puffs of minty air.

“I didn’t want to bother you. You looked so pretty uh…peaceful in your sleep and I could tell you were tired.”

Marco felt slightly warmer at Kylian’s small Freudian slip and let out a soft laugh at the man’s terrible attempt to cover up his slip up.

“Yeah I was, but I’m wide awake now.”

“Uh-huh, sure and I’m quitting football.”

“You’re more likely to start singing opera than quit football.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Kylian whispered as he felt slightly more relaxed at the dulcet tone of Marco’s voice. However this didn’t last long as he tensed up again when the rain slammed particularly hard onto the windows. “How doesn’t this bother you?” Kylian grit out.

“What, the dark?”

“No, my cologne,” he bit back sarcastically.

“I don’t know, it’s just never really bothered me so I guess I never grew scared of it.”

“I wish I could relate…also I’m not sca…” he trailed off at the next burst of thunder.

Marco let out a sigh at the boys antics before shifting ever so slightly closer until he was pressed flush against Kylian’s body. Kylian became even more rigid than he had been before at the sudden proximity with the smaller man.

“Come on Kyky, you need to relax,” Marco whispered into his neck.

“I’m trying.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Well it’s a little hard to ignore when it’s all I can think about right now.”

“You want me to distract you?” Marco, still caught in a hazy half sleep state, wasn’t too sure where he was going with this. But the way Kylian’s breath hitched at the question spurred him on. “Because I can,” he whispered right into Kylian’s ear, “if you want,” he purred as he caught the lobe of Kylian’s ear in between his teeth.

“…okay,” Kylian whispered back as he reached out a tentative hand to rest on Marco’s hip.

Marco moved the hand on Kylian’s cheek to his collarbone and pushed him lightly until he was lying on top of him. He could feel Kylian’s pulse jump under his fingers at the new position. He maneuvered his legs until he was straddling the bigger man on his smooth stomach. He could feel Kylian’s long fingers dig lightly into both sides of his hips, holding him in place. His hands caressed down the length of his chest, feeling each hardened plane of muscle before stopping gently at the sides of his ribs. He leaned his head down and nuzzled his nose into Kylian’s right cheek before moving his head until he could just barely feel his lips graze against his.

And then both Marco and Kylian bubbled to life with laughter as Marco’s fingers began to dance endlessly against Kylian’s warm, exposed skin.

“Wait…no-Mar...Marco stop,” Kylian squealed, punctuating each word with a small burst of giggles.

“Never,” Marco laughed loudly and somewhat deviously.

Kylian tried to push the smaller man off him. It was futile of course. With Marco being a lot stronger than he looks. But for once luck was on his side and he managed to spread Marco’s legs apart and catch him off balance before pushing him by the hip with one hand and flipping them over until he rested between Marco’s legs. He quickly pinned Marco’s mischievous hands above his head and heaved trying to catch his breath above the still giggling man beneath him.

“Don’t do that again,” Kylian laughed breathlessly as he tightened his hold on Marco’s wrists to accentuate his words. He slowly began to breathe less erratically as he regained his breath. He felt a little bit of shyness enter him as he started to notice the position he’d put himself in with Marco. He knew he should get off the older man but the way his sweater had ridden up and his bare skin was rubbing against Kylian’s own unclothed half made him feel dizzy and intoxicated. The smaller man smelled so good and he was just starting to lean closer when…

“Hear that?” Marco whispered, “the rain’s stopped.” And he was right, the rain had come to an almost complete halt with just the light pitter patter of drizzle being the only noise left. The streetlights turned back on, softly setting the room in a soft glow as the light peeked through the window.

“Oh,” Kylian felt a bit sad as he realized Marco would probably be going soon now that the storm was over, “you’re right. Are you gonna go home now?” He asked as he slightly loosened the grip on Marco’s wrists. He waited in dreaded anticipation and fear for the affirmative answer.

“Not unless you want me to,” Marco whispered back a bit hesitantly. Also fearing possible rejection.

“No, of course not,” Kylian rushed to say as he looked down at the man he could now see thanks to the golden light filtering in. He looked deeply into the other man’s soft blue eyes before leaning in until his lips were once again just brushing against his, “Marco?”

“Yes, Kyky?” Marco asked back as he felt himself become slightly breathless at the man’s sudden boldness and intense eye contact.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Yes, please,” he breathed out restlessly under Kylian.

And Kylian closed his eyes and leaned in, capturing Marco’s lips between his. His lips were soft and warm. They melted into his and moved in rhythm with each nip and pull of Kylian’s mouth. He removed his hand from Marco’s wrists as he intertwined their fingers again above their heads. Marco’s free hand moved to lightly scratch the back of Kylian’s head which only deepened the kiss. They both grew less tentative and began to kiss more hungrily in a mess of tongues as their hold on each other tightened. Marco moaned deeply as Kylian used his other hand to grip his jaw and move his head to the side so he could press a sloppy wet kiss on his neck, just below his ear. Kylian sucked and nibbled at the sensitive area and pulled away when Marco began to whine incessantly under him. He kissed the area softly before coming back up to kiss him deeply one more time and with one last swipe of his tongue against Marco’s lips he pulled away. He looked down at the man below him and admired how much of a pretty mess he looked with his eyes closed and lips slightly parted in anticipation for more.

“Ky,” he dragged out through a low whimper as he finally opened his eyes to gaze back at Kylian.

“You look so pretty like that,” Kylian murmured softly, “I could kiss you again.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” He groaned petulantly.

Kylian let out a soft laugh at his impatience before kissing him once more. Gently and slowly, to savor the moment.

Maybe thunderstorms weren’t so bad.

Another authors note: Special thanks to @kylianmbappeh for starting this ship. Part 2 between Marco and Ney will be out soon.🫶🏾

P.S. please tell me in the comments or asks or DMs or whatever if you wanna be tagged in part 2.

[halcyon-days-no-more]

Crossover Fic Idea: Mandalorian Whitebeard Pirates

The Whitebeard Pirates or in this 'verse I'm thinking Clan Cin Vhetin (lit. "white field"/fresh start/clean slate) is one of the biggest if not the biggest clan in the Mandalorian sector. The reason for this is that their clan head Edward Newgate, an especially large Esoomian with white facial tendrils instead of blue-gray like the rest of him, hasn't met another sentient that he wasn't willing to say the Gai bal manda - the adoption vow to.

The result is a family the size of a not so small invasion force. Like seriously more than one family get together away from their usual territory has caused a panic.

The most famous of his ade (children):

Marco the Rising Phoenix, known for his mastery with a jetpack. (I'm thinking Marco's a Rishi or an Omwati though I'm leaning toward the latter. Though a Firrerreo's healing factor would fit him well)

Diamond Jozu (I'm think he's a Vaathkree, to keep with his devil-fruit)

Thatch - (Near Human, Stew Jon variant. Or Besalisk with a very prominent crest on his head. Dex can't be the only one to use those extra arms to be awesome in the kitchen)

Flower Sword Vista (Considering he could produce flower petals out of thin air without a devil-fruit I'd write him as one of the sentient plant species like a Neti)

Blamenco (I'm was thinking a marsupial species on account of his pocket-pocket devil fruit, but the only sentient one on wookiepedia I can find - sort of - are Hutts who apparently have a brood pouch. He could be an odd Hutt that stuck to the old warrior ways).

Rakuyo - (I wasn't sure on the species, but maybe a Quarren? - blame the mustache) He is always accompanied by his faithful droid MAE-C.

Namur - (Karkarodon is the only species that fits)

Brenheim - (Falleen)

Curiel - (Mirialan)

Kingdew - (Trandoshan)

Haruta - Haruta's always protrayed in fics as the smallest of the commanders even though they're a good head taller than Ace. Design wise I like a Frozian for Haruta. They would just need away for them to have access to a low gravity enviroment

"Water Buffalo" Atmos - (Chagrian)

Speed Jiru - (I'm not sure.)

Fossa - (I'm not sure - seriously we did not get enough of these characters to know them at all.)

Izo - He's originally from Wild Space. (I'm thinking Izo is a Twi'lek or a Togruta and I'm leaning towards the latter.)

Portgas D. Ace - (Firrerreo - though I'm entertaining the idea that all D's have Sith (the species) in their ancestry).

[juniorgman187]

Serendipity (Reid Fic) Part 1

A/N: If you’re wondering if this is at all based on Rosie and Marco’s storyline in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” then you should know - it totally is.

Summary: An FBI gathering brings Reader and Spencer together after years of distance. This one night changes not only their future, but their perspective on the past.  Category: Angst, Smut, *NSFW content Pairing: Fem!Reader x Spencer Reid Content Warning: Mentions of traumatic childhood, child neglect, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, menstruation, pregnancy Word Count: 10.2k

I originally thought I would be able to fit everything into 1 part, but after further reconsideration, this will be a two part series. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　

Serendipity: (n). Finding something good without looking for it.

A word I would only come to truly understand many months from now on a warm Thursday morning in May at St. Mary’s Hospital. 

But whenever my thoughts drifted back towards the past, I would always remember that this was how it all began - on a chilly Saturday night in the heart of D.C.

Not more than four hours ago, Emilia and I drove down here for an F.B.I function that hired us. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have agreed to be the caterers for an event so far away, but we eventually signed on after learning that there were at least 600 people attending. That meant a considerable amount of customers and an exorbitant amount of money. Saying yes was clearly a no brainer. 

Just to put it into perspective of how big this event would be, Emilia and I got lucky if we could park somewhere with 80 customers. 80. So this event would be colossal for us.

But who would have guessed that in a crowd of 600, I would run into the one and only - Spencer Reid. 

To preface, this wasn’t just any old birthday party, parade, or festival. It was a celebration and a grand one at that. Considering it was a private event at the Washington Monument, we were given special instructions to abide by the black-tie formal dress code that guests had to follow, too. I guess the caterers can’t look like slobs in the United States’ Capitol, now can they?

I definitely spent more time than I should have deciding on what outfit to wear, but my conscientiousness, or rather indecisiveness, did pay off in the end. For I would run into someone worth the trouble of impressing. 

My hair, unlike Emilia’s, was down and curled in big waves, and on one side, some of my hair was tucked behind my ear and designed to stay that way thanks to copious amounts of hairspray and an ungodly total of bobby pins. Emilia lent me a black, floor-length dress that had a plunging v-neck that didn’t fit her anymore, but luckily, fit perfectly on me. Although I would have to remember not to lean over too far tonight, otherwise, the customers might get a show they didn’t pay for. I, however, didn’t look half so good as my business partner. 

Emilia was clad in a navy blue silk dress with puffy sleeves and a high collar; the dress clung to her every curve, including her newly protruding belly bump. She looked regal and pregnant all at the same time, qualities I hadn’t seen coexist in anyone but the Queens and Duchesses in England. 

“Well, don’t you look hot?” Emilia purred, running her fingers through my curls, then letting them fall and sway back into place. 

“Are you kidding? You are quite literally a sexy mama.” I gushed to her, receiving a light chuckle in return. 

“Yeah, well, when you’re five months pregnant, tell me how sexy you feel in a tight dress.” She remarked, turning her back to me while she arranged all the supplies in the kitchenette behind me. But even as she faced away from me, she still managed to recognize the effect her words had. Maybe it was something in my silence, or our sister-telepathy, but Emilia immediately felt the room depress. In an effort to take back the remark that turned the room cold, she sweetly added while hugging me from behind, “You’re gonna be a mom one day, too. I promise.” 

I leaned into her embrace, feeling guilty for ruining the moment while also feeling burdened by the reminder of the terrible reality I had to face every day.

Ever since I could remember, I thought I was destined to be a mother, but that destiny had yet to be fulfilled.

Emilia was born only three years after me, and though that age gap isn’t big enough for me to be mistaken for her mother, I, she, and our younger brother Saul would all agree that in many ways I was their mom. I was the parent our parents never were. I was there for everything - soccer games, dance recitals, winter musicals - never getting the chance to participate in my own, but always attending their’s. 

I had to admit sometimes it was a burden, having to grow up so fast and help raise my siblings while still trying to navigate through my own struggles of adolescence, but I saw it as something I was meant to do. 

See, I wouldn’t have minded all the responsibilities of being a parent so much when it’d be my own kids that I’d be fulfilling them for - when it would be by my choice to fulfill those responsibilities and not by unfortunate birth order. 

However, as the years have gone by, my calling to be a mother has gotten quieter and quieter and quieter until eventually, I don’t think I’ll be able to hear it anymore. 

It’s not that I can’t have kids, but the fear of rushing into having one is what’s stopped me from pursuing that dream. 

As someone who grew up with divorced parents and practically became my siblings only reliable caregiver, I knew what having a baby too soon could do to a family. So rather than repeating history, I chose to wait to have kids. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did, and so I lived my life. I traveled all across the globe, I met new people, tried new things, I even started this taco truck business with Emilia. 

But still that gaping hole in my chest remained. A hole that nothing could ever fill the way that a child would. 

No amount of living could make up for the emptiness of a life with no family.

I could pretend all I wanted that I was happy living out my twenties, but the truth was I didn’t want to spend the rest of my years working in a food truck, amounting to nothing more than a mediocre cook and middling entrepreneur. That was never my dream - as exciting as it was. 

My real dream was to have a good life. The kind my parents never had thanks to the unplanned arrival of me. The kind my baby sister was already living out. 

“You know what? It’s a really nice night out. I think I might go for a walk. Do you wanna come?” Was this my blatant avoidance of breaching the subject of pregnancy? Yes, but it was also my escape from this food truck that felt like it was getting smaller and smaller and smaller by the second. 

“No, I’m okay. I’ll just get everything ready.” Emilia resigned. 

She knew why I was really leaving - sister-telepathy, I’m telling you - but she didn’t feel the need to acknowledge it. For that, I was thankful. Maybe we were better at communicating with no words at all. 

I carefully stepped off the back of the truck, making sure to hike up my dress high enough so I wouldn’t trip over the mess of fabric when my feet hit the floor. The nippy December air felt like a cool balm on my hot skin. I was burning up in that truck, and maybe it was nerves or something else, but I just had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. There was no explanation for it, but I realize now that the pit in my stomach was caused by something my intuition could sense but something my mind couldn’t understand. 

Someone important from my past was here tonight.

As I sauntered around the monument, I took in the breathtaking view of the structure’s silhouette against the blazing orange sky that melted into an ocean blue. I regretted not bringing my phone to take a picture of it so I could show Emilia when I got back, but that one regret quickly turned into another when the night sky’s breeze brought a rude awakening. My body shivered at the frigid gust of wind that blew through and I suddenly started to regret not bringing a jacket.

“Are you cold?” A gentle voice asked me from behind. 

I slightly recoiled out of shock of someone being there. When I turned around though, I couldn’t quite make out any distinguishable features. All I knew for sure was that this was certainly a man, and a tall one, too. 

“Um, just a little.” I bashfully admitted, crossing my arms to hug myself and maintain some warmth. I hadn’t even thought about my dress’s plunging v-neck or the fact that I was practically squeezing my breasts together, accentuating them even further, but by the time, I realized, it was too late. He was already looking. But not at my chest. Somewhere far more invasive. 

My eyes. 

“Here, take my jacket.” 

My small protests did nothing to stop him as he inevitably slipped the coat around my shoulders anyway. He’d come so close that I could finally see him and smell him. And let me tell you, if the sight of him wasn’t enough to break an overflowing dam of memories, then his smell certainly sent a flood that would.

“Oh my god,” I quietly gasped, my hand flying to my mouth to cover its un-ladylike gaping. 

“Spencer Reid?”

I squinted my eyes and cocked my head even further to find evidence to support my assumption, and sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for. 

I was frozen in place as I deeply examined his face. My God! I mean, in many ways, he hadn’t changed a bit since the last time I saw him. Same dazzling hazel eyes. Same uniquely adorable nose. Same over-stimulated pink lips. I wonder if he still bit them as much as he did back then? 

But at the same time, he was so different. Of course, I could still discern the same features I used to study endlessly back then, but his face had transformed into a man’s. He lost the glasses for one thing, but he also had a softer jawline, longer hair, and for lack of a better term, a beefier build.

He was all grown up now, and yet, I could still identify the same boyishly handsome charm that made me fall in love with him more than a decade ago.

“I knew it was you, (y/n).” He chuckled, sounding half proud of himself. My heart fluttered at the sound of my name on his tongue and the action that followed. With his eyes locked on mine, he tucked strands of my hair back behind my ears; it’s as if he were saying, “Let me get a good look at you.” 

“How? It’s almost completely dark outside. You could barely even see me.” Certainly, you can understand why I was skeptical. Sounded too good to be true, if you ask me. 

He shook his head lightly with a smile, seemingly questioning how I couldn’t possibly know the answer to that question. “No one else looks like you. Not even in the dark.” 

His words spoke to a part of my soul specifically reserved for him. They were so genuine that I almost didn’t want to believe them because how could someone speak such lovely things and truly mean them? The world wasn’t that good a place. Certainly not good enough for Spencer Reid. 

In that moment, I flew out of my own body and watched this entire scene unfold from up above. I could see the version of a girl I hadn’t seen in years, not since that last interaction with Spencer. She had these big lovesick eyes as she swooned over a man with just the same lovesick look. 

The excessive upward tilt of my head and the way his neck craning down must’ve made it seem like we were about to kiss, but I knew better than to expect such a thing from Spencer Reid. And if anything, what we were doing right now was much more intimate than kissing. 

“Wow, you ... you really grew up. You look great.” My own voice sounded unfamiliar to me after the words slipped from my mouth without even registering in my brain first. 

“Are you kidding? Look at you! I mean, you are just ...” He paused for a moment to look me up and down, and I nearly shivered at the thought that he was practically undressing me with his eyes. “You’re absolutely beautiful. But you always were.” 

I was almost completely in a daze when I heard a hideous squawk of a bird flying overhead. This wouldn’t make sense, but it nearly felt like a sign. Like the bird knew I wasn’t supposed to be there, reminding me of where I belonged - reality - not in this fantasy with Spencer. 

“Um,” My head spun as I drew back from him. “I should probably get back. I’ll see you later.” I touched his upper arm gently as I passed by him, and it stunned me how warmth just radiated off of his body. 

To my all too quick goodbye, he simply waved and watched me walk past him with a pursed-lip smile. And just before I got too far, I thought I heard him say, “I hope so.” 

Though my feet were carrying me away from Spencer, my thoughts were only drifting closer to the memory of him, and we did have so many memories. 

11 Years Ago ...

I was at the ripe age of 16 when I got my driver’s license. And to anyone else, this would seem like a given milestone, but to me - it was so much more. With the obtainment of my license, I also gained access to a whole new world. Opportunities poured at the seams. I could drive anyone and anywhere I wanted to and though it wasn’t true, it felt like I could do anything, too. But like all things good in my life, it fell apart in the face of responsibilities. 

My newly obtained license was just another way for my parents to exploit me. Now, they didn’t have to drive Emilia and Saul since I could. Looking back, I have to wonder if the only reason they funded my driver’s ed classes were for the exact reason that if I took them, I’d sooner be able to take on yet another helping of duties they were too lazy to fulfill.

There’s one particular moment I can remember from this age and that same moment could also be regarded as the catalyst that would set off a series of events for the next 11 years to come.

It was the end of the school year and summer vacation was right around the corner. I was a sophomore at the time, and the prospect of being a junior the next year excited me. 

To kick off the start of summer, Melody Hanes was throwing a pool party at her house. Everyone knew she was filthy rich because of a dead grandpa or some other, not to mention, she was also in student government so she had just as big of a role in school as her grandpa’s death did in making the Hanes family wealthy. 

Though I never knew her personally, I did have third period chemistry with her for the entire year, and I sat right in front of her for pretty much the entirety of second semester. She must’ve only addressed me a handful of times, but she still invited me to her party anyway. Proximity, I had to admit, did play a part in that though because if I sat just a seat farther away, then I wouldn’t have been. 

I came home that day, thrilled to tell my mother about my invitation. It would’ve been my first party that wasn’t a distant relative’s birthday celebration or a childish sleepover in elementary. It was my first real high school party, and for once, I thought - maybe I’d finally get the quintessential ‘high school experience.’

But of course, I never did. 

As soon as I got home, I parked my car in the driveway, got the mail, and came inside the house to see my mother sitting on the couch watching TV, as per usual. While I was telling her about my invitation, she didn’t bother to lower the volume or even look away from the screen to give me her undivided attention, and when she did look away, it was only to take the mail from my hands. 

“Your sister’s science fair is on that day, and you have to take her because I’ll be working from 1 to 7.” My mother never once looked up from the mail she was sorting through to address me. And her words, while incredibly monotone, were also spoken with such finality, like what she said was the last she ever wanted to speak on the topic. No room for discussion. 

I’m not still losing sleep over it, but at the time, it felt like for once, I could actually just be a teenager and be young and reckless like everyone else, but that it was just taken from me. I never got the chance to be a kid again.

With the exception of Emilia’s science fair.

I knew my father wouldn’t be there, and obviously my mother wouldn’t, so I stayed to watch her presentation and to walk around the rest of the time. She deserved someone in her corner, and that someone was me. Even if no one was in mine. 

As I serpentined through the cafeteria, a bittersweet feeling came upon me. From paper mâché volcanoes to potato batteries, I observed a childlike sense of wonder that I hadn’t felt for years. 

Here, I was surrounded by children who got to be just children. They got to occupy themselves with trivial matters, like how gardens grow or if video games actually do rot your brain. 

Their problems had solutions and their questions had answers, and it almost made me wish that I could revert back to a time where life was that easy, but I couldn’t because it never was … not for me. 

So to sum it up, it was precious and heartbreaking all at the same time. 

While browsing the fair, I stumbled upon a man that didn’t quite seem to fit in, and maybe it was my own unfitting appearance that made me recognize his. He could’ve very well been the brother of one of these children, but something about the way he was dressed and the way he carried himself made me highly doubt that. 

He couldn’t have been a parent either, for he was not too far off from my own age, and if he was a parent of one of these eighth graders, that would have to mean that he had a kid when he was in kindergarten. So for all intents and purposes, he wasn’t someone’s brother or someone’s father. Who he actually was - I didn’t know, but I was determined to find out.

After that first observance, I spotted him a couple more times, but it wasn’t until we were looking at the same project that we actually spoke. 

“Fascinating, isn’t it?”

The sudden sound of his voice alarmed me, but only because it seemingly came out of nowhere. Generally, before someone speaks to you, you notice signals that they’re about to, which helps you prepare for conversation. Whether it’s nervous twitches, a look in your direction, maybe even a small acknowledging smile, you’ll recognize they want to or plan to talk to you, but none of those signs were given to me. Even when I turned my head to give him my attention, he was still fixated on the project in front of us. 

“Yeah, it really is,” I politely agreed. I awkwardly looked around the room as if I’d find an answer as to what to say next because I did want to keep talking to him, but the longer I stayed silent, the more I fear he’d begin to think I didn’t want to. With nothing else to ask but the question that had been bothering me since I first laid eyes on him, I simply went for it. 

“So, who are you here for?”

For the first time, he turned his head to the side to look right at me. With a quizzical expression, he responded. “Oh, no one. I’m just a judge here.” 

It was my turn to possess a quizzical expression. His statement wouldn’t have been weird, except for the part where any judge I’d seen or talked to were all well into their forties or fifties. 

“Aren’t you kinda young to be a judge? You’re, like, what? Seventeen, eighteen?

“Nineteen actually. But I regularly come to judge the Summer Science Fairs here since I went to this middle school eleven years ago.” 

Again, I would’ve taken his word for it, but the math didn’t make sense. “You were in middle school at eight years old?” 

“Mhm. I ended up graduating high school at twelve.” He said it so nonchalantly, but for how big of a feat it was, I thought it would’ve deserved a more prideful tone, yet he still maintained such a cavalier one. Did he not think himself to be impressive? 

“Jeez, you must be really smart.” 

He shoved his hands in his pockets, which made me notice that he wasn’t carrying a clipboard like the other judges, which was probably another reason why I didn’t take him for one. How would he be able to remember the projects that he was considering for awards? He’d have to have some magical memory for that.

Before answering, he began to walk away, but nonetheless he continued addressing me, so I followed him where he went. 

“Mmm not necessarily. My IQ isn’t high enough to suggest I’m a provable genius yet, but I do have an eidetic memory and I can currently read 16,000 words per minute, which definitely helps. I hope to be able to read 20,000 words per minute in the future.” 

Despite answering my question, he only left me with many more. 

“What is your IQ right now?”

“131.”

My eyes widened. Even I, with my limited knowledge on intelligence quotients knew that was high, especially for someone as young as he was. 

“So what IQ score do you have to have in order to be considered a genius?”

I couldn’t help but notice how he barely took anytime to think before answering me. It’s like his brain just knew everything, right then and there. 

“A score of over 140 is considered a genius or near genius.”

“Wow, so you’re almost a genius then?”

“Almost, but not quite. If I receive diverse stimulation at a consistent rate for the next few years, I predict that I’ll have an IQ of 180 or higher by the time I’m in my early twenties.”

You would think he would leave me speechless, but I still went on to ask him about what an eidetic memory was, and he explained to me that he could remember things exceedingly well, but that it was not the same thing as a photographic memory. He made that distinction very clear to me. 

Our conversation droned on for the rest of the fair as we continued to circle the cafeteria. I can’t count how many times we lapped around the same projects, but we never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Once those first few seconds after meeting him, when I didn’t know what to say, passed, I never again felt a sense of not knowing. We could talk for hours and hours, and it wouldn’t matter. I would never get bored. 

How could I? When I was with him, it felt like the rest of the world just faded away. Our discourse flowed so easily, no pressure, no awkward silence. It was just me and him, and if you ask me, that’s quite the opposite of boring. 

That was the first and final time I ever truly felt like a kid. Just like the ones in the science fair. Not a care in the world except for my morbid curiosity of the marvel that was him.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and I inevitably found myself being ripped out of my trance when I felt an aggressive tug on my sweater.

“We can go now.” Emilia interrupted. 

I hadn’t even noticed that a majority of the poster boards were taken down and that an even larger majority of the people were long gone, too. I got so lost in the conversation that I didn’t realize we were one of the last people still there. 

Emilia’s eagerness to leave was apparent as she pulled me away from my interesting conversationalist. 

“I had a nice time talking to you!” I called out to him, walking backwards to lengthen the period of time I could keep looking at him. 

“Likewise.”

I turned around fully just before I finally realized something. “Hey!” I yelled across the distance. “I never got your name!” 

He bashfully smiled and looked down at his feet briefly. “It’s Spencer! Spencer Reid!” 

I stood there for a moment, silently processing his name. 

“What’s yours?” He yelled back. 

I chuckled mischievously. “I guess you’ll have to find out next time.” My ambiguity puzzled him and intrigued him all at the same time. 

“Next time?” 

With the intentions of leaving him without a true answer, I simply turned on my heels and started walking away. 

“Bye, Spencer!”

Even if he didn’t have an eidetic memory, I knew after that first day, he could never forget me. 

- Present Time -

By the time I made it back to the truck, people were already lining up to order. 

“Get over here!” Emilia squealed excitedly from the window, her hand rapidly waving me over as if it’d suddenly increase my speed. I ran back as fast as I could in a dress and heels and climbed into the truck, mirroring my sister’s zeal. 

When I stepped in, Emilia took one glance at me and furrowed her brows. “Where’d you get the jacket?” 

Had she not mentioned it, I would not have remembered the foreign fabric that wrapped around my shoulders. 

“Oh, shoot!” I palmed my forehead after the realization dawned on me. I should’ve noticed sooner that I still had it on, but honestly, it didn’t feel unusual or out of place. It was comfortable and familiar, like it was meant to be there that entire time.

“I’m so sorry to do this to you, but do you think you can handle this alone for just a second? I have to return this to a friend.” I asked while slipping off the coat to ready myself to leave, even in the event that Emilia said she wouldn’t let me go. Luckily though, she understood it was urgent. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine. Just hurry back.” 

I extended my head to look out just past the side of the truck to look for Spencer while still being concealed within the vehicle. Now that there were more people here, I wasn’t exactly sure I should be caught mingling with the attendees, so instead, I decided to search for him from the truck, rather than wandering around the party, giving the impression to the people that hired us that I wasn’t doing my job and was just here to socialize. 

Luckily, there was something about my attachment to Spencer that was supernatural. I had this metaphysical ability to spot him even in a crowded place. I could find him anywhere. But whether that was a blessing or a curse was to be determined because right as my paranormal power kicked in, I found him. And there he was - standing next to another girl, a proximity much too close and a smile much too big to be anything less than flirtatious.

I paused to recall the image I had of myself earlier, when I floated up and out of my own body. I looked just like her - an oversized grin combined with lovesick eyes. 

But that’s not the worst part. 

The worst part was he was returning just the same look of attraction to her. 

“Um, actually,” I re-entered the truck completely, tossing the jacket aside haphazardly. “I’ll just return it later.” 

“You sure? You can go. I’ve got things covered right now.” She said between multitasking at a rate that even I, a very-much-not-pregnant-woman, could manage. 

All I could mutter back without giving away the sharp ache in my heart was, “Yeah, I’m sure.” 

_ _ _

After hours and hours of non-stop working, the night, at last, was coming to a close. The large crowd had sized down considerably, until I could no longer hear the sound of a thousand voices meshing. All the decorations were already coming down by the time Emilia and I finished packing up the truck. Without the hectic energy to cause adrenaline to course through my veins, it should’ve been peaceful, yet my heart was not at peace. 

I couldn’t shake the gut-wrenching feeling of seeing Spencer with that girl, but that wasn’t really why I was upset. It was more about the fact that I’d actually believed for a second that I had any chance with him. I should’ve known he wasn’t single, and the fact that I let myself swoon over him again angered me all the more. If I ever had a chance with Spencer, the time to act on it was long gone.

Now, I had to live with that. 

“You sure you wanna stay here alone? I’ll come with you if you want me to.” 

Emilia’s question was referring to my proposal to stay in D.C for the night while she drove home. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I realized I couldn’t handle being in another suffocating car ride with Emilia. It had nothing to do with her - just that I needed alone time to process everything by myself. If I knew my sister as well as I thought I did, I knew she would’ve sensed something was wrong and tried to coax me into talking about it, which I was not in the mood to do. Plus, traveling for so long made me nauseous just thinking about it. Although, I didn’t have a plan, I knew that I just wanted to hail a cab and find a hotel somewhere here for the night. 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me. Call me when you get home.” I tapped on the back of the truck twice to let her know she was good to drive away, and I felt the car lurch forward per my request. When the truck finally did move, out from behind it appeared the tall figure of none other than Spencer. 

I was surprised, but only for a second, when that surprise turned into pain once more. Playing it cool so my afflictions wouldn’t be suspected, I nonchalantly stated, “Here’s your jacket, by the way. Sorry, I forgot to give it back to you earlier.”

I extended my arm far enough so that we’d still have a great distance between us when he went to grab it, but sure enough, my actions were all for naught when he not only refused to remove his hands from his pockets to take it but also walked two steps closer to me than he needed to be. I looked like an idiot just standing there with my arm so outstretched, only for him to not grab it and to let it simply press against his stomach as a complete avoidance of getting it back. 

“You were supposed to keep it. That’s why I didn’t ask for it back.” He curtly replied, finishing his statements with a cheeky grin. However, I wasn’t in the mood to return it. I simply stood there and shook the jacket in my hand to emphasize its presence. 

“Take it. Please.” My voice was full of contradictions. I tried to be assertive with my command, and yet my plead only softened the order and showed a defeat I wasn’t even aware of until I heard how sad it sounded. “I don’t want it, Spencer.” 

He no doubt saw the shift in my demeanor but still wouldn’t pacify me by taking the jacket. “What’s wrong? What did I do?” His voice got quieter, as if speaking any louder would shatter me in this fragile state of being. 

“Nothing, I’m just tired and I want to go home.” This wasn’t a complete lie. I was exhausted from working for hours and hours on my feet with no breaks in between, but it wasn’t exactly the full truth either. He could tell. 

“Just tell me what’s wrong.” He persisted. “Please.”

The only way I could describe what I happened next was like the vision of a boiling pot. Gradually, I was heating up until I finally got so overheated that I just boiled over and exploded. 

“What don’t you get, Spencer? I don’t want your jacket!” Fury consumed my tone. “And I don’t think your girlfriend would want that either.” 

“Girlfriend? What girlfriend? What are you talking about? I don’t have a girlfriend!” His words were flying out of his mouth at 100 mph as he desperately trying to mend what couldn’t be fixed. 

“Don’t play dumb. I saw you with that blonde girl. How close you two were standing, the way you were looking at each other.” Just having to recount the interaction made the horrid memory come back vividly into the forefront of my thoughts, and it broke my heart all over again. I shut my eyes painfully as though it would turn off the image of them together, but this only allowed for Spencer to wrap his warm hands around my upper arms and pull me closer to him without my knowing. I flinched unconsciously at the sudden feeling of his touch, to which he instantly let go. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” His hands shook with remorse for letting them touch my body in a way that elicited that reaction. They hovered in the space between us, not knowing where to go that would suddenly make things okay. “But she’s no one, okay? She’s just a coworker.” 

I wanted to believe him. I quite possibly did believe him, but there was still a sharp pain in my chest. Call it intuition. 

“No, she’s not,” I shook my head. “She’s not ‘no one’... you love her.” 

Spencer came closer but still didn’t let himself touch me again out of fear that I might draw back even further. 

“Listen to me - whatever feelings I used to have for her are long gone. She’s married, (y/n). She has a kid. And none of that even matters because the way that I used to love her is nothing compared to the way that I-” 

“Don’t.” I held my hand up in protest. “Don’t say you love me.” 

His eyebrows knit together with dismay. “Why? Why not? It’s true. I love you. I always have.” 

With one big sigh, I finally resigned to my emotions. “Then why didn’t you ever do something about it?” 

Judging by the deflation of his shoulders and the far off look he got in his eyes, he knew exactly the moment I was talking about. 

Two days after Emilia’s science fair, I drove to the library to pick up books I needed for my summer homework. I was already on my way out when I just happened to glance to my side, noticing a lone figure sitting at the bus stop. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I looked back, I partially recognized him. I shaded my eyes from the sun and squinted harder to confirm my suspicions. 

“Spencer?” I wondered out loud.

The figure’s head turned around, narrowed their eyes, and waved. He stood up from his seat and made his way over to me with a precious little jog-walk. Although we had only met once before, we still embraced each other like lifelong friends. 

“Do I finally get to know your name now?” He jokingly inquired after pulling away. 

It completely slipped my mind that I’d denied him the knowledge of my name, but for my own satisfaction, I wouldn’t let him get off that easily. 

“Do you have any guesses of it could be?” 

He pouted childishly. “Are you kidding? In a population of 350 million people, there would be about 4.4 million names. But if every country on Earth had the same nominative diversity we in the US have, that would suggest about 750 million unique names exist.”

I must admit it was fun watching him melt into a flustered mess of facts, but I was growing just as impatient as him. “Come on, just guess. You might be right.”

He rolled his eyes but indulged me willingly anyway. “Okay ... um ... Catherine.” 

“Nope.”

“Nicole.”

“Nope.”

“Gertrude.” 

“Seriously?” I raised my eyebrows. He shrugged. “Nope.”

“Olive.” 

“Pretty,” I smiled, making his face light up, too. “But no.” His smile fell. 

“This is nearly impossible.” He sighed. 

“Nothing’s impossible.” My delivery wasn’t as cheesy as the line itself, so it touched us both in a way that made that silly phrase feel like it’d never been said before. With a visible passion reignited in him, he continued. 

“Francis.”

“Okay, maybe this is impossible.” 

My blunt joke brought us closer together, our heads almost knocking into one another’s as we clutched our stomachs and leaned forward to support our all-consuming laughter. When we finally calmed down, I finally confessed. 

“Okay, okay - it’s (y/n).” 

He stood there completely silent. There was no expression of his face that indicated he planned on speaking, so I elaborated. “It’s not as good as the name Spencer, I know I know -”

“I’ve never known anyone with that name before.” His hushed voice cut into mine so innocently. 

My cheeks heated from the slight compliment. “Well, now you do. And don’t you forget it.” I teased. With nothing further to say, I brushed past him to start walking away, when unconsciously, I spun my keys around my index finger and heard the familiar jingle of the metal, reminding me of something. 

“Hey, Spencer?” I turned on my heels. “Can I give you a ride home?”

And so began our routine for the entire summer. I would bring my summer homework to the library, and Spencer would help me understand it, or even complete it, and then I’d give him a ride home. We’d go to the park and read, or we’d go to the movies, or we’d hang out at a diner. And each time, I’d drop him off. 

The more time we spent together, the more I learned about him and his life. He told me about his mom, his dad - everything. I did just the same. I told him about my mom, my dad, my siblings - everything. 

Perhaps we enjoyed spending so much time together because it was a sweet escape from our houses that weren’t homes. But every time we did hang out, we just got closer and closer, and by the end of the summer, I knew my feelings perfectly clear. 

I love Spencer. 

If missing that pool party at Melody Hanes was what it took to find the absolute love of my life, then what a small price to pay it was. I wouldn’t have traded a million pool parties for that one chance encounter with Spencer at the science fair. 

One day, we were pulling into his driveway after having a picnic at the country club, and I’d just let him out of the car, when unconsciously, I said, “Bye, Spence! Love you!” 

He caught the words faster than I did. He looked like a deer in headlights, and it took me at least two seconds more to figure out why. That entire day I’d been thinking about saying it, but by the end, I decided it’d be better not to, and yet, it just came out anyway.

“You love me?” 

There were two ways I could’ve answered. The first was to deny it and say that I only meant that I loved him like a friend. The second was to be brave and validate my unintentional confession. 

In the heat of the moment, I chose the latter. 

“Yes.” I nodded, smiling from my own courage. You only live once right?

In a cruel twist of fate, Spencer never tried to speak, and instead, ran to his front door. 

“Spencer!” I yelled. “What are you-” 

He gave me one last look over his shoulder before he opened the door and closed it right behind him. That was the last I ever saw him. 

I learned, that day, that you do only live once. 

But you can die over and over again.

From that point on, he’s lived in my mind as the one that never was. 

Regret and shame manifested on Spencer’s face. “I never wanted to hurt you.” He dejectedly began. “But I was young and-and dumb and just ... so scared. God, I was so scared.” He finally looked up, if for no other reason than to gauge my reaction. “I liked you so much, but I, I just couldn’t open myself up to the possibility of being hurt by another person I loved.”

Much like my own life, Spencer’s was riddled with traumatic experiences. Except rather than being expected to take care of younger siblings, he had to take care of his mom. And having to be a parent to your own parent? That’s something I would never wish upon anyone else. 

“I ... I get it.” It was a sweet surrender, my words. After years of pent-up aggression borne from humiliation, rejection, and deep sadness, I could finally understand. “But as selfish as it sounds, I wish your past hurt hadn’t gotten in the way of our potential happiness.” 

He took each of my hands in his, encasing them with palms of warmth. “Then don’t let the same thing happen right now. Don’t let the stupid, broken teenager I was cloud your judgement of the man I am now. Let me prove to you that I’ve changed.” 

I stood there silently, an eerie parallel to how Spencer reacted to my confession eleven years ago. 

“When I saw you, it felt like a second chance. A second chance to do what I was too afraid to do back then. And I couldn’t let myself make the same mistake twice.” His eyes were piercing through my soul. Every word plucked at my heartstrings, until I could no longer keep up with the symphony they were playing. 

There was the slightest hesitation behind it, but I did inch forward. And in no time at all, Spencer saw the movement and made his own. 

His hands released mine and shot straight for my cheeks to cup them gently, while kissing me firmly. He wasn’t the same shy boy he was, and this kiss was only proof of that. The way his lips were moving so fervently made me weak at the knees. He was so desperate and needy, like even with our lips touching, he still wasn’t close enough to me. Unleashed upon me was years of yearning wrapped in prominent lust. 

“I love you.” He blurted clumsily on my lips. I didn’t return the sentiment, but that wasn’t why he said it. He wanted to say it so I’d know, not so that I’d say it back. 

“You should know,” I muttered between kisses. “I’m not leaving D.C. until tomorrow morning.” 

The biggest smirk creeped onto his face. Bastard. 

Once we’d exhausted all the things we could possibly do in public, we ran to the nearest cab we could find and exhausted all the things we could do in that, too.

It was already past midnight when we arrived at Spencer’s apartment, and though we should’ve been quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors, we were still breaking out into a fit of giggles like a bunch of teenagers sneaking around as we ran up the stairs. We hadn’t even made it past the doormat, before he seized my hips in his hands and spun me back towards him. Forcefully, he pressed me against the door while simultaneously unlocking it. That shut me up real good, lemme tell you. 

As soon as we crossed the threshold, he gave me a reprieve when he held me closer so as to stop pinning me against the door. In an effort to do the impossible, we stumbled through his apartment in a frenzy trying to undress each other while maintaining our bodily contact. With one giant tug of the zipper on my back, my dress fell to the ground. To his atonement, he left me in just a thong. Whereas he was much too overdressed in my opinion. 

No sooner did I gracelessly unbutton his shirt than we ran into a plant against the wall. Our smiles practically ruined the kiss at the sound of the crash, but it remained nonetheless. I knew I was in for something, when Spencer paused to wait for me to unbuckle his belt. That was the first time we ever really stopped in place, but just as I anticipated, I was in for it. 

When I finally freed his waist of the garment, he just as quickly placed his hand on the back of my thigh, and in one swift motion, hoisted me into the air high enough to allow my legs to wrap around his waist. My arms were loose around his neck and the feeling of his warm hands touching my bare skin sent a chill down my spine. 

Due to Spencer’s essential hand placement on my body, I had to be the one to fumble with his bedroom’s doorknob until it finally gave way. Once more, we staggered through his room before he let our lips break apart to lightly toss me onto the bed. I giggled at the squeak of the bed, driving him visibly crazy. 

He hastily unzipped his own dress pants, while I propped myself up on my elbows. When he met me on the bed, he hovered over me to the point of having to lay back down again just to see him clearly. He felt too far away so I drew him nearer by lacing my hand through his soft curls. I twirled one around my finger, which must’ve been too merciful for him to handle. 

He placed his hand on the back of mine and slid it down to his cheek. He held my hand there for a moment, leaning into the skin of my palm prior to placing a chaste kiss on it. 

He didn’t need to say it again for me to know what he was thinking. 

I love you.

The anticipation was killing me and in the most impatient manner, I pulled him down to my level, mimicking his similar habit of face-grabbing during a kiss. I knew his hands would’ve flown to my face the way they did just minutes ago, but one was too preoccupied keeping himself up and the other was busy toying with the band of my thong. I shivered at the sensation of him slipping one finger under the material and letting it glide over my tender skin right above my heat. 

“Spencer,” I mumbled in a kiss to bring his attention back to me. Although I was certainly interested to know the hidden talents of Spencer Reid and his fingers, I was restless. I’d been waiting years for this moment, and unlike most people, I didn’t want to wait another second. “I need you now.” 

He pulled his head back so he could get a full view of my face to examine my sincerity. He wanted to know if I was sure, and my eyes told him such. He nodded in acknowledgement with such speed that I was sure he was craving this as much as I was. 

Rather than looking at where our bodies were about to meet, I had to close my eyes so I could fully feel everything without any other sense taking that away from me. In a painfully slow manner, he lined himself up at my entrance. At first, he only lightly pushed in, and it was this slacken movement that made me cry out and grip his shoulders for stability.

He pushed further in until he was fully sheathed inside of me. There was a slight moment of regret for not letting him engage in foreplay before, but that quickly went away when the pain turned to pleasure. He gained more confidence in himself with each stroke, and I could feel it. The more powerfully he thrust, the more I felt myself tightening around him. The over simulation was a stark contrast from the stimulation I denied and so the sensation I was feeling was only heightened by the absence of it before. For that very reason, I knew I was already close. And maybe he knew it, too and just as sweet revenge, he decided to send me over the edge by pulling my leg over his shoulder to thrust into me a new angle. As I’m sure he predicted, I threw my head back as tears began to prick the corners of my eyes. He rode the ever exquisite border between pain and pleasure, and my tears were a manifestation of that. Not even a minute passed, before I tried to moan but pathetically failed, not even being able finish the pitiful wail without the both of us finishing together.

Our heavy panting synchronized and reverberated back to us while he slowed down his pace and pulled out. 

Perhaps in the heat of the moment, we lost all logic and reason, considering that even up till now, neither of us had realized that he didn’t use a condom. 

But what would eventually happen in the future as a result of this action, or inaction, would surely make us remember.

Spencer lowered himself down to kiss me breathlessly; strands of his hair clung to his forehead as sweat glimmered on both of us. Not until we were ready did we make our way to the bathroom so he could help clean me up. Once we returned, I gathered my clothes, but he made sure to grab my panties before I could even notice.

“Have you seen -“ I cut myself off when I saw what was dangling in his hands.

“Looking for this?” He teased.

All my energy had been spent on him that I couldn’t be bothered to fight for them back. 

“Keep ‘em.” I smirked, my hand reaching down to pick up his jacket off the floor and hold it up. “Consider it a fair trade.”

No arguments from him. 

Needless to say, I did end up finding a place to stay the night. Where and with whom you might ask? 

Well, you can probably figure that one out for yourself. 

_ _ _

I wish I could tell you I got a good night’s rest, and I could - it just wouldn’t be the truth. 

Spencer and I spent the rest of the night just talking. We filled each other in on nearly ever second of the past 11 years, and once again, I found myself reverting back to the teenager I was at the science fair. The entire world revolved around us as we spoke to each other effortlessly, like no time had passed. Even in the periods of silence, I felt comfortable. 

Spencer and I were lying on our sides facing one another when I felt compelled to profess that “I can’t talk this way with anyone. It’s just you.” 

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear with a small smile on his lips. He didn’t need to say that he felt the same way because I already knew. His hand never left my face but instead made its descent down my jawline and stopped at my chin. He raised his thumb to reach my lower lip, letting the pad of his finger graze over the soft skin of my lip. 

It felt like he was tracing every detail of my body, running his eyes over every inch at least twice so as to fully commit everything to his memory. 

At last, the tension broke when he positioned his hand comfortably at the back of my neck, bowing his head forward to kiss me. This one was quite different than our first, for it was gentler and warmer. We weren’t forcing ourselves to make up for lost time. In fact, this kiss was saying, “We’ve got plenty of time.” 

Plenty of time indeed. Which we were happy to spend making love again. 

And I will be the first to admit that if our first round of unprotected sex didn’t solidify our future predicament, this time certainly did. 

Six Weeks Later ...

“Hello?” Clearly frustrated, Emilia waved her hand in front of my face to harness me back to earth. I hadn’t realized I zoned out until she scoffed at me. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“No, sorry. Could you repeat it one more time?” 

She set down the papers in front of her and sighed unhappily. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been so distant lately.” 

It hurt to hear, even though it was the truth. I wasn’t intentionally being despondent, but it’s hard to be present when there’s so much occupying your mind, and there was one thing in particular that was keeping me up late at night recently. 

My period has always been irregular. For as long as I’ve had it, I’ve always missed a few weeks, then it would become consistent, then it would be sporadic again. In fact, there was one year where I only had four periods total. So it didn’t strike me as odd when I realized three days ago that my last period was about seven weeks ago. 

What did strike me as odd was the other symptoms I was experiencing. Menstruation cycles are known to closely mimic the symptoms of pregnancy, but with the knowledge that my period wasn’t coming, it was disconcerting to me that I was suffering the discomforts without the actual period itself. 

To me, there was only one clear explanation for this anomaly. 

I was pregnant. 

Earlier in the day, I bought a pregnancy test and was late to work because of it. If Emilia hadn’t been suspicious of my behavior before, showing up late only made her suspicion greater. 

I didn’t know when I’d take it, probably at home after work, but the anticipation was eating away at me. I would pace around the truck until Emilia finally told me to stop because the vehicle wouldn’t stop swaying with my every movement. I was biting my nails and chewing on each little piece that grew back just to bite it back down to the nub. My hands couldn’t stop shaking, my breathing wouldn’t slow down. I was a hysterical mess. 

I didn’t tell Spencer any of my concerns, of course, but being as perceptive as he is, he noticed my strange mannerisms despite my best efforts to hide them. 

“Your breathing just got faster. Are you feeling okay?” He paused the movie we were watching to check in on me one time. It should be known that the scene that caused my heavier breathing was a scene of a woman finding out she was pregnant and being absolutely devastated. I quickly brushed it off as just being too warm, to which he turned on his air conditioning. Luckily for me, he didn’t make the connection. 

And it’s not that I didn’t want to tell Spencer - I really did - but why should I make a fuss about something if there ended up being nothing to worry about? That would just be extra stress, and the last thing a new, blossoming relationship needs is additional strain. 

So without Spencer, I had to opt for the next best thing - my sister.

I’d reached my wits end, and I couldn’t keep up the act any longer. I was walking on eggshells with practically everyone I knew, and I’d sooner go crazy if I didn’t tell someone what I was really feeling. So in response to her question, I finally told the truth. 

“I think I might be pregnant.” 

You can imagine the shock on my sister’s face. Emilia’s jaw became one with the floor as her eyes widened so big I thought they would pop out of her head. 

“You’re pregnant?” Already her eyes were welling up with tears of joy. 

“I don’t know yet.” I put my arms around her to keep her calm and stable while the emotions began overpowering her. I wanted it to serve as a reminder to not get her hopes up, otherwise she’d get mine up, too. 

“Well, have you taken a test?” 

I reached for my purse behind her and rummaged through it until I finally retrieved the box. Holding it up, I reluctantly suggested, “I thought maybe you could be there for me when I did?” 

She squealed with joyful elation, practically shattering the window pane with the high pitch of her voice. On top of that, she was jumping up and down with elegant grace that I had to wonder how her pregnant body could even manage to do such a thing. 

“Of course, I will! Come, come, let’s go.” 

We hopped off the truck and to the nearest restroom, which admittedly wasn’t the nicest of places, nor was the place I ever imagined as a child that I’d be finding out I was pregnant in, but it had to do for now. 

When I first came out of the stall, I set the test face down on the sink, so that we wouldn’t see it until it was ready. Emilia set a timer for 10 minutes, but in the meantime, all we could do was wait. Neither of us could stay still; Emilia bounced up and down, rubbing her belly while facilitating some sort of breathing exercise. Meanwhile, I kept tapping my foot impatiently. 

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Emilia’s alarm scared the shit out of me, and we both were startled by the blaring sound. It was so jarring, but even that wouldn’t compare to the fear I felt when I realized it was finally time. 

“Do you wanna look or should I?” She asked. 

“You look.” I said at first. But when she lunged forward to take it, I did, too. “No wait, I should.” Then another moment of hesitation. “No, you do it. I can’t.” 

I held my hands over my mouth while I watched her carefully lift the test off the sink, maneuvering it in such a way that only she would see the results. I watched her expression closely for any sign of a reaction, but she was stoic as can be. I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed, happy - nothing. Complete and total poker face. 

“Come on, Emilia! What does it say?” I blurted anxiously.

“Well, first, what do you want it to say?” 

That was a question I hadn’t considered. I was so busy worrying about what I didn’t know, to pause and think about what I wanted to find out. On the one hand, I’d be ecstatic if the test confirmed that I was pregnant. I’d jump for joy because that was what I always wanted, right? But on the other hand, if it said I wasn’t pregnant, then I’d be sort of sad because I got so close to that lifelong dream. But after that, I’d probably just be relieved to have dodged a bullet.

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I don’t know-”

“Don’t think. Just tell me. What do you want it to say?” 

Without missing a beat, I replied, “Positive.” My sister and I alike were stunned by my answer. “Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “Positive. I want it to say positive.” I repeated, to cement my earnest desire. 

Emilia’s facade melted away as she began to shake her head. “I’m sorry, (y/n). There’s only one line.” 

We both knew what that meant, even if she didn’t explicitly say it. I sighed dejectedly, which was a surprise to even myself. I didn’t expect to be this disappointed, and yet I was. The knot it my stomach worked itself free, and where that pit used to be was just emptiness. My heart sunk and steadied itself, and my breathing resumed its normal pace. 

“Well,” I bit my lip. “I guess that’s that.” 

Emilia instantly drew nearer to pull me in for a hug, one I was not ready to accept but welcomed anyway. “I’m sorry, (y/n). But I mean, sometimes tests just come out with false negatives.” With her face still buried in the crook of my neck in our hug, she mumbled, “Not this one, though. This one’s positive.” 

Immediately, I retreated from our hug and pulled her in front of my view. The sneaky girl had a huge grin that took up 99% of her face. 

“You’re pregnant!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, shaking my body violently. We embraced each other in another hug while simultaneously jumping up and down. “I just wanted to trick you so you would know how you really feel. Now you know!” 

And I did know. I did know that I wanted this baby and that I was glad it even existed. 

Not long after our mini-celebration did I start to come down from the high of my euphoria. A certain realization dawned on me like a cloud of gray hanging above my head to rain on my parade. 

What about Spencer?

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　

PART 2 HERE!

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[kaznejis]

Letters- Marco Peña x reader, best friend!Noah Flynn x reader

@nick-1432​ asked: Hey Can I get a Marco ×Y/n imagine where the reader is Noah's best friend but a year younger than him . So is in the same year as Lee and Elle . You decide the rest .

A/N: Thankyou for this prompt! This is an AU so before we begin I’d like to note that Marco and Elle didn’t kiss in this universe- her and Noah had their issues but she never cheated. I decided to make this into a secret admirer fic- enjoy! :)

Feel free to send in any prompts!

“So, how is it going with Elle nowadays?” 

Noah grinned; the facetime screen glitching as it rushed to keep up with his widened features, “Yeah, it’s going better. I’ve decided that communication definitely is key and we were lacking it before.”

“So you did take my advice!” You giggled and fist-pumped the air, “So everything I say isn’t complete rubbish.”

“You didn’t know that already?” Noah raised his eyebrows and moved closer to the camera from where he had been showing off the apartment’s new microwave, “You’ll be here at Harvard with me in no time.”

“Yeah well,” You shrugged bashfully, leaning back in your desk chair, “I’ve got to actually hear back from them before that can happen.”

“It will.” Noah insisted before smirking slightly, “I may have even put in word with the dean for you.”

“Noah!” Your eyes widened as you slammed a hand down onto your desk, “You didn’t?!”

“I did.”

“Jesus,” You huffed, shaking your head at the camera, “You’re a sneaky bastard.”

“Takes one to know one, bitch.”

You both laughed at that, the both of you letting out snorts and silly giggles as you clutched at your sides and leaned back dangerously in your chair. Though before you could reply back with a cutting retort your dad came into the room. 

“Hey sweetheart, there’s a letter for you.”

You held up your finger in a ‘one moment’ gesture to Noah and put yourself on mute, “Who is it from?”

“No clue,” He shrugged and handed you a white envelope with your name on, “It just came through the mail box and by the time I got there whoever delivered it was gone.”

“Oh,” You turned the letter over once, twice before giving your dad a polite smile, “Thanks.”

He nodded in reply and left your room, shutting the door behind him, “What is it?” Noah’s voice sounded from your laptop, you quickly took yourself off mute and held the letter up to the camera. 

“A letter, no idea who it’s from though.”

“Well open it.” That earned him a glare, but he did have a point- you wouldn’t know who it was from if you never opened it. 

It was a standard white envelope, though it only had your name written on it meaning it had been posted straight into your mailbox by the sender themselves. Not creepy at all, you snorted to yourself. After pondering for a few moments, you hastily flipped the letter over and ripped it open, Noah winced at your ferocity in doing so. Inside the envelope was a slip of paper folded in half; it was white and there were pen marks that sunk through it. 

“Well?”

“Calm your farm,” You muttered, glaring at Noah again, “I’m getting to it.”

Unfolding the paper, you began to read the note. The handwriting was elegant and familiar- though you couldn’t place where you recognised it. 

Dear Y/N, 

I’m just going to cut straight to the chase here, I like you. A lot. I have for a long time now and I just can’t keep it to myself anymore. So there you go.

Yours sincerely, 

Your secret admirer. 

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“Oh my god.”

“Y/N?” Noah stared at you through the screen, looking increasingly concerned, “Who is it from?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

You breathed, scratching your eyebrow before saying, “I mean, it’s from my secret admirer.”

“Your what now?”

“My secret admirer.”

To your utter shock, Noah barked out a loud laugh and clapped his hands together- extremely amused at the revelation, “A secret admirer? What is this, middle school?”

“I know right?” You huffed, placing the letter down onto your desk, “It is kind of cute though.”

Noah raised an eyebrow and leaned forward on his elbows, “I’ll be the judge of that, let’s hear it.”

You read the contents of the letter out to Noah- who looked like he was holding back a laugh the whole time. You huffed at him, tilting your head to the side and practically pouting once you finished, “Stop.”

“What?” Noah snorted, elongating the word slightly as he attempted to come as innocent. You returned this with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, “Alright, alright. I have to admit it’s pretty cute...who do you think it could be then?”

You shrugged, there were hundreds of people at your school alone, let alone the whole of LA, “I have no clue.”

“What if it’s Marco?”

You laughed at the sheer stupidity of Noah’s words, almost wiping away tears once you were done, “As if.”

“What?” Noah crowed, frowning, “I’m serious, when I was around he used to stare at you all the time. I doubt he’s changed much, if your wardrobe change over the summer is anything to go by.”

“In my dreams, Flynn.”

-

Despite your original rejection of Noah’s statement, it stuck in your mind for days to come. You weren’t going to lie, you had caught Marco staring at you a number of times; the reason for that being that you had been staring at him too. You had liked Marco for months, the boy’s dark curly hair and gorgeous build had you enamoured from the get-go. But, then you had been paired together for a project and you’d really gotten to know him. Although at times he could be blunt and quite cold; he was hilarious and really intelligent. Seeing the personality behind the pretty face had caused you to fall fast, but eventually the project was over and daily interactions became shy smiles in passing. Sure, your friendship groups crossed paths from time to time but you just didn’t have the confidence to start anything. So, you were stuck with a relentless crush. Gross. 

You were at your locker on Tuesday, rifling through it as you searched for the textbook you had left in there and desperately needed. As your fingers finally swiped across the book, they were also met with a different slip of paper. You paused, heart speeding as you slowly pulled it out. It couldn’t be. 

Nevertheless, in your hand lay a slip of paper identical to the one that you had received a few days prior- you once again unfolded it and got to reading the note within. 

Dear Y/N,

Now that I have expressed the way I feel, I have an urge to tell you more. 

Your smile is so beautiful and your laugh lights up the room. The way you always tuck your hair behind your ears is really cute too. 

Yours sincerely, 

Your secret admirer

A blush highlighted your cheeks as you subconsiously tucked your hair behind your ears, almost slapping yourself for doing so. No, you were not going to let a few little compliments break you down like that- but then your eyes landed upon the small heart illustrated below the sign off. You swallowed heavily and fanned yourself in an excuse to compose yourself before your next class begin. You spotted Lee, Elle and Rachel heading your way and shoved the letter into your bag before skipping over to them with your usual bright smile as if nothing was wrong. 

-

The letters continued like that; they were always in your locker and they always entailed some form of compliment. You found yourself expecting them most mornings, running to your locker to see whether or not a note had been slipped into the grates whilst you weren’t around. 

One particular morning, you were in a frenzied rush- sprinting to your locker in order to grab the essentials so that your day wouldn’t be a complete flop. As you wrenched open your locker you spotted another familiar letter, with a huff you shoved it into your pocket before practically pouring your belongings into your bag. You’d read it later, you had to focus on actually getting to class. 

Thankfully, you did arrive to the class on time. But, you were last and the teacher was moments away from beginning the lesson. 

“Nice of you to join us, Miss L/N” 

“Sorry miss,” You twisted your lips apologetically before making your way to the only seat in the class, which was positioned right in the middle of two ‘popular’ girls, “Shit.” You muttered before ultimately sucking it up. Your friends on the other side of the room each shot you sympathetic looks.

After a quick observation, you noted that Marco was sat one row back and directly diagonal to you. The girls on either side of you were each twirling their hair and blowing their bubble gum obnoxiously, paying no mind to the lesson before them. You decided to just get to work, ignoring the possibility of a pair of eyes watching from behind. 

About half way through the lesson, you were reminded of the unread letter that had been shoved into your pocket in your rush. Checking the room for any intrusive eyes, you took the note from your pocket and began to read.

Dear Y/N,

You look really beautiful when you- 

Before you could continue to read the letter, it was wrenched out of your hands violently by one of the girls beside you. 

“Now what do we have here?” She giggled, moving with unexpected stealth as you tried to take back the letter, “Aw, you look really beautiful when you concentrate, yours sincerely your secret admirer.” A chorus of giggles sounded from the students surrounding you as you sat in shock, mortification evident in your features. 

“Who would want to be their secret admirer?” A voice sounded from behind you, “She’s lucky enough to be friends with Noah Flynn.”

Yet another chorus of laughs sounded from around you, but before you could escape from the personal hell that was this classroom, a voice sounded from diagonal to you, “I want to be.” 

The room froze and time slowed down as you turned to the owner of the voice, your eyes landing on Marco who was staring right back at you; nervousness with a hint of determination was evident in his eyes. You shook your head, feeling way too overwhelmed, “I can’t do this.”

The entire class watched as you gathered up your belongings and hightailed out of the room and as Marco did exactly the same and sprinted after you. 

“Y/N! Y/N!” You wiped the streaming tears from your face as you turned to face Marco who was quickly approaching you, his face was split open in a mix of raw emotions. 

“What Marco? If this is some kind of sick joke I don’t want to hear it.”

“No, no Y/N.” He cooed, taking hold of your wrists in an attempt to calm you down, “I wasn’t joking. I was the one who sent the letters- I really like you Y/N and I couldn’t watch them talking about you like that.”

You hiccuped, feeling a fresh trail of tears falling from your eyes, leaving a glistening trail in their wake, “Oh god.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t cry.” 

“But Marco-” You blew out a breath and almost preened under his gaze, “I haven’t spoken to you in months, how could you like me?”

“Well,” He began, moving a stray hair behind your ear, “Did you not read my letters.”

You laughed lightly, a small burst of breaths coming from your mouth, “Yeah, but-”

“Then what I said there are my reasons for liking you.”

You grinned up at him as your teeth sunk into your lip bashfully, you caught onto his eyes zeroing onto that factor. So, you took a leap and pressed your lips against his and moved to bury your hands into his hair. He responded immediately, cupping your cheeks with his hands as he pressed back with obvious enthusiasm and want. 

-

“So, you were right- it was Marco.”

“I knew it!”

-

If you would like to be added to my taglist for any future posts- please let me know!

[drabbles-mc]

Protective Detail (3/?)

Nestor Oceteva x Reader

Warnings: language, falling more in love with Nestor than we already were originally (if that’s even possible)

Word Count: 2.7k

A/N: I’m a sucker for characters building relationships. Humans slowly getting to know each other and get more comfortable with each other??? Friendships and feelings developing?? Sign me the fuck up lmao. As always, hope y’all enjoy xoxo

Chapter Index

Protective Detail Taglist: @masterlistforimagines​ @sillygoose6969​ @mydaiilyescape​ @lovebennycolon​ @the-radical-venus​ @gemini0410​ @garbinge​ (If you want to be tagged in this fic or any of my other writing let me know!)

A few days into the new arrangement, you and Nestor had started figuring out a little bit of a routine. There were a lot of quiet moments between the two of you—you realized that he wasn’t much of a talker and you were still trying to figure out how to get him to say more than two sentences at a time about anything. It was like your new mission.

He was adamant about doing dishes. He couldn’t stand letting them sit in the sink overnight, so they were always clean first thing in the morning when you came out into the kitchen. He’d shake his head at you before you could even try to tell him that it wasn’t necessary. You wanted to be motivated enough to clean them before you went to bed, but by the time the end of the day rolled around all you wanted to do was crawl under the covers and pass out, so that was usually what you ended up doing.

“I’ll do dishes but I draw the line at combining our laundry,” he said as he carried his small hamper of dirty clothes to the basement where the washer and dryer were.

You laughed, calling after him, “Oh darn. How am I supposed to snoop through your stuff, then?” you felt your phone vibrating in your pocket and you took it out to see who was calling, smiling to yourself when you saw your father’s contact photo on your phone screen, “You’re calling early.”

“You’re awake early,” you could hear the smile in his voice, “Was just calling to check in and see how things are going.”

“I haven’t succeeded in driving him away yet, unfortunately.”

Nestor’s voice came from downstairs, “I can hear you!”

“Good!” you called back with a laugh before returning your attention to your phone call.

Your father sighed, “So things are going well, I see.”

“It’s really not bad at all, Papi. Nestor is alright. It’s just weird living with someone that you don’t know,” you paced the floor of your kitchen, “You know how long he’s gonna have to stay with me?”

“Until I feel that things have been properly handled.”

“You sure Miguel doesn’t need him back?”

“Even if he did, he would never ask me,” you knew your father well enough to know that there was a light smugness to his voice as he said that, “But you’ve been alright? You’re safe?”

“Yes, I’m safe,” you heard Nestor’s footsteps coming back up the stairs and you turned to face him, a childish smirk on your face, “Nestor is doing a fabulous job protecting me.” You chuckled as he pressed his lips into a thin line and made his way to the guest room without a word.

Your father laughed, knowing that you were giving your protective detail a run for his money, “Don’t be too hard on him, mija.”

You laughed, “No promises. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Love you.”

“Love you too,” he let out a soft chuckle before hanging up the call.

Morning faded into the afternoon and you hadn’t seen Nestor since he disappeared after he brought laundry downstairs. Some moments you wondered if your father’s concern about him being annoyed enough to quit were valid, but you also figured that Nestor was too proud and stubborn to bail. You walked down the hall and knocked on the open door to what you now considered his room. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, tying his shoes. You smiled slightly as he looked over at you, eyebrows raised.

“You almost ready to go?” you asked, “Ready for another very boring night sitting at the bar watching me like a creep?”

He stood up and walked over to you, and for a moment you were reminded of the size difference between the two of you. he glanced down at you, making you feel very small as your face instantly got hot, “Ready to watch me watch you? Like an even bigger creep?” You chuckled, mostly to try and relieve the tension that was bubbling up inside your body. He brushed past you and went to grab his keys, “My turn to drive.”

You followed his path and opened your mouth to argue, but you knew it was useless. With a sigh you grabbed your purse and followed him out the door to his SUV. He’d driven you a couple places in it, and you had to admit it had way more room than your car when it came to grocery shopping. You still weren’t ready to accept it as your main mode of transportation, though. You could’ve had your own nice car, and your father would’ve preferred it, but you didn’t like feeling so obvious. And, in the case of Nestor’s car, you hated feeling like you were constantly fighting to not touch anything in his pristine vehicle.

“You really don’t need to stay for my whole shift, Nestor,” you said as the two of you walked in the front door, “I’m sure there are more important things you could spend a couple hours doing and then just come pick me up afterwards.”

He shook his head, opening the door for you, “Can’t do it.”

It was a busier shift—Saturday’s always were. You almost felt bad for Nestor, but at least there were enough people to keep him occupied and have him feeling like he was actually serving a purpose by being there with you. He never said anything, but you knew that things had been so quiet lately and it was probably a big change of pace from whatever he was usually doing for the Galindos. Any time you tried to ask or allude to it, though, he went silent.

You finally had a moment to pause and catch your breath for a second when you saw Nestor waving you over. You leaned over the bar so he wouldn’t have to shout whatever it was that he had to say to you, sporting your best Customer Service Smile so the people around you wouldn’t get clued in on anything.

“Guy over in that booth has been eyeing you for the last fifteen minutes.”

You were about to tell him that there were always creeps leering at you while you were working, but when you saw who he was talking about, your facial expression dropped. You saw Nestor’s whole body tense up and he went to stand, but you put your hands over his to stop him. He turned to you, clearly confused and on-edge.

“He’s not a problem. Just a shitty ex-boyfriend. He’s annoying, but not a security concern. You can sit, it’s fine,” you nodded to him to reassure him before plastering a smile back on your face and getting back to your other patrons.

Nestor didn’t like the fact that the man kept staring at you. And despite the fact that you had explicitly told him that he wasn’t an issue, there was still a very strong urge to get up and physically throw him out of the building. For the sake of your job, though, Nestor kept himself seated, keeping an eye on everyone else while paying special attention to the man in the booth.

You don’t know how you missed him coming in, but you almost wished that Nestor hadn’t said anything. Now you couldn’t help but to feel him staring at you and it was a difficult feeling to ignore. It would have been a total abuse of power to ask Nestor to go over and get in his face, and you knew it, but the option was still tempting nonetheless. You were glad that he was at least keeping to himself.

That luck ran out too, though. You were looking across the expanse of the bar to see if anyone needed anything, and sure enough he was standing at the far end, a smug grin on his face because he knew that you were going to have to come over and talk to him. Jade saw the look on your face and was about to intervene but you politely waved her off, knowing that it wasn’t her drama to deal with.

“What can I get you, Marco?” your voice wasn’t nasty, but it wasn’t laden with the typical sweetness you used on other customers.

“Whatever’s good on tap tonight, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that,” you didn’t look at him as you grabbed a glass and picked a beer out of the tap lineup.

“That your new boyfriend?” he nodded towards Nestor as you handed him the glass.

“And if he is?” this conversation wasn’t going in a good direction, but you were trapped in it regardless.

“I was just wondering, because he’s spent an awful lot of the evening staring at you.”

“Could say the same about you,” you scoffed.

You went to walk away when he reached over the bar and grabbed your arm. His grip wasn’t tight, and you knew that the intention wasn’t to hurt you, just to get your attention, but you still had the overwhelming urge to bust his nose. You ripped your arm from his grip, taking a deep breath as you suppressed the desire to cause a scene.

You almost had no say in the matter, though, as Nestor materialized, placing his hands down hard on Marco’s shoulders, “Everything alright over here?”

Your eyes grew wide, not sure at all how this was going to play out. You could see the fear on Marco’s face, but you also knew that he was too proud and too stupid to back down from a fight, even if it was one he would definitely lose. He shrugged in an attempt to get Nestor’s hands off of his shoulders, “We’re fine.”

Nestor’s eyes zeroed in on you, practically begging you to give him the okay to do some damage, “All good, Y/N?”

Before you could answer, Marco spoke up again, “I said we’re fine.”

“I wasn’t fucking asking you,” Nestor’s voice was low but you could tell by the grimace on Marco’s face that he was definitely digging his fingers into his shoulders.

You nodded, “We’re good.”

Nestor released his grip and you could see Marco’s entire body relax. His gaze lingered on you for a moment and you nodded again to let him know that you could handle it. He didn’t say anything else as he made his way back down to where he had originally been sitting at the bar. His eyes never left the two of you though—you could feel his stare even though your back was to him.

“I figured you would’ve gone for a more warm and fuzzy type,” he tried to play it confidently but you could tell that he was shaken up.

You scoffed, “I’d leave while you still can. He decides to come back over again I won’t tell him to let you go.”

The color drained from Marco’s face, but he just couldn’t make himself smart enough to walk away, “Didn’t think you liked pushy guys.”

You braced your hands on your side of the bar and leaned forward slightly, “I don’t like guys who are pushy with me. Now, get the fuck out before you see how pushy he can really be.”

The second threat was enough to get through. He dropped money on the surface of the bar and left, leaving a full glass of beer behind. You chuckled to yourself as you brought the glass down and set it in front of Nestor. The two of you locked eyes for a moment but didn’t say anything about what had happened as you went about the rest of your evening.

You were cleaning up after your shift, once again it was just you, Jade, and Nestor. You and Jade were going back and forth about some of the ridiculous things that you had heard that night as you wiped down counters and tabletops. Nestor scrolled on his phone, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth as he listened to the two of you.

When there was a lull in the conversation, he looked up and at you, “So, who was your friend that was here tonight?”

“Ah, he got to meet Marco,” Jade chuckled, shaking her head knowingly.

“Marco?” he raised his eyebrows.

You huffed, rolling your eyes, “Yea, Marco. With a capital M for mierda,” you let out a humorless laugh, “We dated a couple years back.”

“Still not over you?”

Jade interjected before you could, “Can you blame him?”

You smiled and shook your head, “I haven’t heard from him in a while. He pops up every now and then to see if he still has a shot. He never does. I turn him down, send him away, and the cycle repeats itself.”

“Too bad you didn’t have a Nestor sooner,” Jade was stacking glasses with a smug grin on her face, “Could’ve gotten rid of him a long time ago.”

“Nestor is not a bouncer for ex-boyfriends,” you laughed.

She laughed and shrugged, “It is a bonus though.”

You shook your head as the two of you finished up closing down the bar. While it was hectic sometimes when it was only the two of you, those were some of your favorite nights. You’d come to think of Jade more as an aunt or a second mother rather than your boss, and you liked the time you got to spend with her.

After getting home and letting Nestor check the house, the two of you took turns showering off the day. You were trying to figure out if Nestor just had multiple of the same sets of sweatpants and lounge shirts, or if he just washed the same set over and over again. You grabbed a fresh pint of ice cream out of the freezer and grabbed one for him too without bothering to ask, knowing that if you gave him the option he would always say no.

You set his down on the coffee table in front of him before taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch from him, giving him a little space. He looked back and forth between you and the ice cream with a slightly confused expression.

“A thank you for scaring off Marco,” you said with a smile as you scooped out a spoonful of your own.

“It’s my job.”

You raised an eyebrow, “That is not in your job description. He is not a threat to my father’s way of life, or mine for that matter. Now just eat the damn ice cream before I add doesn’t eat dessert to my Nestor Notes.”

He let himself smile as he picked up the pint of ice cream, “Thank you,” he took a spoonful, “And for future reference, my favorite flavor is mint chip.”

Your eyes grew wide,  mostly because he actually offered up a piece of personal information, but also at the fact that that was his favorite flavor, “Really? I don’t think I’ve ever met someone with that as their favorite.”

“Now you have,” he nodded before reaching for the controller to turn the TV on.

You chuckled to yourself as you settled back against the couch, pulling your legs up underneath you. You looked over at Nestor, who was slightly hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees. He had the controller in one hand, scrolling through shows, and his ice cream in the other. For a man who didn’t like music while he was driving in the car, he certainly did seem to see eye-to-eye with you when it came to always having the television on in the house for a light layer of background noise. Most of the time neither of you were paying super close attention to what was on, but it was just nice to break up the silence. In that moment, though, both of you felt extremely present.

“I’m one hundred percent eating this whole thing tonight,” you laughed, “It’s counting as dinner and dessert.”

He chuckled, “Sounds good.”

“We can go grocery shopping tomorrow and get real food,” you smiled as you kept your eyes glued to the container in your hands, “I’ll make sure to get you some mint chip.”

He nodded, smiling despite the fact that he wasn’t looking over at you, “I’d appreciate that.”

[obxparadise]

Red Flags

JJ Maybank x Reader  

Word Count: 1,937

Requested: @maybebanks

~A fic in which JJ finds out you’ve been abused by your boyfriend, Rafe~

Warnings: Mentions of abuse and drugs

A/N: If you enjoyed this, leave a comment!

*GIF is not mine. Credit to the owner.* 

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

“You’re stupid.”

“You’re worthless.”

“I don’t know what I see in you.”

Another day, another insult, another bruise.

The diamond tile floor is cold against your body. Blood is pumping through your veins, dripping from your lip, and soaking through your white tank top. Words are on the tip of your tongue, but you don’t speak. You know better. Speaking would be signing your death sentence, and you aren’t ready to die just yet. There’s still some fight left in you.

Rafe Cameron stands over you, his once pale face now red with fury, hands balled into fists that have drops of your blood on them. He breathes hard, eyes wide and darting around the room in a frenzy. His arms are shaking and his pupils, usually small and scrutinizing, are larger than normal. There’s only one reason for it.

Cocaine.

And he loves it more than you.

That was the first red flag. His obsession with cocaine clouded his mind, fucked with his ability to think straight. At the start of your relationship, he hid it. Three months later, you walked into his room and caught him snorting the end of a line. And you ignored it.

He’d stolen from his father Ward, several times. That was the second red flag. Rafe was blessed to have been born into a wealthy family. He never worked a day in his life. The drug money came from Ward’s private safe, or from gold watches Rafe had pawned off without his father’s knowledge. And as you watched Rafe steal ten thousand dollars from the safe, you ignored it.

You arrived at his house three minutes later than you said you would. The party had gotten out of hand and you lost track of time. As you tried to explain and calm him down, his hand connected with your cheek. Red flag number three. Ignored.

“I used to get chills looking at you,” Rafe says, emotionless. “Now? I’m fucking sick of looking at you.”

There was a time Rafe Cameron did love you, if only briefly, if only for two months. He courted you, kissed you, held your hand in public. He opened doors for you, complimented you, and made love to you.

No more.

His kisses? Replaced with bruises.

Compliments? What were those?

You watch as Rafe stiffens, the sound of a car door slamming shut startling the both of you. The glass table in the dining room is just out of reach. You peer up at Rafe through wet lashes just in time to see him pull you to your feet.

His thumb collects leftover blood from your lip. It’s the closest thing to a tender touch you’ve received in years. As you stare into his eyes, you notice his pupils have shrunk down to their normal size.

“Rafe, I--.”

“Get yourself changed,” he says, eyes flickering to your blood-stained shirt. With one last look, he turns his back. “And get out of my sight.”

~~~

The Chateau is your safe haven. Though old and run down, John B’s little shack feels more like a home than the spare bedroom in the Cameron mansion. The room is occupied by whoever decides to crash there, either by yourself or JJ. This time, it was yours.

Standing in front of the mirror, you slowly lift your shirt, sucking in a breath at the sight of the bright purple bruise decorating your hip. Slightly pulling down your bathing suit bottoms, you sighed as you noticed another bruise, small and brown. How are you supposed to go swimming like this?

“Knock, knock,” Pope says, tapping the door. You pull down your shirt just in time. “Ready to go?”

No, you’re not, but staying back will only cause suspicion, and the last thing you need is the Pogues asking questions.

~~~

The sun is warm on your skin, water cold as your feet hang off the side of the HMS Pogue. A beer in your hand, you watch as Kiara and Pope play a game of Marco Polo. John B treads in the water, staying close to you, while JJ continuously throws himself off the boat.

“How was that splash?” JJ asks, lifting a hand to block the sun from his eyes.

“Eh, I give it a four,” you tease. “I’ve seen better.”

“Show me how it’s done, then,” JJ challenges, pulling himself up onto the boat. Water drips from his sun kissed skin, bathing suit clinging to his thighs. “You haven’t even gotten in the water yet today.”

“Today?” John B snickers. “We’ve been out here four days this week. You love to swim, Y/N, what’s up with you?”

You offer John B a shrug. “Just you know, not feeling it.”

“That’s code for time of the month,” JJ grins, screeching as your hand barely misses hitting his leg.

“That’s what tampons are for, JJ,” Kiara shouts.

You snort and take another swig of beer, cringing underneath John B’s skeptical gaze. Normally, he’s able to see right through you. Right now, you pray he can’t.

~~~

“Y/N, there’s pizza out here,” Pope calls out.

“I’ll be right in,” you answer from the spare room. Stripping off your bathing suit, you throw it in a pile on the floor before pulling on a pair of black sweatpants and an old OBX hoodie. The side of your hip throbs slightly and you wince, lifting the hoodie to reexamine the bruise. Your fingertips brush over the swollen flesh just as John B pushes open the door, freezing in place.

A breath is trapped in your throat as you quickly cover the bruise, swallowing as John B’s eyes burn into yours.

“Y/N…” John B says slowly. He approaches carefully, noticing the apprehension on your face. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

“It’s a bruise,” you reply simply. “I fell down the last few steps at Rafe’s house. No biggie. Y’all know I’m clumsy.”

“Y/N,--.”

“John B,” your voice has an edge to it. “I’m fine. It was an accident,” you pat his cheek softly, offering a smile. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

~~~

“I need to talk to you.”

As you, Kiara, and Pope tend to the bonfire, John B pulls JJ aside. His lip is raw from the constant biting, wondering how he is supposed to break the news to his best friend.

“What’s up, man?” JJ asks, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He notices the uneasiness in John B’s eyes.  “Bro, you good?”

“I think,” John B pulls a hand through his hair. “I think Y/N is in trouble.”

JJ stiffens. “What kind of trouble?”

“Rafe trouble,” John B replies, gnawing the inside of his cheek. “I don’t want to make any assumptions…”

“Spit it out.”

John B sighs. “I think he hits her.”

Tension in the air is thick as both boys remain unmoving. The blood in JJ’s body runs cold as the words process in his brain. “What do you mean you think?”

“On her hip,” John B says, lowering his voice. He pulls up his shirt, demonstrating. “There’s a huge bruise. She acted like it was nothing, but JJ, I swear to you, I saw it.”

“Where’s my gun?” JJ asks, fists balled tightly as he begins to head back toward the Chateau.

John B’s hand stops him. “Not now, bro. You’re on probation. This isn’t the time to be stupid. I just figured maybe you could talk to her, since you know…” John B motions to the fading black and blue rim around JJ’s eye.

“This is Y/N we’re talking about,” JJ shoots back, voice pained. “I’d die for any one of you. But for her, I’d kill a man.”

~~~

You search the Chateau rooms, gathering as many blankets as your arms can carry. Pope is fixing the fire as Kiara sets up individual chairs for everyone to sit in.

Checking the spare room, you peek under the bed for any extra blankets, and the bedroom door slams shut, startling you. Peering over the bed from your knees, a distraught JJ stands with his back against the door.

“I’ll be out in a second, just getting blankets.”

“We need to talk.”

The four words no one ever wants to hear. Swallowing, you pull yourself to your feet, reminding yourself to keep your composure. “What’s up?”

JJ says nothing at first, eyes directed at the floor as he flicks the lighter in his hand. Sweat drips down your back as he finally looks up at you. “How are you, Y/N?”

Not what you were expecting. “I’m good. How are you?” You step up to him, abandoning the blankets in your hand to touch the ring around his eye. He flinches, and your heart breaks. I know how it feels, you think to yourself. “Your eye is looking much better.”

“Better than your hip,” JJ mutters.

You step back, blinking. “W-what?”

“When the hell were you going to tell me Rafe beats you?” JJ’s voice is gravelly as he steps toward you. “What the fuck happened to Pogues for life, huh?”

“JJ, what are you talking about?” You ask defensively, praying your face doesn’t betray you. “Rafe doesn’t hit me. Why are you accusing him?”

“So you’re saying he doesn’t?” JJ sneers. He pulls a hand through his blonde hair, tugging the ends before slapping his palm against his thigh. “I noticed today your lip was split down the middle. How’d that happen?”

The walls seem to close around you. Your chest constricts, labored breaths leaving your mouth. You can’t speak, only stare as JJ’s eyes scan your face. “I, uh, b-bit it too hard.”

Unconvinced, he steps forward, grabbing your jaw before you can move. There’s hurt in his eyes, and fear in yours. “Lift up your shirt.”

“JJ, don’t--.”

“Lift up your shirt,” he repeats quietly, lip quivering. “It’s just you and me.”

Tears gather in your eyes as the realization hits you. He knows.

Your fingers shake as they grab the bottom of your hoodie, lifting slowly to reveal the bruise. JJ immediately sucks in a breath, the size of the bruise unsettling. His hand goes to your hip just as you pull away from him. JJ’s heart sinks as a tear slides down your face. He reaches out and collects it with his thumb, gently rubbing your cheek as your head leans into his touch. “How long?”

“Two years,” you say, hiding the bruise once more. “I would’ve hidden it longer if J.B. didn’t open his mouth.”

“He shouldn’t have had to tell me,” JJ responds, gaze fixated on your face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What would you have done?”

“I would have been there for you!” He says it without hesitation, offended that you even had to ask. “You were the first person I told about my father. Shit, you were there for me more than anyone. You didn’t let me struggle by myself. And now…and now I find out this whole time, you’ve been letting yourself suffer when you know any one of us would’ve helped you.”

His words hurt, but they’re the truth. “I didn’t want you to worry about me.”

JJ’s hands find your face, cupping your cheeks as your fingers wrap around his wrists. “I am always going to worry about you,” he rests his forehead against yours, and there’s something intimate about the gesture. “Always.”

Sighing, you pull JJ in for a hug, nestling your face in his neck as his arms circle your waist. His embrace is warm and you sink into it. A protective barrier. And for once in your life, you feel safe.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

I just discovered your fics and THE DRAGON AGE ANIMORPHS OH MY GOD I NEED A MILLION WORDS OF THAT AU PLEASE TELL ME EVERYTHING

THAT AU IS ONE OF THE LEAST POPULAR FICS I’VE EVER WRITTEN AND IT’S A SHAME BECAUSE I’M ACTUALLY VERY CLEVER.

Anyway, Jake is a Seeker who joined the Order young, for appropriately righteous reasons, and got word just before his vigil that his beloved older brother had grown distant in his absence, had joined a cult order of apostate mages and stopped speaking to the family.  He went into his vigil conflicted about the possibility of having to face Tom, someday--or that his cousin the Templar might do it while he wasn’t there--and wound up using the time to think a lot about what it meant to be a Seeker, and what his purpose was, and what it meant to have a duty.  The Spirit of Duty that touched him made him a spectacular Right Hand of the Divine, and an even better leader of the Inquisition.

Rachel’s a Templar, who joined to take some of the burden off her mother and ensure a better life for her sisters.  She’s not a true believer in the religious sense, but she was sold very thoroughly on her job, and when the Harrowing of a childhood friend went badly and took Rachel and the mage, Melissa, with it, Rachel got--vicious.  She scared everyone, including herself, before she managed to pull herself back.  She’s not proud of how things went down in Kirkwall, and doesn’t trust the Chantry anymore, but she’s been a Templar her entire life and didn’t see a way out.  When her cousin offered some kind of redemption, as the commander of an Inquisition, she grabbed the chance with both hands and didn’t look back.  Rachel idly considers feeling guilty, when she notices how attached she’s gotten to their mage Herald, but--the world is ending!  If now’s not the time to kiss herself a handsome elf with sad eyes and a tendency toward giving people static shocks, when IS the time!

Cassie is a diplomat, not born to the Great Game but phenomenally talented at it anyway.  She’s known for being uncommonly nice, so nice that plenty of people don’t even notice that they’re signing their riches away.  She started the political circuit to help fund her parents’ work (Cassie also gets drafted with some frequency into the research work of the Inquisition), but the Great Game is essentially a lobster trap--lots of ways in, not many ways out.  With the Inquisition, she feels like she’s making a difference, not just playing at it.  Also, the Seeker is--charming.  Very charming, even though he fumbles all his fine speeches around her.  She certainly does not think about that while getting them invitations to Halamshiral, though, and no one would dare suggest it.  She’s the only person who doesn’t go on missions--not because she can’t fight, but because she’s so godforsaken busy.

Marco picked up the nickname Seahawk ages ago, or so he’ll tell everyone--it’s because he fits in anywhere, see?  He thinks they call them osprey out here in the South, but they pop up all over Thedas under one name or another.  The perfect spy, with a charming smile and a quick tongue and a self-effacing sense of humor.  Easy to get along with, easy to forget.  It’s a survival skill, when you’re trying to survive in Ferelden as the visibly Tevene son of a disgraced Magistrix.  He and Jake worked as Left and Right Hand, respectively, for years before the death of the Divine, with a carefully managed policy of ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.  It makes it--difficult, for both of them, when they start running the Inquisition and Jake starts trying to reign Marco’s more ruthless tendencies in.  Marco’s personal quest, featuring the opportunity to harden or soften him, involves rescuing his mother from the Venatori or killing her outright, of course.

Ax is a wayward Qunari, of course, bright-eyed and ready to rumble.  He’s not a mercenary so much as a cadet displaced from his troop, which was annihilated by a Venatori attack along with his previous Karasten, his commander, who Ax grew up with and worshiped like a brother.  The Inquisition is essentially the couch he’s crashing on, until they find a way to get him back to his people, and if he gets to hit some things in the meantime, all the better.  Ax is a true believer in the Qun, who barely concedes to have his Qun name shortened by the others, of course he is, he is loyal to his people, these outsiders just don’t understand, but--

But, of course, Karasten always said the same thing, even after his long absence from the Qun when he was presumed dead.  And then, of course, he hears the Herald describe the Qunari who dragged him out of the Fade at the cost of his own life, and it sounds like Karasten, it has to be Karasten, but he gave the Herald a name that Ax has never heard, a decidedly un-Qunari name, and then--and then they find evidence that his Karasten was not doing battle all that time after all.  That he, perhaps, fell in love with a Dalish woman and adopted a son before being forced back to the Qun against his will.  And that he might have been hoping to pull his brother out as well, before he died saving the son he’d lost.  Ultimately Ax chooses the Inquisition, after meeting his brother’s shade in the Fade.  He lets Karasten--he lets Elfangor give him a new name, and keeps it forever.

And Tobias, of course, is the Herald.  He didn’t even need to be at the Conclave.  He was turned out of his clan and had hoped, a little recklessly, a little suicidally, that bringing information from the Conclave would win him entry to some clan, somewhere that wasn’t a Circle with their rules and their cruelty.  Now he has a green mark on his hand and the weight of an Inquisition on his shoulders, worshiping him as a Herald of a Maker he doesn’t even believe in.  But he believes in the cause--who couldn’t, with the Commander saying serious things about protecting people and kicking these demons off their world--and he can’t get rid of the mark, so...  All right, then.  He’ll do it.

[thdorkmagnet]

The Queen of Hearts

Hey everyone! Happy Valentines!!! I hope you all are having a great day today! Since it’s the holiday all about love I had to do something Starco to celebrate the day! I’m pretty happy with the result too!! I made it as cute and fluffy as I could but with my typical splash of drama because I like it haha!! I really hope you all enjoy!! and a great big thank you to my very dear friend @kikithefox231 who actually helped me finish this fic up so I could get it out on time!! It was really fun to collab on the end and it makes it even more special to me knowing I got to make it with someone I care about! I may not have anyone romantic in my life to celebrate this day with but I got tons of friends, family, and fans who really help make this day special to me!! So yeah lots of love to you all!! Thanks for keeping me going!!

Star was insecure about her cheeks. At first Marco would have thought that was ridiculous, after all Star wasn't the insecure type. He was the self conscious one, Star was strong and confident and was never shy about her appearance.

But lately Marco had noticed a change in her demeanor, a crack in her confident armor. She had seemed to despise her cheeks. At first it wasn't obvious, just little things like shying away from cameras or not looking directly in mirrors. But then it started to progress. During winter Star had had a large rainbow scarf which she always kept wrapped around her face, muffling her voice and most importantly hiding her cheeks. Even when the weather didn't demand it she would insist she was cold and needed.

Obviously this had tipped Marco off something was wrong. And thus began trying to piece together what was upsetting his loving girlfriend. He played close attention to her behavior and noticed her tendency to cover her cheeks when out in public. If someone mentioned anything having to do with her appearance, no matter what it was, Star's hands would instinctively move to her cheeks. To anyone else it would look like Star was merely flustered, but Marco knew better. She was hiding. 

But the one that hurt the most was whenever Marco would try and kiss her on the cheek. Everytime Star would flinch as soon as his lips touched her skin. It was for only a second and she always covered it up with a bright smile and playful banter afterwards but it was still there. It still hurt. At first Marco had thought he was being paranoid but with all the rest of Star’s strange behavior that didn’t seem likely. He tried not to take it personally but… it was hard not to.

And then there was Star’s clothes. Her outfits, while always cute and adorable, had begun incorporating hearts into their design. Marco was almost impressed with the many, many ways his girlfriend had found to decorate her cute outfits in hearts. Dresses, skirts, bracelets, hairclips, boots, sometimes it was subtle, sometimes it was obvious, but there was always some kind of heart design on her person at all times. Luckily, this last clue had helped Marco finally figure out what was going on with his sweet bestie. 

Star missed her cheekmarks. 

Marco couldn’t blame her for that. After all, they had been a part of her for such a long time, most of her life, in fact. Losing them had to be hard, like she had lost part of her identity. Marco knew if he was to lose his hoodie he’d feel the same way. He loved Star no matter what, heart cheekmarks or no, but it was obvious losing them had started to affect her attitude towards herself. And that simply couldn’t stand.

Marco would not sit back and let his loving girlfriend hate something about herself. Not while he was around! She had helped him so many times grow more confident in his own skin, her mere presence filling him with pride and self-worth unlike anything he had ever known before he met her. It was time he returned the favor. 

And so Marco began hatching a plan, one that would help Star face and overcome this insecurity once and for all! It had taken a while for him to come up with the perfect idea and in the meantime he had been careful to not give anything away to his girlfriend. He didn’t want her to know he was aware of her self-doubt, not until the moment was right. And luckily for him, the perfect day to put his plan into action just happened to be close at hand. This year Marco was gonna give Star a Valentine’s Day she would never forget!

…

Marco made sure to wake up early in the morning so he could be up before Star. His bestie tended to be the first to rise, usually waking him up in the most loud but adorable way possible. But not today. Today Marco needed to be the one waking her. He got up before dawn, making himself a cup of delicious cinnamon tea before getting to work. He had a lot of preparations still to make and he had to have them done before Star got up around 7. It took some work but he managed to have everything done around 6:50. Time to wake up Star. He threw on his outfit for the day before heading upstairs to greet his girlfriend. 

Marco slowly creaked open the door and peeked his head into Star’s room. His girlfriend looked like a sleeping angel and he couldn’t help but stare at her peaceful face for a minute or so. However, he started realizing he was bordering on being a creep and so crept towards his girlfriend as quietly as he could. He tiptoed over to her, making sure to avoid the several bear traps she had set up around her room, before leaning over the bed so his face was close to hers. He grinned at the little drool mark running from her mouth all the way down her cheek and her almost non-existent snoring. He was tempted to kiss her awake but he had learned the hard way that it was better to wake Star up gently. Otherwise, she was likely to instinctively punch the nearest object. Marco really didn’t want another black eye. 

"Sttaaaaarrr," Marco greeted his girlfriend in a sing song voice. The blonde grumbled and rolled over on her side, muttering something about ‘taco cats’ and ‘needing more ice cream sandwiches’. Marco chuckled softly at his girlfriend, she was just too cute sometimes. Or all the time really.  

He tried again to wake her up, pushing gently on her shoulder, not enough to hurt but enough to her attention. Star mumbled something incoherent again but this time she actually sat up, rubbing an eye with the back of her hand. Marco could still see her eyes were clouded over with fog and she blinked at him a few times in confusion. "Marco," she slurred, her head lulling slightly to the side. "What time is it?"

"It's a little after 7," Marco explained, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

Star nodded and stretched letting out a loud tired yawn. "What are you doing up so early?" she asked before pausing, finally getting a good look at her boyfriend. Her mouth dropped open and she looked like she wasn't sure if she should laugh or be worried for her besties' sanity and Marco wouldn't blame her for either.

He was fully aware how ridiculous he looked. He had swapped out his old red hoodie for the day and replaced it with a bright pink one, covered in hearts of many shapes and colors. His jeans were a dark red and his shoes were the same except he had tied the laces into a heart. But it was his hair that seemed to be the most surprising to Star as she stared at it in disbelief. At first Marco had planned on dyeing the whole thing pink but thought better of it and just settled for a few streaks of pink that actually worked surprisingly well with his brown hair.

 And to top it all off he had painted pink hearts on his cheeks to match the ones Star had lost. He noticed her eyes lingering on those for a few seconds before she looked away. She seemed a little uncomfortable now, picking at a loose strand on her nightgown and when Star did look in his direction again. She seemed to be avoiding staring directly at his cheeks.

Then came the question Marco had been waiting for. “Marco, what are you wearing?”

Marco just shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. “Just getting into the Valentines day spirit.”

Star’s eyes darted over his outfit again, confusion pinching her brow. “So is this a normal way to celebrate Valentines?” she asked, her tone light and curious which Marco took as a good sign.  “Cause I don’t remember any other Earth holidays making you dress up like this.” She gestured to his ridiculous outfit.

Marco gave her a fake hurt expression, putting a hand on his chest, right over where his actual heart would be. “What are you saying you don’t like it? And after I put in all this work for you!”

Star rolled her eyes, clearly seeing through his act. “Well I never asked you to do this, y’know” She put her hands on her hips but her grin had returned which made Marco’s heart swell with joy. It was working. “But yes, I do like it. It was very sweet of you to go all out for me.” Then, to Marco’s immense excitement Star leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. He gently gripped her side in a protective and loving hold, returning the hug by placing his head over hers. “Even if you do look ridiculous,” Star added playfully.

“Hey, aren’t you always the one saying pink is my color,” Marco retorted. 

“Touche, Diaz,” the blonde said, gently gripping the front of his pink hoodie before pulling him closer to her. Their lips met and instantly it was like a firecracker had just gone off between them. Even if everyone claimed there was no magic left on Earth-ni, Marco knew this was false because kissing Star could only be described as magical. The way her lips fit against his perfectly, the tiniest of movements that sent electricity coursing down his spine, the way his stomach flipped and his brain turned to mush, all of it was too amazing to describe. Marco wanted the sweet feeling to last forever but allowed his girlfriend to pull away regardless. There would be plenty of time for kisses later.

 Besides, he still had a plan to carry out. This was only phase one, he couldn’t afford to get distracted by kisses, no matter how amazing they were. Getting back on track, Marco slyly hinted to his girlfriend, “Sooooo, I may have a tiny surprise for you, y’know, for Valentines Day and everything.”

Star’s eyes sparkled as she squealed in delight, any discomfort she had shown early was completely gone, replaced instead with the adorable, hyperactive energy she seemed to radiate. “Ohhhh what is it?! Tell me, tell me, tell me!” she asked, bouncing up and down on the bed, causing the whole thing to sway and nearly knocking Marco off the mattress. 

The hooded teen couldn’t help but chuckle as he fought to keep himself steady. “Whoa, whoa, easy there, princess.” Star instantly stopped bouncing and shot him a glare.

“Marco,” she hissed in a warning tone.

“Oh right, sorry, don’t use the ‘P’ word, I forgot,” he apologized, giving Star a sheepish grin.

And just like that, the smile was back on Star’s face as she gleefully exclaimed, “It’s okay! You can just make it up to me by telling me what your surprise is!”

Marco laughed and shook his head. “If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise then,” he pointed out obviously.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” Star said, while shooting him the most innocent grin she could muster, which was just too cute for words and made Marco’s cheeks heat up instantly.

The temptation to give in came a second later but Marco stayed firm, shaking his head and declaring, “No way! You’ll just have to wait and see it.” 

Star frowned and let out a dramatic sigh. “Okay, fine,” she mumbled and crossed her arms in a pouting manner.

Marco held back a chuckle from the cute display, but still wanting to appease his bestie, he offered, “But if you really want to see it so badly, we can go right now.”

“Yes!” Star cheered, clutching onto his arm in a tight grip. Marco tried not to cringe but if she squeezed any tighter she might break his bone. Not that he minded, losing his arm to Star’s death grip was a small price to pay for the excited smile on her face. Her eyes were like little gemstones, their brilliant glow would put literal diamonds to shame and he could stare into them forever. Her smile was so wide now that it had caused her cheeks to puff out in that cute way only Star could do and if that wasn’t enough than the slight rosey tinge to her cheeks made Marco’s heart hammer so hard he briefly wondered if it was trying to escape his chest so it could show love and affection to Star itself. 

The young Latino had to clear his throat to regain use of his voice so he could add, “Okay but before we do, you need to get dressed.”

“Well, duh,” Star scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I wasn’t exactly planning on going out in my nightgown.”

“Oh no, that’s not what I mean,” Marco said, a sly smile starting to spread across his lips.

Star was confused now, giving him a curious and slightly alarmed expression, “Then what did you mean?”

“I mean, I took the liberty of setting you up with an outfit of your own to wear.” 

“You what?!” Star exclaimed, gasping in surprise.

“Yep!” Marco grabbed Star’s hand pulling her up from the bed with him. “So come on, let’s go get you ready!”

“But wait! Marco!” Star shouted as he dragged her out of her room. She followed along but looked completely lost on what was happening to her. Marco noticed this and turned to her with an honest smile, hoping to convey his good intentions.

“Trust me on this, Star. You're gonna wanna dressed up for what I have planned.”

…

Marco led Star towards Britta’s Tacos keeping a firm grip on her hand since he had insisted she be blindfolded for the unveiling of the surprise. He was surprised Star hadn’t protested but clearly she was too excited to care, a bright smile on her face as she allowed her boyfriend to lead her through the streets of their home, putting her complete trust in him to keep her safe. However, his inquisitive girlfriend hadn’t stopped asking where they were going since leaving the house. “Where are we going? Is it the mall? Are you gonna buy me those cat earrings I was looking at last week? No wait, I bet you hid my present at Janna’s didn’t you? Very sneaky, knowing I would search your room for a present beforehand.” 

This was always greeted with the same response from Marco, a small chuckle followed by, “You’ll see.” Then Star would huff and pout for a few seconds before asking him again. Cycle, repeat. Not that Marco minded, he knew patience wasn’t a virtue for Star and he honestly found it beyond adorable. She was like a little kid and he loved seeing this side of her again. It felt like it had been a while to see her so relaxed and at ease. 

He took a quick sideways glance over his shoulder taking in Star’s new attire. He had spent quite a few hours picking everything out, trying to find the perfect outfit for his high-standards girlfriend, imagining how she would look in it but nothing had quite prepared himself for the pure beauty that he beheld. Marco was already well aware she could make anything look good, but… this new look might be her best yet. She was wearing a pure white top and a red, ruffled skirt, connected together with bright red suspenders that each had a tiny pink heart on them. They criss-crossed behind her back with another heart charm but that was unnoticeable from this angle. Her leggings were a light cream color covered in small star patterns with a pair of bright red boots over them. Her sunglow hair was as radiant as ever with a cute tiny heart hairclip placed delicately in her swept bangs. She had a bracelet on each wrist one red, one white, that helped to tie the look together perfectly. She bounced up and down excitedly causing her skirt to flutter in the wind and her hair to sway with her movements which somehow made her even more adorable. 

Marco had to look away to avoid being blinded by her cuteness, his cheeks now lightly tinged pink. His focus back up ahead though he smiled as he saw they had arrived at Britta’s while he was distracted. He could see the gathered crowd and colorful decorations he and the others had spent hours putting up and felt his heart soar. This was it. The moment he had been waiting for for weeks on end. He waved to everyone, before signaling them to stay quiet and they nodded in return. Marco sucked in a deep breath for courage before turning to face his girlfriend, trying to ignore her adorable outfit. 

Star noticed they had stopped and excitedly gasped. “Are we here? Is it time for the surprise?!” she asked, jumping up and down in place. 

Marco laughed and replied enthusiastically, “Yep, it’s time for your surprise!”

Star was thrilled to hear this, squealing and shaking her fists in the cutest way possible. He smiled at her animated response and slowly moved behind her to take off the blindfold, struggling to undo the knot since his girlfriend didn’t seem capable of standing still. Finally, he pulled the blindfold away from her eyes, shouting joyfully, “Alright, herrrre weeee goooo!” 

As the cloth fell away from Star’s bright blue, a cheerful yell filled the area, everyone screaming, “Surprise!” Marco could tell just by looking at Star’s flabbergasted face she didn’t know how to react. Not that he blamed her. The fast food stand had been redone for the holiday thanks to his and others’s hard work. The tables were now draped in bright pink tablecloths and the old, worn umbrellas that rested over them replaced with new more festive ones, each one covered in hearts and roses. The building itself had been painted a bright red, with tiny heart designs stenciled meticulously over the fresh coat. So fresh in fact, it still  hadn’t yet dried, causing the building to have a shimmering glow in the early morning light. And on top of that there were heart banners and confetti thrown about the place, seemingly at random, although in actuality it had all been very intentional since Marco’s organised mind had been the one overseeing everything. 

And then there were the people who filled the large space, possibly half the town gathered to celebrate. All of Star’s friends and family were present, Mewman, human, Monster, and everything inbetween, all there to help the blonde royal finally face her insecurity. Marco smiled gratefully as he saw everyone was following his plan perfectly, the entire crowd dressed head in toe in pinks and reds. And most importantly... each one with twin hearts painted on their cheeks. 

Star looked around at her loved ones, gawking awkwardly, caught in a rare moment of complete speechlessness. Marco couldn’t tell if it was from the shock of seeing her home and friends consumed by such a girly color or from all the cheekmarks but either way, it was obvious he had caught his bestie completely off-guard. The hooded teen could see the gears turning in his girlfriend’s head as Star slowly turned to him and asked in a startled tone, “Marco? What is all this?” 

Marco shrugged. “Just celebrating Valentine’s Day with my girlfriend at our favorite fast food place,” the hooded teen replied innocently. 

Star huffed, her cheeks puffing up cutely. “You know what I mean,” she murmured in annoyance. She gave a sideways glance at everyone. “I know you said it was a surprise but I was not expecting this.”

“Well that’s what makes it a good surprise,” Marco retorted, sliding his hands in his pockets. 

“If it helps, Star. None of us saw this coming either,” Janna spoke up from the crowd, surprisingly at ease despite wearing a pink dress. 

“Yeah, a head’s up would have been nice,” Tom grumbled from beside his girlfriend, looking quite uncomfortable in the fuzzy, pink bunny suit Janna had forced him to wear, his cheeks the darkest shade of red Marco had ever seen on his best guy friend. 

“Hey, don’t complain,” Marco scolded, wagging a finger in the air. “You all agreed to help out, remember?”

The only reply he received were some noisy grumblings and a few audible sighs from the crowd. 

“Plus, you look cute, Tom,” Janna cooed, giving her boyfriend a playful nudge with her elbow.

Tom just buried his head in his hand, sighing and grumbling about how stupid this whole thing was and how Janna had tricked him and many other things that were unintelligible.

“Wait, help with what?” Star asked, bringing them back on topic while giving Marco a questioning look. 

“Well, I was gonna try and bring this up more subtly but…. I know you’ve been self-conscious about losing your cheekmarks.”

Star’s eyes widened, clearly taken aback by the accusation and he could see the fear already forming behind those sky blue irises but she quickly hid it behind a false smile. She scoffed, waving what was supposed to be a nonchalant hand in the air. “Wwwwwwhat? No I’m not,” Star nervously lied, trying to pass it off with a playful, albit nervous smile. Marco saw through it in a heartbeat but didn’t comment on it. He needed to be gentle about this. 

“Star,” he said in soft tone, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, you don’t have to hide it anyone.” 

Star chuckled nervously, her eyes flicking left and right as she shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “Hide what? There's nothing to hide,” her voice was now noticeably shaking and she seemed to be struggling to keep up the charade, her armor finally cracking and her true feelings showing through. 

“Star,” Marco said again, a bit firmer but still gentle and reassuring. He wanted her to trust him. He wanted so desperately for her to open up to him and tell him everything. 

Finally, Star gave up the act, her mask slipping from her face as she stared down at her feet shamefully, biting her lip as she admitted, “Okay, fine. You’re right.” 

Marco hid the smile on his face, excited to hear Star actually admitting it. He had thought it would take a bit more convincing but they were making progress. His plan was working! He waited patiently for her to continue, knowing it was important for her to open up in her own time. 

The blonde royal looked over at the crowd of people watching them all closely and blushed, before whispering softly to her boyfriend, “Uhhh, do you think we can continue this without everyone… watching.” She gave a subtle incline of her head in the crowd's direction, before lowering her head where no one could see her blushing cheeks. 

Marco quickly took charge, turning to the crowd and saying in a loud tone, “Okay everyone! Can you give us some privacy? Me and Star need to talk alone for a bit.”

Most of the crowd parted after that, leaving the young couple to work through their problems in privacy. All but one hadn’t moved from his spot, the tiny bird man  wearing a dress scarily similar to Star’s glaring at the two in annoyance. 

“What about the tacos?” Ludo squeaked out. “You promised us we’d all get tacos!”

Marco let out a long sigh before pulling out 650 dollars in cash, handing it to the small bird Monster. “Here, knock yourself out,” the hooded teen grumbled. “Now leave us alone, please.” Ludo ran off laughing to himself, while Dennis followed tiredly behind him, shooting the two an apologetic look. 

Now that the two had their privacy, Marco turned his full attention back on his girlfriend, Star still looking uncomfortable but had at least stopped blushing and hiding her face. The hooded teen waited for her to say something but soon realized she wasn’t going to open up to him on her own and so helpfully supplied, “Soooooo, do you want to-”

“How long have you known?” Star muttered, interrupting him. 

Marco paused, before admitting sheepishly. “Awhile. I mean, I’m your best friend and boyfriend, Star. I know you better than anyone.” 

Star nodded and let out a long breath. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” She crossed her arms tentatively in front of her chest. “Just thought I was better at hiding it then I actually was.” A quick glance back at the decorations before, adding, “So what is all this stuff anyways?”

Marco shrugged, trying not to take offense to the slight bitterness in her tone. “I figured since you were missing your cheekmarks I’d make you feel more comfortable.”

“By showing me what I’m missing?” she asked, her voice still bitter.

Marco’s eyes widened. “No, no!” Marco shouted, realizing his mistake too late. “Not at all! I-I was gonna say I’d paint on new ones for you and you wouldn’t have to feel weird about it cause… everyone else would have it too, see?” He took a deep breathe, trying to calm his nerves, speaking in a soft murmur again, “I just want you to feel comfortable with yourself again. And if giving you back your cheekmarks helps then-”

Star took in a sharp inhale, “I don’t deserve them, Marco.” Her tone was sharp, cutting through the air like a knife as Marco flinched, his eyebrows creasing with concern. “Wha-What do you mean?” he asked, placing his hand on her’s, feeling her hands trembling in his own.

She tried to keep it all in, she squeezed her eyes shut and gathered the swirling thoughts in her head once again. “I don’t deserve them Marco, I-” she paused tentatively, biting her lip. “...I destroyed the magic and...it’s not fair Marco! It’s not fair that after everything I’ve done, after all the issues I’ve caused, after...everything....it’s not fair to miss some stupid old cheekmarks.” She felt something wet on her hands, she reached and touched her cheeks, surprised when she found her cheeks completely dry. “...Marco?!” she quickly met his eyes, a piercing pain shooting through her heart as she saw his eyes stained with dripping tears. She slowly let her hand caress his cheek, wiping a few of the tears off of his cheek. “Star…” he started, his voice getting choked up as he tried to form his own words. “You...You don’t have to feel like you deserve anything. You’ve already done so much for others and sacrificed so much of yourself to fix what you think is your burden...I know how it feels, to want to have a reason to deserve something...someone.” He gave her hands a small squeeze, the small gesture comforting the both of them. Star smiled, even with her own tears trembling down her cheeks. “You’re amazing Star, you’ve already done so much for others, and you don’t need to feel like you owe everyone this. You feel what you feel Star, it’s okay to miss them, it’s okay to feel like that part of you is missing.” Star let out a shaky sigh, “But...I’ve already caused so many issues for so many creatures and people, this isn’t as important as them.”

“Starrrr,” Marco cooed, gently pressing his forehead to Star’s forcing their eyes to connect, the couple's tears blending together into a puddle at their feet. “I want to pay attention to what I’m about to say, okay. Because what I’m about to tell you is the truth and nothing in my eyes will ever change it, understand?” The hooded teen waited for the small nod from his bestie before continuing. “None of that was your fault. None of it! You were just doing what you thought was right. And in my eyes, you're a hero! You saved everyone! Even if they don’t want to accept it, it’s true.” 

The boy pulled away and gestured to their friends and family stating, “Look around you! Everyone’s happy and safe thanks to you.” 

Star did take a long, hard look at the people in her life, the many, happy smiling faces that were all around her. She saw Jackie and Chloe sharing spicy tacos together while smiling and crying from the pain. She saw Tom wolfing down his own pile of tacos while Janna was busy taking bets from several gullible teens including Ferguson and Alfonso. She saw Pony flirting with some poor young man just trying to enjoy his breakfast, doing his best to ignore the annoying horse face.She saw Rafael and Angie playing with baby Mariposa, trying to get her to take her first steps using a taco as motivation to get her chubby legs in motion. She saw her own parents spending time with Eclipsa and her family, the two ladies watching while their husbands wrestled on the ground, Meteora clapping for her dad from her high chair. She saw Buff Frog and his kids enjoying their meal, she saw Oskar lazily handing out tacos to hungry Monsters, she saw Ludo stuffing down $650 worth of tacos much to his younger brother’s horror and dismay. 

And she couldn’t help but smile, Marco’s words finally sinking into her guilt-ridden brain. She had helped make all this possible. How had she forgotten that?

Marco noticed the joyful expression on his girlfriend’s face and continued his praise, saying, “So, you see Star, you aren’t the villain of this story, you’re the hero.” He gently turned her so they were face to face again, giving her a heartfelt smile. “And you deserve to be happy.” 

Star didn’t know how to respond to that, wiping away at her tears with the back of her arm. Marco’s hand was now on her side, giving it a very light squeeze. “And I want to make you happy, Star. Will you please let me help you feel like you again?”

Star nodded, too overcome for words.

Marco didn’t waste a second, quickly pulling out a small vial of face paint, the color bright pink and a perfect match for her lost cheekmarks. “Alright then, hold still, okay.” The blonde did just that, staying as perfectly still while her boyfriend worked on restoring what she lost. She could feel the small brush moving across her cheek, the cold liquid slowly drying against her skin. She could still feel some deep part of her screaming in panic, that this was wrong and that she was unworthy but she pushed it down. Marco thought she was worthy. And if he believed that, then she did too. She didn’t have to trust herself just yet but she knew she could trust Marco. And that was really all that mattered. 

She felt the brush pull away before moving to the next cheek, Star watching Marco closely as his eyebrows furrowed in concentration and he stuck his tongue out in the most adorable way possible. She resisted the urge to smile, knowing it might mess up the design but she did feel her heart flutter in her chest from how cute her Marco was. And for the first time in months, she felt like she deserved him. 

“Okay, done,” Marco said, Star feeling the brush lower away from her cheek as her boyfriend finished applying the make-up. The hooded teen took a step back to admire his work before nodding once in approval. He pulled out a small mirror from his pocket and held it up so Star could see her reflection.

Star gasped as she stared at herself. She hadn’t looked in a mirror in- well, she didn’t know how long actually. She had started to hate the way she looked in them, her bare cheeks only serving as a painful reminder of what she had lost and whenever she would start to miss them that was when the guilt kicked back in. So she had made a habit of avoiding them. But now, she was staring at herself again, this time with the familiar pink, heart-shaped markings standing out brightly against her skin. They looked just like she had remembered them, the familiarity of it making her heart ache. Star looked complete. Star felt complete.

 Star was finally herself again. 

And she owed it all to Marco.

 “See, you look adorable, just like always,” said bestie stated, giving her a wide, loving grin and Star’s heart felt like it might burst from the rush of emotions that look was giving her. 

“Thanks, Marco,” Star choked out, her eyes still fresh with tears as she threw her arms around Marco’s neck pulling him into a warm hug. The hooded teen wrapped comforting arms around his blonde bestie, holding her tightly and running his hands through her long hair. “I love you,” she whispered into his chest, meaning every word.

“I love you, too,” he replied, placing a tender kiss on the top of her head. The two stayed like that for a minute, neither wanting to release their tight hold as they clung to each other like a lifeline. Their hugs always went on longer since getting together but this had to be a new record. They could have stayed in that moment till the end of time, wrapped in each other’s love and warmth, if Marco’s stomach hadn’t interrupted the moment, rumbling loudly in protest to being empty. 

The two pulled away quickly in surprise, the boy’s cheeks blushing in embarrassment. “Uh sorry, my bad,” he said with a sheepish grin.

Star just giggled and said, “Guess you worked up an appetite spoiling me so much.” She winked at him.

Marco laughed and replied, “Well now that you mention it, heartfelt speeches do make me hungry.” 

“Are you too hungry for me to give you my gift now?” Star asked, giving him a flirty look.

Marco’s heart thumped in his chest. “Uhhh no, I can wait,” he said in a nervous tone, ignoring the loud growling of his stomach. 

“Well if you're sure,” the blonde said, pretending to think it over, before finally moving in for a kiss. Marco, who had been waiting for this moment all morning, closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feeling as Star’s lips captured his. Once again, it was magic. No other words could do it justice. The way her lips moved expertly against his own, the way she tasted, the way her hands gently drifted up the front of his hoodie, all of it was too amazing to describe, and the warm feelings made his head spin. When Star did pull away, Marco couldn’t help the whimper that escaped his throat. It was too short, he wanted more now that his plan was over. Forget his hungry stomach, his heart was hungry for love and affection and that was more important.

Star smiled at him, her eyes full of tenderness and devotion and with her heart cheekmarks back on her blushing, he really couldn’t think of a time when she had ever been more adorable. “Don’t worry, Diaz,” she teased, giving him a tiny kiss on the nose. “That was only part one of my gift. We have all day for me to give you the rest of it.”

“The rest of it?” he asked in a squeak. 

Star giggled. “Yep. I got more kisses where that came from,” she said with a flirting look... which instantly turned into a child-like beam as she loudly shouted, “But first, I need me some Valentine’s tacos!! This princess is hungry for more than just love today!”

With a loud cheer she ran towards the counter, drawing the attention of everyone around her. Marco paused to admire his girlfriend for a moment, taking in the twinkle in her eye and the lightness in her smile and knew he finally had his old Star back. The whole Star. It wasn’t just the cheekmarks that had been missing from her after all, he thought. 

“Come on, Marco!” Star shouted, growing impatient. “You need to come pay the man! You did promise everyone free tacos, remember?”

And with that Marco smiled and went over to join his girlfriend, ready to enjoy the rest of this special holiday with the love of his life and whatever wonderful, weird craziness that came with her.

[titanjujuzist]

Hiiii! I came to say that I LOVED the reiner fic!!! I would 100% read a part two. I like to think that youre going to give us a good ending :")

[Read Part 1 here] Omg brace yourself, this part is going to be ANGSTYYYYY. (Nice of you to think of a good ending tho, I wanna think about it to :’) )

Reiner Braun

Reiner and you both joined the Survey Corps, plus, the two of you have become a couple. 

After all the terrible things that happened, the first time together at the Survey Corps was pretty nice - not relaxing, but nice.

You would go on your first mission soon, so there was a lot of training again. And since you are used to Reiner and Bertl as training partners, you continued this tradition. 

Reiner especially enjoyed the sparring sessions with you - he had become veeeery touchy since you became a couple. His hands often meet the small of your back, your thighs and waist. 

And even though it sends shivers down your spine, you used this fact to your advance: You often sent Reiner to the ground. (In his opinion this made you ten times sexier).

Life at the scout’s head quarter was a little more relaxed than during your training. There were no separated dorms, every scout had their own little room - some of them shared the bigger rooms - and you had dinner with everyone, no matter what military rank they had.

Therefore, Reiner and you often sit together with the rest of your friends until late at night, chatting, bonding, and enjoying the fact that you are still alive.

And you spend the nights together with Reiner. Not every night, because you didn’t want to cause any trouble (like, when both of you were super tired during training).

Most nights you just lay side by side, holding each other, talking. Reiner’s fingers would softy run through your hair and his broad chest would make the best pillow ever.  Reiner would love to hold you close, feeling your tiny (tiny compared to his) body.

And when the two of you are not talking about your day, your feelings, or your childhood (he’s pretty silent about that...) you spend your time making out.

Reiner is anything but shy. Oc, he would never do anything you didn’t want, but he was definitely the type of guy who initiated things. 

Be prepared to be pushed against the door as soon as it closes behind you. Reiner just loves to feel your skin and his hands would be everywhere. He also enjoys it, when you sit in his lap on the bed, letting out little gasps whenever he kisses your neck or shoulders.

Making-out soon wasn't enough anymore for neither of you - and it was Reiner who initiated the next step:

“Y/N… damn, I really would like to...you know…” His voice was already husky from your make-out session and you felt a blush crawling up your cheeks. “Would...would you want it… Like...can I…?” You almost chuckled at how uncharacteristically shy he was, but you nodded. “Yes, Reiner. Let just take these damn clothes off.” And confident Reiner was back again.

Your first time was neither perfect, but also nor a disappointment. There were awkward moments of course - especially when you saw how well equipped Reiner was. He was pretty eager and would have liked to get down to business as fast as possible, but luckily you suggested to him that...he might want to prepare you a little.

Apart from that, it was really fun and lovely. Reiners long fingers did a good job in preparing you, and despite his own excitement he took his time to make you feel good. At the same time, your fingers were discovering any inch of his body, your lips every inch of skin, and it almost made Reiner lose it. He actually had to stop you at some point.

Eventually, the two of you came together, enjoying each other's presence, devouring eachothers feelings… And even though both of you had already dropped the L-word casually, you felt even closer now. Both of you are deeply in love.

The closer you and Reiner got, the more you got the feeling that Bertl had something against your relationship… You just thought he might be a little jealous at this point, since Annie was no longer with you.

Of course, the good and sweet honeymoon times don’t hold on for forever. Your first mission starts and Reiner hated the thought of not riding by your side. He even thought about discussing with Erwin about it, but you shut him up and reminded him of how many times you had kicked his ass. He is still worried, but got quiet.

When the formation is broken and the titans appear along with the Female Titan, Reiner almost freaks out and you are worried as well. However, you are not with him when he and Jean and Armin meet the Female Titan and your boyfriend almost gets crushed. You end up with Christa, after the soldier next to you got eaten and you had to kill the monster, and the two of you find a lonely horse. You take the horse and continue the way, when three figures appear in the far. And it took you only seconds to recognize the shape of your boyfriend.

You girls spur on the horses and ride towards the boys. Reiner sees you. His eyes start glowing and he says to the other boys:

 “I am going to marry her.”

Reiner wraps you in his arms immediately, but you remind him of the current dangerous situation. So after saving the boys, you reunite with the rest of the squad, and storm towards the forest. What happens there is history. You and Reiner stay on one of the trees, and later help with helping the wounded soldiers. It was a massacre again and the morale of the Survey Corps was deeply hurt. 

When you are back at the headquarters, you and your friends have a drink on the dead. But Reiner is nowhere to be seen.

Reiner is outside with Bertl, having a serious conversation. The taller boy was furious and worried because of Annie, and tried to remind Reiner of the reason why they were here. 

And there it was again. The pain inside of Reiner’s head. “Reiner...what are you doing? You act so strange lately, especially since you are with Y/N.” “What has this to do with my and Y/N’s relationship!?” “You act reckless! Like, I know you took a liking into her, but you are aware that this has no future, are you?” Reiner is taken aback by these words. Why shouldn’t the two of you have a future? “You better watch your mouth, my friend. I don’t see your problem, Y/N and I are happy, and we will stay together until one of us dies while defending humanity from the titans!”

It is at this time that Bertl understands what Marco’s death and the training here on Paradis had done to Reiner. And he becomes even more worried. He wants to say something, but suddenly you appear outside. “Here are you boys! Are you alright?” You hand both of them a bottle of beer and wrap your arm around your boyfriend. Reiner pulls you close and smiles softly. “We were just discussing some stuff, babe, nothing too serious. Let’s go back inside, I just wanna hold you tonight, my cute little saviour.”

The following days are pretty quiet. You, Reiner, and some of the others are send to another headquarters. There is a weird feeling all the time, since the older soldiers are all wearing their 3D Gear while you youngsters are bored as hell. You and Reiner can at least sneak away to have some (sexy time) couple time again. 

And suddenly, one afternoon, titans are coming towards the headquarters and you need to flee. Wall Rose has fallen. Reiner seemed rather confused rather than scared, while Bertl has hit a state of disbelief. Maybe both of them are still shocked from what had happened in Trost. At least, this is what you thought.

It is a dangerous ride and Reiner stays by your side all the time, even if you accompany Connie to his home. It is even more dangerous at night, when you cannot see anything. Shills are crawling down your spine at the thought of titans lingering in the dark. In the end, you reach a castle and find shelter there. All of you have no idea what is happening, but at least you got a little rest.

Reiner sits down next by your side and wraps an Arm around you. “Hey, babe, how are you feeling?” “I don’t know, Reiner. Like, what the fuck is happening. Actually I am afraid… we don’t even have our weapons with us…” “Well, at least to have me as your brave knight.” Reiner realizes that he cannot cheer you up with his jokes, so he pulls you closer. “We will survive this, Y/N. I won’t let us die… none of us. We will make it out of here and everything is going to be fine again…” “You really think so? And what after that? Waiting for the next dangers? I don’t even know if we will survive the next few days, Reiner…” “But I do. We will survive, we will safe the day, and we will stay together.”

He looked you deep in the eyes and he was so convinced by his own words that he convinced you as well. “We will stay together,” he repeated, “and have a damn long life to annoy each other. I promise.” This promise is the reassurance you needed.

You lay your head against his shoulder and fell asleep at some point. When you wake up, Hell is breaking upon you. The castle is getting attacked and you and your friends need to defend yourself without any weapons. When Reiner is bitten by a titan and threatens to jump out of a window, you scream a bunch of swear words that would even make Captain Levi blush. Luckily, Connies saves your dumb boyfriend from death and you all make it to the top of the castle, where you see your advisors die brutally. This is it, you think, you are going to die.

But the rest of the events are history. Ymir and the other members of the Survey Squad save the day and you make it out alive. Together with Eren and Co. you arrive on top of the wall. But something feels odd to you. There is a tension in the air which you cannot quite grasp. And when you want to check on Reiner, one of the other scouts steps in your way to treat the little wound you got on your cheek. It feels like...he tries to hold you away from something. 

And while the cut at your cheek is stitched up, you glance over at Reiner - and before you kno what is happening, your world breaks apart because at the point where Reiner and his best friend were standing now the Colossal and the Armoured have appeared. You cannot understand. You don’t want to. You are deaf, feel nothing, can just stare. 

The next minutes feel like an unreal dream because you could not understand why the people around you screamed that Reiner was the Armoured Titan. Images flicker through your head: You see Reiner on your first day of training, see how both of you slowly became friends and grew older together, how he held your hand and kissed your cheeks, how he wrapped you in his arms after joining the corps, how you spend your first night together.

You just stand and watch as the Armoured jumped down the wall with Eren in his hand, the boy outrageous, calling him a traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor.

You do not care about the fight between the titans beneath you. All you can think of is that painful feeling of betrayal that creeps up your body and takes a seat deep in your heart. Reiner. Traitor. Lover. Traitor. 

You remember the day of the fall of Wall Maria. How your family was killed by titans, titans that were only able to enter the city because the Colossal and the Armoured had attacked humanity. Reiner. Reiner told you his story, how his village was destroyed as well. Liar. Traitor.

Someone screams your name, but you are still deaf, incapable of understanding what is happening. And then you let the thought into your brain. Allow yourself to understand the impossible. 

Reiner is the Armoured Titan.

You are back to reality and the first thing you see is the Colossal only metres away from you. Bertholdt. The pain in your heart is accompanied by something else: Anger. And when you see how the Colossal Titan falls down the wall, knocks out several soldiers and enables the Armoured to make a run along with Bertl, Eren and Ymir. 

Not the Armoured. Reiner. Reiner Braun.

This is all it needs. You jump off the wall, finding hold at the OMD Gear of an unconscious scout, who is just hanging there. Your hand starts to bleed while you slip down, but you don’t care. You have no weapon, nothing. But you cannot just stand there. Your feet touch the ground and you start running towards the massive titan who is about to flee. “REINER!!!!”

Your scream is loud, shrill, and full of pain and desperation. And it makes the Armoured turn his head towards you. You don’t try to recognize Reiner’s features in these glowing eyes. You don’t want to. 

Your eyes meet for a split second, at least you think so - and then Reiner starts to run. Away from his fake life, away from his fake comrades, away from you. His fake lover. 

You sink down on your knees and the deafness surrounds you again.

Reiner's head hurts. 

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

❛ CHANGES ❜

with Marcus Alvarez.

Request: Maybe for a Marcus fic it could be his wife dealing with the transition from Mayans to the cartel and becoming friends with Emily and having play dates with their kids and Marcus is just proud of her for taking it so well. Thank you ❣️❣️❣️

BY ANON

Warnings: none.

Word count: exactly 1.2k

Aurora says: this writing hasn't been edited, you may find some grammar mistakes, I'm sorry about that!

Gif credits: to the author.

Masterlist.

You can subscribe to my broadcast list, to be notified whenever I post a writing!

Having a sip from the glass of red wine, you keep your gaze in the middle of nowhere. You can't stop thinking about your husband taking off his kutte and giving it to Obispo. The club is his life, but the problem in his knees won the battle. He has been very irritated since the doctor told him that he couldn't ride for too many hours as he used to. So, taking the advantage that he has gone to the clubhouse, you left your son with your sister, waiting to have a moment alone. Together.

You have been his anchor since you met him, when you were a mere mechanic who changed the tire of his bike, in a secondary road to Oaktown. Now, and since six years, you live in the surroundings of Santo Padre where the main charter is installed. Practically jumping off from the couch and leaving the glass of wine over the auxiliary table, you walk barefoot to the hall. Marcus is there, placing his black bag over the floor after closing the door. He looks devastated and unhappy, as you have never seen him before. And that, breaks your heart into a thousand pieces. Biting your bottom lip, you lead your steps close to him, raising your right hand to his chest. Caressing it slowly and shortening the distance between both, you hold him between your arms. Just a second after, he starts to cry inconsolable, clinged to your body.

You don't even know what to say, preferring to keep silent, slightly touching the back of his head with your fingertips and leaving some kisses on his temple. Having a deep breath, you cup his cheek in your hands, cleaning his tears and leaning on your tiptoes to reach his lips. A dearly kiss that looks like it calms him a little.

“I will always be by your side, amor mío”. You mutter, showing him that soft smile which he fell in love with many years ago. “And yes, I know that Mayans it's your life, but when one door closes, another one opens. Just… think about the good things that have that new opportunity. You used to complain about not sleeping, about missing my food, about missing your family…”

Maybe these aren't the best words, but you're trying hard to make him feel better.

“At least… I will see you often and… I will spend more time with Marcos”.

“Yeah, we miss our papi”. You nod pursing lips. “And tonight… I'm gonna spoil you. 'Caaause, our overactive son is having a fun night with his auntie, and I prepared you lasagna with five… not four, but five cheese and two bottles of red wine are getting cold in the fridge. And after dinner, we can have a relaxing bath, enjoying the silence of our home”.

“Thank you”. He just whispers, a little bit calmed.

“For taking care of you?”

“For supporting me like you do every single day, bad or good, no matter why”.

“Yeah, I've already earned a place in Heaven”. You chuckle kissing him again.

“Te amo con todo mi corazón”. (I love you with all my heart).

“So do I, papi”.

Stepping out of the black SUV, you have a quick look of the huge mansion in front of you. And you're sure that you have never seen a house so big, clean and good decorated. Closing the door of the car, you walk towards the backseat, to help your three years old to go down. Your husband is looking at you, with that kind of gesture that lets you know how much he is in love with you. Feeling proud of any single thing you do for him, just like now. Making the effort to meet Miguel and Emily, knowing that even if they're not to your liking, you will not complain. But he's aware that Galindo's wife and you will be good friends, being actually so similar because of your intelligence and your maternal instinct. Even if you're braver than her, because of life circumstances.

“Ready, pap—mi amor?” You say lifting up your son between your arms, coming closer to Marcus. “You look pretty good on a suit”.

“Do I?” He laughs, knowing what it means watching you leading your steps to the main door.

“Maybe I will need some advice later”. You whisper, after covering Marcos' ears for a second, making your husband chuckle somewhat relaxed.

Before the mexican can ring the doorbell, his new boss, and old friend, is already opening it to hold him in a gentle hug.

“Marcus, amigo. Mi padre estaría orgulloso de esta nueva alianza”. (Marcus, my friend. My father would be proud of this new alliance).

“Lo sé, Miguel”. (I know, Miguel). He says with a sincere smile on his lips, before turning at you, to place a hand on your lower back over the skirt of your black silk dress. “Mi hermosa e increíble esposa, (Y/N), y mi amado hijo, Marcos”. (My beautiful and amazing wife, and my lovely son).

“Es un placer conoceros al fin”. (It's a pleasure finally meeting you two). The younger man is directed to you, taking your free hand to kiss the back of it. “Come in. Come in, please”.

Even if you're the most curious woman in the world, you're trying to not look like that, keeping your gaze on close things and not traveling it around your position.

“Marcus!” A high-pitched voice from a blonde woman coming, pushes you out from your thoughts, guessing she must be Miguel's wife.

Watching Emily hug your man so dearly, makes you know that you will really be friends. She looks like a family person, just like you. One of those who enjoy a peaceful Sunday lying on the sofa with her husband and her son, maybe watching some TV show. But you're not really sure if Miguel is into this kind of plan. You're lucky that your husband is.

“Hi!” She says to you then. “Look at you, boy! You should be Marcos, right?”

Your son hides ashamed his face into your neck, making you all laugh softly, leaving a kiss on his head.

“Sorry, sometimes he's… like that”. You say, caressing his back as he clings his hands on your nape. “Marcos, say ‘hi’ to Emily”.

He just smiles with his wrinkled nose, closing his eyes.

“I'm (Y/N)”. You say then, offering her your right hand, waiting to be shaked in a formal salute. Even if it's not your style. But the woman shakes her head laughing, before hugging you. “Ah, sorry… I'm not used to…”

“It's okay”. She says, so kind that you already like her. “Do you want some coffee? We have peach juice for Marcos, if he wants too”.

“Eh, baby, you heard that? Your favorite”. You say, seeing him raises up his head nodding.

“Good, we have some… things to talk about them”. Your husband adds then, palming Miguel's back, before leaning towards you to kiss your forehead and his son's.

“Yeah, enjoy your business”. You tease him, pocking his nose. “We're gonna do funnier things”.

“I'm pretty sure about that”. Emily laughs, knowing what you are talking about.

✨ Tag list:

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[dragonofthedepths]

9/100 (9th of June 2021)

Written/posted for the #100daysofwriting challenge by @the-wip-project Structure as offense and characterization as defense, or the other way around. Is this something you think about? Do you have other metaphors when you think about your stories and how they work?

Nope, I don’t do sports at all. And no, at least none that I use more than once out of the blue and immediately forget about afterward.

Outlines for the blurps posted yesterday!: 

Fukaboshi timetravel Intelligence Agent.  23.5.21 The Crown Prince of Fishman island went missing when he was an infant, The reason for this is that little timetraveling baby Fukaboshi took off almost as soon as he was born in order to get as much of a head start on the many things that need doing as he could, and drawing from his future Haki and his King’s (Luffy’s) Will made it all the way across Paradise in time to watch Roger’s execution. By the time canon swings around Fukaboshi has succeeded in accomplishing as much as could possibly be expected and has laid the groundwork for a fair bit more, and become a highly secretive and sought after (and therefore endangered) informant in the information wars of the black market, with a habit of popping in unexpectedly on both Shanks and Fisher Tigar.

And We Would Be Diminished                                22.5.21 Luffy dimension hop v Shirohige. Inspired by a One Piece fic I read a long time ago and have no idea how to find again. Nothing is going well, chaos is everywhere, the world is on the brink of aimless collapse, WG is out of ideas and tries summoning the strongest person from another world to see if they could be convinced to help. It’s Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy. He does not help them. He does run off and begin causing incredible amounts of trouble as he waits for his crew to find a way to blast open a hole to this universe and come get him. (Luffy knows that he and his crew exist in this universe, he also knows it doesn’t matter. They are... diminished, somehow. He can feel it.) All the Mugiwara kind of... mentally failed in this universe. They made a bad decision, took a turn they shouldn’t have, and didn’t become what they could have been. Jinbei gave into hatred back when he was still a guard, so he never became as close with the royal family, and he sided with Arlong and left with him so he never became a Shichibukai and is much weaker. Whatever Sora took to make Sanji normal didn’t work, and he’s exactly like his brothers. Brook probably died somehow. Not sure if Luffy failed before or after he got the Strawhat but I’m leaning toward after because then it can match the "if something went wrong" drawings Oda did for what Luffy would look like in the future, and I kinda want him to still have the first three on his crew whoever they’re hanging around being useless. Ect. ect.

Shichibukai timetravel.                                 24.5.21 All seven original Shichibukai unexplainably come back in time from somewhere vaguely between the current manga and Luffy becoming the pirate King to mildly pre-canon. This happens in the middle of a Shichibukai meeting when they were all stuck in a room at a table together somewhere at Navy HQ and the tension was already high. Then they kind of blink for a second as they all get their memories back, then all hell breaks loose at once as Moria has a breakdown (he died), Jinbei attacks a suddenly cackling Doflamingo and Hancock backs him up (a member of Luffy’s crew, Luffys enemy who’s an evil nutcase, Luffy’s self-proclaimed wife), Crocodile and Mihawk both cause massive damage to property and personnel on their way out (Mihawk is the one who ends up having to pause to explain that they’re all from the future, and as at the point they’re from they’ve been fired none of them feel at all like sticking around to continue playing by the military’s rules when they know it’s just waiting to backstab them.), and Kuma just up and leaves in what would probably normally be a very notable manner but is a little hard to notice with all the other chaos going on (Revolutionary who just got the last of his free will back).

Marco reincarnation pain.                               23.5.21 Inspired by a fic I read recently that I could probably find a link to if given the time. Centuries have passed, everyone has reincarnated time and time again without their memories except for Marco who has just lived through everything as an immortal. Some groups find eachother again and again like the ASL and the Mugiwara (you challenge Luffy’s King status to any of the Mugiwara and they will bite your head off even if they’ve never met any of the others this lifetime, this is something Marco knows well) but for some reason the Shirohige never do, which brings Marco incredible pain. The only other person who keeps their memories is Luffy (and possibly Roger), so when the Shirohige randomly all get their memories of their canon life and forget to broadcast this fact to Marco with no idea it’s been hundreds of lifetimes since then as they reform and attempt to drag him into the middle of this he has a breakdown and seeks out the second Pirate King as has been his go-to for a good many lifetimes now.

Sabo is bad at being a Tenryūbito         ? >2021 Yeah long story but Sabo is a Tenryūbito not just a noble and something happens to Marco and the Shirohige don’t know what or where or if he’s alive, Tenryūbito!Sabo spots him in bird form in a cage in Mariejois and clocks that that is Ace’s crewmate Shirohige’s crew and oh shit that needs to be fixed and is still panicking when he gets to Sabaody where he sees a random female member of the Shirohige and panic-announces that he’s going to marry her because then she’ll have to come to Mariejois and she can see Marco and tell Shirohige and they can come rescue him and this works except for the part where he forgot that she’d be living with him and he spends the better part of a fortnight doing a very bad job of pretending to be a normal Tenryūbito until he just gives up and just blatantly takes a pipe and goes into his massive forest room and kills and cooks and eats a crocodile like the feral forest child he is. Then the Shirohige get there and they sneak in through his house and that’s how Ace finds out that Sabo is alive he was just recaptured by his parents. 

[gildedmuse]

Yes, please. More ZoLaw... How about AU ideas?

Oh, I have ton of AU ideas. Some of which I have like 11 pages of co-brainstorming, some of which I've written up summaries roughly the length of some of which are just two words: [blank] Zoro / [Blank] Law. Here's the best list I can put together while on my way to work.

Okay, Hear Me Out. A ZoLaw Fic Where....

Zoro Is Law's Marine Bodyguard....

After Corazon dies, the navy does some digging. Years later they learn about Law and insist he is in danger as Doflamingo has located him as well. A young marine, Zoro, is assigned to guard him

Law Is A Marine & Roronoa Zoro Is His Obsession...

Or Law follows in Corazon's footsteps and becomes a marine. He sort of takes Tashigi's place as Smoker's sidekick second in command. So he's there in Lougetown when the Strawhats breeze into town. and the two develope an... Intense rivalry in which Law is determined to hunt down the cocky young swordsman (mostly because he feels like a fool... Why in the world would be agree to a fight without using his devil's fruit? What kind of argument is "it's cheap" anyway? Why the hell had he been thinking?) while Zoro enjoys taunting the handsome, moody marine he kicked the ass off back in Lougetown (or totally would have if they hadn't been interrupted).

Just wait until Law follows him all the way to Dressrosa. He's been avoiding meeting The Heavenly Demon since he became a marine, so why they hell is he willing to follow this green haired pirate hunter into the devil's own home?

Zoro Hates All Doctors (Except Law) (And Also It's A College AU Because Why Not?)

Modern AU where Law is an overworked med student filling shifts at the student clinic and Zoro is a at University on a kendo scholarship, preparing for the olympics. He has a knack for getting injured (it doesn't help that his coach, Mihawk Dracula, doesn't believe in pulling punches... Or whatever the sword equivalent is). Still, he absolutely hates going to the clinic. One day Law is taking out some tension at the gym practicing with his own blade when Zoro gets badly hurt. Law rushes over to help, and since Zoro isn't really in a position to say no he has to let the young doctor help him.

After that whenever Zoro gets injured he still refuses to go to a doctor. What he does do is lurk outside the student clinic (typically with Luffy in toe to keep him company - even if your injured and tired, you can never get too bored with Luffy as your best friend) until Law gets tired of it and makes him come in so he can fix up whatever he's managed to injure this time.

The clinic receptionist - Perona - doesn't find this cute at all. Mostly because Zoro is typically sweaty and gross and the Monkey boy is just annoying. His fellow student interns Shachi and Penguin are just impressed Law has put up with him this long (they did ask if the Kendo scene attracted a lot of girls, but Law's blank stare pretty much answered that one) while Assistant Professor and Physician Marco thinks it's adorable but is kind enough to only tease Law about it occasionally (he doesn't ask about fangirls in the kendo scene since he's pretty much certain that's not Zoro's scene either way).

Of the two tenured professors who officially oversee the clinic, Dr. Crocus has never said anything to Law about the whole situation except for letting him know when Zoro is waiting outside. He does, however, sometimes bring Zoro and Luffy by snacks or something to drink and has even kept them company an few times. No need for the two of them to wait out there with no one looking out for them (and, yes, they clearly need someone looking out for them). On the other hand Dr. Kureha has never believed in cuddling her students. The exact opposite actually. She started by telling Law he'd best take his pet home since he couldn't have it here all day ("Pet? What pet? Whoever it is, it's not mine, Dr. Kureha-ya." / "So that green haired stray and his little monkey friend don't belong to you?" / "Green hai- Urg."), Which eventually evolved to her telling him this was a clinic not a dating service ("He's not... *Sigh*") and finally came to the point where she just snips st Law for not being able to control even a simple minded athlete then how does he plan to deal with actual problem patients? She's also made a point of telling Zoro off - it pretty obvious that even when he does come by the clinic he only does so after either accumulating multiple injuries or continuing to push one until it gets far worse than needed. Is the boy an idiot? Why wait until things are so bad, and why is he wasting the time of one of her top students? If he wants to stalk one of the postgrads he could at least pick a less talented one. There are plenty to choose from.

Marco tried to make up for this lecture (after which Zoro stayed away for three months until he almost lost an eye) by offering to let Zoro and Luffy wait in the actual clinic to wait. (To which Luffy helpfully announces, "Zoro isn't waiting for the clinic, he's waiting for Toroa." Which kinda makes Zoro want to strangle his best friend but since he's currently holding a towel up to his eye and feels pretty sick at the thought of not making these games because he's an idiot, he only managed an apologetic smile and mentally promises himself to pinch Luffy later. Marco is totally unsurprised by this answer, for what it's worth.)

(Also, it turns out Kendo does attract at least a couple of girls, at least at the Olympics level. It's probably more accurate to say that Dracule Mihawk and Roronoa Zoro attract attention, which Law only learns because he was heading home after his shift and saw a bit if activity around the gymnasium and wandered over purely out of curiosity and somehow accidentally ended up watching Zoro's match. And that randomly happened a couple of times. Look, the best parking is by the gym he practically has to walk by to get to his car. He isn't going out of his way. And he has a valid reason to be interested in kendo. (Also, appro of nothing, Tashigi seems like an annoying know it all and Hiyori seems like a silly teenage girl and why is Perona even here?)

Shanks Uses His Yonko Status For It's Highest Purpose - Mischief

While sailing to Wano, they stop at an island to gather supplies when they are ambushed. It turns out to be one occupied by the Head Haired Pirates. Before anyone can attcak, Shanks steps into view, smiling. He greets Kin'emon and Kunjuro (they were with the Roger pirates for a while). Robin, Franky and Usopp he recognizes as friends of Luffy. Weirdly, he calls Zoro 'Mihawk'ss boy'. Law corrects him as Zoro is also in the Strawhats. Shanks laughs because while that may be true, he's met Zoro and he's Mihawk's boy to him. Law seems unhappy with this description, while Zoro just rolls his eyes, calling Shanks an old pervert and to stop messing around. Despite everyone else freaking out, Shanks laughs it off. He insists surely Mihawk would be the pervert in that situation. Law dislikes the whole conversation. It only gets worse when it turns out they have to stay on the island two weeks, and Mihawk is visiting as well. Under Shank's bad influence (and seeing how such comments got under the other Captain's skin even if he wouldn't admit to it) he convinced Mihawk to join him in creating some mischief (Shanks is a terrible influence).

Law Is Working For Doflamingo, Gathering Information On & Chain Off Rookie Pirates

Instead of Bellemy, the crew find Law right before Skypea. He is also (secretly) working for Doflamingo. Typically it's his job to narrow out the herd, and for the pirates that might make it to the second half of the Grand Line, his job is to gather information that may be useful in "convincing" them over to Doflamingo's side later or else can be useful in eliminating them if they become a threat.

Unlike Bellamy, it takes Law only one conversation in the bar to determine that the Strawhats aren't your average pirates. Their captain's open, naive nature makes gathering information on them rather straight forward. Which is how Law determines that his biggest advantage is his crews loyalty, and none seem more so than his handsome swordsman. Luffy seems to naturally open and unashamed to be able to gather blackmail material on, but Law's willing to bet if you own Zoro, you'd more or less own the captain. So he sets out to do just that.

Swords Are Cats

Zoro owns three infamous crazy cats. Law is a vet. Look, this is an AU in which Swords are cats. Zoro has two in particular that no vet is willing (or able) to get anywhere near. When Wado gets sick, though, he shows up to The Heart Veterinary Clinic (it sounds like such a cheesy name he already can't stand it) with all three in toe. Best to get everything done at once since it's unlikely they'll ever be allowed back again. Sure enough, Shisui just has to start the trip off by escaping when Zoro is checking in.

Law is in his office when he notices Kikoku is gone, which is strange. She usually likes to stick by his side. He goes looking for her and is surprised to find her hiding under the receptionist desk, curled up peacefully with another cat. He holds up the strange tomcat only to very nearly lose an eye. Zoro catches the poor thing midair when Law stumbles back from surprise, honestly just thankful to find him before he caused any damage.

Law takes one look at Zoro and the three cats and instantly knows two things:

A. Oh, so these are the demon cats he was warned about by Tashigi and Pica and Wanda and even Shanks who seems like he can put up with almost any animal

B. He's definitely going to get these cats to like him, if only to ensure that Zoro back.

Law Ends Up On Kuraigana Island

Incredibly simple What If premise. What if instead of fighying two pacsifistas alongside the Kid pirates, the Heart Pirates wind up on the battle field with the Strawhats. When the real Kuma shoes up, Law gets a little too close to the action and is sent along with Zoro to Kuraigana Island. This has everything you need in an AU. Zoro and Law going from complete strangers to friendly rivalry to sexual tension because they're stuck on an island for two years together. A possible love triangle with Mihawk. Perona being either an annoying bratty sister to Zoro (who in fairness beat up her crew) while openlh crushing on a disinterested Law or a Perona silently shipping the two of them long before they even take any real notice of each other (I'm guessing she'd talk about it with her hallows). Bonus points for scenes of The Heart Pirates trying desperately to find their beloved captain.

I'm kidding. Bonus points for adding Mihawk in the mix and making it a triangle filled with possessiveness, jealousy and a totally unaware he's in the middle of it all Zoro. That's my jam.

They Were Childhood Friends (Who Haven't Seen Each Other In Years)

Sometimes, all an AU needs to be is a romamtic comedy formula lifted wholesale and recontextualized to fit whatever fandom you're into. So, yeah. Law and Zoro grow up at the same dojo but haven't seen each other in years, then suddenly Law is sitting there in ten Sabaody auction house when the something crashes through the roof, and that something looks a lot like a boy he hasn't seen since he left the dojo at 18. Or, hey, maybe Law catches a wanted poster of "his little brother" while sailing on the Grand Line and decides to track him down just to see how he's doing. And probably he was totally unaware that at 13/14 years old, Zoro had just about the biggest crush in the world on him.

Although most the Strawhats definitely know. Or at least figure it out damn quickly. It's kind of hard to miss how their badass swordsman suddenly can't make eye contact or flushes at the slightest provocation. ("Do you think the Heart captain realizes?"/"Maybe it's just because Zoro looked up to him. I mean, I can't imagine him actually LIKING someone."/"Oh, come off it, you'd have to be blind not to see!"/"I think it's sweet that our swordsman-san still holds such a place for what must have been his first major crush."/"Yeah, who know Zoro-bro could be such a romantic!")

Strawhats antics ensue.

Law Uses His Shichibukai Connections For Something Other Than Revenge (So Sex. Sex and Revange.)

After becoming a Shichibukai, Law meets Mihawk at an official summon and picks up on the fact that Zoro is training there. Having promised Luffy he would look it to his nakama's safety should be discover them (something he had thought would never happen) he follows Mihawk back to the island to see how Zoro's training holds up.

Perona Is Zoro's Older Sister, Just To Create Drama

AU where Perona is Zoro's older sister. She hangs out with a much darker, edgier crowd than Zoro approves of. He find Law especially questionable and not just because they seem to have a 'thing' (in my mind Zoro is in high school while Perona and Law are not in college. He's heard about the way college boys often are and he doesn't really understand that all their relationship is entirely casual, and most the time when he catches Perona cuddling up to him, it's just her being cutesy (and because she knows that while it annoys Law a little, he won't do anything to stop him). He also doesn't understand why every time he tries to confront Law about it he ends up feeling so flustered. (Not that Law is about to openly hit on his friend's little brother, but some teasing never hurt)

There's Only One Bed. Because There Is ALWAYS A Story With Only One Bed

The Polar Tang and Sunny are stolen while the two crews are meeting up, talking over a plan to take down Blackbeard (okay fine, LAW is doing all the planning). Luckily, Shanks just happens to be passing by and offers them a lift, but as big as his ship is, three whole crews take up a lot of space. And despite Shanks (joking) offer to let Zoro share his bed, Law is the one who ends up stuffed into a single hammock with the Swordsman.

Law Tries To Sleep With His Uncle's Partner (Not As Terrible As If Sounds)

Law's uncle Corazon works in Law enforcement. He talks endlessly about his new rookie partner to the point of Law's annoyance. Until Corazon brings the young green haired detective home for dinner.

Law Is The Ship Doctor For The Strawhats Pirates

Corazon lives and runs off with Law, who grows up to be a doctor. One day, a pirate ships sails to their island. They have a sick crew member and desperate for help. Law doesn't help pirates, but then the corrupt ruler of their island has Corazon arrested and locked up, claiming he's found his true identity and plans to sell him out to his brother. They come for Law, but the Strawhats save him despite his refusal to help them (Luffy doesn't mind, he's sure Torao has his reasons and anyway Corazon is an amazing man who gave them a free lunch and he's sure Torao is just as good.) The Strawhats rescue Corazon, kick out the evil ruler and bring peace back to the island. Law finds himself compelled to accompany them.

Law Tutors Zoro (In The Ways Of Love Math)

Zoro's life is way too stressful. Between kendo competitions, a job that doesn't pay enough, a second job that's a bit questionable not too mention school. He doesn't even care about most that stuff, but if he wants to be the greatest at his sport, the rest is sort of necessary. Like training. One thing he definitely needs more training in is school work. Zoro has to keep a certain GPA to keep his Kendo scholarship. Luffy insists he knows the perfect tutor, and while Zoro isn't so sure about Luffy's judgement on intelligence, he trusts his friend. Enter Trafalgar Law, college senior who tutors on the side. Oh, and - as he casually mentions at the end of their first session that he's seen Zoro at his job. No, not as at the restaurant, but the online videos. And he has to say, he's quite the fan.

There are a few I didn't manage to get to tonight, despite being some of my favorites. Maybe later, when work has not drained the life out of me, you can hear about...

Drummer Zoro/Med Student Law

Marine Law/Revolutionary Zoro

Marine Law/Marine Zoro

Police Zoro/ME Law

Rock Star Law / Bodyguard Zoro

Biker Gang Zoro / Anarchist Group Law

Kendo Olympic Champion Zoro / Sports Doctor Law

Kendo Rivals Zoro / Law

Evil Doflamingo Pirate Law / Captive Zoro

Samurai Zoro / Ninja Law

Detective Zoro / Art Thief Law