#how long would the master have held onto hope that the doctor would still be there?

[grimark]

rotating in my mind the very real possibility that after missy regenerated into spymaster, one of the very first things to happen to spymaster might have been meeting nardole.

[kyluff]

— ↺ Baby Daddies

✎ gojo + geto + nanami + toji + choso x reader !

✦ summary ➠ some jjk men finding out they are going to be a daddy.

✦ warnings ➠ pregnancy (duh), swearing, mentions of sex

✦ note ➠ Also ps the gojo one is kinda cringe ngl but whatever kinda cute, my fave is the Nanami one I think.

✪ Satoru Gojo

— Gojo had been lounging around on your shared bed the whole day. It was one of his odd days off, so he chose to spend it being lazy.

As he was living carefree and innocently, you had just found out you were pregnant. Not that this should be a surprise.

Sure, your period being very late and the puking in the morning should’ve been enough of a sign that you were pregnant. But you didn’t actually think you were pregnant, pregnant.

But that was the reality you faced now in the bathroom of your master bedroom. You knew you couldn’t hide anything from your frost haired boyfriend for too long, so mays well fess up about it quickly.

You took the positive stick with you as you made your way to the room that was connected and that held Gojo. You weren’t too scared to tell him, because he always made it annoyingly obvious to you that he wanted a baby with you. Every minute he got he would make a comment about how nice it would be to have a child running around, how cute you’d look with your stomach swollen, how tiny baby clothes were and he told you how he envisioned his future child in them.

So no, you didn’t feel much fear. As for you thoughts on the predicament, you also had wanted a kid. Though you didn’t make your opinion as aware as he did, you still wanted to have one some day, and that day was this one it seemed.

You waltzed up to him, throwing the stick onto his exposed chest. “Looks like you got what you wanted.”

He threw a confused look your way. “Huh?” He let out the sound, but it died out as he held the object thrown at him and saw what it actually was. “You’re pregnant?!”

You only nodded, readying yourself for whatever celebration that was going to happen soon. Just as you expected, he sprung up and attached onto you to bring you down onto the bed with him.

“Yes! Yes! This is perfect. Thank you,” He planted so many quick kissed onto you face that they interrupted his sentence formation. “Thank you, thank you.”

“You should thank yourself for this, you are the one who always chooses to come inside.” You remarked jokingly, also wrapping your arms around him.

✪ Suguru Geto

— You sat nervously on the bed that was wrapped in white, thin paper to ensure it was clean for any patient that had to use it. And that patient was you. You gripped your husbands hand harder, looking to find comfort in his eyes.

“Hey, it’s going to be alright.” He smiled and brought your hand to his lips to press a kiss to the back of it. “We get so see her this time, isn’t that exciting?”

He used ‘her’ to refer to the growing babe in your stomach, but you didn’t truly know the sex of them just yet. He just hoped for a baby girl, hence the use of the pronoun.

Today was your first official appointment at the doctors that you would actually see your baby. You were both feeling so many emotions right now. You were both excited as well as frightened at the same time. You would be able to see your bundle of joy, but there was also a possibility of the fetus having something wrong with them, like a illness.

The door opened and your doctor entered. “Hello, I’ll be helping you for today. My name is D/n, pleasure to meet you.” She thrusted her hand towards your husband, then you as well.

“To begin, we’re just going to start with you Miss mommy. We will perform some basic health checks, your levels and such. How does that sound?” She was very sweet, always making sure to ask if you were ok to proceed.

“Sounds perfect.” Your husband responded for you politely. You added in a nod too.

“Now, let’s move on to what you’ve both been waiting for.” After your procedure was done, it was time for your baby’s turn. “I’m going to perform a ultrasound, you’ll be able to literally see your baby through this! All parents are overjoyed about their first ultrasound.”

“I’d say I’m more anxious, actually.” You muttered, you didn’t want to be a killjoy but how could you not? There was a big step between knowing you’re pregnant and watching your belly grow and actually seeing your baby.

“And that is completely normal! Many say the same too, if you are worried then that is just a sign you are going to be a caring mother.” She had a perfect response for everything. She must’ve been use to all of this already. “Now, I will warn you that the gel is quite cold, but that’s the worst that’s going to happen for this step.”

“Before I start, I ask all my patients if they would like to know the gender.” You both would definitely like to know, since Geto was so keen on it being a little girl.

“Yes please, my husband wants it to be a girl you see.” You informed D/n.

“And as for you? What would you like the gender to be?” She asked you this time.

“My wife doesn’t care much either way. She almost always corrects me when I say our baby is a girl.” Geto sent a look of admiration your way. Everyone took a moment to chuckle, once the moment was over you decided it was time to get it over with.

“Let’s do this, then.” You let it out as a breath. “You ready, Suguru?”

“Not really, are you?” He was joking, half joking at least.

“Not at all.” You responded, letting the man kiss your hand again.

The professional spread the gel all over the surface of your rounded stomach. Once it was to her liking, she turned on the machine and grabbed the device that had the sensor on the end of it. “Let’s see your baby!”

Except it wasn’t just a ‘baby’ the correct term would be ‘babies’ because there’s was two. “Oh, how lovely, you will be having twins it seems.”

Twins? You thought, what would Suguru think about this. So you tilted your head to your husband that was eagerly sitting beside you on his chair. He was in his own world, not noticing you were even looking at him. He eyes were stuck on the screen that showcased the little white and grey blurbs that were your babies.

��And it seems your husband was right about the gender, they’re both healthy, baby girls!” She cheered, continuously moving the wand around your stomach to get new angles.

“You see, I was right!” He pointed out, shimmying closer to your body that was laying down still.

“How do you feel about finding out it’s twins?” You couldn’t help but ask him, anticipating his response.

“I feel that whatever those results would have shown, I would still love you just the same.” He hummed, bringing his hand to your face and brushing your hair out of your face to lay a kiss on your forehead. “I might even love you more.”

✪ Kento Nanami

— Nanami had been at the grocery store, he had to purchase a long list of things. The list contained many things like milk, batteries, lettuce, a pregnancy test or two. Normal things.

Except, this was not normal of course. Nanami especially did not feel normal as of right now, he felt on edge ever since he received the text from you to add a pregnancy test to the grocery list. His phone almost fell right out of his hands at the store when he read it.

And now he was home finally.

You heard his car pull up earlier, so you were already there to meet him at the door once he came through. There was a awkward pause when he laid eyes on you. You didn’t know what to do, you just texted him out of the blue that you needed a pregnancy test. That could only mean one thing, that you were pregnant, or at least there was a possibility of it.

He dropped the bags that he held at the door way of your house where he stood. He quickly sped walk towards you, slightly leaning down to match your height. He brought his hands up to cup your face, he didn’t do anything now, just stare into your eyes. You looked into each others soul, relishing in this intimate moment together.

“You think you’re pregnant?” He asked in a soft voice as not to ruin the moment. You sighed but nodded still.

At this, he closed the gap between your lips and left a intense kiss on them. He pulled back but not too far, wanting to stay as close as he could to you right now.

“Alright.” Is what he said before he left you to return to the previously held bags. He searched through them to find the box that held the stick you needed.

He came back to where you still stood, placing the said box in one of your hands and taking the other in his to hold. “Let’s go the washroom, together.”

You nodded again, following the man that held your hand now. Together, you thought. That single word made you feel warm, it made you feel not so alone in this whole situation.

He opened the door that lead to your bathroom, stilling and letting you in so you could pee on the test in privacy. But you didn’t want that. “Can you stay?” You waited a moment. “Please?”

“Of course.” He kissed you cheek. You sat on the toilet, taking time to just stare at the unopened test before you. Nanami picked up on this, gently taking the box out of your hands and opening the package himself. He gave it back to you now, he hoped that this would send a message to you, that he was there for you no matter what.

You did your thing, peeing on the stick finally. You pulled it back up from underneath you, looking up at Nanami again. “Now we just wait, I guess.”

And wait you did, anxiously to say the least. You had now changed positions. You sat on the counter of the sink, in between your boyfriends legs while he stood. He had been spitting encouraging and comforting words while also rubbing soothing circles on your legs and back. Anything to pass the time and bring you consolation.

The amount of time that was needed had passed. Now it was time to look at the results.

You went to grab the stick but before you could, Nanami grabbed your hand to halt you. “I want you to know that now matter what it says, I’ll still love and support you, ok?”

“Ok.” You smiled up at the blonde, he always knew how to calm you down. He then let go of you so that you could continue with your pursuit of finding out the results.

You flipped the stick over and there it was, two lines that meant you were pregnant. You let a shaky breath out, not sure how to react to this. You looked at Nanami to see how he was handling this, fairly well it seemed. He had a small smile on his face and his eyes looked almost watery.

He took the test away from you, tracing the two lines that went downwards on the tiny screen. He dropped the stick back onto the surface, wrapping his hands around the back of your neck to bring you in for a big, celebratory kiss.

“I am honoured to be able to have a child with you, Y/n.”

✪ Toji Fushiguro

— The black haired man let out a yawn as he rested his feet on the row of benches in front of him. He had his arms stretched across the seats on either side of him too, completely relaxed in his current state. He was watching the boat race today.

This was his favourite hobby by far, he could just laze around the stadium all day and possibly win some money, though he seemed to have bad luck and lose most of it. He didn’t care though, because gambling put him in a good mood, nothing could bring him down. Then his annoying phone ringer went off, signalling someone was calling you. Now that, that could bring him down.

The race was set to start soon, any minute now even. He pulled the phone out of his pocket, your contact lit up the screen. He sighed, there was two minutes left until the boats started racing, he could spare one call with you.

“What, woman?” He drawled out with annoyance evident in his voice. Could you have called at a worse time? He thought internally.

“Get home, now.” Is all he heard on his side of the line before the call was ended by you. Who does she think she is, hanging up on me like that? And only saying three words! Even though he protested in his mind, he got up none the less and made his way to your shared apartment.

After you had ended that call, you immediately felt a wave of anxiety wash through your body. You were in the bathroom on the toilet, positive pregnancy test in hand.

You shouldn’t be surprised really, ever since the two of you started this relationship Toji insisted on having sex without a condom. Now you were forced to face the consequences to your actions, well Toji’s actions really.

You stood up, deciding you should get ready for your boyfriends arrival.

Once Toji arrived, he was met with your figure sitting at the kitchen table. You had your elbows rested on the surface and your hands covering your head. You looked distressed.

He walked up to you, kicking the chair leg you sat on. “What’s up with you? The race was just about to start too and then you had to go and call me all the way over here.”

You didn’t respond verbally, only pulling out a little stick and slamming it on the table in front of him.

He raised an eyebrow, picking the unknown object up and inspecting it. Oh shit, he thought. And that’s what he said out loud too. “Oh shit.”

“Oh shit? That’s all you have to say, really?!” You were starting to get angry now, what kind of response is that to such important news.

“What do you want me to say?” He asked, this was a genuine question. He wanted to know what you wished for as a response, did you want to keep it? Or didn’t you? He needed to know.

“I want you to say,” You breathed in. “I want you to say you’re happy, to say you’re happy to have a baby with me.” You whispered.

He wasn’t the best with sharing his emotions, you know this, but he showed it now in his own way. He dropped down to his knees in front of your chair, grabbing each of your hands and bringing them to his lips.

“I wanna have a baby with you.” He mumbled against your hands and kissed them.

✪ Choso Kamo

— Choso sat on the couch while watching the tv play in the living room. The two of you had cooked up some breakfast, it was early in the morning, but it was the weekend so you both could just relax and spend time doing what you want.

You were doing your morning routine in the bathroom, or at least that’s what Choso was told you were up to. Instead, you were nervously awaiting for the results of the second pregnancy test you had used. The first one was positive, so if this one was too, then it had to mean you were pregnant for sure.

You knew Choso had wanted a child ever since you met, he had told you almost every time you fucked. But for some reason, you still felt scared for his reaction once you told him.

Choso, finished his breakfast by now, had begun to feel worried. You have been in there for quite some time now, too long for your usual routine, and he knew how long you usually took. He had witnessed it almost every morning for the past two years. Plus he had to use the bathroom anyway, so he decided to go to you.

He placed his bowl in the sink, wiped his hands and went to go see what was taking you so long. Once he reached the door, he knocked on it. “Hey, Y/n. Everything alright in there?”

Your heart stopped, the white sticks almost dropping from your hands. “Uhm, ya! Almost done!”

“Can I come in, I have to pee really bad.” He giggled, gripping the doorframe in an attempt to hold his piss in.

You let a breath out, trying to ground yourself. This is Chose we’re talking about, he’s wanted a baby forever, and he loves you. He’ll be ok with it, you told your self. You threw one of the tests in the garbage and kept the other, holding it behind your back.

“Sorry, I lost track of time.” You said as you opened the door, allowing your boyfriend to come in.

“It’s fine.” He rushed past you, not without laying a kiss on your cheek though. He placed himself in front of the toilet, ready to unzip his pants, but stopped as he looked your way. You looked suspicious, you were standing by the sink and staring at him. The most interesting fact was that you had your hands behind your back, like you were hiding something.

He stopped in his tracks and came closer to you. “What you got back there?”

“This.” You said when you shoved the test into his chest. You had a smile on even though you were afraid, but you knew Choso would be excited. “You’re going to be a daddy, Choso.”

He brought the stick to his face, he was surprised to say the least, but a good kind of surprise. He had wanted this with you for a long time.

He grabbed you, picking you up and flinging you around in celebration. “I’m going to be a dad!” He laughed out.

“And I’m going to be a mom!” You laughed along with him. Placing kisses all over each other’s faces.

[gloryhrs]

━━ ⟡ 𝓢𝐋𝐎𝐖 𝓓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝓘𝐍 𝓣𝐇𝐄 𝓓𝐀𝐑𝐊, byakuya k.

꒰ 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝!𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫. → 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞!𝐛𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐲𝐚 (if you squint) ꒱

“Please watch your step, dear.” Byakuya caught his blind husband and pulled him into his chest when the brown-skinned male almost fell down the mansion stairs from being too fast. Today was December 24th, which was special for you and Byakuya. It was the day he met you and the same day he decided to marry you. He thought you looked beautiful, from your milky white eyes to your old scars from the battles before. He still remembered the ugly looks in the faces of the elders when he made the announcement. They were upset about the fact that you were a blind man with darker skin. The number of insults he received from their lips boiled his blood. You were his husband, not there’s. How can they say that you weren't good enough? You were the perfect match for him.

“Sorry, you just. . .keep me so happy!” You leaned your back against his chest as he kept guiding you towards the room. Byakuya's eyes softened from your behavior, even after losing your eyesight, you were still the same optimistic man he had fallen in love with. “You make me happy as well, I love you.” He pressed lips against your cheek and another one on your temple. He liked the way you gave him butterflies, the feeling of warmth in his chest was truly a delightful feeling. “We’re here.” He announced as your smile grew wider. The smell of your favourite meal blended with your favorite flowers led you to wrap your arms around your husband's neck. “Happy Anniversary, my love.” He kissed both scars under your eyes before kissing your lips with passion. The tears gathering up your eyes made him wipe them away and kissed under your eyes once more.

“Happy Anniversary.” You held his hands while they continued to wipe the tears from your face. Ever since you first met him, he's been so sweet and patient with you. The night the doctor told you it wasn't a remedy for your blindness was the same night your heart broke. That night you cried to the point of no return, with Byakuya holding you against his chest. Your heartbroken sobs made him tighten his grip each time, he didn’t care if you soaked his nightwear with snot and tears. Byakuya nearly cried with you, he just wanted you to be happy and know you weren't alone. He even felt his heart break in half when you said you were completely unless and were no longer fit to be his husband. He couldn't stand seeing you so broken, and from that moment on, he swore he would never let you be sad again.

“Come, before the food gets cold.” He took your hand and started walking towards the Kotatsu. The delicious smell of food did your mouth water non-stop. “Ah! It smells amazing darling!” Your husband passed you the chopsticks and placed the bowl directly in front of you so you wouldn’t have to struggle on searching for the object. “It took me a long time, but I've finally mastered the recipe, I hope you enjoy it.” He looked as you placed the chopstick in your mouth with your eyes slightly shining afterwards. The way the flavours melted onto your tongue nearly put you in a food coma. “This is incredible, Byakuya! You are the best chef.” You ate with him chuckling at your loveable demeanor. He refused to allow someone else to cook for you, he was the only one to cook for you. The elders didn't like you, so he didn't trust them to look after your meals when he wasn't there. Which explains why he made a lifetime supply of your favourite dishes for when he's busy with his captain duties.

He didn't know why, but he loved it when you depended solely on him and nobody else. He would do anything for you if he were able. He adored the fact that nobody was capable of coming into your life and taking his place. The idea of someone withstanding him by getting close to you wished nothing but a mere death wish. Since you lost your sight, he has become extremely protective over you, he trusted no one but Rukia or Renji to be close to you. He often had nightmares about losing you permanently because he wasn't there with you or wasn't strong enough to defend you. He couldn’t lose you, not after everything you both been through.

“Thank you for the food darling!” You shook your hands together and crawled to your husband who still hasn't touched his food, as he was too busy being consumed by his thoughts. “You’re welcome, my dove. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He placed the bowl down and pulled you into his lap, with his head nuzzling against your neck. The cozy silence caused you to hum a soft tune as Byakuya rocked back and forth, the familiar melody making him hum along with you. “Byakuya, do we still have that record player?” Your fingers played with his hands as he nodded in agreement. Byakuya doesn’t remember the last time he used it, considering the fact you both didn’t have the time use it anymore.

“Can you play our favourite song? Please?” You poked your lips out to the black haired male who chuckled before moving you off his lap to recover the player. After retrieving the item, he looked into the box for the familiar cover until he grabbed it from the corner of his eye. “There it is.” He removed the cover of the vinyl and blew the dust off. Once he put the vinyl into the player the music started playing softly, the familiar sound made him smile gently. It was the same record you played when you two announced you were now husbands. He couldn’t forget the way you danced with his hands intertwined with yours while cracking up like a small child who discovered happiness for the first time.

“Byakuya! Or should I say, my dear hubby! Let’s dance!” You pulled on the hand of the Kuchiki. Deciding he couldn't tell you no, Byakuya took your hand with his and put the other one on your waist. As he swayed your body, the moonlight started to shine on your face, revealing the multiple marks of beauty he loved so much. Byakuya felt nothing but joy when you were with him, after the death of his wife, he was afraid that he would never discover love again. But you showed up, made him fall in love again. He was so concerned he couldn't find the right woman when he didn't need a wife. “You look great this evening.” He murmured into your ear before he kissed your cheek.

“Thank you for this dance, Byakuya. But I don't think I remember it well.” You grinned when he put his hand on your waist and the other in your other hand. “It's okay, take it slow and follow my hands.” He pulled you closer and kissed your forehead. After stumbling a few times you finally got ahold of the beat, “I finally got it!” You took your hand from him and wrapped it around his neck. No matter how often this happened, Byakuya could not explain the blooming sensation in his chest even if he tried. The classical music playing in the background and how the moonlight shone over your soft eyes made you look like an angel.

“I love you so much, I'm so glad you're my husband.” He kissed your forehead once more. He had no idea how blessed he became to have somebody like you in the world. You were the light that shined through his darkness, you were the sun and he was the moon. “Hm, I love you as well. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” You pecked his lips, the day you went blind was the day Byakuya left everything behind and helped you get back on your feet. He helped you heighten your other senses and got you out of your depressive state. Without him, you would’ve been miserable or dead.

Byakuya didn’t say anything after that, instead, he continued to hold you in his arms while you both slowly danced in the dark.

𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬. – 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐰.

The sound of your angelic whining was the only thing Byakuya could hear when he placed sweet open-mouthed kisses on your neck, with his groin rubbing against yours. The burning sensation in your cheeks and the swelling in your throat prevented you from breathing correctly. “B–Byakuya.” You ran your hands through his silky black hair. The intense pleasure that ran through your body made your head go completely hazy. “Please, let me pleasure you, my dove.” His breath fanned against your lips. He had no recollection of the last time you had sex, but the thought of hearing those heavenly noises from your lips aroused him. He didn't remember the last time he heard the noises, which is why he was so eager to have make love to you.

The man with black hair fondled your cheek before putting his lips on yours, with his tongue pushing them with ease. The light taste of mint was the first thing he could taste as the hot muscle ran through your mouth. While keeping you distracted his hand made its way past your nightwear and into your underwear. The cold hand on your member snapped you out of your thoughts. “Shh, don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.” He cooed in your ear at when you tried to push his hand away from your private area. All night long, you only felt pleasure after spending your anniversary with your husband.

© gloryhrs, 050223. // notes and reblogs are appreciated! (≧∇≦) /

[latenightcinephile]

Film #920: 'The Unknown', dir. Tod Browning, 1927.

Keeping track of the films on the list is often a complicated task, especially when you're trying to find films years in advance of any opportunities to watch them. The master spreadsheet I keep has about two dozen films that are still marked 'UNKNOWN' in orange, and ironically Tod Browning's The Unknown was among them for over a decade. Fortunately, a restoration was undertaken in 2022, and you can now find the Criterion version easily accessible.

Silent film is a fascinating subject after a century of sound pictures. It operated with a very limited palette of techniques, and as such needed to make the most of what it had available. People often complain that silent films are too 'theatrical', but the lack of synchronised sound meant that a silent film in fact had fewer tools at its disposal than the theatre did. While modern films can use realistic sound (or its lack thereof) to punctuate, draw attention to or minimise particular moments of a film, in silent films these tasks had to be shifted onto an actor's performance or onto the film's musical score. Even the use of a score was not foolproof, as theatre musicians would have to compare the requested music with what they had available. A larger toolbox available in contemporary cinema has evened out the workload, and it's less common to see a modern film rely so heavily on, say, performance. Tod Browning's film, though, is a stellar example of how films from before the advent of talking pictures honed these elements - to the point where you almost forget that you're watching something with no audible dialogue.

The star attraction of a circus in Spain, Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney)'s main act is to use his feet to throw knives. He is smitten with his partner in this act, Nanon (Joan Crawford), who is also the daughter of the circus ringmaster, Zanzi. Nanon has a fear of being touched or held by men, which means that she easily finds solace in her friendship with Alonzo, and spurns the advances of the strongman, Malabar (Norman Kerry). Eager to further draw Nanon into his clutches, Alonzo encourages Malabar to display his strength to Nanon more and more. The situation is complicated when it is revealed that Alonzo actually still has his arms - he hides them in a corset to make his act more sensational. Alonzo's friendship with Nanon infuriates Zanzi and, after an altercation, Zanzi discovers that Alonzo still has his arms. Out of rage and fear, Alonzo strangles Zanzi to death. Nanon sees the strangling (and in particular, that the culprit has two thumbs on one hand) - but doesn't recognise Alonzo - and her fear is exacerbated. A cursory police investigation doesn't find the culprit, and when the circus moves on, Alonzo and Nanon stay in town, with Alonzo hoping that he might be able to draw Nanon's affections more.

Before long, Nanon embraces Alonzo - an act that alarms Alonzo's friend and servant, Cojo, who worries that Nanon will see through the deception. Realising that he is so accustomed to hiding his arms that he can get by without them, Alonzo hatches a plan to have both arms amputated, which will conveniently hide any evidence that it was he who killed Zanzi. He blackmails a doctor into performing the surgery, and hides from Nanon for the period of his recovery. During this time, ironically, Nanon overcomes her fear of "men and their hands", and kindles a romance with Malabar. Together, they plan a new theatrical show, built around Malabar's strongman skills.

When Alonzo has recovered, he visits Nanon and Malabar at the theatre (hilariously, Nanon notices that his torso is a lot thinner than it was before). They reveal their engagement to Alonzo, and describe the centrepiece of their new act, in which Malabar uses ropes to tether two horses running on treadmills in opposite directions. Alonzo is driven to hysterics by the news, especially because it was delivered in a way that got his hopes up tremendously, and plans to disrupt the performance so that Malabar is maimed in the process (as Malabar cheerfully admits, if a treadmill stops suddenly, "the horses would tear my arms from my body"). During the show, Alonzo locks away the technician who controls the treadmills, and abruptly slows the treadmills, panicking the horses. Nanon tries to calm the horses down to prevent them killing Malabar; Alonzo then pushes her to safety before he is fatally trampled by one of the horses. With Alonzo out of the picture, Malabar and Nanon can finally spend their lives together in security.

This is a relatively brisk summary of the plot, but it's put in greater context when you realise that the film is only about fifty minutes long. There's a small pile of things in the plot that make no sense - why does Alonzo, who is certain Nanon would come to forgive him for having arms, elect to have them both amputated, and not just remove his extra thumb? Why doesn't Alonzo come up with any explanation for his absence while recovering? - but the film moves along at such a breakneck pace that there's no time to properly question any of them before the next complication arises. Characters are also very fond in this film of saying the most on-the-nose things imaginable, partly as a way of dispensing with any long and realistic exposition. It doesn't take Alonzo long to realise his plan at the end of the film, mostly because Malabar outright says the plan aloud for him. Nanon unintentionally rubs salt into Alonzo's (literal) wounds when she says "I used to be afraid of Malabar's hands, but I love them now."

This excessiveness is one of my favourite elements of The Unknown. It operates in both directions - the excess of comedy becoming farce, and the excess of violence. When the performance with the horses at the end of the film goes awry, Browning cuts rapidly and close, drawing attention to the strain on Malabar's shoulders through close-up shots (and the version of the soundtrack used in the Criterion release piles on the kettledrums at this moment to underscore the tension. It feels like we're moments away from witnessing some terrific gore effects, even though those would be decades away when the film was produced. There are moments, though, where the emotional effect is deflated through farce. The moment Zanzi discovers that Alonzo still has his arms, Alonzo deals with this by... immediately hiding his arms behind his back. These moments sell the horror even more by contrasting them against the absurd.

Lon Chaney's acting is the heart of this film. It's the thing that lets us look past the absurdities of the plot, and buy into the emotional veracity of the film. Although many of the scenes of more fine motion were done with a stunt double, Chaney learned to manipulate things with his feet for wider shots, and it's deeply believable. Audiences at the time would have known that Chaney was not a double-amputee, but the opening scenes of the film sell this so well that the audience I was with murmured in shock when his arms were revealed. Chaney throws the whole of himself into the more emotional scenes, too, so that the intertitles are often superfluous to understanding the direction of a conversation. The performance has to carry a lot of weight throughout the film, too: Alonzo is a murderer and a con artist, driven to extremes by unrequited love, who then descends into hysterics when it is revealed that his extreme measures were unnecessary. In two minutes, he needs to go from hope that Nanon might intend to marry him, to shock that she has fallen for Malabar, to frenzied laughter when he realises he has had his arms chopped off for nothing. Are the emotions overplayed? Sure. But they're in proportion to the scope of the film, and Chaney has an ability to move between these emotions lightning-quick without being abrupt.

Browning does something really interesting with this film, though: he uses the cinematic tools to play into his themes. The best example of this is in the scene where Alonzo realises his plan to have his arms removed. Lost in thought over the idea that Nanon might reject him when she discovers he murdered her father, he absent-mindedly lights a cigarette with his feet. Cojo laughs at him, commenting that he's forgotten he has arms. Alonzo recoils at this, but in Chaney's performance, you can see the plan form (a slight widening of the eyes, a twitch at the mouth). A shift happens here: we move from a dialogue-heavy sequence to one where there are no intertitles at all. Alonzo continues to speak, giddy with realisation, but what he is saying is too horrifying for the intertitles. Cojo's expression turns to shock, and we do get an intertitle when he says "No, no, Alonzo! Not that! Never do that!", but the act itself cannot be spoken, or even written. In the very next scene, Alonzo and Cojo visit the surgeon, and once again there are no intertitles to describe the actual plan - the closest we get is a single ambiguous gesture Chaney makes at his left shoulder. You can sort of make out the words in the movement of his lips, but the audience never receives the confirmation of what has happened.

I find this fascinating. Usually, silent films don't have the luxury of holding anything back - they have to be repetitive and clear to the point of redundancy. Here, Browning has taken something shocking but admittedly rather mundane, and turned it into a taboo strong enough to abolish one of the tools normally at his disposal. The performances in these scenes, from Chaney, John George as Cojo and John St. Polis as the surgeon, are all so strong that it's easy to misremember the film as more explicit than it actually is. As a result, the film is far more subtle than a lot of Tod Browning's other collaborations with Chaney (ten in total), and probably the most restrained of all of Browning's horrors.

The Unknown is a genuine work of art, a film that moves from merely using its elements to portray a story to using its elements to enhance the story. I don't think it's quite like anything else from the silent era. Is it stagey and melodramatic? Yes, but those aren't bad things, and I'd argue they're necessary to make the film's more subtle elements work. This is a film that's well worth seeing; a little Halloween treat that I'm really glad has been rediscovered.

[definitelynotafurinasimp]

CAN I REQUEST US , US TAKING CARE OF EULA, SHE, SHE PROBABLY HAD A FEVER OR SOMETHING, PRETTY MUCH NOT HER USUAL SELF PLSLSLS

Taking care of them while they're sick

characters: Eula / Yun Jin x gn!reader

warnings: none, just fluff

a/n: I decided to add Yun Jin to this, since I wanted to write something for her. Still, this is one of the first times I have ever written for her, so I'm sorry if I got her character a bit wrong.

Also I'm trying something "new" (well, I used to do smth like this, but abandoned it after some time) with the whole images instead of writing the names in italics, so I hope it doesn't look completely sh*t.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

You had absolutely no idea how Eula caught a cold. Sure, she was taking bath in the freezing waters of Dragonspine much more frequently than any person should, but that never seemed to bother her. But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how she got herself sick, only that she managed to do so, and as the number one person on her list of people she swore her vengeance to, it was your duty to care for her until she was feeling well enough to continue avenging her grievances.

Taking care of her turned out to be not as difficult as you thought. Most of the time you found her sleeping and when she was awake, the most you had to do was cook chicken soup while making sure that she didn’t run out of tissues. All in all, you got much more out of it than you had to sacrifice, you had an excuse to stay at home for a few days, weren’t dragged to Dragonspine by Eula and got to hear some accidentally hilarious things coming out of her mouth.

“I swear on my name and on everything that I hold dear, I will take my vengeance on this stupid cold!”, you wished you could say how many times you had heard her say something of these lines in the past two days, but you had long lost count of it. Not being allowed to leave the bed for most of the time made the usually elegant and composed Eula into a frustrated mess.

“I’m sorry if me asking may seem disrespectful, but how exactly do you plan on taking revenge on an illness?”, you asked her while mockingly imitating the speech in which you imagined a servant would speak to their master. Your voice suddenly coming seemingly out of nowhere managed to catch the Lawrence a bit off-guard, causing her to turn her head so she would face you before giving you a short glare and taking the bowl of chicken soup you held in your hands.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care, all I know is that I want this stupid cold to finally end”, she muttered loud enough for you to hear before starting to shove the contents of the bowl into her mouth, only to stop after a few seconds and look you in the face once more. “You told me you know a bit about colds. So, how long until I’m fine again?”, she held eye contact with you for a few more seconds before starting to cough again and putting the bowl onto the small desk next to the bed.

“Well, you are still sick, and I don’t think you should go to work too quickly or else you might get something more serious. So maybe a week? I’m not an expert, but that’s usually how long it lasts”, the moment the estimated duration of her sickness left your mouth, Eula let out a frustrated groan before falling backwards onto the pillows.

You knew that Eula would be fine, maybe she would think twice about jumping into the cold water of Dragonspine the next time she was there or maybe she wouldn’t, you didn’t know. But what you did know, was that you had a week full of complaining in front of you.

Having to perform regularly seemed like something stressful for you, but Yun Jin managed to do so without showing a hint of exhaustion, even though she didn’t miss a single performance. Well, not until she got sick with a sore throat at least. And while she had already seen a doctor, she still had to remain at home and rest, with you by her side to tend for her every need.

As her significant other you already knew what she was a sweet person she had hidden behind her polite public mask, but while most people would be a bit less bearable while sick, she was as nice as ever. Communicating with her was a bit difficult at first, since she couldn’t really speak without it causing her pain or at least discomfort, but you quickly resolved that problem by writing her a few cards with different things on them, causing her to simply show them to you whenever she needed the item written on them.

You didn’t leave Yun Jin’s side often, deciding to stay by her side most of the time, even if she didn’t really need you, you decided that she would probably appreciate a bit of company, telling her a few stories you had been told by your grandpa when you were just a child. To your surprise, and amusement, your “patient” had grabbed a blog and pencil before starting to write your tales down. At first you tried slowing down a little bit, but when you noticed that she was a fast writer and managed to keep up with your almost ramble like telling of the stories, you decided not to hold back.

But you also had a few things to do, so when you noticed how you ran out of ingredients for tea, you immediately ran to buy them, coming back in almost record time.

“You’re not going to believe this, Jin. So, when I was walking home, I met Chongyun, you know the exorcist boy with blue hair?”, you began talking the moment you re-entered the room, only to see her nod. “And he heard of your sore throat, so he was nice enough to give me one of his popsicles since he meant that they help against the pain. It hasn’t melted, yet, but I think it would be a good idea to eat it rather sooner than later”, you continued, only to hand the popsicle to Yun Jin, watching her give you a cute smile before starting to eat it.

“Thank you for taking so much care of me”, she thanked you in a hoarse voice, her smile never leaving her face. Your eyes instantly widened in shock. She wasn’t supposed to speak. You quickly scanned through all the cards only to realise that there was none for thanking you, immediately blaming yourself for forgetting to write one, indirectly forcing her to speak whenever she wanted to thank you. But before you had a chance to blame yourself too much, your mind was interrupted by Yun Jin laughing, only for it to turn into coughing. You quickly handed her a glass of cold water and saw her take a sip of it before she turned back to you. “You always worry so much, but be assured, I’m doing much better than yesterday, so thank you for that.”

[praxeus-13]

Something Lost In My Head

(Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

Pairing: Dhawan!Master x Timelord!Reader

Word Count: 5400

Summary: The Master takes a break to search for his long lost love, slowly losing hope of ever finding you. Then, an unexpected phone call gives him some hope.

Warnings: Brief mentions of murder, but this is The Master so really what do you expect?

Tag list: @hopefulfuturenovelauthor @geocookie21

A/N: Thank you all so much for the amazing response to the first part! I hope you enjoy this, and I’ll try to get part 3 done in two weeks time but no promises :D

The Master was lonely, he had been for a long time. Terrorising The Doctor or her pets would always help, at least for a little while, but he always had to retreat and replan. Terrorising others would also help, though never as much. Burning Gallifrey had helped a lot, but the loneliness had come back, as always. He spent a lot of time yearning for the days when he wasn’t lonely, before the Time War, before the High Council had interfered.

When he’d had you.

The Master, or Koschei as you used to call him, knew that he could always depend upon you. As far as his younger selves had known, you were always going to be by his side. The two of you, exploring the universe together, often leaving a trail of chaos in your wake. These days he left a trail of destruction, his days of practically harmless chaos were long gone.

Still, he had always held out hope. The Master refused to believe Rassilon when he had told him that you were dead, he would have killed Rassilon on the spot if the High Council hadn’t been prepared for that. He’d stopped fighting in the war then, in a fit of grief and rage he had shoved a chameleon circuit onto his head and threw his human self to the end of the universe.

When The Doctor found him, and caused him to wake up, he was still full of that grief and rage. His regeneration after that had spent far too much time trying to destroy the world and himself in the process. Missy had followed after that, and she had gone along the same path for a while, but whenever it had gotten quiet she had gone looking for you.

When The Doctor finally caught up with Missy, and locked her up in the vault, she finally started to process her grief over losing you. She had spent many of those years crying to herself, never letting The Doctor see, putting on an act until the final years. Then she had started to talk to him about you, telling stories he hadn’t heard before, and she could almost allow herself to move on.

Almost, but not quite.

Missy had always known you were still out there, and she’d told her Doctor as much, but she could tell that he never believed her. The Doctor told her how he had gone looking for you, as soon as he had figured out what happened, but he’d been unsuccessful and had eventually given up. She’d been angry then, The Doctor had known you nearly as long as she had, The Doctor was the one who always had hope - so she didn’t understand why he would give up on you. Missy’s dying thoughts had been focused on you, reliving old memories and making new vows for her next regeneration.

When The Master ended up in his new body he had done three things. First, he’d gotten off the Mondasian ship. Second, he’d gotten a new outfit before Missy’s corset caused him to regenerate again. Third, he went to Gallifrey in search of answers. Unfortunately, the Matrix had yielded no answers to your status of whereabouts, though it had lead to a long chain of tiring events.

He’d escaped Gallifrey before the Death Particle had gone off, though the cyberium had jumped out of him and into one of the Cyber Masters just before he had left, and although The Doctor had bested him yet again he didn’t have the energy within him to care.

Now The Master was practically back where he started, alone in the universe with even less leads and even more wounds. In a century or so he would probably seek The Doctor out again, create more elaborate plans in hopes of beating her, but now was not the time for that. Now he was going to fulfil his promise to his previous regeneration and find you, or at least give it his very best try.

———

It had been 48 days for him since the events on Gallifrey had taken place. The Master was sat in his TARDIS’ console room, going over the plans he had laid out all over the floor. He had made a map of the universe - or at least all of the parts left remaining after the Flux had swept its way through - and had highlighted all of the places he hadn’t looked yet. The Master was halfway through crossing off some of the locations that he had tried when he heard a phone ringing.

It took him a while to locate the phone, it was the one he had used as O to contact The Doctor though after that plan had failed he hadn’t had much need for the device anymore, so he hadn’t used it in a while. Eventually though, he did find it.

When he looked at the caller ID he was surprised to see “The Doctor” written on the screen, though there it was. Honestly he’d hoped that she’d actually thought she’d killed him (again), but that clearly wasn’t the case. The Master hesitated to answer, not wanting to be distracted from his search to you, though he was itching to find out why in Rassilon’s name The Doctor was calling him.

Unfortunately, he took a second too long to decide, as the phone stopped ringing. A second later his screen lit up again, and he answered immediately.

“Doctor! What an unpleasant surprise, what do you want?” It wasn’t hard to put on a mask, pretend that he wasn’t sleep-deprived and depressed.

“I’m sending you coordinates, meet me there.” Her voice sounded slightly shaky, and The Master was intrigued, however he wasn’t stupid enough to fall right into a trap.

“Come on now Doctor, I’m not stupid enough to fall for a trap that weak! I’m hurt that you’re underestimating me.”

“It’s not a trap, just get there.”

“Why would I do that? You’ve given me absolutely no incentive to do so.”

That was a lie of course, merely the fact that she had elected to call him was incentive enough, but he was restraining himself. He’d made a promise to himself, and his priority right now was searching for you.

Strangely, The Doctor took a deep breath before she spoke, as though what she was about to say was life-altering information and she had to prepare herself to tell him.

“I found Y/N.”

Well, that definitely was life-altering information.

The Master froze, almost sure that he hadn’t heard her correctly. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, trying to verify with himself that she’d actually said what he thought she’d said.

“What?” When he spoke his voice was barely above a whisper, completely unsure of himself.

“I found Y/N.”

The Master didn’t know what to do, how to react. There were a thousand questions racing through his mind, and a thousand feelings to go along with them. Were you okay? Why did The Doctor call him instead of you? Did she actually have you with her, or did she simply know where you were? Would The Doctor try to use you as a bargaining tool? Back before the war the answer would have been a definite ‘no’, but now the two of them had drifted so far apart that he simply didn’t know the answer to that question anymore.

Then a chill of dread filled his body as another question came to mind.

“Master?” The Doctor’s voice shook him out of his spiral, and he realised he hadn’t said anything for a few minutes.

“Is- Is Y/N alive?” His voice broke when he asked, not being able to bare it if he found out that The Doctor had only found your body.

“Oh! Yes, yes they’re alive. Just-“ The Doctor paused, seemingly struggling with the correct words, “It’ll be easier to explain in person.”

The Master feels a jolt of fear at her comment, and he can’t wait another second to see you.

“I’m on my way.” He tells her as he starts to make his way around the console, typing in the coordinates and setting the controls in the correct positions, “But Doctor, if this is a trap I’ll kill you and every little pet you’ve ever had.” He hangs up before giving The Doctor a chance to reply.

The Master’s body was on autopilot for the journey to The Doctor’s selected location. Meanwhile his thoughts were still running wild, though they were mainly focused on theorising about whatever The Doctor needed to explain. All he could conclude was that you were probably injured in some way, and he just had to hope that you would be okay.

As soon as his TARDIS landed The Master hurried out of the doors. The planet that The Doctor had given him coordinates to was insignificant in the grand scheme of things, nothing sentient ever lived there, and eventually it would be burnt up by its closest sun. The Master didn’t pay attention to the planet’s atmosphere, only focused on The Doctor’s TARDIS as it materialised in front of him.

The Doctor stepped out, looking no different from the last time he had seen her, closely followed by Yaz. The Master was surprised that the other two didn’t also follow her out, but he put that thought to the back of his mind.

For a moment the three of them stood and stared at each other, The Doctor and The Master simultaneously deciding to put away recent events in favour of you, Yaz unknowingly observing.

The Master decided to break the silence. “Is Y/N with you?”

“Yes, they’re resting in the TARDIS.”

Nodding, The Master started to step forward, he had every intention of seeing you as soon as possible. Rather than moving out of the way, The Doctor straightened up and blocked his path.

“I know you want to see them, and you will just- I need to tell you something first.” The Doctor had a pitying look in her eyes, he had seen it many times before.

The Master didn’t say anything, so The Doctor continued. “Firstly, it’s been two centuries since they last saw you, at least as far as I can tell. They had been on the same planet for that time, before we found them.”

The Master felt nauseous, he hadn’t even considered time differences, but he should have. After all, you were both time travellers. Part of him was glad that you hadn’t spent millennia apart from him as he had from you, but two centuries was still a very long time - even for a Time Lord. Another part of him was angry, angry that the two of you were out of sync, that you’d had to spend years of your lives growing and learning but not with each other.

Still, he couldn’t find anything to say, at least not to The Doctor.

The Doctor seemed to sense this as she continued. “Secondly, uh, it seems as though Y/N has-“ She took a breath and closed her eyes, before opening them and looking directly at him. “Y/N has lost almost all of their memory.”

The universe seemed to go deadly quiet in that moment, not even the everlasting drums in his head seemed to be there.

Then, like a tsunami, everything seemed to come rushing back all at once. The constant drumming, the tidal wave of thoughts and feelings, it was nearly too much to cope with. By some miracle he was able to form a comprehensive sentence.

“What- I mean- What? Are- are- are you sure?” The Master looked into The Doctor’s eyes, practically pleading with her to say anything to give him some hope on your condition.

“Yes, they didn’t recognise me even once I told them my name. Actually they didn’t even know their own name until I told them.”

“But, you said they’ve lost ‘almost all’ of their memory? What does that mean? What do they remember?”

The Master was heartbroken and grieving for you again, but this time he could at least be comforted with the knowledge that you were alive. So, he decided to try and focus on the facts, get as much information as possible in hopes of getting your memories back.

Strangely, The Doctor gave him a small smile, “They remember you. Y/N couldn’t remember their own name but they could remember you, your name, most of what you looked like over your regenerations. Despite it all they’re still Y/N, they spent most of the time talking about you, they were worried about you even though they’re the one with memory loss. Y/N is still Y/N, I think their memories are just suppressed.”

The Master nodded slowly, starting to understand what The Doctor was saying and what it meant.

“So, what? Rassilon used a chameleon circuit on them? Are they human now?”

“No, definitely still Time Lord - I checked. But the High Council kept a lot hidden from public knowledge, they could have used a similar technology. Either that or a very skilled telepath messed around in their head.”

Well, at least The Doctor had a couple of hypothesise and they weren’t just starting with nothing.

“I’ve had the TARDIS take a full medscan of them while they’re resting, it should be done soon. Hopefully the results will be able to give us more information.” The Doctor tried to give him another smile, though it was clear she was still worried about your state.

Surprising himself, The Master gave her a small smile back. At the end of the day he was grateful for her effort. After all he had done to her over the recent centuries she had every right to simply leave you wherever she had found you, or to never tell him that she had found you. Instead, she had chosen to help you, and to help him.

“Can I see Y/N now? I won’t do anything to harm your TARDIS or your pets as long as they’re here, you know that.” All he wanted to do right now was to hold you in his arms and promise to never let you go again.

The Doctor nodded and behind her the TARDIS’ doors opened, she went through first, followed closely by Yaz. Finally, The Master walked in.

The Doctor’s TARDIS hadn’t changed from when he’d last seen it. As far as TARDIS interiors went, hers wasn’t the worst, though it was certainly never one that The Master would chose. You’d probably like it though.

The Doctor walked directly over to the console, checking one of the screens that seemed to be doing everything possible to get her attention. Concerned, The Master headed towards it as well, though Yaz stood in his way before he could get close enough to properly see the screen. Instead he watched The Doctor’s reaction to the words she was reading, he became worried when her eyebrows furrowed and her face scrunched up angrily.

However, when she turned to face him she had a neutral expression on her face, or at least as close as she could get to neutral. “Overall, they’re okay, only a few small bruises and scratches. But the readings for their mind are all over the place, and the results aren’t narrowing down what could have happened to them. I think one of us is going to need to actually enter their mind and have a look around, to properly figure out what’s going on.”

The Master nodded, it wasn’t what he’d wanted but he would do anything to help you. “I’ll look, I know Y/N far better than you, and I’ve spent enough time in their mind to know what it should look like.”

“Sounds like a plan, want to see them now?”

———

The Master was nervous, which wasn’t an emotion he would readily admit to feeling, nor was he too familiar with the feelings associated with being nervous. He was pacing as he waited outside the Medbay, The Doctor had gone in to check on you and had left Yaz to watch over him. Luckily, The Doctor’s favourite pet human hadn’t said a word to him, so he had been able to focus on trying to calm his worries.

Your memory loss certainly complicated the situation. If you still had your memories in tact reuniting with you would have been easy, neither of you would have needed words to convey all of your thoughts. Now though, he actually had to think about what he was going to say, about what he was going to do. Hundreds of scenarios were playing out in his head, though he still hadn’t found the exact right one. Of course, The Doctor had terrible timing as usual, and walked out of the medbay right then.

“Y/N is awake now, I haven’t said much about the memory loss, but I let them know that the rest of them is fine. You ready to go in?”

Unable to get any words out at that moment, The Master simply nodded. Then, The Doctor opened the medbay doors once again, allowing him to step through.

His eyes caught on you immediately. You were sat up in one of the hospital-like beds, and though you had regenerated since he had last seen you, he knew it was you. He wasn’t sure there would ever be words to describe the relationship between the two of you, though he supposed that the only ones who could ever come up with that language would be those who could experience such an eternal relationship, and there were very few of those people in the universe. Somehow though, the bond between the two of you meant that you could always recognise each other no matter what either of you looked like.

The Master walked towards you cautiously, still not completely sure of what his next action would be. Luckily, you spoke before he had to think too much.

“Koschei.” Your voice was barely above a whisper, it was as though you had spoken without exactly thinking about it.

“Hi.” His heart ached, for so many reasons, so much so that he could barely get the word out.

“Hi.” You spoke, and he could tell that you were nervous, though it was more giddy than scared.

“How are you feeling?” The Master asked as he perched on the edge of your bed.

“I’m- I don’t really know? I feel better now I’m out of that place, now that you’re here.” The Master had to use all of his strength to restrain himself from wrapping his arms around you. “The only thing that I’ve known for certain these past centuries is that if I found you I’d be okay, that I’d be safe. I am now, aren’t I? I’m safe, yeah?”

You looked at him with such hope and trust in his eyes, and he was in awe at the fact that even though you had no memories you still trusted him.

“Yes, you’re safe now, and I’ll make sure that you stay safe from now on.”

You nodded, and he could see tears welling in your eyes - matching the tears welling in his. There was so much that he wanted to tell you, so much he wanted to ask you, but he knew that those were conversations that would have to wait until after you got your memories back.

The Master heard footsteps behind him, though he didn’t turn to look, he couldn’t turn his eyes away from you. However he could easily tell that The Doctor was stood not far behind him, from the way your eyes were flicking between him and The Doctor.

“What about my memories? Do you know how to get them back?” You asked in a worried tone.

“We don’t know yet, The Master is going to have to enter your mind telepathically and have a look around to figure out what’s going on. If that’s alright with you, of course.” The Doctor explained.

“The Master?” You looked towards The Master with a confused expression, and his hearts felt like they were breaking yet again.

“It’s my title, what everyone else calls me. You call me Koschei though, love.” He explained patiently, hoping that his title wouldn’t give you a bad impression of him when you didn’t know the story behind it anymore.

“Oh, alright. What do you need to do?”

The Master was mildly shocked by your easy acceptance, though it also made him realise that The Doctor was right. Somehow you were still you, even despite the memory loss, and you had always trusted him more than anyone else in the universe.

“I just need you to relax love, I’ll do the rest.”

You nodded at his words and settled back against the pillows behind you. Then The Master reached out his hand to your temple and closed his eyes.

———

Slipping into your mind after so many years was probably the most relaxing thing The Master had done in a long while. He loved the familiarity of it, the way his presence blended into yours so seamlessly.

“Strange.” He heard your voice echoing around him, and opened his eyes.

There you were, your presence glowing the same soft lilac that it always had, complimenting his deep mauve presence.

“Strange, dear?”

“This feels so, natural, so right. Some part of me knows that we’ve done this before, I just can’t remember. It’s like the memories are right there, I can almost see them, they’re just a little too far away.” As you spoke your presence became a little spikier, and a tad more desaturated, reflecting your emotions.

He found himself mirroring you, though his own emotions had more intensity to them. Even while you were right here, while he was in your mind, he found himself missing you. The Doctor had been right, not something he would ever dare to admit to her, but she was right when she’d said that you were still you. You still had your charm, you were still just as curious as you had always been, you were still honest to the point of sometimes being more blunt than most others would like.

Unfortunately, you were also a shell of your former self, the version of you that The Master had fallen in love with all those millennia ago on Gallifrey. It was back in his academy days, he’d gone by Koschei back then and was a few years your senior. He’d seen you around occasionally, and you’d caught his eye sometimes, though he’d never considered giving more than a passing thought to you until one day. Koschei had been in the library alone, hoping to revise without the distractions that his friends would always cause, he’d wandered to the back to find the peace and quiet he craved.

Instead he’d found you, preparing yourself to climb the bookshelf in order to access one of the books higher up. All these years later he couldn’t remember what the book was about, but he could remember seeing you properly for the first time. However it wasn’t purely your looks and general demeanour that had caught his interest, it was the conversation the two of you had after he’d gotten the book down for you. He remembered being mesmerised, amazed to find someone who was so like him and at the same time so different.

The two of you had continued to meet up for years, always in same spot in the library. For some reason he had decided to keep you a secret from his friends, his time with you was just for the two of you. Eventually he’d decided to begin courting you (as was standard on Gallifrey), and his friends had ended up finding out. They were hesitant to accept you at first, especially Theta, Ushas and Magnus, but it had all worked out for a short while.

Everything fell into place from there, his parents had approved of the marriage, though they were disappointed your house didn’t have a higher status, the two of you were able to go through with the ceremony after you’d graduated. The ceremony itself had been a big event that neither of you were fond of, but it was tradition and it had been expected of you. Afterwards you’d had a quieter celebration with the Deca, getting drunk on ginger wine (a gift from Koschei’s parents) and dancing the night away. The two of you loved your first lives together on Gallifrey, both struggling to find a place in the rigid Time Lord society, though always calmed by the solace found in each other. Even when his life started to fall apart, when the Deca was disbanded and when The Doctor left Gallifrey without so much as a goodbye, you were there by his side.

You’d been the one to suggest leaving Gallifrey, taking a TARDIS and going to see the stars together, and he’d agreed wholeheartedly. For a few decades it was just the two of you, travelling the stars and planets together. Then you’d caught up with The Doctor, and you both started to get into more trouble. The Master had been lucky that you never felt the need to change him or the way he acted, and you would often join him in his schemes to spite his friend-turned-enemy.

You’d always been by his side, and he by yours, until you weren’t. The Master remembers the day you were taken in extremely clear detail, he’s played the memory over and over again in his mind, run through every possibility and hated himself for every failure of his.

When he’d burned Gallifrey not too long ago, he did it for you. He hated the Time Lords and the High Council for taking you away from him. Finding out about The Doctor’s origins had certainly fuelled the fire, but his anger and pain from losing you was what truly pushed him towards destruction.

Looking at you now, he was a mess of emotions: delighted that you were reunited; heartbroken that you’d lost your memories; and yet glad that you were still alive. However, he knew that you would be terrified right now, so he pushed those emotions down to deal with them another time. You needed him, and he be damned if he didn’t help you. Looking back at you, he projected a sense of safety.

“I’m going to search your mind now, and try and find your memories. It won’t hurt, but it might feel a little invasive.” He tried to reassure you.

“Okay, I trust you.” You replied, and The Master could tell that was the truth.

Finally, he took a deep breath and submerged himself in your mind.

———

Searching around in someone’s mind is a lot like swimming, that is, if one was swimming through mud. However, over time it gets easier, and over the centuries Koschei had visited your mind a lot. The two of you always had your mental walls down for each other, feeling everything the other felt, it was how you got through so much together. Therefore, Koschei knew exactly where to go to find your memories. He navigated your mind expertly, making sure you were following him at all times.

When he reached his destination he couldn’t hide his shock. It was empty. No doors just a hallway (of sorts) that went on endlessly. Trying not to worry either of you, The Master continued on down the hallways, checking each one but finding no doors leading to your memories. He was starting to lose hope, until he finally started to get to more recent years. The Master shot through the first door he saw without thinking, and you followed.

On the other side the two of you came face to face with your earliest current memory. You were sat on the floor, slouched against one of the stone walls of your hell, just waking up. The Master watched on with a mix of curiosity and pain as you got up and started to explore. He wanted to watch more, but he could see the way your emotions had changed next to him, so he lead you out of there.

Once the door was closed he paused for a moment, letting you collect yourself. Strangely, he saw the wall opposite flicker for a moment, as though a perception filter were placed over it. Physically, that was impossible to do in one’s mind, though you could definitely make the impression of a perception filter. The Master motioned for you to follow before heading straight at the wall. On the other side, he found hope.

Doors he recognised, remembered, a little worse for wear but very much in tact. He knew these doors, they were core memories of the two of you, and they were well protected. Whatever- whoever had done this to you, you’d protected yourself as well as you could.

“What is this? Why are these doors damaged?” You asked.

“Some of your memories of me, of us. Most of the core moments between us, they’re a little damaged but if we find the rest then we can restore them.” He made sure to reassure you, even if he wasn’t 100% sure whether he was telling the truth right now.

You nodded as much as one could when you were a disembodied representation of your consciousness.

Now fuelled by hope, The Master strode out of the hallway. It was a while later (time was rather hard to discern in one’s mind), when the two of you finally had another breakthrough. Turning into another hallway, he’s half expected it to be as empty as the last few, instead he saw two large double doors. They were intricately designed, circular Gallifreyan all over. However the part that truly got his blood boiling was the handles for the door, half moons that formed a circle when the doors were shut, a circle with the Seal of Rassilon stamped right on them. The Master growled, his form becoming a spiky dark red.

“I should have known.” He was almost overwhelmed with disgust and hatred-

“Koschei?”

“Rassilon, one of the founders of Gallifrey. He was the one who arranged for you to be taken, he was the one who told me you were dead, and he seems to have been the one who messed with your memories, my love.” The Master never took his eyes off the doors, almost afraid Rassilon himself would burst out of them and murder you.

“So, my memories, they’re in there?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t we just go in and get them then?”

“I’m afraid it won’t be that easy my love, Rassilon was old and clever, he would have set up traps. It will probably take a while, and we’ll need to do this together. I trust you, and if you had all those memories I’d trust you to do what was needed, but for now I need to trust that you’ll listen to me and follow my lead. I want- I need to keep you alive Y/N, above all else.”

The Master was close to begging at this point, although that wasn’t exactly new for your relationship. There had been many times when he had been happy to beg you for something completely unprompted, you’d never ask him to, but he felt the need to remind you how devoted he was to you every few decades.

“I trust you, and you can trust me. I’ll listen to you, I’ll do what you say. I want my memories back, but mostly all I’ve wanted these past centuries has been you. I’ve just found you, I won’t be stupid and give this up now.” You replied earnestly, and The Master had to resist the urge to embrace you.

“Alright, follow my lead.” He told you, turning back to the doors and walking forwards.

When he reached out a hand to one of the handles he held his breath. You held the other handle, and together you opened the doors. He knew that this was just the beginning of the battle, but he would continue fighting for you past his last breath. As the doors fully opened, a bright red light encased you both, and The Master braced himself - this was going to take a while.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Piece by Piece

All you Spanish speakers please forgive me. I promise I checked multiple translation software's before  writing it in, but perhaps i got the wrong connotation. please don’t destroy me too much lol

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing.\

Sunny sat with him, two hands holding one of his, the others resting gently on either his leg or his arm, in hopes she would be able to detect the first sign of movement. While she sat there, she rested her head against his good shoulder listening to the soft sound of his breath, now enhanced by a new artificial lung.

She tried not to dwell on the scene, despite being contained within it.

Sunny had a picture, an image of Adam from when he was younger, whole and healthy, both eyes, both legs, blond hair. And now, as he lay there, she couldn’t help but feel she was watching him be chipped away piece by piece. It was then that she was assailed by a guilt she thought years gone by now as she looked down at his leg. His prosthetic had been removed and set off to the side leaving him with the missing limb from the thigh down.

She had taken that from him.

She was the first person to steal a piece.

And now here he was, cobbled together and held in place by a mixture of machine parts and flesh.

A leg, A lung, an eye and a heart. The entire left side of his chest was mostly exposed, a vast swath of artificial skin that didn’t quite match the other skin around itt. There were still bandages of course, Krill and the other doctors expected some drainage from the implantation of the lung, and so had left tubes sticking out of his chest for just such reason.

He looked

Strange.

Barely human.

A missing leg, hair gone whit with stress little lines of orange light pulsing through his veins where the void sickness still lingered, only coming out now that he was injured.

Between the Adam she saw now, and the Adam in this picture.

He was unrecognizable.

Like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster.

And yes she had read the book, Adam had insisted. Mary Shelley was the mother of science fiction after all. Sunny hadn’t liked the book very much, but she had humored him. After finishing it, he grudgingly admitted that he didn’t like it all that much either, but he thought it was important.

She squeezed his hand tighter, “Come on.” She muttered.

He didn’t move, and she sighed, leaning forward to rest her head back on his arm, soft, human skin pressed against her cheek.

From here she was at the perfect angle to see the light downy fuzz that covered his human ski, trailing up his arms and onto his shoulders. It was blond in color and so light  and wispy it would have been impossible to notice at anything other than this distance. From here she could see where the line of fuzz terminated where real and artificial skin met.

“Come on.” She muttered again, “Nane anidonish.” she said again.

His face remained still and unmoving.

She sighed heavily.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, but woke up when the lights in the room were dimmed to the shuffling of feet.

She lifted her head to see Dr. katie standing in the doorway.. Her long, dark hair was tied back in a messy bun,and she held a holopad in one hand. She walked over quietly to look at the monitors, “Any change/”

Sunny shook her head, “Should he…. Have woken up by now.”

Katie pursed her lips, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase her next sentence.

“Don’t sugarcoat it.” Sunny said 

Katie nodded, “It’s hard to say. The injuries were incredibly traumatic. With the amount of bloodloss he sustained before we showed up, there is no knowing how long his brain was starved for oxygen. Celex says the anima is still there, so that is a good sign, but there is always a chance that the brain damage was so severe that the anima won’t be able to interact through the damage….” She paused jaw working, “But he is incredibly drugged right now, and his body is trying to repair an immense amount of damage, so it might just be sleeping it off……” 

“There’s more.” Sunny said, prodding the other woman to speaking.

She sighed, “Well, there is a possibility that despite all of that he still might not wake up.” There are a series of structures in the brain that control a person’s ability to wake up and become conscious. If those structures are damaged, the brain might be completely functional but the person just might not have the ability to be conscious. It happens often in coma patients. Due to the nature of neurons and nerves, it could take years to recover, or not at all.”

Sunny felt her heart sink in her chest.

If this was at any other point before this whole void thing started, she would have put Adam on a DNR. Keeping him alive just so he could lay there and waste away didn’t seem right, but at the same time if she let him die, there was no telling what Kazna would do to his sole.

Probably something worse than death.

They already knew that the void was using anima energy for power, since they column’t seem to generate their own.

Someone like Adam would be valuable.

She went quiet as Katie checked the tubes and the monitors before backing away.

A day.

And a night,

And another day passed by, the world around her moving slowly as she sat and waited, watched for any sign of movement.

It was in the dark of that second night or so when she sensed the change.

So in tune was she with his breathing, that she was able to detect the slightest hint of change as he came out of unconsciousness. Sunny lifted her head as his breath hitched. She sat on the edge of her seat, watching his face intently. His eyelids twitched once, then twice, before slowly opening.

His pupils were incredibly dilated, but it was dark and the ambient light of the room was soft and soothing.

He blinked once, and fought to keep his eyes open.

“Adam,” Sunny said squeezing his hand hard, “Adam can you hear me.”

His head lolled to the side, oxygen mask fogging with another breath.

His eyes fell on her, and though his mouth was mostly obscured, she watched his cheeks stretch, and the little lines at the corners of his eyes deepened a bit.

Sunny had heard a human call those laugh lines once, but she didn’t need to know that to recognize a smile.

No matter how high or braindead he might have been, at least Sunny got a smile.

Inside her chest, Sunny’s heart thrummed, filing hr with a shot of heat that blossomed outwards into her limbs. 

His eyes fluttered again, and then dropped.

She reached out a hand to cup his cheek, the skin of his face wasm.

He didn’t say anything, and his eyes were closed, put he turned his head inward into her hand and sighed deeply, before drifting off back to sleep.

Sunny’s heart thrilled inside.

He was alive.

That was the least she could say and for now that was going to have to do. Alive and awake, and he recognized her.

She was able to sleep a bit easier than, arms resting on the bed, hands still holding his as she waited.

He gained consciousness a few more times in the following hours, the time between each getting shorter and shorter. With each turn, he seemed to gain more awareness. At one point upon waking, he clutched her hand tight, and looking up she could see his eyes wide eyebrows raised as if he was startled or afraid. She didn’t know what he was seeing or what he had seen to cause that, but the next time Katie came in to check on them, she found Sunny laying on the bed with Adam, his head lolled to rest against her chest, sleeping again.

He woke up again sometime in the late evening when the sound of the hospital was leaking through the doors, and light was spilling in from the window from the glowing street orbs. He didn’t speak, eyes hooded with exhaustion. Sunny momentarily entertained the idea that Adam may never speak again, and decided at least she could live with that if she had to .

If anything she could get the anima surgery so she could read minds.

She thought that Adam narrowed his eyes at that thought, but perhaps it was simply wishful thinking.

He was still awake when Krill came in.

And the doctor studiously went about determining if he still had the capacity to think like a normal person.

After his examination, that was comprised mostly of bright lights and clicking noises , Krill turned to Sunny, “Well the good news is his eyes are normally reactive, and so is his hearing, so he can hear and see us just fine. Based on what I can determine he understands at least some of what we are saying.”

“Some?”

“You must understand, the amount of drugs we have him on is astronomical to put it lightly. Having your entire chest reconstructed is extreme, and even now will hurt terribly. It is likely he will gain more lucidity as we lower the drug dosage, but it is going to take some time.”

That made Sunny feel a bit better, and she let Krill go.

Adam went back to sleep.

It was late  the following morning when, Martha came to Visit.

She poked her head around the corner and waved to sunny, who sat up.

Martha’s eyes fell on Adam’s still face, gaunt and pale especially against his hair.

Her eyes fell on the right side of his chest, scanning over the damage.

Her mouth twitched, but she remained surprisingly composed, “Are you okay for a visitor.”

Sunny knew instantly, and was glad martha had checked in first. She wasn’t sure if she wanted Kay to see any of this, but eventually pulled the blanket higher up Adam’s chest and nodded for Martha to come in.

Kay held his grandma’s hand, and waddled in after her.

Sunny felt immediately bad for making him spend even more time with his grandparents now that she was home, but he didn’t make a complaint. He clutched a stuffed fish, which had been a gift from Kelly as it turned out, and peered over the bed at his dad, big green eyes wide with confusion and curiosity 

He walked over and touched Adam’s hand softly, sitting there a long time before looking up at Sunny, “tak está durmiendo?”

Sunny frowned, and glanced at martha, who looked almost as confused. “I know that first word.” Martha said, and Sunny did too. It was father in Drev but.

“Was that spanish?”

Sunny frowned, “Ramirez….”

It was just then that Ramirez’s guilty face peeked from around the corner, “Is dad sleeping. That’s….. That's what he said.” Ramirez’s eyes fell on his friend, “Just wanted to give the boy a head start…. You know, make him cultured and all that.”

Sunny reached out, plucking Kay from the floor, “Yeah, he’s just sleeping.”

Sunny sat kay down on the bed next to her, “Be gentle.” She said. Kay did as told, gently patting Adam’s arm before eventually, softly learning forward to rest his head on Adam’s arm one arm curled around his stuffed fish one hand in his mouth, which was usually a habit sunny was trying to break, but let him have for now.

They all needed a little comfort anyway

[snakeningel]

prompt: "could you imagine?" w/ helward

never let it b said that im not a man of the people. ficlet under readmore.

"Could you imagine? I'm certainly neither hero nor god." Jack Seward is not normally a man oft taken by flights of fancy, after all, he sees himself as too much of a rationalist to be carried away on the buoyant forces of fantasy and hope. Yet the presence of his dearest professor always seems to untether him from those steady rocks of reality, sending the two of them adrift on the wild waves of outlandish theories that he cannot help but be swept along by. Still, this hypothesis may be a bridge too far, even for a pet student otherwise unshakable in his loyalty. So with something of a scoff, Jack cannot help but question the object put before him.

If medical school had taught Jack anything at all, it was that Doctor van Helsing is nothing short of a hurricane of personality, and attempting to resist the man's charms is an exercise in futility. If Jack were to think of it, he could not have explained how a halfhearted slip of the tongue led to him here, half-bent over his professor's desk and peering down at a book too weathered to even be called ancient. All he had admitted to was the vaguest curiosity regarding his own quirks and mannerisms; even as astute a student as he is, Jack could not understand the relationship between that and this book of scrawled tales. Even the greatest of charms and smartest of men cannot convince a doctor of stories written millennia ago.

A heavy hand comes down on his back, and it takes every muscle in his scrawny body to not crumple onto this doubtlessly priceless manuscript. (Really, Jack should be proud that his elbows only buckled a little under the unexpected gesture; as great a man as Van Helsing is, regulation of strength does not count among his many skills).

"Of course, Friend Jack," Yet as always, Van Helsing's voice is full of nothing if not confidence, the rumble of his sharp consonants traveling down to purr against Jack's bones. "There are many things men write not because they are true, but they are mirror of a mirror of what they see in the world. We are doctors, so maybe we see only what is in front of our hands and what we know what we can call real in touch and hold and smell, but if you see a reflection of a tree from pond to mirror to your eyes, you will not say that the tree does not exist, no? Maybe witch and monster and hero do not exist, maybe they do. But you are no more strange than flower that do not grow in the soil of your homeland or mine, if only we see it in the ink-stroke of the other do we know it exist, and you are not the only one to ever be, ja?"

Perhaps a normal man would stumble over the words that fall from Van Helsing's mouth, but Jack has been a scholar of his master long enough to understand it just as he does Latin or Greek. The warmth of his mentor's hand burns like a coal against his back, the heat radiating through the layers of fine fabric, yet Jack could not find it within himself to pull away. His professor is a hurricane that is not easily denied or swayed, but those wild winds always lead him to a steadier shore than ever before. How many men who claimed marriage to the sea ever match that tender devotion and wholehearted trust?

"I —" The words neatly printed on yellowed paper seems heavier with meaning and ink under Jack's gaze now. Brotherhood, devotion, a soul split in two. Something within him settles like a beast soothed, its desperate howls finally answered by echoes of those who had once held the same animal bound beneath human skin. But in that moment, Jack knows that even those words pale in comparison to the devotion he holds for his mentor; how could one love a man in the same way one would worship a force of nature?

"Thank you, professor." And how rare is it to be cherished by someone far larger than life? Too many gods in the world require sacrifices of bone and flesh, yet when Van Helsing's eyes crinkle with joy, Jack knows that his god needs only gratitude from a lone disciple.

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Request: Near Death (Volturi Leaders x Reader)

WARNING: Major Injuries! Near Death Situations! 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or in the medical profession. I did some google searches for the themes mentioned. Such injuries usually take weeks to months of healing not to mention rehabilitation. I’ve had to condense this process down significantly. 

Alice's eyes shifted rapidly, panic etched across her face. Jasper held her hands, sitting beside her. It was his attempt to comfort her but she didn't seem to recognise he was even there, too caught up in the vision as well as the panic. She wouldn't even explain what was happening before her. Alice begged for someone to contact the Volturi. However Carlisle was at work and no one else knew if he'd have a direct line to them. 

Regardless, Alice continued to plead to inform the Volturi. Inform them of what, it was yet to be known. She wouldn't say. "What is it Alice?" Jasper asked again, trying to get her attention as Emmett typed away on the laptop. "We're going the long way." He said hurriedly as Rosalie grabbed the phone. She looked over Emmett's shoulder as she dialled. She didn't even spare whoever it was on the other end of the phone a greeting. "This is Rosalie Cullen and you need to pass the phone to the Volturi immediately! No, not just a guard! Aro! Anyone! Just do it!" Rosalie turned her attention to Alice. "Alice, you need to tell us what's happening now!" 

Everything was peaceful in the Volturi castle. Yet the receptionist seemed to start pandemonium in a matter of seconds. She hurried to the first guard she could find who had been Jane. She stared the human down as the receptionist hurriedly relayed that Rosalie Cullen was on the phone and had to talk to the leaders. All in fluent hurried Italian with fear of the situation as well as fear of Jane. Jane silently took the phone, telling the human to go back to her post which she did. "Rosalie?" Jane said into the phone. "Jane!?" "Yes?" "Jane, this is an emergency. You need to go to Aro immediately!" "What is this about?" "Don't ask questions, just do it!" Rosalie snapped. All the while Jane could hear a panicked Alice Cullen in the background rambling. Jane huffed but complied. 

Jane moved briskly into the throne room, moving into the middle, phone in hand with a stern expression upon her face. "Masters, pardon the intrusion but Rosalie Cullen is on the phone. She deems it is an emergency. I believe I may have heard (Y/N)'s name." The three suddenly had all their attention on Jane. "Jane!? Jane are they there!?" Jane put the phone onto speaker. "We're all here and can hear you." "Alice had a vision about (Y/N). Some thing is happening!" 

Rosalie's attention moved back to Alice. "Alice! They're on the phone! You need to tell us what is happening!" "I chased it!" Alice cried out. "I chased the vision. I saw (Y/N) in a car and i think it was about to crash!" There was silence on both ends, only Alice saying a word. "I'm trying to see further!" Alice continued to talk, no one else able to say a word. "I saw them lying there in a hospital bed, please let me be wrong! Please!" Suddenly Alice screamed and the three leaders rushed towards Jane who still had the phone. "Alice, what is happening!?" Aro demanded. "They...it crashed. They...they're not moving!" 

Charlie Swan kept his hand on his radio, listening in for any updates. More police had been called in when it was discovered the driver who collided into the taxi vehicle was very drunk. He had been speeding whilst intoxicated and both vehicles were absolutely destroyed. The taxi driver had so many injuries that he couldn't be properly identified. It was clear the man was dead. He had to have died instantly. His passenger on the other hand wasn't so easy to determine. Although Charlie recognised them immediately. You were a family friend of Carlisle's. 

The paramedics on scene determined it was necessary to remove you from the vehicle. So with help from officers, they did. You were laid on the cold ground. From what Charlie could hear, you were barely clinging on and completely unresponsive. You had to be taken to hospital immediately. That was when Charlie could get a better look at you. You were in very bad shape and covered in blood from your head. Never would he know, as his thoughts went to the Cullen family, Alice had already seen the image of your unconscious body and unable to hold back, she screamed. 

Before the three Volturi leaders decided they'd immediately go to America, another phone call was received this time from Carlisle. Half an hour after Alice's phone call. "Are they alright?" Aro asked. Carlisle was silent in the other end of the phone before finally answering. "We nearly lost them on the way to the hospital. They're condition is very unstable right now. However we're doing everything we can to stabilize them. We'll be working on them all night. I'd ask that you wait for my next call before you leave." "You ask that we stay here whilst our mate is over there and injured!?" Caius seethed. "I need your trust. I will do everything I can. As soon as I have more answers, I'll give them to you and we can go from there." "Carlisle..." Marcus finally spoke up. "Are they going to make it through the night?" There was silence again. "I will do everything in my power to make sure that the next time we speak, (Y/N) is stable and we can arrange for you to come. I'm sorry, I can't give you anything more than that." Marcus clenched his eyes shut turning away. Aro and Caius knew what he was thinking immediately. He couldn't go through this again, losing another mate. Caius wanted to demand that you be changed but he knew that wasn't possible in your condition and where you were. There was too much attention surrounding you. 

Hours passed and the silence from Carlisle was slowly killing the three leaders. Caius was the first to break the silence. "We should never have left them there." His voice was quiet- which was very unlike him. "It's what they wanted." Aro replied softly. "We wanted them here." Caius shot back. "We don't even know how this happened." "We will." Aro responded. "We need to have hope that (Y/N) pull through." "If they don't?" Caius asked. "That's not an option." Aro replied. 

For twelve hours, a different kind of silence lay over the Volturi castle- a heavier one. The three perked up as the phone rang again. Caius and Marcus stood up sharply. Marcus had his hands covering his nose and mouth, pure anxiety hitting the man at this point. Aro was the one who answered the phone. "Hello, Aro. We were operating all night. I have good news and bad news. I will start with the good. (Y/N) is alive and significantly more stable." Marcus exhaled, falling back into his chair, Caius putting a hand on Marcus' arm to steady him. Caius' hand stayed on Marcus' arm as he glared into the phone as though trying to pry out more information. "They are?" Aro responded. "Yes. Although I'd ask you all be sitting down for the bad news. It's quite hard hitting and extensive." Caius grumbled but also sat back down. "Go on, friend." Aro said.  "(Y/N)'s injuries are mostly in their head and torso. Their legs are badly bruised but not broken. They have minor cuts in their hands and arms from the glass shattering. We believe they moved their arms to cover their face. Their spine is bruised but not broken. Upon the investigation with the police, (Y/N) was jolted multiple times upon impact. Their face is bruised but I couldn't feel any fractures or breaks. Unfortunately we discovered more serious injuries upon further inspection which forced us to operate. (Y/N) has broken ribs which punctured her organs and caused internal bleeding. We have since stopped the bleeding and corrected the breaks within their ribs which will be healing in weeks. However, I must inform you that (Y/N) has not been responsive or conscious during their observation period. We have discovered that (Y/N) has minimal brain activity." "What does that mean?" Aro asked quietly. "It means that (Y/N) is in a coma." "Carlisle, I don't know what that means." Aro said flatly but his jaw had begun to clench. "It means that (Y/N) is alive but cannot be woken up. They show no sign of awareness and is unresponsive to their environment. Sometimes the extensive injuries cause the brain to shut down to minimal activity so that the healing process can take place. They are currently in a vegetative state and at this time, all we can hope is that they will at one point wake up on their own." "Can we go to them?" Marcus asked. "I have to keep in what we are and I think it's best if you make that decision, wary that the smell of their blood will be stronger." Carlisle answered. "It will take us a few days." Caius continued, the other two leaders no longer able to speak. "Surely that would be enough for that to settle." "Of course. All I ask is that you prepare yourself to see them. It will be a shock and I will need to prepare you before hand regardless." 

When those days passed and the three leaders had arrived. They discovered there had been no change in your condition. Carlisle had somehow been able to get you transported to his home given the relationship he had with you. Therefore he would be able to care for you, just as he had in the hospital. However, as unconventional as it was, the hospital insisted they remained updated with your condition. 

The three leaders and Carlisle stood outside your room, Carlisle put his hand on the handle. Before they'd enter your room, Carlisle warned the three again. "You'll see them attached to a lot of machinery. Keep in mind it's a very good sign that (Y/N) is breathing on their own, however they do have apparatus to help them breathe better. Although I am more concerned that their visible injuries will be shocking for you." "Thank you for preparing us, friend." Aro said passively and Carlisle opened the door. The three were around your bed in moments. All exhaling with horror and heartbreak. 

You looked more fragile than you had ever. Purple, black and blue bruises across your body from what they could see. However the cuts in your hands seemed to be the first thing to really heal. "Why not change them now?" Caius said flatly trying to hide his emotions but the way he physically sank into himself, as well as the broken look in his eyes, he was broken by the very sight of you. Carlisle shook his head. "They can't be changed. Not until they wake up." "Why?" Caius asked sternly. "Because right now there is a chance that they won't wake up. Changing them won't fix this. We need to give them time." "So we sit and do nothing and hope they wake up!?" Caius snapped. "You're role is just as important and it's vital that you do it. Be there with them, talk to them, comfort them because I can't do that. You're their mate." Carlisle responded before turning to Aro. "All we can hope is that they wake up and then we'll take it from there." Marcus lightly touched your hand. "Do they knew we're here?" "Comas aren't so clear. We don't know if they can hear us." Carlisle responded. "Regardless it's important you interact with them because it may prompt their brain to respond to stimuli. Even if you don't get a response. It'll help." "Thank you, Carlisle." Aro said with a blank stare. Carlisle nodded. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't fix this." Carlisle said with sympathy and some guilt. Aro nodded. "You did everything you could." "I had really hoped for a better outcome. That they'd be awake for you arriving." Aro smiled slightly. "We all had that hope, nevertheless, our mate is alive because of you. For that, we are grateful." "Carlisle?" Caius spoke up, his fingers coaxing your hand gently into his. "How did this happen?" "The accident?" Carlisle asked. Caius nodded. "A drunk driver, speeding and collided into the car (Y/N) was in. The one driving in (Y/N)'s vehicle died instantly." Caius mouth twisted in hatred. "A human...nearly killed our (Y/N) because they were intoxicated?" Carlisle slowly nodded. "Don't tell us who it was." Marcus said gravely, his eyes stuck onto you. "If you do, we won't hesitate to kill him." "Laws, be damned." Caius agreed. "One more thing..." Marcus spoke up, finally tearing his eyes from you and towards Carlisle. "Are they in pain? Right now and before. Has (Y/N) suffered?" Carlisle shook his head. "They haven't been conscious and now that we know they're in a coma. I can safely say that haven't felt a thing. Due to the minimal brain activity and unresponsiveness, they won't feel any pain. None of their senses are working." Carlisle continued. "Remember what I said, the most random of interactions at any time can be picked up and that's the first sign of waking up." 

Aro was the first to really approach you. He ran his fingers across your cheek. He couldn't see anything from the accident onwards. He didn't dare lose hope that you were still in there though. "Hello, beautiful. We're here now." He said softly, kissing your forehead. Caius silently looked at his brother. Watching as he doted over you with ease. He couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy, wishing he could move past his emotions and do the same. However the most he had been able to accomplish was lightly touching their hand, coaxing it into his own. It wasn't the same, your hand was described as the rest of your body. Unresponsive. His touch went unnoticed and he had never longed for even a twitch in your body. Some movement that told him you were there. However his silent pleads went ignored and you didn't move.  Aro smiled at his brothers, seemingly knowing what they were feeling and why they hesitated. "You need to think of it like they are here because for all we know, they are. They've been waiting for us."

Sometimes all three stayed with you, other times they took turns individually, each growing to find comfort that you were still alive and it's easier to think you were still in there. When it was Caius' turn. You'd have been shocked as he had closed himself off from everyone, barely speaking a word whether in company or left alone with you. Caius seemed to struggle the most with your condition. He struggled to see past it. Struggled with knowing you weren't conscious and you didn't know he was there. He found it more difficult to talk to someone who wouldn't give even the smallest sign they had heard him. 

The first thing he did was approach your bedside, hovering over you to kiss your forehead. Caius whispered something to you, in that moment, unable to care whether you could hear it or not. The relief had finally sank in that you had survived the accident. "Thank you for not dying." He pulled up a chair beside you. "I never thought I'd see you like this." Caius softly admitted. "Forgive me. I find it difficult to talk to you. I know it could help. I look at you and the pain in my chest only grows bigger. So much that I'm unable to talk. I want to be optimistic like everyone else. Talk to you because you will eventually wake up. I want that more than anything. Instead I can only stare as my heart breaks over and over again because someone hurt my (Y/N) and I wasn't here to protect you." Caius paused, his eyes running over you. "Marcus says that you look peaceful. Like your sleeping. I think to myself about how deluded that sounds. Even looking at you now. This isn't you sleeping. All I see is your body laying there. Day in and day out." Caius sighed. "So I must ask of you, please sweetheart." Caius leaned closer. "Please, fight to wake up. Let us see those beautiful eyes again. What I wouldn't do to see that wonderful smile again." Caius trailed off, the small reminiscing smile falling from his friend. "I know it's a lot to ask. Please understand that I have to. If you can hear me, please fight to wake up and come back to us." 

Aro was the most capable of them all to speak to you. He did so with ease and without hesitation. "Hello cara mia." He smiled as he kissed your forehead. "All of that bruising is healing nicely. Some of the smaller ones are gone. Isn't that wonderful?" Aro gently held your hand. "The guard have been asking about you, perhaps we'll let them see you soon. Once some of more these cuts and bruises heal. You'll get a break from Caius, Marcus and I too." Aro hummed in amusement. "As tempted as we were to bring the full guard. Perhaps that wouldn't have benefited anyone. “The twins are here with us and we're expecting Felix and Demetri within the next couple of days. We'll all be here when you're ready to wake up." Aro leaned closer. "I know you will, my love. You will wake up. Do it even to spite Caius for being a pessimist." Aro smiled slightly. You had always enjoyed challenging Caius and in all honesty it was enjoyable to watch. "We will help you. Even after you wake up, you'll have us at your side. We'll get through this together." 

Marcus gently cradled you hand between is own, lightly kissing the back of your hand. He stared at you, for the longest of time. He noticed the soft fall and rise of your chest but other than that, so still. Finally Marcus broke the silence. "I've been trying to think of what I could say to you. Aro is better than Caius and I at this. As you know." Marcus continued after a moment of thought. "Although Aro has his faults. We never told you it was Caius who was determined you'd stay with us. He took one look at you and that was it. You had his heart and he whether we agreed or not. You would be with us." Marcus wore a small smile. "He convinced me to put a little trust in you. He was right. You have given me so much joy and love in the time we've been together that, you asking to stay was a sacrifice I was willing to make. We were all willing to make. So I'd like to ask you to make a sacrifice for us, my beautiful (Y/N). I want you to wake up. I want you to claw your way back to us if you have to. Although I'm aware that given your condition you might not want to. That might be too much for you to face alone in your mind but I need you to know you're not alone. We're waiting for you, sweetheart." Marcus leaned towards your ear. "Make sure you come back to me, okay?" 

One day the Volturi came back from their hunt to an absolute miracle. Carlisle was waiting for them when they arrived with a smile. "We have progress." The three could barely stop themselves from bombarding into your room. "They're out of the vegetative state." Carlisle explained. "Right now, as we speak, they are sitting up." Caius and Marcus inhaled sharply as Aro smiled. "I need to you to know that (Y/N) isn't awake. They can't see or hear us yet but their eyes will be open and they're beginning to register touch. Whilst they didn't respond to holding my hand, they did move away slightly because I'm colder and will move if in any discomfort. They won't talk yet either but regardless this is a very good sign." 

The four entered the room to find you sitting up. You were hunching over slightly, your eyes drifting ever so slowly at times. As Carlisle had said, you weren't focused at all and didn't seem to notice that they were there. Your eyes and hands were a major give away. Your hands were limp whilst your eyes seemed a little glazed over. Carlisle moved to your side, taking the cup of water at your bedside before putting it to your lips. To the leaders surprise, you leaned into the cup and actually drank it's contents. Aro moved closer whilst Caius' and Marcus were so taken aback they were rendered speechless. "Did they sit up on their own?" Aro asked. "No, they're still healing. I was checking on them and I couldn't help but notice that their eyes were opening. Once their eyes were completely open. We gently helped them sit up. They've been sitting like this for forty-five minutes." Carlisle finished with a smile. "It's working?" Aro asked. "Interacting with them? Yes." Carlisle smiled. "However I do think I'll get them to lie back down now. Everyday, we'll get them to sit up for a short time." That being said, Carlisle lay you back down gently. Your eyes remained open, continuing to focus on nothing. 

A day passed and whilst the leaders were spending time with you together, they noticed a small change. You were lying down, eyes open. Caius was mumbling into your ear, his head hovering inches over yours. His eyes narrowed on you when he noticed that your eyes drifted towards him but this time your eyes stayed drifting to the side he was on. You blinked, your eyes shifting back slightly up and down motions. "(Y/N)? Can you hear me?" Caius asked softly, getting Aro and Marcus' attention. Aro immediately got Carlisle who looked you over. He insisted that Caius continued speaking to you and didn't move as he did so. Carlisle and Caius both kept their gaze on your eyes, that still hadn't moved on from Caius' vicinity. "Judging by the eye movement, I appears to be (Y/N) is trying to focus on something which is a very good sign." Caius smiled down at you lovingly. "I'm here, sweetheart." His voice barely above a whisper. 

The next sign came at random. The next day Marcus had your hand in his with a very light grip, his fingers barely curling around your hand. Whilst your hand occasionally twitched you didn't seem to really notice his hand, only the cold temperature. That was until your hand shifted again. This time you curled a finger slightly around his own. The movement had Marcus watching you intently but you made no other sign. You had the leaders on the edge of their seats every given moment. Yet you seemed to take your time, taking the moments they least expected to startle them. Although regardless, they would be patient. They'd wait forever if they had to. 

It wasn't too long after that day that you shocked the leaders again. Caius and Aro had laid on either side of you. Marcus was beside your legs. Your head was tilted towards Caius as he ran a cold fingers up and down your hand as the three spoke to you. Once again your eyes shifted to Caius, who was significantly closer to your head than anyone else. Your eyes passed Caius as they had hundreds of times, trailing back and forth. Then they stopped, directly on Caius' face. Caius ran his thumb across your cheekbone before noticing your eyes hadn't moved. "(Y/N)?" He said gently, getting both leaders attention. All three stared at you for a moment before you took a deep breath, blinked and moved your head. However your eyes were different now. Their was cognition behind them. The leaders had seen you move before so they had to be sure. "(Y/N)?" Marcus said and your head turned to him. You had heard them. The three gasped, you were awake. "Hello, sweetheart." Aro smiled widely. "oh grazie ... grazie, tesoro." Caius sighed in relief, mumbling Italian under his breath. Marcus couldn't tear his eyes from you. 

As Aro stood up to get Carlisle, Marcus took his place. He didn't even dare to blink. Your eyes followed him as he moved beside you. "Can you hear us?" You made a slightly nodding motion before reaching out slowly, cupping his cheek. Your brow began to furrow and the two grew increasingly worried. 

In that moment, Carlisle entered the room along with Aro. "Well, well, look who's awake." Carlisle smiled warmly. "Hello, (Y/N)." Carlisle moved beside Marcus. "Can you hear me?" You tried your best to nod again, against the aches of protest in your back. "Good. I imagine you're very confused right now and you should know it's perfectly fine to feel that way. You may not remember but you were in a car accident and fell into a coma. You've been unconscious for many days now. You're injuries were severe but you are healing and I'll run some tests on you to see how you're doing. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. You may feel some slightly discomfort or pain, you're on very heavy pain killers. The best you can do it relax and rest." You looked down at your bruised body. Carlisle was right. There were aches and pains all over but a numbness too. The mixture made you aware that whilst you felt some pain, you weren't feeling even half of it. Carlisle continued but his voice was so low that only the leaders could hear him. "They'll likely feel irritability and confusion. Comfort them and try to be patient. It'll take some time for them to come to terms." 

When Carlisle left, you were still looking down at your body, brow furrowing and tears welled up in your eyes. Marcus moved a hand to your face, getting your attention, your eyes met his before you swallowed hard, lip quivering slightly. Your sobs were silent but heavy at first, wracking your body. As your sobs continued they grew louder, the closest thing to your voice they had heard in days. "Oh tesoro." Aro said softly as Caius shifted further down the bed. Your sobs now jutting your shoulder into his chest but he didn't mind. Slowly and gently, he put his arm across your waist, the best he could do to hug your frail body. His head against yours with his eyes shut. Marcus took your other hand, pressing a kiss to it before leaning into it. They let you cry and you cried until you fell asleep. 

When you woke up. Marcus and Aro were gone, leaving Caius and another two visitors. Felix and Demetri smiled at you. "You scared the hell out of us." Felix said to you. "My heart was nearly jumpstarted after centuries only to have a heart attack." It was rough but a hum of amusement escaped you. Felix was always able to make you laugh and now more than ever, Caius appreciated it. Caius smiled down at you, lightly tracing patterns against your hairline. 

The visits were lovely distractions from the pain in your body, but you couldn't help but be more aware of it every passing day. The cycle of all it. You wake up, get more pain medication that led you to be as high as a kite and then the small moments of clarity clicked in when you realised, you weren't okay. You were bloodied and bruised, scarred from surgeries and your brain slow and fogged from being in a coma. You tried to be happy and swallow the pain and fear for your mates if not for yourself but the more coherent you became and the more you healed, the less medication you needed. Finally left with the simple knowledge that you weren't okay. You were so lost in thought that you didn't even notice your mates trying to get your attention. You looked over to the three, worry etched upon their faces. After a moment, you reached your arm out to Aro. He took your hand with ease, before he looked back to you. "Cara mia, we know. You can feel this way. We're here to help you no matter how you feel each day." Caius and Marcus looked to Aro for an explanation. "(Y/N) isn't feeling too well today. It's a bit much, they're a little overwhelmed but have been trying to put in a brave face." You knew Aro would give them more detail out of your ear shot and whilst grateful, even that made you want to cry. Caius immediately turned to you, his hand immediately reaching out for your arm. "Look at me." He said firmly but quietly. "We love you, no matter what. Having you here with us, alive is the greatest gift you could have ever given us. Don't you dare, hold back any emotion you are feeling for us or for anyone." 

 A few days later, Carlisle began his daily routine, checking in on you and your injuries. "Hello, (Y/N)." Carlisle smiled at you and you did your best to smile back. "How are you feeling today?" You held a hand out, palm down. "Somewhere in between? That's better than before." Carlisle smiled. "I'm going to ask you some simple questions, I know you can't talk yet, but don't worry you shouldn't have to with these. That will come soon." Carlisle assured you. "Remember, slow and gentle movements. I'll pick them up better than you think." You smiled slightly at the tease. "How old are you?" He asked. Without having to think about it, you held up the appropriate fingers. "Very good!" He praised with a smile. "Didn't even hesitate. How many movies did you watch last night?" You promptly held up two fingers. "Very nice. How many mates do you have?" You didn't seem to notice how intently the leaders stare was but it was more than likely you were used to that by now. You held up three fingers. "Alright and where are they?" Carlisle asked. You pointed to the three leaders. "Great. This is a very good sign. Your response times are very good." Your injuries had cleared much more, the bruising on your body no where near as bad as before. The swelling in your face barely noticeable as well as any cuts you had. You ribs where the biggest problem if anything. However you still hadn't said a word. That was Carlisle's next goal now that he knew your memory was in tact. 

"Alright, you may not like me today." Carlisle warned you with a smile and you looked at him with confusion and dread, wondering what sort of test he'd out you through now. "This one will be a little more complicated but today, you're going to try and talk." Your eyes widened a fraction, dread completely over taking your confusion. "We'll start with names, specifically, the names of your mates." You scrunched up your face. They didn't have the easiest of names as it was. "I assure you, once you get used to talking, you won't have to think twice about it. We'll start easy. Try to say Aro's name." You took a breath, thinking hard before being unable to hold back a smile. Never had talking seemed to complicated? Like you had to think about using your mouth and creating the sounds you wanted. "Take your time and be patient with yourself. Let your brain wake up." The expression on your face said a thousand words. First, curse Carlisle. Secondly, this is embarrassing. Thirdly, if you mess up Aro's name you'll never forgive yourself. Lastly, you are so sorry if you mess up his name. Aro couldn't help the small chuckle escaping him, the other two smiling in amusement. "A...Aro." With so much concentration, you had shut your eyes, testing it out. Your voice was a little scratchy from not using it in a while but it was still clear. "There you go, one down. Can you try to say Caius?" "C..." You paused trying to think it through. "Cai...Caius." You finally forced out and Aro giggled with glee, Caius reaching out for your hand. "Alright, this is the more difficult one. It'll require a little more brain power. Marcus." You remembered the motion to make a 'M' sound. That being the difficult part of the name. It took a few more pauses but you slowly managed it out. "Well done." Carlisle smiled. "So since you didn't need promoting on how to say these things, I'm confident you could start talking just fine. Just remember to be patient with yourself." 

Soon after showing the extend of your talking and cognitive abilities, Carlisle told you that it wouldn't be long before you got to go home. The leaders were delighted, more than eager to bring you to Italy and finally put this nightmare behind them. "How did you do it? How did you cope when I was out?" You asked, finally finding the courage to do so after all this time. Aro and Marcus looked at each other and to your surprise Caius responded. "We pretended you could hear us, that you were with us. I found it the most difficult."  "I don't think I could have done this without you." You admitted quietly. "You could have." Marcus replied. "It is us who couldn't have survived without your strength." "We wouldn't have it any other way." Caius added softly. "When you're better, we're bring you with us back to Italy." Aro smiled at you. "We almost had to live without you. Now we can't stand the thought of you being so far from us." Caius explained.

[wolferine]

Unforgivable - Part 2

Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Summary: When the reader loses their temper, it causes them to commit an act they can never take back...

Warnings: Violence, blood, torture, death

Word count: 2372

Part 1

Tags: @yeetus-thyself @phoenixofash @lilclownx @yeeterthekeeper @alessiapn @diaryoflife

AN: Please read to the end before you come after me. :)

Everything is a blur. The last thing you remember is cradling Natasha in your lap and seeing the pain of betrayal in her eyes. You did this to her. You couldn’t control your anger and now she had a bullet—shot out of your gun—in her back. You hurt her and there was no way you could ever forgive yourself for that. 

You finally let Tony get close enough to take care of her, because you realized you don’t deserve her anymore. 

You run away from the Avengers Tower, your leg slowing you down, but you don’t care. Each step feels like a knife rubbing against your bone, but even that’s not enough to distract you from the pain in your chest. It feels like someone has torn you open, ripped your heart out of your ribcage, and thrown it into a bonfire.

But you have no one to blame than yourself.

Tears stream down your face as you stumble through the streets, eventually finding some privacy in a nearby forest. Your sobs echo through the trees as you crawl hand over hand, your uniform shredding open on bushes and branches. The trickle of a creek calls to you and you dunk your bloody hands in the freezing water, desperate to wash yourself of your failures.

You can’t believe what you’ve done.

The scene of Natasha falling to the floor plays over and over in your head and you would pay anything to unsee it. You curl into a ball, wiping your nose on your knees. You deserve all the pain and misery for your actions. You’re so caught up in your head, thinking about all the ways you can punish yourself, that you don’t notice the group of men sneaking up on you from behind.

“Over there! Over there!” 

“By the creek, see?”

“Wait—that’s an Avenger?”

“Looks like someone had a bad day.”

“Hey, Y/N.”

At the sound of your name, you finally lift your head, only for the butt of a shotgun to slam into your face. Your nose breaks and blood fills your mouth. You turn away, not even interested in protecting yourself. If they killed you, you would thank them.

“Aw, come on. At least give us a reaction,” someone says.

The shotgun butt smashes against the back of your head and you wouldn’t be surprised if it cracked your skull. Someone kicks your leg where you were shot, and you bite your lip to hold back a scream.

“Well, this is anti-climactic.”

“Hey, if it makes our job easier, I’m not gonna complain.”

“I still think Hammer’s weird for wanting Y/N over the other Avengers.”

“Given the circumstances, he couldn’t really be picky—”

“Stop standing around and get to it!” someone yells. 

The men surround you, punching and kicking every inch of you. The bulletproof vest of your uniform does little to lessen the impact of their blows. You feel bruises forming along your ribs and your rattling teeth bite your lips bloody. It doesn’t take long for you to black out and the peace is blissful.

***********************************************************************

Sometime later—you have no idea how long—you jolt awake, finding yourself strapped to a metal chair in the middle of a dark, concrete room. A man in glasses and a gray suit with white gloves stands in front of you. 

“Hello, I’m Justin Hammer,” he says, offering a hand, then withdrawing when he realizes your arms are tied to the chair. “Sorry, force of habit.”

You stare at him. Your tongue pokes around the inside of your mouth and you notice some teeth are missing. There is a painful crick in your neck every time you try moving your head and every breath you take feels like a razor blade scraping the inside of your lungs.

“You’ve probably never heard of me, but I’m very familiar with you and your work with the Avengers. But the reason I have you here today is to talk about this man.” Hammer pulls out a folded photograph from his pocket and shows it to you.

It’s Tony Stark, but you have no desire to even think of that man anymore.

“Your best friend, right?” Hammer teases and you curl your lip at him. “What’s wrong? He’s the one who got you a spot on the team, isn’t he?” You look away from him. “I heard what he did to your girl,” he continues. “That must’ve felt like the betrayal of the century.”

“What?” you ask, confused as to what he’s referring to.

“I heard about what happened at the Avengers Tower. So tragic.” Hammer crumples Tony’s photograph and drops it on the floor. “Romanoff didn’t deserve that.”

“W-What are you talking about? Is she okay?” Your bottom lip quivers in fear.

Hammer kneels in front of you. “She’s dead, Y/N.”

“No, no…” You feel like he’s punched you right through the chest. “T-That’s not possible.”

“I’m sorry. I know she meant a lot to you.” Hammer stands again.

“How do you even know what happened at the Tower?” Given its security, there was no way news like that reached the public. At least not the truth of it. Maybe Hammer was just trying to mess with you.

Hammer motions behind him and a blonde woman steps forward from the shadows. Her face jolts your memory, but you don’t remember exactly where from.

“Recognize her?” Hammer asks. “She actually works for me, but she’s been pretending to be a SHIELD agent for some time now. She was right outside the door when your little spat with Stark went down.” Your mind flashes back to when you returned from the mission with Natasha. On your way to the private Avengers’ quarters, you remember passing the same blonde woman right outside the door.

“She heard everything that happened inside,” Hammer says as the blonde woman retreats into the darkness again.

“N-Natasha’s…She’s…She’s not dead,” you stammer.

Hammer shakes his head. “She went into surgery after Stark shot her, but due to the placement of the bullet, there were some complications and she coded on the table. They couldn’t revive her. That part was all over the news.”

You feel so sick you want to vomit. “I…I killed her?”

“No. You didn’t kill her. Tony Stark killed her.”

You start gasping for air, only worsening the pain in your chest. “No—But—He—I’m the one who pulled the trigger—”

“But you weren’t aiming for her. You were aiming for Stark, and he’s the one who deflected the bullet into her,” Hammer says. “He’s also the one who sent you two on that mission to begin with, wasn’t he? The reason you lost your cool and pulled your gun out? Think, Y/N. All of this is Stark’s fault.”

But the sadness of thinking you’ve killed Natasha is too overwhelming. You can’t focus on anything but your own guilt. You will burn in hell for this and you won’t even mind.

“Listen to me, Y/N!” Hammer snaps, striking you across the face. His rings cut into your cheek and blood fills your mouth. “I hate Stark just as much as you do. He’s been my business rival for years and I need someone to help me take him down. Who better than you, a former friend of his, who knows how to hit him where it hurts?”

You start crying at the thought of having to exist in a world without Natasha Romanoff.

Hammer tries getting your attention by slapping you again, but you’re unresponsive. You’re too lost in your grief to process anything he’s saying, and eventually he gives up, promising to come back another time to reveal his master plan to you.

It takes an entire month before he can even communicate with you. Your depression is all-consuming and their threats on your life have no effect. They’re startled to learn you actually enjoy the torture because you believe you deserve it after what you did to Natasha. But Hammer is relentless and finally figures out how to manipulate you into his bidding.

Six months after your capture and the accident, you finally crack. Your agony and pain turns into pure rage and hatred for Tony Stark. You can’t bring Natasha back, but you can get revenge on the man who took her life. After training with Hammer’s technology, which is almost as advanced as Tony’s, you’re deemed ready to be let out in the real world. Hammer personally asks for your help to kill Tony Stark, and it’s an offer you accept gladly.

***********************************************************************

Three months after the accident…

Natasha wakes up and looks to her right, disappointed to see the bed still empty. She’s tricked herself into believing that one day you’ll show up, ready to pick up the pieces and continue where you left off. But nothing has been the same since you left.

She sits up and turns the lights on. She scoots to the edge of the bed and carefully lifts her body into the wheelchair parked there.

The bullet had struck her lumbar spine, shattering her L1 vertebrae and paralyzing her from the waist down. Tony requested help from the best doctors he knew, but even the greatest modern advancements couldn’t repair her spine. He had personally designed her wheelchair, and she knows she should be grateful to still be alive, but she’s never felt so helpless and alone. 

After the accident, you ran off and no one could locate you. Secretly, she held onto the hope you would return one day, but she knows your guilt and shame are keeping you away. She wants to tell you that it wasn’t your fault and that she doesn’t hate you, but you’re not even giving her that chance.

Tony made the public announcement that Black Widow had retired from the Avengers. No one knew she had been paralyzed, nor that you had unofficially resigned from the team. Without you, without Black Widow, Natasha didn’t know who she was anymore.

She leaves her bedroom and goes into the kitchen. Tony arranged most of the food and dishes down to her new height but she feels like she’ll never adjust to not being able to stand anymore. She locates a bowl and a box of cereal and rolls over to the table. She chokes down dry Cheerios and pours her second bowlful when Tony walks in.

“Thank God you’re finally up,” he says. “When you’re done, I have something to show you.”

“Y/N?” She perks up.

“Uh…no…”

Natasha knows Tony blames himself just as much as she does for her accident, but it wasn’t his fault either. She wrestled between anger and guilt, sometimes blaming you, sometimes blaming him. But in the end, it’s easier to blame herself. She should have stopped you the moment you took out your gun, regardless of whether or not you pushed her. But she got so caught up in the moment she froze, and now she was paralyzed and you were gone.

“Just come down to my workshop, okay?” Tony disappears again.

With nothing better to do, Natasha takes the elevator down to Tony’s workshop. She doesn’t visit often, but when she does, she’s always impressed by his latest inventions and gadgets. She rolls down the aisle of old Iron Man suits displayed in glass cases, admiring the subtle differences in each one.

“Where are you, Tony?” she calls.

“Over here!” He waves her down from the other end. “I’ve been working on this for a while, and I know it’s a little premature, but I couldn’t help myself.” Tony stands next to another Iron Man suit, but it doesn’t quite look like it will fit him.

The suit is curved to fit a woman, black and red instead of Tony’s iconic red and gold. Natasha sees a red hourglass emblazoned on the belt buckle.

“What…What is this, Tony?” she asks, tears in her eyes.

“It’s an Iron Widow suit,” he says. “Or, whatever you want to call it. You’ll have to get in and test it out for yourself, but it’ll allow you to walk again and…be an Avenger again.”

Natasha wishes she could throw herself into his arms, but pulls him down to her level instead. “Thank you,” she whispers, wiping her face. She never thought she would be able to serve as an Avenger again, but she’ll take the opportunity if it means taking her mind off recent events.

“Ready to try it out?” Tony presses a button on the side of the suit and the suit opens up, bending into a crouched position so Natasha can get in it like a chair.

 She smiles for the first time since the accident.

 “I am.”

***********************************************************************

Six months after the accident…

Natasha is in the gym, lifting dumbbells on a bench when Tony walks in. Although she now has a legitimate excuse for skipping leg day for the rest of her life, she now has to make sure her upper body is twice as strong to make up for it.

“Look who decided to slide through my DMs this morning,” Tony says, shoving his phone in her face.

Midnight. Central Park Carousel. Come alone.

The text was from you.

“Oh, my God,” Natasha says, setting the weights down. You haven’t even texted her since the accident, and she’s a little hurt you didn’t reach out to her first. “What’s this about?”

“I have no idea.” Tony shrugs. “I know it says for me to go alone, but since it’s from Y/N, I wanted to ask if you wanted to tag along.”

“Of course.” In a way, Natasha feels like the text is really meant for her. Central Park was where you had asked her to be your girlfriend. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

“I’ll need you to be on your A-game. We have no idea what Y/N’s been up to these past six months. I don’t know if you’re gonna like what we find,” Tony says.

Natasha has spent countless nights wondering where you’ve been and what you’re doing. Now she has the chance to find out. “It’s going to be okay, Tony,” she says.

He shakes his head. “Just so you know, I’m praying more for you than me right now.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here for Part 3!

AN: I never went to medical school, so forgive my medical inaccuracies.

[dreamrecorder]

Ok so- idk if you’ve seen demon slayer;; but there’s this episode (it was during the spider fambam arc) aNywaYs- so like. Rui yeets ties* (i guess-) Nezuko like. Up in the air. With his weird spider thread jazz— and like. It’s sHarP weird spider thread jazz— so she’s like. Yknow. Being sliced and diced with string— but it kindaaa reminds me of like. Xiao. And his like.... weird... sad.... uh. Karma. Thing. Like y’know where he’s like hanging from his arms- red stuff. Yeah. So like. Now for the actual request

Xiao’s s/o (female if you don’t mind;;) gets kidnapped by like— the fatui or smth. And they tie her up like Nezuko :D to be like “lol haha Xiao be all like-” and she’s just. Like. Dying. Slowly. Dripping b l o o d and yknow. All the tea. And Xiao comes to rescue her— and he’s like 0-0 “wait...” and he realizes that’s like- exactly what happens to him- and so. He beats the fatui’s butts saves his s/o, anddddd she like.

Idk. This is where I need your angst expertise ❤️ like- she could d i e. In his arms. And poor Xiao would be so scarred omg poor thing- BUT THE ANGST- but at the same time;;;; the f l u f f of him being able to save her just in time and she was like fighting for him the whole time or whatever and ended up needing him to save her anyways- and then Xiao feeding her almond tofu until she gets better ❤️❤️❤️

IM SORRY THAT WAS SO LONG- im probably going crazy from lack of sleep from reading fics for too long sndndnsnsj

But if you do this,,, BLESS YOUR SOUL I HOPE TO EITHER BALL MY EYES OUT OR SQUEAL FROM THE WHOLESOMENESS-

Anyways.... thank you! Have a stellar day~ ✨❤️

The heart yearns and the wind heard

lmao this ask is so adorable i hope you’d enjoy this ksks

anyway, full Angst train up ahead but there are moments of Fluff too. There are mentions of blood and violence if those are not your thing- dont worry guys, this goes with a happy ending cos you and Xiao deserve one~ on a final note- non canon compliant and suuuuuuper long- like- legit this is very long

The Yaksha sighs.

He’s here again. His mind and heart has returned his being into this crimson world his demons have created within him.

He feels it. He feels the corruption binding him tighter again for every death he brings by his tainted hands.

He looks at his bindings. And ever so slowly, the red and black coiling around his person will eventually reach his heart.

One day, he thinks, all this crimson and black in this world will swallow him whole and he will see the light no more.

Xiao sighs again.

This is his karmic debt.

~

The moment you stepped foot within Wangshu Inn, you knew he was in his prison again. After giving a quick greeting to the inn keeper, you hastily went to Xiao’s room. The closer you got, the heavier the atmosphere became.

You reached his door and knocked softly. As expected, no reply as he continues to struggle to take back his control over himself. Without hesitation, you stepped in. To anyone else, they would have instantly met his spear at their throats, but with you, this doesn’t happen. Instead, you see him crouched on the wooden floor with a hand on his chest. His knuckles were white and his breathing was ragged. His amber eyes- lost. Observing his form, yes… his moments of corruption are becoming progressively worse.

With swift steps of familiarity to this routine, you went to him and grasped his shoulders.

“Xiao, it’s me…” You whispered with clarity. And oh- how your voice brought a wave of comfort to his soul.

“N-name…” His voice cracked, but him calling to you is always a good sign.

You gave him a small smile and proceeded to grasp his hands together with yours. After which, you then leaned your forehead to his to chant your prayers. As your prayers progressed, slowly but surely, the corruption begins to fade along with the black mist that covered him. However, you took note how this ritual took longer than the last.

Once everything is done, Xiao just slumped onto your shoulders, still breathing deeply. “How are you feeling?” It was a useless question you asked every time this happens, but you always, always, have to make sure.

Usually, he would mutter a small ‘fine,’ but now- words seemed to have left his mind and all he could muster was an almost-unnoticeable shrug.

Truth be told- his response disheartened you, but you did not show it. Instead, you opted to simply encase him in your arms and caress his hair. After all, these are just one of the few, rare moments Xiao would leave himself into your care. Xiao is aware, himself, that his state has been becoming worse and worse. And you both know, that a day would come when he would just attack anyone- friend or foe- without a trace of hesitation. So, just this time- he speaks his feelings.

“Name?”

You answered immediately with a questioning hum.

“What would you do… when I finally lose control over myself?”

It was very subtle, but he felt how your hand stopped caressing his hair for a second, then proceeded to the previous task at hand again. In all honestly, you can never find yourself having an answer to that question. “And why would I ever let that happen to you?” You questioned back, fully aware that you were dodging his question.

Silence surrounded the two of you, unsure on what to do with the sudden heavier atmosphere.

Not wanting to face the cruelty of the world yet, Xiao simply buried himself on the crook of your neck even more. And despite the ghostly sensation of his lips on your skin, you could feel him mouth the words ‘I love you.’

“As long as I’m here,” you whispered, “nothing can hurt you.” And that was the most beautiful lie that the Yaksha has heard, but he was willing to believe all the same.

~

When word about Fatui diplomats starting a bank reached you, there was a nagging feeling in your head that trouble would bring itself present anytime soon. It was like an itch that wouldn’t get away. And the only way to have that itch gone is to scratch it.

“You are absolutely a fool.” Xiao stated darkly with crossed arms, for once disagreeing with the plans of his master.

“We can never know what their intentions are unless we let them start their bank, no?” Zhongli said as he gazed at the marsh spread beneath him.

The Yaksha only scoffed but said no more.

Building up your courage, you deemed it was your turn to voice out your thoughts, “Um… Rex Lapis, I see your point, but wouldn’t it be best to resolve the problem before it persists into something larger? We all know- All of Teyvat knows, that the Fatui are not to be trusted.”

Your archon offered you a kind smile, “I understand your worries, Name. However, as of the moment, they have not presented themselves as such. If they truly are our enemies, then it would be beneficial for us to know their intentions.”

You frowned deeply at his statement. Seeing you do so, somehow, your archon immediately identified your main concern.

“Is this about the Tianquan assigning you to be her representative for the Fatui?”

The moment those words left his mouth, a growl tore from Xiao’s throat, but he held his tongue.

“Did Ganyu tell you?”

The Archon nodded and you sighed.

“I volunteered, actually.”

And at that point, Xiao vanished into thin hair, but you could still his sense his presence around.

“May I know why?” Zhongli questioned gently.

For a moment, you struggled for words. You didn’t know how to describe this ‘itch’ to him. “At first, it was supposed to be Ganyu, since in the Tianquan’s eyes- Ganyu is an adeptus and she does not know that I am, too. Perhaps she didn’t want to put me in harm’s way, a ‘visionless human’ at the side of a harbinger. After some convincing to Ningguang for my volunteering, I spoke to Ganyu next.

“The adepti are divine beings that walk here in Liyue. I had this feeling that putting a divine next to a power-hungry harbinger would become an issue. I told Ganyu that, since I looked ‘harmless’ and ‘ordinary,’ the harbinger’s interest about the divine would never surface.”

A stretch of silence wrapped around them as Zhongli pondered over your words. “Perhaps, are you also planning to dig out the truth of their arrival?”

You nodded, “I knew you would allow them to stay, so I just took it upon myself to unfurl their secrets.”

“Hmmm… I grant you permission on doing this. However, should trouble arise, do not hesitate to tell us.”

~

The glare pointed at you was strong. Even without him saying a single word, you could hear his phantom voice in your head speak with such coldness, What are you thinking?

You simply gave him a reassuring smile, “I’ll be fine, Xiao. I may be a human in mortal eyes, but please do remember that I am also an adeptus, no matter how weak I am.”

Xiao releases a huff, but still sits by your side at the floor of the balcony, letting the moon kiss his skin. “You’re not weak.” He mumbled as he snaked his hand to yours.

To him, you will never be weak. In fact, you were the strongest being he has ever laid his eyes on. Not physically, no. It was you mental and emotional fortitude. Back during the Archon War, he always admired how you kept your head held up high no matter the suffering you have experienced. No matter how much death surrounded you, you still fought. And that strength made you a survivor. During the war, you never failed to help the wounded. Even when someone dies under your care, you held strong for the departed and for those who are left behind. You were a pillar of hope.

He brings your hand to his lips and kisses every knuckle “… Just be careful. If ever you are in trouble do not-“

“Hesitate to call your name.” You finished, beaming at his words.

~

As someone who used to be a healer and a doctor, you were quite familiar with several mild skin diseases that mortals can suffer from.

If there is an itch, you do not scratch it- for you will only aggravate the area even more.

Now that you’re working alongside the Fatui as the Tianquan’s representative, the itch you kept feeling was only irritated more. Especially whenever you spoke with the Harbinger who goes by the name Childe. And since your work requires you to cooperate with him, you also don’t miss the chance to discover what he hides, should the opportunity presents itself.

Childe… his azure eyes certainly have their… charm to those unaware. However, you knew better. You know he’s capable of drowning you just by his eyes. While he may be a cheerful man, his eyes lack the lustre of joy. The eyes are the windows of the soul, yes? If so, all you see is an unending ocean that you do not want to swim in. The surface may be calm, but the deep is relentless. However, duty bound you are- deep within the ocean, you shall find the secrets the Fatui hides.

Again, another scratch to the itch, but it only irritates you more.

~ 

The news of Rex Lapis’s death became the catalyst of you confronting the Harbinger. From Yujeng Terrace all the way to Northland Bank, you ran (with Ningguang’s permission of course). Before you can even open the door to his office, something caught your eye.

It’s faint, but you’re an adeptus. You sensed elemental traces, just smack bang at the middle of the door. You carefully scrutinized the tracings, and fortunately you knew Snezhnayan script. And what you read only made your heart sink.

It’s ready.

With the adeptal arts, you managed to uncover the origins of these elemental tracings.

Scratch.

Without hesitation, you followed these tracings until it led you into some ruins.

Scratch.

Following the tracings further, you find yourself in a dimly lit room. Wary, you summoned your weapon imbued with your element.

Scratch.

Searching the room, you came across several antique boxes. You opened them.

Scratch.

What you saw were familiar. Too familiar. Dimming the room more with your element, you find more Sigils of Permission hanging on the walls and on the ceilings. The energy within them were faint, but with enough numbers, it’s enough to kill a-

“Well, well well, I thought you’d be there mourning for your Archon. But here you are, snooping around someone else’s research material.”

The sound of his voice made you sharply turn your head to him, your stance now more offensive. “What are you planning?” You bit coldly.

The Harbinger hummed a small tune, “Nothing much… But! If you’re really curious, I guess I could tell you.” He hummed some more but you knew he’s not finished. Once he finished his tune, he grinned to you menacingly and the depths in his eyes became even deeper and darker, “After all, I won’t let you leave this place with you knowing my secret~”

~

There was this one time, Xiao struggled against himself so much, he scratched himself red so that he could anchor himself back to the real world. You remembered how much you cried as he slept in your arms. You never wanted to see him do that again. Seeing him hurt himself also hurt you, too. It was like a stab in the heart, then a twist, and twist some more. A slap in the reality that you might lose him one day.

As he slept, you solemnly observed the wounds he sustained himself to. They were angry red, just like blood.

Now, you, yourself scratched that itch in your head too much into a wound for blood to seep through. You scratched too much and now you have to bleed from it.

~

You were slipping in and out of consciousness. Sleep was tempting you more and more but you know you have to wake up. You were aware that this is going on for days.

Everything hurts. You remembered how his blades, imbued with the Sigils, weakened you thoroughly. Every slash he brought to your body just drained the energy away from you. But still you had to do something.

He wanted an adeptus- he wanted an adeptus in order for the Sigils to grow stronger both in number and in power.

Now here you are, bound by chains and suspended at the middle of this empty room. These chains were adorned by talismans that drained away your energy. You were bleeding from your wounds of your previous battle.

Drip. Drip. Drip goes the blood and pools on the ground underneath you. The ground, you barely noticed, was lined by Liyuean script which enacts the ritual of the Sigils draining your divine power from your blood.

To the eyes of a sadist- you were a picture perfect in a canvas. A dark room lined by the damned Sigils, glowing an eerie gold. Then there's you with your bloodied clothes and chains. The red pool underneath was casting a red glow on your way, giving you a red shade to your pale skin.

Everything hurts-

And everything was driving you mad.

You can also feel the Overlord of the Vortex feed from your energy through the Sigils. You sensed his lust for power and revenge. You felt his anger and the corruption within him. You felt his hatred and his want to bring death. For days that felt like years, you’ve been battling against that very same god in your head. This battle was not something you shall not lose to and failure is not an option. If you fail here, then Liyue will fall. 

This god- he was driving you mad slowly.

If ever you are in trouble, do not hesitate to call my-

You shut the thought from your head. You are not going to call him. You will not speak of him. You will not think of him. You will not call him. Not to this place where his corruption will grow. No. You Will Not Call Him.

If it means that me not calling you will keep you safe from the corrupted remnant of a god- so be it. 

Please

However, no matter how much you denied yourself to call his name, no matter how much your heart yearns to be with him- the wind does not ignore the pained sob that left your lips.

~

Ever since the news of Rex Lapis's death and the visit of the Traveler with a Sigil in his hand- the corruption within him just bloomed into something feral.

The Sigil- there was something wrong about it but Xiao doesn't know what is it that is wrong. Then there's you- where are you? Surely with the news of their Archon's death- it would send you to bring forth a meeting for the adepti to talk this over. But now- for days- you remain not by his side.

With you missing- the demons inside him are slowly taking control over him, taking advantage of his vulnerability for you. For each passing day, it was slow torture for him- The worry bubbling in him was consuming him. He glared at the Sigil between his fingers and not failing to notice how his dark aura covers him once more. 

“Traveler,” Xiao called sharply, “What is it you intend to do next?” 

To any mere mortal, the look his eyes held were enough to strike fear, but the Traveler stealed themselves- meeting the adeptus’s gaze with an equally serious calm. “I have my suspicions on a certain harbinger and I-”

“Where?” The Yaksha growled.

“In the Golden House.”

Without a word nor warning, Xiao placed a hand on the Traveler’s shoulder and teleported them to the place where the Exuvia is hidden.

To the Traveler, everything happened so quickly as one event led to another. One moment, they were standing among unconscious bodies of the Millelith then the next thing they knew a corrupted and demonic gust of wind flew them away to the side. Regaining back their vision, they could see Alatus’s spear now at Tartaglia’s barrier made of Sigils. 

Alatus narrowed his eyes at the floating talismans and began to calculate the flow of this incoming battle with precision and accuracy despite his losing control over himself. 

It was a tense minute of sizing each other up, but eventually, Tartaglia has broken the silence with his annoying innocent voice. 

“Who would have thought that I’d have the honor of fighting another adeptus of Liyue?” 

The question immediately fed the corruption within him, the dark aura exploding at it. He knew that he should not believe in the Harbinger’s words so easily, but the glint in the latter’s eyes held truth. You could be out there, hurting, scared, alone. You could be out there, bleeding out. You could be out there dyi-

His aura exploded once more at the thoughts spreading in his being. With a burst of unspeakable power, Alatus lifted his weapon and pierced the barrier once more, this time breaking it without failure. At the threat, Tartaglia backed away as he donned his mask.

In a similar fashion, Alatus, too donned his mask. “I will ask you once,” the Conqueror of Demons spoke with a deathly calm, “Where is she?”

~

He should have killed him then and there. But the call of the Overlord of the Vortex must not be ignored as it threatens Liyue. 

In the small opportunity of escape, Childe took it. But he was weak and injured as Alatus swiftly threw his spear to block his way and teleported right in front of him. In a show of power, the Conqueror of Demons lifted the mortal by the neck.

“I will ask you again, where is she?”

In fear, Childe told him everything and at his every word, Xiao listened carefully- never speaking once. But the anger within his heart, it boils- it rages. His amber eyes bored into Childe’s soul- thinking what he should do to this mortal. Oh how killing him would be so nice. However, when the Yaksha’s gaze landed on the regal form of the Exuvia, he merely threw the mortal in its way.

“Killing you would have been easier. However, the crimes you have presented against Liyue are not mine for me to judge.

I leave the Harbinger to you... Rex Lapis.”

Once out of the Golden House, the Overlord roared once more, shaking the lands of the nation. However, along with it, he heard the faintest of voices. I’m so sorry... I couldn’t hold him back anymore. 

Only then did the demons in his heart freely took control of him. Just like the stories of old, where the Yaksha walks, death follows. But they were no stories. In his way towards the ruins where you were held captive, every step he took brought carnage and even more death and blood to taint his hands. No Fatui will leave this place alive. The very being of destruction ended many lives. Each death, the demons were growing stronger.

All he wanted now was to kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill killkillkill killkill kill killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill

Then seeing you suspended in the ceiling and bound by chains. Blood was painted on your lifeless skin. Wounds were littered and bruises were blooming on your form. But most of all, your eyes. What were once full of life and hope- now empty and blank. His demons quieted down.

Broken. You were like a broken porcelain doll.

“N-name...” His voice cracked, not believing it all.

With haste, he quickly broke your binds and caught you in his arms. he was fast to check for your pulse and your breathing. And thank the Archons, you were breathing but barely. You were now walking the line between life and death. With all his might yet a gentle caress, he hugged you for dear life. “Name... It’s me...”

But still, your eyes still held no recognition and it shattered his heart to pieces. With further inspection, he sensed the presence within you. A corruption. A certain evil. 

“Name, stay with me please,” Xiao begged with desperation as he fought back tears. “It’s me who supposed to be the corrupted one between us, not you... I’m not allowing you to leave me, you hear me-”

With a ritual of the adeptal arts, he started purging and purifying the evil left by the god who fed from you. He is not letting you stay alone in your prison, not for a second longer. 

Xiao prays and he never prayed before. Even to his master. But just this once, He prays with desperation. You are the light in his darkness. You are the moon in his night. 

The ritual was a delicate process. For every word he spoke, he was rewarded by your screams of pain and the writhing of your fragile body. He wanted to stop, but he can’t. He had to physically restrain you from trying to escape from his embrace and from hurting yourself. And for every cry you released, Xiao merely shuts his eyes clos just for him not to see your pained eyes. Every now and then, Xiao speaks gentle apologies and words of encouragement for you. You were coming back. But still, the evil persists.

You writhed and scratched against him, until you were creating more wounds for blood to seep through. When it came to a point, you began pleading and begging for him to stop, that was when Xiao had shed a tear. So he continues the ritual, his prayers, and his apologies. They were arriving to a point where the ritual is reaching its conclusion but your screams only grew louder.

Please, just a little more...

Please, just stop...

Please...

The corruption disintegrated away from you in a forceful release of dark energy. He was breathing deeply, attempting to calm his loud heart. When he placed his gaze on you, you were breathing rapidly and your eyes were searching blindly and your hands were desperately holding onto him.

“X-Xiao...” You whispered, “Where am I? Where are you?”

With a sigh of relief, the Yaksha hugged you again closer and his forehead to yours, fearing you would go away again. The action made you lift your hands to his face, still searching blindly.

“I’m here, Name... I’m here.” At his voice, the dam in your eyes broke as you cried silently. Xiao was not adept in emotions, but for you, he will face them gladly. He lets you cry as he gives you soft whispers of assurance, safety, love, and promises. However, you were not crying because of what had happened to you. You were crying for him. After experiencing such corruption-

You sobbed some more- you were this close to him losing you and you could not bring yourself to imagine if your roles were reversed.

“P-please,” you said with a broken voice, “please don’t go to the place where I can’t follow...’

The words, at first puzzled him, but after a few moments, he realized and once more it broke his heart. Bringing you closer, Xiao let loose the tears he was holding back. With a gentleness unexpected of the Conqueror, he simply littered your face with kisses. “I promise if only you would do the same.”

With your smile that he loved dearly for so long you too spoke your promise, “I do.” They were simply two words, but the comfort they bring into the Yaksha’s heart was in volumes.

After that, you shared a few tender moments in each other’s arms. Simply relishing the feeling of their familiar warmth. A little later, Xiao spoke, “Would you like to eat some Almond Tofu once we get home?”

The question made you giggle at his innocence, so you agreed. Despite you needing physical medical attention. But Almond Tofu with him? Yes, you two definitely need some emotional healing.

A/N: fINALLY dONE lmao this was supposed to be short but angst really makes me want to write longer everytime haha~ anyway this request really made me ponder bout genshin stuff with all the corruption this and corruption that but then a question popped up like-

how did childe replicate the sigil of permission? since sigils are imbued with divine energy, i just thought how did this guy accumulate so much sigils to the point of freeing Osial- a god!!! soooo i just played with the idea for a bit then figured out maybe these pieces of paper get the divine energy from a divine source right? and the adepti are divine beings of liyue and another thing- you guys might have noticed the change of names in some scenes- i dont know but i think somehow different names represents different side of a person like- we have childe the cheerful harbinger then tartaglia the power hungry harbinger- there’s Alatus who’s calculating and cold, there’s the Conqueror of Demons who’s ruthless and unforgiving, then Xiao who is calm and humane- lastlyyyyy i might post this in ao3 ksks

[tooweirdforyou]

The OP Boys & Their Personal Dirty Secrets pt. 2

A/N : Hey hun! I hope you like this! ( i can’t tag you idk why ) I saw you wanted a part two to this and decided to do it because it was fun. I guess, lol. anyways hope you like this! :>

Soooo, don’t judge the gif I couldn’t find anything else. Also I’m kinda tired ;-; alsooo. these ones are a LITTLE bit dirtier.

Warning : NSFW AHEAD! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! ⚠️ ESPECIALLY W/ THATCH.

kid and mihawk don’t have specific dark secrets since I couldn’t think of anything that would yk connect to them. ;-;

Summary : All of these boys and their personal, hidden dirty secrets. PART TWO!

-

Doflamingo

Oh boy, this male, despite his possessiveness, has a bit of a voyeurism kink. He hasn’t yet, but he DEFINITELY wants to turn on the country wide announcement, ( like those screens whatever used in Dressrosa when he talked ) and just fuck you as everyone watches throughout the island. He dreams of it, and one day, HE WILL make it a reality.

“How does it feel?” The lick of his lips and the shit-eating grin was on display all over the island for the people of Dressrosa to see, the image of Doflamingo’s hips thrusting and making contact with your rear.

“Does it feel good to have the whole island watching you being fucked senseless, by me? Their king?”

You couldn’t respond, lost in the insane amount of pleasure that ran through your body, specifically your lower regions. You didn’t even care that you were being watched, basking in the euphoria you were given at the moment.

Doffy’s strings suspended you partially in air, the material binding your body so you couldn’t move in the slightest as he took you from behind.

Arms wrapped around your bare figure, one holding you thigh tightly while the other wrapped around your torso, his hand grasping your throat and his fingers, pressing itself onto the flesh of your neck.

If you were fortunate, your face was cut off from the screen to be visible but your exposed body was seen by everyone who watched.

Doflamingo felt glory and power, as he continued to fuck you for all to see, your sweet, melodic moans echoing through the island as he did this.

What a fantasy that will soon become a reality.

-

Kid

Literally anything but also nothing. I couldn’t think of anything.. so here’s a kink he has! Dominant Submission. (?) basically, he LOVES the submissive ones, but those who really fight back. Feisty bitches yk? But like, he knows you’re all talk because he’ll have you begging for him on your knees once the two of you really get started. ;)

You’re teasing the hell out of Kid. You’re being bad by ignoring Kid and disobeying his orders and the Captain has had enough.

He barges into your room, slamming the door shut with the lock clicking on and before you could react, he has his hand around your throat and your back shoved to the wall.

“You think you’re being funny?” He growls into your ear, instantly using his free hand to rip your clothes off in a swift pull.

Despite the lack of air you had, your face still formed a sly and cheeky smirk in response. “I..I think it’s.. hilarious. Ha.”

Kid scowls before slowly smirking himself and tightened his grip on your neck a little bit more, but not enough to actually kill you. ( he cares after all :> )

“Tch. Looks like you need a punishment.” He drags you over to your bed and shoves you roughly done onto him, unbuckling his pants and pulled the belt out from the loops and pressed the two ends together so he had an able whipping belt. ( make sense? )

You merely grin at this and tilt your head. “Oh? Is that for me?” You hum and sat up, legs up and spread for him to see your already getting wet pussy, arms over you knees.

The sight of it made Kid growl lowly before he walks closer to you. “Time for you to face the consequences of pissing me off.”

With one hand, he forces you down onto the bed, breasts against the mattress and your ass forcefully in the air.

And with the raise of his other hand, it was only seconds before a loud whip was heard.

Tears stings the corner of your eyes but you still held strong, biting your lip. “Is that all you got? Guess you weren’t so angry.” You laugh and Kid didn’t respond, only whipping you once more, a little more force.

“Don’t you worry. I have all night long.”

[ I could write a whole OneShot about this, I had to stop lol ]

-

Marco

Little bit harder, buttt, come on. Sex in the air? Marco’s dream, for sure. And if he’s going to admit it, yes, he has done sexual activities in the air, where no one would be around.

The blonde doctor soars across the sky, a little ways away from the ship, not too far to lose sight but enough where he wouldn’t be seen, regardless of it being the time of night.

He’s only ever done it once or twice, but the no matter how many times Marco would do it again afterwards, the first time experience couldn’t ever be bested.

Sexual activities in the air.

Yet, that didn’t mean Marco didn’t love the thrill and excitement it brought him, especially when he did it so often in his younger days.

Extending his bright cyan blue wings out and around him, Marco palms himself through his pants, shutting his eyes before slightly lowering his pants enough to release his cock into the exposed cold air.

Marco shivers before reeling back and moving so he was laying down, his wings as support. One left propped up and his fingers wrapped itself around his shaft, his touch slow.

With nothing but the moon lighting down on him and the refreshing night breeze in the midnight sky, Marco felt at ease as he continues to rub his length in a teasingly slow motion, only increasing in speed seconds after.

Marco won’t lie, when it came to his release, he often did it into his hands and a bit dripping down onto his hips and chest,

but it felt good letting his cum spurt into the ocean.

-

Thatch

It’s pretty known that Thatch is a real perv with large sexual desires. ( at least to me because of @ honeybakedthatch lol ) however, this personal secret is his dirtiest one yet.

Thatch bit his lip as he grunted out a soft groan, feeling the rest of his warm, bitter cum shooting out from his tip and into the leftover mixture of cream and condensed milk he made for the cinnamon buns.

Pulling his pants up and zipping it tight, Thatch made sure to thoroughly mix the cum and mixture together with a plastic spoon before drizzling it over the cinnamon buns he left out just for you.

The plastered grin Thatch wore merely widens as he watched the ordinary looking cinnamon buns look identical to the others, but he knew the pleasant surprise in taste that differed.

Just as he finished drizzling the cream, the door opened, you having walked in. “Thatch, I smell something good! What is it?”

The cheery, innocent smile you had made Thatch smirk a bit, the imagination all too pleasant, the thought of you eating his delicious cinnamon buns.

“I made cinnamon buns. Here, I made these especially for you.” Thatch holds out the separate plate he had and walks closer to you, placing a sweet kiss on your temple before letting you take the plate and fork.

“Enjoy. If it’s a bit too bitter, let me know and I’ll.. sweeten it up for you.”

-

Mihawk

This stoic ass man is such an intimate, romanticist, he doesn’t quite have very dirty secrets.. but, one kink he secretly has is bondage and slight corruption. He won’t ever mention it but if you bring it up, he’ll voice his opinions on it.

“Now, now, love. You should be careful.”

Mihawk’s strict but amused tone was evident as he sat in his chair and watched you writhe in the tight black silk ribbons that bounded you on the ground.

Your arms were tied behind your back, your vision blocked by a silk blindfold and your legs were forced spread by a ankle bar, exposing your bare heat towards Mihawk.

You were leaning against a table/chair, and the only thing you could hear were Mihawk’s praises and warnings, along with the humming vibration that came from the vibrator strapped to your clit.

“You might loosen the binds, and you know you don’t want that, do you?” Mihawk sternly questions and you shook your head, biting your lip to prevent yourself from moaning out too loud.

“Oh? You aren’t responding?” Mihawk smiles slightly as he leans on his hand, elbow on the armrest of his chair. “I asked you a question.”

You gasp out in realization and stammered out, trying to close your legs from the shock and orgasm you keep receiving.

“I-I mean no.. h-hah.. ah.. I, I don’t want it to loosen.” Your blush darkens at the embarrassment you held, but you loved this, just as much as Mihawk did.

-

Shanks

I could come up with a bunch of things but the first thing my mind went to was — sex tapes. Shanks is all for EVERYTHING but I feel like sex tapes seal the deal. Especially since he hooks up with so many women, I’m sure.

Shanks watches as the woman below him arches her back and curls her toes in pure bliss and euphoria.

The loud moans escaping her lips and filling the motel rooms only edged him further.

His tight grip on the woman’s left thigh glides up to grab the soft mound flesh on her left, his fingers twisting the little perky bud as he thrusted his hips roughly into her, eliciting a louder pleasurable cry.

The sound of skin slapping was the only thing heard other than the heavy grunts of Shanks and the mewls of the woman being fucked into oblivion.

Shanks, despite having the time of his life and was nearing his climax as he continued to thrust into the two small and tight lips, it’s walls clenching around him, could only think about the recording camera on its designated position on top of the drawer.

As much as he loved the real experience at the current moment, he couldn’t wait to rewatch the recording of it and relive the experience that way.

-

A/N: here you go, hun! I know you wanted a part 2 with these characters and I hope this went out you expected and wanted! :>

A few don’t have proper endings but it’s gooddd enoughhh for me. :p

jus wondering, what do y’all think Kid has? Master, sir, daddy or captain kink? Or none and just his name?

Law def has a “doc/doctor” kink lol but since I’m at it, I don’t think Marco has that.

[bex-la-get]

Take Care of You (Ethan x f!MC)

Book: Open Heart

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x Natalie Cusack

Special Appearance: Tobias Carrick

Word count: 2175

Summary: When Ethan falls sick, Nat steps in to take care of him.

Rating: T

Author’s Note: Hi, hello. It’s been a crappy week and I’m emotionally/physically exhausted. So here’s some fluff to counter the bad week. This is unedited, so please forgive any mistakes. Hope you like it. 💙

Ethan never got sick. Ever. Despite working in a hospital, surrounded by sick people on a daily basis, Ethan always managed to stay as healthy as possible. He had prided himself on his strong immune system and seemingly inability to fall ill.

Until today, that is. He woke with so much pressure in his sinuses, he thought his head would burst. Getting out of bed was a feat in itself, as his whole body ached. He sniffled as he made his way to the bathroom and nearly jumped at his own reflection: his eyes were puffy, his nose was red, and his posture was significantly slouched. He tried to stand up straight but only groaned as his body protested the movement. Today was going to be long. 

Pushing through, he swallowed a couple of DayQuils with his morning coffee, stuffed some tissues into his pocket, and gave Jenner a pat on the head before sluggishly making his way to work. 

Arriving at the hospital, he noticed the looks of surprise and concern that people gave him as he passed. He didn’t know why; it was just a little cold. It wasn’t like he had grown a second head. He rolled his eyes and continued towards the seventh floor, ignoring everyone he walked past. 

Finally arriving in the Diagnostics Office, he found himself breathing heavier than normal. As he sat at his desk, he attempted to take a deep breath but instead triggered a coughing fit. He grabbed a nearby Kleenex and coughed hard, his body wracking with the movement. He took a deep breath and coughed one last time before his lungs took pity on him and stopped causing him distress. Ethan groaned and dropped his head into his hands. 

“Ethan? You okay, man?” a voice said.

Ethan looked up to find Tobias looking at him with concern. He hadn’t even heard his old friend come in. He nodded and sighed. “Yeah; just a little under the weather today, is all.”

“If you’re not feeling well, you should probably go home,” Tobias suggested. “There’s no point in pushing yourself to further exhaustion.”

Ethan shook his head. “I’m fine; I just need the DayQuil to kick in.”

Tobias pursed his lips then clicked his tongue. “If you say so; Nat’s not gonna be happy to see you like this though.”

“See who like what?” the aforementioned doctor asked as she walked into the room. Natalie looked to Tobias first then Ethan, her eyes widening. “Woah, are you okay?” She quickly made her way over to Ethan and rested the back of her hand to his forehead. 

He weakly brushed her hand away. “I’m fine, Nat. Just a little under the weather.”

“I’d say more than a little; you look terrible!” She exclaimed. He frowned and she gave him a small smile. “Sorry babe, but it’s true.”

“I also walked in on him having a serious coughing fit a moment ago,” Tobias said. Ethan glared at Tobias but the latter deliberately avoided eye contact with him, choosing to look at his phone instead.

Natalie gently placed her hand on Ethan’s cheek and turned his face towards her so she could look at him. He watched as her eyes scanned his face and knew she was trying to figure out how sick he really was. He both loved and hated how well she knew him sometimes. “You should go home, Ethan.”

“I’m fine,” he argued. “I already took some meds, they just need to kick in.”

She pulled out her stethoscope and pointed it at him threateningly. “Go home or I’ll admit you.”

Tobias coughed back a chuckle and Ethan raised an eyebrow. “You do remember I’m your boss, right?”

She nodded as she put the headset into her ears and placed the cold chestpiece against his chest, making him jump. “You’re my boss, my boyfriend, and now, my patient. Breathe in.”

“Nat, this is ridiculous--” he argued but stopped when she glared at him.

“Breathe. In.” she repeated. Shaking his head in reply, he did as she said and found taking a breath was difficult. He fought the cough he could feel bubbling up but to no avail; thankfully, however, this cough was not nearly as violent as the last one. Nat pulled the chestpiece away and nodded. “Yeah, you’re a mess. You’re going home.” He opened his mouth to protest but she held up her hand. “Don’t argue with me on this. You’re in no state to work, let alone be around other sick patients.” 

She pulled out a prescription pad, scribbled something down then turned to Tobias and handed it to him. “Tobias, can you send this down to the pharmacy so they can get it filled? I’ll pick it up when it’s ready.”

He nodded and took the form. “Sure thing.” He turned to Ethan and smiled sympathetically. “Get better soon, Ethan. Nat’s not as fun to be around when she’s in charge.”

Natalie rolled her eyes and smirked as Tobias made his way out of the office. She turned back to Ethan and softened her gaze as he frowned and sniffled. She caressed his cheek with her hand. “I love you.”

His frown shifted to a small smile. “I love you too.” He sneezed.

“You see why I’m sending you home, right?”

He sighed and nodded. “Yeah; I do. I hate being sick. I always feel so useless.”

“You are still human, my love; and humans get sick from time to time. It’s normal.” She crouched in front of him and took his hands in hers. “I’ll come over after my shift and make you some soup, okay?”

“You don’t have to do that--” he weakly protested.

She shook her head. “I want to; let me take care of you, baby. Please.”

Sighing, he nodded and stood, bringing Natalie up with him. He reached for her but hesitated as he didn’t want to make her ill. She smiled at him and stood on her tiptoes to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Go home and get some rest. I’ll be there in a couple hours.”

He nodded. Sighing, he left the hospital and made his way home, his head in a fog for most of the journey. After safely arriving home, he changed into some more comfortable clothing, with the intention of getting some work done on his laptop; but the bed looked just so inviting. I guess I could lay down for a few minutes, he thought. Gently, he laid on the bed and closed his eyes. Five minutes is all I need. Within seconds, his body relaxed and he began to emit quiet snores, work completely forgotten.

-------------------------------------------

Several Hours Later

Ethan woke to the muffled sounds of the television and someone shuffling around in his kitchen. He groaned and got out of bed, padding his way to the source of the noise. As he exited the bedroom, he was greeted with the various sights of onion, tomato, and meat that were cooking on the stovetop. Unfortunately, due to his stuffed sinuses, he could barely smell anything but he presumed it was heavenly.

“Hi,” a voice said. He turned his attention to the source and smiled as Natalie approached him, throwing a hand towel over her shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“Not great,” he replied, truthfully.

She gently brought his forehead to her lips as she judged his temperature. She hummed as she pulled away. “You’re warm.” She turned around and grabbed a small box out of her purse then handed it to him. He looked it over appraisingly, realizing this must be the prescription Nat wrote out earlier. “Take one of these now; it should lower your fever and help you feel better. Go get comfortable, the soup will be ready soon.”

“You didn’t have to do all this, Nat,” he began.

“Of course I did,” she said, cutting him off. She rested a gentle hand on his back and guided him towards the sofa. “Now, relax and get comfy. I’m almost done.”

Ethan did as she said, plopping down on the couch. He opened the prescription box and took the prescribed medication as Jenner trotted over and rested his head in his master’s lap. Ethan patted the pup’s head soothingly, giving him a tired smile. “Has she been giving you orders today, too?” he asked.

“Unlike you, Jenner is a spectacular patient,” Nat answered from the kitchen. “He’s been very good and even earned himself a few treats for being so good.”

“Did you, now?” Ethan mused, looking down at Jenner. The pup, none the wiser to the conversation happening about him, simply wagged his tail and gave his best doggy smile to his owner. Ethan chuckled. “Good dog.”

Taking the remote, he flipped to the Classic Film channel and sunk lower onto the couch. He felt his body begin to shiver and grabbed the nearby throw blanket, covering himself with it. “God, this is awful. I hate being sick.”

“I know, my love,” Nat soothed. “But the meds I gave you should help. They just need time to kick in. And,” she walked over and placed a bowl of hot soup in front of him on the coffee table, “this should help too. It’s an old family recipe of Dani’s. It works wonders.”

“Speaking from experience?” he asked, leaning over, letting the steam from the hot bowl wash over his face. 

Nat nodded. “Yep. Both Dani and I got the flu within a week of each other when we were still living together. She made this soup for us and we both felt better almost immediately. I’m convinced it’s got magic powers.”

Ethan chuckled. “I’ll take your word for it.” He pulled the coffee table a little closer to the couch and smiled at Nat. “Thank you for making this.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, returning his smile. “Now, eat. I’ll be right there.”

Lacking the energy to argue, he did as she said, bringing a spoonful of the hot soup to his lips. Within minutes, Ethan felt the hot liquid warm up his body, which had been starting to feel cold. Nat smiled as she joined him with her own bowl, nodding in approval as he steadily ate. 

Nat filled him in on what he missed at work while they ate, which hadn’t been much, thankfully. Their new patient wouldn’t be admitted for another week so the team had just done some prep and research today but nothing else beyond that. Ethan asked a few questions as Nat explained but otherwise, remained quiet through their conversation. Nat raised an eyebrow, suspicious. “You’re being unusually cooperative. What’s the matter?”

He chuckled and placed his near empty bowl on the coffee table. “Nothing. I’m just feeling a little drained, is all.”

“Mm, I’m not surprised. When you get sick, it hits you like a freight train.”

He frowned. “Thanks.”

Nat chuckled and settled deeper into the couch. She opened her arms and gestured towards herself with her fingers. “C’mere.”

Needing no further invitation, Ethan maneuvered himself into Nat’s embrace, covering them both with the throw blanket he had still been wearing. As he relaxed in her arms, he wondered aloud, “Aren’t you worried about getting sick?”

She hummed. “Nah. But even if I was, it wouldn’t stop me from being here.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “I would take care of you, anytime.”

He looked up at her and smiled. “Thank you, Nat. You’re too good for me.”

“No, I’m not,” she replied, smiling. “We’re just the right amount of good for each other.” She kissed his head. “Can I get you anything else?”

He shook his head, tightening his hold around her midsection. “No. Just you.”

“I’m right here,” Nat reassured. 

“Love you,” Ethan murmured, his eyes fluttering closed.

“I love you too. Now, rest.” She gently leaned over and took the remote from the coffee table.

“Don’t watch the next episode of Bake Off without me,” Ethan said, his voice drowsy.

Nat chuckled. “I wouldn’t dare. When you’re feeling better, we’ll pick up where we left off.” When he didn’t respond, she glanced down to find that Ethan had fallen asleep. Smiling to herself, she turned on an old favorite film of hers and watched, while running her fingers up and down Ethan’s back. 

It would be a few more days before Ethan was back in top shape; but Nat took care of him the entire time. From bringing him food to ensuring he rested instead of working, Nat took better care of Ethan than he had ever done himself when he had been sick in the past. He’d never been so well taken care of before, and it made him all the more grateful to have her in his life. He’d always hoped she’d take over the DT for him one day; and after the way she cared for him, he knew the team would be in the best possible hands. And so would he.

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @genevievemd @jamespotterthefirst @paulfwesley @ethansdique @openheartfanfics @perriewinklenerdie @little-flowers-on-heaven @stateofgracious @coffeeheartaddict @liaromancewriter @potionsprefect @mm2305 @gryffindordaughterofathena @actuallybored @writer-ish @queencarb @takeharryandgo @lsvdw-blog @itsjustwinter @chaoticchopshopheart @ohchoices @maurine07 @oldminniemcg @parisa-kh @shanzay44 @uberamsey @izzyourresidentlawyer @adiehardfan @custaroonie @mia143 @a-crepusculo @takemyopenheart @toadfrog26 @quixoticdreamer16 @barbean @headoverheelsforramsey @natureblooms24 @jerzwriter @crazy-loca-blog @dorisz @thegreentwin @cryomyst @kalinahonore @choicesficwriterscreations @rosebudde @trappedinfanfiction @custaroonie​

[quartzwriting]

Attack in The Library

Pairing: Doctor Strange X Fem!Reader

Description: Stephen sends you to Kamar Taj to get some books, but some invaders attack you. Stephen comes to the rescue, and he’s not happy.

Warnings: Fighting and violence

Word Count: 3.5k

A/N: Originally posted on Quotev  // School has be busy so one shots that are already on my quotev will be reposted here, all requests on hold for now sorry // Originally requested by Coppercat615 on quotev <3

Masterlist | Fic Reading Recs | Ao3 | Quotev | Coffee

You had just finished a meditation and astral projection practice session on the Sanctum rooftop. The background noise of the frantic and angry city below sometimes helped you focus. It was just what you needed today. Feeling relaxed, accomplished, and satisfied, you went back inside to see what Stephen was up to. It was getting close to noon, and maybe you could pull him away from his studies for a little to grab lunch together.

Stephen was standing over his desk in his office, a few books open before him and his eyes darting from one to the next. He looked deep in thought and you almost did not want to bother him. The Sorcerer Supreme in his natural habitat, it was like there was naturally a 'do not disturb' sign plastered onto him. You did anyways.

"Hey Stephen, I finished my practice."

"How did it go?" He did not even look up from his books.

"Pretty good!" You walked up to the desk and rested your hands on it, trying to see what he was looking at even though it was upside down for you. "Looking for something?"

He shrugged and flipped one of the books around so you could see it the right way up. The book was old and small, the wear and tear from over the years showing through its pages. There was writings in characters you did not understand scribbled across the page, directions for a spell you assumed. He then showed you another book that had the same letters translated to English, but there were so many variations of each and it looked hard to decipher.

"I've been trying to decode this spell. This is the only instance of it in writing. The Ancient One left it behind but I cannot seem to understand it." There was a frustration in his voice and you could tell from his messy hair that he had been running his hands through it in said frustration.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." You handed him back the books.

"Hey (Y/N), can you do me a big favor?"

Curiosity struck you, "What is it?"

"Can you head over to the Kamar Taj library and find these books for me."

Stephen handed you a list on a piece of paper. Titles and authors were listed in his slightly messy handwriting. You counted six books.

"Why can't you go get them yourself?"

"I'm busy."

He did have those books in front of him, certainly looking busy. But he could go over there himself and it would only take about ten minutes. It felt like an excuse to you.

You gave him a look, before growling under your breath, "Fine. I'll get you your books..."

Raising up your hand that had your sling ring, you started to conjure up a portal before Stephen interrupted you.

"No, take the door."

"Seriously?"

"You can't rely on magic for everything, (Y/N)."

"Well that door is magic too, you idiot. What do you want me to do? Jump on the next flight to Nepul?"

"Just stop complaining and go take the door."

You rolled your eyes and stomped off down the hallway and towards the door that connected the Sanctum to the two others and Kamar Taj. He did that all the time, scolding you for using magic for minor conveniences. Whether it be you quickly grabbing something from across the Sanctum with a portal or teleporting to the other side of the room for split second. The thing is was that he did it sometimes. When you pointed it out he just told you to shut up. Typical.

Walking through the door that lead directly to Kamar Taj, you entered the library and found just how like a library should be: calm and silent. It was nighttime in Kathmandu so the lack of people in the place did not surprise you. But when you walked past a few shelves, you saw Wong with a stack of books in his arms.

"Hey Wong." You said cheerily, coming up beside him to look on the same shelf he was organizing the books onto.

He bowed his head, "Master (L/N)."

Your mouth formed a tight line for a split second, "How many times have I told you to just call me (Y/N)?"

"Well it is out of respect," He replied, and you shrugged a little in understanding, "But on your word, (Y/N)."

You smiled and went back to looking for one of the books on the shelf. It had some weird and long title, you scanned the book spines for it.

It still felt a little weird when others would call you that, Master (L/N). It came with the feeling that you were in a high position. You kind of were, being taught personally by the Sorcerer Supreme himself. Not to mention being his girlfriend. The people around Kamar Taj and the other sanctums treated you with a lot of respect. Sometimes you did not feel like you deserved it, you still felt like you and being a master of the mystic arts did not change that.

You shook the thought away from your head as you found yourself not even reading the titles. You went back over while Wong moved to the other side of the library to keep working. Then you found it, it was a bigger book. When you took it off the shelf the weight of it dug into your hands. This made you hope the others were smaller, otherwise you would be taking a big stack of heavy books back home. That could be dangerous due to your sometimes clumsy nature.

Opening it to a random page, it was full of runes with descriptions of their spells. You feathered through more pages and they were like that, covered in artworks of detailed images of runes. Then you remembered that Stephen was working on a lot of rune magic recently so it made sense. You closed the book and tucked it against your chest as you moved to another shelf to keep on looking.

While you were reading the little list of books, there was a sudden sound. It was soft. It was very familiar. It was the sound of a slingring portal opening. You turned around, looking towards where the sound came from. From in between the shelves and the tops of books, you saw a figure and the sparks from a portal. You did not recognize the figure, but on a closer look it was a man with black and red robes. For some reason the sight of him was slightly unsettling.

What happened next confirmed your suspicions.

He walked right up behind Wong. Just as Wong turned around at the sound of heavy footsteps, the sorcerer made a fast motion with his hands that made sparks explode from his fists. The energy shot into Wong and he was soon on the floor.

You quickly ducked behind a bookshelf, tucking the book you held tightly against your chest. That came out of nowhere and you assumed it was an attack. Wong was now unconscious and no one else was around. At this hour not many sorcerers were up and about around Kamar Taj. So you guessed it was up to you to stop it.

There were two more portals opened, and the first man instructed someone to look for 'it'. The 'it' they were referring to was probably a book, what else would they raid a library for? It could be any one in this whole library, so you needed to do something before they found what they were looking for.

Sneaking in between the shelves, you tried to think of a plan of action. The adrenaline was already pumping and your heart racing. This kind of distracted you from the planning, but you managed to think of something.

You heard someone nearby tossing books off the shelves, ones that were not what they needed. You slowly made your way closer, your boots against the floorboards not making a sound. Carefully, you summoned energy to create a whip, hoping that the sound of the sparks would not give you away. You threw your magic, the rope wrapping around the sorcerer's ankle and you pulled it back. The man fell to the floor and you cracked the whip on top of him to keep him down.

Before you could land another strike, something from behind grabbed your hand as it was raised up. While turning your head to see what happened, you were struck with a very powerful punch. It send you right down to the ground, the book skidding across the floor as it was knocked from your hands. You scrambled to get rid of your dazed vision and to grab the book again. When you felt the hard cover and clutched it to you chest, three figures were standing over you.

"We're going to need that."

You looked down at the book that you were clenching to your chest, the thick volume was one of the books that Stephen wanted you to bring back. Of course it had to be the exact book you were holding. From the looks of the group, and what they had did to Wong, you knew you could not let them get their hands on this book.

Looking him right in the eyes you said a calm but stern "No." Your eyes were full of seriousness and daring, but inside you knew you were insecure. You were scared.

"We thought we did not need to hurt anyone today." The woman with a thick accent peered at you, a glint in her eyes that you did not like.

You would not stand down though.

Thinking quickly, you cast a teleportation spell and hid yourself among the maze of shelves. From across the library you heard the three separate to search for you. You were still dizzy from that punch, knowing there was going to be a mark on your face later. You teleported again, hoping to get away from them.

Big mistake.

You accidentally appeared right in the sight of one of them. He warned the others and started running towards you. You were in the middle of summoning a spell to protect yourself when from in between the bookshelves the woman slid right past you and struck you in the leg. Soon there was a sting running down your leg and something hot started to coat the leggings you wore underneath your robes. You let out a cry and collapsed onto the ground. Feeling a boot kick itself into the back of your head, you seethed with pain and blurry vision.

"Well that was easy." One of them said going to pick up the book you had dropping in the impact.

"This one is weak, convenient for our mission."

There was another kick that went through you, this time to your stomach. Then again. And again. It felt like the air from your lungs was being forced out, being unable to breathe. Your head was ringing, your leg burning, and your very existence aching.

And they were laughing while it was all happening.

"Make one more move and I'll kill you where you stand."

The deep voice came suddenly, purring the threat out to the attackers.

The hits instantly stopped. You leaned on your elbow to prop yourself up, struggling against the weakness that had over come you. Looking up at Stephen as your vision was starting to become clear again, you saw a darkness in his eyes. This said that all hell was about to break loose.

He used the word 'kill'. Stephen would not kill anyone. Whenever he fought, he did it without the intention of harming his opponent. That was probably one of the doctor qualities he kept, swearing not to hurt anyone.

But this darkness you could see in him. It was unsettling. You felt a chill go about the room. You knew it had nothing to do with temperature.

The gang looked taken aback from his sudden appearance and froze in place, he must have teleported in. The expressions that washed over their faces told you that they recognized him. They were being threatened by the Sorcerer Supreme, his cloak flaring out to make him look bigger and a death glare staring them down.

"How dare you touch her."

The attackers broke out into a run, but Stephen was right on their heels.

You tried to crawl over to a bookshelf to lean against for support, but it took a while since the pain was so strong. You started to grow dizzy again from moving, your breath heaving in your chest. With your vision all fuzzy and body refusing to cooperate, all you could do was listen.

What you heard was brutal.

There were sounds of magic, struggle, heavy breathing, grunts, cries of pain. Also you might have heard the snap of a broken bone, which made your skin crawl a little. Stephen sounded mad. Very mad. What you realized that there was less sounds of magic, but more sounds of physical fighting. You could only imagine what was happening. It scared you a little. When Stephen got angry it was usually bad, but you have never seen (heard) anything like this. The fight continued out if your sight until the sounds stopped. You did not know if your attackers had escaped, been subdued, been knocked out...or worse...but you had no way to tell. You did not know if you wanted to ask him later either.

Stephen snapped back out of his fury-filled state, it being quickly replaced by concern and anxiety. There you were on the other side of the library, leaning on a bookcase and clutching at your leg. He noticed the trail of blood smeared on the ground from where you were pulling yourself across the ground, a deep red soaking your robes. Retaliation hit him that you were stabbed.

He rushed over to you. Kneeling down over your figure, his eyes darting everywhere in concern, he took you in his arms. "It's alright, you're okay."

"Stephen, it hurts..." You tried to say, but it came out as a quiet breath.

"I know." You were surprised he heard you. "Don't worry I'm right here."

He had to act quickly. What he needed to do was get you somewhere safe, clean your wound and stitch it up, and lay you down just encase you had a concussion. The weakness in your body and the pained look on your face made him want to let out more rage, but also hold you close until you were better.

"Okay," He took a breath and recollected himself. "I'm going to take you home. I'm going to lift you up. This is going to hurt. Deep breath for me." He reached around your body, one hand under your knees and the other supporting your back. He counted down so you could brace yourself for the jolt of pain he knew would hit you as soon as you moved. On one, Stephen lifted you up in a controlled motion, his muscles aching a little from fighting the attackers. You let out a cry as soon as the pain came and clung onto his neck and shoulders, you needed him there through it.  

You desperately held on, wishing it was over the entire way. Stephen would have used a portal to get you home faster but his hands needed to carry you. He carried you through the door and you were back in New York in no time. But for you the pain made it feel like a lifetime. He brought you to the bedroom which was close by. As carefully as he could, he put you down on top of the covers. The pain slowed to a quiet beat as you began to relax.

Stephen rushed out of the room to go find a first aid kit. Once he found one, hidden in the back of a closet in the hallway outside, he came back right by your side and started to rummage through the box. As he was doing so, he came to the realization that this was gonna be difficult. His hands. His hands shake more when he was panicking. And in that moment they were trembling like crazy. Seeing you like this, the hurt and the worry he felt. It went right to his hands, bringing back the state they were in when he was stripped away of everything he had. When he felt hopeless.

But he told himself to push past it. Because he needed to help you.

Before he did anything else, he put down the first aid kit. Raising his hands up and making a few sharp movements with his hands, energy summoned and made a little rune in front of him. His hands absorbed the bright colours. The shaking slowed, almost to a compete stop. Now he could work. Trying to remember his basic studies from medical school, he began to tend to the gash in your leg.

~~~

You had passed out from being so tired and being in so much pain. When you woke up, it was dark outside and it was a little colder in the bedroom. Stephen was still beside you, sitting at your bedside currently looking through a book that had a title that implied the pages contained mystical information on healing. There was this look in his eyes, like he was trying to stay calm. You could only imagine the rushing thoughts running through his head. Once he realized you had woken up, he put his book down like he was called to attention.

"How you feeling?"

"Dizzy..."

He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on your forehead.

"You're going to be just fine." He said, moving a little closer to you. "The stab wound is not too deep, needed to be stitched up. Bruising on your torso and arms." He gestured to the areas as he spoke. "You also got hit in the head pretty bad, maybe a concussion so you need to rest." He pulled the warm blanket further up to cover your cold body.

You have not seen Stephen in doctor mode in a while. It was comforting, knowing he knew exactly how to treat something and how to take care of you. You smiled at him, remembering back when he was a surgeon. He might have changed as a person from doctor to sorcerer, but he kept a few qualities.

"Is Wong alright?" You asked, suddenly remembering that little detail from the attack.

"He's fine. I made sure someone is watching over him."

You nodded, instantly regretting making the movement as it came with a headache.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine."

Then you remembered something else. Earlier you did not think you were going to ask about it. But you needed to. It was nagging you in the back of your thoughts.

"What did you do to them?"

He paused. "I stopped them from hurting you." You thought he was going to stop there. He was, it if were not for the look you gave him to keep going. "I beat them up. I know it was wrong. I was just so angry. I did not like what I saw. Them hurting you like that."

You noticed he kind of dodged your question directly. He gave no details of what he physically did to them. Even with your worry and slight curiosity, you did not press him for the answer you wanted.

You understood why he did it though. He was full of rage and it overtook his mind. But that did not excuse his actions, and you knew he knew it too. He looked a little ashamed of it. He was never good at controlling his anger. You reached out your hand and rested your palm on his cheek. You did not need to say anything because from the look in his eyes you could tell he understood your gesture. Bending down, he kissed your forehead again. Angry Stephen was gone, now it was just protective Stephen.

"One more thing." You said.

He hummed in response.

"You stitched me up?"

He nodded.

"But...your hands..."

"I learned a new rune that suppresses nervousness and its physical reactions."

You had to let out a little laugh, "Of course." Must have been from his recent rune studies because that was new.

"I had to do what I needed to." Shrugging, he gave a smile.

"What about your gloves?"

"I did not have time to go get them," He replied, this made you smile.

The rest of the night consisted of Stephen staying up with you and making sure you were comfortable. He brought you pain killers for your sore muscles and headache, something for you to eat, and anything else you needed. He let you cuddle up to him to rest and stay warm. You had made him renew his promise, and to make a new promise to you, that he would never hurt anyone like that ever again. He agreed and you could see the shame and guilt in his eyes. But you knew he did it to protect you even if his anger had taken over. You both fell asleep into the night, Stephen there to protect you.

[ravennm84]

Serafina II

Part 1     Part 3

The 2nd installment of the “Marinette’s Haunted Doll” series. I was seriously shocked by how much response I got from part one, so I hope this lives up to your expectations. Blood, gore, and death are coming, along with some mental freak-outs. You have been warned. 

Part II

Despite wanting to stay with Marinette to comfort the girl after the tearful apologies by Mylene and Ivan, Serafina couldn’t return until her work was finished. There was still much to do and people to punish. 

She arrived early with Mylene, which allowed her to observe the others that entered the classroom. Kim had returned to school that day in a wheelchair. The cast on his leg went up to his waist and the one on his arm went up to his bicep. His face and exposed skin were covered in bruises and his right eye looked like it had blood in it. 

“How are you feeling, dude?” Nino asked him as he entered alongside Adrien.

“Really sore,” the boy admitted. “Doctors had to reset my leg at the knee and said that my arm was a three piece offset fracture, so they had to use screws to put it back in place. Other than that; had a concussion, a lot of bruises, and a couple cuts; but no internal bleeding or ruptured organs. They said after a few months and some physical therapy, I should be as good as new.”

Nino gave him a solemn nod. “Glad to hear you’re going to be okay, dude.”

Kim’s expression dropped a bit. “I heard about Alya, I’m really sorry, man.”

The boy lowered his head while Adrien patted his back. “I really… I can’t believe she’s gone because of some freak accident. It makes no sense!” Nino jumped to his feet and started pacing as more students filed in. “I mean, she wasn’t supposed to die like that! Getting caught up in an akuma battle, childhood disease, there would be a reason for that! But that was just pointless!”

Mme. Bustier did attempt to calm him down, but her kind words fell on deaf ears before he grabbed his bag and left the room. No one could blame him, and only Adrien followed to make sure he would be alright, and to make sure he wasn’t akumatized.

Lila came in not long after with a curious bag in her hands. Serafina watched the liar as she looked around the room. She had a feeling that the liar would try something after her last attempt to frame Marinette had failed. When the girl tried speaking to Mylene, the doll was proud to see the girl refuse to acknowledge her as she continued to speak with Rose and Juleka. When it was clear that she was being ignored, she tried speaking to Ivan, only for him to give her a harsh glare that had her shuffling backwards. With Max and Alix still at the hospital and Adrien not in the room, that left her with Sabrina. The redhead had been sitting alone at the front of the room since Chloe had transferred schools after the Miracle Queen incident.

“Hi Sabrina, how are you doing?”

The girl smiled up at the italian, glad to still have a friend. “I’m doing okay, at least a lot better than a lot of our class. I heard Max lost sight in his one eye from the chemicals and Alix might have to have cosmetic surgery to get her face back to normal. At least Kim might be back to normal in a few months after going through physical therapy. But Alya…”

Lila faked her tears at the mention of her lost follower. She was really more annoyed than sad, Alya was easily manipulated, went along with everything she said, and Lila had been able to use her blog to build up her popularity. And the girl had been a decent attack dog, just point her at someone and off she went. Now that she was dead, maybe she could turn Sabrina into her new lead follower, she was already partially trained and it wasn’t like the blonde bitch was around anymore.

“I know, it’s so terrible. She was my first friend when I moved here, it’ll be so hard without her,” she faked a few more tears. And just like that, Sabrina took her hand in comfort and said a bunch of soothing words while she continued to fake cry. 

After a moment, Lila placed the bag she’d been holding on the desk and pushed it away from her, making sure the action caught Sabrina’s attention. “What’s that?”

Lila fake sobbed even harder, hiding her face in her hands. “Ma-Marinette, she-she said it was m-my fault that Alya’s dead. She practically threw that bag at me and said to use it,” she said before breaking down in more fake sobs.

Carefully opening the bag, she gasped when she saw it was full of razor blades and a couple of kitchen knives. Sure, she knew that Marinette didn’t get along with Lila, but to actually give this to her and tell her to ‘use it’? How could she be so cruel?

Serafina scowled as the red head hugged the liar and promised her that she would take care of it. Her anger erupted as Sabrina stood from her desk with the bag in hand, and began walking towards Mme. Bustier’s desk. The girl didn't take two steps before tripping over nothing and falling onto her side. Luckily, she did not land on the bag. Unluckily, she gripped it too tight and the impact forced the knives and razors through the bag and deep into her hands.

The girl screamed and cried as blood rushed out of the wounds and down into her sleeves. She begged Lila to help her, but the italian backed away from the girl in shock. Mme. Bustier gripped her head between her hands and began saying “not again, not again” before running out of the room. The only ones that helped her were Juleka, Rose and Ivan; the smaller girl sprinting off to alert the nurse and the principal, while Juleka and Ivan got Sabrina to her feet. Ivan kept the girl upright and moving out the door while Juleka held the girl’s hands above the level of her heart to keep her from bleeding too much.

Those left in the classroom were in shock as they stared at either the door or at the blood staining the floor. No one said anything for a long time, not even Lila. She hadn’t thought anyone would get hurt. She just thought she would get Marinette suspended and everyone would be on her side again. Adrien returned before the others, completely shocked when he saw the blood and Kim explained to him what had happened. The blonde sent a scathing look at Lila but said nothing.

It was a while later before Rose, Ivan, and Juleka returned to class, along with M. Rupere. He informed them that their classes were cancelled for today. “After everything that has occurred this week, I’ve decided that all of you will be meeting with the counselor today. He will decide if more sessions are necessary and for who, but his door and mine are open if you need to talk. M. Deveraux will come to speak with you one at a time. Kim Le Chien, he had requested to speak with you first. Mlle. Rossi,” he looked sternly at the girl, “would you please follow me, we need to talk about the incident with Sabrina Raincomprix.”

Serafina smiled as the liar trudged out of the room after the man. She was satisfied with Sabrina’s punishment and doubted if Mme. Bustier would last another day before having a total mental breakdown. She also knew that Lila would be in even more trouble after M. Rupere looked into the girl a bit more. But just to make sure, Serafina touched her on the way out. To most people, that would do nothing; but to someone like Lila, it would cause her to become more and more unhinged until she did something drastic. Very soon, Lila would be out of the picture and those deserving of punishment will have paid their debts.

~oOo~

It was more difficult sneaking home with Adrien than she had expected, especially with the tiny god of Chaos and Destruction in his bag. Plagg was his name, and he was very defensive of his kitten and had threatened to cataclysm her. Serafina told him that she would not purposefully harm his ‘kitten’, but there was something she had to take care of at the Agreste Mansion. The doll had long suspected that Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth and she was going to find out tonight if it was true. Plagg was reluctant to agree since it would hurt Adrien; but if it was true, they had to put an end to it.

After arriving at the mansion, Plagg easily convinced the boy to sneak out and check on Nino. After he left, Serafina sensed something on Adrien’s desk. Being an enchanted/haunted object, she could sense other objects like herself… such as Miraculous jewels. And right there on the desk was a pin shaped like a peacock, one of the jewels that had been missing and used by Mayura. If there had been any doubts before about who had been terrorizing Marinette, they were gone. 

Tucking the pin into her small outfit, she began to search the building, starting with Gabriel’s office. She had expected the man to be present, but he was missing. And given that Hawkmoth was a very active user, she had no doubt that he kept his jewel on him at all times. So, she waited.

It was about an hour later that Gabriel Agrest entered the room, and not from the door Serafina had expected. The man had a secret entry in the floor in front of a portrait of a woman. He was muttering on knowing better than to use Bubbler again, but that the negative emotions had been too strong to ignore. She also saw the purple kwami hovering over his shoulder, but the creature stopped when it sensed her. Gabriel strode out of the room, barely noticing that Nooroo had stayed behind and flew over to the doll hiding behind the desk.

“What are you doing here? If the Master finds you, he will destroy you.” The kwami said with worry.

The doll conveyed that she knew that his master was Hawkmoth, just as her human was Ladybug. She was here to protect her and return the butterfly and peacock miraculous to their rightful place. Also knowing that Gabriel had become too corrupted for his miraculous.

“I’ve tried to tell him that the wish would be dangerous,” Nooroo told her with downcast eyes. “He wants to make a wish to revive his wife, but he doesn’t realize that the cost would be to put Adrien, someone he loves equally as much as Emilie, into the same state of death. She isn’t even truly alive anymore, her body only lives because of the machine she is in.”

An idea spawned in Serafina’s thoughts and she barely kept herself from smiling. She asked Nooroo to help her activate the secret passage so she could get to his wife, but the little kwami shook his head. “Even if I could get you down there, the motion sensors would trip and he would attack you.”

Smiling this time, Serafina promised the little god that Gabriel would not attack her. That she would make sure that Adrien would be safe and the two kwami’s would go to their rightful place. All he had to do was help her open the door. Although reluctant and slightly scared, the little god opened the door, hoping that the nightmare would finally end. 

Down in the lair, the doll saw the mechanical coffin placed in the center of the room and went to it. The motion sensors caught her quickly, but she had been planning on moving fast anyway. Opening the coffin, she settled herself into the woman’s arms. Nooroo had been right, Serafina could sense that the woman’s soul had departed from her body a while ago and it was only the machine that was keeping her body alive. With no other soul to contend with, this would make what she was about to do next all the easier.

Nathalie had called to alert him the moment the alarms went off in the lair while she and Simone were out on an errand. He was moving faster than he could remember with Nooroo following close behind. Gabriel transformed on the way down, prepared to attack whoever had stumbled in, but his breath caught in his throat halfway down when he got a good view of the room. 

The coffin was empty.

Rushing forward, he began frantically searching the room for his wife, calling her name. He turned to rush back upstairs and froze. Standing behind him, looking dazed, was his wife. Her eyes were unfocused and her arms were hugging her middle, but it was her. Dropping his transformation, Gabriel cautiously approached her and she flinched back from him. It took a few minutes and a lot of gentle coaxing before he was able to wrap an arm around her shoulders and lead her to the elevator. When they got to his office, he watched her carefully as she began walking around the room. He wanted her to sit down and rest, but he was still in shock that she was awake and standing in front of him.

Eventually, her green eyes met his. “Where’s Adrien?”

“I… I don’t know, he should be up in his room.”

Emilie’s head tilted slightly, her eyes searching his. “What have you done? Did you make the wish?”

“No, my love. I was going to when I got the jewels, but Ladybug and Chat Noir evaded me.”

Tears grew in her eyes as she continued to stare at him. “You tried to make the wish? Knowing that it would have cost our son’s life?” 

Gabriel froze. He hadn’t known that wishing Emilie to come back would cost Adrien’s… but Nooroo had tried to tell him. He remembered the kwami trying to tell him about the cost and he had forced him to not speak. “I’m sorry, Emilie. I didn’t-”

“You knew,” she interrupted, her voice lacking any emotion as she continued to stare at him. “You knew from the beginning that what you were doing was wrong, evil. You chose to ignore what it would cost.”

“Emilie, my love, please don’t say such things,” Gabriel begged as he rushed forward to wrap his arms around her. “All I have wanted since the day I lost you, was to hold you in my arms again and hear your voice. I was lost without you and was willing to go to the ends of the earth to bring you back. Is that so wrong?”

He had just barely met her eyes when he felt the twin pains in his arms. Jumping back, he looked down to see both wrists had been cut deeply with a pair of his fabric cutting scissors. Blood was draining from the wounds at an alarming rate. His hands were shaking and he was already feeling light headed as he grabbed a handful for fabric from his work table in an attempt to slow the blood. He wanted to call out for help, but they were alone. 

His eyes grew hazed as he looked to Emilie, surprised that she was staring at him with such contempt. “I know what you’ve been doing while I was in that coffin. Tormenting the city and people I love, isolating our son and treating him like a burden. If you had ever succeeded in getting the Cat and Ladybug miraculous, it would have destroyed Paris. But you didn’t care. As you said, all you cared about was hearing my voice and holding me in your arms. Congratulations, your wish came true, and you will be the one to pay the price. Not Adrien.”

His legs gave out from under him as the fabrics dripped from the excess blood. He couldn’t understand how this had happened, Emilie would have never done something like this… but was this really her? With his vision fading, he took a hard look at his wife, only now noticing the dullness of her eyes, the greying pallor of her skin, and the fact that she only seemed to breathe when she spoke… “Who are you?”

Her head tilted again, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly. “Serafina. Quite astute of you to figure that out in your state. Your wife’s soul passed on a long time ago, all you have been doing is preserving a corpse. And I was telling the truth; even if you had made the wish, it would have cost Adrien his life.” Her hand shot forward, removing the butterfly miraculous before he could stop her. “Your actions have hurt someone close to me and I could no longer stand back and allow it to happen.”

She stood, walking to his desk to pull out a piece of paper and writing something down before neatly folding it and leaving it on his desk.

“Wh… What…”

“You just wrote a letter to Adrien; admitting what happened to his mother, that you were Hawkmoth, and the reason why you did what you did.” She said calmly before looking back at him. “Whether he tells the rest of the world is up to him. As for the miraculous, I will give him a chance at redemption. Though if he should fail, you may be seeing him sooner rather than later. Either way, they will soon be back where they belong, with the guardian. And you, good sir, have just committed suicide after bringing your wife’s body upstairs, so you would be able to hold her in your arms as you died.”

Unable to sit upright anymore, Gabriel barely felt his body collapse to the floor. He was hardly aware of Emilie lifting one of his arms to tuck her body to his side. The last thing he was aware of was something that he swore would haunt him in the afterlife; a porcelain doll emerging from the folds of her clothes and standing beside them. It stood there on its own, watching him until he could no longer keep his eyes open and he took his final breath.

Taglist (even longer):

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[hongism]

mists of celeste ➻ 37.5

➻ characters: yeosang, wooyoung, yunho ➻ genre: space au, pirate au, space pirate!ateez, angst ➻ word count: 3.6k ➻ rating: M ➻ warnings: language, violence, guns and weaponry, blood, future warnings tba chapter specific warnings: past abuse and dubious consent are discussed - no graphic depictions of any of the above, depictions of piercings and needles. this interim deals with heavy topics relating to a whorehouse and it is not required to read this interim to understand the rest of the story. it is an optional chapter as all interims are, so please skip over this one if you are not comfortable with the warnings tagged ➻ summary: Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you

⇐ previous | next ⇒ | masterlist

✧✧✧ act five ➻ part 4.5

​​​​

“I’d like you to give me more piercings.”

“I—” 

The blunt statement catches Yunho a bit off-guard, moreso than he would like to admit, and as much as he tries to hide that shock, it still slips through nonetheless. He blinks back at Wooyoung with some wonder in his eyes, enough to make the other man tilt his head in question. Yeosang stands beside him as well though the Elitist’s eyes remain unfocused and noncommittal. It’s been quite some time since Yunho gave Wooyoung any piercings — god, how long has it been? Two years? Maybe three? Surely that can’t be right… — and the doctor is absolutely no stranger to the reasons why Wooyoung would be asking for such a thing now. However, because he tries to be a good and fair doctor, Yunho never goes through with the piercings unless he and Wooyoung have talked things through. 

And by that, he means therapy, basically. Checking in on where Wooyoung is at mentally and emotionally before doing anything drastic. Yet that also brings more challenges than anything else because out of everyone Yunho has ever treated in his years being a doctor, Wooyoung is by far the more difficult. He doesn’t like talking about himself, his experiences, his feelings; he despises the thought of sharing intimate and vulnerable parts of himself outside of Yeosang, but according to the Elitist, it’s near impossible to get Wooyoung to speak even when it’s just the two of them together. 

Yunho would call it a phenomenon of trauma but frankly, it makes a perfect amount of sense.

Given what Wooyoung has been through and experienced — between being a slave and suffering at the hands of not one but two cruel masters — Yunho truly cannot blame the young man for being so hesitant to talk about his feelings. But, as he said, he knows vaguely how Wooyoung must be feeling if he is coming to Yunho for more piercings now.

“You hardly have any room left on those ears for more piercings, Woo,” Yunho comments through a slightly strained smile. Wooyoung opts to simply wave a hand through the air in response. Yeosang glares at the floor. “Take a seat.”

There is a large amount of struggle in this for Yunho. On one hand, he wants to be firm, stand his ground, and say absolutely not until Wooyoung opens up a little. On the other side of things, Yunho understands that this is what Wooyoung needs to cope with whatever trauma he experienced while being held captive. Yunho doesn’t know all the details, of course, he merely knows that Wooyoung was held in a cell on a ship with San and Mingi for several days before being sold to a whorehouse in Lynder. Then he stayed a few days in that whorehouse. He no doubt had to work against his will, no doubt gave in and didn’t fight what he was told to do even though he didn’t want it, and it no doubt brought back horrid memories from his time as a slave. Yunho isn’t stupid. Such a thing would be taxing for anyone.

The other thing Yunho is grossly over aware of is the fact that pain, to Wooyoung, is nothing. He still has a hard time wrapping his brain around that. Wooyoung… feels pain to a certain degree like any other person would but he has conditioned himself into not feeling it the way others might. The slice of a knife against his arm would be nothing but a pinch of a needle on his skin and wouldn’t bother him one bit; all it is to him is a small pinprick. He asks people to go harder on him when sparring. He punches closed fists against his thighs when he’s upset. He enjoys getting piercings after going through something that would otherwise be traumatic for others. Because it doesn’t hurt. Yunho recalls asking once about it because at the time he didn’t understand that either.

“Why do you ask for piercings as though you want to be hurt? If you don’t really feel that pain? What do you gain from it in that case?”

“Because it’s a pain that I get to choose. All my life I’ve been subjected to pains that are not my own doing or that I didn’t ask for. But in asking for a piercing and choosing where it will go and when it will happen… I get to choose that pain. Getting to have that after suffering pains I didn’t want feels liberating in a way. I enjoy it, as bad as that sounds. It helps me cope with what I’ve been through. Like, for every pain they force on me, I choose a new piercing. Eye for an eye but… on myself, I suppose?”

“Where would you like them?” Yunho inquires, shifting over to shuffle through his cabinets in search of his needles and barbells. “Just one or are we doing more than that?”

“Two this time, I think,” Wooyoung hums as he sits down on the edge of the first bed in his vicinity. Yeosang falls down on the bed next to him without a noise, still staying silent even though Yunho can clearly see how much this bothers him. Which part of it bothers him exactly is a mystery to Yunho because it could be any combination of things. The doctor wants to ask Yeosang if he’s okay with this but that would be a tragic mistake on his part so he bites his tongue instead. It would seem too much like giving Yeosang all the power in Wooyoung’s decisions, and doing such a thing to a former slave would only be detrimental to long-term progress. Besides, he doesn’t need the verbal confirmation when he can clearly see how much Yeosang does not want Wooyoung to do this.

Yunho’s hand hesitates over his growing collection of piercing rods, and he glances back at Wooyoung once more.

“Where are you wanting them?”

“Nipples!” The combination of Wooyoung’s blatant enthusiasm as well as Yeosang’s far too deadpan expression sends Yunho reeling, and he chokes around nothing but air before truly processing Wooyoung’s request. 

“A-Ah, I see, of course. One moment,” Yunho murmurs, blinking down at his collection with a bit of bewilderment before picking out what he thinks to be the right size barbells. He’s not unfamiliar with these sorts of piercings — ones on the body that is — and he has found himself well acquainted with certain body parts of the crew to a point where he is no longer uncomfortable with doing things like this for them. Wooyoung is one of the few (the others being Yeosang, Seonghwa, and Y/N) who Yunho is not well acquainted with in that way, however, so this does come as a bit of a surprise. “Your shirt… would you mind taking it off?” Wooyoung strips himself of his top in the next second, and Yunho watches the way the fabric catches on his metal collar before springing loose. Then his eyes settle on the expanse of freshly exposed skin. It elicits a sharp gasp from Yeosang as well, one that Yunho matches in intensity because… well. Yeah. Yunho isn’t sure how to phrase what comes to his mind then. 

“Wooyoung,” Yeosang exhales as he balls his fists around the sheets. Wooyoung stares forward at Yunho with a certain expectancy, like he’s challenging the doctor to not breathe a word about the sight before him, but Yunho would rather lose that challenge right now.

There are… bruises against Wooyoung’s waist. Vaguely shaped like large, manly hands that press the outlines of fingers into his tanned skin. They wrap about the young man’s lithe waist and leave little to the imagination about what sort of scenario and position Wooyoung must have been in when receiving such bruises. The sweeping sensation in Yunho’s gut is so strong that it nearly makes him sick on the spot. Yeosang just looks angry at this point, and Yunho cannot blame him all too much for that. With a sigh, the doctor sinks onto his stool and presses closer to the bed until his knees bump against Wooyoung’s. 

“Wooyoung, we need to talk about… this.” Yunho motions to the other’s torso, unable to peel his gaze off the ugly marks. 

“What is there to talk about?” Wooyoung sounds almost genuine when asking the question. “We all know the nature of working in a whorehouse. There’s nothing to discuss.”

“That’s not — you didn’t — Wooyoung.” Yunho may or may not be bordering on desperation when he exhales this time. He has dealt with a lot of different scenarios and situations as a doctor, but something of this degree is far out of his wheelhouse. 

“I asked them to be rough,” Wooyoung admits through a whisper so quiet that Yunho at first thinks he misheard what the man said.

“W-What was that?” 

“I said I asked them to be rough.” Wooyoung’s repetition doesn’t make it any easier to hear. Almost worse. Definitely worse. “I told them to rough me up a little, make me hurt some, I asked them to treat me that way.”

Yunho spares a pleading glance in Yeosang’s direction, hoping that the man will have some insight on this part of Wooyoung since that is far from Yunho’s specialty. He doesn’t know… intimate details about Yeosang and Wooyoung’s more physical relationship, but Yeosang would surely be the person to ask for confirmation about this side of the man. Instead of a small nod of approval or some sign that this is normal, all Yunho sees is a horrid scowl.

“You — did you want them to be this rough with you?” Yunho asks, tone falling into a more quiet one now.

“I asked them to make me hurt, Yunho.”

“That wasn’t the question, Wooyoung. Did you want them to do that?”

“I came here to get my fucking nipples pierced, not to be interrogated pointlessly,” Wooyoung snaps back. This time he pushes some venom into his tone but it rolls off Yunho’s shoulders without sticking one bit. “I like pain during sex. I like when Yeosang pushes me around and hits me some even when I’m fully in control. I barely feel it anyways so why should it matter at all? Now are you gonna do this or not because I’m sure I can do it myse—”

Wooyoung moves to push up off the bed and make for the door but Yeosang is quicker to wrap his hand around Wooyoung’s wrist and pull him back without a word.

“Did they do anything you didn’t want?” The Elitist asks through tightly gritted teeth.

The hesitation and silence speak volumes, Yunho is hurdling towards a conclusion he does not want to hear, and he is ready to cry by the time Wooyoung finally opens his mouth and answers the question.

“No, they didn’t. I got lucky. I got fucking lucky, Yeosang. All my clients in those days were fucking kind and only did what I told them they could because the workers knew I was fresh meat. They knew people like me needed to be treated gently for the first few weeks so they only sent clients with good and safe track records to my room. Those clients only ever did what I told them to, only did what I said was okay, didn’t touch me if I said no. I got lucky.” Wooyoung spits the words like he hates himself for speaking them, and Yunho thinks somewhere in the back of his mind that the man was not as lucky as he says he was. He should be relieved, grateful even that he got lucky, but he only sounds enraged. 

“Were there…” Yunho starts but his question dies a bit early on his tongue. He swallows around nothing, pulling a pair of latex gloves off his workstation and working his fingers into them as he mulls over his next words. When the last of the latex snaps around his wrist, he finally speaks again. “Were there ones who weren’t lucky?”

“Every fucking night after my clients left, I got to listen to the prostitute next door sob alone in a room with no one to help him. And the very first night I tried to talk to him through the fucking wall and ask him if he was okay and if he was hurt, and he told me I was lucky to be fresh meat. That they would listen to me because I was new and still had some hope left in my eyes. While he didn’t get that chance, he didn’t get to dictate what he wanted or didn’t want because people just took it from him for so long that he lost the will to ask. So yeah, there were ones who didn’t get lucky. There always are.”

Yunho opens his mouth but closes it just as quick, expression a cross between blank and just flat out dumb because he doesn’t know what to say if there even is something to say.

“That’s not your fault, Wooyoung,” Yeosang says instead, but his grip on the other’s wrist releases. “What happened to him is not your fault.”

“What was it that your mother said when you picked me out of a line of slaves? That I was lucky to be picked? But why did I get to be lucky while others suffered? Why did I get to choose not to be hurt or in pain while that prostitute was stripped of that choice? We were all whores for sale in that place so what did I do to deserve being treated better than him? What did he do to deserve being treated worse?”

“Woo…” Somehow the Elitist manages to sound genuinely saddened by the words. 

“The very least I could do was ask to be treated the same as him, was it not? But I couldn’t even have the courage to ask for that? The only thing I could do was ask them to hurt me even though I knew it wouldn’t really hurt. How lucky I was, right? If I’m not hurt, then it doesn’t matter who else gets hurt in the process, does it?”

“Wooyoung.” The edge in Yeosang’s tone pushes forward, bordering on threatening, but Wooyoung is hellbent on speaking his mind right now and any threat from Yeosang won’t stop him. Yunho has the thought to intervene and stop them but he knows — he knows how badly Wooyoung needs this right now. If this will help him cope with what he had to go through then Yunho is in no place to stop him. 

If this is what he needs to make Yeosang cope with it too, then Yunho again is in no place to stop him.

“How does it feel, Yeosang? Knowing that the only reason I was hurt in there is because I asked for it? Do you still think we got lucky?”

“Don’t ask me questions you don’t want the answers to.”

“No, because if it had been you in there, things would have been different. Because you — you are lucky, Yeosang. You always have been and you always will be. Yet no matter how many times I tell you that, you still refuse it. You—” Wooyoung stabs his index finger hard against Yeosang’s chest, voice coming out a bit choked and wet now “—could have sat there for weeks and listened to that boy next door cry and sob without an ounce of sympathy. Because that’s what an Elitist would do. That what you were raised to do, that’s in your blood, how your brain works. But it’s not how mine works. So you don’t get to sit there and tell me that I made the wrong decision.” 

Perhaps Yunho is too used to conflict and gross distortions of communication because when Yeosang stands down rather than fighting back against Wooyoung’s words, he’s overwhelmed. Simply put, he is overwhelmed. He doesn’t know how else to describe the swell of emotions in his chest. But Yeosang just lets his shoulders sag and his face falls flat once more, anger ebbing out of his expression like Wooyoung has a tight grip of control over him. Yeosang isn’t a person to stand down so easily; he’s stubborn, has a short fuse and even shorter patience that causes issues more often than not, and he hates when things don’t go his way. Yunho merely assumed the same would apply to his relationship with Wooyoung. 

It doesn’t, as it seems. 

“Then what would you have me do, Wooyoung? Let you bend until you break without batting an eye? Watch as you blame yourself for something that happened to a person you didn’t even know? Who had been there well before you? Letting you torture yourself for things that are out of your control is not logical or fair; I don’t need to be an Elitist to realize that.”

“You can be as upset as you want, I don’t mind if you’re upset, that’s not what this is about!” Wooyoung argues back, voice climbing in volume a bit. Yunho takes it upon himself to lean away from the bed a bit, and he does his best to make himself seem as insignificant as possible while prepping his clamps and needles. “It doesn’t matter if it was my fault or not. What matters is that he suffered while I did not. And even asking to be hit and pushed around and bruised wasn’t enough because I was still asking for it. I’m… I’m not saying that I wanted my choice taken away — I would never ever ask for that or want that in any capacity. That’s the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a person. No one deserves that. No one. It just didn’t feel fair enough even though it was all I could do to make it feel fair. So yeah, I got fucking lucky, I guess. But he didn’t do anything to deserve to be unlucky.”

“I’m not saying that he did, Woo,” Yeosang whispers to the space between them. “I’m certain that he was a good person who got a bad hand in life, and I’m sure he deserved much better than what he was given. You always ask me to consider your thoughts and feelings on matters. You tell me that it’s because I’m an Elitist that I can’t understand you. You say I just have to accept things and move on, but you don’t — I’m not some emotionless husk, Wooyoung. Being an Elitist doesn’t make me not feel anything. Just because I think with logic more than emotion doesn’t mean that I can’t have emotions. For every fucking night you were gone from my side, I suffered too. It felt like I was losing you to the fate you wanted to fight together, and there was nothing I could do except wait. I was lucky too. Lucky that I didn’t have to wait longer or fight harder to get you back. Lucky that we got you on the first try. Lucky to have you even sitting before me now. It’s not… the reason I keep saying that we got lucky isn’t because I think everyone else in that whorehouse deserves the fate they were given. It’s because we had the chance to fight what fate gave us and took it.”

Yeosang manages a shaky exhale. He blinks down at his hands without saying anything for several moments, but doesn’t look back up at Wooyoung even when he decides to talk again.

“For the first time in over fourteen years, I didn’t get to be your shield. I wasn’t at your side. It wasn’t as simple as coming home from a mission and having you by my side, in my bed, or being in your arms. None of that was even an option because it wasn’t a mission and there was no guarantee of if you would ever come back. I have dedicated my whole life to protecting you because I promised to never let you be hurt again. So you want the answer to that question? How does it feel knowing that the only reason you were hurt in there was because you asked for it? It feels like you’re fucking spitting in my face, Wooyoung, and taunting me for my failures because I wasn’t there to stop you.”

That causes Wooyoung to backtrack in an instant. Realization sinks through his skin, and Yunho doesn’t doubt that it hurts more than any pain that he could inflict on himself. Because that’s the thing about love — it can simultaneously bring you the greatest joys in life as well as the deepest ruin.

And right now?

Yunho can clearly see the ruin in Wooyoung’s features as much as he tries to contain the emotions. Yeosang doesn’t stop there, and it’s with a small shake of his head that he lifts his chin to look Wooyoung in the eye again.

“I’m not blaming you, Wooyoung. I know the kind of person you are, I know how deeply and strongly you feel, especially towards injustices and unfairness like what that boy experienced in there. I know you did what you thought you had to, and I’m not blaming you for making those decisions. But do not ask me to love you even a fragment less than I do now. I knew a boy who was in that very same position once too. Who didn’t have a choice, who couldn’t make any decisions for himself, who didn’t get to choose his pain. I knew a boy who sat on the other side of a metal divider in a bed too small for his body and cried because of how unfair life was to him. And I promised that boy I would get him out and save him and keep him safe from harm at any and all costs. I can’t keep that promise if you won’t let me.”

The breath of silence that ensues after Yeosang speaks is thick enough to choke Yunho, and he pauses his movements in the wake of that quiet because it just feels utterly wrong to even move right now. Wooyoung is dangerously still, perhaps more still than Yunho has ever seen him before. Then a tear escapes the corner of his eye and rolls down the ball of his cheek to pool at his jawline before dropping to the bed. It breaks the dam of the frozen atmosphere, and Wooyoung careens forward to smack his fist against Yeosang’s shoulder. 

“You stupid little — how can you say cute shit with that stupid lovesick look on your face? And I’m supposed to be okay? God, I’m gonna suck the soul out of you later for that, you absolute sap. Then ride you until you cry for good mea—” 

“Um, too much information, hello!” Yunho intervenes before Wooyoung can even think about finishing the thought in front of him. “Listen, I’m all for sex but I do not need to hear those kinds of details. Just… practice safe sex and wear protection. That’s all I need to know about your sex lives, please!”

“I’m just trying to show my appreciation here,” Wooyoung argues through a wet sniff, wiping at his nose with the back of his hand.

“Yes, well, save the appreciation for later. I’m still piercing you, am I not?”

“Was that enough talking for you then?” Wooyoung offers a small laugh that sounds more pitiful than anything else, but Yunho isn’t about to call him out on such a thing. 

“You tell me, Wooyoung.” Yunho shrugs a bit and glances over to where Yeosang is sitting, watching the way the Elitist folds a hand over Wooyoung’s without hesitation. “This is about how you’re feeling and where you’re at mentally and emotionally. I’m not the person who gets to determine whether it’s enough or not.”

“No, i-its — I feel… better getting to tell someone that. And getting to reassure you guys that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Even if I still feel a bit of guilt about it, I know I couldn’t change it even if I tried. But yeah, talking about it — that helped.”

“I’m glad,” Yunho hums through a smile of his own. “I know you’re probably sick of hearing me say it over and over, but my door is always open if you’d like to talk more about it. That goes for both of you.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Yun, don’t worry! But right now I’d like for you to put that needle through my nipples so I can get on with choking on Yeos—”

“Nope, okay! I’ll put this needle through your tongue to shut you up instead, how about that?”

✧✧✧ a/n: okay so!! i felt like this chapter was kinda necessary? considering what we saw wooyoung go through and i didn’t want to bury what he went through or act like it didn’t happen but bec of the heavy nature of the topics i wanted to make sure that it wasn’t absolutely crucial for anyone to read this and feel like they were missing out. these are serious things, they are important things, and as always i tried my best to represent those things as best i could and as realistically as possible to avoid any romanticizing of these topics so i hope i was able to convey that and the feelings the characters had well. please please please take care i love u all as always be safe and stay healthy !! i’ll see you guys soon with another chapter!

also it’s been a minute but this survey is always open for you guys to take whenever you like!

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