#i have left hints in the pictures so you can figure out who the wolves are

[kibu-me]

"A curse of madness has been cast upon the remote village of Mankai... Can you guess who the Wolves are?"

(aka a3! x werewolf game)

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Attack Of The Winter Wolf: Salvaging The Lost

Summary- 6.3k Alpha Steve x Little One Reader. Your old pack has been torn apart by the Winter Wolf and Alpha taken. Steve and You rally the last together and offer then a home with you, some take the offer, others don’t. Steve and You prepare to go elsewhere though. A part of Steve’s past might have the answers needed. Divider made by @firefly-graphics​

Warnings- Mentions of blood, death, smut- fingering. 

A/N- Thank You for reading and following along with Alpha Steve and Little One. It means so much to me that their story is read. I hope you all enjoy. It is a slightly slower chapter. As always, thoughts, questions and theories are always welcome. Happy Howling. 🐺💙

Chapter Two / Masterlist

After you two came to a stalemate, you insisted on heading back outside and helping the remaining wolves. Steve didn't try to disagree, even though he could see the tired lines under your eyes from the events that night. His Alpha could feel it through their bond, finally returning to his Little One who was pacing, whining. The silver wolf approached her with a slight nudge and embraced her when she sunk into him, being her strength.

 So Steve stayed close to you, even though you square your shoulders and did your best to show strength to those left. The moment you and Steve stepped out of the cabin, the scent of dried blood and death hit you both. It made your stomach roll and tears prick your eyes. You felt Steve’s touch against your hip, turning you into him momentarily so you could press your face into him, inhaling his calming scent, the woodsy smoke and steel covered the dried blood enough for you to regain your control till you pulled away. 

What was the worst part of it was that you were becoming accustomed to that scent of blood and chaos. It was sinking into the ground like a story to retold. It reminded you of the last stand with Pierce, of your Alpha bloodied and panting letting you lean against him in the underground cold tunnels, those burning moments when the Little Wolf was fighting against the serum you were given. You shook your head a bit to clear your thoughts and Steve's hold tightened as he tilted his head to your shoulder, inhaling deeply with a hot press of his nose against your mark. “You don't have to do this Little One. No one will think differently.” Everyone was in shock right now, wandering aimlessly trying to find the surviving members of their pack. Hard to believe that four wolves could cause this much destruction, killing off most of them and taking their Alpha. 

You lifted your head and weaved your hand with Steve’s, squeezing a bit. You were lucky, you still had your Alpha and mate, unlike others. Kat nearby wandered from body to body, searching for Caine. The Little Wolf whined seeing her friend search for him. Your throat shut at the pain she must be feeling. That selfish part of you thankful that wasn't you searching for Steve. “I have to Steve, they are my family.” You unwind yourself for him and went to Kat, who just blinked at you. Her eyes red rimmed as she knelt next to someone, feeling for his pulse. 

“I can't find him Y/N, I don't know where he is.” She croaked out and you sunk down next to your friend, reaching to take her hand in yours. 

“I’m sorry Kat, I'm so sorry… they took him.” You cupped the woman's face, making her listen to you. You could tell when it sunk in, when your words had a meaning for her, the utter defeat seemed to deflate her as she collapsed in your hold, her sobs shaking her as you gently tried to soothe her, strokes over her hair and along her back as she broke with her head in your lap. Steve watched a moment with a deep inhale and clenched jaw. Even the Alpha admired his partner so willing to take the others pain as your own so they wouldn't be alone. 

It was apparent that the pack no longer had their own Alpha in the midst of all this, and Steve cupped his hands around his mouth and sent out a howl, calling those still alive to him so he could give them direction. Right now they needed a leader to pull them out of their shock, figure out where to go from here. 

You felt your chest rise hearing your Alpha calling the others, his deep howl of “Come to me” made your own head tip back with the answering “Im here, Im here” song. Others started to join, moving in groups as they came out of the woods to return home, a mix of wolves and humans filling the sky with a mourning song. 

Once they joined the Alpha, Steve quieted, looking at the wolves who weren't his own, but in desperate need of him right now. “Let's put the fallen to rest.” He simply said, and the wolves dispersed to gather those they lost. 

Soldat happened to hear the Alpha’s howl he left behind reassembling the survivors from miles away. Not that there were many, it was the mission to disassemble the pack while removing the Alpha. Broken packs usually didn't survive long. The wolves either abandoned the area, finding family in other packs, or went into No Man's Land to live as loners till they lost themselves or found another to join. The Alpha they just collected was young. He laid curled up at Soldats feet, having shifted into a sleek black wolf. Soldat reached down, grabbing his muzzle to lift his head and inspect him for a moment. The Black Wolf stared back at him in defiance while Soldat snapped a picture of him to send to Brock. 

~Mission complete, we will drop off the asset and be ready for the next mission. 

He hit send and dropped the wolf's head to let it crash back to the floor. It wasn't long till an answering text beeped. 

~Excellent, stop by the office for your next orders.

Soldat leaned back in his seat, quietly they drove. Under Hydra’s control, the wolves no longer sought the companionship a typical pack brought them. Even the twins sat apart from one another, staring ahead at nothing. Just waiting for the next mission. That was all there life was about, completing the mission. There was no remorse in what their actions just caused. 

It was hours of finding the dead, hours of you finding the broken wolves in shock and doing your best to help them. Some point Natasha joined you all, having found you first. She wrapped you in her arms, and you let your friend hold you while you sunk into her strong hold. Everything smelled of death, but not her. She felt like home, as much as Steve did, and you let her be your strength momentarily.

“I got here as fast as I could.” Natasha squeezed you a bit more before letting go to step back, her hand coming to wipe at your streaked face. “Let me go check in with Steve and I will take over here. You look exhausted.” 

“No, I'm okay.” You shook off the hint that you needed a break, but lifted your head to find where Steve was, closing your eyes as you sought him out using the bond. It was a gentle brush between you. Your Little Wolf went to seek for her Alpha, twining her body around the tired Wolf and pushing her muzzle under his chin in a nuzzle. The motion made you smile to yourself, because you knew Steve felt it too by the immediate warmth you felt flow through you. “He’s over that way.” You said and Natasha glanced over to see Steve making his way over, just as much a mess as You were right now. Natasha let go of you to meet up with Steve, embracing him as well before stepping back so he could wrap an arm around you, your hand sliding up the back of his shirt to knead the small of his back, seeking that connection. 

“Natasha, you’re a sight for sore eyes.” Steve gave a weak smile and Natasha gave a knowing smile back, nodding. 

“I imagine, were you able to track where Bucky and the rest went?” 

“Just to the road, I didn't dare continue. Not with everything that had happened here. It was… terrible. Whatever they did to him, they have full access to his Howling Commandos training, no one stood a chance here. Or any other pack they catch by surprise. I already warned Sam, seeing how close they are.” You could feel him rumble slightly, obviously wanting to return home to be sure their home was protected. 

“This is the second in the area they have hit. They are just picking up momentum. I don't know what they are doing with the Alphas. But every one is the same.” Natasha bit her lip as she looked around. Even though the bodies have been moved, the ground still showed the story. You thought again how the blood soaked ground was going to be haunted by the memories of all the evil that had happened here. Natasha broke your thoughts. “What can I do to help?” 

“Pick up the trail and see if you can tell where they are headed next Nat.” The silent command of ‘Make sure they are not headed for home’ was heavy between them. Natasha gave a nod and disappeared in the woods where Steve directed her. 

The Alpha nudged at Steve when Natasha slipped from sight. <She's tired Steve, it's time to clean up and rest.> 

Just what I was thinking as well. 

“Come on Little One, you are dead on your feet and the others are going home to rest.” He nudged your temple with a slight bump as you both turned around. He was right, the grounds looked basically deserted now, it seemed hard to believe this had been a bustling lively pack not even a day ago. Now, it looked abandoned. 

You let Steve lead you back to the cabin. “Go take a shower.” He eased you towards the stairs leading to the second floor. Making your way halfway up, you paused, looking over the railing. 

“What about you? Are you coming?” Your voice had a bit of a concerned whine in it, and he gave a reassuring smile. 

“In a minute. I'm just bringing us up some food and I will join you Little One. Now go on up.” His tone deepened, not demanding but encouraging you to listen, and you did. Each step up made you feel heavier, and once you entered the bathroom, you couldn't wait for the hot water to take away the feeling of death that clung to your skin, filling your senses. The idea of food made your stomach turn, but you knew it was just Steve trying to take care of the two of you. Downstairs you could hear him moving around and then the creak of the steps signaled he was making his way up when you stepped under the hot water, gasping as the heat encased you. 

Steve brought up a tray of food he found in the fridge, making each of you a sandwich with grapes on the side, along with water. He would have done more, but right now he just didn't have it in him. Setting it aside on a night stand, he made his way for the shower. 

In it he could scent your heated body, fresh with the scent of scrubbed soap, and a deep inhale of the steamy air lifted him a bit. He was looking forward to washing off as well, and ridding himself of his clothes, he joined you in the shower. You side stepped out of the spray so Steve could rinse off before going to clean himself. 

Groans of appreciation at the hot water came from both of you and as you finished rinsing off, you took the cloth from Steve’s hand and scrubbed the spanse of his back and shoulders, leaning against it while wrapping your arms around his midsection, enjoying feeling him so warm and solid against you, so very much alive. 

“Mmhh tired Little One?” Steve asked softly while rinsing off his chest, wide hands rubbing the suds away and you pressed a kiss between his flexing shoulder blades before dipping around him to step under the spray, rinsing off the soap. 

“If I said No, would you believe me?” You blinked up at him and he cupped your face in his hands, his eyes scanning over your face that was dripping from the shower, he shook his head and kissed the droplets from your lashes and down to your wet lips, kissing you slowly. Savoring the feel of your warmth in the kiss, his tongue stroking yours before pulling away. 

“I would be telling you that I knew better.” Steve stated while reaching around to turn off the shower and stepping out to grab a towel and hold it open for you to step into. When you did, he whisked you dry and you tucked it around you while leaving the bathroom to make your way towards the bedroom. 

Steve was quick to follow, sure to gather the clothes and going into the bedroom. He found you sitting on the edge of the bed, doing what would normally be your routine before bed even though it was edging right on mid morning. Your hands swiped the light smelling lotion along your arms and over your shoulders. Steve didn't even bother with boxers or sleep pants. He crawled into his usual side, stretching his side and reached over to skim patterns against your back while you let your head dip forward, setting aside the lotion you have been using. “You okay Little One?” 

You gave a shake of your head and you felt Steve’s arm circle around your waist and pull you in closer. You flipped in bed to face him, laying in against him with your head pillowed on his shoulder. “Why did that have to happen? They were just becoming a real pack Steve.” Your hand lifted to wipe at your face and you felt yourself sink further into Steve's hard body the more he rubbed at your hip and along your ribs, dipping along your curves. His rumble was deep when he pressed his lips to the tip of your head, letting his nose press against the crown of your head, burying into your wet hair. 

He wished he had the answer, something to take the pain he could feel tightening inside of you, the bond sharing waves of sorrow for your old pack. Steve tugged you in closer, your face pressing against his chest, and he felt the hot tears start to fall. 

“You should sleep Little One.” He responded while wrapping you in close and you gave a slight nod, wrapping your arm around him as well as your leg. Steve reached over and tugged a sheet over you while you cried against Steve. 

After a while you lifted your head to look up at Steve. “I just want you to know I don’t blame Bucky, Clint, or the twins. I know they are not killers.” 

Before Steve could say anything, you arched up to kiss him, whispering against his mouth. “I love you Steve, always will.” 

“I love you to Y/N” he said softly, flushing gentle nips on your jawline and rubbing his chin against his bite on your neck while you settled back down. Soon after that you went quiet and let yourself fall asleep, Steve though ended up staying awake. His fingers drifted up and down your back while losing himself in thought. The Alpha gave a gentle nudge to the Little Wolf to see that she was sound asleep before he stretched out next to her, watching over the two of them while she slept. 

<You know she wouldn't blame Bucky, it wasn't him. None of that is him.>

It's just… even in the midst of all this, she isn't angry. It's just sadness and I got to just let her feel it. There is nothing I can do. 

<That is not true, we will be there for her, her strength when she needs it.> 

Steve smiled to himself hearing the wolf, as always the beast spoke common sense he sometimes didn't seem to have. Giving a sigh, he let his head fall back to let himself drift off along with his mate.

Hours passed and you woke to find Steve not next to you. Rubbing your face in his warm pillow, inhaling deeply. He hadn't been gone long. Lifting to see where he was, you saw him sitting on the edge of the bed, talking on his cell. 

“Yea, There aren't many left Sam. And they don't have an Alpha anymore to keep them together.” 

You heard Sam respond, but couldn't understand beyond the muted sound of his voice. You shifted across the bed to drape gently against Steve’s back, letting your forehead press against the back of his neck, soaking in the warmth radiating from him.

“Same track of mind Sam, I was just thinking the same thing. I will tell Y/N. Give Sara our love and be ready. Talk soon.” With that he hung up and tossed his phone to the side. You shifted around and moved to straddle his lap, rubbing your hands against the back of his neck. Steve's hands fell to your hips and pressed a kiss to your mouth. “Hello my Little One.” he growled softly while you arched in against him, rolling your hips while you whimpered softly, nipping at his chin gently. 

“Hello Alpha. What did Sam say?” 

Steve rumbled slightly enjoying the feeling of your hands on his neck, the way your fingers brushed into his hair and tugged slightly. “I was filling him in with what happened.” He buried his face in your neck and inhaled deeply, getting lost in you then. “How we are going to offer any that want to come back with us are welcome to stay with us. They can’t stay here.” You worked your fingers against a knot in his upper back, smiling when you felt him groan into the curve of your neck. “That feels so good Little One.” 

Nipping at his ear, you shift to a stand. His hands trailing down the back of your thighs. “Thank you Steve, for taking those in that are in need of a home. For being an Alpha they deserve.” 

He followed up to a stand and reached for the bags to dig out clothes for both of you. “How about we go make the offer together, Little One?” 

Handing over some clothing that you started to pull on, you nodded. 

The wolves that didn't have a place to go ended up taking Steve on the offer, the rest making arrangements to move on. Preparations were also made for burials, those remaining picked a peaceful spot in a clearing. 

Within a few days Sam brought a crew with him, familiar faces and scents easing Steve. It was a solemn event, shared with tears as the ground was broken to lay those to rest. Each grave site was marked with a sapling that Sam had brought with them from the nursery they used to replace the areas they logged. The saplings once all set in place would one day become its own untouched forest, giving some form of life in the midst of the tragedy. That night the clearing was filled with the mourning howls telling the packs life story to the stars. 

Steve took the time to call the other packs in the area, warning them of the recent attack, even though word of mouth had spread. The last number on his list, Tony. He hasn't really talked to the Alpha since the confrontation with Ross, but he just couldn't bypass him.  

Leaning against a tree where the solitude surrounded him, he let the forests calm wash over him while the AI placed him on hold. 

Tony was going over spreadsheets with Pepper when Friday announced Steve Rogers was on hold. The pair looked up at each other in surprise. “Well… this is a surprise.” Tony admonished and Pepper pointed at the phone. 

“Answer it Tony, You know that Steve wouldn't call for no reason.” She grasped both their coffee cups and moved to a stand. Tony groaned a bit while watching his mate leave, making her grin at him over her shoulder. “Now Alpha.” Then she disappeared from sight. 

“Yes Ma’am!” He stated while reaching to pick up the phone and hooking it under his ear. “Stark residence.” 

“Tony? That you?” Steve grumbled into the phone. 

“Yes Steve, it's me.” Tony rolled his eyes up, leaning back to place his feet on the edge of his desk. “What is going on? That's the only reason you ever call me.” 

“It’s not exactly like we're friends, Stark.” Steve started. 

“Ouch Rogers, here I thought we were.” Tony snapped, unable to pass up a chance to rile the serious Alpha. 

“Stark.” Steve started in a warning and then his voice changed. “Listen, there is a group attacking wolves, they just destroyed Y/N’s old pack. Demolished them, there are only a few left.” 

This caught Tony’s attention, dropping his feet and sitting up straight again. “Is it the ones who killed Happy Steve? Who was it?” 

Tony waited, silence on both ends of the call till finally Steve spoke. “I really don't know if they killed Happy or not Tony. I will say if they did… it wasn't by choice.” 

Tony snapped to a stand while Pepper came back in, immediately her wolf was agitated seeing her mate gripping the edge of his desk, his voice sharp with commanding tone looking for answers. The one he used when he was upset, only this was Steve he was talking to. Steve couldn't be commanded by anyone. She immediately set the coffee down and went around the desk, her hand moving along his back while he snapped into the call. “But you suspect it, don't you Rogers.” 

“I'm not saying anything, all I'm saying is that you know Bucky, Clint, Pietro and Wanda would never hurt anyone willingly, not innocent lives.” 

Tony and his wolf stalled a moment. <He found them, finally.> Tony had as much invested as Steve, seeing that the twins were his pack mates. But none of his trackers were able to get as close as Natasha had been able to, all these months they just kept hitting dead ends on trails gone cold. 

“Did you see them?” He finally asked and Steve gave a Mmhm in response. 

“They weren't themselves Tony… those fucking collars Pierce had, they had something similar on. Thinner, filled with magic. I've seen them before, years ago. And only one has ever escaped them that I know of.” 

“You're talking about when you worked for Fury in Shield.” 

“Yes, when Bucky and I were in the Howling Commandos unit. I also think I can get some answers. As soon as these wolves are settled, I'm going to go get them. You have my word.” 

Tony sat back down, easing Pepper into his lap for the connection. “Whatever you need Rogers, let me know.” 

“I was hoping you would say that.” Steve responded. 

You stood at the car Kat had packed, holding her hands in yours as a teary goodbye was said. “Kat just stay safe out there, okay? I wish you would come home with me. No Man's Land, being a Lone Wolf…” You worked your lip, wrinkling your brow. “Who's going to watch your back?” 

Kat smiled sadly, shaking her head. “I need to be by myself. Maybe, maybe Caine is still out there you know? We don't know what they did with him. I have to go look for him.” 

You squeezed her hands, trying to make her hear your next words. “That's what Steve is trying to do, him, Natasha, other packs. They are doing their best to find Bucky, Clint, Wanda and Pietro. Bring the other Alphas home.” 

“Im not looking for everyone, I’m just looking for one.” Kat stated softly while untangling her hand from yours and circled her arms around you in a hug. “I know they are trying, but I have to look on my own too. I can't just sit and wait for others.” Her head dropped to your forehead, and you both just inhaled against each other in your last embrace, committing each other to memory till your paths crossed again. You had to relent. If it was Steve, you would be doing all you could to find him to. 

“Stay safe Sister.” You whispered and Kat pulled away with a nod, digging out her keys and slipping into the driver's seat. You circled your arms around yourself, watching as the car pulled away and out of sight. With a sigh, you turn to head back to the cabin, watching as Steve continued loading up a truck from someone's house. Lifting the last bag of clothes in, Steve circled around a truck he was loading up for another and wrapped you into his arms, kissing the top of your head. 

“She will come back when she's ready, Little One.” He hugged you in close as your head laid on his chest, giving a nod. 

“I know, it's just hard letting any of them go on their own.” 

Steve hummed a bit in agreement. “Everyone here is ready to go, Natasha is coming back to bring them home.” You lifted your head in wonder as to why the two of you werent. Steve rubbed your back, looking down at you. “We're going somewhere else.” 

“Where are we going?” you tilted your head in question, loosening yourself enough to look at him without craning your neck. 

“Stark. Remember how I was telling you I've seen it before? When Bucky and I were in the Howling Commandos?” You gave a nod to confirm. “The shifter who got away, he went back to his home. I want to find him, ask him how he managed to break loose of the collar.” 

“So… where are we traveling to?” 

“Norway.” 

Your eyes widened a bit, echoing what he said. “Norway?” 

“Yup, if Fury’s intel is correct that Tony acquired, a little town called New Asgard.” 

You couldn't hide the grin, knowing then what that meant. “Means were getting a jet, aren't we?” 

Steve gave a wink at you, breaking out in a grin of his own. “Sure does Little One, you gonna let me teach you to fly it?” Clearly remembering how much you had enjoyed the ride from Wakanda in T’Challa’s jet. 

You played your fingers up his shirt, skimming fingers against his stomach, gently scratching over his muscles that twitched in response to being touched by you. “I'm going to insist on it Alpha.” 

Steve huffed at your playfulness, snapping his teeth near your lips and clasping his hands against your ass, giving a squeeze that made your arch into him with a giggle, some of your sadness fading away being with him. “Look at you getting all demanding. I like it.” He nipped at your lips and you smiled against his mouth, growling back at him momentarily. “But let's finish up here and we will get on the road again Little One.” 

It was a few hours till Steve and You were the last ones left, while you waved goodbye to the last car driving away, the compound now eerily quiet. Steve nipped at your neck, nuzzling the back. “Ready to head to New York Little One.” You reached behind you and took his hand. 

“More than ready Alpha.” 

The drive was several hours, Steve had given you his phone to go through the email that Tony had sent him recalling the information of that particular mission. You read it out loud, while Steve stayed silent listening. Letting the memories of the Howling Commandos wash over him. He could tell the way your voice lifted and words rushed that you were getting caught up in the intel like it was a story. “... And then Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes was taken hostage while covering his team members from higher ground.” You set the phone down, Steve could sense you looking over at him. “How long was he with them?” 

Steve was quiet a moment, his fingers thrumming on the steering wheel. “Weeks Little One. The day he was captured we were removing prisoners from an experiment facility and I had scanned the area. It was all clear, so I thought. Somewhere I missed them coming back into the grounds and Bucky… well he was so focused on making sure the victims were being covered from above that they were able to take him hostage.” 

“How was he when you all found him?” You moved over closer to Steve, and he reached over to grasp your thigh lightly, his thumb sweeping back and forth soothing, probably more for himself then for you. 

“Luckily they had difficulty moving Bucky around, I'm guessing he put up a fight stalling their plans. Made it alot easier to track them with them being hindered. When we found Bucky he wasn’t as some other hydra victims but he was weak. Some of the damage was irreversible. His left arm was damaged, and as a wolf why he limps like he does on that left side. Some of the trauma to his mind.” Steve went quiet once more and you leaned your head against his shoulder, pulling your legs up. “Before that happened, Bucky would have been the next Alpha. He had the mentality for it, outgoing, part of the crowd, a born leader. Afterwards though, he almost left the pack to No Man's Land. There were so many times the Pack mentality was just too much, disappearing into the White Wolf for weeks living feral on the other side of the lake.” You heard the tinge of sadness in your mate for his closest friend, mourning for the man he once was. 

“But he had you, Steve.” 

Steve’s jaw clenched, the muscle ticking a bit. “If I had been more diligent, Bucky never would have been caught.” That's when it hit you that Steve blamed himself for what had happened. You tilted your head to inspect him, and Steve glanced at you from the corner of his eye, patting your leg. “All in the past Little One. Right now we're focused on what we have to do today.” 

You settled in against him. “You got him back then, we will get him back again Alpha.” 

He rumbled slightly without saying anything else. But his foot dropped on the gas pedal, picking up speed in order to get to New York faster. 

It was edging on midnight when he finally pulled up to Stark Towers, which Tony was waiting right out front with Pepper at his side to greet them. When Steve got out of the truck, he held out his arm and slipped it around your waist to have you slide out, when your feet hit the ground, you arched in a stretch and a yawn, making Tony chuckle. 

“It's quite a ride, I'm glad to see you two make it.” He said genuinely, holding his hand out to Steve in greeting, which the Alpha accepted with a hand shake and one to Pepper as well. 

“Pepper, pleasure as always.” Steve greeted Pepper warmly, and she returned the handshake. Tony took one look at you, giving a slight bow of his head. 

“Y/N, I sincerely hope you forgive my actions after my last visit to your home. Regardless of the circumstances, it shouldn't have happened.” 

You take a moment to consider, Steve rubbing his hand along your back reassuringly when you give a nod and hold out your hand. “Accepted Tony, Thank you.” The Alpha covered your hand in his with a smile. 

“Thank you Y/N. Now let us give you a place to crash for the night? The jet is still getting fueled and might as well head out well rested. Norway is a several hour flight, even for one of my machines.” 

Steve glanced at you as you did back at him, both of you coming to a silent agreement as the soft pattering of rain started around you, and the four of you escaped back inside. Steve gave a slight shake of his head to rid himself of the rain water and you used your sleeve to wipe away the rain water from your face. Heading for the elevator, Steve and Tony discussed some of what had happened the past few weeks, Pepper once in a while asking her own question, and Steve drawing you into the conversation when needed. But you simply answered the questions before falling silent once more, not really having the energy to be engaging to their hosts. 

After several moments, the elevator dinged and Friday announced the floor level while it opened. The entire floor was a wide open floor plan, Pepper smiling at the couple. “We hope you two will be comfortable here.” 

Steve nodded and you reached over to embrace Pepper for her kindness. “It's more than enough, thank you.”

“We will leave you two kids to rest then.” Tony was prepared for a quick exit, which both you and Steve were grateful for given the long trip there and the one upcoming.  

Biding good night, you and Steve were left alone to settle in for the night. Steve was quick to send you to shower, knowing it would make you feel better and he went in after you while you dressed in some pajamas, brushing out your hair while you wandered the suite looking around. 

You stopped at the ceiling to floor windows that ran along one wall in the suite. Your room was almost at the top of the tower, it gave an expansive view of New York City at night. It almost stretched as far as you could see, and it made you feel a bit small so high above it all, all these lives not knowing you were looking down on them. The water from the rain streamed down the panes of glass making everything slightly out of focus. Your fingertips pressed against the coolness of the glass, tracing the streams of water running down in an endless rush to get someplace else. 

Behind you, you could hear the water to the shower turn off and the sounds of Steve moving around before the door creaked and the light to the bathroom shut off to leave you both in the dark of the room. There was a bed behind you, large and inviting after a day of travel, and you should make your way there. But the beauty of the glowing city held you enraptured. 

Feeling the warmth of Steve's body move up behind you through your thin sleep shorts and tank top, you sunk back into the hard length of his body, your eyesight going out of focus to see Steve’s reflection in the glass, his eyes glowing a soft yellow haze in the darkness where the Alpha was so close. You inhaled deeply, reaching behind you to draw his arms around you, shifting his hands to slide under your shirt. 

“You smell so good Alpha.” You whispered as his fingers trailed the band of your shorts and dipped beneath them. “Woodsmoke and the forest, home.” You could feel him easing to touch you, the rumbles coming from his chest sparking your arousal. It had been days since you felt him like this, not since the day of the attack. 

Thick fingers traced your folds, easing into your heat while circling your clit. Your head fell back to his shoulder with a satisfied sigh. Steve trailed his nose from the crown of your head down to your neck while he circled slowly, pressing down hard enough to make the heat in your belly grow and your legs have a slight shake. Snaking his other arm around you, he palmed your breast into his palm, sinking his teeth into your neck to keep you held against him. 

“You remind me of home, always so good for me. Letting me take care of you. I love you so much Little One.” He growled softly and you spread your legs for him further, letting him take over. Fingers sunk into you, scissoring against your fluttering walls that started to clench, trying to hold on as he stroked your walls, knowing just where to find that spot that made you cry his name. 

“Steve, uh- more please.” you whimpered out, with Steve you could become needy, wanting only what he could give you.

Steve smirked against your neck hearing you, feeling your wetness start to pool against his palm that he was now using to press against your clit while his fingers plunged back into your wanting heat, moving faster the more you started pressing your ass back into him while rocking in his palm. Your hands were made to press against the glass as Steve stepped forward, pushing you to trap you between him and the windows. The coolness of the glass seeped through your thin tank and the warmth of Steve's fingers rolling over your nipple made it pebble, taunt and sensitive, making you whine out sharply. 

“Steve I have to-” 

Steve rumbled behind you with encouragement, your hips rocking faster and rubbing his cock harder between your ass cheeks. You could feel it rigid and thick with desire but it was all lost when he nipped behind your ear, his breath hot while he growled out his words. “Come on My Little One, My Omega, show me how good you feel.” 

The spiral of heat exploded from your belly to rush all over, locking to hold him while Steve was sure to keep you upright. The city lights wavered in your gaze, losing any focus till they became starbursts in the glass. 

Your forehead leaned against the cool glass, your hot breath fogging up the glass while you came back from your orgasm, the bursts of lights started to come back into focus when you felt Steve hard behind you, rutting his hips against yours.

He growled possessively against your mark, gathering you in his arms, ready to take you to bed and finish what he started. You clung to him, rubbing into his body with a purr of satisfaction, seeking that mindless escape with your Alpha. 

[nekokoaa]

Wolves Among Us - Bakugo x Reader (XVI)

Wolves Among Us – Bakugo x Reader

Series Warning: Fantasy AU, Fluff, NSFW

(Chapter XVI/??) All chapters in AO3 and masterlist

Phew, glad I got this out! Enjoy!

Taglist:

@freedom-for-bum@reallyfuckingangrylatina@risarisarisaa@ashherssss@mels-heart@xa-dia@shanty-lol@amkxh@chims-kookies@fantasticapple@thalia-luna-hawthorn​@skzero-99@marvelobsessedteen@thenezuko@icythotsenpai

-------------------

XVI: Bonded

Your clothes dropped to the floor with a soft thump, rimming around your ankles as your eyes briefly looked over your nude body in front of the mirror. You could hardly see yourself since the fog around the edges of the surface crawled until it completely engulfed it. Even a brief wipe on the mirror did nothing to deter the fogginess. As long as you were near the hot springs, you figured it would be like this. You gathered your clothes, folded them, and left them on top of a table.

In your peripherals, you spotted Ochako approaching you, cautiously and light on her feet. Like she was hunting you or something, but she was really nervous to speak to you. She pulled you aside earlier today to talk to you about what you stumbled upon. You were with Katsuki at the time, so you told her later before the bathing ceremony. It was another one of the wolves’ traditions before the wedding day, which was tomorrow. You found it was similar to bachelor and bachelorette parties instead the bride and her friends and the groom and his friends would hang out in the hot springs the night before. Their last night before becoming bonded.

“Are you mad at me…?” Ochako’s wolf ears were pulled back and her tail hung low and limp behind her. Even her natural curls in her hair seemed dull. Although it could be the surrounding humidity being the cause.

“I’m not mad,” the image of Ochako on top of Izuku resurfaced in your head, “just surprised.”

“Izuku and I wanted to keep it a secret especially with what’s been going on in the pack. We just thought it would cause trouble.”

“It’s okay. It’s none of my business anyway.”

“Then why does your tone sound short with me?” A whimper left Ochako. She was biting her bottom lip.

“It was awkward seeing you guys like that, but I’m not mad, really, I’m not.” It was true. There wasn’t a hint of anger within you. You kind of just wanted to forget what you saw.

“Hmm,” another whimper, “okay then…”

Ochako then left you alone, turning around and disappearing in the heavy steam coming from the outside. You followed after her shortly, exiting the cave and walking through the steam. The deeper you went the less opaque your surroundings became until it revealed large pools of water with stones and large rock formations curbing the edge. The surrounding trees were slanted forward while it’s branches and leaves enclosed like a curtain sufficing the perfect privacy.

Mitsuki, Mina, Kyoka, Momo, and Tsuyu were already relaxing in one of the pools, deep in conversation. Ochako was climbing in, toes first, her worries melting from her expression, at least temporary. When the rest of the girls spotted you standing by the pool they beckoned for you to come and you listened. Mimicking Ochako, your toes touched the water first and already you felt its hotness that you yelped and pulled your feet out.

Mitsuki laughed.

“Just throw your whole body in! You’ll adjust!” Mina said with a grin.

You doubted her words but followed it anyway. You couldn’t hold back the painful groan that left you. Through gritted teeth, you submerged your legs in the water and walked through with until you sat between Mina and Mitsuki. It was only a couple of seconds until your body adjusted to the heat and you returned a smile towards Mina.

“This is nice…” you sighed, already feeling the heat penetrate your strained muscles.

“I knooooow. I needed this. Especially after dealing with all that set up for tomorrow,” Mitsuki moaned and sunk deeper into the water. Her skin was flushed pink from the heat. It was amazing how good her skin looked for her age, not a single wrinkle in it.

“I’m excited! It’s been a while since we had a wedding. Last one was…”

“Mine!” Mina interjected Momo, raising her hand in the air.

“Oh, that was a blast. Remember when Eijirou started crying as soon as he saw you?” Kyoka laughed.

“Oh, Eijirou cried his eyes out! But that was very sweet of him.”

“You were beautiful that day. I don’t blame him.” Momo smiled softly.

Mina giggled, “If I wasn’t pink already! Well, now it’s ____’s turn tomorrow. Nervous?” She turned to you, leaning until her shoulder briefly bumped yours. Tsuyu already pulled herself from the water and sat on the rocks with her legs still half in. She fanned her hot cheeks, thin tongue flat on her bottom lip as you could swear you heard a small “ribbit” from her.

“Um, is it obvious?” You chuckled to hide the nerves that resurfaced whenever you thought about the wedding.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about. You’re just marrying my loud-mouth son.”

“I understand why you would feel that way.” Momo also pulled herself from the water. “Being bonded is not easy. You can’t just think about yourself anymore.”

“Yeah and wait until children come in the picture,” Mina sighed.

“You and Katsuki were waiting until the wedding night, right?” You didn’t think your cheeks could get any warmer until you heard Ochako’s question.

“Ooooh yeah, are you ready?” Mitsuki nudged your shoulder with her elbow.

“I—yeah I am… Actually, I was wondering… do you guys have any advice for that night? I never had sex before—like I know what to expect but I don’t want to seem inexperience.”

“You shouldn’t worry about that. Just have fun,” Kyoka shrugged.

“Well, one advice I can think of is if you like it, don’t hesitate to give him a scratch or two,” Mitsuki smirked.

“Maybe even a bite! You won’t regret it,” said Mina.

“It’s a huge compliment. We love scratching and biting during sex. It’s how we show if we’re enjoying it or not,” Momo added.

“I’m sure Katsuki will take good care of you. Maybe be honest about how you’re feeling at the moment too.” Tsuyu dipped back into the water.

“If anything, the only thing you should worry about is becoming pregnant.” Pregnancy? It was something you didn’t consider a possibility. “Katsuki was conceived on our first night being bonded. I’ll never forget the look on Masaru’s face when I told him I was pregnant weeks after. He was so happy but so terrified at the same time.”

“On your first night?!”

“Yeah, now you and Katsuki will be living away from us for a few weeks so plenty of time for me to finally become a grandma!” Mitsuki looked genuinely excited but her words had worried you. It was a tradition after the ceremony for newlyweds to live away from the pack for a few weeks to enjoy their time alone—an equivalent to a honeymoon. You had no doubt you and Katsuki would be sexually active during those few weeks, but pregnancy and children was something you didn’t even think of. You weren’t even sure if Katsuki wanted children so soon.

“But it’s not like I’ll get pregnant during that time, right…?”

The women looked to one another, their expressions unreadable. It worried you to no end until Mina spoke up.

“Um—Well, things happen, you know? You don’t really know when it happens but the more you do it, the more chances you’ll have.”

Tsuyu nodded, “but it’s nothing to really worry about. You have Katsuki and us to help you if that happens.”

“Okay…” you gulped. Fuck. You really didn’t think that far, but now you seriously had to. It wasn’t just marrying Katsuki because you love him but creating a partnership that’ll help you grow as a person and possibly a family. You never thought of yourself as a mother and wasn’t sure if you could even handle it. It was a conversation worth talking about with Katsuki.

After the hot springs, you said your good nights to the girls and retreated to your cave. Katsuki wasn’t there so you assumed he was still at the springs with his friends. You decided to go to bed before him and crawl under the sheep wool covers.

But you couldn’t fall asleep. You were anxious, of course. Tomorrow, you were to become a bride, a wife to a wolf. But it wasn’t just any wolf but one who was a descendant from Fenrir and the future leader of the largest wolf pack on this side of the planet, and you would also be considered a future leader once you marry him. It was why some wolves were still against it. They didn’t want to take orders from a human. You understood that.

Most of the pack decided to tolerate it. They were more loyal to Katsuki and the Fenrir bloodline and if that’s what he decided, they would go along with it. Some even used the argument that Fenrir’s wife was human, so it was permissible for Katsuki to marry you. The few who were against the wedding were given permission to leave the pack until they were ready to return. Mitsuki would accept them with open arms.

“You awake?” You jumped slightly as you felt Katsuki climb into bed. He expected to find you asleep, but you were lying in bed with the covers over your body and you were staring at the burning candles on the table. You felt his heavy arm hook around your waist and turn you around to face him. You felt your cheeks warm up. Gosh, there was just something about seeing a shirtless Katsuki in dim lighting with the shadows hitting his face and muscles just right.

“Yeah I am. How was the spring?”

You soon felt his fingers in your hair and his face moved close, then you felt his lips touch yours, kissing you lightly but with a sort of aggression that only seem to fit Katsuki. He even let out a growl when he pulled away like he was reluctant to do so but had to. He didn’t move far but stayed close enough for you to feel his breath. You also felt his tail wagging as it would smack against your thigh sporadically—the only indication that he was happy right now.

“Good. Were you waiting up for me?” You realized Katsuki’s skin was still moist from the springs when you stroke the side of his arm.

“Not really, couldn’t sleep,” you started drawing circles in his skin with your finger.

“Thinking about tomorrow?”

Your eyes flickered up to find Katsuki’s glowing red ones with a hint of gold reflecting in them from the candle flames.

“Yeah… Can’t believe it. Kind of feels like it was yesterday when I met you.”

“Yeah…” his fingers lightly brushed your arm. He looked tired. “You’re scared?”

You laughed.

“More nervous actually—Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you at the altar or something—I’m just a bit worried about becoming a wife and a leader. You know—me being human and all.”

“You’re worried about that shit again? I told you—”

“I know what you told me. But you know I can’t help but think about it. I’m not insensitive like you,” you sighed. You didn’t mean to sound so harsh. Although, Katsuki was unaffected by your tone.

“You don’t have to think about being a wife or leader. Everything will be the same only that we’re bonded forever. Don’t let all these duties and those old jerks cloud that.” The ‘old jerks’ that Katsuki mentioned were the Elders. The Elders were advisors to the pack leaders. They usually like to give their opinions on what goes on in the pack, but the leaders have the final say. You met them a couple of days after the party and it was a group that consisted of four men and four women, all elderly, hence the name ‘The Elders’, and you remembered that they didn’t stop pestering you about your studies about the wolves’ culture and surprisingly, baby plans. They even questioned whether or not you were pregnant now. The nerve of them!

“I can’t believe they asked if I was pregnant.”

“I don’t blame them. We don’t wait until marriage to mate. You probably would’ve been a mother already.”

You looked at Katsuki through wide eyes. He was just telling the truth but something about it unsettled you. You weren’t ready to be a mother and won’t be for a couple of years.

“I can’t imagine myself… pregnant,” you mumbled. “Do you even want children, Katsuki?”

You thought you should have this conversation with him since there was a good chance of you conceiving on the wedding night.

Katsuki shifted slightly to where his head was on the pillow and the arm around you started to squeeze your waist and his hand began to roam around your back. Whenever he did this, he was preparing to sleep.

“I wouldn’t mind having a few brats running around, you know…” he yawned, his large fangs on display for you.

“I don’t think I’ll be ready until—maybe, after a few years?”

“Take all the time you need… Don’t let those old jerks pressure you… I’ll wait…”

Before you knew it, he was snoring lightly, his eyes closed, and body limp. Katsuki was tired from everything he had to do today. Before he hung out with his friends in the springs, he helped the pack with the final preparations for tomorrow, setting up the stage, the sitting area, making sure everything was in order for you two to wed. So, it did not come as a surprise that Katsuki nearly knocked out the moment he climbed into bed.

You sighed softly, and you still couldn’t fall asleep.

You brought a hand to Katsuki’s cheek and softly caressed it. Your fingers touched his nose and parts of his lips. You then moved to buried them in his hair and as soon as you touched his wolf ears, they began to twitch. You smiled because you thought it was so cute. That wasn’t a word you normally used to describe Katsuki, but it definitely fit the situation.

You continued playing with Katsuki’s hair, waiting for sleep to claim you.

The echo sound of drums being beaten was what woke you out of your slumber. It was early in the morning, perhaps a few hours since the sun had risen. You heard your name being called and you opened your eyes and saw several wolf women surrounding you. You let out a gasp, bringing your covers over your chest when you noticed it had fallen when you sat up. You quickly looked to your right and noticed the space next to you was empty. Where was Katsuki?

“Sorry for scaring you,” one of them said, smiling lightly, wolf ears fluttering. “But you have to get ready for the ceremony.”

“Congratulations!” Each of them said immediately after, already pulling you up by your arms. Your covers dropped. You couldn’t shield yourself because they were still holding your arms. Even though they were women, you still felt self-conscious.

“Ah—wait, where’s Katsuki?”

“Future leader is already getting ready. You won’t see him until it’s time for the bond.”

The women then gathered some of your clean clothes, helping you dress before they pulled you towards the bathhouse. You were practically pushed into the baths, and they scrubbed and scrubbed on your arms and legs until you felt yourself turn raw.

“Humans have such soft skin,” one of them commented, seeing parts of your skin start to bruise before they dumped a large bucket of warm water on the top of your head. “Don’t worry, we have some cream that’ll make those go away.”

“You’re so lucky, miss, to be getting married to our future leader!” One of them gushed and the rest giggled.

“L-Lucky, really?” They brought you to your feet and helped you step out of the bath. They immediately began drying you with towels. You haven’t been this pampered since… never.

“Of course! Future leader is the descendant of Fenrir, the first wolf. There’s magic in his blood, you know.”

“And not only that, but he’s hot.”

“And I heard he’s good in bed.”

The women could not stop yammering about Katsuki even after they dressed you up in simple clothes and guided you back towards the mountain. Once they had you in a cave, they undressed you and moisturized your skin with that cream they spoke of and they sprayed an excessive amount of perfume all around your body including your inner thighs. They mentioned something about smelling delightful for the wedding night. You found yourself at their mercy as they sat you down in front of a mirror and began doing your makeup and hair. Slowly, you watched yourself transform. By the time they were done, you looked like a completely different person.

And then it was time for your dress that was custom fit to your size. The women mentioned that it was a dress designed specifically for Katsuki’s betrothed. As you looked in the mirror, you couldn’t believe the woman staring back was you. Not that you ever thought you were unattractive, but you have never seen yourself look this beautiful. Even the women who helped you dress were in awe of your beauty, soon telling you that it was Katsuki who was the lucky one.

The drums were louder outside. They echoed into the blue sky, absent with clouds as the sun shimmered brightly upon the mountain. There was no longer any snow except for the mountain tops and the temperature was the warmest it’s been since winter diminished.  It was a glorious day to marry. Many of the wolves believed it was Fenrir himself, giving them his blessings.

Crowds of wolves had already gathered in the courtyard. It was a mixture of different packs from nearby lands that traveled far to see the descendant of Fenrir marry. The energetic Kaminari Clan, the strong Toshinari Clan, the mellow Aizawa Clan, the caring Ashido Clan, and more well-known packs were all here. And even though there were wolves who disagreed with who Katsuki was marrying in attendance, they respected his family line enough to be cordial. A wolf marrying a human hasn’t happened recently in modern times. In fact, in some packs, the hatred of humans was so severe that if caught having a relationship with one would lead to exile, hence becoming a lone wolf.

Regardless of their opinions, Katsuki was relieved that all seats were full. He was sitting cross-legged on a cushion on the stage, arms folded at his chest, while he waited for you to come out. He could see everyone’s faces from this height. His mother was sitting in the front row along with all the pack leaders and the Elders. The second row was family and friends—those who were close to him and you. He had to hold back his snarls when he saw Izuku next to Ochako. He hated that he came but it was what you wanted, and he wasn’t going to deny what you wanted on your wedding day. Surprisingly, the pack wasn’t so against having him here so at least his presence didn’t cause any problems.

Katsuki’s traditional garments were his usual but he was lathered in jewelry from necklaces to bangles. Black lines of paint from his forehead, over his eyes, to his chin and under. His left shoulder was red and swollen from the tattoo he received before dawn, an intricate silhouette design of Fenrir’s head surrounded by a border with rounded edges—a symbol that he’s a bonded member of his bloodline. And on top of his shoulders was the fur top of his red cape that draped the stage behind him dramatically.

To everyone, Katsuki looked like a powerful, stoic leader ready to be wed. But internally, Katsuki was nervous as any man on his wedding day. It was the feeling of butterflies in his stomach which he wouldn’t have been able to describe until this day. Katsuki of the Bakugo Clan, descendant of Fenrir, next in line for pack leader, had never been nervous before and he never thought he would ever be bombarded with these feelings because of a woman. Katsuki used to walk this earth untamed—no strong bonds that tethered him. He always expected to wed a random woman, probably forced to by the Elders because he was getting older and he needed to birth an heir. He never would’ve predicted that he would marry for love, nor did he desire to at that time.

But ever since he first saw you, there was a force that pulled him to you and he hasn’t been able to shake it off—not that he wanted to, of course—but it was a tether that connected you two, an unbreakable bond that would never sever even after death.

Katsuki looked up the moment he heard the drums slow to a steady beat. It could only mean one thing. You were coming out.

As if on cue, all the wolves turned their heads to look down the aisle.

Katsuki was quick on his feet, steady red eyes glued on you when he saw you standing at the end of the aisle. Oh, his heart fluttered wildly at the sight of you, palms clammy like fire had come from his fingertips. You were the moon to him, beautiful with a glow that had him staring for ages. Apparent, even in the darkest of surroundings. Full, in the shape of your hips in your mostly white dress where the hue changed to a fiery orange-red at the bottom—like fire lilies, like his eyes, his cape. At that moment, he questioned if you were real because he couldn’t believe such a woman like you would be by his side willingly.

When you started to slowly walk towards the stage, Katsuki made his way down the stage, almost slipping on the first step, and recovering ungraciously that it had you giggling—A warm tune that made his ears twitch in joy, heart palpitating, hands shaking. He didn’t care how clumsy he looked walking down those stairs. He wanted you in his arms already. Katsuki’s strides were wide and covered more ground than you. He ignored the hissed words of his mother telling him to slow down.

And when he met with you at the center of the aisle, he grabbed your arms and saw through the veil covering your face that you were smiling—widely, giggles leaving you like you were mad.

“What are you laughing about?” He growled, a playful smirk on his face. He saw that you were decorated with jewelry similar to his own on your ears, arms and wrists but your neck laid bare for his golden necklace to be put on.

“Hehe… you tripped.”

Katsuki sucked his teeth, pulled you closer, and pressed his forehead against yours. He breathed in your scent deeply and you hummed at the feeling of his warmth.

He grabbed you by your hand and together, the two of you walked back to the stage. He helped you sit on your cushion and as soon as Katsuki sat on his, the drums creased and Mitsuki stood up, turning to face the guests.

“Thank you everyone for being here. Today, we witness another bonding ceremony for a member of the Fenrir family line. I’m sure those of you who were old enough to remember my ceremony could recall the looks on Masaru’s and I’s face when we walked out of here bonded and how much blessings and love we received from everyone. I ask that you show that same love and respect to my son and his beloved on this day. Regardless of how we feel about humans, we will treat her like she’s one of us and after this day, she will be.” Mitsuki spoke loud to where all the wolves in the vicinity heard her, some of them sneered at her words but stayed quiet, others nodded, agreeing with her.

It was a divided crowd, but it was the least of Katsuki’s worries.

“Now we will begin the ceremony, once again, thank you everyone for being here.” Mitsuki sat back down and another person rose up, this time an older wolf wearing long robes and holding a large book in his hands that he flipped open when he kneeled in front of the stage, facing you and Bakugo. Around his wrists and hands were tiny bells that jingled the moment he slapped his hands together and in a loud voice he said, “O’Fenrir! Let us call upon you to bless this joyous day!” And he began to recite what was on the pages. He was the head priest of the pack. First, he would pray to Fenrir to accept and bless the marriage and then he would read from the scriptures in an old language long forgotten in the pack—only those training to be priest learn to read them.

But Katsuki didn’t care about any of that. Since he sat down, he’s been glancing at you—sometimes even staring at you. He was so used to seeing you in your regular clothes, bare faced or sometimes with light make up that you honestly looked like a different person in that dress. It was a different from when he saw you at the party last week. He wanted you in his bed because of how sexy you looked but this time, you looked like a pure beauty, delicate but not fragile. You held your head high and although the veil covered your face, he saw those strong eyes behind them—steady like a leader overseeing her people.

And when you finally caught him staring, the brightest smile he ever saw from you hit him like a branch in the forest. The flutters in his stomach grew at an all-time high, his cheeks turned a red hue, and his tail began to wag furiously. He couldn’t believe it. A single smile had reduced him to a teenage wolf again.

You didn’t expect Katsuki to reach out and hold your hand on your lap. It was strange to see him so happy (by the sight of how fast his tail was moving) but you were enjoying it. Your smile grew larger and with your other hand, you clasped it over his and caressed his fingers. This only made him happier as there were moments when his tail would thump against the stage and the sound echoed throughout the courtyard with the priest’s voice. You glanced at Mitsuki. You could tell she already wanted to tell him to calm down.

“Now I call upon the carriers to bring the necklaces to the descendant of Fenrir.” The priest kept his head low as he called for Minato and Mie who were already walking down the aisle with their short legs and hands heavy with the necklaces on top of cushions. Mina and Eijirou were smiling proudly as they watched them climb the stairs and kneel down on one knee to present them.

“Thanks, brats.” Katsuki ruffled both of their heads before setting down the cushions in front of him.

“With the necklaces arrival, we may begin the bond.”

The moment the loud booms of the drums returned, the faster your heart seemed to beat. Katsuki turned to completely face you and you did the same. He slowly reached for your veil and flipped it over your head like he’s been waiting to do that since he saw you. You heard some wolves gasped when your face was revealed, and you felt your cheeks warmed because you knew it had to do with how beautiful you looked. You even felt the light touch of Katsuki’s knuckles brush against your cheek because he couldn’t help but marvel at how perfect you looked. He needed to touch you to confirm your existence.

“Please repeat after me, Future leader. I, Katsuki of the Bakugo clan, will take this human to be my wife. With Fenrir’s blessing, I will do my duties as a husband, protect my wife and my family from anyone who might threaten them. Honor this bond through sickness and health and care for my bond whenever she may need me.”

Katsuki looked straight into your eyes, grabbed your hands and repeated the vows. You felt tears welling in your eyes as you listened to him.

“Now please repeat after me, ____. I, ____ of the human race, will take this wolf to be my husband. With Fenrir’s blessings, I will do my duties as a wife, protect my husband and my family from anyone who might threaten them. Honor this bond through sickness and health and care for my bond whenever he may need me.”

It was hard to repeat the vows because you were trying to hold back your hiccups. A single tear rolled down your cheeks and was quickly captured by Katsuki’s thumb. He smiled so softly—it was a look you rarely saw; his eyes glossy and he couldn’t hide those flushed cheeks, nor could he blame it on the warm weather.

Katsuki then picked up your golden necklace from the cushion, he felt the weight of his ancestry in his hands as he dressed it around your neck. With a click, he secured it on your neck and looked you over like a completed masterpiece.

Next was your turn as you reached for the other necklace that looked similar to yours but less decorative—still, it held the meaning of someone who was bonded. You hooked it around his neck and it stood out among all the necklaces there. He looked so handsome, like you finally found a piece to complete a puzzle.

The priest had raised both his hands in the air, praising Fenrir once again, before he closed his fists and then the drums creased with a final boom. His body dropped into a prostrate, both his forehead and nose touched the ground as his cloak drape around his body. You thought it was dramatic how he was acting but you knew the priests practically worshipped the Fenrir bloodline. They weren’t upset at Katsuki marrying a human because Fenrir did the same thing and as long as Fenrir did it, it was permissible to them.

“With Fenrir’s blessing and vows exchanged, I announce the ceremonial bond complete.” He spoke into the ground and then the wolves immediately broke into howls, noses high in the air, lips pursed as they celebrated your joining. Even Mie and Minato joined the howling with their tiny voices and jumped in place excitedly. Izuku joined in by applause, clapping awkwardly as he was startled by the sudden howls.

You were grinning at Katsuki, sight blurry with endless tears springing from your eyes. It was happy tears nonetheless, and you gazed upon your now husband that returned your grin with one of his own. You could tell he wanted to kiss you, but it was tradition that the bride and groom must not engage in anything intimate until the wedding night. You and Katsuki let go of each other and turned to face the crowd, smiling brightly as the wolves howled and cheered for your bond.

If you had told yourself months ago that you would meet a wolf, fall in love with him, and marry him, you wouldn’t have believed it. Becoming a wife and the second leader of a wolf pack, abandoning your own people to live with the wolf you love. You wondered if you made your parents roll in their graves with the decisions you’ve made. But at this point, you didn’t care. You were living life the way you wanted.

Katsuki’s such a brash, arrogant, and cocky wolf, all qualities that’s unlikable at first but after getting to know him—all that hardness, that coldness, was his exterior. Inside, he cared, loved, and helped in his own way, a Katsuki’s way, that you wouldn’t truly understand if you didn’t bother getting to know his true self. Yes, he wasn’t perfect. And yes, there were times when he was unbearable, and he would get on your nerves with his snide comments, but you learned that your love for him had overwhelmed the negatives. You gave up your life for him just as he risked his life for yours. You wanted to be with him, start a family with him, and live out your days with him. Today was only just the beginning.

With sacrifices and all, finally, you and Katsuki were bonded forever.

The ceremony after was one you would never forget. The wolves partied for hours. When evening reached, lanterns around the courtyard lit up around you as well as the ones behind you on stage. The wolves were continuously handing you and Katsuki wedding gifts on the stage that you accepted with a smile. Most of it was meat and handmade trinkets or jewelry. Mina gave you these beautiful beads that you thought was supposed to go around your neck, but she told you with a laugh that it was for your waist. And with a whisper in your ear, she told you to wear it for tonight. The heat rose to your cheeks and you gave a glance at Katsuki who was distracted by what Eijirou was telling him. Mina left you a wink before dragging Eijirou away. Next came Ochako and Izuku who earned a snarl from Katsuki.

“Ignore him,” you simply said but Izuku couldn’t help but cower under his glare. Ochako smiled uneasily probably because she was still thinking about what happened at the hot springs yesterday. But you moved to hold her hand and that gentle smile on your face had relieved her. It was too joyous of a day to keep the awkwardness between you and her.

Ochako then gave you a bottle of perfume made from flowers while Izuku pulled out a bouquet with a letter attached to it. He told you the letter was from Inko who he informed about your situation. You were grateful he did because out of everyone, you at least wanted Inko to know that you were alive and happy.

Many other wolves came to give you gifts as well, many that you didn’t know yet. Some of them were important clan leaders that congratulated you and Katsuki, neither friendly or rude, just acted in curtesy. Denki and Kyoka gave their gifts with Denki mentioning he couldn’t believe Katsuki found someone willing to be around him. Katsuki, of course, didn’t take that lightly. He banged his fist on the stage and told him to stop talking, growling through gritted teeth.

In between everyone visiting the stage, you and Katsuki took the time to look at each other. Unfortunately, you couldn’t show any intimacy yet, but you can tell from the look in Katsuki’s eyes that he couldn’t wait to have you all to himself. You could even hear his low growls from his chest the longer he stared at you. Love embedded in those red eyes, and of course, you didn’t miss the lust in them—a look you recognized since he kissed you on that tree many months ago.

Soon, Mitsuki came after Denki and Kyoka, interrupting the silent moment between you. She gave you a hug and expressed how happy she was for you. She then gave Katsuki one and as reluctant as he was to wrap his arms around her, he still awkwardly held her with his frown deepening. Their relationship was still sour, but you knew Mitsuki was proud of her son and supported him in everything he wanted to do. She was the first one to trust you because she trusted her son. In her eyes, he was still the young wolf that she raised to be the man he is now—stronger than all in the pack. She only wished Masaru lived long enough to see it.

“Your father would’ve been proud…” She whispered when she released him, her shaky hands still on his shoulders. Katsuki didn’t expect to see Mitsuki’s glossy eyes, but not a single tear fell because he knew she was holding it in. He couldn’t deny that his mother was strong. It was where he got his strength from.

The gifting went on, even after food was brought to you and Katsuki. Honestly, it was a little annoying because you wanted some alone time with Katsuki already. You couldn’t get a word in without someone coming to interrupt you. Weddings in the wolves’ culture was definitely different than human weddings. Majority of the time, you and Katsuki were sitting on the stage overlooking everyone while they converse and ate with each other. There was no dance between the wedded couple nor a cake to cut and smash the piece in Katsuki’s face. No father and daughter dance nor a mother and son one. Although, there was a dance performance that impressed you with their rhythm and ended with fire being blown from their lips. You gasped and grabbed Katsuki’s arm when the flames blew into the air. All Katsuki did was laugh at you and watched on.

Next, Kyoka sang a song for you two. You never knew she had such a beautiful voice. Even Denki looked mesmerized by his wife. Katsuki told you that Kyoka often sings to Denki before bed (Denki loves to brag about it which is why Katsuki knew).

After Kyoka was the belly dancers which was something you weren’t fond of. The men started howling and licking their lips as soon as the dancers rock their hips to front of the stage in revealing, flashy clothes. Their eyes on no one else but Katsuki. Of course. You huffed and crossed your arms. You really wanted to tell them off and show them Katsuki was your man. The dancers shook their hips side to side, creating a perfect arch that had most men wagging their tails. Honestly, you couldn’t move that way even if you tried and it was quite obvious that these women were trying to make you jealous on your wedding day.

You were taken by surprise when Katsuki’s hand moved over yours. Your angry eyes broke away from the dancing women and softened once they met with Katsuki’s. He leaned towards your ear and whispered something about one of the girls on the left being off sync and laughing about it. He wasn’t enticed by the women at all. His eyes only saw you.

The celebration stretched through the evening and the party would continue on without the newlyweds.

As you and Katsuki get ready to end the night, you’ll have a party of your own—privately, away from everyone, whisked away by pleasure. At least you hoped. You didn’t exactly know what to expect. You knew what went on between humans but how exactly did wolves have sex? You had to admit you were a little startled when Mitsuki and Momo told you about biting and scratching being an important part when you’re feeling good. Surprisingly, you weren’t afraid at all—definitely nervous, but not afraid. You knew Katsuki would treat you well and would go at your pace. You looked forward to spending some time alone with him, talking and cuddling by the fire in bed. Maybe sharing a kiss or two and feeling his palms massage your thigh and other places.

You held your hot cheeks, wanting to slap them to calm yourself down from your heated imagination. Gosh, it was really going to happen.

As Katsuki helped you down the stage, most wolves gathered near you two to say farewell and to wish you luck on your night. Katsuki ended up telling you that the women who helped dressed you for the wedding would help you get ready for the night and as if they were summoned, they surrounded the two of you, bowing before their bright smiles shone on their faces.

“I’ll see you soon,” Katsuki gave your hand a squeeze before you were dragged off.

The women acted fast in preparing you. They dressed you in a bra and underwear and a sheer garment-like dress draped around your figure in layers. Through the sheer, Mina’s beads were loosely hugging your hips and bangles dangling on your wrists matched the golden necklace on your neck. Natural perfume was sprayed on your inner thighs again just in case the smell worn off and soon they started giving you some tips and advice. Not that you asked but they taught you things about what wolf men normally did and liked done to them. You didn’t think scratching and biting would be such a big deal to them, but the women advocated that it was the best thing to do.

Once they were finished, they threw a heavy fur cloak over your body. They helped you travel off the mountain and into the forest. They led you another way that made you reach another part of the mountain you haven’t been to. At the base, there was a fairly large cave cavity with a heavy cloth hanging over the opening. You could tell the cave was already brightly lit by the glow that emulated through the fabric. This was probably the cave that you and Katsuki would stay in for the next couple of weeks.

The women bid you farewell far from the entrance. They said it was to not have their scent linger in the area any longer. You didn’t have the chance to ask them why it was a problem before they scattered away and left you alone.

You eyed the cave before you approached it, light on your feet and cautious. Although you didn’t know why, but you felt your anxiety rising. It was possible that Katsuki already arrived and was waiting for you inside. You shifted your cloak by the lapels nervously, feeling the night chill run through your spine. You were basically in your underwear under there and that urged you even more to go inside, especially as you felt the heat sneaking through the small cracks of the cloth, beckoning you to slip inside.

And so, with a deep breath, you listened.

The cloth fell behind you gently, and immediately you were drawn to glowing crimsons across the room. The hue so prominent behind the orange flames of the candles that your heart rattled as it so often did when in front of them. The heat from the makeshift fireplace was not the only thing making you warm, but the presence of your now husband, standing by it topless. Without a doubt, the shadows had contoured his muscles making them seem more profound and elevated that you wanted to feel them under your fingertips. There it was—that curiosity that sprang from you the moment his tongue had touch your leg many months ago. Finally, you will be able to indulge it.

[plainbrunettelbl]

ABO (A) Dragon Aizawa Shota x Duchess (O) Reader Obsidian Scales (Dragon AU)

Word count: 2055

Warnings: None. 

Title: ABO (A) Dragon Aizawa Shota x Duchess (O) Reader Obsidian Scales (Dragon AU)

Summary: You are lost in the woods and an obsidian dragon helps you out. 

(Gif not mine) 

💤-To say you were a damsel in distress was an understatement.

💤-You had been sold off by your father to a nobleman that gave him the highest bid. If that wasn’t enough when you were being transported to meet the old Alpha that bought you the wagon was attacked by thieves.

💤-One of them had gotten a hold of you but luckily you kept a small knife strapped on your ankle just for situations like these. An Omega could never be too careful. You wasted no time stabbing him in the shoulder before darting off into the thick forest.

💤-They attacked at night when it was easier not to be seen so running through the forest was a difficult task. Your long dress made it difficult to jump over fallen branches.

💤-The thieves had tried to pursue you but gave up after a while. Even after you didn’t hear their heavy footsteps you kept running. Your only saving grace was that the moon was a full one.

💤-It helped light the dark forest just a little bit.

💤-After you were certain you weren't being followed you finally collapsed in the middle of a meadow. Your heavy breaths could be heard in the dark night. Your heart was racing from the whole ordeal.

💤-You were lost and alone in the dark woods, the thought made goosebumps appear on your arms. Tears pooled into your eyes as the whole situation caught up with your brain.

💤-Before you could break down in sobs a crack of a branch was heard. Your head shoots up to look into the dense treeline. Your eyes caught yellow eyes glinting against the moonlight.

💤-Wolves.

💤-You knew it was useless but distressed chirps left you. Your Omega hoping somehow there was an Alpha nearby to save you. You knew it was in vain and soon you would meet your fate.

💤-You didn’t want to think about their sharp teeth sinking into your soft skin. Your chirps intensified at the violent image. Even though you had run out of hope a small part of you wanted to believe you would be saved.  

***

💤-A few miles away, an obsidian colored dragon laid resting on his hoard. He was the picture-perfect image of a dragon. Always buried in his hoard sleeping and barley leaving his den for food or water.

💤-He did get the need to find new treasures but it didn’t come as often as it once did. His hoard was big enough to satisfy his dragon so he saw no point in hunting for more gold and jewels.    

💤-He was just adjusting his position on his hoard when he heard something. He ignored it, thinking it was just his gold coins scattering around but it came again. His dragon lifted his head in interest.

💤-His Alpha also surged forward once he identified the sound.

💤-An Omega was in distress.

💤-His dragon wasted no time shaking off his hoard and flying out of his den. He might have had a nice hoard but he didn’t have an Omega to share it with. His dragon was already thinking of the possibility of finding a potential mate.

💤-His dragon purred at the thought.

💤-Shota tried to push his dragon’s thoughts down. He would save the Omega but he didn’t plan on having a mate anytime soon.

***

💤-You had tried to crawl away when the wolves decided they had enough of your whimpering and stepped forward into the clearing. You knew it was useless. There was no way you could outrun them if you tried.

💤-You had slumped in defeat. No point in delaying the inevitable.

💤-Just as your heart gave up its last flame of hope you heard a peculiar sound. You lifted your eyes to the sky in, bewildered by the sound you heard coming from the stars.

💤-Your eyes almost missed the jet black form gliding through the sky.

💤-His inky scales shining in the moonlight. You gasped at his magnificent form. Before he could even land in the clearing the wolves had already tucked tail and ran.

💤-He landed in front of your form, his black eyes narrowing at your shrunken form. Your breath caught at his dark beauty. He was almost as big as the clearing itself.

💤-“T-thank you.” You stuttered, not quite sure about if he was gonna harm you or not. You heard of dragons but you didn’t think one of them was gonna save you out of goodwill.

💤-You had heard of them being villainous beasts. The nobles painting them in a terrible light since the species was known to steal from them. You always had an interest in them, but anytime you would try and bring them up your father would silence you.  

💤-The dragon responded by shifting into his human form. You held back a gasp this time. He was a handsome man, dark locks licking his strong shoulders, rugged stubble lined his sharp jawline.

💤-“Are you okay, Omega?” His rough voice caressed your ears.

💤-You tried not to sigh at the sound of it.

💤-“I am fine, I think.” You looked over your body and noticed that your dress was torn at your legs.

💤-You knew it was improper but you lifted up your dress anyways, long red welts littered your legs. Your adrenaline was still pumping so you didn’t feel any pain but you knew they would start stinging soon.

💤-“I can take you back to my den if you want. I can clean those up if you would like.” He offered, trying not to show that his dragon was jumping at the thought of bringing this beautiful Omega back to his den.

💤-His Alpha was purring at the thought too.

💤-Shota didn’t want to admit it but his heart was racing at the image of her resting on his hoard. It was dangerous to have thoughts like these. Once a dragon claimed their mate his fate was pretty much sealed.

💤-No other Omega would be good enough once the dragon made its choice. And by the looks of it, his dragon was already smitten with the Omega.

💤-“Thank you. I think that would be nice.” You said, caught in his onyx eyes. You really didn’t have much of a choice even if you weren't entranced by this handsome man.

💤-Even if you did want to go back to your home you would still be sent off to marry some snooty nobleman that waited for your arrival right now. You didn’t want to spend your life tied to a lush couch speaking only when spoken to.

💤-Sitting prim and proper while the Alphas discussed important business over you.

💤-You had already spent most of your life doing that, you couldn’t imagine sticking to that role for the rest of your life. You wanted to be free and it looked like this situation was a blessing in disguise.

💤-No doubt your father would think you had perished in the dark forest if you never returned. The thought was appealing.

💤-“I could have you fly on my back but I don’t think your legs could hold onto me without irritating them further.” He said, finally walking up to your curled up form. He was slow in his pace so not to scare you.

💤-His dragon lowered its head at the thought of you being scared of him.

💤-“I can carry you if that would be okay?” He asked, trying to seem less intimating then he looked.

💤-His Alpha whimpered as he noticed your frame shudder at his words. Shota’s own heart dropped at your trembling frame.

💤-“Yes, I think the shock is kicking in. I am suddenly freezing.” Your delicate eyes peered up into his, looking to him for warmth and protection. His dragon was eager to comply.

💤-Before Shota could resist he pulled your frame into your arms. You sighed into his warm chest, your body sinking into his warmth. You Omega had identified that this Alpha meant you no harm.

💤-Letting out a gentle purr before drifting off into his gentle embrace. Your body finally seeking sleep after your terrible ordeal. You were already fast asleep when Shota responded with his own purr.

💤-He made sure to avoid crinkling leaves and sticks on his journey back to his den. His Alpha scared to wake up this sweet Omega in his arms.

***

💤-You woke up when you felt a cloth warm softly sliding down your injured legs. You back was cushioned by soft fur blankets. You Omega was secretly cooing over them.

💤-You opened your eyes to see the dark-haired male kneeling down between your legs. He was running a cloth over your scraps and dipping it in warm water to clean them.

💤-You Omega was purring at the sight. The Alpha was an attentive one and it was slowly winning your Omegas heart. You were honestly falling yourself. All you had ever know were greedy Alphas who only cared about their wealth and status.

💤-You couldn’t picture one of them kneeling on their knees in front of an Omega. It was unthinkable. The Alphas eyes met yours when he noticed your shifting, you could get lost in his obsidian gaze.

💤-“I figured you could use some sleep. I was just cleaning up your wounds before I put some ointment on them. I am sorry I didn’t ask before I touched you.” He apologized, pulling his hands away from you.

💤-“I-it’s alright. If you didn’t clean them I am sure they would get infected. Thank you. I appreciate all that you have done to help me.” You softly replied, trying to hide your blushing cheeks at his closeness.

💤-Your father would be furious if he found an Alpha touching you in such a way. Well, he wasn’t here and you didn’t care how improper it was. This Alpha had been nothing but kind to you and your weren't gonna shove his kindness away.

💤-“It is nothing. Once I am done here I will let you rest some more. In the morning I can take you back to the nearest village if you want.” He replied, trying to push his dragon down, he was hissing and clawing at the thought.

💤-“I suppose.” Your heart slumped at the thought.

💤-You knew you couldn’t stay here with him. The Alpha probably wanted its peace and quiet and here you were disturbing him. You would go back to civilization even if you yearned to stay here among the trees and rocky walls.

💤-Shota shoved away his saddened mood at your impending absence and got to work on applying ointment to your legs. When he was done he stood up.

💤-“I usually sleep on my hoard in dragon form. I wouldn’t do that if you are uncomfortable though.” He said, looking at you for any hint of fear at the thought of him in his dragon form.

💤-“No, you don’t have to change the way you sleep just because I am here. Please do what you normally would.” You stated, slightly eager at seeing his inky scales again.

💤-With a nod he walked over to his hoard and transformed, his big head peered in your direction before curling up on the mound of gold and jewels. He laid your way, blinking his eyes in your direction before closing them on last time.

💤-He had laid you on a small mound of soft blankets a few feet away from his hoard. Your Omega urged you to make a nest before you went to sleep again. As quietly as you could you moved and rearranged them.

💤-You didn’t know that a certain dragon was watching you and trying not to rumbled at the sight. Once you settled down you said a quiet goodnight before drifting off to sleep.

Bonus:

💤-Shota knew something was off when he opened his eyes. Instead of waking up on his glittering hoard he was a few feet away curled around the slumbering Omega and their nest.

💤-He sighed softly. His dragon had already picked his mate and he was finally admitting to his fate. He closed his eyes again, thinking of ways to woo you before you asked to go back home.

💤-With a few ideas in mind, he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

So clearly everyone wanted this fic to be written. I was happy to comply. Thank you so much for the support. You all are amazing! 💗

I had so much fun writing this AU! I hope I did well on portraying Shota. I am still trying to get a feel for writing for him. Please leave your thoughts on how I did. I hope you all like it! 💕💕

[ktheist]

saving grace | 3

muses. duke!yoongi x lady!reader

universe. arranged marriage / minor traces of magic in history

concept. driven into a corner with the new king, seokjin, offering to marry you off to a prince in a foreign land and a persistent mother who would seize the chance of a lucrative marriage for her daughter, you’re forced with the only other option to secure your freedom ‒ enter into a beneficial agreement with the man who reaped the seeds of war, the duke of cralon, yoongi min.

words. 5.3k

warnings. mentions of war, it’s cliche and cheesy all in one package

index. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / finale

x

yoongi doesn’t explicitly say it - and you don’t dare inquire as to the reason he’s accepting the circumstances forced into his hands but the more you ponder on it, the more the plausible answer seems to be the cause of your palpitating heart.

“we’ll attend the party together,” his breath had felt warm against the back of your hand but its the callousness of his touch that rooted yourself to the ground.

yoongi is doing this because he can’t let you ruin yourself. call it the gentleman in him. nothing more. nothing less. and because of that, you couldn’t allow yourself to be the one to rope him into a loveless marriage  in the name of politics when it’s been clear that he wants no part in this game of chess.

“leslie,” you speak into the darkness, fingers pulling on the strings that tie the cloak together.

“yes, my lady.” a figure steps out of the shadow in your periphery.

“i need you to pay a visit to the other informant guilds and see if they have something on what the nobles that are to attend my party, have been doing in the last three months.”

not like they’d have anything you don’t but you can’t rule out the possibility that they’d have even the littlest detail that could be of great help.

“three months, my lady?” leslie quizzes, you can’t see her face in the dark but you can just picture her blinking and cocking her head to the side at your prescribed timeline.

three months is a gamble but enough to establish a routine. whether it’s walking by the park everyday and then stopping to chat with a man in black from head to toe once on every 25th. or whether it’s for attending gatherings, only to keep the 16th fully empty.

“yes and prepare a carriage to go to the royal palace today.” with that, the shadow shifts as though bowing.

“i shall let felix know promptly. since you’ve just returned, would you like to take a short nap first?”

your gaze slants to the slightest gap between the curtains that you just slipped through, amber light pouring in a sharp stripe over the floor, “no, i’d like to take a bath and prepare for the day - did anyone come to my room while i was gone?”

“the madam came last night,” the maid informs, hands folding the cloak that she helped took of your shoulders, “but i told her you were sick and wanted to rest.”

“did she believe you?” walking over table, you plop into the chair with a sigh.

“she left after i told her you were asleep.” she disappears into the closet after you wave a dismissive hand, possibly to store the cloak in the secret compartment within the innermost corner of the walls.

knowing your mother, she probably saw through leslie’s lies but it’s not as if it’s the first time nor will it be the last. as long as you made sure to hide your face and avoid any rumors of count ___’s daughter’s sightings in the middle of the night in the rougher part of town, it’s fine.

x

a panting and disheveled jungkook bursts through the towering doors engraved with intricate carvings of a roaring lion and a crown. his eyes widens when they met yours like they usually as though seeing a ghost. you thought his timid nature would go away over time but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“lady ___!” he calls in a hurry after you walked past him and down the familiar hallway lain with blazing red carpet, “h-his majesty is busy! you have to give the palace a month’s notice for an audience before-”

“jungkook.” the abrupt twirl almost sends the boy smashing into you but he manages to stop just inches away, sighing a sigh of relief that only lives for a split second at your words, “his majesty ordered for the rumors to be spread.”

when you take one step forward, he takes another backwards, “you’re his closest aide so he must’ve told you to do it and not some ordinary maid-”

“n-n-no! i-” he sputters, eyes glancing over his shoulders as though seeking for a knight to call for help but the goddess must be in your favor today because no other soul can be seen.

you’re not sure what kind of face you’re making but you doubt it’s a smile but the fact that all colors seem to drain when he looks at you again must mean something, “it was lady jung! his majesty called for lady jung and after that, the rumors started spreading!”

“krystal?”

a sigh escapes the black haired boy when your feet roots itself into the ground. the jung family had been part of the aristocratic faction who tried to push for their daughter and krystal’s eldest sister to marry the crown prince, seokjin’s brother and heir apparent.

but only those who secretly swear allegiance to seokjin could attain an exclusive invite to the palace and jungkook had explicitly mentioned that it was seokjin who called her over, not the other way around.

“lady ___! please!” jungkook’s cries echo somewhere behind you, almost drowned by the series of questions that begin to flood your head.

“your majesty!” your hands ache from having to push through the oak doors after jungkook orders the knights to stand down at your arrival, which meant they had no obligations to announce your presence nor push the doors open for you, “you’re throwing yoongi and i into a cage full of wolves!”

“oh you two are calling each other by first names now?” the way seokjin's eyes glazes over you does nothing but pour oil to the flames burning inside your stomach, “regardless, i thought we agreed to cease this act of prancing around in the palace like you own the place.”

a thud echoes off the walls as your barely recovering hand slams down on his desk, but judging from how the stack of papers stood still, you doubted it’d made the desirable impact, “if you knew i was lying, why didn’t you call me out?!”

“i can’t say i didn’t fall for it in the beginning but weren’t you the one who told me that information can be gathered and used like a sword?” seokjin’s steel gaze settles on you like a blanket of winter snow.

“that...” thrown off by the your own words used against you, a pause lapses before you manage to speak again, “i may have made a mistake by involving yoongi but this ends here. call off the party i- i’ll marry the 12th prince.”

a scoff.

“to think you swore to be the shield you’re now holding against me because of that brute cousin of mine.”

“my promise remains the same,” you stand straighter, hit by the reminder of your ordeal, “i'll support you for as long as you stay a just ruler but not if you start a war within cearis by this reckless action of yours.”

his eyes bore into you for the longest moment, searching for a hint of your faltered promise. 

there is none. 

to think it would come to this. when you agreed to help seokjin become the king, you knew you have vastly contrasting ideals but the end goal was the same. to bring peace over cearis and end the previous king’s tyrannic reign.

the previous king hadn’t directly committed murder but the increasing tax rate had slowly caused the economy to be sucked dry. the people couldn’t even afford basic necessity and the rich buying wheat and grains and storing them with the intention to resell them once the price sky-rocketed. up until last year, only nobles were able to still live comfortably.

the thought of the hollowed cheeks, tattered clothing and skin and bones of the people in the streets whenever your carriage passed to get to the tea parties and gathering, still sends your body shaking with rage.

and if a civil war broke out between the two factions, history might repeat itself.

“i’d wanted you to rule by my side as my queen.” seokjin’s blunt confession causes you to almost stumble backwards, as though hit by an invisible brick.

“what-”

“but that’s simply absurd.”

he gingerly chuckles at your apparent reaction, “at least pretend to be disappointed ___, i didn’t want it too- the thought repulses me but since we’ve always been so much alike, we could at least make a political marriage work, right? but when you rejected me so directly, i couldn’t help but want to push you a little. i wasn’t going to go through the marriage with the 12th prince.”

“so all that trouble to get the duke to become my fake fiance... was because your fragile ego couldn’t handle being rejected by a woman?”  you force through gritted teeth.

“i-i didn’t say such a thing,” the king’s eyebrows furrow in undue frustration, face reddening, “plus it’s you, we’re talking about. how could i be-”

“your majesty...” a hiss slips out of your mouth, causing the man to physically flinch at the realization of how dire the circumstances are for him. for one there are no windows to avoid assassination attempts but also means he can’t escape you through any other way but the door - assuming he could get past you at all, “you’ve caused duke min and i a great deal of hardships. it’s something money alone cannot fix, do you not think so?”

“c-calm down, ___,” he begins to sputter whilst the table begins to turn, gaze thrown over your shoulder - perhaps, he’s calculating his chances of survival if he made a beeline to the door,“jungkook! jungkook, let him in!”

almost as if on cue, the muted thud of footsteps fill the air before the door swings open. you have absolutely zero interest if it was an assassin he’d prepared beforehand, knowing that you’d barge your way to the palace. with this distance, even an assassin couldn’t get-

“the house of min greets the sun of the kingdom.”

your heels twirl on their own before you even manage to register the deep voice that echoes off the falls, eyes landing on the owner of the silver locks that begins to straighten up after a bow.

“yoongi.” the man’s name falls off your lips involuntarily as he spares you a chiding glance. almost as though he’s not pleased with your rash decisions of meeting with seokjin without consulting him.

yet despite that, he comes to stand next to you, his hand brushing the back of yours. and in his own way, it feels as though he’s saying i stand with you.

the sound of someone clearing his throat brings you back to the matter at hand. seokjin seems to have regained a semblance of his composure. though, he fails to hide the rise of his eyebrows for the briefest moment at the unusually close proximity for two people who claim to feign being lovers. “as you know, the the min lineage has extraordinary senses. i summoned yoongi over to wait for me in the next room but your crassness has delayed the duke’s audience. and since the walls are thin, i don’t know how much he’s heard.”

your lips twitch in contempt.

it doesn’t take long for you to piece two and two together. no noble family has expressly supported seokjin and with the two aristocratic and royal factions’ internal division, you suspect another faction would rise in support of seokjin, the son who the late king never even spared a glance at.

having aided seokjin in the shadows since his time as an outcast prince, you were never told of the other families that shared the same shoes and chose to support him until the time is right to step into the light. you swore to be his shield and the min family had always been known to be the crown’s loyal sword.

you catch yoongi’s deep eyes before meeting the king’s,“so the min family is one of the noble families who supported you as well.”

it isn’t a question but seokjin nods anyway, his eyes now hold a sort of burden that ages him ten years, “i know your reason for supporting me are too far glaring and what i’m asking you requires a great sacrifice that’ll affect your children, but can i count on the two of you for this?”

x

seokjin meant you might actually have to get married to yoongi legally. at the engagement party, you’ll be showing up as supporters of the king and shift the unending feud between and within the factions. those who have been supporting seokjin in the dark will be your allies while those neutral, like what your house had appeared to be, will not need much convincing to join the new faction - the king’s. though, those who are against his forceful succession won’t stand still.

“it’s getting late so we should stop here but i’ll be visiting soon to finish our little talk, your majesty,” you didn’t miss the king’s shoulder line jolting as you shot up, letting a few seconds stretch in suspense before dipping into a formal bow.

“um, that’s quite fine. you don’t have to-” the man’s mouth clamped shut at the glare you shot over your shoulder before trudging out of the room, the click clack click of your heels bouncing off the walls while you faintly caught seokjin stammering out a plea for help to the only other person left in the room and receiving a ‘you dug your own grave with this one, your majesty’.

yet you couldn’t deny the agreeable course of direction you should take to single out the wild flowers from mere weeds being through a garden party. that’s where politics takes place and where one would usually work out connections. halting in your steps, you found yourself letting out a sigh, the chin you’ve kept so high now lowered to the ground.

after this, there will no longer be an aristocratic and royalist factions - only those who opposes seokjin and those who supports him. the first bunch would no doubt go after you and your family since they can’t touch the duke, if you got divorced within five, no - ten, maybe even twenty years of your marriage. though there have been politically arranged marriages that lasts for a lifetime. while some of the couples seem civil to each other, there would always be speculations of their happiness lying in the arms of their lovers outside of their marriage.

your parents are no exception. though they never quite opened up to you about their past or even present. the only time you ever recall your mother’s heart breaking was when the bells of the palace rang across the capital, signaling the previous queen’s demise.

“how could i not have noticed which faction he’s in...” you trail off, staring into the darkened ceiling where the chandelier would have been and the paintings of a great tree that symbolizes the foundation of your house.

“my lady,” leslie’s fluttery voice chirps from somewhere next to you “get up! today is the day for the duke’s formal visit!”

it’s been a week since your visit to the palace and having been driven to a corner yet again by seokjin. for some reason it didn’t bother you as much as the revelation of that the house of min had always been by the king’s side as a loyal supporter.

yoongi had escorted you to the carriage silently. and you would have left without exchanging a word if not for he gloved hand that grasps onto you tightly and the eyes that bores into your soul. almost imploring you to please, say something.

“since we’re pressed for time, i’ll have the contract sent to you to be reviewed in three day’s time,” was all you said.

your ankles are shackled with invisible cuffs. it takes everything in you not to drag your feet as you strut down the hallway with your chin high and shoulder line dignified.

“right,” you murmur to yourself, pushing yourself up only to have your hand dragged by the maid all the way to the bathtub where warm water has already been filled and waiting for you.

the other maids are already waiting for you with dresses in their hands and jewel boxes littered on your otherwise neatly kept vanity, chattering to themselves about how exciting it is for the only and eldest daughter’s official engagement. granted, your mother has been bugging you about the lack of rock on your finger when every other noblewoman would be showing off their engagement ring as soon as the news breaks out in high society.

but when you step out of the room, donned in an extravagant but elegant dress, you did not expect the overflow of people you’ve never seen before walking towards the main parlor that’s much larger than your mother’s and reserved for entertaining guests. the servants who seem to be carrying boxes and wrapped dresses bow at the sight of you.

“leslie, what’s all this?” you quiz the ever smiling maid on your side even though you have a good hunch already.

“these are the duke’s gifts to you, my lady.” there’s a certain tilt in her voice - the closest indication you’d get of leslie being excited.

“gifts?” you echoe.

the plan was for you to review the other’s contract, make necessary amendments and exchange them in secret.

that is, until yoongi sent a letter to your father, to notify his visit and ‘entourage’. but then again, the duke has always had a knack for downplaying important matters. otherwise, you would have caught on to where his loyalty lies.

before the maid could elaborate further, you’re already in front of the parlor and whisked away by your mother as soon as she sees you.

“___!” she grasps your hands tightly, “how i was mistaken about the duke. his grace was waiting for the siren’s heart to arrive from raefetia!”

colored diamonds are especially hard to get due to the different component and temperature required for its formation. the siren’s heart is said to be a rare jewel that was lost after the siren’s lover was killed on land and the diamond that was with him got sold in the black market.

how yoongi got a hold of it, is not entirely a mystery but the impact of the entourage he brought to your manner and the two jewelers who confirmed it to be the real siren’s heart will, without a doubt, spread throughout the kingdom within a week.

“are these all bought by the duke?” you manage to pull one of the workers who you’d confirmed to be from whitlace, into a corner when your mother is busy salivating over one of the many boxes of jewels that seem to sparkle and call for her.

“th-the duke ask for the jewels to be sent to my lady’s manor and pick whichever my lady’s heart desires,” the slight tremble at the mention of yoongi shouldn’t have come as a surprise to you yet it does. he just hasn’t been looking at you with eyes that could kill.

“is your manager here?” you don’t plan to let the woman be ridden with worry any more than she already is.

as soon as she leads you to a tanned woman with an elegant air around her and the finest jewels adorning her ears and neck, you know that it isn’t just the manager but countess wyvner herself who’d come here.

“lady ___, it’s an honor to meet your acquaintance,” she smiles, her deep brown eyes gleaming with a sort of observance fitting for a woman who runs one of the most high end jewelry store in the kingdom alongside her husband.

“countess,” you say after bowing, “thank you for preparing this on such a short notice.”

a slot itself needs booking at least for one month prior, you can’t imagine how much trouble and setbacks in their schedule they’d have to suffer because of yoongi’s whims. you’d only come to a realization that you’d have to legally marry each other last week. let alone have enough time to prepare for such grand proposal.

“on behalf of my husband and i, it’s an honor to serve the duke and future duchess,” she has a sort of pleasant tone that makes the lady in you listen to anything and everything she says.

you let out a low chuckle, “my, that does put me in a difficult situation.”

the countess blinks in surprise, “how so, lady ___?”

“you see, countess, i specifically asked for the duke to not spend so extravagantly for me,” you lament, a sigh escaping your lips, “as the money could have gone to charity work and helping those in need.”

“ah yes, the house of ___ has been well-known for their generosity since your father’s time,” she agrees, as though recalling a long-lost memory.

it takes several more praises and teetering over the fine line of offensive and modest before you can finally convey your wishes for the jewels to be brought back and as a compromise, the countess will leave only the best, hand-picked diamonds for you to at least look at.

not even five minutes after your conversation with the countess ends, the butler approaches you, informing yoongi’s arrival.

“alright, thank you aiden,” you dismiss the butler, eye skimming the mannequins and dresses piled into the room. whichever store these are from, you’lll have to deal with them later, “bring him to mother’s parlor.”

x

“your grace, thank you for coming,” you greet the man with a bow, noting how his eyebrows threaten to pull together at the title yet only silence follows your greeting.

neither of you say anything as the maid sets down the baked goods you requested to be made for this meeting. the smell of lavender fills your senses as you pour the drink into the white teacup with deep violet flowers engraved around them.

“your grace,” that is possibly the last straw when you see the man’s heavy frown, as though the first time might have been a mistake, but the second time couldn’t have been, so you let out a soft sigh, “i shall address you formally for what i’m about to say involves the state of affair of the kingdom.”

when no word of protest seem to come from the duke, you continue, “i trust your grace has read the contract and made the desired amendments on your part?”

as though recalling the purpose of his visit, the man’s eyes flit away from you. it’s expected for him to behave so, especially when all you’d agreed on at the beginning was a simple hoax to trick the eyes of the beholders. 

out of the frying pan and into the fire.

“that... yes.” he mindlessly mumbles, pulling out the contract from the inside pocket of his jacket and placing it in front of you in a manner that told you he couldn’t be bothered with it for a minute longer.

yet if that was truly the case, he could have sent someone to deliver the contract after the review instead of a notice informing you of his visit. the letters on the contract almost seem to blur together as you mull over his reasons for sitting through a one hour ride just to get here until you catch the insignia of twin dragons and a shield.

“your grace,” your heart almost jumps in your throat when you look up from the paper only to meet a pair of crimson ones that seem to already be staring, “none of the content seem to be modified. is there nothing you wish to add?”

contracts are made to give both parties an equal standings. you’d only included your terms which you made sure weren’t excessive but not potentially harming to you in an event there would be a talk of divorce in the future.

“no, there isn’t.” he answers simply, eyes reverting to the brownish golden liquid before hey flutter close just as he nears the cup to his lips.

all of a sudden, you’re brought back to the sunlit office of his. your hands had trembled and your heart had felt like a dead weight was pulling at its strings until the duke pulled you out of that darkened crevice and kissed the back of your hand.

the act alone had been reserved for lovers who’d sworn their souls to the other. but it’d also been done by noblemen in respect for noblewomen of higher ranking. but the fact that you were a mere count’s daughter and he was a duke rendered the latter interpretation null.

yet he’s acting so indifferently to you now.

“your grace, i implore you to take this matter seriously as it concerns not just the ducal house and ___ house but also cearis.”

no matter how prepared you are, there’s no telling what would happen once seokjin’s plan is set in motion. but even if you’re both nothing but chess pieces, your lives worth something. perhaps, yoongi hasn’t much to lose - but you’ve held out this long to avoid being tangled in an arranged marriage. you need a guarantee for your future and if yoongi refuses to pay his due attention-

“___,” the familiarity of your name rolling off his tongue is unsettling yet comforting at the same time, “isn’t everything that caters to your needs and wishes all in there? why are you displeased?” though the color of his eyes reminds you of burning flames, his gaze sends icy shivers down your spine. as opposed to the way he used to search for the secrets beyond the windows of your soul, this time, he seems as though he’s studied every crevice of it.

it takes you a moment to register that he’d read every line of the terms. and it isn’t a question needing mulling over nor do the flood of memories from your first meeting up until now, is unforeseeable. and you couldn’t help the little prick of betrayal that buries itself to the hilt in your heart,“did you know?”

his stare doesn’t falter. almost like a culprit brought to trial and knows of his innocence even though others don’t, “no- you know how secretive the king is but with the way you’d been behaving at the mention of him... i thought you’d been lovers instead of just subject and monarch.”

in other words, if yoongi knew - which he did have his suspcicions, it was because you’d exposed yourself. the realization hits you like a brick as you recall the many times you almost called seokjin by his name and the one time you actually did.

you figured he’d believe you when you said it was because of your house’s just upbringing but suspicions couldn’t just be shrugged off just like that.

“we’re not.” is all you say, your shoulders threaten to sag with the lifted weight yet the noble blood in you forces you to keep your chin up. those deep eyes bore into you. it’s no secret that even the seemingly indifferent duke of cralon would be curious of how you came to be acquainted with the king when he was just a prince.

truth to be told, it isn’t so much as a mysterious tale as it seems to be. your family’s territory doesn’t harbor fertile lands nor is it strategically situated near the shores for a harbor to be built and attract merchants. it’s a bit far off from the capital but not entirely suitable for planting corps either. and because your family’s refusal to join the royalist faction, the previous king had cut off the supplies and funds for your family’s territory.

your father had to buy food from merchants at a high price while you were in charge of distributing  them all to representatives of each family. in the midst of it, at the age of 16, you’d met seokjin. every time you’d see him, he’d donned the same tattered clothes that didn’t seem to fit his smooth, honeyed skin and noble mannerism.

you didn’t question his motives for always being there to lend another hand to distribute whatever supplies your father could get and leaving without accepting so much as a slice of bread. it was some few years later, after you’ve talked to too many people and remember too little of their faces, did seokjin finally told you about his lowly maid mother and the parents she’d left in pursuit of a job in the capital. it took another year for you to realize his high official dad was the king and by then, you’d sputtered far too many insults at the second prince in your fits of rage.

but if you’re being honest, it possibly had something to do with your mother’s tens of hundreds of letters addressed to the palace, pleading for the king’s good graces. she’d attended social gatherings to obtain funds for charities that went to orphanages, managed to allocate budgets for the supplies and still maintain an appearance fitting for a noblewoman. you did help with pointing out which house had the disadvantage you could use and which could be recruited under your fold but it was mostly your mother - a useless information that yoongi didn’t need to know.

“we started getting more supplies and to shift the suspicion of our family’s support leaning towards the new crown, seokjin started distributing more supplies to noble families of neutral standings,” the thought alone warrants a well needed pause as you sip on cold tea, “after he proposed to me and promised to make me queen, i tried my best to avoid letting the two meet especially at banquets held in the palace.”

“that bastard...” a sharp cracking sound hits the air as you watch the tea ripple within the small confines of the now cracked teacup within the duke’s grasp, “...really had the nerve to propose to you, huh.”

“well,” you set the cup on the saucer gently before standing up and walking over the man who watches you with a mix of curiosity as to what you’re doing and subdued rage for the king.

sitting down, you place your hand on his gloved one. it takes a moment  for him to realize the damage he’d done before he releases the poor ceramic and allow you to twine your fingers together. when you meet his gaze, it’s already soften with something you can’t pinpoint as you suppress the rising heat on your cheeks, “i believe seokjin was telling the truth when he said he was doing it because he had to. at that time, he most likely didn’t know of any other young ladies around his age though there’s no telling for sure just who and how many people was already under his folds,” the hard crimson stare does little to unnerve you though they still make your heart restless for a completely different reason now.

yoongi laughs dryly, almost like a swords mater defeated in his own game, “so we’re merely tools for his disposal.”

that, you can’t deny but no matter how deep you’d pondered on the man’s actions and how much you’d have to sacrifice-

“yet we still trust him like blind fools.” you say.

“fools won’t know what they’re getting into before it’s too late,” he rasps.

words of protest bubbles in your throat as his hand falls away from you but the way he stands up only to fall on his knee, makes your breath hitch.

“we’re no fools, you and i,” his eyes that capture you in a garden of red are glaringly contrasting to his fair complexion and naturally soft features, “___, i do not wish to be married to you only on paper.”

x

note. that’s all for the third chapter, hope you guys enjoyed it!

taglist: @ayujmi​

[marshmallow-phd]

Catching Rain

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Minseok x Reader

Summary: You were more than satisfied with your life. You attended a nice college, had nice friends, a nice boyfriend. That’s what your life was: nice. You weren’t looking for anything more, so what were you to do when this seemingly harmless boy walked into your life and turned your nice little world into one much more dangerous?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Epilogue

**

Junmyeon stared at him for a few blinks. Awkwardness washed over Minseok as he ran a hand through his hair. Maybe saying it out loud was a mistake. Maybe he should have tried seeing you as a human first, just to make sure that the pull was real and not some weird effect of running for so long. Maybe the trees were giving off a weird perfume that messed with his head. 

“Y-you think you found her?” Junmyeon stammered. “How? Where?”

“In the woods, just now when I was out with the others,” Minseok answered. 

Junmyeon scratched the top of his head. “Wow. That’s, um… that’s convenient.”

Minseok scoffed. “Sure. It could be. Except that I was a wolf.

“Oh.” 

Neither spoke for a minute or two. Minseok tapped his foot against the worn boards of his bedroom. He was tempted to tell Junmyeon never mind, to forget it and that he’d figure it out on his own – then go ask Jongdae for his advice. He was easier to talk to.

But a part of Minseok knew that wouldn’t be helpful. Given Jongdae’s reservations on the whole “mate” ordeal, his advice might not be the answer. “Ignore it” wasn’t exactly the best route to go down. 

“So, you just need to meet her in person?”

Minseok looked over at the alpha, a bit surprised. Yeah, that would make sense. That would probably be the best way to solve all of this. You meet him in person, feel the pull yourself, problem solved. He nodded. 

“Did she give you any hint of what her name is or any other clue as to how we can find her again?”

Minseok was unable to hold back the flinch at Junmyeon’s question. There was a moment’s hesitation before he reached under the pillow and pulled out your notebook. He really, really hoped this didn’t come across as creepy or inappropriate. “She accidentally left this behind,” he explained. He flipped open to the cover where what could only be your name was displayed. 

“That’s a good start,” Junmyeon smiled encouragingly. Taking the notebook and securing it under the crook of his arm, he stood up from the bed. “It might be a long shot, but we can see if she’s a student at the university.”

Minseok jumped up. “Really?”

Junmyeon nodded, patting the older wolf on the back. “Being a professor has its privileges.”

Rolling his eyes, Minseok headed for the door. “Let’s just go and search the records, Professor Kim.”

**

“I really shouldn’t be doing this.” 

“This was your own suggestion!” Minseok snapped. They were already in his office, Junmyeon in his chair with the registry search already pulled up on the screen. Now was when he decided to start questioning his own plan? 

“I know, I know,” Junmyeon grumbled. “But now that I’m doing it, I feel like I’m crossing a line. I’m a brand new professor, I could get in serious trouble by using the registry for personal use.”

Minseok felt only a tiny bit of sympathy. Besides, a lie as to why he was looking up a particular student would be easy to make. “If the stories are true, then it’s worth it.”

Junmyeon’s hands hovered over the keyboard before he could type in the name. “You mean, the stories of what could happen after you find your mate?”

“Yeah…. Those ones scare me.”

“Hey.” Junmyeon turned in his chair and clapped a hand on Minseok’s shoulder. The latter looked over, anxiety more than apparent in his eyes. “It’ll be alright. Mates rarely ever reject their wolves. Besides, who would ever want to reject the smart and handsome Kim Minseok?”

To his horror, Minseok actually felt his face heat up from the compliment. He shoved Junmyeon’s hand away. “Stop it.”

Fairly pleased with himself, Junmyeon went back to typing in your name, snickering to himself. 

“Alright,” Junmyeon sighed after clicking through several, somewhat unnecessary, search criteria. He hit the desk with his palm, very pleased indeed. “She is a student here. With the Fine Arts College.”

Minseok leaned in closer and confirmed with his own eyes that the ID photo on the school’s site matched who he saw in the clearing. By now, he was sure he’d know that smile anywhere. He just needed to learn about the rest of you. “That explains why she was out in the woods taking pictures.”

“Ah, a photographer.” Junmyeon smiled brightly with a twinge of mischief. “The others will have fun with that.”

“Can we not tell the others?” Minseok asked quietly. They’d already lied and said that they were headed to the university for “emergency meetings” with students. The pack hardly cared, murmuring “see you later”s as the two eldest members walked out the door. As much as the others would deny it, keeping secrets from them wasn’t as hard as they thought. 

It wasn’t that they didn’t care. They were family. If something was wrong, they were there for each other. Despite what had happened in the past… well, they were a pack. They would listen and help - after a few jokes from the peanut gallery. 

“They’ll figure it out eventually.”

Minseok nodded. “I know. But I’d rather have this whole thing figured out before they catch whiff of it. This is stressful enough without their antics.”

“That’s… accurate.” Junmyeon laughed a bit to himself at the thought. “Alright. I’ll keep it to myself. Besides, what harm could come from keeping this a secret?”

Relief helped Minseok relax his shoulders, the burden eased just a tiny bit. “Exactly. Now, though I’m sure I’ll regret it later because of how stalkerish it sounds, what’s her schedule?”

The next morning, Minseok was full of confidence. He was dressed much better than his normal laid back, might have just rolled out of bed, might have just come from the gym style. The guys always made fun of him for eighty percent of his closet being athletic wear, but he preferred being in clothes he could move in. 

Today, well, he could still move in these jeans and the T-shirt was breathable, at least. Armed with the knowledge that you would have to cross this part of the campus to get to your morning class, Minseok leaned up against one of the trees littering the courtyard and waited. His watch slowly ticked the seconds by. Each little tock sent his heart racing faster. He was going to see you in person, as a human this time. Would the pull be different? Stronger? There wasn’t any other way to know until he saw you. 

And there you were. 

With slow, almost heavy steps, you made your way down the sidewalk. Your eyes were unfocused. Okay, that must mean you were preoccupied. Something was weighing you down. He almost chickened out, telling himself that maybe he should try another time when you didn’t seem so downcast. 

The wolf in his chest, mostly dormant up until now, growled at him. That second part of his nature wasn’t usually pushy like this. Before the clearing, the wolf only showed up when Minseok’s frustration was getting the better of him. And that was usually Baekhyun’s fault. Right now, though, the wolf was pushing him to go forward with the plan, barking and clawing to get what it wanted. Because who knew when another good chance like this would happen?

Alright. Minseok gave in. After running his hands through his hair - a nervous fidget - he replaced his ball cap and strutted out to put his plan into action. 

**

You were two seconds away from screaming. Or throwing something. Or a combination of the two. 

Last night you hadn’t thought much about it, but this morning an idea came to you for an upcoming project in one of your classes and you wanted to write it down before it left you for good. Only problem? Your notebook was missing. 

You tore through every pocket of your bag, became a tornado around your dorm, and even crawled around your car like a toddler to try and find it. But there was only one sorry conclusion you could come up with on its whereabouts: the clearing.

Whimpering, you sat down on the asphalt next to your open car door. Every possible scenario ran through your head. The dew from the grass ruined the pages and ran the ink, making every note illegible. A rabbit taking it back to use for its nest. That wolf making the leather binding its new favorite chew toy. 

You laughed to yourself at that last thought. Do wild wolves even like chewing on things like their domesticated brethren? Then again, that wolf was an odd one. Given his behavior at coming across you in the clearing, you weren’t sure the ordinary rules of nature counted for him. 

One last sigh and you picked yourself up from the ground. For now, you would have to put off going back to the clearing. Class started soon and you couldn’t really afford to miss it. You threw your bag over your shoulder and used your foot to shut the car door before clicking the fob and activating the locks. The beep-beep told you that all was secure so you headed towards the main campus. 

The stress you were feeling seemed to be manifesting itself on the faces of the commuting students around you. Or, really, they were just as stressed as you were, since that was current college life. Though their own source of stress was probably vastly different from your own. How were you going to tell Erik that you’d lost your notebook? He was attentive about those kinds of things. Soon he would ask where it went or why you hadn’t used it in a while. Hopefully, it would still be in the clearing with only a minuscule amount of water damage and you wouldn’t have to come up with some lie as to how you lost it. The truth would only cause a fight that you would prefer to avoid. 

“Oomph!”

Your shoulder suddenly crashed into a solid object, bringing you out of your thoughts. The sound of paper flopping through the air made you flinch.

“I am so sorry!” Still not looking at whatever poor soul you ran into, you crouched down and started to help shuffle together the insane amount of worksheets. 

“It's alright, really.” 

“No, I should have….” You looked up and nearly gasped. 

Meeting the eyes of the person you’d ran into sent your head spinning. The world seemed to be tilting back and forth as if it were on a teeter-totter. Your breath caught in your throat. Never had you seen this person before. There was no rational explanation for why you were having this sort of reaction. Not even the handsome leads in the dramas you watched caused your heart to beat this fast.

Staring back at you were irises that were the deepest brown eyes you’d ever had the pleasure of connecting with. You were mere inches from the round yet straight nose and the wide, shining smile that revealed its owner’s pearly teeth. Though focused on the face, you could make out a fitted black tee and jeans snug tight. 

“Been paying attention,” you finished lamely and awkwardly.

“No, I was in too much of a hurry,” the man countered. Or, boy? You weren’t entirely sure. He had a timeless face, the kind that could both easily make him a tenured professor or be asked for his ID at the liquor store. 

“I’m sorry. Here.” You held out your poorly stacked papers out for him. “I don’t make you anymore late.”

“No! No, I-I’m not in a hurry!” he stammered. “I just… I just usually walk really fast. Having friends that are eighty-five percent legs created the habit.”

You laughed, nearly snorting out your nose between giggles at the joke. The muscles in your legs were screaming at you for how long you’d forced them to stay crouched, but you ignored them. To you, it was like time had momentarily paused. If you stood up or broke eye contact, then the clock would tick on again. 

Guilt yanked you back into reality. You shouldn’t be reacting like this, thinking like this when you were committed to someone else. Clearing your throat, you pushed yourself up and broke the stare. Time started forward again. 

“I, um, I should get going.” Yes. Yes, you should be getting to class. So, then, why were your feet refusing to comply?

The smile on his face didn’t dim as he, too, straightened up. “Right. You probably have class. I won’t keep you, but… I’m Minseok.” He held his hand out for you to take. 

You hesitated a moment and then metaphorically shook your head. It was just a friendly handshake. Hardly cheating. Besides, you doubted you would see him again on this big campus. “(y/n).” 

As soon as your palm met his, a strange heat or electricity ran up your arm, causing you to jump back in surprise. Minseok also seemed surprised by the charge. 

Almost nervously, he laughed, “Static electricity is always a shock, isn’t it?”

“Ha!” You slammed a hand over your mouth as soon as the sound escaped. You should not have laughed at the pun. Trying but certainly failing, you covered the laugh with a pathetic cough. “It was nice to meet you, Minseok. I hope you have a good day.” You hurried down the sidewalk, barely catching his confused response.

“You… too.”

You didn’t stop until you made it inside the building, shuffling over to the side so you weren’t blocking the entrance. Back against the painted cement blocks that made up the wall, you forced your thoughts to cohesively straighten out. 

This was a college. Funny, attractive boys were a dime a dozen here. Erik was one of them, no offense to him. You liked your funny and cute college boy. From your brief interaction, you didn’t see anything different or special about that Minseok. So why was your heart still refusing to calm down? You placed a hand over your chest as if that would put it back to normal. Taking the risk, you peeked out the glass doors, but the sidewalk you’d run into him was now empty. 

Who was that boy?

A valid question, but one for which you were not going to actively pursue an answer for. Going forward, you were going to put the boy out of your head and move on with your life, leaving it nothing but a random encounter without consequence or side effects. 

But as you headed down the hall to your classroom, something told you that this was nowhere near the end.

[thedinanshiral]

On Solas

Decided to try to organise some of my thoughts on Solas, so here it goes.

What we first know of Solas is that he’s an elf and a mage, the elven hobo apostate. From the game we can learn he’s an electromancer (in autolevel he prioritises the Storm tree abilities), and later on a Rift Mage, one could assume because he’s the “Fade expert” but further on we learn is because he’s the one responsible for the creation of the Veil. 

There have always been elements linking him to Fen’Harel and then to the Fade and the Veil, as seen in the Fade Wall Shield dropped by Gaxkang (one of the Forbiden Ones) in DAO, a shield with a name that basically means Veil (what’s the wall in the Fade?) and has a wolf head design on it, design that somewhat resembles the Mask of Fen’Harel as seen in DA:Redemption. That Mask of Fen’Harel can be used to open portals on the Veil and into the Fade, and is activated in Redemption through an ritual that includes blood ( in the miniseries it turns out to be an elven girl’s blood).

Considering his stance on blood magic (remarkably similar to Merrill’s, by the way), I think it’s safe to say he has used it before. That’s possibly why the Mask of Fen’Harel is activated with blood, and that’s why in order to break the Veil open time and time again we’ve seen big bloody sacrifices must be made. First record of this is the Magisters Sidereal using blood magic and almost all lyrium available in Tevinter to rip the Veil open (lyrium also being blood, and elven slaves prefered for sacrifice for their special elven blood, this means a lot of blood with magical properties of one or other nature is required to break through the Veil), second instance of some form of blood offering meant to grant one physical access to the Fade is when Corypheus kills Divine Justinia during a ritual we only saw a glimpse of and was never explained. Thridly, we have repeated mentions of how spirits feel drawn to the Veil there where there’s been bloodshed, particularly battlefields. So it’s safe to assume blood in enough quantities weakens the Veil enough to make an opening.

The red lyrium idol is his. In Tevinter Nights he claimed it so, and i’ve already discussed this idol at length in a previous post. In TN however we get other bits of information, like how the idol seems to have a self-regenerating property (when it’s found intact inside Meredith’s red lyrium statue after she had used the idol to craft a sword), and most curiously, how it seems to be hollow and have some liquid inside that makes it feel like when one holds a bottle. We also learn in the Mortalitasi account that the idol may have a hidden blade and become a ritual knife. Perhaps the value of the red lyrium idol is not in it being made of red lyrium, but on its content. Say the idol we see is a hilt, it can produce a blade, and it’s filled with ...blood. I think it’s possible its content is blood.

As per Cole’s comment in Trespasser, “the wolf chewed its leg off to escape the trap”, that sounds more like he sacrificed a big part of himself, most likely his power, that he may have concentrated and stored in the very same idol used for the Veil ritual. It would also explain why the one who created the Veil would wake up from Uthenera so weakened. There’s his foci as well, but I think that one mainly held memories, and in those memories there was knowledge that could grant great power (rather than containing actual power). Why he’d be after the foci first and not the idol could be because the foci was the safest option, or the one he already knew the location of. Clearly, the Anchor was plan A, and the red lyrium idol seems to be plan B.

Then I suspect Solas has what I call Word power, a form of influence or manifestation magic. I’ve found two distinct instances where Solas seems to use this, the first being when at Skyhold he tells the Inquisitor to “wake up”, revealing their conversation was taking place in a dream in the Fade. Upon realising “this isn’t real” the Inquisitor doesn’t wake up, they only do it after Solas gives the command. The other instance is after Solas leaves the Inquisition, when the Inquisitor can talk to Cole and he speaks Solas’ words, a message Solas delivers through him.

Solas is also a Dreamer, possibly why the Inquisitor walks in on him while dreaming at Skyhold, and surely how Solas can manage to kill people in their sleep in TN (granted, those were dwarves and dwarves allegedly don’t dream, but as far as we know they may still have a presence in the Fade while asleep, just have no memory of dreaming, no awareness of it). In fact the first appearance of Solas in DA media was in TME where he meets Felassan in the Fade, while he dreams to contact him. It’s widely believed that Solas killed Felassan then and there.

Then he is clearly an artist. Seems murals are his primary medium for storytelling. He adorns the rotunda in Skyhold with murals depicting the story of the Inquisition as it unfolds. Trespasser has several more murals telling stories of what happened, and I think it’s safe to assume there’s more than one self-portrait in them. 

He’s a shapeshifter, as pointed by some codex entries that imply the Evanuris took dragon forms on ocassion, and in the Evanuris propaganda against him found at the Vir Dirthara. He is twice the shapeshifter or perhaps not a good one, depends on your perspective, if we consider his chosen form, the Dread wolf, is described as either a giant wolf with dragon-like scales, or a dragon of some lupine features.  Is the Dread Wolf a wolf that looks like a dragon, or a dragon that looks like a wolf? I found it kind of funny how in TN his appearance description includes spirits forming as wings of fire to fly him around. Personally I don’t consider Regret’s description here because that was a particular demon feeding off what he had left behind, not his actual image.

He is, in a way, the Maker. Of present Thedas, shaped by his creating the Veil. The implications of this interpretation brings forth many more questions i’m not currently dwelling on.Let’s ignore this for now and possibly forever, it gives me a headache.

He was a warrior, as expressed in his banter with Blackwall. Considering how in post-Arlathan wolves were guardians to the Emerald Knights, and how in Trespasser’s Deep Roads his statues are described as guarding alongside Mythal’s, it’s possible he was once one of Mythal’s soldiers, perhaps part of her personal Guard, becoming a friend -or more  - favoured enough, maybe rewarded for his service reaching to a point where he became almost an equal? From this analysis it could be that Solas ascended to Evanuris status after his contribution in the war against the Titans. He was rebel fighter too, as evidenced in his banter with Sera, he possibly started as part of a large army but then started a revolution that operated in much smaller cells.

He was Skyhold’s former master. That fortress belonged to him. The very name of the place, elven in origin, hints at it being the location from where the Veil was placed, or at the very least where the ritual for it was initially performed. I suspect he also had a significant presence in the Exalted Plains, something about it reminds me of the landscape from the Elven Ruins at Trespasser, also because it’s the one and only place so far where we see a shrine dedicated to Fen’Harel. In an area with an electric dragon ( yet another hint at his electromancy). More importantly, while the shrine’s codex leads us to believe the reason why elves would make the Dread Wolf any offering would be to appease him and be spared his evil doings, this shrine depicts a black wolf figure and a white wolf figure, which are reminiscing of Solas’ tarot cards, The Tower (big menaching shadow wolf figure) and The Hierophant ( fluffy white companion wolf figure). Whatever the reasons for the Dalish to erect a shrine to the Dread Wolf it seems somehow in some way a certain knowledge of his dual nature is not entirely lost. Also, there’s the gigantic wolf statue atop a mountain in the distance, biggest one i’ve seen so far:

Which brings me to the main point of this ramble, his latest symbol depincting three wolf heads on a brooch he’s wearing in DA4 concept art.

It may be symbolic in a couple of ways. First in regards to his identity as in the elf, the creator (Evanuris), and the betrayer. Secondly as in the man, the spirit, and the “god”. As well as the three different realms he is connected to: the physical world, the Void, and the Fade. Personally I doubt this is the strange symbol used by some self-identifying Agents of Fen’Harel in TN, I think what they may be wearing could be an elven rune or ancient symbol we haven’t seen yet, hence why it was described as “strange”. I mean, if I see three wolf heads, I say it’s three wolf heads. Interestingly enough, he still wears the wolf jawbone (in this new concept art, it has some new circular designs on it as well, if you zoom in on a better quality picture) and i’m forever curious why he even has that in the first place. Did he just pick it up to use as a subtle hint of his true identity, or did the bone belong to a wolf he cared about? Why has its design changed? 

So far this is what i have in mind about him. 

[fizzingwizard]

Tumblr sucks so I had to post this twice but you should still read it because I had a lot of fun writing it xD Yamato is so easy to tease omg

Today’s Digimon Adventure: 2020 episode is entitled, “Time To Bring Back Visual Kei Bands,” because that’s pretty much where WereGarurumon belongs. I know what you’re thinking, he’s a wolf man in jeans with a kind of grungy rock n roll cowboy theme, how is that visual kei?

My friend, it’s all about the NAILS.

Those perfectly manicured, PINK freaking nails.

Tto start I’ll say this episode lowers the tension significantly compared to previous ones. That’s to be expected, and doesn’t mean it’s boring. It does a lot - it lets us confirm some things about Yamato, and a couple things about Sora and Jou in relation to him as well. It is otherwise a carbon copy of episode 8 in terms of story arc. More below as usual

So this ep is Yamato/Sora/Jou main inside a Taichi/Koushirou/Mimi sandwich.

We are starting to see more of Mimi Herself, complaining and whining about the unfairness of it all. Taichi appears to have scaled this wall by himself and Mimi’s like “YOU HAVE TOO MUCH ENERGY, YOU’LL PUT THE ENERGIZER BUNNY OUT OF A JOB, DO YOU WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HOMELESS BUNNIES?? HE HAS TO PROVIDE FOR HIS FAMILY”

Adding salt to the wound, Koushirou then zips up the wall like this..

zip!

The good thing about Mimi is, though she’s emotional, it’s easy to lift her spirits. She’s very in the moment. And fortunate that she has a partner who is both very patient and useful in these circumstances.

wheeeeee

Meanwhile the slightly-less-energetic group has put their heads together and decided to fly first class to their destination. I would ask where they got the basket but I’m sure I’d get the same answer as Taichi’s raft from episode 4 and Jou’s pergola from episode 7: these kids are extremely good at woodcraft and speedy

(or maybe Sora just had a giant basket in her bag, which we all understand by now is really a Bag of Holding)

While airborne they are Attacked!!! by SandYanmamon and not one but two tornadoes.

Jou: Wonderful!

(for a hot second there I mistook this for Birdramon’s line and was like “??? birdramon’s unusually sarcastic today” but of course it’s the king of morbid humor kido jou)

These Kyaromon appear out of nowhere to show off their dramatic eyeliner. Work it baby

Just when you think SandYanmamon and TWO FREAKING TORNADOES are enough, turns out there’s another threat lurking below the sand for the sole purpose of reminding us yet again “Pokemon this is not!”

SandYanmamon: Aaaaaaahhh nooooooooo i had so much living left to doooo heeeelp mommyyyyyyyyy

NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILD YOU MONSTER!!!

Cool-headed Yamato figures out that the new monster is able to track their movements under the sand. He sends the others away while he stays behind to hold off the bad guy.

The Kyaromon lead them to a cave where they meet...

ewww uuggghh noooo I hate them aaaahh make it stoppp

and also Neemon! and I’m just going to assume this is a parallel universe version of Frontier’s Neemon because it tickles me to think this is what he actually sounds and acts like and is just riding Bokumon out of pure spite

also Bearmon’s cap says “Bears.” Not bear, bears plural. I believe he’s an outcast former member of the Gummy Bears.

The Labramon look like Rainbow Brite rejects

Pictured above: First lovers’ tiff!

Neemon doesn’t know about the holy Digimon and tells the kids he is leading his group of perfectly helpless Digimon across the monster-infested desert because of the dark forces taking over everywhere. They will seek asylum with Leomon! We got our first mention of Leomon! Quick, cast your bets, how long till he dies? My guess is sooner rather than later because this seems like the kind of show that likes to kill your darlings.

Sora takes one look at this pathetic group and goes “We must go with them to protect them!” conveniently forgetting that she just got her ass kicked, but hey it’s the thought that counts

Yamato is quick to disagree.

Yamato: Did you forget that I stayed behind while you RAN AWAY? When you say let’s protect them, you mean I’M gonna be protecting them, right? RIGHT? That’s what you mean RIGHT??

(he thinks, but doesn’t say. that wouldn’t be Cool)

Yamato doesn’t want to lose sight of their mission, which is to fix things in their home world. He’s already at his limit hanging out with other human children who don’t know what they’re doing, he doesn’t want to be slowed down by freaking Bearmon. Wishy-washy Jou is like “Eh, either way sounds like death and torment to me, so...”

The interesting thing to me here is that no one’s upset. A bit surprised, I think, but Sora just stands her ground, Jou wibbles but eventually gets pumped up enough by Gomamon to decide to help her. They don’t even try much to stop Yamato from leaving which I think is what surprised me the most. I would have expected at least a vibe more like “We shouldn’t split up!” or something. If Taichi were there, maybe we’d have seen more conflict... but I’m really not sure. So far, conflict among the kids has been very low key. Even last week, the first time we saw Taichi and Yamato butt heads, to the other kids it was shocking but to a 99 Adventurer like me it was barely a kerfluffle xP

Well, anyway, the result is Sora and Jou stay with Neemon, and Yamato goes off on his own, and there is surprisingly little bad blood about any of this. They are all just getting to know each other though, so maybe that loyalty’s not quite expected yet.

Same as episode 8, Gabumon hints that there’s more to Yamato’s behavior than he lets on. He’s not just coldly abandoning his friends... except that he totally is >_> (As an adult, I don’t exactly think Yamato is wrong. I’d be more likely to agree with him than the others probably xP But these are children in a show for children, so Protecting Others and Following Your Feelings get a boost over cool rationale.)

Gabumon says Yamato should open up to the other kids. YEAH RIGHT. Yamato says “You’re all I need.” AWWWWWWWWW this wont backfire on them in a way that will wrench out my heart and tear it to a million pieces in forty episodes or so, no way

Ikkakumon becomes a Sand Boat while Birdramon covers the sky. At first I was like “hey! not a bad plan!” If they can help Neemon’s group get across the desert faster, it will be a big help even if they can’t take them further.

Of course, first they have to deal with the SandYanmamon.

Ikkakumon: Why does everyone go straight for the horn!?!

Oh, and also the two tornadoes.

Sora, standing on Birdramon’s leg: don’t look down don’t look down don’t look down

And now Sora’s on fire! That is it, I’m headcanoning it that the kids are basically invulnerable as long as they are touching their partners. THERE’S JUST NO EXPLAINING THIS

The flaming elementary school child does well until her partner is snared by the same monster from before, who turns out to be Scorpiomon. But this ain’t your momma’s Scorpimon from 99 Adventure, who was really Anomalocarimon but that was too hard to expect kids to say. This is the real Scorpiomon who is much scarier.

All of a sudden, from above!

ACTION LINES!!!

Yamato and Garurumon, both physically incapable of doing anything normally when there is a cooler, more awesome method available, drop into the battle from the air and start burning shit up.

They stand, bodies licked by blue flame, piercing eyes bright with the fever of battle, the sound of swooning fan girls echoing into the night

Garurumon does his best but Scorpiomon is a level higher so, duh, he doesn’t stand much of a chance. WHAT WILL OUR HERO DO.

Well, first, same as in episode 8, he flashes back to each of his newfound friends, gaining strength from their memory. Yamato is so sentimental it Hurts

Then his mind flashes to someone else...

... his favorite bobble head doll. No wait, that’s his round-headed baby brother, Charlie Brown.

he is infused with the power of Friendship!!!!!!!

Garurumon: What... is this feeling... so passionate... so... powerful... FFFRIENDSHIPPPPPP IS MAGIC

He then evolves into a brony into a furry in the coolest freakiest way he knows how.

WereGarurumon is basically everything the creators thought little boys like besides dinosaurs (because Taichi’s got that one covered) thrown together to make the ultimate little boy dream action figure: wolves, leather, hardware, piercings, brass knuckles, belts, skulls, scars, dog tags, and fuchsia stiletto nails

Ikkakumon: Sugoi... so shiny... oooh... blinding me...

WereGarurumon kicks Scorpiomon’s ass, it’s a cool battle scenes complete with kicks so fast his foot appears detached from his body. He then gives Yamato thumbs up.

Yamato: With nails like those the brass knuckles are kind of overkill...

Yamato dodges apologizing for going off on his own like that by saying he only came back because it’d be useful to him to have the others around as a decoy. Jou’s like FRIGGING DECOYS AGAIN??

But his dedication to remaining cool and aloof falters and he ends up telling them he’s just extra pressured to get their mission handled because he has a little brother, Takeru, living in Tokyo who is probably very scared stuck in the blackout. Sora and Jou are like “Oh, that makes sense, that’s why you’re so high strung.” They don’t point out the obvious, which is that they also have families affected by the blackout... >_>

Jou passionately thanks Yamato for being so forthcoming so early in the season and looks forward to telling Yamato about himself in the future.

The others: “But we already know all about you.”

Jou: “But HE doesn’t!”

xD look forward to it, Yamato...

It’s episode 11 and Yamato can already smile like this... I had to cap it.

Yamato: Ahh, I’m finally getting used to wearing this purple shirt. Still can’t get quite suppress the urge to cut off the sleeves though...

The other slice of bread completes our sandwich when we shoot back briefly to Taichi/Koushirou/Mimi’s group.

Taichi gets annoyed with Koushirou for the first time because of how much time Koushirou spends taking pictures of everything. Koushirou is that kid on the museum field trip who holds up the entire class reading every last word on the exhibit plaques while everyone else groans ‘cmon dude I wanna get to the dinosaurs before we go extinct too!!’

fyi I, Fizzing Wizard, was and am that slow ass kid

Mimi’s even more impatient than Taichi and in her boredom she starts touching things, because she’s never seen The Mummy.

IT’S A TRAP!!!

lol

Next ep’s trailer includes:

Andromon!!!

And Lillymon!!!

Oprah voice: You get a Perfect level and you get a Perfect level and you get a Perfect level and you get-

Yeah so, clearly everyone’s gonna get to Perfect level much quicker than in 99 Adventure, which again, it’s good they’re mixing things up. The question is, what’s next? My guess is down the line everyone will get Ultimate levels and of course, at some point we’ll see Omegamon. I wonder if there will be other Jogress possibilities? Just because it’s hard to believe evolution will stop being important, but if they’re going through both Adult and Perfect so fast it doesn’t leave much left for the rest of the season...

I give this ep a 5.5/10 for being basically a remix of episode 8, and I’m looking forward to getting new stuff for Yamato eventually. Next week’s looking to be Mimi-centric if Lillymon’s any indication, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for a few Taishiro moments anyway.

[ironandsilvcr]

poor temper.

SUMMARY: taking place during new moon. you are paul lahote’s imprint, the two of you trying to take the whole bond thing slowly while you get your head around the whole wolf thing and get to know him. still, when you hear his temper could have been the cause of injury to bella swan you can’t help but say something. ( fluff with a little angst. requests are open. )

WORDCOUNT: 3,000

The length of time you spent at the reservation really shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone anymore. Schoolwork, your part-time job at the cafe you loved in Forks and trying to keep some sense of normality at home all tried to keep you away and yet, you still found yourself sat in Emily’s kitchen most Saturdays. Listening to the howling laughter of the boys whilst sat at the table doing homework. Sitting beside Paul and Embry watching a movie, you didn’t care what you did when you got there. You even helped Emily make a muffin or two, although no one could claim you were a match for her in the kitchen. Settling in amongst them all had been as easy as sighing after a long day, easy in a way you weren’t really prepared for. It almost seemed as if you had never needed to be anywhere else.

The packs reasons for inviting you tended to change. It was usually something like letting you get to know the pack, them needing another player for their board game of choice, or even just to escape the chaos of forks for a little while. You had however come to have your own suspicions. The pack was getting larger and you were no stranger to stories of Paul’s temper. It had been a point of warning for you once sat next to Emily at a bonfire. You had had to promise her to get out of harm’s way the second something had seemed off. There was a part of you wondered if he was simply easier to be around when you were there too. Something along the lines of making him softer, getting him to let his guard down. The thought was enticing, no matter how new this thing between the two of you. You had to admit it was endearing to think you could have such an effect on him.

Today had been one of the busier days between the sightings of the ginger vampire and Jacob admittedly struggling to handle the shift Paul had made it clear when he’d called the house phone that you weren’t likely to see much of him that day. You headed over to Emily’s anyway ignoring the feeling of disappointment in your gut. On busy days like these, you figured Emily was going to need all hands on deck to make sure the pack didn’t make a mess of her place.

The sound of a truck outside and the familiar hooting of wolves pulled you from your thoughts. Turning your head to grin at Emily. The boys were back and going by the fact none of them had run in at full speed yelling about a problem they were in one piece for now at least. Embry and Jared entered through the screen door and you busied yourself fetching some juice for the table, Emily taking the muffins from the oven.

“You guys hungry? Like I have to ask,” You heard Emily joke as you turned around, a grin spilling onto your own features as you knew exactly what appetite she was referring to.

Still, when you lifted your gaze to the door, it was not Sam, Paul or Jacob standing there, but rather none other than Bella Swan. A girl you had barely spoken to since you were kids.

“Who’s this?” You heard Emily ask looking to the boys for an answer, you meanwhile lifted your hand in a somewhat awkward wave. Luckily she didn’t really seem to notice too busy looking just about everywhere in the house but at Emily. You figured one of the boys must have mentioned her scars and she was now actively trying to avoid making this any worse than it had to be.

You couldn’t be sure whether or not Emily had noticed, but you watched her grin anyway as you moved to take your usual seat at the table leaving a seat between you and Jared that Paul would fill later. Shooting a confused look to the two boys who all of a sudden seemed hesitant to meet your gaze. The very fact that their behaviour was off and Bella was there meant that something must have happened. You opened your mouth ready to fill the silence and ask where the other three might be, but Emily beat you to it.

“So,” Emily hummed. “You’re the vampire girl,”

Relief washed over Bella’s features as she stepped into the room, her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets. You could help but be amused by Emily’s ability to put people at ease.

“So you’re the wolf girl,”

Laughter flashed over Emily’s features then, you could tell she’d decided at that moment that Bella maybe wasn’t as bad as some of the boys had made her out to be “I guess so… well I’m engaged to one,”

The moment the muffins finally hit the table you knew they weren’t they were going to last very long. Not that that stopped Emily from trying her hardest to make sure that the boys kept their manners reaching out to catch Jared’s hand.

“Save some for your brothers,” she sighed pushing their shoulders. “And ladies first,” Her eyes bounced between your’s and Bella’s then gesturing to the plate. You didn’t need to be told twice, having learnt from past experience that you needed to act fast.

“Sure, thanks.”Bella seemed to get the hint, heading over in your direction and taking one for herself.

“You okay Bella?” You asked cautiously, ensure what you could and couldn’t say even though she clearly looked like she had been shaken up.

She raised a brow in response, almost as if she had forgotten that you were there at all. “Yeah, I guess,” Bella shrugged. “Given… everything,”

You didn’t really have time to think about what it was that she might have meant as it seemed Emily had managed to put the pieces together much faster than you.

“Leave Jacob to figure out a way around Sam’s gag order,”

What really took you by surprise was just how calm she sounded.

“Wait… what?” You questioned seemingly the last to know. As far as you were aware the boys weren’t able to go against Sam, so just what has Jacob done?

“He um, didn’t tell me anything,”

“Yeah it’s a wolf thing,” Embry spoke despite the daggers you were shooting him over the table. “Alpha’s orders get obeyed whether we want ‘em to or not. Oh and check it out we can hear each other’s thoughts,”

You didn’t need wolf based telepathy to picture Sam cringing.

Luckily Embry’s comments were enough for Jared to try and step in even with his mouth full of crumbs. “Would you shut up? These are trade secrets. Damn it this chick runs with vampires,”

“You can’t really run with vampires,” Bella corrected to Emily’s amusement. “’ Cause they’re fast,”

You couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy about the way she found it so easy to talk about the bloodsuckers that you had become so scared of in the past few months. What would Bella have been like, you wondered, had your places been reversed and she had been witness to so many stories about the destruction the cold killers could leave in their wake.

“Yeah?” Jared commented as if he could hear your thoughts. Leaning forward as if it might make Bella take him more seriously. “Well, we’re faster, freaked out yet?”

Everything was going to be a competition to the pack it seemed but at that moment you were glad for the normality. Shaking your head at just how standoffish Jared could appear to be to strangers.

Bella shook her head, you could have applauded her for the way that she was willing to stand up for herself. “You’re not the first monsters I’ve met,”

“Jake’s right,” Sam spoke from where he finally appeared in the doorway. His appearance a welcome sight to everyone. “You’re good with weird,”

You watched him walk across the room then his focus on Emily alone. He took the few steps across the kitchen to reach her side before he whispered the softest ‘hey’ you ever heard and kissed her about a hundred times.

It always made you feel a little odd watching Sam and Emily, despite how dear the two of them had become to you. They were the only other imprinted couple in the pack and were about as close to true love as two people could get and that was from the viewpoint of an outsider. The fact that you and Paul had the chance to have a similar relationship was not lost on you, even if you preferred not to think about it for the moment. Imprint or not, you owed it to him to get to know him as a person rather than just the wolf.

Seemingly responding to your thoughts Jake and Paul arrived on the porch a few moments later, shoving at each other in a way that had become familiar and playful. Whatever tension you had been holding dissolving for a moment at the sight. Clearly, whatever it was that had happened out there had done no permanent damage.

Jake and Bella were, of course, wrapped up in each other from the moment he arrived, you, however, could say nothing given the way that Paul’s eyes lighten slightly upon noticing you at the table. You grin as his hand brushes against your shoulder and he, as predicted, pulled out the seat beside you and reached for a snack of his own. It was no big romantic gesture compared to what you had seen between Sam and Emily but it was enough for the two of you at that moment.

Then when after he had seemingly convinced himself that you were indeed real rather than something made up in his mind. He turned to Bella, the grin still filling his features highlighting the way that he could never manage to take things seriously.

“Sorry,”

Sorry? You questioned. What had happened?

You didn’t miss the way that Jared had to get five dollars out of his shorts to hand to Embry five dollars, that being the biggest clue any of them could have given.

Bella and Jacob disappeared a few seconds later off to one of the beaches most likely. The pair leaving behind a few beats of silence after they left like the others needed to catch their breath. It was a big deal for all of you, trusting someone else with such intimate knowledge not just about the pack but about their tribe.

“Something tells me we’re going to be seeing her more often,” Sam spoke from where he was still standing, arms wrapped around Emily like he hadn’t seen her in months.

Embry scoffed shaking his head. “As long as she knows that she has to keep quiet,“

“Says you!” Jared spoke in disbelief.

The shook your head then, despite the softness you held towards the pack their bickering could still be annoying.

“Look,” you sighed. “Is one of you going to bite the bullet and say what happened, or are Em and I supposed to figure it out for ourselves?”

The mood at the table shifted then, the boys looking over to Paul expectedly while the playfulness alighting his features disappeared. Clearly, you were more frightening than Bella.

“Well?” you asked pointedly looking between the four of them for answers.

“You should have seen it y/n,” Embry spoke excitedly. “Jacob phased like that,” snapping his fingers for effect.

“Embry shut up,” Paul huffed in his seat beside you. He looked more anxious than before like he was scared of something.

Sam got the hint then, moving from Emily’s side to clasp the two other boys on the shoulder. “C’ mon lets give them the room,”

Paul shot him a grateful glance, while Emily moved to squeeze your shoulder lightly before following after the other three.

You waited until you were sure the two of you were alone before shifting in your seat. Moving to take Paul’s hand, not really thinking about anything other than the way he always seemed to find comfort from your touch. It must have been an imprint thing you guessed. Standing with his arm around your shoulder, or a hand or in the small of your back, or even sitting so close your legs brushed under the table. The two of you had long surpassed any form of physical boundaries in that regard.

“You gonna tell me what happened? Remember unlike most people in your house I can’t read your mind to help you out,”

That caused him to laugh at least.

“We were heading over to Billy’s to check on Jake, you know what he’s been like lately,”

You nodded. Jake had been the first real newcomer to the pack you had witnessed, you had been too new yourself when Embry had phased, but even with your limited experience, you could tell he wasn’t taking it all that well.

“Well Bella was over for something, I don’t know, and so she bolts up to the four of us and starts yellingat Sam. Really aside from Jake I don’t think anyone’s ever really yelled at him like that ever. Anyway, she’s shoving at him and I’m already frustrated thinking Jake must have told her somehow and then she makes this claim that he’s afraid of us and that’s why he’s not speaking, which of course I laugh at because, you know, Jake’s our brother, but she really didn’t like that because next, she slaps me right across the face,”

You couldn’t help but cringe, not because it would hurt but that might have been the stupidest decision Bella had made in her entire life.

“So then I just can’t take it anymore and I phase right there in front of her,”

“Poor girl you must have given her a heart attack,” You sighed. There could be no doubt the wolves were an intimidating sight when a person first lay eyes on them.

“I mean it was fine,” He backtracked “Because Sam had gotten her to at least give me some space, and I at least had enough sense not to hurt her, but then Jake comes running out of the house, volts over the porch and shifts jumping over Bella as she ran away,”

You raised your brow at that, unsure if you had heard of anyone else shifting that fast.

“Anyway the two of us got into a bit of a fight and may have broken Billy’s boat,”

You sighed then, resting your forehead on your free palm for just a moment. “Well for starters I hope you apologised,”

He nodded. “Look y/n -” He went to speak before you cut him off.

“That was stupid you know,” You sighed although there was no real annoyance in your tone. “If she’d been standing closer if there had been someone else with her…” Your thoughts providing a never-ending list of just how that could have been so much worse. Still, you don’t move your hand from his. You had known that his temper was an issue right from the first time he took you to First beach. it was not going to scare you away now.

“I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I did try to stay calm,” There was a degree of tenderness in his tone, directly related to the way that (admittedly unsaid) you simply refused to be scared off.

You nodded then. “I’m sure,” If there was one thing you had faith in it was that Paul was a lot more emotional and caring then people might think initially. “Listen if she slapped me I would have been… Maybe just try and remember how intimidating you guys can be from the outside next time alright?”

He seemed to visibly relax then, squeezing at your hand a little more and slumping back into a more comfortable posture in his chair somewhat, even though it seemed like there was still something he needed to say.

“It’s just with this and what happened to Emily, I just didn’t want you to think that I wasn’t trying, or didn’t take this seriously. I’m not going to put you in danger, I’d rather die,”

The two of you had had plenty of quiet intimate moments between the two of you, with just how loud the pack could be, and how chaotic your life was at the best of times they were necessary just to make sure the two of you had some time together, but you could have sworn you’d never seen him be that vulnerable until that moment. Emotions were usually something Paul could disguise pretty well so for something to have shaken him up this much must have been a pretty big deal.

“I know,” You spoke gently, looking right at him. “Just like I know exactly what signs to watch out for if things get bad… I’m not going anywhere Paul, so you can stop worry about scaring me off,” Usually you wouldn’t have been so stern with him, but it was what he needed to hear at that moment.

Getting up from your seat, you saw a second of confusion in his gaze whilst you closed the gap between you and wrapped your arms around his (quite bare) shoulders. Not really thinking about what it was you were doing you pressed a kiss to his cheek, before the two of you just held onto each other in a moment of silence.

Then when you were sure you had been of some comfort to him, you pulled away and grabbed his hand again. You tugged until he stood up from his chair a stray hand coming to reach for your waist.

“C’ mon,” You spoke lightly. “We should go catch up to the others. Emily will want to make sure you’re okay,”

[zoethespiritwolf]

~Lady Justice~ Viperion x reader (part 2)

I realised that I forgot to post a picture of the outfit Lady Justice has in the first part so here it is. The artwork isn’t mine, all credit goes to the artist.

Previously

"No!" Luka yelled at them as he turned. "I won't turn my back to her and allow her to get away.."

Viperion then turned back to the streets below and jumped down to start looking for her.

"Not again. Not anymore."

Now

Viperion sprinted across the rooftops. His legs burned from the intensive running but he didn't dare to stop.

He had to find her.

He needed to bring her back.

Suddenly he stopped when he noticed some black wolves roaming the street.

"Why are there wolves on the streets?" Luka thought to himself. "Did someone free them from somewhere....or prehaps..."

An idea came into Viperion's mind as he watched most of the wolves moving towards one specific place. The Eiffel Tower.

"She has to be there." Luka said as he looked at the magnificent structure where he thought Lady Justice would be. He then started running again as fast as he could, not wanting to wait for the other superheroes for backup.

"I'm coming (Y/n)."

....

..........

.........................

"Why?" a feminine voice said from the shadows. "Why did you do it? Why did you accept his help?"

Lady Justice opened her piercing golden eyes that had this fire in them, that looked like the eyes of a wolf, a monsterous beast. She continued to scowl even when she didn't look at the teenage girl that had emerged from the shadows, her alter ego, her past self, (Y/n).

The name tasted bitterly on her tongue and her face contorted into a frown as her eyes narrowed and she turned her head slightly to the side but still not looking at her.

"What do you want from me?" Lady Justice growled. "You have nothing to do with me, even when I erased every weakness from my existance that came from you, you plague me still. "

"But one must wonder," she then turned to the girl, the figure that once was her, and hissed out, "why?"

Her past self just looked at her sadly, she felt pity for the akumatised version of herself. (Y/n) could sense the darkness radiate from Lady Justice, the poor girl that was humiliated in front of everyone, especially her best friend Luka, and in desperation seeked herlp from a darker force. She stepped closer, coming more into the light as her steps echoed in the abiss.

"Because it's wrong," (Y/n) finally spoke, "and you know it."

Lady Justice just 'tch'ed in responce and looked away from her past self.

"No." she bited back almost immediantely and her voice started getting louder with every word she said. "What I did was right in every way. Lila deserves to be punished! She needs to have justice brought upon her! She-"

"But that is not what Viperion would want you to do." (Y/n) said calmly as she slowly stepped forward, tentively reaching out her hand. "That is not what he would want you to think, to say."

"He is nothing more than a plague in my life." Lady Justice growled dangerously, cutting her off. "If he didn't exist, I wouldn't have started admiring him. I wouldn't have started to fall for him. I wouldn't have been humiliated. I-"

"No, he is not!" (Y/n) said in desperation as she looked at her other self with pleading eyes and reached for Lady Justice's shoulder. "Please, let go of this hatred! It won't help anyone! Viperion is going to save you-us! And everything will go back to normal!"

"SHUT UP!!!" Lady Justice yelled as she harshly slapped (Y/n)'s hand away. "THERE IS NO WAY EVERYTHING WILL BE AS IT WAS!! I DON'T WANT TO BE SAVED!!!"

She then turned her back on the figure of her former self and glared into the darkness. Eventually she calmed down and growled out: "And I will make sure the world will never be the same."

A long silence settled between them. (Y/n) didn't dare to speak, to move, to breathe. After some time she lowered her hand and started turning towards where she came from.

"..........Then there is nothing I can do." She said grimly and slowly started to walk into the shadows, her footsteps echoing before she stopped and looked back at the dark figure. "I hope you are satisfied."

She then turned and walked into the darkness disappearing completely leaving Lady Justice alone.

Lady Justice screwed her eyes shut, guilt starting to seep into her and she fisted her hand.

"This must be done."

1st person pov.

I opened my eyes to see that I am still in the Eiffel Tower, sitting on a throne that I had made. I looked to the side to see the civilians I had requested my minions to bring me to lure Ladybug, Chat Noir and Viperion.

Viperion....

I shook my head to rid my thoughts of guilt for what I'm doing. Instead I started summoning glowing orbs in my hand and throwing them at the terrified captives. The immediantly turned into black wolves and then came to my side.

"Find the heroes of Paris." I said to them. "Bring them and Lila Rossi to me."

They then growled animalisticly and ran towards the city while some stayed behind to guard me incase the miraculous holders  came here and started attacking.

I stepped closer to the edge of the tower and leaned on the rails. The view from up here was beautiful. It overlooked almost all the city of Paris and I loved to come up here from time to time to clear my head. But that was when I was weak, when I was pathetic, helpless...

"How is the search going?" Hawkmoth asked me as his image appeared in front of me.

"Soon they will be found Hawkmoth." I replied to him calmly. "And when they will be you will have the miraculouses."

"Exellent, Lady Justice." he replied, seemingly happy. "But do not fail to bring them to me or there will be consequences."

"I know." I replied as I looked over the streets of Paris. "I will make sure to deliver them to you. They will be found. No matter the cost."

His image then disappeared and I was left alone yet again. Something in my mind was telling me to stop, telling me that this is wrong and I shouldn't do this.

"Damn you..." I muttered as I imagined the image of the girl I used to be. The weak, naive little girl that used to believe that being kind would make the world a better place.

"(Y/n)..." I heard a male voice softly say and I immediantly turned to the figure that spoke only to find Viperion.

"So," I said calmly with a hint of hatred. "Finally you have decided to show up, Viperion."

I hissed his name as I looked at him. He was just standing there, no weapond drawn, no standing in a fighting stance. Just standing.

"I am not going to fight you (Y/n)." He said as he dropped his lyre to the grond with a loud clanck and slowly stepped closer to me.

I instinctively stepped back and the black wolves stepped between us and growled at the intruder.

"I am not (Y/n)." I said lowly. "I am Lady Justice. And I am here to bring justice to all those who deserve it. Including you."

My minions then bared their teeth at the hero and started to slowly stalk towards him. He stepped back a bit only to reach a hand out tentively and continuing to step closer to me.

"I know you are angry at me." Viperion said and when I looked up to his face I saw that his eyes were practicly pleading for me to listen. And for some reason, even though I hated him for being the source of my humiliation, I couldn't look away or to disobey his eye's silent command. "I know that you are angry at Lila for telling everyone you secrets-"

"Don't you dare mention that filth's name!" I growled at him and so did my wolves.

He stepped closer to me hand still up. "I know you are hurting."

Something about those words hit some kind of trigger in me and I started to feel like I was suffocating. I suddenly felt weaker and weaker by the second as I continued to gaze into his blue eyes.

Another step closer to me. The wolves growled quieter.

"I know what it feels like," he continued, "to be desparate, to want someone to pay for what they did."

Another step. My minions had calmed down.

"I know how it feels to be akumatised."

"What are you waiting for!?!" I heard Hawkmoth yell as his image came in front of me, but I didn't truly see him. I could only look at Viperion. "Attack him!!! Take his miraculous!!!"

"And I know that you know this is wrong."

My breath got stuck in my throat. I couldn't breath. I heard Hawkmoth yelling at me to attack him, but it sounded like a distant yell, almost mute, but I could still feel the weight of his words.

"So please....."

He was almost in front of me.

STOP!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! ALL THE WORLD NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!!! WHY ARE YOU GIVING UP??? FIGHT HIM!!!

I heard the shadows of my mind yelling at me, the evil that resided in me since I became Lady Justice. But in the end Viperion's voice was the loudest of them all.

"...let me help you."

He finally stepped around the wolves as his hand reached my cheek. His eyes were shimmering like glass, possibly from tears welling up in his eyes. His gloved hand cupped my cheek and wiped away the tears that I now noticed were trailing down my cheeks.

I felt like I was suffocating. Like I was going to die.

I needed him to save me.

I wanted him to save me.

"Help me." I whispered as I looked up into his eyes.

He looked down at my choacker and his hand that had been on my cheek trailed down to it. And then he ripped it from my neck, letting it fall to the ground, break the jewel and release the akuma.

It felt as if all the weight from my mind and soul had been lifted. I finally could breath and a sence of euphoria washed over me. It was all overwhelming and I was suddenly consumed by darkness once again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 2 of Lady Justice is done!!! I'm so sorry to make you all wait so long but here it is and I hope you like it. There is going to be a part 3 and I hope that I will ahve time to get to it very soon. If all goes well, I will post part 3 later today.

Anyway, hope you liked this and have a nice day :D

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

The Wolves (A White Demon’s Love Song, Part 5.)

Series description: A new job was what the reason you found yourself on a lonely roadtrip on the western coast, ending up in the woods of Olympian Peninsula. Yet a sudden car malfuction was what cause your unplanned stay in Forks. To your surprise, there was a lot of sinister things going on under the veil of fog.

Part summary: The wolves now had to come up with a different strategy since the vampires coming so close to the town was a thing no-one expected so soon. Yet, a secret was to be revealed that night.

A/N: Heavily inspired by the Phascination Phase (Carter Burwell for the Twilight movie), because... Idk, there’s something so ambient about the track. 

Tagging: @missdictatorme​

Word count: 3.7 K

Twilight playlist: ✨ Twilight Crackheads ✨

Series masterlist: H E R E

A few hours ago, La Push, Emily's house:

Jacob stood in the opened door for not longer than a moment, watching you leaving the garage in his black towtruck. For the most part, you should be safe. Why the hell was Jacob so stressed about keeping you safe? You were, for now, just a normal Forks citizen like everyone else. Maybe it was just that you were his personal responsibility for some time now. He offered you a place to stay - naturally, you accepted the offer because you counted on being safe. And just ten minutes ago, a leech almost made you their personal lollipop or worse, they might've made a newborn out of you. Thanks to God, the shifter scent was too strong for the vampire. She saw Jacob waiting for you in the opened back door, but it was the typical stench that made her stop.

Jacob saw her for a fragment of a second, just standing there and watching you laying on the ground. Then, she gave Jacob a teasing smile and in the next second, she was gone. It was at that moment the man knew he had to send to some location which was overseen by the shifters all the time. There was also a second reason to keep you at Charlie's - that bitch surely smelled your scent. Since you didn't really live at the small flat, the werewolf scent wasn't covering you enough - and the raincoat didn't help much anyway. At the end of the day, it was you, who was still just a normal human being.

As soon as the truck disappeared behind the high school, Jacob walked to the back of the building and walked into the woods. Fuck the motorbikes, he was way faster on all four. He could borrow something from Sam, so he just bound the tore sweatpants around his upper thigh and let the animal take the lead. Of course, Leah and Quil noticed immediately - there was confusion in the group shared telepathic web. - 'Did something happen?' - Leah asked, but hadn't moved from her spot. She knew better than to annul the formation because Jacob had just shifted. At first, Jacob didn't answer and just let both her and Quil to look inside his mind. At first, both of them got way more confused when they saw the strange girl jumping out of the woods - yet then they felt it. The humongous smell of rotten tomatoes, the wolves could feel her presence and they saw her, just standing there with her eyes wild and hungry, the grin on her face was threatening.

'Okay, now I get it.' - Leah muttered after a moment. Sure, there was still a hint of confusion and curiosity regarding you in the shared consciousness, but honestly, you weren't that important in the bigger picture. - 'I can't believe she came so close! She was trying to get through here... I guess the cold one must've caught her scent. Are we going after her?' - Quil asked immediately, getting ready to run to Jake's position. - 'They're just trying how much closer they can get and top of that, that leech has already run away. I'm on way to Sam, we'll be trying to figure out a different system of watching Forks.' - Jake said in a calm voice, running in the direction of La Push at the highest speed he was capable of. - 'I'll be checking on the southern part of the city... Quil is on the west. Sam has five boys here today, so there will be no problem to run in circles around the town.' - Leah told Jake and since Quil caught on what she was doing, he immediately started to assure their leader as well. - 'No chance they're slipping, boss.'

Since that moment, both of them kept their thoughts silent. Quil and Leah were a good team - ever since Leah left Sam's pack, she became quieter and calmer. Now, she wasn't such a pain in the ass. And Quil didn't want to disturb with too much of empty thoughts in case something might've happened. For once, it was nice not to deal with Seth's endless sunshine energy. - 'I won't tell my little bro a thing, but thanks for the compliment.' - Leah laughed inside Jake's head. The phase where he was rolling his eyes after every word Leah said out loud was far behind him, now, he snickered lightly as well. - 'I would appreciate that. Okay, I'm at Sam's. Once we figure something out, I'll let you know.'

Jacob didn't wait for their answer and changed into his human form. Hastily, he put his old sweatpants on and ran to the house and knocked on the door. The twins, Emily and Sam's small girls, were running around the place and as Emily approached the door, she tried to calm the kids down. Yet as soon as they saw Jacob behind the door, they started to yell excitedly again. Emily wasn't stupid - as soon as she saw Jake visiting them during the day, even if Sam and Jake usually met during the nighttime watch, she knew something happened. The woman let Jacob inside and put cookies on the big plate in the middle of the table, saying... - "Give me a minute, I'll wake Sam up." - With that, she disappeared inside the house.

Sam was always taking his time getting up - yet when his wife said Jake's name and that he came just so he could talk with him, he tried his best. When he finally walked into the kitchen, half-dressed uncle Jake was sitting at the table with a muggle full of fresh coffee and watched small Brianna and Ellie drawing with various colors of wax crayons. It was just a small, peaceful moment that was not to last long. As soon as Jacob looked up to Sam, the older man could see the emotion in Jake's face. It... It wasn't fear, not even horror - it was rage. The younger man wasn't shifting, he was just angry. - "Angels?" - Sam smiled tiredly and kissed both of the twins on their temples. Both the girls smiled at their dad, but before Sam started talking again, Bri was already babbled at him, because both her front teeth fell out. - "Daddy, look! I drew you and mamma. And this is uncle Paul, auntie Rachel and... Auntie Leah and..."

The picture was more or less a formation of stickmen - each of them had a crazy hair color... But sure, it was the La Push family. - "You should go play to your room for a bit, my birds. Come on, I need to talk to uncle Jake. You can have him later." - Sam smiled. The girls hadn't got a favorite - but they were super pumped when Jacob came back to La Push since he was now living in Forks for the most part. Rachel and Paul were taking care of Billy, so he had more time for himself and his love for cars. - "Okay!" - Ellie cried out happily, picked a few crayons, and ran to their room with loud, happy squeals, Brianna following right after. These kids were always happy. Jake could see all the things Sam was fighting for. He had a lot to lose.

"Start talking. I know you're not here just to say hi." - Sam muttered out with a loud yawn, pouring some coffee into a mug as well. Emily was standing behind the stove, preparing some eggs and bacon for both the men. At that point, she didn't even ask - Jake just had to eat everything Emily had served. - "Yeah, something like that. That vampire bitch just showed up behind my house. Not even an hour ago." - "Did you try to catch her?" - Sam fired back immediately. Even though they had their differences back in the day, even if they argued a lot when Jacob left his pack, Sam was still worried about his brother in arms. For God's sake, they knew each other since they were small boys. Sam was just five years older. - "Unfortunately... Listen... She wasn't hunting me down, she was after someone else." - "That girl who's car crashed here? I've seen her in your head, just a glimpse." - Jake nodded.

"Well, this is getting worse and worse, I'm not going to lie. How did the girl get into trouble?" - Sam asked just when Emily served the breakfast; then she quickly kissed Sam's cheek, smiled at Jake, and left to the children's room so she would make sure they don't hear anything. - "I think she just went on a walk, she seemed off when I found her. Sam, Y/N realized something was in the forest with her." - "What did you tell her?" - "Well, I tried to misguide her, tell her that it was just a mountain lion." - For a moment, both the men fell silent. - "She might be on the target list now." - Sam muttered out after a moment. It took a while before everything clicked in Jake's brain. - "That girl borrowed my raincoat, but her scent was still too strong..." - "And if she saw you there, she might figure out that she's our weak spot. Where is she now? Is she safe?" - Sam didn't care who the hell you were - it could be anyone from Forks, La Push, Port Angeles and he would still care the same. The Protectors committed to protecting everyone in the town, no matter if they were a tourist or a local.

"Y/N? She's at Charlie's now, but he'll be coming to La Push later this afternoon. I asked him to take her with him. My people are here, your people are here - if they'd feel the slightest hint of the leech's stench, they'd go right after them. Leah and Quil are helping with watching the city boundaries." - Jacob leaned his back to the chair. His back was hurting really bad, but there was no time to rest now. - "How could the bloodsucker just slip past us? I don't understand?" - "We should call the doctor finally, ask him about the things regarding this group of leeches... I don't have a single good feeling about them."

Just ten minutes after Jacob proposed the idea, Sam was debating with Carlisle on the phone, describing everything about the group of vampires living near to Forks now. Carlisle said to Sam that this behavior can be considered normal - except the noticeable skills, these had with hiding their smell and tracks. Such vampires tended to be old and experiences - they had most probably encountered their first group of extremely good trackers; ones such as James was. After some time, the vampires who lived too long already wanted to feel the thrill of the game. James's talent was tracking - yet such things could be learned through hundreds of years of experience. It could be significantly harder since the shifters hadn't estimate how many of the players were out there. Sam's pack had encountered one, Jacob was one hundred percent positive there was a second one... But there could be one more. And once the vampires would figure out the right formation, there was nothing that would stop them. Well, this wasn't any good news. Fucking trackers.

"Do you think these old vampires might show here, doctor?" - Sam mumbled, listening to Carlisle's calm, enjoyable tone on a speaker. - "The Volturi?" - "Yes, I mean these we had already met. Can these be sent by them?" - For a moment, Carlisle was quiet, yet both men could hear chatter in the background. - "Hardly." - Alice's jolly voice answered suddenly. - "I can't see them even thinking about Forks or going there, or sending their people there. Aro is still hoping that he might get us, but... No. He doesn't choose to send his people your way." - She explained quickly. - "Are the vampires too conspicuous? I hadn't seen any news reporting murders in Forks." - Carlisle muttered after a moment, audibly going through some newspaper. This made Jake grin a bit; the man was still looking after his former place of stay. - "No." - Jacob said simply, which made Carlisle sigh. Well, that didn't mean anything good. - "Then the Volturi will hardly come to dismantle them, unfortunately. As long as the vampires aren't violating any laws, they won't be stopping them. Do you think that you need help?"

Clearly, Carlisle was asking 'should we come to help you?'. If there would be any sign that the pack can't do it on their own, they would spend no time sitting around. No matter what were the pack's members' opinions on the Cullens, Jacob had to say that the liked this family of leeches. - "No. We're doing just great, I just wanted to be informed. Have a nice Carlisle, nice hearing from you." - With that, Sam hung on the phone after the doctor said his goodbye and wished the men good luck. The news wasn't good at all. A pack of damn tackers who wanted to play a game with the pack.

After all, they were there to hunt - yet they were willing to take their time, wait for the pack to grew tired and then slip by in the dead of the night. What could've been worse? And the Volturi were neither behind this operation or about to stop it. There were dark clouds on the horizon, which wasn't making them any calmer. Both of them went for a short walk around Sam's house, trying to figure out... Something. And the only solution was... - "No. Sam, this isn't happening." - Jacob put both his hands on his chest, having the typical expression of an angry five-year-old. - "It's just a t-shirt." - Sam answered back, rolling his eyes. - "I already told her there are mountain lions... Sent her to a stranger's house and to a place she never been at. Now, I'll be stealing her clothes?" - Jacob snickered, shaking his head.

"She's the weak spot right now. They want to start a game, we will start a game, then - and on our own terms. All we need is her scent." - Jacob knew Sam was right, but... Seriously, you've been thinking about his ill intentions (killing you, let's be honest for a minute) since the first moment you saw him. And now, he was supposed to steal a piece of your clothing? Well... - "Okay. Okay. I'll try to get something. When we're talking about clothes, can you lend me some for the afternoon? I'll be picking her up on the beach." - With this question, both men walked back to the house for Jake to keep the promise. He spent playing with the girls a huge portion of his day, just before he fell asleep on Brianna's bed, snoring on the whole house.

To get to the beach, he certainly didn't use his human form. That would be too slow. He called to Billy's, making sure you're still at the beach - or if you decided to take off and maybe run away from Forks. Jacob wouldn't flinch at that. He wouldn't be surprised if you did. Yet, you still were there - with Rachel. The man groaned at that, as all little brothers do, rolling his eyes. He could only imagine everything Rachel told you about him. Dear Lord. Now, you could justify thinking like a killer when talking about him. Rachel didn't spare his good name at all, Jacob was positive there.

It was a busy day at the beach. Normally, Quil would spend his time there with Claire - yet the boy knew that sometimes, protecting the place because of the people you love is important as well. For a moment, he was just standing there and watched the sea lazily waving around - he knew that somewhere in the woods, there was Jared looking after the La Push territory. And just when he was thinking about that, he saw you and Rachel walking out of the forest side by side, laughing at something. Great. He could only guess how many stories did Rachel pull out.

Of course, he wouldn't Rachel walk home alone - it was almost six miles to their home after all. But he didn't plan on stopping on a visit either. Billy, who was in the elder council, naturally understood that Jacob was rather busy in the last few days - but Charlie did come to the car and made you roll down the window. - "I just wanted to ask... Hm... How was the beach?" - It looked like genuine interest from Charlie's part, which made you grin. It was nice of him to ask. - "Rachel showed me around... It was pretty impressive. I need to tell my friends about it, definitely." - Then, the cop shot a quick gaze at Jacob. For the love of God, he was hoping that the boy won't drag you into some funky business with him. - "If anything happens, I'm at the phone number all the time, okay?" - Charlie reassured himself before patting the side of the truck and leaving without waiting for you to answer. You were just watching him leaving back to the house, with a small smile on your face.

Jacob tried to ask you about your day, but you could tell that the 'worse' Jacob was now in the position. He didn't seem to smile a bit, he was kinda mumbly and quiet for the most part. As you walked into the garage again, you knew you had to do something. This couldn't wait two days. No. You had to do it immediately. As soon as he would sneak out, you'll follow right after. Yeah, mountain lions, sure... This made you grin as you worked on the paperwork once more. Throughout the whole time, you hadn't seen Jacob - the whole time, he was outside and worked on your Beetle, changing the smaller parts he had with him. It was obvious that you will have to visit a wrecking lot soon - in search of working components, hustling the best prices out of that. By the way, the components were even on sale - those which your car needed so desperately. The wrecking lots were your last chance.

Around the same time as the previous day, you've just told Jacob you're going to take a shower and go to sleep - which he only barely acknowledged. He was too busy working and thinking about Sam's theory. It wasn't right. The vampire girl saw Jacob looking out for you and even though she didn't know you two have nothing in common, she most likely connected you as partners of sorts. He could steal one of the t-shirts you've put into the laundry, couldn't he? All it took was an article of clothing to lure the leeches somewhere where they wouldn't be in advantage - like a huge plain, the one next to Ozette Lake. Fuck, this was uncomfortable. He couldn't even look you in the face.

That night, when he was leaving for the watch, he didn't even lock the door - it wouldn't be functional against a vampire. He was to stay nearby the town, looking after the damn house - while Embry and Seth, as humans, got their orders from Sam. Jacob didn't know what the strategy was - he had only Jared and Brody on the watch in Forks. Jared could be only barely counted in since he was sleeping while walking. The boy took a 24 lasting shift, no wonder he was so done.

As soon as you noticed Jake marching to the woods, you put his raincoat on, since it was raining again, and went after him, lurking in the shadows. If Jacob would be in his normal human self, he would hear you. He wouldn't smell you, since the rain and wind was making the scent trail fade away rather quickly, but he would know somewhere's there based on the sounds. You weren't as dumb to walk straight after him - you could barely see him, hiding behind the trees, but you could still hear him breathing. Dear God, was he breathing loud? You hadn't noticed before. Suddenly, he stopped and started to breathe quicker and quicker.

Curiosity got the better out of you, let's be honest here, as you sneaked past a few trees, getting closer to him, finally catching a good look at the man. He was... Breathing really quick, shaking. His muscles were visibly tensing under his skin, but you knew that something wasn't adding up here. Was he having a seizure? Was he chanting himself before another kill? Or was this the ritual after which the second part of his split personality came out? Fuck, you were confused. Your nails dug deeper into the tree and your breath hitched as the tension got the better out of you. Unknowingly, you pressed to the wet, cold tree and didn't blink from that point on.

It was fascination at its best. You didn't even jump when growls cut through the silence, resonating through the whole, quiet forest. The man fell on his knees, growling and grunting in immersive pain. And that was when you saw it - a strike of russet fur flying out of his body, traveling on his spine. And then... Jacob exploded. He quite literally was torn to shreds, just like his worn-out pants and instead of a man... There was a wolf, bigger than you. This animal could eat you like an appetizer and barely blink about it. No matter how beautiful the animal was, your brain couldn't grasp what was happening at the moment. In combination with holding your breath for the last minute, it resolved in one thing. As you forcefully grasped for any air, your head spun. Once, twice, and then you felt your body falling to the ground. Maybe, you would've got up, but you felt the back of your head hitting a root on the ground. A dull thud sounded through the forest as it started to fade away.

You fainted. This caught Jacob's attention as he realized something terrorizing - he had a lot to explain now.

[writingithink]

Keeping In Mind Pairing: Ten x Rose Rated: T Wordcount: 2,359 Summary: The Doctor finally looks into Rose's telepathy (a bit). Notes: Life got busy, but finally Day 6 of @timepetalsweek ! I used the picture prompt and the word prompt 'wolves'.

For the first time, I'm going to say that if you haven't ready any of the other ones you might not enjoy this one as much. I don't think you'd necessarily be lost or anything, but yeah.

So many innumerable thank yous to @hey-there-juliet for betaing <3

All mistakes are mine.

I own nothing.

READ IT ON AO3 -> copy/paste link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539580

“I think it’s that way,” Rose pointed, laughing as the Doctor tried to stand on his tiptoes to see over the crowds of people and ended up knocking his forehead on her chin.

“You know, the parade’s over. Don’t you want to stand on your own now?”

“No. I had to use my favor for this, so I’m gonna make the most of it, ta.”

He rolled his eyes, even as he smiled up at her. It really wasn’t that bad, she didn’t weigh much at all as far as he was concerned. If they ever had to do this the other way around, his wife would likely be shocked at how dense he was despite his skinny body. So he began to slowly weave through the groups of families that still hadn’t dispersed despite the late hour and the park closing. Just because giving her a piggyback ride was physically easy didn’t mean it wasn’t awkward to navigate.

I can get down if you really want.

“No, no, you’re right. It’s your favor. Blimey, I don’t know what I’d use mine for. Suppose I’ll just save it, I’m sure it will come to me.”

“Mmm shoulda put an expiration date on ‘em. That way I wouldn’t be blindsided whenever you do figure out what you want.”

“Were you planning to forget?” he asked, pausing to look around again. He could sense the TARDIS nearby, he just couldn’t see.

“No,” she chuckled, “but knowing you, it’ll be, like, ten years from now and you’ll be like ‘ Rose, remember how you owe me a favor’ and then ask me to do something completely barmy.”

The Doctor grimaced. “Don’t. Don’t do impressions. It’s not- no.”

But he did love the idea of her being with him ten years from now. She kissed the top of his head, their bond buzzing with pleasant emotions (and a hint of irritation, but he’d known that was coming the moment he questioned her character work - but really, she could settle for being good at most things, no one’s good at everything).

“Aha!” He finally locked eyes on their time ship and sped up, Rose gripping him tighter.

When they reached the door he paused and bent over so that his bondmate could unlock and open it, as his arms were still busy holding her up. Once inside, he kicked the door closed and paused once they got to the console.

“Down now?”

“Nope.”

“But how’m I supposed to fly the TARDIS?”

“Where are you trying to go now? I’m knackered. We landed at Epcot before it even opened and have been riding rides all day.”

“Nowhere, really. Just not here. Maybe orbit around a nice nebula.” The Doctor tried to shrug, but it was hard to accomplish with Rose on his back.

“Then it can wait. Let’s go to the galley, have a cuppa,” she suggested, and he wondered if he’d have to hold her the whole time she made tea.

Yup, came her mental response.

This can’t possibly be that fun for you, he insisted, despite the contradictory information the bond was giving him.

“C’mon, it’s a new experience,” his wife insisted, and she wasn’t wrong but it definitely wasn’t a new experience he would have ever put on a list of things to try.

With a sigh, the Doctor walked them around the console and to the main corridor, but he wasn’t paying nearly as much attention as he should have been as he turned down the hall and ended up bashing her head on one of the coral struts.

“Ow!!”

“I’m so sorry! So, so sorry!!”

He could feel how much that hurt over their connection. Still didn’t know how to turn off that part. It was so unconscious that telepathic barriers didn’t really do anything.

“Ohhh I think it’s bleeding,” she groaned.

“Sorry, sorry! We’ll have it fixed up in a jiffy, don’t you worry,” he promised, making a left instead of a right to get to the infirmary.

After kicking open the doors, the Doctor sat Rose onto the cot. “We’ll just press pause on the piggyback ride, yeah?”

“Mmm, I don’t really feel like it anymore,” she grumbled as he pulled the sonic out of his jacket pocket. Honestly, they probably didn’t need to be in here for this, but it was where the good antiseptic wipes were for after he healed her head wound.

“Sorry,” he whispered, parting her hair around the teeny tiny cut and sonicking it closed before doing a quick scan to make sure he hadn’t given her a concussion - he hadn’t.

“Stop sayin’ sorry, it was just an accident,” Rose huffed, and he was beginning to feel her headache through the bond.

And he almost apologized for apologizing, but thankfully caught himself.

It wasn’t until he turned around to find the antiseptic and some paracetamol that the Doctor noticed all of the various scanners and other equipment lined up on the counter. He’d done that weeks ago in a fit of productivity while Rose had been sleeping, and since then had completely forgotten about it. Well, not completely . But he had been putting it off. They’d been putting it off.

“We don’t have to wait until we’re done with our honeymoon if you don’t wanna,” Rose said, picking up on his frustrated guilt.

He sighed, getting back on track and opening the cupboard, hoping that the TARDIS hadn’t rearranged things again - thankfully she hadn’t. In fact she was being quite helpful today, wipes and pain reliever right at the front.

“It’s not exactly romantic,” he countered. “We’ve only just finished trip number four, and we already took a break to do wedding planning with your mum.”

“Well, at the rate we’re goin’, this honeymoon could last months yet. Don’t think I didn’t catch ya pondering about cabins this morning. Which I do approve of, by the way. I’ve always wanted to try skiing.” She gave him his favorite tongue-in-teeth grin.

“Awwwww that was going to be a surprise,” the Doctor pouted as he handed her the capsule before setting about cleaning her scalp and hair.

“You weren’t tryin’ very hard to keep it a secret,” his wife pointed out.

“I thought you weren’t really awake yet. Your thoughts were all … cotton candy-like.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, that’s the closest thing I could think of,” he defended. “Telepathy isn’t easy to describe! Especially not in English.”

Like the way her mental laughter gave his whole body a pleasant tingly bubbly-ness.

“Anyway, we’re here now so we might as well do your scans,” Rose said, changing the subject. “And I think you owe me two more favors now.”

“What? Why?”

“‘Cause, even though it was an accident you did mess up my piggyback ride.”

“But how does that equal two favors?” he asked, confused.

She looked up, momentarily dislodging his hand. “Because you love me?”

His bondmate was quite devious, and no amount of big, innocent eyes were going to change his mind. Unfortunately, she was right.

“ Fine,” he sighed, wondering when exactly she had wrapped him around her finger. The Doctor had a sneaking suspicion that it was earlier than he’d ever want to admit. He tipped her head back so that he could finish up. “Two favors for you, but you can’t use them to get out of my future-favor. Aaaaand, all done.” He gave her head a kiss and then moved back to the counter to get started on the scans.

“So, how’s this gonna work?” Rose asked.

“Should be easy. You can just stay where you are. This is a six-dimensional comprehensive deep scanner. Used to have an eight-dimensional one, but I seem to have misplaced it. Actually, I may have traded it. Hard to remember.”

He set up it’s tripod, calibrating the sight before dragging the cords over to the infirmary monitor.

“And this,” he continued, holding up a teal tablet about the size of a small laptop, “is a telepathic assessment device. Used to classify telepathy grades, basic ability test. It hooks up to you with these.” The Doctor picked up a handful of wireless electrodes.

“Wait, I’m gonna have to take a test?”

Distress echoed across the bond.

“Kind of. Sort of. It’s not like it’s something you need to study for.” This didn’t seem to reassure her. “We could skip this one?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I just don’t like takin’ tests,” Rose mumbled, crossing her arms and looking down.

The Doctor walked over, abandoning the equipment on a nearby cart before taking a seat next to her on the cot and wrapping an arm around her. “It’s really not that kind of test. It’s still medical, like a reflex test or a concussion test, you know, where they ask you the date and who’s prime minister. Just a basic check. And I’m certain you’ll do brilliantly. You’re such a strong presence in my mind, and since you have such a limited experience with telepathy I don’t think you can appreciate how exceptional that is. But really, I’m sure that I can still get a good picture of what’s going on if we didn’t do this one.”

“No, no, we can do it,” she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. “‘M sure you’re right. Just me being silly.”

“It’s not. Silly, that is.” He kissed her temple, both savoring the way their bond buzzed at the contact. “You’re sure?”

“Yup. I’m sure. What else do we need to do?”

“If we’re being thorough? A full medical. But I don’t feel like being that thorough right now. The TARDIS base scans should be fine.”

“TARDIS base scans?”

“Ah, right, have I never mentioned?” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, mussing his hair. “Everyday, however many times we enter the TARDIS or whenever there’s a significant, unexpected change in our vitals, she scans us. To make sure we’re healthy. So, me too, not just you. If she thinks you might be getting sick, she adjusts the environment, adds different medicines into the air.”

“Into the air?” Her jaw dropped.

“I’ve very advanced technology on this ship, haven’t you noticed?” He raised an eyebrow, smirking just a little (and got a swat for his trouble).

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Rose decided, straightening up.

And so they got on with it. Really, it didn’t take very long - she finished up the telepathic assessment in under 20 minutes. During which the Doctor tried and failed to compile her TARDIS scans. He put on his specs and glared at the screens, thinking unflattering things to his time ship.

“Ugh, I don’t think that helped my headache,” his bondmate complained, setting down the tablet.

“Oh. I didn’t really think of that. Could you come over here? I need your hand.”

“What for?” she asked, coming up behind where he was sitting next to the monitors and draping her body over her back.

“She won’t let me look at your scans without your permission.”

“Oh.” She blinked. “Well, that’s polite. Where’s my hand go?”

“Right in here,” he said, pointing at a white iridescent box. “And no, it’s not polite. I’m your doctor!”

“Mmm, yeah, you are,” Rose agreed, licking the shell of his ear before obediently sticking her hand into the reader.

All of the doctor-ly things he had previously been thinking about fled his mind, followed by telepathic laughter and a few very suggestive images.

Minx, he mentally chastised.

Mmm, but all yours.

“So!” he shouted (on accident), “I’ll just set your 6d scans and assessment to configure. And the TARDIS has finished graphing your daily scans with a focus on your telepathic centers. Want to know the results, or …?”

“Yeah, tell ‘em to me,” she whispered into his ear, and how did she do this?

I thought you had a headache?

She didn’t bother responding to that, instead taking a seat in his lap. The Doctor had to crane his neck in order to look at the computer screens. It was very hard to focus with his wife massaging his shoulders. But he eventually managed, eyes widening and mouth falling open as he read the readout.

It was pretty much what he’d suspected, but still. It’s one thing to theorize and another to see the evidence right in front of him.

“What? What is it?”

Rose stopped teasing him, looking back and forth between him and the monitors of Circular Gallifreyan.

“Bad Wolf.”

“Wait, what?”

He finally pulled his eyes away from the screens and focused on his bondmate, who was beginning to panic.

“It’s nothing bad,” the Doctor was quick to reassure her. “You’re fine. Perfectly healthy. It’s just, when you and the TARDIS merged, you had to connect telepathically. Humans, you’ve got loads of possibilities in your DNA that you never evolved to use. Telepathy is one of those things, the markers are already there. So what the TARDIS did was activate them, which allowed you two to properly communicate. Remove the Vortex, though, and the knowledge of how to use the telepathy disappears. But if you look at the progression from then to now, there’s been steady improvement. You’re stretching the muscles, so to speak.”

“And that’s … it’s fine?”

“Perfectly fine,” he repeated, hugging her tightly. “None of it’s normal, but I can’t say I’ve ever liked normal. And you know what?”

“What?”

“I can’t be certain, but assuming your trends hold, you’ll quickly become a stronger telepath than I am. Provided you have lessons.”

“Like more telepathy lessons than usual?” She frowned. “We have those all the time.”

“Not necessarily more often. More varied, though. Ohhh, I’m going to have to do even more reading. And I’ve not even started. I should really get on that.”

“Yeah, but not right now.” Rose stood and then began playing with his tie.

“Oh, definitely not right now. I was, you know, speaking in general, relative terms.”

The Doctor slid to the edge of his chair and went to take his glasses off.

Leave ‘em, his wife projected.

And he was quite delighted to wait to do all of this research until after she inevitably fell asleep.

[jacksgreysays]

Could Should Actually + A softer world 31 or Things you Said 22?

A/N: Are you the same anon who mix and matches other ask box events? Because let me just say, I enjoy the puzzle.

Anyway I went with the things you said 22, but I may also do the a softer world 31 later.

Here’s some Counterclockwise!

~

22) things you said after it was over

it could have gone like this:

"Imagine the glory," Joy exclaims in a breathy sort of voice as if in awe of the very idea. She slings an arm around Leanne's shoulders, drawing her close, comfortable and warm. The couch they're on could easily fit four, but the two of them are squished up against one arm so that the boys and even Alvin in his massive wolf form could fit, too.

"We wouldn't be able to tell anyone," Leanne argues even as she leans in, matching Joy's volume.

"The riches?" Joy tries again, grinning, more playful than earnest.

"Exactly how would we profit off this plan?" Leanne asks in return.

Thwarted, Joy goes for a different tactic. "Imagine... the drama," she says, leaning even closer, conspiratorially.

Leanne hums, considering. When the lack of disagreement becomes more and more apparent, time stretching wider, Joy's grin does the same. She swings her other arm around Leanne, squeezing, jostling, trying to bodily contain the happiness of the moment before nuzzling their faces together. Not quite a kiss, Joy's bared teeth pressed to the skin of Leanne's cheek, but not so far off.

Shrieking with laughter, Leanne doesn't push her away. "That's not fair! You know my weakness!"

"Of course," Joy says, words trapped between them, "I don't need to be fair, I just need you to say yes."

And Leanne, settling into her hold, can do nothing but nod and say yes.

...

Over two decades later, a fifteen year old Leanne follows the rest of her classmates through the art gallery, tired eyes glancing over the displays but not really taking them in. Yesterday was rough--school, training, a newly hatched cluster of giant sea serpents by the docks while trying not to lose too much face in front of her teammates--and she had been grateful for upcoming the field trip though now she regrets not being able to appreciate the art.

She finds a seat and takes it, her legs almost buckling in relief, and stares blindly forward.

"Do you like it?" someone asks next to her. Leanne, surprised but too exhausted to startle, turns to the voice. An older woman, maybe in her forties, brown hair tied back into a bun, sharp clothes. Maybe a staff member of the art gallery? They didn't have a tour guide, did they?

"I'm sorry," Leanne says, reflexively.

A sad sort of smile graces the woman's face, she shakes her head slightly. "Do you like it?" she repeats, gesturing to the painting on the wall in front of them. The one that Leanne had stared at but hadn't really seen. A little ashamed, she focuses.

It's a closeup of two hands, different skin tones and shapes, their fingers intertwined. There are matching rings, softly glinting in the light. Everything about the painting is soft, dreamy, more memory and imagination than photorealism.

Not the most amazing picture, Leanne thinks, but she can certainly see why it would be compelling. "Yes," she answers, finally, simply, though she doesn't know why it matters.

The woman's small smile twitches into something bigger, but no less sad.

Not that it was up for argument, but it's obvious that Leanne's not a very good hero: she doesn't know how to make things better. So she fidgets awkwardly instead.

Now the woman's smile turns into something amused. "I'm glad you like it. It's my favorite," she says before getting to her feet. She reaches a hand toward Leanne, as if to pat her on the shoulder, but pulls back.

"Take care of yourself, Leanne," she says, before walking away, disappearing into the labyrinth of the art gallery.

And because Leanne is not a very good hero, it takes her a few hours to realize that they never exchanged introductions. How did she know her name?

---

it should have gone like this:

"She's a liability," Tetsuki says, scowling at the doctor.

They are in the observation room of the testing chambers, a wide near-indestructible room where Doctor Kaiza's clients can use their meta-human abilities without fear of collateral damage.

Or where would-be vigilantes can train without the public catching on. Not that Henry particularly needs it. He is, despite all the media speculation, entirely baseline human. Most of Starling's tricks are gadgets and whatever he learned from his mentor Firefly.

But it's good to see what his potential teammates are capable of, and so here he is:

Caleb he knows the best, as much raised in the lifestyle as Henry had been. More so, maybe, practically born into it. Zenith, son of Apex.

Tetsuki he's met before, Doctor Kaiza's... niece? Maybe? The actual connection is vague. But he's seen some of the reports of her prior activities and her abilities. Electric manipulation, martial arts training, and a fierce protectiveness for all that she isn't the nicest of people.

Hari he only knows by word of mouth, the lone lion shapeshifter amongst a pack of wolves. Goldenheart, recommended by former hero Silverfang.

Right now, Hari is in lion form, a huge shape easily loping around in the testing chambers, big playful circles around the other figure below. At least, Henry is pretty sure it's playful. Although, considering the nervous posture of Goldenheart's chosen playmate, perhaps she doesn't understand the same.

Leanne Peridot. A civilian as of two weeks ago. Where and how Doctor Kaiza found her is a mystery. Why the doctor thought she'd make a good addition to the team is an even bigger mystery.

No martial arts training, no particular talent with any weapons, practically baseline human. The only thing that makes her stand out is that strange pocket watch and the one minute of time stopping it gives her, but if she can't do anything with that one minute then it's all just a waste. She's back to being a normal civilian out on the field.

"Tetsuki's right," Henry says, watching as Goldenheart bats a huge paw gently at Leanne, watches the green-haired girl fall to the ground, unable to brace herself against even an expected, friendly push. "She's a liability."

He doesn't say it to be mean, he says it to save lives. If she's just another civilian they have to keep an eye out for on the field, then they may as well tie a weight to themselves. They need teammates who can keep up, who can be trusted to handle themselves and more. 

"Then help her," Doctor Kaiza says, "Train her. Give her the tools she needs to survive. The tools all of you had since you were children." Her voice is dispassionate, but her words give her away. "She is behind, yes, but the rest of you have a head start. She has the potential, help her access it."

"Why?" Caleb asks and while Tetsuki lights up in triumph, the doctor turns to him with a look of disappointment on her face. Henry also turns to look at him, confused. For all that Caleb is practically a living tank, he's usually the more diplomatic of them.

"I mean," he continues, "Why her? Why do you care? We're a functional enough team wth just the four of us. We don't need a fifth."

"Certainly not a fifth we need to bring up to our level," Tetsuki adds snidely.

The doctor turns back to the observation window, where Leanne has gotten back to her feet and begun to hesitantly run her hands through Hari's fur. The sound doesn't exactly travel, but from the satisfied closed eyes, Henry thinks perhaps there might be purring.

"Heroism," Doctor Kaiza says, followed by a silence long and drawn out. "It's not about being good at fighting," she says, "it's about saving people.

"And sometimes even the best need help."

...

When Leanne disappears, Henry investigates. Of course he does. That's his teammate. For all that she had a rocky beginning, Leanne proved herself as a hero and Henry isn't disloyal.

Tetsuki, ever the pessimist, thinks she ran. Finally giving in to Bastian, the absolute bastard, and his constant attempts to sway her to his cause. Whatever that cause may be. He's pretty sure Tetsuki only thinks that because two of Bastian's lieutenants are former classmates of hers, supervillains brewing right under her nose.

Caleb, more emotionally in tune, has been the contact for the Peridot family. Collaborating with them on their search, if she may have said anythign to them, left any hints or clues behind.

Unsurprisingly, Doctor Kaiza is calm.

Surprisingly, so is Hari.

"Why aren't you worried? What do you know?" Henry asks, finally, after all avenues of tracking have been exhausted. It would be more intimidating if he didn't have dark bags under his eyes, if Hari weren't capable of turning into a massive lion in the blink of an eye.

"I am worried," Hari says, "but it won't help her." Then the shapeshifter shrugs, "And I know the same as you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hm," Hari eyes drift away from his, "You remember the codename she came up with last year? Before you, Caleb, and Tetsuki shot it down."

Henry frowns. "What about it?" He remembers, of course. Leanne had wanted to be called Anachron. Thematically, it made sense, and it was witty enough. But it was a name that had already been used. 

"Leanne isn't like us. She didn't grow up hearing stories about heroes, from heroes. The only context she had for names was us."

"So?"

Hari sighs, meets Henry's eyes, and says, "She was, is, Anachron. You shouldn't be looking for where she is. You should be looking for when."

---

but it actually went like this:

"They sent me through time and cursed me with immortality on top of that, so I'd appreciate it if you would bring me home, time witch." Bastian, the absolute bastard, says across the table from Leanne. A beautiful tea service is set up, delicate finger foods and porcelain, shining silverware gleaming against a rich tablecloth. It is a mockery; as Bastian sips from his teacup, Leanne struggles against the ties keeping her bound to the chair.

"I'm not a time witch," Leanne says, exasperated. At him and herself. Him because this is not the first, or second, or even third time this has happened. Herself because... well... this is not the first, second, or event third time this has happened. A part of her is glad her team is on the way to get her out of this. A far larger, more frustrated part of her hates that she needs her team to get her out of this yet again.

"Sorcerer, warlock, wizard, I don't care what terms you people use nowadays. Time magic, you use it, therefore you are a time witch." Bastian waves away her words, equally dismissive in his tone. He, it seems, is as bored of this conversation as she is.

"I don't use time magic," Leanne protests, because even if just sends them down the same patterns, she doesn't know what else to do but be honest.

"Not well, certainly," Bastian agrees, sort of, "but time witches were rare even in my kingdom. Here, you're apparently the only one, so you'll have to do."

Leanne, insulted and irritated, sighs.

"Is this a problem of payment? Because if its a reward you need, I can cover that. What do you want, money? Fame? Power?" Bastian lists out, resting his chin on one hand, a king in repose.

Leanne shakes her head.

"Something more than that, hm? Or a combination of the three?" Bastian meets her eyes and smirks, a sharp and hungry thing. "I'll make you my queen, time witch. Bring me home and the world could be yours."

Leanne just shakes her head again.

Annoyed, Bastian's face turns into a thunderous scowl. He stands, slamming his hand on the table, the tea set rattling with the force of it.

"You will not refuse me again, time witch," he says, low with rage and barely contained violence.

Having witnessed the scope of his abilities, it is a miracle Leanne's voice doesn't shake when she responds, "Then stop asking."

A reverberating boom sounds, the tea set once more rattling, and Leanne resist the urge to close her eyes in relief. Her team is here to rescue her, but she refuses to take her eyes off Bastian.

He bares his teeth, displeased at her, the situation, but quickly composes himself. "Until next time," he says, and almost laughs at his own play on words.

...

The restraints they've put on her are tight, though thankfully not painful, the chair is far from comfortable, she has a bit of a headache, and the interrogation room is a little cold: it's not the best set of circumstances she's ever found herself in, but they're certainly not the worst.

When the grumpy officer who brought her here returns, he finds her lightly dozing, trying to catch up on the years and years of sleep debt she's accrued. It's not likely to succeed but, again, she's been in worse places.

"Leanne Peridot?" the officer says. It's not really a question, they took her a picture, her fingerprints, and DNA. They should know who she is.

"Yep."

"Also known as Anachron?"

"Sure."

"Also known as the Time Witch?"

"Ye--no, actually," Leanne says, catching herself, "I do not claim that one."

Officer Grumpyface looks up at her, "You don't?"

"No," she says, "Nobody calls me that." Or, at least, not in a way that would make it into her official file.

Grumpyface shrugs, uncaring. "You've done quite a bit of unauthorized time traveling, haven't you?"

Leanne can feel her brow furrow, "Who has authority over time travel?"

Grumpyface looks behind him at the observation window before turning back to her. He doesn't say anything.

Instead, the door to the interrogation room opens, a man in a similar, if far fancier and impressive, uniform to Officer Grumpyface enters the room. Grumpyface stands up at attention, saluting the newcomer.

It's an older face than the one she remembers. No more false boyish sweetness, but a chiseled sort of handsomeness instead. There are a few age lines, some grey in his hair. But considering it's several centuries since they last spoke, Bastian, the absolute bastard, has barely changed.

She sighs, resigned. "Bastian."

"Hello, Time Witch."

~

A/N: Making Leanne miserable since... uh... I don’t know, it’s time travel. :D

For the Could/Should/Actually Fic Ask Box Event!

[porkchop-ao3]

A Thrill I’ve Never Known (Chapter 41)

Galerie Laurent

Arthur and reader decide to make the most of the spare time before the bank job. They spend some time with a very interesting Frenchman, and bump into another familiar face too... there’s some mild nsft in this chapter, but nothing major. This chapter is also a little longer than usual. Enjoy!

(All chapters tagged with #ATINK and also posted on Ao3, username PorkChop)

-

Arthur came up to me while I was hanging up some washing to dry; he looked slightly nervous. Well, not nervous, but he was acting a little strange, not quite his usual self. I wondered if it had something to do with the upcoming bank job, but then he started asking me about my chores, if I had many to do that day. I had a fair amount of clothes left to wash, then there were some dishes from the previous day that no one had cleaned yet; I told him that. A little crestfallen, he'd asked if it could wait. 

"Why? Arthur, what're you up to?" I asked, slightly amused. He chuckled quietly, dodging eye contact and looking elsewhere. 

"I was wondering, I got all day free. We're doing that bank tomorrow, but today…" he began, licked his lips to wet them, "I wanted to ask you out somewhere, thought it would be nice if we did something together while things are still relatively calm."

I paused, a smile blooming on my face. "Well, what did you have in mind?"

"I uh, I know a feller. Met him in the city, real interesting character he is," he explained, going to lean against one of the posts holding up the canvas shelter we were under, though it shifted and he abruptly straightened back up, "anyway, he's an artist. Charles Châtenay. He's got a show on at the gallery, thought maybe you'd like to go with me. Might be our last chance to go to the city for a while." 

"Like a date, at the gallery?" I grinned, my heart rate quickening. 

"Uh, a date. Yeah, I suppose it is," his mouth turned up at the corner and the colour in his cheeks wasn't dissipating. "We ain't done nothing like this, really, have we?"

I shook my head. "I'd love to, though."

"Miss Grimshaw won't mind me taking you away from your chores, will she?" 

I snorted. "I don't care either way, I'll get 'em done at some point. But I ain't passing this up for nobody. What shall I wear? I gotta get changed!"

"Anything, you always look pretty to me," he shrugged. Arthur himself was dressed a little smarter than usual in his vest and good trousers; without stains or tears. He also had a little pomade in his hair, I noticed.

I simpered at his flattery. "I'll put something nice on, give me ten minutes," I held a finger up to him and ran off towards the house.

I put on some of the nicer clothes that I'd acquired over time; a lavender coloured walking suit with a pretty black trim, and a heavily ruffled shirtwaist underneath. I braided my hair, too, made it look as presentable as I could without the help of the girls, then hurried downstairs to meet Arthur by the horses. 

We were discreet as we mounted up – me riding side saddle behind him on Jet – leaving as quietly and quickly as possible as to not alert anyone. We would essentially be slacking off in the eyes of some of the others, and I was not in the mood to get an earful; or worse, to be stopped at the last minute and not be able to go. I figured Arthur and I deserved to have a nice day out, it wasn't like we'd ever done it before. Not often, at least. 

We rode to Saint Denis, and I was a little surprised at Arthur's willingness to go into the city for the sake of a date; I actually found it very flattering and sweet. He was very gentlemanly when we arrived at the gallery, gripping my hand as I slid down off the horse, taking my arm as we walked side by side into the building, holding doors open for me when we got inside. I was a girlish, grinning fool the entire time and I felt so happy to be on his arm. Just going on a date like a normal couple, having people see us together like we were, it felt so good. 

When we got inside the gallery's foyer, we were greeted by a very eccentric Frenchman who I soon learned was Arthur's artist friend. He was a small man, with dark hair and a nicely styled moustache, striking, weaselly features that made me squirm a little when he stepped too close. Seemed friendly enough, though. 

"Arthur! You came, mon ami. And you have company, I see," he exclaimed in his heavy accent, appraising me with a sweep of his eyes. "You did not tell me you had a wife, Arthur. May I say a very lovely one, too."

"Oh, we…" Arthur chuckled, eyeing me up as he decided whether to correct him. He let the sentence dissolve, and my heart skipped. "She is lovely," he agreed instead, then introduced us formally.

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Châtenay," I gave a sweet nod of my head.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine, I assure you. Has Arthur shown you the little drawing I gave him? Are you an admirer of my work?" Charles asked me eagerly, stepping forwards, just slightly too close for comfort. I gave him what I hoped was a polite smile that hid my mild unease.

"Oh, he hasn't, actually. I guess he wanted to surprise me with your work, but I'm sure it's lovely," I told him, and he gave a pleased chuckle. 

"Mm, I sincerely hope you like it, ma chérie, perhaps you will like it so much that you will want to model for me, hm?" 

"To model? Oh, wow, you'd want to paint me?" My eyes widened a little, and I heard Arthur give an uneasy laugh beside me. I glanced at him curiously, but Charles took my hand, lifted it, positioning me to get a better look at my form. 

"Of course! I am always on the lookout for beautiful women who would be willing to sit for a little painter like moi, I can certainly see myself getting along well with you. She is a fine subject, Arthur, no?" He said, his moustache curving with his lips, eyes narrowing playfully. 

"She, uh, she sure is," Arthur said, his smile a little forced, eyes not matching his mouth. 

"Imagine that, being on the wall of a gallery for all to see, for all to admire! Such a pure beauty you possess!" Charles continued, squeezing my hand tighter. 

"I couldn't imagine seeing myself in a gallery," I giggled, feeling my face warm up at all of his charm and flattery. 

"Oh, I can picture it. I am picturing it," he said, his eyes rolling down my body. 

"Okay, that's… that's enough now, I think," Arthur said awkwardly through a chuckle, his grip on my arm tightening minutely. I looked at him, confused. Charles was being nothing but complimentary, why was there an issue?

"You do not think she'd look right at home on the wall of a gallery, Mr. Arthur? Pah! What kind of a husband are you?" Charles exclaimed, though he was wearing a mischievous smile the whole time. 

"Of course she would, not in any o' your paintings, though! I've seen the kinda work you do, partner," Arthur retorted, irritation seeping into every word, raising hairs on my arms. My eyes widened. 

"I thought we were friends, hm? And now you insult my work? You must be no better than these uninspired, tasteless, boring idiots who come in droves just to complain," the faster Charles spoke the thicker his accent became, and some of his words merged together but I could still understand him. 

Arthur sighed, held his hands out to him and waved a metaphorical white flag. "I ain't insulting your work, I'm just saying, I don't think the lady knows just what modelling for you would entail. Can we just– let's just go in. Come on, princess."

"Yes, let us go in, princess," Charles tittered, following us in as Arthur guided me by the elbow. I glanced cautiously over my shoulder at him, not missing the way the artist's eyes lingered on my behind. 

We passed through a small room decorated with elegant stone sculptures and photographs on the walls. Mostly wildlife photographs of wolves and alligators and horses, but one portrait. The portrait made me do a double take as we passed it, and I stopped dead in my tracks where it hung on the powder blue wall. 

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, forgetting where I was and turning a few heads. "Arthur, this guy looks just like you!"

Arthur glanced up at it, his casual expression soon turning stiff and shocked with eyes as big as wagon wheels. His face coloured up very quickly, and his eyes darted to the other photographs in the room, a sliver of recognition appearing. I took a second look at the portrait, at the gentleman's clothes; that jacket and satchel looked far too familiar, and even through the graininess of the image, those eyes were unmistakable. 

"Goodness, that is you," I murmured in shock, peering up at Arthur. He chuckled nervously. 

"Ah, yes! I always thought that man seemed familiar!" Charles added, leaning between us to get a better look at the image.

"Alright, that's uh– okay, the paintings are in the next room," Arthur mumbled, prying me away from the print.

"What the hell? Why are you on the wall?" I queried. 

"It's uh, it's a long story," he chuckled. 

"Perhaps I should turn my viewfinder to you, mon ami. You're clearly no stranger to being the artist's muse. How about I paint you? Or the both of you together? Oh, that's an inspiring thought," Charles suggested and Arthur gave him a look. 

"Watch it," he said, voice low, a hint of a threat there. 

We stepped into the room, then, and it all suddenly made sense. The room was lined with a dozen or so paintings of nude – or mostly nude – models. So that's why Arthur didn't want me posing for him. I peered at Arthur, cocked a brow above my smirk. 

"Wow, I have to admit. This ain't at all what I expected, Arthur," I said quietly. 

"What were you expecting? Boring landscapes? People painted in dull colours and dramatic lighting, frolicking in the countryside or something?" Charles asked as he passed by me, sauntering into the middle of the room with his arms crossed.

"Honestly, kinda," I laughed, looking around at the people attending the exhibition. There were a lot of well-to-do city folk about, each with a turned up nose and a hissy whisper, their mannerisms screamed disapproval and I couldn't help but laugh at the people getting all worked up at a rather artistic rendition of a gentleman's pasty behind. 

"Did I, uh, make a mistake bringing you here?" Arthur asked me under his breath, but I turned the smile I was wearing to him and shook my head firmly. 

"Course not. I can handle a few breasts and backsides, Arthur. This is real different, in a good way!" I told him, strolling into the room, a flash of red, blue and yellow catching my eye immediately. My lips parted and I got up close to the painting of a woman barely concealed by the drapery of her undergarments. The vivid colours in the painting were beautiful and carefully balanced, and the brush strokes were rather blocky and gestural, but communicated her form and the seat she was situated in clearly. I hadn't seen art like it before.

"Ain't this something?" I said to Arthur as he stepped up beside me. He tilted his head at the painting, pursing his lips a little. 

"Sure, it's something. It's a woman with all her stuff hangin' out," he murmured and I scoffed, patting him on the arm. 

"Ain't this at all appealing to you? If not in an artistic sense, then purely based on the fact you're a strapping, hot-blooded man?" I quirked a brow playfully at him. He laughed at my wording. 

"Don't do much for me, I don't know the woman," he shrugged his shoulders, and his response surprised me. What interesting reasoning. 

"What if you did know her?" I asked curiously. 

"Depends who it was," he looked down at me, "if it was you it wouldn't be on the wall of a gallery," he snorted. 

"Where'd it be?"

"Back page of my journal, never leaving my side," he smirked, his tone playful as it fell low for my ears only. 

"Dirty dog," I quipped back, fully in jest, my cheeks aching from smiling and hot from the flush of blood rising there. 

I moved onto the next painting – a man wearing nothing but a hat, laying on his front – leaning in to study it only for a moment before a ruckus caught my attention beside me. Voices were being raised, outrage amongst the visitors, Charles standing in the middle of it all with a comically disinterested expression. People obviously weren't happy about the nudity on display. Especially since the woman in the painting we'd just been admiring apparently happened to be the wife of the guy raising all the commotion. A woman soon stepped between the painting and Arthur and I, spreading her arms to obscure it. 

"Stop lookin' at my husband's buttocks!" She crowed, and we stumbled backwards away from her with wide eyes. 

"Stop lookin' at my momma!" Another guy yelled. Arthur and I shared a glance; he looked as if he was trying not to laugh. 

"Well, maybe she shouldn't've exposed herself like that," the woman quipped back with a sneering, snooty little tone that irritated even me. 

"Says the woman whose husband's ass we've all been staring at," I whispered very quietly to Arthur, being careful that he was the only person who could hear. He cracked up, wheezing loudly and attracting a few looks, but they were all soon distracted. 

One man was throwing a punch at another. Charles was being battered to the ground by a handbag, wielded by another miserable looking woman with a face all puckered and flushed. Chaos was breaking out, and I watched on with wide eyes, backing into the corner out of harm's way. 

I personally couldn't see the harm in a few paintings like the ones on display, it was the human form, we all had some rendition of the same thing hidden under layers of clothing. If art couldn't celebrate our freest form, what could? Perhaps it was the colourful eroticism of some of his paintings that was making them recoil, the rawness of some of the nude figures as they lounged and twisted, showing every crease and curve not usually seen by eyes other than one's lover. I was taken by my own musings, gradually becoming more and more enamoured with Charles' work. I wondered what it'd be like to be drawn in my natural state. Perhaps not by Mr. Châtenay himself, but by someone…

My eyes flashed from a painting of a lady lounging backwards with no sense of shame, over to Arthur, who was helping Charles up to his feet and directing him away from the commotion. A gentleman went after him, only to be held back by a hand on his shoulder; one not appreciated. The gentleman, so outraged by nudity though not above petty violence, raised a fist to Arthur. He caught it, wrestling it away from him as I gasped. 

"Hey, calm yourself, friend," he said in a low and commanding voice woven with a thread of menace. 

"Don't tell me to calm myself while that sick pervert just stands there with that look on his damn face–" he yelled, spit flying, seething in a way I felt was disproportionate to what was actually going on. Charles was indeed standing there in the doorway as fights broke out before me, I edged away to join him, side stepping towards the archway, dumbfounded by the events unfolding as other women filtered out. 

With his wrists gripped tight by Arthur's hands, the man jammed a kick into his thigh. I stepped forwards as Arthur grunted in pain, wanting to do something to help. 

"Son of a– don't make me hit you in front of the lady," Arthur threatened through gritted teeth. 

A glob of spit was fired in his face and he didn't think twice, letting go of his wrists only to swing, laying the man out seemingly effortlessly. That's when the real chaos ensued. 

"Get out of here!" Arthur urged me, and I did as I was told, trotting out of the room as Charles took my elbow in his hand, briskly guiding me away from the messy display. 

"Hit him as much as you like, now the lady isn't watching!" Charles called over his shoulder, tittering to himself. 

"Charles!" I scolded, tugging my arm out of his grip and stopping by the stairs that led down to street level. 

"What? Le branleur deserved it. None of those men stand a chance against him, do they? Big, impressive man your husband is," he said, his eyelids lowering.

"No, you're right about that," I sighed. "What a bunch of lunatics. Imagine getting so worked up over art!"

"Oh, but I think I have finally arrived. That was a memorable opening day, they're sure to be talking about my exhibition for years," he cheered. 

"Yeah, hopefully not 'cause of the body count. I hope he restrains himself," I frowned, looking over my shoulder into the gallery. Arthur appeared a few moments later, shaking his tender hand out. He looked to have fared quite well from the ordeal, sporting a slightly swollen lip and a couple of hairs out of place, and that was it. 

I sighed and took his hand in mine when he reached us, inspecting his red, blood speckled knuckles. 

"Let's get out of here," he said, altering the relation of our hands by entwining our fingers.  

"Yes, I know a place I can lie low!" Charles said, scampering down the stairs. Arthur and I followed close behind him, figuring it was best to accompany him before he got himself into any more trouble. 

"You're welcome, by the way, for dealing with that mess," Arthur grunted as we walked, "you artistic folk ain't too good at dealing with the public, huh?" He snorted. 

"The purpose of art is to provoke emotion, no?" Charles said, throwing a smirk over his shoulder as we left the gallery and crossed the street, heading down an alleyway. "Their emotions were too strong to be contained. It is not my job as the artist to police emotion. Only to bring it. I'd say I did my part tremendously."

"Yeah, you sure did your part," Arthur muttered, rolling his eyes. "I guess my part is stopping you from gettin' lynched."

"And you too, did your part tremendously. Merci, mon ami!" 

"Violent outbursts aside, I have to say I was rather impressed," I said, and Charles turned around with an impish grin on his face once we reached a door. 

"Perhaps you will want to pose for me after all?" He delighted, and I narrowed my eyes a little. 

"Perhaps not. I ain't quite ready to be the subject of people's horror, up on that gallery wall." 

"Shame. The world is not ready. One day they will see my art as something to celebrate, and not to detest. Maybe then I will seek you out, eh ma chérie?" He said, grasping my hand and lifting it to his mouth, getting away with brushing a kiss against my knuckle just before Arthur shoved his shoulder. 

"Get out of here," he grumbled, though his face betrayed his amusement. 

"I am going!" Charles exclaimed, turning and knocking on the door, slipping through as he called out to whoever was inside. 

Arthur shook his head, chuckling to himself as he turned and we started heading back towards the street. 

"That man," he breathed, "I told you he was an interesting character."

"That's putting it mildly," I smirked. 

"He liked you," he noted, sounding inwardly peeved.

"I liked that photograph of you," I steered the subject, falling into step with him once we were back out on the street. "You ever gonna tell me about that?"

Arthur's expression lifted and he shook his head mildly. "Ahh, I met this photographer. Albert Mason. Funny man, seems to always be tryin'a get himself eaten whenever I see him, by some animal or another. He took that photo of me, I thought he just wanted a test shot."

"You didn't know it was there?" I raised my brows. 

"Course not. I probably wouldn't've let him get away with it if I did," he chuckled, "clearly he didn't take me for someone who visits galleries all too often. I don't quite know why he'd display that."

"You wouldn't," I murmured, "but anyone else with a pair of eyes would. It's a lovely photograph."

"Was real embarrassed when I saw it," he admitted, laughing breathily. 

"You shouldn't be. Though… I think I would be if I was in your shoes, so I get it," I laughed. 

"If it was a photograph of you up there, Charles' exhibition would've flopped. Not that it was a roaring success as it was but you get the picture. Everyone'd just be lookin' at you."

"Are you flattering me again?" I smiled mischievously at him. Arthur didn't respond, just wore a satisfied smile and kept on looking ahead. I lowered my lids flirtatiously. "I do wonder, though, what if I wanted to pose nude for an artist?" I said the final word with a playful, french flair. 

"Well that… that would be up to you, I suppose," he murmured, though he frowned, "but I know that man, didn't take me long to suss him out. He's after more than artistic expression." 

I raised my brows. "But he thinks we're married," I smirked a little at that, pointing it out indulgently.

"Trust me, that wouldn't stop him," he snorted. 

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to pose for some other artist," I shrugged, innocently clasping my hands behind my back, bringing a casual sway into my walk as I looked at him through the corner of my eye. 

He stared at me, his brows lowered in confusion, I could practically hear the cogs turning in his head, and I giggled. 

"Are you trying to make me jealous, or somethin'?" He eventually questioned, and I burst with a laugh. 

"No!" I exclaimed, searched our surroundings for listening ears, "I'm trying to flirt with you, you silly man." 

Arthur's eyes widened, a pretty pink hue creeping up his neck and to his cheeks. 

"You're an artist, ain't you?" I added.

"No," he snorted bluntly, and I shook my head at him. "Not like Charles Châtenay, I don't do paintings and whatnot."

"Yeah, but you draw. And you're damn good at it," I told him, taking his hand and turning to him, a flirty smile on my face, "I'd take my clothes off for you so you could practice your figure drawing, for sure."

"Saying those things in public? You're playin' a dangerous game, little lady," he hummed, wearing a big, amused grin on his face, darkened a little with desire. We turned a corner and found ourselves on a deserted street. I let go of his hand and skipped ahead a bit so I could turn around, walking backwards so I faced him. He strolled along after me, eyes appreciating my body.

"Dangerous, how?" I lilted, shimmying my skirt up to flash just a little bit of ankle. Arthur flushed darker, scrubbing at his face a little as he shook his head at my silliness. I dropped my skirt back into place and turned back around, staying ahead of him. 

I gasped in surprise when I suddenly felt his hands at my hips, and I was being pulled down the little alleyway between the nearest two buildings. 

"See, this is why I don't like cities," he began under his breath, his voice so deep and smooth and sweet like molasses. I stared at him with wide eyes, backed up against the wall. "If we were out in the wilderness, I could take you up on that, no problem."

His hand went to my chin, tilting my head up, from side to side a little so his eyes could study my entire face. He licked his lips and I closed my eyes, anticipating the warm press of his mouth; craving it. The air felt unnaturally cool when the contact never came, and eventually I opened my eyes to see his smirk. There was a ghost of arrogance there; it cropped up every now and then, always surprised me, though I liked to see it. He could do with the confidence, he was otherwise so unsure of himself. 

"Holding off on me?" I questioned, pouting. 

"If I kiss you, as tempting as that is, I fear I'll get carried away," he said, stroking my bottom lip with his thumb. 

"What if I ask nicely?"

"Ask as nicely as you want, pretty angel, but I ain't promising nothing," his tone was playful. 

"All I want is one kiss, Arthur, this is a date, after all," I dared, dipping my mouth to kiss the tip of his thumb. He made an involuntary sound.

"One kiss'll turn into two… three… God knows what else, the way you've got me feeling. Especially after seeing that Frenchman's eyes on you, got me feeling like I need to make the most of having you before someone comes along and takes you away from me."

"By all means make the most of it," I nodded eagerly and he gave a dirty chuckle. "But no one's taking me away, I'm yours."

"You're making this real hard for me," he breathed, eyes closing momentarily. He smirked at a private joke and I tilted my head.

"That's the idea. I'm trying to get my kiss," I teased, stroking my hands up and down his broad chest. His eyes dropped down to my hands briefly. 

"You could just take it for yourself, you know."

"You wouldn't try and stop me?"

"Find out," he dared. 

Of course, I didn't hesitate. I pressed my lips to his, hard, with embarrassingly little skill or restraint, immediately reining it in a little when he grunted in surprise (maybe even pain, with his swollen lip). My fingers crept up his body, into his hair, quickly letting go when I remembered he'd made the effort to pomade it. The kiss was a mess until Arthur responded, tilting his head and moving his lips with mine, helping me out. My experience – or lack thereof – certainly showed when he handed me the reins. Even so, it was easy to lose myself in the kiss. 

When he pulled away, I found myself voicing my desire without thinking. "God, I want you," I breathed, and my voice shook unexpectedly. 

"Perhaps we should get ourselves a room at the hotel, and I can give you what you want," he murmured, pressing his body firm against mine. I was turned on, feeling hot and pleasant between my legs, resisting the urge to rub against him like an animal. 

"Oh, pretty please," I nodded. 

"You're gonna kill me," he whispered, pressing his forehead against mine. "Or get me arrested, gettin' me hard in public so easy."

"Oh my," I sighed, arching forwards, feeling the proof of his words against my belly. "Your fault. You took me down this alleyway."

"Shit, I did, didn't I?" He mused. 

"Let's go to that hotel, have a little lie down together, hmm?" I said sweetly, and Arthur groaned quietly. His hips rolled forwards, grinding his erection against my belly once before he pushed away from me, a frustrated growl bubbling up his throat. I stayed pressed up against the wall, watching as his hand went between his legs, readjusting himself so the bulge there wasn't as obvious. 

"You're a menace. How can I walk the streets like this?" He questioned, though he seemed more amused than anything. 

"You want me to describe what I found in Uncle's union suit last time I washed it?" I asked, giving him a mischievous grin. He winced. 

"Christ no, the thought alone will be enough."

-

We headed to the hotel once Arthur was able to be seen in public, eager to check in and get behind closed doors. There was nobody at the front desk when we arrived, so we dinged the little bell and waited, standing side by side a good foot apart to avoid temptation. I was a bad influence, of course, because my hand found its way to his, delicately entwining our fingers. Arthur peered at me, brows soft, suddenly looking warm and sentimental at my touch.

Movement caught my eye over his shoulder, someone appearing in the doorway that led to the rooms. For a second I thought she was the clerk, but my brain sparked with recognition when I looked at her face. Arthur turned his head, following my gaze, and I heard his sharp inhale. 

"Arthur? You came!" Mary exclaimed, clearly shocked to see him. 

Of course. I immediately recalled her letter, the one Arthur had tossed into the fire; she was staying at this hotel. It hadn't occurred to me before, but I was faced with the realisation that Arthur had taken my virginity while she was probably in the same building, we just hadn't known at the time. My face immediately heated up.

"Oh, uh, hi Mary," Arthur said after a pause that was unnaturally long, "Hotel Grand, this is where you're staying."

"Yes, my letter said so," Mary said, her tone a little confused. I averted my eyes, tried to let go of Arthur's hand, he gripped onto me though, didn't let me separate our hands. The small act made my heart want to dance out of my rib cage. 

There was another awkward pause, and Mary looked at me. It took a moment, but she seemed to recognise me from the day I'd gone with Arthur to see her all those weeks ago. Her lips parted, she didn't know what to say for a moment, but she gathered herself quickly and reassembled her composed expression. 

"Oh, perhaps you didn't receive my letter. This must be a coincidence," she said, her laugh quite hollow. "What a small world we live in. I'm Mary, you must be the girl Arthur was with before. You were new to his… group, as I understand."

"Yes, I remember you," I nodded, smiling at her despite the fact that my heart was racing and I felt so nervous my hands were immediately clammy, "it's nice to meet you."

"You too," she nodded, returning my smile. Her eyes casually dropped to where Arthur and I's hands were connected, then she looked away awkwardly. "Well, I won't keep you. I was hoping I could ask a favour of you, Arthur, but I suppose this is a bad time."

"I, uh, I'm sorry, Mary. This is… no, I can't really– we are–" Arthur stammered, looking between the two of us. He was the human embodiment of a fish out of water, just struggling and panicking and suffocating right in front of us. I felt awful for him. I squeezed his hand. 

"We've moved around some since the last time Arthur saw you, your letter must've gotten lost along the way somewhere. We had no idea you were here, I'm sorry for this awkward confusion," I stepped forward, chuckling and trying to lighten the atmosphere. 

"Oh, no, it was my mistake. I just assumed…" Mary shook her head, clasping her hands in front of her, fiddling with them. 

I shook my head dismissively and introduced myself properly with my name, letting go of Arthur's hand only to offer mine to Mary. She looked at it for a moment, then delicately shook it. 

"We're only in the city for a little while, just saw a show at the gallery. Real interesting painter, Charles Châtenay," I conversed, holding Arthur's hand again right away.

"Oh, I know Arthur has a creative streak, with that journal he keeps," she noted, nodding. "I always thought he could make something of himself if he poured more time into his artwork."

I looked at Arthur for his response to that, but he just stood there, mouth slightly open, and shrugged his shoulders. 

"Um, anyway, I should let you get on. Arthur, if I could ask you for one more favour… if you get the time, may I speak with you? It's about Daddy," she said, her brows arching sadly. Arthur released a breath a little harder than natural and shook his head.

"Mary, you know what I told you last time–" he began, but she spoke over him. 

"I know, but his drinking and his gambling has–" she stopped, shaking her head. I frowned, a sudden drop of sympathy manifesting for her. "Oh, Arthur. I know he was never kind to you."

"No, he wasn't. I'm sorry Mary, but I can't help you. I'm sure somebody else will, but I'm–" Arthur glanced at me, then sighed. "I'm moving on. Me and this lady here, we're trying to spend some time together. I'm… I'm real fond of her, and it'd be mighty improper of me to leave her to run an errand for someone else."

"No, you're right. I understand," Mary said, nodding her head. Her expression was difficult to read, her lips were pressed together in a tight line.

"I think it's best for the both of us if… if we let things lie."

"Of course," she nodded, not looking either of us in the eye. 

"Mary, I'm sorry," Arthur said softly, he sounded guilty, his expression was pained. I kept quiet and fiddled with the buttons on my jacket. 

"No, it's okay. You have your own problems to worry about, I understand that. I should've asked someone else," she sighed. "I don't know if this will mean much coming from me, but I'm happy for you."

"Oh, thank you, Mary," Arthur said, a little stunned. Mary looked at me for a moment before meeting Arthur's eyes again. 

"I'm glad you've found someone. I just hope she can give you what I couldn't. And I hope you do right by her, you're not–" she paused, looking down as she searched for the words. "You're not an easy man to love, Arthur." 

I recoiled a little at that. I figured she didn't mean that as harshly as it sounded, at least I hoped she didn't; I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, I begged to differ.

"Goodbye Arthur, Miss," she nodded to us both, then hurried away, out of the hotel before either of us could say anything else. 

We were left alone in silence for a while, the clerk nowhere to be found. Eventually, Arthur ran a hand over his face, released a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry, princess. I completely forgot that she was staying here. I wouldn't've come here if it had occurred to me," he said quietly, his voice almost devoid of emotion. 

"It's alright. I forgot too, and I suppose I'm glad to have met her, in a way," I shrugged, hugging his arm and pressing a kiss to his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm– I'm fine. I just didn't expect to see her here, it sort of– God, I'm a fool. You had to do most of the talking, when it was my thing to deal with. I'm sorry I put that on you," he murmured, turning and leading me to sit down on the loveseat nearby. 

"You were shocked, understandably. And it was real awkward there for a while," I gave a small chuckle, then shook my head, "don't worry. I think you handled it okay."

"You don't mind that I told her about us?"

"Of course not."

"Do I… do I do right by you? Are you happy with your lot, the lot I give you?" He asked me out of nowhere and I stared him in the eye, completely taken aback. 

"Arthur, you've told me you'll leave the gang to run away with me after this job. You took me into the city that you hate just to take me to an exhibition you thought I'd like. You… you held onto my hand in front of Mary just now, which sounds silly but that made me feel so, so happy. Don't doubt yourself over me, things are crazy right now but I would never wanna go back to how things were before I knew you," I told him quietly, gripping his hand tightly and leaning close to him. 

"I just know what you deserve, and I'm worried I can't give it to you," he murmured, a frown etched seemingly permanently between his brows. 

"Oh, be quiet with that, Arthur," I sighed, holding his cheek and turning his head to look at me. "I hate it when you talk like that. You don't know how happy you make me." 

”I'm sorry. I guess Mary just summed it up, there, the thing I'm always thinking about."

"What's that?"

"That I ain't an easy man to…" he trailed off with a sigh, shaking his head. "I understand why."

"Arthur, I ain't struggling," I said, smiling sweetly. "Let's enjoy our day, hm?"

"Angel, you say the right thing every time you open your mouth, what I wouldn't give to have that skill," he gave a breathy laugh, shaking his head. 

"You're looking at me through rose-coloured glasses if that's what you think, just the other day I was telling everyone how much I loved your fingers, remember that?" I rolled my eyes. 

"Of course," he smirked. "That was real cute."

"Cute? Good lord," I breathed, flushing and averting my eyes. Arthur grinned.

"Where the hell is the clerk? I wanna take you upstairs," he said abruptly, rising to his feet to ding the bell a few more times. 

[marshmallow-phd]

Midnight Hours

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Sehun x Reader

Summary: For you, being a good witch was easier said than done. Something dark was lurking inside of you and the others knew it. When you’re forced to tag along with Soomi and help a local wolfpack face a coming evil, you’re sent on a path that breaks into a crossroads. While you struggle with your inner demons, could the wolf Sehun be the key to your ultimate fate?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I 17 I Final

**

“She’s my best friend.”

“Your very nosy best friend.”

Dana threw Kyungsoo a glare, but coming from the soft-spoken mate, it didn’t really pack any heat behind it, especially when compared to Kyungsoo’s icy stare downs.

“When is she coming?” Junmyeon asked, his worried expression etching lines into his otherwise youthful face.

“In a couple days,” Dana replied. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She said she’s bored where she’s at and that she misses me. I miss her too, but….”

You were still confused as to what the big deal was. “Is her coming to see her friend a bad thing?”

“(y/n)…,” Soomi scolded. You shrugged innocently at her.

Dana sighed. “Kyungsoo’s right. Mina’s very nosy, especially if she even thinks she senses something’s off. She doesn’t know about werewolves or witches or anything supernatural. Keeping her unaware is going to be a challenge.”

“She can’t come to the farmhouse,” Junmyeon said as he let out an exasperated sigh.

Kyungsoo nodded. “Of course.”

“Quite the time to make a surprise visit, huh?” Jongdae snapped. He definitely wasn’t the only one thinking it given the nodding consensus around the room.

“The timing is weird,” Kris agreed, “but coincidences happen. Dana will keep her away from the farmhouse and the woods and we’ll go about as usual. It’s not like we haven’t been practicing how to be normal our whole lives.”

You couldn’t help but snort at that. Several wolves gave you confused looks. Maybe it was because you’d spent a majority of your life trying to pretend to be the witch equivalent of “normal” that you found amusement in what the alpha had said. You’d learned a while back that “normal” was just a setting on the washing machine.

“I guess you’ll have to stay at your apartment while she’s here,” Kyungsoo muttered disappointedly. Dana gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, but it did little good. The wolf turned and went back to the food still cooking on the stove top. Apparently, that was the end of the conversation because everyone went back to their business from before Dana had shown up with her news.

You’d come to the conclusion that not much bothered these boys. Whether it was because of what they’d gone through in the past or because they didn’t deem too much to be a threat to them, they didn’t worry easily. Besides the alphas, that is. You had to admit, it was a bid admirable, but it could also be considered stupid. You didn’t think this Mina was anyone to worry about, however, looks could be deceiving. Very deceiving. And assumptions could be dangerous…

**

For the millionth time since you’d come to the farmhouse, you were sitting on the couch, going over all your notes on your visions that you’d taken down. You were desperate to figure out what it all meant, but looking at the half-sentences and vague descriptions made you feel like you were trying to put together a thousand piece puzzle without any sort of hint to what the final picture may be. It didn’t help that your mind wanted to focus on the vision with the wolf. To you, it was irrelevant. There was no immediate danger attached to the scene – accept maybe the wolf itself. However, you didn’t think it would hurt you, at least not on purpose. By now, you were pretty sure it was Sehun, the other supposedly white wolf, Luhan, easily ruled out. Part of you was even hoping that is was Sehun. But why?

You refused to fall into the same trap Soomi did. And yet, how many times did you find yourself replaying the garage in your mind? You wanted to hit the memory out of your head with your notebook, but it was no use. It was stuck there, refusing to budge. Being tortured like this was not what you had signed up for when you reluctantly agreed to come here. Stupid wolf. Stupider witch.

“Hey, witch girl!”

You peaked over the edge of your notebook to see who’d called out to you. Hae In – one of the more outspoken mates – stood behind the arm of the couch where your feet rested, hands on her hips and a smirk on her lips. Behind her was Harper. The ex-hunter was shifting nervously as her eyes darted around the room. She always seemed to be on edge no matter what the situation.

“We’re going to meet up with Dana and her friend,” Hae In informed you. Her usual boldness and straight-to-the-point attitude was still very much present. It didn’t matter that the two of you hadn’t interacted much, she treated you like everyone else around the house. But you liked that about her. It made you feel less ostracized in a way. “Soomi said we could take you with us. Let’s go.”

Harper threw her cousin a tired look, “Innie….”

Hae In wasn’t fazed at all. “What? If I was her, I’d want out of this house, too. I can still remember poor Jinyoung going crazy.”

Harper rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue further. And neither did you. Closing the notebook, you tossed it down on the coffee table and leapt to your feet. “I’m down.”

“Awesome!” Hae In threw Harper a triumphant look before spinning on the balls of her feet and waltzing out of the room. The latter simply shrugged at you and followed her out.

You were hot on their heels until you came to a screeching halt just before the steps on the porch. Baekhyun, it seemed, would be coming with you. So this was not to be a “girls only” thing. With the energy that was brewing in the air at the moment, you were half tempted to go back inside. Currently, Baekhyun had his fingers wrapped around the handle of the front passenger door. He wasn’t glaring at Harper, but you could tell there was an uneasiness behind his eyes. You weren’t aware of the entire situation that occurred between former enemy and the pack, but you figure that if she was going to betray everyone, it would have happened by now so there was no point in not trusting her.

With a short nod, Harper stepped up to the back car door behind the driver’s side and slid in. It seemed she was letting the wolf take the front seat. Hae In honked her horn, bringing your focus back to the present, and you ran to take the remaining seat in her little Honda. It was about an hour into town, a shorter trip than what you had to take back home. As each road sign passed and the buildings on the horizon grew larger, you became antsier, eager to get out and wander around civilization. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Harper slightly smile at you before turning her head to face out her own window.

Hae In parked near the center of town in the business district. Decorating the middle of the prosperous area was the red brick clock tower, like a beacon luring in shoppers with money to spend within its territory. But as intriguing as the timeless structure was, it was the figure leaning up against the base that caught your eye.

The unmistakable orange hair stood out even as dozens of patrons milling about the square, blocking most of him from view. His arms were crossed lazily over his chest with his eyes focused in on the cracking cement by his feet. Just to his left, Dana and Kyungsoo were having a conversation, the wolf looking a bit annoyed, but even from where you stood by the car you tell it wasn’t directed at Dana. When the group you were with approached the others, you found out the reason for his annoyance.

“Mina’s going to meet us at the restaurant,” Dana explained while you tried extremely hard to focus on her and not let your eyes wander over to Sehun. He hadn’t even acknowledged the group’s arrival. “She’s running a bit behind.”

“She overslept and thinks she needs to spend an hour getting ready,” Kyungsoo elaborated with a blank face.

“Let’s just go,” Sehun said in a bored tone as he pushed off the clock tower. It seemed he’d come out of whatever thoughts were keeping his attention previously. “I’m starving. She can just join us when she does.”

Dana looked like she wanted to argue, but Kyungsoo reached out and took her hand, squeezing her fingers reassuringly. That seemed to be the catalyst to give in. “Okay,” Dana agreed. “I’ll send her the name of the restaurant. She’ll find us.” Under her breath, she added, “Hopefully.”

The group made its way across the square towards a small Mexican restaurant squeezed in between a clothing boutique and an eyebrow salon. Keeping to yourself quietly near the back, you learned as you walked that Luhan wouldn’t be joining the group since he was out on perimeter duty at the moment.

“What’s perimeter duty?” you asked out of curiosity. You had a pretty good guess, but….

Sehun was the one who answered. “Kris and Junmyeon have everyone running the surrounding area in case we come across something that might be considered helpful.”

Both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo threw the youngest an odd look, but nothing more was said as the group entered the restaurant. Right away, the hostess should you to a table off to the side of the large room. You were thankful that you and Sehun sat on the same side with Hae In and Baekhyun in between. That way you were less tempted to look at him. That didn’t stop the occasion glance out of the corner of your eye, but you hope it was subtle enough to go unnoticed by the others.

As soon as the chips and salsa were placed on the table, you took that as the perfect distraction to occupy your attention. Baekhyun was keeping most of the table entertained with the random facial expressions and nonsensical sentences leaving his mouth. The waiter came around and took the drink orders, leaving to give everyone a minute longer to pick what sounded good from the menus that had barely been looked at. Another fifteen minutes went by and you were starting to wonder if Dana’s friend was going to show up at all.

“Hey, sorry I’m late!”

You looked up from the pieces of tortilla chip in your hands and froze.

Dana’s friend Mina was a tall girl with light blonde hair and milky skin to match. Just like the woman in your vision.

Jumping up from her seat, Dana gave her best friend a long hug, completely unaware of your reaction to the new arrivla’s appearance. In fact, no one else seemed bothered or to make the connection they took their seats.

“Hey,” Harper whispered, leaning towards you from her seat in front of you. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded a little too eagerly, leaning back in your seat. The waiter, noticing the newcomer, brought Mina a cup of water and took her order after she barely glanced at the menu.

“You get the same thing every time,” Dana teased.  

Mina shrugged, flipping her blonde curls over her shoulder in the process. Her eyes wandered over everyone at the table before they landed on Sehun who sat across from her. Like lightning, her hand was out, reaching over the chips and salsa. “Hi, I’m Mina.”

Sehun shifted in his seat, uncrossing his arms long enough to shake her hand before assuming the position once again. “Sehun. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You’re one of Kyungsoo’s friends, right?” He nodded. “I’m surprised that Dana is comfortable around so many people,” Mina commented, barely glancing at who she was referring to before going back to the one person she was actually addressing. “Groups like this used to make her uncomfortable.”

“A lot’s changed in the last few years,” Dana defended. Making eye contact with Kyungsoo, she slipped her hand into his. The usually stoic wolf let his lips spread into a wide grin, the kind of look that he reserved only for his mate.

“And I’m so happy for you,” Mina said happily as she pulled her friend into another hug.

The conversation drifted into what Dana had been up to lately. She was careful to avoid anything that might accidentally roam into the area of the wolves that lived in the woods.

“So, Sehun, what do you do most days?” Mina asked out of nowhere. She placed her chin in her folded hands as her elbows rested on the table. A glance was exchanged between Baekhyun and Hae In, but if Mina noticed she wasn’t deterred.

In reply to her obviously flirtatious inquiry, Sehun shrugged. “Depends on the day. Sometimes I’m home, sometimes I’m at Kris’ shop, helping out there.”

A sparkle shine in her eyes. “So, no girlfriend to hang out with?”

You shoved your tongue in your cheek, biting down hard to avoid any sort of sarcastic comment flying out of your mouth. She was being shamefully obvious to the point that by now even the mated couples at the table – who weren’t particularly shy about PDA and innuendoes – were shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Sehun, however, was just as unconcerned as ever. “No. No girlfriend.”

Mina nodded with a Cheshire cat grin. “Interesting. When I asked Dana if she had anyone to introduce me to, she said all of her friends were taken.”

“You’re just visiting,” Dana murmured, a deep frown on her lips. “What’s the point?”

“Well, you know me, I’m always on the move.” She sent her friend a wink and a sly smile.

Your blood was boiling even though you had no reason to be irritated. Part of you kept waiting for Sehun to tell her he wasn’t interested, but he kept his mouth closed, letting the nerve-grating comments keep on coming.

Perhaps what was bothering you was the fact that she looked just the woman in your vision. No, you never saw her face when the premonition hit, but the hair and skin was almost a perfect match. Maybe that was why you were on edge. Yeah, that had to be it… right?

You stared at the glass of water in front of you, fighting with yourself, repeating that what happened in the garage meant nothing – as nothing even happened – and it didn’t give you any right or reason to be jealous. Closing your eyes, you started the deep breath exercises Mother Willow had taught you when you felt your emotions getting out of control.

“You know,” Mina said, “Dana can’t hang out with me all the time. So, would you be interes- ah!”

You jumped at the sound of the glass rattling against the table before it rolled away. Water splashed all over Mina’s pretty sky blue skirt, leaving a spot the size of your palm in the most unflattering of places. Crap. You hadn’t meant to do it. Your guilt must have been written all over your face. When you risked looking up from the fallen cup, your eyes met Sehun’s. He was staring at you with a furrowed brow, head tilted to the side. As quickly as you could, you shrank back in your seat to hide yourself from view. Harper was glancing at you as well, her eyes flickering back and forth from Mina to you. Right in this moment, you were wishing that invisibility was a power you possessed. 

So maybe some damn self-control.

**

After getting home from the restaurant, you immediately rounded the house and bee lined for the woods. You’d let your emotions control your powers. Again. And in front of witnesses, no less. While everyone at the table had assumed it was a strange accident possibly caused by an unstable surface, you could tell that Harper’s mind was going in a different direction – you. Her eyes shifted to you throughout the rest of the meal, noticing that you were barely touching your food and not joining in on any of the conversation.

Despite being doused in water, Mina insisted on continuing her flirtatious pursuit of Sehun. Your nails dug into your upper arms with each new line, surely leaving behind half-moon indentions that were thankfully covered by the long sleeves of your shirt. All you wanted to escape from this internal embarrassment.

The forest created the perfect cover. As soon as you thought you were far enough in to be invisible from the house, you slowed down a leisurely walk. You knew you were going to have to tell Soomi about the incident eventually. From what you’d gathered about Baekhyun’s personality, this was not something that would remain among the group. He’d find it too funny that while Mina was hitting on Sehun her glass suddenly spilt all over her to keep it to himself. While she didn’t exactly know about your conflicting emotions regarding the wolf, she’d still be suspicious enough to confront you about it. You just needed some time alone before you faced that conversation. The last thing you wanted was for her to worry about you losing control.

After half an hour or so of walking, you came across a river that intertwined through the trees. It wasn’t very deep, but the water was clear to allow you to see the small, hand-sized fish that swam through the barely existent current. They were unbothered by your presence as you sat down near the edge. Tiny fins kept them stead as they searched the tiny pebbles for possible food.

With the sun shining down through the tree leaves, you could just barely make out your reflection on the surface of the water. Sometimes you didn’t recognize the person staring back at you. Sure, you knew the features – the nose, the eyes, the hair – but the person behind them had become lost. You toed the line between being the witch you were expected to be and wanting to use the powers that were given to you, see how far you could push them until they reached their limit. It was easily to blame the elders in this. To you, the smart decision would have been to teach you how to control your powers, not force you to suppress them. They wouldn’t magically go away through non-usage. But no one cared about your opinion. To them, you were just a young witch with horrible impulse control and lesser knowledge about these things.

The rustling of leaves pulled you from your thoughts of self-pity. Your eyes grew wide as Sehun sat down beside you on the ground, leaving at least two feet of space between you. Great. Was he cautious of you now? With a roll of your eyes, you turned back to the water. “What are you doing here?”

“Harper said you came out here,” he shrugged. It was lost on you why he would even care whether you were out here or in the house or anywhere in the vicinity. He couldn’t be upset at what had happened at the restaurant. If he was, well then, he could just suck it up.

You threw your hands up. “So, you found me. You can go about your business now.”

“You made the glass spill over, didn’t you?”

Well, wasn’t that just fantastic. He really had made the connection that it was you after all.

Picking up a smooth rock barely the length of your pinky, you flipped it over in your palm a few times as you mulled over his question. For as long as you could remember, keeping your powers a secret beyond the coven had been the number one rule in your life. Scratch that – rule number two. The first one was to not use them in the first place. Soomi had emphasized the importance of that rule before you came here. The pack was already wary of witches and you couldn’t entirely blame them. For the first time in your life, though, you were scared to admit to them, to your powers. In the past, you’d never shied away from admitting to their existence; that yes, the strange incident was all your doing. Hiding who you were had never been something you liked to do. But in this moment, you were afraid. How could you be so worried about what this wolf would think of you? In this moment, you were the most afraid of being considered the freak than you ever had been before.

You pulled in as much air into your lungs as possible before emptying them once again. You flipped the rock over in your palm one more time before tossing it into the river. The ripples blurred your face in the water before slowly disappearing. If only you could fade away like the waves. “Yeah,” you admitted. “That was me.”

Sehun nodded. Apparently, he hadn’t been expecting any other answer. “Can all witches do that?”

“No,” you said bluntly. What was the point of beating around the bush? “Not without a lengthy incantation and even then, some can’t.”

“But you can just… do it?”

“Yup.”

There was nothing but the sound of the river for a moment or two. What you would give right now to be able to read minds. The possibilities could be endless for whatever was going through his mind. Which part was he focusing on? Was it the fact that you could do things like tip over a glass of water? Or was he making an assumption as to why you did it?

“Which did you move?” he suddenly asked, making you jump.

You frowned, staring at him. “What do you mean?”

For the first time since he arrived, he turned to look at you. “The water or glass? Which one were you moving?”

“Oh.” You blinked, trying to figure out the best way to explain this. “It was the water. I’m not telekinetic, although that wouldn’t be a bad gig.”

“Being able to move water doesn’t sound too bad, either,” he said with a small, crooked smile. His reaction to your confession was so understated, as if this was something he’d come across before. It made you comfortable. Perhaps a little too comfortable.

“No, it’s not,” you agreed. “But when you add in the other stuff, it kind of freaks people out.”

Sehun leaned back on the palms of his hands, looking at you with eyes full of curiosity. “The other stuff?”

You picked at your cuticles nervously. It was a bad habit that you thought you’d broken a while back, but the compulsion was rearing its ugly head again. “It’s not just water that I can manipulate. It’s… kind of all the elements. Fire, water, air, earth. All that jazz. It’s kind of a rare thing, for witches. Like, it’s been a few centuries kind of rare.”

“That’s….” He struggled to find a word to put to the news you were telling him. Unable to do so, he went another route. “If you can do this, why has Soomi been teaching you about plant magic?”

This was a question you were subconsciously dreading. “The elders are… concerned about the fact that I can do these things since, according to history, it didn’t end very well last time. A lot of people died because of that witch. They think it’s best if I don’t use them too much. Plant magic sort of defaults to good. There’s never been a witch who trained in it that went dark. A few evil ones have used that kind of magic before, but that was never their specialty. The mothers think it’s safer.”

“But you don’t agree?”

You scoffed. “How could I? You saw what happened at the restaurant. There’s times I can’t control it and things like that occur. They think suppression is the answer, but-” You swallowed back the words that were about to leave your tongue. Never had you been tempted to release those thoughts to anyone – not Mother Willow or Soomi – so why did you almost let them go now? There was something about Sehun that got to you; something that caused holes to appear in your walls. Fearful that you might actually make him run away, you looked down at the eroding rocks that decorated the riverbed.

“But what?” he surged.

“It’s nothing.” The lie felt like acid on your tongue, but it was the kind of lie you were used to telling. Somehow, though, saying it to the orange haired wolf made you feel guiltier than normal. “I’d just prefer to be able to use them, that’s all.”

Everything about Sehun’s demeanor screamed that he didn’t believe you, but he didn’t verbalize his suspicions. He nodded as he sat up, pretending he was taking you at your word. His eyes danced around the surrounding area, careful not to land in your direction. You couldn’t help but think that you made him uncomfortable now, the element controlling witch residing not just in his home, but in his bedroom.

“You must think I’m a freak now, huh?” You hadn’t meant to ask that out loud, but his reaction was… well it was hurting you.

But when Sehun finally looked at you, he seemed confused as to why you could ask such a thing. His brow was scrunched, forming a harsh line above the bridge of his nose. His eyes shined a dark amber for only a second before fading back to their usual brown. Shaking his head, Sehun scoffed. “You’re not a freak. Different, sure, but not a freak.”

“You were acting like I make you uncomfortable,” you pointed out.

The way he sucked in his lips and ran a hand through his hair told you that you were right. “I- I don’t think you’re a freak,” he repeated.

That made you roll your eyes. “You can say that as many times as you’d like, but have you ever heard of the phrase that actions speak louder than words?”

Sehun growled at your argument, but you didn’t flinch at the aggressive sound. Your response was to simply raise an eyebrow and wait. Heavy air escaped through his lips as he looked away. Tension was visible in all his muscles, especially where his neck and hands were exposed. It was like you were watching an internal struggle before your eyes, having seen the signs before within yourself. There was no telling what was going on with him, what he was wrestling with. You weren’t sure if you wanted to know, in case it harmed your ego. Suddenly, he turned to face you, his eyes a brighter amber than before. And they stayed that way. Not once did they flicker or fade back to a normal, human color. The change made you lean back, the tiniest bit of fear lighting up inside you. But that small movement seemed to encourage him.

Your heart was pounded again, exactly like it did back in the garage. Sehun was coming closer. He leaned in as if the space between you didn’t even exist. Why was it that every time he came in close proximity you froze like a deer in the middle of the road? He certainly felt like a speeding car coming at you a hundred miles an hour and whatever damage was done when the two of you finally collided would resonate for the rest of your lives.

In time, however, he swerved away, squeezing his eyes shut as he replaced the space between you. The veins on his hands were visible from how hard he was clenching his fists. “You should go back to the house,” he suggested through gritted teeth. “Soomi’s worried about you.” When you continued to sit there and stare at him, he growled, “Go!”

You huffed. What the hell had you done? He was the one who kept invading your space, saying cryptic things, and flipping back and forth between ignoring you and seeking you out. “Whatever.” You jumped up to your feet and made your way back to the clearing, happy to be putting distance between the two of you.

[saltiestdemonloves]

Escaping to the Country

Oc x Steve Rogers

This is something I had been working on that had been collecting dust. It still stands that I’m taking a break on marvel and supernatural fics. But I felt it was better to post it than letting it sit in my drafts.

***

I’d seen a man on the edge of the property for nearly a week now with no signs of leaving. The place was abandoned and no one was going to report him as long as he didn’t cause any trouble. That didn’t mean I was happy with it.

Deciding that I was too curious for my own good, I set out one morning after seeing him walking around. I brought my dog Lance with me as I went, letting him walk free. He wouldn’t cause any harm as long as the stranger didn’t try anything funny. 

It took nearly ten minutes for me to get about halfway and at this point, I was starting to doubt myself. Was it worth it? He hadn’t been causing any trouble yet, why would he now? I thought about turning around and walking back home but it seemed pointless. So I kept on a-truckin and made it the rest of the way there. 

The stranger must have made this old run-down house his home and was fixing it up. He was a dirty blonde, tired looking man who was leaning back on a chair. The porch he was sitting on looked like it was the first thing he had started to fix and was made with fresh wood. A stark contrast to the rotting and worn wood the rest of the house was made of. Actually, at this new distance, it was more of a glorified shed.

“Excuse me,” I call out, putting my hands on my hips. As I wait for a response I make Lance sit next to me. The man stirs and sighs out slowly before lifting his head up and squinting in my direction.

“Hello?”

“Do you mind if I-” I cut myself off. Was this… I’d seen his face on the news. Captain America. “What the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be… I don’t know, doing hero work?”

“Hero’s can’t take a break?” He asks, sitting up and crossing his arms against his chest.

I pause to blink. I mean, I guess. It’s only fair. Shrugging, I sigh and look down at Lance who smiles back up at me. “Look, I only came over because I’ve seen you working around here for about a week and this place is supposed to be abandoned.”

“Such a shame,” he murmurs, looking around him, “it’s a beautiful place.”

“Yeah,” I nod in agreement, looking around. I’d seen pictures of this place in its prime, never got to witness it myself. “I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t going to cause any trouble,” I add. “I can’t afford trouble right now, I got enough of it as is.”

He brings his hands up, palms up, “You won’t find any here. I’m looking for a break.”

“Good.” I look around at the state of his house again and grimace, “You really want to stay here?”

“I don’t want to stay where my… employers can find me.”

“Oh,” I tilt my head and grin, “So you are trouble. I had heard a little bit about how you were on the run but I didn’t know it was really true. Figured it was another one of those wild rumors circling around, the people around here get really bored.”

“Hm.” He was starting to look antsy, anxious, and upset. I knew a veteran when I saw one and I didn’t want to make him feel worse than he no doubt already did.

Exhaling softly, I reach down to pat Lance’s head, “Look, you don’t have to stay here. If you don’t want to that is. I’ve got an extra building beside my house that my dad built for me when I was a teen, a safe space I suppose. It needs some fixing and cleaning, but the workload is a lot smaller than this thing.” I sense his hesitance and quickly add, “It can be temporary, just till you get this thing fixed up. The weather here is pretty unforgiving and wild. Trust me, you’re gonna want to be staying where the walls around you are sturdy and sure to hold up. I promise to give you your privacy.”

“What do I have to do in return?”

My face twists at the question. Shaking my head, I reply with something my parents had always chanted to me, “A good person does random acts of kindness without expecting a reward. Take your time to make the decision, but the wolves and coyotes have no concept of time, and little patience. They’ll eat you up given the chance.”

He smiles and chuckles softly, nodding his head. He looks down and messes with his fingers before glancing up and giving me a softened gaze, “Thanks.”

“I’m just across the field,” I say, voice soft, pointing to where I came from. “It’s a twenty-minute leisure walk. It’s got some nice views on the way. Just be careful of snakes.” With that, I turn around and head back down the small slope I came up from, cross through the knee-high wild grass, making a mental note to check Lance for ticks, and cross the field, making my way back home.

When I arrive, I go straight for the small building that Dad had built for me when I was sixteen. A stone path from the house led up to it and I stepped on each stone carefully. The outside of the building was a faded white, there were windows on either side that were covered in dirt and spiderwebs. I walk to the front and unlock the door, slowly opening it to peek inside.

The smell of dust reaches my nose and I scrunch my face. The walls were painted a soft grey. There wasn’t much furniture on the first floor. Just the small square table and its chairs pushed into the corner near the door. I had left some of my old posters when I moved back into the house so those were up.

Walking up the short steps, I recognize that space that had been my room. The small, twin-sized bed was still there, stripped from its sheets and covers. Hopefully, the room will be enough for him, if he wants it. If not, I can use it for something. Maybe a crafts room? I spend the rest of the evening cleaning the building and making it nice. I take down my old posters, and despite everything nostalgic telling me not to, I throw them away. There’s no way that my childhood bed was going to be big enough for him but I have a spare bed in one of the extra bedrooms. I take everything but the table and the chairs inside my storage shed.

Covered in sweat, I sigh heavily and plop down on the porch swing, taking a giant chug of my drink. I didn’t notice the Captain walking up the path until he was right in front of me. Smiling, I sit up and gesture the many seats on the porch.

“You really don’t mind if I stay with you?”

“Nope,” I say, popping the “p”. I sit back and grin. “I already cleaned up the building if you want to check it out. It’s two stories with a living area on the first floor and a bedroom on the second. Kitchen and toilet are just through the garage. The kitchen’s on the left, bathrooms on the right.”

“I’m Lora,” I say, jutting my hand out for him to grab.

He takes it in a strong grip and grins, “Steve.”

Standing, I stretch with a groan and head back inside, gesturing for him to follow right behind. “This way.” I start pointing out rooms as we pass them, “That’s the living room, you’re welcome to hang out in here, the stairs to the bedrooms and another bathroom. If you decide that you’d rather stay in here then there’s plenty of room for it.” Leading him past the stairs, we reach where the kitchen and dining room was. I show him where he could use the bathroom before taking him out through the garage, straight across, out, and follow the stone path again. “Here it is.”

We stand in front of it, me looking up to see his reaction. Steve was smiling softly and studying it slowly. “It’s nice.”

“Let’s check out the inside.”

I go back into the building with Steve following me. The dust and cobwebs have been swept up, the floors swept and mopped, everything was clean and fresh-looking now. It was a wide space, comfortable when it had furniture.

“We can get you some things to fill it up, make it homier.”

“Oh, you don’t have to spend-”

“There’s plenty of places getting rid of furniture for free,” I say, waving my hand, dismissing his protests, “Don’t worry.”

Steve’s brows knit together, concerned. I pause at the bottom of the stairs to look at him. He was looking at everything with this worried and stressed look. “I…” He seems to struggle to find the words to something. 

I follow his gaze, looking around the room too. “You wouldn’t owe me anything, Steve. You don’t have to worry. I’ve been… alone for a long time so you being here is all the help and reward I need.”

“But still,” he sighs, shaking his head and exhaling sharply, his face twists into a grimace. Steve puts his hands on his hip and bounces on the heels of his feet.

He was clearly having trouble with the concept of getting to stay here for free. Well… “Steve?”

“Hm?”

“How about this. I need help around the house with gardening and rebuilding some parts of the barn.”

There’s a flash of relief on his face and he nods, smiling, “That sounds good.”

Nodding, I return the smile, “Come on, I’ll show you the bedroom.” We walk up and I stand back, letting him take in the full aspect of the bedroom.

Steve smiles at the sight of it and inhales deeply. “Alright,” he murmurs. “This is nice.” I chuckle at the hint of admission in his tone as he adds, “A lot better than that building out there.”

“I have a bed that we can move up here if you help. We can take the twin bed and put it in the other room.”

Steve looks down at the floor while chuckling and shaking his head, “You have officially won me over.”

I grin and clap my hands together, “Good! Let’s get to work.”

***

If you like it, please let me know!!