#i keep considering making Endless OCs but I really feel like there isn’t much that the og seven don’t cover

[byteing]

i like the idea of some mortals being aligned with Endless in a similar way to people with TM.A avatars. like less extreme, and without ever knowing it in 99% of cases. i think it’s kind of supported by canon too if Despair is anything to go by (see: her competing with her siblings to ‘claim’ a mortal…)

[breitzbachbea]

The Hetalia "Cell Block Tango" AU/Scenario

This idea left my brain last saturday and, as usual, has already completely spun out of control two days later. Much thanks to Riva (@fireandiceland) for their open ear and grandiose input, all of the following bullshit would not have been possible without them.

This is essentially an update to this post about a "Cell Block Tango" Performance for Hetalia ships that at some point could be construed as partner exercising foreign rule over the other. We've talked about it as a show that the countries put on for fun, so it's not really an AU. We're here to be horny and have fun, not to be dramatic and edgy, okay. (Or at least not "actual murder" dramatic).

Here's the list of the couples and their corresponding parts that we settled on. (I'll use the names of the characters from "Chicago" & their iconic little cue).

Liz/Pop - SuFin, with Tino as Liz. The ship was Riva's suggestion and I like them for this part not only because the triviality of the murder motive suits their domestic vibe, but the violent solution fits Tino's wilder/more darker side that sleeps under that friendly exterior.

Annie/Six - Spamano, with Lovino as Annie. Look, Riva agreed that loose lover Antonio seems plausible, I think poisoning is a good way to murder for Lovino and I also. Really. Just love the image of the "deathkiss" and then Lovino kicking Antonio two meters across the stage. And I am sure that Antonio feels the same way as I do.

June/Squish - DenNor, with Lukas as June. I mostly settled on them because I can see Matthias be somewhat possessive and I can see him thoroughly excited for the choreography. (Maybe also for the fact that he gets to wear no shirt). Riva also said that the scenario itself and the ambiguity about whether or not June actually cheated meshes well with Lukas' more elusive nature.

Hunyak/Uh-Uh - LietBel, with Natalya as Hunyak. (Natalya? Natasha? I'm sorry if I misremembered her name, use whatever floats your boat). We both agreed that we needed Natalya in this, but I couldn't quite find a ship with her quickly that worked well with my original definition of Empire/Territory. Giving her Hunyak's innocent part solves that problem, subverts her often arguably pretty meh canon/fanon interpretations and she gets to have a beautiful dance number with Toris. Toris, who is just really happy for his girlfriend and resigned between the hotblooded, horny chaos that is the rest :).

Velma/Cicero - TurGre, with Herakles as Velma. I thought the cheating situation suited them, as I have a weakness for Herakles being Sadık's favourite, but certainly not only bedfellow at all times and the intensity of the rage is one Herakles well-deserves (if only for show these days). Plus, their performance required a third person and lemme tell you, they do not lack options in my brain. I considered Mohammed (Egypt) at first, but then thought he'd probably politely decline but would surely love to watch the show for "moral support". So instead I went for my Sicily OC Michele as Veronica, because mom said it's my turn on the self-indulgence machine.

Mona/Lipschitz - AusHun, with Erzsébet as Mona. I was sold at the "a real artistic guy, sensitive" part (even though Roderich is rather a musician than a painter) and Riva pointed out that the cheating also could be a great reference to the Habsburg marriage politics.

Further Thoughts (& Thots) for this under the cut, because I knew if I had this post uncut on my dash, I'd murder someone too:

- Mads is really excited about the choreography until he realizes that he has to basically throw half a bridge and hold it for most of Natalya's part. Mads: "Oh. So I gotta keep this up for the whole number now?" Lukas: "Quit whining ..." One of the others: "What, is the viking already folding?" Mads: "Pfft, as if, no problem for me!" He looks up at Lukas. "Besides, the view from down here isn't that bad either." Lukas threateningly lifts his foot with dangerously high-heeled boot. Mads: 'Don't say Step on me, don't say Step on me, don't say - Ah crap, I already did, didn't I?' Practice has to be paused and Natalya chews them out for ruining her practice!

- As Riva put it and I then expanded upon:

How we imagine Hetalia Cell Block Tango: Intriguing, dark, erotic.

How it actually is: Antonio, Mathias, Berwald, Sadık about to cream their pants while Lovino, Lukas, Tino, Herakles live their dreams. Natalya fighting everyone who makes a single wrong step during her part of the performance, Toris trying to calm her down. Erzsébet pulling Roderich off stage to do a private tango. Ex-Imperial dick measuring contests between Antonio, Sadık and Roderich, although the latter of course tries to not to get dragged into any thing so undignified. However, there are still ties with Antonio and also, a bitch (Roderich) may not start a fight, but a bitch is sure going to end one! Or at least attempt to do so. Endless South Italian Bickering, because Lovino and Michele may get on marginally better than Lovino does with Feliciano, but unlike Feli, Michè pays back in kind.

- Here's my two cents on the nature of the horniness of the "murdered lovers": Antonio and Sadık are unapologetically gawking and can't imagine anything better than being 'mistreated' by their darling. Being kicked across, shoved nearly off the stage is part of the fun and they don't hide it. Rest in rip everyone else who has to witness this. Matthias tries to half-heartedly hide how turned on he his, but as we saw above, he isn't very good at it. Maybe it also just looks like he's trying to hide it because he is North European after all, so it looks tame next to the two other horndogs. Berwald's extremely flustered, which is either clear as daylight to everyone around him or he tries so hard to stay 'professional' that his hands shake and he can barely talk. (Which I'd personally find hilarious when contrasted with Antonio one number over). Roderich acts as if he isn't as affected, but his façade also cracks often enough. He's got it just as bad as everyone else for his Erzsì, but he doesn't want to show it in front of other people.

- I also wrote a Minific yesterday, mostly concerned with Michele being asked to participate & some bitching between him and Lovino. If I find the time, I'll clean it up tonight and post it some time.

That's it! Thank you for reading and if you any additions, I would love to hear it (and I am sure Riva would love so, too!). I'd also love it if you wanted to share any fanart, fanfic or anything else based on this - even if you just take the basic premise and change things from how I described them because you think something else works better for you.

[yanderecandystore]

Hey, I love your work alot you're an incredibly skilled writer and always look forward to seeing your notification pop up! Is it ok if I request Adrien pinning a male reader down while they're alone?

A Adrien solo headcanon? How fun, boo!

Sure thing.

Sorry boo, even if I really liked your idea I've been having a lot of headaches (sorry if it's tmi, but: Periods fuckin sucks-).

I hope you don't mind if I redo your ask another time, probably a better one shot than- Whatever the hell I was thinking when writing this XD

TW/Tags: bullying but like- That's no surprise lol- // mentions of past encounters // perhaps mutual simping? // short hc, sorry about that boo ;-; // Terrible quality for an headcanon

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Sorry I don't have a title- [Yandere!Bully OC (Adrien) x M!Reader - Headcanon]:

You have been running around this place for quite some time now, Amaryllis Academy is quite big after all.

You suspected that someone like him would not have enough stamina to continue pursuing you like this. And the truth is that he didn't have enough of an athletic build to hold it for so long, he just changed his strategy.

You also weren't necessarily interested in exercising everyday, you could say that maybe you two have the same amount of stamina, the difference being that you decided to waste it all while trying to run from him- And he decided to plan a way to corner you.

No one can blame you for falling so easily to that, but let's be honest- You should have seen this coming the moment he stopped chasing you and started coming forward very calmly.

"Why didn't I stop running as well?" You thought out loud now that you find yourself in a no ways out situation, great, just great.

You were choking on your own air- Completely out of breath having a hard time bringing more oxygen to your lungs. You take a look back and notice who was walking in- Wow, how surprising.

"- Ugh, come on-" you were not really pissed off, or surprised, or even scared anymore, you were just tired of having to run from this guy. One would think that someone like him isn't capable of hurting a single fly, but those who doubted him would end up having a big wake up call- Just like you did.

Do you remember now? It was in a similar situation like this- You were cornered, out of breath, your legs were giving up and couldn't even fight anymore. The only difference from that moment to now was that there wasn't anyone else here, except you two.

No audience this time, this was the backstage and you two were the actors getting their costumes out. At least that's how he saw it, to you it was just like any other time he would bully you. How wrong were you to think that.

He didn't make any attempts at running at you, and as you tried to help yourself on the walls beside you, he clapped at your latest performance.

"- Bravo, Are you happy with yourself now? That you managed to make a fool out of yourself?" His voice wasn't as bored as he usually was, it sounded filled with sarcasm with a hint of true anger in it.

Despite that, you weren't sure what he was talking about. I mean- You know what happened, but you can't recall a single moment where you have made him so pissed off.

"- You tried your hardest to get me to this point, and congratulations- You did it-" Adrien was holding himself from lashing out as much he could, he was feeling humiliated and the fact you're so unaware as to way makes him want to choke you. Put his arms around your neck and force you to at least look at him when he is talking with you.

You tried to remember what could have possibly made him so desperate to get back at you, and as you do, you can feel your blood pulsating inside your skull- You can recall one incident that happened yesterday.

Yesterday, you were avoiding Adrien as best as you could, while also trying to make new friends that could help you get away from him for a bit longer. You started talking with a shy girl in your class, you thought that it would be easier to get to know someone who is mostly alone all the time then going straight to the popular crowd- Who would absolutely dismiss you or even do worse things considering Adrien's influence over them.

You started talking to a girl you thought to be an outcast just like yourself, maybe you two could have been friends- But that didn't last too long after you realized exactly why she would be so distant from other people, apparently she was one of those who were… A little too into other people's relationships, more specifically your relationship with Adrien.

She only started talking with you because of how much time you spent with Adrien, how suspicious it is for someone like him to be so clingy towards you. Her endless nagging was horrible but even worse was how she had planted the idea in her head that you two have been dating or something- You tried arguing that Adrien has done nothing but bullying you and distancing yourself from others, but she couldn't really listen to you, or even care enough to try.

You were heavily reconsidering your options, after all it didn't seem like you two would really work out together- But before you considered ditching her, Adrien had confronted you about walking around with her.

He was acting like his usual bratty self, keeping himself calm and still holding that stern look in his face, but the actual contents of his speech were a bit concerning- It sounded like he was really jealous of you hanging out with a "creep like her", as he said.

You tried calming him down to not create a bigger scene, but your new "friend" had pushed Adrien to end up bumping on you, which only made the situation to escalate.

Adrien took this whole thing as a plan you both created to make himself seem like a fool, this was just an attempt to get his attention and he fell for it- He got red and started yelling at you two, his threats sounding like barks.

That's why he was chasing you today, at least that's why you thought so- Although the truth was a bit deeper than that, dearest. That whole event didn't slip through his mind even when he was asleep, he dreamed about the incident- Although with a thin veil of something a bit… Uncalled for in his opinion.

In Adrien's head, the accident made it look like he was hugging you, which made him get flustered and panicky. He had a dream about the whole scene happening again, but without your friend and without any of the other students, it was very pathetic of him to imagine a scenario where you would be there for him, to get him when he falls, how wishful.

He blames you for such a dream, just as if he would blame you if he ever got a dream about you cheating on him- Regardless of how your actual relationship is currently.

His own delusions and anxious thoughts would get the best of him, and that's why you're in this exact situation- Feeling out of breath with no one to save you from Adrien.

You felt yourself almost lose your balance and almost hit your face in the concrete, but thanks to Adrien slamming your back against the wall you didn't need to scratch your face, at least that's a positive.

You didn't pay much attention to what he was saying, you were just kinda pissed off of having to deal with this brat's bs everyday. Although, you're very aware that Adrien can be a bit more than just a brat, sometimes you have to remind yourself of that- It wouldn't be pretty to make him mad.

Bullying you, hating you, liking you, loving you- All are so difficult to manage everyday, it's too much work for someone like him. It's exhausting overthinking about you every day.

"- …. Sigh- You're very annoying, very, very annoying…." all that anger that was previously in his voice has almost gone away, being slowly replaced with tiredness. Key word being "almost", he was tired but not over his own jealousy yet.

You didn't want to provoke him considering how, well- Dangerous this situation is, or could be if you do the wrong thing. It's a 50/50 chance of you finding a way to comfort him without him lashing out once again. Then again, nothing can prevent him from getting the wrong idea of your actions, so choose wisely your next move, dearest.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[whump-a-la-mode]

mangata (n); the reflection of moon on water

Okay so I may or may not just have talked about my OCs here for far too long and I apologize.

This is part of my Villainsicle series. I’m unsure of how comprehensible it is without background knowledge of the series. In general, in this context, Villain is Whumpee, Henchman is Caretaker, and Trainer is Whumper. The rest of the series is linked on my pinned post.

This really is just self indulgent nonsense. Even the linguist came out in this one. But, regardless, I hope you guys enjoy!

CW//Trauma, difficulty speaking, muzzles, leashes, whumpee caring about whumper

As the two walked along the beach, moving at a plodding pace along the sand, Henchman couldn’t help but consider just how odd they must have looked.

On the surface, sure, it wasn’t odd at all. The oppressive summer heat that beat down throughout the day had ceased its sweltering, giving way to a mild warmth that made the ocean waters look horribly inviting. Behind the water’s horizon, the full moon dangled on a thread, filling the sky and creating a great mangata upon the ocean’s water.

None of that, of course, was odd. There was nothing especially strange about two people taking a late night walk along the abandoned shoreline.

The fact that both of them were fugitives from a secret Organization was perhaps a little more unusual, though, luckily, nothing about their appearances suggested that.

That wasn’t to say that the two of them looked entirely normal. Perhaps Henchman did, but Villain had never had the most normal sense of dress.

Henchman wasn’t one to judge the fashion sense of someone who had showed up on their doorstep wearing rags that had, perhaps, once been a hospital gown, at least not generally. But they couldn’t help but wish that their fellow fugitive would agree to stop wearing bulky mittens and a thick scarf wherever they went, regardless of the heat. They must have been burning up in that dress, but they didn’t seem bothered by it.

Then again, they didn’t ever seem bothered by much. At least, if they were, their facial expression hardly reflected it. Instead, they had an odd habit of tightly gritting their teeth, regardless of the situation, to the point that they feared one of them might crack at any moment.

“It’s pretty beautiful at this time of night, isn’t it?” Henchman spoke, putting on their best smile as they looked out over the shoreline as they continued to walk.

Villain nodded.

“Very pretty.”

They had been rather talkative all night. Not in an objective sense, really. To anyone else, they would seem awfully shy, speaking almost entirely in short phrases, never exceeding four or five words in length.

That alone was an amazing improvement, in and of itself. When Henchman had first met them, Villain didn’t speak for at least a month. Not a single word. They could communicate in other ways, pointing and writing and nodding or shaking their head, but they hadn’t spoken.

Ever since they’d finally opened their mouth, they’d had a very... odd way of speaking. Everything about their speech was abnormal, in one way or another. If they were a non-native English speaker, which was entirely possible, they had no accent to show for it. Instead, their voice was rather hard to describe. Every time they spoke a word, it seemed as though they were reading it for the first time, struggling with syllables and sounds. Their grammar was slightly better, though they had a tendency to forget words, leading them to furrow their brow and hum until they found a way to get their point across.

Still, every time they remembered a word they had formerly not known, Henchman couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride swell up in their chest. Slowly but surely, this practical stranger was recovering, and, in a small way, they were helping.

That was why they were taking this walk, in the first place. Henchman had discovered pretty quickly that public spaces were far too much for Villain. Even the peace of sparsely populated parks would quickly be shattered as soon as a stray dogwalker appeared on an adjacent side street.

So far, they’d had incredible luck with this specific stretch of beach. After a certain time, it got too cold to be any good for swimming or sunbathing, leaving the great expanse of sand free of the public.

On the surface, their little walks didn’t seem to do much of anything. Still, somewhere deeper, Henchman couldn’t help but feel that they helped. Even if just the slightest bit.

They looked out over the sand, seeing the dunes curl far off in the distance. At their side, the low tide lapped.

“Have you ever been to the ocean before?” Henchman asked, still keeping that warm tone, making sure they moved slow enough so that Villain could easily keep up.

“Um... Kind of.”

“Kind of?” They hummed inquisitively. “Did you live on the coast?”

“Boat.”

“A boat?”

“A boat.” Villain corrected themself.

“Like... a houseboat?”

“Um... No. Big, big boat. Really big.” Their brow furrowed, and they began to hum as they struggled to find a word. “Boat for planes.”

“An aircraft carrier?”

“Yes! Yes. An aircraft carrier.”

That brought up perhaps more questions than answers, but now wasn’t the time to quiz Villain about their past.

“You must have seen a lot of the ocean then... the moon is always so pretty, when it’s like this.”

Villain nodded, attention seeming to turn somewhere else as they looked out at the water.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

Licks of water lapped up against the edge of the ship’s hull, rocking it ever so slightly that those leaning over its railing could not so much as pretend to feel the movement. The sprawling metal beast was simply too large to be swayed by the forces of the tides.

Trainer slipped the end of Villain’s leash off of their wrist, letting the leather strap dangle loosely from their muzzle. With the newfound freedom to lift their head, they did so, staring out over the expanse of black water, contrasted by the stark reflection of the moon upon its surface.

Villain couldn’t say that they understood, entirely, why they were here. They had returned from their last mission almost half an hour ago. By all accounts, Trainer should have followed their usual procedure; removing Villain’s mission gear, bringing them back to their kennel, and perhaps giving them something to eat if they were feeling particularly generous.

Tonight, however, none of that had happened. Instead, they had stayed on the ship’s deck for quite some time, with Trainer speaking to teammates and colleagues until all of them had retired to their quarters in the ship’s depths. Villain would have been lying if they said they hadn’t been getting antsy around that point, eager to get back to their own resting place for the night.

But that hadn’t happened. Trainer hadn’t followed their teammates to the lower decks. Instead, they had drifted over to the railing, looking over it as if there was something stunning beyond it.

Villain understood, somewhat.

What they didn’t understand was the fact that Trainer was still talking. The deck was deserted, and yet, still, they were talking.

As if they were talking to their own Asset.

Their voice had a wistful quality to it, carrying on a thoughtful conversation to nobody.

Of course, Villain had no idea what words were being spoken. Even after so many months, the tongue remained completely foreign to them. That didn’t eliminate, however, the whimsical tone of the noises.

An odd feeling swelled in their chest. It had been there, brewing, ever since they’d walked over here. It was... pleasant.

They were happy. They thought so, at least.

Even if they didn’t understand why Trainer was speaking to them as though they were anything but an Asset, they were happy.

It was hard to make much in the way of noise, with the muzzle forcing their teeth together, but in their throat, they did their best to approximate speech. It came out more as a soft humming. Almost a singing noise.

Trainer smiled, ruffling Villain’s hair with such affection that the latter choked back tears. They leaned into the touch, relishing it, even with how brief it was.

The next words spoken in that foreign tongue sounded almost like a question. Not a serious one, of course. No real answer was being prompted. Instead, it sounded hypothetical. Philosophical. Dreamlike.

They responded with another singing hum. They, too, smiled, looking out onto the endless water and the mangata upon it.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

Villain stopped walking.

Henchman stopped in turn, immediately more concerned about their friend than about the walk. They turned to them, not saying anything for a moment. Giving them time to think.

“We used to look at the moon sometimes.”

The surprise was nearly enough to make their jaw drop. That must have been the longest sentence Villain had ever strung together, even since Henchman had met them. And all of it, pronounced perfectly. With an overtone of sorrow, sure, but perfectly.

They tried not to smile, feeling that it wasn’t quite appropriate for the moment.

“We?” Henchman questioned as softly as they could manage. “Who did you look at it with?”

“Um...” They clenched and unclenched their fists. “They, um, person from Organization.”

“Oh. Were they your friend?”

“I... Um... I don’t know. They... um...”

Henchman waited, allowing Villain to collect their thoughts for as long as they needed.

“Trained me. Um.. thing on my face.” They gestured along with their words, tracing a line from the corner of their lips to just above their ear. “Mean sometimes. But, friend, um, yes. Friend. I think so. Sometimes.”

Henchman frowned. They didn’t know what to say to that. Of course, they knew that Villain had been from Organization, just as they themself had been. Whatever they were describing, it didn’t sound much like friendship, but they hated to debate them when they were trying to think.

“They were your friend sometimes?”

“Nice sometimes. Mean sometimes. Friend sometimes. Trainer always.”

“Oh. Do you... Villain, do you miss them?”

Henchman couldn’t help but think of the way their friend always held themself, teeth pressed so tightly together. As if held in place by something. ‘Thing on face.’

And the way they acted...

“Miss them...”

Villain raised their head, turning, and staring out over the water. Staring at the moon.

“Yes. I think so. Yes. I miss them.”

[official-weasley]

Meant to Be (Charlie Weasley x OC)

What happens when Bill brings home a girl and Charlie is completely awestruck by her?

WARNINGS: curse words

Chapter 13

Charlie

The next day Bill and I visited the twins' shop. I don't think I have ever been so proud in my entire life. It was amazing and I just couldn't stop walking around. They were brilliant and I hope mum comes around and visits their shop. I know they left school early but this was their dream and their shop was packed with customers!

There were wizards and witches of all ages. I thought it would mostly be children and teenagers but I was wrong. An old woman was shopping for her grandchildren. There was a man who wanted to get back at his wife for making a potion that turned his hair yellow and he had to go to work like that for 3 days.

Nothing warmed my heart more than seeing my brothers so happy. They were so educated about every single thing in the shop. Girls were giggling around something that looked like Amortentia potions and three boys were fighting about who will get the last punching telescope. It was amazing!

I found Bill just in time as Fred and George almost convinced him to buy a box of Canary Cream and gift it to Fleur. I stopped him right when he was about to give them the money and scolded him that he should know our brothers better by now.

We couldn't stay for long as Bill had to return to work so we hugged the twins and wished them all the best and promised that we would convince mum to visit their shop. I accompanied Bill to work and he gave me a big box before we said goodbye. I knew it contained all his letters.

“I saw how you were eyeing them.” He said, handing me the box. “You don’t have to read them but since they were meant for you, you can if you want to.”

We talked well into the night the previous day and I know there wasn’t enough time for him to tell me everything that has been going on in his life in the past 2 years. I know it would hurt reading them, but I also know it was something that I simply have to do to move on.

He kept telling me that it wasn’t that bad and that he is over it. I believed him about the latter, not for the former though and I have to know how he felt. I have to know how much I hurt him if I want to forgive myself. These letters will be a reminder of what I did and how much I hurt my brother.

—

I got home in the afternoon and since I go back to work tomorrow, I decided that it would be best if I just go through the letters now to get them over with. I sat down on the sofa and put the box on the table before me. I opened it and took a deep breath.

This is going to be painful, isn't it?

The letters were folded from the first one he wrote to the last one. I took the first envelope and tore it open. I inhaled sharply and unfolded the parchment.

Charlie,

I know you’ll be mad. But I didn’t do it yet. I promise I’ll ask her out tomorrow.

Don’t be too disappointed!

Love, Bill

I clenched my jaw together. Can I even do this? I barely began and I already felt like having a heart attack.

I put the letter down next to me and grabbed the next envelope.

Rhylee told me what happened between you two. I don’t know what to say. I just sent out a letter to you, pretending everything is fine. When are you planning on telling me this?

I really wish it was you and not her that told me.

Bill

Me too, Bill. Me too. If I could change one thing it would be this. I would tell him immediately.

It’s been a few months and you keep answering my letters as if everything’s okay. I stopped sending them every week like I used to, to see if you would get the hint. Why do you keep pretending?

It hurts that your own brother can’t face you.

I thought you were my best friend, Charles.

Bill

Betrayed. That’s how he felt. There were no letters about him being mad. About him hating me for what I’ve done. He was just disappointed that I didn’t tell him. That I didn’t own up to my mistake.

Yesterday was 2 months since I haven’t written you a letter.

It’s funny to think that I am over Rhylee but still not talking to you. One might think it’s strange that I wasn’t as bothered about what happened between you two as I am that you can’t fucking own up to what you did, Charlie!

I can’t pretend anymore. I’m sorry. Two months without any correspondence and it seems you don’t even care.

That’s what hurts.

Bill

And to think I did this for two years. I tortured him for 2 years. He was probably waiting for my letter just as I was waiting for his.

I hate how much I miss you, Charles. I miss my best friend. There is so much that’s happening and I can’t share any of it with you because you’re an arse.

I feel like things will never go back to normal. What if you decide to never speak to me again?

I considered telling mum but bit my tongue at the last minute. I didn’t want to tell her what a git her second-born is.

I wrote you another letter, telling you how much I miss you but I burned it the second I put down the quill. I won’t give you the satisfaction.

Bill

I put down the letter and stood up. I went to the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. This was too overwhelming. It hurt so much but I know I deserve it. This was my punch in the face. This was my broken nose. I have to get through it.

At least 20 more letters were talking about how disappointed he was, how much he missed me and how he can’t understand why I didn’t come and talk to him. He knew that when he stopped talking to me I had to know on some level that he knew about me and Rhylee and he just couldn’t get around to why I would damage our relationship so much.

To be honest, I didn’t have an answer for him. I was foolish enough to think that with time the guilt would go away. I know how terrible that sounds. I know what I did and what I was doing to him was torture and I can’t believe I put him through it. I can’t believe I waited that long. Seriously, what was I thinking? What did I think I would gain from it?

I decided that I am done pitying myself. I also came to the conclusion that you are completely lost. I don’t know what is happening with you and I hate to admit that I am worried about you.

I would love to say that you have forgotten about what you did but I know you too well. I know you are beating your head around it. I know your mind is in an endless loop and you can’t get out.

What I don’t understand is why you are doing it? Are you afraid to face me? Do you think I won’t forgive you?

At this point, I don’t even care. I just want my brother back even if you are a git!

Bill

He just wanted me back in his life and I continued to be an arse for another year and a half. Great!

I met a girl today. She is so beautiful, Charlie.

It pains me that I can’t send you this letter. I want to tell you all about her. I will ask her out tomorrow. I know how it sounds...

I needed 3 years to ask out Rhylee but with her, it seems different.

I don’t know if you care but her name is Fleur and she is kind and loving and has the prettiest smile.

Bill

I do care, Bill. Damn, did I care! All I was thinking about was him, I just wasn’t brave enough to tell him that.

I can’t believe it’s been more than a year and a half since we last saw each other. I don’t even remember when was the last time I sent you a letter.

Rhylee arrived in the Sanctuary a few days ago. How did that make you feel? Did you remember her? Did the guilt come back?

She was really excited to work there and I don’t think it was just because of the dragons…

Bill

Did the guilt come back, he asked. It never left me. Not for one day. Even now I have to remind myself that Bill forgave me and I don’t have to feel like a piece of shit anymore. It was hard reading through these letters.

I didn’t even want to think about what he meant when he wrote that Rhylee wasn’t just excited about the dragons. She was surprised to see me when she came to work here and I know she forgot that I existed. If she would be excited to see me, she wouldn’t start dating Nick before getting here, would she?

I asked Fleur out and she said yes!

She was as excited about going on a date as I was. I couldn’t believe it! I feel like the happiest man alive.

Bill

And you should, Bill. You deserve to be happy.

This is going to be my and Fleur’s second date. I am planning on kissing her today. I wanted to do it the other day but I also want to take it slow.

It has been great. She is so amazing I don’t even know where to begin to describe how happy she makes me.

I can’t stop smiling at work!

Bill

I can’t believe I missed these moments. I know he was happy and he was having a great time and unlike me, he put everything behind him. But damn it, I should’ve been there to cheer him on. To tell him he deserves it and that I am happy for him.

I asked Fleur to be my girlfriend. If you knew the whole story you wouldn’t be surprised that she said yes.

I want to hate you that you aren’t here for such big moments of my life, but I can’t. I just wish you would come around, Charles. What in the bloody hell is going through your head?

I almost took a day off a week ago and came to see you but stopped myself. Mum is worried sick, thinking you are working yourself so hard. I know you are avoiding the whole family, scared that I would be there. Very brave of you, Charles.

They are all wondering what is going on with you and they miss you.

It hurt, you know, when I heard that you write back to all of them but I didn’t receive a single letter from you in such a long time.

I just want my brother back and I wish you could see that.

Bill

I wished that I could see it sooner. I know that I hurt my entire family by keeping a distance but I thought I was doing them a favor.

Mum told me you came home for Easter. How bold of you to do that when I wasn’t there.

I want to be hopeful, Charlie. I really do. You have taken this to the point I didn’t think imaginable. Why are you doing this? To me? To our family? To yourself?

Is it really that hard? Can’t you forgive yourself?

I’m starting to think something else is wrong but I can’t bring myself to write to you. I want you to figure this out on your own. You are old enough, you should know what you’re doing.

I don’t know if you know that Rhylee and I are still friends. The other day she was in London and she came to see me and I wanted to ask her about you but couldn’t.

I was angry at myself for it but I am just so mad at you for not coming to talk to me.

At the same time, I keep thinking that you are all alone in this. I know that you are not big on sharing your worries with others. You had me for that. Who do you have now, Charlie?

Do you talk to anyone? Do you let out your frustrations? Did you tell anyone about what is eating you alive?

I hope you did. I wasn’t happy when I found out about you and Rhylee but would it be strange if I said that I understand? I don’t want you to beat yourself over one night of your life, Charlie.

Just come and talk to me, please.

Bill

I put the letter down and buried my face in my hands. I couldn’t help it. I had to let it all out. I felt like I could never stop crying. I was the luckiest man in the world to have a brother like him. I knew it was difficult for him not to come and visit me, not to talk to me but he was trying to teach me a lesson and he knew he had to endure it for my sake.

He was concerned the entire time. He hoped I didn’t destroy myself over what happened. He hoped I had someone to talk to about it.

Of course, I didn’t. I didn’t have him. But now I do. I feel better. I feel liberated.

I folded all the letters and put them back in the box. I decided to bury them deep in the back of my closet. I thought about burning them but I needed them just close enough to remind me of my values and how much I messed up not by sleeping with Rhylee but by not telling Bill about it.

It was time to move on.

[caffeine-cookie]

My really cheesy and badly written explanation of clovers backstory

(Rest under cut)

this is so badly worded I just felt like rambling

I will probably go over this every now and then, change up little details or maybe even make huge changes. But the one thing that will always stay is his immortality and how it works, even if I end up booting TK off of this, this will STILL be a time spell

I haven’t figured out who I want his friend to be. But definitely nobody in canon. I might actually just create an oc just for this. For now I just have an eye chart for all three, I’ve only come up with a name for them so far, but good enough

These designs are temporary EXCEPT for Timekeepers. I thought Calatheas was a pretty enough name/plant for dead friend.

How Timekeeper got involved in this is basically that:

During the year Clovers friend was dying from an incurable disease, Clover became like, essentially on edge 24/7. Irrational, distraught, depressed. WAS HE IN LOVE WITH CALATHEAS? Maybe, I don’t know, probably just really emotionally attached to a point he’d do anything for them. I figure he was a really reserved person so he never got along with anyone else very much; but Calatheas was different.

Eventually when Calatheas was nearing a very obvious death in a couple months, Clover promises that he’ll let nothing happen to them, that he’ll make sure they live. And despite how they continuously tel him they want to just pass away peacefully, telling Clover to move on, if he really loves them then to let go and move on, and Clover just can’t accept it.

Timekeeper (because the bitchass they are), seeing Clover in such a vulnerable and irrational state, they decide to kinda mess with him for the fun of it. Approaching him in the woods while he was searching for ingredients for some soup, and telling him that they knew about Calatheas’s condition and that they could help. Clover at first is a bit hesitant, but seeing how powerful Timekeeper is, he asks them what they have to offer. Happily, Timekeeper pulls out a little piece of paper with some text on it. It looked like it was ripped out of a book or something (it was), and Timekeeper gives it to Clover, telling him that its a Time spell specially created by them.

Reading the text on it, Clover realises that this could keep Calatheas alive for as long as the Gods. The spell would basically reverse time of your body back to the state it was in the day the spell was casted on you. All alterations and changes to the body would get changed right back (actually a couple minutes later) to the day the spell was casted. Clover didn’t even think about how Calatheas would be in pain for their entire life if this was casted to them. They would forever be in aching pain, exhausted, and feeling like they’re dying day by day. But they’re not. No cure could help them either because their body would just reject it right back, because thats considered a change added to the body. That does mean they can’t catch any other disease and stuff, but that also means cures wont work on them.

It’s just become endless torture

TK wishes Clover the best and leaves, but they KNOW what they did. The spell would have absolutely no positive effects on Calatheas. Its too strong of a spell itself, that it’d kill Calatheas in mere minutes. Calatheas’s body being too weak to be able to take the spell. AND THATS IF THE SPELL IS DONE CORRECTLY. If the spell is done wrong, then Calatheas would still be dying and they’ll just die like they were supposed to anyway. If the spell works but in a way where they become ‘immortal’, like I said before, it just becomes endless hell. They can’t win in this scenario, and Clover isn’t thinking straight enough to realise that. He refuses to let them die peacefully because he doesn’t WANT them to die.

Clover excitedly brings home the piece of paper and shows it to Calatheas, and instead of getting a

‘Oh my god you’re my hero Clover!!!1!1! I luvv luv you sososoo much’

Instead he gets a horrified response.

Calatheas: “Don’t use that on me. Don’t even waste your time on it, it won’t be worth it. Please, don’t.”

Clover: “But wouldn’t you rather live?! Even if it hurts, you-you can still be alive!”

Calatheas: “I’ll be bedridden forever. Until the sun explodes, until something fatal happens that even the gods are taken out or my body is reduced to complete ashes.”

Clover: “But you’ll still be alive!!”

Calatheas: “I’d rather be DEAD then be alive like that for the rest of my life. Everyday feeling like it’s my last, even though there would never be one.

But Clover doesn’t listen. Of course he fucking doesn’t. He persists, and for months, years, practices the spell over and over again until he KNOWS he did it right. Testing it on plants mostly since thats what hes familiar with. And eventually he brought it to Calatheas, and of course, it doesn’t work. Just like how TK predicted, the spell goes haywire on them and it ends up speeding up their death, which was supposedly like 5ish months left? To 5 minutes.

And Clover just freaks the fuck out, he realises he fucked up, and he thinks TK tricked him. And well, they did, but not in the way hes thinking. He thinks they gave him a faulty spell on purpose just to watch him suffer, when really they DID give him a perfectly well working spell. But instead they didn’t tell Clover that it wouldn’t work on Calatheas.

Clover, seeing that he was now just a ‘cold blooded murder’, he decides to use the spell on himself. It was ‘faulty’ from the beginning, so he’ll just end up dying too. But instead, a lot longer later, he realises theres no effects on him. No side effects, nothing. At first he thinks that maybe he had to wait longer or something, but then a thought linger in the back of his head.

‘What if it worked?’

And hesitantly, he takes a knife from one of the counters and just impales himself in the stomach. Spitting up blood, he laughs, realising how stupid of a decision that was. Of course the spell didn’t work it wasn’t SUPPOSED to in the first place.. until, during the last minutes, when he thinks hes dying. He just feels a different kind of piercing, cramping pain in his wound. He realises that the wound fucking closed up, and there was nothing there. It was as if he hadn’t even touched himself, he was PERFECTLY FINE

And yeah. Thats when the actual realisation hits him

[olivemac]

heartbeat | chapter three | b.b.

Summary | When Steve Rogers asks Kate Stark to find the Winter Soldier, she gets too involved.

Notes | Captain America: Civil War re-write, essentially. Starts just after the events of CA: Winter Soldier.

Pairing | Bucky Barnes x fem!oc, Bucky Barnes x Stark!oc

Genre | romance

Rating | explicit

Story Warnings | mild angst, fluff, romance tropes, so many romance tropes, coarse language, alcohol use, canon-typical violence, smut (m/f), oral sex (f&m receiving), 18+ ONLY

Chapter Warnings | all the romance tropes, coarse language, mild alcohol use, smut (m/f), oral sex (f receiving), 18+ ONLY

Citations | Du Maurier, D. (2018). Rebecca. Virago Press.

Things are starting to heat up.

master list | AO3 link

_____

prev chapter

_____

The next morning when Bucky sees Kate, she’s sitting on the front steps of the building feeding scraps of a meat-filled pastry to one of the stray cats that’s always congregating on the block.

“If you keep feeding that thing, it’s going to invite all its friends,” Bucky says by way of greeting.

“Good,” Kate replies, squinting up at him. “Maybe they’ll catch all the mice in the building.”

He chuckles and sits down beside her. She offers him the bag of warm pastries, which he accepts, pulling one out. He's drawn to her, he realizes. He doesn’t quite know why he finds it so easy to be around her, but he likes it.

"Did you just get back from a run?" he asks, looking at her trainers.

"Yeah." She looks at the bundle in his hands. "Bookstore?"

He nods, "They have a fairly decent selection in English."

Kate hums in response and takes a bite of her own pastry. "What are you reading?"

"Rebecca. Daphne de Maurier," he says. He doesn't mention he purchased it because the title made him think of his sister and he was afraid the memory of her name would slip away.

"A classic."

A bit of pastry filling lingers at the edge of her mouth and before he can stop himself, Bucky wipes it away with his gloved thumb. Their eyes meet and Bucky is staring at her like she's a puzzle he's trying to solve.

Kate looks away first, blushing. "Dinner again tonight?" she asks. "I mean...obviously, if you have plans, but...I'm terrible at cooking for one so...." She laughs nervously.

"Okay," he replies, a mirror of the first time she asked. He's still staring at her intently, but it's softer now.

"Okay," she says, her nerves disappearing.

_____

When they finish eating dinner, Kate asks Bucky if he'll read to her. His words have been few and far between, letting her carry their conversations – which she doesn't mind – but she's found she's lured to the deep timbre of his voice.

He hesitates for only a moment before agreeing. He ducks next door to grab his book and when he returns, they settle on her couch – Bucky at one end, Kate at the other.

He starts to read, "'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'"

_____

The next few weeks go by much the same. Kate cooks for Bucky and they eat together; they alternate between reading aloud to each other. Kate reads mostly newer releases – contemporary fiction, fantasy, the occasional thriller – while Bucky sticks to the classics, anything released before World War II.

He doesn't always listen when she reads. Sometimes he focuses on the steady rhythm of her heartbeat.

"You're staring," she says one night, not looking up from her book.

"Sorry," he replies.

He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, leans forward, and wraps one of the curls falling over her shoulder around a gloved finger before pulling away. Then he reaches down and pulls his gloves off slowly, first the right, then the left. He pushes his sleeves up over his forearms. His titanium arm catches the light, and Kate lets out the smallest gasp at the sight. At first, he thinks she's scared, but she sets her book down and takes his metal hand between both of hers, holding it tightly. He leans forward again and lets his bare right hand sink into the curls at the back of her neck. He's still staring at her, his eyes the color of stormy, midnight skies.

Kate thinks he might kiss her, and Bucky is certainly considering it – certainly wants to – but instead he bows his head forward onto her shoulder and breathes in the scent of her skin, his plush lips soft against her neck. They stay like that for some time, just holding each other, until finally, he presses a kiss so delicate behind her ear Kate isn’t sure it was real; he pulls away and stands.

"I should go," he says.

Kate nods, and before she can say anything, he's gone.

_____

Kate lays in bed that night thinking of his arm and what it means that he showed it to her. She's read his file, she knows about the enhancements HYDRA gave him, the torture they put him through. Tears sting the corner of her eyes, and before she can stop herself, she’s crying into her pillow.

Kate falls into a restless sleep, and when she dreams of her parents’ wreck, she sees Bucky standing outside the car.

_____

A few days into December, Tony texts Kate to ask how things are going, which is code for: You haven't been kidnapped, have you? Because that would be very inconvenient for me, but I'll put on the suit and come find you if I need to.

She’s blocked Tony from tracking her, but she knows he could if he really wanted to. He doesn’t.

She sends him two selfies. In the first, she's giving a thumbs up – the background discreet enough to be anywhere in Europe. In the second, she's wearing sunglasses and sipping coffee.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Tony texts back, and Kate rolls her eyes before tucking her phone into her coat pocket.

She’s thinking about heading back to her flat, curling up with a book or writing some new code to impress Tony with when she finally goes back to New York. But the park is quiet, and she likes the sting of the cold wind on her cheeks.

Bucky finds her there a short time later.

"What are you doing?" he asks, sitting on the bench beside her.

“Enjoying the cold,” she says.

Bucky grunts. He’s always hated winter, hated the cold. The cold meant Steve would be sick – his asthma or some other ailment bothering him – and Bucky would be without his best friend for months. Then Bucky was on ice for so long, stuck in the cold of cryo. No, the cold isn’t for him, he thinks.

But he likes the way Kate looks, bundled up in her coat and scarf and hat. Her nose is a pretty shade of red that reminds him of the color it turns when she drinks too much wine. And he loves wine-drunk Kate almost as much as he hates the cold. That Kate laughs loudly and uses any excuse touch him – a hand on his shoulder or a brief touch of his bicep. Bucky didn’t realize how much he missed being touched until the night she slipped his titanium hand into her own.

Bucky's been preparing himself for Kate to leave Bucharest at the end of December for the holidays and never return. He always had the feeling she never intended to stay in the country long, thinking maybe she was here to escape an ex-boyfriend or irritate her older brother. He knows she has enough money to do something like that, though they never speak about it.

“I saw a flyer outside our building for a Christmas market at the end of the month,” she says after a while. “We should go. I’m in the mood for mulled wine.”

“You aren’t spending Christmas with your brother?” he asks, turning his head to look at her.

"No," she says, "Christmas isn't really...our thing." She pauses before continuing, "Our parents died in mid-December so Tony either completely ignores the holiday or goes way overboard to compensate. I prefer the former."

Kate takes Bucky’s gloved left hand in hers and presses her bare fingers against the metal of his wrist where his glove meets the sleeve of his coat. She never asks about his arm, and Bucky is grateful for that. He isn't sure how he would explain it.

“Aren’t your hands cold?” he asks, frowning. “Where are your gloves?”

“I must have forgotten them,” she shrugs.

“It’s cold, let’s go home,” he says, and a spark of heat catches in Kate’s belly at the idea that he thinks of their little apartments, where they’ve spent so much time together over the past few weeks, as home.

“Okay,” she says.

“Okay,” he smiles in return.

_____

The Christmas market isn't as busy as he thought it would be, which Bucky is grateful for. He pulls his baseball cap low over his eyes and watches Kate look over a table of wood-carved ornaments. She returns to him empty-handed, and he passes her the thermos of mulled wine they've been sharing.

There's Christmas music pumping through speakers somewhere and a band setting up in a tent. They wander the market slowly, passing the thermos back and forth until it's empty. Kate's nose is red again – from the cold and the wine – and Bucky can't stop staring at her.

They've stopped to look at a Christmas tree in the center of the market when a group of kids – shouting and laughing – come careening down the walkway. Bucky pulls Kate against his chest to keep her from getting run over. He holds her close for a few moments longer than is necessary before dropping his arm from around her back.

“Mistletoe,” Kate whispers, her head titled upward, and Bucky looks up.

He remembers this somehow, remembers his mother hanging mistletoe in the doorway to their living room each Christmas so she could catch his father in a kiss. Remembers getting caught beneath it himself with his younger sister, bending down to smack a wet kiss to her cheek as she squealed.

When he looks back at Kate, she’s holding his elbow and gazing at him like he hung the damn moon, which makes a fire curl low in his belly. Before he can second guess himself, he’s leaning toward her, capturing her lips with his own, and suddenly, it’s like fireworks are exploding behind his eyes. His gloved hands reach up to cup her face and hers tangle into the knot of his scarf, pulling him impossibly closer. When they break apart, something unspoken passes between them.

He guides her back through the market toward their building, inside and up the endless series of stairs. Outside her door, he kisses her again, sweeping his tongue into her mouth. She tastes like the mulled wine they shared, and Bucky thinks he could get drunk on this alone. She pushes him away, laughing, to unlock the door, then pulls him inside with her.

When the door is closed, he turns her and presses her back against it. She reaches up to push his hat off, then pulls off her own and tosses it aside. Next, she's pulling off her gloves and then reaching for his.

"I want to feel you," she breathes, tugging at the leather around his hands, “all of you.”

When his gloves are off, his hands find her face, cupping her cheeks gently. “I haven’t done this in so long,” he rasps.

“We can slow down.”

“No,” he growls, pushing his hips against hers. He’s hard against her lower stomach, and she moans.

Kissing her, holding her like this – Bucky hasn't felt this much like himself since the war. And he can't get enough of it. He tugs at her scarf, unwrapping her like a present, while she unknots his, and they both shrug out of their coats. His bare hands slide beneath her sweater, up over her stomach to her breasts. Kate sighs at the contrast between flesh and metal on her skin. He leans back and tugs her sweater over her head, and she unhooks her bra, letting it slip down and off.

Bucky lifts her into his arms, and Kate wraps her legs around his waist. His mouth is hot against hers as he walks her to her bed. When he lays her down, he lets his lips trail down her neck, across her collarbone, and to her chest.

He pulls back slightly, beaming down at her, “God, you’re beautiful, doll.”

She reaches for the hem of his red Henley, but he stops her, covering her hand with his.

“My arm,” he says, nodding toward his left shoulder, “it’s not pretty.”

Kate doesn’t say anything, just pushes gently on Bucky’s shoulders until he’s lying flat on his back with her straddling his hips. She kisses him hard, stroking her tongue inside his mouth. With one kiss, she tries to convey how much she doesn’t care about what his arm looks like so long as he keeps touching her, keeps smiling at her, keeps letting her be part of his life.

Bucky reaches for the hem of his shirt.

“You don’t have to,” Kate says breathlessly, pulling back to look him in the eyes.

“I want to,” he says, licking his lips. “You said you wanted to feel all of me."

She smiles and lets him sit up. Bucky tugs the shirt over his head and tosses it off the bed. Kate's eyes linger briefly on the angry scars where flesh meets metal, then she bends and presses her lips there. Bucky growls and grabs her by the hips, flipping her so that's he hovering over her again.

His mouth finds her breasts, working a nipple with his tongue until she’s panting. He kisses his way down her stomach to the waistband of her jeans; he pops the button and pulls the zipper down.

"Can I taste you?" Bucky asks.

“Please,” she mewls and helps him push her jeans and underwear off.

His mouth is hot against her. He takes his time, running his tongue across her folds before pressing against the spot that makes her keen and slipping his fingers inside of her. His metal arm holds her hips in place when she comes, keeping her from moving away from him. Bucky could stay in this moment forever, he thinks, here, with his head between Kate's legs, listening to the soft sounds of her bliss, her heartbeat slowing as she comes back down.

But Kate has other ideas. She tugs at Bucky's long hair, pulling him back up to her mouth, tasting herself on his lips. Her hands work his jeans open, and she pushes them off his hips, letting her fingers glide across his buttocks slowly. Bucky groans.

"Are you sure?" he asks, pushing her hair out of her face.

"Yes," she says, and she leans up to kiss him deeply as she reaches down to stroke him.

"Do you..." he pauses, panting, "fuck, do you have a condom?"

"I have an implant. And I'm clean," she says, her eyes meeting his.

Bucky nods and tries to tell himself to remember to ask her what exactly an implant is later, but for now, he's too enraptured with the feeling of her hand around him to argue.

When he pushes inside of her, Kate gasps and moans and Bucky thinks he might actually die. It's been so long since he's felt pleasure like this, and he's lost in the wet, tight heat that is Kate. His head falls to her shoulder and he stills, allowing himself a moment to just enjoy this intimacy.

Kate runs her hands up and down his back. "Please move," she finally whispers in his ear, and Bucky lets out a strangled laugh.

He's a goner, he thinks, as he moves against her. Despite his past, despite his uncertain future, he loves her, and there is no turning back. He props himself up on his left arm and looks down at her.

"You're perfect," he says, and it's Kate's turn to laugh. Her laugh fades into a gasp as Bucky reaches between them and presses his fingers against her in a rhythm he's already memorized.

When she comes around him, clutching him tighter than he thought possible, he sees stars. He follows quickly behind, collapsing on top of her, and as he lays there, panting, and careful to hold his weight off her, Bucky has the sudden urge to laugh at how blissful he feels. When he eventually lifts his head from her shoulder and meets her eyes, Kate is smiling.

"Hi," she whispers, softly.

"Hi," Bucky returns, smiling along with her.

He rolls onto his back, tucks Kate against his side – his flesh arm solid against her back and waist – and falls into a dreamless sleep.

_____

next chapter

[the-13th-rose]

Whumptober 2021 Day 5 - Misunderstanding

Universe: Currently unnamed horror crossover

Characters: Annie (oc), The Miner (My Bloody Valentine)

Content warnings: Broken bones, vomit (character is briefly said to have thrown up, but it isn’t addressed again)

All of my writing is intended for a teen audience or older, unless otherwise stated! My writing often contains violence, strong language, and/or horror, so please use your head and don’t read my work if you think you might be triggered by it.

Summary: Annie is a young woman cursed to be eternally pursued by Hunters, various fictional slashers that come from the media Annie has seen in the past. She’s sick of the cycle, and unbeknownst to her, so is one of the Hunters, who she’s led to an abandoned factory. The Hunter, however, doesn’t speak, and Annie isn’t willing to pay attention to his attempts at forming a truce, still fully convinced he’s trying to kill her.

Word count: 2,261

Oh, Annie. Unfortunate Annie, whose mother unwittingly crossed a witch in her youth. Yes, a witch who saw fit to curse not the “crosser” herself, but her future firstborn instead. It was a wicked curse, designed not to go into effect until the firstborn reached her 18th year, so that she could become fully accustomed to a fear-free existence before having it ripped away from her. And the effects of the curse? To spend eternity pursued by monstrous Hunters. Annie found herself unable to die at all unless by the hand of a Hunter, and upon meeting her end at the hands of one, she would awaken in the morning of that same day, forced to re-do the events of the day. On days when a Hunter pursues her, Annie would have to survive its attempts to kill her until the break of the next day, or be forced to continue repeating the day until she managed to survive the encounter. This was Annie’s fate. To never truly know peace, for death to never be a release.

So, understandably, Annie had no patience for these Hunters anymore. She’d taken to a more proactive approach to survival, opting to fight back against the Hunters instead of simply running away or hiding. She wasn’t always successful in besting the Hunters, but her infinite re-dos allowed her to train and improve. By now, she’d become quite adept at fighting off and defeating the Hunters that pursued her. In fact, it had resulted in them leaving her alone for longer periods of time than before. Unfortunately, it had also forced them to get craftier. Annie and the Hunters were locked in a seemingly infinite arms race.

When one of the Hunters decided he’d had enough of the endless cycle as well, he saw befriending the cursed girl as his best option for a chance to break it, and finally stop being tethered to the curse. Unfortunately, he just so happened to be selectively mute, which would no doubt make explaining himself to Annie quite difficult.

Fleeing a pursuing Hunter Annie had designated “The Miner”, she soon found herself in the middle of an abandoned factory. As strange as it might seem, Annie had deliberately fled to this location, in the hopes of having an advantage over the Miner. Since he typically attacked with wide swings of his pickaxe, narrow corridors and paths surrounded by broken-down machinery would surely impede his attempts to attack her.

Panting, Annie paused in the middle of the old work floor. “Man, don’t you guys ever get tired?” She called out to the approaching Miner. “Seriously, though, how do you manage to make keeping up with someone for multiple city blocks look so effortless?”

The Miner stopped in the middle of the floor, mere feet away from Annie. Now that she looked closer, Annie noticed that he actually did appear somewhat winded, slouching a bit and breathing a little heavily through his gas mask.

“Guess you’re only as immortal as me, huh?” Annie quipped. She placed her hands on her hips and tried to make herself appear dangerous. “Well come on, take your best shot! I’m fucking tired, man. I want to go home and sleep, already!”

The Miner shook his head, which confused Annie a little. “...No?” Annie huffed. “What do you mean, ‘no’? Why would you follow me this far if you’re not trying to kill me?”

The Miner took a few steps closer to Annie, which she responded to by backing away and reaching for her survival knife, concealed in her pants pocket. Against a pickaxe, it wouldn’t do much good, but that’s what the tight corridors were for. She just had to make sure she led him into them. It didn’t really register to Annie that the Miner had his signature weapon still upon his belt, rather than holding it out, ready to attack.

What is your deal? Annie wondered, squinting angrily at the Hunter. Oh well. Doesn’t matter. I just have to keep you from giving me a re-do. “Hey, if you’re not going to leave me alone, then keep following me. I want to show you something,” she said to the Hunter, as she walked backwards towards the stairs leading up to an overhead walkway.

The Miner was no fool. At this point, he could tell Annie was trying to trick him. All the same, he had a goal in mind, and whatever half-baked trick Annie had up her sleeve wasn’t going to make him give up and turn away. So, still keeping his hands free of his weapon, a gesture he hoped she’d notice, he followed Annie as she slowly led him onto the walkway.

“That’s right…,” Annie encouraged the Hunter. “Right this way…”

The Miner followed her to the overhead walkway. They were both quite a distance from the factory floor now, surely far enough to cause serious injury if either of them were to fall.

“Miner, I brought paper, so you can talk to me for once,” Annie spoke up at last, rummaging in her pockets. “Get closer so I can give it to you. I can’t just throw it at you, that’d be rude. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to get close if I didn’t trust you, right? That just doesn’t make sense.”

The Miner tilted his head at her words, but admittedly, the idea of being able to actually explain himself to her was too enticing. Sure, it could be a trick, but if need be, he could defend himself. Surely against someone like Annie. And so the Miner walked forward, closer and closer to Annie, until he was right in front of her. He held out one hand, waiting for the paper to be placed into his hand.

Annie rifled through her pocket for a moment, and then, when she thought his guard was at its lowest, she swung outward towards him with her survival knife.

The Miner lunged back, stumbling backwards at first, but quickly catching his footing. As he backed away from her rather reckless knife-swinging, he reached for his pickaxe and held it out in front of Annie to block her knife strikes.

“Come on, you’re just gonna play defense this time?!” Annie snapped, fury burning in her eyes. “What happened to swinging your pick through my face? Into my chest? You could knock me off this walkway, easy! Why won’t you try?! You’re being so weird!!!”

The Miner didn’t change his strategy, merely continuing to step backwards as Annie advanced towards him.

“Come on! I don’t want to be the only one on offense, here! It feels weird!”

Lunging towards him, Annie got in a lucky strike and her knife scraped across the Miner’s fingers. In reacting to this, he dropped his pickaxe onto the floor of the walkway. The weight of the impact must have knocked something loose in the rusted, worn metal, because in the next moment, the panel he stood on fell out from underneath him.

Annie had a split-second of expecting him to hang there in the air for a moment like they do in cartoons. Instead, he fell through instantly. The impact noise his body made against the factory floor made her wince, despite her intentions of harming him.

Annie peered over the walkway’s railing to the floor below.

The Miner was crumpled against the floor, splayed out on his back. His legs were bent horribly out of their proper positions. Even from 20 feet above, she could tell they were totally wrecked. This Hunter wasn’t going anywhere now. At least, not any faster than he could drag himself.

Annie looked behind her, knowing she couldn’t leave the walkway the same way the Miner had. She didn’t want to stay up there, either, considering that the rest of the walkway could easily be just as fragile. So she slowly turned around and gingerly, yet quickly, made her way towards the stairs at the other end of the walkway.

The Miner came back to his senses, having been momentarily dazed by the fall. He tried to sit up, propping his body up with his arms. The pickaxe that had sent him plummeting in the first place was lying a good few feet away. When he tried to move towards it, however, he was met with a wave of sharp agony shooting through his legs. Out of impulse, he let out a scream. He turned to inspect the state of his legs, and...was met with disgustingly wrong angles and a small spot of white through a new hole in his pant leg. Recognizing this as bone, he cried out in shock and frantically lifted his mask just enough to expose his mouth.

Annie heard him retch as she reached the bottom of the steps without incident. She lingered by the bottom of the steps for a moment, unsure if she should get near him to finish him off, despite him not looking like he could possibly put up a fight at this point. She walked over to him as he replaced the gas mask and the noise-amplified breaths resumed, heavy and fast.

“...” Annie kept the hilt of the knife gripped tightly in her hand. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” She called out to him. “Maybe that’ll finally teach you to leave me alone, next time you come back. Why don’t you tell your Hunter buddies about this, get them off my back too, huh?”

Annie raised her knife as she stood beside him, poised for the perfect final stab. But as she looked over him, noticed his body language, and watched him flinch away from her final blow, shutting his eyes, which she was only just now seeing underneath the lenses of his mask. And her grip faltered, until she wound up dropping the knife altogether. “Dammit,” she swore, stamping her foot against the floor in frustration. “I really thought I’d be able to do it this time….I’m not really a killer, am I?”

The Miner shook his head, before slouching over and trying to pull his legs along with him. Merely touching them caused him to throw his head back in pain.

“...I guess this would be more of a mercy thing than self-defense at this point, huh?” Annie muttered, mostly thinking out loud. “...Yeah, so I led you here with the intention of killing you as a way to send a message. But I guess I’m kind of pathetic. At least when you’re pathetic, too. Now I can’t do it.”

“...I also didn’t really have paper.”

At this, the Miner shot her a glare, but quickly returned to flinching over his wounds.

“...I can’t believe I’m saying this but...sorry.” Annie muttered, running her hand through her hair. “...You really were just defending. You totally could have killed me back there, but you didn’t, so...dammit, maybe I misjudged you. At least this time, anyway. Because, like, you have killed me before.”

The Miner shrugged half-heartedly, leaning back on his arms and staring at the ceiling, every now and then squeezing his eyes shut and hissing through his mask.

Annie pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. “...11:30 pm?” She slipped it back into her pocket. “Didn’t feel that late…” She shrugged. “Well, at least I’ve only got to survive for 30 more minutes. She eyed the knife at her feet, and the pickaxe lying a little ways away. “...Do you need a weapon to...reset?” It felt incredibly awkward to ask, but he did seem to be in horrible pain.

The Miner shook his head, gesturing first to his legs, and then to Annie’s phone. The answer seemed clear.

“...You guys reset at midnight?” Annie guessed, to which the Miner weakly nodded. “...Still, 30 minutes is a long time with something that bad. Are you sure--?”

The Miner shook his head, and started pulling at his clothes, trying to tear off a strip of fabric.

“...Oh. I guess I can try to patch you up for now.” Annie replied, turning around to search for a first aid kit or some kind of fabric to turn into makeshift bandages. “...My clothes are cleaner,” she muttered, picking up the knife and carefully cutting strips from the hem of her shirt. “There’s not much, it probably won’t really help, but…” She started gingerly wrapping the strips around his legs.

He gave a loud, sudden cry when she touched his legs, and screamed at her attempts to set the bones. It was horribly amateur. Annie clearly didn’t really know what she was doing, but it was better than her trying to kill him again, he figured.

“Um…” Annie would have to admit it didn’t look very good at all. “Well...it’s only 20-something more minutes,” she tried to reassure him.

The Miner groaned, leaning back on his arms again.

“...Sorry, again, for being too dense to realize you weren’t trying to kill me this time…,” Annie sighed. “I’m just so sick of all this. Was...was that what you were trying to tell me? That you’re sick of this, too, and you want to form a truce?”

He threw his hands down against the floor in frustration, then nodded.

“...Guess I’m not as good at reading people as I thought. Well, at least you get to reset after all this. If you really mean it, I’m willing to forget about all the times you killed me...you gonna forget about the whole ‘breaking your legs’ thing?”

The Miner sighed, but nodded slowly and held out a hand for Annie to take.

“Alright. We’ll shake on it.”

[mostlycompetentwriter]

“Close” - A Streetlight Sequel

F/M Pairing: OC x Seo Changbin (SKZ)

Warnings: Soft!Dom Changbin; Light Smut?; Language

Genre: Family AU; Streetlight Sequel

Word Count: 4.4K

Summary: She’s like a a new world waiting to be discovered, and Changbin wants to know everything about her. But maybe they could start by moving in together with the rest of his family.

A/N: As you can tell by the song choice title, this is a much more upbeat story! But I love the lyrics that Han wrote 💙

Also, I don’t know what’s up with the gif I chose, but I like it, okay!

On Sundays, Changbin had the rare honor of sleeping through his usual alarm clock - and he decided that noon was an appropriate time to wake-up when his hunger eventually got the best of him. But it was still with great reluctance that he drug himself into the shower, standing beneath the scalding water with his eyes closed to savor the warmth. Ever since Chan replaced the hot water heater, Changbin had done everything in his power to savor the welcoming change.

Afterward, he walked downstairs to greet Jeongin and Y/N who were both sitting at the kitchen table while engaged in a fierce game of battleship. “Hey, you two,” Changbin said, grabbing a piece of toast from a platter on the counter. “What’s going on?”

“A bet,” Y/N said, leaning in across the table to glare at Jeongin. “But he’s cheating.”

“Am not!” Jeongin decried, slamming his hand down on the table. “How can you cheat at this game?”

“Shall I list it out for you?” Y/N asked, and Changbin smirked at her competitive tone.

“Please don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone,” Changbin said, ruffling Y/N’s hair on his way out the door.

He passed by Chan and Minho who were both out on the porch as the two of them studied the broken swing that laid in shambles after Jisung attempted to use it for nefarious purposes. “Should we even bother replacing it?” Chan asked while Minho attempted to adjust the chain with no luck.

“If you do, then Jisung isn’t allowed anywhere near it,” Changbin remarked, looking over the sad remnants of the swing one last time before walking to the SUV waiting in the driveway.

He was only working a short shift that morning, and there was some relief in knowing that he wouldn’t have to deal with persistent customers for longer than a couple of hours. Changbin was convinced that most people simply complained for the hell of it, especially considering the fact that their questions almost always concerned trivial matters. But at least he had gotten better at managing his expressions - doing his best not to betray his annoyance.

There was also something else for Changbin to look forward to this weekend, and it had motivated him more than anything else for the past week: Sara was moving in with the rest of them, and Changbin would no longer have to make special trips out of his way to visit her apartment on the other side of town. It was enough for Changbin to get through anything that might come his way, and he even offered to help one customer carry their packages to their car even though that went above and beyond his current job description. “Thanks for coming,” he told the woman who simply grunted in response.

However, nothing could ruin Changbin’s good mood, especially when he received a surprising visitor during his lunch break. “Hey, you,” he said, greeting Sara with a gentle kiss when she brought them something to eat.

“It’s not much,” she admitted sheepishly, but Changbin was touched regardless. He even made a big show of enjoying the meager offering, keeping their fingers intertwined across the table as Sara talked about one of her most recent projects.

It was decidedly domestic, and Changbin couldn’t wait until he got this on a regular basis. Ever since he met Sara for the first time, he had felt this peculiar insistence to learn everything about her - even the most insignificant details. Because they all mattered to him, and he was slowly falling into an endless void where there never seemed to be enough answers to the constant questions.

“I love you,” Changbin whispered against her sweet lips as they kissed outside in the parking lot. It had only taken Changbin one month into their relationship to admit his truest feelings, and he was relieved to hear Sara reciprocate since he was very much aware that some might consider that much too early to declare such things. And maybe Changbin had never been in love enough to really understand what it meant, but he was willing to take the risk with Sara to figure it out. 

“I’ll see you tonight,” Sara said from the window of her car, and Changbin watched her leave before he re-entered the post office with a renewed enthusiasm to leave on time that day.

The next day

When Changbin woke-up that Friday morning, he was momentarily disoriented before he remembered that he had spent the night in Sara’s apartment. He turned his head to the side to admire her sleeping form, grinning at the hold she maintained on his arm as she held him close. Changbin had learned that Sara liked to wrap around him during the night, and it was nothing short of endearing.

But it was also hot in the bedroom, and Changbin gently extracted their limbs before rolling over to the edge of the bed. He ran a hand over his exhausted face before reaching over for his phone. There were a few messages from Chan, but Changbin figured the older was trying to ask his opinion on a new wall paint color.

Instead, Changbin forced himself to leave the comforts of the bedroom for the kitchen where he started making a fresh pot of coffee. Since they were officially moving all of Sara’s things into the house, Changbin wanted to make sure that they got an early start. Based on the number of boxes currently stacked in her living room, it wouldn't be a simple endeavor, and Changbin imagined that it would be well past sundown before everything was finished.

“Good morning.”

Changbin grinned when he reached for two mugs out of the cabinet, spotting Sara emerging from her bedroom with a yawn. “I made us something,” Changbin said, pouring a cup for Sara and placing it down at her spot near the counter.

“Thanks,” she said. “You didn’t have to.”

“I think we both need it for today,” Changbin said with a smile, brushing a soft kiss across the pout of her lips.

“Ugh, it’s not that I’m not excited,” Sara said. “But I’m also not impressed with the idea of dragging all my shit in the cars.”

“That’s what you have me for,” Changbin said with a wink, carefully rolling up the sleeve of his t-shirt to flex his bicep.

“Is that supposed to impress me?” Sara teased him, squealing in delight when Changbin retaliated by pulling her into his lap.

“It’s your last day in this place,” Changbin remarked, humming in delight when Sara made herself comfortable against his chest. 

“It’s also our third month anniversary,” Sara revealed to him, and Changbin arched an eyebrow in consideration.

“Should we have chosen a different day to move?” 

“Actually, I think it’s perfect that we’re doing it today,” Sara said. “What does the rest of your family think?”

“I guess it’s something different,” Changbin said. “They might ask you a thousand questions.” Changbin rolled his eyes at the idea of their antics, but Sara didn’t seem at all bothered by the possibility.

“Is everyone at home?”

“Minho and Chan will be late,” Changbin said. “They couldn’t afford to take the day off from work.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Sara said. “We’ll manage with our limited options.”

Changbin chuckled, reaching out with one hand to grab his coffee cup, wondering if he’d ever get used to mornings like this with the person he loved. Would anything change after they moved in together? “I want you to know that you can always come to me,” Changbin said. “My family can be a handful, and I’m not gonna be offended or anything if they get on your nerves.”

“Changbin,” Sara said, tilting his head to the side to meet her steady gaze. “Everything will be fine.”

Changbin nodded, leaning in for another kiss because there was no better way to reassure himself than by tasting the sweet chap-stick on her lips.

Graciously, the weather was mild when Changbin and Sara pulled into the driveway outside of his house, and Changbin rolled his eyes to see everyone already gathered on the front line in a perfect formation - like they were soldiers awaiting orders. “You’re late,” Hyunjin said, impatiently tapping his foot against the grass.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Changbin said, shutting the door to his SUV as he went around to open the trunk. 

“She’s here!” Jisung gasped, and Changbin winced as he imagined his younger friend bombarding Sara with his endless chattering.

“Be nice,” Changbin warned him, and he started arranging boxes on the sidewalk - pleased to see Y/N take control of the situation and grab two of them between her arms before walking towards the house.

The others followed suit, even though Jisung was keeping a close eye on Sara who stretched her arms once she opened the door of her car. “Welcome home,” Changbin said, but he immediately regretted the words when he recognized how cheesy they sounded.

But Sara only laughed in response. “I see you’ve already ordered everyone to start working.”

“It’s no big deal,” Jisung chirped, even as he fumbled back against the side of Changbin’s SUV under the weight of the boxes he was balancing.

Thankfully, Jisung managed to find his footing long enough to adjust his heavy load, rushing into the house behind Seungmin while Y/N walked back outside. In the brief amount of time that Sara had been apart of his life, he was amazed to see how close the two had become. It all started when Changbin agreed to entertain Y/N’s suggestion of a double date with Minho, and Changbin was completely unprepared to discover that Sara and Y/N had a lot more in common than he initially perceived. They talked for the entirety of their dinner reservations, and Y/N insisted on riding home with Changbin and Sara even though Minho wasn’t happy to lose her company.

Nevertheless, it also made Changbin incredibly happy to see the two of them getting along so well, and Sara opened her arms wide for an eager Y/N who returned the embrace with a smile. “How’s school?” Sara asked when she pulled back.

“I’m glad that I get to graduate at the end of the month,” Y/N said, glancing back at the pile of Sara’s boxes with a curious expression. “What’s in this one?” Y/N asked, pointing at a box labeled VHS.

“I always forget that you’re younger than me.” Sara laughed before explaining to a puzzled Y/N about the concept of VHS films from the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Changbin could hear Jeongin whining about something to Seungmin, and he frowned when he noticed that Jeongin was sauntering back to the house without any boxes. Changbin decided that it was best to figure out why one of his helpers had already abandoned their duties, and he crossed his arms over his chest when he caught up to Jeongin. “Why are you moping around?” 

“Changbin, I’m hungry! We skipped lunch because we thought you were coming earlier,” Jeongin replied, and he sat right down on the porch steps as if there weren’t several more boxes to carry inside. “Hey!” he cried when Hyunjin knocked him on the back of the head while walking down the steps. 

“Hyunjin, don’t do that,” Changbin said, looking back at Jeongin with a sigh. “We can eat after everything’s moved inside.”

“But that could take all day,” Jeongin pointed out, and Changbin reluctantly agreed to call in a pizza so that Jeongin could quickly recuperate and help with the remainder of Sara’s belongings. 

Of course, he didn’t anticipate everyone stopping when the pizza arrived, and most of the boys crowded together on the front porch while eating and chatting away like they didn’t have unfinished work waiting for them in the driveway. “I think you’re all just lazy,” Changbin grumbled when he navigated around the maze of drinks on his way inside with another set of boxes.

“You expect me to drag those heavy ass boxes around when I’ve got cheese pizza right here?” Jisung asked with an incredulous tone that it made it seem like Changbin had just proposed something entirely preposterous. 

“That was part of our deal!” Changbin exclaimed. “Unless you want me to stop bringing home your snacks?”

“You always get the wrong brand anyway,” Jisung dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and Changbin fought hard to remain composed. 

At least Y/N was still working diligently, talking to Sara like she had been saving up on topics all week for them to discuss. But Changbin didn’t mind their easygoing conversation, and he wished that the other boys had as much desire to help Sara like Y/N. Of course, Chan should also be home soon, and he wouldn’t tolerate everyone else dawdling around on the staircase when there was still a lot to drag inside the house before nightfall.

And Changbin’s observation proved entirely accurate when Chan parked his car on the side of the street - marching across the yard to where Jisung noticed his approach and immediately abandoned the others to rush inside. “Oi,” Chan said, pausing as he examined the mess that had been left behind. “We don’t have time to sit around all day!”

“It was just a break,” Hyunjin said, but he cowered away at the look in Chan’s eyes and both Jeongin and Seungmin started to shove all of their trash inside the pizza box.

From there, Minho’s eventual arrival gave them a much-needed boost to organize everything into Changbin’s upstairs bedroom, and Changbin was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was only 5:00 by the time they were finished. “I’ve already had to change my clothes twice!” Hyunjin complained to Felix who merely nodded his head as he drank from his soda can.

“One day of manual labor won’t break you,” Chan said, opening the door for Hyunjin who was still moping about the condition of his hair. 

“I think that went well,” Sara remarked from where she was leaning against the side of her car next to Y/N. “You did good, babe,” she added, offering Changbin a gentle kiss which he willingly accepted. 

“I think we worked the hardest,” Y/N said.  

“Maybe we should go for a drive,” Sara suggested. “You want to come, Y/N?”

“Sure!” Y/N said, and she was already calling dibs on the front seat of Changbin’s SUV. 

“Are you sure?” Changbin asked, sending Sara a questionable look. “We can always relax in our room.”

“It’s fine,” Sara said with a nod. “We can go get a snack or something.”

“Okay...” Changbin said, giving Sara another lingering moment to change her mind until she opened the back door of the SUV.

Changbin shrugged his shoulders and situated himself behind the wheel, grinning at Y/N who was already using the car’s bluetooth feature to play her favorite music to fill the silence agreeably as they started down the road at a moderate speed.

They only drove a few miles before Sara pointed out a small diner that she insisted was one of her favorites. But Changbin wasn’t entirely convinced based on the spare amount of cars surrounding the somewhat fading exterior of the restaurant. Still, Changbin parked outside of the local diner and observed the building with suspicion. “This looks questionable.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sara said, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “We can grab something quick before we go home.”

“That sounds nice,” Changbin conceded, and he also couldn't ignore the fact that his heart had skipped a beat because it was lovely to hear Sara claim his precious Haven as her new home.

However, they were only inside the restaurant for an hour before Y/N received a suspicious text upon which she insisted that they needed to leave. In response, Changbin glanced over at her with a mouthful of french fries that he had been sharing with Sara. “Is something wrong?”

“N-no,” Y/N stuttered, which she only ever did when she was nervous. But what did Y/N have to be so nervous about?

“We can stay until everyone’s done,” Changbin said, but he noticed Sara and Y/N exchanging a quick nod from the corner of his eye.

“It’s alright,” Sara said. “I think we’re all ready.”

Changbin was slow to process the sudden change in their demeanor - altering quickly from complacent to urgent right before his very eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked, but Sara was already dragging them both out of the booth while Y/N walked ahead to take care of their bill at the register.

“Thank you for this, Binnie,” Sara said, and Changbin’s suspicions instantly melted away at the sweet nickname.

“You can thank me later,” Changbin flirted in return - leaning in for a kiss that was interrupted by Y/N who was urging them into the car.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said - making it very clear that she wasn’t in the mood to linger around in the parking lot. 

But Changbin decided not to question Y/N’s strange behavior - maybe she was picking up on bad habits from Minho. In any case, it was better to let things go because both Sara and Y/N seemed more relaxed during the accumulating mileage back to the house. They listened to Y/N’s eclectic mixture of music on her phone and talked about how much work they still had to do when they organized Sara’s things into the available space in Changbin’s room.

“Maybe you can build like a storage building out back for the stuff you don’t need,” Y/N suggested, and Changbin grimaced at the thought of all the work required to build something like that.

“Oh! That’s a great idea, Changbin,” Sara said, and Changbin sighed but nodded his head regardless.

The topic in question filled up most of their conversation for the duration of the drive, ending abruptly when Changbin parked along the sidewalk and frowned when he noticed an unusual absence of his housemates. “Where is everyone?” Changbin wondered aloud, groaning in complaint when Y/N rushed to his side and practically drug him out of the SUV.

“Follow me,” she said in a conspiratorial tone.

“What’s going on?” Changbin demanded because both Y/N and Sara were giggling and he was feeling increasingly left out of their plans.

“You’ll love it, Changbin,” Y/N insisted when they walked inside the house, and she lead everyone to the back porch, pulling open the door in grand fashion. “Ta-da!”

At first, Changbin wasn’t sure why Y/N was making a big deal out their simple backyard. But then, he wagered a step outside, and he paused when he finally realized what Y/N had meant. Because, instead of their usual bland set-up, everything had been drastically transformed, and all of his family members were waiting with enormous smiles.

“Surprise!” Jeongin shouted, clapping his hands together in delight as he gestured at the decorations - balloons and streamers, glittery tablecloths, aromatic food dishes, and even a fire-pit in the middle of the grass.

Changbin’s mouth was practically dragging the ground at this point as he observed the elaborate display. “What’s all this about?” he asked, holding out an arm when Sara glued herself to his side.

“It’s for our anniversary,” Sara said. “They helped me get this ready!”

“Really?” Changbin laughed because it had definitely taken him by surprise. But it was a sincere gesture that spoke to his heart.

“It’s a surprise, dude,” Jisung said from where he was already helping himself to the candy bowls on the table.

“I can tell you worked hard,” Changbin said, but he decided that it was one of the nicest things that he had seen. 

“Just enjoy yourself, baby,” Sara said, pulling him along as Y/N flitted away into Minho’s arms.

“Is this why you drug me to that restaurant?” Changbin asked as he sat down across from Jisung.

“I had to give them some time to get everything ready,” Sara said, nuzzling closer into Changbin’s neck.

“Man, you should’ve seen the look on your face!” Jisung exclaimed with a laugh.

In return, Changbin narrowed his eyes playfully. “Now, I’m definitely not bringing home your snacks.”

“Changbin,” Sara said, drawing his attention into the endless constellations which had formed from the flecks of gold in her brown irises.

“Whatever, but Changbin,” Jisung said, interrupting their intense staring contest. “The snacks were never real.”

“You little shit!”

It was late when Changbin and Sara were finally able to escape into the solace of their bedroom. Despite the exhaustion that he felt from the day’s events, Changbin was still quick to trap her between his arms against the door - connecting their lips in an all-consuming kiss. Sara sighed in contentment, and Changbin was absolutely delighted by the sweet sound. 

“Is this a sign, Changbin?” she asked, pulling away so that they could both catch their breath. “Are you gonna have your way with me tonight?”

“If you’ll let me,” Changbin replied - studying the sensual pools of her eyes as he leaned in to feather a kiss across her flushed cheeks. 

“On the bed,” Sara requested, and Changbin held her tight as they both navigated the intricate maze of Sara’s boxes which were loitered across the floor of their room.

Changbin was careful when he laid her down on the mattress, watching as she removed her t-shirt and jeans before he decided to do the same. “You’re beautiful,” Changbin told her earnestly, smirking at the way she turned to the side in embarrassment. “I’m serious,” Changbin added as he moved on top. “You know that, right?”    

Sara managed a nod this time, and Changbin left a kiss across her forehead. Changbin was gentle because he loomed over Sara with broad shoulders and defined muscles while she was all delicate form and features that deserved to be treated with respect. Yet, at the back of his mind, Changbin couldn’t help but want to order around someone who always acted so meek and submissive. “Touch yourself for me,” Changbin said, and his voice was deeper and more commanding than his usual tone. 

Sara moaned at his words, but she spread her legs and circled her fingers around her clitoris. It was an obscene sight, and Changbin could watch this all day - stroking his cock in time with the slow penetration of her fingers inside her wet opening. “Changbin, please,” she whined, looking up at him with tear-stained eyes.

“Use your words, sweetheart,” Changbin said, reaching down to wipe away the salty evidence. “Tell me exactly what you want.”

“Please touch me,” Sara said, and Changbin was more than happy to oblige - replacing her fingers with his own and crooking them up in search of the elusive g-spot that would surely bring her the most pleasure. He also focused on stretching her out - ensuring that she would be ready to take his cock which hung heavy between his legs.

“How good does it feel?” Changbin asked, thrusting his fingers to mimic the same effect of his cock.

“It feels so good,” Sara said, and her hands reached out to grab his shoulders, holding him close so that she could connect their lips in a messy kiss that was satisfying nonetheless.

“I’m gonna use my cock now,” Changbin said, and he pulled out his fingers and brushed them across her lips. “Taste yourself.”

Sara nodded, opening her mouth and allowing Changbin to stick his fingers inside, groaning low in his throat when her tongue moved between each digit. “Such a good girl,” he said, aligning the tip of his erection with her swollen pussy. “Don’t keep those noises to yourself, sweetheart,” he said, and Sara was already moaning before he was even buried to the hilt - and her tight walls clung almost desperately to his erection as if ensuring that he couldn’t pull back out.

“God, you’re big,” Sara said, and Changbin allowed the compliment to feed his ego, pulling back out to just the tip before snapping his hips and plunging into the familiar embrace of her heat. “Changbin!” Sara cried, and Changbin froze for a moment before glancing at his door - remembering that he shared this place with his other roommates.

“You gotta be quiet,” he said, and Sara looked at him like he was making an impossible request. But he found it endearing nonetheless, reaching back for her discarded panties. “Use these,” he said, and Sara reluctantly allowed him to push them into her mouth. 

Thereafter, Changbin felt more confident in himself, and he braced most of weight onto his forearms because it allowed him to penetrate his girlfriend in long, full strokes that had him reaching places deep inside that he was certain he had never accessed before. But it only spurred him to go even faster, and he was entranced by the image of Sara’s breasts moving in time to each successive thrust as he started to chase his own high.

He could tell when Sara came because he knew her signs by heart - the way her breath would hitch around a moan, and how she always closed her eyes while arching her back into the air. She was left panting and overstimulated while Changbin picked up the pace, driving his hips in thunderous grinds while feeling his entire body tip over the edge.

He eventually came like that - grunting into Sara’s shoulders as his hips gave a few more feeble rolls before stopping as his cum ran down her thighs. “What a mess,” Changbin remarked, chest heaving up and down as he removed the makeshift gag from Sara’s mouth - studying his girlfriend who looked seconds away from completely drifting off. “Are you okay?” he asked, moving onto his side and holding her close.

“I think you just sent me into the next dimension,” Sara remarked, and Changbin chuckled at the hyperbole.

“That was the idea,” he said, wrapping one arm around her waist as he pulled her tight to his overheated chest. “It wasn’t too much, right? I didn’t mean to force you to do anything.”

“I like when you take charge, but it wasn’t fun to have my underwear in my mouth, though,” Sara said, but she was smiling when she turned around to look at Changbin from over her shoulder. “Maybe we should consider installing sound-proof walls?”

“Now, there’s an idea,” Changbin said, and he could feel his eyelids grow heavier with the weight of his exhaustion. “The party was great, by the way. I can’t believe you did that for me.”

“There’s not a lot that I wouldn’t do for you,” Sara told him sweetly, and Changbin could feel his entire heart warming at the confession.

He closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet perfume - thanking whoever was watching over him that he had finally gotten his chance at finding his better half.

His soulmate.

[pebblysand]

of tyres that blow (extended author’s note of chapter v. of castles)

- - TO READ THE CHAPTER ITSELF, CLICK HERE. - -

Oh, what a month it has been. Well, a month and two days - I’m a bit late updating. I’ve had two good things happen, writing wise. 1) I got my first original short story published (!!!!) (you can read it here) and 2) I put out a little one-shot about Fleur Delacour that I’m super happy about and gave me an idea about a new series (more on that later this week, I hope. I might need help with prompts!). Regardless, this latest Irish lockdown is fucking endless and I sometimes wonder if this fic isn’t just an outlet for my feelings of lockdown-induced loneliness, apathy, but also a constant argument that I have with myself thinking: for the love of god, just pull yourself up, will you? You’re a Gryffindor, goddamn it. I certainly wish my fucked up sleeping patterns on no one, although I may or may have Mary-Sued that onto Harry, lol. (Spoiler alert: he’s scheduled to get some real sleep in next chapter. All bets are off regarding whether I will.)

This chapter was surprisingly easy to write (I basically vomited out chapters iv, v, and vi over the span of a week in December) but incredibly difficult to edit. For days, I just couldn’t concentrate, wrote and re-wrote and felt like everything was shite. Then, I realised it’d become this 19,000-words long monster so I had to cut a lot of shit out. We ended up with 15,898 words which I suppose is better? 

I do wonder: do people mind long chapters? Like, I know as fanfic reader, I personally prefer longer formats and rarely gravitate towards works that are less than 3,000 words. I love just getting buried into a story, into plots rather than single scenes. This being said, every time I write something that I deem too long (i.e. above 10k) I have these excruciating struggles where I wonder: should I cut it in half? should I leave it as is? I decided to split the last one. Then, I decided not to split this one because (you may notice this or not, I’m not sure) it’s kind of built a certain way, geared towards basically getting to the last two paragraphs. Like, when you get there, it’s a bit of an ah-ha moment, but I couldn’t get to that ah-ha moment without all the build up before it. It’s the accumulation of all of these little details that feel like they don’t matter. And as Harry says in the end, they don’t, in the grand scheme of things, but also they do. Like, everyday life doesn’t matter until you lose it. Then, it does, if that makes sense.

In terms of next update... I’ve decided to get my law licence transferred to France and the EU (it’s a long story), which means that I need to bloody, fucking study. The exams are at the end of March so my current plan is: hardcore study until the end of february. Mix study/writing in early march and hopefully get chapter vi out mid-March, then hardcore study until the end of March. Please, if you see me posting then, tell me off in the comments cause god, I really need to pass. Now, I will go have my traditional i-ve-put-a-chapter-out shot of limoncello and let you read the below :).

...spoilers for castles, chap v. under the cut -

I’ve done a lot of thinking about what this chapter is meant to be about. Obviously (I hope), every chapter has a point, in this story. Chapter 1 is about time (the way it passes and blurs when your mind’s a complete mess), chapter 2 is about hope, chapter 3 is about inevitability and the consequences of trauma, chapter 4 is about becoming an adult and growing into your own skin, etc. I think this one is about fear. How you feel it, and how you overcome it. Like, Harry takes a decision to stand up, fight, do the interview, regardless of the fact that he is scared (for his life, for that of the people he loves), and finds buried inside him a lot of the courage that he (felt) he lost, after the war. He learns to control his fear of the world by figuring out how apprehend it, through the training Giulia gives him, through learning how to kill, too. 

But, it’s also about fear in society. How the attack on Robards sets everyone on edge and how they keep going regardless. I initially wrote this chapter with the idea that it was going to be about speaking out and being brave, but obviously, fear and fighting against it is a huge part of that, too. 

Then, there’s Mia. Obviously, this fic is Harry/Ginny endgame but I do like the idea of Harry (and possibly Ginny as well) dating at least one other person, before officially tying the knot. Like, yes, Ginny is obviously coming back next chapter. She’ll probably own the second half of next chapter, if I’m honest, considering they’re obviously going to the burrow for christmas. I love Ginny, I’ve missed her and honestly, I can’t wait to bring her back. This being said, to be fair, I’ve kind of realised that this fic may actually be the first I ever write that isn’t strictly “shippy.” Like, yes, their relationship is a huge part of it (it’s a huge part of his life) and it will and was always going to be a huge part of this story but I think this fic is larger than that. It’s a result of my years-long obsession over: but what happens next? Over what “all was well” really means, in a general sense. How do they get to “nineteen years later” and beyond. But yeah, I’ve missed Ginny and I’m glad she’s on her way back to us now. 

Now, obviously. Giulia. I’m sorry. This was always going to happen. Well, almost always. I remember when I first wrote her in, she was a bit of a filler character. At the time, the thing with Mia was supposed to happen in last chapter and I actually had (have) much more backstory around her, than around Giulia. She and Harry were going to have proper conversations (will they ever, who knows?), really get to know each other. But then, Giulia came first narratively and shone through the page. I started writing her and she had this personality and life of her own and I couldn’t bring myself to curtail her. 

Now, we all know how it is: fanfics can only tolerate so many OCs. So, I had to choose between putting Mia at the forefront, or Giulia. I chose Jules. 

Then, in chapter 4, I wrote this: 

Her first lesson is to teach him how to drive the patrol car. ‘I don’t know why we use them,’ she explains, honest, and Harry vaguely wonders if he should be taking notes. ‘Reckon the Ministry saw them being used by Muggles, had to prove they could do better. They like making noise, the Ministry, don’t they? Lots of sirens and shite.’

Politely, Harry hides a chuckle behind a cough. He clearly doesn’t know yet that he doesn’t need to, that Giulia’s sarcastic sense of humour is one of the things that he’ll come to appreciate the most in this world, over the next few months. That the sound of her voice is one he’ll try to never, ever forget. That in the speech that he’ll give when he makes Head Auror, over a decade later, he’ll think of her and say: ‘Okay, let’s try to not just be sirens and shite, all right?’

This kind of tumbled out without me really thinking about it until I really looked at it and thought: fuck, why is he talking about her past tense, like that. Like “the sound of her voice is one he’ll try to never, ever forget.” Why would he forget it, though? And so, just like that, came her death sentence. For that, I apologise. It killed me too, and I cried when I wrote it in (especially when I wrote next chapter, actually, first time I ever made myself cry writing, if I’m honest) but it just needed to happen. It’s how Ginny and he get back together (I mean, obviously - is that even a spoil) because he’s grieving but she’s grown stronger and steady and she’s able to be there in a way that she wasn’t last summer. It did occur to me that god, all his mentors/father figures come to die, don’t they? But honestly, I kind of thing that his real mentor will be Robards, at the end of the day. She was just the one who allowed him to get back on his feet. 

One last note: I’ve been meaning to put this into the fic for ages but have never found the right moment to write it in. In the meantime, I’ll just say it here, because I don’t know if this has frustrated some of yous - I know it might have driven me mad. There is a logic to the Muggle/Wizard swearing/exclamations in the fic. Obviously, this is an adult fic so they swear normally, like eighteen-year-olds would in this (I decided that very early on), but also there’s “God”-s and “Merlin”-s and things like that. 

Now, I think that throughout this fic, although Harry hasn’t mentioned it yet (cause it never fucking fits anywhere) Hermione’s been having a sort of Muggle reckoning. She - in conscience - decides to start swearing/exclaiming “like a Muggle” after the war. If you notice, she only ever says “god”, never “Merlin.” Harry uses both interchangeably although he tends to use Merlin more when he thinks about wizard stuff, but God when he thinks about Muggle stuff (like when he’s with Mia). Ron only swears in “wizard” but I think he might start using Muggle expletives as well in the later chapters because of Hermione rubbing off on him. 

The fact that I even think about all that stuff is pathetic and I need to get a life. But that’s for another post, altogether. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it :). 

[mdzsgildedfate]

Gilded Fate - Chapter 11

Reincarnation AU [Chapter 11/?] Characters: Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling, Original Characters. Pairings: Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen, Lan Sizhui/Lan Jingyi, Xue Yang/OC

A deafening silence fell over the temple as the last of the students disappeared out of sight. The sun was beginning to sink in the sky and a small chill was settling in, serving as a reminder of the impending season change. Jin Ling stared on down the path long after everyone had gone, mulling over the situation still at hand. Clenching his jaw, he spun around and disappeared back inside the temple.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he quickly made his way through the winding hallways. Even though one of the potential dangers had been somewhat resolved, Jin Ling didn’t feel any less on edge. During Xinyi’s awakening, something stuck out to him- a seemingly insignificant detail that had unsettled him. Perhaps it was nothing. Very likely, it was completely unrelated to the other disturbing occurrences in the temple, but he wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned.

Hunting down Xiao Xingchen hadn’t been difficult. Jin Ling quickly found him drifting about the halls, looking nearly indistinguishable from the other ghosts that lingered around the premises. Even with the noise he made in approaching, Xingchen didn’t acknowledge the other cultivator until he was standing directly in front of him.

“Xiao Xingchen.” Jin Ling addressed him, blocking his path. “What happened back there with Song Lan?”

Xingchen gave his usual noncommittal shrug and tried to move past Jin Ling.

“Cut the crap. I know you’re faking.” Jin Ling squared his shoulders, refusing to let the man leave. “I heard you say Xinyi’s name. I know you can talk.”

The priest paused, looking at Jin Ling with an annoyed expression. “Why do you think I have some hidden information? You saw the same thing I did. Song Lan lost control of his Yin energy for a moment.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?”

Xingchen drew back with a bemused expression. “What are you implying?”

“Song Lan has had over eight thousand years to learn energy control. I don’t believe for one minute that a sword fight with Xinyi was enough to break that.”

“Believe it or not, it’s none of my business.” Xingchen pushed past Jin Ling. “If you’re so worried, why don’t you go ask him?”

Grabbing Xingchen’s shoulder, he pulled him back to face him. “I will when I find him. I don’t suppose you know where he is?”

“No. I don’t. I don’t make a habit of keeping track of his location every second of every day.” He replied, looming over Jin Ling. “I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with your stories of caves and demonic cultivators, but I’m tired of entertaining this game.”

Jin Ling’s jaw dropped in surprise, shocked by Xingchen’s disposition. He knew Song Lan was reluctant to believe what he’d said, but at least aired on the side of caution. Xingchen’s total lack of concern and blatant disregard of the potential danger was startling.

“Fine!” He snapped after a long pause. “It’s no wonder Song Lan is the way he is, walking through hell for someone who won’t even talk to him.”

Xingchen stopped dead in his tracks, fists clenched. Stepping even closer to Jin Ling, black veins creeping up his neck, Xingchen grabbed the front of the man’s robe. With their faces so close together, Jin Ling could see the faint remnants of tear stains on the priest’s face.

“How dare you make such wild presumptions about us?” He hissed, “Why should I be grateful to someone who condemned me to an endless life as a fierce corpse? Why should I be grateful to someone who keeps me locked away here?”

Suddenly dropping Jin Ling’s lapel, Xingchen stepped back, squeezing his eyes against the tears threatening to spill out again. Jin Ling watched speechlessly, cycling between shock and guilt.

“Song Lan didn’t walk through hell for me.” The veins receded and his fists unclenched, his demeanour relaxing into a state of defeat. “He brought me back so he could feel better about what happened. Everything he did was with complete disregard to my feelings. My refusal to speak is the only mercy I can show him.”

“Do you really hate him so much that Xue Yang’s company was preferable?” Jin Ling asked, muscles tensed.

Xingchen turned his gaze to the Jin Cultivator, falling quiet for a long time before speaking again. “When I died, I was blind. When I woke up, I suddenly wasn’t. That was just one of many secrets Song Lan has kept from me the past three thousand years. Xue Yang’s presence here was likely my last chance to find answers. It was hardly a matter of whose company was preferable.”

With that, the priest walked away, leaving Jin Ling behind to process the information. Seeing Xingchen’s raw emotions, he could understand why he’d chosen to feign being mute to Song Lan. Jin Ling himself had separated from the two Lans for a similar need to avoid difficult conversations, he could only imagine what it’d be like if he had to live isolated with them like Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Jin Ling returned his focus to the trouble at hand. Song Lan’s outburst still held suspicion for him, regardless of Xingchen’s opinion on it. Returning to his sweep of the temple, he searched every nook and cranny of the building in search of the other priest. Without the students occupying them, the spare rooms echoed eerily, feeling entirely too empty.

Coming to the last room, a fresh anxiety swelled within Jin Ling. If Song Lan wasn’t inside, it meant he had disappeared from the temple again. After his initial encounter with Xiao Xingchen, Jin Ling hadn’t run into a single other person. Something definitely didn’t feel right. Steadying his breathing, and trying to quell his growing unease, Jin Ling reached out and slid the door open. And let out a sigh of relief.

“There you are.”

With his back to Jin Ling, Song Lan stood ridgid in the middle of the otherwise empty room.

“Song Lan?”

The man jolted slightly, coming to life and rotating to face the other cultivator. Ice ran through Jin Ling’s veins immediately. Before he had a chance to react at all, his body suddenly froze, refusing to move no matter how hard he strained his muscles. His heart pounded in his chest as he heard movement behind him- the light footsteps of someone walking just out of view. His vision blurred and everything went black.

~X~

Most of the ride back to Beijing was passed dozing off and on. The adrenaline from his injured hand had worn off, leaving Xinyi feeling exhausted. His head rested on Chen’s shoulder, with one of the man’s arms wrapped around him, occasionally shifting in his seat whenever the ride’s turbulence rattled him awake. In between those moments, his dreams came forward in vague clips- memories from his life before.

As they pulled into the university parking lot, Chen gently shook him awake so they could begin gathering their things. Everyone filed off quietly, having still not quite recovered from the shock at the temple. Most of the students headed back to the dorms, leaving only a spare few stragglers to trudge through the parking lot in search of their own cars. Exchanging a few words amongst themselves, QianHua waved goodbye and left Chen to drive Xinyi home.

Before they made it far, Sizhui and Jingyi stopped them. Urging Chen to keep walking, Xinyi turned to face the two men.

“Xinyi. I won’t keep you long, I know you’re tired and in pain.” Sizhui said, choosing his words carefully. “But we’re obviously apprehensive about what happened-”

“Apprehensive?” Xinyi asked, looking at the two blankly. “You haven’t stopped staring at me since we left the temple. Are you afraid I’ll kill someone if you blink?”

“This isn’t my first time witnessing someone remember their past life.” Sizhui continued, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m not ruling out the possibility.”

“Considering what kind of person you used to be.” Jingyi added.

“Right. Because you knew me so well?” Xinyi narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t you know me better now?”

“It’s true, we’ve known you longer as Xinyi than as Xue Yang.” Sizhui said, cutting off whatever thought Jingyi was forming. “But the awakening process can have… side effects. Especially for people who died with regrets, or grudges-”

“I don’t care about anything that happened back then.” Xinyi interjected quickly. “I was a poor orphan that resorted to violence to survive, who glorified someone for showing me bare minimum kindness. None of that applies to my life now.”

Sizhui scanned his eyes over him, not looking entirely convinced. “You didn’t seem terribly indifferent when Xingchen tried to talk to you.”

Xinyi frowned at the name, breaking his eye contact with Sizhui. “I guess I have higher standards for how people treat me now. I’m thankful to you and Jingyi for helping me, but you’re not much different. You’re not looking out for me, you don’t even care that I’m a different person.”

Holding up his injured hand, he looked between Sizhui and Jingyi a few times before continuing. “You still remember I’m your student right? Wasn’t it your job to keep me safe? Everyone’s so worried that I might hurt other people, but no one batted an eye at the danger I was in around Song Lan.”

“I-... I’m sorry… You’re right.” Sizhui tilted his head down, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Jiaoshou. I’m going home. I’ll see you in class.”

Sizhui and Jingyi watched as Xinyi left, at a loss for what to say even to each other. The whole week had been spent worrying about Xue Yang’s return, just as Xinyi said, never once considering the possibility of Song Lan deviating. The two walked back to Sizhui’s car, not breaking the silence until the doors shut them inside. All at once, Sizhui’s emotions broke and he bent over the steering wheel in tears.

“A-Yuan, this isn’t your fault-”

“How is it not?” Sizhui asked, lifting his face. “I keep failing, time and time again! Every time I try to help, I just make things worse!”

“That’s not true.” Jingyi put a hand on Sizhui’s shoulder.

“Yes it is! You know it is, you know I was lying about Wen Chao. He didn’t try to redeem himself! I induced his awakening and he killed himself!” His whole body shook with sobs. “Because of my negligence, Wen Qing slaughtered an entire village. We haven’t seen Zizhen in thousands of years because of what I let happen! And now-!”

Jingyi grabbed the back of Sizhui’s shirt and pulled him into a hug, wrapping his arms tight around the sobbing man. Stroking his hand over Sizhui’s hair, he let him cry into his shoulder until the sobs subsided into soft hiccups. He pulled back, wiped the tears from Sizhui’s face, and kissed him.

“Did you do those things alone?” Jingyi asked, looking into Sizhui’s eyes. “I was there with you. You did the best you could, but those were imperfect situations with imperfect outcomes. They likely would have happened whether we were there or not. It’s true, we didn’t handle Xinyi well, but we did the best we could under the circumstances.”

Sizhui let out a stuttered breath, stifling another wave of tears.

“A-Yuan. Xinyi’s upset, and rightfully so, but this is far from the worst scenario. No one died.”

“That’s a pretty shitty minimum standard.”

“Ok, well, just for that, you’re copying the Lan principles when we get home.” Jingyi said curtly, sitting back in his seat. “Using such vulgar language, I’m disappointed in you.”

Sizhui broke into laughter, putting his forehead to Jingyi’s shoulder for a moment before straightening up. Jingyi was right; they had all been prepared for the worst and, at the very least, no one died.

~X~

All the way back to Xinyi’s house, he could see the tension on Chen’s face while he drove. It wasn’t surprising to think he had some questions, or a million, about what happened, but Xinyi appreciated the silence for as long as he could. He was sure anything Chen wanted to ask didn’t have an easy answer. It gave Xinyi a small insight into Xiao Xingchen’s vow of silence with Song Lan, making it seem a little less crazy in retrospect.

The Wang residence was a good forty minute drive from the university, giving them both plenty of time to process their thoughts. Once they pulled off the highway, Chen turned the volume on the radio down, still silent for a while before actually speaking.

“Have you thought of what you’re going to say to your family when they see your hand?”

Xinyi looked down at it, resisting the urge to take off the bandages to survey the damage. “Not really. I’ve got some time though. My parents are never home this time of year and A-Zhou won’t notice.”

Chen let out a small laugh. “Right. Unless she grabs your hand.”

Xinyi winced at the thought. “I’ll just have to be careful.”

“What about your uncle?”

“I’ll just have to pray.”

The roads gave way to a pleasant suburban neighborhood, free of traffic as the hour grew later. The streetlights were just beginning to turn on, giving the area a dreamlike appearance.

“A-Xin…”

Xinyi turned his attention from the window to look at Chen.

“Should I even bother asking about what happened?” He asked, his grip on the steering wheel tightening.

“You saw just as much as I did, what-”

“You know what I mean. After QianHua and I were pushed out of the room. What actually happened.”

Xinyi looked down, clearing his throat anxiously. “Why do you think something weird happened…”

Chen’s jaw clenched. “I know you’re still recovering, but if we’re… whatever this is we’re doing… I need to know.”

“It’s really not important.” He replied, his gaze drifting to the sword at his feet. “I want to forget about it.”

The car pulled up in front of the Wang house, rolling to a stop on the side of the street. After a few silent beats, Chen reached his hand over to rest on Xinyi’s thigh. Looking up at the house, Xinyi felt a strange aversion to going inside.

“A-Xin… did something bad happen?”

Xinyi couldn’t help but laugh and hold his hand up. “No, of course not.”

Chen glowered at him, retracting his hand. “Please don’t do that.”

He put his hand down.

“What did you and Xingchen talk about?”

“Ah…” He looked at Chen, trying to find an answer to the question. “I mean. I basically just told him I didn’t want to see him again.”

“Basically?”

“Chen…” Xinyi sighed, putting a hand on JiangZai’s hilt. “I’m not trying to hide anything from you, but if I tell you the truth, you’ll think I’m crazy.”

“Is that any different from usual?” Chen asked, moving his hand back to Xinyi’s leg. “You’ve always been weird. Your whole family is weird. Don’t you think I knew that when I started liking you?”

Xinyi turned his gaze to the man, looking at him for a long time, weighing the options. “...Fine. But it’s a long story.”

A small smile cracked across Chen’s face and they set to work collecting their belongings to go inside. The house was dark inside, giving no indication as to who was home. Testing the waters, Xinyi flipped a few lights on as they silently made their way through the rooms. Before long, the sound of footsteps came from upstairs. Xinyi held his breath, watching the stairs in anticipation of who would appear.

Slowly coming into view was a young girl, around sixteen, with short, spiky hair, and white eyes. Halfway down the stairs, she paused, listening with a suspicious expression on her face. Xinyi approached the stairs, keeping his movements as soundless as possible. Despite his efforts, her face immediately turned to where he stood.

“DaGe? Why are you home?” She demanded immediately.

Letting out his breath, Xinyi fell into a lighthearted laugh. “How has your hearing gotten so good?”

“You’re just loud!” She retorted, descending the stairs to hug him.

Xinyi wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the stairs and spinning around to set her back down. They stayed in a tight embrace for a few seconds before breaking apart, Xinyi moving carefully to avoid letting her touch the injured hand.

“Someone else is with you, right? Who’s here?” Zhou turned to Chen, reaching a hand out and feeling her way to his face. “Hey, you’re supposed to be on that field trip too!”

Chen pulled away, whipping his glasses off to clean her fingerprints from the lenses. “We got rained out, everyone came home early.”

“ZhouZhou, where’s Uncle? Is he home?”

“Yeah, downstairs.” Zhou replied, turning to face him again.

“We’re going up to my room, don’t tell him we’re here.”

Zhou nodded and the two climbed the stairs to Xinyi’s bedroom, closing the door behind them. Xinyi dumped his stuff onto the desk, letting the sword clatter onto the surface haphazardly, and threw himself onto the bed. Chen dropped his belongings onto the floor and climbed onto the bed beside Xinyi, patiently waiting for him to continue the conversation from the car. Slowly, Xinyi pulled his face from the blankets and looked at Chen.

“It’s been a long day, can’t we just go to bed-?”

“A-Xin.”

Xinyi frowned, pulling himself into a sitting position. “Let the record show, you bullied me into this.”

“Acknowledged. Now spill.”

Where to even begin? How much information did he actually have to give Chen? His actions as Xue Yang weren’t things to be proud of, but could he explain his relationship with Xingchen without it? He looked at Chen nervously, trying to collect his thoughts to put into words.

“Remember the lecture Song Lan gave about Cultivators?” Xinyi asked tentatively, studying Chen’s face.

“Yeah… It’s like the stories about your family’s antiques.”

“Exactly. Everyone thinks we made the stories up to gain attention for our collection. You did too, right?”

Chen opened his mouth with an incredulous expression, prepared to defend himself.

“Don’t look offended, I thought they were kinda bullshit too. The antiques are cool, but the stories sound fake.”

“Are you trying to get us off-topic?”

“No.” Xinyi paused, trying to think of what to say. “Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan aren’t just Taoist priests living in a temple for no reason. They’re Cultivators.”

“...Okay.”

“And they’re about eight thousand years old.”

“........Okay.”

Pausing again, Xinyi looked at Chen questioningly, waiting for the man to accuse him of joking around or lying or just plain sounding crazy.

“So are Sizhui and Jingyi Jiaoshou.”

Chen’s face scrunched slightly. “Are you being serious or are you just fucking with me?”

“I’m being serious. This is why I said you’d think I was crazy.”

“Alright… let’s say I do believe you…What does this have to do with what happened?”

“The reason you guys were told to leave was because…” He bit his lip, hesitating with his words. “They had to do something to make me remember my past life.”

The other man stared up at him blankly, the faintest hint of annoyance behind his eyes.

“Chen, really, I know this sounds stupid. Can we please just forget about it?”

“So…” Chen furrowed his brow, fussing with a stray string hanging from the blanket. “Sizhui and Jingyi Jiaoshou… and the two priests… are 8,000 year old ‘Cultivators’, who you knew in your past life? And they ‘did something’ to make you remember that… right after one of them attacked you…”

Xinyi’s heart was pounding in his chest, painfully skipping at Chen’s expression. Everything he’d just told the man sounded beyond ridiculous, there was no way in hell Chen could believe him. Any second, he’d storm out and never talk to Xinyi again.

“Pretty much…”

“What’d you do to piss off Song Lan that bad?”

“I uh… killed him. Xingchen too, technically…” He replied, surprised that Chen was even entertaining his bullshit anymore.

“I thought you said they were thousands of years old.”

“They’re reanimated corpses.”

Chen drew in a sharp breath, clenching his jaw again. Bringing his eyes up slowly, he looked past Xinyi to the sword resting on the desk behind him. Xinyi could practically see the gears turning in his head.

“Chen…” Tentatively reaching a hand out, Xinyi touched his fingers to Chen’s knee. “I swear I’m not lying. You can call me crazy, you don’t have to believe anything I just said, but I swear I’m not lying-”

“I believe you.”

Xinyi’s mouth snapped shut, his eyes widening into a shocked stare.

“There were so many weird things about this trip, I don’t think I would’ve believed any normal explanation.” Chen finally met Xinyi’s eyes, still looking a little reserved. “It’s a lot to take in though.”

Whether from relief or sheer shock, Xinyi burst into laughter, falling onto his side. After a moment, Chen joined in, filling the room with their combined voices. When they both finally came to their senses and caught their breath, Xinyi shifted closer to Chen, wrapping his limbs around him into a tight embrace. Something about the other man actually believing him made the whole situation less ridiculous, relieving some of the insanity Xinyi had been feeling.

~X~

After more than a year of running on only a few hours of sleep a night, Xinyi’s body naturally woke sometime in the early morning. The room was still dark, the only sounds coming from the soft breathing of the man beside him. Careful not to wake Chen, Xinyi slipped out of the bed and felt his way to the door, pausing as his hand grazed over the sword on his desk. Taking several seconds to process what he was touching, he wrapped his fingers around it and carried it out of the room with him.

Promptly deciding he didn’t want JiangZai hanging around his room as a constant reminder, Xinyi descended into the basement to store the thing in the family vault. He punched in the code quickly and pulled the heavy door open, switching on the lights and pausing to let his eyes adjust. A small shiver ran down his spine, looking around the room with new eyes. The items within were no longer mysterious artifacts, but ancient Cultivating tools, some of which he recognized personally.

Walking slowly through the room, processing each item as he passed, Xinyi made his way to an empty set of shelves towards the back. Unsheathing the sword, he let his eyes scan over the blade, dwelling on the dissonance it brought, before sheathing and discarding it onto one of the shelves. Turning to leave, Xinyi was surprised to see a familiar face waiting behind him. Standing at the door was the unmistakable figure of his dear friend, Smiling Ghost.

“What are you still doing here?” He asked nonchalantly, taking his time in crossing the vault to where she was waiting.

She gave no reaction, patiently watching him as though they were old friends. Coming closer, Xinyi was able to make out more and more details of her face. She no longer wore the knowing smile that had unnerved him much before, looking at him instead with a soft, pleasant expression. A new familiarity settled in his mind as he looked at her, searching his memories for a name to place to the face.

“I know you…” He said quietly, mostly to himself.

Her lips twitched up into a smile, waiting for him to solve the riddle.

“Oh! I know you!” His voice rang out in a quiet triumph, but his features quickly changed to confusion. “But why are you…”

The memories of his last encounter returned to his mind, recalling the words she’d silently mouthed to him that day in the woods. Dawning realization quickly transformed into fearful urgency as her prior actions finally made sense.

“Oh no. Oh fuck.” Xinyi’s eyes widened, garnering a broad smile from his dear friend.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he retraced his steps to retrieve JiangZai before flying past Smiling Ghost, quickly climbing the stairs back up to his room. He flipped the lights on with no care for the man still sleeping in his bed and tossed open the closet door. Pulling on the first pair of pants and long-sleeved shirt he found, Xinyi re-emerged from the closet.

“A-Xin? What are you doing?” Chen asked, watching him with bleary eyes.

“I have to go.” He replied, slipping into a jacket and pressing a kiss to Chen’s cheek. “I’ll explain when I get back, I don’t have time right now.”

Before Chen could even form a thought to argue, Xinyi disappeared from the room again. Waiting by the front door, Smiling Ghost followed Xinyi out of the house and around to the garage. The first snowflakes of the season were starting to fall, making him hesitate for only a moment as he considered the consequences of the weather. One quick glance at Smiling Ghost was enough to chase away his concerns. Without another thought, Xinyi pulled on a helmet and mounted his bike, speeding down the road back to Leng Shuang WeiFeng Temple.

[musesofolive]

Ahh I have been posting a lot today, I’m sure you’re all waiting for me to shut up lol. But not right now! Now that I think of the multi-muse house in my head and how my beloved oc’s are just like living in the place like they’re all roommates, I wanna explore that a lil bit.

Isla:

She is pretty much the closest thing to the mom of the house. She may not be the oldest, but she is the most emotionally and mentally mature for sure. Which, she constantly finds amusing considering Rowan is there and is her older sibling, but I digress! She’s the one who’s got the house set up on a system that works, who’s cleaning what room, who’s getting the dishes, who’s washing the laundry. She settles any disputes that come up in the house that may lead to violence, and she’s always the best shoulder to lean on when you’re not feeling the greatest.

She’s the natural leader of the house and everyone tends to trust her, there’s no one she really dislikes or doesn’t get along with. She gets along well with everyone, but mostly with Ciri and Rowan since she’s known them the longest. She tends to treat Nova like she’s her daughter, is always glad to have Sahar’s level headedness, and does appreciate Riley’s laidback ways.

Ciri:

She definitely keeps things the most lively in the house. She’s an agent of chaos, what can she say? Once she flies into the room, any hope of the atmosphere staying quiet is completely ruined. But she does have a habit for putting people in a good mood...most of the time, when she’s not pranking them or they’re not next to her room where they can constantly hear her singing. She can be more serious and stick to rules if she sees Isla getting overwhelmed though, but that’s really the only scenario where she loses her goofiness.

Isla and Nova are the ones she sticks by the most, with Rowan falling closely behind those two. She knows that they’ll enable her chaos whenever she decides to cause it. Riley is next after that because he’s just so easy to get with pranks, and it’s super funny teasing him, especially when he thinks his flirting is getting him literally anywhere. Sahar she doesn’t stick around too much, she gets the sense that the soldier can’t tolerate too much of her shenanigans and so for Isla’s sake, she leaves her be for the most part. But Sahar does tend to stop by to listen to Ciri’s songs when they’re not too bombastic.

Nova:

I love my girl, and it’s because I love her that I tend to deem her the emotionally wounded teen of the house. She’s not an actual teenager and she doesn’t act like one really, but Nova has been the most emotionally and physically scarred out of all them and has not had the time to heal any of it over yet, like the other roommates. So, she sticks to herself a lot. She used to only come down for meals and stay holed up in her room, but Ciri eventually wouldn’t have any of that and dragged her out from time to time. That came to the agreement that Nova will spend time with some of them outside of meals so long as Ciri stops busting her door down and dragging her by the arm. But for the most part she just follows the rules set and keeps her head down.

Ciri is the one she hangs around most, not entirely by choice, but she is the one she’s most familiar with so it’s better than a stranger in her opinion. After that is the Comerde siblings. Isla is very comforting, warm and treats her nicely. And she helps in such subtle ways so that Nova doesn’t have to feel embarrassed for asking for help. So when it comes to who she likes Isla actually sorta takes the cake. As for Rowan, they’re quiet and don’t usually ask too many questions. So, when Ciri and the others get way too overbearing, she rolls up to their room and just vibes with them while they read or do work, it’s a very mutually beneficial thing. Sahar’s not too far behind, she’s a bit too intense sometimes for Nova to vibe with her properly like she does with Rowan, but she’s helpful in getting her anger out, and helps her get better at self defense which makes her feel safer and less like she needs to lash out constantly. And then there’s...Riley. She does not like Riley. A. He’s a human man. B. She knows all the charm and flirting is just a facade, and she hates it. She doesn’t like people being fake with her, because then it reminds her of Dorian and makes her wonder what they’re really hiding. Also he’s way too touchy for her liking. Everything about him just rubs her the wrong way so she tends to stay away from him, and if she can’t, then those two are going to get into a fight.

Rowan:

They are simultaneously one of the chillest and one of the strictest in the house. Which makes no sense, but it’s true. Like, no, go ahead, do whatever you want, as long as you’re not bothering them, they really don’t care. But also, if they catch you not doing your chores or not following the rules, they will harp on you subtley like no tomorrow. They helped design the system set up actually, and they tend to supervise how it goes, suggesting different things to try to Isla when they notice something that can be improved. They sorta tried to take over as leader of the house since they believed they could run it better...yeah that lasted about a week before they handed that title back to Isla with a shake of their head. This group is nothing like their tribe, they just can’t. So, instead they’re like Isla’s left hand, enforcing the rules and keeping the peace from the shadows...but also not, because they are an enabler of chaos at their core. Not an agent, but if someone is looking to fix up some good natured mischief, they will gladly help and sit back and watch it all unfold. But usually they’re either in their room or in the library, working on papers for the trading business to send back to their father.

The Skywings are the two they get along with best, but for different reasons. Ciri creates glorious chaos while still following the rules, and they find that absolutely immaculate as they do whatever they feel like to help her. Nova is quiet and precisely what they need when they get into one of their “I’m surrounded by idiots” moods. Isla comes next, there are worse people, and she is still family. When they’re homesick they spend more time than usual with her, just to be reminded that there is still a piece of home with them. Sahar and Riley come afterwards. Not that they really dislike anyone here, if they don’t like them, then they have a neutral disposition at most. Sahar is just neutral territory because they’re very alike in some aspects, but she also shares some of Torin’s traits. It’s like an amalgamation of them and they find it interesting. And Riley is also someone who causes mischief, which they like, but also, they just...cannot deal with the flirtiness. Like at all, it flusters them way too much. If they are with Riley, it has to be in a group setting because otherwise they’ll just be blushing like no tomorrow at Riley’s endless flirting and charm.

Sahar:

If Isla’s the designated mom, Sahar is oddly enough sort of like the dad. She respects Isla and her desicions greatly, and enforces them more directly than Rowan does. She is Isla’s right hand woman for sure. She makes sure everyone is safe physically since that’s her better strong suit as a guard/soldier, she lets Isla handle the emotional aspects. She’s also the one to break up any fights physically, she’s tall and strong, it’s what she’s good at. She usually spends time in the training room, especially when she’s worked up, but honestly she makes her rounds to just about every room in that house that isn’t someone’s bedroom. She likes knowing the layout.

She prefers Isla’s company more than anyone else’s. The elf is just one of the few she doesn’t have to be all soldier-face with (and Isla is 100% teaching her how to dance. Sahar wasn’t convinced she’d be any good at it, but Isla’s proving her wrong.) and genuinely feels like she can be relaxed around. They respect Rowan’s professionalism and regards for the rules, even if they do let mischief happen. She feels both pity and admiration for Nova, she has clearly gone through things that would probably kill weaker people. And she wants to let her know that her battle is over, there’s no more need to keep fighting and it’s time to heal. But, words aren’t always her strong suit, so she tries to express that with how she spends her time with the young elf. She finds Ciri annoying and troublesome, but in a good way, if that makes sense. She’s like both a pesky hummingbird that keeps flitting around her face, but also reminds her of her brothers so she doesn’t mind it. So, she tolerates the Skywing so long as she doesn’t get herself into too much trouble. She tolerates Riley the least. They’re just two very different people. Sahar is about upholding the law and protecting others and being selfless, Riley is a con man who is selfish and literally only thinks about himself. Plus he’s committed crimes in her very country. Safe to say, opposites do not attract this time around. She’s much more no-nonsense with him than anyone else.

Riley:

I feel so bad but this one just like...gets picked on mercilessly. He is constantly bullied in this household, but not in a way that’s genuinely like upsetting just, teased a lot so that he can learn and get character development. And I promise the others aren’t treating him too badly and Isla always steps in if she feels everyone needs to lay off. That woman is basically Riley’s saving grace because she’s the only one who doesn’t pick on him. Not to say others don’t enjoy his presence on occasion, he didn’t learn his people skills for nothing after all, he’s usually one of the bigger talkers at the table and keeps the atmosphere nice and light. Either with his skills, or by being the comic relief. He’s starting to get fond of libraries all things considered, so he does find himself there often. And if he’s not there, he’s usually in the game room fiddling with some pool or playing cards. If he can rope the others into joining him, he’ll play some poker or just generally a game or two. And the bar, that man loves his alcohol.

Isla and Rowan are at the top of his list. Isla, for being the motherly saint she is and constantly getting the others to stop bullying him, plus she’s the only one who can in all actuality, handle him. She plays along with his games without ever actually losing, and she never gets boring to talk to. Which surprised him, because she’s one of the most sentimental, family-oriented people he knows. He didn’t think he’d ever get along with someone like her, but she’s just that inviting. And then there’s Rowan, again another family-oriented type. But he knows he started liking them because they fluster so easily at his flirting. He does love to get under people’s skin and tease them. Plus, for as family-oriented as they seem to be, they care in a very sensible way. And when he’s at the bar, usually drunk, he wonders if he could have ever been like them had he been with a proper family. He doesn’t really dislike Sahar, so much as he is just...frightened of her. Like, every time she looks at him, he can just tell she’s imagining putting his head on a pike or something. He’s very happy there’s a no fighting truce in that house, otherwise he’d have fled that house so fast to avoid getting either murdered or brought to jail for so many years by her. And Ciri and Nova are tied for the ones he dislikes the most. Ciri’s got an annoying habit of pranking him, and it sucks because nothing he ever does seem to get under her skin, he’s tried everything. But there’s nothing that does the trick, but she gets under his skin so easily and it drives him crazy. He only approves of her mischief from afar, and he hates that she constantly makes up little tunes that mock him. And then there’s Nova, and he was a little surprised. He didn’t think he’d ever end up liking her, sure, but like the animosity she shows him for literally no reason just astounds him. There’s nothing he can do to rectify it either. Everytime he tries it just gets worse, and he hates working with people he can’t control at least a little. That, and I mean, the guy is 40, she’s 25, the difference in mentality just makes them even less likely to enjoy the other’s presence. He’s constantly saying “who do you think you’re talking to, little girl? Hasn’t anyone told you to respect your elders?” To which she always snaps back “I’m an elf, you crusty bag of bones! Just because I look younger than you, doesn’t mean I am! And there’s hardly anything to respect from someone who’s an outlaw in every nation they can hide in!” Like just...keep them away from each other. The insults are funny at first, but it’s not long before someone makes a move to attack or say words that are going to cut too deep.

[yanderecandystore]

"You mean any Yandere Villains, or my current ocs being villains?" I-I like both, I kinda wanna see a villain eldritch o//o - cold anon

Hey Cold! Well- I won't lie, I'm too dumb for your request lol- I hope you liked what I did (cause I think I got your request a little wrong 👉👈) also:

My internet has been shit lately, so yeah ;-; sorry for the wait

TW/Tags: I used the same character that used on Snow Globe btw, I thought that I should clarify that so no one gets confused // playing God // my internet was shit all day!! // Delusional thinking and disregard for human lives

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Play time [Yandere!Eldritch OC x Reader - Headcanon]:

This time I think I would like to focus on Azir, The Winged One since he does send a lot of evil thot energy, especially since one of his favorite pastimes is to closely watch the drama happening in his human captivities.

Watching day by day their lives unfold is pretty entertaining but it can get boring so quickly, so you can imagine how he enjoys changing the course of some of those lives. Sometimes he likes to keep the perfect balance that was so carefully designed to keep you all in your places, maybe just interfering with a couple of mundane situations here and there, like for example:

Oh, Martha wants to call Carol out for a date, huh? But she is too insecure to do it on her own? Well, he could help things get a little more interesting, like creating an awkward and convenient situation that would lead to her confessing her feelings, you know the usual cliches, after all who doesn't enjoy a good romance story every now and then.

Maybe even starting drama, making people fight over stupid things for no reason other than "why not?". All of these events he could easily take care off from afar, never directly facing those he submits to play the role as his entertainment.

But eventually, keeping a stable perfect happy place starts to get you bored, at least in his mind it is only natural for him to want to shake things up a bit. Who cares about social drama when he can start a devastating earthquake any time that he wants? And besides, it's only when humans are faced with a challenge that their colors really come out.

And because there is no interference from any of the other hellish creatures he considers to be friends with, he basically has the situation in his full control. He essentially already won this game, and the price is pure, raw entertainment forever.

But, ya know, the idea of playing a role in his carefully created theater is…. It sounds pretty interesting, fun even! Can you imagine? He could totally see for the first time what it feels like to interpret one of your kind.

Of course, he thought you would be one of the simple minded people that would simply believe his every word, but it seems like he had underestimated you and humanity entirely.

Were you one of the smartasses that would catch a glimpse of him in the sky? He is pretty sure that it should be impossible for anyone to see him, but maybe he made some mistakes while creating this cage for your entire town, or maybe you were just another pesky smart little thing. But what can he do in this situation?

I mean, it would be out of character if he suddenly decided to eradicate your existence right here and now, he needs to at least act like an innocent human while he is down here. And besides, having someone to anger it's just so fun!

This is even better than he originally planned, having someone be so determined to prove that he is someone not only dangerous but also inhuman is pretty entertaining. People don't seem to believe you at all, despite the plenty of proof of your struggles against him.

I mean, he isn't even hiding anymore, after some weeks of creating a bit of chaos here and there while you try to play the role as a hero, he started to understand what type of character he is playing as.

Why, if you're a hero then clearly he is the villain! Or maybe he is the true hero, and you're just someone whose intentions got in his way, it's all about perspective dearest.

His favorite part about this whole thing is how he feeds you hope of finally being able to stop him, but simultaneously taking that same hope away before you get too close to the truth", leaving you in an endless and confusing cycle.

But you seem pretty determined to get to the truth, to know what it's truly happening in your town, and who is this "hellish creature tormenting you". You're almost there, don't worry about it.

Azir never thought that a game of cat and mouse would be so fun, but of course it comes with some setbacks. You're only human after all, so your search to stop his control over your little town can be pretty dangerous, but I don't think you need to worry much.

He has gotten himself pretty attached to you, so it doesn't matter how many times you fall and "break", he can fix you up so that you'll continue playing his game. And of course, if you ever stopped caring for the game, well-

He probably wouldn't be able to deal with that, especially since you're a core piece to this theater. There is no play if there is no character, and there is no fun if you simply give up!

But that 's okay! Everything it's okay, he can fix that too, you'll see.

You'll see how much you actually enjoy this game, just as much as him.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[havenesa-sera-fina]

Hidden Marks [3: What are you Hiding?]

Summary: Wrapping his own arms around her shoulders, Namjoon pulled her in, resting his head on the crown of her head, his heart beating steadily, which Sera heard and smiled to herself. Even with his odd lengthy limbs, they fit together perfectly, "Sera, I'm falling in love with you, that I want to convince you not to go, but I trust you. I just want you to be happy, to never cry over us again. I can't promise you that if you choose to stay with us, everything will be rainbows and sunshine, but I promise you that we won't give up on you, on this relationship. We're not perfect like everyone thinks we are, we're not the perfect bunch of soulmates, we have problems as a group and individuals, secrets that we all keep, burdens that we try to carry on our own. Though we all have each other, to fall back on when things get brought, and that includes you now. We're soulmates, so if anything happens, don't be scared to tell us. 

(Poly BTS/OT7 x Reader/OC)

College Au / Soulmate Au

Disclaimer: Bts isn't my or any real life people (obviously.) Any other characters are my though. This is my story so do not republish this anywhere or I will report.

There maybe some triggers, but I will address them within the chapters.

Sources: Wattpad

Word count: 2281

Monday night I emailed my professors to let them know I wouldn't attend classes for Tuesday, and exhaustion finally caught up to me that night as I went to sleep, with several needles in my arm, an oxygen mask around my mouth, with the beeping of the monitor. I woke up like that Tuesday afternoon.

Groggily, I removed the annoying mask from my face and pushed my hair away from my face as I glared weakly at the open curtain, as the sunlight was the one to interrupt me from my sleep. The temptation to just knock down the beeping monitor next to me was strong, but I just shifted in the bed, my sore muscles tensed slightly when I shifted to my side a bit. A groan escaped my mouth, wanting to fall back to sleep, but I couldn't.

Reaching for my phone in my bedside table, I winced slightly at the dozens of missed calls and text I received, mainly from Lilia, Kimie and Baekhyun.

Feeling slightly guilty, but not knowing what to say, I sent them a mass message that said I was fine, before putting my phone on mute, so I didn't have to deal with their endless questions of where I was at.

However, I sent Baekhyun a private text:

Can you come to the hospital whenever you have time? Please don't tell anyone I'm here.

I felt like absolute garbage, but at least the burning from my marks ceased, and the headache was gone.

Soon the same nurse from last night came, with her usual bright smile, "Miss. Han, how was your sleep?"

"My whole body is sore," My voice was scratchy, as I gratefully took the water that the nurse offered, "When can I leave?"

The nurse checked my vitals and told me everything seemed to be normal and would inform the doctor before giving me an estimate of when I'll be discharged. She left me alone to my own thoughts, as I settled back into my bed, my eyes heavy, but refusing to sleep. While I may be physically better, it didn't mean I was mentally better. It didn't stop that aching feeling I felt in my chest, the loneliness and emptiness I felt.

After a bit the nurse came back with the doctor, who went over my vitals and charts again, before asking me how I was feeling and replied that I was much better.

"There's this procedure in America," The doctor suddenly spoke, as she was typing away from the computer, looking away from me, "That gets rid of the soulmate mark, and terminates the soulmate bond. It hasn't been approved in Korea, but in America, it has an 80% success rate."

I didn't reply, but I unconsciously shifted the covers to hide the marks, which I knew would be black instead of gray now, as the therapy worked it's magic to repair the bond and in the end my soul. However, there was only so much it could fix, especially when I've been doing the same treatment for nearly four years.

"I assumed you already called someone to pick you up, I'll have your paper works prepared. You can leave in about two hours."

*****

"What is going to be your excuse to Kimie and Lilia? They've been worried about you all day," Baekhyun asked, breaking the silence in his car. The radio was on low, nothing more than a buzz in the background.

Shifting my eyes to glance slightly at the pick haired guy, I turned my body farther away from him, "Just tell them I went a male strip club and I had some fun," I snorted out, not wanting to think about how to deal with my two friends. That was also the reason why we were currently heading towards Baekhyun's apartment, so I can rest more before I return to my dorms and most likely to an awaiting Kimie with a Lilia by her side.

"You're getting worst Sera," he spoke once more, this time his voice more serious causing me to stiffen up a little, "The treatments been getting less and less effective. Give or take a couple of months before those don't even work. Then what?"

"Then I head to America."

"For what?"

"To get rid of the soulmate bond, and probably go to medical school there."

*****

I was mentally and physically exhausted as I walked up the stairs. Nearly falling several times, and I just wished some unknown being would just come, sweep me off my feet and to my bed. Then I wouldn't have to face Lilia and Kimie, after facing Baekhyun.

All we did for a straight hour was scream at each other, yell, fight, and insult one another.

After my announcement of going to America and for what reason, Baekhyun exploded, calling my decision stupid. I of course argued back and tried to defend my decision. We hurled insults after insults at each other, both angry for completely different reasons, and I was the first to break. After our hour of fighting, I spent an hour crying with Baekhyun trying to comfort me, both of us apologizing, before I decided it was time to go back to my dorm.

I wished I accepted the offer to stay at his place for the night, as I pushed my key into the door and pushed it open.

Along with Kimie and Lilia, were two other people that I just wasn't mentally prepared to deal with. Even so, my heart skipped a beat when I saw them.

Sitting on one of the couches in the living room was some would say, the perfect man to exist. With his broad shoulders and slim waist, every girls dream body for their boyfriend. Well-defined facial features with slight cat-like eyes, which were a rich brown color, with a pair of plump lips. His dark black hair stood out against her perfect skin, and he really was a worldwide handsome guy.

Sitting next to him was another breathtakingly beautiful person, large brown doe eyes could make any girl swoon, especially his double eyelids that many people in Korea dreamed to have. He was still well-defined but had almost like a child aspect to him, and whenever he smiled he looked like a bunny. He was Mr. Heartthrob.

"Where the hell have you been!" It was Lilia to speak of more yell once I closed the door, "Do you know how worried we all were! And all you offered was a lame-ass, 'I'm fine, don't worry about me."

I didn't respond, didn't even think as I just stood there, blankly staring back at Lilia who looked furious.

"You didn't even come back last night and came back late today! What in the hell is going on with you Sera?"

What is going on with me?

Is there something wrong with me?

The answer is most certainly.

"I've been trying to be a supportive friend, but it's getting hard when all you do is push us all away! Did I do something wrong? I'm your fucking friend, just talk to me!"

I watched as Jin stood up, and walked behind Lilia and placed comforting hands on her shoulders to try to calm her down. It caused an immense pain within me and it took everything in me to not double over in pain.

Of course, it didn't calm Lilia down, as she only pushed Jin's hands away, and took a step closer to me.

"Do you even consider me a friend? All you ever talk to now is Baekhyun, is he your soulmate? Just tell me something, anything because I have no idea what's going on with you anymore."

There's the odd word again; soulmate. The very word I used to swoon over in middle school, to dream about finding my own. Now it's the bane of my existence.

"Let alone how mean you've been acting to my boyfriends! They've done nothing but try to befriend you, but all you do is push them away!"

Because it hurts to be around them.

"And you're moving universities and you didn't even tell me. Did you even plan on telling me?"

Without thinking, I opened up the white paper bag I was holding the whole time, and pulled out a clear orange bottle, with paper around it. The prescription my doctor gave me.

Overwhelming anger came over me, as I suddenly raised my hands and threw it harshly against the wooden floor, causing the lid to fly open. Several small white pills scattered across the floor, as the loud sound caused the room to go silence. The only thing that can be heard was my heavy breathing.

Bringing up a hand to run over my temples, to try to comfort myself, I didn't dare to look at Lilia, "I'm tired Lilia," I spoke quietly. My voice was raspy as I tugged at the collar of my shirt. It was becoming hard to breathe.

Kimie finally stood up from the couch, and with a concerned expression, she walked towards me. Instinctively I brought my left arm to my chest, and backed away, and lowered my gaze

She seemed taken aback from this, as she stopped in her track and frowned, "Sera, we were just concerned about you, ignore Lilia."

"I just..." I stuttered as my voice shook and I hated it, "I'm just tired. I'll pick up my stuff and head to Baekhyun's. Sorry for bothering you."

When I made an attempt to move around Kimie and to escape my room, Lilia roughly grabbed my left arm, stopping me. However, her stopping me wasn't the problem, it was the fact that her hands were on my marks. Without even realizing it, I began to tremble, as I tried to yank my arm out of her grasp, but she had an iron grip on it.

"You're always covering your mark, what the hell do you have to hide? Do you even see us as your friends?" I watched as her other hand reached up to my left arm, towards the ends of the bandages, with intent to take it off.

Panic overcame me, as with my free hand I roughly pushed her away, causing her to bump into Jungkook. The sight of Lilia in his arms only caused everything to be worst. Backing away, I bumped into Kimie who was yelling at Lilia.

I couldn't think straight, my mind was everywhere, and I was having a panic attack. With my breathing heavy, I wrapped my arms around myself, and closed my eyes. The feeling of Kimie's arms around me, trying to comfort me, only made the pain and anxiety worst, my left arm burning so painfully as I chocked out a sob.

"Please-" I wheezed out, unable to say anything else as I crouched down, trying to wrap myself into a ball. All I wanted to do was disappear and be alone, "It hurts," groaning out, I hissed out in pain, almost tempting to tear away at my own bandages. But that would only ruin everything, "I'm sorry."

"Sera," Kimie spoke worriedly, crouching in front of me, but I refused to look at her, "you're having a panic attack, you need to breathe slower.

It was easier said than done, as it felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest. Especially when I heard the two men in the room whispering comforting words to Lilia. There was unbearable pain, something that I haven't felt before as I forced my eyes open and met Jungkook's concerned brown eyes staring back at me.

Breaking away the eye contact, I forced a reminder that he was only concerned for as a friend. Nothing more.

I don't know how long we all stayed like that, Lilia staring at me with uncertainty written on her face, Kimie standing slightly in front of me as if protecting me from Lilia. Jin kept his hands on his girlfriend, to calm her down as Jungkook stared at me with an unreadable expression.

Swallowing hard, with shaky legs, I stood up, and pushed Kimie to the side slightly, just wanting to go to my room.

No one made a move, but their eyes were on me as I moved past them, with every intent to just disappear until I was forced to go back to class.

However, when I passed Jungkook, I don't know what force overcame him, but suddenly he raised his arm to grip my left wrist. So dangerously close to my marks.

When I snapped my head to look at him, he had a concerned expression, and he opened his mouth as if to speak, but just closed it.

There was a familiar spark where our skin touched, and any other time it would make me feel much lighter, the mark to hurt just slightly less. This was different though, as my heart constricted, the mark on my left arm flaring up once more.

Without thinking, I harshly yanked my arm out of his grip, "Just leave me the fuck alone!" I all but screamed out, not caring when he flinched away from me, "You and all your stupid soulmates, just leave me the fuck alone!"

I didn't wait for a reply, as I stormed into my room, making a note to lock it behind me.

Throwing myself onto my bed, I was breathing heavy, and waited for the tears to come as I stared at the empty ceiling. It never came though, instead of overwhelming emotions, all that come was numbing and emotionless feeling. I knew exactly why I was feeling this, a dry laugh leaving my dry lips.

I basically just rejected my soulmates. 

[2281]

[mariahschoices]

Beloved

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugo x Reader/OC

Word Count: 3902

Theme: Fluff/Smut

This is part 2 of this story: https://mariahschoices.tumblr.com/post/189983728802/unloveable

You couldn’t help the shock to your system, as Bakugo admitted that you had been right all of those years ago. Surely there was some misunderstanding.

“I may be a top hero, but being on top isn’t everything. It took me a long time to realize that, actually. I think...” he paused, seeming to realize how out of character he was acting by admitting his unhappiness to someone who he barely knew.

You gave him a soft smile. You didn’t really feel sorry for him, after all he had all of the ingredients he needed to make a great life. You figured he was just too much of a stubborn ass to seek out what he really needed to find true happiness in life.

“It’s actually my birthday today,” he continued, changing the subject to more optimistic topics.

“Oh, sh- shoot! I’m sorry. I’m sure you have better things to be doing today than sitting here with me. Thank you again for meeting up with me. I’m sorry for taking time away from your birthday plans-”

“Actually, meeting you for coffee today was my only birthday plan,” he interrupted with a grunt, peeling the drink label off from his coffee cup as a distraction.

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing, but you supposed it made sense considering the somber mood than emanated from the man.

“Well, if you want, I mean I’m sure you’d rather do something with your friends, but...” you bit your lip slightly, feeling compelled to ask to hothead to hang out, even though you felt it was probably against your better judgement.

“We can do something together. Hang out. Whatever you want. I’m still on leave from work since I’m in recovery, and I haven’t done anything fun for a while,” you admitted, a slight blush smattering across your cheeks at your confession.

Bakugo seemed to mull over your words for too long. As you were about to take back your offer in an effort to save face, Bakugo mumbled his response.

“Okay.”

Okay? You could work with “okay.” Hell, it was more than you had expected from him.

“Okay,” you repeated at him, sealing your decision with a small smile.

________________________________________

Bakugo was an avid rock climber, and even though you were terrified of heights, you agreed to let him pick the activity for the two of you. It was his birthday, after all. He had his personal fair share of ropes, carabiners, and other various equipment, choosing to forego a climbing gym in favor of the open air. Upon arriving cliffside, he finally seemed to notice the nervous buzz that continued to grow around you with each passing moment.

“Everything okay?” he eyed you, gauging the terrified look in your eyes with mostly amusement, sprinkled with a mild dash of concern.

“Yea, I think so. I’ve never done this before. I’m actually terrified of heights.”

You avoided all eye contact with him at your admission, choosing to stare at his shoes instead. They were black with an orange “X” across the top, matching his hero costume. He must have had them custom made.

“Tch. Shitty woman! Why would agree to do this then?!” he started packing up his climbing materials, conceding that this excursion probably wasn’t going to happen anymore.

Without thinking, you reached out, grasping his muscled forearm to halt his actions. You hadn’t thought he would take your feelings into consideration. It had surprised you, and you decided that you wanted to do this for him.

“No, no. Please. I want to do this with you,” you pleaded, looking into the endless red pools that were his eyes.

“Fine, we’ll do the short side of the cliff, then.”

Without another word, he gathered his things and headed down the dirt path to your new destination.

Once you arrived at the designated area, he paused to strap you into a harness, snap on your helmet, and make sure that everything was thoroughly secured before getting himself ready. His quick and efficient movements warmed your belly and caused a stinging pink blush to overtake your cheeks. You had to pinch your inner arm to get yourself under control. He probably just didn’t want to have to deal with the likely outcome of having to scrape your mangled body off the ground later if he risked letting a novice like yourself get geared up on your own.

Bakugo coached you through the entire experience, a soft look of pride on his face as you reached the top of cliffside. The wooded area you were in was well known for its breathtaking views of the river valley, and hiking was something you were much more comfortable with. Bakugo stashed your gear in his backpack as you agreed to hike further up to get a better view of your surroundings.

By the time the two of you reached the top, the sun was starting to set, and the beauty of the landscape that surrounded you nearly took your breath away. The moment seemed to bring a sense of peace and hopefulness that you hadn’t really felt since your husband passed away. You regretfully had isolated yourself from your work, your family, and your friends to mourn your loss alone until you had finally decided to seek help.

Bakugo interrupted your silent reverie. “So, twelve steps, huh? Not that it’s really any of my business, but is there anyone else you need to apologize to?” Bakugo asked curiously, unable to keep the question inside of him any longer.

“Actually, just one,” you blushed, wondering if you should admit the truth to him. “I didn’t really get into much trouble in school, and I got married so young that there wasn’t too much that occurred for me to have any need to apologize. I guess I’m pretty boring,” you admitted, almost ashamed as you compared yourself to such an accomplished man as Bakugo.

“So, who then?” he continued, unknowingly prying into a memory that was directly related to the man himself.

“Monoma,” you chuckled, preparing yourself for Bakugo’s reaction to your admittance. “I punched him actually, back at U.A. Gave him a fat lip.”

“Holy shit, you’re serious? What did that idiot do to you?” Bakugo couldn’t contain his shock that such a sweet, er, boring extra had done such a thing, though it had probably been deserved, considering who it was.

“Erm,” you bit your lip slightly in hesitation, “well, it was about you. He said that he was better than you and that you’d never achieve anything with your head so far up your-” you stopped before you could embarass yourself any further, risking a glance at Bakugo.

The soft colors of the sunset reflected in his eyes as they stared down into your own, a soft smile overtaking his face at your confession. You really were something else. Though his birthday hadn’t gone anything like he’d planned, he was grateful for how it’d turned out.

________________________________________

By the time the two of you approached the base of your climb, the moon and stars were already out. You were both covered in a sheen of cooling sweat, and your stomach rumbled with hollow rebellion, so loud that Bakugo himself could hear it. A genuine chuckle erupted from his chest, surprising you.

“If you’re hungry, I can feed you. A reward for facing your fear.”

Bakugo was eternally grateful that it was already too dark outside for you to see the tips of his ears turn red. He couldn’t believe that he was inviting you back to his apartment, even for the innocent enough reason as to fill your stomachs.

“Uh, sure, if you don’t mind? I mean I could pick something up on the way home if you’d rather-”

“I hope you like it spicy,” he interrupted your protest, thereby deciding your plans for the evening.

________________________________________

After the two of you reconnected, you found yourself spending more and more time with Bakugo. He surprised you with how considerate and caring he could be. it was a side that you had never known before, even though you had grown up alongside each other. His good mood from spending time with you began to bleed out into his work life as well, causing him to blow up less during interviews, and public opinion polls were even starting to place the hero above his long-time rival, Deku.

Bakugo supported your sobriety, and you found each other to be a pillar of strength whenever days were particularly hard, whether that be with work or your personal lives. He helped you get to point where you were ready to go back to work, and he even began inviting you to hero events where plus ones were encouraged. Being in your company made the otherwise unbearable evenings seem almost fun.

On one such evening, Bakugo watched from afar as you loaded up your plate with bite-sized appetizers. You looked breathtaking in your elegant dress, your soft face framed with tendrils of hair that completed your stylish updo. Kirishima interrupted Bakugo’s ogling as he followed his line of sight, giving a knowing shove to his shoulder.

“You’ve got to tell her, man.”

“Tell who what, Shitty Hair?” Bakugo grunted, distracting himself by rendering his attention to the band that played on stage.

“You know who, and you know what. And you can drum better than these dudes after a double shift patrolling, so don’t try to act like you’re interested.” Kirishima continued, effectively serving to shut him up. ‘

“You two spend all of your free time together. We haven’t even had a guys night in months. It’s time, man.”

“I don’t want to fuck this up, man. She was married, after all. She’s.... different. I feel different when I’m around her.”

Kirishima’s eyes darted across the room, finding his wife standing beside you, engaged in gossip and weighing in on what dishes were your favorites. “I know exactly what you mean, man. I found someone who made me feel different too. And you know what I did? I married her.”

________________________________________

Bakugo was no pussy. He knew Kirishima was right, and he knew that he had to confess to you. You were an amazing woman, and if he didn’t at least try, he knew someone else would. He tried to ignore the fear and anxiety that rattled his insides. He knew that you cared for him, but he didn’t know to what extent. And he had never wanted more with a woman. He never wanted to walk beside of someone - to belong to someone, and have them belong to him - the way that he wanted with you. The new feelings threatened to overwhelm him.

You had agreed before that night’s event to stay with Bakugo at his apartment after the evening commenced. The event wouldn’t be over until late, and since both of you planned on having a few drinks, he didn’t want to risk you trying to make it back to your place on your own. The overwhelming need to protect and care you had convinced him to make the offer, even before he’d decided to admit his feelings to you. He just hoped he wasn’t about to ruin things.

You sat at his kitchen island, watching as he poured a drink for the both of you. His own would be a dose of liquid courage, and you simply wanted to enjoy yourself now that you were in the safety of his apartment.

You always felt safe around Bakugo. Safe and happy. You felt feelings around him that you hadn’t felt in a long time. You watched as he made his way around to the other side of the kitchen island. His suit jacket had been removed, and the top two buttons of his white button-down had been undone. You couldn’t help the feeling of warmth that spread within you from the center of your body, making its way outward and making you feel too hot, still in your formal dress.

“Bak-”

“I have to tell-” he interrupted, stopping you from probably saying something that you shouldn’t. You couldn’t help the way that being around him like this, being beside of him all night like you were his, was making you feel.

“Go ahead, sorry,” you encouraged him to continue.

“I hope I don’t make you uncomfortable by saying this, and you don’t have to say anything back, but... I have feelings for you,” he admitted, getting it all out without even taking a breath, as if taking a pause would deter him from admitting it. Seeing that you didn’t look upset, he decided to continue.

“These last months, spending time with you, have been the happiest times of my life. I feel like I can be myself with you. A better version of myself. You... make me better,” he finally finished, a blush overtaking his face as he paused to take a long swallow of his drink. There. At least now his feelings were out in the open for you to do with as you pleased.

“Bakugo-” you started, not really knowing what to say as his feelings took you by surprise. You could have never in your wildest dreams imagined that he felt the same way that you did. The hard, unyielding, “doesn’t need anyone” hero, Mr. Ground Zero, wanted her? Maybe even loved her?

“You don’t have to say anything. Please. We’ve both been drinking. I can take the couch, you can have my bed, or if that makes you uncomfortable....”

“Bakugo-” you interrupted. He seemed like he might be spiraling. You’d never seen him like this. It was absolutely adorable, and you decided to put the poor man out of his misery.

“Bakugo,” he stopped, letting you finish what you had to say. “I feel the same way. I’ve loved spending time with you and getting to know you better. I want you,” you smiled, your eyes twinkling as you gauged his flustered reaction with adoration.

He made his way to your side of the island, taking your face between his hands, softly holding onto you as if you might break or disappear at any moment. He leaned in to taste your lips, causing you to softly gasp against him. He seized the opportunity to slip his tongue between your open mouth, causing it to slide against your own in a battle for dominance.

Your own hands acted without thinking, reaching out to touch his chest, his broad shoulders forming a solid wall in front of you. Your fingers slipped to touch his bare skin where his shirt was unbuttoned, and he let out a deep groan from within. You could feel his heart battering under your right hand like a drum, and you knew that your own heart matched his, in a combination of nerves and excitement that this was finally happening.

He drew back to look into your eyes, and was met with a look of pure lust as he took in your slightly opened mouth, panting and gasping for air. His hand moved around to the back of your head, tangling in the soft strands of your hair and pulling it undone with a gentle tug.

“I want you. Can I take you to bed?” he urged, his voice taking on a husky tone that caused heat to pool into your underwear.

Quickly nodding in response to his request, he picked you up off of the stool you sat on, his strong arms holding onto you as if you were light as a pillow. Your legs wrapped around his body as your hands continued their journey, making your way down his arms and feeling him up, causing a cocky smirk to grace his handsome face.

He leaned in as he made his way into the bedroom, pressing his lips to your neck to gently suckle the skin there, causing a gasp to tumble from your lips.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” he whispered to you, causing you to redden even more than the actions that the two of you were performing.

He released your body, causing you to land softly on his bed. You were overwhelmed with the smell of him. Knowing that you were in the safe space where he laid every night, and thinking about what you were about to do in said bed, caused a sinful warmth to overtake you body, filling you with need for the man in front of you.

Bakugo crawled on top of you, a knee between your legs and the other resting outside of them, causing a delicious pressure to graze against your heat. He continued to kiss down your neck and across your exposed collarbone.

You untucked his dress shirt from his pants, pushing your fingers up and under to graze his chiseled abs. Fuck. You wanted this man and he was entirely too clothed right now. You pushed his chest, and having not expected it, he fell onto his back with a soft thump against the mattress. You straddled him, making quick work of the buttons on his shirt, revealing his naked torso to you. You leaned down to mimic his earlier actions, leaving a trail of kisses down his neck and chest. You could feel him grow harder underneath you, the thin material of your dress leaving very little in a way of a barrier.

Your body started to act out on its own, softly grinding against him as his erection pressed into your thigh. His hands slid under the bottom of your dress, grazing your entire body with his fingertips as he pulled to soft material over your head, leaving you in nothing but your lingerie.

His eyes drank you in, and the look he gave you caused your core to throb. You unzipped his trousers, palming him through his underwear before you shuffled down the bed to pull his pants from his legs. The massive tent in his underwear caused a thrill of excitement to rush through you, a fresh wave of wetness joining your already damp underwear.

You crawled back up his body and you started to kneel, intending to remove the last barrier between you and his naked body, until his hand moved up, grazing against your inner thigh to softly cup your wet panties. He gently rubbed against you, causing a needy moan to escape your lips as he leaned in to whisper in your ear. “I’ve let you take control for long enough, baby.”

He shoved his knee back between your thighs, flipping you over with ease as he leaned down to kiss your breasts, covered in the thin lace of your bra. Your nipples pushed against the fabric, and his lips gently bit down on them, locating them with ease, causing you to let out a long moan. His fingertips teased their way into the side of your panties, finally touching your bare sex and momentarily grazing where you wanted him the most.

He lifted his fingers back up to his lips, tasting your sweetness as he closed his eyes to savor the flavor. As he reopened his eyes again to look at you, he looked almost as if he were a man possessed. Driven by love and lust, he ripped your bra and panties off as if they were made of paper.

He made his way between your thighs, nipping and biting the soft skin along the way, before taking a long slow lick across your entire slit. He kissed the skin there as if he were kissing your mouth, making love to your pussy and letting you know just how long he had wanted to do this to you. He slid his tongue in and out of you, drinking down your essence as it spilled from your body. He moved his mouth up to gently suckle your clit, swirling circles around it and flicking back and forth with gentle pressure.

He leaned up to insert a finger into you, feeling as your body clamped around the digit. He massaged you from inside, adding another finger to prime your needy body for his cock.

He leaned over you again, coming face to face with you as his fingers continued their actions, kissing your lips as his hard member grazed against your lower belly. You threw your head back as your climax suddenly took over your body, causing a fresh wave of wetness to coat his fingers. You couldn’t wait to feel him inside of you.

He looked into your eyes again, asking for final permission, which you answered by grasping your hand around his firmness. You pumped him a few times, lining him up with the center of your body. He leaned down, pushing into you as you leaned your head back with a long moan. He groaned as he pushed himself all the way into you, feeling as your body clenched around him, still recovering from your recent orgasm. He nuzzled against the side of your face, kissing your lips and neck as he began began to move.

It was like his body was made for you. You were so deliciously filled, and as he began to pick up the pace, he held his hands under your hips to grip your ass, your body meeting his thrust for thrust. Your whole body was shaking in pleasure, and he felt himself rabidly losing control. He released one side of your body to reach the front of your body, massaging your clit as he continued to thrust into you, causing another orgasm to crash over you, your body squeezing him as he groaned out in pleasure.

“I’m gonna cum,” he grunted out, his movements getting sloppier as he chased his own release.

“Cum, Katsuki. Cum in me.”

His name leaving your lips with such sweet, sinful desire pushed him over the edge. He pushed one final thrust into you before he emptied himself inside you.

He leaned over the side of your body, remaining inside you as you each caught your breath. He rolled over onto his back, wrapping his arms around you to carry you with him, your head laying on his chest. You couldn’t contain the emotions that you felt for this man.

“I love you, Katsuki,” you whispered, thinking back to that day in the lunch room, and about just how wrong you were. “You’re not unloveable, you are my beloved, and you mean so much to me.”

He couldn’t help the tears in his eyes at your words as he leaned up to kiss the top of your head to utter his response. “I love you, too.”

________________________________________

After the two of you had had a chance to catch your breath, you took a shower together, taking turns under the stream of water to wash each others backs and sneak little touches here and there, gradually getting each other worked up all over again. You stepped out of the shower, drying off with a towel and dressing yourself in one of Bakugo’s shirts, which was more like a dress on you.

You made your way over to the bed, snuggling into his side as he reached around, cheekily grabbing a handful of flesh. You looked up at him from under your eyelashes, softly touching his cheek as you engaged your quirk, slowing down time as the two of you consumed each other.

“No need to rush, Katsuki. We only have forever.”

[melyaliz]

Past loves and future babies pt. 9

Masterlist

Fandom: Marvel (MCU) 

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OC 

Notes: I suck at action. that’s all I have to say about that 

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive​​

Connect with me! AO3 / Instagram / Pinterest

DONATE or REQUEST 

Trigger warning: Coming out and abusive parents 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Family Dinner was a bit later than normally tonight. 7’oclock. Carol North hated eating late, she had read somewhere it wasn’t good for your digestive system to eat after 8 so dinner was normally around 5:30 or 6. However the head of the house Richard had worked late so dinner had run a bit later. 

It had worked in Dixie and Mac’s favor since they had more time to get their stuff together before they dropped the bomb. Next to her Mac fidgeted with his food unable to look at anyone else. Leaning over Dixie’s foot bumped her brother. Their eyes met for a moment and she nodded. 

You can do this

“Dad I need to tell you something.” 

“Of course what’s up?” his father looked up at his son and Dixie felt sick. She wanted to run away. A weird feeling of dread and fear flooding her system. She wanted to protect her brother from this while also wanting to run away and hide. Hide like she used to when she was a kid and her dad would blow up at their mom. Hide like she used to when her parents would fight, screaming at the tops of their lungs ending with her mother leaving for days on end. 

Dixie was good at hiding. 

“Dad, I’m gay.” Mac said, Dixie wasn’t sure why Mac wanted to leave like this. They had planed their escape for years now. Waiting until she was 18 so it wouldn’t be considered child napping. Part part made sense to her. But when Mac had told her how he planned on doing things she wasn’t sure why. Why couldn’t he just hide like she did?

But regardless she supported him no matter what. 

“What?” Richard burst out laughing, “Are you trying to get some kind of reaction out of me?” 

“No dad, I just. I wanted to be honest with you.” Mac’s face was impartial. No emotion at all. Dixie wasn’t sure how he could be so calm while her heart was racing so fast in her chest she thought she might throw up. 

“Why are you trying to do this to us?” their father’s voice was so just as calm. So dangerously calm. As if he didn’t believe him. As if he was talking to a small child who just didn’t understand that dinosaurs were dead. That Santa Clause wasn’t real. “Honestly Macklin, what have I done to make you think this is ok?” 

“Nothing dad, there is nothing you did. This is about me.” his leg was jittering under the table the only sign that he was even nervous. Only Dixie could see it. Only Dixie could feel the nerves radiating from him. 

“Like hell it is.” Richard said slamming his hand on the table, “You are just upset that I won’t pay for you to dorm at college isn’t it? Well this is clearly why you can't. Gay my ass!” 

Dixie couldn’t deal with it anymore, that was her brother Richard was talking about. This was Mac he was accusing of throwing a fit when all he was doing was telling the truth. 

“Fuck you!” She snapped jumping up. They had agreed she wouldn't speak. That Mac would handle this but… she couldn't stop herself as the words spilled out. “He’s being open and honest and all you can do is focus on you.”  

“Dixie!” her mother snapped glaring at her, “Language.” 

They still weren’t listening. It was all about appearances. Don’t swear, don’t be out of the normal. Don't do anything we don't approve of. 

“Oh please you agree with this?” Richard said to his daughter. “You're my good girl.” 

“I love Mac. What is there to agree or disagree with?” Dixie whispered slowly sitting back down, her voice breaking. Mac’s hand found her’s under the table holding it tightly. 

“You love Mac,” Richard laughed, “If you loved him you would be telling him he’s being an idiot.” 

“And how is being gay being an idout?” 

“Because it’s wrong! It’s not normal!” Richard snapped his anger focusing back on his son, “Just because you want attention or whatever doesn’t mean you should do something so… so” leaning back in his chair their father took a deep breath before cutting some meat. “Dixie go to your room. Mac if you keep spouting this nonsense you can forget college. In fact, give me your phone.” 

“Dad, I pay for my phone.” Mac chocked out a bitter laugh. 

“My house, my rules.” 

“Yeah” Mac said standing up, “see that’s the thing. I’m moving out.” 

“M… Me too” Dixie said following her brother.

“Young lady! Don’t you move!” Richard roared. Dixie flinched that feeling of fear rushing over her. She glanced up at her brother who just smiled down at her. 

“Just keep walking” he whispered, pushing her in front of him. As if he could block her from their father. 

“What? Are you punishing me now?” Richard said standing up, “What happened to my perfect little girl Dixie. My little princess.” 

Dixie felt sick. Her stomach twisting in knots. Even now, even knowing for years what her dad really was. What kind of man he was. It still hurt. 

Because a part of her wanted to be his little princess. 

But her dad had always been right about her, she was unlovable. 

Because even her own father didn’t really love her unless she was his little princess. 

And she couldn't pretend anymore. 

They both couldn’t. 

“No dad, I am going with Mac.” 

“Don’t… if you two walk out that door you are dead to me!” Richard screamed, “Try me! Just try. You will never get a cent from me. Never get anything. I’m your father. I have done everything for you. Give you everything! And you just want to rip this family apart!” 

His endless screaming continued as they walked out. A stream of consciousness that held a sting that would echo in both their brains for much longer than either of them wanted to admit. Lie that his words meant nothing while it cut deeper than any scar they would ever receive from their future life on the streets. 

The white van Mac had gotten a few weeks ago was parked a block away. Already loaded up with all their belongings. Only the ones they personally owned. They had agreed to only bring what was truly theirs. 

So that they didn’t owe him anything. 

Because they didn’t owe him anything. 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Shit” Sam mumbled fumbling with his gun as he stood next to Bucky pinned against a wall. The soldiers or whatever they were came barreling down the hall. Four of them dressed to the 9s in armor ready for a fight. Where did these people come from? Why were they here?

“Bucky?” at the sound of his name Buck felt dread fill his stomach. Turning he saw Dixie walking up to him eyes wide in a cute little black dress. Her hair in a soft curl, make up done. 

The date. 

Steve was going to take her on a date. And now she was standing there in the middle of a war zone.

“Stay back” Bucky hissed holding a strong arm out trying to keep her away from the onslaught of fire that was raining down on them. His eyes shifting from her to Sam who was trying to stop the bleeding from the gunshot wound in his side. However Dixie didn’t seem to notice as she took a few steps forward. Her hands ghosting over his arm pushing it out of the way. 

“You’re toast” all three heroes (well two heroes and one guest of the avengers) looked up to see the bad guy said holding up a gun. Eyes hard ready to shot the first person who dared to move 

Dixie raised her hands up so they were visible in front of her taking another slow step forward positioning her body between the two men. “Sir, please, he’s hurt.” her voice cracked slightly, obviously frightened by what was going on. Bucky’s body grew tense, his hand slowly snaking toward the knife he had strapped to his back. If he could grab her arm and pull her back he would be able to disarm this man with minimal damage to them.  

“We are just here for the time machine.”

“We don’t have any…” Sam started but the man snarled aiming the gun at him, 

“Was I talking to you?” turning to Dixie he smiled, “Now pretty lady…”   

Bucky’s fingers gripped the knife body tense, Dixie’s shifted slightly just a bit further out of his grasp but if he was just able to-- 

His thoughts were cut off when the man’s eyes grew wide at Dixie’s face, “Wait… you’re one of them!” There was a blast of purple light causing Bucky and Sam to blink. The sound of a gun going off and the smell of burning melted metal filled the air. Dixie’s right hand fell to her side, something that looked like a glowing purple fire saber burned in her hand. Moving forward she spun into the main hallway where the other men were. Bucky runs after her only to see her wing the blades in both hands stopping the bullets before slicing through one of the guys arm and another’s other’s leg. 

Standing up she pressed her hand toward her ear “Mac, can you see Steve?” she asked as she ran down the hall leaving the two men alone. 

“She’s not just some little human is she.” Sam mumbled as Bucky shook his head. He needed to find his best friend and soon. Or the time machine. Not that it was working, but that was probably where the goons had gone. 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Steve was in the hanger bay with Wanda. They had seen several men barging in through the open bay doors. It was hard to keep track of the soldiers, they seemed to fade in and out. When they had first arrived it looked to be about fifteen and now there was four. Two twins and a woman with a whip and a large man with two kusarigamas. Steve wasn’t sure how it was possible but he was also preoccupied with the large man advancing toward him. The chains from his kusarigamas screeching like a warning against the concrete.  

“Steve” Wanda gasped trying to block the twins that were attacking her. They seemed to be fading in and out as if ghosts. Turning Steve was about to help her when he felt a pain shoot through his back. 

Turning he saw the large man grinning at him. His silver plated teeth glistened in the light that streamed from the glass ceiling of the hanger. His blades glistening red.Next to him the woman smiled cracking her large steel whip.

“Get him lover” she hissed, licking her lips, her bloodshot eyes bright with excitement.

Some guy with a Mohawk and these huge kusarigama let out a snarling laugh bearing his silver plated teeth. Next to him a woman with a whip crackled it at Steve’s legs. 

“Come at me Mr America!” he hissed slashing at Steve again barely missing Steve’s ribs as the super soldier twisted out of large man’s way. Steve’s gaze drifted toward Wanda who was holding off the twins. It was hard to tell if she was gaining the advantage or not from where he was. 

The black steel of the Kusarigama smashed into Steve’s shield making Steve’s arms ring from the aftershock bringing him back to the fight in front of him. Before he could fight back, the man kicked him with a thick boot making Steve fall onto his back.

This wasn’t good. 

The man smiled holding up the blade bridging them down hard on Steve’s shield causing sparks to ignite against the shield. 

“I'm going to cut you open like a fish” the man howled , raising his hands again. A few feet away the woman laughed cracking her whip in a rhythmic crack, crack, crack. 

Steve braced himself as the large man lifted up his blades above his head ready to crash them back down. 

And then a bright purple light burst from the man’s chest. Burning through his sternum the smell of burning flesh filled Steve’s nose. Letting out a cough the man looked down at in shock. Blood dripped from his mouth before he stumbled backwards off Steve. Choking a few times before  he crumbled onto the floor. The life leaving his eyes

Steve sat up to see Dixie standing there, panting slightly. Blood splattered across her hands and over her chest and neck. Her eyes hard as she met him. He couldn't see any wounds so Steve could only assume the blood wasn’t hers. Another purple blade like the one that was glowing out of the man’s chest was in her left hand. 

The woman with the whip, seeing her comrade, out a screamed scream running toward Dixie. Turning Dixie held out her hand, the blade from the man’s chest faded away before appearing back in her hand. Taking a defense stance with both blades she stood over Steve. 

“DIE BITCH!” the woman screamed, swinging her whip. It was no match for the blades Dixie cut through the steel coil as if it was a hot knife through butter. Pulling out a gun the woman shot a few bullets toward Dixie but she quickly deflected them continuing to walk toward the woman. 

“Stand down” Dixie said, “and I won’t cut your arms off.” her voice filled with venom. Steve had never heard that tone before. Commanding, meaning every word. It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise. 

Something the woman didn’t seem to realize as she let out a snarl, tears in her eyes. “I’m going to kill you!” she cried grabbing a rocket launcher that was strapped to her back. As she pulled the trigger Dixie threw one of her glowing blades forward slicing the woman’s shoulder making the women scream falling to her knees. 

Moving quickly ignoring the pain in his back Steve bolted up grabbing Dixie by the arm pulling her back flush to his chest. Swinging his shield he hit the rocket up sending it spinning through the glass ceiling. 

Dixie looked up at him as shards of glass showered down around them. His blue eyes meeting her own as he held his shield up over them protecting them.

“Are you ok?” she asked, her expression softening and something in Steve shifted. He should be asking her that. He should have been rushing to save his little -not- wife. Yet here she was barging into the fight covered in who knows what’s blood checking on him making sure he was ok.

“I… yes” he said, a feeling of relief washing over him so strong he bent over gently kissing her forehead.

“Y… you weren’t supposed to be..” 

The couple turned to see one of the twins standing there with a gun in his hand. Wanda behind him, her powers holding the other, her eyes glowing as she reached up to grab the other when there was a whirring sound and a net flew out of nowhere tangling the man before electrifying him.

“Stay the FUCK away from my sister!” 

A curly haired man cried walking into the hanger, dressed in jeans and a black button up shirt, he had a pair of clear green glasses and was holding up a weird silver bracelet around his left arm. An army of drones followed him. 

“MAC!” Dixie let out a squeal pushing away from Steve crawling under his shield that was in front of both of them before dashing toward the man. Throwing herself into his arms she hugged him tightly. 

Steve knew the name. He had caught Dixie several times on the phone talking to a Mac. Her face lit up in pure joy and comfort. She had mentioned him before too. Her brother. The only person who she seemed to mention from her previous life. The one before this. 

“It’s always just been me and Mac” she would say with that look on her face. One he knew very well. It was the one reserved for those who were your family. Your most trusted. The ones you would go to the end of the world for. 

It was the feeling he had for Bucky. 

“What are you doing here?” she was asking him as Tony and a few other avengers walked into the hanger. 

“Who’s this?” 

“This is my brother.” Dixie said turning, the look on her face told Steve all he needed to know. She was worried they were going to rip them apart again. 

“He’s staying.” Steve said to Tony, “I need a shower.” 

“I… ok whatever” Tony shrugged knowing he would get all the information later. They had bigger issues to deal with right now. Like all the bleeding intruders. 

-------

Steve winced as the warm water hit his back stinging the deep cuts that were slashed across his back. They were going to be a pain (in the back) to fix up. Maybe he should go down to the infirmary… or maybe.

“Want some help hansom?” 

The sound that came out of him was that of a small child and a cat that just had it’s tail stepped on. Dixie stood there, eyebrows raised trying to fight back a laugh as she stood in front of the glass walk in shower. 

“Ok boys count chill I’m not going to jump you.” she said, “Can I come in?”

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