#he kept showing the giant bruises on his neck and back...

[sehnista]

🫡

[potatomountain]

CIY- CH 15

Chapter Fifteen

📍Pairing: detective ateez ot8 x detective afab reader

📍Summary: "Captain oh Captain"

📍WC: 3.1k

📍AU: detective/mafia

📍Genre: action, dark themes, poly romance, smut

📍Warning(s): 17+ rating, suggestive📍Nets: @pirateeznet | @mirohs-aurora-society

📍Beta readers (and sole motivation): @flurrys-creativity , @candypop1611 , @yourfatherlucifer , @yessa-vie and edited by the amazing: @daemour

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You were more than a little disappointed that San wasn’t there the next day, but confused over your mixed feelings over Mingi and Yunho’s absence. But as that one day turned into a week, you were getting concerned.

No it wasn’t because you wanted to invite San back to your place, or confront the two giants on what they did in the bathroom, hoping to have some answers to your own feelings, but because you were genuinely worried.

Seonghwa didn’t help with your nerves one bit, spending a good amount of time with him over the week, as well as a forced training session with Jongho. Your ass still hurt from the number of times he happily knocked your ass on the mat. It was only thanks to Seonghwa’s presence that he wasn’t a total ass, actually listening to the Vice-Captain and keeping his comments mild. The unnerving part was the way Seonghwa seemed on edge.

Something Jongho had commented on when he had forgotten your presence.

So by the next Saturday you were on edge all over again, the release San had given you felt wasted. Of course admiring how pretty Seonghwa was in a blank tank, showing off the neck tattoos you had spotted peeking from the collar of his turtlenecks and button up, did not help there. Or the fact you spotted a hint of ink peeking out of the back of Jongho’s shirt, a deadly combination with how thick the man was.

If you were pissed off enough you might have suggested a hate fuck. With his strength you were sure it would’ve left you bruised up and sore in all the right ways.

You might have been a little too excited when Wooyoung popped his head around the corner to startle you at your desk. “There’s my favorite Goddess. Miss me?”

Laughing, you smiled, “Can’t say that I have. Haven’t seen your handsome face around enough.”

“Oh but I am handsome-” He stood up straight and called back loudly “hear that?! She thinks I’m handsome. Beat that fuckers!” His attention was back on you as soon as you started laughing louder. “Mm San was right, that's a pretty sound.”

You couldn’t help but get a bit flustered, realizing San talked about you. “Is he here?”

“Unfortunately he got booted to bedrest back at our apartment. So my company better be enough.”

“You can’t hog her to yourself.” Hongjoong called, stepping around Wooyoung and looking you over. “I hope Seonghwa kept you busy.”

Rolling your eyes, you replied “Not enough. Sparring with the asshat who has some vendetta against me wasn’t much fun. Is it just San that’s not back?”

“Are you that eager to see him?” Wooyoung actually pouted, taking a step closer to you and setting his hands on your thighs. “Come on, get to know me a bit, Goddess. We can make it a physical activity.”

It definitely crossed your mind to take him up on that offer, after what you let San do to you, the images he encouraged in your mind, all it would take is a simple yes.

The two of them could tell you were seriously thinking about it, Wooyoung’s smirk widening as he ran his hands up your thighs more. Hongjoong watched curiously, taking a step to the side to get a better view. “Well?”

With a sigh, you shook your head. “Maybe another time.” Patting both of his hands you peeled them off you and pushed him back in the same motion that you stood up. “Do I get to hear about where everyone has been the last week or am I excluded for that?”

You weren’t happy at all as their expression fell just enough to know the answer to that. “Not entirely. There was an increase of Green Viper activity, so Wooyoung needed San for that. We had to deal with some altercations between them and the Red Wolves. It’s mostly paperwork the rest of us need to fill out.” Hongjoong tried to mend but you knew differently, you still didn’t have enough trust to know.

It irked you, but you understood. You didn’t trust all of them fully either, in fact the only one you could confidently say would have your back in a fight was San. Some of them were questionable, would definitely like your back in their bed, but otherwise you were still an outsider of sorts. “Can I leave then? I’m still a bit bruised up from Jongho’s stupid ass.”

“Aww, you don’t want to be around me?” Wooyoung pouted, reaching for you again but you pushed past just as Hongjoong pulled him away. “When do I get to work with her Captain?”

Hongjoong offered you a friendly smile, still trying to ease the tension that had formed between the three of you. “That’s something we can talk about. It’ll take a few days, so if you can take those days to rest. We’ll give you a call to come in and brief you but let us get it all set up.”

“Yeah sure, whatever.” You started grabbing your things, pissed off. A week you sat around and worried about them and they got back just to send you off and have you swindle your thumbs at home? Seriously?

“Firecracker…” Hongjoong followed you to the door, grabbing your hand and stopping you. “Don’t be upset, it’s not on purpose and it’s not because of what you think.”

You ripped your arm out of his, glancing over your shoulder just to glare at him. “Sure it isn’t. I know I haven’t earned my place yet, but it’s been over a month Captain.”

“I know I know. But you have. It’s just, we have to rework some things after this incident and figure out where best to put you. Not to keep you out of our way but where you would be the most useful. Where you do make a difference and shine the most.” He reached up, cupping your cheek and turning you more towards him. “I believe you’ll do wonders here Firecracker, but integrating you into the work we have built up over years is going to take some time. Alright?”

It was a wonder how he said just what you needed to hear, and you could believe him too. The man, while neutral about your presence so far, has provided you with ample opportunity to prove yourself. And when you did, he acknowledged your skills.

Relaxing a bit more, you leaned into his hand, looking up at him. “Alright Captain.” You mumbled, pulling away and clearing your throat when you realized how soft you just were. It felt good to be acknowledged for your work, especially from Hongjoong, Captain of the unit you were having a hard time with.

He was most certainly not looking at you as if you were just a member of his unit though, not like a Captain should. It threw you off, glancing back at Wooyoung and waving. “Next time handsome, maybe you can convince me of getting to know you better that way.”

You left before either could reply.

The short walk home was ample time to actually think over the interaction. You found yourself comparing Hongjoong to Chan, knowing where Hongjoong was teasing or lenient, Chan was not. Chan looked out for you, showed his concern for you but always as Captain of the unit. It was always the unit over you.

Hongjoong hadn’t done any of that. He had concern for the unit, sure, but he was giving you a chance, eager to see you prove yourself. And the way he had comforted and reassured you, the way he touched you… that wasn’t what you were used to.

You weren’t sure what to make of it, but arriving at your apartment building and seeing your previous Captain there was some shitty timing. Did you just manifest him with your thoughts? You wish you could manifest him away.

He stood up straighter when you approached, relief on his features as he called out your name.

“Did I not make myself clear last time? I don't want to talk to you or see you or anything.” You pushed past him, putting in the code and moving inside.

“What if I say this is about Felix?” He followed after you, which truly aggravated you a bit. He was usually respectful, even when upset, so this was out of character for him.

Huffing you ignored him as best you can as you climbed up the stairs. Why the fuck was he following you? “Then Felix can talk to me about it himself. You aren’t his fucking parent Christopher.”

He called out your name again, still not leaving you alone, reaching out to grab your wrist instead. “Can we please just talk?”

“No! And I don’t know why you insist we do! You hurt me Chan, you know you did.” You snarled out, ripping your hand out of his grip as you moved up the stairs faster.

At first he didn’t follow you, but as you turned up the landing towards the next flight of stairs, you saw him skipping steps to catch up. “And I want to make it up to you!”

“Why?” You turned on your heel quickly once you reached the top of the stairs, glaring up at him. “I’m not a part of your unit anymore Chan! I’m nothing to you.”

He looked taken aback, stuttering over his breath over something to say but you could see the hurt in his eyes. It had your ire spiking, after all he wasn’t the one who paid for his decision.

Scoffing, you turned to head to your door, with every intent of locking him out and calling the security at the front. You hadn’t seen him at the desk so you assumed he was making his rounds. You wanted Chan gone, especially before the tears that burned behind your eyes fell.

He wasn’t making it easy, stopping you again by moving in front of you. “Please listen to me.”

“No.” You sidestepped.

He blocked you. “Dammit, please.”

“I don’t want to, Chan! You had plenty of time to explain yourself!” To the other side.

He was there to block you again, grabbing your biceps to hold you still, pleading out your name. “I thought you would understand!”

You stiffened, glaring up at him. You remembered clearly how the last conversation you had with him before he handed you the transfer form- the tension between you two in your kitchen: you in his shirt while he was shirtless sporting a hickey you were sure you had given him the night before. The reminder had your chest tight. “I do understand Chan. You chose the unit over me. You couldn’t have me around after what I did. Didn’t have the fucking balls to turned me down after I confessed?”

“No! Fuck that isn’t it at all! This got so fucked up I’m sorry” he pleaded with you.

But you were having none of it, struggling in his grip. “Stop trying to save your ass. You rejected me, in probably the shittiest fucking way asshat.”

“I’m not I just- please I just want to explain myself to you. You can hate me all you want after I just… it wasn’t because of your confession. I promise, please-” He held you still as you tried to push past him again, the tears brimming your eyes.

“You’re not giving me a damn choice so just out with it already! Criticize my work, tell me how I’m too emotional and I get too invested. How I cost you something stupid because I gave a fuck about you as a man!” You yelled, your own emotions clouding your judgment even now, which frustrated you as it proved what you were saying.

“None of that is true dammit! I didn’t give you the transfer because of your confession! I turned you down at the time because you were drunk and I wanted you to be sober when I told you I loved you.” He raised his voice, a tremble in his tone. “I love you trouble. I wanted a real relationship with you and I didn’t think I could have that if we were in the unit together. I was already being pressured about your behavior and I just thought it was a small price to pay, okay?”

You gawked at him, completely thrown off by his sudden confession. He was sincere, you could see that, but you were as far from elated to hear about his feelings as you could be. “A broken heart is a small price to pay when you aren’t the one who paid it! You are the one who gives a damn about separating work from pleasure. Your morals cost me everything I cared about Chan!” You pushed at him, the tears beginning to flow freely down your cheeks. “It’s too fucking late, I’m done with you! Just leave me alone, I’m not a part of your unit anymore and I’m not someone you have to care about. You love me? Then suffer while I live without you.”

His devastation was obvious on his features, pain in his eyes, but you didn’t feel the least built guilty. If he had you transferred out just so he could pursue you romantically without having to sacrifice anything- you didn’t feel a least bit guilty. “I loved you Christopher BangChan. Past tense. I don’t anymore. You hurt me in a way I never ever thought you could. I don’t need you any more. Don’t want you anymore.” You sobbed out, pulling away.

You never saw it coming, never heard the door or his footsteps, just that when Chan pleaded your name again, a fist connected to his jaw. Now facing a tall and familiar back.

“Do you intend to make her cry even more? Beat it fucker, you heard her loud and clear.” Mingi snarled at him, standing protectively before you.

Under any other circumstances, you would have been miffed that he came to your defense. He had been a dick to you since the beginning, making him untrustworthy, or at least you had said he was. So why were you trusting him now? Finding comfort in his heroics?

Were you just that done with Chan that any assistance was welcome? Even from Mingi?

“This isn’t your business.” Chan hissed, but you could tell from the tremble in his tone he was pissed. Pissed and hurt.

“It damn well is when it’s my girl you’re touching and making her cry.” Mingi reached behind him, placing his hand on your hip protectively. You leaned into the touch, gripping the back of his shirt. “Head to your apartment Buttercup, I’ll be there in a moment.” He softened his tone considerably, the deep rumble reverberating down your spine.

This was a battle you were happy to hand over. “Make it quick.” You added for Chan’s benefit before rushing around to your apartment. You didn’t look at Chan, didn’t want to meet his questioning gaze that you could feel.

The second your door was shut you could hear harsh muttering in Mingi’s deep voice. You couldn’t make out what was said, but you didn’t want to know. Taking a deep breath you wiped away the tears and started getting comfortable in your apartment, asking questions you didn’t have a chance to ask a second ago.

How did he find your apartment? Why had he brought up Felix? What really happened the night you confessed?

Why had Mingi come to your defense… better yet why were you happy he did?

Setting your suit jacket on top of your bag you sighed, feeling worn out and dejected. You couldn’t help but think of Hongjoong again, how he had reassured you earlier. He said things you wished Chan would’ve said. He encouraged you to grow, and instead of asking you to change to fit into the unit, it sounded like he was changing things so that you would fit them.

How hard would it have been for Chan to admit his feelings before? Talk it over with you like an adult. His love didn’t mean he had to play favorites. It didn’t mean he couldn’t be your boss. Why did he expect you to change to fit him?

You were crying again when you turned at the sound of the door, Mingi bowing his head in apology. “I’m sorry about that Buttercup.” He froze when he lifted his head, spotting the tears in your eyes. He strode over easily with his long legs, brow furrowed in concern. “Fuck I should’ve kicked him in the balls. Or aimed for the eyes for permanent damage.” He grumbled to himself, whipping your tears away while you gawked up at him.

“Mingi?” Slowly you grabbed his hands, breath hitching when his gaze met yours. You couldn’t see an ounce of hatred or distaste, or anything other than care for you and anger on your behalf.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how painful this had been for you. I just thought you pissed your boss off I didn’t know-” He swallowed hard, suddenly bashful as he averted his eyes. His ears were tinged with color, tongue running over his thick lips like they were dry.

“Why does it matter? Why come to my figurative rescue. I don’t want to be some damsel in-”

He interrupted you, “That’s not it! I couldn’t stand to hear it anymore. The pain in your tone and how he was treating you. The fucker chose his career, his good morals, over you? How fucking stupid could he be. You’re a damn fine detective, and you hold your own plenty well.” He dropped his hands, even more flustered after his compliments.

You lifted a brow, heart racing in your chest. This bashful side of him was unexpected, but cute. “You sound like you like me, Mingi. Were all those insults your flirting?” You teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“I uh… maybe?” You weren’t expecting that, at all. But he was towering over you and flustered, looking almost innocent with his pleading boba eyes. “Would you reject me if I did like you? If I did want you?”

You licked your lips slowly, his eyes following the movement. Considering the thoughts you had of him lately, was rejection even an option.

In answer you brought his hands to your hips, looking up at him as you stepped closer. “Depends on how well you convince me that you do want me.”

He was confused at first, catching on as your arms wrapped around his neck. “Gladly” was all he rumbled before his lips were on yours.

Taglist (form): @mingsolo | @wowie-hockey | @crispybaguettes | @tiny-apocalypse

| @philijack | @lelaleleb | @isiloiale | @vannabanana1995  | @piratequeen-queenofgames

| @starstruckforyou | @minheeskitten | @amphiroxx  | @cloudysannie | @sugarnspice630

| @sanhwalvr | @plutoneu |  @sousydive |  @fatalt | @iwishiwasrichasfuck

| @bitchwhytho | @st4rhwa | @thesafecafe | @alextheweeb7 | @ddaeing

Taglist will be continued in a reblog!!

[fraserbraw]

no worries at all!<3

could i request könig being jealous and protective over his bf? maybe one of könig’s friends is staring too hard, and he won’t stand for that!

no rush at all! take your time, love<3 and feel free to delete if this doesn’t interest you!!

ur so sweet anon! <3

jealous!könig

jealous könig lives in my head rent free, and i’m not ashamed <33

jealous könig my beloved

könig was already self conscious about being with you. he didn’t want to scare you off, especially not when he had just gotten his hands on a sweet little thing like you. plus, it was hard being a gay man in the military. he was a colonel, expected to be the best of the best, which also happened to include submitting to societal standards.

he kept you close to his chest because of this, making sure not a soul knew about the boy he had waiting at home for him. that isn’t to say that he didn’t like to show you off outside of his work though. you’d best believe he would take his sweet little boyfriend (who he called his husband, because you were basically married) to wherever he showed interest in. an aquarium, a park, some cafe he had never heard of. if his schätz wanted to go, they were going.

which is exactly what led you to this current situation. you had discovered a new club in the little austrian town he kept you hidden away in, and he wanted to treat you. he had just gotten back from deployment, bruises fresh and ears still ringing from too many explosions and not enough ear protection. you begged him to go, knowing he would quickly morph into a lazy lump of muscle and neediness as soon as he hit your shared bed.

so he went. he followed you to this club, despite his anxiety telling him to turn around and leave with you over his shoulder immediately. you seemed to be enjoying yourself, singing along to the too-loud music and rubbing against him in ways that he just had to assume were normal for couples in clubs. he tried to enjoy himself as well, but he couldn’t stand in this crowd of sticky, sweaty people for any longer.

he stepped outside to breathe for a second and a half, the black surgical mask he wore not providing nearly as much coverage as his sniper hood did. he went back inside after a few minutes, but you were nowhere to be found. hm. strange. then, he saw you. saw his sweet, harmless, and (in his eyes) defenseless boyfriend being hit on.

it took all of 3 seconds for the giant austrian to cross the club, standing behind you defensively. no matter how many “i have a boyfriend”s you shoved down the man’s throat, he didn’t get the hint. not until the aforementioned boyfriend towered over him.

“Sag noch ein Wort. Du traust dich ja nicht.”

könig didn’t say a word on the way home. he was brooding, jealousy hot and slick, clinging to his bones. he was so angry, vile thoughts creeping around in his mind. he hated feeling like this, his ruthlessness tied to you. you were sacred, his love, his soul. you didn’t deserve to be in the same place as the thoughts that made him könig on the battlefield.

when you got home, he had to take a second. you sat on the couch after changing into one of his giant shirts, nibbling on your nails as you waited for him to come to you with whatever was wrong. your könig rarely acted like this, and it made you nervous.

eventually he did come around, plopping down on the couch and pulling you into his hold. he buried his face in your neck, huffing your scent like the finest drug. you kissed his head before asking him what was on his mind.

“mein.”

you couldn’t help but smile a bit, kissing everywhere you could reach while trapped in his warm hold. “yes, my love. yours.”

safe to say, you made it up to him that night.

an: sorry this took so long, anon <333 i got uber busy with finals and blah blah blah. i hope you like it!!

[seraphinasnapdragon]

Shattered Illusion Chapter 4

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Damian somewhat mindlessly ran down the street toward Clara's apartment. His thoughts were mainly focused on the voicemail she left him. It didn't make sense how excited she was to move in the night before; now, she just wanted to break off all communication. As he ran, he had his phone up to his right ear as he tried to call her back. His heart was pounding in his chest from the stress of the situation, plus his running. His usually nicely styled brown hair was messy since he just rolled out of bed.

"Come on, Clara. Please pick up." Damian huffed, pleading that she would answer the next time he called. He didn't even realize he had passed her apartment as his head felt stuck in a thick fog. His eyes watered, and it felt like he was losing a part of himself that she had filled so long ago. He had already felt this type of loss as a child and didn't want it to happen. It took forever for him to fully understand why his parents divorced, as they were pretty unhappy when together. He didn't want the same thing to happen between him and Clara.

After another failed call, Damian started to slow his pace, moving from a run to a quick walk. He moved his phone to see the screen showing how many calls he had made in the last ten minutes. He scrolled through his text messages to see the many replies he'd left with no indication that Clara even viewed them. With a heavy sigh, he slipped his phone into his back jeans pocket and put his hands in the pouch of his hoodie. This situation felt hopeless as she was clearly done with him by not answering.

"Why did it have to end like this?" Damian gulped as he forced his watering eyes not to let a single teardrop. Still clueless about the fact he walked by the apartment, he continued down the sidewalk with his head slightly angled down. As he walked, he swore he saw some movement in the grass not too far in front of him. He figured it was just a bug or a small critter moving around before daybreak. As he watched, he noticed whatever it was trying to move faster away from him.

"Figures. First, I have my girlfriend run away from me, and now this little thing as well." Damian sighed through his nose as he continued to watch it. He squinted, trying to take in its form, but it was difficult due to how dark it was. He did catch a slight glimpse of the creature as he noticed it was pink on the top of it. Curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to fully investigate this.

Clara was having a panic attack as she somehow caught the attention of a giant(to her). She didn't even think anyone would be up this early but forgot that some humans liked to go on morning walks/runs. She started to quicken her pace as she kept her eyes forward. She could feel their giant, menacing presence behind her but dared not look. She just hoped this human would figure she was a bug or something and move on. That small glimmer of hope left her when the ground below her shook more than usual. She glanced slightly behind her to see that the giant being was following her. Her heart rate increased as she tried to speed up even faster.

The ground continued to rumble as she ran. Her mind focused on the thunderous footsteps that seemed to get closer and closer. She glanced behind her to see the human slowly catching up to her. It made her blood boil, knowing he barely had to move to catch up while she was running like a mad woman. With her brain too focused on the massive threat behind her, she didn't even notice when she bumped into a small pebble and fell flat on her face.

She groaned as she slowly sat up, rubbing her forehead as a small bruise formed on it. She was so focused on falling over that she didn't realize a massive shadow was cast over her petite form. Her ears twitched as she looked behind her, craning her neck back to see the human standing mere inches away. She gulped as the massive body started moving from standing to crouching. Even while it crouched, it still towered over her like a house.

Clara looked like a deer caught in headlights as the human moved its head lower to get a better image of her. As it slowly inched closer, Clara could see more and more of what it looked like. It had enormous green eyes and messy brown hair. Its cheeks had a slight tint of pink as it looked her petite frame over.

"Wow." The human breathed out, making Clara's hair flutter from its mighty breath. "You're so small, so unreal." Its lips formed into a small smile, which made Clara's skin crawl. Its voice was quite powerful, even as it spoke in a soft tone close to a whisper. Clara couldn't help as her brain started to analyze its voice, which sounded somewhat familiar.

As the realization came, she felt like a truck had hit her. Her eyes widened even more as she knew the human in front of her was Damian. She had never imagined seeing him from her height; it was pretty terrifying. The man she was usually only a few inches shorter than was now a towering skyscraper. She wanted to run away, but her body wouldn't let her, making her stare up at him as if his face were a mere inches away.

Damian was just in awe of this tiny creature he was laying his eyes on. She was so small, probably the exact size of his middle finger. From his close proximity, he could watch its tiny chest rise and fall and see how wide it made their brown eyes. His nose was so close to it that he could use it to brush against her skin, his eyes having to cross to be able to see her still. What he didn't figure would happen was a sharp pain in the lower right area of his face. He pulled his head back as his right hand moved to the spot. When he pulled his hand back, he examined that a small amount of blood now sat on his index finger. His eyes moved from his finger to the small figure. studying that it now held a small blade in its left hand. The pieces started to connect as he realized the little thing had attacked him when he was close enough to each other.

Clara was mortified with what she had just done. She couldn't help it as the split second he got close enough; she grabbed her dagger from the belt around her waist and sliced at Damian's face. She watched his eyes widen, and he pulled his head away. As he focused on figuring out what just happened, Clara managed to get back up on her feet. Her body still refused to run, but at least she wasn't on her butt anymore. When his brown eyes finally landed on her again, she saw his brows furrowing, eyes narrowing, and his smile fading. Realizing she had just pissed off her giant boyfriend, her body decided now it was the time to move. She quickly turned around and started to sprint away from Damian.

"HEY!" Damian yelled, and Clara quickly covered her ears from the immense sound his voice made when angry. She didn't look behind her but could tell he was rising to his full towering height. Tears filled her eyes as the ground around her rumbled like massive earthquakes were going off. A wooshing noise was heard above her head, and then a gigantic hand crashed in front of her, blocking her escape. She had to slam her booted feet down into the ground to get her to stop so she wouldn't bump into the fleshy surface in front of her.

Her body started to shake as she quickly scanned the area to see if there was another way out. That small moment gave Damian time to slam down his other hand, making Clara jump back. She was now surrounded by his hands blocking her in front, and his arms towered over her on both sides. She didn't want to look behind but turned her body to see his face was filling her entire vision. It wasn't close enough for her to reach this time, but it still made her uneasy. She felt the tears start to fall down her cheeks as the man she loved was glaring down at her tiny form like she was a bug that just bit him. Any words she wanted to say were stuck in her throat as she couldn't stop her trembling.

As she focused on his angry face, his eyes squinted more as he analyzed her face. He couldn't see much but thought he saw a bruise on her forehead. So, while she was focused on him, he moved his right hand closer to her and grabbed her in a firm fist, pinning her arms to her sides. He heard the little creature yelp as she felt her squirm in her grasp, barely making any impact. Knowing she wouldn't be able to strike him again, he brought her extremely close to his face and lifted her. She felt her body stiffen in his hand as he crossed his eyes due to how close she was. He let out a loud sigh as he could see she was tearing up, minuscule tears rolling down her cheeks. Her lip was quivering, and her breathing was rapid as his palm could feel the tiny heartbeat pounding in her chest. He focused his eyes on her forehead and could better see the bruise forming on it.

He grimaced slightly as he knew her getting that bruise was his fault since he chased her. Brushing his free hand through his messy brown hair, she slowly started to rise out of the crouch he was into his full height. He watched as the creature seemed to panic more as she was raised higher off the ground.

"I'm sorry..." He muttered to the tiny creature, which made it stop struggling and focus back on him. He swore this girl looked familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on it. "I know you won't be happy with me, but we must check out that bruise. Who knows if that fall gave you a concussion." Damian sighed as he moved his hand, holding Clara away from his face.

Clara blinked as she listened to Damian speak, his voice with a slight rumble now that went right through her core. When he mentioned checking out her head, she quickly shook it.

"No, I'm fine, Damian. Just please put me down." Clara pleaded in her head as she tried to free her arms to no avail; his grip was just too great for her to move. She watched Damian sigh at her head shaking and her attempt to escape.

"Look, I'm the reason you fell, and I just want to ensure you are okay. Please let me check with you, and after I know you're fine. I'll let you go, okay?" His grip loosened slightly on Clara, freeing her arms as she put her blade back on her belt. She shook her head again and used her arms to motion to put her down. He rolled his eyes at her stubbornness, which made her cheeks red. She glared at him as she tried to free herself from his grasp again. With her newest attempt, Damian couldn't help but tighten his grasp again, trapping her arms outside his hand. Clara groaned as he started to smash her fists down on his hand, which made Damian slightly chuckle. Knowing she would disagree with him, he knew what to do. So, he turned around on his heel and started walking back down the sidewalk to his apartment.

"I'm doing this for your own good, little one," Damian muttered as he moved the hand holding Clara down to chest level. She was soon met with a massive wall of gold-colored fabric that she recognized as Damian's favorite hoodie. She let out a sigh, knowing he wasn't going to let her go, and crossed her arms. Thankfully, he didn't realize it was her; she could work with that. She just had to let him check her over, and once he was satisfied, she could leave.

"That's easy enough, right?" She thought as he carried her back to his place.

2.1K words?! It's my longest chapter yet! I hope you all enjoyed it and will continue reading. Also, is Damian playing dumb, or does he not truly realize it's Clara?? We will have to wait to find out.

Sera out!

[maya-no-more]

Smoke & Steel | Vi x OC: Chapter One - Ember

The air in Zaun always smelled of rust and rain. Ember had learned at a young age to breathe through her mouth to avoid the sting of metal on her tongue, but the damp, acrid scent still settled deep into her clothes, her skin. It was the smell of home—the smell of survival, of hunger, of blood.

She was seven the first time she remembered killing a man.

It hadn’t been intentional. He was a chem-runner, sloppy and drunk, reeking of booze and cruelty, and she was a girl with quick hands and a habit of taking what didn’t belong to her. She hadn’t seen the blade in his boot until it was flashing toward her ribs. He would have gutted her—should have gutted her. But she had grabbed the nearest thing, a jagged scrap of metal, and driven it up under his jaw before he could.

She had expected to feel something—remorse, fear, anything—but all she remembered was the heat of his blood spilling over her hands, the way the light faded from his eyes. Then nothing. Just the cold knowledge that, in Zaun, the dead stayed dead, and the living kept moving.

She had pried the coins from his pockets and ran.

No one had come looking for him. No one ever did in the Lanes.

That was the way of things: survive or be forgotten.

She didn’t remember much about her parents.

Her mother had died giving birth to her, or so she’d been told. Her father had been a miner, a giant of a man with hands like iron and a voice like gravel. She remembered the way he used to carry her on his shoulders, how he’d tell her stories about the veins of raw ore that ran like lifeblood beneath Zaun. He called her his little ember, said she burned too bright for a world like this.

Then one day, he didn’t come home.

They said it was an accident—that the mine had swallowed him whole, just another body lost in the dark. She was six, alone, staring at the doorway, waiting for a man who would never walk through it again.

That was the day she learned what Zaun did to people who weren’t careful. It ate them alive, and it didn’t even leave bones behind.

After that, she spent weeks living off scraps, barely surviving. The other street kids were ruthless, preying on the weak. She learned quickly—how to steal, how to fight, how to make herself invisible when she needed to. The world did not care for lost little girls. It was cold, brutal and relentless. If she wanted to survive, she had to become something more.

And so, she did.

She was ten when she met Vi.

All sharp angles and defiant eyes, Ember had been living in the crawlspaces of an abandoned warehouse with a handful of other gutter kids. Hunger was a constant, curling up in her gut like a living thing, and trust was a luxury she couldn’t afford. She didn’t have a family, not like Vi did—didn’t have a Vander or a Powder or anyone that would stick their neck out for her. She had herself, and she had a reputation. That had always been enough.

Then Vi showed up and decided she didn’t like her.

It had started over territory. The underpass near the bridge was prime ground for scavenging, and Ember had been working it long before Vi and her crew came sniffing around. Mylo was the first to call her a rat. Vi was the one to throw the first punch.

The fight was ugly—bare-knuckled and brutal, the kind that left bruises deep in the bone. Ember was fast, but Vi was mean, and it had ended with Ember spitting blood and Vi’s knuckles split open. They stared at each other, panting, battered, but something had shifted in the air between them.

She half expected Vi to warn her off, to tell her to stay away from her territory, but instead, Vi had offered her a hand up and said, "You fight like hell."

And that was that.

The five of them were inseparable after that—Vi, Powder, Mylo, Claggor, and Ember.

They were loud, reckless, invincible in the way only street kids could be. They pulled jobs together, stole together, bled together. Ember was the one Vi turned to when she needed backup, the one who watched her back when things got messy. She was the one who slipped into tight spaces, who charmed marks with a grin before cutting their purse strings.

But more than that, they were family.

For the first time in her life, Ember had people who mattered. People she would kill for. People she would die for.

They spent nights huddled together on rooftops, counting the stars that flickered faintly through the smog. They shared stolen bread and dented cans of sweetened milk. Vi taught Ember how to throw a punch with weight behind it. Ember taught Powder how to shoot. Claggor hauled the grunt work, his goggles always slipping down his face, and Mylo, of course, complained about everything, but they were hers. And they were happy.

She let herself believe they always would be.

Then they were in the old canning factory.

Ember had helped Mylo undo Vander's final lock, who was brawling Silco's goons with inhuman strength, and Claggor was standing proudly in front of their chance at escape. Through the opening in the concrete, Ember caught a glimpse of the moonlight shining over Zaun's horizon, bouncing off dusty rooftops and catching on her friends' smiles. In that moment, despite the gut-wrenching sounds of Vander's shimmer-induced rage and the faint rhythmic clicking sounds in the distance, she felt as though this was where she was meant to be.

Click, click, click, BANG!

Ember saw it all unfold in slow motion—the shimmer of blue light, the crackling energy, the split second where she glanced at her friends' unknowing faces. And then the blast.

The force of it had knocked the air from her lungs, sent her flying, but not before a monstrous pair of arms wrapped around her, cradling her against the inevitable contact with the ground below. The world was shrouded in black for a moment as pain bloomed sharp and hot in her ribs, her skull. Crack. She was gasping for a breath, wheezing as the smell of burning metal and charred flesh filled her nose, and when she tried to move, something heavy pinned her down. Vander.

She had called out for Vi, for anyone, but only silence answered.

When she finally clawed her way free, the factory was in ruins, and they were gone.

Vi. Powder. Mylo. Claggor.

All gone.

Tears streaked through the grime on her face, turning an angry shade of crimson when they mixed with the still-wet blood seeping from the top of her skull. She didn't bother to wipe them when they caught in the permanent creases of what were once smile lines.

Ember ran until her lungs burned, until the drumbeat of her own heart deafened her and her legs felt as though they'd snap in two. She searched the wreckage, desperately screaming out to the empty streets they used to run through, and the back alleys where they used to hide. But Zaun was a hungry city, and it swallowed its own, until there was nothing left of a family but their faded portraits, scrawled in crayon, on the crumbles of their old home.

Still, Ember gripped tightly onto whatever fragment of hope she could, her knuckles turning white as the waited. Sitting on that rooftop, she stared at the stuffed rabbit, and the smears of red paint, and the tattered blanket by the exhaust where she and Vi would snuggle up in the colder months. And she waited. Memories came in painful flashes, catching her off guard as she rubbed her eyes through the late hours of the night. She became scared to even blink should she miss some sign that her best friends, her family, might still be alive.

Then, one night as Ember sat perched above the Last Drop, a group of chattering drunkards stumbled by below, and she overheard what had actually happened that night—heard about Mylo and Claggor, about Vander, about Vi. In that moment, the last shard of hope Ember had been grasping had sliced through her palm and shattered against the cold concrete of reality. She was bleeding out, and nobody even knew. So, as the last fibers of her old self trickled from her veins, and she turned translucent to the world, Ember learned how to disappear completely. By the time the enforcers came down on the Lanes, Ember was just another shadow slipping between the cracks.

Because that was what you did in Zaun when you lost everything. You disappeared.

Ember became smoke in the streets, a ghost that even the undercity forgot. Days turned to weeks, weeks to years, and Ember learned that grief doesn't leave scars like the sparks shooting from that old burn barrel did—it hollows you out, scorches you clean from the inside until nothing remains but the charred remnants of what once was.

And so, Ember abandoned her name, her hideouts and changed the way she moved. She hardened, buried the part of herself that ached for the family she lost, and walked away from everything tying her to who she once was. The streets taught her how to erase herself, how to become something untouchable.

She had been named after fire.

But embers didn’t burn forever.

And whatever part of her had been alive before that night—before the blast, before the screams, before she lost everything—had long since turned to ash.

WC: ~2,200 words

A/N: hey hey! if you're here, thank you for reading the first chappie of Smoke and Steel! i'm so excited for where this story's gonna go, and i can't wait to write more :) i know this chapter was pretty short and concise, but i just wanted it to set the stage and ember's backstory. i promise the next chapters will be longer! i'm not suuuuper consistent with upload schedules, but i also don't have a life, so i'll likely upload pretty often lmfao. hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

seeya in the next one~~

♥♥♥ maya_no_more

[the-mandawhor1an]

The present

Chapter 7 – Guided by the stars, connected by the force

Masterlist

⇐ Previous chapter | Next chapter ⇒

Pairing: Din Djarin x original female character

Chapter summary: Having to deal with a Dragon is hard as is. Dealing with feelings at the same time makes things more complicated for Maia and Din. Who is the real monster? 

Warnings: 18+ content, MDNI! Steamy thoughts; a little awkward talk about relationships; touch-starved Din; violence (more graphic than canon, sowwy); new character introduction; A little heartbreak;  

Words: 7k 

A/N: Switching the Mando'a translations to be in text rather than at the end of the whole chapter.

Due to last night’s occurrences, their night had been cut short, especially so as they were to get up at sunrise. Luckily, Maia fell asleep fairly fast after she had listened to her companion’s even breathing and Grogu’s sleep-babbles for a while. It was peaceful despite the situation they had found themselves in, out in the open and dangerously close to a giant creature. Mando must have groaned or made some kind of noise while sleeping, possibly due to having to sleep in his full set of armor. It couldn't be comfortable to sleep while having metal poke you constantly.

How she came to the conclusion that he made some kind of noise? Well, her brain, fueled by all kinds of chemicals after that kiss, registered his whines and blessed her with some very pleasant dreams, perhaps even visions, about them taking things further. 

She felt his rough hands discover every part of her body, gently caressing her skin. His lips would ghost over her neck, her shoulders, her chest, to land on her lips. They’d kiss greedily, his groans guttural and primal. She couldn’t see him, but stars, it felt so real, especially when he’d whisper sweet nothings into her ear, that she felt so soft and warm underneath him, caged by his body – submissive but safe, protected. His fingers were buried in her hips, hard enough to probably leave bruises, holding onto her while taking her like it was the last thing he’d ever do. When she woke up she swore she could feel him everywhere. 

Maia’s head slowly rose from the tented blanket, blushing and hoping she didn’t make any noise in her sleep that would tell Mando what they had done in her dreams. She glanced over to find both him and Grogu still soundly asleep, gently snoring in unison. Part of her wished she could just cuddle up against that wide frame of his and pretend she was cold, but she needed some fresh air and distance. The memories of him clouded her mind and the last thing she now needed was him asking questions. She stood up, making as little noise as possible, and left the tent some time before sunrise. She felt surprisingly fine for getting so little sleep, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep much longer anyway. They had to leave soon and all of her thoughts raced around him. 

Some of the camp was also awake already. As Maia didn’t have any means of communication, she opted to spend some time with the children. Just outside of the camp, they waited with her. Waited for? While the shadows of the tents were still over the red sand, small creatures scooted around on the lookout for water or small insects. The Tusken children showed Maia how to hunt womp rats. While the first attempt to catch one was futile and caused a fit of laughter with the young ones, the second rat met its unfortunate fate when Maia subtly waved her hand at it, causing some confusion so she could grab the rodent. Now with the small creature on her arm, calm and allowing the kids to pet it, one of the kids tried to tell her something. »I’m sorry I don’t understand,« she said. They kept making one sign over and over, growing more frustrated with every time. Finally, one grabbed her free hand and led her back inside the camp. To Mando. 

When faced with the Beskar clad bounty hunter again, it felt a little awkward at first. »I guess we have a pet now,« she said with a smile and pet the womp rat on her arm. Grogu, who had seemed a little sleepdrunk upon her arrival, locked eyes with the animal and was suddenly very wide awake. Insatiable little booger. »Be careful,« Mando said. His voice was a little deeper and raspier than usual, surely from just waking up. A pain surged through her body as she was reminded of her dream, where his voice sounded just like that. »They have sharp teeth and claws.« The animal was calm, almost asleep on her arm. It wouldn’t hurt her. »The children taught me some hunting. I can take on the dragon now,« she joked a little awkwardly, hoping he didn’t register her change in behavior, or the fact that she shifted her weight from one leg to the other nervously. 

Maia, why do you have to make things so awkward? she asked herself. But he didn’t pick up on the awkwardness, it seemed. »In that case I’ll kick my feet up, relax and watch you.« His helmet dipped just a tiny bit. That familiar sting appeared in her neck and she cleared her throat. »The children kept making this sign,« and as best as she could, she imitated the movements with one hand, all while the rat rested on her other arm. 

»Yeah, well, um,« he stammered and shifted his weight to one foot, bending one knee slightly. »They think I’m your husband because they saw us sleep in the same tent.« Maia instantly regretted asking him, as she was certain she started blushing again. 

MY HUSBAND? 

One of the children approached them again and signed something to him. All he signed back was his index, pointed upwards as he moved it in front of his visor. It looked to her like it could mean ‘that’s my secret’ or something in that sense. She wondered what the kid asked, as it chuckled and left them to join the other children. She let her eyes follow the child in hopes this distraction would make her blush disappear. »That explains their laughter, at least.« It was awkward, more so because he was clearly embarrassed as well. It sounded like a perfect opportunity for a corny joke. 

»I must’ve missed something yesterday,« she said with a smirk. »I don’t remember being proposed to.« And as much as she wanted the joke to land, his response choked her for just a second. »Mandalorian proposals aren’t super romantic,« he stated with a shrug. Wait. That just came out wrong, right? They didn’t… what? 

»How did you sleep?« he asked her when he picked up on the return of the awkwardness. Needing a second to take a breather, Maia sat down the small rat and bit her lips when her face was out of sight. »It was okay,« she replied while she slowly rose to her feet, watching the little rat regain its senses and running to hide behind the next small dune. »I’m just … plan M anyway. You won’t want me to interfere and in the end I will do it anyway.« She turned back to face him. 

»I don’t like the sound of that,« he said and leaned his helmet to the side, as she would sometimes do. He wanted to protect her, of course he didn’t like the thought of her stepping in and possibly getting hurt. She felt the dragon after all, it was massive. »I can take care of myself. I’ll be careful, don’t worry,« she reassured him. Slowly, she bent over to stretch out her back, her spine cracking in the process. »And how did you sleep?« 

»Fine. But I’m not the one with the cracking bones,« Mando’s gaze practically burned into her skin as she bent down. When she straightened out her back again, Vanth stood beside them. »I never thought I’d sleep in a Tusken camp, to be honest. Wasn’t as bad as I thought.« A sudden bout of nausea rolled over her when she thought about what Vanth could see when he approached them: Her bent over. 

She exhaled and closed her eyes for a second. This was not the right time to freak out. »We should get moving,« Mando insisted after Vanth shot him a grin. Men… 

»I’m curious what you’ve planned,« Maia explained while they were walking towards the speeders. »The Tusken children are quite the hunters… when it comes to womp rats.« The same, broken down, rusty speeder greeted them and she was hit with the realization, that she’d have to cuddle up to Din again. 

She sat behind him and exchanged a look with Grogu back in his carrier bag. The little one was excited for the new day ahead. With a soft smile on her lips she turned around and held on to her companion. 

»They are great hunters, but the dragon is a different story. It’s big and hard to hunt due to it being under the sand,« Mando explained when they dashed across the dunes. While one hand held onto him by his waist, Maia’s other hand snaked up to the shoulder that was hidden from Vanth’s view. With every time Vanth would shoot her looks, she’d squeeze Din’s shoulder softly. Deep down she wondered, and she was a bit embarrassed by her own thoughts, what it would feel like to touch him without all the fabric separating them. If his skin felt as warm and soft as she imagined. 

Maia was unsure of how she would call whatever she shared with Din. She obviously liked him, but his point of view was completely unclear. He kissed her, but did that mean something to him? Seeing the two like this made it easy for the Tuskens to mistake them for husband and wife. They shared a tent, she was practically glued to his back, and the Mandalorian seemed extremely comfortable with the closeness. And at least from what they could tell by the little sparkle in her eyes when she looked at him, there must’ve been something. 

She wasn’t opposed to the thought of being with him. As a partner, not necessarily as his wife. 

They reached the den after a short trip. A large tunnel led deep into a mountain, pitch black on the inside. Din, Vanth, a few Tuskens and Maia sat behind a rock, watching the tunnel entrance with binoculars. Vanth scanned the tunnel and scoffed. »This is where it’s supposed to be?« and without thinking, Maia practically blurted out, »It’s sleeping.« A low rumble echoed from the tunnel if one paid attention to it. The dragon’s breath. 

»The Tusken said it lives in an abandoned sarlacc pit,« Mando explained. Vanth lowered the binoculars and handed them over to him. »Ridiculous, there are no abandoned sarlacc pits on Tatooine.« Mando shrugged. »They’re empty when you eat the sarlacc.«

A Tusken approached the cave with a bantha in tow. They shouted into the cave, the scream echoed for quite a while until the low hum of the dragon’s breath stopped and a low growl emerged. The beast made its way forward and instead of eating the bantha as intended, it went for the Tusken and ate them in one bite. »They usually sacrifice banthas to make the dragon sleep for longer. They’ve studied it for generations,« Mando explained after the failed attempt. Vanth scoffed »Well, that worked just as planned, huh?« He crossed his arms in front of his chest. 

Mando straightened his back and sighed. »Maybe they’re open to new ideas.«

They assembled around a replica of the scene before them, bones representing the dragon and pebbles to symbolize the men that they had to work this out. Maia watched from a distance, Grogu on her arm. She didn’t want to interfere with the actual plotting, so she stepped back. 

Vanth tilted his head and seemed to calculate something in his mind. »The scaling is off,« he commented. Maia wasn’t sure she agreed, the dragon was gigantic. Din exchanged a few signs and grunts with a Tusken before speaking to the marshal. »The scaling is right. What we’ve seen is just the head.« While they debated whether or not the dragon was in fact this big, Grogu extended one of his hands, maybe to force-pull one of the bones towards him. Maia shielded the small green hand with hers and softly whispered to the child »not now.« He sighed and turned to look her into the eyes, pleading with her to allow him to nibble on the sun-bleached bones. 

»Maybe we should retreat, then,« Vanth proposed. Maia looked down at the hand full of pebbles and commented »Maybe we should, we’re not enough, especially if bantha is off the dragon’s menu.« After a short exchange between Mando and the Tusken, more pebbles fell from the hunter’s hand and plop into the sand. Vanth appeared delighted. »That looks a lot better. What did you say?« »I told them your people will help us.« Maia looked over to Vanth, then back to Mando. She was certain the marshal would not agree with that plan at all. And as expected, he was far from delighted. 

»They attacked us less than a year ago. Killed half a dozen of us by the mining camp. I'd say I took down about twice as many Tuskens,« Vanth spoke with a clear irritation in his voice. As expected, kind of. But Mando wouldn’t give up so fast. »All of you want the dragon gone. You killed some of their people, they killed some of your people. This can put an end to the fighting, once and for all. Talk to the settlers. They listen to you.« 

Vanth wrinkled his forehead, but ultimately saw that was the only way. If he could actually convince his people, that is. »Guess that means: back to Mos Pelgo.«

The next few hours were a blur to Maia. The men handled the convincing, the plotting, and ultimately managed the travel back to the cave. The young brunette could not put her finger on it, but something felt uneasy to her. Maybe she was just anxious because of the sheer size of the beast. Maybe she held onto Din a little tighter when they returned to the cave. 

Maybe she was overthinking the feelings that emerged when she felt Din’s lips on hers. Maybe she warmed up to the realization that Raymond might have been right about ‘the stranger’ after all. This connection she felt meant something. She couldn’t quite put a name to it yet, but the suspicion she had made her heart jump whenever she thought about it. 

Din overlooked the Tuskens and Settlers as they dug out trenches in the sand to hide the explosives they had collected in Mos Pelgo. The plan sounded easy enough, although not foolproof. Lure the dragon out and then blow it up. 

Maia busied herself with Grogu, hiding from the glaring suns beside the speeder bike. Every now and then, though, she caught herself staring at the Mandalorian, thinking back to what she had said about plan M. There was some mutual sympathy no one could deny, but with that the fear grew. The fear he'd do something stupid to save her. 

Grogu could sense her inner turmoil and made a questioning noise. That snapped Maia back into reality and she gently pat his head. »Let's hope their plan is good enough for a 200 ton dragon.« Grogu agreed with a coo. She smiled at the child. The little troublemaker had really grown on her, she liked spending time with the child. From her peripheral, Maia could see Din approach them and her eyes rested on the black visor. 

»Maia. If anything happens to me,« he sighed and extended his hand to rest it on her shoulder, thumb caressing over the fabric of her cloak. Din was worried about this dragon and while he hoped to come out of this unscathed, he had to make sure some matters were taken care of. »Will you take care of Grogu for me and help him find a Jedi? I trust you.« Maia turned her head to watch his hand, until she gently laid a hand of hers on his glove, turned back to face him and nodded.

»I promise to look after Grogu until he’s in safe hands.« A smile formed on her lips as she felt his fingers squeeze her shoulder gently. »Please don’t risk your life to kill the dragon, though. No one wants you to play hero just because you know that someone can take care of Grogu. I know I don’t.« 

»I won’t play hero if you don’t implement plan M,« Din retorted, a smile audible in his voice. »It’s – just in case. Ret’lini.« »Ret’lini,« she repeated, the word rolling off of her tongue surprisingly easy. She glanced over to both of their hands, her thumb smoothing over the worn leather of his glove. Despite being out in the open, this little gesture felt so intimate – so significant. Touching him felt good. It felt natural, despite this being the first time they touched like that. 

The urgency he suggested with his approach just now made her worry. Was is in the realm of possibility that he would meet his fate today? There was a chance, and if he wanted to make sure his matters were addressed, maybe she had to talk about something as well. Ret’lini. 

»Let’s hope it all turns out alright. It’s obvious that I don’t want you to die and I doubt you want to die, either. But there is a slim chance it happens and I …« I won’t let you die. »Something has changed. I’m not sure what it is yet, but what I do know is that I like you, Din. I like you and I would like to repeat what happened yesterday. and maybe more. Some day.« 

It was like he was frozen. His hand twitched ever so slightly under her fingers, but it took a moment for him to gather his thoughts. »That… would be nice,« was all he could muster up at first. She felt his eyes burn on her skin as he found the right words. »You’re right. Something has changed. I like you too, mesh’la.« 

Mesh’la? What did it mean? She knew it was something in Mando’a and not a name-slip, and she felt heat rush to her cheeks. He liked her. Din’s hand slowly let go off her, something both seemed to dread. »We’re almost ready,« he announced. 

Positioned behind the speeders, Vanth, Mando and the two non-jedi watched as the dragon did not run into the trap they had set up. While the head came out of the cave and the detonations hit something, presumably its throat, it was not enough to fatally wound the beast. Instead, they angered it. It didn’t hesitate to let its anger known, spitting acid over the settlers and Tuskens that were unfortunate enough to stand too close. They screamed as their bodies dissolved into the sand, all while the dragon retreated back into the cave and vanished. While the first attack had been short, the casualties were high and they knew: it wasn’t over. 

Maia felt the giant creature burrow underneath the sand and working its way through the mountain before them. If it managed to break out somewhere at the top and spit acid again, they would lose more people, too many to make it worth all of this. One thing was certain: she was only person that could save them right then and there. If she didn’t interfere, they would die. Despite her agreement with Din to not make haste decisions, she had to act: That calls for plan M. She jumped over the speeder and sprinted forward, faster than Din could even register what was going on. Fast enough so he couldn’t stop her. 

She felt his gaze burn into her as she stumbled across the sand, more jumping than actually running. Surely enough, the dragon emerged from the rock and rained more acid over the people in the valley, without any chance of evading their certain end. Maia raised her hands to shield the others from the acid with a force barrier, which Vanth and Mando took as an opportunity to attack the creature from the air. It got annoyed enough by the shots that it burrowed in the mountain once more, allowing her to catch her breath. Using the force was exhausting, causing her to sink into the sand beneath her. 

Child of the force, I can feel you

a voice echoed in her mind. She looked around, no one was around that this voice could have belonged to. What was going on? Both Vanth and Din landed back in the sand a little away from her, but the dragon was still under them, still alive, still very angry. She couldn’t make out what the men said, but suddenly Vanth flew a few meters away from Din, plopped down into the sand. All the marshal and Maia could do was watch the Mandalorian grab the Bantha with the remaining explosives and get swallowed whole by the dragon. 

She stared into the pit in the sand with utter disbelief. That was it? »Din, please don’t do this to me,« she whispered as tears formed in her eyes. She felt a pain form in her heart, when suddenly the dragon re-emerged from the sand, blue flickers of light shining through its skin. A scream disrupted the grieving silence as Din flew out the opened mouth of the beast. The remote for the explosives still in his hand, he activated them and the dragon blew up into pieces. the shockwave knocked all over who were too close, including Maia and Vanth. A cloud of sand got kicked up and obstructed their view for a moment. Mando landed a few seconds after the detonation, covered in saliva and other gunk from the creature’s mouth. 

He landed close to Vanth and helped him back to his feet. They exchanged a few words, Vanth nodding her way, until the helmet turned to her and the sting returned. »Maia…« his voice was soft when he saw the dark trails the tears had left on her sand-stained face. His right arm flexed and she saw his fingers bend. He wanted to touch her, she could tell. »It’s okay. The dragon is dead, we can leave.« The green goop on his armor could have been more of the acid, but the urge to embrace her was palpable. He was so tense, frozen in place unsure what to do. She felt the same way, and when she stood up onto unstable legs, before he could approach her to steady her, sand got thrown his way. A lot of sand, hitting him with enough of an impact to almost push him over. The sand stuck to every last bit of moisture on his suit, practically drying him in an instant and rendering any bit of acid not dangerous to the fabric on his or her frame. 

As mad as she was about his actions, the relief she felt when she saw he was unscathed made her forget that she almost lost him so fast after finding him. With wobbly steps, she ran towards him and crashed into his chest and hugged him tight enough that it hurt her. For a moment she feared he’d push her away, until one of his arms carefully wrapped around her. A display of mutual feelings, of what they had talked about before this went down. Maia felt conflicted: She liked him, it was obvious. And he liked her. But as quickly as they found each other, they could lose another just as fast. 

The voice still lingered in the back of her mind. 

I can feel the dichotomy in your heart. Let me help you. 

She lifted her face to look into that visor. A small glare lingered in her eyes when she warned him »don’t you ever do that again.« She wiped her face with her sleeve, not cleaning it but drying the tears. He just stared at her. At least that what it felt like when the helmet didn’t move, he just breathed, his chest armor pushing into her. Maybe she crossed a line when she hugged him. Maybe he didn’t want her to display her feelings so publicly. 

Reluctantly, she let go off him, sighed and walked over to the speeder to check on Grogu. The child looked at her with confusion. He felt her conflicted emotions, and also the feelings that plagued his bodyguard. As a child not much made sense to him yet, the adults behaved weird in his opinion. 

It didn’t take long for Din to follow and Vanth also approached the speeder to hand over the armor. Din had taken a part of the dragon’s flesh as payment. »Thank you for your help, Mando,« the marshal addressed him first, before turning his head to the brunette. »Thank you for protecting my people. I’m sure they’re glad you risked your life for them.« Not one word fell about her powers. Perhaps he knew it was better not to mention it. 

»Let’s go back to Mos Eisley,« Mando said to his companion with a nod. He and Vanth shook hands, as men did. The silver-haired only winked at the young woman, earning a warm smile in return. This time Maia sat down in front of the speeder. She didn’t want to be close to the other armor nor to the chunk of still warm meat. 

Din sat behind her, holding onto her waist with one arm when she revved the engine. As soon as they were out of sight, she felt his arm tighten around her body. It’s as if he wanted to hug her, again, for longer this time, now that no one could see them. She relaxed and practically melted against his chest. His thumb stroked along the curve of her waist. Part of her wished he could take that helmet off to kiss her neck. She couldn’t see him, neither could Grogu. 

She lowered the speed of their vehicle to release one of her hands from the handlebar. Her fingers grazed over his biceps, feeling the muscles flex under her touch. »You really scared me,« she complained, but softly. She squeezed him gently, earning a grunt from underneath the helmet. »I’m sorry,« he replied. »I had no time to explain.« 

The speeder was now slow enough that no one had to fear falling off, gliding over the sand like it was an undisturbed water surface. Soft, almost like a caress. She leaned the side of her head against his helmet and closed her eyes just for a moment. »I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t utilize plan M either. I know, you rescued a lot of people but now they know.« She opened her eyes but looked straight ahead. Her hand wandered upwards into the back of his neck. Her fingers dipped underneath his helmet to run through his hair. ��Can’t say I’m not impressed but both of us risked a lot today,« he whispered. The sudden sensation of her finger in his hair made him whimper softly. He scooted closer to her, his body molding to hers to be as close as possible. 

»I couldn’t let them die. There was only one person that was capable to save them: Me. They won’t tell anyone.« His second arm moved so he could place a hand on her thigh. He squeezed her gently and rested his helmet against her head and shoulder. »Where are we going next?« she asked. »I don’t know yet. We have to find another clue.« Din most definitely was distracted by her touch, so she pulled back. They needed to be back in Mos Eisley by dawn.  

Maia accelerated, the dunes flying past them and a cloud of sand following them. Slowly, the terrain changed, more and more rocks surfaced through the sand like islands in an endless ocean of red sand. The suns were slowly setting, their shadows turned longer and longer. As much as she would’ve enjoyed watching another sunset with Din, they needed to be in Mos Eisley by night. 

While they looked similar, the canyons they transversed were not the same ones when they encountered the Tuskens first. Smaller lizards hid in the crevices as they zoomed past, disturbed in their basking ritual. 

But lizards were far from the only living beings they would encounter on their way back. In a particular rock formation, bandits had set up a trap and Maia was running right into it. When the speeder was close, they lifted a steel wire to trip the bike, sending all passengers and the cargo flying through the air. 

While Din could catch his fall with the jetpack, Grogu and Maia were less fortunate. The child landed somewhere off to the side and the brunette hit the sand and tumbled, at least one of her bones making a cracking noise in the process. There was no time to be in pain, they were under attack and Maia’s first instinct said that these were bounty hunters. Either tasked to grab Grogu – or her. Whatever the case, the child couldn’t protect himself, as opposed to the two adults. She unhooked one of her lightsabers from her belt and activated the lavender-colored blade. 

Her eyes scanned the area to look for the foundling and when she saw one of the bandits draw close, she pushed forward. All regards for Din were forgotten in this moment, as he was capable to fight alone.  

You’re treading on a fine line. A dance on a tightrope above an endless abyss.

With one effortless swipe of her blade she felled the first bandit while sprinting over to Grogu, a second bandit approaching. With a force-push, she threw the attacker against a rock, not caring if she had knocked him unconscious or killed him in an instant. There must’ve been at least 4, maybe 5 of them, as Din was fighting with one as well. When Maia had almost reached Grogu, a shock went through her body. »Jedi!« one of them barked. She had been tased once again, the shock making her muscles spasm and forcing her to the ground. Her saber deactivated as she let go, but the hilt now laid in the sand next to her, up to grab by anyone. 

She curled up into a ball, crying out in pain as the memories of her capture resurfaced. It drove her mad.

Don’t let the darkness enter your heart.

The bandit that had shot her with the taser picked up Grogu and retreated, allowing the one she had previously thrown to get up and approach her. His eyes darted to the metal hilt in the sand right next to her. It would be easy to kill her with that, one swipe and her pretty head would lay in the sand.

As right as the unfamiliar voice in her head was, she saw no other way in this moment but to let go. Even if it was just for a moment, she needed to keep them safe. For that she had to be alive.

So she let go.

If you lose yourself, you’ll lose him too.

She flexed the muscles in her lower arm as best she could, curling her fingers in an attempt to form a fist. Neither her ears nor her brain registered she was screaming in agony, as was the bandit, as his ribs gave in to the pressure, one after another. Maias eyes were closed, welling up with tears as she gave into the pull. 

You have to learn to control yourself.

The bandit collapsed next to her and in his fall hit the cables of the taser, pulling the electrodes from her shoulder. Disoriented and on the verge of throwing up, Maia toppled over on all fours and took a few breaths, heaving once, but nothing came out. Everything around her was like a blur, but the noises of fighting had stopped. In fact, it was dead silent. 

I will help you. Wait for me. 

Maia sat back onto her knees and grabbed her saber, taking in a few deeper breaths as her vision cleared up. She was now so aware of the voice and she should have been concerned, but all that she felt was an undeniable aura of good. It radiated empathy, for her situation, for her inner conflict. The brunette looked up to see Grogu back on Din’s arm, safe and visibly unharmed. Still, her heart felt heavy as Din didn’t dare to take a step closer to her. 

You will hurt them sooner or later. 

»Are you alright?« she asked Din as she carefully got back to her feet. She knew she messed up, showing Din a glimpse of what she would’ve preferred to keep from him forever. For a second time today, she felt the urge to run over to him and hug him, but the stiffness in his body suggested he would not accept it this time. Running wasn’t possible anyway, as the leg that had been affected more by the shocks felt numb, similar to the numbness she felt on Nevarro. The dull thumping in her chest didn’t mean anything good, either. »We’re fine,« Din replied. Finally he came closer, but he approached her carefully. 

Maia gathered the last bit of strength she had to not start crying. His trust was gone, it was clear with the way he approached her like she was a wild animal. »You’re hurt,« he continued. »Can you walk? We have to walk the rest, the speeder is broken and come nightfall things will get ugly out here.« As if things weren’t ugly already. 

»It’s not as bad as it looks,« she lied, unconvincingly as she let out a whine when hooking her saber back onto her belt sent a sharp pain through her ribcage. One of her ribs must have broken when she landed in the sand earlier. But she was very much alive and not on the brink of death like last time. Who knows what consequences her outburst would lead up to. 

Taking as much of the cargo as possible, they made their way back to Mos Eisley on foot. Din carried most of the heavy stuff, the armor, the meat, the second jet pack; while Maia carried Grogu and some of the smaller items. It wasn’t much and she felt bad for having him carry so much, but she didn’t dare to say anything. Neither said anything. The emotion that radiated off of the Mandalorian was hard to decipher for the young woman. She knew a bit of disappointment was in there, but the exhaustion after the fight and her injuries made reading him all the more difficult. It hurt her deeply, knowing she had let him down after he had lowered his guard around her. It hurt worse than her physical wounds. Grogu was mostly asleep while they walked, lulled to slumber from the exhaustion and the rhythmic, gentle sway of his carrier bag around Maia’s body. 

I’m so sorry for disappointing you, Din. I hope you can forgive me until we meet again. 

Back in the city, it didn’t take long to find Peli. Basically, all they had to do was follow the noise. The mechanic ushered them back to the hangar, where she could prepare the dragon meat and maybe help Mando with some intel. Grogu watched as the meat was slowly roasted by the droids, the two self-declared bodyguards stood close to each other, but not as close as Maia had wished. »Don’t get too close,« Mando warned Grogu as the small green paws dared to reach out to the flames. The helmet turned towards his brunette companion, and suddenly the air got heavy. 

»Maia, we have to talk,« he announced and they both retreated further away from the droids, Grogu and Peli. His tone was firm and pained, like he forced himself to do this now despite feeling resentful that it had to be done. Peli complained about her speeder bike in the background, but the noise was easy to blur out when one’s heart was racing. 

»You lost control,« he stated. Instantly, Maia wanted to say something, defend her actions, but he lifted his glove. Din wasn’t done and sighed heavily. The tears that welled in the beautiful green eyes opposite of him didn’t make this any easier. »Don’t think that I’m scared of you. Because I’m not. It’s … I …« he stammered and sighed again, rested his hands against his hips in frustration. »I’ve considered taking the helmet off. The kiss occupies my mind ever since it happened and I want to kiss you again.« 

It was hard. Hard not to show much his words hurt. Yes, she was on the verge of crying, but hearing that made it so much realer. This was a farewell, she knew it. »You make me consider bending rules I never thought about breaking before. Maybe we should go our separate ways.«

There it was, the truth. His codex was important to him, she understood; more important than some feelings he had for a woman he’d known for barely three days. But the words he spoke sounded familiar. She had heard these before, but where? 

»I understand,« she replied and bit her lower lip. Her voice was quivering and she felt pathetic for being so weak in this moment, but maybe he had to witness what he did to her, what pain he caused. Crying only made it worse for the both of them. »I don’t want to hurt you or Grogu just because I can’t control myself. We’re … not good for each other. As much as I want to promise you that I can better myself, this is nothing I can do while being with you. It’s for the better if our journey ends here.« She blinked a few times, hoping it would make the tears disappear without pushing them down her face. 

»Someone or something calls for me. I’m not sure it’s not a trap, but it feels like it’s someone that genuinely wants to help me. I will answer that call and see where it leads. Whatever happens to me, I don’t want to be responsible for you losing your ways.«

As soon as these words left her lips, she remembered why his sounded so familiar. The vision they had shared when she healed her wound, in the cargo hold of his ship. Did that also mean, the last vision she had seen, that couple embraced in a kiss, was also them? Some time in the future? 

Din nodded. Again she wished she could see his face, only to see if this affected him as much as it did her. But that was the main issue. She made him want to take the helmet off. She wanted him to take it off. »I’m forever grateful for your help,« he said, his voice slowly warming up again, getting softer. »Our paths might separate here, but maybe we’ll meet again.« 

Part of her wanted to tell him. Maybe he knew, deep down, even if he couldn’t remember the visions. She smiled softly, as best as she could with still fairly tear-filled eyes. »I hope our paths lead us to a better place. I hope there are some valuable lessons waiting for me, to make me a better person. Perhaps there will be revelations in your future as well. If you realize that you need me, I won’t be far away, I promise. As long as my heart beats,« she laid her hand on her chest, right on top of her heart. »You and Grogu won’t be alone in this galaxy. It’s your choice if you want to call me or not.« 

It was hard to beat the Jedi allegations when she spoke like that. But maybe she was sick of trying so vehemently to not be something that was… her. 

»Be careful, mesh’la,« he spoke with a heavy heart. Again, he called her mesh’la. She could’ve asked him what it meant. She should have asked him what it meant, but maybe she liked to be in emotional limbo, not sure if she should feel flustered or insulted. Her instinct told her it was positive, in fact, it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. »Try not to ‘Plan M’ your way around the galaxy.« 

»I’ll try. I’ll tell you about it when our paths cross again. I’m sure they will, when we’re ready.« She was certain they would meet again, but when and under which circumstances hadn’t yet revealed itself to her. »Take good care of Grogu and yourself, Din.« This might have been the last time that she spoke his name for a while. She looked into that visor, resisting the urge to touch the helmet, to pull him into a hug, to get any kind of last contact, because she knew, it would hurt more to let go. She turned on her heel, and every fiber of her being screamed at her to not do it. Please don’t let me leave like that, she begged him in her mind. 

As if he had heard her silent plea, he grabbed her hand. »Wait.« He pulled her back, turned her in the same movement and gently leaned his helmet forward. She knew the gesture and inched closer, until her forehead felt the cold metal of his helmet. It wasn’t the kiss she had wished for, but it was a display of affection nonetheless. »Ret’urcye mhi,« Din mumbled. There was no need for a translation. The way he said it told her enough. A single sob escaped her as she closed her eyes. »May the force be with you.«

They could have hugged, let the touch linger for longer than necessary, but Maia pulled back fairly quickly. It was inevitable and waiting it out helped no one. She left the hangar, telling Peli goodbye in passing. 

The last she heard from the hangar was the mechanic’s shrill voice, asking Mando what he had done to chase the girl off.

[beyondthebelle]

You Love to Hate Me (pt.1)

Rating: 18+ (mdni!!!!)(no piv...yet)

Pairing: CM Punk x female wrestler/aka you if you believe

Excerpt: I can’t take that again, the sly smiles, the side looks, the snarky laughs when I slip up. Surely Punk isn’t back. That coil in my gut again, a snake coming to life whenever he comes up, getting harder to ignore.

I tried to make the character as ambiguous as I could, other than the reference to them so far as being cis, essentially self insert but without using the second person. Anyhoo enjoy!

divider credit @cafekitsune

I was in the back of my Uber on the way to the airport, ready to catch the red eye to New Orleans. It was eerily quiet on the highway, cars sped past here and there but compared to about six hours ago it was a ghost town. My driver was a nice quiet woman named Lana; her comfortable silence had already earned her the fattest tip I could afford.

There was nothing I liked more in this world than the cool blue silence of the night – it was a welcome friend when my world was so often sprays of red, pops, chants and screams, and the yellows and greens of bruises.  And this weekend was gearing up to be of the reddest, thuddiest, most bruised yet.

The Royal Rumble.

Storylines were beginning to gain traction, the speculation over who was going to show up was getting out of control. I even saw someone say they thought a hologram Andre the Giant was going to appear. I mean come on.

The best part of it all though, was I did know. I knew a couple of surprises. Because I was one of them.

Had people predicted me?

Yeah sure, here and there.

But not seriously, not really. I tried to push aside the feeling that maybe people had just forgotten about me.

I’ve been on hiatus, recovering from a neck injury (an actual one, not a story one) that left me learning how to be independent again. Painful? Absolutely. But nothing I couldn’t take. But the mental toll, the boredom, the embarrassment, the weakness. That'll never happen again.

I let out a long sigh and leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the SUV. Flashes of amber flicked across the interior and the knot of nerves I’d been cultivating in my stomach were beginning to squirm.

“Don’t worry honey, we’re almost there. I know it’s late.” Lana said from the front, her eyes peering at me for a moment in the rearview.

Her voice was so gentle and kind. I threw her a small smile, “oh no worries Lana, you take your time.”

That must have been a bigger sigh than I realized.

After I was cleared I was so excited, so ready to get back to the ring that training had become everything to me. When HHH said he wanted me back by the Rumble and could I work that, I knew my answer before he even finished asking. Yeah. Hell yeah.

Obviously I knew who was coming out for the women, but the men's rumble? Not a clue and that was fine with me. I liked being in the dark as much as possible, it made for better acting when I was on camera. But beyond that, I loved the surprise. I loved the mystery. I loved wrestling.

Damien, Drew, Roman, Sami, Gunther, and Dominick were all confirmed for the men’s Rumble, but otherwise who knew.  The last time I checked online, people were predicting Joe Hendry, Hulk Hogan (ew), Sting, Trick Williams and of course everyone’s favourite: CM Punk.

I held back another long sigh.

The last time I’d been around him was right before my neck injury. Smug, chastising and full of himself. Always that dumb little smirk when he knew he was right. He taunted and nagged me about the moves I was doing, told me I was going to get myself killed. Laughed at me when I told him to fuck off.

“O.K.” was the last thing he said to me, hands up in the air, dirty white bandages his surrender.

I chewed on my lip.

I should have listened, despite the fact that he kept calling me kid, and the looks I got from him every time I messed up, I should have kept my mouth shut and listened. Because it turns out he was right, and when it was my turn for my moment all those months ago, I fucked the move up, I fucked my neck up, and I fucked up the next eighteen months. So, when my moment comes again Saturday night, I don't want it to come with an I told you so.

The jolt of the vehicle stopping shook me out of my spiral and I realized we’d finally arrived at the airport. My body began vibrating with excitement, the kind you feel before a big trip. All nerves and humming. That familiar, mechanical whir of the airport greeted me as Lana and I hopped out. She grabbed my luggage and walked me to the doors. She looked at me and grabbed my hand in both of hers, a startling act of affection for such a silent trip, but I didn’t pull away - intrigued.

“You’re going to be a star.” She said abruptly. A genuine smile cracking the surface of her face.

I stared at her for a second. My face making an "oh" like a silly little fish. “I-I, what? I mean thank you...Lana, really. I don’t know what to say.”  

“Don’t say anything, just know I’m rooting for you Selena,” she gave me a little wink and my hand a final squeeze before trotting off to her car. I stared in disbelief at her and her SUV as it drove off - then snorted a little laugh.

How did she know? How did she know I was Selena Star? Did she know? Maybe people did remember me. Maybe that familiar nagging voice wasn’t everything.

I got onto my app: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ + %100 tip.

It was approaching 3 a.m. when we landed. I’d fallen into one of those fitful sleeps where you blink and thirty minutes has gone by. As we taxied around for what felt like 31 hours (it was 31 minutes) and I walked about 12 miles to the luggage (it was half a mile) I was finally, mercifully at my hotel. Yet, somehow, so were the paparazzi. Thankfully they don’t know what to look for with me, and I’m practically unrecognizable out of my makeup and hair. Suckers.

Would they care anyways? No. I shook my head. I wasn't entertaining that.

I looked around, distracting myself, admiring the lobby. Plush, velvety couches crowded around large coffee tables covered in flowers and piles of magazines to different tourist destinations.

The person at the front desk was an excited looking twenty-something named Sky. The energy coming off them would be infectious if not for it now being 4 a.m.

“Hi!” they blurted out. “Can I help you check-in?”

“That’d be great, thank-you” I answered,giving them as much of a smile as I could muster.

“You must be tired”, they began, manicured nails going at breakneck speed across the keyboard, “so many folks have been checking in all weekend. Are you here for the Rumble too?”

My whole body tensed at the mention of it. Oh no , I did not want to get my picture taken at 4 a.m after being on a plane. “What do you mean?” I said maybe a little too sharply.

Sky stopped their typing and looked at me like they’d seen a ghost, all colour draining from their face. “I am so sorry. I meant as in are you going to go to it like...do you have tickets. Ugh I’m sorry that was so unprofessional of me. We’re under strict instructions not to ask anyone why they’re in town. I’m just so excited I got ahead of myself. I love wrestling, I think it’s why I was put on nights this week,” they rambled on , apologizing three more times.

Ah, I thought. Sky was a fan. That made sense. I’m sure if I was in their position ten years ago, I’d be feeling the same. I felt my shoulders relax at the realization.

“Hey, hey, it's all good. I am going actually, are you? To the Royal Rumble that is” smiling back at them now, understanding the tense excitement.

“Yes!” they breathed out-relieved, “I’m so excited! It’s my first wrestling event ever. Where are you sitting, maybe I’ll see you around?!” They were practically humming.

“Oh uh, maybe!” Technically not a lie. “I’ll have to double check my seats I’m so tired I can’t even remember. Next time I see you I’ll let you know.” I winked at them as I left.

I went to my room and was out before my head even hit the pillow.

The glory of being a surprise is my time before is spent hiding, getting ready, warming up, and sneaking around. It was like being a spy, but without the threat of death.

I rehearsed with the others; Bayley, Liv, and Nia all took turns with me and I wanted to make sure every move, kick, jump, everything was right. No fuck ups, nothing. And when I was sweaty, sore, and winded enough, when I was hungry and could tell the others were over it, that’s when I knew I was done. With my final fake pin on Nia, I stood up, hair sticking to my face from the sweat, breathe shaking my chest, only to see what looked like the flash of hot pink pads disappearing behind a door.

My heart beat impossibly fast.

No. It couldn’t be. It can’t be. He wasn’t even with the WWE anymore. He left shortly after I went on hiatus, some stupid dispute with management he never talked about publicly.

I can’t take that again, the sly smiles, the side looks, the snarky laughs when I slip up. Surely Punk isn’t back. That coil in my gut again, a snake coming to life whenever he comes up, getting harder to ignore.

I'm lost in thought all the way back to the hotel room, mind racing with the possibility of him showing up tomorrow. The women were on first, and I needed my rest. But as I showered and got ready for bed all I could think about was how much I tried not to think about CM Punk for the last 18 months. If I read wrestling news, he was in the periphery, if people talked about him they knew not to involve me, and he was never ever brought up to me while training. Did they know the humiliation I felt every time I thought of him? Was it pity why they never brought him up? They all saw how we used to bicker, maybe they could sense my bitterness now.

As I lay in bed that hot pink flash keeps repeating in my head. It could have been Tiffany, hell maybe it was Charlotte. Right? Anyone can wear hot pink with black and white accents and stars..

Fuck.

After the worlds most fitful sleep, it was Rumble day. Vague dreams of Punk pinning me in a bizarre blended match swirled in my brain while I brushed my teeth, but were gone by the time I was out the door. I needed to focus. Nothing was more important to me than getting through this match not only safely but in style. I was back, and I needed people to remember who I was.

It was nearly time now. My gear was on, my makeup and hair impeccable and I was vibrating. I stood in gorilla and watched on the monitors as Liv and Naomi beat the hell out of each other, while Bayley and Nia fought in another corner. The time went to 10 and that was my signal.

I waited just outside the entrance, hopping back and forth on my feet.

3.

2.

1.

It was go time.

I step out onto the ramp as my music blares and to my utter shock the crowd goes wild. It was like out of a dream. I stay in character, but just barely. I see signs with my name here and there while I'm running towards the ring. I've never felt so alive. These people remember me, these people wanted me here.

I enter the ring with childlike glee but by the time my feet his the mat its all business.

Not a move out of place, not a botch, not a slip to be seen. I'm back, and even as Liv pushes me out of the ring the crowd roars for me, cheers for me and Lana was right.

I am a Star.

That familiar after match ache was settling in. I'd showered and changed into comfortable clothes, and was now waiting for the main event. I sat with Bayley in the box reserved for all of us.

"Sooooo, any idea who you think is showing up?" She asked, side eyeing me.

I ignored the look but not the question. "Well you know me, I love a surprise, so I have tried to stay as blind as possible. I'm hoping for a Joe Hendry, or it'd be cool to have someone like Zilla Fa-"

"What about Punk?"

The question was like whiplash. My head swung around to stare at her. I winced a bit at the motion. "What about him?"

"Do you think he'll debut tonight?" She asked, nonplussed. Like she didn't just interrupt me to ask about a person that I thought was off limits.

"I don't think about him at all" I replied rather stiffly.

"Mhm, that's why you turn pale every time he's mentioned huh?" She said, laughing and stopping when she saw the look on my face.

"What do you mean?" I asked her ,"He was a dick to me and then I destroyed my neck and he's probably been bragging about it this whole time. Of course I'm pale. It's humiliating." I was starting to regret hanging out.

"Hey wait", she began, her hand on my forearm, "I was there you know - when all that happened and that's not how I remember it. I remember him milling around a lot and watching you train. I remember him warning you not to do moves that were frankly way too dangerous too soon. And yeah I remember him being too pushy, too protective. I also remember you telling him to fuck off and him being pretty hurt by it. But what I don't remember is him bragging or saying I told you so to people after the fact."

My head swam at the memory of it all. I was at a loss for words, I had tried so hard not to think of everything leading up to my injury, poured everything into rebuilding my strength, got back to where I wanted to be and now all that was left was to face what Bayley was saying.

When I didn't say anything she continued, "I think you need to rethink what happened, why he kept nagging you, and look into why he left. That's all I'm gonna say. Alright? But you don't need to be so hard on yourself either. Who knows maybe it'd be cool if he was here." She gave a soft shrug and turned back to face the ring after that.

Her words were a gut punch. What did she mean? Was I missing something?

I remember him always being around when I was there at the professional centre, rehearsing, going through my warm ups. We'd run into each other in different hallways, he'd ask me how training was going, if I needed pointers...he was teasing me.

Right?

He had to be, because I always bit back. Saying things like what could an old man give me pointers on? He laughed at me over that one especially. He was always there-always mocking, pushing me around and getting away with it. It drove me insane. That snake in my stomach was alive now, swirling into different twitchy coils and I realized I was beginning to squirm in my seat.

I also remember the lead up to my injury, how badly I wanted to impress everyone by doing something new. But I couldn't focus, not with him around, lingering, watching me, interrupting, distracting me. But I pushed and pushed and he got worse and worse. Arguing with the trainers, pressing me if I needed help until one day I snapped. I was tired of being treated like a child and yet I acted like one. And I got injured because of it. I wasn't mad at him for that, I was mad at me. I should have known better.

But then why was I so adamant on avoiding even the thought of him? Was it because I saw the hurt in his eyes? And that the last thing I said to him was fuck off? Or was it that I missed his teasing and randomly running into him after matches, towering down over me, sweaty and out of breath, asking me how training was going. Holding a donut in one hand, it's sugar glaze oozing a milky white stream down his fingers and thumb.

Oh.

If this was Looney Toons a light bulb would have gone off above my head.

It's been so long, I've been so focused on my career I'd forgotten what it felt like to have a crush, to find someone so disgustingly attractive you can't focus, where they look you in the eyes and make you squirm. I thought I was distracted by his bossiness, his always butting in. But I wasn't annoyed by it, I was turned on by it.

I had to stop thinking about this, not right now, not in public. I could feel myself getting wet at the realization. I needed a distraction.

Thankfully that distraction came in the form of the beginning of the men's Rumble, but before long the familiar fuzzy sound of the beginning of Cult of Personality hit - and as expected the roar was deafening.

I was back in the confines of my hotel room, in an oversized t-shirt and tucked into bed, the cool air of the AC on me. After having the realization that I've been attracted to Punk for the last three years, I needed to be alone. Especially after watching him win the Royal Rumble.

Thoughts of him drifted in and out of my head. Punk coming down the ramp in the pink I had seen. His hair flopping around in front of his face. The more he fought, the more he bled, the wilder he got. The more my heart was racing and and my breathing was hitching. I could feel myself getting turned on and finally let the coil inside me unwind completely. Playing back the night, how good he looked. How his tattoo covered skin glistening in sweat, his hair wet and stringy, eyes wide as he threw person after person out of the ring.

Admitting to myself all the ways I was attracted to him had unleashed something.

Flashes of him and the way he towered over me so many times after a match, sweat, blood, and whatever remnants of deodorant he'd been using dancing around my senses. His scent shouldn't have been as intoxicating as it was, but god it was. Everything about him was.

I could feel the blood rush to my clit, throbbing in time to my heartbeat. I was getting so wet so fast at the realization that he was watching me yes, but not judging me.

Oh god.

Looking back now, it made so much more sense. He wasn't being smug, he was trying to make sure I didn't break my neck and die. He was trying to protect me and I told him to fuck off. A new wave of shame hit me. I needed to speak to him, not only because I needed him biblically, but because I owed him an apology.

knock knock knock

I jumped out of my skin and glanced at my phone. 12:53 a.m. Who the fuck? It couldn't be Sky could it? Did they figure out who I was?

knock knock knock

Again?

"I'm coming! Jesus!" I hollered, stomping over to the door. Who the fuck needed me at 12:53?!

"What!?" I yelled, opening it in a flurry.

There stood all six foot one of CM Punk. Arms crossed against his chest, staring down at me.

"Nice way to greet an old colleague and future world heavy weight champ".

"I-what-what?" The colour had drained from my face. "What are you doing here?"

It was his turn to look confused. "What do you mean what am I doing here? Bayley told me you needed to talk to me."

End of part 1. Hehe

[thecrowinyourhouse]

A lousy start of a day

Spot x reader chapter 4 Read on ao3

Spot looked around at his environment. He wasn't in your apartment anymore, and he didn't recognize where he was. He began walking around, trying to look for a sign that would tell him where he was.

There was rubble all over the place. Tiles on the floor were broken, windows shattered, and catwalks hanging disconnected from their supports. There were vehicles around too, but they looked like they haven't been touched in years.

Spot figured he was in a warehouse of some sort. He was about to go investigate one of the cars in the corner but he was interrupted by a noise. A scream. He's watched plenty of scary movies to recognize the source of the scream.

He started to run, not actually knowing where to. He turned a corner, not remembering there was one when he was looking around, and ran down a corridor. He made it into a giant space with machines hanging from the ceiling and scattered across the floor.

In the middle of the room he saw you tied to a chair. Your nose was broken, there were bruises around your neck, and the side of your head was bleeding. He yelled out your name and tried to run to you, but he couldn't move. He was stuck in place, seeing your eyes widen when you process he's there.

He could see your mouth open, could sense you were saying something, but he couldn't hear. From beyond the shadows he saw a figure moving, stepping closer and closer to you from behind. When it finally reached the light, Spot felt anger boil in his gut when he saw your universe's Spider-Man.

"Glad you could finally join us Spot." He said, placing his hands on the back of your chair. Spot clenched his fists. If he could move he would have punch Spider-Man till blood stained his suit.

"Let them go." Spot responded with, trying to keep his voice as still as possible. Despite his rigid posture, he was extremely worried about you. It was clear you were already hurt, and he didn't want any more harm to come to you.

"Hmmmm." Spider-Man placed a finger on his chin, pretending to be thinking.

"I don't think I will. I quite like them right where they are. In fact," he reached into a bag that seemed to have just appeared. "I think I'll keep them like this."

When he pulled back from the bag, he was holding a small device. There was a button on the top, and a screen showing 2:00 on it. It surprised Spot that it took him a few seconds to recognize it as a bomb.

Spot tried to move again, but still couldn't. He tried to yell, but found that was useless too. He watched as Spider-Man pressed the button, and the clock started counting down from 2 minutes. It made a loud BEEP BEEP BEEP sound, and Spot wished he could have covered his ears (if he could even still do something similar to that).

You opened your mouth again, and Spot could actually hear your scream. He saw tears dripping down your cheeks, and so desperately wanted to get you out of here. You kept screaming, and Spot's heart kept shattering at the sound.

"Well this was fun and all but," Spider-Man interrupted Spot's thoughts, lifting his arm towards a broken window high up in the warehouse. "I'd better get going." With that he shot a string of web towards the window, catching onto the edge of the border. He leapt out of the window, leaving Spot and you alone.

He saw the timer had hit 50 seconds left. He didn't try moving, knowing that it wouldn't work. All he could do is watch as you scream and cry, thrashing in your chair trying to escape. The beeping of the timer kept getting louder. All he could hear was beep, beep

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Spot jolted upright, blanket falling off him and to the ground. He was breathing heavily as frantically looked around. Smoke was filled your apartment, and he could hear cursing coming from the small kitchen. He got up from the couch and slowly walks towards the kitchen.

He turned the corner and saw you, throwing a cup of water into the oven, which was smoking.

"Ah shit, stupid broken oven I swear to god-"

You were cut off when you noticed Spot standing awkwardly at the edge of the kitchen. He could still hear that obnoxious beeping. He looked up at the ceiling,where the noise was coming from, and saw that your fire alarm was blinking.

'So that explains the beeping' he thought. He looked back down at you, getting a chair to stand on. You twisted the fire alarm and it stopped beeping. You got off the chair and set the piece of the alarm on the counter. You let out a deep sigh and turned towards Spot.

"Hey, sorry if I woke you! I tried making cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but forgot the oven sucks." You turned back towards the oven in question and patted the stove. Spot didn't say anything, but immediately rushed forward and hugged you tightly, lifting you off the ground.

"Woah, hey! Didn't take you for a hugger." you wrapped your arms around Spot and reciprocated his firm hug. You two stayed like that for a while, just enjoyed each other's closeness. Spot never knew a hug could feel this nice.

He eventually let you go, immediately feeling empty when he does. You both looked at each other for a moment. You eventually spoke up though.

"Well, since my breakfast plans have been ruined, wanna watch some crappy movies and eat cereal?"

Spot wasn't sure he could eat, but he still nodded his head. He didn't trust his voice to sound like he didn't just have a nightmare. You smiled brightly and went to crab a bowl from a cabinet and cereal from the panty.

"You go find a movie, I'll meet you there."

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

After about 4 shitty movies, you and Spot got bored. You two played some board and card games, eventually making up your own rules after getting bored (again) of the normal ones. Despite the terrible nightmare and your breakfast burning, you both had a fun morning.

As you were shuffling the card deck you talked about how a new arcade place opened up and how it would be fun for the both of you to go. Spot would love to go out with you, but he couldn't exactly just go out in public looking how he did. Plus, you deserved to go out with someone who actually had human features.

He caught himself on his inner wordings of things. "Going out?" You two were just friends and the words "going out" definitely seemed like a dating thing. Or it could be completely platonic and Spot was just overthinking things. Even if it was in a platonic way, Spot secretly wished it wasn't.

Sure, he hadn't known you long, but you were easily the nicest person he's met in his life. You didn't attack him when he broke into your apartment, you gave him money, AND you let him stay with you! Spot is always filled with a great appreciation and gratitude for you.

"Earth to Spot?" You wave a hand in front of Spot's face. He realized he had zoned out while you tried explaining the rules of the game you just made up.

"Oh, sorry."

"Did you hear a single word I said?"

Spot tried to think of a lie to say, but he couldn't think of anything. He shook his head, guilt settling into his stomach. You didn't seem bothered though, just going back to explaining the rules.

He listened this time as you explained the rules, watching your hands move while you spread out cards. He oddly liked watching your hands. The way they moved fascinated him. He wondered what else they could do.

He immediately stopped thinking about that. He didn't want to think about you like that. You were his friend who is using a lot of your time and money to help him. He was great full as it is.

You guys spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, going from board games to card games to video games. You both had fun and got to learn more about each other. You learned Spot used to be a scientist and got turned into whatever he is via an explosion (he didn't go into much detail) and he learned your first major job was at a bar and that you got thrown up on your first night.

"You know, we should definitely go to that arcade tomorrow." You muttered, your focus on Mario Kart. Spot thought about it for a moment. He really wanted to hang out with you in public, but he kind of lost his disguise before he officially began staying with you.

"Tomorrow I can but you some clothes if you want." You offer, trying to give him a smile to comfort him. You could tell something was off, he has been quiet all day. You missed his awkward blabbering.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" He tapped on his thighs, trying to get his nerves out. You noticed the movements and you smiled.

"Good. It's a date."

A/N: this probably sucked, bc I'm still in writers block, but I felt bad I haven't updated in awhile. Next chapter (whenever it comes out) will be an arcade date! Yaaay

[clowningaroundmars]

so op? turns out i love writing morales and davis family stuff. especially whenever it involves miles42

and this prompt kinda inspired me soooooo!!! lotsa words under the cut! :)

...enjoy?

"He's gotta stay here, though," Aaron leans back on the kitchen counter as casually as he did when Miles first woke up chained to the punching bag suspended in the middle of his apartment.

After a very close call with both the Miles and Aaron of this dimension-- whatever dimension this happened to be? Miles wasn't entirely solid on the numbering system just yet-- Miles managed to somehow tear his way out from the chains that held him back and quickly talk his way out of being filleted like a fish.

Turns out, it was all a big misunderstanding! Miles turned out not to be an evil doppelganger out to hunt down and replace this dimension's Miles after all. Funny that, huh.

Now, after what feels like the most intense conversation he's ever had in his entire life, Miles is highkey crashing. He's sagging down onto a chair placed near the middle of the living room, adrenaline crash coasting over him in waves.

Aaron reluctantly agreed that for now at least, this new Miles that just showed up out of nowhere didn't seem to be any threat to anyone.

For now.

Braids-Miles, on the other hand, seemed a lot more reluctant about having his clone wandering around without any restraints.

So there they were, standing around Miles who was almost nodding off as he sits in the chair, half-listening to his uncle and his dimensional variant plan on how to keep a tight leash on this other Miles (at least until they can figure out a way to get him back home to his own dimension) and half-freaking out.

There was another dimension with him in it!! His uncle was still alive in it!! And... they were both evil villains. Damn.

Well, maybe you really can't have your cake and eat it too, after all.

What a bummer...

Miles didn't know what time it was when he finally came to. He didn't even realize he ever fell asleep at all. The giant flatscreen tv next to him was still on, volume low as the usual news feed kept playing. It took him several minutes of blinking sleepily and taking in his surroundings to finally realize he was fast asleep on his uncle's couch.

The same one they spent time on together after school, whenever Miles or Aaron ever had any free time. The same one they played video games on, gossiped on, chowed down on greasy takeout while watching shitty movies on...

Stop, Miles chastised himself and groaned as he stretched out, feeling every single bruise and scrape and scratch all over his aching body. This is not your dimension... this ain't your uncle's couch.

Slowly, he sat up and lowered his feet down to the wooden floor, massaging his temples. He blearily realized he had a blanket draped over his body, and pawed at the material a bit as he yawned, pushing it to the side.

Once he recovered, he stood up and started making his way over to the kitchen sink by the windows, almost stumbling over his own feet to try and get to the faucet. Once there, he stuck his head under it, turned the water on to full blast and greedily gulped down as much as he could. In this moment, Miles didn't care that his face, neck, and front of his suit was getting drenched. He basked in the freezing cold temperature of the water, really feeling the only little bit of relief he's gotten to have since eating those platanos with Gwen on his own rooftop.

God... how long ago was that? It felt like an eternity ago. Were his parents worried about him? Were they looking for him all over Brooklyn by now? Or had no time passed for them at all since he followed Gwen into Mumbattan?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by two heavy sneakers landing down right behind him, causing him to leap up in shock and hit his forehead on the underside of the faucet. The whole sink rattled from the force of the blow, but Miles recovered quickly and whirled around, fists raised in a defensive position.

The only sound that filled the apartment then was the metalic clinking of the pots and pans hanging above the island, and the running water of the sink.

There stood Miles' own dimensional variant, sans jacket. And more importantly, sans claws. He wore a simple long sleeve shirt but kept his cargo pants and shoes on, so maybe Miles hadn't been out for too long?

They stood in front of each other for a few tense seconds, staring at each other apprehensively before Braids finally spoke up.

"Turn that off. You drank enough."

Miles blinked, and then the puzzle piece slotted into place after a moment.

"R-right... sorry." Without taking his eyes off of Braids, he reached behind him, fumbling the knobs and swiftly shut the faucet off, quickly returning his attention back to... himself?

Well, that was weird to think about.

Braids lifted his chin and gave Miles a good once-over again before gesturing to the couch.

"You got superpowers, Static Shock?"

Miles gaped at him. "...Static Shock?"

Braids' upper lip curled as he said, "Yeah. You busted out of those chains with some lightning shit I've never seen before. Almost fried me. You got some strength to go along with them freaky powers or what?"

Not knowing where this was headed, Miles nodded slowly and wordlessly.

This seemed to be the answer Braids wanted to hear, because he then nodded approvingly and motioned for Miles to follow him.

"Help me move this couch. We pushed it out of the usual way so we could tie you up but Aaron's out gettin' us dinner now so... when he comes back, we're all on the couch."

"Right..." Miles breathed.

They both made quick work lifting the couch up from where it was haphazardly shoved to the side, blanket still on the cushions. They positioned it in front of the television, and then Braids went to go fetch a little coffee table that was also shoved off against another corner somewhere in the shadows.

Miles took this opportunity to really take in this new, dark world. He slowly turned around, drinking in every pitch-black shadow, dim light, lopsided piece of furniture, staring hard at the bits and bobs laid on almost every horizontal surface available. There were a lot of wires, tools, and a lot of metal pieces that Miles couldn't possibly imagine their uses for. What sort of world did he and his uncle Aaron create together here...?

Miles' thoughts were immediately interrupted by the rattling and whirring of the ancient-sounding elevator in the hall that seemed to echo everywhere throughout the building they were in. Then, the rusty elevator doors shuddered open, and out stepped the man of the hour himself, uncle Aaron.

No. No, not your uncle, Miles frowned as he mused, Other Me already made the distinction that my dad isn't his. So... he's right. This isn't my uncle.

His eyes locked onto Aaron's, who was also eyeing him warily as he deposited two big paper bags onto the kitchen counter and moved over to the fridge.

"Y'all set up alright?" He called over his shoulder, stooping over to fish a few cans out.

Braids piped up behind Miles. "Yeah. We're ready."

Miles glanced over to him and then returned his attention back to Aaron.

"Come get the food, then. I'll bring over the plates in a sec."

Braids dutifully marched over to the counter, collecting the bags and making his way back to the coffee table placed between the couch and television, sending daggers over to Miles with his eyes all the while.

Miles didn't know why he opened his mouth to blurt out the stupidest thing he's said in a while, but it just happened without him really thinking about it.

"Why you lookin' at me like that, man? Jesus."

Wrong move. Braids immediately bristled and threw down the small Styrofoam container he held in his hands.

"Because, fool, I dunno if you noticed but it's kinda weird to have a whole ass clone standing here in the middle of my living room out of nowhere. We missed a-- a... nevermind. We had plans tonight that you kinda ruined. And we gotta feed you out of our pockets too? This is bullshit, man."

Damn. Miles was mean in this dimension. Ow.

Before Miles could even open his mouth to shoot back a retort, Aaron's sharp tone cut through the air like a knife.

"Miles."

It was just one word, but it was issued so authoritatively that both Miles immediately jumped up and straightened their spines.

Aaron stood over the sink with metal utensils in one hand, an unopened bottle of beer in another, glaring daggers in both Miles' direction. Then, the corner of his mouth quirked up.

"...'Scuse me. I meant my Miles. C'mere."

Braids balked a bit, shoving his hands into his pockets before shuffling his sneakers over the wood. "Aaron, I didn't mean to be rude, but--"

"I said come here, didn't I? Let's have another chat."

Well, no argument there. Braids cast one last withering glare over to Miles before making his way back over to his uncle, and he took the utensils from Aaron's hand to wash them under the water as they both spoke in low, hushed tones. The running water also didn't help much with eavesdropping, even with Miles' enhanced senses.

He sighed, taking a seat back onto the couch he just woke up on, trying to keep his leg from bouncing nervously, gripping onto both of his hands. God, he was still so unbelievably wound up even after sleeping for... well, he doesn't really know how long he's been out, but from the looks of the late hour on the corner of the television he figures it's probably been a while.

2:42AM blinks back at him continuously next to the ever-scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen, all while footage of fires ravaging Brooklyn and crimes being committed kept looping over and over in a seemingly endless news segment. But then Miles suddenly realized... no, this footage wasn't looping at all. He focused his bleary eyes on the people in the footage, all the different faces contorted into horror and fear as they ran from armed thugs or super-powered criminals wreaking havoc on the streets. These were shots of different crimes happening concurrently as the reporter droned on about the latest atrocities in the usual newsspeak accent, the clipped and professional tones contrasting horribly against the real life horrors captured by camera.

Miles sat and stared at the giant screen set not even 5 feet away with big, round eyes. He had never seen so much crime happening in his entire life, even factoring in his Spiderman-ing experiences for about a year now.

...What was this world? Was there really no Spiderman at all in this version of Brooklyn? No heroes whatsoever?

He let out a breath as he watched a woman get pinned underneath a car, before it all of a sudden blinked out and was replaced by the opening to a movie Miles didn't recognize. The volume was then muted.

He sat up, confused.

Aaron and Braids casually made their way around either side of him, with Braids carrying along a folding chair under his arm, as well as the plates and utensils in the other hand. Aaron placed two cans of soda on the coffee table next to the bags of food, and then placed his own bottle of beer on the floor before lowering himself down onto the other end of the couch. Braids unfolded his chair and sat next to the tv, a little ways away from Miles.

Maintaining their distance. Okay. Fine.

Braids pulled out a plate from the stack and started taking containers out of bags, passing Aaron a couple and popping open the others.

The flood of saliva that filled Miles' mouth upon getting hit with the smell of cheap Chinese takeout was biblical. Miles didn't even know what it was like to be absolutely starving until that very moment. He was so caught up in the intensity of finding out that he ended up going to a completely different dimension than his own, that he outright ignored his own ravenous hunger until now.

He swallowed and picked out his own plate from the pile, unsure of what to dump onto his plate first. Honestly, he could just wolf down literally everything in front of him straight out of the containers and still want seconds. But... beggars can't be choosers, and he was already on thin ice with Braids over there. Best to just wait and get his own share last. Right?

Aaron kept glancing in his direction and they finally met eyes.

"Don't tell me you ain't hungry," Aaron comments, cool as a cucumber.

Always cool as a cucumber.

Miles shakes his head. "U-uhh..."

Wow. Smooth, Morales. Very smooth.

Aaron flashes perfect teeth at him for a moment, chuckling. "They're not poisoned, if that's what you're worryin' about. I mean..." he tilts his head in a contemplative gesture, "y'know, unless the cook that's in tonight happens to be in a bad mood, that is. But I think we're in the clear tonight."

"Better not be any poison in this," Braids grumbles over on the other side of the table. He's already chowing down on his lo mein, fork full with noodles and vegetables and he's reaching over for some crab rangoons.

Aaron shakes his head as he loads his own plate with sweet and sour chicken. "Nah, his girlfriend was there while I was waiting for the food. He seemed like he was in a good mood."

Miles gawked at Aaron, then at Braids as he listened to their casual back-and-forth. "Poison?! The chef actually poisons the food sometimes? You're joking."

Both Aaron and Braids chuckle darkly, exchanging glances. Neither say a word as they sip their drinks and eat their food in amicable silence. But... there's still that tension in the air that hangs thick, still palpable. Miles decides the best way to cut it is to join his captors and just chow down with them. They're both eating this hopefully-not-poisoned-food in relative comfort, so... when in Rome, right?

Miles sighs and reaches over for the container of fried rice and serves himself a heaping pile, since neither Aaron nor Braids seem to be very interested in it. Once the food reaches his taste buds, Miles finds his hands downright impossible to stop. He's shoveling forkful after forkful into his mouth, reaching for the rangoons, the chicken, piling two eggrolls onto his plate and snatching up what remained of the lo mein and dumping it into his mouth.

He's eating like a man starved because he is a man starved.

Aaron and Braids raise eyebrows in his direction, exchanging more glances. But they chew silently and leave Miles be as he swallows down containers of food and practically licks his plate clean.

He finally leans back up to take a breath and remembers his soda. Luckily, Aaron didn't open it at all, so Miles contentedly cracked the can open and took one long swig.

After a couple of seconds, he sits back and lets out the mother of all belches.

It echoes, that's how loud it is.

Silence.

Then, Braids is the first to crack. He honest to god giggles and throws down his plate, rocking back in his chair as he laughs harder and harder, tears in his eyes.

Aaron joins him, shoulders shaking.

Miles looks between the both of them and laughs along, too. "What? I... what was I s'posed to do, just hold it in? It just came outta me! Excuse me!"

Aaron shakes his head and tilts his beer bottle against his lips, still chuckling a bit even as he takes a swig.

"Goddamn," he says as he sets the bottle back down, "you really are my nephew, huh."

At this, Braids stops laughing. "Hey! No way, unc. That guy acts like me but we still don't know who he really is or if he's even telling the truth!"

Aaron looks up at Braids and collects his plate back up again, crunching on the last half of his own crab rangoon thoughtfully.

"We can check if he's really you from another dimension. What's somethin' only you would know?"

Braids crosses his arms over his chest. "Well, I'm not sayin' it out loud, but... lemme think."

When not putting up the tough guy front, Other Miles really did act a lot like Miles. The slight wrinkle over his brow as he sat pensively in his chair, left leg jiggling the exact same way Miles' did every now and then. It was freaky, and not at all like looking in a mirror. It was way more disconcerting than that, a feeling that was uncomfortably close to the Uncanney Valley.

Finally, Braids pipes up. He leans an elbow on his knee and looks directly into Miles' eyes. "What did your dad get you for your 6th birthday? Be honest. Don't make anything up."

Hunger sated, thirst quenched, and with a slight bit of rest under him, Miles felt much more rejuvenated than he was not even a half hour before. He was in better spirits, so he humored his dimensional variant this one time.

"What, the present he gave me in front of mom at the party? Or the other secret one after he took me down to the station's garage?"

Braids perked up and Aaron smiled. "Yeah. The secret one."

"The electric scooter that mom told him not to get me. It was too big and powerful for me, and I ended up crashing into a stop sign not even like 10 minutes after getting it. I think I still have that scar on my knee from fallin' on the curb..." Miles smiles fondly, reminiscing about the panicked look on Jeff's face as he scooped up a crying Miles into his arms and made him swear on life itself to never tell Rio. They ended up getting ice cream afterwards, partly as a bribe to make sure he never breathed a word of the incident to his mother, but also to soothe a weepy Miles with a fresh bandaid on his knee and tear tracks down his cheeks.

Miles thought it was the worst thing in the world at the moment. Now? It was yet another happy memory in the sea of memories with his father.

His father... that he was supposed to save soon... shit.

He looked up from his hands after a moment and glanced over at Braids, who had a bit of a faraway look in his own eyes.

"Mmnyeah, I guess he passed the test then," Braids mumbled and shrugged.

Aaron laughed. "What, that's it? That was the big secret only y'all knew?"

Braids scoffed. "Yes. We literally never told a single soul about that, even you. Remember? You asked me about my scrape on my knee after that and I lied and said it was because I fell at the playground." Then, in a lower tone of voice: "...It also happened before all of the 3D audio/vis cameras and drones were set loose on the streets by Octavius, so not even the government knows."

Aaron shakes his head slowly, polishing off the sweet and sour sauce with a chicken finger speared onto his fork. "Mmmnah. That was when you were six? Hell nah, I'm not remembering that shit, cuz."

They both laugh like Aaron just told a funny joke and then they both look back at Miles.

"...You wanna hear a funny story?" Aaron says, apropos of nothing.

Warily, Miles says yes.

Aaron wipes his mouth with a thin napkin, swiping at his beard a couple times. "Hmmm, let's see... I got plenty of funny stories of Jeff like that, actually. Doin' stuff he wasn't supposed to, ya feel me?"

Miles leans closer, clearly interested. Behind him, Braids makes a noise.

"You do?" he says, chair creaking as he lifts a leg onto the seat and hugs his knee.

Pleased to see that he has a captive audience, Aaron swirls his beer in his sweaty glass bottle, minding the condensation and letting the moisture drip back down onto the floor. "Uh huh. Plenty."

"Well? Go on, then. Is it stuff I never heard before or what?"

"First, I gotta ask the Spider-kid here what he knows about Jeff."

Miles perks up a bit and then cocks his head. "Wait... how do you know my other name?"

Aaron grins. "Spider-kid? That what you really go by when you... uh..." he finishes off with a vague gesture at Miles' suit. Miles looks down and winces at the giant tear on his shoulder, almost leaving the red spider emblem he spray painted on his chest in tatters.

He blinks at his own insignia and almost laughs at himself. Right. The giant spider on his chest. Of course.

He clears his throat. "Uh, I mean yeah, yeah! I... I actually go by Spiderman but y'know... you were pretty close. Yeah."

Aaron nods once, casually picking at his teeth with a nail. "Ah. Spiderman. Got it."

Braids isn't nearly as gracious and snorts derisively on Miles' other side. "Spiderman? Forreal? You are very obviously not a man, bro. No offense."

Miles was quick now that he's had his needs taken care of. It helped him gather his wits about him. "Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. Nuh uh," he holds a finger up, "anything you say about me? You're saying about yourself. So watch it, pencil braids."

Aaron barks out a laugh. "Oh yeah. That's Miles right there. That's my nephew."

Braids sulks behind an arm placed on his knee and grumbles something unintelligible, but Miles ignores him for the time being.

"Uh, so I guess to answer your question from before... I know a lot about my dad. You mean anything specific?"

"I mean... well okay, let's start simple. When's his birthday?"

Huh. Okay.

Miles shrugs and tells him. Aaron nods.

"Cool. Just so I know, before givin' y'all this top-secret intel," he confirms, and finishes off his beer.

He smacks his lips. "Mmkay. Damn. Where do I start? I know you don't usually like me talkin' about your father after he passed an' all that..." he glances at Braids, giving him a half-apologetic look and shrugging a bit.

His nephew shakes his head, now cradling his own can of soda. "I don't talk about him around mom. Otherwise... I don't really mind. I..." he hesitated, and then continued, "I-I uh... I kinda wanna hear more about him, actually. Keeps the memory alive I guess."

Aaron nods solemnly, then smiles mischievously at both Miles.

"I'm gonna keep the memory alive by ratting out your daddy. Full stop. That man acted like a complete hardass and morally upright angel up 'til the end. But I promise y'all... that man got up to absolutely no good back when we were about your age. I promise!"

Both Miles laughed, giving each other amused glances as they sat back for the juicy stories they knew they were getting treated to.

Miles interrupted Aaron first before he got into it, though. "Before my uncle... uh, died. He told me one time... well, mentioned one day, really. He told me my dad got in tons of trouble for starting to graffiti some nasty picture of your neighbor once. Like, right next to their door and everything."

Braids almost threw himself out of his chair laughing. "Wait!! Old lady Clara, right?"

Aaron also crowed with laughter, throwing an arm over the back of the couch and getting comfortable. "The very same. So you have heard these stories, huh?"

Miles guffawed. "Ahaha... I mean, some! But tell us more!"

With the mood thoroughly changed, the tension all but melted away and now an adult man and his two nephews sat around empty containers of food, shooting the shit, tossing stories back and forth as they fondly reminisced of a relative long lost to time in this dimension.

Miles didn't even think to ask about anything surrounding the circumstances of this dimension's version of Jeff's death, not when Braids was thoroughly laughing and enjoying himself behind him. It truly was a joy to have his uncle back.

"...And," Aaron continues from his previous story, "y'all wanna know what else he did to impress that little crush of his back in sophomore year? Maaann,"

"Bruh," Braids shook his head, "spray painting her name up on the side of the school wasn't enough?"

"Nope," Aaron smirked, "he also broke into a jewelry store one night when I was out at a party. Don't tell your mom I said this actually, but he stole a whole jewelry set worth like... $5,000. I swear on my life--"

Miles sat up, eyes bulging out of his head. "He stole jewelry? After breaking into a store?"

"My dad? Jeff. Jefferson Davis." Braids held his hands up in disbelief.

Aaron bobs his head as he laughs. "The one and only. I swear to god. He just up an' stole a whole jewelry set for this damn girl who wasn't even 16 yet. Probably didn't even have a crush on him back either, but. Anyways, the call I got from moms at that time was literally the worst call I ever got in my entire life, up 'til when Rio called me when-- uh, anyways nevermind. My heart stopped when I heard the kitchen phone ring, and my friend comes on over to me and he's like... 'Ayo, Aaron? Ya mom's on the phone.' And I'm high as hell--oh, y'all better not tell Rio about this. Stay away from drugs too, by the way-- and I'm buggin' like... mom never calls. Like, ever. It's usually dad callin' on us but he wasn't even supposed to know I was out at this party, honestly. But mom knew and she's on the phone and I'm high as hell and I hear dad in the back hollering his damn lungs out, shit's gettin' tossed everywhere, crashing. And I'm like," Aaron shakes his head as he laughs here, "I'm like... 'MOM!! OH MY GOD WHAT'S HAPPENING?!'"

Both Miles are laughing along with Aaron as he mimes his exact reaction, gripping an invisible phone in one hand, other hand on his forehead, exuding peak stress in the most exaggerated way that made Miles' heart ache. He remembered his own uncle telling him crazy stories this exact same way, and he even has to wipe a tear from his eye as the overwhelming feeling of adoration fills his soul back up like a glass of juice.

"I'm just sweatin', definitely not sober, freakin' out 'cause mom's straight bawling on the phone talkin' about something... Jeff being in jail or something. By this point I'm losin' my damn mind. So boom, we go over. Dad drives down to the station, I'm runnin' like hell down the streets actually 'cause the party at my friend's place wasn't that far from the station. And when we get there? Jeff's in cuffs in a holding cell, crying."

The boys are snorting with laughter by this point.

"Crying?! Dad? Crying? Oh my god. I've never seen him cry a day in his life," Miles gasps between bouts of laughter, rocking back onto the couch cushions.

Braids is all smiles. "Did grandpa whoop his ass? Be honest."

"Oh yeah. Thoroughly whooped. That was the first time he ever got caught doing anything real bad, but believe me when I tell you that that wasn't the first bad thing he ever did. Hm hm, hell no."

"What else did he do? Don't tell me he just kept stealing stuff and sneaking out before he was even 16?!" Miles asked.

Aaron hummed, nodding again. "Yuuup. Sneaking out almost every single night, freshman year of high school. Once in senior year, I got ahold of a car from another friend and we took it out for a joyride. That put some ideas in his head, I think. 'Cause tell me why he went and hotwired a car for us afterwards?"

This time, it was Braids who exclaimed, "Jeff?! Hotwiring a car?!"

Aaron leaned back, satisfied with the twin expressions of shock in front of him. "Jefferson Davis. The very one. Loved that man to death, but. Whew."

Miles rubbed his eyes. "How is he such a hypocrite? I cannot believe this..."

"Yeah? What'd he do, ground you for shutting the fridge door too hard once?" Aaron smirks.

"I know he means well but... he straight up just grounded me for saying 'whatever' to mom by accident..." Miles grumbled.

Braids' chair squeaked as he switched legs. "Oh... well, hell no. C'mon man, you never say 'whatever' to no hispanic mom, bro. That's pretty much a death sentence right there, honestly."

"How you say 'whatever' by accident?" Aaron wondered aloud, stroking his beard.

"It... it just slipped out. I guess." Miles shrugged, not really wanting to relive that particularly embarassing moment.

"I mean to say... what were you talkin' about that 'whatever' just came out like that?"

Miles sighed deeply, taking another gulp of his soda before answering. "Uhmm. Well... me and my parents had a fight. A... a small one. But. Yeah."

Aaron nods contemplatively, continuing to stroke his beard. "He really is still alive, huh. In your universe, I mean."

"Dimension. Yeah." Miles dips his head and looks deep into his soda can for a little while as everyone digested that bit of information in companionable silence.

"...And I'm dead." Aaron says after a long bout of silence.

Miles looks up at him and they meet each other's eyes. After a bit, Miles also nods slowly. "...Yeah. Yeah, you... are. You died--"

Aaron holds a hand up, shutting him up. "Mn-mm-mn. I don't need to know. Was just wondering. That's all."

Miles takes a deep breath before saying, "Uncle Aaron... you were a real, real good uncle. I meant what I said before, when you guys had me tied up. You were... you wanted to be a good guy. And you were a great uncle. So. I guess I never said this before, but if anything happens-- I mean, whatever happens. I just want you to know... I wanted to say... thank you. Thank you. For being a great uncle to me. I will always love you." Miles didn't really know why he said all this, but when he looked back up into his uncle's eyes, he knew then that it was the right thing to say.

Aaron inhales deeply and grunts as he gets up, hands on his knees. He sniffles a bit, collecting paper plates and stacking containers onto each other. Braids moves to help, and even Miles finds himself collecting their cans, holding them together with Aaron's empty bottle in both hands. The three silently move to the trash can, and Braids turns on the sink and rinses the utensils off.

This movement is so natural, so domestic... it's like the three of them had been doing this for years. It was definitely a kind of nostalgic throwback for Miles as well, being in Aaron's apartment again after so much time. Even if this world was completely different than the world Miles grew up in, and the apartment wasn't really the same as his own uncle's cool crib, the one constant in Miles' life remained: the feeling of safety from the elements in this big, scary world that this special place always provided.

Especially as he glanced one more time out of the big windows into deep darkness and raging chaos currently ravaging the streets.

Aaron noticed Miles' contemplative gaze outside, and moved to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"So. You're not my nephew. But you're a Miles anyhow so as far as I'm concerned, you're still family. And you said you don't belong here, right?"

Miles nodded solemnly.

"Then we gotta get you to where you need to go."

Miles smiled gratefully, placing his hand on top of uncle Aaron's. "I wish I could stay... maybe get more crazy stories of my dad back when you guys were kids. But I gotta get back home now before something bad happens. My dad... Jeff. Your brother. He... he could be in very real danger soon if I don't stop this guy that's trying to tear the fabric of time and space apart right now."

Uncle Aaron nods with the same seriousness as Miles did.

"Yeah. Okay. Then I know exactly where to go."

I need a fic of Aaron ratting out all the petty crime Jeff committed as a young man to BOTH Miles cus it be funny. I just know FOR A FACT that Jefferson was either joy or dirty riding along with graffiti.

[b-00-biez]

Can you please do Thomas Hewitt fucking into you on the kitchen counter while nobody is at home because your ignoring him?🙏

OMG I LOVE THIS ASK, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS 😻 Im going to add something extra to this hehe

"Stuffing you for lunch"

Warning:Filthy smut😻

Character:Thomas Hewitt x reader

For a few days you were ignoring Thomas. Why? a week back you had sex with him but it was so soft. He treated you like you were a porcelain doll. You were a filthy slut and he knows it, you were dropping hints at him for a month! Because of your sexual frustration you ended up ignoring the big guy. You just can't understand, he has a big dick Why can't he make you scream like the ones in his basement!

Thomas caught on 3 days after you started ignoring him. He would need a little push or a nudge for him to know why you're ignoring the man.

One afternoon Luda Mae and Hoyt were out of the house, it was just you and your boyfriend. The perfect time to show him what you meant. You put on the most sluttiest outfit you could ever own. An underwear that barely covers your pussy and ass. No bra and just a lovely floral translucent night gown. It was the perfect plan since Luda Mae and Hoyt are going to be out for 4 hours.

You baked one of your lovely pastries that Thomas absolutely loves. Thomas smelled the scent of the sweet chocolate you're whipping up. He peeked through the basement and saw what you were wearing. BARELY ANYTHING!

Thomas creeped up behind you, he alerted his presence by groaning. You turned around and saw his red face, you ignored his presence and kept making the treats. You bent over knowing he was looking, teasing him you shook your hips side to side. Oh he knows what you're doing and he is not going to be ignored any longer. He grabbed your hips and kept you in place as he started rubbing his big bulge on your ass. You were startled, he finally made the initiative to fuck you. Now you need him to be more frustrated to fuck you silly. You put your hands onto his and made his grip tighter as you grinned into hard. When you feel like he's feeling good you stopped and continued making the pastries.

You can see the sexual frustration in his eyes telling you to stop what you are doing and let him fuck you. You acted mad and turned away from him. That's it, he's had enough of this bullshit. He grabbed your hips and put his other hand around your neck with a tight grip. Oh you got what you wanted, you shouldn't regret it later.

He carried your body to the counter, roughly putting you down. He rips your night gown to reveal your beautiful breast and pussy . He ripped the thread of your underwear and hungrily stared at you. Taking in your beauty and soft skin. He slowly massages your breasts and takes off his mask. He suckles and licks on your now puffy nipple, He gently bites onto you. He placed his hands on your thighs bruising it. You looked at him in desperation, you wanted this for so long and he better give it to you hard and passionate. While he sucked both of your nipples his other hand reached for the chocolate you just made and poured it all over you.

"T-thomas?!" you looked at him shivering from the warm chocolate he just poured dripping on your breast and slowly oozing onto your pussy. He pulls down his pants and reveals his aching cock ready to go to town. He slides into you without any preparation and yelps. He starts out rough fuck your pussy and stretching it like no other as he licks off the chocolate. He pulls out making you disappointed. He was doing so well, why was he stopping now. He takes some chocolate on his fingers and fingered you fast coating your pussy with chocolate. You can't help but moan in pleasure. "Oh please Thomas! Fuck me roughly make me scream!" Oh he will. After coating you he slides back in and lifts your thighs to fuck you even deeper. You feel his giant balls slapping your ass makes it sound euphoric, Feeling your pussy getting destroyed and coated with sweet chocolate.

A knot started to form on your stomach as you feel your release getting closer. Again, he pulled out. Hes mocking you, teasing you like you did to him. He slides it into your tight asshole, you scream in pain and pleasure. He surely can't fit into you! Your ass was not prepared to take his massive cock. He starts fucking raw, chocolate going all over the counter and you screaming enough for the whole house to hear. But no one was there to hear or witness Thomas fucking both your holes.

He switched back to your cunt balls deep into you , slamming his length and girth. He rubbed circles around the puffy clit as he kissed your lips passionately. The knot on your stomach snapped as you screamed and moaned into his mouth while your pussy got stuffed with his cum. He pulls out and now you look like his type of desert he wants to eat. Oh no, Hes not done yet. His family still won't be back till 4pm. He is going to fuck you around the house for ignoring him for days.

[viscerax]

Hi I was wondering if you could do one where the reader and Vance we're in a relationship and the reader was killed by the grabber before Vance was and Vance was kidnapped and finds out he can communicate with the reader through the phone like finney did(and he finds out he can see them bc he hears something behind him while on the phone and it's the reader. He also gets pissed bc he can see how much the grabber hurt them when they died bc they're is blood all over them) and the reader trys to keep Vance safe and help him escape from the grabber, but ends up failing and they reunite again but they're both dead and the reader is rlly upset and blames themself bc they couldn't save him (the reader is crying and says something along the lines escape of "no, no, no, no, no! It wasn't your time yet, I couldn't save you! I'm so sorry it all my fucking fault!!") And Vance holds them close and tells them it wasn't they're fault and the tried they're best. I you don't have to though I just thought it would be a interesting scenario :)

Not Your Time

Vance didn't know how to react when he had heard you went missing. At first, he felt numb. He didn't show any kind of emotion, and everyone thought that maybe he really didn't love you.

But that wasn't true.

A few days after he had learned of your disappearance, the numbness and shock was replaced with anger. Any small thing ticked him off. He was already angry just as he was, but now, if someone even looked at him funny, they had a broken rib and a bloodied face in a matter of seconds.

No one bothered Vance. Not because they felt sad for him. No, none of them really cared. They were all just scared of him.

Vance knew they wouldn't miss him. Vance knew that when he was kidnapped, there weren't search teams for him. There weren't thousands of missing posters. He would be lucky to get two people who missed him.

Vance thought he had tried everything. He tried breaking down the door. He tried reaching the window. Nothing worked.

He laid on the rickety old bed. It looked into and stained, and felt like laying on a pile of rocks, but it was better then nothing.

The sound of a phone ringing brought him out of his daze like state.

"No. I'm just hallucinating." He mumbled as he stared at the disconnected phone wire.

The phone didn't stop ringing.

He groaned and got up, picking up the receiver, and for a moment, a sliver of hope shone in his eyes.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Vance spoke, clutching the receiver close to his ear. There was no answer. He felt all hope leave his body. "Fuck. Fuck you, fuck everything." He huffed and just before he was about to slam the phone down, he heard a soft voice on the other line.

"Vance?" He recognized that voice anywhere. He quickly pulled the receiver up to his ear, wiping away the tears that began to pricl at the corner of his eyes.

"Y/n? Is that you?" Vance felt himself get excited.

"Vance. It's me. Don't cry. Its going to be okay." You hummed. Vance felt so relieved to hear your voice.

"I'm not crying."

"Yeah you are, I can see you." You chuckled, and Vamces heart fluttered, so happy to hear that sound again.

"Y/n. Where are you? Are you in another room or something? Tell me where you are! I'll escape, and I'll come get you and then we can go and get this asshole arrested. Y/n. Please. Where are you?" Vance spoke so fast, he was excited to finally have a glimpse of hope. A chance to see you again.

There was silence on your end for a long time. "Vance. Hun." You mumbled.

Vance heard a clattering noise behind him, the sound of a soda bottle clanging against the floor. Vance turned around, and to his horror, there you stood.

You had a ghastly appearance. Your skin was pale, almost translucent. You were plastered with blood, your hair matted with crimson and dirt. Along your chest was a large gash. Vance didn't know what to say. You just stared at him.

Vance wanted to scream. To curse that monster who harmed you. He could see the bruises along your neck, arms, and everywhere else. You put up a fight. "Did he do this to you?" Vance grumbled through the receiver.

You nodded. "Vance, I'm sorry. I tried to fight. I was trying to get out through the window, but he came in right when I had finally got up there and." You felt yourself break down into tears. "Vance it hurt. It hurt so much. He took his time with me. I tried to fight. I used what you taught me. But he was to strong."

Vance felt all of his anger bubble up, and almost spill over the top. "Y/n, I'm going to kill that bastard. For you."

You shook your head. "Vance, no. Listen. I did some snooping around before he killed me. In the bathroom, there's an outlet across from the toilet. Well, on the other side there's a storage room, but you can't get in. Theres a giant freezer. If you can remove the panel from the back, you'll be in the freezer. All you have to do is break out of the freezer, and you'll be out. Find some kind of weapon out there. They have have a dog. So be careful."

Vance kept all of your instructions in mind, taking note to not forget any little bit. "I love you, Y/n."

"I love you to, Vance. So get out. For me." With that, the phone call ended, and Vance hung the phone up.

He immediately got to work. He was determined to get out. He dug and dug through the wall, and just as he was about to screw off the panel, he heard the door to the basement open.

Vance knew he was fucked. There was no possible way he could get out in time.

He put up a fight. He tried so hard to shove the Grabber off of him. But he lost. In the end, he was overpowered.

Death wasn't exactly what you thought it would be. It wasn't dark and empty. And it wasn't like heaven and hell. It was whatever you needed it to be. Whatever you thought made you the most peaceful.

Your afterlife was a big field. A field of flowers and lakes and small animals. It was peaceful. There was the most beautiful sunsets there.

Everything was disrupted one day, when you saw him.

There he was. Vance. You thoyght he had escaped. But he hadn't. He just stood there, staring blankly at the horizon.

"Vance?" You called out, walking, and then jogging, and then running towards him.

Vance turned around just in time to catch you in his arms.

Vance was to astonished to say anything at first. He just stared at you as you pressed your face against his chest, gripping the sides of his vest tightly, like if you let go he would disappear.

You started crying into his chest. Vance wrapped one arm around your waist, and used the other hand to gently run his fingers through your hair, trying to soothe you.

"Vance. I'm so sorry. I thought you'd get out. This is all my fault." Your words were filled with the most heartbreaking sorrow Vance had ever heard. "It wasn't your time, Vance. It's all my fault. If only I hadn't interfered. You would have gotten out. Vance, I-" you couldn't speak anymore. Your sobs overpowered your voice as you clung tighter to him.

Vance just stared down at you, tears welling in his eyes. "Its not your fault. That freak was going to kill me either way. None of this was ever your fault. Shh, its okay. Please, don't cry." He kissed your forehead, trying his best to comfort you, in hopes that you would calm down.

You looked up at Vance, eyes stained with tears. You weren't all bloody and beaten up like you were before. You looked just as perfect as you had before you were abducted. "Vance. I'm so sorry. You weren't supposed to die yet. You were supposed to get out of there." You wiped the tears on your cheeks away, staring into Vances familiar eyes. You were so happy to finally feel something familiar, even if it meant you were both dead.

"Its not your fault, Y/n. Its that fucking dickheads fault. Don't blame yourself, please." He wiped at the corners of his eyes, still trying to put on a tough persona.

You sighed, immediately seeing through his facade. You gave him a soft smile, pressing a kiss on his lips.

"I'm just glad that I can be with you, Y/n. Even if it meant dying to get here."

[scriveyner]

chase forever down 2/31

chase forever down | 2/31 | bungou stray dogs | 👿🐯 | #smarch 🔞| ~3100 words

It took almost a full week for the bruise to fade on its own, which in normal circumstances would have allowed Atsushi all sorts of time to sort through everything that had happened. Of course, he had to turn up to work on Monday only to find out that Dazai had fucked off to parts unknown again, attempt to track him down, get shot at by a bounty (?) hunter (??) who apparently wanted Atsushi’s pelt (???) for some goddamn unknowable reason; and then Dazai had the straight nerve to show back up to work on Friday all perky like Atsushi hadn’t been put through the wringer this week by him, specifically.

Continue on AO3 or:

“I think, perhaps, it would be best if you laid low for a few days, Atsushi,” Kunikida said as he stood by his desk, glancing over Atsushi’s report. His other hand currently had all his weight on it, pinning Dazai’s head to the desk. “Although the bounty hunter is in custody now, and we’ve cleared everything with the government, these things have a way of escalating out of nowhere.”

“Lay low?” Atsushi repeated, because he never thought he could be considered to have a high profile in the first place, pictures of him in the paper notwithstanding.

“He means don’t tear up the streets causing a scene and fighting anyone in particular,” Dazai sang, face smooshed.

Well, laying low would give him time to do a little research in peace, although as far as he could tell there wasn’t any sort of handbook for the situation he was in. To be fair, he hadn’t checked the library to see if “So Your Mortal Enemy/Occasional Partner is a Secret Vampire” had a waiting list.

Anyway, he was fairly certain that vampires weren’t real in the first place, but that made the fact that Akutagawa-goddamn-Ryuunosuke sucked a hickey into his neck even more bizarre.

Atsushi was tempted to ask Dazai about vampires, but still remembered the absolute roasting he got about Godzilla, and kept his mouth shut.

Hey, he’d been in a giant flying whale and been witness to a member of the Port Mafia clocking an entire ability dragon full-on in the face with a skyscraper; a giant radioactive lizard popping up out of the ocean seemed like a fairly ordinary Thursday.

He’d also jerked off in front of Akutagawa-The-Possible-Vampire, and why the fuck did that just pop into his brain out of nowhere. Atsushi adjusted his courier bag, focused gamely on a cold shower, and started on his way home.

It was brilliantly sunny, the sky that perfect shade of blue with the occasional thin cloud on the horizon. It was the sort of afternoon that chased away all thoughts of despair and darkness, and it lifted his mood immensely. He decided to stop by the local shop and get some fresh vegetables, make a nice big meal, and maybe catch up on some of that sleep he’d been missing after the chaos of the past week. No more thoughts about the weirdness in his life, or the fact that thinking about Akutagawa’s eyes made him hornier than shit.

God dammit, he did it again.

Atsushi sighed, added alone time in the bathroom before Kyouka got home to the mental checklist, and headed to the grocer.

=====

Atsushi was deciding between two packages of meat when he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye that drew his attention. He glanced over to see a Rashomon head pluck a similar package out of the cooler beside him and withdraw back. Atsushi followed the Rashomon tendril to its origin, staring at Akutagawa dressed in his usual civilian clothes, dark shades and all, as he walked right past Atsushi without acknowledging him once, shopping basket in hand.

His stomach did a little flip and he snarled mentally at certain body parts to fucking behave as he left his basket on the floor and hurried after Akutagawa. “Hey!”

Akutagawa paused and glanced back over his shoulder at Atsushi, eyes shadowed completely by the glasses. “You,” Atsushi jabbed his finger at Akutagawa. “You’re a vampire!”

There was a long, long pause.

Atsushi became increasingly aware that they were in the middle of a crowded supermarket, and other customers were giving them both a significant side-eye as they passed. Akutagawa turned fully around, staring down Atsushi all the while.

“You’re an idiot,” Akutagawa said and turned to leave.

Honestly, Atsushi had expected this reveal to be a little more melodramatic than it was. It was the middle of the day, they were now outside the supermarket that was several blocks away from his place of work, and he had been the exact opposite of geared up for this confrontation.

He’d been buying dinner, for god’s sake.

Akutagawa stood in the shadow of the building, leaned back against the alley wall and arms folded as he watched Atsushi pace in front of him. He’d been remarkably accommodating in allowing Atsushi to drag him out of the building, he’d fully expected a fight, but Akutagawa simply loudly expressed his opinion of Atsushi’s mental prowess to anyone in shouting distance.

So, Akutagawa in daylight. This was already a point against the Vampire Theory, as it was still broad fucking daylight—lurking in the shadows of the building notwithstanding, as Akutagawa was a lurker by nature—and he had yet to even sizzle, never mind burst into flames.

Atsushi rubbed the spot on his neck where the mostly faded bruise still sat. “You’re a vampire,” he reiterated, with less dramatic flair, and once again Akutagawa made a noise of derision, staring at Atsushi over the rims of the dark, not-quite-sunglasses he usually wore in a small attempt to mask his identity.

A point for the “Definitely a Vampire” column, those mysterious dark glasses. He only wore them during the day, too, that Atsushi had seen…protection against the sunlight? But he was out in the sun. And he’d seen Akutagawa in daylight many, many times, all without the benefit of the dark glasses. Well. Point still sitting in the Vampire column, pending approval.

“Idiot,” Akutagawa sniffed. “Remind me why I’m entertaining your nonsense again today?”

“You are a vampire,” Atsushi insisted again, stopping in his tracks, arms folded. “You attacked me out of the blue! Don’t laugh. And you bit me.”

“Do you actually believe vampires are real, weretiger? You pulled me from my errands to make me listen to you ramble like a madman about fiction.”

“I’m not rambling!”

Akutagawa arched a brow, and Atsushi turned on his heel to pace again. “You bit me and sucked my blood!”

“Are you certain you didn’t just hit your head?”

“I have a bruise!”

Akutagawa appeared unimpressed, as Atsushi turned and yanked his collar down, displaying the now-faded, yellowish splotch on his neck. “I have no interest in your sexual conquests as such, weretiger. Are we through?”

“No, we are not through. Explain to me why your eyes turned red, and why you bit me, if you’re not a vampire.”

Akutagawa tilted his head. Looking over his glasses at Atsushi, Atsushi could see his eyes glimmering slightly in the shadows, that same reddish hue. Then Akutagawa said in that same tone that had haunted his dreams for the past week, “we are through here.”

Atsushi stared at him in response, and Akutagawa pushed his glasses back up his nose, straightening as if preparing to leave. “And where do you think you’re going?” Atsushi asked, angrily, and Akutagawa paused, a clear look of confusion crossing his features. “Did you not hear me? We aren’t done.”

The weird, vocal modulation in Akutagawa’s voice sent a frisson of electricity down Atsushi’s spine, pulling something tight in his gut again, but he suppressed the shiver. Akutagawa stared at him strangely, and said, “we’re done.”

“And that,” Atsushi waved his hand at Akutagawa. “That weird voice thing. That’s a vampire thing too, isn’t it? Some kind of,” he wobbled his hand slightly, “Jedi mind trick type thing? I can tell what you’re doing now, so it doesn’t work. And you are,” holy shit, Akutagawa really was, he wasn’t making this up in his head, “a vampire!”

Akutagawa was flat-out staring at him now, like he was a puzzle that Akutagawa couldn’t solve. “Why doesn’t it work on you?”

Atsushi took two large steps back, suddenly struck by the fact that Akutagawa was a goddamn real vampire and he didn’t know what he was supposed to do now, because they were out in daylight and vampires were supposed to catch on fire.

Well, at least this meant he didn’t have to worry about pulling his punches going forward.

Akutagawa seemed to realize what his reaction meant all at once. “I am not—” he began, a snarl in his voice, but Atsushi’s voice overrode his.

“I can’t believe you’re a goddamn shit-sucking vampire.” He’d made it to the other wall of the alley, his back flush to the brick, and was eying his exit route. “How long has this been going on? Does anyone else know? Have you killed anyone? Okay, that was a stupid question, but have you killed anyone as a vampire—?”

“SHUT UP,” Akutagawa roared, his voice crackling with energy.

Atsushi winced at the volume but was otherwise undeterred. “I will not—!”

Well, he still moved faster than Rashomon.

Atsushi bounced off the side of the building, kicking the Rashomon tendril away. Akutagawa seemed to move faster than his own ability again, catching Atsushi by the shoulder in mid-air and turning him, landing on top of him hard enough that the concrete beneath them cracked. Atsushi hurled him off, twisting, and Rashomon caught up, wrapping around his leg before he could properly defend and then they were both airborne, Atsushi winged around like a fish on a line and was unable to gain any real purchase.

He dangled by his ankle, five stories up, while Akutagawa stood crouched on the concrete lip that ringed the building just below the roof. “If I were a vampire, idiot weretiger, do you really think I would be wandering around in broad daylight?”

Oh, he better not be able to read minds, too. Atsushi bent double, trying to get at the single tendril of Rashomon around his ankle with his claws. “Maybe if you didn’t try to mess with my mind!”

The tendril shook him violently enough that he lost progress and hung for a second, head spinning. “You keep coming to the most ridiculous conclusions.”

“I wouldn’t have to come to ridiculous conclusions if you didn’t fucking lie to me!”

Akutagawa hauled him up enough so that they were eye to eye, although Atsushi was well out of swiping range for the moment. “When have I lied to you?”

Atsushi stared at him, then pointed with one tiger claw. “You. Are. A. VAMPIRE.”

He doubled up and got both his hands around the Rashomon tendril, shredding the ability in his claws. Before Atsushi could even begin to consider how he was going to handle the five-story drop, several more Rashomon tendrils shot out at him and Atsushi swung around, caught on a broad one with the pad of his foot, and used it to launch himself at Akutagawa.

Akutagawa stood up to face him, eyes a brilliant, glowing red behind his glasses. “STOP,” he roared, and Atsushi felt the word vibrate in his muscles and bone but didn’t even hesitate, spring-boarding off a Rashomon tendril and catching Akutagawa by the front of his dark coat, flipping them both up over and onto the roof properly.

Akutagawa landed on his feed, sliding on the rough pitch, and Atsushi landed in a crouch with bared teeth. “I’m going to bite you, see how much you like it!”

They stared at each other, chests heaving in near unison, the unearthly red glow finally starting to fade from Akutagawa’s eyes. “No, really, why the fuck doesn’t that work on you, anymore?”

“Your weird voice thing?” Atsushi swiped the back of his hand over his cheek, smearing the blood from where Rashomon just nicked him coming up over the edge of the roof. Akutagawa’s expression froze, eyes locked on Atsushi’s face, and Atsushi pointed at him, victorious. “Ha! Vampire!”

Akutagawa tilted his head back and stared at the sky for a second, while dragging his hand down his face, and then he finally gave up. “Fine,” he said, sounding thoroughly harassed.

Atsushi rose from his crouch, giving Akutagawa a wary look. “Fine?”

“You win, weretiger. I am a vampire. Are you happy?”

Atsushi blinked at him, not expecting capitulation in any form. “Uh.”

“No one was meant to know. Especially not you.” Akutagawa stalked forward, eyes glimmering like they were going to change colors but stayed that nebulous shade of gray. Atsushi took a step back and realized suddenly he had nowhere else to go when the back of his leg hit the edge of the roof and he stopped dead, eyes wide.

“What’s the matter?” Akutagawa asked, stopping just in front of him. “Now you’re scared of me?”

“I’m not scared of you,” Atsushi said because he wasn’t, but his body seemed to think otherwise. Akutagawa’s hand darted out, catching his chin, and turned Atsushi’s head.

“Since you’re in the know, now,” he breathed and licked the blood from Atsushi’s cheek.

Atsushi froze in place. Akutagawa’s tongue felt like lightning, warm and sharp, and he gulped air, limbs trembling. Just like that, he was hard. No, no no no no no, he thought desperately, as Akutagawa swiped his thumb over the area of the cut, but by now the flesh had already sealed over the wound.

“I hate how fucking good you taste,” Akutagawa rumbled, face still too close. “It’s not normal.”

There was something about his voice now that was resonating to Atsushi’s core. It didn’t sound any different than normal, and it certainly wasn’t that weird tone he had been trying on him earlier, but Atsushi’s breath went short and his head went fuzzy.

The corner of Akutagawa’s mouth turned up into a smirk. “Ah. There it is.”

Atsushi swallowed hard and shook his head free of Akutagawa’s hand, and Akutagawa drew back. He pushed the palm of his hand over his cheek but it came away dry, and he looked back at Akutagawa, who was now, once again, at a safe distance. “Is that it?”

The question seemed to perplex Akutagawa. “What?”

“So, you’re a vampire and you’re going to, what, lick my cheek? What the fuck did you do to me?” Atsushi shifted his stance angrily, resisting the urge to shove his hands down his pants this time. “Don’t start what you can’t fucking finish.” He tilted his jaw back and bared his throat challengingly, and Akutagawa’s eyes glimmered again.

“You don’t know what you’re offering,” he said, softly, and Atsushi spread his hands.

“How many people have you killed like this?”

The question seemed to amuse him. Rashomon rippled across his shoulders, a faint red glimmer in the sunlight, and Akutagawa tilted his head, looking at Atsushi again through his dark shades. “Fear not, weretiger. I have kept true to our accords. Yours is the only blood I intend to spill…if I feel often enough, I never have to take a life.”

Akutagawa on him, teeth bared under the moonlight flitted through Atsushi’s mind unbidden. “And what happens if you don’t feed often enough?”

The look on Akutagawa’s face told him enough, and he jerked his chin again. “Fine. Don’t feed on anyone else. Don’t harm anyone else. You have me, you want to spill my blood? You can have it.”

Akutagawa looked away, hand clenched over his mouth and breathing hard. “What’s the matter?” Atsushi challenged. “I thought you said my blood tasted good—?”

He wasn’t fast enough to see Akutagawa move, but there was suddenly a hand on his shoulder and the other on his face, tilting his head away as Akutagawa’s fangs sank into his neck, atop the previous, yellowed bruise. Atsushi gasped and staggered, but Akutagawa caught him as he collapsed, lowering him far gentler, sitting him back against the concrete lip that bordered the edge of the roof.

Akutagawa’s mouth was still on his skin, and he shifted, knee pressed between Atsushi’s spread legs. There was no way he couldn’t feel how hard Atsushi was, or the wet spot that was beginning to appear on the front of his pants and Atsushi panted, everything gone in a haze of pleasure. He was so warm, and light-headed, and when Akutagawa finally, finally lifted his mouth his breath felt like fire on Atsushi’s skin.

“You’ll be mine,” he breathed, tongue brushing over the torn flesh, Atsushi’s skin knitting whole, “and only mine?”

“Oh, fuck,” Atsushi whimpered, so hard he could think of nothing but touch. Akutagawa rumbled and pressed his knee into Atsushi’s crotch, watching him choke. Then he seemed to take pity on him, shifting enough that he was kneeling between Atsushi’s spread legs, fingers pulling at the waist of his trousers. Atsushi gazed at him blearily, and Akutagawa slipped his hand down the front of Atsushi’s pants.

Oh. Oh, Akutagawa’s hand was on his cock right now.

Atsushi’s head went back, eyes unfocused as Akutagawa palmed his trapped erection, fingers curling around his girth. He rubbed his thumb over its leaking head but made no effort to free him from his pants to bother with stroking him properly. “Just a little taste,” he murmured. “Don’t want to reward you too handsomely for being a stubborn little shit, weretiger.”

Panting aloud, Atsushi clung to his coat, held tilted back, and came anyway.

Akutagawa yanked his hand out of Atsushi’s messed pants and stared at him as Atsushi slumped back against the concrete, breathing hard. He ended up wiping his hand clean on Atsushi’s untucked shirt, and then plucked Atsushi’s phone out of his pocket while Atsushi lay, blissed out, in place.

“If I text you,” Akutagawa said, typing something into Atsushi’s phone, “you will show up.”

He was doing the weird voice thing again, it sank into Atsushi’s bones and simmered there. Atsushi moaned, and Akutagawa dropped his phone in his lap. Then he stood, dusted off his knees, and inclined his head in a small bow. “Thank you for the meal.”

That said, Akutagawa stepped up over the lip of the roof, next to Atsushi’s head, and vanished over the side. Atsushi exhaled a small laugh, pushed his hand back through his hair, and looked down at his mess, all over his clothing.

Fuck, what had he just gotten himself into?

<< Chapter 1 || Chapter 3 >>

[itsgirlcraft]

I wanna try something.

...holy shit it lags but it works! This is just Sabre's interview, after the RQ/TSS!Sabres got merged together. ...I don't suggest trying to read it, it might crash-

"The explosion shattered the crystal and sent the entire lab around me into the void! Even if I had survived the explosion itself, I would've died anyways!"

Sabre had a wild look in his eyes as he recounted the explosion that took him away from his friends. He waved his arms around, imitating the explosion that killed him.

"...AND if the shockwave hadn't shook me to the bone and made my ears bleed, the crystal shattered at a wavelength so high my mind burned! The crystal shards flung everywhere, lodging themselves deep into me. It burned, it burned like a thousand suns. The sheer power of the crystal couldn't be handled.."

He paused only to reveal scars. Thick, jagged scars along his face, neck, and arms. They bunched up the closer to his torso they were.

He stared into the men's souls with an empty expression void of joy.

"I screamed as I fell into the void below, the burning not stopping as I was enveloped in the cold blackness. My eyes burned with hot tears as my limbs froze. I started coughing up blood, the knife-sharp pieces lodged in my chest burrowing deeper. My breath slowed as I choked in the airless void. I tried to reach out, do something, anything.

But it was no use. The debris falling with me escaped my grip every time.

I had enough consciousness left to watch the giant yet not endless crater above dissappear from view. The dimension would survive. I did it.

My view was soon blocked by a massive chunk of wood coming right for me.

I shut my eyes as it slammed into me, sending me flying deeper into the abyss.

The crystal shards pushed deep into me, piercing many organs. I bit my lip, trying not to scream. My body was bruised and torn. I tried to hold on.

But the blunt trauma and sharp pain was too much.

I howled in agony as I fell into the uncaring, freezing, void. My eyes were growing heavy.

That was when I saw it. The creature was as dark as the void, somehow even darker. Teal and green markings, shimmering in the emptiness, defined its form.

It was truly MASSIVE. Larger than any being I had ever seen.

It appeared above me. I froze mid-fall the moment it appeared.

I couldn't make out any features on the Thing. I could see a teal and green light growing below me. It soon was so bright I couldn't help but look.

I couldn't see anything by that point.

My eyes had grown blurry with tears and blood.

The light enveloped my broken body. It was just as cold as the void."

Sabre stared at the two with his dead eyes. His pupil-less coded eyes had turned teal and green, just like the creature, but dull. Like a computer turning off slowly.

The pro hero tried to avoid the man's uncomfortable gaze, finding himself unable to look away. The pure power this man held kept him in a trance.

The detective did manage to avoid his gaze, jotting down as much as he could, as if his life depended on it. If he noticed his companion's trance he didn't show it.

"And that was when I died. At least, that body of mine," Sabre smiled dangerously, "It felt like a rebirth, into another world.

Which it almost was.

When I awoke in the new world, it felt like time had skipped. I was in a cave base, speaking to the...viewers. I won't explain who they are. All you need to know is that I became aware only after I had been in the new world. I...can't remember how I got there. How I encountered it. Why I was aware of the viewers again, or had my tablet back. Why I was in a cave in the first place.

I talked to them like I knew what I was doing, like I hadn't just woken up. I used my tablet's camera mode to interact with them before leaving..

At the time, I couldn't remember what I'd just been through. None. I couldn't remember the Steves, I couldn't remember the explosion. I knew the world was...different though. That the world was more detailed than usual.

All I knew was I didn't remember showing up and encountering a creature.

It's not until now that I've connected the two..

That...light. It wasn't just a hallucination as I died. It was a portal - a portal directly to its home. I..."

Sabre stopped speaking suddenly, a grim and dark thought on his mind. The thought in question had been plaguing him since the walk to the police station.

If these Steves have come with him, what if there were others somewhere else? More importantly, what if they were his past enemies?

SS Sabre was even in a non-Steve world, when he got sent to this universe.

He was supposed to be dead.

The Rainbow Steves were supposed to be dead.

SS Nightmare probably was dead, at least when Sabre returned and had to deal with Illusion.

How many vanquished enemies were alive, then?

And even if he somehow convinced these "Pro Hero" people to help him deal with those enemies, how would they even do it?

He and his friends may be smarter thanks to their past and stronger together, but so were those against them.

What made him stop talking was a horrifying realization of just how screwed they could be very soon.

What if the Void Steves team up? What if they started up a team of all the others?!

"Ahem.."

The voice shook Sabre out of his thoughts.

"Oh. Sorry, I just- had a thought. A really terrifying thought. I've mentioned multiple times that there's more Steves than those here.." Sabre sighed, "But I think there's quite a few so dangerous it'd be putting this world in danger to not talk about them."

Sabre grabbed a piece of blank paper and a pen, scribbling down names hastily.

"These are the ones you really need to look for," he turned the paper around for the two men to see, "I'll list visuals later."

He readied himself to discuss some of the most traumatizing people he's ever crossed paths with.

"There's two versions of Nightmare Steve. One redeemed, one who went too far and died but returned from the grave only to be killed once and for all. It's a good thing the redeemed one is here and not the other."

"Died? Literally?" Naomasa raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Yep," he instinctually rolled his eyes, "dude wouldn't stay dead. Actually, both did that.

RQ Nightmare, the non-redeemed one, isn't extremely dangerous on his own. But he uses fear tactics, being extremely good at making others do what he wants out of fear.

He also can use the Darkness to a degree, more on that later. SS Nightmare has control over fire and lightning, being able to go at extremely fast speeds and summon craters of fire."

Aizawa opened his mouth to speak, but didn't want to interrupt. This was vital information that clearly needs to be heard.

"Thank you. Reverse Steve also has two versions, I can't say one is worse than the other but they have different stories and powers and that changes how you can defeat them. Both are supposed to be dead, by the way.

Origin Steve has two versions, RQ version is kinder compared to the maniac the SS version is. You can tell them apart by the way they speak. SS Origin will be lovesick for Alex, and try to take her back as his own.

Okay, first of all, don't let him, he's a jerk and the relationship was toxic. But I can't imagine how you would defeat him. Both are the creators of their respective universe's Steves. But that also gives SS Origin scary abilities...

I got him mad, and he literally removed me from the timeline! Not kidding! It was only 10 minutes of being in there, but I escaped via basically the Steve version of heaven- don't ask- but when I got back, it had been centuries.

And worse yet, Origin had spent those years mutating the Steves! He was mutating the basic colors, adding bits of another, so they didn't have powers. They were just as powerless as me.

It was genuinely one of the most disturbing things I've seen. The Steves saw themselves as normal, but I knew this was far from it.

Your best shot at dealing with the guy is to get him away from civilization, so history can repeat itself...

*Sigh*

If you must know, the only reason he's dead is because Alex got angry at him when she found out he was hurting Galaxy and I..

And

And she literally blew up, we escaped unharmed. But she had been blown apart, and we had to recollect her energy that now laid hidden in bottles. She wasn't even a ghost, more like...something even less tangible.

But somehow, Origin survived that initial blast. He was an absolute wreck, but he was alive somehow.

It took someone else, by the name of Hypno Steve, to finish him off in a single blow."

Sabre took a deep breath after such a long info dump.

He pulled out a glass bottle of water, taking a long sip, before speaking again.

"He's still not the only extremely dangerous one. There's like 6 more, all insanely powerful foes that took many sacrifices to defeat.

I'll let RQ Sabre discuss them, The Unnamed, The First Curse, and the RQ Demon Steves.

Also that version of Void Steve. And the Darkness, actually- *laughs nervously*

Oh colors, there's a lot.

Okay, enough about RQ. Void Steve - it doesn't matter the universe. He is a clear-cut villain. In the Steve Saga, he had his own personal dimension and a henchman we call Memory Steve.

Memory can wipe memories, don't look at him. Though I doubt his powers work identically here.

The Void I knew would stop at nothing to destroy Galaxy Steve. It's a long story, but what you need to know is that Galaxy and Void are one and the same.

It's confusing and concerning. I know.

Basically, a really really long time ago none of the Galaxy Family existed- Elemental, Time, Void, Memory, and Illusion. Only Galaxy. Then Galaxy decided to split himself, to lighten the load of watching over the galaxy and keeping time and space in check.

Void ended up with most of his memories and powers, leaving Galaxy confused and unaware of himself.

Void, knowing why he existed, grew hateful of Galaxy and decided to attack.

But then, Galaxy, faced with this powerful stranger attacking him, created Time and Elemental to watch over time and space while he dealt with Void.

To combat this, Void made Memory. At least I think, don't know for sure. Memory started messing with them, removing all memories of Galaxy.

Eventually that results in Elemental losing his cool and accidentally falling right into Void's trap, being manipulated to destroy the world and his own brother. He sacrificed himself to stop the machine that would cause the end of the world..

Memory also had screwed up Galaxy's memories so bad that now, probably hundreds of years later, he's got serious short term memory problems.

I had encountered Memory, not fun.

Those two? Absolutely would wreck this world.

Void also not only can traverse dimensions, he can destroy worlds.

He can form massive craters, ones that would lay this city to ruin in mere moments.

If you make him mad enough, they'll have fire too.

The only reason he's not around is because his goal was to reabsorb Galaxy, becoming stronger. But while Void was physically stronger, he was mentally weak. Galaxy was able to absorb him from the inside out.

And now while Void isn't dead, he is stuck deep in Galaxy's mind somewhere. You may notice some physical traces of that event.

It's fine to discuss that with Galaxy, by the way.

Anyway, I don't even have any idea how we could possibly destroy or lock him up inside Galaxy again. He's one of the few that I've got no emergency plan for.

At least Nightmare and Origin had the decency to die.

Like 5 of the RQ enemies are also quote-unquote 'apocalyptic' cases, might I add. You can't defeat them easily. Especially RQ Void, he was literally immortal. Got killed multiple times, turned into a demon, then finally died for real only for someone worse to show up.."

Sabre went off on a short tangent about Rainbow Quest, before returning to his own universe.

"The Virus, as I call it, is a creature I'm not certain of. It holds a lot of power - that I'm certain of. But its intentions? I...don't know. It seemed curious at first. But then it attacked. It became highly aggressive.

It's such a different experience from what I'm used to. Steves - they usually have some form of communication. They can tell me somewhat who/what they are and their intentions.

The Virus is a faceless pure black entity, with green and teal stripes all over its featureless body. Those stripes fade into white, they remind me of lines of code…

It can move extremely fast, summon lightning, and water and lava (both things more or less equally accessible for me) don't affect it at all. The only thing I found worked on it was a literal firewall."

He couldn't decide whether to laugh or glare at the two men's expressions. Why not both?

He shot them a glare from underneath his bandanna before continuing.

"Now I know it sounds stupid - but it genuinely worked! I mean, if this thing was actually a computer virus in physical form, it makes sense! *laughter* It couldn't run through the fire. However, I found that unlike Steves, it could summon lightning despite being trapped. I haven't actually seen it fly, however I doubt that's much of a weakness, seeing as nothing else has affected it so far," he looked down, considering this creature in a new light,

"But something I hadn't noticed until after I escaped its presence, was its manipulation of my memories.

The first instance was when I was surprised by its speed. I thought I hadn't seen anything like it. But I had, in the Steve Saga, where I used to be, I was aware that Yellow Steves could literally pause time with how fast they could run.

For some context, I encountered the Virus after the crystal explosion in the Steve Saga server. My current theory is that it is to blame for the spooky events in the Steve Saga server.

The creepy voice threatening Alex into complying, the bedrock, the fact that Emerald Steve was aware of the creature but simply speaking of it would aggravate it into revealing itself…it adds up.

What I was probably dealing with was something that wasn't showing all it could do. Even the very world I woke up in looked different from what the Rainbow Quest and Steve Saga servers looked like.

I don't think it was revealing its full capabilities to me when we came face-to-face…" he became lost in thought as Aizawa and Naomasa were left to contemplate this information.

The two exchanged thoughts on the matter, leaving Sabre to do his thing.

"Do you think this discussion may cause…it to come?" Naomasa spoke softly as to not disturb Sabre.

"Best case scenario, no, but we can't confirm anything. We'll need to ask him directly about the consequences," Aizawa muttered, looking over his notes.

"Sabre," the detective said a bit louder.

The man jumped slightly.

"Oh," he laughed nervously, "sorry. Got lost in thought."

"I noticed. You said it would show itself if spoken of. Could this very discussion cause this?"

Sabre gulped. "I don't know for sure. I can't feel its presence at all here. Sure, I didn't feel it earlier on in the Steve Saga server, but I get the feeling that this is a whole 'nother universe. I don't know if it can cross universes, but dimensions/servers are possible. Universes are harder to traverse than dimensions, servers, and worlds. I'm capable of entering all of those. But universe-hopping is new. I'm hoping the Virus can't get here unless the lightning transfers it. That's a whole different can of worms we're opening there. As long as my current understanding of the situation is right, it can't get to us. And hopefully never will."

The weight of this discovery fell hard on the three men's shoulders. But they knew there were much more important things to focus on. The likelihood of Void Steve coming to this universe was much higher.

So Aizawa asked for RQ Sabre directly.

He would provide the rest of the needed information.

The Pro Hero and detective watched as SS Sabre transformed into RQ Sabre with a flourish.

"Okay, first off, this'll be much more structured than his," he laughed.

"Let's start off easy. There's two main things that exist in the Steve Realm I'm used to that's not in the Steve Saga's.

The Darkness and the Crystals.

There are seven crystals, one for each color. Unlike the Steve Saga, there are Orange, Indigo, and Violet Steves. Long story short, each color represents a specific concept.

In standard rainbow order it goes: wisdom, creativity, energy, health, spirit, connection, and love. This gives each crystal a special ability, such as the red crystal providing knowledge.

The Darkness rivals the crystals, created from a hero's corruption. Darkness generally appears as living shadow creatures, sometimes a Beast. A Darkness Beast is gigantic, one was able to siege an entire kingdom alone..

To be fair, no one was doing anything until I took charge- Soooooo I don't think said kingdom was anywhere near ready to deal with it in the first place-"

He laughed quietly to himself, reminiscing memories of being the under-qualified general of the TNT cannons.

"Yeah. They needed some help there-

Anyways, the Darkness truly isn't a laughing matter. It is terrifying. Its primary form of offense is infecting others, spreading itself across the land. The Darkness seeked to destroy the world into nothingness.

It almost did.

The first time I had accidentally released the Darkness from its temple prison. I had met this Red Steve for only a few hours, and he was infected because of me.."

Sabre bit his fist, trying not to cry. His first friend, along with so many others, was dead because of him.

"I...I watched him die. He pleaded for his closest and oldest friend to kill him, that's how freaking awful it is to be infected. It had already gotten in his eye, and he knew what would happen if it got worse.

The Darkness would've gotten in his mind, in his heart. He would lose control. He would be forced to give in sooner or later and succumb to the Darkness. He would've attacked me and his friend, Orange Steve.

Orange is here right now, in fact.

Don't pressure him into talking about this. I don't want to remind him of one of my many failures as a hero..."

He lifted his bandanna, wiping away black tears threatening to spill.

"There's so much more blood on my hands.

It's all my fault..the Steves would have lived on happily if I never came back to their world.

I wish I never opened that temple. I wish I never touched that stupid message. I wish I could go back and stop myself from bringing all this misery to them.

They never deserved it..."

Sabre's voice was barely a whisper as he fell silent, mourning his past mistakes.

'Hey, it's alright. Those Steves don't hate you for all of this.'

'× Why should I believe your lies? They all know it's my fault. Orange Steve knows I caused all of it. ×'

'Because I've regretted a lot of my past. Sure, I saved some of them. I killed Nightmare, I stopped Reverse. But a lot of the chaos was because of me being stupid.

In fact, the part I talked about earlier that I asked you to ignore was really recent...it was such a stupid move and I paid for it.

What I'm saying is we made mistakes but everyone we hurt tends to still love us.

If it wasn't for the Guardian stepping up to merge us, we'd be in a lot of pain right now.

He saw me do ridiculous things, and he still helped us.

You made mistakes but I can tell Orange Steve still loves you as if nothing ever happened.'

'× *sigh* fine...if you catch me crying again, please repeat that until I'm chill again, please? I want this over with but obviously my trauma outweighs my discomfort. ×'

'Sure I guess.'

Sabre wiped away tears, calmer now. SS Sabre knew just what to say.

"Ugh, sorry. ✨️Trauma things✨️"

Aizawa looked concerned but didn't say anything.

"Uhm..okay then?" Detective Naomasa also looked concerned but didn't comment further.

"Cool. So, after some guidance Orange and I were on a quest to gather the 7 crystals. Only problem: since the second hero, the colors had turned cold towards one another.

So Orange made the first Rainbow Hub. There were portals to each color that would go off if they needed help. He made it really fast too, it was crazy- like 30 seconds for a whole complicated structure with like magic and everything.

Yeah. Well, things go south while getting the yellow crystal.

The first kingdom we end up in gets seiged by that Darkness Beast, then we meet the Nightmare King. Long story short, he creates Dark Steve in an unholy merging of his own assistant and Darkness.

Nightmare turns out to have stolen the throne from the true king by force and had planned on having the Darkness seige his own kingdom. He also was using the Darkness and the crystal to become powerful.

Oh yeah, he also trapped us in a secret underground lab. Not fun.

He also committed at least one act of murder right in front of us. Right in his own throne room.

The place was right above a goddamn pit, and he pushed one of his own citizens into it.

He was a jerk.

Oh, he also murdered me! Yea, I got sent to the Steve equivalent of heaven only to plead with a Blue Steve to send me back. I also learned a bit about the second hero."

Naomasa and Aizawa glanced at one another.

"Is it true?" Aizawa muttered.

"He...isn't lying."

"Of course I'm not. There's more important things to explain though. Can I go on?"

RQ Sabre, unlike SS Sabre, did not like to keep talking about his past.

He was definitely going to need some alone time.

Too bad that wasn't going to come any time soon.

Aizawa nodded.

"Good. Well, Dark had absorbed Happy Orange Steve after I died. He was able to turn into any Steve of any color, as long as he absorbed one of that color.

So he already had done that with the seige at the Yellow kingdom.

He pretended to be Orange, the one I was friends with.

I arrived, and was able to trick him and save the Orange Steves from Nightmare's facility.

Back at the Rainbow Hub, I decide to create the Light Crystal. I wanted to make a Steve much like Nightmare did, but for good.

Someone to fight alongside the Steves while we collected the crystals.

Shy Orange Steve offered up himself to become that defending hero.

He became Light Steve, who is here now. He is quite capable, a very effective fighter. Though he became more emotionless after the transformation, he hadn't lost himself.

He went on to join the Yellow Steves.

While collecting the crystals, we met Rainbow Red, an old Red Steve who was holding onto the red crystal. He promised us he'd give it to us once we get the rest.

I also learned that Orange Steve was abnormally powerful, and that was why he lived alone instead of in the Orange village.

When we brought the crystals to Rainbow Red, he stole them, taking all of us to a broken library-like place where a machine was held.

He was obsessed with becoming the hero, and, well, that required the crystals.

But he put Orange in a glass box too close to the orange crystal, messing up the hero formation.

He became Reverse Steve, who looked like a reversed-colors Rainbow Steve. The mess up also injured Orange and corrupted the orange crystal.

He barely escaped and we ended up getting back to the Rainbow Hub in time to watch the world end.

Soooo Rainbow Red had been infected with the Darkness before, he said he was healed but it turns out he was wrong. The Darkness fed off his interest in being a hero, evolving within him. It fueled his obsession.

Becoming Reverse and going out into the world caused the evolved Darkness to jump to the rest. It caused rapid evolution within all Darkness, making it resistant to attacks.

The world was overwhelmed, and it was our fault.

But as the shield over the Rainbow Hub was draining of power, an old friend arrived.

Red Steve, with Blue Steve's help, was able to tell us Orange Steve's past.

He was the crystal.

It had the creativity to split itself and become a Steve. We were surprised, to say the least.

But with that knowledge, we were able to make the true third hero.

Orange Steve gave himself up to create Rainbow, unknowingly becoming the hero himself.

It sounds weird, but that wasn't the best thing. He barely knew how to use his powers before, but now he had even more and didn't know how to do anything.

He also had to keep up a facade of being all-powerful to keep the Steves from freaking out. You know how it is.

We came to Light for help. He was able to provide some training.

But then Reverse came for our heads.

Reverse was outraged that Orange was the hero. He beat up Rainbow in the catacombs so bad, Rainbow teleported me away.

But that's when I met Dark, alone. He was reconsidering his life choices, and I did my best to comfort him. Long story short, he agrees to help me but then betrays me.

I didn't see it then, but now I know Dark was teaming with Reverse to be a double agent.

I was left with a severely injured Rainbow and we went to the Orange Steves for help. They thankfully were able to save him.

There was a ghost in the catacombs, that requested we remove the machine Reverse made to hurt Rainbow.

We did, but that also released something evil.

We also ran into Nightmare, whose body was losing to the Darkness. He was losing control over the Darkness, and it turned on him.

He said he joined the Darkness because he was scared he was on the losing side. Light got tired of his bullcrap and killed him on the spot."

"Really? Just like that? Doesn't sound particularly heroic," Aizawa commented.

"He has a no-nonsense way of dealing with things. Kinda nice, until you get on his bad side.

Anyways, we had released Faceless, a Red Steve who willingly took on a curse to gain the ability to become anyone he touches, but he lost his identity with it.

He escaped the catacombs and came to the Rainbow Hub, where he pretended to be Rainbow. We figure it out, and he runs through the Yellow portal as me.

We run through, to be met with chaos. He had run rampant through the true yellow king's outpost, murdering Steves and committing arson.

The king sentenced me to execution.

But in a moment of quick thinking, we teleported back to the Rainbow Hub. We were able to realize Faceless was impersonating the king, and teleported to him. Thankfully we were able to fix things but Faceless got away, ending up in the Orange village.

We were able to sniff him out and trap him, but before we killed him he panicked and turned into a variety of other entities.

It's also important to note that he doesn't have the powers of the Steves he turns into.

Well, Reverse comes back for round 2. He destroys the Rainbow Hub, injuring Rainbow again. He had brought Dark with him.He taunted us, saying that if he couldn't be the hero he would cause chaos instead.

I accused Dark of betrayal and he stayed quiet. I still didn't think that Dark was actually trying to help.

Then they merged into Chaos Steve.

Outraged, Rainbow lunged at Chaos, and then Chaos teleported them both. Alone, I went to the Great Library to find a way to save my best friend.."

Sabre took a deep breath, letting the scenario settle in with the pro hero and detective.

"I ran into Nightmare, who was back from the dead.

But I also made a new ally. Galaxy Steve. He was...interesting. He fought against Nightmare, apparently not knowing he was supposed to be winning.

When I told him we wanted to win, he killed Nightmare into oblivion, sending him back to the void.

I was able to get back Rainbow, and we ended up being able to stop Chaos with Light's help. We separated Chaos back into Reverse and Dark, and while Reverse was locked up, Dark...

Dark wanted to be split again. He was still good. He wanted to return the old friends he stole from us all that time before."

He paused, looking away.

"I...still feel guilty for yelling at him for being evil when in reality he never wanted any of this, he wanted to be good but Reverse took that away.

But he thanked me in the end. Rainbow separated him and he disappeared.

He ends up returning only to be manipulated and then disappear again, by the way.

Miss him, he was actually really nice despite what you'd expect," he gave a sad smile, recalling the first time he used the Dark crystal to summon his friend.

"Wait...so let me get this straight, he was a villain? And then you trusted him to stop Reverse?" Aizawa seemed flabbergasted at the fact that Sabre trusted an enemy.

"Uh- yeah? We kinda had a whole heart-to-heart thing by the lake- why you ask?"

"None of your concern. So, who's the worst of those you mentioned?"

"Depends. Nightmare and Reverse are hard to beat. Dark and Faceless would be hard to deal with in a place like this since they can basically shapeshift into anyone. Probably Reverse, if I'm gonna be honest. He was screwed up in the head, man.

From this point forward, I'm going to just explain the overall premise of those I fought, okay?"

"Fine."

"Alrighty. So, let's have a quick overview," Sabre sat up at the table and began writing, "Void Steve, Time and Elemental, Corruption and Soul, Shadow...nope, the Corrected Sun and Sol, the Red Steves, the Demons, Origin, Hypno, the Core, *sigh* and The First Curse. Man I hate that guy."

"The...First Curse?" Naomasa looked up, intrigued. "Why do you hate him?"

Sabre cursed under his breath. They weren't supposed to hear that.

"Sigh. He's the worst out of everyone. Frickin omnipotent bish. Tried to curse the ENTIRE UNIVERSE! AND SUCCEEDED! He's literally all-powerful, he even cursed Origin - who's basically the god of the Steves in the Rainbow Quest server.

I may or may not have accidentally caused the end of the world - again.

And this time it was alllll my fault!"

Sabre smiled, but everyone knew he was dying inside. Trauma time. Again.

"How- how many times did the world end because of you-?"

"I don't know any more. At least 5 or 10 now.

Now shall we start from the worst or work our way up? Either way it's ✨️all trauma✨️"

"Let's go from easiest to hardest, I guess," Aizawa muttered, looking completely done with the trauma.

"Well then that would be the Corrected Sun. Wait- I should mention that Void split Galaxy into Time and Elemental Steve, and they both have similar powers to that of the Steve Saga versions. You'll see why that's relevant later.

So, there was the true Yellow king's assistant, Sol, who was basically fired. This was after two evil Steves, Corruption and Soul, were neutralized. Those two were an Indigo and Blue Steve respectively.

Well, this Yellow Steve starts an extremist group, the Corrected Sun. He starts a revolt protesting the inclusion of Indigo and Blue Steves in the Rainbow Kingdom. They start getting increasingly violent, all the while Sol saying that he speaks for the people and trying to take over the kingdom. The Yellow leader ends up siding with him, along with the Orange and Violet Steves.

Me and the leaders, along with Light, eventually are able to take back control and end his reign of terror.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention, Light has a whole guard, the Colorless Guards. They were the soldiers and security of the Rainbow Kingdom.

Also, uh, the Red Steves were kinda almost extinct before I showed up. Yeahhhh, the Darkness kind of went after them after the first hero fell to corruption...

So at the time there were no Red Steves in the Rainbow Kingdom.

But yeah, I'm sure you've seen similar stuff here with revolts and such. Sol could definitely do some damage if given the chance to convince people to hear him out.

I did find Red Steves eventually. Er- well, they found me. There was the Core, which was a massive power source that this Professor Red guy had made. The Red leader died in a battle some time later and Prof. Red used my DNA and mad science to reanimate him. But he became Hypno, who uh...was cursed by my blood to know how the world ends.

I don't know, okay?!" He raised his arms up in defeat.

"I just know that The First Curse and I have some weird connection and seeing as I'm basically their god it feels like Hypno being cursed by my DNA being part of him makes some sense.

Okay, so with The First Curse he was trapped inside this armor and was chained. Somehow he was able to get inside my head and speak to me, manipulating me into releasing him.

I took off one chain, and that was all it took. Everyone else would die if they touched him, but I didn't.

He was unleashed, and trapped basically every living entity inside the armor except me and a couple others.

Hypno was able to break into the armor, when no one else could.

I feel like I was the only one who could interact with anything with the First Curse.

Anyways, enough about that guy.

Hypno was insane, and could warp reality and just generally was crazy. But he did help so he isn't exclusively bad.

Also, The First Curse seemed to be on a mission to curse every Red Steve because Prof. Red was cursed with insanity when he popped his head through a portal and met the guy eons ago and every other weird entity I come across seems to be a cursed Red Steve as well.

Now, this next one is dangerous as hell but I'm not interested in going into detail so I'm making this quick.

Shadow Sabre was basically my evil Darkness twin who convinced me to make the Shadow Sword. The sword and Shadow used Darkness I was infected personally with by Void. More on him later.

Shadow was all in my head at first, until I released him into the real world and he took over my body. He was evil, and at one point I had to trust him to fight other evil.

He murdered, manipulated Dark into being a puppet, and tried to take over the world with Darkness after Void perished. He tried to become me but I fought it with Time by my side.

No questions, moving on.

The Demons were the reason the Darkness exists. The first hero was created to fight them, but he wasn't able to do as well as the Steves expected. He fell under pressure, breaking. The first hero became Void Steve, the first Darkness. The Darkness is the only thing to really combat against the Demons, which are from the World Below, the Steve equivalent of hell.

See, that's why I trusted Shadow and the sword. They helped me against the Demons. Said demons also could manipulate reality at one point. And might I add, the demons are so numerous that they're practically a species. Like, a LOT of demons were down there.

The Demon Steves are hungry beasts, draining the life force of Steves like starving wolves on sheep.

Terrifying.

Though killing a ton of them with the Shadow Sword made them a lot less scary."

"WHAT?!"

"Haha, let's just ignore that I said that- ple a se-"

'× Great. I scared em. ×'

'LOL you really did man.'

'× What do I do now ;-; ×'

'Idk you figure it out'

'× be useful for once please QwQ ×'

'Nah'

'× Ughhhh fine ×'

"Guys...please...I did crazier stuff than that... P L E A S E can we move on..." Sabre signed internally as the two men slowly calmed down.

Once the two were calmer, Sabre broke the silence with one sentence.

"Y'know, I am kinda a god lmao."

This time, Aizawa stopped Naomasa before he started asking questions.

Sabre just laughed.

"Heh, you knew I was trying to trick ya that time.

Yeah, technically I am kinda sorta a god- I mean, I created Origin who created every other Steve soooo-"

"*sigh* it checks out, you're not lying," Naomasa muttered, jotting down "god???" on his notepad.

"Yeah I didn't actually remember doing it so I have no idea either.

Let's just continue, now that that's out of the way-

Let's see....uh, Void, the Core, Origin, Corruption and Soul, probably Time and Elemental along with Rainbow I guess-

*sigh*

Let's just deal with Void now. So he was the first hero, as a Blue Steve. He was supposed to fight against the Demons that were attacking the Steve civilizations.

However, he fell under pressure, until he gave in to the horrors deep within. He became Void Steve. The crystals rejected him later, landing in the hands of a Red Steve. The Red Steve became the second hero and sealed away the Darkness and removed Void from the dimension, putting his spirit in a world which no Steves existed within.

That's where I come in. That message from before was from Void - he had made a whole prophecy and portal and stuff so I would collect the crystals and make the third hero. He manipulated everyone and everything. The Darkness fell upon every civilization. It destroyed thousands. It left hundreds of others a husk of who they once were.

He tricked us all. A call to adventure, a hero's journey, was all a ruse. He destroyed so many, just to manipulate Rainbow into joining his side and falling to the same corruption within - using the same pressure he once felt as the hero to bring him down.

He created Corruption and Soul Steve with an Indigo Steve and a Blue Steve corrupted by pure Darkness.. They became his right hand men. I fought them both in the final battle.

When I finally destroyed Void with the help of Light and the Colorless Guards, it didn't last long. The Demons were manipulating reality and Void was alive - he was immortal. He became the leader of the Demons.

At one point I created the Dark Crystal to bring back Dark Steve. Time, Dark, Shadow, and I fought Demon Void together.

Time was able to remove Void's immortality and we destroyed him. But not without casualties. The Rainbow crystal shattered, leaving only a shard of each color left.

After that was when Shadow reared his horns. He kept saying we were one and the same...he tried to take me over, and make me the lesser of us two. I had to fight for control. He mind controlled Dark Steve, making him say and do horrid things..

Time stayed by my side throughout it all...

At the end of it all, I had to decide whether to spread out the Darkness so thin it'd never be able to rise up again, or be able to keep Dark Steve, one of my closest friends at the time... I..I did what I had to.

I'm sorry Dark. I hope you're doing well, wherever you went..."

'Hey, it's okay. He knows you cared, even though he isn't here I'm sure he's watching over you.'

'× Thanks... I miss him.. ×'

'I know.'

Sabre cleared his throat, wiping away tears.

"Now, Time and Elemental. They were brothers, and good friends of mine. But with Void on the loose, Elemental started acting..weird. He wasn't himself. Eventually he went mad, asking his own brother to kill him...

He deserved better. He was an innocent soul, despite his brash attitude.

Time...did what he had to. We both mourned the loss..."

Sabre grew quiet for a moment, but SS Sabre knocked him out of his thoughts.

"There..was a worse death. I'm almost too afraid to speak of it.

Rainbow.

We were trying to save the kingdoms...and we..failed. The Indigo and Blue Steves were evacuated but many were lost. An Indigo and a Blue Steve in particular Void turned into monsters.

And with Rainbow not knowing how to use his powers or be the hero, he was under a lot of pressure.

Void used that to his advantage.

I saw his fall..I..I wish I was a better friend. I wish...I wish I was a real hero."

Sabre grew quiet and solemn. The temperature dropped, but not in the bone-chilling way it did before.

No, this was a lonely cold, of unlit fireplaces and dusty rooms and unkempt hair.

"Rainbow fell to the Darkness. The hero was lost to corruption, again. And it was all my fault.

If only I checked in more often. If only I actually listened to him. If only I stopped it..."

Plump black tears trickled down his face, leaving gray marks. He didn't care.

"He...lost himself. He decided he wasn't worthy. He..tried to get rid of the crystals' powers.

Time stopped it before he destroyed himself. But the damage had already been done.

People saw it earlier. The corrupted form. Orange came up to me while I was glitching and he glitched too... into his Rainbow and corrupted forms.

Rainbow was broken. His once blooming colors were cracks along his old orange self.

That's when he joined him. Void convinced him the Steves were all the same.

And what scares me is once I felt the same.

After being infected, Shadow was starting to interact with me more.

No one would trust me.

I felt alone in the world.

I was trying to do good.

I was using the Darkness to save everyone, I swear...

But no one would listen.

Except Shadow and Time.

I was playing double agent, trying to pretend that I was still on the Darkness' side.

But that fooled the Steves too.

Even Light didn't trust me...

I...I wish I could've shown them.

I wish I never let Shadow in.

When Void...Void got Rainbow on his side he...turned Rainbow into a husk of himself.

He became a vessel of evil and I still wanted to believe he was still there. That somehow he wasn't gone.

But then Elemental and I..there was a rainbow portal...and..and we arrived in time to see it all."

Sabre went quiet, drowning in tears.

It was growing colder.

"See what?" Naomasa asked quietly.

"To see him die.

We- we were frozen by Void and he-he he absorbed Rainbow. He took the crystals and KILLED HIM!" Sabre shouted out of pure guilt and rage, standing up and slamming his fist.

He sunk into his seat, pulling off his bandanna, revealing blackened eyes growing darker with each moment.

"I couldn't do anything at all the entire time I was around. I always was the useless one, I couldn't break him out! I couldn't place a block down! I couldn't do anything! I was weak!

And you know what's worse??!?!

It's! All! My! Fault!

I was the one who released the Darkness! I was the one that decided to go to some random world a mysterious message wanted me to go to! And that message was probably from, you guessed it, VOID!

I not only was useless most of the time and when I had powers I didn't get to use them to do good, but I also was the cause of everything evil! I CREATED Origin, and he created The First Curse!

And you know what the First Curse created? Curses! Evil! Manipulated everything to get me to free him!

Void may have fucking killed my best friend, but at least he had a past of being the Hero! The First Curse is just fuckin evil!

He cursed my Red Steve friend, M, he murdered thousands of Steves with a variety of 'natural disasters', he almost killed Time and Light, he's the reason Prof. Red, Hypno, and probably hundreds of others never got to lead a normal damn life!"

Sabre was breaking down. Shaking, he could feel the horns of Darkness sharply pulling themselves back out of dormancy. Hot tears ran into his hands with gooey junk from his nose dripping alongside.

"I never wanted this. I didn't plan on being the one who saved everyone. I didn't plan on causing misery to everyone around me..I swear I didn't mean to... I- I didn't know- Void was the tomb ghost..the First Curse would..I'm- I'm §øřrý!"

With the final word, an old 'friend' appeared behind the grief-stricken man.

The dark astronaut smiled with a wicked grin, revealing sharp teeth, unsettling the two men before him.

"Hëĺļø ţhęřě. Îť §èēmš țhąť hîś ŕëğŕėţ hãş åłļőwəđ mę ťö mæķé mý přëşęñçĕ ķňőwñ~

Į ąm Šhåđøw §ãbřę."

'RQ, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!'

'× IT IS! You know just as well as me that it's all my fault! ×'

'SHADOW'S HERE, MAN! WE NEED TO STOP HIM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!'

'× What. ×'

'He's literally threatening the other two!'

RQ Sabre stopped wallowing in self-pity, the familiar voice sending a chill down his spine. He tried to grab Shadow as he stood up, only to find his body wouldn't move. He couldn't stop the dark tears.

'× Oh..Oh no. Nononononono- I can't move! ×'

'WHAT DO YOU MEAN??'

'× I! Can't! Move! At! All! ×"

'Okay okay thinkthinkthink- What if I- I swapped with you??'

'× WHAT! How is that supposed to fix- ×'

RQ Sabre was pulled from his mind as he felt his arm lift up. From the corner of his tear-blurred eyes, he could see Shadow grab his wrist.

His blood ran cold as an all too familiar sword appeared in his now clenched fist.

The Şhăđø₩ Šwøŕđ.

That blasted thing was supposed to be gone along with Shadow!

Despite being practically paralyzed, Sabre bared his teeth at his evil twin.

'× Dammit! How do we stop him!? ×'

'Can we open up our inventory? Maybe we could swap it with the Galaxy Sword!'

'× Good idea! ×'

Sabre concentrated on opening his inventory, and with extra effort, he succeeded.

'× Try to swap it while I try to break free of Shadow's control! ×'

As SS Sabre struggled to force the Shadow Sword to leave their hand, RQ Sabre focused all his energy on speaking.

"Hęh. Ĕvëñ wįţh ťwõ §äbřēş, ţhęy'rē ştïłľ ñø mâţčh föŕ mė~ Ãnđ țhåñķś ťő ţhèm, Î çãń pŕòvîďę ýõü ţ₩ø wïțh §ómě ĺøvəłý ñįğhţmâŕəš~"

Aizawa stared Shadow in the eyes as he activated his quirk. As the pro hero's scarf whipped out, Sabre's arm moved in an instant, slicing the gray fabric with ease.

"HĄ! Đø ¥őų ŕæĺľý bëłįəvē śùçh čhïłđíšh ťhīņģš čøůĺď pő§ïbłý šțôp mė?!"

Finally, Sabre broke free. The Darkness-powered sword swapped with the Galaxy Sword as he pointed at Shadow.

Surprised, Shadow stopped taunting, backing away from the sword beneath his chin.

Sabre turned his head mechanically, as if a rusty machine.

He looked Shadow dead in the eyes as the puddle of Darkness below him rose into a tiny humanoid.

"Perhaps I shall instead~ Get back in my head or we'll make the score 2 to 0, §håđøw," his words dripped with hatred as the tiny Darkness grew larger with his tears.

"Ůh- ūh- Š- Šåbřę wĕ- ₩è çäñ ťąłķ ābøųť ţhïş!" Shadow's voice got higher pitched as he raised his hands against the sword inching closer and closer.

"Freaking. Shut. Up. Last time I trusted you, you BETRAYED ME! I should've known. You're nothing but a slimy bastard of the Darkness. Get back in, or I WILL stab you. That is a threat I can't WAIT to fulfill!"

Sabre's form loomed over Shadow as he gave him a bloodthirsty grin with the last sentence. Shadow backed up, bumping into the wall.

"What? Little Shadow ScArEd~?"

Shadow hissed in defiance but vanished back into Sabre's mind.

Sabre sighed as he lowered his sword. He'll have to be more careful not to let that happen again...

Maybe it was just the merge situation that let him free, but it didn't matter why. He had to keep his emotions under control or risk Shadow escaping.

"S-Sabre?"

Sabre looked up, bewildered, as the Darkness retreated back into his core.

Orange Steve had opened the door and everyone had witnessed the event.

"G-guys...I- I can explain, I swear-" Sabre put away the Galaxy Sword, afraid his friends would think he was a monster.

"Sabre it's okay.." Orange Steve walked up to his dearest friend, giving him the biggest bear hug ever.

"Orange I'm- I'm so sorry- I could've saved y-you- I-I- could've been a better fr-friend.." He mumbled into Orange's shoulder as he choked back tears.

"Shhh, that's the past, okay? I think that's enough 'interrogation' for you. You need a stick!"

They parted for a moment as Orange gave Sabre a stick (and SS Rainbow threw one in his direction).

Sabre couldn't help but laugh. Orange had named his 'Orange's baddies-go-away-stick' and Rainbow's was 'Rainbow's good feelies stick.'

"Pfff- you two always know how to make me feel better-" He gave a small smile as they walked out of the room, leaving a shaken up Aizawa and Naomasa alone.

The pro hero and detective spoke in hushed voices after a long silence.

"What do we do with them? They're clearly dangerous!"

"Yes, Sabre alone has concerningly powerful abilities, even if we don't count that Shadow Sabre thing! If he is 'quirkless' like he said, who knows what these Steves are capable of!

"We need to keep them in a secure location, but if that Shadow Sabre can appear whenever Sabre is overwhelmed, we have to keep him in a neutral state so this doesn't keep happening."

"We can't use a prison or jail, obviously. But where else can we hold them until we know if they are truly as dangerous as Sabre said?

"This interrogation won't get much out of the others, now that Sabre broke. We'll have to find other ways of getting information out of them."

"We still have these lists, but we can't waste more time trying to get details on all of them. We need to act soon before these people do something stupid."

"Agreed. Let's have the rest come in pairs or trios to introduce themselves. We can send over others to watch over them for a few hours while we decide where they'll stay."

"Good. I need a long rest after whatever THAT was."

Meanwhile, Sabre was laying in the middle of the floor, vibing as the Rainbows piled sticks on him.

"We now declare you the stick king!" SS Rainbow tapped Sabre's face with a particularly long stick.

RQ Rainbow tried to twirl his own but smacked himself in the head.

Everyone else was piled onto the couches besides Nightmare and Illusion. Night was definitely smiling, but Illusion was pouting in the corner.

"Alright, listen up!" Naomasa announced from the doorway.

"The rest of you will come in here in pairs or trios. Introduce yourselves and explain how you know Sabre.

If you have a..duplicate explain the main difference between you two.

Afterwards you will be allowed to roam the city with several pro hero escorts.

You will return here later for us to take you to where you shall be staying for the time being."

The Steves nodded as Naomasa left.

"Soooooo- who's gonna go second?" Sabre laughed as he tried and failed to sit up.

"Y'know what? Orange and I can go first! :D" SS Rainbow offered.

"Sounds good! The Light Steves can go after us!"

RQ Light gave the duo a thumbs up as they left.

Have I. Have I ever told yall abt the 22,493 word long *chapter* before

It was for my wattpad crossover fic When Three Worlds Meet (ft. RQ and TSS in the My Hero Academia world)

And was the last chapter I posted before fucking off to nowhere 💀

[chasesylvan]

Catch You Like a Snowflake

Pairing: Mountain/Dew

Read on AO3 if you would prefer :)

Dew whined, “But I don’t wanna!” he was acting like a spoiled child right now. Mountain was treating his packmate with a day out in the massive blankets of snow that fell on the Abbey grounds overnight.

“Come on, Dewdrop. This will be fun, and I’ll make sure you don’t freeze, you even have your body heat to keep you warm, I don’t, so I don’t wanna see any complaining, do you hear me, mister?” Mountain growled lightly at the ghoul who soon succumbed, “…fine, but only because I love you.” He went to find his winter clothing to make sure he stayed warm in case his body temperature decided to decrease on him. Moments later he walked out of his room looking like a giant fluffy marshmallow, “Oh my god, Dewy, you look so adorable!” Mountain went and scooped Dew into his arms and kissed all over his face until Dew was squirming his face away and nuzzled his face into the tall earth ghoul’s neck, blushing as red as a cherry.

“M’ not adorable.” Dew muttered into Mountain’s neck, sounding so small and vulnerable. Mountain loved this side of Dew, the side of Dew who wasn’t afraid to show his emotions to no one but Mountain, and occasionally Rain. “Aww, but you are, love, so cute and beautiful. My beautiful boy.” Mountain gave Dew a loving smile and placed a soft and gentle kiss to Dew’s soft lips and looked him in the eyes and nuzzled his nose with the smaller ghoul’s.

Dew blushed and wrapped his legs around Mountain’s waist and his arms around his neck. “How did I ever deserve you? Normally people would just scoff at me and give me rude looks, but you looked past that, and loved me. You don’t care about the things I do, you care about me.”

Tears started welling in both the fire ghoul and earth ghoul’s eyes, Mountain starting laughing softly, “This was supposed to be a happy day, you little gremlin.” This caused the little ghoul to start laughing and Mountain didn’t think he could fall in love with the ghoul anymore, but the small ghoul always proved him wrong. And he didn’t care whatsoever.

They eventually went outside, and Dew ended up loving it, until something happened.

Pfft.

He was hit in the back of the head by a snowball, he turned around and scoffed at Mountain, “Did you just throw a snowball at me?” He said, playfully, Mountain giggled. “So what if I did?” He said back, playfully as well. “Oh, you’re gonna get it.”

It went back and forth, snowball after snowball, until one snowball hit Dew in the balls. He dropped to the ground and curled into a ball and starting screaming dramatically, “Owww, Mountain! You’ve killed my future kits, how dare you.” He kept rolling around on the floor like a maniac until Mountain came to save the day and checked on Dew, “You’re being really dramatic right now, you know that? It didn’t even hit you that hard.” Dew sputtered and said “Yes it did! It’s gonna leave bruises on my basketballs, you dumbass!” He groaned more and more like a dramatic child who hit their arm on the edge of a table.

“Come on, drama queen. I’ll carry you inside and you can put an ice pack on it if it actually hurts that much, and I’ll make you some hot chocolate as well. How’s that sound, my love?” Dew perked up at the idea of hot chocolate, and groaned as he could still feel the pain and actually needed ice anyway, it was a pretty harsh throw, even Mountain had to agree. He picked Dew up bridal style and brought him back into the house where he saw everybody else chilling by the fire, some having hot chocolate and some reading books and a couple napping with the crackle of firewood gently swifting through the air.

“Hey guys.” Mountain announced as he walked by everyone and went to sit Dew on an unoccupied couch, and he once again groaned dramatically, “What’s wrong, Dew?” Aether asked. “Mountain pegged a snowball at me and it hit me in the dick, he’s killed my future babies.” Aether rolled his eyes at the dramatic comment and went back to reading his book. Mountain came back in the room holding an ice pack and paper towel and handed it to Dew who sat it on his lap and immediately relaxed at the coolness of it.

“You’re crazy, dude.” Swiss said, who was lying comfortably on blankets in front of the fire watching something on his phone. Dew snarled and replied with “You wanna feel the pain, asshole?” Dew got up from the couch and lunged at Swiss who immediately started protecting the jewels from Dew’s attacks, they started fighting until one of the ghouls had to physically pick Dew up and put him back on the lounge and scold him, “You do NOT lunge at people, Dew. No matter what anyone says, actions have consequences, so what you’re gonna do is sit on this couch until someone dismisses you, you’re in trouble, mister.” Rain, being the ever so stern one, put Dew in his place. Dew looked down at his lap in shame and said in a small voice, “M’ sorry, I’ll sit here and be a good boy, promise.” Rain nodded and went back to cuddle with Aether and waited for Mountain to return with Dew’s hot chocolate.

Mountain came into the room holding two mugs full of steaming hot chocolate and noticed how tense everybody was feeling. “Why is everyone feeling so tense and kinda upset?” Mountain asked out loud to the group, Aether answered with “Well, Mount, while you were gone, Swiss decided to agitate Dew and Dew replied with “You wanna feel the pain, asshole?”and so Dew lunged at Swiss trying to attack his balls, failed and so Rain had to grab Dew and now he’s in timeout on the couch waiting for his hot cocoa.” Mountain looked over to the small ghoul on the couch, pouting like a scolded child, and walked over to him and asked “Dewy, why did you decide to lunge at Swiss for?”

Dew whined and replied with, “Because he upset me! He called me crazy and so I wanted to make him feel my pain… and it got me in trouble, I’m sorry…” Dew looked down in disappointment, scared Mountain might be mad at him. Mountain quietly thanked everyone for making sure the little fire demon didn’t lash out and have a tantrum, and then storm off upset.

“Dewy, look at me.” The little ghoul looked up with glassy eyes and sniffled, Mountain kissed him on the lips and cupped his cheeks with both hands and said, “You can’t be attacking everyone, even if they make you upset. The best way to deal with that is to say “Whoever upset you, that upset me, can you not do that, please?” Can you do that for me next time, please?” Dew slowly nodded and replied with a small voice, “I will, promise. I promised Rain to be a good boy while I waited for you, have I been, Rain?” Dew asked, waiting for confirmation from Rain that he was well behaved. Rain answered, “Yes, droplet, you’ve been very well behaved for Mountain.” Dew smiled, a real smile, that the band haven’t seen in ages, hidden by rage and anger, Dew hugged Mountain and snuggled his chest while purring quietly, he pecked his lips and laughed softly. “Alright, Dew. How about you drink your hot chocolate, then we can go outside for some more playtime in the snow? And no dick shots! You hear me, Swiss?” Cirrus said sternly to Swiss. “Yes, mommy- I mean Cirrus.” Swiss said, chuckling nervously. Everybody’s eyes widened. “What was that, Swiss?” Aether giggled. Swiss quickly said “Nothing!”

“Oh my god, Swiss calling Cirrus Mommy? Never would have thought.” Rain said sarcastically and laughed. “I’m done my hot chocolate! Can we go back outside please, please?” Dew was bouncing around like a child with a sugar rush. “Yes yes, we can, baby. Have you got your winter stuff still on?” Dew made sure his coat was still on and his mittens and beanie. “Yep! I’m all good to go!”

“Alright then, let’s go!” Everyone filed out of the common room and into the winter wonderland, Rain and Swiss were building a snowman, Aether and the ghoulettes were making snow angels while Mountain and Dew were making snowballs for a massive snowball fight, but Mountain promised Dew that there would be no dick shots whatsoever. The little ghoul trusted Mountain and so they spent the rest of the day enjoying the winter with their bandmates, having the best time of their lives.

[bratkook]

will you let me? (m) knj.

pairing. namjoon x reader genre. smut, pwp, established relationship word count. 1.2k warnings. unprotected sex, impreg kink, dirty talk, but also kinda cute note. based off a request sent in for thirst night! i hope u enjoy the insanely short filth🤠(also my first published joon fic can i get a hell yeah, also not edited sorry)

The air is stuffy all around you, each harsh breath released only thickening it up, leaving your skin hot and your mind fuzzy. Namjoon groans into your ear, mouthing kisses along your neck, tongue trailing down your jugular before he gently nips your skin. 

“God you’re so warm—fuck—so wet,” he mumbles on, rambling without a thought, too enveloped in the feeling of your walls wrapping around his cock. You felt every inch of him as he fucked you, the two of you finally agreeing to not use a condom for the first time. Namjoon swears he’ll never want to put one on again. 

The smack of your skin mixes in with each of your moans, your hands wrapping around him, digging your nails into his back as he rocked forward. “Ah, Namjoon,” you whimper, eyes rolling back as he starts to suck on your neck. “Harder baby, please.”

“Yeah? Feel good?” he rasps, holding himself up to stare down at you. The pink tendrils of his hair stick to his forehead, damp with sweat, and the sparkle in his eyes shows his excitement. His soft lips spread out into a smile, dimples sinking into his cheeks as he does so. 

Another precise thrust has you nodding, wrapping your legs around his hips, pushing him closer. Namjoon could fuck you harder, could grip your hips so hard they bruised as he pistoned into you, but he liked this too much. He wants to savor the feeling of your velvety walls pulsing around him, wants to remember each of your trembled breaths when he hits your gspot, and wants to really enjoy the feeling of his hot cum filling you up. 

The thought alone makes him shut his eyes, groaning deep in the back of his throat as he pictures it, imagines seeing the globs of white dripping out of you, stuffing you so much your tummy would bulge. And suddenly he wants that, his eyes fall to your stomach, seeing the way it tenses in pleasure. Namjoon wants to claim you this way, make you his in a way you’ve never been before. 

“Fuck baby,” he pants, jaw slack as the thoughts flood his mind, hips snapping into yours with more determination. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

A teasing laugh spills from your mouth, one of your hands coming up to cradle his face, wondering where this was coming from after the filthy words he had been spewing earlier. “You think I look beautiful covered in sweat?”

Namjoon nods like it’s the most obvious response, surging his cock deeper into you, wanting to reach as far as he could. His balls slap against your thighs from the force, making your tits bounce around and he groans once more when he imagines how they’d look if you were pregnant. 

“Always look so beautiful,” he continues, cursing when you purposefully tighten your walls around him. “Look pretty when you’re stretched around my cock, fuck, bet you look pretty full of my cum too.”

His words make your skin warm up further, the thought of it sinking into your bones, already imagining how it would feel. And then he says something you never thought he would, “Wanna knock you up. Will you let me baby?”

It takes you a second to comprehend it, mind blanking as he moans above you, whimpering slightly when you fail to answer him, hips becoming more desperate. “Baby,” he whines again, feeling his release creeping up on him, needing to know if you’d be okay with him filling you up this way. 

The head of his cock rubs against your walls deliciously, snapping you out of your small daze as you nod frantically. “Yes, yesyes please. Fill me up Namjoon.”

Those were the golden words he needed to hear, burying his face into your neck as he fucked into you, making the whole bed rattle, the wooden headboard slamming into the wall so hard the neighbors would surely complain. He didn’t care though, not when you cried his name so beautifully as your orgasm crept up your spine. With his close position, each of his thrusts put pressure on your clit, sensitive and needy for attention, you mewl at the friction, rutting your hips up in time with his. 

“Namjoon, c-close—please don’t stop.” 

“Mm, don’t worry baby, I got you.” he softly reassures you, shivering when your hands tangle themselves in his hair, nails raking along his scalp. Another few thrusts is all it takes to sends you over the edge, shouting out his name as your ears rang from the pressure. Namjoon groans in your ear as your walls spasm around his cock, milking him for his orgasm, desperate for him to fill you up the way he promised. 

“Joonie,” you keen, feet pushing him closer to you as you mewl in sensitivity. He gasps when you pulse around him, wanting him to spill his load inside of you, needing to see him fall apart. 

“Ah shit—“ he rasps, pushing himself up as he thrusts deeper into you, bulbous head of his cock just shy of reaching your cervix. “Are you gonna take my cum like a good girl? Let me fill you up until my pretty girl is messy, hm?”

You visibly shiver at his words, mouth dropped open in awe as you watch him, nodding along. “Please, please.”

“Fuck, take it baby.” It washes over him instantly, hips stuttering into you as he grows desperate, eyes squeezing shut when he feels his cock throb inside of you before hot spurts of his cum splash along your walls, painting them in ribbons of white. The feeling makes you hum, limbs limp on the bed as he shallowly thrusts into you, making sure you take every last drop. 

He falls over you like deadweight, forgetting his giant self could crush you if he wanted. His cock is still nuzzled deep within you, slowly softening as it kept the cum from leaking out. “Hey, watch the baby!” you playfully call out, giggling when he snorts against your skin, large palm sliding up your sides in a soothing manner. 

“Don’t tease me.”

Your hands trail through his hair again, feeling the damp strands slowly detangle as you take your time. “You know, I could always get off birth control and we could actually try.”

He visibly perks up, brown eyes staring up at you with a certain glimmer to them that makes your heart flip in your chest. Picturing Namjoon with your child, strapped to his chest as he did things around the house, tucked into a stroller as he took him for a walk around the park, finally having a little human to fit into the baby shoes he was so obsessed with buying. You couldn’t imagine a better future. 

“Really?”

“Yeah you dork, let's have a baby. Knock me up.” Your brows wiggle in time with your words, and when he slips out of you as he attacks your neck with kisses, you let out a squeal in delight. 

“C’mon, we gotta practice then!” he announces in all seriousness, not caring that his cock was still soft and you had just been thoroughly stuffed by him seconds prior. But when he was determined there was no stopping him, so instead you coax him up, dragging him into the bathroom with the promise of shower sex and the freedom to be as messy as he wanted.

[lonely-lost-soul]

Under the Floorboards

(Technoblade x Reader) link to Pt. II :)

Picking up a bundle of wood you let out a soft breath, you watched as it escaped out your lips in front of you in a small cloud. Trudging through the snow you made your way back to your house, well it wasn’t really your house. A few months ago you ran into Technoblade while he was searching for a new home far away from this place called L’manburg; he told you he was in retirement and was surprised to find another person all the way out here. As a wandering adventurer, you eventually won him over with your charm, wit, and humor.

That was a joke of course.

You both started a mutual trade agreement, on your way back from the adventures you’d always take a pit stop at his place so he could see if you had anything worth trading. It started slow, he realized you would come back very late at night, and very weary. He offered you to stay the night once, then once turned into twice and before you knew it you began to stay at his place after every late-night adventure. As you spent more time together he helped you become a better fighter, and farmer and you helped him learn social skills and how to cook food that wasn’t steak.

He never told you about his time in the country of L’manburg or why he was in retirement in the first place but you didn’t mind. Everyone has their secrets and even if both of you were considered friends at this point you never pried. Not even when you’d catch him mumbling to himself about chat, or the bloodthirsty look in his eyes after he killed an animal. You kept your mouth shut out of respect, you could tell he appreciated the gesture.

You earned yourself a friendship emerald after he introduced you to his oldest friend Philza, the man treated you like you were his family. It made you feel wanted and welcome, Techno had a little smile on his face the entire interaction as the both of you bonded. In his mind he was ecstatic his two favorite people were getting along. Techno walked Philza out of the house and returned holding an emerald out to you, you knew how valuable these emerald were to him. You were in such shock and awe you almost started crying which caused him to panic.

“I’ll treasure it with my life.” You told him kissing said emerald gently, blush spread across his pale face to his pointed ears.

“I’m glad.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Chat- chat stop I’m not simp.” You heard him whisper hiss softly but you ignored it, choosing to smile at him instead. He noticed and his blush only deepened. You took his hand, it was so small intertwined in his own, and squeezed it softly.

Eventually, the both of you grew closer than just friends which understandably scared the half pigman to death. You caught him mumbling to himself more frequently, especially when you both were out fighting monsters and gaining experience.

Things like: “I’m not a simp” and “Calm down I’m gonna protect her” as well as “I can’t just say that!” Were very frequent mumblings of his, your brow furrowed and after fighting a baby zombie you turned towards him,

“Hey Technoblade you doing okay?”

“Yes!” He sputtered out reassuring you that he was just fine by saving you from a Skeleton.

You two watched the sunset that same day from on top of a snowy mountain and he confessed to you. The confession was a bit rough around the edges but then again so was he, so to you, it was perfect. You took his hands to get him to stop rambling and kissed his knuckles. He made an embarrassed sound and looked away from you, you cooed teasingly at him and accepted. From then on you both were attached at the hip, well as attached as he’d let you be there was still that level of awkwardness that came with any new relationships but it was wonderful. You’d both spent hours by the fireside as he read to you, you’d help him care for Carl and get enchanted books all the while you were in awe of this magnificent and mysterious man before you.

Shaking your head smiling to yourself you trudged back to his house, the emerald around your neck bounced in tandem with your steps. Technoblade never liked leaving you alone, you reminded him constantly that you had a life before he was in it but he still seemed to be on edge. You figured it had something to do with his past so you did your best to reassure him that you’d be safe when he was away; Techo seemed to appreciate your efforts at least. Whenever he got back from what you assumed was visiting Phil (after all, Carl was gone), you were going to run him a bath and braid his hair the way he liked. Maybe you’d make him a nice dinner then you’d both fall asleep together while reading. It’d earn you some soft kisses and snuggles later, you giggled to yourself as you put away the wood. If you told anyone else this giant of a man, who you’ve seen wipe out hordes of monsters like it was nothing, loves to be cuddled at night they’d call you insane.

You wandered down into the basement to feed his cow but the sound of a blocks-breaking startled you out of your daydream. You whipped around pulling out your sword in the way Technoblade showed you and came face to face with a blonde child peeking out from the floorboards.

“What the FUCK?!” You both shrieked at one another, he moved to try and scramble back down the hole. You followed him down his ladder, you weren’t going to let this child get away with living under your boyfriends’ house so easily. You backed him into a corner and took note of his beat-up appearance and his attempts to look brave as he held up his hands. Sweat gathered on his brow but you didn’t let your guard down, before you could open your mouth to question him he began to talk so fast and loud you could barely keep up.

“OI, OI, OI, OI! LADY, LADY, LADY, CALM DOWNNNN CALM DOWN! SEE, SEE WE’RE BOTH IN TROUBLE CAUSE WE’RE BOTH STEALING- BORROWING FROM THE BLADE! THE BLADE KNOWS ME! I AM HIS LITTLE BROTHER, TOMMY, I AM SURE YOU’VE HEARD OF ME! THEREFOR I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG. YOU-YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE A STRANGER! YOU KNOW HE’S A BLOOD GOD RIGHT? HE’LL ABSOLUTELY KILL YOU, BUT BUT! IF WE KEEP THIS BETWEEN US I WON’T HAVE TO TELL HIM ANYTHING AT ALL FAIR? SEEMS FAIR TO ME-”

You reached your hand out to cover his mouth, your eyes narrowed into slits, “Start again. Softer and slower. Techno never told me he had a brother.” You watched the eyes of the blonde widen in surprise, assumingly at the notion that you already knew Technoblade. Slowly you removed your hand from his mouth but didn’t lower your guard. He cleared his throat, swallowing tentatively.

“I’m Tommy. We’re not related by blood- who ARE you?” he pressed still completely baffled at the appearance of a GIRL who knew Technoblade. Before you could even respond to him he let out another baffled cry. “DOES HE SIMP FOR YOU!?” He shrieked pointing at you as he waved his finger around. “THERE’S NO WAY- HE DOES HOLY SHIT!” Tommy laughed as you blinked rapidly, how was he able to read all that without you even saying anything? You were trying to process who this kid was while also being stuck on the blood god thing. You felt Tommy’s arm around your shoulders suddenly as he pulled you close. “Well, Miss Blade now that we know who you are maybe we can strike a deal-“

“Absolutely Not.”

“HEY! Come on now.” Tommy whined loudly, “I need your help here! Look I’m sure you know why he’s in hiding and all...and well...I might’ve pissed the same people off and-”

“Actually no. I didn’t know that…” You spoke softly deflating a little, “He’s in hiding? From who exactly.”

A look of shock came across Tommy’s face, “You mean...you don’t know? Like about L’manburg and his betrayal.”

“Does it sound like I know? Look Tommy you seem like a nice kid really, but you need to leave-”

“Nonononnonononono. Look it’s fine, I’ve been living here for weeks now-”

“WEEKS?” You snarled a pink flush coming to your cheeks, you grabbed the boy’s arm and began to drag him up the ladders in Techno’s house. Hee was going to kill you like actually this time. You were about to throw open the door but it swung open in front of you. Techno was standing there completely bruised and bloody and you immediately dropped Tommy in favor of him.

“Oh my god Techno what happened?” You breathed out a worried breath he was about to respond before he noticed Tommy. He grabbed you by the arm and pushed you behind him guarding you with his body.

“Tommy.” He snarled as the boy once again shrieked and booked it back down the ladder Techno turned towards you, “Stay here.” Technoblade commanded you softly the look in his eyes could only be described as desperate. “Don’t leave. Please.”

“I won’t…” You murmured watching him disappear after the British boy, you hoped he was going to explain everything to you after he dealt with the raccoon. You could hear them shouting from down below you, you couldn’t push it off any longer you needed to get answers from him.

~~~~~~

Part II maybe? Lmk if there’s an interest! Cause I love this man with my whole heart! Thanks so much for reading 🥺✨ link to Pt. II :)