#how’d he get that past Ben

[pokemon1oadvanced]

How long do we think this phones gonna last?

[gallavichsreddie1128]

The Getter (Soldier Boy)

Description: When Soldier Boy first saw Y/N he wanted her but she was hooking up with someone else in the group.

Warning: Smut, Thigh Riding

Word Count:2,011k

He smirked as she walked in the room. He hadn’t seen her before but wanted to see more of her. She was beautiful. She hadn’t even seen him yet as she was too busy talking to Hughie about what just happened. He ate his burger and watched them talk. She was in a nice fitting pair of jeans and a leather jacket. Her hair was straight and she had on eyeliner and red lipstick. She was a catch. She looked to be about 25 or so but that didn’t matter to him. “And this is soldier boy.” Hughie introduced him to her, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Hey sweetheart.” He said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes and his smirk dropped. “Yeah, nice try but she’s not easy like that.” Hughie said to him. He grumbled “yeah right.” Soldier Boy knew he was hot and there hadn't been many women that haven’t fallen to their knees for him. He was just gonna have to break her. 

“So you work for these dorks?” He asked her. She looked at him. “Well my brother is one of the dorks.” She said. Hughie? That’s her brother? It couldn’t be Billy because she was flirting with him earlier and MM? MM had a brother but not a sister. Frenchie also only had a brother, so that leaves Hughie. “Hughie is your brother?” He asked. She nodded. He looked at her and basically checked her out. Her eyes glared at him. “Do you think Hughie would mind if I fucked his sister?” He smirked. She rolled her eyes and scoffed in disgust. “His sister would care.” She said and walked away. Soldier Boy smirked. She would be his sooner or later. 

He watched as she flirted with Billy. Billy was smiling at her as she gave him the fuck me eyes. He glared at the two as they were basically fucking in front of him. What did Billy have that he didn’t? Her hand was rubbing his bicep as they were talking about god knows what. He couldn’t focus on the words, only the touching and obvious flirting they were doing. “Would you two get a room already?” He asked, annoyed. They look at him as their smiles fall. “Maybe we will.” She said and grabbed Billy’s hand leading him in the direction of his room. “Fucking hell.” He grumbled. 

“So your sister and Billy…” He trailed off. Hughie looked at him confused. “What about them?” He asked. Ben looked at him. “So how long have they been fucking?” Hughie shot up from his seat and looked at Ben in horror. “What?” He realized that Hughie didn’t know that they were fucking. He smirked just thinking of what was going to happen and oh boy he wasn’t going to miss this. 

“So you guys have been fucking behind my back?” Hughie yelled. Soldier Boy smirked. Billy and Y/N looked down. “How’d you find out?” Billy asked. “It doesn’t matter how I found out. Point is you guys kept it from me.” Hughie was mad, sad even. His best friend? And his sister. “Hughie I’m not a kid. I’m an adult. I can have sex with whoever I want.” Y/N Stood up. “I’m not saying that but you guys are doing this behind my back.” Hughie said. Y/N couldn’t figure out how he knew. They’ve been very secretive about it and kept it well hidden. I mean for the past 6 months they’ve kept it under wraps so how did he figure it out? MM and Frenchie didn’t know about it either given the looks on their faces. The only one with a not so shocked look was Soldier Boy. “It was you.” Y/n said pointing at him. He smirked at her but acted dumb. “What are you talking about?” He asked. She rolled her eyes. “Don’t play coy. You told Hughie about me and Billy.” She accused him. “Don’t know what you’re talking about sweetheart.” He said. “All because I wouldn’t have sex with you.” She said. Everyone perked up to what she said. “You told my brother about Billy and I because I turned you down. You can’t handle rejection. Well guess what Ben? Even if you were the last man on earth you still couldn’t get this.” She said. He just stared at her without saying anything. Everyone was shocked but she was angry. Not one person said anything. She huffed and left the room leaving everyone to their thoughts. 

He realized that he may have fucked up after she said all that. He honestly thought that she would eventually give into him but all she ever did was ignore him now. Anytime he walked in a room she walked out not wanting anything to do with him. It actually got to him. It got to him so bad that he ended up knocking on her door. “Who is it?” She asked. “It’s me.” He said. She stayed silent on the other end of the door waiting for him to go away. He knew she wouldn’t respond. “I know I'm the last person you wanna see or speak to but I just need you to listen.” He sighed. “I was jealous, okay? Of you and Billy. I know that’s not an excuse for telling him but that’s why I did. I also wasn’t aware that he didn’t know until after I had told him. It was my mistake and I’m sorry. Look I don’t handle rejection well you’re right about that. I honestly thought that eventually you would fall to your knees for me but I was wrong and I see that now so I’m sorry.” He said and leaned against her door. She sighed and opened the door. They faced each other and stared. “You need to learn that not every woman will want you no matter how good looking you are.” She said. “Wait, you think I'm good looking?” He asked with a smirk. “That’s really what you got from that?” She huffed and went to close the door. “Wait. I’m sorry I get what you’re saying.” She opens the door again. “But to answer your question, yes I do.” She said. He tried so hard not to smirk. “Well I think you’re beautiful.” He tells her.

She smiles and shakes her head. “I get it though. Why you did what you did. I know I’m irresistible.” She jokes. He laughs and nods. “Yeah you are.” He said. She looks around and motions for him to come inside. He walks in and she closes the door. Once she shut the door she pulled her shirt off. His eyes widen at the sight of her bare breasts on display. She threw the shirt at him and he caught it. He chuckled and threw it to the ground. “What are you doing?” He asked her. She pulled down her shorts revealing no underwear as well. “You and I are gonna have some fun.” His jaw dropped. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” She asked and went and laid on her bed. It took him a minute to process what was happening but he quickly stripped and joined her in bed. She laughed as he landed right next to her. He quickly turned to the side and kissed her. She kissed back cupping his jaw. He pulled her on top of him and she deepened the kiss. His hands running all over body. She started grinding down on him. His hands gripped her hips as she humped his thigh. He pulled away from the kiss to kiss her neck.

She moaned as he nibbled a bit and left a mark. Her hips continued to drag on his thigh. He watched as she rode him and looked at her face. She looked like a dog in heat, rutting against his leg. He couldn’t help but smirk. “Look at you humping my leg like a bitch in heat.” She moaned at his words. Her hips moved faster and faster and her moans got louder. “Fuck Soldier Boy.” She moaned softly. “Call me Ben sweetheart.” He told her and she nodded moaning his real name. His hands placed on her hips helped her thrust. “Holy fuck your thigh feels so good. I-I can o-only imagine what your d-dick feels like.” She manages out. He felt pride in the fact that this beautiful woman was about to cum on his thigh and that it was all she needed.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her body forward more. Her mouth was right by his ear so all he heard was her breathing and moaning. “Such a pretty sight.” He said as he rubbed her hips. His dick was so hard and ready for her pretty pussy but this was also pretty hot. “Fuck Ben. I’m so close.” She moaned in his ear. “Yeah baby? Why don’t you let go all over my thigh and then I’ll let you cum all over my dick. Sounds good?” He asked. She nodded and gasped as the knot in her stomach tightened. The edge was right there and she was about to fall over it. Her hips lost their rhythm as she gasped loudly. He felt her warm gush come out as she came hard all over his muscular thigh. “That’s it baby. Ride it out.” He says and watches her hips move slowly as she rides out her perfect orgasm. She opened her eyes and her hips stopped.

His eyes traveled down her body and he smirked. “You have such a perfect body. I can’t wait to fuck it.” He says. She smiles at him. “What are you waiting for then?” She asked with a smirk that matched his. He flips them over so he’s on top. He looks at her body one more time and starts stroking his thick cock. “Are you ready sweetheart?” He asked her. “Always.” She smirked. He pushed her legs apart and entered her. She gasped at the feeling of his long thick cock inside out her. She wrapped her legs around his hips pushing him in more. “Fuck you’re so warm and tight.” He groans. She takes one of his hands and intertwines it with hers. He chuckled and began thrusting. “Ben.” She moans loudly, not caring who heard her. He closed his eyes for a second enjoying her warmth.”Fuck you feel so good sweetheart.” He moaned and moved faster. She was letting out all kinds of dirty noises and gasps. He watched as her face contorted to pleasure. Her mouth was shaped in a perfect o and her eyes were closed.

He was letting out grunts and groans at the feeling of her perfect pussy. Her walls were fluttering around him and he was getting close. “Tell me doll does Billy fuck you like this?” He asked her. He opened his eyes and watched her shake her head No. “Mmmm that’s not good enough, baby. I need you to say it.” “No.” She moans and gasps. “No, what?” He teased her. “He doesn’t fuck me as good as you.” That was his breaking point and he came inside of her. “Fuck.” He groaned. She had yet to cum and with being a Supe he didn’t need time to cool down. “Scream my name when you cum doll. I want everyone on the planet to know who’s fucking you.” He told her and watched her jaw drop as her climax was right there. “BEN.” She screamed as she fell over the edge once again but this time felt so much better. His hips didn’t stop until her climax was over. 

“So I’m better than Billy?” He asked as she laid on his chest and he was rubbing her back. “I don’t know.” His face dropped. “I think you might need to fuck me again just so I can make sure.” She said. The smirk came back on his face and he pulled her on top of him. “This time I wanna see these pretty little tits bounce.” He said and pinched one of her nipples making her groan.

[luffyvace]

Hello hope your doing well, I had this idea for a while now but I can please request Red hair pirates x male reader with heterochromia(serach it up if I don't what it is) where the reader is ashamed of their eyes and hides from the his new crewmates.

You also don't have to acppect my request. But anyways have a good day!💛

HIII I AM GOOD!! YOU? of course i accept your request anon!! :) dw i know what heterochromia is 😎😋

just for the record i’ve done research on the main 4 (shanks, ben, yasopp and lucky) in the past to get to know them better. so i’ll talk about them specifically and address the rest as “the crew” if that’s okay :)

THEY NEED MORE SCREEN TIME PLSSS

thank goodness for the one piece live action for a lot more gifs of all of them 😭💥

thank you so much for your request!! :) enjoy anon <3 and thank you for being patient!

so you just joined the red hair pirates recently

and you hide one of your eyes with an eye patch or your hair

shanks does wonder about it but doesn’t wanna bother you if your sensitive about it

bets it’s a scar

lucky and yasopp notice you hide your eye but they all have they’re personal reasons for stuff they do

so they assumed this was one of yours

ben thinks it could be a scar or you could just like to style your hair that way

but from the way it looks—how you try to keep it hidden so well and refuse to move it at all

he pretty much figures something happened

shanks and ben talk it over all the time

they never let you hear

just so your not uncomfortable

shanks will probably be the one to ask if curiosity gets the best of him

(it will)

”hey m/n, why do ya’ hide your eye?”

he asked it casually, drinking all the while

”oh..uhhhh, hide? i’m not hiding it..”

”so what do you call it?”

”it’s nothing shanks, i just…..like to style my hair this way”

”oh really?”

he pokes at you about it for a while

the other members kinda just watch as shanks playfully questions you

they figured he’d get it out of you

especially with his pushy yet teasing nature

and after a while…he did!

now idk how it went down since your so bent on not showing anyone

but!!

you slowly moved your eye patch/hair out the way to reveal your heterochromatic eyes!!

whoa!!

🤩

😗

we’re the reactions

it looked so cool?

so pretty?

wow it’s so unique i’ve never seen it in person?

woah how do you have two different colored eyes?

let me see!!

turn this way!

okay okay! stop pestering m/n!!

ben had to calm the rave about your eyes since he could clearly see you were a bit overwhelmed

everyone was admiring you and your eye

wondering why you didn’t show them sooner

which is what lucky asked

”i don’t know…i just..it’s shameful..my eyes aren’t even the same color!”

WHAT??

literally everyone’s reaction

wym 😐🤨

do you even know what your talking about right now??

ANYWAY

how’d you get it? we’re you born with it?

i don’t know how it works…how does it?

it’s kinda rare right?…wow…

everyone moves on because clearly your tripping

no but fr if you express your seriously upset about your eyes

the crew shares all types of embarrassing yet fun and heart warming secrets n stories to make you feel better

ben tells you there’s nothing to be ashamed about and that none of the crew would ever judge you for anything

”ain’t that right men?”

a loud uproar of “yeah’s” and cheers can be heard in agreement

yasopp definitely makes you laugh with some of his stories

turns out he’s just as goofy as his son

which he rants to you about said son for hours

makes you forget all about your troubles 😂

lucky and shanks lightly tease you for being so embarrassed over ‘somethin’ so silly’

but it’s all in good fun

in the end you all have drinks and get wasted

‘cheers to your eye! m/n!’

:)

KINDA SHORT BUTTTTT YEAH

i’m really happy with the ending i hope you like it too<3

[gloomwitchwrites]

Morning Peace

Ben Solo x Reader

Content & Trigger Warnings: hurt/comfort, fluff, domestic, cuddles, kisses, vaguely referenced Kylo Ren past, force sensitive reader, big spoon/little spoon

Word Count: 730

You give Ben comfort after a night terror.

ao3 // taglist // main masterlist // fluffuary 2024 masterlist

A shake.

A stretch of breath.

A sudden, sharp jolt.

“Ben?”

Twisting in the bedsheets, you reach out to find him in the dark. His answer is a pained whimper, more wounded animal than human sob. It’s heartbreaking, a cold wrench beneath your ribs.

Ben hasn’t had an episode in some weeks. He seemed to be getting better. But you always know what to do. It is embedded within you, but it all depends on what Ben is experiencing.

His upper body jerks suddenly, more of a thrash than a sudden burst of movement.

Space. This requires space.

Your hand hovers nearby but does not make contact. The signs to engage with him are not there, and you know from past experiences how volatile these episodes can be. The dark side still clings to him when it can, festering when his walls are down and he is unable to completely defend himself.

Letting it run its course is all you can do until he starts to calm. Only then can you truly lend your support. There have been one too many times in the past when you tried to console him while in the midst of his thrashing, and Ben lashed out without knowing he’d done so. You never told him about those times, because you know how’d awful he’d feel upon learning that he might have hurt you.

As the gnarled whimpering eases, and Ben’s body begins to soften, you gently rest your hand on his upper arm. Squeezing lightly is your way of silently telling him that you’re here with him. That everything is all right.

Ben’s breathing evens out, and you quietly turn over in the bed, lifting the sheets enough to curl up behind him. You mold your body to his, resting your forehead against his back, your arm draping over his side to slide upward and press against his chest.

Through the Force, you sense an overwhelming sense of calm radiating from Ben, a gentle river in a green forest. You tap into it, and by connecting with it, you connect with him. You hear his heartbeat and how it adapts to your own. The two becoming one.

Sleep comes quickly, and it isn’t until the gentle light of morning that you’re shifted around, strong arms wrapping around you to pull you in.

“Ben,” you giggle, as his lips find the underside of your jaw and travel down your neck. You playfully push at him even as Ben pushes you deeper into the bed, tangling the both of you further around the sheets.

When you manage to snag yourself from his grasp for a moment, you find him smiling, the stretch of his lips tugging toward his ears. He is so bright and handsome in the morning light that shines in from a crack in the curtains. Waves crashing against rock reach your ears, and you sigh heavily, matching his smile.

Ben’s gaze roams over your face as the tips of his fingers brush across the curve of your jaw. As he watches, his smile softens.

“I had another last night, didn’t I?” he asks softly, already knowing the answer.

“You did,” you reply.

Ben visibly swallows, licks his lips, the scar across his face stretching slightly with the movement. “I felt…you. Afterward. I don’t remember anything. Just—just you. And the peace.”

You snuggle in closer until your chin almost rests against his chest. “How do you feel now?”

Ben tips his head forward and places a chaste kiss to the top of your head. “Grateful,” he finally says.

“How so?”

Ben shifts his body back a bit so he can gaze at you from behind his dark lashes. “Without you, I’d simply be existing in a galaxy that doesn’t want me. But with you, I have someone.”

You shake your head. “There are people out there that still care about you, Ben.”

“No,” he says. “Not like you do.”

Ben’s dark locks fall around his face as he closes the distance. This kiss is not chaste. It is sweet and passionate and warms you everywhere. When he breaks away, you don’t want him to leave.

“I love you,” he whispers, before settling in the bed, drawing you to him.

You allow him this, pulling you in for a just a bit longer before the two of you have to answer the day.

taglist:

@padawancat97 @foxxy-126 @glassgulls @km-ffluv @sweetbutpsychobutsweet @singleteapot @garfunklevibes2012 @tiredmetalenthusiast @childofyuggoth @coffeecaketornado @kayden666 @cherryofdeath @enfppixie @ninman82 @no-oneelsebutnsu @ferns-fics @beebeechaos

[pedroscurls]

Third Time’s A Charm (epilogue)

Character(s): Frankie “Catfish” Morales and Reader (female, second person POV)  Summary: You and Frankie get married. Word Count: 1,809 Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading this story. It was truly so much fun to write and I also wanna thank you for sticking with me to the end. It’s been a rough past couple of weeks, so thank you for being patient with me. I had this sudden urge to write again... Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! (inspiration dress and hair.) Warning: None.

“Will’s gonna take her, Molly, and Tess to the venue and we’ll meet them there,” Santiago said, walking into the room with Benny. 

It was going to be a very casual and small wedding, held on the beach just right before the sunset. Santiago would be officiating the wedding while Benny and Will would stand next to Frankie, and Tess and Molly next to you. You and Frankie decided not to have a big, extravagant wedding mainly because both of you were already too excited to just already be married. You both decided to just invite the people that mattered most, the ones that had seen your relationship from the beginning. 

“How’d she look?” Frankie asked. He was dressed in a white button-down shirt, tucked into a pair of fitted black slacks. He slid on his black suit jacket and ran his hands across the sleeves, releasing any creases or wrinkles. 

“Amazing,” Benny smiled. “But I mean, she always looks amazing, so–”

“You’ll just have to wait and see, hermano,” Santiago said with a smile. Santiago, Benny, and Will were all wearing the same attire: white button-down shirts and black slacks. The guys didn’t bother with wearing nice shoes since you and Frankie decided to be barefoot while on the beach, exchanging vows. 

“You nervous?” Benny asked.

Frankie shook his head. “Just want to get married to her already. I’m more impatient than anything,” he laughed. “She’s gonna be Mrs. Francisco Morales in a little over an hour and I just can’t wait.” 

Santiago smiled, looking over at Benny and then back at Will. “She said the same thing.”

“I just wish Tom was here to see it too,” Frankie said with a sigh. “He’d probably say something like about time,” he smiled sadly. 

Benny and Santiago both let out a quiet sigh. “I think he knew that this was bound to happen anyway. Besides, Tess and Molly will be there too.” 

“I know,” Frankie nodded. 

“You got your vows?” Santiago asked.

He smiled. “Didn’t need to write them down.”

“Seriously?” Benny said with a shocked expression. “What happens if you forget what to say?” 

“I won’t,” Frankie said with a nod. 

“You gonna speak from the heart?” Benny asked.

“Exactly,” Frankie replied. “She’s all I ever wanted, Ben. It’ll be easy to express the love I have for her.” 

Santiago and Benny smiled. “Alright, lover boy. Let’s get you married,” Benny said. 

—

Frankie ran a hand through his hair as he wiggled his toes in the warm sand. The sun was starting to set, casting a perfect sunset along the water. The waves were low and quiet, crashing against each other as Benny and Will stood next to him. Santiago was facing the aisle, reaching over to rest a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. 

“You deserve this, Frankie,” Santiago said. 

Benny and Will smiled in agreement. “Are we gonna get to see you cry?” 

Frankie rolled his eyes, but answered truthfully. “I guess we’ll see.” 

Molly and Tess were standing across from Frankie and the rest of the guys, flashing them an excited grin. It still felt unnatural not to have Tom here, but being there for each other helped; time did too. 

Then, everyone’s gaze shifted and so did Frankie’s. He felt his breath being taken away at the sight of you. Your hair was braided in an updo, several strands of curled hair just falling from your face. Your dress had subtle ruffles towards the ends of your dress with an accentuated v-neck in the front and back, as well as sheer, laced sleeves. The warm orange tinge of the sunset casted a glow and the soft winds that swept past you made time stand still as Frankie watched you walk towards him. 

He felt tears sting his eyes; he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be able to get to marry you. 

“She’s beautiful,” Benny whispered. 

“Lucky sonofabitch,” Santiago teased.

Will chuckled and looked over at Frankie who was captured by your presence, just like always. 

“What did I do to deserve her?” Frankie whispered quietly, bringing a hand to wipe away his tears. “I’m never letting her go.” 

When you saw Frankie, you felt your heart beat faster and the butterflies fill your tummy. It was like you had fallen in love with him all over again. Frankie rarely dressed up, but when he did, he always left you speechless. His white button down shirt was tucked into his black slacks, paired with a black suit jacket. 

Your eyes were locked on his as you continued to walk towards him. Frankie had always looked at you like you were the most beautiful woman he ever laid eyes on and even now, with tears in his eyes, he was still looking at you like you were the only person in this world that mattered to him. 

As you reached Frankie, he held out a hand for you that you eagerly took. You stood in front of him, holding both of his hands in yours.

“Hi,” you whispered.

“You’re absolutely beautiful, hermosa,” Frankie replied. 

You blushed, squeezing his hands as you forced yourself not to lean in to give him a kiss. “And you look handsome. You gotta dress up more often,” you teased.

“As long as you’re happy, I’ll do anything for you.” 

Santiago smiled and interrupted, “Well, let’s get you guys married.”

“Thank you for doing this, Santi,” you smiled. 

Santiago nodded with a smile and began speaking, watching as you and Frankie kept your eyes solely on each other. It was a fitting end to your story with each other. Of all the tribulations, the ups and downs, the things you both had to go through to get to where you were now, Santiago was the one person who was glad to see that it all worked out. He knew that when he set you and Frankie up together that it was a match made in heaven… And even despite the couple of breakups, Santiago always knew you both would work your way back to each other. 

He could see the love written all over your features, the love you had for each other, the hope and excitement of what the future would bring. 

Santiago said your name, watching as you looked up at him. “Do you have your vows ready?” 

You smiled and nodded, turning around to grab the paper from Tess. You unfolded it and kept one hand holding Frankie’s as you began to speak. 

“Francisco, no one has ever made me feel the way that you do. You’ve always been my safe place… Being in your arms, in your presence, is something I’m always going to want. And the amount of love I have for you just grows more and more each day. I promise to always be by your side, even when things get tough. I promise to always fight for us, for you, and for our relationship.” Tears pooled around your eyes and you released Frankie’s hand to wipe at your eyes with a tissue that Tess gave you. 

Letting out a quiet breath, you continued. 

“For everything we’ve been through, Frankie, it was all worth it because it led us to where we are now. I can’t wait to call you my husband and to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Santiago smiled and then turned to Frankie.

“And you, hermano?” 

Frankie bit his lower lip and reached up to cup your cheek, running his thumb across your cheek to swipe away your fallen tear. “I didn’t write anything because everything I have to say is something I’ve always wanted to tell you.” 

You smiled, leaning against his touch. You turned your head to gently press your lips against the inside of his wrist. “I love you,” you whispered.

Frankie smiled. “I love you so much, hermosa. I don’t know what I did in this life to ever deserve you, but I promise that I’ll always be the man you deserve. It’s always been you. After our first date, I remember telling the guys that I was going to marry you,” he said quietly. “You have always been by my side, even when it wasn’t easy on you and you have no idea how much that means to me.” Tears were now stinging his eyes and it was your turn to reach up and cup his cheek. 

“There’s no one else I’d rather be with than you. I can’t say that our life will be easy, or that it will be perfect, but I promise you that I will always do my best. I don’t ever want to live life without you and I can’t wait for what the future holds for us. Most of all, I can’t wait to finally call you my wife, hermosa.” 

Frankie tried to lean in to kiss you before Santiago cleared his throat, causing him to pull back with a quiet chuckle.

“Sorry,” he said.

Santiago smiled. “We’re almost there, don’t worry.” Then he motioned to Tess, who was carrying both of their rings. You turned around and took it from her with a smile, turning back to face Frankie. With both of you holding each other’s rings, Santiago turned his attention to you first.

“Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to him, for as long as you both shall live?” 

You smiled, sliding the ring onto Frankie’s finger. “I do.” 

Santiago nodded with a grin and turned to Frankie, repeating the same words. 

“Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?” 

“With all my heart, I do,” Frankie answered, sliding the ring onto your finger. 

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Morales, you may now kiss.”

“Finally,” Frankie grinned. He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around your waist. You leaned up on your toes and snaked your arms around his shoulders. 

“Mrs. Morales,” he whispered. 

“Finally,” you repeated, finally leaning in to press your lips against his.

Frankie sighed contentedly against your lips, moving his own slowly with yours. The sounds of clapping mixed in with the sounds of waves and when you pulled back to look up at him, the sun was finally setting, a glow surrounding the both of you.

“I love you, Frankie. You make me so happy…”

“I love you too, hermosa. Thank you for making me the luckiest man alive.” 

“Third time’s a charm, huh?” you teased.

Frankie grinned, resting his forehead against yours. “Third time’s a charm,” he repeated.

Taglist: @harriedandharassed, @tanzthompson, @casa-boiardi. @bitchwitch1981. @painitemoondust, @pedritosdarling, @vanemando15, @kittenlittle24​, @gracie7209​, @your-voice-is-mellifluous​, @mikeyswifie

[paperbackribs]

The Gift (15 of 15)

previous: Chapter 14 The Boy Next Door Ao3 Link

Last chapter, the boys finally hashed out their feelings with Eddie revealing that he had been in love with Steve from the very beginning. This chapter, Robin just wants to watch their film in peace but a vision from the ethereal finally reveals the missing pieces about the mysterious origin of the connection.

Chapter 15 La Vie En Rose (Final Chapter)

“It’s black and white,” Steve explains, worried that Eddie won’t want to watch the film if it’s not in colour.

“I get it, like The Twilight Zone,” Eddie catches the M&M that Robin throws at him with his wide mouth, his teeth chomping shut in a way that is disturbingly attractive to Steve.

Robin cheers from Steve’s living room armchair and then throws a tan-coloured M&M in the air to herself, only for it to bounce off her cheek and fall into the crease between the cushions. She frowns while digging it out.

Steve pushes his hair back before pushing the VHS into the player. “No, it’s a romance. But a classic,” he quickly adds.

Eddie eyes him from the right side of the couch, “I like romance. Why else do you think Sam followed Frodo all the way to Mordor?”

“Uh, because the world was going to end?” Steve answers, confused. Did they watch the same movie?

Robin snorts, “Even I got the undertones, Steve. How’d you miss it. Following your ‘friend’ to the ends of the earth; that practically screams gay yearning.”

Steve throws himself onto the couch, bouncing against Eddie. Feeling happy to press the length of his arm and hips against Eddie in a way he hadn't dared to only weeks ago. “I just figured they were best friends.” He points at her, “I even thought that I would be your Sam.” Eddie shifts his arm to drape across Steve's shoulders, pulling him into his embrace.

Robin screws her nose up, “No, thank you. Though,” she says, showing her hivemind loyalty. “It is easier to read the subtext in the books rather than in a kid’s film with weird voices.” Steve claps his hands in appreciation and she points back at him in acknowledgement.

“Stevie,” Eddie interrupts, fond exasperation evident in his tone. “Yes, I love The Lord of the Rings, but I kept trying to get you to watch films about friends who could be lovers.”

He nods at Robin as she sings out, “Ben Hur and his former bestie.” She catches the M&M this time.

“Or,” Eddie adds clearly thinking of Conan and Rocky, “About hot, shirtless men to see what your type might be. I was trying to feel you out.”

Steve mentally compares his reaction between the two movie nights, wondering whether his interpretation of Frodo and Sam may have been different if he had watched it after he realised his feelings for Eddie.

It’s not like he’s any more queer now that he’s with Eddie than he was before, but perhaps his pushing back on the idea of romance at their own end of the world had skewed his willingness to see the clues in front of him. For sure what that’s happened, he reflects, considering that he hadn’t seen the dance he was doing around Eddie until the visions had started connecting them.

Steve and Eddie had had enough conversations since their confessions that he no longer felt so stupid about his cluelessness. Eddie had been wary of pushing for more and Steve hadn't realised how much more he had really wanted. But that was in the past, so Steve accepts how unaware he'd been about Frodo and his buddy slash potential lover with a relaxed shrug before deciding to turn this to his favour.

He shuffles into Eddie's side, nudging Eddie's long hair out of the way with his nose to murmur lowly into his ear; the delicate curve reddens under his hot breath, “I told you exactly how I wanted to ‘feel you out’ during Rocky Horror.”

Eddie licks his lips and Steve feels his gaze draw down heavily, as if weighted by gravity to focus and lock onto that slicked pout. Eddie notices his distraction and his eyes slowly heat; he sways a hairs-breath into Steve's space as if to pull him down into that gravity and draw him into a sweet, heavy kiss.

Steve considers, just for a moment, cancelling movie night. That is, until a candy covered chocolate beans him at the back of his head, snapping him out of the charged moment he was sharing with his tempting boyfriend.

“Hey!” He whips his head around to scowl at Robin who smiles blandly at him and says, “No Horny Olympics; you promised.”

“Where’s Vickie,” Steve asks in retaliation, sneakily reminding her of the embarrassing incident when he’d walked in on her and her girlfriend in the breakroom two days ago.

She scowls back at him, “She’s coming next week.”

Steve is considering the value in pointing out the slight blush covering Robin's cheeks when Eddie calmly interjects, “Remind me about the plot.”

Steve turns back to Eddie. “Okay, Audrey Hepburn is this beautiful girl who falls for, like, the worst shit rag all because she’s got this narrow vision of what she’s allowed to have, right?”

Eddie hums in agreement, eyes crinkled in amusement.

“But then she gets to experience the world and comes back as this sophisticated woman. And she was already lovely because, come on, it’s Audrey Hepburn, but she comes back and she’s breathtaking, right? And the shit rag gets all caught up in chasing her, even though he has a fiancé.”

“Like a cheating horndog,” Robin interrupts.

Steve points to her in agreement before returning to Eddie, excited to share about the film that he’s come to love. “But it’s all getting in the way of the family business, which is when Bogart gets involved.”

“I like Humphrey Bogart, he's handsome,” Eddie says mildly, a hint of fondness etched at the sides of his indulgent smile.

“He’s okay,” Steve agrees. “But the romance is in watching him fall hopelessly in love while he doesn’t even realise he’s doing it. I won’t give away how it happens, but it’s satisfying to see him fall all over himself for her.”

Eddie tugs a lock of Steve’s hair before gently smoothing it behind his ear. “Sounds nice, let’s watch it, shall we?”

They press play, but in an eerie echo of weeks past Eddie abruptly points to the screen as Sabrina moves to close the French-style windows of her Paris apartment, “What is that song?”

Steve and Robin’s heads fly to look at each other, mouths open in shock.

“Why,” Robin asks, slowly.

Eddie watches them like he knows that something is wrong. “I’ve had this song at the back of my head for ages. And I haven’t been able to work it out. I mean, listen to it, it’s not exactly metal, right?” He pauses to listen further, “It is nice, though.”

“It’s Le Vie En Rose,” Steve shares. “I’ve been hearing it in the ethereal ever since I brought you back.”

Eddie frowns, “Is this about the connection?” Steve had explained his experiences with Eddie’s vision, which had resulted in some delightful experimentations. But he hadn’t bothered to talk about the music, other than to mention the humming, as he figured it was a matter between him and the ethereal, not anything to truly do with Eddie and their shared sight.

Steve flops back into his seat, staring blankly at the television. “It must be.” But he doesn’t know how or why. “It’s not dangerous,” he says with a conviction that comes with Knowing, “It just...”

He holds his hand up to them to give him a minute and allows his eyes to become further unfocused, sinking deeper into a muted world that opens up before him.

The music that no longer plays on the paused tape rises from the screen, transforming from what was once tinny and small to a collection of notes and melodies that feel physical as they weave around his body. The sun is warm on his back and the smell of herbs hang reassuringly in the air.

“You did well, Stevie.”

He looks down as Nana releases his hands from the box-step they are practising, her head only reaching his shoulders. She is wearing a peasant dress that hangs to her knees with wide prints of carnations and daisies stretched across it. Her feet are bare. Nana reaches up to pinch his cheek gently, but firmly.

“Ouch, Nana!” He says reflexively, rubbing at his face even though it doesn’t sting.

“It took you long enough. Look at you, big enough to fill a room but not yet smart enough to look into the ethereal and just ask.” Steve is uncannily reminded of his mother’s tone when she had grilled him about making The Sacrifice.

“I looked at the tapestries,” he protests.

“Hmph,” Nana moves over to the old wireless, turning the knob to lower the sound of Le Vie En Rose as it starts to play again.

“Where are we?” Steve asks.

“Where we were,” she responds simply.

“I told you, a long time ago, Stevie. That you could make your own steps, but I Saw you waffling on so badly that I made sure you would have me to guide you when the time came. You were very slow,” she continues to scold, getting further into her huff, Steve thinks.

She points a wooden spoon in his face that wasn’t in her hands a moment ago. “I do not huff,” she grumbles.

“Your Nonno used to say something similar, but that does not mean he was right. You two, so stubborn. No matter how many times I told him not to eat all the ricotta before the ravioli was made, he would still get sick.”

“I don’t get it,” he objects, “What am I so slow about?”

Nana eyes him with a loving exasperation unique to family, “To accept the path of love, you silly boy. How long did you spend staring at your eye wondering about how handsome you are or what kind of person you will be with your powers before you moved forward and embraced that nice boy.”

Steve’s mouth makes a small ‘oh’ as what Nana is saying seeps into his brain. “It wasn’t like it was years,” he tries, smiling winsomely at her.

“It could have been. If at all,” she scolds, unimpressed.

The realisation of what she is saying feels like a bucket of cold water has been thrown over him, sobering in the chilling understanding of what he has now avoided. Steve steps forward, gratefully holding onto her small hand, “Oh. In that case, thank you, Nana.”

The cloud over her expression clears and Nana smiles in satisfaction before squeezing his hand back, “There you are. That is the nice boy I raised. Good, you know what I did then.”

“Is the connection going to last?” He asks, determinedly not thinking about the way he and Eddie have been using it recently.

“That is up to the two of you. I tweaked your path myself, back at this point in time, but this is the extent of my meddling.” She lets go to place her spoon gently on the island full of cut and dried greenery. “You did well in taking action and now it is up to the two of you on how you will continue.”

He hasn't even had the full moment to worry before Nana is abruptly next to him as she raises a gentle hand to his cheek. She cradles his face like he is a newborn babe in her arms again, “Do not look so concerned, you have done well so far, have you not?” Her tone is as clear and efficient as ever and, as ever, he can hear the love beneath her brisk manner.

Steve nods, thinking at how he has been trying to be better at thinking and acting on what he wants in life. And Eddie’s getting better at speaking his mind. Eddie always has, he reflects, just not about Steve to Steve. Not until he thought he was allowed to.

“You’re right,” Steve leans into the warmth of her hand, cherishing this final comfort from her. “It could have taken years. Or maybe never.”

She hums in agreement. “I usually am. Now, tell your mother that I love her very much.”

“I will,” Steve promises, knowing that even his earth-bound, stoic mother will be moved by a message from her long departed mama. Even slyly looking forward to blowing her mind a little at their usual Sunday phone call.

“And I love you to the moon and back, my boy.” The skirt of her dress waves around her knees in a non-existant wind, the swaying movement echoed in an uncanny billowing of the day's light and the solarium's walls. The background behind her wavers as does her face and body, becoming fainter in every moment.

Nonetheless, he steadfastly reaches out to fold both her hands into his own clasp, “I know. I love you too, Nana.” Steve's heart is full of gratitude. To his Nana for her intervention. To the ethereal for allowing him to see her this one last time.

Her expression is as compassionate as her tone as she frankly says, “You never know what will happen, Stevie. Now go back and give your boy a kiss from me so he knows that he has my blessing.”

Steve folds her small, round body in his, taking a moment to take a deep breath and take in her powdery scent once more, to feel the weight of her full body in his arms. She rests her cheek on his chest and Steve feels a steady sense of family and purpose behind her touch.

He is loved and he is cared for; family, whether alive or not looks out for him so that he is not only safe but happy, cherished as a beloved son. He presses a kiss down at her faded, silver hair, imbuing the gesture with every sense of affection that he can. He can't see it, but he feels her answering smile.

His sense of touch and smell fades until his arms are empty and he is sitting down as he looks out onto his mundane living area, the film still paused, and the two most important people in his life staring trepidatiously back at him.

“It’s okay,” Steve smiles. “It was a gift.”

He leans over and presses a soft kiss to Eddie's cheek, “That’s from my Nana, she says you have her blessing.”

“Okay?” Eddie says uncertainly.

Steve looks over at Robin, his expression serene. “I was right, The Sacrifice was never supposed to create a mixing of the senses.” He grabs Eddie’s hand in his, squeezing. “Not our eyes or even sound.”

“It was Nana,” he continues, feeling a sense of contentment and a deep relief at the road not taken. “There was a good chance that we never would have talked about our feelings,” he adds to Eddie.

Steve reaches out to stroke a gentle thumb across Eddie's cheek, grateful that he chose a life where he can show the tender feelings he has for the beautiful, creative man across from him.

He smiles at Eddie's wavering expression, “You would have kept feeling confused and uncertain, unwilling to break the peace, and I would have continued to be a dumb asshole who thought my feelings were the natural platonic extension of a guy I’m clearly obsessed with.”

Eddie’s lips quirk up, “And Nana did what? Beaned you from the other side?”

Steve nods wryly, “Sort of. In a mystical type of way. She chose a moment in time to guide me and made sure it would activate at the moment that I took action to save you back in the Upside Down. I, uh,” he rubs at the back of his neck abashedly, “Maybe just didn’t ask the right questions when I looked at the patterns."

Embarrassed at having failed at such a basic lesson that his Nana had taught him years ago, Steve looks away from the both of them to concentrate on a speck on the wall as he explains himself, “I think I was too caught up in freaking out about being the guy who creeps on his friend that I didn’t think to just ask the ethereal.”

Robin’s head is in her hands and her shoulders are shaking. Steve doesn’t even bother to think she’s upset, not for one second. There she is, he thinks, rolling his eyes as she raises her head to reveal tears of laughter streaming down her face.

“You absolute idiot,” she crows. “You had the power to ask all along and you forgot? Because you were pining for Eddie so hard you couldn’t get your head out of your ass?” Her laughter peels brightly across the room.

Steve’s cheeks flush and he doesn’t want to see the judgement that must be on Eddie’s face too, but he risks peeking at him.

Eddie looks pensive as he gestures a finger between them, “We wouldn’t have…?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Steve grimaces. “Nana said possibly years, but she hinted at never too.”

Eddie’s hand squeezes him tightly and he brings a hand up to draw Steve into a soft kiss, resting his forehead to Steve’s. “Thank Christ for Nana,” he breathes with conviction.

“Yeah,” Steve agrees, voice thick with the faith of a love sincerely found and followed. “She’s pretty smart. I, apparently, am a knucklehead.”

Eddie's eyes are bright with tenderness, “She must have loved you very much.”

“She does. She did? I’m not sure where she is right now, but she was good at Knowing, at looking into the tapestry of destiny as well. I know she would have wanted me to have the best version of my life. And that must be with you.”

Eddie lights up and Steve silently thanks Nana again, for helping to add another brick that shores up the wall convincing Eddie that he is worthy, that he is deserving of sincerity and compassion.

Eddie had told him, ever since that conversation in the kitchen when Steve had been so convinced about the terrible impact of Eddie’s death, that he had been working on believing in it. In allowing himself to have faith when people tell them that they love him.

Eddie demonstrates his resolution to keep trying too when he chews on his lip for a moment before saying, “Let’s make sure it’s a life well lived then. You try thinking a little deeper, yes; but I’ll speak up more and make sure that I say what needs to be said.”

Steve nods and presses a kiss to Eddie's forehead, not too alarmed but nevertheless warmed by his determination.

They’ve both been working on being more open in their communication since they had uncovered a pattern of misunderstandings following their confessions. Tangled threads that had been small at first but becoming stronger knots; enough to distract them from the happier life open to them, if they only chose it.

Like the radiant path that Steve had Seen available to Eddie in the grassy clearing, before they had gone on to battle Vecna. An option he could have Seen for himself if he had not been blinded to it, Steve suddenly comprehends.

The first prediction he'd had of a bright life where Eddie loved deeply and was loved passionately in return - it had been Steve’s path too. But he'd been unable to look past the devastating impact the darker path would have on Dustin and hadn't thought to look further. He hadn't Seen beyond the darkness to realise that Eddie's path was also Steve's.

Steve, never suspecting that his own fate could be so throrougly intertwined into a tapestry of devotion with a boy that he had just started to have a deeper bond with and tentative feelings for. Yet, through his powerful intervention and by the grace of his Nana's gift, Eddie is alive here and now, his arms wrapped around the man he will love forever.

He lets his head fall onto Eddie's shoulder, the warmth of his cologne and the heat of his body grounding Steve in the present. Chuckling into Steve's embrace, Eddie continues to watch Bogie chase after Sabrina.

Robin fondly rolls her eyes at them, even as she sends a quick wink Steve's way. He feels her support to the very marrow of his bones: Robin never lies to him and Steve will rely on that gift in the future when he inevitably, as any human does, messes up. Just as he will return the favour to her.

Eddie pressses a kiss to Steve's hair and in the gesture he feels a promise. They will both work hard, for themselves and the other. And, in doing so, they will continue to weave their own destiny, creating a life full of joy and love, an unwavering light that will shine brilliantly and fiercely in their hearts.

Together.

If you liked anything, please consider leaving a comment over on Ao3 :-) It would make my day!

Thank you so much for reading along with my story, it means a lot to me. And if you shuffled a comment my way then you need to know how much you moved me and made me feel seen. Thank you, all. I love you.

💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

Taglist

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[astromechs]

hi, this show went off the air 22 years ago but i can't get it out of my head, so here we are; also on ao3!

Logan says it's no one's fault. That they've had their struggles they've faced together and alone, mostly alone over the past year, and there are bigger things. He even smiles just before she turns on her heel, tells her to keep her pager handy and that he'll see her around, kisses her on the top of her head before he lets her go; she manages an agreement and a smile back, and keeps it there, tears held back, until she's well out of sight, because for all that she's put him through, she feels like she owes him at least that much.

But Max knows the truth; anything her hands touch will always wither and die.

There are things even a cure can't fix.

She twists the throttle, motorcycle roaring to life under the metal touching her fingers, but it won’t last. Gas is harder than ever to come by these days, so if she were to even give into an impulse to pass Terminal City and keep riding, she wouldn’t make it far. It’s essential trips only now, for that practical reason, for a thousand other reasons that have everything to do with the people, her people, inside, who she has a responsibility to protect.

To keep alive.

(That won’t last either, though, will it? Because anything her hands touch will always wither and die. They’ll be cold like Tinga, too late having long since happened before she could manage to get anywhere, or they’ll be like Ben, life and warmth fading right under her fingertips because of her own efforts, but regardless, it will always end the same, no matter a cure or a fight.

There’s no defense against a curse entrenched even more deeply than DNA.)

Buildings rush by her that she doesn’t really see; tires squeal against pavement through twists and turns of a route followed more by habit and muscle memory rather than her active attention. Wind whips hair around her face and stings tears in her eyes at its impact; she blinks them away, furiously, keeps her head held up rather than ducked, and by the time she powers the motorcycle down and leaves it behind, there isn’t a single lingering trace of them on her face.

Her steps are quiet as she passes groups of children sleeping while adults keep watch and heads huddled together to, undoubtedly, formulate some kind of strategy, but apart from a few nodded acknowledgments, she doesn’t divert her focus from the only mission that’s on her mind: getting to the roof.

It’s colder here than it’d been on the streets, and even with a jacket, Max is forced to curl into herself to keep warm; she sits with her knees tucked to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, not bothering to look up to a night sky that’s covered only with clouds. Not bothering to direct her attention to anything at all, really, at least until —

Footsteps in her periphery, faint at first, but growing louder by the second as they draw closer to her.

They manage to plod in a way that gets under her skin, so she wouldn’t need a visual confirmation of an identity to know exactly who they belong to. But she wouldn’t even need that to know; there’s only one person she knows who consistently manages to find her at the moments she least wants to be found.

She grinds her teeth together as Alec’s form comes into view.

Go away, is the immediate thought that sputters out before it reaches her mouth, choking on the fumes of its own petulance. What the hell are you doing here? Is the next attempt, something that, over the months, has become familiar and easy while she hadn’t even known it was happening, but she lets that die, too, because she can’t let herself settle into that kind of complacency. That’s a mistake she’s made too many times.

In the end, with her knees still tucked to her chest, she turns her head and tips up her chin enough to meet Alec’s gaze. Asks, “How’d you find me?”

Even to her own ears, her voice is as worn as the rest of her. For someone who barely needs to sleep, she’s so fucking exhausted.

The line of Alec’s mouth is thin and contemplative, and his eyes are much the same as they search her, assessing; she can practically see the gears that are turning in his mind, because they’re the ones often turning in hers. You can take the X5 out of Manticore, burn the whole place to the ground, but….

She drops her eyes to her feet, something hard and sticky lumping in her throat.

“I can see in the dark, too, you know. You’re not as sneaky as you think you are, Maxie.” Without waiting for an invitation, he steps through most of the distance that remains between them, lowering himself down to sit next to her. Their arms are just short of actually brushing, but even so, the warmth from him radiates to her, seeping under her skin to the point that she almost forgets there’s a chill.

It could be a comfort, one she could lean into, but she doesn’t, instead swallowing hard to remain unmoving. Still, she doesn’t lean away from it, either.

That may be the worst part.

The wind cuts around them, and for a time (she doesn’t know how long), that’s all that breaks up the silence. At least until Alec, being Alec, can’t help but find some way to step into it; of course he can’t. “Figured you’d be up here brooding when no one heard from you for a while.”

Before she can find the will to stop it, there’s a tug at the corners of her mouth, somehow flickering to life over the death she carries, turning the chill in the air and what sits in her into practically a memory.

Though she follows the script of what has become their back and forth, rolling her eyes and scrunching her face, the objection she ends up voicing is half-hearted at best. “I’m not brooding.”

She feels, more than sees, Alec lift a shoulder in a shrug; she hears, more than sees, a smile creeping in for him, too, however small. “Speak for yourself.”

And when she feels an arm wrap around her, feels a hand rest on top of hers shortly after that, she relaxes rather than stiffens, leans into it rather than away; she doesn’t have the energy to do anything else, not when she’s so fucking exhausted. She exhales a long breath and closes her eyes, resting her head against a heartbeat that’s steady in a mess of a world that’s anything but.

It’s not a comfort, and she won’t delude herself into thinking that it is, but maybe, even if just for a moment, it would be nice for something to live in her touch for once.

[ladamedusoif]

Christmas Tree (Professor!Ben x OFC!Lydia)

A Merry Fic-Mas - December 22

Part of A Merry Fic-Mas: A Pedro Boys Holiday Fic Calendar - click for masterlist.

Follow my writing blog @ladameecrit and turn on notifications to keep up to date with my fics!

Pairing: Professor!Ben (Mr Ben AU) x OFC!Lydia 

Word count: 908

Rating: Mature; 18+ MDNI

Warnings: Allusions to smut; mild swearing; established relationship; references to Christmas but secular.

A/N: A little imagine from the Visiting universe - this isn’t a flash forward, because Visiting is as-yet unfinished and still seeking a resolution, but I wanted to write for these two in a Christmas setting again. (And I couldn't resist that gif from The Bishop's Wife!)

MDNI banner by @cafekitsune

You draw the living room curtains and step back to survey your handiwork. Your first Christmas tree together, and you’d wanted it to be just right. 

Ben stands in the middle of the doors that divide the living room from the dining room and kitchen, oohing and aahing at the tall tree shining with hundreds of tiny lights that reflect off the many baubles you’ve hung from its branches.

“Hit the lights, baby,” you ask, “you can’t really see if the lights look right unless you have darkness.”

He does as he’s bid, and the living room is illuminated only by the cosy glow of the stove in the fireplace and the warm white of the Christmas tree. You screw up your eyes to assess the overall effect, using a trick your grandfather had taught you years before. 

“You think it’s okay, Ben?” You turn to face him, smiling at the way the gentle light of the tree picks out his handsome features and the twinkle in his eyes as he takes it in. 

“It’s…perfect. You are so talented, Lyddie.”

You beam at his praise. “It’s just a case of working out where everything needs to go. And we can add to the baubles over time - I know most of these are from my original collection, but soon there’ll be ones that are ours, with our memories attached to them.”

There’s no response. You turn back to see if he’s still there, and notice that he’s fiddling with the stereo system in the dining room, carefully placing a record on the turntable and setting the stylus to the right track.

The intro begins, and Ben spins to face you with a mischievous look on his face. He starts to dance in your direction as the familiar opening of the song plays from the speakers.

“Baby, what is going on?”

He wraps an arm around your waist and takes your hand, pulling you to him and leading you into the rhythm of the song. As the vocal begins, Ben joins in, mimicking Bruce Springsteen’s New Jersey rasp:

“Merry Christmas, baby

You sure did treat me nice

Merry Christmas, baby

You sure did treat me niiiiice

I feel just like I’m liviiin’

Livin’ in para- shit, Lyd, I can’t sustain that, sorry.”

You throw your head back and laugh, wrapping your arms around his neck and swaying your hips in time to the music. “Just dance with me, darling man.”

Ben’s coffee-brown eyes shine, cheeks flushing a little. He brings his hands to your hips and moves with you, his body flush against yours. He can’t help join in again, in his usual voice, for the bridge:

“Santa came down the chimney

Half past three

With lots of nice little presents for

Lyddie and me”

You both giggle as he reaches again for your hands, twirling you around and under his arm before bringing you back into hold. He looks so beautiful in the soft light from the tree and the fire: like pure comfort and love distilled in human form. You can’t help but nuzzle in to his chest as the song enters the final bridge and chorus.

“How’d you get to be so good at dancing, Ben?”

He kisses your hair and you can hear him smile. “My parents. They always used to dance together in the house during the holidays, they’d go dancing at weekends sometimes - it was their thing.” You feel him pull you a little closer. “My dad had moves. And when I was a little kid, I asked him to teach me.”

You chuckle, humming happily against his broad chest, clad in a soft, dark blue plaid flannel shirt. “So you’ve been working on your moves since you were a little kid?”

He laughs in agreement. “Kinda. I think I just looked at them and thought I’d like to have that, someday. Someone to dance with you, no matter if it’s just at home.” He pulls away slightly and looks at you. “I dunno, it just seemed so…loving.”

As the E Street Band plays the final bars of the song, you lean in and caress Ben’s handsome face before kissing him. “It was loving. It is loving.” You can’t help but run your hands over his back and down to the waistband of his jeans, hooking your fingers against the denim so you can bring him tight to your body and walk him over to the couch.

His lips find yours again as you lie back on the sofa, Ben’s warm body between your legs and your fingers working to unbutton his shirt as he slips his hands under your oversized denim shirt and reaches for your breasts, pulling a whine of pleasure from you. You move one of his big hands to the waistband of your leggings, encouraging him to tug them down as you fumble to unbuckle his belt and unzip his jeans.

He pauses for a moment to take you in: the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, without question. If he said this now you’d roll your eyes and brush it off, pointing to your bare face and wrinkles and wobbles and greys and the slightly schlubby clothes you’re wearing for putting up the tree - but here, now, about to make love and with the lights from the Christmas tree sparkling in your eyes so full of love and affection, he thinks you might just be at your most beautiful.

[marydublinauthor]

Random gt drabbles: Warm Sheets

Characters: Lana and Ben

A/N: he broke her 😭

———————-

His steady breathing was the only sound in the room - a peaceful rhythm. The evening’s excitement should have had her sleeping long past sunrise, but an uncertain fluttering in her belly kept her tossing and turning. And she liked sitting inthe peace and quiet, watching him sleep. His face looked so different when he was relaxed - almost innocent. Not so long ago, she would have taken any opportunity to get him drunk and find an escape in the night.

Funny, what a little time and perspective did.

As sunlight crept into the room, his eyes fluttered open, long lashes sending slight tremors in the air. Lana arched her back as he spotted her on his pillow, all of five inches tall, and frowned.

“You’re still here,” he breathed, voice raspy from sleep.

Lana smiled, crawling closer. “I wanted to be the first thing you saw when you woke up.”

She receives a small smirk, and his hand - comparably massive - clumsily drops around her. “I almost forgot about you. How’d you sleep?”

“Okay.”

“You slept like this?”

Lana hesitated. “I did.”

The look on his face was indiscernible, but something undeniably proud was there.

The glint in his eyes shifted to something she knew, making her even breathing catch. He rolled over on the linens so he was looming above her on the pillow. His toned arms walled her in as he sank down to press his lips to her skin.

[sl-newsie]

Spelled (Carlos de Vil x Sanderson Daughter)- Ch. 10: Tourney Tryouts

The next morning I nervously pace back and forth in my dorm, frantically trying to find ways to cover my hair. When I went to bed last night I never gave my new hair a second thought, but when Binx woke me up this morning his surprise over my pink locks definitely got me out of bed.

“Dear God… Oh God… What do I do, Binx? People already think I’m different, and this is only going to encourage it!”

If Binx had eyebrows, he’d be giving me an expression with a raised brow. “Why did you let your hair be spelled?” 

I spread my arms out in exasperation. “I didn’t mean to! Mal just chanted some quick words and the next thing I knew my hair was pink! Don’t get me wrong, I really do like it. But I’m not sure everyone else will. Especially Ben.”

Binx thinks for a moment, then says: “Magica, you’re already doing a great job of fitting in. Is this new hair something you like?”

I bite my lip and think about what Mal did for me. I just helped make you look like a true witch. It’s true, I’m really grateful to be able to show off my magical heritage. But at what cost? People will take one look at me and scream. But what kind of life am I living if I deny myself what makes me happy just to please everyone else?

I nod. “I like the hair, Binx. I really do.”

“Then you shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Go out there and wear it with pride. And if anyone asks, just say the truth. Mal spelled it. It wasn’t your magic.”

After taking a deep breath, I open my dorm door and get ready to show Auradon the real me. “You’re right, Binx. Wish me luck.”

Throughout the day, I get a few odd looks and stares at my hair. But the majority of girls scurry up to take a better look.

“It’s so well-done!” Rosaline gushes as she runs her fingers through it. “You must tell me how you did it!”

“Talk to Mal. She did it, not me.” Binx was right- the truth and a little modesty never hurts.

More and more girls walk up to ask questions throughout the day, while all the guys seem to pay no attention to it.

At lunch, however, I get a bit more attention than I want.

“Oh. My. God.” Audrey’s jaw drops when I walk past her. “You dyed your hair?”

“Really? Let me see!” Lonnie pushes through and gets a look at my new curls. “Oh, that’s so cool! How’d you do that?”

I give a small smile. “Actually, Mal did it for me. A little pocket spell, if you will.”

Her face lights up. “Do you think she’d do that for me? I’m gonna go ask later!”

“You want pink hair?” Audrey asks in a disgusted tone.

Lonnie shakes her head. “No, no! Cool hair! Maybe something long and curly…”

“Hey, um Magica?” Ben walks up and takes my hand. “Can I talk with you for a second?”

I guess I don't have a choice, because Ben drags me out of the dining hall and into his room.

When he shuts the door he turns around and crosses his arms.  “What the heck, Sparks? You dyed your hair?”

I try to stay confident. “Actually, Mal spelled it. I never asked for it, but afterwards it grew on me. I look good with pink, and if anyone has a problem with that then I don’t care.”

Ben paces around the room, almost imitating what I did this morning. “I donno, Sparks. First you’re saying you're an orphan, then you let the VKs change your clothes, then you get your hair changed? It’s just-” He gives a heavy sigh. “You gotta tell me when you’re gonna spring this stuff on me, ok?”

I put my hands on my hips and squint at him. “Why should I? It’s my life, not yours, Ben. I’m the Royal Advisor. I’m supposed to advise you. Not have you treat me like a child and scold me when I do something you don’t like.”

After I say this, I realize that it’s something I never would have said a month ago. I guess Auradon Prep’s really helped my confidence.

“But Magica, you- it doesn’t look normal.”

I give an annoyed grunt. “Ben, who defines ‘normal?’ If the ‘normal’ thing to do was to duct tape a banana to your head, would you do it?”

Ben does a terrible job of suppressing his laugh. “Hm- No- hm- You’re right. I’m sorry, Magica. It’s just that I’ve been trying to get the final details planned for the coronation, and your… new look is getting me mixed up.”

I give him a back pat. “Brother Ben, you know I’m here to help, right? You don’t have to do everything alone. Give me a checklist and I’ll take care of it!”

Ben seems to relax a little and gives me a thumbs-up.

“Alright, so that’s over with. Do you want to come with me to watch the tourney tryouts?” He asks as he picks up his jersey. “I promise it won’t be boring.”

I scrunch my nose. “You know I don’t follow sports.”

“Ok, then see it as an excuse to see Chad get bombarded with frisbees.” Ben smirks.

I give him a wicked grin. “Sounds good to me.”

When we arrive on the field, it’s already bustling with sweaty boys.

“Hey, Magica. Come to see the star player?” Chad asks with his chest puffed out.

“Um, no. I’m here to wish Carlos and Jay good luck and see you get pummeled by frisbees.” I pat his shoulder and strut past over to the VK students. Jay looks excited, but Carlos seems nervous.

“I’m no good at this stuff, Jay. I don’t know why I let you talk me into this-”

“Hiya, trixie!” Jay waves me over. "You're sporting the new hair like a pro!"

Carlos immediately changes his attitude. “Um, hi Magica! W- Why are you here?”

“I came with Ben to watch tryouts, and to wish you guys luck. If you ever need a positivity spell just let me know.”

Carlos starts to shake. “Um, I might need one. I know us VKs are supposed to be tough and all, but I’m not good at all this sports stuff.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Carlos, no one’s expecting you to be perfect. It’s all for fun! Just have fun and don’t worry about what other people think.”

He gives a small smile. “Thanks, Magica. I’ll try.”

With that he goes to join Jay with the other boys, while I go stand next to Audrey and the cheerleaders.

“Ben doesn’t need to do tryouts, because he’s already a winner,” Audrey brags.

I frown. “He doesn’t have to, because he already did. There were 2 tryout sessions.”

She sniffs. “He’s still the best.”

I’m not too sure how this tourney game works, but I can tell it’s intense.

“Get outta the kill field!” The coach yells as the players run across a wide yellow stripe..

“Kill field?” Carlos looks around with wild eyes.

Meanwhile a guy uses a machine to fire frisbees at Jay, who flips and dodges them with no problem. 

“Not bad,” I say with a wide smile.

Audrey just rolls her eyes. “Oh please. Ben’s so much better!”

Carlos is a bit slower at dodging, and gets a frisbee to the face, while Jay has made it to the end of the field and is doing a victory dance.The coach looks like he’s just struck gold.

“Welcome to the team!” He beams at Jay. When he looks over at Carlos his smile falters. “Ever think about band?”

Carlos gives a nervous laugh but then Ben walks up.

“I’ll work with him, coach.”

Carlos gets a panicked look. “Um no, that’s ok. I don’t have to-”

“Don’t worry.” I put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Ben’s a great teacher, believe me. He’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

He frowns. “Has he taught you?”

“Um, no. I don’t even know how this tourney sport works. But I do know that Ben knows everything there is to know about it. It just takes a little practice.”

Carlos gives me a lopsided grin. “Ok. I’ll give it a try, just for you.”

He goes off to find Jay, leaving me with a fake smile and wondering just how deep my siren magic has gotten to him…

[hitchell-mope]

(Third film. After “ballroom blitz”. Back in Mal’s subconscious. Mal’s once again falling through swirling blackness when she suddenly gently lands on her feet on a shiny black cavern surrounded by manifestations of Ben and their friends in the gala best. They all start walking around and past her in random directions. This is when “umbrella” happens. After the song. The manifestation of Ben starts kissing Mal. She returns it until she comes to her senses and pulls away and backs up against a wall at the end of the cavern)

Mal: no. No no no no. No. This isn’t real. I’m dying. This is just. This is just a dying dream. You’re not really here.

Ben (slowly walking towards her with smirk on his face): this is real. You are here. I am here. And you’re not dying. So enjoy it.

(He starts kissing her again. She enjoys it. This is when “as long as you’re mine” happens. After the song. Mal rises into the ether and finally wakes up to see Ben watching over her)

Ben (pulling her into a hug): oh my god you’re okay.

Mal (hugging him back): yeah. Yeah I am. How’d I get out?

Ben: your father pulled you out of the trench.

Mal: oh. Where is he now?

Ben: gone to get something to eat. Oh. He’s back.

(Ben approaches Hades and leans in close)

Ben: you will take whatever she has to say in good faith and good humour or I will rip your intestines out through your navel and then hang you with it. Do you understand me?

Hades (nervously): yessir.

Ben (patting the side of Hades’s cheek far harder than he needs to): good man.

(He turns to smile at Mal)

Ben: I’ll be leaving you two alone now. Shout if you need me.

(He turns to state daggers at Hades)

Ben: I can assure you that I will be watching.

(He teleports away)

Mal: can you do me a favour?

Hades: anything.

Mal: can you change back into the one that fathered me please?

Hades: as you wish.

(He shifts from Sebastian Stan to Jesse L Martin)

Mal: good. Thank you for that.

(She gets up, walks over to hades and punches him in the face)

Mal: YOU LEFT ME!!!! YOU LEFT ME AGAIN!!!! I TRUSTED YOU!!!! I VOUCHED FOR YOU!!!! I BONDED WITH YOU!!!! I JUSTIFIED YOU TO MY SISTER!!!! I BLAMED HER FOR YOU LEAVING!!!! I BEAT HER UP FOR IT!!!! YOU LEFT ME AGAIN!!!! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME AGAIN!?!? WHAT DID I DO TO MAKE YOU LEAVE ME AGAIN!?!? No. No. No. No. No. I can’t do this. I won’t give you the satisfaction. I just have. I just have one question for you.

Hades: ask away

(This is when “the name of the game” happens. After the song. Mal’s still looking at Hades through red rimmed eyes)

Mal: well? What was it then? What was so fucking important that you left me again even after you said that you wouldn’t?

Hades: Persey.

Mal: what do they have to do with this?

Hades: they needed my help with their mother’s coup against the rest of the council after Zeus was killed by Maleficent. And your sister knows. She hasn’t forgiven me. But she knows. She also crash landed Olympus into the museum.

Mal: you let my sister, Evangeline So Regal She Didn’t Learn To Drive Because It Could’ve Damaged Her Manicure Grimhilde, drive a mountain?

Hades: yes. And she was kind of ah claimed by Poseidon’s throne.

Mal: of course she was. Your leg’s bleeding. Why is your leg bleeding?

Hades: what? Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah. It doesn’t matter.

Mal: is it because of me?

Hades: no! No. Do not ever think that.

Mal: so how did it happen?

Hades: I think I got stabbed during the coup. I’m only just starting to feel it.

Mal: sit on the stump. I’ll heal it.

Hades: are you sure?

Mal: you’re looking at the girl who kept Carlos De Vil alive for eight years. I’m a dab hand by now. Trust me.

Hades: well alright then.

Mal: so uh. Who stabbed you?

Hades: probably Narcissus.

Mal: the egotist?

Hades: narcissist sweetheart. Narcissist. He’s the namesake of an entire behavioural issue for reason. Use the right word.

Mal: so he’s not dead?

Hades: no. Persey likes him. So we locked him in a cell without mirrors.

Mal: oohoohoo. Bit harsh don’t you think?

Hades: your stepmom wanted to cook him for dinner.

Mal (laughing): what? Why?

Hades: 23 years ago he called her a frumpy mess when she was in labour with Persey and Hadie.

Mal: there but for the grace for Persey eh?

Hades: indeed.

Mal: there. You can stand up now. And I can go back to hating you.

Hades: I under-

Mal: no! No you don’t get to do that! You don’t get to be gracious. You don’t get to understand. You. Let. ME DOWN! And I don’t know how to forgive you for that. I don’t know if I want to forgive you for that.

Hades: can I tell you a secret?

Mal: what?

Hades: can I tell you a secret?

Mal: if you must.

(This is when “hurt” happens. After the song)

Mal: you stabbed yourself?

Hades: yes.

Mal: why?

Hades: I got mad. You know how when adrenaline leaves your system you end up needing a piss?

Mal: mhmm?

Hades: with us gods we get mad. I stitched myself back up but the whole “Fight For Our Lives” thing probably made it worse.

Mal: ohhhh. So what n-oh boy

(Ben’s just teleported back to the clearing holding a beaten, bloodied and bruised Audreficent by the hair)

Ben: guess what I just found skulking twenty miles south of here?

(He throws Audreficent into a tree and binds the, there with gold covered iron chains)

Hades: twenty miles south of here would be....?

Mal: Doug and Evie’s cottage

Hades: ahhhh. I like that cottage. It’s nice to think you and you’re friends will all live together after this

(Ben and Mal give him an odd look)

Hades: what?

Ben: we don’t live with Doug and Evie.

Mal: yeah. I’d end up killing her two hours in.

Ben: we’ve got our residence at the palace.

Mal: they’ve got the cottage.

Both: Evie stays alive.

(Audreficent hacks up a small river of pus green blood to get their attention)

Audreficent: this is all very nice. But can we get back to the matter at hand here please?

Mal: lemme guess. My imminent and inevitable demise?

Audreficent: precisely

(They blow a huge plume of fire at Mal but it’s blocked by Hades and ricochets back into their face)

Hades: you will never touch my daughter again.

(He starts beating Audreficent up with his bare hands. Back in Auradon. Things aren’t looking good. Hundreds upon thousands upon millions of Audrefcent’s porcine goons have laid siege to the city and even the reanimated corpses of Grimhilde, Tremaine, Queen of Hearts, Gaston, Shan Yu and Jafar are having trouble holding them back. Elsewhere in the city. Doug and Evie are running for their lives from the onslaught)

Evie: any ideas?

Doug: just one! But you’re not gonna like it!

Evie: oh god.

Doug: one!

Evie: no!

Doug: two!

Evie: ah shit!

Doug: yup! THREE!

(He grabs Evie’s arm, throws her into an open sewer, dives in after her, narrowly avoiding a group of goons who were about to squash them flat and lands on top of her)

Evie (slightly muffled): this position is so much more comfortable when we’re in bed.

Doug (smirking slightly): or in the macrame room

Evie (chuckling): shut up and help me up.

Doug: as you wish milady. Oof.

Evie: how bad is the damage?

Doug: depends on how attached you are to this outfit.

Evie: I hate it. I don’t like trousers. No matter how practical they are.

Doug: then it’s fine. You’re fine. It’s all fine.

Evie: good. Uh. Where exactly are we?

Doug: if I’ve got my calculations right

Evie: which you always do.

Doug: of course. We are probably about 4-6 miles away from the throne room.

Evie: should we teleport or walk?

Doug: depends on how long you can stand the smell.

Evie: let’s teleport.

Doug: good choice.

(They teleport out of the sewer. Elsewhere in the palace. Carlos, Jay and Lonnie are in the medical room holding the goons at bay)

Carlos: we killed Jafar. We killed the queen of hearts. We’ve got the Chernabog brethren. You’d think we’d have won by now. But oh no. It just HAS to sends its non-kosher minions after us! Well I got news for you PORKERS!!!! I don’t keep KOSHER!!!!

Jay: of course you know what this means don’t you?

Lonnie: what?

Jay: she knows that Mal’s alive. Maleficent wouldn’t be losing it this badly if she thought she’d won. The old bitch is losing it. I know. I just know it.

Lonnie: yaaaAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

(She explodes over thirty goons into dust)

Lonnie: I love magic.

(Just then Doug and Evie teleports into the medical room)

Doug: we overshot.

Evie: good. At least we’re away from the smell. What happened to Gil and Jane?

Doug: uh. Gil has a concussion.

Carlos: and Helga Sinclair poisoned Jane with wonderland mushrooms.

Evie: okay. Your highness

Cinderella: mlady. Mlord. Are either of you in need of gauze or stitches or anything medical?

Doug: no.

Evie: all I need is a long, hot, sudsy, Doug filled shower.

Cinderella (unimpressed with Evie’s answer): there are chemical showers behind that door. Wash off and help your friends defend your other friends. You have ten minutes. Go.

Doug and Evie: thank you.

(In the war-room Uma, Ned, Persey and Hadie are holding even more goons at bay with the help of Elsa, Persephone, Belle and Maui)

Persey (obliterating over a hundred goons with their lightning whip): I just have one question.

Persephone: what would that be dear?

Persey: how does it work? I mean. How does belle avoid the “steel-Kleenex” problem? Maui IS a demigod after all and

Persephone: you did not inherit the gene. Please do not enquire about the love life of your sister’s future mother in law. At least not in my presence.

Persey: right. Gotcha. Sorry. Won’t happen again.

Uma (sending wave after wave of shadows at the goons): gene? What gene?

Ned: it’s just a fancy way of saying Persey isn’t attracted to their family members. You know Persephone is Hades’s niece right?

Uma: ohhhh. Wait. I’m triton’s niece. I was attracted to Harry. He was Hades’s son. Does that mean....

Ned: you inherited the gene? Yes.

Uma: fuck. Ah well. At least I never slept with him. Small mercies and all that.

Ned: do you need your sit down?

Uma: what? Why?

Ned: you just look a little um. Fuchsia.

Uma: no I’m fine.

Ned: if you’re sure.

Belle (whacking a goon repeatedly with a leather bound dictionary and thesaurus): DIE!!!! DIE!!!! GOD!!!! IN!!!! HEAVEN!!!! DIE!!!!

Elsa: she knows she has magic right?

Hadie: she’s panicking. Just let her carry on.

Elsa: why are you so calm?

Hadie: my little sister’s alive. Why wouldn’t I be calm?

Elsa: I like you Hadie. You look out for my daughter. She needs that.

Hadie: it’s my honour your highness.

Maui: WHAAAHOOO!!!!

(He keeps turning into different animals and attacking the goons)

Persey: oh my god

Ned: what?

Persey: Mal’s alive.

Uma: yeah. We know that. Maleficent’s sending the goons after us because of it.

Persey: yes but. Mal. Can control. The goons.

Ned: ohhhh.

Persey: mother. Cover me.

Persephone: on it.

(Persey bows their head and a ghostly duplicate of them separates from their body and shoots off into the sky)

Hadie: I didn’t know we could do that.

Persephone: oh my son. You have a lot to learn.

(Back in the woods. Persey’s astral projection lance in front of Ben and Mal)

Ben: boss?

Mal: what are you doing here? And what by can we see through you?

Persey: astral projection. It’s easy. I’ll show ya. Now. You can control the goons.

Mal: the what?

Persey: oh. You don’t know?

Ben: know what?

Persey: Maleficent is getting desperate. All the villains on her side have fallen so she’s throwing her porcine goons at us.

Mal: okay. But how can I control them?

Persey: I know you’ve disowned her as your mother. But you still have her blood. Ergo

Mal: they have to listen to me.

Persey: bingo.

Mal: what do I have to do.

Hades: Persey? Is that you?

Persey: yeah. She tenderised yet?

Hades: just about. Ooooh. I think I just heard her jaw crack

Persey: keep at it pops. Break her apart. Ready?

Mal: yes.

Persey: Ben. You can go with her if you’d like to.

Ben (immediately grabbing Mal’s hand): I thought you’d never ask.

Persey: good. Right. So. Your physical bodies will still be here. But your projections can go anywhere you need to. Got it?

Bal: yes.

Persey: awesome. Ready?

Bal: yes.

Persey: three. Two. One. And sleep.

(Ben and Mal’s heads fall forwards and they’re in the astral plane)

Persey: you can still touch everything like you normally would. Magic included. But you are, effectively, ghosts. So you can’t get hurt. Your bodies can though. So I’m staying here until get back? Comprendo?

Bal: understood.

Persey: off you pop.

(In a blink of an eye. Bal are in the middle of Auradon’s Main Street. And are immediately greeted with Maddy crying over her dying father as the Baker’s try to get to safety)

Mal: oh no. Maddy I’m so sorry.

Anastasia: Ben. Mal. You’re dead. But I thought.

Ben: astral projection. Persey.

Anastasia: they are a very clever individual.

Mal: that they are. I’m guessing you are Mr Baker.

Andrew: it’s a pleasure to meet you your highnesses.

Ben: how does it feel finally meeting your son?

Andrew: it would feel better if it weren’t under these circumstances.

Ben: understandable.

Mal (gently): Maddy. We need to get you somewhere safe.

(Maddy howls and snarls at her)

Mal: sorry.

Ben: how did it happen?

Anastasia: mauled by a hyena. Ed I think.

Mal: why Ed specifically?

Anastasia: I recognise the laughter from when I went hunting for their meat. I was the butcher on the island.

Andrew: ahhhh.

Anthony: is Hadie okay?

Ben: last I checked yes. I did kind of attack him though.

Mal: why?

Ben: I got mad. So. So mad. For them leaving you. I attacked all of them.

Mal: awwww. You attacked my family for me? That’s so sweet.

Ben: I do my best.

Andrew: are they always like this?

Anastasia and Anthony: yes.

Andrew: ah.

Ben: by the way. Andrew. Hopefully Mrs Potts will be overseeing the catering at the wedding. But would it be possible to request a limo sized white chocolate croissant cake for the reception?

Andrew: it would be my honour sir.

Mal: you, sir, are going to be a very lucky groom to be what this is all over.

Ben: dragon time?

Mal: aerial dragon time. And you don’t even have to turn into a beast. But it would be appreciated if you did.

Anastasia: um. Guys. Not that it’s not pleasant hearing our leaders discuss their bedroom antics. But we have a bit of a problem here.

(Bal immediately snap out of it)

Mal: right.

Ben: yes.

Mal: sorry. Lemme try. Ahem. Um. Excuse me. Maddy. We can take your dads body with us but we really do have to go now

Maddy: nuhuh.

Mal: Maddy.

Maddy: why is a Raven like a writing desk?

Ben: because Edgar Allen Poe wrote on both.

(Maddy’s head shoots up and looks at Ben)

Maddy: how did you. How did you know?

Ben: I mean. It’s kind of obvious when you think about it isn’t it? Edgar Allen Poe wrote on the subject of ravens and he wrote on a writing desk.

Hatter: I can die happy now.

Ben: ah crap.

Maddy: no papa no. We still have more people to tea.

Hatter: shh, shh, shh. You do my dear. I no longer need tea.

(Maddy bursts into wailing tears)

Ben: we need to get her out of here.

Mal: you all have magic right?

Anastasia: yes.

Mal: teleport her to the medical room. Just follow Carlos’s adorably psychotic laughter.

Ben: our son is not

Mal: Ben. C’mon. Please. The traps for senior prank day. When he wasn’t even a senior.

Ben:....good point.

Mal: now go.

(The Baker’s teleport to the palace, taking the Hatter’s with them. Mal and Ben face the palace)

Mal: listen to me goons. This Mallory Bertha Hestia Perrault Bernson. I share Maleficent’s blood. I am your new master. You will listen to me. Or die.

Goons: bAbY?

Ben: what?

Mal: yes. I am the baby. Maleficent is my birth mother. You are under my control now.

Goons: BABY!!!!

(The sounds of every single goon comes barreling towards Ben and Mal. In the medical room. The Baker’s just delivered Mad Hatter to the medical room)

Cinderella: I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do. His injuries are far too extensive. Not magic can cure him.

(Maddy squeaks)

Hatter: Maddy. Maddy sweetheart. Come to you papa.

(Maddy walks over to him and he takes her hand. This is when “bleeding out” happens. After the song. Ben and Mal stop free falling and teleport back into the clearing. At which point Mal walks up to Hades, pulls him out of the way and slugs Audreficent in their face)

Mal: you out a failsafe on the goons didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?!?!

(Audreficent is too busy coughing up blood to answer her)

Ben: I hate to play devils advocate. But I don’t think it was her.

Mal: how do you mean?

Ben: I think it was Maddy. It felt a lot like Uma’s wave of grief for Harry. And Hatter had just died.

Mal: oh. Ah well. At least I got to punch her in the face.

(Audreficent starts laughing through the blood vomit)

Mal: anything you’d like to share with the class?

Audreficent: I am just. So. Proud. Of you. So, so proud. Look at you. The horns. The wings. The skin. You are truly my daughter

Mal: I am not your daughter. I am Queen Elsa’s daughter. I am Hades’s daughter. I was never your daughter. I was just something you kept around to feel better about yourself.

Audreficent: I made you strong.

Mal: I DIDN’T NEED TO BE STRONG!!!! I NEEDED TO BE SAFE!!!! That’s why I kept Carlos safe. I did for him what you never did for me.

Audreficent: be weak.

Mal: be the mother he needed.

Audreficent: and for that he shall be the first to fall.

Ben: you lay one hand on mine and Mal’s son and I’ll rip your head off myself. Even if you are still in Audrey’s body.

Audreficent: that is where you are wrong little king. Blood. Is blood. Is blood. You cannot change who birthed you. Who raised you. There is a reason why they all say that blood is thicker than water.

Hades: once again you are inordinately wrong.

Audreficent: come again?

Hades: the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. That’s the full saying. I should know. I was there when it was coined.

Audreficent (laughing coldly): like it matters. Now. Be good sports and let me kill you so I can take my daughter, have her kill all her friends and rule the cosmos together as it was always meant to be. Forever and ever and ever and HAHAHAHA

(Ben slugs them in the face)

Audreficent (in Audrey’s voice): kill me. Kill me now! KILL ME!!!! I KNOW MY MOTHER SAID YOU COULD SO KILL ME!!!!

Hades: your highness?

Audreficent (still in Audrey’s voice): you can do it. I know you can. You’re a god. You can kill me. Please kill me. Please. (In Maleficent’s voice). SILENCE GIRL. I am so sorry her. Children these. Never know when to keep quiet.

Mal: let my friend go.

Audreficent: SHE IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!!!! I know you both dislike her. I know you both feel nothing towards her except guilt. Even though it is all her fault. Allow you of this burden.

(They rapidly twist their neck all the way around)

Ben, Mal and Hades: STOP!

(The rest of Audreficent’s body spins back into place)

Audreficent: killjoys.

Hades: let. The princess. Go.

Audreficent: only if Mal asks me nicely.

Mal: let my friend go. Please.

Audreficent: muh-muh-muh?

Mal (looking like she’s going to be sick): mother.

Audreficent (hissing): iffff you inssssisssst.

(They unhinge their jaw like a snake and Maleficent crawls out of Audrey’s mouth agonisingly slowly ad Audrey screams in pain and terror. When the process is over. Maleficent stand there, almost a dead ringer for Mal only taller, older and prouder while Audrey’s slumped against the tree like a corpse)

Mal (sick to her stomach): dad. Could you please teleport Audrey to the medical room. But please stay here.

Hades: of course.

(Once Audrey is removed from the clearing)

Maleficent: now where was I? Oh yes.

(She launches herself at Mal but is stopped by Ben throwing iron dust into her eyes, incapacitating her long enough for Hades and Ben to tie her to a gold iron chair)

Maleficent: you will not win. You cannot win. Not while I am still alive. Not while everyone believes you to be dead. I shall reign victorious and EVERLAST-MMPH!!!!

Hades (stuffing a cloth into her mouth): oh that is quite enough out of you for the time being. Now Mal. What’s the plan.

Mal: she’s right.

Ben: pardon?

Mal: she’s right. Maddy and the Baker’s know I’m alive. But the way things are right now they probably haven’t had the time to tell everyone.

Ben: what do you need?

Mal: the ember. And a midair screen. Like the one we made when we questioned her in parliament.

Ben and Hades: on it.

(One minute later)

Mal: good. Thank you. Ahem. Auradon. I am now speaking directly to you. My name is Mallory Bertha Iris Perrault Bernson. Soon to be LeRoi. And in case you haven’t heard yet. I. Am. Alive. I have no idea if this makes any difference to any of you. But if it does. This your cue to keep fighting. Please, for the love of everything we hold dear, please keep fighting. She can’t win. Not now. Not ever. So please. Please. Please keep fighting. Thank you.

Maleficent (having spat the gag out): do you honestly believe your little hope speech will?

Mal (steeling herself up): I dunno. Let’s watch.

(She turns back to the screen. This is when “we are warriors” happens. After the song)

Jay: I knew it. I KNEW MAL WAS ALIVE!!!! HAHA!!!! YEEEES!!!!

Carlos: what’re we standing around waiting for? Let’s go to her.

(Jay, Carlos, Doug, Evie, Hadie, Persey, Anthony, Ned and Uma all run through the midair screen. Jay abc Carlos immediately go to hug Ben and Mal)

Mal: hey sis.

Evie: hey.

Mal: Tch. C’mon gloomy guts. Judy don’t touch mine or Ben’s hair. Bring Doug as well. I know he wants in.

(This leads to everyone joining in the group hug. That is, everyone except for Uma)

Ben: c’mon then Uma. Being part of the group also means being part of the group HUGS.

(Anthony uses magic reel Uma in)

Ben: wait a minute wait a minute. Where’s Jane and my brother?

Lonnie: Gil has a concussion.

Carlos: Jane got poisoned with spores from wonderland.

Mal: are they alright?

Hadie: yeah. They’ll be fine. They just gotta sleep it off.

Maleficent: MES ENFANTS. ATTAQUEZ MES ENNEMIS. NE LAISSEZ AUCUN SURVIVANT. TOUT RASER. FAIS-LE. MAINTENANT.

Lonnie: whaaaat was that?

Mal: run.

Uma: what?

Mal: run now. Back through the screen. GO GO GO GO!!!!

Carlos: why?

Ben: she’s summoning them.

(Carlos immediately teleports the allies back to the palace)

Jay: Persephone.

Persephone: yes?

Jay: barricade everything. Maleficent’s sending the goons after us again. Gil, Jane and Maddy are incapacitated. We need all the help we can get.

Belle: are Ben and Mal okay?

Jay: mhmm.

Elsa: why aren’t they with you then?

Jay: ummmm....

Elsa: no.

Jay: Elsa

Elsa: NO!

Persephone: it’s okay. Hades is with them.

Elsa: I don’t give a fuck about Hades!

Carlos: you’ll have to forgive my grandmother. She can be very acerbic when she wants to be.

Elsa: Carlos, sweetheart, I’m not being acerbic. I just don’t give a fuck about Hades.

Evie: guys. Shut up.

Doug (on his cellphone): mhmm. Mhmm. Uh huh. Thanks. Bye. Right. Listen up. Aunt Snow and Uncle Florian are still in the ambulance.

Jay: okay....

Doug: good news. There are no more casualties on our side. We got away with two casualties and only one fatality.

(Maddy wails in the corner)

Doug: sorry Maddox. Bad news. My godparents are surrounded by the goons.

Carlos: ah crap.

Doug: good news. Snow has the ray gun. And she’s mowing them down left, right and centre. This is when you cheer.

(Everybody cheers)

Jay: what’s the plan major-domo?

Doug: defend the castle. Hold the goons off. Make things easier for Ben, Mal and Hades. I suggest WHOAH!!!!

(Cj Hook has run inside the medical room, tackled Doug to the floor and started throttling him with her bare hands)

Cj: WHERE’S MY BROTHER?!?! I KNOW YOU KNOW!!!! SO TELL ME WHERE HE IS!!!!

Harriet (hobbling in using her sword as a walking stick): don’t kill ‘im without me!

(Uma shoots Cj in the head and Harriet in the chest with a flintlock pistol)

Doug: thanks.

Uma: any time Doug. Any time.

Hadie (smiling sadistically): are they dead?

Uma: no. Just knocked out. Industrial strength dinosaur tranquilliser.

Hadie (extremely disappointed): awwww man.

Persey: never mind that now. Our priority has to be our sister and our dad. I just hope they okay.

(Back in the clearing)

Mal: what’s that noise?

Ben: MAL DUCK!!!!

(He pulls her out of the way just before Snow White and Florian’s ambulance careens into the clearing)

Snow: morning all.

Mal: flattened by an ambulance. That would’ve been a really embarrassing way to go. Thank you for saving me.

Ben: always. Also. What the hell were you two thinking? This is tbd most reckless thing you’ve ever done. And I’ve seen you at Doug’s tenth birthday party

Snow: for what it’s worth. We reimbursed Dopey for the mobile bar.

Florian: is that her?

Hades: yes. Yes that is Maleficent.

Florian: and you are?

Hades (shifting into his John Barrowman form and shaking Florian’s hand): Hades. King of Olympus. Persey, Mal and Evie’s father. Hey. How you doing?

Florian: mmmm. Promotion?

Hades: coup.

Florian: ahhhh. Whatever works.

Hades: don’t it just?

Mal: this is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen and I shared a room with Evie for a year and a half.

Ben: I know. Want me to break it up?

Mal: nah ah. I wanna see where this goes.

Maleficent: excuse me. Could you kindly cease with the Oktoberfest for a moment and focus on me please?

Mal: and she’s ruined it. Typical.

Snow: we know what you did to our godson.

Maleficent: another girl who thinks that choice counts where family is concerned.

Snow: I am the only mother that Doug has ever known. He is the only son that I have ever known. And you hurt him. You hurt everyone. It’s what you do. And you need to be stopped.

(She brings out an iron knife which causes Mal to double over in pain)

Maleficent: ooooh very scary(.) Would you be a dear and brandish that adorable knife a wee little bit over there?

(Maleficent indicates the direction and Snow follows it only to immediately realise the iron is affecting Mal which cause her to throw the knife away)

Snow: OH MY GOD. MAL I AM SO SORRY. I SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER.

Mal (straightening back up): no harm done. Don’t worry.

Ben: to stave off any more mistakes. Why don’t you two make your way to the palace?

Maleficent: while there is still a palace left.

Ben: go. Go now.

(Snow White and Florian get back into the ambulance and drive away)

Maleficent: why do the heroes always think they have the upper hand. You shall lose. I shall win. I always do.

Mal: you didn’t though. If you did. The world would be far worse off.

Maleficent: I was a queen.

Hades: no. You were just a princess who wanted power above everything else.

Mal: sorry what?

Hades: yup. You heard right. You’re royalty on both sides. So is Evie though. So don’t get too uppity about it.

Mal: eh. Can’t have everything.

Maleficent: indeed. I wanted to rule everything yet my parents said no. So I killed them.

Mal: you killed everyone. You killed every last dark fae in Persia. And you want to do the same to Auradon. And we won’t let you.

Ben (on his cellphone): hello? Oh good. That’s great. Yup. Mhmm. I can see it. Yes I can see everything. We’ll be watching. Thanks. Bye.

(He hangs up)

Mal: who was that?

Ben: Doug. They’re ready for the final defence. I said we’d watch.

Mal: let’s do it.

(They face the midair screen. This is when “bohemian rhapsody” happens. After the song. Jane wakes up to find Jay and Carlos hugging her)

Jane: I’ve had this dream. Many, many times. But you guys were never watching us.

Doug: Helga Sinclair infected you with wonderland spores. Jay and Carlos saved you with true love’s kiss.

Jane: huh. Cool. Could you guys leave now please. I’d really like to get back to my dream.

Persey: I think you might have to wait for that dream honey.

Jane: why?

Persey: because I think Maleficent just escaped the manacles.

Jay: oh no. Oh no no no no no no.

(Persey’s right. There’s a shaft of emerald green light shoot up from the middle of the forest)

Jay: FUCK!!!!

Evie: what do we do? Jay what do we do?

Jay: what we’re here to do. Help Ben and Mal.

(Back in the clearing. Maleficent’s sending attack after attack at Ben, Mal and Hades but they’re refusing to break)

Maleficent: yyyaaRRGGHH!!!!

(She notices plumes of multicoloured travel smoke headed towards her. She singles out the white plume and in a blink of an eye she’s got a knife to Carlos’s throat)

Maleficent: you take one more move against me and your precious little runt DIES!!!!

Carlos: that threat would’ve worked two years ago. But. Not anymore. ALLEY-OOP.

(He teleports out of Maleficent’s grip and proceeds to hyper kick her in the face repeatedly before doing an elegant superhero landing)

Maleficent: why must it be so DIFFICULT WITH YOU?!?!

Hades: because you know you can’t win. Not when all of us are against you. And it fucking tears you up inside.

Maleficent: you are right my love. For once you are right. And that is an ailment that is easily remedied.

(With that, she creates a twister that scoops up the allies, deposits all of them outside the forest and seals the forest off in yet another barrier)

Maleficent: this is between you, me, my daughter

Hades: My daughter.

Maleficent: MY daughter. And the handsome young king. But first. I shall kill you. My love. My sweet. My pawn.

(She starts force choking Hades until he’s on his knees while she blocks Ben and Mal’s attempts to help him. This is when “toxic” happens. After the song. Maleficent gasps awake)

Hades: any last words?

Maleficent: why do you continue to fight when you could have joined me?

Hades: because you’re a nutbag who uses people to her own ends.

Maleficent: you say that like it’s a bad thing.

Hades: it IS a bad thing!

Maleficent (getting up and making her way towards Hades): oh come on my love. We had a good time while we lasted.

Hades: yes. And then we got married. And you kicked me out the next morning. And what was that last one? Oh yeah. You threatened to kill my daughter if I ever dared to make contact with her!

Maleficent: mother’s prerogative.

Hades: hehehehe. Ahhhh. That’s the problem with you Maleficent.

Maleficent: what?

Hades: you’re like a fucking drachma.

Maleficent: I am afraid that I am not following.

(This is when “hot n cold” happens. After the song. Hades changed into his Eva Green form and starts patting herself down)

Hades: where is it? Whereisitwhereisitwhereisit? Oh crap.

(They’ve both seen the ember in the grass. They dive for it and after a brief skirmish Hades emerges victorious)

Hades: HAHA!!!! Up yours you scaly fucker! Up! Yours!

Maleficent (drier than sand): well done my love. You pilfered a pebble from an injured woman.

Hades: no no. Don’t do that. Don’t play the victim. You never are. And you never were.

Maleficent: worth a shot. So. Are you going to kill me?

Hades: in time my beloathed. In time. But first. You are going to listen to me.

Maleficent: oh lord. Here we go.

(This is when “rolling in the deep” happens. After the song. Back in the medical room. Evie’s keeping watch on the balcony)

Evie: Doug. DOUG!!!!

Doug: what is it? What’s wrong?

Evie: that bitch destroyed our house!

(She’s right. Maleficent’s using debris from Doug and Evie’s house to attack Hades who’s blocking it with everything she has)

Maleficent: why do you not YIELD!?!?

Hades: because you’re nuts!

Maleficent: ASIDE FROM THAT!!!!

(Hades makes iron spikes flower out of the ground)

Hades: time out time out. I’m getting too old for this bullshit.

Maleficent: awwww(.) Is the ickle god all tuckered out(?) How sad(.)

Hades: save it. You’re only acting like this because you know you’re losing.

Maleficent: I do not lose!

Hades: you lost to Phillip and the fairies. You lost Mal. You lost at the coronation. You lost the coup. And you’re losing now.

Maleficent: why can you not just let me win?

Hades: because I know what will happen. Hell will descend. Hell on earth. And not one that I can control. And it will be my descendants that will have to deal with it. Just like they’ve had to for the past year and a half. So you can’t win. I won’t let you.

Maleficent: you know. We really were good together. An entire room demolished. Twice over.

Hades: and then you kicked me out the moment you realised you were pregnant.

Maleficent: I had to protect myself. I could not run the risk of her being soft like you.

(Hades rubs her face wearily with her hands, turning back into Sebastian Stan in the process)

Hades: I am not soft. You know what I’ve done.

Maleficent: that boy and his elder sibling made you soft. And I was not prepared to let that happen to my daughter.

Hades (laughing hollowly): like frollo.

Maleficent: I ate frollo. It was the best meal I ever had. Apart from Balthazar of course. He was fatter. Far more substantial.

Hades: and that explains why Mal can’t process meat.

Maleficent: I did what I could but she was always weak. Maternal. Helpful. Emphatic. Paranoid in all the wrong ways.

Hades: oh how ironic(.) I feel like Alanis Morrisette should be playing.

Maleficent: what is that?

Hades: never mind. Now stay still so I can kill you.

Maleficent: do you remember how we met?

Hades: of course. Kronk’s Bar. The time abyss has not yet set in. Why do you ask?

Maleficent: just. Nostalgia. When one is facing the end. It jumps out at you.

Hades: are you making a last request?

Maleficent: yes.

Hades: oh what the hell. Fine. Kindness before you die. If I have.

(The forest melts around them, turning into a tavern on the island. Hades and Maleficent are at the bar. This is when “blank space” happens. After the song. Back in the medical room. Uma sits down next to Gil’s bed)

Uma: hey.

Lonnie: hey.

Uma: what happened to him?

Lonnie: according to Doug it was a massive concussion. He’ll he fine though. He just needs to sleep it off.

Uma: is he. S’he singing “London Bridge is falling down”?

Lonnie: yeah. Milo taught him how to do that. It’s a calming tactic.

Uma: oh.

Lonnie: you did a real number on him you know. At cotillion

Uma: trust me. I know

Lonnie: I don’t think you do. You’re his best friend. And he thought you hated him for doing what you always wanted.

Uma: what did he do?

Lonnie: he got off the island. The right way.

Uma: I hear this enough from my sisters. I don’t need to hear this from you as well.

Lonnie: well you’re gon-oh shit.

(Mal’s doubled over and gone into a trance, speaking Greek, French and Persian)

Ben: Doug! Can you translate?

Doug: what?

Ben: you’re an omniglot aren’t you?

Evie (indignantly): only for me though.

Carlos (dryly): yeah Doug’s a real cunning linguist.

(Everyone reacts with good natured disgust)

Carlos (innocently): what? I saw an opportunity and I took it.

Ben: that’s alright buddy. I’m a bit of a cunning linguist as well.

Carlos (experiencing parental squick): oh come on!

Ben (innocently): what? I saw an opportunity and I took it.

Carlos:....touché

(The teens have forgotten that the mothers are still there)

Elsa (who’s asexual): what are they talking about?

Belle (who’s dating Maui), Persephone and Cinderella: I’ll give you a book later.

Doug: why can’t you translate?

Ben: I only speak French and Persian. The Pantheon’s can only speak Greek. You’re the only one I know who can speak all three. You’re as smart as you are hot.

Doug: hey! Oh wait. Sorry. It’s a compliment when you guys say it. Fine. Lemme think. Lemme think. Ummmm. “She is my daughter”. “Up your ass you-Charlie Uncle November Treat”.

Ben: good save.

Doug: thank you. Um. “You have no claim to her”. “All you want is a chess piece”. “That is all she is good for”. Fuck.

Ben: what? What is it?

Doug: Maleficent and Hades are arguing about Mal. Like Kramer vs Kramer.

Hadie: well they were married for all of two days.

Ben: wait what?

Hadie: yeah. It was uh. One night stand with Jas Hook. Quickie marriage and divorce with Maleficent. Rebound with Grimhilde. What can I say? My dad’s a wee bit of a slut.

Persephone: it runs in the family. So does familial marriage. Although I think it skipped your generation.

Hadie: on the contrary mother. I’m a whore. And an expensive one at that.

Ben: could we stop talking about Olympian inbreeding for a moment please and focus on Mal!

Persephone: right. Sorry.

Hadie: our bad.

Gil: UMA LOOK OUT!!!!

Jane: ohhhh....my head.

Lonnie: Gil’s awake.

Jay and Carlos: Jane’s awake.

Doug: oh I honestly can’t tell if this is good or bad.

Uma: our friends are awake. What’s not good about it?

Doug: it’s too sudden. Gil was concussed. Jane was poisoned. It’s way too quick.

Uma: one bridge at a time?

Doug: one bridge at a time.

(Mal straightens back up, holding her head in her hands)

Mal: what in the hell was that?

Ben: it’s okay. You’re okay. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.

Mal: what happened?

Ben (gently): you went into a trance.

Mal: oh god again?

Ben: mhmm. You were speaking in Greek, French and Persian. Doug translated. He reckons that Hades and Maleficent were fighting over you. Like a custody battle.

Pain: Lord Greenman was most definitely correct your young highness.

Panic: most definitely correct indeed.

Persephone: boys. What are you doing here?

Pain: the king of the gods is entering his endgame. The bitch can’t be reasoned with.

Panic: Nor will she be changed.

Pain: Sire knows that now.

Persey: what are you saying?

Pain and Panic: the evil one shall die by her spurned husband’s blade.

Hadie (cheerfully): well that’s not ominous at all.

Persey: okay so what bl-Doug. Buddy. Um. You probably know this. What’s the Vorpal sword made out of? Also. Where is it?

Doug: um. Ir-oh my god!

Persey: yup. That’s what I thought. Now. Where is it?

(Doug points to Mal)

Persey: Mal. Honey. Where did you put it?

Mal (scrunching her face up and racking her brains in concentration): um. Room.

Persey (unravelling slightly): WHAT ROOM?!?!

Jay: uh. Boss. Can I translate?

Persey: please!

Jay: the Vorpal is in Ben and Mal’s apartments under their bed. Either on Mal’s side next to the en-suite. Or Ben’s side next to the balcony.

Mal: yes! That’s where Ben does his best cunning linguistics!

Carlos (wincing): I’m never going to live that down am I?

The rest of the teens: nope.

Doug (summoning the sword): got it.

Pain and Panic: Yoink!

Persey: Mal. Do you willingly give the Vorpal and the Cromwell gift to our father?

Mal: yes.

Persey (stressing the importance of the words): willingly. Willingly give. Do you willingly give the Vorpal and the Cromwell gift to our father?

Mal: I willingly give the Vorpal and the Cromwell gift to our father.

Persey: good. Pfft. Go!

(The imps hold the sword by the handle)

Pain: dragon fairy iron die!

Panic: dragon fairy iron die!

Both: dragon fairy iron die! DRAGON FAIRY IRON DIE!!!!

(They disappear in an explosion of magenta and teal light)

Persey: fuck I hope this works

Elsa (late to the punchline and grossed out by it): oh god! I just got the joke!

Persephone (dismissively patting Elsa’s head): that’ll do pig. That’ll do.

(Back in the clearing. Pain and Panic have turned into snakes and are curling up and around Hades’s right arm with the sword in their fangs)

Pain (hissing in Hades’s ear): I mellontikí vasílissa édose próthyma to xífos Vorpal kai to dóro Cromwell ston patéra tis.

Hades (gratefully taking the sword): thank you boys. Thank you kindly. But it is time for you to go.

(The imps teleport away. Hades shifts back into his John Barrowman form and fixes the ember to the other side of the pommel)

Maleficent: that butter knife cannot possibly hope to harm me.

Hades: SHUT. UP.

(Maleficent tries to speak but is forced into silence)

Hades: NOW BOW DOWN TO ME. LIKE THE KING OF THE GODS DESERVES.

(Maleficent is forced into a bow so deep that her nose ends up being two inches into the ground)

Hades: hehehehehe. Ohhhh I could get used to this. But I don’t. Legally. It’s Mal’s. The Gift and the sword. I could never take them away from her. Not without her say so. Un. Like. You.

Maleficent: if you let me go. If you let me live. We can be a family again.

Hades: not gonna happen. And do you know why? Because you will not stop. You led me on. You made my daughter’s life

Maleficent: my daughter.

Hades: MY daughter’s life a living hell until she got away from you. I am never going to let you hurt her again. Never. Get up. It’s time for your execution.

(Maleficent doesn’t move)

Hades: I said. GET. UP.

(Maleficent is forced back into her feet)

Maleficent: please. We can start again. Please. Please don’t do this. Please.

Hades: too late my love

Maleficent: the only reason I came to this clearing was to beg you to let me come back.

Hades: oh shut the fuck up. For once in your life. Just. Shut. Up. You didn’t love me. You didn’t love Mal. All you ever have loved. Is power. And it’s failed you. It’s kinda funny when you think about it really.

Maleficent (uneasily): what, pray tell, is funny?

Hades: it just is.

(This is when “get out and stay out” happens).

[silverjetsystm]

Spector accepts the rage venom with disconnected placidity. Lying. He, dressed in clothing that doesn’t suit him, is that. Liar and a killer down to his bone. 

Cringing, he can’t take that sentence back. Doesn’t want to talk. Should talk. Why’d he say that? Ben’s already ticked. Motor mouth, movement dizzying Spector’s vision. Truth too late likely. Not his business. Not his life. Complete that sentence. No matter if the birth certificate was his name or if he drove the choices for a large chunk of their life. “Leave it, just leave it.” Pathetic. Is this who he is now? Waving a hand, reedy. Undone by a kiss. Honesty sullying this. Close to tearing his hair out the way he’s pulling on it, nails digging into clean scalp. No more styling. Tie like a noose. Further, breaking out in crescent moons on the right side of his face. Where’s his particular brand of slinging sentences together? Right. All those are violence baked, for those who sup on war. 

Party game. 

Face blazes and shifts with every word. He doesn’t know what it's doing, the angles he’s giving. Just a sneer. Temporary turquoise eyes. Chicago on display, they cross talk, ropes popping on his neck, wild dog base. Volume full blast. Ts are Ds, blue streak thick. “Oh. An interrogation. Little cozy for it. Steven’ll love this. Guy cranked up on Colombia’s best and Spector.” No mystery, he supposes, there’s no emotion the definition brings. Positive or negative. HUMINT. Hewmint. Humit.

Ordered to stay, he sits back down from a place he didn’t realize he was halfway up on legs and feet are fizzy radio static. Bobs like a cork on charcoal water. Good dog. Grown out thumbnail rubs, digs moons into index finger. Forward and back. Why does the crackdown of teeth on ice feel familiar?

Two choices on black glass table. Water or vodka. He picks vodka.

“All or nothing.” Echo shakes glass glazed expression.

The question.

Fuck that.

Spector stands up, back straight. Heads out without another glance. One foot after another, down the shitty barracks catwalk stairs, gripping on the railing when he goes too fast and starts to fall head over heels. Oh, he’s had nights like this before and he’s managed to get home. Sometimes Dad would – Out the building. South Side smog, freezing Chicago night. L’s rattling above. Fireworks further still. Clutched against his chest, he can hear the crinkle of the brown bag he used to stash his leather boxing gloves in. Before he scrounged together enough scratch to buy a proper gym kit. Lifetimes ago. “I thought you said to never leave the front unoccupied.” Before that.

Cigarillo continues to burn tobacco-clove-cherry in its black wrapper. Spector shakes his head. Lungs suck in smoke tinged air, flash of silver gloss. “Rrrr.” Engine warmup. Dog growls. 

Freezing lowball glass in his left, ice clinking wildly, he focuses on his hand dropping temperature. “How’d you figure I was a vodka guy?” Knocks a finger back in a practiced smooth motion at odds with the current pace of his heart. Oiling up the gun.

One lip smack. “Ah.” Ephemeral pepper, citrus, grains. Magic trick. Steady fists. Sure trigger and middle fingers bring the cigarillo to his lips. Inhale, personal orange flame in a vacuum. He wasn’t here to present his heart for judgment, crocodile black shirt or no, but here he is anyway. 

Weigh it against boxes of classified files with ink smell long after the redactions went through. By the words of the ones who wanted forever. Against orange prescription bottles.

“Y’.” Remaining in the box frame, shrimp hunched, he doesn’t lock dry red eyes to iced over thermal vents. Looks past Ben’s ear previously cupped by noise. If he speaks, does he ever stop talking? Will he ever reach the end of the litany of sins? Easier in the dark. Call it verbal paradoxical undressing.

“Ever feel shame so deep it dyes your soul scarlet?” His voice rasps, refusing to yell again. “That you can’t look yourself in the mirror? Cause you’re wrong. That whatever was innocent in you got ruined before you could understand what you lost?” Ice clinks, another swallow. 

“And no matter how hard you try, you can’t outrun it. An’ I’m not even talkin’ bout the things I can’t remember.” Walled off memories. “Nah. Talkin' about things I remember doing. Or people said I did. You can’t change the hand you got dealt. So you run and fuck up and run from that too until you ruin your whole damn life because all I know is how to punch first. To keep us safe.” Hoarse. He cracks the Evian. Water is thin. Vodka is oily. Both are mineral filled. A rasp, caw. 

Wipe of lips. Cigarillo’s almost burnt out. “Who’d wouldn’t be ashamed like that? Huh?”

@kylo-wrecked

Slipshod emotions slosh around the bowl of Ben's mind. He stands with his hands buried in his back pockets, studying Marc while he searches his. Smoke rolls up and flattens against the ceiling and its recessed track lights. 

Last time. 

Ben laughs, it cadence fraught with amphetamines. His left ear rings and rings into the rush in his brain, and his sinus meets it with a steady drip, drip, drip. 'Scrumbilized': simultaneously the best and the worst he's ever felt. Marc's words flare in and out… twisted. 

He ignores the bite-back comment only because he's got another's neck in his jaw. Follows the long line of Marc's throat and wants to kiss him again, wants to pull his lip right off his face. 

You and him. 

"What mystery?" He says, with Jake's same not-unkindliness. At first. "There's a mystery here?"

There are no mysteries in Ben's world. There's information he has and information he hasn't. 

"No." Stares hard at the floor's glare. Snarls. Biting back. "There's a guy with D.I.D who's also a fucking liar." Rubs his face and laughs. "Fuck. You got tapped—to—what? Be involved in your own—? And now—what? I get you lost something, time, but—" 

He rakes a raw-red palm over the ridge of constellation-face, through his black shock hair. 

Slap a diagnosis on it, and it explains everything? A one-size-fits-all answer? Every guy with a disorder comes with a top-secret file in every life category? Ben rubs a momentarily phosphorescent face and laughs. Presses the back of his fist to his mouth and tears into his knuckles. A broken tooth draws a thin skein of blood over his thumb. He breathes in deep as cocaine lungs allow, and that dark alligator shirt breathes on him, starts menacing his shoulders and chest. 

Maybe it's supposed to explain everything. 

Funny, if that's true. Funny ha-ha, all that's unsaid. Steven and Jake were equally mum on the matter. Did that make a trifecta of liars or a gargantuan fucking liar, or did depersonalization cover that too? Ben probably knows what he spent a day on in abnormal psychology before he dropped out and became himself.

"Sorry," Ben says about the laughing. "This isn't funny. At all. There's no part of this, frankly, that happens to please me—I just snorted a-mega-fuck-tonna blow before you showed up." 

Raises his hands in admission and claps them together. Hollow sound. Skein gone, then replenished. Drifts on his feet, nudging his newly shucked-off shoes onto their sides. 

"Do with that information what you will, Marc. But don't." He takes a breath that rattles his pumped-up ribcage. "Pete's sake. I don't know. Talk. You wanna talk about it."

No time like the fucking present.  

Cuts to the other side of the room, insisting, "No, you stay right there." Grabs a bottle of vodka off an (n-built wall shelf and pushes it at Marc. Across this clean black boomerang shape between them. And an Evian, the annoying-sized ones that come in baskets. 

"We can play a little party game—" Ben, he raises a face-sized palm at any legible protest, audible or not, and just keeps going, dragging his heels across vinyl and polished marble: "—shut the fuck up, I'm thinking."

Pauses mid-stride to the panoramic, the smoky city dissipating into a cold good night. Ben spots the ant people marching down the avenue and gets the blinds. Droops over the 'bespoke' drink cart he loathes and never needs because he doesn't host; he shows up; no architecture's needed for that. 

Supposed to talk. Sure. 

Fishing for ice in the geothermal whatever the fuck, he plops a (cube) in his mouth, cracking it down in consideration. The rest burn against his palm. Sucks the blood off his right thumb. 

"You answer a few questions," Ben says, glare flashing off Marc's, "and I see if you're lying."

That's the game. 

"And you can keep lying," he adds, with a kink in his tenor, in the lip to match. "You can lie all you want. That's fine, like. There's only one rule. If you leave, you don't come back. Any of you."

Little revved-up hand motion, approximating a die toss. Clinks ice into the tumbler that's become Marc's glass. Cut to the amp-charged gravity pick jumbling Ben's befuddled thoughts; the winning number is green. The losing number is two-thousand-zero-something. His hips about eye-level with Marc's glazed-on glare. Yeah, take a good non-look at what you're not getting.

"All or nothing." 

He awaits no verbal agreement on Marc's part, though Ben watches him with a hunter's grace as he pours from the bottle. Eyes flat-black and shrouded. 

"First question," Ben says. Sniffs. Looks Marc over in a way that could melt the ice in that low-baller. Or freeze the alcohol. "Why are you so ashamed?"

@silverjetsystm

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Thunder In Our Hearts (Part 4)

Summary: The reader and Soldier Boy have begun to be more relaxed around each other which leads to a very important conversation for Ben...

Masterlist

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x reader

Word Count: 3,500ish

Warnings: language, nudity, violence, drug/abuse/sexual assault/torture mentions

A/N: Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys in this one! Aw, could this be the breakthrough Ben needed?…

_______

You woke up sweating, sunlight pouring in the room. After your talk with Soldier Boy, you headed to bed to try to catch at least a few hours of sleep. It’d been pointless though, nightmares plaguing you the whole time.

“Are-” You jumped in bed, Soldier Boy in the doorway sporting a clean pair of black sweats and a red and white sweatshirt. He held up his hands, realizing your own were shaking. “You doing okay, sport? That’s your fifth screaming nightmare in the span of an hour.”

You shut your eyes. He’d killed twenty nine people for you so far. Twenty nine. Not to mention everyone at that facility.

Fuck, you were just as bad as he was. 

Maybe even worse.

Something was tossed at you and you blinked, spotting his sweatshirt in your lap. 

“The cold causes nightmares.” He turned and left, waving hand in the doorframe. “Coffee’s in the pot.”

“I don’t have a coffee pot,” you groaned, falling back in bed. “That’s a water tank, not a coffee pot.”

“No wonder it tastes like shit.” With a shake of your head you got up and dressed for the day, slipping on his sweatshirt. 

“Soldier Boy I appreciate you trying to take care of yourself but you have to follow the directions I…” you trailed off, Soldier Boy smirking as you looked at the keuring and cup of hot coffee next to it. “Were you messing with me?”

“Me? Never,” he teased. He sipped out of your favorite olive colored mug, licking his lips. You gratefully picked up the blue mug, surprised to find he’d already put cream in it. “How’d I do, boss?”

“Good job. All we’re missing is bacon.” He smiled, the room quiet for a beat as you drank your coffee’s in a content silence. “Soldier Boy?”

“You going to try to talk me out of trying to kill my son?” You shook your head. “I’m all ears.”

You thumbed over the blue porcelain before setting it in the sink. “I have one more name on my list before we start going down yours.”

“Not a problem. We’re moving through yours pretty fast.” 

“The last guy is going to be an issue. He’s in the CIA.”

“So?”

“So he’s smart enough to know that I’m the one behind the killings so far and smart enough to know it’s you doing it for me. We have to be more careful. I don’t want to wind up dead and I don’t want you captured again.” He cocked his head and put his mug aside, crossing his arms. “I know it’s silly to worry but-”

“Sh.” He stepped over, pressing a finger to your lips when you went to speak. Dark green eyes looked you up and down, a small shake of his head worrying you. 

“Soldier-” His hand covered your mouth, finger tapping your nose after a moment.

“Here I thought when all was said and done you’d be turning me in to get the government off your back.”

“What?” You narrowed your eyes, pushing his hands away. “I’m not going to fucking betray you. You don’t deserve to go back to that place.”

“Yesterday I deserved to have been tortured. Today I don’t deserve to have to sit in a box for all eternity?” You brushed past him, hands going to your hips. “Make up your mind, kid.”

“I have made up my mind.” You spun around, shaking your head at him, watching him run his hand over his face. 

“And? Everything about you says you’d throw me to the wolves to save your own ass.” 

A loud slap echoed throughout the house. The stinging of your palm was at the back of your mind though. 

Because Soldier Boy was laughing his ass off.

“What is so damn funny! I would never do that to you and I have never indicated to you once that I would.” He doubled over in laughter. The only logical answer was he’d snapped. Instead of going on a killing spree, he was having a mental break. “What is wrong with you? I slap you and you start acting like a maniac?”

“Oh you’re still so innocent it’s adorable,” he chuckled, righting himself. He cleared his throat, pressing his chest to yours. “I pissed you off on purpose. I was curious about how you’d react. If you were going to be afraid of me or honest. I was not expecting to get smacked. I thought it was funny that little old you has bigger balls than anyone I’ve ever met. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re starting to like me.”

“Man-child,” you grumbled, quickly taking your computer and going outside to work.

When the storm clouds threatened to unleash themselves that afternoon, you were forced inside, grateful that Soldier Boy had started a fire in the fireplace, a cozy warmth filling the house.

“Ben,” you said, his eyes glancing over the top of his book at you. “I do apologize for hitting you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You have PTSD and I pushed your buttons. No big deal.” You raised an eyebrow, eyes drawn down to the cover of the book he was reading.

“Are…are you reading my post-combat trauma book?” He hummed, turning a page. “I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”

“I believe in shell shock. Seen plenty of good men suffer from it. I don’t have it is all I was saying.” You laughed, his eyebrows furrowing. “Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.” You sat down at the table, jotting down a name. “Ben?”

“What?” You looked over your shoulder, his nose stuck in the book again.

“I’m going to follow up on a lead. I’ll probably be gone until tomorrow night. You okay on your own until then?”

“Don’t you think we ought to stick together?” You grabbed the notebook and shrugged. He rolled his eyes, not even noticing when you snuck into his room before heading out.

“Well, well,” said Soldier Boy the next evening. He was on the front porch with his book, smirking as you walked through the pouring rain for the house. “If you wanted to run off and do the last kill on your own you could have told me.”

You paused at the door, Soldier Boy standing, putting a flat hand against your chest. Long fingers pushed open your rain jacket, tapping the vest you wore. His vest.

“Stronger than any bullet proof vest ever could be. A bit big for you so more coverage. Only question is why take the risk? I’m indestructible. You’re not.” 

“Some people you need to look in the eye.” You opened the door as his large hand curled around your bicep.

“Why him? You don’t kill your father or those other men and they did horrible things. What made this one so special?” You smiled, eyes roaming up to his shoulder, stopping at his green eyes. 

“Didn’t you kill your girlfriend when she sold you out? When you loved them, it hurts worse, doesn’t it?” 

He blinked, letting you go inside. In the bathroom you saw the dried blood on your face, a few splatters on your cheek. Your eyes snapped shut, wishing you could forget about the last two weeks. 

Everything had been so much simpler back then.

Soldier Boy was nowhere to be found after your shower and honestly, you were glad for it. You weren’t in the mood to talk, to explain. 

He’d been back at some point in the night because his uniform and shield were gone. But he wasn’t there for breakfast. Was missing at lunch when you got back from the store. He’d missed dinner too.

For some insane reason, you missed the son of a bitch. He was crude and jerked off too loudly and smoked too much weed. It was disgusting to watch quite honestly.

But there was something…raw about him. Like an open wound that couldn’t heal. Maybe that’s why you didn’t want him to leave just yet. He understood that kind of pain, the kind that lived down in your soul. 

You jumped when the door suddenly opened, Soldier Boy stepping inside, hair soaked from the rain.

“Where’d you go?” you asked. He took off his muddy boots, leaving them by the door before he bypassed you, going straight to the bathroom. Maybe it was better this way. Keep things casual. Complete your deal and be done with each other.

A loud thud from the bathroom made that thought fly out the window. You rushed over and opened the door, Soldier Boy laying on the ground with closed eyes.

“Ben?” You knelt down and pushed on him, his chest rising and falling softly. “Ben, wake up.”

“Hm?” He fluttered open his eyes, smacking his lips together. “How’d I get home?”

“Did you hit your head?” You ran your fingers through his wet strands, Soldier Boy groaning as he sat up. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck’s sake I’m high.” His pupils were blown out and you spotted the faintest bit of white powder under his nose. Of course he was high. He’d taken your money and gotten drugs and did god knows what else while he was out there. “Take a shower with me.”

“No and I don’t want you doing hard drugs in my house.” You reached a hand into his pocket and found a bottle of pills, Soldier Boy snatching your wrist before you could even get them free. “Let go.”

“Give me my pills,” he growled. 

“You pathetic disappointment,” you said with narrowed eyes. His eye twitched and suddenly you were on your back in the hallway, Soldier Boy on top of you, eyes blown out as he raised his shield over his head. He shouted as he threw the shield hard, straight through one of the kitchen chairs. 

“I am not a disappointment!” he spat out. He climbed off of you, storming into his bedroom. There was another small thud and then sniffling.

Oh fuck. The most powerful supe on the planet was having a mental breakdown in your guest room. It’d probably be safest to leave and never come back. Most likely he’d strangle you if you went in there and god forbid, found him crying. 

Yet you found yourself stepping into his room anyways, Ben sat with his back against his bed, facing the wall. You sat down leaning against the other side of the bed, resting your elbows on your tucked up knees. He cleared his throat, his stare hot on your back before it melted away.

“If you want me to leave, I will.” 

“I want you to not self-medicate with pills and weed and alcohol. I want you to take that advice in that book you’ve been reading seriously. Ben I know you’re going to react badly to this but you have PTSD. Well, I have it to. I’ve lived with it too, for a long fucking time. You’re gonna feel like shit. You’re going to overreact and get pissed and cry for no reason. It’s why I haven’t thrown you out yet. Deep down, I don’t think you try to hurt me because you want to. I think it’s because you’re scared and someone needs to be your punching bag while you learn to handle it.”

“You think I’m going to talk to you about my feelings like some woman? You shove that shit down like a man.” 

“Pretending pain isn’t there doesn’t make it go away. All it does is fester. It won’t heal.”

“Do I look like a fucking chick?” he snapped. “I’m not talking about this, most of all not to you.”

“You don’t have to talk to me Ben.” You stood, braving going to his side of the bed. With a deep breathe you sat beside him, careful not to look him in the face. “You don’t always have to feel the way you do is all. It’s your choice if you want to try or if you want to stay the way you are. I won’t make you change. But you will not get high in my house anymore. You won’t push me around. If you can’t change, then you need to stay somewhere else while we finish our deal.”

You stood, turning for the door when a gentle hand grabbed yours. 

“You’d keep our deal?” You nodded without looking back at him. “Why?”

“Like I said, I won’t betray you. We had a deal and I’ll honor it. You’ve held up your end and I’ll do the same.” 

“Sit.” You slowly sat back on the floor, his hand warm when it nestled over top of yours. Carefully, you risked turning your head. His eyes were resigned, no sign that he’d ever been upset. He pursed his lips, exhaling deeply. Your fingers laced with his, Soldier Boy blinking once.

“You can say whatever it is you want to, Ben.” You stroked over the back of his skin, his head turning down to where your hands sat between you. He reached into his pocket with his free hand, pulling out a bottle of pills. 

“Get rid of them.” You cautiously took the bottle, Ben’s gaze focused on the hardwood floor beneath you. 

“You don’t have to change.”

“Yes I do.” He raised his head, meeting your face with a barely there smile. “Or else I’ll die.”

“You’re not going to die. You basically can’t,” you said. He shook his head, biting the inside of his cheek.

“I’m not talking about my body, Y/N. If I don’t change and get with the program, more and more of the world will see me as a relic…something less than human. You give me a pass because you get it but even you barely tolerate me. Either I change or I might as well go back in that damn box because I won’t be considered a person to anyone else anyways. They might as well just think of me as a meat suit at that point.” 

You swallowed, squeezing his hand. “But what do you want? Honestly.”

“I wanted my dad to be proud of me.” He parted his lips, pausing a beat. “I faked a lot but not all of it. I did fight sometimes. I cared about the men I fought with. Some were assholes but some were good guys. I wanted him to know that I was a good guy too. A real man.”

“Ben.” You knew you shouldn’t have but you cupped his cheek, the well over hundred year old looking like a little boy all of a sudden. “He’s a ghost.”

“He was right about me. I am a disappointment. A pussy. I was too damn weak and I wasn’t there for my son and he turned out the same way. Pathetic. You have always been right about me.” He closed his eyes, turning into your touch. “I don’t know what to do. Change and become even weaker? Or stay the same pathetic man I am and live the rest of forever isolated? They’re both horrible choices and I don’t know which to pick.”

You stroked his cheek, Ben breathing deeply. 

“Your father failed you. The time you grew up in failed you. They made you a weak man. But you, Benjamin, for all your faults, on occasion were a real hero. I read that in your file too. You are capable of being a strong man. But you have to let your father, the idea of what it means to be a man, go. You’re not too old to change. You are not insane like your son. He is weak and he always will be but you? Ben, you can be so much stronger than him. If you learn what it’s like to be a man, to own that you made mistakes in the past, you’ll be that person in your head you wish you were. Only when you are him, you’ll be happier. Kinder. You wouldn’t be afraid. I know what path I want you to pick but you have to do this yourself. I can’t pick for you.”

He pushed your hand away and stood up quickly, staring out the back window. You sighed, shifting to stand when suddenly you were on your feet, a loose arm around your waist. It released you, Soldier Boy shoving his hands in his pockets instead. 

“How’d you get over your dad not loving you?” You shrugged, crossing your arms.

“Love comes from the heart, not from blood.” 

“I said that at the end of The Last Payback, when the team rescues me.” You hummed, a soft chuckle in the air. “I thought you said my movies were dumb.”

“They are. People like corny action movies. But I always liked that scene. It didn’t feel fake.” You said.

“There was a time I thought my team was my family. S’why I ad-libbed that line. But I was the neglectful, abusive father to them too, wasn’t I? Turned out just like my daddy, the son of a bitch.” That was a level of openness you were not expecting, Ben closing his eyes. “Kid, you got more faith in me than I do if you think I’ll change. Fuck, I think I’d be a good dad but I’ll probably be exactly like mine was.”

“Soldier Boy, I was in the service for over a decade. Most of that I worked in black ops.” You felt his heated stare on you. He’d worked more than a few of those jobs with the CIA himself. “I was good at my job and people like that, they date in that pool.”

“The ex-boyfriend you went and killed.” You nodded, inhaling sharply.

“I told him I wanted to report my superiors for what they’d done to me when I was younger. I thought I had a support system in him, that he’d have my back, the two of us together reporting such a thing would have a lot of merit. Instead my boyfriend kidnapped me and informed the CIA of my plans. Those officers were too important to be reported on. He was in their little club of awfulness and I was just some dumb whore. He betrayed me, a man I cared for. One I lived with and thought when we got out, we’d have a life together, a family.” You turned your head up at Soldier Boy, his face stoic. “This probably sounds insane to you but you’d make a hell of a better father than he could ever hope to be.”

Ben laughed, shaking his head. “Oh yeah? How’s that?”

“Because you don’t betray people. You honor your deals and are open about how you actually feel which is more than most people. Someday, you could be that amazing father and let it be the biggest fuck you to your dad you could ever dream of. To me that seems like the best revenge you could dish out to a dead man.” He was quiet as he took off his gloves and removed his vest, setting them on the bench nearby. 

“I need to think this stuff over when I’m not high. And I need a cold shower.” 

“Have you eaten?” you asked as he unzipped the front of his uniform, revealing a bare chest beneath. He tossed the top aside, his strong muscles on full display. 

“No. I’ll make myself something. Don’t worry about me not pulling my weight.” He undid his fly, laughing as you watched him remove his pants. “Well if you want to see the rest you better be taking that shower with me.”

You rolled your eyes but smiled, his tone teasing and friendly. “In your dreams, Ben. I’m going to go out and pick up a few things for you, including dinner.”

“Pick up some lube. I’m running low.” You shook your head and gripped the pill bottle tight as you walked out. “Kiddo.” You glanced back, Soldier Boy nodding. “That was quite a bit of money. You’d be better off selling them than chucking them in the trash.”

“How much?”

“Eight hundred.” Your eyes went wide and he winced. “I’ll pay you back.”

“Damn right you’re paying me back. Eight hundred bucks for drugs! Where’d you go? The five start resort of drug dealers?”

“Pain clinic,” he said with a smile. 

“Guess who’s doing manual labor around here for the next, oh, six months?”

“Six months!” he said. You waved your hand as you walked out and into the family room, Ben clearing his throat. You grabbed your wallet and phone, his tall, body leaning against his bedroom door frame. “You really gonna keep me around that long?”

“That’s what you get for stealing my money, grandpa.” He smirked, pushing down his underwear and tossing them over to you. “Dude we have really got to work on your personal space.”

“Sweetie, I’m willing to try and change my whole life. If I want to walk around naked, I’m fucking walking around naked. Figured you’d appreciate the sight.” He flashed you a wink and you flipped him off, grabbing your raincoat. 

“I’ll be back. Try to keep the house in one peace while I’m gone please?”

________

A/N: Read Part 5 here!

[biscuit-789]

Ben Hargreeves/Number 2 - My Ben

Pairing: Ben x Reader

Traveling back from the past with the Hargeeves was no easy task…especially when they decided to start a fight the second y’all got back. Sure there was an entirely different family in their house, but that was no excuse for a fight. All you wanted to do was talk things out…with Ben that is. The last time you saw him, he was seventeen and it was the day before he died. He had snuck through your window, popcorn in his right hand and a stack of movies in the left. That was a memory you cherish, so much so that it took your focus away from the fight. You mindlessly wandered to Bens room and began to look around.

“What the hell are you doing in here? Are you people asking to die?” Ben snapped, causing you to spin around.

“I’m sorry, I was just-“ You looked into Bens eyes, tears brimming your eyes “god, I can’t believe it’s you,”

“Why are you people obsessed with me?” Ben walked closer to you.

“Cause you look like our Ben…my Ben,” You slowly reached your hand out to rest on the side of his face, only he flinched “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have,” You pulled your hand back.

“Your Ben? What does that mean?” Ben looked you up and down.

“You were my boyfriend…up until you died,” You tried to hold back the tears, but they came spilling out of your eyes “I’m sorry about, this. It’s like my boyfriend is here, but he’s not really here. I should just go,” You sighed and began to walk towards the door.

Ben watched as you slowly walked away, taking one last look at him as you left. His eyes softened, as he felt an unfamiliar pain in his chest.

“Wait,” Ben sighed, while grabbing your wrist “I can’t let you leave now, they’ll probably try to kill you,”

You nodded your head and made your way towards the chair in his room. Taking a seat, you looked up at him and waited for him to speak.

“I’ll sneak you out later, okay? Just stay put,” Ben snapped.

“You were mean to Klaus just a few minutes ago, why be nice to me?” You asked.

“I’m not being nice…now tell about this other Ben, how’d you two meet?” Ben took a seat on his bed.

“We were thirteen and Ben was on a mission,” you smiled at the memory “I was of course just a bystander, but after he and his siblings were done saving the day, Klaus pushed Ben in my direction,”

“Sounds cliché,” Ben laid back on his bed, starring at the ceiling.

“Anyways, Ben was a nervous reck. He eventually calmed down and we began talking,”

“And what was his mission?” Ben asked, not really interested in the story anymore.

“There was a hostage situation at a store. This guys was gonna blow everyone to pieces unless his demands were met. I wasn’t in the store, I was-“

“I’m the donut shop across the way,” Ben sat up and looked at you.

“Yeah, is it the same in this timeline?” You smiled considering he was now invested in the conversation.

“I remember that mission and I remember you. You sat at the second table, left of the door. We saved the day and we walked out of the store, you smiled at me and-“

“I gave a small wave…you smiled back and also waved,” A small tear fell from your eye.

“I wanted to go talk to you, but Marcus said we needed to get back to training,” Ben looked down.

The room went silent, both of you having your own thoughts about each other. You of course wanted to get to know this Ben, while he wanted to know what he missed out on.

“And what did I miss? From not talking to you,” Ben looked up at you.

“What do you mean?” You asked.

“What was your relationship like with the other Ben? Your Ben,”

“It was a lot of just being with each other and having fun. We loved to watch movies together and play video games…but our favorite thing to do was pull pranks on his siblings,”

Ben looked down, a frown on his face. He wondered if he would have been happier if he had talked to you that day.

“Maybe I should go now…after all, it sound like everyone went out,” You smiled and stood up.

“Yeah, yeah maybe you should go,” Ben stood up with and walked over to the door “just one more thing…never mind,” Ben scratched the back of his neck.

You looked at him, eyebrows furrowed. He clearly wanted to say something, but he wasn’t sure how. Rather than say anything else, you pulled Ben in for a hug. He was weary at first, but he eventually wrapped his arms around you.

“I missed you, Ben…you might not be my Ben, but you’re still Ben,”

[chil2de]

hi yes the benimaru fic i mentioned earlier— fire force fandom will you let me in please??🥺🥺 i don’t know what i’m dealing with fanbase wise mmfldjfj sometimes it feels like i’m head over heels for bens by myself so... i’ll drop this here for now.. see how it goes and i’ll continue w/ a second part if ff isn’t dead

nsfw themes throughout, so please read my disclaimer if you’re new. enjoy :)

w.c: 1.7k, characters: 9.6k (incl spaces)

-

there’s a certain sluggish quality that plagues your movements. it’s not fatigue or incompetence. or so benimaru would hope.

his mix matched gaze glosses over your unnecessary movements. that extra exhale you hiss, the additional bat of your eyelashes and the excessive perspiration that drips onto the earth below.

“stop.” he commands, tone low and stern as it pierces through the open air.

“huh? captain shinmon, i’m fine. we can keep going.” you huff through laboured breaths, pausing to gasp and drink in the plentiful oxygen around you.

“it’s one thing if you’re overworking your muscles. it’s another if you’re running a fever. go inside.”

“b-but captain-“

benimaru shoots you a dead stare, keeping his statement rooted deep where he stands.

judging by the bruises that adorn your knees, you know better than to disobey the captain.

“waka! have you seen (l/n)?” konro lingers in the doorframe of the main communal area, gaze scanning for one of his colleagues.

“she’s in her room. why?”

“her room? she has a few errands to run. is she feeling okay?”

“she’s running a fever.” benimaru exhales, shifting to get up from the table. he lightly scratches the back of his neck, adorning that usual aloof facial expression.

“in the middle of summer? how’d that happen?” konro chuckles through a small glimpse of bewilderment. of course he’d be concerned for one of his best recruits.

“hell if i know. what do we need? i’ll head out.”

if anything, benimaru is probably the sole reason why you’re running a fever. why he subjected to railing you underneath water that felt like it was nearing sub-zero was beyond you. it’s not like he’s about to admit he enjoys fucking his special little fire soldier. how he relishes and engrains the sight of your fucked out facial expression deep into his head, burning the image into his retinas. shit, you wouldn’t be surprised if the reason why he sometimes spaces out is because of you.

it’s always been blatantly obvious that you’re the captain’s favourite, no matter how much he denies it and how many glares he shoots at the people from other companies. you’re always left apologising for his behaviour, attempting to keep a straight face.

for the one time you dragged him out to patrol with you, and the amount of incessant whining, complaints and bribes you offered your captain, after a full month of lovely slow burn he decided to come along with you. he just up and left, had the audacity to turn around and ask you why you’re still standing there. benimaru always kept his distance to yours close, in fact the separation was almost minimal. you could feel his shoulders ghost over you.

every time he noticed someone staring at your figure for a little bit too long to be deemed appropriate, he hissed a scoff of distaste. at around the third or fourth person, you were already forced to deal with his short temper.

“what the hell are you gawking at? mind your damn business.”

but sure. apparently you’re not his favourite.

he can scoff and complain all he wants, but that won’t stop him even now from lazily snaking his hand around to his favourite baby girl’s waist. to him, this seems like the most normal thing.

“how else is she going to stand upright? she’s all stick and bones, the wind will knock her right over.”

okay, benimaru. you keep telling yourself that. even when his fingers feel an itch every time they’re not touching a part of your skin. he tends to get a whole lot more mouthy and irritable every time you’re not around, too.

hell, even his own townsfolk pick up on the fact that he’s out and about more. rounds that he always left to the lesser important underlings became more commonplace, especially with you by his side.

but the things that go on behind closed doors?

his peppermint red eyes that haunt your mind, infiltrating your very thoughts. you could be minding your business, going on about your day until you get an abrupt flicker of his mundane tic-tac-toe gaze staring up at you from in between your thighs.

you could be taking care of hinata and hikage, entertaining their antics when you feel the weight of benimaru’s stare burn holes into your uniform.

you could be doing your daily sparring with the captain. in the zone, breath held and blood stream steady until you remember the feel of his hot tongue trailing along the side of your neck. for someone who seems to be stuck in a perpetual state of sadness, you always catch the arrogant smirk that pulls at his lips.

“thinking of something?” he’ll cock his eyebrows, using the distraction to take a jab to your gut.

you groan, stirring around in your bed. you hate him, hate that stupid half lidded gaze of his. you hate how soft his wavy jet black locks are. the way the strands tug and bend whenever you try to yank his face away from your cunt. you run your fingers through your hair in a valiant yet futile attempt to free your thoughts from your captain. it’s only three o’clock in the afternoon, and you haven’t done anything but reminisce about your lover for the past hour and a half.

a meek and uneven sigh hisses from your lips. your eyes screw open and you flinch at the hard sunlight that pours in from the window. as you use the inner portion of your elbow to shield your gaze, you catch glimpse of a very familiar figure in the doorway.

“captain shinmon?” you inquire, propping yourself up onto your elbows. he closes the door behind him. you’re certain that you looked like a loyal dog sat panting and wagging its tail upon discovering the return of their owner.

“excited to see me?” he remarks in a flat tone, opening the grocery bag he’s carrying before setting a few things down onto your nightstand. it’s mostly medicine, though he snags a few of your favourite snacks and drinks. there’s also one of those fascinating green tea bottles that you buy at the vending machines, except they’re served piping hot.

“how’re you feeling?”

“i told you i was going to get sick if we had the water that cold.” you huff, averting your gaze in a fit.

“not my problem you can’t take a little temperature difference”

“a little? that shit was freezing! how the hell can you take water that cold?”

“how can you not?”

you chuckle a little, shifting to stare up at the ceiling.

“don’t you have paperwork to do?”

“you know i don’t do paperwork. sure as hell not gonna start doing it now.” benimaru huffs, kicking his boots off by the door. you can hear his clothes rustling and your head snaps to face him. he shoots you a glare, as though to scold you. it’s dripping on his face. ‘really? you’re so eager.’

“move up.” he cocks his head to the side, motioning for you to move over. you shift up, room spinning a little too much for your tastes. the mattress dips with his weight and his right arm (our left) reflexively hangs in the air for you to dip your head into the crook of where his shoulder and collarbone meet. he discards his navy kimono, the article of clothing hangs on one of the hooks at the back of your door. it’s probably not much comfort for him to be relaxing in a bed with half of his uniform still on.

you squish your face against his hard chest, head rising and falling in time with his breathing. the said arm relaxes and his hand rests against your shoulder. subsequently, you realise this is the first time you’ve seen him fully without his kimono on. at the very least, he’d still have the other sleeve on.

benimaru notices your blatant staring at his other arm. he can’t comprehend why you’d gawk at it now, since he’s used it plenty of times to choke you.

he hums a small ‘hm’ in question, asking you what you’re so fascinated about. you can feel his voice thrum and rock against his chest, it sends small shivers licking your body that he doesn’t miss.

“you look so funny without your kimono on. why don’t you wear it like this more often?” you drag your nails softly against his biceps. there’s a small groan that hisses from him. as you await his response, you outline a large vein that runs from his upper arm and trails down all the way to his wrist.

“i get cold easily.”

“then why did you take a shower with me?”

“are you hearing yourself?”

surely a little bit of his body temperature was enough to sacrifice. even if it meant he was sneezing a little bit and shivering afterwards.

“seriously? you can take a tranquiliser but you can’t stand a little cold?”

“you’ll make a shitty wife if you can’t even keep me warm.”

“beni!” you hiss at benimaru in appaul, craning your face up to guffaw at him. the manners on him sometimes are despicable.

you pout, shifting your upper weight to flick benimaru in between his eyebrows. he screws his face in mutiny, lips curled into a scowl.

you and him both know that if it were anyone else flicking him like that, they’d be sent crashing through six different blocks of houses down the street.

“oi.” he warns you, tutting.

“konro come by and work some voodoo magic bullshit on you? ‘cause you’re testing your luck by pissing me off. you’re such a menace when you’re sick, it’s unbelievable.”

you hum in awe, inching your face closer towards his. there’s a wave of mockery that paints your face green and you can only laugh at the unrest that swirls in benimaru’s eyes.

he won’t have his pet talking down to him like that. no, no. that just won’t do.

“oh? really? you want me to do it again?” you flash him a cocky smirk, digits curled into a flicking position. you rest the bridge of your middle finger against benimaru’s forehead, slicking some of his charcoal stained locks out the way.

his left hand flies to catch your hand in an instant. with just two of his fingers, he can wrap himself around your wrist. his touch is assertive, firm. he can drag you the fuck away from him as he pleases, but there’s no real malice or force behind him just yet.

“yeah? try me.” he barks, peering down at you through his lashes.

you just might.

[wizkiddx]

living and reviving II

yep when I said three parts I think I meant 4 oops

summary: an overdue conversation that has to happen - like it or not

warnings: cheating, swearing, pregnancy talk, lots more angst, think thats it?

tomhollandxreader

/////////////////////// prev

So with a new sense of dread and fear and complete and total isolation you uttered three single words before hysterically running away.

“Don’t follow me.”

Not now, not ever.

That had been three weeks ago.

And it still fucking hurt like hell.

It had ended up that Yamna had taken you back to hers, where you had stayed for a couple nights. During that couple of days, Tom had tried. He had tried to apologise, tried to explain, tried to fix things. But it just wasn’t that easy.

Whatever he said, it didn’t take back from the fact that he had in that moment meant it. So no amount of sorrys could ever take that back.

After everyone had realised just how serious their situation was, Tom had moved out of your shared flat - so you could at least be in the place you were comfortable. Afterall the nursery was built in your flat and clearly it was you doing all the baby stuff for the moment. Thankfully Yamna, having been cut loose so without job, offered to move in with you. Which was probably the only thing keeping you going.

Well, that and ben and jerrys ‘phish food’. Honestly the shop must think you’re running some sort of ice cream black market at the rate you’re getting through their tubs.

Everyone kept parroting that it wasn’t good for the baby. Too much ice cream . Too much heavy lifting. Too much stress.

And yes, it probably was. But that was out of your control . The stress and lack of man in the household meant you had to do the heavy lifting of shopping from the car up the stairs. Shopping meaning ice cream, which you only depended on so much because of the stress.

It was a vicious cycle of hell.

Even Yamna, the person you were relying on keeping you sane had started walking on eggshells. It was as though you were literally about to pop, she always had to have at least half an eye on you. You were even banned from locking the toilet door - just in case.

It felt like you were a captive animal, people kept coming to observe you, giving sad looks before gleeing the scene.

You hadn’t been sleeping well either. Of course, being 3 weeks of your due date didn’t help - but neither did the lack of Tom. In fact, for the first time since shit had hit the fan, you had actually been managing to get some decent sleep when Yamna knocked on your bedroom door, quietly calling your name.

“I’m asleep” Groaning, you pulled the covers further over your head, praying to god that she’d leave you alone. But of course that wasn’t happening, she just lightly chuckled before you felt the bed dip - she had perched on the edge… Toms side.

“You never normally sleep talk.”

“I’m never normally this sleep deprived.” She sighed, whilst you still stubbornly kept your eyes closed.

“I’m sorry I woke you…. but this is important.”

“What?” Almost grunting, you threw the covers down looking up at her in anticipation. That was another thing about pregnancy - you were always on high alert, always worried.

“Toms here.”

“Tell him to f off.” Quickly you stopped caring about what your bestmate had to say.

“He’s saying that he’s the little ones dad and that he deserves to be involved and…. and I think I might agree.”

“I deserve a boyfriend who stays loyal to me so clearly neither of us are getting what we want.” You weren’t angry at Yamna and snapping at her wasn’t the answer. And yet you still did it.

“Y/n….I love you and I am completely on your side. I just think that maybe, perhaps, you should at least manage to be civil before baby arrives. Otherwise… thats going to be a lot to deal with all at once.”

It was your turn to sigh, deep and heavy (or at least as deep as the baby let). Most infuriatingly she was right. The conversation had to happen at some point. With a baby there too it would only be even more traumatic.

“He’s here now?” It only dawned on you how broken you actually sounded when the words croaked out of you.

“Yeh hunny… I didn’t let him inside so he’s standing outside the door looking like a dickhead right now.” The image cheered you up a little, enough to sit up in bed and be wrapped in Yamna’s arms. Her actions said it all, she really only meant the best for you and knew how hard this would be. After a moment she leant back. “I almost considered calling the paps so they could get a picture and label him as a groveling dick.”

“You should of.” Of course you didn’t mean it, but the answer had you both laughing. It took a minute to calm down before she changed subject slightly.

“You want me to make myself scarce? I can hide in my room or go to the shops or-“

“Text the guy from the bar - you deserve a night off ‘babysitting Y/n’ duties.”

“I’m not babys-“

“Yes you are. Go out with him and have some fun, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeh”

That was a bare face lie - but Yamna had been almost too good to you. She really really needed a break. Especially as the current plan was she’d be helping with the newborn too. Right now you wouldn’t have wished a baby on yourself - never mind your best mate.

“Okay, get ready then babe - but do it slowly, leave him waiting outside in the cold for as long as possible.”

“Obviously.” You laughed, hauling yourself out of bed, where she gave you one more encouraging hug before leaving.

After hearing Yamna leave, and brushing your hair and throwing on a new pair of trakkies and hoodie, you slowly walked towards the door. It felt as though impending doom were on the other side and every fibre of you wanted to scream and run the other way. But it just had to happen at some point. Why not now?

With a final sharp exhale, attempting to pull yourself together, you opened the door. Immediately your heart sank, seeing nothing. Had you really been that long? And even so, was a 10 minute wait enough for him to give up? You could already feel the hormonal pregnancy tears starting to spring, when a grunt drew your attention.

What you hadn’t considered was the fact Tom was ready to camp out, sitting on the floor beside your door. Springing to his feet, he seemed shocked you’d actually opened the door - makes two of you. When Yamna left she had told him you were coming, but seeing really is believing.

“Y/n! I-I… I wasn’t sure you were ever going to answer.”

“You and me both.” You replied dryly, still leaning on the door. “Do you er…. do you want to come in?” Again he seemed shocked, as though he wasn’t sure you meant it.

“Is that-that okay?” Shrugging you just nodded, stepping back so he could get in. He did pay half the mortgage afterall.

“You want a drink?” He quickly declined your offer, not vocally but instead rushing past you to the kitchen and turning the kettle on himself.

“Your the pregnant one. Go chill on the sofa, I’ll bring you a cuppa.”

And a bit taken a back by his forcefulness you followed instructions, from the sofa watching how effortlessly he danced round the kitchen. It wasn’t shocking, it was technically his kitchen too. But seeing him there felt so alien, almost transporting you back to much much simpler times. Seemed a lifetime ago.

After a couple of minutes, he rounded the sofa with a hot chocolate in one hand for you (because caffiene is bad for the baby) and a cup of Yorkshire tea in the other.

“So… how have you been?”

“Ate a lot of ben and jerrys” You answered without really answering, except he knew you all too well.

“That bad?” He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his brow “how about the baby?”

“I don’t tend to carry an ultrasound on me but she’s been keeping me up all night kicking - so normal I guess.”

“Thats good” He spoke before realising what he said. “Sorry no I um-I don’t mean it like that!” You all but laughed in the face of his flusteredness, only making the tips of his ears go pinker.

“I assume you had something to say and that you came here for a reason rather than just pity me?”

“I want to make things right Y/n - I-I mean your having my kid.”

“OUR kid”

“ Exactly! And-and I love you too and-“

“Bullshit” You may have murmured it under your breath but you had intended for him to hear.

“Oh come one Y/n, you know that!”

It was like the man was asking to be yelled at.

“Don’t sit there trying to patronise me! I THOUGHT i knew it but then I saw you all over another girl. So yes, I’m calling bullshit.”

“Ugh I… If your not going to even try to hear me out then…”

“Then what Tom? You gonna kick me out. I mean this is your flat after all! Maybe you’d like to dump the mother of your unborn child homeless on the street and forget about us - how’d that sound? I’m sure your fans would blindly applaud you.”

“Listen! Please would you just listen to me.” His voice was loud and tone harsh, making you flinch a little. Not because you were ever worried he’d hurt you - but how this wave of uncomfort shuddered through your body, baby even squirming in discontent. So focused on that you just nodded, shifting back into the sofa.

Tom had noticed your reaction and seeing you seemingly scared of him like that, well it broke his heart. Even more.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to shout, I just…. I really need to try and fix this.” He leaned closer, letting out a thankful breath when you just nodded, as if to say go on.

“I’ve really really missed you… these past couple of weeks I’ve never felt so gulity in my life. Not because of what I did! Well yeh that but-but more how much it hurt you and-“

“Fuck.”

You couldn’t help but let out that little curse of pain as a new wave of pain, which seemed to originate from your lower back, shuddered through you. Tom looked up from where his eyes had been nervously wringing his palms whilst he spoke. Rubbing a hand over your belly you shook your head and motioned for him to continue.

She was just kicking really really hard. Right?

“Uhm yeh so I just wanted to properly tell you everything that happened that night so at least we are on the same page? A-And I’m not going to try and use this an excuse but I had been drinking so-“

Seemingly baby disliked the end of that sentence too, causing another rippling wave to echo through your body, feeling as though a band was pressing tightly round your stomach. With another small curse it forced you to stand up, in the hope that’d ease her. Clearly she was as done with his shit as you were.

“Need a water.” You muttered, already waddling to the kitchen, where you heard Tom follow you immediately - like an inpatient dog.

“Y/n sit down I can-“

He was silenced by you freezing and grabbing his arm tightly - a physical contact he hadn’t been expecting from you.

“Tom… get your phone.” You spoke slowly, still not having dared to have moved an inch - fingers almost white from how tightly you were squeezing his forearm.

“Wha-are you-are you okay?”

“I think my waters just broke. Get the phone. Now.”

~~~ feedback is really appreciated + would love to know what u think as still in the process of writing so can be guided / helped by asks !!! ~~~

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