#did you also know that slugs do this with thing called a love dart?

[illmoraineakoi]

Just did some research into how insects fuck.

I should not have done that.

I should not have done that.

I should not have done that.

I am having Ideas that I would very much like to be not having.

[spencersawkward]

omg I’m so excited you’re on here and taking requests!! do you think you could do something like baby Spence losing his virginity to a close friend & it’s like adorable, goofy, fluffy smut bc he cannot get over the fact that he’s actually having sex with someone

I’VE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS ONE-- TURN IT UP!!!

on a serious note, i'm so glad you asked for this one bc i really wanna add a scene like this in the fic i'm working on rn. i'm v excited.

summary: when the secret of Spencer's virginity gets accidentally spilled in front of the whole team, reader goes to check on him.

word count: 5.6k

relationship: Fem!Reader/Spencer Reid

content warnings: unprotected penetrative sex, creampie, fluff.

masterlist

hanging out with the team is easily the best part of the week. after spending days in Arizona with our focus entirely on the most recent case, my mind is practically ready to snap. I feel like I've been running on fumes, and when Penelope suggested we take the evening to hit our favorite bar, I was practically already out the door.

so now I'm sandwiched between JJ and Emily as we throw back our first shots of the night. my skin is already flushed with the elation of laughter, the pleasant thrum of conversation that surrounds us.

"that's bitter." JJ makes a face when she slams the empty glass on the table. I screw up my nose.

"why did we pick vodka?" I hate vodka.

"it gets the job done." Emily laughs. I shudder at the aftertaste that sits on my tongue.

Morgan wanders over, Pen on his arm while she totes a brightly colored pink alcohol. they're flirting as usual, but she pauses in her witticisms to grab my arm.

"we're playing truth or shot in that booth over there." she says to me, then gets the attention of the other two women. I let out a disbelieving laugh.

"truth or shot? like truth or dare but without the dare?"

"Reid, is that you?" Morgan says sarcastically. I slug him in the arm with a pout.

"be nice." but I'm giggling. he loops his arm through mine and we head back to the table, Penelope already starting a new conversation with JJ and Prentiss as they follow. Spencer is sitting in the booth with an Arnold Palmer, sipping from the straw like it's his job. I slide into the spot next to him.

"hi, you." I smile. "I haven't seen you at all tonight."

he holds up his glass. "I don't really drink."

"that's fine," I wave it off. "I just meant I wanted to hang out with you."

"oh." he smiles a little. "sorry."

"no big deal. you're here now." I shrug and turn to Pen as she calls my name.

"I'm gonna order a bottle. that okay?" she points to the bar with a mischievous smile. glancing once at Spencer and his slightly awkward position between Morgan and me, I make a snap decision.

"you know what? I think I'll just have a lemonade."

"you sure? Jayge said you spent the whole plane ride back talking about getting wasted--" Penelope's words cause a blush to spread over my face. I cut her off.

"I'm sure. thanks, Penny."

she nods. "of course, sweet cheeks."

I focus back on Reid, who is looking at me gratefully. he would never say it out loud, but I know he feels a little out-of-place sometimes. it's hard enough for him to come out with us to bars; the least I can do is be a sober friend. I open my mouth to start a conversation about an article I read the other day when Prentiss speaks.

"okay, so... who's ready?" her voice, always so certain, carries over the table. all of us make enthusiastic noises of assent, and she grins as Penelope returns with an armful of glasses. Derek gets up to grab the actual alcohol, and then when we're all settled in, the game begins.

"the rules are simple: you tell the truth, or you drink!" the tech analyst explains. the stakes for Spencer and me are lower, but that doesn't really matter. I'm excited to hear the team divulge their secrets.

"I'll start." Prentiss doesn't even hesitate before she looks at Morgan. "Derek, are you still sleeping with that one woman from sex crimes?"

Morgan raises his eyebrows at the question, irises flitting between Emily and the rim of his drink. there's a slight smirk on his face; he knows what a player he is and he's okay with flaunting it.

"Ally? no." he sighs. "things didn't end well between us."

"what? why?" I ask, eyes widening before I look around at everyone. "who is this woman?"

"cool your jets, sparky." Morgan teases me. "only one question per round."

"I'll tell you later." Prentiss raises her drink in my direction and winks.

"uh, no no." Morgan attempts to stop her, but JJ interrupts him.

"speaking of things not ending well," she says loudly. "Pen, why did you and Sam break up?"

"well," Penelope sticks her tongue between her teeth as she thinks it over with a devilish smile. her lips are a ruby red tonight, bright against her pale skin and big eyes. "to be completely honest, he just wasn't... doin' it for me. you know?"

"like--?" Emily glances down at her lap. Pen nods quickly and I snicker. JJ looks awestruck.

"I thought it was going so well."

"it was, but..." Penelope seems to genuinely think this over before she speaks. "if it's right, it just clicks. and it never clicked with Sam."

"profound." I compliment, high-fiving the high-energy blonde. we giggle before she turns to me with a glint in her eye.

"oh, do I have a plan for you," she smirks. "tell me, Y/N: if you had to sleep with one person on our team, who would it be?"

"women included?" I clarify, my cheeks suddenly on fire. how come everyone got easy questions except for me? I'm really just biding time.

"of course." she nudges my shoulder. I mull this over for a minute. I could say the truth, but I don't think that would be the right thing to do. however ironic that is. given the situation, I do something which I have never been good at and which I don't enjoy doing: I lie.

"although all of you are catches," I preface. "I think I would probably pick Emily."

Prentiss almost chokes on her own spit as her head snaps to see my face.

"me?" she asks.

"low-pressure fun." I shrug, the stress of the moment rolling off my shoulders with the ensuing laughter of my team members. Spencer takes a sip of his drink and peeks at me from his spot before I focus my attention to JJ.

we go on like this for a while, our original plan of "truth or drink" really just turning into a game of "truth and drink." as our laughter gets progressively louder, our questions and answers get progressively more provocative. we get into risky territory towards the fourth round, and I can practically feel Spencer's discomfort radiating off of him. thank god everyone has been taking it easier on him with their questions.

that is, until Morgan hits about five shots and decides to throw him to the wolves.

"so, Reid," he asks. there's no malice in his tone and I'm sure he's not meaning to embarrass the boy genius, but the question makes me wince anyways. "have we made any progress on the virginity front?"

it's like a fucking pall over the table. Reid goes rigid in his spot, and JJ's protective eyes dart between him and Morgan. Penelope's jaw drops.

"wait, Reid, you're a--?" her voice is tender, not judgmental, but Spencer's cheeks turn pink and he looks at Derek with a hurt expression.

"not cool." he says, body shifting in my direction. his eyes communicate everything; without a word, I know what he wants. I scoot out of the booth, letting him slip by me to walk outside.

truly, I'm speechless. we all stare at his lanky frame push through the door, but nobody talks until at least fifteen seconds pass.

"what the hell was that, Morgan?" JJ asks.

"I thought everyone knew--" he throws his hands up. "I swear I wouldn't have said anything if--"

"why would everyone know that?" I feel myself get angry for Spencer's sake. "that's an incredibly personal thing, especially to him."

"that wasn't you, my love." Penelope's voice is soft, sobered by the incident that just occurred. the playful air at the table is officially ruined, and we keep glancing at the doorway like Reid will come back in and everything will be fine. he doesn't.

"I'm gonna go apologize." Morgan starts to get up, seemingly beginning to realize the weight of his words. it's one thing to ask about Reid's sex life in general; it's another to point out specifically the entire absence of it. Spencer doesn't seem to be bothered by most things, but this is different. my heart hurts.

we watch Morgan go, the women all looking at each other with worried expressions.

"I feel bad." Penelope says.

"y'know, Spence never told me that." JJ observes.

"he really trusts Morgan." Prentiss says what we're all thinking. Morgan has always been like a big brother to him, and being embarrassed in front of your co-workers like that can't be a pleasant feeling.

we sit in a relative silence for about five minutes until Morgan walks back into the bar. he pulls out his wallet and pays for the drinks, then walks over to us.

"I'm gonna go for a walk. do you need me to call you all cabs?" he asks. those dramatic brows are drawn low over his face, emphasizing his regret. I look between my friends and clear my throat.

"it's okay. I only had one shot about an hour and a half ago. I can drive everyone home."

"okay," Morgan sighs, his head turning briefly to the door before focusing back on us. "drive safe, ladies."

and then he's gone.

"you guys ready?" I start to shrug my jacket on. they all nod and we get ready to go.

...

sitting in my apartment later that night, my head is swimming. even though it's none of my business what happens in Spencer's sex life, I wish I could tell him that it's okay. nobody cares at all if he's a virgin or not. but I know it's still embarrassing.

I hate that I lied earlier tonight, too. I wanted to say Spencer's name when they asked who I wanted, because I meant it. we're close, and I will always love him as a friend. but I've also always wanted more.

nobody, not even any of the other BAU women, know about my crush. I didn't want it to get in the way, or for it to come out and ruin my friendship with Reid. he doesn't like me like that, and that's fine, but what's not fine is not having him as my friend.

he was the first person I really connected with when I came here, and I feel a little protective over him, too.

once the clock hits eleven, I consider calling. he’s definitely not asleep yet. Spencer is a night owl. normally at this time he'd be curled up with a huge book, reading impossibly fast.

when he picks up on the third ring, the air leaves my lungs.

"Y/N?" he asks, more surprised than anything else.

"hey, Spence--" I hesitate, suddenly not sure what to say. sorry Morgan told everyone you're a fucking virgin? “do you wanna come over?"

maybe if I see him face-to-face, I'll be able to collect my thoughts better. the words hang in the air, festering over the line until I'm just about to take them back, before he replies.

"y-yeah. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

my hands are shaking at my side when I open the door for the tall genius. he's still wearing his outfit from earlier, hair slicked back like normal. I've settled for my usual sweatpants and t-shirt winning combo. it's not like he cares.

"hey." I smile, trying to read his micro expressions. there are two possible outcomes here, knowing him: either he's going to be totally, completely over it, or he'll be able to write a War-and-Peace-length book on why he's upset.

"hi." he gives a wan smile and I let him into my apartment, closing the door behind him and gesturing to the couch.

"I missed this place." he says absently, looking around at the mess of decor and case files. I snort as I recall the last time he was here. he wanted to borrow a book that I had, and we ended up watching an entire docu-series about homing pigeons. it was surprisingly interesting; mostly because his commentary is both informative and funny.

"it missed you." I anthropomorphize my living space, but the phrase hangs heavy. I'm worried about him. I'm always worried about Spencer. he turns to look at me, opening his mouth to say something. I brush past him and walk into the kitchen. "coffee?"

"sure." he follows me like a lost puppy, leaning against the counter while I pull out two mugs and get to work.

"hey," I pause for a moment to look him in the eyes. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry-- about what happened... tonight."

"oh, that?" he scoffs, waves it off unconvincingly. "it's fine."

I raise my brows the slightest bit, never breaking eye contact. he wouldn’t have come if he didn’t want to talk about it. he cracks easily.

"it's just embarrassing, you know?" he says, staring out my kitchen window to alleviate his own nerves. I gesture for him to follow me back into the living room and I sit down criss-cross applesauce on the couch. he mirrors me, kicking off those cute black Converse.

"I don't think the fact itself is embarrassing, but I totally get why it feels that way. he shouldn't have said anything." I nod.

"like, that's personal. a-and--" he hesitates a moment, gesticulating wildly now. "and it's not like he's got any right! at least I don't go around with so many girls that I forget their names."

the thought of Reid sleeping with that many women is a little bit funny, but it also makes my stomach twist with jealousy.

"did he apologize?"

"yeah, he did. and he was drunk, I know." he rolls his eyes. "I'm overreacting."

"no, really, you're not." without thinking, I scoot closer to him and place my hand over his, which is sitting on his knee. I remember that Spencer is usually pretty averse to touch, but when I move it back to my lap, he seems a little disappointed. I wonder if he gets lonely.

"is it weird?" the question sounds raw, like he's mustering a lot to hear my response. I shake my head immediately.

"well, for one, Spence, I would never judge anyone based on their sex life, period." I chuckle. "and two, no way! if you aren't into having sex at this point in your life-- or ever-- that's totally your choice and you're entitled to it."

his eyes meet mine, pools of honeyed hazel that swim with a slightly amber shade. his face is so pretty, it's sometimes unbelievable to me that he doesn't get more action. bone structure that would make a sculpture envious.

"that's the thing," he licks his lips nervously before averting his gaze again. "I am interested-- I just don't-- well, I don't--"

"don't have someone to do it with?" I suggest with a slight smile. he nods, then clarifies.

"girls don't really seem to be interested in me."

I let out a laugh, unable to contain myself. his head jerks up to frown in confusion. I’m quick to amend myself.

"Spence, that's not true at all. you're such a catch! you're sweet and funny and way smarter than anyone I know. not to mention that you're adorable." I compliment, letting some of the thoughts I've been keeping to myself bubble to the surface. "any girl would be beyond lucky to be with you, sexually or not." Spencer blushes at my words, but the squirming in his spot tells me that it makes him feel warm inside. he smiles a little.

"you think?" it's genuine. he appreciates being praised, and it makes my heart flutter when he gives me that expression like I've made his night.

"I know." more of what I want to say rolls around my mind, unsure of whether or not I should admit it. but I think that right now, it'll only serve to make him feel better. "actually, I should tell you something."

"what?" he's curious now.

"when we were at the bar and Penelope asked who I'd be with... on the team... I lied."

"okay." he nods, somehow not connecting the dots. I guess it doesn't matter if they've got enormous IQs; boys are still clueless.

"I was gonna say you." the truth presses from the inside out, lifting a weight off my chest now that it's out there. even if he doesn't return that feeling, I'm suddenly glad that I told him.

"me?" he gestures to his narrow chest. I nod.

"yeah. I didn't wanna make you uncomfortable or embarrass you in front of our friends." I explain. he breaks into a grin.

"thanks." like I've given him something. I feel myself smiling as well, and then we're just looking at each other. tension that neither of us is willing to break. as much as I'd like to take him right here right now, he hasn't said anything about actually having sex or even about being attracted to me. for all I know, he could be completely indifferent.

"listen, Spence--"

"would you be willing to--" we speak at the same time, both of us stopping and laughing awkwardly.

"sorry, you go first." I offer, and he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth.

"would you want to... um..." he scratches the back of his neck before his eyes meet mine. "try it?"

"sex?" I raise my eyebrows. he nods. I try to find the right response. that’s more assertive than I expected. my pulse is fast, daring me to tell the truth. "I mean-- yes, I would love to-- but are you sure you want it to be with me, Spence? what about a girl that you like?"

"you are a girl that I like." he says this like it's matter-of-fact, like it's obvious. my heart stops in my chest before it starts to hammer.

"really?" a smile makes its way onto my face.

"I thought you knew."

"no." I laugh. my chest is full of sunlight.

"well, you are."

there's a brief silence where I try to get myself back on track. he likes me, too.

"are you sure you want to do this?" I glance at the space between our bodies, which has grown steadily smaller over the course of our conversation. Spencer is watching my every move with an intensity that tells me he's nervous.

"yes." he's unwavering.

"okay, well, you've kissed girls, right?" I inch closer. he nods.

"one."

"oh, Spencer," I sigh contentedly. "I have so much to teach you."

right after I say this, Spencer shifts uncomfortably in his seat. it's only then that I notice his hand covering his lap, the erection that's forming beneath his pants. my eyes flick up to his hungrily.

"sorry." he apologizes.

"don't be." our faces are inches apart and he's practically holding his breath. "I'm gonna kiss you. is that okay?"

"yes." he replies immediately. I place my hands gently on the side of his face, admiring the softness and sharpness of his jaw when I pull him to me, kissing him with a suppressed desire. his mouth is soft against mine, a little anxious to move. after a moment, he starts to relax.

his lips part and I deepen our contact, tilting my head and keeping it mostly mild at first. I don't want to shove my tongue down his throat. our knees are touching and his hand hesitantly finds my waist, the other going to run through my hair. I sigh into him, his fingertips a new sensation that I adore.

Spencer begins to give in a bit more to himself, asserting himself in the kiss and slipping his tongue over my bottom lip. I almost laugh at how quickly he gets the hang of it. he reads my body language effortlessly, not even skipping a beat when I climb into his lap and lace my arms around his neck.

"is this okay?" I pull away momentarily. he nods.

"you're so pretty." an unrelated response, but appreciated nonetheless. I laugh and peck his nose.

"thanks." and then we're back to making out, his hands resting on the small of my back. it's nice. I could stay like this forever, just pressed against Spencer while my fingers thread through his soft hair. he's cautious with me, and it's innocent.

I can feel his boner, can feel from the eagerness of his kisses that he's trying not to bring up the fact that he's literally just throbbing in his pants right now. in order to give him a little of what he wants, I start to rock my hips against his.

Spencer whimpers into my mouth. I stop and look down at him.

"do you want me to stop?"

"no, god, no— never stop." he's mindless in his reply, already grabbing my hips greedily and trying to regain that friction. I shake my head with a chuckle, then resume my actions. he starts to rut up against me, groaning into our embrace while his hands get more adventurous.

I withdraw, breaking the kiss to straighten up. he doesn't stop the microscopic pushes of his hips. I bite back a smile, enjoying the friction, too.

"do you wanna take my clothes off, Spence?" I ask softly.

"y-yes." he replies, gingerly taking the hem of my top and beginning to lift it over my head. when he places it on the couch beside me, his eyes immediately fall to my bra. slender fingers run up my bare waist, his watch glinting in the candlelight. when he doesn't immediately reach to unclasp my bra, I grab his wrist and guide it to the clasps myself. he moves with a surprising ease, unsnapping the thing and grazing over my skin as he slides the straps down my shoulders. I can tell that he’s shaking a tad, but it doesn’t hinder him.

the second that he's discarded the lingerie, he looks up at me with moony eyes.

"can I... kiss you?" he looks at my bare chest. "here?"

"of course, Spence." I nod. he presses his lips to the space between my ribs, drags them up to the valley between my breasts. lingers, then attaches himself to one of my nipples. I sigh, throwing my head back at the way he moves intuitively, sucking and running his tongue over the peak. he squeezes the other breast, plays with the nipple and starts to acquaint himself with the curves of my body.

the whole time, he's straining against my core, rutting helplessly in pleasure. it feels heavenly, with that sweet face of his so devoted to making me feel good, that I nearly stray from the purpose of the experience.

"Spencer..." I breathe. he moans at the sound of his name, then looks up at me from his place sucking on my tits. his teeth graze of my skin and I buck into his lap, causing him to groan appreciatively. my fingers tangle in his soft hair.

"Y/N," he pulls away from my chest, his lips making a soft popping sound. I gaze down at him, a bit lost in the fantasies running through my head. he's a natural. "can we, um-- like, expedite this process a little?"

"expedite the process?” I repeat back to him, giggling at his formality.

"what?" his voice goes up an octave, but he's smiling. "you know what I mean."

"I really do." I lean down, pressing my thumb into his jaw and angling his face up to mine to kiss. while his hands curiously move over my body, I start to push down the waistband of my sweatpants. I break contact just for a moment to peel them off, and he releases a quiet whine. it's cute.

"come back." he says softly, watching as I slide the bottoms down my legs, leaving me in my panties.

"I'm back." I peck his cheek, climb into his lap again. "can we take off your clothes, too?"

"mhmm." he nods. his lips part when my fingers work at the buttons of his shirt, undoing them with a torturous slowness. I can feel his eyes on my face the whole time.

"what?" I chuckle, peeking up at him for a moment before I pull his shirt open and run my palms up his chest, over his shoulders. he nearly shudders at the sheer touch.

"I just can't believe this is actually happening." he smiles in that way of his, like he's suppressing the depth of his emotions, with his brows slightly raised. I take the opportunity to enjoy the sight of him before me, his rapidly rising and falling chest, the smoothness of his skin.

"honestly?" I start to unbutton his pants, and he jerks up into my hand, blushing once he realizes the earnestness of his actions. I smirk encouragingly. "me, neither."

before I pull down his boxers, my eyes flick to his. "is this still okay?"

"Y/N," he groans. "if you don't do something, I'm gonna cum too early." he squeezes his eyes shut for a moment when my hand moves over his clothed erection, like he's holding on. "please."

"sorry." I release him from the confines. it hits his stomach and he waits for my reaction, as if he's afraid that I'll change my mind right now. but I'm definitely not going to. "holy fuck, Spencer."

"what?" he panics slightly, sitting up more. "is it not enough?"

"not enou--" I stutter, almost laugh. "no, it's plenty. I had no idea..."

"oh." he hides the pleased smile on his face, blush spreading over his pretty throat. in the interest of "expediting the process," I wrap my hand around the base of his cock and gently pump him.

Spencer's stomach tenses and he grabs onto the cushion of the couch with a tight fist, sighing.

"mmm..." he doesn't try to word his emotions, but I know. and I like that I'm making him feel this way, sharing this experience. Spencer and I are such close friends, I never thought we'd actually have sex. my assumption was that I'd watch him grow into himself, find a nice girl and treat her like a queen.

but here I am, spitting into my hand before jerking him off to prepare for what’s next. he’s throbbing, sounds coming from his throat.

"I'm gonna sit on it, okay?" I lean down to whisper in his ear. he touches my waist, my neck, kisses a random spot on my chest in the waves of pleasure that I'm giving him.

"o-okay." he mumbles, waiting for me to actually do it. and there's a moment of tense anticipation between both of us, when I sit up and pull my panties to the side. Spencer watches like I'm the only thing in the world, saving the memory of my body on top of his for later.

I run the head of his cock along my entrance, soaking him in the wetness between my thighs. I didn't realize how turned on I'd already gotten, and he lets out a quiet whine when he feels the evidence of how much I want him.

our eyes lock when I sink down. it's a new feeling for him, and the shape of his member as it stretches my walls causes me to bite my lip to withhold moaning too loudly. he whimpers, neck tensing and fingertips digging into my hips.

"o-oh." he sucks in a breath as I reach the halfway point. he's so big, I have to go slow in order not to overwhelm myself. but it feels good, too. like... unbelievably good. I grip onto his shoulders and my head falls forward into his shoulder.

"Spencer, holy shit." I moan.

"does it feel nice?" he asks, concerned for my own pleasure. I feel my chest flutter at the thoughtfulness of the boy wonder even when he's in the midst of losing his virginity, and I lower myself onto the rest of him.

"mhmm," I rest for a moment. "how do you feel?"

"like--" his breath hitches when I begin to rock back and forth on him. "like I've been missing out."

I can't help the giggle that slips past my lips, but then it quickly turns into a longing moan when he starts to thrust up into me like a helpless thing. Spencer is brilliant, but his brain cells go out the window when he throws his head back and begs me to move more.

I nod, raising and lowering myself until we reach a special pace. it's not fast or slow, just the two of us trying to stay in the moment while we hold on tightly to each other. I can feel the cool metal of his watch when he splays his hand out over my spine, the warmth of his breath while he pants against my shoulder.

he hits my g-spot over and over. my moans are torn from my throat by the burning of my lungs. it's like I can't breathe because I'm so focused on chasing the orgasm building in my stomach. and Spencer... I can tell he's almost finished.

the erratic nature of his jerking body tells me.

"I'm gonna cum..." he moans into my neck. "do- do you want me to pull out?"

"no." I arch my back and throw myself into the friction of our bodies. he stares up at me while I ride him, the merciless grinding of my hips because I just can't help myself. "oh my god, Spencer."

he notices how close I am and, in a surprisingly deft move, slides two fingers over my pussy to find my clit. the ensuing noise from me tells him that he's found it, and he begins to rub in quick circles. it's rough and hard, but that's exactly what I need right now.

"cum for me, Spence." I breathe. his free hand grips onto my thigh and pulls me over him, his own words unintelligible within the sounds of absolute pleasure.

"please." he begs for something I don't know, spills his seed inside of my pussy and holds onto me like I'm an anchor to this world while he peers into the next. the feeling of him spreading through my stomach, along with the reckless movements of his limbs and the way he looks at me while he rides out his orgasm, sends me over the edge.

"oh my fuck!" I collapse, grabbing his shoulders tightly and rolling myself down while he removes his fingers from my body. it's jarring, the intensity, like my normal functions can't respond correctly. all I can process is the tightening of my stomach, the pleasure between my legs, vision going slightly fuzzy at the edges. he moans when my cunt flutters around him, the muscles trying desperately to hold him here with me forever. I take deep breaths and slow down, my forehead dropping again while I start to remember my own name.

neither of us speaks. I think I'm still too in shock about what just happened, but in the best way. he keeps running his hands over my skin, then wraps his arms around my torso so that I'm pulled against his chest. I smile, kissing his ear before I finally break the silence.

"hi."

"hi." he's got a satisfied tone.

"do you need anything? water?" I ask, exhausted but realizing that this is still new for Spencer and it's my job to make sure he's as comfortable as possible. he nuzzles his nose into my clavicle and squeezes me tighter.

"stay here with me." there's a slight edge to his words. he's afraid of me leaving. I snuggle down, perfectly happy to remain. heat radiates from his skin, and I like the way it feels.

"of course."

we linger in each other’s arms, both of us coming back into the real world and holding on in an attempt to soften the blow. I just had sex with Spencer.

"thank you." he whispers into my hair.

"for what?" the smile on my face is lazy.

"for doing this."

"well, I really wanted to." I laugh. "so, I guess, thank you, too."

"you're quite welcome." his response is cheerful and then we're both laughing, the sound rumbling from his chest. "can we do it again at some point?"

"I would be happy to." I beam. the contented sigh that leaves his lips, followed by a slight sinking of our bodies down the couch in collective exhaustion, fills me with a joy that's quiet but obvious.

“I’ll last longer next time, I promise.” he says. I can practically hear the blush in his cheeks.

“you did amazing, Spence. don’t worry about it.” I press a few stray kisses to him.

I'll need to go clean up, soon, but it can wait a few more minutes. this is my favorite place on earth.

[swiss-cheeze]

Tick-Tock, Hook’s Afraid of an Ordinary Clock! || Spencer Reid

Requested: YES/NO: gender neutral please! So my request. Y/n has been working at the BAU for a while, and never ever had feelings for Spencer but more for Derek. One night is spent at a hotel and Spencer gets wasted as all hell which the team found unusual. That’s really all! Do with that what you will! Smut is fine too! You can add your own personal touches if you wish. Also would love some fighting between Spencer and y/n

Gender: none, they/them.

Warnings: insults, alcohol, normal CM case talk, verbal fight dialogue taken from Hook (1991), crap music talk.

----

“Eat your heart out, you crinkled, wrinkled fat bag,” you mumbled under your breath as Spencer finished his rambling of some unknown subject. Spencer stiffened at your insult, as did the rest of the team. You had just gotten back from a pretty bad case involving a team of family annihilators and where sitting in the nearest bar; throughout the whole case Spencer had almost made it his mission to speak over you, correct you, flick things at you, ‘forget’ you’re there, bump into you and more. God it was so annoying, and now? Now you've had enough.

“That was very ill-mannered-” Spencer started.

“And you're a slug-eating worm,” you said with a little more force matter-of-factly, cutting off whatever it was Spencer was going to say.

“You can do better than that pretty boy!” Derek said quickly with a grin as he nudged Spencer; you almost pounced on that man for taking Spencer's side rather than yours; Derek had always taken your side.

“You're encouraging this?” Spencer questioned quickly.

“Show me your fastball, dust brain!” you started again, “you paunchy, sag-bottomed puke pot!” Spencer's eyes widened three times the size they normally would be as the rest of your table sat quiet and watched.

“Damn!” Emily said under her breath with a grin as her eyes darted between the two of you; it was like watching tennis.

“You're a very poor role model for your team, you know that right?” Spencer shook his as he took a mouthful of his drink before a sly grin overtook his face, “I bet you don't even have a fourth-grade reading level,” a few of your teammates let out a little blow of air.

“Hemorrhoidal sucknavel” you said quickly.

“Maybe a fifth-grade reading level.” Spencer said even quicker.

“Oil-dripping, beef-fart-sniffing bubble butt” you started to really get into it, leaning over the table a little with a smirk.

“Aye there we go (Y/n)!” Derek said quickly, now he was on your side? You looked to Hotch who was smiling thinking that maybe you had another on your side.

“Someone has a severe caca mouth, you know that?” Spencer cut off your gaze with his words, as if he was bored.

“You’re a fart factory. A slug-slime sack of rat guts and cat vomit, a cheesy scab picked pimple-squeezing finger bandage!” snickering came over the table; but you weren't done yet oh no, “a week-old maggot burger with everything on it and flies on the side!” you grinned; many many words in that one insult. Spencer went to open his mouth but you cut him off, “you’re really just a substitute chemistry teacher” you winked.

“Come on Spence, hit (Y/n) back!” J.J. quickly intervened.

“Mung tongue” Spencer fired.

“Math tutor,”

“Pinhead,”

“Mother lover,” that one was a low blow on your end but you couldn't help yourself.

“Nearsighted gynecologist,” ouch Spence, Hotch snorted at that one.

“In your face, camelcake!” you shot back.

“In your rear, cow derrière!” of course Spencer came back even faster.

“Lying, crying, spying, prying ultra-pig!” Emily snickered at yours.

“Lewd, crude bag of pre-chewed food!” Derek snickered at Spencers.

“Guys maybe settle down…” Hotch said softly, this was starting to get a little out of hand.

“You man! Stupid, stupid man!” That was all you could give back as your mind turned blank, forgetting every word in the dictionary.

“If I'm a maggot burger, why don't you just eat me?” Spencer shot back, “you zebra-headed, slime-coated, pimple-farming, paramecium brain, munching on your own mucus, suffering from Spencer Reid envy!” laughter ensued as your face contorted to confusion.

“What the hell is a ‘paramecium’?” your voice held the question as Spencer pointed to you.

“I'll tell you what a paramecium is! You’re a paramecium!” everyone on your table stared at Spencer as he elaborated; “It's a one-celled critter with no brain that can't think!” and with that, your table cheered for Spencer as you sat sulking.

“Oh come on (Y/n), you should have known you would lose,” Derek said with a grin before following Spencer to the bar.

“He's drinking a lot tonight isn't he?” Emily questioned.

“Who, Derek?” J.J. guessed with a furrowed brow.

“No! Spencer!” Emily quickly concluded.

“He was a little harsh on (Y/n)” Hotch cut in quickly, “I’m just glad Dave and Garcia weren’t here to witness that,” you slammed your drink on the table and sent a glare to the three left at the table.

“I'm going home, i'll see everyone on monday,” you grumbled out before stalking off, your shoes made loud thunking sounds as they hit the wood flooring, your anger getting the best of you as you passed Spencer and Derek.

“Yo (Y/n) you getting a drink too?” Derek was about to order your normal drink until you slapped both Spencer and Derek on the back of the head.

“OW! What the hell-!” Spencer's back was to you but as he turned and saw you his anger melted into elation, “come back for round 2 (Y/n)?” Spencer questioned, the poor boy tried to act cool and lean against the bar but missed entirely and almost fell onto a rather burly looking gentleman. You huffed slightly as you turned to Derek.

“Make sure the substitute chem teacher gets home safe,” and with that you threw open the bar doors and walked your way home, it was only a block and you had gotten a ride with Emily anyway.

-

When you finally slumped home, chucked off your shoes and threw yourself onto your mattress you couldn't help but make yourself angrier with the new insults suddenly bubbling in your head.

“Who does that piss brain even think he is,” you mumbled into the air, “paramecium my ass…” you continued your grumbling into the atmosphere as you twisted and turned on the mattress before sleep finally engulfed you.

------

The work week started up again and before you knew it yourself and the team where needed in New Orleans because of a new range of sudden murders.

“Lets review please,” Hotch mumbled.

“The bodies cross gender and racial lines” Rossi started.

“The throat is slit with something very sharp but also clean, I get a funny feeling it isnt a kitchen knife though,” you mumbled as you looked at the photos closer trying to get a good angle on a printed piece of paper.

“Butcher?” Derek questioned, you shrugged.

“Could these be blitz attacks?” you heard Spencer scoff at your suggestion.

“If this was a blitz attack there would be remorse and blunt force trauma somewhere on the head,” Spencer said looking directly at you.

“Oh, i'm so sorry Doctor i didn't know my input was unwanted, let me just keep my thoughts to myself,”

“Guys,” J.J. sighed, “Garcia is going through the victims lives that we have already, I can talk to the family and see if there are any enemies?” Hotch nodded.

“Derek, I want you to join J.J. with the families. Rossi, Emily go to the M.E. together and have a look over the bodies and tox screens. (L/n), Reid and I will go to the police station and start on a geographical and victim board,” everyone nodded in agreement to what Hotch said. Except for Spencer. He just stared at you with dangerous eyes. You rolled yours in return before putting your headphones into your phone and playing music to drown out Spencer's overbearingly loud thoughts.

-

“Okay my lovelies, these first three victims all had the same job at the same court; they’re all a part of a Jury audience” Garcia explained as her fingers tapped on her keyboard through the phone.

“Maybe someone just got out of prison that was wrongly convicted and wanting revenge?” you questioned.

“Maybe, it would have to be something pretty big for them to come back,” Derek said, you nodded in agreement, “baby girl can you see if there are any people that may have been convicted by a jury with our victims in it?”

“Sure can sugar, PG out” the phone clicked off.

“Did you find anything from the M.E.?” Hotch turned to Rossi and Emily as he spoke.

“The pathologist said it was a clean cut without hesitation marks or remorse,” Rossi said.

“No drugs, no blunt force trauma,” Emily shrugged as she talked, “it wasn't a blitz.”

“Maybe planned?” you butted in.

“That’s what it seems like,” Hotch said, “Reid? Have you got anything? J.J.?” Hotch questioned as he looked to the respective people.

“The victims were killed in different areas but its places they frequented; house, bar, bar” Spencer started, “they’re all over the place is all, completely different areas,”

“Yeah, and the families weren’t much help either. One of the victims' families, uh, Emil Gosten? His family said they didn't want anything to do with the investigation because he's had previous death threats and calls and stuff,” J.J. shrugged as the room went quiet.

“Reid, (L/n) I know you two dont like each other but I need two of my sharpest minds to go back to the crime scenes,” Hotch sighed, you groaned but complied as you stalked off with Reid following shortly behind.

-

“Everything looks the exact same as it was left,” you sighed out as you placed a blanket back down on the couch. Spencer scanned the books on the shelf before pulling one out and starting to read it; completely ignoring you.

“Reid,” nothing.

“Reid.” again, nothing.

“Spencer,” nope.

“SPENCE”

“What!” he finally turned to you and answered.

“You couldn't give me some complacency and at least answer me when i talk to you?” you asked annoyed.

“Why would i?” Spencer asked with a bored tone as he placed the book back on the shelf, except he finally talked to you, “The victim is atheist, believes in the justice system…” he sighed and shrugged, “did Hotch just put us together to fuck with us?”

“Maybe,” you flopped onto the couch with a sigh as you rest your head on the backrest. That was until something caught your eye, “Oi genius!” you called out, Spencer came to your side as you pointed to the roof; there, above your heads was a piece of paper taped to the ceiling, “you’re taller than me,” you said quickly as you got up and started moving the couch.

“Woah what- what’re you doing?” Spencer jumped back slightly as you pushed the couch backwards.

“Well we’re going to push this back and then put a chair down for you to stand on so you can reach that note because it can possibly help us get to the unsub,”

“What why me?” Spencer questioned as he helped you push the couch back.

“You’re taller than me and have longer arms,” you walked over to the dining table and came back with a chair, Spencer was reluctant at first but eventually stood on the chair and plucked down the taped note; letting out a breath as he finally stood on the ground again. You plucked the note from Spencer's hand and opened it.

“A music note?” Spencer mumbled.

“Something like that,” you mumbled back, “see it's in the second to bottom gap,” you pointed to the gap to show where it was, as if Spencer couldn't see it already, “um, it would sound something like...um, dmm” you vibrate your voice a little to help Spencer understand, he nodded, “the only problem is there isn’t any clef; normally with music you have a treble clef, alto clef or bass clef. They basically determine what instrument can be played and how the notes are determined” Spencer looked genuinely interested while you explained your thinking, “this...its a singular note, maybe there’s more around?” you looked around the room and tried to desifre if there were any opened drawers or cupboards.

“Maybe there’s another one at the other location?” Spencer questioned, you grinned.

“It might be the unsubs calling card; ‘hey, this is my kill’ type thing!” and with that, you made a break in the case.

-

Spencer called the rest of the team about the break as Hotch allowed the two of you to go to the other victims houses and search for more music notes; low and behold you now had 3 music notes placed under the corresponding victim heads.

“You keep staring at that board as if it's going to give you answers,” Derek said with a grin as he walked into the room; the rest of the team had been called out to another dead body.

“Hmm? Oh I just…” you shrugged, “i just get this feeling about the notes; they have to sound something but we just don't know what yet” before Derek could answer you the shrill of the phone went off.

“(Y/n)?” it was Spencer on loudspeaker; he never called you by your first name.

“Yeah what's up Reid?” you called back.

“We found another note; the round part is under the last line with the stem going up to the second line at the top,” you nodded in response (not that Spencer could see you) as you drew the note on a piece of paper with a sharpener and placed it on the victim board.

“Anything else? A clef at all anywhere?” you asked.

“Um i'm not- i don't think so?” it sounded like Spencer was shuffling around a few things to get a better look, “we have another piece of paper!” Spencer called out, moments later you got a photo on your phone. Sure enough there was a treble clef.

“Spence get everyone back here; i know what the notes mean”

-

“Our unsub is using something called the Dies Irae,” you played the first few notes on your phone over youtube, “you've all heard this song over time just not exactly in an orchestra setting; Star Wars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, The Shining, The Exorcist and many many more,” you played a few other videos of the notes from a few of the movies as everyone nodded.

“I can hear it,” J.J. mumbled.

“Same,” that was Emily.

“Right, so...it was originally used with catholic’s; they used the music in their Requiem services-”

“Requiem services are basically putting the dead to rest,” Spencer cut in quickly so the team could understand.

“Yeah, it's basically a song for the dead to stay dead in a way? I think our unsub is using the Sweeney Todd method; killing his victims with a razor. One slice across the neck while in a private area except this dude isn't a cannibal” you grinned at the remembrance of the film.

“Cannibal?” Derek and Emily questioned.

“In the movie Sweeney Todd is a barber, he comes back for revenge on the man who stole his wife and child and kills people in his barber shop which is also above a pie shop owned by a woman named Mrs Lovett; when Sweeney starts killing they come together in order to bring customers back to Mrs Lovett's pie shop. Because it's set in 1785 meat was expensive so instead they used the dead people as meat to sell to customers” you realised how long winded that explanation was and apologized, “sorry that was..i think our unsub is a barber” was your final statement. Hotch nodded and moved to press a button on the phone in the middle of the table, but the phone started ringing instead.

“Garcia?”

“I think i found our unsub; Chris Gevette, he filed for divorce after he gave evidence of spousal abuse but it seems like his wife had every piece of evidence that would be able to put him in jail rather than her so everything was blamed on him for the abuse and the jury ruled him unable to keep any stable relationship”

“Garcia do you have a work and home address?”

“Sent to your phones now; barber shop and home” the phone clicked off.

“(Y/n) i want you to go to the barber shop with Reid and Derek. Emily, J.J. and I will go to the house; Rossi stays here in case anything else happens.” and with that you all ran to the SUV’s.

-----

“CHRIS GEVETTE FBI!” Derek shouted through the door, your guns were drawn and ready for action as Derek kicked the door in. You moved swiftly through the shop, finding nothing but dust.

“Guys!” you were now out the back as your partners came running, “it's exactly like Sweeney Todd,” you motioned to the stairs in front of you before looking behind you, “there's stars that lead down as well; there may be bodies in there like the movie too, you go down there and i'll go up.”

“(Y/n) let me come with you,” that was Spencer, he looked genuinely concerned.

“I've got this Spence. Go” you started your ascent up the wooden stairs while trying to stay as quiet as you possibly could, “CHRIS GEVETTE,” you called out to the door once you got to it, you could hear the bustle of footsteps and made the split decision. The door was kicked in by you as you pointed your gun to Chris who was now holding a razor to a woman's neck.

“Get away!” Chris screamed, he was frantic; trembling and crying.

“Chris! Chris it's okay, i'm a good guy, okay?” you slowly let go of your gun, “im holstering my gun, okay?” you said as you're-holstered your gun, “Chris i know about the divorce-”

“No you dont!” Chris called, the woman under the razor trembled as the razor cut into her neck slightly.

“I do! Chris, I know you were abused! I know it wasn't you that did the abusing! If you let her go we can help you get custody and instead send that bitch to jail,” Chris looked almost relieved to hear that, he contemplated that for a moment before slowly letting the woman go. She ran over to you as Derek and Spencer finally came up the stairs and started handcuffing Chris.

“We’ve got two other bodies in the basement,” Spencer said to you while you held the trembling woman, “there's medic on the way now,” you nodded in affirmation before starting to help the women calm down and walk down the stairs.

------

The jet finally landed back at the bureau as the rest of your team started packing their things from their desks.

“Um (Y/n)” a voice called, you smiled as you looked up to see the person you least expected.

“Spence?” you questioned; your eyes darted around and couldn't see any other team member in sight, “everyone left already. Sorry. I've been in my own little world,” you gave a tight smile as you continued packing some extra files into your bag.

“It-it’s just me, but um, I just wanted to congratulate you on your break in the case,” the comment from Spencer's timid and small voice caught you off guard so much that you froze for a moment as you stared at him. It all seemed to go quiet, and slow; the clock on the wall seemed to tick at an atrociously slow pace.

Tick…

“(Y/n)?”

Tock…

“Hmm?”

“I uh, i was-”

“Oh, yeah um-”

Pause.

Quiet.

“Thank you,” smile.

Tick…

“I was...was wondering, (Y/n)...”

Tock…

“Yeah Spence?”

“Would you...would you like to go...on a date...with...me?”

Pause.

Quiet.

“With you?”

“Well, I did...I did say ‘me’ I hope- just, just forget it” and the world went back to normal as Spence started walking away.

“No Spence, wait!” you grabbed your things and quickly darted off after him; plunging your arm between the elevator doors and stepping in quickly before they shut behind you.

“Just forget it (Y/n); forget i ever asked and we can just go back to-”

“I would love to go on a date with you”

Tick…

“Really?”

“So long as you don't call me a paramecium again”

Tock…

“I won't; as long as you don't call me a substitute chemistry teacher”

Pause.

Quiet.

“I won't”

“Then it's settled.

Tick…

“Message me?”

“Of course”

Tock…

Smile.

[frostsinth]

The Secret We Keep - Epilogue

Part 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8  - MasterList -

So as a massive thank you to all my followers as I’ve hit another milestone, here’s an NSFW epilogue. Also soft and gooeyness, that gives you a little glimpse of what the pair are up to now.

As always, a huge thanks to everyone, and please check out my MasterList above if you haven’t already. While you’re there, feel free to BuyMeACoffee. Shoot me an ask/DM/comment if you have any questions or requests or thoughts. I love hearing from everyone!

Enjoy!

“Three silvers for the night,” I told the traveler, placing the now clean mug back on the shelf with the others, “And that includes a light breakfast in the morning.” 

He nodded tiredly, as it was already very late, reaching into the pouch at his belt and fishing out the coins. “Fair deal.”

 I smiled at him cheerily as I took them. “Let’s get you settled then. Gordy!” I called, turning to deposit the three silvers in the coffer behind the bar. The teenager looked up from where he was sweeping by the fireplace. “Could you be a dear and take this gentleman down to his room please?”

The boy nodded, leaning the broom against the wall and brushing his hands down his apron. There was a loud clatter and a soft woof, and the boy’s progression was suddenly impeded by a large grey body darting in front of him. Gordy nearly toppled over, barely managing to catch himself on the nearest bench. The last of the patrons gathered at the table in the far corner laughed loudly, and the poor boy’s ears turned pink. The traveler jerked in surprise, raising his hands defensively as the huge beast lopped over to him and began wuffing a big black nose at his pockets.

“Kosh!” I scolded, whipping the edge of my cleaning cloth lightly at the wolfhound’s snout. The big hound backed up a few feet with a sneeze and a shake.  “Apologies, sir. He may be big, but he’s just a pup. He’s still in training.”

And big he was! The large stormy grey dog was only a few months old but already came up to my waist. With long, lanky legs, huge paws, and a scraggily coat, he looked like a disproportionate grey lion more than a dog. For all his bulk though, he was a gentle soul; reminding me fondly of another such individual in my life. His scruffy tail wagged eagerly back and forth, long tongue lolling out as Gordy stalked over with a grumble. The wolfhound panted and whimpered as the teenager gestured for the traveler to follow him. Gordy shoved him amiably as he passed and the dog licked at his hand.

“Last room on the left.” I instructed him. I smiled kindly at the stranger. “Breakfast is set here in the bar room a few hours after dawn. Come up whenever you’re ready.”

The man nodded appreciatively, casting the big dog a final wary eye before following the equally lanky teenager down the stairs to the basement. Another loud roar of laughter and the slamming of fists on wood had me turning a critical eye back to the last table and setting my hands on my hips. The men there shoved at each other companionably, clanking their drinking horns together. Kosh gave another soft woof and padded back over to them.

“Finish up, gentleman!” I called over, slinging the cloth back over my shoulder. “We’re closing up for the evening.”

They gave an almost uniform groan of disappointment. The biggest of the group laughed again, clapping his meaty green hand on the shoulder of his closest companion.

“You’ll have to get back to your wives at some point, boys!” The orc exclaimed as the man sputtered into his drink under the weight of his huge hand. “Can’t hide here forever!”

That brought up another chorus of laughter, and a few more clinking cups. The orc tossed back the last of his own drink by way of example. The other men started to follow suit, nodding their agreement.

“Bar’tok, perhaps you’d like to take a break from drinking all my ale, and fetch me a fresh keg from the basement.” I scolded genially, raising an eyebrow at him.

He gave me his familiar sheepish grin, standing quickly. “Sure thing, Boss Lady!”

I tossed him the key as he sauntered past, then returned to closing up behind the bar. I gathered the last of the scraps into the bucket at the end of the bar, and replaced the now clean horns on the shelf with the rest. I moved out to gather the few remaining at the tables, and waved to the men as they dropped their coin and bid me goodnight. Alone for the moment, I paused briefly, taking stock of the place with a warm satisfaction spreading through my chest at the sight of the renovated tavern. 

In just the few short months since I bought it from oldman Hinson, we had expanded the bar room, clearing out all of the smaller first floor rooms and anything not completely necessary for the structure of the building. Leaving an open floorplan with high post and beam ceilings. I had put up the biggest of my collected antlers and horns as well as a few purchased patterned tapestries on the walls and had a large sheepskin spread before the fire where Kosh now stretched and yawned before collapsing with a thump onto his hairy belly. There was enough space for half a dozen tables, and the huge, remade fireplace made the whole place feel warm and inviting. We had also made the main door taller, and added a second to allow for my big and burly new patrons who visited the tavern frequently to have easy access. Behind the bar was a small kitchen, with a deep clay oven for bread as well as a stone open fire spit for cooking meat. Cast iron pots and pans hung neatly on the wall beside it, and fine wood shelves were near overflowing with various wines, liquors, and spirits as well as the plentiful number of drinking horns I possessed. The kegs lined the inside of the counter, ready and waiting, with a few large black iron lanterns set at the corners.

Below, we had remodeled the basement to host four small guest rooms as well as a storage room. Plenty of space to store a stockpile of ales and spirits to keep the patrons happy as well as serving as a cold ground storage larder for potatoes, onions, and other long term keeps. The staircase up to the loft apartment had been redone as well, and it looked quite grand with its short balcony at the top overlooking the barroom below. It was only accessible from behind the bar, in order to keep drunken patrons from wandering up unbidden.

The teenager trumped back up the less impressive basement steps now, stifling a yawn behind one freckled hand. I smirked, finished with my admiration of the renovations, and bringing my load of dishes back to the counter. 

“I’m all set for the evening, Gordy, why don’t you head home?” I told him, then dug out his pay for the week as well as some jerky from my secret stash. “If you wouldn’t mind taking the scraps out to the hogs on your way out.”

He nodded eagerly, taking the small handful of coins and jerky excitedly. He crammed the meat into his mouth and the coins into his pocket (and I was grateful he kept that order straight) and gathered up the bucket with a grunt. I smiled as he tossed his apron onto the barrel by the basement door and staggered towards the exit.

“Goodnight, ma’am!” He called through a mouthful of jerky over his shoulder as he slugged the door open. “See you bright and early to help with the goblin order!”

I waved him off, turning as Bar’tok came up the stairs as well, one huge keg balanced on his big green shoulder. I smiled at him, nodding to its place in the corner.

“Just there if you would, Bar’tok, thank you.” I gathered up the tray of dirty plates and horns to bring over to the bucket of water I kept by the back door to let them soak overnight. I would finish cleaning them in the morning while breakfast cooked, it was already very late.

The creak of the main door behind me and excited bark from Kosh had me slowing my clean up distractedly. Wondering if Gordy had forgotten something. But when I glanced over at Bar’tok who was facing the door, the wide, knowing grin he shot over my shoulder had my heart skipping a beat.

“I’ll finish up down here, Boss Lady,” He told me, taking the tray from my hands. “You have better things to do with your time.”

I spun eagerly, a smile already spreading across my face even before my eyes settled on the huge, burly orc currently shoving a leaping wolfhound down from trying to lick at his face. His face was set into a heavy scowl, his brow knotted. But as soon as our eyes met, his features instantly softened. I was already untying my apron and coming around the counter as he strode across the room. I gave a little yelp of delight as he swept me up without breaking his stride, sitting me on the bar and wrapping his big arms around me. There was a clatter and a clash as one of the lanterns toppled off the end, having been bumped by an errant elbow, and his big face flushed slightly. I ignored it, catching hold of his face with both hands.

“...Welcome home.” I breathed against his lips as he slowly pulled out of his customary crushing kiss. As if he were drowning in the sea and my mouth was his first taste of air. I ran my fingers through his thick hair, then cupped his bushy square jowls fondly.

Hans grunted deeply, his big nose flaring as he drew in deep breaths of my scent. His eyes turned doe-like, and his lips fell into that soft curl I loved. He placed another light kiss against my waiting mouth, then gave a distracted and irritated snort as he had to turn to push the whimpering, bouncing dog half clambering up his side. The pooch did not like being altogether forgotten as we were reunited once more for the first time in nearly a week. I laughed, reaching behind the bar to grab a well planned bone and tossing it off towards the center of the room. Kosh gave a final booming bark, then darted off, his claws scratching the worn wood as he pursued his treat.

I wrapped my arms around the big orc’s neck as he scooped me into his arms, pinning my hips flat against his waist, parallel to him with my legs dangling straight towards the floor. Bar’tok smirked as we passed him by, and I felt my ears grow hot, but Hans didn’t even spare him a glance. He carried me around the back of the bar, eyes never leaving my face as he made his way up the stairs to our apartment overhead. As if he couldn’t soak in the sight of me enough. I smiled, bending down and resting my forehead against his, breathing in his musky scent and feeling my heart race again at his touch. He shoved open the door with a pleased grunt, then kicked it closed behind him.

Spinning, he pinned me against the back of it, smothering me with kisses once more. I shifted, wrapping my legs as far around his huge torso as they would go, running my hands over his shoulders and neck. He growled deeply, the sound vibrating against my lips and my body, then pulled back only to bury his face in his favorite place against the side of my neck. Nipping and kissing and tasting my skin there. I gave a breathy moan, and felt another growl against my throat as his tusks ran over my tender flesh there. His thick tongue traced over the long since faded scratch, and he kissed the spot delicately where Wren’s knife had nicked me as he always did, before moving down to my collarbone. I rubbed at his muscles, sliding my little hands under his armor to trace over the tough skin of his back. He rumbled with pleasure at the sensation, pressing against me gently, pinning me against the back of the door and surrounding me with his bulk. I felt the familiar ache building within me, and squeezed my thighs around him. His nostrils flared as he pulled in the fresh scent of my arousal. Another deep, husky growl vibrated against my neck.

Curling around me again, he hoisted me off the door with both meaty hands on my ass and spun back to the room. Two of his long strides and he dropped me onto our huge bed against the back wall, where I bounced lightly. I could hardly stand to wait for him as he fumbled with his travelling cloak and armor. His ax made a loud thunk as he dropped it on our table, and I felt a flush rising to my cheek. Wondering if Bar’tok could hear us still. I was sure there was no masking the clatter of the chair falling over as Hans struggled to remove his armor as quickly as he could and knocked into it. But it was all quickly forgotten though as my attention settled on Hans’ face, his eyes hooded, his big tongue licking his lips. I bit my own lip, kicking off my new boots and stockings and sliding backwards onto the bed.

The big orc pulled his tunic up and over his head, and I hardily appreciated the sight of his flexing chest and stomach muscles beneath. I sucked in the view greedily, drawing in a sharp breath as he dropped quickly onto the bed and crawled after me. I hooked my hand around the back of his head, pulling him down into another deep kiss. He dragged my body closer to his, his growl becoming a soft groan as my other hand rubbed at the stiffness between his legs. He bent in half, bringing his hips closer to my reach while keeping our mouths locked together. I parted my lips, inviting him in, and his hot tongue eagerly slid after mine.

I felt his hand moving up my leg, pushing up my skirts. I could feel his need and eagerness bleeding into me. Desperate to be connected again in every way we possibly could. Cannily soaking up every minute of our coupling. He moved gently, but persistently, hitching up my dress around my hips and pushing my legs apart. Then he pushed my hand aside and scooped me up, bringing me to meet his own hips and grinding firmly between my legs. I quivered beneath him, and felt his hot lips and tusks scrape against my jaw as I tossed my head back against the bed. He rolled his hips again, then again, and panted against my throat, the roughness of his trousers coupled with the firmness of his erection sending us both into fits.

With the lightest of touches, I planted my palm against his chest and pushed him back. He moved obediently, retracting, frowning slightly until he realized I was following after. The big orc rolled onto his back with a grunt, and I bunched my skirts up at my hips as I straddled his. He looked at me, his dark eyes hungry, his tongue tracing over his thick lips. My legs barely reached the bed on either side of his huge body, but I was able to grind against his growing bulge over the top of his pants all the same, and now it was his turn for his head to fall back in enjoyment. I did it a few times more, teasing him until his big meaty hand clamped down on my hip and his foot kicked out, knocking into the chest at the foot of the bed as he gave a hearty groan.

I rose up onto the balls of my feet, crouching over him and grabbing at the edge of his pants. He helped me to slide his trousers off, freeing his huge cock with a relieved sigh. I tossed his pants off to the side, and winced at the clang of the candlestick toppling off the end table with it. He snorted, casting an eye over towards the mess, but quickly returning his husky gaze to my face. I blushed, shyly looking away from him, but settled just behind his member. After a moment’s hesitation, I began rubbing myself back and forth across its length. He groaned again, his hand on my hip squeezing lightly, his hips jerking involuntarily beneath me. I couldn’t help but grin now, delighted by how easily I had the huge orc at my mercy. His free hand came up, yanking at the collar of my dress, loosening the ties and pushing it off my shoulders. I heard a rip, but didn’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time. Hans wrestled with the cloth until my breasts bounced free. The familiar pendant slapped against my sternum, its chain cool against my already flushed skin. He slid his palms slowly up my body, from my hips to my breasts, then cupped one in each hand. Massaging the malleable tissue and pinching lightly at my nipples.

That sent my patience over the edge, and I reached down as I balanced briefly back on the balls of my feet, guiding him into place. His grip on me tightened as I slowly slid myself onto his cock, and both of our mouths dropped open. He gave an untampered moan, thumbing my nipples a final time before sliding his hands to wrap about my waist. Easing me onto his massive girth.

He was still too large to me; every time he felt a little painful going in. Until my arousal offset his size, and all I could feel was the burning heat. I had come to enjoy that sensation of his cock stretching me. The pain it brought was just a teasing reminder of the pleasure to come. This time was no different, and as I sunk down to the base, my thighs quivered with delight. I stayed there a moment, felt him twitch beneath me expectantly, enjoying the heat of his body between my legs.

When I began to move up and down, his head lolled back again, and his hands on my waist tightened. His hips bucked up against mine as I came down, practically tossing me up into the air. I was quickly gasping, the pressure and pleasure building within me. I leaned forward, placing my palms on his broad chest to give myself a better rocking momentum. My core flexed and tightened, and I held my breath as my vision flashed white. Close. I was so close already. I was slowing, unable to keep the pace as my head began to swim and my mouth dropped back open.

With a hearty growl, he cupped my ass in his hands, and deftly rolled. I gasped loudly as my shoulders hit the bed, my hips hoisted up as he bent me over his knees. His meaty palms massaged my backside as he slowly rolled his hips against mine. I saw stars at the edge of my eyes, and my moan was embarrassingly loud. It only encouraged the hulking orc, and he picked up my previous momentum and then some. Our hips smacking together loudly, the bed rocking and creaking beneath us. He moved deeper, plunged harder, and my back arched in response. I couldn’t reach him with my hands, so balled my fists into the sheets as I felt myself edging closer again.

I cried out, felt the gushing release, and felt him growl again. Bending over me. Riding through my climax with his fast, deep thrusts. I reached up, catching the back of his neck and pulling him down to me as I lifted my shoulders off the bed to meet him. Forcing him to bend in half over my hips lifted to his to crush our mouths together. I bit his thick lip as I fell back.

“Don’t stop!” I breathed, my fingers clenching into his thick mane.

He rumbled again, and his thrusts returned to their previous pace. Sensitive and wetter than before, I nearly peaked again. But instead came to a comfortable, rolling edge of pleasure that I melted into as I felt him shudder and groan a few minutes later.

My eyes must have closed, because I didn’t know he had bent back down until his big lips pressed back against mine. I willingly opened my mouth, inviting in his huge tongue, rolling mine around it. His tusks scraped against my cheeks, and I could feel his long hair brushing against my face.

I shuddered with delight as he slowly pulled out, my heart racing in my breast. He broke our kiss to run his lips down my jaw, down my neck, kissing over my sternum and each collar bone, skirting the pendant. Licking up the damp sweat pooling there. I laughed weakly, feeling his progress with my hand still on the back of his head.

Finally he came back up, having made it nearly to my navel and covered almost every inch of my flushed skin with his big mouth. I opened my eyes, looking up at him with a languid smile. His slate blue gaze, the stormy skies at sea, watched me with a great soft warmth in their depths. I sighed happily as he kissed me again, letting his big hand scoop under my waist and pull me to lay on him as he rolled onto his back.

“I missed you.” I told him, propping myself up on my elbows over his chest to look down at him.

He sighed deeply, contentedly, running his big hands up and down my bare back. Pushing my ruined skirt off the rest of the way and tossing it to the side. I rolled down, resting my ear against his chest to hear his own racing heart beneath.

“Would that you never had to.” He murmured, his deep, rolling timbre sending shivers down my spine.

I kissed the skin of his breast, tasting the salty sweat there, then ran the tip of my tongue over the nipple. He chuffed lightly beneath my administrations, and I smiled.

“I always miss you,” I admitted quietly, tracing my fingertips over his firm muscles, laying a light kiss on each after my fingers passed over them, “Even when you just go to the other room.” I craned my neck back, stretching and sliding up to kiss at his thick neck. “I never want to be away from you.”

He gave a heavy snort, one of his happy ones, his big hand coming up to trace his large knuckles gently along my jaw. “I don’t deserve you.” He said, his words belittled by the fondness with which he spoke them.

I rested my elbows on his chest again, propping myself up to lean over his head and meet his gaze. I smiled shyly, and his thick brow softened, his lips curled into my favorite gentle shape. He kept the back of his hand against the edge of my face, his thumb coming out to wipe lightly against my cheek. I leaned into his touch, closing my eyes.

“You undervalue yourself.” I replied.

I felt his rumbling reply down the length of my body laid atop his torso. “I have done nothing good in my life. Nothing deserving of a reward like you… But by the Gods I am thankful for whatever fool made the mistake that brought you to me...” He brushed his hand open, resting his palm flat against the side of my face. “... I would give you everything in my power. Anything you want.”

I smiled, opening my eyes to meet his. “I want nothing.” I reminded him. “Just you. You’re all I need to be happy.”

He grunted, shaking his head in disbelief as he always did. “I could give you more….”

“You have given me everything.” I assured him, turning and resting my head back into the crook of his neck. “I don’t think I could ever be happier.”

He sighed, the deep billowing breath causing me to rise and fall with his chest. I closed my eyes, listening to it gush through his lungs like bellows on a forge. He ran his hand through my hair, gently stroking it as our breathing and heart rates slowed. Shifting, he wrapped his arm around me, rolling onto his side and cocooning me with his huge body.

“You are my everything, Madara,” He whispered against the top of my head, “You are my air. My heart. My world.”

I smiled, nuzzling against him and tucking myself neatly into his chest. “Then you have already given me the world.”

...

The End (for now)

[fuckinuchihas]

Would it be possible to request for Oikawa where he has a crush on a Karasuno student and every time he tries to talk to them he becomes a blushing stuttering mess and he hates it because he's usually so confident? Something fluffy~ Gender neutral is fine but if you don't mind, can you make them more like "one of the boys"/tomboyish if possible? It said your requests are open, I hope I didn't misread and I hope this is okay!

So heyyy....umm I hope this is ok!

Pairing: Oikawa/Reader

Rating: T for language (one fbomb I think)

Fluff

Practice games are just as important as matched games in Toru’s opinion and he takes each and every single one seriously.

Especially against Karasuno.

He isn’t going to let his guard down against them, not with that cocky smirk on Tobio’s face.

His tongue pokes out a bit as he steadies his arm for the perfect serve.

The game hasn’t started yet, it’s just warm ups but a few of the Karasuno players are watching him with rapt attention and he feels his confidence grow.

He throws the volleyball into the air, gets started on his run and then his hand comes down perfectly aimed to hit it just right and swoosh, it’s headed in a direct path to the opposite side of the net.

It bounces against the floor with a hard smack and then it pops back into the air before-

“STRAY!” He hears and then there’s someone standing there, just holding his serve ball like it didn’t bounce back up with incredible force and Toru blinks and gapes.

“Sorry about that!” he hears Nishinoya call out.

Then they just toss his serve ball back to the salty Karasuno middle blocker like it’s nothing. Like they didn’t just catch a serve rebound flying at top speed.

Toru feels his heart start pounding wildly in his chest as he watches you make your way around the edge of the court.

‘What is this feeling?’ he wonders to himself as the whistle blows and his attention is back on the game.

Aoba Johsai win all three games in straight sets, he feels a bit smug despite the exhaustion settling in.

Now that he doesn’t have to focus on the matches his eyes wander around the gym trying to get another glimpse of you.

Unfortunately word has gotten out about the star setter of Seijoh being at Karasuno campus and the fangirls are already vying for his attention.

He pastes on his fake smile and shows them the proper gratitude for their support.

He is grateful after all, he just also feels a little disappointed.

The next time he sees you it’s completely on accident again, he’s taking Takeru to the movies and you’re standing at the counter alone with an armload of popcorn, a large soda, and some candy too.

The more he sees you the more intrigued he becomes.

You’re just-you’re nothing like what he’s used to.

“Uncle Toru!” Takeru says, grabbing his attention and also making you turn your head.

“What is it, Takeru?” he says, trying to pay attention but his gaze drifts back to you without permission.

“Why are you staring at them? You’re acting like a creep!”

‘What?” he yelps, as your gaze moves over him almost absently and then to Takeru with a small smile.

This kid.

“Takeru, we’re going to be playing the quiet game indefinitely if you don’t stop embarrassing me in front of people,” he says through gritted teeth.

You don’t hear the words come out of his mouth but the expression tells you all you need to know and you chuckle before turning back to your date with yourself.

He watches as you head into the theater with the latest action movie banner over it.

He’s not opposed to action movies but he had kind of hoped you’d have chosen the animated film that he’d planned to see with Takeru.

“Toru, can we watch that instead?” he asks, pointing to where you disappeared into the theater.

One thing he’ll say for his nephew, Takeru knows how to take advantage of a situation.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Takeru. Your mother would kill me…” he says, guiding the kid toward the snack counter instead of the ticket booth.

“I’m almost twelve now!” he says, looking up at Toru with an unflattering gaze.

“Pfft...I’m not stupid, kid.”

“Yeah...sure,” he says, a painfully sarcastic eye roll tacked on for good measure.

“Why are you so mean to me? I’m your favorite uncle!”

“You’re literally my only uncle…”

Toru pouts but nobody gives him a second glance.

“Great King?” Hinata asks, and Toru meeps before putting a hand over Shortie's mouth.

“Shh…” he says, and Shoyo looks at him with confusion etched on his face.

“Why are you here? Did you come to spy on us?” Hinata asked with wide eyes. Maybe Kageyama wasn’t the only one who was nervous about their upcoming match.

“I’m just here looking for some-for a friend,” he says, eyes darting around the gym through the small window.

“Oh, okay...who is it? Maybe I can help you find them!” Shortie says, with that same passionate enthusiasm that he springs up with on the court.

Toru assesses the odds of Hinata picking up a clue that maybe he and you aren’t exactly friends but then he remembers Tobio usually keeps control of their shared brain cell and spills his guts.

“Do you remember the practice match we had?”

“Yea the one last week? “

“That’s the one...I was warming up and I hit my spike,”

“Yeah and it was like SWOOOSH and POW against the court and even Nishinoya senpai couldn’t pick it up...it was soo awesome,” Hinata says, stars sparkling in his eyes.

Toru felt the old familiar pride in himself start to grow.

“Yes, exactly. Well it bounced and then someone caught it...do you remember who that was?”

“Oooh yeah, I know them. But they’re not here, they work part time at that place with the big neon sign out front. The one across from the coach's store!”

Toru says a quiet thank you for the blind gullibility of an idiot and nods. “Thank you, Shortie. I might just consider this worthy of an I owe you.”

“Oh it’s no problem but...why don’t you just text them?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

“You’re right, I should do that. Well this has been fun but I’m leaving now...you should work on those receives. Catching them with your face might be fun to watch but it’s not going to put the ball where it needs to go.”

Before Hinata can go off he turns to leave with a wide grin.

The walk there isn’t long and he checks out the familiar sight of Sakanoshita and then turns his head.

“Hmm…” he says to himself. It’s not exactly what he’d expected but Shrimpy is a lot of things, but capable of lying isn’t one of them.

He slips in the door looking around as if he’s interested in what’s on the shelves though a glimpse of you is really what he’s waiting for.

Toru keeps glancing over to the counter while he distractedly pretends to browse.

In fact he is so focused on keeping an eye out for you that he nearly jumps out of his skin when you say, “Can I help you with anything?” from right behind him.

He’s not sure whether his heart is pounding so fast in his chest because of the literal fear that is tingling under his skin or the fact that you are unexpectedly standing so close.

He backs away into the shelf, wincing a bit when a few items fall onto the floor.

Blood rushes to his ears and neck as he forces himself to turn around and start to pick things up.

“No I-I’m fine,” he says, hiding his awkwardness as best he can given the floor has yet to open up and swallow him whole.

“Y’know, you’re nothing like I expected…” you say, chuckling to yourself a bit as you try to help with the misplaced items.

“You-you know who I am?” he says in a voice that sounds almost nothing like himself. Toru Oikawa isn’t some meek, mild mannered blubbering mess. He’s confident in himself and his skills both on and off the court.

But then he sees your eyes, and the tiny smile dancing on your lips and he’s somehow a whole new person.

“Of course. I might not follow Volleyball as closely as some but I’m pretty sure there are slugs living under rocks that know who you are,” you chuckle, replacing the last item onto the shelf before standing back up to your full height.

“Yes...well I am the best setter in Miyagi,” he says, trying to find his confidence again.

“One of, sure,” you say and there’s a sly smirk on your lips as you think of Tobio-kun.

(cue unamused emoji face)

“Oh, and I suppose you think Tobio is better?” he says, feeling vaguely jealous and angry all at once.

“I wouldn’t really know,” you say, shrugging a bit. “Honestly I just know that he credits you a lot for teaching him everything he knows and that seems like such a waste if you can’t appreciate it properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you’re rivals, I get that...but also another way to look at it is not only are you one of the best-”

“THE best.”

“Fine, even if you’re THE BEST setter in Japan, or even all of the world...you have a legacy now. It’s not just your own skill that you can depend on but that of your junior…” you say with a soft shrug. “Honestly that feels just as important to me.”

Toru blinks at you a few times before you offer a short wave goodbye and make your way back toward the counter.

He decides it will be best to get out of there as soon as possible.

When he rounds the corner, Toru presses back against the cool brick of the building behind him and lets his head fall back.

This feeling...it’s new. It’s intense...it’s fuck-its unlike anything he’s ever felt before.

Is he actually...flattered?

Impressed?

Is he...is he in love?

No, that’s silly.

Toru Oikawa doesn’t do love.

He plays at it, he feeds it to his fans but he doesn’t actually feel it.

The wind whips at his face and he turns away from it. He’s not sure how just yet but somehow this is Tobio’s fault...he just knows it.

Once he confronts his feelings, it takes a while but he comes back to you.

Over and over he shows up where you are and tries his best to make polite conversation despite the nervous flutters in his stomach or the way heat seems to blossom in his cheeks anytime you playfully tease him about anything.

If you’re standing too close there’s at least a thirty percent chance he’s going to knock into something and either he’ll have a bruise or you’ll be picking stuff up off the floor all over again.

It settles a bit the more you get to know one another but he can still be surprisingly adorable with pink cheeks and shaky words when you do something to catch him off guard.

If only the tabloids could see him now.

You shoot hoops together, he cooks for you on occasion, and you share your rougher edges with him.

Yet he doesn’t walk away...

It’s actually kind of nice to feel like you can be yourself with him.

You expect him to be a lot more of a skeeze but he’s patient and to be honest he moves at an even slower pace than you would. You give it time though, because he might be thinking he’s doing it for you or he might just be taking the slow road for himself and you’re in no rush.

If he’s willing to stay by your side, then being patient is the easiest part.

MASTERLIST

[prettyinlimegreenboots]

Hey there! Could you do stargazing and proposal for sprace? If you would rather someone else that's great too! Have the best day! I might send in another prompt later. <3

I’ve been throwing around an idea of how Spot proposed to Race in my Life in the Emergency series. @deliciouspeachpirate gave me the perfect opportunity to write it. So buckle up kids, this is a doozy. 

One point of noting, as I was writing this, I realized that Katherine would’ve had to be in school for 12 years, which would’ve made her at least 30 in this series. I’m envisioning the group to be mid-20s, 25/26 years old. However, she’s actually a PA, not an MD. I’ve made the updates in the other stories of the series. 

I do not own One Tree Hill. Curse words and alcohol included.

July 18, 2019 7:30pm

There were perks to working nights while his boyfriend was puttering around the house, unaware of what was to come that night. But little did Race know that Spot was only working until 8pm, having switched with a fellow nurse for the night. 

Tapping on the desk caught his attention as Spot looked over at Albert. “You nervous? Ready for this?” 

“Why I told you in the first place, I’ll never know.” Spot shook his head, looking at his boyfriend’s best friend. “I’m a little nervous.”

Albert smiled, putting a hand on Spot’s shoulder. “Don’t be . . . my best friend may be a dumbass but he’s going to be surprised. He’ll love it.” 

“You sure?” Spot bit his lip, his eyes flying up to see Kat throwing a chart on the desk. 

She rolled her eyes, looking at her friend. “Spot we’ve been over this a thousand times. You could propose to him doing the hula and he would say yes. This is perfect for you two and he’s going to love it. Now don’t you have places to be, other than the Emergency Room?” 

Spot rolled his eyes at Plums and Albert before quickly clocking out and pushing back the chair. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck but you won’t need it.” Kat pulled him into a hug before lightly slugging his shoulder. “Text me later, might need some excitement to keep me awake.” 

Nodding, he said goodbye to them both, stopping by his locker before he walked to his SUV, his baby outside of Race. Throwing his bag in the backseat, he quickly checked the trunk, making sure the cooler he packed earlier was still cold. He saw the blankets there as well before shutting the trunk lid. 

Jumping into the SUV, he turned the radio on and let his thoughts drift over the last six years he and Race had been dating. They had been friends throughout high school but didn’t start dating until their sophomore year of college, when they were roommates. Spot grinned, remembering their wild times at 1456 Wakeman Ave. Jack and Crutchie had lived across the hall with Albert and Romeo just down the hall. 

Pulling into the driveway, he quickly grabbed his bag before walking into the house. Dropping his bag on the bench in the mudroom, he smirked, hearing the bass pumping as there was noise coming from the kitchen. Peeking his head into the kitchen, Spot’s eyebrow raised. “Racer, what the hell are you doing?” 

His head snapped up, hitting the underside of the cupboard, several curse words escaping his mouth. “Spottie? What the hell are you doing home? You scared the living shit outta me.” 

“Sorry about that. But this is your first surprise of the night.” Spot leaned over, rubbing the back of Race’s head as he kissed him. “I’m sorry for scaring you.” 

Race gave him a look. “Again, what the hell are you doing home? Thought you were working overnight.”

“That’s what I had you believe. I actually got off at 8 . . . now go get changed into comfy clothes and we’ll get going.”  Spot clapped his head, heading to their bedroom to change. 

Spot quickly got changed into an old pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt before grabbing something from the top drawer, heading out to the living room, where Racer still hadn’t moved. “Racer, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Race asked, tilting his head to look at Spot. 

Shrugging, Spot smiled. “Figured since I don’t have to work tonight, we’d go for a drive. Go get changed.”

“That’s what you’re wearing?” Race asked as he headed for the bedroom.

Spot rolled his eyes. “Nah, I figured I’d change along the way.”

“Alright, smartass, you don’t have to break out the sarcasm.” Race called, as Spot went around the living room, turning off the many lights that were on. He yelled at Alexa to stop playing the music. Slipping his feet into a pair of Nike Flip Flops, he grabbed the keys as Race came out of the bedroom. “Alright I’m ready . . . do I need to bring anything?”

“Unless you want a hoodie or something specific to drink, everything is already in the car.” Spot said, twirling the keys in his hand. 

Race gave him a curious look, heading back to the bedroom, grabbing a hoodie for them both before meeting Spot in the entryway, heading out to the car. Unlocking the navy blue 4Runner, he quickly got into the driver’s side as Race hopped in on the passenger’s side. “So do I get a hint or anything? Still can’t believe you tricked me on when you worked.” 

“I haven’t surprised you in a while, figured it would be a good night to do it.” Spot grinned, leaning over stealing a kiss from him. “As for a hint, it’s something you’ve been wanting to do this summer but we haven’t been able to do it yet.” 

Every summer they make a bucket list on their chalkboard wall in the kitchen. Everything from visiting the beach to a summer roadtrip to getting ice cream from their favorite local shop, there are 14 things up on their wall that they’ve been checking off since Race got out of school for the summer. “There’s so many things still up on the board that we haven’t accomplished yet.” 

“Well we’ve got a bit of drive ahead of us so you can ponder the board for a while.” Spot smirked, pulling out of the driveway. “Do you want to pick a playlist?” 

Race shrugged, hooking his phone up to the system before the Lumineers poured out of the system. “So were you working this morning?” 

“Nah, I had some errands to run. I worked 2-8 but I have to pick up a shift in the next two weeks for Maria who is covering for me tonight.” Spot held his hand out for Race to lace his fingers through, giving them a squeeze. “All will be revealed soon but I just wanted to surprise you tonight. I put in a request to transfer to days.” 

Race’s eyes went wide as a grin slid across his face. “You did? But you love nights.” 

“But I hate not being able to spend much time with you.” Spot countered, taking his eyes off the road for a second. “Kat and Albert are also looking to transfer to days so the gang will all be together.” 

Race nodded. “Jack told me that he and Kat are trying to get pregnant . . . that might be why.” 

“That’d make sense.” Spot nodded, squeezing Race’s hand, sighing happily. “I love you, Racer.”

“Love you too Spot; even when you scare me shitless.” Race chuckled as Spot joined in. 

Spot turned onto the interstate, accelerating the car as he merged on. “So we’re heading out of the city?” 

“Yes, we are.” Spot agreed, giving him a look. “Any ideas?” 

Race shook his head. “Nah but I can check a few off the list due to going out of the city.” 

“Is this one of your random playlist?” Spot questioned, listening to the music fade from “This I Promise You” by NSYNC to “I Won’t Say (I’m In Love)” from Hercules.

Race picked up the phone and looked at it, shrugging. “I just picked one of the Spotify playlist. I can put something else on, if you want.”

“Nah this is good . . . just didn’t expect to go from NSYNC to Disney.” Spot chuckled, picking up their linked hands and pressing a kiss to the back of Race’s hand.  “How’s driver’s training going?”

Groaning, Race threw his head back. “Almost got into a wreck with two kids today. Luckily at the last minute they stopped but my heart was in my chest for the rest of the drive. Needless to say, they’re driving with another instructor for the rest of the week.”

“How close are we talking about? Darting out in front of another car or blowing a red light?” Spot asked, raising an eyebrow as he squeezed Race’s hand. 

Race sighed. “Darting out in front of a car, one side was clear but failed to see a car coming until it was almost too late. All I kept thinking is thank goodness you’re working today.” 

“I love you dearly but it’s never a good day when you end up in my Emergency Room.” Spot gave him a knowing look. 

Race half smiled. “I know but you look so damn sexy in those scrubs.” 

“I honestly have no words.” Spot said slowly as Race threw his head back and laughed loudly - one of Spot’s favorite sounds in the world. 

Spot grinned pulling off the interstate, applying the brake as they came up to a stop sign. Turning left, Spot saw Race’s face break into a big grin as he slowly recognized where they were. “You’re taking me to the old farmhouse?” 

“Maybe . . .” Spot shrugged as the playlist flipped over to “I Don’t Want To Be” by Gavin DeGraw. “Remember when you made me watch all 9 seasons of One Tree Hill over a two week period?” 

Race chuckled. “I thought you were going to kill me but you ended up loving that show as much as I do. Besides, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone ship Naley as much as you do.” 

“Leave my precious babies alone.” Spot took his hand off the steering wheel for a moment to point his index finger in Race’s direction. “They had their ups and downs but damn they were the couple that made that show!” 

Race rolled his eyes as Spot turned into the long driveway of the farmhouse Medda had bought several years ago as a retreat outside of the city. “Momma here?” 

“Nah, she’s in the city working on some new production.” Spot said, giving his boyfriend a grin. “She knows we’re out here though.” 

“Just in case there’s a stray killer scarecrow hunting the grounds?” Race quipped, giving Spot a look. 

Shrugging, he stopped the car, turning off the engine. “You never know what can happen in Timbuktu. Come on.” 

Hopping out of the SUV, Spot made his way to the trunk to grab the blankets, handing them to Race before grabbing the cooler. Closing the hatch, he offered Race his hand before leading him out to the fields behind the house. “What are we doing? You didn’t bring me here to die, did you?” 

Spot threw his head back laughing. “No one is going to die tonight . . . well that’s not in the plans.” 

“That’s reassuring.” Race mumbled, lacing his fingers with Spot’s. “What’s in the cooler?” 

Spot adjusted the cooler in his other hand as he tugged on the one laced with Race’s hand. “If you hurry up, I can show you. The more questions you ask, the longer until everything is revealed.” 

“Okay, okay.” Race motioned Spot to start walking as he followed behind him. “You sure there’s no cow pies out here?” 

Sighing loudly, Spot shook his head. “Momma doesn’t own any cows, for as long as I’ve known you. Do you think the cow pies would magically fall from the sky?” 

“I mean, you never know. There are cows around here that could’ve gotten loose.” Race defended as Spot looked over his shoulder at him. 

“In your dreams, Racetrack. Now pick up your pace. It’ll be midnight by the time we get everything set up at this pace.” Spot cracked a smile at him before looking up at the sky, knowing the night was perfect. 

Soon they came to the field that they had often found themselves laying in when they were at the farmhouse. It was a little tradition of theirs. “Here.” 

Dropping the blankets on the ground, Race sighed looking over at Spot. “Okay . . . now what?” 

“Oh how I love you Race.” Spot leaned over, stealing a kiss from him. “Please never change.”

Race’s eyes went wide as he looked at Spot. “What does that mean?” 

“You haven’t figured out what we’re doing yet?” Spot asked, putting the cooler on the ground before spreading out one of the blankets on the ground. 

As if something had hit him, Race’s eyes brightened up. “We are going to stargaze?”

“Bingo, snookums.” Spot said, dropping to his knees on the blanket before rolling over onto his back, propping an arm behind his head. “It’s the perfect night for it. Look at how clear the sky is.” 

Race soon joined him, laying his head on Spot’s chest as he gazed up at the stars, sighing in contentment.  “The big dipper is on bright display tonight.”

“Of course that’s the one that you always find first.” Spot grinned, running a hand through Race’s hair. “And there’s the little dipper and the North Star.” 

Race hummed in agreement as he tilted his head back to look at the star filled sky. “It’s absolutely gorgeous out here. Why do we live in the city again?”

“Closer to jobs, family, everything really.” Spot replied. “Maybe in the next few years, we can move out here. It’s not that far of a drive when you really think about it.” 

Race nodded against Spot’s chest. “Might be hell in the winter but we can always get a better car.” 

“It’s good to dream with you.” Spot mused continuing to run his hand through Race’s hair. “I’ve been doing some thinking.” 

Race sat up, giving Spot a look. “Is that good thinking or bad thinking?” 

“Always good thinking.” Spot said, sitting up, lacing his fingers with Race’s, squeezing them gently.  “How long have we been together, Racer?” 

A smile crossed Race’s face. “We’ve known each other since Freshman year in high school, god we were babies. But together officially since Sophomore year of college. I remember being so nervous to tell you that I liked you . . . it was a damn miracle that you hung out with me as a friend, let alone a boyfriend.” 

Spot laugh, nodding his head. “The feeling was mutual snookums. I couldn’t get over how lucky I was to have you in my life as a friend, let alone a boyfriend. I remember pinching myself so many times during the first month because I thought this was going to crumble and fall. You’ve been there for every good day, through all the triumphs and downfalls. You’re the first person I want to call when I’ve got good news, the person I want to hug when the day is just awful, and the person I want to vent all my frustrations to. But we’ve been through so much together and our journey is just beginning. Since we’ve been together for six years, I kinda don’t want to spend the rest of my life with anyone else . . . so, Antonio James Higgins, will you do the honor and marry me? Be tied to me for ever and ever?” 

Race’s jaw dropped, tears glistening in his eyes, as he started nodding his head before throwing his body weight at Spot, knocking him onto his back. He placed his hands on either side of Spot’s head before leaning down and kissing him. “Ja, Sí, Si, Oui, Yes, Sean Thomas Conlon . . . You're an idiot but I absolutely love you and yes, I will marry you.” 

“I’m your idiot now.” Spot said, leaning up to capture his lips in another kiss. “And I love you too snookums.” 

Race hummed into the kiss, pressing forward slightly to deepen it. Moaning slightly, Race pulled back with a smirk on his face. “Someone’s a little eager.” 

“I’ve been carrying this around for a while now.” Spot sat up, pulling a velvet box out of his pocket, cracking it open. A black Tungsten ring with a row of black Sapphires sat inside the box. A gasp escaped Race’s mouth as he looked at the ring before looking up at Spot. “I-Is that for me?” 

“Nope, it’s for the cow that’s in the next pasture.” Spot grinned, shaking his head as Race smacked his shoulder. “Of course it’s for you idiot. Now, can I put it on your hand without a comment from the peanut gallery?” 

Holding out his left hand, Race grinned at Spot. Race’s hand shook slightly as Spot pushed the ring onto his ring finger. “I promise you that I will always be there on the tough days, the good days, and the bad days. You will never walk alone as I will always be by your side. And I love you immensely.” 

Spot reached up and wiped away the stray tears from Race’s eyes before leaning up and pressing a kiss to his lips. “You’ve made me the happiest man alive, Tony.” 

“Ditto, Sean, ditto.” Race half laughed, half laughed leaning forward so that his head was rested on Spot’s chest. “I love you, Spottie. How long have you been planning this?” 

“Since a few days ago but I’ve had the ring since April.” Spot grinned. 

Race’s head flew up from its place on Spot’s chest as his eyes went wide. “Since April? Where was it hidden in the house?”

“Who’s said it was in the house?” Spot countered, grinning at Race’s jaw drop. “I’m not telling you where it was hiddened.” 

Pulling the cooler closer to his side, Spot opened the top, grabbing two red Solo Cups and the champagne bottle that was inside. He made quick work of popping the cork off the bottle of champagne, eliciting a whooo from Race before pouring some of the liquid into each cup.  Spot handed one to Race, clinking his cup with Race’s before taking a sip and making a face. Race busted up laughing, throwing his head back. “You should see your face right now.” 

“Ugh . . . why is this stuff so awful?” Spot spat out the drink, not even taking another sip.

Shrugging, Race took his own sip, and not a second later, spit it out in the field beside him before dumping the cup. “Please tell me that you brought something else.” 

Reaching back into the cooler, he grabbed two bottles of beer, pulling the tops off, offering one to Race before gently clinking the necks of the bottles together. “Much better, mi amor.” 

Stretching his legs out in front of him, Spot felt Race slide as he sat beside him, mimicking Spot’s position, laying his head on Spot’s shoulder. “This was more than I could’ve ever dreamed of, Spot. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” Spot whispered. “Can I confess something to you?” 

Looking up at him, Race nodded. “I was nervous to ask you earlier but when I spoke from the heart, my nerves went away.” 

“Were you nervous I'd say no?” Race whispered. 

“Never. I was more nervous that you wouldn’t like what I was planning.” Spot explained.

Race laced his fingers with Spot’s. “Honestly, you could’ve been doing the Hula and I would’ve said yes.” 

Spot threw his head back, laughing, while tears streamed down his face. “You and Kat need to stop hanging out with one another.” 

“Kat knew?” Race asked, squeezing their conjoined hands. 

Spot nodded. “She did as did Albert. I threatened them both of bodily harm if either of them squealed. Eventually we need to take a photo so I can send it to them. I’m surprised my phone isn’t blowing up.” 

Just as he said that his phone dinged as a text came through. Spot groaned fishing his phone out of his back pocket and opened it, laughing at the photo that was texted to him. Race looked over at him, raising an eyebrow at his sudden laughter. “What?” 

Tilting the phone, Race laughed seeing Kat and Albert with their chins in the palm of their hands staring into the camera of the phone. “All Kat texted with the photo was well.” 

Race laughed. “So how do you want to play this?”

Holding their conjoined hands up, Spot quickly took a photo of it before sending it to Kat and Albert along with Jack, Medda, Crutchie, and Smalls. He locked his phone, throwing it on the blanket before sighing in contentment. “All of the important people just found out. My job is done.” 

“Leaving the story part up to me?” Race asked as Spot’s hand found the top of his head and started massaging it. 

Spot chuckled. “You’re going to love telling everyone that story. Might as well give you the floor.” 

“Ugh you’re so right.” Race said as he sat up. “As much as I don’t want to, should we get going?” 

Spot’s mouth slipped into a wide smile before shaking his head. “Nope, we’re staying out here tonight. Neither of us have to work tomorrow so no sense in driving back to the city when we’ll be out here over the weekend anyways.” 

“You think of everything, pooks!” Race said, leaning over and kissing him. “Planner by nature.”

 Spot snaked his arm behind Race’s head keeping him there, kissing him again. “Shall we move this party inside?” 

“Please do not quit your day job, Spottie.” Race laughed, standing up, pulling Spot to his feet before gathering the blankets and putting the stuff back in the cooler. They made quick work of cleaning everything up before making their way to the farmhouse. 

Walking inside, there was a light on in the kitchen. Dropping everything in the foyer, the two made their way to the kitchen and grinned seeing what Medda had left them. A cake along with two plates and two bottles of chilled beer were sitting in the middle of the counter. The cake read “Congratulations Spot and Race!” in swirly font. Next to the cake was a handwritten note, which Race picked up and read aloud. 

Race and Spot, 

Congratulations on your engagement. Spot, I’m so happy you’ll be officially joining the family. We will be back around 4pm tomorrow. Race, your bedroom upstairs has fresh sheets on the bed already. There’s stuff for you in the fridge for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. 

Congratulations again and don’t make a mess! 

Love, 

Momma/Medda

Spot pointed to Race with a grin. “She knows you too well.  Shall we dig into this?”

“It’ll be a damn shame if we left the cake go to waste.” Race said grabbing two forks before just digging his fork into the cake and popping it into his mouth. “Damn, momma knows how to pick out a cake.” 

Spot dug his fork into the cake popping it into his mouth with a groan. “Medda is amazing and so is this cake.” 

Digging his fork in, Race looked over at Spot, offering him his fork as Spot leaned forward, eating the piece of cake. “Hey Spottie?” 

“Yeah Race?” Spot asked, swallowing the cake. 

Race set his fork down, leaning over and taking Spot’s hand in his, squeezing it. “You know how you said earlier that I made you the happiest man alive?” 

“I did and you do.” Spot squeezed his hand in return. “Something on your mind, Racer?” 

Race smiled. “You make me just as happy. Honestly, I was thinking of asking you to marry me, but as always you are three steps ahead of me. And I love you for it.” 

Spot leaned forward, one hand still clasped in Race’s hand and the other moving to cup Race’s cheek before directing his lips to meet his. “I love you Racer; always, forever, and from here to the moon and back.” 

“I love you too Spottie.” Race whispered, before leaning his forehead against Spot’s, pressing another kiss to his lips. 

Thank you @deliciouspeachpirate for sending in the prompt. This was a lot of fun to write and feedback would be most appreciated! 

[nataliedanovelist]

C-137 Vs. 46'\

C-137 Vs. 46'\ = A Gravity Falls & Rick and Morty crossover fic for @stephreynaart! I meant to finish this, like, forever ago, but I did my best and decided this has stayed hidden in my files long enough. I hope y’all enjoy it!

Stanchez for life!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

Episode Placement: GF = after the finale (season 3) R&M = Between S1E10 and E11 (In S2E2, Rick dates 1/12/2015 on the drop-off papers for Jerry. Though Alex hates dating cartoons, it can be estimated that GF took place during 2013 thanks to Sev'ral Timez, so the next summer would be 2014. So… yeah. I put way too much thought into this.)

The vast galaxy in front of them was an endless sea of stars and space-clouds of many different colors. Some were green, some were blue, some were magenta, it honestly looked like a generic Hot Topic galaxy t-shirt.

But Rick didn’t give a shit about some fucking space-clouds or some fucking shop for teenagers who were trying too hard to be goth. Rick didn’t give a shit about the fact that Morty barely knew how to drive the fucking spaceship. Rick only have a shit about getting away from the other fucking spaceships that were after the humans, but he couldn’t drive because Rick had to repair the fucking weapon to kill those fucking bastards. Fuck.

“Aw, geez, Rick, hurry it up!” Morty yelled.

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Morty!” Rick snapped back as he tinkered with the huge ray-gun that laid by his feet.

The spacecraft jolted to the side as a beam just barely missed it. Rick caught his screwdriver as it flew in the air for a second and he finished the final turn. Rick grinned maliciously and aimed the newest invention out at the enemy. He pulled the trigger and rather than a beam of light or a bullet escaping the gun, it appeared that nothing happened, until each spaceship seemed to be covered with blood and guts from the inside, covering the windows and halting the enemies’ spaceships.

“Oh my God, Rick, what the hell?!” Morty screamed.

“Relax, Morty, you’ve seen worse. It’s just a gun that released microscopic ninjas that slice people up from the inside until they’re nothing b-b-but guts.” Rick burped through the alcohol and leaned on the big gun proudly with a monotone voice and facial expression.

“No, Rick, what the hell IS THAT?!”

Rick looked ahead to see a wormhole of pink, blues, and whites glowing brightly in front of them. Morty was trying to turn the spaceship away, but they were being pulled in by gravity.

“Well, fuck.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel was bouncing like she had springs on the bottoms of her shoes as she held her Grunkle Ford’s hand. They were both wearing ponchos and on their way to the magical part of the forest. Mabel, Dipper, Stan, and Ford had only been back in Gravity Falls for two days and Ford wanted to start off this summer right by bonding with his favorite grandniece in the Multiverse.

Ford felt guilty of the little time they had spent together the previous summer. True, he had arrived home a little late in the season, but he had spent plenty of time bonding with Dipper, leaving not nearly enough for Mabel. Ford loved her very much, but with Dipper things were more predictable. The boy was a lot like him, so Ford knew what to expect and how to bond with him, like playing Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons or working or investigating an anomaly together. Ford had no clue what twelve… thirteen-year-old girls liked and Mabel’s overwhelming flood of love and affection had startled Ford like an old alley-cat.

Still, he admired her positivity and loved to do arts-and-crafts with her. They had captured time last summer for her to make a beautiful hand-turkey on Ford’s six-fingered hand; she had said that the extra feather made it special. The old scientist had no idea what he had done to deserve Mabel… no, he didn’t deserve Mabel, but she seemed to like him, so he owed her some alone-time. Mabel seemed to like the supernatural almost as much as Dipper (Dipper took a more serious approach to it while Mabel seemed to accept everything with loving arms), so Ford offered to take her out to the magical part of the forest over breakfast and Mabel nearly choked on her Stan-cake out of pure joy.

Now, as the morning sun rose and was nearly above their heads, after about an hour of traveling and quietly talking, they were starting to reach the magical part of the forest.

“So, why do we need ponchos, Grunkle Ford?” Mabel asked as she used her free-hand to play with the yellow hood that was over her beautiful brown hair.

“Because the fairies we’re going to investigate are… rather messy.” Ford landed on. The Barf Fairies used to turn his stomach, but after traveling through dimensions for over thirty years, Ford’s stomach had hardened and since Mabel also seemed to have a strong gag-reflex, he decided that he would try to learn more about the less-than-pleasant type of fairies. “I would hate for them to ruin a Mabel Pines original.” Ford added with a smile down at the young teenager.

Mabel grinned braces-free (she had them removed back in February) up at the old scientist, loving it when he called one of her sweaters a Mabel Pines original, and her eyes twinkled when she saw the blue sweater through Ford’s poncho, the one she had made for him with a golden six-fingered hand on the front, like his old journals. “So, these are…”

“Barf Fairies.”

“Right. What do you already know about them?”

“Only that we should avoid whatever they eat.”

Mabel laughed along with him and said, “Okay. Well… I’ve actually never talked to or met a fairy before, so looks like we’re both starting from square-one. Did you meet any fairies out in the Multiverse?”

“Yes, but they were very different than the one here in Gravity Falls. I once landed in a dimension where the seasons changing was caused by the fairies, and in another dimension I met a giant fairy-queen that looked more like a slug with wings covered in glitter.”

Mabel opened her mouth to contribute to the conversation, but they both heard a noise and stopped walking in the woods. The sound had made them think of clanking metal and yells. They looked up and around at the trees, but a little puff of smoke confirmed that they had heard some sort of machine.

“What was that?” Mabel asked quietly.

“I’m not sure.” Ford said honestly and started to walk them to a clearing.

The two Pines left the cluster of pinetrees so they could look around the skies more clearly. It was a beautiful cloudless early-summer day. As they looked up at the heavens above, a flying-disk of a spaceship was whizzing over their heads, having trouble staying up in the air. Ford held Mabel close in fear of it crashing down near them, but the spaceship staggered over the woods and crashed landed from a safe distance.

“Aliens!” Mabel gasped. “Dipper told me about the one under the town! Do you think this is like that one?”

Ford, whose mind was racing, shook his head to try to think straight, and he said, “No, I… I think I know what it is, but… Mabel, I’m afraid the Barf Fairies are going to have to wait.”

Mabel peeled off her poncho and shook her hair free, revealing her purple sweater with a heart and sunglasses on it that matched her red skirt and headband. Ford also took off his poncho, pocketed both of the big yellow articles of clothing in his trenchcoat, but then pulled out his gun. He opened his mouth to tell Mabel to stay close, but she already pulled out her grappling hook and was standing behind Ford, waiting for him to lead the way.

Ford crept back into the woods with Mabel behind him. He had a good idea of what had crashed into Gravity Falls, but he had hoped that he was wrong. He didn’t want Mabel to meet him. Ford was hoping he would never show up in this dimension, but if he was still traveling around the Multiverse…

A low hissing noise from a busted engine told Ford and Mabel where to go. They only had to walk a minute before the spaceship came into view, landing in between two trees and leaving a trail of up-turned dirt in its path before coming to a halt. Ford and Mabel slowly moved towards the ship with their weapons in hand, but they found it unnecessary as a boy stumbled out and coughed into a fist, on his hands and knees and ruffled from the crash.

“Oh geez, oh man, we’re dead. We’re dead. We survived, but we’re dead.” The boy moaned as he slowly stood up. He looked about Mabel’s age, had short brown hair, and wore jeans and a yellow t-shirt with white sneakers.

Mabel pocketed her grappling hook while Ford let his arms fall to his side, but he kept the weapon in hand, just in case. “Huh. That was… not what I was expecting.” Ford said, more to himself than to Mabel.

Mabel stepped forward with her hands up kindly and she cleared her throat, gaining the boy’s attention. He blinked at the two humans and Mabel said in a soft voice, “Uh, hi, I’m Mabel. Are you hurt?”

“What?” The boy asked. He seemed jittery from the crash, his eyes darting and his forehead glistening with sweat. “Uh, n-no. No, I’m fine. I’m…”

“MORTY!”

The boy groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as he tilted his head upward. “Yup, that’s my name. Morty.”

An older man in a white lab-coat with blue-white hair stumbled out of the spaceship, and not out of drunkenness for a change. “Morty, you little…”

“Sanchez.” Ford growled and covered Mable’s ears. He knew this guy had a foul tongue, and while Ford and his brother might have sailors’ mouths, at least he and Stan knew to censor themselves around the kids. Ford’s old friend didn’t.

The old man in the lab-coat looked at Ford and his eyes widened in shock before he grinned. “Oh, no way! Good to see you again, Fordsie!” He laughed, amused by the scenario in front of him. “Great, another genius. Mind giving me a hand with this piece of… erm, crap?”

Ford groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, the sooner I can get you out of my home dimension, the better.”

The man Grunkle Ford had called Sanchez appeared shocked again and he dug around his coat. “Wait, wait, wait. Your home dimension?” Sanchez pulled out a white flat gun with a green bulb on top and he seemed to be reading off a tiny screen. “Huh. Dimension 46’\. This one’s way out of the loop. There’s no way I could’ve gotten you home with this thing. How did you manage to pull that off?”

“Long story.” Ford said and pocketed his hand in his trenchcoat.

“Grunkle Ford,” Mabel piped and smiled up at the visitor. “Who’s this?”

Ford looked down at his niece and decided to share this piece of his thirty-year-long journey in the Multiverse with her. “Sweetie, this is my old acquaintance, Rick Sanchez. Rick, this is my great-niece, my brother Sherman’s granddaughter, Mabel.”

“Oh, hey, nice to meet you, little lady.” Rick said with a small smile and then jabbed a thumb back at Morty. “That little screw-up is my grandson, Morty.”

“Oh, yeah, like you could do any better, Rick.” Morty huffed with crossed-arms over his thin chest.

“I could do better, Morty,” Rick said and rounded on his grandson. “You know what else I can do? I can also leave you behind on Asteroid 3924987, but I won’t. I can also feed you to a five-headed mega-bird from Bird-Person’s homeworld, but I won’t. I can also send you to the citadel and trade you in for a new Morty, but I won’t, as long as you quit being a pain in the ass.”

“Rick, please!” Ford hissed.

“It’s okay, Grunkle Ford, I heard worse when I went to get a snack and Stan was watching football.” Mabel giggled, remembering the other night when Stan’s team was losing and he let out a long stream of colorful swears that made him turn red when he realized Mabel had heard him.

“Of course you have.” Ford groaned and shook his head. “Well, let’s see what the damage is, Sanchez. What caused the crash? Did your micro-verse battery finally start a rebellion?”

“No, because they know if they do, I’ll get a new battery, Genius. When we came to this dimension through a wormhole we hit a mountain side and a part broke off here…”

The two old men examined the spacecraft and were discussing ways to fix it, meanwhile Morty walked up to Mabel and rubbed an arm nervously. “So, uh… I guess they met out in the Multiverse, huh?”

Mabel nodded; she didn’t know how these two old men knew each other or why these two humans were in a spaceship, but based on context clues, Morty’s guess made the most sense. “Wait, so you two are from another dimension?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Morty said with a shrug. “This is 46'\, right? My dimension is C-137.”

“Wow, cool!” Mabel said with shining eyes that threw Morty for a loop. “So, what’s different over there? Was Benjamin Franklin a man and never accomplished anything? Are dinosaurs still alive? Oo! I bet your sky is lavender-purple all the time, right?!”

Morty laughed a little and rubbed his arm again. “Uh, no. It’s, I think, pretty much the same as yours. My Grandpa Rick says there’s an infinite number of realities that are just slightly different from one another. M-M-Maybe the difference between C-137 and 46'\ is so small and unimportant it’s not obvious.”

“Oh, okay,” Mabel peered over to watch Rick and Ford work together for a little bit and then she smiled back at Morty. “So, do you always go on adventures with your Grandpa Rick?”

Morty sighed in a shaky puberty-voice and nodded. “Yeah, he’s always making me go on these stupid adventures with him.”

“What?” Mabel gasped with a smile. “They’re not stupid! I’d love to go to a different dimension with my Grunkle Ford! I’ve already been on one with him and Grunkle Stan when they had to rescue me from Dimension Mab3L. The other mes were a little self-centered, but it was a lot of fun to punch myself in the face and rescue my great-uncles.”

“Yeah, but from the sounds of it, your - what did you say, Grunkle Ford? - is nice to you.” Morty pointed out. “My Grandpa Rick treats me like garbage all the time, but then again he treats everyone like garbage, so at least he’s only signaling me out to stay hidden from the Federation or whatever.”

“Oh.” Mabel said quietly and held her hands behind her back bashfully, unsure of how to respond, but she decided to try to make Morty feel better. “Well, my other great-uncle, Grunkle Stan, is a little tough sometimes, but that’s only because he cares about his family and is toughening us up for a tougher world. He’s my hero!”

“That sounds nice.” Morty said with a small smile. He didn’t think Rick cared about his family like this Stan guy, but Morty wasn’t in the mood to kill Mabel’s optimism. “I like your sweater, by the way.”

“Thanks!” Mabel grinned proudly. “I made it!”

Morty’s eyes widened. “Wow, really?” Mabel held out her arm so Morty could feel her sleeve. “Oh my God, that’s amazing! You’re really talented.”

“Hey, thanks! If you want, I can make you one!”

“R-R-Really? You’d do that for me?”

“Sure! What’s your favorite color?”

“Uh… y-yellow.”

“Got it!”

Ford and Rick walked up to the teenagers and the six-fingered researcher said, “Well, I’m afraid the ship lost a part we need, but luckily I have the materials we need to build one in the lab back home.”

“Great!” Mabel said and grinned. “Let’s go! So, how did you two meet, anyway?”

Ford and Mabel led the way with Rick and Morty closely behind. “We met about twenty years ago in a high-security prison. I remember feeling relieved to see another human. I had been without human contact for a little under two years at the time since I had been stranded on some desert planet.”

“Yeah, this nerd got into big trouble for the extinction of a few million species on Planet 8824816.”

“What?!” Mabel gasped and looked up at her great-uncle, unable to believe that he would cause such mass genocide. “Grunkle Ford, you didn’t?!”

“Of course I didn’t, Mabel.” Ford quickly reassured his niece. “That was the planet I thought was a sandwich. Anyway, at least I didn’t do what Rick was in for…”

“What did he do?”

“I purposely caused mass genocide on Sector 56, Dimension “”113.” Rick said in a scaringly monotone voice.

“What?!”

“Rick!” Ford and Morty both scolded at the same time.

“Hey, it was either me or the Valakawns!” Rick snapped back. “Those bloodsucking leeches didn’t see what hit them, until the Federation caught me hanging from a tree upside-down, passed out and drunk.”

“Alright, enough!” Ford said firmly. “Let’s just build the part we need so we can get you two back to your home dimension. And, Mabel, once they’re gone we’re going to patch the wormhole with alien adhesive.”

“Okay. Last thing we want is for Dipper to get stuck in Dimension Dipp-3R or something.”

“Who’s Dipper?” Morty asked quietly.

“My twin brother!”

“Oh, cool! I don’t have a twin, but I have met multiple versions of myself.”

“Hey, me too! I’ve met Table-Mabel, Explainble, Threebel, Military-Expert-Mabel, Brainbel, T-Rex-Mabel, Fire-Mabel, and even Anti-Mabel!”

“I’ve met an Evil-Morty with one eye-patch who worked for the worst Rick in the Multiverse. I’ve also… Well, let’s just say I’ve met a lot of mes.”

The two teenagers talked while the two old men chatted on ways to fix the ship as they got closer to the Mystery Shack. Rick looked up and down the place and then snorted, amused. “Huh. Not the kind of place I’d expect from Mr. Stick-In-The-Mud over here.”

“My brother had to make some… changes in order to pay off the mortgage.” Ford explained and led the way to the back door. He opened it and said, “My lab is downstairs behind the vending machine in the gift shop. I believe Soos is giving a tour, so it should be safe to enter.”

“Gift shop?” Rick laughed and poked Ford’s shoulder. “When did you get so soft?”

“I am not< soft.” Ford said dignified.

“You’re wearing a blue sweater with a gold six-fingered hand.”

“My niece made it for me!” Ford said proudly and puffed out his chest.

Mabel rolled her eyes with blushing chubby cheeks and a smile and decided to let the old guys fight. She took Morty’s hand and said, “Come on! I’ll show you my room! I have a huge sticker collection you’ll love!”

“Oh, okay!” Morty said and allowed her to drag her up to the attic; it was nice being dragged to something nice and safe rather than some new monster of a different dimension.

“But hey, you turned your lab into a gift shop.” Rick was saying while the teenagers did their own thing. “Least you’re making a profit.” Ford wasn’t sure if Rick was being sincere or not.

“Actually, it’s all my brother’s.” Ford said and waved the subject away. “We’re getting off track. Let's just get you and your grandson out of my dimension.”

“Geez, you used to be way more fun.” Rick said with sagged shoulders. “What happened to the guy who ranked up million on Lottocron Nine and got tattoos with octopus-armed piglets? What happened to the interdimensional criminal who once shot fifty Bureaucrats to save a fellow scientist’s ass?”

“He discovered what was most important, Sanchez.” Ford growled with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Oh, HO!” A voice laughed as he shook his head and left the kitchen. “I know this guy isn’t talking about Mr. Goody-Nerds-Shoes!”

Ford pinched the bridge of his nose. The last thing he wanted was for his twin and his old friend to meet, but it seemed like some greater being(s) really wanted this to happen, so here we go.

Rick grinned at the sight of a conman in his suit and fez, with a can in his hand, instantly giving Rick the vibe that this guy couldn’t be trusted but would be a hit at parties and wasn’t a total snitch. “Now THIS is what I’m talking about! Name’s Rick, Ford Two.”

Stan barked a laugh and shook his hand. “The name’s Stan, Genius. And please for the love of Moses you weren’t just talking about my brother?”

“Are you kidding, this guy was a total badass!” Rick jabbed a thumb back at the fuming scientist. “He was a total idiot, had no clue how the Multiverse worked, but he was always willing to barrel into whatever crap was out there and destroy some shit!”

“Okay, you and I need to talk.” Stan tossed him the can of soda and went into the kitchen to get some snacks. “I wanna hear more about what kind of crazy violent nomad Ford was back in the day!”

“You got it! Just tell me how the hell he ended up with a cool twin? What, did you inherit all the fun traits leaving him with hobbies like collecting alien stamps?”

Stan barked a laugh and was back, looping an arm around his skinny neck. “I love this guy! Now, please tell me you were there when he got his stupid tattoo.”

“Stanley,” Ford scolded. “We’re supposed to be working on building the part he needs so he can go home. Rick and his grandson are stranded here…”

“Please, I can make that piece of shit from scratch in my sleep.” Rick said. “And Morty’s fine. That niece of yours will keep his small brain entertained for hours.” He turned to Stan and asked, “You got any booze, we had a rough crash here and I need a drink.”

“I got a secret stash in my room,” Stan muttered. “I don’t like drinking with the kids here, but I guess you can have a shot of whisky to relax. Want some soda?”

“Sure, why not. There’s a bit in my flask to last.”

And the old men walked away for the ‘Employees Only’ part of the house, leaving Ford to grit his teeth in annoyance and then bite his lip in discomfort. This could only end one way and he was not looking forward to it.

To be continued...

[suckerfordylansstuff]

New Journey (S.H.)  Chapter 2 Season 2

Pairing: Steve Harrington x henderson!reader

Summary: Y/N Henderson joins her brother's little adventure and makes a new friend on the way.

Warnings: swearing

Notes: back with a new chapter. Thank you for all the love and motivation to continue this story. If you want to be tagged just comment. Enjoy!

Not requested

Also gif not mine

Chapter 1 << New Journey Masterlist >> Chapter 3

" No, Dustin. You will not take Dart with you to school." you told him sternly.

It was the next day and when you went to check up on Dustin and Dart you caught him in the act. Right when he was ready to put him back in his ghost trap to take him with him.

" Y/N, come ooon.. The party might be able to help me figure out what he is." he said looking at you with his puppy eyes.

" No, not gonna work, buddy. It is way too dangerous to get him out of here." you said and pointed to the tank. He sighed in frustration and put Dart back to Yertle's tank, mumbling something under his breath.

" Alright, now that that is covered I'm gonna go to the library before class to pick up some books to learn things about slugs, lizards or whatever that thing is." you said and looked at Dart, but something caught your eye. "Hey.. Did Dart get bigger?"

" Um.. A little I think.." Dustin answered you like it was tottaky normal to grow that fast.

" Ok... Well, I'm leaving. Bye, Dustin! And don't do anything stupid." you warned him and he stuck his tongue out to you.

You went to get your backpack and kissed your mother goodbye "Bye, sweetheart." she called out to you and you went outside. But of course the moment you got out of the house, Dustin ignored your warning and put Dart right back to his trap, without you knowing.

You stared your car and went straight to the library and picked up some books that would help you figure out what Dart is. You went to the library lady at the front and put the books down for her to check.

" Hello, miss Henderson. Doing a project at school?" she said marking at her notebook the books you were getting.

" Yeah.. Kind of." you answered her with a smile. She gave you a look, but didn't ask anything else. She handed you the books and wished you good luck. You waved at her and went to your car to go to school.

___

It was now your free period and you decided to take 2 of the books and see what you could learn about Dart. As you were sitting at the back of the school suddenly you heard two familiar voices talking.

" What are you doing here?" said a male voice. A very known to you one.

" What do you think? Where were you this morning? I missed first period." answered him a more feminine voice. 'Was it..'

" I just figured Jonathan would take you." told her the other person and by now you knew who it was. Steve and Nancy were finally talking about what had happened yesterday and it seems like she doesn't remember anything.

While Steve was explaining to her what had happened yesterday, it was clear that he was getting quite irritated from the whole situation and you couldn't blame him.

'This is wrong' you thought. You knew you shouldn't be listening to them, but you were afraid to move. They could hear or see you and that would have been ten times more terrible.

"... Oh yeah, also, you don't love me" he finished. This part broke your heart.

" I was drunk, Steve. I don't remember any of that."

'Yeah, Nance, but it doesn't explain your actions' you thought.

" So that makes everything that you said.. It's what? Just bullshit, too?" Steve told her, like he was somehow reading your own thoughts.

" Yes!"

" Well, then tell me." he pleaded.

" Tell you what?"

" You love me. " Steve told her desperately and by her silence you knew it wasn't gonna end well.

" Really?" she finally spoke up, but was interrupted by a loud noise.

" Harrington! Dude, we need you, man. That douchbag's killing us. Let's go!" said a voice, probably another basketball player.

" Alright!" Steve told him, but you didn't hear any footsteps.

" Come on!" the other guy spoke again, but it still stayed silent.

Finally, you hear walking and Steve saying "I think that you're bullshit." and left.

'Ouch..' were your only thoughts until you heard sniffing.

Nancy was crying. You wanted to badly to go and calm her down, but it would make things worse if she found out that you had been listening this whole time. So you let her be and she eventually left.

But after all of this you couldn't go back to reading about frogs and lizards. Your mind was too set on Steve.. And Nancy. Their whole situation. So you packed your stuff and headed for your next class.

___

" Hey, little guy." you said after entering your brother's room.

"Hi.." he replied softly. Everything looked normal- well.. As normal as it could be. Dustin was on his bed reading a comic and Dart was on the tank.

" I'm sorry for being harsh in the morning." you started sitting next to Dustin " It's just.. If someone saw Dart they might have freaked out or hurt him or God knows what and, even if he's gross, he clearly means something to you. So it would be a shame for something bad happen to him because some idiot is scared."

" You were scared." Dustin answered trying to come out as cool.

" Yeah, true. But can you blame me? He's something we've never seen before and he shows up all slimy at our garbage can?." you said with a giggle and Dustin joined you. "But, tell you the truth, I really think he's kinda cool now." you finished looking at Dart.

" Wish she did, too." Dustin said quietly, so you didn't hear.

" What?"

" No.. Nothing. You're.. You were right. We don't really know what he is and until we do, it's better we just keep him inside. Hey, did you find anything at the library?" he asked you with hope in his eyes.

" I already had my theories about him, but I'm not too sure anymore.. At first I thought that he was a pol-"

" A pollywog, right?" Dustin interrupted me.

" Exactly! But I read that they usually are aquatic. You think that Dart is?" I asked him pointing at Dart.

" No.. I gave him water yesterday, but he hasn't drank any of it." Dustin explained.

" So, he isn't.. However, there actually are terrestrial pollywogs, two types to be exact. The Indirana semipalmata and the Adenomera andreae. One is from India and one's from South America."

" And how the hell did he end up here?"

" Wait. I didn't finish. Dart doesn't stand heat. And reptiles are cold-blooded. They love heat."

" Does this mean..." Dustin looked at you with happy, big eyes.

" You were right.. We might have found a new species." you said, a smile forming on your lips.

" Holy shit." he said with his cute little smile and then turned to look at Dart " You heard that, buddy? You're something new! Everyone's gonna love you!" he said and went to pick him up.

You just watched and smiled. All of this was very exciting and you couldn't wait to tell someone your new discovery.

___

As you were walking down the halls the next day you went to look for Jonathan, but you couldn’t find him anywhere. You hadn't talked to him in 2 days and you were kind of getting worried.

' Maybe I'll go check up on his house after school..' you thought to yourself right before something big crushed into you.

You gasped and took a few steps backwards, but fortunately did not lose your balance. " Hey, watch out a little." you told the person harshly.

" Sorry, doll. Guess I'll have to be extra careful when I come at you again." said the voice of the most insufferable man in the whole school. Billy Hargrove. You shot your head up and saw his smirk and that stupid cigarette between his lips.

" Yeah, maybe you should. " you responded and tried to leave, but he couldn't make it that easy for you.

" Woah, Henderson." he said catching your hand "Why the rush? Take things slow, that way you can enjoy the moment." he told you tracing his fingers on the side of your face, but you slapped his hand away.

" Get you dirty fingers off my face." you said clenching your teeth and a couple of 'oh's ' were heard from his supposedly friends.

" Ohh, getting feisty. I like it." he commented and leaned in closer to you, but before you could make him regret ever talking to you, another voice was heard.

" C'mon, Hargrove, quit it." Steve said out of nowhere and shoved Billy away from you. You weren't used to Steve defending you, actually you weren't used to anyone defending you, you pretty much handled things yourself, but when he came and stood next to you, you felt safe.

" What, Harrington? Little miss perfect left you and now you come searching for a new chick?" Billy smirked. I both blushed and got mad when he said it.' What is wrong with me?'

" You're an asshole, you know that?" Steve said with anger filling his voice, but before he could do anything stupid, you stopped him.

" Steve.. Thank you, but let me deal with this on my own." you said towards Steve, gently pushing him away. He looked at you like you were some lunatic, but realized something was up when you winked at him.

" Yeah, Steve. Let the lady speak for herself." Billy mocked him and looked down at you. You smiled sweetly and grabbed his shoulders. You pulled him just a little bit down, while your knee was making its way up to his crotch, but nearly missing.

Billy let out a sharp breath and gave you a wide eye look. You leaned up and whispered to his ear " Next time you will 'come at me', I won't miss." referencing to his earlier comment and walked away, without looking back and missing his shocked expression.

When you turned the corner a voice was heard once again, but this time a more friendlier one.

" Hey, Y/N." Steve said running to catch you.

' Deja vu' you thought.

"Hi.." you simply answered.

" I have to admit, that was.. That was pretty badass of you." he said smiling softly.

" Yeah, I guess. But he deserved it. He can't just go around thinking he owns everyone and everything. Someone has to teach him some limits and I got no problem doing that." you said and Steve chuckled. You missed that sound. You had actually heard him laugh before that, but this time it was genuine. 'He is getting better..'

" Anyway, have to get to class. See you around, crazy." he said and waved goodbye.

You giggled at the nickname and waved back as went on to your own lesson.

___

Once you stepped in the house the first thing you saw was your pretty upset mother. She was looking around with Mews's food in hand.

" Hey, mom. What's wrong?" you said touching her shoulder. She turned around and looked at you with sadness in her eyes.

" Hi, dear. Did you, by any chance, see Mews outside? I can't find him anywhere."

" Um.. No, but you know him. I'm sure he's not too far away. He's probably out there exploring. Not the first time, he'll come back." you tried to calm her down and kissed her cheek. She gave you a sweet smile and went outside to search a bit more.

You shook your head smiling and went to your room. As you opened the door you were surprised to see your brother with tears in his eyes, trembling. You threw your bag and rushed to hug him. He accepted the hug and after a couple of seconds you spoke up.

" What happened, little guy?" you asked stroking his hair. And what he would tell you next was not what you had expected.

~~~

Tag list : @bookscoffeandotherstuff @i-am-the-coffee-queen @a-hoe-for-vanya @stiles24ever

[takerfoxx]

Blood Island Fanfic (pt. 1)

magic5ball submitted:

(Well, long story short I started writing a little headcanon about one of your OCs and like last time, it kinda spiraled into a full fledged fanfic. Really not sure what to do with this, so I figured why not post it here, if only to see how much I got right. Anyways, enjoy.)

                                                    .   .   .

Ever since she was little, she knew something was wrong with her. Mama always insisted otherwise, that she was fine the way she was, and the others never made a fuss about her, but she could tell from the way they looked at her they thought she was a freak. From the way her eyes glowed green in the dark to her too pointy teeth to her too long tail; dark grey with fins sprouting all over the sides, instead of the triangle fin at the tip of the other mermaid’s tails, there was nothing normal about her.

She had a twin, once. A twin she had eaten in the womb. The matriarch had insisted there was nothing odd about that- these things happened sometimes- but she knew the others whispered about it behind her back. And her twin wasn’t entirely gone, either. Sometimes, her twin’s ghost whispered in her ear. You’re a demon, she would hiss, a depraved monster who ate her own sister. Why don’t you eat your own mother while you’re at it?

That was the hunger. She could feel it, always, deep in her stomach, gnawing at the edges, crying, demanding FOOD. A demon, the matriarch insisted, but one that could be forced out. So it came she was fed only jellyfish, kelp, and sometimes, bitter concoctions that would make her cough up all the contents of her belly. Mama promised it would make her better, that she would be cured. Mostly, though, it made her feel weak, and confused. Why couldn’t she eat fish like the others? Yet even without food, as years passed she grew longer, her body stretched thinner and thinner with each passing day.

But worse was when the others came after Mama, blaming her for infidelity and other sins she was too little to understand. She would yell at them to stop, but even her own Mother demanded she stay out of things while the grown-ups screamed at each other.

It wasn’t all bad, at least. There was Mama, who sang lullabies and told stories of the Papa she never met. Mama who made her a belt of sea silk and shark teeth while assuring her that she was wonderful as she was. Mama, who always hugged her when she was scared and pulled her along when she was too exhausted to swim.

 There was also, at times, flotsam. She loved looking through the strange wooden debris as it bobbed across the surface of the ocean, heading for an unknown destination. It would always be covered in strange barnacles, snails, and other hard shelled things she would try to collect, only to forget about later. If she was lucky, there would be things clambering across the top, too: brown hairy creatures with no fins and long tails, scaly green things that licked the air with forked tongues, and the things Mama called BIRDS!, which came in so many beautiful shapes and colors. These discoveries would always lead into tales from Mama about the things that lived out of the water, which were always her favorites because they were always, so odd, so strange, so DIFFERENT from her life of following currents across the ocean, even if she was certain Mama made them up.

The end began when Mama had a second baby. A precious little merboy with inky black hair, just like hers. A new baby for Mama to sing lullabies and tell stories too. A new baby for Mama to adore. One without a demon inside them. From that day forward, she swam a little further away from Mama, so she didn’t think of eating him, too.

Then came the fateful day her pod discovered a sunken ship. One by one the mermaid’s lithe bodies slipped through a crack in the ship’s hull, entering dark rooms coated in grime. The pod huddled together, weary. But her? She was FASINATED. What creatures had made this thing? Where did they live they? Did they have tails, like them? Or have hands where their tails should be, like the fuzzy things she’d seen on the driftwood? What did they eat? What were their families like? An older mermaid shushed her up real quick, saying they were to get a few important items, then GO. She nodded, but did not stop staring at everything they came across, until at last they reached a room the Matriarch referred to as the ‘Captain’s Quarters’. The mermaids ransacked the place, grabbing any seemingly useful thing they came across and jamming them into makeshift bags made of discarded shark eggs. But while the other mermaids made themselves busy, she sensed something… off. At first she thought it was just her- that sunken ships always felt this way, but then she smelled something odd, something… tasty. The walls of the room shimmered, revealing the largest octopus she had ever seen. The beast unfurled its’ tentacles, forcing the terrified pod into a corner, save one terrified individual who, trapped in the vice grip of a meaty red tentacle, found herself being drawn towards the beast’s massive beaked mouth. But while the others stared terrified, with a burst of speed she didn’t even know she had, LUNGED at the befuddled cephalopod, gripped the tentacle holding her podmate, and.. bit down. Later, the others would recount how they had seen a ten year old start ripping chunks out of the giant octopus with her teeth and swallowing them whole until, bewildered by this turn of events, the would be-monster had fled into the ocean. For her part, she mostly remembered the taste: a chewy and meaty texture, satisfying to bite into, with a clean, savory flavor. Afterward, she’d felt a soft, warm sensation radiating from her belly. So THIS was what feeling full felt like!

Victory, however, was short lived. From that day forward the rest of the pod kept a great deal of space between her and them, even the mermaid she’d rescued. Despite this, the Matriarch monitored her relentlessly, ensuring she only ate jellyfish and kelp. It was strange, really: even as they starved her, her tail grew longer and longer, her body thinner and thinner until, from head to fin tip, she was a full foot longer than Mama.

Face it freak, her sister whispered, there’s no place for you here. Best head out before Mama ends up in that belly of yours. And under the cover of night, that’s exactly what she did.

.   .   .

            So began a life of following the rich, fragrant smell of fish, travelling from island to island after vast silver schools, getting just enough energy to keep her going. She had mixed feelings about her predicament: on one hand, it was nice to be away from the judging eyes of her pod; never accidentally hurting someone she loved. And she liked travelling from island to island, seeing all the strange creatures she never would have seen if she’d just stayed with the pod: slugs the colors of rainbows, fish that jumped out of the water when she got too close, sharks with too long tails, just like hers, they snapped to stun their prey. Those were exciting.

But on the other, catching fish was much more difficult on her own than she had imagined. They were just so fast! It took all her energy just to snatch the tiniest morsel, and by then she’d be so exhausted she couldn’t hunt until the next day. At those times she’d sleep free floating with one eye open, so sharks couldn’t get her. There she would stay until her hunger woke her up again. Sometimes, a passing pod of dolphins would offer her something to eat, but their pity stung.

That all changed the day she found the sea turtle. The scent of mackerel had brought her right into a cloud of jellyfish, and as much as the things brought up bad memories, she was really in no condition to pass up a free, slow moving meal. Neither, it seemed, was the largest sea turtle she had ever seen. First she saw the head, easily big as her torso and wrinkled with age. Enormous black eyes gazed at nothing as it casually munched on jellyfish. Then the rest of the body revealed itself as it parted the cloud with massive gray flippers covered in large, stony scales. From these she carefully swam away from, lest a stray paddle accidentally shatter her bones. At first, she marveled at it- the thing must have been ancient! - and before long an idea popped into her head. Grabbing onto its’ barnacle coated shell, she consigned to letting the giant take her wherever it went. Tired, she let out a yawn, drifting with a barnacle grasped firmly in her hand.

.   .   .

She awoke to a very familiar, irresistible smell.

Octopus! Her stomach rumbled from the memory. Parting from the turtle, she sped off in the direction of the scent, licking her lips at the thought of her meal-to-be-! But she didn’t quite expect a school of some of the oddest things she had ever seen. Not octopus at all, but squid. They had tentacles, but these were short and close to the head. Bad for grabbing things (thank goodness) though opening and closing them seemed to move them through the water. And on top of their heads, they had a long, conical shell, perfect for cutting through the water. Or anything foolish enough to stand in their path, no doubt. Carefully, she navigated around the school, until she was directly behind one. With a kick of her tail, she lunged-

Only for the creature to shut its’ tentacles, darting away-

Right into the open maw of an even stranger creature.

When she saw it, her breath caught in her throat. They were in the open ocean! How could something so massive stay hidden?! Like a whale, it had smooth grey skin with a white belly and a long, sinuous body that ribboned up and down as it swam, like an eel’s. Opening a mouth of curved fangs (just like hers!) it bit down on the octopus-thing’s shell, shattering it into a thousand pieces. At the sound the rest of the shelled squids darted out into the ocean.

Great.

It wasn’t long before the whale-eel, sated by its’ meal, turned its’ attention to the strange intruder on its’ territory. She took the hint, swimming in the opposite direction of the beast as fast as she could go. Not fast, enough, apparently, because five seconds later the beast was ribboning after her, open jaws drawing incredibly close incredibly fast. She forced her long tail up and down as hard as it could go, but it wasn’t enough: the whale-eel was gaining. But desperation has a funny way of breeding ideas, and this moment was no different. Looking at the surface, she recalled the strange fish she had seen on her journey. With one final kick of her tail fin, she broke the surface of the water and launched into the air! Her heart beat quickly as, for the first time in her life, she felt the strange sensation of air on her skin. More importantly, though, she could see an island ahead of her, covered in lush jungle with mountains toward its’ center. And where an island was, there was bound to be shallow water. Too shallow for something the size of the whale-eel. Plunging back into the deep, she breached the surface, keeping up her momentum until, at last, the island loomed over her, vast and mysterious. But it wasn’t until she was nearly on the beach she finally checked behind her to find the whale-eel, thankfully, nowhere in sight.

She should have felt safe. She should have felt relief. But mostly she just felt exhausted. Exhausted, and hungry. With what little strength she had left, she swam across the shallows, trying to sense something moving through the sand.

.   .   .

For once, luck was on her side. Granted, the thing she uncovered scuttling beneath the sand- a flat oval with far too many eggs underneath- didn’t have much of the way of meat, but food was food, and there were more than plenty of them scuttling just beneath the sand. Now that there was food in her belly, and no danger in sight, she could let her situation sink in. Or rather, her sister.

So here you are, in an island full of ravenous monsters. Maybe one will eat you. Wouldn’t that be fitting?

She tried so swim, which usually helped her shake off bad thoughts, but these were firmly lodged in the back of her head.

Then again, better you get eaten than you hurt someone else.

But at the same time, she couldn’t just hide out in the tidal zone, she couldn’t just hide out in the surf scavenging for oval shaped crab-things forever. And so what if she died? Not like anyone would miss her. Which is how she found herself just a few days later, tepidly swimming back where she had come. The squids with shells were long gone, in their place a school of fishes whose heads seemed to be covered in hard bony plates she’d never seen before. They brushed past her, indifferent. Tailing them, she thought back to the squids, recalling their strange shells, and the odd crabs she had eaten near the shore. Seemed armor was a popular thing in these parts. Though considering what kinds of things they shared the sea with, it wasn’t hard to imagine why.

Speaking of the devil, surely enough the whale-eel couldn’t resist such a tasty looking school, and burst in, this time from the side to snare a hapless fish, biting down until it ceased struggling and then swallowing it whole. Part of her wondered what it must have tasted like, but at the moment she had bigger priorities. She screamed, and at first the beast ignored her, almost deliberately so. For better or worse, it didn’t. Soon they were squared off: on one side, a sharp toothed mermaid with an unusually long tail. On the other, an impossibly long killing machine that could easily shatter every bone in her body with a single flick of one of its’ flippers.

And they weren’t alone. From behind the mother happily swam another whale-eel, maybe a quarter a size of the other, staring with round, black eyes.

Her heart sunk. Mama.

The mother whale-eel tried to push her curious child away, to no avail. After all, who could resist the strange new potential playmate that had just come into the area? Of course, her mission had just become that much more complicated. It was one thing to face a monster, it was another to face her knowing she was a mama just looking after her baby. The scene was enough to make her consider going back to the seashore, when she noticed something rocketing out of the ocean depths. Like the whale-eel, it had flippers, a long tail; a pointed head full of teeth. But whereas the whale-eels were long and thin with smooth skin, this thing was covered in scales and absolutely massive. So much she felt herself being pushed upward by its’ movement. And it was headed right for the baby. Without a moment’s hesitation, she lunged for the baby, pushing the bewildered thing out of the path of danger. Once she slowed, she released the young whale-eel, who swam, panic-driven, away. Mama was nowhere to be seen. As for herself, she felt the glare of two baleful yellow eyes on her back, turning around just in time for the scaly monster to lunge again. But whereas she had qualms attacking a mother, she had no issues attacking a child hurting demon from the deep.

You’re a monster. Might as well act like it.

She charged the demon, stopping just before its’ wide, hungry jaws. Then, with breakneck timing, she spun around, flicking her long tail with a Snap! Right in the creature’s eye. An ocean-shaking howl rang out of the demon’s throat as she gripped its’ massive, muscular neck and bit down. HARD. The meat was too tendony and firm for her liking, breaking a few of her teeth, but she got her desired effect: blood seeping into the water.

Just like that, the energy left her body. It shouldn’t have been surprising, really, with how little food she’d been getting compared to how much energy she’d been using. Getting worn out was inevitable. And what better way to get worn out than by becoming part of the food chain? The last thing she felt before going unconscious was something powerful pushing against her.

.   .   .

            When she awoke, it was to the pleasant realization she wasn’t dead. Rather, she was being nuzzled by the very same baby whale-eel she had rescued earlier. Shoving its’ poking face away, she found herself riding on the back of none other than the mother. Somehow, the beast had carried her away from the scaly demon, into yet another strange school of creatures. They were not unlike the shelled squids, but their ridged shells coiled into a tight spiral rather than pointing forward. Her rescuer tossed her a dead one, its’ shell crushed by massive jaws, which she eagerly inhaled, the soft flesh sliding smoothly down her throat and into her belly. Sated, she clung to the back of the Mother whale-eel as it took her to the shallower waters on the coast of the island, where she’d (probably) be safe and sound. Letting go, she felt almost… sad to leave the majestic beast behind. Then again, maybe she didn’t have to. An idea raced through her head as she recalled her life back with her pod; how they would work together to catch fish.

But how to tell the whale-eel? She called for the creature, directing her attention to the sandy seafloor. Then, taking her index finger, stabbed it into the sand, drawing a picture of herself and the creature. The whale-eel and her child stared intently.

They understood. Good.

More drawings. Shelled squids. More whale eels. Herself.

They still looked, enraptured.

More complicated things. Movements. Ideas. Formations.

.   .   .

The dark grotto rested at the base of the island, and it was here she hesitated, its’ mouth ominous and disturbing. Still, this was where the whale-eel had directed her, and it was too late for her to back out on her word (metaphorically speaking). At the top of her lungs, she bellowed, surprised by how her voice vibrated off the grotto’s walls. It was strange, hearing her voice again after so long. Soon, another sound followed, this one the rapid movement of water as something vast as any whale but far more bloodthirsty surged through the grotto and eventually rocketing into the open sea. She did not wait for this moment to pass before she darted away fast as her sinuous tail could take her.

Long, tense moments passed. Maybe seconds, maybe minutes. She didn’t dare look behind her.

Justkeepswimmingjustkeepswimmingjustkeepswimming…

Until, at last, curiosity got the better of her, and she turned her head around to see those cavernous jaws wide open.

Now!

With a shriek she jerked upward, each flick of her tail rocketing her ever so close to the surface until-

Splash!

Her skin went cold as she popped into the open air. It was amazing how much she could see from her height, the vast ocean stretching out below her, birds circling some unseen prey above. Her heart beat ever so more quickly, all breath leaving her breathless. Crazy, how different everything looked from above!

A sharp pain rang out from the tip of her tail, dragging her away from ecstasy.

Oh. Right.

The force of a tidal wave dragged her back into the blue, no dount with the intent of swallowing the pesky girl whole.

It never got the chance.

From all sides lunged a quartet of whale-eels, the Mama and three others that had been coaxed into joining the plan. Normally, such a maneuver would have been reckless: the scaled demon would have easily ripped one of them to shreds. But with an adequate distraction, the four normally solitary predators rended the flesh of their adversary without mercy. A great bellow shook the ocean as the demon fled, massive plumes of blood spewing from its’ wounds.

Now, she wasn’t an expert on big, scaly demons, but she had a strong feeling it wouldn’t be coming around anytime soon.

As for the whale eels…

They formed a ring around her, staring intently in a way that made her nervous.

How fitting an end, to defeat monsters only to be betrayed by others. Can’t say I blame them; probably frightened to death of your grotesque, horrid…

But the whale-eels made no effort to devour her. Instead, they bowed their triangular heads, and went their separate ways, like friends at the end of a playdate.

.   .   ,

When the astonishment wore off, a single question bubbled to the surface of her mind:

What now?

Well, for starters, there was the vacant grotto, and it would be nice to have a place to hide out…

The floor of the dark cavern was littered with the pale bones of a thousand different types of sea creatures. Amongst them, he noticed several crab-things skittering about, picking what flesh they could from them. She smiled ever so slightly at this. Exploring the dark cavern with creepy crawlies was better than being alone. Fortunately, it seemed these would not be the only things keeping her company: there were fish here too, albeit ones with something… off about them. Maybe it was their large, fleshy fins, of which there seemed too many. Maybe it was their broad, spade-like tails. Maybe it was their scales, black peppered white like the night sky, or their large, milky eyes, round as a full moon. But they moved rarely, content to float in place, so she let them be.

The bones, on the other hand…

She had never seen so many. And from so many different creatures, too! Turtle shells and squid shells, the skulls of whales and of fearsome, carnivorous fish, it would take weeks to sort through them all. An especially large skull of some toothy predator caught her attention first, and with all her strength she dragged it to the entrance of her newfound home. She could already see those empty eye sockets gazing fiercely from above the grotto’s entrance. It was going to look awesome!

No sooner had she reached that point, however, than she noticed someone had beaten her there. Scattered about were large, colorful shells, along with hunks of meat from all a matter of creatures, so fresh their blood was still seeping into the water.

Her eyes lit up as the scent entered her nose. A moment later, her instincts kicked in.

.   .   .

A few minutes later, a very full and satisfied mermaid let out a belch; a fat, lazy bubble escaping her mouth and wobbling ever so slowly to the surface. As the effects of a food coma set in, she shut her eyes and grinned. Crazy as it seemed, even with all the monsters around, maybe, just maybe she could make a home in this crazy place. 

There’s some real good stuff here. Admittedly I don’t have much planned for the mermaid and thus haven’t given much thought to her backstory, but while I can’t promise that I’ll use all of this, some might make its way in.

[imhereforbvcky]

Fear

Summary: When Bucky is out, someone comes for him in the home you share and you must defend yourself. Problem is, you’re no hero and you don’t know if you can morally compartmentalize like one.

Warnings: A decent amount of violence, fairly graphic about it. I just read horror for book club, I’m sorry.

Word Count: 2345

Author’s Note: I shit you not this was a headcanon request (Overcoming A Fear) from TWO Christmases ago. I am such a request slug. I’m sorry it took me so long but it truly did give me a little inspiration jolt so I stashed it away to write a whole thing.

Your hands trembled around the cold steel and your muscles had begun to burn with the weight of your outstretched arms

While your heart raced and your eyes darted frantic paths over the stranger sauntering slowly across the living room, he seemed… at ease; this intruder in your home.

He fixed the barrel of his own handgun in your direction with practiced stability and smiled at the steady dip yours had taken. Your inexperience screamed your vulnerability with every move.

“You can put that down now,” he purred. His gaze dropped for one measured moment to the gun in your hands.

In the same instant you corrected your drooping aim. It wouldn’t be long before the barrel dipped again. That inexperience was now a burning ache in your shoulders.

“Think I'll hold onto it,” you spat back anyway.

“It won't help. I know who you are.”

“I'm nobody,” you answered honestly. There was nothing you could offer him, no information, no skill, nothing worth saving. Why wouldn’t he just leave?

“Exactly. It’s too late. You missed your chance.” That smile would haunt you for months. You knew it would. But you couldn't stop the trembling or the sick lurching in your gut each time he stepped closer. You couldn't pull the damn trigger.

You were fear personified, in all her pitiful, self-sabotaging agony.

“You're just some nurse,” he nearly laughed, stepping ever closer as your back pressed against the bookcase. “Some fool who can't hold a gun properly. A shivering fraud who's never made a real threat much less followed through on one. No matter how often he makes you practice holding that SIG.”

Whoever he was, he’d read you like a book.

Bucky didn’t like surprises. And very little could surprise him.

There was absolutely nothing in his life now that he didn’t prepare for. It was more than careful, more than training. Some might call it a compulsion, but that wasn’t quite it. His need for control grounded him in more ways than one. It allowed him to operate again in a world that had, over decades, stripped him of all autonomy.

When the two of you finally decided you’d get a place together, it happened slowly. Small, cautious, calculated steps. Prepared.

It had started with the most thorough apartment search in real estate history. Eventually, when he was good and ready, the search ended with more precautions.

To you, the security system was a comfort. But the escape plans were a nuisance. And you’d thoroughly rolled your eyes when he first took you to the indoor shooting range, just to show you how to handle some of the weapons he kept around the house. You’d questioned if this was really necessary?

But it gave him some peace and goddamn if he didn’t deserve a little.

So you did as he asked. You learned how to hold and load and fire and clean each weapon. Not with any measure of precision or with the level of care he committed to the task. But it was enough, he’d hoped. It would be enough to keep you safe until help arrived if anything happened. Until he could get there or until someone heard gunfire and called the police.

He had you practice often. You were careful and you tried, for his sake. But you weren’t Bucky or Natasha, or anyone else he worked with.

Not everyone is accustomed to death. Most people haven’t seen war up close, and even fewer have seen it like Bucky had.

Of course, he’d prepared you the best he could.

“When you pull a gun on someone, you’re escalating the situation to the absolute brink,” he warned. “You’d better be prepared to pull that trigger.”

Even then, in the safety of a secure shooting range with the heavy steel laid out on the table between you and someone you trusted and loved, you’d wondered if you’d ever truly be prepared to carry that burden.

“Get out of my flat.” You tried to sound firm, direct. The words didn’t give you as much strength as you’d hoped.

“Can’t.” The intruder shrugged. “I always complete my assignments. And this one,” he paused and gestured widely at the room. The sharp hiss of his ripstop nylon jacket cut through the room like a knife.  “…well, Sergeant Barnes, is due home any minute. Isn’t he?”

He glanced at his watch with all the casual disregard of a man completely in control. It seemed almost carless, but you knew better. This man who made every step look effortless would make a shot through your skull with equal ease. Not one glance was careless.

You also knew you should have taken your shot. The most frustrating part wasn’t the threat. It was that he was right. You wanted nothing more than to wipe that bored look from his face, but he was right. You were a nurse. Not an action hero. Not a match for him. Not even a wild card.

He owned the room because you couldn’t take the damn shot.

Hurting others wasn’t in your nature. Killing someone was inconceivable, even in defense.

You were a nurse for gods sake. You’d made a career out of getting your hands dirty to help and to heal. Now, here in the face of such violence, such fear, you felt powerless. Beholden to your damn bleeding heart.

It was one thing to promise Bucky that your safety came first. It was one thing to know how; to know in your head what to do. Actually doing it, was a whole different beast.

After you shot him, you pondered whether your triage instincts would kick in. Would you press your hands to the wound and try to save the man you’d killed? Become drenched in the blood you yourself had drawn?

Your hands trembled with the fear of it; with the weight of your indecision. Every passing second wound the tension in your chest ever tighter.

You held the gun aloft, never breaking your quivering aim. All the while knowing…

There was no way you would take the shot.

“He’ll kill you.” You hated how soft your voice sounded now. How dry, how thin. How scared.

“I don’t think so.” This stranger laughed. Perfect teeth baring white, far too close now. His eyes gleamed with something like… Like that excited glint children have when they first lay eyes on their birthday cake carried out on a platter. “I have you.”

Every muscle in your body thrummed in fear. He was far too close. How could you let him corner you like this? If you pried your aching fingers from Bucky’s handgun and stretch them out, you could touch him. Your fingertips would brush this stranger’s chest. This man who made threats with a smile on his face and a laugh in his voice.

He shouldn’t be so close.

“In wh-what way?” you demanded, forcing more voice than air with the second attempt at the word. “I have a gun to your chest.”

There was no stopping the fear now as its icy fingers gripped at the base of your neck and sent a shiver down your spine. He’d closed the distance at your lightest of threats. The words, he knew, were hollow.

The tip of your handgun now pressed into his chest and he wrapped careful, practiced hands around the barrel, steadying your ever reluctant aim. His grin never faltered. He never second guessed a single step. Prepared.

Your eyelids fluttered closed for a fraction of a second, overwhelmed with the weight of your fear and of your failure to just pull the goddamn trigger. Even in the face of your own death and an all-consuming fear, you couldn’t compartmentalize your morals like this. All you could do was remind yourself to keep breathing. Just… keep breathing.

With that one swift step he’d made the truth clear. That gun might as well be a water pistol.

“For shock value, honey,” he whispered.

In one rapid sweep, he shoved the barrel of the gun down toward the floor at his side and stepped too close for you to even try to raise I between you. The hand not on your gun had snapped up behind your head and yanked at a fistful of hair.

You cried out in pain and surprise. Your body reacted immediately.

Reactions are without thought, without predication or care. No preparation.

Bucky hated reactions.

Not one second of this followed the safety protocol he’d laid out for you when you bought this place together.

At the pain burning across your scalp your body curled inward; contracted in every way. The fear gave way and your knees buckled. Your body drew itself close and you crouched low, trying to escape the pain. Your hands flew to the source of the pain, and clenched. Helpless, reactionary.

Without meaning to, your finger eased back on that damn trigger.

There was a thundering pop and a flash of light. The stinging burn of gunpowder and smoke filled your nostrils in an instant and there was… relief.

The pain on your head was gone and something wet trickled down the back of your neck.

In different circumstances you might’ve have guessed it was a bug on your skin. But no, the steady drip moved in a clear path. It was warm.

The ringing in your ears from the gun in your hand had ensured you didn’t hear the heavy thud or the rasp of the ripstop nylon as the stranger’s body crumpled to the floor beside you.

The wall was awash in a spray of deep red.

Your gaze flashed to the gun in your hands, still hot from the explosion it had channeled half a second earlier.

The back door boomed as it burst open and slammed against the wall and you flinched with a scream. Bucky barreled inside until he slid on his knees in front of you.

The primal fear began to subside and build into something bigger. A  tidal wave of horror and  regret  crashed through you. It screamed that you had failed; that this would happen again and you would not survive.

Carefully, Bucky curled his hands around your shoulders and looked over you with quick, searching eyes. Always cautious. Always prepared. He assessed for injuries and found none.

“It’s okay,” he repeated over and over, “I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

He did, however, find the fear swelling in your eyes, trembling in your hands as you shoved the gun into his lap.

“I’m sorry,” you sobbed, “I didn’t mean to! I couldn’t do it, and I… and I--! I didn’t mean to--” Your hands frantically shoved at the weapon with open palms like it was poison, stinging your flesh with each contact until he lifted the revolver and set it behind him.

“Hey,” he soothed when you dropped your face to his shoulder, tears soaking his shirt. “You did nothing wrong, you hear me?”

“But everything you told me to do… I couldn’t…” It all came out in muffled incoherent cries. Disorganized and soggy. Your brain seemed to be operating in the same chaos; drenched in adrenaline.

“It’s alright,” he shushed you. “Those are tools to buy you time, darlin’. And they did. I don’t expect you to take down the world. That’s my job.”

Your sobs eased to a heavy sniffle as you tipped your head up to look at his worried face. His hands smoothed over your hair. You always complained when he did that, but just now… it was the most comforting feeling in the world. And the small hook of a smile banished the noise raging in your head.

“Did you have to hit my bonsai, though?” his sharp concerned eyes glinted with the prospect of a chuckle from you.  “I know you don’t think it goes with the rest of the house but, damn.”

“What?” you asked, brows knit together as you leaned your head to peer around his shoulder at the spot his carefully pruned bonsai always occupied.

He worked on that plant when he needed to focus on something outside himself; something that required dexterity and attention. It was growth and life that he could have a part of cultivating, not a mission, not destructive, not pain.

Now the shrub’s main shoot had splintered and cracked. The poor plant lay bent and ruined over the end table by the window.

“But I thought I--?”

His grin broke into a soft chuckle. You felt it beneath your palms, still wrapped tightly around his ribs. Your eyes still remained glued to the hole your bullet had ruptured in the plaster behind the plant.

“I couldn’t do that again if I tried,” you mumbled.

As the adrenaline faded and realization began to settle, you turned down to the man… the body beside you.

Before your scattered gaze made it to the mess he’d made, Bucky’s hand closed around your chin and gently turned your face the opposite direction, to the back window. The one by the door he’d burst through, and the hole in the glass. It was about an inch wide and the glass splintered and cracked around it.

He’d fired a shot of his own but unlike yours, it was no accident. And Bucky never missed.

“I told you, I’ve got you.”

Turns out, Bucky knew exactly the type of person he had. He’d recognized that you were unaccustomed to violence and he craved that normalcy. He could see that you were a healer, and embraced the safety of your trust on the days when he woke up wounded. You valued life over fear, and it had given him hope when, once, the world had felt dark and hostile.

Bucky had been a warrior for as long as he could remember. Even in the times he couldn’t remember, he’d been a warrior. Now over 100 years old, Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes had had more than enough of soldiers, of people who do what it takes without fear or regret.

He loved you for many reasons, not least of which was because you would always be afraid to pull the trigger.

Will reblog with tags.

[chicago-reeed]

PHCK ME - Reed900 Fic Rec List

Hello!!! You might not remember, but awhile back I mentioned I had the start of a fic rec list that I planned to post (which I never did). To celebrate all 1K+ of you, I thought I would finish the list for you! It is my duty as a loyal reed900 servant.

DISCLAIMER: This list of reccomendations was made purely out of personal opinion. I by no means want to discredit any other fics/authors. Some may not agree with my choices, and that’s totally understandable. I just wanted to share these fics because I personally enjoyed them <3

I didn’t include some fics because they haven’t been updated in a long time, or I didn’t remember them enough to give them accurate reviews. Also, I’m sure there are many more fics that I forgot to put on here (these are from my ao3 bookmarks). I might include them in a future update.

Anyways, all of my recs are under the cut! There are a lot!! I had eight pages worth of them in my documents haha

Mint Condition - by itsdefinitive - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - Reed could see what they were going for there -- the whole infallible super-soldier thing.  A monument to testosterone made perfect, cast in steel within plastic.  It was actually really creepy.  Maybe that was on purpose.

The first reed900 fic I read, and it’s honestly what got me into the pairing itself.

Charon - by Vapewraith - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin Reed, a mess of a human being, just wants to be left to his self destructive tendencies. RK900, an android designed by the most brilliant minds in the world to be the perfect machine, is desperate to grasp the full range of emotional freedom now afforded to him. The two will need to find an equilibrium before their incompatible personalities—and an eccentric serial killer with a dangerous piece of tech—swallow them whole.

I can’t even describe how much I love this fic. I’m a slut for horror, and there’s plenty of that in here. It might just be my favorite. Definitely recommend.

Two Sides of a Vaguely Similar Coin - by ZombiBird - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 13/? - RK900 is lost.

It’s been months since the Revolution and he’s still no closer to figuring out what the hell he’s supposed to be doing with himself. He feels like an outsider in his own body. Completely detached, nothing more than a quiet observer; like he’s looking down at the world through a layer of glass instead of fully living in it.

Gavin Reed is a temperamental asshole.

This isn’t news, okay? Gavin’s fully aware of what he is. He burns bridges instead of building them. Bites hands instead of shaking them. Would rather drown in a sea comprised of the consequences of his faults and misdeeds than try to change the way he is. Because people like him? Maybe they deserve to drown.

[Alternatively: Both lost in different ways, Gavin and RK900 try to figure their shit out and end up learning that, sometimes, it takes two people who have absolutely no idea what the hell they’re doing to get a goddamn clue.]

I don’t remember much about this fic, if I’m honest. Not that the story is forgettable, it’s just been awhile since I read it. However, the title definitely stood out to me so I know it was very good :P

Captcha Encryption - by Cerulaine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - It's a little over a year after the android uprising and it's still the end of the fucking world.

Back in the day when things became shit he used to enjoy a drink or two. Or Five. It all depended on how long the shift ran. After 'The Accident' he can't even cough without Nines breathing down his neck anymore.

He just wishes everything would go back to normal, but if there's anything Gavin has learned it's that you can't unring a bell once it's been rung.

Or whatever. Fuck if he knows.

Similar situation to the last fic: I don’t remember much about it (my memory SUCKS), but I do remember thoroughly enjoying this one.

Daydreamer - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 21/24 - Large purple bruises twined prettily around the corpse’s throat, every finger defined in perfect cruelty. His eyes tore away from the handprints as a cold finger traced the lightning strike scar across the center of his face—drawing his attention to a small, blue lipped smile.

“Do you think you’ll ever leave this town, Gavin?”

________

When a series of Detroit murders are linked as originating in his hometown, Gavin Reed is unwillingly assigned the case. Fowler insists that his history with the place and people will hugely benefit such an investigation.

He was fucking wrong. 

This fic is one big holy shit moment tbh. Really fantastic. Really makes you wonder why these authors aren’t paid to do this.

All Aboard the Underground Railroad - by Senjihae - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 11/? - What starts as sticking it towards his half brother evolves into something with the potential to rewrite android history as he knows it. Gavin doesn't realize what he gets himself into until he is mistaken as the 'Android Messiah' of all things. It's not like he goes out of his way to help them, but his life gets a lot harder once Hank is assigned a shiny new boy toy ('sent by CyberLife').

Things only get worse when he's gifted a heap of metal of his own ('sent by Elijah Kamski').

(Yeah, fuck off Elijah)

Very interesting fic. Gavin is RA9 so that’s a thing. A nice slow burn!

Dragon Become Age - by errantwheat - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content Warnings - Chapters 11/? - Y’all wanted me to write dragon age!au so I did :)

YES! YES! YES! DRAGON AGE AU! YES! YES! YES! (it’s really gud)

Warmth - by TheRedPaladin101 - Teen and Up Audiences - No Warnings - Chapters 1/1 - Gavin frowned, the aching in his shoulder fading from his mind for a moment. “Then give me my jacket.”

“Your jacket is in no condition to keep you warm,” he stated. “For now, use mine and stay warm while we wait to head back to the station.”

----

Five times RK900 gave Gavin Reed his jacket, and one time Gavin gave his in return.

Very wholesome. Lives up to its title. Some good ole hurt/comfort!

Letifer - Terminallydepraved - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 19/19 - Gavin Reed is a DPD beat cop determined to make detective by any means possible, and putting an end to a string of murders looks like the quickest way to accomplishing that goal. Unfortunately for him, he fails to account for the real culprit— or the thought that perhaps he isn't the only one on the hunt for a killer.

(Now with cover art by Leetmorry!)

I love beat cop!gavin. It humbles him. And vampire!nines is scary and amazing. Love how the author wrote both of these characters (and the others too!). I definitely recommend this one!

A Strange and Beautiful Creature -  by LittleLalaith - General audiences - No warnings - Chapters 7/7 - Scientist Nines is called in to Amanda's lab to assist with a new discovery - a genuine Mermaid.

While Amanda is indifferent to the creature's circumstances, Nines builds an unlikely connection to the specimen and they grow a little closer than either of them expected.

(AKA Gavin is a sassy sea slug and Nines thrills in breaking the safety protocols)

Mermaid au! Nines wants to save mermaid Gavin, and it’s all very wholesome.

I Think You Do - by spotlightonmringenue - Teen and Up Audiences - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/? - “Son of a bitch, there’s another one. What the fuck is it doing,” Gavin says, grip going white on the gun as the android continues to stare at him without acknowledging Connor.

“RK900, my name is Connor. I’m part of a group called Jericho that recovered you from Cyberlife’s Production Center late yesterday. We are currently in the Detroit Police Department Central Station. Are you feeling okay?”

“It doesn’t feel shit,” Gavin mumbles, resisting the urge to step back as the RK900 takes a step closer. It holds out the cup, and Gavin’s eyes dart to it for only a second before flipping between Connor and his doppelganger.

“You requested coffee,” it says, and Hank sighs, leaning back against his desk while rubbing a hand over his forehead.

Quality ‘enemies to friends’ content. Nines is intimidating. Gavin is confused. Good times.

Flying with Crooked Wings - by UnCon - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 20/? - “Listen, kid,” Gavin started, cutting off the desolate child. Sure it was sad his dog had died but it wasn’t Gavin’s fault no one taught the little twerp chocolate was a dog’s kryptonite, “he’s in a better place, alright, so if you’d just stop asking for him to come back—it’d be much appreciated.”

“You promise?” the eight-year-old asked, his big brown eyes looking like glass—fragile and sparkly.

“Yeah,” Gavin lied, looking away as he did it—his halo going a bit crooked. To be honest, he wasn’t sure where dogs went after they died, only that he was tasked with calming the little boys and girls who despaired after them—at least until his punishment was up. “So just, you know, go to sleep and all that.”

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

In a world where angels and demons inhabit the same earth, both searching for a way to overthrow the other, both failing--Gavin sits right in the middle, with a crooked halo and a pair of wings to match. It's not enough to be a bit mischievous, however, he also has to get caught up in the demon brothers' scheme to take over heaven. Perfect.

Really good! This fic has the interesting dynamic of Gavin as an angel and Nines as a demon. Check it out!

The Red String Will Still Connect Us Ten Thousand Miles Apart (and to the moon and back) - by Jillflur - Teen and Up - Content warnings - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin, an ‘unlovable’ man without a Soulmate. He was used to it, never had one since he could remember. However, that little fact changes when he wakes up one day and realizes that he suddenly has a Red String connected to his ring finger. It only gets worse when months later, an android walks into the precinct who apparently is his new Soulmate!

Can androids even have Soulmates?!

To make everything even more complicated, a sudden new killer is on the Streets, and he murders people by cutting their Red Strings!

A soulmate fic by our very own jillflur! So good. Amazin. I love the red string trope so much. Yall should big read.

the prince & the reed - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 2/? - "I wanted to marry you," the prince murmured, polished armor gleaming as he stared down at the injured man--icy eyes tinged with sadness. Regret.

A guttural scream ripped from the soldier's throat as a heel dug into his wound, arm coated crimson from his weeping shoulder.

The soldier's teeth were stained pink as he jerked his chin up to grin toothily at the other man, bloody fingers scrambling down his thigh in search of the dagger tucked into his boot.

"Then drop to your knees and ask me properly, Nines."

Okay this fic is only two chapters and hasn’t been updated in awhile but GOT DAMN do I love how the author set this medieval fic up. I’m a slut for the medieval au’s, so that’s just extra points.

Not a teacher but I can teach you a thing or two - by Adishailan - Teens and Up - No warnings - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin owed the walking hunk of plastic. He owed him. Ugh, Gavin hated owing people stuff. It gave him a horrible feeling in his stomach, like indigestion, except worse because it involved emotionsTM. This, coupled with the fact he was pumped up with drugs and suffering a concussion, was why he was about to make a terrible, terrible mistake.

“‘Kay. Fine. Thanks or whatever. Lemme know if you ever need anythin' prick.”

RK900’s LED went yellow at this, and this time Gavin was pretty sure he was doing the processing thing. It was still yellow even when he nodded in a serious way and said:

“That would be useful.”

Oh man this one is BIG CUTE! It’s so soft, and is a fantastic slow burn. I totally recommend this fic.

O May I Join the Choir Invisible - by BanishedOne - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 13/? - Gavin Reed was a new inmate at a prison where the infamous killer, R. Nathan Kearney, was on death row. Circumstances led to an unfortunate encounter.

Okay don’t quote me on this but I think you can find the rest of this fic on Twitter. It was posted in a bunch of seperate posts and it was really confusing but there was definitely extra chapters. You can find the post here (or at BanishedOne on twitter). Other than that, this is a really good fic! The boys get into a lot of trouble!

Neon Maps - by caffienefueledfeels - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 11/11 - Everyone has their limits. Gavin is about to discover several of his own.

He's broke, barely scraping along, and struggling to keep an aggressive black-mailer off his back. On top of that, the grey-eyed distraction in his bed is about to test his heart in more ways than one.

Cyberpunk fic!! Super interesting! Go check it out!

Computers Are Elaborate Cat Beds, Actually - by errantwheat - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 6/? - “Marvelous find, Gavin. They’ll promote you for this, surely.”

Gavin pulled an exaggerated frown. He was awfully animated for a robot. “Jesus, What kind of human are you? I’m waving a fucking kitten in your face and you’re still a bitch.”

Really cute. I’m pretty sure there’s some art to go with this fic. Super duper cute reverse au!

More Than a Woman, More Than a Bride - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 38/? - When Gavin’s life is threatened for the last time by a violent gang expanding the production of a new drug in Detroit, Captain Fowler must come up with a plan for his safety. Perhaps forcing a marriage between Nines and Gavin wasn’t the best solution he could come up with...

Oh man. This fic. Let me tell you. I’ve been with this fic since the beginning and it is one hell of a roller coaster XD. The author updates constantly, it’s really impressive.

More Like You - by Mooneye - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 1/1 - “This next bit’s going to get awkward. I’m going to interface with you.”

At that he could feel the collective confusion in the room. His eyes darted up to look at Hank and then Nines. They both seemed eerily still and were possibly thinking that Gavin had surely lost his mind.

Gavin has kept his prosthetic arm, with good reason, a secret from humans and androids alike for as long as he’s had it. The prospect of losing Nines threatens to unravel everything, but perhaps it’s worth the cost.

The idea of Gavin (an android hater in-game) having a prosthetic-android arm is definitely interesting!

An Unforeseen Union - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/16 - Gavin and Nines are sent undercover to investigate a slew of brutal murders at a gay counselling and therapy resort for androids and humans. They're forced to pose as a couple, but soon feel their relationship becoming more than an act as real feelings develop.

I loved the dramatic whodunnit vibes in this fic! It gets crazy :P

The Great DPD Kink-Off - by connorssock, LittleLalaith, Skye_Willows, Stujet9rainshine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 24/24 - It started out as a bit of rivalry and turned into a competition. Who was the kinkiest android in town?

If you like smut, then read this. That is all I will say.

The Black Nights, The Long Dark - by bvssbot - Explicit - Content warnings - Chapters 8/12 - translation of an amazing russian fic тёмные ночи, долгая тьма (the dark nights, the long darkness) into english

An unknown catastrophe was the reason Gavin ended up stranded alone on a godforsaken Canadian island. Having almost made peace with the thought of living in solitude for the rest of his days, he saves the life of a pilot named Richard, whose airplane crashed in the middle of his humanitarian mission.

Shit, I loved ‘The Long Dark’ and I love this fic. I don’t speak russian, unfortunately, so I must wait to read the end. But this is still amazing and you all should read it.

Detroit: Outlast - by Cardboardghost - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 1/? - Connor Upshur is a down on his luck reporter, who spends his nights getting drunk and passing out at home. A mysterious email calls him to Mount Massive Asylum, owned by the Cyberlife corporation. Armed with nothing but a camera and his wits, Connor must brave the asylum's horrors and find way to save the people Cyberlife stole from him.

Gavin Park is a beat cop looking for a more well paying job. So when an offer to work private security at the Cyberlife corporation all but falls into his lap, how could he refuse? Gavin quickly realizes things are not what they seem, and in an attempt to expose Cyberlife, he ends up further in their clutches. Now he and Connor must work together to claw their way out of the asylum's depths, and the familiar faces that wait inside those walls.

This fic only has onw chapter, but go check out Cardboardghost’s art if you finish reading this!! They have provided so much quality content for the Outlast/DBH crossover I didn’t know I needed.

Gin & Tonic - by limchi - Explicit - No warnings - Chapters 8/? - People didn’t like Gavin Reed. Gavin Reed didn’t like people. It went together like gin and tonic, you can’t have one without the other. Nines hated him and he hated Nines. Those were the rules they played by, the rules that couldn't be changed - until fate decided they could.

It turned Gavin into pretending to dislike and Nines into a dense idiot with a crush, unable to grasp the concept of love. Both in utter denial. The catch: gravity worked against them, pulled them together at a frightening pace. Push against and defy the rules of nature or go along the prevailing forces?

Your friendly neighborhood reed900 fic. Very epic slow burn and fluff (and a hint of angst tbh). I definitely recommend!

Bitter Half - by turnabout - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin Reed was born unmarked, and had spent his entire life expecting to die like he lived - alone. It isn't until Tina points out the new serial number on his chest that he realizes everything is about to change. Whether that's for better or for worse is up to him.

I’m a sucker for soulmate fics and this one does not disappoint!

K-900 - by Serazimei - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 3/3 - Gavin and Nines were a great team. Unfortunately they were both huge workaholics. That's why when Nines' body gets busted on a job and the needed parts aren't available yet chaos is inevitable. Needing to choose between waiting and potentially being of no use at work or participate in one of Kamskis experiments and transfer his mind into an Android dog the decision is easy to make.

Who knew being in a dog body could become such a hassle? Not Nines, that's for sure.

Nines is a pup!!! I don’t believe I’ve seen a fic like this yet, so it’s really cool!

Thanks I'm Hating It - by Lupo (LupoLight) - Explicit: only suitable for adults - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Gavin goes to a fast food burger joint and Nines judges him. Then he realizes that Gavin isn't as much of a dick as he used to be, except he is, but in a different way. He isn't sure how to react to this knowledge.

QUALITY reed900 content

Bloodstains - by DeviantAlicee - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 12/? - Nines is an interrogator & detective for the DPD with a dark past. His thick skin & smarts helping him to be one of the most valuable members of the department. He's cold & daunting.

GV200 is one of the first police android models who's partnered with a cruel beat cop who not only hates that his partner is an android but doesn't think GV can feel any of the cruel things he does or says to him. The android doesn't speak up due to the fear of being shut down.

Nines has no clue that the android he bumped into at a bar is in fact a police android. He just thinks that he might be somebody in need of some help. But, as time passes by & a new drug that can be used by androids begins to circulate, Nines begins to realise the situation is a whole lot more convoluted than he originally thought.

This is a really interesting reverse au! Check it out!

Team spirit - by ilse_writes - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Someone had the unholy idea to go camping with the department, all in the name of 'team building'. Gavin is not liking it very much. That tall instructor with his haughty manners and cool eyes... that one he likes very much.

I don’t think I’ve seen another au quite like this one. Very epic content, can we hit Gavin Reed?

Wake Up - by SkySquid22 - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 6/? - “Gavin!”

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him.

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”

Something was wrong.

Something was very very wrong.

DIS GOT ME  F U C K E D  U P!!! Bruh @skysquid200 really out here shaking my world with this fic. I was hollering while reading this like I got HYPED

Natural - by Erik_Heinrich - Teen and Up - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 1/? - They are all wing people.

Gavin gets partnered with Nines. As expected hes not too happy about it, but their partnership seems to be going well. That is until spring comes along. Nines wings seem a bit fidgety and Gavin is nesting. Nines doesn't realize he's been trying to court Gavin, and Gavin is just as oblivious.

or. They are both complete idiots the whole time

WING FIC WING FIC WING FIC!!!! Yall dont know how long I’ve looked for a reed900 wing fic. My homie @phckingusername out here doin God’s work <333

Thank you all so much for 1K!!! Being able to hop on Tumblr everyday and talk to you guys makes me so happy!! I really hope I didn't f up this rec list anywhere lol. Hope u guys like it!!

[steveshcrringtons]

Holding Out For a Hero - Pt. 2

pairing: Steve Harrington x OC (Kat Henderson) eventually

warning(s): uhhhh….none I think. I guess language 

Word count: 3157

Author’s Note: I’m so completely in love with this pairing. It took forever, but I finally got around to writing part 2! I hope everyone likes it like I do. 

tagging: @billy--hargroves​

Summary: Kat Henderson gets sucked into the world of the interdimensional once again because of her little brother. However, this time she’s also got to deal with none other than Steve “The Hair” Harrington.    

How Kat ended up walking with Dustin and Steve on a railroad track, laying down pieces of meat for Dustin’s pet Demogogon to come eat was beyond her. It was one of the strangest things she had ever had to experience, and that was including the fact that she had made conversation willingly with Steve. She and Steve had never been ones to willingly talk to each other, and that was hard to do since she was best friends with his sister, Charlie, but they tried to not cross their paths. Kat hadn’t spoken to Steve since Tina’s Halloween party when she followed him out after his fight with Nancy. It was the first time that Kat had ever willingly crossed her path with Steve, and it came back to bite her in the ass once she spoke negatively about Nancy. Who would’ve thought that even after the look of heartbreak she put on that boy’s face that he’d still defend her honorably. He went off on her that night, and Kat decided that she wasn’t going to stick her neck out for Steve Harrington ever again.

“Alright, so let me get this straight,” Steve started, breaking Kat from her thoughts as the three walked down the tracks, “You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl...who you just met?” He finished, throwing down some meat on the ground.

“Alright, that’s grossly oversimplifying things.” Dustin defended.

Kat could see where her brother was coming from in wanting to use Dart to impress this girl. She would’ve thought it was sweet if the thing hadn’t eaten their cat.

“I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?” Steve questioned.

Kat rolled her eyes at the question. He clearly wasn’t understanding the reasoning behind why Dustin wanted to keep Dart.

“An interdimensional slug? Because it’s awesome.” Dustin answered causing Kat to smirk slightly as she threw down a few pieces of meat.

“Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn’t. I-I just...I don’t know. I feel like you’re trying way too hard.” Steve stated.

Kat clenched her jaw as her eyes snapped over to the back of Steve’s head, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she stared at his stupid head of hair.

“Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?” Dustin sassed.

Kat frowned, her eyes moving to her brother before looking down at the ground. She could hear the disappointment laced in her brother’s voice as he spoke to Steve. She really felt for her brother. She could understand that it wasn’t easy for him to talk to girls, he had never really been comfortable doing so, and she really wished she could help, but she knew that he’d never go to his big sister for help in that department.

“It’s not about the hair, man. The key with girls is just...acting like you don’t care.” Steve explained.

Kat’s head nearly snapped off her body as she lifted it to look at Steve, “Excuse me?” She asked, confused.

“Even if you do?” Dustin asked, ignoring Kat’s comment as if she wasn’t even there.

“Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts.”

Kat scoffed at his words, “Yeah, how well did that work out with Nancy?” She mumbled, knowing that Steve would hear her.

She raised her eyebrows at him when he turned around to send her a glare. She could feel the anger behind his eyes as he looked at her. Good. Stop teaching my brother things that aren’t true.

“Then what?” Dustin asked, turning Steve’s attention back to him.

“You just wait until, uh…” He turned around to drop some meat on the ground, his eyes locking with Kat’s for a moment, “Until you feel it.” He finished as he turned back around.

“Feel what?”

“It’s like before it’s gonna storm, you know? You can’t see it, but you can feel like this, uh, electricity, you know?” He tried to explain.

“Oh my God. Harrington, no.” Kat groaned, knowing the direction in which he was headed.

“Oh, like in the electromagnetic field, when the clouds in the atmosphere--” Dustin rambled, causing Kat to giggle at his innocence.

“No, no, no, no, no. Like a...like a sexual electricity.” Steve explained.

“Oh.” Dustin replied.

“Harrington!” Kat yelled angrily.

Dustin turned around to look at his sister, “Shush, Kat.”

Steve smirked over his shoulder at Kat before speaking, “Yeah, Kitty Kat. It’s guy talk.”

Kat glared at both of them before angrily throwing a chunk of meat down on the tracks. She grumbled to herself as they continued walking, Dustin and Steve going back to the conversation like Kat wasn’t even there.

“You feel that, and then you make your move.” Steve finished, pointing a rubber gloved finger at Dustin.

“So, that’s when you kiss her?” Dustin asked curiously.

Kat had to bite her tongue to keep her mouth shut. She could tell how curious Dustin was about these things. Since their dad wasn’t in the picture anymore, Dustin didn’t really have an older male role model to look up to and ask questions to. Kat tried to be there as much as she could to help him with things he needed, but she knew there were just some things he wasn’t going to ask her and needed to talk to another guy for. She just wished that it wasn’t Harrington.

“No, whoa whoa. Slow down, Romeo. Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a...I don’t know, like a lion.” Steve explained, Dustin practically hanging on his every word, “But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a...like a ninja.”

Dustin was silent for a moment before he spoke again, “What type is Nancy?”

Kat’s ears perked up slightly before she turned her attention to Steve, waiting to hear his response,

“Nancy’s different. She’s different than the other girls.” Steve stated.

Kat scoffed again lightly before shaking her head. She could clearly hear the hurt in his voice as he spoke before she sighed. She couldn’t believe that even still, knowing that she had pretty much gone off with Jonathan after she dumped Steve, he would still talk about her like she was so amazing.

“Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess.” Dustin stated.

“Yeah. Yeah, she is.” Steve replied.

Kat rolled her eyes, “That’s a hell of a way to phrase it.” She grumbled as she tossed a piece of meat to the ground, shaking her head.

“But this girl’s special too, you know. It’s just, like, something about her.” Dustin spoke.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey, hey.” Steve put his hand up at Dustin’s shoulder, stopping him from continuing.

“What?” Dustin asked.

Kat came to a stop standing beside the two as she listened to what Steve was about to say, knowing that it wasn’t going to be anything that she was going to like.

“You’re not falling in love with this girl, are you?” Steve asked.

“Uh, no. No.” Dustin stated, nervously.

“Okay, good. Don’t.”

“I won’t.”

“She’s only going to break your heart, and you’re too young for that shit.” Steve said, almost sadly, as he started walking again.

When he finished his sentence, he briefly looked over at Kat, and she was able to see the look of hurt on his face before he turned back away and looked at the ground. She wanted to feel for him, but her mind drifted to the Halloween party, and she remembered how he went off on her for trying to help, and she quickly shook off the feeling before continuing down the path.

The three of them walked in silence for a few moments, tossing meat down as they did so before Steve spoke once more.

“Fabergè.” He stated.

“What?” Dustin asked.

Steve pointed a finger to his hair, “It’s Fabergè Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair is damp, it’s not wet, okay? When it’s damp, you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray.”

Kat stifled a giggle when he mentioned the spray. She knew that he had to put a lot of effort into his hair for it to look like that every day, but she didn’t know the extent to which it went.

“Farrah Fawcett spray?” She managed to get out with a small giggle.

“Yeah, Farrah Fawcett.” Steve stopped walking, turning toward her and Dustin, “You tell anyone I just told you that, and your ass is grass. You’re dead, Hendersons, do you understand?” He asked looking between the siblings.

“Yup.” Dustin replied, nodding his head.

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Kat stated with another giggle as she gave him a mock salute.

***

The three finally made it to the junkyard where the plan was going to be executed. Kat went off instantly to put down her bucket of meat, tired of carrying it so far, leaving Steve to talk to Dustin. Eventually, Lucas showed up with some red haired girl that Kat didn’t know. However, by the expression on Dustin’s face at her showing up with Lucas, it was clear that this was the girl that he had been trying to impress. She started to get to work barricading the bus after she introduced herself to Max. The girl seemed quiet, but nice, and Kat could see what Dustin saw in her.

A loud bang, cut Kat from her thoughts as she turned to where it had come from to see Steve yelling at Dustin and Lucas,

“Hey, dickheads! How come the only one helping me is this random girl and Kat?” He questioned angrily, “Come on, we lose light in forty minutes!” He ordered causing Dustin and Lucas to grumble and yell back at him.

Kat rolled her eyes before she continued on her course of barricading the bus, trying to ignore the fact that it was the first time in a long time that Steve hadn’t called her Kitty Kat.

***

The darkness of night had come faster than Kat was anticipating, and she couldn’t help the anxious feeling in her chest at what was to come...if it even came at all. She was sitting across from Steve on the bus, watching as he played with his lighter. Dustin was pacing next to her, making her nerves higher than they already were.

“So you really fought one of these things before?” Max asked quietly, looking at Steve from her seat. Steve nodded in response as he flicked his lighter closed again, “And you’re like, totally 100% sure it wasn’t a bear?”

“Shit. Don’t be an idiot. Okay? It wasn’t a bear.” Dustin snapped. Kat and Steve both turned their heads to look at Dustin, slightly shocked, “Why are you even here if you don’t believe us? Just go home.”

“Dustin!” Kat scolded angrily.

Max shook her head as she stood up from her seat, going to the ladder, “Geesh. Someone’s cranky. Past your bedtime?” She muttered as she climbed the ladder, joining Lucas on top of the bus.

“That’s good. Just show her you don’t care.” Steve praised.

“Shut your damn mouth, Harrington. You will not praise my brother for acting like an asshole.” Kat snapped.

“I don’t care.” Dustin stated. Steve winked in response, “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.”

Kat could have slapped Steve if she was close enough. She couldn’t believe Dustin would act like that, Steve’s advice or not. She knew he had a small temper sometimes, but he never acted this way before. She was broken from her thoughts by a loud growling before she hurried to the other side of the bus to look out the window with Steve and Dustin.

“You see him?” Dustin asked.

“No.” Kat and Steve replied at the same time.

“Lucas, what’s going on?!” Dustin yelled.

“Hold on!” Lucas replied, “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock! Ten o’clock!”

Kat’s eyes searched around for where Lucas was talking about before her eyes landed on something in the fog, and she was able to see it plain as day. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She froze as she watched it near the pile of meat,

“He’s not taking the bait.” Kat stated.

“Why is he not taking the bait?” Steve asked Dustin.

“Maybe he’s not hungry.”

“Maybe he’s sick of cow.”

There was a pause from Steve before he stood back, drawing Kat and Dustin’s attention. Kat’s heart was pounding in her ears as she registered what was happening.

“Steve? Steve, what are you doing?” Dustin asked.

Kat hurried over to him, grabbing his hand to stop him from moving, “Harrington, don’t you even think about it.” She managed to ignore the tingling in her hand as she grabbed his, “You’re not going out there.”

His eyes drifted down to their hands before he lifted them and put his free hand on Kat’s arm, “I’ll be okay.” He stated before he pulled his hand free and looked over at Dustin, “Just get ready.” He instructed as he tossed the lighter to the younger Henderson as he grabbed his bat, walking out the bus door.

“Harrington!” Kat whisper yelled as she followed him to the door, “Harrington, no!”

Kat was breathing heavily as he eased his way off the bus, Dustin closing the door behind him. She was glued to the window, watching him hesitantly walk through the grass. She was clutching onto the seat so hard, she thought her nails were going to break through the padding. When he whistled, she gripped it harder.

“Come on, Buddy.” Steve called, whistling more.

Max climbed down the ladder, standing in between Dustin and Kat, “What’s he doing?” She asked.

“Expanding the menu.” Dustin replied.

“Come on. Dinner time. Human tastes better than cat, I promise.” Steve encouraged as he looked toward the Demodog.

“He’s insane.” Max stated as she stared out the window.

“He’s awesome.” Dustin corrected.

“No, he’s suicidal.” Kat commented, her eyes never leaving Steve.

After a moment of silence, Lucas started to shout from the top of the bus, “Steve! Watch out!”

“A little busy here!” Steve called back.

Kat’s heart was in her throat as she looked around to see what Lucas was yelling about. Her eyes were quick to land on more Demodogs coming up from behind Steve.

“Three o’clock! Three o’clock!” Lucas shouted.

Dustin sprinted toward the door yelling for Steve and to abort. He opened the bus, calling him back. Kat was quick to yell out the window,

“Come on, Harrington! Get your ass back here!” She yelled.

One of the Demodogs started making noises, causing Steve’s attention to turn to it. It’s face opened up and it started charging at Steve. Kat let out a small scream as she watched. The Demodog lunged at him, and he rolled onto the hood of a car before he set himself and swung his nail bat, connecting with another. Everyone called for him to come back to the bus. Kat was quick to move the kids out of the danger zone as he ran toward the door. Once he was in, she closed the door before the creature hit it. Dustin yelled as everyone clamored backwards.

Kat quickly grab a hold of Steve, checking him everywhere to make sure he was okay, “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” She asked quickly.

“I’m okay, Henderson.” He stated as he moved her out of the way to barricade the door as Max started yelling.

“Okay, are those things rabid or something?!” She yelled.

They all screamed as the bus was shaken by one of the monsters before another was able to get its arm through the door and start to try to get inside. Kat quickly ushered the kids to the back area of the bus while Steve took care of the one at the front,

“Everyone get behind me!” Kat yelled, making sure the kids were safe.

Dustin started to call into his headset for backup, but Kat knew it was no use. They hadn’t answered in the past day, nobody was going to answer now. Kat stood next to Max at the back of the bus before there was a loud banging above them, as if something was walking on top of the bus. They all looked up to see one of the Demodogs putting itself in their line of sight. It opened its face and let out a loud growl before Max and Kat both screamed.

“Out of the way! Out of the way!” Steve shouted as he pushed the two of them along with Dustin and Lucas back away from the opening, “You want some? Come get this!” He shouted, ready to strike if needed.

The monster suddenly stopped before looking off in the distance and taking off, shaking the bus once more as it left. Everyone was silent before they rushed to the front, slowly opening the door with Steve leading the group. In the distance, there were two remaining creatures running off to follow the rest. Kat stayed behind, ready to grab the kids if needed.

“What happened?” Lucas asked as he crept down the stairs.

“I don’t know.” Max replied.

“Steve scared them off.” Dustin suggested.

“No.” Steve stated before he turned, bat on his shoulder, “No way. They’re going somewhere.” He answered.

That was all Kat needed to push her way through the three children before making her way over to Steve. The sound of the slap was loud enough to know exactly what happened before anyone registered what had happened.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Kat screamed at him.

He had dropped the bat from his shoulder before he reached a hand up to touch the cheek her hand connected with, “What the hell, Katherine?!”

Kat was so angry, it didn’t even click in her head that he had called her by her full name. She was furious, but mostly she was scared.

“You could’ve been killed!” She yelled, pushing him slightly, “You’re not a hero, Steve!” She was fully aware that she was making a scene in front of the kids, but she couldn’t help it. He had scared her half to death, and she needed him to know that he was a dumbass for what he did.

“Careful, Kat, it’s starting to sound like you care.” Steve stated, a small smirk on his face.

Kat clenched her jaw before scoffing and shaking her head as she backed away from him. She couldn’t believe him right now. She walked over to her brother to try and calm herself down. They had bigger things to deal with right now; bigger things she needed to be worried about. The last thing she needed to worry about was Steve Harrington.

Show him that you don’t care.

Because she didn’t. Katherine Henderson definitely did not care about Steve Harrington.  

[cagedbirdtrainer]

Whumptober Day Two/Three 2: Explosion, Alt.2: Broken Voice, Alt. 3: Fever

@whumptober2019

Fandom: Stranger Things/Dead By Daylight: Omegaverse

TW: Rape, Explosions, Grabbed forcefully, Pinned down, Swearing, Dysphoria, Fever, Sick, Dry Heaving, Cypress Memento Mori, Freddy Krueger mention, Left Behind

Stephanie let out a sigh her hands in her pocket and trying her best to just get back home. A hat sat on her head hiding her way to long brown hair, her clothes baggy and hiding her frame looking as masculine as possible. Stephanie's brown eyes shined nervously, as she spotted some people walking faster towards her when she noticed them.  She knew that wasn't a good sign, and tried blend in with the crowd, but felt a grip on her neck making her tense. "Hey there, Stephanie, hows it going pal? We came by to chat, come on let's stop and have a drink, we brought more then enough water with us." Stephanie looked anxious but quickly shakes it off smiling still. "Ah um I'm sorry I have to get home, my parents will be upset if I'm late... I do apologize for that." She waits for their response, feeling her anger hitting hard just wanting to slug them down. "Ah well why not come with us, we know a shortcut so your not late, and we'll keep you safe from anyone, what do you say Stephanie." Stephanie laughs forcefully, as she states. "Well we can start by you letting go of my neck before I break it, Asher." Asher lets out a laugh full of teeth and aggression as he speaks. "You know your not an alpha or a man, Stephy just deal with it and let us have our way with you." Stephanie going to swing at them, trying to move away and get to her nail-tipped bat in her backpack. "Fuck off assholes!" She hisses but they were all on her in a second grabbing her limbs and quickly dragging her into the alleyways. "Fucking motherfuckers, if I was with my group you'd be so fucking dead!" Asher purrs at that, rubbing Stephanie's check in a almost romantic way if not for the situation. "Now are we ready to begin, omega cause you smell amazing." He growls out darkly. Stephanie spits at him, trying to kick and get lose of being help to the ground, but could not. Her parents would kill her if this happens, it'd be her fault, they'd disown her, she was a whore after all, she did love to sleep around- Her voice broken sounding as she cried out, feeling them unbuckling her belt. "N-no! p-plea-se d-don't!" Asher kissed and bit down on her neck leaving a mark. "You are mine now, Stephy." His voice a growl and deep filled with lust and want. The others also touching and feeling her body making her whimper in a mixture of distress and pleasure. "A-aah, fuck please stop, for the love of god Asher please you fucker..!" Stephanie cried out in anger of what was about to happen to her. The generator him and Quentin had been working on came back into his view suddenly. "Steve what the fuck man!" The sound of Quentin's tired voice filled his ears. Steve cried out in pain, he'd messed up a skill check cause the generator to explode alerting the killer to their location, how long had he been-... "Shit, I'm so sorry, Quentin I got lost in thought... We should move away from here, and hope Dart-uh The Demogorgon doesn't find us." Quentin sighs, and nods replying. "That sounds like a plan, Steve. Hey, uh I know it's not my place to ask or whatever but are you alright you seemed really upset in that thought-memory?" Steve smiles at that. "Of course man, what can't a guy daydream, you do it alot anyway what are you saying!" He says teasingly to him, pushing lightly at his half-brother who laughs out softly, quickly grabbing his hand and leading him to crouch behind some barrels with him to hide from the most likely approaching killer. The sound of a roar fills their ears as they wait. Steve still trying his best to seem alright, he honestly felt like shit. Quentin could tell and he knew. Steve mutters out and hates himself for it. "I-I think I'm gonna be sick..." He gags, and moves away from Quentin quickly before dry heaving on to the ground with a moan escaping him and another gag while spitting. Quentin flinches at this, and goes over to Steve and rubs his back. "Hey, hey we're gonna be fine, it's alright just let it uh out, better then keeping it in makes it worse alot of people say." Steve wants to laugh at that but just gasps and moans sickly again his head spinning. The sound of a roar fills the air and there stood The Demogorgon the sound of the last generator being finished and the exit gates ready to be opened filled the air. "Oh shit, Steve run!" Quentin grabs Steve's arm and drags the gagging and dry heaving male with him. Steve moans and stumbles struggling to stay on his feet. The sound of a hiss behind them told them that The Demogorgon was going to pounce and shred them if they didn't move or find a pallet quick. Steve lets out a cry and falls to the ground, the exit gate in sight of them, Steve yells out. "Go, I'm dead on hook, It's fine, I'll see you at the campfire!" Quentin lets out a scream at being slashed by The Demogorgon and dashes to the exit. "I'm sorry!" Quentin squeaks out as he leaves dashing towards the campfire and away from the lab, the killer and Steve. "Well what are you- no-..! Wait no I-!" The Demogorgon had pounced onto him, clawing at his shoulder's hook wound making Steve let out a groan of pain, mouth opening, Steve's screams are muffled as The Demogorgon's pointed five fringed mouth devours his head and shaking left and right before spitting him out claw dropping down on his limp chest moving forward with a roar. Steve felt the call, letting out a gasp brown eyes wide as he looks around back at the campfire again. He sighs at that at least he can rest up after that, hopefully having time to sort his brain of those bad memories from the past... He mumbles out out to the others near him, Quentin right by him. "I'm gonna take a nap, keep watch of me, in case of The Nightmare?" Quentin nods. "Yeah you look like you need it, I got you no worries." Steve nods leaning back against the log, brown eyes shut and wheezes slightly, before finally drifting off to sleep.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

The Hitman Bodyguard: Chapter 3

Read on Ao3

When I'm done keeping this idiot alive, Bucky swore as he sprinted down the catwalk, I'm going to kill him myself.  Colonel Rhodes was already gone with the President safely in tow, but Tony was determined to bring down that Killian guy that started all of this, even though the man was destroying Tony's suits as fast as Tony could summon them.  Bucky had never known terror like he had when Killian's red hot hand had clawed through Tony's suit like a hot knife through butter, but Tony kept going with a determination that was as infuriating as it was awe inspiring.

"Tony!" Bucky yelled, catching sight of him two stories up.  "I swear to God if you jump from another god-damn-" but it was too late, he'd already done it, leaping from one catwalk to another without hesitating. "I'm going to kill him. I'm gonna smother him in his sleep," Bucky panted to himself, taking a metal ladder two rungs at a time, trying to catch up to Tony.  One of Killian's henchmen dropped down in front of him, and without hesitating Bucky punched him in the face. When the man took a step back, Bucky wrenched a metal railing off its frame and stabbed it through the man's heart, stepping over him as his white hot glow started to dim.  At the far end of the platform, Tony, already in another suit, was slugging it out with Killian, and Bucky could see the armor plates as they were ripped off Tony's body and tossed aside.  Desperately Bucky tried to plot a course to where they were but before he could start moving he saw Tony go down.  

"No!" Suddenly Tony was free falling, thrown off the end of the platform he'd been fighting on.  Bucky knew he wasn't going to make it in time to catch him but he vaulted off his own catwalk anyway, his metal hand clawing grooves in the support beam as he slowed his fall. Tony seemed to be falling in slow motion, twisting in the air, then out of nowhere a suit caught him, forming around him before he hit the ground.  No sooner had Bucky landed on the deck of the decommissioned oil rig than Tony was gone again, a white blaze in the sky as he caught Killian and carried him all the way back up to the top of the rig.

"I give up," Bucky said throwing his hands in the air.  He squinted upward, trying to catch a glimpse of Tony and seeing only the flashes of his repulsors. Suddenly there was an explosion that shook the entire rig, metal groaning as a support beam came unmoored. Tony was falling again, his descent barely slowed by the fragments of a suit that had flown to his rescue. He landed hard on a catwalk, almost rolling off the side and catching a railing right before he fell. But the catwalk itself was leaning, pulling away from the rest of the rig with loud pops and shrieks and swinging widely.

(More after the break!)

"Tony!" Bucky shouted again, already running.  By the light of the fires he could see Tony gauging the distance to the ground and it was too far, he was still way too high, that suit was not intact enough to break his fall-

"Oh, hey Bucky, where you been?" Tony said as Bucky caught him and set him on his feet, shaking off the damaged gauntlets and jumping as a piece of catwalk collapsed nearby with a deafening clang.

Bucky put his hands on Tony's shoulders. "I'm going to kill you," Bucky said calmly, staring into Tony's eyes and shaking him, willing him to understand how serious Bucky was.  "If you do another one of those god-damn stupid Hail Mary jumps from a high place and pray that a suit will catch you, I'm going to resign as your bodyguard and then I'm going to strangle you."

"Kinky," Tony said, wincing as his smile pulled on a wound on his cheek. "You're going to have to take a number, because..." Tony trailed off as he saw something over Bucky's shoulder, eyes going wide. "Get down!"

Bucky didn’t question it, he tackled Tony to the deck as something hot went through the space where they’d been standing. “Holy shit, are you kidding me with this fucking guy,” Bucky said, rolling one way as Tony rolled the other.  Bucky came up with a length of rebar and swung it at the man’s torso like he was swinging for a home run, slamming him into a nearby wall. Tony scrambled for a loose missile that had spilled from one of his destroyed suits and threw it at Killian like the world’s deadliest dart.

“Shoot it!” He shouted, and without hesitation Bucky pulled the pistol from the small of his back and shot the missile just as it impacted Killian’s chest, throwing himself sideways to cover Tony.  The resulting explosion was bigger than he expected, not quite burning the clothes off Bucky’s back but it felt like his skin was going to feel sunburnt for a few hours.

"Holy shit," Bucky said, glancing back at where Killian used to be to make sure it was over. "That was...something."  He looked down at Tony to see him staring up at him, eyes wide. “You ok?” Bucky asked.  Tony swallowed and nodded, eyes glancing down at Bucky’s mouth and then back up again, and that was when he realized that Tony was holding him close, fingers brushing his collarbone were they were gripping his bullet-proof vest.

Bucky’s breath caught in his chest, skin suddenly prickling and alive from that tiny bit of contact.  Swallowing thickly, he licked his lips and watched as Tony unconsciously mirrored the action, and then Tony’s chin was tilting up in a clear invitation that made Bucky’s heart start pounding all over again.  He found himself leaning in for a kiss, suddenly desperate to feel Tony's mouth against his own, before a far off explosion made him flinch and Tony look away and then the moment was gone.

Bucky sat back on his heels and tried to catch his breath, looking anywhere but at Tony. “You watch too many movies,” he accused.  “You gotta stop with this action hero bullshit.”

“Look who's talking, Rambo." Tony slowly sagged to the ground until he was lying on the cement, watching the metal rigging burn. "You’re just mad that you’re the sidekick.”

“Sidekick?” Bucky repeated, sitting down next to him.  They were going to have to leave soon, but they had a few minutes before emergency crews started arriving, if the slowly collapsing rig lasted that long.  “Excuse me, I just killed the bad guy.  Maybe you’re the sidekick.”

“The love interest then.  It fits, the long dark hair, tragic mysterious past, the nice rack-”

“Nice rack?” Bucky sputtered, trying to hide the way his heart tripped when Tony said love interest.

“You heard me.” Tony turned his head to give him a crooked grin, flames reflecting in his eyes and blood drying on his face. Oh no, Bucky thought helplessly, and fell in love.

                                                            ***

When Ms. Potts called him in for an appointment a two weeks after the events in Miami, Bucky found himself dragging his feet.  Bucky was well aware of the fact that the terms of the contract were technically satisfied – Killian was dead, the Mandarin and their co-conspirators in jail – but now that he was sitting here, faced with the prospect of never seeing Tony again, Bucky realized just how much he didn't want it to be over yet.

“There is still a risk that Killian’s network hasn’t been completely dismantled,” Bucky pointed out, trying not to sound as desperate as he felt.  “Also, Tony – Mr. Stark – is the highest profile witness in the case against AIM, which puts him at risk.”

“True,” Pepper said, leaning back in her office chair.  “But AIM is already filing for dissolution and from what I understand, the authorities already located everyone who was involved in the Extremis project.  Do you think there are others out there?”

Shit.  “Perhaps,” Bucky said, thinking fast.  “But in the grand scheme of things, his address is still public knowledge, waiting for the next guy that wants to take a potshot at him.  The Mandarin, or rather Killian, might not be a threat anymore but Stane was a close friend and Vanko attacked him in the middle of a car race.”

Pepper leaned back in her chair, tapping her pen against her palm. “So what’s your point?”

“I’m saying that for someone like Tony, there’s no such thing as safe,” Bucky said bluntly.  “Unless he decides to move, lower his public profile, maybe erase his internet presence…”

“So if he became someone other than Tony Stark,” Pepper finished.  “Are you proposing to stay on as his bodyguard indefinitely?”

"If not me, then someone." Bucky spread his hands.  “But let's be honest, you came to me in the first place because I'm the best.”

Pepper tilted her head and studied him thoughtfully.  "I see," she said and Bucky was afraid that she actually did.  But she merely stood and offered her hand without any further comment.  "Thank you, Mr. Buchanan. If you're willing, I’ll have the paperwork drawn up immediately and forwarded to your company.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” He said as he shook her hand, trying not to let the relief show on his face.  As soon as the door to her office closed behind him, he blew out a long breath and called Tony.  “Bad  news, Tony,” he said as soon as he picked up.  “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while longer.”

"Woe is me,” Tony said cheerfully.  “If that’s the case, we gotta set some ground rules. First off, I know you’ve been talking to Rhodey behind my back, so cut that shit out and get your own friends. Rhodey’s mine and I don’t need you two ganging up on me.”

           "No,” Bucky said, jogging down the stairs to the garage where his car was parked. “If I’m going to be your bodyguard for a while, I’m going to need backup.”

“I finally get to examine your arm,” he tried.

“No,” Bucky said again.  No way was he going to take the chance that something inside his arm would tip Tony off to where it came from.

“Dammit,” Tony said without much heat.  “Well I get to pick the movies for movie nights. Indefinitely. No complaining, not even if it’s Sharknado.”

“Deal,” Bucky said, grinning widely.

[freereignastarwarsstory]

Chapter 14: Mission’s Bane

Disclaimer: We (@zazabelle and @draksisreborn) own nothing but our OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Please review and enjoy this latest installment. 

“...In short, we might not have to build the data table at all! If I could install a section in BX’s chest to integrate the power flow of lightsaber crystal, then we could have a walking data table-!”

Lerti and BX weren’t paying much attention to Nek as the three of them sat in a city transport speeder on their way to the orb’s directed coordinates. Lerti sat up front near the driver, head in her hand and helmet on her lap as she watched the rain streak off the hovercraft window while they soared in between city buildings and stayed within the near impossible lanes of 3-Dimensional traffic. Nek and BX sat in the back; Nek was still rambling on about his new design plans to no one in particular, unless you counted the driver, who didn’t seem any more interested than the rest of them. BX sat stoically, head bent, staring down at the old rusted lightsaber he still gripped in his left claw.

BX had been unwilling to hold the orb again to see if the same coordinates would come up, so Lerti had to immediately recorded herself saying the series of latitudes and longitudes she could remember from the sequence before Nek compared them to the map of the city they had on file in the ship. The closest they could find to the sequence that Lerti remembered was a large living complex called “Iron Gate Residential” located on the southside of the 3rd quadrant in the sprawling planet-wide city. This wasn’t impossibly far from docking depot The Raving Titan was being housed in, so a short city transport ride later, Lerti, Nek, and BX were now arriving on an entrance platform nearly 200 stories up the living complex. 

As the cab slowed to a stop, Lerti gazed up at the skyscraping tower and cursed silently to herself as the ridiculousness of her life once again set in. 

Paying the driver, Lerti nearly started cursing less to herself as they exited the cab. As soon as the engineer and the droid’s door slammed shut, Lerti turned with a frown on her teeth.

“Did none of us think how we were going to know what apartment we’re looking to head into?” She snapped, quickly shutting up Nek who had still been talking, “Or, what we’re even looking for to begin with!?”

The two were quiet for a moment before Nek shrugged, “I mean, I figured we’re looking for a holocron.”

Lerti sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, “BX? Any ideas?”

Lerti looked up.

BX was gone.

“Wha the-? BX!?” Lerti called as Nek spun around to find the same nothingness.

Nek quickly pointed as he spotted the tall droid moving through the crowds and rain towards the living complex’s 200th story entrance. Lerti and Nek jumped to action to keep up. The two called out to the droid but the commando seemed fixated on something in the distance.

They caught up just as BX was entering the building and saw the droid wasn’t fixated on something far away but was instead holding the old rusty saber out in front of him almost as if he was holding a compass.

As the droid entered the ‘lobby’, or rather a very run down, big room with a receptionist and moldy smelly couches, Lerti grabbed BX’s arm and, with effort, spun the droid to face her. BX’s attention suddenly snapped to her as she hissed, “What are you doing!?”

“Following the sequence.” The droid explained, motioning with the lightsaber. 

Luckily the saber was so rusted, from a distance it likely resembled more of an old drainage pipe than a near-mythical weapon. Just to be safe, Nek eyed the Ithorian receptionist to look for a reaction but the alien’s slug-like face didn’t move away from the holonet screen she watched lazily from behind her desk. 

“What do you mean?” Nek whispered as he turned back to the conversation, also keeping his voice down for their one audience member. 

“There is a sequence of very subtle sounds rising from this device echoing off another device in this building and so I was following.” BX explained in great detail.

“Sequence of sounds… you mean like a song? Like Vis talks about?? How can you hear it?” Nek questioned with a hint of jealousy in his voice. 

“I believe it is connected with the error that occured in my system earlier today. Or my trick circuit is acting up again, but the connection seemed viable enough to act on. Though the sound is very faint.” BX explained with a shrug to his tone.

“That’s so cool.” Nek breathed.

Lerti snorted softly, “You sound like Vis.”

“Well you smell like Vis.” Nek retorted.

Before Lerti could begin to even scrape the surface of whatever that was supposed to mean, BX was off. Again the droid made his way across the lobby but this time Lerti and Nek simply followed. Stepping into an elevator at the other end of the room, BX stood for a moment, contemplating the nearly 400 floors worth of buttons on the inside of the elevator’s panel. 

He held out the saber in front of the buttons.

“3… 1. 4. This is the correct series.” BX concluded as he selected Floor 314.

As the lift doors slid to a close, Nek caught a glimpse of the Ithorian receptionist lazily pointing to a plaque on the wall Nek hadn’t seen before, her eyes never leaving the screen in front of her. 

‘Trespassers will be shot.’ The sign read.

“Lovely.” Nek sighed as the door clicked closed.

On the ride up, Lerti contacted Soron and updated him on their status and position. “From the looks of things we may be in for a heist, but we don’t know who it is we’re stealing the box from.” 

“Who knows?” Nek cut in, “Maybe it’ll be some wise old Jedi who’ll see the purity of our hearts and hand it over.”

“Well… Maybe? No. Probably not.” Soron’s doubt filled voice responded over the comlink.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Nek’s voice deflated.

With that, the elevator doors slid open and the three left the lift. Hanging up on Soron, Lerti and Nek followed as BX wove purposefully through the maze of hallways and rooms just on the 314th floor of the skyscraper. 

The hallways reflected the 200th floor lobby that they’d entered in from: dark, dingy, and wrought with this planet’s varieties of mold. And no doubt the rooms within also reflected that same proviso. The lights above them seemed to flicker with each step they took and voices could always be heard around each corner but each cause of the sound quieted before any of the three could make out a word. 

Lerti had placed her helmet on in the lift but now kept her hands near her blasters at her sides and Nek reciprocated her caution by keeping a hand along the shaft of his double bladed vibroblade he had strung across his small, but sturdy form. BX, on the other hand, did not seem concerned with the lights or the voices. The normally alert and defensive droid seemed somehow distant as he held the saber in front of him, only adding further to the eerie nature of the situation.

BX suddenly came to a stop outside a room only one door away from the emergency exit door at the end of the hall. A notably prime spot for anyone needing conveniently to escape.

“Room B-214e. This is the correct sequence.” BX announced in a hushed voice. 

Lerti, snapping to attention, drew her weapons and made the motions for Nek and BX to get into position next to and in front of the door. BX crouched and backed away so his back was nearly touching the door across the hall. With Nek just across from her at the edge of the door frame, Lerti gave the signal for BX to scan the room for life signs.

After a moment BX silently looked to Lerti.

“Anyone home?” Lerti whispered.

“There are life signs in the room above and in the rooms two doors down but none in this room or its immediate neighbors.” BX reported quietly. 

“Alright. Nek? You want to be the one ot do the honors?” Lerti said motioning to the keypad on the door.

Nek nodded quietly and got to work debasing the keypad frame and rewiring the circuits holding the door shut. A few moments later, the door slid open. In the near silence of the dingy living space, the sound was deafening. 

Lerti gave the signal for how they were to enter and the three of them slid into the pitch black room. But…

“Hold.” Lerti commanded as they finished taking their positions, “Something’s off.”

The three stared curiously at the scene before them. It was no wonder there were no life signs of the neighboring rooms if this one was empty. 

There was only one room.

BX’s eye lights shined in through the open door. Nek inched forward, his eyes darting around the room.

“If I’m seeing this right, it looks like the two rooms directly to the right of this one have been knocked down and I think the two rooms in the hallway adjacent to this one have also been joined.” Nek surmised quietly. 

The space was filled with crates. Though, to Lerti it looked like a garage sale compared to the large scale black market operation that herself, Cenden, and Vis had stumbled upon in Tiss’sharl. Nonetheless it was still an impressive amount of things to put in the “one” room.

The three crept into the room, leaving the door open for extra light and the first point of escape if need be. Nek fidgeted where he stood with vibroblade at the ready, “BX, can you hear the singing?”

BX was quiet for a moment, looking towards the lightsaber like he was waiting for it to talk. The droid then nodded and pointed somewhere deep in the crate maze, “I believe it’s somewhere in that direction.”

Nek followed BX further into the darkness, his back to the droid and vibroblade extended as he watched the inky surroundings. Lerti stayed behind in the open space of light, blasters drawn. 

She was exposed this way. Anyone coming in, or hiding within, would be more likely to focus on her and not the two procuring the item. Lerti gazed about, expectantly, for while BX’s scans for lifeforms were mostly accurate according to his programming, but there were plenty of ways to trick a droid, especially one acting as strangely as theirs.

Listening to make sure she could still hear BX’s clanking footsteps in the distance, Lerti allowed her attention to move from examining the darkness for shifting shadows to examining the storage room itself. 

Even in the dim light, Lerti could make out the basic shapes of the crates around her. They weren’t identical, so she figured this wasn’t an official business like Jinx had, or even like Beebs carries out. Whoever was collecting these things didn’t care about presentation. 

“I sure have been stumbling into some real junk piles lately.” Lerti said to herself thinking of the blackmarket of Tiss’sharl, Vis’ mismatch temple, and just Cenden in general. 

She heard a metallic snap sound from open somewhere in the storage room followed by the fainter sound of a lid being placed on the floor.

Lerti put her hand to the comlink button on her helmet, “Find what we came for?” Lerti asked.

“We found the holocron.” BX’s voice returned.

“Let’s get out of here.” Lerti said turning towards the door when something caught her eye. Something glinted in the dim shadows that stretched across the ceiling right above their escape route. 

‘A hatch? ...A hatch into the room above.’ Lerti realized too late. 

The metal hatch shifted.

A silhouetted figure fell to the ground blocking the door, the only thing Lerti could see was the glint of a smile revealed from beneath a wide-brimmed shadow.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“I’m just saying,” Nek whispered, “You being able to hear the kyber-crystal makes no sense, especially without the orb. I mean can’t Jedi only do that stuff cause of stuff in their blood? You don’t even have blood.”

BX was receiving the sound of Nek’s voice perfectly to his receptors and the data was being processed accordingly, but the droid had decided he couldn’t hear him.

Nek wasn’t interesting. 

Interesting, to BX, involved acting outside of his calculations for reaction. Interesting meant that BX would feel that nearly inoperable loose wire in his head twitching and telling him to fix something. And the wire that caused, what Soron called “house cleaning mode”, didn’t care about Nek’s rambling and his obvious questions.

BX knew what was possible and what wasn’t. He’d been built to fight Jedi in The Clone Wars, as the war had been named. He knew how Force-sensitives operated, and they did interest him. Their spontaneous nature beyond his calculations, the way they defied odds, was a mathematical nightmare for someone built on the idea of calculating and defeating odds. 

BX turned one of the dark corners, and stopped.

The sound had quieted to near nothingness.

Lightly shaking the lightsaber he held before him, he strained his receptors against Nek’s babbling and continued on for a few more steps.

Nek’s obvious questions were nagging at him. How was he hearing that slight… ringing? That was the only way the droid could think to describe it. A ringing sound pulsating in and out of the saber’s rusted hilt, and somewhere in the distance, he could hear the same sound reverberating off of something else. 

But truth be calculated, the sound was growing dimmer and dimmer by the moment. The sound was an anomaly in his system that he had first defined as an error. Sending him data that he had not previously stored, only for it to disappear upon his attempt at recovery. Not to mention the coordinates… It took nearly everything in his system not to reject the noise to his malware protection systems. But as long as that loose wire sparked...

The sound stopped.

BX lurched to a halt, Nek lightly bumping into the sudden stationary object in front of him. 

“What?” Nek said urgently, once again spinning to watch BX’s back.

The droid did not respond, he was now interested in his sudden lack of interest. The wire sparking in his head had gone dim. 

BX turned in a circle, looking for something, anything that would make the interest begin again.

‘If the drive of interest does not begin again, the engineer will again begin his talking which I don’t want to hear.’ BX ran this train of thought through his mind before turning and, completely at random, yanked open one of the crates.

Nek let out a small whistle as a faint blue light was cast into the room. 

Inside the crate, sat a single holocron. 

The crate had been specially designed to hold just this one thing, and appeared to be weighed to feel heavier in the anti-grav registry screen. 

“Nice going BX. How’d you know it was in there?” Nek asked as he carefully lifted the holocron out of the crate.

“Odds…” BX answered quietly with a very human shrug while staring at the crate.

“Find what we came for?” Lerti’s voice suddenly came over their comlinks.

“We found the holocron.” BX answered.

“Let’s get out of here.”

The sound of metal grinding on metal shrieked out into the darkness.

Blaster fire rang out.

Nek cursed and, throwing the holocron into his backpack, ran to where they’d last seen Lerti.

BX’s programming poised him to run, but suddenly his wire twitched and he looked at the lightsaber in his hand. 

Blaster fire burst out in red light not far from him. He needed to move… but first.

Opening his back systems panel, BX wedged with difficulty, the lightsaber into his back before taking off. 

Taking in the sounds of blaster fire and his crew mate’s shouts combine with his life scan, BX picked out where the odd-ones-out stood.

Pistons in his legs and feet tensed.

BX launched himself upwards, he pushed off some of the stacked crates that became below him. 

The “not crew member” was spotted in BX’s flight off the crates and BX twisted his leg through the air as the ground came up to meet him. 

The figure ducked and BX’s foot snagged something that came flying off the figure’s head. Tucking in his body as he connected with the ground, BX snatched the item off his foot and examined the wide brimmed hat he found in his claws.

“Hand the hat over junk pile, and I might consider letting you live after stealing my holocron.” A metallically-garbled voice drawled as a blue wrinkled hand extended out from the figure standing across from BX.

BX’s head shot up.

This time the wire didn’t have to twitch, as raw memory data flooded his circuits with the voice match he had on file.

“Cad Bane, bounty-hunter employed under the Separtist Order.” BX relayed.

“Formerly Separtist, currently Empire.” He corrected nonchalantly.

“Wait, who?” Nek’s voice struck out from where he and Lerti stood pushed up against the backs of two small crate walls, weapons still smoking. 

The figure stepped slowly into the light, jet-boosters on his shoes clinking with each step. An old Duros emerged from the shadows, his blue skin was wrinkled and weathered. Around his neck was installed some sort of breathing device that ran metallic tubes from the square of his jaw to the center of his neck. His lipless mouth was pulled back into a scowl practiced over the ages, but his red eyes seemed to defy his age, piercing through his surroundings, swift and calculating. 

BX readied himself. 

 “Am I supposed to know who this is!?” Nek again intervened.

The bounty-hunter smirked at this, and stopped to adjust the cuffs on his coat long, leathery trench-coat.

“No, no I suppose you wouldn’t know me...” Bane paused, “But you will.”

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Blaster bolts rained, replacing the sounds of the storm outside.

The old bounty hunter hadn’t given them the chance to speak again, he’d barely given them the chance to find cover before he created a maelstrom of his own within the confines of his antique shop.

Lerti and Nek had dove out of the way in opposite directions, readying themselves behind crates. 

BX stood his ground.

Tossing the hat aside, the droid launched forward, fist extended.

Bane spun.

CLANG! BX’s fist plunged into the metal crate that had backed Bane before BX twisted his leg through the air attempting to connect to where the bounty hunter had maneuvered to.

From the corner of his lens, BX watched the blue blur duck and roll beneath his swing.

The man was behind him.

BX turned to move.

The panels that made up his back suddenly cried out as damage receptors flared to life with the two impacts that struck BX numb.

The droid collapsed to the ground for the second time today, just barely managing to receive the data that told him the old Duros had retrieved his tossed hat back onto his head as he turned and walked away.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Lerti heard the loud metallic thump, she assumed to be BX, vibrate through the floor as blaster fire suddenly returned in full force. 

‘He’s just trying to spook us out, that’s why he’s not coming to us. Maybe he knows he can’t take on two against one?’ Lerti’s mind raced.

In her time with her own clan, she’d heard of Cad Bane, but never in all of her time touring the galaxy had she wished she’d been paying more attention to what people gossiped about. 

‘What are the odds…?’ Lerti thought, shifting her weight as she remembered catching BX’s monotoned worded drifting over the com’s. 

“Nek? We’re going to need a distraction.” Lerti spoke over her comlink softly as blaster fire still rained steadily down on her.

“I don’t have visual on the bounty hunter, but I’ll try and take out the turret gun!” Nek said hastily.

“Turret gun!?”

Lerti’s eyes darted over her shoulder.

Sure enough a blaster turret had unfolded from a near invisible panel in the ceiling, that was what was shooting at her.

Lerti’s head turned as she ducked back down.

A face. Inches from her own. 

A hand shot out and threw the rest of his weight against her.

Lerti shot in front of her just before her helmeted skull smashed against the ground and the world pierced with white, searing light. 

Clenching her teeth, Lerti pushed herself off the ground in a flurry of blind, dizzying clouds of pain and nausea. 

She swung out her leg.

Nothing.

A fist suddenly knocked her across the face.

Lerti twisted her stance in the direction the blow had come from as her vision began clearing.

She found Bane standing only a foot away. Launching herself forward, she feigned a sweep of the leg before throwing her shoulder forward. 

Her shoulder connected with his chest before an arm appeared around her neck and, what she guessed was a fist, buried itself in her kidney. She found herself doubled over but didn’t remember again hitting the ground. 

The world swam as she heard Nek scream.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nek launched himself off the tops of the crate stack, vibroblade poised to strike. He plunged the simple staff adorned with adjacent twin blades down to strike the old blue man. 

The Duros twisted as Nek struck.

Right before Nek’s feet met the ground, he felt a tug on where his staff had dug into the air. Cad Bane suddenly had his grip on the staff. Nek’s single foot hit the ground as Cad yanked the staff, swinging it’s other sharp end into Nek’s chest.

Nek stumbled back in off-balanced surprise, but hadn’t released his grip on the blade. 

He felt blood begin to leak from his chest where, luckily, only one of the sharp pommels had pierced him.

“You should really leave the sword swinging to the Jedi.” the bounty hunter drawled, looking Nek up and down as he released his grip on the staff, “Speaking of Jedi, what are you three planning on doing with a Jedi holocron?”

Nek glanced at Lerti. She still lay on the floor, her head bobbing about as she attempted to raise it up but her helmet seemed to be imitating a block of stone attached to her neck. And BX…

Before Nek even had a chance to glance over his shoulder, Bane fired a shot inches from Nek’s head and into the crate behind him. Nek jumped and locked eyes with Bane.

“Answer the question.” Bane said with a sigh, almost as if he couldn’t be bothered by any of them. “Not sure that crate of explosives behind you deserves to take another hit like that though. But I’ll give it another go if it means filling you with shrapnel.” Bane threatened as he backed a few steps away, slowly.

Nek’s stomach dropped a floor and his mind raced.

‘I’m going to die. I’m going to die. Be brave? Stupid. Plea for mercy? He might not let you live. Going to die. Going to-’ 

“Like I’d tell you!” Nek shouted. 

‘Stupid.’ Nek thought.

Lerti bellowed as her body suddenly pulled off the ground towards Bane.

A blue stun ray erupted from his blaster and Lerti’s war cry was silenced as she fell to the ground in complete stillness.

Nek stared at her unmoving form for a moment before he noticed the metallic clanking sound rushing in from behind him.

BX dove over the crates that were stacked behind Nek, smoke still trailing from his haul. It was a wonder he could move let alone perform acrobatics. 

Cad Bane smiled and pressed a button on a wrist gauntlet hidden under his sleeve. 

BX’s body lurched suddenly mid-air before flying up to stick to the ceiling.

Nek watched his happen and slowly turned his attention to the bounty hunter, “…Y-you couldn’t have sprung for any floor mounted t-traps?”

The Duros motioned with his gun, “They’re technically on the floor in my apartment.”

Cad Bane aimed the barrel of his gun at Nek, a hand placed confidently on his belt.

“And now you know.” Bane added as he pulled the trigger.

Blue light enveloped him, sucking Nek into darkness.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I opened my eyes as I pretended to lay stunned on the floor. 

The game ended there for now. Everyone was sitting in darkness.

I sat up, feeling shocked.

“Should… Should we be worried about that?” I asked from the floor of the sparring room.

“I’m not sure, is that really what’s going on?” Chol’s gruff voiced asked from his sitting position on a nearby chair. 

I’d set up shop in the sparring room, my papers lay strewn across the floor. Some of them rotting old temple papers, others freshly scribbled ideas from my own mind with the orb sitting on top of a pile of lightsabers I used to keep it from rolling around.

I shrugged at Chol, “It’s not like I normally don’t have other people around to test how accurate the things I think and say are. And it doesn’t normally seem like these things are happening in real time. More like… past time I think.”

Chol nodded and heaved himself to a standing position, “I’ll let Soron know something might’ve happened, ‘because of course it did,’” He added one of Soron’s favorite sayings as he turned to leave the room.

“We need to go help them! Soron and Cenden might not get there in time!” I stood and ignited my own lightsaber.

“NO!” Chol cried out, taking a step back. 

I felt fear wash over me as I switched off the saber.

“I-I mean, no.” Chol’s posture visibly relaxed as he cleared his throat, “You keep working on your… uh… homework.”

At that, I felt my guide tangle about my limbs, an idea forming in my head. This was where I was needed I guess…

I watched Chol leave the room and I threw my lightsaber back down into its pile, “I guess I should play a game then…” I said as I put a finger to my lip in thought and squeezed my eyes shut. 

‘Why is Chol scared of lightsabers? And this isn’t HOMEWORK, it’s RESEARCH… Homework is for school-people… School-people? That sounds sort of fun... I guess I can pretend this is homework and I’m at real school?’ This shook the worried feeling right off as I gathered void-conjured, faceless classmates around me.

I snatched up a paper off the ground that I’d been reading on kyber-crystals, pushed my back against the wall, and bent my legs like I was sitting in a desk. Leaning over to the “kid” next to me, I whispered,

“Pst! Hey Tiphanie! What’d you get for number S-12??”

The faceless kid glanced at the front of the room before answering, “I got: The meaning of the universe is 42.”

“Huh… Well what’d you get for number 42?”

“Ms. Alacritis! Passing notes again? Is there something you’d like to share with the class??” My faceless teacher barked as she hastened over.

“No Mrs. TheForce!” I said as my legs gave out from sitting against the wall. I stood from the ground as “my teacher” yanked the paper from my hand.

“Well we might as well read it now that you’ve disrupted everyone’s time.” 

My freckles turned red as I felt the eyes of all my classmates staring at me.

My teacher put on her spectacles on her faceless-face and turned up her chin to make out the words. “You know we have tutoring time if you’re struggling with the subject, Vis.”

I winced at this, “I’m just… embarrassed I don’t know the answer.” 

“You don’t have to know the answer all on your own,” she said before reading the excerpt of scroll, “The crystal is, by itself, the power source of the weapon. Like the Force user, the crystal is attuned to the Force. Without that attunement, the crystal is just a rock. And while a non-Force user could probably ignite and wield a lightsaber, the crystal is needed to be properly attuned to the Force. But for a Jedi, the lightsaber becomes more: it is a manifestation of a Jedi's connection to the Force.” Now. Who wrote this and why?”

I fidgeted, “I… I don’t know.”

“Well, let’s ask another question. WHEN was this written?”

Her faceless gaze was right in front of me now. She held out the paper for me to take, but I kept looking into the blur manifested by my mind even as I took the paper. 

As my hand held the paper, I felt the Force building up in my head. I winced as the feeling grew painful. All I could hear was a ringing in my ears, and all I could see was the foggy blur slowly morphing, slowly combining. But I couldn’t see anything…

‘I can’t see anything…’ I looked down wide-eyed at the paper, “I can’t see anything! CHOL! I NEED TO TALK TO CENDEN!!!”

I ran through the mist of people that didn’t exist into the empty halls beyond. The scroll bit with histories of kyber-crystal still clutched in my hand.

[rainbowbarnacle]

Today I:

Tidied luka’s place (technically that was yesterday but it’s close enough to today that it can be called “today”, also I snuck away like a huge silly person so that luka would find an empty lemony fresh apartment upon waking from his nap, it was awesome)

Turned in foodstamp proofs riiiight before the deadline and the lady was super nice and patient like she always is and thank god I don’t have to think about it anymore for the time being because the stupid snowstorm and other things kept me housebound and I’ve been waiting on doing this for daaaaays to the point where I actually had bad dreams about it ugh

did normal choreday things

but before I did normal choreday things I realized I’ve been up since 8:00 AM and I haven’t had any coffee in about three days because of the aforementioned stupid snowstorm and so we went to the drivethrough coffee place and the person in the window already had the dog treats out before we’d even stopped the car and ellie was SO HAPPY

and so I got a large coffee and luka got a small coffee and I inhaled my coffee and then he was like “hey do you want the rest of this” so I inhaled the rest of his coffee

and essentially I drank ten dollars plus the tip and it was so freaking worth it and it had the added fun of me zooming around like a giggly person on fast forward, babbling about sea slugs and love darts and how I’ve never ever seen that in xeno fic anywhere before and you’d think I would have by now

also I BRUSHED THE CRAP OUT OF MY CAT. I had to get a new brushie to do it and she is significantly less of a dandermonster than she was, and my shirt is a fluffy disaster ahaha and now she has to spend the next few hours grooming herself HAHA YOU’RE GONNA BE SO BUSY CAT YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW

turned in a payday check through my phone because technology is awesome (also seebs put “house elfing” in the space that lists the reason for the check and I giggled, hee)

and now my batteries have run down again but oh man we got so much stuff did, now I’m gonna run the white noise machine and zone the heck out

*waves little flag*