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yourlocalfictionalenthusiast · 3 years ago

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IN LIFE, IN DEATH...

PART TEN

:Masterlist:

A/N: And that’s a wrap! Ahh, writing this series has been so fun and I’m so glad that so many of you have liked it so much. Thank you guys for staying until the end and hopefully for upcoming stuff 👀 I hope you enjoy the finale of In Life, In Death... <3

(Also the song mentioned in part six and this part is ‘She Is Love’ by Parachute) <3

December 1994

Luke groaned as he woke up, squinting hard to try and adjust his eyes to the amount of light in the room.

Even before he could see clearly, he knew he must've fallen asleep in the studio judging by the soreness in his back and neck that he always got when he slept on the old couch. It couldn't have been more than six in the morning, and Luke could still feel the tiredness in his bones. So he tried to turn away from the light and hopefully fall back asleep, but there was something keeping him firmly in place.

His heart skipped when he looked down and saw that you were laying right next to him with your head on his chest and an arm thrown across his stomach. When he realized that his own arms were wrapped around you, his heart broke out into a full-on tap dance.

Waves of confusion ran through his still-foggy brain until he saw his guitar case propped up against the piano and his backpack on the floor with his clothes spilling out of it.

Then the events of last night quickly came back to him.

How he had gotten home late from rehearsal and his mom was waiting in the kitchen with his latest report card and her signature lecture at the ready. One minute he was standing there yelling, packing all he could fit into his bag, and the next, he was halfway to the studio with the rain soaking him head to toe.

He had expected it to be empty when he finally got there, but he was flooded with relief when he saw you. All the frustration slowly melted out of him the longer he laid there with you, leaving him feeling exhausted and shivering despite how warm he felt.

The last thing he wanted to do was talk about any of it, but when you asked, the words came out of his mouth before he could stop them.

He remembered rambling and crying again, the sound of your voice and the feeling of your fingers in his hair warming him up even more. Then finally, he remembered falling asleep with his chin tucked on top of your head, the smell of your shampoo filling his senses.

Without thinking, Luke reached down and carefully pushed a piece of hair away from your face, tucking it behind your ear and smiling to himself when you shifted into his touch. Then taking in a sharp breath as the realization ran through him all the way down to his toes.

You were his best friend.

The person he wanted to see at the end of a long day. Whenever he was full of anger or lost in confusion, all he had to do was look at you and everything suddenly made sense again. With your pretty smile and laugh, and your way of flipping that little switch inside him that made his head all fuzzy and the ground start spinning under his feet.

You were his best friend, and he was in love with you.

2020

All you felt was a mixture of anxiety and nausea as you stood on the Orpheum's street corner, biting the tips of your fingernails.

The entire plan hinged on Willie and Teddy getting everything done in time, and considering that they had betrayed you all before, you couldn’t help but expect the worst.

“Look, don’t worry. Willie said he’ll get us on that marquee.” Alex said nervously as he kicked pebbles across the sidewalk.

“This is going to work, right?” Reggie asked.

“It has to.” Luke mumbled, wincing seconds later when another shock hit them.

Two sharp pops cut through the air behind you and you all whipped around to see Willie and Teddy standing just a few feet away. Willie was watching you all carefully with concern written all over his face, his eyes lingering on Alex longer than anyone else. Teddy stood at the edge of the group, practically burning a hole in your face with his guilty stare.

“Are you guys okay?” Willie asked.

“Yeah, nothing we haven’t felt before.” Alex laughed awkwardly. “How’d it go?”

“Well, when the opening band wakes up, they’ll find their bus two hundred miles out of Vegas.” Willie said with a proud smile as he did a spin, showing off his stolen jacket with the band’s name across the back.

“With absolutely no chance of getting back in time.” Teddy added.

Luke gave Willie a fistbump and pointed up to the office above the Orpheum. “That means there’s probably a promoter up there freaking out right now.”

Willie grinned, sarcasm laced in his tone. “Nah, man. This is Hollywood. I’m sure he’s being very professional.”

You laughed and then Alex slowly inched forward, clearly struggling for the right words to say to Willie. You gave his arm a quick squeeze before following Reggie and Luke down the street to give them space. Before you even got halfway down the sidewalk, Teddy poofed next to you.

“You know, If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you don’t want to talk to me.” He joked.

“Teddy-”

"I just-I didn't want to leave things the way we did." He rambled. "I'm sorry, I should've told you everything that night in the diner-"

"Teddy, It's okay." You said. "You told me before Caleb could put the stamp on me, and you didn't know the details about the plan until after it was too late to help my friends. Plus, I know how much you're risking helping us now."

As soon as the words left your mouth, you felt some of the weight fall off your shoulders. You weren't sure why since the situation was still a little painful and awkward. But being around Teddy always made you feel a little like that kid who started working at the diner with Cece all those years ago. Besides, they were so alike that you found it hard to stay mad at him.

You held out your hand for Teddy to shake. "Despite everything, I'm glad we met."

“Likewise, Gorgeous,” Teddy said with a relieved smile as he grasped your hand. With a subtle wink, he nodded over towards where Luke was standing at the end of the street. “He’s a lucky guy.”

"What? How did you?-" You sputtered as he stepped away. You never told Teddy about Luke, or at least you didn't think you did.

Teddy just smirked in response before disappearing into the air. At the same time, you saw Willie skate away out of the corner of your eye, leaving Alex alone on the sidewalk.

You all phased next to him and Luke squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah. I'm good." Alex smiled slyly as he gestured to the office. "Looks like this show needs a new opening act though."

You grinned. "Let's go see if we can help with that."

When you got back to the studio, you found Julie pacing back and forth in the middle of the room as she wrung her hands together.

When you all poofed in, she immediately jumped into a load of questions, losing her breath halfway through and flailing her arms around.

"Whoa, just sit down," You laughed excitedly. "We'll tell you everything."

Julie took a gasping breath and plopped backwards onto the couch then stared at you all with expectant eyes. "Well?"

"It worked!" You announced. "Everything's fine."

"You should be getting the call...now!" Alex pointed to Julie’s phone on the table just as it started buzzing. You all cheered and Julie shushed you as she answered the call.

You heard a woman's voice say something through the phone and Julie gave a thumbs-up as she started jumping on the couch. You watched in amusement and mild horror as Luke and Reggie lifted Alex up into the air and spun him around.

Once he was back on the ground, Luke and Reggie made a beeline for you, each of them grabbed one of your arms and flipped you upside down over their shoulders.

You all spent the next twenty minutes laughing and screaming and Alex even got a little teary-eyed but you pretended not to notice. Then Julie called Flynn and ran off excitedly to decide her outfit for the night, leaving the four of you alone to plan out the setlist.

“Okay, so I’m thinking we start with Stand Tall.” Luke said excitedly as he wrote the words down in his songbook.

“Sounds good.” Reggie said, suddenly quiet.

“’Sounds good’? Guys, I wanna hear ‘That sounds awesome!” Luke reached out and nudged Reggie’s shoulder. “I know this isn’t the way we imagined any of this. But we need to be all in tonight. This is our second chance to play the Orpheum!”

“I get it.” Reggie sputtered. “But it’s hard. Do we even know what’s on the other side when we cross over? Do we still get to hang out together?”

You shifted your weight as the happy little bubble surrounding you popped. You had been so wrapped up in the excitement of finally playing the Orpheum that you almost forgot what tonight was really about.

“You guys are the only family I have.” Reggie’s eyes were glued to the piano as he played with his fingers. You reached out and locked his arm with yours in an attempt to comfort him.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen either. But it’s not like we have a choice.” Alex said.

Suddenly, Reggie’s arm fell out of yours as all three boys fell back, clutching their sides.

“I’m pretty sure we do.” Reggie groaned. “And it rhymes with ‘Hollywood Ghost Club’.”

The garage doors creaked open and Julie appeared with a bright smile and a blue garment bag in her hand. When she saw your expressions, her smile fell. “What’s wrong?”

“We just got hit pretty hard by one of those jolts.” Alex said. “But we’re fine.”

“Oh, good.” She nodded, though she still looked on edge. “I’m nervous.”

“That makes two of us.” You said. “But we made it this far for a reason. We got this.”

“Can you ride there with me? I'm gonna need more pep-talk material for the drive there cause I still think I might puke.” Julie tucked her hair behind her ears.

“Of course, and don't worry, we’ll leave the windows open.” You joked, making everyone laugh.

The sound of a car horn cut through the air and Julie looked outside. "That's my dad. Are you ready, (Y/n)?"

You nodded. "Yeah, uh, give me a second. I'll meet you in the car."

As Julie disappeared behind the doors, you turned to the boys and sighed as you tried to soak up this moment. For all you knew, this could be the last little window of time you had alone with them before tonight.

Julie was a huge part of the band of course, but these were your boys. The ones who you started this all with, who had been by your side for everything.

From the look on all their faces, you could see that they were thinking the same thing.

Without saying a word, you launched yourself at Alex. He made a surprised noise but recovered quickly, throwing his arms around you and holding you tight.

"And I'm the emotional one?" He jokingly muttered in your ear and you pinched his side, making him jump back. "Rude."

As soon as your arms were open, Reggie stepped forward and hugged you so tightly that you were thankful to not need oxygen anymore because he was definitely crushing several vital organs.

You laughed and gave him one last squeeze before pulling away, locking eyes with Luke instantly.

Alex cleared his throat awkwardly and grabbed Reggie's shoulder, steering him over to Luke's songbook to 'check out the setlist again'.

"And then there were two." Luke joked.

You laughed and stepped into his waiting arms, making him laugh. You soaked up the feeling of comfort and familiarity for a minute before pulling away.

"This, uh, is for you," Luke said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. You knitted your eyebrows together in confusion as he handed it over. "I wanted you to have it in case...well, you know. If tonight doesn't work."

"It will." You said, trying to ignore the fact that it very well could happen. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Patterson."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He quipped back, his voice sounding softer and less teasing than you would've expected. You pulled back from him and because you didn't know if you would ever get another chance, you stood on your tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek.

You moved away too fast to see his reaction but the gesture made the other two boys smirk at you as you dashed out of the doors, making a beeline for the car pulling out of the driveway.

The back rooms of the Orpheum were a maze.

You had left for a few minutes to walk around the venue and clear your head, trying to wring out the last of your nerves.

By the time you found your way back, you expected to find the rest of the band rushing to get ready in the dressing room. But all you saw was Julie anxiously pacing as she had been earlier, a habit she seemed to have inherited from both you and Alex.

“You okay?”

She snapped her head up towards you and sighed. “Yeah, just a little worried. The guys aren’t here yet.”

You looked around the room and then at the clock, frowning. The show was in less than half an hour and that was already cutting it close. Part of you wanted to go check on them but Julie seemed to need you more at the moment.

“Okay, well, give them another ten minutes. I'm sure they'll be here. They wouldn’t miss this…again.”

You ran your palm across the front of your pocket, feeling Luke's note next to your parent’s photo, and hoped you were right.

But then more and more time passed until the stage manager came to escort Julie to the stage.

"Just a second!" She calls out and then turns to you. "(Y/n), something's wrong. They were getting those jolts pretty hard before we left. They must've run out of time."

You shut your eyes tight as the words sunk in. All you could bring yourself now was, ‘This isn't what was supposed to happen.’

The world fell out from under your feet and you had trouble even standing up straight as you imagined what must've happened to them. Your best friends, your brothers, your family was gone and there wasn't anything you could do about it.

The guy knocked again, this time a little harder and with a nervous tone. Julie chewed her lip as she looked between you and the door and you could almost see the cloud of grief settling over her.

As hard as it was, you tried your best to shove your feelings down and marched up to Julie. There would be time to fall apart later, but you knew that this what they would want you to do. "Let's go do this for them, okay?"

She took a deep, shaky breath before hesitantly nodding. You followed closely behind her as she walked out the door though the halls until she reached the stage. You waited beside Flynn in the wing as Julie settled behind her microphone and addressed the crowd.

There were scattered claps from around the venue and then she took a deep breath before singing the opening.

After the first few lines, you took your cue and materialized at the center of the stage. The crowd gasped and cheered the way they always did, but you kept your eyes shut tight and focused on the music.

Just as the song started picking up, you heard a familiar pop in the air and then the sound of drumming. You whirled around to see Alex mounted onto a drum set at the back of the stage, twirling his drumsticks around and smiling like he had never been gone at all.

Once you got over the initial shock, you wanted to cry with relief. They were okay, they were here. Alex winked at you goofily, and you ran towards Julie’s keyboard.

She had started bouncing on the balls of her feet, both of you finally getting into the song now that they were coming back. You followed suit, dancing around the base of the drum set as yours and Julie’s voices came together.

Then Reggie appeared on the other side of Julie and you ran to his side. You bumped his shoulder with yours and he grinned, moving to stand back to back.

The song was ramping up to the chorus when a staticky noise cut through the air, not loud enough for the crowd to hear but enough to make you all look over to the other end of the stage.

You could see Luke's form fading in and out, a look of anguish on his face, and the pit in your stomach opened up again. The crowd was on the edge of their seats as Alex's drumming paused and Luke finally materialized to sing the opening of the chorus.

You didn't even know you were moving until you suddenly found yourself across the stage next to Luke, unable to stop smiling as you sang.

Julie joined you, throwing her arms up in the air happily and jumping around. Reggie appeared by her side, flashing the crowd a winning smile.

Alex stood up and gripped his mic as he sang this solo. You looked back at him and flashed him a proud smile, then whooping loudly when Reggie sang his lines.

You all went down the line hitting your notes until the chorus kicked in again and your heart felt so full you almost couldn't stand it. This was what you were so close to achieving before you died, it was all you had wanted for years, and you knew that if you hadn't died, that night would've changed your life. But this night was something even more special. Because you were all here, all together.

Even if it was just for one last song.

Julie caught your attention and nodded towards the platform that spread out into the crowd. You followed her to the center and stood back to back as everyone cheered.

The guys joined in on either side of you, Alex grabbing one of your hands and Luke holding the other. You all bowed to the audience before taking your cue and vanishing, leaving only Julie on stage.

You landed in the wing, feeling a little lightheaded and overwhelmed from all the emotions you had experienced in the last five minutes. The elated smile fading from your face when all three boys poofed by your side only to fall to the floor instantly.

“It didn’t work.” You said miserably as Julie emerged into the backstage area. She grabbed Flynn and whispered something to her, pointing in the direction of her family. Flynn nodded and disappeared into the crowd while Julie ran to your side.

You hauled Alex onto his feet, letting him lean on you to stay upright while Luke and Reggie trailed behind Julie as she led the group back to the dressing room. Once everyone was inside, they collapsed on the couch or the floor, loudly groaning in pain.

“What happened? Why didn’t it work?” Julie asked tearfully.

“I guess playing here wasn’t our unfinished business.” Alex said hollowly.

“Point Caleb.” Reggie muttered as he clung to the side of an armchair.

You stood frozen next to Julie as panic spread through your whole body, both of you flinching in sympathy as the shocks continued.

“You have to save yourselves right now.” Julie begged. “Join Caleb’s club. It’s better than not existing at all!”

“She’s right.” You managed to say, your voice shaky and almost giving out. Your stomach flipped at the thought of them having to work for an evil club owner forever, but the alternative was worse. “You guys need to go now! For me. For us.”

“We’re not going back there.” Reggie shook his head.

Luke pulled himself up and stumbled forward a little so that he was right in front of you. “No music is worth making if we’re not all making it together.”

You sighed sadly, thinking back to your conversation yesterday. “So no more regrets?”

Luke let out a deep sigh and then reached up and cupped your cheek with his right hand. “Just one.”

You furrowed your eyebrows in response and Luke blinked hard as if he was trying to find the words. "I never told you why I left that night."

"Luke, don't." You gave him a weak smile. "I get it."

"You do?" He asked.

You struggled to get the words out. "Yeah, I mean it was bound to happen eventually. We just got too close and it was weird for you. I understand t-”

"What?" Luke asked, cutting you off with a confused look. "No, no, that's not it at all. Read the-"

Before he could finish, you heard Julie gasp loudly from a few feet away. You looked over to see her stepping back from Alex with an awestruck look on her face as she gripped his forearms.

Wait, what?

Before you could even begin to process what you were seeing, Reggie was reaching out to Julie, who grabbed his wrist and hauled him up to his feet. The three of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Julie turned to you and Luke.

“Guys, come here.”

Alex reached out and pulled you into his side while Luke threw an arm around Reggie’s back and Julie brought you all in closer to her. At first, nothing happened. But then there was a faint buzzing sound and the boys lifted their wrist towards the ceiling and you all watched in awe as the stamp floated away in the blink of an eye.

“Whoa.” Reggie said, his eyes still glued to the ceiling. “I don’t feel as weak anymore.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Alex agreed. “Not that I ever was that weak in the first place.”

You rolled your eyes and let your head fall over on his shoulder. “What do you think that means?”

Luke smiled. “I think it means the band is back.”

It was quiet for a second before Alex looked at you all shyly. “You guys think we can try that hug thing again?”

You laughed as you huddled together again, sniffling and laughing. Then Julie yelled out that you had played the Orpheum and then you were all jumping around, still tangled in each other’s arms.

Eventually, you all broke apart and while the boys started chasing each other around, you turned to Julie. She looked into your eyes and immediately flew into your arms, muttering into your shoulder, “I always wanted a big sister.”

The words warmed your heart and you squeezed her extra hard, grateful that you actually could now. “Well, I’m honored.”

“My family's probably looking for me so..." Julie stepped back from your arms with the biggest smile you’d ever seen on her face, you jokingly bowed to her and she copied the gesture before disappearing behind the door.

You wiped the last of your tears out of your eyes and turned around to find Alex and Reggie were talking in whispers and wearing knowing smiles. When Alex saw you looking, he cleared his throat and nudged Reggie’s shoulder.

“Hey, Reg.” Alex said cheekily, not taking his eyes off of you for even a second. “I was going to check out the next band. You wanna come with me?”

“Sure!” Reggie started strolling towards the door, stopping only for a second to nudge your shoulder and whisper ‘don't do anything I wouldn’t do’ in your ear.

Alex fixed Luke with a pointed look over his shoulder and Reggie gave him a dorky wink before they poofed away. You smiled fondly at the space where they were just standing and awkwardly turned towards Luke.

“Hi.” You said, laughing awkwardly.

“Hi.” Luke muttered back as he stepped forward until he was close enough to grab your hand. “About what I was saying earlier…”

You opened your mouth to say something but he shook his head and pointed to your pocket. “Read it. Please.”

You tugged the note he had given you earlier out of your pocket and carefully folded it open to see that it wasn’t a note at all. It was the love song that Julie had found that day in the garage, the one that he didn’t want anyone to see. You struggled a little trying to decipher Luke's handwriting. The ink was a little smudged and the song was clearly unfinished but it was the most beautiful thing you had ever read. And he had written it for you.

"I didn't leave because we got too close," He said. "It was the opposite, (Y/n), I left because I was scared to lose you, and I know that doesn't make sense because I kind of did w-"

You carefully tucked the paper back in your pocket with one hand and grabbed the back of his neck with the other, pulling him down and closing the last bit of space between you.

Luke's brain short-circuited for a second before he started kissing back, grabbing your waist with enough force to nearly knock you both backwards. It was dizzying and a little desperate, yet weirdly familiar, as if you'd been kissing him your whole life.

Most moments with Luke felt like they were happening in slow motion, but this time it was like a high-speed movie montage of your whole lives. The stolen crayons, the time capsule, the pre performance pep talks, the smell of cinnamon, the ferris wheel, his jacket, the movie nights and songwriting sessions. All of it had led up to this moment.

"I love you." Luke said immediately after you pulled away. "God, I love you so much. I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry."

“Hey, it’s okay.” You laughed, blinking another wave of tears out of your eyes. “I should’ve told you forever ago instead of skirting around it.”

“And what is it that you should’ve told me?” He said teasingly and you rolled your eyes. You had gotten so used to Luke being so shut down or nervous around you that you almost forgot how much of a little shit he could be.

“That I love you too.” You said, unable to stop smiling.

Luke leaned down and captured your lips in another kiss, this time threading his fingers through your hair as he cupped your cheeks in his hands. “I’m never gonna get tired of hearing that.”

You bit your lip to keep another laugh from bubbling up as you looked up at him, feeling completely overwhelmed in the best way possible. "So...what now?"

"I don't know." Luke admitted. "But I know one thing."

"What's that?"

"That no matter where we go, or what we do," He pushed a piece of hair behind your ear. "In life, in death... I'm yours. Always."

The End

In Life, In Death Taglist:

@ifilwtmfc @instabull @wanniiieeee @tenaciousperfectionunknown @charliegillespiewife @merceret @itismeasmolpotato @lilostif16 @dangerouslyclose @iainttakingshitfromnobody @givemebooksorgivemedeath @sunsetcurvedotmp3 @askgeoff @mayleenicole5676 @puppy11148 @vampire7595 @wackyworrieruniverse @reallysparklychaos @lovelydaydreams15 @rachmmb @musicismyescape27 @stackie4ever @spidermankenobi

(Strikethrough means I can’t tag you)

JATP Taglist:

@caitsymichelle13 @sunsetcurvej

Let me know if you want to be added!

#luke patterson #luke patterson imagine #luke patterson x reader #Alex Mercer #Reggie Peters #julie molina #jatp fanfic #jatp

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justmaybee · 3 years ago

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A/N: I can’t get a prompt from Chili royalty and not choose Chili—that’s just bad taste 🧐 pft, my inability to write new characters aside, I do love both of them dearly and I really hope you enjoy this fic! Also, as a Kazuha non-haver, you’re free to pillage my sea ganoderma should you please 👌🏼

Summary: Chili just—give off major ‘married for years and still madly in love vibes,’ okay? So this is just soft domestic fluff w/ some tickles thrown in ✨

From this ask game!

Childe’s hair drags against the carpet below him, caught as he stretches out the stiffness in his neck. He can feel blood rushing to his face; nothing new, he’s always been easy to burn, to flush. The head rush is entertaining though, so he might keep this up a bit longer.

His legs sway over the back of the couch, tapping sporadically on the wall behind it. The soft flick of a page catches his wandering attention, head swiveling on the floor, hair getting even messier where it’s fanned out around him.

Zhongli looks like a work of art, dressed down and casual. A book in hand with a pair of reading glasses settled on the bridge of his nose. He’s naturally eye-catching, even upside down.

It’s so annoying.

Childe kicks his leg, a little too hard, against the wall. Zhongli doesn’t react.

He’s really good at that. He’s been ignoring Childe for—ugh—how many hours, Childe can’t tell at this point.

Probably...almost one, but still.

Zhongli is smart, smarter than anyone Childe’s come across, and with his Fatui connections that’s really saying something. Of course, it’s hard to compete with a person who’s lived through the stuff scholars usually read about, so a point for Xiansheng. Still, that doesn’t keep him from wanting to know more.

At the cost of his brain becoming too big for his very handsome and very human head, Zhongli has become quite a big reader as a mortal. Always with a book on hand for bouts of quiet time throughout the work week.

But it’s the weekend. Childe is here, not on any missions out and abroad, and Zhongli is usually happy to entertain him.

So...when he slipped his arms around Childe’s waist, whispered in his ear, asking for just a little time to finish a novel on loan from an acquaintance—

It was the right thing to do. Of course he’d accommodate. Not just because Zhongli’s breath sent goosebumps across his shoulders and made his brain go a little stupid. Not at all.

But, come on, one whole hour.

Childe slips down the front of the couch, head flattening out to lay on the ground and give his crown a break. His chin pushes against the base of his throat, and he can feel the vibrations of his groan ring against the top of his chest.

That gets him the most attention he’s had in this drought. The way Zhongli taps his foot against Childe’s thigh is undoubtedly intentional, a placating gesture. It’s literally the one second touch of a foot and Childe feels more fulfilled than he’s been all day, jeez.

It does give him the best idea ever though.

Because lucky for him, Zhongli is leaning against the opposite arm of the couch, totally absorbed in his reading; and his feet are definitely within grabbing distance. And after some—ahem—investigation, Childe’s learned a lot about how ticklish a certain someone’s ankles can be…

He gets his arm a few sneaky centimeters away before the wind is knocked out of him.

Well, maybe not ‘knocked’ out of him, but he does lose his breath for a second.

And when he tunes back in, he also realizes he’s lost Zhongli. The couch arm where he was reclining only a second ago now a resting spot for his propped open book.

It’s then that Childe notices a lot of pressure where there wasn’t any before. He tilts his head up to catch a better look at his lower body.

“Oh! Hi Xiansheng!”

Zhongli tucks a lock of hair behind his ear, keeping it out of his face. He smiles down at Childe, whose smile only grows wider.

“Hello, Childe.”

“Done reading?”

Zhongli hums, settling into his straddle over Childe’s hips. His fingers tap softly.

“For the moment.”

It’s music to Childe’s ears, but it doesn’t take long for his tune to change.

Kind of hard for it not to when he notices the steady crawl of fingertips up—or maybe down?—the skin that peeks out the bottom of his shirt.

The first laugh is pulled quickly out of him, a giggle that goes squeaky when he tries to curl forward, grab at Zhongli’s creeping hands.

But not only does he have a motivated Zhongli going against him—no—this time he’s also fighting gravity.

That realization strikes harder than the last one.

“W-wahait! Aha! Xianshe—ehe! Zhonglihihihihihi!”

Childe’s a pretty fit guy. You don’t get the title of Harbinger by sitting around and picking your nose anyways. But with the force of gravity weighing on him and—oh man—the way Zhongli’s hands move to pinch up and down the curve of his sides. His ability to stay curled up gives out pretty quickly.

And when he finally falls back down—in a giggly, redder-than-usual pile—he can feel his shirt slip down with him. So now he’s tired himself out and left himself in a more compromising position.

Zhongli’s not exactly one to skip out on a good opportunity. Childe can’t blame him.

He can squeal and bat at Zhongli’s hands when they skitter well-maintained nails over his exposed stomach though.

“Noho! Zhonglihihihi! That’s so—HAH—unfahahahair! NohoHOHOHO!”

There he goes again, ignoring Childe’s words. He can hear him—definitely—because he always chooses to amp things up when he whines. And with the way he’s massaging the lowest of Childe’s ribs, making him jerk side to side in vain attempts to dodge his nimble fingers…

Yeah, he can definitely hear him.

His laughter is already shrill and explosive, breaking for quick, gasping breaths. It’s not like Zhongli’s never gotten him pinned before—it’s usually a requirement if he doesn’t want Childe trying to turn the tables—but something about this position…

It’s so weird, so difficult to get out of. The way he can feel his legs swing freely and his arms beat wildly beside him. Zhongli is sitting on top of him, sure, but he’s totally unguarded. Childe can see through teary eyes how lax he is, scratching light fingers over his sensitive skin.

He’s got no leverage, and—by this point—no energy. The weight of his own weakness holds him down and makes his torso an even easier target for Zhongli’s devilish fingers. It’s all he can do to push at Zhongli’s hands when they get close enough to reach.

At least that’s what he thinks before Zhongli’s hands start drifting back down his body. Towards—Childe realizes—his now noticeably exposed hips.

Oh, no way.

Childe can’t voice the thought, but he does get one panicked squeal out before he bucks up and flips himself around in Zhongli’s loose hold.

His face is in the carpet and Zhongli can still technically reach plenty of his (many, many) ticklish spots, but…it’s all he’s got.

And it seems to be enough. Zhongli’s hands don’t continue to prod at this weak points, just pat with a kind of finality on his butt that now pokes awkwardly into the air. His deep chuckle blends with Childe’s residual laughter, warm and comforting.

“Th-that was—uncahalled for.” The lie rolls off Childe’s lips easily, catching on a stray giggle. He has no doubt that Zhongli caught onto him earlier; got the jump on him before Childe could.

Zhongli, like always, plays along seamlessly.

“Yes, of course. I apologize,” He says with that smile that got Childe here in the first place. The one he can never say no to.

Childe shimmies his legs out from under Zhongli, tumbling over to spread out on the nice, soft floor. He must look like a disaster, all wrinkled clothes and flushed cheeks that make his whole head the same tomato kind of color.

And Zhongli…

Zhongli looks like a work of art, smile soft and fond. Despite coming out of a tickle fight—no matter how one-sided it might’ve been—he still looks absolutely perfect. Eye-catching, even upside down.

Childe is so lucky.

His grin pushes to the surface, even bigger than when Zhongli’s fingers coaxed it out of him.

“It’s okay, I still love you.”

#bee stuffs #tickling #tickle fic #genshin impact #Chili #Childe #Zhongli #ticklish!Childe #I hate everything I write but I want to write you see the problem #ajsnahdjdhajj

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get-shiggy-with-it · 4 years ago

Text

#1 Victory Royale

✧ pairing: college student!spinner x student!afab!reader

✧ word count: 4.4k

✧ warnings: college au/no quirks, light angst, mostly soft/fluff, smut, could be hate fucking if you squint, afab reader but no pronouns, this is pretty tame, by like my standards, I wrote this at work, not really a warning, but it felt like you needed to know that

✧ summary: relationships suck and Spinner is starting to think maybe he does too

✧ ao3 mirror

✧ a/n: Hey y'all, welcome back to more college au bs from me. This is set in the same universe once again as all my other college pieces. A very sweet anon asked if we'd ever get to see more of Spinner, so here he is! Also with another cameo from shiggy's bitch (endearing) cause I can't help myself.

“Ughhhhhh….”

Spinner’s groaning echoed through the tiny apartment, the heavy sound of creaking couch cushions under his weight following.

“What?” his long-suffering roommate shouted out their bedroom door, rapidly shoving clothing and a toothbrush into an overnight bag.

“Uggghhhhhhh!”

He let out with another, louder dying animal wail. He’d been like this since they woke up—wallowing in some strange concoction of self pity and Red Bull on the kitchen floor when they walked in for water two hours ago.

“Motherfucker,” they mumbled, tossing their bag to the floor and marching, more than a little disgruntled, into the hall. “What do you want?”

Spinner was sitting upside down on the couch now, feet up against the wall tapestry and cotton candy hair splayed out on the floor. He stared blankly as his friend came into view—arms crossed, frowning at him from the end of the hall—and opened his mouth once more, letting out another garbled grunt that had one of the neighbors pounding twice on the wall to shut his dramatic ass up.

“Dude seriously, are you gonna tell me who pissed in your cereal or are you just gonna scream until the guys next door kick a hole through our wall?”

They almost felt bad as he looked away, sniffing and letting himself slump farther off the sofa until he was sprawled completely on the hardwood and staring, glassy eyed, up at the ceiling.

When he finally spoke a full sentence, his gaze was locked on the water stain above him from a year ago when the upstairs neighbors flooded their apartment trying to make jungle juice in the bathtub.

“I don’t know, I’m just in my feels as the kids say,” he sounded so dejected—strange for someone who was perpetually energized to a frustrating degree—that their shoulders immediately slumped from a hardass square to a softer, more sympathetic angle

They padded over to join him on the floor.

“Care to elaborate, oh roomie of mine?”

There was a pause and Spinner tapped his nails against the hardwood idly before responding.

“I guess I’m just feeling, like, fucking I don’t know,” he sighed, knocking his head against the dusty boards, “left out I guess? That’s not quite right, but it’s just Magne mentioned last time she came to The League meeting that Jin was seeing somebody and it just got me all introspective and weird…”

“Hm,” his roommate hummed thoughtfully and studied the way the textured white ceiling gave way to the rings of brown water damage, like a dead and dying flower, “I thought you and Jin weren’t ever that serious?”

“We weren’t,” Spinner groaned again and rubbed his eyes. “We went on like, one date a year ago and I haven’t thought about it really at all since then. I’m not sure why hearing he’s got someone else now made me so fucking...jealous I guess.”

“I mean, maybe you just never really gave yourself the time to process it?” they asked and received only an annoyed huff and accompanying groan. “Sorry, should have asked if you were looking for advice or just wanting to rant. My bad.”

“No, it’s fine. I think it’s just…”

Spinner trailed off and they shifted as the hard floor bit at their back and made it ache. The muscles were sore already as it was, and Tomura blowing their fucking back a few times a week wasn’t really helping. They’d created some kind of perpetually horny monster, but something told them cracking a joke about it wasn’t really going to help the situation much. Thankfully, Spinner found his way to filling the silence a minute later.

“I don’t think it has anything specifically to do with Jin. Yeah I liked him, we’re still really good friends and I don’t feel like I need him to be more than that. It’s just that—and this is gonna make me sound like a massive asshole—but with you and your new fucking boyfie and now even Jin finding someone to date I just keep seeing reminders everywhere of how motherfucking isolated I am.”

“Oh,” they felt their face burn a bit, guilt frothing as they were forced to acknowledge the fact that in all the time they’ve spent holed up with Tomura, Spinner had been discarded like an old Steam game, bought impulsively on sale and never played again. “I’m sorry I haven’t been prioritizing you—”

“No, no, no shut the fuck with that,” he waved his hand to cut them off and pushed himself up on his palms. “I know I’m not being fair about it, and I really am happy for you guys, but idk man….I just feel like I’m never gonna find that you know?”

Beside him, his roommate remained sprawled out on the floor like a homicide tape outline and was just as deadly quiet.

“I just,” he continued, running an angry hand through his hair, “I know I could be such a good partner. Like I’m funny and I’m not a fucking creep, which is actually a plus to most people.”

He shot a side glance down and they rolled their eyes, sitting up and knocking his shoulder roughly till he toppled back to the dirty floor and they stood above him.

“Fuck off,” they chuckled.

His roommate watched as the laughter seemed to infect him like a bad cold, creeping down the back of his throat and shaking in his chest.

“No I’m serious, I would be such a fucking great boyfriend. I give goddamn top quality cuddles and I actually know how to do laundry, what more does one need truly?”

“Damn bro, you’ve known how to fold your own clothes this whole time?”

The giggling spread into the quiet space, rocking through both their shoulders and leaving the air feeling light—fresh like the first nights of Spring. When it finally petered out into friendly silence, they were both far lighter.

“I just like the way you fold my t-shirts, the sleeves don’t get those weird creases when you do it,” he muttered and stood, doing his best to fix the wild pink locks that stood on end from his fidgeting.

“Yeah I’m sure,” his roommate rolled their eyes and turned back down the hall.

When they left for the night to stay over with their boyfriend, Spinner tried not to acknowledge the way he subconsciously glared at their back as they walked out the door, skipping yet another League meeting to swap spit with that guy from their English class.

He tried even harder not to think of how their bed would be warm and their legs would have legs to tangle with, their chest have a chest to lay against, while he heated up instant noodles in the microwave and fell asleep alone on their living room couch.

Not to mention that tonight was the big tournament with that new group on campus. He was really banking on his bff (best fucking friend as they were always sure to clarify) and him teaming up to crush those assholes from The Commission or whatever they called themselves.

Fucking lame as shit name in his opinion.

In any case, he’d have to settle for Magne again, and she was such a loose cannon they were sure to get their asses handed to them. She was a great fucking tank, he’d be the first to admit, but strategy was not a strong point of hers and they desperately needed that tonight.

He could feel the sinking weight of failure rolling in the pit of his stomach already even as he dragged himself into his room to tug on an old pair of jeans.

It bothered him way more than it should, the idea of losing some gaming tournament that, by all means held little to no actual significance.

Spinner knew the stock he’d started placing in games was growing to an unhealthy degree.

He knew that.

But self awareness rarely did anything to alleviate the irrational fear of failing at one of the only remaining consistencies in his life.

It stung worse when the tournament kicked off and by the third round, Spinner was the only remaining League member in the brackets.

“Fucking shit…” he muttered to himself, the small basement room alight with the blue glow of the monitor and the sound of frantically smashing controllers.

Behind him on the couch—stolen long ago from the theater building—Magne held him by the shoulders as he grit his teeth and leaned into the movement of his avatar on screen.

“You got this babe,” she shouted, cheek pressed up to his ear. “Make ‘em eat shit for me!”

“I would if you stopped distracting me,” Spinner hissed back.

Really it wasn’t Magne’s aggressive and somewhat bloodthirsty style of encouragement that shook his focus so badly.

It was his opponent.

The fucking president of The Commission sat, thighs spread and pressed to his, resting your weight on your elbows and snarling beside him in the couch.

Your face was split in this heart stopping grin as you quite deftly dodged all his attempts to get a hit in and managed to land a few of your own in the process.

And you looked really hot doing it.

Which was definitely just a side effect of the punch he (didn’t) drink and the body heat fueled temperature of the room—sweaty skin against sweaty skin making his mind wander against his will.

The shifting in his seat was absolutely just to illogically make him move faster and had nothing to do with how tight his pants now seemed.

So much for not being a fucking creep.

Your teammates were gathered in a circle behind you, enraptured and exuding the kind of smug confidence that said quite clearly The League was fucked from the second they walked in.

Not even two minutes later your hands were thrown up, punching the air and your team piling over the back of the couch to drown you in a sea of celebratory limbs.

Spinner felt himself deflating even as he was toppled off the couch by your screaming members and The League collectively cursed in the background.

Truthfully he’d known the chances of winning were slim.

Ever since his roommate started getting busy with classes and clubs that ‘looked good on their resume,’ The League had gone downhill rapidly. It was a problem since long before that Shigaraki guy swooped in and stole them away, but Spinner couldn’t stop himself from lowkey holding that against him.

The League had consumed so much of his life in college, functioning as a haven where he was finally respected and belonged to an extent he’d never experienced before.

The stink of failure and loss, not of the game but the only space he’d ever really occupied without complaint, burned his face and made the room feel more suffocating than usual.

Magne looked as though she wanted to give him one of her signature—and admittedly very comforting—hugs, but the deadly look of disappointment on Spinner’s face must have made her think twice.

The rest of his team seemed to read this sudden downward shift in the room as they began to filter out, climbing the steps onto street level and away from the suddenly stuffy, uncomfortable meeting spot. Normally everyone would stay and finish off the drinks snuck past the janitorial staff, eating Doritos until well past midnight. This time they couldn’t wait to be rid of him.

He couldn’t really blame them.

The multimedia building was a strange place after hours. Once Spinner might have called it something rare and liminal, now it felt more like a prison.

He stood, packing up the consoles a bit more roughly than necessary when someone cleared their throat behind him.

He turned to see you, standing alone with hands on your hips and scowling like you were the one who just got their gaming reputation ruined.

“Dude what the fuck was that?”

Spinner bristled at the knife sharp point of your tone.

“Really?” he asked incredulously. “You seriously waited around to rub your win in my face?”

You rolled your eyes and took a step closer around the couch. “I’m not talking about the fucking game dumbass. Why the hell are you pouting like I stole your fucking candy or some shit? You ruined the vibes man.”

“If anyone was ruining the vibes, it was you and your cocky ass team.”

Spinner felt himself stepping closer too, pulled in by the celestial weight that accompanied any kindling argument.

“Me?” you pointed to your chest and scoffed, “Wow, I was really hoping you’d actually possess a bit of emotional maturity, but if this is how you get after a loss I’m not shocked your fucking club is bleeding members.”

At some point the two of you had gravitated close enough that he felt the puff of your last breath on his cheeks. Two comets, ready and willing to collide.

“I’m not being the asshole in this situation, you know that right?” Spinner glared down his nose at you, heart pounding in his ears. “Maybe you shouldn’t make fucking unfounded assumptions about people you don’t know.”

“So then why are your panties in a twist over a fucking game?” you retorted.

He was peripherally aware that your eyes had taken on the same laser focused quality as they had during the last round. Determined and locked onto him without sparing a glance to anything else.

It was this same undivided attention that he’d envied in you as you played, and as Spinner felt it trained on him, his pants once again felt uncomfortably restrictive.

“It’s not about the fucking game okay!?” his voice came out hoarse and far more petulant than he’s been aiming for.

Though he quickly felt the embarrassment give rise to a secondary heat as you both breathed each other’s air and searched the face across from you.

“Then what is it about?”

That strange, unexplainable, inexplicable rush of potential filled the small gap that remained between your bodies—the kind of tension Spinner was beginning to think he’d never feel again.

He’d kissed plenty of people. Almost more than he’d like to admit, or that they’d like to admit more accurately.

But when his flickering eyes found your hard stare still and unwavering from his, it felt incredibly natural to lean in and press his lips against your fading frown.

It was slow going, the few centimeters that separated you seemed like miles as he moved slowly, never breaking eye contact until his mouth was finally slotted over yours and you weren’t pushing him away.

There was still a bit of lingering confusion, as this was decidedly not what either of you appeared to be expecting from the prior conversation. That coupled with the fact that Spinner wasn’t entirely sure he remembered your first name made the feeling of your tongue prodding at the seam of his lips all the more startling.

When he gasped, you slid your hands up his chest and licked into his mouth. Tongue tangling between breaths, Spinner felt himself getting lost in the familiar and coveted taste of another mouth, another body, another hand that grasped, that desired, that wanted him.

***

Your knees dug into the cushions on either side of Spinner’s thighs as you bounced in his lap. He fought to keep his eyes open against the pleasure of his cock sinking into you over and over again, so he could watch the way your head was thrown back and your chest heaved with the exertion.

He dug his hands into your hips and let his head hit the back of the couch, feet planted on the floor to help his hips thrust up into you, earning him some of the prettiest, stifled moans he’d ever heard.

Truthfully, he had not expected to fuck you. He figured you might be down to just make out for a bit until the cleaning staff came and booted you from the building, but both your pants had quite quickly and naturally found their way to the floor.

Neither of you spoke much, which he was thankful for. That would have been far too complicated of a conversation, especially considering you really didn’t know each other all that well.

Spinner usually liked to do a bit of ‘getting to know you’ type activities before he hooked up with people, which he did with surprising frequency for somebody so starved for a long term thing. Sex just fucking felt good and it was this eagerness that was his downfall. Most people he’d fucked around with seemed to read the urge to get into their pants as a diminished interest or emotional attraction and Spinner ended up with more friends with benefits than actual friends...or benefits.

Regardless, it was fine by him that the only form of communication passing between you for now were scattered groans of pleasure and the wet slap of your ass against his thighs.

He’d nearly forgotten how fucking amazing pussy felt.

For no particular reason, Spinner had always found himself fooling around with bodies more similar to his own. Not that he had any real preference, though the lack of experience often made him a bit nervous in the whole ‘pleasing your partner’ department, despite many helpful lessons from his roommate.

That was all to say that Spinner was incredibly thankful you reached down to guide his hand that had clumsily begun rubbing circles on your clit. That is until you simply knocked it away and went back to riding his dick like a fucking champ.

Then he did speak.

“Wanna make you cum,” he mumbled and really did sound like he was pouting this time.

You peered down at him, slowing your pace so you sat flush in his lap, grinding his cock deep against your walls. Spinner keened as you clenched around him, pussy so deliciously warm he felt himself near to drowning in the feel of you.

“Mm fuck,” you panted, leaning in to steal a few more messy kisses from him before lifting up and enveloping him in the slick heat all over again. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No,” he nipped at the column or your throat, careful not to leave any lasting marks just in case. “If I’m finishing, you’re fucking finishing.”

You pulled back and stared at him for a moment. He felt you purposefully tightening around him just so he would squirm under your curious gaze. After a moment you smirked and rolled your eyes again, taking his hand and guiding his fingers back to that little nub just above where his thick length was seated inside you.

Spinner was proud of his dick, it was hefty but not so long that it was a hassle to fit—just enough to reach all the important bits. He was sensitive as hell too most of the time, so just about any pressure felt amazing. But the best part of it was watching whoever he was fucking fall apart on his goddamn perfect cock.

So when you whispered, “Like this,” and showed him the rhythm and motion you liked, he pulled himself back from the brink to pay attention, speeding up until that look of cooled control slid right off your face.

“Ahh, yes fuck...” the words tumbled from you freely now. “Shit, yeah just like that—”

Spinner could get fucking drunk off the low groan that left you as he planted his feet more firmly and bucked his hips up. He must have hit something good by the way you choked and moaned boarding on too loud, though he had neither the heart nor self control to stop you.

“Feel good?” he grunted, picking up the pace and force he thrust into you, so that you had to loop your arms around his neck and hold tightly as he speared you on his cock.

“Fuck...yes..” you whimpered into his shoulder which did wonders for his ego.

Spinner kept up his rubbing frantic patterns on your clit and feeling the gradual constriction of your walls around him—the coil growing tight and ready to snap. He nudged your cheek with his until you pulled back a bit to face him.

“I want to see you,” he murmured, sucking your tongue into his mouth for a moment and tearing himself away so he could watch as you came undone around him.

You gave him a strange, soft look and pressed your forehead to his, eyes zoned in on only him.

The rest of the room, the whole fucking basement and campus melted away under that stare.

Your nipples peaked through your shirt, brushing against his as you were jostled into him by the movement of your hips. As you reached your peak, words devolved into increasingly breathy gasps. It took Spinner an incredible amount of concentration not to fucking paint your insides then and there.

Your pussy was so goddamn tight and warm and milking him just right, it was a fucking impressive feat to remain staunchly at the edge of his peak as your mouth fell open and your fingernails scratched at his back when you finally came—the telltale spasms around his cock and the near sobs coming from you more than enough indication.

He lost himself well and truly then.

Lost in the false sense of intimacy that came with being allowed to see you fall apart, this person he barely knew yet made him feel immensely important in that moment. Your breath and spit was in his mouth, the smell and feel of you soaking his length pushed him beyond the realm of conscious thought.

There was only a deep and burning need to be closer to you. So, so much closer.

His hands moved of their own accord, hooking under your thighs and flipping your bodies so your back hit the cushions and he hovered above you. The angle allowed him to slide deeper, pulling out and thrusting his hips in fast, hard strokes that hurtled him towards release.

Spinner couldn’t keep himself quite now either, panting and moaning and gasping unashamedly with his eyes screwed shut as you took his cock so unbelievably well.

It wasn’t until your hands, softer than he’d imagined, cupped his jaw and pulled him down to meet you that he was brought back down from whatever higher plane of existence his impending orgasm whisked him too.

Your lips weren’t nearly as frantic as the rocking of his thighs, the slap of his balls against your ass. The sweetness was an odd but welcome contrast.

“I’m gonna—fucking mm...” he tried so hard to get his tongue to form the words but he could feel himself slipping further as you started clamping around his length again.

“I know,” you breathed against his lips, faces pressed together and unmoving eyes steady on his own. “Ahh, inside if you want.”

He did want.

Oh fuck did he want nothing more in that moment to stay sunk in your warmth and pump you so full, but the last few remaining logical braincells reminded him that was not a great idea. Not without a more in-depth conversation neither of you was in a state to have.

“Shouldn’t...” he groaned and moved to pull out but your ankles locked around his ass and forced him back down.

“It’s okay,” you huffed and rocked into him, squeezing around the sensitive head of his dick just once, just right and that did him in.

It was something in the way you looked at him, so that he could feel nothing but secure—nothing but safe wrapped up in you. Something about the way you pressed him closer, in the movement of your thumb on his cheek.

It scratched some deep seated, lonely itch in Spinner.

Made it feel like this meant a hell of a lot more than it probably did.

In seconds he was blowing his fucking load right into you, milking himself in your heat until he was spent and overstimulated. You were kind enough to pull him to you, turning your bodies so you laid side by side on the coach, his softening cock slipping from you in a gush of release.

For a minute or so, neither of you spoke, just stared, long and comfortable at the stranger you’d just fucked on the gaming club couch.

Well.

Fucked wasn’t really the word he’d use at that point to describe what you’d just done, but anything more than that felt presumptuous.

You broke the silence as he nuzzled into your palm.

“You really needed that didn’t you?”

Spinner couldn’t help the familiar, infectious laugh that rattled in his chest. He liked the smile it earned him, far more genuine than any others you’d worn that night.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

You hummed, nodding in response. “Mm, me too.”

And somehow, for no real logical reason, Spinner knew you understood. That you felt the same isolation, the same starvation for love, for holding weight in someone else’s world.

That the games were just a placeholder, a way to fill the space, to get lost in other lives, in other stories where he did matter. Where his actions had foreseeable and measurable worth. That’s why it hurt to lose. Not for the glory, but for the destruction of the only remaining diversion from how empty his reality felt.

Even if it wasn’t really.

Even if there were friends and benefits and friends who offered both. His roommate could let him rest his head in their lap on movie nights or sleep in his bed on occasion when the heat went out and he got cold too quickly. But none of that quite filled the hole like you now, holding his face and knowing the struggle without him having to explain it.

Nothing like you pulling him in and kissing him too familiarly for someone he’d only known a day.

Magne used to say something about shit like this. Something like how people bond in train cars when there’s a rat eating a slice of pizza and you all watch it happen. Some weird camaraderie forged in the shared experience of life being a little fucking freaky a lot of the time.

That was how it felt when you slipped your leg between his and brushed your lips together again. Content to lay, half naked in the media building basement, making out with some guy you beat at Smash and fucked right after.

Reveling in the brief but meaningful feeling of mattering in some small, strange way to someone else.

Of holding weight.

Of being held.

#spinner x reader #shuichi iguchi x reader #spinner x y/n #spinner x you #college au #mha angst #student!reader

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kinglazrus · 5 years ago

Text

Smells Like Team Spirit

Phic phight 2020

Submitted by @phantomphangphucker: Danny Fenton seeming creepy, unnatural, predatory, etcetera to the general population of Amity Park. Or only seeming creepy, unnatural, predatory, etcetera to tourists, while Amity Park locals are confused by anyone finding Fenton ‘creepy/intimidating’.

Summary: Some mascots are great at pumping up a crowd. As Casper High's mascot, Danny has only one job: strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. This is the story of how Danny becomes the famed Mascot of Fear.

Word count: 9268

Tucker witnesses it first. His cousin from another state is visiting for the weekend and Danny comes over to hang out. Ozzy has met Danny before, a few times, so Tucker thinks they won't mind if Danny joins them for a little while. He arrives while Ozzy is in the bathroom, and Tucker gets a three-player game of the new Doomed: IV console game set up.

Danny lounges on a beanbag chair, leaving the couch to the Foley cousins. Clutching his controller, he plays with the controls, watching his character jump, roll, punch, and shoot, trying to get a feel for the different set up.

"I think they took out the high jump," Danny says. He spams the jump button while tapping various others across the controller, testing different combos.

"What?" Tucker lunges for the game case, taking out the pamphlet tucked inside the cover. He flips through, looking for the controls.

"Yeah, it doesn't seem to—oh damn that's fun."

"What? What?" Tucker scrambles up, throwing the pamphlet aside, and watches Danny's avatar leap into the air, then sprint forward.

"Air-dashing," Danny says with a grin.

"Sweet." The boys bump fists.

Danny, kneeling on his beanbag, keeps air-dashing across the screen, whipping the controller back and forth emphatically. The action does nothing to improve the gameplay, but at the same time, it just wouldn't be as enjoyable without it. Tucker lays upside down on the couch, hands braced on the floor, cheering Danny on. "Go, go, go!"

It's stupid and fun. They haven't even started playing the game yet, but this is the most they'll enjoy themselves all afternoon. And that's the scene Ozzy walks in on.

They remember Tucker's best friend, although they hadn't seen him since coming out. Ozzy's not sure what to expect from him, but it certainly isn't this. And by this they don't mean the raw enthusiasm for a simple game mechanic. They mean the shiver that crawls up their spine the second they lay eyes on Danny. They feel cold, like they've stepped in a bath of ice-water rather than their cousin's living room.

Danny turns his head toward Tucker and sees Ozzy standing in the doorway. Both of them freeze. Ozzy's heart beats fast and heavy in their chest. Their pupils dilate, stretching wide, and sweat beads on their forehead. They can't look away. If they do, then they're dead. If they let Danny out of their sight, they're dead.

Danny gaze slides away, back to the TV, and Ozzy can breathe again.

"Ozzy's here," Danny says.

"Oh!" Tucker's head swivels toward them. He hadn't noticed Ozzy and Danny's little staring contest. It had only lasted a second, but to Ozzy, it felt like an hour.

"Check it out!" Tucker says. He kicks off the back of the couch, flipping forward. His knees hit the carpet hard, making a loud thud, which earns him a shout from the dining room.

"Don't bother the neighbours!" Tucker's mom, Angela, says.

"Okay, Mom!" Tucker calls back, without much conviction in his voice. He beckons Ozzy forward and points to the TV. "They replaced the double jump with air-dashing! Which seems stupid at first, 'cause jumping forward isn't the same as jumping higher. But it looks like if you air-dash into something, you can climb up it!"

Tucker talks fast, making lots of vague gestures with his hands, not really looking at Ozzy. He grabs his own controller off the couch and swivels toward his cousin. "Here's how you do it."

Tucker looks up at Ozzy and pauses. "Hey," he says, tilting his head. "You okay?"

Ozzy is not okay, but they can't really explain it. Danny glances there way again, just for a second, and a shudder passes through them. Something about Danny is off, but Ozzy can't really explain it. He looks the exact same as he did the last time Ozzy saw him, even wearing the same damn t-shirt. But when Ozzy looks at him, and Danny looks back, their brain starts screaming not right, not right, NOT RIGHT!

"I'm, uh, I'm good, yeah," Ozzy says. They shuffle into the room, casting nervous glances Danny's way, and sit down on the couch, taking the farthest spot from Danny. Ozzy leans up against the armrest, taking the controller Tucker passes them, and looks forward. They think that, maybe, if they look ahead instead, if they just don't look at Danny, they won't feel so weird, and whatever this is will pass.

But oh, god, this is so much worse, because now they can't see Danny, and that makes their heart pound. An image of Danny suddenly lunging from his seat bursts into their mind and Ozzy stiffens. Hands tightening around the controller, they glance out of the corner of their eye.

Danny hasn't moved. Danny isn't even looking at them. It doesn't make them feel better.

"Seriously, are you good?" Tucker asks. He sits down to Ozzy's left, blocking their view of Danny.

"Let's just play," Ozzy says.

Tucker shrugs and starts the game. As they play, he keeps looking over at Ozzy, wondering why they're acting so strange. They were just fine half an hour ago, but now they're stiff, and kind of pale, and they keep looking away from the screen, even when they're in the middle of a fight. Ozzy's always been better than Tucker at Doomed, but today they're at the bottom of the scoreboard.

Tucker racks his brain, trying to come up with a reason for the strange behaviour. A bad phone call, maybe? Ozzy's mom has been in and out of the hospital for a while. He hopes it's not that. He wants to ask them what's wrong, but he doesn't want to push it. And they might not be comfortable talking about it with Danny there, either. So, Tucker decides to wait until they're alone.

His chance comes sooner than expected, when Danny says he has to go.

"Aw, really?" Tucker asks. He droops, shoulders slumping. "You've only been here an hour."

"Yeah." Danny nods. "I just remembered that physics assignment. I haven't finished yet."

"I thought you finished that?"

"Uh, so did I. But Jazz just texted me. She found the sheet and apparently, I left a few questions blank. I should go home and finish before she really gets on my case." Danny stands up and stretches his arms above his head. "Sorry. We can make up for it next time."

Before Tucker can protest further, Danny leaves, casting one last furtive glance in Ozzy's direction. Ozzy doesn't relax until they hear the front door close.

"What did he even check his phone?" Tucker mutters. Thinking back, he can't even remember Danny looking down at his pocket. It bothers him, but he knows Danny wouldn't lie without a good reason, so he'll leave it for now.

He pounces on Ozzy instead

"What's wrong?" Tucker asks.

"Nothing's wrong."

"You're a worse liar than Danny. Is it... is it your mom?"

"What? No." Ozzy shakes their head. "Mom's fine. She's doing really good, actually."

"But there is something wrong," Tucker presses.

Ozzy groans. They reach up to run their fingers through their hair, faltering when they touch their shoulder instead. Moving their hand up, they touched their buzzed head. "I don't know. Danny, he–" Ozzy cuts themself off.

"Danny? What'd he do? Did he say something while I wasn't looking? I'll kick his ass," Tucker says, leaping to his feet.

"No, don't!" Ozzy grabs Tucker's belt and yanks him back down. "It's nothing, okay? He didn’t do anything. It's stupid."

Tucker stares intently at them, then sighs and backs off. "Okay. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to. But if you do want to talk about whatever it is, I'm right here."

"Yeah, okay," Ozzy says.

—

Valerie sees it next. She invites Danny over for a study session at her new place in Elmerton. People say Elmerton is a neighbourhood at the edge of Amity Park, but as someone who now lives there, Valerie knows it's its own town. The people in Elmerton aren't like the people Amity. They don't have the same mannerisms. They don't have the same slang. They don't even have the same ghosts.

In fact, Elmerton has no ghosts. Which makes it a pretty poor place for a ghost hunter to live, but the apartments are cheap, and it's all her dad can afford right now.

They take the bus after school. It's an inter-city bus, because none of the school buses go out that far. The ride is more than hour. Plenty of people get on and off the bus in that time. Valerie likes to watch them. She can tell exactly when the last person from Amity Park steps off.

Valerie doesn't know how she could explain it to an outsider, but people from Amity can recognize each other at a moment's glance. It's something about the way they hold themselves, how they react to things. When your life gets threatened every day by ghosts from another realm, you look at things a little differently. It's like one day everyone from Amity Park collectively decided to stop giving a damn about anything that didn't immediately threaten to kill them.

"Huh," Valerie says as she looks over the bus. She and Danny sit at the very back, in Valerie's usual seat. After her first few times taking the bus, she learned it was just polite to sit further back when you had a longer ride. It also gives her a good view of the whole bus.

"What is it?" Danny asks, looking away from the window. So far, he has been spending most of the ride staring out at the passing scenery, watching as things got dirtier and poor run down the closer they got to Elmerton.

Instead of answering, Valerie leans over Danny.

"Hey!" He presses himself back against his seat, raising his arms, a scarlet blush creeping across his cheeks.

Valerie ignores him in favour of scanning the skies. "You don't see any ghosts or anything, do you?"

"What? No. Why? Why would there be a ghost here? I mean, it's Elmerton, right?" Danny says. He laughs and looks away, tugging the collar of his shirt. Is it just him or is it a little hot in here all of a sudden?

"Yeah, I guess so," Valerie says, pulling back. Her frown stays settled on her face.

There are only a few people on the bus with them, besides the driver. At the very front, a woman with weathered skin and greying hair, who got on at the last stop. Even though the bus is already moving again, she still hasn't taken her seat. Instead, she stands straight, facing the back of the bus.

By the middle doors is a young woman and teenage girl, their backs to Valerie and Danny. The woman has her arm around the girl's shoulder. Every once in a while, she cranes her neck and looks in their direction.

A man in a rumpled suit sits closest to them. Valerie sees him on the bus every day. They've chatted a few times, and he's nice enough. They usually say hi to each other. Today, he had started down the aisle toward them, giving a cheery wave. But the moment his gaze slipped from Valerie to Danny, he paled, dropping into the nearest seat. He clutches his briefcase tightly, holding it like a shield.

Valerie knows instantly that none of these people are from Amity Park because they all look afraid and she has no idea why. She stares at them a moment longer, glaring at the young woman when she peeks over her shoulder again.

It takes Valerie a minute to realize it, but she finally notices the one thing all of them are doing.

"Are they... staring at you?" Valerie whispers to Danny.

He shifts uncomfortably, tucking his hands under his arms, and leans his head against hers to whisper back. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Danny shrugs. "It's just a thing people do sometimes."

"People sometimes stare at you like you're about to, I don't know, pounce on them?"

Danny shrugs again.

"That's... really weird."

"Maybe they've heard of my parents," he says, grinning sardonically.

Valerie rolls her eyes and pushes his shoulder. He laughs, and Valerie does her best to ignore the tense atmosphere for the rest of the ride. She ignores it, but she doesn't forget it.

—

Valerie finds Tucker in the gym sound booth after school one day and corners him there. She locks the door behind her and pins him against the sound board. "What's up with Danny?" she asks accusingly.

Both Tucker and Sam have the annoying habit of dancing around Valerie's words whenever she tries to approach them cautiously. She's learned, from experience, that being direct and forceful is the only way to get information out of them. Getting Tucker alone with no back up also helps.

"I don't know! He's not a ghost!" Tucker blurts out, raising his arms defensively.

"What?"

"I mean, nothing. Nothing's up with Danny. He's so great. You know how great he is. You dated him for a little bit, luck you."

Valerie stares at him, wondering for a moment if this is Tucker's way of confessing that he has a crush on his best friend. She shakes her head, casting that thought aside for now. Grabbing Tucker's collar, she pulls him forward until they're nose to nose.

"You mean you've never seen how odd people get around him?"

"What, no?" Tucker's genuinely confused by the question. His face screws up as he thinks, trying to figure out what the hell Valerie is talking about. He needs to tread lightly, so he doesn't accidentally spill Danny's secret. He doesn't think she knows, despite how weird her question is.

"Just think about it for a minute, okay?" Valerie says. She releases Tucker and steps back, crossing her arms.

Tucker composes himself, smoothing out his shirt, and gives her a dirty look. He decides to indulge her anyway. With a great, dramatic sigh, Tucker taps his chin, looking up at the ceiling, then down at the floor. He hums and haws, making a great show of how terrible and strenuous thinking about this is, and then he shrugs.

"Nope, can't say I know what you mean." Brushing past Valerie, he heads for the door.

She reaches out and grabs his collar again, yanking him back.

"Come on, you're gonna stretch it!" Tucker whines, batting Valerie's hand off.

"I'm being serious here, Tucker. You've never seen anyone looking, I don't know, afraid of Danny? Kind of wary?"

"Afraid? Of Danny? You can't be serious, he's not–" Tucker freezes.

"What is it?" Valerie reaches out for him again.

Tucker smacks her hands away and skips out of her reach. "A couple months ago. I had my cousin over, and Danny hung out with us for a bit. They were acting really weird. I thought it was about their mom. And then I thought it was because they weren't out the last time they saw Danny, but they said it wasn't either of those and told me to drop it."

"Danny came over to my place to work on our history project last week. On the bus, people wouldn't stop looking at him. He brushed it off, but that's weird, right?" Valerie asks. "They looked like... like they were afraid."

Tucker laughs. "So weird. Can you imagine people being scared of Danny?"

It's the most ridiculous thing either of them has heard all year. They break down into a fit of laughter, falling against each other. It's so outlandish and absurd that you couldn't make it up if you tried.

Which is why Star, who has her ear pressed against the sound booth door, grins and takes off the moment the conversation dissolves into laughter. She has only one thought in mind: Paulina has got to hear about this.

—

"No way."

"Yeah."

"No. Way."

"Yeah!" Star nods enthusiastically. "I swear that's what they said."

"Afraid of Fenton?" Paulina asks. Star's already said it three times, but it's so unbelievable she has to hear it again.

"Afraid of Fenton," Star repeats. "Foley's cousin and some," she waves her had dismissively, "Elmertonites."

"Ugh, Elmerton."

"I know."

"Who's Foley's cousin?" Paulina asks. She can't remember if Foley has any other family in the city, but Star would. Star's the only person who knows this town, and it's people, better than Paulina. They are the gossip queens and they make everybody's business their own. Knowing a little extra something about a certain somebody could always come in handy somewhere down the line.

"An out-of-towner," Star says.

"Interesting." Paulina closes her locker and leans against. She waves at a few boys walking by, giving them a disarming smile. They crane their necks around to keep looking at her for as long as they can. As soon as they're around the corner, Paulina's smile drops and she turns back to Star. "You know, I think now's a great time for my friend from New York to come visit!"

Star grins. "Oh, great idea, Paulie. Amity is so great this time of year."

They walk down the hall, arm in arm, giggling and conspiring.

—

Everyone knows about Paulina's New York friend. Theirs is a friendship built not out of love but a mutual desire to constantly get one up on each other. Which means they aren't friends at all. But, their dads are business partners, so the two girls often find themselves forced together. These occasions are typically full of sweet smiles and sweeter words. Which everyone knows is a clever rich girls choice weapon in any circumstance.

When Paulina invites Whitney van der Bloom to Amity Park for the weekend, Whitney answers with a cheerful, "Sweetie, do you even need to ask?"

Which really means, "Sweetie, why on Earth would I want to go?" Sweetie, in both cases, is not a complement.

Whitney goes, of course. With a slew of backhanded complements tucked in her pocket. The battle begins the moment her plane touches down and she is determined to come out of this weekend as the undisputed victor. Paulina may have a home advantage, but Whitney was born into this kind of conflict. New money always flounders around a bit before learning how to properly navigate the delicate social rules of high society, and she can tell Paulina is still getting her sea legs.

Whitney finds it adorable, like watching a baby toddle through their first steps.

On her walk through the airport, Whitney touches as little as possible. She left New York in a private plane, from a private airstrip, where every surface was clean and shiny. Amity Park was neither of those things.

By the main entrance, she finds Paulina's driver holding a sign with Whitney's name on it. She passes him her luggage, a single Gucci bag, and follows him outside to the waiting car. She's impressed by Paulina's power play, although she would never say it out loud. Staying in the car while sending her driver out to collect Whitney, like a nanny picking up a child from daycare, is a bold move.

It's fine. Whitney will let her have the lead, for now. She won't have it for long.

The driver opens the back door. Whitney slides inside like she owns the car, tossing her hair over her shoulder, giving the driver a sugary smile. When she turns and gets her first good look at the inside, she freezes.

Rather than sitting on the other side of the car, at a respectful distance, Paulina is right beside her in the middle seat. And there are four other people with her. Paulina's little satellite—Whitney thinks her name is Sun—sits to her left. And across from them are two boys she doesn't know—and doesn't want to, based on how they're dressed—plus a girl she does know.

"Sammy?" Whitney asks, looking across the car at the Sam Manson, heir to the Manson fortune.

"Bloom," Sam greets her coolly. Sam doesn't even twitch at the nickname she loathes. Because that would be a sign of weakness, and she knows that if there's one thing you never want to do, it's look weak in front of Whitney van der Bloom. The girl may only be fifteen but she's a menace.

"Hi." Whitney drags out the "i," her voice rising and falling. "Oh. My. God. I haven't seen you since the Cabo retreat! What are the chances of seeing you here?"

Sam grins wickedly. "Pretty high, actually."

"Oh?" Witney doesn't have a response for that. Sam has always thrown her off, purely because she refuses to play the same games Whitney and Paulina do. It's infuriating.

She turns to the two strangers instead, looking them up and down. The boy on Sam's right makes her cringe. A turtleneck and cargo pants? Whitney would give him points for boldness if the colours weren't so garish. When she meets his eyes, he wiggles his eyebrows at her.

Whitney immediately decides she wants nothing to do with him.

The other boy, sitting right across from her, isn't much better. Worn out jeans that are actually worn out and weren't just made to be like that, and a ratty old t-shirt with a flaming green "F" on it. Gross. Resisting the urge to curl her lip, she lifts her eyes to his face.

He's not looking at her. He's looking down and away, his stare so intense it should be burning a hole in the carpet. Little does she know, it could, with very little effort on his part.

Normally, Whitney takes that kind of gesture as a sign of submission. Instant victory. Right now, something about this boy makes her think she doesn't want his eyes on her.

"Whit! I'm so happy you could come!" Paulina throws her arms around Whitney's shoulders and pulls her in for a hug, kissing Whitney's cheeks twice.

Whitney snaps out of her daze, although not fast enough to return the kisses. Another victory for Paulina.

"Of course, Lina!" Whitney says. She sees the boy in the turtleneck mouth "Lina" at Sam. She wonders what their relationship is. "There's no way I would pass up the chance to visit somewhere as quaint as Amity Park. It's nice to get a break from the lavish lifestyle, you know?"

"Oh, I know. You look like you need a nice rest." Paulina smiles widely.

Whitney's eye twitches. "So, Lina, who are your friends?"

"Well, you already know Sam. I didn't realize you ran in such high circles," Paulina said, earning another twitch. Before she can say anything back, Paulina moves on. "And these two are her friends. Tucker." The boy in the turtleneck, "and Danny." The boy that Whitney does not want to look at her.

Paulina leans forward and grabs Danny's arm, pulling him right out of his seat. He yelps and stumbles, bumping his head on the top of the car. Tucker reaches out to stop him, but Sam holds her arm out and keeps him back, wearing that same fiendish smirk. Before Whitney can figure out what's happening, Star's moved to take Danny's place, and Paulina has slid over to the other side of the car. She drags Danny down and sits him right next to Whitney.

"Danny's such a good friend, I can't believe I haven't introduced you to him sooner," Paulina says. She's still hugging his arm, pushing him forward a little more so Whitney has no choice but to squeeze up against the door to avoid touching him.

She doesn't want to touch him. She doesn't want to be next to him. She doesn't even want to be in the same car as him. Whitney unconsciously reaches for the door handle, but the car's already moving. She's trapped.

"Don't be rude, Danny. Say hi to Whitney," Sam says. She looks like the cat that ate the canary. And Whitney feels like the bird.

Danny gives Sam a disgruntled look before turning to Whitney. "Uh, hey, Whitney," he says.

Whitney tenses. The sound of his voice sends shivers down her spine. It washes over her, raising goosebumps along her arms. The cold certainly doesn't help. She thinks it's the AC in the car, until Danny's arm brushes against hers and she flinches away. His skin is icy to the touch.

"Sorry," Danny mutters. He finally looks at her.

Whitney wilts under his stare. Looking into his eyes is like looking into an endless expanse. Her own gaze jumps around, searching, but Danny's holds steady. Not even a twitch. Whitney's not even sure if he's blinked since she got in the car. When he looks away, his eyes slide off her.

"You– you're very," she stammers. For once, her words are lost to her.

Paulina's smile is bright as the sun. She leans back, giving Danny the space to do the same, and Whitney quickly tries to compose herself. She steadies her breathing, checking the other occupants of the car to see how they reacted. Tucker looks curious. Sam looks smug. Star looks delightfully vapid, eyes wide and smile wider.

"They're going to be with us all day, I hope you don't mine," Paulina says. "Danny knows the city really well, and Sam. Well, like I said. She's a Manson."

Whitney, still at a loss for words, nods numbly.

"This will be so much fun!" Star says, clapping her hands together.

Whitney doesn't think so.

—

Whitney lasts for four hours, which is far longer than anyone expected.

"I'm almost impressed," Star says, waving at Whitney's private jet as it takes off. "She's very good at faking important phone calls."

"Just never tell her that to her face," Paulina says. Hand on her hip, she eyes Sam, Tucker, and Danny. "I guess we can give you all rides home. But I hope you know this was a one-time thing. Mostly because Whitney probably won't come back after that."

"Uh." Danny raises his hand. "How do you know the phone call wasn't important? Why won't she be back? She's your friend, isn't she?"

"Oh, Danny. You're so sweet, you know that?" Paulina pats his cheek and pivots. Swaying her hips, she starts walking back toward the car. It's not even an insult this time.

"Thank you? I guess?" Danny says.

"Come on, Fenton. I might even help you with your math for what you did today." Star grabs his wrist and drags him after Paulina.

"I didn't do anything!"

Sam and Tucker linger a moment longer, watching Whitney's plane disappear into the sky. Tucker turns to Sam and says, "I'm so confused. Why did you even agree to this?"

Sam shrugs. "Whitney van der Bloom sucks."

"Yeah. Yeah, she does."

—

Paulina and Star eagerly spread the word: Danny Fenton scares outsiders. The rumour spreads quickly throughout Casper High, although everyone is careful never to mention it while Danny himself is around. Not even Sam and Tucker tell him. It's one of those rumours you don't want getting back to the person it's about. Not because it's bad, but because it's a hell of a lot more fun when they don’t know.

Nobody really gets the "why," except those who know Danny best. To everyone else, he's a scrawny kid with eccentric parents, and he wouldn't hurt a fly. Most of them decide outsiders are just weird like that and put it out of mind. But Mikey, clever kid that he is, decides to put Danny's mysterious ability to work.

"I'll help you with your physics homework if you cheer us on at the decathlon," Mikey says. He leans across the aisle between their desk, whispering low enough that the teacher won't hear them.

"You do sports?" Danny asks, raising on eyebrow.

"No, it's academic. Don't be ridiculous."

On the edge of his seat, Mikey waits for Danny's reply. The decathlon is tomorrow, which may have been short notice, but Mikey isn't a fool. He knows academics bore the hell out of Danny and the only way he will go is with incentive. Mikey waited until they got their most recent test back. Peeking at Danny's paper, he can see his classmate failed, which is good news for him.

One decathlon is a small price to pay for a passing grade.

Danny looks down at the big red F on his test. He whispers back, "Sure. When is it? Do people have to dress nice for these things?"

"Tomorrow. And," Mikey pauses a moment to consider, "yes. I mean, no. Not nice, but there's this thing we do. It's okay, I'll have you covered. Just wear what you usually do."

Danny looks uncertain, but Mikey knows he'll accept. He gave Danny no other choice.

—

Mikey tries to gauge Danny's reaction when he passes over the hoodie. It's ten minutes to the start of the competition. They're backstage getting ready for the judge to call them out. At the moment, they're separated from the other team, but there's no rule against some friendly banter before things get going, so Mikey has a plan. A plan that needs Danny to wear this hoodie.

Danny holds it up, frowning at the design on the front. A fierce raven with bright green eyes carrying a bloodied snake in its beak; they're competing with Silver Valley today whose mascot is a snake. He picks up the hood, inspecting the mask sewn into it. It's a simple black masquerade mask with a long, beak-like nose.

"And this is... standard?" Danny asks, lowering the hoodie so he can look Mikey in the eyes.

Mikey nods emphatically. "Yeah. I know decathlons don't seem exciting, but we get really into it. Lots of people do this."

"And you just had a hoodie with this exact picture lying around?" Danny turns the hoodie around, displaying the graphic image on the front.

"Yeah. Lester wore it last time. He's let me borrow it for you today," Mikey lies. It actually cost him thirty bucks to get custom made, but the mask was cheap. Besides, the competition today has a cash prize, which will more than make up for it when his team wins.

"If you say so," Danny says. He shucks off his button up and pulls the hoodie on instead, pushing the hood down to rest at the back of his neck.

Mikey immediately pulls it back up and lowers the mask over Danny's eyes. "It's part of the school spirit," Mikey says.

"Riiight." Danny adjusts the mask, but he doesn't take it down. "Shouldn't I be sitting in the audience?"

"You will. But I wanted to introduce you to the other team first. It's a sportsmanship thing," Mikey explains. He beckons Danny forward, leading him down a long hall behind the stage. As the hall opens up into the wings of the stage, the other team comes into view.

Like Mikey and the other decathlon members, they wear matching jackets. Although where Casper's jackets are red, Silver Valley wears grey.

Danny stops just before stepping into their line of sight. "Mikey," he hisses. "I don't see anyone dressed like a snake over here."

"Just trust me. You want that physics help, right?" Mikey only feels a little guilty about tricking Danny like this. Mikey's not actually hurting him, and they aren't breaking any competition rules, so it's fine.

Danny shuffles his feet, giving the other team a solid once through, and nods.

"Hi, everyone!" Mikey says, drawing the team's attention. "We just wanted to come over and wish you good luck! Friendly competition and all that."

Watching them closely, Mikey catches the exact moment they lay eyes on Danny, and it is so much better than he could have hoped. The whole team freezes. Mikey can see their eyes dilating, like they've been shot with a burst of adrenaline, a little kick-starter in their fight-or-flight response. Judging by the way a few of them shuffle back, they're leaning toward flight.

Mikey revels in the fear in their eyes. "Good luck!" he says.

"Yeah." Mikey turns at Danny's voice. For a second, he thinks he sees something in Danny's eyes, something swirling and green. But in a blink, it's gone. Danny smiles brightly, but with the mask it looks downright villainous. "Good luck. I think you'll need it."

The Silver Valley team pales. Casper High wins by a landslide that day.

—

The story of Casper High's raven boy spreads from Silver Valley out to other schools. Most of them think it's just a rumour, but enough people pass it along that it eventually works its way back to Casper and into the ears of one Dash Baxter. Dash, being the proud jock he is, can't let himself be one-upped by a nerd.

"Hey, Fenton!" he calls out to Danny at lunch hour. Shoving his way between Sam and Tucker, Dash slams his hands down on the table. Danny flinches. "Relax, I'm not here to wail on you. For once."

Sam shoves Dash's hand off the table. "Great, then get the hell out of here," she says.

"Shut up, Manson. I ain't talking to you." Dash sneers. He turns his focus back to Danny. "I got a proposition for you."

"I can't believe he knows the word proposition," Tucker whispers.

"I said shut it!" Dash raises his hand to smack Foley upside the head. Halfway through the swing, Danny lurches forward and snatches Dash's wrist.

"Dash, if you want to make a deal or something, I don't think hitting my best friend is the right way to start," Danny says.

Dash scowls at him. He jerks his hand out of Danny's grip and steps back, rubbing his wrist. He won't say it out loud, but Danny's got a pretty good grip. "Yeah, whatever. He's not worth it anyway."

"Dash."

People are staring at them now. Most of them looking for a show Dash isn't going to give, at least not today. Eager to get this over with fast, Dash leans over until he's so close there's no way anyone could overhear them.

"Listen. You do one thing for me, and maybe I won't wail on you for a week," he says.

Danny shoots him a deadpan stare. "Maybe?"

"Fine," Dash relents. "I definitely won't."

"What do I have to do?"

"Come to our next football game."

"I'm sorry?"

"Are you deaf, Fenton? Come. To. The. Game." Dash enunciates carefully, slapping his palms down with each word, leaning closer in. Danny reels back so far that he has to grab the table to keep from slipping off the bench. "And wear the sweater."

Dash saunters away before Danny has a chance to respond. The prying eyes turn away then, more than a few disappointed by the turn of events. Danny ignores them in favour of turning to his friends.

"Do you guys know what sweater he's talking about?" he asks.

"Probably the one Mikey had you wear," Tucker says. "Because it's so s–" Sam kicks him under the table. "–exy! It's uh... it's a sexy sweater."

"Oh, my god." Sam drops her face into her hands.

—

Danny doesn't know it's not standard practice to shake hands with the opposing team's quarterback, and their backup quarterback, and their backup backup quarter back before a football game. But he is pretty sure it's weird for him, a random student, to be doing it instead of someone from the actual team.

"Just stand in front of 'em until they shake your hand, that's it," Dash says, shoving Danny toward the Waterford Heights Weasels. He waves impatiently, motioning Danny forward. Dash personally doesn't see what's so scary about the getup. A sweat with a bird and a mask, big whoop. But he's willing to try it, anyway.

"Think it'll work?" Kwan asks. They stand side-by-side, arms crossed, elbows brushing. The rest of the team mills about behind them, some of them spying on Fenton, others getting in the right headspace for the game. It's only a couple minutes to kickoff.

Dash shrugs. "Worth a shot."

It's a great night for a game. The sky is clear. It's not too chilly. There's still an hour before the sun will set. It means they'll have the light in their eyes for half the game, but if this works, that won't even matter.

Dash and Kwan watch Danny approach the first player. They made sure to give him the jersey numbers beforehand. Kwan, who has neater penmanship, wrote them down on Danny's palm. Their original idea was to have him greet the whole team but that would take too long. They settled for the key players instead.

Danny plants himself in front of the star quarterback and sticks his hand out. Dash snickers when the guy tries to step around Danny, and Danny sidesteps right back into his path. He says something and shoves his hand in the quarterback's direction again.

"You think Fenton's playing along?" Kwan asks.

"Nah. As if he even knows what's up. Did you see the blank look he gave me in the cafeteria? Besides, I upped the 'no-beating' time to two weeks if he did the handshakes."

Kwan touches his fingers as he silently counts the dates in his head. "That's the next home game."

"Yep. If this works tonight, I might just give him the offer again then."

The Waterford's quarterback eventually shakes Danny's hand, scurrying away as soon as he's released. Danny moves on to the next one.

That night, the Waterford Weasels don't get a single touchdown.

—

Danny is suddenly the most popular kid at school, at least amongst the jocks. Considering how much weight Casper High puts behind their athletic programs, that makes him pretty damn high on the food chain. Not that he seems to realize.

The basketball team, the volleyball team, even the cheerleaders. They drag a confused Danny along whenever they can and set him lose on the opposing team. There's always a bribe, of course. Everybody knows Danny isn't big into school spirit. He'd never gone to a single game before all this, after all.

At first, they're just using him. He freaks out the competition so much it throws them off their game, which means a lot more trophies to fill up Casper High's dusty case in the near future. Eventually, though, it becomes something else. There's still the raw, primal joy of seeing Danny scare the hell out of some outsiders, but they start inviting him to the after parties, too. They let Danny's friends tag along. Dash even gives him a friendly slap on the back one day when they're passing in the hall.

Three months ago, nothing like that would have happened. Three months ago, Dash would have stuffed you in a locker for even suggesting it.

By some miracle, they manage to keep the teachers out of the loop. If any of them asks, the students either answer with a shrug, or suggest that Fenton's turned a new leaf and he's really into school spirit now. Most of them go for the shrug.

It doesn't last forever, though. The students get bolder, inviting Danny to away games outside the city. He rejects most of them, no matter how sweet the bribe, with a number of excuses.

"I have homework."

"I've got some extracurricular stuff to work on."

"I don't have a car."

"You don't need a car, we've got a bus!" Dash says.

Danny, already turning to walk away, stops. "What?"

"You can ride on the team bus with us," Dash says. It's not exactly conventional, but they've got the room for it. All they have to do is sneak Danny past Tetslaff and keep him out of sight until they're on the road. There's not much she can do about it once they've already set out.

"Are you serious?" Danny asks.

Dash rolls his eyes, not even deigning Danny with a proper response. Fishing his notebook out his backpack, Dash quickly scribbles out the time and date of the away game, plus when the team bus is going to leave.

Danny eyes the piece of paper, frowning as he tries to decipher Dash's cramped handwriting.. "You don't even know if I'll show up."

"You'll show up."

"I doubt it."

—

Danny shows up. He meets Dash by the back door, already donning the sweater he's now permanently borrowed from Mikey. He asked Mikey if Lester would ever want it back, but Mikey assured him his debt is settled. Whatever that means.

"Tetslaff usually waits until all the equipment is loaded up before getting on. We just have to sneak you by her, which won't be too hard," Dash says.

"You realize I'm not shorter than you anymore, right?" Danny asks.

Dash squints. No, he hadn't, actually. Even though they see each other every day, Dash still pictures Danny as the same wimpy kid from freshman year. But Danny's right. He has a few inches on Dash, now that they're a couple years older, although he's still got nothing in terms of muscle mass. Just looking at him, Dash is pretty sure Mikey has more muscle than Danny does.

"Whatever, let's just go." Dash leads Danny over to the bus.

Tetself stands with her back to them. She oversees the rest of the team as they throw their equipment bags into the storage compartment at the bottom of the bus. She's completely oblivious to the two rule breakers heading her way.

But Kwan and Dale see coming from afar and jog over to join them. They fall into step on Dash's left, making a little wall between Danny and Tetslaff. If Danny ducks his head, he's completely out of view. They're almost home free, a few feet from the bus, when Danny's foot slips into a rut in the grass he careens forward.

He cries out in shock, throwing his arms out to catch himself. Dash manages to snag his arm before he hits the ground, jerking Danny to a stop. He hangs there a moment, body limp, blinking at the grass and wondering if that really just happened.

"Daniel Fenton, what are you doing?" Tetslaff asks.

Dash jostles Danny out of his daze. He scrambles upright, brushing himself off as Tetslaff approaches. She stops right in front of him, fists on her hip, her glare stern.

"Getting on the bus?" Danny says.

Behind Tetslaff, Dash slaps a hand against his face.

"Only team members are allowed on the team bus. Those are the rules."

"But coach, he's out lucky charm!" Dash protests.

Tetslaff turns, squinting at Dash. Crossing her arms, she leans toward him. "Oh, yeah? How so?"

Dash, Kwan, and Dale share a long, considering look. Kwan shrugs. Dale tilts his head back. Shooting Danny a wary glance, Dash beckons Tetslaff over, out of earshot. She stays rooted to the spot.

"Please, Coach?"

Normally, a little something like saying please wouldn't do a lick of help in swaying Tetslaff. She's as stubborn as her arms are thick. But today, she feels a little indulgent. The team's being doing great, both in practice and on field. She's willing to give a little, if only for all the effort they're giving her back.

With a sigh, Tetslaff follows Dash.

"He scares the hell out of the other players so that they mess up and we win," Dash confesses once they're out of earshot.

Tetslaff's eyebrows shoot up her forehead. "Fear tactics, huh? Didn't want to rely on you own skill?"

"That's not it! I know we're a great team. We don't need Fenton. But he makes us work harder for it. He's kind of motivating, you know?"

Tetslaff looks at Dash and says nothing. With a shake of her head, she marches back to Danny. "Mr. Fenton, you're coming with me."

Danny gives the team a helpless look, a weak shrug, and follows their coach back into the school.

"Damn," Kwan says. "Almost had it."

"Did you mean what you said about Fenton, Dash?" Dale asks.

"I think I did?" Dash watches Danny and Tetslaff until they disappear through the doors. "I don't know about you guys, but whenever he scares the other team, I kind of want to earn that."

Dale nods. "Man, I wanted to see the fear in their eyes.

"Huh." Kwan taps his chin, deep in thought. "Does anyone else think we should be concerned about the fact that we enjoy that so much?"

All at once, more than half the team drones, "Nah."

"I think you're right, though," Kwan says to Dash. "Having Danny around is kind of fun."

"Today's game is gonna be so boring." Dale moans in disappointed. He boards the bus, quickly followed by his teammates. Soon enough, everyone is on and in their seats. All they need is for Tetslaff to return. She's gone for a solid ten minutes. There are still a few hours before the game starts, but it makes the players antsy. Dash keeps checking out the window for any sign of her.

The school's back door opens. Dash perks up, leaning toward the glass as Tetslaff steps out. She holds the door open. Danny comes out after her. And he's wearing the official Casper High Raven costume.

"Boys!" Tetslaff says when she climbs back on the boss. "Say hello to our new mascot!"

Her declaration is met with a round of cheers.

—

It's two hours before the game. Danny sits on a bench outside the locker rooms, the raven head resting beside him. When Tetslaff offered to make him the mascot, he admittedly hesitated. In the past, he didn't have time for stuff like this. But things are a little easier now, ghost-wise. His parents are better hunters. Valerie proves time and again how capable she is. The ghosts themselves have even backed off a little since Danny started junior year.

For the first time since starting high school, he actually has the time to do high school things outside of homework. It won't be his first time acting as the official mascot, either. He used to fill in for the mascot in freshman year, before things got too much for Danny to handle and he had to drop it.

He wishes Tetslaff let him keep wearing his hoodie, though. The raven costume isn't that comfortable.

The door to the locker rooms opens. Paulina steps through, already in her cheerleading outfit even though there's still an hour before she needs to be on the field. She takes one look at Danny and says, "Oh, hell no."

Danny recoils, offended. He thought they were on sort of good terms after everything with Whitney, but apparently, he was wrong.

"Tetslaff already made me the mascot, Paulina. I'm here whether you like it or not," he says.

"No, duh. I'm pretty sure you two were the only ones who didn't know you're are mascot." Paulina flicks the shoulder of the raven suit. It makes a dull thunk. The plastic feathers barely twitch. "But you're not scaring anyone in that thing. What are you gonna do, say 'boo?'"

Danny thinks about all the little tricks he has up his sleeve and grins. "I think you'd be surprise."

The costume may be bulky and round, with a wide friendly smile that gives one of those "huggable mascot" looks, but Danny's a ghost. If anybody can do scary, it's him. The past few months have proved that nicely.

"Wait, wait, wait," Paulina says, holding up her hands. She pivots in front of Danny and grabs his shoulders. "You know that you scare people?"

"I mean, yeah? It's kind of hard not to." Danny shakes his head. After the fifth time some stranger flinches away from your touch, you start piecing things together.

"And you never said anything?"

Danny honestly didn't think he had to. Did everyone just expect him not to catch on? Yes. Yes, they did. But that's not the point right now. Danny rubs the back of his neck and chuckles nervously. "I don't really care much about being popular anymore, but it's kind of nice to be invited to stuff, you know?"

Paulina doesn't believe him for a second. She crosses her arms and gives him a critical star. "And?" she asks.

Danny looks at her, looks away. Kicks the grass with his foot. He knows exactly what she wants to hear. He wants to deny it, but he can't. Sheepishly, he admits, "And it's kind of fun."

"Perfect. Then you won't mind what I'm about to do to you."

"Wait, what? Paulina, I– ah!" Paulina grabs his arm and drags him into the girl's locker room.

—

Danny holds himself perfectly still, arms out from his body. "Paulina, I don't think–"

"Ah, ah, ah! I'm almost done! No moving. And make sure you don't lean back against things too much, or else you'll smudge it." Paulina peers under Danny's arm, holding a paintbrush slathered in blue body paint so dark it's almost black.

"Aren't our team colours red and white?" Danny asks. Turning his arms over, he scans the parts of his skin Paulina has already finished painting. Bold feathers cover most of his upper arm, going up his shoulder and, from what Danny could feel as Paulina worked, down his back. She won't let him see what she's doing, though. He hopes it's cool.

"You mean the most boring colours in team colour history?" Paulina scoffs. She steps back, admiring her work for a moment, and drops her brush in the can of body paint. "I've been trying to get Ishiyama to change the school colours for years. Maybe with this, she will."

"Are you don’t yet?"

"Boy, I worked hard on this, let me breathe it in before you go out there and ruin it."

"Mikey's hoodie was scarier."

"Mikey's hoodie was garish. This is a work of art."

Danny picks at his new pants, heavy things made of a thick material and covered in a generous layer of black feathers. At least his legs will be warm tonight.

"You think I'm scarier without a shirt on? Gee, thanks." Danny rolls his eyes. He's not as offended as he sounds, though. Being a half ghost has led to some physical qualities he would rather do without, but can't do anything to change. Like an incredibly fast metabolism that burns through everything he eats before he even has a chance to taste it. Jazz keeps telling him he has to start making health choices, so he doesn't pass out or keel over from hunger.

He tries, but there's only so much he can do, and his ribs seem to be permanently on display. Danny pokes them now, scowling at how they press against his skin. That is so not healthy. He lets his hand drop back to the feathered pants.

"Where did you even get this on such short notice?" he asks. All Paulina did was make a phone call, then someone came buy and dropped off a paper bag with the pants, body paint, and a smaller plastic bag inside.

"I already had it made, silly. I told you, that sweater was so ugly. I couldn't let you keep repping Casper High in something like that." The noise Paulina makes is nothing short of disgusted. She really hates Mikey's sweater, effective as it was. But this is going to be glorious.

Danny peeks over his shoulder, trying to catch his reflection in the mirror, but he can't get a good view.

"Look straight," Paulina commands, pushing Danny's cheek. She raises his arms. "Hold them out like this, perfectly still. Perfect."

She takes out her phone and snaps a few photos of Danny's back. Flicking through them, she chooses the best one, posting it to the Casper Ravens twitter page with the caption "new mascot unveiling tonight." Once she's done, she passes her phone to Danny to show him her handiwork.

"Whoa." Danny stares down at the delicately painted wings on his back. Paulina made them just right so that when he raises his arms, it looks like the wings are unfurling. "Okay, that's a lot cooler than Mikey's hoodie. A shirt would still be nice, though."

"It'd take away from the look. You're practically a skeleton. What'll freak people out more than that?"

"Really feeling the love, Paulie."

"No using my nickname for her!" Star shouts from behind a row of lockers.

Paulina shooed the other girls to the other side of the room when she brought Danny in to give him his new look. By now, they are all changed into their uniforms and ready to show they're spirit.

"Okay. I'll just call her Lina instead."

"Please, god, no." Paulina groans. "That name is so stupid."

The other cheerleaders giggle as they join Danny and Paulina in the main room. They look nice, wearing their matching pleated skirts and crop tops. With their hands on their hips, the pom-poms give their steps a little extra bounce.

"We know you haven't choreographed anything. Just do your think, and we'll do ours. I know you aren't as clumsy as people think," Star says. She gives Danny an encouraging pat on his cheek. It is not as motivating as she thinks it is.

The girls start lining up by the door, doing a few small jumps to get their blood pumping. Danny does the same, shaking out his arms and hopping from foot to foot. He moves to take his place at the end of the line.

"Hold it!"

"Oh, what now?" Danny groans, slumping over. Paulina's shoes invade his vision. She sticks a plastic bag under his nose, holding it out for him to take. "What's this?"

"The last piece of your costume. It's my favourite."

Danny removes the piece from the bag. He grins wickedly.

—

Balmoral High, as the home team, runs onto the field first. Having heard of Caspers' unusual intimidation tactics, they came prepared. The players run onto the field amidst a burst of sparklers and strobe lights flashing their team colours. It pumps up the crowd, just as it's meant to, and the team is met with a roar of approval.

They pump their fists, leaping and bounding across the field. Cheerleaders in short skirts and shorter tops wave their pom-poms, do cartwheels and flips, and spur the crowd on. Their mascot runs on last. A guy in a bear costume, his raises his arms and roars, slashing his paws through the air.

It's all very cute.

Casper High comes in with far less fanfare. The cheerleaders are first, swishing their hips and blowing kisses at the crowd. Raising their voices, they cry out to the crowd. "We're the corvid to your carrion! We're here to fight to the break of dawn!" The few people from Amity Park who could make the trek to the neighbouring city cheer back, cranking their noise makers and stomping their feet. The players charge in next, thrusting their helmets in the air. They have feathers paint on their cheeks.

A few Balmoral players snort, bumping elbows and pointing to the face paint. When the last Casper student runs onto the field, all of Balmoral turns to watch for the infamous mascot. No one comes.

"Ha!" Balmoral's linebacker, in the middle of the team huddle, shouts. It would seem that Casper's reputation isn't all it's cracked up to be.

"Excuse me?"

The linebacker freezes, feeling a tap on his shoulder. He turns, slowly, and sees a boy wearing raven skull mask and a devilish grin.

"Boo."

#phic phight #phic phight 2020 #tumblroneshots #danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #phanfiction #phanfic #phicc #I had fun coming up with the cheer at the end #mascot!au

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aslanjadecarlyle · 3 years ago

Text

out of my mind (asheiji)

You may also find this oneshot on my AO3 account: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33591019

Rating: G

Warning(s): Elements of PTSD, anxiety

In order to learn Japanese, Ash subjects himself to harassment from a stalker green owl.

They arrived in Japan a week ago, and Eiji was only now going grocery shopping. He was a terrible host.

He’d been hesitant about leaving Ash alone, but Ash insisted. It was in the middle of the day, not nighttime when he was prone to frightening dreams. And, he’d been given the numbers of Eiji’s parents. They didn’t know English as well as their son, but they knew enough to check in on Ash if he needed them.

That was, if he texted them in the first place. If Ash knew Eiji had put them on “babysitting duty,” as Ash called it, he’d become very upset. Since arriving in Japan, he was insistent that he was all right, but still, Eiji worried. It may be undiagnosed, but it was quite clear that Ash had PTSD. Eiji was still working to convince him on getting a proper diagnosis and resulting treatment.

It wasn’t easy. Eiji had to remind himself to take akachan no suteppu with Ash. Baby steps.

But, the fact that they were in Japan together was already a miracle in and of itself.

And, Eiji was pretty proud of himself. He’d hurried a bit while shopping, but, as a result, had been gone only about an hour. It is just past two p.m. when he slides his key into the lock and opens the door.

“Honey, I home!” he sings out.

Silence.

Eiji frowns. Nerves erupt in his stomach, but he shakes his head. He can’t worry yet. Ash probably has headphones in. He’s probably listening to music or reading a book or watching a show or—

Deep breaths.

Their front door opens into a tiny entryway, which spills into the kitchen. Eiji stops to set the groceries on the counter before following the flow of the kitchen into the living room.

Relief floods his chest and he’s able to breathe easily again as he locates Ash. He’s lying upside down on the couch, head to the floor and feet, clad in his favorite red Converse, kicked up on the couch’s back. His blond hair spills onto the floor and he’s glaring at his phone, held close to his face. He’s wearing his glasses.

“Ash-u!” Eiji scolds, laughter in his voice now that he’s relaxed, “No shoes on furniture!”

Ash startles, phone falling in his face before he tumbles, falling to the side and off the couch entirely. Landing on the floor, he’s not looking directly at Eiji, but, rather, glares in Eiji’s general direction.

“Ow,” he complains.

Eiji’s delighted laughter fills the room before he can think to cover his mouth with his hand and attempt to stifle his giggles. Ash continues to glare at him as he lies on the floor, not bothering to get up.

“You’re so mean,” he huffs.

Eiji smiles as his hand falls away from his mouth. “Sorry. Am I interrupting something?” He glances at Ash’s phone, which lies on the floor. The screen has gone black.

Ash takes a moment to readjust, getting up from the floor and sitting on the couch normally. As he grabs his phone and turns it on again, he declares, “I’m being stalked.”

Eiji pauses. His smile fades as uncertainty fills him. “What?”

“Yeah. By a murderous green owl.”

It takes a moment to click.

“Oh!” Eiji’s smile returns. “That app you download.”

Upon their arrival in Japan, Ash had decided that he was going to teach himself Japanese. He’d downloaded a language-learning app a few days ago. That way, he could learn even when Eiji was too busy to teach him himself.

And, with an IQ of over 200, he was quite the quick learner.

“Yeah,” Ash huffs again, “I’m only on a four day streak, but this owl is already clingier than Max and Jessica.”

Eiji smiles. “Make much progress?”

“I’m almost done with Hiragana. Then it’s onto Katakana.”

Eiji’s eyes widen slightly. Rather than point out the fact that the app is lacking Japan’s third writing system, he asks, “Almost done? You only finish one or two lessons yesterday. Couple others day before that.”

“Yeah,” Ash mumbles. Glancing at his phone again, he’s quite obvious about the fact that he will no longer look at Eiji, “Almost done.”

The first day Ash downloaded the app, he’d focused on nothing but his lessons in the midst of a terrible anxiety attack. Eiji hadn’t been able to break him out of it for hours.

“Ash-u…”

The boy clenches his jaw, still avoiding Eiji’s worried gaze.

Dark eyes filling with concern, Eiji comes closer and sits by Ash on the couch. Ash stiffens, but doesn’t scoot away, and he continues to stare down, unblinking, at his phone.

Eiji’s movements are slow and careful as he covers the phone’s screen with his hand. Ash’s head snaps up, but he doesn’t say anything.

“It happen when I leave?”

Ash stares at him. He doesn’t move.

“I sorry. I should not have left you alone. It was baka. Orokashī.”

Ash side-eyes him. “What?”

His voice tremors and Eiji’s heart clenches in his chest.

“Foolish. Stupid.”

“You’re not stupid, Eiji.”

“No,” Eiji agrees, “but I did stupid thing.”

Ash stares down into his lap. His phone is still in his palm, but now the screen is off and Eiji is still covering it with his hand.

“May I take phone?” Eiji asks gently.

Ash hesitates, fingers instinctively curling around the phone like a lifeline.

But, he forces himself to breathe, and, slowly, his grip loosens. His hand trembles a little as he drops it to his knee, but he nods.

Eiji smiles. He gets up for a moment, sets Ash’s phone out of sight atop a bookshelf. When he comes back, he sits beside Ash again and takes Ash’s hands in his.

“Okay?”

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Ash nods.

Smiling, Eiji rubs the pad of his thumb over Ash’s palm. He knows that Ash hates his hands, hates what they’ve done, but right now they are warm. Soft despite slight calluses. He squeezes them gently, looking up at Ash as he does so.

Ash’s eyes are filling with tears.

“Hey,” Eiji speaks, voice quiet, “It okay. You okay. Wherever your mind take you, you here with me. You safe.”

“Can I lay down?” Ash whispers.

“Of course.”

Eiji had thought that Ash meant to get up and go lay down in his bedroom. But, instead, Ash lowers himself there on the couch, curling his long legs onto the sofa and lying with his head in Eiji’s lap. His hand rests lightly on Eiji’s thigh and he closes his eyes.

“Sleepy?” Eiji asks.

“A little,” Ash mumbles. He doesn’t sleep very well at night.

Eiji pauses for a moment, considering. Careful not to move too quickly, he runs his fingers through Ash’s blond hair.

“This okay?” he asks, voice hardly above a whisper.

A long sigh escapes Ash’s parted lips. “Yes. Perfect, Eiji.”

“If you fall sleep,” Eiji says, “try not to dream of stalker green owl.”

Despite the exhaustion that has started to settle in his bones, Ash’s eyes open as he snickers. “No promises. He’ll be sending me notifications within the hour.”

“You can delete app?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Spite.”

Eiji pauses for a moment. Then, he throws his head back and laughs.

His laugh, Ash thinks, is absolutely beautiful.

As Eiji settles, his fingers resume running through Ash’s hair. The anxiety still lingers in the pit of Ash’s stomach, but he’s able to focus more on Eiji’s touch, his fingers. After a few minutes, the heaviness in his eyelids wins out and his eyes flutter closed.

“Good night, Eiji,” Ash mumbles.

He can hear the smile in Eiji’s voice as he responds, “Oyasumi.”

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 4 years ago

Text

Won’t You Stay (Part 15)

Summary: After the accident, the reader learns a secret of Jensen’s and the two start moving into the next phase of their relationship...

Masterlist

Square: Against The Wall

Pairing: Jensen x Director!reader

Word Count: 3,300ish

Warnings: mature (language, post domestic abuse, body image issues, smut (protected sex, wall sex, shower sex, hand job))

A/N: Please enjoy! Also written for @spnkinkbingo

_____

Sunday Night

“Everybody make it home alright?” asked Jensen the next night when you stopped over his apartment. You hummed and went straight for his fridge, finding a beer and cracking it open. You drank half of it down before you went to his couch and lay down on it, staring up at the ceiling.

“Did you see yourself on the news? You’re apparently a badass,” you said.

“My mom wasn’t too thrilled,” he said as he sat down in the chair, kicking his feet up on his coffee table. “She was very proud though.”

“She know we’re dating?” you asked.

“Yeah. She was surprised,” he said. “I haven’t dated for a while.”

You sat up and passed over the can of beer, Jensen taking a long drink, setting the empty can down on the coffee table. He rested his elbow against the chair arm and rested his head in it, looking over at you.

“My old girlfriend made a lot of comments about my body, like I said before. What I didn’t know was that for a while, she was putting diet pills in my coffee in the morning.”

You scrunched up your face and he nodded.

“I felt like shit. I was concerned. I thought something was seriously wrong and she never told me. I had tests done and the doctors couldn’t figure out what was making me lose weight. I lost a movie role because I got too small. I was miserable, except for her. She’d made me entirely reliant on her without me ever realizing. Then one night when my stomach was killing me, I looked for some pain medicine. I looked in her purse when there was none in the kitchen and that’s when I found the pills. I blew up on her and she did the interview right after and threatened me if I thought about leaving. Well, I dumped her ass and got the hell out of there.”

“I don’t understand some people,” you said as you held out your hands. Jensen stared and you opened your palms up, squeezing them shut a few times. He stood and walked over, letting you pull him down to the couch and into your lap. “You are perfect. That was so dangerous of her to do. Are you okay now?”

“Yeah. It took a bit but my system got back on track eventually,” he said. He was quiet as he sat back against your chest, your legs resting over top of his, Jensen nuzzling his head under your chin. “Don’t tell anyone, please.”

“I won’t,” you said.

“I know.”

You kissed the top of his head, Jensen finding your injured hand and holding it up.

“I hope you wanted all of this buzz. The Dark Woods is the most anticipated movie of the year now,” said Jensen.

“Strangely I don’t think the pressure will be that bad. What more can get thrown at us?” you said.

“I’d like some peace and quiet,” he hummed as he shut his eyes.

“Call it an early night?” you asked. “I’ll even big spoon ya.”

“I am big spoon, little missy,” he said despite burrowing more into you.

“Jay.”

“On occasion you can big spoon,” he said. “...Like tonight.”

“That’s my adorable boy,” you said.

“I’ve never been a proper little spoon actually,” he said.

“Oh, that changes tonight, Ackles. Get that cute tush up and let’s hit the hay. We’ve earned it.”

“This is kinda fun,” you giggled a few days later, flipping around in your harness a few feet off the ground.

“Our fearless leader,” said AJ, Jensen doing his own spins close by. “So your dad says he’s good for the stunt. Medical technically cleared him but ultimately it’s your call.”

“Dad,” you said, hanging upside down. He lifted his head up from his script and you waved him out of his chair and over to you. “I hear you want to do the stunt today.”

“Medical cleared me,” he said.

“I heard. You also have a concussion and your arm is still healing,” you said.

“It’s one drop on a wire,” he said.

“And say one in a million worst case scenario, you’re up in the air, something breaks and you fall. What then?” you asked. He sighed and threw his head back.

“Alright. I won’t do it,” he said.

“Jensen came up with a way for you to still do the stunt. Safely,” you said. Your dad tilted his head and you smiled. “Did...did we figure out something about this business you don’t know about? Oh, that’s awesome.”

“I’d be interested to hear what it is,” he said.

“So Jay and I can do the stunt like normal but for you, you’re gonna lie up on a platform with a camera below you and the camera is going to pull back,” you said.

“To make it look like you’re falling,” said Jensen. “Cut it with the other shots and nobody ever knows the difference.”

“Huh. That might just work. What gave you that idea?” he asked.

“We were playing with Jensen’s camera last night being stupid and it fell off the counter and we thought maybe that would work,” you said. “Jensen would like to try directing someday even.”

“Little power couple you two are turning out to be,” he said.

“Mark said we could pull it off,” you said. “You okay with that?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with it,” he smiled. “You’re in charge, boss.”

He went back to his chair and his script, Jensen righting himself.

“That went better than you were expecting,” he said.

“He gave in because I asked,” you said.

“He’ll be better by the time more stunt stuff pops up,” he said.

“Remind me to write less physical stuff for Hale in the third book,” you said.

“There’s gonna be a third book?” he said. “Yes!”

“I have an idea for how it all wraps up. Nothing is written yet,” you said.

“Can I read your drafts? Please? Pretty please?” he asked, bouncing up and down in his harness. “Please?”

“Perhaps,” you teased. “Maybe I’ll even tell you about Damian.”

“Who is Damian? Do not tease me like this woman,” he said as you started to laugh. “Y/N! That’s not fair.”

“Alright fanboy, once I get writing you can have a sneak peek,” you said.

“Awesome,” he said, doing a fist pump.

“We ready to roll yet?” you called.

“Five minutes and then it’s all yours,” said someone else.

“While you two are up there, I might as well use the opportunity,” said your dad from his chair. He smirked and pulled out his phone.

“No, no,” you said. “Dad! No! No embarrassing pictures!”

“Dad yes,” he laughed to himself, taking a few pictures. “Those will go nice on Instagram.”

“Next time I’m leaving you in the burning car!” you said. “I swear I’ll do it.”

“Oh wait, one more,” he said, spinning around to get a selfie with the three of you in it. “That’s the one.”

“Jensen, please tell me you have a normal father,” you said.

“I have a horrible feeling our dad’s would get along very, very well,” he said.

“I look forward to meeting my partner in crime,” said your dad.

“Oh. Lovely,” you said.

“We will delay the torture as much as possible, I promise,” said Jensen.

“We’ll see about that kid,” said your dad.

“Go sit down, you’re supposed to rest,” you said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, plopping back down. You felt yourself get pulled up and some crew walk over.

“Alright. I think we’re ready to start again.”

Two Weeks Later

“Oh my God. I am so happy to be home,” you said, shutting the door to find the apartment smelling like fresh cookies that night. “If you made me dessert, I am having sex with you tonight, even if I am exhausted.”

“I could very easily do all the work,” said Jensen, smiling as he stepped out of the kitchen, looking you up and down.

“Double fudgy chocolate chip,” you said, smirking as you saw the cookies on a plate. “That looks-”

Jensen grabbed your hips and walked you back against the wall, devouring you in a hungry kiss.

“Someone got horny in the four hours we haven’t seen each other,” you giggled.

“What can I say, I missed you,” he teased, working on getting your jeans off already. “And I may have found your super super super secret Lyle folder on your computer.”

“Oh no,” you said, immediately covering your face, Jensen chuckling as he pulled your pants down along with your underwear.

“You did give me access to your Lyle drive. I am so very happy I got access to your Lyle drive,” he said. He broke off for a minute before suddenly he grabbed your hips and pushed you up the wall. You yelped and threw your arms around the back of his shoulders, a condom over his now exposed cock. “The one about Lyle fucking Molly when she got home was too good to pass up.”

“Fuck, Jensen,” you said as he slid inside of you, your legs wrapping around his back. “You don’t do this.”

“I think we ought to start,” he said, kissing your neck and delivering a quick thrust that sucked the air out of your lungs.

“Why are you so good at everything?” you breathed out, getting lost in a kiss from him.

“Because screwing you is too much fun,” he said, smiling as he picked up speed and you pushed further up the wall. You held on tight, Jensen a bit rougher than you were used to from him but you did not mind at all.

“I feel a slight problem coming on,” you grunted, Jensen panting against your skin. “I don’t think you’re gonna be able to hold me up long enough to get me off.”

“Oh you shouldn’t have said that,” smirked Jensen. He pulled back and let you fall down the wall some before he thrust in again, a gasp falling from your lips. He did it again and you felt a slightly different pressure build in your core.

“Fuck,” you said, throwing your head back against the wall but not even caring.

“You can do it on your own,” he said, hands digging bruises into your thighs. “Come on, Y/N. Let loose.”

“I can’t,” you said, dropping your head on his shoulder, catching him slide in and out of you. “I can’t do it just that way.”

“Yes you can. Trust me. Don’t hold on so tight with those legs and let that gorgeous ass slide down. I won’t let you fall,” he said.

You hummed and eased the tension in your legs some, your body dropping down slightly as he thrust inside, hitting what you determined had to be your g-spot.

“Fucking shit,” you said, Jensen doing it again and again, your head spinning. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

You came without warning, a deep wave of pleasure settling through you that kept going, Jensen groaning as you felt him throb and eventually slow his thrusts.

“Fuck is right,” he said, shakily bringing you down to the floor before he lay back, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. “Give a man some warning before you try to kill him.”

“Sorry. Never...came from just that before,” you said, rolling off of him.

“Awesome,” he said. “Just needed the right angle for it.”

“Feel free to greet me that way anytime you feel like it,” you said.

“I will,” he said. He sat up and stroked your cheek softly before he got up, discarding the condom in the trash. “Shower?”

“Sure,” you said, staring up at him. He scooped you up in his arms, humming as he carried you into the bathroom. He set you down and you peeled off your shirt and bra, stepping under the shower head while he washed up at the sink.

“You didn’t eat yet, did you?” he asked.

“No. Not since lunch,” you said, putting a hand on your stomach when it grumbled.

“I made tacos out of leftovers from lunch today,” he said. “Want me to make some up for you?”

“Yeah. Thank you,” you said, tilting your head back. “Where’d you get the leftovers from? You ate all your lunch.”

“I went back for another serving. They stuck it in a tupperware container for me. Your dad mentioned it to me. He said there’s always leftovers. It makes for an easy dinner after a long day.”

“Oh yeah,” you said, smiling to yourself. “He used to do that a lot when I was little.”

“He asked on my way out today if we were living together,” he said. You turned around and looked at him through the steamy shower door.

“What’d you say?”

“Not much. I mean, it’s not every night we stay over each other’s places,” he said.

“True,” you said, spinning around, running some soap over your body. The door opened behind you and you looked over your shoulder, Jensen opening his mouth. “We haven’t been together that long. Barely a month and a half.”

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s what I said.”

“It would be irresponsible,” you said, turning around, Jensen swallowing as he looked you up and down. “It’s way too fast. Especially considering both of our pasts.”

“I completely agree,” he said.

“Good. We’re on the same page,” you said. He stared at you and you grabbed his shirt as he took a step forward into the shower. He kissed you roughly, walking the two of you under the water as you worked on getting his now soaked shirt off.

“Totally same page,” he said, ripping his shirt off his head. Green eyes and creamy skin greeted you as you kissed his jaw, pushing him back against the wall. “Or we could say fuck it and move in together.”

“I’m all for fucking it,” you said, reaching down and wrapping your fingers around his cock.

“Y/N, too soon,” he said.

“You can do it,” you said, winking at him as you stroked him slowly.

“My lease is up next month,” he breathed out, giving small thrusts of his hips into your hand. “If you’re serious.”

“When’s the last time you were even at your apartment?” you asked, brushing your lips over his scruff, Jensen shutting his eyes.

“A week ago,” he said. “I don’t want to ruin this.”

“Me either,” you said.

“Think we will?”

“Not really,” you said.

“What makes you say that?”

“Two months ago I was pretending to be happy. Now I am,” you said. He grinned and you made your fist tighter, Jensen rocking and back forth into it.

“Let’s do it,” he said.

“You sure?” you asked.

“I’m sure,” he said.

“Good,” you said. You smirked and jerked your hand around him, sucking at his neck as he came. He grunted and you moved away slowly. “My shower is bigger than yours after all.”

“I uh, I’m gonna heat up your dinner,” he said, taking a few shaky steps out the door. “Once my legs work again.”

“Take your time,” you said. “I have to wash up again anyways.”

Ten minutes later you stepped out of the bedroom in a pair of shorts and pajama shirt, Jensen scraping some meat and veggies from a pan into a tortilla shell. He slid the plate over to you and you started to eat, closing your eyes halfway through. You opened them when he put a glass down for you. You watched him clean up the pan and leave it in the sink to soak, smiling as he put some of the cooled off cookies in a container for later.

“Thanks for making me dinner,” you said, rubbing your eye as you finished up.

“It’s no problem. You’re exhausted by the end of the day,” he said, ruffling your hair as he took your plate away and set two cookies on a napkin in front of you.

“Still. You are too,” you said, taking a bite and popping the rest in your mouth.

“Yeah but I get breaks during the day and all I have to worry about is acting. You have to do my job and yours,” he said.

“I am so never acting again after this,” you said, eating the other one and wiping off your hands.

“I’m sure you’ll do some. At least Molly,” he said.

“If the movie doesn’t flop that is. You know how books turned into movies can go,” you said.

“Yeah but how often does the author get to do the screenplay conversion and direct? It’ll do very well. Your dad’s movies never flop,” he said.

“I suppose you have a point,” you said. “The trailer is going to need to be good.”

“You have to be months away from a trailer,” he said.

“I have a first trailer due out in two weeks,” you said. “We won’t even be done filming by then.”

“Do you get to pick what goes in that?” he asked as he checked the front door was locked, wandering back into the kitchen.

“Yeah. I have to be careful. I am so not doing one of those trailers that gives the movie away but I know the studio will push to put some of the bigger scenes in it,” you said.

“Do some of your wide location shots. Those ones you have of the forest are very pretty but still creepy in a way. Do some of those, throw in some questionable Hale and some of Lyle looking over his shoulder nervous. I’d go see that,” he said.

“...That’s not half bad,” you said. “You want to come in with me next Saturday to work it with the editor?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. You have a mind for directing,” you said. “You don’t have to. I’ll be busy most of the day with that is all.”

“I’d actually really like to. I’m interested in the behind the camera stuff,” he said.

“Sounds good then,” you said. He smiled and leaned over the counter, smirking at you as you yawned. “What time is it?”

“Almost one in the morning,” he said.

“Let’s make a deal. As soon as filming is done, we take a week off and sleep,” you said. He laughed as you climbed off the stool. He threw an arm around your back and walked you into the bedroom, flipping off the light as you plopped down on top of the covers.

“Under the covers, silly girl,” he said. You were already half asleep though, Jensen pulling you up and moving you around before he was tucking you in. “Sleep tight, Y/N.”

“You too, Jens.”

____

A/N: Read Part 16 here!

#spnkinkbingo #supernatural #spn #jensen x reader #jensen ackles #supernatural series #supernatural reader insert #jensen ackles x reader #spn reader insert #jensen reader insert #jensen x #jensen ackles x you

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btxtreads · 4 years ago

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the world ends with you | choi yeonjun (7)

How can someone fall in love at the most incovenient time?

➴ Pairing: Choi Yeonjun x Reader ➴ Rating: R-13 ➴ Word Count: 1.4k ➴ Genre: Multiverse!AU, Fluff, Angst, My usual taehyun is the smartest out of everybody trope

October 2005.

Choi Daniel - Subject KR99-1 Korean Descent; September 13, 1999 6 years old. Powers: Telekinesis; Reality Manipulation Current Status: Not hostile. Family escaped laboratories—left boy abandoned. Tests ongoing.

The small brown-haired boy with sparkling eyes full of wonder gasped as the man donned in a white doctor’s coat sat down on the chair in front of him.

“Hi, Dr. Song!” he greeted brightly, eyes almost disappearing with how much he smiled.

“Hello, Daniel. How have you been doing in Montauk so far?” Dr. Song asked as the boy fidgeted in his chair—ever the over-excited child.

“Hm, nothing!” He replied, letting his feet kick. “I just miss mommy and daddy. I haven’t seen them for two years, you know!”

“You’ll be with them soon, Daniel, but for now you can behave right?”

“Yes.”

“What a nice boy, you deserve a treat!” The doctor replied, pulling out a small bag of cookies. “Just for you, Daniel.”

The boy giggled and took a small bite of the cookie, opening his mouth to gasp—letting cookie crumbs fall out as he snapped his head over to the doctor.

“You know what would be nice, Dr. Song?”

“What?”

“A planet made out of candy!” Daniel cheered, throwing his hands up, “Imagine how cool would that be?”

The boy then launched into a lengthy narration of all the details regarding his makeshift candy universe.

“You know, that candy world is so unhealthy—you’ll have cavities and have all your teeth fall off. Would you like that to happen?” Dr. Song started.

The boy hummed, tilting his head.

“Hm, I guess not,” the boy shrugged.

“Dr. Song, please proceed to the control room. This is an urgent matter.”

As soon as he bid another farewell to the boy and closed the door, Dr. Song booked it to the laboratories to see a large image on a satellite.

It was a giant pink planet with white swirls.

“What is this?”

“Sir, it was a planet that suddenly popped up on our GPS a few minutes ago. It was tracked around the Andromeda Galaxy, so we immediately got our nearest satellites to pick up a footage. Should we forward this to NASA?” A correspondent asked.

“Do we have a feed? Show me a live,” Dr. Song asked, holding back a wince as the correspondent pulled up the live footage from the satellite.

“Is-Is that a giant lollipop?” Dr. Song gasped in horror as the camera zoomed in.

He gaped in surprised as clouds of blue cotton-candy looking haze flew by.

“Daniel,” The doctor gasped, holding a hand to his mouth as he backed away.

Before he could do anything else, there was a large blast on screen—then there was no more footage.

“What happened?”

“I think the planet exploded, sir? The GPS is picking up no traces of the planet,” The correspondent replied, typing in various codes of command to the satellites. “We can’t contact the satellite either. We’ll be sending a new one to this course,”

Dr. Song nodded firmly, making his way out and back to Daniel’s room where the child lay in bed—nibbling on his cookies and letting a book float in front of his face, automatically flipping as his eyes moved.

Choi Daniel was too powerful for his own good.

Choi Daniel has to go before he endangers the world.

Fortunately for him, he was Choi Yeonjun—but he wouldn’t know that.

He didn’t even know Choi Daniel.

All he could remember that he was in a big accident—he went on coma for two years before waking up surrounded by people with no memories.

He was eleven years old at the time, and he was told that his name was Choi Yeonjun.

He never got those memories back—no one bothered to tell him about it and he just didn’t find the interest in remembering all that stuff.

He lived New York with his grandfather, got in an accident, got into a coma and woke up in Korea.

That was all he needed to know, honestly.

However, the day he woke up in Korea was also the day he got all the ugly nightmares.

He’s been living with constant pain, paranoia and anxiety as he wakes up each and every night out of breath and clutching his neck, swearing up and down that he could almost feel a knife slicing through his neck.

All these thoughts muddled inside his brain as he hung upside down on the sofa, his phone stuck on his ears as Soobin surfed the television channels on a proper sitting position beside him.

“Grandpa,” Yeonjun sighed. “Why am I not allowed to go visit you in New York again?”

“It’s safer there in Korea, Yeonjun—I will visit you instead.”

“But I kinda want to see New York too, you know? Maybe a familiar sight can jumpstart my long-lost memories,” Yeonjun huffed.

“Stay where they can’t find you!”

Yeonjun blinked in confusion and Soobin turned to him with a weirded out gaze.

“I heard that, what’s that about?” Soobin whispered.

"No idea, honestly,” Yeonjun shrugged, sighing before he turned back to the call. “Okay, okay. I have to go grandpa. I love you,”

Soobin rolled his eyes and continued to click and click and click on the remote.

Yeonjun hung up and groaned, letting his body fall down on the couch sadly.

“What?”

“I miss my girlfriend!” Yeonjun whined, making Soobin groan.

“You are actually so disgusting,” Soobin said, fake gagging as he switched the channel on the TV once more—stopping at a news channel.

“We advise citizens to stay at home as the thunderstorm approaches Seoul. In another news, three tornadoes simultaneously hit three different locations in South Korea. There are reports of casualties and damages worth millions of dollars. Here’s Chae Sun Jae with a report live from one of the locations.”

Yeonjun gasped as Soobin winced.

“Holy shit, it’s like the world is ending,” Soobin said, flinching as thunder cracked outside the apartment and the heavy pitter-patter of the rain started. “Is that the storm?”

“I guess,” Yeonjun said distractedly, gazing up at the ceiling.

Soobin frowned, turning back to the television and continuing his channel surfing.

“Are you okay, hyung? You seem distracted,” Soobin asked.

“I’m fine, I guess. It’s just confusing me why my grandpa wouldn’t let me back to New York,” Yeonjun sighed.

“I mean, you did get into a coma there,” Soobin shrugged.

“Well, yeah, but it’s not like I’m gonna die when I get back there,” Yeonjun snorted, straightening up on the couch.

Soobin shrugged.

“Whatever,” Yeonjun sighed. “I wonder how Y/N is doing—“

“If you could, like, stop being obsessed for your girlfriend for a second, that’d be great—“ Soobin whined, stopping shirt when the doorbell sounded. “Not it,”

“You always do this!” Yeonjun complained.

He got up anyways, presenting Soobin with a wide smile and a middle finger when the boy chuckled in victory.

He trudged over to open the door, grumbling.

“Hi, we didn’t order anything—“

“Yeonjun.”

Yeonjun looked up at the visitor, gasping when he saw Y/N standing on their doorway—dripping wet from the rain as she panted.

“Y/N,” He gasped.

Immediately, the girl launched herself on him with hands grasping on his cheeks.

Her were screwed shut as she pressed her lips on his.

Yeonjun’s hands wrapped around her waist as he melted into the kiss.

“Baby, I missed you,” Yeonjun said, pulling away and leaning his forehead on hers. “You were gone for three days, and Taehyun said you had an emergency. I couldn’t contact you—I thought you didn’t want to talk to me anymore,”

“Of course not, I would never,” Y/N shook her head, planting another soft kiss on his lips.

Yeonjun smiled, tilting his head.

“Why are you wet?” Soobin asked, appearing behind Yeonjun.

“Yeah, let me explain. Sorry for getting your clothes wet, Junie,” Y/N said, entering the apartment and closing the door.

Yeonjun shrugged, crossing his arms.

“What’s wrong, Y/N?”

Y/N pursed her lips, leaning on the kitchen counter as she narrowed her eyes at Yeonjun.

“Montauk, New York.”

Soobin’s eyes widened as he pointed at the older.

“Montauk! That’s where he grew up and got an accident in,”

Yeonjun frowned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“What?” He asked. “How—Babe, I never told you about New York,”

“That’s because you don’t remember anything. You aren’t supposed to,” Y/N ran a hand through her hair. “Yeonjun, you’re a patient from Montauk, New York, and frankly—you’re not supposed to be alive,”

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usernameorwhatever · 4 years ago

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7am

The spot on the ceiling was beginning to look a lot like a car. The outdated popcorn texture above him cast small shadows as the sun began to creep into the room, and one of those took the shape of a minivan, ugly to look at but reliable. The prettiest things were so unreliable.

9am

Jim’s head rested against the pillow but he couldn’t feel its comfort. It was a hot Florida morning and the comforter had never been unfurled for him to curl under anyway. He didn’t move, he didn’t make a sound, he didn’t even feel like breathing.

10:30am

It was time to get up. Depression wouldn’t stop the world from spinning. But willing his body to move proved more difficult than usual. It felt like he was stuck in wet cement, every motion took all the energy he could muster. Just reaching his arm out for his phone, which he hadn’t bothered to plug in the night before, exhausted him. But just as he assumed, no messages. No calls. Jim was the type of person that never put much stock in his birthday, in any birthday really, so it was some sort of karmic balance that no one paid any attention to his.

11:30am

Another hour passed before he finally got up. True to his character, he did the bare minimum effort just to get out of bed; his body rolled to the side of the mattress, and his legs bent to allow his feet to press against the floor. It was then that he remembered his shoes were still on. Oh well. He pushed himself up so he could stand, but even that made him tired. He was made of glass and he had to be careful to navigate his way through today, because one wrong move and he would crack and shatter into a million pieces.

1pm

His phone stayed in the bedroom, the battery low but with enough juice left for him to do what needed to be done. But that didn’t mean Jim was ready to do it. He sat in the empty kitchen, the table littered with mail that hadn’t been sorted through yet, but he managed to clear off a section for himself big enough to place a bowl of cereal down on it. Spoon in hand, he twirled it around in the milky concoction — the sugary pieces of cereal had gone from wet and crunchy to soggy in the time it had taken him to bring a bite to his lips. But one bite was all it took for him to realize he wouldn’t be eating the rest anyway. Jim brought the bowl to the sink, paused as he looked out of the small window, and dropped the bowl into the basin with a loud clang. His fingers gripped the edge of the counter tightly, and his breath caught in his throat for a moment. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled slowly.

2:45pm

The couch felt lumpy. No matter what position he tried to sit on it, it just brought discomfort. The minutes passed by as he shifted from sitting up, to leaning against the arm, to laying across the cushions. At one point he even hung upside down on it, his feet kicking in the air as he tried in vain to focus on the tv. All he wanted was a distraction. He knew what loomed on the horizon, and he also knew he didn’t have the courage or the will to face it in person. It’s why he avoided his phone like the plague, because once he went back into that bedroom, he had to pull the trigger. The worst part was that he couldn’t even feel the anger anymore. It was just pain. He couldn’t use the anger as a vehicle to drive him to what needed to be done ... because that wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t an angry person. He wasn’t an emotional person in general. It’s why he didn’t take a baseball bat to that dude’s car, or go knock on her door to confront her last night ... all he wanted to do was curl up and forget that the last six months had ever happened. If only Doc Brown would show up at his front door and give him the keys to the DeLorean. If only life was like that.

5pm

Whatever movie has been on was ending, and the corner of the screen flashed that Grease was about to start. That was a sign that it was time. He flicked the screen off before, fighting off the memories of one of their first nights together outside of the locker room. No. No more putting it off. Jim put his hand on the coffee table and used it as a means to pull himself back up off of the floor, where he’d been seated long enough for his back to hurt. His feet lazily shuffled him out of the living room, but there wasn’t a crowd of people cheering him on this time. His indifferent demeanor was real right now. Not an act. When he finally made it to the bedroom, he looked down at the darkened screen of his phone with a sigh. He stood beside the bed, arms folded across his chest, the stain from the donut still on his black shirt. But finally, he reached down and picked it up to start this terrible process. As he unlocked it, the clock read 5:33pm. He apparently missed a few calls from Dustin recently, but the last thing he wanted was to hear anyone sing happy birthday. Or explain to anyone why he was comatose. No, he ignored them and instead opened up the message thread that had stood idle since yesterday. The cursor blinked as it waited for him to begin typing with his thumbs.

“I’m not going to play games or anything...but I mean, not even a text on my birthday? You’ve seemed a little distant lately but I figured it was because of the injury and having to watch life go on and your spot being given to other people. I tried to be there for you and also give you your space. But I guess that was the wrong thing to do, because you just filled that space with someone else. I was at your house yesterday, Anna. I saw you leave right after telling me you were sick. I saw you have a brunch date with some guy and get into his fancy car. I saw that same car in your driveway in the middle of the night. If you weren’t happy being with me, you should’ve said something, because I was like...super happy. The happiest I’d ever been I think. And now I just feel so... stupid... like this is what I was trying to avoid, ya know? I never wanted to be in this relationship in the first place, but then when you finally dragged me into it, I gave it my all. It just...really sucks that you made me fall in love with you, Anna. Because now I have to let you go. So, good luck with that guy or whatever, I guess. Should’ve known a minivan wasn’t good enough for someone like you to begin with.”

Not even bothering to proofread it, because his eyes were already blurry ... from having to look at the screen so long, most likely ... and he just didn’t have the energy. Once it was sent, he immediately dropped his phone and sat on the edge of the bed. Another thirty minutes or so went by before he heard the front door open. But before Jim could even pretend like he wasn’t in his room, he heard heavy footsteps and his name being called. Then without warning, Greg pushed his bedroom door open in a rush and Dustin was soon to follow him inside.

“What are you doin’ buddy? We’ve been trying to call you! C’mon, we gotta go.” Dustin said.

“No ... I’m good.” Jim replied nonchalantly.

“Seriously, come on. It’s important.” Dustin retorted, walking over to Jim to try and pull him off of the bed.

“I don’t feel like going anywhere.” Jim said with more authority to his tone.

“You don’t get it man — look it’s supposed to be a surprise, but Anna is throwing you a party right now and you’re late!” Greg finally spoke up, and he and Dustin both stared down at him with annoyance. “She got rented you this super cool car too!”

“Yeah man it’s a replica from Fast Five. It’s a Lexus or something, I don’t know.” Dustin added.

Jim jumped up off of the bed immediately, remembering the car of his nightmares. His whole body felt suddenly alive, live he’d been bolted out of a deep sleep. “Wait what...” he mumbled, looking between the two of them. “We have to get to that party now.”

A few minutes later, the three of them were in the minivan, as fast as the automobile would take them.

#𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙖 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙖 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚. writing

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chloelucia13 · 5 years ago

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Chapter Six: Empty

Pairing: none for the moment (currently Jonathan Byers x Platonic!Henderson!reader)

Prompt: You always thought Hawkins was the most boring town of all, stuck in a vacuum void of excitement and entertainment. Well, it seems that way until the world decided to flip upside down, literally.

Chapter Summary: You were stuck, but at least you were with Will. That was what mattered.

Warnings: angst, violence, horror elements, language, a little fluff

Word Count: 5639

A/N: So this part is gonna be a little different. I don’t want to give a lot away, but this part will take place over episodes 6, 7, and 8 (for reasons that will make sense when you start reading). I hope you guys enjoy it! Tag lists are open!

Catch up: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Tag list: @just-my-fandom

“Jonathan!” Nancy screamed from behind you, scrambling around like a chicken with its head cut off. “Jonathan!”

You, however, were completely silent, eyes wide open as you constantly surveyed your surroundings. You faintly heard the echo of Jonathan’s voice, but you felt that if you were distracted for even an instant, that thing would get you.

However, no matter how much you tried to ignore it, you noticed how Jonathan never shouted your name.

You almost didn’t notice when Nancy began to walk away, walking towards where she believed Jonathan’s voice was coming from. Quickly, you jogged to catch up with her, beginning to lose feeling in your hand from how tightly you were clutching onto your machete.

Suddenly, Nancy took off in a random direction, making your brows furrow. You turned your back towards where she was running and searched around, your heart immediately dropping to your shoes when you saw that thing coming towards you. “Shit,” you whispered and sprinted in the same direction as Nancy, tucking yourself behind a tree next to where Nancy was. You held your free hand over your mouth and glanced around trying to find a way out.

Your eyes caught a glowing light: the tree from which you entered. “Nancy!” you whisper-yelled, prompting her to turn her head to you. “The tree we went through! That can be our way out!”

She thought for a moment before nodding her head, glancing behind her before making a run for it. You followed behind her, falling to your knees and beginning to crawl through the opening. A sigh of relief left your lips when you watched Nancy get pulled through the membranous exit, inching ever closer to freedom.

Until you felt a tight grip on your leg, and a tug that made you collapse onto your stomach. You let out a blood-curdling scream and kicked your legs with all your might, trying to get out of the creature’s grip. It was no use, though, as it tugged you out of the tree and out into the open. “Let me go! Let me go, you son of a bitch!”

The creature flipped you onto your back, forcing you to look at it in all of its horrifying glory. You let out another scream and kicked your legs up, your feet colliding with its chest and making it stagger back for a moment. Quickly, you scrambled to your feet and held your machete in front of you, swiping at it as soon as it came close enough. It let out a horrific shriek, stumbling back in shock before sprinting away.

As soon as it was out of sight, you turned on your heel and ran back over to your exit.

Or, what was your exit.

You fell to your knees and pressed your hand against the bark, trying to find the hole that was there not even a minute ago. “No, no, no. Please no.”

You let out a cry, beginning to bang your fists against the tree as if it would bring back the exit. An agonizing scream fell from your lips and you collapsed against the tree, tears streaming down your face.

***

Nancy collapsed on top of Jonathan with a thud, both of them lying there for a moment to catch their breaths. They held each other closely, trembling like leaves.

They both jumped when they heard your scream. “Y/N! She’s still in there!” Nancy cried out.

Jonathan’s heart sank at her words, and he immediately hurried over to the tree, watching in horror as the bark shifted to cover the entrance. “No, no, no,” he begged, clawing at the bark in an attempt to try and reopen the entrance. “Shit!” Tears began to well in his eyes, his lower lip starting to tremble.

“Jonathan, we need to go-”

“No! No, we-we need to get her out of there! She’s in trouble!” Your scream kept replaying in his mind, bile rising in his throat.

“But we can’t right now! We need to go back home and figure out a plan!”

“I... I promised nothing would happen to her. Now that-that thing has her and my brother!”

Nancy grabbed his hands and heaved him to his feet. “I know, I know. But if we don’t think this through, someone else will be stuck in there with them.”

Reluctantly, he gave her a subtle nod and gathered their things, making the trek back home.

*** You had no clue how long you had been walking. It seemed as if the sun had disappeared, overshadowing by the dark clouds and ash-like fragments that floated through the air. You had no way to tell the time, or even what day it was. All you knew was that you were tired and cold and utterly terrified.

You hadn’t taken a break since you started walking, too worried that if you stopped, the monster would catch up to you. At this point, your entire was numb with exhaustion. Your eyelids were drooping and your back was hunched, your grip on your blade growing looser with every passing moment.

Just as you were about to collapse to the ground, you noticed a clearing in the woods. A small burst of energy began coursing through you, and you ran towards it, letting out a sigh of relief when you saw The Byers’ house.

You ran up the front porch steps and banged your fist against the door, calling out for Jonathan and Joyce, but there was no answer. With a sigh, you tried the doorknob, noticing it was unlocked as the door swung open with the small amount of pressure you applied to it.

“Hello? Joyce? Jonathan?” you called out, searching around.

It was hauntingly vacant, void of any life whatsoever. There was a thick layer of dust and vines covering every surface in the house, and it was almost colder inside than it was outside. You slowly closed the door behind you before stepping over to the couch and taking a seat.

***

You hadn’t even realized that you fell asleep until you woke up with a start, haphazardly swinging your machete around as you tried to remember where you were. As soon as your head caught up with your body, you relaxed into the couch and let out a sigh, rubbing your eyes with your free hand.

You had slept horribly, every dream filled with the creature that you saw last night, the creature that caused you to be stuck in this weird alternate world.

With a huff, you pushed yourself onto your feet and headed to the kitchen, searching through the fridge and cupboards for anything to eat, but they were all vacant. Your stomach was painfully empty, and you couldn’t help but think about how starving Will and Barb were if they were in this place too.

Then, an idea popped into your head.

After ransacking the house for literally anything useful, you headed out the back door and back out into the woods.Your feet carried you forward on instinct, heading towards a location you knew by heart.

A small smile rested on your face when you saw the small stick structure. You sprinted over to it, gliding your fingers over the sign that read “Castle Byers.”

“Will?” you called out, squatting down next to the entrance.

You heard no answer, and your heart sunk a little in your chest.

“Will, it’s me, Y/N.” You took a deep breath and slowly pulled the small cover away from the entrance, crawling inside.

You let out a gasp when you saw a small, fragile body laying on the padded mat inside.

“Oh my god, Will.” You tossed your machete to the side and reached for his shoulder, turning him on his back and shaking him slightly. “Will, it’s me. Please wake up.”

Slowly, Will’s eyes fluttered open. “Y/N?” he coughed out, his voice wavering.

You nodded, letting out a relieved sob and taking him into your arms. “Yeah, it’s me. You’re gonna be okay.”

“H-How did you find me?”

You pulled away from him and brushed his hair away from his face. “Jonathan and Nancy and I went looking for you. We found this-this entrance into this place and Nancy and I went through...” You gulped. “And I got stuck in here. But it’s okay, we’re gonna get out of here.”

“Where’s Jonathan and Nancy? Are they okay?”

You nodded. “They’re okay, they’re in our normal world. They’re gonna help us.” You offered him a soft smile and began shedding your jacket, wrapping him in it. “Are you okay?”

He huddled into your jacket, trying to get as warm as possible. “I don’t feel good.”

You nodded and touched your hand to his forehead, frowning worriedly when he felt clammy and freezing cold. With a sigh, you laid him down on the mat and covered him up as best you can before kissing the crown of his head. “Get some sleep. I’ll be right here.”

***

Since you had found Will, you were too on edge to fall asleep. Now you had a whole other person you had to protect from this monster, and he was far too weak to do it himself.

You felt your sanity dwindling away with each passing moment that you didn’t eat, sleep, drink water, or even pull your hand away from the handle of your machete. Every noise made you leap to your feet and wield your blade, and every beat of silence in-between attempted to entice you into the sweet release of sleep.

You also thought you could hear Jonathan’s voice.

You were positive that it was all in your head, a hallucination due to the bad state of your mind and body.

But it still brought tears to your eyes every time you heard it, seemingly so close to truly so far away.

“Y/N?” Will coughed, making you jump slightly.

“Yeah, what’s up? Did you have a nightmare?” You scooted closer to his side, brushing some of his hair away from his face.

“You’re crying.”

Slowly, you reached a hand up to your cheek, feeling a wetness coat your fingertips. You scrubbed your cheeks and let out a sigh. “Sorry, I was just caught up in my thoughts I guess. Did I wake you?”

He shook his head. “Are you okay?”

You nodded fervently. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Don’t worry about me.” With a deep breath, you pulled your jacket back over Will’s shoulders.

There was a beat of silence as Will laid back down against the mat. “Y/N?”

“Yeah, Will?”

“Are we gonna die in here?”

You furrowed your brows and quickly shook your head. “Of course not! Everything’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna get out of here soon. I just know it.” You squeezed his arm comfortingly, offering him a small smile. “Don’t even think about that. We’re gonna be okay.”

***

A rustling in the woods made your heart leap to your throat, and you immediately shuffled towards the door, machete in hand.

The rustling moved closer and closer, closing in on the small wooden fort. Suddenly, a hand pushed the small sheet away, followed by a small shaved head peeking in.

“Eleven?” you whispered, slowly lowering your blade to the floor.

“Y/N,” she voiced simply, stepping inside the fort and lowering to her knees next to you, staring down at Will. “Will.”

“How did you get here? Are you okay?” You rested your hand on her shoulder, searching her face worriedly.

She took Will’s hand. “Mom is coming. Your mom, she’s coming for you?”

“Joyce is coming?” you whispered, to which Eleven nodded. “Is... Is Jonathan there too?” Again, she nodded. You let out a cry and touched Will’s cheek, a small wave of relief washing through you.

Will let out a low groan, his eyes fluttering. “Hurry,” he choked out.

“Just-Just hold on a little longer. Will. Will,” she explained, her face slowly growing into one of panic as she seemed to begin to fade away.

Then a growl sounded.

“Eleven, you need to run. I’ll protect him. Have them hurry, okay?” You helped her out of the fort, but she was glancing around with a look of horror.

“Will? Y/N?”

“I’m right he-”

“Will! Y/N!” She fell to the ground, and slowly dissipated.

Panic filled your chest as you heard the creature grow closer, and you instinctively knelt over Will, your machete up and pointed out.

Within a moment, the structure came crashing down around you and Will, and the creature grabbed you both, carrying you two away from the fort.

You let out a scream and stabbed at the creature, making it let out a squeal of pain, but not letting you go.

***

You woke up on the cold marble floor of what used to be the library, all the air fleeing your lungs when your back collided with the hard surface. The creature stepped away from you, walking over to the wall and dropping Will there. You writhed to try and get him, but you realized that your waist and legs were tied down with the vines that covered everything else in sight.

The creature loomed over Will and began to wrap an odd layer of fleshy-looking goo around him, like a spider entwining its prey in a web. The goo webbed around him and held him in place, and as soon as the creature seemed pleased with its work, it stomped away and out of the building.

You glanced around in a panic, letting out a small sigh of relief when you saw your machete lying only a few feet away from you, You stretched out and grabbed it before beginning to saw at the vines.

Will had let out a small grunt, and you looked over to see what seemed to be a living vine or a tentacle snake towards him. You began to saw even quicker as you watched the vine go up and in his mouth. Your eyes grew wide and you let out a scream, ripping through the vines that wrapped around your torso and starting to cut at the vines around your legs.

As soon as the vines were cut off, you scrambled over to Will and attempted to tug the vine out of his mouth, but to no avail. You let out a sob and fell to your knees, exhaustion beginning to overtake your body. You tried your hardest to push it off as you felt for his pulse, which was weak, but still there.

“Will, if you can hear me, you’re gonna be okay. I-I’m gonna be right here, and your mom will be here soon. It’s gonna be okay.”

You slowly crawled over to sit in front of him, your back facing him so you could keep watch. With your blade clutched tightly in your fist, you waited.

***

You thought you were hallucinating when you saw flashlights shining in through the windows.

Your eyes slowly fluttered open and you scooted back, shielding Will’s body as you stared at the doors in anticipation. Your fingers were already numb from clutching your machete, but your arms were too weak to even lift it.

Light shone in through the doors, and you held your breath, but you couldn’t tell if it was in excitement or fear. The echoing of footsteps grew nearer and nearer, and adrenaline began to course through your veins, making your entire body shake.

Two figures entered the area you were in, their flashlights shining a light on all of the bodies that met the demise that you were supposed to meet.

“Y/N! Will!” Joyce’s voice echoed as the small figure rushed over to you two, and a small smile graced your face as the other figure came over.

“You guys came,” you whispered, some of the tension leaving your body. You turned back to look at Will. “Ca-Can one of you pull that thing out of his throat. I tried but...”

The other figure, who you realized was Hopper, hurried over to him and grabbed onto the vine as you scooted away to give him space. With a long and harsh tug, he yanked it out of Will and tossed it to the floor. It let out a sharp shriek before Hopper fired a few rounds at it, making it flail for a moment before falling dead.

“Y/N are you-” Joyce began.

“I’m okay. Just help Will.”

Hopper tossed his weapon aside and grabbed Will’s limp body, carrying it to a clearer area and laying his body on the floor. You dragged your body over to them and watched in fear, tears welling in your eyes. “Oh, god.” They both took off their helmets and Joyce held her hear to his mouth. “He’s not breathing. He’s not breathing!”

Joyce began to panic and Hopper grabbed her arm. “Alright, Joyce, Joyce. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. I need you to tilt his head back and lift his chin.” As Joyce followed his directions, he began to start chest compressions. “Now when I tell you, you’re gonna pinch his nostrils and breathe into his mouth...”

Their words began to fade away as you stared at his limp body, guilt riddling your body. The room felt like it was spinning as you squeezed your eyes shut, letting out a sob.

Suddenly, a loud gasp broke you from your trance, and you watched Will shoot up in a panic. Joyce held him close to her as he coughed and sputtered, trying to find his breath. Hopper grabbed a respirator and placed it over his face, the three of them huddling together in relief.

After Will began to breathe steadily, you pushed yourself to your feet. “We... We need to go before that thing comes back.”

They all stared up at you before Joyce nodded. “We need to get you both to a hospital,” she voiced.

Hopper nodded in agreement and slipped his mask back on before scooping up Will and carrying him in his arms. Joyce put her mask on as well and they both rose to their feet. looking between each other before looking at you. “Do you need help-” Hopper began.

“Don’t worry about me. I got it.”

The four of you then began the trek back to the woods, following behind Joyce and Hopper as they led you to a dilapidated Hawkins Lab.

“Why are we going here?” you voiced as you all stepped into the building.

“This is where the gate is. The gate between this world and our world,” Hopper explained.

You just nodded, too tired to comprehend what he said, and trudged along behind them as they stepped into a large hallway and into an elevator. The elevator brought you up to the next floor, where a large, glowing hole in the wall resided. It was surrounded by the same vines and odd goo that covered the rest of this world, and it seemed to pulse as if it was alive.

They pushed through the sinewy goo and stepped through what they called “the gate,” and you followed suit. It felt the same as the tree trunk you had gotten into this world through, just much bigger.

On the other side laid the same room you just came from, but it wasn’t covered it vines and ash. You stepped forward, and then everything went black.

***

You awoke with a start, rubbing your eyes before glancing around the room. After a moment, you realized you were in a hospital room, attached to multiple machines.

With a groan, you removed the breathing tube and the wires attached to your body before getting out of bed and grabbing the metal stand that held your bag of fluids. You trudged out of the room and glanced into each room, searching for Will’s room.

A smile spread across your face when you heard Joyce’s voice echo from down the hall, and you rushed to the room it was coming from, peeking your head into the room and seeing Jonathan and Joyce sitting by Will’s bed. “Why was I not invited to this party?” you hummed.

They all turned to face you, and Jonathan immediately leapt from his seat, taking your hand in his and helping you over to a chair. “Are you allowed to be out of your room?” he asked, helping you sit.

You shrugged. “Probably not, but I don’t really care.” You glanced up at his face, noticing a bruise on his cheek. “What happened?”

He let out a chuckle, shaking his head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.” He knelt down in front of you, his eyes searching yours. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired, mostly. Pretty hungry, too.” You offered him a comforting smile before turning to look at Will. “Are you doing okay, bud?”

He nodded, giving you a small smile. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

You reached over and squeezed his hand. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

“Hey Y/N?” Jonathan spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna let the boys know that he’s awake. Can we talk in the hallway while they’re in here?”

You nodded, pushing yourself to your feet. Jonathan held his arm out, and you clutched onto his forearm, using your other hand to wheel your IV pole. The two of you stepped into the waiting room, letting out a small giggle when you saw Dustin and Lucas fast asleep with Mike sitting next to them.. But Eleven wasn’t there.

“Eleven?” you whispered to Jonathan, who frowned slightly.

“She killed the demogorgon, and she disappeared.”

You mirrored his frown and nodded, walking over to the boys to wake them. “Guys,” you hummed, shaking them gently.

Mike turned to you while the other two shot up. “Y/N!” Mike voiced, jumping to his feet and hugging you, followed by Dustin and Lucas

You let out a chuckle and hugged them back, leaning back on Jonathan so you didn’t fall over. “Careful guys,” Jonathan voiced, helping you keep your balance.

“Is Will awake?” Dustin asked, looking up at you.

“Yeah he is, but he’s a lot more out of it than I am.”

The three boys immediately hurried out of the room, and you and Jonathan chuckled.

“Oh my god, you’re okay,” Nancy sighed from behind you, and you turned to give her a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Nance. It’s not your fault.” You patted her back and pulled away, giving her a smile. She nodded slightly and squeezed your shoulder, smiling at you in return. You glanced around the room, your brows furrowing when you saw Steve sitting there. “Steve?” He popped his head up at your voice, revealing his bruised face. “Holy shit, what happened to you?”

Steve pursed his lips and shook his head slightly. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Sorry if this sounds rude, but why are you here?”

He glanced between Nancy and Jonathan before looking back at you. “I’ll explain later.”

You just nodded and turned to Jonathan. He nodded slightly and led you out of the waiting room, into the hallway.

You two stopped in an area just out of sight of Will’s room and the waiting room. “What’s going on, Jonathan?” you inquired, shifting your grip on his forearm to his hand that wasn’t bandaged. “Why do you want to talk to me?”

He let out a sigh, squeezing your hand for a moment. “Thank you for protecting Will,” he whispered, his eyes focused on your joined hands.

“Of course. I-I would do anything to keep him safe. He’s like a little brother to me.” He nodded in response, sniffling slightly. “Jonathan, what’s wrong?”

“I promised I would protect you. I promised that nothing bad would happen, and then you got stuck in that place. I should’ve saved you.”

You let out a sigh. “Jonathan, look at me.” Slowly, he raised his chin to lock eyes with you. “I’m alive, aren’t I? I’m okay.”

“But you got stuck in that place, and I could’ve kept that from happening! You were in a coma for two goddamn days, Y/N! All because I wanted to find that stupid thing!”

“Jonathan!” you raised your voice, making him jump slightly. “I’m okay. I’m alive. None of what happened is your fault. I don’t blame you for any of this.” Your hand left his so you could touch his cheek. “I’m just fine, Johnny Boy. Don’t blame yourself for this. Please.”

He let out a soft sob and wrapped his arms around you tightly, holding you so closely against him. You wrapped your arms around his neck and pressed your cheek against his.

“It’ll be okay. I promise.”

***

Your nose was a bright red the moment you stepped out of your car and hurried up the front porch steps of the Byers’ house. You rapped your knuckles on the door and held your wrapped gifts close to your chest as you waited.

The door swung open, revealing a very giddy Will. “You’re late!” he cried, stepping to the side to let you in.

“I hate to break it to you, bud, but I do have a family that I have to spend time with,” you teased, following him inside and closing the door behind you.

“Oh good, you’re just on time!” Joyce exclaimed, rushing over and giving you a hug. Jonathan swooped in and took the gifts from your arms, setting them on the floor underneath the Christmas tree.

“That’s funny, because Will just said I was late!” You chuckled and ruffled Will’s hair before moving over to give Jonathan a hug.

“Can we open presents now?” Will pleaded, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Alright, alright, go hand them out,” Joyce instructed.

You all sat around the living room, all your presents laid out in front of you and the big scruffy dog laying his head on your lap. Jonathan sat to the left of you, and Will and Joyce were to the right of you.

Will immediately began opening his gifts, and you heard the click and whir of a camera next to you. You glanced over to Jonathan, and noticed that he had a new camera in his hand.

The same camera that was wrapped up in wrapping paper and sitting in front of him.

“Where’d you get that?” you asked him, gesturing to the camera.

“Oh, uh... Nancy got it for me,” he explained with a slight smile.

Your heart sunk to the pit of your stomach. “Oh, cool. That’s nice.”

He nodded and looked back over to Will, snapping a few more pictures of him as he displayed all the gifts he had received. But you couldn’t look away from the neatly wrapped box that sat just inches from Jonathan’s knee.

You heard your heart beating in your ears as your hands slowly inched towards the wrapped camera, waiting until your fingers grazed the paper to swipe it up and quickly tuck it into the inner pocket of your jacket and then acting like nothing had happened.

“Thank you so much, Y/N!” Will announced, startling you out of your trance.

In his hands was an autographed set of the Star Wars trilogy, and a wide smile was plastered on his face.

“Of course, bud!” you hummed, reaching over and squeezing his hand. “I’m glad you like it!”

“Alright mom, your turn,” Jonathan urged, and you all turned to Joyce.

She began opening Jonathan and Will’s shared present, which was a scrapbook of pictures that Jonathan took and drawings that Will did. She thanked them both profusely and hugged them tightly before moving to her gift from you.

Inside was a brand new robe and pajama set, along with a new phone and receiver. “Oh Y/N, this is so kind. Thank you!” she hummed, leaning over to give you a hug.

“Absolutely, Joyce. You deserve it!”

She smiled at you before turning to Jonathan. “Alright, honey, your turn.”

Jonathan nodded and grabbed the first gift in front of him. He delicately tore off the wrapping and tossed it to the side, examining the gift.

Your heart began to race again when you realized that it was the multiple rolls of film you had bought him to go with his camera.

You floundered for an explanation for a moment as he examined the gift.

“So Nancy and I had actually got together to get a joint gift for you. She got the camera, and I got the film.”

He nodded and turned to you, his eyes bright. “This is like $50 worth of film,” he pointed out, smiling.

“Well, now you’re set for like a week!” you teased, nudging his shoulder playfully.

He let out a chuckle and wrapped his arms around you, hugging you tightly. “Thank you so much.”

“Of course. Merry Christmas.”

He had already pulled away and opened his other gifts by the time you snapped back to reality, so caught up in your own panic and worried thoughts that you didn’t even realize it was your turn until Jonathan called your name.

“Right, sorry.” You cleared your throat slightly and grabbed the first gift in front of you, which read that it was from Will. You tore it open and saw that it was a framed sketch of you that he had done. You smiled and traced your finger along the glass before looking up to Will and leaning over to give him a hug. “I love it, Will! Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

You gently set it aside and opened the next present, which was from Joyce. Inside was a brand new pair of combat boots, which you desperately needed. You hugged her and thanked her profusely before going back and reaching for your next gift, which was from Jonathan.

But it wasn’t there.

You turned to Jonathan, who immediately leapt to his feet. “I had to hide it in my room because the shape would give it away. Let me go get it,” he explained, leaving you with a confused look on your face as he ran to his room.

He returned a moment later, hiding the gift behind his back. You playfully pouted at him and he shook his head, instructing you to cover your eyes. You let out a sigh but obliged, placing your hands over your eyes. Something was set in your lap, and Jonathan permitted you to uncover your eyes.

In your lap was a machete, along with a sheath attached to a belt. You let out a chuckle and grinned up at Jonathan, who had a nervous smile on his face. “I thought, y’know, since your other one is in the upside down,” he stuttered, finicking with his hair. “It’s okay if you don’t like-”

“I love it, Jonathan. Thank you.” You set it to the side and gently lifted the dog’s head off your lap before pushing yourself to your feet and hugging him tightly.

***

“Shit, I need to head home,” you mumbled after checking the clock and seeing that it was already midnight. You got up from the couch and tugged on your shoes, gathering all your new presents and stuffing them into your bag, and slipping on your jacket.

“I’ll walk you out,” Jonathan offered, getting up off the couch and walking over to you.

You nodded, waiting for him to slip some shoes and a jacket on before you opened the door. The two of you stepped outside and walked over to your car, idling for a moment before you got inside. “Thanks for walking me out, Jonathan,” you hummed, giving him a smile.

“Of course.” He gave you a smile in return and shuffled awkwardly for a moment.

You furrowed your brows. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. I, uh... I actually have another present for you.”

“Jonathan-” You let out a sigh. “You didn’t have to get me anything else. The machete is awesome, really.”

“But I wanted to.” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small, wrapped box. He handed it to you, stepping back and watching your face as you opened it.

Inside was a delicate silver necklace, with a small pendant in the shape of a bee.

A beaming smile split across your face and you looked up at Jonathan. “It’s beautiful. I love it.”

“Yeah?” He mirrored your smile.

“Yeah.” You traced your finger along the small bee. “Can you put it on for me?”

He nodded and you handed him the box before turning your back to him and lifting your hair away from the nape of your neck. A moment later, Jonathan draped the necklace around your neck and hooked the catch together, his fingers glided lightly against your neck.

You rested your fingers against the necklace and turned to face him. You searched his face for a moment before throwing your arms around his neck, carding your fingers through his hair. “Thank you,” you whispered.

He nodded, hugging you back just as tightly. “Anything for you,” he responded, so faintly you almost didn’t hear him.

Slowly, you pulled away and walked over to the driver’s side, pulling the door open.. You hesitated on getting in for a moment, worrying on your lower lip, before stepping away and going back to Jonathan. He gave you a confused look as you stepped close to him and pushed yourself onto your tiptoes, pressing a feather-light kiss to his cheekbone.

With a smile, you pulled away and stepped back over to the driver’s side of your car, resting your hand on the car door. “Merry Christmas, Johnny Boy,” you hummed.

He blinked a few times, his cheeks blooming into a light red, before nodding. “Merry Christmas, Y/N,” he coughed out.

You let out a chuckle and hopped in your car, driving away.

75 notes · View notes

luccislegs · 5 years ago

Note

alsjlskzjs, I loved the Law/maleso/Luffy, you wrote it amazingly! Can I ask for a continuation, maybe with a little interatcing with the crew and their ghosts, but as a little time passes, Male reader finds himself accidentally using the ghosts powers or skills? like, they are at dinner one night, and sneezes fire. Or after getting startled, they silnce the whole ship for like 3 hours? or like, hes talking to Robin and can read the Ponglyps for a few mineuts (Robons mom) and they freak out?

sorry this took me so long! i really had to take and do this in chunks bc my brain would fry trying to figure out all the little details for everyone. i don’t think sanji has anyone important to him in his past, so he isn’t here. also the first four are the longest bc they play an actual part in some things, and also theirs have the most obvious powers and drawbacks. i hope i did this enough justice to warrant the wait lol

Over the course of the few months you were on the sunny, more ghosts began to show up, like they were drawn to you. Some spirits, like ace and rosinante, sought you out before you ever met whoever was keeping them tethered. Others, like Olvia and Tom, seemed to sense when you met their loved ones, and then sought you out.

Or that was what you guessed anyway, since they didn’t seem to have an answer for it either.

Regardless, there were now half a dozen ghosts following you around, and new symptoms had shown up on top of that.

Safe to say, you were losing your mind.

luffy:

You were just cuddled up with Luffy on the couch in the aquarium, his head in your lap as you chatted back and forth about the next island.

The urge hit you out of the blue, and you turned your head to the side to avoid sneezing all over Luffy.

That went right out the window as a huge column of flames shot out of your nose when you sneezed, lighting the curtains beside you on fire.

You immediately jumped up, knocking Luffy onto the floor as you panicked, smothering the flames with the other half of the curtains.

Luffy, helpful dolt that he is, laid on the floor upside down staring at you in awe before jumping to his feet and picking you up in a hug

“That is so cool, ___. I didn’t know you could do that! You looked just like a dragon!”

To be fair, you didn’t know you could do that either. Over Luffy’s shoulder, you sent ace a murderous glare, to which he happily responded with a shoulder shrug, a smirk, and laughter.

You never actually got a chance to figure out what the hell had happened because, mid-hug, you fell asleep right in Luffy’s arms.

law:

A few days after the incident with Luffy, something else happened. You were beginning to think you needed to screen the ghosts before you agreed to help them from now on.

You were hanging out quietly in the boy’s room with Law, who was busy reading over a medical text from chopper, and Rosi, who was lounging on the other end of the couch smoking a transparent cigarette (which, by the way, was pretty funny when he managed to light himself on fire, freaked out, then realized he couldn’t actually burn) when Franky came bursting into the room with Usopp hot on his heels.

You weren’t even sure how it happened, it was like reflex. Rosi jumped and floated up to the ceiling, you jumped off the couch and hit the floor, and then all of a sudden everything was dead quiet.

You could clearly see Franky and Usopp yelling about…something, but you couldn’t hear anything.

Law, on the other hand, was looking at you with curiosity, like he knew exactly what was going on.

“Er, Law…?” you asked, and you heard yourself perfectly fine, but he didn’t react.

Rosi floated down behind you, and you nearly jumped out of your skin when he spoke. “I think you may have just silenced the ship. Seems you can use my calm calm powers, ___.”

You sighed. “Yeah I was afraid of that. how do I fix it?”

But Rosi only shrugged before floating over to law. “Come over here and see if he can hear you.”

You didn’t understand how moving closer would help, but did as told.

Or tried to. You tripped over the floor mat and tumbled, smacking your head off the floor and blacking out before you could get there.

robin:

Your next stop was to see Robin, and you found her in the library, looking over a charcoal shading of some strange symbols. She looked up as you entered and smiled.

“Well hello, ___. What can I do for you?” she asked. She always had a knack for telling when someone was actively looking for her and when you just happened upon her.

“Well…I have a problem. and I think you might be the most able to help,” you said, sitting beside her.

You glanced over the sketches in her hands absentmindedly, and a word popped into your head.

“Those are Poneglyphs, right?” you asked, pointing to them.

Robin froze, then nodded slowly. “How did you know that?” she asked, staring at you with a guarded expression. She had never mentioned them to you before, or in your presence, and she was pretty sure that no one else would have a reason to.

“Uh, that’s sort of why I’m here,” you answered, pointing over your shoulder to the– to her, empty– space where Nico Olvia floated. “I think I may be spouting some of the spirits powers out. It just started. I almost burned the library down a few days ago, then just earlier I muted everyone like Cora used to do.”

Robin looked stricken at the mention of her mother for a moment, as she always did, before it turned thoughtful. “I’ve never heard of that being possible. Although Blackbeard stole devil fruit powers, he can use them freely. You can only use them momentarily, right?”

You nodded, looking back down at the papers. Some of the words you could understand, but most of them just looked like gibberish. Slowly, more came into focus, as if your brain was automatically learning another language.

Before you could really start to piece the words together though, everything seemed to explode into agony. You couldn’t breathe, as if your lungs wouldn’t expand. The edges of your vision turned black, and you collapsed.

Robin’s voice sounded very far away, and there was Chopper’s alongside hers. As you came to, you could start to make out what they were saying.

“…he just blacked out? What was he doing before then?” Chopper was asking.

“We were just talking about the new powers he developed, and he was looking at the pictures of Poneglyphs, and then he was on the floor gasping.”

“Look, he’s waking up.” That was Law’s voice, and he sounded very concerned.

You opened your eyes just a crack, testing whether that was a good idea. Your head felt like it was splitting open, and Law helped you to sit up slowly.

“What happened?” he asked, and you shrugged.

“I don’t know. I was talking with Robin and then suddenly everything hurt, like I’d been beaten, and I couldn’t breathe anymore,” you said, looking around at everyone. It was just you, Robin, Chopper, and Law in the room, and they all looked like you felt.

Robin’s gasp broke the silence, like a lightbulb had turned on. “It sounds like you were experiencing what my mother did before she…I wonder if you aren’t taking their powers but also some of their personality too,” she said, looking at you curiously. “What happened after you used Ace’s and Cora-san’s?”

Law broke in before you could answer. “He fell asleep in luffy’s arms after lighting the libary on fire, and tripped and knocked himself out after silencing our room. Which is exactly what they used to do.”

You nodded in agreement, but Robin still looked perturbed. “It seems like you experience more than just their quirks, but their deaths too. That can’t be good. I’ll do some research and see if there’s anything about your powers, but you need to be careful too.”

zoro:

This new development was slightly detrimental to your health. You couldn’t figure out a rhyme or reason to how your new powers worked, or when they would, but you were keen to find out.

The safest way, you figured, was to try practicing with a sword and seeing if you couldn’t channel some of Kuina’s swordsmanship at will.

It didn’t work. At all.

You couldn’t seem to find any trigger for making it work, swinging the sword as you normally would have. Zoro seemed disappointed as well, having hoped to have a decent match against someone besides Law for once. It didn’t matter that you explained to him you could only use it for a few seconds.

Only when Franky, who was working on something on the mast, accidentally lost his grip on a drawing knife he was using and sent it flying towards you did those “instincts” kick in. Your vision went a little blurry, as if you were seeing things through water, and you lifted the sword and swung with more grace than you ever had, knocking it aside before it could reach you.

Zoro clapped in impressed surprise. “I guess you need to be in danger to use it,” he said, watching you stumble and fall to your knees. “Are you alright?”

“No, I uh,” you struggled to think through the screaming pain that was lancing through your back. It wasn’t nearly as excruciating as Olvia’s death, but your head was still swimming from it. “Can I ask how Kuina died?”

Zoro paused, looking like he swallowed a lemon. “She fell down the stairs.” He sounded bitter, so you nodded and moved on.

“I think I’m experiencing some of the things the others did in their lives, deaths included. Earlier, I could read Poneglyphs, but right after I went through Olvia’s death. This is…a little scary,” you admit, just as Luffy and Law came onto the deck.

Franky had gone to fetch them when you collapsed, and they pulled you gently to your feet.

“Are you alright, _____?” Luffy asked, just as Law asked, “what the hell is going on?”

Explaining it all over again, you sighed tiredly. “I just want to go lay down now, if you don’t mind.”

nami:

Nothing happened for a few days after that. At every turn, though, you were expecting an outburst followed by some type of mayhem. Practicing with Zoro a little more revealed that only when something dangerous you weren’t expecting happened did you channel Kuina’s excellent swordsmanship. Needless to say, Zoro was disappointed.

Nami’s first experience happened when you were helping her trim her tangerine trees. It was one of the only pleasant experiences you had, because for some reason– maybe you were just relaxed enough that it was flowing– Bell-mere’s knowledge of tangerines was flowing freely.

For nearly an hour, you and Nami chatted about the best ways to take care of the trees. You could see Bell-mere floating aimlessly through the trees, and knew she was listening but never once did she input anything to the conversation.

The only negative side-effect you experienced was an overwhelming craving for cigarettes.

Franky:

Franky’s was another pleasant experience, since you were able to channel Tom’s knowledge of shipbuilding. It didn’t last as long as Bell-mere’s, but it came much more frequently than Rosi’s or Ace’s.

You were beginning to suspect that the physical aspects took a different type of catalyst compared to the knowledge. Unfortunately, you were unable to physically put any of Tom’s knowledge into effect, but Franky enjoyed talking with you while he was working.

chopper:

Chopper’s was another unpleasant one.

Channeling Hiriluk’s medical knowledge was a struggle at best, because even though you knew what was going on, you didn’t really understand, and it gave you a headache.

Combine that with the fact that you spent almost 30 minutes doubled over from unbearable stomach cramps– which you found out was most likely what Hiriluk experienced before he died from eating a deadly mushroom– and his knowledge really wasn’t worth the experience.

Chopper couldn’t even really enjoy chatting with you about it because you were just so miserable, but the catalyst for Hiriluk’s knowledge was pretty much just entering the medical bay, so you suffered quite a bit from that one.

#monkey d. luffy #monkey d. luffy x reader #trafalgar law #trafalgar x reader #trafalgar law x reader x monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #cat burglar nami #god usopp #tony tony chopper #nico robin #cyborg franky #one piece headcanons

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revisionaryhistory · 4 years ago

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Three Days ~ 41

~*~Emma~*~

After our extended makeout break I grabbed my laptop to finish my lesson plans and newsletter. I sat on the chaise part of the couch. Sebastian stretched out with his head at the other end and his feet tucked under my thigh. He was reading, but I would catch him looking at me.

"Done!" I closed my laptop and sat it on the floor. I grabbed my tablet from the end table.

Sebastian said, "Good," before swinging around to lay his head in my lap. Well, I think reading will have to wait a few minutes. I ran my hand over his scruffy beard on both sides of his face before pulling at the gray hairs on his chin. "When is the photoshoot for the watch?" I continued to stroke his beard while we talked.

Sebastian cut his eyes to me. "Wednesday. Thursday if needed."

"Can you send me what you look like?"

"I can. I’ll send you before and after."

I pulled my eyebrows down in question.

"When I show up before makeup and stylists get a hold of me and after."

"Ooo, fun. It will almost be like being there."

"I like photoshoots. I like getting to wear different clothes and try different looks. It can get tedious, but usually the photographer is trying to keep me relaxed and in a good mood."

"I love trying on new clothes. Dressing up."

He turned his head a little, "Dinner next week. Any place or type of food you want?"

We talked about different cuisines and decided on a few options. Tables could be hard to come by. We also talked about me going to the gym with him on Saturday. His gym. The idea of watching him work out for real was infinitely appealing. That would far outweigh any nervousness about my comparative fitness level.

"When's the last time you saw Angie and Eli?"

Easy question. "First weekend in May." Always the first weekend in May. "They came up here. Angie and I went shoe shopping then Eli did a short acoustic set at a bar."

"What do you think about having drinks or something?"

Unexpected. I'd thought about it, but it was the first time I'd been to his place and I didn't feel right making plans. I moved my hand to his chest, "Are you sure?"

He picked up my hand, kissed it, and put it back on his chest. "Friday is mine. After dealing with my gym friends if you may want some sanity."

I smiled, "Ok. What do you want to do?"

"Don't care. Talk it over with them. They're your best friends. I want to meet them."

This was the first time I'd gone out with basically a total stranger. We weren't really long distance, but we weren't in the same town either. Usually, whoever I dated already knew my friends. With Sebastian, we'd been here and met my friends. I’d met his family, which was all kinds of backwards, but it was important to me to meet his friends, to know him with them. I realized all of that was because I wanted to be in his life, not just an hour north of it.

"I want to meet your best friends too."

"I'll be checking who's in town. I want to show you off. You already know Kirk. I'll be quizzing him to find out which of my traitorous friends know you and didn’t introduce us."

It made me laugh, how he'd been thinking. "What happens if you find out we already met or someone tried and you said no?"

Sebastian cringed, "I'll be figuring out a way to kick my own ass."

I went back to stroking his beard. Almost like I was trying to get each little hair to go in the same direction.

"You seem fascinated with my beard."

"It's soft. Softer when it's grown in more, but it's still soft. Do you want me to stop?"

"Nope."

We read in silence for a long time. I continued to play with his beard and he continued to smile. One of us got bored and we switched to TV. Sebastian's pick was an early 2000's British comedy, "Coupling." It was a relationship sitcom with three men and three women who hang out in a local pub a lot. It was funny, dirty, and I loved it. We laughed through the evening until it was time to go to bed.

I took to the bathroom first. While I was gone Sebastian stripped down to his boxer briefs. He kissed me before ducking into the bathroom. I flopped over the bed to retrieve his t-shirt and put it on. It was long enough to cover me and I left the covers at the bottom of the bed. My text notification went off. Amy. We'd traded a couple of texts before Sebastian came out. I heard him make a low guttural noise when he saw me. I looked over with a smile and turned my phone toward him, "Amy. She's had a rough day. Katie has an ear infection."

"Ouch. Tell her I hope Katie feels better.”

I nodded, but that was something I couldn’t do. He crawled into bed beside me, shoving a couple of pillows behind him and unlocking his phone. Amy and I finished and I put my phone on the charger before scooting closer to the man in my bed. He stopped his typing to lift his arm. Once I was settled, he went back to typing. "What are you doing?"

"Gratitude journal."

"I tried that, but I couldn't come up with anything. I was writing things like red nail polish, deep conditioner, and toast."

The last one made him laugh, "Doesn't have to be anything big. If I’m having a bad day I can look back to see the good stuff and maybe do or find something to feel better. Toast is a lot more useful than walk on the beach." He kissed my head, "Look, here's today."

I read the words dessert, building security, and family. I said one out loud. "Building security."

"In case Ed comes after me." He scrolled back, "Here's the weekend we met."

Friday said chocolate chips, first dates, Emma. Saturday was line dancing, holding hands, goldfish. Decent recovery time, condoms, linen closets were under Sunday. Those were the days on the screen. Every one was us. My name is in there. He's grateful for me. And he shared this part of him with me. I pointed to my name, "Me."

"Very grateful for you. Everything I wrote those days was really you. Just different words."

I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I pointed again, "Decent recovery time?"

He smiled and raised an eyebrow, "I’m not as young as I once was."

"I have no complaints."

"That's good to hear."

I had something serious to say, "Thank you, Bastian, for sharing your journal with me…"

He said, “You're welcome” before I had finished.

"and saying you’re grateful for us. All of those are grateful for us. On day one you were grateful for us." He nodded but clearly didn’t understand. "I feel very special that we, that I take up those days. Thank you."

“Your acting like you didn’t know you were special to me." He was craning his neck to see my face.

That was the last thing I wanted him to believe. I ran my fingers over a spot in the middle of his chest, petting him, and shook my head, "No, I knew, I know. But seeing a list of simple little things . . . of us. I feel very lucky.” I looked down where I was touching him, fighting tears. I felt very lucky and thankful for him and it was pulling hard on my emotions.

If Sebastian noticed he didn’t say anything. I felt his fingers under my chin, turning my face up to his, “I’m the lucky one.” His lips touched mine in an incredibly soft kiss that grew more intense but stayed soft. He rolled over on top of me and his hand gripped my waist under his t-shirt. “You’re wearing my shirt.”

“I am.”

“I want you out of my shirt.”

I woke up in the morning about a minute before my alarm went off. Sebastian was on his stomach with his arm over my stomach. Where he touched me was warm. I rolled to my side and kissed his perfect lips, "Time to wake up."

"Five minutes." He pulled the pillow out from under his head and put it over his head.

I ran my hand along his back," Five minutes."

It was closer to ten when I got out of the shower. Sebastian had made the bed and was star fished across the duvet." How do you manage to be cute and sexy at the same time?" I kissed him upside down.

"Practice."

I dressed in a pink and white polka dot A-line sleeveless dress with a round collar that hit above my knee. My white sandals completed the sweet look. Sebastian was sitting at the breakfast bar with a cup of coffee when I came down the stairs.

A smile lit up his face, "First grade teacher day two. You look so cute."

I pulled out the sides of my skirt and curtsied, "Thank you." I looked at the time, "We're early." I opened the refrigerator, "Do you want something to eat?"

I felt his warmth press behind me and his arms wrap around my stomach, "I do. You."

In a flash, he'd spun me around and his mouth was on my neck. He walked me backward, lifted me onto the breakfast bar, and started pulling up my skirt. "Lay back."

Sebastian's voice dripped with desire. I kept eye contact and lay back on the counter. He stayed locked on my eyes while he stripped off my panties and pulled me closer to the edge. I lifted my feet to the counter and spread my legs for him. His eyes left mine and focused on what I was showing him. He put his hands on my knees, ran them down my inner thighs, and spread me.

"Oh god." I arched my neck with the feel of his mouth on me. He neither teased nor rushed me. His tongue circled and lapped at my clit while his fingers moved inside me. Two weekends and he knew how to play my body. Knew how to lick and touch me to get me off or prolong the pleasure. He slid one of his hands up my body and I twined my fingers with his, holding on. "I'm coming." I moaned out his name, squeezing his hand as I came. He squeezed back.

I dropped my feet off the counter and stretched my arms out, holding onto the edges. Sebastian slipped my panties over my feet and up my legs. I reached out and he pulled me up before lifting me off the counter to set me back on my feet. He knelt to pull my panties the rest of the way up and straightening my skirt. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he stood and kissed him. "The things your tongue can do."

"If we talk about this, I'm going to start thinking about how responsive you are to me and thinking about your body. Then I'm going to get hard." He looked down, "Well, harder and we don't have time for that and it’s a long train ride where I can't take care of it myself."

I half growled half laughed. Thinking of him touching himself was going to haunt me all day. I stepped back, taking his hand, "Let's get out of here."

Sebastian drove to the train station. I hit shuffle on the "SING" playlist and we camped it up, even taking a lap around the parking lot before he pulled into the drop off lane. "Meet you around front."

We walked right into each other’s arms. I could feel his lips pressed to my head, "Another amazing weekend."

"Yeah, it was." I leaned back and we kissed. "Next weekend will be too."

He smiled with the slightest nod, "I'll talk to you later." He kissed me again before letting go. A few steps onto the sidewalk he turned, "Congrats on the win, again."

I blew him a kiss and watched him smile as he walked inside.

I smiled all the way to work. I fought the urge to go home, curl up around his pillow, and soak everything in. Soak him in. But I did not. I had a busy day and lying in bed daydreaming of sex with the man who said yes when asked if he was my boyfriend is not the way to be productive. He probably just went with it to get Drew to back off. Sebastian didn't mention it again. Neither did I. I am not the "let's define this” girl and we've known each other for a whole eleven days, but I did like when he said “yes”.

Doesn't matter what we call it. Doesn't change the feelings.

I made it through the first half of my day with a buck ass wild group of children. There were eight days left of school and they were excited. I wanted to tear my hair out. I took my lunch to Mallory’s room and decompressed with friends. They were having the same day I was. Mal brought up the tournament, "I wish I could have come."

I waved her off, "There will be more. Oh, remember that guy Drew I went out with a couple of times?" She and the ther teachers nodded. "He tried to pick a fight with my date. Everybody was drunk, but we're not in high school anymore. It was ridiculous."

"Go back to the date part."

I grinned, "His name is Sebastian. We met last weekend. He lives in the city and came back this weekend. I'm going to him next weekend."

"Is he hot?"

Cindy added, "Is the sex hot?"

"Both." I popped a grape in my mouth and wiggled my eyebrows. I picked up my tray, "Hot. Very, very hot."

My kids had gym today so I was hoping they would calm them down. Someone knew when I had planning and texted me.

Sebastian ~ If you woke up one morning with me going down on you... would that be a good thing?

I closed my eyes and winced. This is going to hurt.

Emma ~ Yes, a very good thing.

Emma ~ How do you feel about waking up with me sucking your cook?

If he's asking for permission I should too.

Sebastian ~ Hard. I feel hard. Thx

Emma ~ FYI. If I were to wake up with you inside me... also good.

Sebastian ~ I did this to myself.

Even though I had volleyball practice tonight I headed straight to the gym. The kids’ behavior hadn't improved over the rest of the day and working out would release some of the tension in my muscles. Tension that most certainly was not present when I got to work.

When I got home from the gym, I set up my iPad on the breakfast bar. I smiled remembering what had gone on here this morning. I pulled out the salad I’d picked up on the way home and hit the button to call Ed. Harper answered, "Hey Sissy. I got awards for most improved reader and most friendly."

Her smiling face wiped away any leftover tension from the day. "That's fantastic, Harper. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Sissy, I'm going to go play." Poof. She was gone.

Ed's face showed up and he took a dramatic drink from a beer bottle. "Ok, I'm ready. Tell me about him."

I gave him the version between the one my teacher friends and Angie and Eli heard. More detail, but less sex. Besides the last two, Ed was the person I trusted most in the world. Even though he tipped the dial into overprotective I could tell him anything and trust him for an objective opinion. I called my parents if I wanted unconditional love (even if I was wrong) and Ed if I wanted the unvarnished truth. He'd been the first one to tell me Jimmy was cheating on me. Naturally, I didn't believe him. When I showed up in Hawaii after we broke up, he never said I told you so. He filled me with tequila, my favorite Kalua pig sandwich, and let me cry. The next day we sat on our surfboards far out in the water figuring out my next steps. I applied, interviewed, and accepted the long-term sub from a chaise by our pool.

After we'd gone back and forth for a while, he said, "I like how he treats you."

"Yeah, I do too." I took a breath, "He's different, Ed."

"That's because you like him. You've dated guys, but you haven't really liked someone since the fucking asshole."

I laughed. Ed never said Jimmy's name. He was The Fucking Asshole. More of a title than a name. “True, but still Sebastian is different."

"How?"

"He's kind."

"People think you're kind. You are kind."

"I know." I thought a second. "He's real. Flawed. He owns it. We've talked about what's hard for him, what he struggles with. Like how he overthinks. When he told me what he was doing, where he was stuck, I knew how to make it better."

Ed took another drink of his beer, for thirst this time, not bracing himself. "I always prefer real people with real issues, no matter how messy. People who say they got nothing are liars or so unaware they're not worth the trouble."

Very true. Those people just have issues that fuck you up when you’re least expecting. "When he’s working on a character, he does a lot of research. For Last Full Measure he read about Army vets, PTSD, battle fatigue. Bucky taught him about brainwashing, torture, and escape. He says his research affects him, he takes it in and it changes him, how he treats people."

Ed was smiling, "I’m back to you really like him. You introduced him to me, after all."

"I did. I thought it would fun and it was." We both laughed. “I like how I feel with him. It’s not all about what he says or what he does. Part of it is I know that I make him feel good too.”

"Does Amy know?"

I clenched my teeth and hissed in a breath. "I'll be in Georgia in two weeks. I'll deal with it then. She’s been doing well, I guess we'll see."

'You know to call anytime."

"I do."

"Want to know what I've been doing all afternoon?" He didn’t wait for my answer. “Getting texts from your boyfriend with pictures and videos from the games. I told him you were snaking him with those shorts. They didn’t have to be that short, Emiliana."

"They worked." For the game and Sebastian. I ignored the boyfriend comment because Ed would just argue with me and I wasn’t sure he was wrong.

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #fanfiction

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jj-lynn21 · 4 years ago

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Cozy Cove: Dangerous Waters

Warnings: danger, angst, an insane amount of blood

@sunshineandskarsgards @loomiz @super-pink-palouza @nerdicesbro @anastasiaskarsgard @grandpa-sweaters @loomiz @bskarsgardlove92

Previous in Cozy Cove: Saved by an Angel , A side of tits with your pancakes, Fires Burn Hot , Spending the Nights, Learning and Loving, The end id not always the end, Axel Grease , Big Decisions, Sex and Jet Skis, Late night fun , Old Wounds , Storms pass Dangerous Waters, Nursing the patient , Making it Work

The strong wind and rain pounding against the house scaring Susie. She ended up in Eric’s bed on the other side of Tami. Eric’s arms wrapped around both women during the stormy night. Even with the comfort Susie barely slept.

Axel was not having an easy time sleeping either. He tossed and turned listening for the storm to subside. He never felt much guilt for anything he had ever done. But he felt horrible for leaving Susie in front of the garage to walk back to his place.

Was he really, angry over her not getting on his motorcycle because she feared he was incapacitated? He knows his limits and she should trust that. But maybe he overreacted. Maybe talking about his Mother sent him into a spiral he didn’t realize he was going down.

Whatever the reason, it was moot now. All he wanted to do was be with Susie. It was 3a.m. when he decided he had, had enough of tossing, turning and nightmares about her never wanting to come back to Cozy Cove. He jumped up and went to make coffee. Very strong coffee.

When he barely heard the rain, he decided to venture to his brother’s in his wet suit. The ocean waters had risen several feet inland. There was no beach at his back stairway. There was only water. It had to be at least five or six feet deep. The waves splashed up on Axel’s back porch.

Axel knew he couldn’t walk or ride his motorcycle. He decided he could paddle his surfboard and get a jet ski to get back with Susie. He put his motorcycle in the shed in case the water made it up higher. Then grabbed his board. He walked down to where the street use to lead to town. The water came to his knees. The rain might have stopped but the water wasn’t receding anytime soon.

Axel kicked and paddled with his hands splashing the water around him until he saw something closing in on him. The tip of a small fin appeared, and Axel automatically laid flat with his leg and arms out of the water. During these sorts of storms, it was common for small sharks and other sea life to make their way into the flooded streets. It wasn’t a Sharknado situation but it might have been where they got the stories.

Axel waited and watched closely as the tip of a fin dipped back under the water. He waited and didn’t see anything. Just as he was breathing normal and ready to paddle it jumped out of the water taking his breath away for a few seconds before he saw it was a dolphin. The mammal vocally clicked and squeaked as if talking to him.

“You about gave me a heart attack Flipper.” He called every dolphin he saw flipper. “You should head back out to the deep water. The mainland is no where you should be.”

The dolphin nodded and squeaked as if it understood. Axel knew his brothers and others would have to help some of the aquatic life back to the ocean when this was all over. The dolphin continued to swim around him even though he kept encouraging it to swim back home.

When Eric woke, he slid out of bed quietly so Tami and Susie could rest more. He pulled on light sky-blue sweatpants over his boxers and a white snug t-shirt. Then he went out to the shed to start the gas-powered generator so he could make coffee and breakfast for everyone.

He figured Axel would be showing up soon even if it was dangerous in the flood. There was no telling his family what was best for them sometimes. He decided to check on his father who had what he referred to as a live-in maid even though Carol also clean his home a few days a week.

He dialed his father’s number, “Hey Daisy, how are you and Father doing?”

“We’re fine locked up watertight here,” She babbled before handing the phone to Eric’s Father.

“Hi Eric,” His Father answered. “We have plenty of provisions. I couldn’t get a hold of Axel, but Josh is inland more with that Jen’s family. I can’t believe that’s still a thing. Him meeting her parents just makes me think she has her claws in him...”

“They will be fine,” Alex took a deep breath. “Sometimes you just have to let people make their own decisions even if you think those decisions are bad for them.”

“You are so much like your Mother,” He seethed.

Alex ignores the comment. “Axel was fine at his place last night. Just give me a call if you need anything. I have my generator going with enough gas for months.”

“We will be fine,” Dr. Cluney told his eldest son. “Talk to you later Son.”

“of course,” Eric hung up the phone. As he was pouring a cup of coffee the girls walked out to the kitchen.

Tami had let Susie wear her blush pink dress which was a little long and big since Tami was 5 foot 10 inches tall. That was one of the reason Eric liked her. He didn’t have to bend down to look at her beautiful face like he did for other girls. He also loved her curves. How voluptuous her breasts are and how he could grab her ass with both hands to make her squeal before they kissed.

“You have some of that sweet stuff for me this morning?” Tami grinned.

Eric’s eyes searched her body like he was trying to find something. He put his coffee down and sauntered over to her. His hand brushed against her cheek. “You know I do Babe.” He kissed her softly pulling away slowly. “I made you coffee. Sugar is on the table. Which creamer you want with that?” He looked to Susie as he turned away from his girl. “How do you take your coffee, Susie?”

“What creamers do you have?” Susie said polity.

“Vanilla, caramel mocha and sweet cream,” Eric put all the flavors out.

As Eric was getting the creamer out, Axel was paddling to his yard that sloped up to his door. As Axel hoped off his board a sharp pain tore through his calf as a tiger shark found a snack.

“FUCK!” He screamed as he looked down too see the shark attached to his leg. The he punched the animal in the nose to stun it long enough to pull himself out of the water.

Blood gushed down his leg. He gritted his teeth. Standing his board up against the house, he pulled himself up to stand on one leg grunting from the pain. Skin and muscle hung off his calf as the blood kept gushing making him woozy. He banged against the door.

“Eric let me in...,” he trailed off laying against the door not sure he was even loud enough for his brother to hear. The rain started back up.

As Axel started losing consciousness, Eric opened the door. He grabbed his brother picking him up to carry him inside. Blood trailing with them.

“Get my first aid bag from the closet Tami.” He laid Axel on the couch quickly wrapping the navy-blue lap blanket around his leg. “Hold your hands tight on this while I get a towel and extra gauze, Susie.”

She nodded and took over holding where Eric was holding. Axel was out cold. Eric went to get what he needed. Tami came back with the first aid kit.

“How’s he doing?” Her eyes were wide as she put the kit down looking at Axel’s leg.

“I don’t know.” Susie was trying to keep calm when she just wanted to break down and scream. “Axel, Axel, can you hear me?”

Axel gave no response.

“Hold this tight on his leg, Tami.” Susie asked.

Tami switched places with her so Susie could talk right in Axel’s ear. Eric came back with a few towels. Gaze and a belt.

“Tami I am going to tie this leather belt above his injury real tight. Keep the pressure hard on it because it will try to spurt before the flow slows.” Eric instructed his girlfriend. “Just keep talking to him Susie.”

“Axel,” Susie talked right at his ear, “wake up and talk to me.” She cupped his face as she looked at him upside. “Axel, everything is okay. Just wake up.”

She kissed his forehead before moving to brush her lips on his. He blinked a few times before screaming.

“It’s alright brother,” Eric sounded calm as he numbed the area the best he could before starting to stitch Axel up. “I’m stitching you up now. You are woozy from the blood lose. I’ll figure out how to do a blood transfusion as soon as it is safe.”

“Oh, fuck, it hurts, Eric.” Axel cried out breathing heavily. “fucking tiger shark is inland to far.” He squeezed his eyes closed in painful face. “Poor thing thought I was a seal. Fuck, what do you got for pain bro?”

Susie and Tami just tried to hold Axel still while Eric worked on the huge gash.

“Don’t move Axel.” Eric said in a more authoritative big brother voice. “This isn’t easy. What you really need is internal stitches and staples to hold this wound together. As soon as we can, we will get you to Dad’s clinic. They will probably have everything there. I have some percocet to ease the pain. You just can’t move your leg.” After doing stitches the best he could, Eric wrapped Axel’s leg and immobilized it with a makeshift split. A few wooden utensils he used for grilling.

Tears were streaming out of Axel’s eyes. His face was buried in Susie’s chest as she held him, and he held her. Eric got a few pills, a warm damp cloth and a glass of water. Axel lifted his head when Susie coaxed him to so he could take the pills.

“Just hold on little brother.” He handed Susie the warm washcloth for Axel’s face. “The pills will kick in shortly. Sorry I don’t have an injection to work quicker.”

Axel whimper out, “My fault, man. My fault.”

Susie wiped Axel’s face, “Shush now. It's not your fault, Axel. Take some slow deep breaths to calm down.”

Eric motioned for Tami to follow him into the kitchen to give Axel and Susie Privacy. He also needed to call his Dad to see what to do about Axel ‘s condition. What he did felt like barely better than a band aid on such a huge wound.

Axel nodded and did as Susie said.” Still, my fault you’re here. My decision to come here to be with you. I should have looked in the water better when flipper swam off.” He was wincing between each statement. “I am so sorry Baby girl. I should have never left you standing there alone. I should have listened instead of getting so pissed. Damn I got to pee” He was already getting a little loopy from the pills and the blood lose didn’t help. He tried to get up.

“No, you can’t get up,” She pushed him back down. “I will get a bowl or something.”

Axel looked at her strangely before chuckling and wincing when he moved slightly.

“Don’t move a muscle,” Susie point at him.

“Okay, nurse.” He grinned. “When is it time for my sponge bath.”

Susie shook her head, “I guess you are starting to feel better.”

Meanwhile Eric was on the phone with his Father, “I did the best I could with the suture kit I had here, but I think Axel needs stables. And possibly a transfusion. There was a lot of blood.”

“Eric, you need to get a hold of Dr. Simon Vines at the inland hospital.” Dr. Cluney’s voice was demanding. “The coast guard will be able to pick you all up to get you to the hospital so he can get medical treatment. Dr. Vines has a background in shark bites and cosmetic surgery so your brother shouldn’t have a huge scar. If they say he isn’t in just call me back and I will make his ass come into the hospital.”

“I’ll call as soon as I get off the phone with...” Eric didn’t even finish the sentence before his Father hung up on him.

Eric called the coast guard. It took them twenty minutes to have a life flight helicopter hovering over his property. Two paramedics came down to look at Axel’s injury before carrying him out to put him on the suspended bed. Then one by one they took Susie, Tami and Eric up to the helicopter. Susie followed Axel into the hospital holding his hand as long as they let her.

After an hour in surgery Dr. Vines came out to talk to Axel’s family. By that time Josh and Jen had joined Eric, Tami and Susie at the hospital. Dr. Cluney had been keeping updated by phone. He didn’t feel the need to use emergency services when he was completely fine where he was for the time being. The Storm had mostly pasted. Waters would recede within a week or so.

“Whoever did the makeshift stitches with the belt tourniquet saved this man’s life,” Dr. Vines stated. “Still he did loss a lot of blood. We gave him a transfusion, opened the wound and used dissolving sutures on the inside and stables on the outside skin. I believe Dr. Cluney can remove the stables in a few weeks.”

“Thank you, Dr. Vines.” Eric shook his hand. “I will tell my Father how quickly you took care of things. I really appreciate it.”

“When can I, can we see him?” Susie asked meekly. She felt emotionally exhausted, but she had no intention of leaving.

“Are you Susie Q.,” Dr. Simon asked with a smile.

Susie nodded, “Did he ask for me?”

“In a way,” Dr. Simon held back a chuckle. “He was mumbling that old Susie Q, song when we woke him after Surgery. He said that was his girl. You can see him as soon as he comes out of recover. All of you can see him but only two at a time, alright?”

They all nodded and thanked the Doctor. Within a half an hour Eric went to see his brother with Susie. Axel was still sleeping, and a bag of blood was being given to him. Susie stayed by his bedside when Eric left, and Josh came in for a while. Eric and Josh stayed in the waiting room the whole night with their girls assuring them Axel was fine now.

Susie held Axel’s hand. She kissed each knuckle waiting for him to wake.

#axel and susie q #axel cluney #blood #storm #flood #care #angst #love

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mor3tti · 5 years ago

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Boy Wonder & The Young Goddess -Chapter Three-

Dick Grayson (titans) x Reader

(Dick Grayson GIF not mine)

It’s been a long time, I know. But I’m back so I guess that’s good, right?

Please give me feedback on this series! It is my first time writing anything like this so help is welcomed!

Send me an ask if you have any questions/suggestions or improvements!

This will be a series! So stay tuned for more chapters to come!

The plot: When Y/N gets a sign from the gods to go after a troubled girl, she stumbles upon and reconnects with a dear friend from her past.

WARNINGS: SELF DESTRUCTIVE ACTIONS BY CHARACTER

Taglist: @nightshade7117 @yetitty @affection-rabbit @drabby-abby @caitsymichelle13 @caswinchester2000 @petersunderoos96 @sataninsatin @chewie-redbird

Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!

You weren’t surprised that you both ended up sprawled all over the bed. Both of you had always been rough sleepers, tossing and turning through out the night. What did surprise you was that you woke up on his chest, his arm wrapped around you. He must of pulled you there during the night. The thing is, it was incredibly hard to wiggle out of his grip. Once his arms were wrapped around you, there was no escaping. Yes, it is quite a good thing, it makes you feel safe, you get to be surrounded by muscles and he’s very comfortable to sleep on, but the con of not being able to get out without waking him pushed all of that out of the way. You could easily transport out of there but your body was too tired to even think about it.

It was nice to be cuddled up to someone after being alone for many years, but it wasn’t fair. In the room next to you a woman was lying there that cared deeply about Dick. She fought for him and attempted to kill you just to protect him. She didn’t know who you were or what you were doing here but she knew you were here with Dick and that struck her in the heart. They had been on a break but still, it wasn’t fair.

Eventually you gave up and decided to just lay there. Your head rested on his chest near the crook of his neck. You closed your eyes and took it all in. His breathing had become more stable and you could feel that the intensity of his pain had dulled down. You opened your eyes again and looked to his face. There was still blood there, some stained under his nose. Even when he was at his utmost relaxed position, the stress still showed on his face. Suddenly he took a deep breath in which scared you and he let out a grumbled “Why are you staring at me?” as he exhaled. You felt his arm loosen up and rub up and down your back. You brought your hand back closer to your body and started biting off the three month old nail polish out of habit, trying to avoid his question. Your nose twitched and you glanced back up to him.

“I wasn’t staring, I was observing how badly you got your ass kicked last night.” He let out a soft chuckle as he stared up at the ceiling but then turned his head back to you. He brought his hand up and started playing with your hair. “I was also thinking how we can’t do this to her.” You looked him dead in the eye and he looked confused. “She is right next door and you can’t lie to me and say there’s nothing between you two because I can see it, I can see how much she truly cares about you Dick.” You sat up from his chest and pushed his arm off you. You weren’t angry at him but you had to set this straight. He had a look of frustration on his face as he looked out to the window, slightly ignoring you.

“Are you going to reply or just sit there and grumble to yourself?” You stood at the end of the bed, trying to get him to look at you. He did this when he knew he was wrong, he would take it in and attempt to ignore it but you always got him to give in. You sat near his feet which were trapped under the covers. “We decided to take a break.” He mumbled to you, watching your hands play with the covers. His sigh was low and drawn out. You looked up to him and you could see he was hurt by it. His jaw was grinding a little bit and his eyebrows crossed. He wanted to say more but thought it wasn’t worth it. You patted the bed before deciding to get up. “I’ll leave you with your thoughts then.”

“No just...stay.” He said, the sentence getting quieter as he finished. Dick had a look of guilt on his face. He didn’t know what to do and he thought you would know. The feeling Kory brought to him was warm and gave him comfort and he needed that. Once they decided to take a break he felt off without it. You crawled back up the bed and sat up next to him. His head instantly dropped onto your shoulder, not knowing what else to do in this situation. You reached around his shoulders are scruffed his hair gently, continuing to play with it. Everything with you felt so much easier. He felt balanced and at home, but you were right and he knew he had to sort it out with Kory.

You clicked the button down on the kettle as you offered to make a cup of tea for Gar. Dick, Kory and Rachel had gone out to grab some groceries as the kitchen was just about bare. He sat at the kitchen bench tapping his foot on the stool, his head rested in between his hands with a questioning look on his face. You looked through the cupboards for the tea bags and sugar, which were on opposite sides of the kitchen. His tapping continued and you could feel his wild thoughts even though he was silent. You pulled the cups down from above you and set them down on the counter that you were leaning on. He was silently trying to even out his breathing while more questions popped into his mind. He was a fidgety kid, reminded you of Dick when he was younger. He calmed down as you brought his tea over, the steam opening up his lungs.

Together you drank in silence, sharing a look every now and then. “So I’m guessing you’re not from around here?” Gar asked. In reality he just wanted to know if you were going to hurt Rachel, take advantage of her like everyone else had. You sat your cup down near Gar’s and cleared your throat. “Is there something obvious? It’s not like I have green hair or something.” You teased with a smirk. He reached up to his neck self consciously. A little guilt pinged you so you made up for it. “Don’t worry, Dick dyed my hair red when we were teens. I loved it.” You reminisced on it. It was amusing to see your above shoulder length, fiery red hair turn into the luscious locks of the Goddess, it used to shock everyone even if they already knew it was going to happen. He looked back down to his tea with a soft smile and you went back to yours. “Plus, Batman thinks coloured hair is cool if that helps.” You quirked to him. A bright smile broke out on his face as he gushed over such a badass presumably loving his hair.

You rinsed the cups out and placed them upside down on the drying rack as Gar sat on the couch. He’d taped the cover of the remote back on and got it to work again so he was content. The clock on the oven read 12:34, they’d been out a bit over an hour and a half. There wasn’t much else to do around the apartment. You could only handle watching so much TV so you stared out the balcony instead, the view from the couch was pretty good. You could feel that there was a storm coming and it calmed you. The cool change had swept along with some rolling clouds. The others had stopped for lunch at a bakery not far from the apartment. The rain had kept them there but Dick just wanted to come back and be there with you. Things had eased slightly between Dick and Kory, his plan to go calmly grocery shopping worked and they had a steady conversation. She didn’t press him about you as she knew that the reasoning would come eventually.

The conversation between you and Gar was kept light. He asked about what the superheroes were like, so you answered. You shared some memories of what it was like being raised by them. Training with Diana, having deep conversations with Aquaman on the rare occasion and showing Oliver Queen who’s boss at archery. In turn he told you his story about involuntarily becoming a green tiger, how it felt to become this thing he never wanted to be. He also gushed about meeting the one and only Wonder Girl, Donna to you. You smiled along at his adoration for her, keeping everything else in. He was even blushing over her, but your lack of actual emotions other than smiling gave you away. He slowly silenced and instead tried to catch your gaze. “Not the best of friends huh?” He seemed a bit guilty after saying all this stuff about her. You sighed and looked around the room, looking for a nice answer. “Donna and I grew up together, like with Dick. We were practically raised together but you know how time treats people. We just grew apart.” You shrugged, hoping that would satisfy him. His hand came under his chin and nodded, totally not believing you. “You might want another cup of tea if I’m telling you all this.” You waved your hands around as if you were motioning to an array of stuff. Gar shuffled in his seat and stared at you, giving you the green light with a humble smile.

“When we were kids we used to run around the mansion together. Making fun of the paintings on the walls that Bruce had collected over the years.” You could hear the little giggles erupting from your younger self ring in your mind. “Dick strayed us away from the one of Bruce’s parents because he knew it hurt us both, with his parents being dead and me not even having any to begin with.” Gar chewed on his lip not knowing how to reply, you were over it by now as you knew you already had the only family you needed.

“He would always make up for my lack of parents by re-telling my own ‘origin story’ that’s what he liked to call it. Like Diana, I was made not born. She was made from clay, but I was much more. As a favour from the gods, they sent a meteorite their way. In the centre was a rock of stardust ready to be used, that’s what I was created with. They combined it with the clay they used on Diana and sculpted me.” You looked like a normal person and acted like one, Gar couldn’t quite wrap his head around you being a star. A smirk quipped up on your face. “They say my eyes have never glowed brighter than the day I came into this world.” You walked around the island in the kitchen and pushed the button down on the kettle, Gar spun around the bar stool so he was still facing you.

“The thing is, I’ve always had powers. I’ve been a bursting ball of energy and light my entire life. They trained me on Themyscira until I could ‘handle’ myself.” Exaggerating the air quotes. “This meant that I would be sent into the real world and that I the predecessor, would learn from my master. I just ended up living in the shadow of ‘The Goddess’, the one who came before me. Her name was Adelia Zeru, an Amazon who took it upon herself to train and become worthy of The Goddess’ armour.” Gar then repeated this name to himself, liking the ring of it. “Although I was the next of kin of the armour, she was stubborn to pass it on. To her I was deemed not worthy as I was born for the armour and didn’t train for it as she did. This resulted in her always passing me onto Diana which caused a wall to come between Donna and I. On one of the few occasions that Bruce and I talked, he told me the truth about Donna.” You stood there for a couple seconds, pondering if you should tell this kid who she really was to you, the chance that it could ruin her reputation with him. He had an innocent look on his face and beaming eyes that just wanted to know more.

“She put herself through training which ended up harming her more than helping her. She would push herself until she would collapse and then once regained consciousness, continue on. Any time I saw her I was treated with a cold attitude and frustration.” Your hands slowly crept into fists. “In the mansion there was a training room that us kids were allowed to use. Dick obviously used it the most but Donna was the one most attracted to it. During a Justice League meeting, Bruce noticed Donna was gone and mentioned it to Diana but she knew she could take care of herself. Going against Diana, he looked for her. What he found wasn’t the Donna they were all used to. She was thrashing into the wall, punching it as hard as she could, even past the point of her hands no longer looking human. Bruce ran in to stop her but she said something that held him back. While she was punching she was yelling at herself. ‘Come on you have to be stronger! She doesn’t love you like she loves her! I have to beat her!’ she was screaming with a scratchy voice on the edge of it snapping.

As her hands slowed down she let out a final sentence. ‘You have you be better than Y/N’. She broke herself with this.” There was a silence between you and Gar. It still haunts you. Just imagining Donna beating herself to a pulp because of you. The breath you let out shook through your chest and blew out onto the bench. Your eyes slowly glazed over as you heart tightened for her. “She was crumpled on the ground, crying over her own self worth. Bruce left her there, thought it would be better if he didn’t get involved. Instead he came back to the meeting and told me later that night.” Now the tears were falling. A sigh left you as your eyes met Gar’s, he was nearly crying. He never really thought of the real life of a superhero, what they struggled with. You gave him some time to let it set in as you turned back towards the bench, trying to calm the guilty tears. All you wanted was Dick to be here, even if he just left a couple hours ago.

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queen-scribbles · 5 years ago

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Whiskey Kisses

What can I say, Bry and Jonas are really cute(and affectionate) when they’re tipsy-verging-on-drunk, and I’ve been hoarding this to be my V-day fic this year for Reasons that will become apparent. :D

---

“So.” Bry slid a perilously full shot glass across the table, let her hand linger as she caught his eye and smirked. “Ready to taste defeat, Balkar?”

Jonas matched her smirk as he laid claim to the shot, catching a droplet that spilled down the side with his thumb. “You’re awfully confident, gorgeous.”

“‘Cause I know I can drink you under the table, handsome,” she shot back, index finger tracing around the rim of her own glass.

“Oh, really?” He held her gaze as he slowly, deliberately, sucked the escaped whiskey droplet off his thumb. “Prove it.”

Bry bit her lip at the not entirely alcohol-induced warmth that spread through her and lifted her shot glass. “With pleasure.” She waited for him to lift his as well. ”On three?”

Jonas nodded, flashing one of those dangerous grins of his. “One...”

She clinked her glass against his. “Two...”

“Three.” They were tipping back the whiskey while the word still hung on the air, swallowing even as it burned their throats, thumping the upside-down glasses back onto the cantina table almost in unison.

“Ha!” Bry crowed, slapping the table.

Jonas just shrugged, faint smirk tugging his lips. “Night’s still young. Let’s see what happens.”

She grinned and snapped her fingers to call over one of the serving droids.. “Let’s.”

---

Their glasses banged the tabletop simultaneously, but Bry’s flipped out of her grasp and ricocheted off the evidence of previous rounds to skitter toward the edge. Jonas grabbed for it with slightly less than his usual grace, but did catch the glass before it could plunge toward the floor.

He chuckled triumphantly and leaned forward to set it, right-side up, in front of Bry. “Think that round’s mine, gorgeous.”

“You were due one eventually,” she shot back with a teasing grin. “I’m still winning.”

Jonas raised a brow at her, looked toward the shot glasses spread out between them. “I think, at this point, I’m gonna concede defeat-”

“Ha!”

“-Mostly in th’ interest of keepin’ us sober enough we don’t wind up somewhere we aren’t s’pposed to be.”

“That’s when things get fun, though,” Bry winked, fiddling with the glass she’d fumbled.

He shook his head with an amused smile. “Not this close to gang territory, it’s not.”

That was a good point. “Okay, then... my place or yours?”

“Your is closer,” Jonas pointed out after a moment’s thought.

“Also looks like someone tossed a grenade in right now,” Bry confessed, wrinkling her nose. “I don’t mind you seein’ it like that, but, y’know... there’ll be stuff in our way...”

“So, mine?” he said with a chuckle.

He knew her so well. “Prob’ly better, yeah. Easier t’ have fun there.”

The chuckle morphed into a laugh and he leaned across the table to steal a kiss, knocking over a few of the empty glasses as he did.

Bry reached up to grab a fistful of his jacket and held him close as she savored the whiskey-flavored kiss. Stars, but she did love his company. She signaled the serving droid over so she could pay the tab even as they broke the kiss, but Jonas beat her to it. “Jonas-”

“You can take it next time,” he waved off her protest.

“That’s what you said last time,” she said, stealing a kiss. “An’ the time b’fore that.” Another stolen whiskey-kiss as they got to their feet, but she was too happily tipsy to do more than offer teasing complaints about this trend.

“You’ll just hafta hold me to it one of these days,” Jonas said playfully as he draped one arm around her shoulders. “Or be faster on the draw with payin’.”

She wrinkled her nose but couldn’t help a giggle as they headed for the door, stumbling slightly and leaning against each other. It had probably been a good call on his part to cut things off when he did. Which was only further proven when she narrowly avoided running her shoulder into the doorway on their way past.

“Speeder or leisurely stroll?” Jonas asked. As if in answer, Bry tripped over her feet and lurched into him, almost knocking them over. He laughed and took advantage of the closeness to kiss her forehead. “Speeder it is.”

“Prob’ly wise,” Bry mumbled, pressing a somewhat sloppy kiss to the corner of his jaw. His breath hitched and this time he was the one to stumble. She giggled. “For both our sakes.”

They headed for the nearest shuttle pad, path weaving just a little as the full effects of their contest started to hit. Fortunately, there was already a shuttle waiting, the droid pilot’s eyes glowing a dull orange as it asked for a destination. Jonas gave it the address, Bry beat him to paying the fare and pulled him into the speeder’s cabin with a smug grin, and they spent the whole ride to his place making out. (Because, really, what better use of their time when tipsy and enjoying your company?)

Bry may have slid off the seat at one point and had to, giggling and awkward, lever herself back off the floor, Jonas may have laughed at her. And she may have kissed him real good to shut him up. The fingers-in-hair, how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath kind of kiss, still strongly tasting of whiskey. (His dazed look when she pulled back may have left her inordinately smug.)

Neither was the picture of grace as they clambered out of the shuttle, but at least they managed to keep their feet until they were inside Jonas’ apartment and could collapse on the couch.

Bry bit her lip to hold back another wave of giggles as the two of them kicked off their shoes and Jonas murmured a playful “Now where were we?” that she answered by kissing him again.

“Oh, right, now I remember,” he grinned between hungry kisses, one hand tangling in her hair and the other molded to the curve of her hip as she swung one leg over to straddle his lap.

“Though you might,” Bry mumbled back, sliding her hands under his shirt to graze the ticklish spot just above his hip.

Jonas yelped and jerked upright, forcing her to scramble for something to grab so she wouldn’t get dumped on the floor. “Dammit, Bry!”

This round of giggles turned into full-on cackling as she leaned forward to rest her forehead against his shoulder. Worth it. “I’m sorry,” she wheezed between fits of laughter, the words huffed into the curve of his neck, “I couldn’t resist.”

Muttering under his breath, Jonas relaxed again, settling back into the couch. “Sure you couldn’t.”

She straightened, started to finger-comb his hair back from his forehead to give apology kisses, but was rudely--painfully--interrupted by the muscles in her leg seizing up. “Kriffin’ moons of kwath,” Bry groused as she pushed away from her previous position to lay back on the couch, her head pillowed against the arm and her legs in Jonas’ lap. “Leg cramp,” she hissed when he shot her a questioning look..

“And serves you right,” he teased with a smirk, but his hands were already rubbing her leg, those talented fingers soothing taut muscles.

Bry relaxed as her muscles did, sinking further into the couch with a happy groan. “Is this s’pposed to be punishment? ‘Cause if so, I’m gonna hafta tickle you more often...”

“Perish the thought,” Jonas said dryly, one hand rubbing her shin while the other worked on the cramp. “Last thing I need is you doin’ that more. Leg cramps are nasty, though, an’ I wouldn’t leave you suffering” --he leaned over for a kiss so quick he was pulling back by the time she reacted, the warmth and taste of whiskey lingering on her lips--”even if you deserve it.”

She laughed and gave his closer arm a light, playful swat even as her eyes drifted closed. The two of them lapsed into silence after that, comfortable and warm with the buzz of being somewhere between tipsy and mildly drunk with company you enjoyed. She curled her toes as the cramp finally eased, and his hands went still a moment before one began the idle strokes up and down her shin once more. It was peaceful, almost sleepy. Content.

Bry couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt that way about just being with someone. She liked it. A lot. She liked him. A lot. She hummed, barely audible, a smile curling her lips as the realization settled. Whiskey always had made her philosophical.

Jonas chuckled softly, his fingers trailing over the top of her foot before starting the next pass up her shin. “What?”

She cracked one eye open to see the amused smile he was sending her. “ ‘M just thinkin’.”

The smile widened and his fingers circled the sensitive spot on the side of her knee, making her toes curl again. “’Bout what?”

“I love you.”

The words hung on the air, a truth that had long been building in the quiet places of her heart but never spoken aloud.

Jonas’ hand stilled midway down her leg, the warmth of it an anchor to this moment, as he blinked at her, raised a brow, and murmured a mildly stunned, “What?”

“I love you,” she repeated more emphatically, pushing herself upright as she guessed where his thoughts had gone. “An’ I’m not jussayin’ that ‘cause of the whiskey. Though it is makin’ things easier...”

The stunned look melted in a crooked smile. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinkin’ it, I can tell.” Bry curled her legs back so she could sit on her calves, wobbled slightly as the couch cushion gave under her shifting weight, and caught herself before placing her hands on his shoulders. She looked him dead in the eye as she repeated, again, “Jonas Balkar, I. Love. You.”

His crooked smile spread into a genuine, delighted grin and he curled one hand around the back of her neck to pull her in for a kiss. “In case you were wondering,” he murmured, so close his lips brushed hers with the words, “I love you, too.”

She let him kiss her, deep and warm, still tasting of whiskey, then grinned as she rested her forehead against his. “I figured,” she whispered impishly before kissing him again.

They cuddled close when they broke from this one, her head tucked under his chin.

“For the record,” Jonas began after a long moment’s contented pause, “I was doubting my ears, not your sincerity.”

Several ways she could tease floated through Bry’s head. She let them all go in favor of, simply, “Whadidja think I said?”

He linked his fingers between hers, her palm to his knuckles. “Wasn’t expecting to hear... that anytime soon,” he admitted, kissing behind her ear. “Thought I was imagining it, full-stop.”

This one she couldn’t resist; low-hanging fruit and all that. “Oh, c’mon, Balkar,” she teased, tilting her head back to kiss the edge of his jaw. “You know I’m full of surprises.”

Jonas chuckled wryly. “Better than most.” He kissed the top of her head. “This one’s my favorite.”

Bry grinned and squeezed his hand as she settled in close as she could get. “Mine, too.”

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

So now I have a solid answer to “Who said ‘I Love You’ first?” :D Against all odds, alcohol does not make Bry more sarcastic; it makes her cute and affectionate and giggly. That was fun to discover. :P

#queens fic #briyoni nerai #jonas balkar #brykar #otp: better company #swtor #swtor fic #god i love these two

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