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inotakumagf · 2 months ago

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persephone’s descent

✶ gojo satoru x persephone!reader

word count ✺ 2.7K

summary ✺ no one knows what truly happened to persephone when hades dragged her down to his realm. no one’s even heard of the demigod who made the tedious journey to save her.

warning ✺ i don’t haaate the story of hades and persephone i just hate how modern interpretations of the myth make demeter out to be a crazy woman who is “ruining” their love & hades is somehow the nicest guy who has done no wrong ever when the homeric hymn to demeter makes my heart break. i like different retellings where it is more of a love story, but in the og myth he did kidnap her & force her to stay with him against her will. im gonna shut up now otherwise i’d go on and on if i had my way lol. also like i mentioned in the poll zeus is very much NOT your father in this 👍 i hope you enjoy, please reblog/comment i’d love to hear ur thoughts!

No one ever cares about your side of the story.

The tale of Persephone and Hades has been retold and romanticized a thousand times over, and each time it strays farther and farther from the truth. It becomes a love story about Hades’ adoration of Persephone, and their fight against her crazy mother’s attempts at keeping the two star-crossed lovers apart. Persephone becomes a doting wife and the millitant queen of the Underworld. Her kidnapping turns into a misunderstanding of the love Hades has for her. Or worse, some myth retellings claim that Persephone herself tricked Hades into taking her down below to his realm.

That’s not what happened. As if you’d ever go anywhere with him willingly.

You’d never invited Naoya’s attention, not once. He wasn’t even supposed to make his ascension to the mortal realm. But he’d seen you bathing in moonlight from beneath his helm of darkness, watching as you flourish a field of irises. He’d been so taken by your beauty, eyes dragging along where moonshine reflected off of your skin. He decided then that he had to have you, and he dragged you down, down, down to his decaying realm. Away from your home, away from your mother, and away from all that you hold dear.

Demeter had sensed the loss of your presence the moment you disappeared down into the cavernous Underworld. It felt like your life had slipped away from her that day. You find out later that she had punished the Earth for your loss, as she caused crops to wither and vegetation to rot with each passing day.

You know she would have come for you herself if she could, but Zeus has long since forbidden the major Gods from acting directly against one another. Of course, being kidnapped by an Olympian God is not enough reason for him to intervene on your behalf, since you’re no major God yourself.

In your immortal life, it’s impossible to remember how much time goes by in mortal standards, and it’s even harder to keep track in the Underworld. You spend most of your hours, days, maybe even years trapped in your cave of a room. You spend every second clawing and screaming against the rock walls, making sure Naoya has not a moment of peace from you.

He is easy to anger, and you’ve caused a nasty frown to grace his face anytime he looks at you. Still, he decides that he must show off his prize to his loyal court, because how many people can say they’ve captured the Goddess of nature? He has you sit on a smaller throne beside his own as he entertains members of his court. And of course, he is always offering you food. Everything from juicy pomegranate seeds to jeweled berries to plump poultry.

Naoya must think you’re an idiot, as if you don’t know the one rule a visitor must remember when passing through the Underworld. Even to a God, the food will hold a piece of your soul hostage, as if tying you to the ground below. As a God, you don’t need food to survive, so all his obvious attempts are shot down. But you do need ambrosia and nectar from time to time, and you refuse to let him see how the deprivation of Godly food is getting to you.

You’re nursing a growing headache thanks to Naoya’s constant attention and the lack of ambrosia as you watch courtiers you hardly recognize kneel before the dais you sit on. They each have a ridiculously intricate gift for Naoya as they beg for his help with an idiotic political or social issue for their oh-so-gracious king to solve. Naoya asks for your input from time to time, not because he actually cares, but because he finds your growing annoyance hilarious.

A spirit bows in front of you on the dais. “Oh great King. I stand before you to ask you for your words of advice. You see, I have been in love with a woman for years. But it seems as though her heart has been captured by another man, and I believe she may marry him. How can I reunite with my beloved?”

Naoya taps his fingers against the bone of his throne’s armrest. “Hm. It seems you have quite the predicament. What do you think, darling dearest?”

You rub your fingers into your throbbing temple, muffling a groan of boredom. “Everyone gets their heart broken all the time. If you couldn’t tell this woman you loved her before she fell in love with the other man, maybe that’s your own fault. It’s not my problem, so why do I have to listen to your pathetic chatter?”

Naoya cackles loudly, pounding his fist against his throne’s armrest. “Aren’t you a romantic? Well, there’s your answer, lad.”

Naoya motions for the spirit to leave so that the next person can have their turn. But the spirit doesn’t budge.

“I never said she was in love with this man.”

Before you can ask what he means, the spirit throws off the raggedy cloak from his shoulders. As he does so, his form flickers until it solidifies into warm, solid flesh. You gasp. With the hood of the cloak no longer hiding the man, you instantly recognize his soft, white hair and piercing blue eyes as they meet your own.

Naoya bellows, “What is this? A live mortal in my realm? I should have you strung and castrated, so that you may truly belong here, boy.”

Gojo Satoru points a long finger at Naoya in accusation. “You will release the Goddess of nature at once, or I’ll be forced to destroy you.”

Naoya nearly falls over in laughter. “Oh, I will, will I? And who do you think you are, speaking to the God of the Underworld like that?”

Satoru straightens his back so that he appears taller, and if you didn’t know who he was you would have thought he was a God himself. “I am Gojo Satoru, son of Zeus and champion of Nike. I act on behalf of Demeter, who demands you return her daughter, or else the destruction she has caused to the world above will continue to spread down until she destroys every corner of your so-called kingdom until there is nothing left of it.”

You don’t doubt Satoru’s ability to defeat Naoya, but the God just laughs in his face. That is, until the demigod pulls out his sword. You’ve never seen this weapon of his before. It’s so sharp, you swear you can actually see it cut the air into slivers. If you could guess, the weapon looks a lot like the work of Hephaestus himself.

Satoru extends the weapon, pointing it directly at Naoya. “No? Then I will fight you and return the Goddess to her rightful home.”

Naoya steps carefully off of his throne, unsheathing his Stygian blade. It’s an impressive, obsidian sword, but it dwarfs in comparison to Satoru’s weapon.

Naoya hardly takes a step towards Satoru before the demigod has repositioned himself to the right, slashing his silver blade against the God of the Dead’s shoulder. Naoya blocks the attack, just barely. Their fight picks up after the first blow; Gojo presses his attacks forward in order to force Naoya to default to defensive blocks. Gojo’s strikes are fast and hard, constantly pushing Naoya back. He catches Naoya off guard, slashing his sword against the God’s face.

Naoya screams. “You insolent bastard. I’ll kill you for this.”

Satoru tucks his sword into its sheath. You want to scream at him to pull the damn weapon back out, but he just smirks at Naoya. “Nah, I don’t think so.”

He blasts a massive ball of electricity at Naoya, and you can taste the crackle of lightning on your tongue at the force of his power. It causes the cavernous roof above Naoya to crumble upon him. You know it won’t kill or even harm him all that much, but it will distract him for a few minutes.

Satoru leaves Naoya under the rubble to leap onto the dais. He cups his hand against your cheek and soothes his thumb across your face. “Are you alright, my rose?”

You press a shaky hand over his own. “I’m okay. Are you really here, Satoru?”

He laughs lightly, and you’ve never been happier to hear the sweet sound. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

You blink in disbelief. “Because I’ve dreamt of this every night.”

His smile sobers up into a concerned furrow of his brow, cradling your face in order to press a kiss to the top of your head. Your eyes flutter at the warmth of his lips.

“I’m here,” he promises. His larger hand presses yours against his chest, letting you feel his heartbeat. You love the speed of his heart, it’s just so unlike your own, so human. “But we really should leave before he collects himself, don’t you think, my rose?”

He takes you by your hand and pulls you deeper into the Underworld, until you stand before a tunnel that looks to lead up. Satoru ushers you ahead of him, keeping a hand at the small of your back.

“An exit?” You ask, turning to face the demigod. “How on Earth did you find this?”

He grins. “Courtesy of the Messenger God. Even the Underworld gets deliveries.”

You frown. “Hermes just…told you about this?”

“For a price” he says, winking. Your stomach flutters at his casual flirtation.

A loud roar behind you caused your heart rate to spike. It’s easy to guess that Naoya has escaped, and the shout sounds entirely too close for your comfort.

Satoru rushes ahead of you, pulling you along behind him as he leads you away from Naoya’s realm as fast as he can. He leads you further up and up, not turning back as he hastens his pace.

You stumble on the rough path, and Satoru looks back immediately, grasping you in his arms. “We can’t stop. Come, let me carry you.”

He sweeps you off your feet, and you have to clasp your arms around his neck to keep stable. You laugh into his neck as his hair tickles your cheek.

The ascension is long, but Satoru doesn’t falter once. He just holds you tighter against him. When you're out on the surface, you suck in a breath as you finally see the night sky again. Satoru lets you down gently, and you crouch down to run your fingers through the dry, cold ground until lush grass and baby blue flowers sprout beneath your fingers. Tears fall from your eyes in joy. You’re home.

You straighten out, leaping right into Satoru’s arms. Without hesitation, he lifts you and spins you around. You can’t help but laugh in pure joy. Your arms wrap around your lover’s neck, pulling him into a sweet kiss. He deepens it easily, pressing himself against you. Your hands splay over his smooth cheeks, running your fingers over the smile stretching across his face. You nuzzle your nose against his, staring into his eyes as though you might slip away again. Something crackles behind you.

You don’t need to turn to know that your mother has arrived. You can feel her presence as if you share the same heartbeat. Satoru lets go of you so that you can hug her. You nearly sob at the feeling of her warm embrace. Demeter hugs you so tightly that you think you’d choke if you needed air like a mortal. She pulls back to stare at you, cupping your chin in her hand.

“My daughter has been rightly returned,” she announces on the breeze. You know her words will carry around the Earth, until the land prospers once more.

Demeter turns to Satoru. “Thank you, son of Zeus. You will be rewarded for your bravery. I can give you jewels, or a kingdom, or the strength of a thousand men.”

Satoru shakes his head. “I have no need for any of those material desires, My Lady.”

Demeter raises a brow. Knowing your mother, she might decide to smite him on the spot. You lay a hand on her shoulder and beg, “Please, mother.”

Demeter sighs at your pouting face. She scowls at Satoru, but she makes no move to kill him as of right now, which is good news. “Fine. What is it that you want, demigod?”

Satoru kneels before the two of you, dipping his head low. You are used to this reverence of his, but it makes you blush to see him like this after so long apart. “If I may ask, Lady Demeter, for one wish, it would be for you to allow me to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage.”

Your eyes widen at the statement. Satoru’s head is bowed, and you can’t see his face. All you want right now is to see his face.

As if reading your mind, Satoru looks up at you. His eyes find yours, staring at you with love that you know your face reflects back. You want to kneel into the soft dirt in front of him. You want to touch, to hold him. You want.

Demeter hums. “Dangerous, son of Zeus, to wish for such a thing. Do you know what you’re asking me?”

Satoru’s eyes never leave yours. “Yes, I do.”

“So you know that you are a mortal, asking to marry a Goddess that will outlive you by ions, lifetimes. You know that Naoya will curse you for such mockery of his power. You will live and die painfully, and your afterlife will be full of eternal suffering. You will never see the gates of Elysium, if Naoya can help it.”

“I know,” Satoru repeats. “And I accept my fate, as long as I can spend the rest of my life at the Goddess’s feet. Even when I die a mortal death, I will love and worship her from beyond my grave, endlessly. This is the fate that I want.”

Demeter considers him, for a moment. You know your mother, and you know the exact moment she makes her decision. Tears pool in your eyes. She looks at Satoru, who is staring at you. She looks at you, staring right back at Satoru.

“I will not grant you this.” For the first time, Satoru’s attention snaps to your mother. His eyebrows quiver, and his mouth softens into a pout.

“Please,” he says softly.

She glances at you, and you turn to see the mischievous glint in her eyes. “No, I cannot fulfill this request. If you wish to marry my daughter, that is a gift she must grant you. But I will give you a gift of my own choosing.”

She holds her open palm to Satoru, and a golden apple materializes in her hand. This, you were not expecting from your mother at all. You both know what this represents. Immortality. Godhood. You stare at Satoru, and he stares up at you.

Your mother becomes impatient. “Well, son of Zeus? What will it be?”

He takes your hands in his own. “My rose. I cannot offer you a kingdom or power like Naoya can. I am a mere breath in your presence. But I can offer you my whole and true love. I can promise that I will always serve you, loyally. As your husband, and as your humble servant. Will you allow me the pleasure of marrying you?”

He barely finishes by the time you throw yourself at him, nodding emphatically and you press kisses all over his face. Your knees are dirtied by the soft ground, but you don’t care when Satoru’s entirety surrounds you. You inhale deeply, pressing your nose into his skin. He cradles your cheek in his warm palm, pulling away so that he can admire you.

“My Goddess,” he murmurs.

Demeter grumbles and you can practically hear the roll of her eyes. “Lovesick fools. Aphrodite certainly had her fun with you two.”

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carlottawllms · 6 months ago

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Author’s note: It’s crazy how quickly these weeks pass by. We’re at chapter 4 already which feels absolutely insane! Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read and comment/reblog. It keeps me motivated to finish it!

As always, feedback is very much appreciated. And now, enjoy! 🩷

Mason knew you weren’t counting the days, but he still felt awful that it eventually took him about two and a half months to finally find some time to spend with just you. He’d promised to make it up to you and whilst you’d told him countless of times you didn’t want him to, he really wanted to make sure to look after you too.

Little did he know though that all the things he’d started doing lately made you feel looked after already. You weren’t even sure if he did them intentionally or just subconsciously, but either way, you appreciated all of them a lot.

They weren’t big or expensive, but they were thoughtful and never failed to put a smile on your face. They were things like buying fresh flowers on every Sunday for the office Mason had set up for you in his house. Or preparing dinner for you at least once a week so you could take a breather and simply relax a little bit. And then not too long ago, he’d come home with a book he’d heard you talking about randomly.

You kept telling him he didn’t have to do any of those things, but Mason being Mason, he didn’t want to hear any of it. Usually, he just rolled his eyes, grinned and kissed the top of your head as some sort of gentle dismissal, before disappearing to change into some sweat joggers and a hoodie, leaving you no chance to argue any further.

And as Mason knew he would face the same type of ‘discussion’ had he told you about wanting to spend the whole day with just you, he’d kept pretty much quiet about it. He’d stuck to asking discreet questions to figure out what you were going to do on your day off without raising any suspicion and when you’d told him you weren’t doing anything other than spending the day wrapped up on your sofa, he’d been quite happy about it. It had made it all pretty simple for him.

It was half eight when you, dressed in cosy clothes, shuffled sleepily into the kitchen, ready for a cup of coffee, but before you could even press the start button on the coffee machine, there was a knock at the door.

“Go away.”, you mumbled, hoping that whoever it was would leave again if you were quiet enough, but the knocking continued. Thinking it might be one of your neighbours you made your way over to the front door, only to be greeted with a bright smile you hadn’t expected to see today.

“Mase?”

“Surprise.”, he grinned a little shyly before pulling you into a quick, warm hug.

“What are you doing here?” To say you were surprised would be an understatement. So far, he’d never come to see you on your day off, constantly insisting you needed at least a day to yourself to unwind and take care of yourself and him suddenly showing up this early in the morning had you a little worried. “Is Ellie okay?”

“She’s perfect, don’t worry.”, Mason explained softly as ushered you further back into your flat so he could close the door behind him. His heart warmed at your obvious concern for his daughter. “She’s with Luke and Anouska today.”

Those last few weeks, Mason had spoken a lot to Luke and his wife. He’d told them that he still felt a little guilty for bringing you into this mess and although the Shaw’s had reassured him like a hundred times that there was no need for that cause you enjoyed every second you got to spend with your best friend and his little daughter, Mason had been adamant. And as Luke was more than willing to support one of his best friends, he’d offered straight away to take Ellie for a day.

“I’m here for you actually.”, he chuckled, thumb gently brushing over the small crease that appeared between your brows at his admission. “Go get changed, we’ve got places to be. And don’t worry, you’ll like it.”

“Mase, I-”

“Please?” The moment he hit you with his puppy dog eyes and a little pout there wasn’t a single cell left inside of you that could’ve said no. Your overall willpower was pretty strong, and you usually knew what you wanted and how to put your foot down, but Mason was your weakness. In many ways.

“Fine.”, you sighed, your eyes rolling into the back of your head in jest. You hated when he made things about you, but you had an idea that today might be the day he would use for making things up to you. “I need a bit to make myself presentable though.”

“You always look beautiful.” His quiet admission had you blushing and you dropped your head as you didn’t want him to see how flustered he’d made you. “But yeah, maybe change into something less revealing. It’s still pretty cold outside.” Mason dropped a kiss to your forehead before shoeing you upstairs, his eyes following your every step.

“Make yourself a home.”, you called over your shoulder as you made your way towards your bedroom to get changed. And calm down a little.

Half an hour later, you were sitting opposite of Mason in a place you’d never been to before: Dishoom. An Indian restaurant he’d been to with his parents before and wanted you to try it too now. Especially as he knew how much you loved breakfast.

And you really wanted to enjoy it properly, but the lack of prices on the menu told you everything about how far from being lowkey this place was. You knew it probably wasn’t a big deal for him at all and he’d never held back from spending money on you, but despite the years of friendship, it still made you feel a little uncomfortable.

“y/n.”, Mason sighed. “I can literally see the cogs turning in your pretty head. Stop thinking about prices, it doesn’t matter at all.”

With a soft smile on his lips, he reached over and grabbed your hands in his, thumbs caressing your skin in a way that would never fail to calm you down and when you eventually smiled back at him, he felt reassured enough to keep speaking.

“What you have done in the last few months is worth more than all the money in the world. I never thought I would suddenly find myself as a single father and when I did, I was everything but prepared.”, he chuckled, but the sadness behind those words made your heart squeeze uncomfortably in your chest and you squeezed his fingers gently.

“Sure, my parents would certainly have stepped in too, but you are not only my best friend, whom I trust blindly, but above all a great role model for Ellie. In you, she has someone she can learn from without me having to worry. I can go to training without wondering whether or not she gets along with the nanny or if she might adopt values that I don’t share. You can’t imagine how much it means to me and how much pressure and worries you’ve taken from my shoulders those last months. Please let me do this for you, y/n.”

You sighed and stayed quiet for a while. Eyes solely focussed on his big brown ones and the way they were silently pleading with you, basically begging you to agree and enjoy the day he’d planned.

He knew you hated when he – or anyone for that matter – made things about you; let alone a whole day. Being the center of attention was quite literally the last thing you ever wanted, closely followed by someone else spending money on you, but Mason couldn’t help it. You deserved everything good in this world.

“y/n.”, he mumbled, fingers tightening around yours a little. “Please.”

You really wanted to say no and tell him off; to ask him to go to a normal priced place, but this was his way of caring for you and saying thank you. He hadn’t taken you here because it was expensive, but because he knew you loved breakfast more than anything and he wanted you to enjoy something new.

“You know I don’t care about you buying me stuff, Mase.”, you mumbled, causing Mason to chuckle cause you indeed had told him about a million times already. “Breakfast is fine, but no more spending money on me please.”

“I won’t make any promises I can’t keep.”, he laughed, and you shot him a warning look, but it only made his cheeky grin become even wider. “And now please choose whatever catches your eye.”

Still hesitant, it took you a moment to decide, but at the end your curiosity and empty stomach got the better of you. Mason smiled when you gave your order, happy you’d given in as he knew you’d love it a lot.

The two of you fell into light conversation whilst waiting for your respective orders, discussing what the next weeks were going to look like.

After his injury had prevented him from playing, he was buzzing to be back this weekend and you were more than relieved to see the childlike excitement shining in his eyes again. He’d tried his best to hide his disappointment and sadness, but you’d seen right through it. Mason was born to play football and not being able to always took a toll on him.

“I’m really happy you’ll be back in the squad.”, you smiled. “I already talked to Anouska. She’s bringing the kids, so Ellie and I will be there too. Did I tell you that I got her a new shirt cause she outgrew the latest? It was a little tight around her shoulders and it looked a bit short too, and I just thought that-”

The strange look he was giving you stopped you mid-rambling. The smile he was wearing was one you’d never seen before and for some reason it made you blush.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Mason dropped his head as a breathy chuckle flew past his lips, before eventually locking his eyes back on yours.

“Sorry, I just…I don’t know it’s such a normal thing to notice probably, but…it just made me realise how much you actually do. Not only bringing her to my games, but also noticing things like her outgrowing her shirt...I’m probably not making a lot of sense right now, just…thank you.”

He reached for your hand again, his fingers squeezing yours in appreciation, but you couldn’t help and roll your eyes.

“Stop thanking me all the time, Mase.”, you laughed. “I love her and I love doing this for you both. Also, she needs to be taught some proper behaviour, can’t really leave her with just you for that can we?”

“Oi, that’s just rude. I’m a great role model.” Slightly offended, Mason pulled his hand away from yours as he gave you a nasty look, but you could see right through him. Obviously he knew you were just messing with him and the glint in his eyes told you exactly that.

“Sure you are, Mase.”, you grinned. “The poor girl would grow up between your stinky shoes and-”

The waiter bringing your food cut your little dig short, but your best friend still kicked your leg beneath the table in jest, earning himself a scolding scoff.

Just like Mason had promised, the food was terrific, making you think you could never have breakfast anywhere else without leaving unsatisfied. The two of you made some light and joking conversation whilst munching away and you realised just how much you’d missed spending time with just him.

Not that he did it on purpose, but sometimes you got the feeling that around you, he was a different person. He seemed more relaxed and less troubled by all the pressure he usually felt and you couldn’t help the wave of pride rushing over you. He had always been your save haven and to know you could be the same for him was priceless.

“What would you like to do afterwards though? Any special requests?”

“I think I’d like to see the gardens.”, you admitted quietly, unsure if he was even up for it, but his smile just widened.

“Fletcher Moss?”

“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to go.”, you nodded carefully. “I know it sounds boring cause it’s just a bunch of flowers and bushes and stuff, but-”

“y/n.” Mason interrupted you gently. The tips of his fingers brushing against yours. “It sounds perfect, okay?”

And that’s how a little less than an hour later, the two of you were walking through the seemingly endless greenery. Side by side, with his shoulder brushing against yours every once in a while.

“I missed this.”, you said when you stopped to look at a quiet and slightly hidden pond. Water lilies gathered at the top, blooming in pink and light rose colours.

“I thought you’ve never been?”

“Not the garden you wally.” You bumped your shoulder into his arm. “This. Spending time with you. With just you. I don’t know it’s…I just missed it.”

Mason sighed quietly, before pulling you right in front of him. He placed his hands on your shoulders, thumbs brushing the soft skin on the base of your neck as his eyes bore into yours and just like that it felt as if the air had shifted.

“I missed you too.”

There was a tiny turmoil in your tummy, causing all sorts of emotions to run through you all at once and for the first time you realised that some of the feelings you were harbouring for Mason weren’t as platonic as you’d thought they were.

You tipped your head back slightly when Mason leaned in a fraction. Your thoughts were running a mile an hour, barely giving you a second to try and get your head straight, but Mason’s fingers slightly tightening their grip on your neck grounded you ever so slightly.

When his nose rubbed against yours softly, your breath caught in the back of your throat.

“Mase.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, y/n.”

You stared into his eyes before your gaze dropped to his lips the same second his dropped to yours. The air around you felt electric and whilst it scared you like nothing ever had before, the thought of feeling his lips against yours had your heart tripping over itself.

Mason leaned in a bit more; the beat of your heart echoing loudly in your ears as his breath hit your lips.

“Elliott!” And all of sudden the spell was broken. “Don’t get too close to the water!” A mother screaming after her son jogged past on the other side of the past, causing you to pull away from each other quickly, filling you with a heavy feeling of disappointment.

Shyly, you dropped your gaze to your shoes. You could feel the blush creeping up your neck and cheeks and, in an attempt to distract yourself from the slight humiliation you felt, you kicked a pebble into the pond; watching the tiny waves causing bigger ones in the formerly calm water.

For a moment, it was quiet with only the birds chirping away. It was rarely ever quiet between you two and you wondered if what had nearly happened a second ago had tarnished your precious friendship. What if it was going to be weird from now on?

With his flushed cheeks Mason looked adorable, but the awkward giggle he let out the moment your eyes locked gave away that he felt as embarrassed as you. In an attempt to hide himself away, he dropped his face into your neck, arms circling your waist pulling you flush against his body and after a moment of gathering yourself, you hugged him back.

You had no idea for how long you stood there, simply holding each other, but after a while you could feel his heart slowing down. He pressed his lips to the warm skin on your neck before pulling away slowly.

His cheeks were still rosy, albeit a lot less than before and the cheeky grin was back on his lips. “Let’s go and get ice cream?”

You nodded slowly, wondering how on earth you were supposed to get back to before what just happened.

“Perfect.”, he smiled and with a final kiss to your forehead, Mason pulled away fully. You missed his warmth and proximity immediately; longing for him to wrap you back up against his chest, but instead he headed towards where you knew the ice cream stand was.

Had he genuinely wanted to kiss you? Or had it been the spur of the moment? Maybe you’d imagined all that and he’d questioned what you’d been doing all along?

“C’mon lazybones.”, he laughed. “It’s not that far.”

The relief that filled you when Mason wrapped his arm around your shoulders to keep you tugged away against your body should be considered pathetic, but there’d never been a place you felt safer and after your almost-kiss it felt even more special.

You knew he was your best friend in the whole world, but after years of being in denial, even you had to acknowledge how the atmosphere had shifted a little.

The two of you eventually got the ice cream he’d promised. You knew he wasn’t supposed to eat any of it, especially not as he was about to make his comeback, but you’d known him for long enough to be aware that every once in a while, he allowed himself some happiness – at least that’s what Mason kept calling it.

You’d recovered from the previous situation – neither of you mentioning it again – and were walking towards the exit when all of sudden, a girl came up to the two of you.

“Mase, hi.”, she smiled brightly; showing off her perfect set of pearly white teeth. Her smile was as gorgeous as the rest of her. She looked straight out of a magazine, and you couldn’t help but pull your shoulders up and hide away in Mason’s jacket. The one he’d insisted you put on as it had got a little chillier a while ago.

You watched how she greeted your best friend enthusiastically, pulling him into a hug and the way he wrapped his arms around her waist had a bit of acid raising in your tummy. This wasn’t how you greeted someone you barely knew…

And when all of sudden she eyed you questioningly, no doubt judging your appearance, you felt small. And insignificant. You knew it was stupid and he’d slap you silly for it, but her looks made you feel like you weren't worth Mason's company.

“Hi.”, she smiled after a while, extending her hand towards you. “I’m Rebecca.”

“y/n.”, you nodded, eventually shaking her hand. You didn’t like her one bit and judging by the glint in her eyes, neither did she you.

“So, she’s the nanny then? Where’s your little one Mase?”

The nanny? Your heart dropped. What had he told her?

Mason’s brows formed a deep frown. He stepped a little closer to you, his arm wrapping around your shoulder. Not that it had any significance, but it certainly felt like a tiny win.

“No, y/n isn’t the nanny. She’s my best friend and my daughter’s god mother.”

“Oh, well.”, Rebecca laughed melodically. “I’ll see you around then, y/n. I assume you’ll be around as much as me then.”

Rebecca left a little while after, leaving you with a bitter aftertaste in your mouth, but as much as you were dying to know what was going on between her and your best friend, you were too much of a coward to ask. Too afraid what he would say could hurt you a little too much.

The way back to Mason’s car was quiet; the air around you tense, but for the first time neither of you really knew what to say.

Even the drive home started off in silence, with just the radio providing that ounce of sound in the small space. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d felt this awkward around your best friend – if you ever had – but the confusion about the almost-kiss and then meeting Rebecca, who seemed to be someone serious to Mason had caused some sort of brain freeze.

Mason though, was unsure as of whether or not he should explain who Rebecca was. He hadn’t planned to kiss you, but the spur of the moment had caught up with him back then by the pond. He knew you felt weird about it all, but he didn’t have any explanation or whatsoever to offer; he only knew he didn’t want to say goodbye yet.

“Chinese or Italian?”

Surprised by him suddenly speaking up, you turned to look at him. Mason stared straight ahead, giving you a great view at his side profile. He looked gorgeous, as always and for a second, your gaze dropped to his lips.

“What?”

“I’m talking about take away.”, he said, lips curling into a soft smile when he reached out and squeezed your thigh. “Thought we’d get some dinner on our way back and watch a film. Like we used to.”

“Oh erm…Italian, I think.” You were a little surprised that after the whole day he wanted to spend the evening with you too. “Haven’t had a pizza in way too long.”

“Gigi’s it is then.”, Mason nodded. He gave your leg another squeeze; his palm remaining on your thigh for the rest of the drive.

Having dinner on his sofa slowly brought back normality between the two of you. Mason obviously managed to lighten the mood with some of the worst jokes he could find and whilst they never failed to make you wonder what was actually going on in his head, you laughed at every single one of them.

Once the plates were cleared away, Mason flopped down on the sofa. He wasn’t an overly tall man, but for some reason he always managed to take up the majority of space on that huge sofa of his.

“Don’t tell me you forgot how to cuddle?”, he laughed, stopping you from stepping closer towards the shorter – and unoccupied – space of the sofa. “C’mon sweetcheeks. You know where you belong.”

Mason shuffled a bit more towards the edge before holding his hand out and although there was this tiny doubt holding you back, you eventually accepted his hand and flopped down in the small nook between his warm body and the back of the sofa.

“See, that’s not too bad, is it?” You felt his arm wrapping around your shoulder, encouraging you to snuggle into him further and place your head on his chest. His familiar scent and warmth surrounded you almost immediately, settling your heart and also some of your worries.

After all it was you, he was cuddling now. No one else.

It didn’t take long for Mason’s hand to start wandering. With gentle pressure, he ran his fingers up and down your spine, causing you to hum in content. It had been way too long that you’d spent so much quality time together and you only now realised just how much you’d actually missed it. And how you desperately didn’t want this day to end.

“When do you have to pick up Ellie?”, you asked, but apparently your words had been muffled by the hoodie Mason had thrown on after dinner.

“What?”

Begrudgingly, you lifted your head. Mason was looking at you already; his lips pulled into a sweet, albeit slightly tired smile.

“When do you have to pick up Ellie?”, you repeated.

“At round about 8. Luke said Anouska wanted to make dinner and offered to watch Frozen with them so I wouldn’t have to kick you out too early.”

“You’re unbelievable, Mase. Getting rid of your poor little daughter.”, you laughed, but your heart skipped a beat as you were quite sure the initial plan had been to pick her up before.

“What can I say? There’s two important girls in my life and whilst they get along really well, sometimes I need to get rid of one to spend some proper time with the other.”

The cheeky grin on his lips had you blushing nearly as much as him calling you his girl, but it was him reaching out to trace your jaw softly that sent your heart into a frenzy.

“On a serious note though, thank you so much for today, Mase.” The look in his eyes softened a touch, as did his smile. “I didn’t realise just how much I needed a day like this and I appreciate everything you’ve done. Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, y/n.”, he hummed. “I know you think I did this to thank you for all the things you’ve done, but I genuinely missed spending time with you and needed today as much as you. Like…you’ve been around a lot, but I missed you. I…does that make sense?”

“Yes.”

You watched a faint blush coating his freckled cheeks and making him look rather adorable and you couldn’t help but stare. Obviously, you’d noticed before that he was an incredibly handsome man – you weren’t blind after all – but you’d never looked at him the way you were doing now.

Somewhere in between stepping up and taking care of his daughter and today’s visit in the gardens, something had shifted dramatically, and you found it hard to ignore it.

Especially, as he kept staring into your eyes. His big brown ones bore into yours, making your skin prickle with nerves and your fingers tighten around the fabric of his hoodie. You were still half on top of his body, propped up on one arm whilst the other rested on his chest, but when Mason reached out and pushed a lose strand of hair behind your ear you felt like melting into his body.

His gaze flickered to your lips before jumping back to your eyes and just like that, it felt like you were back by the pond. The look in his eyes was captivating, basically forcing you to keep yours locked on his whilst your heart was threatening to burst through your ribcage.

“y/n.” His voice wasn’t more than a hoarse whisper; contributing to the intensity of the situation. You wanted to kiss him, you really wanted to, but instead, you dropped your gaze to his chest with flushed cheeks, breaking the spell reluctantly.

Mason dropped his hand from where it was cupping the side of your face, allowing you the freedom to lay back down. He kissed the top of your head and wrapped his arm back around your shoulders before focusing back on the film that was still playing.

Part of you felt awful as you hid away in his chest, wondering if you should’ve just gone for a kiss and see where it would’ve taken you, but there was this nagging feeling of doubt in the back of your mind, making you question everything.

It felt like you’d gone from 0 to 100 in less than a day and you couldn’t help but think it was rushed. Maybe it was just you reading too much into these two situations. Maybe it was you seeing things that weren’t actually there.

After all, there was still Rebecca…the thought of her and how she’d greeted Mason made your tummy churn. No matter how obvious today’s moments had seemed, there was no way he’d go for someone like you.

It was too late to do something about it when you felt your eyes growing heavy and with Mason pressing a gentle kiss to the top of your head, you eventually nodded off.

The next morning, you were mulling about your coffee. Your thoughts pretty much still all over the place, but with Ellie around, you tried your best to be up to your usual standard.

After Mason had woken you up the evening before to go and get his daughter, he’d asked you to stay, but you’d refused. The thought of sleeping over after everything that had happened had felt wrong, so you’d told him to drop you off on his way to Luke’s. He’d seemed a bit disappointed, but for you, it had been the best decision.

You’d spent half the evening overthinking every tiny detail and ended up working yourself up in a frenzy, terrified of it being weird from now on, but when you’d showed up at Mason’s this morning, everything had been back to normal.

“What about a walk, Ellie?”, you asked eventually. The little girl looking up at you with the same big brown eyes as her father and nodded furiously. By now she knew that going for a walk also meant spending time with you at the playground – something that had become one of her favourite things in the world. “Let’s get you dressed then, munchkin.”

You held her hand as you walked to her room to put some outdoor clothes on and since she only cared about leaving as soon as possible, little Ellie didn’t make much of a fuss of what you’d chosen for her to wear.

By the time Mason came back from training, you’d prepared dinner for later and cleaned most parts of his house. It wasn’t part of your agreement, but whenever you’d put Ellie down for a nap, there was little to do so you’d started to clean or at least tidy up.

“Daddy!” Ellie all but jumped out of your hold when Mason showed up in the living room. She ran over – as best as she could at her age – and fell straight into his wide opened arms.

“Hello love bug.”, he smiled widely before pressing smootches all over her little face, causing Ellie to wiggle in his arms, belly laughter falling from her lips and you couldn’t help but stare.

Mason was always amazing, no matter who he was with, but when Ellie was around, he seemed like the most carefree person. It was as if he could get his inner child out in a way he never dared to around others and you couldn’t be more thankful to see it.

“So, what’ve you and auntie y/n been up to today, hm?”, he hoisted her up into his arms and strolled over to where you were still sitting on the sofa. The kid’s book you’d been reading to Ellie still sat in your lap. “Oh you’ve been reading, yeah?”

“Peppa!”, Ellie exclaimed as she pointed out the pink pig on the front of the book. It was her absolute favourite thing to do.

“Well that’s amazing, bubs.” Mason kissed the top of his daughter’s head before leaning a bit closer to you, so he could whisper without Ellie hearing any of his words: “Bet auntie y/n isn’t tired of this book at all, is she?”

You laughed when he flicked the end of your nose in jest and shook your head. “No, not at all. I enjoy being able to quote a kid’s book by heart.”

After a quick chat – one that relieved some of the tension you’d still felt because of the day before – the three of you had decided to go outside again to try and tire out the little girl in hopes she’d be out like a light once you’d be back home, but for some reason, nothing you tried worked so you ended up walking back home with Ellie still being her energetic self.

“Good luck getting that one to sleep.”, you grinned, pointing at the brunette kid jumping up and down right in front of you.

“It’s definitely going to be one of those evenings.”, Mason sighed. “I can see it right in front of me already…me sitting by her bed, reading about 10 books and her still not being tir-” He stopped talking when he felt your hand grabbing his arm. Turning to look at you, he found your gaze settled on his front door. “Wha-”

“Ellie? Munchkin come over here please.” The little girl came straight up to you, her arms reaching out so you could pick her up and as if she sensed the change in atmosphere, she snuggled right into the crook of your neck.

You could tell the exact moment Mason recognised the person standing in front of his door. His pace quickened and he cast a quick and worried glance back at you, ushering you to stay back. And you did, but you could still hear the harsh sound of his voice loud and clear.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

#mason mount #mason mount imagine #mason mount x reader #mason mount fanfic #football imagine #manchester united #football fanfic #manchester united imagine #mason mount angst #mason mount fluff #angst #fluff #fanfiction

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lagomorphique · 2 months ago

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Mouthwashing and Capitalism - Analysis

this did unexpectedly well on twt so I'm gonna force people on tumblr to endure my takes as well for posterity (plus i can speculate and elaborate a bit more on here without the character limit). disclaimer that this includes untagged spoilers for both the game itself + the how fish is made dlc. I also refer to some of the meta facts from the dev qnas and to the demo version of curly's psych evaluation. Most of this is gonna be under a readmore and I'll elaborate a bit more on each character in reblogs

firstly, let's state the obvious - the working conditions enforced by pony express are atrocious. "do not indulge in over 5 hours of rest, including leisure time. sleeping over the allowed budget will result in disciplinary action."

Compare this to irl guidelines for pilots. Neither Curly or Jimmy are getting anything close to the required amount of rest for such a demanding job. This edges more into headcanon/speculation territory, but I've been trying to figure out how their shift patterns are supposed to work. I'd imagine that both of them don't always need to be on duty at the same time, so their shift patterns are probably more variable than everybody's else's. At the same time, we see them both on shift at the same time multiple times during the game and Curly is the only one with clearance to make certain extremely important navigation decisions (like turning off the autopilot). The tldr is that the crew is extremely overworked and running on dangerously little sleep for extended periods of time. It's enough to make anyone go crazy.

Next, the company routinely engages in collective punishment, as seen in the below screenshots. This is particularly important because I think it directly informs a lot of Curly's decisions in particular, especially with how he reassures Anya that her stealing the gun case will not go on the performance log. Given her precarious financial situation, she literally cannot afford to have her pay docked. I don't think he has any nefarious intentions here about covering up what's happened.

I think it's really interesting that each of the employee ID cards have an EMV chip. This would imply that they also function as payment cards. Perhaps they also have to pay for the food on board. It is possible that the 'credits' they are paid in are not even money per se, but rather a sort of company currency. Company currencies, or 'scrips,' have historically been used to exploit workers by making them solely dependent on company stores and products, enforcing loyalty.

Corporate communicates with Curly using something that looks no more sophisticated than a fax machine. It it also not clear whether this communication channel even goes both ways, which calls into question whether it would have even been possible to send out a distress signal in the event of an emergency (or, for example, a HR report needing to be filed).

The ship is not equipped for 5 people. It's notable here that Curly says "bigger" here, implying he /did/ raise this as a safety issue with corporate, but was shot down.

It's a plot point that there were only 4 cryopods, which meant that one person would always have been left out in the event of an emergency, even if they were all functioning.

I also wonder if this affects the rations available to the crew during the trip. I highly doubt that Pony Express bothered to provide extra food and other essentials to provide for an extra person, which means that the crew are probably dividing rations meant for four people amongst five.

#mouthwashing #mouthwashing game #wrong organ #not tagging the characters lmao #analysis

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shuenkio · 8 months ago

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Admire not from afar | Enha Hyung line

Paring: hyung-line x male!reader

Genre: Suggestive.

Cw: swearing, fantasize.

Pov: Co-workers having obsession admire at you.

Wc: 400+

Non proof read/ English is not my 1st lang.

Lhs: Nerdy-quite guy who would stalk your social media, having your face on his wallpaper, while bragging to his friends that you're his one and only boyfriend, even though it's not true.

It's getting out of hand when you realize that he's the one who left those unknown, randomly given gifts in your locker every single morning. Eventually you started to ignore and avoid him at all costs, to the point that when you went home from work one day, you found him there, sitting while crossing his leg as he lean against the wooden chair inside your apartment.

"Hello, baby boy, I see you avoiding me, so I'd like to pay you a visit. How do you like that?"

Pjs: Everyone praises him not because of his potential or talents in the workplace; it's because he's related to the CEO of the company. You hate people who are overpowered by their money and not their own work, so you're brave enough to say what comes to mind when they make a mistake.

Finally, you just got yourself into trouble; however, since he liked you enough to spare your life, he had another plan.

While going to the bathroom to wash your dirty hands, you suddenly feel a pair of hands grab your forearm before pulling you inside the bathroom stall, locking the door at instant.

"You've been a really bad boy lately, Mn! How dumb are you to not realize I'm your crazy secret Santa? Now you're going to pay for your consequences, darling."

Sjy: The happiest guy is everyone's lifesaver and lover. Whenever there's a problem in the company, he'll always be there to fix the issue using his sexy brain in a blink of an eye. As a new employee, you were impressed at how much the other workers liked him, and the answer is quite obvious.

Little did you know, not all good guys are innocent and nice; Jake also had his dark side too. He likes to take advantage of new employees like you, and at the end of the day, he'll throw them out as if they were some pieces of used trash.

Nevertheless, when he laid eyes on you, it seemed like he couldn't stop thinking about you; you're that special to make him head over heels for you that bad.

Late at night, as you take the elevator to the ground floor, Jake is also in the elevator, and you never know what will happen.

"Mn, you might think I'm all bright and amazing, but did you know that every time I see you, I love fantasizing about you being under me?"

Psh: This guy was cold as ice; no wonder he's the best employee of the month almost every single time, despite how hard he's working alone. Regardless of being friends with him for so long, you still don't know his personal life, his daily routine, or his inside. You couldn't care much since you respect his decision to keep himself.

But the reason why he won't let you visit him at his apartment is because all your pictures that he's captured every chance he's gotten were pinned and spread all over his room like a crime detective investigation. Not only is he obsessed, he already had plan B if you said no to his confession one day.

"I'd give up heaven if I had to make you mine, little man."

🗣️ please mind my English! ><

🗣️Reblog and like is much appreciated ♥

🗣️ crd to all pics&dividers

🗣️ I can't imagine makenae line going to work like what 🤓 Anyway this is my last updated this week, since I have another exam next week, so I'll come back once I'm alive again!

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starchants · 5 months ago

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hi! i hope you’re doing well. i was wondering if i could request some angelus hcs? maybe something like being angels gf and how it would be dating angelus or something? i’m sorry i’m horrible at requests. i hope this makes sense.

angelus x female!reader ; hot evil vampire and you are dating.

word count — 1,146.

themes + warnings ; hot evil vampire stalking but like in a good way if that makes sense? some men are creeps as a warning too, also some small possessive nature takes place here — putting that as a warning bc some people don’t personally like that! female reader if y’all couldn’t tell by the request!

author’s note — you made perfect sense my dear <3! i honestly got super excited seeing this so i hope you enjoy!

support mention ; if you feel like supporting, a nice ‘like’ will suffice on my blog, i know some writers love to ask nicely if you could reblog or comment etc. yet on my blog (no hate towards them as everyone likes appreciation in different ways), but if you’d like to reblog or comment feel free after all this is a safe space for any fan-individual to have fun :’)

masterlist

so let’s just establish the fact as of this headcanon section, you’ve been in a relationship with angel for a few months and you have yet to see angelus popping up during this time yet angel had been open enough with you to let you know about the dark side of him.

it’s late at night upon a school night, nearly midnight, and you know damn well you should be heading back to your room (whether bedroom or dorm you decide) but you decide that perhaps another loop around the town wouldn’t be too terrible especially since angel was willingly busy helping your friend willow with a history lesson as she demanded to know the real truth from someone who had experienced that part of history.

you had heard a low whistle as you crossed the street as you were determined to see if your favorite cafe was still offering any of your beloved treats before they closed at midnight and you felt yourself mentally freeze while you physically kept walking. footsteps fell behind you from a few feet away on the sidewalk and you felt a pair of eyes upon you from both the sidewalk along with one from an upper level yet you thought you were going crazy as nobody could be upon the roof.

you see angel had to cut the history lesson with willow short, as for some reason he couldn’t shake the thought of you wandering around alone out of his head, which lead to angelus peeking out and in a dick-headed way had announced to willow that he was over it and was leaving. now here he was having been following you for the past few blocks upon the rooftops before his eyes zeroed in upon the drunk young adult in a dark grey hoodie who stumbled along following you in the direction of what he knew was your favorite cafe.

oh hell no, angelus would think to himself, only i am allowed to follow my stór and he would hear his mother whisper in the wind to do whatever he could to protect his beloved treasure. he would be quick to speed ahead and jump down into a nearby alleyway only to casually pop out of it and lovingly call for you before he would make it obvious that he saw the creepy man behind you.

our beloved obnoxious vampire would be quick to loudly question “are you alright my stór? i can’t have my wife being all upset now can i?” he’d claim you as his spouse in order to get the creepy guy to realize he was making a fatal mistake, this would be a little bit of angel coming out to ensure that angelus wouldn’t go too far. you’d be quick to realize that this isn’t angel due to the fact that he never really gave you a nickname besides lover or my lover, not to mention the fact that his irish accent peaked out a bit more with the newly given name. this was angelus in all his glory and you couldn’t help but childishly grin as you knew that he finally stepped forward.

you would watch as he stepped towards the man who dared to keep stepping closer with his drunken eyes trained upon you and you would watch as a wide smirk casted itself upon angelus’ face as he grabbed the drunk by his own hoodie and slammed his face against the nearby brick of a closed store. you’d watch as his vampiric face came to light and you’d watch as he’d drain the drunken man nearly empty and you couldn’t help the childish giggle that escaped you upon the sight. which you had deemed as odd and unexpected but it made you happy to see the wild yet bloody grin you got from angelus as he dropped the body and turned toward you.

from that moment on, angelus would make it his mission to take over angel whenever he deemed it necessary as their girl happened to like his chaotic brutal nature.

i feel like angelus would be more willing to open up about his backstory with you, as opposed to angel, and he would tell you about how he decided to take the name that his mother would have given him upon his birth.

it’s never a dull moment being in a relationship with angelus. you’ll have to get used to others being rude to you as you watch your chaotic boy go off and play his games — his games that he wouldn’t dare to use on you, sure maybe a lil manipulation if the moment called for it in order to persuade you to perhaps get to safety or not do something too wreckless, but outside of that he wouldn’t use any games on you. after all, you’re his beloved stór, and he wouldn’t wanna tarnish his treasure.

this one is down for literally anything you wanna do, even like i said it’s too wreckless for you to do ; he would want to do it in place of you after he tells you off about it. if you couldn’t tell from earlier in this post, if you wanna walk around or run around during the night, you’re gonna have a six foot shadow following you around to ensure your safety. he doesn’t really give up on his stalking that he had begun upon angel seeing you for the first time, it’s kind of a given and eventually you figure it out and you don’t really seem to care — much to angel’s own small disagreement with it. (angel would think he was a monster for stalking you even though he couldn’t help it due to angelus’ obsession with you)

you’d have a lot of metaphorically-inherited enemies once you fall in love with angelus but a lot of them would be too afraid to come towards you or hurt you, out of the fear of your beloved man coming at them like a chaotic gremlin. i feel like they’d know your name and possibly call it out to you along with a vague threat or two thrown your way but then not really go to attack you physically out of the risk of potentially losing their own lives.

oh oh, last but not least, angelus would love to drink your blood whenever you would possibly let him, even if it’s a silly little papercut and that’s the only way you approve of it, he would get so hyper and quickly react similar to a dog with a bone. he wouldn’t stop until the cut itself would heal itself from the venom in his teeth, after all the venom runs through his body and it helps heal him, it would heal would consider … the whole reason why he has an obsession with you in the first place … being meant to be.

#angel the series x reader #angel x reader #angelus x reader #angel the series #angel #angelus #buffyverse #buffyverse x reader #buffy the vampire slayer x reader #buffy the vampire slayer

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extrashotodepresso · 1 year ago

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Hawks X Fem!Reader:

Blurred Lines

Warnings: SMUT DNI if not 18+ , somnophilia if you squint, unprotected (please don’t do this guys), some red flags here (but when you’re wearing rose colored glasses red flags look like flags)

As always, comments and reblogs welcome. If you don’t have anything nice to say- say it to the wall. Not my wall, the one in your room. Go to the corner and think about what you want to say to a stranger on the internet and what’s driving you to take out your ick on them.

Alright so I really wanted to write Hawks as not a dirtbag but just as like the cute lovable weirdo he is. Honestly… I struggled with this. I really just wanted to get this one finished and I just did what I could but if I can be honest- I struggled part way through and I’ll probably edit this eventually. It eeees what it eees.

Summary: Reader is neighbors with Hawks. They start a friendship that leads to more over time until they cross that final line. That’s it. That’s the fic.

The first time Keigo landed in your apartment, it was an accident. Actually, that’s how you found out you were neighbors with the number two hero. You wouldn’t have expected it; with his ranking, he was bound to have a fancy upper side Mustafu apartment, why was he renting in your shitty little neighborhood?

But questions you had at the sudden encounter would have to wait; he had rolled in from your open patio window missing feathers, covered in grime and blood. You had been cooking dinner at the time, and all you could do was stare dumbly at the man on your floor, tongs raised in your hand casually.

“Uh… you okay?” You asked, cringing immediately at how stupid you sounded. Thankfully, you heard a laugh before his arm slithered out from beneath him and he pushed himself halfway off the floor. He looked around your apartment for a moment, seemingly puzzled before his eyes landed on you.

“Just peachy, thanks for asking.” He groaned as he brought himself up to stand, feathers falling out of his wings and littering your floor among the rest of the debris. “Uh…” he stepped up and down carefully, his boots crunching in the grime. “Sorry about the mess.”

You shrugged. “Happens. Do you… um do you need any help or…?”

“Nah, I’m good.” The two of you stared at each other, neither really knowing what to say, the popping of fried chicken sizzling away in a pan being the only sound for a few moments.

“I think I live next door.” He said, looking around, the slight flush on his cheeks darkened as he reached for the back of his neck. Bad move, he immediately winced. “30C.” You nodded slowly, then returned to your chicken.

“It would appear you do.” You flipped the pieces in the pan, frowning a little at the bits that had burned while you were distracted by the hero hurdling into your living room. “28C.”

“Hawks.” He offered, gesturing to himself and seeming to wince afterwards at the obvious introduction.

“(Y/N).” You turned as you introduced yourself, moving the cooked chicken into a serving bowl and finally turning back around to face him when you were done.

“You don’t seem all that bothered, (Y/N).” His voice was light and pleasant and despite the strangeness of this encounter, you couldn’t help but feel comfortable in his presence. Must be a hero thing, you figured.

“Of all the crazy things in this city that could have crash landed in my apartment, a top hero is probably one of the better options.” You smiled wryly and he offered a sharp laugh.

“Fair enough.” He studied you for a moment. “I uh… I should get going then. Do you need any help cleaning up or…” you glanced at your floor, considering the state of him, it was pretty minimal.

“I can handle it, it’s fine. Seems like you had a rough day.” You offered a short sort of smile at this. He put his hands in his pockets, then after another awkward moment, walked towards your door. “You can come back for dinner if you want.” You offered as his hand closed on the doorknob. You didn’t know why you had offered, this was probably already the weirdest day of your life but something in you forced the words out before you could stop them. His face lit up, and you felt your heart thud thickly in your chest.

“That would be awesome! I’ll be honest, it smells amazing- just uh- give me a bit to freshen up, okay?” You nodded and he practically ran out of your apartment, before poking his head back in. “Don’t clean that up- I’ll get it, it’s the least I can do.” He pointed at the mess on the floor and you nodded before you heard him hastily enter his own apartment.

“Welcome to the neighborhood.” You muttered to yourself before setting up another serving of chicken to cook.

When he came back, he cleaned up the mess on your floor and even set the table while you finished cooking. It was strangely domestic of him. Your brain was still working to process the information of the past half hour. The nation’s number two hero had crash-landed into your living room and now the two of you would be having dinner. You chucked to yourself as you finished cooking and brought the food to the table. Weirder things had probably happened before, though you couldn’t imagine what.

“Thanks again for your hospitality.” Hawks offered with a stunning smile. You had been moving to sit down across from him, and your entire body froze for a second at the brightness of his expression.

“N-no problem.” You offered, lamely. As the two of you began eating, he seemed like he wanted to talk more, but your own shyness and hesitance to conversation made it difficult not to stagnate. You felt the sweat on the nape of your neck. Leave it to you to be unfazed by the bizarre yet challenged by the basics of conversation.

As he took a bite of chicken, his eyes grew wide.

“This is so good, (Y/N)!” He exclaimed. You thanked him, then couldn’t hold back the snicker that had been threatening to escape you. “What’s so funny?” He said, words partially muffled as his mouth was stuffed full of chicken.

“Bird hero, eating chicken.” You managed to explain. “Just… made me laugh.” He stared at you before bursting into laughter himself.

“Despite the bad PR it might get me, I’ll admit, it’s one of my guilty pleasures.” You smiled, glad you hadn’t offended him as you took a swig of your beer.

Conversation flew by a little easier after that. It seemed like Hawks was just as down to earth as his reputation would reflect. You learned that he had been your neighbor for about a month, but because of the nature of his work, you wouldn’t have really seen him around. Besides, he really only ever entered his apartment through his patio. That’s why he had landed into your living room; normally his door was the only one left open. You asked him why he didn’t live in some fancy huge building since he could clearly afford it and he shrugged, explaining that he wanted to be closer to the neighborhoods he actually served.

He asked you about your work, you explained that you worked from home; data entry, nothing nearly as exciting as his job. He politely nodded as you explained your work, he was even kind enough to ask questions and act like it wasn’t entirely boring. The two of you talked for a while about a myriad of things; favorite movies, heroes, books, restaurants- it seemed like you both actually had a lot of common ground. It was nice, you usually lived a pretty secluded life, having someone to talk to was more than pleasant.

After dinner, the two of you parted as unlikely friends and his visits over to your apartment became relatively frequent. He would stop by after patrols without any sort of announcement, and while the average person would be annoyed, you really didn’t mind except for that one time he barged in and you had just gotten out of the shower. Months like this passed, and you and Keigo made a habit of spending practically every night he wasn’t working together.

It was on one of these evenings that he came over and the conversational tone shifted.

“Why don’t you ever have any guys over?” He asked, suddenly. You had been distracted by the movie on the screen, some detective flick that had just come out, so it took you a minute to process the question. When you finally did, the mouthful of popcorn you had suddenly became stuck in your throat, leading you to practically choke.

Keigo’s eyes widened with concern as he pat your back, urging you to breathe before offering you some of the beer that was on the table. You gulped it down, panting before you responded.

“What?”

“I didn’t mean to startle you. Is it that strange of a question?” You looked at him incredulously, trying to search his face for any hint as to what he was thinking.

“I mean… it’s a little left field, Kei.” You offered before taking another drink.

“Why? You’re a beautiful woman, I’m surprised that you don’t have any other guys coming around here.” You felt your face flush red, your brain sputtered to find any sort of response.

“What?”

“Unless… you’re not into men?” His face grew serious. “I am supportive of whoever you want to love, I need you to know that.” You shoved him.

“Oh my God, Kei, what’s wrong with you?”

“What, there’s nothing wrong with being gay-“

“Of course there isn’t!” You practically shrieked. “But where is this sudden interrogation coming from?”

“I was just curious if you were seeing anyone.” He was pouting. “You never talk about it.”

“Of course I’m not!” You hit him with a pillow. “Why? Do you have some secret girlfriend you’ve never shared with me?” You stopped hitting him, for some reason the thought made you feel nauseated.

“No. You’re the only one I ever see.” He said, studying you thoughtfully.

“Well then, there you have it.” You hugged the pillow you had been using to hit him against your body. “We both have no life; love or otherwise so there.” You muttered, dragging your attention back to the TV.

“Guess so.” He said, thoughtfully. The two of you finished the movie in an awkward silence. You didn’t know quite what to say or do moving forward, so you stood with a stretch.

“I’m gonna go take a shower.” You said with a little yawn. “You can let yourself out or crash here. Whichever.” You tried to sound as casual as possible, but didn’t know if you quite succeeded.

Lately, there had been more and more nights when Keigo would stay the night at your house. The first time was unintentional, the two of you had fallen asleep on the couch after an impromptu movie marathon. The next time had been intentional, he asked to crash on your couch because he didn’t really want to go back to his empty place. In the morning, he had complained about his back hurting like hell, so the next time he wanted to stay over, you suggested you both share your bed. You justified it, saying that it was just like having sleepovers with friends in childhood- which led to a conversation about how Keigo had missed all sorts of things as a kid. You had been dedicated to giving him the experience, staying up late with snacks and Manga until the two of you crashed over the covers.

Since then, you hadn’t needed to do the entire sleepover experience, he just helped himself to your bed and the two of you had relaxed into your own routine with it. It seemed your relationship seemed to frequently evolve in a way that felt natural, no matter how blurred the lines were becoming.

Because of those blurred lines, and the conversation from earlier, your brain couldn’t focus as you showered. It didn’t help knowing that possibly in the next room was your insanely hot hero neighbor, waiting for you to come to bed. You definitely didn’t use your best body wash, or take the extra time to use a salt scrub on your skin, or spend a few extra minutes deep conditioning your hair while you shaved for the first time in months- that would have been insane. *cough*

By the time you left the shower and entered your room clad in a nightgown (also definitely NOT strategically picked over your normal tattered T-Shirt) ; you were pleased to see he had decided to stay. He was laid out on your bed, head towards your side, seemingly passed out. You crawled into bed carefully, sitting up for a moment simply admiring him before you snuggled under the covers.

As you studied his face, you reached out and caressed his cheek. Your thumb found his scar, tracing the flesh gently before it came to his lips. His mouth was so soft, softer than you would have thought and an impulse you couldn’t control took hold of you.

Your breathing had stopped. Almost in foresight of your plan- you had to know. You leaned in and softly brushed your lips against his in a gentle kiss. He didn’t move, but just the feeling of his lips on yours made your heart leap out of your chest.

When you pulled away, prepared to look over his face with satisfaction, your heart sank. His eyes were wide open and he was staring at you. Not just staring, his eyes practically burned into you. Your cheeks flushed, heart racing and you tried to speak but all that came out was a squeak.

“What a naughty little bird you are.” He said to you darkly. You felt the suffocating weight of your shame, and tore your eyes from him as quickly as possible.

“I-I’m sorry I just-“

“You what?” His voice was cold. You had fucked up.

“I wanted to know what it felt like… to… kiss you.”

“Well that isn’t gonna help you.” His voice was dripping with condescension. You looked at him in confusion before you felt him roll on top of you, grabbing your chin with his hand before taking your lips in a bruising kiss.

That flipping, over the moon feeling came back as his lips glided over yours, and when you felt his tongue drag across your bottom lip you groaned into him, happily obliging the escalation. His fingers tangled themselves in your hair, his other hand slowly finding its way to your back to pull you in impossibly closer.

When you felt like you couldn’t breathe, he finally parted from you.

“How was that?” His voice was raw, husky and you swallowed before shaking your head.

“No good.” You managed to let out between panting breaths. He looked almost hurt until you kissed him again. “Now I just want more.” You whispered into him and you could feel him shudder over you- the fluttering of his wings showing his pleasure in your statement.

“I can do that.” He growled into your open mouth, his tongue exploring yours just long enough to leave you breathless again before he moved his kisses lower. He kissed along your jaw, then down your neck and over to your ear, licking at your earlobe before biting it gently.

“Did you know-“ he whispered into your ear before moving his kisses lower. “That our bedrooms share a wall?” He licked the juncture of your neck and collarbone before taking a bit of flesh into his mouth and sucking on it. Your hands made their way to his back, clawing at his shirt helplessly.

“Oh yeah?” You tried to follow the conversation, but the heat from his every touch was beginning to be quite distracting.

“Mmhmm. And did you know that I can hear everything happening in this room?” You could feel the flush spread to your chest from your cheeks as his fingers deftly slid down the straps of your nightgown.

“Is that so?” You tried to sound casual, but you knew what he was implying.

He groaned again into your skin in response as his tongue explored the flesh of your newly exposed chest, slowly nudging the fabric down until your breasts were exposed. “Beautiful.” He said almost to himself before he sucked at your breast, tracing his tongue along your peaked nipple before biting down softly. You gasped, arching into him as your hand found his hair and your fingers laced into the roots.

“Keigo-“ you were panting, but his mouth continued its ministrations.

“Do you know how much self control it took for me to not come over here some nights? Hm?” He spoke into your skin again, then brought himself back to your lips, allowing one of his hands to continue the work his mouth had been doing. “Hearing you moan out so sweetly- never quite able to reach what you were looking for?” His hand traced down your torso, over the bunched fabric of your nightgown to between your legs.

As you felt the silky fabric drag up your thighs, your pulse quickened- you were simultaneously mortified and thrilled by the decision you had made getting out of the shower- when his hand touched your bare mound and his wings stretched out like they did whenever he was excited, you bit your lip.

“Nothing underneath?” His voice was feral. “You are a naughty bird.” His fingers wasted no time in spreading your lips, finding your clit with ease, he rubbed the bundle of nerves before sliding down to your entrance. “Soaking wet too.” He let out a little whine and the sound of it made you clench around nothing. “It’s like you did this all f’me.” When his fingers entered your twitching core, you thrust into his hand, urging him deeper, faster.

“I did-“ you managed to mewl as his fingers curled up inside you- “It’s all for you.” You were quickly becoming an unraveled mess, your breathing labored as you felt yourself nearing your release. Keigo kissed you again, all consuming passion and sloppy need and you felt a tear rolling down your cheek. The hand that had been at your breast came up to your face, his thumb wiping it away as he spoke into your mouth.

“It’s okay little bird, let go.” You nodded, kissing him again as you finally felt yourself break.

Keigo stroked you through your orgasm, gently caressing your thighs when you had control of your breathing again. You pulled back from him, looking into his face. His pupils were completely blown, looking fucked out already. His expression, which had been one of puckish excitement moments before, was now solemn. He kissed you once more, softly, before rolling away from you with a sigh. He laid flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling and you didn’t quite know what to say or do now.

The silence, though it lasted mere seconds, felt like a vast expanse of space in which nothing but your own anxiety existed.

“Keigo?” Your voice came out louder than you had anticipated, inadvertently causing you to cringe. He turned towards you then, bringing his gaze to yours before his eyes dragged down your half dressed body, nightgown still scrunched to expose most of you. A groan left him as he pulled his gaze away, his hand that had brought you to pleasure moments previously was now covering his grimacing face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’, angel.” He said, though it was entirely non convincing.

“Kei.” You repeated, rolling towards him, resting on your arm to look over his face. You pried his fingers off his eyes. “Look… I-I’m sorry.”

His eyes widened at you, but he said nothing. You worried at your lip, teeth pulling the tender flesh nearly to shreds. This was the first time you felt uncomfortable around Hawks. You didn’t just feel uncomfortable, you felt terrible. Like you had taken advantage of a friend, like you had finally crossed one of those blurred lines that was supposed to be sacred and unscathed.

“Sorry?” He repeated softly. “Sorry for what?” You tasted copper in your mouth- you licked over the flesh you had chewed open, trying to will yourself to stop the nervous habit.

“I shouldn’t have- I mean I wanted to, but it was wrong and-“

“Wrong?” Why was he just repeating after you? You suddenly felt too exposed, pulling back on your nightgown, you sat up and protectively covered your chest. “Did it really feel wrong to you?” Your eyes snapped to him.

“Of course not!” Your outburst ripped through the quiet that had been momentarily reestablished. “But- I- I shouldn’t have just- without asking- if I lost you I don’t know what—not that I have you- I mean-“ he leaned up then, grabbing the back of your neck and pulling you towards him to kiss you again. You whimpered into him, a relieved sort of sob threatening to leave you at any moment. He licked over the rim of your lips, clearly he had noticed your habit too.

“If you want me to stop- you need to tell me.” He spoke into your open mouth. “But … I’m not going to be able to stop if we keep going and once we…” he readjusted, tensing, “there’s no going back, (Y/N).” He was severe again, pulling himself just far enough away that his gaze could transform from one big eye into two amber pools, threatening in their intensity. You said nothing, swallowing hard. “If we keep going, I’m never going back to what we were. I can’t.” You might have imagined the way his voice broke on the last word, the way he hitched his breath and let it out with a sad sort of groan, but it didn’t matter as your lips sought his again. You offered your acceptance to his terms, trying to show him with each glide of your lips just how you felt.

Hawks eagerly met each movement, descending with you into a new subspace, recently discovered but yet to be explored. His hands reached for your nightgown again, pulling it from your body before pushing you rather roughly back down. He peeled off his own shirt awkwardly, you hadn’t ever seen him maneuver in or out of his clothes before and despite the mood of the moment you couldn’t help but giggle a bit at how urgently he wrestled out of it.

“Hope you enjoyed laughing, little bird.” When he was finally freed, he looked down at you with a dark expression, a smirk playing at his lips clearly promising more than you were prepared for. “You won’t have time for that soon.” He lunged for you again, kissing you with a demand for compliance. His tongue bullied its way into your mouth, deftly exploring your taste. You could hardly keep up with his movements, his hands were all over you, claws raking down your back and pulling across your ribs before sliding up to grip your breasts. His fingers bullied your flesh, though you had never been handled so roughly you couldn’t say you minded at all.

“Kei-“ you tried to pant into him, his kisses moving towards your neck while your hands grasped for his sweats. You tried to pull them down, but his hand batted you away.

“No.” He spoke firmly and you bit your lip. The hand that had slapped yours came up to your chin, pulling your lip away from your gnawing teeth slowly. His tongue grazed over the wounded flesh again before he sucked at it, letting it fall from his mouth with a satisfying pop. He then moved down your body quickly, spreading your thighs open wide. There was not a part of you left unexposed; the thought that you were the only one in that position suddenly made you feel vulnerable.

You didn’t have to meditate on that thought for very long though, as Keigo lowered his head down to your core and immediately used his mouth to mercilessly drag you towards orgasm. It was too much too fast; the hero was known for his precision and speed- each pass of his tongue proving just how hard he worked to earn that praise. Your head crashed into the bed below you, back arching unnaturally as you let out a noise that could hardly be recognized as belonging to you. You exploded, fireworks bursting behind your eyelids, and though he could not have missed the fact that he had just brought you to your second orgasm that evening, his oral assault continued.

“‘S too much—“' you squealed, “K-Kei-g-g—ugh!“ you cried but he continued to spell his name over you, branding you with it, the burn almost too much to handle. When you truly thought you would die, he pushed his fingers inside of you, curling the digits up and hitting the spot he had found earlier so expertly that without you being even slightly prepared, another climax was ripped from you. He still didn’t give you a moment's rest, lapping up every drop you offered to him until he was satisfied. Finally, he stopped for a moment, sitting on his knees with his wings flayed out, casting a shadow over what seemed like the entire room. Your eyes shut, heavy with exhaustion as you attempted to collect yourself.

When you could breathe again, you realized he was now laid between your thighs, arms on either side of your face. He wiped tears you didn’t remember shedding from your cheeks and kissed you gently, slowly bringing you back to his plane of existence.

As your consciousness slowly reentered your body, you noticed the way his skin felt against yours. All of it. The realization that he had undressed completely finally dawned on you when you felt a twitch of hardened flesh at the apex of your thighs, prodding you as if requesting entrance. A high pitched whine left your throat and entered his mouth, the ridiculous sound causing him to grin into your kiss. Finally you understood his frustration earlier at your flippant laughter.

“You ready, angel?” He spoke into your mouth as he lined himself up with your core; you nodded dumbly into him though you weren’t even quite sure if you were in fact ready. You felt like a million exposed nerves; every part of you was hyper aware of every touch, stray breath and every bead of sweat gliding across your skin.

Keigo began to thrust inside you, exhaustingly slowly, his entire body over you shuddering. Your hands, which had been clenching themselves in the sheets before, came up to his shoulders, dragging down to the base of his wings. When you allowed your fingers to trace the fine feathers at the base of them he let out a sharp hiss before burying the rest of his length inside you in one sharp thrust.

There was no sound, at least not that you could remember after that, just the feeling of his tongue running against your throat while his hips ground into you. His movements were shallow, as if he was too afraid to leave you, like all he wanted was to figure out how to make the two of you one. Desperately, you tried to move in tandem with him, but every bit of him was so distracting. You felt every muscle in his back, tried to grab at his thighs and pull him closer to you. Seems you agreed that nothing felt close enough.

So lost in your own little world, you didn’t notice he had been talking to you until he bit at your ear to get your attention.

“Hmm?” You were delirious with contentment, never had you felt so absolutely complete.

“I’m close, angel- are you?” He panted into your flesh and you just turned your head towards him, looking at his flushed, fucked out face with a groan. You shook your head no, then tried to lace together words; something like ‘It’s okay, let go’ or ‘I’ve already been fucked stupid, I’m just a plaything now.’ But in the absence of further response, Hawks took your no as a challenge.

He readjusted his body beneath you, moving to sit on his knees, draping your legs on either side of him. The new angle hit even deeper, and you let out a high-pitched moan of his name. Keigo moved his hands to your hips and he began to pull and push your body, effectively using you like a living flesh light. The way he arched your back and manipulated your body had you nearing your final release and as you opened your eyes to see the way he was studying your every movement you felt yourself clamping down on him.

“Fuck-“ he groaned, head flying back, crimson wings splaying out again. He looked so angelic- so inhumanly beautiful. You grabbed your breasts, pulling at your nipples, just following every urge you had. “Sh-shit angel, just like that-“ his hips faltered for a moment. “Play with yourself- that’s it-“ one of his hands holding your hips rested on your lower belly, pushing down while he brought a thumb to your clit, adding the most delicious pressure until you found yourself unable to hold on.

“Fuck!” You screamed as you felt yourself finally let go- clenching him for dear life, trying to milk him of every last drop. Distantly, you heard the symphony of sound the two of you were creating; the accumulation of whimpers and grunts emphasizing your crescendo. When he felt you cumming around him, he collapsed over you, blindly pounding into your flesh before letting out a final groan of your name. A pleasant warmth spread through you, his hips continued to pump into you slowly until finally he fully stilled, offering you a slow, sensual kiss. His arms slithered beneath you, holding you tight in a hug before rolling onto his back, taking you with him and laying you on his chest.

The two of you were still connected and you distantly noticed that your breathing had synchronized. You were spilled over him like jello, unable to move but enjoying the gentle caress of his hands on your back and your hair. You felt yourself dozing off, feeling completely and irrevocably satisfied.

“That was well worth the wait, angel.” He let out finally. You simply hummed in response, eyes growing heavier with each passing moment. “We should really get you cleaned up.” He added when you didn’t respond. To this, you groaned.

“No. No move. Only sleep.” You spoke into him, words muffled with the way your cheek pressed into his chest. You felt the roll of laughter he let out through his abdomen, jiggling you with it.

“Come on.” He didn’t seem to be willing to give you a choice, giving a short slap to your ass before lifting you off of him without much ceremony, leaving you feeling empty. You whined at the absence of him but didn’t have the opportunity to protest when he swooped you into his arms and princess-carried you to your bathroom.

He sat the two of you into the bath, his wings draped over the back of your tub and your back pressed into his chest. It was a tight fit, and as he leaned over to turn on the water, he scrunched you forward and you let out a groan at the stretch on your sore muscles.

“Sorry, baby bird.” He whispered into your ear softly and you whined, the sound of his voice eliciting a pleasant flip in your tummy. He sent a feather to grab the washcloth you had hanging on your shower caddy and grabbed the bar of soap you had resting on the ledge of the tub before lathering it and moving it over your skin.

You melted into him, letting out a gentle sigh of contentment while you snuggled into him as close as humanly possible. Despite your protests, this was heavenly. Hawks kissed your hair as he continued to clean you, dragging the soapy cloth over your chest and down to your thighs. You ignored the way your body reacted to him, refused to acknowledge the way your hips raised subconsciously to his touch. You could feel his smile against your neck but neither of you spoke. This was tender intimacy.

When the tub was full, he turned off the tap and the two of you simply laid there for a while. Your hands found his and you played with them, admiring the way his fingers slotted between yours, dragging your touches over the dozens of tiny scars and calluses. It was a solemn reminder of the reality of his situation ; how vast the difference between a civilian like yourself and a hero like him actually was.

“Are you sure?” You asked him, abruptly.

“Hm?” He questioned you sleepily.

“About this, I mean.” You tried to figure out what it was you wanted to say. “I mean- where does this leave us? You said you couldn’t go back, so where do we go?” You tried to look back at him, but the stretch was too uncomfortable, so you simply laid the side of your face against his chest.

“What do you mean where do we go?” His hands, which had been limp in yours allowing you to explore squeezed your fingers, and he brought his arms in to hug you. “You’re mine. I’m yours. Simple as that.” You couldn’t help the furrow of your brow, you were thankful he couldn’t see it.

“But why me?” You asked, recognizing how insecure you sounded.

“I knew it was you the first day we met.” He said, with finality. You let out a giggle.

“It was the fried chicken, wasn’t it?” You joked. He laughed into you.

“That definitely helped. But I knew even before that.” The way he said this was so confident, so finite.

“What if- what if this doesn’t work out?”

“Not an option.” Again, he was so sure.

“What do you mean?” His grip released you and he didn’t offer you a response.

Instead, he leaned forward and pulled the plug on the bath, then picked you up again before resting you on the bath mat. Keigo wrapped you up in a towel before grabbing one for himself, then he disappeared into the other room.

“Kei?” You called out, awkwardly, not really willing to move. When he came back, he was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and had brought you your normal sleep T-Shirt.

“Yeah?” He asked as he stripped the towel off of your body and wordlessly dressed you. You felt like a kid but still complied with every silent request he made to lift your arms or move your hair. He picked you up again, apparently to him, you no longer had the need to walk, and he rolled the two of you into bed.

He had laid you down beside him, tucked you in snugly, and was leaning his head on his hand as he gently caressed your face, studying you like he was debating something. You were still awaiting his response to your earlier question, trying to compel him to answer with a slight glare.

“When I told you that I can’t go back…” he started, finally getting to the answer you needed, “I meant it. You’re absolutely everything to me.” He closed his eyes, laying down fully while he looked up at the ceiling. “You’re home to me, (Y/N). The only one I’ve ever had.” He faced you again. “I’m never going to let that go. Even if you wanted me to.” His face was a little frightening as he said the last bit, and while somewhere you recognized you should be concerned by his sentiments , you couldn’t feel anything but joy. You smiled, despite yourself and didn’t miss the confused expression on his face.

“Okay.” You simply replied.

“Okay?”

“I’ll be your home, Keigo.” You rolled the top half of your body over his chest and kissed him. “For as long as you want me.” You kissed him sweetly, then snuggled into his chest and closed your eyes, noting the rapid thumping of his heart in his chest and allowing the tempo to guide you to sleep.

When you woke up in the morning, he was gone, but he had left a single feather behind to keep an eye on you. You weren’t worried, or offended that he hadn’t said goodbye. You knew he would always come home.

#hawks x reader #bnha smut #mha smut #keigo smut #keigo x reader #keigo x you #keigo x y/n #hawks x you #hawks x y/n #bnha fanfiction #romance #hello neighbor #hot neighbor

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adelaidedrubman · 1 year ago

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some scattered thoughts on plagiarism and sharing creative space in good faith before i turn my phone off and walk into the swamp

so, this is a post i have avoided making for well over a year now. because i have spent well over a year minimizing, excusing, and trying to convince myself that i’m crazy and just imagining things. even more so, convincing myself that it’s worthless to talk about, because even if i talked about it, no one would particularly care, and i would only cause myself more heartbreak by officially confirming that.

but the past few days in fandom have dredged up a lot of things for me and made me reevaluate. i’ve found immense reassurance from seeing how ready and willing everyone is to band together to keep the community safe from those entering with the intent to copy the work of others rather than creating their own. i won’t lie, seeing that unity and mobilization on my dash was at times bittersweet when it was interspersed by reblogs from someone who’d plagiarized me.

but i also took the opportunity to move past the hurt and remember this is a community — seeing others have the courage to come forward and talk about the plagiarism they’d experienced inspired me to open up to more and more friends in private about my own experiences, and i cannot describe to you how relieving it has been to find myself validated and supported. sincerely, to everyone who has lent me an ear over the past few days, i appreciate it more than you know. i’ve been brought to tears several times, and feel like i now have the strength to talk about this.

this is also a post i have backspaced on several time, because. well. frankly it’s difficult to even allude to the vague category of most obvious thing that was stolen from me without this amounting to a de facto callout post, which isn’t my intention so much as getting out my feelings and hopefully opening a dialogue about the lasting harm plagiarism does.

so. i’ll just start by saying one of the most hurtful things about plagiarism is that it destroys the implicit trust that everyone is entering a creative space in good faith. most of us don’t come into fandom and oc communities preemptively guarded and ready to go looking for instances of plagiarism, and are far more likely to perceive things as incidental overlap than malicious theft even under circumstances where the latter is more likely. personally, it didn’t even initially set off alarm bells for me when i saw an oc with jestiny’s exact design plus color contacts and terf bangs also sharing prominent symbolism utilized in her story.

my first instinct was to be welcoming and supportive in the spirit of celebrating that creative minds can find inspiration from the same sources. even as the symbolism began less and less to in any way resemble the context of said source material and more and more to resemble the version of the story i told, increasingly picking up elements that weren’t in the original but were sure as hell in my fic. in fact, i went as far as to offer resources on the source material in hopes that it would motivate the person to dig into it and find a way to make it their own, still hoping this was a case of overstepping taking inspiration at worst.

it was after pushing my goodwill that far and giving an out only to then see another of my most well-known scenes copied down to my exact wording and pacing that i got the nerve to block.

and i was naïve enough to think that would actually end it — hurt as i was by what had already happened, at least it was over.

nope.

even after blocking, i went on to see the scraps of another of my most well known scenes lazily repackaged. (i can forgive ripping off jestiny, but i draw the line at sullying poor daniel’s memory. he’s been through enough.) in fact, it continued incessantly enough that i have had multiple people independently send me screenshots of the same passage from within the past month commenting on how blatant it is.

it should go without saying what a violation this was of my boundaries and my creative labor. every single aspect of jestiny’s story is deeply personal to me, both because of the extensive effort i have put into researching and crafting it and because of the pieces of my own experiences and emotions its founded in.

but more than that, what sticks with me is the violation of the implicit trust and vulnerability that comes with choosing to share a creative work. i stretched my benefit of the doubt to its limits at the expense of my own mental health, i assumed good faith and tried to make space, and when i could no longer endure i quietly isolated myself rather than risk sowing discord or simply being a bummer in a fun time space. it made me no longer feel safe sharing works that were especially personal. the pain of the experience was one of the primary reason i put wildfire on indefinite publishing hiatus despite still loving the story and greatly enjoying continuing to write it in private.

still, after the past few days and my own slow process of opening up, i am beginning to develop a renewed hope that we can act as a community and look out for each other. i still genuinely want to think we can by and large share creative space in good faith, and that people coming forward will leave us more ready to identify and deal with bad actors when they do pop up.

and i have hope that i can heal and find ways to be open and vulnerable with my work again. that might mean soon thinking critically about how to curate my fandom experience in a way that will minimize having plagiarism thrown in my face, but for now that’s still a problem for future liz.

for today, i just want to thank anyone who has read this far (y’all know i’m bad at shutting up). i’m still not ready to be super detailed in public, but if anyone wants to know more about the 5 ws and 1 h, you’re welcome to dm me — although i might be slow to respond right now, because i wasn’t being hyperbolic with the title. i am going to be on a camping trip in the swamp the next few days, and might not be online much.

i am excited to have the time to unplug and reflect, and look forward to coming back recharged. until then, please know i am so thankful for all of you, from the bottom of my heart.

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yeah-w-r-i-t-e · 1 month ago

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You reblogged the "send me questions and bother me" tumblr ask post so I thought I'd come to your inbox. I'm feeling like I'm about to get ill (you know, the first symptoms coming up but you can't grasp it yet) and I need some distraction from it.

So: please rank the Mission Impossible characters by how much you like them (please also add characters that only occurred once or twice throughout the series if you want to). Please tell me why. And then rank them again by the chaotic energy they're radiating :D

Do that only if you want to, that is. Thank you and all the best 🧡

Hey, thanks for the ask! I'm putting the rankings under a cut cause it's gonna get pretty long haha

My number one is obviously Benji!! I'm not sure I can put into words why and how much I love him, but I'll try. Benji became my favorite as soon as I watched Ghost Protocol. I love his nervous energy, how he rambles a lot, and how he clearly has a deep admiration for Ethan. My favorite thing about him, however, is how much he grows over the course of the movies! In mi3, he's just tech support. In Ghost Protocol, he's a freshly-made field agent. Obviously he knows his stuff, but he doesn't have much experience. He also has some major hero worship of Ethan going on (and, as Simon Pegg himself said, a crush). Then, in Rogue Nation, we see him confident enough in both his abilities and relationship with Ethan to yell at him and insist on helping. His character development is beautiful, and I only wish mi3 Benji could see Fallout Benji. I'll have to write that someday.

Number two is also obviously Ethan. He's so fucking crazy and I love that for him. But I also love how he's so obviously good. He's such a genuinely good person. And he has so much hope. He basically runs on hope; even when a mission goes disastrously wrong, he still hopes for the best outcome. That's why he's unwilling and unable to sacrifice any life; he has hope for the best outcome and always aims for that rather than a perhaps more realistic one. Have I mentioned I love how he's insane? One of my favorite tropes is when people underestimate how crazy and competent he is or think he's the bad guy, and he proves them wrong. Think Rogue Nation. I love him sm<3

I think Ilsa and Luther are tied for my 3rd favorites! I don't have as much to say about them but Ilsa is so competent (I love that scene where she's sitting on that one guy's shoulders and uses her legs to strangle him and then lands on her feet??? Fucking awesome) and Luther's sarcasm is hilarious (and he's stuck by Ethan this whole time). They're the two best members of Team Hunt (other than Benji ofc).

Okay while I do like the other IMF agents (like Brandt and Jane) I'm gonna skip them to go to my favorite villain: Owen Davian. NOT because I like the guy but because he's a FANTASTIC bad guy!! The interrogation scene where he pretends to have Julia killed??? AMAZING! I think he's the scariest villain of the whole franchise (Gabriel could never lol). He makes me genuinely afraid because he promised to go after Ethan's loved ones and did. He reached Julia, who was supposed to be safe as a civilian, and Ethan could do nothing about it. 10/10 villain right there

Okay, now in level of chaotic energy:

Okay number one is obviously Ethan. He is, as stated before, INSANE. It's not as obvious in the first movie (or even the second, despite the odd showboaty stunts), but it becomes clear when he does crazy shit like CLIMB THE BURJ KHALIFA and HANG OUTSIDE AN AIRPLANE IN FLIGHT that he's CRAZY!!! As Hunley says in Rogue Nation, he's the living manifestation of destiny. Whatever he wants to do, he'll do it, no matter how impossible (no pun intended) it seems.

Number two is Paris! My only evidence is that scene where she goes into road rage in the car chase. I mean, look at this!!!

Possibly controversial but I'm ranking Sean Ambrose from mi2 in third because he cut off his employee's finger and shot him like a million times. And because of this picture of him:

I just think it's funny.

You may be thinking. Where is Benji on this list? Does he not have enough chaotic energy to be in the top 5 at least? The answer is that yes, he does, but I'm afraid I am incapable of being unbiased when it comes to Benji. Ethan is obviously the crazy man of the franchise, but I can't tell if I'm exaggerating Benji's chaotic energy in my mind because I spend all my spare time shaking him in a little metaphorical glass jar. Benji's somewhere on the list. Maybe 2 and a half??

Anyways thank you again for the ask, and I hope you feel better! Sorry it's so late; I had a lot of family stuff today:)

#mission: impossible #asks

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voltrixz · 10 months ago

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Fine ok I’ll go on a whole ass really long electroshocker ramble that’s really really gay

You can blame @canadian-pug-cartel

(Also this might be extremely incoherent, idk I’m just yapping at this point )

Ok I think when they first met with the first time the s6 formed, electro took a small interest to shocker. Sorta developing a small guy crush (or smt like that ) where he’s mostly in awe of shocker and kinda looks up to him, finds him cool and whatever. I guess the best way to put it is the initial guy crush or whateevr thing that deadpool had for Spider-Man when they first met (just less gayer and way smaller in scale because electro could never compete with the levels of homosexuality that Deadpool is dealing with ). But yeah that’s why I think in the sewers when shocker asks soemthing about how they;re gonna defeat spiderman, electro tries to show off his powers but like instantly fails and gets chewed out by doc (most failcringe bisexual….).

Shocker funnily enough doesn’t really think of that interaction much (at the moment he just thinks huh. Weird. And just moves on )but I think it’s funny to think that interaction haunts electro for a while… (biggest embarrassment of his life bro.)

Anywayssssssss, from that moment on the fact that like shocker and electro have similar powers and shocker can help electro train his powers more, doc ock decides to partner them up a lot. This lets the 2 to grow closer and also only furthers the supposedly straight guy crush that electro has because shocker to me would be the type to be very comfortable with physical touch/contact with people he’s close to (and besides he would have to get pretty close to train him,(I saw a post that showed this really well I’ll reblog that after this maybe ) and of course electro is freaking out because he has not felt the touch of another man in years…(and he’s very obvious about it because his sparks are going crazy) shocker however doesn’t take the hint (yet at least)

But eventually electro does get over the totally straight award guy crush and starts being pretty comfortable with shocker. Which makes him become wayyyyy more comfortable with psychical touch/contact, leading for the two to be very comfortable in each other’s space. They’re constantly leaning on each other and what not.

Also forgot to mention that throughout this whole Time shocker is slowly taking more and more interest in electro. Picking up on his body language and such (shocker rlly likes looking at electro’s sparks move and zap, hearing the buzzing and watching his eyes glow or dim) , just observing a lot (he likes observing electro a lot I think ), he finds him weird (reference to that one comic of seeing electro just chow down on a bunch of wires) but also very intriguing

Anywaysss as they get closer shocker’s interest in him grows more and he realizes that such interest is making him feel certain things (gay things. Fag.) and this is also when he puts two and two together with why electro got so nervous around him before. Course electro doesn’t get as nervous anymore but shocker does sometime catch it and he wonders if electro still does like him in that way (he still does btw it’s just veryyyy Lowkey), but yeah as they grow closer, more and more of these feelings keep bubbling up, shocker even hangs out more with the s6 and let’s them come to bar more often yadda yadda.

Oftentimes electro comes by the bar alone and shocker is always glad to see him (often refers to him as his favorite regular ) and the two hang out a lot in the bar even after closing time. They also hang out a lot of the bases’ rooftop (if it has one) and here are where things get gay unfortunately…. (Sorry I’m homophobic ), they ever so slowly try to push what they;re usually used to. They occasionally drop small flirts with each other and their usual touch is far more intimate (such as shocker placing a hand on electro;s face and even fully cupping his face at some point )(how tHE hell these 2 not figured out they’re both into each other I have no idea). And oftentimes the 2 brush it off, eiether switching between being oblivious or thinking it didn’t mean much. But their relationship is very much changing in some way. the two clearly see each other more then jsut friends (and so can the s6 at this point who are so sick of their back and forth ) and there’s a shit ton of pinning but none of them say anything or do anything to confirm that.

On shocker’s end he’s not even sure how to approach this, nor does he even know if he can because while tombstone and his crew are on good terms with the s6, that might not always be the case and he has to make sure whatever he has with electro doesn’t get in the way of his work. On electro;s end we know his shitty track record of relationships and how he handles them so a potiental romantic one could go up in flames, and also there’s that lingering self doubt that makes electro believe that’s there’s no way shocker likes someone like him when shocker could literally have anyone he wants (electro and his crushing self confidence sigh.)

But eventually they do get together. Sorta. (Situationship babey 🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️🗣️🗣️🗣️) and it happens impulsively I think. Some night alone at the bar and shocker reaches for electro’s face and then suddenly leans in to kiss him. Electro kisses back of course and that’s when the two finally get confirmation that yes the two very much into each other. But there’s not much said, just a silent understanding of not being completely sure of putting a romantic relationship label on what they have, but as long as they can do more of this (kissing and whatnot and just generally being more intimate with each other ) that’s all they really need. So wooo situationship, they still do a lot of things they did before (being very comfortable in each others space and leaning on each other yadd yadda ) but there’s a lot more intimacy within them (gay shit booooo boooooo I hate gay people in love boooo booo ) but yeah 👍👍👍👍

And then shit happens in the merc electro au and there’s a breakup or whatever, mega angst time babey 🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️

#THIS IS SO FUCKIN LONG FOR NO REASONNNNN #sigh. unfortunately i am a certified yapper...#THING IS I CAN ADD SO MUCH MORE.#but i shant. for now at least.#voltrix rambles #long post

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souljellied · 2 years ago

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What ADHD looks like for me

I've been doing some journalling lately trying to process this late diagnosis of ADHD and explain to some close friends. I wrote out this list and was surprised to realise some of the ways I've masked which I hadn't even thought of as being related to ADHD. I thought putting this out there might be useful for anyone looking at signs and symptoms and trying to make sense of their own experience.

Feel free to reblog and share your own experience in comments/tags!

For me, ADHD is this:

Too many thoughts all the time, no way to switch them off

Constant low-key, maddening existential boredom - never fully able to engage with anything

Constant low-key irritation and frustration…

…Which blossoms easily into overwhelming rage

Intense, uncontrollable, unregulatable emotions that escalate quickly

Loud, chaotic energy

Inability to focus

Daydreaming and trapped in my own head often

Thinking, doing and feeling a million things at once

Lots and lots and lots and lots of hobbies

Periods of intense, uncontrollable hyperfixation

Over-analysing and over-thinking

Addicted to my phone

Binging on food, alcohol, sex

Missing very very obvious social cues a lot of the time

Trouble with eye-contact

Inability to think long-term

Inability to form habits

Inability to sit still

Talking over people

Talking too fast

Forgetfulness

Impulsive behaviour

Periods of overwhelming depression and suicidal ideation

Forgetfulness

(Hehe, see what I did there? Seriously though, forgetting really obvious stuff, all the time)

Time blindness

Compulsive nail-biting, hair-pulling, skin-picking

Disordered eating

Sensitivity to textures

Executive dysfunction (i.e. knowing you NEED to get up and do something but being physically unable to)

Only able to function under a certain level of anxiety or panic

Exhaustion, needing frequent naps to ‘reset’ my brain

Difficulty prioritising tasks and staying organised

Difficulty working on long term projects

Difficulty making decisions

A deeply internalised sense that I was most likely going to fail or get off-track before I even started a task

Stimming

For me, ‘masking’ (hiding the above symptoms in order to be Normal) looks like this:

constant lies about why I forgot stuff, scrambling to cover up mistakes

staying awake all night to complete things at the last minute

over-exercising so I’m tired enough to sleep

drinking alcohol so I’m tired enough to sleep

putting off errands for ridiculous amounts of time and telling people ‘oh I was just too lazy lolololol’

masking with self-deprecating humour

writing every single little thing on a to do list from ‘brush your teeth today!!!’ to ‘work deadline 2PM’

self-harming in order to regulate thoughts and emotions, and to punish myself for my failures

pretending I didn’t care about the deadline or event or whatever that I missed out on anyway

making ‘chaotic and crazy’ my entire personality because it’s easier to do that than admit to the guilt and shame

isolating myself so that no one can get close enough to see how fake everything is

taking on Team Leader roles to create that same distance and give a sense of control/purpose to my interactions

arriving super early to things so I’m not late

hiding things I’m interested in because they’re unconventional or weird

staying quiet so I don’t interrupt people

sabotaging relationships

forcing my stimming into more appropriate verbal/physical tics

obsessively checking my phone for free dopamine hits

avoiding situations where I might not be able to hide my illness

chronic perfectionism and high standards

double and triple checking *everything* to avoid mistakes

#actuallyadhd #soul has adhd #adhd

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crumbledcastle28 · 3 years ago

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Ruhn Danaan: Personal

Pairing: Ruhn Danaan x fem!reader

Summary: Ruhn thought fake flirting wouldn’t get under his skin. He was wrong.

Warnings: Major jealousy, reader seduces a male, reader gets felt up by a male, reader wears a tight dress, reader has her hair done, Ruhn shatters a glass, allusions to sex, reader is alluded to having curves, LOTS of swearing, Queen Bryce is here too, ruhn bleeds, let’s pretend the White Raven didn’t *spoiler* explode. Set during the events of HoSaB (sort of), spoilers!!, I apologize if things don’t line up with canon.

A/N: I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this man since I finished HoSaB, so I thought I’d try something new. I hope you enjoy :)

If you’d like to leave a like, comment, reblog, or ask, it would be very appreciated <3

SJM Masterlist

(I found this drool-worthy art on Pinterest. Absolute full credit to the owner).

You had known the powerhouse that is Bryce Quinlan for over a decade.

And yet, no matter how much time seemed to pass, her stubbornness never seemed to dwindle.

“I’m going Y/N.”

“You’re mated, Bryce. To the Umbra fucking Mortis. They’ll smell it.”

“So? You would be surprised how little that matters to the right male.”

She placed her hands on her hips as she said this, and your eyes trailed down her body. Her skin-tight dress brought out the best parts of her, and the red of her hair was even more vibrant against the dark shade of black.

Beautiful, as she had always been.

“I’m being serious, Bryce,” you responded. “You’re Starborn. You saved this city. If this male has real, usable information on the rebellion, he’s not going to tell you.”

“And he’ll tell you?” she questioned back.

“Yes,” you responded breathlessly. “You would intimidate the Hel out of him, while I am a random female buying him drinks. If I get him drunk enough, he’ll spill.”

Bryce gnawed on her bottom and lip and fidgeted with her rings. A faint pink began to show beneath her freckled face.

“I don’t like this Y/N.”

“I know Bryce,” you responded, “that’s why you’re coming with me.”

“Still,” she replied, “if you get pulled into a separate room, how will I know you’re okay?”

“You know I’ll be okay. I can handle myself,” you said, and moved a bit closer to her. “Whoever this male is and whatever information he has, it’s not worth you being in danger.”

“Danger?” said a voice behind you, deeper and more gruff than either you or Bryce had ever made your voices.

A shot of electricity shot down your spine, and your mouth instantly dried.

“Ruhn,” Bryce mumbled with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously? I want my key back.”

Ruhn Danaan

Half-brother to one of your closest friends, and the hottest male you had ever laid your eyes on.

You turned around with a gulp, reeling in the feeling that his voice gave you no matter how many times you had heard it, and squeezed your hands at your sides.

And there he was. Ruhn Danaan. The Crowned Prince of the Valbaran Fae, and your decade long crush.

Holy Hel did he look good.

It was obvious he had just gotten off from the Aux. His tight black leathers covered him from his back down to his legs, and his tattoos bulged on his forearms. His hair had been the same since the day you met him—long and shaved on one side—but it never failed to do his sculpted face justice. His lip piercing was just visible enough, and the Starsword strapped to his back showed just how broad his shoulders had become over the years.

He was intimidation personified, so much so that it felt like you were standing in his shadow, and you could not take your eyes off him.

You must have been crazy, stupid, insane, but the blue eyes that stared at you every time you closed your eyes didn’t seem to want to leave you either.

You were dressed similarly to Bryce—tight dress, glittery heals, hair and makeup done more so than usual, and fancy perfume emulating off of you— which was making you feel like you should sink into the floor.

Had he ever seen this much of you?

You weren’t embarrassed, you could wear whatever the Hel you wanted, but his slow gaze over you from your feet up to your face sent beads of sweat dripping down your back. He had to have been able to smell your fear—and, of course, other things.

You were so fucked.

“Danger tends to follow me,” Ruhn replied, “but it seems that I followed it this time.” His eyes didn’t leave yours.

He wasn’t talking about you. No way.

Bryce huffed in annoyance. “The only danger here is Y/N thinking she can seduce a rebel sympathizer into leaking information.”

Ruhn’s eyebrows raised. “Seduce?”

You swallowed. “If need be.”

“‘If need be,’ of course you will have to,” Bryce mocked. “It has happened every time you’ve done something like this.”

“Every time?” Ruhn questioned, and folded his arms over his chest. “So you’ve done this before?”

A hint of mischief coated his irises, and your heart had never beat so fast.

“Only out of necessity,” you responded with the best smirk you could muster.

Ruhn huffed out a laugh. “Well Bryce, it seems like Y/N is more experienced in this field.”

“You’re my brother,” Bryce responded. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’d really rather not see you get targeted by the rebellion because of your star Bryce,” Ruhn said, gesturing to her chest.

“I’ll hide it.”

Both you and Ruhn gave her an unimpressed look. You both knew it tended to shine whenever it wanted to.

Bryce groaned in annoyance. “You’re both the worst.”

“Either way I’m going with you,” Ruhn said, tipping his chin up with pride.

“Not in that outfit you’re not,” Bryce responded, and you chuckled.

“And what would you prefer me wear Y/N?” he asked with a tease. Heat began spreading from your cheeks down to your neck.

Nothing.

“Something without a literal target on your back.”

Ruhn laughed through his nose.

“Fine. I’ll meet you ladies at The Raven,” Ruhn said, floorboards creaking as he backed out of Bryce’s apartment door.

You couldn’t miss the hint of excitement coating his eyes, and the heat pooling in your lower stomach.

~*~

The last thing Ruhn expected to see when he entered Bryce’s apartment was you looking the way that you did.

And holy Hel did you look good.

He had known you since you and Bryce were sixteen years old, and as soon as you laid eyes on him, a girlish film went over them. He remembered it. Vividly.

You had obviously found him attractive, and he viewed it as one of Bryce’s silly little friends with a silly little crush.

Until, he was lucky enough for Bryce to reconnect with him. And that was when he saw you. Really saw you.

It knocked the wind from his lungs to see how you’d grown up, and the female you had become. The more he got to know you, the more he realized how self-assured, confident, and fucking smart you were.

And seeing you in that dress. Gods. It cracked the little control he had left into a million pieces.

He had his eyes on you now. He wanted you, badly.

In the beginning, he thought it was just a physical thing, but as the months developed, so did his feelings.

These quote-on-quote “feelings” made him feel like the sixteen year old. He thought he knew his way around women and females, but you tended to send him right back to square one.

And he was about to watch you, potentially, feel up a random man for information.

He brought his drink to his mouth and took a large gulp. He savored the burn of it in his throat.

“There she goes,” Bryce mumbled next to him, and the two of them watched as you slowly made your way closer and closer to the male target. His heart quickened with each step you took.

Bryce and Ruhn were seated at a table far enough from the bar to be subtle, and Ruhn had changed into a plain grey T-shirt and jeans. His hair remained down, and he sure as Hel wasn’t opposed to revealing more of his tattoos.

He saw how you looked at them. He didn’t want you to stop.

“I should be the one doing this,” Bryce mumbled. The male had finally taken notice and introduced himself to you.

“Relax, Bryce,” Ruhn replied. “She’s going to be alright.”

“You just want to watch this. Pig.” Bryce threw back a shot of some sort of clear liquid.

Ruhn raised his eyebrows and took another sip of his drink.

Maybe.

You leaned against the wooded bar in such a way that your curves were highlighted in the party lights. The makeup you chose brought out your eyes perfectly, and the male was becoming more and more interested in the way your hair curled over your shoulder.

Your eyes flickered over the male, and you leaned closer and closer, inch by inch.

Ruhn leaned forward in his chair, watching your every move. Blood pressure rising.

The male leaned in closer, and brushed your hair from your neck. You tipped your head back to show that you enjoyed it, and the male took the opportunity to whisper something into your revealed skin.

You smiled, eyes closed, and the male’s large hand squeezed around your waist. Pulling you into his chest.

And right at that moment, right as your hands covered his chest and his hands moved down your body, it was as if Ruhn’s senses had been dialed to 0.

The music disappeared. The slight buzz he had disappeared. The flashing lights and dancing bodies around him disappeared.

There was only you, wrapped in the arms of another male, looking fucking incredible.

And smiling.

He expected to enjoy this, but he didn’t. Not at all.

Never in his life had Ruhn’s vision tunneled so quickly.

He felt his heart plummeting to his feet, so fast he felt the nausea hit him like a wave, and his normally even breathing quickened to an uneven pace.

Fake.

This was fake.

Don’t take it personally.

You brought your eyes away from the male’s face and down to his arms. Your fingers that were once splayed over his chest now moved to his bicep, tracing the intricate ink that Ruhn hadn’t noticed before.

It sure as Hel feels personal.

Ruhn didn’t realize how tight his jaw was until it started to grow sore, and he didn’t realize just how many times he had imagined you doing that to him until it wasn’t him.

He could make out Bryce’s faint voice next to him, asking if he was okay, but the lack of oxygen and blood flow through his body only allowed him to focus forward.

The male traced his finger down your spine, and Ruhn’s fae senses allowed him to pick up on the chills that erupted across your arms.

He felt his face begin to grow more and more red, and the grip on his whiskey glass become more and more relentless.

The male watched as you traced down his arm, smirking, and he brought his free hand to the side of your face. He tilted your head to the side, and whispered something in your ear once more.

You rubbed your lips together and nodded, and the male dipped his mouth down to where the tendons in your neck met your collarbone.

Ruhn’s nostrils flared.

And then, as if he had all the time in the world, licked a clean stroke all the way up to your ear, and you exhaled loudly from your mouth.

Ruhn heard it. As much as he didn’t want to, he heard it.

And the idea that he wasn’t the cause of it caused his control to finally snap.

The force of his grip on the glass became too much for the cheap material, and dozens of tiny glass shards rained over the table like a firework.

The liquid from the whiskey dripped onto the sticky wooden table, and the rest covered his hand to his wrist.

“Ruhn!” Bryce scolded next to him, shaking glass shards from her hair and brushing them off her dress. “What the fuck.”

He didn’t even turn to look at her. Or his hand. Even as he felt warm blood start to drip down his wrist as well.

No. He kept his eyes forward, like the trained leader he was, and felt your eyes meet his own.

The male next to you looked annoyed, but not shocked. Like he saw stuff like this all the time. He waved his hand to the bartender, gesturing to clean Ruhn’s table that was now covered in whiskey and glass.

But not you.

You kept your eyesight locked into his, and a thread of understanding stretched between the two of you.

You knew he had been watching you, you knew he shattered the glass, and you knew why.

Your lips grew into a toothless smile, and the thread of understanding pulled tighter.

He knew you knew, and he knew you liked it. He could smell you—what you were thinking.

A similar smile etched on his face.

The rest of the club, the city, the world disappeared as you looked at each other. Knowing how the night would end.

Tag list: (since this is a new character for me, I decided to start a new tag list. If you’d like to be tagged for Ruhn or for any of my fics, please let me know!)

@leahkenobi

#ruhn danaan #ruhn danaan x reader #prince ruhn #ruhn danaan smut #crown prince of the valbaran fae #ruhn Danaan angst #crescent city #crescent city fanfic #hoeab #hoeab spoilers #hosab spoilers #post hosab #throne of glass #acotar #sjm books #sjm #sarah j maas

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babyboiboyega · 3 years ago

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I can explain (Shangqi x f!reader)

Shangqi x f!reader

Prompt: “When everything’s going wrong, the mere thought of you makes it right.” + never wanting to pull away kiss

Content: a little angst, but more fluff

Word Count: 1.6k

Babyboiboyega’s Marvel Masterlist

A/N: this is my first ever time writing for Shangqi (or Shang-Chi), and I already have a lot of other ideas for this incredibly loveable character.

I hope you all enjoyed this!

A heavy sigh left Y/N’s mouth as she unceremoniously dropped onto her couch. The feeling of her limbs relaxing into the cushions almost prompted a moan of relief to follow the heavy sigh. It did, however, make her eyes flutter closed as she leaned her head back.

Y/N had been thinking of this moment the entire day. The moment when her week ended and her weekend began; a weekend of not having to deal with rude, angry-at-the-world customers who decide to yell at her because a privately owned publishing warehouse doesn’t print the book that they want. Or the customers who don’t check their emails for their tracking information and then get mad at her, for some absurd reason.

Another sigh leaves her mouth, and this time with the sigh goes her thoughts of work, entering the empty air for the weekend.

But being off on the weekend didn’t exactly mean being absolved of texts and calls from fellow coworkers, ranting about customers, or even management. So when her phone’s ringer went off, signaling a new incoming text, she simply kept her eyes closed. She certainly had enough time to read and reply...but maybe later.

The text had already migrated to the back of her mind in the span of a few seconds...and then her phone went off again. This time, two quick “dings” sounded through her apartment.

Her eyes opened before she slowly sat up, her phone coming into view. Before she could spare another though about her phone and it’s notifications, her hand quickly reached for the remote and pressed the power button.

She managed to flip through a few channels before her phone rang once more, and this time it was accompanied by a few knocks on her door.

Completely disregarding the fact that it was almost 11 at night and she hadn’t been expecting anyone, and being fueled by her now very obvious annoyance, it only took her a few strides to reach her door. In all honesty, she’d had no idea what she was going to say to whoever was on the other side of her door; but whatever had been ready to leave her lips died as soon as she opened the door.

“Shaun?”

She hadn’t been able to control the volume and surprise in her voice, and she saw his grimace in response. She couldn’t find it in herself to care if he didn’t like the volume in her voice; the very next emotions she felt surge through her body was...well, it was a cross between worry and anger.

“Y/N...hey.” He had a sheepish smile on his face; one that showed off his dimple. One that she had to restrain from returning. But then she remembered the last time she had seen that same smile and the last time she had even heard from him. Her eyebrows raised incredulously.

“‘Hey?’ ‘Hey’?? That’s all...that’s all you have to say to me after being gone for...a month? And some weeks?”

She could hear the hurt in her own voice, and it made her want to cringe at herself.

‘He could have been doing more important things than worrying about you’ is all that went through her mind.

Her arms crossed self-consciously in front of her.

“Please, let me explain. It’s… it’s actually crazier than you think.”

The hesitance on her part came from her nagging thoughts that flipped between “he was genuinely busy” and “he’s about to make up some absurd excuse for why he hasn’t spoken to you while also letting you down gently”.

“May I come in?” His eyebrows were raised as he gently asked for her permission. Y/N quickly nodded and stepped to the side before her thoughts could scare her too much.

His eyes stayed on her as he stepped past her, entering her apartment. She took a second to take a deep breath before closing the door behind him.

She briefly wondered how her face looked as she turned to face him. Did she look as hurt and worried as she felt? Could he see her feelings on her face?

“I’m sorry for disappearing for...as long as I did. And I’m sorry for not reaching out at all during that time. But I can explain why.”

His eyes followed her figure as she walked slowly around her kitchen counter. He made no effort to hide the pleading look in his eyes, and he only began talking when Y/N raised her eyebrows from across the counter.

“Okay. Just...bare with me.” Y/N’s eyes narrowed and more questions filled her mind as she watched him take a breath as if he were bracing himself.

Y/N hadn’t known what to expect when he had started talking, but she definitely wasn’t expecting a story filled with martial arts, trained assassins, ancient organizations, soul-sucking demons, and dragons.

Even after he had explained everything, his eyes watching and waiting for her reaction, she still couldn’t find the words to express herself.

Her body was frozen in its same position, and her eyes were wide and staring right at him. As the silence stretched between them, he couldn’t help grimacing slightly once again.

“Also, my name isn’t really Shaun. It’s Shangqi.”

That last piece of information seemed to finally shake Y/N out of her stupor, as she blinked quickly and let out a quick breath.

“I...I don’t know what to say.” In all honesty, all of this was kind of making her head spin, and it was evident in the way her breathing picked in just the slightest.

“W-What exactly do you say to someone who’s just saved the world? ‘Thank you’? ‘I owe you my life’- because, I guess, technically, I do owe you my life. Because of you, I still have my life- or my soul.”

At her rambling, Shangqi’s expression shifted from one of wariness to relief to a little worried. It had only just crossed his mind that he was worried that she wouldn’t believe him, and not worried about how she would receive the information.

She believed every word that had just come from his mouth, simply because she knew that he wouldn’t lie about something like this. She knew that he wouldn’t lie to her… at least she hoped he wouldn’t.

“You don’t have to say anything. I...I just needed you to know why I was gone. The thought of letting you go one more second thinking I just...left you was driving me crazy.”

A humorless laugh forced its way through Y/N’s lips.

“Yeah, thinking I had driven you away was driving me crazy too.”

Before she could even regret her words, her eyes were drawn to Shangqi, whose head was shaking quickly. In a few steps, he had walked around the counter, coming to a stop a few feet from her.

“That was never the case, I swear. You could never drive me away, not even if you tried.”

At the minuscule smile that appeared on her face, he risked taking another step forward.

From where he stood, he could smell faint traces of her favorite perfume that had slowly worn off during her day. Her favorite perfume had quickly become his favorite scent, simply because it reminded him of her.

From where she stood, she could easily see the faint signs of exhaustion on his face. No doubt from the strains of the last month and a half. It made her want to reach out to him.

“Every second, from the moment we left, all I could think about was coming back to you. Even while staring into the face of a-”

“A mega soul-sucking demon?”

The quiet laugh that left his mouth seemed to weigh on her body, but not with pressure. Instead, all she felt was warmth, and it coursed through her veins with the power of 11 suns.

“Yes,” there was laughter in his voice as he responded, “even while staring into the face of a mega soul-sucking demon.”

As he spoke, he had gradually moved forward until taking a deep breath would easily have their chests brushing against each other.

Y/N couldn’t keep the tremor out of her voice as she spoke, her eyes flickering between Shangqi’s.

“You...you really thought of me when you were saving the world?”

Her eyes fluttered closed as his hand raised and gently cupped her cheek. Soon after, she felt pressure from his forehead connecting with hers. Without hesitation, her own hands lifted, coming to grasp at his sides, desperate to pull him closer.

His breath fanned across her face as he spoke, and it made her hands tighten.

“When everything’s going wrong, the mere thought of you always makes it right.”

His words were quickly swallowed by Y/N’s lips pressing against his with fervor. The hand that was on her cheek gently titled her head back as he kissed her back with just as much passion, while his other hand wound around her waist. They both pulled at the other, as if they couldn’t get close enough.

The warmth that had been coursing through her veins quickly turned into leg-numbing electricity the longer their lips were connected. Her eyes were closed, and so were his, but they could both see the other’s face behind their lids, surrounded by the stars their presence created.

The only thing that could pull them apart was the need for air, and even then, as their foreheads connected and their lips stayed hovering over each other’s, they breathed the same air.

Shangqi’s words were shaky as he spoke, his thumb rubbing circles into her skin.

“You make everything right.”

**********

Once again, I hope you all enjoyed this! I would take requests for this character, but I still have a ton of requests for LOK....

But maybe sometime in the near future!

In the meantime, I would appreciate it if y’all would interact in any way with this! Comments, criticism, questions, etc would be amazing, as would reblogs, but even just liking this helps!

Stay safe, y’all!

#shangqi #shangqi x reader #shang chi x reader #shang chi #shang-chi imagines #shang-chi fanfic #shang-chi drabble #shang-chi oneshot #shangqi imagine #shangqi oneshot #shangqi drabble

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night-market-if · 3 years ago

Text

Paper Lanterns Part 28

Paper Lanterns is a community based IF game here on Tumblr. I need something to fuel the creative fires while I chip away at The Night Market demo, and I want to give you all a little something in the meantime. Here’s how it will work.

I will post a snipped under the cut every few days. At the end of the post will be three options. Comment below or send me an ask if you would rather be anonymous, over which route you would like to see. I will tally them up and write the majority option and post it in the following days. From there, we repeat the process until we, as a community, have crafted our story.

Please reblog and share this with others. The more people we have participating, the more fun I think this can be for us.

Winner of the last vote: “You’re not going near her then. She wants you dead.” Respond in fear and practicality

You stare at Malcolm for a long and uncomfortable moment. A moment in which he meets your gaze head on. There was a lot you could say to this revelation. You could rage. You could approach it with understanding. Yet, the overwhelming feeling was confusion. You didn’t want to examine how close you had been to the truth and how many times it had happened. You didn’t want to think about all the ways he could have helped you and all the things he may be doing wrong. Or maybe it was right? It didn’t matter. None of it did. Because when it was all boiled down to the bare minimum of things, the Baron of the Mists was after the Gatekeeper. You were not putting Malcolm in that amount of danger.

“Well, then that settles it,” you say pragmatically. “You aren’t coming with me.”

Leaning forward, Malcolm presses his forehead to your own. A move of comfort you often showed him. “You don’t get to make that decision.”

“What?” you say shakily, forcing a smile “Big bad Baron now and you think you don’t answer to anyone? No, darlin’. You absolutely still answer to me.”

“And to me,” Hazel pipes up. You point at her as if to say ‘see?’

You feel Malcolm smile. Sometimes, you forget how he had not been protected when he was younger. How the three of you became friends out of a necessity for survival. He had always been the solid one, however. The one who was the rock to both you and Hazel. Perhaps it was simply because he was the oldest.

“Malcolm,” you start gently. “You wouldn’t risk me….”

“I have been risking you. I’m just not doing it any longer.”

“I’m not going to be doing it at all,” you counter. “How can I take you with me when it is clear that she had been trying to flush you out.”

It was obvious now that I thought about it. His name having been mentioned by Belladonna, the hint that the Baron was on to you. You being picked for the job, his ex lover, when it was clear others were better for the task. Impossible timelines. An obstacle at every gate. You were set up for failure and danger over and over again in hopes that Malcolm would step forward.

“What if there is a third option?” Hazel asks. You look at her from across the table, your hands having wrapped within Malcolm’s owns at some point during the conversation. “We let her come to us,” she offers. “Going to the Cathedral seems like a stupid idea no matter how you spin it. At least if she comes to us, it’s on our own grounds, and we may be better able to defend ourselves. I have enough magic to make a statement…”

“No,” both Malcolm and you tell her immediately.

Malcolm looked at her like she was crazy. “I just got you out. They were not posting bail for you Hazel. They were going to put you either in the flesh pits or the tunnels. Why would I knowingly send you right back to that fate?.”

“Oh, I don’t know. So the two people I care about don’t die.” Tears gathered in her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled over the reality that you all suddenly found yourself in. “Malcolm,” she begged. “The Baron of the Mists could kill you. She is not a kind woman. And you always said you didn’t want to become a vengeful spirit. You didn’t want to be the things wandering these streets lost and alone. You know as well as I do, if you die, that is exactly what you are going to be. The Night Market will have a claim on you.”

Malcolm shuddered at the thought. It was an old tale that circled the few that had been born within the Market. You could never leave. Not even in death. Immortality altered the mind, however. If there was one thing that Malcolm feared the most, it was being trapped within these streets, lost in his own head.

“Look, the obvious answer is to let me go and talk to her.” He did his best to ignore his sister. You could see he was trying not to think of what could become of him. Or what could even become of her in the upcoming hours. “Yes, I am outing myself as a Baron, but it sounds like suspicions were already high.”

“Belladonna said that you were the one Baron no one wants. They think you hold too much power.” It had been presented to you as a coo. Flush out the Gatekeeper in hopes of riding him of the hold he had over the Night Market.

Malcolm laughed a little at that. “I absolutely hold too much power. This is quite possibly the worst job. Do you know what it is like to hear requests nearly every second of the day to enter the Night Market? People pleading to get away from the nightmares of their life along with the vanity of men and women simply wanting to go shopping? I hate it. I hate it more than anything. I also control it all. Decide who comes and goes, and when. I keep the Market safe by making sure every last gate is secure and sequestered away. Wiping the memories of those that mean to leave this Market and give away our position. Do you know what the does to a person?”

“So give it up,” you tell him. You can see the weariness settling across his face. Something you had blatantly ignored upon him entering your life again.

“He can’t,” Hazel said sadly. “The only way for a Baron to lose their power is for it to be taken from them. You have to kill a Baron in order to take the place of a new one.”

You slump back in your seat. Your head spinning. The rules and regulations of the damn Market had never made sense to you and you, not for the first time, wished you could make it all go away.

“So that means…?”

“It was an accident,” Malcolm says. “But yeah. I killed the old one. Didn’t even know he was a Baron at the time. Surprise surprise when I felt all that transfer to me.”

You sit in silence, the three of you, no one quite sure what to say or do. Only that something was looming on the horizon and there did not seem to be a clean way out of it.

“I still say we fight them on our terms. At the apothecary,” Hazel said after a long drawn out moment.

“I’m okay with this not happening at the Cathedral,” Malcolm says, “but neither of you have the power to deal with a Baron. I do. We can meet them at a neutral place. See if I can help strike a deal.”

You swallow thickly. Both of them were looking to you to make a decision. To weigh in on their fates. The responsibility of the future had never felt more heavy than it did in that moment.

Voting now closed: Part 29 here

Agree to Hazel’s plan and try to protect her as best as you can.

Agree to Malcolm’s plan and try to protect him as best as you can.

Agree to neither plan. You did this to yourself. You have to hope that you don’t die and that you can get away from the two of them without detection.

If you haven't seen, Chapter Two of the Night Market is now out! It is linked below if you're interested. Reblogs and feedback are also love! Also, there is a Paper Lanterns discord now. Click the link below to join.

Patreon || Ko-fi || Demo || Discord

#paper lanterns #interactive fic #community if #hazel albright #malcolm albright #you choose #getting towards the end and I am not ready for it

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