#hands are supposed to look ashy from all the fire

[sleepylabs]

[messenger-of-babel]

Reborn

Summary: Jason did what he swore he'd never curse upon anyone. It just so happened to be you he cursed in the process.

Word Count: 2.3K

Notes: Character death, greivous injury, language. I was actually so happy writing this one, I was thinking I was going to struggle with the prompt but it actually came to me with a lot less struggle than I was expecting. I'm a big Jason girlie so maybe this had a trace of self indulgence in there.

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"Hurry the fuck up!" Jason yells at Tim, hands pressed on the centre of your chest, blood trickling through his fingers. He hates the way the warm liquid seeps into the fabric of his gloves, sticky and wet.

"I'm trying the best I can," Tim grits back out, relaying something through their coms line while he runs to your side, dropping to his knees beside your body in the car wreckage. "Holy…" he breathes out, eyes flicking over your form in concern. Your eyes are hazy and your face is ashy, paling from the blood loss.

"Jason, I don't think we-" he says, picking up one of your limp hands in his own, looking to his adoptive brother with pity.

"Shut up and do it." Jason grits back.

He wasn't going to lose you. Not like this. Not before him, not because of him.

Drop you to work, that's all he was going to do. That's all he was going to do. It was late at night, and he had patrol anyways. You were going in for a trial shift that night at the security company, something that could land you an executive manager role and get you out of that shitty job waiting tables. Something that could get both of you into a better apartment, more independent, the start of your life together. When you first started dating he was more than happy to throw Bruce's money around, the billionaire had more than he needed anyways, he wasn't going to miss it. Yet you had begun refusing after the first month, saying you wanted to be independent, and he fell in love right there.

And is this where it got you?

No. That was still all him. He had picked you up in a simple car since he was staking out some gang causing issues around West End and needed to go on stakeout. No reinforced glass, no secret bat gadget hidden in the glove compartment, just some tinted windows. So, who even saw you getting into his car? Well, what was supposed to be just dropping you at work turned into a car chase while you held onto anything you could, screaming in terror. It wasn't often that Jason would be the one getting chased, and under any other circumstances he would have thrown the car into gear and flipped the tables on them.

But you were in the car.

So, he threw it into reverse and ran as fast as he could. It had all been for vain, a burst tire and shattered windshield sent the car spinning out to a side street, flipping as it hit the curb. The screech of metal was deafening to his ears, the crunch of glass ringing out around him as the world flipped one… two…three…times.

His lungs burnt as he struggled to escape from the seatbelt, head throbbing from the collision on the dash before he looked over to you. His heart stopped in his chest, unable to even respond to the calls of Red Robin over his com link, who he had contacted the moment a gun had been fired at the two of you. "Sweetheart?" his voice cracked slightly, unable to go louder over the ball of fear in his throat. You didn’t respond as he clambered from his seat, arms coming around your back to support you and drag you from the car. he hated the way the image of you, splayed over the glass covered dash, had burnt into the deepest part of his mind. He had dragged you to the shelter of the car, blood boiling in his veins.

Anyone who had come to follow up was laid across the floor in seconds, Jason standing in front of your body like a guard dog. He blocked as much of your features as he could, taking out each gang member that came to inspect the crash with frightening efficiency. By the time Red Robin had arrived on the scene, Jason was already cradling your body in the shadow of the car, desperately trying to stop the bleeding from the bullet wound in your sternum. The bullet wound that he might as well have put there himself.

This was his fault.

"This isn't your fault, Hood." Tim says, laying his other hand on Jason's shoulder, muscled tensed and ready to snap. "None of us could have predicted-"

"Shut up and help," he hissed, fighting to stop himself from crying behind his mask. He hadn't felt this terrified since he was a kid, back in that warehouse. He was stronger than that now. Strong enough that surely, he could help you.

Jason wasn’t oblivious to the pained and pitiful look cast his way. "Hood, they're already gone." he whispers softly, hands coming down to gently cover his still compressed on your chest. Jason shakes his head. "No." he chokes out. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no."

"Yes." Tim says firmly. "I've…I've got the car. I'll bring it round before the GCPD shows. We can handle this. We can take them back to the cave, clean them up like they deserve-"

"I said No." Jason snaps, blood rushing in his ears. He knew you were gone. He could tell from the way your blood went tacky on your chest, the stream trickling into a standstill. The way your face was devoid of colour, making you look shades lighter than he knew you were. Your hands were limp, head tilted. What was the worst was the way your eyes stared up into him, glassy and fogged, as if cracking open his soul.

Why did you kill me?

Why me?

Why didn't you save me?

He knew you wanted to live, god, he knew you loved life. Loved life with him, and he loved it back in return. If only you had been given the chance he once was. "Bring the car." he chokes out, eyes burning with a fierce determination.

"What are you planning?" Tim asks, hesitant as he sees the way Jason's body is coiled, ready to strike.

"We're going to save them." He says softly, hand squeezing your lax one tightly.

God, he just hoped you weren't going to hate him.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

"So, you tracked us down to ask for our services?" Thalia scoffs, circling the two of them. "Didn't think I'd have two birds on our doorstep, didn't your mentor teach you better?" she says disdainfully, eyes raking over Tim and Jason. Jason just holds your body closer, wrapped in a white sheet and cradled in his arms. Tim shifts uncomfortably, making Thalia's eyes gleam when she detects the weakness. "Oh," she purrs, almost delighted, crowding into Tim’s space. "You're off the record."

"This doesn't involve Batman." Jason gruffly says. "This involves me. This is my request."

Thalia's eyes flick back to him, but Jason doesn't flinch. He'd dragged Tim along as an accomplice, going dark on the radar as he returned to the alps, the one place he had sworn to never return to. To do the one thing he had told himself he would never force on anyone.

But he couldn't lose you.

"So, you think you can just show back up and ask to use the pits?" She asks, eyes flicking to your form in his arms. "My, you really are as dumb as you are bold, aren't you?" She hums. Jason remains still, eyes focused on the hooded woman in front of him.

"I'll owe you a favour." he says, without a beat of hesitation.

Red Robin's eyes widen behind him, domino mask unable to hide his surprise. "Hood, are you kidding? you can't just-"

"Shut it." Jason hisses back. "This isn't your decision. This is mine, consequences included."

Tim backs down only slightly. "You know what Batman will say. We can't trust these people; they'll use that favour to burn down Gotham. Think."

Jason tries to, he really does. He tries to see the big picture, but all he can see is fragments of you and your life together that was smashed the second he put you in that passenger seat. "I am." he says softly.

He could walk away now and save Gotham for sure, or he could stay and save his world.

Thalia sidles up to him, lips pulled into a smirk, like a snake rearing its head. "I could do you a deal if that's the case." she says, eyes sparkling like emeralds. "But you have to make good on it. You of all should know how we handle broken promises in the League."

Jason considers it for a second, before steeling himself. There was no other option for him.

"You have a deal."

"I knew bringing you back would be worth it." she smiles, like a cat batting a mouse between its paws. She turns, gesturing for them to follow her with two fingers. "Come." she commands, beginning a clipping pace through the carved stone hideout. Jason follows wordlessly, and Tim soon does a moment after.

"How long have they been dead?" she calls, not even looking back.

"Less than a week." he replies almost immediately. Thalia smiles at that, dark and curious.

"Oh? Snappy, I see. Who exactly is under that blanket to make you run to this corner of the world so quickly?" she grins, stopping at the entrance of a deep set of stairs. She stalks closer, steps echoing and deliberate. With a quick motion she pulls back the sheet from your stiff corpse, eyes raking over your face.

"A lover?" she asks, eyebrows raised at the way Jason holds you closer instinctively.

"None of your business." he replies gruffly, making her roll her eyes.

"We should've taught you how to be subtle." she murmurs, beginning to descend the stairs. He follows into the darkness, shadows beginning to give way to a soft green glow, bouncing off the carved stone walls. Tim takes in the room they step in to at the bottom, a grand, ornate space, yet somehow still appearing crude. Death clings to the atmosphere, cold and uninviting.

"Hood, is this where-" he begins quietly, but Jason cuts him off.

"Yes." he says as he follows Thalia deeper, feet stopping by the edge of the glowing green pool. Panic swirls in his gut, making his senses set themselves on fire. His mind races as he tries to control his own fear, to stop the metallic taste from rising in his throat. Flashes of his own time in the pool pry themselves into the forefront of his memory, making his fists clench in your sheet. He pushes them all down, taking a deep and shaky breath.

This was for you.

"Don't forget, you owe me." Thalia warns, gaze haughty as he kneels by the pool, unwrapping you from your blanket. His heart wrenches seeing your stiff body, eyes still open as if to judge him. When he's untangled the sheet from you, he slowly begins to slip your body into the water, Tim running his hands through his hair in worry behind him.

"Jesus…" Tim breathes, anxiety radiating off him as he watches your body submerge under the green glow of the Lazarus Pit. Jason doesn't move from his kneeling position, Thalia beside him as he scans the water for a sign of life, a sign of movement. A sign of you. After a few tense moments, it happens. A hand breaks through the surface, making Tim jump. Your fingers are clawed in pain, but he chooses to focus on the way your colour returns to the digits. You appear from the pit like you're drowning, eyes rolled into the back of your head as you breach the water. Your mouth is open in a wide gasp, screaming in unmeasurable pain. His heart tears itself in two and his stomach is in knots hearing you make that kind of noise, writhing and clawing at your face.

Thalia watches you scream and double over in the pit, making a mocking pout as madness clouds your eyes. "Aww, how cute. You're just like each other, a match made in hell."

"Shit…" Tim exhales, pacing back and forwards behind him. "Batman isn't going to like this. This isn't right, this isn't right…" he mutters, panic written all over him. Jason drowns both of them out, extending his hand softly towards you, leaning precariously over the waters to gently grip your wrist and guide you his way. He could fix you. he could fix this. He could make it all better.

He guides you until you're in front of him, the familiar burning smell of the Lazarus pit stinging his nose, a smell he struggled to describe yet it haunted him on random nights. His eyes soften under the mask as he sees the panic in your eyes, the shock of coming back paired with the madness fighting to grip your mind. The sound of your cries and screams echoed around the room, a sound so full of pain and fear that he couldn't help but flinch.

He could teach you, the way he was taught. He could help you get your feet back the soft way, a way he wished he could have been offered. He'd do everything in his power to make your second chance as painless as possible. He'd nurse your mind back if that's what it needed, calm the rages late at night if you had them. He'd take you in any form you came to him, growing pains and all. He'd teach you how to live again.

He only hoped that you wouldn't hate him forever for bringing you back.

[bunji-enthusiast]

Run, Run Far Angel

Note || I am obligated as a fanfic author to write this, sue me. I got attached to DogDay, and he deserved better in Chapter 3.

WC || 2,070

<(You are here)><(sequel part)>

Sypnosis || An unlikely shortcoming of a friendly entity, or, You get a new friend in spite of this hellish factory.

The noise that had buzzed in the far reaches in the depths of your ears had annoyed you to no end, insistent to remain with you. So many times over had your guilt marred your sense of peace, your sense of futility. Whatever control you felt you had in your life was completely gone the moment you had come back to the accursed place known as Playtime Co. Toy Factory. So many unruly things had gone here, things done and said that left you chuckling–few that had left you with regrets.

Regrets that had stayed with you for well over ten years, since your co-workers had disappeared. You always had a sinking feeling you knew well what had happened to the last of them, your friends and those that you had come to consider family. 

Then you fell into Playcare, a place once filled with laughter and joy, something of which was indescribable. To know the children here and being able to hear such joyful playing and sometimes the odd cry, it was fulfilling, now the whole Factory–every floor there was to know–was devoid of the very same life you’ve come to know and love all those years ago.

Now the only thing that had tormented your mind, as it always had been since you first arrived, was your fight or flight. Instinctive you were, but you hated every minute of having to run and hide away from the monster that had presided reign over their domain, on of which the very one you had to be stuck with was-

“Catnap?” You muttered, thumbing the scarred fur that was blotched with ashy spots, as if it were burned by fire. 

The small recreational stuffed animal looked so adorable for the most part, yet it disturbed you greatly, guilt was predominant in mind and body. In all of your years you had remembered working at the Factory you don't ever recall the name of Catnap, the creepy elongated mouth had stood out to you the most.

He was hunting you, toying with you for sport. You couldn’t really understand why he hadn’t just gunned you for killing you at a moment's notice, though you felt a breath of relief that you could buy yourself time.

Supposedly some of this relief is partial to the fact that this Ollie kid was guiding you on where to go, with how dark this place was is absurd to you–so the guidance was appreciated. A voice had finally snapped you out of your ever consuming thoughts, it was terribly the truth.

“Hey are you alright? Just press that button and you’ll be through in no time! The small critters cant seem to get you from up there so you should be alright.” Ollie, yes Ollie that is the kids name. Who is this strange person anyway?

Unfortunately you weren’t in a position to worry about that right now, you simply pressed the button with the help of your grabpack. Trying to remember all the hands you had now with you was troublesome, but you manage.

‘I suppose.’ You wonder if there is anyone in this place that won’t actively be out for your head, truth be told.

Maybe that was a miracle in mind, as you walked through the desolate rubble the air seemed to desaturate, a mist once permeated with dread and the iron taste of blood seemed to float away as you came across a surprising display. Gruesome but something nobody should have to see or experience. 

It seemed to be DogDay, you could've sworn coming across a cardboard cutout of the very same character earlier. 

He seemed to be so.. Sad.

“You…you’re Poppy’s angel. Come to save us. Nothing left to save, not here…You’re in CatNap’s home, angel. Their home.” His voice was broken, forlorn, vocal cords riddled with experience he never wanted to relive again. You felt saddened on his behalf, no doubt the pain he is feeling right now is tremendous. For a moment, silence had filled the comfortable atmosphere rendering you with a small pit of anxiety balling within your gut.

Still you feel as if you had to speak, but you allow Dogday to have his part, that much you could try to do for him.

DogDay’s head lolled about as if he were a ragdoll, the effort to make movement was extraneous. “A million pairs of eyes are on you now. Watching, waiting, hungry. They want nothing more than to crawl beneath your skin and eat away at you bit by little bit - fill what feels empty inside themselves.” Those words sparked an ire of curiosity inside your trodden heart, you wanted to help him now.

You needed help, especially answers too. He was in pain, and you wanted to help him, so to ease your guilty conscience a little; hopefully in the process of gaining a friend at the same time. “Catnap.. Just, I don’t understand him.” DogDay raised his head, looking at you wistfully as if he had expected the aforementioned cat to be brought up. 

DogDay winced as he moved, each little rattle sending painful vibrations throughout his body–the phantom legs hadn’t brought any peace to him whatsoever.

“That thing…CatNap. The Prototype is his God, and this is what he does to heretics.” His words carried an aura of ominous spiels, as if you were to heed this warning. “These little toys follow CatNap to avoid that very fate- and in return, they are fed.” 

In their place, you would take measures to avoid such a fate too if you would. To a point, you could sympathize with the small toys, not being able to do anything and the teetering possibility of being killed always hanging over your head. Knowing that alone is unfathomably terrifying.

“Would explain why they were hunting me previously..” You murmur, now tucking that thought to the depths of your mind. Still you wanted to hear out DogDay, for he knew better of what had gone on here then you did. His head had shagged, fur ruffled and dangling about as he had squirmed slightly.

“We tried to fight it, the Prototype’s control. I’m…the last of the Smiling Critters.” His tune was mournful, his friends really had been killed right before his very eyes. Catnap’s gas, you remember it well enough. 

You had to take a moment – articulate your words. You were completely filled to the brim with anxiety and alert, you remind yourself to not let down your guard in spite of being with someone who has no intention of wanting to kill you. “You had tried to escape, and he… knocked you out with his gas?”

DogDay’s brows creased, confirming your answer. You felt so terrible for him, causing you to be firmly set on a decision. 

You were helping him get out of here, in no way shape or form did you feel he should be left behind in shambles like this. “This is probably going to sound, insane. But I’m gonna help you get outta here.” Dogday perked up at this, nodding his head no.

He certainly didn’t want you to die, especially not on his account.

“Angel that is not wise! I will slow you down.” He persists, “Listen to me, you need to get out of this place. You need to live. You and Poppy can fix this, end this madness, the torment–” You didn’t want him to change your mind, so as immediate as you were, You desperately grabbed at his arms.

Quickly and surely enough the small critter toys had began crawling toward DogDay, you certainly would not put up with that. You fired a flare gun at the small critters, as much as you could so you could buy time to get DogDay out of his chains.

It seemed Dogday had sensed your determination to want to help him in spite of his warings, even with how much he had tried to convince you to leave. “You are doing well Angel, keep them away from me.. I will do my best to free myself of these.” His voice felt strained, cut off with a cough as he wriggled free–even if every brittle bone in his body had begged him to just lay there and rest.

You thanked him silently, continuing to work away at the critters who were highly determined in their goal to possess DogDay and resume their chase to kill you. “I am free! Quickly now Angel, quickly.” He ushered you forward to run right away, you picked him up as soon as he had done so and heaved him over your shoulders with a heavy breath as a display of your efforts. To say he was surprised at your willful strength was an understatement, he silently applauded you for your strength to keep moving.

Though, it hadn’t removed any of his worry for you as you continued to run forward, your muscles straining to keep up with your mind. From what he can understand of humans anyway, you were exhausted, though he felt it wasn’t right to speak out on it anyway–safety first before talking. 

“Almost there, Angel.. You just need to get to that elevator over there!” He jabbed his finger in the direction you needed to go, and you went on instinct with his direction. Your muscles ached and burned, but you could rest as soon as you reached the elevator, you couldn’t risk DogDay being left behind helpless with the small critters.

Speaking of which, they were still chasing you and your new companion. You wished they stopped, but you had considered an aforementioned thought, they only do this to ensure their fate wasn’t like his. Since then this has wildly changed.

You were close to the edge.

Then, you leaped, everything seemed to slow down. DogDay held on tightly, hands wrapped around your neck secured tight, to you it seemed comforting in the depths of your sudden despair.

You dropped right onto the metal plate, which luckily had railing. The door shut right behind you as DogDay had quickly made action to press the button to start up the elevator nor long after you had succeeded in jumping to the elevator. He slumped with a sigh, something you could very much agree with, sitting down with a thump following in your wake. 

Truth be told, you weren’t sure of how much more you could take much more of this nightmare. You may just as well be in a very long dream, and you were just actually sleeping at home, but no way however as the exhaustion had finally settled into your bones. 

Weary bones creaked about as DogDay made an effort to check over your slumped body, wanting to ensure you were not injured anywhere before he spoke, “Whatever questions you have..” He paused for a moment as if he were considering his words, something of which seemed to happen to a lot of people and toys alike in this Factory. “I will answer, rest for now first.”

DogDay was being his typical self, always so worried over someone else before considering his own health. His own legs being severed must be a great deal of pain, you wanted to ask him to rest too. Yet, you were too tired to respond, only nodding curtly as sleep had stolen you away from your awakened consciousness. 

A genuine smile seems to relax DogDay’s expression, you sorely needed rest. He would help you get that rest, things to talk about and things to face would come later. “You have done impossible things, you have run far. Thank you.” He quietly spoke, curling up to cuddle you. 

His head laid to rest on the crown of your head, hands and arms elongating ever so slightly to surround you in his warmth. DogDay was a leader, a friend, but he was also a good napping buddy. That much was certainly no lie to be told. 

Silence seemed to fill his ears now, sleep was creeping up to DogDay as well. Ah, he cannot sleep right now. You were in his care and vulnerable, especially considering you had gone through the trouble of freeing him. 

To those tormented, the madness had enraged man and toy, you were their saving graces. Someone they could get behind, without the utmost support where would you be now?

“Night has fallen, but for you I will do my absolute best to help you, Angel.”

[kaiserposting]

Michael Kaiser — Pissing on Romance's Grave

PAIRING: Michael Kaiser/Reader WORD COUNT: 1.3k TYPE: Humor, Established relationship WARNING(S): tw Kaiser

Today is worse than a plague.

Well… Exaggerated inner turmoil aside, you’ve been having an awful day. It’s like you’ve been waddling through a swamp of bullshit. Even now you’re climbing up the stairs to your apartment because the stupid elevator broke. Could’ve been worse, you suppose — at least you weren’t inside when it malfunctioned.

The feeble attempt at optimism, however, isn’t easing your hatred and misery at all. Proof of your ever present anger is how you almost rip the door off its hinges after you unlock it, barging in, then closing it with a bang again.

While taking off your shoe, you register a strange smell. Of something burnt. Maybe you’re resigned to the fate that it’s probable you’ll die today, so while you are alarmed, it’s not enough to make you hurry and run with your other shoe still on. Even when you do begin your trek with heavy footsteps, your pace is brisk at best, following the scent right to your bedroom.

You don’t hesitate, but perhaps you should’ve, since it would’ve given you a moment to brace yourself. Still, nothing could’ve really prepared you for the sight that greets you once you enter.

“I can explain,” Kaiser says with wide eyes, reaching out his hands in front of him in case you try to lunge at him and go in for the kill.

Your bathrobe looks burned. Usually this isn’t an observation you’d be making, but you’re forced to now, what with Kaiser wearing it… for some godforsaken reason. Your bed is in even worse condition, tattered and covered in soot, melting candles knocked over. Wax sticking to the ruined sheets. Rose petals are scattered all over the floor. Many of them are ashy like they got caught up in whatever incident occurred. Three more candles dripping over the flowers and the carpet, all these things culminating in a giant mess.

What the actual fuck are you looking at?

“Open the window!” you scream at him then gesture towards it, maybe in case he doesn’t know what a ‘window’ is. It wouldn’t surprise you at this point with the way things are going.

“I did!” Kaiser says, annoyed, as if he has any right to be giving you an attitude in this situation. Though, recognizing the murderous intent in your face, he fumbles to reach out and open it. “I did, but I got cold, so I closed it.”

“Yeah, speaking of, why the hell are you wearing my bathrobe?”

“Because I didn’t want to bring mine-”

“Why do you need to be wearing a bathrobe. At. All.”

“For the atmosphere.”

“For the atmosphere?” You throw your hands up in the air in exasperation. “For the atmosphere?! There’s no atmosphere, this is just a fire hazard!”

“It was going to be romantic-”

“Why did you close the window even though the room hasn’t aired out and stayed inside? Why were you even- What if something happened to you?!”

Kaiser smirks at you, content all of a sudden, before he crosses his arms. You could punch him in the face. “Oh, so you’re worried about me. You’d be sad if I died.” He says all this in the tone of announcing a triumph he’s holding over your head.

You ignore him, stepping over one of the roses. Kaiser regards the action with mild offense, which you don’t notice, since you’re too lost in the haze of your rage to even comprehend what’s going on. “How did you even manage this?”

“There was a miscalculation.”

“What does that mean?”

“I, um, I… tried to pose on the bed,” says Kaiser. This is the first time you’ve seen him look shameful during your entire time together, averting his gaze away from yours and all. Which is one way to affirm his statement and plan are particularly stupid, since he’s the type to stare at you straight on, unflinching, and smirk at you while telling you the dumbest shit.

“Pose?”

“You know. You know what I mean, right? Like a French girl? Yeah, like that.” The more he explains it, the more pathetic his mumbling is getting. To think even Kaiser, who’s obsessed with the sound of his voice, is capable of an inside voice.

You’ve never been so tense in your life. You might be developing a hernia in your neck. “Oh right, of course. Right! Because why wouldn’t you do that while wearing something flammable? I’m so stupid, how didn’t I think of that? Also, why in the world were you trying to LIGHT UP THE CANDLES AGAIN?! Like, let them rest, they’re already fucking done for! I saw you!”

“For the- for my artistic purposes. Of course. A real visionary doesn’t just give up after a small mishap.”

“And! The key I gave you is for emergencies! Not for you to-”

“But it was!!! A fucking emergency!”

“-set fires in my home! What are you even doing here?” You finish off your speech with a huff. Your tantrum has exhausted you, but at the same time it’s convenient you can use Kaiser as a verbal punching bag because of his lunacy.

Now he’s channeling his kicked puppy eyes. Like, he’s trying his best to force himself to cry, you can tell by the way he’s squinting at you and straining. When the effort proves futile he gives up and settles for glaring at you. “Alright, I know I messed up, but it’s obvious I was trying to surprise you for our anniversary.”

You blink at him. Then stay quiet.

“You forgot!” he accuses, trying to distract you from being mad at him by creating some fabricated emotional torment. Then he tries to force himself to cry again, and all you do in response to the display is roll your eyes.

Damn, you can’t believe your day has been so awful, your one year anniversary slipped your mind. These people are working you to an early grave.

“Whatever,” you say, before making a vague motion all around. “Clean up.”

His jaw hangs open as if he’s scandalized. “What? You want me to clean this shit all by myself?”

“You inflicted this on my poor bed alone. Clean it, now.”

Seeing that you’re apparently not dying of guilt, Kaiser decides to switch tactics. “But! My beloved, light of my life, fire in my groin-”

“That’s-” you interrupt your own sentence with a groan and resist the urge to either sock him in the jaw or find a way to knock yourself out through some obscure pressure point. Then you shake your head. Unfortunately it does nothing useful like for example maybe erasing the last twenty-four hours from your mind and instead remains as a meaningless gesture. “Not how it goes.”

“I know,” he says, satisfied with himself and his ridiculous antics. At least you think he must be from his annoying, smug grin. Though immediately after Kaiser appears to get a mood swing because his lips twist down again. “I can’t believe you forgot about our anniversary, though. And now you’re making me act like a maid. Do I mean nothing to you? You’re breaking my spirit here and this is an unethical dynamic-”

“Micha, I don’t give a fuck about your guilt tripping act. Just clean this up so we can enjoy the rest of our day.”

“Fine. Whatever. You win. You win! Your heartlessness wins against my romantic soul. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

You grit your teeth. “Shut up and get on with it.”

“Okay.” He deflates like a particularly depressed balloon.

You then proceed to watch as Kaiser makes his way around and acts like gathering and throwing away rose petals is the most difficult thing anyone has ever done. In his mind, this experience must be the most suffering anyone’s ever endured — but who knows what goes through his head. Several times, he offers to buy you a new apartment because he ‘doesn’t feel like dealing with this’ and since it’s ‘below him.’

And the whole time you’re observing him and his behavior, you can’t help but wonder what mental institution this man must’ve crawled out of to then find his path leading to you.

[theodorequartz]

Hazbin hotel various x reader

[ His Companion ]

Prologue: A companion

Alastor walked to the empty streets of hell. The sky red and hollow. A circle illuminated the endless bleeding sky, it's a symbol which represents the ring of a sin. The sin of pride. What a beautiful sight, Alastor grinned.

Sounds of footsteps are the only thing that is heard aside from Alastors delightful humming and the sound of blowing wind. The streets empty and silent. Corpses scattered to the ground, blood painted to the plain concrete. Some buildings burning red with fire adding to the red complection of the sky, but not enough to copy it's sheer velvet color. It looked beautiful. The crunching sound of the burning materials adding to it almost made it calming.

Alastor twirled his microphonenic staff. His red eyes glitching as he wiped his blood stained lips, his wide monstrous grin never leaving his face. His golden sharp teeth glinted from the light of the fire as he licked them clean from the metallic wet liquid.

With a snap of his finger, an eyeball appeared. It was a beautiful shade of light blue with white iris. Alastor hummed. The color reminded him of what supposed to be the color of the sky in a warm sunny day back in the land of living. He rolled the eyeball in his fingers. This eyeball belonged to a friend back in the surface. What a shame. They were such great pals to. If only they didn't get in his way.

Alastor crushed the eye, leaving nothing but red mush in his hand. The blood was warm, almost burning in his hand as he watched it drip down the already bloodied concrete.

It's only been a day since his death and a day since he started killing demons, bringing chaos, destroying turfs, broadcasting it all throughout hell to show his power. All citizen in hell must know which demon not to mess with.

The whirling sound of the radios around him echoed through the silence matching the chuckles released from his breath.

He looked up at the sky once more, his grin widening further. He spread his arms wide, presenting himself in this new world he now stands in. He laughed out loud, the buzzing sound of radio joining in. In response, radios around him released glitching sounds mixed with ear piercing ringing of microphones. This is power.

A sudden glowing light flashed from the sky. Like a twinkling star in an endless red void. It pulled Alastor in. Just as a siren lulling a fisherman further to the sea.

The glow faded, swallowed by the dominating color of red as it fell down. Alastor watched as a figure emerge from the light, falling a few distance away from him. The pressure from the fall created cracks from the concrete.

Alastor walked towards the figure. His each step becoming faster as he neared. He stopped.

In front of him was an angel. Pure white wings scattered to the pavement, contrasting the corrupted bloody red of his victims remains. White robes stained with the said blood and dust and scratches from the fall. Glistening [color skin] tattered with scars, old and new. Silky shoulder length [hair color] covering half his face. Long lashes hiding his eyes as they were shut asleep.

Interest surged through Alastors core as the crystal white wings slowly turned obsidian black. His pure robes corrupted into an ashy color. Alastor saw the fallen angel shifted and whimpered in his sleep. Alastor crouched down, lifting his hand to brush the silky hair away from his face. Alastors fingers glazed through the angels cheek. His skin is pleasantly cold against his warm ones. Alastors hand retreated and he rubbed his fingers.

The angels eyes started to open. Golden eyes peeked through the luscious lashes, it looked straight at Alastors bright red ones. The feeling of those beautiful eyes look straight at him send shivers to his bones pleasantly.

Without breaking eye contact, the angel sat up. Wings resting at his sides, the angel looked up at Alastor. Silence stayed between them. Still looking into each other's eyes, they examined each other. They looked deep into each other's soul.

Behind the echoing silence. An agreement. An understanding.

Alastor reached his hand out.

The angel finally broke eye contact and looked at the hand reached out for him. He lifted his hand.

As their hands made contact, a promise was made.

I shall be your companion, and you shall be mine.

[ Hello ! This is my first post on Tumblr! I came from Wattpad so apologies for my mistake. You could come see my stories there! @TheodoreQuartz0001 is my Wattpad account! ^^]

[blackcoldcrackedheart]

Remember when i wrote a fic about Tommy running into a fire to save Buck? Part two here and part three under the cut

Buck felt loopy as he opened his eyes, his mouth was dry, and he felt too out of it to freak out about how his lips stuck together.

He thinks he might have moaned too loud because he hears who he assumes to be Athena go “Bobby, look.”

Before he has the chance to call for Bobby, he feels something wet and soft touch his lips. The water is ice cold and it does little to wake him up, but it’s helpful.

“Buh-by?” his throat felt raw as hell but he finally was able to open his eyes.

“Hey kid.” Bobby greeted him with a warm and relieved smile, he picked up a small cup of water with a straw from somewhere and held it to Buck’s mouth. “Don’t talk just yet, docs were worried about your throat after intubating.”

Buck is sure he isn’t processing much right now; he still feels out of it but he had to ask. “I was intubated?”

Bobby turned pale, his brown eyes slightly widening as he nodded. Athena came into Buck’s view then, standing next to Bobby to wrap her arms around his arm. “You stopped breathing on the way here, Buck.” She told him knowingly, her eyes betraying how scared she was for him. “I don’t know what number of lives you’re on but we thought we almost lost you there.”

Buck winced as he tried to take a deep breath, “How long was I out for?” He doesn’t remember much, he knows he didn’t have a coma-induced lucid dream like before since he can remember going into the fire.

But he can’t remember how he left.

“Four long days.” Bobby answered with a long exhale, Buck felt guilty as he noticed how drained and worn-out Bobby looked while he stood over Buck. Bobby clearly hadn’t been resting well, his skin looked ashy, and he was fidgeting in place.

“I’m sorry.” Buck sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. He didn’t want to imagine how the others were handling him being out for four days, especially Maddie. “Wh-Where’s Maddie?” he thought he had spoken to her earlier, but for all Buck knew, that could have been the drugs.

“She should be here soon.” Athena answered, a small smile cracking through her worried expression, “We told her to go home to rest, I think the doctors were getting worried about a pregnant woman sleeping in these chairs.” Athena joked, nudging her chin to the stiff guest chairs that were against the wall in the room.

Buck thought the cough from laughing was worth it, but it only made Bobby jump in worry and grab the cup of water again. Athena looked hurried as she went to run her fingers through Buck’s hair, the gesture was sweet and while it didn’t stop the cough out right, Buck felt oddly calmed by it.

“Thanks Athena.” Buck felt himself relax, missing the small exchange between the couple. “Are the others okay?”

Bobby took too long to answer that, but Buck chalked it up to maybe Bobby not wanting to stress him out with how the others were handling him being in the hospital. “The others are fine, Buck. They came to visit you yesterday. I’m supposed to tell you if you scare Hen again, she’s going to make sure to tether you to her for every call after.”

Buck was careful not to laugh that time, but his smile was short as he wondered something. “Bobby, how did I get out of the fire?”

“What?”

“The fire? I-That’s the last call I remember, did I do something else that put me in the hospital? Did I forget something?” Buck asked, trying to remember for himself what happened.

He might have forgotten something based on how Bobby and Athena looked at each other again, this time with something akin to fear written all over the faces. Bobby looked like he was bracing himself while Athena squeezed his hand.

“Buck,” Bobby cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable about how to answer Buck’s questions. “I don’t know how to tell you this but-”

“Evan, you’re awake!” Maddie’s excited presence caused all three of them to jolt in their spots. “How are you feeling? Did the doctor see you yet?”

 Buck felt something was wrong in his gut, he didn’t miss the odd annoyed look that Bobby and Athena shared this time.

“He hasn’t.” Athena answered her, she clapped her hands together, “I’ll go flag down his doctor.” She raised her brows at Bobby, earning a head nod from the older man.

Yeah, something was going on for sure.

“Thanks Athena.” Maddie went over to him, taking his hand in hers and pressing it under her chin. He could already see her eyes welling up with tears, “I’m so happy to see your awake and alive, you really scared me Evan.”

Emotional Maddie always had a way of making Buck emotional too, “I would promise this is the last time, but the universe really likes to make sure I break that promise.” He tried to joke, only for Maddie to make a face- clearly not liking the joke. “I’m okay, Maddie. Hazard of the job, right?”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Maddie scoffed lightly, “I still need my little brother and Jee and this little one.” Maddie gestured to her now protruding belly, “-need their uncle Buck.” She reminded him pointedly while sniffing.

“Yeah, you’re not getting rid of me, not yet at least.” Buck promised, his tone light in order to cheer up Maddie and Bobby. He turned again to the older man, “You still didn’t tell me what happened? Did the team pull me out or something?” Buck asked.

Before Bobby had the chance to answer, Maddie spoke up again. “Oh, before I forget. Mom and dad know, obviously. I told them the doctors were able to remove the endotracheal tube but they were still worried.” She touched his cheek, “They’re gonna be so relieved to hear you’re okay.”

“O-Okay.” Buck nodded, he looked between Maddie and Bobby. Unsure what was going on, but something was off. “Are-Are they coming to LA again?”

Maddie looked surprised at the ask, “They didn’t say.” Buck knew she was lying, he knew Maddie too well and when her voice went up an octave. “But I can ask them, I’m sure they would be happy to hear you want them to visit.” She teased, although it had the adverse effect on Buck. He didn’t like the weird awkward tension he was getting from Maddie and Bobby.

There was something going on…

“Bobby.” Buck ignored the heart monitor picking up, “What happened?” He asked firmly this time.

“Buck, you need to take a breather.” Bobby warned.

“Yeah,” Maddie echoed, she looked back to the heart monitor and Buck as it went up again, “You need to calm down, Evan. The doctors were worried about your heart after that much smoke inhalation.”

“So I was in the fire?” Buck asked, with the way Maddie looked alarm and guilty all in one it made Buck feel the need to press for answers now, “What happened? Why are you two acting so weird?”

Bobby and Maddie seemed to be only communicating with just looks and raised brows before Buck lost it, “What happened?!” he snapped.

“Buck, you need to calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down when you two won’t tell me-”

A strong knock had Buck pause to look up at Athena and Dr. Salazar coming into his room. “Mr. Buckley, I don’t know what’s going on right now, but you need to breathe and you two.” She pointed to Maddie and Bobby, “Need to go, now. You’re stressing my patient out right now.”

A nurse came through a moment later to take his vitals, triggering Maddie and Bobby to step away from Buck. “Hey- no, I need to know what happened.”

“What you need to do is relax.” Dr. Salazar warned, she leafed through her I-pad that contained Buck’s chart info, “Your heart went through significant stress, again. And the last thing I want is another firefighter coding on me again.”

Buck stood up straighter in bed, ignoring the poor nurse that was trying to fix his IV. “Another firefighter? Wha-Who was it?”

Salazar rolled her eyes, writing something down, “Mr. Buckley, you know I can’t disclose patient information like that.”

“Yeah but, was it a firefighter from the 118?” That would explain why Bobby and Maddie seemed so suspicious and guilty around him, “Was it Eddie or Chimney? Or-or Hen?” he asked, the monitor up ticking again, earning a glare from Salazar. She sighed as she told the nurse “Raise the dosage of Carvedilol by 2 milligrams before Mr. Buckley sends himself into cardiac arrest again.”

That did little to calm Buck down, he pleaded with Salazar as he felt himself became hazy, “Dr. Salazar, please you have to tell me who it is. I-it’s probably my fault that they’re in here. I think they were trying to save me.”    

For a moment, he thought Salazar would tell him, he saw a glimpse of guilt as she looked at him. “Buckley, go rest up. I’m sure your family will tell you what happened.”

‘That’s what you think.’ Buck thought miserably as sleep overtook once again.

-

When Ravi joined the Harbor, he and Lucy would joke about how they were officially out of the cool kids’ club since no one from the 118’s A shift would talk to them.

It was a joke that fell flat with Tommy, especially after he broke up with Buck, but Melton, Hiro, and the others found it funny.

The one thing that Ravi and Lucy appreciated at times was how the weird added drama that followed the A shift didn’t follow the Harbor’s A shift.

While Tommy had once mentioned how he liked how connected the 118 A shift was, how they were such a family, Ravi felt they were too co-dependent.

For God’s sake, Chimney and Buck were brothers-in-law, Buck was the guardian Eddie’s kid in the case Eddie ever died, Hen was besties with Bobby’s wife and Chimney, and the team practically had dinners with each other weekly.

But where he and Lucy thought it was over kill, Tommy seemed to revel in it. Admitting that he missed that when he and Buck broke up.

If only Tommy could see what was going on now.  

Chimney, Maddie, Eddie, Bobby, and Lucy were all arguing about if and when they should tell Buck about Tommy.

“Buck has the right to know!” Lucy pressed, staring daggers at Maddie who seemed indifferent to Lucy’s opinion. “Do you know how pissed he would be if he found out you guys were hiding the fact that Tommy almost lost his life to save Buck’s?”

Eddie looked rightfully guilty at that; he gave Maddie a disapproving look as the older brunette just shook her head in disagreement. “Buck needs to focus on getting better, we can’t tell him about Tommy, its just going to stress him out.”

“He’s already stressed Maddie.” Bobby pointed out tersely, “He knows something is going on and he does know that someone got him out of the fire, we’re gonna have to tell him.”

Maddie stayed quiet at that, lost in thought as she rubbed her belly.

“Maddie?” Chimney asked, he had agreed with telling Buck as soon as possible but did admit that he wanted to support Maddie since she was his wife. “They have a point.”

Maddie pursed her lips, staring owlishly at the group. “I know.” She admitted, rubbing her forehead as the exhaustion from the past four days caught up with her. “But regardless if we tell Buck now or tomorrow, it doesn’t change the fact that Tommy isn’t awake yet. I don’t need the guilt and stress about Tommy making Buck worse.”

“That’s not your call to make, Maddie.” Lucy snapped, arms crossed as she turned to Maddie and then to the others for support. “You might be Buck’s sister, but he’s not a child. He can handle knowing what happened.”

“Lucy, calm down.” Chimney warned, standing up from where he was leaning against the wall. “You can’t blame her for wanting to protect her brother.” He nodded towards the hall, “We know that Buck won’t take it well, do you know how long it took for Buck to get over Tommy? This is just gonna make him spiral more on top of having heart issues too.”

Lucy threw her hands up in the air, “What is the matter with you guys?!” she nearly yelled, this time it was Ravi that stood up to lay a supporting hand on Lucy’s shoulder, he knew Lucy rarely lost her cool- but Tommy was her ride or die since she had joined air-ops. If there was one thing about Lucy, she was fiercely protective of anyone who she considered a brother. “I know the 118 is family and they protect their own or whatever, but Buck isn’t a child or an idiot.” She sneered, looking at Chimney directly for that one, “Bobby already said it, he knows someone rescued him and he’s going to feel bad and guilty and whatever about it, but he’s going to want to be here for Tommy.” She pointed to the aforementioned man, who was still intubated and laying undisturbed as the others argued around him.

“I think we should tell him.” Eddie admitted once the group fell silent, he looked up. Knowing to expect pushback, he continued, “He’s going to have know eventually.” He reasoned, “It’s either we tell him now or later, either way he’s going to be pissed and he’s going to want to see Tommy.” He turned to Maddie this time, looking and sounding stubborn as he warned her, “I’m not lying to him, Maddie. I can’t lie to Buck so it’s not if we should tell him, it’s when.”

Maddie pressed her lips together, her eyes welling up with tears again. “I’ll talk to the Dr. Salazar. See if she recommends if we tell him now or later.” Her tone was cool though, she gave one last glare to Lucy who met her with the same energy.

Bobby gestured to Chim to follow his wife as he went to approach Lucy. “Listen,” he approached Lucy with his hands up in defeat, “I know tensions are high right now with everyone.” He looked at Eddie and Ravi as well, “But no one is trying to hide or lie about what happened, I know its important that Buck knows what happened but both Buck and Tommy just went through something physically traumatizing to their hearts, we need to make sure we don’t stress the out more.” Bobby told her gently, not missing how Lucy had scoffed in the middle of him talking and wiped away her tears as she turned to Tommy. “Lucy, no one is ignoring what Tommy did for Buck, no one from the 118 is going to act as thought Tommy didn’t save Buck.”

“As long as that’s the case, Cap.” Ravi couldn’t help but let a little ire bleed out in his tone, he didn’t want to blame Buck for what happened, but he couldn't help it. It wasn’t lost on any of them why Tommy went in.

He just wished Tommy didn’t literally sacrifice his heart for Buck’s sake…

Again.  

[blood-grove]

The Hunt

previous hunt <- part 2 -> (hunting)

x tws; violence , blood , injuries , gore , slight suggestiveness , sickness. <- more will be added possible depending on the part.

x pairings; soap x male!reader (😲)

x characters; soap , ghost , price , gaz + (others will maybe be added? idk ive never written a whole lot of characters cuz i get confused in my own head)

Soap ran his hands through your hair gently scratching your scalp as you purred lowly.

"God ah loue hearing ye purr git a real overgrown moggie as mah boyfriend dinnae ah?" Soap mumbled as he moved his hands to your face tilting your head up enough to look up at him from his lap.

"Such a nice view mm?" Soap grinned as he gently reached hand down brushing over the slight stubble around your chin and cheeks you preferred a clean shave and had quickly learned how to do it yourself.

Especially after all the cuts Johnny gave you trying to do one side of your face.

"Mm.." You hummed as you shifted in the water a near by lake you both have found yourselves at to clean up clothes set aside Soap always carried another pair for the both of you.

Your medallion hung heavy on your chest when clothed you always hid it so you didn't feel like it getting stolen and shifting into a giant dragon while out shopping would be ideal for you and Soap's little business venture.

"How much do we have now..?" You mumbled as you focused on washing instead of Soap's touch.

"Mm..We lost a guid bit we hud tae rush tae th' lea back then..we got 300 silver from you..We'll have to eat today so that'll be around 40 ish- We have about uhh mm.." Soap went quiet in thought as you huffed silently washing some more mud off yourself.

Money.

It had been a problem for you both you could never kept it.

You both had gotten greedy one village ago too many dragon attacks the dragon causing no damage and not even stealing livestock.

They figured you out.

You panicked.

And all remains is a burnt ashy waste.

You tried to repress the memory they were going to hang Soap what else were you supposed to do? You can't take on a whole town, You didn't have Soap's wit and agility especially not back when your human form was still so fresh.

For being such a strong creature you felt helpless in that moment, Soap still wore some scars from it all.

You shook your head as Soap's concerned look brought you back to the present.

"You okay love?"

"..Mm..Yeah.." You nodded as you gently nuzzled him slightly before going to get and dry off with the cloth you both brought.

"...Alright..I think we've got around 1,200"

"..Still not enough.."

"Yeah.."

For the rest of the evening you both ate and soon found an inn to stay in, You both planned to leave before dawn you didn't feel like getting up so early, especially with the cool chill of the twilight air.

You weren't cold-blooded per se but heat has always been a luxury to bask in getting in enough rays just to wake you up enough has always been a pleasure.

But being a literal fire-breathing creature meant your core ran warm perfect for Soap to cling onto too And an excuse to bury his face in your chest.

You didn't mind of course you always woke up to him running his fingers through your hair or sometimes he'd be sketching while one hand rested somewhere on you.

You feel you hit the jackpot with him he's always been physically affectionate yet he never overstepped a line you both hadn't crossed yet.

It was way past dawn when you both woke up again.

You were the clingy one this morning as you tried to keep Soap in place despite his groggy voice mumbling that you both had to get up.

You refused.

He stared at you as you admitting childishly locked your body around his limbs looking up at him.

"Oh noo whitevur shall ah dae a dragon haes me trapped in tis sleepy embrace..maybe a few kisses wull convince it tae let this poor warrior go?." Soap grinned as he looked at you cupping your face as he freed his arms.

"Possibly..I don't know the dragon has a very high kiss toll..I might have ta' turn you into a pile of ash if you don't abide by it.." You teased as he gently pecked your forehead.

"Ohh I'm sooo scared" He chuckled as he finally leaned down and embraced you into a kiss which you quickly melted into letting the rest of his body free as his hands slid down to your hips gently squeezing them as he deepened the kiss.

Soap chummed as he pulled away placing a quick on your forehead before he slipped away.

You both finally got dressed properly as you both packed up and got ready to leave.

Today is another day and another village was ripe for the pickings.

In your head it sounded sort of like thievery.

Maybe you both were scam artist thieves and not relieving people of there excess wealth.

Maybe you were both bad people scamming and scaring the richer folk.

Nah.

It took a week or so to reach the next town and you were both back to your routine.

Soap headed to the nearby guild or tavern if there wasnt a guild, He had a knack for charming the drunk passerby with his exaggerating his dragon slaying tales.

You just hoped he wouldn't get too drunk on the first day here.

You on the other hand were scouting out the town maybe getting a few treats for you and Soap.

You were so preoccupied in your thoughts and potential sweets you would buy you bumped into what could only be mistaken as a brick wall sending stumbling back.

"Ah fuck- What the-"

"Sorry."

You flinched at the voice as you looked up meeting not a magic talking wall which you would have preferred but a man tall and draped in dark clothes and a hooded cloak a skull mask fitted on his face and cloth covering the rest of it.

You got up quickly as he picked up your satchel and book holding them back to you as you stood there for a moment before finally composed yourself.

"Ah um- No its alright I wasnt paying attention."

He just hummed which you couldnt decivier if its good or bad.

"Wheres the guild house here?"

"Uh um I think back near the far markets and again I'm so-"

He just left following your honestly vague directions.

"Oh.. uh okay."

Weirdo.

a/n; sorry if it isnt that good just got back from vacation

[mollymauk-teafleak]

the moon will sing (chapter two)

chapter one

Sorry this took so long to complete, tragically I'm not paid to write buddie werewolf fic. Huge and endless thanks to my darling gf @hangsters for beta reading

Please consider leaving a comment over on Ao3 and reblogging!

-----

Evan Buckley wondered if it was some kind of grand message from the universe when, not an hour into his drive towards a new life, his truck broke down. 

He didn’t notice it was happening until it was too late. If he’d been paying attention, if he hadn’t been so swept up in the hopeless tangle of thoughts inside his head, he might have noticed the engine making the particular whine it did when it wasn’t happy, he might have noticed the usual orchestra of rattles and wheezes had shifted pitch in an unusual way. 

But, the same way everything had been happening to him lately, Buck didn’t notice what was going on until he was rolling to a stop in the middle of the road, the engine hissing, smoke curling from underneath the hood. 

“Shit…” Buck groaned, throwing the door open, rushing around to yank open the hood and immediately get a face full of reproachful black soot and heat, “Shit, shit, shit…”

The engine looked like a mechanic’s nightmare, a patchwork of parts that made no sense together, that shouldn’t have even fit in the spaces they were crammed into, like a child’s drawing of what an engine might look like. But that wasn’t the bit that worried Buck, the truck had looked like that for years. The bit that sent his heart crashing to the bottom of his boots was the black streaks clinging to the greasy metal, the wires that had turned completely to carbon, curled like muscles constricted in pain. 

The truck that was supposed to get him to California, that was supposed to carry him on to something better than everything that came before, had literally set on fire after about a mile. 

If this was a message from the universe, it had a pretty messed up sense of humor. 

Buck braced his hands on the edge of the hood and tried to take deep breaths. Tears pricked at his eyes but he was determined not to let them fall, he’d cried more today than he had in the past ten years and the sun had only been up for an hour. It was just a truck. He wasn’t going to start bawling over a truck. 

Not even the truck his sister gave him. Not even the truck that was the only present he’d ever gotten from anyone. Not even the truck that had been his only real home ever since he started hunting, the home he’d shared with Maddie for years, the truck that always felt safe and warm, no matter what kind of hell they were driving through. Not even his truck. 

Buck took another ashy tasting breath and made himself walk back to the cab, digging out the map of the area he was currently driving through. He felt a fresh wash of guilt as he saw the area he’d marked out as the werewolf’s territory. Though whether it was guilt over wanting to kill the creature or guilt over not doing it, that was hard to say right now. 

So he pushed it out of his mind and focused on figuring out where the hell he was now on this expanse of creased paper, which little capillary of a road was his current spot in the middle of this particular nowhere. He finally found it, following the winding branch for much longer than he would have liked before seeing a town. Even the map seemed to know that town was a very generous name for the tiny little dot but it was something. Something that hopefully had a garage and a half decent mechanic. 

Buck took a deep breath, trying to push back that tight, panicked feeling, the press of all the questions he couldn’t answer. It was fine. It was all fine. This was just a minor setback, a pause, a funny story to make Maddie laugh when he got to California. He would find out what lay around beyond the edges of the map in his hands and just trust that it would be something good. 

He left the map in the cab and moved around the hood again, ready to rig some fix that would take him those last few miles into town. There was some wishful thinking, far more likely he was just fighting to shorten the amount of time he’d have to push the damn thing. Either way, the only way to go was forward. 

Into what, Buck didn’t know. But he did know he was scared as hell. 

-

The day after the full moon felt like being underwater for Eddie.

It wasn’t just the bone deep exhaustion, the nerves scraped raw by too much adrenaline burned off too quickly, it went deeper than that. Every limb felt heavy, there was a dragging friction to every movement that was infuriating. Every sound was muffled, every smell was teasingly faint. It was being underwater, missing air, missing oxygen, missing something you’d never even thought to worry might be taken away from you. Because why would the world be so cruel, to rob Eddie of something he needed to live?

He knew Chris found it hard too. He was growing, in both bodies, and starting to feel the pressure of being pulled between two worlds, between the town and the forest, between the wolf and the boy. It was hard enough for Eddie, resisting the temptation of a mind free of anything more complicated than run, feed, wander. For Chris, the wolf body meant legs that didn’t fight against him for every step, muscles strong enough to bear the spasms that ran through them, a body that could get up and keep going when he fell. 

No wonder he’d been quiet as Eddie tucked him into bed, drawing the curtains to keep out the rising son. There’d been none of the usual, playful attempts to squirm away and beg for another story, a glass of water, or shifting and making Eddie chase him through the house and drag him back by the scruff while both of them giggled helplessly. He’d just murmured good night, turning after Eddie kissed his cheek, pressing his hand against the spot like he was trying to hold it there. 

Eddie had told him it would all be okay. He’d told him the feeling would fade with a good day’s sleep and a warm meal, he’d told him every full moon got easier. 

And then, after he’d lingered in the doorway until his son’s breathing grew steady and gentle, Eddie had come downstairs to the garage. He’d lifted the shutter, thrown it wide, and stared into the sunrise for an hour until the sky was bright and the full moon had been completely stolen away. And he’d felt so, so empty, the only thing left rattling around inside him was the lie he’d just told his son. 

As soon as the sun was up, Eddie forced himself to turn away. There was work to be done, now he was Edmundo Diaz again, taciturn but reliable mechanic for the tiny patch of the middle of nowhere the people called Moon Falls. This was his life now and he’d live it best he could, he’d make sure he was grateful for every moment. 

Because even if he was forced to live between two worlds, they were both better than the one he’d left behind in Texas.

Christopher could sleep off their hunt for most of the day, if he wanted, but Eddie had work to do. You survived in towns this isolated, this insular, by being useful and, sure, most of his customers didn’t have any other choice but to come to him when their vehicles broke down but he didn’t want them to resent that fact. He did good work, he did it fast and he did it cheap. That way the folks in town would nod politely to him when they crossed paths in the one general store, the one diner, the one main street and, more importantly, they’d keep their noses out of his business. And Eddie had more than his fair share of things he needed people to turn blind eyes to.

So he buried himself in work, in the partially dissected but slowly reforming little car that belonged to Mrs Gonzales. How a tiny old lady drove like a nascar adrenaline junkie was beyond him, he had to rebuild the damn thing every six months or so. He was well practiced at it by now, the motions comfortable and well worn, so much so that he found himself wishing Mrs Gonzales had put her foot down a little harder. He needed something challenging, something to keep his brain focused on anything but the woods. 

Anything but the stranger who’d stumbled into them last night. 

Just thinking about him made Eddie’s blood run hotter, made his claws press at his nails and itch furiously. The way he stank of silver and wolfsbane and gunpowder, the way he’d trampled through their forest, their home and laid his cruel traps, turning their place of safety and freedom into a knife held at their throats. 

Emotions were simpler as a wolf but they were felt more keenly. Eddie could still taste the fear and fury that had rushed through him when he’d found that first trap. He’d seen it immediately, he knew to expect danger around every corner, even when he felt safe. But Chris didn’t. Chris didn’t know any life but the one Eddie had built for him, a life where he was protected and didn’t even know what silver smelled like. Where he didn’t know how cruel humans could be to creatures they couldn’t tame. 

When Eddie heard the howl of pain from Christopher, he realized he’d failed.  

He’d been ready to tear the hunter apart for that. For making his son know the bite of silver, for making him feel the same pain and the same fear Eddie had grown up feeling. Even now his hands were shaking, desperate to rip something to shreds at the memory of his own anger.

But then the hunter had done something almost worse, something Eddie hadn’t seen coming. He’d freed Chris. He’d helped him, he’d spared his life instead of taking it. Eddie would never believe it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. 

And now he had, he was forced to stand here and doubt everything he’d ever known about humans. Years worth of bitter anger and hate, hardened by time into armor, had cracked and now the questions were flooding in, making him feel small and weak all over again. Making the scars on his wrists ache. 

Eddie shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to push everything away apart from the wheel mechanism he was oiling. Maybe he should have killed the hunter, maybe he shouldn’t have. Maybe he made the right call, maybe he didn’t. It was pointless to wonder about it now. The man was gone, stolen away like the full moon. If he knew what was good for him, he’d left the mountains far behind, fleeing back to civilization, hopefully with a large black wolf now stalking his nightmares. Eddie would teach Chris to be more careful, he’d cover their tracks more diligently and he’d put those questions to rest. 

One human’s moment of guilt fuelled mercy didn’t wipe out years of captivity and suffering. No matter how blue his eyes were or how his blond hair curled. 

Eddie’s brow tightened as the storm inside his mind dragged those particular thoughts up onto the shoreline. He quickly chose to blame his instincts, the full moon pulled certain baser needs along with it, ones he’d gotten well practiced at ignoring over the years. It was just the wolf, that was all. He’d throw it a bone soon, get Mrs Gonzales to watch Chris and drive a few hours into the nearest city, go to the bar with the dim lights and the expensive beer and the music that pulsed like a racing heart. He’d let the wolf choose a willing guy, take him into the back alley and pin him up against the wall, let the need burn off in grasping hands and dripping sweat and nipping teeth. A guy who had an apartment close by they could go to or a car in the lot, a guy who wouldn’t mind when Eddie crept out in the early hours without giving so much as his name. 

Maybe a guy who had blonde curls and blue eyes and a tight jaw. Maybe a birthmark over his brow. 

Eddie had never been so grateful to hear a car pulling up outside the garage door, a car he’d never heard around town before. He needed a goddamn distraction if he was really standing here, fantasizing about the man who’d set out to kill him. 

“Be there in a second!” he called, voice a little rough around the edges, he’d sound a little growly for a day or so after the full moon like his vocal cords needed a longer while to remember how to work.

The answer he got was lost in a truly awful sound from the engine, so bad that Eddie winced. Already he was making a mental list of the many, many things wrong with the poor vehicle waiting outside as he went to grab the least filthy cloth he could find and wipe his hands down. He could already say with some certainty, based on sound alone, that the smartest, kindest thing to do was to send this stranger on to the junkyard. But with his thoughts still racing and his anxiety itching at his skin, he was already straining towards a challenge, a problem to fix, something to bring him back to clear, simple thoughts. The customer waiting outside his garage might be exactly what he needed. 

Eddie was pleased that even his useless, muffled human ears had successfully identified the classic Bronco, even before he saw it smoking mournfully in front of the garage. It was a thing of beauty really, patchworked together and mud splattered and clearly running on pure stubbornness. Eddie had been right, he didn’t know this truck, but he desperately wanted to. He wanted to open it up and see every fascinating little homemade quirk, he wanted to see every patch and ingenious fix that had kept it going so long, he wanted to know the story under its hood and help it wheeze and rattle on to the next chapter. 

Already Eddie felt more comfortable, more certain, his human skin stopped feeling like too tight shoes, started feeling slack and comfortable like the overalls he wore, his name stitched on the chest. Eddie Diaz. Everything was simple again. 

Until it wasn’t. 

“I’m really sorry to do this to you…”

Eddie froze, muscles locking tight as adrenaline flooded through him. The world shrank down to simple choices, the only choice for a wolf trying to stay alive in this human world. Fight or flight. 

Because he knew that voice, he knew those footsteps. They were the same ones that had shattered the safe home he’d built for his son, that had come trampling into their territory. The ones that had made Eddie feel small and scared again and reminded him how heavy silver chains felt around his wrists. The ones that had made him question everything he knew about humans. 

The hunter with the birthmark over his eyebrow walked around the Bronco. 

Eddie could feel the fangs pressing on his gums, the claws itching under his fingernails. He’d been wrong, of course he had, he’d been a damn fool to ever think otherwise. He should have killed him back there in the clearing when he had the pull of the moon behind him. But he didn’t, he’d hesitated, he’d let the weakness show and now the hunter had changed his mind, he’d tracked them down. He’d kill Chris, he’d take his son from him, unless he acted now-

“I know it’s crazy early, you probably aren’t even open yet but my truck died on me back there and you’re the only place around?” 

There was no gun, no chains, no silver knife. The hunter just stood there, looking apologetic, shy even, like it had been a long time since he spoke to a stranger. He looked different through human eyes, in the light of the morning. Softer, a smile on his lips, an easy way about him as he wiped dirt from his hands on the back of his jeans. He stood in the middle of that sunny morning like it was exactly where he was supposed to be. 

Eddie felt the wolf retreat, sharing his uncertainty. The hunter had no idea. He didn’t even know he was a hunter right now, he wasn’t looking at them as predator and prey, those titles shifting by the second. He was just looking at Eddie Diaz. 

Good. Eddie didn’t want to think it but the thought was there, whispered by the cold, flat voice of instinct. Strike. Now. Before he realizes. 

He knew he should. This man was only standing in his garage because he’d come to kill Eddie, kill Chris. It was his purpose, his pull, he answered to the silver the same way Eddie answered to the moon. Even if this wasn’t some elaborate play to catch them unawares, the moment the man realized who Eddie was, he’d become the hunter again and he’d pounce. So Eddie had to pounce first. He had to do anything to protect Chris, he wouldn’t let him down again. 

Eddie knew all of this but still, he didn’t move. He hadn’t been able to understand the hunter’s hesitation in the woods, he’d been driving himself mad trying to figure out why the man had decided to go against everything Eddie knew about humans, why he chose to break rules so firm that they’d left scars on Eddie’s skin. 

But now, he felt like he got it. 

“It's all good,” he kept his voice steady, glad that a lifetime of hiding lycanthropy had made him an excellent liar, “Can't exactly choose when a disaster happens, after all. I’ll get you back on the road.”

He wanted to protect Chris, more than anything. But if he could do that without spilling the blood of the man who’d spared his life, Eddie felt like he wouldn’t just be protecting him in the moment, he would safeguard something much more important. He didn’t want to be the reason those rules, the roles of predator and prey, snapped back around their necks. He didn’t want to hunt, he didn’t want to be hunted. 

So he would lie. And he would hope that fate would let one moment of senseless mercy answer another. 

Relief flooded the man’s face, though his laugh was nervous, “Maybe wait until you see the damage before you sign on. There was a…minor fire?”

Eddie’s eyebrows shot up, curiosity pulling him towards the truck, “Is there such a thing as a minor fire?”

“Well…”

Eddie had the answer to his question as he popped the hood and released a cloud of thick, oily smoke. Maybe there was such a thing as a minor fire but this wasn’t it. The engine was as interesting as he’d hoped but right now it was more of a cry for help, a roadside accident you couldn’t look away from. 

“Goddamn…” Eddie grimaced. 

The man hovered anxiously over his shoulder, “It’s really bad, isn’t it?”

He knew the answer to that. He’d clearly been devotedly maintaining this truck for many years and many miles; someone who knew nothing more than ‘cars have four wheels’ could see that this one was beyond fucked. But Eddie could see at a glance how much this truck meant to him. Like most people who lived at the fringes of society, this truck was his lifeline, his bridge to freedom, one of probably very few things that kept him from feeling powerless. Losing it would be like losing a limb. 

Eddie sighed internally. The universe was really making him work to pay off this debt. 

“It is bad. But that doesn’t mean we can’t fix it, it’s just gonna take some creativity. And a good few hours, you better settle in, sir.”

The man smiled at Eddie like he’d just handed him the sun itself, a grin so large and full of gratitude that he knew immediately he didn’t deserve it. He would never deserve a smile like that. 

“Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” he lifted his chin, his voice warm, “And enough of the sir. You can call me Buck.”

He stuck his hand out eagerly, blissfully unaware of the vast gulf he was actually reaching across. 

“Eddie Diaz,” he gripped it, feeling calluses that nearly matched his own, “Pleased to meet you.”

The universe was definitely laughing at him. 

-

The next few hours were some of the strangest Eddie had ever experienced. He didn’t know what to make of Evan Buckley, Buck to his friends, a category Eddie had apparently tripped and fallen into without even noticing. 

He talked the whole time they worked on the truck, chattering away with a brightness that was completely foreign in Moon Falls where people were born with their lips sewn shut. In fact, the only other person who talked quite so freely around here was Chris. Buck filled the empty space in the garage, putting the radio out of a job, talking about everything and nothing simultaneously, the way people did when they had to keep most of their lives a secret. Eddie admired it in a way, he’d always taken the safer path of simply saying nothing. 

He didn’t sit back and let Eddie work either, he didn’t retreat to the cracked leather sofa in the corner of the workshop with an ancient copy of Field & Stream. He rolled his sleeves up and stood across from Eddie, more than willing to stain his fingers and risk scraping his knuckles, immediately moving to help without even waiting for instruction or, frankly, permission. 

Eddie was almost insulted at first, territorial, ready to point out that if Buck was qualified to fix this truck, he would have done it. But he quickly realized that having an extra pair of hands was really useful, someone to pull wires aside for him or pass him tools or to help him untangle the labyrinthine guts of the now virtually homemade truck. He’d been trying to teach Chris the basics of the job for the past year or so and the kid learned fast, the way he always did, but that was doing two jobs at once, fixing and teaching. With Buck, he was working with someone, someone who knew what they were doing and also found it fascinating.

Eddie told himself he was relieved when Buck said he’d go over to the diner for some breakfast. He told himself he wanted a few hours of silence, that he’d get his head down and finally get the truck fixed so his debt would be squared and Buck could drive out of his life, taking his complications with him. 

Eddie told himself there was no spark of relief or anything warmer when Buck came back not an hour but ten minutes later, carrying breakfast sandwiches and coffees for both of them. 

“I don’t know how the hell you convinced Mrs Jones to let you have a take out order,” Eddie mumbled around a mouthful of bread, egg and cheese, perched on his desk, “Normally when people ask, she hits them with a wooden spoon and asks them where the fire is.”

Buck laughed at that, cross legged on the workbench, “Same way I convinced the mechanic to fix my car at half five in the morning. I turned on the charm.”

“Is that what that was?” Eddie raised an eyebrow, “Could have sworn it was pity I was feeling…”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he flinched a little, like his own mind had smacked him across the face. He was doing it again, being too sharp, too mean, saying things that made people take a step back and look at him warily. 

But Buck only grinned like he thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, shrugging, “Hey, that works too. Plan B was undoing a few buttons on my shirt and batting my eyelashes. Still might go that way if I don’t feel like paying you at the end of this.”

Instinct prickled across Eddie’s skin. He might be rusty to the point of uselessness when it came to friendly conversation but, even if it had been too long since his last visit to the gay bars in the city, he knew when he was being flirted with. 

He could hear that silent laughter again, the distinct sound of the universe fucking with him. He was about ready to laugh along with it, what else was there to do when the guy he was undeniably attracted to, who’d walked into his life in a Hallmark movie level coincidence, and who definitely also wanted to have sex with him, was also the guy who came into town to kill him. 

Eddie supposed there was one other thing, one thing he was exhausted and frustrated enough to do. He could flirt back. 

“You’re more than welcome to try,” he smiled, making sure his eyes stayed locked with Buck’s as he sipped his coffee, “So. Where’s this truck taking you once we resurrect it?”

Buck took a moment to answer, like the answer still felt strange to him, like it was a truth he didn’t carry close and had to dig around for, “California. Los Angeles, to be specific.”

Eddie leaned forward, he hadn’t been expecting that answer. He wasn’t exactly an expert on werewolves whose surnames weren’t Diaz but he knew that warm, sunny, built up cities would be the last place to find one. If Buck was still hunting, he was going in the wrong direction.

“That’s a long way to go,” Eddie observed lightly, “Trading trees for sand?”

“There are still trees in LA,” Buck’s crooked smile didn’t last long, slipping from his face, “I’ll miss the mountains though, and the snow. And the stars…but LA has my sister and, right now, going to her is the only thing that makes sense.”

Eddie just waited, unable to take his eyes from Buck’s face, stepping back and letting him say more if he wanted to. He was good at that, leaving silence for someone else to fill, the way the forest did. There were some things it only felt safe to confide to trees and moss and mountains.

The words came in a rush, like they raced free before Buck could stop them, horses bolting through an unsecured fence, “Do you ever feel like there’s no place for you in the world?”

Eddie’s stillness became something that was no longer a choice, every muscle in him snapping tight and tense. Whatever he had been expecting Buck to say, it wasn’t that, not a thought that he’d felt nipping at his own heels every day of his life. 

If Buck saw him flinch, he didn’t say anything, the words spilling out of him now that the damn had burst. 

“I just feel like everyone else knows who they are and what they’re supposed to do and…and I did once, or I thought I did. I thought I had a job to do, I thought I was being a hero, making sacrifices for a good reason. But I was lying to myself. Sure, I didn’t start the lying but I kept it going, even after Maddie tried to make me see. Because I was afraid. I was afraid of this, of having nowhere to go and nothing to do but sit and realize how much it hurts. I’m not…I’m not meant to exist. I’m a mistake. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”

The tears had come somewhere in the middle of it all, without his permission. Buck dragged a sleeve across his face, looking shocked to see it damp. Eddie blinked rapidly to clear his own eyes, set his voice on solid ground so he could speak without it shaking. 

Eddie didn’t know why he answered with the truth, of all things. Maybe because this whole day had been about repaying debts, keeping things in balance, and Buck’s reflexive purge of honesty deserved some in return. Maybe he felt sorry for him. Buck's face was like a mirror, reflecting every emotion, it was hard not to smile when he smiled, laugh when he laughed, cry when he cried. 

Or maybe it was because Eddie knew he wasn’t just talking to Buck. He was talking to Christopher too and, maybe even more, he was talking to himself. Himself as a young pup, lied to and kept in the dark until he was taught to fear his own body, told that he was a mutation, a sin, that he needed to spend every waking moment righting the wrong of his own existence. 

And it was about damn time that someone told the truth.

“You make a place for yourself,” Eddie reached across and took Buck’s hand, feeling his pulse thrumming under his skin like prey running for its life. 

It felt strange to be the thing he was running to, rather than what he was running from. 

“You decide for yourself who you are and what you want to be,” Eddie murmured, “Whatever reasons there are for your existence, whether you’re someone’s mistake or not, it doesn’t have to matter to you. You’re here now and you can be in control of what you do with that time. Whatever people said to you, Buck, they’re wrong. You can choose to be better than them, you can be everything you thought you were. And it sounds like you’ve already started making the right choices.”

“You think?” Buck’s voice snagged and tore, fresh tears spilling from his eyes, making tracks through the grime their morning of work had left. He didn’t try to wipe these ones away.

Eddie nodded, wondering if the pulse he felt rushing now was Buck’s or his own. He wondered who was chasing who, who was running towards what, “I know it, Buck.”

He’d told himself fixing the truck for Evan Buckley, his unknowing predator, was a selfless decision. He told himself that it was payment, addressing the balance, a burden he shouldered to show his thanks to the universe for sending the one hunter who actually had a conscience into his territory. A price gladly paid for his son’s life. 

But Eddie couldn’t tell himself that kissing Buck was anything but selfish.

It wasn’t like kissing another man at the clubs in the city. That filled a need, it calmed the burning in his nerves but kissing Buck just lit more fires inside him. Suddenly he was hungry, a vast gulf opening inside him, a lack he’d never felt before but now roared to be filled. Suddenly it wasn’t a kiss, it was a hunt, Buck was something he needed to possess utterly, a fuel he would wither and die without. The wolf stirred inside him, baying for more. 

Eddie would have panicked, he would have pulled away and told Buck to run, to get out of his garage, his life, and never come back. He would have, if the hunter hadn’t clutched him with the same desperation, clearly feeling the same pull he did. One hand gripped Eddie’s jaw like he was afraid he’d disappear, like he was physically clinging to this moment to keep it in place, terrified of its end. 

Because what the hell were they going to do when it stopped?

The answer was, apparently, to keep going. The first kiss ended in a snatch of breath before Buck plunged in again, giving a whimper that seemed so soft for such a big, strong man, a sound that broke any hesitation Eddie might have had. He pulled Buck in, one hand still wrapped tightly in his, like he was trying to keep them both anchored here and now.  

“Please…” Buck gasped out against his mouth, the end of the sentence swallowed by their hungry kisses. 

Eddie didn’t care what he wanted, he would have it. Stars from the sky, snow from the top of the mountain, the very moon from the falls, he’d get it and press it into Buck’s hand. The more he spent with this sudden need, the more he realized he knew it. The same instincts that pulled him towards the forest, the ones that had been making him itch all morning, they pulled him towards Buck. Here, in his own human body, he felt whole as long as he was kissing Buck. 

And when it stopped, when it all came to a screeching halt, Eddie felt himself break into a thousand pieces. 

He didn’t feel Buck’s hand slip out of his own, slide up his wrist in a desperate attempt to pull him closer. But he felt the burn, the stab of pain, as the rings of old scar screamed under the pressure. He always wore the sleeves of his jumpsuit down, no matter how deep he was in the guts of some machine, to protect them from awkward questions as much as friction. Because burns from silver never really healed, not on a wolf. 

And Buck knew it. He’d seen them for himself last night. In that moment, he looked through Eddie’s eyes and saw the monster he’d come here to kill. 

Eddie barely noticed. He was too busy looking into Buck’s eyes, past that terrible realization, and seeing the man who’d put those scars there. His father, pulling away the shackles from his son’s wrists after leaving him hanging in them for hours, face contorting in disgust when he saw the damning burns underneath. Pressing on them until Eddie screamed, until it became a howl, the final proof that his son had turned into something that he’d never see as his son again. 

It was that old fear that made Eddie lash out. He needed to strike first, he needed to tear out the throat of the ghost standing where Buck stood. 

But Eddie wasn't facing a ghost, he was facing an experienced hunter. His claw tipped hand stopped in mid air, clashing against a forearm strong as iron. Buck pressed the advantage immediately, a fist slamming into Eddie’s sternum, forcing him back with a ragged gasp of air. 

“Eddie…” Buck’s voice was unreadable, the shock in it too thick to hear what other emotions might lie underneath.

It didn’t matter. Eddie didn’t hear, there was only one name in the wolf’s mind. Christopher. He slept like the dead after a full moon but if he heard them fighting, if he came downstairs, if the hunter knew he was just above…the wolf only saw one way to keep that from happening. 

He launched himself at the hunter, fangs loose now, his two forms blurring together. He ignored the pain in his ribs, he’d take any blow he had to, bleed as much as he needed to, so long as his pup was safe. The hunter moved fast, dropping and rolling, leaving Eddie to slam into the truck they’d spent the morning fixing, metal buckling under the force. 

The hunter didn’t take the chance to run, damn him. He stood his ground, those blue eyes sharp and focused, hand disappearing into his flannel and bringing out a switchblade. The reek of silver just made Eddie angrier, more of the wolf bursting forward to snarl in rage. That cursed metal would never touch his son’s skin again, he’d die before he let Chris bear the same scars he did. He leapt, heedless, not flinching as the blade came up. 

And once again, everything stopped. 

The two of them were locked together, breathing ragged, impossible to tell whose heaving gasps were who's. The silver switchblade pressed against Eddie’s throat, wicked claws pressed to Buck’s. Either of them could twitch and take the life of the other, maybe in the same moment, they could have tasted each other’s life blood with less effort than blinking. It would be poetic. It would be right. They’d die together, proving centuries of bitter war were right, the scales finally balanced, the script followed to its last word and the fall of the curtain. 

But neither of them did. 

Buck finally spoke, forcing words through the frantic working of his lungs, “I said…I said I won’t hurt you, Eddie. I meant it.”

The knife slipped away from Eddie’s throat, clattering to the floor between them. The choice was his, then. Once again, it was up to him to believe Buck or not. To take the easy way out or not. To make his own place in the world or stay in the one he’d been given.

And suddenly, it wasn’t a choice. It was the strange certainty that came with a dream. Or the pull of the moon. 

Slowly, millimeter by millimeter, his claws pulled back from Buck’s skin. There was a soft exhale of relief as their lips met again, though whether it came from Eddie or Buck or the universe itself, it was hard to say. The kiss was as sharp as the knives and claws had been, like they were trying to devour each other in a different way, like there needed to be blood drawn somewhere in this equation. 

“Hold on…” it was the hardest thing Eddie had ever had to say and Buck looked utterly brokenhearted when he pulled away.

Though it collapsed into a grin and bark of laughter when Eddie just locked the door up to the apartment and turned the volume on the radio up.

“Your son?” he guessed, a charmed expression on his face as Eddie fled back to his arms.

“Yeah. Christopher,” one of the most precious gifts he had- his son’s name- was given with barely even a thought.

And from the way Buck kissed him, he knew what it meant. 

Eddie pressed Buck back against the workbench, sweeping a hand across it to send papers and tools, nuts and bolts tumbling heedlessly to the floor, clearing a space to lift him up on to. Buck clearly wasn’t used to a partner strong enough to throw him around and, with the sweet, breathy gasp he gave, he clearly liked it a lot. 

Though it gave way to a note of anxiety as he caught Eddie’s wrists, holding them in place at the waistband of his patched, dusty jeans, “I’m trans. That gonna be a problem?”

Eddie looked at him, unable to understand how any part of Buck could be less than perfect, less than exactly what he needed, “No. Of course not, that’s who you are.”

From the look Buck gave him, Eddie could tell that not every partner had taken that news in stride. It sent heat flooding through his nerves, boiling hot anger, a sudden need to tear out the throats of every person who’d made Buck feel like he was wrong in some way. He just about managed to turn that fury into passion, to shove the violence aside and instead suck marks across Buck’s collarbone, so he’d have something to look at and know there was at least one person who saw his worth. Buck gasped out his thanks in a sweetly trembling voice, guiding Eddie’s hands as he unbuckled his belt. 

He was so warm. The skin beneath the stiff material and hidden weapons was soft as moss and smelled like the forest after rain. For the first time, Eddie was glad for his muted human senses, the wolf would be drunk on that scent, that touch, in an instant. Even now, it purred in Eddie’s chest, thrilling as Buck’s hands yanked down the zip of his overalls, pushed the fabric off his shoulders, skated eagerly down his stomach to grip his aching cock.

It was desperate, a little frantic, all grasping hands and ragged gasps as they shoved aside just enough clothing for Eddie to press the head of his cock against Buck’s hole, as Buck dragged two fingers up and down his length, coating Eddie with the wetness that had been gathering between his own legs for who knew how long, getting him just slick enough to press inside with more pleasure than pain. It was as gentle as two men who’d lived their lives could be, closer to the uneducated fumbling of two teenagers in the backseat of a car having their first time. Because, in a way, it was. This was something entirely new, to both of them. 

Buck gave a strangled cry as Eddie slid in deeper, “Oh fuck…is the size a werewolf thing or is that just you, Diaz?”

“Don’t know,” Eddie confessed to his collarbone in between heavy kisses, “Never fucked another werewolf who had a dick.”

That made Buck laugh, the sound sweet, almost as sweet as the way it made him jerk on Eddie’s cock, “You’ve been missing out. That’s it, little deeper, fuck…”

They were a hopeless tangle, the workbench squeaking in protest underneath them as Eddie bulled forward, turning a little into a lot and earning a throaty cry from Buck. One hand braced flat on the bench, the other disappearing up under the hunter’s shirt to toy with a nipple piercing that, thankfully, wasn’t made of silver. Buck seemed to trust Eddie to be his anchor, fingers digging into his shoulders enough that there’d be bruises there soon but not soon enough. 

It was messy, ungainly, making Eddie remember the first time he’d walked on four legs instead of two. But soon, just like then, he found that rhythm and began to run with it. Just like then, he felt that dizzying mix of joy and terror, the feeling of flying forward into something entirely new and unfamiliar. But this time, he wasn’t alone. He had Buck, moaning in his ear at the peak of every thrust, biting at his earlobe, urging him breathlessly as friction built.

“More, that’s so good…more, Eddie, fuck yes…” Buck’s breath smelled of coffee and sugar, his fingers furrowed Eddie’s skin, a necklace swung rhythmically between their bodies and rapped on Eddie’s chest like it was asking to come in, “Baby…”

Eddie gave a shuddering gasp at that, only one word rising up to answer that, “Mine.”

Buck nodded frantically, head tipping back as Eddie nipped at his neck, licking where the sweat gathered and his pulse throbbed in the hollow of his throat, “Yours. I’m yours, Eddie, that’s right. Fuck, I’m there…”

It was like the mad rush at the end of the hunt. The prey was in sight, the pounding in the ears grew to something deafening, the whole world seemed to hold its breath in that last moment, waiting to see who would fall. The answer was both of them. 

Eddie roared as he came, everything rushing out of him and into Buck who arched up with a cry of pure relief. It was blinding, white hot, a sense of pleasure so consuming, so overwhelming that it came with an edge of panic because where the hell was it all supposed to go? How could it fit inside someone like Eddie without leaving his heart constricted and lungs collapsed? How was he supposed to hold it without tearing at the seams? 

The answer came as Buck kissed him. The moment their lips touched, all the panic faded like it had swapped to a frequency Eddie couldn’t hear. There was just Buck, shaking with adrenaline, his hands on Eddie’s face, holding him in place and holding him together. For the first time, it didn’t feel like Eddie was caught somewhere between two forms. He was just himself, fully in his own body. 

There was only one word in his mind but it was Buck who said it, his voice a rough, raw murmur and his smile warm as a bonfire on a cold, dark night, “Mine.”

Though, no. That wasn’t the right word though it was close, the same idea but not what Eddie’s heart was pounding through his body. That word was older, more of an instinct, straight from the wolf. And that word was mate. 

The rules of their old life lay in shards around their feet. The universe, for once, was silent, content to leave them be. Eddie had no idea where they would go from here. 

But they would go together. 

He let his forehead rest against Buck’s and closed his eyes, listening to the wind in the trees just outside, “Yours.”

-

By the time the moon was back, Buck was back behind the wheel of his truck. It was no longer full but still huge enough to hang in the inky blackness like an eye, looking down on Buck through lashes of black tree tops. Though that missing sliver made it seem somehow warmer, like instead of staring down in mute judgment, it was crinkled in amusement. 

And Buck smiled back. 

Just like always, he held his breath as the phone rang against his ear, anxiety brimming inside him that would only ease when he heard that click of the connection, the sound that meant his sister’s voice would soon come through and remind him everything was okay. 

Though the warm weight on his leg, the steady rise and fall of Chris’ soft fur under his hand as it rested on his side, did a lot to ease that anxiety. 

“Buck?” her voice cracked on the other end of the line, “Hey! Is everything okay?”

Buck released that breath he’d been holding, wondering- hoping- that someday soon his sister wouldn’t answer his calls assuming something was wrong, “Hey Maddie. Everything’s fine, I promise.”

“Oh thank god,” he could hear her wry smile, “I’ve been expecting you to call all day saying the old truck set on fire halfway to L.A…”

Buck stifled a slightly embarrassed laugh, “Uh…yeah, funny story there. It did. Well, actually, I didn’t even get anywhere near halfway, it crapped out about five minutes after I set off.”

“Dammit, that thing’s a heap of junk,” Maddie groaned, “Did you manage to get it to a garage?”

Buck’s eyes flickered back to the shop, the source of the warm golden light pooling around him. Eddie was framed in the open doorway, wiping off his hands for the last time. Just looking at him was enough to make Buck smile. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I did actually. They really saved my ass.”

“Good,” Maddie had clearly caught that note of something more in his voice, he could practically hear her eyes narrowing from all the way in California, “So the truck’s back in business?”

“Actually, I’m about to find out…” Buck shifted, pinning the phone to his ear with one shoulder, unwilling to sacrifice the hand still petting the dozing werewolf pup who’d insisted on cramming himself into the cab with him. 

Eddie had tried to get Chris to go back to sleep, the kid was clearly still exhausted after the full moon. But he’d been so wildly excited to see Buck, so overwhelmed that he’d spent a good ten minutes flickering between the gangly golden pup running in circles and the beaming seven year old, standing up triumphantly on his crutches as he crowed that he knew it, he knew the nice man would come back! When he finally crashed, after asking a thousand questions and insisting on following Buck like a shadow as they worked on the car, he hadn’t had the heart to let Eddie carry him back up to bed. So of course, as he’d sat in the cab of the truck, Christopher had shifted and squeezed in there with him, promptly falling asleep with his head on Buck’s knee.

The warm weight of him was a comfort. If Chris accepted him, Buck knew the forest had accepted him too. 

So, one handed, he turned the key. After a moment’s pause, the engine began to grind, finally coughing to life. 

“That sounded like absolute hell so I’m guessing the truck’s working again…” Maddie still sounded like she was smiling but it was softer, sadder, like she knew what was coming but had to say it anyway, “So…are you coming home?”

Buck swallowed hard, his voice shaking just a little, “I think I am, Mads.”

Eddie walked over, leaning against the side of the truck. Buck didn’t need to look to feel him there, it was like he gave off warmth like a fire in a dark night. 

His sister gave a slightly wobbly sigh, he knew there were tears sliding down her face, gathering in the corners of her smile, “Yeah?”

“I’ll still come visit, I promise,” Buck wiped at his own eyes, feeling Eddie’s hand resting on his shoulder, “And I’ll tell you everything. But I promise, I’m happy, Maddie, like you are in LA with Chimney.”

“Sounds like it’s going to be a hell of a story?” Maddie laughed softly. 

“It is,” Buck snorted, taking a deep breath, “I know where I’m supposed to be, Maddie. I found my place.”

“I always knew you would, Buck…I love you.”

“I love you too. And I’ll see you soon,” he let that promise be the last thing he said, hanging up and letting his hand fall. 

Eddie caught it, his skin warm and grip gentle but sure. His voice was a low rumble, blending perfectly with the sounds of the forest around them, as much a part of it as anything else. 

“Are you really sure?” His thumb stroked across Buck’s knuckles, feeling the old scars there, left behind after a lifetime of fighting, “I know how much you’re giving up…” 

Buck smiled, bringing their joined hands together and kissing Eddie’s fingers. He wasn’t surprised to find he had scars there too. 

“But look how much I’m gaining.”

Chris yawned as Buck gently stepped out of the truck, scrambling after them as they walked back towards the golden light of the garage, of their home. 

Buck wasn’t a child walking blindfolded through danger anymore, alone and afraid. He wasn’t living a fairytale, fighting imaginary darkness with a painted sword and silver armor that had never fit him right. He wasn’t a hunter. 

And he couldn’t wait to find out who he could be instead.  

[islanddevil716]

I AM A WRITER ON A03 AND WATTPAD UNDER "Islanddevil716" and this story is widespread on both of my accounts

Beauty and the beast PT. 1 half one

Your family was rich, filthy ass rich, but the history behind the fact was hidden to you.

Your entire bloodline was mixed with vampires and superhumans, all babies coming out as hybrids; half-human and vampire with special abilities like fire starting, mind mending/reading, dream control and physical shifting.

Everyone was different, the only thing that made them the same was their thirst for blood. Their superhuman counterpart is what made them different and unique.

But you were born human, No blood lust or baby fangs, no extra speed all while still having a beating heart or being able to change someone's mind with a simple whisper of persuasion; compulsion.

You were the one your siblings had to protect with their life all while they picked on you for your humanness.

"Maybe you're just a late bloomer." Your older brother Asher, says, running a hand through his ashy blonde hair and light brown eyes flashing golden at you, mocking the fact that your eyes can't do such a thing. He looks like your mother, same eyes and hair, fair skin, and pink lips, they reminded you of Barbies.

"No, she's human. It's not something that... kicks in like a stupid wolf. You're either born that way or you're not. Why? I dunno. It's unheard of in this generation but not impossible." Your eldest brother, Shane, says as he comes into the kitchen. For some reason the way he said wolf made you flinch.

He was wearing his typical long sleeve, his messy brown hair looking like he took no time to style it after his shower, his big dark brown eyes meet yours you see the pity in them.

"I think it's because all hybrid babies come from the vampire men, our dad is human and gave mom a litter full of children- another thing that's supposed to be a tall tale, so it's fair to theorize that after so many.. moms vampirism just didn't make it to you." Your twin sister, Kiara, pipes in, looking at her book that has all the lore on your kind and then she looks up at you with a teasing smile, adjusting her red septum that matched her blood-red hair.

Despite your father's dark brown hair and eyes and your mother's blonde; somehow you two came out with bright red hair, neon-like with a large white strip on the back of your heads.

"I most likely absorbed it." She says and her brown eyes flash red at you and you huff, shoving yourself away from the counter you sat at, making the chair scrape loudly against the black wooden floor as you got up in a hurry.

It was bullshit honestly, no matter how much sense it made medically it wasn't exactly impossible. But you hated it.

Your sister was stronger and faster, she had a photographic memory and was studying to be a doctor.

Your brother Shane was becoming a lawyer, turning 26 this year.

Asher was the shithead. He was in college at 23 and partied all the time and was making his way to college football; hoping to play for Alabama.

You and your twin were 19, freshly graduated and onto make your way into the world.

They all had abilities to help them in life, you were jealous and who wouldn't be when they rubbed it in your face like they did.

It was so cool just to be able to flash your vampire eyes at someone and you couldn't even do that.

You slammed the bathroom door behind you and locked it, you looked in the mirror at your one dark brown eye and the other a milky white; matching the snow white stripe on the back of your head. Your eye started out as gray but turned to that stunning white after a very strange night you'll soon come to understand.

Your bright red hair was impossible to color. It was the only thing aside from your eye that reminded you of your bloodline.

There was some poison in you, the proof of it was your hair never allowing another color to it; you tried many times to dye it but the vampirism just kept it the color you were born with.

or the white eye burning away every contact you used to hide the mismatched color.

But you kept it a secret all these years because for one they wouldn't believe you.

Your parents were too busy keeping the elder vampires happy, working to keep your place in the community since they wanted you out due to your mortality.

So you felt like the claim would be twisted and believed as a pitiful lie to hold your place among the vampire world.

You had your face pierced in many places, you had a stronger pain tolerance than the regular human and took advantage to make yourself as cool as your siblings.

You had a septum to match your sisters, both nostrils were done as well as your bridge.

You had a cheek dermal and your eyebrow was done and you recently got a labret piercing.

You bared your teeth to see the straight line at the bottom of your top teeth, looking at them like the fangs would grow but they didn't; no matter how long you stared and wished.

Fangs made you think of one particular memory..

When you were little you snuck into the forbidden part of the annual party the vampires held every year to welcome each new hybrid into the family; blessing them with their eternal protection and branding them with the family crest.

You crept down the hall, chills pricking your skin as you heard the small animalistic whines and clatter of chains falling into the puddles of blood.

You looked into the crack of the open door and saw what looked like a metal room, the floor up to the walls and ceiling were steel.

There was a man hooked to a contraption in the middle of the room, it looked like a bar on the ceiling with chains hanging down and they hooked around the mans wrists and he hung there limp.

His head snapped up at you, making you gasp. He had messy black hair with strikes of light brown and black, making it a perfect blend and reminding you of calico.

He had wolf ears and big white, sharp teeth.

His eyes were a mix of red and purple but when he narrowed in on you, they seemed black. He held your stare for what felt like a really long time to your 10 year old mind, he was unmoving and then all at once began thrashing around, making the chains rattle and he growled a deep warning to the figure behind you, but you didn't know that at the time.

You gasped and hands were on your shoulders, pulling you away and scolding you but it sounded miles away as you looked over your shoulder at men going in and out of the room and your head swayed.

Then the loud, ear breaking howl echoed down the hall and you whimpered at the effect it had on your ears and your knees buckled as you felt your vision going black. You were swiped off your feet and woke up in your bed later.

Your head was feeling funny when you sat up and you could barely move or remember the night.

You remembered the face, though and how it was that night that your eye became completely discolored. No one mentioned it, weird things happen in the bodies of the young next generation so it wasn't out of the ordinary.

Those big white fangs were what you thought of when you looked at your teeth, and how you wished you had them.

You felt like an old man who couldn't get it up.

So useless and embarrassing.

All you wanted was to feel like you fit in with your family, you wished the fangs would just pop out and give you something to be proud of.

You sighed and flipped the light off, leaving the bathroom to go outside and get some fresh air, something you often did to clear your head.

It was Friday and tonight would be the annual ball, but there was a baby boom of hybrids this year and a ceremony was to be held on Halloween night for them to be accepted and claimed into the family then.

You never got a branding of the family crest, only the poisoned ones got those.

That's what the society called themselves, among the world they looked like men a part of the masonic lodge or something like that.

Vampirism in 2023 was absolutely hidden, and beauty was everywhere so no one questioned it. Aging wasn't a problem either, there were so many hybrids- aging ones- that their place in civilization wasn't a threat.

Your existence seemed to be a big problem though, your mom practically despised you being that she and your father had to work harder for their place in the society.

And although your siblings protected you, it wasn't hidden that they'd choose their availabilities over you when it came down to it.

And you accepted that, it was so easy to accept everything but yourself not being like them..

You walked outside and stepped off the dark wooden porch. Your family's mansion was a huge a Victorian style mansion with Gothic wooden carvings on the outside.

You were at the back of the house, the side that faced the woods and walked back into the treeline.

There was a beaten up path you and your siblings made over the years, your father built you a tree house to play in since you didn't have cool things to do like run fast like Asher or read minds like Shane.

He gave you a regular childhood the best he could, your mother called him spoiling and coddling you but he called it being a parent.

You climbed up the ladder to the tree house and sat on the dusty floor, looking out the small box window into the woods. You always felt a connection out here, like you belonged to something for once.

You look out into the wet trees, water dripping off of them from the previous storm and you felt the urge to go.

You wanted to run as fast as your vampire legs would let you and feel the water droplets on your cheeks, the wind gusting through your hair at your top speed.

You shivered as the wind blew, reminding you that'll never happen, it was cold and all you left the house with was your slides, pajama pants and a tank top.

You shivered again and sighed, looking around in the boxes you all kept up there for play; hoping to find a jacket or something but you hadn't been up there in a few years.

So everything was ruined and molded.

You gave up and climbed back down the ladder, you did this often.

Wandering around aimlessly like it'll alleviate the emptiness you feel inside, you bounced around the house and the property like a ping pong ball.

It always felt like you were looking for something, searching for someone.

You often thought about the werewolf in the chains from when you were little, when you looked at him you felt the best kind of drunk there was.

When you were old enough, you began drinking to try to match the feeling you got but nothing compared.

You marched back inside and ran up the stairs to your bedroom, you checked the clock and it was time to get ready for the ball.

You felt more anxious than usual, like the need to get your abilities was overwhelming; like they were right there but just out of reach and you knew better. But still, delusion liked to make friends with your overthinking and you were half convinced you were special as well like Asher said, just a late bloomer- a runt.

You dressed in a pretty black dress, more show off than usual but you didn't have superhuman powers to work with.

Just your unique humanness your siblings called it, you grabbed your purse and walked downstairs after getting ready for 3 hours.

Everyone was waiting in the foyer and you heard the growls of your brothers, completely disagreeing with your outfit.

(Seen in prologue dress 1)

"Go fucking change." Shane growls and you roll your eyes.

"Fuck off." You snap and he bares his teeth at you and bow up to him as well, gritting your teeth and baring them at him.

Being human didn't mean you were scared of your bloodline, and you felt the small pang of poison coursing through your veins. Even if all it did was help your features, you wouldn't back down.

"It's not like anyone will be hoping for me, no vampire wants a plain human. A hybrid who can read minds is a better candidate than a human who can't even sit upright without sulking in back pain." You excuse yourself and open the door, not waiting for anyone else's protests.

"Right, let's go children before we're late!" Your mother chides in and dismisses you, as always.

Your father catches up to you and runs a hand over the back of your head, right over the white strip in your hair.

"You're beautiful, my sweet one and I think it's time I tell you about the large white stripe on the back of your head, sorry about that by the way." Your dad comments and shoves his hands in his pockets.

"Why're you sorry?" You snort and dig through your bag as you all walk down the long driveway to the SUV.

Your white eye helped you see in the dark, the poison giving you slight night vision like all vampires have since they're nocturnal creatures.

You pull out a prerolled joint and light it in the night, and your twin coughs- the soon-to-be doctor's way of telling you that's unhealthy.

"Because it's my own blessing." He says cryptically and you take a long drag before looking at him.

"What's that mean?" You ask and your mother smacks his chest, warning him to shut up but he ignores her.

"It means since the society wouldn't mark you, I did. It represents that you belong to the Gracious family. Our last name holds weight in the Poisoned Ones society, always has. That's why you're still alive. Because you're my child and everyone knows what happens when you fuck with a Gracious family member." Your dad says and your jaw drops and so does your joint.

"Shit-" you hiss and squat down quickly to grab it and catch back up to his side.

"Why do I have one? I don't need protection. I'm already marked." Your sister cuts in and links arms with your father on the right side.

"Because you two are my daughters. And like I said. No one fucks with a Gracious." He reiterates and you laugh.

"Well, whatever. Sooner or later, Y/N, they're going to come to you, and you'll have to serve. You're of age now and you'll have to pick up the jobs we've been doing to earn your place in this society as a human." Your mother cuts in and everyone falls quiet.

"I can do that." You say quietly and take another hit of the joint.

"You think you can kill innocent humans who've accidentally figured out our secret to prove your loyalty?" Shane snaps and you look to your left to see him walking next to Asher, who's staring up at him with wide eyes.

"It's not like you could've hid it from me. I'm inside all of your heads, all the time." Shane explains and you clutched the joint like your life depended on it and started hitting it like it'd be your last.

"That's how they work, Y/N. You want to be a human and live with vampires? Then kill any other human who threatens your place with us." Shane adds and opens your car door for you to slide in.

"I didn't know what you were doing for me." You whisper and your father looks back at you apologetically while your mom glares at you through the rearview mirror.

"Yeah well, sorry and a thank you note won't cut it. You'll be serving as early as Halloween." Your mother's tone was plain and void of all care for you.

To her, you were her greatest failure.

To your dad, you were the best thing he ever did aside from mastering his empathic emotions and turning them into manipulation of the mind and heart.

Your dad was able to persuade people's minds through manipulation, using their emotions to his desire.

He often made your mom calm, one of the reasons she loved him.

She was a mean motherfucker, all her kids were and so were you- if you wanted to be.

But overall you were quiet, sweet and reserved unlike your boastful, egotistical siblings.

But when it came down to it, you could make a person rethink their whole life with just a few words.

Your father caught onto that, when you'd get into fights with your siblings or mother you'd say something and they'd go all into hysterics, yelling and wanting to fight you.

He brushed it off as typical family fights but you didn't respond that way to their hurtful words.

It's what told him you were his child. A manipulative sweetheart; just like him.

The drive to the ball was quiet now that everyone's figured out their parents reasonings for being so rich and gone all the time.

Now that burden will lie with you after this week.

"Well shit, clap for me or something." You say to break the silence and no one's joking, you can feel the tension in the air and your father speaks up.

"Listen, we'll talk about it more when we get home. For now, let's enjoy our night out. As a family." Your father changes the course of the situation for a moment and everyone shifts in their seats now, getting comfortable.

"I need a drink." You say and your sister nods her head for once in agreement.

You and your siblings practically fall out of the vehicle trying to escape your mother's heavy energy, you and your sister hang onto eachother and scurry down the candle lit walk way. The building was large and shoved back against the woods with nothing else around except for the vehicles being taken by a valet to who knows where.

Twigs and rocks crack at the bottom of your black platform heels, and you hear your mother snap her fingers at you two.

"Ladies! Act like them. When we enter this party I want nothing but good behavior from my children, understood?" Your mother gives her regular pep talk before any of her family enters the ball, she made sure the family name was held to its highest standards.

You were a classy family to the world- well your siblings were anyways.

Because you were human, you were automatically deemed the fuck up but you didn't give a shit.

But like they say, you were only human.

You and your siblings straightened your backs and held your noses in the air and walk in like the noble family you're seen as.

As they do every year, they stop and marvel at your beautiful family and the young hybrids gawk and squeal over your brothers who could care less because they're towering over you and Kiara while death glaring the boys eyeing you two like they're going to claim you.

Mating season was the worst when the young hybrids fall into sexuality and begin the search for their mate.

Thankfully, your direct bloodline was purebloods, which meant you don't find your mate like a hybrid in a season.

Your family will meet someone by fate but it wasn't until your mother broke that tradition and had hybrid babies along with one human instead of pureblood babies like her elders wished.

It was why she was so mad. In her eyes she failed at carrying on the noble name because of love, but in the society's eyes she was breaking cycles.

Purebloods weren't superior to hybrids.

They were just plain vampires, no superhuman abilities- just rot all day while the world lives in the sun, blood being your only diet, speed and strength the only special abilities besides being forever young.

The society was ecstatic about your mother- Remi- and her decision to break the chain of plain vampire's conditions.

It was all about modernized decisions within the Poisoned One's society.

You and Kiara stood with your brothers by a snack table, people were dancing and mingling as usual.

The elegant room was lit up with candles, one wrong move and the place would be on fire.

Sucks to be me if a fight breaks loose. You thought and snagged a champagne flute from the table and began drinking, your brother's friends came along and took their attention from you and your sister for a moment and Kiara snuck off with her boyfriend; leaving you standing there with your mean ass mother.

"Remi, it's good to see you've been taking care of our star member." One of the elder vampires approaches your mother and you both stiffen, his Russian accent was thick but his voice was so smooth like silk.

"Well, thank you Alexei but I don't understand. She's only human." Your mother's distain was obvious and the tall vampire gave her a flitting humorous chuckle and you looked up into his glowing eyes, they were a ice blue.

All vampires had different colored eyes, the thing that made them cool was that they glowed like pretty little LED lights.

Alexei's made you shiver looking into tthem, he was an elder and one to fear at that, you never knew the mans motive until it was already unfolding.

"Yes well, if you marry her off to a pureblood vampire then she'd have his children- pure ones and you'd live on without any regrets. I know how much your pure name means to you." The mans smooth voice said and your heart sank, the safe feeling immediately left you and your skin felt cold.

Your mother looked over at your now pale face and she had a new glimmer of hope that she's never looked at you with.

"Yes! Of course, how could I have been so unimaginative? That will work out perfectly. You'll be more than accepted if you have a purebloods babies and ill have the purebloodline back!" Your mother gushes and the vampire looked pleased with himself, holding his hands behind his back with a hint of a smirk.

He was a pureblood as well. A 400 year old one.

You never took your eyes off of his as your mother messed with your hair, made sure your outfit was tiptop and your lipstick wasn't smeared.

She was primping you to look your best for any pureblood that may want to claim you.

"And you, my Cyzarine." He says in Russian and your head feels funny suddenly, like it did all that time ago the last time you were here.

"What's that mean?" You ask him quietly and he takes a step towards you, softly guiding your mother out of the way as she watches with glee.

"It means royalty, and you are as royal as they come." He purrs and he takes a strand of your rose colored hair and sniffs it, a small hum coming from him as he does.

Your feet stay planted to the tile and you swallow, that fuzzy warmth washes over you and you gasp when your skin feels like it's burning and you need air. You felt so wrong, bad.

"I-I'm sorry-" You rush out and take a step back.

"I- no I can't be here right now." You finish, your tummy felt so nauseous you thought you were going to puke.

The hunted - The Rigs 🩸

You spun around and dashed for the doors, you threw them open and ran down the candle lit path you took to get there and made a cut through the yard and hurried for the woods.

You've always had an attraction to the forest, ever since you had your first ball here at 10 years old you couldn't stay from the woods too long before they were calling you back.

You'd aimlessly walk around, you didn't know why but you felt comforted and safe; like a walk in the woods was exactly what you needed to feel better.

At any crisis, you'd run for closest treeline.

And here you were again, in the pitch black, in the middle of the damp trees and no one else.

Crickets and frogs chriped in the background as you stopped for a moment to catch your breath, you immediately felt better the second you left the building but you didn't want to be found and the woods were calling to you again today and more so right now.

You leaned up against a tree and placed a hand over your rapidly beating heart, clutching the heart locket you found on your 18th birthday. It was on the ground and looked like someone had just lost it but you felt compelled to keep it. Finders keepers.

You didn't understand why all of this was happening to you.

Humans luck. Had to be. Humans, out of all species had the worst luck known in the galaxies.

Part of the lore your dad made sure he taught you when you were growing up, making sure you understood the disadvantages you'd face in the world compared to your siblings.

Why would Alexei want to marry you? Make you have his children. He was one of the most important vampires of the elders, he's had many human wives to birth his pureblood babies and then drained them of their blood when their children were grown and she was too old to serve him anymore.

That's not a life you wanted for yourself.

You'd rather be a down on your luck human girl in college who only visits home on holidays.

That's the plan you had. But when it came to the elders, no one disobeyed.

"Fuck my life." You sigh and chuck the champagne flute into the dark woods in anger.

Your poisoned eye helped you see in front of you but barely, it looked like something was moving in the distance.

"Hey!" You yelled, thinking your mom mightve sent one of your siblings to find you. You push off the tree and take a couple steps before feeling the warm gush between your legs.

You reached down and felt the blood on your thigh, confirming that you started your period.

"Goddamn it-" you hiss and go to turn around to exit the forrest and you bump right into a hard chest, so hard you stumbled back and your heel caught on a branch and you fell on your ass.

"There you are, meine kleine maus." A very deep, growly voice comes from the large figure.

Deep red eyes with neon purple in them look down at you and your head feels that drunk feeling again and your shoulders automatically relax unintentionally with the hazy sensation.

You figured it was one of the vampires coming to get you, alot of them spoke a different language and had accents like Alexei so it made sense.

Konig stared down at you, leaned back on your hands with your legs extended and slightly bent in front of you, he inhaled deeply, smelling your blood and his mouth salivated at the scent.

You looked up at him through your long mascara lashes, your mismatched eyes wide.

He smirked at your choice in attire, perfect for tonight, the night you'll be saying your vows through a blood bond with him.

He's waited so long for this moment and it's more delicious than he could've ever imagined. Finally, you'll be in his grasp.

He'd save you from the hell you've been living and the one you think you're fated to.

"Looks like you have a lot of problems maus, ones I can fix." The deep voice speaks again and he squats down next to you.

Your eyes focus on him, it was the man from the chains, the werewolf that was held captive here all that time ago but he was in human form.

You remember your father keeping you and your siblings inside when news went around of his escape.

He killed everyone at the house and tore out from the building, leaving a huge hole in the wall from where he jumped through it.

He was the alpha werewolf, Konig, and he was dangerously sexy.

Your body couldn't react to fear, only the numbing sensation of your lips and how your head swam in a tipsy haze.

You couldn't speak, you had so many questions about so many things it made you feel like they all had something to do with him.

"What? What are you doing here?" You ask and he leans forward, his claw coming out brush a red strand of hair from your face and it scratches your cheek but you don't flinch.

"I've come to claim what's mine." His inhumanly deep voice speaks and your eyes finally look directly into his.

They're dark, all black like last time and you gasp.

He lurches forward and your back is on the ground in a second but you don't feel the impact, he leans his weight on the hand next to your head and his other comes to mess with the locket around your neck.

"You haven't taken this off since I gave it to you. Sweet girl, already proving your loyalty to me." He murmurs as he studies you up close for once, you knew this about werewolves.

They'd hunt their prey, stalk them and pounce at the perfect moment.

Then they examine the prize they've worked for so long to get, admirning the way their food breathes and twitches with terror. But you weren't food to him, you were his mate, and he was going to be your everything.

"Gave it to me? I found it on the ground." You clarify, softly confused and a sadistic chuckles leaves him and you lick your lips.

"I left it for you to find." He states and your confusion continues, a large hand comes to cup your cheek but it's so big it covers the side of your face and your hands come up to wrap around his wrist incase he decides to choke you.

You knew you didn't have a chance at survival if he strikes a fight, but you'd go down trying.

"Sshh, no im not going to hurt you maus. I'm going to help you." He coos and his hand runs down to your exposed chest from the open neckline of your dress, your thighs tighten and you remember your initial reasoning for trying to leave and feel embarrassed.

You knew he can smell it along with your sudden arousal, his touch made your body respond so kindly to him despite him supposing to be the enemy.

"I have to go." You say with the drunken slur his power makes you have.

You didn't know his other abilities, all you knew is that he was an alpha werewolf and you were of a pureblood family who's royalty and currently on her period.

You needed to leave.

"Aht, it's okay maus. I know." He pushes your shoulder back down and you comply, making him tilt his head.

"I- need to-" you nervously trail off as you look into the woods, your head turned to the left with his humongous body on top of yours.

Your limbs felt heavier and your ears drowned out any sound that wasn't your pulse and suddenly all you could think about in your seemingly drunken state was his eyes and his voice.

Your eyes got heavy and then closed, but you could still feel everything under your body like how the damp soil made the back of your head wet along with the rest of your backside.

Your thighs were pressed tightly together as he straddles your legs and you could feel the blood pooling underneath you and seeping into the ground.

His hand on your skin felt like the answer to all your problems and your arms laid above your head.

"No you don't. I want them to see it, to smell the last place you'll ever be here on Poisoned property." He snarls and your mind went into the familiar darkness you fell into once before when you saw him.

Konig feels satisfied, for once in his life he feels like he's won something.

He's had everything planned from the start, before you were born you were his.

He knew when he heard of Remi Gracious, a pureblood vampire being pregnant with a super humans child, that he'd have his chance.

He personally congratulated Remi, placing a hand on her stomach and marking you; hence the red hair. Your sister was with you so she got it too but she wasn't what he was after; he felt the human fetus inside her when he touched your mother's belly.

Konig had a particular taste in mates. He liked the pureblood humans, their blood was sweet like syrup and only one of them had been born in his entire existence, and your vampire society killed her.

He'd get his revenge though and it got a hell of a lot sweeter when he knew it'd be a Gracious he'd get to take since their name was widely known.

Eye for an eye sorta thing until you wandered into the room he'd been tied up in.

He hung there from the chains in an all steel room, bleeding and starving. He was on the brink of death when a little red haired girl with a big brown eye and a gray one to go with it came to the door, looking completely shocked and in awe.

He allowed himself to get captured to get to you, he was going to steal you and leave your mangled child corpse in the front lawn of the elders, Alexei specifically since he's the one who killed his beloved, his mate, his world.

But they were prepared when he came, locked him in a room he'd never escape out of and he almost didn't if it weren't for your snooping.

When his prey came to him and looked at him in awe, he imprinted at the same time took what little vampirism you had and stored it all in one eye; making it white.

He needed a way to find you when he got out, he wouldn't want you growing into those powers you had dormant and using them against him, but he should've thought about that decision.

He didn't even imprint on his late love.

He felt like it was pointless since he loved her, it'd be enough.

But this, oh God this was torture.

When Alexei came and grabbed you, he went ballistic and thrashed in the chains.

No way was he going to lose to that shit stain again.

He viciously howled, the howl a alpha makes when his mate has disobeyed him and he shuts her down, overwhelming her with his power and making her sleep.

He shut you down when Alexei grabbed you, he knew Alexei had the same type in mates and would surely try to take you when you were old enough to bare children.

It's what he did before he drained Konig's last love of her blood, except he didn't let her live to term. He gave her a baby, then killed her all over his primal desire to have what he couldn't.

Now it was happening all over again, and Alexei tried making his claim on you tonight but Konig heard it all as he stood in the woods, waiting and watching like always.

He was the reason for you feeling like you were gonna puke when Alexei spoke to you, he was using his manipulation technique on you and compelling you right into his arms.

he's the reason you've always felt drawn to the wilderness.

He's the reason you're not fast and strong and don't crave blood as much as cake like a regular hybrid.

You just thought you controlled your life and actions, you had no idea you were a little puppet on a string, his string.

He looked down at your sleepy body, all done up and cute laying against the wet dirt with his birthday gift on; bleeding for him.

He watched you all these years, from the woods he'd sit in a tree and watch you play alone while your siblings basked in their agility.

Or curl up on the ground in wolf form and listen to you talk mindlessly in the woods like someone was listening, little did you know someone was, he always was.

He'd fall asleep in his burrow while you sang and hummed in the tree house, all his time was spent watching you from the woods when he wasn't being an alpha or feeding.

He had many burrows around your property, every place you spent the most time at he had one, including a special spot right outside your bedroom window since it was the room closest to the treeline.

He was protecting you, watching over you. It helped him too, he was finding himself feeling less lonely around you and he kept you coming back; using his powers to draw you near.

You were imprinted on, you couldn't fight it even if you wanted to.

But you didn't know and you never saw him so everything was a question as in to why you'd wander around outside for hours alone.

As you grew, things got more complicated for him to stay away, you were filling out and getting new piercings and becoming confident.

He allowed you to at least have a pain tolerance and night vision, your healing wasn't as fast vampires or wolves but it wasn't as slow as humans either.

Your new found attitude and spunk turned him on, he enjoyed the way you thought you were human but still had vampiristic mannerisms.

Like bearing your teeth at your siblings or quietly hissing at any inconvenience.

He also enjoyed the way you began to flaunt your beauty, you reminded him of a rose.

So beautiful, bright red with deadly thorns.

Konig new your capabilities if you were to ever awaken as a pureblood.

You'd be like him, he had all the access to every capability vampires and super humans had.

Along with his wolf.

He was the ultimate hybrid, the first hybrid and every species feared him.

He could read minds, manipulate energy and emotions; he had it all.

Every hybrid after him is a descendant from him in a way since he's the original.

You were the beginning of an original, that's why he took your powers.

You had it all, unlike your society which only had one power to work with.

Only he could teach you, help you, protect and love you the way you deserve.

He licked the side of your face where he cut your cheek and tasted your blood and growled; bringing you to.

"Maus-" He says softly and you blink up at him, you had a little dream and he was in it. It was like a montage of his life, and then you were in it but it was from his point of view.

You watched yourself grow up through his eyes, and it put into perspective how much time you really spent in those woods.

Each one you were coming to him it looked like, but you never recall seeing him.

"You've always been around, it was you I was coming to." You whisper, but that was the only half you knew. The realization was bitter sweet for you, knowing he's been the one.

Konig leans in closer to your face, both hands on the soil next to your head.

"Why?" You ask, he didn't let you see those memories but you felt a certain softness for him. You were thankful to have had a friend all these years, even if you didn't get to see him.

"You've always been mine." He says and you reach for him, wanting to show your appreciation and you hug him; your back lifting off the ground a little as you did.

"Thank you, Konig." You whisper and kiss his cheek, he practically purrs at the affection and nuzzles into your hair; inhaling your intoxicating scent.

"I'm going to claim you now, I've been waiting for this and so have you." Konig whispers and your body trembles with that feeling of needing something, like you're on the brink of something powerful.

"Is that why I feel like this? I need someth-" His actions cut your words off when he's pinning you back down.

"You need me." He purrs, his left hand is wrapping around your upper thigh, feeling like relief and torture all at once.

His other hand comes up to move the strap of your dress down to expose one of your breasts and you whimper when he licks it, your nipples hardening.

He opens your legs and you gasp but don't dare deny him, it felt too good already and your body felt heavy with alcohol, still not understanding its him effecting you like this.

He props your right leg up on his hip and glides his hand up your inner thigh and his thumb caresses your bloody skin right above the thigh high's you had on, you exhale a nervous breath and he slips his right hand under your neck; holding your head up for him.

"You smell so sweet." Konig growls and uses a claw to cut your thong from your hips.

"You are my precious kleine maus, mine to protect, teach and admire. You will obey me and I will never leave you." Konig says his vows and then licks your blood off his thumb and pricks his skin with his fang, making him bleed.

"You bleed for me, I bleed for you- say it." Konig speaks and the words vibrate with his deep growly tone.

"You bleed for me, I bleed for you." You repeat his words and he's shoving his thumb in your mouth, you go to protest that you don't drink blood but his force didn't allow that and neither did the taste.

It was warm and coated your insides on the way down, your whole body felt better, like it's been craving this and your hands wrap around his wrist and you suck his blood uncontrollably.

"Thats it, drink me up and I'll make you feel even better. Maus, I'll give you everything your body has craved from me." He speaks to you in your dazed state and lays your head back down gently.

The soft spot he had for you was seeping through, he didn't want to scare you away or make you feel less than what he felt for you. It's been known Konig doesn't have a tender side, he's viciously feral and absolutely feared by many in the society.

But he couldn't possibly forget what it's like catering to a woman's body, praising her like she's his lifeline.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long, deprivation can do a number of things to the human body." He examines you, really amused by how your eyes roll as you drink from him. He wanted to see you in blood lust, cumming on his cock and solidifying your fate with him.

He rubs two fingers over your clit, coaxing more of a reaction out of you and your fangs sink into him and you bite the side of his hand now. Blood pours all down your cheeks and neck, making a bigger mess of what already was.

"There you go, now enjoy. Beautiful girl." He leans down to kiss your forehead and pushes two fingers inside you, getting you ready for his size.

You moan around his hand and pull back for air but he takes your bloody lips in a soft kiss, the sweetness overrides the once metallic taste blood gave you.

Now its all you wanted, his blood, him and it didn't matter that he was the alpha wolf. The feared enemy.

He sure as fuck wasn't scary right now.

And it felt right, he said he can help you with your problems. Maybe he could save you from Alexei's horrible plans and your mothers hatred.

"Calm your racing mind, Y/N. I'll do anything you ask, I only need one thing from you." He whispers against your lips, hearing all too well what your mind is doing and your walls throb around his fingers.

"Anything." You whimper and he growls through his nose, you feel the warm air on your face and feel pleased for some reason. You meant it though, this feeling couldn't compare to anything else in the world. The empty feeling you had while you wandered woods was being filled, this is what you were searching for - connection with him.

"Be my mate, all mine, my pretty rose." He gives you a chance at choice, just to see if you'd say what he read on your mind.

He knew you'd never be able to deny him, your mind probably could but it'd be more confused and focused on why your body reacted differently; fondly.

But your body craved it like you craved his blood, to be his. You wanted something different, and he was that and more.

"Yes, take me away from here. I'll go anywhere with you." Your accepting tone had his primal urges taking over and he grabbed the back of your neck with his right hand and grabbed your wrist with his other and you were on top of him in a blur, your legs on thighs so you wouldn't hurt your knees on the ground.

He already had his cock out and your clit brushed against his pierced shaft and you shivered and grabbed onto his shoulders.

He rose your hips so his tip rubs against your entrance and he's pushing you down, you make it half way before you're shouting.

"Ah! Big- you're too big for me." You whine and he grabs your face and he's baring his teeth at you and your heart races, he needed this done now. Once he's fully inside there's no turning back and the thought of you changing your mind made him want to snap his teeth at you but he remembered; you're his kleine maus. He wouldn't want to hurt or scare you, he was here to make you feel good.

"Relax darling." His head falls back and he shuts his eyes, regaining his composure and you bunch his shirt in your hand.

"Im sorry." You apologize, immediately feeling guilty to disappoint him and you hang your head but he takes you in a kiss and devours yours lips and his fangs prick your bottom lip and he sucks a little before letting go.

"Dont apologize for my impatient demeanor, you're such a good girl for me, maus." His praise makes you squirm over his length. He was wide, stretching your sensitive walls over him.

Your cervix felt full and bruised already and you let out a little whine, he let you sit on him and get used to it for as long as he could before he needs to feel you fuck him, mark you with his scent and claim you.

He thrusts inside you slowly, adding another inch each time you go back down; your whines grow louder with each thrust and you hang onto his shoulders for support.

"You'll get used to it, shh." He talks you through it while moving you up and down on him and your cries filter through the dark, chilly, woods and your nails dig into his shoulders, drawing blood.

You hiss when he bites your shoulder and then licks it clean, marking you as his, he lets go of your hips to tug your other strap down to expose both of your breasts to him and he sucks one into his mouth.

It all felt so good, your body in his large, devious hands, his tender tone and sweet praises. You'd give him your all.

You arch your back, shoving your breasts into his face and his arms come around to press against your back, furthering you into him and he bites the inside of your boob and you cry out again. Your hands that were flat against his upper chest dig into his shirt; balling your hands into fists with it in your clutch.

All at once you felt a gush of wind and your back was against a tree and you groaned.

"You're so delicious, I can hardly hold back. Forgive me maus." He says tenderly despite his large cock slamming into you, scraping your back against the tree.

"I don't care, take me." Your shaky voice demands and he does just that.

Your head bobs around as he fuck you onto his all of his length, your high pitched moans died down to hoarse and breathless pants as he wore you down.

A large hand came around your throat but not taking away your air, you hang onto him as your legs dangle around his waist.

You feel the balls of his piercings rubbing every pleasurable spot inside you like this, he was growling and you heard the tree crack beside your head as he dug his claws into it.

He snarled as he looked down, his pierced dick coated in your blood made him feral, the way your tits bounced with his thrusts and your thigh high's slipping down your legs.

"I have to protect you, sweet little mouse, even from me." He strains and you bring your arms around his neck, you looked like a sloth hanging on a branch with you positioned like this.

He wrapped a strong arm around your back and held your waist with his other and moved you slowly, you rested your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes; letting him take you away.

Your bodies were as close as they could be and your wet clit grinded against him each time he was deep inside you.

You moaned into him before you lifted your head to kiss his jaw and he bowed his head to look into your eyes.

"You're so special to me, Y/N." He whispers as you two look at eachother, lost in the bliss of the finalization of your connection. But for him this was just the first step into claiming you.

"Now I need you to be my sweet girl and cum for me." His careful tone with you had you completely enamored and you kissed him again and it felt freakier than the one before, his tongue invading your mouth and asserting his dominance.

He unwrapped his hand from your torso as he kissed you and propped you back against the tree, he ran his thumb up your clit and matched his thrusts.

One of your hands came down to support yourself on the tree and your right one clutched his upper arm.

"Close- It's close! Please, fuck-" You babble, your loud whimpers making it sound like you're crying.

He made you feel so good and it was the best orgasm you ever had- you never had a boyfriend; it felt wrong so you always did it yourself but it felt like something was missing each time.

Now you know: Konig's cock.

He waited until your tense body relaxed and pulled you off of him when your eyes fully opened.

You two were a bloody, dirty mess and he fucking loved it. He didn't want to stop but the smell of blood will inevitably bring someone out here and today isn't the day for a fight.

He had a mate to play with, and a few more ways to make you his so he needed you out of here.

"Konig?" You ask quietly as your eyes are glued to the tops of your platforms.

You were too caught up in feeling good rather than worry about the mess you were making on him, unaware of the blood all over your face too.

He lifted your chin to look up at him and gave your nose a kiss, then pulled his shirt off and started to wrap it around you.

"I'm going to take us home, and don't you worry. I have everything you'll need, I'm going to take care of you now and you won't have to worry about earning your place. You've had that." Konig comforts you again and you nod, tears fill your eyes and you sniff.

You reach out and kiss his bare chest before he sweeps you off of your feet.

"We're leaving now, it's okay. Sleep." He kisses your head and that delightful darkness takes you and you're limp in his arms.

He carries you back to his pack, the front of their territory looked like a graveyard; the whole front blocked off by a iron gate with many head stones behind it.

Passing by it looks like a cemetery surrounded by trees. Perfect cover.

The person on watch opens the gate for Konig and he walks down the long paved path that leads into the woods.

The loud clang of the gate closing made you stir a bit but you didn't wake fully.

The cool, misty air made your skin damp, further ruining your makeup and hair.

You definitely looked like you were caught by a wolf.

Konig reached the treeline, a little patch of woods to get through before he approached his home, Wolves were everywhere; some in human form and others running around completely furry.

The place looked like a castle with gray stone, the large moon casted a perfect glow over it and made the stone sparkle.

The white lights inside filtered out of the windows and lit the whole entire front yard up. He stepped up the 10 wide stairs and into the large doors that opened up to the wide foyer.

People whispered and gossiped now, parting a path in the crowd for him to walk to his throne.

Young wolves growled at the scent of your blood and he heard their thoughts and he let out a knarly roar that had them cowering.

He looked down at you; afraid he mightve startled you but you were staring up at him, your cheek against his chest with no sign of fear. Your eyes searched his for safety and he clutched you tighter.

He went up the 3 steps to his spot and sat down in his throne and made you sit on his knee, people were in shock and awe.

Their alpha had never been seen with a woman before, let alone a beautiful pureblood.

"I want you all to take a good look at this fine woman, my mate, mine. You will respect her and do as she wishes, I don't care what it is. If any of you so shall disrespect my love, ill tear your throats out and hang you out to dry as a symbol of the consequences of forewarned actions." Konig announces to his pack and you feel a bit shy up there with all of these wolf eyes on you.

The whole room in front of his throne was filled with wolves, well most were in human form but still. You gripped his jeans and looked at him nervously.

"It's okay maus." He stands with you and wraps an arm around your front and pulls you into him.

"Now, I'm off to my chambers. Don't interfere unless there's a personal threat to our lively hood." Konig orders his people and you're off your feet again.

He carries you down the long hall and up the many stairs before he reaches the top floor that he has all to himself.

He walked you down the dark hall, the walls were a dark lush gray and the tile was a dark, shiny brown.

Candles were hung along the walls and softly lit the walk way, it smelled like rain and sage as he opened the double doors to his room and he set you on your feet.

Your heels tapped against the tile as you stabled your footing, he shut the doors behind him and they closed loudly; echoing down the empty hall.

You looked around the room to the extra large bed in the middle of the spacious room, a fire place- already lit is to the left of you with a big white fuzzy gray carpet in front of it.

You look to the right and a long black dresser stands against the wall with a TV to match its length mounted above it.

He walked passed you straight towards another opening and clicked on the light, he turned towards you; looking at you so elegantly standing there with your arms behind your back and blood all over your thighs and soaked into your thigh length nylons.

"Come here maus." He orders gently, holding a hand out for you.

You do so immediately, your body moving before your mind even registered him speaking.

You stepped carefully, painfully aware of your missing thong and the bruised feeling he left in your pussy.

"I like to see you like this. So beautifully filthy." He murmurs as you step into him, you look up at him so your neck is fully arched back and admire him up close now that you're in the light.

His skin was tan, sun-kissed. His calico hair was messy and he had blood around his perfectly shaped lips; his sharp teeth poking out so slightly against his bottom lip.

He had a large claw mark from his hair line all the way down the left side of his face, coming through his eye brow and over his eye, it got thicker across his cheek and ended with a fine point to bottom of his lip.

Now you wanted him fully naked so you could see the rest better, your one eye didn't help in the dark much.

His compliment made you feel giddy inside even though being dirty was normal to them, and because of that you werent expecting the big, fancy castle.

It was exceptionally clean as well, it smelled like nature and incense inside and even the floors shined.

There wasn't a trace of dust anywhere, it made you even more comfortable. You were imagining little mud huts or something or a cave.

"That's prejudice maus." Konig speaks up, amused at your impression of his pack home and other things going through your mind.

"Hm? What is?" You asked confused, not having caught onto the fact that he can hear your thoughts.

"We may be wolves, but we do take pride in cleansing our space. We do still have humanly duties in the world, I'm sure people wouldn't understand us coming to work covered in dirt and blood." He spoke and his eyes watched you, he had that tone that older elegant men speak with and it turned you on.

He had that deep voice that sounded like a growl each time he spoke too, so his words immediately come out as intimidating and nothing is sexier than a large, scary man speaking to a girl with a certain calmness that makes her pussy flood with arousal and that German accent was the cherry on top.

And then you realize- he hears your thoughts.

"Oh. I didn't mean-" you go to explain yourself but his eyes snap up at you as he kneels in front of you; giving you a humorous glance.

"It's okay maus, I'm just fucking with you." He says nonchalantly and you smile down at him, he smirks back; showing his canines as he unclasps your heels.

He holds your ankle and pulls the shoe off, allowing you to stand and does the same for the other foot.

He pulls your thigh highs down before he removes the shirt from your waist. He shoves your dress up and over your hips: exposing your naked body underneath.

You went to shove the dress back down, in the dark was one thing- being able to see all the blood now would be too much but his night vision gave him a perfect view earlier and he growled at your hand, you snatch it away unable to fight the command he has over you now.

You're marked with his claim and imprinted on, your body was going to do whatever the fuck he desired.

"But-"

"Nothing, there's not a thing you should hide from me maus. After what we've already done, your shyness is not acceptable. I will see you in every single way you exist, and I'll enjoy all of them as I've already done." His authoritative tone made you whimper and he gripped your thick thighs; running his hand up them and shoving the dress back up.

Your nipples hardening with the chills his touch brought made you hiss, he stands to pull your dress over your head and you lift your arms for him.

He looked down and grins when he sees the red bite mark on your boob, his claw marks on your hips and the bite on your shoulder.

"You're such a rare beauty, one I'll cherish and protect forever." He purrs as he picks a few sticks and leaves from your hair.

"I want you." You say and swipe his hand away and go to reach for him and he takes a step back to lean against the counter; giving you control as he relaxes and watches what you'll do.

And right now that felt like everything, all at once all your mind could think about was all the positions you'd be able to take him in while he spreads you wide open.

You wanted to suck and fuck him until your body decided it couldn't anymore.

Until the bed breaks? No you didn't want to stop, until the world ended for all you gave a fuck.

You just needed Konig's dick, you felt feral.

He knew it'd happen, it's not uncommon for purebloods who've just lost their virginity. That's why he was trying to get you in here for a shower, that was only for your comfort.

But he was a 500 year old alpha werewolf, and he craved your sweet fucking blood so he didn't give a fuck; yes they took pride in their cleanliness but that didn't mean they didn't like to get down and dirty like the wolves they are.

He'd have you in the woods many times, something about imagining you sprawled out on the dirt with leaves and debris in your hair while you cried his name as he fucked you so good it felt forbidden; it made him just as needy to see you in every way as well.

So he leaned right back and was going to let you do whatever the hell your poor racing mind could settle on.

"You're doing something to me, I can feel it." You say accusatory as you step back into him and he chuckles. You grip the him of his blood stained jeans with both hands and stand on your tippy toes to whisper against his lips; looking into his red and purple eyes.

"And I like it." You lick the bottom of his scarred lip and he gives a satisfied growl and his cock grows harder at the images you're thinking of- all containing him on top of your sleepy body.

"I want you to do more and make me feel drunk again while you do. It felt so fucking good." You say to him, that drunk feeling you chased for all those years after your night of snooping was finally in your grasp.

You needed another taste, it was more than feeling drunk- it was all Konigs power and it felt incredible. It felt like he was inside you- aside from his cock- it felt like the very essence of him swirled within your being and gave you the satisfaction of needing to be closer.

You ever felt so fucking infatuated and in need of someone that sex wasn't close enough, kissing or cuddling wasn't doing it; you needed to literally be inside of them. That's what you felt for him and when he'd subdue you like that, it cured you of that needy sensation.

"Mmm, I'd expect nothing less from my maus." He's looking at you with all the pride in the world, this was the greatest night of his life. That's saying a lot since he's lived alot of it.

"But first, let's get you more comfortable." He says softly and guides you to the shower and you smile, your everything was his top priority and he'd want nothing more than for you to be comfortable before he makes love to you until your body falls into a deep sleep.

You'd wake up fussy if you still have sticks in your hair and dirt on your elbows.

"You're really putting the wolf cliche to shame." You giggle, referring to his caring demeanor and step under the water he set just right for you while he left the shower door open and leaned on the wall next to the shower, enjoying watching you bathe.

"Well, let's see how you feel about that in a couple days hm?" He humors you, but he wasn't joking. He had plans for you, he'd show you things your mind couldn't dare come up with all these years pleasuring yourself.

And he knew most of the things you thought about, long before you knew he was watching; he cherished a scene your mind played out one night.

You were in bed and dreaming, you dreamt the man in chains found you and broke into your bedroom window, dragged you through the woods then fucked you.

You had another where he was tied down to a chair in thick chains and you found him but instead of releasing him you sat your bare pussy on his thigh and grinded your wet juices all over him until completion and walked out; but he broke free and chased you through the woods again and punishment fucked you.

"I know your little fantasies, and you'll get just that and more. Think that slight pain tolerance can handle it?" He taunts as you wash your hair, he already had your favorite shampoo in here along with everything else you favored for your hygiene and vanity.

You smiled with your eyes closed as you rinsed your hair.

"I'll take it either way." You finish rinsing your hair and open your eyes to see him naked in front of you.

You lick your lips as your eyes take in the pierced cock he was fucking you with earlier and your eyes widen a bit.

Holy fuck it was hot as hell, a prince albert piercing with a regular bar decorated the tip of his wide cock, your gaze trailed down his shaft- a Jacob's ladder.

Goddamn this man was beautiful.

"You like my accessories maus?" He raises a brow at you and steps into the shower so you're pressed between him and the bathtub tile.

"Yea." You say weakly and lick the water from your lips, blinking up at him through clumped lashes from your makeup.

You reached down and took him in your hand, feeling the metal on your skin you run your thumb over the head of his pierced tip and he moans.

You continue to do that in a circular motion, you read somewhere that the piercing stimulates the tip more pleasurably because of the constant glide of the piercing and you were curious.

Looks like your findings were true because he leaned over you, placing his hands on the wall above your head; breathing heavily.

Water ran off his face and hair, dripping off the ends of his hair in little droplets onto your face.

He's  breathing through his nose and looking down at you, your jaw was slightly open at the sight.

You wanted to see him come undone, he held back in the woods- he said he was.

You wanted to coax that wolf out.

He leans down and growls in your face.

"Be careful maus." He warns, so you stroke him- down, up and run your thumb over the tip each time you reach it.

You used your other hand to grab his hip and pull him into you so his tip rubbed against your clit as you stood and you moaned a little loud when the skin and metal pressed into you.

"You like that kleine maus?" He asks in that sultry tone that makes you weak in the knees.

"Yes, keep going." You say needing more and he grabs his cock and rubs his pierced tip on your clit and then thrusts between your thighs; watching himself disappear between your edible thighs.

"You ready to go to the clouds darling?" He leans down and kisses your neck and you wrap around him.

"Take me." You whisper and he grabs you up, turns the water off and you're on the bed in a fast motion.

The room was lit in a low orange glow from the fireplace, the bed in the middle of the room took up most of the low light.

The smell of burning wood and your latest shower wafted around you along with his sage and incense smell.

He even had a fan in here, knowing you liked to sleep with the sound of one.

The low rumble of the tall fan and crackle of the fireplace was all you heard and when he spoke it was enough to lull you into a tranced sleep.

Your back laid in the black silky sheets and you spread your legs for him.

"You like when I make you obey me?" He asks as he crawls on the bed to you.

"That's what it is, y'know. When an alphas mate disobeys, he can subdue her with his power. Pretty much make her consciously unconscious. And you like it." He growls and pounces on you, making you giggle and bite your lip.

"I like everything you do to me." You press your chest up into him and he holds you down with his body, but careful not to hurt you.

"You're my good girl." He kisses you slowly, letting his power creep into your mind and body and you drift into it a lot slower this time.

It starts with your lips numbing, unable to speak anything coherent.

He trails down your wet, naked body and noticed your chill bumps and brings the blanket over you both.

"You'll be warm in no time." He mumbles as he trails back down your stomach to your sweet pussy, you spread your legs for him further and he nips at your inner thigh.

You feel his claws dig into your thigh and holds your leg open, using his other hand to tease your entrance.

"Fucking perfect how your body reacts to my touch-" he hums when you rock your hips to fuck the tips of his fingers.

"Such a greedy little pussy, all for me." He's wallowing in your presence, how you need him and are so obedient and precious.

He was more than happy to have you at last, and to know he'd have you forever made him calm and able to take his time; gently with you.

You whine when you feel the need for more, to have his fat tip rub right against your gspot.

He plunges both fingers in while his thumb rubs your clit as he does and you moan out and grab the back of his head.

His face was so close to your pussy, you couldn't help it and pressed his face in between your thighs.

He smirks against your skin before he replaces his thumb with his tongue.

"Hold your pussy open for me, Leibling, so I can suck right on that clit." His direct orders make you eager and you use both of your hands to spread your lips open, completely exposing your cunt to him.

"So delicious." He murmurs and closes his lips around your exposed clit and your back comes off the bed, it was like a painfully pleasurable lightening strike and your body couldn't control it.

"Oh- fuck! Yeah-" Your whimpers fill the room, you're sat up watching him between your open legs, sucking and fingering your spread pussy.

Your head feels heavy and your eyes are a bit glossed over as you watch, sleepy like mewls escaping you with each thrust.

He turns his fingers inside you and curls them, getting right up against your gspot making you cum instantly and your walls squeeze his fingers and your clit throbs beneath his lips.

You yell out his name and fall back onto the bed, panting and feeling your heart thump in your chest while your body softly trembles.

He wraps his hands around your thighs and pulls you to him, holding your legs open so he can position himself along your opening.

"I need you, fast and hard." You whine, reaching for him and he bares his teeth.

He'll break you and this bed with how he wants you bobbing on his thick cock, mumbling mindless shit with how hard he's pounded you while softly rubbing your clit to overstimulation. He was being patient for you.

"I'll hurt you maus." He warns you, rubbing his cock on your bloody slit.

"Make me remember our claim, bite me and fuck me hard. Leave your scratches on my skin, I want all of you please." You beg and he's slamming into you, making you shout and clamp down around him.

He puts you under and watches your head lull around with his fast pace, your thighs fall all the way open with you unable to hold them around his waist anymore.

You're in the clouds like he promised all while still being able to feel every delightful thing he does to your body.

He grabs your ribs, pulling you up and holding you like a doll to impale you on his thick, veiny, pierced cock.

It takes your breath away and your insides feel searing hot, tears form in the corners of your eyes and your head falls back, bouncing with his thrusts.

The tears run down your face and you struggle to open your heavy eyes.

Just one look before your senseless again.

He grabs your chin and kisses the corner of your mouth and guides your head down.

"This what you want to see liebe maus? Your tight cunt gripping me like a vice-" he slows his pace, sliding out to the tip and then gliding back in your slick walls so you get what you opened your eyes for.

You try to move, using your thighs on his for support to ride him and he nods.

"Good maus, so verdammt gut. Fuck yourself onto me, yea-" His praises had you spiraling down with him, he dragged his nails down your sides and you whimpered at the ticklish sting.

You feel his lips sucking on your neck, and he's biting you again- harder this time, you scream and blood trickles down your skin and he slurps it up.

"Sweet maus, bitte, I'm almost-" An animalistic whimper leaves him and your cumming on him, bouncing and taking all his size the best you can; sobbing with nonsense leaving your mouth in your favorite drunken state he gifts you with.

You fell asleep after you came twice more around him, your body was barely visible under the large blanket and his huge body cuddling you.

You didn't even think about your family, you'd miss your dad but they all chose their path and being capable was cooler then being there for you when it really counted.

And there was no way you'd agree to an arranged marriage, so you'd be forced and you weren't about to go through all of that. Hell no.

You weren't scared of anyone trying to find and hurt you, Konig was a beast and God help anyone who dares step to him.

Especially over you, no one better come and try to take you any fucking where.

Vampire, human, wolf or alien.

He'd cut their brains out and shove em down their families throats, tie them to their beds and set the house on fire- he'd make anyone pay for even thinking about plotting against you.

No exceptions.

Besides, the society thought you died, your blood mixed with a wolf- it was clear to them what had happened or so they thought.

You woke up in bed alone the next morning, you stretched your sore limbs and remembered your period. You flew out of bed and realized you were dressed and alone.

You walked to the bathroom mirror and looked at yourself in the pretty white dress he put on you.

(Dress 2 in prologue)

Your cheeks redden when you realize you have a tampon in and your body is clean.

You had been lotioned up, your red hair brushed and everything.

Talk about being taken care of.

You step out of the room and go to the glass door next to the fire place and step out onto the balcony for some air.

Everything's different now and you'll no longer be surrounded by dirty looks from vampires who wished you out of the society.

Now you're in a pretty castle with a very generous wolf you couldn't get enough of.

You lean your elbows on the thick stone railing and look out into yard. This part must be the back of the castle, there was nothing but trees and a large pond underneath the balcony.

You look to the right and down the set of stairs to see a large black wolf, he was fucking huge and put lions to shame.

You immediately noticed the calico furr and mixed colored eyes.

You went to walk down the stairs and go to Konig.

He had some business to attend to this morning and was planning on being there before you woke, he didn't plan on you seeing his wolf form just yet.

But here you came for him with that large curiosity in your eyes you always have when you're looking at him.

His urges for you was stronger in this form, the animalistic part of him was in control whenever he went wolf- another reason he didn't want to show you so soon.

You reached for his fluffy face with both hands and looked down his snout and into his eyes.

"Konig?" You ask like he's in trouble and he tilts his head.

"Did you put a tampon in me?" You asked and he scoffed, the sound coming out more like a puppy cough and he walks off like he's dismissing you but he's just brushing off your question.

'No need to feel embarrassed. You're mine, and you'll learn many things are normal between a wolf and his mate.' You heard Konig's voice in your head and you grabbed his bushy tail, making him stop.

"How are you talking in my head?" You ask slightly confused.

'It's the bond.' His tone darker, deep like something sinister.

"You gonna teach me all the normalcy that goes on around here, or am I gonna find them out when they're happening to me?" You sass and he whips around and pins you to the ground with his front paws.

'Surprise.' His voice in your head says again and you're grinning at him.

[gutsandsweets]

Fictober day 5

Prompt #11; "Well, that worked out great"

Characters: Portgas D. Ace, mentions of Marco and the rest of the Whitebeard pirates

A pebble skipped across the water, staying up top for a few seconds before falling into the depths of the liquid. A few more followed, each varying in how far they went, but they all went further than most could throw them. That was asides from a few duds.

The boy threw a few pebbles up in the air before catching them back into his hand/palm. An exhausted sigh could be heard from the young man as he swung his foot back and forth- although it didn't move too far from its original position. Fish swam out of the way as the rocks were thrown into the water to avoid being hit .

The Moby dick, the Whitebeard pirates ship, had just recently docked on a small island to give the people on it a short break from treading along the ocean. It was pops idea of a small celebration for the win that one of their crewmates had had over a fierceful force of Marines.

Ace sat upon the ledge of a lake, staring into the water. His reflection stared back at him as he did so. Every move the man made was copied exactly by the blueish version of himself.

His eye brows furrowed , and he exaggerated a frown before continuing to look at his reflection to see the effects and how his face looked. He wrinkled his face a bit more, changing the form of his face again and again. Another rock hit the water, creating a tiny ripple. His shape warped and swirled with the water.

He really wanted to eat this piece of meat, but he was not going to go try to find thatch just to cook it. He had no clue whatsoever as to where everyone else could be since he went off on his own. Plus the fact that he was too lazy at the moment. He had attempted to join them in the populated part of the island, but to his dismay, there wasn't much to his interest. Just a few mediocre shops and barely any food good enough to appreciate.. Although ace would typically eat almost anything. The actual problem was that there wasn't any more after the celebration the islands people had just had. So he would settle for sitting near this quaint lake in the further side of the island from them.

Ace took the piece of meat into his hands, rotating and spinning it in his hands as he looked over it. It still looked fresh, he supposed. Hopefully it was still edible, because he really needed something to eat right in this moment. It should be simple enough to cook it on his own considering his devil fruit revolved around fire, right? All he had to do was hold it over his hand and it would cook soon enough..

Ace moved to only holding the stick with one hand. He moved it to where it would be a bit above the fire when he coerced it through his palms, forming flames and started to let them rise. He let his guard down partially as he focused on heating up the cold slab of meat, keeping his eyes squinted as his tongue poked out of his mouth to the side in an act of concentration.

He hasn't yet realized it, but one of the closest trees to him was very old and dying. The recent winds and precipitation hadn't helped, and the limbs had been cracking and slipping off.

As he sat near the pond and watched as the food he held had slowly gained a dark brown color, a decently small sized branch broke off. As it fell to the ground near ace, the crack and loud thump of it hitting the ground close to him caused him to lose control of the flames ingulfing his hands. They grew brighter and more dangerously wild, completely covering the piece of meat. His eyes widened as he tries desperately to slow the flow of his flames. It took a few seconds filled with panic, but eventually they came to a full stop. Ace turned the meat in his hands, inspecting what it looked like now/how it was.

Instead of a mouth-opening, drool inducing treat, a charred and ashy disaster was what he held.

Well shit. What was he supposed to do now? This was just great.

Maybe it was still redeemable? He was sure if he peeled off some of the burnt spots that it would taste alright, surely.

Surely enough, just as ace started to peel off the darkest parts of the skin, his ahdns slipped and cause the meat to fall out of them, hitting the ground near the edge of the lake. His eyes widened in shock and as he went to go reach for it before something else happened to it, the meat fell into the water of the lake.

Ace let out an annoyed sigh. He looked blankly down into the water, watching as it continued to sink to the bottom of the lake. Why did things like this *always* have to happen to him out of all people? The poor guy was just tired and hungry- but now there his food was, getting all soggy in the middle of the water. Not only had he just burnt it.. But now most likely made it completely inedible. His luck was just that bad, huh?

Aquatic creatures swam all around the meat bone, some trying to take a nibble out of it. Ace scooted closer to the edge of where he sat, angrily splashing the water with his hands or feet. The fish and such rushed to get away as they felt the disturbance to their home.

Starting to feel the affects of the water already, ace recoiled back and shook his hand to rid it of as much water as possible. It wasn't as bad as the sea or falling in it- no. More just like a faint tingly feeling that was still unpleasant.

He bring his foot up and planted it on the solid ground as he stood up. Using his hands to dust himself off, he looked around for anything to help try and retrieve his lost food. He thought about what could work. Glancing back down to the sunken meat, he squinted his eyes at it. It didn't look like it was too far down.. Thankfully is was just a small pond, so it wasn't very deep. The amount was more shallow, maybe a few inches or so, at most a foot and a half.

Plus there was a few things close to here that he could try. He tapped his fingers on his legs as he tried to figure out which would be the better ideas out of them. He could try to use some fallen tree limbs, use a cup or barrel since there were a few broken pieces nearby, use a fishing pole, continue trying to grab it with his bare hands,..

'Might as well just go adhead and try them all' he thought.

He started with a broken barrel he had found close to him, laying down on his stomach on the ground and scooting closer to the water. He bent over the ledge, sinking the wood into the pond. The second his hand begun to be submerged in the water, he retracted it and dropping the broken piece in the process. Touching the water wasn't a good solution at all, it seemed.. Oh well. That immediately ruled out one of his other ideas of grabbing it with only his hands. Sticks had no chance of working since they were all so fragile and soggy. The only idea he had left was a fishing pole. That didn't seem too promising, but it was the only shot he himself had as a devil fruit user..

A pile of supplies had coincidentally been left by someone in the end of the trees that led to the free area, one of which consisted of some dishing supplies as well. Forcing the container open to grab anything that could help. There were a few pouches of fishing bait, clean and polished hooks, line for repairs, but not much else. Picking up the fishing rod itself to inspect it closer revealed that it was in semi-decent condition. Although, the hook was starting to rust. Ace chose a new hook from the plastic box to attatch to the rod instead. This was supposed to retrieve his food, so it should be clean to ensure that he wouldn't get tetanus or something similar of the sorts if he ate the food.

He pushed on his legs to elevate/come to a stand again, clutching the rod in one hand and leaving his other to the side. He walked the distance between the water and forest again, leaning over the edge to check and make sure the food was still there.

Sure enough, it was right where he had left it. No fish or anything surrounded it surprisingly with how long he had left it alone. He adjusted the long pole in his hands, swinging it to get the hook closer to the target spot. It landed on the water, barely dipping in with a splat.

Well, that didn't work too well.

Maybe if he tried it again?

Ace reeling in the line with a sigh, hoping he could find a way to get this to work. He propelled it forward again, landing it around the same place. It went further down into the water, but still didn't reach the bottom. A loud groan could be heard from far in the forest as he repeated the action again. And again.. And once more.. Yet again.. ..

A few hours later, Marco found ace, who was still trying to find a way to get to his food in any way he could.

A/N: hello to any body reading this!! I'm so so sorry for all the last works, I've had most of them completed but my dumb self decided to fall asleep before I could finish the promote, so I'm a bit behind. I'm working it all rn!

[mistresskayla-blog1]

A Superior Find

Lyn's Writing Event Day 3

May 3rd : Week 1:  Wendigo 

Characters: Dr Scott White & OC (Mika Awi-Mino Deh D’eh) Aka Mika Deer-heart       

“Deer with a strong heart” (Ojibwe)

Fandom: Richard Armitage – Sleepwalker

Word count: 1.0k ++

Location: Gwinn, Ontonagon (MI – US) “Superior State”

OC Character based off a real Ojibwe metal sculptor Louise Solomon “Likeness”

Warnings: nightmares, dark content, dreams, hallucinations, tremors, fear, native american lore,

Deep in the forest of the Superior state, Mika tossed and turned on her pillow, fighting off the sweating and trembling sensations in her limbs as a large glistening black skinned creature is chasing her in her dream. The deepness of the winter had sunken into the cabin and she was alone again, the fire out and her thoughts swimming as she sat up in bed panting and clutching her chest. A frosty breath resounded from her mouth as she tried to claim the fresh air into her lungs. She looked at her hands and they were shaking uncontrollably. Was she shivering or still coming out of that dream? Her skin was cool and clammy, and she peeled off her shirt and padded to the shower to start it up hot. She reset the pilot on a potbelly furnace and started the peat for an ignitor.  Smoke gushed out of the vent; she stepped back coughing. Waving her hands and covering her mouth with her arm, the taste was ashy and acrid. She heard the shift of the water heater and walked away from the stove allowing it to warm the space, flipping the haft toggle bar to make sure the flew was open to the chimney.

She had had enough sunny days to go without a little bit. Residual heat from the other space heaters was enough, but today the chill was there, and it clung to her like her shirt had, a deep embrace. Mika stepped into the clawfoot tub and pulled the shower curtain with a scratchy noise against the metal bar above her. The water hit her skin and flayed off a layer, she cursed out loud and turned it down, letting the steam seep into her lungs, and the water finally to warm her, but not burn her. She checked for marks all over her body, again, this creature came to her, and she did not know what it meant, her great grandmother had said that such a creature meant famine long ago, and she certainly didn’t need that omen.

There were shallow scratches on her arms and hips, but she didn’t remember it getting that close to her. The thought made her shiver under the hot tap, and once she felt clean, she stepped out and toweled off, heading back to the bed. She pulled open a wardrobe hutch, a squeak of the hinge on the door let her know it was still unearthly quiet in this space for morning. She looked up out the paned glass of the windows, the sash was open, so what light was here poured in. The wind was still outside and the snow was crisp, white and calm. Nothing was stirring, not even the birds or squirrels, and that gave Mika an uneasy feeling. This deep in the woods she could always count on the animals to tell her when things were safe.

Mike got dressed and yanked the phone charger out of her phone, scrolling to find the clinic number. Finding Dr John Whitehorn on her “recents” gave her a pause. Maybe she was crazy. She knew he wouldn’t treat her that way, but still, it niggled in her mind, that something was off.

The phone rang as she waited, “John Whitehorn” Mika paused, “Hey Doctor, “ He responded immediately, “Mika, my dear, how are you feeling, did that tea work at all?”

Mika looked over towards the kitchenette, “Sorry, no. I forgot to try it. He came again, or it. And I think it is getting closer. I woke up with scratches.  How does that happen?”

John, “Well, that is a progression, (frowns audibly) we should have you come in. I know a specialist in California that can help. I’ll call him and then we will schedule time for you to come in, alright? Try to eat and do some activities that remind you on being awake, get outside, its supposed to hit the 30s today”.  Mika hmm-d against his tone, “Yeah I will try that. Thanks Doc”. 

“My pleasure. I will call you soon”, Dr John said, hanging up the call and immediately placing a call to Dr Scott White at the Henderson Sleep Institute in Los Palos, California.  

---

Scott was at his desk when his cell phone rang, it startled him a second, he was lost in thought about a client, and sipped his coffee for the morning. It was early, but late for his shift was nearly over. When you work in a sleep clinic you rarely have the night off. Scott picked it up, “Scott White”, Scott said, a male voice on the other end spoke immediately, “Dr White? This is John from the Sacred Heart Clinic in her in Gwinn,” Scott nodded, “Sure, yes, John. How are you, how can I help?”

“Look, I have a patient, Mika and she is having some very strong somatic responses and I was wondering if you had some time to come out and see us here for, maybe a week?” Dr John was hopeful sounding as he paused waiting for Scott to answer.

“What sort of disturbances? What are her symptoms?" Scott asked. John paused, as if looking at notes, Scott heard shuffling, “Sweating, nausea, tremors, and now she has visible scratches on her arms and hips” Scott’s eyes dilated slightly in the resounding pause, “I see. That is quite a unique disturbance. And she is where exactly?”  John answered, “She lives up in the woods here, about 20 miles from the towns. She’s an artist so she likes seclusion, but I think it is getting to her. Our winters up north here can last 6 months or more”.  Scott looked thoughtful, scribbling some notes on a pad in front of him, “Right, well that certainly can’t help matters. How long has she been having these disturbances?”  John, blew out some air, “Oh gosh, Id have to check my notes, but since last year I suppose, its been building. Off and on. She really doesn’t contact me too often. I go up and see her at least once a month, or have her come down” Scott cleared his throat, “I’m sorry are you her primary physician then?” 

John responded, “Yes, here on the reservation, there are only 4 of us accredited in the Western way, so I specialize in psychiatry, sleep, and general practice”.  Scott nodded again, taken in the information. He opened a calendar on his desktop, “I could be there in a few days, if you think she will hold until then”.   John, “Fine, fine. I will make an appointment to have her come down from the hills, no problem. She maybe be a little skittish, but its just the Wendigo spooking her. We’ll see you on Friday then?” John was about to ring off when Scott stopped him, “Did you say the Wendigo, like the lore of the Deer man?”  John smiled proudly, “Yes, you know of our native stories?” Scott spoke carefully, “He appears in dreams and in the flesh haunting people in the wood. I remember reading something back in college. Sleep myths are kind of a hobby of mine, (smirks)”.  “Well that’s great, then she will be in good hands, we will see you on Friday. Pack heavy we’ve got 8 more inches expected that night. Ill send you an email with details on how to get here from the city (referring to Marquette)”. John chuckled and hung up. Scott looked at his computer and down at his notes, “tremors and scratches” he mumbled to himself, “Hmm”.

(More to come... stay tuned.... )

@legolasbadass @fizzxcustard @lathalea

@scariusaquarius @middleearthpixie @riepu10

[gl1tch3doracle]

⊹ ࣪ ˖ Bombshell ˖ ࣪⊹

Had to write something for Reze now the new trailer is out. Already have another fic for her in store because I am absolutely feral for this woman and she needs more love. If there's one thing I love more than Reze it's her hybrid form.

➸ Reze + !Neutral!Reader

➸ Word count; 1,832 words,

➸ Set before her introduction in the manga (also a slight itty bitty bit of an AU, if you squint)

➸ Content warnings include cursing, blood mentioned, minor amounts of violence (kind of cause Reze is murderous when she needs to be) and descriptions of a burning/burnt building.

Returning home to the petulant smell of sulphur hanging thick in the air was enough to make you choke and gag before dropping your meagre bag of groceries. A resounding thump and rustle followed by the crinkling of packages, plastic melting into the smouldering clumps of brick that used to belong to your apartment building.

Returning home to the petulant smell of sulphur hanging thick in the air was enough to make you choke and gag before dropping your meagre bag of groceries. A resounding thump and rustle followed by the crinkling of packages, plastic melting into the smouldering clumps of brick that used to belong to your apartment building.

There was ringing in your ears - Loud enough to drown out the drones of people, police and firemen maybe. Sharp suits flashed between the crowds, glints of swords, furrowed brows, and taught looks. Furiously pounding in your ribcage, your heartbeat errant, your gut twisting as you numbly stumbled forward to your now destroyed home. The structure was crumbling, billows of smoke towering into the sky, blanketing the blue like a smothering embrace. You weren't sure what was stinging your eyes more - The smoke or the tears pinpricking at the thought of your now lost home.

'Is Reze okay?' Was all you could think. It brought about another bout of panic that settled deep in your chest. You could stand losing your home, it was a heavy blow both emotionally and monetarily, but you could deal with that later. You couldn't handle losing your partner.

'Was she scheduled to work today? She could be at the cafe, right?' You tried to rationalise, pleading that fate would at least let her be okay, but the fact you couldn't even remember if she was supposed to be at work today or not did not help the dying glimmer of hope that remained. Or maybe it was the shock finally hitting your senses. Either way, you continued forward, somehow slipping under the watch of the approaching devil hunters and police and into the ashy ruins of the building you once called home.

It looked like a bomb had gone off, was your first thought. The front desk was shattered, the bench broken in half. A smouldering crater sat placidly in the middle of the room, half-lit fires and smouldering embers burning red hot as you stumbled past. One of the elevators was missing, possibly crashed at the very bottom level if the empty, scorched elevator shaft told you anything. The stairs were miraculously left unharmed for the most part.

Still, unharmed did not mean untouched. Your hand was coated in soot the moment you steadied yourself against the railing. However cool to the touch, it was absolutely filthy. You swiped it over your already ruined uniform.

"Reze?" Your voice cracked, quiet under the roaring flames, sirens and mindless chatter. It barely carried, and you were certain that even if Reze were here and was still alive, she wouldn't have heard you anyway.

You jumped as something fell and crashed not too far from where you were, almost slipping and falling through a hole that opened up underneath your foot like a gaping, toothy maw. Whimpering, you hurried your way up the stairs and further into the burning building a little faster.

Somehow, your hallway was mostly fine. It was undeniably warm, uncomfortably so, flames licking at the scorch-stained windows, but for the most part, it was untouched. Not entirely clean and devoid of damage, but rather, it was the most unspoiled part of the building you'd seen so far. It was nice, you supposed, but your stomach was still twisting and writhing in frantic knots. Bits of broken wood were flung around, but it didn't look like they came from the still-intact doors, nor did the plaster look like it had been blown from the wall. However, just your luck, the one part that wasn't left untouched was your goddamn apartment.

It made your heart sink, or your stomach lurch into your chest. The door was completely blown off its hinges, scorch marks flying inwards, into the apartment like an incredible force had burst its way through.

Carefully, you peered into the ruined room.

Someone was standing in the middle of the kitchenette, humanoid in shape with their hand braced against the table. Eerily silent apart from a faint hissing sound with small sparks flying from small scratches and dents that littered their metallic face. Otherwise, they were stock-still, steaming spewing from one end of their bulbous, shiny head like an overheated engine.

The hole blown clean in the wall behind them allowed the bustling wind to whip past, tugging at the sheer dress of twisted cables and dull-carmine dynamite strapped around their body.

'What the fuck is that?' You held your breath, unsure of whether escaping back to the freedom of outside and clean air would've been a better choice than just standing in the doorway like a deer staring into headlights. Either way, there was the possibility that whatever was standing in the middle of your ruined home would hear you, but there was something that made your blood run ice cold and pause.

A spattering of crimson over the rightmost wall, a clean arc bold against the fumes. Blood, thick, dripping slowly before puddling where the floor sharply curved upwards.

What you could only assume was Reze's blood.

"No…" Tears finally fell, rolling over your cheeks, turning grey with ash. Then, you realised your mistake - Alerting whatever killed Reze to your appearance. The dread of losing your loved one was trumped, nothing compared to the almost hysteria of seeing the thing shift.

At first, it was the flex of the hand against the table, fingers flexing, spreading, smearing more blood against the placemats - Then it was the head. It shuddered and shook itself before seemingly heaving a breath it had been holding and letting a billow of steam spew from its mouth, a sickening, metallic crack resounding through the room before its head slowly, malevolently, peered in your direction.

Amongst the burnt wires and smeared blood spattered against its front (you heaved a silent sob knowing it was Reze's own blood) you noticed the stark white button-up shirt that melted into its skin. Tight, unmarred by everything except the crimson blood that dripped from its harrowing teeth, and decorated with a still intact name tag.

Reze.

That scared you more than anything.

The only thing that haunted you more than your partner dying by the creature in front of you, was your girlfriend being possessed by the creature in front of you. A fiend was the only thing that made sense, seeing something so humanoid garbed with such a strange head and decorated with twisted wires and flying sparks. The thing in front of you had killed Reze, or found her body, and decided to take it for itself.

It was the only thing that made sense in your mind, after all.

"What are you?" You snivelled. The thing already knew you were there, staring you straight down its sights despite the fact you were sure it had no eyes. It paused, tilted its head, and had the audacity the laugh, or more accurately, giggle, in your girlfriend's own voice.

"You weren't supposed to find out," Her shoulders sagged, dragging her feet against the floor. It still felt like her, even if a devil had taken over her mind. Still…

"Reze?" Your voice was hoarse, rough from the smoke and tears. The thing cocked her head to the other side, letting her limbs fall lax at her sides.

"Lisichka," There was a specific tone in her voice, but it was the name that made your heart break. Those uttering of syllables, the same ones Reze would whisper softly, adoringly, in your ear before the two of you would fall asleep. The way the devil moved in front of you, it seemed all too familiar for her body to simply have been taken over. You had no idea how possession worked, but you were certain that the body always lost a sense of humanity as well as their memories as their mind was stolen. Seeing the devil Reze in front of you, a part of you doubted that this was not Reze. Too many of her mannerisms were still there, the way she held herself, the way she talked, her words and the way her head tilted.

"I don't understand…" You clung to the doorway, trying to regain any semblance of balance as your mind whirled by at incredible speeds. Reze swayed before walking toward you, gentle and light with a pep in her step. She didn't say anything, but you could feel the heat radiating off of her, palpable waves that swamped the already humid air around you. Instead, her fingers cupped your cheeks delicately, fuse wires starkly cool, but in a manner that was undoubtedly from Reze's own control.

From here, you could see your face reflected in the shine of her head. Rounded, almost glassy in texture. Steam still spewed from her mouth, thin wisps that rose to the ceiling. You hummed, the sound ragged in your throat. 'This is Reze' was the only thought running through your mind. This scary, daunting creature that had most likely destroyed the building the two of you had lived in, was your own girlfriend. The being that stared you down, teeth covered in blood with her uniform melting into her skin. The person who, despite the carnage that surrounded the two of you, held you so tenderly and carefully and with such love that, as the realisation dawned on you, you couldn't really come to hate like any other devil that plagued the city.

You sniffled once, and then raised your own hands to trace along the curve of her face.

The metal (you were certain it was metal) was warm to the touch. Not hot, but pleasantly warm against the aches in your fingers. Nicks covered the surface, not entirely smooth, somewhat dented - Ruggered would probably be the best way to describe the feeling. Reze vibrated under your touch, leaning in further as your hands traced along the curled ridges cut out of the side of her head, following the curve down toward her pointed teeth. The feeling of hot blood made you flinch, but still, you continued, cradling the oversized head of your girlfriend in the hold of your arms.

That was, until, she literally started melting between your fingers. The scream in your throat was muffled as Reze threw her arms around your shoulders, covering your mouth with a single hand whilst the other rubbed comforting circles across your back. Within a blink, the devil mask, or head, was gone, slumped in a pile of dark sludge that quickly seeped into the floor as soon as it had fallen from Reze's face. Now, she was there, peering into your eyes, crystal clear emerald that you remembered so fondly with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

"What was that all about?" Your voice was barely above a whisper, cracked, and sorely tired. Just having Reze wrapped around you like she so commonly did was already doing wonders for your palpating heart.

"I'll tell you later," She grinned, turning her head toward the broken door frame. The concentrated footsteps of about three of four people were already making their way down the hallway. "For now," Reze grabbed your wrist, "we run."

For those curious, Lisichka, the name Reze called the reader, apparently means little fox in Russian if my five minutes of searching told me anything.

[lootsofathousandsworld]

Life of a Pirate Chpt 9

Happy new year everyone! :D

Here’s a new chapter for you all!

Enjoy and sorry if grammer are wonky

No!" I shouted. He ignored my scream and turned to his men.

"Prepare to plunder men! Have the guns ready!" The crew obeyed his orders but I was stunned to see he had broken our deal. That deal was supposed to get me out of here and find a way to fix my wish.

"You..you promised!" Again, he ignored me. Instead, he walked down the stairs to join his men and I followed, yelling in desperation.

"You said I have permission to go without any harm!" You promised I could go! " I then try to grab his coat without thinking. "You can't break this paraly!..."

He finally snaps and turns sharply at me. "That paraly of yours was pathetic!" I stop talking out of fright while he continues speaking darkly.

"Ye are on my ship. I decide whenever I can break paralys or not." He towered over me and I made myself back a few steps. "I decide who goes or not. I decide if I can give ya freedom or not!" My back hit the main mast preventing me from moving more.

He then leaned close enough can smell rum mix tobacco and spoke lowly. "Once you are on my ship, you ain't going nowhere." Those words of his are like knives stabbing me on my freedom being taken away. I turned my head to avoid looking at him in disgust.

“B.E.N!" I overheard him call and in the corner of my eyes I saw the robot running to us.

"Yes sir!" He asked but gasped to see me in terror position. Before he could ask what was going on his Captain spoke.

"Take her to my cabin and make sure she doesn't go anywhere,"

The robot gulped. "B-but sir didn't you just.."

"That's an order," Flint snarled under his breath. B.E.N wimped and turned to me. I shook my head when he reached and grabbed my arm.

"B.E.N please don't," I pleaded as he started to drag me from my spot. As I was dragged I turned my head around and saw Flint watching me pulling away.

My stomach sickens when he gives me his cruel smile with fangs showing. My emotions were mixed with fear and anger. Of how I was stupid not to listen to Nicolas after he warned me I'd be backstabbed.

And should've taken my chance on planning a backup in case this happened. I could've just rebelled my way out but no. I have to rely on that stupid parlay!

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

As I was being dragged on the deck Flint shouted fire and thinking my ears went deaf the cannons blasted out and hit the merchant ship after the walus had gotten close enough.

I gasped in horror when I saw part of the large ship in flames and my mind was set on many innocents were killed without any warning. Soon my mind was cut short when B.E.N kept pulling me. I restrained myself by trying to stay put and pull the other way.

"Ashy come on you be safe once we're in the cabin," B.E.N struggled.

"But I don't want to be in his cabin!" I cried and tried to get his hand off but his grip was tight. "B.E.N please let me go I can't stay here,"

"I'm sorry Ash Captain's orders," He finally replied in glum, pulling me so hard that I almost stumbled but didnt give up fighting to pull away. Then there was gunfire shooting as the navy were out and shooting the pirates. B.E.N made me duck down and kept pulling me.

I can tell he was still sad earlier on me leaving and I wonder if he has mixed feelings now about all this sudden moment on Flint ordering him to put me in his cabin.

I then began to reason with him after I saw the cabin close. Right when we were inside he began to lock the door. "B.E.N I know you're upset I'm leaving but I promise we'll see each other again,"

"But how will I know that after you lied to me?" B.E.N stops and turns to me sharply. "How can I know you can keep your promise?" "You might forget me!" My throat tightened after saw his expression. Not in my life had seen him this upset after watching him in film many times.

Trying not to shed tears I touch his hand. "Because this is the promise I will never break. If..if things are different I want you to come with me," His facial slowly softens when I mention those words.

"You would?" He asked quietly.

I nodded truthfully. "Yes, and you do not know how it hurts me to leave you behind." The words of this is your opportunity to make this choice was trying to sneak the way out of my mouth but I couldn't let myself say it.

I had to keep this timeline sturdy. Or else he will never meet Jim in the future. Instead, I give my last try on pleading, holding his hand still.

"Please, this is my only chance of freedom. I will see you again. I promise." He looked at me long and I bit my lips to hold my tears. About a minutes later, feeling like it's been an hour, he sighs and unlocks the door.

"Go and chase your freedom. I'll see you soon," Right after he spoke, I made a joyful smile and leaped to hug him. He grunted with surprise as I held him close.

"Thank you B.E.N. You are the best friend anyone could ever have." I felt him hug me the same.

"All I ask is don't forget me okay?" He asked. I let go of his embrace smiled at him nodded.

"I won't, that a promise I'll keep." I then hold my hand out. "Pinky swear?" He blinked at my hand position puzzling. He raises his hand and holds out his robotic pinky.

"Pinky swear?" I use my pinky to rope around his.

"It is a sign of a sealed promise," I explained. "Once we make this promise it will never break," He almost nodded understanding and then smiled.

"Alright, Pinky swear! I will see you again Ashy!" I almost laugh and give him my last hug.

"Goodbye B.E.N," After our last hug I push the door and run out.

-------------------------————————

The battle was still going on as I stepped out as many pirates were fighting to get on the merchant ship. My mind raced on how I could jump over the merchant without getting shot fearing the navy would see me as one of his crew.

I saw a free rope nearby after someone used it that was close enough to let me swing over. Before any pirate member could reclaim it I rushed over to snatch it. Right when I got it. I thought my skin jumped when I heard this booming voice.

"LASS!" My head turned and saw Flint, looking rage at me. I froze my position in fear and cursed myself for not being sneaky. He was storming towards me and growled.

"Don't ye fuckin dare use that rope!" I force myself to break my spell and I climb up the port fast, gripping the rope. Before his hand grabbed my arm. I jumped and swung over the other ship.

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

Third Person POV

"YOU LITTLE WRENCH!" Flint roared. He watches her swing herself to another ship and let go of the rope, With much anger, he looked around until he spotted B.E.N amid plundering.

The robot glances down guilty as the Captain speaks venomously.

"I'll deal with you later," Blind Pew shows up and his head turns towards where the woman is. Smirking he pulled out his pistol and asked.

"Shall I shoot her legs Cap'n?"

"No," Flint answered bluntly. "Your job is to make sure every man does not leave empty-handed." He took the rope from one of his crew members. While the member didn't dare to argue he stepped up on the port.

"This lass is mine. She won’t get away." He leaps and swings over to get her back.

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

Ash's POV

Shakingly, I got up and right before I could even move a gun was close to my face.

"State your name pirate!" I perked up and saw a navy alien wearing a blue uniform. I shook my head fast and held my both hands out showing no weapons.

"I was kidnapped!" I gasped. They noticed I was a woman and they lowered their weapon.

"You were stolen?" One asked, making sure he heard it correctly.

I nod in desperation. "Yes! They took me away and I was hold captivity! Please help me!" They helped me up and one had a facial of a dog-like alien, similar to Delbert's look at his companion.

"Take her to the longboat with the others! She'll be safe there."

"Yes sir! Hurry miss," All of sudden, before he could lead me a laser was shot through his head. I let out a scream and watched in terror as a navy fell on the ground with blood everywhere. And some spilled on my shirt.

I looked at the owner who shot him and my face paled to see Captain Flint standing, with his facial filled with fury, looking like a satan that emerges from the pit of hell.

His yellow eyes were focused on me as he snarled lowly.

"Lass, I ordered you to return to my ship,"

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

"Run miss! " The dog alien shoved me fast, snapping my trance, and I bolted off.

"Don't make this hard!" I overheard him yell which made me run faster.

Trying not to get myself killed, I ducked and avoided going through sword fighting between pirates and the navy. I also try hard to remember which deck below can lead me to longboats after watching the movie many times.

I picked the one that was closed and rushed downstairs, almost tripping. But as I got down I stopped dead when I saw I was in a gallery, where nowhere to run.

"Shit!" I panted and glanced around fast. "Shit! Shit shit!" I heard his footsteps coming and without much of a choice, I dove into the bottom cupboard and closed it right before I saw his boot stomping in.

I cover my mouth to not make any sound and watch through the cracks of him scanning the room. He took a small sniff and bare his teeth.

"I know you here lass," He snarled. He walked over to the nearby table and added. "If you don't come out, I will tear this place apart!" He uses his one hand to flip the table hard, breaking all the plates and glasses that were on it.

I was trembling to hear him breaking everything I covered my ears to prevent from hearing it more.

"Where are you?!" He screeched. I wimp silently. I had to make a quick getaway, knowing soon he'd find me here. With as much quiet as I could make, I opened the cabinet door very slowly and saw Flint's back.

With him distracting tearing the other cabinets. I crawl my way towards the exit without making any sound. In my head, I prayed to God he was in that same position until I was out.

As I put my hand on the wooded step, it made a small squeak sound. With that sound, I made a sharp gasp accidentally. I looked back and saw Flint turn his body fast, and found me on the spot.

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

"There ye are!" I screamed and made a run out of the gallery. I hurried out not noticing how fast he ran. I felt my hair being snatched in his grasp and I yelled in pain.

"Help!" I cried when he pulled me to him and grabbed my arm. "Somebody! Help me!"

I struggled to break free by kicking and squirming but he was strong as he forcefully dragged me along.

"Stop fighting!" He yanked me hard to prevent me from trying to escape his grasp. "You are makin' this difficult!" He then picks me up and I scream more as he tries to put me over his shoulder.

"Help someone help! Anybody!" I kept on kicking but out of nowhere, I felt him gasp sharply as if he was in pain. He dropped himself with me, finally letting me go and I looked over breathing heavily.

Saw his hand covering his side wound where he was shot at. With much chaos going on, I didn't hear someone shooting him.

"Miss!" I glanced over and saw another amphibian navy alien who shot him and reached his hand out to me. "Come on!" I took his hand as he helped me up.

“Hurry this way to the longboats!” I started to follow him, running but then I stopped dead. Realizing Captain Flint was in pain, my mind came forth on the timeline.

If he’s in pain, what if he won’t make it back to his ship? If he dies here then..treasure planet won’t exist! I turn back to find Flint in the same position.

Biting my lips at this hard decision, for the sake of the future, I ran back to help him.

[littlemisspascal]

The After

Pairing: Ruescott Melshi x Female Reader

Word Count: 7k+

Summary: There is a story before, when, and after Keef Girgo enters your life. This is the After.

Rating: M (18+, minors please do not engage!)

Warnings: Prison/Narkina 5 storyline but an AU where woman inmates are assigned to each unit as ‘peacekeepers’, language, established relationship, references of dead bodies, violence + blood + injuries, talk of having children but no pregnancy, angst, near-death experiences

- Reader has no official name and no physical traits described in detail. However, she is implied to be shorter than Melshi.

Author Note: Thank you everybody for the kind support of this story from beginning to now! Unbelievable this is the end! What was supposed to be such a little thing has turned into this epic journey with characters I've come to love so much. Hope y'all enjoy 💜

Special thanks to @beecastle for beta reading and encouraging me 💜

Series Masterlist

You find yourself floating in a realm of total darkness. No colors, no sounds, no warmth. And it should scare you, being trapped here in this unnatural stillness, unable to move or scream, but numbness prevails over the alarm pinching faintly at your nerves. It swaddles your limp body, from your head to your toes, like you’re something fragile. Something in need of care.

You could get used to this. 

~~

A strike of pain hits the center of your chest, disturbing the numbness with the same force as an unexpected slap across the face. It startles you, whole body convulsing, and your lips part to release a wordless gasp but—

—you can’t—

There’s nothing in your lungs to exhale. 

Odd, considering you taste smoke on your tongue. Bitter. Ashy. Almost like…almost like you’re burning alive.

“Come on…”

Fire, hungry and vicious, laps at your tender insides like they’re made of paper. It bites most cruelly above your hip, almost feeling deliberate in nature. As if an invisible enemy is pressing a lit candle there against the flesh.

And yet all you can think about, the only thing rattling around inside your panic-stricken mind that you can focus on, is water. Gushing. Rippling. A beast gobbling up whatever it yanks beneath its surface.

“…breath, damn it…”

There’s a voice somewhere, far away yet impossibly close. They sound upset. Panting harshly like they can’t find their breath either. 

And beyond the voice, faintly roaring over the rush of blood in your ears, the sound of waves crashing upon a shore. 

Then another sharp pang connects with your chest, putting an abrupt end to your musings as your peaceful realm of darkness explodes into light and an abundance of colors.

Your vision swims, and there’s a split second of wild incomprehension, skin tingling and lungs full of flames, heart thumping hard in your chest. And then you feel it, something wet and salty rising in your esophagus. Up, up, up until there’s nowhere left to go but out.

There’s no strength left in your body, and yet the second your lips part you’re retching up a disgusting blend of saltwater and stomach acid onto the sandy floor. There’s a shout of your name from nearby, familiar in its cadence, but it’s impossible to focus when you’re choking on brine, every muscle constricting with agony.

“Thank the Maker,” the voice says next, a quiet heave of relief.

You manage a shuddering breath, tongue heavy in your mouth and the taste of salt and iron fighting for dominance. There’s still a fiery burn throbbing from your hip. The kind no amount of water will douse. Your head’s too heavy to look, eyes wanting nothing more than to roll back into darkness.

“No, no,” a hand pulls at your shoulder, rolling you over just enough for Jemboc’s face to slide into view. Water droplets slide down his skin, along the anxious lines marring his expression. “Now’s not the time for sleeping.”

A shiver wracks your frame. You’re soaked to the bone, clothes sticking uncomfortably, and slowly, oh so unbearably slowly the pieces start coming together. A timeline of memories settling into place. It’s hard to tell if the nausea cramping your stomach is from your harried prison escape or nearly drowning to death.

I was shot, you think to yourself. There’s a sharp twinge from your wound, as if it’s pleased to finally be remembered.

“What happened?” Your voice comes out barely louder than a weak hiss between clenched teeth, whole body strenuously protesting the effort. 

Jemboc’s grip on your shoulder tightens. The intensity of his stare drills into your bones, adding to the desperation thrumming beneath your skin. “Pure pandemonium once everyone hit the water. Felt like it was every man for himself; fighting the current, scrambling for land. But I saw you sinking and I-I didn’t think, just grabbed you and pulled you with me to shore.”

You blink at him for a long moment, fatigue pulling at your eyelids, then gingerly tilt your head to take in your surroundings for the first time. The sky’s a canvas of orange, purple, and dark blue overlapping one another, the last beams of sunlight fading fast. You’re on a beachy shore, sand so white it could pass for snow, dotted with sharp rocks and leafless trees. And it figures, of course it does, that the outside of the prison is as dreary and spiritless as the inside.

“Hey.” There’s a new softness to Jemboc’s voice, drawing your hazy attention back. His gaze isn’t on your face anymore, staring someplace lower on your body with grimly pursed lips. “Your wound…It’s–it’s not looking too good.”

Doesn’t feel too good either, is the automatic snappish retort that comes to mind first, but then the true meaning of his words sinks in like the jagged edges of a trap springing shut. 

You’re not making it off this beach. 

You can’t move, and even if Jemboc carried you along with him you can’t fight. Can’t help him find a way to get off this damn moon. All you’ll be is a useless burden weighing him down.

“Should’ve let me drown,” you rasp.

Jemboc bites harshly into his bottom lip instead of responding, hand still grasping your shoulder, as if letting go meant watching you dissolve into sea foam. 

You think you’d actually prefer that over the alternatives. If the dropping temperature doesn’t kill you first, you’re going to bleed out here, a stain of scarlet on the snow sand swept away by the midnight tide. You’d fought for a softer conclusion, asked the universe for a little more time, and this…this is what you received.

What a load of bantha shit, you think, snorting a quiet huff of air that has your sore lungs smarting. It isn’t funny, not even a little bit. It’s fucking tragic. But you bet Melshi would laugh too, that low, husky chuckle of his if he were here—

Your heart stops.

“I–where–” Panic wraps around your vocal chords like a noose, tightening by the second. Your fingers curl into loose fists at your sides, sand gathering beneath your nails. “Rue,” you spit out with strangled urgency. “Where’s Rue?”

You can remember your last moment with him so clearly up there on the landing bay. The feeling of his calloused hands on your face, holding you like his most precious treasure. How his brown eyes blazed with such fervent emotion, voice drowned out by the encompassing maelstrom. If those had been his last words—fuck. Fuck, don’t think like that. 

Jemboc won’t meet your gaze, glancing towards the waves. “I’m not sure.”

Something sharp punctures a hole behind your sternum.

No. That won’t do. That won’t do at all.

“Jemboc, what do you mean you’re not sure? Where the hell is he?”

“It means I don’t know,” he chokes. He gestures vaguely at the beach, the water, frowning deeply. “I told you: it was pandemonium. I just saw flashes of faces, there and gone. Running as fast as they could. Taga, Ham, Kino, Keef, Melshi—I lost sight of all of them. I…I don’t even know if they made the swim.”

You’d always known escaping prison would be hard. That there’d be losses. Sacrifices. But this—this specific kind of pain of unknowing is excruciating. Gaping black holes of uncertainty eating away at your hopes, leaving behind nothing but fear and increasingly catastrophic thoughts. You almost think it’d hurt less, being able to actually see the corpses of your tablemates right in front of you, lifeless and briny. At least then you’d know their fates, be able to firmly close their stories and make peace with their endings.

Jemboc rubs a hand over face, then sniffs quietly, and it only hits you then he’s probably feeling just as lost as you are. With no routine, no instructions to follow, the sudden abundance of options and lack of fellow support is overwhelming. Even worse, every second he spends at your side, his odds of successfully avoiding being caught again continue to dwindle. Like hell are the guards going to let everyone go without a single attempt of recapture.

Maker help any unfortunate souls they find. Those inmates will be dragged back kicking and screaming, if they’re even conscious after a severe beating with a zap rod.

“You’ve got to go,” you say, even though the thought of being totally alone makes you sick. But he deserves better, deserves to have made it further than this point. “You have to leave me behind.”

“I know,” Jemboc says. And it’s the closest to an apology that you’ll ever receive. 

Everything will be alright, Melshi had told you. A lie you’d asked for. A lie you’d swallowed as a future painkiller in case what you feared most came to pass. 

Melshi’s always been your safe haven. Your shield of protection. But he’s gone now. And it’s such a selfish desire—selfish and unfair and so damn greedy—to want him here. To hold your hand and hear his voice one last time before you fatally drift off into the unknown. 

Worse than that, deep down in a place of sharp teeth and possessiveness, half-feral from years spent trapped in a toxic cage, you want him to drift away with you. For your last breaths to be taken together…so in sync your dying souls leave the world behind as one, entangled force. Indivisible.

Jemboc murmurs a quiet goodbye, short and sweet, but you’re lost in your head, somewhere far, far away beyond the stinging pain. Even as your former tablemate leaves you, his figure growing smaller and smaller until there’s nothing left of him to see, you feel so distant from it all, watching from another place. Another realm. Familiar, yet different. More…permanent, somehow. A door which once shut can never be opened again.

Your body’s cold, no feeling in your legs. The hole in your side continues oozing, edges caked with sand, furiously irritated by the saltwater and trauma. It just—it seems so easy, reaching out your hands, to finally let it all go.

~~

And yet.

And yet…

Something—some nameless, shapeless thing—tells you to wait. 

So you do. Your only company a vicious hybrid of heartache and caustic pain who thrives on catching you off guard with its teeth and talons. It can’t be much fun, playing with somebody who’s barely breathing by the narrowest of margins, but that doesn’t seem to lessen the ferocity of its attacks. 

If time passes, you’re blind to it. There’s no change here. No growth. Just you and the monster in the shadows, waiting for you to give up.

But still you wait. For what? No clue. It must be important though, that much you know. That much you cling to. There’s a part of you, a tiny segment tucked away in the same chamber as your sluggishly beating heart, that even thinks the ache emanating from every piece of your body is good. Pain is proof of life. And living, staying alive…that’s good too, isn’t it?

Your answer comes in the most unexpected form.

“Mysie my. A prisoner escaper. Bleeding like a stuck pig, haye. Killing’s all they know, Freedi. Spoiling our water.”

An answering grunt.

A short pause. A decision reached.

“Naye this one. Naye today.”

~~

When your eyes next open, it’s a very slow process reconnecting with your senses. Brain function coming back online like a dusty old datapad finally recharging after years of neglect.

You’re in a ship cabin, that much is obvious from the metal ceiling and how the bunk you’re lying on has been built into the wall. You blink up at the orange bulb overhead for a moment, unable to summon any thread of familiarity.

Did the guards find you? Are you on your way back to your cell, or, worse, the box?

The flutter of fear in your stomach is doused as quickly as it arouses when you shift yourself upwards, noticing for the first time a red blanket with fraying edges covering your body. The prison guards wouldn’t be so kind, offering such a comforting item, you’re certain of that much. 

 So, if you’re not with them, then where…?

The cabin smells like the sea, salty and crisp, with a hint of distinctive fishiness making your nose scrunch up. There’s a line of cargo boxes pushed against the wall across from you. An opened one reveals a bundle of nets intertwined. Above it, small box-shaped wire traps hang from a shelf. Doesn’t take a genius to recognize the equipment of a fisherman.

It’s such a quaint space. So quiet. A complete contrast to the chatter and noises of prison and yet equally unnerving in its own eerie way.

You look down at your lower body still concealed and slowly peel away the blanket, taking in the dried blood stains on your scrubs with a grimace. Those won’t be easy to wash out–hell, you’d burn them in a millisecond if you had any extra clothes available. Lifting up the hem of your shirt, your eyes widen, taken aback by the sight of a large bacta patch neatly covering the blaster gash. Exactly what Melshi had said you needed…

The screeching of the rear hatch door opening startles you out of your musings, heart falling somewhere deep inside your stomach. You sit up straighter, acting on instinct, only for fatigue and soreness to cripple your movements, limbs feeling like they’re weighted down with sand.

It’s two aliens, hulking and dark-headed. One has a cybernetic eye peering straight into your soul, while the other’s even more menacing with an extendable blade serving as a replacement for his right hand. You stare at them, at a loss for words, and there’s a lengthy moment where the pair simply stare right back.

Who the hell are these guys?

“Awake finally, haye?” the one with the cybernetic eye finally says, bobbing his head as if he’s amused. His gray hat impressively remains fixed in place. “Ye be a lucky one. Lost half your blood ye did.”

“I, um. Thank you.” Your voice comes out sounding like you’ve swallowed rocks. Maybe you did, not like you can remember anything in-between Jemboc leaving you behind and waking up here. Hopefully you haven’t lost much time. “I-I don’t know how to repay you for the kindness.”

The other alien says something in another language, deep and throaty. Not a single word of it makes any sense to your ears, but it elicits a chuckle from Gray Hat that’s a little too mocking for your liking.

“What?” you ask, gaze flicking back and forth cautiously. “What did he say?”

Gray Hat takes a closer step, just a small one but in this little of a space he might as well be looming over you. “Freedi saying there be an offer on escapers. Alive or dead. A thousand credits each, haye.”

The response hits you like a physical blow, every piece of you that isn’t struck speechless is bristling with frantic alarm. Fuck. Fuck. You aren’t safe. You were never safe. What are you supposed to do? You can’t fight them, especially not the one wielding a knife. Maybe, and that’s a big fucking maybe, you could outrun them if you made it outside. Think. Use your damn brain and—

“No need to look worried. They not be getting ye.”

“Th-they’re not?” you stutter, panic still raging in your veins. It feels like a trick, a mean scheme to make you lower your guard, but the corner of Gray Hat’s mouth is curling up in what you think is a semblance of a smirk.

“Prison spoiled our water,” Grey Hat says emphatically. “Not much squiggly left. Not anymore. Care not a snod about who they kill. We say scob the Empire and scob their credits, haye, Freedi?”

Freedi agrees with a grunt.

Is this some kind of weird, convoluted hallucination? What are the chances, that of all the strangers in all the galaxy you just happened to be rescued by two who would reject a massive sum out of mutual hatred for the Empire? Infinitesimal, surely. And yet…

Seriously, who the hell are these guys? 

“Oh, yeah,” he continues, as if he’s heard your thoughts. “Dewi be my name. Dewi and Freedi.”

~~

Your new companions are fishermen, just like you’d assumed. Though with the worsening water conditions on account of the toxic waste produced by the prison, they’ll soon have to find new fishing grounds if they want to catch healthy squigglies. The way Dewi explains it, the moon was a beautiful place once upon a time. You believe him, despite the lack of evidence when you look out the ship’s window at the bleak landscape, because if anyone has the power to turn paradise into a nightmare it’s the Empire. 

Dewi’s the chattier of the pair, switching between Basic for you and Narkinian for Freedi. You learn it’s a language uniquely native to the moon, developed by the once-large fishing community of dozens of species, and you can’t help but compare it to the prison’s sign language. Makes you realize just how important communication is for survival.

They feed you—not a squiggly or anything else caught in their nets, but some pieces of meiloorun fruit cut into little cubes. The sharp burst of citrus on your tastebuds has your lips immediately puckering, hitting you like lightning. Maker, it’s good. Better than that, it’s real food. Real flavor. Real smell. No tubes in sight. 

Juice dribbles out the corners of your mouth, swiped away by your tongue, and you probably look a bit like a starved animal with how quickly you sink your teeth into another bite. But neither Dewi or Freedi so much as bat an eye.

Swallowing the last piece, there’s a moment you almost forget about the ache in your chest screaming for Melshi’s presence. 

Dewi told you you’re the only escaped prisoner they’ve seen so far. There haven’t been any reports over the coms from other fishermen saying they found anyone either. No news is good news, so the old saying goes, but in this particular case you think it might actually kill you to never see Melshi again. To never have the chance to tell him you love him one last time. To never know what he’d been trying to say right before the fall.

A bacta patch might be able to heal a blaster shot, but it can’t do anything to fix your suffering heart.

It only really occurs to you that you may have to leave Melshi behind, that you can’t stay here indefinitely, when Dewi asks, a curious lilt to his voice: “Where ye be looking to run now, eh?”

Your mouth opens, but nothing comes out. What do you do, when the only person who you dreamed of a life together with is gone? Where do you go when nowhere will ever feel like home without them? 

“I don’t know,” you eventually say. “I didn’t plan this far.”

I didn’t plan to be alone.

Freedi mumbles something, low and surprisingly soft for such a large fellow, dark eyes sympathetic. You smile at him, a weak, trembly thing but a grin nevertheless. Turns out some things don’t need to be translated to be understood.

“One last squiggly pool there be to check tomorrow,” Dewi replies, cybernetic eye whirring quietly as he glances towards the sky outside. “Ye welcome to ride with us to Lothal, haye.”

You don’t know anything about Lothal. You don’t know what you’ll do for money, how you’ll create a new identity for yourself, not a single clue. You nod your head, accepting the offer anyway, even as your fragile heart collapses in on itself. 

~~

As morning transitions into afternoon, glimpses of a blue sky peek through the cloud layers, so pale it hurts to look at directly.

With squinted eyes, you turn your attention across the quarry where Dewi and Freedi are hauling their nets out of a polluted lake, water black and foul-smelling. You can’t see the contents from where you sit in the shade of the quadjumper, but judging from their grumblings it doesn’t sound like a big success. Something tugs sharply behind your ribs, knowing as soon as your companions have finished you’ll be leaving Narkina 5 behind and everything connected to it. Taking with you only your memories, some bloodstained scrubs and a new scar as mementos of your stay.

You know you’re luckier than most, know that there are inmates who bled to death in the prison halls and drowned in the sea and never tasted one breath of freedom, but the thing is—you had hope. More than that, you had dreams.

Maker, you had so many dreams.

Keef had once said escaping Narkina 5 was your and Melshi’s best chance at staying together. How strange it is, how funny, how tragic that escaping is exactly what split you apart. 

You look down at your hands, the water-worn pebbles smooth against your palms. You’re luckier than most, it’s true. But it’s also true you’ve lost far more than you’ve gained.

Exhaling through your nose, you lean back against the quadjumper, stones slipping free from your grasp as your eyes fall shut. You listen to the slicing of Freedi’s arm-blade cutting through rope, the wind stirring up the grit and sand, the beeping of your pulse.

Wait.

Beeping?

You turn your head just in time to see two figures knocked to the ground by the sheer force of a trap ensnaring them in thick, white netting. 

What the hell? 

Crouching behind the protection of the ship, you watch Freedi and Dewi approach the strangers flopping about, not unlike a couple of beached squigglies struggling to escape. Thoroughly wrapped in the sticky net though, it’s impossible to identify the intruders—if they’re friend or foe.

The unexpected surprise has blood whooshing in your eardrums, muffling Dewi’s voice as he ambles along, not in any hurry to let them loose. It reminds you of your own first encounter with him, initially believing him to be a threat before he dropped the facade and revealed his true character. The unknown figures can’t be too dangerous then, you reckon, for Dewi to be so calm. Still, your feet remain firmly planted, hesitant to expose yourself just yet.

A second wave of surprise catches you off guard though when Freedi abruptly presses a button on the sensor trap, reeling the netting back in as quickly as it was launched. You have to blink a few times to make sure you’re seeing things right because that’s Keef pushing himself up on his elbows. That’s Keef, right there, caked in dirt and grime and the slimy residual substance of the net. 

And next to Keef, there’s—

All air leaves your lungs at once in a gasp, or a sob maybe, you don’t know because it doesn’t fucking matter, you just move closer on instict. Melshi turns at once, registering your emergence into the light, and your eyes lock with his, brown and beautiful and so unbearably haunted. 

Melshi slowly shakes his head, the look on his face rapidly shifting from bewilderment to such blatant relief it nearly sends you to your knees, choking out a quiet, “Dream?”

The moment is frozen, disconnected from the flow of time, and then he’s moving, scrabbling onto his feet to reach you, but you’re faster. You collide with his chest, sending you both tumbling onto the ground, though you’re too consumed with reuniting your lips with his to feel the impact. 

It’s a desperate kiss, open-mouthed and hungry, with clashing teeth and panting breaths. And fuck, you can feel him, all of him—his chapped lips, his heaving chest, the frantic throbbing of his heartbeat matching yours—and still he isn’t close enough. You don’t think he’ll ever be close enough, not even if he crawled beneath your skin, nestled between the gaps in your ribs.  You’re terrified that he’ll vanish the moment you pull back, taking the heat buzzing in your veins with him, but your shaking hands can’t hold onto him tight enough. 

Can’t stop Melshi from physically forcing you away with hands on your shoulders, looking utterly wrecked with shiny eyes and spit-slick lips, words spilling out of his mouth so fast they bleed together, “Wait, wait, wait, lemme lookit you. Dream, lemme see.”

The sound of your nickname breaks something inside of you, and suddenly you’re crying, tears streaming down your cheeks, lungs shuddering with unrestrained sobs. “Rue.” It’s more of a whimper than name, scraping against your throat, pulled from the depths of your core.

“You’re alive,” he murmurs, a low rasp, his gaze flickering over every detail of your face. “When I saw you fall—fuck, dreamer, I’ve never been so scared. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, so fucking sorry—”

“No,” you gasp out, shaking your head madly because he needs to know, “not your fault.”

“Thought I lost you. That I’d never get to tell you—”

“Tell me what?” you ask hoarsely, gripping onto his wrist like a lifeline. 

Melshi’s thumb ghosts over your jaw, catching stray teardrops before they fall. “What I should’ve told you every day we were together,” he says, soft yet firm. He kisses you again, like he can’t help himself. A quick peck on the mouth, then another, then one more. And then—

“I love you.”

“Rue,” you whisper, eyes widening and heart fluttering like a damn butterfly. You shove your face into that warm, safe nook between his neck and collarbone, uncaring of the streak of slime smeared on his skin. “I love you too. Always, always, always.”

Your voice is muffled, thick with snot and tears and the wellspring of emotions overflowing inside of you. 

Melshi understands you all the same. He always has.

~~

Even within the safety of the quadjumper, you and Melshi refuse to separate from each other. Sitting on the bunk, you can imagine it must look a little funny how closely you’ve managed to intertwine your bodies in such a small space. Keef sits on a cargo box, carefully watching Dewi and Freedi up in the pilot seats. Despite the dark bruises of exhaustion beneath his eyes, his gaze is razor sharp, observing every movement for the slightest sign of deception.

Reminds you of the first day you met Keef, what feels like years ago but in reality is closer to a handful of weeks. Quiet and watchful. Mind like a sponge soaking up Table Five’s movements. 

You try not to think too hard about your missing tablemates or how much you wish they were here too. The universe's cruelest of lessons is that life isn’t fair. Not to anybody. But coming in second, so dangerously close the lines blur during moments of distress, is the self-awareness you can’t save everyone. 

You’ll never forget your boys. Ham, Taga, Jemboc, Ulaf and Xaul. You’ll never forget Kino either, alpha wolf of Unit Five-Two-D right up until the end of everything.

They’ll stay safe in your memories. The Empire can’t touch them there.

“What’s in Niamos?” you ask, causing Keef’s head to swivel your direction.

Unlike you who didn’t have any idea where to flee, Keef knew exactly where to go when asked. Dewi and Freedi had simply looked at each other, nodded in recognition, and agreed to make the flight without any fuss. 

“Palm trees and beautiful beaches,” Keef replies. “More importantly, it’s where I left my stuff before they arrested me.”

Your eyebrows lift, thinking it must be a helluva hiding place for him to believe his belongings are still there. “What kind of stuff?”

He looks towards the front again, but not before you catch a brief shadow of his crooked smile. “The kind of stuff that’ll get us anywhere we want.”

Us, he’d said. We. 

Not me. Not I.

Keef’s loyalty to both you and Melshi continues to surprise you, even though by now it shouldn’t. Not after all he’s done. He fulfilled his vow. He got as many people out of Narkina 5 as he could. He kept Melshi alive for you, dragging him away from the waves they’d been certain you drowned in.

Your heart has yet to stop fluttering helplessly whenever you look at Melshi—from love, from disbelief. He’s tired and bruised and emotionally strung out beyond his limit. But he’s also tangible and warm and here. 

You take one last glance out the window at the water covered moon, finding it amusing how Narkina 5, a place that had felt so huge and imposing while trapped inside, is such an imperceptible speck when viewed from amongst the stars. The Empire’s still an ever-present threat on the horizon, but you don’t feel their phantom strings anymore. 

No, you just feel Melshi’s fingers gently tracing the edges of the bacta patch beneath your shirt. It’s stopped bleeding. It’s stopped hurting too, just a little itchy as the bacta helps your body regrow the missing skin. And even if there was any pain, the heat radiating off Melshi is pleasantly soothing enough to forget about it. Like your own patch of sunlight, melting away the last lingering traces of soul-chilling loneliness.

For all your precious dreams of a life together outside Narkina 5, for all the years you’ve shared a bed—nothing can change the fact that real life is a whole other beast compared to prison. There will be new sides of Melshi you’ve never seen before, yet another alternate persona buried deep beneath the familiar layers. 

And maybe that would have worried you before—before you were shot, before you nearly bled out on the beach, before you faced the most terrifying form of reality where Melshi wasn’t by your side—but now? Now there’s just a sense of giddy anticipation. It means you can fall in love with him all over again. 

Again and again and again…

Outside, the stars stretch and morph as the ship enters hyperspace, silver streaks slicing through the heavy blackness.

Inside the ship though, Melshi’s arms are your safe haven, and his lips are whispering those three special words against the shell of your ear. 

…again and again and again…

~~

Niamos is exactly how Keef described it. Beautiful beaches and palm trees galore. As close to the definition of paradise as a place can be if one ignores the Empire’s occupation and their security droids.

Stepping off the quadjumper, a tropical breeze sweeps over you, lifting up your clothes to tickle at the skin beneath. It’s close to evening time, hardly a soul in sight along the walkways. Which is good, Keef says. Less witnesses means less trouble. 

While he heads off to recollect his things, you say your goodbyes to Dewi and Freedi. They’ve only been figures in your life for such a short fraction of time, yet their impact has been monumental. There aren’t enough words in the galaxy to thank them, nor enough credits to repay them.

“All we ask is a favor,” Dewi says, offering another one of his sly smirks.

You nod your head, eager to express your gratitude however you can. “Name it.”

“Ye were lucky once, don’t be testing it,” he tells you firmly. “Keep your blood in your body, haye.”

“If I have any say in the matter,” Melshi chimes in, squeezing your waist, “she’ll never lose another drop again. Not even over a damn papercut.”

You tuck the crown of your head beneath the underside of his jaw, hiding your smile.

~~

When Keef returns, he’s changed into a striped shirt and dark pants, a canvas bag hanging on his shoulder. He pulls out extra clothes, shoving them into your and Melshi’s arms with instructions to get dressed in the nearby public restroom. You don’t pause to ask him where they came from, if they’re stolen or not. Clean clothes are clean clothes, that’s all that matters.

Stripping out of your dirty, paper-thin scrubs feels good, but putting on something else besides orange and white is another heavenly pleasure entirely. Your new outfit’s a little big on your frame, a dark blue floral patterned shirt tucked into matching colored pants, but you’re too happy about the newness of it all to complain. It’s the slip-on shoes that are the hardest to adapt to, so used to being barefooted you feel like a toddler learning to walk again the way your toes are all scrunched together.

You wash your hands, indulging in the cool water running over your wrists, then wipe your face with a wet towel. Maker knows you’d trade one of your limbs for a hot bath to soak in, but Niamos is merely a stepping stone, not a place to settle down and produce roots. Maybe the next destination will be better, safer, wherever that happens to be.

Wadding up your scrubs into a ball, you toss them into the trash and leave the restroom to find Keef and Melshi. The fading sun rests on the horizon line, sky the color of honey, beautiful and sweet, bathing the world in golden light. Melshi, too, standing at the pier’s edge with his hands clasped behind his back, seems to glow against the backdrop of the ocean.

He turns as you go to him, brown eyes shining like solar flares and dark hair tousled by the wind. He’s the most beautiful thing in the galaxy you’ve ever seen. You’re so in love with him it’s—it’s exhilarating. An adrenaline rush. A force of nature, immense and infinite.

“All this space. Fresh air,” Melshi murmurs, looking out across the water. You press yourself against his side, arms crossed over your stomach. “Like a dream, right?”

“The best dream I’ve ever had.” You cast a glance at Melshi out of the corner of your eye, at the blue-and-gray pattern on his shirt. Circles connected by lines sprouting from their centers. There’s something about it oddly mesmerizing. Almost familiar somehow. “View’s gorgeous, too.”

The tips of his ears burn red once he realizes you’re not talking about the sunset. It’s so cute you think you might melt. There’s a bit of smugness, too, knowing you’re the only one who has that adorable effect on him. 

“Where’s Keef?” you ask, suddenly noticing the other man’s absence. 

“Over there on the transmitter.” Melshi nods to a structure behind you next to the restroom. “Said he had to make a call. Family, I think.”

Looking over your shoulder, you can see Keef, leaning in so the transmitter picks up his voice over the sounds of the splashing waves. I have someone waiting for me, you remember him confessing late one night in the sleep block. Remember him saying she’s the greatest.

“Do you have someone to call?” you ask, curiously blinking up at Melshi.

“No.” Melshi doesn’t sound upset by the fact. He flexes his hand, the scar there flashing gold this time instead of silver. “You’re everything I’ve got in this life, dreamer.”

“Yeah?” you breathe shakily, watching as he takes your hand in his with such delicate gentleness. The laser burn along your knuckles has long since healed, but that doesn’t stop Melshi from pressing his lips to the spot, as if he can still see the mark there. You wonder if it would turn golden in the fading light too.

You feel more than see the upward curl of his mouth. “Yeah.”

~~

Keef’s quiet as a mouse when he finally rejoins you. You don’t like it—how utterly blank his expression is, the way he tries to bury his shaking hands in his pockets, the emptiness in his eyes. You don’t like any of it.

And you’re not the only one who notices the shift in attitude. You can tell Melshi’s concerned as he licks his lips and tentatively breaks the silence, aware of the fragility of the moment. “You got through? It’s okay?”

Keef doesn’t look either of you in the eye when he nods, too jerky, too reflexive. “Yeah.” The next words are choked out, a hushed hitch to his breath. “Everything okay.”

Two things quickly become apparent to you. 

First: he’s lying. 

And second: you’re not looking at Keef Girgo anymore. You’re looking at the man beneath the illusion. He’s right there, the real him, within arm’s reach, and there’s so much you want to say to him but your mouth refuses to speak any of the words aloud.

“How many do you think made it?” Melshi asks, out of nowhere. There’s something sharp about the question. An undercurrent of desperation that unsettles you. “How many of us made it out alive?”

At that, Keef finally meets your gazes. There’s a distantness in his brown eyes, like his body’s here physically but his mind is miles and miles away. You want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. Want to ask what’s wrong with him. But your hands stay at your sides and your voice stays mute.

After a long beat, Keef blinks and comes back to himself just enough to manage a limp shrug of his shoulders, faintly replying, “Not enough.”

“What if it’s just us?” Melshi presses, unsatisfied with the answer. “What if we’re the only ones?”

“Rue,” you say, faltering at the heaviness in his stare, weighing down on your lungs. You swallow, unable to understand why it’s there, what’s rattling around inside his head. “What are you saying?”

He doesn’t answer immediately, pursing his lips before his narrowed gaze shifts away, half of his face edged in dim shadow. You can sense he wants to tell you, he’s just debating whether he should. Meaning whatever it is, it’s something big. Something that will have consequences.

“Somebody’s got to tell people what’s happening back there,” Melshi says at last, but he isn’t looking at you anymore. He’s looking straight at Keef.

Glancing at the other man reveals he’s still quiet, withdrawn, but there’s wrinkles creasing his forehead that weren't there seconds ago. And the steady way he’s staring back at Melshi—it’s like he’s already started putting the puzzle pieces together and he’s waiting for Melshi to confirm it’s the right picture. 

“Guys,” you huff, fully aware there’s a silent conversation going on right in front of you and hating every second of it. “What’s going—”

“We need to split up,” Melshi interrupts, voice strained. “Increase our chances.”

“What? No.” You shake your head, mind whirling. The beginnings of dread start stirring at the bottom of your stomach. “No way. You-you don’t mean that.”

“One of us has to make it,” he continues, as if you hadn’t spoken at all, ignoring your subsequent tugging on his shirt. “People have to know what’s going on.” 

You keep shaking your head, unable to stop yourself, because it’s everything you don’t want to hear but at the same time, in the deepest part of yourself, you know he’s right. 

Staying silent about the horrors you witnessed means being complicit in the Empire’s crimes against the prisoners. Against Ulaf and Xaul, every lost soul and every one still locked away. You owe it to them to speak up and get the word out. To be brave when all you want to do is run to the farthest, most remote corner of the galaxy.

You owe it to them to try.

“I know,” Keef agrees. Another nod of his head, less jarring, more certain. “I hear you.”

On impulse you wrap your arms around Keef, pulling him in for a tight hug, hooking your chin over his shoulder. There’s a beat of hesitation, his arms awkwardly hovering in the air, and then he hugs you back.

“This isn’t a goodbye. It's a see you later,” you tell him, squeezing for emphasis. His chest rumbles with an inaudible laugh. “Repeat after me.” You look him square in the eye, leveling him with a challenging look. “Say it.”

“This isn’t a goodbye. It’s a see you later,” Keef echoes dutifully, but there’s warmth there that settles your rousing dread and replaces it with something softer. Something lighter.

Something a lot like hope.

“Here. Take this.” Keef digs around in his bag, retrieving a blaster that he gives to Melshi. Caught up in watching Melshi’s hand grip the weapon, secure and steady, no trace of nervousness as he tucks it behind his back, you miss noticing Keef’s second rummaging until he startles you with your name. “Take these too.”

He deposits a stack of credits into your hand. Surprised, you nearly spill them onto the ground, eyes widening as you take in the large amount. Understanding kicks in, that this must’ve been why he was so determined to come back here. This really is the kind of stuff that can get all three of you anywhere you want.

“Dank farrik,” you breathe. “Where the hell—actually, nope. You know what? I think I’m better off not knowing.”

“What dream means to say,” Melshi cuts in smoothly, shooting you a fond look as you stuff the credits into your trouser pockets before his expression changes into one of pure seriousness, “is thank you.”

The two men clasp hands amicably, leaning in closer to pat each other on the back. It’s a brief and wordless gesture, but the meaning’s still understood by both. Take care of yourself out there.

Melshi then inclines his head at you. “You ready, dream?”

You nod, giving him a small smile.

The pier is long, the path beyond even longer. But walking with Melshi, shoulder to shoulder, hands locked together, you find it easier to look forward to the future’s possibilities rather than fear its uncertainties. A future full of golden sunsets, fresh air smelling of fragrant blooms, an abundance of blankets on a plush bed, bites of meiloorun fruit exchanged between kisses, laughter, hot baths, even more kisses, perhaps a little dreamer or two to keep you and Melshi on your toes. 

It won’t be easy. It won’t be soon. But it’ll be a good one.

Because it will be yours and Melshi’s.

You stop walking, ignoring the concerned furrowing of Melshi’s brow as you abruptly spin around. Before taking another step into the unknown, there’s one final thing you’ve got to know for certain.

“Hey!” you call out, catching the attention of the man at the end of the pier. “What do we call you when later comes?”

A second of silence follows, your ears straining for his answer.

“Cassian.” The response is carried on the wind, a smile stretching across your face. And if you look hard enough, there in the last fading beams of sunlight, you swear he’s smiling, too. “My name is Cassian.”

[blueikeproductions]

Based on a conversation with @shinyhappydigistar. -Ash gets fed up with Iono filming him every waking moment, made worse they share a dorm together at the Academy, and has thrown out some of her stuff out of frustration and starts to tear into her about her sleep stream pranks on him until he realizes…-

Ash: Wuh-WHY ARE YOU STREAMING THIS?! Pikachu: -indignantly- PIKA!!??

Bellibolt: -looks embarrassed and a little fed up as well at Iono- Bellibo…! -says sheepishly-

Iono: Whaaaat? People love drama! Why do you think the Porygon does so well over Zubatman comic drama?

Ash: What, that stuff over Tim Druddigon? Pidgey the Boy Wonder should like who he likes, so long as he still gets to fight Killer Croconaw!

Iono: Wow…, that’s surprisingly progressive from you, I wasn’t expecting that. …Oh hey I got a donation!

Ash: Who would give a donation to this Trubbish fire of a live stream…? -back to being annoyed-

-Cuts away to a far off Paldean campsite Goh and Gary Oak are staying at, having teamed up again for research in Paradox Pokemon. Gary and his Electivire both give a dark chuckle as Gary swipes on his Rotom Phone to give another donation, laughing at Ash’s misery.-

Goh and Grookey just stare disappointingly at him: I thought you and Ash were friends, Gary…

Gary -shrugs-: Old habits die hard, and I still enjoy Ashy being taken down a peg.

-A Brute Bonnet walks by the boys, stops and is curious at what they’re so enamored by, shrugs and waddles on by.-

-Back at the school-

Iono: Oh another donation! …Uh oh it’s from Clavell…

Ash: Heh serves you right!

Iono: … He wants to see us both in his office pronto, dude…

Ash: Aw, Ratatta…

Pikachu: Pikachu… (says dejectedly)

-At the office, everyone is still in their jammies, which makes the situation more comical than it is, with Ash in an old Indigo League sleeveless shirt and boxers, Iono in an Elesa themed tang top and Zebstrika sleep pants, and Clavell wearing a loud colored Pokeball themed night cap and gown, along with his Oranguru.-

Clavell: -sighs- I suppose I should’ve seen this coming, having two, uh, how do the kids say it? Having two Gogoated personalities together. In the same room…

Ash: Does that mean Iono can get her own room? Preferably far, far away from me and Pikachu…?

Clavell: Unfortunately the only other dorm was taken by that pink and blue haired RA team with the Meowth we hired, so you two will have to continue sharing.

Iono: Hah! More streaming content for me!

Clavell: Not so fast, Iono. I have some rules to lay down an- Iono, please stop streaming, no one wants to see this. It’ll be boring. At least I’ll do my best to make it boring!

Oranguru: Guru-ran. (Agreeing).

Iono: Fiiiine. -makes the cut motion at her Rotom phone, who cuts off the feed.-

-Ash, Pikachu and Bellibolt all sigh in relief-

Clavell: Your streams help fund the academy, Iono, that much is clear, but for the sake of our student teacher Mr. Ketchum, please back off on him. No more of these dragged out streams and pranks for views. World Champion or not, all it’s done is be a distraction to the students, facility, and in particular it’s made Alfie upset.

-Ash and Iono look surprised.-

Iono: Lil’ Al? What-why?

Clavell: Seems he isn’t a fan of his two heroes fighting each other, well, not in a Pokémon battle I mean. He came to me earlier concerned about what was going on.

Ash and Iono look at each other sheepishly.

Clavell: So can I trust you two will get along? If not for my sake, then for your young friend Alfie’s sake?

Ash and Iono look at each other embarrassingly and fidget a bit.

Ash: …Y’know what? If you promise to limit your streams about me to just classes I need your help with and Pokémon battling, I think we can manage. -holds out hand to shake-

Iono: Throw in anytime Team Rocket crashes the party too, and you have a deal.

-They both smile and shake hands.-

-Clavell and Oranguru smile satisfied.-

Clavell: Good, good. Now if you excuse me, I have some, ah, Pokémon Sleep to catch up on. -looks at the camera and winks- Just clean up that that little pile of AV equipment in your hall, and we’re Gholdengo. -shuffles off to his bedroom-

Ash: That shouldn’t be too bad…

Pikachu: Chuu…

Bellibolt: B’bolt…

Iono: Provided none of my stuff got wrecked… -shoots a look at Ash- Some of that Silph Co. tech they don’t even make anymore…

Ash: I didn’t know… Besides I have a techie friend from Kalos who might be able to fix things…

Iono: -gives him the annoyed, narrowed eyed Phillip J. Fry meme look, before looking bright and cheerful all of a sudden- Cool beans~!

[chickennuggeg]

Roots

It starts with a hangover that has him stumbling into the bathroom to throw up. He heaves empty air, grimacing at the feeling of the skin on his cheek tearing from moving too fast. The staples are due for a change anyways, he thinks. In the distance a phone rings. It’s probably Shigaraki being a pain and asking him to find more recruitments.

Drip. He watches a bead of red fall into the murky water of the toilet. It mixes with spit to make a murky brownish pink. Gross. Ring, ring! The phone from the bedroom goes off again, and Dabi tells it to fuckoff. Crazy villian in his sad apartment cursing out his phone. It’d be funny if he wasn’t about to pass out right now. Ring! Maybe it isn’t Shigaraki. It could be Toga bothering him with a cute boy or girl she saw on the street. Or maybe Hawks with his all cool double agent persona asking when the next meeting is. Yeah, he can afford to ignore that. He’s a villian, he can do whatever the fuck he wants. The sound of the phone sounds a lot less annoying once he thinks about it that way.

Slumping away from the toilet seat, he goes to brush his teeth. His cheeks are gaunt and hollow in the yellowing mirror. Purple scars only look worse each passing day, but it’s nothing he hasn’t been seeing for the past ten years. There’s a mild stench of burning flesh and cigarettes permanently engrained in his apartment now. It’ll probably stay there for years after he dies, which he expects is soon.

Turning his head he notices another line of blood from his ear to his chin. An addition to the staples he needs to change today. Tilting his head to get a better look at the damage, he sees it.

White roots show.

Dabi smells the fire before he feels it. There’s too much dead skin on his hands. He goes through protocol whenever he gets like this. Breathe through it, count from three… that’s what Google said, right? Smoke comes out of his ruined mouth when he sighs.

Dabi opens the cabinet to his left and fishes past bottles of old beer cans and expired snacks to find a half empty bottle of black hair dye. He made the mistake of buying one of those extra girly ones, hence the bottle is a sickly pink with a little rose engraved at the end. Seeing the pink brings another flash of flames and red in his vision, but thankfully this time no real fire starts out. He presses the bottle cap to get out some foamy black substance and applies. He’s supposed to wash his hair afterwards, but at some point Dabi stopped caring. He had hoped that leaving it in long enough would get rid of the ashen white. Still wishes it now, even though it never seems to work.

Why couldn’t it at least have been a pretty white? Post drunk, annoying questions pop up in his head. His natural hair color is all grey and ashy, like he somehow dirtied something that couldn’t be ruined.

Dabi could live with burning off his skin. It was never that nice anyway, always red and angry and rough. He hates his eyes. He wishes his eyes would burn. And the black hair is just something to add to the look. It’s a necessity for the grand reveal. But somewhere along the way he started hating his hair too.

White hair that always looked away, always shook gently when someone was crying, white hair that could only grow darker. Dabi looks in the mirror and sees the best version of himself. He presses the dye harder into his scalp and blocks out the name that he wants to forget. He knows he’ll burn with it. Dabi’s just hoping he can drag the right people down with him. Laughter bubbles from his throat and is rough on his mouth. The harsh lights on the ceiling taunt him with a past he can’t control. Red blood drips down from his chin and he thinks he’ll throw up again. His body is burning.

This must be what happiness feels like.

Real happiness, not like the rest of those fools. Somewhere down the city little Shoto must be moping with his new friends. Natsuo is studying for an exam. Fuyumi is waking up and getting ready for whatever job she has. Painting? Teaching? He doesn’t know what his mother is doing. He doesn’t care what dear old dad is doing.

It must feel so nice to be alive. Dabi can’t help being a walking corpse. Can’t help but dream of flames and wake up in a cold sweat going back to a hell that never ends. The only question is whether hell is in this apartment or a room filled with tatami mats and crying. Ah, he’s rambling again.

Beer and drugs will help. Maybe he’ll invite Toga over to watch a movie. He can look at her ‘ooing’ and ‘awing’ at the characters on the screen and pretend that he isn’t Dabi. He isn’t Touya. He’s just a person watching TV.

The phone rings. Dabi stalks out the restroom. Shigaraki’s probably bitching about finding new recruits again.