#i finally cleaned the fucking water spots on the outsides of their tanks!!

[lilgarbitch]

Running in Circles- Three

Pairing: Noah Sebastian x Reader

CW: Fainting, should I be adding swearing as a warning…or is it just obvious at this point?

Word Count: 9k

Author’s Note: Don’t hate me for being a cliche. Also, don’t hate me for involving my favorite artists;) It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but many more faces will be popping up throughout this story. Some of you might hate it, but I know a lot of you will love it.

Part two

Y/N

I awoke to laughter outside my bunk, causing me to stir and finally open my eyes to see that the curtain to my bunk was open and three fat-headed boys were staring at me. I rub my eyes and yawn, then wipe my mouth when I realize I had been drooling. 

“Fuck offfff,” I groan out to them in a tired voice, covering my eyes from the light shining in. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty. You were snoring like a goddamn horse, so I went to check on you and saw you drooling all over Noah’s hoodie.” Cam laughs out. I quickly open my eyes and look down at my sleeve, now with a giant wet spot on it. Goddamnit. There’s nowhere to even fucking wash this unless I can stop at a laundry mat or wash it in the sink somewhere.

“Are you gonna mention her mumbling his name every ten minutes,” Tony mumbled from behind Cam, causing me to groan, smack whatever body part was closest and reach for the curtain, pulling it back to cover me.

“FUCK OFF,” I yelled at them, trying not to laugh as I turned back over, burying my face into my pillow..that now had that amazing musk soaked into it from the hoodie…

“You better get ready soon, love. We get there in three hours,” Tommy calls in, causing another groan to escape my lips. 

Wiping my face one more time, I hop out of the bunk and walk to my bags. Well, try to, as the hangover was absolutely kicking my ass and the room was still spinning. I use my barely open eyes to look over what my choices for today could be when they land on that lace tank top (that was actually more like a soft corset) that I almost wore yesterday and decide that even though I feel like the devil was about to come and pull me down any minute now, I should look cute again today. So I grab that, a pair of lower-rise black shorts, almost knee-high socks, and other essentials before walking to the bathroom and taking my much-needed shower.

I walk out of the bathroom, after probably an hour, needing to soak all the sticky sweat from my sleep off, finally feeling fresh and clean and looking like a normal person again. 

“Can someone pretty please find some pain killers for me while I finish getting ready,” I ask, peaking my head into the room that all the boys were sitting in. I rub my eyes with deep pressure, hoping to bring some relief. Someone could be banging against my head with a hammer right now, and it wouldn’t even compete with the pounding inside it.

“Way ahead of ya,” Tony responded, holding up Advil and a water bottle. I look at him like he was a goddamn angel and give him a wide smile and a small exasperated ‘thank you’ before taking some and chugging the water. Then, Cam handed me an energy drink, and I just about kissed him. 

“What would I do without you three,” I gushed as I cracked open the can.

“Probably not be so hung over,” Tommy jokes, making me giggle before turning back around to finish getting ready. Grabbing my make-up bag and whatever hair tools I brought with me, I head into the back of the bus, not caring how bumpy it would be. I just needed some space from voices.

But I still opened my phone to put on some quiet music since it was impossible for me to actually handle pure quiet, and see I had another message from Noah, making me smile. I looked around, checking to see if anyone had caught me, before saving his number on my phone. After I send him a simple good morning text, I turn on some music and go back to getting ready for the day.

After over an hour, my arms felt sore from forcing myself to put extra work into my hair. My make-up and hair were done, and I walked to the bathroom to take one last close-up glance over my appearance. Smiling at how well I did my eyeliner and wiping off any make-up that ended up on my piercings, I step back and glance at my full outfit. I was showing off a lot more skin than yesterday, and my stomach tattoos and a bit of my back piece were showing off since my shirt was more of a crop top, but I felt cute. 

I make my way back out to the living area and expect to see the boys, but noticed we were already at the next venue, so they were probably out hanging with the other group already. Pulling out my phone again, I check the time and weather, seeing that I still had a lot of time before we had to do anything, and that it was a little warmer than where we were yesterday, even though it was mid-October, so I should probably still grab my cardigan and bring it with me just in case. But then my eyes land on a new message notification.

Noah🖤- Morning? It’s 2 pm

Noah🖤- but good morning to you too:)

Y/N- Shush

Y/N- I don’t know why I let you guys convince me to drink last night. I feel like death.

I close my phone and glance around the bus. This is probably one of the only moments I will get to myself on this tour, so I’m absolutely going to take advantage of it. I have a good two hours until sound check, so I walk over to the speaker on our bus and turn it on, pairing it with my phone and pressing play on one of my playlists before going to my bag and grabbing my laptop. I sit down in the back of the bus, turn on Demon Slayer, rewatching it for the millionth time, and sing along with my music. Maybe getting a little too into the music, since it wasn’t often that I had time to sing along to my favorite songs as loud as I could without feeling like I was bothering the boys. 

Still choking on the bed

Found your waste while the ember red

Keeps falling down and burning in holes

Until the pillow and the mattress glow

I sang along to one of my favorite albums, not really paying attention to anything else as I tried to hit Vic’s notes.

Now I want to be the tattoo ink

That swims down through the needle in your skin

That’s when I heard someone cough to catch my attention, making me open my eyes. I guess I had been so entranced in the song and in hitting the notes that I was now sat back on the couch with my eyes closed. 

I blink a few times and clear my throat before my eyes focus and I see Noah standing in front of me with a smirk on his face. 

“I texted you a few times asking if you wanted to come join us, and then Tony told me to come and see what you were doing,” he confessed before laughing, “I was a little worried I’d walk in on something embarrassing, but that was actually really good.” I blushed a little at his compliment, hoping that my make-up covered it well. 

“I- uh. Sorry. I just figured this was one of those rare times that I had to myself, you know? So I just let you all do your thing until you needed me.” I replied with an embarrassed chuckle. 

“No, no, you’re all good. If you want me to leave, I’ll just get Tommy or someone to come get you when you’re needed,” he said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. Then his eyes caught my laptop. “Are you watching Demon Slayer?” 

“Yeah..?” I replied, eyeing him to see his reaction. He came over to me and motioned for me to scooch over so he could sit. 

“I fucking love that anime.” I laughed as his eyes didn’t leave my screen. I stood up and walked over to where my phone sat and turned off my music, disconnecting it from the speaker and walked back. He had moved closer to the laptop, which was at an angle to face where I was sitting, so I walked around the small table it was sitting on, and moved the laptop to face straight towards the couch, and sat down about a foot from him, the show now being played in front of us. I know I wanted alone time, but this wasn’t so bad. I figured being alone with Noah would be awkward and uncomfortable, so it was nice being able to be in his presence and know I didn’t need to be so freaked out yesterday. I’m not sure if it was because I opened up my personality to him so easily yesterday, or just how sweet he was and how much we had in common, but I almost felt like I could treat him like any other friend. Like I had been close to him for years.

We watched for a little while before I felt eyes on me. I look up from the screen and see Noah looking at me, making me smirk. His eyes trailed down my body, following the lines of the ink in my skin like a maze. A giggle escaped my lips as I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He immediately dropped his gaze to the screen again after noticing he had been caught.

“You’re gonna miss some important scenes if you don’t pay attention,” I tease. He chucked softly.

“I’ve seen this anime so many times. I already know what’s gonna happen,” he defended with a shy smile. I gave him a fake, shocked look.

“So you intruded on my ‘me’ time to watch a show you’ve already seen?” I ask with my eyebrow raised. He looks at me with slightly widened eyes, about to defend himself, before I laugh, cutting him off,” I’m just kidding. This is probably my tenth time seeing it.” His head fell as he shook it with a smile before going back to watching, so I did, too. 

“You sounded really good earlier, by the way,” he mumbled out after a few minutes. I look over at him through the side of my eye and smile. 

“Thank you. I’ve been really working on hitting higher notes like that. It’s not easy for my vocal range.” I respond with a warm smile.

“Pfft. You have the craziest range I’ve ever heard. I can’t see those notes ever being a struggle for you.” he says, making me shake my head in disbelief.

“As if! I saw you guys a few years back, and you were hitting and holding notes I couldn’t even imagine doing.” I confess, elbowing him lightly, which caused him to laugh. But then his smile faltered slightly.

“Are you..uh.. talking about that one festival we did...?” He asked, watching for my reaction. I turned my head to the side, confused, before nodding, remembering that day, once again, as if it were yesterday. 

“How..?”

“I uh.. I actually think I remember seeing you in the crowd.” he trailed off, his arm raising so his elbow rested on the back of the couch as he rubbed the back of his neck, losing eye contact in embarrassment. I did my best to hide the shocked look on my face as I turned to face him, giving him my full attention. 

“Th-that’s kind of crazy..but actually pretty cool. Seeing each other again all these years later..” I weakly respond, not knowing how I should react to him remembering me on the day my life took a complete turn. 

“Yeah. I actually..uh.. I also remember the day I saw a friend of mine post pictures of your band when he was traveling, and I just had to give you guys a listen, and I was really impressed.” I giggled softly, still shocked.

“Is that why the next day, Jolly reached out to Tommy? Because you saw us?” I teased. The words left my mouth before I even had control of it because, of course, the only way I knew how to keep conversations from being awkward was by joking. I internally curse myself before he answers.

“Yeah, I mean, I could never let a voice like that go unrecognized. I’m actually really happy that Jolly and Tommy became friends.. and that we managed to get this tour set up. I’m really glad… I got to finally meet you.” he confessed, making complete eye contact again.

“I can’t lie, I was worried I was never gonna see you again.” I said, before realizing I spoke before thinking, “You know..because..I enjoyed your music so much,” I tried adding with an awkward laugh and internally cursed at myself again. He gave me a look, letting me know he didn’t believe me. 

“I was actually thinking the same thing…” he trailed off as we looked at each other. That was when I noticed how close I was to him. He had leaned in when talking, and now our faces were barely a foot apart. My breath hitched when I glanced down at his lips as he finished speaking. Don’t do it, Y/N. Not yet. You can’t let yourself give in on the second day of finally seeing him again. You won’t be able to handle it if this goes south in the future. I looked back into his eyes and saw that he was now looking at my lips, slowly inching forward. And I was too, not even in control of my body. I could feel his breath on me the closer we got, and suddenly, all restraint in my body left as I was about to close the distance, desperately needing to feel his lips on mine. 

“SOUNDCHECK IN TEN MINUTES. GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE, Y/N,” Cam shouted in through the door of the bus, causing both Noah and I to jump. I look up at him with a shocked look before standing up, letting out a quiet ‘fuck’ before quickly grabbing my phone and cardigan. I feel a soft touch on my wrist but ignore it before rushing out the door and past Cam.

“Also, have you seen Noah? We sent him to get you, but he just disappeared.. never mind, then.” I heard him ask as I ignored him and walked to the venue.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the fuck are you thinking? You know better than this. Why the fuck did you let him stay and watch? You told yourself time and time again you wouldn’t let your feelings take control when you finally saw him again. And even fucking better, you haven’t even fully warmed up today! This is a goddamn job, Y/N. Not a touring party bus with occasional performances. I run my fingers through my hair, pulling on it, trying to ground myself again. God, I’m a fucking idiot. He probably only even tried kissing me because I’m the only girl here. Because that definitely wouldn’t be the first. Fucking hell, dude. You’re gonna ruin the tour for everyone. 

I had reached side stage, waiting for the rest of my band, and started pacing. I feel a presence behind me and jump, looking over. Thank god it was just Tommy, with the other boys trailing behind him. 

“Are you okay?” Tommy asked with a concerned look on his face. I finally stopped my subconscious pacing and let out a sigh. 

“I uh..I just haven’t warned up..” which wasn’t a complete lie.

“Is that why I saw Noah walking out behind you on the bus?” Cam teased with a smirk, causing Tommy to smack him in the stomach, earning a slight ‘oof.’ I completely ignored them and saw the stage manager beckon us on stage for our soundcheck. I immediately walk out and in front of my mic, trying my hardest to ignore the weird looks I was getting from the boys. I let out a deep sigh before we started. 

The boys sounded fine, but I didn’t. My voice cracked at every high note and I couldn’t hold my growls. I could feel tears threaten to escape my eyes. 

“Y/N, what’s going on with you?” Tony asked from behind me. I turn to him and he immediately shuts his mouth when he sees the redness in my eyes. I hear someone walking up behind me. 

“Hun, you can warm up when they do their soundcheck. It’s okay..” Tommy tries to comfort me as he rubs my back. I know he knows that it wasn’t my voice bothering me. Hell, something was upsetting me so much that it was throwing my vocals off. But he didn’t dare ask. He never did, not once in over five years I had been lying to him about the thoughts in my head. I give him a weak nod, and we all walk off stage. As we do, we run into the other group of boys. Folio goes to greet me but closes his mouth when he sees my appearance. 

“She’s uh..she’s just having some trouble with her vocals today. So she’s gonna warm up then stay on vocal rest until we have to head on..” Tommy thankfully answers for me. Nick nods, and the other boys give me a pitying look. I don’t even glance at the tallest, not wanting to see what he looks like right now. My band and I walk to the room backstage and sit down as the other group walks on stage. I sit down, and Tommy continues to rub my back as I take some deep breaths. 

“I know you don’t like to talk about these things, but you can’t do this all tour. For you. For us. For the other boys. So, please, Y/N, please talk to me when you need to,” Tommy spoke softly into my ear. He rarely ever used my name, always calling me one pet name or another, so I knew he was serious. I nodded with another deep breath.

“Can we have this talk tonight? I just...I need to warm up..” I asked him and he gave me a fast nod, surprised I was finally willing. I knew he was right. It’s been way too long bottling all of this up, so I had to say something, especially now that I gad to see the problem every single day. 

“Do you want to do our warm-up, or do you want to be alone?” Cam asked me softly, almost like he didn’t want to upset me. 

“I think it’s better for me to do it alone today. I have to let out some emotions...you know?” He nodded, understanding what I meant, and patted Tony’s shoulder, signaling for them to head somewhere else. Tommy gave me a kiss on my temple before standing up. 

“If you need anything, just call. If one of those fuckers starts bothering you, I’ll beat their ass,” he jokingly threatened, hooking a thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards the stage. That made me giggle, which made him smile, seemingly happy he put a smile on my face. He followed the boys, and now I was left alone. With one last large sigh, I pulled out my phone, ignoring every notification, and opened Spotify, knowing exactly what song I had to put on to practice to let out some pent-up feelings. I typed it into the search bar, pressing the song, and turning my phone all the way up. The music started off soft and I cleared my throat. I had a good few minutes until they were gonna come off stage, so I was able to be alone just long enough to ‘sing’ this song with no embarrassment. 

The vocals were about to start, so I inhaled, holding the phone up to one ear and my other hand cupped my other ear so I could hear myself, then I started singing along. My head and body moved as I tried to hold and reach each note, so I started walking around the room. There was a reason I never really sang songs like this in front of anyone. I had a few times around the boys, but after being told so many times that I sounded too manly when I showed off my ‘party tricks,’ even their compliments didn’t help, so I started hiding it from them again. 

We’re dancing like flames

Flickering in the night

We sway in time with the wind

Before melting away

You're far from my reach

But not far out of sight

You know the way to my heart

But you just play the strings again

I paused to control my breath as the song continued. I hadn’t sung along to Lorna Shore in so long, not really having time to. I couldn’t do each scream Will did, but I had worked on different screams over the years that I could replace the ones I’ve been unable to learn. I joined back in singing along with the lyrics after a minute, and the grumble in my chest felt amazing. I really missed this. I held out every growl as long as I could and tried replicating his screeches to the best of my ability. The tunnel screams were my favorite to both hear and do. Eventually, the song ended, and I was so in the zone that I just let the next one play. I felt every emotion in my chest get shaken out with every growl I made. My head felt empty enough that I genuinely didn’t care if the boys came in to check on me.

‘Sun//Eater’ was now playing, and I continued letting out everything in my body as I sang along. I’d get a little frustrated when I couldn’t replicate certain parts of it, but I got so into it that I didn’t stop until the music faded out. I pulled my hands away from my head and turned down my phone volume after closing Spotify. I didn’t actually need to ‘warm up’ per se, so my clean vocals didn’t need any practice. I truly just needed to get all these emotions out. 

I turn to make my way towards the door, ready to join back up with my band, when I came face to face with four incredibly shocked men. I paused and stood there equally as stunned. My mouth gaped open, about to let out a small ‘I’m sorry,’ but was immediately cut off. 

“DUDE, THAT WAS SICK! WHAT THE FUCK!” Ruffilo yelled as he walked towards me. I couldn’t remove the shocked look on my face as the rest of them agreed almost as loudly. I didn’t know if I was more shocked at them catching me or the praise. I know we were both bands in the metal genre and that they were all nice guys who enjoyed my band's music, but I still never got a reaction like this from anyone before. 

“I- uh,” and then I got cut off again as my band came running back, I’m assuming after hearing the yelling. I looked up at them with a shocked look as the other group looked at them like they had just discovered the most insane thing in their lives. My boys looked between all of us before finally making the connection. 

“Oh, come on! I haven’t heard Y/N scream in so long, but you guys get to hear it?” Cam whines. Tony and Tommy walked over to me, and Tony put a hand on my shoulder. 

“It’s crazy, right? But we can never convince her to perform like that on stage no matter how much we try.” Tony says with fake sadness, smirking down at me. Oh, they’re about to team up on me again, aren’t they? They did this every time they heard it. Just now, there are more people here to pressure me. The shocked look still hadn’t left my face, but was now closer to an offended one when I realized what he was trying to do. I look back at the rest of them, and they were all staring at me once again. I instantly shook my head. Absolutely not. 

“Come onnnn,” Folio chimed in, “ That was the most incredible shit I’ve ever heard. If you don’t go do that on stage, I’m coming out and doing it, and you don’t want that.” he laughs out. I look between all their faces, each with a reassuring yet pressuring grin. I didn’t know how to respond, still overwhelmed by everything that just happened. 

“I- I,” I stutter out. I really don’t want to, but they’re all begging me at this point. I continue looking at all of them, Tommy now having a pout and puppy-dog eyes. 

“Fuck! Okay! I will. I guess I’ll try it out tonight, but if I get any bad reactions, none of you are ever allowed to hear me sing again.” I say exasperated. This caused them all to reach in and hug me, almost causing a dog pile, making me laugh. 

“Wait, how would that work? You’re our lead singer.” Cam questions with a confused look on his face. 

“Trust me, I’ll find a way, even if it means deafening you.” I threatened, pointing a finger at him, which caused a scared smile to form on his face. 

I had just finished most of the songs on our set. My mind has been on overdrive this whole show, and I feel terrible that I haven't connected with the crowd as much as I usually do. We only had three songs left to do, the ‘Fan’s Choice’ and our two encore songs. My mind was running a mile a minute as I wondered if I should do this or back down. It was rare that I stole the choice away from the fans, so I’m worried they’ll be upset about that, and I’m also worried they won’t even enjoy it. I took some deep breaths before setting my mic back on its stand and looking towards the crowd, one full of beautiful fans who had been singing with me the whole night. I really didn’t want to disappoint them. So, with one heavy exhale, I began speaking.

“So, I know you may all know that it’s around the time for our special ‘Fan’s Choice’ song. And I know so many of you love it, which is why we do them every show. But tonight, we’re gonna do something a little different.” I spoke into the mic. The crowd cheered when I finished, but they quieted down a little when they saw my serious demeanor. 

“Now, this wasn’t my choice, I have to warn you. So, if any of you have complaints, take them up with the boys behind me,” I paused to point at my bandmates, “ And the wonderful yet pressuring boys of Bad Omens.” I paused once more, knowing the crowd would get loud hearing their name. A smile creeps up on my face as they do. 

“Tonight, I’m gonna sing something a little different. Hopefully, it’s a song many of you enjoy, but again, if you don’t, it’s not my fault,” I said, holding my hands up in defense with a smile. The music began over the speakers since none of the boys had any time to practice this. So it was just me and the speakers. It was just me performing this song. A few people in the crowd got rowdy as they recognized the opening cords, which gave me a little hope.

“I hope you all enjoy Lorna Shore because this is ‘To the Hellfire,” I yell into the mic as the music got louder and I was about to start. The crowd got so loud I could hear them over the music and even through my earpiece. I pulled the mic off the stand and began moving around, knowing I was about to put my whole body and soul into this cover after doing it so many times in my room alone. I let every inkling of anxiety leave my body as I begin screaming. 

I’ll hold onto feeling until my final breath escapes

Gazing upon this world until it fades

Fall with me into the other night

We can go beyond the horizon again

Fall with me until we’re out of time

Let the current swallow

These whispers keep clawing

Your mind is dissolving light

I hold out the last note the best I can. My mind was entirely somewhere else. I forgot about all the people staring at me as I put my whole body into these screams. I know I don’t sound anything like Will, but I’m doing everything I can to at least hit his notes, even if I’m not getting his exact growls right. 

After a good minute, I open my eyes, remembering where I was and turn towards the crowd. I felt so good in this moment, screaming my heart out. As my eyes reach the crowd, I see them going absolutely insane. There’s two giant mosh pits forming, and I’ve never felt so accomplished in my entire life. This is all I’ve wanted when I became a vocalist and started teaching myself to scream. I was close to the end of the song when I knew exactly what I wanted. I look towards Tony and nudge my head towards the crowd, holding the hand that wasn’t holding the mic out in front of me and moved it outwards, signaling to him what I needed his help for. He immediately understood with an excited smile on his face. He grabbed his mic and ran towards the front of the stage. The instrumental began as he shouted into the mic. 

“ALRIGHT! I NEED EVERYONE TO SPLIT THIS BITCH DOWN THE FUCKING MIDDLE.” Instantly, those who were moshing stopped and began moving back. Those who were staying away from the moshers moved even farther back, knowing exactly what was about to happen, and did not want to get sucked in. I see Cam zoom past me out of the corner of my eye and jump off stage, right into the open floor, with the widest smile on his face. He stood exactly in the center, holding both arms in the air, and Tony joined him by raising the arm that wasn’t holding the mic.

“ON YOUR FUCKING MARK” Tony shouted.

Sink while you bathe in hallucination

“READY”

My final breath

“SET”

Swallowed by the womb of-

“GO” 

DEATH

Cam’s and Tony’s arms shoot down like they were starting a race. I held out the note in the deepest tunnel scream I could. I watched as two waves of people ran to each other as fast as they could. 

As you pass through the fucking gate

I did the best screech I could, switching halfway to a fry scream as I watched hundreds of people run full force into each other. I lost Cam the second the two walls of people met, but I knew he was loving every second of it.

Descending towards the end faster

Now was my time to shine. I did the pig squeals and snorts the best I could. After four good enough ones, I clenched my eyes shut, arched my back, and faced the ceiling, holding the mic above my mouth as I let out the longest pig squeal I’ve ever tried, shifting into a goblin scream halfway through as I threw my body forward into itself, compressing my lungs to get the loudest noise I could. 

After I finished, my abs were killing me, but the feeling was immediately diminished as I saw the crowd lose their fucking mind. I pulled out my earpiece to hear them better. I laughed as I watched them all push each other and scream in adrenaline and excitement. I finally see Cam being crowd-surfed to the front with the widest, most insane smile I’ve ever seen, making me laugh harder. He returns to the stage and climbs onto it, out of breath. I feel hands on my shoulder and look to see Tommy with a proud look on his face. Instantly, I felt two more large men tackle me in a giant hug, screaming about how proud they were of me, and all I could do was try to keep my balance and laugh.

Finally, they pulled away, and I turned towards the still rowdy crowd with a proud grin. 

“So, what I’m hearing is.. that you all enjoyed that?” I asked into the mic, immediately getting ground-shaking cheers in response. I made a face like I was thinking, “Hmm. I’ll see what I can do in the future then.”

The crowd was still insane as we sang the rest of the set, and it didn’t take too much to get them hyped up for the rest of the show. With a proud smile on my face and my brothers patting my back, we walked off stage and into the back, immediately getting tackled by more large men. 

“That was so fucking good, Y/N, are you fucking kidding me?” Ruffilo praised. I gave them all a bright smile. Until my eyes landed on Noah’s, who was also wearing a proud smile. I looked down, biting my lip as I tried to hide my smile, and did my best to shimmy my way out of everyone’s embrace. I walked towards Noah, who was standing a foot away from the group. I had so much confidence pouring out that I completely forgot about how awkward the encounter should be.

“Hi,” I awkwardly greeted with a giggle.

“Hi” 

“So..what’d you think?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck, looking up at him with a shy smile. 

“That was insane, Y/N.” He complimented with a low laugh. I looked down again, trying to hide my blush. “I knew you could sing and scream, but that...that was fucking incredible.” 

“Really? You’re not just saying that?” I teased, crinkling my face in embarrassment. 

“Fuck no. I told you earlier that your voice is amazing. I literally forced the whole band to listen to you when I first heard you, and to know you also had this in you is absolutely mind-blowing.” I feel my cheeks heating up more. And as much as I wish they didn’t, his words went straight to my ego. Probably because it was coming from him, of all people, but I think I’m finally feeling good about this. I looked back into his eyes and smiled.

“Thank you. I’m actually really thankful for you and your band. You guys gave us a chance, and you all pressured me into doing this,” I said with a laugh, “So I really appreciate it.”

“I’m just glad to see you finally believing in yourself like the rest of us believe in you, Y/N,” he spoke lowly after a moment, leaning down to my height like he only wanted me to hear. I bit my lip and looked at him. I didn’t understand. He was so… perfect? I know everyone’s been nice to me, but he especially has. Not once since we finally met has he done anything but help me or compliment me. All I could think when I looked at him was..appreciation? Adoration? I wasn’t sure. But when I looked into his eyes, I just felt..good. Like when you finally come home after a long day. When you finally lay in bed after being on your feet all day. Like being surrounded by the people who bring out the best in you. 

And then I looked at his lips. All the thoughts from earlier came rushing back. Suddenly, there was no one else in the room but us. Hell, it felt like there was no one else on this earth but us. I glanced back up into his eyes, and it felt like I was back at that festival all those years ago. All my senses shut down. The only thing that my brain registered was his eyes. His beautiful fucking eyes. The eyes that haunted my dreams. My every waking thought. I can’t tell if I’m upset that this keeps happening or if I’m starting to enjoy it. 

Jolly whips an arm over and pats Noah on the back, bringing me, or probably both of us, back to earth. I blink a few times and turn to everyone. Thankfully, the boys were all still in their own little conversation, probably talking about how they can use and abuse this ‘talent’ of mine now that they know I’m slowly opening up to it. But truthfully, I wasn’t actually paying attention. I couldn’t. Even though I looked away, I was still stuck in his presence, like a bubble keeping me in, drowning me in the same thoughts I’ve had for so long, just more concentrated. I can see Jolly say something to Noah, and him nodding back as a response. I see five mouths moving as they speak over each other, yet not a single voice registers in my brain. Wait, this was starting to get scary. What the fuck do I do? No, like actually. I feel stuck. 

I watch as Noah gives me a short glance, almost contemplating something, before following Jolly past the other boys. Ruffilo and Folio catch them, say their goodbyes, and follow them as well. And now it was just me and my boys. But I was still stuck. He was gone, and I’m still stuck. My mind races, and I try hard to pick apart what specific thought is keeping me shut off from the world. Was it the compliments? Was it finally hitting me exactly what was happening, that I’d been spending time with the man who has plagued my being for what felt like centuries at this point? Was it my feelings towards him? Just hitting even harder now? 

I get pulled from my thoughts to a hand waving in front of my face. I slowly look up and see Tommy with a concerned look on his face. He’s speaking, but once again, every word is just unintelligible to my brain. I go to open my mouth to speak, but there are no words I could even form right now. I watch as Tommy glances back at the other boys, who are now a little concerned as well. Tony comes forward and says something. I tried to read his lips, but everything was like I was underwater. Words jumbled, and everything became a blur. And then more blurry. And slowly, my peripherals turned dark. I saw Tommy reach out to hold my shoulders as Cam came forward, looking like he’d seen a ghost. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but then everything went black.

I quickly sat up, gasping, like I had just regained the ability to breathe. The world slowly came into sight. I blink a few times, then scrunch my face in discomfort as my ears begin ringing. Slowly but surely, the ringing passed, and I could finally hear again. What the fuck happened? 

“Hun?” I hear to my left. I blink a few more times and turn, seeing Tommy looking at me. I give him a confused look. Tony was sitting next to him, looking the exact same. I coughed a bit before speaking. 

“What the fuck happened?” It came out harsh as if I desperately needed water.

“Medics said it was probably an adrenaline crash... Dude, you scared the shit out of us.” Tony reached forward and held my hand tight. 

“You’ve been out for a hot minute. Cam was freaking the fuck out, so we made him go wait off stage to let the guys know what’s happening.” Tommy said, reaching to rub my back. I run my hand through my hair and scrunch my face, trying to remember what even happened. Suddenly, I hear feet slamming against the pavement outside, then up the bus stairs. Noah appears, looking wild as his eyes finally land on me. He lets out a breath of relief once he sees me. He walks forward and crouches by my feet, resting a hand on my ankle.

“What happened? I come off stage to see Cam looking like someone died, and when we finally get anything out of him, he says she passed out.” Noah asks the two in front of me, running a hand over his face, both collecting sweat and to soothe himself.

“I don’t know, man. You guys head on stage, and we turn to her, and she’s as white as a ghost. Couldn’t even get her to say anything before she passed out in Tom’s arms. Medics say adrenaline crash, but I don’t know. It was fuckin scary, man.” Tony gets out, looking stressed as ever, hand still holding mine like I was about to drift away. Noah looks at me with a look mixed with terror and confusion, but also relief that I’m still here. I open my mouth to speak, causing him to tighten his grip on my ankle ever so slightly. 

“Water.” was all I could get out. Noah and Tommy instantly stand up as Tony points to the case of water with the hand not holding mine. Tommy reaches it first and hands it to me. I chug it like I hadn’t had water in days. Once it was gone, Noah reached over and grabbed another, setting it beside me and returning to his spot at my feet. I run my hand through my hair again. I probably look like a fucking mess right now. 

“I want to try to stand,” I state. They all look at me like I’m insane but slowly back up. I hook my feet around and off the couch that I guess someone laid me on. Using my arms, I push myself up. All three watched me, ready to catch me if anything happened. Gaining stability, I let out a deep breath and walk towards the bathroom. I take a peek at myself in the mirror and grimace. Who knows when my mascara started running, but it was everywhere. I grab an old towel and wet it, wiping under my eyes, before holding my hands under the water, letting the feeling ground me. 

After about a minute, I walk back out to the boys, who all still looked like I was going to drop dead any minute, and I snicker. 

“I’m fine, guys.“ I say, chuckling a little at their concern. I know I shouldn’t, but their faces were just a little funny. “Aren’t we off tomorrow? Shouldn’t we be heading to a hotel or something?” 

They all nod, calming down a little that I’m now normal again, but still tense and on edge. I move to walk passed them.

“I’m gonna go let everyone else know that I’m okay, and then we can head over,” I say, walking down the stairs of the bus. I watch my feet, knowing I’m still a little out of it, but once I get on solid ground, I glance up, seeing four boys giving me the same look as the others, causing me to laugh again.

“Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re okay,” Cam gushes as he walks over to me and holds me tight. “I didn’t want to overwhelm you, so I stayed out here, but I almost cried.” 

I chuckled and looked past Cam and at the other boys, who all nodded, agreeing that he did, in fact, almost cry, making me laugh harder. I gave Cam a tight squeeze before pulling away and looking up at him. 

“I’m okay, I promise. I’m gonna rest on the way to the hotel, and everything will be back to normal once we get there,” I reassured him. And I guess the mention of the hotel reminded everyone, who all let out a tired groan.

“I’m so fucking ready to sleep in a bed again. I know it’s only been like three days, but those bunks are ass,” Folio whined, causing everyone else to nod in agreement. 

“Alright, then, I’ll see you all in a little bit. I need some fucking water.” I said, turning around to head back into the bus. But once I turned, I almost ran face-first into Noah’s chest. I look up at him in shock as he looks down at me with the same reaction. 

“Sorry..” he squeaked out. “I uh.. you all good riding back? I can join you if you need..” he mumbles. I give him a warm smile. 

“I’ll be okay. The boys can take care of me if need be. I’ll see you all in less than an hour.” I give his arm a soft squeeze as he nods. I walk past him and onto the bus, Cam following suit. I sit back where I was lying before, grabbing the water he handed me earlier and opening it. Taking a quick glance out the window, I see them teasing him over something before walking back to their own bus, making me chuckle. After taking a few gulps from the water bottle, I set it down and turned to the three guys staring me down. My eyes widen, not knowing what I should’ve prepared for. 

“You know I care about you, we all do, and we’re glad you’re okay, but you gotta spill.” Tony eyed me down. “I don’t care if you wanna just talk to me, I’ll kick these two into the back, but you’re telling me what the fuck happened earlier today, and if that had anything to do with you passing out.” I let out a sigh and leaned my head back against the couch.

“I mean... I guess it’s time I spilled everything. To all of you. Even though I know you’re all gonna tease me one way or another, it’s been too long to deal with this myself.” and that’s when I told them everything. From the day at the festival. To the days I spent lying in bed only thinking of him. The depression it caused. The rage. The song lyrics. Almost kissing him today. Even what I could remember before I passed out. I told them everything I could. All three of their faces switched between shock, concern, understanding, and outright bewilderment as I spoke. I spoke the whole ride to the hotel, and surprisingly, I was not interrupted once. Once I finished, they all seemed speechless. 

“And now we’re at the hotel..” I notified them, bringing them out of their shock. I stood up to grab a bag, filling it with everything I needed for one night, and walked back to them. Not a single one has said a word yet. “You should probably grab some things so we can head in.” 

“Oh! Yeah, yeah.” Cam said, being knocked back into reality as he stood, the others following him. I gave a nod towards the bus driver as I opened the door and walked off towards the hotel, leaving the boys and apparently him too in their own shock. 

I walk through the doors of the hotel and see four giants causing a ruckus, probably waiting for us. They all stop when they see me like they got caught by their moms, making me laugh. 

“By the way, the boys are gonna seem a little..perplexed..when you see them. Pay them no mind. They’re..uh..still upset about the whole passing out situation.” I laughed as they looked at me, then at my boys as they came walking in behind me, looking dazed out and deep in thought. It was a bad lie, but oh well.

“Anyway, we only have four rooms for all of us, and since you’re the only girl, you get to choose a roommate first,” Jolly said, handing me my card. 

“Oh, pick me, pick me, pick me,” Folko joked, looking up and crossing his fingers, until Noah smacked him in the stomach, causing a loud ‘oof’ and a laugh from all of us. I thought for a moment. Do I say fuck it and pick Noah? Should I pick Tony or Cam and deal with their annoying asses all night? Do I pick one of the other boys and get to know them? Or choose the safe bet and pick Tommy?

“Uhh..Tommy,” I finally said. Jolly handed Tommy his card, and the rest figured out who was bunking with whom. I walk over to Tommy and lean a head against his shoulder, not tall enough to rest on it. He wraps an arm around me, and I look up but see that he was still lost in thought.

Once everything was situated, we all headed to the rooms we were given. I unpacked what I needed and headed to shower, not even calling dibs because I knew he would let me take it first anyway. Once I came out, clean and in my pajamas, oversized band tee, and shorts with fuzzy socks, I sat down in the bed I claimed earlier. Glancing over, I see Tommy still deep in thought. 

“Penny for your thoughts, love?” I ask, catching his attention. 

“So this whole time..”

“Yes, this whole time, it was Noah.” 

“Since the festival?”

“Yes, the festival, like five years ago.”

“Why’d you never tell us?”

“It wasn’t really anything I was ready to be teased about until now.” I answered, shrugging.

“Are you planning to say anything to him?”

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I think the gods above put me in a trance when I first saw you, and now I’m stuck?” He took a minute to respond to that. 

“I get that, but what if he likes you back?” 

“You remember what I dealt with last time. After Gus, I was a fucking mess. Which is why I was even harder on myself with all of this.”

“Y/N. Noah isn’t Gus. Noah won’t hurt you that badly then..you know..”

“I know... it’s just..hard. Plus, I just finally met the dude face-to-face. I can’t confess anything to him now.”

“I get that. But you’re almost 27. You barely let yourself live after Gus. And then you hid yourself away the second whatever the fuck that was happened with Noah. So maybe just.. live a little?” After he said that, it really hit me. He was right. I definitely did my fair share of partying, but I was dealing with my ex for so long and just never put effort into mingling after. I sat there for a while, thinking about the best course of action to take here. Like, how long can I let this play out? Do I just go the rest of the tour, almost passing out when I see him? Do I act now? Can I rely on the fact that there is definitely something there? Am I even ready for something like this? If not, would he wait for me? Fuck, does he even like me? I mean, he tried to kiss me. There’s something there. But what if this feeling was only one-sided? What if I’m losing my mind over him, and he just has a small crush? Or what if he really likes me and immediately wants to start something? I don’t know if I could even handle a relationship right now. I just finally met him. Fuck. I let out a deep sigh. Fuck it. No matter the decision I make, my feelings will be at severe risk.

“Should I..should I go see him?” I finally ask wearily. I turn to see Tommy looking at me with wide eyes, but then they turn mischievous as he smirks. 

“Just go..talk..you know?” He replies, a little too suspiciously. I immediately understood his undertones and rolled my eyes. 

“Not like that. But yeah. To talk.” I chew on my lip, knowing that with talking alone comes with me losing control. But talking has to be done. 

“Bitch! Go talk to him!” He whisper yells, emphasizing ‘talk’ again, making me laugh. I pull out my phone. It’s already midnight. Would he even be okay with hanging out right now? What if I bother whoever he’s staying with? I chew on my lip some more, feeling Tommy staring me down, before finally clicking on his contact and texting him. I hit send, and anxiety rushes over me. I just fucked up, didn’t I? I definitely did.

“Okay, well…I’m gonna go shower. If you’re not here when I’m back, just text me in the morning,” He winks at me before walking into the bathroom. I roll my eyes before letting out a groan. What the fuck did I just do? 

Noah

I glance at my phone again. It’s already past midnight, and I’m too worked up to sleep. I want to text her and ask if she’s okay, but I know it’s stupid. She was fine when I saw her downstairs. I just got so scared. Cam looked at us with pure terror, I thought someone died. When he said her name with such sorrow, I almost took off there and then. Thankfully, I waited for him to finish and she had just passed out, but the pure fear I felt just wouldn’t go away. It still won’t. 

Jolly keeps tossing and turning in the bed across the room, so at least I know I’m not the only one who can’t sleep. Who knows if it’s from the same thing, or just the fact we haven’t had a normal sleeping schedule in so long.

Suddenly, my phone buzzes. I assume it’s one of the guys who also can’t sleep, asking if we wanted to hang. I sit up and open my phone, clicking on the notification without even looking to see who it was. But as I read it, my eyebrows furrowed until I finally checked the contact.

Y/N🦇- Can I come over?

Y/N🦇- to talk?

I drop my phone and scramble to turn the light on beside my bed. The second I find the switch and light shines through the room, Jolly groans.

“The fuck, man?” he mumbles out.

“Y/N wants to come over..to talk? So uh… out.” I say, pointing towards the door. He looks at me, annoyed, but you can see the words register in his head before he gives me a tired smirk. He pushes himself off the bed, and throws a shirt and slides on. 

“Have fun talking.” he teases with a chuckle as he grabs his phone and heads towards the door. I roll my eyes when he leaves before picking my phone back up.

Noah- Yeah of course. room 203 

Y/N🦇- Okay:) I’ll be there in a few minutes.

My heart starts racing once I realize what’s actually happening. Why now? I mean, is she really coming to talk, or is this some type of booty-call? I rub my hand over my face, groaning. She’s definitely not a booty-call type of person. And she literally fucking passed out earlier. Plus, she freaked out when we almost kissed earlier…Fuck. I forgot we almost kissed earlier... Okay, just keep your distance and keep her comfortable. But what does she want to talk about? 

Part Four

[divinebastet]

i think i’m gonna do my tank teardown and restart. i’d intended to do a teardown at the end/start of the year and here we are.

i’d also like to rework my wiring setup and get my 10gal going so i can have some comet goldfish.

however i have a water problem. i need 30 gallons of water for both aquariums, and rn i buy local springwater for my water changes. i don’t mind dropping the money for 30 gallons, but there are 2 problems: getting it home, and supply.

i was considering starting with tap water and using springwater for water changes, but changing the water i use halfway through just seems like a bad idea, and i also don’t use the tap water for a reason. i don’t even give my cat tap water or drink it myself. so we’re back to springwater.

i might buy in as much bulk as i possibly can and employ my landlord and/or housemate to help me get it home, and do that until i’ve got ~30gal even if it takes a few weeks.

i haven’t even decided what i want to put in the 20gal. i love bettas, but honestly i’m just sick of killing them and that’s been a big factor in why i just kind of let my 20gal go for a few months. so i’m trying to decide if i want to finally try a proper community tank.

it’ll be a while before i even have to consider putting anything alive besides plants in there though.

so, anyway, plans:

- Buy some new rocks for the 20gal today and see if there are any fish at the petstore that I might want to put into a community tank, and get names to do research.

- Empty and clean 20gal, somehow. The spot outside the back door is perpetually flooded so I might have to go around the other door, which means carrying a 20gal up and down 2 flights of stairs to even get it outside. I might just put on my boots, clear up the leaves so I don’t slip, and slog through the flooded bit just to minimize the risk of dropping my aquarium.

- Rework my wire/tubing setup. I’m not doing a heater for the 10gal; I’d like to, but I just don’t have the electrical outlet real estate and I am not, under any circumstance, putting a heater on an extension cord next to 30 gallons of water in glass boxes. It doesn’t get that cold and I’m doing slim-bodied goldfish so they should be okay.

- Start working on getting the water home. Honestly no fucking clue how I’m going to do it but I’ll talk with the hands I have available and see how they feel about the manual labor.

- Set up the tanks and get them cycling. The 10gal will have some large dark pebble substrate if I can find something I like, the 20gal will have scaper’s soil, rocks, and plants. I also need to decide what plants I want.

My hope is to get all of this done this week, and if not, by the end of next week. I have to be careful with my back especially with hauling water/aquariums around, so that might put a stop to my work real fuckin quick.

[pippytmi]

16 + 4 + 2 (werewolf supercorp?)

It is not uncommon for Kara to wake up in a puddle of blood.

At this point she is immune to the shock that comes with it, really. She has adapted; knows all the best tricks to get stains out of her clothes, knows all the best laundromats that don’t ask any questions. Heck, she even has Alex’s ex-girlfriend on speed dial, just in case there is a freak chance the blood Kara wakes up in might be human (it has not happened yet, knock on wood).

But there are other parts that still take some getting used to. Like, for example, the loss of memory that comes with every night of the full moon. Because yeah, she understands why she wakes up in a pool of blood. What she doesn’t understand is why this time around she wakes up in a pool of her own blood, and in so much pain that it hurts to open her eyes.

“Ow,” Kara whispers to herself, twisting onto her side with a groan. Her clothes are gone—no surprise—but even as she is laying down on the cold, rocky forest floor, the only thing she can focus on is how much her head hurts. She’s dealt with branch scratches, sore legs and arms, the occasional plethora of bug bites, but never a headache. Her one comfort is that at least she has made it into the backyard of Sam’s cabin. It takes a considerable amount of strength to push herself up off the ground; walking is going to be much harder than anticipated.

If Alex saw her now, she'd—well first she would hit Kara over the head and yell at her about being dumb, but afterwards she would snicker. And probably hit her over the head again for good measure.

“Oh my God—!”

Okay, it’s official. Kara is now dead. Even if the stranger gawking at her is not the one who kills her, Alex definitely will.

And it’s that thought that makes Kara drop right back down on the floor, knocking the wind right out of her lungs, and she groans into the dirt pitifully.

“Oh, fuck,” the stranger whispers, almost as if to herself, scrambling to come to Kara’s side. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck this shit. Fuck!” Said stranger belatedly claps a hand over her mouth, green eyes widening in horror. “Holy shit, are you alive?”

Kara pitifully rests her cheek against the ground and tries not to look too offended. “Uh, kind of,” she replies. (So this must not be Sam’s cabin, then.) “Sorry. Am I in your yard? It is a very nice yard. Five stars.”

“No, it’s not my—I’m house-sitting,” the woman explains, though she is giving Kara a look that says really? That’s what you want to focus on right now?

“Well, it’s still a nice place,” Kara says, because she is polite and small talk is always a good thing to fall back on when you’re naked on a pile of dead leaves. “Wait, I don’t suppose you’re house-sitting for Sam, are you? Sam Arias, super tall, has a daughter who is freakishly good at checkers?”

Stranger-who-swears-like-a-sailor frowns. “How do you know Sam?” she asks suspiciously.

“She dated my sister. It was a whole—it’s a thing,” Kara says. “You know?”

“Wait. Are you Kara? Are you Alex’s sister?”

“Yes! So you do know!” Kara would grin if her face were capable of any emotion besides mind-shattering pain. “Then you must be Sam’s friend…uh, bear with me…Lena? Or Jess?”

“Lena,” says the woman, still notably wary, so Kara makes the decision to wiggle until she can prop herself up her elbows and look less, well, like a corpse.

“Hey, got it in one!” Kara says as cheerfully as she can muster. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. And can I just—uh, say—that you don’t have to worry. I won’t die here or anything. I know you would obviously be the number one suspect for murder and it wouldn’t be nice of me to put you through that.”

“…right. Never mind that you would be dead, or anything.” Lena begins to shakily unbutton her coat like a woman possessed, as if her doubt has morphed entirely into concern now that she has confirmation the freak naked in Sam’s backyard is not an entire stranger. “Here, this is long enough to cover you. Do you—do you need help getting up?”

“No, no, I’ve got it, thank you,” Kara insists, and gradually, she manages; she shifts sideways and then tentatively onto her butt, and accepts the coat when it’s all but thrown at her face. There is blood mixed in with the leaves and general guck beneath her, and she winces at the sight. “I’ll come back and clean this later,” she’s quick to add, and Lena frowns in response.

“Are you serious? Forget cleaning, you need—stitches, at the very least. I can take you to the hospital if—”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that!” Kara blurts out, and with the adrenaline from that burst of energy she’s able to scramble to her feet. She is shaky, unsteady, but she manages to stay upright at least and she’ll count that as a win. “Shoot. I’m sorry for yelling. I just—no hospitals. I can’t do hospitals.” She has never had to form an excuse for this, and her mouth can’t quite wrap around the right words.

But Lena—green eyes wide and unsure, skin pale in the early morning light—nods, like she understands. “Okay,” she says. “No hospitals.”

“Thanks,” Kara mumbles, wrapping the coat tightly around herself. There are startling black spots in her vision and her head still feels like it was used as a piñata; she wonders what the heck her next move should be now. If Sam needs someone to house-sit, she must be out of the city. And if Sam is out of the city, Kara can’t exactly waltz into Sam’s house to wash all the blood off her body (and then call up Alex from the couch while stealing whatever ice cream Ruby picked). Sam lets her do that, sure, but that’s Sam. It would be pretty rude to do that when Lena is right here.

“Do you…” And Lena pauses, nose scrunching up as if something has just occurred to her. “I can give you a ride somewhere else, if you’d like. Back to your house?”

“No, that’s okay,” Kara hurries to decline, because how can she really explain that she lives in an apartment, and that if little old Mrs. Jensen saw her coming up covered in blood she’d finally succumb to her third heart attack? “Can I just use Sam’s phone to call my sister? Then I’ll come right back out here, I promise.”

“Why would you come back out here again?” Underneath her coat, Lena is wearing plaid pajama pants that are rolled at the ankle (Sam’s, most likely), and a tank top that is extremely fitted. Very, very well fitted. Like, you-can-tell-it’s-frigidly-cold-outside-kind-of-fitted.

Kara coughs and tries not to let on how her train of thought has twisted. “Because…I’m a stranger?” she tries. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Remember, if you die I’m going to be the first one they question,” Lena says, tilting her head expectantly in the direction of Sam’s cabin. “Come inside, warm up. Call your sister.” All things considered, she is far more concerned than Kara expected her to be—as if, somehow, ridding herself of the weirdo walking around bloody and probably concussed isn’t the very first thing on Lena’s mind.

So Kara doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth; she accepts the offer. It’s a small comfort that if she really does get murdered by a total stranger, it won’t be while cold and naked.

Lena goes right into Sam’s room the instant they go inside, already gathering a million outfits for Kara to pick through. “The shower is fickle, but it does have hot water,” she says, adding a towel to the pile in Kara’s arms when she re-emerges. “You just have to—”

“Hit the wall twice, and give it a few seconds,” Kara finishes. “Yeah, Sam reminds me every time.”

“So you…visit Sam often, do you?”

“Uh.” And suddenly, despite the long, cold night she’s had, the air indoors feels a bit warmer than is comfortable. “Only sometimes.” Once a month, Kara thinks, and Lena crosses her arms and just stares.

Really stares, dragging those sharp green eyes up and down Kara’s whole body. Squints at the scratches on her face, scrunches her nose at the way Kara awkwardly shifts from side to side. Finally Lena speaks, and it’s only to say, “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“...come again?”

“It’s you. Sam told me she’s been helping out a friend with a—furry predicament—”

If it were possible to choke on air, Kara would be dead right now. “Did she really call it furry? But she’s also—!” She has to pause, now, because she feels an urge to clarify, “Wait. Are we talking about the same thing right now?”

Lena narrows her eyes slightly. “You mean talking about how you’re a werewolf?”

“Oh!” Head lighter, Kara sucks in a laugh that makes her ribs feel like they are splintering open. “Then yes. That’s good, I didn’t want you to think I was a—anyway. I didn’t think Sam told anyone.”

“Sam and I have been friends for a long time,” Lena says slowly. A beat. “She actually ate my hamster once.”

Kara winces. “Recently?”

“No! Back in the fifth grade,” Lena frowns, like she might’ve added dumbass at the end of the sentence. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t own hamsters.”

“What? Come on, having pets isn’t just a kid thing,” Kara says. “I used to have a cat, but he…”

“Oh my God, you ate him?”

Kara’s jaw drops. “What—no! He turned out to already have an owner, so she took him back. He just liked to wander into my apartment.” She hugs the clothing pile tighter to her chest, and tries her hardest to scowl. “I’m responsible, okay? Most of the time. I’m not dangerous.”

“Except to deer, or rabbits, or whatever else you killed last night?” Lena quirks an eyebrow, but surprisingly not in a manner that’s judge-y. Just…curious.

“Right,” Kara says defeatedly, and her head throbs enough that her grip on Sam’s clothes begins to falter. “Sorry. I wasn't trying to be defensive or anything.”

“That's alright.” And stranger still, Lena reaches out to gently touch the side of Kara’s head. “So does the same thing happen to you?”

“Huh?” The proximity has scrambled Kara’s brain momentarily, and she finds herself unthinkingly holding her breath.

“Do you also black out,” Lena clarifies. “Like Sam does, every time she shifts.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s—a universal wolf thing,” Kara says.

Lena hums, and her hand retracts. “And are you a serial killer in wolf form?”

“Uh, I hope not? I’m pretty sure all this is…” Kara gestures over her body with one hand, still hugging the pile of clothes with the other. “Not human.”

“Okay.” Lena casually walks away, but pauses to throw over her shoulder, “I’ll help you clean up your head once you’re out of the shower. I’ve helped Sam a hundred times.”

“Are you—do you have some kind of healing magic, or—”

“Close. I’m an ER nurse,” Lena says amusedly, and when she smiles a dimple emerges on one cheek. “All the witches I know have fled the city, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

“You joke, but Alex dated this witch once, and she hexed my sister to spill her first sip of coffee every time she went to take a drink for three weeks straight after they broke up,” Kara says, and Lena again scrunches her nose in that quizzical way.

“Seriously? Witches are real too?”

“Duh,” Kara says lightly. “What, you thought it stopped at werewolves? Please. I’m pretty sure the neighbor two doors down is a gorgon.”

“Well, it would explain her fondness of statues,” Lena says, strangely nonplussed. “I’ve never asked, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. How do you take your coffee?” As she asks, Lena deposits a few fingers of whiskey into a mug, and at Kara’s questioning look says, “Sorry, we’re all out of painkillers. This is as good as you’re going to get.”

“Maybe I’ll do better if it’s straight,” Kara says, unable to hide her grimace, while Lena shrugs a shoulder as if to say it’s your funeral.

So after Kara showers, she sits on the couch and sips gross whiskey out of a chipped mug that reads World’s Best Mom in bright pink letters. Lena has turned on the TV to the local news station—clearly she has stayed with Sam before—and a man on screen is recounting a tale of how he hit a giant wolf strolling too close to his farm with a baseball bat.

“If I had my shotgun I would’ve killed the fucker,” he swears, red in the face, and above her Lena gives a little scoff.

“What a dick,” Lena says, her hand steadily stitching up the wound on Kara’s scalp, and her voice has a hint of an accent; it’s really cute, actually, and Kara doesn’t even mind that the next poke of the needle is sharper than the others.

It is the strangest morning Kara has ever had. Drinking whiskey before eight in the morning, with a kind stranger who she’s barely met but is suturing her skin together, who smells faintly of lavender soap and strong black coffee.

“—National City is not safe when wolves are wandering close to homes—”

The scent of rich hot chocolate bubbling on the stove is beginning to fill the room, the ancient pipes are rumbling throughout the walls, and Lena’s fingers are soft against her head. Kara closes her eyes and decides that she will wait a little longer before she calls Alex to pick her up.

[dollslayer]

Homecoming

Biker!Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: Finally home after being gone on a run, you give Bucky the welcome he deserves

W/C: 1.5k

Warnings: Housewife kink, unprotected sex, swearing, NO MINORS

A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a minute sorry😅 Got the idea for this and couldn't get it outta my head. Hopefully you guys like it! If you do please comment/reblog!!! Cheers!

Main Masterlist

Outside the kitchen window the sun was disappearing behind the trees in the backyard, signaling the end of another day. You sighed, noticing the streaks in the glass and made a mental note to clean it before getting back to the task at hand. Dinner was still a few hours away from being finished but in the meantime it was the distraction you needed, even if you’d be eating alone.

It had been almost two entire weeks since Bucky rode off on a run with Sam and Steve with no word since. Last week you’d missed him so much but after one beep of the disconnected dial tone on the other end of the line you knew that Bucky had to have ditched his burner.

You didn’t know where he was or when he’d be back or even any way to reach him. You knew better than to ask anyone else from the club, though. Whatever the club did was their business and you were smart enough to stay out of it.

After this long of being in Bucky’s life you’d think that you would be used to the inconsistency but it’s hard to settle into anything knowing he could be gone at a moment’s notice. The love you two had made it worth it though, and secretly you loved how tough and grumpy he was for everyone else but was always so sweet and loving to you. Still, times like this where you’d be left alone for days or weeks at a time the loneliness was inevitable.

All the free time you normally had for Bucky was suddenly empty so you filled the void cooking and cleaning to distract yourself. At this point your fridge was filled to the brim with leftovers and if you tried to scrub the bathroom tiles again they might just come off. You just wanted everything to be nice for him whenever he did come home. You knew he appreciated it, if the last time he’d cornered you doing laundry was anything to go by.

You were pulling the pan out of the oven when you heard the familiar rumble of engines growing louder down the road. You nearly dropped the food out of excitement before you hastily set it on the counter. You checked your reflection in the hall mirror, wishing you’d have been wearing something a little nicer than some cotton shorts and a tank top.

You listened to the voices shouting over idling engines and eventually rev up again before retreating back down the road. You were teeming with excitement and nervousness as you undid the deadbolts and waited to hear his boots bounding up the creaky steps of the front porch.

The door swung open and you stepped back, biting your lip to contain your grin when you finally got a good look at him. He let out a soft ‘oof’ followed by a chuckle when you launched yourself into his arms and inhaled the comforting scent of grease and leather.

“Hi, Peach”

You returned a ‘missed you’, muffled by the layers of his jacket. He kissed your shoulder when you buried your face into his neck. The two of you stayed like that for a moment, allowing yourselves to revel in the feeling of relief. His hands pulled you away only to bring you into a deep but soft kiss that you couldn’t help but melt into.

When you broke away you took a step back to get a proper look at him. His jacket was dusty and his boots were caked in mud, trailing all over your freshly mopped foyer but you didn’t care, you were just happy he was here, he was okay.

His grin was wide and uncontrollable when he looked back at you and took in your appearance. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose.

“Smells amazing”

“I’ve got dinner waiting for you if you take off your boots” you say as you help to pull him out of his leather.

When he finally stepped into the kitchen and living area he looked around slowly, taking in all of the work you’d done while he was away.

“You been hard at work while I was gone, huh, Peach?”

You smiled shyly, dipping your head at him and turned away towards the kitchen to set out some plates on the counter. Your movements stopped when you felt the scrape of Bucky’s stubble against your neck.

His hands snaked around your midsection and he pulled you back into him, pressing your ass right into his hard cock. You gasped in surprise and he smiled into your skin as he continued to kiss it. You ground harder against him and he let out a low groan into your ear.

“You always keep everythin’ so nice for me, huh? Always takin’ care of me even when I’m not there,” his grip on your hips falters only so he can toy with the waistband of your shorts.

“You’re so sweet, Peach”

He hooks his fingers around the elastic and as he slides the shorts down your legs your movements stop.

“What about din-”

“Let me take care of you, Peach,” he insisted.

You squirmed as pressed his hips to your ass, forcing you to brace your hands on the counter to stay up right.

Where you had cursed yourself earlier for not wearing something nicer than lounge shorts you were grateful now as he curled his fingers around the top and ripped them down in one motion. Your shorts and panties fall past your knees and pool around your ankles and you struggled to hold yourself up. Calloused fingers run over the soft curves of your ass before delivering a sharp smack that has you gasping in surprise.

You felt the outline of his hard cock through his jeans and weren’t sure how much longer you could wait for him to cut to the chase. You ground back against him in hopes he’d get the message.

He chuckled in response and smacked your ass again before he took a step back to undo his pants. You whined at the loss of his warmth behind you and waited. The sound of the heavy fabric hitting the ground and then being kicked away was the only notice he gave you before a hand met your back and swiftly bent you further over the counter.

Your palms squeaked against the formica and your elbows landed harshly against it. With one hand on your hip Bucky used his other to run his tip over your wet folds. Normally he’d take more time with you but you were both too impatient to be with each other again and the excitement of his touch left you plenty wet and wanting.

He pushed fully into you in one go and shuddered out a groan at the feeling. It had been so long since he’d been inside of you that could hardly adjust to the impact. You didn’t care though, you just wanted him to keep going.

A few small pumps of his hips to test the waters quickly became not enough.

“Buck,” you whimpered.

“Yeah?”

His thrusts picked up in speed and soon enough he was pounding into you. The sound of forgotten silverware and plates clattering against the counter were overpowered by skin slapping skin and the moans forced from your lungs.

His grip on your hips readjusted as he foisted you further over the counter, forcing you to try and balance on the tips of your toes. It had been so long for both of you, there was no way he could hold out much longer. There was no way you could either with the new angle hitting inside of you just right. You clamped down around him hoping he’d get the hint, you didn’t know that you’d be able to talk if you tried right now.

“Missed you so fuckin’ much,” his pace increased, “You missed me too, I can feel it, Peach.”

You nodded weakly but the motion was lost as you were jostled back and forth with his thrusts.

“You always take such good fuckin’ care a’ me, care a’ the house. So fuckin’ good, Peach”

“B-buck, please” the broken words left your lips and that was all that he needed to drive it home.

“Ah shit, shitshitshit ‘m gonna cum” he forced out between harsh pants.

The build of pressure against your G-spot was too much and you cried out as you came. Bucky roughly fucked you through it and with a few final slams he shouted as he spilled inside you.

He collapsed on top of you, caging you in with his arms on either side as he caught his breath. You shivered at the feeling of your cum mixing together and sliding slowly down your leg even as he stayed inside you. He kissed your shoulder and helped to pull you back to your feet.

You twisted around and pulled on a loose lock to bring his face to yours. You gave him one chaste kiss and broke apart.

“Welcome home”

He kissed the tip of your nose and slowly ran his hands up and down your arms.

“Good to be home, Peach”

[wicked-mind]

One Rule

Summary: There’s one rule you’ve set for each other in your relationship with Bucky. Always say I love you back to each other. 

Word Count: 2.1

Warnings: Swearing

All Writings Masterlist

As always, any likes, comments and reblogs are deeply appreciated (: I love that shit!

*gifs not mine

There is one rule in your relationship with Bucky Barnes. 

Always say I love you back to each other no matter what.

Doesn’t matter if you both are fighting and hate each other in the moment. Doesn’t matter if one of you is having the worst day of your life. I love you made everything alright. It was a grounding phrase for both of you, letting you know you were always there for each other at any moment.

But this morning when you let out a lazy and soft ‘I love you’ half asleep to Bucky as he left your shared room, he didn’t utter it back to you with that half smile and a kiss on your forehead as he always did. He left with a small chuckle and shake of his head. Once he left the room, you sat up and narrowed your eyes at the closed door once you processed what had happened. Did he not hear you? He must’ve heard you- he has enhanced hearing so he should’ve heard you. He has never not said it back to you since the day you breathed out those three precious words to him so why this morning?

You shook your head for a moment, “It is sooo on, Barnes.” You said to the closed door.

And that is how the day of reckoning started. 

You wouldn’t call yourself a vengeful person but you were the tiniest bit petty.

You got out of bed, pulling on some black shorts and one of your many tank tops before sneaking out of the room quiet as a mouse. You stood up in the glass window looking down at Bucky train with Sam, tilting your head with a wicked grin on your face. As Bucky moved to throw punch at Sam, you flicked your hand, causing Bucky to lose his balance and face plant onto the the mat which made Sam howl with laghter. You are a telekinetic and can move people and objects with your mind. Today was going to be fun- for you at least. 

You kept yourself scarce, not wanting to be caught by Bucky this early in the day. Once he was done with training, you waited until you heard the shower turn on and him step in. You smiled and waited for a moment before, with a flick of your fingers to turn the dial for the temperature, the water in the shower turned ice cold against Bucky and you heard him let out a surprised yelp. You could hear Bucky trying to twist the warmth back on but you kept it in place on the coldest setting with your ability. After the shower shut off, you made yourself scarce again. 

Next was breakfast. Bucky loved breakfast and always ate at least six eggs, four pieces of bacon, and a stack of pancakes. You stood around the corner of the kitchen, waiting until he was distracted to use your ability to turn the heat on the stove up, quickly burning his whole breakfast as you listened to him let out all the curse words in the dictionary about his burnt breakfast.

“Shit! Fucking god dammit!” Bucky yelled as he quickly tried to remove his pans from the stove but by the time he did his pancakes were burnt, his eggs were blackened, and his bacon was too crispy.

Sam, who was sitting at the table drinking coffee and eating his own breakfast, let out another howling laughter, “Good god, Buck!” He laughed out, “You’re just having a day, aren’t you?”

Bucky shot a glare over to Sam with a grumble under his breath before trying to figure out what of his meal he could salvage.

It didn’t stop there. Oh no. You had many plans to get back at Bucky for not saying I love you back. You could tell Bucky was trying to find you, probably to rant about his mishaps of the day, but you kept yourself hidden from his eyesight and earshot. It didn’t take long for Natasha to catch on with what you were doing. She found you watching Bucky from another room as he went through files in an office, flicking your fingers so a window opened causing the strong wind to blow all his papers around the room and disorganize him.

“So, it’s you being Bucky’s bad luck charm today.” Nat said, sneaking up behind you causing you to jump, folding her arms with a smile on her face, “What did he do?”

You looked at Natasha and shrug with a smile, “He broke a rule.” You said simply and walked away with Natasha to leave Bucky to clean up the mess you had made.

The one place Bucky thought he would be safe from the bad luck antics that happened to be targeting him today was the library. He was sadly mistaken though. He had been in the library hundreds of times and knew the layout perfectly that he could just grab a book and plop himself on the couch without having to look but his bad luck followed him. He grabbed a book from the shelf, starting to read as he walked towards the chair but ran into the coffee table that seemed to not be in its normal spot and tumbled over it, running into a bookshelf causing books to fall on top of him, “Okay. What the fuck is going on?!” He yelled to himself as he started to pick up the mess he made. He hadn’t walked under any ladders, opened an umbrella inside, or had any black cats cross his path so why in the hell was he having such bad luck today?

It wasn’t until later that Bucky was starting to put pieces of the puzzle together after an interaction with Steve. They stood in the elevator together, Bucky explaining all the bad luck he seemed to be having today, when the elevator suddenly came to a stop between floors causing Bucky to let out a groan, “You’ve gotta be shitting me. See, bad luck.”

Steve looked confused at the buttons on the elevator- everything seemed to be running normal, “FRIDAY, why did the elevator stop?” He asks.

“Functions are normal. No known cause. It seems like someone has stopped the elevator.” The AI responded.

Steve looked over at Bucky, “Is it bad luck or did you piss someone off?”

Bucky’s brow furrowed in confusion, “I haven’t pissed off anybody today. Shocker, I know.” He grumbled out.

Steve folded his arms, turning his body to face Bucky with his eyebrows raised, “So you just think that slipping during sparing without any water on the floor just happened? Or that somehow the burner on the stove turned up? The locked window just happened to open when you were in the room looking through files? That the shower was stuck on cold for no reason? That the table in the library just happened to move suddenly or that the elevator stops working when all functions are normal?”

Bucky stared at Steve as if trying to read his mind before tilting his head back to look at the ceiling of the elevator as realization came across his features, “Y/N.”

Steve nodded slowly, “You did something to make her mad and she’s been using her ability all day to mess with you.”

Bucky groaned at the thought, running the events of this morning through his head to try and figure out what happened to make you upset, “I didn’t do anything though. I even let her sleep in.”

Steve sighs, “Better figure it out before she decides what other bad luck you’re going to run into today.” 

After the elevator finally started to move again, Bucky was on a mission to find you. He eventually did find you outside by the pool with Natasha. You two were laughing as you dipped your legs in the pool.

“Here comes Barnes with a sour look on his face.” Nat said softly, nudging your shoulder with hers, “I think he’s onto you.”

You smiled, hearing him approach behind you with heavy feet. Just when he was close enough to touch you, you tapped your fingers on the pavement making him lose his balance and trip right into the pool which earned a laugh from both you and Natasha. You smiled and waved your fingers to him as he surfaced from the water, shooting a glare right at you. You knew that look- You were in deep trouble with him. You quickly stood up and raced back into the facility before he could pull you into the pool with him.

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Bucky as he got out of the pool, his clothes and hair dripping water onto the concrete, “Two left feet today, Barnes?” She asks with a knowing grin.

Bucky glared at her, “Shut up, Nat.” He growled out before stomping his way into the facility after you. It didn’t take him long to find you, grabbing your arm and dragging you back to your shared bedroom where he pushed you up against the wall with his wet body, pinning you in place, “Why are you fucking with me today?” He questioned, a stern look on his face with anger in his eyes.

You smiled up to him cockily, batting your eyes innocently, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetness.” 

“Don’t ‘sweetness’ me, doll.” Bucky growls out, staring into your eyes, “Why are you in a mood with me today? Did you just wake up and decide it would be fun to mess with me?”

You tilt your head at him, “Oh no, I decided to mess with you after I woke up. I had no intention of doing anything until after you left the room with that cute little chuckle.”

Bucky narrows his eyes at you, trying to figure out what he could’ve done to make you put him through an embarrassing hell today, “I haven’t done anything to make you mad that I remember.” He told you, keeping you pinned in place, “So help me out, sweetheart.”

You pouted your bottom lip out to him which made his eyes flicker to your lips with that look in his eyes that made you know he wanted to kiss it away, “You don’t remember?” You ask, “You broke our rule.”

Bucky stared at you for a minute before shaking his head with a grin and stepping away from you. He ran his hand through his wet hair as his chuckle turned into a loud laugh at your words.

You frowned at his reaction. This wasn’t funny. He broke the rule you two vowed to each other never to break. To say I love you back to each other no matter what, “It’s not funny, Bucky!” You said to him, placing your hands on your hips.

“Oh it’s not funny.” Bucky replied through his laughter still, “It’s fuckin’ hilarious!”

You crossed the room to push him for laughing at you but he caught your wrists and looks down at you with a grin and his blue eyes shining, “I’m so glad your amused with how you hurt my feelings.” You hiss out at him.

Bucky grinned down at you, “Oh, sweetheart, I’m not amused that you think I hurt your feelings.” He said down to you, “I’m amused because you didn’t say I love you. You said I love waffles.”

Your jaw dropped a little bit, “No I didn’t! I said I love you!” You defended. Did you? Did you say I love you or did you say I love waffles? You were half asleep and couldn’t really remember but you were sure you said I love you.

“Yes you did, darlin’.”

“No, I didn’t, Bucky.”

Bucky shook his head at you with a dark chuckle and the same grin, moving his hands from your wrist to around your waist, “Yes. You. Did. I have super hearing. You definitely said ‘I love waffles’ which made me laugh. If you said ‘I love you’, I would’ve said it back like I promised I always would.” He told you, moving his face closer until you could feel his warm, minty breath against your face causing shivers up your spine which he immediately noticed, “I love you. Now, say it back.”

You let out a small huff in defeat. Bucky wouldn’t lie to you just save his own ass, “Fine. I’m sorry. I love you too.” You muttered out, “But I do love waffles.”

Bucky chuckles and pulls your waist closer to his, “I know, doll.” He whispers to you before kissing your forehead, down the side of your face to your nose then along your jaw before finally pressing his lips to yours. He pulled away too soon from your lips, stroking his metal fingers across your cheek with a dark look in his eyes and a matching grin, “Now I’m gonna have to figure out how to get back at you for all the embarrassment you put me through today.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Permanent Taglist: @buckypops​ @stcrryslibrary​ @bibliophilewednesday​

[theunholygrails]

Foolish Games Part 2

Masterlist

A/N: Introducing new characters and some drama! Percy is still sexy as ever :'(.

Warnings: BJ

I woke up to a door slamming so hard it joined the symphony of my pounding headache. I groaned, hoisting myself over the back of the couch to investigate to intrusion. A brunette head of long sweeping hair rushed through the foyer, barreling towards the kitchen. A familiar mop of black hair hurried after.

Reyna was speaking so fast in Spanish my brain scrambled to keep up. I noted lots of curse words followed by a series of sentences too fast I was surprised she even knew what she was saying. Percy was answering in slow measured words, probably fighting a hangover of equal measure. I ducked behind the back of the couch, reaching for my phone plugged in on the coffee table.

It was noon. 2% battery and a couple messages from friends. Nothing from my ex thank gods. Five from Annabeth being nosey. I opened my uber app, squinting in the sunlight breaking through the cream curtains. I managed to get my driver secured.

A door slammed and I winced, peaking to check that they were in another room. I did not immediately spot my dress in the chaotic. I grimaced remembering the midnight swim. When I sat up I finally noticed the white tshirt I wore and the basketball shorts. And then I went rigid remembering what happened after the swim.

“Motherfucker,” I whispered.

Now I really had to get out of this house. I checked the arrival time of my driver. Three minutes away. Great. I made my way on shaky knees to the large wooden front door. My keys were still in the collection dish. I grabbed them quietly and turned the door handle a fraction of an inch before another door slammed open and Reyna came barreling back into the foyer, brown eyes landing promptly on my guilty ass. Behind her, Percy pursed his lips into a thin line and raised both of his hands to lay on top of his head. His biceps strained nicely against the thin t shirt.

“The fuck is this?” Reyna whispered.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” I babbled.

“It’s just Noa, Rey. Gods,” Percy said.

“I can see that, Percy!” She snapped. I was glad her spear was not strapped across her back this morning. “Why is she sneaking out of my house in your clothes?”

“People were swimming last night. Her clothes got wet.”

“I’m sure the fuck they did.”

“Zeus, Rey! You ended it with me. Why does it even matter?”

“Because I still fucking love you! I’m sorry, okay?” She burst out crying and Percy instantly pulled her against his chest. The memory of being in those arms drove me out the door like a nest of hornets.

~~~~

“I’m just saying. You have nothing to feel sorry for,” Annabeth paused to sip her iced coffee. “Unless they get back together and then you sleep with him. But as of right now, you’re good. Trust me. Been on the Percy train. We’re still friends. You’ll get over it. Just a harmless rebound for both of you.”

I groaned, laying my chin on the cool metal table parked outside our favorite coffee shop positioned between our New York apartments. Just two Manhattan women enjoying their Sunday afternoon. The air was cooling as fall neared. I pulled my baseball cap closer to the top of my sunglasses.

“Should I call him?”

“Maybe tomorrow. Let him deal with his relationship drama. Reyna is a lot to deal with. Still nothing from fuckface?”

“Nope and that’s fine.”

“Good for you. We will hydrate you, get you a good dinner, hit the gym before work in the morning and then get back on our bad bitch mental track. Agreed?”

~~~~

“Good Monday, yogis,” I chirped from my desk at the corner of my studio.

The third class was beginning to trickle in and I was settling into my rhythm. Hot yoga was next and hopefully I would sweat out all the negativity I’d allowed lately. I was in the middle of emailing back a potential client when someone rapped at the wood of my desk. I glanced up to a blonde male who waved gently.

“Heya, sansei Noa,” he said.

“That’s karate. Can I help you?”

“Do you do trial classes?”

I hit send on my email and closed my laptop. The guy was built like a poser with the defined muscles and chiseled jaw but his voice was soft and tempered. He was clean shaven and dressed like a basic gym bro.

“Normally you have to schedule them beforehand because of class size,” I gave my standard answer.

“Right, my bad. Sorry. I was just passing by the front and it looked like the kind of place I needed right now. Can I go ahead and pick a date then?”

I was staring too long into his pale blue eyes, honed in on the polite response. A nice change from the daily demanding consumers. “You know what? Ive got space right now if you like? Have you ever done hot yoga?”

A brilliant white smile showcasing sharp canines. “My favorite.”

“Perfect. I just need a name, number and email to get you a file started.”

He leaned large hands on my desk. “It’s Luke Castellan.”

Before he could give the contact information, I cut him off. “Wait. I know you.” His tanned skin paled significantly.

“I…”

“You’re supposed to be dead!” I blurted out.

His eyes skated around the room and he leaned in closer. “That’s not supposed to be public knowledge. I assume you’re a demigod?”

“Luke, you trained me. We took fucking sculpting together. The Apollo table was right next to the Hermes one for fuck’s sake.”

He winced. I heard a murmuring from the rest of my class I was disturbing with my volume. I collected my shock finally. “Take a seat if you want. We should talk after class. I need to start.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’m sorry Noa.”

I waved him off and walked over to my yoga mat. I sat cross legged and drew in an even breath to smooth out my emotions.

It was a slow 30 minute class. Each pose and movement dragged on. Finally, I dismissed the group and nodded Luke outside. He was waiting on the bench outside of the studio I split renting with a few other instructors. I sat next to him, wiping sweat from my face with the towel slung over my pink sports bra.

“Alright, talk,” I said.

“Not much to say. I was given a second chance at my hearing. Here I am. Starting over.” A shrug of well-defined shoulders. The muscles flexed beneath his gleaming sweat. His red tank top stuck to his chest and stomach. “I wish I remembered you, truly. That time is such a blur in my life.”

“It’s ok. You were a lot older than me and to be honest I had a massive crush on you so I probably hid most of the time.”

A surprised smile slipped across his lips. “I’m assuming the betrayal helped you get over that?”

I laughed outloud, slapping his knee. “No shit! So where are you staying these days?”

“Just around the corner actually. Got a job at the local gym.”

“Yeah I bet the fuck you did.” I squeezed his forearm between both of my hands. I wanted to roll my eyes at me falling back into my school girl giddy at him. Betrayal of the gods aside. He was even more gorgeous than ever. The scar down his face gave him a dark sexy vibe. Like a bad boy even though he claimed he was rehabbing himself now.

“So how, did you feel about the class?”

“I mean, I’d like to sign up for it a couple times a week, that’s for sure. And I’d like to take you out to dinner to make up for not remembering a beauty like you.”

I almost bit my cheek biting out the response of “Yes!”

“You’ve got my number,” he said, chuckling quietly. “I’ve got to get to work.” He shouldered his gym bag and excused himself.

The bike back to my apartment was spent reliving my tween fantasies about bad boy Luke. I opened my apartment door and screeched seeing a man sitting at my kitchen counter. Percy turned to face me.

“You know you live in New York? You should really lock that.”

“It was!” I snapped.

A quick grin. “Yeah. But it was easy to break into.”

I dropped my bag onto the floor and brushed past him to get a protein shake from the fridge. “I have to shower and get prepared for my night classes.” I told him.

“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t either.”

He paused, studying my face in the shitty lighting of the single bulb hanging between us over the counter. “Are we good, Noa?”

“Of course. What’s a little head between friends?”

“Okay…I can’t read you. Can you not play tough just for a minute?”

I chugged the shake and set the bottle down between us. I leaned my arms on the chilled counter, bun knocking against the light. “Honestly, Percy. I’m fine. We are good.”

“Reyna moved back in.”

“You’re engaged again?”

I drank from the empty bottle to give myself something to do. He watched me with those green eyes. He’d known me for far too long. He was nearly impossible to deceive, but I was determined today. The fact that I had dreamt of fucking him two consecutive nights was irrelevant if he was off the table. Even if his lips did look incredibly juicy tonight. Even if they had done near illicit things to me just nights ago.

“I don’t know. She said she wanted to work on things. And it’s her dad’s house, so I can’t ask her to go and I don’t want to go to my mom’s and admit defeat.”

“You know you could stay here, Perc.”

He worked his jaw silently, then rubbed his hands over his face. “Thanks. I do know. Even if we aren’t officially back together, I think we should work on it…” he trailed off.

“And not tell her about you eating me out?” I leaned closer because I was mean to both him and myself. Because I knew this top combined with this angle gave him a simple opportunity. And he took it.

His tongue slid out between his lips as his eyes flicked down, stayed, then dragged deliberately back up. “Probably not,” he agreed.

For a long moment neither of us said anything. He had more to lose now than me. We were no longer on equal playing fields. So, I left the ball in his court. “I’m going to go shower.”

I was done washing in the first ten minutes. The second ten was giving him a little wiggle room to decide. I had my hand on the faucet to cut off the water that was beginning to go cold when I heard the door creak open. I watched through the fogged glass, catching a hold of my breath. I watched as he tugged his shirt off. My stomach flipped over itself when he reached for his jeans. What had I done?

The opening door let in a rush of cool air, perking my skin to attention. My eyes raked unapologetically over his naked, aroused body. His dark hair quickly slicked against his stubble covered jaw. His eyes were no longer the sea green but murky like the deep water of the ocean.

“Hey,” he said quietly, cautiously.

“Hey,” I giggled, reaching out to touch his rough jaw. He winced, catching my hand with his. “We probably shouldn’t kiss again.”

“Sure, whatever you want, Percy. What can I do to you?”

He groaned, turning his mouth into my palm, scraping teeth against the vulnerable skin. “Touch me,” he said.

My free hand instantly planted against his chest, scraping at the muscle. His eyes fluttered closed, head tilting back to expose his throat. I slid my other hand into his thick hair, tugging it tightly between my fingers and pulling to grant myself more access to the strong column of his neck. I bit it first, backing him into the tiled wall when he shuddered. I kissed over the reddening skin and moved my hands to his flat stomach, feeling the shuddered breaths beneath my touch.

“Like this?” I asked.

His reply was unintelligible. I kissed down his chest, moving my hand lower still as I went. When my fingers brushed over the v-line of his hips, I shifted my route away from the center and to his thighs. An annoyed grunt escaped his lips. “Hush,” I scolded, getting my knees under me. The now cold water was hitting the back of my neck and flowing down my body. I placed my hands on the inside of both his thighs, trailing them upwards and upwards until he nearly contorted when I gripped him. He let out a scandalous string of curses that quickly turned to moaning silence when I took him into my mouth.

He unraveled in minutes and I let him cum all over the breasts I had teased him with earlier. I rose in front of him, my own rosy cheeks mirroring his. “Now we’re even.”

[songtoyou]

No Need to Rush

Paring: Angel Reyes x Reader

Rating: 18+

Warnings: Some swearing. Smut (fingering).

Word Count: 1,590

Story Summary: Angel is feeling down, so you stop by his apartment to make him feel good. However, he is the one who ends up making you feel good.

A/N: I have fallen in love with Angel Reyes. Now, I have not seen Mayans MC, but it is on my list of shows to watch. I hope my characterization of Angel is somewhat accurate. He comes off as a character with lots of layers, which I like.

Please do not post any of my fics to other sites without my permission. Gif is my creation.

You were bored. Hanging around the Mayan’s Clubhouse alone was not how you pictured your Saturday. Your favorite Mayan had yet to show up. Angel Reyes said he would see you tonight, yet he was nowhere to be seen. You asked Angel’s younger brother, Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes, if he had heard from his older brother.

“I saw him earlier. Angel said he would be here,” EZ answered, standing next to Gilly. He stepped closer to you and pulled you to the side. Leaning closer, EZ went on to explain, “The last run Bishop sent Angel to do…well, it didn’t quite go according to plan. Bishop kind of chewed Angel out for it.”

Nodding your head, you appreciated EZ telling you this information, knowing he could get in trouble doing so.

“I’m going to go check on him,” you told EZ and gave him a quick hug goodbye.

“See ya, querida,” he said and went over to Gilly and Coco, who handed him a beer. EZ hoped his brother was doing alright. If anything, he knew you would be able to cheer Angel up.

Thankfully, it didn’t take you too long to drive to Angel’s apartment. The lights were still on, and his motorcycle was still in its parking spot. He was home. You parked next to his bike and got out of the car. In a few steps, you were knocking on Angel’s apartment door. You could hear the rustling of footsteps behind the door and some swearing.

“EZ, I said don’t….” Angel began but stopped once he saw you. His stance became more relaxed; his facial features softened.

“Y/N, what are you doing here?” he asked, stepping aside to let you in the apartment. “I thought you’d be at the Clubhouse.”

Angel looked you up and down. He had to suppress a groan at what you were wearing; a short black dress that showed off your curves and thigh-high black boots. While your style was more tamed than the other girls at the Clubhouse, you still managed to stir something inside Angel. Particularly in his nether region.

“Funny, I thought you’d be there as well. I talked to EZ. He shared a little bit of how you are doing,” you responded, taking off your jacket and leaving on the back of a chair.

Signing, Angel retreated to the kitchen; he got out two beers. As he popped the bottle tops, Angel said, “Of course EZ did. He shouldn’t be telling you things about the Club.”

You took the beer Angel offered and sat down on the couch. You hated the taste of beer but took a sip anyways. “EZ just shared that you have been feeling down lately. So, I came here to cheer you up,” you laughed and turned to look at Angel. You felt yourself biting your lip as you looked Angel up and down. He was dressed in dark jeans and a black tank top that showed off his muscular arms and tattoos. You could have sworn the man was sculpted by the Gods. He was a real-life Adonis.

He was standing by the kitchen counter, looking down at his boots with a sad look on his face. It broke your heart. While Angel may look tough on the outside, he was sensitive and could be a real softy at times. When you first began going to the Clubhouse, it did not take long for the two of your to become friends. You both liked to tease one another and even hung out regularly. It always remained friendly between you and Angel, which was hard because you could not deny your growing attraction to the biker.

You motioned for Angel to sit beside you on the couch. He did so without hesitation. The television was on some sports channel as you and Angel sat next to each other in silence and sipped your beers. Comfortable silence. You rested your head on Angel’s shoulder and took his free hand in yours. It was not an uncommon gesture from you. The two of you could be very affectionate with one another; light touches here and there, a few kisses too. So much so that it often confused the guys at the Club about your relationship status. The guys would tease Angel about not making a move on you. But he would merely reply with, “It’s not like that. Y/N is…special.” This only made the guys laugh more or roll their eyes at Angel’s obliviousness.

Angel may be many things, but when it came to you, oblivious he was not. He was simply taking his time getting to know you. Angel didn’t want it to be a one-and-done thing. Especially as he got to know you more. The more Angle got to know you, the more he liked you and vice versa.

You felt Angel’s free hand slowly slide up your thigh. He kept checking for your reaction to see if you would stop him or pull away. You did neither. In fact, you hiked up the short dress you were wearing even more to allow him more access. When he lightly graced a finger alongside the front of your underwear, he looked into your eyes.

“Are you sure?” he asked cautiously. Angel knew that one wrong move and his friendship with you could be over.

“Yes,” you breathed out.

Putting the beers to the side, you straddle Angel’s lap as he rested his large hands on your ass. You leaned in to kiss him on the lips, which he quickly reciprocated. The kiss started out slow, as if you both were testing the waters. You could feel the bulge in Angel’s pants begin to harden, and you inadvertently began to grind against him.

When Angel pushed you back lightly to look at you, at first, you thought he was going to say that this was a bad idea. Instead, Angel told you to stand up. “Take your dress off.”

You turned around for Angel to help with the zipper and slid the dress off your body. You were about to climb on his lap once more, but Angel stopped you. “Bra and panties too. Leave the boots on.”

Unclipping your bra, you tossed it to the side and did the same with your underwear. Now here you were, standing in front of the man you were attracted to naked. You were feeling embarrassed or self-conscious, especially with the way Angel was looking at you, like he was ready to devour every inch of you. He began to run his large hands up your hips, over your stomach, and to your breasts, which he gave a squeeze.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” Angel gushed as he continued to run his hands up and down your body before giving your ass a light smack.

He took one of his fingers and began tracing your pubic bone. Before Angel slid a finger inside your cunt, he looked up one last time to see if you had any reservations.

You gave the nod for him to go ahead. You let out a soft moan as Angel’s large finger stretched your folds.

“Goddamn, baby, you are tight. That’s it, fuck yourself on my finger,” Angel instructed.

You did just that before Angel slipped in another finger and used his thumb to tease your clit.

“Holy shit,” you managed to breathe out. To steady yourself, you put your hands on Angel’s shoulder.

Carefully, Angel took one of your legs and put it over his shoulder. He made sure to use his free arm to hold you up. “That’s it. Are you close?”

“Yes, I’m close.”

For added stimulation, Angel added a third finger inside your pussy. You could feel yourself tighten around his fingers. “I’m going to cum!” you exclaimed, your breathing becoming rapid.

“Cum! Cum on my fingers,” ordered Angel and you more than happily obliged.

Never had you experienced an orgasm so euphoric. If Angel could get you off with only his fingers, then you wondered how his cock would feel.

Pulling his fingers out of your folds, Angel licked them clean. The sight turned you on once again. You took your leg off his shoulder and leaned against his chest to catch your breath. He ran his hands up and down your back as a show of comfort. He even went so far as to take the blanket off the back of the couch to wrap around your naked body.

When you finally came down from your high, you placed soft kisses along Angel’s neck and ear.

Giggling, Angel asked you what was funny.

“It’s just, I came here to make you feel better,” you blushed, “I didn’t expect you to…you know….”

“I’d do anything for you, baby,” Angel revealed as he stroked the side of your face. “Making you feel good has put me in a much better mood.”

“Well then, let me return the favor,” you said and began to unbuckle Angel’s belt, but he stopped you.

You quirked an eyebrow at him in confusion.

Angel wrapped his arms around you, and you settled closer on his lap. “We got all the time in the world, baby. No need to rush,” Angel expressed as he looked into your eyes. There was a sense of love and devotion in his beautiful dark brown orbs. He wanted you, just as much as you wanted him.

He was correct; there was no need to rush. The night was still young. You had plenty of time to return the favor.

[lustinglilac]

Hey love! I absolutely love your OA Zidan imagines & I was wondering if you could do a full on angst to smut one maybe? Idc what the angst part is centered around maybe where he's mad at the reader? but for the smut could there be a choking kink??? Sorry if this is too detailed or you can't do it , thank u !!!

A/N: I had a really fun time writing this! Even though it took me forever. I really hope you enjoy & thank you for requesting 💜

Warnings: choking kink, condescending talk, angry OA (but then fluff), some arguing, NSFW under the cut, 18+ ONLY

*GIF NOT MINE*

“OA... I don’t understand what the issue is. I invited Maggie over for dinner and Nestor just so happened to be there when I did. Big deal!” She scoffed, walking to her side of the car door.

OA tries to steady his breathing, sighing harshly before pulling open the driver’s side of the door, “The point is he’s a manipulative, selfish prick who has no care about who he screws over—“

“Honestly Omar, if you could leave work at work, that would be so great.” She states matter of factly. She fastens her seatbelt, smoothing down her dress before crossing her arms over her chest, turning to stare at something, anything, out the window.

“Y’know... out of all people, I thought you’d understand that the most.” He chuckles humorlessly, “I’ll keep my opinions to myself from now on.” He turns on the engine, the noise drowning out her heart beating out of her chest as they head for their shared apartment.

Minutes later they’d arrived outside of their building, silently getting out of the car as she held back tears. God, she didn’t even know why she was so upset. Maybe at the fact that they let someone as irrelevant as Nestor get between them? She had no clue.

“I’ll be in our room if you need me.” Once inside, she steps out of her wedges, not bothering to look back at him.

Omar contemplates going after her, his anger towards Nestor really getting the best of him as he replayed the conversation in his head.

Loosening the collar of his dress shirt, he took a seat on the plush couch, leaning his head back against it with a low groan.

She willed herself not to cry, stripping out of her short dress and putting on something more comfortable for the time being. She realized the harshness to her words earlier, pinching the bridge of her nose before making the decision to go out into the kitchen for a glass of water. And secretly to see OA.

She padded quietly down the short hallway, reaching the fridge in no time, throwing a glance Omar’s way before averting her eyes.

He watches her manuever around the tiny kitchen area, an amused smirk playing on his lips as she reached up for the glasses that were usually kept on the top most shelf, a bad habit OA had yet to break.

Her stubborness taking over, not wanting to ask for help as she reached as far up as she could to no avail.

“Here— I got you.” In no time, OA had been behind her, one hand on her hip to steady himself before reaching above her and effortlessly bringing down a cup for her to use.

She huffs audibly, “I was— I had it.” Taking it from his grasp roughly before pushing past him, or at least attempting to. OA was quick to trap her against the island before she could go anywhere.

“Really? ‘Cause it looked like you were struggling.” He hums, face neutral as he looked at his partner. “Are you done having an attitude with me?”

She laughs unexpectedly at the tone of his voice, like a mother scolding a teenager for being bratty. In essence, that’s kind of what was happening here, too.

“I don’t know. Are you done acting like I can’t do shit for myself and need you to help me every two seconds?” She counters, challenging him as she felt his demeanor completely change.

He takes his bottom lip between his teeth, letting it go just as quickly and leaning down leveling himself to her eyesight, “Sweetheart— I’d be careful what you say.” His eyes freely roam over her face, stopping for a moment at her lips and then down her neck towards her cleavage.

“Or what—“ Before she’d even finished that sentence, OA had crashed his lips against hers, tongue slipping into her mouth so easily as the glass nearly slipped from her grip before she set it down and kissed him back just as feverishly.

Her hands going straight for his face as he placed her down onto the island, all traces of anger and Nestor gone from their minds as he fumbled with the waistband of her shorts before ridding her of them.

She gasped as she felt the cool surface of the island beneath her bare thighs, leaning back slightly to catch their breath.

“Fuck Omar, I’m sor—“ She began breathlessly only to be cut off again by his lips before pulling back again.

He shakes his head, “I don’t wanna hear it. Not right now, okay?” OA makes sure she understands before unbuttoning his own pants and pulling himself out with a soft hiss.

She nods at him and hums softly at the stern tone he exhibits, the wetness pooling between her legs, a nice contrast to the coolness of the marble beneath her.

OA kisses her neck leaving a mark on the side of it, that she would have no choice but to cover with makeup later, as his hands grab at her tits.

“OA... fuuuck.” She gasps as she feels his hand sliding lower, slotting between her thighs, spreading them just a little to help accomodate him. He pulls away from her neck and looks at her.

“Need me to fuck that attitude right outta you?” He speaks so condescendingly that it makes her nod without hesitation.

“Yes. Please.” She whimpers quietly, thighs threatning to shut around his hand as he kept up a taunting rhythm, circling her wet clit before moving down towards her opening.

Omar smiles, knowing she was right there, right on the brink of cumming for him before he removes his fingers holding them to her mouth.

She pants, breathless, the expression on her face a frustrated one as she looks from his fingers to his amused face.

“Suck.” He presses the wet fingers against her half-open lips, groaning praises when she finally takes them into her mouth and cleans them off with a moan. With his other hand, he manages to rip her tank top down, her breasts spilling freely making her shiver at the cool air on her sensitive nipples.

As he pulls his fingers out of her mouth, he scoots her off the counter onto the ground again, bending her over roughly, tits pressed flat to the cold surface of the marble beneath her.

“So pretty like this... just for me.” He grunts, watching her wet cunt clench around nothing but his words of praise as she arches her back slightly, giving him a show.

“Just fuck me.” She mumbles, nails impatiently tapping against the counter as OA takes his time.

He rubs his cock up and down her pussy a few times making her mewl in pleasure as she tried her hardest to push back onto him, growing irritable with every swipe of his dick up and down her folds.

Her eyes roll shut as he finally pushes in all the way, leaving her no room to say anything but moan and whimper. She was speechless to say the least, until he hit that one spongy spot inside her that made her vision spot.

“Baby— ooooh fuuuck. Feels so good.” She eventually manages to pant out a few words, biting her lip as he kept up a teasing pace.

“Yeah? Right there?” OA teases, grinding his hips into her as his hand came around to cup the front of her throat, pulling her against his chest. His other hand found her clit, rubbing it in time with his thrusts as her mouth fell open at the sensation.

“Omar, don’t fucking stop—“ She gasped, his thumb pressing softly on the pulse point right below her ear as she reveled in the feel of his large hand around her throat. She loved when he got pissed off, whether it was at her (rarely) or at something from work, it usually led to the best sex.

Her tits bounced with every movement as Omar sped up his thrusts, whispering about how he was gonna fuck her till she learned not to talk back to him. And she was cockdumb, loving every word he growled in her ear as he choked her. He kissed the side of her cheek softly as he brought her to her climax, her back arching slightly as he continued until he chased his own high.

They stayed like that for a minute or so, and also because she was unable to move yet, his thumb caressing the side of her cheek softly, placing kisses along her neck.

“OA... I’m sorry.” She sighs, pulling him out of her slowly, whimpering at the sensitivity and turning around to face him.

He lowers his head, pressing his forehead against her own, “It’s fine, baby.” He assures her, placing a chaste kiss to her lips before pulling back to look at her, his hands going straight to her thighs.

“You can always talk to me about anything. I don’t care— even if it’s the most boring thing in the world. I never want you to bottle up your emotions about things in your life, okay?” She nods, making sure he understood.

“Really? You’re gonna be sick of me by the end of it.” He smiles making her laugh.

“Never that.” She places her hands on his beard pulling him in for a soft kiss.

[drabbles-mc]

Wait I just read the head canon of the “spider in the shower” scenario and they were AMAZING. So spot on😭. I am here to put in a request for this but for the Mayans and if you want to/have time for the rest of the SOA boys. I just loved it soooo much 🥺 you write so well for these characters!!!

Ask and you shall receive! For those wondering, Here is the original Spider in the Shower HC for the SOA boys.

HC for the Mayans Men under the cut! These are a little different set-up-wise since as far as we know the Mayans clubhouse doesn't have dorms. So these all take place in houses or apartments or whatever you picture these boys living in

Bishop:

- he heard you scream and came running from the other end of the house, banging on the bathroom door, “Sweetheart, you alright? Open up!” The two-second delay between him saying that and you unlocking the door felt like an eternity to him. He never heard you scream like that before

- when he walked in he expected to see blood everywhere, or something completely shattered and broken. But nothing seemed out of place. The only thing that seemed off was you, sitting up on the sink counter dripping water while staring at the bathtub.

- “What’s going on?” he looks around the bathroom but can’t for the life of him figure out what’s wrong. He grabs a towel and drapes it around your shoulders as he follows your line of sight.

- “Why the fuck is there a spider in our shower?” you look up at him.

- he wasn’t used to you asking questions so aggressively. He made a mental note that spiders were a tense topic for you. He could only shrug in response before saying, “I didn’t send out invites, you know. Don’t look at me like that,” you could see that he was trying not to smile and failing miserably.

- “Will you kill it, please?” your tone switched from annoyed to pleading. He chuckled as he peered behind the shower curtain, “You sure you don’t want me to just catch him and put him outside?” You raised your eyebrows, “And give him the chance to come back? No fucking way.”

- he didn’t say anything else as he took his boot off and smack it against the wall, effectively putting the spider out of commission. You stayed on the sink out of the way as he grabbed a tissue and cleaned up the mess, throwing the spider in the trash

- he scooped you up off the sink counter and walked you back to your shared bedroom, hiding his laughter by pressing his lips against your bare shoulder. He set you down on the bed and threw you one of his old t-shirts to put on. The two of you looked at each other in silence for a few moments before you finally spoke up, “Don’t you dare tell anyone about this.” He laughed as he collapsed on the bed next to you, “I won’t...for now.”

Angel:

- he thought that he was in for a sexy time in the shower with you. He was eagerly slipping out of his jeans and tank top as he watched you hop into the shower, disappearing behind the curtain.

- he peeled off his socks and was getting ready to hop in the shower behind you when the sound of your scream filled the tiny space at his house. He didn't even have time to try and register what was going on as you leapt out of the shower, water still running, and slamming into him. You sent both of you crashing into the sink counter

- “Fuck, Y/N, what’s the matter with you?” he was rubbing his hip where it had just gotten jammed into the corner of the counter

- “There’s a spider in there!” He looked at you, not completely surprised, “So you gotta bodyslam me? C’mon, querida, it can’t be that scary. It’s way smaller than you.” You narrowed your eyes at him, “Then you go kill it!”

- he scoffs, reaching and shutting the water off before peeling the curtain back, “Maybe I will.” He does his signature, cocky little head shake that drives you nuts when it’s directed at you.

- he holds his hand out behind him, “Gimme a tissue.” You set one in his hand, eagerly watching over his shoulder as he catches and crushes the spider inside the tissue. He turns back to you, a proud smirk on his face, “See? All taken care of.” He tosses it in the toilet and flushes it away.

- Once it’s gone for good, he reaches and turns the shower back on. His expression changes completely when he turns back around to you and sees you pulling your rode on. “Where you goin’, querida?” he looks so genuinely confused.

- you shake your head, “I’m not getting back in that fucking shower tonight. Have fun.” You don’t give him the chance to try and change your mind and you can hear him groaning behind you as he shuts the shower back off again, admitting defeat.

Coco:

- swings the door open with an amount of force that you’d never seen, baseball bat in his hand, “Who the fuck is in here?!” he looks frantically around the bathroom, trying to locate whoever it was that made you scream like that.

- it took a second before he noticed that you were standing to the side of him, tucking yourself neatly into the corner of your bathroom. He saw the way your hair was still dripping and quickly looked you over to make sure that you were physically okay.

- “What happened?” his hand was still gripping the baseball bat tightly. You pointed to the shower, “There’s a spider in the shower...”

- he couldn't pretend that he wasn’t confused, “Alright. And?” You scoffed, “What do you mean and?” He shrugged, “I mean and what the fuck made you scream like that? It bite you or somethin’?” You sighed, “No! It didn’t bite me. I just...I don’t want a spider in the shower with me, Coco! You gotta kill it!”

- his grip on the bat finally loosened up a bit. He shook his head, “You had me thinkin’ there was a murderer in here or some shit. You can’t kill it yourself?” You flashed him your best puppy-dog eyes, “C’mon, Coco, please?” He tilted his head slightly, “Whatchu gonna do if this happens when I’m not here?”

- you sighed. You should’ve known that it wasn’t going to be an easy thing with him. The man put holes in people’s heads on a semi-regular basis for the club without question, but asking him to squash a bug was going to spark a philosophical discussion.

- “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Please, Coco, I don’t wanna do it.” It was evident in his eyes that he was contemplating leaving you to deal with the problem on your own. But he was soft for you and couldn't follow through on it. With a sigh, he climbed into the tub and stomped the spider with no hesitation before washing it down the drain.

- he kissed your forehead, “Next time you gotta do it. Survival of the fittest, Ma.” You rolled your eyes, “My knight in shining armor.” He turned around and flashed you the cocky smile that made you weak in the knees every time, “Damn right.”

EZ:

- the sound of your yell filled the entirety of the small trailer. He jumped up off the bed and made his way to the small pocket of space that passed for his bathroom and was instantly bombarded by you running into him. The front of his shirt instantly became soaked, absorbing all the water from your body.

- “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” he gripped you gently but firmly by the outsides of your arms. You shook your head, “This trailer is not big enough for the three of us, Ezekiel.” His eyebrows furrowed, “Three of us?” You nodded, “Yea. You, me, and your hairy eight-legged friend in there,” you gestured towards the bathroom.

- that was when he realized what happened. He smiled down at you before he thought better of it and you pushed his chest, “It’s not funny!” He nodded, forcing a serious expression as he held his hands up in surrender, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

- “Want me to take care of it?” the smirk was already reappearing on his face. You huff, “No, I want the three of us to learn how to live in harmony together.”

- “I know you’re being sarcastic,” he chuckled as he shuffled past you to get to the bathroom, “But that would make for a good story.”

- you were shaking your head as you grabbed one of his shirts to wear, sitting down on the bed as you watched him try to maneuver around in the small space to kill the spider.

- “Sorry, buddy,” EZ spoke to the creature as he got ready to squash it with a tissue, “but she said that we can’t be friends.” You rolled your eyes, “You’re not about to make me feel bad about this, EZ.”

- he reemerged from the bathroom, tossing the tissue into the garbage can, “Sounds like a guilty conscience, to me.” You grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, “You’re the worst.” He laughed as he peeled off his now-soaked shirt, “Is that any way to thank the guy who just saved you?”

- you pressed your lips into a thin line, staying silent for a moment before grabbing the other pillow and throwing it at him, “Thank you.”

Creeper:

- 100% comes running into the bathroom with his shotgun in his hand after he hears you scream

- has never heard you express that kind of fear before and definitely think that someone was hiding in the shower and had a knife to your throat or something

- when he sees you perched up on the closed toilet lid he is confused to say the least. Your hair is dripping and you hadn’t even bothered to grab a towel when you jumped out of the shower

- still not completely sure what’s going on, he refuses to completely set down his gun, instead letting it dangle by his side as he looks you over, “Hey, Mama, what’s going on in here?”

- not getting up from your perch, you point to the shower, “You gotta kill it, Neron.”

- “Kill what?” he rips the curtain back but doesn’t see anything at first

- you point aggressively towards the corner of the shower where all the body wash and shampoo bottles are stacked, “The spider!”

- “The spider?” he fights back a laugh as he rests the shotgun across his shoulders, arms dangling over it, “You screaming like that over a spider?”

- “Will you kill it already?!”

- he hands you a towel to wrap around your shoulder, chuckling as he sets his gun down outside the bathroom door. You try to tell him that he might still need the gun and he laughs before stepping into the tub to locate and kill the spider.

- very nicely, he asks you to get off the toilet so he can flush it away down the toilet. You jump up, standing at the very edge of the doorway as you watch him flush it away. He shuts the toilet lid and turns back to you, an amused smile on his face

- “Didn’t know you were afraid of spiders, baby,” he walks over and hugs you, kissing the soaking wet hair on top of your head, “I’ll keep a closer eye out for them.”

- “You better,” you grumble as you lean into his chest, “Or I’m gonna start using the shotgun.”

Hank:

- does not want to burst into the bathroom while you’re in there, feeling like he’s invading your privacy despite the fact that you screamed for him hardly a moment before

- gently knocked on the door and you responded with what he could only describe as a bark as you told him to get in the bathroom now

- once he was halfway inside the door, you pulled him completely in by his hand. He was trying not to stare at you but it was difficult to pry his eyes away from you, not used to seeing you standing around so exposed, and drenched from your shower

- “You gotta kill it, Hank.”

- he raised his eyebrows, “Kill it? Kill what?” You nod towards the shower, “There’s a spider in the shower!”

- all the tension that he was previously holding in his shoulders disappeared. He remembered at one point you’d mentioned that you hated spiders, but he didn't think that you really hated them that much. He knew how much you loved your long, hot showers.

- “I thought you were hurt, Y/N,” he was trying to sound bothered but you could see the smile fighting its way onto his face.

- “Um,” you scoff, “I could’ve been hurt. That thing is the size of a small dog.”

- he chuckled and shook his head, “Alright, alright,” he gently ushered you through the doorway, “Go get changed and I’ll take care of it for you,” he watched you walk towards the bedroom, “Better call the dog warden just in case!”

Taza:

- he heard you calling for him and had no idea what to expect. You weren’t the type to yell across the house for things that you needed.

- when he got to the bathroom, you were standing outside the doorway, towel lazily wrapped around you as you stood and waited for him. With every passing second he became more confused.

- once you told him that there was a spider in the shower and you couldn't go back in the bathroom until it was dead, a smile took over his face and he couldn't help but to laugh

- Che “Catch & Release” Romero

- you were upset that he was going to give the spider a chance to come back and try again to ambush you in the shower, but you knew it was an argument that you weren’t going to win with him.

- within a minute he had it trapped in a cup, covering the opening with his hand as he walked it back through the house to release it.

- he came back to find you sitting cross-legged on the bed, still wrapped in your towel. He tried to sit next to you but you pulled away from him, scooting farther down the bed.

- “What is it, mi amor? Hm?” there was a small, knowing smile on his face as he asked you the question. You huffed, “I don’t want you to touch me with your spider hands!”

- he laughed, “I only touched it with this hand,” he held up his right hand before reaching to caress your face with his left, “So this hand is still safe for you.”

Gilly:

- is under the impression that you are being dramatic about something when you call him into the bathroom for an emergency

- he walks in all cocky, expecting you to have some weird, little favor to ask of him

- he wasn’t thinking that he was going to open the door and nearly cause you to fall over in the process. He catches you, but barely, your dripping skin sliding in his grip.

- “Fuck, what happened in here?” he saw the water all over the floor where you jumped out of the shower

- “You have a spider in your shower!” you pointed frantically. He shook his head, as if he should’ve known that it would be something like that, “So? Shoot it with the showerhead.”

- you give him an offended look, “You shoot it with the showerhead! I don’t want to be anywhere near that thing.” He laughed and pulled the curtain to the side and looked around for the creature in question.

- gets halfway through some smartass remark before seeing the spider and jumping back himself, “Fuck!” 

- your fear would be momentarily outweighed by the satisfaction of seeing Gilly eat his words. You cross your arms over your bare chest, “Just shoot it with the showerhead, baby.”

- you can’t hear too clearly what he’s saying as he grumbles, sliding the boot off of his foot before slamming it down on the floor of the shower, crushing the bug in the process. He would deny it if anyone asked him about it after the fact, but you definitely heard him let out a sigh of relief once he lifted up the boot and saw that the spider was dead

Riz:

- is full of worry as he rushes to the bathroom

- he walks in and sees you standing, leaning back against the sink counter, water dripping off your body onto the floor. His initial instinct is to try and take care of you, grabbing a towel and trying to wrap it around your shoulders.

- “You gotta kill the spider, Riz,” you were completely ignoring the soft gestures he was trying to give you.

- “Wh-what?” he was thoroughly confused, still trying to drape the towel around your shoulders. You grabbed the towel from him, breaking his singular concentration, “There’s a spider in your shower, Riz. You gotta kill it.”

- “Is that what made you scream?” he gently wiped some of the water off of your cheek, “It’ll probably leave you alone if you wanna finish your shower, hermosa.” You turn and look at him, dumbfounded, “Do you...do you shower when you know there’s a spider in there with you?” He shrugged, “We just don’t bother each other.”

- you couldn't believe what you were hearing, “How long have you known there’s a spider in there?” He could sense that he was in hot water already but he couldn't force himself to lie to you, “I mean, I don’t know if it’s always the same spider but--” You couldn't listen to any more of what he was about to say, “Kill it, Michael. Please.”

- he grabbed a second towel and threw it down on the floor to soak up some of the water that you’d dragged out of the shower with you, “Okay, okay. Whatever you want, querida. Go dry off, I’ll take care of the spider.”

- as much as you wanted to be as far away from the spider as possible, you stayed, “I wanna make sure you actually get rid of it.” He chuckled, shaking his head slightly as he reached and shut the shower off. He saw it crawling up onto the lip of the tub and with one smooth motion he crushed it underneath the toe of his boot.

- “All better?” he turned back to you. You tapped your finger against his chest, “No more letting bugs be guests in our shower. I’ll leave. I’ll move out.”

Bonus- Nestor (because i love him):

- he swung the door open and was met with the sight of you standing on top of the closed toilet lid. Instantly he felt like whatever the situation was, was above his paygrade. The shower was still running and water was all over the floor.

- he held his hands out to help you down, “Get down from there. You’re gonna fall and crack your skull.”

- “Better than letting that thing in there kill me!” it was dramatic, but you didn't care. His brows furrowed in confusion, “What thing? Where?” You pointed to the shower, “There’s a spider in the shower, Nes!”

- the expression on his face let you know that he felt that it was far too early in the morning to be dealing with this level of nonsense. He ran his hands down his face before holding them out to you again, “Please get down off the toilet, Y/N.” You shook your head, “Not until you kill the spider.”

- with a deep sigh, he turned the water off in the shower and pulled the curtain to the side. He scanned the tub for a minute before finally finding the threat. He wouldn't admit it to you, but he understood why it freaked you out--it was a big fucking spider.

- not thinking better of it, he picked your slide up off the floor and slammed it down onto the spider, crushing it on the bottom of your shoe. You whined, “Why’d you have to use my shoe?” He turned back to you, his expression painfully neutral, “The spider is dead, isn’t it?” he held his hands out yet again, “Now please get down from there.”

- you placed your hands in his and let him help you down, instantly wrapping your legs around his waist so that he was forced to hold you. It got a laugh out of the both of you as he caught you, holding you up with ease.

- “You owe me new slides, you know,” you chuckled as he carried you to the bedroom. He laughed, “Only if you promise not to climb on the toilet anymore.”

[league-of-thots]

YeeHawks

Pairing: Hawks x female reader

Word Count: 3.3k+

Warnings: 18+, alcohol, riding, is cowboy kink a warning?

A/N: not the way y’all wanted me to return, but the way y’all deserve lol. i didnt really have the energy to give it an in depth edit but sometimes it be like that

         You wipe the sweat from your brow, the sun is high in the bright, cloudless sky. It means that the heat is just pouring down in waves from the sky though, and you curse the fact that you’d agreed to switch shifts with one of the other farmhands that had asked you the day before. Part of you wants to find Kirishima and reem him out, but you know he’s a sweetheart and wouldn’t have ever done something that would make things harder for you on purpose.

         Having said that, imagining giving the man a piece of your mind makes it easier for you to grit your teeth and put your back into heaving large packets of grains into a wheelbarrow for the pigs, so that you wouldn’t have to make as many trips. Instead, it would just be one hellish trip, and a lot less walking in the heat.

         Wiping the stray dirt on your pants you sigh. You feel sticky and can feel the grit on your face, on your arms. You must smell something fierce, though you know compared to the pigs you’d be feeding in a few minutes, you smelt like a bed of flowers.

         You feel the strain on your back as you finally finish loading the wheelbarrow and start to haul it over to the south side of the Academy farm. The ground is rough, and you feel the jarring of the weight in your shoulders, you’re going to be so sore tomorrow.

         After you finish feeding the pigs, you take the supplies back to where they belong and head off to start some of your final tasks of the day. One is milking the cows, and the other being your favourite, plowing some of the dirt to prepare for the new season.

         Is it a bit stupidly cliché that you love riding the big tractor while the sun lowers in the sky? Maybe. Is it worth it? Absolutely. It’s one of the best views you’ve seen in your life. Plus, it always helps clear your mind from a day of hard work so that when you enter one of the farmhouses, you’re ready to do whatever else you need to get done.

         When you park the tractor back to its spot in the barn, you see a few of the other farmhands talking together. They’re laughing with one another, and you wave to them as you walk out with your overcoat and keys.

         You’re in a daze until you realize you’ve somehow already started up a warm shower, standing under the steam to relieve your body from the stress of the day. Your muscles feel so much better with the hot water on them and the steam makes you feel as if you’re in stasis. It’s good because tomorrow is going to be a big day, the August festival, a celebration that the community holds as a sort of last hurrah before the season gets busy once again.

         After you’re clean and put together, you head downstairs to have a quick conversation with the couple other farmhands that share the house with you. You need to check if there’s anything else you need to do to help with the final preparations for tomorrow. The four of you had made some homebrew cider to share with the other townspeople, and it tasted quite good, despite being a little heavy on the alcohol. But nobody would be complaining about that, of course.

         “Mmm, I think its fine.” Mina says, faced scrunched up in thought. “We did pretty well with it for sure.”

         “I agree,” you reply. “Just wanted to make sure I could pass out for the night. I’m fucking dead.” She laughs a little at that.

         “Gotta make sure you have the energy for tomorrow. I hear that it’s going to be extra wild.” She waggles her eyebrows. “You know that there’s going to be a horse-ridin’ performance from our sheriff’s department, but there’s also gonna be some cowboys over here to show off some of their skills too.”

         You’re slightly intrigued at that. Maybe, you’ll even get to see him again… but, better not get your hopes up too much. Instead, you say, “That would definitely be a treat for all the hard work that this year’s been.”

         Mina nods sagely at that. “If I see that blonde, twink of a cowboy I’m goin’ to make him my bitch. Because I deserve it.” That brings a snort out of you, but you pray a little for Denki if you do see him tomorrow, because lord knows he’s going to need it.

         The two of you chat for a little while longer before you wish her a good night and head up to get some rest. You do have a busy day to get ready for after all.

           You wake up early the next day, ready to quickly get your tasks done so you can let loose with friends and community members that night. You wish that you don’t have to do any work, but you can’t have everything you want.

         So, you drag yourself out of bed, muscles tight and body sore, to quickly grab a protein bar and a cleaner pair of working clothes. Your overalls are starting to sport holes and there are some dark stains that just won’t ever come off. You need new ones, you think, as you walk towards the horse pen.

         You love the horses, how sweet most of them are and how peaceful it is in their separated area. It’s especially nice in the early morning, with a crisp breeze and the sun peeking out on the horizon. You grab the feed mix that someone had mixed the day before and drag it over to the troughs, where there are already some of the animals waiting for you to arrive. The horses have learned to expect people in the morning, and some of the more assertive ones wait at the fence to be the first ones to get to eat.

         While they feed, you prepare the cleaning tools inside the small stable that is connected to the fenced off pen. You take each horse that’s finished eating into the small shelter to clean their hooves, brush out their mane and body, and then your favourite part, riding them for a few laps of the enclosure to make sure they run a bit each day.

         It’s while you’re dismounting a cute mare named Starlight when you hear a low whistle from behind you. Someone’s obviously been watching you, and sitting there just outside the enclosure.

“Damn, baby, wonder if you could ride me as good as those horses there.” You feel a vein ticking in your head as you recognize the voice. He’s supposed to be getting ready for the group event, not bothering you while you try to get some fucking work done before you can finally relax and celebrate.

         You turn your body and inwardly groan as your suspicions are confirmed, sitting there waiting is a certain cowboy who’s always managed to piss you off greatly every time one of his short visits brings him to the UA farms.

         “Hello, Hawks.” You grit your teeth as you move towards the next horse that you’re about to take care of.

         “I’m wounded, really, that you don’t sound pleased ta see me, angel.” There’s a satisfied smirk on his face. He really does get off on toying around with you and seeing how much he can piss you off. So, you take a deep breath and calm yourself.

         “Now, why would you expect anything different? I haven’t forgotten the last time you came aroun’-“

         He waves you off. “You’re bein’ ridiculous. It was a harmless joke.”

         “I had to clean the stables for TWO WEEKS.” He just laughs at your anger, totally unphased. It grinds your gears more, the cheeky grin on his face that charms everyone around him, whittling down your intense irritation.

         “Well, if anythin’ everyone else certainly enjoyed it.” You grumble out some choice words about him, making sure they’re loud enough for him to here, as you start brushing out the mane of the mare in front of you. He seems pleased with himself, leaning on the fence, head on his hands.

         “Do you not have somewhere to be? Something you should be practicing for?” He lazily waves away your attempts to get him away from the work you’d like to finish up.

         “Who needs practice? I know exactly what I’ve gotta do so there’s no real reason for me to waste my energy before the actual performance.” He says it with a casual arrogance, that you know comes from years of experience and absolute confidence in his abilities. “The only thing I wanna do right now is try all of the good I know y’all made for the party tonight.”

         You give him an unimpressed look. “Just because we know each other does not mean that I’m going to just give you the cider meant for the community.” He pouts “You can try it when everyone else does later.”

         “Yeah, but we have a special connection.” He grins and you splutter, embarrassed and trying to put away the memories of your bodies pressed together and calloused fingers in your cunt.

         “Jesus, Hawks. Shut up.” You look around furtively, checking to see if anyone would’ve overheard.

         “You like me loud.” God, his smug look makes you feel hot and bothered.

         “Get outta here so I can finish my work, damn it.” He just laughs, turning around before turning back.

         “You better save me some of the goodies y’all made up for after the performance.”

         “Yeah, whatever,” you grumble, face flushed and mind now distracted with memories of Hawks’ hands tangled in your hair.

           “Well, now. This is delicious.” Your eyes follow his tongue that darts out to lick the drop of the cider that had dripped onto his lips. You’d made sure to fill a plate up with the treats that had been spread around the outdoor tables, lanterns hung up around them not only for ease of finding them, but also to light up the evening. “You helped make this?”

         “Yup. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was between never having done it before and Mina’s enthusiasm. God bless Momo, without her we wouldn’t have gotten it done.” He laughs, and you can’t help that you can’t keep your eyes off of him.

         He was slightly sweaty from his earlier performance, which had been perfectly executed, tank top tucked into worn jeans with a feather-like buckle. His eyes are scanning the crowd around as the two of you lean on the outside of the saloon, the inside being too filled with inebriated or high adults to even try to squeeze into a seat.

         “So, how’s life been around here since I last visited?” he asks between bites of some spicey brisket, obviously enjoying it.

         “Ah, not much. Just the usual social drama. Actually, Shinsou almost got his dick sliced off by some machinery someone had fucked around with. I swear to god that man has the worst luck I’ve ever seen.”

         “Holy shit, sure does sound like it.”

         “But yeah, it’s just living day to day for me now. Not much new happens out here, as you very well know.” He shrugs.

         “Might as well see. What’s even keeping you here, then?”

         “Not everyone needs to be on the road their whole life to be happy, Hawks.”

         “I suppose. More cider?”

         “Sure.”

           You’ve drank way too much, you know that. But the fuzziness in your head just makes you want to keep going, to have fun and make up for all the time you lose working long hours every day.

         Besides, Hawks is there beside you, egging you on and matching you drink for drink. His hands always seem to be on your body, either squeezing your ass, wrapped around your shoulders or waist. It makes you feel warm, and you know he’s teasing you, trying to rile you up. He wants to see how bothered he can make you before you snap and drag him off to some private place.

         You’re determined to beat him out though. So, you lean into his body space and trace your hands over his arms, the insides of his wrists. You hear his breath hitch, though his attention is kept on whatever conversation is happening in front of you.

         Of course, this is Hawks, who has just as much patience as a saint, despite being as far from one as possible. But you’re drunk and turned on and the teasing is too much for you to handle, so when there’s a brief pause in the activity around the two of you, you pull him down so you can whisper in his ear how much you want him.

         He grins, “Might as well head back to your place then.” You agree and drag him with you.

         The moment you’re in the house, you wrap your arms around his neck so you can bring his lips to yours. Its messy and rushed, but it’s relieving at the same time. The two of you have done this enough in the few times that he passes through that he’s comfortable enough to let you take charge for a bit.

         “You can’t even wait ‘til we’re upstairs, sugar?” he chuckles, drawing out each word. You feel the rumble of them, pressed up as you are against his chest.

         “Shut up, Hawks.” You grumble, pulling him towards your room if that’s what it’ll take to get his dick out faster.

         After rushing in the room, you kick the door shut behind you and immediately get back to kissing him. This time, he makes more of an effort to assert himself, holding your face in his hands and licking into your mouth. You sigh into him, your hands finding his heated skin beneath his shirt as the pace slows down from the frantic rush it had been. It becomes sensual, and you can feel him getting more aroused as he slowly shifts his hands, starting to grind into you.

         You pull away from him, getting some air as you start to take off his shirt. He enthusiastically moves to help and you get to admire his muscles stretch as he does. Obviously, life constantly on the road does wonders for your abs.

         “You too, sugar. You’re gonna make me feel underdressed.” He says as he moves to take off the rest of his garments. A laugh slips out of you as you hastily get out of your outfit. When you turn your attention back to him, he’s sitting on the bed and he gestures for you to join him.

         When you do, he kisses you again, intensely, as he guides you onto your back. You sigh as he kisses down the side of your jaw to mark your neck, reaching blindly for the lube and condoms beside the bed.

         He quickly slides it on and you hear the squelching of lube as he moves in a rush. You don’t have time to make fun of him though, because as soon as he’s finished, he spreads your legs and puts the head of his dick at your entrance.

         He groans, closing his eyes as he enters you, and its uncomfortable for a little bit. Soon enough though, you relax, and start to feel great as he moves his hips slowly against you. Hawks fucks deeply, you know this from your times before, but each time it feels just as tantalizing as the last.

         “Hawks, please.” You pant, trying to wiggle a little bit just to get some friction, some tiny relief for the edging you’ve been through. He just gives you a smirk, as he keeps you completely locked between him and the mattress. You tense so hard he groans on top of you, but he doesn’t let you move, dick still sitting snug inside your cunt.

         “Well, let’s see those barebacking skills you were showin’ off earlier then, hmm?” he says, his voice low and gruff. With ease, he gets the both of you turned around so you’re now sitting with your ass on his thighs, hands clamped tight on your waist keeping you in place while he lays back on the headboard. He nods satisfactorily, looking you up and down with lidded eyes. “Y’know, I like this view much better, baby. What a pretty picture you make right on top of me.” Part of you wants to roll your eyes, but the warmth that his words give you makes the impulse disappear.

         “You know, Hawks, in order for me to show you said skills, you’re going to have to let me move.” He laughs as you try and lift yourself against the pressure he’s putting, obviously unable to really do anything. “Seriously, you dick, lemme move.”

         “But the face you make when I play these little games with you is so cute, sugar.” He’s got a faux innocent smile across his face and you pout and cross your arms in response. “Okay, okay, I’m done. I promise,” he says, letting off all the pressure, but keeping the two of you connected at the hips.

         “Thank you.” you quip, starting a quicker pace than the one Hawks had been setting, gravity still making it just as deep as before.

         Being drunk obviously makes Hawks that much louder, or maybe it’s the change up in position, you can’t be sure. But, his praises, his deep moans, the lewd noises from the slapping of your body against his hips, it all makes you feel hot as hell.

         You look down, seeing Hawks’ eyes widened and excited, he grins when he notices your look and begins to rock up into you. You throw your head back in as he hits deep within you, crying out his name. Hearing it obviously enthuses him as he grunts in exertion, starting to thrust upwards harder, and you feel your body responding, muscles tightening as you get closer to your climax.

         “God, you’re gorgeous like this, y’know?” he gets out through gritted teeth. “I’m not going to be able to last much longer…” He’s panting, fingers digging into your hips sharply, sure to leave marks.

         “Please, I wanna cum Hawks!”

         “Tell me what you need, sugar, I’ll give it to you.” Hearing that makes you smile, he was always so attentive to your needs.

         “Touch me…”

         “You gotta tell me where for that.” Even when so close to his climax, somehow, Hawks manages to be cheeky. However, when he’s fucking you this well, it’s much easier to let the teasing roll off your back.

         “My clit, Hawks. You do know what that is, right?” He lets out a genuine laugh at that, before sending one hand down towards the bundle of nerves.

         It’s enough, between the stimulation and the deep thrusts into your cunt, that you feel yourself tighten and cry out, cumming hard onto his cock. You lean into him, kissing him hard as pleasure courses through your body.

         He works you through it, breathing heavily, you can feel his pulse skittering under your hands. You feel him twitch within you, and an idea forms in your mind. Mind wrapped up in pleasure, you act on the thought immediately, bringing your hands to his chest to play with his nipples.

         He loves it, making keening noises as you work, legs shaking with effort to stay up and keep pace with him. You let him take the lead and you hear him shout and arch up as you pinch his buds, feeling him release.

         He thrusts a couple more times, lazily and slowly, kissing the top of your head as you settle down to lie on his chest for a few minutes.

         You breath deeply, content in the moment. You know after you clean up and rest, he’ll be gone on the road once again, so you relax, enjoying the presence.

[phantom-curve]

happy second birthday!! for the prompt list, how about number 8 and willex? au can be totally up to you!

Thank you! This one got away from me a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it!! Set in the gimme a chance AU, from before that fic starts, I give you flustered, protective Alex, hot for his boyfriend Willie, and some extra brown-haired himbos thrown in for fun.

#8: shielding the other one with their body (Rated T for language)

When Willie received the text from Alex inviting him to come watch his band practice, he thought it would be a nice, lowkey way of meeting the other boys that made up Alex’s family. They’d been dating for a few months now, ever since he had accidentally run Alex over while skateboarding down Hollywood Boulevard (not his finest moment, but hey, he got the guy in the end, right?), and he had heard plenty of stories about Luke and Reggie and the various shenanigans that they got up to on a near constant basis. Alex always tried to sound annoyed when he talked about his best friends and their ridiculous antics, but there was an undercurrent of true affection that underscored all his stories and told Willie how much he truly cared for them. He had been itching to meet them for a while now, but if there was one thing he had learned early on about Alex, it was that the drummer needed things to happen on his own timeline and not a moment sooner. Willie didn’t fully understand the need for a strict schedule and complete understanding of every situation, but if it made Alex happy, it made him happy. He was more than willing to go with whatever flow Alex directed.

What he was not expecting was to walk into a veritable war zone upon entering the studio the band rented out for practice.

Instruments were scattered about the space as if they had been dropped exactly where each boy had originally been standing, no regard for the guitar stands spaced out along the wall. One of the hi-hats on Alex’s drum set was overturned, the small stool he sat on to play shoved far away from the set, like Alex had stood in a hurry and not bothered to roll it back into place. There was a suspicious puddle near an open doorway at the back of the space. Not a single one of the Sunset Curve boys was inside. Willie entered cautiously, resetting Alex’s stool and righting the hi-hat. Loud yells sounded from outside, and slowly Willie made his way to the open door.

There was a small fenced in yard behind the studio, a few bicycles stacked and locked together along the outside wall. And, spread out across the yard, three 18-year-old boys with water guns pointed at each other, their hair and clothes absolutely soaked. The two brunettes were laughing, happy smiles stretched across their faces as they sprayed Willie’s boyfriend in a joint attack.

“You guys are such fucking children!” Alex was screeching, hands over his head in a pitiful attempt at shielding himself. “I told you Willie was coming by today; can’t you be normal for once?!”

“Awh, c’mon Lex!” The guy in a cut-off muscle tee lowered his water gun, grinning as he moved forward to shake his head like a dog, flinging water droplets in a wide arc. “It’s way too fuckin hot to play today. Live a little!”

Alex looked up as the other boy in a black tank top also lowered his weapon. Glaring, he whipped off his soggy light pink hoodie and threw it in the direction of the other two, smacking the first one right across the face with a loud, wet slap.

Willie’s mouth went dry. Alex was wearing a pale blue t-shirt, and the water from their fight had clearly soaked all the way through his hoodie. The light material clung to his chest and arms like it was painted on, the sight more beautiful than anything Willie had ever seen before. With his blonde hair flopping over his face, muscles glistening in the afternoon sun, Alex looked like an angel that had just emerged from the sea. Willie let himself appreciate the sight for a long moment before clearing his throat.

“Don’t stop on my account, Hotdog. Looks like you needed to cool off a bit.”

He grinned, loving the flustered way Alex suddenly stood fully at attention, running his hands through his wet hair and blessing Willie with a small peek at his toned stomach as his shirt rode up just a bit.

“Willie! Hi!”

The other two boys let out a chorus of oooooh Willie! in the background, but Willie couldn’t find it in him to focus on anything other than the sight of his boyfriend approaching, lips stretched into a cute little nervous smile. If he had known Alex would look this good all wet and ruffled, he would have dragged his butt to the beach long before now.

“I swear, I told them to be on their best behavior today, but it’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes.”

“Trust me, I do not mind.”

Willie let his gaze move slowly from the top of Alex’s head down and back up again, laughing softly as he watched Alex’s cheeks turn pink. Alex opened his mouth to say something, but then, almost as if he had a second sense for mischief, he was flinging himself in front of Willie, nearly slamming them both to the ground as he whipped his head around.

“No! Willie is off limits!!”

The warning was useless, cold water splashing along Alex’s back and splattering across Willie’s face and arms. The other two boys let out a howl of laughter, approaching fast and furious and unleashing a deluge of water that Alex’s body did absolutely nothing to shield Willie from. Alex sputtered and coughed against the water hitting his face until Willie finally reached up to tuck his boyfriend’s head into his neck, hiding his own face in the top of Alex’s wet hair. He shook with laughter, unable to be mad even as Alex growled into his neck, muttering curses against the other boys all the while. After another minute or two of unrelenting downpour, the water slowed to a trickle. Alex seemed to know what that meant before Willie did, unwrapping himself and turning around to face his bandmates.

“You are so dead.”

The brown-haired boys exchanged a look of panic, their water guns run dry while Alex still gripped one that Willie just now realized had a full tank. With a scream they dashed away, Alex sprinting after them and cornering them against the fence so he could hose them down without mercy. Willie hooted and hollered, egging him on, because it he thought soaking wet Alex was hot, soaking wet Alex as an avenging angel was even hotter. Willie bit his lip, enjoying the view for the short time that it took for Alex to empty out the tank on his water gun. When his ammo supply finally ran dry, he returned to Willie’s side, the other boys following close behind, all three of them laughing and shoving each other playfully. Alex slipped his hand into Willie’s, blushing again when Willie reached up to place a kiss on his cheek.

“My hero.”

Alex rolled his eyes, but the smile playing at the edge of his lips told Willie he liked the title. Willie reached a hand out to the other boys.

“Nice to meet you guys, I’m Willie.”

“Hey man, good to meet you,” the one in the cut off spoke first, bounding forward to grasp Willie’s hand. “Alex talks about you literally all the time. I’m Luke.”

Luke ducked away from Alex’s hand as he reached over to slap him, laughing manically. The other boy stepped forward, shaking Willie’s hand with unrestrained enthusiasm.

“I’m Reggie! Luke’s right, Alex does talk about you a lot. All good things though! It’s awesome to finally meet you!”

“Likewise.” Willie grinned, knocking his shoulder against Alex’s as the blonde slapped a hand over his face.

“Okay, okay, yes I talk about you a lot. Freakin sue me.”

“I think it’s cute. I talk about you a lot too, ya know,” Willie murmured, delighting in the pink that stained Alex’s cheeks yet again. Man, he would never get tired of that reaction.

“Oh yeah? Who are you gossiping about me to, pretty boy?”

Willie felt his own cheeks burn at the nickname, leaning in closer so his nose was nearly touching Alex’s.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Okay, as cute as all this lovestruck shit is, these jeans are not the most comfortable when they’re wet,” Luke’s voice broke the moment, and Willie coughed slightly to cover up his laugh as Alex let out an embarrassed squeak. “Let’s pack it up and go back to the apartment for dry clothes and then we can go get tacos!”

“Oooo tacos! Yes!! Luke, is that one guy selling over by the bar today do you think? His eloté is the best!”

Reggie was practically bouncing, bopping behind Luke as the other boy made his way into the studio and began to clean up the mess left from what Willie guessed was the beginning of their impromptu water fight. Willie slipped his hand into Alex’s letting himself be tugged along as his boyfriend unlocked the stack of bikes.

“I like your friends.”

Alex glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, smiling softly through the hair that flopped in front of his face. Willie moved it away, letting his hand linger behind the other boy’s ear for just a moment.

“They’re alright I guess.”

But the fondness in his tone told Willie they were more than alright. They were Alex’s family, and the love between them was genuine and ran deep. Willie grabbed his skateboard from the spot he had left it next to the bikes, tucking it under his arm as Reggie and Luke reappeared from the studio, guitars safely stowed in cases strapped to their backs. Reggie was still talking a mile a minute as Luke turned to lock the back door.

“-and then we should have a Star Wars marathon. Wait!”

Reggie turned to Willie with a serious expression that looked frighteningly out of place on his freckled face. Willie gulped slightly, sure this would be the point where Alex’s brothers would start their interrogation to make sure he was actually deserving of their best friend.

“Did you call Alex ‘Hotdog’ earlier?”

Willie relaxed, laughing loudly as Alex threw his hands up.

“God, you tell a guy about the worst food poisoning of your life one time and you’re stuck with a horrible nickname for the rest of forever,” Alex grumbled.

Luke and Reggie began laughing alongside Willie, who took advantage of Alex’s grumpiness to sneak another kiss on his cheek, lacing their hands together as the group began walking down the street back towards the Sunset Curve apartment, rolling their bikes alongside them.

Willie didn’t say it out loud, but he was pretty sure that was the moment he realized he was gonna love Alex for the rest of his life.

Send me prompts for my second birthday!

[thefatedthoughtofyou]

Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap) ~ Part 17

Summary: Sam inherits Steve Roger's crime empire after a handful of his men betray and kill him. The rest of the crime world, sensing an opening, go after Sam and the territories he's inherited from Steve. Thankfully, Steve left him a number, someone to call if he ever needs help. Someone, Steve claimed, he can trust. But can Sam really trust a mercenary with that much blood on his name? And that many knives in his pockets.

WARNINGS: (there will eventually be all of these things) blood, violence, murder, shooting, stabbing, sex, blood play , food related things: malnutrition, feeding, blow jobs, bathing/washing, chronic pain. Limb loss and regrowth. Bullet wounds. Gore.

18+ Content: Make Good Choices Kids <3

Ao3

Sam follows Bucky up two flights of stairs, blinking rapidly as the sun finally hits his eyes. Once the spots clear, his surroundings come into view. They're in some sort of entry way, there's dark red carpet on the floor, leading up another set of stairs. The building looked... well if Sam was being honest with himself the building looked dilapidated. The paint was peeling, the floors were far from clean, the iron railing along the stairs looked rusted, and Sam could swear even the bricks of the walls looked faded with age.

Bucky begins climbing the stairs, he looks back at Sam once, and he can see that he's frowning, his lip pulled between his teeth. Sam hears a noise and turns quickly, his hand going into his jacket on instinct, hand wrapping around his gun. He relaxes when he sees a man sitting on the floor in the corner, he's got the morning paper spread out on his lap.

"Morning Arthur." Bucky says, his voice a sigh, drawing Sam's attention. The man says nothing as Bucky continues up the stairs. Sam takes a few steps at a time to catch up and does his best to stay a step behind him.

Bucky leads him down a long hallway and then shoves a key into a doorknob. Sam's not exactly sure why he'd need a key in this building, surly no one else was living here. Sam bit his lip and refrained from commenting. He might be a criminal, but his mother had taught him manners. Bucky pushed the door open and held his hand through it, looking at Sam, his eyes only making it to Sam's shoulders. Sam watched him for a moment, Bucky's eyes rose no higher.

Sam stepped through the doorway and was glad to see that at least the apartment looked clean, new, Sam wouldn't go so far as to call it "lived in", but there was no trash on the ground, and the walls weren't peeling. He saw a small couch, and a tv that had been plugged into the wall and set on the floor. His eyes wandered for a moment longer, noting the kitchen to his right and then he startled when Bucky pushed the door shut with a click.

His shoulders tensed as he turned to look at Bucky, he was frowning again, and rubbing at the back of his neck. Sam said nothing. He'd never see Bucky this quiet, most of the time it was hard to shut him up. He watched Bucky lift his leg and scratch the back of his calf with the toe of his boot and it hit him. He's nervous. Bucky Barnes, is nervous. Sam glances around the room again, his eyes darting this way and that, and he feels what could only be pitty. He shoves the feeling away, knowing Bucky wouldn't want it.

"It's... cozy." Sam says, narrowing his eyes at Bucky when he finally, finally, moves his eyes up off the floor. Bucky looks at him, and then snorts.

"You don't have to be nice. I know how it looks." He says, dismissively, and kicks off his shoes.

"I'd offer you a beer but we don't have any. The fridge is empty actually, so don't even bother." He says, walking past Sam as he tugs his jacket off and tosses it on the floor near the couch.

"It's a little early for beer isn't it?" Sam asked, slowly trailing after Bucky, feeling awkward in this place. Bucky ducks back out of the room he'd stepped into, only visible above the waist, his hand resting on the door frame as he looked at Sam.

"You're house just exploded. And you have a very pricey ransom on your head. Is it, too early for beer?" Bucky asks, squinting, and then he smiles, a shit eating, toothy thing that has Sam's shoulders relaxing agaisnt his wishes. He sighs as Bucky disappears out of sight again.

Bucky walks back out of the room with an armful of sheets. He waves Sam after him and Sam follows obediently, frowning at himself, a little disconcerted at how easily he follows Bucky's, unspoken, orders. Bucky stops outside a doorway and leans against the wall.

"This is you. If you wanna get some rest. I can go get us some food if you're hungry." Bucky says, gently placing the sheets in Sam's arms when he reaches for them.

"Is that safe?" Sam asks, holding the sheets close to his chest.

"It'll be fine. No one can find this place. Not if I don't want them too. They could follow me to the door and still not find it." Buck says with a sigh, his arms folded across his chest as he rested his head on the wall.

"Oh yeah? How's that work?" Sam asked, his brow furrowed.

"Magic." Buck says, his brows jumping playfully on his forhead before he walks away, leaving Sam standing in the hall outside a nearly empty bedroom.

"Bathrooms at the end of the hall on the left if you need it." Sam turned to see Bucky pointing to the left, his back turned to Sam, arm raised over his head. Sam chuckled, shook his head, and walked into the room to make his new bed.

~

Bucky leaves around noon to get them food. Sam wanders the apartment while he's gone. Doing his best not to be too nosy, but he's curious, he can't help it. He knows Bucky has money. Or at least, he used to. Sam knows he can't always work for free, depsite what people may say about him. But this building, Bucky's home, would suggest that what people say is true. Maybe he does work for free. And if he does, what does that say about him?

Sam walks past a closed door, his fingers linger on the knob a moment before he turns it and pushes the door open enough to peek inside. There's a messily made bed shoved into one corner, the night stand on the right holds a small lamp. And in the other corner, Sam's eyes widen when they land on it, a very old looking piano. Sam squints into the dark room, the curtains hanging over the window are thick, and sees that the keys are well worn, but clean, almost shining in the dark. His heart beats a little faster, like he'd just seen something he wasn't supposed to. He closes the door quickly and moves on.

The sound he makes when he walks into the bathroom would have made Bucky laugh at him. It's almost a moan. The bathroom is huge. And beautiful. And Sam thinks maybe Bucky had spent all his money on this, because he'd never seen a tub that big, it had three fucking steps leading up to it. He rubs at his face and moves to the sink. It takes him a moment to realize something's missing. A huge luxury bathroom inside a run down building, Sam thought it had everything, until he splashed water on his face at the sink and then looked up, looking for himself in a mirror that wasn't there.

He straightened up and looked around the room, no mirrors, at all. Sam frowned as he dried his face, who in the world didn't have a mirror in their bathroom? He took a deep breathe and shrugged, trying not to over think it, and walked back out into the apartment. He wandered to the kitchen, his fingers dancing across the counter tops as he moved toward the fridge.

Bucky had said it was empty, and he hadn't been lying, not really. Sam opened the door and almost laughed. The fridge was indeed bare, except for one large bottle of Worcester sauce shoved in the door. Sam picked it up, looked at the date, it wasn't expired as he'd been expecting, and put it back down. He closed the door with a furrowed brow, what the fuck does this guy eat that all he has in his refrigerator is a big bottle of fucking Worcester sauce?

Sam felt that pang beneath his ribs again and rubbed at his chest. Bucky must get so lonely. His apartment was barely furnished, had one thing in his fridge and it wasn't even something that could be eaten, and the only other person in the building, as far as Sam could tell, was a homeless man in the entry way. Sam walked to the window and looked out at the mostly empty street below, he saw Bucky turn around the closest corner and head his way. His hands were full.

He'd brought back pizza, and Chinese, and Mexican. Sam stayed silent as he watched him set them all on the counter. Bucky looked up at him eventually, a question in his eyes.

"You hungry?" Sam asked, not able to keep the smile at bay this time. Bucky snorted, dropped his eyes to the floor again and rubbed at his neck. Sam would swear he was blushing. But when he looked back up at Sam his features had been schooled.

"I didn't know what you wanted." He said, smiling awkwardly before flipping the pizza box open, taking a slice, and sliding it toward Sam. Sam reached into the box and grabbed a peice, it was pepperoni, his favorite.

"Not like it won't get eaten, I'm sure." Sam said, taking a huge bite and smiling inwardly as Bucky laughed across from him.

~

He can't sleep. It's 3am and he's wide awake. Feels like he's going to burst out his skin if he doesn't do something. He pushes himself out of bed and walks out into the hall, he takes two steps and then notices the music. 

Slow, dreamy, piano notes reach his ears. His breath catches in his throat as he walks closer to Bucky's room. He stops just short of the door and leans forward, the door is open, the music floating out into the hall makes Sam's head swim. Bucky has his back to the door, he's wearing a tank top and boxers, and his hands are moving over the keys of the old piano like they know this dance by heart. Sam steps forward, forgetting himself, and leans against the door frame, crossing his arms over his chest.

Bucky plays for a long while, moving through song after song as Sam just stands there, staring at him. Watches the way his hair sways when he moves, the way the muscles in his arms move as his fingers dance over the keys, his eyes linger here and there and he tells himself he should leave, but doesn't seem to have the will to move. His eyes linger on Bucky's hands again, watching his fingers, when the tune changes abruptly and startles him so badly he jumps. The calm melody now a twangy tune, sounding like something out of a saloon in a western. Sam's breathing is heavy, his chest heaving, his eyes move back to Bucky to find him looking over his shoulder while he plays some stupid saloon tune. A grin spreads across his face and Sam rolls his eyes.

"Very funny." Sam says, his voice flat. The tune dies down, back to something slow, and Bucky looks away.

"Thank you, I thought so too." He grins back at Sam again and then looks back down.

"You can come in ya know? You don't have to just stand in the doorway like a stalker." Bucky says. Sam opens his mouth to protest and the saloon tune starts up again. Sam sighs, glares at him, and then moves to sit on the end of Bucky's bed. He sits quietly, pulling his feet up to sit criss cross on the bed, and watches Bucky play some more.

"Couldn't sleep?" Bucky asks, glancing at Sam.

"Naw. I don't sleep well in new places." Sam says, his thumb pressing into his ankle. Bucky nods and keeps playing.

"Kinda hard to sleep when you know people want to kill you." Bucky says, it's not a question.

"There's also that. Yeah." Sam says, nodding, his eyes wide as they stare, unfocused, at the floor. Bucky snorts and keeps playing. After a moment Sam finally asks.

"So... the piano." Sam says, questioning without questioning. Bucky sighs a laugh, his hands never missing a beat as he keeps playing.

"Yep." Is all he says.

"How'd that come about?" Sam asks, because apparently Bucky isn't going to share freely.

"I've been alive a very long time Sam." He turns and looks at him,

"You get bored." He finsihes, his brows bouncing again before he looked away. Sam's about to question further when Bucky keeps talking.

"No uh... when I was a kid, we used to watch a lot of westerns." Bucky starts, his fingers moving faster across the keys, the tune moving towards that twang again.

"And Steve always wanted to be a cowboy. To just, come into town, save a nice lady from a bad man, get the girl, ride into the sunset, all that. Just, be a hero I guess." Bucky shrugged, not looking at Sam as he played.

"And that was fine. Cowboys are cool I guess. But I never really wanted to be one. I always had this weird fascination with the guy plahing the piano in the saloon. That exciting, upbeat tune, and it was almost always the same one." He chuckled and shook his head.

"I wanted to know more about him. It seemed like an interesting job to little me. Saloon piano player. Playing upbeat tunes until the cowboy showed up. Sarcastic piano playing, that's what my mom used to call it." Bucky said, and Sam could see him smiling as the tune slowed down again, the twang leaving it for something sad.

"She used to tease me about it. But she got me piano lessons anyway." Bucky looked at him, a small smile on his lips. He held Bucky's gaze until he looked away again.

"Guess it didn't really matter." Bucky sighed, his fingers slowing on the keys.

"I ended up being the cowboy anyway. Funny how things work out." His voice was quiet. His fingers still. Sam's chest ached as he watched him sit there, silently.  It didn't seem funny to Sam. Bucky hadn't wanted this life, he'd, apparently, just wanted to play piano in a saloon. Sam smiled at the thought of Bucky as a child, sitting at a piano much too large for him, learning to do something he loved. Sam swallowed hard.

"Shame." He said, and cleared his throat. Bucky looked at him, his eyes wide and questioning.

"You'd have made a great saloon pianist." Sam said, smiling softly. Bucky looked at him. And then he was laughing. Just a quick thing, his head thrown back, two cheerful laughs bubbling out, before he looked at Sam again. They sat there, looking at each other in the quiet room, saying nothing. Sam felt his cheeks burn and broke the eye contact.

"Want me to keep playing?" Bucky asked, his fingers wiggling over the keys.

"Yeah. Yeah keep playing." Sam nodded. Bucky nodded in return and turned back to the piano. Sam drooped, falling onto his side, his arm tucked beneath his head. He listened to Bucky's beautiful music and finally fell into sleep.

~

Sam wakes in Bucky's bed, a blanket pulled over him, he's alone. He rubs at his eyes and pushes himself up, off of Bucky's bed, refusing to let himself think about that. He drops the blanket on the bed and walks down the hall, he can hear someone clanging around the kitchen. The noise stops before Sam gets there and he sees Bucky in the living room, looking down at the large tv on the floor. The volume is low but Sam knows that house. Its Steve's house, his house.

He walks closer, stopping to stand next to Bucky, who greets him with a nod. They both continue watching as the news shows coverage of the bombing. Half the back of the house is gone, just a pile of rubble.

"What are they saying?" Sam asks, wrapping his arms around himself.

"They haven't found any bodies." Bucky says, knowing what Sam was asking without him having to say it.

"Never been happier to be short staffed." Sam says, he sees Bucky incline his head in agreement.

"I got a call from Torres while you were sleeping. He, Helen and Maria are at a safe house. Minor cuts and bruises. Same for everyone else he's been in contact with." Bucky says. All business this morning, Sam thinks, but is glad for it. He's glad his people are alright.

"What the fuck do we do now?" Sam asks, his eyes glued to the ruble on the television. Bucky opens his mouth but doesn't get a chance to answer.

"I believe I may be able to help with that." A deep, smooth voice answers. Sam turns quickly to the voice, startled, at the same time Bucky groans next to him and then turns as well.

All Sam sees at first is a dark, tall, shadow standing near the window. The man takes a step forward and comes into view.

"Loki." Sam says, his shoulders tense. Loki nods, his head dropping low.

"What did I say about fucking teleporting in here?" Bucky asked, his voice grumpy, but not shocked. Sam looked between them. Loki smirked at him and Bucky rolled his eyes.

"You said you could help?" Sam asked, taking a step forward. Loki nodded again, his hands clasped in front him.

"Indeed I did. My brother and I would like to offer our assistance. We'd have done so earlier but we were, engaged elsewhere." The smile on Loki's face always made Sam uneasy, but if he was here on Thor's behalf Sam could ignore that feeling.

"And you're feeling generous after returning home?" Bucky asks, his voice gravelly and sarcastic. The grin on Loki's face faded as he looked at them.

"My brother and I were... saddened, to hear about Steve's fate. He was a good partner. And more than that, a good friend. We are sorry for your loss. And we'd like to help you, in anyway we can." Sam's chest tightened, Thor and his family had known great loss. They'd also been the most loyal to Steve. Sam knew this wasn't a trick, knew that even Loki, wouldn't use their grief against them. He could see Bucky looking at Loki, his features sofened now. He and Loki shared a look Sam couldn't quite decipher, but Bucky rubbed at his neck, cleared his throat, and stepped away from the man. Sam stepped forward, his hand outstretched in front of him.

"The help would be much appreciated. Thank you." Sam said, sighed really. Loki smiled, took his hand, and shook it.

"I'll be in touch. Til then, stay put. You'll be safe here. Bye Wade." Loki nodded lowly again, a gesture of respect for Sam, and then wiggled his fingers toward the kitchen, smirking at Bucky before disappearing in a flash of green light. Sam snapped his head in the direction of the kitchen to see Wade, standing behind the counter wearing a crooked chefs hat and an apron that said "kiss the cook". Wade lifted his chin at Sam, and then smiled when Bucky groaned and threw himself onto the couch. Sam moved his eyes slowly away from Wade, his attention moving to Bucky, he'd thrown his arm over his face.

"This is a good thing isn't it? We need help." Sam said, unsure if Bucky's attitude was because of the offer or just his general reaction to Loki.

"It is. It's good. We do need help. And they are... helpful." Bucky said, Sam could see a grimace on his face under Bucky's arm, his mouth turned in an agressive frown. Wade snorted in the kitchen but said nothing.

"Hang on a second." Sam mused.

"Ope, he's catching on." Wade commented as Sam arranged his thoughts.

"You said no one could find this place if you didn't want them to." Sam said, dragging out his words for effect. Bucky moved his arm from his face and looked up at Sam.

"Did I say that?"

"Yeah. You did. You also said, it was magic. I thought you were just being facetious, but you were being serious." Sam said, a grin spreading across his face. Bucky looked at him, several different emotions passing over his face before he apparently decided not to argue this with Sam and dropped his arm back on his face. Sam bent over the couch, moving closer to him.

"Loki enchanted this place for you didn't he?" Sam asked, poking his finger agaisnt Bucky forehead.

"He's got him now folks." Wade's voice, now doing his best impression of a sports announcer, carried in from the kitchen. Sam smiled and pressed his finger harder into Bucky's head.

"Did you two..." Bucky arm moved just enough for him to glare up at Sam. His eyes narrowed in a warning. Sam could hear stifled laughter in the kitchen.

"Did you two have a thing?" Sam teased. Bucky scrunched his nose up and stood up abruptly, a strangled sound leaving his throat as he looked between Sam and Wade. Sam looked at Wade, met his eyes for a brief sencond and watched Wade nod, once.

"Oh my god you did. You slept with Loki so he'd enchanted your apartment." Sam gasped, his mouth dropping open in shock. Wade cackled in the kitchen and then dropped a pan with a curse, disappearing below the counter as he dove after it.

"I did not sleep with him so he'd enchant my apartment." Bucky said, offense clear in his voice.

"I slept with him. And then, later, much later, he enchanted this place for me. Two separate events!" Bucky argued, pointing at Sam accusingly. Wade popped back up over the counter after grabbing his pan.

"Was it though? Like... really? Cuz if I remember correctly, just from the story you told me, there was definitely at least one sexual situation either after, or during, said enchanting." Wade smiled, pointing his spatula at Bucky, his hip cocked to the side. Sam had to stifle a laugh at the image. Bucky's face was red now, he looked between them both and growled.

"I fucking hate you both." He said, stomping past them toward his room. He spun on his heel and pointed at Wade.

"And you! You just wait and see if I ever share any stories with you again. You traitor." Bucky spat, turned around again, walked into his room, and slammed the door. Sam looked from Bucky's door, back to Wade. Wade smiled at him and went back to cooking.

"Whatcha makin?" Sam asked as he walked over to the small overhang that he was sure was ment to be a bar, though there were no stools beneath it.

"Pancakes. Blueberry or chocolate chip? I can also do strawberry but not very well, and last time I made them for Buck, he did end up puking, so ya know, just be warned." Wade waved his spatula around as he talked, pointing to this and that as he moved around the kitchen.

"Chocolate chip for me." Sam said, he was trying not to stare. He'd never seen Wade without his mask before. He'd known, and seen part of him, his hands and part of his face at the house. But seeing his whole face, and his arms under his short sleeves was different.  But then he was smiling at Sam and all he could see was his eyes. They were warm, and inviting.

"Me too! Bucks a Blueberry guy but we don't have to fault him for that." Wade teased, jerking the pan in his hand and sending the pancake into the air, it flipped twice and then landed perfectly back in the pan. Sam smiled and watched Wade dance around the kitchen, humming to himself, the song sounded familiar, Sam thought it might be a Spice Girl's song.

"So. Him and Loki huh?" Sam asked, smiling at Wade as he slid a plateful of pancakes to him. Wade nodded and grinned.

"Oh yeah. You let a pretty guy with vanishing knives enchant your house one time! And he just comes and goes as he pleases." Wade said, shaking his head with a twinkle in his eye. Sam laughed and took a bite.

The pancakes were delicious, warm and fluffy and perfect. He ate quietly as Wade made pancake after pancake, humming to himself as he moved like a hurricane through the kitchen. Sam ate his breakfast, and noticed for the first time since Steve had been taken from them, that there was no tension in his muscles. He didn't feel like he had to constantly look over his shoulder. He took another bite, watched Wade flip a pancake onto the ceiling, and thought he felt dangerously at home here.

[itsjustmyfantasyroom]

Summer Rain.

Just some more little Nick loving cause I’ am crushing and I got this idea being caught in morning summer rain.

Warnings: Fluff and smut

WC: 1837

Enjoy x

You walked out of the bathroom after washing your face sighing to yourself about what just unfolded in court with Nick on the stand after your testimony. As you walked out after calling Carmen and Sonny you saw your two Cuban’s toe to toe. Nick was in Rafael’s face and Rafael had his hands on his hips frowning. You rushed over when you saw Nick go to raise his finger in Rafael’s face.

Being Rafael’s best friend, you knew he hated it when someone done that to him and more often than not he would snap saying things he didn’t mean, which is what he did when he lost his temper. He had done it to you a number of times and you had seen it when he and Sonny got into a lovers tiff in their apartment or yours.

“Nicolas” You snapped, your voice echoing through the halls.

Nick took a step back hocking his thumbs on his pants waist looking down at the floor shaking his head,

“Go on-protect him like you always do” Nick almost yelled.

“Don’t you dare” you snarled at him, he went to open his mouth “Enough”

You turned to Rafael looking at his reddened face,

“Sonny is waiting for you at home. I made some call’s, Carmen will cover for you.”

Rafael lent over kissing your cheek,

“I need to recall you tomorrow after that-“ he glared at Nick over your shoulder,

“Rafael” you gave him a stern look “I’ll be here at 9. Go” you kissed his cheek and he walked away after squeezing your hand.

You turned and looked at Nick eye brows raised,

“What” he snapped at you “You going to tell me it’s my fault too”

“I can’t deal with you when you’re like this. You need to calm down.”

You walked past Nick to the lifts pressing the down button. You turned around to look at Nick still standing in his spot,

“Come on Guapo, we will walk back so you can cool off”

The doors dinged and you stepped in, Nick running to jump in before the doors shut. Nick had finally settled down once you brought him a hot dog and a cola just outside the court house. As you walked along chatting about nothing really you had seen the clouds roll over black really quickly. You were two blocks away from the station when the first few large drops started to hit the ground around you. You looked over at Nick and he winked, the rain drops starting to get heavier,

“Race ya” Nick speed off. You were glad you wore flats to court rather than heels and all that running with Amanda was finally paying off.

You raced off after him the rain pouring down. You past Nick beating him to the prescient. You ran in through the back door almost slipping from your wet shoes. Your hair drenched stuck to your face, your white button down clinging to you, see through now, your pants stuck to you wet and a large puddle of water pooling at your feet. Nick ran in the door puffed out shrugging his wet jacket off. His eyes scanned your body being able to see your tummy and breast in your red lace bra. Nick cleared his throat holding his jacket to you,

“Here put this on till we get upstairs” You could see the outline of Nick’s tank top under his wet button down.

“Thanks Nick”

You reached for Nick’s jacket, a spark shot through you when your fingers touched his. You locked eyes with him and he reached out with his other hand moving your wet hair out of your face tucking it behind your ear. You both took a step closer to each other when you were pulled out of what was happening to Fin and Liv walking in the door.

“Wow Y/N you look like a drowned rat” Fin laughed at you.

“I did say you should have drove over this morning” Liv smiled at you as you put on Nick’s Jacket “Go and get changed and you can both go home, but Amaro- I need to speak to you first”

You walked straight to your locker opening it to see what cloths you had in there. You had taken most of them home over the weekend to wash them and you cursed yourself forgetting to bring anything back with you at the start of the week. You moved some junk out of the way and found some black booty shorts tucked in the corner. You gave them a quick sniff and they didn’t smell too bad, they only had to do till you got home.

No one was around so you quickly ripped off your wet pants and slipped the shorts on. You reached into your locker again hoping you would find a shirt. With no luck you unlocked Sonny’s locker to see what he had in his and found nothing. You slammed his locker shut locking it again huffing to yourself.

“Everything ok?” You turned to see Nick looking at you up and down eyeing you in the shorts and your still very wet button down.

“Ah, yeah. I forgot to bring spare cloths that’s all”

Nick chuckled walking to his locker, opening it pulling out a clean tank top handing it to you.

“Are you sure? What about you?”

“I have another here. Take it”

You smiled and took the tank top walking into the bathroom to get changed. When you walked back out Nick was sitting on the bench just tying up his shoe laces. You walked out with his tight tank top on and he almost chocked looking at you.

“Ah- how are you getting home?”

“Subway” you opened your locker to get your bag and plastic bag with your wet cloths.

“Not dressed like that you’re not” Nick stood up grabbing his back pack “I’ll drive you”  

You pulled up at your apartment block and Nick put the car into park but not turning it off,

“I’ am sorry I lost my temper earlier, but Barba” he stopped taking in a deep breath.

You garbed Nick’s knee and his breathing hitched,

“I know- he is hard to deal with sometimes. Did you want to come up? I think I have some beer in the fridge maybe we can order something in?”

“Sound’s good” Nick smiled at you.

You opened your apartment door walking into the kitchen area, Nick walking close behind you closing the door and locking it. You walked over to the fridge pulling out two beers and twisting them open handing one to Nick. Nick held his to yours, you clinked them together both taking big sips.

“Would you mind if I have a quick shower?”

Nick put his beer on the kitchen bench looking at you with a straight face,

“Would you mind if I joined you?”

You smirked putting your beer down, moving to stand next to Nick. He turned to face you, his hand resting on your sides, his thumbs sitting just under your breasts,

“Are you trying to ask me in a polite way Nicolas, if you can fuck me?”

“And if I’ am?” Nick lent close ghosting your lips. Both his hand running to the backs of your thighs, Nick lifting you up so you could wrap your legs around him.

“I ‘am wondering what’s taken you so long.” Your lips crashed on Nick’s as he walked you both towards your bathroom.

Nick had walked you just to the bathroom door and he pushed you against the wall, dropping your legs down. The kiss not breaking, still deep and all tongues. Nick still had a grip on your ass grabbing at it through your shorts. You reached down to the hem of the tank top on him pulling it up. Nick pulled away from your kiss to let you pull it off and throw it on the floor. He then done the same to you before his hands run up your side around your back unclipping and pulling your bra off. Nick’s hands moved up to your breast’s kneading them both at the same time rolling his hips into you,

“What took you so long?” Your hands where running up and down his shoulders. Nick pushed your breasts together and he kissed the top of both of them.

“I was scared” he whispered “I didn’t want to fall for you and get my heart broken” His hands fell from your breast to your hips and you cupped his cheeks.

“I would never break your heart, cause if I did I would break mine and I don’t want to lose you” You pulled his face to yours slowly, your lips meeting for a soft tender kiss “Nick” he searched your eyes “Make love to me”

Nick scoped you up bridal style carrying you to your bed room. Nick placed you down on the bed, toeing off his shoes, then pulling yours off. He pushed down his pants and boxers getting on the bed between your legs, slowly pulling down your shorts and panties throwing them on the floor. Nick started to kiss your thighs one kiss at a time. He got to your core licking a strip up it, your wetness coating his tongue, then he kissed your pearl, kissing up your tummy up to your lips. The head of his hard cock at your opening,

“Do I need-“

You shock your head,

“The pill and I’ am clean”

“Me too” Nick started to kiss your neck as he lined himself to you pushing in slowly, you grabbing onto his muscly arms.

You wrapped your legs around him pulling him into you, Nick groaned into your neck, you’re hot wet core wrapped around his hard needy length. Nick started to roll his hips into you still kissing your neck.

“Go out with me?” Nick moaned into your neck.

“Y-yes” you moaned back “Nick- faster”

Nick pushed himself up onto his knees grabbing your legs to hold them straight up on his body and he stated to pound into you fast. His hands went to your knees pushing his shoulders forward so they would be slightly bent over them, your legs falling onto his back. His thrusts hitting just the right spot as you arched your back kneading your own breasts now. One of Nick’s hands run down your thigh resting his pointer finger on your pearl rubbing it fast,

“Amor- don’t break my heart ok” Nick groaned out.

“Never” you shook your head your eyes slamming shut as your came screaming Nick’s name.

Nick soon followed slamming into you one last time, his seed spilling into you. Nick pulled out and off you moving to lay down on his back next to you. You took a deep breath and roll on top on him, your hand cupping his cheek, running your thumb over it peaking his lips,

“I promise you Nick Amaro, I will never break your heart”

 Tags: @beccabarba​ @thatesqcrush​ @the-baby-bookworm​ @permanentlydizzy​ @amorestevens

[elsanna-shenanigans]

February Contest Submission #3: Did You Know

words: ca. 3700 setting: Modern AU lemon: No cw: Language

“Did you know that Frost Museum aims to achieve LEED Gold certification within the…”

Anna nods off, her coffee forgotten. Work orientations are the worst. 

A few minutes later, a soft cough from somewhere over her left shoulder stirs her. Anna sits up and blinks, looking around for the source. Her cheeks redden as she realizes she’s been caught falling asleep on her first day of her new job.

“Behind you,” a soft voice says.

Anna turns in her seat, and the flush to her face deepens as she is met by the most gorgeous woman with white-blonde hair and a flawless pale complexion. Dressed in a light gray business suit and blue blouse, Anna surmises that she’s one of the bosses and immediately stands up, ready to beg her to let her keep her new job. She smooths out her own wrinkled black skirt and opens her mouth to grovel when the woman speaks again.

“You, um…” The woman wipes the corner of her mouth with her index finger.

Anna’s brows furrow, and she raises her hand up to her mouth. Finding wetness there, her eyes widen.

“Oh, shi-” She stops herself from further embarrassment as she wipes at her face with the sleeve of her green blouse. Drool is embarrassing enough as it is.

The woman smiles softly and says, “Orientations are never fun. I actually arrived a few minutes late. Don’t tell anyone.“ 

Anna gapes. Of all the things for this woman to say, she did not expect that. “Yeah…” 

“I’m Elsa.” The woman extends her hand and waits for Anna to introduce herself, that soft smile never leaving her face.

It takes Anna a second to stop staring and shake Elsa’s hand. “Anna. It’s nice to meet you, Elsa. So, what’d I miss?”

Elsa giggles, and it’s the most melodious sound Anna has ever heard.

“We’re taking a ten minute break. There are some breakfast items outside if you’d like to join,” Elsa nods to the doors of the plantarium where they’ve spent the last hour learning about Frost Museum, one of Miami’s biggest museums and their new workplace.

“Yeah.” Anna picks up her now-cold coffee cup. “I didn’t have time to eat earlier. I was already afraid I’d sleep through my alarm.”

Elsa giggles again. “ I’m glad one of us didn’t.“ 

Anna smiles easily, happy to have made a new friend on her first day. Not to mention that Elsa is attractive.

“Shall we?”

As Elsa leads her out of the planetarium, Anna can’t help but glance at her backside. This woman is insanely beautiful. Her hips sway as she walks confidently in black stilettos, and all Anna can think about is how she has legs for days.

So caught up in Elsa is she that Anna doesn’t realize they’ve made their way to a table where Elsa is offering to get her another coffee from a disposable coffee container. Elsa tilts her head and lifts an eyebrow curiously.

“Earth to Anna.”

“Hm?” Anna’s eyes focus on Elsa’s cool blue eyes that definitely match her blouse. Anna glances down at it again. Yep, they match. Anna wonders what it’d be like to unbutton that blouse and bites her lip as she imagines the pale skin beneath it.

“I asked if you’d like another coffee. I imagine that one is too cold to drink by now,” Elsa nods her head toward the cup in Anna’s hand.

Anna looks down at the cup. “Oh, yeah. Please,” she smiles and walks to the trash can to dispose of her old cup.

As Elsa pours them both steaming cups of mediocre coffee, Anna tries to think of something more to say.

“This place has money. I’m surprised they can’t spring for something better than a cardboard container of coffee.” Anna mentally slaps herself for saying the first thing that came to her mind.

Elsa hands Anna a cup with a smile before . “Maybe they need a barista on staff.”

“Yes, exactly! All jobs should have baristas on staff. Did you know that Disney has baristas on staff at their animation studios?” Anna grins. Disney is her favorite subject.

“Really?” Elsa smiles back.

Anna takes a sip of her coffee and makes a disgusted face. “Uh huh,” she says as she grabs two packets of sugar to put in her drink. “If you watch the credits at the end of every movie, they mention their names. They’re just baristas, but they have film credits!”

“That’s very cool,” Elsa says. “Do you-”

“Elsa, there you are,” a middle-aged man walks up to them with a jovial smile and crows feet hiding behind thick-rimmed glasses. “Sorry to interrupt,” he says acknowledging Anna. 

Anna nods. She knows this is the CEO of the museum. She met him during her last interview, but she can’t remember his name.

“It’s good to see you again, Frank,” Elsa smiles and shakes his hand. Anna notices that her smile is tighter; it doesn’t reach her eyes like her previous smiles have.

“Likewise. Is orientation almost over? We’re ready to have you upstairs in your new office crunching numbers.”

Elsa blushes and looks embarrassed. “About another hour." 

“Surely we can get you out of it,” Frank chuckles. “After all, no one knows the Frost Museum like the Frost family.”

Anna’s mouth hangs open. Elsa is Elsa Frost? Related to the museum’s Frost family? Her name is literally on the building! Suddenly she feels very out of her league. Elsa is clearly a big deal, whereas she is just a new janitor. What’s more is that her best friend Kristoff got her this job after another guy quit suddenly, so she really wasn’t even a choice. They needed to fill the spot quickly, and Anna was qualified enough. As qualified as a college drop-out needs to be for manual labor. 

Anna realizes she is zoned out when Elsa turns back to her with an apologetic look on her face. 

“Sorry about that, Anna. You were saying?”

“Hm?” Anna looks at her. “Oh, umm… nothing. Never mind. I better go back and grab my seat.” She hurriedly leaves Elsa staring at her back.

Back in her seat, Anna covers her eyes with her hand and leans over. “Shit, shit, shit. Anna, what are you thinking? She’s so clearly out of your league. She’d never be interested in you.” 

For the rest of the orientation, Anna thinks of all of the fancy parties Elsa must go to on the regular. She imagines Elsa lives in a mansion on Star Island and is probably a VIP at all the best clubs. She probably has a rich boyfriend named Hans or Alfred or maybe Charles Van Buckingham III. And he takes her on trips to London and Paris and Fiji. He gets to see Elsa in a bikini; not Anna. Never Anna.

When the small group of new employees is finally dismissed, Anna does not dare look at Elsa. She leaves the planetarium quickly and practically runs to the engineering department where Kristoff is monitoring the water flow to the aquarium’s tanks.

“Hey, there she is,” he grins. “How was it?”

“Awful,” Anna sits in a chair next to him and takes a look at his computer. “Have you heard of Elsa Frost?”

“Yeah, HR sent an all staff email out letting us know she’d be joining the staff as the new head of finance. She’s apparently super smart and hot as fuck.”

Anna snorts before groaning. “I made a complete fool out of myself in front of her.” She recounts being caught sleeping, nerding out about Disney, and feeling like nothing next to the blonde woman.

“Anna, you’re not nothing,” Kristoff says with a frown.

“I am compared to her, Kris. She’s… she probably has a million college degrees, and I don’t have any.”

“That does not make you nothing.”

Anna sighs and stands. “It doesn’t even matter. She probably has an equally hot as fuck boyfriend, and they live in the lap of luxury.”

“Anna-”

“I gotta go see my new boss. Can you show me where maintenance is? I kinda forgot.” 

Kristoff gets up. “Okay, but don’t put yourself down, Anna. Any woman would be lucky to have you.”

—

The next day, Anna gets a full tour of the facility. Around lunch, she finds herself on the fifth floor cleaning the administrative offices. Poking her head into an empty office, she determines that the coast is clear to empty the trash.

She rounds the desk and searches for a trash can but can’t find one. Pursing her lips, she mutters, “Come out, come out, wherever you are, trash can.” She turns around and faces a wall where multiple diplomas hang. She sucks in air as she realizes whose office she is in.

“Oh, hi, Anna,” Elsa says from the doorway, causing Anna to jump and turn around. 

“Uhh, hi. Sorry, I was just… “ Anna swallows. “I was looking for your trash.”

“Oh, well, I haven’t really made any yet, but if you come back in half an hour, I will.” Elsa smiles that smile that seems to be reserved for Anna as she holds up a container.

“Yeah… I can do that. Enjoy your lunch…” Anna starts to walk out only to come face-to-face with Elsa, who has not left the doorway.

Under the blue-eyed gaze, Anna feels small, and it isn’t just because Elsa is wearing another pair of stilettos. Navy this time, to match a silk navy button-up shirt under a white suit.

“Excuse me,” Anna mumbles to the ground.

“Anna, did I do something yesterday?”

Anna whips her head up to discover that Elsa is biting her bottom lip.

“What? No! No,” Anna shakes her head. “No, you didn’t.”

Elsa can’t look at her now as she lets out a breath. Her shoulders, which Anna realizes were tense, seem to relax. 

“Okay. It felt like I did when you felt suddenly during the break, and then when you left orientation really fast,” Elsa says quietly. “If I did, I’m sorry.”

Anna feels horrible now. “No, Elsa, please. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I just wanted to go say hi to my friend Kristoff. He works in engineering.”

“Oh,” Elsa says. “Well, in that case…” She closes her eyes for a moment before opening them and looking directly at Anna. “Would you like to go get a coffee one day this week?”

Anna’s mouth drops open. Elsa Frost, who has a business degree and a master’s in finance, wants to get coffee with her? “Coffee? With me?”

“Yes. If you want,” Elsa chews her bottom lip again, and Anna decides that is endearing even if it does seem to stem from Elsa being nervous.

“I want!” Anna says a little too cheerfully. She tells herself to tone it down. “I mean, yes. I would love to.”

—

Anna clocks out and turns to her best friend. “She is so far out of my league, Kristoff.”

“But she wants to get coffee with you. That’s something,” he cocks his head and gives her a haughty look.

“I need to wow her, Kris. I need her to know that I’m smart too.”

“You are smart, Anna. You don’t need to prove that to her or to anyone,” Kristoff says seriously.

“Yeah, but this is Elsa Frost we’re talking about. I need to go into this coffee date ready to dazzle her with everything I know." 

Kristoff sighs. “Anna, just be yourself. I’m sure that’s why she asked you out for coffee anyway.” 

“Maybe, but I still gotta be prepared. But anyway, I gotta go. I’ll see you later,” she grins and walks to her used Toyota Camry. If she’s going to go on a date- is it even a real date?- with Elsa, she needs to start studying up on potential topics.

That evening, Anna watches a National Geographic documentary on Disney+ that succeeds in putting her to sleep half an hour in.

—

Elsa’s work keeps her busy for the rest of the week, but they make a plan to meet at the Starbucks on Biscayne Boulevard on Saturday afternoon.

Rain pours as Anna arrives early with index cards ready. She stayed up Friday night taking notes after doing some googling on Elsa and finding an old college newspaper interview in which she mentioned liking Egyptian history.

She places her order, grabs her coffee when a barista calls out her name, and sits down at a table, waiting nervously.

Less than five minutes pass before Elsa walks in and shakes off the rain. Anna gazes at her as she takes off a long raincoat and brushes her hand through her damp bangs. Then Elsa looks around for her.

She waves and calls out, “Elsa, over here." 

With a grin that could light up the world, Elsa makes her way over to Anna. “Hi,” she says breathlessly.

“Hi,” Anna smiles back. “I already got a coffee, but if you want something, I can get it for you.” 

Elsa shakes her head. “No need. I can grab it. I’m not really in the mood for coffee today. When it rains, that means hot chocolate.”

Anna laughs. “I should have waited for you then. I love hot chocolate.” 

“It’s my favorite,” Elsa grins and drapes her raincoat on the back of her chair. “I’ll be right back. Don’t leave.”

“I won’t.”

When Elsa seemingly makes sure Anna won’t leave, she walks up to the counter, giving Anna time to watch her. 

Elsa’s demeanor changes as she steps up to the barista. Anna remembers when Frank came by to talk to her on their first day. It seems that Elsa isn’t very comfortable in social situations. That much is confirmed when Elsa lets out a deep breath when she is done paying for her drink. And, thinking back on their week, Anna realizes that Elsa only ate lunch in her office. She knows because she picked up Elsa’s trash every afternoon, and there was always an empty container in the bin. Anna wonders how a super brilliant finance lady could be introverted. Don’t you have to do projects and give presentations and stuff in college? Surely, Elsa realizes that she has nothing to worry about with Anna. She’s clearly the more classy, educated one. Anna is the dumb one who has to worry about making a good impression.

When Elsa returns, hot chocolate in hand, Anna shakes herself out of her thoughts. 

“So,” Elsa sits down. “Did you have a good first week?”

“I guess,” Anna replies. “It’s not hard work.”

Elsa tilts her head. “It’s not? I saw you lifting a giant bag of trash into the dumpster. It must have been heavy.”

Anna shrugs.

“Well, I couldn’t do it.” Elsa smiles and lifts up her arm, flexing it. “I’m not exactly the strongest person.”

“It’s not that hard to do,” Anna repeats. “It doesn’t take a brain to do it.” 

Elsa’s face falls slightly at the bitter response. “Oh.”

Anna winces and mentally berates herself for being stupid. “Sorry. I just mean that the work you do is probably more exciting.”

“I suppose,” Elsa smiles briefly. “Numbers make sense to me.”

Seeing an opportunity to turn the conversation around, Anna looks down at her index card quickly. “Did you know that the ancient Egyptians had a decimal system using seven different symbols?”

Elsa looks confused for a minute. “I…”

“And the symbol for 100,000 was a frog or a tadpole,” Anna continues. “That’s kinda funny, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Elsa takes a sip of her hot chocolate. “I used to have a pet frog.”

“That’s cool,” Anna says. “But did you know that the Egyptians’ symbol for 1000 was a lotus plant?”

“Anna-”

“And the symbol for 10,000 was a finger.” Anna holds up her index finger. “How weird is that? You’d think they’d use their fingers for one through ten, but nope. They used strokes for that. So one stroke was for the number one and two strokes was for two, and three stokes for three, an-”

“Anna,” Elsa interrupts with a soft smile. “That’s all fascinating, but I’d really like to get to know you.”

“Oh,” Anna blushes. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything. Did you grow up in Miami?”

Anna shakes her head. “I’m originally from Atlanta. I’m surprised you couldn’t tell. Everyone usually tells me that I have a distinctly Georgian accent.”

Elsa giggles. “I can hear it now; but, honestly, I didn’t pick up on it before." 

“Well, I have lived here for the last ten years. My parents moved here for work. What about you? I mean… you are probably from here, right? Since your uncle and aunt are, ya know, the Frosts.”

 “I did grow up here, but I moved away for college. Decided I needed to experience proper seasons so I went up north to Harvard. What about you? Where did you go to college?”

Anna’s face falls as she shifts in her seat. “I didn’t go.” It isn’t a total lie, but it’s easier to say than “I dropped out after half a semester.” 

Elsa’s eyes widen for a second before she says, “That’s okay. It isn’t for everyone.”

“You don’t have to say that,” Anna says. “I know that’s what educated people say when they meet people like me. You try to make us feel better, but like… it doesn’t.”

“Anna, I’m sorry,” Elsa says softly. “I didn’t mean…”

“You don’t know what it’s like. Employers ask me why I don’t have a degree, and I always have to justify myself.”

Elsa remains silent as Anna continues.

“And then people like you exist.”

“People like me?”

“Super smart, sexy CEOs who have everything and couldn’t possibly see anything in a college drop-out.” Anna replays the sentence in her head and nearly groans at having said “sexy.”

Elsa looks like she’s on the verge of tears as she all but whispers, “Anna, I’m sorry that you think that, but I… I am very interested in you.” Her arms come up and wrap around her abdomen. “I’m sorry I brought school up; I was just trying to get to know you better.”

“Well now you know that I’m not good enough for you,” Anna mutters.

Elsa’s lip quivers, and she shakes her head. “No, I don’t think that." 

“I can’t offer you anything beyond picking up your trash.”

“No, Anna.” A single tear falls down Elsa’s cheek and she quickly wipes it away.

“This was a mistake,” Anna sighs and pushes back her chair. “You deserve more than me.”

Anna hates herself for leaving Elsa at that table in Starbucks, but she knows that Elsa is better off without her.

—

Over the next couple of weeks, Elsa is noticeably gone from her office when Anna arrives to take the trash out. She gets it though. After getting home and thinking about how badly she messed up, Anna feels like she deserves Elsa’s silent treatment. She wouldn’t want to see herself either if she treated herself that poorly.

Even Kristoff told her she was an idiot. In fact, he reminds her daily when she visits him to let him know that she still hasn’t seen Elsa in her office.

“What am I going to do, Kris? How can I fix this?” Anna says into her hands one afternoon as she sits in a chair in the engineering room.

“For starters, you could have a little more self respect, Anna,” he says bluntly. “I know you have confidence and charisma, and you’re brave and blunt. But when it comes to this, you’re so damn afraid that people are going to judge you for not having a college degree. And it sounds like Elsa really didn’t care.”

“I know, but I fucked it up so badly. I let it get to me. I mean, you’ve seen her; you know. She’s pretty and smart, and how can I compare?”

“Jesus Christ, Anna, you’re pretty and smart too,” he says brusquely, as though the tone of his voice will finally drive the point home. “You are very intelligent; you just don’t ever give yourself any credit.” 

“It’s… hard to,” Anna admits. “I feel like not getting my degree is this big weight on my shoulders, and I just feel like I’ll never amount to anything.”

“Amounting to anything isn’t limited to a college degree. I’d say having a loving partner and friends amounts to something. I’d say that loving yourself amounts to something.”

“I know, I know. Easier said than done though. And Elsa… I’ve already fucked things up with her,” Anna sighs.

“Do you really think that?” Kristoff asks, eyeing the newest engineering department guest that stands behind Anna.

“Obviously. I mean, I get it. I made her cry on our first date, if it even was a date. Would you give me a second chance if I made you cry?” 

Kristoff considers his answer for a moment. “I would, provided that you apologized big time and promised to have more faith in yourself.”

Anna rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay, but it doesn’t matter since I haven’t even seen her since that day.”

A soft cough from behind her causes Anna to freeze in her chair. She turns slowly, and her eyes widen when she comes face to face with Elsa.

Elsa looks slightly terrified and definitely vulnerable as she licks her bottom lip. “Did you know that I don’t care about whether you have a degree? That I saw you that morning and instantly knew I needed to get to know you? Numbers have always been my thing, but I was hoping… am hoping still… that you might be my thing. Sorry that sounded weird, but I’m not good with people normally. I usually talk too fast and don’t make sense, which I would have told you at Starbucks, but I didn’t get a chance. I just… want to get to know you, Anna. Please, let me have the chance.”

Anna opens and closes her mouth for a couple of minutes before she stands up. “I’m sorry, Elsa. For everything. I’d love to get to know you.”

[stones-x-bones]

It’s Only Love (Night 3) || Mina, Morgan and Bex

TIMING: Current (last night, continuation of this)  PARTIES: @drowningisinevitable, @mor-beck-more-problems, @inbextween SUMMARY: Home is where the heart is.  CONTENT:  Head injury, Medical blood (wound cleaning, stitches), Domestic abuse mentions

They hobbled along, back through the trees, staying close to the river. The sun traveled across the sky until it was dipping behind the trees. They took infrequent breaks, racing against time and the sun. They weren’t winning, but they weren’t losing either. Bex squinted ahead, exhausted and ready to collapse, when she saw something new. "Mina," she huffed, shaking her, "Mina it-- it's the trail! The trail! We made it!"

I’m not,” Mina wanted to say. I’m not. “I’m not.” But she leaned forward and nodded her head, and she had to trust that Bex wasn’t lying. She wasn’t lying. She wouldn’t lie to Mina. “I”m yours, too. I am.” She was. If nothing else, she was Bex’s. If that was all she could be, then that’s what she would be. That was why it hurt so much when she left. That was why Mina was struggling so much with herself lately. “I don’t always get hurt. I don’t, really. It’s just-- It’s just a casualty of the job. It is the job.” But there wasn’t really much to say as they stumbled through the forest. Mina was desperate for them to get out of there before the sun set. There was no way she’d be able to defend both of them if night came while they were still in the forest. Mina knew what lurked in the shadows. She was in no condition to take it on. But there was the trail, and Mina could have cried in relief if she wasn’t so exhausted, if she didn’t feel like she was going to fall over from pain. “Maybe the fates are real,” she muttered. “We need-- we have to find a phone, or a person, or something. Anything.” 

Bex refrained from telling Mina she hated her job. And from telling her that she wished she wouldn’t do it. But it was what Mina wanted, and so she would support her. There wasn’t much of any other choice. And that was fine. Bex was okay with worrying herself over Mina every day as long as she came home safe. Everything else could be figured out later. The trail opened up and sloped down and there, a way station. Dingy and broken down, which meant they were near the Gallows. She looked at herself, at Mina, then to a spot nearby. “Here, wait here,” she said, hobbling her over and bracing against the tree, “you’re...a little too not dressed to be going into public. I’ll--” she glanced over her shoulder at the station, “I’ll go see if they have a phone I can use. I’ll be right back, okay?” And she wanted to say that this would be the last time she’d leave her, but it wasn’t. It was the last time they’d be alone together for a while, though, wasn’t it? She turned back quickly, unable to help herself, and kissed Mina, a promise that she’d be back. “Okay...I’ll…” She pointed towards the building, before zipping up the old jacket she’d put on and straightening out her torn skirt as much as possible. 

She hobbled down the hill, taking each step slowly, until she made it to the way station. It looked like there was a ranger office inside, too. Surely they’d let her use a phone for free, right? She opened the door slowly and peered in. “Hello?” No answer. But there, on the desk-- a phone. She raced over to it and picked it up, praying to hear the dial tone. “Yes.” Finally, things were working out. She jabbed Morgan’s number as fast as possible and breathed against the phone. “Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up.” Foot tapping anxiously. She wanted to get back to Mina as soon as possible. She wanted to get out of here before someone came back.

Morgan didn’t like unfamiliar numbers flashing on her screen any more than she did unexpected knocks on the door or strange cars by the driveway. But as with these other things, she knew that they could seldom, if ever, be avoided without consequence. She picked up, bracing for impact. “Hello…?”

Leaning against the tree, Mina managed to hum and say, “Yep, yes, no clothes, kind of scaly, really not interested in going in public. I’m-- I’ll just stay here. Right here.” She slumped against the tree, sinking a little further down until she was resting on the roots. She put her hand against her side. It came back sticky, wet. That wasn’t good. It had been quite some time since they’d been in the water. Stay awake. Stay awake. She glanced in the direction that Bex had disappeared to, still feeling the kiss linger on her cheek. She hoped someone came soon. They both really needed someone to come soon.

“Oh thank god,” Bex gave an audible sigh of relief, even through an old landline phone. “Morgan! It’s-- it’s Bex! It’s-- you can probably tell that by my voice. I-- sorry I’m calling you on a weird number. I-- we-- need your help. Mina--” she was babbling, with joy, with relief, she hardly noticed she was crying, her voice pitching through the tears, “Frank attacked her in-- in the forest. He-- that's not important, actually. Not right now. We need-- she’s really hurt. Can you come pick us up? I dont-- we can’t make it back to town. We’ve been walking for hours and she needs water and medical attention and I can’t help her anymore, I tried, I did my best, but I-- she needs--” She drew in a breath, holding it. She needed to relax. “Please, we need you.”

“Bex.” It was the last voice Morgan had expected. She was too stunned to cut in and tell the girl to slow down, take a breath, take a beat, think a little, it would be okay. But she caught Mina’s name and the part where they were in bad enough shape that they couldn’t get back on their own. “Bex, honey, I need you to tell me where you are. I will come, I will make it as alright as I can, but I need to know where you are. Can you take a breath and tell me?”

“Right, fuck, right-- we--” Bex started, stopped. She didn’t actually know. Somewhere in the Gallows. “H-hold on.” She fumbled the phone, trying to set it down gently but it clattered to the desk as she stumbled over to the map on the wall. “Five Point Ranger Station. Just behind Candelton. Five Point Ranger Station, just beyond Candleton,” she repeated it to herself as she made her way back over to the phone, picking it up as she slid to the ground, her legs suddenly nothing but jello. “Five-- Five Point Ranger S-station,” she managed to squeak out, “Just beyond Candleton cemetery. There-- there’s a b-back road, behind it. Leads right to it. To us. Pease-- please hurry.” She didn’t wait for the confirmation before she set the phone back on the receiver. She needed to go back and get Mina. Groaning, she lifted herself back up and glanced around. There was a walking pole by the entrance and she grabbed it, hurrying back up to Mina. 

“Mina?” She collapsed just in front of her. “Mina, I’m back. Morgan is-- Morgan’s on her way. But we have to get down there, to the r-road.” She held out the pole. “I found this, it might help. The hill is gonna--” her eyes wandered to it, then to Mina’s leg, “--or I can carry you. I might have-- maybe have enough magic left to-to carry you.”

Stopping was always a bad idea. Mina stood by this as something that was a fact. Leaned against a tree, wounds aching, hurting, burning all over again with no water to soothe them, she didn’t think that stopping had been a good idea at all. She should have gone with Bex, lack of proper attire and inhuman appearance be damned. She also didn’t want to move, and that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. She looked up as Bex came back to her, spots in her vision, but she blinked them away. “I can walk. I just need a little help getting up. Don’t use any more of your magic. Please.” She fought to stand, hands pressed behind her against the tree bark, but she managed. She felt like hell. They needed to get to help.

Morgan’s world narrowed to the size of a list and the route her phone was coaching her through. She’d grabbed everything she could think of and reach within two minutes, thrown it all in the Subaru and started driving. Water and towels. First aid tub. Water for drinking. Jackets from each girl’s room. Whatever had been on the fridge shelf when she swiped her arm over it and dumped its contents into a plastic Hannaford bag. Battery pack. She’d weathered enough disasters to cover the basics. She must have. She must have because if anything could give her miserable little mortal life meaning, it would be doing enough that the two girls she loved did not die. 

Morgan pulled up to the building and got out, not even bothering to close the door or to check her appearance in the mirrors. She marched into the road in the tank top and shorts she’d been wearing when she’d picked up the phone, her dark fingers, flaking skin, and decomp-purple coloring on full display. It didn’t exist to her. “Bex!” She called.

Bex would’ve argued that she had plenty of magic, it was energy she was running low on. But they didn’t really have time to argue, not anymore. The sun had disappeared behind the trees and the shadows were growing longer around them, reaching for them like hands that wanted to pull them back into the dark world, where life and death were too close together. Bex helped Mina stand and wrapped her arm around her again, using her other hand to steady herself with the pole instead. They trudged down the hill, slowly, making sure not to slip or stumble or fall-- that would’ve been rather disastrous. But they made it, and there was still no sign of life at the ranger station, so Bex pried the door open again and deposited Mina inside on a chair. “I’m--” she glanced back around, “I’m gonna go look for Morgan. I’ll be--” right back. As always. She didn’t finish her sentence before she scurried back outside. 

The last bits of sunlight had all but disappeared when Bex saw the headlights coming up through the trees. Morgan was flinging herself out of the car and Bex did her best to throw the door open again and scramble into the road. “Morgan!” she called out, tripping on herself, on weak legs that felt broken and raw, a weak voice that quivered through a fever and a concussion. “Over here!” She ran to her as best she could, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the Ranger station. “Mina’s i-inside. I can’t-- I’m not strong enough. She’s not strong enough to walk anymore.” 

Every step felt worse than the last, but Mina continued to push on, using Bex for help as she went. It felt like it was taking too long; she was scared they’d be stuck out in the dark before Morgan got there. But Bex managed to help her into the building, and Mina sat heavily in the chair. She waited. She tried very hard not to pass out. She waited. When the door opened again, Mina looked up with bleary eyes as two figures walked in. She almost passed out from relief. It was okay. They were going to be okay. Mina didn’t pass out though, just hung her head and raised a hand. “Hi.” She didn’t really have the strength for a less lackluster greeting.

I’ve been through enough, I will do enough, I know what I’m doing, I know this, I know this. Morgan’s brain circled around the same few thoughts as she came into the building and laid eyes on Mina. She gave Bex’s hand a squeeze as she released herself and came for the other girl. Mina, stupid, reckless, self-destructive Mina with and infected mess on her side, wounds in each leg, and a burn on her face that had barely healed at all. Morgan made a mental note of the damage, prioritizing, puzzling together what she wanted to do now and what would have to wait til they were home in the pool. 

“‘Hi’ is not gonna cover it,” she deadpanned. “But hi to you too, honey.” She bent and lifted Mina into her arms with ease and started heading back to the car. “Bex, no time to be a martyr, be honest: are you good to walk or are you hopping on like a spider monkey? I don’t care, I’m not bothered, I just need to know.”

Bex had almost gotten used to Mina looking on the verge of death, but when she looked at her in the dim light of the building, really looked at her, she found herself freezing up with pain. With sorrow. What she wouldn’t give to have been a healer, to have had magic that could’ve actually helped, or saved her, or gotten rid of the multitude of injuries that were now causing her pain. She wiped furiously at her face. “I’m-- I can walk,” she stated. Morgan needed to focus solely on Mina, they could see to Bex when they were back at the house and Mina was safe and in water and taken care of. “I can walk,” she reassured, standing and heading to the door, yanking it open and holding it. “We should go, quickly,” she stated, eyes both glued to Mina and wanting to look away. Just a little longer, she told herself, she just needed to be brave a little longer.

“Hey,” Mina said, followed by, “Ow.” As Morgan lifted her up like she weighed nothing. Really, to a zombie, she did weigh nothing. Her weight, her injuries, all of it was nothing. She gripped onto Morgan’s shoulder tightly, though, trying not to make any noise against the pain of it all. Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake. She had to stay awake. She couldn’t go to sleep. She might not wake up. She didn’t know. She couldn’t possibly know. “I don’t think some things are going to heal right,” she said quietly as they made it to the car. “Cold iron. It… hurts. A lot more than I want to say.” She looked at Bex, saw the worry in her eyes, the fear. It was fine. They were fine. They were safe. 

“You would be surprised what Deirdre has healed from,” Morgan said, shifting her in her arms to open the back seat and lay her down. “And you’ve never had fae healthcare before. So let’s put all of that into the ‘maybe’ category and see what happens.” She pressed a kiss to her head, then knelt over her supplies and got to work: burn salve, disinfectant, cotton pads, and soaking towels. She lifted her gaze to Mina and saw the glaze forming over her eyes and the exhaustion she was so desperately fighting. “Hey, Mina? Some of this is gonna sting, but it’ll hold you together til we get to the pool. While I’m working, why don’t you tell me what Bex’s status is, health-wise. Then tell me what you think she needs. Think you can focus enough to do that?”

Bex didn’t make it all the way to the car, but that was fine. There was an old lawn chair sitting out by the curb, close enough, that she sunk into. She wanted to go over, she wanted to help, but her body was exhausted and it fought against her, even as she tried to stand up again. She’d let Morgan take care of Mina without getting in the way. Bex would only get in the way, now, if she tried to help, with her own trembling hands and grievous headache. She laid her head back and closed her eyes, just for a moment. Just for a moment. She could hear Morgan’s soothing voice floating over from the car, and Mina’s trembling, pained one. She wanted to hug Morgan. She could wait until she was done tending to Mina. Something looked off about her, about Morgan, but in the dim light and through hazy eyes, Bex couldn’t put her finger on it. Finally, she lifted herself from the bench, deciding she’d gathered enough energy, and started the long, maybe twenty foot trek, over towards the car. It felt like it was a smile away. “Is she going to be okay?” Bex called halfway over. “Is she-- did we make it in time?”

“It’s just disinfectant. It’s not going to hurt that bad,” Mina said. Really, compared to some of the things that she’d done to heal herself over the years, disinfectant was nothing. Mina closed her eyes and sat as still as possible. “She’s got a concussion. She was also stabbed, though its older than mine. The sutures have come undone, though, and infection has set in. She was running a fever most of the day yesterday. She used up too much magic. She hasn’t eaten in three days, and the amount of water consumed hasn’t been nearly enough, especially given the fever.” Mina gave the list of ailments as methodical as possible, focusing on remembering what she could while Morgan worked. “She needs stitches, antibiotics, water, food, rest. To not go back to her parents. Somewhere safe. To go home.” Mina opened her eyes again, looking at Morgan. “I— I want to come home. Please.”

Morgan made a note of Mina’s list and her treatment plan. She had some stuff on hand, but no home made patch job was going to replace good ol’ antibiotics. But maybe she could improve a little, enough to survive whatever came next for her. She finished what she could for Mina by the time the girl finished and moved her hand to hold the still-water-soaked towel in place over her body. “It’s your home as long as you want it to be,” she murmured. “That means you never have to ask, Mina. I’m--it’s yours. It just is. It’s there. Whether you want it or use it or not.” She gave Mina a soft look, blinking back tears, and narrowed her focus again. She searched the grocery bag and pulled out a thing of leftover fried rice and put it into Mina’s other hand. “If Bex hasn’t eaten in a while, you haven’t either. I don’t care if you spill, just try to get something in you. You’re not gonna heal any faster if you’re malnourished.”

She plopped the bag in the slightly emptied tub and marched to the front passenger seat. Time for Bex. She set her things down, pushed the girl into the seat. “I’m not a fae expert, sweetheart, but I’m really good at breaking traffic laws when I want to, and there’s a fae clinic not far that we can get her to if things don’t look better in the morning, and I’ve patched her up as best I know how. But, the sooner we get home, the better, and since I’m not leaving until we’ve got you a little more stable, the best thing you can do is not fight me on it.” She gave her a look to show how set she was on this and started rifling around. “Take this water bottle, and this Tylenol, and show me where your infected injury is.”

“Fae clinic?” Bex asked, blinking. She didn’t even realize Morgan had pulled her into the front seat and sat her down until a water bottle and some meds were handed to her. She obliged without a word. If it got Mina home safe faster, she’d do whatever it took. She glanced over the seat and into the back, eyes traveling over Mina as if expecting to see her somehow still bleeding out in the back. But Morgan’s patch job was better than anything Bex had done, thanks to the copious amount of medical supplies she had. Bex nearly smiled at her. “Much better than gauze and old blankets,” she said to Mina, before turning to focus on Morgan again, who was rifling around in the bag. Bex set the water bottle down and unzipped the jacket, tugging it off with great effort. Without a shirt on, the multitude of bruises her parents left on her were evident under the scrutinizing car overhead light, but she turned herself enough to give Morgan access to the stab wound Frank had left on her, torn stitches black and bloody. “It’s just that one,” she said quietly. The burns from her magic exertion couldn’t be seen to, so they didn’t matter. She’d deal with them later. 

“I thought I should ask. I felt like I should ask. I was stupid to leave, I wish I hadn’t, I’m sorry I did.” And Mina might have kept babbling, might have gone on and on and on, but there was food in her hand, and she stared at it for a little longer than she should have trying to figure out what to do with it before she realized that Morgan wanted her to eat. Mina didn’t want to eat. The thought made her nauseated. But she opened up the container any way and picked at what was inside. She looked back up to the front seat, making eye contact with Bex. She gave her a tired smile, but her tongue felt heavy and so did her eyes and she still couldn’t sleep, not yet. So she watched the front seat and made sure everything looked like she expected it to, and she tried not to spill any of the rice, despite Morgan saying it was okay. She almost felt like she could genuinely relax for the first time in… awhile. It was overwhelming. 

Morgan let out a deep sigh. Even ignoring Bex’s bruises, painfully difficult but not impossible after all the practice she had with Deirdre, Bex’s wound was definitely...a lot. “Okay. Disinfectant first, then I’m gonna take those out and try to do one better so you’re not leaking out of yourself.” She started working swiftly, trying to keep her world small and not think of other, terrible injuries she’d seen and how much more fragile, more human Bex was. “And yeah, fae clinic. They’re not a fan of me, but they take care of their own, which is all I really care about. So, Mina’s got lots of really great options. But--” She took another breath as she soaked another pad and did another pass at Bex’s wound. “That’s not important right now. Right now, I need you to take this--” She reached down for an ice pack and gave it a good crack to activate. “On your head wherever it hurts. And maybe this could be a good time to practice clearing your mind and giving your brain a rest while I finish up. You’ve done a lot of really good thinking, and you’ve got everyone this far, but your brain really needs you to take it easy so it can heal. So you can keep helping Mina later on. Okay?”

Bex was more curious about this fae clinic than she supposed she should’ve been. She winced as Morgan started prodding at her wound, pulling the old stitches out. She wasn’t as strong as Mina, despite being used to the pain, and she let out a short whimper, before she bit the inside of her cheek to quiet herself. She nodded and took the ice pack, pressing it against the large bruise on the side of her face. “N-now? You’re going to do more stitches now?” She didn’t have too much room to complain. She looked back at Mina once more, who was barely holding onto consciousness, and resigned. “I’m-- I don’t think I could, if I tried,” she admitted quietly. She was too worried, too afraid, too full of fear and anxiety. Even if Morgan was here and she knew they were safe-- they were safe because Morgan would never let anything bad happen to either of them, she would never let them die, not in her care-- she couldn’t shake the feeling of panic that had gripped her heart the moment she’d seen that text and ran off into the forest. Frank was still out there. Her mother was waiting for her back home. She’d said things to Mina she couldn’t keep. “He’s still out there,” she said, quieter, “Frank. He…” She wanted to go home, too. Just for a night. Just to make sure Mina made it through the night. “He’s going to try again.”

Morgan had everything ready but Bex was tense and trembling and whimpering and her world simply would not stay small while that was happening. She leaned over into Bex’s view and touched her hand gently to her face. “Hey. Look at me. You are safe, Bex. Right now you are so safe. And even though there is going to be some pain and discomfort while I work, I am not going to hurt you. No one is, not right now. You did so good, getting me here and taking care of Mina and yourself. You did amazing. But now the thing you need to do is stop and put down Frank and your parents anything else you’re carrying in your head right now. Close your eyes, breathe how I taught you, and put it down. And--it’s okay, if you need to cry out some.” She brushed her finger over the little dent in Bex’s cheek where she was biting. “Breathe and put it all down, sweetheart. As much as you can. That is the best and smartest and bravest thing you can try to do right now. And I’ll try to make it so it doesn’t hurt for long, okay?” She gave her as much of a smile as she could and went to work.

Bex blinked and Morgan was in her view, she was the only thing in her view. The more she talked, the more the world behind her head fell away. The cabin, the trees, the quiet, somber sky that was once again fading to dark. She released her bite on her cheek and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Just like Morgan had taught her. In for three. Hold. Out for five. Her body began to relax, even as it trembled uncontrollably. Weak muscles and tired bones and a fever fighting to take control. She swallowed and nodded and tried to push away the thoughts of her parents and Frank and what they’d just been through. Did Morgan even know? Did anyone? How long had they been gone? Days. Three days. This was the third night. “I was so scared,” she finally admitted, her voice small. Morgan was safe. She hoped Mina didn’t hear. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know she was--” a nix. That she’d needed water. “I found water as fast as I could. But I was afraid-- I was afraid I didn’t make it in time.” Heavy, ugly tears streaked down her face and stuck to the ice pack. She didn’t make a noise of it, though. “I can’t lose her,” she added on, somehow even quieter. Her eyes went up to Morgan’s. “I can’t lose you.”

“It’s okay you were scared, anyone would be scared,” Morgan whispered, her eyes fixed on Bex’s injury. “That must have been so much. But you are so strong, so incredible, you didn’t let it stop you from helping. That’s what matters. The thing isn’t to stop being afraid, it’s to stop letting your fear control you. And you did it, my love. Okay? You did everything right.” Her eyes slid up to Bex’s just for a moment. I can’t lose you. It didn’t make any sense to Morgan and she was too preoccupied to hide her confusion. She hadn’t gone anywhere or done anything. She knew when she let the rest of her feelings find her, she was going to be desperately relieved that she had made amends enough to be allowed this close and help this much. How could she be lost if she’d just been here, begging Bex to come back?

She finished and put a good sized bandage over the thing, then she reached for one of Bex’s old jackets and a pyrex of fruit salad and leaned back into her view. “All done,” she beamed. “Sit up and put this on instead of whatever you were wearing and try to eat a little.” She brushed the girl’s matted hair back and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “You’re safe now,” she repeated, whispering even quieter than before, now that she was close. “I’m going to put everything in the trunk, except for this--” She hefted the grocery bag and set it by Bex’s feet. “And I’m gonna drive us home, and we’re gonna be one heck of a surprise for Deirdre, and we’re gonna be okay. Alright?”

Had Mina been afraid? Bex wasn’t sure. She remembered Mina pleading her to leave her in the clearing, held down by that trap, because Frank was going to come back. He was going to kill them both. She remembered the look on Mina’s face when she’d finally woken up on the couch and watched Bex move around the cabin, trying her damndest to keep them alive. Had they both just been afraid for each other? Her gaze drew back to Morgan as she was handed more things. You did everything right. She didn’t feel like she’d done anything right. She hadn’t known Mina needed water to heal, she hadn’t known any of it. She’d gotten there and just done whatever needed to be done. She’d almost given up so many times, but the thought of letting Mina die had pulled on her weary, exhausted muscles and made her move more, further, just keep going. She let out a long breath and pulled on the warm hoodie Morgan had brought her. It felt soft and cozy and familiar. It even smelled like Morgan’s house. She wrapped her arms around herself and let some of her tears dry up on the neck of the jacket. 

Morgan set something  by her feet, and she was trying to smile and be light, and Bex looked up at her. “Can I hug you?” was all she asked. She wanted to hug Morgan. She wanted to not just be told she was safe, but also feel safe. And without question, she knew it would feel that way in Morgan’s embrace. 

“O-of course,” Morgan replied, suddenly struggling to keep her voice even. “Anytime.” And without any further hesitation she drew Bex into her arms and held her close. The word grew and Morgan ached with how much she missed the girl and how desperately she wanted things to be better. Her insides were melting, the only way she could clear her vision was to let some of her building tears fall, and stars above, she still had to drive. She swallowed, shoving down the lump that had formed in her throat. “I mean it. I love you, sweetheart.”

Bex grabbed onto Morgan and held so tightly she was worried, at first, that she might hurt her. But then she remembered Morgan was a zombie, that she couldn’t feel as well, and she held on tighter, burying her face into Morgan’s shoulder as she let herself cry a little more. Finally, something steady and solid and grounding. There was no more cramped cabin or rain or worry, no more threat of being found and killed, no more anxiety about whether she’d fall asleep and wake up next to a dead body. Finally, she could rest. “I love you, too,” she said into her shirt, through thick tears, and a strained voice. And she meant it, just as much as she had meant it when she’d said it to Mina, however long ago. And she was sorry, so sorry, it had taken her this long to realize it. That she’d had to destroy everything before realizing maybe love mattered more. She drew in another breath and tried to blink away some of the tears. “I have to go back to them,” she said quietly, so quietly. It sounded painful, as if she were saying it through a mouthful of blood. “I can’t come home yet.”

For a while, Morgan didn’t say anything. She had thought and hoped that she still mattered to Bex as much as before, but it was different, hearing her say it while held safe like the little girl she’d never gotten to be. After all this time, right when things were only going to get worse for her. “I know,” Morgan said into the girl’s hair. It hid some of the defeat in her voice, but not much. “I know. All of it. You can call a car from the house, or I can try to get you to the ferry before it closes. But we have to get Mina to the pool first. That’s not me wanting to keep you safe. She needs freshwater as soon as possible. We can figure you out after that.” She blinked her eyes clear and pulled on the hope in her soul to summon a smile before pulling back to wipe Bex’s face.

“I…” Bex started. It was a bad idea, she knew it was a bad idea, but her parents had no idea where she was, and what was one more night, anyway? She’d been making bad decisions all weekend. “I want to stay with Mina tonight.” Mina was all that mattered to her right now. Getting Mina home and to her pool, where the water she had bonded with, the house they called home, would heal her right. She could sleep in the water and Bex could know that she was safe and taken care of. She still wanted to stay with her, next to her, if she could. She would sleep on the hard ground next to the pool if Morgan would let her, but she knew she wouldn’t. “Just one night.” She just wanted one night away from that house, that place, one night that wasn’t a fight for her life or Mina’s. Just a safe space, to fall asleep and dream and not have to wake up to unending pain. 

Morgan’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t expected that, and she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be thrilled or worried. She couldn’t deny that a night’s rest would help Bex stand a better chance against her mother, and few things in the world made her happier than the thought of Bex tucked safely under her roof and learning to smile again. That was it, wasn’t it? She had to take a night of this, and somehow let it go in the morning, knowing exactly what would happen. And now Morgan did remember what had become of her body, all her rot and necrosis pressed against Bex. She drew away slowly and shouldered into the jacket she’d originally brought for Mina, before Bex took notice. “If that’s what you really want, then that’s what we’ll do,” she said softly. She picked up everything from the ground and loaded the trunk and came around to the front seat, igniting the car to life. But she took another moment to breathe for herself. It was about to be one heck of a drive.

Bex wasn’t sure that was something she could ask for, but she’d asked anyway. She wasn’t sure she could actually walk through that house and sleep in her bed, in her room, and get up the next day and leave. She sat back in the seat, before turning once again to look back at Mina as Morgan made her way around the car. Was she asleep finally? She couldn’t tell. She hoped so. She needed to sleep. Bex looked across the seats to Morgan as she slid into the car and started it up. She felt oddly out of place, yet perfectly in the right spot. Morgan and Mina were her home, and no matter where she was, wherever they were, would feel as such. Even in a car, in the middle of a forest, full of blood and nightmares, and an iron knife that shared their pain. “I don’t think they know,” she said, settling back into the seat, looking down at the food container she’d forgotten Morgan had handed her. She pried it open and pulled out a piece of cantaloupe.. “What happened. Where...I am.” She didn’t think her mother knew what Frank had done, and she wondered who might be punished worse, once all the dust settled. “We were gone three days,” she went on quietly, her eyes drooping. She was growing tired as well, “this would’ve been the third night.”

There was conversation coming from the front of the car that Mina could only somewhat make out as her body decided that the best course of action, at least for the time being, was to not move at all. To shut down. So Mina let the voices fade into background noise. They’d made it. They were safe, or as safe as they could be. She didn’t feel like she had to run, not at the moment. She didn’t think she could, really. All she could think about was not passing out. She didn’t want to pass out. She couldn’t pass out. Mina tried to listen, tried to hear the conversation, but their voices were low, and she was steadily losing consciousness. She could pass out, if she needed to. She didn’t want to, but she could. She wasn’t going to, but she could. That was Mina’s line of thought as she set down the food, only a few bites taken from it, and slowly curled in on herself, moving to protect her side. She was safe. Two of her favorite people were with her, and maybe it wasn’t going to last, but she was safe. She blinked, not really seeing much in the semi-darkness of the car, and watched the front seat, making out the shapes and shadows of Bex and Morgan. As long as they were there, as long as they were okay, it was alright. She could close her eyes for a moment. She’d open them again when they made it home. 

Morgan drove as fast as she could, barreling through downtown and up to the East End. She punched a button on her keys and the lights in the driveway came on, harsh and bright after all their fumbling in the nothing-light of dusk. She took a second to gather herself again, knowing she had to let go of her jacket to take care of Mina,that as strange and wrong-looking she seemed to herself, it sealed the guarantee that she could carry the girls anywhere tonight, that Odell was watching them and any good feeling that came out of this wasn’t anything to keep, that sometimes you didn’t need a curse to keep on suffering. “I’ve got this. Wait here, okay?” She mumbled, sliding out the car and dumping Mina’s old jacket in her seat. With any luck, Bex was asleep and wouldn’t know anything until she was safe inside. 

Something was wrong with Morgan, but Bex didn’t want to ask. Some part of her knew, didn’t it? The rest of the drive was silent and Bex turned to check on Mina in the back several times, doing her best not to tug on the new stitches in her side as she did. She wished she were back there with her, holding her, but it was best for both of them she was up front. Finally, they pulled up to the house and Bex stayed still for a long time, not even unbuckling, as she stared at the front door. The bright porch light illuminated it and the front of the house, and she didn’t even swivel her head when Morgan spoke up again and slid out of the car to grab Mina. It was only once they were off inside that Bex unbuckled herself and got out of the car, limping over to the lawn, to the porch, and stared up at the front door. At the spot where she’d last been before she’d betrayed both of them and walked down the lawn into her mother’s arms. Her gaze followed the path she’d taken and stuck on the spot in the street where the car had been. She wondered if she knew yet, now that Bex was in town. She wondered how wide her mother’s net really was.

Mina was aware of being carried. That was the first thing that came back to her. “I’m awake,” she muttered, eyes still closed as she leaned her head against Morgan’s shoulder. “I’m awake.” She was awake enough. “I can’t walk right now, which… I want to say that I can, but I can’t.” Her tongue felt even looser than it had in the haze of half-sleep and achiness that was settling over her body. She wanted to walk. She wanted to prove that she could walk, that she didn’t need assistance. But she couldn’t walk, and she needed help, desperately, and it was almost a relief to know that Morgan wasn’t going to let her go. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry I left you. I’m sorry I haven’t been around. I’m sorry you keep having to come get me like this. I’m sorry I didn’t protect her. I’m sorry she still got hurt. I-- I’m just sorry.” 

“Shh,” Morgan soothed, walking faster toward the pool. “That doesn’t matter right now. If you want to be sorry, you have to live long enough to do something about it. So, live first; sorry later.” Then she was wading through the reeds and water flowers they had lined the steps with and cursing the way water made the world turn slow. No running. No plunging. Only a slow descent to the bottom of the pool, Mina still cradled in her arms. 

It had been a while since she had spent time down here, even longer since she’d done it in the dark. Around her, stems floated by like wraiths, the water that pressed on them stretched before her eyes  as if it were infinite. Morgan wanted to ask if Mina was okay, if anything felt better yet, if she wanted to be alone or if she wanted Morgan to stay. But at this hour, from this deep, they were in a dark neither the stars nor the warm lights of the house could not penetrate. So, when her worry for Bex started to grate on her insides, she gave Mina a squeeze and kissed her head and climbed up to the surface. 

“Bex—?” She called. 

Bex needed to go inside, she knew she did, but instead, she sank to a sit on the porch. She wanted to go inside and make sure Mina was okay, make sure Morgan was, make sure she was, but instead all she could do was stare out across the lawn into the darkness of night and watch the lights of the houses around the neighborhood flick on and off. She could just wait here. She didn’t want to go inside without Morgan, she wasn’t sure she could. Mina was home now, but was she? Could she be? Would her mother come for her in the morning again? A voice called out to her. “Here,” she said quietly, then, louder, “I-I’m over here.” They’d lived through all of that, and for what? For Bex to simply go back to her parents’ and fade into oblivion once again? Her eyes turned to a figure moving towards her, her vision dull and blurry from exhaustion. No, she decided. No. She would not fade. 

It had been weeks since Mina felt like she was home. It had been weeks since she was home, since she’d felt comfort and peace and the relief that came with knowing she was going to be somewhere and find rest. Actual, proper rest, not just sleep that had been gleaned for a few measly hours face down in a pond in the middle of the woods. Actual rest. She stayed at the bottom of the pool for a few minutes when Morgan left, gills filtering in air as she curled in on herself. She was still in pain, but it wasn’t as bad. It was faded, dull around the edges, and she wasn’t worried about that. It was like the dulled pain that came from medicine. It was a kindness. Finally, she kicked up to the surface and swam over to the edge, resting against it as she listened for Morgan or Bex to come back or go inside.

Morgan walked, drenched, over to where Bex sat, ready to pick her up next when she remembered she was corpse cold and soaking wet and the last thing Bex needed was to roll the dice with pneumonia. Swearing under her breath, she went back to the car and dried herself off with Mina’s jacket, and swore again when she realized that left her with nothing to cover up with. She gathered everything in the backseat into her arms and hauled it as far as the front stoop before sinking next to Bex. 

“I felt her, before I climbed out,” she said. “I think she’s gonna be okay.” That’s what she hoped at least. “So, talk to me about you.”

Bex watched Morgan stop at the car before making her way over to the porch. She looked down at the things deposited on the ground in front of them, then over to Morgan. In the bright light of the porch, it was clear, now, that her skin was paler, her eyes were sunken. She looked how she supposed Mina felt. Half dead. Maybe more. “That’s my fault, isn’t it?” she asked, reaching out and placing her hand on Morgan’s wet arm. “Because my mom…” What was there to tell of herself? All the days blended into one. “I’ll be fine. I wasn’t the one attacked.” She knew she mattered, too, to Morgan, to Mina, but she didn’t care about herself right now. She wanted to go inside, but her feet stuck to the ground. “I’m just tired. Is she-- is she asleep?”

For the first time, Morgan shied away from Bex’s touch. There wasn’t any talking around it; she was lucky Bex had been too stressed not to realize Morgan was at least three different not-alive colors before now. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” she mumbled. “And since you aren’t responsible for your mother’s actions, I’m pretty sure all this--” she gestured, flippant and bitter, “Is strictly a me and Odell thing. You didn’t do anything.” It took her longer than it might have a month ago, but Morgan found the strong part of herself she wanted somewhere at the bottom of her soul and pulled a kind smile and looked back at the girl. “Not sure if she’s asleep, but she is definitely resting, which is what you need to do too. I know I’m all--”Gross, extra-zombie. “But do you think you can sling your arms around me so I can carry you instead of making two trips. You need your rest too, even more than Mina.”

Bex pulled her hand away. “Sorry…” She didn’t know what it was like, to feel the way Morgan did, decaying, slowly, as she was being starved, but she hadn’t expected her to pull away. She folded her hand back into her lap. “That’s kinda why...it’s my fault, isn’t it?” she glanced over at Morgan. “I didn’t do anything.” She should’ve done something. She wished she had the courage to stand up to her mother. She scared her more than Frank and a knife, or a thunderstorm in the middle of a forest. Morgan was being Morgan, though, even in the face of her situation, and maybe, if she could be brave, so could Bex. “Can I sit with her?” she asked, scooting a little closer as she wrapped her arms around Morgan’s shoulders for support. “Just for a little bit.” 

Morgan hefted her small mountain of supplies in one arm and scooped Bex against her hip with the other. She just managed to balance everything long enough to fish out her keys and get them inside. “Not until you’ve showered and changed into something clean,” she said. “And I’m sorry about--” She looked down at her hands as she set the girl down. “I just don’t like being this way. I’m trying to feel better about how it looks, but it’s hard when I know it means I’m more dangerous and easier for hunters to spot. I don’t mind being close to you.” She pulled her into another hug. “You are always wonderful to be close to. And maybe you haven’t found your moment for digging up whatever their weakness is yet, but you haven’t done anything that needs to be punished.”

Bex leaned against Morgan and realized how much her body was sagging, glad to have support. She wanted to reach out and help Morgan carry the supplies, but her arms didn’t move when she asked them to, staying limply by her side. It was purple and bruised where she’d landed on her wrist. She’d forgotten about it. “I can’t go up there,” she said, looking down the hall towards the stairs that led up to her bedroom and her bathroom and all the things she wished she had held onto and wished she could have again. “I won't come back down.” At least she was telling the truth now. No fae magic needed. She’d been telling a lot of truths this weekend. “Will you go sit with her? Until I get back?” She didn’t want Mina to be alone. She’d been alone when Frank had attacked her and she’d been alone for all the days they’d been apart. She didn’t want her to be alone anymore.

“Okay. Downstairs shower that way, I’ll leave you some clothes by the door,” Morgan said. “You  better be dry and squeaky clean when I see you again. There’s an extra smoothie in the fridge, so maybe come out with that too to tide you over until I can get delivery. I’ll be out by the pool.” She gave Bex a little squeeze and shooed her away and went to work putting everything she’d packed back where they belonged, because if she watched Bex go or lingered on casual ease she’d spoken (like everything was okay, like they had all the time in the world, like their life had never been shattered) she would feel the truth and it would cut her and she would not be able to get to the pool. So, food back in the fridge. Make a restock list for the first aid tub. Wet stuff in the wet laundry basket she’d gotten after Mina started staying. Clothes outside the tiny downstairs bathroom. Chinese food on speed dial. 

She turned on all the lights downstairs, and the ones on the back porch, and came back out to the yard where Mina rested against the pool steps. This, she reminded herself, this much might actually be real. “Hey,” she called softly, sitting down nearby, legs in the water. “I hope you’re not too sleepy, because I kind of already ordered you sushi. How are you feeling?”

Looking up as Morgan sat near the water, Mina managed to smile. “Hi.” She rested her chin on her hands, eyes closing slight. “I feel… like I’ve been stabbed and shot and caught in a bear trap.” She opened her eyes and looked up. “So, really, not as bad as it could be. Bad, but I don’t think it’s going to kill me.” The thought of food made her stomach turn, but she tried to shove that down. She needed to eat. She knew she needed to eat. “I appreciate that,” she murmured. “I’m not-- I don’t want to go to sleep right now. I don’t think I should. Just in case.” Just in case things went wrong. Just in case her wounds stopped healing for some reason. Just in case. “How’s Bex?”

“Bex is taking a much needed shower and will come to see you when she looks a little less like something fished out of a muddy lake. And you--” Morgan brushed back Mina’s wet hair. “Don’t need to ‘just in case’ anything. You’re safe, and you know exactly how dangerous sleep deprivation is, and I literally never sleep and Deirdre’s only out for five, maybe six hours a night? Let us ‘just in case’ for now. You, relax and let yourself heal. Tomorrow we can see about a house call from a fae doctor. I’m sure she’ll be understanding for a nix. It’s okay, Mina. Mission over. You got you and Bex safe.”

As nice as the shower felt, Bex made it as fast as she could. She scrubbed her entire body twice over, and washed her hair out until the drain ran clean, no more mud, no more blood, no more tears. But now that she’d stopped moving, her body felt heavy. She could feel everything that adrenaline and fear had stopped her from feeling in the past few days. Everything hurt. Still, she turned off the shower and hopped out. She dried and dressed quickly and tried to not look too long at herself in the mirror, at the bruise on her face, the bruises on her stomach, the bruise on her wrist. Bruises healed, they went away. It was why they only ever left bruises, the occasional broken bone. She shook the thought away and grabbed the smoothie from the fridge and made her way over to the back porch, only limping a little. The clothes Morgan had given her didn’t hide the tendrils of burns she’d caused herself carrying Mina through the forest, but she did her own best to ignore them. 

She was quiet as she came out, watching the other two in the light of the porch for a moment. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” she murmured. Bex came over and sat next to Morgan, refraining from putting her own feet in, even if she wanted to. She knew the water was cool, and she was already fighting off a fever again. “How-- how are you feeling? Is this better?”

“I haven’t slept well in so long,” Mina said quietly, leaning into Morgan’s touch. Her hand was cold. It felt nice. “The iron burns on my side are just infected. Not bad, but I don’t know if it will heal well, even in the water, and I’ve never been stabbed with a cold iron anything, just slashed at with it, and so I don’t know if-- I just don’t know much about it. It hurts. It’s not as bad but it hurts.” She sighed, eyes closing, and she nodded her head. “Mission over.” Mission only marginally failed. She and Bex were both alive. That was what mattered. Frank was still alive, too, though. Mina’s eyes popped open. She was going to kill him. It was best not to mention that, though, as Bex came out of the house and sat down. “Better. This is better.” Almost anything was better than stumbling through the woods. Mina smiled at Bex. “How are you feeling?”

“Cold iron is pretty bad,” Morgan admitted. “And since you went without help for so long, it’ll probably scar, But I’ve seen worse.” She would have gone on, but Bex arrived, and Mina brightened and it was so good to have the family she wanted almost complete, she re-worked the grittier words she’d been preparing and reached out for Bex so she had one hand on each girl. 

“Wow, I know I’m dead, but I’m pretty sure I can smell the difference from here,” she teased. “You look good, sweetheart. Now, because I know the two of you are going to be worrying about this, let me tell you, no bullshit: this is not the most terrifying set of Warden injuries to walk through this house. And our Mina is way too resilient to go down to an idiot like Frank. It might take awhile, and putting strain and trying to push through injuries will absolutely make it worse, but if Deirdre can survive worse--and I do mean worse, she wasn’t able to walk unassisted for weeks--and still be the most attractive person in White Crest, then I don’t see why Mina shouldn’t get back to being her stubborn self eventually, too.” She turned to Bex and gave her a more thorough look. She was probably due for more Tylenol soon. “I got you your favorite from the Chinese place, but you have dinner for breakfast tomorrow if it feels like too much for your stomach.”

Afraid was the first word that came to Bex’s mind, but she was so tired of feeling afraid. “Like garbage,” she said instead, tracing her finger around the rim of the smoothie cup. “But better.” She scrunched her nose at Morgan. “You try being trapped in a cabin for three days,” she grumbled, but she wasn’t upset and it wasn’t angry. It was just quiet. She looked back down at Mina in the water, still full of scales, and resisted the urge to wade in and kiss her. Now that they were back, she wasn’t sure if they’d get a chance to do that again. Not anytime soon, she supposed. She was even still hesitant to let herself believe it would ever happen again. She preoccupied herself with drinking the smoothie as she listened to Morgan talk. Our Mina. And Mina really was hers, wasn’t she? Even if she had to go home tomorrow. Frank’s name made her inside clench with anger again, but her tired body released it almost immediately. There was nothing to be done about it now, or even anytime soon, so she had to let go of it. For now. She just smiled at Mina, knowing Morgan’s words were true. She would get better. Now that she was home, she would get better. “This is fine for now,” she said, shaking the smoothie cup. “I-- should probably leave early tomorrow.” In case her mother’s prying eyes found her here again and the consequences turned out even worse. She didn’t look at Mina as she said it.

“If I was worried about scars, I think I’d have had a lot of complications in life starting about seventeen years ago,” Mina said, keeping her voice light. She looked at Bex with concern but said, “I’m glad you’re feeling better. I really am.” She didn’t like the idea of things taking awhile to heal, of this lasting that long. Broken bones were bad enough. She didn’t want to spend weeks trying to heal from this. She wanted to be well enough to kill Frank as soon as possible, before she lost the nerve. It was all she’d been able to think about since she looked into his eyes, and, now, it was still there, still important as she rested in the comfort of her own home. “Am I really that stubborn?” she muttered. She didn’t think she was that stubborn. She was raised to be resilient, to keep going no matter what, but she didn’t know if that was stubbornness. She looked at Bex sadly, then to Morgan, as if the older woman could somehow convince her to stay. Mina understood Bex’s reasoning, though, as much as she hated it. “How… How early?”

Bex just smiled at Mina. She didn't really have the heart to tell her right now that she really only felt better because Mina was okay. She was home, in her pool, and a doctor was coming tomorrow and barring any huge misfortunes-- which were so unlikely now that they were with Morgan, she would never let anyone hurt Mina in her own home-- Mina was going to live through the night. It was the first time Bex was sure of that in days-- Mina would live to wake up tomorrow. "You are," she agreed, glancing at Morgan, "so stubborn." She went quiet again. She didn't know the answer, not really, just that she didn't want to risk anything, not when Mina was in critical condition and Morgan was falling apart, literally. "Probably…early enough to catch the first ferry." Six am. She looked at Mina just as sadly. "It won't-- this isn't forever," she said, even if she was unsure herself. "I'm going to fight back."

“The most stubborn,” Morgan agreed. She tried not to tense in the quiet, to not fight herself against what she understood was best for the moment even if it was also the worst for everyone. “That doesn’t change anything I said earlier,” she murmured. “I’ll set an alarm and make sure you have something to eat…” What Bex said next made her heart clench. She looked over at her, wide eyes cautious. Don’t say that if you don’t mean it. Don’t give us more hope if it isn’t real. But Bex seemed...determined, if a bit uncertain, and everything in Morgan burned to believe her. Before she could come up with anything substantial to say, two sets of headlights came up the drive, and soon there was the unmistakable sound of Deirdre giving the delivery person a hard time. Morgan sagged with more kinds of relief than she dared count and pulled her feet out of the water. “I’m proud of you,” she said to Bex. “I hope you do. Now if you’ll excuse me, the food is here and we all deserve five easy minutes with the girls we really want to be with.” She winked at the pair and darted off to the driveway.

Mina’s eyes followed Morgan as she walked away, out the backyard and to the front. She eventually settled back, moving her head to rest on her arms as she looked back up at Bex. This wasn’t forever. Nothing was forever, she’d always known. Good things went away, but bad things did, too. This wasn’t forever. And there were things that Mina could do while Bex was gone. She was still restless, but she was going to stop running so much. She had to stop running so much. And Bex would be back. Eventually. This wasn’t forever. “I believe you,” she said. She pulled one of her hands out of the water. Scales, webbing, claws, scars; there was a bit of it torn between her pinky and ring finger. This was who she was. She held it out to Bex. “I believe you. Just-- You have to be good to yourself, too. If I do, you do, too. You know that, right?” 

Bex didn’t hesitate to take Mina’s hand, wrapping her own around it. With webbing between Mian’s fingers, she couldn’t quite intertwine theirs, but she curled her own around Mina’s and scooted closer. “I don’t know how long it will take,” she admitted quietly, “I can’t-- I have to be careful about this. Whatever secret they’re hiding, it-- it destroys people.” She’d watched it happen too many times. She leaned her head down enough to brush her lips against Mina’s knuckles, examining the torn webbing between two of her fingers. “I’ll try,” she answered. And she would. She didn’t need to be bad to herself when her parents did enough of that for her. She used to, but she didn’t anymore. Hadn’t in a long time. She tugged on Mina’s hand gently. “Can I kiss you again?” she asked quietly.

“Then be careful,” Mina said. “Be careful but-- but I’d really like it if you came back to me. Please.” That was all she wanted. She wanted Bex to be safe. She wanted.. She desperately wanted her to come back. She didn’t want to lose her again. And, if she couldn’t keep her forever (because Mina still had trouble believing in something as impossible as forever), then she wanted to keep her for as long as she could. “I don’t care how long it takes. I really don’t. Just-- Whenever you can. If you still want to.” She squeezed Bex’s hand before making the webbing go away and lacing their fingers. She wanted to be close. She wanted to be closer. She sat up and leaned in, moving herself up towards Bex. She was close. She wanted to be closer. “Yes,” she murmured. “Yes. You can kiss me again.”

“I will be,” Bex said, nodding, “I will be. I pr--” No, she couldn’t. She wanted to, but she couldn’t. There was going to be a time where she’d have to be careless or brave or not careful. The close she got to the truth, the less careful she was going to have to be, she knew that much. “I will.” She wanted nothing more than to be able to come home to Mina, to this house, this pool, her bed. She watched as Mina intertwined their fingers, and it looked so much less painful now than when she’d tried to change herself back at the cabin. Bex squeezed her hand. Mina was close, but she wanted to be closer. It was a bad idea, but she didn’t care-- Bex slid into the pool on the first step so she could be closer and pulled Mina into her and kissed her. Finally really kissed her, like she’d been wanting to the past few days. Like she’d been wanting to the past few weeks. One hand went up into her wet hair and even if her stiff body ached, she just didn’t care. She wanted to kiss her because tomorrow it would all go away again. “I love you,” she said against her lips, “I’ll come back to you. I promise.”

“Just— Just try to be. That’s all I ask,” Mina said. She knew how hard it could be to be careful in this town, this world. Not that Mina had ever really tried. Still, it was almost impossible. That wasn’t a promise Mina wanted Bex to make. She just wanted her to try. She almost protested as Bex got into the water with her, but any protestations died on her lips as she was kissed, as they were as close as they could be, at least like this. She sighed into it, relaxed, at peace. This. She wanted this. She wished she could keep this. “I love you, too,” she murmured. She traced her fingers against Bex’s cheek. “So much. So very much.” Mina kissed her again. “Which is why I release you from that promise.” She tucked a strand of hair behind Bex’s ear. It was a nice promise but a dangerous one. If it couldn’t be upheld, it would be a killer. “I don’t need you to promise me anything. I believe you.”

Bex wanted to make the promise not for Mina-- not quite-- but for herself. It wasn’t really a promise to Mina. It was a promise to herself that she had something to fight for, something, someone she was beholden to. Someone she wanted to come back to. She understood the consequences of a promise like that, after the things she’d seen in Mina’s dream, after the way her body had violently fought her when she’d missed their hot springs date because Frank had taken her. But Mina released her and she knew why. She licked her lips, tasting Mina on them. She liked that better than the smoothie. “Okay,” she said. She leaned in to kiss her again, slow and deliberate, arms wrapping around her bare back. She was going to come back to her. She was. The scary part was not knowing when-- and in what condition. 

“Okay,” Mina echoed before she melted into the kiss again, into the feeling of it, into the moment. She was bone tired and sick and hurt, and she wanted nothing more than to stay in that moment forever. Covered in scratches and scales and only half-clothed; if she was in any better state, she’d be self-conscious about it. Instead, it was hard to cling to modesty at this point. Beside, now there was really nothing that Bex hadn’t already seen. There was no reason to feel shame. Still. “We… should really stop. Before Morgan or Deirdre or both comes back,” she said, though she was still kissing Bex back, the words muffled against her lips. She thought about pulling away, even broke the kiss briefly, but she stayed close, barely a breath between them. She rested her forehead against Bex’s and savored the moment.

“I don’t want to stop,” Bex said against Mina. She didn’t want to stop. She wanted to stay right here, kissing her, holding her, knowing that in this moment she was hers and they didn’t have to worry about bleeding out or hurting one another or catching a fever. Sure, they both ached and they were both beyond tired, but she wanted to stay here, and kiss her, just a little longer. Just a little more. Even if Morgan came back. How many times had they walked in on her and Deirdre kissing? They were due a moment of their own. Mina’s forehead rest against her own and she looked into her brown eyes and remembered seeing them look up at her from under the surface of the lake. They were beautiful then and they were beautiful now. “You’re so beautiful,” she said, unable to keep words inside that often would have stuck in her throat. She kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, her neck. “I love all of you,” she mumbled into her skin, “all of you.”

“I don’t particularly want to, either,” Mina said, even though they should definitely stop. Really, they should stop. They needed to stop. They weren’t stopping. Honestly, Mina was going to be mortified when one of the older women walked back out and saw them, but, in that moment, she really didn’t care. She couldn’t. She could barely even think. “You-- I-- Ich liebe dich,” she murmured. “Ich liebe dich mehr jeden tag.” I love you. I love you more every day. And it was true. It was all true. Mina could only say the truth. She only wanted to say the truth. She had nothing more to hide. She didn’t think there was anything else about her to hide. “So much. You’re so much to me. Everything.”

Bex knew what that meant, actually. She remembered from what little Mina had taught her. She smiled against her skin before lifting her head to kiss her lips again, soft and slow and lingering, even as she knew Morgan was coming back out soon. “I know,” she muttered into the kiss, “I know.” And she did, she did. She knew she loved her and she knew Mina knew she loved her back. They’d finally said it, and Bex couldn’t stay. She wondered if it would be more or less painful to leave now. Maybe, with the promise of returning, it all wouldn’t hurt so much. Maybe, with hope for something good again, it wouldn’t be so tiring. But for now, she would kiss Mina until someone made her stop. 

Beyond the young witch and the fae she loved, another couple much like them embraced. Morgan hadn’t stopped talking since she’d run into her love’s arms. Even as she kissed her, frenzied and excited and so, so, very relieved, she was tumbling through the story. The girls were stranded, they were here, well Bex was only a little here and she didn’t want to think about that, but they were here right now and Deirdre should’ve seen them in that run down little station and how brave they were and how well they took care of each other and it shouldn’t be funny at all because Morgan hadn’t been sure Mina would be okay until they were talking by the pool, but she’d never seen any people so afraid and fearless at once since she had stood in the forest a year ago and told Deirdre she loved her. And it was stupid, so stupid to think that anything would go well for them from this absurd moment of recognition, but what if it did? 

“This, all of us being here, it’s only seventy-five percent real at best, and it all turns into smashed pumpkins tomorrow, but the way we love each other is real. Just as much as I love you. So we can act like we can have the rest of this, right?” She asked, mumbling the words into her love’s neck as she kissed up to her face. It was the kind of question that wasn’t a question at all, because Deirdre loved her enough to say of course, of course my love, and Morgan knew it.

And so under the cover of indigo clouds and fading stars, they returned to the girls and teased them as if they had never stopped and picnicked with their styrofoam plates in the grass and shared their secret constellations as though this was a summer dream. And later, when the need for rest couldn’t be denied, Morgan and Deirdre lay sprawled with Bex in the great room, windows cracked, just in case Mina called out in the night. Morgan didn’t call it keeping watch or taking shifts, even if she did periodically get up to look a little closer at the water as she adjusted the air or retrieved another pillow, another book. It was a bubble of a dream, held up by tired smiles and long looks. Morgan settled back into her spot around Deirdre as the sky started to pale and closed her eyes. It was a dream, yes. That didn’t mean she wanted to watch when it broke.

[whothehellisyn]

Cat and Mouse | Ch. 4

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Dark!Mysterio x F!Reader

Rating: 18+ (full fic)

Chapter Warnings: none

AN: oh my god I can’t believe I haven’t uploaded in so long. I’m still writing this but more for my own personal consumption. Tenses get mixed a lot in my brain and this is definitely not beta read. I have no clue where I’m going with the story but I’m about four chapters past this one with stuff!

The rest of dinner passes in quick silence. Louis, paid not nearly enough to deal with the two of you, looks slightly relieved when he delivered the bill to you. When you hand him back the booklet you slip in a £100 note. He seems confused, and you urge him to take it with an insistence that it’s an American custom. Quentin is watching you with an unreadable expression the entire time. You pretend not to notice.

A black SUV is waiting outside for you and Quentin. He motions for you to enter first, and you seat yourself as close to the opposite window as you could to avoid being near him. He sits in a relaxed position, making small talk with his driver. As you watch the buildings blur by in the window you tune out the rest of the world, nestling into your thoughts about everything happening to you. Everything happening because of Quentin Beck.

You love him, though that’s not quite true, is it? You love Mysterio, the widower from another Earth. Who fiddles unconsciously with his wedding band when he’s reminded of his late wife, who has a deep and thoughtful stare when he recounts his grief. Who met your eyes when you recounted your own and said I understand your pain. This, is not that man. This is an actor, a stranger with his face. Is it possible to have loved an illusion worn by a villain yet loathe their very existence?

His laugh breaks your contemplation. It’s boisterous and genuine.

It pains you to hear it.

“Wendell, this is (Y/N).” He says, introducing you to the driver. Wendell is a man in his late fifties with greying hair. You can see the crown of his head where his hair is wearing thin.

“Ah, so this is the SHIELD agent you snagged, hm?” Wendell muses. He meets your eyes through the rearview mirror. “It’s very nice to meet you, despite your circumstances.”

So he’s aware you’re trapped, you think, and doesn’t seem to care. Or maybe he can’t. You’d like to think Wendell is a nice man who is just afraid of Quentin. That seems like a good optimistic line of thinking.

Wendell pulls to a stop some time later in front of a warehouse on the harbor. It’s an unassuming place a ways away from town, the exterior is a bland mix of brown bricks and mortar. Nothing about it screams ‘villain dwelling’ to you, but you don’t discount the fact that Quentin is a master of illusions and probably gets off on boring real estate hiding his tech.

Wendell gets out of the driver’s seat to open your door and let you out. You don’t move, not wanting to go anywhere else with Quentin. Maybe if you’re still enough, you hope, you’ll cease to exist entirely.

Wendell leans into the car to keep Quentin from hearing him, “My heart breaks knowing you don’t belong here, Miss.” You look away to keep from crying, but he knows you’ve heard him. “I wish I could take you far away from here and still be safe from him but...” He’s trapped too.

Wendell swallows nervously and looks over the roof of the car for Quentin. “Mr. Beck is waiting for us. If you don’t go now, he’ll come and get you himself.”

Reluctantly, you take off your seatbelt and slide out of the vehicle. Wendell gets the door behind you and hangs back as you approach Quentin. You can’t blame him, really.

Once you get to the door, Quentin places his hand at the small of your back and pushes you closer to him. You feel hyperaware of his touch as he “guides” you into the building and down a corridor. You imagine his hand burning through your shirt and leaving a pink handprint on your skin, or maybe his finger tips being barbed with poisoning spines. It’s just a hand. But it’s his hand.

You pass by a large room, filled with people you don’t know. Many sit at computers, and you can see a dismantled drone on a table. A few people meet your eyes and then quickly avert them, almost like they know who you are despite them being strangers. You wonder if Quentin has talked about you to them.

After walking through two more corridors, Quentin stops at a room with a heavy looking metal door. He places his hand on an interface next to the threshold and the heavy metal door swings open into the room.

“Look familiar?” Quentin asks, pushing you inside. As the door slams shut behind you, you realize what he means. You’ve been here before. All this time, that “hotel suite” he took you to was right here all along. Another illusion.

He take his hand off your back and leaves you in the middle of the room to pull clothes out of a large duffle bag on the bed. They’re your clothes, at least mostly. A lot of it are your comfort clothes, sweats and tank tops and t-shirts. He also starts pulling out your underwear and bras, casually laying them out in organized stacks. He looks back at you and, noticing your expression, gives you an incredulous stare.

“What, did you think I was going to make you wear the same dirty clothes every day?” You don’t respond and just stare back. Quentin looks annoyed but continues, “I do have some sense of decency, believe it or not. And regardless of that, I would prefer to fuck you without being reminded of the last time I did.”

You grimace at the remark. You think about how you have little tender spots along your thighs from the clones gripping your legs so hard, and the soreness in your shoulder from Quentin twisting your arm behind your back. The sheer stupidity of his statement when you’re the one who bears the reminders makes you snort, and he picks up on it immediately. He abandons the clothes on the bed to walk over to you, only a few centimeters from touching with his body.

“Was something funny?” He asks, voice vaguely threatening. You instinctively avert your eyes to the floor as he waits for your response. “I’ll ask you again,” He grabs your chin and forces you to look at him, his grip firm. “What’s so funny about what I said?”

Your eyes are wide with fear as you struggle to muster the courage to speak. “Come on, sweetheart,” He says, tilting your face up further with his hand, “I know that pretty little mouth of yours works just fine.”

You blink rapidly, tears welling up as he continues to stare into your eyes. He really is nothing like the man you love. When you try to form an answer your voice stutters and all that comes out is a sharp little whimper, which makes you want to cry even more out of shame. Quentin smiles wickedly at you, enjoying your difficulty to speak.

“It’s not so funny now is it?” He asks. You shake your head no and a tear falls onto your cheek from the movement. Quentin swipes it away with his thumb on his free hand and leans in close to your face. “That’s what I thought.” He releases your chin and goes back to taking your clothes out of the bag. You still don’t move, but you do wipe your eyes once his back is to you.

After he empties the bag, he checks his wrist display and points towards the metal door.

“That door is reinforced steel. It weighs over three hundred pounds and is powered by hydraulics. If you try to mess with the interface, I’ll know. If you try to damage the door, or break the door, I’ll know. And not only will I know when you’ve tried to escape, I’ll be forced to punish you for it.”

You know that his use of the word “forced” is bullshit, and anything he inflicts on you is completely chosen for his own pleasure. You watch as he presses his hand to the interface on this side of the wall, and the door groans open yet again.

“I have to go work now, honey.” Quentin says, almost like he doesn’t want to leave. “Behave yourself like a good girl while I’m gone.” With that, he exits and the heavy door slams shut behind him. For this first time in over 28 hours, you are alone. After you’re sure he’s gone, and not listening on the other end, you let yourself cry for the first time since everything has started.

Tears begin to stream from your eyes as you walk past the bed and into the bathroom. The large mirror behind the sinks reveals your disheveled appearance, and the shock finally wears off as you realize just how awful everything is. You look pathetic. Your clothes are filthy and torn in various places, and your hair is a rat’s nest. You begin to sob, just a little, and as you cry you go over to the glass-door shower and start the faucets. The water is just a little too hot but you don’t care, and you begin to strip with your back to the mirror. You don’t want to see yourself anymore right now.

The dirty clothes go directly into the trash can in the corner, and you step into the shower and huddle under the too-hot water. It hurts, but it feels cleansing to hurt this way. There’s soaps in there but they smell like Quentin, and so you just let the water rinse you off. When you get as much of the grime off you as you can, you sink to the floor and hug your knees tightly. If you close your eyes, you can pretend this is your shower back in your apartment. You can pretend that you just had a bad day at work and you’re showering to forget about it. You rest your head against your knees, close your eyes, and you pretend. You’ve always been good at that.

An hour later the hot water runs out and you’re forced to get up and turn off the faucet. You’re not clean but you’re definitely not dirty anymore. After a search through the cabinets, you find the towels and grab one to dry off your body with, using a second one on your head. Once you’re dry enough you grab some of your clothes off the bed and get dressed in the toilet area that’s walled off from the rest of the bathroom.

Dressed and somewhat clean, you’re exhausted. You can’t bring yourself to sleep in the bed, or even touch the blankets. Quentin sleeps there, you know that much already. You used to sleep there too, before. There’s no way in hell you’re sleeping in that thing now when it’s the only place Quentin could sleep as well. There’s a large tub in the bathroom, and you decide that’s as good a place as any. Armed with a pillow you took from a sofa in the common area of the suite and a blanket from the linen closet in the bathroom, you climb into the bathtub and create a makeshift bed. It’s not very comfortable, but it feels safe. You remember hearing from a classmate years ago that people hide in bathtubs during tornadoes and earthquakes, and wether that’s true or not you find that to be good enough for you.

Sleep comes quickly despite your sleeping arrangement. You have an incredibly vivid dream, about walking through a meadow. You can almost feel the wind on your skin, and your eyes squint in the sunlight. Bees drone sweetly as they fly by you as if in greeting. There’s a little boy a few hundred meters in front of you, toting a bundle of flowers in his arms. You feel yourself call out to him, as if you know him well, but you can’t place him in your memories.

A soft touch stirs you, and you can feel your body being carried and then settled again. You’re warm and comfortable, a weight being pulled over you.

“It’s alright, sweetheart.” A voice says. “Go back to sleep for me.” Okay, you think.

You return to the meadow, the little boy close but far, and the softness of the long grass tickling your fingers.