#i have removed a few words on the off chance someone wants to find the fic spread hate

[mycatcalledluna]

So I'm reading this fic and it starts off with

'Or he used to be, apparently coming back from the dead, getting kidnapped by the League of Assassins and getting thrown into the Lazarus pit is enough to clear him from all the crazy stuff he did, like the duffel bag.'

Which is a bad sign as unless this all happened again and the author just didn't mention it, they think Jason was Red Hood before he died, which suggests they haven't read a single comic.

[moonlight-prose]

smoke and ash

a/n: this is based entirely on a post made by the amazing @cavillscurls and i was given permission to write it for her cause the idea actually made my brain go numb. plus just the thought of this man having an oral fixation paired with someone who also has an oral fixation?? beautiful. filthy. spectacular. it's quickly written cause i had the inspo at the time and really didn't want to lose it. so enjoy!

summary: cigar smoke trailed after him with every step, his mouth always desperate for something to wet, something to bite down on. and you with the match between your teeth indulged him every which way.

word count: 1.4k+

pairing: old man!logan howlett x f!reader

warnings: EXPLICIT SO MINORS DNI 18+ ONLY!!, oral fixation, spit kink, choking, dry humping, desperate!logan, overstimulation, cigars, they're fucking messy, dirty talk.

A dark stain of saliva coated the base of a match as you sat sprawled on his leather couch. Your teeth dug into it, creating an indent that would last until you decided it was time to strike the phosphorus and let it burn down. Sometimes they snapped. Other times you tossed them in the trash. Tonight you were intent on lighting it up—solely for the cigar currently stuffed in between his own lips.

He sucked at the end thoughtfully most nights. Glasses perched on the edge of his nose, a book he'd read a hundred times over propped in one hand—whiskey in his other. Half of it was already burnt through. Used within the span of a few days before stubbed out and saved.

“Interesting story?”

The soft hum was all he offered, his eyes flicking back and forth between the lines even though he could recite the words from memory. The pages were worn from use, spine cracked every which way, and you often considered buying him a new copy. If just to give the story a chance to breathe in his mind. Sink beneath the depths of memories that still floated along the surface—seeking to ruminate in the cracks of chaos.

“Logan.”

“Bub?”

“What does it taste like?”

At last he looked up, eyebrows lifted and fingers moving to drag the sticky wet cigar out of his mouth. “This?”

You nodded. “Good or bad or…”

“Better than those fuckin’ matches,” he scoffed, pointedly glaring at the splintered wood between your teeth—a nervous habit you had yet to kick. “C’mere and find out.”

Scrambling off the couch a bit too quickly, you found yourself perched in his lap, legs straddling his hips with a smile painted across your lips. He removed the match, flicking it into the discarded ashtray with contempt—happy to have your mouth empty and waiting. Only to place the soaked butt against your tongue, his tongue swiping across his bottom lip at the sight. You always imagined what the flavor resembled. Until it finally dawned on you.

This is how it tasted to kiss him. The bitter tang of the cigar muted by the flavor of the whiskey he drank and the mints he chewed in his spare time. You sucked on the remnants of his saliva, your mind lighting up at the feel of it. Of having something stuck between your lips, a thing you could fixate on.

“Taste’s like me don’t it?”

You nodded, shifting against his body as the first spark of heat began to slowly meld with the rest of your senses.

“Good girl,” he mumbled, the book forgotten to the side in favor of his hand sliding along your throat, thumb catching just beneath your chin. “Suck on it harder yeah? Want it to taste like ya when I smoke it again.”

A whine cracked in the back of your throat, your hips catching on the zipper of his jeans. “What about you?”

The mumbled words caused spit to drool down to your chin, his eyes tracking the slide of it with a heavy gaze. He wanted to lick it up. Swallow down what you offered. But the sight kept him transfixed—your tongue sliding along the end of the cigar as if it were his cock. Soaking it in your taste enough to drive him a bit closer to the edge, his other hand suddenly a harsh grip on your ass.

“I got what I need,” he replied with ease. “Yeah?”

You nodded, catching the glaze of desire in his dilated pupils. He wanted more than an empty mouth. The cigars appeased a side of him no one saw, a man who ached for something to bite down on, someone to taste even in the most mundane of ways. He was your guard dog looking to chew, to gnaw, even if spit flew out of his mouth with a feral edge of desperation. And with a grin, you stuffed three fingers into his mouth right down to the knuckle.

He took them with a moan, tongue laving over the length of them as his hips bucked up into yours. The hot cavern of his mouth and wet slide of his tongue drew out a sound you never knew you could make. A biting grunt that made spit fly everywhere, splattering against his cheek to mix with his own.

Ripping the cigar from your mouth, you hastily licked around his full mouth. “Suck harder for me baby.”

They met the back of his throat, choking him enough to force his head back. His eyes rolled, nostrils flared, and for a moment you felt the power dynamic shift. You were in charge. Telling him what to do to appease the ache of pleasure growing in the pit of your stomach. And it might have lasted. He very well could have given you complete submission if it weren’t for the lack of the cigar in your mouth.

A growl rumbled up from his chest, eyes flashing dark enough to send a thrill down your spine, and before you could fix your mistake he rectified it for you. Three fingers—to match your own—were pushed harshly against your tongue, hooking behind your teeth to drag your face closer to his. You didn’t need to hear him to know what he wanted.

The intent blazed in his hazel eyes well enough: suck.

Through the haze of wanton lust you felt his hand begin to guide your hips along his crotch. The bulge of his cock straining against denim, pushing the metal zipper up for your clit to catch on each time. Clad in his flannel and cotton panties, you found yourself plummeting towards the burning ache that built faster than you could comprehend.

You ripped your hand from his mouth, burying the spit soaked fingers into his hair to grip him close. But it never remained enough. He wanted to delve beneath your skin. Seek the warmth that seeped from your body where his fingers kneaded and pushed to drag you to a fro. His teeth latched onto your shoulder, the sweater pulled to the side while his fingers met the back of your throat, choking you with their size.

A cry slipped past his knuckles as you humped his clothed cock—dragging yourself inch by inch towards the release you could practically taste. It clung to the tip of your tongue—the saccharine flavor intertwined with the tobacco musk of his fingers. You swallowed around them, drool spilling down your throat and pooling at the top of your breasts.

“That’s it,” he gasped, a line of bites trailing right to the juncture of your neck, his spit smeared across your skin. “Gonna cum for me?”

You whined harshly, body going taut as your clit pulsed rapidly with the impending wave of bliss that tugged sharply on your spine. The pain of his teeth puncturing hard enough to draw blood dragged a knife through the thin strand  of resistance. And you came with his name at the back of your throat and white bursting behind tightly shut eyelids.

“Yes. Fuck–” His growl ran down the length of your spine, body trembling in his tight grasp. “That’s my girl.”

Unconsciously your nails punctured the skin at the back of his neck and with a jolt, he groaned long and ragged against your throat. A dark wet patch formed beneath his jeans as you soaked him with a spit filled cry. The pleasure wrung your body dry, pulling the final dregs of your energy straight from the source. Your chest heaved, mouth a gentle suckle at the very base of his fingers, and Logan could feel you begin to collapse forward into his chest.

“You really like when your mouth is filled,” he mused, lips curling into a smile.

Nodding, your voice was a content hum—his fingers dragging at the back of your teeth, tracing their shape. A kiss was pressed to your head, body slumping further into the chair with you atop him.

“Gonna get you some more matches in the mornin’,” he mumbled lazily. “My pretty girl needs a treat for being so good.”

Your heart fluttered, eyes glistening with the devotion you’d never dare to hide. The love that burned with the power of an eternal flame. Settling into his body, you felt his hand drag along the expanse of your thigh. Calming the storm in his mind—a catastrophe you longed to weather with him.

You were the balm to his weathered soul.

A permanent fixation of smoke and ash that surrounded his charred and splintered heart that burned for you.

[mandarinmoons]

Cry About It

Pairing: Spencer Reid x gender neutral reader Summary: After returning home from a hard case, reader helps take care of Spencer in his vulnerable state Words: 1050 Warnings: none A/N: The title may seem a bit mean at first glance, but it was inspired by the song Shout About It by The Vamps which I think fits well with this fic <3

Spencer stared at his front door, wondering, confused as to where the time had gone as it felt as though not even five minutes ago he was still on the yet, halfway on his way back home.

It was nearly 1 AM in the morning and he put his hand on the door handle, opening the door and trying to make the least amount of noise possible so as to not disturb your slumber. Instead, he was surprised to see the lights still on and the TV still playing in the living room. You were still up waiting for him to return no matter how many times he had told you in the past to not wait up for him.

Hearing the front door open and close, your feet padded the way to the entrance, your smile diminishing quickly seeing the kind of state your beloved was in.

The dark circles under his eyes seemed deeper than ever and a few droplets of dried blood were to be found on his fingers. You dared not begin to imagine the state he could have been in before he got on the plane home, this is the state of him quickly cleaned up so he wouldn’t soil any of the furniture around him or his clothing, but it was still enough to worry you.

“Spencer?”

Your gentle tone made Spencer lift his head and you saw him holding back tears. Your arms were quick to wrap around him to console him, his arms wrapping around you in return to try and ground himself. A shaky breath escaped his lips as your hand caressed his back, the smallest of acts having such a profound effect on him that he felt himself cracking.

With his legs wobbling underneath him, you carefully guided him to the bathroom and let him sit on the toilet as you turned the water on in the shower so it had a chance to heat up and ran to get Spencer a comfier pair of clothes.

Spencer sat silently as he started to disassociate, the sound of the running water hypnotizing him. It wasn’t until you ran back into the bathroom with a change of clothes in hand that Spencer snapped back into reality.

“Do you want some help getting your clothes off?”

With a light nod, Spencer stood up and watched as you carefully unbuttoned his shirt for him. He shivered as your fingers gently brushed over the skin on his chest, making sure there weren’t any other injuries you didn’t miss.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Spencer blinked and made his way into the shower, the sound of the water being so loud that he found himself away in a different world again. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he let the hot sensation of the water wash away the troubles of the day.

He kept his eyes closed as he knew that if he were to look down, he’d see the remaining blood on his hands being washed off and staining the floor, it having the potential to send him spiraling.

Spencer’s eyes burst open when he felt someone hold onto him from behind.

“Relax, it’s just me.”

Spencer took a moment to let his breathing calm down before turning around and meeting your eyes with his.

The look of concern he saw in your eyes made his throat go tight again. A cry wanted to make its way out of his chest, but something was blocking him from doing so. Instead, he focused on your eyes and the glimmer of them he so loved.

His hand went to caress your cheek, his thumb gently stroking the soft flesh, when he felt his blood go cold.

A red streak went down your cheek, the red substance being the blood he hadn’t completely washed off and he removed his hand and looked at it in fright.

Spencer’s breathing picked up as he was reminded of the horrors he had seen today. The victims he and the team had discovered that they were too late to save and finding out how many people were killed before the ones they had found.

It was one of the worst cases in the history of The BAU and it devastated all of the people who took part in the case. Spencer, usually being one of the most talkative people in the group, was nearly mute during the wrap up of the case and on the way home. You were surprised to receive a text message from him, telling you he was on his way home. Knowing he wasn’t the biggest fan of texting, you knew it had been a tough one.

Seeing the horror in his eyes, you quickly washed off the red splotch on your face and brought Spencer in for another hug, this time Spencer finally cracking and a sob racked through his body.

“It’s okay, I’m here.”

You continued to hold onto Spencer as you let him cry as much as he wanted and needed. Your boyfriend was prone to analyzing his feelings due to his job, and because of his analytical personality, he often forgot to feel his feelings head on without giving it a second thought. Not every thought or emotion needed to be looked under a microscope and you mentioned it to Spencer all the time, that it was needed to let oneself feel the emotions they’re feeling and not wonder why they feel the way that they do, sometimes it was best to feel it in the moment and discuss it later.

As Spencer calmed down in your embrace, you reached up and ran your fingers through his hair as you let the water soak his locks enough to shampoo it.

Reaching for the bottle of shampoo, Spencer placed his hands on your hips as his fingers rested on your sides, gently running back and forth on your skin as your fingers carefully worked away on lathering the shampoo into his hair, smiles forming on both of your faces as the relaxing ambience finally set in the room and took you away to a world where nothing bad could happen, a world where it was only him and you and nothing could take that away from you.

You can find my masterlists here!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and like & reblog to support <3

[fangswbenefits]

Another Chance

𓂅 𓄹 Summary: You go into labour and all you know is that you need Miguel more than ever.

𓂅 𓄹 Pairing: Miguel O’Hara x spider-woman!reader

Mentions of childbirth. Dad Miguel. Comfort. Fluff. Happy father’s day to the best of the best!

“I'M GONNA KILL MIGUEL O’HARA!”

Usually, that sort of threat would send everyone that was standing around you into an uproar. But given the extremely specific set of circumstances, they merely exchanged understanding glances, returning their attention to the task at hand.

“Jess… I’m going to kill him.”

The pain of the contractions felt too unbearable and gritting out empty threats was the only relief you could find right now.

“You have my blessing,” she nodded, giving your shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "But for now, we need to deliver the baby."

It was too early. This wasn't supposed to happen right now... not like this.

A spider-nurse approached you with a fetal heart monitor to strap around your belly. Your already accelarated heart nearly imploded at the sight, fearing what the machine might reveal.

"Jess... I can't do this..." your voice broke.

Where is he...

Where is Miguel?

Your friend glared at you with kind eyes, swipping a piece of cloth along your sweat-drenched forehead. "You can and you will."

As another contraction tore through your body, you barely managed to grab the railings of your bed with a huff of pain. The spider-nurse was done setting the monitor and was now probing your arm for a vein.

"Where is Miguel?" you managed through laboured pants. "Lyla... where is he?"

The AI's hologram appeared from the watch on your wrist, that Jess promptly removed. You gave her a confused look, but it was probably for the better.

"He should be here soon. The anomaly is—" Lyla was cut off immediately by Jess.

The heart monitor was switched on and the room went suddenly eerily too quiet, save for your gasps.

Tense seconds rolled by that felt like excrutiating hours, until the sound of a thudding heart was heard.

"Slightly accelerated heartrate going at 191 beats per minute," spider-doctor informed. "The baby might be in distress."

Panic took over. "Do something! Miguel!"

The team attending you were working relentlessly, but no consolation came. The pain was borderline unbearable and your fear for your child's life.

... and Miguel was not here.

"You need to push," one spider-nurse said.

"Push," Jess urged. "You're doing great," she added with a warm smile.

She kept trying her best to soothe and guide you through the untimely turmoil, but it wasn't until your eyes caught a flash of two sets of claws tearing through the barrier of time and space in the middle of the room that you allowed yourself to slump back into your bed.

A cry of relief broke from deep within you as a fully suited Miguel O'hara emerged through the portal, sprinting to your side. The mask vanished instantly as he framed your face with both hands.

"I'm here."

You started sobbing uncontrollably when he planted a kiss to your forehead.

"Boss, she's fully dilated," spider-doctor spoke. "We really need her to push now."

"Miguel... this wasn't..." you stammered, gritting your teeth as the crescendo of another contraction began. "Where... I—”

He hushed you and anchored you through the pain. "You have to push, okay?"

Compared to a few minutes ago, Miguel's presence was nothing short of absolute comfort. But it wasn't enough the push away the fear that had overtaken you.

Jess was still by your side, whispering encouraging words as the staff worked in between your spread legs. Your vision blurred momentarily and you felt the sudden and overwhelming urge to push.

"This is all your... fault," you seethed at Miguel.

"On that much we can agree," he said softly, his thumbs brushing away the tears that mixed with sweat down your cheeks. "Push."

Blaming him was just a quick way to ease some of the frustration. He wasn't to blame. You had both wanted this.

"I can see the head!" you heard someone announce.

Miguel offered his hand for you to grip as you pushed. "I'll break it," you warned.

"You won't."

"He deserves it," Jess said teasingly.

But Miguel was right. As strong as you were — and the strength that women in labour were capable of mustering — you wouldn't even cause a dent in him. He was strong enough for the both of you.

"What´s taking so long?" his faint voice filled your ears.

"Almost there."

Suddenly, he had cradled your face in his large hands once more, forcing your eyes to fix on his. "You can do this. I'm so proud of you," he said, pecking the tip of your nose.

The air in your lungs was suddenly forced out with a finally throat-ripping grunt.

"It's here!"

You collapsed, feeling Miguel's arm promptly offering support on your back. A screeching sound of distress reverberated through the walls.

"It's a girl," one spider-nurse informed.

Even through your hazy eyes you were able to see Miguel's face, eyes transfixed on the little squirming baby that was being placed on your chest.

She was crying her heart out as someone who has been ripped from all the comfort and security a place could offer.

But now she had you and Miguel.

"She takes after you," you teased with a faint smile. "Already being so dramatic."

He chuckled, eyes permanently glued to the wailing baby. "I'm not dramatic. Just intense."

"Yes. Intensely dramatic.”

Miguel fell silent as he stroked a finger along the back of one soft tiny hand, miniscule fingers wrapping around it reflexively. The cries stopped abruptly.

His face softened and you wondered if he was about to tear up. He had longed for this for such a long time.

"Miguel?" Jessica said, covering your child with a towel.

He seemed too lost in his own thoughts, glaring at his daughter in a way that overwhelmed you. Like it was meant to be.

"I'll be going now," she said, offering you both a warm smile before leaving.

Suddenly, you realised Miguel was inspecting each limb with utmost attention. "What are you doing?"

He cleared his throat, placing a tiny hand on the palm of his. "Oh... uh... just counting how many fingers and toes she has."

"All five?" you offered with a chuckle.

"All five."

"No talons?"

He glared at you as if taken aback, then smiled. "Maybe one day."

"Do you think she'll have your fangs?"

"Oh, I hope not," he said, slowly checking the baby's bare gums. "That would be painful."

You then allowed yourself to take in the sight of your now relaxed daughter that lay on top of you. The wispy beginnings of hair that covered the top of her head were dark. Babies don't tend to resemble either parent when they're born - or so Miguel had once told you - and you couldn't wait to find out.

"What if... she doesn't like me?" he whispered, caressing a puffy cheek.

You almost chuckled, but he was dead serious. "She'll love you."

He leaned to place a kiss to your temple. "Thank you."

"For what?" you asked, feeling your heart bursting with absolute adoration for him.

"For giving me another chance at being a father."

Masterlist

[blessedbyahuntress]

Warrior of the Sun and Moon

Chapter Two: An Unwelcome Distraction

Prev/Next

Warnings: One suggestive comment if you squint

Word count: 1.2k

You drew your bowstring, the same bow Apollo had given you a few years ago moving smoothly under your tight grip. 

You released it, your arrow cutting through the air.

The deer you had been hunting never stood a chance; it’s head was still down as your arrow passed straight through its heart. 

You emerged from the darkness, behind the bushes where you’d been hiding. Your face was streaked with mud to hide your scent, your dress replaced with trousers and a tunic- the only part of you that showed any sign of palace life was your hair, still perfect despite the wind and tree branches tugging to knot it. 

“Thank you, Apollo, for guiding my arrow with your steady hand to pierce this magnificent creature through the heart,” you murmured as you crouched down, stroking the dead deer’s fur. “Thank you, Artemis, for allowing me to kill an animal sacred to you. You have my apologies for taking its life.”

You slung the deer over your back carefully, wobbling a bit as you stood. Your fresh kill was heavy, and you were still petite for your age, and despite being eighteen, you were much too small to be carrying an animal of this weight. 

Yet, you forged on, the woods finally giving way to the wall of the palace. This was where your job got tricky.

You bit your lip, looking up at the stone fortification in front of you. Sighing, you set the deer back on the ground. You removed a rope from your belt, wrapping it around the body. You then tied the opposite end of the rope around an arrow, making sure the deadly projectile was made of sturdy wood and wouldn’t snap from the weight of the carcass. 

You drew your bowstring back as far as your arm would allow, shooting for the top of the wall. To your relief, your arrow spiraled just to wear you’d hoped, dragging the deer’s body off of the ground by barely a centimeter. 

You paid it no mind, stepping onto the dead animal in order to scramble up the rope. You used your legs to propel you on the side of the wall as best as you could, but it was a long while before you slung a leg over the top of the wall. 

You thought of this as the easiest part of your daily journeys- pulling the dead animal up after you. 

“C’mon,” you muttered, a bead of sweat running down the side of your face as you tugged at the rope. The sun was high in the sky, and you had left before dawn; your mother would surely be looking for you by now.

At last, the deer flopped onto the wall, but you’d misjudged your momentum and ended up tangled in the cord. You felt yourself slipping, and you closed your eyes. 

And then there was a rough pull on your leg. You yelped in pain, glancing around to find yourself hanging upside down by your ankle. 

You tried pulling yourself up to untie the knot that had found its way around your foreleg before giving up. You’d have to wait here for someone to find you- preferably Telemachus or a servant.

It turned out you didn’t have to wait that long, although when you heard his boisterous laughter you wanted to say, “no, just leave me here. Please and thank you.”

Fighting against your pounding headache- all the blood was rushing to your head- you opened your eyes. You let out a groan as your suspected fears were confirmed.

“Well, well, well,” Antinous said smugly, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “If it isn’t the princess herself. In such a… odd position.”

“Oh, stop gloating,” you muttered. “Get me down from here.”

Your suitor’s smirk grew wider. “Only if I get something in return.”

You shook your head wildly, which only caused the ache to spread. “No way, Antinous.”

He sighed dramatically. “Ah, well,” he said in mock disappointment. “I suppose I’ll have to leave you hanging there until Telemachus is done with his duties, which won’t end for another couple of hours.” He sighed once more. “Such a shame.”

You groaned again. “Fine,” you relented. “Name your price.”

The glint in his eyes made you want to take back your words.

“Wait-”

Antinous continued before you could finish your sentence. “I’ll let you off easy this time, princess. But if I find you like this again, things won’t look good for you.” His cocky grin only seemed to grow. “All I ask for is one kiss.”

Your eyes widened and your lips parted. You felt heat rise to your cheeks, and you looked away, blaming it on the fact that you were hanging upside down. “Alright,” you said once you’d regained your composure. “I’ll do it. Just get me down from here.”

Antinous chuckled as he unsheathed his dagger. You went still as he cut the rope, but your suitor caught you with ease before your head could meet the ground. 

You glanced up at him, his face disturbingly close to yours. You blushed as you realized he was still holding you bridal-style. 

You scrambled to get out of his grasp, turning back to the rope that now dangled above your reach. You leaped for it, eyes flashing with frustration as you fell two inches short. 

“I’ll get that for you, for another kiss.”

“Not happening,” you answered without even looking behind you. As you lunged for the rope again, you felt strong arms wrap around your waist. 

“Here.” Antinous’s breath was too close. You could feel it brush your ear. 

He lifted you up a little higher, your fingers just barely managing to grab the cord. “Thanks,” you whispered as he brought you back to the ground. 

You began tugging on the rope, surprising yourself when the dead deer came tumbling down. You gave a small shout and came rushing forward, catching the carcass before it could get covered in the mud waiting below. 

“What…” 

You turned back to your suitor, who’s wide eyes were flickering from you, to the dead deer, to the bloody arrow you’d dug from its heart, and back to you. 

You gave a casual shrug, effortlessly extending the dead animal to him. “Do you want it? You could probably use it more than me.”

Antinous still only stared at you in utter shock. You rolled your eyes, setting the deer on the soft grass beneath you. “Since you waited so long,” you said, drawing your hunting knife. “I get to keep these.”

You made two clean cuts through where the deer’s pelt met the antlers, a bit of blood squirting out, though you didn’t seem to care. 

You whirled around to leave, took a few steps and froze. You were an honourable person, and a dead deer did not make up for going back on your word. 

You scurried up to Antinous, having to rise to your tip-toes to reach him. You placed your lips against his cheek in a delicate kiss, turning scarlet all at once. 

Then you turned on your heel, sprinting away, back toward the palace, antlers the only reminder of your kill. 

Antinous stared after you, still frozen. What the hell just happened?

Taglist: @barrythestrawberry041@shapter-draws@sunshinewhosketches@myriad-of-passionate-pettiness@shroombloom248@my-gods-i-read-too-many-books@keikeiluvyou@tati-the-fangirl@bookmuncherss@sabrina-senpai@artemis-andrea@sunshinedaisy21 @0anodite0 @orionspaperwork

[girl-of-many-fandoms]

Ocean Blue Eyes // 2

Pairing: Percy Jackson x Reader

Warning: none

Part 1 Part 2

MASTERLIST

---

From afar Percy could easily make out the silhouette of the girl who unknowingly stole his heart. He couldn't take his eyes off of her as she sat on a log staring out into the horizon.

The cool breeze caressed her skin sending a shiver up her spine. Y/N regretted leaving her zip-up jacket in her cabin but she didn't initially plan to sit here this long. However, when the sun began to set she couldn't leave without taking in the beauty of the sky. Hues of yellow and gold painted the sky as the sun slowly said goodbye to Camp Half-Blood.

It's been a few days since her and Percy shared a moment together a couple feet away from where she currently sat. She vividly remembers the way he stared at her, his touch, the way his soft lips felt against hers.

Percy has been trying to find a way to talk to Y/N. He wasn't sure if he had made the right choice kissing his friend or if he blew his shot entirely. He saw her shiver once more and removed his grey hoodie before making his way over to her.

Y/N jumped slightly at the feeling of something being draped over her shoulders. She didn't have to guess whose jacket now laid on her shoulders as the familiar and comforting scent of her friend filled her nostrils.

"Hey you."

"Hey stranger."

Percy joined her on the log and for a moment they didn't say a word, they just sat in each other’s presence, both trying to figure out how to approach the elephant in the room.

"So uh-"

"I'm so-"

The pair giggled at their attempt at sparking a conversation. The blue eyed demigod gestured for her to go first.

"Ladies first." He said.

"Well...uhh..how have you been?"

"Seriously?" Percy quirked an eyebrow at her with a smirk on his face making Y/N’s cheeks heat up. Y/N nodded her head causing Percy to laugh.

"Fine. For the past couple days I've been trying to figure out if I may have eternally screwed up our friendship and I might have since you've avoided me since then."

"I wasn't avoiding you." Y/N immediately got defensive but Percy proceeded to list out the many occasions she avoided him.

"Oh really? You haven't jogged past my cabin since then like you normally would, you've changed your route. I tried to have lunch with you yesterday but you took off when you saw me heading towards you. You also ditched training with me to train with Clarisse."

Truth be told he was hurt. Hurt by the fact that she chose to avoid him at all costs. Y/N turned to face him and he did the same, their knees now touched each other.

"I only kept my distance because I didn't know how this conversation would go. I wasn't ready to hear you say that you made a mistake by kissing me and that we should remain friends, isn't that what you're going to say?" Although she didn’t show it, she was anxious. She didn't know what words were going to come out of his mouth but she was betting on him regretting the kiss.

"For someone so smart, you're so clueless sometimes." Percy's lips turned up into a smile, watching as confusion etched its way onto her face.

"What?"

Without giving her a chance to think about what's happening, Percy cupped both her cheeks with his hands and pulled her in for a kiss. Y/N didn't hesitate to kiss him back as she gently held onto his forearm.

This kiss was much more intense compared to the last one as they both tried to pour all their emotions into it. Somewhere along the line they both remembered they needed air and slowly broke the kiss. Percy pressed his forehead against hers and interlaced their fingers together.

"Did that say I want us to be just friends?"

"No, not at all."

Percy kissed the top of her head as she snuggled closed into him. He didn't know where this would take them but he knew for sure that he would do anything for the girl in his arms.

As for Y/N, she too didn't know what the future holds but she was certain that they'd face whatever comes their way together.

[ericshoney]

First investigation ~ Brother!Colby Brock

Summary: You finally get the chance to go with your brother and Sam on a paranormal investigation.

Warnings: usual swearing, ghosts, spirits, crying, targeting

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What's up guys it's Sam and Colby!"

You smiled watching your brother and Sam introduce the video. You were very excited as this was the first time you were finally allowed to go along with an investigation.

"Today we have a very special guest! Introducing Y/n Brock!" Sam shouted as you jumped into frame and waved at the camera.

"Hey guys! I am finally here for the good shit!" You exclaimed.

"Yes guys, my seventeen year old sister is finally here to go explore with us." Colby said.

"I'm excited." You replied.

"How much of a believer are you?" Sam questioned.

"Like probably a nine." You answered.

"What would make you a ten?" Colby then asked.

"If something spoke directly to me." You replied.

"Well this is an abandoned hospital, let's see what happens." Sam said.

You nodded as you all started exploring. The first couple hours you didn't get much as you were just getting used to being around the place. But once the equipment comes out, you start to feel different. Like someone was watching you.

You stood watching as Sam set up the rem pod, you holding the camera for him and Colby. As you did, you felt something on the back of your neck, making you flinch.

"What?" Colby called, seeing your sudden movement.

"So...Something was on my neck." You replied.

"Like what?" Sam asked.

"Like....a breath. I don't know if it was just the wind." You replied, trying to find a excuse.

Just then, the rem pod went off and nobody was standing near it. You jumped slightly as Colby took the camera from you.

"If there is someone here with us you can go up to any of the devices and give them a touch." Sam said, his words make you giggle slightly.

Then the rem pod went off again, along with a torch you set up. You then felt your hair being pulled.

"Colby get off." You said, thinking it was him.

"I'm not touching you." He said.

You looked at him and saw he had both hands on the camera. You then felt it again.

"Something keeps pulling my hair." You mentioned.

"You can touch any of the equipment around but not us." Sam instructed.

The equipment kept going off all around you, letting you all ask some questions. You then decided to explore a bit more before finding an active spot and doing the Estes method.

"Now since the spirits seem to like Y/n the most, why not have her do the Estes method!" Sam cheered.

"Only if you want too, we can do it if not." Colby said, knowing you had been a target for a bit, his protective side kicking in more.

"I'll do it." You said.

You sat on the floor as Sam tied the blindfold around your head. You placed the headphones on and held the radio. Colby stood behind you as Sam set the camera up in front of you.

"If there is anyone here with us you can talk through this device." Sam said loudly.

It was quiet for a moment, before the boys heard a knock. They looked over and then you spoke.

"Here."

"Who is here with us?" Colby asked.

"Many."

"There are many people with us." Sam said.

"Stay."

"We are here for a bit." Colby responded.

"Her."

"Her? As is Y/n?" Sam asked.

"Yes."

"What about her?" Colby questioned.

"Stay forever."

"No way." Sam gasped and looked at Colby.

"Fuck." You shouted, throwing the headphones off and removing the blindfold.

"What did it say?" Colby asked worried.

"It said my name." You answered, a few tears in your eyes.

"Okay I think that's enough for today. Let's get out of here." Sam said.

You and Colby nodded, your brother wrapping a secure arm around your shoulder. You knew it would be a long time before you even thought about doing another investigation again.

[lolitaonline]

Never Know, Chapter 1 18+ MDNI

Stalker! Best friend! Noah x F! Reader word count- 3,400k+

Summary- You and Bad Omens have been friends for a while. Starting to tour together and become closer than ever. During this time someone from the past begins to make himself known. Noah does not take too kind of a liking to this.

Tw- mentions of health scares/collapsing, medics being called, breaking and entering, watching from afar, gifts being left, stalking, mentions of religion/religious trauma mentioned through out, ptsd, anxiety, mentions of picture taken

An- If I missed a TW or would like to be added to the tag list please let me know. If you would like to be removed or added to the list please let me know. Thank you. I hope you all enjoy, ALSO THANK YOU TO MY LOVE @fadingintothegrey FOR HER AMAZING HELP AND ENCOURAGMENT, go show her love <3

Mature content ahead, you have been warned.

Divider by- @/anitalenia

Soft pitter patter of rain drizzled down the dimly lit street. The buzzing from the blinking streetlight hummed softly in the background.  

Footsteps quietly trailed down the dark empty alleyway. Hands shoved inside pockets; ski-mask fitted on like a glove. Not one of the safest towns but safer than most. No-one would suspect a thing, perfect opportunity. 

You walked through your front door, kicking your shoes and coat off to the side. You were in need of a hot shower. Your feet hurt from walking around all day sorting through papers for the merch team, safe to say you hated walking back and forth. Before that you had an early morning coffee date with a dude your friend set you up with. He wasn't your type, but you wanted to give it a try. You also felt it was time to move from how you felt about Noah.  

Noah is your best friend. You both met at Matt’s party he was hosting; you and Matt went to school together so it made sense that you would be there. It was nice to reconnect with him but to also meet Nick, Jolly, Folio, and Noah. You and Matt were close but you and Noah were a little closer and had more in common.  

At the party you and Noah both shared a joint and talked about aliens and the universe. You weren't sure how long you were out with him, but you knew you wanted to get to know him more. At the end of the party, you and Noah exchanged numbers and bid farewell. You both have been close ever since.  

You were with them from the start to the present day. You were so proud of how far they have come in the band. They offered you a job to help handle the merch and you happily accepted, you got to tour with them and make more memories together, you couldn't turn that down.  

In the beginning you were nervous to be working for a band or even around them. Seeing the behind the scenes of music videos, merch drops, accomplishments.

The growth was exceptional; the feeling of guilt would build occasionally when you started to catch feelings for Noah. You were aware that Noah was a catch, chased by many, yearned for at night, looked for in the morning.  

When you and Noah met it was just right around the beginning of talks of creating the band/in the process of creating the band. You and Matt had been friends since school and would attend the same church before he left after high school.

You were ecstatic when he wanted to remain friends. You didn’t have that many friends, but you had a few. Matt was a good friend though; you guys would hang out often and catch up as often as you could when he was in town. 

After high school you packed up and left your town. Leaving your faith, stalker, and past behind you. Cutting ties with everyone and never looking back. Matt was aware that you were having problems down there and helped you find a place near him. Ever since than Matt has been like your brother.  

After you had a break between the US leg tour of ‘Finding God Before God Finds Me’, you decided to try and give guys a chance. Normally turning them down, not looking for a relationship but you wouldn’t mind one either. You were not the most experienced, but you were still up for trying. Taking this opportunity to try and move on from your friend.  

This was just right around when the chaos started to happen.  

The gifts were first.  

Flowers, dolls, your favorite candy, make up 

As you all walked back into the green room, laughs and jokes ringing and echoing throughout the area. As you walked over to the couch, wanting to relax from the long day, collapsing on the couch. Allowing a deep sigh of relief through your lips.  

The band and you both started to pack and clean up a bit. Wanting to get to the hotel and get as much sleep as possible. You and Noah haven’t had much time to speak today. You both were busy with your respective jobs. You worked the merch booth and kept it as organized and quick as possible.

The boys controlled the crowd and sang to their heart’s content. It was a great show, the crowd was great, you got to meet a few new people and sold a good amount of merch. You were very proud of yourself. 

“Hey, Y/n look, did one of your little dates drop this off for you?” Hearing Folio teasing you brought your eyes to open. As your vision cleared and became focused your world stopped. 

A doll wearing a black dress, black shoes, and h/c, sitting in Folio’s arms. Her arms sat in her lap all pretty, shiny hair sat nicely on her shoulders. Behind her was a vase full of flowers, big bouquet, dark blue vase, red’s blues, pinks, and whites arranged. 

That was years ago, years and years ago. It went so quiet after a while.  

He couldn’t have found you, could he? Yeah, you were traveling with a band whose popularity is going up, but no one knew of you. You stayed behind the scenes; you just kept track of the ins and outs of merch.  

When you left your hometown, you wanted to leave this piece of your past right with it. You wanted a new beginning, the past was meant to stay in the past, not jump forward 5 or so years. 

Fear and shock warming up and buzzing through your system. Where did that come from? Is this a joke? No, no one knows, how could they? This was before you had known them, before you even met Matt.  

“Well, don’t you like dolls? You grew up with them, maybe a friend brought them for you” Jolly suggests an innocent idea, not understanding the severity of this. No one did, you couldn’t tell them. You had to figure this out on your own. You’ve done it before, and you won last time. Who is to say you couldn’t do it this time.  

The boy’s stood around the room patiently waiting for a reply. The jokes came to a pause, silence filling the room.  

Noah could tell by the look on your face that something might have been wrong. “Yeah, maybe an old friend, you used to love Dolls when you went to church right?” Matt tried to offer an explanation.  

No one knew of the things you dealt with. Even when you first met the boys it was happening but slowly died down. You and Matt met when he moved down for a little bit in high school and ended up attending your church for a little bit before graduating.  

Matt was right, you did like dolls to an extent. Not the barbie ones, but the vintage ones, the porcelain dolls, etc. You never collected them though; you just talked about how you thought they were cute. They kind of creeped you as well, like a love-hate kind of situation.  

Your breath and words got lost. You wanted to speak and say something, deny it all and forget about it. Last time you tried to do that there were consequences, your apartment was broken into and ransacked, your car broke down, lost your job. It felt like a curse, try to change your fate, you’re met with consequences.  

Every time you tried to ignore it, he got angrier. Why wasn’t his, love, ecstatic to see his gifts. He picked them out for her and chose her to be his. He spent his time and money on those things for you. Some of which he stole but you didn’t need to know that. Just as long as you had them was all he cared about.  

You wanted to get rid of him, forget about everything he had given you. Why would you ever do such a thing? Can’t you see that you belong to him. And then you just had to leave him and move away. Did that night mean anything to you, do you remember that night? How could you not, you didn’t drink that much. It’s okay, he will help you remember...  

Your thoughts were stuck on the past 5 or so years of your life. Everything you endured, thought, felt, dealt, all of it. It all came to the front of your head. All you could do was stand and stare at the gifts. No words could get through your head. None could be heard, you couldn't even see in front of you. It was getting darker. You knew that but why you weren't sure.  

That’s when it all began again.  

“What the hell” Noah exclaimed as he caught you before hitting the ground. Bringing his hand up to your forehead, checking your temperature. The boys moved around you making space. The boys were worried obviously; hearts dropped to their stomach when you collapsed. “We might need a medic, I’m not sure if this is because of the gifts or something else.” Nick said heading over to the door, exiting the room looking for help.  

“Let’s move her somewhere clearer” Jolly says, moving boxes and bags out the way. Noah lifted you up, moving you to a more private clear area in the room. He did not want to risk anyone seeing and causing a bigger problem. If it was the gifts, he was going to find out what caused your reaction.  

You had never mentioned any health issues either, so it had to be the gifts. Noah’s mind was racing with thoughts and worry. Why did you have that reaction? Noah hated the thought of you going on dates to begin with. And now here you are fainting backstage not even 10 minutes after having an incredible day. You were supposed to spend time with him tonight and instead here you are. 

“They’re here!” Nick exclaimed, moving to the side for the medics to come in and check on you. Noah did not play with anyone else, especially during tour. Everyone was so determined to work hard and make it big. This would lead to mental health and physical health being put to the side sometimes. When the band got bigger Noah and the boys always made sure that everyone was okay. 

Noah moved out the way, giving room for the medics to do their check up on you. “She just collapsed, she was fine and just collapsed,” Noah said to the medics. “She was fine, and she collapsed” Noah kept muttering under his breath. Noah wasn’t sure of the feeling that was coursing through his body. Anger, misery, confusion, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do but he wanted to fix it. Everyone knew that the reaction you had wasn’t normal.  

When the medics deemed you okay the boys made their way back to the tour bus. Noah held you tight in his arms. He enjoyed holding you close, despite the situation he was relieved you were safe in his arms and that nothing was wrong with your health but, Noah was going to figure out what this was about.  

You were his girl, no one else's, and the fact that someone is trying to come along and destroy it was a problem. As the boys walked through the bus, careful not to hit you along the way, Jolly helps Noah put you in your bunk. Carefully laying your head on your pillow, your breathing was back to normal. 

Noah decided to stay with you, laying his bunk directly across from you waiting for you to show any signs that you have woken up. He patiently waited, staring into the black small space before him.  

The next time you wake up you’re in the tour bus, laying on your bunk. It was pretty quiet minus the muffled sounds of voices through the thin walls. You take a moment to go through your head and sort out everything that happened in the last few hours.  

You were selling merch at the merch booth, watched the boys perform, headed backstage, that’s when it went dark.  

The last thing you remembered was when it went dark. You were praying that maybe it was a bad dream, and you just went straight to bed after the concert. “I have to be going crazy” you mumbled to yourself. Bringing a hand up to your head, you could feel a headache coming onto you. Debating on if you wanted to come out and face the situation at hand or deal with it in the morning.  

You thought back to when you had your break between the tour. The memory of you coming home and feeling uneasy when speaking with Noah. The window, the uneasy feeling of being watched, the way it felt like someone touched you in your sleep. You thought maybe it was the wind, but you knew it was a person in your room.  

Stepping outside the shower, grasping the towel tightly around your body. You walked aimlessly to your bedroom, tossing your phone on the bed. Walking over to your closet you pick out a t shirt and grab some shorts to sleep in. Dropping the towel on the floor as you started to get dressed you noticed something out the corner of your eye.  

“I didn’t open that...” your voiced mumbled out. Quickly slipping your shirt on; you walk over to your dresser.  

When you were getting into the shower you don't remember opening your drawer, you didn’t even walk over to this area. You had gone straight to your bathroom to lay down for the night.  

Peeking inside you take notice that it’s the drawer that keeps your panties, before you can investigate if anything is missing your phone starts to buzz.  

“Noah <3 Calling” 

Attention turning over to where your phoned sat you turn back to drawer and dismissing it. “I had to have left it open this morning...idiot” you mumbled out.  

Walking back over to your bed, grabbing your phone answering it quickly. “Hey, doll, just wanted to make sure you were home okay” you could hear his grin from the other side of the phone. Noah was aware that his nicknames for you made you flustered.  

“Hey, yes I made it home safe” you replied dismissing him. You were laying on your bed, legs pulled up slightly. You enjoyed listening to Noah talk, he had a nice voice, even better when singing. “We have a few new shipments coming in of hoodies and sweatpants, and then we have decided which ones to keep or scrape” Noah trailed on through your ear.  

“Anway's what are you doing right now” Noah asked, he liked talking about work but when it was with you, he wanted to talk about anything else. Noah was private about his feelings; he cared about you deeply and you knew that but other than the nicknames Noah didn’t show interest in you like that. Noah wasn't one who showed interest in those things, maybe a quick fling yes, but never a relationship.  

During this time, you were on the “Finding God Before God Finds Me” Tour. But you were given a two week break to get some rest. The boys offered for you to stay with them for a little bit, but you opted to go home for the day. You were thankful that today was the start of your two-week break. You had worked extra hard today to make sure everything was perfect before you had to get on the road again. 

“I just got done showering, I was going to start dinner, watch a shower and sleep” you chuckled out, rubbing your eyes, feeling sleep slowly slipover. “What are you going to make, and you better not watch Demon Slayer without me, you promised” Noah rushed out accusingly. When Noah found out you had never seen it, he was so shocked but took this as a chance to spend time together. “I won't, I promise, thank you for introducing it to me, it’s really good” you laughed out, balancing your phone between your jaw and shoulder. You reach inside your fridge grabbing some left-over pasta from the night before.  

“Well, that's really cool, how are the boys doing now that we get some time to breathe” you teased out. Throughout the car rides Jolly was starting to feel home sick but pushed through until the break. You were starting to worry about it, but you were happy knowing he was doing good at home.  

As you and Noah continued to talk the more you felt more ‘exposed’ for some reason. Like the hairs on the back of neck rise. This uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away. The more you waited on your pasta to heat up the more creeped out you felt.  

Dragging your attention back Noah speaks up “You, okay? You went quiet?” Noah asked through the phone. “Yeah, I just feel uneasy right now for some reason, like I'm being watched.” You replied, quickly grabbing your food and making your way back to your room.  

As soon as you left the kitchen you felt much better. You couldn't shake that off feeling you have coursing through your blood. “You need me to come over?” Noah offered, he wouldn’t want you to be alone especially if you were scared or had an uneasy feeling about it. You didn’t want Noah to have to drive so late it was turning to be 12:00 am and you knew he wanted to get some work done in the morning.  

“It’s Okay, I should be okay, I think I just need to stop watching so many horror movies” you joked back. Attempting to lighten the mood a bit. Noah on the other side was a little worried about you. You did sound distracted from the conversation halfway through the phone call.  

The clock resting on your bedroom wall was looking to strike 2:00am. This made you cut off Noah feeling bad for keeping him up so late.  

“Sorry, I did not realize how late it was.” You apologize not wanting to keep Noah awake or causing him to oversleep and miss something. “It’s okay, doll. I will let you get some sleep. Call me if you need anything. You know that though” Noah teased.  

You hang up the phone, tossing it to the side. You loved talking to Noah and bonding over time. Feeling a yawn coming, you moved your plate of your eaten food on your desk. “I’ll take it down tomorrow” you mumbled to yourself.  

Making your way back into bed. Slipping in between the sheets, curling up and getting comfortable. Mind wandering around. Nothing in mind, just drifting off to sleep.  

She looks so beautiful sleeping, capturing a picture isn't wrong. Her beauty radiates so brightly, and she can't see it. It’s such a shame.  

“Don’t worry, baby, you’ll come around soon” a quiet voice whispered into the dark, a hand gently grazing your cheek as you curled deeper into your sheets. The touch tickling your cheek lightly. 

Deciding to just stay in your bunk and not face the issues of the night, you turn over. Forcing your eyes shut, you didn’t want to have to explain and dig up something you surely wanted to forget about. This was supposed to stay in that town. Buried and forgotten.  

Noah was aware that you were awake, he could hear you mumbling to yourself. He knew that you didn’t want to talk about it right now. If it had brought that strong of a reaction from you, he didn't blame you for wanting to be alone or for not wanting to talk about it.  

Noah knew for sure he wanted to help you; he needed to help you. Moving out from his bunk he makes his way to the other room where everyone else was chatting. Not wanting to burden the mood of the rest of the night. It will be handled tomorrow; they have the day off and can hang out together. 

----- 

Dear, Reader 

I have missed you  

I hope you didn't forget me while I was away 

It’s okay though, I am here to protect you, don't worry  

No one can get you 

Not while I am here, remember  

I am your God  

What I say, goes 

What I want, I get 

And you, my love, will be mine 

sincerely, your Love 

A rosary, letter, and rose is left to lay in your bunk. Where you spent some of your nights, laying in the dark reliving memories and thoughts. Silent cries and guilt. The tour bus is quiet, only sounds to be heard are the creaking of the floor under the heavy footsteps.  

Taglist- @fadingintothegrey @like-a-omen @veejezhyk @english-fucker @iloveyoutodeathbutimdrowning @bluestdai @kaliforniahigh @flowery-mess @concreteemo @dollieomens @calleyx13 @fadingangelwisp @hurricanesfollowyou @lacy1986 @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @xxkittenkissesxx @iluvmewwwww75 @silent-stories @veephoenix @graceylove @marvelousmal @thenmaybehellaintsobadafterall @amelia-acero @disappearintothegrey @concretejunglefm @concretenoah @tikosblogg @xmads-omensx @tosoundlessdarkistare @hedonist-k1l @bloody-spades @theanarchymuse95 @renegadebirch @concreteangel92 @elysian-after-dark if you would like to be added, shoot a message <3

[nolita-fairytale]

bad moon rising | carmen 'carmy' berzatto x fem!reader

summary: in another lifetime, you meet mikey berzatto by chance one halloween night in nyc.

or, the fic based on this headcanon

warnings: angst, use of she/her pronouns, no use of y/n, second person pov, drug usage, high mikey b, swearing, family drama, depression, not a happy ending

wc: 3.7k

a/n: i wrote about grief again. shocking, i know. thank you all for your interest based on the headcanon it came from and thank you for your patience. i wanted so badly to post this around halloween and have been sitting on it since the better part of last year as one of my wips. finally, finally, it's here!! i took a slightly different approach than the headcanon, but i think it still does it justice. let me know if you'd like to be added or removed from the carmy taglist.

this what-if fic takes place october 2021 because it's make my heart surrender-canon that mikey and reader never met; reader x carmy are best friends and colleagues but it has not gone further than that.

masterlist

Halloween, in another lifetime:

“Can I get hands, please!” Carmy shouts out to the entire kitchen, only to be met with a strong chorus of ‘hands’ in response.

His team works together like a well-oiled machine; a tight run ship, led by a captain near-suffocated under the weight of the chip on his shoulder. 

“Chef!” you hear the sound of your general manager’s voice ring through the kitchen, causing many a-heads to turn. She rarely comes into the kitchen during dinner service unless it’s serious. Her eyes lock with Carmy’s as he looks up from his expo, as if she’s about to deliver bad news. 

His mind races through the possibilities, preparing to solve the next oncoming crisis. Could it be an undercooked steak? An overcooked duck breast? Another complaint of ‘too salty’ or ‘underseasoned?’ 

“Chef, you uh… you have a visitor,” she says instead–the last thing he expects to hear. 

A visitor? 

“Wh-?” 

“Someone’s here to see you. Says he’s your… brother??” Carmy’s ears begin to burn, as he searches for your face amidst the chaos, your gaze there to catch him even from across the kitchen. Your presence feels reassuring, like a strong man in a storm. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s knee deep into service and he cannot get the sound of tickets being added to the expo out of his head. He opens his mouth to say something but he’s uncertain any words come out of his mouth, unsure of what he’d even say. You send him a reassuring nod, and it’s as if in one look, you’ve made the decision to go. 

“Chef, you good?” Carmy hears you ask the head pastry chef. 

“Yeah, we got it. But don’t take too long,” she answers with a curt nod of approval. 

He watches as you nod again, this time in recognition of your boss’ answer, as you pull the food-grade nitrile gloves off of your hands, discarding them in the nearby trash can. Without a word, you follow Kate closely behind, exchanging a few words with her as the two of you disappear to the front of house. There’s a war inside of Carmy as he watches you go–a pang of guilt and a feeling of relief–that whatever it is, you’ve agreed to take care of it. 

In all of the years that he’s been in New York, no one’s come to see him–the possibility of it happening now, let alone as a surprise, feels improbable. 

Must be a prank or some shit…. 

It couldn’t really be Michael, could it? 

As you seek out the answer, your feet carrying you faster than you anticipated, you realize that you’re searching for a face you’ve only seen in photographs. Kate follows closely behind while you push through the front door of the restaurant only to find a man pacing just outside of the restaurant, a ghostface mask in hand. You can tell he’s been sweating, the circles under his eyes just as dark as the ones you’ve become so familiar with in Carmy, with an anxious look in his eyes as his gaze turns towards you. 

He’s certainly not the larger-than-life older brother you’ve seen in the sparse amount of pictures that Carmy’s shown you.  

“I got this, Kate,” you mutter over your shoulder with a confident nod, letting your general manager know that you’re good on your own. “You sure?” she asks you quietly. 

“I’m sure,” you answer, watching as a disappointed look spread across Michael’s face as soon as he sees that: 

“You’re not Carmen.” 

“Uh… no. I’m not,” you reply, hearing the front door to the restaurant close behind you. The man swears under his breath, and you watch as face changes from disappointment to annoyance quickly, as you try your best to come up with an explanation that may satisfy him. “He uh… he can’t come out. Not right now. So he sent me.” 

Michael scoffs with a shake of his head, his eyebrows quickly rising and falling incredulously as he takes another drag off his cigarette. 

“Shit... the guy can't even make time to see his big brother?" he asks, the annoyance obvious in his voice this time. 

You take a step towards him, your arms folded across your chest. 

“I’m sorry. I-, I don't think he was expecting you,” you answer, much more compassionately this time. 

“Right,” Michael mumbles, barely loud enough for you to hear. You watch as he throws the butt of his cigarette down on the pavement, before stamping it out. 

“It’s just-. He would if he could. I know it. It's just a busy night. I-... we're doing 200 covers tonight and uh... well, he runs the kitchen so,” you try again, and you can practically feel the disappointment (and resentment) burying itself deeper in Michael. 

“Yeah, no thanks, lady. You don’t need to explain it to me. Jagoff can’t even make time to say ‘hi’ to his brother. Sends you to do his dirty work instead,” Michael dismisses you, bitterly. 

He takes a beat. And then another, as if he’s accepted that he’s not going to see Carmy after all. 

“Why don’t you come inside? I’m sure-,” you offer, taking another step towards him. 

“‘S alright, sweetheart,” he dismisses you again, this time gentler. “You don’t need to make up for his bullshit.” 

You open your mouth to say something—anything in defense of Carmy—but you’re certain that nothing you have to say will be enough for your best friend’s older brother (save for Carmy coming out here himself).

With a nod, you accept defeat, turning to go back inside. But there’s something that stops you—like you just can’t just go back inside without trying to remedy the situation one last time. This time all you say is:

“I don’t know how long you’re in town for but… we should be off by midnight.”

Michael only offers you a sympathetic smile before you slip back inside. 

—---------------------------------------

It’s not until you and Carmy are packing up your things to head home that he brings it up—his mysterious visitor—hesitant to ask the question that’s been eating at him all night. 

“So uh… was it really him? Michael?” he asks you, cautiously, as he watches your face carefully for any kind of reaction. 

“Uh… yeah. I mean, at least the guy I recognized from your pictures,” you reply, hoping that the answer (or the fact that he missed his brother) won’t break his heart. 

A beat.

“What’d he want?” Carmy asks, trying to mask his curiosity as best as possible. 

“I don’t know,” you answer honestly. “Seems like he found himself in the city. I didn’t ask. I didn’t… know if you wanted me to.” 

Carmy tries again. 

“Oh no. It’s-, no I didn’t-, no, it’s okay.” 

He takes his time, making up his mind about what he wants to say next. 

“It’s weird, right? Guy can barely pick up the phone to say hello but… he can show up unannounced and just like-, expect me to drop everything?” he asks you—the look in his eyes telling you that his mind is miles away. 

“I- I don’t know, Carmy,” you reply, heavily. “Are you… do you wish you had gone instead of me?” 

Carmy’s quiet as he follows you out of the back door of the restaurant, thinking his answer over. 

“I don’t know,” he answers slowly, a lack of confidence as the words fall out of his mouth. “Maybe?” 

He’s not sure how he’s supposed to feel and right now he just feels… ambushed, which only makes him want to shut down. 

Instead, Carmy changes the subject back to your post-work plans, the two of you debating what kind of post-shift late night meal you’re going to have before settling on a few slices of pizza on the way back to your place. You and Carmy cut through the alley to the front of the restaurant so that you can begin your late-night sojourn, and it’s only when he spots something odd that he stops you. 

“What the fuck?” Carmy cuts you off, holding an arm out in front of you to stop you from walking any further. 

You follow his line of sight right over to a figure moving towards the both of you. In the brief glimpse you’ve gotten of the person moving towards you, all you can see is a quick flash of the ghostface mask they hold in their hands as a bus drives by, obstructing your view. 

Carmy’s heart stops, fear filling his chest as the bus speeds by, the person getting closer and closer until…

“Michael?!” Carmy shouts, squinting as he sees the man approach. His expression of pure shock leaves his jaw agape, rendering him speechless as he scrambles to try to find better words that: 

“What-, what the fuck are you doing here?” 

“Shit,” Michael scoffs playfully, with a chuckle, his breath uneven from the light jogging pace he’d kept. Michael takes note of the arm his younger brother’s extended, shielding you from him. “What? Can’t your big brother come surprise ya in the big city?” 

Carmy shoots him a look that says, ‘when have you ever done that’ and Michael nods knowingly, his eyebrows quickly raising, then lowering as he makes peace with the fact that he’s never been that guy. 

“Me and Deb… we came up for the weekend,” Mikey admits with a heavy sigh. “Tried to do something nice for her but, you know, broad’s been a real bitch-.” 

“Mikey,” Carmy warns, taking a tone you recognize—the kind he uses when he’s going to yell at the saucier for a broken mornay. 

“Right,” Mike course corrects at the volume of a mumble, heaving a heavy, yet disarming sigh. 

Carmy nods slowly as he allows some part of him to relax, his arm falling away from you as the two of you exchange a look. 

“We uh…. Got into another fight. She’s on her way back to Chicago now,” Mikey explains, the disappointment evident in his voice this time, almost as if it were an apology. 

“Sorry,” Carmy mutters quietly, as you exchange a look with him. 

“Nah it’s-, she’ll get over it,” Mikey brushes off with a shrug, his tone shifting as he extens an arm out to you.

“Fuck, where are my manners? I never properly introduced myself earlier. I’m Mikey. Mikey Berzatto,” he grins with a charm and confidence that’s been absent in both of your interactions with him till now. The smile that spreads across his face is contagious as he looks from you to Carmy, then back to you. “Shit. I’m sorry. ‘M fuckin’ jagoff, interupting your night like this. I should probably get-.” 

“No!” you protest, almost too quickly, earning a look from Carmy. “We weren’t-, we were just getting off work and were gonna grab a bite. Maybe even… a drink?” you suggest, a hopefulness in your eyes as you turn towards Carmy. 

“Yeah?” Michael asks, his interest piqued. 

“Uhm. Just gonna grab a bite actually,” Carmy forces out, sending a glare in your direction. 

“You know what’s crazy? I know a spot. With food. And drinks,” you challenge him, silently begging him to just go with it. 

“You cool with that, Carm?” Mike asks this time, looking from you to his younger brother once more. It’s the first time that Carmy thinks Michael’s ever looked to him for approval. 

Carmy’s quiet for a moment, torn between wanting to burn it all down or declare a gleeful ‘yes’ because at least Mikey wants to spend time with him. 

“Um. Uh. Yeah. Yeah okay,” Carmy finally agrees. 

“Alright, let’s fuckin’ do it!” Mikey rallies. 

And as he turns to go, your voice instructing him that it’s only a few blocks from here, you and Carmy fall into stride, just a few steps behind Mikey. 

“I’m gonna kill you,” Carmy threatens you—though there’s no weight to it—through gritted teeth. 

You shove him playfully, bumping your shoulder against his side as the two of you walk, answering with a promise that: “You’ll thank me later.” 

—---------------------------------------

You sit on one side of Carmy, Mikey on the other, and you can see why Carmy looks at his older brother like he hung the sun, the moon, and the stars above. There’s something different about Michael—something different than when you met him just hours ago outside of the restaurant—as he corrals the three of you into a round of shots. 

As the shots of tequila arrive at the bar, Carmy dismisses his, his attention fixed to the still-full whiskey on the rocks he’d ordered earlier, just to appease his older brother. He watches you carefully as you and Mikey clink glasses before throwing back your own respective shots. 

“Carm?” Mikey asks, nodding towards the third, untouched shot glass. 

Carmy hesitates. 

“It’s fine. I’ll take his,” you jump in, half as an attempt to give Carmy the out he so desperately desires, and half because, admittedly, meeting the great Mikey Berzatto makes you a little nervous.

Before anyone can protest, you reach out, picking up the shot glass, before tapping it down against the bar top, fearlessly throwing it back. Michael watches you with a sense of amusement, as your face crinkles in response to the sting of the liquor and the bitterness of the lime you chase it with. 

He smirks, sharing a knowing look with his younger brother that says, “I like this girl,” which in turn only causes Carmy to blush. Before Mikey can say anything more, the song that blares through the speakers changes, earning his attention as he hears the familiar words:

“I see the bad moon a-risin' I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin' I see bad times today”

“Alright, alright. Think it’s a little too on the nose if I admit that I love this song? On Halloween? C’maaaaaahn,” Mikey asks, almost as if it’s a confession in reference to the easily recognizable Creedance Clearwater revival hit. 

“No! No, I love this song,” you’re quick to assuage his hesitation as your eyes light up in response to his recognition. 

“You got good taste, kid,” Michael notes confidently, winking in his brother’s direction. “I like this girl, Carm.”

Only this time, he says it out loud. Carmy only shakes his head, the blush already running across his cheeks taking a deeper shade of red. 

“Yeah, yeah. Uh. You both uh.. Like music,” Carmy smiles, gesturing from you to his brother. At least this is going a lot better than he expected it to, he reminds himself. 

“Oh yeah?” Michael asks, clearly intrigued. 

“Oh that’s right!” you exclaim, simultaneously. The excitement that brews within you has you stumbling over your words as you manage to get out:

“You’re-, oh my god! The Lennon jacket!” 

“What?” Mike asks, shooting you a funny look. 

“I’m sorry. I just-. I realize I’m not-,” you stammer over your words, trying your best to explain your earlier exclamation over your own excitement. 

“You gave Carmy the denim jacket – the 1950s selvedge Wrangler!” 

“Just like the-,” Michael starts, the two of you finishing his sentence at once with: 

“... just like the one John Lennon had!” 

“Marry this girl, Carm. Marry her right now. Tonight! Or I will,” Michael encourages, slapping his hand down against the bar. He speaks with so much bravado and conviction that you can only imagine that there was none left for Carmy. “Fuckin’ christ. I never should’ve let you two meet,” Carmy groans on an exasperated exhale as he shakes his head once again. 

“Oh c’mon, Carm,” Mikey rouses him, with a playful eye roll. 

“It’s totally my favorite jacket of his! I-, well, it’s a long story but we actually became friends over the jacket because he spilled a drink on me and-,”

“Ahhh real smooth.” 

“No! No, it was okay, I promise. I-, I don’t know if we would’ve gotten to know each other if he hadn’t so-. Call it a lucky jacket, I guess,” you smile, stealing a look in Carmy’s direction. He shoots the smallest smile back to you, cognizant of the fact that Mikey’s observing the entire interaction. 

As you begin to tell Michael the story about the aforementioned Lennon jacket, it could be minutes, hours, or days that pass, once you and Mikey finish trading facts about music like they’re trivia cards. It’s almost as entertaining as watching Mikey and Carmy go at it, bouncing facts about the history of denim like you’re at the French Open. 

You excuse yourself to the restrooms—partially because you really have to pee and partially because it seems like this evening is going well—wanting to give both brothers some time alone. And as soon as you’re out of earshot, Mikey’s on Carmy like an FBI Investigation. 

“This your girl, Carm, or what?" he asks with a casualness to his voice that sets off alarms in Carmy’s head. 

"Mikey, stop it,” Carmy dismisses him, hoping more than anything for this to be the end of the conversation. 

Instead, Mikey scoffs, shaking his head as he downs another shot. 

"Then at least tell me you're hittin' that." 

“Michael!" Carmy hushes his brother, a warning and protectiveness in his voice this time. 

"Are you fuckin' serious right now, Bear?” Michael pushes further. “What, you're telling me you're not when she’s walkin’ around in your jacket, talkin’ about wearing your clothes to your big brother and I’m supposed to think-?" 

"She's not!” Carmy cuts him off. “She doesn’t do-, she’s.... my friend. Jus’ give it up alright.” 

"Shit. Wish I had a friend like that. Ya friends, kid, or are ya... you know... friends?" Mikey smirks, earning a venomous glare from his younger brother. 

Carmy shakes his head in response, jaw clenched, as he stares down at the bar top, a feeling inside of him that he doesn’t like when he even thinks about Mikey looking at you like that. 

"Shit, I thought I taught you better than that, Bear." 

There it is again.

That feeling. 

He’s not sure how to name it, but it’s enough to make Carmy want to deck his brother right then and there as it rises inside of him. 

"I'm serious, Mike. We’re just friends,” Carmy spits out. He’s much more serious this time. “Cut it out." 

But Michael’s too quick, his voice growing louder as he interjects on the tail end of Carmy’s insistence.

"Oh come on! The chick's smokin' fuckin' hot. And I can tell that you like her. I'm not blind, Carm. I see the way you-."

And if it’s as if something snaps inside of Carmy as he exclaims: 

"Don't talk to me like you know what's going on in my life! Fuck!" 

"Carm-." 

"Can't even pick up the damn phone and then you just... waltz into town acting like everything is okay?!” he fumes, standing up out of his chair. 

His face grows redder with each word, and it only confirms Mikey’s suspicions: that his little brother is absolutely a goner for you. He’s not sure he’s ever seen Carmy like this and he’s torn between feeling proud of his kid brother or pissed that the kid’s turning this around on him. 

"Well, if you ever bothered to come home. You know mom's been askin' about you since you never fuckin’-,” Mikey roars, eager to relinquish the hotseat here.

“Oh don't bring mom into this!" Carmy protests.

It’s your voice that snaps him out of it—brings him back to earth as he hears you ask:

“Everything okay?” 

Carmy can practically hear his heart pounding away in his ears; can feel the blood rushing through his head as he takes a deep breath. He swallows, takes a beat, then turns to you. 

“Yeah uh. I think we should go,” he states, his voice uneven and tense as you try to get a read on either brother. 

“Uh… yeah, I guess we can-, um,” you stammer out, wondering how things went from good to hell in a matter of minutes. Carmy mutters something about getting your stuff as you try your best to put the pieces together. 

“It was uh, nice to meet you, Mikey,” you say softly, as soon as you get your coat on. 

“Yeah. You too, sweetheart,” he nods, something distant in his voice. Carmen scoffs at his brother’s usage of the word before tugging on your arm. 

You wait a beat, in anticipation of some kind of goodbye between the brothers, but there is none as you follow Carmy out of the bar. 

—---------------------------------------

Halloween, again — in this lifetime:

When Carmy comes to, he can hear the faint sounds of an episode of Pasta Grannies in the background, uncertain of what time it is. 

“Hey, you. You fell asleep on the couch and I didn’t have the heart to wake you up,” you say, as he begins to sit up. Carmy blinks his eyes a few more times, watching as you make your way from the kitchen island over to the couch, taking a seat at his feet. 

“Did you still want to watch a scary movie? You know, in the spirit of the holiday?” you ask him with a soft chuckle. 

All Carmy can remember before falling asleep was what he was thinking about: what it would be like if you had met Mikey. It’s something he thinks of often, especially as the two of you grow closer—as your relationship gets more serious—and it’s something he hates that he’ll never be able to give to you. 

“This was his favorite holiday,” Carmy manages to get out, the sleep heavy in his voice. 

You’re not all that surprised. Carmy’s been on edge lately and you assumed it was because Mikey’s birthday’s coming up. But this… this makes sense too. 

“I wish I could’ve met him,” you smile, reaching out for one of his hands. 

Carmy nods. 

“Yeah. Uh. Yeah. Think he would’ve loved you.” 

Maybe a little too much, he thinks to himself. 

“You think so?” you ask with a vulnerability and a desire for reassurance that catches Carmy off guard. 

He nods with much more confidence this time, offering you a soft, sympathetic smile.  

“Yeah, sweetheart. I know so.”

[scary-noodlesblog]

Soulbound Ch 6

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Soulbound Masterlist

(A/N): Reminder: I am skipping episodes Castiel isn't in unless it helps play into the story. If it doesn't I will do a lil flashback of sorts to show what (Y/N) went through in that episode.

After facing a case of an actual magic wishing well, or an ancient coin inside of it, the boys and I ended up having a "chick flick moment" as Dean calls them. Dean admitted that he remembers everything from Hell, and admitted that he lied about it. And I told the boys what I know about being bound to Castiel.

"So, (Y/N), Uriel said to ask you why you can see Castiel's wings." Sam starts after Dean apologized. We are standing on a pier, the three of us leaning on the railing as we look over the water. I stand between the two brothers, running my hand over my face.

I sigh, looking down at the water below, "I, uh, Castiel told me that my soul...is bound to his grace." 

"What the hell does that mean?" Dean asks.

"Well, he explained it saying that every angel has someone they're tied to. And Castiel is tied to me. He said we are 'soulmates'." I explain nervously. "Though he said it's more like a guardian angel thing." 

"So what? Is he, like, in love with you or something?" Dean continues to interrogate.

I shrug and Sam says, "you're forced by God to be with him?"

I shake my head quickly, "N-No, Castiel said I have that choice. But it kind of felt like a reassurance more than the truth."

Dean grumbles, his eyebrows furrowed, "Son of a bitch."

~~~~~~~

Sam is pretending to be drunk, playing pool with a random bar patron named Brian. I sit at the bar nearby, watching with amusement while nursing a cocktail.

"Brian, come on, man, just one more. Just -- just give me a chance to win it back." Sam slurs his words.

Brian shrugs, "It's your cash."

Dean walks up to the pool table, "Excuse me. My brother's a little sauced to be making bets."

"He insisted." Brian says.

Dean gestures to his 'drunk' brother, "Yeah, but you've already taken, what, two bills off him? I'm just saying."

Sam pretends to get annoyed, "Hey, shut up, Dean. I'm fine."

"No, you're not fine. You're drunk!" Dean snaps. These two should be actors.

Sam looks back at Brian, "Let's make it five hundred."

"Five hundred?" Dean asks incredulously.

Brian shrugs again, "Sure."

Sam holds up the wad of cash and slams it down on the pool table

Brian removes the pool triangle, setting it aside, "Five hundred. Your break."

Sam lines up his shot and breaks, sinking several pool balls into the pockets. Brian looks at him in shock as Sam looks up. 

His face seems to sober up as he tells Brian, "Keep the money." He tosses the pool cue on the table and walks off.

My eyebrows furrow as Dean asks, "Keep the money? What --" Then Dean stops, nudging me and pointing out Ruby.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I grumble, hopping off the barstool, following Dean as he follows Sam.

"Hey." Sam greets Ruby.

"Well, you got a lot of nerve showing up anywhere near us." Dean says, gesturing to me and then himself. "Especially since she has an angel wrapped around her finger."

"Oh trust me, I'm aware of her angelic pet. I just have some info, and then I'm gone." The demon says.

"What is it?" Sam asks.

"I'm hearing a few whispers." She replies, looking at Sam.

"Ooh, great, demon whisperers -- that's reliable." Dean grumbles sarcastically.

"Girl named Anna Milton escaped from a locked ward yesterday. The demons seem pretty keen on finding her. Apparently, some real heavy hitters turned out for the Easter-egg hunt." Ruby explains.

"Why? Who is she?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"No idea." Ruby shakes her head, "But I'm thinking that she's important, 'cause the order is to capture her alive. I just figured that whatever the deal is, you might want to find this girl before the demons do."

"Look, maybe we should check it out." Sam looks at me, then at Dean.

"Actually, we're working a case, but thanks." Dean lies, holding a new mug of beer.

Ruby can tell he's lying, her tone suspicious, "What case?"

"Uh, we've got leads, big leads." Dean continues to lie, making me bring my hand to my forehead in annoyance.

Ruby shakes her head again, "Sounds dangerous."

"Yeah, well, it sure ain't goose-chasing after some chick who, for all we know, doesn't even exist, just because you say she's important."

"I'm just delivering the news. You can do whatever you want with it. Far as I'm concerned, I told you, I'm done." Ruby gets up to leave but I stop her.

"Wait, wait, wait. This hospital Anna escaped from -- it got a name?"

~~~~~~~

Sam, Dean and I made it to the psychiatric hospital Anna was in, now in our FBI uniforms and talking to Anna's psychologist. 

"Of course I want to help however I can." She says.

"Now, the orderly has no recollection of Anna's escape?" I ask her, my hands in my pockets. Dean is searching around the room for anything unnatural, Sam is standing next to me.

The psychologist shakes her head, "Apparently, she knocked him unconscious. The blow caused some amnesia. He doesn't even remember coming into her room."

"That's a hell of a right hook to knock out a guy that's got 80 pounds on her." Dean says, holding his pen and notepad.

"We think she may have planned this, waited behind the door." She gestures to the door and walks out of the room, the three of us following.

Sam interrogates further, "Right. Uh, you mentioned Anna's illness was recent."

The woman nods, "Two months ago, she was happy, well-adjusted, journalism major, lots of friends -- Bright future."

"So, what happened -- she just... flipped?" I ask.

"Well, that's the tragedy of schizophrenia. Within weeks, Anna was overtaken by delusions." The psychologist explains.

I continue to ask, "What kind of delusions?"

"She thought demons were everywhere." She hands Sam Anna's sketchbook. Sam opens it and starts flipping through pages, I look at them over his shoulder.

"Interesting." Dean says.

"It's not uncommon for our patients to believe that monsters are real." She explains, making Dean look up at her.

Dean chuckles, looking at the sketches as well. "Well, that -- that's just batty." Sam turns the next page, the top saying "The Rising of the Witnesses" with a creepy drawing of a girl. We all look at it in shock and Sam flips the next page. The top reads "Samhain The Next Seal is Broken", the bottom had an eerily accurate picture of Don's face, presumably when he was possessed by said demon. Dean speaks up again, "That's Revelations."

Sam and I nod, but the psychologist asks, "Since when does the Book of Revelations have jack-o'-lanterns?"

Dean clears his throat, "It's a, uh, it's a little-known translation."

She nods, not fully believing him, "Well, Anna's father was a church deacon. When she became ill, her paranoia took on religious overtones. She was convinced the devil was about to rise up and end the world. I hope you find her. It's dangerous for her to be out there alone right now."

~~~~~~~

Dean knocks on the door to Anna Milton's house, where her parents live, still in our FBI outfits. Dean peeks a little in the window of the front door after a few moments with no answer.

"Maybe they're not home." Dean suggests.

"Both cars in the driveway." I shrug, gesturing to the driveway next to the house. Dean tries the front door, finding it unlocked. 

Dean walks inside, "Mr. And Mrs. Milton?"

Sam and I follow behind him, Sam calling out, "We're from the sheriff's department. We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions."

I turn to the right of the front door, into the dining room, stopping in my tracks as I see Mr. and Mrs. Milton dead on the floor. Their throats had been slashed. I here Sam sigh as he comes up next to me, Dean following in after him.

Sam kneels down next to the bodies, running his fingers through a powder on the floor. He smells the powder and grunts, "Sulfur. The demons beat us here. Whatever the deal is with this Anna girl --"

Dean interrupts him, "Yeah, they want her. They're not screwing around. All right, so, I'm 'Girl, Interrupted,'" Dean picks up a pile of mail, "and I know the score of the apocalypse, just busted out of the nut-box... Possibly using superpowers, by the way. Where do I go?"

I look up and walk over to the fireplace, picking up a picture of Anna and her parents, presumably in front of her father's church, "Hey, you got those sketches from Anna's notebook?"

Dean looks up at me and sets the mail down, "Yeah."

"Let me see 'em. Check this out." I point out the window on the church, matching one of the drawings Anna did. Both Winchesters look at the drawings, then at me.

"She was drawing the window of her church." Dean says.

"Over and over. If you were religious, scared, and had demons on your ass, where would you go to feel safe?" I ask.

~~~~~~~

We enter the attic of the church, guns drawn just in case.

"Guys." Sam whispers, gesturing to someone hiding behind a stained glass pane, "Anna?" We quickly put away our weapons, "We're not gonna hurt you. We're here to help. My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean, and our friend (Y/N)."

"Sam? Not Sam Winchester?" Anna says, walking out from her hiding spot.

"Uh, yeah." Sam says.

Anna looks at Dean, "You're Dean. The Dean?"

Dean smirks a little, "Well, yeah. The Dean, I guess."

Anna then looks at me, "And you're (Y/N) Singer." 

I nod and give her a polite smile, "That's me."

"It's really you. Oh, my god. The angels talk about you." She looks at Dean again, "You were in Hell, but Castiel pulled you out, and some of them think you can help save us." She moves her gaze to Sam, "And some of them don't like you at all." And she looks back at me, "You're bound to Castiel, Uriel really doesn't like you. They talk about you guys all the time lately. I feel like I know you."

Dean's eyebrows furrow, "So, you talk to angels?"

Anna shakes her head quickly, "Oh, no. No, no way. Um, they probably don't even know I exist. I just kind of... overhear them."

"You overhear them?" I ask.

"Yeah, they talk, and sometimes I just... hear them in my head." Anna explains.

"Like... right now?" Dean questions.

She shakes her head again, "Not right this second, but a lot. And I can't shut them out, there are so many of them."

"So, they lock you up with a case of the crazies when really you were just... tuning in to angel radio?" Dean chuckles.

"Yes. Thank you." Anna nods.

"Anna, when did the voices start? Do you remember?" Sam asks her.

"I can tell you exactly -- September 18th."

Dean looks at Sam and I, "The day I got out of Hell."

"First words I heard, clear as a bell -- 'Dean Winchester is saved'." Anna says.

"What do you think?" Dean asks his brother.

Sam scoffs, "It's above my pay grade, man."

"Well, at least now we know why the demons want you so bad. They get a hold of you, they can hear everything the other side's cooking. You're 1-900-angel." Dean chuckles, obviously flirting with her.

She smiles back at him for a moment, but asks, "Hey, um, do you know -- are my parents okay? I -- I didn't go home. I was afraid."

The door slams shut, Ruby rushing in behind us. "You got the girl. Good, let's go."

"Her face!" Anna yells, horrified. She takes many steps back, and I walk up to Anna in a poor attempt at comforting her.

Sam holds his hand up to reassure the red head, "It's okay. She's here to help."

"Yeah, don't be so sure." Dean grumbles.

"We have to hurry." Ruby urges.

"Why?" I ask, standing between Anna and Ruby.

"Because a demon's coming -- big-timer. We can fight later." The demon says.

"Well, that's pretty convenient -- showing up right when we find the girl with some bigwig on your tail?" Dean asks.

Ruby shakes her head, "I didn't bring him here. You did."

My eyebrows crinkle in confusion, "What?"

"He followed you from the girl's house. We got to go now."

"Guys." Sam says, pointing to a statue of the Virgin Mary who has blood dripping from it's eyes.

"It's too late. He's here." Ruby says.

I look at Anna, pulling her by the arm to a closet, "Okay. Stay in there. Don't move."

"Okay." Anna murmurs fearfully. I walk back down to where Dean, Sam and Ruby are. Sam takes out a flask of holy water and Ruby, being the bad influence as always says, "No, Sam, you got to pull him right away."

"Whoa, hold on a sec." Dean responds.

Ruby looks from Sam to Dean, "Now's not the time to bellyache about Sam going darkside. He does his thing, he exorcises that demon, or we die."

We all look at each other for a moment before Sam outs the holy water away. Heavy footsteps can be heard approaching as we all watch the door. It bursts open revealing a man in a suit. Sam raises his hand to exorcise the demon. It's eyes change to completely white instead of the black like normal. The demon coughs, "That tickles. You don't have the juice to take me on, Sam."

The demon tosses Sam down the stairs. I splash my own holy water at the demon, making him grunt in pain as his skin sizzles. He grits his teeth and backhands me hard enough to send me flying into a beam, my back connecting with the wood. I hear more scuffling, assuming Dean is fighting the demon now. I groan and use the beam as support to stand up. 

"Hello again, Dean." The demon has Dean pinned to another beam, his nose bleeding as the demon punches him repeatedly. "Come on, Dean. Don't you recognize me? Oh, I forgot -- I'm wearing a pediatrician. But we were so close... in Hell." The demon punches him again.

"Alastair." Dean says, finally putting a name to this asshole. I see Sam coming back up the stairs so I get off of the beam, ignoring the pain in my back as I run up and jump on Alastair's back. It at least momentarily distracts him from Dean as he tries to get me off. I grit my teeth as his elbow connects with my ribs. Sam takes advantage of the situation, getting Ruby's knife and stabbing Alastair...in the shoulder.

The demon grunts, "You're gonna have to try a whole lot harder than that, son." he throws Sam to the side before reaching over his shoulders and yanking me off, slamming my back onto the floor. The wind gets knocked out of me, making me cough. Alastair turns away from us, trying to yank the knife out.

Sam helps me up, then goes to Dean. The three of us look at each other, then to a large stained glass window. We all make a break for it, sprinting to the window. Our bodies shatter the glass and we hit the Earth below.

~~~~~~~

Sam grunts as he sews a large cut on his arm. Dean is in the bathroom, I can hear the water running. I sit at the dining table, my arm laying flat on the surface. My wrist is swollen and I can't move my hand too much.

"Are you almost done?" Dean asks as he walks out.

Sam grunts again, "I'm going as fast as I can."

"Good, 'cause you know I got a dislocated shoulder over here." Dean gestures to his arm that's curled to his stomach.

"Yeah. I'll pop it back when I'm finished." Sam groans as Dean takes a large swig from a whiskey bottle. I don't mention my probably sprained wrist and take the whiskey bottle from Dean, drinking some myself.

"Gimme that," Sam gestures for the bottle and I hand it to him. He groans as he pours some of the alcohol on his wound to disinfect it.

"So, you lost the magic knife, huh?" Dean asks.

Sam grunts again, "Yeah, saving your ass. Who the hell was that demon?"

"No one good. We got to find Anna." Dean says.

"Ruby's got her. I'm sure she's okay." Sam stands up from the bed, "All right. Come on." Sam puts his hands on Dean's shoulder, "On three. One..." I cringe as Dean's shoulder pops back into place, Dean letting out a yell of pain. He groans and sits down in front of me with an ace wrap.

Dean gently grabs my arm, just below my wrist and starts to wrap it, "You sure about Ruby? 'Cause I think it's just as likely she used us to find radio girl and then brought that demon in to kill us." I grit my teeth as Dean tries to wrap my wrist as gently as possible. Sam comes up behind me, "I need to check your back." I nod quietly, Sam lifts the back of my shirt just enough to see the large bruise from where my back connected with the beam, then the ground.

Sam's fingers press into my back, checking for any broken ribs again, "No, she took Anna to keep her safe." 

I squeeze my eyes shut as Dean finishes wrapping my wrist, "Yeah. Well, why hasn't she called to tell us where she is?"

"Because that demon is probably watching us right now, waiting to follow us right back to Anna again. That's why he let us go." Sam says.

"You call this letting us go?" I grunt as Sam presses particularly hard on my bruise.

"Yeah, I do. Look, killing us would've been no problem to that thing. That's why, for now, we just got to lay low and wait for Ruby to contact us. No broken ribs." Sam says pulling my shirt back down. 

"How's she gonna do that?" Dean pauses, "Why do you trust her so much?"

"I told you." Sam comes back over with two ice packs, putting one on my wrist and handing Dean the other one.

"You got to do better than that. Hey, and I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I mean, I really want to understand. But I need to know more. I mean, I deserve to know more." Dean says.

"Because... she saved my life." Sam responds. He goes on to explain how Ruby came back from Hell with another demon to kill Sam. Ruby double crosses that demon and Sam forces her to leave the secretary she's possessing. Ruby finds Sam again later, with proof that she's possessing a girl who was in a coma and that her spirit was gone. And he unfortunately talks about how they slept together. 

After getting chastised by Dean and I about how gross that is, Sam says that after, he put together omens that Lilith was in the area. He says how Ruby accused him of wanting to fight Lilith and die trying, so that he didn't have to live without Dean. Ruby tried to stop him but he went anyway. Sam says how he went to the house of a little girl that Lilith was possessing, seeing her sitting at the dining table surrounded by sweets. He quietly made it around the house until he reached the dining room. The girl turns around crying that she wants to go home and Sam was attacked from behind. Two demons almost kill Sam but Ruby shows up, fighting them off so Sam can take the little girl and run. Sam comes back and saves Ruby with his powers, successfully exorcising the demon with his mind. 

"Ruby came back for me. Whatever you have to say, she saved me. More than that, she got through to me. What she said to me... It's what you would've said. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here." Sam finishes his story.

We sit in silence for a moment before a knock sounds on the door, "Housekeeping."

"Not now!" Dean responds.

"Sir, I've got clean towels." The maid says through the door.

I get up and open the door with my non-injured arm, "Couldn't you just leave 'em at the door?"

The maid pushes her way inside, closing the door, then the curtains, "I'm at this address." She hands Sam a piece of paper.

Sam chuckles, "I'm sorry. What?"

The maid gestures to the bathroom, "Go now. Go through the bathroom window, don't stop, don't take your car, don't pass go. There are demons in the hallway and in the parking lot."

"Ruby?" I ask.

"Okay, yes, so I'm possessing this maid for a hot minute. Sue me." The maid, or, Ruby says.

"What about --" Sam starts.

"Coma girl? Slowly rotting on the floor back at the cabin with Anna, so I've got to hurry back. See you when you get there. Go!" Ruby leaves the room and we do as we are told.

~~~~~~~

Ruby opens the door to the cabin as we get there, "Glad you could make it."

"Yeah, thanks." Sam walks up to Anna, Dean and I following him further into the cabin. "Anna, are you okay?"

Anna nods, "Yeah. I think so. Ruby's not like other demons. She saved my life."

Sam nods and Dean speaks up, "Yeah, I hear she does that." Dean looks over at Ruby, "I guess I... You know."

"What?" Ruby asks, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I guess I owe you for... Sam. And I just wanted... you know..." Dean clears his throat.

"Don't strain yourself."

"Okay, then. Is the moment over?" Ruby nods at Dean, " Good, 'cause that was awkward." 

I walk over to Ruby as I hear Anna ask, "Hey, Sam, you think it'd be safe to make a quick call, just to tell my parents I'm okay? They must be completely freaked."

I look at Ruby, not as awkwardly at Dean, "Thanks for saving my brother." I give her a grateful smile. 

She simply gives me a soft smile in return and a nod, "Of course."

I tune back into the conversation with Sam and Anna, "Look, I'm sorry." Sam apologizes.

"No, they're not..." Anna's voice breaks.

"Anna, I'm sorry." Sam says, Anna breaking down into sobs.

We all give her apologetic glances as Anna cries, "Why is this happening to me?"

Sam puts his hand on her back, trying to comfort her, "I don't know."

Anna sits up with a gasp, suddenly fearful. "They're coming."

The lights above us start to flicker, the electricity crackling.

"Back room." I say, helping Ruby lock the doors and windows. Sam takes Anna to the back room, then comes back out. Dean is rifling through the duffel bag for weapons. Dean hands Sam and I guns as Ruby looks for the knife, "Where's the knife?"

"Uh... about that..." I say sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck.

"You're kidding." Ruby yells.

"Hey, don't look at me." I look at Sam.

"Thanks a lot." He grumbles and I give him a cheeky smile.

"Great. Just peachy. Impeccable timing, guys, really."

The front door starts to shake violently before bursting open. Wind gusts inside before we hear the familiar sound of wings. Castiel enters, followed by Uriel, making me sigh in relief. 

"Please tell me you're here to help. We've been having demon issues all day." Dean pleads.

Uriel cocks his head at Ruby, "Well, I can see that. You want to explain why you have that stain in the room?"

"We're here for Anna." Castiel interjects. 

"Here for her like... here for her?" I ask.

Uriel looks at me, snapping, "Stop talking. Give her to us."

"Are you gonna help her?" Sam asks the angels.

Castiel speaks up again.

"No, she has to die."

Soulbound Taglist:

@fairy-alix @delusional-paradise @ltotheucy @harryssatellitee @moon-trash1507

[multifandomfix]

Miranda Priestly Smut Alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Miranda tends to be reserved but attentive. After sex, she might quietly cuddle or lay beside her partner, offering a few whispered words of praise.

B = Body part (favorite body part of their partner’s)

Miranda is drawn to your neck and collarbone. She finds subtle, sensual moments in tracing her fingers along these areas, delighting in the vulnerability they represent, and the closeness they bring.

C = Collar (do they mark you as theirs in some way?)

She might purchase several discreet, elegant pieces of jewelry for you to wear in public with her that hints at her ownership of you, but she’s not one that needs to put it on some grand display. People basically already know.

D = Dominant (who is in control? are they a top or bottom?)

Miranda is firmly in control. She prefers to be the one calling the shots, taking the lead in all aspects of your relationship. Whether it's in the bedroom or in public, she likes being the one who holds the power, and she’s great at getting what she wants.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

With years of experience under her belt, Miranda is incredibly confident in her abilities. She knows exactly what she's doing and what she likes, and is able to read your body language with precision.

F = Fuck (do they prefer to fuck or make love?)

Miranda prefers to fuck rather than make love. She's passionate, demanding, and likes to take her time, pushing you to your limits. It's not usually about tenderness for her, it's about raw, unapologetic desire.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Miranda is far more serious and intense, always maintaining an air of control. There's a confidence to her actions, and humor is rare in intimate settings unless she's feeling especially playful.

H = Hot (what turns them on, gets them going)

If you match wits with her, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that you’ll either piss her off or turn her on. She likes someone that can hold their own, but still knows where to draw the line.

I = Insatiable (how do they act when they’re desperate to have you?)

When Miranda is desperate to have you, she becomes impatient and curt, her control slipping only when she can no longer resist. Her usual cool demeanor cracks, and she demands your full attention, her eyes dark with desire as she takes what she wants.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Miranda doesn't often indulge in self pleasure. However, when she does, it’s indulgent, usually borne out of frustration from you being away, or perhaps mad at her.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Miranda prefers the thrill of power dynamics. She’s no stranger to issuing commands, but she also likes some light bondage, and leaving marks all over you.

L = Location (favorite places to have sex)

Her favorite places to have sex are often her own home or, if pressed, a five star hotel suite, where she can maintain her air of control and privacy.

M = Mood (what’s the foreplay like? how do you get them in the mood?)

Foreplay with Miranda is often intense and heated. She’ll pounce on you like a jungle cat with prey and it’s up to you to respond. She’ll slow things down if you need her to, but she can become impatient.

N = Naked (how do they undress? do they like to watch you undress?)

Miranda removes each item of clothing slowly and deliberately, never casting them to the floor, but folding and setting them aside. She's not particularly voyeuristic, but she does enjoy watching you undress, appreciating your figure before guiding you toward the bed.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Miranda prefers to receive rather than give. Even so, she’s skilled and focused when it comes to pleasuring you, and loves the sounds you make for her when you get close.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Miranda enjoys a slow, deliberate pace, taking her time. There's an intensity in her actions, but it's all about creating long lasting pleasure. Her slow, teasing rhythm is meant to make you ache for more.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Miranda isn't one for quickies. Too messy and unpredictable. However, if she's particularly needy or caught in the heat of the moment, she might indulge in one with a sense of urgency.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Miranda isn't someone who's reckless with risks, but when it comes to experimenting in bed, she's open to trying new things as long as it's controlled.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Miranda has great stamina, lasting for multiple rounds if needed. She's able to keep her focus and intensity for as long as the mood strikes, never tiring easily. Her endurance matches her drive and ambition.

T = Tryst (are they into casual sex or one night stands?)

Miranda is not typically interested in one night stands. While she enjoys a discreet affair, she does not indulge in casual trysts without having a deep attraction.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Miranda loves to tease. She toys with you, pushing you to the brink of frustration before letting you have what you want.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Miranda is usually pretty quiet in bed. She's more likely to let out a soft sigh or moan when the pleasure is particularly intense, but she's not one to be overly vocal.

W = Wait (how long do they wait before having sex with their partner for the first time?)

Miranda waits a while before having sex with a partner, as she likes to make sure the connection is solid and that the relationship has some level of commitment and trust. She's not impulsive in her actions and believes in taking the time to build trust and desire.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Under those elegant clothes, Miranda has a toned, well maintained body. There's a sophistication to her appearance, usually accented with very delicate and expensive lingerie.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Miranda's sex drive is fairly high, but she often keeps it repressed. She's not impulsive about her desires but is incredibly passionate when the mood strikes.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Miranda falls asleep quickly, always seeking rest after a satisfying encounter. Once her needs have been met, she's efficient in winding down, retreating into the calm of her mind, leaving the chaos of her daily life behind.

For anon

Forever Tag: @baubeautyandthegeek, @ghostsunderstoodmysoul, @immyowndefender, @valencethefriendlychangeling, @crimsonwidow666, @rebelbossheart, @thedailyspiritualist, @orangeisnttheonlyfruit, @woman-simp, @aperol-with-izzy, @leonoralessoem, @ellepossum69, @lakita-fisher, @trexsuit, @analuw, @luvlesavyy, @malfoyfeed, @aliciabrower, @sparrowspixie, @imaginationismyworldlypleasure, @og-kxsh-420

Miranda Priestly: @iticaboopsyou, @derry-n, @ladysc, @russian-soft-bitch, @rafterymorton, @messynessi

[riddle-me-ri]

I LOVED YOUR POSSESSIVE RIDDLER ASK SO MUCH😭 Can you also do one for the penguins?

a/n: ooohhh yes I absolutely can, many of them know a good thing when they see one and likely won't let go no matter what! Again like other headcanons I may have removed a version or two to refrain from repeating too many of the same headcanons.

Content Warning: possessive/jealousy tendencies/behaviors

The Penguins Being Possessive:

Arkhamverse Penguin:

- It takes everything in him to not just brand you somehow-

- Like a necklace or chain with a silhouette of a penguin, or suggest you get a tattoo…

- Oswald has worked his ass off for what’s his and has no qualms about proving his possessions.

- If someone even utters your name in a slimy dismissive manner, they're dead-

- Anyone that even thinks about whisking you away from him-dead-

- You're constantly at his side if not safely cooped away in a luxurious hideout only you two know about.

- Oswald is protective as much as he is possessive.

- He never thought in a million years he'd genuinely find someone to actually love him and all his flaws…he will be damned if he lost you.

Reevesverse/Farrell Penguin:

(haven't finished the series so sorry if these aren't as accurate but nontheless!)

- Oz makes his possessiveness known by how often his hands are on you-

- Innocent touches like holding your hand or a hand on your shoulder…

- To more provocative ones such as a grip on your thigh or his ringed hand around your waist.

- Actions speak louder than words after all-

- No matter who is in the room or where you two are at, he lets those know off the bat you're his and off limits.

- You're never too far from his side, only ever away for your own safety…

-You're likely one of his best kept secrets, not only so you won't be in any danger, but also so no one can steal you from him.

Gotham Penguin:

- Much like Arkhamverse Penguin, anyone that even tries to come within your immediate vicinity without his knowledge or your consent - they're immediately on his shit list.

- Someone struts up and tries to buy you a drink, expect them floating lifeless after taking a bullet to the head at the docks.

- You'll have to inform him as this relationship persists who your friends/family/allies are so he doesn't get the wrong idea…

- However if it's someone you aren't keen on, you feel safe knowing Oswald isn't too far away.

- He doesn't want to chase you away or suffocate you, he just adores you so much and he knows the price of loving someone like him…and doesn't want you to ever have to pay for it.

BTAS Penguin:

- Practically makes it a point to announce your relationship status to the world any chance he gets.

- I imagine this Oswald likes to do subtle signs to show you belong to him-

- Like matching colored clothing items…

- A handkerchief or his cufflinks matching something on your person…

- You both wear some sort of charm or brooch that compliments the other, matches, or is the other piece to a full image.

- Oswald prefaces every pet name with “my”

- My dove, my love, my darling, my dear, my heart…the list goes on and on.

Telltale Penguin:

- Like Arkhamverse…has a few ideas on how to show you're his in flashy and permanent ways…

- Oz would be thrilled to see a penguin tattoo on your person somewhere~

- You have a matching mask at the very most.

- Oz is definitely touchy, has to have his hands on you to ensure your proximity-

- Makes it blatantly clear to anyone that even looks at you funny that you're his-

- Most of his boxing matches were likely a result of him putting some low life in their place.

- Thankfully, you were always there to patch him up even if you're chastising him the whole time for being far too possessive (you kinda like it though)

The Batman (2004) Penguin:

- Think of those seagulls from Finding Nemo but far more aggressive-

- Or like Daffy Duck when he sees a bag of wealth waiting for the taking-

- MINE MINE MINE MINE-

- He just dares someone try to hurt you or whisk him away-

- Ozzie is deeply insecure and worries that one day deep down you may leave him-

- He tries to show how much he cherishes you, adores you…you belong to him and vice versa.

- You'll likely have to reassure him to keep from immediately ripping someone's head…

Batman Unlimited Penguin:

- Oswald would like to think he's gotten too old for such petty possessiveness-

- He knows you're his, and he is yours…

- Yet much like other pengys on this list, he's got some deep-rooted insecurity.

- Like others, he'll be the first one to make it clear to anyone and everyone in the room that you're his…

- “Ah yes this is my partner~”

- Don't be surprised if someone who's been giving you too much attention is just suddenly gone-

- No doubt, Oswald will appear back at your side, your hand in his, and a proud smirk stretched across his face.

[scarlethexelove]

Hello!! 👀

This is like an extension of something I’ve already requested. ‘You’re Mine Now’ was awesome

I absolutely love dark Agatha and if you’re okay with writing it, it’d be much appreciated 🙏🏻 Okay so… Maybe Agatha and Reader already have a dynamic that works for Agatha. Agatha is happy because Reader behaves very well so Reader is allowed to do more things in the house. Then, Reader watches on TV that her best friend is looking for her, it is like a switch is turned on and Reader wants to escape. Agatha realizes it and stops her. Agatha tells Reader that she (Agatha) couldn't let nobody take her precious treasure so she had to make that person disappear. Then fucks reader 🫣 Sorry this is pretty long but yeah! I would like to read it if you are okay with writing this. Totally cool if you’re not ofc

You're Not Going Anywhere

Pairing: Agatha Harkness x Reader

Word Count: 2088

Warnings: Dark!Agatha, Smut, Spanking, Restraints, Cum Strap, Rough Sex, Forced Submission, Dub/Con, No aftercare, Talks of murder, Choking (Not the fun way).

Part 1: You're Mine Now

A/n: I really hope you enjoy this nonnie. I tried to make her nice and dark with this one. I kind of feel the smut is kind of shit and I'm sorry about that.

NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO STEAL, COPY, OR REBLOG MY WORK AS THEIR OWN

Soft sounds play through the air as you watch the tv. The room is dark only illuminated by the beams of light spilling from the sides of the curtains. You know it might not be the best idea to ignore Agatha’s wishes for you to clean the house but you just want to be lazy today. You haven’t even managed to get out of your pajamas today. Your mind barely focused on the tv as you almost stared pass the tv. 

Words start scrolling on the bottom of the tv as your program is interrupted, pulling your focus to the tv. You watch as the scene changes. A woman you find familiar talking to a news anchor appears on the screen. The words scrolling on the bottom states that a woman has been kidnapped and missing for six months. You look back up a picture of yourself now displayed on the side of the screen. It’s in an instant that your suppressed mind comes back to reality. That is your best friend. You’re the woman that is missing and people are looking for you. You hadn’t even noticed that you had been gone for six long months. You’re mind submitting to that of the older woman who has kept you captive. 

You quickly jump off the couch and look at the time. Three hours till Agatha comes home. You have time to pack some things and run. A few months back Agatha had removed some of the locks off the door to keep you here. You have become compliant with her wants and needs. No urge to run from the woman, only the thought of love for her keeping you there. You didn’t see the reason to run from someone taking such good care of you. But now it is like the spell is broken and you have to get away. You remember the horrible things that she did to get you here and you need to run now while you have a chance. 

You make your way into the bedroom grabbing some things. What you didn’t know is that Agatha was watching you. Camera’s scattered all around the house so she can watch you even while at work. She curses as she grabs her jacket leaving work and rushing home to you. If you think you can leave her you are wrong. She will just have to show you again who is in charge and who you belong to. 

Once you're done you finally turn around ready to leave but you hadn’t noticed the clicking of the door behind you. Startled when you see the older woman standing behind you. A gasp leaves your throat before a hand is placed around it. Squeezing tightly and walking you backwards. You grasp at the hand around your neck the more it squeezes. Digging your nails into her arm hoping that she will let go, but there is a fury in her eyes. 

“Please.” You whimper while still struggling against her. She slams your body back against the wall making you whimper more. “You think you can leave me, little girl? I own you. You’re not going anywhere.” Agatha hisses. You can feel yourself getting lightheaded the longer she holds your neck. The woman is much stronger than you so your struggle is futile, her grip never loosening. 

When your vision starts to blur and black spots appear in your vision Agatha finally loosens the grip. Tossing your body on the bed like a rag doll. You cough and sputter as air fills your lungs. Your hand placed against your neck feeling the tenderness of the flesh. Your voice is hoarse as you try to speak. “I just wanna go home.” A dark chuckle leaves the woman. “You are home sweet girl.” 

Agatha is on you in an instant, pulling the shackles out. You kick and scream trying your best to fight off the woman, but it is no use. She flips your body over easily so that you are laying on your stomach. Securing both of your ankles to the bed. She then moves and secures your wrist to the bed. Leaving your spread eagle on the bed. 

“I’m going to have to punish you baby girl.” Agatha’s hand smooths over the curve of your ass. You squirm as her hand touches you. She grabs your pants and underwear and pulls them down swiftly. Bunched up around your thighs as she grabs your ass harshly. “I think 20 each side will do. Now count whore.” Her voice is dark and dripping with venom. Agatha’s hand comes down hard. “O-one.” You cry out. Her hands are rough the more she slaps down hard on your ass.

Your tears stain the sheets below the longer she goes. Your ass is a bright red, tender and hot to the touch. You’re cries and screams only egging the woman on. You have stopped counting but she doesn’t seem to mind anymore. Relishing in the pleasure she gets from your pain. By the end you have no more fight left in you. Your body is already exhausted from the beating. “P-please. No more.” You whimper hoping the woman will hear you. She stops her hand smoothing over your ass which makes you cry out in pain. 

“Are you going to behave from now on?” Agatha asks you, her hands moving down to gently caress your tights. Her hand sliding between feeling that unmistakable wetness, smirking to herself. You nod your head, mind already fuzzy. Throat sore and scratchy from the beating you had just taken. She would normally ask you to speak up but she can see that the fight you had not that long ago is gone. 

You’re relieved when the bed feels lighter. Agatha shifting her weight and removing herself from the mattress. You can hear some shuffling and you turn your head trying to look. Tears still fall, blurring your vision slightly. You can’t see her but the bed dips again as a hand rubs your ass again making you whine and squirm. “So pretty like this.” Agatha leans down and whispers in your ear. 

Agatha’s weight shifts on the bed again. She moves between your legs. She grabs your pants and underwear that is on your thighs. You hear the sound of fabric ripping as she tears your clothes off of you. “You’re fucking mine you hear me?” Agatha leans over you, a weight slapping on your ass. You whimper and nod. “Yes. I’m yours.” She leans back up towering over you. “Good girl.” The weight that once sat on your ass she now swipes through your folds wet with your arousal. Spreading it up and down and coating her strap. 

You have no time to register Agatha’s actions as she lines up with your entrance and thrust the faux cock inside of you. You cry out at the deliciously painful stretch. It’s bigger than what you have taken before. She starts a hard and fast pace, fucking into your tight hole. “Fuck your taking me to well.” She slaps your ass again, enjoying the hiss of pain that leaves your lips. Her hand moving you and wrapping around the back of your neck pushing your face further into the mattress. 

Right now she doesn’t care about your pleasure, only her own. Fucking into you with reckless abandon. “So fucking tight no matter how many times I fuck you.” Her hips slapping against your ass making you whimper and moan. “You wouldn’t survive without me. Just a dumb stupid whore.” You’re already clenching around her strap the faster she drives her hips into you. Your pleasure heightened by the pain. 

Agatha leans over you pressing her front into your back still holding your face down rutting into you. “You fucking try to leave me again I’ll kill you. You don’t get another chance, little girl. I told you’re mine and if I can’t have you no one can. You know that little friend of yours? I saw that she was looking for you. I took care of that little problem. I saw her little TV stunt. I wanted to see what your dumb little brain would do if you knew so I recorded it. Let it play for you. So stupid thinking you could get away.” She whispers in your ear. More tears slip down your face. You’re trapped here forever you know the woman wouldn’t lie. You’re her property now and there is no one else left to save you. 

It is better to let your mind submit now. Let her be your one and only. You’ll be safer that way. “I’m sorry.” You whimper. “I-I’ll never try again. I’m you-yours.” She smiles, kissing your shoulder before leaning back up and pounding into you. Her hand still smacks against your ass occasionally. Your sounds spur her on to continue. 

You let all your thoughts melt away. Whimpers and moans fall from your lips, the squelching sound of Agatha pounding into your pussy mixing in. You submit as she pushes you into your subspace. Babbling how you are hers and sorrys for trying to leave. She just smirks above you. Her test didn’t go quiet as she hoped but she has you now. The perfect obedient little housewife. Cooking and cleaning for her then being the perfect little fleshlight for her to use. 

Agatha’s thrust becomes more erratic as the harness brushes against her clit perfectly. Her need to cum approaching fast. “Mmm fuck. I’m going to fill this little pussy. So fucking tight.” Her hands move to grip your waist digging in her fingers, sure to leave bruises behind. You’re confused by her words but that thought melts away when she hits that spot deep inside you. The sight of your tear stained face and your reddened ass cheeks sends her over the edge. As she cums her hand moves and you feel a gush of liquid fill you up. Your own orgasm then washing over you. 

The realization of what she meant as you feel so full. Cum leaking out around her strap as she doesn’t slow down. Continuing to pound into you roughly. “Aggie.” You whine hoping she will stop but she doesn’t. You can only see part of her but there is an animalistic look to her. She is going to keep filling you whether you want her to or not. Her thrust rough and hard as fucks you even further into submission. 

You don’t know how many times you cum or how many times she has filled you by the time she stops. You're both panting and sweaty messes. Your whole body hurts from her roughness and the marks she has left on you. You whimper when she removes her strap from your overstimulated aching core. She isn’t gentle about it like normal. She slaps your bruised ass once more before climbing off the bed. The mix of your cums leaking out of you onto the sheets below, as your gaping hole clenches around nothing trying to keep the cum in. 

Your eyes droop as your fuzzy mind listens for her movement around the room. You expect her to release you from your restraints and to clean you up. To place ointment on your bruised ass but it doesn’t come. “I’ve been so kind to you baby girl. Let’s see how you like it if I leave you as a mess. The dumb cumrag you were always meant to be. Maybe you’ll learn your lesson.” Agatha’s harsh tone filters through your ears. You cry out for her. You want her comfort and her soft touches. 

The door slams shut moments later leaving you in darkness. You continue to cry as your body shakes. You want her to come back to comfort you and tell you that you are her good girl. Promise you’ll never do it again. But your mind is tired as your struggle to stay awake. Your whimpers for the woman become quiet as you drift off into a deep sleep. 

What you don’t know is that Agatha is sitting on the other side of the door. Listening and watching you. An evil smirk playing on her lips. She has finally broken you completely and all it took was showing you that you can’t leave her. She had to punish you in order to break that last bit of hope deep in your mind. Soon she will have you as her perfect little housewife. Destined to be with her, tied to her forever.

[writeforfandoms]

Run Wild 5

Find the series masterlist

Your pack insists on making your life both easier and harder, and you're not entirely sure how to feel about things. The situation doesn't improve when you and Horangi go on an op together.

Warnings: Swearing, allusions to animal cruelty, Mink is having a hard time with her emotions, pack dynamics, shifter dynamics, flirting.

Word count: 2.8k

The next few days passed in a blur. You couldn't have recited what you did if someone held you at gunpoint. 

But you didn't spend a lot of time with your pack. The two men. 

You weren't avoiding them, really. Not intentionally. Not really. 

You just…

Your cheeks puffed out as you dropped to the dirt, going through a training exercise with a squad. No König today. No Horangi today. 

Just training exercises.

You just needed to clear your head, that was all. 

Breathing slowly, you focused on your task. Just a little longer and you'd be done for the day. 

At least, that was the plan. 

Until Horangi met you at the end of your exercise, arms crossed loosely over his chest, sunglasses as impenetrable as ever. You blinked at him. 

“Come with me.” He uncrossed his arms, fingers twitching briefly. You nodded, falling in behind him, absently brushing yourself off. 

He led you inside to the offices, though he didn't slow down even as your nose twitched in curiosity. You hadn't been in here often, and you wanted to explore. But Horangi didn't give you any time, just turning down a hallway, expecting you to follow him. 

Which you did. Of course. 

He stepped into a conference room and shut the door after you. König was already there waiting, leaned back against a wall, gaze fixed on the two of you. 

“How are your recon skills?” Horangi turned to you as he asked, removing his sunglasses. The better to watch you, eyes dark and just a little narrowed. 

“Good,” you said slowly, gaze darting between your two packmates. “Better if I can shift.” 

Horangi nodded once, holding your gaze for a long moment before you blinked and looked away. “Good. We'll be going out on recon.” 

“When?” You stood up a little straighter. 

“Tomorrow. Briefing is officially in half an hour.” Horangi took one step closer to you, fingers closing around your wrist gently. “We will be the only two going in.”

“Two?” Your eyebrows shot up in surprise. 

“I am not as skilled at recon,” König rumbled, faintly embarrassed. “I am too loud.” 

Horangi chuffed, amused and fond. “Two,” he confirmed, still watching you closely. “Will that be a problem?”

“No, sir.” You refocused on your alpha, head tipping slowly to one side. “I can do it.” 

His eyes crinkled the smallest amount, like he was smiling under the mask. “You don't even know what it is yet,” he teased. 

You shrugged. “I can still do it,” you asserted with a brief flash of teeth. “I can do quiet.” 

“Hm.” Horangi nodded again and released your wrist. “Get cleaned up, meet back here in twenty-five.”

You nodded, though for a moment you stood still, just looking at him. His eyes would be covered again for the briefing, you knew. So you soaked in the trust he showed for a moment longer before you stepped around him and left.

You had to clean up, after all. 

But you made it back with two minutes to spare, sinking down into the seat next to Horangi. König was gone, though you didn't have a chance to do more than shoot Horangi a questioning look. 

The briefing was, well, brief. Shorter than you'd expected, actually. You were being sent in to find some information, very quiet. Just you and Horangi, as he'd warned you before. 

You didn't mind. You were good at recon. 

The building was isolated, meaning a trip in a helo, then a drive. The two of you had a few hours before you'd leave, which gave you time to grab a few necessities. 

The knock at your door startled you, and you paused with your hoodie in your hands. But you opened the door after a moment, curiosity winning. 

König stood in the doorway, filling the entire thing, looking even broader than normal. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, seeming uncertain. 

“König?” You blinked up at him. “Can I help you with something?” 

He shook his head, hood shifting with the movement. “Here.” He thrust one hand at you, gloved fingers curled around a piece of fabric. 

You took the fabric carefully, surprised at how soft it was. An old bandana, blue and black. Curious, you lifted your gaze to König again. 

He shrugged, now-empty hand reaching back to rub the back of his neck. “Just in case,” he mumbled, gaze dropping. 

“Thank you.” You pulled it closer, rubbing your thumb against it. “I'll bring it back.”

He shook his head again. “It's yours,” he said, speaking faster now. “A gift.” 

Your lips parted, because that? Was very different from something borrowed. 

“You will be late,” König fussed, taking a step back from the doorway. “Don't keep Horangi waiting.” 

Before you could gather your thoughts to say anything, he was gone, long strides carrying him down the corridor and away from you. 

You blew out a breath, letting your cheeks puff out. Well then. 

He'd given you a gift. Something personal, given how soft the bandana was. And judging by the fact his scent had permeated the fabric entirely, as proven when you lifted it to your nose. 

This was… unexpected. 

But he was right, you didn't want to make Horangi wait. You hurried through getting ready, throwing your hoodie on last. Since this was a recon op, you were dressed down, no longer in uniform. Which suited you just fine. 

Horangi was waiting for you at the helo, dark eyes giving you a swift once-over before he nodded his approval. He motioned you in first, settling next to you for the ride. 

It felt odd to see him without his sunglasses - he wore them constantly, even sometimes in the pack room. 

You only realized you'd been looking too long when one dark eyebrow arched at you. 

“Something on your mind?” The words were almost teasing. 

“Eh. Sort of.” You shrugged, forcing yourself to look away. “Just not used to seeing, y'know, that much of your face.” 

He snorted softly, one hand landing on your knee. “If you spent more time in the pack room you'd see more,” he murmured, definitely amused now. 

You huffed, playing at being indignant. “Yeah, sure.”

He eyed you but didn't push. For once. Instead he kept his hand on your knee for the rest of the flight. 

The drive was a couple hours, and he wordlessly got in the driver's seat, leaving the passenger side for you. You briefly debated laying down for a nap in the back… but gave up on that immediately. You'd rather spend the time with Horangi.

“König gave me a gift,” you blurted, without really meaning to. 

Horangi nodded. “I know.” 

“He told you?” 

“He didn't need to.” 

You eyed him but he didn't look at you, hands steady on the wheel. “Did you talk about it before?”

Horangi hummed softly, gaze flitting to you. “Briefly, yes.” 

You weren't quite sure how to feel about that, and so simply huffed softly. 

“If you came into the pack room more often…” He trailed off.

“You've mentioned.” You blew out a breath. “I guess I'll have to.” 

You almost missed the flicker of his lips into the barest smile. Almost. 

But that humor was nowhere to be found when the two of you reached your destination. Horangi parked the car, and you took a moment to stretch. Dawn was still a few hours off yet, giving the two of you plenty of time to get this op done. As long as things didn't go totally sideways. 

The last section of the journey was on foot, Horangi taking the lead. When he glanced back at you, you could just see the reflection in his eyes, undeniably green. Your lips twitched. What a cat, indeed. 

The smell hit you first, and your nose wrinkled against your will. Filth and waste left to sit too long, the faint tang of rusted metal overlaying it. The animal musk seemed out of place, but then again, this far out from a city any number of critters could be living around the building. The building was long and squat, single story, no lights on. 

“Here.” Horangi stopped at a window that had been left open a crack. “This will be the bathroom.” 

You nodded, recalling the map the two of you had gone over hours earlier. “Ten minutes,” you agreed. 

No more words passed between you as he boosted you up, and you pushed the window the rest of the way open to twist through. It was easier without gear in the way, but also left your shoulders and back tingling with the knowledge that you had nothing but fabric between you and any potential attack. 

But you were good at being quiet and sneaky, as proven when you made your way through the building. Nothing moved around you as you crept down the hallway, checking your doors and corners as you went. 

The smell got worse the further into the building you went. You opened the door at the end of the hallway and paused for a long moment, swallowing hard. 

The big empty room you'd seen in the plans was not empty. Instead it held a dozen or so metal cages, each one housing a small furry critter. A few of them moved as you did, eyes opening and feet shifting. 

Intel had been wrong about this room, and you wished you'd never seen it. But you had to push through to finish your task. 

You swallowed hard and crept around the outside of the room, focusing only on being quiet and avoiding any cameras. You couldn't worry about the animals, not right now. 

The office, at least, was exactly where it was supposed to be. It took moments to find and grab the documents you needed, lips curling. Well. At least Horangi would be pleased with you. 

Doing one more check of the room to be sure you had everything, you turned to go. 

Soft chittering made you stop. 

You couldn't understand the animals in the cages, no more than any human versed in body language could. But you could feel more empathy towards them. 

They didn't deserve this. But you needed to get out without leaving any sign of your passage. 

As much as you wanted to, you couldn't loose the animals in the cages. 

Jaw clenching, you forced your feet to move. Maybe you'd see if Horangi would let you come back and take care of the animals later. That was the best you could do, right now. 

The trip back through the dark building was silent, and you hoisted yourself up to the window, hanging half-out to hand the documents to Horangi. He looked amused when you slithered the rest of the way out. 

“Well done,” he murmured with an approving nod to you. Warmth filled your chest at the simple praise, and you basked in it for a moment. 

“Seemed pretty easy,” you murmured cautiously as the two of you snuck away again. “I mean, for us.” 

Horangi chuckled, dark eyes glancing at you. “Sometimes things are easy,” he murmured. “We're not paying for it.” 

You shrugged. Something still seemed wrong, but if he wasn't concerned, you weren't going to make a fuss about it. 

“You could sleep,” Horangi offered, even as he turned on the car to drive the two of you away. 

“Nah. I'll wait.” You stretched out a little in the seat, head leaning back against the headrest. The sky was just beginning to lighten with the first hints of sunrise, promising more. “Where are we stopping?”

“Safehouse,” Horangi answered, even though you were pretty sure you were supposed to remember that from the briefing. “In case we need to go back.” 

You hummed acknowledgement of that, glancing at him. Time alone with your pack alpha. You weren't entirely sure how to feel about that. 

“Promise I won't bite.” He flashed you a grin with teeth. 

You laughed, quiet but amused. “Ah yes, very reassuring.” 

He smirked, fingers flexing on the wheel. “Nervous?”

“Not particularly.” You grinned. “You had your chance to murder me in the middle of nowhere.”

He chuffed at you, briefly letting go of the wheel to pat your knee. “Won't be my only chance.” 

You laughed as his touch retreated again, leaving you warm and more relaxed than you should be. But you were learning to trust him, to give him bits of yourself. 

It was a heady feeling. 

The safehouse was boring, as most safehouses in your experience were. But it was warmer than outside and had blackout curtains, which would come in handy since the sun was up. 

You left Horangi in the main room to scout the rest of the place. Not that there was much to see - a single bedroom, a bathroom that König would have been absolutely squished in, and a hall closet with spare supplies. Nothing glamorous. But it would do. 

“Get some rest,” Horangi told you, sprawled along the length of the couch like a, well, cat. “I'll be up for a while.” 

You eyed him for a moment, debating how much you could push. “You'll rest soon?”

“Yes.” Far from appearing offended, Horangi smiled, just a little. 

You blinked at him, startled, warmth building in your chest at the sight of that smile. And promptly fled back to the bedroom. 

You absolutely should not like the sight of his smile that much. It wasn't that big a deal. It really wasn't. 

You were still trying to convince yourself of that when you dropped off to sleep. 

You woke before Horangi, sneaking past him to get some water. He'd managed to fall asleep on the couch, legs dangling over one arm, head tipped at an angle and torso twisted into some weird position that only a cat could enjoy. Shaking your head, you twisted the top off a water bottle, guzzling half of it in one go. 

Hopefully the two of you would get to head back to base today. Not that you minded being in a safehouse with him, but… it felt weird. Just the two of you, and no König. 

It was odd to leave a pack member out. 

Which was weird for you - it had been a long time since you'd been part of a pack, and longer since leaving someone out was even an option. All these realizations made you antsy, eager to do something, just so you weren't trapped in your own head. 

“You think too loudly.” 

You absolutely didn't jump at Horangi's voice behind you. You definitely didn't drop your water. “When did you wake up?” You asked him, eyeing him over the back of the couch. He hadn't moved at all. 

“I've been awake.”

“Liar.”

His lips twitched into another smile, small but very much there. You had to look away as heat suffused your face. 

“Any updates this morning?” You cleared your throat, picking up your water bottle and tossing it from hand to hand. 

“Not yet.” Horangi swung his legs around the side, sitting up and cracking his neck. “We'll hang tight a little longer.” 

You shrugged, wandering around the room aimlessly, too restless to settle. 

“Sit.” Horangi patted the couch next to him. “You can answer a few questions for me.” 

Well. That wasn't ominous at all. But you sat anyway. 

“What do you need in the pack room?”

You blinked at him, mouth dropping open a little. That… was not what you'd expected. “What?”

“You heard me.” His lips twitched again, eyes warm with amusement. 

Surprised, you leaned back against the couch, watching him. But he didn't change the question, didn't restate it. Just waited. 

“Not sure,” you settled on, a little cautious. “I don't need much.” 

Horangi made a short, dismissive noise at that. “Everyone needs something,” he insisted, head tipping to one side, gaze fixed on you. 

You blew out a noisy breath. You'd never given it any thought, if you needed anything in the pack room. “I don't… really know,” you admitted slowly. 

Horangi nodded slowly, never looking away from you. “Then we will figure it out.” 

You swallowed hard, the implication that he wasn't going anywhere, that he and König would help, bringing both a rush of joy and trepidation. You honestly weren't sure how to feel, now. 

Fortunately, you didn't have to figure it out. The phone rang. 

You moved away as Horangi made a face, reaching over the couch to grab his pack and the phone. You went back to the window to look outside, only half paying attention to the phone conversation. 

You needed to get your head on straight. Or move. 

“Time to go.” Horangi stood, shouldering his bag. 

You followed him silently back to the car, looking out the window without really seeing anything.

[hoemainexpansion]

Chapter Three: Falling Away From Me

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

The car ride back home was eerily quiet. You wouldn’t know what to say even if you wanted to. It feels like you’ve gone through the seven stages of grief every single day trying to find a way to cope and now you don’t know what to feel. 

You learned a few things by meeting with Detective Usami today:

Your husband is alive.

He’s at least a couple hundred miles away.

They’re not going to close his case until they meet him in person.

The last one surprised you. You know that legally, he is allowed to leave of his own free will, he’s not tethered to his own life to the point that he’s not allowed to start a new one. You were concerned that they’d take the video as confirmation and just move on. But considering the assault, the phone, and the car, they want to at least speak with him and make sure that he’s safe and not on the run for his safety or maybe involved in something criminal himself that led to all of this. 

You thought getting confirmation of him being alive would have you jumping for joy and removing all this stress, and to a small extent, it has helped, a little. But now an entirely new wave of confusion has washed against the shore that is your fragile psyche. 

Why is he just out wandering around? Why isn’t he coming home? Does he even realize what everyone’s going through? Did he find someone new? This baby wasn’t an accident, the two of you were trying to get pregnant. So if you find out that he was starting a life with someone on the side while intentionally trying to get you pregnant, you’re definitely going to have more than a few words for him when you finally speak to him. 

You arrived at the parking garage of your building a few minutes ago, but neither you nor Kento have made any effort to get out and go upstairs yet. In fact, he’s still gripping the steering wheel with so much force that his knuckles are completely white. 

He must have noticed you staring because it’s only then that he finally speaks up, “are you okay?”

He’s not a cashier at a convenience store asking to be nice so you can’t lie, “I don’t know. What about you?” “I’m fucking pissed.” Damn. You don’t know what you were expecting, but it wasn’t that. You know he was always joking when he made the ‘you can do better jokes,’ but you’re sure he’s gonna mean them now. “What the hell is he doing? He has a pregnant wife at home.”

“Ehh, who knows for how much longer,” you chuckle and do a dramatic shrug. It’s a bad joke but you don’t know how else to lighten the mood. 

“Maybe he’s been holding the Suguru grudge for the past seven years.” Dammit. He one upped your bad joke with a worse one. 

“All jokes aside, remember when he actually did?” If there’s one thing you’re glad your husband grew out of, it’s his jealousy, and a fuck ton of it used to be aimed at Suguru. 

Before you started dating Satoru, you went out on two dates with Suguru. He was sweet and you’d be lying if you said you saw no chance of it going anywhere. But after the second date, Satoru begged him for days to take a step back. He said Suguru should have known how much he liked you because of how nervous he got around you, but nobody is a mind reader. Suguru had a few girlfriends before you, but Satoru never dated anyone. He spent so much time perfecting his grades to get into a good university that his younger years lacked some of the social milestones that other people had. When Suguru realized that and how smitten he was with you, he stepped back and allowed you two to have a chance together. 

When Satoru first asked you out, you were completely against it. You didn’t like the idea of dating two friends. You never had a boyfriend before and didn’t want to start your romantic life off as hurting friends and dealing with the slut shaming you were going to get from people who knew. But, nothing physical ever happened between you and Suguru, not even kissing, so you decided to give Satoru a chance. He was also incredibly persistent which had you wanting to give in just to shut him up. It’s actually how funny how dedicated he was to getting a date with you for someone who was so nervous that he spilt something on you at least once on all three of your first dates. 

Kento’s voice is what rips you out of thoughts, “you know I was just kidding right?” “Huh?” 

“When I said he was holding a Suguru grudge, I was just kidding. You got pretty quiet there and I just wanted you to know that I didn’t mean to upset you.” Sweetheart.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not upset. I’m just thinking about how Satoru begged me for a date and then took me on a picnic where he accidentally kicked a plate and deconstructed sandwiches landed on my dress, getting condiments on the lace Ugh, the list goes on.” You can’t help but laugh at memories like that, they’re just so absurd. When you told Utahime and Kento what happened on these dates he worked so hard for, they were genuinely perplexed that you kept going out with him.

“No offense, but sometimes I still can’t believe that you married that guy. He was literally so nervous when he dropped you off at your family's home one day that he hit the garage door with his car and put a dent in it.” 

Aaaand you’re cackling. “That’s what made him so cute. He was so nervous that he just couldn’t get his shit together. He got better the more time we spent together, but it was absolutely adorable to me.”

“Adorable? Before or after he lost his balance while trying to kiss you and resulted in head butting you like he’s Tanjiro Kamado and you falling into his car?” 

Now you’re laughing so hard that tears are streaming down your face. You really wish you had these moments on camera because they’re so crazy. 

“By the way, I texted Choso and told him that we got some big news at the station today. So, he and Suguru are closing up early and they’re on the way.”

Fuck. 

Here comes the speculations. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

“He’s fucking what?!” Suguru says as he slams his drink down on the kitchen counter. “He’s fucking alive? Where is he? Why isn’t he here?”

You and Kento are completely silent because honestly, you don’t know what to say. Those are the same questions that you have and there are no answers as of now. 

“Do we know for sure that he’s alive?” Choso asks, and it’s a fair question.

“The detective showed us CCTV footage with a man that looked exactly like him on it. I mean, white hair, blue eyes, taller than everyone else. He looks exactly like my husband. We couldn’t make out the exact details of what he was wearing other than a red shirt, black jeans, and dark or black shoes.” 

Suguru looks a little taken aback at the mention of what he was wearing. “A red shirt? What, did he hit his head or something?” “Well, he was hit in the head with a blunt object, so, yeah.” You don’t mean to, but you laugh after saying that. You know people use that as a rhetorical question when someone does something silly, but in this case, it’s actually true. Since you know he’s alive, maybe it’s not as bad to infuse a little laughter into an otherwise stressful situation. 

“Is the red shirt that big of a deal?” Kento asks. 

This time, Suguru speaks up to answer his question, “I’ve known Satoru since we were children. He’s never worn a piece of red anything. He said it clashes with his eyes instead of bringing them out. He’s not strict about what he wears except for that.”

“He said the same thing to me early in our relationship,” you say, agreeing with Suguru. “But he also banned brown clothing from his side of the closet because he said it reminds him of our uniforms. I asked him one time if he’d wear a g-string and he said he would as long as it wasn’t in those colors.” 

“Ugh, didn’t need to picture that,” poor Kento, he’s having one hell of a day. “I never noticed those things, but I do try to avoid him as much as I can. But maybe that means that he’s not just avoiding coming home.” Thanks for being vague. 

“What do you mean?” You and Suguru ask at the same time. 

“We watched the footage and I’m fairly certain it was him. But he wasn’t behaving like the Satoru we know. We got to see him on cameras from a few different businesses as he walked down the street. One thing with Satoru, he always walks like he’s in a good mood.” You know what he means, but all of you laugh when he first says that.

“I’m not trying to make fun of him. But Satoru doesn’t just take up a lot of space because he’s tall, it’s also his personality. He doesn’t have a resting bitch face or whatever the hell the kids are calling it these days. He always looks happy, and it’s usually paired with him singing something while walking down the street or having some extra pep in his step. But there was none of that when we watched those videos. If I was walking down the street, I don’t think he would have stood out to me at all. He just looked like… a guy. If he’s not acting like himself, maybe it’s because he can’t. Just because we didn’t see anyone with him doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything more nefarious going on. Maybe someone or something is preventing him from going home and right now he’s just going through the motions. Maybe he’s doing things out of character to keep a low profile.”

“He should let his natural hair grow out then,” Choso says before downing the rest of his drink and Suguru laughs with you, he must have heard this complaint before. 

If you’re being honest with yourself, you didn’t even think of it like that. You assumed that he just moved on at the drop of a hat. But him not being able to come home for one reason or another does make sense. 

“Hmmm.”

“Where do we go from here?” Suguru looks more upset now than when he came in as he asked.

“Detective Usami has contacted the businesses that sent the CCTV footage to the tip line and collected all of their information. He and his partner are going to drive down there and stake the place out to see if they can catch him again. Unfortunately, that’s the only time that the owners of these places remember catching him on camera so there’s no guarantee that he’ll still be in the area by the time that they get there. But they’re going to go try and then keep us updated on the progress.” Thank goodness for having Kento in your life because after you saw your husband on camera, your brain shut down and you wouldn’t have been able to relay all this information.

“So, we wait,” Suguru says.

“We wait.”

Choso grabs your hand and places a light kiss on the back of it. That’s something that he used to do all the times when you were kids anytime you were upset and it always made you feel better. He pulled back from it a bit when you started dating Satoru to not add to his jealousy, but you really need the support today. 

Suguru smirks and you know nothing good is going to come from that. “So Nanami, why aren’t you accompanying your brother on this important mission?” You were wrong, something good did come from it. 

“You’re insane, he doesn’t even look like me,” Kento refutes his claim. 

“Your mother would be devastated hearing you renounce your twin brother like that.”

Choso lets out a soft ‘huh’ at the table and Kento tries to take the opportunity to change the subject but Suguru beat him to the punch, “one of the detectives on the case looks exactly like Nanami, except he has black hair.”

“No he does not.” Poor Kento, he looks so tired.

“He even has that ‘I’ve been working for forty years I can’t wait to retire even though I’m only thirty” look in his eyes.” Suguru looks so proud.

You have to hold your hand to your mouth to hold back the laughs because you completely agree. You just know that Detective Kusakabe is probably making fun of his partner because you know that you would. Hell, all of you kinda are right now. 

“Whatever, help me cook dinner so we can remove some of the stress from her, please.”

Suguru eyes soften, but that doesn’t stop him. “Sure, what did you guys used to make for your mom on mother’s day?” 

After they walk away, Choso whispers in your ear, “next time you go to the station, I wanna go with you.” 

You’re laughing even harder at how this is going to probably be a recurring joke for years. If Kento is tired now, he must be exhausted thinking of the jokes Satoru is going to make if he ever sees the two in the same room together. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

It’s been about a week since you got confirmation, well, as much confirmation as you can without seeing him in person, that your husband is alive. The detectives called you the night they started making the drive to the town he was spotted but you haven’t heard from them since. As much as you’d like some answers, you’re not living in as much fear as you were before. 

In fact, your mood has improved drastically. You still have your moments when you get incredibly down and don’t want to do anything except lay in bed, but you do see the light at the end of the tunnel. One night Choso and Suguru closed the shop early and you even went out with them and the other artists in the shop. It wasn’t anything too crazy, just some drinks at the bar with the guys, and then Yuji, the other artist working there, and the twin girls Nanako and Mimiko who apprentice under Suguru. You don’t drink yourself, and you can’t right now even if you wanted to, but the social part of it was nice. 

But while some things are looking up, you are absolutely still being babysat. Suguru is with you most times during the day, he coordinated his schedule with Choso so someone can always be there. On days where he can’t come over, Kento usually spends that time with you. He’s been canceling a lot of his out of the country shoots to ensure that he can be with you in case you need him. You beg him not to because you don’t want to hurt his career, but you’d be lying if you said him being there didn’t make this all semi tolerable. He’s also the one who frequently calls the station to see if there’s updates because it’s been too hard for you and he doesn’t want to add on to it with the pregnancy stress. And then Choso has been with you at night, every night. Movies weren’t lying when they said that the nights are the hardest so it’s amazing to have him there. 

However, you can’t help but let the bad thoughts pop in sometimes. Even though you’re feeling like things are getting better, you have to be honest with yourself. What if this isn’t a mistake? What if Satoru isn’t being watched and trapped in a bad situation? What if he just decided that he doesn’t want to come home? Could he be blaming you for his attack? Is he thinking that if you were a better wife who kept food in the house, he wouldn’t have gone through that and he’s harboring a grudge? Is he upset that it took you both too long to start a family and he was creating one with someone else and all this crazy stuff just timed it perfectly? 

Everyime you start to voice these thoughts, someone shuts them down. Nobody believes that he would willingly leave you, but you have to be realistic. Just because it may not be likely, or it may not be nice, doesn’t make it impossible. People do crazy shit like that all the time. 

Ugh, this is so fucking stressful.

You have been trying to keep up with a routine to keep your mind occupied and that has definitely helped. You’ve been slowly integrating yourself back into work over the past few weeks, but just what you can do from home to not overwhelm yourself. Besides that, you’re forcing yourself to cook more, keep your playlists organized, write a letter to Satoru everyday, and catch up with all the variations of 90-Day Fiance. As much as you like your horror movies and documentaries, you don’t need to be watching them as you’re already living one. 

You miss him. You miss him so much that it hurts. 

You could be in a lively mood and then bam, tears. You can’t wait until this is over and you can all return to normal life. You really want your friends to be able to do what they want instead of them feeling obligated to always be here. You love them here, but it does make you feel guilty sometimes. You feel like you cycle through these thoughts at least once a day and it’s honestly so exhausting. 

You really feel bad because you keep thinking, what if that wasn’t Satoru on camera and he’s ‘not around’ anymore? You can’t even think the word. But what if he can’t come home? Or, what if he just doesn’t want to? Your friends can’t revolve their entire lives around you. The only reason your family hasn’t come out to watch you is because they were talked out of it by the people who are doing it. But regardless of what does happen, it can’t be permanent and you know that. 

As you’re about to press play on another episode of 90-Day Fiance: Before the 90 days, you hear your phone ring. 

That surprised you seeing as Suguru is in your office working and you don’t expect anyone until later. You also have set ringtones for everyone and this is not one of those. At first you want to ignore it in case it’s a scam, but realizing that it could be important you rush to answer it. 

“Hello.?”

“Did you see the video?!” Damn Utahime, she knows the phone is right against your ear as she yells, right?

“What video?”

“The video of Satoru.” You could have sworn you already told her that.

“Yes. Remember, Kento and I went to the police station and they showed us that cctv footage of him a week ago.” With everything else going on, maybe you forgot to tell her.

“No!” Shit. Now you feel bad.

“I’m sorry, I could have sworn I told you.”

“You did!” What?

“Utahime, what the hell is going on?”

“I’m asking you if you saw the new video.” The what?! 

“New video? What new video?”

“Hold on, I’m sending it to you now.”

You wait a few moments until your phone alerts you that you have a new message from your loud girlfriend. You open it and the thumbnail just looks like a regular checkout at a store. You see a couple shelves with items on it, and the cashier set up on the left side of the screen.

You hit play and as soon as you do, you start to panic. Isn’t that weird how that works? Nothing has even happened yet. 

Luckily the anticipation doesn’t have much time to kill you because you see your husband appear on frame pretty quickly. Utahime was right, there is another video.

“When was this recorded? Who-who had it? How’d they get it? I haven’t heard from the detectives in days. What is thi–?” “Woah woah woah, calm down. I’ll answer what I can.”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t understand where this came from, nobody has told me anything.” Surely someone should have called you about this. 

“Yu found it. Actually, his friend did.” This just keeps getting more confusing. “He and one of his friends have been checking for updates multiple times throughout the day and saw that some obscure news website posted it not even an hour ago. Apparently they recognized him as the missing man and instead of calling it in, they sold the footage to get some more promotion for their store.”

Why. Do. People. Suck.

But that answers basically all of your questions. Well, almost all of them.

“Do you know when this was recorded?” It may be a stupid question to ask her but you have to try.

“Yu and his friend checked the metadata and it was recorded in the middle of the night, last night, sometime around two a.m.” That also explains why you didn’t get a phone call from anyone on the case yet. “On the bright side, that means he’s alive.”

You sigh because you know it’s true, but it doesn’t remove the stress because one thing continues to loop in your head, “but that also means that he’s not coming home.” 

She’s quiet after you say that. Everyone has been trying to convince you that he didn’t leave of his own volition, but each day, it gets a little harder to believe that. You’re starting to think that you’re going to have to adjust to life as a single mom before the baby comes because once they do, it’ll be a harder transition. 

You’ve been taking photos for Satoru everyday and that’s how you realized that you’re starting to show, it’s minimal, but it’s there. You thought he’d be so excited and now you’re not so sure. 

“Hey, just because he’s not here doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to still be with you. He could still want you and still lack the ability to come home. Two things can be true at the same time. Stop thinking like that, we’re going to figure it out.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am! I’ll come over tonight and we can have a girl’s night in. I’ll even bring Shoko so she can bring the drinks!” She sounds so excited and it’s starting to have the same effect on you.

“You know I can’t drink, right?”

“Aren’t pregnant women allowed to have one glass of wine a day?” Is that a real thing?

“Isn’t that an old wive’s tale?”

“We’ll ask Shoko, she is the doctor.” Hmm.

You and Utahime plan a time for her to stop by and then bid your farewells. You forgot to mention that Choso is also going to be here so it won’t be a true girl’s night. But in your head she has a thing for him so she probably won’t mind. Or maybe she hates so many of your male friends that he’s one of the few she finds tolerable. But you prefer the former. 

You decide to straighten up a little bit to kill some time before the girls get here. Since you’re home so much, it’s not like anything is really messy, but you’re also just fucking bored. You need to do something, anything, to get this new video out of your mind. How the hell do people keep coming across him but he can’t be tracked down? This is like a reverse Michael Myers chase and it’s annoying.

Just as you’re about to get up and do laundry for apparently, the fun of it, your phone rings. You check who’s calling and notice that it’s one of the detectives on your case, Evil Twin Usami in fact. 

Please let him know something new. Please let him know something new.

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Gojo?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“This is Detective Usami, I’m calling regarding your husband’s case.” So formal. You’ve literally spoken to him like six times. 

“Oh, hello. Is this about that new video?”

“You’ve seen it already? The devil works fast but I guess social media works faster” he says with a chuckle.

He even has the same sense of humor as Kento and he still wants to deny the resemblance.

“A friend just told me that some random news site posted it. I don’t know anything else about it though, there wasn’t even any sound.”

“Hmm. Well, we’ve learned a little something new.” You’re literally holding your breath as he says that. Please let it be something good. “Once that footage was posted online, we went to that location. It was actually a small family owned pharmacy that also sells a few odds and ends. Apparently that was the third time anyone working there could recall seeing your husband.”

“The third time?!” You accidentally yell into the phone.

“That’s correct.” He doesn’t sound fazed though so maybe he’s used to it.

“How the hell is this just coming up now?”

“The couple who owns the business is a little on the younger side and isn’t a fan of watching the news. It wasn’t until a customer pointed out that he looked like the ‘missing man’ to the couple that they looked up the case and reviewed their security footage.”

It’s not the craziest thing you’ve ever heard. You’ve known a lot of people yourself who don’t watch the news because they find it too depressing. But to then have information on a missing person and you sell it instead of reporting it? Come on. 

“Mrs. Gojo?” Shit, you zoned out.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought. Could you repeat the last thing you said?”

“The owners cross referenced receipts with their cctv footage to get an estimate of when he was there and what he bought. Apparently over the past few weeks, he’s been there three times and everytime he goes, he buys a bottle of over the counter pain reliever. That part stood out to them because he did have a gash on his head on his first visit, which isn’t surprising given what we know. But the bottles he purchased also contain 100 pills. That indicates some high level of pain. My partner is going to check out the hospitals in the area to see if he’s been checked in for any ailments as I continue to watch the stores in the area.”

That makes sense, but you still have one question, “where is he getting the money?”

“That’s a good question. When I interviewed the couple, they said that he looked like a clean cut guy who was well taken care of and that nothing stood out to them. Therefore, that eliminates him hiding out on the streets somewhere. He’s probably staying with someone, but nobody recalls seeing him with anyone. I’m also going to canvas the rest of this area to see if we can track his movements but so far, we haven’t found anything. The surrounding businesses are either still collecting all their footage or it has already been written over. I’ll let you know if we find anything else, but there’s a chance that it could still take a few days before we have any more answers.”

Why does it seem like everytime you get more answers, you still end up with more questions? This is literally the dumbest fucking thing.

“Thank you for the update, I understand that this isn’t something that can be solved in a day.”

“I appreciate your patience. I’ll be in touch,” that’s the last thing he says before he hangs up. 

You put your phone back down on the coffee table and then just sink into the couch. Before you were super concerned about something bad happening to him, but now you kind of wonder if he left because he did something bad to you. 

Before you even realized what you did, you screamed Suguru’s name at the top of your lungs. 

You hear the door to your office swing open and the doorknob bangs into the wall. And by the sound, you can already tell it left a dent. You hear him running down the hallway yelling your name and when he sees you, he has a look of pure horror on his face. You feel kind of shit for how you called him, but you feel so completely off right now.

“Are you okay???” He sounds terrified, whoops. 

“I just got off the phone with Detective Usami.” 

“Shit. Is everything alright? Did something happen? Did they find him? Is he gone? Is he–?” He’s freaking out and this is all your fault, you are absolutely making a mental note to make it up to him.

“I’m sorry for how I called you in here, I just felt too drained to get up.” That seems to relax him a bit, but you’re still going to buy the most expensive bottle of whatever liquor he likes cause damn. “He had some information on Satoru, well, kind of.”

“Kind of? What does that mean?” He asks as he sits down on the couch next to you.

“Did you see the video?” He looks completely confused and it makes sense, it was just posted and he has been sketching.

“What video? Of Satoru?”

“Yeah. Apparently Yu and his friend discovered it on some news site.” You pull out your phone and play it for him. His eyes widen but you can’t read the look on his face. You think your friends maybe doubted you and Kento a little when you said you saw surveillance of him, you have no proof of that, it’s just a feeling. But now that he can see it, it’s like the confusion of this case is getting worse. 

“Wow, that’s really him. It’s not that I doubted you before or anything. It’s just, it’s not wishful thinking anymore, that’s him. And it’s him with a really shitty haircut.” 

You laugh right along with him when he says that because honestly, you felt the same. It’s so short and Satoru always has shaggy hair, it’s really weird. Something is clearly off. He’s just not… himself. 

“Anyway, Usami tracked down the location of the video and found it’s a pharmacy where Satoru has been at least three times.” You look over to Suguru and see that his jaw has completely dropped open. Wait until he hears the rest.” Over the past few weeks, he’s been there those few times buying a bottle of painkillers on each visit. Kusakabe is going to check out hospitals in the area to see if he checked in at any time for severe pain since it seems like he’s going through these pills really fast.”

You pause to give him a moment to take in everything that you said. Just as you’re about to continue, Suguru speaks up first, “where is he getting the money? Wasn’t his car set on fire? I doubt someone would rob him but leave him with cash.” Bingo.

“That’s what I asked Usami. Even if those were the nicest attackers in the world, Satoru doesn’t usually carry cash. He also said that the couple complimented Satoru’s appearance as looking ‘well taken care of.’” This time it’s Suguru’s reaction that stops you.

“So, that means he’s not on the streets?”

“Also, he still had his longer hair when Kento and I viewed the first video. That means in the past month or however long it’s been at this time, all the days run together, he’s remained well dressed, has money, and has gotten at least one haircut.” You get even more confused as you relay this to him.

When you look at your friend this time, he looks for lack of a better term or phrase, fucking pissed. “What the fuck is he doing then? He has a pregnant wife at home and he’s just gallivanting around some random town getting haircuts and living his life like we’re not all at home freaking out over him.”

“Usami said he’s been trying to collect CCTV footage from surrounding businesses but due to the time it took to pin him down, some cameras have already been written over. But he said there are still a few things to collect for him and he’ll call when he has an update. Now it’s just waiting on that and the hospital.”

Suguru opens his mouth to speak but then closes it and sits back into the couch. Neither of you say anything for what feels like a long period of time but it’s probably just a couple minutes. 

After a bout of silence, he takes a deep breath and then grabs your hand before saying, “I’m so fucking sorry for everything that’s going on. But I swear, on my life, if what he is doing is intentional and was planned, I’ll fucking kick his ass for you.” 

You know he’s completely serious but you can’t help but laugh when he says that. You had no idea what was going to happen when all this crazy shit started up, but you’re glad you have such supportive people in your life. 

These highs and lows are really sucking the life out of you. First he’s gone, but then he’s seen on camera. They pin down an area, but then he can’t be found again. And now with the more you learn, the more personal this all feels and you have to accept that.

“Suguru, would you do me a favor and call Kento to update him on what’s going on? I’m too tired to go over it all again.” You hate passing off basic tasks to other people but you already have to update Utahime and Shoko when they get here and you just need a break. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

It was supposed to just be a girl’s night with you, Utahime, and Shoko. But now it’s the three of you plus Suguru who decided to stay, Choso who’s with you every night, Yu who helped discover this big lead, and Kento who rushed over as soon as Suguru called him.

Your life has literally turned into a game of Clue with everyone discussing their theories and what could be going on. This would be fun if you didn’t feel like kicking your husband in the balls the more you think about it. 

Kento spent like twenty minutes analyzing the video that Yu found trying to see if anything stood out. Yu even suggested going down to the area that Satoru was seen to see if you can get any more information but was talked out of it when reminded that people are already looking for him there. 

“Something about this just feels off,” and that’s the first thing Kento says after having this video on repeat. 

“Well, duh!” Utahime exclaims. “That’s what’s making all of this so confusing.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Kento refutes. “Everything about it doesn’t make any sense. What’s up with that shitty haircut he has?” 

The entire group bursts out laughing after he says that. Of all the things he could have said, that was it. 

Even tipsy, Shoko can’t help but say,”could you imagine standing up in court and saying something like ‘with all due respect your honor, his style is trash so this makes no fucking sense.’”

Everyone is laughing hysterically except for Kento and that gives you pause, he wasn’t joking. “What do you mean?”

“Well, first, he’s found in another town. Second he’s on video wearing that red shirt that you guys thought was so bizarre.”

“He hates wearing red,” Shoko says without missing a beat.

“I never noticed but apparently all of you think that’s weird,” Kento takes a breath before continuing, “he’s not acting like ‘himself’ in the few videos I’ve seen and now he has this shitty haircut.” 

That ‘shitty haircut’ comment is going to get you everytime you just know it is. It’s getting you right now but you’re trying not to laugh because Detective Good Twin is so serious. 

Suguru interjects before anyone else has a chance to, “he’s been my best friend since we were kids so I really hate to say this. But, how do we know he doesn’t have another family somewhere? How do we know he didn’t freak out and just leave his life?”

Fuck. You’ve been thinking it yourself but hearing it out loud from someone else hurts.

“Him being attacked doesn’t support that. Besides, he and his wife have been glued at the hip for years. It’s not like he had a lot of out of town business trips to do that, and when he did leave, she went with him. Why would he just decide to leave after being attacked and basically abducted?” Kento pauses to let the group take that in.

“How do we know that wasn’t all planned?” Suguru asks.

“You really think he would do that?” 

“Nothing would surprise me at this point.”

Kento and Suguru are just staring each other down as if either theory is completely crazy. 

Shoko puts her drink down and asks, “do you honestly believe, in your heart, that he’d do that to us?”

Suguru sighs before responding, “why isn’t he here? His wife is almost four months pregnant. He should be here.”

“Maybe he can’t be here,” Choso says this time, voice barely above a whisper.

“Well why not?! If he can just walk down the street, he’s not being held captive. So what’s going on? Is my theory really that far-fetched?”

“No Suguru, it’s not,” all heads turn to you as those words leave your mouth.

“You really think he’d do that to you?” Utahime asks as she looks like she’s going to cry. 

“I don’t know, but I have to be realistic. Nobody who had something bad happen to them predicted it or else we’d try to change the outcome. It sucks, but I’d hardly be the first wife who was left in some wild manner such as this.” 

Kento reaches over and grabs your hand before saying, “if it’s any consolation, I truly don’t believe that’s what happened. I think he’s fucking annoying, but not completely devious.”

After spending some more time speculating about the possibilities, everyone slowly starts to return home, except for Shoko who you forced to stay in your guest room and sleep the liquor off. Suguru also decided to stay and help her out if she gets sick in the middle of the night so that you don’t have to. 

It’s not like it would matter, you weren’t sleeping anyway. You spent so much time refreshing search results hoping for something new that Choso had to force you to put your phone away. You thought he was asleep the whole time so when his raspy voice told you to chill out, it caught you off guard. 

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Was the light bothering you?” You really hope you weren’t the reason he was still awake.

“More than the actual box of light you need on to be able to sleep, no. Neither the phone nor the tv prevent me from sleeping. I just can’t stop thinking about everything.”

You turn over on your side so that you can face him. “So, what do you think now?”

“I don’t think it’s what Suguru thinks, but I have no other ideas if I’m being honest.”

You had so much hope that you didn’t cry for a while, but now it feels like those stupid tears are returning. “How do you continue to have so much hope? I feel like I’m falling here.”

“I feel like if his goal was to get away from you, he could do a better job than leaving with no resources to do it and then be seen in a shopping area on camera multiple times. Your husband is silly, but he’s not a moron,” he says without missing a beat. 

“Hmm. Thank you.” 

He scrunches his eyebrows at you like you just said the silliest thing, “I didn’t do anything.” 

“Yeah, you did. I’d be in pieces if you weren’t all holding me together. So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And hey, if it does turn out that it’s what Suguru thinks, I’ll give you a really good discount on covering those tattoos. I’m pretty good. I might even be able to manipulate those letters to change it from ‘Satoru’ to “Suguru.’” He said that. He said it with a straight face. If there’s one thing you love about your friend group, it’s that nobody is overly sensitive and you can make jokes out of your tragedies. “Anyway, go to sleep. You need to get out of this house so you’re coming to work with me tomorrow.”

You really hope someone comes in with at least one funny tattoo idea. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

Kusakabe’s POV

After showering, putting on his suit, and making his coffee, Atsuya Kusakabe is now in his car on the way to the hospital closest to the pharmacy that the missing man Satoru Gojo was spotted at. If he’s being honest, when he first started this case, he thought it was just a cheating husband who left his wife. But now? It definitely feels like it’s more than that.

He’s praying that someone at the hospital has some answers because over the past few days, this case has become incredibly high profile. Satoru Gojo is a known prosecutor, and he’s damn good at his job. So good in fact, that he never loses. That’s what led to the detectives first theory, that it was a bitter defendant from a previous case. 

However, he scoured the footage and cross referenced it with mugshots of the criminals Gojo prosecuted and nobody stood out. He had to accept that it could have just been a coincidence and that they may have no connection at all. 

That’s the worst thing for law enforcement in a case because it opens up the suspect pool to a ridiculous degree. It could literally be anyone. Once you realize that it could be an unrelated stranger, it makes it that much harder to solve. 

As he drives down the road and sips his coffee, he can’t stop wondering what the hell is going on. Obviously the public is demanding answers, it’s never good to leave a case unsolved, especially when someone like him is the victim. But now that it appears he’s alive but can’t be tracked? Something doesn’t feel right. If he’s being honest, he wants answers for himself more than anything at this point. 

And he’s hoping the hospital will have those answers. He’s not particularly a fan of them, but he likes them more than sitting in his car all night around potential criminals waiting to catch him off guard. He wouldn’t say he’s scared, out loud. Just cautious. 

As he sees the building come into view, he downs the rest of his coffee and starts mentally rehearsing the questions that he has to ask the staff. Hospitals aren’t the easiest to get leads out of due to privacy laws, but hopefully the workers there will understand the severity of this case.

As soon as he approaches the parking lot, he’s already annoyed. This is one of those places where you have to get your parking validated or they’re going to charge you damn near your rent money. 

Now his plans have changed, first task, get parking validated, second task, ask about Satoru Gojo. 

After getting the little slip of paper he hates so much, he enters the sliding glass doors of the hospital. It’s huge, clean, and he’s still uncomfortable. 

He approaches the receptionist at the front desk and notices that she’s kinda cute. Short hair, blonde, nice smile, too bad he’s here for work. 

“Can I help you? Are you here to see anyone?” She asks him. 

“Yeah. But can you validate this first?” He pulls the slip of paper out of his pocket and hands it to her. 

She flips it over before saying, “oh sorry. You have to go up to the fourth floor and go to the room at the end of the hallway. They handle all the parking matters.” 

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” he says. 

“I am,” and the serious look falls from her face. 

She’s even cuter now, he thinks to himself. She scans the slip and hands it back to him.

“So, you said you wanted to see someone?”

“Actually, I wanted to see if you saw someone.” She furrows her brows because that’s definitely an interesting way to phrase it. He pulls his wallet out of his pocket and then pulls a photo out. He hands her the photo of Gojo and then asks, “have you seen this man?” 

She takes the photo to examine it, “isn’t this the guy from the news?” 

Good start. 

“Yes. I don’t know for sure if or when he could have been here, but there’s a chance that he could have come in for an injury. Maybe a head injury actually.” 

“I only work the day shift during the week and I don’t recall seeing him. Can I make a copy to ask my co-workers?” 

He nods. “That’s a copy so you can keep that. May I also leave you my card?” 

“Of course. I’ll contact you if anyone knows anything.” She’s sweet. 

Focus on the case he thinks to himself. 

He hands her his business card and bids her good day. 

As he walked out of the doors, he was hit with a wave of disappointment. Not only does he want to know what’s going on, especially because the media is on his ass. But he knows this man has a pregnant wife at home and that part is starting to eat at him. Knowing that he’s probably alive but hasn’t been found makes him feel like he’s failing you, his job, and himself. Sometimes he wonders if this is still the right career for him. 

He really wants to find answers before you show up with his partner's intimidating twin again. If there’s one person in this situation who scares him the most, it’s that blonde guy with that stern look on his face. 

Where the hell did you find that guy? And why hasn’t he seen him at Usami’s family home when he’s invited over for dinner? Yeah, he’s gonna throw more of these jokes at him later. 

He gets into his car and starts to head back to the hotel to tell his partner what happened. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

It’s around midnight when Kusakabe heard his phone ring. He’s been at the desk in his hotel room for hours pouring over the same surveillance footage and trying to see if there’s anything that he missed. After telling Usami every uneventful thing that happened, he decided to spend the day in and making calls instead of hitting the ground like his partner. 

He grabs his phone and realizes that he doesn’t recognize the number, so he’s hoping that’s a good sign and then it’a a new lead. 

“Detective Kusakabe speaking.” 

“Hi there. My name is Noritoshi Kamo and I’m a doctor at Miracles Hospital. I heard you came by this morning asking about a patient.” 

“Uh, yes I was. He’s a missing person I’ve been trying to locate for some time now. Have you seen him.” He’s already bracing himself for this doctor to tell him that he can’t reveal information like that so he’s really hoping for the best. 

“Yes I have, twice in fact.” Twice??? How the hell does this guy keep slipping under the radar? He literally has white hair, is 6’3, and has the bluest eyes in the fucking world. “Yes. According to my files, he was here a little over a month ago. I wasn’t the attending physician that time though, but my colleague remembers him.” 

“And you’re sure it’s Satoru Gojo?” 

“That I can’t confirm. We only know him as ‘John Doe.’ As I’m looking over the paperwork, it seems he was injured but didn’t want to involve the police. He also chose to keep his personal information private so we respected that.”

That sentence snapped everything into place for the detective. 

“May I ask when you last saw him?” 

“Sometime within the past week. He came in with complaints of a headache. When I spoke with him, he mentioned that he’d been in here before for head pain which is obvious based on the information in his file. But the pain he was experiencing hasn’t dissipated as much as he expected so he came in for another checkup. I referred him to a specialist at another hospital for a once over. You may be able to find him there.”

Damn. This is a lot to take in.

“Can you give me the name of the hospital you sent him to?”

“I’m sending an e-mail to the one listed on your business card, it will have the name and address of where I sent him along with the contact information for my colleague he should be seeing.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, have a good night detective.”

Kusakabe hangs up his phone and immediately goes to his e-mail to see where he’s being sent to next. When he opens it, his jaw drops and he rushes out of his hotel room to go bang on his partner’s door.

“Usami! Usami! Open up!”

The door swings open with a very grumpy dark haired man already over his shit standing behind it. “What’s going on? You better have found something.”

“Better. I have the address for where we should be able to find Mr. Gojo.”

Usami’s sleepy eyes widen like he can’t believe what he just heard. “Where?”

Kusakabe gives him his phone so he can see the e-mail for himself. “We’re going home. He was recommended to a neurologist in the same city we just came from.”

“If this is really the address, this is within thirty minutes of his home. It’s probably where his wife plans to give birth.”

“Yep.”

“Start packing.” 

Both detectives return to their rooms to start packing up to head back home. Both want to call and update you on the progress but the last thing they want to do is get a pregnant woman’s hopes up and then dash them within the next few days… again. They’ll wait until they get confirmation with their own eyes. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

It’s been a long couple of days since the last time you spoke to the detectives on Satoru’s case. It hasn’t been that long if you’re being honest, it’s only been like two days. But you’re exhausted. 

You’ve been through an array of emotions from sadness to grief to anger and then back to sadness and you don’t know how to feel. 

You just want some answers and you’re hoping that you’ll get some soon even if they’re not what you want to hear. 

This purgatory you’ve been living in is draining you. 

Colors don’t seem as vibrant. Movies that you like don’t seem as interesting. Food that you like doesn’t taste as good. Minor inconveniences have now felt like giant obstacles and you’re tired of what this stress is doing to you. 

You’ve always had a policy; “don’t put yourself through emotions for someone that they’re not reciprocating for you.” And you’ve always kept to that. 

If someone did you wrong in the past, you didn’t spend days being upset about it because people with no conscience don’t do that for you. 

But this is different. 

You’ve spent years with this man and now that you have to admit there’s a chance that he voluntarily left you, and it hurts. 

It’s an all consuming pain that keeps gnawing at your fucking soul. 

Not only are you filled with worry about what’s going on, but now that more potential explanations are coming up, it’s bringing you back to a negative place you crawled out of after dealing with your loser ‘ex.’ 

Well, he’s not a true ‘ex’ in the traditional sense. Satoru is the first boyfriend you ever had and to this day is still the only man you’ve ever been with. That was just the nickname Utahime gave that loser because you cringed every time you heard his real name after what he did to you. 

If you think about it, that experience should have been the first sign that Satoru liked you as more than a friend. 

You’d become friends with another male student who you shared two classes with in your third year of high school. He used to make the occasional asshole comment, but you just brushed it off. You assumed he was one of those guys who was charming even though he was kind of a dick. 

But one week, he hung out with you after school everyday working on random assignments which was something he didn’t normally do. 

Being that Satoru and Suguru were both athletes, they spent a lot of time practicing or just running track to keep in shape. Because of that, you used to go sit on the bleachers outside to read before heading home for the day. One day, that loser beat them out there and put on the nice guy facade to get close to you. But then he tried to make a move and get physical feeling as though you owed him something for his wasted time. 

Luckily, before anything happened, Satoru showed up and for lack of a better term or phrase, punched his lights out. You didn’t even realize he was there until the other guy was on the ground. 

But before Asshole of the Century walked away, he made sure to leave you with some parting words, “it all makes sense now. But don’t get too comfortable. It’s only a matter of time before he leaves you for someone better and hotter,” and then he walked away like the douche he was and probably still is. 

Even though the two of you never dated, it was your first experience of being lulled into a false sense of security only for someone to attack your insecurities so brazenly. And since all this has been going on, his words have been living rent free in your head. 

You just know that if he knows what’s going on, he’s laughing his loser ass to sleep about it claiming he was right. You just really hope that he’s wrong. 

Ugh, what the hell did you used to do in your free time? When you were younger, you always loved staying in and avoiding over stimulating places. But now being home with too much time on your hands feels like a punishment. Especially considering the fact that negative events from your life keep playing on repeat for no apparent reason. 

“Nap time it is!” you say to yourself. That’s become your new hobby because every time you feel like you’re getting back to normal, you get a phone call that throws all of that out the window. 

Just as you’re getting comfortable in bed with your avocado squishmallow that you so creatively named Avocado-y, your phone rings. 

“I swear if this is some bullshit, I’m gonna throw this thing at the fucking wall,” you mumble to yourself. 

It’s Utahime, that’s now who you were expecting randomly in the middle of the day. “Hello?”

She yells your name into the phone, again! It’s probably time to start switching ears when he calls to at least make the hearing loss even. “You have to get to the hospital now!”

That freaks you the fuck out. “Is this one of those ‘the call is coming from inside the house things?’”

“No! I just got a text from Shoko that Satoru is at the hospital!”

What. There’s no way.

“Are you sure? Did she see him? How does she know for sure?” You’re trying not to get your hopes up without confirmation first. 

“She couldn’t give too much information. This is what her text said; Satoru’s here. Nurse recognized him when file landed on her desk. Can’t check myself, have to assist another physician. I’ll call when I’m done.’

Have you heard anything from the detectives?”

As a matter of fact, you haven’t. “No, but if he just got there, I probably wouldn’t. They were out of town looking for him. Why would he just randomly show back up here?” You definitely have questions. 

“Who knows? But visiting hours open up in two hours so we should go! I’ll start making calls.” 

“Okay, I’ll start getting ready.” 

With that, you hang up. You’re shaking from the spike in nerves. All you’ve wanted was a call like this for what feels like forever. But the fact that he’s so close to you and isn’t reaching out says a lot.

“Suguru!” 

Fuck, you did it again. You didn’t realize how your tone sounded until the doorknob bashed into your wall, again. Okay, now you owe him two favors or gifts.

He throws your bedroom door open, once again looking terrified that something happened to you. Maybe you should pay for his vacation. He could use one after dealing with your shit.

“Are you okay?” 

“Satoru is at the hospital.”

He’s staring at you like you just said the craziest thing in the world. “The hospital? Which hospital?”

“Shoko’s. Apparently a nurse recognized him. She hasn’t been able to confirm it herself just yet. More of a ‘word of mouth’ situation.”

“Well, let’s go confirm it for ourselves then.”

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

An hour and a half goes by of you taking a shower, doing your hair and makeup, getting dressed, and now you’re in Kento’s car with him, Suguru, and Choso. Everyone decided to leave work early today to go find out what’s going on. This is the closest anyone has been to him and even if it’s a mistake, everyone wants to see for themselves. Utahime is arriving separately with Yu and then it’s just a waiting game. 

“You look nice,” Kento says, briefly looking at you. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you get so dolled up.”

He’s right. You’ve been doing the bare minimum when you need to leave the house. This is the first time you put a little glam into your look in quite some time. 

“Thank you. I know that it may not be him, but in case it is, I wanted to look nice. He got me this entire outfit actually.” 

You’re wearing a powder blue, long sleeve, mock turtleneck, dress that goes to your mid thigh. And you paired with a double breasted trench coat in the same color, ankle boots, and nude tights. You and Satoru have been through quite the fashion evolution and one phase used to be wearing multiple pieces, but all in the same color. You straightened your hair, painted a smokey eye, and used a matte lipstick for a not so over the top look. Especially because you didn’t have that much time to get ready. 

You hate to admit it, but you’re excited. It’s the first time you’ve felt that way since you told Satoru that you were pregnant. 

“Do we have everything?” You asked the group. You’re not sure if it’s really him, but you wanted to bring some things in case it is.

You got him a new phone after his was destroyed and then confiscated by police. You even loaded all his old information on there so he didn’t have to start fresh. You brought one of his robes from home and a couple of sweaters because there’s no telling how long he’ll be in the hospital, if it is him. And then of course, a bag of different kinds of candies. 

You feel Choso’s hand on your shoulder, but it’s Suguru who says, “relax. We have everything. You look great. Everything will be fine. We’re just checking to see if it’s him.” 

He’s right. But you’re that person who when you make a list of things, you check it like thirty nine times. 

Once Kento puts the car into park, that’s when you realize where you are. You don’t know how you zoned out for the rest of the ride but you really hope that becomes a thing of the past. “Everyone ready?” He asks.

All of you nod and start getting out of the car. You lock arms with Kento and the four of you start walking into the hospital in pairs. You notice that Utahime isn’t around so you’ll just have to update her on what’s going on later. 

As you approach the desk, you recognize the receptionist as a young woman that Shoko introduced you to one day. She smiles and greets you as you get closer. 

“Hey Nobara! I know we’re a little early for visiting hours, but I was wondering if there was a way we could see Satoru?” You phrase it as a question to not come off too aggressive. 

But one thing catches your attention, it’s the receptionist behind her who looks at you like… you don’t even know what. It’s almost like she’s surprised to see you. You don’t recognize her, but quite a few people here know you and vice versa due to you bringing Shoko lunch so often. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, that’s for sure.

“Gojo? He’s here?” She looks perplexed. “I thought he was missing.”

“Still is, technically, I think.” You’re struggling to get this out properly. “But according to Shoko, a few nurses recognized him today.” 

“Oh okay, lemme make a call.” 

You go to sit down in between Choso and Suguru because something is bothering you.

“Did anybody else see that?”

“What? You mean the look of shock on that woman’s face when you asked to see your husband? Yeah, I did, she wouldn’t be good at playing poker,” Suguru responds.

The four of you sit in silence for a couple of minutes waiting for a response from Nobara. But one thing you do notice, is that one nameless receptionist has tried sneaking looks at you at least twice. If you’re being completely honest, it’s starting to piss you off. 

Just as you’re really letting it get on your nerves, Nobara calls you over to the desk.

“Okay, here’s what I got. The attending physician really doesn’t want him having too many guests right now based on the reasons he came in in the first place. But, as the wife, they’ll allow you in because you need to be briefed on his condition.” His. WHAT?

“I’m sorry, what condition would that be?” You hate that you asked her like it was co-worker gossip but you were unprepared for that response.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask when you get up there. Here’s a sticker!” She hands you one of those visitor passes that you write your name on and her smile makes you smile. “She’ll walk you to his room.” Then she points at the receptionist who you kinda wanna throw hands with.

Time to put on the fake customer service smile, “oh great, thank you!”

Before you walk away with her, you turn to the rest of your group. To tell them what’s going on. They all look like they’re going to shit themselves, but for different reasons. They wish you luck and then you start the walk up to Satoru’s room. 

Before you got here, you were questioning if it was really him. But now that you’ve asked for him by name and they’re taking you to him, you believe that’s all the confirmation you need. You really wish that you could have brought at least one person with you though.

Satoru is up on the fifth floor which means that you have to take this old ass elevator up there. You’d really think a hospital would have something that looked a bit safer. As the doors close, you see Shoko walking over to the guys but you can’t hear what she’s saying. 

Once the elevator arrives at the fifth floor, the doors open, and you and the receptionist begin walking down the long ass hallway of patients rooms. You really wish you knew the floor was going to be this quiet because your heels are click clacking loud and the sound is bouncing off all the walls. 

You stop at a room with the number twenty four on a placard next to the door. “This is his room.” That’s all she says before she smirks and walks away.

Bitch.

You were really trying not to think that way but what the fuck is her problem? 

You stand outside the door for a moment trying to calm your nerves. You didn’t think you’d feel like this once you faced the possibility of seeing him again but you feel like your whole body is on vibrate. 

You don’t want to be rude so you knock on the door and wait a few seconds for a response. You hear a ‘come in’ from the other side and you recognize that voice. It’s Satoru’s, for sure.

Once you start to slowly open the door you hear voices from inside, but can’t make out the other person. 

You walk inside and at first all you can see is a window, a curtain that’s been pulled back, and the foot of a bed. You decide to focus your eyes there first assuming that that’s where the patient would be. 

Once it comes completely into view, you freeze, and your heart stops.

It’s him.

It’s your husband. 

It’s your husband in a fucking hospital bed. 

He looks up and his bright blue eyes focus on yours. His jaw drops open and only one word leaves his mouth, “wow.” 

It was a good idea to wear this outfit.

“Satoru! Oh my god!” You walk over to him and he’s just smiling at you, just as beautiful as always. You throw your arms around him and feel him start to put his arms around you as well, a little hesitant at first.

“Hi,” that’s all he says. But that’s fine with you because you just spent so much time wondering if he was even alive. But here he is and it’s such a relief.

You pull back a bit to look at him but then lean in to kiss him and that’s when he pulls away and it feels like a dagger in your heart. But, he’s been through a lot and you don’t want to pressure him. Who knows what’s going on inside him right now? 

Right after that happens, you hear it, the bathroom door opens and you hear a voice,  “oooohhhh, pretty girl. Who’s she?” 

You look up and see a woman. A fucking woman. Do you have to fight every woman in this hospital for fuck’s sake? 

She’s tall, beautiful, and looks like she should be on set for a Cosmopolitan photoshoot instead of hanging out in a hospital room. Not only is she statuesque, but she has long icy hair and cat-like eyes. If you looked like that, you would definitely be scamming rich old men out of their money. Just saying. 

But before you can get lost in staring at her for too long, you hear him respond to her question, “I don’t know.” 

He doesn’t know. Doesn’t know you? You’re his fucking wife. 

Before you have a chance to say that, the door to his room opens again, a tanned man with a goatee and wearing a lab coat enters his room. He looks to the three of you and you can see it in his face, it’s like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

He steps over to you and reaches out his hand to shake yours, “Mr.s Gojo, I presume?” 

Ooooohhh the petty princess in you is loving this man right now. 

“Yes, that’s me,” you respond with a bright smile. You don’t want him to sense that you were about to throw some beads on the floor and get yourself banned from Shoko’s place of work. 

He then turns to the other woman with a raised brow, “who are you then?”

She wastes no time in attempting to steal the spotlight, “I’m Mei, I’m his gir–.”

“Friend! She’s my friend,” Satoru interjects before she can finish that sentence.

He may not know who you are but he still feels like he’s in trouble so that’s interesting. 

“Well I’m sorry ma’am, I only want family here for the time being. There’s a lot going on and I’d like to keep the visitors to a minimum,” the doctor says. Thank goodness.

When you look over at her, she looks pissed. Good. 

She slowly stands up, grabs her purse, puts her hand on your husband’s shoulder and says, “just call me when you need me. I’ll be there.” She made sure to emphasize the words ‘need’ and ‘I’ll be there.’ 

You really want to punch her in the face. She slowly walks out of the room like she’s expecting someone to tell her to come back but fuck that.

Once she’s out of the room and the door closes, the doctor starts to speak again, “I’m Dr. Masamichi Yaga and I’m a Neurologist here. Your husband was admitted after being referred by a colleague of mine from another hospital. He’s been voicing some concern about migraines brought on by an injury but worried because they haven’t dissipated even though the injury has healed. We’re going to run some tests to make sure there’s no internal damage that requires surgery to heal. So that’s everything we’re going to do on our end. I’m here to discuss what you need to do on yours.”

“On mine?” That threw you. You weren’t there for the injury and this is the first time you’re seeing him.

“Yes. Your husband is suffering from what I believe is post-traumatic amnesia. It may take some time, but I have some ideas on what you can do to help him recall his memories.”

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

Amnesia?

 It all makes sense now. 

[thezombieprostitute]

Dragonfly - Part 2

Summary: Steve has just about everything he could ever want in life. He's got you, a baby on the way, and a successful Family. No one would dare interfere with that. Right?

A/N: Reader is female, pregnant. No other descriptors used.

Word Count: ~1k

Warnings: Death threats, Implied violence, Pregnancy. Please let me know if I missed any!

Part 1 -- Part 3

Series Masterlist

You’ve been stuck inside the house for days. It’s a beautiful house, you feel comfortable in it, but knowing you can’t leave makes you want out more than ever. You try to distract yourself by cooking and baking whatever it is the baby is craving but that only goes so far. Especially when you can feel Steve’s frustration adding to your own. Something needs to actually be done but, with nothing you can actually do, it’s just building up a lot of frustrated energy for both of you. He can at least use the home gym for some of his energy but all you’re allowed to use in there is the treadmill and it’s just not enough. 

Bucky finally has some news and calls you both into Steve’s office. You vaguely recognize the person with him as God the Bounty Hunter, or GBH as he allows only his closest circle to call him. Steve sets you in the chair behind his desk, the most comfortable one in the office, before sitting on the desk facing the two men. 

“GBH has been able to get an appointment with the person who runs the boards,” Bucky starts. Steve’s fists clench as he grabs the edge of the desk, fighting the urge to punch the faceless person. “It’s at the Cairo Hotel and I’m gonna recommend neither of you is there for it.”

“What?” Steve’s anger is evident in his clenched jaw.

“There are a few factors, Steve,” Bucky raises his hands. “Namely, I don’t think you can control yourself to follow the rules of neutrality at the appointment. We can’t afford to lose Pine’s support.” 

Steve lowers his head in understanding. You get up and gently rub your hand between his shoulder blades, trying to help him keep calm.

“Another factor is my professional standing,” GBH adds. “I have a reputation and clout to uphold. These aren’t the kind of people you want to piss off. Anything happens to Mr. Smith at an appointment with me, I’ll be done for. And not just professionally.”

“GBH assures me that there is procedure for a target to remove their contract or for someone else to do so on their behalf,” Bucky offers. “It’s likely gonna cost a lot, but I know that doesn’t matter.” Steve nods. “Plus, it’ll keep her off of the contract postings for at least five years.”

“But I am highly doubtful anyone will get any information on who posted the contract,” GBH confessed. Steve turned to glare at him but the other man seemed unaffected as he continued, “again, lots of regulation and factors. Namely trust within the business. No one’s gonna post a contract if there’s a chance the target finds out they’re the ones who opened it.”

“Just business, huh,” Steve mocks. 

You hug him from behind, “just getting the hit on me removed would be a major quality of life improvement.” You nuzzle your face against his shoulder. “And maybe we can send one of the Garbage Men to the appointment? They’re good at getting subtext and negotiations, right?”

Steve and Bucky both nod at your assessment. 

“I was planning on just me and God,” Bucky admits. “Would it be acceptable for us to bring a third?” 

GBH contemplates, “it shouldn’t be a problem. The key thing is that it’s at Pine’s establishment and he doesn’t have to worry about someone trying to hurt him in retaliation for doing his job.” 

Steve’s grip on the desk makes his knuckles go white. He hates the idea of his wife’s life or death being a matter of ‘business’. But he knows that’s how it is for everyone outside his circle. It’s the kind of thinking that he’s worked hard to make sure he doesn’t fall into. “Whatever you need to do, do it. I want this contract burnt.”

It’s finally the day of the contract appointment and you do your best to distract yourself and Steve. He’s always been willing to do whatever you needed but it’s been magnified since your confirmed pregnancy test a few months ago. Thinking it might help both of you to relax a little, you ask him to help you out. 

A foot massage for your swollen feet, keeping his hands busy and his thoughts focused on your moans of pleasure. 

A warm bath to help your muscle aches, keeping his attention focused on your naked body and the temperature of the water. 

Which, of course, led to the two of you in bed so he can properly worship your body. Part of you misses the rougher sex but you understand Steve’s hesitancy. And damn if he doesn’t still make you feel so good you forget your name. 

Steve holds your sleeping form in his arms, gently rubbing your belly. He knows you’ve been trying to distract him and he’s so grateful to you. He’s barely been able to keep from punching walls and checking his phone every five minutes. But taking care of you really helped to settle him. 

He hears the telltale chirp of his phone and moves as carefully as he can so that he doesn’t wake you. The message is from Bucky, Contract burnt. Possible lead thanks to Teach. His shoulders go lax as he finally feels the relief he’s been longing for. 

He returns to his place in the bed, holding you close. You barely wake up, just enough to make yourself comfortable and kiss his neck. It’s not completely safe for you and your baby boy yet. But now that the overarching danger has been taken care of, he can focus on finding and crushing the source. Whoever Dragonfly is, Steve vows they will die in agony by his own hand.

Part 1 -- Part 3

Series Masterlist

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