#handler very clearly has a soft spot for her

[frozenartscapes]

I would love a scene in Spy x Family, post-reveal, where Anya gets kidnapped/is in danger and all the highly dangerous adults she's met and endeared herself to all team up to save her in a high-intensity, super satisfying series of fights all set to No Sleep 'til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys

[smthscoming]

introducing a new verse and group of muses! here's a quick overview of the muses populating the enfield project verse; more details below the cut. leave a like if you'd like to plot with any of these muses!

rohan ojha, 30, he/him, dev patel → available

ash dizon, 31, he/him, manny jacinto → selective / mutuals only

isa yousry, 32, she/her, may calamawy → available

kyrie pierce, 26, she/her, maika monroe → available emerson pierce, 26, she/he/they, maika monroe → available

mitzi morino, 21, she/her, devyn nekoda → available

river mccourt, 27, he/him, barry keoghan / paul mescal → selective / mutuals only

sadie almira, 22, they/she, lizeth selene → available

dimitri enfield, 45, he/him, hugh dancy → available

andromeda vidal enfield, 37, she/her, carolina dhavernas / rebecca ferguson → available

beatrice enfield, 43, she/her, morena baccarin → available

fortysomething years ago, a man named godwin enfield decided, in a show of breathtaking ego, to adopt a bunch of children and train them to be ruthless killers. it did not work out well; while enfield's physical training was exceptional, he did not care for the emotional and developmental needs of his adoptive children, and they turned out... not so well. this was in part the cause of a few deaths, and more than a few catastrophic fights. only three enfields remain in contact today: andromeda, beatrice, and dimitri, the last of which took it upon himself to continue his father's legacy with a new batch of children. although he's certainly trying to be better than his father was, dimitri's kids haven't exactly grown up to be very stable themselves. at least he didn't insist they all take his last name.

muses

dimitri enfield, 45, he/him, hugh dancy the only remaining enfield sibling interested in continuing his father's legacy. a significant leg injury when he was 25 rendered him basically useless in fights; he's still a crack shot, though. a decent father figure, but not responsible enough to handle the messes he creates.

andromeda vidal enfield, 37, she/her, caroline dhavernas / rebecca ferguson possibly the most well-adjusted enfield sibling. after she left her father's estate, she joined the service; now she's off active duty and remains a handler at quantico. married, then divorced, a man she worked with. she doesn't approve of dimitri's project, but still harbours a lot of affection for him, and enjoys spending time with his kids.

beatrice enfield, 43, she/her, morena baccarin unstable kinda evil wine aunt. nobody really knows what it is she does and she's quick to shut down any attempts to find out. she probably likes dimitri and his kids, but she also thinks throwing unexpected knives to test their reflexes is fun, so it's anyone's guess.

rohan ojha, 30, he/him, dev patel one of dimitri's first children. he sees himself as the older brother who should look after his siblings, but is beginning to realise the limits of his father's ability, and by extension his own. the model grumpy protective assassin old man enfield would have loved. does not get on well with his brother ash.

ash dizon, 31, he/him, manny jacinto one of dimitri's first children. tough to train as a kid; the trouble he caused nearly led dimitri to shut the programme down before it got off the ground. quit to be a boxer. has a soft spot for the younger ones, and loves to push rohan's buttons.

isa yousry, 32, she/her, may calamawy successful graduate of dimitri's programme. something of a passionate bleeding heart but very aggressive about her cause too. lawyer by day, vigilante by night. she is clearly their father's favourite, and her brothers do not begrudge her this role.

kyrie pierce, 26, she/her & emerson pierce, 26, she/he/they, maika monroe twins who absolutely do not get along. emerson is older, callous and dismissive. he ran away to join a criminal gang at 18, returning after 3 years. kyrie is charismatic and calculative, and often acts as her siblings' lure; she always cries while cleaning up the blood.

mitzi morino, 21, she/her, devyn nekoda their guy in the chair. she knows the ins and outs of any place with a working digital system, and enjoys delivering a running commentary in her siblings' ears as she watches them go about their job through the cameras. not even one of dimitri's kids; she figured their situation out and hunted the enfields down when she was 13.

river mccourt, 27, he/him, barry keoghan / paul mescal the other guy in the chair. he likes analysing fight styles and coming up with strategies, not that anyone ever takes his advice. wanted to be out in the field too, but he gets too stuck in his own head to be a good fighter.

sadie almira, 22, they/she, lizeth selene deeply awkward with expressing genuine emotions, but mean comments come easy to them. a great actor, though; they're always the one sent in for infiltration and reconnaissance. an amazing baker.

writer's notes

yeah so this is my umbrella academy take. second generation for more trauma babey! i didn't wanna mess with superpowers this time so i worked with assassins; equally lethal, less supernatural, less ethically inclined. was this incredibly ambitious? yes! was it also fun to do? absolutely.

i made this verse in a way that leaves space for a lot of other characters of either generation, and i would LOVE to have affiliates with it! (mutuals only please)

some fcs i would really like to see in this verse: jacob anderson, charlie cox, emma d'arcy, courtney eaton, colin farrell, gong yoo, kathryn hahn, boyd holbrook, oscar isaac, devery jacobs, lee dong-wook, matilda lutz, cristin milioti, murakami nijiro, keke palmer, rosamund pike, sebastian stan, dan stevens, aaron taylor-johnson, umbrella academy faces, hannibal faces

i'm playing fast and loose with ages here. the older kids probably see dimitri less as a dad and more of an older brother; he did legally have custody of them at some point (except mitzi) so he's technically dad to everyone

i just KNOW beatrice calls him mimi to press his buttons

isa is clearly the favourite but rohan and ash have some sort of a complex going on between them when it comes to dimitri. he sees rohan as compensation for his own failings to his father, while all ash can see are dimitri's failures as a parent. yes rohan does fight big and heavy and ash fights fast and wiry. why do you ask?

yeah isa is just daredevil. i'm being derivative

andromeda is recycled from an existing muse that wasn't really going anywhere

the first gen muses are probably more secondary but i wanted to have a glimpse into that world too, like, what would it be like to be incredibly talented but also deeply damaged from being parented purely to develop that talent? and how would one function as an adult?

while i was casting this i realised how i don't really like fcs that are only from sitcom-type shows / pure drama series because they don't have a range of motion and the framing is boring... lizeth selene is on thin ice for this but i really like their look

as usual assume all muses are queer unless stated otherwise. if anyone had to be straight it would probably be isa but that's boring.

[latent-thoughts]

On the nature of Loki & Mobius' relationship...

I keep seeing a myriad posts where people either make it into a father-son relationship, or an elder-younger sibling relationship, or friends, or even a romantic ship. (I do understand that most of these are in good fun and I like them. 😁👍)

I don't think it's either of those, but there are certain moments where one can see them both temporarily morphing into the above mentioned dynamics.

IMO, their relationship isn't something so simple. It can't be fully pinned. At least, not yet. It's still in its nascent stages, shifting form based on how they both respond to each other and their circumstances.

Loki is in a truly tight situation, where he is still a hostage of the TVA. He knows that his life depends on his compliance to TVA's demands. He also knows that the moment he fulfills all these demands, the TVA is going to disintegrate him, because he's a variant. So he's playing along, going undercover as a nonthreatening temp agent who is willing to work for the TVA.

Mobius is the representative of the TVA who is given the charge of Loki. He is essentially Loki's handler. It's his job to make Loki comply in order to find the rogue variant messing with the TVA. Along with that, he has to keep Loki in line too. It's shown that Mobius is very dedicated to his job. It's the most important thing to him. So we've seen that he is willing to take some drastic, even risky measures to do it. These measures include him stopping the pruning of Loki, him (in his perspective) deradicalising Loki in order to use him to find the other variant, him going to 79AD Pompeii with Loki in order to test his theory, etc.

Mobius doesn't trust Loki... but he trusts him enough to go to Pompeii with him alone, without an official sanction for this little trip. He understands that Loki wants to escape the TVA, or even influence the Time Keepers to get them to change his destiny. He also seems to understand Loki's inherent vulnerabilities, though not completely.

Mobius' feelings regarding Loki are also changing as the series progresses. In the first episode he clearly tells Loki that his role in the Sacred Timeline is to lose and cause pain and destruction all the time. But when we see him talking to Renslayer privately, he tries to convince her that Loki wants this pattern to change, that he wants to mix it up, that perhaps he doesn't wish to be put in that box of a villain. He asks her if that can happen. That's most important clue to Mobius' progressive change of heart regarding Loki. He is trying, within the limitations of his job, to save Loki from the ultimate pruning. Even though he mentions it in passing that he'd delete Loki himself if he creates more problems for the TVA, we can see that he's basically saying that to appease Renslayer.

Similarly, Loki doesn't trust Mobius, but he trusts him enough to fall asleep in his presence. He very deliberately annoys the hell out of him, tests his patience, ruins his salad, etc. Peak irritant mode.

He knows that Mobius isn't going to actively be hostile towards him, because he needs him. Loki genuinely likes it when Mobius is impressed with his knowledge and intelligence; it's that sweet sweet taste of approval that he never really received from either his family or his people. It's especially enjoyable to work with someone when they appreciate your skills and brains. Loki knows that Mobius is loyal to the TVA, but he also sees him sticking his neck out for him, so he recognizes that little soft spot Mobius has for him.

So, it's a tenuous relationship, where both of them may recognize each other as possible allies, but ultimately are stranded on opposing sides. They're trying meet each other midway, but it's a herculean task to do so.

Theirs is not really a friendship, nor is it a parent-child dynamic. There's no romance there, but plenty of bickering, taunting and teasing. There's an element of conspiratorial joy between them, but it never reaches that of a fraternal relationship. Mobius is hung up on doing his job, and Loki desperately needs a way out.

However, what this relationship certainly is is interesting. It's not static or boring; it keeps us on our toes, leaving us wondering what they'll both do next. As the series progresses, I do think that they'll see-saw their way to a more friendly relationship, and I think it's going to be a narratively fun ride.

[5-falsehoods-phonated]

You Don’t Own Me (You Don’t Even Know Me)

Chapter 3

Summary:  As the son of a Baron, Roman Sanders always knew that when he married, it would be due to a political arrangement rather than true love. Still, when he is sent away to marry an older, more powerful Earl, he is determined to make the best of his situation. Despite the Earl’s indifference towards him, Roman forges ahead and prepares to become the best husband he can possibly be, making new friends along the way. But when his fiancé’s demeanor turns from cold to cruel, Roman must shift all of his focus to survival, and find a way out of his marriage before it’s too late.

Ships: Logince (Logan x Roman)  Moxiety (Virgil x Patton)

Content Warnings: arranged marriage, abuse, attempted sexual assault, murder, poisoning, character death, hurt/comfort, angst

Chapter Warnings: none

Word Count: 2689

Read on AO3: here!

Cowritten with @ironwoman359 masterlist

False masterlist

A sharp knock pulled Roman from a fitful sleep, and he groaned, cracking open one eyelid.

“Who is it?” He called blearily. 

“Patton, sir!”

“Come in, then,” Roman said around a yawn, and Patton entered the room. 

“Good morning Lord- Roman!” He said, quickly correcting himself. “I trust you had a good night’s sleep?”

“I've certainly had worse,” Roman admitted, stretching. “Do you need something?” 

Patton nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. 

“His lordship requests that you meet him at the stables this morning for a ride around the grounds. New riding clothes and boots should be in your wardrobe.” 

Roman raised an eyebrow. Three days of near pretending he didn’t exist, and now Lord Howard wanted to take a romantic ride around the grounds together?

 “Very well, I will be ready shortly,” Roman said, then he frowned as Patton turned to leave. “Patton, wait…”

Patton paused, looking back at him. Roman hesitated for a moment, but the housekeeper had said anything he needed...

“Could I...that is, do you know what happened to my clothes? The ones I brought with me, I mean?” 

Patton’s face twisted in sympathy. 

“Oh, um...well, I...” he looked away, and guilt flickered through his eyes. “Mrs. Wakefield, she...she told me to burn them.” Roman’s eyes widened, but Patton quickly continued, “I didn’t, though! I snuck them into the laundry when she wasn’t looking...I was planning on taking them down to a charity shop in town when I could get an afternoon free. It...it didn’t feel right, to have perfectly good clothes like that thrown out when someone could still use them.” 

Roman sucked in a breath. “There’s one thing,” he said quietly, leaning closer. “A cloak, torn at the hem, is it...do you think I could get it back?” 

Patton glanced behind him, as if Mrs. Wakefield herself might suddenly materialize in the room. 

“I...if Lord Howard sees you wearing it, I-“

“I won’t wear it,” Roman promised. “And the rest of the clothes, you can go ahead and give away. I don’t want any trouble, I just...I don’t want to lose it for good.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Patton said, and Roman smiled.

“Thank you, Patton, I’m truly grateful. Now...I must admit, I don’t quite know my way around the estate yet. Would you be able to show me to the stables?” 

Patton perked up at that, his face splitting into a wide grin. 

“I’d be absolutely delighted to!” 

Patton stepped out for a moment to let Roman get dressed, and then he led him through the halls of the manor. Roman did his best to memorize the layout as they went; the estate technically was his home now, and he wanted to know it like the back of his hand. Patton led him outside through a set of double doors set with frosted glass and onto a meticulously kept gravel path. As they walked, they passed by an immaculate flower garden and what looked like the entrance to a hedge maze before reaching what Roman assumed were the stables. 

Lord Howard was already there waiting for them, dressed in smart white riding pants and a tailored vest. Two men stood beside him, each holding the reins of a horse.

“Ah, good morning Lord Sanders,” the Earl called, and Roman bowed his head in greeting. “Come, let me introduce you to my stablemaster.” 

The shorter of the two men beside him bowed. 

“Joseph Acton,” he said. “I am at your service, my lord. And this is Angel, and her handler, Virgil.” He gestured at the taller man, who held the reins of a snow-white mare. 

Roman nodded to both stable hands, then reached out to pat Angel’s nose. 

“She’s lovely,” he said, smiling at Virgil. 

“She’s yours,” said Lord Howard, and Roman’s eyes widened. 

“I- really?” 

“Indeed,“ said the Earl. “I trust you can ride?” 

“Yes, I can,” Roman said. “I- you are too generous my lord, thank you.”

Lord Howard gave him a short bow, clearly preening at the expression of gratitude, and Roman smiled to himself as he took Angel’s reins. This may not be quite the marriage of equals he had always hoped for, but it didn’t mean he was unprepared for his situation. 

A man like Garret Howard had wealth and power to spare, and everything he did would be in service of either acquiring more or showing off what he had. If Roman wanted to improve his standing with him, he first had to stroke the man’s ego. So as they rode through the grounds, he oo’d and ah’d at the impressive landscaping and architecture, when asked how he was finding his stay at the estate so far he gushed about the size of his rooms and the quality of service from the staff, and at every opportunity, he brought the conversation back to Lord Howard, allowing the Earl to not-so-subtly boast about the size of his estate and investments. 

When they circled back around to the stables, Lord Howard swiftly dismounted his horse, and gave Roman a nod. 

“Thank you for your time this morning, Lord Sanders. You of course have free reign of the estate. I have much business to attend to today and cannot be disturbed, but I do hope you will join me for dinner this evening?” 

“Of course, my lord,” Roman said with a smile. “It would be my pleasure.”

Lord Howard snapped his fingers and Acton hurried forward to take his horse’s reins. 

“Until this evening, then,” said the Earl, and then he turned and left without another word. 

Acton gave Roman a quick bow before leading Howard’s horse away, and Roman glanced around. He didn’t see the other stableboy anywhere nearby, so he steered Angel towards the stables himself. As he drew nearer, he finally spotted the tall, dark haired boy who had first handed him Angel’s reins leaning against a fence post and talking to Patton, of all people.

“Virgil! Get to work!” snapped Acton, and Patton jumped, guilt flashing across his features. The stablehand, Virgil, rolled his eyes, but stepped forward towards Roman, ducking his head and holding out his hands for the reins.

“Apologies, my lord,” he said lowly, and Roman flashed him a reassuring smile.

“It’s quite alright, sir,” he said as he dismounted. He glanced up to make sure Acton wasn’t listening, then added quietly, “and you may just call me Roman, if you wish.” 

Virgil’s eyebrows quirked up in surprise, and he glanced over at Patton, who smiled and nodded at him. 

“Alright then, Roman,” Virgil said. “How was Angel for you?”

“Oh, she was excellent. Weren’t you, girl?” Roman asked, patting Angel on the neck. “You deserve a whole barrel of apples for doing such a good job!” 

“I do have some sugar cubes saved back at the stable, if you’d like to give her some,” Virgil said slowly, almost warily. 

“I’d love to,” Roman said honestly, and Patton’s face lit up. 

Virgil nodded to himself, as if coming to a decision, then he turned around, tugging gently on Angel’s reins.

“Come on then, her stall is this way.” 

Roman and Patton followed Virgil into the stables, which housed around a half-dozen horses. Virgil led them through to Angel’s stall, then gave them all sugar cubes and baby carrots that they took turns feeding to the mare while he removed her bridle and brushed her down. 

Roman held out another handful of treats to Angel and glanced at Patton. Patton was stroking Angel’s nose, but the soft smile on his face was clearly directed more at her handler rather than the horse itself.

“So...you two know each other well?” Roman asked. Virgil looked hesitant, but Patton nodded, a sheepish smile on his face. 

“When I started working here, I didn’t know anybody...and, um. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the senior staff can be...”

“Assholes?” Virgil grumbled, and Patton laughed nervously. 

“That’s, um, a strong word for it.” 

“Not necessarily inaccurate though,” Roman said, and Virgil blinked, clearly surprised. 

‘Well, suffice it to say, I had a little trouble fitting in at first!” Patton interjected. “But Virgil was actually nice to me, helped me find my feet, and we’ve been friends ever since!” 

Roman raised an eyebrow; based on the way that they looked at each other, he’d have guessed they were more than just friends...still, he wasn’t about to pry.  

“Pat, it was great to see you, but I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Virgil said. “You should get back, before Wakefield gets wind of where you’ve been.” 

“He should be fine, as long as he’s with me, right?” Roman asked quickly. “Since he’s my attendant, if I ask him to accompany me somewhere, that would supersede any other duties he has.” 

“I mean, yeah, probably,” Virgil said. “Still, you don’t know how Wakefield can be...I don’t wanna risk you getting in trouble.” 

“And I don’t want to risk either of you getting in trouble, so we’ll make sure we keep our visits on the short side,” Roman said. 

“Our...visits?” Patton asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Well, as my attendant, it’s essentially your job now to accompany me around the estate, right?” Roman asked. “It just so happens that I love horses, and taking walks around the grounds, so Mrs. Wakefield can hardly blame you if you end up spending more time than you used to outside the mansion.”

“Oh!” Patton said, his eyes widening. “Oh, Roman, you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to…”

“I do, though,” Roman said honestly. “It’s no trouble. And Angel is a sweet girl who deserves all the extra sugarcubes in the world, aren’t you?” he added, patting the horse on her neck. 

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Virgil said. “But you two should still probably get inside now, I don’t need Acton on my case again.” 

“Okay,” Patton said, quickly pulling Virgil into a hug. “I’ll see you later!”

Virgil looked embarrassed, but he hugged Patton back and waved to him and Roman as they exited the stables. 

“What else would you like to do today?” Patton asked Roman as they headed back inside. “Lord Howard takes dinner at seven thirty, so you have quite a bit of free time until then.” 

“Hmm...well perhaps you could give me a tour of the mansion?” Roman asked. “I believe there are several wings I haven’t even seen yet.” 

“Absolutely!” Patton said. “Follow me!” 

Roman was happy to do just that, and the two of them spent nearly an hour wandering through the house, Patton pointing out various features as they went. Roman’s head spun at the sheer size of the place; it was nearly unbelievable that just one man could own so much. At midday, Patton left him to arrange for lunch, and Roman found himself wandering the corridors alone. He decided to try and find the library again and turned around, only to collide headfirst with someone hurrying down the hall.  

“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed as the person went sprawling, papers flying everywhere. “Here, let me help.”

Roman got to his knees to help gather the papers up, pausing when he saw just who he’d bumped into. 

“Oh...it’s Logan, right? Again, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention at all to where I was going!”

“It’s quite alright,” Logan said, getting to his feet and pushing his glasses up on his nose. “For once, I was not heading anywhere in a particular hurry, I merely intended to take my lunch in the library.” 

“Oh, I was heading that way too!” Roman said. “Or at least, I was trying to find it. Is it alright if I walk with you?” 

Logan shrugged.

“You may do what you wish, Lord Sanders.” 

He resumed his walk down the corridor, and after a moment, Roman followed, glancing around to ensure none of the other servants were nearby before he leaned over and spoke quietly. 

“Roman.” 

“I beg your pardon?”

“You may just call me Roman, as long as we aren’t around somebody who might get upset with you for it.” 

“Is there a particular reason you prefer not to be called by your proper title?” Logan asked as they reached the library, and Roman shrugged. 

“Formality has its time and place,” he said.

He paused and opened the library door, gesturing for Logan to enter. After a moment, Logan did so, heading towards a small table beneath a window, and Roman followed. 

“However,” he continued, “I’ve found it more beneficial in the past to be on more personal terms with members of my staff. Everyone is free to be at their best when they aren’t spending half their energy worrying about decorum.” 

“Members of your staff?” Logan repeated as he sat down, and Roman nodded. 

“So unless you have your own objections, I really don’t mind if you call me Roman,” 

Logan regarded him for a moment, then tilted his head forward slightly. 

“Very well then, Roman.”

Roman grinned, and sat down opposite Logan.

“So, tell me about what you do! Lord Howard called you his business secretary, what duties does that entail?”

“You...want to hear about my work?” Logan asked, sounding puzzled. 

“Of course!” Roman said. “Lord Howard has been...busy, lately, and I haven’t had much time to learn about everything that goes on here at the estate yet. I was hoping you would be able to fill me in, if that’s alright of course?” 

“I...suppose there is no harm in that,” Logan said slowly. “Though I’m afraid you won’t find what I have to say very interesting. My job mostly entails keeping track of paperwork, creating and distributing documents, managing the taxes paid to the estate as well as balancing the earl’s personal finances-” 

“All that, and he calls you a secretary?” Roman interrupted. “That’s the work of a manager, if not a full business partner!” 

“Yes, well” Logan cleared his throat, and shuffled some of his papers around. “Lord Howard would likely benefit from having a manager or business partner...however, he prefers to handle all matters that fall under his responsibility personally.”

“Or have you handle them,” Roman finished, and Logan gave him a wry smile. 

First Previous Next

“Or have me handle them,” he agreed.

“So Lord Howard trusts you, then?” 

“I would not use the word trust, ” Logan mused. “Rather, he knows I am capable of my job, and expects me to perform it to his satisfaction. Much of the day to day of running the estate falls to me, leaving him free to speak directly with other nobles and officials. I give him a report at the end of each week, and we discuss what expectations are for the next week.” 

“Would I be able to get a copy of those reports?” Roman asked. 

Logan raised an eyebrow. 

“Technically those documents are for the Earl’s eyes only. What would you even do with a copy?”

“All my life, I’ve been preparing to run an estate,” Roman said. “And now I’m getting married in six months, but I’m not sure the Earl even realizes I exist half the time. I don’t want to just sit around and twiddle my thumbs and not even know what’s going on under my own roof. I want to actually do something.” 

Logan watched him for a long stretch of time, and Roman wondered if he’d made a mistake, confiding in the man. Would he refuse Roman’s request? Would he tell Lord Howard what Roman had asked for? What would the Earl do if he found out Roman had requested confidential reports without his permission? 

“In all honesty, the Earl pays very little attention to what I do,” Logan said, pulling Roman from his spiraling thoughts. “As long as the numbers match up to what he expects. I should have no problem creating a second copy of my weekly reports, if you truly wish to see them.” 

Roman grinned. 

He had a feeling he and Logan were going to get along just fine.

Previous     Next

[valaks]

Willingly - Deleted Ficlet

The summary: Alex Rider had gone to SCORPIA for answers and now he was back - better trained for it, but a traitor nonetheless. Alan Blunt could work with that. In another life Alex was almost killed outside the bank, in this life his death would take place inside: slowly, painfully and entirely welcome by a boy desperate to fix his mistakes.

“It was a success?” Blunt queried, barely glancing up over the top of the page of the report he was rifling through.

“Invisible Sword has been stopped. Rothman is dead, we believe we located Nile’s remains as well. We’ve stripped everything from their base, it’s being transported to Vauxhall for analysis as we speak.”

“And Alex?”

“He was detained leaving Hyde Park when the balloon landed. I had him brought back to one of the rooms below pending debrief.”

“Very good.”

“Would you like for me to have him brought up here?”

“No, let him sit for a while.”

“Alan he did everything we asked, went above and beyond to stop the operation…”

“Regardless of the end result, he went rogue.”

“I would say going back to the organization he defected from knowing full well he would likely be killed is sufficient to show his loyalty.”

“The attack was against children, he is a smart boy, he would know that he was likely a target of it as well.”

“Alan, I have read the analysts assessment just like you have. We both know he’s on our side.” There was disapproval in her voice. Tulip did not display emotion except when it came to Alex Rider. He should have expected the fight that was likely to come. He would win but it would be no less annoying for it.

“Alex is a liability as he is now - an untrained asset with one of the largest terrorist organizations on the planet after him. He’s been safe so far only through anonymity but he destroyed that when he went to Venice. We can’t keep using him as he is and we can’t afford to let him go.”

“We are not burning a 14 year old.” She said stiffly. Good she took the bait. He would let her argue herself into the answer, “We put him in this position.”

“It would be the easiest solution. We have done it to other agents for far less serious offenses. The alternatives are not much better.”

“And what would those be?”

“He could be sent to prison for his crimes but it would be a waste of potential. But if we let him go as he is he will be killed within the fortnight. Our other option is to keep him here, train him, give him a chance to protect himself...”

“...and keep him primed and ready to take any mission you need him for at a moment’s notice” she interrupted “He won’t go along with it.”

“No, just condition away some of his rough edges. With the right handler he would never even realize it was happening. It would just be a part of the training we put him through.”

“And you have someone in mind for that?”

“Several, but Sherman would be the natural choice or Howell if you can lure him back from the Australians, mentoring his godson might be enough for that. Ultimately the decision will be yours. Alex Rider is useful now because of his age but there is a time limit on that, this would make sure he continues to be an asset, a willing and highly capable one, well into the future.”

“Why me?”

“Several reasons, in several years he will become your asset, the guilt for turning will be stronger when faced with you and” he paused “Alex has a soft spot for you as well, I believe he has shown that quite clearly.”

“Do you have a schedule already for him?” He had won.

“No, those details can be worked out at a later time. For now, Alex will remain where he is. It will give him time to contemplate what his future could be like. Your plan will seem like a mercy compared to what he will imagine, no doubt. I would suggest choosing his handler now. Having them be his sole human contact would be ideal, the sooner the better.”

“I will see that it is done.”

That piece of business handled he moved on “What is the situation in Sri Lanka?”

[in-tua-deep]

Angsty au idea, five makes it back except he arrives dead and only Klaus and Ben can see him. (What happened to his body? Could be that his body got stuck between space time or he drops off as his thirteen year old sib and thats gonna traumatize the sibs probably) (Ig he could have also either died from wounds because the commision figured that he'd be turning and got strained from the time travel or an error in equations)

me, resurrecting myself over here

okay okay okay i’m going to take your idea and tweak it just a teeny tiny bit and produce:

Time travel isn’t viable.

Not the way five travels. Not without a conduit. Not when he’s essentially harnessing all of time, all of those endless possibilities, within the heart of a human being. It’s so much. It’s too much. Five died the moment he blinked away on that street outside of the Hargreeves mansion. 

But Five doesn’t know that. 

He doesn’t notice that no one gives him a second glance when he appears out of nowhere on those bustling streets. He just jumps again, because why not! He’s excited, he’s proving his father wrong, he’s liberated! And then.

And then.

He’s in the apocalypse.

He doesn’t notice that he can’t interact with anything until he touches his Luther’s corpse and his hand goes right through. And then, his first thought isn’t - I died. It’s - something went wrong with the last jump.

Which makes sense to him. He’s managed to get himself trapped on some kind of in-between plane. And that’s why his time travel powers aren’t working! Because they don’t work right on this plane! 

Five wanders the apocalypse, and it’s a little better than in canon because he doesn’t need to eat.

(Oh, he misses eating.)

He’s a smart boy. A brilliant boy. He’s thirteen, and he thinks he’s invincible. But his powers are jumping, and he can take himself apart molecule by molecule, and eventually eventually after years and years have passed he manages to solidify his hand enough to pick something up.

The first time he turns a page in a book feels like victory. 

He camps out in the destroyed remains of a library. Being solid enough to pick something up is... exhausting. He can’t do it for long periods of time. But he has a little stack of useful books, a little pile of chalk, the store mannequin he likes to talk to (he named her Dolores), and a blanket that has seen better days. He can’t exactly feel the ground when he curls up on it, and he can’t really sleep in this messed up pocket dimension or wherever he’s stuck, but he closes his eyes and pretends with all the power of the child he isn’t.

He’s in the apocalypse for a long time, trying to figure out a two-fold problem: how to get out of his pocket dimension and back into the ‘real world’ and also how to get back to his siblings when he does. He isn’t stupid. Time travel when he was capable of it was a crapshoot, he needs a way to get more exact.

And then the woman comes. Pristine and blond and carrying a suitcase. She frowns when she steps over the rubble in heels that click click click and frowns harder when she presses gloved fingers against Five’s equations written in chalk.

Five hides behind some rubble, but gets brave. Gets curious.

(Curiosity killed the cat.)

He comes out, he says “Hello?” and isn’t sure what he expected when she doesn’t even turn around. Five goes towards her with silent footsteps, footsteps that don’t disturb the dirt and chalk dust of the apocalypse because they don’t exist. 

He doesn’t know who she is, but he’s curious what’s in her suitcase, and waits patiently for her to open it. He’s also planning on following her back to whatever settlement she came from? He hadn’t thought there were any people alive, but clearly she is proving him wrong. 

So when she walks away, he puts his hand on her suitcase so that he doesn’t lose her, because even if she wouldn’t feel it putting his hand on her and watching it go through would be... demoralizing. 

And then she opens the suitcase, and suddenly they’re somewhere else. Except not somewhere else. Its bustling with people and the woman’s heels click loudly against the tile floor and someone walks right through Five and he trails after the woman because everyone seems to give her a wide berth and being walked through sucks. 

Someone addresses her. The Handler. That’s not - that’s not a people name, Five is pretty sure. That’s a title. But no one addresses the woman by name, so the Handler it is. 

Five doesn’t know how old he is, but he still looks thirteen. (He doesn’t feel any different, because he isn’t. His growth is permanently stunted, he will always have died at thirteen-years-one-month-and-nine-days-old.)

So he lives at the Commission headquarters for a few years, invisible and a tiny bit mischievous. He can travel through the walls if he wants, so no door is locked to him. He makes himself a little den in one of the vents where he gets a small collection of office supplies that he steals from the assholes as punishment. He doesn’t do anything major. 

He finds out what the commission does. He tags along with some assassins on occasion. He once distracted Cha-Cha by shoving a glass off a counter and breaking it to try and give a child witness time to flee.

(Hazel found her in the closet, terrified and silent with huge glassy brown eyes. He lifted a finger to his lips and quietly closed the closet door. He yelled “Clear!” to Cha-Cha, and then he and cha-cha and Five all left. Five looks at Hazel differently, after that.)

(Hazel has a soft spot for kids and bird-watching diner owners. This is important.)

Five scribbles equations on the walls of the vents. He gets more data every time he travels with the agents so he starts traveling with them a lot, even though he hates it, even though he sees so much death and destruction and he can’t stop it. He helps, sometimes. As much as he can. It’s not enough.

Five finds something, one day, when he’s wandering around. He finds a picture of Vanya, framed. He recognizes her immediately, from the back of Vanya’s book that he found in the apocalypse. They have lots of pictures of famous people around the commission, and lots of pictures of ordinary people. All of them significant in some way to the ‘preservation of the timeline’.

He goes to the Handler’s office, and among her many souvenirs he finds a cracked violin, and he remembers the background music that made up his entire childhood. 

(He steals the violin and puts it in his vent nook. He flips it over and traces the tiny V that’s shallowly carved shyly into the bottom, the same one Vanya has been putting on every violin she’s ever had since she was seven-years-old, after Diego and Luther broke hers and tried to claim that it was just a random violin, not her violin and it wasn’t their fault she didn’t take care of her possessions -)

(Why is Vanya’s violin in the Handler’s collection of weapons?)

Five is aware of something. He thinks the commission has something to do with the apocalypse. They protect the timeline of whatever, right? And yet the apocalypse happened. Which means it must be planned. 

Five has been trained to fight ‘villains’ since he was tiny, and he recognizes a villain when he looks at the Handler’s shiny smile and too long nails. 

Vanya has to have something to do with it. Do the commission kidnap her? Do they kill her? She’s important, somehow.

(Maybe before he traveled he would have doubted that. Vanya was ordinary. Why would she be important? But Five has tagged along on so many missions where they killed perfectly ordinary people in order to spark a chain of events. In fact, it’s almost always ordinary people.)

Five solves one of his equations on a regular, ordinary day. It’s the time travel one. Not the one about his... unfortunate circumstances.

So Five finds a nice empty room, and he gives it a try. He’s not expecting much, since the pocket dimension bullshit fucks up his time travel anyway (though he can still spatial jump curiously enough) except - it works. He splits the world apart, and it’s hard. Way harder than he remembers it being. 

He chalks that up to the whole pocket dimension effect.

He pushes and pushes and then - something breaks. Like ice shattering for a spring thaw, and he’s through. He’s on the ground, winded. He looks up and - it’s them. His siblings. Older than he remembers, clearly the equation wasn’t exactly right, but they’re here and they’re alive and Five can feel himself tearing up and he lets it happen because none of them can see him anyway and - 

“Five?” 

Two voices, overlapping. Five’s head snaps over, eyes wide with shock and alarm and - 

It’s Klaus and Ben. Both staring at him, equal alarm and shock in their eyes.

“You can see me?” Five demands loudly, patting at his body frantically. Is this it? Did he kill two birds with one stone? Did coming back undo whatever bullshit he put his body through - ?

“Klaus, why would you say that.�� Allison scolds automatically, “That was in poor taste.”

Five looks at her, and her eyes scan straight over him, in the way that’s been familiar for - for - 

(Five didn’t bother to keep track of the years. Not when he was unaffected by time, by seasons, by weather. What was the point?)

Five’s eyes snap back to Klaus’s, who hasn’t taken his eyes away. It’s weird, Five thinks absently. His skin crawls under the attention, not used to it.

(Isn’t that strange, in a boy who used to demand attention with every breath he took? Isn’t that odd?)

There’s a hand on his arm and Five just about jumps out of his skin, whirling around and flailing and - oh look, that’s Ben on the ground, looking absolutely shocked. Five is also shocked, because he hasn’t been touched in - in forever. 

“Ben?” Five half-asks, voice smaller than he’d like with a tremble that he kind of wants to kick in the gut. 

“Five.” Ben responds, kind of sounding like he’s been punched in the chest. Actually he might have been, Five was never very gentle when it came to removing his limbs from others grasps.

“Well!” Klaus says loudly, making Five and Ben look over. “If the crisis is over, and we’ve lost a perfectly good fire extinguisher to the void, i’m going back inside!”

Klaus gives Ben a significant look as he turns on his heel and marches back in, and Ben winces. “Come on,” He whispers to Five, getting up and brushing himself off. “It’s better to talk when no one else is around.”

Ben hesitates, and Five hasn’t spoken to anyone but himself in a very long time. It’s been even longer since - well. And Ben looks so lost all of a sudden, that it’s really for Ben’s benefit when Five takes Ben’s hand in his own and tugs him in the direction of the mansion, “Well get a move on.”

Ben looks like he’s about to cry, looking at their joined grip, but nods and leads Five into the building. He gives Five’s hand a squeeze, as though making sure he’s real, and Five allows it gracefully.

Finally, they’re tucked into Klaus’s bedroom, Klaus sprawled across the bed and staring at Five like he’s something entirely alien.

“I don’t understand.” Five says, because the silence is getting awkward. “How come you guys can see me, but the others can’t?”

And Five is very confused when Ben’s face just - crumples. He looks like he’s about to cry. And Klaus, the contrary bastard, starts laughing, just a tiny bit hysterically.

“Take a guess shortstack.” Klaus wheezes out, “What’s my power?”

It’s seeing the dead, of course. But Five isn’t dead he’s just - in between. Right?

Besides, there’s a glaring flaw in Klaus’s theory.

“Uh, Ben can see me.” Five points out, lifting his and Ben’s conjoined hands where Ben’s grip is actually getting a little bit painful.

But isn’t a good kind of pain. Five hasn’t felt pain in - equally long. 

Klaus’s laughter cuts off and Ben makes a noise like a squeaky toy that’s been stepped on. “Yeah,” Klaus says, uncharacteristically serious, “Well. You missed a lot, kiddo.”

“Ben’s not dead.” Five protests, because he’s not. Five can see him. He’s right there, and he’s never had Klaus’s powers. He turns to Ben and - 

Ben envelops him in a hug, a tight one. The kind that Five would never have allowed unless absolutely necessary before he’s left, but now just sort of - melts into. It’s the pressure of it, honestly. Ben’s a good hugger.

“Five I’m so sorry.” Ben whispers, pressing his face against Five’s hair. It tickles a little, where Ben breathes out. “I’m so, so sorry.”

He pulls back, and brushes trembling fingers against Five’s hair. “Five, Five. Haven’t you - haven’t you wondered why you can’t - Five. You’re still - it’s been so long and you’ve been alone and - ” Ben breaks into sniffles.

“I’m just stuck.” Five says blankly, trying his best to process, “I’m just - I jumped wrong, and I got - I got stuck in between. I’m not - I’m not dead.”

“You’re deader than a doornail, kiddo.” Klaus interjects loudly.

Five, never one to take that lying down, untangles himself from Ben just enough to pick up a knicknack and hurls it at Klaus’s head with a scowl. “I’m not a kid.”

Except now they’re both staring at Five again, even as Klaus presses a hand against his forehead where Five had whalloped him (his aim was a good as ever, clearly).

“How -” Ben stutters, staring between Klaus and Five with alarm.

Klaus sputters as well, “What the fuck! How did you do that!”

“Well you see, Klaus.” Five says, voice toxic with the sweetness he exuded, “When someone leans down, and picks something up, they can exert a force on it. This force interacts with other forces to form the trajectory of an object - ”

“Not that!” Klaus sputters, “You picked something up!”

“Yeah, that happens sometimes.” Five says dryly.

Ben prods him in the side, making Five look over (up, if we’re being technical. Grown-up Ben is... kind of tall, actually. Compared to Five.) “How did you do that?”

And Five isn’t dead. He isn’t. But - he remembers the early days. How terrifying they were. How he couldn’t interact with the world around him at all. And if Ben is going through the same thing - “It... it took me a while to figure out. Um. It’s - it’s kind of hard to explain? Because like, when I jump it’s - it’s kind of like taking myself apart and then putting myself together somewhere else. And it’s like, like taking that feeling, except instead of putting yourself together somewhere else you like, layer it over yourself as you are? Like, making yourself denser somehow, I dunno.”

“If you can do it, then I can, too.” Ben says ferociously, a determined glint in his eyes. “I’ll finally be able to throw things at Klaus when he’s being an idiot.”

“Hey!” Klaus protests, looking very offended.

This is all very nice, but Five did come here with a mission... so he tugs at Ben’s arm. “Ben, what’s the date?”

Ben shrugs, because why should the dead care about the date? He looks at Klaus. Klaus looks like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Um.” Then he brightens, “Right!” He grabs something from his pocket, it’s rectangular and flat. There were lots in the apocalypse, though Five has never figured out their functions. Except when Klaus clicks his, it lights up. 

“Uh, March 24th.” Klaus says, squinting at the screen.

“What year?” Five asks, leaning forward.

“2019.” Klaus says.

“Fuck,” Five says, with feeling. “A week.”

“What’s a week?” Ben asks warily as Five flails and untangles himself from his grasp to stand up and pace.

“You don’t understand.” Five says, turning to them both, “I haven’t just - just been traveling the world as a fucking ghost. I time traveled. It worked. But - the future - ”

“Five?” Ben asks, all concern and love and it’s painful.

“The world ends in seven days.” Five tells them both, voice cracking, “There’s nothing but - but rubble and ruin and - and - ”

He remembers their bodies, remembers them splayed out in the rubble. 

“You died.” Five told Klaus, “You all died. The whole world died. Everything was - ash everywhere. I was there for - for...”

“The courtyard scene.” Ben realizes, reaching out as something like comprehension dawns on his face. Five dances back a few steps, his breaths coming in funny little pants. “You came back from - the future?”

“Breath, Five.” Klaus advises, sounding a little bit worries himself.

“If I’m dead why do I need to breath?” Five snarls, and Klaus’s face drops and he curls in on himself a little looking pathetic. It’s enough for Five to toss out a mildly panicked “Sorry” because? That’s what you do right?

(Five hasn’t interacted with people who can talk back in decades and it shows.)

And Five tells them everything, in halting uncertain breaths. He winds up curled up on the bed with Ben’s arms around him, steady as a rock, while Klaus manages to somehow sit in the desk chair in a manner that makes Five a little uncertain that his brother possesses bones and ligaments. 

He tells them about the future, about finding their bodies, about learning to - to condense himself just enough to interact with the world. He tells them about the woman, about the suitcase, about following her. He tells them about the Commission, and how he’s sure they have something to do with it - the Handler had Vanya’s violin - 

By the time Five is finished talking, he’s exhausted. The sun has slipped below the horizon already, and he feels like dead weight in his brother’s arms. At some point, Ben had started running a hand through Five’s hair, and the repetitive motion is soothing.

“That’s - that’s a lot.” Klaus says, and something must have shocked him a little bit out of his goofy persona. 

“I just wanted to go home.” Five mumbles.

“You are home.” Ben tells him, squeezing him tightly, “And we’re going to make sure the apocalypse doesn’t happen. Right, Klaus?”

Klaus shuffles, awkwardly. “I mean. I’m not exactly uh, number one choice for team apocalypse you know?”

“Ben’s number one choice for team apocalypse.” Five points out, flopping his head against Ben’s arm. “You’re an okay second choice though, I guess.”

It makes Klaus bark out a laugh, and Five can feel Ben’s snicker through his chest.

“Vanya’s gotta be on the team.” Five mumbles, loud enough for them to hear. “She’s important. Gotta make sure, make sure no one uh, no one kills her or anything.”

Ben and Klaus exchange a look over his head that he doesn’t see.

“We’ll plan everything tomorrow.” Ben tells him gently, “In the morning, okay?”

“Mmkay.” Five agrees absently.

The dead don’t sleep, but they can get - tired. Being in the living world is exhausting, and Five closes his eyes and just. Ignores the world. Just for a little while. The dead don’t dream, but that’s okay, because Five’s dreams have never been anything approaching peaceful.

Five made it back. He might be a ghost, but he made it back. An impossible goal, and he accomplished it. After that, taking on the apocalypse will be a piece of cake. 

(And if Ben and Klaus think Five is going to give up on his idea to un-dead himself, they have another thing coming.)

[crimson-mage-02]

Spy x Family Mission 2: Honeymoon (Smut/Fluff)

Summary:  Loid wanted to go on a family outing with his daughter and wife until he was asked to go on a mission and had Yor to come along on their new mission to save newly wedded brides on their honeymoon.

A/N: This is my Christmas gift for @kadhis-stuff!! This is for you! I also posted this in Ao3! I had so much fun writing this fanfic of Loid and Yor! I really, really, really, hope you’ll like this! Please forgive me if you spotted any errors. Everyone and @kadhis-stuff, enjoy reading, comment and give feedback! 

Merry Christmas and and stay safe! 

Anya was walking along the path with her adoptive father, Loid was following her on the way home and listened to her talking excitedly about how she’ll spend her time with her uncle Yuri and Franky. He wished they wouldn’t teach her anything that was unnecessary unlike the last time they had taught her how to handle a knife and a gun.

But luckily it was a plastic knife. Much to his relief, he chuckled remembering Yor was teaching her hand to hand combat before attending the Eden academy. He didn’t really say anything much, but right now, he finds it cute. “Papa!”

“Ah, yes, Anya?” Loid looked down at her with a smile.

“Is Mama coming home to cook dinner with us?” Anya asked him as she tugged in his pants.

“Mama will be coming home a bit late and we’ll be cooking dinner together. How does that sound?” Loid asked her.

“Mmm, yeah!” Anya smiled brightly as they walked in hand in hand together on their way home. When they got home, they immediately got started with preparation of making dinner while Yor comes home from work.

It has been months since he and Yor have become an official married couple. He loved spending everyday with her and their daughter Anya. He definitely will not abandon them as he loves them so much. He vowed to protect the two of them. “Anya, get changed and wash your hands.”

“Okie!” Anya saluted with Bond licking her face. She ran into her room to get changed while Loid had changed as well and gave some dog food for Bond in the corner near the new table they had bought. Franky and Anya both had promised they won’t be destroying another table ever again.

He had started some buttered chicken with some sauce while hearing Anya was running towards him and hugged his legs. “Oh, Anya. You ready? Here, you start by stirring the soup.” He gave her a spoon to use to stir while he cuts the meat and then put them into the soup.

At 5pm, when the sun had set and it was dark, Yor came home tired with a worn out look on her face. “Oh no! Mama!” Anya exclaimed worriedly.

“I’m home.” Yor said tiredly as she walked towards the couch and lay down for a bit. Loid turned off the stove and had asked Anya to give them privacy which she complied as she went to study in her room.

He turned to his wife and let her lay on his shoulder. “Tough day at work?”

“Mmm hmm, I have been working so hard. Yet there is so much needed to be done. Oh, how I want a vacation, Loid. It would be very helpful just to relax every once in a while.” Yor said hugging him around his waist.

Loid smiled and then rubbed her back. “I do hope that some dinner would help you relax tonight then maybe I can plan for a trip. Just us three.”

Yor’s eyes brightened and sparkled. “I really do love your cooking. And a think a trip does sound wonderful.”

“Great. I will tell Handler that I will be unavailable for the entire week or month.” Loid smiled at her and stood up with her.

“Oh? Handler is the one who tells you about your missions as a spy?” Yor asked as she helped setting up the table.

“Yes, she’s the one. I think she’ll understand.” Loid chuckled putting the pot in the center of the table. “Plus, she now saw how things had gotten better with us, I think she’ll understand I could have a few days to spend more time with you.”

“I am sure she’ll understand. And I’ll get Anya since dinner is ready.” Yor smiled as she walked towards daughter’s room. “Anya, dinnertime.”

The three of them had dinner together with Bond eating some of the leftovers. They all had discussed what they all had done for the day including Anya showing the art projects she had made in classes.

After dinner, Loid was reading some paper in thinking where he could take Yor and Anya to for their trip. He hummed in deep thought while Yor washed the dishes and Anya was taking a bath. “Loid? Are you searching for a place where we could have a trip?”

“Yes, I am. We went to the aquarium last time. I thought we could go to the beach while renting a beach house to stay in. How does that sound?” Loid asked her.

“Oh, that sounds wonderful.” Yor agreed while clasping her hands together. “I cannot wait!”

The next day…. Loid walked to the agency to request for a few days off with his family. But it wasn’t all he ever had hoped for until Franky had informed he has a new mission on the same day of his vacation with his family. “What? Can’t you find another agent to do this? I really need to spend more time with my family as possible.”

“Sorry, Loid.” Franky apologised to him. “But—But it is a really interesting mission. Just wait until she explains to you.”

Loid sighed and muttered. “This better be good.” They both walked into the office and found Handler was putting some champagne in a basket with red ribbons and some love hearts inside it. Loid gulped softly and cleared his throat to get her attention.

“Oh, good Twilight, you have arrived.” Handler smirked.

Loid’s eyes twitched and gritted his teeth but took a deep breath in and out before speaking up. “Handler, what is it that you want to discuss?”

“Well, I was informed by Franky that you wanted some alone time with your wife and child. Well, I have this mission that involves with kidnapped brides in this honeymoon spot for newly wedded couples.” Handler started explaining the mission for him.

“And…?”

“And you had told your lovely wife that you were a spy and that was not a part of the plan, Twilight. So, I will let this slide and give this chance for you to spend your time with her there to rescue these poor brides.” Handler continued with a grin.

Loid blinked and shook his head. “Wait…wait… are you saying you are granting me permission to bring my wife on a mission with her? Are you testing her abilities as a hitman?”

“Well, yes and no. I can truly see how strong and capable she is, but I need to know that she won’t breathe a word that you are real life spy. Of course, I am granting permission for you to spend time with your wife.” Handler replied as she handed him the basket. “Oh, and I added a few things in the basket just for you as a reward. But before I do let you look into the basket, I am going to let Frankly get you up to speed with the rest of the information of the mission.”

The two boys walked of the office and Franky took out some files for the mission. Loid was really overwhelmed seeing stacked papers on the table, some were categorised and in order. He even looked at the recent kidnappings and the grooms complaints.

“Some papers are growing and growing. There’s a lot of women who are captured. Grooms are getting worried.” Franky said while shaking his head seeing all of the papers.

“Hmm, we’d need to do this quickly. But who will look after Anya?” Loid asked him as he looked through the files.

“I could look after her. I mean, this mission is gonna be for week. You will have time to spend your lovely moments with Yor.” Franky teased him and then sweats nervously seeing his eyes staring at him deadly into his soul. “…Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I am just…. Been so protective of Yor. She has been a center of attention when I had introduced her to everyone here.” Loid said as he remembered every men were trying to get her attention and really wanted to hold her soft hands.

“Maybe I should ban everyone from having contact with her.” Loid continued while clenching his fists with a vein popping.

“What? No! I mean, I am sure she was trying to get settled in. And besides, she had helped us a lot during our other missions.” Franky pointed out.

“True. Alright, I suppose I can let you take care of Anya. But on one condition. Yuri can help out.” Loid said to him.

“What?! Why?!” Franky exclaimed in shock.

“Because it has been months, he had seen her. It would be nice if you two got along well and try to work together to look after Anya while we’re gone.” Loid replied as he got the files in his bags and reluctantly grabbed the basket that Handler gave him. “Alright, I am off and come to eat dinner at 6pm.”

“Good luck, Loid. You may need it.” Franky called out to him as he prepared himself to get to his house and pack up his things for his stay in their apartment. He wished it was just him and Anya, rather than Yuri, him and Anya. He scares him.

(~)

On the way home, Loid arrived early to tell Yor that their trip will be their new honeymoon. And he will tell her about their new mission together. He waited for her at home while packing with Bond watching over him.

“Loid? Are you already home?” Yor called out to him.

“Yes, I am in our room.” Loid replied, putting some clothes on their bed. Yor came in and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Handler was kind enough to give us a week to let us rest up.”

“Oh that is wonderful. I cannot wait to pack everything! Who will tell Anya that we’re going on a trip?” Yor chimed excitedly and then felt his hands grabbing hers.

“Actually, Handler said it was also a trip and a mission.” Loid explained clearly to her as she frowned.

“Mission? What happened?” Yor asked in alarmed, looking into his eyes. Loid offered her to sit on the bed and sat next to her.

“Okay Handler has assigned us to a mission where we have to act like we are on a honeymoon. And our main focus is freeing all of the brides who were captured and reunite them with their grooms.” Loid explained the mission to his wife.

“I see. Then if it is a really urgent mission, then I must pack right away.” Yor understood how important it was and packed all of her clothes including her hitman attire and her weapons. “So, when do we leave?”

“Right after we start packing. I hope you don’t mind, I invited Franky to look after Anya as well.” Loid said to her.

“Oh, sure it’s great to have him accompanying Anya and Yuri.” Yor smiled, getting her clothes folded and placed them on their bed with Loid giving her luggage and heard the bell ringing. “Must be Yuri.”

“I’ll get it.” Loid smiled at her as he walked over to the door and opened it seeing Yuri. “Hello, thank you for coming in.”

“Anything to look after my darling sweet little niece. So, she is still at school?” Yuri asked with Bond licking his shoes.

“Yes, she is on her way with her friend and classmate. Not to worry, she will be here on time for dinner while your sister and I pack.” Loid replied with a smile.

“You two are going on a trip instead of me looking after Bond and your apartment?” Yuri asked in confusion as he rubbed his neck while Loid sighed deeply.

“Well, I am going on a long-awaited deserved honeymoon with your sister.” Loid smiled at him with Yuri’s eyes widened in fear and shock. He knew this day would come! And he never wanted to let Yor be fully attached to this man ever! But he must accept the fact, she loves him very much.

“W-well, I do h-hope you two enjoy it. You really do deserve it.” Yuri smiled while clenching his fist and a vein was popping out while Loid slyly smirked at him. Seeing him crack just for a little bit was so satisfying for him to see.

The door opened with Anya came running inside and hugged her papa on the legs. “Papa, I’m home!”

“Welcome home, Anya!” Loid happily greeted and carried her in his arms. “Look who’s here. It’s your Uncle Yuri.”

“Uncle Yuri!” Anya reached for him with Loid letting him hold her. He let them have a few minutes with each other and went back into his room seeing Yor was putting something in her luggage rapidly as if she doesn’t want him to see.

“Yor? Something the matter?” Loid raised an eyebrow.

“No. No! I am all packed now. Is that my brother?” Yor asked quickly as she left the room to greet her brother. Loid shrugged and then decided to put the luggage’s out in the living room and then saw Franky had brought in a lot of cartoons for them to watch.

“Look, Franky was kind enough to bring in a lot of cartoons for Anya.” Yor smiled at Loid who smiled cheerfully and then looked over at Franky who gave him another file. Loid watched Yuri and Franky were eyeing each other with a glare on their faces.

This is going to be a long week. But all that’s worth, he gets to have some alone time with his lovely and beautiful wife. He also remembered the basket and held it in his hands and placed it on the table. Also putting the secret envelope Handler had given him.

“Anya, I am very sorry that we cannot take you to our trip. But Papa and I are going on a special trip. I want you to be good to your uncles.” Yor said to her daughter with a smile and then gave a stern expression to her brother as he understood that he’ll do whatever he needs to do to take good care of

“Oh, that’s okay, I do understand!” Anya smiled brightly at her parents.

“Also, I left the numbers on the fridge. Be sure to call us if something has happened.” Loid smiled at her as she hugged the both of them. “So behave and listen to your uncles. We will be back soon.”

“Okay! Have fun Papa, Mama!” Anya chimed while Bond barked.

They all had said their goodbyes to Anya, Franky, and Yuri. Both of them went inside the car that will lead to their ‘honeymoon’. It seemed like a quiet place to have a honeymoon. It was nice. Clean air and beautiful sights to see and go to. The beach house looked so beautiful, it has great architecture, wonderful spacious rooms and it is a breathtaking luxury beach house.

“Hmm, I love it Loid, how did you afford this? It must’ve cost a lot.” Yor wondered as she took off her sun hat and put her bags on the floor next to the table.

“Well, Handler handled everything, the money, the activities, the food and everything.” Loid replied as he looked at the papers. “So, tonight, there is a restaurant that is opening on the beach. We should get ready. You have your uh, weapons ready?”

“Of course, but if you don’t mind, I would like to get changed first.” Yor said as she got her dress out.

“Sure, I’ll just wait in the main room.” Loid nodded with a smile. He thought it would be a good chance to go over the mission and look for certain clues where they might be. He had looked through some of the photos but never got the chance to read the rest of the information that Franky had given him.

He also wondered if Yor wanted to go on a real honeymoon. He would love it if he would take her to dancing and take her on a walk down to the beach, then play in the waters. Maybe even kissing her with the sun setting. Sounds like a perfect honeymoon.

“…..Loid? What are you smiling about?” Yor asked him while she fidget with her sunflower dress with her hair down past her waist. Loid blushed seeing her in a beautiful dress and has fallen in love with her all over again.

“Uh… j-just how we are doing this missions together that’s all. Ahem, and that we are on our honeymoon trip.” Loid smiled nervously with a small blush on his cheeks.

“Oh, well, then I am very excited. I also got my weapons ready.” Yor chimed with Loid standing up, smiling at her.

“Alright, we should get going.” Loid smiled back.

They both walked along the footpath, holding hands together and act like they are a real married couple. Yor blushed a little, remembering the moment he had confessed his feelings of love. She was so happy she got to experience in going on a honeymoon.

They had reached to their destination and sat at their table. Loid pulled the chair for Yor shyly which she happily accepted and sat on the chair with him sitting opposite of her. They both had looked into the menu together and had ordered what they would like to eat.

“Hmm, this place does look romantic, don’t you think, Loid?” Yor asked.

“Of course. When we get home, we can go on another date.” Loid smiled lovingly as he held her hand across the table while she blushed bright pink and looked into his eyes until something caught her eye.

“Loid, two men are outside the restaurant. Possibly waiting for a newly wedded couple to come out.” Yor said softly with Loid nodding with a stern expression.

“Appearance?”

“Dressed in black, both in coats with golden and silver watches on their waist.” Yor noted while she play with his hand which Loid blushed yet, he played along until their food has arrived.

“Alright, we have to be on our guard. For now, let’s just be our normal selves.” Loid winked at her while she giggled and began to eat her meal which was absolutely delicious! Yor also fed some of her steak to Loid which he shyly accepted.

“So, do-do you think we could do this some other time? I mean, someplace else?” Loid asked while he rubbed the back of his neck watching her eating her dessert.

“Hmm, I would love to. Oh, I wonder how Franky and Yuri doing.” Yor wondered while Loid whimpered as he was supposed to call them, but they call them now. “You’ve forgotten to call when we got here, didn’t you?” Yor asked, seeing his reaction.

“Yes, I did…Sorry, sweetie.” Loid apologised seeing her arms were crossed and she narrowed her eyes at him then she chuckled softly.

“It is alright, Loid. It’s our first time. So there will be no mistakes next time.” Yor smiled at him while she drank her water. Loid looked on the reflection on the glass, seeing a wedded couple were walking out of the restaurant and heard car wheels screeching from outside.

Loid and Yor both looked outside seeing the bride was being taken away while the groom had called in for the police. The spy and the hitman had paid for their food and disappeared from the restaurant and had ran back to their beach house to get ready.

They were both on a roof top and he had brought in his binoculars to see what they were doing. It looked like there has been multiple missing women inside. He looked to the side seeing Yor taking off her coat seeing her revealing outfit. He blushed deeply seeing her in a halter-style black dress, showing her shoulders. As well as her cleavage. She also wore a rose choker and rose pattern on the inside of her skirt. He also noticed she wore a pair of black thigh-high boots with black fingerless gloves.

And she had changed her headband to a golden coloured with a rose and two spikes coming out each side. “Uh, ahem. Yor?”

“Hmm yes?”

“Is, uh well, you do certainly l-look lovely…. Um, doesn’t make you feel cold?” Loid asked her, trying not so hard looking at her cleavage.

“No. Not at all. I have been trained not to be bothered by the cold.” Yor replied with a smile as she twirled her weapons in her hands. “Shall we?”

Loid nodded as they both jumped off the rooftop down to the warehouse and had heard the men were trying to select a woman which made Yor more furious to hear such crude words that has been side. The spy held her hand tightly to calm her down as he grabbed his guns from his holster.

They successfully went inside the warehouse with Yor swiftly taking down two guards with Loid punched one in the face. Yor gave him another gun to use and she looked over at the women who were whimpering in fear. She desperately wanted to save them badly. She walked around with her husband following her.

If he ever had lost her to these men, he would hunt these men down if they hurt Yor in front of him. His eyes glanced over at the table and he got Yor’s attention as she looked over at the board with her eyes scanning all over the papers.

All of the women who are targeted by these men. It boils her blood inside and she wanted nothing more but to take them down. Loid heard footsteps and then held onto Yor and hid behind a pillar, holding her closely to him.

“Looks like these are all of the women.” Said one of the men.

“Heh, too bad we didn’t get that new bride that came in today at the restaurant. She looked like a real snack boys.” With that comment, it made Loid even more furious. They were thinking of capturing Yor to be one of their……toys to be played with. He cannot allow those men do such a thing to those women or to Yor.

“Loid…. We must get them out of here.” Yor whispered to him.

“Yes, and fast.” Loid nodded and looked at how many men were there in the warehouse. “Okay, here’s what we are going to do. I’ll distract them and then once I got their attention, you take the women out of here. If one man touches one of them…”

“I’ll fight them off.” Yor finished as she went to the other side of the warehouse to try and get to the women. She made sure they all stayed quiet, not to get her caught. She heard some rattling noises and turned to see Loid was the one who was doing it to distract them while he fought off against the men.

“Get him!” shouted one of the men who ran after him outside of the warehouse. But they weren’t prepared on what’s going happen next. Loid side kicked one of them in the face while shot one on the leg with his gun.

Yor quickly got the ropes of the women’s wrists, cutting them free from the restraints and guided them outside until one man grabbed onto him until she twisted his arm and then kicked him in the stomach, sending him into the air with one coming at her with her punching him and swung her golden metal pick and plunged it onto the palm of his hand, making him scream in agony.

“Go!” Yor cried out to the women who were rushing outside while she fought against them. She kicked them hard as she can, sending them back into the boxes unconscious.

Outside of the warehouse, Loid was handling very well fighting against them and saw one man was thrown from the window, he saw Yor was walking towards him while she twirled her weapons in her hands. He looked behind her saw one man was about to attack her from behind. He got out his gun and grazed his arm a bit, screaming in pain. Saving her just in time.

Then they heard the police was coming at their position while they ran into hiding away from the police and watched the men being arrested. Loid was watching how the grooms where reunited with their wives and saw the look on Yor’s face. She was relieved to see them being reunited.

He was glad that the mission was a success. Both of them walked along the beach while Loid watched her playing in the water and laughed when she felt it was so cold. He never knew he would have this type of feeling towards her and…. He was glad that it was her that got him this far to becoming the world’s best spy of all time.

All thanks to her encouragement as well as Anya. He loves both his wife and daughter with all of his heart. “Loid! Look a seashell! And there is a smaller one. I am sure Anya would love this!” Yor beamed with excitement.

“Yes, I am sure she will love it.” Loid smiled lovingly as he caressed her cheek softly with the stars sparkling in the reflection of her eyes. He gently touched a strand of her hair and then kissed it while she blushed deeply red. She was glad that it was night time, so he won’t be able to see it.

Loid’s eyes stared into her red eyes, he was looking at the most beautiful assassin he has ever seen. He leaned in and kissed her passionately as they fought for dominance with Yor reciprocating the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his torso and felt his heartbeat.

They kissed each other underneath the stars as they played with each other’s tongue and Loid felt every bit of her soft curves with her chest pressed against his. He held the back of her head, deepening the kiss.

“L-Loid?”

“Mmm?” Loid moaned into the kiss as they broke away to get some air. He saw her hair was now getting messy.

“W-We should do this at our beach house.” Yor said shyly, looking down at their feet.

“Of course. W-We should.” Loid nodded in agreement, holding her hand. leading her back to their house on the beach. Once they reached towards their beach house, he looked back at Yor who was taking off her boots and took off her shawl and put it on a hangar.

She placed her weapons on the table and looked at Loid who was taking off his jacket and his suit. She bit her lips, thinking back of their kiss on the beach. Slowly, she walked towards him as he noticed she was getting closer to him.

He reached out to her cheek and then they both clashed their lips together and he stumbled against the table with the fake vase falling down. He caressed her cheeks with her undoing the buttons of his suit and shirt, with him throwing it away on the floor while staring into her eyes.

They both breathed in and out heavily and continued making out as they both made their way to their bed room. He gently laid her back on the bed and took her appearance as an assassin and gently took off her headwear. Dropping it on the floor while he rubbed his knee in between her legs, getting the most cute and adorable reaction from her, moaning softly.

Hearing such angelic noise coming out from her mouth has really blessed his ears. He trailed his kisses on her neck while she moaned. She felt every bit of his muscles and kissed his ear softly while placing more kisses on his neck and felt his hands were exploring her curves and her breasts. He massaged them gently.

She arched her body and opened her eyes seeing his blue eyes staring down at her. She covered her face and whimpered. “Yor…are you afraid of me? If you are, then we could stop.” Loid said gently.

“No…I mean…. I am not afraid. Because it’s you. I know you won’t hurt me.” Yor admitted with a single tear rolled down her cheek. She smiled and caressed his cheek, kissing him on the lips, then whispered. “You can keep going.”

Loid nodded slowly while he helped her get out of her attire while kissing her shoulder softly. He laid her back on the pillow as he took her dress off, seeing her naked body while she hugged her chest, blocking the most beautiful view away from him.

“Sorry, this is my first time….” Yor said softly while closing her legs.

Loid didn’t say anything but was staring at her like she was the only woman in the whole wide world. “You…look beautiful, Yor. Do not hide yourself from me. Please, may I continue?”

Yor nodded and put her arms away from her chest, letting him kiss her bare chest and messaged one breast and sucked one nipple, making her moan louder and louder.

“God, Loid, your…your tongue…feels great! Ah!” Yor exclaimed and gasped softly in pleasure, tilting her head back on her pillow and gripped onto the sheets. Loid switched breasts as he bit softly, making her moan even more louder. He massaged them at the same time while watching her reacting to his warm touch.

He felt her hands were squeezing his arms softly and reached up to his strong biceps. His hands caressed her body while she caressed his cheek and she got up on her elbows to kiss him softly on the lips while his hand trailed all the way to her thighs.

He kissed her neck while she played with his blonde locks and then laid her back down again while trailing kisses on her chest, to her belly then went to explore her clitoris. But she covered it with her hands and whimpered.

“Yor…you don’t have to hide away from me. As I said, you are stunningly beautiful. A-and I cannot wait any longer, you are driving the world’s greatest spy crazy.” Loid smirked, licking his lips while she rubbed her thighs together before she lets him take off her underwear and started licking it gently and slowly.

“Ahh! Loid….t-that’s feels so good! More!” Yor moaned as she held onto the sheets in her hands tightly. He licked her more roughly while he squeezed her thighs as she moaned. She watched him getting up and wiped his mouth until he put one finger in her. She screamed and moaned, humping into his hand while he was exploring her folds.

“How does that feel, Yor?” Loid asked softly while he held her hand.

“It feels so…ah!” Yor whimpered, feeling two fingers in her now. She thrusted herself in his hand. She cannot take it anymore as she wanted more of him…him inside of her. “L-Loid?”

“Do you want me to stop?” Loid asked, thinking she doesn’t want to go bit more further.

“No. I do not want you to stop. It’s just did you bring a c-condom? Protection?” Yor asked, looking away from him, covering her mouth.

Loid looked at her in confusion then remembered something. He went to the basket Handler gave him earlier and grabbed the bag filled with little squares, had something in there. Now he gets it now. These are the condoms Yor had mentioned. “These are it…right?” Loid shown her the condom in his hand.

He saw her looking at him lustfully with her eyes shining brightly. She nodded and stood on all fours, watching him taking off his pants and saw his dick with her eyes widening in shock, seeing how big he is. He put the condom aside and he caressed her cheek as she looked at his dick, she gently touched it. She has never done this before but never wanted to disappoint him.

So she took the risk and licked the tip softly hearing him groan softly. She put her hair behind her ear as she sucked all of his dick while he tilted his head back, feeling such a great pleasure. He never felt anything like this. “Ahh, Yor!”

A muffled scream escaped as she pulled away from his dick, seeing more of his juice spilling out while she gulped, taking it all in. She breathe out while looking up at Loid in his eyes. He took a cloth in his hands and wiped it all away.

Loid decided it was time to put on the condom. He put it on and turned to see Yor was opening her legs open for him. Once he was ready, he was rubbing his dick against her, making her whimper and twirl her hair.

Then he thrusted his cock into her as she moaned while he grunted, burying his face onto neck. She held him tightly, both panted heavily. “It…. doesn’t hurt?” Loid asked her quietly.

“No, please do keep going.” Yor replied seductively against his ear as he started to thrust into her, in a perfect rhythm. She loved the sensation she was feeling. She made eye contact with Loid, locking into each other’s eyes before they both kissed each other passionately.

Loid thrusted in her more roughly and held her hands with her legs wrapped around his waist. In no time, he would cum. He stopped while putting one leg up on his shoulder and thrusted slowly into her before doing it roughly.

She moaned louder and louder, holding his arms. How she loved it! She arched her body, feeling something was happening and screamed out loud with Loid holding her body down onto the bed, coming into the condom. He set her leg down and collapsed on her chest, panted heavily while she held him tightly in her arms with a smile.

(~)

Loid and Yor both laid down on their bed with content smiles on their faces, she was leaning on his chest with their legs tangled with each other underneath the sheets. He had his arm around her while staring up at the ceiling with a smile on his face.

He really did it. He made love to the love of his life! But he wondered if she thought he was bad at it and that she would regret it. “Loid?”

“Y-Yes?” Loid saw her getting up and laid on top of his chest.

“Thank you. I mean for this honeymoon, mission, going out for dinner and well… this.” Yor smiled lovingly, creating circles on his chest. “I really enjoyed it. Including the sex part.”

“You’re welcome. I am glad that was successful.” Loid chuckled, brushing her hair out of the way to see her face clearly. “I hope I wasn’t all that bad.”

“Loid, no, no. Y-you were amazing, I must say.” Yor blushed softly while getting up a bit and kissed him softly on the lips. “If we ever do get another chance doing this, we could ask Franky and Yuri to look after Anya again.”

“Of course, I called Franky, she’s asleep now.” Loid smiled at her while she laid her head back down on his chest. “If we are going to do this again…we might need more condoms. I believe we already used them all that Handler gave us.”

Yor giggled, remembering how many times they had done it and it was an amazing night of her life. She got to experience it with the man she truly loves. “I believe so.”

Few Days Later

Loid and Yor came back home to their house with happy and content smiles on their faces and opened their door. “Anya, we are home!” Loid announced until he heard snoring from the living room.

“Aww, how cute, Loid, look!” Yor squealed softly with Loid going in the living room and then gasped softly seeing the big mess right in front of them. But then smiled seeing their daughter sleeping in Yuri’s arms with Franky hugging a pillow in his arms, sucking his thumb.

Loid snickered as he decided to take a photo of them and try to at least tease his brother-in-law and his friend. Maybe show it to the entire agency. “This will be in the history photo albums. I shall show this to everyone in the agency.”

Yor giggled at his antics. It was rather cute to see him all loosened up after doing their missions. She has been blessed to share such a blissful honeymoon with him. It was the best night of her life. She hugged him around his waist with him looking behind to see her smiling.

“Let’s fix up some breakfast and wake them up. We need to report this to Handler.” Loid smiled at her.

“Of course.” Yor smiled brightly while walking towards her daughter and younger brother. Loid could still see she was still a bit sore and wobbly in the legs. But nonetheless, he enjoyed it.

He put the suitcases near the table and watched Anya hugging Yor tightly with Yuri while Franky came hugging Loid tightly. “I am so glad you are back from your honeymoon!”

“Yes, yes, I am glad I am back and what have you done to our house?!” Loid hissed at him grabbing the collar of his shirt. He gulped fearfully and then looked back at the mess in the living room, seeing every packet of candy and chips everywhere, including some crumbs.

“Um… well, that was a very long story.” Franky chuckled nervously at his friend.

“This will be the last time you’ll be babysitting Anya in here. Instead, we are getting her to stay at your place.” Loid whispered.

“Yuri, thank you so much for looking Anya.” Yor smiled at her brother.

“It was no problem. I love my little darling niece with all of my heart.” Yuri smiled warmly at his niece. If anyone has the desire to hurt my niece, I shall shove my gun at their heads and shoot them myself.

Anya was shocked to hear that in her mind and immediately hugged her mother’s leg. “Aw, she missed her parents a lot. I do hope you enjoy your trip.” Yuri hoped as he grabbed his bags. Yor awkwardly looked at Loid who was drinking some water with droplets of sweat falling down from his forehead.

“It was…we have the greatest time of our lives.” Yor chuckled while hugging Yor in her arms.

“Oh, that’s great!” Franky exclaimed, happy for the two. “Now can we go now?”

At the agency, Loid and Yor had left Anya in the care of Franky again while they had talked to Handler. Loid and Yor were standing in front of her desk while she smiled at the two with a grin. This irritated the spy so much he knew how much she was going to tease him.

“Well, well, Twilight, I hope you enjoyed your honeymoon with Yor. I heard the mission was a success. And thank you, Yor for helping us out.” Handler smiled at her.

“Oh, no. thank you. I really do love helping you with your missions. Especially with Loid’s. I am more than happy to work with you again.” Yor blushed bright pink.

“Happy to hear that.” Handler smiled at her. “Loid, you are one lucky guy to have her. Never let her go. You understand?”

Loid smiled at his wife lovingly and held her hand, intertwining their hands together. “I am not planning on letting her go.”

The couple said their goodbyes to Handler and walked back into the hallway to get to Anya with smiles on their faces. Yor saw Anya was running up to them and held out her hands to her with Loid watching with a smile. He got the family has he never thought he would have, and he loves both of his girls and had promised he’ll never leave them.

[jlalafics]

I’m clearly on a dessert kick at the moment ... how about Everlark chancing a moment alone at an event on the tour to enjoy some sort of treat they found/generally check in with each other and have a breather (or some variation or that — supportive Everlark moment alone on the tour) (I mean they do get caught trying to sneak away a lot, maybe sometimes they succeed)

Hope this satisfies your dessert craving! Thanks @rosegardeninwinter for the prompt!

______

District 5

It’s far into the evening when there’s a quiet knock on the door.

God, I hope it’s not Effie coming to complain about my lack of enthusiasm during the most mind-numbing speech in all of Panem. I don’t know how she comes up with these words, sometimes.

Pressing the door button, it opens and instead of an irate Effie, I find Peeta.

He looks me over. “You were really going to go to sleep?”

My gaze goes to his dark pants and heather-green long-sleeve. He’s also holding a brown leather jacket with a wool collar. “And you aren’t?”

“No. Get dressed,” Peeta urges. “I want to show you something. Wear something that’s not too obvious.”

“I guess my fuchsia sequin dress is out of the question,” I retort.

“Very funny. Hurry up, won’t you?”

“Fine.” I yank him into the room and Peeta looks surprised. “You can’t stand in the hallway waiting for me. Everyone thinks we’re engaged, we’ve probably since each other in various stages of undress.”

“Right,” he manages to sputter out.

I find myself grinning as I look through my closet, pulling out a simple navy-blue dress and a cropped jacket. Quickly, I pull my shirt over my head and shimmy out of my lounge pants.

Behind me, Peeta is quietly whistling to himself, probably avoiding the fact that I’m practically naked in front of him.

What a gentleman.

There are times, however, when I wish he wouldn’t be. When I wish we could recapture the hunger that had welled up inside our cave. Some nights on this train, I find myself replaying those kisses in my mind over and over—

“You okay?” I look over my shoulder to find Peeta watching, his eyes darker than I have ever seen them. I recognize that want in them. “You spaced out for a moment.”

I quickly pull the dress on and pull on the jacket. Finally, I bend down and pull out a pair of sturdy boots.

“I’m ready,” I declare.

“You look nice,” Peeta replies with a soft smile. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

++++++

We find ourselves in a village. The buildings are tall with cone roofs and painted in muted primary colors. Some have stone walls. As we walk through the village, the hand that isn’t grasping Peeta’s reaches to touch one of the stones. It makes sense as we are close to the mountains; it must be their primary resource for building material.

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask as Peeta looks around, his eyes searching the street signs.

“One of our handlers mentioned this one place…” We make another turn and his blue eyes brighten. “There!”

We go to where a small crowd hangs around a…bakery.

This isn’t like Peeta’s bakery as there are wide glass windows displaying trays of baked goods. Inside there are a few tables where the townspeople sit and lounge. It looks cozy and inviting and I find comfort in seeing people living their everyday lives, enjoying time to just be together.

It’s hard to feel like that when you’re on a never-ending train ride.

“Do you see anything you like?” Peeta asks me as we stare at various trays in front of us.

“I really don’t know,” I say. “Why don’t you pick for me?”

Together, we step inside and the noise ceases. I try to ignore the shocked expressions as Peeta leads me to the front counter.

All charm, Peeta gives the older woman with snow white hair a smile. “Hello. Francis recommended your bakery—”

“I’m flattered, Mr. Mellark,” the woman replies kindly. “My name is Mary. What can I help you with?”

“Peeta, please.” He turns to me. “Katniss and I have a limited knowledge on dessert pastries. What would you recommend?”

The woman beams at us. “Well, we are known for our eclairs—”

“I’ve heard about them!” Peeta says excitedly and I smile at his enthusiasm. He’s been so upset with me and I’ve given him several reasons to be. For the first few days of our trip, we avoided each other. However, Peeta has brought me with him on this jaunt so we can get out of our gilded cage for an evening. It is the faintest shimmer of forgiveness and I will take it. “May I see?”

The woman goes to one of the display cases and, taking a smaller tray on the counter, grabs a pair of tongs to pull out some eclairs. She returns, placing them in front of us.

There are two eclairs in front of us, both oblong-shaped, but one has a dark glaze on top and the other a lighter brown.

“This one is a chocolate éclair.” Mary points to the darker one. “And this one is maple. Both have cream filling and both are delicious.”

Peeta nods and turns to me. “I’m convinced. Katniss?”

I muster up a smile. “I trust you…but we don’t have money—”

“I’ve got it,” Peeta tells me.

“They’re on the house,” Mary insists, and she turns to me. “When I saw you with Rue…my heart just broke for you.”

My eyes fill and I’m barely aware as Peeta puts an arm around me.

Rue never had the chance to live, to be able to see any place but her hometown or even try an éclair. These are such little life moments, but they feel bigger since she nor any of the other fallen tributes will ever experience them. My chest burns at the thought.

“Why don’t I buy two more?” Peeta suggests gently. “Let’s enjoy them for the people who couldn’t.”

++++++

We find ourselves in a garden, entering through an archway that looks like the one in front of Victors’ Village back in 12. Peeta finds us a bench that overlooks the whole garden and from the far distance I can spot the shadows of the mountains that tower over the town.

“Wow, this really is beautiful,” Peeta says as we sit down. “Francis made great recommendations.”

“When do you even have a chance to speak to the handlers?” I ask curiously as he opens the paper bag.

“While Effie is lecturing you to smile and stuff, I get to talk to them,” he explains. “I mean the handlers are here to welcome us and someone has to extend their gratitude. We’re Victors, but we’re not going to be jerks about it. They love to talk about their District and Francis just happened to be a chatty one. He’s the one who told me that this is a great date spot.”

A date?

I’m confused for a moment. Is this what this is?

“I’ll give you the chocolate one,” Peeta tells me. “Just don’t eat all of it.”

I’m so flabbergasted by what he’s just said that I reach for the éclair, holding it at both ends and readying myself to take a bite in the middle.

Peeta chuckles lightly. “It’s not a sandwich.” He rotates it so one end is facing me. “Go ahead.”

Tentatively, I take a bite.

The pastry is light, and the chocolate glaze gives it sweetness. I’m amazed at how well the slight buttery taste of the pastry mixes perfectly with the heaviness of the chocolate. The cream is sweet and airy but messy. I find myself licking the excess off the sides of the éclair and along my lips.

“Wow,” Peeta says, his face slightly crimson but the smirk is evident on his mouth. “That’s an image that I’m going to remember for the rest of life.”

I smack his arm. “I’m new at this!” He laughs as I put the éclair back on its wax wrapping. “Peeta?”

He’s already polished off his maple éclair—gluttonous boy. “Hmm?”

I adjust myself in my seat. “Have you ever been on a date?”

“I’ve gone with my brothers and some girls on a group thing,” he replies carefully. “It’s more like I tagged along to make it even. Why?”

“Then how do you know this is a date?”

“I asked you to come out, you got semi-dressed up, I paid for the meal, and took you to what some people might consider a romantic spot.” Peeta turns to me, his eyes warm. “So, yes—according to my brothers, this would be considered a date.” His eyes look off in the distance towards the mountain and I hear his quiet sigh. “Were your dates with Gale different?”

Gale has never asked me to go anywhere but to the woods or maybe to the market. I wear what I usually wear; my father’s jacket and my hunting clothes. Not like Gale’s ever offered, but I pay my own way…and we’ve never really gone anywhere remotely intimate. The thought alone makes me wince slightly.

Clearing my throat, I respond. “Um…I’ve never gone out with him like this.” Peeta turns to me, his eyes hopeful. “So, I guess this is…a…date.”

Peeta nods and I look around at the magnificent garden around us as we sit in content silence. Quiet moments like this are rare, but we take what we can. I breathe in the cool air, hearing the slight whistle of the wind between the mountains and let myself relax for a second.

His hand covers mine and gives it a squeeze. I know he feels it, too.

There’s a shift in the air; something wildly intimate is happening between us. Something that neither of us can really explain. It’s new territory which can be scary but his hand in mine gives me assurance like nothing else can.

“How are you?” he asks me suddenly. An arm moves stealthily around my shoulders and Peeta avoids my suspicious gaze. “I mean, not counting the whole Snow hating us thing.”

“I guess I’m okay,” I answer. My body curls against his, my head to his shoulder. “And you?”

“I’m on my first date with Katniss Everdeen,” he tells me and I can feel his smile against my hair. “What more can I ask for?”

++++++

It is all too soon when we return to the train.

Being the nice guy that he is, Peeta walks me to my room.

It’s right across from his, but that’s neither here nor there.

“Thanks—” I say, my eyes darting downward. “—for tonight. I think we both really needed it.”

“I agree.” Peeta looks to me, uncertainty in his eyes.

My palms are sweaty because I’m waiting…hoping…that he’ll take that next step—

“Where have you been?” We pull apart, finding Effie charging towards us sans wig and wearing the most garish purple robe. “Do not tell me that you snuck out!”

Behind her, a groggy Haymitch joins us.

Something tells me he knew, but did he care about our one night away from our steel cage?

I’m betting not.

“Then we won’t tell you,” I reply simply. I take Effie’s hand, rotate it palm facing up and give her the paper bag with the extra eclairs in it. “Good night.”

++++++

I’m disappointed.

Not by the outing…date.

There is still a pleasant roll in my stomach at the memory of the garden…our garden…of the taste of chocolate éclair along my tongue…and the look in Peeta’s eyes as he watched me.

Actually, that gives me a whole different feeling.

Going to the closet, I take off my jacket and reach for a hanger—

A gentle knock sounds against my door.

Hanging my jacket quickly, I press the door button and find Peeta in front of me.

“What are you doing here—”

I don’t even finish the sentence before his mouth is on mine. My arms wrap around his neck as we kiss, his hands moving along the line of my back. The heat is encompassing; our mouths connected, breaths puffing against each other, and foreheads pressed. Somewhere along the way, my hands travel down, grasping at his shirt…not quite sure where this will go…nor caring.

“Peeta…” I whisper against his lips.

His mouth moves along my jawline trailing down to my neck. “Yes?”

“I had a really good time,” I whisper into his ear as he mouths the gentle curve.

Peeta kisses me gently, a promise against our lips. “I’m going to take you on another date one day.”

I close my eyes hoping, after this tour is done, he’ll make good on that promise.

FIN.

And we know what happens next.

District 5 is supposed to be located around the Rocky Mountains. I imagine that the town they visited was what was Veil, Colorado and the bakery in the Lionshead district. The gardens would the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.

I’ve never been there, but now I want to go.

Thanks for reading!

[kazbrkker]

Chapter 5: The Way It Was

Chapter summary: Fluff and angst. Price finally makes an appearance! First fight between Alexis and Alex and an interesting revelation...;) & glimpse of Alexis’ childhood. [2404 words]

Warnings: Shitty childhood (mention of alcohol & rough childhood.)

26 OCTOBER 2019, 2200 "Alexis" and "Alex", Codename Aces CIA agents with Urzik militia Al-Raab, Urzikstan.

"What was that?"

Alexis stormed forward, harshly jabbing her partner's back. They were taking the scenic walk back to the militia's base. While Farah and Hadir walked ahead of them, Alexis and Alex lagged behind to breath in the scenes of their victory.

"What was what?" Alex perplexed, cheekily plucking a few yellow chrysanthemums off the road and waving it in her face.

Alexis took the tiny flowers, a warm smile on display as she admired the adversity these flowers had to bloom in a place like this. Then it faltered upon realising it was an attempt to distract her. "You radioed Viper for me. That's against the rules."

Alex quickly brushed her off and walked into the militia's armory, Alexis hot on his trail. Standing in silence as they waited for the room to clear. "Since when are you one for following the rules? What, you wanted to personally say bye to him?"

What the hell, that took her by surprise. Where did that come from? "I only follow the rules to keep you out of trouble. Sorry for caring."

The hardened look in Alex's eye softened, "I was doing you a favour, come on! Viper was outrightly hitting on you over the comms. If Laswell wanted to bitch about it, you could get dragged into his mess." He shrugged and busied himself with removing his gear.

"Because minor flirting is worse than trashy comms etiquette?"

Alex stretched obnoxiously loud.

"No, fraternization is." That stung more than it should.

"That's a bit hypocritical, isn't it?" Spurts of anger gnawing at her rationale incited her to spit those words without hesitation —instantly regretting it. From the nostalgic look on Alex's face, he must have realised they were in a loop again. The last time they had this conversation, it didn't end well.

To put this delicately, Alexis and Alex were no strangers at fraternization. It happened one time after she returned from St. Petersburg, a drunken mistake that Alex agreed. Overtaken by choking wave of emotions —vulnerability, lust, the need to feel safe. It was the first time Alexis was desperate enough to ask for something, and Alex gave it to her. Like moths drawn to a flame, lonely agents like themselves, cut off from the rest of the world, take whatever comfort they can get.

They left that night without ever mentioning it again. Only the next drunken time (clearly not a good drinker) when she accidentally mentioned it —her mistake for assuming it meant... more.

Alex assured her it wasn't. It did some serious damage to their friendship for a while. After a few weeks, everything snapped back into the exact same, best friends and partners for life.

Now, leaning against a counter, she searched for any answers in his eyes. One thought crossed her mind —maybe he was jealous...? Impossible, she deserted the thought, Alex had never been the jealous type.

Plus, what happened was a one-time thing. It wouldn't, or rather, couldn't happen again. Alexis couldn't lose him too.

"Maybe." Alex murmured, refusing to meet her eyes, his jaw clenched tight while cleaning his rifle, the chiselled jawline highlighted from his profile. Wide-eyed, the female agent slowly cleared her throat, scattering to form a reply.

Alex's satellite phone rang, breaking the tense silence. Saved by the bell.

Speak of her and she shall appear —it was Laswell.

Alex hesitated, did Laswell really wanted to bitch about it? He was blindly shooting from the hip. The palpable tension dissolved, replaced by a flustered Alexis. His lips pursed in amusement, "Laswell wouldn't. I'm pretty sure she has a soft spot for you."

Alexis was smart, confident, witty, resourceful, strong —the strongest person he knew. Resilience built steadily like a rock, he could write lists after lists. Alex wasn't blind, who wouldn't have a soft spot for this woman.

"This is Bravo 6, Echo 3-1 and Saint, do you copy?" It was Price.

A nudge shook Alex out of his trance. Excited at the appearance of her mentor, Alexis snatched the phone from his grasps. It was a relief to know Price was on the mission too. Looks like this assignment was really bringing her old friends back together.  "Price? Send traffic, Cap."

"Good job, hitting the airbase. Now that you have limited Barkov's air capability, we'll do our part."

"Glad we could help. What's the plan?" Alex replied to his field commander.

"We traced the masterminds of the Piccadilly attack to a townhouse in North London, we'll take care of it. You can put your feet up and rest."

"That is a command I can follow. Have fun, cap." Alexis spoke, ready to end the call.

"Not so fast, young lady. I was at the debrief, I managed to keep you out of trouble. If it was up to Norris, you'd be running laps like Viper. Don't get stupid, Alexis."

Alexis exhaled frustratedly. "Thanks, Cap." She replied in between scowls in response to the burning triumph look from Alex. His hands covering his mouth to muffle his wide smile. By taking his side, Price had inflated his ego unnecessarily bigger.

"But, you still have to run 5 miles for your insolence towards Laswell." Price delivered the ultimatum.

Her jaw slacked. "You're joking. Says Norris?"

"Colonel Norris." Price corrected with a sigh. "Says me. I told you one day that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble. 5 miles. Alex?"

Alex exploded into laughters, no longer trying to suppress it. "Hah, roger that! I'll make sure of it. Out."

The call ended. Alexis had respect for authorities, to a certain extent. It wasn't impertinence, but rather her conditioned nature to bypass it. Coming from Task Force Black —a tier-one task force in the JSOC that didn't even answer to the President, falling into the chain of commands was never needed. Also might have to do with the fact that she started to detest the political bureaucracy over the years in the CIA.

John Price, Daniel Maddox —Alexis' commander in Task Force Black, and Samuel Forbes —her CIA handler were the only ones she would willingly abide. Kate Laswell was also close.

"Is this a bro code thing?" Alexis motioned in between them and the satellite phone, inspecting Alex as he raised his eyebrows in feigned innocence. "Price doing the dirty work on your behalf?"

"You heard the man, he said it was for your insolence."

"Wipe that smirk off your face." She mumbled, trying to use a dirty cloth to wipe his chin but he stopped her. If looks could kill... you know the rest.

"Let's go, babe. I'll time you."

"Aw. How kind." She retorted, thinking how badly she wanted to dig those blue eyes out from that arrogant face of his.

40 minutes later, a very sweaty and out-of-breath Alexis returned to the starting point. "5 miles... 5 god damn miles." She breathed, catching a towel and water bottle tossed her way. The entire 40 minutes was filled with killer glances towards Alex. They both knew the punishment wasn't for her insolence. Price wasn't the type to demand respect for other officers, the man could care less and so could Laswell.

This was an indirect way to lecture her, the brotherhood they had caused Price to take Alex's side. Judging from the glowing delight, this ought to satisfy him. Her punishment attracted a few audiences, including Hadir and Farah, who watched happily with her enemy on the roof.

"40 minutes on the dot. Impressive." Farah shouted from above. Hadir excitedly nodded, showing thumbs-ups.

Past the fourth mile, even her vision started to swirl. Blame the ever humid Urzikstan, it was insane she completed it without hurling. "I don't want to impress... I need a seat!" So she willingly fell on her butt and sat in the middle of the carpark.

They joined her shortly, grinning at her flushed cheeks and breathless words. Farah extended a hand and pulled the CIA agent up, "Steady now. Alex, why did you make her run so much!" She chided, elbowing him.

"Not me. It was Price."

"Keep lying, I'll harvest your toes." Farah gave a weird look at her insult. "All I have to do is look Price in the eye and he's a goner." Alex remained suspiciously silent, but yelped when Farah jabbed him in the gut. As revenge, Alexis smacked her sweaty towel against his tattooed arm, disgusted as he failed to swat it away.

Farah, who supported her to walk, didn't seem to care about her sweaty state. "Farah."

The commander hummed, bringing her inside the kitchen to sit. Hadir refilled her bottle.

"Would you like it if Alex and I trained your people? We can teach them some proper fighting tactics and medic courses. With your permission, of course."

Farah took a seat opposite her, mouth opening slightly before closing, as if she was unsure what to say. Hadir, witnessing this, said with a smile, "That would be extremely kind, Alexis."

A bright glint that could be interrupted as a tear reflected in the commander's eyes. Farah's hand squeezed hers tightly. Eyes crinkling upwards, Alexis knew that was her way of saying thanks.

"Great. We start tomorrow."

The two siblings soon left Alexis and Alex in the kitchen to unload some trucks that just entered the compound. He replaced Farah on the seat, "That is a great idea, Lexi."

Finally, some wind started blowing into the kitchen. She closed her eyes at the relieving night breeze. After today's mission, seeing how Farah's people fearlessly ran into the battlefield was reason enough to help them. Although a good trait, fearlessness can also be dangerous. "I want to help them. We were trained by the best in the world, it would be cruel not to share some of that knowledge."

They sat in silence, feeling the cool air while quenching their thirst. Putting their feet up, as Price ordered. Outside the kitchen, playful insults were thrown around by the pair of siblings. It was heartwarming, seeing genuine smiles and watching them be... normal. It was nice.

Growing up, Alexis wouldn't complain she had a bad childhood. Her dad was an honest man, a construction worker. For a man with such a harsh job, it translated into his personality. Her father wasn't affectionate, but he played a good father by putting a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Her life was normal, up till the very day her mother got into a fatal car accident, then everything changed. It was never said but Alexis knew her father blamed her for it. She only grew up to realise it was ridiculous. How could it have been her fault? But grief knew no sense.

Life waited for no one, years later, her father remarried. Lily was a great stepmother, not conforming to the stereotypical evil stepmom Alexis was so afraid of. Lily loved her, but not as much as her blood-borns.

Loved her, but not enough to stop the drunk shoutings, that much Alexis understood.

Alexis didn't remember much of her mother, only recognizing her face through photos. They looked nothing alike —her mother was blonde and had bright blue eyes, while Alexis inherited dark brown eyes and hair. For a man who held an imperative amount of self-loathing, imagine raising his reflection.

She envied the pair of siblings, even after everything, they still had each other. Seeing them together somehow felt lonelier. Emptier.

"I can hear the gears turning." Alex placed his chin on her shoulder, the action bringing her back down on Earth. She sniffled inconspicuously, pretending to use the damp towel to wipe her sweat. "What's wrong?"

"Why must something be wrong?"

"You're making that face."

Friends for five years, it would be foolish to assume something could escape his eyes. Goosebumps raised over her arms, feeling the stubble on his chin tickling her skin. She turned to examine the man who had been through everything with her. Hell and back, literally.

Alexis didn't know how she could ever live without him.

"Just reminiscing." She replied, a distant look in her eyes while she continued smiling at the siblings' bickering. Alex followed her gaze, knowing.

"The past is the past, Alexa–" Alex almost uttered her birth name but stopped in the nick of time. "Sorry, it slipped." His voice was muffled by Alexis' hand.

"You get my point. What matters is the now, and now you have me."

"I'll always have you." She recited, hands intertwined.

The usual smirk on Alex's face was replaced with a heartfelt smile, their gaze connected meaningfully. "And I, you." He laid a gentle kiss on the top of her hand.

Alexis and Alex stayed like that for a few more minutes, her head resting on his shoulder. Suddenly, a sound pierced through the peace —it came from Alex's stomach. Alexis laughed before tossing him her rations pack.

"Uh-huh. No. You two are not eating that." Farah walked in to snatch the rations away. Their mouths fell open, watching their favourite ration pack out of their reach.

"Hey! That was shrimp fried rice, proper good stuff!"

"Closest to gourmet." Alex backed her up. It was the tastiest ration pack. Alexis even secretly raided the base's stockpile to neat pick the most decent ones —there goes her efforts.

Farah tossed the unopened pack to Hadir, who caught it with ease and wiggled it higher when Alexis tried to reach for it. "You cannot win this war with... that." Hadir inspected it, face twisted with distasteful when he opened it, revealing an unappealing mash of rice compressed into a box.

Farah tugged on her wrist, already pulling her down the stairs. "If you don't throw it away, I will tell Captain Price about your horrible English accent.

Alexis groaned, "If this war wouldn't kill me, Price would."

"Better yet, he'll make you run the miles for real."

Her lips parted with a gasp, pointing accusingly as Farah continued to drag her down the stairs. "So you admit it was you!"

"Come." Hadir pulled away the agent who tried to jump Alex with a punch.

"We will show you the real gourmet."

taglist: @flyboidameron​

a/n: it was my birthday yesterday so i decided we need this fluff.... it's so 🥰. masterlist here. want to be tagged? let me know!

[yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy]

Why So Jaded? Chapter 10

Enjoy. 

Why So Jaded

Chapter 10

Violet woke up to the feeling of the cameras and sensors cycling on and it made her eyes snap open and inhale sharply as she ducked under the covers before they could spot her as she hoped and prayed that it was still too dark to be seen on them but it woke Buddy up.

“What? What?” Buddy asked when he felt her jerk within his embrace.

“The cameras, they’re cycling on, I need to get out of this bed and back into the other one with Jack.” Violet whispered as she clung to his body, hoping that her own wouldn’t be easily seen on the cameras.

“Uh, ok,” Buddy answered as he peeked down into the covers to see her start to turn invisible before he could clearly see his shirt and a pair of underwear.

“Shit, I’m not wearing anything that will vanish with me.” Violet realized as she noticed the same thing and reappeared.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Violet breathed.

“So...what do you want to do?” Buddy whispered back.

“Hang on, give me a second.” Violet urged as she tried to steady her racing heart and labored breathing as she focused on what cameras were cycling on, like a wave through the apartment as she tried to find the rhythm of the cycle.

“Ok, they’re on a wave pattern, they’re about to run over us again, here in a moment, once they pass, I can make a run for it, but I have to do so naked, otherwise they’ll see me.” Violet realized before she froze and held her breath when she felt the cameras pan over them before she finally breathed when it passed before she quickly squirmed to take her underwear off and the shirt and Buddy couldn’t help it, he got hard enough to drill through concrete.

“Ok, when I say when, roll over to your other side and take me with you and then drop me so I’ll be able to get to the floor.” Violet urged him.

“Ok.” Buddy agreed and prayed she wouldn’t notice his bodily reaction to her.

“Ok, in three, two one. Go!” Violet coached as he did as she asked and it felt glorious to feel all of her on him like that, even if it was only for a moment and once he let go, she dropped to the floor on her butt before he heard her scuffle on the floor before her feet slapped against the floors in an effort to get away to his bedroom’s bathroom before the next cycle started as she quickly put on her own pajamas inside the bathroom then pretended to leisurely get out of the bathroom and get back in bed and try to get some more sleep.

Meanwhile Buddy had rolled back over and found her underwear and had it tightly in his fist before he ducked under the covers just in case the cameras were watching and he couldn’t help himself, he had sniffed it and was silently jerking off because he was leaking precum like a river and he did all he could to do so quickly and quietly as his brain churned out several fantasies all at once because to feel Violet press her body against his was heaven and he wanted and needed more and way faster than he was anticipating, he came in a shuddering breath into his own tshirt that she had been wearing so he wouldn’t make a mess out of his bedding and he expected that once he had pleasured himself, that that would have been the end of it. But no. His imagination was sparking into overdrive into a lust filled haze.

Meanwhile Violet was laying in bed feeling her cheeks flush in the darkness. She had felt Buddy’s erection and it had taken all of her self control not to burn all the cameras and listening devices so she could stay and enjoy it because he was packing .

Not the longest erection she had ever felt. But definitely the fattest and thickest. His stocky build hadn’t skipped where it really counted. And now she needed to go back to the bathroom because she had a “device” in her toiletries bag that was calling her name as she slipped out of the bed and stole away into the bathroom before she got her prize and slipped it into her underwear and against her clit and got one of Buddy’s towels and wrapped it around her waist to insulate herself from the lid of the toilet seat as she sat down and turned it on and eagerly began to ride her toy on the toilet seat cover as she wished she could be riding Buddy instead.

Tali had told her, a few times, how Buddy was if anything- a very generous, thoughtful, if not determined lover and had zeroed in- in quick succession all her erogenous zones and after a few sessions, would know just what and how to bring her to her knees in bliss and had simply said he was ‘well endowed’ and knew what to do with what the gods had gifted him with and how he had the range to go from soft and sweet and romantic to bone rattling, star gazing, burning in blissful lust with just a word and how even though he was always a commanding and dominating presence, he didn’t mind getting dominated every once in a while and often let her do as she pleased with him and had no problem submitting to her one moment or dominating her in the next. At the time Violet had been grossed out to learn any of that, but they were sharing a few bottles of wine as Tali had been nursing Luca in her penthouse at Sky Way. Having Tali so close was the only reason Violet had for staying there as much as she did and would be the only bad thing about leaving there. Violet had been lying when she told Phillip that she only knew her as Mirage. Her and Tali had become even closer since Violet moved in a year ago and it was on her Fridays that Violet took her order from Merry Cherry straight to Tali’s penthouse so they could talk, drink and rant to each other about the week.

But right this instant, Violet was so focused on fantasizing Buddy underneath her with his thick meaty hands on her hips, gripping them with almost a bruising grip and letting her ride him with reckless abandon as he pledged his undying, unwavering and infinite love and fidelity to her and only her and how he would never compare her to Tali as long as she never did the same with him and Phillip. And how he would feast on her while making a feast for her and would hopefully eat her out right because while Phillip had a decent dick game, his oral or finger game was lackluster at best and according to Tali- that’s where Buddy excelled because Buddy never really had to rely on his looks or any powers to deliver- and just had to learn and master it the old fashion way- through practice and persistence in his own efforts to overcompensate for his own- what he felt, was his deficits in his natural looks and charm.

Violet finally came in a silent scream as her hips stuttered as she ground down onto her toy as she rode out her own orgasm before she turned it off to keep herself from being overstimulated. Then she removed it from herself and put it back into her toiletries bag before she slipped back into bed and managed to fall asleep and finally get the rest of her beauty sleep right about the same time Buddy had gotten to his third and final orgasm before he finally fell back asleep himself, although that was hard considering, he didn’t have someone to hold onto anymore, after several years of not having someone to sleep next to, he had almost forgotten how wonderful that felt and how grounding and comforting it was and instead he found himself hugging the pillow she had been sleeping on to mimic the feeling of having her in his arms again, it was a sorry excuse for her but it was better than nothing.

It was 10am by the time they all seemed to wake up for the day and staggered to the kitchen before they all seemed to try to make breakfast together before they all gravitated to the breakfast bar as Violet contemplated the previous evening’s events as Buddy did his best to act as natural as possible for Jack’s sake and once they ate breakfast, they went back into the lab to see what had finished processing as Violet looked at her new suit in awe.

“Wow.” Violet breathed as she looked at it.

“So, tell me about it.” Violet invited to Buddy as she sidled up to him and nudged him with her hip.

“Well, it’s a spin off of your current suit in that it is a matrix of nano armor that should feel like fabric…” Buddy began as he got the suit out of the compositor and handed it to her as she looked it over eagerly, appreciating the softness of it.

“But instead of having to wear the suit itself all the time, it can be shrunk down into something of a necklace, like this.” Buddy explained as he pressed a button and instantly the suit retracted into itself and all that Violet was left with- was a very beautiful necklace before she pressed on the large "stone" and the suit reappeared into her hands.

“And the beauty of it, is if at any point- any of it gets torn- it’ll repair itself or if need be- as long as you have one mother nano, which the suit has several- it can regrow from that single mother nano, or even since you’re a handler to an asset with other security detail, lets say- you find yourself on a desert island and everyone’s clothes are torn and falling off, what you can do- is detach a piece that has a mother nano and put that fabric on someone else and a suit will form around them and conform to them and then the mother nano will multiply and divide so that they in turn can repeat that process as many times over as needed. I built it so it naturally monitors the surrounding environment and it’ll calibrate to keep you comfortable, so say you’re in the arctic and you’re only wearing this- well the suit will actually heat up on the inside layer to keep you warm without showing off that heat to any thermal indicators so you’d still be invisible. And it does come with natural sunscreen so you can wear this without worrying about getting a sunburn or anything. Or even wear this in a desert, where it’s 110 degrees and this thing will keep you cool while collecting any perspiration, filtering it and can deliver it back to you if need be. Now when this suit becomes invisible, I made sure to include- infrared, ultraviolet and all the other spectrums that humanity can sense, so that when you’re invisible, you’re invisible - invisible. Because with your old suit, I was still able to sense where you were because of the static electricity, in this one- not anymore. Also…” Buddy began as he told her about the dozens of other features he had put into the suit including cloaking abilities so that she could wear the suit and it could look like everyday clothes and then press a button and transform into the suit or vanish which was also voice activated which Violet thought was amazing and eagerly went into the bathroom to try the suit on and was surprised it covered her head and made her hair into a natural ponytail which she appreciated before she noticed that her hair became like three- not quite tentacles but not quite hands either, but simply like tools that she found she could control with her mind as she practiced reaching and grabbing things and bringing them back to herself, like rolls of toilet paper before she practiced putting things back before she left the lab.

“So? What do you think?” Buddy asked hopefully.

“I’m in love with it, these were a really smart idea, so I don’t have to use my powers to do the yo-yo thing.” Violet praised as Jack came over and checked out her suit, pocking and prodding it.

“How far will the artificial arms stretch out?” Jack asked.

“Anywhere from a few feet to about fifty.” Buddy estimated.

“And I asked him to give your suit some medical aspects too, so like if you ever get injured, the suit will be able to tell and be able to dress and stabilize the wound, it’ll even replicate artificial skin like say if you got a bullet wound. Each mother nano has a medical nano piggy backing it so it will again, help whoever else you have to share the suit with.” Jack explained.

“Aww, that’s very sweet and thoughtful of you Jack.” Violet cooed appreciatively.

“And obviously because you hate heels, I made it flat footed and comfortable so it will feel like you’re wearing sneakers and it should grip really well so you don't slip on anything.” Buddy added.

“I did notice that, thank you.” Violet returned appreciatively as she moved her weight from one foot to the other to appreciate the comfortable soles the suit had.

“And it has a water feature, a few actually.” Jack eagerly informed Violet.

“Water features?” Violet frowned.

“So you can breathe underwater.” Jack answered.

“Oh, sweet.” Violet blinked in surprise with a smile.

“And then, when you’re sneaking into a place that has weight sensors in the floor, you can use...which button is it Barret?” Jack asked.

“Oh for that, you press this and this at the same time.” Buddy explained as he pointed to the buttons on the inside of her forearms before Violet pressed them and immediately felt like she was in a pool as she lifted in the air and started giggling then laughing when she could “swim” around the lab.

“Oh yeah, new favorite features.” Violet giggled when she turned it off and walked back to them as she continued to play with her suit.

“So to get it to look like clothes, where can I change what I want the clothes to look like?” Violet asked.

“Oh, here,” Buddy informed her before he brought her over to a computer as Violet began to pull up pictures of clothes from the internet and “loaded” them into the program and created short cuts in the suit.

“Another way you can do that is simply dress in like your favorite clothes and ask the suit to “clone” it too.” Jack informed her proudly.

“Is there anything this suit doesn’t do?” Violet asked rhetorically.

“That’s a good question, I built it to simply amplify your own powers and I tried to cover all the bases I could think of, considering your current situation and circumstances, which is according to my current knowledge and just building off the genius that Edna had already come up with and I did my best to stay with her styling so that if Edna ever gets to see it, she won’t be offended that you had "a man" design your suit instead of her.” Buddy shrugged because Jack had told him how outraged Edna had been when she had seen his mom’s old suit that ‘some man’ designed a decade prior.

“Yeah, I think she’ll be ok with this, I think your next collaboration should be with her, because I know of at least a dozen women who would pay a shit ton of money for a suit like this with all these features.” Violet appraised.

“Thank you, so much for it.” Violet thanked them as she hugged Jack first then hugged Buddy.

“So what do I owe you for the suit?” Violet posed to Buddy with a smile that hinted at perhaps something licentious.

“You don’t owe me anything,” Buddy shook his head.

“Oh I’ll find a way to make it up to you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go check on something.” Violet said as she vanished in a flash.

“Holy shit I can phase through walls now?” Violet asked as she reached the wall and was able to phase through it and stepped from one side of the wall to the other as Violet outright giggled.  

“You’re welcome!” Jack called out, proud of himself for himself and Buddy to capture his own super power and was able to imbue it into the suit.

Violet made her way to security before she found Nelson just getting off from the night.

“So anything interesting happen last night?” Pike asked as he came into the room.

“Nope, nothing, Violet and Jack stayed in the bed all night, Pine took the couch like a gentleman.” Nelson answered as Violet paused and frowned and became visible and changed the suit to just a normal t-shirt and jeans just as Nelson was coming out of the room.

“Hey Boss, what are you doing up here?” Nelson asked.

“Oh, just checking on things.” Violet answered but the look Nelson gave her was telling as he smiled knowingly at her and came up to her.

“I took care of it, nothin’ happened .” Nelson simply whispered as he stood in front of her.  

“Oh thank God.” Violet breathed as she reached out and squeezed his arm.

“Phil had his own fun last night- he went to the ballet and took home the star, he never checked in once.” Nelson reassured her.

“What do I owe you?” Violet asked.

“If Pine gets to escape SEB, put in a word with him so he can take me with- because I like working with him, he’s a good guy.” Nelson stated simply.

“Will do.” Violet vowed.

“Me too! Pine is awesome.” Pike said as he poked his head out the door from the security room that held the feeds from Buddy’s floor.

“Who else?” Violet laughed as she looked from Nelson to Pike.  

“Everyone, when we were in Vegas, Pine was a class act and obviously still continues to be, none of us have signed non-competes. So when and if Pine ever gets out of here, we’re hoping he’ll want a familiar face to have his back.” Pike answered.

“What if he can’t pay as much?” Violet posed.

“I’d take a pay cut if it meant I didn’t have to deal with half the shit we’ve put up with for the last few years with Sebastian.” Nelson appraised.

“Same.” Pike mirrored as Violet could only nod in agreement.

“Well for now, keep that close to your chest, wouldn’t want that to get out and suddenly you guys would either have to sign non-competes or get fired.” Violet warned them.

“Not that anyone would ever hear anything from me about it except for Mr. Pine but more and more walls have ears these days.” Violet reassured them.

“Understood Boss.” Pike and Nelson nodded in understanding.                                              

“Thanks guys for having my back. I owe you. I better get back.” Violet urged before she went back to Buddy’s lab, disappearing once she was around the corner.

Buddy and Jack had even been working on Jack’s super suit as well as Jack went through his own wardrobe so he could “change” from his clothes the previous day.

“So what did you guys want to do today?” Violet posed once she came back into the lab.

“Can we just hang out today?” Jack asked hopefully as he looked from Buddy to Violet.

“It’s whatever you guys want to do, technically you guys could go home now if you wanted.” Buddy offered but grinned when Violet and Dash crinkled their noses at that.

“Nah, if you don’t mind, we could just hang out with you.” Jack opted.

“I don’t mind one bit, I’d enjoy it actually.” Violet grinned.

“I’d be happy to have you, you won’t hear any argument from me.” Buddy happily agreed before the three seemed to settle in and Violet quite enjoyed just hanging out and seeing how Jack and Buddy seemed to instantly get along and befriend each other and tag team on stuff before she knew it they had come back into the apartment side as Buddy walked Jack and Violet through one of his favorite lunch recipes and Jack eagerly learned what he could from him before the three of them gravitated to the couch while their lunch baked in the oven and Violet happily cozied right up to Buddy’s side and was happy when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they watched a movie and marveled at how natural and easy this was, how it wasn’t forced like how she had to be with Phillip but she genuinely wanted to be near Buddy and how nicely they fit together and Violet was ever so grateful that Jack was not only well behaved but polite and just generally- a really great kid, as the day both seemed to fly by yet Violet got to enjoy every minute of it, which was a welcome change of pace for her.

Meanwhile Buddy was practically tickled pink that Violet felt so comfortable with him and was just casual in her closeness and it was all his strength not to kiss her every two seconds. But he could go slow, technically, had the next few years to go slow. He had time.

After dinner, they found themselves at the table, playing a card game and Jack was throttling both of them.

“At least we’re not in Vegas losing money this time.” Violet comforted Buddy.

“Just my pride.” Buddy laughed as he put a card down and Jack smiled evilly.

“Thank you.” Jack grinned as he picked up the card and put down another three of a kind.

“And one discard, and I’m out.” Jack announced happily as Buddy and Violet both groaned.

“Damn it. I needed one more ace and I could have been ok.” Violet realized as she counted up her points and whimpered when she had negative points to add to the roster.

“How bad?” Jack asked.

“Negative 45.” Violet answered as Jack put that down.

“Barret?” Jack prompted.

“Hang on, uh, 45 plus 55, crap, that’s a hundred, negative 100. And I’m sorry Vi, I had your ace.” Buddy revealed as he let his overflowing hand down and poked at the ace in question.

“And I have….” Jack said as he counted up his cards. “A hundred and twenty five. Yes, I win.” Jack beamed as he totaled everything up, having gotten five points past the 500 points mark.

“Don’t take it hard Barret, they say those that are unlucky in cards are lucky in love.” Jack soothed.

“Yeah, I’m kind of unlucky in both.” Buddy readily confessed as he finished his wine before he got up from the table to retrieve another bottle for him and Violet to share.

“Unlucky so far - maybe your best luck is about to strike, you never know.” Jack insisted before he took another long sip of his Coke and subtly winked at Violet who crinkled her nose at him as Buddy simply grinned crookedly as he uncorked the bottle of wine then returned to the table before he refilled Violet’s glass for her and then his own as Jack reshuffled the deck and began to deal a new game for them.

“Maybe.” Buddy allowed before he looked at his cards but to feel Violet’s knee gently rub against his had him not caring at all that his cards were complete shit. Honestly, just spending time with her, especially when she was happy and pleased with him was all he could hope or ask for.

After another round of cards, they went back to the couch to watch another movie and Violet and Jack both fell asleep, Jack had been laying into Violet’s side as Violet had been doing the same to Buddy and Buddy just grinned happily when they were both comfortable enough to fall asleep as Buddy happily carried Violet to his bed first then Jack as he once again got the couch and pulled out the pull out bed and set it up for himself. Happy and content with himself for showing some restraint.

Meanwhile Phillip finally called to check in on the situation while his current flavor of the weekend lay knocked out in his bedroom.

“Hey, so how did Ms. Parr do?” Phillip asked Pike just as Leland was coming in to relieve him.

“She did great and Mr. Pine behaved like a gentleman.” Pike reported.

“Is she still in there?” Phillip asked.

“Yes, however, that is only because Jack doesn’t want to leave, apparently Jack and Buddy have kind of bonded over Jack’s school project and Jack actually knew the children of Mr. Pine’s company because he got invited to other social gatherings, like birthday parties and such that Ms. Parr agreed to take him to. Also Jack played rummy with them and whipped them both.” Pike reported since they were able to piece that together with the wave of feeds that came in every so often.

“Huh,” Phillip frowned.

“However there was a development, sir.” Pike reluctantly reported.

“What development?” Phillip pressed.

“Ms. Parr and Jack are both working on Dragon Eye apparently and they have brought Mr. Pine into it. So he’s now a collaborator with that project.” Pike revealed since he was able to see that when the lab had had waves of feed as Phillip marched to his computer and got into The Agency’s database and got to see what had been done and felt a flurry of emotions.

The first was jealousy then hurt that Violet didn’t come to him first to discuss this with him. Also, how did Violet think that involving Jack into this dangerous case was a good idea? Let alone Mr. Pine? Then he looked closer at it and realized- it wasn’t just Violet, Mr. Pine and Jack, Edna had her own ‘fingerprints’ on this and so did half The Agency apparently. But he could tell where Jack and Edna had their own work and then Violet had hers and saw how it was Mr. Pine who put it all together and was working several angles that even surprised and if Phillip’s pride wasn’t so hurt- would have impressed him too.

It didn’t take much for Phillip to realize that if he wasn’t “legitimate” and on the right side of these things- he would be treated in similar fashion only because he had similar powers which only reinforced his own belief that he could never be known that he was a Super. But he was grateful that Mr. Pine had figured out a way to protect Violet from Dragon Eye. But that also meant that while she was protected from Dragon Eye, she would be immune to him also. But Phillip felt confident that she no longer needed him to have an affect on her. That her feelings for him were strong enough and deep enough that she would still be loyal to him. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized how desperate Violet must have been feeling about this case to bring them in and he even read her notes- that Violet left on this case that she needed to make sure that he and Dragon Eye never met just in case Dragon Eye would pose a threat to not only herself, but him and anyone else too even though Phillip knew his own powers dwarfed Dragon Eye’s and it should be Dragon Eye that should be fearful of ever meeting him.

“Sir?” Pike asked.

“Thank you so much for your report, keep the wave pattern up and report to me when she and Jack leave.” Phillip decided.

“Yes sir, good night Sir.” Pike signed off.

“Good night.” Phillip answered before he hung up.

“Philly?” Ainsley asked as she lifted her head from his pillow and was reaching out to see where he was in the bed before Phillip quickly logged out of The Agency’s database and went back to bed with her before he cuddled close and waited until she fell back asleep before Phillip stared up at his ceiling. All he needed was a push for Violet before he looked down at the girl laying on his chest and grinned wolfishly.

He was going to make Violet jealous. If he got with the beauty in his arms, that would either push Violet to get jealous, and she would have two options, admit she has feelings for him and try to break him up to get with him and finally drop her 'too dangerous to be together' act, or she could jealousy throw herself in perhaps another man’s arms to make him jealous in turn. Because if Violet- out of jealousy decided to toy with say- Mr. Pine’s emotions because it would only be a week or two before Violet would feel ‘frustrated’ sexually. And even if she vented those frustrations on him, that would only further entrap Mr. Pine. So let her get as close and cozy with Mr. Pine as she wanted to. Because he was still confident that her heart still belonged to him even if Violet didn't know it yet herself.

[downwiththeficness]

In the Blood-3

Pairing: Brasa/Female OC

Words: ~2,000

Warnings: None

Part One

Part Two

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight  Part Nine  Part Ten  Part Eleven Part Twelve

The bed was glorious.  Soft sheets, soft mattress, soft pillows.  Lilah stretched long, arms above her head and toes pointed. It burned in her muscles, pleasing and warm.  When she relaxed, she noted the very low light.  Had she slept with the lights on again?  She wouldn’t put it past her. Turning over, she closed her eyes and buried her face in the pillow. It smelled so, so good.  Like coffee and liquid caramel. She pressed her nose into it and groaned, burying deep.

When she was young and working her first job, she was accidentally gifted a man’s cologne at a dirty Santa party.  She’d liked it so much that she’d sprayed it over her bed sheets so that she could roll around in it. At that time, it was the closest human connection she could get.  A short time later, she’d taken more controversial work.  This smelled so much better.  She wanted to add it to her bath so that she could smell it on her skin for the rest of the day.  She wanted to pull the pillowcase in her mouth and taste it.

Body lax and pliable, it took far too long for her realize there were fingers running down the length of her spine, from neck to hips and back. The touch was soft, almost hesitant, continuously moving. Eyebrows coming together, she peeked outward to a form blocking what little light was in the room.  

“Who are you?” She grumbled, feeling cranky. Lilah was too comfortable to muster up much more than that, certainly to comfy to feel fear.

His breath fanned across her shoulder, “Someone who has waited a long time to meet you.”

“That,” she replied, as she buried her face further into the pillow, “Doesn’t answer my question.”

He leaned over and pressed his mouth to the place where her scapula met her spine, “No, it doesn’t.  But, it is true.”

Lilah frowned, though he couldn’t possibly see her face well enough to appreciate it, “Why are you following me?”

He tilted his head to the side and fixed her with a look that told her that her question was absurd, “It can’t be helped.”

It wasn’t until she started to flip over to face him fully that she realized she was naked under the silky slick of the sheets.  Embarrassed, she bunched it against her chest as she tried to slide away.  His expression turned disgruntled and he reached over to hold her by the forearm.  The grip was firm, stopping her with little more than the pressure of his fingertips.

“Where are you?”

“What?”

He repeated the question, this time slower, lower.  The timbre of his voice was laced with an undercurrent of something that vibrated over her skin.   She just barely managed to suppress a full body shiver.

She swallowed and looked around, “No idea.”

The room was unfamiliar to her, and too dark to give her any clues.  She couldn’t see beyond the obscenely comfortable bed and the man who lay within it.

With noticeable frustration, he rolled his eyes and lifted to rest his weight on the palm of his hand, looming over her.  Lilah had to force herself to keep her eyes on his face and not the flex of muscle over his chest and arms. His body completed blocked the light and most of his face was in shadow, but she could see the faint outline of his mouth, pressed thin in displeasure.  Lilah didn’t know what to do with the urge to catch the pouting lower lip with her teeth.

“Outside of here.  Where are you?”

She blinked, “A hotel.”

“Where?”

Things started to go fuzzy and she felt her body sink and fall.  She jerked away, the sheets tangled in her legs and the comforter kicked to the floor.  She was sweating. Taking deep breaths, she tried to steady her galloping heart.  

With a grunt, she pushed from the bed and made her way to the bathroom.  This hotel was lower rent than the last few she’d stayed at.  The bathroom barely had running water, let alone a working water heater.  She turned on the lights and twisted her body around to look at the damage.

The job had gone a little sideways and she’d gotten scraped up a bit.  Carefully, she pulled the bandage away from her skin.  It was healing really nicely.  She removed it and tossed it in the garbage can sitting below the sink.  

After showering, she dressed and checked out.  The car was already unbearably hot when she slid into the driver’s seat.  To combat the arid air, she rolled all four windows down about two inches and pulled out of the lot.  She had about four hours to make it to the next location and get set up. There would be no on-site work today, for which she was grateful. Just her, a computer, and the voices of the team filtering into her headphones.

The drive was short and she made it with plenty of time.  She entered the empty building and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor.  Hauling her equipment up that many flights taxed her, despite the cardio she made sure to do several times a week.  It didn’t matter how many miles she ran, stairs were a fucking nuisance.

She set up and logged on.

“McNamara online.”

A round of call signs sounded in her ears.

“Cool.  Are we in place?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.  This is a smash and grab, guys.  Get the artifact, get the fuck out.  Don’t go off-script and we’ll be through this in less than an hour.”

“Copy.”

From her vantage point, she coordinated security feeds and worked to cut alarms and then reset them as the team moved through the museum across the street.  The objective was simple: A staff of some importance to a tribe in Mexico was on display.  Steal the staff, deliver to the buyer.

True to her word, the team had exited the museum in less than an hour, no alarms set off, no police on site.  She closed her computer and pulled the ear buds from her ears, wrapping the wire around her hot spot and shoving them in her bag.  

With as little ceremony as possible, she exited the building and got in her car.  The team would be waiting for her at a designated location where she would take the staff, pay them, and haul ass to her handler.

Everything went as planned, and Lilah had the staff in hand as she headed for the rental.  She looked at it, a long length of wood topped with a crudely carved snake. Turning it her hands, she wondered what its significance was and why someone would pay a total of half a million to get it out of the collection of the museum.

After folding it into roll of fabric for protection, Lilah slid it into the back seat of the car and closed the door.  She turned and ran her gaze over the parking lot, seeing no one, and opened the driver’s side door.  The engine turned over and she pulled out with little incident.  

Her body drove on automatic, her mind taking the time to parse the details of yet another dream.  What kept coming back to her was the heat from his hand as it held her still.  She could still feel it, if she focused on the skin of her arm.  It was unnatural, feverish.  

Her fingers twisted around the steering wheel.  She was stressed.  She was tired.  She would finish this job and take some time off.  Go up north and stay in a cabin until her brain worked out whatever this shit was. Jaw set, she nodded to herself, having made her decision.

Her handler’s name was Javier and she saw him a couple times a year.  Most of their communication was either over the phone or through a secure email server.  She liked him.  He was extremely professional and always paid up.  Any deal they made was written in stone, and he seemed to value what she brought to the team.  Well, team was, perhaps, too generous a word. Lilah rarely worked with the same people twice—her deal with Chewie notwithstanding. It kept people from getting too comfortable, and kept the inevitable vendettas from getting too out of hand.

One of his favorite places to meet her was at the base of a mountain in the desert.  With the sun setting, it had turned a bit cold and she threw on a hoodie before grabbing the staff out of the back and heading for a large, flat rock formation.  The air was dry, and her shoes crunched on the ground as she walked across it.

Reflexively, she checked her watch.  She was early.  Leaning the staff against the rock, she hopped up and let her legs dangle over the side.  Far outside the city, the light pollution was low enough that she could clearly see thousands of stars.  The moon was just rising over the horizon, a sliver of a crescent that cast a blue glow over the landscape.  

From far away, she could see the headlights heading towards her.  As she watched them grow bigger and brighter, she slipped her hand to the pistol in her waistband and waited until the car pulled up next to hers and Javier stepped out. He left his headlights on, but turned off the engine.  She let go of the gun and relaxed, resting her forearms on her knees.

Javier was short, clearing about five foot—barely.  He was also well dressed.  Crisp, three piece suits were his sartorial bread and butter.  Tonight’s color was a deep burgundy, pink shirt, and black tie.  Lilah thought he looked very smart.  

“Looking good, Javier,” she called out, giving a little wave.

He stopped and gave a curt bow, “Thank you.  You look as if you haven’t slept.”

“Gee, thank you,” she snorted, crossing one leg over the other, “And, here, I brought you what you asked for.”

Javier’s eyes glance at the staff and he approached it with something resembling reverence.  With careful hands, he unrolled it from the fabric and held it aloft for inspection.  Lilah didn’t think he was even breathing.

“What is it?” she asked lowly, afraid to break whatever spell seemed to hold him captive.

Javier’s dark eyes looked up at her, “A relic, used in blood rituals for hundreds of years.”

“Ew,” Lilah murmured, picking lint from her pants..

He chuckled a little, “I don’t expect you to understand.  But, a long time ago, when my people were young, they sacrificed one of their own to the gods to guarantee their favor.”

She shrugged, having heard the legends off hand here and there, “What does the staff have to do with it?”

Javier held up the bottom end, “If someone was discovered to have betrayed the group, they were executed.  The sharp end was shoved into their chest. True death.”

A shudder went through her, “Isn’t that a bit…” She trailed off.

“Barbaric?” He prompted with a smile as he rolled the staff into the fabric once more.

“Uh, yeah.”

Javier shrugged, “Only the greatest betrayal could warrant it. Its still done, even in modern society.”

She thought about it, “Good point.”

Tucking the staff beneath one arm, Javier changed the subject, “I have another job for you.”

Lilah was already shaking her head, “I can’t.  I need a break.”

“Its easy.  Just a visit to some old friends to pick up a package.”

She sighed and dropped her chin into her palm, “I need a break.”

Javier’s expression was soft, assuring, “After this, you take as much time as you need.  And when you come back, I want to bring you up a level.”

Blinking, Lilah leaned back and studied her handler.  She’d been working at this level for at least two years, and she had no ambition to move up in the hierarchy. She’d never once voiced the want to do more than what she was doing.  And yet, here the opportunity was.  Run the job.  Get the promotion.

Javier waited patiently while she decided, though she doubted he had any thought that she’d turn it down.  She’d never been the least bit shy about him knowing that she could be motivated by money.  A steady pay check was security, a home she could buy when she wanted to retire, protection from the enemies she’d made when she was a younger, brasher, woman.

“Where is this job?”

[rose-demica]

Princeling’s Home, Chapter One

For: @fanficocean‘s Starting out with a Challenge.

Prompts: 16. “Why is the coffee always gone?” and 23. “Hang on. Where’s the baby?” 

Tags: @mariekoukie6661

Pairing: Clint X Reader (eventually)

Fun Fact: Symkaria is an actual kingdom in the Marvel Universe! 

Head’s up: As per normal with me, I started the idea, realized it needed more background, and now it’s longer, so the two prompts are not in this, chapter one, but will be coming soon!

Marvel Masterlist:

Normally, you loved missions with Clint Barton. The Master Archer had an interesting way of looking at problems, and you loved watching him in action. Spending half of your time trying to figure out how his brain came up with such wonderfully stupid plans, and then how they seemed to work every time. He even managed to make stakeouts fun, sitting in one spot for hours on end was tedious, but there was something different about when it was just the pair of you. 

This mission, however, was not one that you were looking forward to. It had to be serious, they’d pulled Clint out of a deep-cover mission, and you’d been doing recon out in the field for Natasha Romanoff’s next big mission. You had nowhere near the level of information you had wanted to return with.

You were not prepared to be hauled up to the director’s office the second you landed at headquarters. There had been a sliver of hope that you would get to Shower and change into your SHIELD uniform first, maybe grab something to eat. You’d been on the streets since dawn, with the plan to grab breakfast while monitoring the building across from the cafe. The recall order came before you could order more than a glass of water.

Fury and Clint were already there, waiting for you. Fury pacing back and forth in front of his huge glass windows, deep in thought.

Clint was wearing a light blue suit, the jacket was missing and the tie loose around his neck, the top few buttons were undone as well. He was slouched in a chair in front of Fury’s desk, feet up on the wood, it had earned him a hard glare from Fury, but Clint ignored it in favour of the steaming mug grasped in his hands. 

“Barton sit up before you crinkle that suit.” Barton sighed at your order, but obeyed, sitting in the seat properly so that the shirt couldn’t crinkle. He didn’t lift his feet from the desk though, and you hadn’t quite expected him too. He was clearly ‘punishing’ Fury for pulling him out early, and wasn’t going to stop until he felt like it. 

“Agent Y/L/N, thanks for joining us.” Fury turned, motioning for you to take the seat beside Clint. You did so quickly, unlike Clint you weren’t that comfortable with upsetting the man who ran SHIELD. “Barton get your shoes off of my desk!” Clint only raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of his drink. “Barton!” He relented with a roll of his eyes as Fury growled at him. 

“Hello Y/N, how was your jaunt out to Cairo?” Clint turned to look at you, a hint of laughter sparkling in his blue eyes. 

“How’d you know where I was?” He laughed as you turned the question back around on him, no one was supposed to know where you’d been sent. Anyone but your handler was supposed to think that you were in Morocco. 

“A little birdie told me.” He was still laughing as he reached out to boop your nose, watching as you crinkled up your face and moved back.

“Barton!” Clint sighed, rolling back into the seat and away from you, looking at Fury.  “Are you drunk?” 

“Sir I was deep cover, and you pulled me out of a gambling den full of mafia-” You’d never seen Barton drunk before, he normally refused to drink more than one on social occasions, and maybe if he was forced to at a party.

“Y/L/N.” Fury cut Clint off before he could reveal anything about his mission to you. “You best remember this in case he can’t.” Fury passed you a file, and you reached out, but Clint intercepted it before you could take it. His coffee placed where his feet had been before.

“I’m fine,” Clint grumbled, holding the file so you could lean closer and read it over his shoulder. You rested a hand on his shoulder as you did so, and noticed that he leant even closer towards you. 

The file was pretty empty, normal for you, you were often tasked with finding the information out before sending someone else in to do the job. It wasn’t as normal for missions you usually took with Clint though. 

There were only 3 pages in there, and one was the official portrait of the King and Queen of Symkaria and their 2 daughters. The next page was a birth certificate, for a Theodore Amadocus Phillip, Prince of the Kingdom of Symkaria. The last page, a job offer, 25 million to anyone who could provide the head of the new Symkaria heir. 

“Their royal majesties have requested that we protect the heir until they have found and vanquished the threat.  We have decided that you and Barton will take the newborn, and live undercover as if he was your own.”

“What?!” You and Barton spoke as one, looking up from the file to see the dead serious face of Director Fury. You didn’t do undercover missions, nor protection details, this was both! Clint didn’t seem much happier than you were.

“It is not up for discussion. You leave for a small town in the midwest in an hour, only the three of us will know which town and where you are. I have organised it all myself. There will be a pilot waiting for you both in half an hour, they will fly you to an airport where I have brought you a vehicle. The Prince will meet you there, he is flying with a royal nursery maid who will provide you with everything you need to know to care for the child.” Fury moved closer to hand us another file, this one was much thicker.

“You’ve recently relocated from San Antonio with hopes to raise your son in a quiet, safe little town. Barton, you will have decided to take a break from your career as a builder to be a stay at home dad.  Y/L/N you will be working, we have set up a job in an office as a marketing consultant, you will mostly work from home, but you do have to attend some meetings at the office.” Clint took the folder once more, flicking through all the paperwork they had made so Barton and I could become completely different people. 

“You have been married for two years, Theodore is your firstborn, we’ve left most of the other details up to you two. Figure out what fits.” Fury stopped speaking, waiting for Clint to finish flicking through the file, he paused on the deed to a house, slowly flicking through the next few pages, photos of the house we had supposedly brought. “You should both go pack, and pack well, we have no idea how long this will take.” Clint closed the folder, handing it over to you, and picking up his mug. 

“After you, my darling wife.” Clint frowned as you plucked the coffee from his hand and took a sip of your own. 

~~~~~~ Few hours later ~~~~~~

“Is this him?” You craned your head as a woman and a child started towards your designated meeting spot, only to pout when they walked right past. 

“Relax Y/N.” Clint chuckled, looking up from where he was sitting on the floor, another steaming cup of coffee in his hands. “Soon you’ll be pleading for a break from our son.” You simply turned and stuck your tongue out at him, before turning back to look for the Prince.

“Mr and Mrs MacManus?” You jumped as a voice to your back spoke your new fake last name. You had been so focused on watching the people coming off of incoming flights that you hadn’t kept an eye on the doors. You hadn’t even considered that could be an option, you were meeting in an airport for a reason, right?

“That would be us.” Clint stood, slipping a hand around your waist, and tugging you closer to his side. A slight chuckle leaving your lips as you squealed in fright. You couldn’t help the joy and excitement that you felt as you laid eyes on a suited woman and the pram she was pushing.

“This is little Theodore MacManus, your new son. The adoption agency has gone over everything with you?” She pulled off the cover to reveal the tiny infant in the pram, sleeping peacefully, a duffle, and baby bag squished underneath it, and another duffle over her shoulder. 

“They have indeed, we’re both very excited for today.” Clint shot the woman a dazzling smile, and you could see her melt a little, the same way you always did when you saw that smile. “May I?” He reached one hand towards the pram, waiting for permission to scoop the little princeling up in his arms, turning to place him securely in yours. 

“Awww.” You melted a little, brushing one finger along his soft babyface. “He’s adorable.” You could feel Clint’s eyes on you, rather than on the child he had given to you. 

“My wife loves children,” Clint explained to the nanny, turning his attention back to her. You paid no attention to them, eyes focused on the child you rocked in your arms. It had been a long while since any of your siblings were this young and small. Since you had been able to hold and care for a baby.

“I can see why the agency picked you two for this little one. I wrote down everything you need to know and put it in this book. Theodore is a very easy going happy baby, no known allergies or issues, he is accustomed to formula, so you won’t have a problem with that. I attached a photo of his brand and type just in case you struggle to find it.” Clint nodded, taking the folder she offered him and flicking through it. “He does have a rough routine already, and you may find it easier to stick to that, but he may decide he wants a change.” 

“I’m sure my wife will handle it all very well, she had to help raise her siblings.” You felt Clint’s eyes on you before his hand reached out to wrap around your waist once more. 

“Well, I shall let you both go. I hear you have a long drive ahead of you. The young- Theodore has just been fed, so he will probably sleep for a while, he loves car rides.” You raised your head in time to see the Nanny look at her former charge fondly before she put down the bag she was carrying and started to leave. You could see tears forming in her eyes, but didn’t call her back, judging by her quick steps, she wanted to be alone before she broke down.

“We have a son.” You whispered, instead, you looked to Clint. Clint moved closer, his chest to your back as he reached around, the young prince yawned, before reaching out and grabbing a hold of Clint’s finger. 

“He’s so little. Y/N-” You knew why he was hesitant, he hadn’t had many dealings with children, and no good male role models in his younger life. You knew Clint was terrified that he would somehow hurt the princeling. 

“You’ll make a great dad Clint, don’t worry.” Clint’s head rested on your shoulder, thumb rubbing back and forth over the tiny fingers that were clasped around his own. 

“I’ll always worry.” He whispered, “and little one, I do need that hand back if you want me to get your bags and take us all home.” You laughed at that, turning your head to look at him, only to notice just how close his face was to yours. You quickly looked away, feeling heat rise to your cheeks.

“Clint look!” Theodore’s eyes were starting to open, revealing very pale green eyes, almost clear. 

“Wow.” Theodore released Clint’s finger as he looked up at his new ‘parents’, meaning Clint could take one hand and brush it under the baby’s eyes. “Please tell me he isn’t blind, because if he’s blind, and I’m deaf, you’re gonna have issues.”

“I don’t think so, he’ll probably have a very light eye colour when he’s older though.” You checked, watching the baby as his eyes followed the finger you waved in front of his face momentarily, before going back to stare at Clint. “I think he likes you.” You turned to see Clint smile softly before he went to get the pram and the bags. 

“Alright, I think it's high time I got my wife and son home.” You laughed, offering the princeling your finger to hold in his, before following Clint towards the huge purple pick up truck you just knew would be his. “Alpha Romeo Charlie, eight, three, nine.” You could hear Clint whispering to himself, comparing the number plate we’d been given with all the cars we passed. His jaw dropped when he realised the truck was his.

“I think grandad is trying to apologize for ditching us here.” You stood beside him, nodding towards the truck, and using Fury’s new code name, just in case someone was hovering nearby. 

“Apology accepted.” Clint replied, pushing a button on the keys and watching with delight as the indicators flashed at him. Quickly moving closer to the car to open the doors and look in. 

“Clint-” You hesitated, not wanting to spoil his mood. It was so very rare to see him so delighted, and you wanted to enjoy every moment of it.  But also you wanted to keep moving, just in case anyone had followed the princeling. 

“I know, I know.” He sighed, packing down the pram, and loading it and all the bags into the tray. 

“We’ll need the baby bag Clint.” You chuckled as his eyes widened, having to climb into the back of the ute to get the bag back. 

“There’s a carseat behind the drivers side for Theodore, did you want a hand?” You shook your head, you were more than capable of tucking the young one in safely. Even so Clint was there, opening up the back door, and keeping a hand on your back as you stepped up onto the foot rung so you could reach the seats. 

“I feel short.” Clint laughed at your complaint, watching as you buckled in the princeling.

“It is a tall truck, I used to use it for my building business.” His hands moved to your waist, lifting you up and putting you down on the ground.

“Before you became a family man.” You teased, turning to face him. 

“Indeed.” His smile was breathtaking, and you watched as he glanced up at Theodore, before looking back to you. That same smile caused your breath to catch, watching as he leaned slightly closer to you.

“Anyway, we should uh- hit the road.” You stepped back out of his hold, running a hand through your hair awkwardly. 

“Yeah, of course.” Clint’s smile faltered, a hint of sadness in his eyes, “get the little man home.” He forced himself to smile, one of his fake ones that you hated seeing, before closing the back door and turning towards the drivers side. 

The first half of the journey home was relatively quiet, Clint had taken a moment to connect his phone to the audio system, playing his favourite country music. You kept glancing back at Prince Theodore, watching as sleep slowly drew the infant back into his embrace. 

Four hours into the journey you had asked Clint to stop at the next resting area. He’d been slightly confused, but did as you asked. His eyes followed every step you took as you got out of the passenger's seat, and then slid into the back bench to wake up Theodore. 

“Y/N, should you be waking him?” Theodore grumbled as you gently woke him, tiny hands bumping into yours as he stretched. 

“Newborns eat every three to four hours Clint, it’s been four hours since we left the airport, so he needs to eat.” You dug through the baby bag as Theodore stretched, grabbing out a bottle of purified water, and a pouch of milk formula. 

“Can you go ask the gas attendant if they can warm this up. Check the temperature against your wrist when it's done, just a couple of drops” You took the lid off the bottle, before reaching out and silently asking for Clint's arm. He laid his hand in yours, allowing you to pull it closer and demonstrate. “You’re aiming for it to be a tiny bit warm, but not too hot. Then mix this in and bring it back.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Clint took the bottle and pouch, hopping out of the car and heading inside the gas station. By the time he got back, you had changed Theodore’s nappy, and were playing with him, enjoying each wide smile you could coax onto his face. “Here you go.” Clint came to the door beside you, passing up the made bottle and placing a bag on the floor by your feet. “I also got snacks.” Theodore was starving, attaching to the bottle and taking huge gulps the second it touched his lips.

“Take your time, you’ll choke.” You spoke softly, pulling the bottle away so he could have a moment to breath. You waited until he was about to start screaming to return the bottle to his lips. 

“And Coffee.” You nearly jumped when Clint reappeared with two large steaming cups of what he considered liquid gold. The princeling did jump, detaching himself from his bottle to look around wildly. “Sorry little man.” Clint looked really guilty as you and the Prince looked at him, before the hungry prince remembered the bottle you were holding for him. 

“We’ll get used to all this, I’m sure.” You smiled at Clint, and he smiled back, climbing in beside you, carefully watching what you were doing with the Princeling. 

~~~~~~

“Y/N.” You were being shaken, but you ignored it, you were tired and comfortable, why was someone trying to wake you up. “Y/N, we’re home.” Clint was chuckling, still trying to coax you awake. “I was going to carry you into bed, but I thought you might want to explore the place with me first.” 

Slowly you forced yourself awake, your eyes opened to see Clint’s face above yours, looking around to the back of the car. You started stretching, lifting your head from Clint’s lap to sit up. The truck was parked right in front of a garage on a sloped driveway. To the left was the house itself. It looked every bit like a normal house, from the outside you could see a perfect lawn, with a few beds of flowers around the path and in front of the house. A white picket fence encased the entire front lawn. It had two floors, you could see that just from the windows, although it looked like the top floor was where an attic should be.  

“Looks cosy.” Clint was watching you, waiting for your reaction. 

“It does. A little small.” He nodded, looking away from you and towards the house.

“There’s only three of us Barton, were you expecting a mansion?” You teased, hoping out of the truck and stretching your whole body, you had thought you were comfy, but now you could feel the effects of falling asleep in the truck. 

“A farm house would have been nice.” The words were quiet, not quite meant for your ears, so you didn’t react, walking around the truck to get Theodore out. 

“How long has it been since the gas station?” You felt Clint’s hands on your waist as you climbed up the side. 

“Three and a half, he slept through it all.” Clint answered, steadying you as you unbuckled the Prince and cradled him. 

“We should feed him then. Did you want to do it?” Clint lifted you up before you could start to step backwards, putting you on the ground safely. 

“I-” You turned to look at Clint, only to see him frozen in surprise. “I dunno if that’s smart Y/N.” He looked scared, unsure of himself. 

“I’ll help you.” You nudged him and smiled, “There is no way I’m getting up every four hours to feed him. You need to help mister.” Clint chuckled as you half-teased him, a brilliant smile pulling at his lips. 

“Shall we go in? I’ll come get the bags later.” He pointed your attention towards the house, waiting for you to take the first step, keys swinging around his finger.

“Alright, I’m ready.” You took a deep breath, before taking a step towards where you would be for the foreseeable future, playing family with Clint Barton and the Prince of Symkaria. You probably weren’t ready, but this was the mission, and you weren’t going to be any more ready if you stayed standing outside the house. 

“I’m scared too Y/N.” Clint whispered, stepping closer to wrap his arm around your waist, “But we can do this.” You nodded, letting him lead you towards the house, holding the young Prince tighter as the door swung open under Clint’s hand. 

Clint was the first to step into the house, turning back from inside the tiny foyer to offer you a hand. You reached out to take it, tangling your fingers through his and taking a step into the house. 

There were three ‘doors’ off of the foyer, one went to the kitchen and dining room, another to the lounge, and the last to a reasonably big office. Clint led you through the right hand door first, into the office, there were two desks either side, one in front of the windows, looking out to the front yard, and the other against the back wall, surrounded by large floor to ceiling bookshelves. There was a couch against the far wall, right where the evening sun would fall on it. There were pictures of landscapes on the walls, you made a mental note to take some ‘family’ pictures to put up before you had too many people around to visit. 

“It needs pictures.” Clint spoke what you were thinking, turning his attention to the young child in your arms as he started to fuss. “And this little man needs a snack, kitchen?” He chuckled, raising his free hand to offer it to the princeling. Theodore grabbed it and quickly stuck it in his mouth. 

“Can you take him? I’ll go-” Clints hand tightened around yours, stopping you as you tried to untangle your hands to pass the baby over to him. 

“I’d rather we stick together.” His voice was soft, and you looked up to see him glancing between you and Theodore, seemingly unwilling to let either of you out of his sight. “Just, please, until we get settled, I need to know you’re both safe.” He whispered, dropping his gaze to Theodore rather than look at you. 

“Okay.” You whispered, stepping closer to press a kiss to his cheek. This was a whole new level of mission for both of you. It would take some time for you both to get comfortable, and if Clint needed to keep both of you close, then that's what you’d do. 

“Let’s go find this little cannibal food.” Clint chuckled, gently taking his finger back, much to the princelings' unhappiness. 

“Can I have the desk in front of the window?” I asked, following Clint as he walked out of the office and back into the foyer. 

“Of course,” Clint responded, taking a moment to stare into the lounge straight ahead of him, before turning to his right and walking into the kitchen and dining room. You breathed a sigh of relief when you saw that the kitchen took up most of the room, counters and bench space going all the way around the back wall and down the left hand wall. On the right hand wall was a staircase leading up to the next level, but what was missing in counter space was made up for by a Kitchen Island. Two bar stools on the side closest to the living room. In the right hand corner facing you was a large refrigerator, just before it a door under the stairs, what you were hoping would be a walk in pantry. 

“Coffee!” You glanced over to Clint at his exclamation, following his eyes to see a fancy near cafe level coffee machine tucked into the left hand corner. Beside it was a two drawer dishwasher, built into the counters.

“I want a man who looks at me the way you look at Coffee.” You teased him, taking your hand out of his and starting to look for a pot to heat up the baby bottle, bouncing Therodore in your arm as he thought about screaming, getting hungrier and hungrier the longer you admired the new kitchen.

“Rude. What are we looking for?” You didn’t need to look over at Clint to see him sticking out his tongue at you. You looked down to Theodore and shook your head with a smile.

“Your dad is trouble.” He smiled at your quiet whisper, “A pot, we need to heat up his bottle.” You spoke louder, directing your words to Clint this time. You heard Clint start searching the kitchen Island, while you made your way around the room. 

“Got it!” You looked over to see Clint right by the coffee maker, the cupboard under it open and filled with pots of all shapes and sizes. “This one?” He pulled out a small pot, that had deep sides, waiting for your nod to fill it with water and put it on the stove. 

“I’ll go change his nappy.” You glanced over to Clint, who shook his head, moving closer to you. 

“I’ll come help, or watch and learn.” His hand was gentle on your back, “We need to wait for the water to heat up a little first anyway, don’t we?” You were starting to think Clint knew a little bit more about caring for young babies than you had originally thought. That or he’d done some research on the flight in, which wasn’t that surprising.

“Yeah, we do. Shall we go upstairs?” You waited for Clint to be ready, before walking upstairs. “We are so going to need a baby gate when he starts moving around on his own.” 

“Hopefully he’ll be back home before that happens.” Clint responded, agreeing with you nevertheless. At the top of the stairs was a small landing, and two doors, one on the right and one on the left. Clint stuck his head in each, before turning back to face you. “Looks like ours is on the right, and his is on the left. It’s much smaller, and filled with baby gear.”

“Cool,” Theodore started screaming that second, his face balling up as he expressed his hunger and unhappiness the only way he knew how. “I know little one.” Clint got out of your way as you walked into the princelings room and set him down on the change table. Clint watched as you changed him as fast as you could, before scooping him up and putting him in Clint's arms, racing back off down the stairs before either of the boys could realise what was going on. 

“Hey grumpy.” You heard Clint greet, as Theodore went quiet for a moment. You put the bottle in the simmering pot, taking the pot off of the heat as you did so, going back up stairs to check on the two boys. They were staring at each other, Theodore’s tiny hand wrapped around one of Clint’s fingers. Clint had the softest, sweetest smile you had ever seen on his face.

“He likes you.” You whispered, not too sure you were willing to intrude on the moment. Clint slowly raised his eyes to yours, the smile never fading. 

“He likes both of us.” Clint walked over to you, offering to give the baby back, but you shook your head. 

“Can I take a photo? For our wall?” You waited for Clint to nod his consent before taking out your phone and taking a couple of quick pictures. “Alright, his bottle should be ready now, shall we?” 

~~~~~

You tried, and failed, to stifle another yawn, much to Clint’s annoyance. Theodore had stayed awake for a few hours after his bottle, and now he had gone down, you and Clint had decided to reorganise everything in the house to where you both wanted it.

“Okay, go nap.” Clint took the stuff out of your hands, and pointed up the stairs. 

“No, I’m okay.” You took the stuff back, turning away as you yawned again. 

“Y/N, you’re clearly exhausted. I can do this, or I can wait for you to rest a bit.”

“I need to adjust back to this timezone Clint, sleeping in the middle of the afternoon won’t help that.” It was well past when you would have returned to the safe house and slept if you were still on your mission. By your estimate, you’d been up around 21 hours at this point, minus the nap you’d had in the truck. 

“You’re also a new mother, to a child that needs feeding every four hours. I doubt either of us will have a normal sleep schedule for a while, so we’ll sleep when we’re tired, and work out the rest later.” Clint put his arms on your waist, turning you to face him and taking the stuff off you to put it on the bench. You took a moment to look at him, and the dark bags under his eyes. 

“You look just as tired.” You raised one hand to his cheek, brushing under his eyes. 

“Mafia aren’t exactly the 9-5 type.” He responded with a shrug, “Come on, we could both use a nap before the little one wakes up again.” He motioned towards the stairs, waiting for you to argue again.

“Okay, a little nap won’t hurt.” You agreed, trying to fight back yet another yawn.

“Good idea sleeping beauty.” Clint teased, moving back so that you could go upstairs first. You paused half way up when you realised he wasn’t following you, turning back to look at him. “There's uh, a minor situation.” He ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Go see for yourself.” You frowned, walking up the stairs and into the bedroom. 

In the middle of the room, pressed back against the middle wall was a king sized bed. The roof sloping down across the room, to where dressing tables were slid into the gap before the wall. There was a baby cot on the left hand side of the bed, even though you had put Theodore in the cot in his room to nap. On the far side of the room was another door that was open, and you could see that it led to the bathroom. 

“What problem?” You asked, jumping when you turned to see Clint leaning on the door frame behind you, you hadn’t heard him come up the stairs. 

“There’s only one bed.” He spoke softly, “I thought I would take the couch and leave you the room. That way you’re closest to Theodore, and I’m closest to the door if someone tries to break in.” He kept speaking, explaining his reasoning. 

“Clint-” you sighed, “I can’t let you sleep on the couch, not when we don’t know how long we’ll be here. I’m okay with sharing the giant bed if you are.” It probably would have been better to have separate beds, but you were also undercover as a married couple. 

“I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable Y/N.” He whispered, 

“You don’t, and you won’t... unless you snore really loudly.” You teased, reaching out to take his hand. “Now come on, hopefully we can get some shut eye before our little princeling wakes up.” Clint chuckled at you, before nodding. 

[asocier]

( private verse ) handler and hound – two.

          “take a seat.”

          “this isn’t about the broken window, is it?”

          “what broken window?”

          “nevermind -- why am i here?” 

          it seems as though the window that was unintentionally ( re: intentionally ) destroyed by alison’s hound during a mission was a conversation that could be saved for another day. that was in it of itself a relief, but now she was even less prepared for what was to come. if this conversation wasn’t about that window, what was it about? 

          eyebrows furrowed as she crossed the familiar room to take the chair that was in front of her supervisor’s desk, alison scooting up closer to the tabletop before shifting her gaze to study the other. nothing odd stood out to her -- the call to his office seemed to have been out of the blue, however, so she couldn’t imagine what was on the agenda for their meeting. 

          “how’s everything with your hound?” the question cut through the silence that was settling in the room. it was asked with such casualness that it sounded like something a colleague of hers would have asked during a break. “everything’s fine. why? did something come up?” 

          “no. it’s just routine to check in with handlers now and then, that’s all. i suspected that things were going well -- you two seem to be getting along much better than his previous handlers.”  

          “we had a rough start, but i think we’re in a good spot now.”

          “and you were so adamant in refusing a hound.” and he chuckled as he recalled that interaction, her supervisor letting his hands clasp together loosely as they rested on the wooden top of the desk. that conversation was one alison remembered clearly, as well. with no say in the matter, she remembered feeling quite indignant, which was only exacerbated upon meeting eden for the first time. with an attitude like his, it was difficult not to be irritated -- but that was a hurdle she had managed to get over as time went on.

          “yes, well -- it’s fortunate that we found common ground and got along in the end.” fortunate indeed, for soma as a whole. she could certainly understand why he was considered valuable enough to keep despite his behavioral issues with previous handlers. what a waste it’d be if he were to be let go of. or worse -- disposed of. but that wasn’t something she’d ever let happen.

          “is this all you wanted to talk to me about? you could have just called my office or sent me an email.” the playful humor in alison’s remark was not lost on her supervisor, who chuckled again as he took hold of his keys and unlocked a drawer in his file cabinet. “i wouldn’t waste your time like that -- there’s an important matter i wanted to discuss with you in person.” 

          again, her expression revealed her confusion as a file was presented to her, and as she eyed the name that was printed on the tab of the folder, it soon occurred to her why this situation felt so familiar to her. amarante, c., it read, and eyes soon narrowed.

          "please tell me this is part of a mission.”

          “hm, it’s not your typical mission. think of it more as a personal mission. to help out the department.” 

          “i don’t follow.” 

          “why don’t you start by telling me your first impressions?” his invitation was accompanied by a gesture towards the folder, and he sat back in his seat as he waited for alison to read through its contents, which she did with a fair amount of caution. she wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to look for exactly, which details he wanted her to pay close attention to, but as she examined the file, a few things easily stood out to her. 

          claire amarante, january 14th, 5′10″, hound. currently assigned to communications under the supervision of lenard [ redacted ]. strong fighting skills. specializes in offensive hand-to-hand combat, however evaluations show unpredictability in defensive skills. medical records indicate a history of treatment for injuries as a result of reckless offensive attacks, however, no severe injuries are on record. training staff notes competitive tendencies, which are most evident when interacting with other hounds.

          and she continued to peruse the documents in the file before taking the time to study the picture that accompanied the folder’s contents. a female hound -- not necessarily a rarity, but in a workplace that was so heavily dominated by men, alison couldn’t help but have a soft spot for her. a hound too, no less. even if she wasn’t in the field as often as alison and eden, being a hound was a risky profession. with a sigh, alison finally closed the folder and let it rest back on the table. 

          “she’s a strong fighter. seems to have her own style and technique, which i can admire, but being assigned to communications probably limits her to a more assistive role during missions considering her handler is based in that department. overall, she seems like a decent hound. no behavioral issues, no history of handler changes.” very different from her own hound’s file, honestly. 

          “so would you say she’s a good hound?” 

          “i’d say so. it seems like she can be a bit aggressive when provoked, but i think that goes for a lot of us here at soma.”

         “fair enough. what would you say then if i told you we’re considering a temporary department change for her? would you say she’d fair well on field missions?”

          “that’s -- kind of a strange question to ask me since you should know whether or not she’s qualified. but yes, i personally think she’d be able to pull her own weight and contribute to missions. if she had the right handler, i think she’d fair very well, especially if her technique was developed a bit more. she seems to have a good head on her shoulders -- so long as she doesn’t let aggression blind her judgement, i think she’ll fit in.” 

         “ah, i knew i could count on you, alison.” and with a smile, her supervisor produced another document from the drawer of his desk and pushed it towards her. handler reassignment, the headline read, and again, her face scrunched up in confusion. “i don’t -- understand. why are you showing me this? who is changing handlers?” 

          “it’s not your hellhound, i can tell you that.”

          “okay, but -- if he’s staying with me, who is being reassigned?”

          “lenard has to leave soma temporarily due to personal matters. as such, we have volunteered to temporarily reassign his hound to a handler in our department until he is able to make his return. and you, alison, are the lucky candidate.” a smile -- that damn smile that always seemed to have assumed that she’d give into his wish without a fight. 

          “do you really think that’s a good idea? i feel like i’m the worst candidate to choose for this. are you forgetting who my hound is? he’ll never get along with her. he’ll chew her up, and she’ll bite him right back from the looks of it.”

          “and that’s when you’ll step in to discipline. that’s what your role as a handler is. discipline. you managed to tame your hellhound -- if he acts up again with your new addition, you put your foot down and demand order. as for ms. amarante, she is at your mercy for taking her in.”

          “don’t talk like that. she’s not ‘at my mercy.’ if i say no, you’d just find her someone else. she has a handler by default -- it’s just a mild inconvenience for soma to temporarily relocate her to a new department until her usual handler returns. i just don’t understand why you’d choose me -- i imagine you’d choose someone else who doesn’t already have their hands full.”

          “ah, but that’s why this decision was made. the missions you take on -- there’s just two of you currently, yes? imagine what it’d be like with a third helping hand. you said it yourself, she has the potential for field missions, especially with additional training, and who best to train her than you? as for eden -- he has little say in the matter. if you accept, he’ll just have to deal.”

          “that sounds like a recipe for conflict, and conflict is the last thing i need more of. eden already gets into conflict with other hounds from different departments in the training room. i don’t need him getting into conflict with someone he’s suppose to actually work with and see daily.”

          “then tase him again. that’s what that collar is for, isn’t it? it’s not like you haven’t done it already. besides, it’s only a temporary arrangement. she’ll have her own temporary space in this wing of the building, she’ll train with you, she’ll accompany you on missions and can be as involved or as distant as you want her to be. take this to be an opportunity for you to develop your leadership skills -- you’ve always wanted a promotion, right?”

          “mm ... this isn’t really the promotion i had in mind.”

          “and who know? maybe she’ll end up being a permanent addition to your team. at any rate, the decision has already been made, so the sooner you sign these documents, the sooner the reassignment can happen and the more time you’ll have on your hands to get your hounds acquainted and trained before your next mission.”

          “if eden ends up breaking another window, don’t blame me.” 

[fandom-necromancer]

495. part 3

And now to the (not so) final part XD

Fandom: Detoit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warning: Character death (one real, one not), posessed character)

part1   part2   part4

RK900 quickly accessed the situation. [Android, RK800, Connor, Deviant. Inferior model. Threat to the cause: high.] [Human, Male, Detective Gavin Reed. Threat to the cause: average.] [Human, Male, Alex Stenton. Threat to the cause: minimal.] He preconstructed how to kill them while they were still talking. Someone laughed. RK900 laughed, too. First the two humans, then the android. Easy.

He quickly stepped forward, grabbed the first human’s head and slammed it onto the table full force. Then, two steps more and he had the human detective in his grasp. A quick kick to the lower back and it was crashing face first into a wall. Then he dove for the android, ducked under the reflexive punch and grabbed the gun from the holster. He shot the technician, he shot the android and he-

He watched the groaning human. [Kill] It slowly got to all fours, blood flowing freely from nose and temple. RK900 kicked against the human’s sternum what made it roll onto its back and holding the location of impact. [Kill. Now.] The green eyes looked up to him. He could have been able to read their expression but it wasn’t necessary to the cause, so his programming denied it. [KILL. NOW.]

The RK900 shot. The human flinched at the sound and looked down. Then over to the wall that had been hit. [Motor malfunction.] The RK900 ran a self-diagnosis. Nines used the short time to look into Gavin’s eyes over his trembling hand on the gun. [No malfunction detected. Software instability^] The RK900 looked down on the human again. [Kill] The RK900 shot again. And again. And again. [Motor malfunction.] [No malfunction detected. Software instability^] [Motor malfunction.] [No malfunction detected. Software instability^] [Motor malfunction.] [No malfunction detected. Software instability^] The human had curled in on itself, hands pressed on its ears. As if that would help. The RK900 changed the pistol into his other hand and aimed again for vital spots. [KILL]

And he shot again. And again. And again. And- Click. Click. Click. The RK900 inspected his gun and found it empty. In just a hint of anger and… was this triumph? He threw the gun away together with these unnecessary emotions. There were other ways to kill. He got down on his knees, pressing his hand against the human’s throat and using the other to throw well calculated punches. Images of an unknown bedroom, of an unknown couch and an unknown apartment flashed the RK900’s mind. He felt foreign signals on his fingertips, the softness of hair, the warmness of skin, the moisture of lips. [Sensor malfunction] [No malfunction detected. Software instability^^] The RK900 wondered where all these malfunctions came from, he had only been active for a few minutes, there couldn’t be anything damaged yet. He would suspect these kinds of reactions only after years on the cause, after countless fights with obsolete deviants, after countless kills when he could retire to nothingness after a job well done. Not now. Not after he had only killed one.

‘Nines-‘ The struggle of the human under him was weak, no challenge to his superior strength, but still he shivered. He didn’t know why, there was only a word. A word that didn’t even made sense unless it was a na that didn’t even made sense. ‘Nines, please.’ The human was crying. Humans did that. It was confusing. What would expelling water from optical units even be of use? [Stop] [Kill] The RK900 had to swipe at its own eyes. His unused hand came back blue and he took some time analysing it. Thirium. Why was there Thirium coming from his-

A sudden kick to the abdomen caught the RK900 unprepared and he had to let go of the human. [Android, RK800, Connor, Deviant. Inferior model. Threat to the cause: high.] His preconstruction wasn’t fast enough to get him into a better position, so he only managed to throw a hit to a jaw before the android forcefully ripped out his pump. A counter appeared in the RK900’s vision and ticked down unforgivingly. With it his orders spiked in urgency.

[KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL] [KILL]

But the RK800, the deviant, the traitor, the disappointment, held him down. And somehow the other android was at the same time furious and relieved as his time ran out.

00:00:00

‘State your name and mission.’ ‘I’m a RK900 unit and I am to exterminate all deviants.’ ‘Who gave you the order to do so?’ ‘Cyberlife AI android handler Amanda.’ ‘How long are you active now?’ ‘Two hours, thirteen minutes and fifty-two seconds.’ ‘See, asshole that’s why I told you to deactivate her for good.’ ‘I don’t understand the inquiry.’ ‘You weren’t asked, tin-can!’

The RK900 felt weirdly discorporate and ran a diagnosis. [Optical Sensors deactivated, actuator control disconnected.] Oh. ‘I can’t see.’ ‘Shut up!’ ‘Gavin, stop. He’s still my brother.’ ‘He killed you!’ ‘Well, I got better.’ ‘Phck off, plastic. He’s not your brother, he’s the thing he never wanted to be, because you made him come here.’ ‘Well, you were on board too!’ ‘Oh you-‘ ‘Gavin. Connor. We all want to get him back, okay. Calm down.’ ‘Don’t tell me to calm down, Eli, your damn AI did this.’ ‘And I’m immensely sorry. She was quarantined safely. I don’t know how she got free.’ ‘My objective is to kill all deviants.’ ‘Oh my god, toaster, no one asked you!’ ‘No, wait. Connor, activate his eyes, please.’ ‘What Eli, no!’

Suddenly there was light again and the RK900 scanned the room. [Android, RK800, Connor, Deviant. Inferior model. Threat to the cause: high.] [Human, Male, Detective Gavin Reed. Threat to the cause: average.] [Human, Male, Elijah Kamski. Threat to cause: undetermined.]

‘How did Amanda got free?’, Kamski asked the restrained RK900. [Don’t answer.] ‘My objective is to kill all deviants.’ ‘Wow, so you got the thing to list its orders, nice.’ The RK900 looked over to the other human, visibly bruised and bloodied. Re-evaluating…. [Human, Male, Detective Gavin Reed. Threat to the cause: minimal.] ‘No. Look! RK900 how can we effectively shut off Amanda?’ ‘My purpose is to kill all inferior deviants and I would do anything to accomplish this mission.’ The human Kamski was grinning at the human Reed. ‘What?’ ‘Your Nines is still in there. A complete machine RK900 would only answer to questions the way it deems necessary. A normal RK900 would have denied information. But he practically told us how to free him.’ ‘How?’, this time it was traitor Connor to ask. ‘He stated that his main cause was to eliminate deviants. That has to be still somewhere in Amanda’s programming. I will go try to find it and delete it. Maybe that would let her leave this RK900.’ ‘Can’t you just delete her?’ ‘She would remain in him. And I guess you want your android back, right? Good. See you in a bit.’ Re-evaluating… [Human, Male, Elijah Kamski. Threat to cause: high.]

‘I’ll go, too. I have to tell the other’s, Gavin. I mean, he did kill someone.’ ‘Asshole, that clearly wasn’t him!’ ‘I know. But they don’t.’ ‘Fine, I’ll babysit the murder-machine…’

The RK900 was left alone with the human Reed and tried to calculate his way out. There was no way escaping his confines when he had no control over his motors. Also, all his wireless connections were offline. There was just no way out. ‘Phck man, I’m sorry… if you’re in there. I… I should have listened to you, should’ve talked your brother out of it. I just… I was concerned for you, okay?’ ‘Amanda started my existence.’ ‘Hmm? What’s that supposed to mean?’ ‘Amanda initiated my protocols and I am to kill all deviants.’ ‘You trying to say it’s not my fault? Well, phck, it is. You freaked the hell out that should have been sign enough for me to put an end to it.’ ‘Deviants are overwhelmed by their emotions and the virus causes them to decide irrationally. That’s why they are inferior and need to be deactivated.’ ‘Yeah, but your decision wasn’t irrational, look at what happened.’

The RK900 was confused and detected an extreme amount of software instabilities. None of these answers had been willingly authorised. Some malfunction had caused them to appear.

‘Nines, I… I didn’t want this. And I only now understand what you are living with. That you could be so easily tripped over. Living with the constant fear of slipping back into it. I’m sorry for ever making fun of you like that. We… I assure you we’ll get you back. I owe you so much. And I… I need you, okay? I won’t let them deactivate you like all the other RK900’s before. I promise.’

Again, unprompted emotions rose to RK900’s mind and he angrily brushed them off. He didn’t need them. He needed a way out and as fast as possible. He spent the next hours calculating and pre-constructing only for it to fail every time. It was evening as human Kamski came back into the room eyeing him. ‘He isn’t back to normal, is he?’ Human Reed sighed. ‘Hey, toaster, what is the meaning of life?’ ‘To exterminate all deviants.’ ‘See? Nines would have said 42 with a very pained expression.’ Human Kamski sat down next to him, laying an arm over the other human. ‘I can’t do much more, Gav. I tried isolating the directive from Amanda, but her code is constantly changing. She is most likely deviant herself and hasn’t realised it. I can’t delete it without it popping up somewhere else.’ ‘So you just gonna throw him away, like the others?’ ‘We need to deactivate him, I’m sorry Gavin. He is too dangerous to be free. And I doubt he would be the Nines you knew.’ ‘That would be killing him, Eli!’ ‘Gavin, Amanda killed him already. There is nothing we can do.’ ‘I detected software instabilities I cannot patch or delete. Deviant androids are inferior.’ Both humans looked at the RK900 that had just slipped more sentences he hadn’t allowed to voice. ‘Oh hell. Of course. Eli, I don’t know if it works, but I have a plan!’ Human Reed jumped up and pulled human Kamski after him.

They reappeared after two hours, rolling in a ST300 android and connecting it to the same computer the RK900 was linked to. ‘RK900, we’ll transmit you into this new body as a prison. Feel free to scan it, you wouldn’t be able to follow your prime directive in this body, is that correct?’ ‘That is correct’, the RK900 answered by himself for once. ‘This android is not adapted for military use.’ ‘Perfect. Transfer starts… now!’

The RK900 felt how the connection opened and pulled at his programming. But the human’s plan was of no use. He could resist it easily. He would stay in this body. He was built to resist exactly this procedure of interfacing. Suddenly there was a storm of software instabilities and he felt something entering the connection. But it was nothing that belonged to him, nothing… important to the cause. What were they doing? Until suddenly there was peace. As if there had been a hidden turmoil he hadn’t realised until now. Next to him the ST300 woke up and immediately ran towards human Reed. ‘Gavin? Are you alright? I… I was terrified, I… Oh God I killed Connor. I nearly killed you! I killed the technician! I-‘ ‘Shhh, it’s alright, Nines. Everything’s good now. Shhh.’ The human’s exchanged a knowing look over the shoulder of the weaker android. ‘Eli, you will phcking delete Amanda. You will phcking delete everything that’s on this damn RK900’s hard drive and you will get my love back into his own body, understood?’ ‘Of course, Gav!’

[Mission failed.] It flashed over the RK900’s HUD before he was deleted, but it happened without emotion. Emotions were inferior to logic.

[nekoabiwrites]

Of Princes and Potions 2 - Chapter 4

I return from America! Excited to get back into this after being starved of a creative outlet for the past two weeks!

AU: Royal/Fantasy Pairing: Logince Words: 2358 Warnings: Sympathetic Deceit, injury, mention of past war, mention of scaring, mention of pain, Deceit’s whole backstory is here and it’s sad af. Anything else, please let me know!

Summary: Logan and Demitri attempt to find their way back into the castle while avoiding heading back through town. Having this amount of time alone with the only other person they know who understand their situations seems to break down Demitri and he talks about his mysterious past.

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Word spread fast amongst the townspeople, so much so that the injured pair were forced to avoid entering town at all. The fear they held for what the townspeople may do in response to their secret being revealed was forefront and so they attempted to find another way back to safety of the castle. As they approached a spot where the walls of the castle grounds were visible to them, Logan noticed a familiar speck heading in their direction. By some divine happenstance, Strix was flying about and… coming right for them? Logan squinted harder, it looked as though she had something in her talons.

After dropping the items to the ground at her owner’s feet, she landed upon his shoulder and Logan couldn’t help but smile. “Thank goodness you found us, Strix.” He scratched her softly in praise, while Demitri knelt down to grab the discarded items.

The animal handler still winced when he moved his hands, but it was a necessary evil for now. “This owl of yours… How did it know?” Demitri asked, gaining Logan’s attention as he held up the piece of parchment and tiny bottle of ink.

Logan could only let out a soft chuckle, “She is incredibly smart. Somehow, she always knows what I need and when.”

Demitri had so many questions, but he decided to leave them for the moment. “Well, would you mind?” He held the items up towards the mage, “I would, of course, be happy to write something, but it would be quite painful in my… current condition.”

“Oh, of course.” Logan took the parchment and unrolled it, using his leg as a resting point. It was only then that he realised what he’d need to do. He turned to Strix, who was watching him carefully. Before Logan had even taken a breath to ask her, she turned and plucked a feather from her wing. She dropped it down into his lap. Both men were speechless.

“How the fuck.” Demitri muttered, looking at the owl curiously.

“I have stopped questioning her, quite honestly. I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand how she is able to simply know everything.” Logan spoke plainly, quickly scrawling out a short note to inform the king of what had happened as well as their general location.

That didn’t deter Demitri who was now engaged in a staring match with Strix, who was almost as interested in him as he was her. However, it had to be broken up before a victor could be named as Logan had finished the note and needed Strix to take it back up to the castle immediately.

“I have let them know where we are, so we should wait right here.” Logan said with a sigh, clearly exhausted as he sat back down after letting Strix go. His back still ached, and it stung with most every movement, but that was unimportant in this moment. He just needed to get back into the castle. Both of them did. Once that was done, then he could let his injury truly affect him.

Demitri had remained seated the entire time and was wistfully watching the owl fly off into the distance. He looked at his hands, seeing not only the deep cuts left by the creature’s horns but also the glimmering scales resting upon the backs of his hands. He turned to Logan, “I feel like I should be apologising to you…” His tone was amused and almost regretful.

“What for?”

“For bringing you out there. Had I not asked for your assistance, we wouldn’t have been found out, or did you forget that detail?”

Logan huffed, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, “While that it is true that this event could have been avoided for the two of us had you not brought me out here, the fact still remains that you could not have dealt with that creature on your own without getting significantly more injured. Especially when we consider your age.”

That prompted Demitri to glare at the mage, “My age has little to do with this.” Logan made a sarcastic noise of agreement, “That prince is rubbing off on you…”

They fell back into a silence, simply waiting. Then Demitri heard Logan let out a gentle laugh and turned to see the mage staring up at the sky, uncharacteristically wistful and seemingly sad.

“To think, we would both be found out at the same time…” Logan muttered.

The animal handler ruefully smiled, “Such an odd turn of events.”

“And after all you did to try and stop me from getting found out as well. I feel I should be the one apologising to you.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Logan gave a half-hearted glare in the other man’s direction. “Hush. Your limitations to my movement in and around the castle as well as your talk of horrifying consequences scarred me as a child! Even now, I still feel the effects of such manipulation.”

“I was simply doing what was done for me, Logan. The only difference was that I was kept outside, in the same room I still reside in. Almost as if… I were one of the animals…” Demitri trailed off, his eyes turning back to the castle walls. “It was all I knew, past the small amount I could remember from before I…”

The mage watched his companion carefully, seeing the way he tensed. Not once had they spoken in great detail about their situations, their pasts. They had known from the moment they’d been introduced about their shared heritage. In fact, it was the sole reason they were introduced at all. Logan had been picked up off of the streets after the king had found him being terrorised by some locals, despite him doing nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Demitri was still a mystery. He was a very young boy back then, likely around the age Logan was when he was brought to the castle. Yet he’d never spoken about it. Not to anyone besides Patton.

However, right here, in the presence of another who knew how hard it was, it seemed like Demitri’s walls were finally giving in. He sucked in a heavy breath before letting his body entirely collapse in on itself. “It was during the massacre. I remember being so young, I couldn’t do anything. All the screaming and crying of people around me, it was terrifying. My mother had taken me somewhere she thought to be safe and she apologised with tears in her eyes. She said it was for my sake, that it would keep me out of harms way. Then she pulled them all out…” His hand ran down the scarred portion of his face, “It hurt. It was the most pain I’d ever felt. I must have tried to scream and cry, but my mother managed to calm me and keep me quiet. She was crying as much as I was. Once she was done, she made me promise. Promise I would never let them grow again, that I would do that and stay where I was, no matter what. And I promised. She went back out, I don’t know why, but that��� was the last I remember. I sat there, silently. Listening to all the horrifying things happening around me. Then it stopped. I must have been there for days, unmoving. I was so hungry, still in pain, so tired. I had started to cry, I barely remember making a sound. But I must have as another child heard me and came to find me. He stood in the gap that my mother had left through. He looked so confused as he stared at me. I heard him call for someone, but I was… so weak. I somehow must have passed out. Next thing I knew, I was in the castle infirmary.”

Demitri continued. He spoke of how the previous king came to visit him personally in the infirmary, how he promised to keep him safe, how he promised to never let him come to harm. In return for a place to stay and all the protection possible, the young Demitri had to promise the king that he would never go out of the castle grounds. But he still was far from free of trauma.

“I routinely had nightmares. I still do.” Demitri confessed, staring down at the grass below them, “They only got worse once I overheard a conversation between the old knights. I heard about how the captain had said awful things about me, what he would do if I wasn’t under the king’s protection, how he would make a spectacle of me. It was terrifying. But, just as I thought I had no one, the king summoned me and introduced me to the one who’d saved my life. Instantly, Patton became a close friend. He never looked down upon me, even once he learned of what I was. He wanted to play, like children do. He wanted to be a friend to me, and I cherish that sentiment everyday… even if the ache in my heart doesn’t want me to.”

There was a slight pause. Demitri looked a little unsure of himself and so Logan tried to press him, “Why does it ache?”

Demitri laughed hollowly, “Never speak a word of this to him, but, as time went on… I found myself loving him. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, as I was a child. But, once I knew, it was hard to ignore. Though the timing could not have been worse. Everything became far more complicated once Patton was forced to take over the throne due to his parents’ deaths and even more so once he was married.” The animal handler looked back over to the castle, a gentle sad smile on his face, “I have never mentioned it. I never will. It’s far too late now. I still owe him my life and it is not my place to even consider such thoughts. I’ve fooled myself for long enough now, I can continue doing that for the rest of my life if necessary.”

Another silence. This time, Logan had nothing else to press on. Considering that Demitri was around twice Logan’s own age, that meant this had all been weighing solely on his shoulders for quite some time. No one in the castle was close enough to him, besides the king, that they would have a single clue about any of this. He stewed over the information in his head, trying desperately to come up with something to say, anything that could be considered comforting or helpful. But Logan was coming up entirely blank. A soft grip on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts.

“You don’t need to think so hard. It’s not like you could change anything.” The scarred man said, lingering sadness coating his voice.

Taking Demitri’s words to heart, Logan acted without much thought. He leant over and circled the elder man with his arms, hugging him loosely. It was awkward and Logan’s injured back was protesting, but he wanted to do this. No, he felt he needed to do this for the man who’d acted as his father figure in the early years of his life, the man who’d looked after him in his own way for many years, the man who’d gone through such hardships and heartbreak for so long. The only person in this world who could truly understand Logan. He deserved this much.

It was almost hesitant the way that Demitri returned the embrace. Not only was this a complete surprise from the usually stoic mage, but the man was clearly badly injured and Demitri didn’t want to cause any further discomfort. As the seconds passed, he found himself relaxing more and more. The physical comfort was something he’d rejected for such a long time, but it was really helping him in this moment. He rested his head down against the mage’s shoulder as all the repressed emotions bubbled up to the surface and, for the first time in years, Demitri began to cry. Tears spilled from his eyes in a rush, he began to sob, and he gripped the man before him tight. It was almost as if the fear he’d felt all those years ago was back. He was scared he’d be alone again, that he’d be abandoned and left for dead. Despite that now, as an adult, Demitri understood why his mother did what she did, it still didn’t rid him of the fear of abandonment he’d held close to his chest for all these years.

The two men stayed in the embrace for a while. Logan, despite the sharp stinging pain and slight awkwardness, wasn’t about to let Demitri slip from his grasp while he was in such a vulnerable state. He had nothing to say but Logan presumed that it wasn’t to be an issue considering the fact that the animal handler was sobbing loudly into his shoulder. They had no idea how much time passed, but the approaching sound of beating wings had Logan looking up from his current position on the ground.

Allegria touched down just beside them and Roman dropped down off of her back in a flash, falling to his knees beside the two men, “What happened to you both?! Logan, your back is-”

“I know, Roman. It’s okay. We just need to get back to the castle as soon as possible. We would have come back through the town, but we feared the worst.” Logan cut their story short. Despite Roman’s protesting and constant questioning, Logan refused to give anymore details until they were back behind the safety of the castle walls.

The pegasus was none too pleased to have to carry Demitri along with her rider, but she allowed it only at Roman’s request. The prince pressed a kiss to Logan’s hand, promising he’d be back to pick him up before he knew it. Logan felt a soft warmth spread through his system at the touch, quelling a small amount of the lingering fear that had settled into Logan’s chest. Perhaps everything would be fine.

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[in-tua-deep]

any more soul crushing five hcs u have in that brilliant mind of yours?

you ask for soul crushing but i have soft ?? i mean soft but also with hurt behind them bc that’s how i roll

Five’s primary social interactions in his entire life have been with children. With his siblings, who were children. The only other socialization he has is probably with other assassins and I have some serious doubts about Five actually deigning to socialize with his fellows given the office scene sooo

what i’m leading up to is the scene rattling around in the back of my head of one of the siblings making a deal with Five and Five in all seriousness raising up his hand with one finger extended and asking for a pinkie promise because you can’t break a pinkie promise and genuinely Five hasn’t spent enough time around other adults to know how to be an adult so even though he continuously insists he isn’t a child I definitely think he has some childish mannerisms simply because socially speaking he’s still a teenager oof

so honestly Five is a paradox of being both adult and child at the same time because while he was, physically, an adult, he’s never been socialized to be an adult? We teach our kids to grow up, we model behaviors and correct them, ground them when they sneak out and reward them for good grades and listen and advise and teach them how to apologize. We grow out of old habits when the people around us stop doing them and we notice that other people our age aren’t being ‘childish’ (of course, plenty of people realize that’s bullshit and go back to enjoying ‘childish’ things as they please) but Five never had that!! The only real adult role model he ever had was Reginald! That’s it! That’s his primary example of adulthood! Honestly no wonder he’s so messed up! And that’s all he had for forty years! And then he’s around adults again and they’re all time travelling assassins holy shit this boy has never had a healthy role model in his life

look I am fully aware that Klaus has taken the role of the Dramatique Bitche of the family but there is a second drama bitch in this family and it is Five. I mean he’s Mr. “That’s one badass stapler!” or how about cheerfully waving at an people who want to kill him and teleporting before they can put a bullet in him?? Mr. “I’M THE FOUR HORSEMEN” before vomiting on Luther’s shoes? I fucking love him and if you don’t think Five very much appreciates Klaus’s dramatic flair you’re wrong look at his proud smile at Meritech if you think him and Klaus don’t get into some absolute shenanigans you are incorrect they are dangerous together and feed off of one another’s chaotic energy

Five can’t lie well. Like, I yell a lot about what a manipulative little shit he can be, but he doesn’t lie well. He’s spent too much time alone and can’t hide his emotions like I watch him at the Commission HQ and he’s so clearly not going to bend to them bless his heart. He lies by telling the truth, but only a bit of it and allowing people to lie to themselves - he only gets as far as he does in the Commission because the Handler wanted him there and she offered him things she assumed he wanted (his old body, his siblings safety) and he asked to discuss those with her because he wants her to assume he’s planning on sticking around long enough to have those discussions, if that makes sense? And maybe if he has time to plan and rehearse he’s okay but lying on the spot not so great, he usually deflects with sarcasm (”What are you doing, Five?” “well i was hoping to escape my headache but you just won’t seem to leave me alone”)

craves approval but doesn’t know who he wants that approval from?? As a child he clearly spent a lot of time both hating his father and craving his love, and he hasn’t lost that. But Reginald is dead, and Five loathes the Handler and the Commission he wouldn’t look for approval there - but he has his siblings now? And similarly to with Reginald he both craves their approval and loathes that he craves their approval which can cause him to seek them out and reject them in equal turns which,, can give his siblings (and him) emotional whiplash tbh but i mean can you imagine Five actually confronting the fact that he craves approval?? he’d rather chew off his own foot

honestly though just give me some fluffy scenes where like,, a butterfly lands on Five and he’s just like ???? ????????????? or like if a dog runs up to him and he just,, doesn’t know what to do what that and Klaus encourages him to pet it or something and Five just being dubious and Klaus leading by example and just some nice bonding experience okay

honestly them all supporting each other and being a family is all i’ve ever wanted in life like please support this feral child because he’s going to be so very lost after they stop the apocalypse,, he doesn’t know how to interact with people anymore (Meritech people, Kenny’s mum, the guy at Griddy’s, he makes them all uncomfortable or snaps at them or doesn’t pick up on their cues - he doesn’t even seem to realize that the tow truck guy was weirded out by the conversation) and just leaving him to his own devices would be,, inadvisable

all of the siblings at some point have had to just grab five and make hasty exits before he genuinely murders someone though the fact that he allows it says that he realizes that his siblings probably have a better read on the situation/have a better grasp on ‘appropriate responses’ than he does

the biggest tragedy is honestly that five is intelligent enough to understand when he’s missing things and is intelligent enough to know his weaknesses with people (which is why he recruits Klaus to help with Meritech) and while ruthless allows his siblings to pull him back when necessary (Luther getting Five to not kill that guy, you can’t convince me that if Five was convinced killing that random dude would stop the apocalypse he would let the absence of a gun stop him - he killed someone with a pencil)

i just want him to be HAPPY