#fuck i mean the tips WERE helpful. just not in the last location with puzzles

[stickar00s]

going through the great god grove tag is so crazy you mean to tell me that not everyone played this game for 6 hours straight to get to the ending as soon as possible because they needed to inject the plot into their veins?

[reinersbb]

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓 [𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 / 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐀𝐔] Chapter One- Pumpkin Spice

DISCLAIMER: I do not own AOT/SNK or the characters.

WARNING 18+: Heavy Sexual Themes/SMUT, Alcohol Consumption, Drug Usage, Profanity, Violence, and Some Uncomfortable Themes.

Click away now if you’re uncomfortable with anything listed above.

The fresh mid-October air plunged into your lungs after inhaling deeply through your nostrils as soon as you broke through the doors belonging to the lecture hall. Though the temperature outside was brisk, the sun was still shining above brightly. The white blotchy clouds were condensed together almost like puzzle pieces that were yet to fit together.

You were grateful for perfect weather on a day like this, and couldn't help but smile to yourself out of pure bliss. Because in all honesty, being stuck inside of lectures for the majority of the day wasn't ideal, but you sure were paying good money for it.

Pinching at the thin cotton material of your jacket, you pulled the fabric closer against your body when a gust of wind whipped past you. Maybe you should've thrown on a thicker jacket, but it's not like you took the initiative to check the weather for the day ahead when your attention was focused on making it out of your dorm room before being late for your eight am. Stopping at a large water fountain that was positioned perfectly center in the intersection of two walkways, you took a slight step with your left foot to turn and look around at all of the people floating about. Awkwardly searching for a particular face in the crowd as the sound of water gently overlapping played in your ears from the old fountain. Today, you had plans to hang out with your boyfriend, the plan was to meet up with him at this exact location. 'Maybe he's running late...' When another two minutes passed of you keeping an eye out for his familiar face, and there was still no sight of your boyfriend, you pulled out your phone to see if he'd sent you a text of his whereabouts or any piece of information. A clear notification screen surprised you, maybe even worried you just the slightest bit, but you shoved that hollow feeling down deep inside of you to tried to ignore it. 'Okay, maybe I should just text him.' Today 15:04 Where are you?✓ Your message had been sent, all you had to do now was play the very annoying waiting game. 'He wouldn't just ghost you for no reason without an explanation.' You tried reasoning with yourself. Your eyes tore away from your phone screen, deciding it was better to distract yourself with something instead of aimlessly waiting around for who knows how long. With only one glance around the perimeter, you elected that a nearby coffee cart parked further down away would be your means of distraction. What's a better distraction than caffeine? As you closed in on the dark oak wooden coffee cart, you couldn't help but notice a familiar face standing behind the cash register. The young man stood slumped over, a disengaged expression on his face, almost as if he were frowning. You lifted a brow quizically, taking the last few steps of your stride towards the cart. The man with blond hair and prominent sideburns perked up behind the register as you stood adjacent to him, "(L/N), is that you?" "Yeah, hey, Thomas! I didn't know you worked here. It's been a while since we've last spoke, how have you been?" You smiled, reminiscing in the few friendly memories you shared together. Thomas was in your German class at the beginning of the semester until you decided to drop the class and swap your minor out for French instead. There hasn't been much or any conversation between the two of you since then. "I just started two weeks ago, and about that..." the slight smile he'd managed to put on his face when you originally approached the cart faded away momentarily, "not so good actually," his cheeks flushed out of embarrassment and his smile kept wavering. "What happened? Are you okay?" You asked, genuinely concerned about your friends' feelings. "My girlfriend broke up with me yesterday," he admitted with a sigh. "Mina?" You asked and Thomas nodded, "that must suck, weren't you and her together for a while?" You could remember the few mentions of his ex-girlfriend in some of the conversations you had together before. "Since junior year of high school, she was my first girlfriend," his light brown eyes fell to the counter. "It was so... all of a sudden. She didn't even tell me why, but, in all honesty, I think it was for another guy," his fingertips tapped away at the counter anxiously. Hearing Thomas tell you about the recent breakup with his ex made your stomach twist and turn into knots for some unknown reason. There was suddenly a burning temptation to check your phone, but you refrained from doing so. "I'm sorry to hear that, and I wish there was something I could say to make you magically feel better," you shot him a sympathetic smile when he finally lifted his eyes to look up at you. "You know, I kind of feel a little bit better talking to you about it," Thomas admitted with a meek chuckle. "Anyways," he flicked the brim of his visor, "enough about me, is there anything I could get you?" He suggested to the menu of drinks. "Surprise me?" A small grin pulled at his lips, "on it." You couldn't help but notice how Thomas's emotions seemed to have pulled a full one-eighty compared to when you saw him standing idle behind the counter just a few minutes ago. "Here you go, one large pumpkin spice latte from our seasonal menu," Thomas reached over the counter, handing you a rather large paper cup, "careful, (L/N), it's hot." You accepted the latte with slight hesitation, "thanks, how much do I owe you?" You were struggling to reach your wallet inside of your purse when Thomas said, "don't worry about it, the drink is on me." "Are you sure? Because I can-" "Think of it as thanks for talking to me," Thomas showed a genuine smile while plucking a napkin from a dispenser to give to you, "just in case you need one of these." "Fine, but I'm paying for my next drink," you said, but still feeling reluctant to just walk away without paying for the drink. Quickly, you reached into your purse, feeling around for any loose money lying about. After a few seconds, you swiftly inserted a few crumpled bills and loose change into the nearly empty tip jar without even examining the tip amount. Thomas laughed after watching your efforts, "see you around, (L/N)." "Bye! Thanks again, Thomas," you sipped on your hot beverage as you steadily walked away from the coffee cart. When you passed by someone looking down at their phone, it reminded you to check yours to see if there was any response from your significant other. To no avail, there were no new messages on your lock screen, only a single notification that alerted you of a spam email message. You tabbed into your text messages once again because the curiosity gnawed away at your insides. Today 15:02 Where are you?✓✓ Immediately you felt your heart sink through your chest as you noticed that he'd definitely read your message. The same annoying worrisome thoughts intruded your mind once again, and this time it was difficult clearing them from your headspace. Today 15:09 Floch?✓ Unfortunately, the smile you had plastered on your face quickly faded away. You groaned under your breath, casually placing the hot beverage just at your lips, the scent of various warm spices tickled your nose as you precariously watched the chat bubbles appear then disappear, and reappear once again. The hot liquid almost scorched your mouth as you anxiously drew in a sip, and then another, all while waiting for his response. A sense of bile rose through your throat as the chat bubble disappeared and finally a response from Floch appeared. You read the message over and over again, trying to decipher if there was some hidden intent behind it. Floch❤️: I'm at your dorm building The page stilled for a moment when the second message of his came through. Floch ❤️: We need to talk 'We need to talk... that could only mean one thing.' In a complete utter panic, and with every intent on running to your dorm room, you forced your phone into the depths of your pocket. You carelessly cut a sharp right, the thoughts in your head running rampant as you headed for your dorm to see what it was exactly your boyfriend wanted to talk about. Your mistake was forgetting to double-check for any people around you before taking off into a sprint. Because now you came into contact with what felt like a slab of concrete in a head-on collision. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The fresh latte flew from your grasp and tumbled onto the sidewalk, splashing you with its scorching hot liquid mid-process. Your purse fell from off of your arm as you landed flat on your back in front of everyone, and your victim had fallen to the ground with you- wait- on top of you? "I'm so fucking sorry," you hissed at the burning sensation from the drink, but also at the pain you felt from falling onto your back, the contents of your backpack digging into you. Hovering above you was a man dressed in a heather grey tracksuit. In one ear was an earbud, while the other earbud was detached and dangling in your face from the neck slit of his hoodie. A few pieces of his hair fell over his forehead and the sides of his face. You swore you could hear the faintest music pumping through his earbuds. You blinked a few times, unsure if you were seeing things clearly as he pushed himself off of you and held out a hand for you to take. Without another word, or any hesitation whatsoever, you placed your hand into his and he firmly clasped it, pulling you up onto the solid ground. The two of you bumped into each other but you promptly took a step back after you found your equilibrium. "I hope I didn't crush you, are you alright?" "Huh?" your eyelashes fluttered together rapidly, snapping yourself out of the weird trance you were in. The unnamed man chuckled dryly, "are you okay? That was quite a nasty fall. I hope I didn't break you or anything," he said with a hint of amusement in his voice, but overall it seemed that he was genuinely concerned about your well-being. "Oh, yeah, I'll be okay," you said, taking a look at your ruined jacket and shirt that was damp and beginning to grow cold from the latte, "shit." His intense light brown eyes stared down past your feet, examining the spoilt cup of coffee and the rest of the scene itself. "Here," he scooped up your purse from off of the ground for you. You awkwardly accepted your purse from the man and readjusted both straps of your backpack on your shoulders. As he stood in front of you, you couldn't help but stare at him, fully taking in his features. He was tall. Much taller than your boyfriend. His long jaw was sharp and perfectly lined with facial hair. His hair was long and a nice shade of light ash-brown and seemed to be shaved on the sides like an undercut. But, it was hard to tell since locks and strands of his hair were sporadic from the fall. Some pieces of his hair were stuck to his forehead from a thin layer of sweat. It was now that you realized how his chest was rising and falling rather rapidly with quick heavy breaths. It seemed that he'd been on a jog before you came crashing into him, at least it would explain the outfit. "Again, I'm sorry for running into you like a crazy person," you breathed out an anxious breath, "but I have to get going now, I have somewhere to be." You snatched the littered coffee cup from off of the ground and shoved it into the nearest wastebasket as you cleared the scene. You could've sworn that you heard the man calling out to you, but you refused to turn around, leaving him in the same exact spot of the incident. All you wanted to do was get to your dorm, talk to your boyfriend, and change clothes. **************** "Hey babe," you said uneasily as you saw Floch standing outside of your dorm. Floch had his back pressed against the door, his eyes glued to his phone, and his face was expressionless as the blue light fanned over his skin. When he heard your voice, he slowly tucked his phone away into his front pants pocket. Forwarding his attention to you, you opened your arms widely to greet him with a hug, but at the last second, you decided against it due to your damp top. "What the hell happened to you? You look like shit," he said with a slight chuckle as he examined your appearance. His words stung a great amount, causing you to bite at the inside of your lip, but you ignored him. "I fell on my way over here, my latte spilled on me in the process," you groaned, remembering the incident that happened not even ten minutes ago. "Do you want to come inside and talk while I change out of this mess?" You asked, heading for the door with your key. "No, I wanted to make this quick actually," he exhaled uneasily. "Okay," you wrapped your arms around your chest, holding onto yourself tightly. Your pulse quickened at the suspense, and the air around you could be cut with a knife while you waited for him to speak. It felt like an eternity had passed until those dreadful words left his lips. "There's no easy way for me to say this, so I'm just going to come right off the bat by saying that I think we should break up and see other people." Those dreadful words felt like the ripping of a bandaid, that or a complete slap to the face. The horrible predictions you tried to ignore happened to be true. Oh, how you wished you were wrong. You stared at him like a deer caught in headlights, trying to make sure that you heard him correctly. "Wha.. what?" you croaked, your mouth was dry. The silence was deafening, and the ringing sensation buzzed your ears. You watched as Floch's mouth moved, but no words could be heard over the persistent ringing in your ears. Floch gracelessly went for a hug, and even though you wanted to hug him- cling onto him and try to talk things out, he'd already let go of you. The bitter scent of citrus, the smell of him, plagued you and almost brought you to your knees with a wave of emotions following along with it. "I'm sorry," you were finally able to hear him once again. "Floch... can't we just step inside my room and talk things over?" You didn't want to sound like you were begging for him to stay, but you didn't just want to break up as if your relationship meant nothing either. "Are you sure about this?" You and Floch had been dating for not as long as Thomas and Mina were dating, but you two were going to be going on three months whenever the next month arrived. The two of you met on your first day at university, somehow he charmed you in a dorkish-way and the rest was history. And all this time you were thinking that you were in love with him. "(Y/N), it's been fun, but I think we'd just be better off going separate ways," Floch took two steps back as he stared at you, but your eyes weren't on him, but rather at his feet. "Again, I'm sorry for this." The sounds of footsteps grew distant until there was no more sound left, as your eyes stayed nailed to the spot where he once stood. He was gone. For good. You blinked an infrequent amount of times, only being pulled out of your hypnotic state when the sound of people walking down the hall caught your attention. As soon as you looked up to examine the hall, you made contact with some girl who was blatantly staring at you. Ignoring the unknown girl, you turned to your door and fumbled with the lock and key for more than a handful of tries. But eventually, you pushed through the oak door with a breeze you closed it behind you. As soon as you were alone in the dimly lit room is when a wave of emotions overcame you and the tears began rolling uncontrollably.

[kickingitwithkirk]

Greetings from Austin pt. III

Pairing: Alpha!Jensen Ackles x Alpha!Jared Padalecki x Omega!OFC

Summary: Jensen and Jared are at odds over a monumental decision that changes their lives in a way they couldn’t have envisioned.  

WC: 3825

Warnings: a/b/o, bisexuality, biphobia, homophobia, angst, cursing, self doubt, depression/anxiety, married life/disagreements, medical stuff, sexual dysfunction, infertility/surrogacy

*flirting, m/m oral sex, Jensen’s insecurities are coming out, Jared gets arrested, both get counseling

A/N: This part consists of several time jumps over four month period.

A/N II: Hey, sorry took me a way longer to get done than planned, rewrote Oct 23 a dozen times alone and hoping makes sense, trying to flesh out characters more and has some stuff that plays into story line in later parts.

Part II

Masterlist

@winchesterandbeyondbingo​​​​​​ square filled-Jensen Ackles

*Series Inspired by this art.

*no beta-all mistakes are mine

September 8th

7:30 am

Jensen was sitting in the makeup chair clenching his extra strong coffee container to help warm his hands. He’d spent a second, uncomfortable night in his trailer on location as Vancouver was having an unusual cold snap this time of year and with the covid restrictions the director decided that everyone needed to stay on site.

While he wasn’t happy about the weather, missing his own personal heater but at the same time grateful for a brief break from Jared now that they were heading towards the next phase of starting their family.

Jensen jokingly said they needed a code name since they were planning on keeping their plans a secret, even from their families, until the pups were born, playfully suggesting a cartoon from their childhoods.

Of course with Jared’s weird sense of humor, he loved it and started throwing ideas like operation: pound puppies.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Frieda said as she applied a concealer under his eyes to hide the dark smudges from not sleeping well.

“Huh?”

“You asked about my new job and haven’t heard anything I’ve said, wanna talk about it?”

“Sorry, not focusing very well today.”

“Yeah, we’re all feeling out of sorts with this being the last couple days.”

Jensen couldn’t believe he was down to his last two days of filming.

“Too bad this virus messed everything up, it would’ve been a hell of a send off if everybody could have been here.”

Alex and Misha had left right after they’d finished but Jim Beaver was back for the ending. It was only right for Bobby Singer to be there at the end, having been such a pivotal character in the brothers lives.

Frieda continues chatting about random things while finishing his makeup. A PA stuck his head in calling Jensen to the set. He stepped out of the trailer and smiled seeing his Baby sitting near the building being used as the exterior of Harvelle's Roadhouse.

***

September 12th

“Jen, I’m taking out the bags,” Jared calls out seconds before the apartment's front door shut.

Jensen was doing one last check around the place for any forgotten anything. Satisfied, he walked into the living room containing neatly marked boxes ready to be shipped back to Texas, relieved they had downsized from the big house Jared had years ago.

He stopped to gaze out the picture window when a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist, molding his back to the muscular chest of his mate, who rested his chin on his shoulder quietly saying, “I’m gonna miss this view.” Jensen hummed in agreement tipping his head back as Jared nuzzled his neck.

“We need to get going if we’re gonna make Seattle by seven,” Jared softly muttered as they’d stood there for a few heartbeats longer before releasing him. They walked to the door and Jensen turned once more to gaze out the window at the view of Vancouver.

***

September 21st

“This has been a great trip but man, I’ll be glad to be in our own bed tonight.” Jared remarks as they drive past a green highway sign saying Austin 312.

“Can’t wait,” Jensen drowsily says having not slept much the last couple days. They had decided to road trip it back to Texas, stopping at a few places they had wanted to visit for awhile.

Jared somehow managed to finagal, okay so his mind numbing blow job combined with those lethal long fingers that always makes Jensen agree to anything got him a couple extra days in southern Colorado.

Jensen enjoyed the beautiful scenery and hiking in the mountains but hated camping out. Well, it wasn’t technically roughing it the way Jared liked but still.. a frigging yurt in late September?

Oy vay, what he did for love.

The sound of Jared singing along to some classic country song on the radio as he drove finally put Jensen completely out.

***

October 23rd

Turning from the open fridge with a puzzled expression on his face, Jared senses the same vague something he’s felt God knows how many times in the last couple months.

Shutting the door he walked over to the island counter where his husband was seated pushing his unfinished dinner around on his plate.

“Jen, what’s going on? Are you worried about the implantation? Dr. Rodgers said the embryos were healthy and optimistic the surrogate took this first try.”

What Jensen wants to ask, the question that’s plagued him since that day in August choosing their Omega surrogate...how the hell does he phrase it without upsetting Jared?

“Did you choose her because you knew she’d be the one I’d pick?”

Jensen slapped his hand over his mouth, eyes wide, disbelieving he blurted it out.

Jared worked to find a response squeaking an actual squeak before he could get control over his vocals, “That’s what I’ve been sensing!” Gripping the edge of the counter with his big hands, “Are you seriously going there again? I was honest about our interactions when I realized she was the one I knocked down at the clinic and FYI, you weren’t exactly in full control either Alpha!”

Jensen clenched his teeth at being reminded his inner need to be in control at all times slipped.

“I’ve racked my brains trying to figure it out how to ask something like that without upsetting you!” Jensen yells getting up and pacing around the kitchen.

Jared huffed, “So all this time instead of talking to me, you’ve conjured up some..”

“For the last two years I’ve gotten the sense you feel somethings missing, kept telling myself it’s your unfulfilled biology. But ever since you meet that Omega you’ve been.. I can’t explain it and now I’m second guessing our marriage Ja....” his rant abruptly cut off.

Jared’s eyes were glowing red, pinning him with an eerie wolf expression, the intensity disconcerting him. “I chose you, my husband, my soulmate, my everything!“ The words should have been reassuring but Jared’s voice was pitiless, something Jensen's never heard pass from his lips before.

Jared took a deep breath and with normalcy returning said, “I love you Jensen and I thought you understood, for me, in my mind, both of us having pups with the same donor means my offspring won’t be seen as just step relations but will grow up having strong familial ties with JJ, Arrow and Zeppelin.”

Jensen started to speak when a low, reverberating growl from Jared warning him not to interrupt.

“I consciously listened to my inner wolf when it came to choosing the person who is biologically the Om of our children and I,” Jared emphasizes tapping his chest with his long index finger, ”have no regrets but apparently you do.” Taking a deep breath Jared drops a non sequitur, ”The dogs need to be fed,” and walks away.

At the sound of Jared’s SUV leaving Jensen’s legs gave out and he drops to the floor curling up in a fetal position wrapping his arms over his head. Arlo and Koda laid down, one on each side, cocooning him between them.

***

Thanksgiving

“The kids are in a tryptophan coma,” Jensen announces as he walks in through the kitchen's back door. He had followed Danneel home afterwards helping get JJ and the twins cleaned up and put to bed, “they’ll be out till Monday.”

“Good, cause I’m dead on my feet,” Jared replies yawning while loading the dishwasher. It had been their turn to host the holiday with Danneel, the kids, Clif, Jared’s siblings and their broods.

“I told you to wait and I’d help finish the cleanup when I got back.” Jensen said as Jared started the machine.

“I figured you’d wanna stay awhile and be too tired and I didn’t want to deal with it tomorrow. All that’s left is to put the trash and recycling out, could you grab it?”

“On it,” Jensen picked up the bags walking around the side of the house dropping them into their designated receptacles.

When he came back in Jared was switching off the lights downstairs. They made their way up to the bedroom taking turns in the bath getting ready for bed.

Jensen was sitting with his back against the headboard checking his messages when Jared drops heavily next to him, “I plan on sleeping for the next three days.” He mutters resting his head against Jensen’s shoulder.

“Sounds good to me babe, I’m glad we didn’t schedule anything extra this weekend, be nice to spend some time alone.” He finishes wiggling his eyebrows.

“Hmm, do you remember last year's Thanksgiving?”

Jared closed the kitchen pantries door, pushing Jensen against it seductively lowering his fox slanted eyes huskily whispering, “I’m so fucking horny I need my dick you now.”

“Dude, we’re re in my sisters...“

“..you’ll have to be quiet,” Jared dove in for a deep, dirty kiss, grinding against Jensen until he was begging to be fucked.

“You’re the one who got us busted..oh fuck Jensen..so fucking tight..fuck..not gonna last..then later I get Mac saying it sounded like your dick...”

“Okay..buuut,” Jared tilts his head slowly running his tongue up the column of Jensen’s neck, “you gotta admit,” hand slipping under his sleep shirt, “our sex life,” long fingers tip toe up the smooth, freckled chest, pads teasing his left nipple as Jared nibbles on his earlobe, ”is never boring.”

Jensen groans, dropping his arm, still clinching the phone, tipping his head to expose more of his neck to Jared’s wondrous lips, enjoying the scratch of his short beard.

“I thought you were sleeping the next three days.”

Jared answers by removing his hand and straddling his husband's thick thighs taken the phone placing it on the nightstand and starts nibbling along the other side of Jensen’s sensitive neck, working his way to his slightly raised claim mark flattening his tongue licking the ultra sensitive spot that always drives his Alpha wild.

Jensen slides his hands up Jared’s back finding a grip in his shortened hair, unhappy about how much he’s cut off for Walker, unable to tangle his thick fingers into the soft tresses like he used to.

Finding a purchase he pulls hard making Jared groan at the pleasurable sensation tips his head back till it’s the perfect angle for Jensen to run his tongue across those candy pink lips, teasing them open to grant him access, continues teasing, alternating between caressing Jared’s tongue with his and sucking on his lips.

Moaning, Jared rocks his hips seeking friction, breaks their kissing long enough to work Jensen's sleep shirt off. They end up wrestling a few moments before Jared tosses it as Jensen’s lips attack his more desperately.

Tapping Jared’s thigh, Jensen rolls them kneeling between sleep pant clad legs watching as Jared reaches up gripping the strategically placed bar in their custom made headboard with both hands, his pecs flexing in anticipation of what’s to come.

Not breaking eye contact Jensen bends forward, his lips a hair's breadth from Jared’s, slowly slides backwards hovering, caressing the acres of golden skin beneath him with only his warm breath, pausing to hook his fingers in the pants waistband and pulling them with him as he continues journeying south.

Slowly making his way back north he leaves wet, open mouth kisses along the now naked, extra long, muscular legs he loves, sucking on the insides of both thighs, nipping hard enough to leave marks before arriving at his designated stop.

He hasn’t even touched Jared’s beautiful cock yet it’s fully engorged, resting against his flat stomach vigorously leaking precome. Jensen dips his tongue into his bellybutton lapping up the liquid collecting in it, cause fuck, he’s loves how more sweet than salty Jared’s always tasted.

Hips rolling Jared rubs his cockhead against Jensen’s tongue and he kitten licks the dribbling slit before resting his head on Jared’s lower stomach and wrapping his lips around the velvety head.

Shifting his grip on the bar Jared’s makes nonsensical noises, toes curling at the mixed sensations of his mates silky beard tickling his lower regions while sucking on his cockhead, alternates swirling his tongue over the nerves underneath and teasing his slit sending spikes of pleasure radiating through him.

After all these years Jared’s still amazed at Jensen’s knowledge of his body, his ability to keep him on the edge of not enough for however long he’s in the mood to play.

“..pleease...need to cum...got to..so fucking..uhh..Alpha!”

Raising up on a forearm Jensen starts bobbing up and down his shaft, pausing briefly on each downward pass, working his throat open to take Jared further in until he’s nose deep in dark, trimmed pubic hair. Holding his mate's substantial cock in his throat swallows around him as Jared’s knot inflates, pushing his jaws apart till it’s too much.

Letting the knot slip out from between his plump lips Jensen wraps a hand firmly around it and starts vigorously bobbing drawing out a litany of obscene noises, feels Jared’s balls drawing up and backs off swallowing the warm, thick, spurting liquid.

Leisurely licking until Jared hissed, too sensitive for anymore kisses the tip one last time crawls back up the bed searching for his pillow and face plants on it.

“Dude, you’ve finally sucked out my last brain cell.”

Purring deep in his chest, Jensen gives Jared a self satisfied smirk, who mutters, “wasn’t trying to give you a bigger head.”

Rolling onto his side Jensen displays his turgid cock needing attention, “okay, he’s the bigger head,” Jared concedes reaching down running his fingers over the weeping tip, wetting them with precome spreads it over the shaft firmly fisting Jensen’s pulsing thickness, moving his hand up and down excruciatingly slowly.

“So,” his honeyed voice lowers an octave watching Jensen dissolving into a breathy mess, “how does he want me?”

Jensen opens his mouth to answer when a phone rings. Glaring over his shoulder, “not mine,” he growls. Still stroking him Jared stretches for his, “it’s the clinic..hello? Dr. Rodgers, hey, how are you sir?” He lets go sitting up against the headboard.

Why’s the doctor calling them at such an odd time, on a holiday no less?

Jared's brow wrinkles before he turns to Jensen, eyes sparkling breaks out his wondrous smile making his dimples pop.

“Jensen, she’s pregnant!”

Jared's practically bouncing on their bed like he’s on a massive sugar high discussing what comes next with the doctor. Jensen feels his erection rapidly diminishing, gets up heading into the bath and turns on the shower.

Climbing in he crosses his arms against the far wall, resting his forehead against them closing his eyes as hot water bounces across his broad shoulders.

Jensen knows he should be elated. Jared’s getting the pup (or pups) he’s desired for years and the possibility of being a father himself again. Instead, his heart seized up in conflict.

***

After that god awful argument in October he ended up at Josh’s, who confessed his mate and him were seeing a counselor because they were having marital issues too. Spending the night drinking and reflecting Jensen came home the next morning to a still angry Jared cause he didn’t know where the fuck his husband was all night.

Filling him in about his talk with Josh, Jared seemed somewhat mollified but a few nights later...

Walker star Jared Padalecki arrested near the one year anniversary of Stereotype bar altercation.

· Jared Padalecki was arrested once again in Austin, Texas, early Sunday morning on one count of public intoxication…

When he got released Jared sat Jensen down pleading with him to sit in on his next therapy session, saying they couldn’t keep going on like this, it was tearing him apart.

He wants..no..needs Jensen to completely open up, stop trying to protect him and discuss what’s going on in his head, what he’s really feeling.

Jared’s therapist started off informing both of them he wasn’t a marriage counselor but after a brief conversation with Jared knew the situation was having a detrimental impact on his mental health.

He listened to them separately, then together, about their observations and thoughts on each other’s behaviors came up with a hypothesis:

Since Jared’s last depressive episode, his random thoughts/emotions were feeding more into Jensen’s deep seated insecurities over his mate’s open, flirtatious personality and how he perceives others attraction/interactions to him.

And now Jared’s inner wolf is demonstrating an intense attraction to an Omega, something never encountered before with past preferences in Beta females, with this new dynamic Jensen didn’t know how to handle it.

Jensen opened and closed his mouth several times sputtering before saying this was complete bullshit and stormed out.

***

Lost in thought Jensen didn’t notice his husband stepping into the open shower stall until his considerable frame was blocking the water, Jared’s voice drew him out of his musings.

“I can hear you thinking clear in the other room.”

Cupped Jensen’s face between his large hands he gazed into those spring colored eyes that captured his heart the moment he looked into them years ago, “Hey, no matter what happens next, we’re good.”

***

December 16th

Jared was sitting in his chair chatting with Lindsey and Keegan while the crew was finishing setting up for the next scene when his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number but excuses himself, stepping away for some privacy answering.

“Hey, everything okay?” Lindsay asked after he hung up, concerned by the visible tension rolling off the big Alpha.

“Umm..I don’t know, I need to make another call...” Jared said, waving the phone, “yeah, let us know if you need anything.” Keegan says and Jared nodded his thanks.

The phone rang three times, “Hey Clif, I need a favor.”

***

December 19th

Clif pulled the SUV into the parking lot, “Are you sure this is the right place?” Jared inquires looking around taking in the old motel located in a very questionable area of Austin.

“This is the name the guy mentioned.” Clif replied, getting out heading for the office. Couple minutes later he climbed back in, “the manager said the laundry out back.” He started the vehicle and drove to the rear of the property.

Clif got out again and knocked on the building's door. An older Hispanic woman answered engaging him in a brief conversation before stepping back inside.

Clif nodded to Jared and as he got out of the vehicle that piquant scent hit him seconds before the door reopened. The person he’d spent days searching for froze in the doorway upon seeing him.

***

December 22nd

Jensen, claiming out of the Uber, grabbed his bag thanking the driver, walked up the front stone pathway relieved to be home from L. A. after a hopefully final costume fitting for his new role as Soldier Boy, this flying back and forth every week for the last couple months had gotten old real quick and he was looking forward to enjoying the holidays at home.

Jared’s parents were coming tomorrow and staying for a few days as was Danneel and their pups. Josh said he was still planning on dropping by a few hours Christmas Day since he and Mac were scheduled to spend most of the holiday with their parents.

Jensen felt that mixture of anger and sadness he got thinking about his parents. He was raised in their church and though he never believed in it, respected their choice.

Too bad they couldn’t reciprocate.

***

Alan and Donna belonged to an ultra conservative church. The foundations of child rearing was to be found in the good book and in the Ackles household-spare the rod, spoil the child-was gospel.

When they were growing up neither parent was the physically or emotionally demonstrative type, only showing their offspring a reserved affection, especially in public.

The saving grace was their Beta nanny who gave them unconditional love, especially Jensen, who was shy as a child already knowing he was different from his siblings. She instilled the confidence in them to discover who they truly were inside and encouraged Jensen to come out before moving to California.

Shortly after graduating he told his family about his bisexuality and his boyfriend was moving to L.A. with him.

Alan and Donna tried to stop him. He was to go to their pastor and confess his transgressions, beg forgiveness for his sins against the church and its teachings, threatening to pull the agreed upon six month financial support while he auditioned for parts before going to college if it didn’t work out.

Jensen refused, packed up, took his boyfriend and left. He got his first break shortly after and quickly learned Hollywood didn’t care what his sexual orientation was as long as he kept it behind closed doors.

His management agency decided early on to promote Jensen as the good guy/boyfriend type. They also set him up on dates to events with many up and coming female artists of the time. He had no problem playing along when he wasn’t actually dating a woman.

His big break came on the CW. After co-starring in a couple series for the network he was offered the chance to be a lead in a new series created by Eric Kripke.

At the audition he met former Gilmore Girls heartthrob, Jared Padalecki, flashing his infectious smile, dimples for days and the most beautiful, incredible color shifting eyes Jensen’s ever seen, he was done for.

Jensen might not have his biological parents in his life anymore but his now in-laws, the complete opposite of the Ackles, helped fill that hole.

It’s easy to see where Jared’s personality comes from. His Om, Sherrie, is overly affectionate, excessively physical and verbal with everyone she considers family, biological or not.

The first time he accompanied Jared home on a holiday break Jensen was literally bowled over by the five foot nothing Omega and instantly became part of her brood.

***

Barley getting the front door open Jensen is hit with the piquant scent of orange blossoms and spices he couldn’t quite place.

Dropping his carry-on bag in the foyer he followed the scent further into the house. Arlo sat up near the large picture windows facing the backyard where he and Koda are napping and gets up coming over to greet him.

“Hey big guy, where’s daddy at?” Jensen asked rubbing around his ears like he liked having thought Jared would still be on set before the holiday break.

He heads towards the kitchen where the scent seems to be coming from, “Babe is that coffee shop back open, what’s it called, has those sweet rolls you're obsessed with..” he abruptly stopped and blinks not believing what was in front of him.

More accurately who was in front of him.

“Babe is in his office and dinner will be ready in twenty.”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

***

tbc

GFA: @babypink224221 @waywardjoy​ @let-me-luve-you​ @all-4-wincest

SPN: @donnaintx​ @lyarr24

Sam/Jared @idreamofplaid​

Dean/Jensen: @flamencodiva​

[sarcasti-cally]

birthday surprise

so, koganegawa’s birthday is today, July 9th, and um.. where’s the love for my boy kogane? i felt like this was the perfect time to give him some love 🥰 ❤️ ❤️ (and to quench my thirst) this is the first time i’m ever writing a fic or even smut in general so please be nice :,) just gonna casually tag @bokutokoutarou since you wanted to be there when i post my first ever fic so here i go. 🚶‍♀️

dom!koganegawa x reader????? woahh

s m u t

words: 3063

Drool was slowly pooling from your mouth as you just woke up, the sun beaming straight into your eyes, causing your eyelashes to flutter and flip your body to face away from the sunlight. Before you could close your eyes again, you reached out for your phone on your pillow and went to check the time, which is a routine you developed without noticing. 

1:53, you noted. But, you immediately stood up and wiped the drool from the corners of your mouth to realize that it was July 9th. Shit. You cursed at yourself in your head while frantically throwing on whatever you saw. 

Black shorts and a baggy t-shirt representing your school, Date Tech. You went to the bathroom to see what you overall really looked like taking into consideration that your hair must have been a bird’s nest from moving a lot in your sleep. 

“Huh.”

You didn’t think the shirt you chose to wear would cover your shorts, but you shrugged it off. Hopefully some idiot doesn’t think that you’re not wearing anything under it. Thankfully, your hair wasn’t all that much of a mess- i mean, it was still a bit frizzy and in a loose ponytail, but who really cares? Definitely not you.

You threw on some white crew socks with some black shoes you saw under your bed. While you struggled a bit to put your shoes on, you heard something coming from your bed. It was your phone vibrating. 

“I swear to god, if it’s some annoying son of a bitch-“ you stood up and tripped since you were trying to put on your other shoe standing up while your foot’s in the air. As you peered over your phone, you saw that it was a notification from Koganegawa and you sighed in relief. 

When you had your shoe on you grabbed your phone and went to go and read what he messaged you.

“Hey, Y/N! I know that you might still be asleep, but i wanted to let you know that i’m having a birthday party which starts at around 4, and that you’re invited! I can’t wait to see you there. Even though it’ll be a small little party, i think you’ll REALLY enjoy it. Aone, Kaname, Futakuchi, and Sakunami will be there. I hope to see you there soon!” sent at 11:27 AM

As you read 11:27 AM your expression was covered in horror, but.. It could’ve been worse. For example, maybe it was sent at 9am and here you are just sitting on your ass, waking up at basically 2PM. You smiled a bit thinking of the scenario in your head, visualizing what you would act like if they actually happened. You quickly stopped yourself, though. something was a bit off in this text. You reread it at least 5 times to finally recognize what’s wrong with it. 

“uh kogane, you didn’t even give me the location” sent 2:07 PM

Sadly, you weren’t really the patient type and when 10 minutes had passed you started to get a bit antsy. Your leg was basically vibrating based off of how fast your foot was lighting tapping against the ground. 

Fuck it.

—————————

You were now furiously knocking on the door- at this point you don’t know if it was either knocking or punching it with the side of your fist. Like the idiot you were, you didn’t even try to use the door knob. When you were tired out from yelling and knocking on the door, that was the time when you decided to use it. 

And, it worked.

“Kogane! I’m coming in..” you slowly dragged out the n’s in the word “in” as if you were screaming “ready or not, here I come!” in a classic game of hide and seek. 

When you walked in, you could see streamers and balloons around the house, the little “Happy Birthday!” sign greeting you. Food was spread out in the kitchen, the dining room table was all set up with a birthday table cover and everything. You could clearly see the effort he put in based off of the mess he made in the living room. You could see the plastic bags the decorations must have came in when he bought them scattered around the living room. His house looked like a little kids birthday party, but in a good way. He really did go all out. The poor guy did this all by himself. You frowned at the thought, and then suddenly had a sly smirk on your face. 

You quickly took your shoes off and began to quietly walk around the house, wanting to surprise him and give him a big old innocent birthday hug. Now that the thought crossed your mind, you totally forgot to get him a birthday present while on the way here, but you didn’t know the party would be at his house- that could be your excuse. You nodded to yourself, agreeing with the thought. 

His home was oddly quiet, but you continued to walk around the house. Eventually, you came upon a door that was slightly opened and you peeked your head inside without hesitation. 

Koganegawa was slowly stroking his long, veiny cock with his right hand, his hips thrusting up into his fist every now and then. Some strands of his hair were stuck to the sides of his head due to the sweat that was forming on his body. The little groans he let out was causing your thighs to clench together, trying your hardest to not picture what he would look like between your legs. This dirty thought of yours caused you to let out a small moan, quickly slapping your hand against your mouth, hoping he didn’t hear. You slowly sat yourself on the ground, trying to even out your breaths since it was such a close call, but you were cut off when the door right beside you swung open. You screamed in surprise and fell on your back. You could clearly see Kogane’s unattended, throbbing cock against his boxers. Goddamn was it bigger up close.

“Uh.. Happy birthday?” you awkwardly announced, trying to break the cold, uncomfortable silence, waving both of your hands in a celebratory, jazz hands motion.

He grabbed your wrist, helping you off the ground and led you to his bed. He stood in front of you, hands on his hips staring at you, obviously expecting an answer. 

Instead of giving him an answer right away, you took this as a chance to admire the sight in front of you. His toned body was enough to make you drool, his abs glossed in sweat and goddamn.. his fucking thighs. They were pretty nice, not gonna lie, you smirked to yourself. Honestly, you wouldn’t mind if he just stood there all day. He should be put in a museum. Your eyes slowly went to his-

“Y/N! I’m still here! What were you doing outside of my door??” he yelled, hands out in front of him, expressing his question more through his movement. 

“Listen, I- You.. You didn’t answer my goddamn text!” you replied, your eyes darting to the other side of the room, trying your best to not make eye contact with him. “So i.. came to your house, and when you didn’t answer the door i just.. Walked right on in.” you were putting your best efforts to lighten the mood but it wasn’t exactly working as you hoped it would.

“Then you decided to watch me jack off my dick behind my door, too, right?”

“What else would i have been doing? fucking idiot..” your voice trailed off at the last part, not wanting him to hear. 

“Would you like to repeat what you said, Y/N?” he teasingly asked, cocking one of his eyebrows up. 

“Uh no, fuck off, yeah?” you attacked right back. You leaned forward, your elbow resting against your knee as your head rested in the palm of your hand. You stuck your tongue out at him like a child, waiting to see his reaction. 

He hummed in response, looking down at you with his arms crossed. “Y/N, are you even wearing anything under that?” You almost choked as you held in your laugh. I guess he was the idiot. 

“Yeah, I am. Do you think i’m stupid or something? I would never leave the house with no pants on. Bold of you to assume that.” his eyebrow was still in the same position as if he didn’t believe you. You stood up from the bed.

“Kogane, look” he tilted his head at you and you lifted your shirt up. He immediately looked away and you had to repeat yourself. “No, look at me, idiot! I’m wearing shorts, see?” he slowly turned his head towards you and he looked puzzled. This man is as stupid as an elementary schooler, you don’t know how he’s still alive by now. 

“So i’m guessing you have a birthday present for me?” he joked, but your mind clicked. It wasn’t your birthday hug idea, but something else. 

“Actually, yes, I do. Can you sit on the bed for me real quick?” he quickly sat on the bed, oblivious to what he’s getting himself into. 

You slowly got onto the bed and sat around him, your arms wrapping around his waist, your hands inching their way to his boxers.

“What are you-“ 

“You already know what i’m doing, it’s your birthday so just let it happen, okay?” he nodded with a gulp, and you continued your ministrations. 

Your left hand slowly lowered the boxers off of his legs, causing his dick to spring up against his stomach. He groaned at the feeling, which made you eager to continue even further. You didn’t expect for his dick to be so long. It was average girth but holy shit was it lengthy. Your right hand began to stroke his cock, slowly at first, immediately teasing the tip with your thumb, wiping the precum off and onto his shaft. Feeling him shiver against your body made your cheeks flush and had your right hand slightly shaking in excitement. He noticed this and took action by wrapping his large, rough hands against yours, guiding your hand up and down at a quicker pace than you had before. His moans were becoming more apparent and louder, signaling that he’s close to his release. Kogane’s hands never left yours as his grip tightened, going even faster. Feeling how eager he is to cum and just by watching him help you jack him off is making you even wetter than you were before. 

“God, Kogane you’re so goddamn cute..Feeling your hand against mine while you guide me to fuck your cock with my hand is so fucking hot..” you felt his cock twitch at your words and you smirked through your bright red cheeks, lowering your head against his dick and filling your mouth with his long cock. Kogane threw his head back in pleasure while pushing your head down against him, his cum filling your mouth, making you choke. You remain still, though, allowing him to wait out his release. 

He lifted your head up off of him and when he looked at you with his cum dripping down the sides of your mouth, he immediately became hard again. 

“Didn’t know you were that eag-“ you were cut off when Kogane grabbed you by the hips and threw you right under him. The way he towered over you made you want to cower under a blanket and hide, but at the same time it just turned you on even more. It was almost like a prey being hunted by predator scenario.

“Kogane what are you-“ the smirk on his face was like one you’ve never seen before.

“Oh, how the tables have turned.” the sly little dumb smirk he still had plastered on his face made you want to flick him upside the head, but realistically you couldn’t since you were vulnerable as all hell under him.

He didn’t hesitate whatsoever to pull your shirt off of you. Already, your shorts were gone and the same with your bra. You were lost- it was like a switch was flipped with him. You didn’t know he had a side like this to him. 

Kogane went up to your neck and purposefully breathed against your neck causing you to jump. He soon started to leave small, gentle bites on the same spot, letting him leave a long lick against it, hurriedly wanting to whisper against your ear something god knows what where he got it from. 

“I’m going to fuck you senseless until you learn who’s the boss around here, okay sweetheart?” chills were sent down your spine, your heart thumping in your chest, positive that he could hear it. Your cheeks were the brightest shade of red to the point it looks like a child got into their mom’s makeup. But, you didn't know if he watched some really hardcore porn or what, but did not know at al that he had that in him.

His two, long fingers were suddenly teasing your entrance, causing you to let out a small moan, but you acted quickly as you covered your mouth with your hand, not willing to give in to him. Not pleased with your actions, his fingers delved inside if you, pushing in and out of you at a rather quick pace, making sure to curl his fingers in all of the right spots. 

“Can you not hide your moans from me? Pretty Please?” he gave you those puppy dog eyes that you always hated. You shook your head. He shrugged in response and positioned himself against you, your eyes widening in shock. Before you could stop him, question him, or anything, he was already buried inside of you, letting out a loud grunt. 

“I’m going to fuck you really hard, Y/N. I know you like that. You like it when guys fuck you until you can’t walk, right?” he emphasized the last word by slamming his cock deep inside of you, straight towards your g-spot. You basically screamed by the intense feeling, and he only just started. 

“Finally opening up to me, pretty girl?” he pushed your legs up by your head and began to drill his cock into you nonstop. His tight grip on your hips was bound to leave a mark afterwards. The sound of his hips slapping against yours could’ve been enough to make you cum alone.

He pulled out of you and you glared at him.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry.. Come here.” he motioned his hands for you to come towards him. He led you towards the wall.

“Jump” you obliged and he pinned you against the wall, making sure to not waste time by quickly inserting his pulsing cock inside of you. 

“Fuck!” he looked at you, giving you a quick peck on the lips before he started to move inside of you. His thrusts began extremely slow, obviously teasing you. 

“You know what I want.” Kogane’s thrusts became even slower before they came to a stop.

“No, I don’t, i can’t read min-“ your snark remark was cut off as you were given a hard, rough slap on the ass. You looked at him, and he nodded as a signal to go on. You sighed.

“Fuck me.” You sarcastically said in a dull tone, making him annoyed on purpose.

“Come on.. you know you want to. Quit lying about it, Y/N!” he began to rub your clit with one of his fingers as he waited.

“I want you to fuck me till your hearts content. I want you to fuck my pussy until i beg you to stop so i want you to quit messing around and get on with it already!” a small whine was released at the end of your words, but Koganegawa seemed satisfied.

“Whatever you want..” He grinned, He pushed himself further against you, making sure you were well propped up against the wall, and began to thrust at a rapid pace, causing you to grab onto his shoulders to give you more support. 

“God fucking dammit you’re so tight..” your walls were clenching around him like a vice. His cock filled you up so well, but the fact that his dick was brushing against your cervix was throwing you off the edge. It was impossible to think that someone could fill you up so good, and so perfectly. 

“Fuck, fuck! Please don’t stop, Kanji! Right there, right there!” his cheeks flushed at hearing his first name slip past your lips. The pace that he is holding at the moment, you could basically say he was using you like a sex doll. He was like an animal in heat, he showed no signs of stopping whatsoever, and it didn’t help that you used his first name.

“Say it again, please.” he whines against your ear, his hot breaths driving you to the edge even more 

“Kanji!” you moaned, practically chanting his name. He loved the way you said his name. The way his cock thrusted in and out of you at such a quick pace while your cum was coated around it, was the second hottest thing next to Kogane. The way he moaned, the skin slapping against skin was too much.

“I’m gonna cum, I’m gonna cum!” you screamed, but to your surprise Kogane kept on thrusting in and out of you, chasing his own release. You knew he wasn’t going to stop until he came.

“Kanji, please cum, I’m begging you Kanji! You fill me up so good, I love the way you fill me up is so perfect just like you baby-“ and that was it, that’s all that took.

“FUCK! Y/N I love you I love you!” he came inside of you, slowly moving his hips inside of you to ride out the overwhelming feel of pleasure. Your tongue was lolling out of your mouth at the overstimulation, and Kogane let out a small chuckle before carefully carrying you to his bed. 

“Where the hell did you learn all of that from, Kanji?” you said through heavy breaths.

Futakuchi leaned on the door.

“From me.” he pointed at himself with a proud smile before walking off.

[diaryofabeautyfiend]

Small Time Witch Ch 2

So I guess I’m writing a series. Part two of this story is starting to build my narrative. This story will be a super slow burn. Sorry if you’re looking for smut right off the bat. I like a plot. Check out Marvel Wiki for more info on Witches. Stay tuned for more.

Since Director Fury’s office was on the way to the training room you decided to drop off a few reports to his office. Since you were stopping by his office you decided to bring him what you assumed would be his third cup of coffee. You also knew he hadn’t eaten breakfast so you grabbed him a bagel too. Popping your head around the corner his assistant didn’t look up from the computer screen but she heard you. “He’s not in.” You didn’t say anything. You juggled your things grabbing your bagel with your teeth and headed down to the training room. You turned to push the door open with your back nearly falling over when someone grabbed it for you. You stumbled and almost dropped everything. You did not look up and made your way to the nearest table to set everything down. Fury was waiting watching you struggle.

“Oh hey. I have the third quarter budget ready for you to sign. I brought you a bagel and another cup of coffee. Hot bitter and joyless. Just like you like it.” He laughed. It wasn’t weird to you but everyone else in the room was stunned.

“Thank you, y/l/n. Go easy on them.”

“I make no promises, sir.” He shook his head still laughing to himself and left the room.

You turned around only expecting Loki but all of the Avengers were staring at you. Your bagel was hanging out of your mouth and one earbud was still in. You put it all down and muttered an apology. For a solid thirty seconds they all just stared at you. Tony was the first to break the silence.

“How and I mean HOW did you get Nick Fury to laugh? I swear I didn’t know he had teeth. Hand to God I’ve never even seen him so much as smile. Not even a smirk.” You didn’t answer immediately.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m funny.” You tried to sneak away and sit in the back but Steve stopped you. He directed you to a chair facing everyone and you felt like you were in trouble. Loki and Wanda were in your sight line trying to make you feel comfortable. It wasn’t working.

You were aware of everything around you. Clint tapped his pencil. Natasha shifted in her chair several times. Tony popped his gum. Bucky stood in the back with his arms folded. He had his eyes trained on you. Sam watched Steve. Rhodey checked his phone and sometimes stared out of the window. You heard the fluorescent bulbs buzzing over head. The air conditioning caught the plastic blinds on the window causing them to tap every few seconds. After a moment you were interrupted by Steve clearing his throat.

“Let’s get started. Y/N we are here to talk about your training schedule. We know in the past you were far away from danger in the van. For this next mission we’re afraid you won’t have that luxury. We are asking you to put yourself in harms way...”

“Essentially what Capsicle is trying to say is we won’t be able to protect you so you’ll have to protect yourself.” Tony interjected

Your eyes widened. You wished you could be sandwiched in between Wanda and Loki. They felt so far away even though it was just a few feet. Steve continued, “Are you up for this? We can really use your help but we can’t afford any mistakes. This is a very dangerous endeavor. A lot of moving parts. We won’t have each other’s sixes.”

“Uh yeah. I think I am. When you say training schedule....” Steve handed you a piece of paper with times and initials hand written. It was all in military time.

“0400 is that four in the morning? Like am?”

“Yes, ma’am. I know it’s early but we have a lot of ground to cover. Today you’ll spend half your time with Tony and Rhodey going over the schematics of the buildings we’ll be infiltrating. They’ll show you a replica of the security system and how they think it’s dismantled. The rest of the day with be with Loki. Tomorrow morning is when the physical work begins.”

You read further, “Weapons training?!”

“Yeah. That’s with Clint and Bucky. Nat will work on hand to hand. You’ll work with Sam and I in the gym.” This was all too much. All you could do was nod your head and take it all in. Steve kept talking. You felt like your insides were knotting and pulling. You squirmed in your seat. All of these things were imperceptible to everyone but Loki. He watched you and became more uneasy with every passing moment. Your psyche was reaching for him begging him to step in.

“Captain perhaps we should give Y/N a small break.” Steve clenched his jaw and was visibly irritated at Loki’s mere presence.

“This is important.” he said in a harsh whisper.

“Yes, I understand. You haven’t given her a moment to breathe. She was not forewarned that her first time out with all of you would include such high stakes. Let the poor girl eat her breakfast at least.”

Steve nodded and stepped away. Loki handed you your coffee and gave you a small half smile.

“I suggest you switch to tea. You are too frazzled for caffeine. We will not do anything strenuous this afternoon. You can relax.”

“Thank you. I’m about ready to bolt for the door and tell Fury to fuck off.”

“Now that would be fun to watch. I hope you don’t though. I’d certainly miss you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

He cocked his head to the side and thought for a moment. “No. I suppose you’re right. I feel strangely connected to you though. Your absence would create a hole in my life from which I’m not prepared to recover.”

Strangely you knew what he meant. You felt inexplicably bonded. You sat quietly taking small bites of your bagel while Loki studied you. The din of the room melted away and you felt calm. After a few moments Tony interrupted. “Hey, kid. You’re with us. We’re headed back to the compound.”

“Ok. I’m parked in the garage. I’ll meet you there.”

“Nonsense. Ride with me. I promise I won’t bite.” You laughed but weren’t so sure if he was joking. You looked back at Loki.

“I’ll see you this afternoon. Have fun.” He waved and you followed Tony.

Tony was far more chaotic than everyone else but you sort of enjoyed that about him. He talked fast thought fast and, much to your dismay, drove really really fast. He had a ton of questions for you. You answered but mostly he liked to hear himself talk. He was trying to figure out what headspace you were in. Were you evil? What were your intentions?

His lab was incredible. So many buttons and screens. You enjoyed the whir of the machines and the pattern of beeps and dings. Tony saw you looking around with wonder. He let you take it all in before he got down to business.

“Rhodey is joining us shortly. If you want to take a look here we can get started. Here is a mock up of the security system and the power grid.”

“It looks like the security system runs on its own power source here and the mainframe for power is on the opposite side of the building. I can’t take out both at the same time.”

“How much time will you need at each location?”

You bit your lip and tied your hair back so you could really think. “I’m not sure. There are back up generators. It would make more sense for me to cut power completely to security than to the building. I can be around 100 yards from the actual site so I won’t be detected. Better than going in blind.”

He bit the tip of his pen and smiled “I completely agree. FRIDAY run it.”

“Sure, Boss.”

Rhodey came in and they discussed tactical placement based on reconnaissance from SHIELD. It was tedious but weirdly fun. “Ok, kids. That’s lunch. Good work. High fives all around.”

The rest of the team started to file into the little kitchen off the lab. You helped yourself to a sandwich and a bag of chips. Bucky eyed your choices and you felt judged. “Enjoy those chips now. Once Steve gets a hold of you you’ll only get protein shakes and sadness.”

“Wait...why?”

Sam chimed in, “Cap’s all ‘food is medicine..blah blah blah’. Fact is you need fuel for your body to promote stamina. Cheeseburgers don’t help you run fast.”

You rolled your eyes and they both laughed. “You’ll get used to him.” Bucky added, “or you’ll stab him.”

Speak of the devil. “No stabbing, Buck.”

“But I like stabbing. I’m good at it.” he whined.

You loudly crunched a chip and Steve raised one eyebrow. “Chips huh? That’ll cost you tomorrow.”

“See? Sadness.”

Throughout the rest of lunch you joked and laughed with everyone. You were starting to feel more comfortable. The questions were easier “Where are you from...do you have a family..” You finished chatting and excused yourself to find Loki. Steve caught up with you in the hall.

You could feel that he was tense so you tried to ease his mind a little. “Apologizing again?”

“How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess. You don’t have anything to apologize for. I know what I signed up for.”

“You’re interesting. I don’t know quite how to read you. You seem so timid a lot of the time. I’m afraid to put too much on you. The other times you’re right up in the fray with the team. I don’t know where to step with you.”

“Electrokinesis is not my only power, Captain. I’m an empath. When tensions are high I feel that from everyone and the weight of that can be crushing. When you’re calm I’m calm.” He wasn’t quite sure how to respond . He’s come across all sorts of enhanced people and aliens and gods in the last few years it makes his head spin. This was the first time he had been so intrigued by one.

You glanced at your watch and saw you were late. Steve still looked puzzled. You patted him on the arm, “Ok, Captain. I have to go but good talk.”

“See you at 4. Am. That’s in the morning.”

You smiled at him over your shoulder.

Loki was in a conference room pacing and looking mildly annoyed. He had no real agenda for you today. There was no reason for you to be “on time”. He just hated to be kept waiting. And, the more he sees you the more he wanted to see you. You his little puzzle box aching to be undone. He was so engrossed in thought that he didn’t hear you come in.

“Sorry! I got caught up.”

“I do not like to be kept waiting. You’ll do well to remember for next time.”

You but your lip and furrowed your brows. “I’m sorry. Steve and I were talking and I kind of lost track of time. I won’t let it happen again.” You moved closer to him to touch his arm. You intended to put him in a better mood but he caught your wrist.

“I know what you’re doing. Your tricks won’t work on me, pet.” He squeezed grinding the tiny bones in your wrist, “Do you need to be reminded who is the pupil and who is the teacher? I am a god foolish little girl...”

Before you could stop yourself from saying the words you mumbled, “A demigod”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was silent for several seconds before breaking out into raucous laughter.

“You do have guts I’ll give you that, mortal.” You relaxed a little and laughed too. When he felt your body settle down he pulled you to him so hard your head snapped back.

“Demigod or not I can still split you in half with the flick of my wrist. Now sit.” he growled.

You sat in the chair rubbing your wrist. You fought back tears and didn’t make eye contact with him. He sat across from you and started to speak when he saw your chin quivering. He pulled your face toward his and spoke in a gentle tone, “That smart mouth is going to be the death of you, pet. I’m sorry I lost my temper. When you’ve collected yourself we can finally get started.” You tried to take a deep breath but started sobbing instead. He rolled his eyes and tried to comfort you the best he could. He rubbed your back and silently cursed the fragile mortal ego.

“Please don’t cry. I don’t know what to do when people cry. You know when I was a child it always made me feel better when I hurt Thor. Would that make you feel better hmm? Would you like to hurt Thor?” You laughed. He wiped tears from your face.

“There. That’s my girl. Do you feel better?”

“Yes. I’m sorry I was such an ass earlier. I guess I was over confident with our friendship or whatever this is.”

He scoffed, “Of course we’re friends. I fear we’re more alike than I care to admit. I have learned the hard way that magick can’t always be the answer.” He put his arm around you and pulled you closer to him. You snuggled onto his shoulder. In the stillness of the room you embraced.

He placed his hand on your forehead to extract your memories. Easier to watch instead of talk about it. He saw you running. Saw you pleading with your mother to come with you. Saw you trying to save the younger members of your coven. He heard the screams. The remnants of spells cut short. The roar of Hellfphyr. He felt your fear. Your pain. Your rage. These were things he understood well. Last he saw the most curious thing.

He watched you stand in the field where your coven performed your most sacred of rituals. You retrieved a small piece of parchment from your pocket. You raised your hands to the sky and said the incantation written there. Your eyes turned white and you were bathed in a bright white glow. Once it reached its peak it released and exploded. Everything around you was ash. Fat tears dripped down your face splashing on his hand. “Y/n, tell me about the spell.”

“My mother gave it to me. She said I was the only one strong enough to protect the coven’s magick. I’m not entirely sure what even happened when I did the spell. I blew stuff up I know that.”

He shifted so he could see you. “I think you took in all their magick. That’s what I’m feeling.”

The gears were turning in his head trying to figure out how to access what was inside of you. He paced and bit his thumb nail. Every now and then he would look up to say something but it wouldn’t quite make it out. “Come. It’s late. You need dinner and I need Wanda” he pulled you up by your hands, “Come now, darling. I have planning to do. Text Wanda. Ask her to meet us in the kitchen.”

Wanda was waiting when you got down there. “Hey. Y/N you look wrecked. What did you do to her?” she swung her head to look at Loki. He shook his head.

“I didn’t do anything. Listen. She’s a conduit!”

Wanda’s eyes widened, “No shit.”

“What’s a conduit? You asked but they kept talking over you.

“She performed a spell. I presume it was written by the leaders of her coven. The spell allowed her to take in all their magick when they passed.”

“That’s what we’ve been feeling..”

“HELLO?!” you shouted, “What’s a conduit? I know what the word means but in magical terms what does it mean?”

Wanda and Loki looked at you like they forgot you were there.

“When you did the spell you took in all the magick your coven had. All of their abilities all of the power that manifested on those sacred grounds now reside in you. Your mother must have known or else she wouldn’t have taught so hard to keep you safe.” Loki explained.

“Y/N do you have anything that belonged to your mother? The other members of your coven? Loki, maybe if she has something of theirs we can channel that energy.”

“Yeah my place. Let’s go. Shit. I don’t have my car. I’ll get us a ride.” You pulled out your phone and scrolled your contacts. You dialed Fury’s number. “Director Fury. I’m at the compound. Loki Wanda and I need to get to my car so I can get home. We discovered something. I need a ride.”

“Be outside in five.” He sounded less than amused.

“Thank you, sir” you hang up, “Ok. Our ride is on its way.”

They both looked at you like you grew another head. “Ok one day your are going to have to explain your relationship with Fury. Like who has his number?”

“He knows power when he sees it.” Loki said under his breath.

“You have explaining to do.”

“Later. Let’s get going.”

You moved quickly to the front gate constantly looking over your shoulder like you were doing something wrong. It’s not like you weren’t free to come and go. Not like you lived there. You just felt like you were escaping. It didn’t help that Bucky appeared out of nowhere.

“Where are you three off to?”

“My place.” He cocked an eyebrow and fixated on Loki.

“Witch stuff.” Wanda said to distract him. Just as he started to walk away a chopper descended in the open field. That ought to get everyone’s attention.

“That’s us!” You yelled motioning for the helicopter. Loki gave Bucky a thumbs up and smiled as you ascended.

Once all three of you had your cans on the pilot informed you that you’d be to your condo in less than 20 minutes.

“So we have time. Explain to me why Fury is so invested in you.”

“Just like Loki said. I’m powerful. He knows it. Just like he tried to acquire you but Hydra got to you first. Wanda it is no secret amongst the magical community that you are the most powerful witch alive. I’m surprised the Kales haven’t come after you.”

“Who are they?”

“A family with an ancient bloodline who controls the demon Helphyr. They sent it to murder my family. I was the only survivor. Now I know why. They won’t stop coming after me.”

That made Loki nervous and crazy angry. “You should come back to the compound with us. We can protect you.”

“No you can’t. I’m safer alone. My condo is warded. And if they come for me, they come. I won’t put any of you in harms way. I especially won’t endanger the lives of America’s mightiest heroes. You two can hold your own. The rest of them wouldn’t survive.”

Wanda looked out the window at the city sparkling beneath her. She thought about what Steve once said about everyone having their own agenda. She supposed she was part of Fury’s. She was well aware of her power but made her own choices. She was afraid that, because you were in such high favor with Fury, he was attempting to get you to persuade her to join SHIELD. The compound was her home. They were her family. She would never leave them.

She kept staring at you. You could feel her tension rising. You held her hand but didn’t attempt to influence her. You just held her hand. She and Loki were the closest friends you had right now. Sure Fury always has an agenda. It’s not exactly what Wanda thought. Fury’s personal mission was to never let any one group gain too much power. He knew it was a risk to introduce you to the two of them. You’re loyal to no one really. So, he treats you with more kindness than he extends to anyone else and takes good care of you. Loki wouldn’t completely join forces with you. You were a small time witch as far as he was concerned being a demigod and all. But you and Wanda joining forces could be devastating. That would certainly rankle the magical and mutant communities alike. Fury couldn’t have that. That’s why he put you under the watchful eyes of the Avengers. They are just enough to keep you from going rogue. But just though.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 200

200

Standing in the childhood home of Keith, Lance felt as if he was trespassing on the site of ancient and important ruins. The shack had been made by Jeong, according to Krolia, his little anger muffin inheriting none of his dad’s skill. After 20 years of abandonment, there wasn’t a space that was coated in thick dust or cobwebs. As much as Lance wanted to explore, he felt it’d be best if he remained outside so as not breath in anything nasty, or be reduced to a coughing fit... Especially not after the extra bumpy drive in which Krolia seemed to find every single rut and dip in the dirt road.

Having the memory of the living space imbedded in his mind, made it easy to fill in spaces with his imagination. Keith and his dad would have totally eaten in front of the TV. Keith would have played with the long discarded toys still left on the floor. No one had packed the house up. It still looked ready for Keith and Jeong to walk back into their lives, if you didn’t take into account the dust. Just how it’d remained standing astonished him more than the fact they were at Keith’s childhood house. This was the place Krolia and Jeong had called home. This was where they’d been happiest. And now it was... empty and hollow. Waiting for it’s owner that’d never come home.

Hearing Keith sneezing, Lance turned to very carefully lean on the front pole that supported a slim roof over the front door. His fiancé bound to have inhaled enough dust now that his nose would itching madly. God. His fiancé... Warmth swelled in his chest as his cheeks dusted red. Yeah, it’d be a long while before he didn’t feel giddy at mentally calling Keith his fiancé. He’d waited, not sure it’d happen quite so soon, and yet, on top of having now known him for 365 days, Keith had agreed. Lance accidentally true to his sentimental heart, not realising the date until he’d seen the date on his phone earlier.

A few moments later, Keith came out covered head to toe in cobwebs and dust, nose wrinkling as he examined himself in the light of day. How lucky he was to have this idiot who resembled a cobweb brush

“This is insane. Dust should have a limit. You should be allowed a maximum quota and once you’ve reached it, it shouldn’t be allowed to settle”

Trying to pull cobweb from his hair, Keith rubbed it between the thick locks. How he’d managed to survive being an adult as long as he did, was kind of a miracle

“Come here, you. I’ll do it for you”

Obediently Keith stood still as Lance dusted him off. Both of them wanted to say something to the other, yet neither knew what to say. Lance didn’t want to push Keith into talking. Not when he had to process the fact he was once again back where everything had started for him. The home they’d had in Cuba had been brought by family, Lance hadn’t had a chance to go there with him Mami and do the whole “I remember... thing”. He wondered if Keith had remembered anything at all, yet suspected he didn’t from the look in his eyes. Guilt didn’t suit Keith. He much preferred him smiling, so he did the only thing he could think of to make Keith smile and kissed on the tip of the nose.

Rubbing where Lance had kissed, Keith’s nose twitched. A sneeze forming then getting stuck as his fiancé partially opened his mouth only for nothing to come out

“The internet says if you say “sneeze”, it should help”

With an unimpressed look, Keith’s breath caught before finally sneezing ridiculously hard. The werewolf wiping at his nose as Lance watched, kind of finding it cute. Not the sneeze but the sheer unhappiness over how the sneeze had gotten stuck then the force of it

“Better?”

“Mhmm. Don’t go inside, it’s dusty”

“Thanks for the warning, babe. I’ll keep that in mind as I watch from out here”

“That’s why you’re the smart one... we...”

Keith sneezed twice, just as hard as that first sneeze before groaning and rubbing his nose on his hand

“We should have aired the shack out”

They couldn’t go back in time and do that now, plus they’d have to remember to close the place back up. Krolia had found the spare house key, buried inside a bottle that was buried in where Lance assumed once was a small garden under the front window. Sand had swallowed it all. Then they’d found lock had seized, obviously, and needed a little “help” to open. It was sad

“It’s too late now. How do feel being back?”

“I... thought maybe I remembered like fragments, but I don’t remember much of anything. Mum does... she’s going from room to room... but I feel like a stranger”

Keith was on the edge of tears. Lance taking his face in his hands

“It’s okay not to remember everything or anything immediately. It’s okay because being here means you get to make some new memories. I know the dust is depressing, but under that, I see a home where you played on the floor. Where you and your dad eat in front of the TV. Where he tucked you into bed every night. It feels depressing and cold right now, probably completely unimaginable that you lived her, but this is another part of knowing your dad. We should take some photos. It doesn’t matter if you’re not up to looking at them now, at least you’ll have them for when you’re ready”

“I wanted everything to come back”

“I know, babe. Maybe some things will once your brain starts putting the pieces together. The important thing is not to be mad at yourself for something you have no control over”

Keith snorted, before sighing

“I don’t know what to do”

“Let the house air a bit, then take photos. Mum’s stories might be hard to hear, but they’re all part of the puzzle”

Trying his hardest to be supportive, Keith simply rolled his eyes at his words

“I think I really fucking hate puzzles”

“Nah. I bet given the chance, you’d be a total ho for puzzles”

“I’m a ho for you”

“I know. You know, it’s kind of nice out here”

There was no one around, other than the other 3. No cars. No noisy traffic. No people... it was essentially a house in the middle of small desert. Weeds seem to even give the grounds around the house a miss, and there were no trees which meant no birds or animals around. What had Joe been through that had led him to such an isolated life? Or was it because people were racist dicks that he’d chosen to carve out his own small part of the world. To think in a way Lance was kind of like him. With his house out where no one was. Living alonish... Now the house was filled with noises, he liked it much better.

“The location does have its charms”

A peaceful existence was all Lance had wanted. With Keith around, Joe’s existence would have become all more happier

“Probably not when you’re a little kid, but you would have had all Joe’s attention when he was home”

“Because there’s a great lot of other things to do”

“Babe, you’re still a handful as it is. I bet he loved every moment he spent in this home with you”

“Maybe”

“Nope. “Definitely”, is the word you’re after. I know from personal experience... well, after you stopped thinking I was trying to trick into thinking you hadn’t turned”

Keith groaned

“I’m never going to live that down”

“Nope. But hey, you’re the cutest not turned vampire around, so it worked out in the end. How’s your ego feeling?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s sad, but mum keeps talking and it doesn’t know what to do”

“If it gets too much, let me know. I can totally fake sick if you need”

Keith kissed his palm, the action soft and sweet, even with his dirty face

“You’re too good to me”

Chuckling, Lance sensed an impending loop on the horizon. Keith could say what he wanted, yet Lance knew he was the one lacking. His fiancé was so fucking strong

“We’re not going into that again. I love you, babe. You should go back in if you feel up to it”

“Will you come?”

He hadn’t wanted to intrude, or face the dust, but Keith was asking so he couldn’t say no

“Sure...”

*

Keith let himself be lost in thought on the drive back from his father’s shack. When he’d been a teen, he’d been so desperate to find his way back there. Now he’d been there, the place was... depressing. Krolia had scavenged up the few photos that mould hadn’t destroyed, as well as a few other small pieces. Shiro kept casting glances at him, and Lance had a coughing fit so hard that Keith winced for his fiancé.

He’d come to find out about his dad... He now knew things he hadn’t known before, but it’d also reinforced that his family was nothing like Lance’s. Lance would have kept up the maintenance of the shack. He would have come out every so often to wipe away the layers of dust lovingly and air the place out. Any repairs that needed doing, he would have done it all without a second thought. Heck, Lance had had his eyes on all the things wrong with the place like he was daydreaming about fixing them all... and now his fiancé was snoring softly as he leaned into Keith in the back of Shiro’s sedan. At least they had a room. Shiro, Krolia, and Curtis were all going to have to check in while covered in filth, whereas he could whisk Lance away and clean them both up.

Slowly they made their way back to town, and Lance managed to stay asleep right up to Krolia jerking the car to a stop in the hotel parking lot. Blurry sleepy eyes blinked up at him at him, Lance realising he’d fallen asleep and going to apologise. Keith kissing the words away. He didn’t need to apologise for anything. Not as far as Keith was concerned. Having Lance with him for all of this was more than enough. Undoing his belt, Shiro turned back to grin at them like he’d never seen them snuggled up before

“You guys need any help?”

“Nah, I’ve got him. You guys alright to check in?”

“We’ll work it out. Want to grab some lunch?”

Lunch would mean talking and Keith didn’t want a concerned Shiro questioning what he did and didn’t remember. He was too busy being mad at himself for not remembering

“I think I’m going to take a nap and grab something later. Today was... enough”

“As long as you’re okay”

Keith rolled his eyes

“Yes, dad. We’re fine. Come on, babe. It’s shower time”

Lance’s staggering lasted a few moments before Keith lifted him off his feet. Steps and stairs were bad enough for Lance at the best of times. Sighing at him, Lance let himself be carried, Keith happy he was being so obedient about it. Carrying Lance made him feel strong. Not that he hadn’t been able to carry him before the turn, just now he had the strength to carry him with the surety he wouldn’t be dropping him.

Balancing his fiancé on his knee, Keith fumbled the key into the lock, opening it to find Lenny had dumped box after box on their bed. His ego hated that their space had been violated, yet opted to sulk rather than be angry because it worried for their tired mate. He’d liked to do things for Lance before, now he felt a rush of pride for everything right he did... Egos’ really were pathetically fragile and in need of constant reassurance... a thought at which his ego huffed unimpressed. Maybe he should buy the damn thing a trophy and let it bask until all it’s pettiness had left his system? If only he’d be that lucky. How could his ego possibly be upset that his father had died when it had nothing to do with it?

When Lance went down for a nap, Keith was just about comfortably cuddled. He’d gotten everything they’d needed, and filled the bedside table with it, so Shiro calling his name only made him groan. Naturally Shiro wanted to talk. This was Shiro. The second he felt any kind of emotion, his brother wanted to know all about it. As harsh it sounded to him in his head, Keith wanted a break from learning about his father. He wanted a time out to process. But no. Said time out wasn’t happening, despite how tempting it was to stay cuddled up with his smoking hot fiancé who’s arse was perfectly aligned with his crotch. Cock blocked by his dumb brother, he and Lance would have their revenge later.

Tugging on a shirt, Keith dragged himself out the hotel room to find Shiro leaning against the railing. The view was of the road and the couple of cars parked across the road that belonged to holiday goers. Boring as heck

“You wanted to talk?”

Knowing he sounded a tad too blunt, Keith knew Shiro well enough to know Shiro knew it was unintentional

“Yeah, kiddo. Is now okay?”

“Sure. Lance’s sleep pattern’s all over the place. He’ll be out until he has to pee again”

“That sounds rough”

“It is... I mean for him it’s rough. Not much I can do to change things”

Joining Shiro in leaning against the balcony, this was better than having him inside with all the files on his father. Now the pair of them were stuck staring at the boring road

“Keith... You’d tell me right. You’d tell me if you weren’t okay”

And there it was. Shiro’s worry. They’d grown almost radio silent apart... There was a time Keith could barely go a few hours without talking to Shiro... Mumbling awkwardly, Keith decided the railing was much more interesting to stare at

“You’re worrying too much... I’m not a snot nosed little brat anymore”

Shiro didn’t disagree, yet he also didn’t agree or praise Keith for his emotional growth. Instead his brother slung his arm around his shoulder and gave a tight squeeze

“I miss you, kiddo. I know how you feel about losing your father. So I know that none of this is easy for you”

“I... I didn’t feel... I felt like a stranger at the shack. I mean... I learned about my dad... bits and pieces, and I think maybe I’ve got a better idea than before, but I’m tired. I can’t stop thinking about what mum went through... and I can’t stop thinking about dad burning to death. I guess I’m not okay, but Lance has been really good. He’s been really patient with me... mostly... I made him cry yesterday and he ended up yelling at me for my stupidity. All of this feels exhausting”

“Yeah? And your ego?”

“Don’t even go there. We were about two seconds away from me ripping Lenny’s throat out. I can’t... cope with all this stuff about my dad and my ego... I honestly just... want to stop thinking about it right now...”

Kissing the top of Keith’s head, Keith mentally sighed at himself. Shiro had pulled his infamous mind trick and his mouth had moved on its own

“It was pretty confronting to see the shack. I know when I picked you up, all you wanted to do was get back there... I’m sorry it wasn’t what you were expecting”

“I don’t know what I was expecting... but... I keep hearing about dad and I don’t know if I feel any closer to him. I don’t know this place. I don’t know his friends. I don’t know why he chose here of all places. I don’t know... He feels further away than ever”

“That’s not true. He’s still here. A bit of him and a bit of Krolia made you, and I’m pretty damn grateful you’re here”

“I haven’t been much of a brother...”

“You’ve got a lot going on”

Keith shook his head. That was no excuse

“We used to be... so close. Now I can’t even stand the city. Even being here... there’s so many noises. I don’t know how Lance does it. He tells me to be patient. But I don’t want to be patient... I... said something really stupid and I really upset him. I told him maybe it’d all hurt less if I’d died”

Shiro sucked in a shaky breath

“I can see why”

“So can I... I’m just... done with feeling so... feeling that all of this is so much. I couldn’t even say... I didn’t know what to tell dad. I probably would still be standing there staring at his grave if Lance hadn’t given me some of his strength...”

“Kiddo, you’ve always been strong”

Keith gave a dry chuckle. He’d been a fucking moron, too hell bent on being angry to accept he was overthinking absolutely everything and paranoid that he’d never be seen as himself or outside of Krolia, and Shiro’s, shadows

“Right. I was a jerk to Krolia. Hated almost everyone we worked with. Stuffed up missions. Caused trouble for you and Adam...”

He hadn’t been oblivious to the fights between his brother and Adam. Now that he thought about it, they’d missed the anniversary of Adam’s death... He hadn’t... he hadn’t even been with Shiro on the day... Shit. His head had been full of Lance, not... the man who’d tried to father/brother/guide him the best he could by Shiro’s side

“We can stand here and talk about all the things you’ve done wrong, or you can accept that you were a bit of a dick and you want to make amends”

“I wanted to see mum yesterday. Her. You... I don’t know how you made it through... I’m sorry. I should have done more”

Shiro squeezed him again

“You know, it hurts and it’s hard, but in a way, we got through all of this thinking about you. I had you to help me through. Krolia had the thought of your safety and one day meeting you...”

That didn’t make it okay. Keith groaning when thought about his past “anger loaf” self

“I was such a douche canoe”

Shiro chuckled

“That’s a new one”

What was what? His brother doing him a temporary confuse

“What...? Oh... not really. Lance has all sorts of weird sayings for things...”

“He’s really rubbed off on you... Is he okay? He seems really exhausted. It’s not going to be like it was on your birthday weekend, is it? Does he need blood?”

“He’s okay. Coran said he could feed off me and it hasn’t seemed to have any negative effects... We um... he... um... kind of... yeah”

“It that your way of informing me you spent all afternoon in bed and that’s the real reason Lance is exhausted?”

No. That was him narrowly avoiding telling me his brother that Lance had sort of proposed and he’d agreed... and then they’d had amazing sex, stinking up the hotel room comfortably until his idiot family ruined it

“Yeah. You didn’t have to say it out loud. It sounds bad when you put it like that”

“You two couldn’t keep your hands off each other before, I’m hardly surprised...”

The passion was still very much there, but there was definitely less spontaneous bouts these days. Lance had shockingly low self esteem, maybe he should jump him more often? Huffing, Keith sounded more whiny than cranky with his mate

“It’s... not like that. He’s been struggling with his body changing ever since he first started showing. He’s an idiot. He seriously thought his body changing was going to ruin everything. He keeps saying that he’s fat and not sexy because he’s so heavily pregnant. Its total bullshit... Like, he’s... he’s still him. And god, Shiro... the sex is still amazing... the sounds he makes...”

His ego was getting riled up at the thought. Shiro’s scent starting to grate on his senses when his mind wanted his body in bed with his mate... Still, he couldn’t bring himself to simply push Shiro away. He was a walking bundle of contradictions and felt almost like he’d lose his mind from all the going back and forth he was stuck doing

“I’m going to stop you right there. Okay. I get it. You want to be a good boyfriend to Lance. If Coran says it’s safe for you to feed him, than it must be... but I’m still going to worry about it”

“It seems his curse kills my curse. It hasn’t negatively impacted on the twins... but he is drinking so much blood that it’s hard to not worry”

“How much is “so much”?”

Enough to be what they’d thought all vampires drank on a regular basis

“He’s gone from one bag split over three meals a day, to four or five bags a day, with fresh blood on top of it. The pregnancy has taken so much out of him. You can see he’s visibly older looking now, and he’s struggling to put on any weight he’s lost from constantly vomiting”

“That’s...”

“A lot. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t like drinking blood”

Shiro snorted, deciding now he needed to pretty much lean his whole weight against him. His brother was a dick, Keith half thinking of feigning weakness just to watch Shiro trip over his own feet, but his ego wouldn’t let him

“He’s the most “unvampire” vampire we’ve ever come across. A bit like you... you’re not a very “wolf” werewolf”

“Fuck off. Lance says I’m manly and shit”

“Sure, kiddo. A manly werewolf that sits outside his boyfriend’s window and cries his head off. Matt told me all about your first moon”

Fucking Matt. Keith couldn’t remember his first full moon... that wasn’t playing nicely

“Matt needs to be neutered. He’s a fucking menace”

Shiro clicked his finger, pushing off of Keith and turning to face him. His brother’s smile so wide it verged on creepy

“A menace that’s engaged. Or is getting engaged. He came to Platt to pick the ring up. He swore me to secrecy...”

“I can see how seriously you took that”

Arranging his expression as neutral as he could, Keith was annoyed. Couldn’t Matt have literally picked any other goddamn day of the year

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. He decided seeing you and Lance were away for your one year anniversary, it’d be a good time to step up and put a ring on it”

“Rieva would hit you if she could hear you, and what do you mean “our one year anniversary”? We didn’t get together until May”

“Ahhh, baby brother of mine, you met Lance a year ago, yesterday. You know he never forgets. Someone’s in trouble”

Keith now knew the date. Had Lance chosen yesterday for that reason? It was more likely his fiancé barely remembered the days of the week given vacation time moved differently from normal time

“Yeah. You. You’re going to be in trouble if you keep teasing me”

“Awww, little Keefy is cranky”

It took all Keith had not to pick Shiro up and throw him over the balcony railing, then kick down Krolia’s door, grab her, and toss her over to land on top of his brother. Stupid Krolia... that name was definitely going to stick then he’d have to put up with hearing it from everyone.

“Fuck you. I’m going back to Lance”

“Too cool to hang with your big brother?”

“Not when he’s all smelly. Go take a shower already, you’re getting me dirty again”

“Consider these cobwebs of love”

That didn’t even make any sense. Shiro was getting senile in his old age

“You’ve got cobwebs between your ears, old man”

“Come on, Keith. Give your big brother a hug”

Dodging Shiro, Keith put up a very half arsed attempt. Shiro wrapping his arms around his waist and hoisting him up backwards. The torture lasting a few moments before he was placed back down again. His idiot brother wiping himself against him, trying to get off one last cobweb

“There. You’re all nice and webby now”

“You suck. You suck and that was totally abusing your brotherly privileges”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway. Okay, you’re all dirty now, you can go away”

Huffing at Shiro, the werewolf didn’t know why he was smiling so happily about things when he was very clearly outwardly annoyed

“Oh, trust me. I am going. You better remember to bring me a peace offering for this”

“Nah. I told you these are cobwebs of love”

“And I told you you’re old”

Shoving him playfully, Keith lunged for the handle to his and Lance’s room, smoothly opening the door and darting inside before his brother got any other ideas. Poking his tongue out at Shiro, Shiro flipped him off. Both of them smiling at each other in a way that reaffirmed that everything was okay between them. With the chance of him saying something teasably sentimental, Keith shut the door softly in Shiro’s face, before realising his brother had sentenced him to have yet another shower for the day. His big brother really was a big bother.

[hisakata-resutomoshibi]

Please do more blackcat!Kuro!❤️ It’s like reading a fanfic I really want to know what happens next! How did he know Mahiru’s name? Are they still Servamp or full on regular vampires?

Hey anon! I don’t have any drawings for you this time but I did continue on a little from that last time! I’m glad you asked for more, I’m having a lot of fun adding to this AU!

Hope you enjoy~

(And thanks for the idea @thesilenceislost !♡)

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

While Mahiru was waiting for his eyes to adjust to the gloom of the cave he found that sometime between his kidnapping and now he had acquired a fair amount of leaves and dust in his hair. Shaking it out, he was caught off guard by the hand that landed on his shoulder.

"What do you think?"

The voice was soft and lyrical, but still rough at the edges in a way that Mahiru couldn't quite describe, as though it were from a fantasy, something half remembered and more imaginary than physical. He glanced back to meet two glowing eyes, grinning happily at him through the shadows.

"Of what?" Rather than answer, Kuro flung his arms wide, indicating the small enclosure. Taking that as his only answer, Mahiru sighed. "Is this where you live?" It had been a sarcastic question, not meant seriously but only to annoy, and when Kuro nodded he felt his mouth drop open.

In the settling gloom, made all the more pervasive by the quarter moon, Mahiru began to worry he was having an episode; his new friend still had a wild mix of hair tones, strange, loosely buttoned pin striped suit, and questionable circles under his eyes, but here, shrouded in shadow and that ethereal feeling one always got from deep forests, Mahiru was forced to admit that he was seeing horns. Incorporeal and flickering, like cotton candy light, they were twisted, hovering somewhere above the jet black eyebrows that arched so playfully and ending in jaunty curls above his head.

Despite everything Mahiru found he had to stop himself from reaching out to try to touch them, so interested to see if they were real or not he was. Almost literally holding his arm back, he took a final, hasty look around them. His eyes having finally acclimated he could now see that the walls were lined in old style, dripping candles, some ensconced, others jammed into Victorian chandeliers, and most, just simply stuck to the rough rock with their own melted wax. There didn't seem to be much of anything else here and once again Mahiru was struck with the deja vu feeling of a bad prank.

"It's different." He finally said, too late, wondering if his lackluster answer would anger Kuro. He chanced a peek up and almost laughed when he saw Kuro's lips twisted into an ecstatic grin, eyes bright.

"Isn't it?" Kuro threw an appreciative glance around as well before leaning forward. "Now what?"

"N-now what?" Mahiru repeated in confusion, stumbling over his words in worry. "What do you mean?”

Kuro frowned momentarily before sighing. "I mean now what, now what! I've brought you here."

"Yes...." Mahiru agreed, trailing off. "But I'm not sure why."

"You aren't?" Kuro looked affronted and took a swift step forward but when Mahiru flinched back, a thought seemed to pass through his mind and he paused. "Ah, this isn't how you would normally do this, is it? I told you," He said flippantly, tossing a hand cavalierly around, "I don't quite understand, you're going to have to tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"What is 'appropriate'!" He exclaimed, smiling maniacally.

"You really have an obsession with that word, don't you." Mahiru muttered tiredly. 

When Kuro only continued to smile at him he felt his shoulders slump in defeat and fell to the ground, crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands. "Let me guess. I'm stuck here, aren't I?"

Kuro dropped down, mirroring his posture, and shrugged. "Depends on your definition of stuck, doesn't it?"

"Oh, now you know what words mean?" Mahiru demanded, glaring for a second before deflating. "Right, so. I guess first things first. That's simplest." He paused, eyeing the horns still wavering in and out of existence. "Are those real?"

Kuro quirked a brow before glancing up through the tangle of bangs over his forehead. "Of course."

"Mhm." Mahiru murmured neutrally. "And if I tried to touch them what would happen?"

The question seemed to stump Kuro for a moment and he stared off into middle space as he thought it through; Mahiru could almost see him rolling the words around in his head like bread dough. When his eyes finally focused again there was a touch of amusement lacing through them. "Why don't you try it?"

"Pass." Mahiru said flatly. He bit his lip, trying to decide what the best way to find out their actual location would be and was floored to realize he had somehow completely blocked out the trip here. The inhuman speed that had so frightened him had almost immediately filtered out of his conscious thoughts and now, trying to remember, he found that it was a blurry guess at best. "Did... how do you move so quickly?" He finally asked, coming to the conclusion that subterfuge just wasn't his style.

"Fast?" Kuro cocked his head, pupils reflecting the flickering mellow glow of the candles (that were.... suddenly lit??). "I just ran. You can run, can't you?"

Mahiru threw him a halfhearted glare. "Sure, but not like that. I did do track though." He paused, wondering why he had bothered with that last little detail; surely a man like this, so strange and inhuman would find knowledge of his life bori-

"What is track?" Kuro asked excitedly, leaning forward.

A small, fleeting grin flew over Mahiru's lips and he gave up; really, what else could he do right now? "It's a sport. Like in school?" At the only slightly less puzzled look he got in return he continued. "A bunch of people practice running as fast as they can and then there are meetings where you compete with other teams."

"I see." Kuro nodded once and then glanced over his shoulder, almost worriedly.

"So what is your plan exactly?"

"My plan?"

"Yes. Like, now what? Are we just going to stay in this cave forever? I have to get home at some point, you know."

Kuro smiled widely, leaning still farther forward, now almost in Mahiru's lap. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to! I can make sure of that!" He looked as though he had just won some argument and Mahiru almost laughed.

"But I want to go home."

"You do?" He stared at him blankly, frowning softly. "Are you sure? I can make anything a reality! I can give you anything you want~" He reached out, blindingly fast, and curled his fingers through Mahiru's hair, giving a gentle tug that had shivers racing down Mahiru's spine. "I have the power to do anything you want."

Trying to ignore the aftershocks still tickling his skin, Mahiru raised a brow. "What makes you think I want you to?"

"Everyone wants something." Kuro whispered before darting smoothly forward. He froze just an inch from Mahiru's neck, his lips resting softly against the quick, warm, pulse. "And all I need in exchange is a little something from you."

His voice was like melted caramel, leaking in and filling Mahiru's ears with images of rich luxury, power, and freedom, and beneath it all, a dark destruction. He shook himself, pulling back in fright and slapping a hand over his neck. "No! I don't want that."

"'That' what?" Kuro purred, unperturbed by Mahiru's denial. "What did you see?"

They stared at each other in silence as the moon rose ever higher and somewhere, far away, a small owl hooted it's displeasure. The sound was like a buzzer and Mahiru shot up, his legs numb from the crossed position. After a frantic look around, finding nothing to defend himself with, and no exit other than the one directly behind Kuro, he stepped back, farther into the deep recesses of the cave, feeling the cooler air from beneath the Earth wafting around his ankles.

He shook his head mutely, searching for his voice, finally finding it hidden below his lungs. "No." He croaked. Another step back. "I just want to go back home, finish school, get a good job. Help people."

Kuro smiled wickedly, flowing to his feet and advancing in time with Mahiru's retreat. "Help people? What's the use in that? Everyone just makes a mess of their life and then cries in the end. Why not just bring the end they wish for much sooner? Surprises are always better than slow anticipation. Like a present~" He was naught but a foot away now, reaching out again, and Mahiru panicked, flubbing his step and almost falling. Kuro's eyes, so crescent-ed in mean delight, widened comically and seemingly without thought he flew forward, catching Mahiru easily, holding his above the ground, clutched securely to his chest.

Glancing up warily, Mahiru found crystal sky eyes staring right back at him, still open in surprise. Manners reared their ugly head, strengthened by reflex and he breathed a windy laugh. "T-thanks...."

Kuro didn't react for a moment, still just watching. After a heart stopping pause he released his hold and Mahiru tumbled down to his feet, unsteady and tipping a second time. As he caught himself, Kuro put his hands on his hips, frowning. 

"Why did I do that?"

"Do what?" Mahiru blurted out, still too off kilter from his fright to think better of it.

Without answering Kuro just shot him one more strange, questioning look before turning and sauntering to the far wall where Mahiru could now see there was a small chest of drawers. Propped lopsidedly on top of it was what appeared to be a full skeleton and he cut his eyes away in surprise. At the rummaging sounds now emanating from the far side, he took a deep breath, willing his heart to calm.

"What are you doing?" He asked, mentally throwing his hands up. Fuck it, right? What else could he do but keep this strange man talking?

"Packing!" Kuro exclaimed happily, tossing several small, withered looking husks over his shoulder. "I can't just leave everything here while I'm away."

"Er, sorry... while you're away?" Mahiru watched the objects hit the floor only to skitter away of their own accord and swallowed loudly. "Where are you going?"

Kuro turned, looking at him in amused perplexity. "You wanted to go home, didn't you?" Before Mahiru could answer he had darted back to his side, placing both hands on either sides of Mahiru's head and forcing it to tilt awkwardly. "Like I said, anything you want. But in exchange for just one-" he leaned forward, "little-" he pressed those glistening pearlescent fangs to Mahiru's flesh, "thing-" and bit down.

As the pressure exploded, traveling up through his veins and into his mind, Mahiru watched stars of light bloom across his vision, marveling at the warmth now filling his chest. It was a heady sensation, like hot chocolate laced with morphine and he almost fell, held up now only by Kuro's arms which had wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him in. He couldn't even find it in himself to be worried about the amount of blood Kuro seemed to be taking, too entranced by the fire in his mind. After a few moments, or what may have been eternity, Kuro threw his head back, eyes melting to a heavy red, glazed and unfocused, and Mahiru let his tensed muscles go lax, forehead thumping roughly against Kuro's chest.

Voice syrupy thick and filled with shining marvel, Kuro tightened his hold, squeezing Mahiru too tightly for the barest second. "And with that, I'm yours."

[whitehairedclea]

Red Roulette part VIII

Helena sat in her office remembering Chang's words from last night. “As if I didn't know about my intuition, if it wasn't for my intuition I wouldn't open casinos in the States or raise such amount of money, you idiot” she thought. Then, for a split second, she remembered his hands holding her hand and her waist. Gently, yet firm enough to keep her from talking any more. She lit a cigarette and tossed the lighter at the corner of the desk. She quickly dispelled her memories, returning to the issue of the diamond. From the words of Chang showed that the guy did it on behalf of someone, and so probably the diamond has already been transferred to the client.

"Sebastian!"

A seconds later he appeared in the office waiting for an order.

"Bring the Spider over here immediately, maybe he will know something today that will be helpful"

"Of course, I'll get him right away," he replied and left the office quickly.

If someone did order the theft of the diamond, there must have been some trace of it on the streets. So many informants were fooling around deceiving every single profitable handful of information that such a fact of handing over the diamond could not have escaped them.

“ Mrs. Roulette! How nice ... "Spider began as soon as he entered, but Helena quickly cut off his greeting. 

“Okay, finish this cirrus. Fast. Have you heard of any strange meeting last night? "

"Virtually every one in this city, as if you could be more precise"

“It's mainly about the diamond, so focus. Whatever you heard, whatever you know "

“Let's start 600,000,” he smiled.

She had no desire or time to bargain with him, so she just nodded, trying to trust her intuition that he was the only person who could move her search forward.

"I heard one guy brag about a huge amount of money earned for one thing, just one Job. Maybe not a diamond specifically, but quite a similarity"

"Well, who was it then?"

"One of the people coming to the Yellow Flag, long brown hair, possibly American, weird that’s why I remember and that's all I know."

This was more than she could figure out so far, so she thought she had found the lead. All she had to do was find this man and find out who told him to do the job. Time was running out and there was also a risk that someone would want to sell this diamond abroad. Probably worth more than all of Roanapur .

***

  Sebastian headed for the Yellow Flag, a dingy bar on the main street. Inside, it was swarming with suspicious curiosities - dealers, bounty hunters, dirty workmen, prostitutes who could be hired upstairs. In all this hive, he was looking for an American with long hair. 

"Hi Bao " greeted the owner "how's the deal?"

"So far so good, it's only been a week since the last damage, how r you ?"

"It's pretty good to say the casino is spinning somehow, little problems"

"Problems? What, boss has her period? " laughed, but after Sebastian's expression he retired to safer topics "so what problems?"

"I'm looking for a new stranger, he must have arrived here about two days ago, a long-haired brunette, an American, have you heard something about it?"

Bao rapped on the counter to indicate that nothing is for free. Sebastian took a bundle of money out of his pocket and asked for a mug of beer for that.

"My dear, if any connoisseur from Uncle Sam is going to roll through this town, he is sure to look into a lovely restored place like the Yellow Flag!" Bao moved closer to him so that no one would hear what he was saying "... how to tell you, the girls upstairs are definitely perfect"

Sebastian didn’t need more. He jumped up, throwing an additional tip to the bartender, and ran upstairs. Already on the stairs there were crowds of women who were Whiting for the client. Mixed voices of men and women came from everywhere. Every room felt occupied. Sebastian had to choose one to find the American.

One room caught his attention as there was no sound. He decided to try and blew the door open. Inside, a white man sat on the couch, counting quite a large mountain of money. It was obvious this guy was the one he was looking for.

In an instant, he took out the gun before he could react and pointed it at him.

"Dude what are you ?!"

"I would advise you to start talking before your brain will be on that wall over there!" he shouted.

The gun was now right at his temple.

"Who did you sell the diamond to?" Sebastian asked the distressed American.

"It's nothing personal man"

'I don't care, you stole my boss's diamond, who's not a very patient woman. If you want to get out of this, I advise you to talk, we will probably manage without you, but it will be faster,' he replied, unlocking the gun.

The American, feeling the barrel of the gun against his temple, understood how much he did not care about keeping the client's secret. He had money, keeping his life was a priority. Later he talked more than had to.

He was commissioned by an Italian named Dotti right after his arrival in Roanapur. He escaped from the Italian mafia and hid somewhere in the city, gathering his strength to take over the position of the then mafia boss. He couldn't announce his great comeback yet, so he decided to start marking his grounds with minor intimidations. Defecting Helena was to scare her and take over the casino as a new home. The plan might have worked if it had happened to someone else. Helena wasn't going to let go of such an insult, she would have pulled information about him from the city's canals to get him.

"THIS IS ALL I KNOW!" he shouted "really even the pasta makers don't know where he is. NOBODY knows, I got the money a moment ago together with the key to this room!"

There was nothing else to ask. He sheathed the gun and grabbed the bag of money, then threw them all out of the open window. Hundreds of dollars scattered across the crowded street. Seconds later, there were shouts of surprise and fights for every dollar.

"FUCKING MOTHERFUCKER WTF ?!"

'Enjoy you're alive. I'd rather blow your head off now" Sebastian replied and left.

He returned to the casino as soon as possible. It was the most important piece of information, the main puzzle to solve the whole case. They might have started working before it was too fast to spread around town that the Roulette casino could be brazenly robbed.

Sebastian shared with Helena all the clues he had obtained. Without a moment's thought, she rushed to the phone and started calling known informants if anyone had heard of Datti's location . Unfortunately, silence, no one knew him and no one heard of him since he hid from the Italian mafia.

"The little fish don't know anything or don't want to sprinkle ..." she said, looking out the window. Sebastian had the impression that she was running out of ideas on what to do next.

'Maybe actually wait for an intimidation attempt? There is a chance he'll reveal himself. ”Helena didn't let him finish, she held up a hand to silence him.

'I won't wait, Sebastian. It's a perfect night to spill some blood, "she said with a slight smile on her face, then added," If the little fish don't know anything, let's see what the shark says. "

'It means ?'

'We're going to talk to All-Knowing-Mr-Chang , I think it might be a good move.' her green eyes flashed.

Sebastian felt as if she was getting excited about this whole situation.

***

The private line telephone began to ring. Chang picked up "Cho , if they're Cubans again with cocaine in their veins, fire them, I won't play business with junkies," he dropped after a hard day. From this morning, one of the cartel people wants to sell him the idea of cracking down on cocaine in Japan. Like a drugged man, full of vision, he only wasted his time.

'Of course boss, it's just ... they're not Cubans. Red Roulette and Sebastian are here asking for a meeting'

Somewhere in the background you could hear Helena's voice, who didn't like the phrase 'ask'. She clearly tried to correct that she required this meeting.

'Let them in'

Chang began to believe that this evening was not going to be written off after all. "But there are still people in this town who can keep me entertained," he thought. A moment later he heard the clap of heels and a knock on his office door.

'Come in'

Cho entered first and signaled that they could enter. Helena straightened her red hair quickly and walked in with a serious look.

"Why do I owe such a great visit," he asked, comfortably leaning against the desk.

'I'll be short because I don't have time. I know who ordered the theft and it was Dotti , a former member of the Italian Mafia, but I have no idea where he is ' she came close enough to rest her hands on his desk. The red nails tapped gently impatiently. Her green eyes, full of fury, waited for his reply. It was only then that he noticed that there was a tiny mole on her face next to her left eye. Right at the tip , as if it was waiting to be spotted under the cover of red waves of hair. The long black dress sparkled softly in the light, and Chang wished she would take a few steps back to see her leg emerging from the slit. The louder tapping of her nails brought him back to reality. He wanted to laugh at wandering his mind, but quickly gathered his thoughts.

"Of course, I know where he is. Boss of the italian mafia still makes me laugh that he can’t find this Dotti guy. I'll help you with him, " he replied, standing to put on his jacket.

'You misunderstood me, Mr. Chang. I don't want you to help me deal with him. Just give me his location, I'll do the rest myself. '

It made the corner of his mouth turn into a devilish smile. The predator's gaze shone from behind his black glasses . 

'Sorry, I misinterpreted your intentions. Then let me accompany you on this journey ”he offered her a hand, lowering his head as if inviting her to dance.

He was eager to see this confrontation unfold. And most of all, what she can do. As a new fish in town, she had to show that she could do more than sell information, otherwise it would be difficult for her. She could slide quickly to the very bottom of that Roanapur abyss .

'In that case, let's dance tonight' she smiled malevolently.

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

TF2 gift for @sxpaiscia​

Written rapidly, in chat, after a long period of lost creativity; may not be great. Demo/Solly x 2     |  AO3 Rating: Explicit

Title: Pur-pulled Together

Darkness swirls through the room, faint light illuminates for but a second as lightning flashes outside.

Everything is hazy, indistinct and tinged with the dizzy haze settling over his barely-conscious mind. The hard concrete beneath his knees bites cruelly through the thick fabric of his breeches.

His helmet slides forward incrimentally as Solly shifts, trying to make out the location. His hands throbbed slightly, discomfort radiating from his wrists, bound together as they were.

Wriggling against the haphazard bonds, Solly snapped back to awareness; someone had taken the time to drag him into this secluded location, bind his hands behind him, and bind his arms to his sides. Yet... they had not thought to gag him?

Aha! A strategical error!

As he sucked in a deep breath to sound the alarm, the burgeoning cry choked quietly in his throat at the realisation he was not alone. Another body rocked into his, struggling to free their hands.

It was the sudden loud, heavily-accented cursing exploding between them that helped the mercenary to poinpoint his fellow captive.

"Demo?" Jane asked, dropping his voice lower to whisper, "...Tavish?"

Lightning captured the sudden jerk of Demo's head, face swinging to find the speaker. It was then Solly saw that Tavish's eyepatch had slipped across his face to the other side; effectively blinding the man. No wonder he reacted so strongly!

"Ach, yes it's me laddie... seems we're in a right pickle here." HE wriggled unfairly broad shoulders as if to make a point of how ver ymuch doomed the pair of them were.

"Now, now Private there's no room for talk like that! We must merely out-think the enemy, use a pincer maneuvre, strategically advance to the rear when possible!"

Tavish couldn't contain the small chuckle that escaped. "Of course you'd be able to make escaping sound like a battle plan, Jane me lad..."

They lapsed into silence, the real question finally making its way into their minds.

"So... I'm assuming that this here isn't the prelude to some degree of kinky shennaigans you were too timid to bring up to me at home base, right?" Tavish asked, the beautiful clever bastard that he was. Jane felt he was never going to live down the last time he'd unorthodoxically brought up a minor turn-on with Tavish in an unusual manner... but, in Jane's defence... he was a very hands-on man.

"That's a Negatory, Private! We are in hostile territory..."

"Oh, how'd ye know that, laddie? There's no light down here." Demo retorts.

"Because there's a big BLU symbol on the wall, I saw it last time the lightning flashed."

"...ah, alright then."

For a few seconds the room filled with the sound of two men thinking hard about how to free themselves from an exceptionally bizarre situation. The occasional harsh breaths and rustling clothing of someone testing their bonds.

"I can't seem to remember how we got here..." Tavish says, grunting with the effort of trynig to slip a wrist free. "One minute I was sticky jumping and the next, crack... thought I was for respawn... but now I'm here."

"Well, that's-..." and Solly stopped, because his own memoris were similar. One minute he was cackling maniacally, plummeting down towards the horrified BLU Scout, and the next... pain, sound, darkness...

"Mmm, I'm guessing ye can't recall either, hey?" Demo asks, wriggling over in Jane's general direction so their shoulders touched. Like a little island of safety amidst the sea of darkness they were lost in.

"...for reasons of national security I can neither confirm or deny these allegations..." Solly responds, and is definitely Not Pouting because REal Men Don't Pout. He liked the enemy you could see... because you can fight it. Being taken out by a sneak attack, utterly dishonourable tactic!

Tavish's lips brush his cheek and plant a kiss on the side of his nose. "There, there, love... I cannae see you, but it's the best I can do. Looks like we just need to stay calm and wait for answers, aye?"

"Aye... I mean, Affirmative, Private." the slightly-mollified Soldier responds. He settles a little closer to Demo, body heat bouncing between the two in this cold, quiet place.

"I'm guessing that you're a wee bit confused about this whole mess?" Came a far-too-familiar tone, so very like Tavish's and yet... not. "That's my fault for not wrangling my military man a little better, hope ye can find a way to forgive that little oversight."

"The deployment of my military might was too powerful for these foes, Lieutenant Demo." A contemptuous tone sneered, from somewhere nearby.

The lights flickering on near blinded Solly, too bright too soon. A growl builds in his throat at the sight of their captors... BLUs.

"Jane...?" Tavish whispers, and Solly turns to find the man just as much of a mess as he himself felt.

"BLUs, the Demo and Soldier. Looks like we're in a POW camp..."

"Och, nay... ye're in the BLU basement, don't be so dramatic!" BLU Demo chuckles, waving a hand  as he came forwards to take stock of them. Noticing Tavish's issue, the enemy deftly moved the eyepatch to the right location and grinned. "How do I look, laddie?"

Blinking his eye rapidly, Tavish grinned. "Like I haven't gotten around to killing you yet, but don't worry yourself... I'll make time."

"Oh, I like him..." BLU Soldier informs BLU Demo in a loud whisper. The latter pats him on the shoulder, as the pair smile to one another.

"What sick game are you playing here, you-... you-... you COMMUNIST HIPPIES?!" Jane snarls, moving painfully on his knees so his body was between the BLUs and Tavish. Let them take him first... give Demo a chance to escape.

With a thunk, something hit the floor and slid across to the pair. "Now, I think there's been a misunderstanding somewhere along the way... probably because my laddie here got the drop on you're boyo there. Damn fine strike with the shovel... mid-air too! Couldn't be prouder."

The smart retort died in Solly's throat as his opposite on the BLU team blushed, helmet tipping down as if to hide it; before the impulsive mercenary pressed a hasty kiss to the BLU Demo's cheek. Things... were sliding into place.

Solly was a passionate man, a caring man, a slightly unhinged man if you believed Medic's reports... but not ever really awarded the title of Clever man. Tavish knew this was wrong... Jane was smart about practical things; and with the exception of Sun Tzu;s Art of War, Jane rarely cared for things of a philosophical nature.

But it was clear that the puzzle pieces had clicked into place right now, and he was seeing the majority of the picture.

"You two... are like us." Jane said flatly, trying to work out how that factored into their current situation. "You worked together to ambush us... and get us here, trap us at BLU. But...why?"

BLU Demo rolls his eyes, mouth opening... before BLU Soldier cuts in sharply. "It was a strategic engagement to procure valuable assets from the enemy... for recreational and experimental use."

Jane frowned. Tavish... has a lightbulb moment, and began to laugh.

"Oh aye, so kidnapping us from battle and binding us up down here was easier than maybe asking if we'd be open to a little inter-team 'cooperation', hmmm?"

"Well, boyo, if we'd said 'Oh hey would you like to perhaps go fuck yourself and your boyfriend in the kinkiest way possible', do you think we could have gotten past 'go fuck yourself' without you sending us through respawn?" BLU Demo grinned.

Tavish nodded, considering. "Aye, fair point there. Now... is there any chance of you taking these here bindings away? I can barely feel my fingers, and I think I'd like a word with my laddie Jane first... not a decision I can make solo, if you ken."

He was somewhat shocked by how fast they had been released after that. There was a moment where both parties tensed, as if expecting someone to throw a punch... but nothing came.

Quietly, Tavish whispered, "Jane... I'm all for this odd little game, but do you-...?"

"YES." Jane added before he could even finish the question.The man's belt had hit the floor already, pants threatening to go down with it...

Tavish hid his face in a hand. He loved to hate Jane sometimes. All passion and little forethought...

BLU Demo motioned to the health pack on the floor, and Tavish snatched it up quickly. Before it could dissolve in his hands, he slapped it against Solly's nearest shoulder; healing him instantly. A smaller healthpack bounced against his own forehead before the bright healing power coursed through his own battered body.

"Told ye they'd get soppy and try tae save the other..." BLU Demo muttered to BLU Soldier, who slid some cash into a waiting palm. "Ahem, if you're all right as rain... perhaps we can take ye up to our room? Don't worry about the others, they're celebratin' victory in town... the big fella wanted to try the mexican restaurant there."

With a meaningful glance to Jane, a pointed grin at the half-hard erection tenting what remained of the man's pants, and a shrug... Tavish smiled at their 'captors'. "Lead the way... if you dare."

After tramping through the BLU base with a vague sense of deja vu, for the building was a reverse image of their own, the REDs were unceremoniously ushered through a doorway at the end of an oddly-silent corridor.

Solly stumbled slightly, eyes trying to catch another look at the interwoven class symbols on the door; he'd... been rather impressed, always wanted to try something like that for Tavish one day. Damn BLUs stealing his secret intelligence telepathically or something...

Tavish felt strong, familiar arms wrap about his torso from behind; pressing him against a chest similar to his own. Clever, calloused fingers teasing at any exposed flesh through the ragged attire, dancing at his throat as they trailed higher.

Hot breath gusts over his throat, so different to the way Jane felt against him... and yet, Tavish felt his skin tingling. HEat rising to dance along every nerve in response to this new situation... and pressed against his own firm buttocks, an answering surge of lust.

He ground back against it, gasping as the BLU nipped his throat in response, and they both laughed in an eerily similar voice. How strange to have someone new to your body... show such intimate knowledge, knowing where you liked to be touched to stir the flames of your own passion.

"I'm glad you seem to like this arrangement..." the BLU murmured, tone low and soothing as he pressed a trail of kisses up the dark column of Tavish's throat. He pauses, and they both glance towards their Soldiers, eyes drinking in the scene before them.

BLU slammed RED against the wall, rough and ready, helmets clanging as they crashed their mouths together in something that appeared like passionate warfare. Muscular hands that could deal death and pleasure so easily, fought to divest the other man of his attire first.

Clothing hit the floor rapidly, weaponry that perhaps should not bounce... did so, in their haste. They kissed like it was a battle, their hips rocked against one another in-... no, it can't be! Tavish stifled a laugh as he realised they were rutting against one another in marching step time. Oh, Jane... predictable, adorable, forever deliciously ridiculous. And... he was all Tavish's.

Except for in this moment, that is.

"Where did ye go, laddie? Am I not enough for ye..." teases his BLU opposite, hands unbuckling his belt and allowing it to fall away. Tavish turned to face the other man, slding his own hands up under the blue shirt with the same delicate finesse he used to craft his bombs.

Fingertips traced over each defined muscle, felt the stiff coarse hair of the man's chest as he helped the BLU to peel the shirt off. Just as the BLU undressed him in return.

Tavish took initiative, pressing his lips against the other man's first and bringing a hand up to cup the BLU at his nape. Mouth moving to press hot little kisses across the other man's firm jawline, feeling stubble graze at his sensitive lips in a way that would sting tomorrow. Yet he could not bring himself to care.

BLU Demo's hands found his waist, his hips, slipping down the seat of his pants to clench at taut buttocks below  and encourage the rocking motion they both enjoyed. Little sparks flaring before their good eyes when they aligned correctly.

Desperate for more, spurred on by their own lust-ridden Need to be closer, both Demos wrestled with one another's pants, forcing them down whilst locked at the mouth. Tounges dancing against one another, tantalising and promising more...

The garments hit the floor in a pile, and were forgotten. Tavish pressed his living mirror against the wall, adjusting his stance to allow the BLU to raise his thighs and clench them about the RED's own. The added support of the wall made the whole endeavour well-worth the earlier struggle.

His member throbbed, a dark column that curved upright against his abdomen. The need seemed to radiate between the near-identical men, shafts slicking together inexpertly... but easily enough, from the precum that continued to pearl between them.

Periodically, they snatched glances at their own partners, who were as loud as the Demos were silent. Both RED and BLU Soldier seemed determined to grind the other to orgasm first... jaws clenched, bodies shuddering from the onslaught of sensation, hips pistoning so firmly, so doggedly...

Tavish felt his member twitch at the sight, remembering how that stolid pumping determination felt when they were alone. Whether Soldier rode triumphant upon his lover's shaft, or slid deep within Demo until the man screamed his release at the  unrelenting march of pleasure... he was always thusly determined.

With a strange sense of desperate purpose that stole upon both men like an assassin in the darkness, the Demomen crashed their mouths together in fervour. Hips bucking wildly, cocks throbbing and grinding against one another as best they could; sweat slicked skin making wet little noises as they rutted relentlessly.

Tavish was panting, sweat was running into his eyes, but he was so turned on it was almost hard to think... a combination of the BLU Demo wrapped about him, the lusty sight Jane and the other created, and the sense of danger this whole situation presented. A sense of taboo... interteam fraternisation and all.

His skin tingled, anywhere his counterpart touched felt like trails of fire writhing beneath it; the slapping of their skin, the hitched breaths and moans, the shuddering exhalations by his ear as the other bit his lip to hold off. They both wanted to stay here, on the brink, as long as possible...

"I-..." he gasped, the heat pooling in his abdomen an inferno threatening to break its bonds.

"...aye!" BLU Demo managed in response, legs clinging to him all the tighter for it, hips meeting every thrust in a frantic race to the finish.

His legs were trembling, climax imminent, when BLU Demo came; tremors taking ahold of that firm, sculpted form as thighs clenched violently about Tavish. Stark spurts of hot, violently white cum splattered on their chests, smearing messily as they continued.

The sight of the other man's release broke the last fraction of control in Demo's body, and his own orgasm surged through him like a lightning strike. Tavish curled about his counterpart, teeth sharp where they bit into muscular flesh as he came; hips shuddering into convulsive thrusts as his release slicked their joined flesh.

BLU Demo ground back against him until the climax faded, until they were both a shuddering mess that needed the wall to hold them up. Tavish could not help but laugh airily, delighted and (for the moment) utterly spent.

The BLU released him to place his own feet on the ground, and grinning cheekily. "That was as grand as any explosion... good job, boyo."

"Same to ye, matey." Tavish shot right back, trying to catch his breath. A new partner was always an exhilarating, breathtaking experience, even if things went wrong. Still, this had been brilliant.

Feeling surer of himself by the second, Tavish stumbled over to drop to the bed, and the other man joined him a moment later. Their eyes, for between them they had one functional set, riveted on the sight of their lovers...

Both Soldiers were flushed to the tips of their ears, slightly shocked expression on their stoild faces; they each fisted the other's cock, pumping slowly now, for their members were momentarily spent.

In a moment of clarity, Tavish realised that the pair must have been watching the Demos climax with such intensity, they had yet to even realise they had also come. Ach, but what could you do with such big, beautiful, sensitive men...

He goes to nudge the BLU Demo, and meets the other's nudge halfway; he'd noticed too. Still,if the valiant stirring in his loins was any indication... the sight was just the thing to rekindle his spent passion.

"A fine lad you got there, boyo... wouldn't trade him for mine, but I was wonderin' if ye'd be willing to share him. Just for tonight, that is... see if I can show him that BLU does it better. What do ye think of that?"

Tavish couldn't hold back the laugh. "Aye, Jane's a fine lad and I love him, even when he does get strange ideas... but if he and your boyo are happy for it, I see no harm in showing your lad how real men please one another. The RED way." he teased right back.

Noticing the conversation, Jane and the BLU Soldier had decided to make their way to the bed as well; listening in with interest in nothing more than their helmets, the mixed essence of their own release coating their abdomens, hands and reinvigorating cocks. 

Jane watched Tavish, head tilted as if considering, before flashing a wide, smug grin. He was a man who loved a challenge, and Tavish could see the thirst in Jane’s eyes to prove to the BLU Demo once and for all... that RED was superior in all things. The BLU Soldier seemed to think the same, because he moved over to stand before Tavish, eyes scrutinising the mercenary from beneath the helmet.

“Looks like this maggot needs to learn that BLUs do everything better.” growls the oddly-familiar tone, as the muscular man climbs onto the bed. The BLU straddles Tavish’s lap, his reawakening cock slapping lewdly against the muscles of the demolition expert’s abdomen. 

There’s a strangely disconnected moment there, hanging in the air; the mannerisms, the body, the voice are all so painfully similar... and yet, they both know the other is not their lover. Just a similar version, so this is a body they have not touched, not explored or pleasured in any way... 

In short, a challenge.

The pungent stench of sweat and sex filled the room; almost dizzyingly so. Tavish’s hands reached out to press against the familiar flesh of the stranger before him, tracing muscles along the man’s arms, her chest, his abdomen. Tugging playfully at the happy trail in the way Jane always enjoyed... Like his hands had magnetised, Tavish found he could not pull them away, and with every little familiar movement, every quiet breathy response to his touch, certainty grew. This soldier was not Jane, but there was no doubt that the BLU was eager to experience this new mating with an equally familiar-stranger; that Tavish could please him, and be pleased in return.

He glanced into those piercing blue eyes, peering at him from under the blue-tinted helmet, and saw nothing but encouragement... and a hint of challenge. Tavish grinned, pulling the military mercenary closer so their mouths might finally meet; his tenacity and playful licks against the bulkier man’s bottom lip gaining Demo access into the hot cavern of BLU Soldier’s mouth.

Delving deeper with his questing tongue, he felt the other surge forwards, their bodies pressing close in a mess of cooling sweat and ejaculate. In the near future they would throw themselves into a shower cubicle to be rid of it, but for this moment it was only an afterthought. A dirty little thrill, one might say.

“Good lad...” Tavish murmurs, pulling back to glance over his shoulder at the other two; heart thundering a little faster when he sees the flushed, overstimulated expression of his Jane. BLU Demo had moved beyond foreplay now, the sneaky bastard had contrived to find some lubricant around here somewhere... from the soft hissing groan Jane made, that Tavish knew so intimately, it was clear he was at least two fingers deep.

“C’mon lad, they’re gettin’ ahead of us now, whatsay we show ‘em how it’s really done?” Tavish grins, patting BLU Soldier on the thigh to indicate they needed to rise. Moving around the bed, the RED winked at his BLU partner before patting the empty space. “Hop up here laddie, whatever position ye like best...”

In the periphery, BLU Demo was watching, along with Jane. Curious, but not willing to stop what they were doing at this time to intervene... still, it would be a tad hard to proceed without-... ah. BLU Soldier had pulled a small well-used tube from the internal pocket of his helmet; well, that’s definitely something he might need to mention to Jane for future notice.

BLU Soldier spread his thighs, pillowing his head on crossed arms as Tavish drizzled too-cool liquid into a palm; allowing bodyheat to warm the chill from it, before daring to use it. With a free hand, he traced little patterns down the length of the Soldier’s spine, enjoying the way this not-Jane seemed to enjoy it just as much as Tavish’s own partner. 

When it became obvious the other man’s attention was on the opposites, and not in fact paying all that much attention to the careful slicking of his entrance; it earned him a smack to one of those unfairly mucular cheeks, startling a yelp from the military mercenary. Tavish couldn’t help the grin that erupted, seems like both the Soldiers had more than just the physical similarities in common... for good measure, he spanked the opposite cheek with enough force to leave it glowing rosily in the dim light.

Tavish laved lubricant-slick fingers around the man’s hole, his free hand running over the muscular planes of BLU Soldier’s body, enjoying how different muscle groups shrank and danced under his touch. Finally, with a pointed glare from the BLU, Demo decided he had best move along or they might lose this particular challenge...

A finger tentatively breaching the Soldier, sliding in and out in a gentle rhythm amidst grumbles that ‘he was an army man, dammnit, a fist wouldn’t break him!’; waiting for that subtle tensing of muscles to ease. It may be a familiar routine, but Tavish wasn’t BLU Demo, and he had technically killed BLU Soldier a few dozen times in the last week alone... no surprise it took more than a few hot kisses to relax the enemy. Still, he added little twists, turns and brushes against the man’s prostate to provide some small reward for his patience in this.

By the time they had reached the third finger, a familiar sigh echoed across the room so pointedly that Tavish paused his ministrations. Jane was sinking, exquisitely, onto the BLU Demo’s cock with such a look of exhilaration and pleasure that Tavish’s cock throbbed headily from the scene. He could only assume the BLU Soldier felt the same, given how he clenched about the intruding fingers...

A shudder ran down the RED’s spine at this sensation, the hot sucking heat rushed straight to his member; leaving it bobbing heavy, aching, between his thighs. Somewhat cruelly, Tavish brushed the knuckles of his free hand down the length of BLU Soldier’s desperate, weeping cock; delighted at how it quivered and pulsed his lust at the merest hint that the need for release might be met.

“Are ye ready, boyo?” he breathes, bending over the other to whisper right into the helmeted man’s ear; heavy shaft grinding slickly between the muscular globes of BLU Soldier’s backside. “Feels like you are...”

“A-Affirmative, sir...” the man chokes, grinding back into the sensation with abandon; fingers fisting the bedclothes to stop himself begging.

Tavish couldn’t help but love a man like this, and pressed a soothing trail of kiss from nape to base of spine. Slicking his cock quickly, efficiently, and guiding it on a few glancing thrusts between those taut cheeks in a teasing manner; before lining the head of his saft with BLU Soldier’s entrance. 

Carefully, he pressed inward. They both exhaled loudly from the sensation of that hot, sucking hole clamping down around the head of Tavish’s cock; breathing heavily as the RED’s hands clamped tightly to the BLU’s muscular hips. Tavish inched deeper with small rocking motions that drew quiet hisses, curses and moans from the other; noting the small changes between this man and Jane.

BLU Soldier began to press back in encouragement, drawing deeper and faster; Tavish was only too pleased to comply. The pace grew wild, sending thrills of lightning up his spine as the sound of flesh slapping against sweaty flesh filled the room. Tavish pumped at the BLU’s cock, moaning at the way it made the Soldier’s insides clench at him desperately. 

His hands roamed further, running over the muscular back as Tavish murmured small compliments, instructions and unintelligible sounds of pleasure under his breath. Periodically his eyes fell on the lust-fuelled bodies moving together in oddly perfect accord across the bed, and it did nothng more than spur him on to delve deeper, go faster, find the angle that made his partner scream...

Every thrust forwards met the powerful grind of BLU Soldier’s hips, both shuddering from the inexplicable sensation; Tavish mindful even in this state, to aim for the man’s secret pleasure spot. Let the BLU know what it was like to go boneless, as Jane often did... or did for Tavish, on the odd occasion... after a good bout of lovemaking.

Movement caught his eye. BLU Demo had rolled them both over, so he was now atop Jane and pouding away at this more fortuitous angle; Jane’s fingers clenched the bedsheets tightly, mouth open in a soundless exhalation of wordless delight. 

There was a moment... just a fraction of a second really, when his eyes met the BLU Demo’s... and a single thought echoed between the pair. Their bodies slowing in their thrust as the men receiving glanced back in mild confusion, awaiting explanation.

“Shift along laddie, seems you and my Jane there could perhaps enjoy this a mite bit more if we all play our part...” Tavish said conspiratorially, and they moved a few centimetres to the right, while their opposites moved to the left; aligning the pair perfectly.

BLU Soldier, impaled upon Tavish’s throbbing cock, now found himself repositioned over Jane; head aligned with the RED’s desperate cock, and vice versa. Jane wasted no time in darting out his clever tongue to tease at the weeping slit, precum dribbling  onto his face like rain; and the BLU Soldier licked a tantalising stripe down Jane’s cock before sucking at the head.

The ripples of these new pleasure diversions echoed through all four men, and both Demos began to thrust again. BLU Demo flashed a grin, and Tavish could not help but return it; the cheeky bastard!

Pleasure lit up his spine like christmas lights, every movement seemed to push him closer to the edge; but he refused to climax until this BLU Soldier fell into his own release. His sack slapped lewdly against the muscular buttocks in a driving staccato pace that you could almost dance to; feeling the other tensing almost as tightly as his own balls were. 

“C’mon lad... that’s the way, come for me now. Come...” he encouraged as the the man’s thighs began to tremble, as BLU Soldier’s insides clenched erratically around Tavish’s shaft, and Jane swallowed deeply against the rush of come flooding his throat in frantic spurts.

BLU Soldier let out an unintelligible gurgle of release around Jane’s cock, before the other Soldier was climaxing too; filling the BLU’s mouth to capacity. The sights, the sounds, the sensation of trying to thrust through such erratic clutching at his shaft when he was so, so cery close...

Without thinking, Tavish jerked forwards and in one fluid motion, grabbed his opposite number by the nape, crashed their mouths together in a clumsy clash of teeth and tongue... and screamed his release into that waiting mouth. His body shuddered in convulsions of pleasure as his cock throbbed deeply within BLU Soldier, hips thrusting erratically as a golden haze seemed to descend.

When clarity next returned, Tavish dropped momentarily boneless against BLU Soldier’s shaking spine; breathing deeply before he had the strength to withdraw and help the other to sprawl on the bed beside him. Jane and the BLU Demo following suit. 

Tavish reached out to tangle his fingers with Jane’s. BLU Demo and Soldier mirrored them.

“That was a fine spot of lovemaking we did just then, boyo.”

“Aye.”

“Affirmative.”

“Negatory.”

There was a worried pause, as the other three assumed something had gone wrong... but their eyes fell upon the tired but still somehow oddly smug grin Jane gave. “The exercise was performed with exemplary tactical precision, but it is important that we run these covert missions with different members of the platoon regularly.”

Tavish squints at his lover. “Jane are you saying you want to do this again?”

“Affirmative.”

“...Aye, I could live with that.”

From the grins they received from BLU Demo and Soldier... it might just be on the cards.

“Just... no more kidnapping, aye?”

BLU Soldier grumbled, but BLU Demo gave him a poke. “Aye lad, we agree. Now can ye shut up, I think I just came my brains out, and I need a minute...”

“Ach, do you hear that, Jane? These BLUs have no stamina!” Tavish goads.

He is swiftly struck with a pillow.

------

The End

[lucidpantone]

Visitations Preview Chap 4: Chernobyl(s)

Not one for previews but I know some of you are locked inside and ravenous for content. It’s gonna be a few more days til chap 4 is finished but here’s a couple of puzzle pieces to keep you going. Same rules apply. Italics is the Past. If not, it's August 15th at any point in the day I chose to drop you into.

Stay safe friends! I hope this helps.

The brass beads caressed the palm of his hand with velocity.

Until the pull chain cranked the lever.

They laid there, enlightened.

The sulfur vapor bulbs color-washing the walls of their habitat in an amber glaze.

It was painfully small. Pre-war, old but in Belgium’s highly regarded art deco style. The schematics laid it out as a 1/1 with a  ¾ lavatory. It had good lighting though (a prerequisite for the artist) mainly due to the fact that it was surrounded by a couple of those ghastly mid century modern blocks with those hideous matte shine finishes that would double up as a sun ray reflector into their new apartment. Engulfing the space in a celestial limelight. They took the place on the spot because the artist said it “spoke” to him.

Their move-in date was five days after Robbe’s eighteenth birthday.

It was Sander and Robbe’s first night there.

They had spent all day moving and they were exhausted as they lay on the floor of their new apartment surrounded by cardboard boxes and some scented candles in attempt to clear out the smell of mildew. Their furniture wouldn’t be arriving till tomorrow.  

“I like these floors. What kind of wood is this?” Robbe asked curiously.

Sander turned his cheek in the opposite direction as he was laying on the floor on his back and took a guess.

“Mahogany maybe”

Sander turned back to meet Robbe’s eyes.

They had been laying like this for what felt like an eternity. Both lovers drape out on the floor in opposite directions. One with their feet facing north and another pointing south. Both finding a home in the curvature of the other’s arm as they nuzzled their heads onto the others shoulder.

The music had stopped.

“Fuck, I have to change the disk” Sander noted.

Both lovers turned their focus to their Crosley turntable in the corner of the room that was begging to be refreshed spinning aimlessly.

“Do you not want to get up?” Robbe asked Sander sweetly as he twirled his albino hair through his fingers.

“I have zero desire” Sander stated in worned out fashion.

Robbe placed a kiss on Sander’s forehead and began to collect himself off the floor to walk over to the record player. He rummaged through the vinyl case with an effort of determination. Clearly looking for a particular record. Sander was rustling in the background but Robbe wasn’t paying much attention as he thumbed passed vinyl after vinyl sleeve until he located it.

“Ahhh ha” Robbe emoted.

“What are you playing?” Sander asked.

“Wait for it” Robbe placed the turntable arm onto the disk. The lyrics surfed through the sulfur vapor.

[I, I will be king. And you, you will be queen]

Sander laughed a little and then he said, “Our song”.

[Heroes by David Bowie]

Robbe scooted back dragging his knees on the floor back to where Sander laid. His body faced north as Sander faced south. He hovered over Sander and placed a kiss on his opposing lips. The kinda kiss you only ever see in comic book movies inspired by 8 legged creatures. The one where the hero impresses his lover with the ability to find their mouth even when the world is upside down.

Sander reaches up to grab Robbe’s head and pushes his upper body off the floor without breaking the bind of their lips. Both boys are now sitting up. Sander digs his hand into Robbe’s locks and begins to navigate his body towards the wooden surface as Robbe kicks his feet from underneath him to straighten out. Sander guides Robbe’s body back onto the hardwood placing his hand behind his head to protect his skull. The lyrics of Heroes whirlpooling around the room.

Once Robbe finds the floor safely Sander breaks their kiss and says.

“In how many universes are we laying like this right now?” Robbe runs his hand through Sander’s fringe and replies.

“In infinite ones”

“Nowhere as happy as we are” Sander says as his eyes dart all over the room confirming to himself that this feeling he is feeling at that very moment is not a delusion. It's real.

“Close your eyes” Sander whispers as he places himself between Robbe’s thighs. Robbe squeezes his eyes shut but Sander places his hand over his eyes to make sure he isn’t cheating. Sander pulls out a gold ring box wrapped up in red string with a bow tied to the top and hovers it over Robbe’s head with one hand still firmly placed over his vision.

“There is something right in front of you. Try to find it”. Robbe moves his arms up scanning the air for a possible object. Sander teasing him as he moves the box in and out of his direction until he finally places it in Robbe’s hands freeing his vision. Robbe’s beautiful coffee lashes pop open. He stares at the red string box unsure what to say….

“Are you asking me to mar--” Sander shook his head side to side. Then he spoke.

“No...I mean I don’t know. Maybe…. I'm not sure. I’d be missing a Tesla if I was. All I know is I wanted you to have it and keep it safe. It belongs to you.”

Robbe pulled on the red string and the top of the box fell open Sander’s silver ring landing right over his heart. Sander grabbed the silver and slid it onto Robbe’s ring finger and once placed safely onto Robbe’s hand he kissed the top of his finger where the silver ring belonged.

“What did the artist know under the moonlight” Sander queued Robbe.

“That he was the one”

“And what did the Skater boy do in return” Sander added on.

“He stayed” Robbe deeply suspired.

Sander massaged the tip of his nose against Robbe’s in a touching display of vulnerability. He pulled back and whispered nervously.

“If you're ever scared, or you doubt me or us for any reason. Tell me that story and we’ll come back to this moment. We’ll come back to our safe place together and I’ll do the same. Promise?”

Robbe nodded and Sander proceeded in reverence to kiss Robbe’s cheek, forehead, nose, lips, every inch of his face.

“I love you”

“I love you too” Sander said leaning into Robbe's neck and kissed the new tattoo on top of Robbe’s shoulder. He giggled a little to himself.

“I still can’t believe you stole my design and used it to get your first tattoo. It was my idea. ” Sander teased.

“I didn’t steal your design. I was inspired by it and made my own custom design as a birthday present to myself” Robbe let out in a machiavellian style.

“I still can’t believe you beat me to our first tattoo.” Sander shook his head in amusement.

Robbe’s eyes widened like he just remembered something important.

“Oh I forgot to tell you that the tattoo shop was looking for an apprentice. You should go in and talk to them about it.”

“I know nothing about tattooing and I have no experience” Sander enforced.

“That’s why it's called an apprenticeship and half of it is design anyways and we both know you have the best designs.”

Sander looked up to the ceiling in a pensive gaze and then relaxed.

“Ok I’ll go tomorrow” he shrugged out lazily.

“But I guess I just never really thought of myself as someone who would enjoy tattoos. Maybe one or two but not much more than that”. Sander rattled off this thought as if it was meant to be for the withholdings of his mind but he said it out loud.

“Anyways we’re were we at…. Oh yeah the skater boy stayed.” He shot his lover a schemy smile.

Sander had been supporting himself on his elbows this entire time hovering above Robbe. They were starting to burn so he finally collapsed onto Robbe’s chest and just laid relaxed on top of him. He placed his head on the side of Robbe’s so as Robbe turned to face him they were forehead to forehead.

“And what do we say?” Sander questioned Robbe knowing he already knew the answer.

Robbe took this opportunity to wrap his arms around Sander’s neck grabbing each one of his elbow’s with the opposite hand and squeezing Sander painfully tight just like Sander loved it.

“He stays…. and” Robbe continues the story.

They say the next part of the tale in unison.

“We stay”

“If he goes” Robbe adds on.

They marry their voices together again.

“We go”

Robbe looks into Sander’s gaze for the last part. They are bound so close together at this moment their nose, mouth’s and chin’s are millimeters apart.

“If he has to fight for it” Sander asks with hesitation.

Robbe and Sander take a moment to acknowledge the importance of this final vow.

“We fight”

The lovers seal their pledge towards allegiance with a kiss.

As the embers of the candles surrounding them flicker in and out while the lyrics to heroes linger overhead like a protective halo over their union.

************************************************************************************* The strobe lights flickered in and out as the walls around him began to pulsate. The deep base trembling underneath him.It was making him nauseas or maybe it was the bottle of whiskey infiltrating his blood stream. It was beginning to ravage his body and psyche all at once. The proof torpeding into his personal yellow submarine incinerating him from within. God he was so hot, sweltering even. A heat that could only be found during the times of antebellums when white buds were king and sunburnt subjects were priced by the quick grasp of their hands. It was raw, punishing, a worn out type of heat. It reminded him of India. He wanted to go back there so badly. He hated it here. He had only been back in Antwerp for six weeks and his entire life had gone nuclear.

Robbe and him had broken up, or were on a “break” and Sander was in full blown meltdown. Taking every opportunity to get black out drunk at whatever available college party he called “fun” for the night or dive bar that didn’t attempt to cut him off whenever he got too lethargic. This was day seven in a row into Sander’s deranged journey into piety. The reactors of his mind on the precipice of nose diving into the ozone barely tethering reality but tonight would go down as the night when the bottom finally fell out. He can’t quite recall the night in its entirety but luckily the age of modernity allowed others to document its happenings for him and upload them onto various social incubators. It all started innocently enough with a game of truth or dare like all fool’s tales do. Sander being the self declared maverick tiptoed outside the lines of safety and went with a dare. A pretty blonde that had been sizing him up since he walked in dared him to kiss her and not one of those cutesy pootsy smooches but a real deep kiss. Why Sander went ahead and agreed to doing this he still doesn't really know probably a symptom of his debilitating acumen but he did it, and then he did it again, then with another girl, and then a guy. All whilst these regrets were being time capsuled  by the crowd around them and uploaded for later revisits. Sander doesn’t remember the bust up with Jens who was at the same party and witnessed all of Sander’s antics but he was told they fought and it was bad.  Well to Sander’s luck the event had been captured for him and on video. It was only a few seconds long but it was a clear take by take splice of Jens’s being pulled off Sander’s body who he had pinned to a wall while he gutted Sander out verbally for embarrassing his friend. Last thing you can hear as the filmed rolled to black was Jens screaming at Sander saying “how could you embarrass him like this”. Once again Sander will remember none of this. These parts of the night will become blind spots in his mind. All these moments will become images wrapped up in frosted cellophane. All a bit muddled, lacking in clear demarcations for identification.  The next real moment he clearly remembers is one he wishes was a blind spot. He recognized his surroundings immediately; it was a place he knew but he was there with someone he didn’t. The blonde from the party, she was sitting on top of him in the driver side backseat of his car with her shirt off as they were tangled up in a steamy makeout session. Lightening struck Sander and he shudder making him come back to himself, making him realize what the fuck is he doing. The blonde starts to grind down on him and ups the pace as she reaches for his belt when she whispers in Sander’s ear “Keep touching me, I’ve never felt something like-”. Sander violently flings her off him and opens the backseat door as the heat of his body finally tackles him to the ground and the dregs of his stomach pour out his mouth. The taste of disgust encircling him. He faintly hears the blonde mutter a ton of hate towards his direction as she slams the backseat passenger side door closed.

Sander manages to step out of the car. His motor skills in complete disarray. Barely able to stand. He finally holds himself up by holding out both arms out onto the car for support as his body convulses in dry heave after dry heave as the contents of his stomach spew out. He needs to lie down, he thinks to himself. He lays out on the grass like some fein off a high in need of resuscitation and looks up at the sky. The star surveillance looking down at him in shame and disdain. A sob begins to originate from his chest and once it starts it doesn’t stop. He thinks of Robbe and what this night is going to cost him. He rolls onto his side as he feels a gut punch to his insides as the guilt defiles him.

 Sander asks himself, was this really worth it? 

Even if Robbe had lied to him Sander had only made the situation worse. Robbe also didn’t know that Sander knew he lied but he found the paperwork. It wasn’t the lie that hurt their relationship, it was the reason why Robbe was lying to him. He kept secrets. Sander understood that the last year of Robbe’s university life was hell. Sander had been sick a lot and Robbe’s mom was also suffering so a dark shadow came over Robbe. He was quick to anger and snap at those who dared to harm Sander with their judgements. He started to keep things from Sander. Secrets. The day university decisions came out for certification programs Sander knew Robbe had applied to the best architecture programs across Europe but his heart was set on London or Italy. Decisions came out and Robbe told Sander he didn’t get into those programs but that he did get into Brussels and that he was more than happy to go there. However, Sander found the acceptance letters in Robbe’s backpack as he rummaged through it for a lighter. He did get into both programs he had just lied to Sander about it. Sander could be quick to get paranoid so he gave him the benefit of the doubt and during dinner he asked Robbe why he thought he didn’t get into those other programs. Robbe looked straight at Sander’s face and lied to him again saying he didn’t know. His renderings probably weren’t good enough. Sander put this instance in the back of his mind and thought they just needed a break from Antwerp and booked them a trip to India as an early 22nd birthday present for Robbe.  India was perfect. They were so happy there. Sander totally forgot about the lie but then they came back to Belgium and Robbe started certification in Brussels. He came back to Antwerp after his first week of school mentioning that candidates were allowed to go to London on Eramus (european study abroad) in their 2nd semester but that he had no interest in going. This sounded strange to Sander, all Robbe could talk about before is how much he wanted to go to London. So when Robbe went to shower after one of their bedroom sessions Sander looked through Robbe’s things and sure enough Robbe had filled out all the Eramus paperwork to go to London. Another lie. Sander gave Robbe the benefit of the doubt again and during breakfast he told Robbe that he should apply to go to London that it’d be good for him. Robbe looked at Sander again and lied to his face saying he just had no interest in going anymore. A lie on top of a lie. This brought forward a dark cloud of distrust over their relationship. One Sander simply couldn’t ignore, especially because he gave Robbe several opportunities to come clean and he never would. Robbe had taken it upon himself to make decisions about their relationship without discussing things with Sander. In attempts to control him.

Sander had never planned on breaking up with Robbe. The break was just to give Robbe time to think until Sander would eventually come forward and tell Robbe that he knew about the lying. That he didn’t need to hide things from him to simply protect Sander from whatever he thought he was protecting him from. Well it didn’t work out that way. Robbe was pissed and would call Sander every night in tears asking why he was doing this to them, that Sander was being selfish and just rage down the phone making Sander even angier. He wasn’t the selfish one. Sander would drink to ease his anxiety so he could build up the courage to confront Robbe but he never got to do it in the end. Day seven beat him to it.  

Sander’s sobs pulled him out of his own memories. The arrival of his lungs wheezing for air shocked his system. Sander was struggling to breathe. He sat up on the grass and a wave of guilt hit him. He was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably in between heavy wheezes. All he could think of is that he needed to hear Robbe’s voice. He stumbled back into the driver seat of his car and picked up his phone and called Robbe.

“Hello” Robbe picked up sounding sleepy.

Sander didn’t say anything as he held back sobs in the back of his throat rocking his body back and forth in the chair. Finally leaning his forehead forward on the steering wheel for support. The palm of his free hand rubbing his temple as he tried to muster up words.

“Sander….” Robbe responded again.

Sander steadied his voice as much as he could and suspired in attempts to compose himself and finally spoke.

“I miss you. I love you so much.”

“I love you too”

These words would become ingrained in Sander’s mind. This would be the last time Robbe would say I love you to him. The next time he would hear those words again from Robbe would be five days before Robbe’s 26th birthday. Four years later.

“I don’t deserve you. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Sander starts to unravel as he continues to speak, wet snot dripping from his nose now. A range of high pitch sounds generating from the back of his throat as he manages to mutter out his confessions.

“I love you [a sob breaks through], Am so sorry” The last part barely audible as he cries into the steering wheel.

“Sander where are you?” Robbe’s voice is in full blown panic on the other end.

“I love you. That's all that matters” Sander is forecily coughing out all these words as tears flood out, “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Promise me?”

“I promise. Where are you right now? Talk to me please.” Sander can hear Robbe welling up on the other end. His voice breaking with concern.

Sander can’t hold onto his consciousness any longer and he finally lets his eyelids give way and passes out. The phone falls to the ground as Robbe’s voice can be heard screaming out for Sander as his face slumps onto the driver's side window, the after taste of his stomach acids doused all over his mouth and shirt. Sander’s body loses slack and his hand grazes the hazard lights on. A signal to the outside world that he was in need of rescue but it went unnoticed. The streets were hollow.

Dank.

Still.

Lifeless.

Sander doesn’t know what happened the rest of that night but as Robbe hung up the phone to call Jens to go find Sander . He saw the social notifications. His friends tagging him on videos of Sander making out with randoms but the worst of it all was the video of Sander and the blonde getting busted in the bathroom half naked about to dial it up a notch. Robbe’s heart shattered instantly. Hot tears poured out of him as he called Jens to go find Sander because he was worried he would do something stupid. Jens found him eventually and took him home to recover. The morning after would be the last voice conversation they would have for over a year. Robbe would ask if he was okay, Sander would just cry and tell Robbe how much he loved him. Robbe would say nothing more then he needed time and to please not attempt to come to Brussels he didn’t want to see him but he also made Sander promise he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Sander agreed. Robbe hung up and that's the last time they spoke until Robbe showed up at the hospital. Robbe would end up going on Eramus to London a couple of months after this incident. He wouldn’t even go back to Antwerp for Christmas break he would leave as soon as the winter semester wrapped up. He would use his time in London to rehabilitate his heart extending his stay up until the end of summer and the start of his new school year. Keeping him away from Belgium for almost ten months.

Sander would plummet into a tour of self induced atrophy that would last for a little over a year. Finally culminating into one of the worst depressive episodes of his young adult life. He would end up hospitalized for one of his longest stints yet. He didn’t know it as he hung up the phone to Robbe and wiped away his tears but his hospitalization would bring forth the miracle of his desire. His next of kin (emergency contact). Robbe would come back for him. He’d go and find Sander in the depths of his psychological warzone and drag his body out of the open field and into the tranches for safe keeping. He’d save Sander from himself, Robbe’s touch finally stabilizing him and stopping the harmful spread of radiation that emanated from within him. Robbe would nurse Sander back to health by transporting him back to their safe place for purification and healing. A rebirth of sorts. This and only this would finally bring Sander back to himself, and finally back to Robbe. Preview done for now (this is only a quarter of the chap).... read the rest on AO3 in a few days. Chap 4 is currently at 11k so its a mammoth of a chapter. See you there!

[okie-loki-artichoki]

Can't stop thinking how crushed kaz would be when he heard the truth

heard?? i raise you thee angst tokens. He found out on his own anon. isnt it so much sadder to think no one even bothered to tell him.

 Why would they?

Kaz realized early on I’m sure he was just a piece of this. Whatever this was. There were people pulling strings from the shadows, people who didnt like him. He knew that but what the strings were pulling, he figured it better to not prod. The less he knew the better. He knew he only had half the information Ocelot had. And Ocelot seemed to get a lot of joy out of holding that information just at the tips of his fingers so he chose not to rise to it. Not really anyway. He knew he was easy to rub the wrong way and he knew he had a bit of a temper these days so he tried not to talk to Ocelot unless he had to. He knew from the beginning that he was being lied to. The extent of the lies remained to be seen.

Snake may have been his business partner, but they were best friends. They had been together everyday in Costa Rica. They had built MSF from nothing as a team, Snake had told him things about himself and the other way round too, things you don’t just tell a business parter. He had had Snake’s blood on him when Mother Base sank into the ocean. And he had woken up in the hospital still caked in blood and alone. Snake was gone, he couldn’t remember any part of the last 8 hours and no one in the hospital seemed to have any idea what he was talking about. 

Zero had contacted him just once after to tell him not to worry He spoke in unnecessary riddles. Told him to get in touch with someone who knew someone who could give him a passcode to a location where someone would give him a puzzle or some shit so he could decode it all to find the man who could help him. Called him Kazuhira in the most condescending tone. He never understood why Ocelot couldn’t just call him straight, what all the secrecy was for. 

“Bullshit. Don’t worry? Fuck you.” Kaz spat. “Watch me not worry.” He had met the first contact and got him to tell him everything in under and hour. 

Ocelot had been mildly impressed but still hadn’t told him what he wanted to hear. “You worry too much Miller. I read your file. I know all about you. Want to see what we’re working on?”

“You don’t know anything. And what I want is for someone to tell me the god damn truth. What I want is my best friend back.” 

Ocelot only grinned. 

Venom had been the first huge tip off something was wrong. After he was release from medical he had spent a lot of time trying to pin down what was wrong exactly, but he liked to think after everything he knew snake. Knew his best friend. This man wasn’t him. He let Ocelot do what he did, he facilitated training and recruiting, he monitored radio calls and ran Mother Base but he watched Venom every step of the way. He gathered fragments of information and when the puzzle pieces finally revealed themselves he went to Venom first. 

“I just wanted you to know its not your fault.” He was trying to keep his voice even. He didn’t know why they had destroyed this mans life and he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know what lengths someones mind would have to warp to do something like this. He was disgusted. He wanted no part in the demented fantasy. This wasn’t Costa Rica. It was 1985 and he was tapping out.

“I don’t understand what you mean Kaz.”

“Its fine.” He had gritted out. “It isn’t your fault.”

Ocelot wanted to play coy when he cornered him in his red torture chamber. He didn’t even have the energy to do more then tell him he didn’t want part in it. Whatever ‘it’ was. If he still had the rest of his body he would have tried to fight, with all that pride he wanted to at least break Ocelot’s stupid nose but he didn’t.

“This is a fucking fantasy,you know that. You and Zero keep your secrets but I’m out. I don’t want to know.”

“You know why he’s doing it, Snake I mean. This is your dream too, isn’t it? Outer heaven-” 

“This is no dream of mine. Outer Heaven? Fuck you. Costa Rica is a memory. You’ve all lost your fucking minds.” Kaz leaned in closer and hissed. “I’m here for another week and then I’m gone. I want no part in this. I’m going to see to it that Snake burns, he doesn’t even had the decency to come to me himself.” his missing arm was suddenly throbbing. 

“Miller-”

“Go to hell.” He turned and headed towards the door.

“See you there then.” Ocelot said through a smile.

[strayneoculturekids]

Ghost Hunter!Renjun x Ghost Hunter!Reader

Summary: You and Renjun were paired up for the first time to go on a ghost hunting mission together. Unfortunately for you, you have some ‘ghost friends’ at the place you were asked to go to and they also know about your small crush on Renjun. They spend the night ‘accidentally’ pushing you and Renjun on top of each other while Renjun stays clueless as to why the ghosts haven’t full on attacked the both of you yet.

Co-workers AU(????), supernatural AU

Genre: Fluff, crack(?)

A/N: To my anon who requested this, I know it’s probably not like you were expecting but I hope you like it anyways~ (also it's un-edited, I hope it’s still ok,,,)

You walked into your workplace, tired as hell from last night’s mission

you were a ghost hunter.

A weird occupation, but with so many people ignorant of the potentially life-threatening creatures, someone had to do it

Your last mission happened to be solo and went until about 3am

you were not in the most pleasant mood to say the very least

The minute you stepped into the building, your boss called you to his office

of course, you had another mission today.

After all, what more logical situation could there be for someone who was running on literally 15 minutes of sleep

you walked into the office to see Renjun standing there

he gave you a cute smile when you met eyes

your face instantly turned a light shade of red and you offered a small smile back

you could’ve sworn that you saw Renjun’s cheeks turn the slightest shade of red, but you brushed it off

Your boss sensed the romantic tension in the air and sat you both down, already regretting pairing the both of you up for this mission

He started to explain it anyways, giving you two the information about the types of ghosts and where they are

once he told you the location, you took in a sharp breath

now, you may be a ghost hunter but,,,,

that doesn’t mean you didn’t know that some ghosts were good

and where your boss had just said you two would be hunting was the residence of your ‘ghost-friends’

You weren’t worried about having to kill them

oh no

what you were worried about

was the fact that they all knew about your crush on the person you were coincidentally going on the mission with

and you just knew

they would spend the entire night

trying to set you two up and getting you in suggestive positions

which was the exact opposite of everything you wanted

well,,,, maybe not

but that’s not exactly the point here

anyways, the afternoon came around and it was about time that you and Renjun set off for your hunt

the whole time you were making your way to the location of your ‘ghost-friends’ you were just so in awe of how much of a sweet-heart Renjun actually was???

like, he seemed mean on the outside 

but really

he was just the sweetest little puppy in existence

sure he was a bit violent

but???

He’s just so genuinely nice???

Like damnit Renjun no one needed you to wreck thEIR BIAS LIST LIKE THIS

(A/N: I am far from sorry. I’m only stating facts, don’t run away from the truth)

so eventually you made it to the house

and you just took in a large breath

preparing yourself for what was about to come

the second you and Renjun stepped in together

a gust of wind went through the house

almost like a wave of excited whispers

and you just knew

they were already making up millions of little plans on how to set you up

you didn’t even need to tell them it was Renjun

there was no way they wouldn’t be able to recognize him from the millions of pictures you showed them

Renjun looked to you seriously, finally putting on his work persona

You both nodded at each other and started moving deeper into the house

a few minutes had passed of you two exploring and everything was going fine

Renjun was walking slowly behind you, wondering how you hadn’t gotten them both lost yet, the house was enormous

a few seconds after thinking that maybe you were safe, you heard a small grunt from behind you and suddenly you were falling to the ground face first

You quickly put your arms out in front of you, yelping

you caught yourself but had a bit of your breath knocked out of you from the weight that pushed you down

“crap! I’m sorry! I have no idea how that happened! Are you ok?!” Renjun said, scrambling off of you

You sighed, realizing that the game had begun

from now on, it was your pride against your teasing friends

the next hour was spent with you and Renjun miraculously falling into each other's arms or ending up on the ground on top of one another

You even came across a room with a romantic dinner set up

by now, you were sick of it

you were pretty sure your face had been stained red from all the blushing and the word ‘sorry’ had been glued to the tip of your tongue

Renjun felt the same

another minute had passed and Renjun tripped

surprise surprise

You went to catch him but finally decided that just letting him fall would be easier to help prove your point that you were completely done

He made contact with the ground with a loud oof, you cringed, already feeling sorry for ignoring your reflexes

While Renjun was busy getting back up, completely puzzled

You stepped forward and started talking to seemingly nothing

“Alright you little shits, get your asses out here so I can beat you”

Nothing

“I know you guys are listening, stop trying to set me and Renjun up”

“What?” Renjun asked, becoming even more puzzled at your words

A few seconds and a couple ghosts who had seemingly died in their late teens or early twenties came out, laughing their asses off

“You should’ve seen you guys’ faces! Beet red!” said one, male, looked about 19

“Not funny,” You said looking at him unimpressed

“Actually, for your information, it was very funny,” said another, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone

“Y/N?!? What in the HELL is going on?!”

“too much. We’re leaving”

You grabbed his arm and started pulling him out of the house, leaving your friends who were now laughing again behind

Once you had made it a bit of a way away from the houses, Renjun stopped

“Wanna tell me what the FUCK just happened?!”

and then you just spent like the next hour explaining to him

including the part why they were tripping you two over constantly

wow this boi was STRESSED

“You have ghost friends?! But you’re a ghost hunter?! And also you have a crush on me?! Did you say that because I heard you say that and I also have a crush on you!?!?!?”

now you didn't know how to react

Renjun had a crush on you???

Upon learning this new information

you leaned forward and

kissed him!!

and then Rejun like froze

he stopped thinking

even though like literally 0.2 seconds ago his mind was RACING

but now his heart was racing

and he didn’t know what to do

so when you pulled away he just blurted out “I love you”

and OH BOY

now you were both blushing like crazy again

would you both get fired???

Who knows???

You just knew you weren’t taking Renjun back there any time soon

[rosalind-of-arden]

Sword and Pen: Timeline and Other Little Details

This is me trying to work out the timeline of Sword and Pen. Spoilers follow.

This is currently a raw mess of notes, but I figured I’d go ahead and post it here. I’m going to try to clean it up before adding it to the AO3 timeline.

Timeline:

Either Pre-Book or Unknown:

Dario managed to read Santi’s journal back in Ink and Bone, and I still want to know how the fuck he did that. He says he read it while Santi was asleep, but I am not buying that. No way Santi’s house is that easy to break into, and I doubt Dario could sneak around in there without waking Wolfe or Santi (Dario is not good at breaking and entering). Maybe after Oxford, when they were in tents? But he didn’t need to look for blackmail material by then: the class was already down to 6. My vote is on Santi occasionally taking his journal to the barracks or something like that. Maybe Dario might have been able to get into Santi’s house while he and Wolfe were out?

At some point, Dario acquired a new Codex, registered it to a false name, and used it for some book requests and massages. Unclear when. Could be in the time he’s unaccounted for between the negotiations on day 1 and meeting Santi on day 2. Could be something he did back in Ink and Bone or Paper and Fire. Cesar Mondragon asks Dario about the Codex and says he “wanted to be certain you remembered” it, which makes it sound like he’s been told at some point what to do if he needs to work with the Spanish spies.

At some point, Dario got a gold band. He had silver at the end of Ink and Bone - has the color been mentioned since? If not, possible promotion between Ink and Bone and Paper and Fire? If it has been, maybe a quick promotion during the time he’s unaccounted for between days 1 and 2?

Eskander gave Santi an anonymous Codex sometime before Dario’s spy mission.

Thomas got the second dragon working sometime before he was kidnapped. That’s anywhere from day 0 to partway through day 2.

Day 0 (the day of the battle at the end of Smoke and Iron):

The action begins the day after Smoke and Iron ends.

First ephemera is a letter from Wolfe to the Brightwells. Written while Jess was asleep, I’m guessing?

Also happening while Jess was asleep: some Obscurist healed everyone’s wounds from the battle. Morgan? With or without help? Jess is sore but in good enough shape to fight. Dario shows no signs of injury either. Thomas’s leg is fine.

Thomas must have recharged the Ray of Apollo after the battle, and given it to Wolfe. He also got a Ray of Apollo installed on the Lighthouse overnight. Making Rays of Apollo is what Thomas does at night instead of sleeping.

Morgan journal entry date isn’t specified. Morning of day 1?

Day 1 (chapters 1-5):

Jess wakes up early the morning after the battle. The moon is out. Jess has been asleep since the battle at the end of Smoke and Iron finished up.

It’s sunrise when Jess, Wolfe, and Dario go to the Archivist’s office.

Still morning when they hand the harbor defense plans over to Santi, to be passed along to Thomas.

After meeting with Santi, Jess and Glain go to the Medica for an hour, and from there to the High Garda compound. Dario goes to meet the ambassadors. Santi goes to the throne room for his promotion. Wolfe goes to some unspecified place, presumably working on the hunt for the ex-Archivist. Santi, Dario, and Wolfe might do other unspecified things before they show up again.

Murasaki is elected Archivist, Santi appointed Lord Commander. Khalila thinks “she had a very, very long day ahead,” so this has to be relatively early, but it also has to be after Jess and Wolfe gave Santi the harbor plans. Mid-morning?

Dario arrives late, after the Scholars take their oaths. Political negotiations happen.

Khalila takes the ambassadors to the conference room and arranges for them to get food. Could just be a hospitality thing, but maybe that means it’s lunchtime?

No clues on time of day while Jess is at the bar looking for Anit, meeting with Anit in the temple, or when they go to Anit’s house and Glain is shot.

Anit offers Jess food. Again, maybe hospitality, but maybe a clue that it’s time for either lunch or dinner?

It isn’t dark yet when Wolfe and Jess talk, since Wolfe tells Jess they will wait until dusk before leaving.

Time unclear when Jess talks to Anit and flirts with Katja.

Morgan and Thomas are working on deciphering harbor defense plans: are they exhausted because it’s late or because they are both disasters who haven’t been sleeping for the past two days? Who knows. Before they could start, Morgan and other Obscurists had to remove poison from the papers. How long did that take? How long have Morgan and Thomas been working? Unclear.

Morgan finds the ring, puts it on. Gets her power un-corrupted again. Goes and eats, then falls asleep in the garden and has strange dreams.

Nothing about what Khalila, Santi, and Dario are doing after Khalila’s chapter. Santi is presumably doing Lord Commander things. Khalila working with Murasaki. Dario??? What is Dario doing???

After he leaves Jess, Wolfe is probably with Glain?

Ephemera show the ex-Archivist trying to recruit allies, conspire with Burners.

Day 2 (chapters 5-20):

Morgan wakes from ring-induced dreams just after midnight, feeling rested. She has just enough time to get changed before Wolfe comes to get her to help Glain. This is the last time we see Annis alive.

Morgan heals Glain, corrupts herself again, tries to drain Wolfe. Encounters Jess in the garden, and they break up.

Jess tries to sleep after walking away from Morgan, but can’t, so he gets up, sometime before dawn, to play dice with Anit’s men.

Jess checks on Wolfe and Glain at sunrise. Wolfe has apparently been coordinating with Anit to collect reports on ex-Archivist sightings, and he’s gotten enough data to figure out that something is going on at the Greek fire facility.

We have a timeline glitch here: Morgan has left Anit’s by sunrise, when Jess meets with Wolfe and Glain. But it has to be later in the morning when Khalila writes to Wolfe while searching for Morgan, and he tells her that Morgan left Anit’s an hour ago. (Wolfe’s lost track of time?)

Khalila wakes before dawn. (She didn’t want to go back to the Iron Tower - editing glitch, or was she rooming there for some reason instead of using her old Lighthouse room? Where she slept the night after the battle isn’t specified.) She may be sleeping, but she’s skipping showers and wearing days-old clothes.

After dawn prayers, Khalila brings the ambassadors to Murasaki, war is declared.

Khalila goes looking for Thomas, which seems to take a while: she searches both the Lighthouse and the Iron Tower. She finds him at the docks, and Morgan promptly finds them. 

It is noon when Morgan and Thomas are ready to raise the defenses. Khalila has just enough time for prayers before Morgan starts draining her.

Jess’s group takes a little over an hour to travel through the tunnels. Unclear when they left Anit’s house. Battle happens shortly after they get to the Necropolis.

Santi has been busy: his first coffee break is at around noon. He has his battle plans ready to go when the ships start their attack. 

Before the attack starts, Santi sends for Dario.  Santi knew about the Greek fire facility earlier in the day - both Wolfe and Eskander tipped him off - but he isn’t ready to commit to a plan to deal with that until after the battle plans are put into motion.

Bombardment starts, Santi orders Lighthouse to fire the Ray, warning shot fired, attack stops.

Dario is located and brought in. No word on where he’s been or what he’s been doing. Santi and Dario presumably go over Dario’s code here.

After meeting with Dario, Santi meets with Murasaki. We learn that Callum Brightwell is demanding to be allowed into Alexandria to have a funeral for Brendan.

Santi plans a meeting with the new Artifex about the Lighthouse Ray, gives more defense orders, checks in with Wolfe.

After meeting with Santi, Dario goes back to the Lighthouse. He is in his room long enough to shower, eat, change, and write messages to Alvaro.

Timeline glitch: Dario thinks about the sword “he’d damaged this morning.” No possible way this is happening on day 1. Dario hasn’t slept and is thinking of this all as the same day? Meh. 

Sun is still shining when he leaves to meet the spies. A quick bit of talking and they go to the Greek fire facility. Battle happens quickly once there. 

Unclear how long it takes to finish securing the facility after the Spanish leave. Dario goes out drinking afterward.

Thomas and the new Artifex Magnus work on the Lighthouse Ray. Right after the ray was fired to stop the bombardment, probably? Thomas heads for the workshop and is kidnapped by the ex-Archivist’s agents.

Travel time to ex-Archivist’s base unclear. Ex-Archivist threatens Thomas into working with him to open the Tomb of Heron.

Unknown travel time to the Tomb of Heron. Once there, he is given a breathing mask that will last two hours. (Two hours of use or two hours total whether it’s used or not?) Thomas goes through the tomb, solving puzzles, and reaches the final test, in which he is poisoned. He’s in there long enough that the ex-Archivist assumes he’s dead.

Thomas’s mask has run out of alchemy by time he gets to the poison gas, so more than 2 hours total in the tomb. Thomas solves the last puzzles and mixes the antidote.

Thomas leaves the tomb to find lots of dead soldiers, signs of battle, and Zara dying. She tells him the Archivist plans to destroy the Archives.

After returning to the Iron Tower, Morgan worked on researching the Poseidon automaton for an unspecified amount of time before going looking for Annis.

Searching for Annis possibly takes a while: she’s in the 12th place Morgan looks. Morgan finds Annis dead, fights traitors, investigates, goes for help. Eskander is injured in the fight.

Morgan takes over the automaton investigation. This seems to take a long time, requiring a break to eat and rest eyes.

Morgan’s work is interrupted by an attempted suicide bombing, which she stops. After the attack, Morgan’s assistants have identified the traitors’ ringleader and their next goal: finding the Tomb of Heron.

After drinking, Dario goes to see Khalila. It’s evening: she offers food and is considering her own sleeping arrangements. Dario falls asleep after some kissing and talking.

Khalila goes to see Murasaki. They attempt diplomacy and plan a Curia meeting. The storm that Dario saw brewing at the start of his spy mission is now almost to the harbor.

The fleet attacks Poseidon when Khalila and Murasaki are setting up for the meeting. Poseidon attacks the fleet. Many ships are destroyed before Poseidon breaks. Ships are finally scared off by another Lighthouse Ray shot. Eskander has already been injured when the battle happens: he can’t help with Poseidon.

The battle ends at sunset, and the storm arrives. Immediately after the battle, Murasaki is assassinated. Khalila and Dario kill the assassins.

Meanwhile, in the Necropolis, the battle takes hours, according to Wolfe. (It sounded faster in Jess’s POV. One or the other has a distorted sense of time?) The New Library-Smuggler team has won, killing most of the enemy forces. Presumably searching for the ex-Archivist has also happened. Jess collapses. Dario’s spy mission has already happened: Santi sends a report on it. Wolfe and Glain discuss strategy, Santi sends a message asking them to come back to the Serapeum (why? The assassination already? Or some other development like the Iron Tower attack or the harbor attack?)

Anit and the smugglers get ready to leave, then sphinx attacks Glain. This must be happening simultaneously with the end of Thomas’s chapter.

Wolfe, Jess, and Glain get halfway through the Necropolis before the sphinx comes back. (How long does that take?) A bit of grappling, then Wolfe leads it to the Minotaur to make them fight. Wolfe walks back to Jess and Glain; guessing this all takes some time?

Unspecified how long it takes to get back to the surface. It’s storming when Wolfe’s group leaves the Necropolis. Poseidon is down and the fleet is gone, assassination must have happened already, too. More travel time on the way back to the Serapeum. Even more time for getting through the Serapeum, taking Jess and Glain to the Medica.

Jess writes his “Go to hell, Da” letter while at the Medica.

Must be pretty late by the time Wolfe is appointed Archivist and immediately passes the job on to Khalila. Morgan Translates in, so this must be after her chapter finishes. Is Morgan bluffing when she says Eskander approves, or does Eskander have some way of listening in on the Curia meeting? Vargas says Khalila is Archivist “for tonight”, so it’s still the same day, not midnight yet. Dario is already gone by the time Wolfe gets there, and Santi has arrived.

Morgan suggests copying the Archives, Khalila approves. Wolfe suspects copying has already started. It will take at least a day. Morgan Translates back out.

Wolfe leaves the meeting to go look for the ex-Archivist and/or Thomas.

Glain and Jess are with the Medica long enough that Wolfe comes to join them. (He’s not having any luck with his investigations? Or working while there?) Glain leaves to join the battle at the gates, travel time unknown. Santi must leave at around the same time.

The Russians attack with missiles and tanks, Santi counterattacks with the dragon, sphinxes, lions, and Greek fire. It’s a long battle, or at least Glain expects it to be.

Glain stops a sphinx attack and a sniper sent by the ex-Archivist, and her squad is sent to deal with traitors attacking from behind. She splits off from them to follow a lion. When she can’t catch it, she sends messages to the others. Dario says he’s on his way from the Serapeum.

Wolfe and Jess must have left at around the same time as Dario, maybe a little before. They catch up with Glain, then Morgan Translates in to stop the lion. Dario shows up in time for the scheming.

Unknown travel time to the ancient Serapeum. They set up the trap, ex-Archivist’s forces arrive, Wolfe pack wins and learns the ex-Archivist is on his way to kill Khalila.

Dario leaves first. The rest of the pack considers plans and Translates in. It has been long enough since Khalila’s promotion that Wolfe is worried she might have moved into the ex-Archivist’s office. Glain sends her squad to warn Santi.

When Wolfe checks the time after Translating into the ex-Archivist’s office, he thinks Khalila might be at prayers. This would be the nighttime prayer, I’m guessing? So around 8:00?

Wolfe, Morgan, and Glain go looking for Khalila and/or Dario. Travel time between the old Serapeum and here must be short enough that they expect Dario to be there already even though they Translated in.

Jess spots blood, tracks it to the ex-Archivist, who is dying in a secret room full of books. He says Zara shot him.

Dario is the first one to Khalila, and he gets to the conference room in time to warn her of the assassination attempt. Either one of the Codex messages Wolfe sent was a warning to Santi, or Glain’s troops got to Santi fast, because Santi already knows about the assassination risk and has assigned extra guards. Sphinx attacks, Dario stops it.

After the attack, Curia leaves, Wolfe, Glain, and Morgan join Khalila and Dario. They get a message from Thomas that the ex-Archivist plans to destroy the Archives. Khalila sends a message to Santi requesting troops, and learns from him that the battle is wrapping up and the Russians are retreating. It’s still the same night. Khalila thinks of herself as Archivist “if only for this one night.”

After the ex-Archivist dies, it takes a while for Jess to find his way back to the rest of the pack. Santi finds him first, then the others. Santi explains Nobel’s Greek fire device, Morgan tries and fails to make Khalila’s promotion official in the records. The pack Translates to the Archives.

In the Archives, Morgan Translates Thomas in, then the pack splits up to turn off the device. Thomas and Jess shut theirs off, Thomas passes Jess the antidote and runs to warn the others about false switches.

Jess passes out before drinking the antidote. Wakes up to Khalila trying to rescue him. He finds out Morgan and Khalila messed up their shut off and triggered the fire. Morgan dies to save the books. Jess passes out again.

Ephemera show ex-Archivist conspiring with Obscurist traitor to fuck with automata, trying to get help from Callum Brightwell, finding Heron’s Tomb, colluding with the Russians, attempting to work with the English, Welsh, and Spanish, hoping to sneak out past the battle at the gate.

Day ??? (”days” after Jess passes out in the Archives)

Jess wakes up to Thomas feeding him more antidote. Thomas has been brewing more based on the sample from the tomb. Anit is there with them. 

Khalila comes to see Jess. She says he’s expected to need a few weeks to fully recover. They talk about Morgan and Brendan. Khalila declares Jess her brother. She also tells Jess that Thomas has created a new Curia position to be in charge of printing and offered him a job. The Burners and foreign armies are ready to negotiate new treaties.

Day ???+1

Jess wakes before dawn for food and a bath. He is up and walking when his parents arrive. They discuss burial plans for Brendan. Callum tries to force Jess to sign the release form. Celia, Jess, and Wolfe all tell Callum to leave. Jess declares himself Wolfe’s son.

Unspecified time after that:

Jess goes to see Brendan’s body. The rest of the pack joins him. There are hugs and declarations of affection. Khalila has been officially confirmed as Archivist. Thomas has given Jess the job of Chief Printer in the new Liberius department. Santi tells Jess he’s free from his High Garda contract and calls Jess his son.

Anit meets Jess when he’s on his way out. Katja is with her. They negotiate ownership of a bookshop.

Jess signs the release form to let his parents have Brendan’s body.

Unspecified time after that:

Wolfe visits Eskander in the Iron Tower because he feels Morgan’s presence. He puts on the ring and talks to Morgan. He refuses to ask about his future and turns down her offer to unlock his latent Obscurist talent, and learns she is watching over the Library.

Wolfe gives the ring back to Eskander, and Eskander invites him in for tea and scheming. Wolfe agrees.

Pre-canon timeline:

As of 6 years ago, Wolfe and the old Archivist were still on good enough terms for Wolfe to have the opportunity to hear the Archivist’s desk password. That’s about 3 years before Rome. That means that either something went wrong between Wolfe and the Archivist in those 3 years, or it was an unexpected betrayal when the Archivist sent him to Rome. Wolfe having spied on the Archivist’s password suggests that he didn’t fully trust him, even then. Some suspicions, maybe?

And now for some fun little details!

Handwriting:

Wolfe has good handwriting: “neat, precise calligraphy.”

Santi has bad handwriting. It is illegible when he’s stressed. I’s too messy to use Dario’s code successfully.

Dario has very good handwriting, and can vary the height and embellishment of letters enough to use his writing as code.

The ex-Archivist has unique handwriting.

Since we all like hair:

Jess’s hair “was a spiky mess” when he woke up in chapter 1

We have some curls! Not for Dario, though, for Wolfe: “his curling, graying hair.”

Curls for Eskander, too! “long, curling gray hair.” 

And curls for Annis.

Only “wavy black hair” for Dario. Not quite curls.

Languages:

Jess feels uncomfortable with Greek compared to Wolfe, who is a native speaker.

The High Garda compound has signs in hieroglyphs and Greek.

Thomas knows ancient Greek engineering shorthand. Morgan isn’t so confident in her ancient Greek.

Khalila knows German.

Annis knows Assyrian. There is a book in Assyrian that details how much damage Heron’s Poseidon automaton can take before breaking.

Wolfe’s specializations:

More evidence that it isn’t engineering: he has “neither time nor patience” for listening to Thomas lecture about Heron’s inventions.

But Wolfe does know the Serapeum’s design very well. Points toward architecture.

He’s taken charge of the search for the ex-Archivist. Points toward forensic science.

And then there’s a lot of talk of risks and odds of success in Wolfe’s POV. And this line: “It was the gamble of it he loved, more than anything else.” Sounds like probability or game theory there.

High Garda stuff:

High Garda battle uniforms include: protective vest, underwear, jacket, trousers, socks, boots, weapons belt. Standard issue weapons include a rifle, handgun, and knife. And extra “charges” for the gun (which?). WTF are these guns seriously. They can switch between lethal and stun. They have charges. They also fire bullets and smell like gunpower. I officially fucking give up on understanding these guns. They are clearly plot-powered weapons.

The High Garda compound is on a hill overlooking the harbor. From the gates, there is a good view of the Lighthouse, the Serapeum, and the Iron Tower. I continue to be unable to draw a proper mental map of this city.

Scholars and High Garda apparently don’t visit the docks much. In particular, the High Garda leave the “bars, taverns, and brothels” alone. All of those services must already be available in the Hive. (Also, hey, look, legal sex work is canon!)

Regular uniforms might have armored vests, but armored jackets are available. Santi insists that Wolfe wear one. Khalila has one too.

Tea!

Khalila is a very good assistant who makes sure Murasaki has tea.

Morgan drinks “bitter, cooling tea” while working late at night. Tea is definitely her caffeine source of choice. Also, headcanon that she drinks her tea unsweetened totally confirmed, and she probably just left the ball/bag in that mug and forgot about it.

Headcanon confirmed: Santi is not a tea person.

Other stuff:

There are Medica potions to keep people awake. Energy drinks?

Morgan definitely had her Obscurist power all her life, and hid it up until she was 16. Was she that confident in her ability to hide that she applied for the Postulant program anyway? Or did she hack her way in after getting caught?

Troll is very concerned about having his journal read. What is Troll writing about? (Also, Santi is a lying ass: in Ink and Bone he didn’t seem to know the journals were being read until Wolfe told him, here he tells Troll he’s been making his boring for “many, many years”.)

Dario has a “favorite shop for little cakes” and a “cafe where he drank morning coffee.” Both damaged in the bombardment.

Dario has a fancy jeweled Codex that he grew up with. So he found the one from his dad that was stolen? Or is this the one he had before that?

Thomas keeps lots of stuff in his pockets. Contents confiscated when he is searched include pencils, birdseed, and half-eaten snacks.

There are several of the spy mirrors: one for the Archivist, the Artifex, the Obscurist, and the Lord Commander. Kind of assuming no one told the new administration how they work.

The ex-Archivist wants Santi alive. Why? Are we adding him to the list of people who really want to get into Nic’s pants or what? He wants Wolfe dead more than anyone else.

Jess is “barely eighteen.”

Both Glain and Morgan found and read about the poison gas in the Black Archives. Neither, apparently, considered that book a good one to smuggle out.

[anip-ocs]

"Why'd I get detention?!" A voice shrieked from inside the building.

"Because Mr. Kent still thinks you don't speak English!" Another shout replied--this was Brett. The first voice must be Diana, then--the girl who sat in the back of her math class making animal noises and answering any questions in what Alana believed may have been either Russian or German. Or both.

Diana Terrível--local queen of mischief and style.

(Bonus Pic and text under the cut)

Location: Kasey K-12 School for the Gifted, Kihiro City, California, United States

Time: Friday, October 25th, 3:15 PM

The detention slip told Ken he had to be in a 'Mrs. Ginny''s room at 3:10. However, it had taken him ten minutes after the bell rang just to find Mrs. Ginny's room, let alone get his things into his locker. There was no sort of room number on the paper, and the man he'd asked had pointed him in the entirely wrong direction. Turns out that man was Mrs. Ginny's substitute. He didn't even seem sorry.

He walked in to see his friends already in there, trying to hide their laughter. In there with them was the boy who had been bullying Alana a few weeks ago, and a girl he’d seen skipping down the hall singing a handful of times. The girl wasn’t subtle at all, and straight-up pointed his way and let out a cackle.

“Nice hair, dweeb,” she said, still snickering. Ken couldn’t help but sigh, even as he sent her a glare and took a seat near his friends.

A few moments later, the curly-haired substitute closed the door and moved to lean on the desk. He was tall--very tall. Taller than Alana--which was unbelievably rare, now that Maddi thought about it. Hell, this guy had to duck to get back inside.

“Greetings, future juvenile delinquents,” he began.

“Hello,” the girl greeted with a grin, leaning back in her chair. The sub laughed a bit before he continued.

“I’m Mr. Peters. I don’t care if you guys stay quiet or whatever it is kids do in detention now, but I’m supposed to tell you to be quiet and do all that stuff anyways. I’m off to the teacher’s lounge. Don’t leave the room, don’t kill anybody, see you guys later.”

“No promises,”

Everyone made sure to scoot as far away from the animal noise girl as possible.

“As I’ve already said, I don’t really care. I’m out.” at that, Mr. Peters walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. ‘Madame Mimicry’ stood and made her way to the window, watching a bit. Brett sent her a look.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Watching Mr. Peters drive away on a motorcycle with his boyfriend.” everyone rushed to the window to see that she was telling the truth--Mr. Peters was noticeably not in the teacher’s lounge as he rode away on the back of a motorcycle, being driven by another man his age.

“How do you know that’s his boyfriend?” Brian asked.

“He gushes about him sometimes when he subs my classes.”

“Well then,” Ken said, watching as the two turned a corner and vanished from view.

“I mean, they could at least wear helmets. They might crash, and then they’d get comas.” Maddi said.

“Or die,” the animal noise girl added. Maddi nodded.

“That too,”

“So now what do we do?” Brett asked.

“...guess we just talk to each other?” Alana said with a shrug. Brett just scoffed, flipping hair out of his face.

“And why would I want to talk to you?”

“Because if you don’t I’ll snap your fucking neck,” animal noise girl and Maddi said at the same time. They sent each other a look before low-fiving each other.

Everyone made sure to stay as far away from those two as possible.

“...let’s start with names, then, since we’re apparently being forced to talk to each other. Not like I know who any of you are--except maybe you,” Brett sent Alana a look. “And not even your actual name. Unless your birth certificate says ‘Glasses Dork.’”

“My birth certificate says Alana,” Alana tucked her arms into her jacket.

“Huh. Okay,”

“Hey, our names rhyme!” animal girl said with a grin.

“Oh, really? What’s your name?” Alana asked, shifting in her seat.

“Diana! Diana Terrível! And the ‘I’ on my last name has a really cool accent on it.”

“Oh, cool!”

“I’m Ken Shinigami,” Ken almost bowed, but then stopped himself. Apparently bowing was weird. Apparently all the formalities his father had taught him were strange here… what else was?

Apparently, his last name.

“Hello there, Ken Demon.” Diana grinned again. Oh right, that. Ken rose an eyebrow and Diana just burst out laughing, Brett following quickly after.

“Demons aside, I’m Taylor. Wakes, since we’re doing last names.” Taylor offered a short wave. The group of students began shifting their desks closer together, sitting on them to talk. Ken sat in the chair the same way they had to during school, instead of taking advantage of their ‘freedom.’ What a dweeb.

“I’m Cujo Smithson, but everyone calls me CJ.” CJ said with a grin.

There was a moment of silence as everyone wondered who was going to go next. CJ nudged Brian so hard he nearly fell off his desk. The boy fumbled with his tablet for a moment before shoving CJ in return.

“Brian Hodges,” he said, sending a glare his friend’s way.

“I’m Maddi,” Maddi said with a shrug. Ken sat up a bit in his seat.

“Hey, Maddi, I just realized you’ve never told me your last name,” he said. Maddi’s hands curled into fists.

“There’s a reason for that,”

“What is it?”

“Don’t use it.”

“Well, why not?”

“Don’t ask,” Alana said, nudging him in the shoulder and sending him a look that said he’d better not ask. Needless to say, Ken didn’t ask.

“...well, I’m Brett Mage.” Brett said with a sigh.

“So what are you all here for?” Diana asked.

“Skipping,” Maddi said. Her friends all nodded in agreement.

“I skipped detention,” Brett shrugged. Alana’s eyes grew wide.

“You skipped detention?!” she asked.

“Yup.”

“What were you originally here for?” Maddi asked. She scarcely noticed Brian’s grin--it was clear he knew something.

“Talking back to the teacher,”

“What’d you say so bad that you got detention?” Taylor quirked an eyebrow. Brian let out a snort and covered his mouth.

Brett slammed his hands on the desk. “I was being smarter than the goddamn teacher, that’s what! He was being all like ‘everyone open Internet Explorer and go to this website’ and I said ‘Why do we have to use Internet Explorer, that program sucks, can’t we use Chrome? They’re all way faster’ and he’s all ‘because I’m the teacher you do what I say, I’m Mr. Gardner and I hate smart children bleh bleh bleh’ and I said ‘I refuse to use Internet Explorer, at least let us use Firefox, goddammit’ and then he handed me a referral for cursing in class.”

Diana started laughing uncontrollably.

“I remember that! Wasn’t that also for playing Overwatch during his presentation on applying animations to PowerPoints?” Brian asked. Brett just seemed even more exasperated.

“I was told that we were going to learn how to design websites and program video games and stuff, but no! We’re just learning stuff that any third grader could figure out! Hell, he does everything the long way, I’m smarter than the damn teacher, what the fuck?!”

“Wait,” Diana gave him a puzzled look. “Are most people not smarter than the teacher?”

“We aren’t supposed to be. Doesn’t tend to happen that way, though.”

“I can’t believe he’s spent two entire months teaching us how to use Microsoft Word?” Brian said. This elicited a groan from Brett, a full-blown, head-tipped-back groan. Diana looked completely lost. Taylor gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“Right?! I mean, doesn’t he know that everyone uses Google Docs now?! It’s way better than anything else on the market, and it's free!”

“Actually, I think Shinigami Docs is better than Google Docs,” Ken stated.

“But you have to pay for it! And that doesn’t even mention…”

This began a three-way techno dork-off. Alana decided that Brett was not only the biggest dork she’d ever met in her entire life so far, but was also rivaling Brianna Jones for the title of Biggest Drama Queen in the Entire School. No wonder they were dating.

“Wait. You never said what you did to get in here?” Alana said suddenly, looking at Diana. She was greeted with a positively wicked grin.

“I put someone in the hospital,” she stated. The room grew quiet.

Everyone made sure to scoot as far away from her as possible. Except, this time, for Brett.

“Liar!” he called, pointing at her. “You are a dirty liar! Ha!” he turned to address the rest of the room. “She’s in here because she keeps meowing and shit in math class, answering questions in basically every language except English.”

“Actually, that’s just what they caught me for.” Ken felt a shudder go down his spine when she smiled again. Her teeth looked like fangs.

Brett scooted away too.

Disillusions: In The Beginning Yakk list: @ravenpuffwriter @dreamswithadashofspice @ejmcmoon @writerofwriting @beeofwriting

(If you wanna be added to/removed from the tag list just hmu)

[hopefullylovelyxx]

Ça te rend belle.

part one

Authors Note:

This is my first writing post so sorry if it’s not fantastic but I’m growing as a writer everyday so it’s only up from here. Also all the French in this story stems from me being in AP French and all the mentions of high school memories/actual events taking place at the high school are based on my high school experience in America so sorry if you’re from another place and it doesn’t make sense. Also I’m not sure if this high school name is an actual high school somewhere so if it is then oops. If you have ANY questions or comments regarding the story PLEASE send me an ask and I’ll happily answer. Huge thank you to @nips-and-tats for encouraging me to go through with this story and giving me the confidence to post my writing <3. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. xx

. . . . . .

Wednesday August 15, 2018 6:52 am

Anxiety. Tests. Homework. Studying. Anxiety. Loneliness.Embarrassment. Insecurity. And more anxiety. The words that describe Y/N’s high school years best. As she walks up the steps to the high school her university assigned as her student teaching school she’s puzzled as to why she’s choosing to spend the rest of her life working in the exact same environment that she desired to break away from just 5 short years ago yet, for some odd nostalgic reason the environment is sort of comforting. She walks up to the front office door preparing herself by rehearsing what she planned on saying and running through the scenario she just practiced on the car ride over. Once she has everything on the tip of her tongue she pulls the door open and walks in with a smile she hopes they don’t look too closely at or else they might see right through her nerves and fear.

She approaches the desk and confidently begins to say “Hello I’m-“ but is cut short by the secretary holding her finger up for Y/N to take as a cue to hold her sentence. Y/N is taken aback as the scenarios she had thought up didn’t include one in which she’d be cut off by the secretary on the phone with a parent she presumes based on the answers being given. “Yes ma’am school started Monday....well I don’t know why your son would say the school burned down....okay...okay....no problem....thanks you too, bye.” She hangs up and looks up at Y/N with a warm smile, “How can I help you?”

Y/N smiles back and scraps whatever she’s practiced for the past 24 hours because now it’s all a bunch of jumbled up words that make no sense. “Um I’m Y/N, the new student teacher for French. My university said they sent over all the information.” She looks a bit confused then recalls the memory and says “Ahhh yes! Welcome to Meadow High School. I’m just gonna need to see your ID please.”

As she retrieves her drivers license from her bag Y/N recalls a brief memory of her mom getting her out of school early after calling her about fake stomach aches having to show the office secretary her ID. She shows the older woman and she gives Y/N a badge on a lanyard with her name and the schools name. She recalls all her years of schooling staring at her teachers badges yearning for one of her own.

She puts it on and has to keep her excitement contained as the secretary who she learns is named Kathy, gives her a map of the school and explains that the language buildings are just straight out of the office door leading into the school. “202. Can’t miss it. Mrs. Meyers is very...patriotic about the French culture.” Y/N just nods wondering what on earth that could mean.

As she walks out into her new but temporary life she immediately understands what Kathy was talking about. She walks the small distance between her and the French flag wrapped around a Eiffel Tower statue nearly as tall as her and knocks on the door before entering.

She’s met with a tall blonde, blue-eyed, woman perhaps in her mid to late 50’s rummaging through stacks of papers. She looks up at Y/N and says “ah you must be Y/N.” She stands up and shakes her hand. Y/N recalls the past couple days of emailing Mrs. Meyers. Just going over the basic classroom norms and requesting that 1 of the 2 class periods Y/N was required to teach be 6th period because she wanted to leave work early. Once Y/N informed her that the university has a policy of an actual teacher being present for each lesson a student teacher gives, Mrs. Meyers explained to Y/N that she had done this with multiple student teachers in the past. Not wanting to stir anything up Y/N just accepted it and although teaching seniors AP French wasn’t her first choice- as she felt she couldn’t connect with the older students as they might not take her seriously being only 5 or 6 years older than them- she requested first period as it was Beginners French aka French 1/2 meaning most if not all the students would be Freshman.

Most people would dread being stuck in a class in front of the youngest more immature of the school but Y/N felt the opposite. She felt that it was a privilege of some sort and great responsibility to teach the younger students not just French but also set them up for success in all aspects of life and prepare them for the next few years of school. It filled the maternal role Y/N always felt growing up wanting to take care of her baby dolls with extra care and now as a 23 year old wanting to care for students as her own children in a weird sense.

She knows that this student teaching job is only a semester long and that by the time winter break is over these students won’t be hers anymore but at least they were hers at all. Having only 4 months with them is good enough reason to make time with them even more precious she thinks. Or perhaps the school will allow her to stay another semester, perhaps she can be a teachers aid if they don’t allow her to keep her French teaching position.

Y/N is shaken out of her thoughts as Mrs. Meyers asks her to set the printed seating chart up under the document camera to be projected onto the white screen at the front of the classroom. Y/N recalls dreading those box representations of desks with names in them, she never liked change. School gave her enough anxiety, adding change to it made everything worse. The recollections of finding out she had to sit next to someone she didn’t know makes Y/N’s heart race for a second then quickly stops once she brings herself back to Earth remembering she’s 23 and not 17.

Once the bell rings Mrs. Meyers turns to her and says “Get ready for hell.” Y/N gives a little laugh but is quite confused as to why she would say that to someone who’s here to practice how to be a teacher.

She shakes the weird statement off and quickly brushes over the black silk of her plain romper and adjusts her jean jacket making sure the cuffs are folded perfectly. She looks down at her feet and wonders if she should’ve worn other shoes or if gold sandals will be fine for the tasks ahead. Now second guessing her entire outfit choice Y/N shakes herself out of it remembering it’s summer and 1000 degrees outside plus she’s a student teacher, who cares what she’s wearing.

When the first few kids come in they are noticeably confused by her presence but when they look up at the seating chart they’re too annoyed to even care. They all share glances and eye rolls as they go to their seats.

Y/N doesn’t know if she should want silence in the classroom being a teacher and all because the overwhelming sounds of the students talking are helping to make the negative thoughts in her head be muffled. By the time she knows it the second bell rings and the announcements go on continuing to stall for her. She can’t hear announcements over the students talking but is not bold enough to quiet them down and she’s not sure she wants to.

Finally the announcements fall silent and Y/N takes a deep breath. As she opens her mouth to speak Mrs. Meyers beats her to the punch. “Everyone be quiet!” The young faces notably aggravated turn away from their conversations and look at her. “This is Ms. Y/N and she’s a student at UCLA ( my university/location for the story but you can imagine any university or any location of your choice :) ) and she’s going to be your teacher this semester.” She looks at Y/N to take over and goes to sit at her desk in the back right corner of the room. She smiles and says “As Mrs. Meyers said, I’m Y/N. I go to UCLA. I’m studying to hopefully be a French teacher and I’m looking forward to teaching you all.”

A girl in the middle of the class raises her hand and Y/N smiles happy to have her first ever question from a student. “Yes?” The long blonde haired girl with foundation a few shades too tan but maybe that’s the style -who knows it’s been years since Y/N has been in high school- furrows her eyebrows and says “So like...you speak French fluently?” Y/N nods and says “I started learning French in 7th grade and continued all the way until college.”

A boy in the front row raises his hand and once Y/N gives him a nod he says “Say something in French.” Y/N thinks for a moment then settles on the basic introduction, after all this is just beginners. They probably don’t know a word of French. “Bonjour classe. Je m’appelle Y/N. J’ai vingt-trois et je suis très content d’être ici.”

They all stare at her in awe of her skill. All their hands fly up and Y/N says “I’d love to answer all your questions but I really want to get to know you.” There are some audible groans so Y/N says “You get a candy if you state your name and something about yourself.” Almost everyone’s hands go up and Y/N smiles to herself.

. . . . . .

*annoying iphone alarm that makes all our ears bleed*

“Fucking hell!” Harry groggily yells trying to stop his alarm. When he can’t seem to feel his way to his phone he groans and sits up grabbing it off his nightstand silencing it. 5:30 am. He throws his head back against his headboard reminiscing to just last week when he was able to sleep in. Which for harry meant sleeping until 7.

He’s always been an early bird ever since he moved to LA. Perhaps it was the time differences between here and England or maybe he’s just got the soul of an old man like all his ex’s have inquired for some odd reason.

He never quite understood that but assumes it’s because of his music taste and love for literature. It could be the fact that his closet is full of suits, nice button ups, trousers only your 70 year old Irish-uncle would find appealing, and his array of paper boy hats.

Whatever it is, Harry doesn’t mind. His confidence is thick like the copy of War and Peace he has on his bookshelf and will never deteriorate no matter how many shots anyone takes.

This confidence has also made Harry seem quite closed off to some. This mixed with his rather reserved nature has definitely made his social life quite dry. But he’s learned to become accustomed to it.

Harry rises out of bed in nothing but a grey tee shirt and black Calvin Klein underwear. He sleepily walks into his apartment bathroom and strips the few clothes he had on as he waits for the shower water to reach the perfect temperature. He gets in thinking about the past two days of school. It may only be his 3rd year teaching but he can tell his students this year are gonna be his favorite.

He thinks back to their discussion about the classes summer break reading assignment on the first day and chuckles a bit remembering what Kyle Patterson said about Romeo and Juliet, “The only reason I’d poison myself after knowing a girl for a few days is if she ghosted me.”

Harry knows he seems like a nightmare of a teacher to everyone on the outside but he enjoys the little curtain he has up. It makes it more fun when his own students to realize he’s not some pretentious boring British guy but actually a pretentious funny British guy.

Harry gets out of the shower and quickly dries himself before tying his towel around his waist. He brushes his teeth and shaves his face before going back into his bedroom and picking out a nice white button up and charcoal colored trousers with some nice black loafers. He lets his hair air dry as he packs his lunch and breakfast into a paper bag before putting it into his brown leather satchel making sure he has everything he needs for the day.

Upon arriving to the school he notices his usual parking spot is taken by a car he’s never seen before. “fucks sake.” He mumbles to himself driving around to the other aisle and parking in the first spot he sees.

Once Harry’s in his classroom he lets out a big sigh and immediately feels at home. He contemplates making a seating chart but decides against it considering they’re seniors and in an AP class, he doesn’t feel the need to control where they sit. It’s one of the things he likes about teaching seniors.

Their independence and self sufficiency. Yes, harry helps them when they don’t quite understand underlying symbolism or when they need something to be translated into “teen terms” rather than 19th century English, but more often than not they’re capable of figuring it out themselves. He’s always happy to guide them if they need and definitely loves to crack jokes throughout his lessons. His students past and present know how hilarious and lively he could be; but it’s day and night between his interactions with students and with the world around him. It’s why harry loves his job. He’s able to be his fun free spirited self then his tranquil reserved self all at the click of a button.

The bell rings and after a few seconds students funnel in taking seats. “Mr. Styles?” Harry looks up at the voice not knowing who it belongs to, after all it’s only the third day. “Yes?” He answers standing from his desk and closing the few inch gap between him and front of the classroom. “Are you married?” All the students look at him curiously. Harry is confused as to why they’d ask but simply says “No. Probably won’t ever get married f’I’m honest.” with a shrug he lets it go but it just leads to more questions being asked. Luckily for him the second bells rings and announcements start so the classroom is brought to a complete silence.

. . . . . .

Thank you for reading! Next part will be up soon so stick around. xx

[carmenlire]

Hi! I don't know when/how you take prompts but i would love if you wrote about malec having a misunderstanding (not necessarily fighting) and how they communicate and understand each other's point of view, only if you want and like the idea of course. Thank you 💛

Hi dear!! I’m always taking prompts– it might take a little while for me to write them but my inbox is always open if you ever wanna stop by and leave one just like you did! I loved this idea and I hope you enjoy this! Thank YOU for the wonderful request!!!

read on ao3

“Darling, what do you think– Royal or Navy?”

Alec looks up from his book and sees two near identical shades of blue. Magnus is holding the swatches of fabric with an expectant look on his face and Alec inwardly winces. He bites his lip, eyes moving between the two but he doesn’t want to say anything– he doesn’t want to say anything wrong.

“They both look good, babe. It’s up to you,” he defers.

He looks back down at his book, missing the way that Magnus’s face falls. His eyes don’t track the lines of text, though. Instead, he’s busy thinking about why Magnus had asked him such a question.

They were getting married in three months. Magnus had said yes to his stumbling proposal last month and now the two of them were going to exchange vows as the leaves turned and the air grew chilly.

Alec was more excited than words could say. There were times, when he stopped and thought this is my life now, and it felt like this feeling rising in him was too much for a physical body to contain. Sometimes he looked over at Magnus and his heart swelled fit to burst.

His life was so different now than it’d been five years ago. More difficult than he could’ve ever imagined but infinitely more rewarding. He woke up beside Magnus every morning and went to bed knowing he was safe and loved and cared for by his best friend.

Magnus had started asking him leading questions about his preferences over the past few weeks. Magnus wanted his opinion on colors and menus and flavors of cake. There were decisions to be made about flowers and locations and guest lists. It was enough to make Alec dizzy and he didn’t know how Magnus was handling it all and his high warlock responsibilities without a hitch in his step.

While Alec appreciated that Magnus took the time to check in with him about the wedding, he didn’t understand it. In shadowhunter culture, the man asked and if the woman accepted then she and her other women friends and family members planned the thing. The man was expected to show up and draw the wedded union rune as neatly as possible.

While Alec scoffed at the heteronormative roles his society dreamt up on a regular basis, he couldn’t quite shake this one, no matter that he was marrying a man. While he’d been in perpetual and suffocating turmoil during his brief engagement to Lydia, she’d handled all the details like a veteran general. Alec’s opinions had been neither needed nor asked for and he hadn’t seen any issue with that.

Especially since when he’d thought of that wedding, it was like a vise was choking the soul out of him.

This time around, Alec was happy. He was happier than he ever thought possible. But, he still hesitated and ultimately declined to tell Magnus anything. He wasn’t as sophisticated as Magnus. It wasn’t sad; it was just the way things were. This was Magnus’s first– and if Alec had anything to say about it, only– wedding and he wanted him to have the day of his dreams. He didn’t need to feel pressured to accommodate Alec’s preferences or requests when he was just full of joy to show up and claim the love of his life for the rest of his days.

Hell, they could marry in a field of chickens during a thunderstorm and Alec would be content, so long as by the end of things they both had their wedding bands glinting in the golden autumn light.

Alec startles out of his reverie, imagining a dozen different wedding scenarios, as the book is snatched out of his hand and tossed carelessly to the floor. Alec is just about to exclaim that it was one of Magnus’s books from the eighteenth century when the man in question slides into his lap, wrapping his arms around Alec’s shoulders and playing with the hair at his nape.

His glamour is down like it always is when it’s just the two of them in their space and Alec gets lost for a minute as he watches the last rays of the evening play over Magnus’s face.

It only takes a minute, though, for him to realize that something is wrong. While Magnus seems as comfortable as ever straddling Alec, there’s a line of tension running through him that Alec can’t help but notice.

He lays his hands on Magnus’s hips, pulling him just a touch closer and Magnus smiles, faintly.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

Arching a brow, Magnus sniffs. “If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if you wanted to marry me at all, Alexander. You’re the most opinionated man I’ve ever met and you don’t care about anything to do with this wedding–”

“I proposed,” Alec splutters, brain going a million miles an hour as he takes in Magnus’s words. What the fuck is he talking about? Alec is confused as he sees the flash of hurt and disappointment in Magnus’s eyes.

Magnus rolls his eyes. “Yes, you proposed. You asked me to marry you in the most adorable you way possible and then it’s like you stopped caring! I ask what colors you prefer for the scheme and you shrug. I prompt you to decide on a wedding cake flavor and you just eat every sample and talk about how they’re all delicious. I show you a dozen different fonts for the invitations and your eyes look a million miles away. I know that this isn’t really your thing but I thought you’d at least have one or two requests for our wedding.”

“You.”

Blinking, Magnus echoes, “You?”

Alec shrugs, can’t help the soft smile that comes over his face as he watches Magnus work himself up into a state. He wishes he’d known that this was bothering Magnus but now that he does, they can work it out.

“I want you. That’s all I need. I need you to show up and look beautiful as always and say, ‘I do.’ That’s it. Everything else can make it look pretty and romantic but at the end of the day, all I need for my wedding to be perfect is for you to be standing next to me. Honestly, I probably won’t even notice anything else, not when I’ll have you to look at all evening.”

Magnus melts against Alec, leaning forward and gently connecting their lips. It’s a chaste kiss, if lingering, and Alec hums a little at the taste of Magnus’s chapstick. Magnus pulls back after a minute and the loft is quiet, hushed.

Smiling, Magnus reaches out and sweeps his thumb over Alec’s cheek. Such a simple gesture still makes Alec’s heart skip a beat and his eyes close as he nuzzles into Magnus’s palm.

“You say the sweetest things, my love.” He looks confused as he asks, “You really don’t have anything you want at your wedding? Just one or two thing that you think would make the day just a little bit better?”

Uncomfortable, Alec jerks his shoulder. “It’s your wedding.”

Magnus shakes his head, the hand not cupping Alec’s cheek reaching down and intertwining their hands. “It’s our wedding, Alexander, and I want this to be the best day of your life like I know it will be mine.” He cuts Alec off before he can say anything. “Yes, I know me just showing up in a garbage bag would be fine but I want this day to be more than fine. I want it to be a representation of us. Our favorite colors and foods and friends and interests.”

Alec is quiet for a moment and Magnus lets him think. Often, Alec wonders how Magnus seems to know him so well, knows just what he needs and when he needs it and just how much.

“I’m a shadowhunter,” he starts, biting his lip. “I never meant for a single second to make you doubt that I wasn’t the happiest man alive to be able to marry you. It’s just that– I’m a shadowhunter.“ Alec repeats helplessly. "I proposed. That’s all I’m supposed to do until the wedding day. I didn’t mean to put all the planning pressure on you; I just assume you wanted it.”

Shaking his head gently, Magnus settles against Alec more firmly. “You know what they say about making assumptions, darling,” he teases. “I’ll admit that I’m surprised at that attitude, though now that I think about it, I don’t know why. Really, I should’ve figured that you wouldn’t be interested in the details.”

There are words at the tip of his tongue and Alec bites them back, unsure. Magnus looks at him, puzzled, before tentatively offering, “Why don’t we agree right now that whenever I ask your opinion on something about the wedding, you tell me the truth?”

Alec can’t help but blurt out, “But what if you don’t like it?”

Surprised, Magnus raises his brows. “What do you mean?”

Alec clears his throat. “What if I say something you don’t like or we have opposite opinions?”

Smiling, Magnus wraps his arms around Alec’s neck and leans forward until their foreheads press softly together. In the space between them, Magnus murmurs, “Then we can talk things out like the mature adults we are or–” his voice drops, making Alec shiver, “I can think of how to convince you to my way of thinking.”

Alec’s helpless to do anything but close that remaining inch. He kisses Magnus with startling intensity, all the more devastating for its gentleness.

They kiss for long, lazy minutes. Alec will never, ever get used to kissing Magnus. No matter the context, the simple pleasure of feeling Magnus’s lips against his grounds him, pleases him, in the most visceral way.

They break apart, breathing hard and it takes Alec several seconds to remember what they were talking about.

“I just don’t want to disappoint you,” he says, voice husky. “This is your wedding and I want it to be everything you want.”

Magnus’s eyes are liquid pools of adoration as he strokes his thumb across Alec’s bottom lip. “What I want is for us to plan our wedding together. It doesn’t need to be stressful or time consuming. We have a few months and luckily, I’m a warlock.” He waves his hands, letting blue sparks fall from it and Alec laughs, a sound of pure joy tinged with amusement.

The two of them are leaning towards each other and Magnus’s eyes are heavy, dazed with desire. Without thinking, Alec breathes, “Royal.”

Magnus blinks in surprise, before pulling back. Alec’s hands travel under the hem of his shirt, resting on the warm skin of his back as he grins.

“Royal blue,” Alec repeats, firmly. “It’ll bring out your eyes more.”

Magnus smiles, positively grins as he processes Alec’s suggestion. He chuckles, shaking his head. “I knew you had opinions.”

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, babe.”

“Oh, I think I do,” Magnus says absently, eyes glued to Alec’s mouth. “And I can’t wait.”