#i can direct you to much better writers who can rip your heart out anon trust me they're ✨phenominal✨ at killing you slowly

[the-last-cuddlebender]

I wish you would write a fic where Aang and or Katara dies

*inhale* I knew this day would come. (I have -32% skill at writing character deaths because I am soft and squishy, but I tried...and I reluctantly appreciate the practice, especially since this got a lot longer than a fic request lmao🙃) BUT SERIOUSLY, ANON, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME—?!

Katara was an ocean reduced to a puddle, and Aang held her close like she might drift away.

His hug was warm, his arms were home, and the soft coo that spoke her name almost made her believe that everything was going to be okay...

Rating: T

Words: 3,300 (AO3)

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

Dozens of cracks tore open the cave floor like a dried log being snapped in half. The continent itself was being torn asunder, but the world falling apart wasn’t what filled Katara from toe to brim with frozen static.

The look on Aang’s face made it harder to breathe. He held her still with that unfamiliar but familiar smile of his that brought down her every defense. He cradled her face as she caught her breath and recovered from the sprint for their lives.

His voice was a gentle coo that was forever concerned, but his words were distant and fuzzy like he was speaking to her through water.

“—can, Katara. I—”

The tunnel threatened to collapse again, and Katara braced herself to the wall and coughed on the dust that greeted her stinging lungs.

“—be right behind you. Look at me. I promise. I’ll be right behind you, okay? I promise.”

Aang kissed her brow for a second too long. It didn’t feel right. He didn’t look right. He didn’t sound right.

Katara was almost too weak to speak, so her concern bled into small touches and little tugs to pull him closer. The Uprisers were not known for being kind to their captives, and Katara had been no exception. The drugs they forced down her throat were thick and sour like rancid syrup; her bending was numb and kept just beyond her ball and chain, and the living hum thrumming just beneath her skin refused to give up control of her body.

Aang, however, looked as horrible as she felt. She tried not to think about what he had to fight through to rescue her from the compound.

Aang had never struggled to breathe before. He was an airbender. The scratchy sounds from his every pant were crimes against nature.

“Aang—”

“I promise.” Aang stepped closer like he was giving himself as a gift—No, no, not a gift, something worse. His presence was warm like something safe and soothing, and it radiated in the air between them...but his winds were wilting.

Aang’s smile got a little bigger. He stroked her face again. “I’ll be right behind you. I promise. Have I ever broken a promise?”

The mountain groaned and warped beneath them like the rolling shoulders of some large beast. The imaginations of their children’s cries were in Katara’s ears, now; the force of them nearly jerked her off her feet.

Aang said something else—something reassuring that began with a soft promise and ended with a gentle whisper of her name.

The hairs on Katara’s nape stood on end, and her stomach flipped into everywhere it shouldn’t be.

Aang’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. It didn’t spark any color, either; it was just enough to dress his face in a grin. 

His smile—damn that spiritsdamned smile—

His little laugh was a sledgehammer driving into her gut, his brushing touches were claws sinking into her heart, and the little shadow in his eyes—terrified and so sad that Katara nearly cried for him—was a beast threatening to rip her apart. 

He...He wouldn’t...

Heat crawled into her face, warmth slid down her cheeks, and Aang’s unspoken words were daggers twisting into open wounds and bleeding her out.

...He couldn’t.

The whole continent shook with a mighty roar. Aang stiffened and failed to pretend to ignore it. He looked at her like he was looking through her, into her—flipping through the pages of her soul and signing them so his presence there wouldn’t be forgotten.

He couldn’t—He promised—

His image blurred. “No…” Katara’s first tears raced down her face like they might be able to stop him if only they hit the ground fast enough. “N-No...No, I am not—Dammit, Aang, I am not leaving here without you!”

Aang’s smile was a tranquilizer, and it was made all the more potent when he claimed the space between them again. Katara fisted his robes; it took her a few fumbling tries—like her fingers were stiffened from frostbite—, but her shaking hands eventually found purchase.

His hands caught her face before she could hide under his chin. “Leaving me?” He said it so casually that Katara would have smacked him if she could move. “Who said you were leaving me? You’re not leaving me. I’m just giving you a head start. I’ll catch up with you.”

“Aang, please. We have to go home. You—You know how Tenzin gets when it storms like this. He and Bumi and Kya need you so…so we have to go home...please.”

Aang’s smile got a little bigger. His eyes got a little wetter. The press of his brow to hers was as gentle as he always was and like how he always made her feel.

He exhaled—the sound was familiar; the air was, too—, but this breath left him like it did in her nightmares after those days when someone walked into her clinic and didn’t walk out.

“...Tell them that I love them?”

Katara’s chest caved in like it was made of glass. Everything flushed too hot and too cold all at once. Her head was fuzzy and filled with cotton.

Aang had the audacity to smile a little more—lopsided on the left side with the shadow of a dimple that never did choose whether or not to call his face its home—and wipe his thumbs under her eyes like he could wipe away her broken heart just as easily.

Katara’s voice was watery and taut like a cable about to snap. “I’m not telling them shit.” She glared hellfire at his stupid face even as she leaned into his touch and drank the safety he cloaked her with. “You’ll tell them yourself once we get home. They’re probably hungry since it’s close to their bedtime and—”

“Katara…”

“No! We are going home—both of us—and y-you can tell them yourself! We are going to regroup and try again, but right now we are going home—!”

She tugged him, but he didn’t move. Her buckling knees nearly took her out, and some hidden part of her ripped in half and bled poison—sharp and twice as toxic as the Uprisers’ drugs—into everything that she was.

Aang’s eyes misted over like the boulders on Ember Island that sat in the sand and surf and bore a perpetual glaze from the ocean throwing itself against them.

He could not have begged her any harder if he was on his knees.

“Katara…”

No. No. She wouldn’t—she couldn’t...

Katara sucked air on her next inhale as her throat threatened to close.

She yelled at him. She screamed at him. The mountain shook some more, Aang grew all the more concerned, and the look on his face and the sag of his shoulders—defeated—made her weep all the harder.

“—expect me to care for you so little that I would leave you behind! How could you ever—how could you ever j-just expect me to—!”

He let her tire herself out. Typical airbender tactic. Her body, the drugs, and her exhaustion fought her on his behalf, and her shaking fists beat his chest in little more than muted pats.

Aang slipped past her defenses, held her face in a way that compelled her to lean into his palms, and showered her with chaste kisses that lasted for seconds at a time. Each one lasted longer and pressed deeper than the one before like he was guiding her into warm water. They were simple, they were welcoming, and they were perfect.

He tamed her like it was the most natural thing in the world, and, when he mumbled sweet words into his every kiss, she shuddered like something dead about to be blown into dust.

Katara was an ocean reduced to a puddle, and Aang held her close like she might drift away.

His hug was warm, his arms were home, and the soft coo that spoke her name almost made her believe that everything was going to be okay.

Katara choked on her next breath and buried the wet sound in the singed tatters of robes resting over his heart.

“P-Please, Aang…Please...”

Aang hugged her tighter to keep her from falling apart. “...I love you.”

Katara trembled, but the small kiss to her cheek caught the pieces of her shattered heart, and the hum of his voice calmed her storm like he was shepherding it back home. Katara’s legs buckled. She almost smiled, damn it all. She hugged his neck and rushed to tell him how much she loved him and how much she needed him to come home.

He promised. He promised.

Aang kneeled and guided Katara to her knees like he knew better than she did that she would fall flat the second he was gone. Katara scrambled to hold onto him; she clawed his back and prayed that her fingers would not be numb for long enough to keep him there.

“No, no, no, no, no, Aang, please, no, please—”

“I love you...I love you...I love you…” He kissed her some more and rubbed her back. “It’s okay, Katara.”

Katara shook her head. “N-No…’s not okay. It’s not. Aang, I don’t...I can’t…” She pressed her face to his. It was the only part of her she could move. “My…’m husband ‘nd I need you and...a-and…”

She was scared. She was so, so scared. His arms were the safest place in the world, and she needed him. She loved him. He was her husband. He was the father of their children. He was her full moon when she was at her weakest, and he was the man she was going to spend every boring, exciting, sad, happy moment of her life with.

“You...You promised...You promised, Aang…You promised…”

Aang’s hand was ghostly as it trailed up and down her back. His touch was a key and she was his safe, and he unlocked the tension out of every part of her so she could barely muster the control to hold onto him. His next kiss was longer than the rest. The hug he tugged her into was so safe that it almost tricked her into thinking that he was leaving for only a little while.

“I did promise. And I am promising.” She felt his smile when he kissed her neck and talked right into her ear. “I’ll be right behind you, okay? Just keep walking east, and Appa will find you. Keep your eyes ahead of you. You can get lost if you look back.”

Katara hesitated, frozen, for a second that lasted an eternity.

...She didn’t want to say goodbye. 

“Don’t...Don’t go…Please, don’t go. I’m begging you, Aang, please…” She fought the numbness trapping her within the cage of her body, but her efforts to hold him tighter did nothing but make her arms shake. “I love you...I love you so much, and I can’t...P-Please don’t go…”

Aang pulled away; Katara flinched like a bandage was being torn off and scrambled to keep him close, but she might as well have tried finding purchase on wet glass. 

He cupped the curve of her jaw, and his fingers wove into the stray hairs that curled under her ear. She leaned into him. She didn’t bother trying to hide her desperation. Her next plea was the whine of a dying machine, and her shaking hand held his wrist to brand his warmth into her. She closed her eyes and prayed to be anywhere else.

She could tell him how much she loved him until the universe itself buckled and collapsed and still not have said how much her heart bled for him.

He was the daydream that made all of her nightmares worth it.

...He was her best friend.

Defeated grey eyes like ashes left in the wake of a fire looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time.

Then he smiled. And Katara’s heart went to war.

Because the way he looked at her made everything bright and warm and perfect even though his eyes were kissing her goodbye.

“I’ll be right behind you, Katara,” he said. His quiet voice—always gentle and forever concerned—was strong and reassuring, but he swallowed so heavily that she saw his throat bob. His touched his forehead to hers and drowned her in all things safe and familiar and home. “I promise.”

Katara made a sound like a whimper. Her world turned crooked, and her grip on his robes was the only thing keeping her above water.

He was supposed to teach Bumi how to fly a skybison. He was supposed to help Sokka prank Toph the day after next for her birthday. He was supposed to teach Tenzin how to airbend. He was supposed to teach Kya how to dance so she wouldn’t be so nervous in front of other people.

He promised—He promised...

Aang kissed both her cheeks and twice between her eyes.

“I love you.”

And then...nothing.

The warmth was gone—just a gust of air in his wake. He didn’t let her see him leave.

There was a wall where he once was, sealing the cave shut.

Katara was suddenly drowning, and she fought to find her air. “No!” She dragged herself forward and fell flat twice before touching the cold barrier. She shook like a building about to collapse. She clawed the stone as she spiraled into something worse than darkness. “No! Aang, you promised!” Her numb limbs got a little number, and her soul burned like it was peeled raw. She screamed so loud that it threatened to make her throat bleed. “Aang, you promised! Aang, please! Please! Aang, you promised!”

The mountain growled and threatened to crush her, but Katara yelled at it, too. She yelled at the Spirits and the Avatars and her stupid, stupid best friend.

The sounds from beyond and below the stone wall would haunt her forever. Katara clawed the door he had slammed in her face even though she could just barely find the strength to keep conscious.

He promised. He promised, damn it all. He promised—

Sokka and Suki found Katara mere minutes before the mountain collapsed. Her fingers were bloody. Her voice was gone. She was crying more than breathing.

Sokka cursed as he dragged her, weakly kicking and mutely screaming, out of the cave while Suki tried to keep Appa still. 

Katara scrambled and fought—frantic—but her world was spinning out of control. She couldn’t muster more than a desperate squirm and a heartbroken whine that Suki had to look away from.

“Let me go! He promised!” Katara screamed, but her voice was a leaky stream of air from a broken pipe that was barely louder than the rain. Her words were full of holes and made the back of her tongue her taste like iron and salt. “Sokka, he needs me! Please, they’re going to kill him!” She looked up at her big brother. Her world was being ripped apart, but Sokka wouldn’t look at her. “Please, Sokka! Please! I can’t lose him again! I can’t...I can’t—!”

Her big brother set his jaw and said nothing, but his grip shook the barest bit.

A broken sound—a long keen like a wounded wolf’s howl—dragged itself out of Katara. She wanted to fight, but even her body was letting her lose him.

Lose him.

She was losing him.

“Sokka, I...I promised...I promised...”

Lightning flashed white-hot scars across the blackened sky and cracked Katara’s eardrums like a whip against her back.

Katara’s element called to her in every sheet of rain flooding the ground in inches of water, but she was trapped behind dirty glass, helpless to the drug humming with laugher just beneath her skin.

She kicked Sokka where it hurt, but even when Katara fought free, she couldn’t pick herself up off the ground.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.

Appa paced and pawed the mountain. He softly groaned, his eyes searching.

He...He promised.

Katara fought to move her head enough to face the cave entrance. She panted, too confined, too enclosed, like she was being compressed into her own skin.

Aang...

Her other half was missing.

He was in danger.

He was alone.

She needed to get him back—she had to. Everything would be okay if she just got him back.

She always brought him back.

She tried to picture his smile, but the memory didn’t carry the warmth that he did.

The broken sound dragged itself out of Katara again, and, this time, it broke her apart and dragged her pieces with it.

“No....No, no, no...Please, n-no...Please...”

Mud and rain touched her tongue, and Katara didn’t know who or what to curse anymore when still her element wouldn’t come to her. It mocked her like a million devils and burned her with just as many hateful glares when she dug into what wasn’t there and dragged herself forward a few inches.

...Suki gathered her into a submission hold and scooped her into the saddle.

The shredded parts of Katara that had held on to something like hope were torn off and left to bleed out.

“No...” Katara clawed Suki, the saddle, and anything else she could reach. “No—N-No...” 

Aang—He needed her. He needed help. 

When next the mountain roared, what was left of Katara’s heart tore into pieces as fine as ashes. 

Aang...She heard him.

He was hurt. 

He needed her.

He was stupid.

He was alone.

He was scared.

He was her best friend, and she wasn’t going to leave him. 

She promised. 

Appa whuffled a concerned sound when Suki pinned Katara prone in the saddle to halt her next escape attempt, but the ground giving way gave him no choice but to fly.

There was a last crumble of stone like a god falling out of the sky.

There was a plume of dust and dirt that stole the space in Katara’s lungs.

And then...nothing.

The mountain—The mountain was gone, swallowed into the ocean with the rest of the peninsula.

It was gone.

He was gone.

But he...he...

Suki tried to console her even as she fought back her own tears. Sokka sat beside her and squeezed her hand so hard that she couldn’t feel her fingers.

Katara’s limbs were filled with lead, and she slowly sank, like through quicksand, into something cold and dark that reminded her of nightmares and flirts with death. She was at the bottom of the ocean, and she was being crushed alive.

Her ears rang, her insides became more slush than bone, and the wind howled and beat them like it was mourning its last master.

Breathing was no longer a passive function, and Katara had to remember her children just to convince herself to fill her lungs again.

Her children.

Their children.

The emptiness was a pit in her chest that sat on her with the weight of a mountain, and it was swallowing Katara whole.

“You…” Katara hiccupped and pressed herself into the waterlogged saddle like she might be able to hide there. Her voice was the crunch of glass underfoot, and the whole of her shook like she was freezing to death. “You p-promised…”

The hole in her chest where her heart once was tightened its inky-black chains around her. Her insides rang hollow, and ice crept in frozen webs just beneath her skin. She was numb. She was floating—She was falling—, but Katara kept fighting anyways.

Her only moment of peace came when Suki chi-blocked her.

Unconsciousness was a blessing, and Katara welcomed it like she was sprinting towards it.

This was all just a nightmare. It had to be.

She would wake up, roll over so she was buried even deeper in his arms, and smile as he mumbled a sleepy ‘I love you’ and lazily kissed her hair.

Because Aang promised.

“I guess this means we’ll always be together.”

...And she thought Aang would never break a promise.

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

.

.

...🥺

aka the “Katara: the Last Airbender” AU that I have equal parts love and hate for. Aang dies protecting the world—and, more importantly, Katara and his family—when Tenzin is a baby, so Katara has to teach Tenzin airbending from what she learned/remembers from Aang. Being his sparring partner made her the best—and now only—resource for airbending, but she knew more than most people realized. She knew Aang better than anyone. His every facet was a mirror and a duplicate embossed into her own. She gave Aang his own Kataango but with airbending, after all, and learning his way of interacting with the world made her connection with him all the deeper. (Sokka was the better storyteller, though, and Katara could only hope that he could tell the three lights of her life about their father without summoning tears at the mere mention of their good times like she did.)

Btw If you heard a loud crack, that was my heart breaking🙃

I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY, ANON

[dogbearinggifts]

What are your thoughts on tua S2? Did you feel like the characters grew? What did you like? What did you not? I’m interested in your perspective. Your analysis are super thoughtful and interesting!

Aw, thanks, Anon!

Overall, I really enjoyed S2 and thought it was a solid follow-up to S1. I do have my quibbles about it, so I think (for ease of reference and because my thoughts are a little scattered today) I’ll list some of my personal highlights (in no particular order) before getting into what I didn’t like as much.

Big spoilers ahead.

Allison. I thought they handled her storyline especially well. Of all the siblings, I think she had the most difficult obstacles placed in her way (not only is she a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas, but she’s a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas who can’t even speak in her own defense for a year) and they sugarcoated exactly none of it. The writers pulled no punches when showing what civil rights protesters went through, which just made their nonviolent response all the more breathtaking. Allison’s fear and anger during those scenes were palpable even as she kept them hidden. But along with that horror, we see the kindness and warmth of the Dallas Black community, the women who take her in simply because she needs their help, and her love for Ray, perhaps heretofore THE most thoughtful husband ever portrayed on screen. I loved him, and I loved him and Allison together. While I understand and respect his choice to stay in 1963, I wish they’d gotten more time together. They both deserved it.

Vanya. We got to see how much the baggage from her past affected her by glimpsing what she might be like if it were taken away. It’s an interesting philosophical question, and it was explored well, in my opinion. She finds it easier to love and be loved, and she stands up for herself more readily—but she also doesn’t hesitate to use powers she can’t quite control and threatens Five without fully realizing how dire her threat is (or how it might dredge up traumatic memories she doesn’t know exist). The moment where Ben finds her curled up, fully convinced she’s a monster, was heartbreaking. I loved watching her find happiness with Sissy, even if that was fleeting (and dear god, Sissy deserved her happy ending with Vanya, dammit, I don’t care if it would fuck up the timeline). Her patience and sweetness with Harlan were just beautiful. And the way she used the confidence she gained during her amnesia to fully come into her own not to exact revenge on her siblings, but to save them, was fucking phenomenal.

The humor. There was a lot more humor this season, and it was awesome. So many iconic scenes—Olga Foroga, Luther babysitting two homicidal Fives, Elliot awkwardly lecturing his guests on the history of Jello, “NEW TIMELINE NEW ME,” “Your vagina needs glasses,” AJ the fish gobbling up the cigarette bubbles, Five getting to say “fuck”….this season was a lot funnier than the previous one, and I think that was one of its strengths.

Klaus’ cult. It was played for laughs, which I both expected and thought was the best way to handle it. He didn’t want to start a new religion with himself at the center; he just wanted to not get thrown out of any more diners, but Destiny’s Children had other ideas. The “I too am a fraud!” scene was hilarious and tickled the question of whether or not a religion founded on false pretenses can still help those within it find meaning.

Luther. Getting him away from his dad, his siblings, and the Academy was exactly what he needed to become the pure of heart and dumb of ass genius we always knew he was, but his first major step in that direction was heartbreaking. We all knew he’d be rejected once he got to the Academy. We all knew Reginald would rip his heart out and stomp on it in his admittedly fashionable shoes. It gets Luther out on his own and forces him to become his own person apart from his dad, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. He got the positive character development he needed, but the catalyst was tragic.

Diego. We see, for the first time, exactly how Reginald kept him in line—not with meds or with PTSD-inducing torture, but with words. Even when he knows Diego as little more than a stranger, Reginald is able to rip off his skin and fling it in his face with a single diatribe; and even at 30, with years away from his dad, Diego is left unable to speak, feeling as if all of his accomplishments up to that point were the work of a dumb kid who thought he was smarter and more capable than he actually was.

Luther and Diego sharing a braincell. Luther has bad ideas. Diego has bad ideas. When they put their bad ideas together, they get terrible ideas. I loved watching them work together as a team, rather than being at each others’ throats for most of the season, even if I’m left hoping Olga Foroga had a pleasant and quiet day after that phone call.

Reginald. At first glance, it may look like the writers were trying to make him likable so they could parade him around as your average abusive-parent-with-a-soft-side. But it’s more nuanced than that. Abusive parents (and abusers in general) often fly under the radar because they fool outsiders into thinking they’re good people. They’re active in their communities. They give to charity. They have friends who attest to their virtue, significant others who think they’re the greatest. And that’s what we see with Reginald. We see him as the rest of the world did: an intelligent, eccentric man with a sharp sense of humor who cared deeply about scientific advancement. That’s how he evaded suspicion—because there were stories from years past of lively parties at his mansion, of what a gentleman he was to Grace and of how he did everything he could to save little Pogo. But those stories would all have come from people he considered his equals. When he’s with people he considers his inferiors—aka, the Umbrella kids—he’s openly condescending and demeaning. We get to see how he fooled the world, and it is chilling.

Elliot. He deserved better, and you can ship him with any one of the Hargreeves kids and get the cutest thing ever. 

The Swedes. They said so much while speaking very little.

Ben. He got more personality and screen time, and it was glorious. His love of his family and resentment toward Klaus practically leapt off the screen. The way he says “I’ve missed you all…so much” once they’ve all left was one of those right-in-the-feels moments; and watching him get so much of what he’s wanted for years when he possesses Klaus was beautiful.

Now, as for things I took issue with….

Ben. I understand why they ended his arc the way they did. I get that they were probably afraid the Klaus/Ben dynamic would grow stale if they didn’t change it somehow and wanted to give him a larger role in S3. His death(???) was heartbreaking and extremely well-done. But it also wasn’t foreshadowed. We never got any sense of what ghosts in the TUA ‘verse are, so the fact they can be destroyed by a ton of sound-turned-energy or by going too far into someone’s psyche or whatever happened….it’s not that it doesn’t make sense so much as there’s not enough evidence to determine whether or not it makes sense. It feels like the writers just kinda made that up so they’d have a reason to change Ben’s relationship dynamics, but if that’s the case, couldn’t they have done it another way? Couldn’t they have made it so the immense energy or psychic woo-woo or whatever gave him a power-up instead of destroying him? Vanya transferred some of her energy into Harlan and brought him back to life. Couldn’t something similar have happened with Ben? And if it tied him to Vanya as well as to Klaus, great! More fodder for angst and humor! (”Vannyyyyyyyy, stop hogging Ben!” “You got him for 17 years, Klaus, you can part with him for 20 minutes.” “Guys, don’t I get a say in this?”) I’m glad they didn’t write him out of the series entirely, but I still wish they’d kept him and all the character development he’d gotten throughout S2.

Episode 10. It looks like they tried to cram half a season’s worth of developments into 45 minutes. Twenty minutes in, I’d already said “Wait what the fuck” half a dozen times. A lot of those moments were explained later on, and I was able to make enough inferences to fill in any lingering plot holes, but…still. Too much stuff, too little time. E9 was a perfectly satisfying ending to the season. Yes, it leaves the siblings stranded in 1963, but they could’ve tied up those loose ends in the S3 premiere.

Lila. She’s an incredibly fun character, but her arc is kind of a mess. Most of that is due to E10, and I do feel that more time to let her arc breathe would’ve worked wonders, but I’m left feeling like her turn from “Handler is the best mom ever and I lurve Diego too” to “KILL DIEGO AND HIS EVIL FAMILY” to “Handler is a bad mom and Diego is right” happened too quickly.

The Commission. Okay, so, the Handler announces the entire Board has been killed, and she’s stepping in as director even though everyone appears to know she’s been demoted (and demoted pretty severely—she went from having an office bigger than some apartments to being a case management drone). There’s suspicion and lots of it. But then, La Resistance is….ten or so people in a single room? And when she calls the temps agents to her side, thousands of them show up ready and willing to fight and die? I dunno. Just seems like there should’ve been more splintering going on there. Again, I think they needed more time to tie everything up.

Aside from those complaints, I loved the season. I set aside most of a day to binge it, and I do not regret that decision at all.

[the-awkward-outlaw]

What's good, dear writer? I hope you're safe out there. Can you write reader cheering Arthur up from his own depression or bad days? I feel like it's always Arthur having to cheer us up, so why not turn the tables? Thank you.

This was a good one! It’s true, so many one shots have Arthur cheering up the reader, but it’s rare to see one that’s the other way around. To be honest, this one helped me since my depression’s been more on the rise lately, so kudos to you, Anon! I hope this also helps anyone else suffering right now. 

Arthur sits in the meadow of Big Valley, staring down the long lake of grass, the small stream winding its way through it. He’d asked you to come down here with him to hunt, that was his excuse anyways. The reality of it was that he just wasn’t feeling good, mentally anyways. He just wanted to get away from camp, from Dutch’s incessant prodding, even from Hosea. He hadn’t really wanted to be completely alone though, he knew having company would be good for him. That was why he asked you to come along, that and he harbored a crush on you, though he’d never tell you. 

He’d been the one to suggest you both split up in order to be more efficient. You knew something was wrong, though didn’t really know how to approach him about it. You figured he just needed some space, so you agreed and went off to hunt on your own. 

Arthur looks up to the sky, wishing these dark feelings would leave him. He feels numb inside, like he’s just incapable of feeling anything except this sense of dread, and there’s a longing inside him that just wishes he could go to sleep and not wake up again. It is an awful thing to feel. He sighs heavily, not knowing what to do or what will happen next. He puts his head in his hands and takes this quiet moment to break down where no one is looking. 

He cries for several moments, partway wishing someone was there to comfort him but partway glad no one is. As he cries, the pain in his chest just grows until it feels like something’s coiling up tight inside him and making it hard to breathe. He clenches his hands in his hair, pulling on the strands and yanking several of them out. He doesn’t care though, this physical pain is preferrable. 

After a few moments, the tightness in his chest lessens and he can catch his breath. That’s when he hears your soft voice calling his name. 

You’d been off hunting on the other side of the meadow, but you’d looked his way to see how he was doing. You saw him sitting in the grass, his elbows on his knees. This was unusual for him because it seemed like he was always going. You rarely saw this man stop and take a break. That mixed with his closed-off behavior from earlier really clued you in that something was wrong. You’d approached him slowly and heard his sobs, which broke your heart. Arthur’s the best man you know, despite his sins. It hurts to see him looking so miserable and broken. That was when you called to him. 

His sniffles stop and he looks up and back at you, blinking his watery eyes. He feels shame rip through him as you slowly approach, though your face says you’re not judging him. You look worried. 

“Are you okay?” you ask, feeling rather stupid for doing so. Of course he’s not. 

“Y-yeah,” he says, turning away so you won’t see the tracks of tears. “Just… I don’t know. I can’t explain it.” 

You sit down next to him, your knee brushing up on his . You’re going to let him decide how close you can get. You fold your hands into your lap and face the same direction he’s pointed. 

“It’s okay, Arthur. It’s good to let it out sometimes. It’s the only way to stay sane, really.” 

“I never been sane, Y/N,” he says, looking down in his lap. 

“Who truly is? The fact that you don’t think you’re sane says you’re more so than you think. Besides, it’s not healthy for anyone to bottle up their emotions. Go ahead and let them out. But just know that if you want to talk, I’m listening.” 

That breaks him even further and more tears leak from his eyes. He knows you’re the best listener in camp. You’re very quiet around the others and don’t say much, but you listen very well. Arthur finds it rather encouraging that you’re one of the few people he’s met who listens not for the sake of how you’ll respond to the speaker, but to actually listen. It gives him a sense of peace around you, knowing you’ll truly hear him. 

“I just… I feel hollow, if that makes any sense. Like whatever was inside me is gone. It don’t feel good. I’m a bad man, Y/N, I know that, and I know that someone like me don’t deserve to feel good.”

You’re silent for several seconds but then you speak, still staring off down the meadow. “I think you’re too hard on yourself, Mr. Morgan. This world isn’t made of black and white, good and evil. Look around and you’ll see a vast variety of colors. People are the same. We’re complicated and constantly try to contradict ourselves. You say you’re a bad man, you kill and rob people, but I’ve seen you help so many folk. And many of them have been complete strangers. I’ve seen men society calls ‘good’ stroll right by those in need without batting an eye.” 

“But I just don’t feel nothin’,” he says. “It’s like I’ve gone numb on the inside. I just wanna feel again.” 

This is when you finally look at him. “I know what you mean, Arthur. I’ve felt that way many times.” 

“How do you deal with it?”

You smile softly and then look down the meadow again. “I look around me and name all the things I find beautiful. That patch of blue flowers there. The pronghorn doe just down by those trees nursing her fawn. The way the clouds look. I can see them, Arthur, I wouldn’t be able to if I were dead.

“Listen to the world. The way the wind whispers in the grass, the trees. That eagle over there, wonder if he’s found something to eat. The horses eating.”

You pause and shift your hand so it’s close to his on the ground. He doesn’t seem to notice as he listens. 

“Pay attention to what you can physically feel. How the sun warms your skin, how the breeze feels on your face. I don’t know about you, but I feel a rock under my butt.” 

He smiles, despite himself. That’s when your hand winds around his. 

“My hand in yours. How does it feel, Arthur? Is it warm? My fingers are calloused just like yours. How does it physically feel?” 

He blinks several times, thinking about all the things you’ve just said. You go on to tell him to pay attention to all his senses, to really get a feel of what’s around him. He realizes he feels a little less dark inside, more at peace. 

“But I still feel like I wanna die sometimes,” he says, sinking down again.

“No, you don’t. There’s a part of you that you want dead, Arthur. If I were to take you onto a boat and throw you into Flat Iron Lake, what would you do?” 

“Well, I’d try swimmin’ to shore,” he says flatly. 

“Exactly. You’d try to save yourself, not allow yourself to be drowned. You don’t want to die, you just want to kill a part of yourself. That’s natural for everyone, Arthur. There are parts of me I want dead too.” 

“I don’t want nothin’ about you to change,” he says, squeezing your hand. 

You smile at him. “And that’s my point, Arthur. Your personal demons are just as much a part of you as your angels are. They help to make you who you are. And your demons aren’t necessarily something people want gone from you. There isn’t a thing I’d change about you either.” 

You look at him and smile. He feels a weight lift from his chest and he releases your hand only so he can slide next to you and take you in his arms. This takes you by surprise, but you let him. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t wonder how this would feel, but it’s far better than you could ever imagine. He buries his head into your shoulder and lets more tears slide out. You stay quiet, folding your arms around him too. One hand goes into his hair and you brush your fingers through it. 

After several moments, he relaxes his hold and pulls away. He looks at you and smiles, no longer ashamed of the moisture on his face. 

“Thank you, Y/N.” 

“No need to thank me, Mr. Morgan,” you say. You lean up and kiss his cheek. His hands are still on your sides and he doesn’t remove them, almost like feeling you helps to ground him. You end up climbing into his lap and laying your head on his chest. He quietly adores it, you make him feel alive. He wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.

[sometimesrosy]

b/e still together at this point is laughable, we have just 1 season left, how can bellarke be together when b/e is still a thing, if jason make them endgame, is gonna be the biggest mistake ever after game of thrones ending,tell me what's the point? we know where bellamy heart is, so why keep draging this, make bellarke a thing already man, is gonna be the last season, people been waiting for that to happen years, and now we are just gonna have a couple of episodes of them as couple.

Okay, so this is an old ask and i’ve been holding it FOREVER. Today I have the brain power to tackle it, and there’s a reason why I kept it, instead of deleting it as a pointless anti, myopic view point. It was now asked so long ago that I’m hoping the anon doesn’t get pissed off when I rip it apart and break it down to its pieces. So let’s go.

These kind of questions frustrate me, because they are ALMOST there. The question here is, “We know where Bellamy’s heart is, so why keep dragging this?”

That is a valid question. And by “valid” I mean that by answering the question, you can gain a better understanding of the story.

But instead of attempting to answer it, or asking more questions related to it to help you think more, the anon jumps to an unsubstantiated conclusion and then goes on a tirade. The conclusions she makes, that it is laughable, b/e is endgame and/or there will only be a couple of episodes of bellarke, None of those conclusions follow in answer to the question or the canon. What they follow is the fear that the anon won’t get what they want.

So instead of answering the fear, I’m answering the question.

WHY when we know where Bellamy’s heart is, does the story keep dragging this?

First off, it’s not a joke. It’s a story. Delaying the resolution is a sign that Bellamy achieving his hearts desire (Clarke) is actually The Story. A story is about the main character (aka hero aka protagonist,) overcoming their obstacles, learning and growing, and then, achieving their goals. Not only is it The Story, but it’s also a romantic story. In a romance, the goal is to get the heroes together, if that happens too soon, something needs to happen to break them apart, so they can find each other again. But once a couple reaches their goal of getting together, then the story is over. WHY haven’t Bellarke gotten together? Because when they do, the heart of the story is done. When JR said, “The 100 is ending in s7″ I said HURRAH because that is a sign that they are ready to tell the end of the story. Which is... what now? Say it with me, BELLARKE, THE EPIC LOVE STORY.

This isn’t fanfiction, that can ignore storytelling or narrative rules, or all the other narrative threads, or the focus on character development, in order to fulfill the readers’ narrative desires. In order to make a good story, they have to keep telling ALL the stories that they’ve laid out before us. And that includes b/e (which is still working,) echo’s character arc (still working,) Octavia (a story which is near done,) the Blakes reunion (which we did,) and the strange interweaving of the head, the heart and the soul that is Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia (which may not be over until the end.) We also have to work through Bellamy’s self loathing (which we did,) Bellamy’s hero’s journey, (which we did,) Bellamy’s anger at Clarke leaving him to die (which we did,) ALSO Clarke’s suicidal tendencies (which we did,) Clarke’s feeling that love was a weakness (which we did,) Clarke’s isolation (which we did,) Clarke’s feelings of betrayal that Bellamy moved on (which we did,) Clarke’s separation from her people (which we did.) ALSO, and this one might be the most important one and the answer to the original question.

The story kept dragging out because season 6 was the season that BELLAMY realized where his heart was. Maybe WE knew all along, but this was something he was resisting. He said he didn’t NEED her, but he realized over the course of Season 6 that he needed her more than ANYTHING. You see?

Clarke is his weakness and his strength. She’s his vulnerability. And he had his walls up against that because he lost her for six years and the whole time, she was still with him and still his weakness and his vulnerability and when she came back, she pushed him away, and away, and when he thought he was getting her back, she left him to die. At the end of season 5, he found out she DID care for him, and that changed things for him, but then...she called him family and went with Cillian. She has now told him she needed/wanted him THREE times and THREE times immediately turned to someone else. Lxa, Niylah, Cillian. Granted, he turned her down twice and had a girlfriend the third. But Bellamy thinks she doesn’t love him, ever since she said she couldn’t lose him and then sent him to die because it was worth the risk. Because he didn’t understand that it meant she loved him and love was a weakness. 

And I’ll tell you. THAT story hasn’t been finished yet. We had mutual pining in s4-5-6. But neither of them have told their feelings to each other. No I take that back. Clarke has told him, but he has misunderstood every time, I think because he doesn’t believe her and think it means something else, especially since she hooks up with someone else after she says it. And she takes all those misunderstandings of Bellamy’s as a rejection, and is sure he doesn’t feel the same about her. Season 2. Season 3. Season 4. Season 5. Season 6. We’ve seen this story happening. She thinks of love as a weakness and so puts up walls to him and turns to other people. HE thinks that means she doesn’t love him. We’re finally getting to the point that they’re ready to admit their feelings. He said he needed her. I NEED YOU. 

So. Like. The reason why they’re dragging the Bellarke story out is because there is so much to TELL. There are all these supporting storylines that are building Clarke and Bellamy individually, making them stronger and more whole, healing them, making them HEROES. These individual stories are making them worthy of each other. And proving to us that their love is so strong, so epic, so central to the characters and the story, that it not only persists in the face of time, death and space, but also in the face of rival ships. No love on this show surpasses the love of Clarke and Bellamy, not even the parent/child or sibling love. HOWEVER, the Bellarke love actually makes Clarke and Bellamy stronger, and ALSO saves Madi, comforts Clarke when she loses her mother, and allows Bellamy to reconnect with Octavia.

I’m not gonna lie. I wanted to see Bellarke as an established couple, a battle couple, even domestic. That is not the story being told. That is a different story with different tropes and conventions and rules. I thought maybe book two could be that story, but nope. Still an epic romance in the apocalypse as we watch our heroes find out what is worth living for and it turns out it’s each other.

The story being told is an epic love story in the apocalypse. A mythic love. A morally gray story of heroes who both save and redeem humanity. A tragedy about trauma and healing. That’s my take on it. If you view the entire story through this lens, a lot of the things that confused the audience while they were happening make a lot more sense.  

If a theory can explain a story, and not leave out any of the narrative threads, and keeps working to explain the story that happens AFTER the theory was made, then that’s a sign that this is a theory that is on the right track in understanding the story. 

If a theory is jossed by canon, that means the theory didn’t work. It doesn’t mean the canon did it wrong or is a joke. It means the theorist was wrong, because the author gets to tell the story they want, and speculation is not their story. If you speculate the story to go in the direction YOU want, that’s your story not theirs. If you’re trying to predict the story the creator tells, you have to know what story the creator is telling. That means you have to understand it. 

If a theory leaves large parts of the story without an explanation or writes them off as “bad writing” or “plot holes” when they can be explain through another theory, then the theorist has failed. If a theorist calls the canon that goes off their theory a joke, or laughable, without trying to answer their unanswered questions by looking at the canon and trying to figure it out... then the theorist has failed. If a theorist assumes that the writer and story is a joke because the theorist is predicting that the writer is bad and will “ruin” the story though they have no evidence that is happening, then the theorist is a bad theorist with unexamined biases who is jumping to conclusions that are not supported and attacking creators for doing something that they have not done. Very disrespectful. Very illogical. Very non canon. Very bad meta. Sorry. 

You can have strong feelings about canon, but if you don’t understand canon and your feelings are based on your inaccurate understanding, then your opinion is kinda crap. You’re blaming the show for being something that it is not, and it’s all because you’re not interested in what it IS, only in your fantasy... when your analysis should be of JR’S fantasy. That’s what fiction is, a deliberate, constructed fantasy. The better they are at it, the more the pieces will all fit together. This story is novelistic in it’s structure and narrative and development. There’s a lot to deconstruct and analyze, and all the pieces fit together. Despite a few things that are unsatisfactory, the main relationship story (bellarke) is not. 

When I have theories that turn out to be wrong, I don’t say the story is wrong. I say I was wrong. Then I backtrack to where my theory started, figure out what I read wrong, and reframe my theories based on the new direction of the story.  The point of analysis is not to be right. It’s to understand the story that someone else is telling.

Let me tell you which theory of mine has NEVER been wrong.

That Bellarke is endgame, that they MUST be together.

It has not always been expressed in romantic terms, but each season it has gotten MORE romantic, which is what we call DEVELOPMENT. Side ships have NOT stopped this. Fandom tends to think CL and B/E are more of an obstacle than actual space, actual time, and actual death. LOL. Nope. CL was passionate and burnt out in a conflagration. B/E is comforting and currently in a slow fizzle as it burns out. On screen. In canon fights and bickering, physical and emotional distance, parallel letting go, Echo’s story of independence, finding herself and ultimate (my theory) breaking free from her king. Who is, in canon, Bellamy. 

it’s not laughable. It is a well developed story.

Now someone tell me why people would rather have a short break up with no meaning behind it and a hookup into smooshing faces finally, instead of what we’re getting, which is an indepth story of growth, understanding, love, passion, need, self identity, self worth, redemption, longing, and reunion. 

HE BROUGHT HER BACK FROM DEATH WITH ONLY THE POWER OF HIS LOVE FOR GODSAKE.

I suspect that people are the most frustrated with the story being told because all they want is boning. Because this romance is FANTASTIC, but boning we have not gotten. 

Or they’ve been gaslighted by a fandom who’s been telling us we’re delusional all these years. We’re not delusional. This story is real. If I were delusional, my theory that I came up with after Hakeldama-- endgame Bellarke, the head and the heart, together-- would have been jossed a long time ago. But it hasn’t been. It’s not only still going, it’s MORE important now than it was before. :)

Bellarke are the head and the heart. They’re not only still alive (remember how every season we had a panic that clarke and/or bellamy would die? nope,) but soulmates, who have found each other again, and need each other, and can’t lose each other. Bellarke are the center of the story. And if it were platonic, then we would have more story with B/E being a ship that fulfills Bellamy, because as the heart to clarke’s head, his HEART needs that connection, instead when he’s being torn apart emotionally, whether over octavia or clarke, Echo CAN NOT offer him comfort. I’d also like to say, that if CL were the center of the story, then, it would actually be a story, instead of just a mention here and there. It’s important, but not the center of the story. That’s Bellarke. That’s why all the stories revolved around them. Why season 5 was about the Bellarke reunion (and blakes) and why season 6 was about Bellamy saving Clarke with his love, and then Clarke saving everyone with what she learned about love from Bellamy. 

I was entirely wrong about the speed with which we would reach romantic Bellarke. My bad.I don’t particularly CHOOSE such slow burns. I read that wrong. But I never backed down from romantic soulmates because it was never taken off the table. The longing was always there even when they were separated, were in love with other people, or were furious at each other. And because of that, it could NEVER be platonic. Other fans thought the arrival of canon b/e was the death of bellarke, but what I saw was them framing B/E as a ROMANTIC OBSTACLE to Bellarke. And that was confirmation to me that Bellarke was a romantic story and they were going in that direction with the soulmate connection. And EVERYTHING that happened, from 2199 calls, was a romance story. Not platonic. PINING. LOVE TRIANGLE. SLOW BURN TRUE LOVE. HE NEEDS HER AND BROUGHT HER BACK FROM DEATH WITH A KISS. 

IT IS GLORIOUS. I am so sorry that you’re missing it. But y’all need to shut up with your whining. It’s annoying. 

[luciana-galvez]

can i request something? you think troy hates you, but you really like him. you just got to the ranch and he ends up letting you stay at his place, and he tells you he likes you. and so on...

Hi anon, sorry this took so long. Writer’s block is a bitch. I put in some smut at the end to make up for the wait and the hot mess I wrote before.

Fandom: Fear The Walking Dead

Words: 1.7k

Pairing: Troy Otto x reader

Warnings: Light/implied smut

Masterlist

You were pulled from the sweet release of unconsciousness bya dull pain that seemed to be covering your whole body. Your head was throbbingand your limbs seemed to be on fire even though you weren’t moving them. You hadto open and close your eyes for a few times before they became accustomed tothe light, and when you could make out your surroundings, you were disorientated. You were in a large room with a dozencots, but you were alone, all the other beds were empty. When you looked down,you saw a needle in your arm, attached to an IV.

“How are you feeling?” a voice said from behind and you jerkedaround in alarm, the sudden movement sending a new wave of pain through yourbody. Behind you, a brown-haired man raised his arms defensively. “Sorry, I didn’tmean to startle you,” he said apologetically. “How’s the pain?”

You carefully looked around the room once more. Behind theman that had just spoken you saw another man, leaning in the door frame to an adjacent room. Yourecognized the militia uniform and the intense eyes right away. He brought me here, you remembered.

You carefully laid your head back down in the pillow. “It’skilling me,” you said eventually.

The man close to you laughed emphatically. “I’ll get yousomething for that,” he said before turning around and walking past the otherman into the other room. The man in the militia uniform kept staring at you, hiseyes not giving anything away, not making any indication of wanting to speak toyou, simply staring.

Where did he bring me?You wondered. And why? 

You had been crossing the border, hoping to pass unnoticed, when you had been surprised by agroup of people trying to break through violently while the other sidedefended, and you ended up in the crossfire. You went down when a bullet hityou in the shoulder, and just before you passed out, you saw a man – the manwho was now standing in the doorway of the infirmary – come up to you, and had felthim pick you up.

You were pulled from your thoughts when the other manreturned.

“I’m Jake, by the way,” he said as he pushed liquid intoyour IV. “Here, that should help.”

Your eyes found the man in the doorway again. He was stilllooking at you intensely and his face did not give away any empathy.Eventually, he turned around and left without another word.

“What’s his problem?” you asked.

Jake had to chuckle. “Troy can be a little intense,” hesimply said.

You wanted to ask more, but you couldn’t remember what itwas. You felt drowsy and had problems keeping your eyes open until eventually,you stopped trying.

It was another three days before you started feeling better.The pain medication Jake was giving you helped, and you drifted in and out ofconsciousness until eventually, you woke up feeling almost normal again. Jakewas with you a lot as well as a few others, telling you about where you were andfilling you in about everything you needed to know, and more often than not, youalso caught a glimpse at Troy.

You would see him through the open door in the adjacentroom, talking to Jake, and you wondered why he was in the infirmary so mucheven though he did not seem to have any business here. Not that you werecomplaining. Just this morning you had found your glance returning to the otherroom over and over again, waiting for him to show up. You didn’t talk much, butsomehow you were drawn to him. The problem was that he didn’t seem too pleasedabout you. His face was relentlessly stern every time he looked at you, and onthe rare occasions that you did talk, his answers were short, almostuninterested.

This is why you were even more surprised by what happened onday five. Troy was sitting in the adjacent room and Jake changed your bandagewhen Jake’s and Troy’s father, and leader of the ranch, entered.

“I heard from my son you’re doing better,” Jeremiah said as hewalked up to your cot.

“Yeah, I am,” you told him.

“Then I think it’s time to get you settled.”

“Yeah, Dad, I thought about that,” Jake started. “I think we’regoing to have to let her stay here for a bit until we can restore the old Browncabin. We just gave the last available cabin to the Clarks.”

“I thought there was a free caravan,” Jeremiah said.

“There was, but-“ – “She can stay with me.”

All of you looked up surprised. You hadn’t heard Troy enterthe room, yet there he was, standing close behind his father.

“She can stay with me,” he repeated. “I have a free room.”

Jake looked from his brother to you, one eyebrow raised. “You’realright with that?”

You cleared your throat. “Ehm, yeah, sure,” was the onlything you managed to come up with.

Jeremiah nodded and left the room as quickly as he hadentered. When Jake finished up his work he also got up and left the room, butTroy was still standing at the foot of your bed.

For a moment, you only stared at each other. “What’s thatface you’re making?” he said eventually.

You shook your head lightly. “I’m just surprised, is all.”

His mouth twitched into a grin. “Well, get over it,” he saidand turned around, “come on, get your things. Let’s go.”

Troy’s cabin was almost too spacious for two people, at leastaccording to your post-apocalyptic standards. You had stayed with him for twodays now and you were still surprised every time you entered the front door.

But what left you even more puzzled than the cabin was Troyhimself. The man was a complete mystery to you. He saved your life at theborder, and he invited you to live at his place, yet for all you knew, he hatedyour guts. And the more time you spend wondering about him, the more yourealized that you wanted him to like you. You were completely fascinated byhim, the outsider who saved your life and took you in, who wouldn’t give upmuch information about himself, but who you still found staring at you wheneveryou looked over to him.

You were standing in front of the window in Troy’s livingroom, staring out at the large ranch grounds, when he came home. You turned around, ripped from yourthoughts. Troy was taking off his militia jacket and threw it over the chairnext to the door, acknowledged you with a small nod, and then turned andstarted heading into the direction of the kitchen.

“What did I do to you?” you asked without thinking,regretting it almost as soon as it came out.

Troy stopped in his tracks and turned back to you, oneeyebrow raised in surprise. “What?”

You swallowed and took a step towards him, trying to maskyour nervousness. “You invite me to live with you, yet you avoid me. I canbarely get a smile out of you, or any emotion,for that matter.”

Your heart was pumping in your chest as you came closer tohim, afraid of what he would say. He still hadn’t answered when you came to ahalt in front of him. And for the first time, Troy averted your gaze. He lookedto the side and licked his lips, as if trying to gain some time while finding ananswer.

And all of a sudden, the penny dropped for you.

“Oh,” you exclaimed, surprised. He likes me, you realized, andhe has no idea how to handle it.

Troy looked up at you again, his eyes finding yours. Youheld each other’s gaze for a moment, communicating without words. Your eyeswere big, still surprised by your realization, and his face was intense, hiseyes almost seeming to probe you, as if he was wondering whether to go intodefense or offense. And then your features turned soft, and a small smileformed on your lips. Your heart was beating so loudly you felt sure would hearit.

And then there was a small change in his face as well, as if he hadcome to a decision. He moved one step closer to you carefully, and when youdidn’t move away but held his gaze, he didn’t hesitate anymore. He leaned in,his lips almost crashing onto yours while his hands automatically moved to yourwaist.

You were surprised for only a second before you reciprocatedthe kiss. Your hands wandered from his arms over his neck to his hair, and youheld on almost desperately. The lips felt hot on yours, and you pressed yourbody to his, trying to get even closer to him. He chuckled lightly when you didand you pulled away for a second, looking up at him. Both of you were breathingheavily and before you knew it, his lips were on yours again. You carefullymoved backwards together, entangled, until your back came up against the wall.  He pressed you against it firmly, trailingkisses over your jaw, down your neck to your collarbone, and you moaned insatisfaction.

Before he could do anything else you put your hands on hischest and gently pushed, and there was a hint of disappointment in his facewhen he looked at you, until he realized you were pushing him away in order to take offhis shirt. He complied readily, moving up his arms so you could pull it off inone swift motion, and as soon as it was gone, he was all over you again.

“Troy,” you whispered with a smile on your lips as he liftedyou up. And as he carried you over to the couch, you forgot about the ranch,and about your shoulder that was still healing, and all that mattered were youand Troy, here on this couch, at the end of the world.

Troy-tag: @buckaroo–barnes

[wlwhc]

It Ain’t Me

Anon asked: Can I request a Kara x reader where Kara gets infected by red kryptonite and says some very hurtful things to the reader and even break ups with the reader only to later on be cured of the red kryptonite and Alex goes to tell the reader that Kara is all better and that she can kara again but only for the reader to act like she never meet Alex, Kara or anyone in the d.e.o but the reason is because of how upset the reader was they didn't notice a pair of stairs and fall hitting their head.

Warning: Red Kryptonite Kara?? bullying, angsty shit, violence, the whole package of dealing with Red Kara. A little of swearing

(A/N): I’m having writer’s block and I want to hit my head against a wall. I’m not happy with this, this is definitely not what I wanted to write but I can’t seem to write what I want and find the exact words that are stuck in my head, so yeah, this will have to do, sorry.

Words: 2k

“the reason I’m being like this is because you deserve it Y/N, god you’re so annoying, I don’t even know why I’m dating you, why I’m dating such a useless piece of garbage” Kara was spitting the words with such an anger, like if she was vomiting all this dark thought that she had been saving for so long. Just the thought of Kara being angry at you made you feel dizzy, but this, this was torture, you didn’t know what got into her.

“what are you still here?!” Kara said, her fist colliding with the wall of her apartment.you got earlier from work today, expecting to surprise your girlfriend with a nice meal, but you were dealing with this, never in your wildest dream you could have expected this to happen.

“I-I don’t understand-”

“you obviously don’t! god you’re so stupid! I’m seriously considering throwing you against the wall so maybe your brain can magically work!” Kara got closer to you, she was scaring you so bad, this is not Kara..right?

“what’s wrong with you?! you had never yelled at me before!” You yelled at her, and that was true. Kara had never yelled at you, much less treat you like this, she had always been the sweet innocent girl, seeing her like this completely change, scares you to death, but what makes you feel sick was the fact that she had always been thinking this about you, she had always thought you were a wasting of her time, that you were useless, that you’re an idiot.

Kara grabbed you by the collar of your shirt, lifting you a little from the floor, your body was trembling at this point, your heart jumping out of your chest, the tears that you were trying to not spill were now falling like a waterfall, Kara smirked at this.

“you’re so weak, I don’t need this, I deserve so much more than some weak stupid girl” she said, throwing you to the floor.

“I'm done with you, I don’t want you anymore, I never wanted you anyway, I was just playing, all was out of pity, you should thank me for it I had to deal with you for so long, but not anymore I’m done, so please do me a favor and disappear ….or I’ll make you” and with that she flew away, leaving you destroyed on the floor.

Your hands were shaking, and your legs didn’t seem to find the enough strength to run away from the apartment before she comes again. Slowly you got up from the floor, all those words, all the things she said...she means all that, Kara had used you, Kara had always made fun of you, Kara….Kara does not love you, she never did. The fear turned into anger, how could you not see this before? how could you let this happen?! god you were so blind. Thousands of thoughts were running through your mind, your body still weak but the anger and frustration were so much that your body seems to find enough strength to walk out from Kara’s apartment. The sobs were still breaking through your body , the tears were making really difficult to see, the walls were starting to get smaller and so did your throat, god you need to run from this place, you had to run away from her...and so you did, you ran...until your feets gave in, right when you were a step to the stairs, your body fell , each steps colliding with your body, but the last one colliding really hard with your head, making all the pain in your chest and the tears stop, it made everything stop...all went black.

Alex watches her sister sleep, finally they had found a cure to the Red Kryptonite, now her sister could finally go back to be the sweet person she is. Kara’s eyes open slowly trying to adjust to the lights, she could feel an awful pain in her chest, the memories of all the people she hurt, all the things she did...you, all the things she said.

“Oh Rao” She gasps. Alex got quickly next to her.

“Hey Kara, you’ll be fine be found a cure-”

“I need to see Y/N I-I need to-Oh Alex I said I-I d-did-” Kara said, her sobs making very difficult for her sister to understand her.

“She will be fine I’ll go to talk to her, don’t worry-”

“I break up with her I saw s-so many awful things I-I lost her-I need to see her Alex I-I need to see her” Kara begins to rip off the cables that were attached to her, Alex hold her back from doing anything stupid.

“You need to rest first, I’ll go to talk with her, she will understand-”

“I lost her Alex, oh Rao I lost her she will never forgive me-”

“Kara please just listen-”

“I-I don’t deserve her I-I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it Alex!” Alex couldn’t do anything more than hug her little sister, Kara hide in her sister’s arms, her sobs could be heard outside the room.

“She will understand Kara, I’ll talk to her everything will be okay”

After hours of consoling Kara and convincing her to stay in the D.E.O, Alex went straight to look for you, first she went to her apartment with Kara, finding the whole like a mess but no sign of you, not even something of you, finding zero tracks of you, she went to your apartment, but after knocking a thousand times she came to the conclusion that you weren’t home.

“Are you looking for the lady that used to live there?” An old woman asked Alex.

“uh yeah, I’m from the FBI, we think that she could be in danger, do you know where she went?” Alex ask.

“oh well, I don’t know too much about it, but I think I hear something about moving with her mom, the poor girl looked she got into a fight, she was wrapped up in bandages” Alex flinch at the last words, she was hoping that Kara didn’t hurt her.

Alex didn’t know where was your mom’s house, so she asked Winn for help, in 5 minutes he messages her the direction.

A few streets away from her destination she started to think how could she tell you what happens, and how could she convince you to give Kara another chance, she was pretty nervous,

“your little sister happiness depends on you Alex, no pressure” She mumbled before knocking the door, but got no response, she knocked again and got nothing, she tried one last time but nothing. Alex sighs and decides to leave but the sound of the door being open made her stop.

There you were, pretty bruised and pale but other than that you looked okay, you were wearing a beanie which didn’t let Alex see the real damage, the big bandage covering your head. The agent sends you a big smile, which you return with a confused look.

“Are you looking for my mom?” You asked her. Alex frown at this

“u-uh no, I’m here for you Y/N,  we need to talk about Kara and I know that you may not want to talk about it and I understand but she’s miser-”

“What are you talking about, I don’t know any Kara, I don’t even know you” You said, starting to panic, when Kara’s name escape from Alex's mouth you were already shaking, your chest felt heavy, who the fuck was Kara?.

Alex's eyes widen at your words, she awkwardly smiled at you, thinking that you were joking, but the look on your eyes was pretty convincing.

“are you joking right? Y/N  this is not the time for jokes-”

“Y/N! what did I tell you about talking with strangers!” Your mom yelled at you, glaring at Alex.

“she said that she knows me, who is she?” you asked your mother that had been taking care of you since the accident, since your memory broke into pieces, she was the only person you seem to recognize.

“she’s no one, wait for me inside” Your mother said to you, and you complied. Alex was shocked, her mouth didn’t seem to find the words, and her brain was in complete denial that you actually didn't know who she was.

“Alex” Your mother said to Alex, your mother had always not like Kara or Alex, she always said that they hide something, and when you told her about Kara’s planet she freaked out so bad, she didn’t like aliens. Alex knew about this, Kara was always complaining about your mother and about what she could do to make her approve your relationship with her.

“Y/M/N, care to explain? Y/N is joking, right? I know that Kara sai-”

“I don’t care what Kara said, or what you want, right now my daughter is getting through a hard moment in her life, and she needs her mother, not an alien and much less a corrupt police officer” she said, glaring at Alex, the last one took a long breath.

“What happened? and don’t you dare to close this door on my face” Alex asked, losing her patience with the woman. Your mom sighs at this, her eyes change into a sad look.

“I don’t know, people said that she fell from the stairs, she hit her head pretty bad, she doesn't remember anyone but me, when she first woke up in the hospital she thought she was 6, the doctors did everything they could, she’s okay now, but she still doesn't remember anyone, not even her friends, I was waiting for your sister to came here , maybe she could remember her, but if she didn’t recognize you, then she won’t recognize your sister either” Your mom explained. Alex was shocked, this couldn't be happening

“you have to be kidding me, this is a joke, this can’t be happening-”

“you think I would joke about my daughter’s health!?”

“no! wait please, it’s just ...holy shit this is so bad”

“...look I know that you and your sister are good friends of her, but she doesn't need more persons yelling at her because she doesn’t recognize them, she’s pretty overwhelmed, she needs space, tell that to the alien, my daughter needs time” and with that she closed the door leaving Alex outside.

“oh god, this is so bad, this is so so bad, oh god, how am I going to tell Kar-damn it!”

You watch the strangers outside the house, the girl seems pretty angry about the news, it was normal, you already saw a lot of “familiars” and “friends” get angry about the situation , other people cry a lot, and for you, it was pretty awkward because you were surrounded by people you didn't know, but they seem to know every detail about you. You didn’t even recognize yourself, but for some reason that name, Kara, makes your body tremble and your heart swell with a warm sensation, it makes your eyes glassy and your hands shake, you didn’t know why, you didn’t know the person that carries the name, but you want to, you want to meet her, you need her... you miss her...you miss a stranger

such a shitty end omg, I’m going to say this again, I’m not happy with this result, but this is what my brain can do right now, so I won’t be angry if you don’t like this piece of garbage :3

[agl03]

Hi! :) After the no Fitzsimmons nonsense of this season, are they seriously thinking about separate them AGAIN or even break them up?? They have done nothing as a couple, except crying... and let's face it the apartment thing was a prank. I won't lie, I won't take it anymore, if the season begins with them apart, I will shut down the tv... If it is a "forever love" but they only show it the first day and in the very last ep without nothing in-between, following the journey is useless. :/ :(

Hi Anon!

We don’t know what they are going to do with Fitzsimmons when we first come back…there is a very good chance that the writers don’t know what they are going to do either.  I think that they have an endgame in mind…and its a matter of what route they take to get there.   And as they go into Season 5 they stand at a fork in the road as to what direction they want to take.  

Its okay to feel upset and even betrayed right now.  I did, and I still do a bit.  I’m getting better as I re watch and have a few metas under my belt.  But I definitely am going to be a lot more careful with anything they tell us from now on…good and bad.  I do hope the writers and show runners are more careful too.  Seeing the hurt.  IE don’t put things out there you don’t intent on paying off or worse lead us to believe it will be paid off when you very well know you won’t.

The way I’m looking at it is if they were going to break them up we would have seen the break up in the finale.   We saw Philinda take the step back, if Fitzsimmons were going to do the same I think we would have had a heartbreaking scene where Fitz pushed her away and said that he needed time.  But we didn’t.   We got a scene where he point blank said that there his his love for Jemma would never fade and that there was only room in his heart for her.  With the “other woman” who had orchestrated things so that she would be his “whole world” sitting right next to him and she meant NOTHING romantically to him.  Nothing.  He had the same amount of time worth of memories and “transferred feelings” for Ophelia as he did Jemma, and Jemma won hands down.

We saw Jemma go through hell to get him back.  That her feelings hadn’t changed either, that she didn’t blame him for anything.  It wasn’t him.  And she saw that affirmation as well.  

Did we get a chance to see THAT desperately needed conversation.  No.  And not gonna lie or sugar coat it.  That totally sucks and the writers dropped the ball.  Not only did they run out of time, I think they honestly thought that what they did was “enough’ of a pay off.   Don’t get me wrong, that pod scene is now one of my all time favorite scenes.  It was amazing and powerful…and had that been the last thing we saw of Fitzsimmons this season I think most of the fandom would be good right now.  Because there it ended with them holding each other in that silent affirmation that they were there for each other through it all.   They really had no idea how much of a toll the Framework Arc would take on the Fandom.  And in the past we really haven’t been a hard fandom to please.  They are used to giving us epic moments that are spread out and we’re content to gif the heck out of it for a few months.  But we’re expecting more now because Fitzsimmons have grown both as characters and in their relationship and we want to see moments that reflect that.  

We did get some great moments, where they HUGE moments we had all been excited about going into the season?  Again,no.  But in more of Fitzsimmons fashion it was those little moments that spoke to their love and deep connection.

Bed cuddles

Adorable in the lab with the boxes “Cue Jemma Gasping”

Love Nest Shopping

Fight

“She’s out there all alone and I’m gone”/the ENTIRE team affirming how much they mean to each other.

Beautiful Reunion hugs

Fitzsimmonsing to stop Eli and double gun shot

Tormenting Talbot

Comfort Kiss

I mean the whole of 12 for me I just love WITH bonus “Your the best” face grab kiss.

“Don’t do that” with you didn’t die hugs and working together

Comforting Fitz and we’ll fix this together

Rip our hearts out but yet look he was thinking about Marriage before this all went to hades.

Jemma digging myself out of a grave to get to my man Anne Simmons

“If you do this I lose him forever” “I love him”

Pain, more pain, but we started to suspect that AIDA had stolen Fitzsimmons relationship for herself. along with Fitz.

Uniting behind our collective hate for Papa Fitz and cheering Jemma on as he went after him….after totally sneaking out when Daisy said they had to leave him behind.

More pain but Jemma would rather die than say she meant nothing to him.

Fitz woke up from a nightmare he was the monster in we need to get to him

Confirmation AIDA stole Fitzsimmons relationship for herself

Leopold “I”ll only ever love Jemma” James Fitz….with Jemma hearing it.

Beautiful reunion crying hugs

Tricking the obsessed, crazy android with a fake fight.

Jemma getting to unload a ton of bullets into AIDA

FItzsimmons getting to watch The Rider and Dad Off Front runner Coulson take care of the contrived roadblock in epic fashion.  

Jemma’s “amen” to that they weren’t letting him face whatever alone, didn’t blame him, and were going to help him heal.  

I likely missed some but we had something in nearly every single episode this season.  Again, no not the big sweep us off the feet and make us swoon traditional shipper moments.  But the more quiet Fitzsimmons ones we’ve had all along.  Again, I’m not saying I wouldn’t love me a really nice over the top shipper moment (because really writers would one good proper kiss have killed you, no), but they did give us something in nearly every single episode (which is uncommon for a show like this) and I would be bereft if I didn’t mention that here.  

Yes, they took the Love Nest from us…and now I know why.  Because its not time for Endgame yet…they let us and them get THIS CLOSE.  Not only were they looking to move off base but Shield was back on the up and up, they didn’t have to hide anymore.   Then,they and we lost it.  Jed and Mo constantly talk in interviews about the cost of the job and the toll it can take, how Fitzsimmons is one of the best ways for them to show it, this was a way of showing that.   We started the season so close and now they’ve been pulled deeper into the shadows by whoever took them than they were before.  And I’ll take losing the Love Nest to losing them together…sorry breakfast nook.   

The Love Nest is the Seychelles of this Season, that thing we lost because of the crap that happened.

This continues to give pull to my theory that eventually Fitzsimmons will say enough is enough and choose each other over the job once and for all.  And they had that decision taken from them in this finale as they were whisked way by who knows who to god knows where.

As ‘betrayed’ as I feel by the writers right now believe it or not I do have faith that they are going somewhere with all this.  That Fitzsimmons with Perthshire, Wedding, and Babies is all in the cards.  But its Endgame and until they are ready to have that happen, they will continue to put roadblocks in the way.   I’m honestly okay with roadblocks to endgame but they do need to give us Hope in between and need to let them face the next ones together as a couple.  

The one that seems to have been set up is now getting Fitz to forgive himself.  They’ve set it up that Jemma is the one who will help him do that.  Real couples face difficult situations all the time and don’t break up because of it.  This is their chance to show a couple dealing with a traumatic event while staying together and helping each other heal.   I don’t think they’ve set up them breaking up and getting back together, that is a traditional trope and if anything AOS doesn’t do traditional tropes in the traditional way.

Take the “love triangle” we had this season.  The ‘traditional’ or easy way of doing this would have been for Fitz to fall for AIDA in the real world.  But NOPE in order for it to even happen…he had to be kidnapped, brainwashed, and manipulated while being thrown in to a nightmare hell world designed by a Robot who wanted his mind and his relationship with Jemma.  

I do have concerns they will have them split up physically or make it so even if they are together the situation they’ve been forced into is somehow keeping them apart.  Be it they have physically been taken to separate locations or whoever took them won’t allow them to be together outside the lab kind of thing (though Coulson seemed to have some sort of freedom on there).  

I know none of what I just said will take the pain away or ease that distrust for the writers now.  They made their bed and have to lie in it.   A lot of this comes down to us and them having very different definitions/expectations of words like reward and soon.  Its okay to be tired of being given the run around too, because I’m there too.  They have made it so its more frustrating than fun.  They crossed a line thinking what they had was enough to make up for it, and for most of the battered fandom it wasn’t.  I’m ready to see them be a couple dealing with this stuff, not fighting to get back to each other.  There are plenty of interesting stories to tell there.  

However if you really feel empassioned and want to make your voice heard you can do that. Just like when we were fighting for renewal.  And I can not emphasize this enough that if you choose to send feedback to do it  POLITELY, POSITIVELY, AND RESPECTFULLY! We learned from AIDA that throwing a tantrum doesn’t get what you want.   

ABC has a feed back form that you can fill out on its shows.   We busted this out a few months ago to fight for renewal, now you can do it if you want to send in your opinion.  HERE is a post that has the link and instructions…just change from renewal to your thoughts on the story. 

Tweet at ABC and Agents of Shield.  Using #fitzsimmons and #agentsofshield

DO NOT tweet at Jed, Mo, Colo, Mark, the other writers, or the cast personally with this stuff. 

Going forward I’m going to be incredibly careful with ANYTHING we get from Jed and Mo.  I pretty much already disregard anything from the Jeff’s since they troll us so much.  I don’t want to get burned again.  I will not go into next season expecting kisses, romantic dinners, and heartfelt conversations about recovery, love, and forgiveness.  That is what fan fic is for.  

Rather I’ll watch for and appreciate those small moments while reveling in the big ones.  They like to surprise us with the BIG moments, Sandwich, Maybe there is 2.22, Sunrise/Perthshire 3.7, First Kiss 3.8 (we wouldn’t have seen that one coming a mile away had they not released that pic to EW), Handhold in 3.15,  Kisses 3.17,Undercover and ensuing sexy times 3.18 (again we had the undercover tease and waited MONTHS to see that…and most of you likely though I was downright crazy for that prediction too) Love Nest 4.4, Thinking of proposing 4.15.  So I’m going to sit back and wait for the next one to surprise me!  

And I will hope that the writers see they did hurt us and dial back the trolling, teasing, and pain.  Don’t tease things they have no intention of delivering or be a bit more honest about the timeline of such things (cough engagement cough).   Not only throughout hiatus but into next season.  

[persephones24]

Half A Heart

hi how are ya! do you think u can do a spencer imagine based off the song half a heart by one direction -Anon

A/n: Sorry that it took so long to write this. I had major writers block and life got in the way. Sorry again. I hope you like it though.

Pairing: Reid x Reader

Word Count: 1100ish

So your friends been telling me

You been sleeping with my sweater

And that you can't stop missing me

“What do you mean it’s not working?”

“I mean that we aren’t compatible.”

Your eyes widen, Today, he wants to do this today. Your one-year anniversary and he wanted to start this mess now.

“Not compatible? Not compatible. Are you fucking kidding me, Spencer? From the person that said that we belonged together, that I am his one true love, you want to bring this shit up now.”

You could see the glisten in his eyes, the unshed tears threatening to break through. He hung his head low, clearing his throat, but not speaking. You anger diminish and all there was in hurt and confusion.

One year of friendship.

One year of love.

And he wants to throw all of that away.

For what?

You take a step towards him, putting your hand on his shoulder before he shrugged your hand off.

“Spencer, please? Why are you doing this to me? To us? I thought you loved me.”

“I do love you, with all my heart. And that’s why I need to end it. I can’t stand to see you get hurt because of me. I just couldn’t bear it if anyone hurt you or even killed you. I just can’t.”

Tears began to pour down his cheeks, his sobs shaking his body. He put hand over his mouth to silence his whines. Your heart began to break for the man that you loved. You have never seen him this vulnerable before. A little upset after emotionally damaged cases but never to this extent. He tries to keep himself grounded, to show you that he is strong physically and mentally.

But never this.

Never this broken.

“Spencer?”

You reach you hand to touch his shoulder but he quickly steps back. Whipping the stray tears from his cheeks, he made his way to the door. Opening it and stepping out half way before turning back to face you. His face neutral, showing no emotions at all.

“Y/N, this is for the best. It will make sense to you soon enough.” Closing the door with a soft click of the knob, you dropped to your knees. The events finally taking its toll.

Bet my friends been telling you

I'm not doing much better

Cause I'm missing half of me  

One month.

It has been one month since you and Spencer broke it off. One month of not talking to him, or seeing his face. Hearing his laugh, feeling his lips upon yours. Feeling his body upon yours.

Sitting in your darkly lit room, you hug his sweater tightly around your body, the faint aroma of Spencer filling your nose, making your heart ache for the boy genius. Tears sprinkled your eyes as memories of your romantic escapade flash before you.

JJ and Garcia tried their hardest to get you through this terrible time but nothing worked. They would reassure you that he is also feeling depressed about the break up and that he is not doing so well either. But it all falls on death ears.

If he was feeling depressed, feeling like his heart has been ripped out of his chest and stomped on, then why do such a thing. Why destroy something that is so perfect? That is hurts to the point of death when it is taken away.

I'm half a heart without you

Though I try to get you out of my head

The truth is I got lost without you

You haven’t left your apartment, only to go to work and get groceries. Simple things that now felt like a choir. You already used all of your vacation days, and cannot request anymore time. Your boss was concerned, wondering about your physical health, since you normally come into work dress to impress and with a smile on your face. You brush him off with a faulty excuse and continue on with your days, working in a daze.

Getting tired of laying around, moping. You get up from your bed, tossing his sweater on the bed. Shuffling into your living room, glancing at the empty places where pictures frames of you and Spencer sat.

Every little thing reminded you of him.

Of the love that you once had.

Hearing a faint knock at your door, you groan internally, not wanting to deal with people today. You march to your front door, swinging it open to give who ever disturbed your grieving a stern talking to. But once you seen the crazy bed head and swollen face, eyes puffy and red from crying, and those deep chocolate brown eyes, everything went out the window.

He looked just as bad as you, maybe even worse. He stood in wrinkled and stained pajamas and robe, wearing only slippers on his feet. You didn’t care though, he was here.

Forget all we said that night

No it doesn't even matter

Cause we both got split in two

“Y/N…. I-I’m so s-sorry. I should have never did that to you. It was miserable without you. It took me a while and I tried to convince myself that you are better off without me but it was so hard to get over you. I realize that you are my whole world and I couldn’t live without you for another second. Randall Munroe estimated that if your soulmate is predetermined at birth, and they're born at roughly the same time as you, and assuming you make eye contact with two doze-.”

You take him by the nape of his neck, and pull him in for a deep and passionate kiss. Pouring the love and emotion that you were holding into the kiss. You felt the depression lift from your heart, making it swell with love and longing. Spencer wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you even closer to him, wanting to feel your body heat. You separated your lips, panting and breathing each other air. You stare deep into his eyes, seeing the love shown in them. Cupping his cheek, you peck his lips.

“It’s okay, you have forever to make up for this. Just promise me that if you ever doubt yourself, that you’re not capable of protecting me from whatever unsub that you and the team are chasing. Talk to me, don’t just make up all the decisions for yourself. We are a team, remember that.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said, as he nuzzled his nose against your pulse point. Feeling his hands take hold to your thighs, he hoists you up, your legs wrapping around his waist. He kisses you again, more ferociously.

“I love you, Y/N.”

“And I love you.”