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b33zlebubz · 1 year ago

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RECKLESS ABANDON--------

CHAPTER ONE - school, life, and a punch to the face TASK FORCE 141 X READER (PLATONIC) MASTERLIST || AO3 LINK || NEXT CHAPTER TAGS: gender neutral reader, angst, fluff, slow burn found family, PTSD, trauma bonding, kidnapping, reader is a foster kid in high school, family drama, blood, violence, guns

"After your life falls apart at the seams very early on, you work hard to keep the small amount of peace still have. Foster care is rough, work is draining, school is a drag...but you eventually find yourself in a good place. All of that quickly goes to waste, however, when your family's unfinished business finally finds its way back to you."

If hell is real, you’re pretty sure you’re dead.

Time drags on; seconds feeling more like hours and hours feeling like an eternity—punctuated only by the shriek of the occasional bell. It’s a familiar limbo you’ve grown to tune out in favor of your daydreaming, interrupted only by the end of a period or the sound of your name being called from across the room. Your pencil taps idly against the desk with the beat of your heel against the floor. Untied shoelaces pull taught under your feet when you shift to lean forwards, squinting at the equations scribbled across the whiteboard by a wrinkled, dark hand. Numbers and letters swirl together.

Mrs. Hall. An elderly, frail, equally as tired woman—worn down by decades of bullshit brought on by stubborn, unmotivated students much like the kids behind you, whispering and snickering in a way that made your eye twitch with deep irritation. Still, you’re not much better, your mind lost in thought staring at rain that pounds against the ground of upstate Texas until the sound of your name stirs you from the depths of your own brain. When you look up, confused, Mrs. Hall stares back at you with an expecting stare—and a few students are turned around to stare at you.

You’re also pretty sure if hell is real—it's the American Public School System.

“Uh…”

“The three X’s in number five,” Mrs. Hall taps the equation on the board with the marker. “On the homework.”

“Right. Sorry,” your tired eyes flicker down to the chicken scratch on the paper in front of you, scanning the crumpled paper for the answer you hastily scribbled down earlier that day. “Three, square root of two, and negative one?”

“Incorrect.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, scratching at your neck as you try and fail not to notice when one of the boys behind you stops whispering mid-sentence and stares daggers into the back of your neck. Shit. Fuck.

That’s the last time you do someone else’s algebra homework. Math, in all its forms, was your academic Achilles heel.

The rest of fourth period escapes you. After what feels like a lifetime and a half of talking and scribbling on your paper, the bell rings out across the classroom. Like Pavlov’s dogs—the students instinctually rush to life—shoving chairs and throwing backpacks over their shoulders, eager to get on with the day.

You're quick to sweep your things into your backpack and high-tail it towards the door of the classroom before a certain boy behind you can notice you've left already.

Mrs. Hall says your first name again. You stop in your tracks, not missing how your fellow student sends you an angry look as he strides past to leave—crumpling the homework you did for him the night before to add to the effect. He must be telepathic, because you swear you can hear his voice without him even saying anything.

"You're dead."

Your feet shuffle towards the door, "can't talk, gonna be late—"

"I'll write you a pass."

"I have lunch next, though."

"No you don't." Mrs. Hall scoffs, shooting you an unamused look from over her rectangular glasses. "You think I don't know your schedule by now?"

You awkwardly shift your weight from one foot to the next, "worth a try."

"Sit," she gestures beside her.

You hesitate, almost arguing further, but you sigh instead. Getting lectured actually sounded much better than whatever hell waited for you out in the hallway the second you walked outside. You let your backpack fall from your shoulders as you drag it over with you to collapse into the chair beside your teacher's desk. Your eyes flicker up to where her frail hands card through some papers.

"You graduate in two months, dear." She reminds you, as if you haven't been scratching the tallied days into a spare notebook like you're on death row. "Your test scores are average but all the homework seems to be…lacking. If you even do it at all."

Average. A word that's been thrown around a lot regarding your name, which you intended to stick with. Average meant nobody would stick their nose in your business—that you could blend in with the crowd and avoid any and all weird glances and low whispers. You made the mistake of showing off once, to snap back at your dickhead classmate; only to end up doing his bidding for the rest of the semester.

You figure Mrs. Hall won't take very well to being told that the reason you aren't completing your homework is because you're too busy doing Ben Davis's under the threat that he won't smash your face against the lockers again. Broken noses are a special level of hell, but it still isn't as low as the torture that is highschool.

"Maybe I joined some sports," you quip sarcastically. "Don't have as much time as I used to."

She only deadpans at you.

You stare innocently back at her. If you play dumb enough, maybe she'll finally give up.

"I'm not attacking you. Just worried. If you need some extra time because—" she lowers her voice and the bracelets around her tiny wrist jingle as she waves it about, "---because of your family life, or anything…I'm willing to give it to you."

Your brow lowers, annoyance beginning to nip at your nerves as you sit up a little straighter.

Pity. You've long grown tired of it. You weren't some fragile orphan—no. You were an adult who, in two months, would finally be free from the clutches of your frustrated social worker and the slew of whatever excited, naive couples the system dumped you on. People have been tip-toeing around you your whole life, and it never fails to make your fists clench.

"My grades are average, you said," you say, stern—poking the score on one of your tests with a pointer finger. "I don't need help."

"I don't doubt you don't need help, sweetheart. But you're a smart kid. Really smart, if you put the effort in. I'm just saying if you ever need any extra—"

"I'm fine. If you really wanna help, you won't make me late to my next class."

Mrs. Hall seems to freeze, stunned at the bite her otherwise quiet student seems to bear. The clock ticks above your head, the rain pitters against the window outside and, for a moment, shame floods your senses; but it fades as the seconds pass and that concerned look on her face deepens.

You're the first to look away, picking up your pack and turning for the door. "See you tomorrow, Mrs. Hall."

"Wait."

You stop, tossing your head back with a sigh. "What?"

"Tie your shoes, sweetheart," she says, her voice kind as she turns away to tap your stack of tests on the desk. "You'll trip walking around like that."

You only frown and duck out the door.

The rest of the school day passes in a familiar haze. You space out throughout two of your classes, goof off for the rest, and get your shit handed to you the second school is out. Ben takes the time to lecture you as well after he levels you in one punch—and you sit rubbing your jaw, bored, as he goes on and on about how you did that shit on purpose and next time, you're fucking dead.

He needed a perfect score to pass the class. In a low moment of pain, you promised it to him despite the fact that your algebra skills had much to be desired. Still, with a little bit of extra effort—you managed to make it through most of the second semester without a black eye.

You're the one that always bleeds; but a part of you finds it funny how he always finds a way to talk himself into angry tears, storming off somewhere distant while kids scramble to get out of his way to avoid the same fate as you.

And, as always, you pick yourself up, wipe the blood from your face onto the sleeve of your jacket—and walk away.

Because that's all you can do.

The rain settles deep in your clothes as you make your way home, music loud in your earbuds. It's silent and gray, as it has been all week, and your thoughts are mere static as you drag your feet back to your front doorstep. Your bed is calling for you after such a shitty day and the bruise forming on your left eye is just making the blankets seem all the more welcoming.

You barely notice how your door is already unlocked when you enter.

Inside, the house is just as silent and empty as the rest of your street. Rain drips to the floor in a steady rhythm as you pad across the living room of the house, dropping your backpack to the floor. Muscle memory leads you to the bathroom—where things are, as usual, spotless.

You've seen plenty of bad homes and residencies during your time in the system. Most of them blurred together in a long string of things you wished to forget; either by the caretakers' fault or your own. This house, though, was high on your list of favorites. Your folks were never around, and if they were, they were asleep. When you weren't working; you usually had the house to yourself.

"Fuck," You breathe, prodding at the swelling flesh around your eye. You run some water over it and the irritation dulls slightly as dried blood turns the water pink. Excuses run rampant through your mind as you scramble for a way to explain the injury---because you're pretty sure they won't believe you if you said you tripped again.

That's when you catch movement from your doorway. Shuffling.

You whip around just as the movement disappears, and suddenly the quiet house turns eerily silent. Your eyes lock on the doorway as the sink continues to run and water continues to drip from your clothes.

Nothing.

You turn the sink off.

Your brow furrows, eyes locked on the cracked door of your bathroom as your hand grabs hold of the first weapon you can get your hands on—a shower curtain rod. One foot after the other, you peak around the corner.

Again, nothing.

Out of some itch of paranoia—or just completely on coincidence—you happen to turn your head to the wall next to you. Instead of an empty corridor like you expected, you're met with a face.

A face that immediately lunges at you the second your eyes widen.

You stumble to the side with a yell just for the individual to grab your arm, and the curtain rod falls to the floor with a clatter. You struggle as he yanks you to the side and around the corner and, before you have the chance to react, cold metal is pressed to your back.

"Don't fuckin' move," a voice hisses in your ear, and you stiffen.

You wheeze, struggling against his hold, "who–"

"Your gardian fucking angel," he sneers, shifting to clap a hand over your mouth. You thrash again—but it's useless. The gun presses painfully into your side. "I said don't move."

A thump echoes through the room, and suddenly you see why.

You fight to keep your breathing under control as you stay firm against your captor's geared chest, still as a statue. Your heart slams against your ribs and your ears as you listen to each heavy footstep against the floor, and your eyes widen whenever a second soldier creeps down your hallway. Standard camo and green clothes shuffling as he walks.

You catch the long muzzle of a rifle over the soldier's shoulder, and suddenly you find yourself leaning into the gun pressed into your back. The hand on your mouth tightens, silently shifting you away from the door.

The shifting of gear and the click of the rifle echo in the silent house as your nails dig into the skin of your captor's wrist. You watch a muscle in his stubbled jaw twitch near your face as the sound of your first name echoes through the hall, sing-song and taunting.

You squeeze your eyes shut.

Think. Think. Think.

“If y’know what’s best for ya’…” A thick Scottish accent taunts from down the hall as he nudges the curtain rod with his foot, causing it to scrape against the wood floors. “You’ll quit puttin’ up a fight and show yourself.”

You glance over to meet your captor’s gaze. A flicker of anger crosses his eyes, nose wrinkling into a scowl. He has a scar across his cheek.

Then, suddenly, he shifts, pulling you further away from the doorway. His grip on your shoulder is deathly tight as it digs into your clothes. He lifts his finger from the trigger of his gun only to bring it to his lips in a silent command to stay quiet, stay with me.

Panic burns bright and all-encompassing through your veins. For whatever reason—all your body will let you do is shake and listen.

He ducks around the corner, pulling you with him. You have to force your feet to move.

The Scottish soldier stops just at the end of the hall, hulking frame and what must be at least thirty pounds of gear making him a jarring sight against the flowered wallpaper of your foster home. He must have an earpiece of some kind; because you hear him whisper every so often as he sweeps the hallways.

"They're here," he mutters. "Little fuck's just good at hiding."

It's tiny and muffled, but in the deathly silence of the house you can make out two voices in his earpiece that reply to him. One female, the other male. You can't decipher what they say but their responses make him growl in frustration.

"C'mon, we don't got all day…"

Tense, your captor shoves you along to another room. He signals something down the hall, where you spot more movement in the house. More soldiers—these ones dressed in similar, dark garb to the man who still presses a gun to your side. They have bigger weapons, concealing helmets.

Startled, you trip over your shoelaces.

Your captor scrambles to grab you before you clatter to the floor. He curses just as the Scottish soldier whips around, gun pointed and ready.

There's a solid two seconds of complete silence. Your gaze meets with the Scott and his eyes widen. Then, he spots the other man with a gun pointed at you.

That's when all hell breaks loose.

You scramble to your feet and bolt. The Scott is the first to grab you, and he's met with teeth deep in his arm. He yells out as you kick free, gagging on the metallic substance that floods your mouth.

There's shouting. Movement. Gunfire lights up your house with noise and lights as you wipe your mouth, stumble, and fly down the stairs in a blind dash for your front door.

Instead, you run directly into something solid—Landing you flat on your ass. Again.

Panting, panicking, your eyes rake up dark figure; past two giant boots, a geared chest, and hands that clench a rifle in their grip to meet a masked face and bored eyes. You scramble backwards against the wall with a yelp. The sound of yelling, gunfire, and heavy footsteps flood the rest of the house as the masked man's eyes widen at you. You stare at each other; you, sizing him up and him, confused.

"Graves?!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!"

"Commander! We lost the kid!"

"Does anyone have a visual??"

"L.T.!"

The skull-faced man finally leaps into action at the sound of what must be his rank—because he's suddenly moving faster than you can realize more soldiers are flooding around the corner. In a flurry of practiced movement, he grabs them.

You yell out as he knees one of the men and shoots the other. Blood splatters across the walls and your clothes. Then, he fires twice more at the soldier unconscious on the ground—and the house goes quiet other than your pounding heartbeat.

The towering man before you shifts, and the floorboards creak under his feet. He rolls his shoulders and let's out a breath as he stands, slowly, up to his full height. He turns, and the same blood that splatters across the walls runs in tiny rivulets across the skull of his mask. His voice thick and low when he speaks.

"You broken?"

Your shaking hands lower from your ears as your eyes then rake across the corpses at his feet, but it's no use. Through the ringing in your ears, your racing mind is unable to put together what he says for a few minutes. It's even more impossible to tear your eyes away from the blood splattered against the patterned wallpaper.

You swallow and shake your head.

"Good." Nonchalant, he lowers his gun and shouts down the hall.

"Johnny, you with me?"

"Over here, L.T.," grunts the Scottish voice from down the hall. "That little shit Graves—"

"Let 'em go. We'll deal with 'em later. We got what we needed."

Johnny curses in response, but mutters a begrudging "copy" as he saunters over—nursing the clear bite mark in his arm.

Then, the Lieutenant's eyes shift in your direction. His hand twitches, almost reaching out to you, and you pull your legs closer to your chest against the wall. Blood soaks your untied laces. You clamp a hand over your mouth as you will your breathing to settle. It doesn't.

He freezes. Then, to your relief, he turns away and presses a finger to his ear.

"Bravo 0-7 to Actual; five shadows have been compromised on the property. Looks like the Shadows got the word the same time we did. Could be others, too. Things got bloody, but…" The lieutenant's eyes meet yours again as he speaks. Through the bloodied skull mask, his gaze holds a calm resolve that's probably supposed to be comforting, but it only makes your skin prickle.

"...we got the kid."

It's quiet, but you can hear static before someone speaks on the other end of the communication device.

"Copy that, Bravo. We'll clean up the mess," A female voice replies. "Bring 'em home safe, boys."

"Roger that."

#kyle gaz garrick #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #john price #call of duty #call of duty fanfiction #call of duty x reader #call of duty reader insert #simon ghost riley x reader #kyle gaz garrick x reader #john price x reader #task force 141 #task force 141 x reader

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countrymusiclover · 5 months ago

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2 - How A Marriage Goes

Part 3

A Wolf Among Dragons

Tag list ( just ask to be added ) @tallrock35 @kmc1989 @starkleila @noirrose21-blog @lover-of-books-and-tea @immyowndefender @iamavailablesstuff

Do y’all want me to separate when Lehna is with Daemon and when she’s with Aemond into separate chapters or just keep writing chapters how I currently am?? Let me know in the comments below 😏

It took a little longer than I cared for to put my daughter down for her nap because I also had to put her twin brother down for the night at the same time. My son Caraxes mumbled to me that his father was playing with the Gold Cloaks meaning he was planning an attack tonight that he didn’t wish for him to see at such a young age.

Aemond was sitting in the chair by the fire while I exited my children’s room that was down the hall from my chambers. Draping a simple cloak over my shoulders I crossed the room pouring myself a cup of wine before offering him one. “Do you want one?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, yes.” He responded by tapping one of his boots on the stone floor.

Pouring him his own glass in a goblet I walked over to him, handing the goblet to him where he slowly raised it up to his lips. “So what do you wish to talk about further with me?”

“Tell me about you and living in the North.” He held his goblet cup on one of the chair armrests.

I swallowed thickly the liquid I had just drank from my cup, taken back by his next words. “Are you being serious? You want to know about my family, why?”

“I have learned everything I could about my family history and now I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t do the same of the other noble houses of Westeros. Wouldn’t you say the same if you were in my position?”

Taking a long sip from my cup I dragged the other chair closer to the burning fireplace. “If I was in your position I’d take the time to learn about your future wife and anything I could about her before you wed her. So I understand why you want to know as much as you can.”

“So what is interesting about the North?” Aemond asked me, tapping his fingers on the rim of the cup.

Brushing hair out of my face I hadn’t thought about my family in quite some time. It wasn’t that I didn’t miss them, I had just gotten far too busy since I became a member of House Targaryen. “Winter is Coming" are our family words. For many years my family has guarded the Wall and prepared for the day that the harsh winter truly does come.”

“What age were you when you married my Uncle Daemon?”

I simply answered his question. “The age of ten and seven. My younger brother Cregon was ten and three the day our father died and he was given the land and title of Lord of Winterfell.”

“That’s too young to rule.” Aemond pointed out even though his father was still weakly alive meaning him and his other siblings wouldn’t be Kings or Queens until the day he passed.

Shaking my head I corrected him. “He wasn’t truly the Lord until he turned sixteen, at least that’s what the letter I later received from my former home a few months later told me he was also wed and had a baby.”

“And it was your duty to do the same thing. You beat him by giving my uncle two instead of just one.” Aemond chuckled, taking another sip from his glass.

“I must confess I had no desire to beat my brother by how many children I can birth compared to his lady wife.“ The chamber door creaked open before I heard something slip underneath it. Getting up from my chair I matched up a folded piece of paper with a quick scribbled message showing me a different secret passageway than the one I had used last time. “Oh uh, Aemond I apologize. But I should go and check on the children. It shall be very late before Daemon gets done with the Gold Cloaks and little Caraxes can’t keep when his father is out and about at this late hour.”

Aemond nodded downing what was left in his cup before getting up and coming over to me and handing me the cup before leaving the room and closing the door behind himself. “If you ever want someone other than those gossiping wives to talk to you can come find me. I rather enjoy your company, Lehna.” I smiled listening to the sound of his boots retreating away before I slipped out the chamber door dressed in a dark black cloak over my simple nightgown and my horse riding boots.

Aemond had secretly hidden behind one of the large pillars watching the Stark girl head in the opposite direction of where she said she was going. Causing him to wonder what in the seven was his Uncle Daemon doing taking her out like this.

Sneaking down the last set of steps I squinted my eyes seeing someone dressed in the same black cloak as I standing at the edge of the passageway exit. The torch light showing it was Daemon when he lifted his head up enough for me to meet his gaze. “I was beginning to think you had found something better to do on our anniversary.”

“I’m surprised you had remembered what with all the time you spent with the Gold Cloaks.” I teased my husband with a smirk, despite what everyone thought about me and Daemon only spending time together at royal events. We did spend time together, just not really discussing much of anything. Not like what I had just done with Aemond.

Daemon stepped closer until our chests were pressing up against the other. “I’m not that awful of a husband as most think. Now come on, little wolf.” Looping my arm through his we made our way down from the Keep until we were in the busy and lively streets of the city I had called my home since I had turned 17. I tugged his forearm when we began to walk past a performance going on in the streets.

The king had named his daughter his heir before his son was born and that is all that everyone could talk about for the many years of peace we have been having. King Viserys didn’t want any war, he simply was the King of peace. “Rhaenyra...the Realm's Delight, a girl so young and so slight... loved by all of her people, but would she make a powerful queen, or would she be feeble?” The lead actor announced to the crowd while a man who was dressed up to look like Rhaenyra took a seat down on their smaller made Iron Throne on the stage.

Multiple people shouted back to the performer. “Feeble!”

“Though Aegon, the babe Prince, might long for a claim, he has two things Rhaenyra cannot: a conqueror's name... and a cock.” The player bent down on a knee beside the other man who was supposed to be playing Aemond’s older brother Aegon.

I sighed feeling bad for Rhaenyra who was trying to change the society we lived in. Yet it wasn’t going to be as easy even if your father sat the current throne. “I feel like I need a drink before I can watch anymore of this pathetic performance.”

“You don’t find it entertaining, hmm?” Daemon chuckled watching me pay for a drink from the local tavern we were standing outside.

The owner handed me and Daemon each a glass and I finished half the goblet before my husband who just stared at me waiting for my response. “If I was Rhaenyra getting to watch this I’d be utterly offended. But we didn’t come down here to squabble about that. For one night a year we go back to before we had our two children do we not?”

“Enough though we love them both dearly. We are just two people having fun tonight.” Daemon finished his drink leading me into one of the brothels and found a private room for us. He pushed me against the wall with us quickly removing our cloaks leaving us just in our small clothes and desire obvious in our separate gazes.

“I thought I’d hate doing this with you. But in truth no one tells you how good it feels.” I smirked at the dragon in front of me.

“It’s a shame. A marriage is a duty...Yes. But that doesn't stop us from doing what we want.” Daemon whispers in a husky voice in my ear while my hands start to trace his form. I began to run his fingers up and down his muscular chest softly while I began to feel his hand start to crawl underneath my gown. He yanked the fabric off my head, throwing it to the ground only once before he growled with his lips barely hovering over mine. “Say it, Lehna. Say it.”

“From fucking who we want.” I uttered out the words he had once told me after we had kissed in front of Caraxes in the dragon pit. He smirked loving to hear me say those words to him only in a setting like this. I began to move against him and leaned up pressing my lips down upon his. He embraced me back instantly when my fingers dug into his back shrugging his tunic over his head getting lost in the other's touch. The others outside were discarded like the remainder of our clothing.

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heyidkyay · 11 months ago

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And I'm petrified of being alone, now |

Part Seventeen

Matty Healy x reader

Summary: She’s just trying to get by, really. What with being a single parent to her four year old son whilst simultaneously trying to kick start a successful career as a radio presenter. She’s got everything she’s ever wanted though, friends close by, a mum who’s merely a phone call away, and of course her baby boy. What else is there to wish for? But then, it’s not long before her relatively normal life gets upended and turned on its head, and she’s suddenly forced to deal with situations she’s never even thought to imagine.

What happens when one mention of a certain controversial singer on her show sends a flood of unexpected challenges her way?

Authors Note: Okay! Hi!:) Just have to say thank you for all the love you lot keep showing this series, it’s so mad and so very appreciated. Honestly makes me want to carry on writing. But I also wanted to add a quick warning to this update.. There is a lot going on, we finally get what we’ve been waiting for!! But there are other topics that also come into play. SO that being said please read the warnings below.

Warnings: Mentions of drug and alcohol abuse (past tense), as well as sobriety, also a previous death, bit gruesome but needed- this relates back to a conversation held between Matty and Jamie in Part Eight.

> Last update: look back here if you'd like!

Masterlist

She never did call.

Matty waited, and then waited some more. He fidgeted the rest of the day, smoked his way through a pack of fags when they’d been down at the studio, and then nursed a single pint after having allowed the guys to bully him into one of the local pubs.

It wasn’t until much later that night that he heard anything from her at all, and it hadn’t been a call, but instead a text.

Messages now Squeaks xx I listened to it

He’d been cooped up in his office since the second he’d gotten home, looking through a couple of older demos and other sound clips in hopes that he’d find something that would fit with the current sound of their new album. George had been on his case about it all, claiming he’d been too spaced out as of late, so Matty had huffed but ultimately followed through.

Songbooks from years before were piled up high on his desk and on the floor, pages full of chords and scribbled lyrics cluttered the rest of the space, but he continued on, using it to distract him from the torturous wait.

When his phone finally did buzz, Matty had almost decided not to answer it, figuring that it would just be a message from Jamie, or maybe his mum. He was still waiting for that ring. But fuck was he glad that he’d taken a glance. Otherwise he might’ve missed it.

Are you busy?

The next text had come through almost a minute after the first, as though she’d been debating sending it. Matty frowned down at the screen, pushing away from his desk slightly.

She’d heard it.

She’d heard the demo.

He didn’t quite know how to feel about that, or what to take from her clipped response. It was why he had essentially asked her to call him, because at least then he would’ve been able to somewhat determine what she’d thought about it, how she might’ve felt.

His tongue slid between the row of his front teeth in thought, staring down at the messages he’d received whilst his thumbs hovered over the keyboard looking for something to say.

Can you come over?

His fucking breath got caught in his throat just reading that, his tongue suddenly too big for his mouth. Matty didn't even think before he hastily answered her, worried she might take it all back.

Give me ten minutes.

He could do ten minutes.

Fuck it. He’d fucking speedtail it out of here and try for five if it meant that she’d just let him in again. The last week had been painful enough, no need to fucking prolong it.

So that was what he did, throwing on the first pair of trainers he’d found in the hallway and grabbing at the car keys he’d tossed down on the counter months earlier. Forgetting about the album and the work he’d planned to do, along with whatever else that had seemed so important just a second ago.

She called and he would come running.

…

It was pissing down by the time he made it to her place.

Headlights on and ignition still running, Matty went to make his escape from the driver's seat, practically vibrating with the anticipation of it all. But he did momentarily pause to yank the keys from beneath the wheel before eventually scrabbling his way out of the sidedoor, feet immediately dropping into the murky puddle sat beneath.

He’d parked like a fucking dickhead, halfway onto the curb and his boot sticking out into the empty street, but he could care less about it as he jogged around the front of the car and up the first few steps to her door.

There was blood rushing in his ears, filling up his head and making him dizzy with it all. He raised a fist to knock, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

He’d gotten there in just under seven minutes.

His heart was pounding like mad.

He knocked.

It was minutes or maybe seconds before he heard a slight scuffle on the other side. Before the hallway light turned on and peered through the painted window pane sat atop the familiar front door.

The chain fell with a clang and Matty swallowed, watching on as the hinges creaked, revealing her face.

She stared up at him, standing in a pair of pyjamas he remembered seeing on a late night call of theirs, her hair all tied up in one of those pretty buns, soft curls escaping at the sides.

Her lips parted with her next breath, the sound of it jumped out at him and Matty couldn’t really hold back anymore. It had been six months. Six whole months. Almost to the day they’d met... Back when he’d been cocksure and arrogant. When he’d still been reeling from another stint in rehab, and from the stunt before the summer, and from Luke’s death.

Matty paused.

He hadn’t really thought about Luke so easily. Not ever. Not since that night. Not in passing.

But she was currently staring back at him. Her eyes wide and tired. Shining in the light of the street lamps that crowded the street outside.

Matty stepped forward, reaching for her.

“Tell me to stop.” He muttered.

She didn’t.

And so his hand found the edge of her jaw, fingers nestling into a place at her hairline, skimming the tip of her ear.

“I can’t.” She answered him. Always so full of truth.

And Matty, Matty was a selfish man. He’d been a selfish kid, too. A bratty teenager. A hellish son and an even worse boyfriend. Always so egotistical, so bold, so brazen. But even more so, selfish.

He would take and take. And this moment was no different. He took.

Her mouth met his with an agonising fever, and there was an eager sigh that escaped in the breath shared between them that Matty couldn’t really determine if was his or hers.

She let him in so easily, let his tongue roam. She let him pull her close, let his hand find purchase on her hip and hear her moan.

It was a whimper of a thing, a sound that was swallowed up by his mouth as he consumed her again. But it fuelled that fire within him, that heat which had been simmering so close to the surface of his skin for weeks, months now.

“Mouse.” Matty said shakily, walking her backwards, further into the flat, where their feet shuffled over the hardwood floors. The door swung shut behind them and rattled in the silence before he was spinning and pressing her shoulders up against its cold wood.

“Matty.” She breathed back to him, fingers catching on his neck, then his jaw, winding their way up into his hair. Tugging.

A grunt escaped him and he pressed harder with it, teeth catching on her teeth, hands moulding into her skin.

She tasted of something sweet, it coated the length of her tongue and melded well with the cigarette he’d lit on his way over. He wanted to taste more of it, found his nose pressing against the skin of her cheek in an attempt to do so.

It was a second later that he felt himself rut up against her, accidentally mind, but the zip of his jeans tugged at the band of her bottoms and the movement made him realise he was hard. Had been half-way there from the moment she had texted him, but now, in her hallway, with her grinding up against him, and with those pretty little sounds she let slip, it was almost painful.

“Squeaks.” He managed to force out and she swallowed her own name right up, one arm wrapping around the length of his shoulders whilst the other tugged at the nape of his neck.

Matty followed her demands effortlessly, a hand slipping under the hem of her shirt to feel at the warm skin hidden beneath, a calloused thumb brushing against the jut of her hip.

He explored, felt the edges of rigid flesh she kept hidden and out of sight, the freckles that lingered and dotted her torso, then wedged his knee between her legs. Hands grabbing at the backs of her thighs.

One of her knees rode up higher on his side as he shifted even closer, letting her use him like a makeshift ladder to lift herself further up in the little space which stood between him and the door.

He rutted again and the joint of her knee tightened by his hip, the heel of her foot digging into the back of his leg, forcing him even nearer. He grabbed at the swell of her arse, noting the way she arched into him at the touch. How her stomach tensed.

It had just been pissing it down outside, he recalled belatedly, but her warmth in that moment seemed to dry up the remaining raindrops caught in his hair and along the shoulders of his coat. His fingertips pressed harder into her thighs at the thought, feeling the bottom of her shirt ride up higher between them upon catching on the zip of his jacket.

She nipped at his lip, then his jaw, hands all but clawing at his neck and his back.

“Squeaks.” He tried again, brain hazy with want but needing to do this right. He had to do this right. “Squeaks.” Again he said, a plea within a shared breath between them, “Baby, please.”

She retreated all too quickly, letting him go with a sharp inhale. Lids heavy with avidity as she blinked back at him.

Matty realised then that he’d had her pinned to the door, crowded against the wood and practically having lifted her up off of her feet. He swallowed thickly at the sight and willed his dick to calm the fuck down. But it had been way too fucking long.

He was unhurried in the way he shifted beneath her before carefully letting her go, unwinding the leg he held at his hip before she slid slowly down his front. Feet hitting the cold wood floors with a soft thud.

He blinked and gone was that selfishness they had just shared, that immediate heat, and suddenly she was all wary, shy almost. Matty reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, before he steeled himself and finally took a step back.

“You came.” She murmured after a breath, and had his mind been in better shape he’d have been quicker with his quip.

But yet, he was left drifting in between the heady thrill and the uneventful come down they’d shared.

He blinked slowly at her. Could see that the hallway light was the only one on, but somewhere, further down the hall, a soft glow from one of her many lamps crept its way past a door.

“You said you’d call.” He found himself saying in reply, though it wasn’t the reprimand he’d thought it was.

Her smile was soft then. Fond.

His breath caught at the sight of her, still laboured from the minute before.

“After.” Squeaks whispered in recall. And Matty heard himself repeat it, “After, you said.”

She took a small step closer to him, the padding of her feet echoed in the narrow walkway. Matty’s hands twitched at his sides.

He saw her throat bob.

“Tea?” She questioned, and Matty was both thankful and resentful for the quiet offer.

He nodded, blinking owlishly at her.

They stood there, not moving, for a long moment. The sound of a car passed, then the scuffle of a person or two outside, as well as the far off yap of a neighbouring dog. And still they just stood there, staring.

She took another step nearer and Matty attempted not to react to the way her fingers caught on the front of his coat, memorising the careful way she started to peel it off of him, turning so that she could claim it and then hang it off some place to the side. He looked at her the whole while, scared to take his eyes off her, in truth.

He licked at his lower lip when he caught her staring too and captured her hand in his when she went to step around him.

“Tea.” He reminded himself and she smiled, eyes flickering across the length of his face. As though she was seeing him for the first time.

“Tea.”

…

Her kitchen always felt so homely.

She had spices fixed to a rack on the wall, wound in growing ivy attached to the potted plant that sat on the windowsill beside it. Her fridge was dotted in magnets and polaroids, and a drawing of Teddy’s hung front and centre. The table was always so neat, though still cluttered with the odd crayon and lego piece, a bowl of fruit was perched in the very middle. She had one of those kettle cosy’s too, a knitted one that reminded Matty of days spent at his nana’s house when he was just a boy.

His favourite part of all of it though, had to be her.

He stood in the doorway and just watched as she puttered about the space, flashbacks of previous visits coming back to him. She had this easy grace about her, an elegance he always seen but could never quite make out. She was a piece to many puzzles in the way she typically held herself, so ready to fight and so willing to wilt, but in that moment she just was.

And Matty could hardly tear his eyes away from her, from the length of her back to the curve of her waist. The taste, the memory of her still coating his tongue.

He’d kicked off his shoes before he could trail a messy track throughout her home, so his footsteps were quiet when he finally crossed the kitchen tiles. He paused just behind her, his hands falling to her hips whilst his chin dropped to rest on her shoulder.

She allowed it. Picking up the kettle to pour over two mismatched mugs, he simply watched her work.

It was a difficult task not allowing his hands to wander, or to keep his mouth from pressing against the pulse in her neck, but he withheld, content to just hold her. Humming when she picked up the milk and thinking over the last day they’d spent together. That night at his.

They moved over to the table not long after, her kitchen blinds were still open so the moon gifted them all the light they needed. Matty kept close, knocking his knees against hers at the very corner of the table, unwilling to go without.

She was quiet still whilst she danced a finger around the rim of her steaming brew, Matty was mesmerised by the delicate motion.

A hum of hers broke the silence they had since settled in, the softness of it causing him to blink and look up, immediately recognising the faint tune of the demo he’d sent her.

He smiled, his eyes caught on to the one she wore too. Practically conspiratorial.

His legs reached outwards to capture one of her ankles between his feet, her gaze flickered back and forth between both his eyes. He wondered what she saw in them, what she made of him.

“I’m guessing you liked it then.” Matty spoke, voice ever so low, still scared to break their languid solitude.

Mouse dipped her chin in a nod, peering up at him through dark lashes that made him want to catch her by the neck and pull her in again. He knew what she tasted like now, he felt as though it would forever haunt him.

“Thank you,” She whispered after, fingers cupped around the bottom of her mug. His brow furrowed.

“For what?”

She smiled again, blinking at him sweetly, “For my gifts, for always being so lovely, for sending me that song.”

Matty snorted, knowing that the last thing he could possibly be was lovely.

Fingertips touched his chin then and she guided his face back up to meet hers, he hadn’t realised he’d even looked away. But it was then that he was reminded of that night in his own kitchen, crowded between her legs and the counter, her kind eyes. You’re enough.

“Was it for me?” She questioned, watching him closely again. Something she tended to always do. “‘Cause that kiss, it sort of made it feel like it was for me.”

Matty grinned, eyes squinting with the strength of it.

It was so easy- too easy, even- for her to make him smile like that, and he couldn’t even begin to decide whether he loved or hated the fact that she had the ability.

“Yeah, Squeaks. It was for you.”

Her cheeks dimpled in an attempt to dim the smile she then wore, elbows pressing against the table’s edge, her foot resting on top of his own. “Good.” She murmured, leaning in closer now.

“Good?” He chuckled, following the motion. Eyes caught on the curve of her mouth.

“Uhuh,” She breathed into the small space between them, nose brushing against the side of Matty’s own. “Really good.”

He laughed again, low and breathy this time around, before he finally closed the distance and kissed her for a second time.

She laughed too, smiling against his lips.

–

For an insomniac, the dark was a place full of many contradictions.

Matty had spent countless hours staring up at all types of ceilings, in all sorts of places, and in all kinds of countries. But hers, he reckoned, was possibly his favourite. As most things had come to be in the short time he’d spent with Mouse.

Because even as she slept on beside him, bundled in the duvet and a blanket that smelt of her, he didn’t stress over the fact that he was still wide awake.

His mind was too preoccupied to stress. Just thinking back to the expression she’d worn when she’d first opened the front door. To the breathy gasps that had escaped her in the hallway. The way she’d gently carded her fingers through his hair after she’d lured him into bed. Promising to talk more tomorrow.

He thought of Luke then, as well. As he often did whenever the darkness plagued him.

The fucker would be laughing if he could just see him now, obsessing and all soppy over some bird. Smiling away to himself in the dark.

But Matty knew that he’d be happy too. Glad that he was finally getting back on the right track. Actually trying this time around. Because Luke had known the hardships of addiction just as well as Matty had- it was what had killed him in the end, wasn't it.

He could still picture his face, both before and after the fall. One second they’d all been grinning on that roof, high as kites and drunk out of their minds, having the time of their lives, and then his had hit the concrete.

Matty’s stomach rolled at the thought.

At the eerie silence that had followed.

He’d been struggling that night, trying to get clean, to stay clean. And they’d only gone to the party, Luke and Danny, to appease him. Luke, having tagged along wanting to look out for him, to make sure that he didn’t get too caught up in anything he couldn’t get himself out of.

Luke had been sober three months at that point. Clean of the drugs and the drink. All of it. He’d drank that night though, the party had been at one of his dodgier mates places and he wouldn’t have been able to have stayed in the clear.

Matty remembered egging him on, telling him to live a little. To have a beer. A shot. And then another. And another. Someone else had offered him that line though.

He’d been hammered by the time some idiot had come up with that dare and they’d all thought it had been a sick idea to try and walk the length of the roof. Like they were at Zippo’s sodding circus.

Luke had been doing so good. Matty had known it too. What with his first EP coming out that September, something which Jamie had made happen, and his new flat that he’d not long moved into. Away from the familiarity of street corners he knew far too well and faces of dealers that he’d seen time and time again before.

He’d been good. Been going steady.

Then he was just dead.

Matty didn’t close his eyes then, even as they began to water. Didn’t want to see him like that. Knew that he would if only he shut his eyes. Because he couldn't stand to see the reminder, the life that had left him too quickly.

A slight sniff broke him from his thoughts then and he stilled as Mouse moved and turned in her sleep.

He let himself breathe a little easier once she’d settled again, tucking her face into the crook of his shoulder and nestling further into his side. He wrapped an arm around her, needing her close, and then finally allowed his eyes to fall shut, burying his face in the top of her hair.

He wondered if she’d let him stay from now on and pressed a long kiss to her forehead.

He hoped that she would, listening to the quiet that hummed throughout the rest of her flat as his mind began to let go of what consciousness it had once clung on to.

‘Tomorrow’ was his final thought before he eventually drifted off. It had been a long time since he’d thought that he’d ever make it to a tomorrow.

–

It was a grunt I woke up to. The heavy and unfavoured kind, the type that was only ever forced out of you when you received a hefty blow to the stomach.

I felt my face wrinkle as I pressed in closer to the warmth beside me, unhappy to have been woken. But then I heard a whisper, followed by a giggle, which had me blinking blearily and peering up at the toddler now towering over me.

“Wake now?”

“Teddy.” I heard someone else laugh right above my head, and I was quick in the way I looked up, recognising that the warmth I’d been clinging to had been Matty all along. “You’re an actual monster, you know that?”

Teddy squealed happily when Matty tickled his sides, but seemed content with his place on the man’s stomach and the fact that Matty was here at all.

I wanted to groan at the very idea, I hadn't much thought this through. Not when I’d heard the song, thinking back to the night I’d spent at his, the fight we’d had, the way he’d held Teddy and promised him that things would soon be alright.

It hadn’t felt real. It still didn’t.

“Wake?” Teddy said to me again and I had to give a soft laugh when I felt his finger prod at my cheek, which was probably marked with the line of Matty’s t-shirt now. “Yeah?”

I chuckled again, peering up at him. “Yeah, I’m awake.” I replied, smiling before I rubbed at my eyes.

Matty’s arm seemed to be tucked up under me because it twitched a tad when I moved. I grimaced at the loss of feeling he must have experienced and murmured a quiet “Sorry,” shuffling over slightly so that I could free the limb. But he merely laughed to himself before his hand came up to rub at my arm, keeping me close.

“It’s fine.” Matty replied, his voice tinged with sleep and grainy from lack of use, but then he winced and flexed his fingers, “Oh.”

I snorted softly and glanced up at him, “Pins and needles?”

His nose wrinkled further, as did his lips when he tilted his head back and tried to shake loose the feeling from his wrist. I let him have his arm back, turning over onto my stomach to simply watch him, drinking in the sight of him whilst I still could.

“Yeah.” He hissed out and Teddy, who was watching too, started to shake his arm alongside Matty.

Matty only noticed the mimicking movement when he felt the toddler shift on his torso and opened his eyes up only to laugh at the way that Teddy was now copying him.

“Oi,” He admonished, using his other hand to playfully pinch at the boy’s side, “What you think you’re doin’?”

Teddy giggled, hair a mess from having just woken but grinning all the while. “Dancin’! Like you!”

I shook my head and bit back my sudden amusement before dropping it down into my hands when I couldn’t quite manage to hide my growing smile.

“Oh, we’re dancing are we?” I heard Matty say, and could feel the grin he probably wore. Then Teddy was laughing again and squirming beside me once more, sounding so happy, before the bed tilted more so to one side and a soft thud was heard. “Oi, where you off to!” Matty asked him whilst Teddy’s giggles still echoed around the space.

“Tele!” Was the only response he got and I listened to the way Teddy’s feet hurried out of the room, having escaped Matty’s merciless tickles.

There was a quiet for a moment before I felt a hand come to cradle my head and fingers card their way through my hair.

I leaned into the touch, savouring it. I didn’t think anyone had ever touched me with such a softness before, like I was something to be treasured, to be held and kept close.

It was a long while before I finally raised my head again, blinking at the sweet sight I was met with. I smiled at the mess his curls were in and the way his eyes squinted in the dim light of the room.

“Hi.” I whispered and his fingers stilled in my hair when he looked back at me.

Matty didn’t say a thing though, merely shuffled further down the bed, the duvet being kicked somewhere to the bottom before he finally settled in beside me, both our heads now resting on a single pillow.

His fingertips skirted along the edge of my jaw and trailed across the bottom of my lip before his thumb reached out to catch it too, pinching the flesh ever so slightly.

“You snore.” Matty said to me then and my mouth dropped open slightly in offence.

“I do not.”

He snorted to himself, grin widening, “You do.”

I shoved him but his hands were quick to grab at my arms, wrapping them up and moving to press them against his chest. “It’s cool though, they’re cute snores.”

“How the fuck can they be cute, Matty?”

He rolled his eyes at the ask, still grinning away. “Like, just soft and stuff. Don’t stress, I’ve roomed with George and he’s got the lungs of a whale or summat. I could probably sleep next to a fog horn and feel at home.”

A bright laugh escaped me at that, before I was shaking my head gently and looking back at his sleepy smile. “That makes me feel so much better.”

Matty smacked his lips around another grin, shrugging the shoulder that wasn’t pressed to the mattress. He reached out then, brushing a loose strand from out of my face and let his thumb linger on a freckle.

“Your breath stinks as well.”

I bit into my bottom lip at that, narrowing my eyes at him. “Well yours is no better! And besides, you didn’t seem to mind it much last night.”

I went to turn over then but he was hasty in his movements to grab at me, tugging me back towards him, closer this time. I laughed joyfully, “Hey!”

“Hi.” Matty grinned smugly once we'd settled, his hand falling to the small of my back.

I was gripping one of his shoulders now whilst my other arm laid in the little space between us. “I said that already.” I told him, feeling each soft exhale that escaped him.

He hummed, thumb rubbing circles into my skin. “I missed you, you know.”

My brow furrowed, “You slept right beside me, you muppet.”

He pinched my hip in retaliation and so I chuckled. “You know what I meant.”

I did know.

“Missed you, too.” I murmured, letting my fingertips trail up over the side of his neck, liking the feel of his barely there stubble. “But-”

He stopped me then, nudging my cheek with the tip of his nose, “I know. Later, yeah?”

My eyes fell closed and I hummed in agreement, later was fine. We could talk later.

His hand pressed against the curve of my back, forcing me even closer, and so my fingers worked themselves into his hair. I exhaled softly and tilted my head forward just a touch. He closed the distance between us in a single heartbeat.

Kissing Matty was different, everything about it just felt right in a way that no other kisses ever quite had. Things appeared to click. Fall into place around me.

But don't get me wrong, it was painful too, because there was that ache in my chest again, the hole that hollowed out my unforgiving heart. I wanted him but at the same time, I was too terrified to reach out and touch.

Our lips brushed, once, twice, then a third time, hesitant and careful, before something shifted and I was taken back to the previous night. To the way his fingers had dug deep into my thighs, to the front door pressing against my spine, to the way he’d held me so weightlessly.

Talking could wait til later, I reminded myself.

Now, all I wanted was for Matty to consume me and I immediately gasped at the cold hand that dragged its way up my side to tease me, thumb brushing against the nipple that hardened beneath it.

I wouldn’t let him have all the fun though, so without a second thought I rolled him over and settled on his hips. He was surprised by the change but adapted seamlessly, rutting up off the mattress to meet me, one hand still toying with me, taunting, whilst the other cupped the back of my head.

It was back and forth for a short while, mouth chasing mouth, chests heaving with the force of it.

But then, a bang hollowed out the flat.

I jumped at the sudden noise and shot my head over towards the door, listening in closer.

“Okay?” I called out, noting the breathless quality my voice now had. I waited and didn’t move even when Matty’s hands came to just sit on my waist.

“‘Kay!” I heard Teddy shout back and I released a semi-amused huff before turning back to face the man beneath me, “Sorry.”

And I was. I really was, especially when I forced myself to drop back down onto the bed sheets next to him.

Matty simply chuckled and I glanced over at him, smiling slightly when he reached out to swipe a gentle thumb over the scar on my jaw. “You’re good." I wondered if he was just saying that, but then, "What do you think he’s actually done though? Sounded like the bike to me.”

I sighed at the very thought. The bike had been one of my mum’s many Christmas gifts to Teddy, one which I hardly had any room for in the flat. I silently hoped that it wasn't the bike, but was caught on the way Matty had so easily adapted, moving on without complaint.

Was that normal?

Matty’s hand coaxed me back into looking at him again and I softened when I saw the smile he wore. “Later,” He reminded me, knocking a knuckle against my chin before he withdrew completely, sitting up on the edge of the bed. “How about a fry up then? There's that bakery by the studio or the cafe up near mine, choice is yours but it’s on me.”

“Matty.” I huffed, not a whine but near enough, extending an arm out in hopes that it would call him back to bed.

He smirked, glancing at me from over his shoulder once he'd stood. He dragged a hand through his hair. “Come on, got a growing boy to feed- Teddy too, I 'spose.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help my grin. “You’re an idiot.”

“So you’ve said.” He quipped and I could hear how his laughter filled the flat even as he headed for the bathroom, “Teds get ready, mate! We're getting bacon!”

I fell back onto the mattress with a smile, staring up at the ceiling above me with a little bit of hope.

106 notes · View notes

qnxemz · 2 years ago

Text

cause i love this curse on our house - leon kennedy x reader

summary:

Leon can't stop the doubts that crowd his mind after he has a dream about you.

I'll ruin it for you. I'll ruin it all over and over like I always do. Loosely inspired by the song, "The Alcott" by the National ft. Taylor Swift.

words: 4.3k

notes: first fic! i have leon brain rot rn. also posted on ao3!

The candle light flickered and left erratic shapes on the walls of your home. The only other light illuminating your face was the random late night show displayed on the television. Your eyes struggled to stay open as you fought sleep. Leon had told you he would be back today, and you were determined to stay awake, so you could greet him. There was always a chance that his mission would be delayed or something else out of his control would happen that made him late, but the slight off chance that everything did work out, you knew he would be here.

In an effort to keep your mind running, you wrote in your journal, a gift to you from Leon. It was yellow, and it was a bit frayed on the edges, but you loved it nonetheless. You had adorned the journal with decorations, covering the front entirely, but you didn’t mind the clutter. Your absolute favorite decoration was the polaroid of you and Leon, an item secretly stolen from Claire after she teased the hell out of you both. It was taken before you and Leon had started dating, a time when neither of you were brave enough to confess to each other.

You wrote random things in your journal, but you also wrote things that you hoped to remember to tell Leon whenever he arrived from missions. It was easier this way as it kept a part of your relationship hidden from prying eyes or ears, and it became a tradition of sorts to guide Leon through your thoughts while he was gone. Many of the things you wrote down were trivial, but Leon never seemed to mind the stray grocery list scribbled on spare pages.

As the clock ticked closer and closer to 1 am, it became harder and harder to focus on the energetic late night TV host. Writing a quick note in your journal, a sigh escaped from your lips. You slowly convinced yourself that a 20 minute nap would be the perfect solution to your drowsiness. Pulling the blanket closer towards your chest, you let sleep overcome you.

—

You were awakened by the warmth of someone’s chest enveloping you. Despite your groggy state, you knew there was only one person who would be here with you now.

“Leon” you say as you press your face against his chest. He smelled like what you’ve always known him to smell like only with the faint addition of his favorite cologne. Leon’s arms were sturdy around you, the invisible thread between you two finally at ease.

Shushing you, Leon said, “Go back to sleep.” He paused and gave a kiss to your forehead. “You’ll thank me in the morning for not letting you sleep on the couch.”

As he lifted you, he noticed your notebook opened on your lap with your simple black pen nestled between the pages. Gently laying you back down on the couch, he reached for the journal to put in a safer location. Before moving it to the coffee table, he noticed the last thing you wrote.

Sorry, Leon! Promise this is only a 20 minute nap!

He couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips. You could never keep yourself awake, but he adored how you tried. Closing your golden notebook, his eyes lingered on the cover, specifically the polaroid of you and him sleeping together on the couch, your bodies entwined. Your stickers littered the sides of the polaroid with everything you loved. He smiled to himself as he traced the worn out edges of the journal before placing it down and tending to you.

As he went up the stairs to the bedroom, he couldn’t help but notice how he missed everything. He missed the pictures hanging on the wall. He missed holding you like this. He missed the smell of the candle he blew out when he entered your home. He missed seeing you curled on the couch, having lost the battle to sleep and having to turn off the television for you.

When he entered your shared bedroom, he realized what he missed most of all was simply just being with you. You had been with him for so long, since all this madness began, and he simply couldn’t remember a time when you were not a part of his life. The ache in his heart spread, knowing that you would never stray far from where he was when all he ever did was leave. He hated that he could never give you more.

Laying you down gently on the bed, he did his best to cover you. Looking at your sleeping form once more, he went to put on some more comfortable clothes. When he finally made it to bed, you had fallen back into deep sleep. Doing his best to make as little disturbance as possible, he laid down, the bed slightly dipping due to his weight. Instantly, almost as if seeking his warmth, you gravitated towards Leon. Putting his arm around you, he brought you impossibly closer. You hooked a leg over him in your sleep, and Leon smiled contently, looking at the ceiling. There was no better peace than being here with you. Leon knew he would not be able to sleep much because once he closed his eyes, he would see the trauma of his latest mission. However, snuggled here with you, your body seeking him as if he were the answer to your prayers, he couldn’t help but try to get some shut eye.

—

Leon woke up peacefully, something he hadn't done in months. His mind raced when he didn’t feel the warmth of you anymore. In fact, the side of your bed was empty. It was still dark outside, so he knew you couldn’t have been up yet. However, something felt off about the apartment. It almost felt like there was another presence other than the two of you, which had Leon worrying about your safety. He quickly got up, not bothering to put on more suitable clothes and grabbed his gun he had hidden in the nightstand.

As he walked carefully around the apartment, he found himself heading to your shared office. It wasn’t until he heard something that he never thought he would hear that his eyes widened. A baby giggle. Quickly, he lowered his gun but abruptly stopped when he saw you in the office, except it wasn’t an office anymore. It was a nursery with a crib and stuffed animals in every corner. There was a tiny bookshelf in the corner, and the carpet under Leon’s feet was soft. His eyes eventually fell on you, in the middle of the room. However, you weren’t just standing there. You were cradling a baby.

You were turned away from him, facing the window with only the moonlight illuminating your silhouette. He softly called out your name. For some reason, he wasn’t alarmed that you were carrying a baby in your arms. It felt as natural as the gun loaded in his hand. Leon stood at the doorway for a bit, admiring your beauty and a bit in awe with the entire situation. He walked towards you softly, in order to not alarm you. However, the closer he got to you, the more he realized something was terribly wrong. Your pjs were now ripped, and there was a terrible smell of death. When he faced you, he realized exactly what had happened.

You were dead. No, you were worse than dead. You were a zombie, alive but dead. His heartbeat quickened. He gripped the gun in his hand more firmly. He called your name again, but it was like you couldn’t hear him at all. Your gaze never moved from the baby in your arms. Other than the slight rocking in your form, you did nothing to indicate that you knew of Leon’s presence. There was a faint smile to your pale lips as you looked at the bundle wrapped in your arms. He could hear the baby more clearly now. His and your baby giggling happy gurgles unaware that their own mother was dead.

Leon’s face was wet. He was crying silent tears. He wished you would attack him. He wished you would act more like the zombies in Raccoon City because maybe it would have made this easier. He couldn’t kill you. He doesn’t even think he could kill you if you were clawing at his face, yearning to take a chunk of his skin off. With you here, cuddling his baby, he realized there was nothing he wanted more. He wanted this domesticity with you. But you were dead. You had become the monster from his nightmares, a hell he experienced for the first time 3 years ago.

Leon thinks this is worse than hell. Hell would have hurt less. He fell to his knees, never taking his eyes off of you, the gun long forgotten in his hand. His vision was beginning to blur, but he could still make out your face. He swore he could hear you slightly humming to the infant in your arms. He kneeled there, sobbing over what you had become, his dream and nightmare intertwined in some cruel twist of fate.

In the midst of his tears, he realized there were no more baby giggles. Instead, there was eerily silence, and then he heard it. It was muffled at first, but he could hear it. Your baby was crying. Their wails got louder and louder, and when he looked at you, his breath caught short.

You were looking right at him, angrily as if he was the one that caused the newborn to cry. Your face had been clawed open by some zombie. He could see the bone in your cheek, but what caught his attention were your eyes. Your eyes, the ones he loved so much were cloudy and bloodshot. There was no love behind them, no laughter, no life. He did this. He caused you to lose the light in your eyes. He made you this. The tears were hot now, scalding his skin. This was what he deserved, and he selfishly made you a part of his fate. He looked down at his hands, and they were covered in blood. When he looked back up at you, you lunged at him, the baby gone from your hands.

—

He woke up with a start. He was back in bed. There was never a baby. You were never a zombie. Leon was with you in bed, his body sore due to how tense he was. His chest was heavy and riddled with sweat. He slowly unclenched his fists and brought a hand to his face. He realized he had been crying. The only comfort was that he still felt your body entangled with him.

You had slightly moved positions due to his movement, but otherwise you were still peacefully sleeping. If he looked closely, he could see your chest rising up and down. In an effort to avoid jolting you awake, he did his best to strip himself from you.

Before he made his way to the balcony, he looked at your form. He studied the shape of your nose, your hair, and the way your body curled in order to conserve heat without him. Afraid that his eyes could have been deceiving him earlier, he had to make sure you were still alive. Gently lifting up your arm, he checked your wrist to ensure that you still had a beating pulse underneath it all. He breathed a sigh of relief that what he just experienced was only a nightmare.

The air outside was cold, cooling the sweat off his skin. Breathing in deeply, Leon could smell the distant aroma of rain, but the moonlight still shined brightly. He breathed in and breathed out, trying to calm the rapid beating of his heart. He couldn’t get over what he had seen. He was the cause of your ruination.

Was it selfish to keep you near when he could let you go? How many times will you believe in him? Believe that he will come back unharmed and unfazed? Believe that he could protect you? The world was against him and keeping you on his side would make the world turn against you too. He had to let you go. You deserved someone that wouldn’t let you turn into their worst nightmare.

—

You awoke to an empty bed. You swore Leon had arrived earlier that night because the bed was still warm from where he laid. You wondered where he was until you heard the slight woosh of the wind from the balcony door. Quietly, you walked to the balcony and saw Leon’s silhouette staring out into the skyline. You knew he had recognized your presence no matter how quiet you tried to keep your steps, for the brutal training he underwent made sure of it. You stood next to him, twiddling with your fingers. For a bit, neither of you made any move to address each other. After a wind spell sent shivers down your spine, you finally turned to him.

From this angle, you could see a tiny cut on his cheek from his latest mission. You noticed a portion of his left arm was wrapped in bandages, and you longed to gently run your hands over each of his injuries, in the futile hope that your touch would do him any good. His eyes never moved from the skyline, but as you watched him, your thoughts swarmed with concern. Had he really come back to you in one piece?

Leon waited for you to speak first. He knew you were watching him, and he so desperately wanted to break into your golden thinking. He hoped you wouldn’t say something that would make what he was about to do harder, but it was you. No matter what you did, Leon would never be able to break away from you with ease. He would never be able to untangle the invisible thread that connected him to you. Finally, he heard you take a deep breath.

“I missed you,” you said. It was everything Leon wanted to hear but didn’t want to hear at the same time. Taking a moment to recollect himself, Leon looked at you, and your eyes were beautiful. They were staring right back at him with love, no cloudy vision, and certainly no anger behind them. His breathing slowed, and he opened his arms to motion you into a hug. You didn’t resist and nestled your face into his chest.

He kissed your head, and hugged you impossibly tighter. “Missed you so much,” he mumbled into your hair. You could hear his heartbeat from where you were, and it eased your thoughts. You closed your eyes and accepted this. Whatever had made Leon come to the balcony didn’t matter as long as you could be with him. Still holding onto you as if you were water slipping from his grasp, you heard him swallow hard.

“I think we should go our separate ways,” the invisible string suddenly taut between you two.

You pulled away from him, and he let you go reluctantly. You looked at him as his face scrunched up as if it was painful for him to even say it.

“What?” you say, your voice impossibly small. Your heart that was once beating steadily was now speeding up. Leon repeated himself, still avoiding your eyes.

“We’re done,” he says in a tone to bring some finality to it, but his voice cracks.

You were silent. He waited for a response, an outburst for anything that would indicate what you were feeling. Leon couldn’t help but think he would rather you hate him than get caught up in his affairs. He finally turns to you, and he really looks at you. You were wearing one of his old shirts and pj pants that he was sure were also his considering the way they fit. When he made his way to your face, he now saw what he did. You were crying silently, looking down, the same thing he had done in his nightmare.

“Why?” You pause for a bit to try and make your voice not waver. “Was it something I did?”

“No, no of course not,” Leon says, his hands betraying his thoughts by trying to reach for your form. You instinctively move further from him, a movement that panged at Leon’s heart. Leon took a deep breath.

“I’m ruining you.” His voice was almost inaudible. You finally looked up at him, and you saw he was looking at you too, now. He had tears running down his face, replacing the dried up tears from before.

“I don’t understand,” you say. Was your love too much? Had you given him everything and nothing at the same time? Had you become one of his problems?

“I can’t let myself be selfish. You deserve more than me. You deserve-” he paused for a second in an attempt to calm his pounding heart. “You deserve someone better than me.” “Leon, I want you. How could you expect me to move on?” Your voice was soft.

“How could you expect me to forget you?”

Your voice was so low, and the tears were streaming down your face. You didn’t want to cry. In the back of your mind, you were always expecting this to end. Everything that was yours becomes a land mine. You just didn’t expect the rain to your parade to come so soon.

Leon had no answers to your questions because he couldn’t picture himself with anyone else but you. He squeezed his eyes shut. Leaving you was never going to be easy.

“If you really want to break up with me, look at me in my eyes and tell it to me.” Leon couldn’t. He couldn’t stare at your eyes and tell you a lie that he knew would stab both you and him.

You knew he couldn’t. Leon could barely look at your eyes throughout this all. You didn’t move your gaze from Leon, daring for him to tell you that he wanted nothing to do with you.

“Leon, I wanted this. I still want this.” You pause. “I love you, Leon. I never wanted easy. I knew it wouldn’t be. I don’t know what brought this on, but all I do know is that I love you. I can’t picture myself with anyone else.”

“Please. You have to let me go.” Leon runs a hand through his increasingly messy hair. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.”

“We’re a team! We’ve always been a team, since the beginning. Don’t you get that? We both weren’t expecting to be put in this situation, but we are.” You take a moment to calm your breathing. “I wouldn’t want to be doing this with anyone else.”

“I saw you dead.” He says your name so softly you can barely hear it. “You were a zombie, a zombie carrying our child in your arms. And I couldn’t stand to see you like that, but I also couldn’t kill you. And then you looked up, and you were so angry... So angry towards me.” His face scrunches as if saying this out loud was causing him physical pain. ”Your eyes were dead. I can’t let that happen.”

“It won’t happen if you’re with me.” you say, willing him to believe it, wanting him so desperately to trust you.

“You can’t possibly believe that.” Leon shakes his head. “I do! Yes, I have some training now, but I feel safest with you. I wouldn’t have survived without you. Are you really so willing to throw that all away?”

Leon didn’t respond. He had no answer because of course not. He would never be able to move on from you. You are his future.

You were sobbing now. If he really was going to break up with you, then he should see your hurt. You weren’t going to force him to stay if he really wanted to go.

“Don’t you think I’ve felt the same way? Everytime you go on one of your damn missions, I never know if that’ll be the last time I see you. In the back of my mind, I’m always expecting some random government official letting me know that you died. And it would be my fault because I didn’t go with you.”

Leon looked at you. His eyes pierced through your skin, looking at all the cracks that just barely held you together. It was your turn to avoid eye contact with him. You looked at anything but him because you couldn’t dare deal with having to see the doubts swarm around in his face. Tears rolled down your face, and you think you can see Leon wiping his eyes from the corner of your vision. Still, he has no response, and you’re forced to wait for the impending end to the one real thing you ever had.

Leon couldn’t go through with this. Your sobs physically pained him. He would rather deal with anything else than hear your cries. He pulled you towards him, and this time you let him. You wracked his chest with sobs. You thrashed against his chest, trying to not let him comfort you. However, you were so tired of being strong, and his arms felt like home. You were wetting his shirt with tears, but you couldn’t force yourself to care.

“I’d always come back to you,” he mumbles into your hair.

He pulls away slightly. Your eyes are still shut, but your tears have slowed. Slowly, he wipes the tears glittered across your cheeks. Then, you feel his lips kiss every part of your face. He kisses your eyes, your nose, your cheeks. A million ‘I’m sorry’s’ in every kiss. He kisses the stray tears still trailing down your face. He finally says it out loud.

“I’m sorry.” He kisses your face again and again. “I’m so so stupid. I love you. I love you so much.” His kisses never stop peppering your face. His hands cradling your head delicately, as if one wrong move would make you shatter.

He stops, and you slowly open your eyes, finally looking directly into his. He was looking at you now too, and you could see he meant everything he said. His eyes were bright from the tears he had just shed, and you’re sure yours looked the same. You smiled at him, and you almost want to laugh. Could it ever be easy this once? He looks beautiful, his hair disheveled from sleep and the wind.

“Kiss me, Leon.”

And he does. He’s hesitant at first, afraid of hurting you once more. When he feels your desire, he deepens the kiss. He kisses you as if it was the last time he’d ever get to. He moves down to kiss at your neck, but he never strays too far from your lips. His hands never stop cradling your face.

When you both move away to take a breath, neither of you speak.

You look up at him, finally able to do what you had been aching to do since you first saw him. You traced his fresh scar on his cheek. His eyes closed at the feeling of your hands on his face. You grabbed his hands, checking that he had no stray injury. You moved to his bandaged arm, making sure that the work was done correctly.

“I’m okay.” Leon meets your gaze. “I promise.” You breathe a sigh of relief before wrapping your arms around his torso. You feel him kiss your hair as his hands bring your body the warmth you crave.

“Should we go inside? It looks like it’s gonna rain,” your voice still muffled by his chest. The moon was partially covered now by some clouds that looked just about ready to pour. The wind had picked up dramatically, and the little street noise that was there earlier was now completely eradicated into the night.

“In a minute.” Leon adjusts his arms around you once more. Both of you watch the scenery outside as the wind picks up. He’s still for the most part. You wish you could turn to see his face, try to discern if everything really was okay. Unsurprisingly, it starts to drizzle ever so slightly, and the wind makes the rain hit both of you straight on. Leon still doesn’t make any sign that he wants to head inside.

Eventually the rain becomes too much for either of you to deal with. He pulls away from you and smiles. The slight rain makes your face glow, and your messy hair makes you look ethereal. He wishes he could take a picture of you right now. He wants to keep this moment forever, but he figures his mind will be enough for him this time.

“You know, a picture lasts longer right?” You cross your arms around your chest.

Leon chuckles, and he wraps an arm around you.

“Let’s go inside. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold now, would we?” he teases. You poke at his side, and he feigns hurt. However, his arm never moves from your shoulder. Before he shuts the balcony door, he gives you one more kiss.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not letting me be stupid.”

You laugh. Hearing your laugh warms his entire body. He wishes he could always have you like this. You smile at him.

“Of course. What else would I be here for?” you say, and you kiss him again. He smiles into the kiss, and you’re startled by him picking you up and taking you to bed. You wouldn’t change this for the world, you think. After all, you love this curse on your house.

#leon kennedy x reader #leon x reader #leon kennedy angst #leon kennedy fic #resident evil

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strawberrybasilsorbet · 3 months ago

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Jilytober Day 11

Missed yesterday, but I'm hoping to go back when I have time! In the meantime, here's my try at today's @jilytoberfest prompt:

October 11th Prompt: 🎶“Uncovering feelings unfound”🎶 - Out of the Blue by Katie Pruitt

Lily peeked out from behind the corner of the cricket shed before surreptitiously lighting her cigarette. Smoking wasn't prohibited, but her break wasn't officially supposed to start for another twenty minutes; it had only been thanks to some fairly pitiable wrangling — and a promise to take on her Friday shift — that Anne had agreed to cover the last hour so that Lily could decompress.

Closing her eyes, Lily leaned her head back against the shed and sunk to the ground, taking a long drag. It was only half-past noon, but some blokes had made a mess of one of her tables at the pub last night, and she hadn't finished closing until after one in the morning. She was already looking forward to sinking into bed.

In the distance, she heard a splash and a shout. It sounded like some kid had flipped his canoe again. She snickered a little; Anne would definitely be more annoyed about switching shifts now that she needed to get her hair wet.

It had been a long summer. Seventh year was going to be expensive — she'd need money to pay the application fees if she wanted to try for a Healing apprenticeship, to pick up a set of dress robes for the Leavers' Ball, to make a deposit on a flat rental after she finished Hogwarts — and Lily was trying to save as much as she could. Most mornings, she got on the bus for her day job at the nearest holiday camp, only to take the 5pm back to Cokeworth, eat a quick supper, and start her evening shift at Oscar's pub. Lily didn't mind hard work, but after six weeks of both jobs, she was beginning to feel run down.

At least she didn't have to spend much time at her own place. Between Tuney's sniping at home and Sev's lurking around the park, hoping she'd forget his horrible behavior at school now that his pack of Death Eater-wannabes wasn't around, it was hard to get a moment's peace.

She took another drag. Maybe she could talk Oscar into putting her on the early side tonight. He owed her, after the amount of mopping up she'd done yesterday...

"There you are, Evans!"

Lily jumped and opened her eyes. She thought she'd heard...but that made no sense...

"Potter?" She blinked. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Improbably, James Potter — wearing a fairly convincing set of Muggle clothes, although his orange checkered polo shirt clashed horrendously with a pair of short, salmon-pink trousers — was striding toward her from the nearby woods, looking far too cheerful for the August heat. "Looking for you!" he said affably. "It seemed a nice day for a visit, and we'd been getting on well this summer, so I thought—"

"Potter, I'm at work." She stared in surprise.

He had the grace to turn a bit sheepish. "Oh, I'm sorry, Evans," he said, looking around. "Is now is a bad time?"

"No, I just—." Lily blushed. She'd given Potter her address earlier this summer — only so he could practice with the Muggle post, of course — and suddenly, she realized that she'd been writing him rather a lot.

Potter made a surprisingly charming pen friend. His letters, full of witty jokes and updates about his summer with his mates, were a welcome connection to the magical world and a relief from her tense avoidance of Sev and Tuney. More than once, she'd found herself looking forward to reading them as she came home from the pub, or scribbling quick replies by wandlight so she could get them in the mail before she caught the morning bus to camp.

"I just — how did you get here, anyway?"

"I stopped by your house," said James, shrugging. "Remember, you gave me your address? Someone — I think your mum? — answered the door and said that you were here." He still looked abashed. "I guess she might not have expected me to come by, but she said you might not be home until quite late, so I thought—"

"That's alright—"

"I can visit another day—"

"No, it's really okay, Potter," said Lily, who by now was quite red. Somehow, it wasn't the fact that Potter had showed up at her job, but the unflattering color of her uniform swimsuit that was on Lily's mind. She hadn't brushed her hair this morning, and she'd been sweating in the heat... "They're not too fussy here, and I'm basically on my break, anyway. It's nice to see you." She took another drag on her snuck cigarette, trying to look a bit less flustered. "You just showed up a bit out of the blue, that's all."

"Literally," said Potter, with a playful smile. He gestured toward the cloudless sky. "Stashed my broomstick in the trees back there."

She groaned theatrically at the terrible wordplay, knocking him with her shoulder. "Too scared to take the bus, Potter?"

"Oh, certainly. Petrol is too advanced for me, I'm still grasping bicycles."

She grinned. She knew perfectly well that Potter had likely passed his Muggle Studies exam with flying colors, as he did most of his others. "If you stick around until 5 o'clock, I'm happy to show you the ropes on my way back to Cokeworth."

"Gladly," said James. He peered curiously around the shed, taking in the archery setup, large lake, and row of cabins just beyond the cricket field. "What do you do here, anyway?"

"It's a holiday camp," Lily explained. "Families come to play games and get away from home for a bit during the summer."

"They don't holiday abroad?"

"God, you're posh." Lily rolled her eyes. "Why go to France, honestly, when you could stay at camp and win the donkey derby?"

"The what?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," said Lily.

"I have to see this. You run a donkey derby?"

"Not me personally," Lily said, giggling. "I'm hopeless with animals. I mostly serve lunch or take shifts dragging the little kids out of the lake."

"Why are the kids in the lake?"

"Oh, we do canoeing on one half and swimming on the other. Except sometimes the canoeing turns into swimming, because there's always some troublemakers flipping their boat on purpose."

James grinned. "Good for them."

"I'm appalled," Lily replied. "Are you trying to make my job harder, Potter?"

"In this weather?" said James. "Nah. I'm giving you an excuse to cool off, I expect."

James's eyes flickered to her swimsuit and quickly away. Lily swallowed, suddenly wishing she'd finished her shift after all. "I'm tied up tonight," she said, "but if you were to come back another day...if I took a night off from my evening job, I mean, and you wanted to go for a dip?"

James looked up. "Yeah," he said, a bit too eagerly. "Just because it's so hot, I mean," he said, smoothing out his tone. Lily noticed, amused, that his voice had suddenly got a bit deeper. She put out her cigarette, noticing that her earlier exhaustion had vanished.

"Well, alright then," she said. "It's a date." James gave her a dimpled smile. She hadn't noticed how sweet his smile was, before.

Where had it come from, this strange new fondness between them? Was it a fleeting thing, driven by Lily's exhaustion and James's boredom — destined to fall off with the autumn leaves when they returned to school, and to the old habits of their old stomping grounds? Or, maybe, could their letters be turning into something, well...a little bit more, maybe, lasting, or...

"Can anyone come to these holiday camps?" James asked, interrupting Lily's train of thought. "Because if donkey derbying is allowed, I want to kick Sirius's arse."

Lily threw her head back with a laugh. "With a day pass," she told him, "but if you've got a connection on the staff, she can probably sneak you in for free."

#jilytober2024 #31prompts #prompt 11 #james potter #lily evans #jily #hp fanfic

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ladykailitha · 2 years ago

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Little Runaway Part 2

Part 1

Steve was still asleep when Eddie got up for breakfast. He made himself a bowl of cereal, going over his notes for the Hellfire Club’s session today.

Steve hadn’t awakened by the time Eddie was ready to go so Eddie slipped into his bedroom and quickly gathering his things. Eddie was a master of quick and quiet, having to get ready for school on days Uncle Wayne was sleeping off a late shift.

Eddie stopped at the door and looked back at Steve’s sleeping form. He scribbled a note that told him to eat what he wanted and that Eddie would be home later.

Eddie shoved his hair into his mouth and chewed, trying to puzzle out how to let Dustin know what was going on without letting the rest of Hellfire know that he had Steve fucking Harrington asleep on his bed. Because if he hated King Steve, it was nothing compared to the fury of a thousand suns that the rest of his friends had for the dude.

Now, the new nuggets, Dustin and his friends, they were fine with Steve which surprised him, but there it was. But if Dustin was right, even Will, Mike, Lucas, and Erica shouldn’t know where Steve was hiding out.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted an old wooden chess set that had a few pieces missing. The black pieces were dark cherry wood and the white was cedar.

He picked up the two kings and hefted them both. He flipped them over and saw green felt on the bottom of each piece. He set the white one down and dug at the black king’s felt. After a moment he was able to peel it back. And to his absolute glee he found that it was hollow.

He picked up the white piece and after a scribbled message explaining why this was necessary, Eddie rolled up the paper and placed it in the hollow. He shoved the king in his pocket and grabbed his stuff.

He got to his van and was about to start it when he looked back at the trailer.

Shit. He really hoped this wasn’t going to wake Steve up.

Wincing he turned the key and the engine roared to life. He backed out, hoping that Steve stayed asleep.

“Eddie!” Gareth greeted. “You’re late, man.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Eddie murmured getting to his seat and starting to set up. “I got a new stray last night and you know me and strays.”

Dustin perked up. “Yeah?”

“Next time Dustin when you drop off a stray, don’t do it at fuck all in the morning, yeah?” Eddie said pointedly.

Dustin gulped and looked down. “I didn’t know where else to take him. Is he okay?”

“After I got him cleaned up, he was out like a light,” Eddie said. “Been asleep since.”

“Aren’t you worried that the stray is going to piss all over the place while your gone?” Jeff asked.

“I’m hoping that he’ll still be asleep when I get home,” Eddie said.

Dustin nodded.

They started playing and Eddie watched Dustin carefully. The kid was clearly distracted. And Eddie could only guess it had to do with Steve.

They were going to have to talk about why after the session.

Finally they got to a spot where they could stop. Eddie handed out XP and gold as well as any items that they may have picked up. Made sure they all wrote it on their character sheet, too.

Dustin was getting on his bike to go home with his friends when Eddie stopped him.

“Hey, I’ll take you home,” he said jerking his thumb at the van. “You can put your bike in the back. I wanted to talk to you a bit about that stray you picked up. Because I have so, so many questions.”

Everyone looked at Dustin and then at Eddie, wondering what the hell was going on.

“I promise to tell you guys about it later,” Dustin said and immediately got off his bike and rolled it up to Eddie’s van.

“See you nuggets next week,” Eddie said waving at them.

He waited until they turned at the end of the street before glaring at Dustin. He tossed him the chess piece.

“Get in and I’ll explain.”

Dustin scrambled into the passenger seat of the van and closed the door behind him. He looked at the chess piece as Eddie pulled out.

He frowned when he saw the felt was coming off and peeled it back. He pulled out the note excitedly.

“This is a great idea, Eddie,” Dustin said. “That way we can pass messages without anyone noticing.”

“Tell me what the hell happened, Dustin,” Eddie growled.

Dustin blushed. “I was signing up for the summer reading program at the rec center. Read twenty books over summer break and you get an ice cream party. Anyway, I was finishing up when Steve came out of the locker room.”

“Doesn’t explain why you waited until almost four o’clock in the morning!” Eddie bit out.

“That’s how long it took me to convince him to hide out somewhere instead of using his gas running away from his dad.”

Eddie sighed. “Steve said that you gave him the low down on his dad?”

Dustin nodded. “He’s been going around town looking for Steve. He doesn’t say he’s missing. Only that he wants to talk and Steve hasn’t been home.”

“Grade A asshole right there,” Eddie said.

“Yeah,” Dustin murmured. “I didn’t know what else to do. I knew that the trailer park would be the last place Mr Harrington would look. And I tried Max’s place first but her mom’s currently on a bender and I didn’t think it would be right to saddle Max with both, you know?”

Eddie rubbed his face. “Yeah. So literally no other place for him to go?”

Dustin nodded.

Eddie pulled up to Dustin’s house and helped him get his bike out the back.

“I know Steve hasn’t been the best of dudes, but this isn’t King Steve anymore, okay?” Dustin said.

Eddie sighed. “I’m starting to get that, yeah.”

Dustin gave him a hug. “Thanks for doing this. I owe you big time.”

Eddie pounded on Dustin’s back. “Yeah you do. But don’t worry. That kitten you dropped off at my place will be fine.”

Dustin laughed. “We need to name the hairball.”

Eddie giggled. “Hmm...how about Ozzy?”

“No real names,” Dustin said. “It’d get confusing.”

“Okay...” Eddie said, pouting a bit.

“How about Lucky?” Dustin suggested.

“Sounds more like a dog,” Eddie said. “How about Jinx?”

Dustin tilted his head. “Yeah, sure. That can work.”

“Just put that chess piece where I can see it, whenever you need to get in contact with Jinx, okay?”

Dustin nodded. “It sounds like you’re keeping him for longer than the weekend.”

Eddie sighed. “I don’t know.”

Dustin just shook his head. “See you around, Eddie.”

Eddie closed his eyes and pursed lips. This was getting out of hand. If Steve was staying he needed to know the whole truth.

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Epilogue

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #gay steve harrington #abuse tw #ladykailtiha writes

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yanderelovlies · 2 years ago

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Joesph paced back and forth in his room, running his hands through his brown and grey hair. When was the last time he slept or ate for that matter? He couldn't recall the days have been a blur since he found that stupid VHS tape.

Thrifting had become something Joesph found comfort in. When he felt he had enough, he went to the checkout already thinking about where to put everything. However, at the bottom of the basket was a single VHS tape. Which was odd cause he doesn't remember picking one up.

Picking it up, he flipped it over to be with "84 INCIDENT," crudely scribbled in red pen on the front. Joesph could feel a cold shiver run through his entire body. That year...he HATED that year.

"Are you gonna buy that, sir?"

startled Joesph's eyes met the bored cashier's "oh....um..." His arm moved automatically, putting the VHS tape on the counter.

Taking that as yes, the cashier sighs, scanning the item and putting it in the bag, followed by the receipt. "Have a good day"

With a quick nod, Joesph snatched the bag and quickly made his way to his car, then home not looking at the inside of the bag once. Not even when he got home, opting to leave it on the couch as he tried to distract himself.

However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't sleep. He would toss and turn with thoughts of that VHS tape swarming his thoughts.

So finally, after hours of trying to sleep, he finally got up and made his way to the living room. He stood in front of the couch, staring at the bag, holding the thing, causing so much anxiety for him.

With slow and shaky movements, he finally opened the bag. However, as soon as his hand touched the cold plastic of the VHS tape, he yanked it out of the bag as if it would catch fire at any moment.

'How bad could it be? It's just a video tape....' Joesph sighed as his head went back 'famous last words.'

With hesitant steps, he made his way to his TV before crouching down and putting the VHS into his old player. 'Maybe if I'm lucky, it's broke....or won't work'.

After it was in, he went back to his couch, grabbing the remote from the coffee table. With shaky hands, he pressed play, his eyes glued to his screen.

At first, it was static, but the longer he looked, the better he could make something out. A field? a Bakery? and.... as he sees the picture the more his heart begins to race. He knew that set from anywhere.

Not long after, he faintly makes out a voice. One that he hadn't heard in years l since their passing. "Oh, starlight.....it's been so long. I've missed you." Then everything went dark.

When Joesph woke the next morning, he was still on the couch with the smell of something sweet filling the air. He didn't remember trying to bake anything or order anything for that matter.

With sleep still in his system, he groggly got off the couch and stretched a bit before hearing a satisfying pop. 'What was I doing last night? and why was I on the couch?'

He yawned as he trudged his way to the kitchen, half determined to find out where the smell was coming from. When he round the corner, he wakes up quickly.

There bent down to take out some freshly made muffins was the one person he knew he would never see again.

You.

The love of his life who died in his arms on set after stepping in front of him at the wrong time.

The reason why he HATED that year. and why he quit acting. Why he stays up late a night plaqued by nightmares of that day. Why he hated himself and Jean every day.

You stood up, turning to him with the same bright smile you had all those years ago. "Good morning, love! I made you some breakfast."

This....

This had to be some sick joke or nightmare.

It had to be.

#sunny day jack #swwsdj #something's wrong with sunny day jack #x reader #yandere x reader #something's wrong with sunny day jack x reader #swwsdj x reader #sdj joseph x reader #sunny day jack joseph #sdj joseph #joseph x reader #joseph cullman

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miniwrites1 · 2 years ago

Text

In the Shadow of Azkaban - Dark!Sebastian Sallow (Part 3)

Word Count - 1k

Themes - Angst

Warnings - Death

Sebastian smiled as he walked out of the gates of Azkaban for the first time. He was finally a free man. It had taken months of planning and grovelling to the guards for extra duties but he’d made it out alive, with most of his sanity still intact. He knew however that a small part of him had died inside that place, his humanity had been tarnished by the dementors kiss and permanently transformed into a lack of feeling anything. He couldn’t feel happiness, compassion, love, he could only feel hate and as he took the first few steps away from the gate towards the guard who would apparate him back to the mainland, all he could feel was his anger growing into pure, unwavering rage. He was ready to find you, and as he landed back in London he knew exactly where to start looking.

The first visit that he made was to the Gaunt household, softly knocking on the door only to be greeted by a young woman with mousy brown hair. She gave him a small smile as she opened the door, however that smile quickly fell as she recognised him.

“Hell-oh.” She spoke, a startled tone present in her voice, she took a quick step back from the door. Knowing that he’d been recognised, Sebastian pushed his way through the door casting the woman to the side. Even without a wand, Sebastian was strong. He’d tried to improve himself while locked away, it was the only tool he had to keep him mind active. The woman let out a yelp as she hit the floor, scrambling away from him, dropping her wand in the process. He paid her no mind, only pausing to pick up her discarded elm wand before continuing up the stairs in front of the door in search for his ex-best friend.

He heard Ominis in his study, a magic quill hurriedly scribbling away on a piece of parchment as he dictated what he needed to be written. Pressing his ear against the door, he tried to listen to Ominis’ words.

“You must leave now; he’s been freed from Azkaban. I believe you are in grave danger.” Sebastian hummed in amusement, you were still in contact with Ominis and if he was sending you an owl then he must know where you are. Sebastian swung the door open, almost knocking it from its hinges with the force he used, causing it to make a large crash against the wall. Ominis jumped at the sound.

“Hello Ominis.” Sebastian snarled with gritted teeth, stepping into the room and slamming the door behind him, blocking Ominis’ only exit. Ominis sighed, ceasing the quill from writing any further.

“Hello Sebastian, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Ominis replied, trying to remain calm even though panic was setting in.

He felt around on his desk for his wand, it should have been in its normal place, two inches to the left of where he sat however it was missing.

“Are you looking for something?” Sebastian quipped, a small laugh escaping his throat, he sounded manic. Ominis’ eyes grew wide, even though he couldn’t see Sebastian, he knew what he’d done.

“Give me back my wand Sebastian.” Ominis spoke, rising from his seat, attempting to follow the sound of where Sebastian’s voice had come from. As he stood, he felt a pointed wand tip press against his back. He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut tightly, taking a sense of comfort in the fact that he couldn’t see what was about to happen.

“Are you scared?” Sebastian asked softly, a threatening undertone to his voice. Ominis held his breath, waiting for the impact of what was about to happen, he didn’t expect to be tackled to the ground by his wife as Sebastian drew the wand back to cast.

“Crucio.” Sebastian spoke harshly, only realising when it was too late that his target was not the one that he had intended. The woman from earlier had pushed Ominis out of the way, taking the unforgivable for herself. He screams echoed throughout the Gaunt home. Sebastian could only hope that they hadn’t carried out onto the street.

“What have you done?” Ominis yelled over the sound of the woman’s screams. “She’s my wife Sebastian!”

Sebastian smiled; a calculated grin would have been a better fitting word. The scene that was unfolding in front of him was perfect, he had Ominis exactly where he wanted him.

“Where is she?” He spoke coldly, Ominis didn’t respond. Instead paying attention to his wife who was writing in pain on the floor. Sebastian sighed, counting to three in his head. He hated being ignored. He grabbed the back of Ominis’ neck and dragged him away from his whimpering wife, throwing him across to the other side of the room, a satisfying thud sounded as he hit the floor.

“I said where is she?” Sebastian asked again, aiming his wand at Ominis who was still recovering from the impact of his body hitting the floor. He couldn’t tell what way was up or down so trying to orient himself was a struggle.

“I don’t know.” He replied, Sebastian knew it was a lie. Sebastian fired off another spell behind him, another Cruciatus curse hit Ominis’ wife whose screams echoed through the house once again. Sebastian saw Ominis begin to shake, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. Sebastian had found his weakness. His wife.

“I won’t ask you again, tell me where (Y/N) is or she dies.” He spat, aiming again at Ominis’ wife. She began to beg and plead for her life; the thought of death so imminently possible frightening her.

“Just tell him Ominis.” She cried out, cowering on the floor, small whimpers still escaping her lips. Ominis’ face fell, he knew what Sebastian was capable of, if anything he’d aided him in becoming this way.

“She’s at Hogwarts.” Ominis said softly, trying to reach his hand out to his wife for reassurance. He felt her soft skin tough his fingertips as he grasped hold of her hand.

“Thank you Ominis, I’m sorry it has to be this way.” Sebastian said coldly, wand focussed on Ominis. “Avada Kedavra.”

#sebastian sallow x you #sebastian sallow oneshot #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x reader #sebastian sallow imagine #hogwart legacy #hogwarts legacy reader insert #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy imagine #ominis gaunt #Spotify

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maybeimamuppet · 10 months ago

Text

picking teams- chapter 14: cady

hello everyone!! boo surprise sunday post!! because!! TODAY IS MY THIRD WRITING BIRTHDAY WOOOOOO!

today three years ago i posted my first ever oneshot (i think technically it was on the 4 bc it was late at night but the intention was to be today so i’m sticking with the 3). i can honestly say i was expecting NOBODY to read anything of mine and that this would be something i did for maybe a few months and then dropped like all my other hobbies.

and here we are three years later! so i’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s supported me through this little journey over the last three years. i feel like i really have a community and a little family here. i appreciate every single pair of eyeballs that has ever laid eyes on a fic of mine, whether you comment and i get to know who you are or you’re just a lurker. whether you’re new or you’ve been here the whole time. thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here for and with me <3

anyhoo! mushy stuff over for now lol please enjoy this chapter :)

tw for

broken bones

and as always if i missed something please let me know so i can add it in!

——————

Cady goes back to school that Wednesday.

Her parents let her have one more day off to recover and finish the homework she had been putting off. Cady's still not feeling 100% after her episode, as Janis put it, but she can't afford to miss any more school. Or cheer practice. She's gotten more than a few threatening texts from Regina.

She runs into Janis briefly going into homeroom, since it's in the same classroom as Janis' first period. She smiles, mostly at the ground, and Janis surreptitiously brushes her hand against Cady's and gently links their fingers together before walking off like nothing happened.

Cady blushes furiously and heads to her seat. She hunches in on herself to scribble something on a piece of notebook paper she rips off and folds up. She's so focused on making sure nobody sees what she's writing that she almost misses Ms. Norbury trying to take attendance.

"Cady. Caaaady. Heron. Hello."

"Wh- oh, uh, here," she stutters. Ms. Norbury arches an eyebrow and ticks her off on her computer. Cady trills her lips and tucks the paper into her pocket.

"Glad to have you back, Cady," she says once the bell rings.

"Thanks! Uh, see you this afternoon!" Cady says, rushing out the door. They already don't have much time to get from class to class, and she has a stop to make this time.

She tries to act like she's just leaning casually against the wall and she doesn't have to be across the building in two minutes. Once she looks around to double check nobody is watching, she carefully slips the note between the slats in Janis' locker and rushes off to her class.

Hopefully she gets it.

—-

Cady looks up from her phone in fright when she hears a murmured, "Hey, sweet thing."

Janis is peeking around the corner of the bleachers, lunch in hand and a confused look on her face. Cady spotted this during a rainy-day indoor practice last week. The bleachers are completely solid, so nobody can see in. "Did anyone follow you? See you?"

"Nobody important," Janis shrugs as she puts her food down. "Whatcha doing?"

Cady sighs in relief upon hearing confirmation that nobody will see them together. She leans in for a kiss and gets a sweet little peck. "I want to have lunch with you! It's like our own little place!"

"That it is," Janis agrees with a chuckle. "How's your day been?"

"Good! I got a hundred on my math test," Cady says happily.

"Of course you did," Janis laughs. "What'd you tell Regina?"

"About what?"

"Where you are," Janis says as she takes a bite of her... probably turkey sandwich. Cady's eyes widen. Shit.

"I... didn't tell her anything," she says quietly.

Janis quirks an eyebrow. "Better come up with something quick."

"Why?"

"She's gonna grill you like a war interrogator," Janis snorts.

Shit. She's right. "Uh... um..."

"Just tell her you skipped lunch," Janis shrugs.

"Skipped it?" Cady asks.

Janis shrugs again. "I dunno. That'd probably work."

"I'll think of something," Cady hums, pursing her lips and taking an exasperated bite out of her celery stick. Janis smiles at her like she's some cute little animal.

"So... any particular reason you're slipping notes into my locker and sneaking around with me behind the bleachers?" Janis says with a smirk as she scoots a little closer to Cady.

Cady groans as she's suddenly reminded why she had done this. "I have to go to Regina's after school. We're having a costume fitting for the holiday parade."

Janis looks at her oddly. "You're in the parade?"

Cady nods eagerly. "Mmhmm! I get to be an acro elf!"

"A what?" Janis giggles.

"I get to dress as an elf and do tumbling and acrobatic stuff next to Santa's float!"

"Oh," Janis says. "Stevie loves that one. I didn't know it was us."

"They choose the best cheer team in the region to do it. Apparently this is the first time in, like, ten years that it's been North Shore," Cady explains.

Janis snorts. "That makes more sense."

"I'm really excited. But I have to spend a lot of time with the Plastics, I won't have as much time free after school," Cady says apologetically.

Janis shrugs. "It's just a parade. Once it's done your schedule will calm down a bit and we can spend more time together again. Not like we're breaking up."

Cady giggles. "I still have my knight in shining armor to come save me from the Plastics if I beckon her."

"Damn right you do," Janis smirks, leaning in for a kiss.

Cady happily leans in too, smiling to herself as their lips touch. She's suddenly very glad she totally ate it at their last practice and spied this hideout behind the bleachers from the ground.

"Might need to save you already," Janis hums as they pull apart, looking Cady up and down with a small grimace.

Cady sheepishly looks down at her bright pink crop top she'd decided to wear today. She tugs at her collar, suddenly self-conscious. "You don't like it?"

"No, no, you look cute," Janis says. Something in her tone tells Cady it's a half-truth at best. Oh well.

“Thanks," she says. Janis takes another bite of her sandwich and sprawls on the hard floor of the gym with her head on Cady's lap.

"Oh, get this- my math class this morning," she says. Cady tunes out almost immediately, stroking some stray hairs away from Janis' forehead and just watching her mouth move. It's probably nothing important. God, she's gorgeous.

What is she going to tell Regina?

I got sick- ew, no.

I had to talk to a teacher- too easy to mess up if she comes from the wrong direction. They'd get suspicious too easily.

I- oh, fuck it, I'll think of something.

She continues munching on her lunch and half-listening to Janis speak. Janis doesn't seem to notice or care one way or the other. Cady smiles and pulls out her phone to check her messages. She thinks of something then.

"And then-"

"Have you... told anyone about us?"

Janis pauses mid-sentence. "No."

"Not even Damian?" Cady asks shyly.

Janis shakes her head. "I kinda still don't believe it myself. I wanted to keep it to myself for a while."

"You don't wanna tell people?" Cady asks with a frown.

"No! No, I do. Some people," Janis says. "I just wanted it to stay between us for a little bit. And I figured I should check with you before I told anyone. But I'd be fine telling a few people now."

"Oh," Cady says.

"Do you want to?" Janis asks, sitting up and brushing her hair out of her face. Cady thinks for a moment before she nods.

"We should probably tell Damian, at least. He'll find out sooner or later anyway."

Janis sighs. "True."

"You don't want to?"

"No, I'm just preparing myself," Janis says, looking at Cady out of the corner of her eye with a small grin. "Might as well get it over with, I guess. C'mere."

Cady frowns in confusion and scoots closer. Janis pulls out her phone, opens the camera, and leans in. Cady catches on and gently rests a hand on Janis' cheek, smiling into a sweet kiss. She can feel Janis smiling too as she hears the camera shutter snap and they break apart. Janis sneaks a quick peck to Cady's nose, making her blink in shock and giggle quietly.

Janis opens her text conversation with Damian and types out a message. Cady hugs her arm and leans in over her shoulder to read it.

snarkisian: hey babe

cupboard: whaaaaaat do you want

snarkisian: Sent a photo: things have developed

Janis' phone starts ringing almost immediately. Janis frowns at it as Damian's contact photo fills the screen and it buzzes in her hand, but she hits the green button and the speaker so they can both hear.

As soon as she does, a piercing shriek rings out from the speakers. It's loud enough that Cady practically feels her brain dislodge and start rattling around in her head. She thinks she might've heard him all the way from the cafeteria, too.

As soon as that happens, he hangs up. Janis and Cady both blink at the screen for a moment before bursting into hysterical laughter.

"I don't know what I was expecting," Janis sighs affectionately as she slips her phone back into her pocket. Cady feels her own buzz against her leg and pulls it out to see several incoming texts from Damian that mainly consist of ABSKEOWIWHWJWJABDHWOWOA.

She clocks the time, then, and jumps. "Oh, shit!"

Janis startles. "What?"

"I have to go, lunch is almost over," Cady says, frantically packing up her things. "Bye babe. See you later."

Janis blinks in surprise, but returns the quick kiss Cady gives her before Cady goes rushing off. She has to find Regina before the bell rings. Not that Regina has ever felt much urge to listen to the bell.

She tries to think of an excuse as she hurries through the halls towards the cafeteria. Nothing really comes to her. She skids to a halt next to some sort of booth when she sees Regina and Aaron standing close to it.

"Hey!" she greets brightly after smoothing down her hair and adjusting her shirt. They both look at her. Aaron quirks his head when he sees what she's wearing, but he gets a faint smile.

Regina checks her nails and says, "Hey. Where have you been?"

"Oh, um..." Cady says. Shit. She wracks her brain trying to think of something. What did Janis say? "I skipped lunch."

Regina cocks an eyebrow. "Why?"

Cady smiles as she puts the pieces together. "I'm... trying to lose weight. So I look more like you guys. I just had one of these diet bars."

"Diet bars?" Regina questions. "Let me see."

Cady happily hands over the whole box of Kälteens. Regina holds it between her hands to try to read. Aaron peeks over her shoulder to try to see too.

"It's all in Norwegian or something," Regina says, looking at Cady in confusion.

"Swedish," Cady corrects before she can stop herself. "There's... um... this ingredient in them that you can't get here yet. My mom used to use them to lose weight in Kenya."

"Hm," Regina nods. "Can I keep these?"

"Sure!" Cady says brightly. She has a feeling Regina would've kept them even if she said no. Works for me.

"Now, are you getting me my candy cane?" Regina hums. Cady frowns in confusion before she realizes she's talking to Aaron.

"What happened to losing weight, those things are pure sugar," Aaron chuckles. Regina brushes his hair off his forehead and runs her fingers through it so it stays out of his face.

"But it's such a nice thing to do for your girlfriend," she pouts. "And stop pulling your hair down, you look so hot with it pushed back. Don't you think so, Cady?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, way hotter," Cady says. Two months ago that would've made Cady want to go for the jugular. Now? She couldn't care less.

Aaron sighs and begrudgingly leaves his hair the way Regina sort of styled it. "Alright, move over, since you so desperately need this candy cane."

He leans over the booth selling them to fill out one of the paper slips that'll eventually get tied to a candy cane and passed out in class. Cady giggles into her hand when she realizes Damian is the one in the budget Santa Claus costume behind the booth.

"Cady, remember, student parking lot after school," Regina says as she laces her pink-taloned fingers through Aaron's and leads him off to... wherever they're going. Most definitely not class.

"Got it! Bye," she says. She can feel her face relax as soon as they're turned around and can't see her anymore. Cady goes to the booth and leans across it. "Hi Dame."

"Ho ho ho, happy holidays! Would you like a candy cane?" 'Santa' replies. Cady laughs again.

"Hey, does Regina ever send any of these things?" she asks.

"Nah, she only gets them," Damian replies in his normal voice. "You want any?"

"One please," Cady replies, taking a pen with a smirk on her face.

—————

Cady sighs a little to herself as she follows Regina and the others into her house. Gretchen and Karen chat with Regina's mom. Regina huffs and rolls her eyes, straight off to her bedroom. Cady says a quick and polite hello and takes a handful of the offered snacks. She nibbles on the sunflower seeds while she mulls over what to do next.

Regina took the bars. As long as nobody recognizes them, she should be in the clear there. How can she make them work faster? Kälteens do work quickly, but Cady wants results as soon as possible. For Janis.

What makes you gain weight quickly? Cholesterol, but Cady doesn't want to do anything permanent. This is just to teach Regina a lesson, then she can lose the weight again. Sugar? Yeah. Carbs.

Cady smiles to herself as she puts a plan in place.

"Alright, you girls go find Regina. You'll do great," Mrs. George says after however long. Cady jumps when she remembers where she is.

"Thank you, Mrs. George," she calls as she goes running after Gretchen and Karen up to Regina's room.

"You're welcome!" the woman calls after them.

Regina tosses a hanger at her as soon as Cady walks into the room. "Here. I know, the costumes are fugly."

"I think they're kinda cute," Cady says, holding the outfit out so she can see it all.

"The hat has fucking jingle bells on the top, Cady," Regina huffs, handing Cady hers. She shakes it a little bit, and sure enough, there's a quiet jingling. "Go make sure it fits, but we really just need to work on making sure the hat doesn't hit the ground or fall off while you tumble."

"Okay," Cady says. Gretchen and Karen just changed in front of each other, but Cady sneaks off to the en-suite and locks the door behind her. She looks at herself in the mirror and takes a deep breath.

Janis was right, I do look Plastic, she thinks. Cute, though. Her loss.

She carefully takes off her clothes and tugs on the red-and-white striped tights. She has to jump to get the super stretchy material all the way up, but she manages with only one faceplant. Then comes the green dress, with gold buttons down the bodice, short sleeves with puffed shoulders, a belt at her waist, and red and gold trim around the hem with a collar to match.

It's not a great fit. Hesitantly, she unlocks the door and steps back into Regina's room with an, "Um."

Regina looks at her and laughs. "I kinda thought that would happen, these costumes are all huge. I swear they think we're all fat cows or something. My mom will tailor it for you."

Cady looks down at the very strangely fitting dress. There's a lot of space in between her belly and the dress, and not a lot in between it and her boobs. The skirt hits about mid-thigh, which is entirely too long, if Gretchen and Karen's are anything to go by. The sleeves are both uncomfortably tight in her armpits and loose everywhere else.

Other than that, it's great. At least the tights fit.

"Go change again, she'll get your measurements before you leave."

Cady nods and slips gratefully back into the restroom. She snaps a quick picture before she changes and sends it to Janis.

She's stuck with the dress over her head when she hears her phone go off, presumably with Janis' answer. She wriggles more in a ditch attempt to free herself, which gets her nowhere even faster.

Eventually, she escapes, heaving for breath and her hair all frizzy. She peels off the tights and puts on her non-elf clothes. Regina takes the hanger as she passes her on her way into her bathroom while Cady is occupied checking her phone.

jayjay: cutie

cadygirl: You like it?

jayjay: ofc i do

jayjay: my dorky little elf

cadygirl: Hey!

jayjay: do u get ears and shit

cadygirl: Yeah

cadygirl: Regina's really mad about it

jayjay: holy shit that's amazing

jayjay: reginald in elf ears

cadygirl: I don't get it I think they're cute

jayjay: i think ur cute

"Who are you texting?" Karen asks. Cady leaps a solid foot in the air as she materializes over her shoulder. "Not enough emojis."

"Um..." Cady stutters. Her immediate instinct was to blush and press her phone to her chest so they can't see. Now Gretchen and Karen are both looking at her suspiciously. "Uh... my... g- boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" Gretchen squeals sharply. "You can't get a boyfriend without telling us!"

"I can't?"

"Not without your best friends' approval! You wouldn't buy a skirt without asking your friends if it looks good on you," Gretchen hums.

"I wouldn't?" Cady replies in confusion.

"Exactly!"

Cady just blinks.

"So who is it?" Karen asks eagerly.

"Oh, you don't know him," Cady says immediately. Because it's not a him. It's not technically a lie. Right?

"He's not, like, thirty, right?" Gretchen asks in concern, the furrow in her brow deepening the longer Cady goes without answering.

"No! No, ew," Cady replies with a grimace. "Uh... he... goes to another school."

"Which one?"

"Um... do you remember that school we played right before Thanksgiving break? The away game when we stayed at the hotel?"

"Roosevelt?" Gretchen asks. Sure.

"Yeah. He goes there," Cady replies. "His name is... Jasin. With... an I."

"Ooh, unique!" Gretchen coos. "Is he cute? You have to introduce us soon!"

"Well, I don't think he's... everyone's type, but I think he's cute," Cady replies sheepishly.

"Aww, you're blushing!" Karen says. Cady blushes harder.

"Shut up," she scoffs. Karen's face falls. "No, wait, I didn't mean it like that-"

"It's okay," Karen says quietly.

"I'm really sorry, Kare," Cady says. Karen gives her a look Cady can't read. Not that Karen is ever easy to read.

"Don't worry about it."

Cady gently squeezes her arm. Karen smiles faintly at her.

"Do you have pictures of him?" Gretchen asks eagerly.

"No," Cady says immediately. "Uh... he's really shy, we don't, like, send pictures of ourselves much. We just like to see each other in person and text and stuff."

"Aww," they both coo. Gretchen continues, "Well, get one soon! We gotta make sure he's hot enough for you."

"I'll try," Cady giggles. "Oh, could we like... not tell Regina right away? It's all new, still, I don't want her to freak out about our image if we break up or whatever. We've only been together for, like, two weeks."

"Our lips are sealed," Gretchen replies immediately.

"But I'm not using SuperGlue as Chapstick again," Karen adds.

"No, that's okay, K, don't do that," Cady says immediately. "Thanks guys."

"Alright sluts, put on these... eugh. I can't even call them hats," Regina says as she parades back into the room. She chucks one at each of them rather aggressively. Cady's ends up hitting her full force in the face when she's too slow to react.

Regina watches as the three of them carefully push all her very expensive furniture out of the way so they have enough room to flip without fear of crashing into anything. Cady asks why they're not just practicing outside, and Regina goes on a solid ten minute rant about being seen in those costumes more than they have to. Cady doesn't speak for the rest of the evening.

—————

"Did Regina's boobs get bigger?" Cady hears the boy behind her in chemistry class ask about two weeks later, apparently as a conversation opener with his equally-jock-douchebag lab partner.

"Dude, totally," jock-douchebag replies. "Aaron's a lucky guy."

"Isn't she still dogging Shane?" bro number one asks. Cady tries to hide a shudder at the mention of his name.

Bro the second shrugs. "Probably."

Dammit, we made her hotter, Cady huffs to herself as she slides her goggles down over her eyes and turns on the bunsen burner. She looks over and sees Janis with a similarly disgruntled look on her face.

She gestures subtly for Cady to focus. Cady snaps back into the real world, this time before she can set herself on fire. She risks one glance back and sees Janis chuckle to herself, biting her lips to stop before anyone can see and ask what she's laughing about. Cady smiles to herself and buckles down to set some Doritos on fire. Not myself, thank you very much.

—————

Cady is laser focused in calculus another two weeks later. Not on calculus, but... she's there, it's fine.

She jumps and bangs her knee against her desk when Santa Claus slams the door open with a bellowed, "HHHHHOOOOO!"

"Jesus Christ," Ms. Norbury sighs, picking up her shattered chalk bits after she dropped it in shock. "Make it quick."

"One candy cane gram for Shane Oman," Damian says, adjusting his very poor quality fake beard as he hands Shane his candy cane.

He holds it between his first and index fingers like a pair of dirty underpants and leaves Shane to snatch it. Damian wipes his hand on his red velvet Santa coat like Shane has some sort of hetero cooties he might catch.

"Four for Glenn Coco!" Damian continues. "Hohoho, you go, Glenn Coco. Two for Caddy Heron!"

Cady frowns in confusion. Two? She only bought one. She takes them with a smile as Damian wiggles his way between the rows to deliver them. "Thanks, D."

Damian winks at her and moves on to deliver the next few candy canes to the lucky recipients.

Cady checks the tags on hers. There's the fake one, the one she wrote herself. She smiles to herself as she reads the little red slip of paper on the second one.

Merry Christmas my little elf

<3, J

ps ur short lolololol

She rolls her eyes as she reads the very loving message from her girlfriend and unwraps the end of the candy cane. She sucks on it as she continues pretending to pay attention when Damian leaves and Ms. Norbury can resume her lesson.

——

"Sorry I'm late!" she pretend-puffs as she stumbles her way into the gym. Regina just glares at her from across the room, but Gretchen comes scrambling over to join her as she plops her still-open bag on the ground. "God, I was in the middle of a problem when the bell rang, I didn't even have time to get packed up-"

"You got a candy cane?" Gretchen asks softly. She picks it up and unfolds the tag to read.

"Oh, yeah, Regina sent me one! Isn't she just the best friend?"

"R-Regina?" Gretchen squeaks. "Thanks for being such a great best friend. ...Cute."

"She didn't give you one?" Cady asks with faux-sympathy. She's heard it from the mouth of the lioness herself. There's no way Gretchen got any.

Gretchen shakes her head frantically. "She never sends them."

"Oh. Weird," Cady replies. "Well, you can have that one if you want. I had another one."

"I have to go," Gretchen chokes around floods of tears. Shit. Maybe Gretchen is a little more fragile than she thought.

"Gretchen," she says pleadingly, running after her friend to the bathroom.

"Well, i-if you and Regina are best friends now... then you can be in charge of keeping all her secrets," Gretchen says as soon as the door closes behind Cady.

Cady just nods. She can tell Gretchen is about to ramble, she doesn't dare interrupt her.

"Like, for example, she bought you those shoes just to make fun of you! Be-because she knew you wouldn't be able to walk in them. And she's not really blonde!"

Cady's eyes widen. She's not? Her eyes flick to the door as she hears a shocked gasp come from the other side. Was that... Damian?

"Her natural color is dark blonde. Also she totally cheats on Aaron!"

Cady almost chokes.

"Every Thursday she says she has a cheer intensive but she totally just stays behind to hook up with Shane Oman in the lion costume!"

"She makes him wear the costume?" Cady asks in disgusted horror.

"No! They're both in the costume!" Gretchen bellows, snapping the candy cane in half and dropping the pieces to the floor. Cady's jaw drops.

"Oh my god."

"And I never told anyone because I am such a good friend! I-I'm gonna go fill up my water bottle. Cover for me?" Gretchen sniffles. Cady nods.

Gretchen ducks out of the room. Damian enters before the door even closes, and Janis slams her way out of the stall. Damian hysterically whimpers, "I wear that costume!"

"Cads, that was amazing! What did you do?!" Janis says with an adorably delighted smile on her face. She rushes up and grabs Cady by the arms, spinning her around before she leans in for a kiss.

"Just a little Christmas magic," Cady responds with a grin of her own as soon as they break apart. "I sent myself a candy cane but I signed it as being from Regina."

"Clever girl," Janis coos in a horrible accent. Cady giggles.

"Okay, I gotta go! Love you guys." Janis gets another kiss and Damian gets a quick hug before Cady runs back to the gym to start their last parade practice.

————-

Cady grumbles as she wakes up the next morning. It's barely morning, the sun hasn't even risen yet. She has to be in the city, an hour away, two hours before the parade starts at 8:00. And she has to be there with her hair and makeup already done.

She does consider herself a morning person, but four in the morning is a bit much for anyone.

She grumbles as she hauls herself out of bed and stumbles to the restroom. She turns on the light and resists the urge to wince and close her eyes. How am I meant to be a jolly elf on five hours of sleep?

Cady opens her eyes extra wide, looking a little past unhinged when she sees herself in the mirror, to let the light in and hopefully wake her up.

By the time she's done brushing her teeth, she doesn't squint in the light anymore. She still grumbles sleepily as she washes her face, though.

She brings up the photo Regina sent (accompanied by many profanities) of what her makeup should look like so she can copy it. It's honestly not very different from her usual cheer makeup. Foundation, lots of gold eyeshadow, black mascara, red lipstick. Pretty much the only difference is the bright pink blush that she leaves in neat little circles on the apples of her cheeks instead of blending it up her cheekbones to look more natural. It's a little more rag doll than elf, but maybe it'll work better with the costume on.

She does her hair in two french braids, parted as close to even as she can get down the middle of her head and twisted intricately so they won't fall out after a morning of being mostly upside-down. She gives up on each braid a bit before the end, and ties the bands around halfway down instead of at the ends. Kind of a cute look, she thinks, as she fluffs out her curls at the end of each braid.

"You ready, binti? Have a Kälteen bar," her mother says when she trudges her way downstairs. Cady grabs the bar and takes a disgruntled bite out of it. She nods.

"You're sure this Regina friend can bring you home? We have to leave right from-"

"Right from the parade, I know, Dad," Cady says. "I quadruple checked, I'll make it home fine. Have fun at the vet conference."

"Oh, we will," her mother promises. "There's a keynote speaker on upgrades in euthanasia technology."

"...Cool," Cady replies.

"Right?! Alright, go get in the car. You sure you have everything?"

"Yeah. Regina has my outfit, I'll get changed there," Cady says. She looks down and brushes some wrinkles out of her Christmas jammies that Janis bought her. She smiles at the memory. My little dork.

"Time to hit the road, then!" her dad says. Cady shrieks as he hoists her off the ground and marches out towards the car.

"Dad!"

Her dad just starts bellowing the chorus to I Love a Parade, probably really irritating their poor neighbors. Cady gets affectionately tossed in the backseat, and her dad continues singing as her parents get into their spots up front and start the drive to Chicago.

————-

"Binti, we're here," her mother says. Cady jumps and snorts, bashing her head against the window she had fallen asleep against. "Ooh, be careful."

"Shit," Cady hisses under her breath, rubbing her new sore spot.

"Language," her dad chides, only half-serious.

"Sorry daddy. Have fun in Peoria. I love you," Cady says, bending at a weird angle to hug her parents goodbye. They can only stay long enough to see the beginning of the parade, so she has to get her goodbyes in now.

"We will. Be safe, have fun. No boys," her mother says, gently patting her back.

"I know, I know. You don't have to worry about that," Cady chuckles. Really. You have no idea.

"Atta girl. Go get em, tiger," her dad says, opening the door for her and sending her out. "Love you!"

"Yeah, love you too," Cady says, briefly walking backwards to talk to them. She gives them a final wave before she turns around and starts running to her team's meeting spot. "Yeesh. I'm sixteen."

Regina, once again, chucks her costume at her as soon as she's within sight. Cady manages to catch it this time, and looks around for somewhere private to change. The only place is behind some trees, so she heads that way.

Regina's mom is a talented seamstress and tailored Cady's costume to fit her perfectly. Almost too perfectly. It's so tight against her chest and her belly that she can barely breathe, and the skirt juuuuust barely passes her bum. The candy cane-esque tights are all she has left to protect her modesty.

The shoes with pointy toes and jingle bells are a recent addition, and she jangles her way back over to her friends. "Hey."

"Hey!" Karen greets, too brightly for six in the morning.

"Are your costumes, like, really tight?" Regina huffs, shifting her arms around to try to stretch the fabric a little. "They were huge, my mom can't have fucked up the tailoring this bad."

"Mine's okay," Cady shrugs. Her hat jingles for emphasis.

"Ugh, I'm gonna go see if she has any safety pins," Regina grumbles. Cady's phone pings as she stomps off through the frost-covered grass.

jayjay: good mornin buttercup

cadygirl: >:|

jayjay: what ?

jayjay: not a good morning??

cadygirl: Sent a picture: It's 6 in the morning and I look like this

cadygirl: And I'm cold >:|

jayjay: aww

jayjay: someone's grumpy

cadygirl: Yeah >:||||

jayjay: steve and i will be there to see you

cadygirl: Yaaaaay 🥰🥰

jayjay: that easy to cheer you up huh

cadygirl: It'd be even easier if you bring me food

jayjay: little conwoman

cadygirl: Whaaaat nooooo

jayjay: i'll take you to breakfast after

jayjay: hobbit

cadygirl: Hey!!

jayjay: not because you're short

jayjay: this time

jayjay: bc they're hungry all the time

cadygirl: Oh

cadygirl: Still v rude of you

jayjay: if i take you to get a happy meal will that make up for it

cadygirl: Yes <333

jayjay: done

jayjay: see you soon peanut

cadygirl: See you soon gorgeous 😘

Cady suddenly feels much warmer as she puts her phone back into her bag. She and Gretchen glue each other's ears on and the whole team does a warmup and stretch routine together. Cady rolls out her wrists and finally smiles as she gets into her spot.

——

The parade is more fun than she was expecting. It's less intense than what she has to do at games, more walkovers and limbers than tucks and punches. She gets a little dizzy, and it's hard not to get run over by the float on the rare occasions she fumbles a landing, but it's still fun. For once, the smile on her face is genuine the whole time.

She waves dorkily when she passes her parents. They both have their phones held up to film and proud smiles beaming across their faces. They wave back just as dorkily before they duck out and are off to their seminar.

Cady doesn't get to do much in the way of the more limber skills anymore. It's fun. She kind of misses doing skills just for fun, for herself. As long as she stays in her spot she can do whatever she wants to. She does all sorts of front walkovers, back walkovers, aerials, the occasional handspring. It's refreshing.

Whenever they come to a stop is when things get interesting. Nobody wants to see a parade stuck in place, so they practiced lots of choreography for that. One of the floats ahead of them gets stuck on a corner, and Cady does a vaulted flip off of Regina's crouched form like a really, really elaborate game of leapfrog. Regina acts like she's dancing with her and whirls her back around so they're in their right spots before they get going again.

Towards the end of the parade, Cady hears a, "Hi Cady!"

She's not supposed to, but she looks over. Stevie is waving eagerly to her, her arm linked with one of her friends. Janis is behind her with a cute grin on her face as she sees Cady in all her elvish glory. Cady wiggles her fingers back in greeting, and kisses the tips of her fingers twice before blowing the kisses in their direction. Janis smiles wider and sneakily blows one back. Stevie just squeals and dances around with her friend. Cady adds a little more flair to her skills than she needs to just for them.

Things stop and start a lot more as the first floats get to the end of the parade route and have to navigate pulling off to the sides of the road or getting where they need to be. Cady and Regina do their series of tricks at least six times. They start adding little bits of flourish to it when it begins to feel boring and repetitive.

Apparently a little too much flourish. Regina does a dramatic turn before she crouches to be Cady's vault.

Cady's already running.

She has no time to stop as Regina's safety pin breaks.

And her costume comes off.

Regina screams and bends down to try to grab it. Cady slips on the fabric and goes head over heels the wrong way. Cameras are already out, pictures and videos being recorded. Apparently more people from North Shore make the trip out to see the parade than they thought.

But Cady can't hear the shutters clicking or the agitated murmuring over the pop her ankle makes as she lands, and the roaring of blood in her ears as a horrific pain radiates up her leg. No, no, no no no nononono.

One of the coaches was walking alongside the float in between them and the crowd to make sure it all went smoothly. She rushes up and helps Regina get herself situated. "You alright, Heron?"

Cady can only sob. My ankle is broken. My ankle is broken and it really hurts. My ankle is broken and I may never be able to tumble again. My ankle-

"Whoa, kid, hey," her coach says. "Can ya walk? Right flank, fall in! You're down a man!"

Cady hops and hobbles her way to the end of the route and sits down on the curb, cradling her ankle and sobbing.

"Are your folks around?"

Cady shakes her head. "Re-Regina's take-taking me home."

Her coach hums and nods. "She ran off. Hope she's okay, too. Dang, kid, that looks gnarly."

That only makes Cady cry harder. What if I just did my last flip?

"I'll uh... go keep an eye out for George," her coach says. She does have the decency to bring Cady her bag. Cady debates texting her parents to let them know, but they're probably already halfway to Peoria. And they were so excited about the keynote, she can't drag them away from that. She'll just have to suck it up.

The pain is... almost bearable. It's not, but she doesn't exactly have much choice. Her sobs slow, and before too long she's just sniffling on the side of the road and holding her sore leg.

She about jumps out of her skin when she hears a, "Caddy!"

"Jesus Christ, Janis! There's people around here!" Cady hisses. Janis' face falls a little.

"Sorry."

"What are you doing here?" Cady asks more gently.

"There's already like, seventy different people sharing videos of you and Regina falling, what the hell happened?"

"I think the Kälteen bars backfired," Cady sniffs, shutting one eye as a wave of pain radiates from her ankle.

Janis frowns. "What do you mean?"

"She's gained so much weight her costume didn't fit," Cady explains through half-grit teeth.

Janis snorts. Cady glares at her. "Sorry."

"She safety pinned it on and it broke and I slipped on the costume," Cady continues. "And I fucked up my landing and I think my ankle is broken."

"Yikes," Janis says in concern.

"She was supposed to take me home," Cady says, trying to stretch out her leg and wincing in pain. Janis winces too.

"Damian and I will take you to the hospital, don't worry about it," Janis says immediately.

"Don't- ow- don't you have Stevie with you?" Cady asks in concern.

"Nah, she wanted to go to her friend's house, I'm free of the child until tonight," Janis replies. "Can I see?"

Cady looks at her hesitantly. Janis looks back. She doesn't push. There are a lot of people around. But Cady needs the comfort of her girlfriend right now. She nods.

Janis carefully eases her stupid jingly boot off her foot, pausing whenever Cady makes a pained noise. By the end Cady has her bottom lip so firmly between her teeth she can taste blood and her eyes screwed shut. It's still not enough to stop a few pained tears slipping out and down her face.

It becomes quickly apparent that Janis has absolutely no idea what she's doing. She gives Cady's foot a gentle, inquisitive poke and pulls back like she's been burned when Cady squeaks in pain. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Cady says, looking at her through squinted eyes and trying to remember how to breathe.

"It's pretty swollen," Janis says in concern. "And bruising already."

Cady sniffs again, looking down at her stupid candy-cane patterned lap. Janis gently tips her chin up.

"It'll be okay, Cads," she murmurs.

"But what if it's not?" Cady hiccups. "What if I never walk on it again? What if I can never do another flip?"

"And what if it's totally fine? What if it turns out to just be a bad sprain and you're back on your feet in a week?" Janis retaliates.

Cady feels her lip tremble. Janis might be right.

But they both know she's not.

"They're coming, hide," Cady says when she hears the cheers coming down the road. Thank god Damian's almost here.

Janis looks at her oddly, sadly, but she obediently ducks behind the tree line to wait for the crowd of people they actually know to clear out.

"Cads! Hey, coach told me you fell, what the hell, babe?!" Damian says as soon as he sees her, sprinting full tilt over to her. "Oh, yikes."

"Is it bad?" Cady asks, feeling tears brimming behind her eyes yet again.

"It's not... great," Damian replies hesitantly. "Can you move it?"

Cady sniffles. "I don't know, I haven't tried."

"Can I?"

Cady nods. Damian carefully braces her ankle with his large, warm hand and gives her foot a gentle wiggle. Several people look in their direction at the noise Cady makes in response.

"Alright, well," Damian says in a voice a solid three octaves higher than normal.

"I'm sorry," Cady sobs.

"Babe, shh," Damian soothes. "I will donate you one of my feet if I have to. We'll go get you patched up and all that, don't worry about it."

"But how will you be a big Broadway star someday if you only have one foot?" Cady giggles wetly.

"I'll manage. Is that Janis peeping at me through the bushes over there?"

"Probably," Cady replies with another giggle. She turns around and sees a familiar pair of blue eyes poked out from behind a gnarled old tree trunk. Janis ducks back behind it when she sees she's been spotted, and Cady smiles. "Yeah. Dork."

Damian smiles too. "She really loves you. Let me text her so she doesn't get picked up for stalking or some shit."

"She does?" Cady sniffles.

"Girl, are you kidding? We haven't had a conversation where you haven't come up at least once since September," Damian says absently as he taps out a message to Janis.

Janis is close enough that they hear her phone ping and her muffled, "Shit!" Cady can't help but laugh.

"Alright, she'll meet us at the car and we'll take you to the hospital."

"Thanks, papa elf," Cady grins. Damian laughs and tosses Cady onto his back to carry her the half-mile back to the parking lot. "These bells are infuriating."

"I think they're fun," Damian replies, a hand over his heart. He wiggles his head to make his hat jingle for emphasis. Cady giggles.

"Thanks for taking me home. I dunno what happened to Regina," Cady says quietly.

"Nobody does, she disappeared after the... incident," Damian replies. Cady frowns.

"Weird."

"I took over on your side so it was still balanced, but apparently she just ran off naked through the woods. Guess you can cross that off your list," Damian says. Cady laughs.

"You make a great elf," she replies. "Your ear keeps poking me, though."

"Sorry," Damian chuckles. "Alright, madam, we have arrived at your chariot."

"'Sup nerds," Janis greets, pushing herself off Damian's mom's car with a small salute.

"Caddy gets front seat privileges, she's broken."

"Ugh!" Janis groans sarcastically. Cady giggles.

"Um, actually... can I sit in the back with you?" she mumbles shyly.

Janis smirks. "We gonna make out?"

Cady rolls her eyes. "Corndog."

"What?!" Damian giggles.

"Is that not right?" Cady replies shyly.

"Did you just call me a corndog?!" Janis cackles.

"Someone tell me what I meant to say!" Cady insists.

Damian barely manages to put her down safely before he almost collapses to the ground in laughter. "Did-did you mean horndog?"

"Yes!" Cady says. "Stop laughing, it's not funny!"

"Yes it is!" Janis chokes through her laughter.

"People are staring, shut up!" Cady hisses. "Stop laughing!"

"Okay, okay," Damian says, wiping tears from his eyes. "Get in, sluts and slurs."

As soon as the doors close, Janis and Damian burst into laughter again. Damian can barely turn the key to start the car, he's laughing so hard. "I didn't mean to say corndog, stop laughing."

"You're so cute," Janis hums, still giggling to herself. "How's the ankle doing?"

"Hurts," Cady sighs.

Janis pouts and pulls Cady into a cuddle. Cady leans into her shoulder with a wince as another burst of pain radiates up her leg. "Poor baby."

—-

After an interesting drive to the nearest urgent care, Janis scoops Cady out and carries her baby-style into the waiting room. The pain is starting to get to Cady again, and she winces and cries quietly as Janis cradles her in her lap.

Luckily, people are so focused on their own injuries or other ailments that two Christmas elves and their art freak barely catch their eye. There's a mother there with a clearly sick little boy snuffling into her shoulder, a duo of frat bros who are clearly drunk and each cradling one arm close to their chest, and an old man in the corner filling out a crossword puzzle from 2011.

"How did your hat survive that whole thing?" Janis asks as Damian plops into the seat next to them with Cady's paperwork.

"I glued it to my head," Cady sniffs. Damian drops his pen in shock.

"You what?!"

"Only in the front, I used clips in the back," Cady replies. Damian sighs and rests his hand on his chest.

"Do not scare me like that," he replies. "Cads, when's your birthday?"

"July thirtieth," Cady says softly.

"Hey, my birthday's in July too!" Damian says. "Twinsies."

Cady can't help but giggle at his desperate attempt to cheer her up. "When's yours?"

"The thirteenth," Damian says.

"Man, I'm still the baby!" Cady huffs. "Miss January over here."

"Not my fault my parents know how to celebrate Easter," Janis shrugs. Cady gasps.

"Janis Sarkisian, we are in public!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, tiny?" Janis retaliates. "Since we are in public."

"Hmph," Cady grumbles. She cuddles closer into her girlfriend's warm neck.

"You okay?" Janis whispers against her forehead.

"Hurts," Cady whispers back. "Are they gonna see us soon?"

"Probably not," Janis sighs.

Damian goes to hand in her paperwork at the front desk. Beyond that, all they can do is wait.

And wait they do. But, eventually, a nurse calls Cady's name and Janis stands to carry her back. Damian follows quickly, running after them through the winding halls.

"Alright, what seems to be the problem?" the nurse says. She does a double take when she sees the elf with one shoe on sitting on the exam table. She snorts a quick laugh but bites her lip to stop herself.

"I think I broke my ankle," Cady says softly. The doctor looks down at her one exposed foot and winces.

"It looks like that might be the case, hon. What happened?" the nurse asks, taking Cady's vitals. "Cross your arm over your chest."

Cady does when she fastens a blood pressure cuff around her wrist. "Um, I was in the parade this morning and I slipped on... something. I fumbled a flip and landed on it weird."

"Did you hear a pop when you landed or was it just a feeling?"

"I heard something pop, and I can't put any weight on it," Cady says anxiously. "And it's a little numb, and kinda... tingly, I guess."

"Mm," the nurse hums. "I'm gonna try and move it a bit, you let me know if anything hurts, alright?" Cady nods and braces as the mere brush of her fingertips against her ankle sends more waves of pain flooding up her whole leg and out her toes. "That hurt?"

"Mmhmm," Cady squeaks.

"Hm," the nurse hums again. "I'm gonna get the doctor to get you an x-ray, alright?

"Thank you," Cady says. She looks down at her lap with a quiet sniffle. She shakes her other foot and humphs at the jingle she gets in response.

"You okay, Peanut?" Janis asks quietly.

"What if it is actually broken?" Cady asks desperately. "I'm the head flyer, broken bones take so long to heal! It'll be weeks before I'm back in, what are they gonna-"

"We have protocols for this kinda thing, Cads, it'll be okay," Damian says. "We get injured all the time. I broke my wrist cheering in middle school and everything was fine. You just gotta take your time to heal."

"But-"

"If it is broken and you try to do anything you could hurt yourself permanently," Janis says. "Repetitive fractures? You have to rest. And we don't know for sure that it's broken yet, it might just be a bad sprain."

Cady sighs and nods. "Thanks for coming with me."

"Anytime, babe," Damian says, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders and resting his head against hers. Cady blinks as his elf ear almost pokes her in the eye. Janis joins in too, and gets a jingle bell up the nose.

Her little crew gets left behind as Cady hops after the doctor towards the x-ray room. She holds as still as she can on the uncomfortable table and listens to the deafening clunks of the machine as it whirls around her foot. It's so loud she's a little worried it'll explode, but the doctor eventually returns from behind the lead partition and leads her back to her room to wait for the results.

It's a very quick wait.

"Your ankle is broken," the doctor says as soon as she walks into the room.

Cady feels her face crumple, and Janis wraps her in a tight hug as Cady lets out a quiet sob. "It's okay, Peanut, shh."

"It'll heal fine, no surgery needed. We call it a nondisplaced fracture, so none of your bones have actually moved out of where they're meant to be. You just need a cast for a little bit and you should be back to normal."

"So-so I'll still-still be able to-to cheer?"

"Not for six to eight weeks, but yes," the doctor replies with a smile. Janis squeezes her tighter as Cady releases a sob of relief.

"I told you," she murmurs, kissing Cady's cheek. Cady sniffles and leans into her shoulder. She needs Janis right now.

"Technically you broke your leg, the bottom part of your fibula here, and there's a hairline fracture in part of your tibia. But they're not displaced enough for you to need surgery, just a cast and no weight bearing for a good while."

"O-okay," Cady sniffs.

"You might wanna... de-elf yourself before we get the cast on, though. Unless you want to keep those tights for a few weeks."

Cady takes the wheel of possible cast colors and the pajamas Damian hands her from her bag. "These are cute! Where'd they come from?"

"Janis got them for me," Cady says with a sniffle as the doctor leaves and Janis and Damian both turn around to give her some privacy to change.

"Oh, did she now? How very soft of her," Damian hums. Janis shoves him. Damian sticks his tongue out in her general direction, unable to tell quite where she is with his hands firmly over his eyes.

"Shut up," Janis responds.

"Stop fighting, you can turn around now," Cady says once she's back in her comfy pajamas. "Which color cast should I get?"

"What's your favorite color?" Damian asks.

"Yellow," Cady replies.

"The purple is cool too," Janis says, tapping the little swatch of it. Cady nods.

Damian leans in close to see all the options. "I like the green."

"I like green," Cady acknowledges. "The Plastics will kill me if I get anything except pink, though."

"Pfft, who cares about them? Regina did this to you," Janis scoffs.

"Because we made her gain weight," Cady retaliates. "This light pink is cute."

"Do whatever you want, Cupcake."

"Cupcake?" Damian responds immediately, accompanied with a gag.

"Look at this little faaaaace," Janis coos, leaning harder into it and squishing Cady's cheeks rather than trying to fend off her friend. Cady goes along with it too, batting her eyelashes coquettishly at him. "Isn't she just the cutest widdle thing?"

"You two are gonna ruin my life together, aren't you?"

“Mm-hmm!" Cady hums happily, her cheeks still smushed in her girlfriend's hand. Damian rolls his eyes. Janis gives Cady's squished-out lips a kiss before she lets her go and smirks at her friend.

"You're the one who was literally speechless for four hours after we told you we were dating," she responds.

"I was in shock, shut up."

"Because your matchmaking never works?"

Damian huffs. "Whatever, it does."

"Name one time."

"This!" Damian insists, gesturing frantically between the two of them. Janis rolls her eyes.

"Whatever you say, Princess," she replies. Damian smiles.

"Thank you."

The doctor returns towards the tail end of that argument and shoots Cady a confused look. Cady just shrugs a little. She hands back all the cast swatches and goes with the light pink she had liked. She does really like it, and the Plastics won't crucify her for it. Well, they might anyway for what happened at the parade, and for needing a clunky, bulky cast in the first place. But at least this'll show she has decent taste and the ability to match.

Janis and Damian each take and squeeze one of her hands as her bones are painfully squished back where they need to be and wrapped in layers upon layers of fabric. The pink shell finishes the job, and Janis asks the doctor for a Sharpie so she and Damian can be the first to sign it.

"Do it small," Cady insists. Damian shoots her a strange look, but they both sign their names in the smallest letters they can right by her toes. Janis adds a little heart by hers for good measure. "Thanks, guys."

Cady gets fit for a set of crutches. It takes a while and she ends up with kids size ones, but eventually she's clicking slowly across the parking lot and finally on her way home.

"Jan, you wanna come over?" Damian asks. Cady pouts a little. She knows he and Janis are best friends, and that they definitely hang out without her sometimes, but it's not like Damian to ask with Cady right there.

"Nah, I gotta go get Stevie," Janis replies. Damian nods. Cady is confused when they pull into Janis' driveway. She should've been dropped off first. Her house is much further out of the way. "Bye Peanut."

Cady returns the kiss she gives. "Bye, baby."

Damian gags in the front seat. "Bye, dumbass."

"Bye, slut," Janis replies, blowing him a kiss as she climbs out of the car in the most complicated way she can and runs into her house.

Damian puts the car back in gear and keeps driving. Cady is more confused when they pull into his driveway. He turns the car off and gets out, leaving Cady alone in the backseat.

"You coming?" he asks, knocking on her window upon noticing she hasn't moved. Cady jumps.

“You're not taking me home?"

"I am not leaving you alone to navigate that house with one foot. But I'll take you home if you'd rather be there," Damian responds.

Cady shakes her head. "No. No, uh... thanks."

"Of course," Damian replies. "Now come on, cripple, my mom'll make us milkshakes."

"Your mom?" Cady asks with a smile.

"Oh, shit, you haven't met her yet! Uh, be ready for like, a lot of hugs. And she might cry. She's a big empath."

"Okay," Cady giggles. "She sounds great."

"She is," Damian says with a small smile. He unlocks the door and drops their stuff in the small area for shoes and coats and bags. "Ma, I'm home! And I brought Cady!"

Stanley comes running down the hall as soon as she hears the door. Damian protectively stands in front of Cady so the excited pup doesn't knock her over, but Cady smiles and rests her crutches against the wall so she can give the sweet little thing some scritches. "Hi, Stanley! How are you, baby girl?! Oh, yes, hi! I missed you too!"

"Stanley, gentle, Caddy's broken," Damian says. Stanley actually does calm a little bit, sniffing curiously at Cady and wagging her entire rear end instead of jumping on her like she did last time.

"Hey, baby girl!" Damian's mother greets, coming down the hallway in such a blaze of glory that it's immediately apparent where Damian gets his showmanship from. Cady looks up and smiles as she wraps him in a hug.

"Hi Ma," Damian responds, hugging his mom back and handing Cady her crutches again.

"How was the parade?" his mom asks, leading the two of them down the hall. She clocks Cady hobbling after them, then. "Ah."

"Yeah, she broke her ankle," Damian responds.

"At the parade?! Oh, honey!" his mom says immediately, wrapping Cady in such a tight hug she thinks she hears a few of her ribs pop. "You poor thing! Oh, come in, come in, sit down. Damian, help her to the living room, come on now."

"Can we go to my room instead?" Damian asks. His mom rolls her eyes.

"Yes, go ahead. It's on this floor, Cady, don't worry baby."

"Thanks, Ms. Hubbard," Cady replies with a smile. She gets another tight hug and actually has to cough a little when she's released to get her breathing back in a normal rhythm.

"Of course, baby! What kind of milkshakes do y'all want?"

"Oreo?" Damian suggests. Ms. Hubbard looks to Cady, and she nods eagerly. "Please."

"Coming right up."

"Thank you," Cady says as she's off back to the kitchen.

"Don't mention it, baby!" she calls back.

"Your mom is great," Cady says. Damian nods. Cady squeaks in surprise as he hauls her onto his back and starts carrying her down the hall towards his bedroom next to the garage.

"She is."

"She's very comforting," Cady continues. Damian nods again. "I see where you get it from."

"D'aww, thanks," Damian coos. He's actually blushing a little bit, and Cady smiles as he rests her down on his cushy bed. He fusses over her like a worried mother, helping her take her makeup and ears off as Cady looks around his bedroom for the first time. She's been here before for movie nights, but only ever in the basement.

None of the actual drywall is visible; completely plastered over with posters of drag queens and black-and-white photos of old Broadway stars. Cady can barely breathe for Judy Garland and Cher and RuPaul. There's fairy lights of all colors hanging from the crown molding, illuminating and twinkling over a full wall of Playbills in protective clear plastic sleeves. The furniture is a bit plain by comparison, but it all just feels like Damian's spirit has exploded into the room. It's amazing.

"Your room is so cool," Cady says.

"Thanks!"

"You have a lot of Playbills," Cady continues. "Have you actually seen that many shows?"

"God, no," Damian chuckles. "The top row there are the only ones I've seen in person, the rest are from eBay."

"Cool," Cady replies.

"Has Janis taught you about musicals yet?"

Cady shakes her head with a smile. "She said she wouldn't be able to do it justice."

Damian snorts. "Yeah, right. She just doesn't want to sit through them."

"She doesn't like them?"

"She only watches them once a year on my birthday and if I sing a lyric that could even approach being from a musical she'll punch me in the jugular."

"Really?"

Damian nods, fiddling with the mouse to wake up the computer and typing in his pin. "You've brought a lot of her walls down. So... thanks for that."

"I'm glad," Cady replies softly. "She deserves it."

"She does," Damian agrees. He shrugs suddenly. "Anyway, what do you want to watch?"

"You pick. I don't know anything," Cady giggles. Damian nods and opens a folder full of bootlegs. He murmurs the titles under his breath until he lands on a good first musical for her.

"Ooh! Okay, here, you'll love this one. The movie is good too, but the stage production is amazing."

Cady cuddles into his arm and peeks at the file name. She squeals, "Lions?!"

"Lions is an understatement for The Lion King," Damian says. Cady wiggles excitedly as he opens it and makes it full screen. "Can you see?"

"Mmhmm. Thanks, D."

"Anytime, Little Slice."

His mom pops in with their milkshakes a few minutes in and seems completely unphased seeing her son cuddled up with a girl she's known for fifteen minutes. Apparently this is normal for him. "Thank you, Ms. Hubbard."

"You're welcome, sweet girl. Y'all just holler if you need anything, alright? Ooh, Lion King. That's a good one," she replies as she leaves again.

"Cady's from Kenya," Damian explains.

"No shit?" his mom replies, making Cady choke on her milkshake in shock.

"Um, yeah, I just moved here this summer," she says.

"Ain't that something. Alright, have fun, you two."

"Thanks, Ma," Damian says as she shuts the door behind her.

They sip at their tasty milkshakes while they watch. Cady might be in love. She's immediately bopping along to all the musical numbers and oohing and aahing over the special effects.

Damian looks at her expectantly when the curtain call is over.

"That was so cool!" she squeals. "Can we watch it again?"

Damian laughs. "I'm glad you liked it. You like musicals now?"

Cady nods eagerly. "Yeah."

"Good," Damian says with a victorious smirk. He takes a picture of them cuddled up together and sends it to Janis with a caption reading, I win Caddy likes musicals. He gets an eye roll emoji in response and clicks off his phone with a smug grin. "Let's try something else, but we'll come back if you want to after."

"Okaaaaay," Cady huffs jokingly.

They watch about four more, occasionally shifting positions to keep comfy on Damian's plush bed. The milkshakes are long gone, but neither of them care.

"Thanks for taking care of me," Cady murmurs after the last one. Damian gently bumps into her.

"Anytime. Sorry Janis was busy, I know she wanted to be the one to kidnap you."

"No, it's okay," Cady says immediately. "I love her, but she'd be so worried she'd barely let me move. Not that that's bad, she's just... a lot, sometimes."

"You love her, eh?" Damian teases. Cady blushes. "Oh, shit, do you?"

"I mean... we've only been dating for a month," Cady begins hesitantly. "But... I might... already love her, like, a lot."

"D'aaawww, my little gaybies," Damian squeals.

"Shut up," Cady scoffs.

"She loves you too," Damian says matter-of-factly.

Cady looks at him. "She does?"

"I told you earlier. This bitch will not shut up about you. I've never seen her like this. It's kind of freaky," Damian chuckles. "Always, have you seen Caddy's eyes up close? They're such a pretty green. And she's sooooo tiiiiny, she just fits in my arms like a puzzle."

"She did not say that."

"On RuPaul she did."

Cady blinks. "Did I break her?"

"Honestly? Maybe. But I like it. She's annoying sometimes, but this Janis seems... healthier."

"Good," Cady replies.

"You, on the other hand," Damian replies, looking pointedly at her left foot. Cady giggles.

"It's fixed, I'll be okay," she replies.

"You got lucky there, kid. I really thought you were gonna need surgery," Damian says.

"I did too, honestly," Cady admits.

"...And now I think about it, Regina is a little chubbier."

"Right? It totally worked!" Cady squeals. Damian laughs. "Now we just have to get people to stop treating her like the queen bee and get Aaron out of her clutches."

"Godspeed, soldier. Doing the lord's work," Damian says with a salute. Cady giggles. "Do you, like, wanna go home?"

Cady sighs. "I should."

"Bitch, is that what I asked? Do you want to or not?" Damian insists.

"I mean... it's always weird there without my parents," Cady mumbles, fidgeting with her fingers. "But I don't wanna impose."

"Hold on," Damian says. Cady jumps when he turns his head to the side and hollers, "Ma!"

"What?!" his mother yells back.

"Can Cady sleep over?!"

"Her folks okay with it?!"

"Your folks okay with it?" Damian asks Cady in a much, much softer tone. Cady nods in confusion. Damian yells back, "Yeah!"

"Then she's always welcome! Dinner's in half an hour!" his mom replies.

"Thank you!" Cady yells.

"You're welcome, baby!"

"See? Problem solved," Damian says. Cady giggles.

"You're the best, D."

"And don't you forget it."

————-

thank you for reading!!

i have a oneshot coming for y'all on wednesday that i'm very (cautiously) excited about and am working myself to the bone trying to get the next chapter of this and another oneshot done per my usual "schedule" if you can call it that lol.

i apologize for not being more prepared but i spent most of february auditioning for the tour!! so that took a lot of my focus but it's done now and i am back in as full of a swing as i can get lol.

so fingers crossed! and if i don't get it done in time you'll just get three of each with my next round of fics :)

thank you all so much again for being here. i love every little one of you muppets so dearly.

lots of love,

ezzy

#mean girls #mean girls 2004 #mean girls musical #mean girls the musical #mean girls broadway #mean girls on broadway #mean girls 2024 #cadnis #paint by numbers #space safari #cady heron x janis sarkisian #cady x janis #cady heron #janis sarkisian #janis ian #janis ‘imi’ike #picking teams

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writingwife-83 · 1 year ago

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Am I starting another multi chapter? No… probably not… honestly idk. 😆 All I know for sure is that while I was listening to Taylor Swift’s “‘tis the damn season” today this scene legit just popped into my head. I had to get it out lol. Thanks to @thisisartbylexie for pushing me to just do it! I don’t usually share the whole fic on here anymore, but I think tumblr did something that made AI scraping less likely, right? Anyway, hope you enjoy this little modern au one shot. Will I ever do more with it? Who can say? Again, I just had to get it written. ❤️

Hometown

The floorboards creaked loudly when she stepped up into the attic, sounding as angry and bitter as the late owner of this old house had been.

Rey walked around the boxes and tools and junk, silently cursing her grandfather for leaving all this for her to deal with. Not a word of love or care in all these years since she’d left. Nothing but a cluttered old house, left to her out of legal necessity.

Her eyes soon narrowed in on a box in the corner with “Rey” scribbled on the top. Crouching down, she ripped the tape off the box’s seam, opening the top to reveal the contents. She found herself instantly transported back to another time. Another life.

Rey pulled out a little doll, tattered and worn after all the years she’d clutched it close in the nights she’d cried herself to sleep. She swallowed a jagged lump, setting the little thing aside and continuing to pull items out. There were books and clothes and shoes, and little scraps she’d collected as a child. It might have warmed her heart to see that these things were kept, but she knew it was only for lack of care that these random items were all swept into a box and placed in the attic, her grandfather as content to forget her as she was him.

When she reached the very last item at the bottom of the box though, she instantly froze, sitting back against her heels, almost afraid to touch it. Hesitant fingers finally reached out, grasping the weathered red flannel, pulling it out and allowing herself to hold it close for the first time in so many years. Rey’s eyes clamped shut… she could smell his soap. Maybe the cling of the subtly spicy and woodsy aroma was long gone from the fabric and this was just a memory. It didn't really matter. Because either way, just like that, it filled her senses all over again. He filled her senses.

The slow walks in the woods, the long country drives going nowhere, the late night laughter over nothing at all, the almost daily light hearted arguments because neither were good at admitting when they were wrong.

And the way his arms wrapped around her body had taught her what it was to want something more than friendship from a boy.

Before Rey knew it, she was slipping her own arms into the flannel and pulling it up over her shoulders, allowing herself to get as close to those memories as she could. She was swimming in the thing, just as she was the night Ben put it on her as he walked her home, grumbling about how she was always cold and never remembering her own jacket. But he didn’t mind, not really. She could tell. He looked almost pleased at the sight of her in it, but his lips twisted away the smile that threatened for just a moment. So quick, you could almost miss it. But she didn’t, and it warmed her almost as much as the flannel that still carried the literal warmth of his body.

God, if she could only go back to that moment, and a hundred more just like it. If she could only have stayed in this town a little longer, to see where those moments would have led. To see if one night his arms might have stayed around her a little longer and held her a little tighter.

But they never got that chance. Ben seemed almost as eager for her to leave town as she was, to get away from her grandfather and to make something more of her life after high school. He was excited for her. Sometimes she wondered what she might have done if instead Ben had begged her to stay.

But he didn’t.

Rey hugged the flannel a little tighter around her body, realizing that her eyes had started to cloud. She had to sniffle genuine tears away, even though she wasn’t sorry for the loss of any other part of her life in this town. The loss of him was more than enough.

Shaking her emotions off and standing up, that old shirt hanging almost to her fingertips, she looked around at the seemingly endless work it would take to unload this house. She wondered how long she’d have to stay here and be away from the city. This wasn’t exactly the vacation she’d been wishing for, but it had to be done regardless. And maybe something good would come from all of it.

Not that she could hope to see Ben Solo again, she thought to herself with a little laugh, hands absentmindedly smoothing up and down the comforting fabric against her arms. What were the chances he’d still be here in this town?

Right here where she’d left him seven years ago.

Read on AO3

#reylo #modern au #fic: hometown #song fic #sort of #inspired by taylor swift #tis the damn season

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voidtouched-blue · 1 year ago

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Forgotten-contract--prior

-To quickly notice the sound of familiar scribbling and papers turning, doorless rooms giving ample notice for the study at the end. Hesitation held him for only a heartbeat before that tiredness was pushed down and away; replaced with a smile as he cleaned his shoes on the moss by the door - walking into her home with a soft hum, hands clasped behind his back as he spoke. “You’re awake, how are you feeling? Rested?” It was silly for him to assume she’d just sit and accept a needed bed when answers loomed within parchment just out of reach. He couldn’t fault her, that dedication was part of her charm.

By the time the stored energy in the crystal had flickered out, enough light had filtered through from the dawn that she had little need for it.

The truth of it was that Cyra had found herself quite stumped with the quick thoughts and experiences she had scribbled down into her Compendium. The entry she had sat down to write had taken up eight pages that had been delicately organized and mapped out as she went. Within the scrawl, she had included her memories of the first time she had felt that inexplicable missing aether after casting, as well as the few times she had been required to channel her magic in recent weeks.

Such detailed observations were only possible with the use of her Echo. Her 'gift' from Hydaelyn had granted her near perfect memory recollection, with the added bonus of being able to observe the moments in great detail from an outside perspective. It was like walking through the center of a dramatic retelling, only every moment had been very real.

And it was due to this blessing that the studious Keeper had been able to record as many notes and observations as she did. Though, included in the entry were comparisons of each event, detailing the amount of energy spent (to her best estimations), and comparing it to the level of exhaustion she would have felt before she had begun this forbidden study. Yet, even in her late night of study, nothing could save her from the yawns that crept in between moments of Echoed thought.

She still had wounds to care for, and that slowly filling aetherwell to contend with. At least she wouldn't have to wait long for her font of magic to replenish itself. A few days of little casting, and good rest would do her well, but knowing that she still had so many questions that demanded answers, it would take longer than that to reach full capacity.

I've been dying to look back at those Mhachi translations I tried my hand at a year ago. Once I'm done reviewing this...perhaps I can take a moment to try my hand at those again.

It was that thought that prompted a sigh. She rested her quill in the inkwell for a moment to rub her eyes with her hands, which then turned into a shivering yawn, and that had her resting those ink-stained fingers on her cheeks as she skimmed the final page of scribbles one last time.

I'll say that's enough of that for now. I can come back to it later. Now...where are my notes on my translations?

It had taken her a few minutes of flipping through her large tome before she came upon a rather ragged and rough grid of letters and estimated equivalents of modern language. She shook her head as if to disturb that tired weight that settled in on her shoulders. Cyra sniffed, and began reviewing the notes she could glean from her incomplete alphabet. Pulling quill from ink, she held the page with a finger and continued to flip between that and the fresh, unwritten pages to continue her study.

"-AH! Oh..." She had been so focused that she didn't even here his usual tone of alarm to alert her of his presence.

As usual, her tail had been wrapped under her arm out of habit despite there being no web of paper strewn about her home at this time. She leaned back from her work to see Silvaire right as he stepped into the room. The gentle lean he always did when curiously peering over her work had pulled the corners of her lips up into a welcomed grin.

His question had somehow caught her unawares as much as his silent approach did. She had half-expected him to ask about her work, but instead he asked about her well-being.

That's right...How could I forget that happened? It's the whole reason why I got up...

She let out a tired chuckle at her surprise to his appearance.

"A bit of a headache, but I'll be all right." She looked back down at her notes, realizing that perhaps now was not the best time to start something new. She folded the corner of the page with her older Mhachi alphabet grid so she could find it later before closing the book entirely.

"Rested? That's a tough question to answer." She joked. "I awoke in the night with burning questions that couldn't-"

Right as she had prepared to command the locks closed with that gentle wave of aether, she paused.

Cyra could smell blood... and it wasn't hers.

The book was pushed quickly off of her lap and she made to stand. Of course, having been seated on the floor for the last few hours had her wobble, but it was nothing a quick flick of her tail couldn't fix. Her ears flattened and she closed her eyes for a moment, focusing entirely on one sense.

It was faint, but there was no mistaking that copper tinged stench. On top of that was that familiar floral essence that had mixed with it. The two smells had intermingled with one another, granting a brief crinkle of the Miqo'te's nose. With the distance between them, she couldn't quite tell if it was his unmistakable smell that lingered in the air around them or if it had been the blood of another.

Her eyes opened into narrowed slits, not of suspicion...but of concern. She took a step forward, her chin tilting up with each inhale through flaring nostrils, her constricted pupils focused entirely on his face as she did. Her padded feet fell silently as she closed the distance.

Clawed fingers were quick to grab gently at cloth as if to hold him still, as always she was careful of her the sharpened points to not tear his fine clothing. But as she had moved close enough, the clear smell of that winter snow had her ears flick forward in an instant. Her cat-like eyes relaxed into their normal rounded shapes as the realization had quickly snapped her out of that wild focus.

"You're hurt?" She looked up at him, starlit eyes scanning his face for clues before her vision turned to examine his clothes. "Where?"

She would not accept anything less than what she deemed to be a satisfactory reply.

#[aspects of black and white]#thread: voidtouched studies #ffxiv verse #ic #[[HEALER MODE ACTIVATED]]

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freckleslikestars · 3 years ago

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supermarket flowers

@xfilesbingo Promp: Flowers

IVF arc, Late-night store runs, outside POV, MSR, General Audiences

687 words, read here on AO3

It had been a long night – the nights always were these days – and the fluorescents were giving her a headache. Half an hour more and she could clock out, go home, feed the cat, and crash out. ‘That’ll be ten fifty,’ she watched as the guy fished out a crumpled bill from his pocket and accepted it with a tired smile, handed his change over with his receipt.

Nothing much happened in the store at this time of night: students mostly, coming in for bread and beer. It gave her time to draw, fill her sketchbook full of quick studies. She searched the ends of the aisles that she could see for her next subject, finding him easily. He was standing with the flowers near the door, at this point in the night mostly wilted. He’d been there a while, since before she served the last customer, and his decision-making didn’t seem to be going particularly well. But he had an interesting face, angular and strong, but there – hidden beneath layers of exhaustion that seemed to weigh heavily under his eyes and over his shoulders – was a boyish charm that lit his eyes. A hope that creased his fore brow.

As she sketched his likeness onto the back of one of the store receipts he made a decision and wandered deeper into the depths of the store, disappearing from her view. A pretty blonde with a pretty smile appeared at the end of her till, an armful of snacks piled high that she dropped to the counter, ‘finals?’

‘Uh-huh,’ she gave another winning smile.

‘What are you studying?’

‘Physics. You?’

‘Oof, uh, I’m doing my Masters in Art and Museum Studies.’

‘Wow,’ she peered over the checkout at the collection of receipt stubs and napkins and scraps covered in sketched portraits, ‘they’re good.’

‘Thanks. That’ll be twelve seventy.’

‘Twelve seventy, coming up,’ she smiled, digging around in a worn wallet, handing over the exact change, ‘maybe you could draw me sometime?’

‘Maybe I could,’ she scribbled her number on the till receipt when it printed and slid it across the counter.

One final smile and she was gone, juggling her haul out the door. The man with the flowers had reappeared, lingering along the shelves of wine. Turned away without taking a bottle before hesitating and turning back, choosing a bottle of red. He made his way over to her, still seemingly internally debating the wine.

‘Hi.’

‘Hey,’ he nodded distractedly, unloading the contents of his basket – a bouquet of white lilies and the bottle of red, a bar of dark chocolate – she rang each of the items through as he unloaded them, chuckled and smirked, ‘forget your anniversary or something?’

‘Uh... not exactly,’ he murmured, passing her two tubs of ice cream – the expensive one that she could rarely afford.

‘Must have missed something important for all this?’ she inquired casually with a quirk of her eyebrow as she absently took the last item from him and scanned the box, and it wasn’t until it beeped on the register that she took in what she was holding, ‘oh.’

‘Yeah,’ his expression - something a little like hope, something a little like fear – intrigued her as he accepted the pregnancy test from her and placed it carefully, reverently, in the bag amongst his other purchases.

‘That’s, uh, that’s thirty-six ninety.’ He nodded, slipped out his wallet from his back pocket and passed over his card. She passed it back with his receipt, ‘hey, good luck, dude.’

‘Thanks,’ he nodded, taking a little shaky breath before nodding again and giving her a smile full of hope, ‘yeah, thanks,’ he left, a hurried bounce to his step, and she wondered who it was he was eager to get home to: whether it was a wife or girlfriend, whether it would be a night of celebration. She sighed and looked at her watch, groaning at the idea of having to spend fifteen more minutes there before she could cash up and go home, thinking about the potential of a message on her ansaphone from a pretty blonde with a pretty smile.

Tagging @today-in-fic

#my writing #outside pov #ivf arc #the x files #txf #xf fanfic #xf bingo #x files

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wornoutmouse · 4 years ago

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Look I wrote this for my friend but i popped the hell off with this one so if you don’t mind reading a name inbetween a few dialogue points pls read

You ran hurriedly through the halls of the school as the third bell finally rang. You had overslept and had barely made it onto the bus. Skidding to a stop, you slow down when you get to the door, catching your breath before entering. Just as you annoyingly expected, eyes dart towards you as soon as you entered, effectively catching the teacher’s attention.

“This is the second time you are late young lady, one more time and I will have no choice but to write you up.” You smile awkwardly, “Sorry Miss, it won’t happen again.” Ms. Bustier clicks her tongue disapprovingly as she watched her student walk to her seat, head hanging low. You sit down in your chair with a soft sigh as Ms. Bustier spoke about today’s lesson.

For the most part, you pay attention to the lesson being taught, that is until your attention is being interrupted by a pencil poking your side. From your peripheral vision, you see fluffy blond hair swaying gently to get your attention. You mutter under your breath, swiping the pencil with your hand, “Quit it Adrien I’m already in trouble.” The boy huffs but the playful aura still hung around making your skin buzz with excitement.

Shifting in your seat, you squint your eyes at the smartboard, writing down notes every so often. Looking down once again, you notice a small piece of paper folded, You look at Adrien who boredly watched your teacher speak. Opening the paper you roll your eyes at the note inside.

A - Late again are you Miss Mia? One more time and I might have to wake you up myself

Nibbling the tip of your pencil you write a note back, crumpling the paper before tossing it at Adrien’s head with a smirk.

You- Well maybe I wouldn’t have been so tired if you hadn’t interrupted my study time with your modeling rants

The paper is tossed back at your head, catching in your curly hair, making Adrien snort.

A- Well I can think of other ways to keep you up at night...

You cough loudly at the message, eyes darting at Adrien’s laid-back figure. You scribble down a quick snarky reply with shaking hands. You go to pass the paper but the sound of a throat clearing interrupts you. You turn to your left and are forced to look up, gulping when you notice your teacher’s signature white blazer. She holds her hand out and you reluctantly place the ball of paper in her hand.

“While I will not embarrass you by reading out your hidden messages, I will embarrass you by writing you up for detention.” Sputtering, you point an accusing finger at the smug boy behind you, “He started it first I was just..” You are hushed by a firm hand on your shoulder, “Well if that’s the case, both you and Adrien can join each other at study hall.” Adrien groans behind you and you throw a glare his way, one that he responds with a teasing wink. The sound of the bell ringing grimly reminds you of the dreadful time awaiting you in study hall after school.

When you get thereAdrien is already there and waves you over to him. You narrow your eyes at him but sit next to him anyway. “Aww don’t look at me like that Mi, it’s not my fault you aren’t stealthy enough to pass a simple note in class.” You roll your eyes, “Well if you weren’t tossing notes like a child, we wouldn’t be here either.” Adrien laughs loudly earning a sharp look from the detention monitor.

He mutters a silent apology as you busy yourself with a notepad and pencil. The study hall is silent and boring and 11 minutes feel like 11 hours as the clock ticks by. Adrien watches your small scribbles turn into different shapes and sizes. Before long, he notices you drawing a rather familiar face. “Whatcha drawing?” You shrug, watching your pencil make the shape of cat-like ears.

You continue drawing, briefly recognizing Adrien’s body heat as he watches over your shoulder. “You like Chat Noir huh?” Your precise pencil strokes outline the lean frame of one of Paris’s heros. While it is undoubtedly Chart Noir in a heroic setting, the way his eyes slant a little more than his mask allows and the way one of his hands rested on his chest did give way to a more seductive undertone.

“Yeah, I think he’s pretty hot not gonna lie.” Adrien hums, the feeling of his short breaths blowing against your shoulder makes you shiver. “Really? Well, he can’t be hotter than I can he?” Adrien fluffs his hair pompously as he stretches his body lazily. “I don’t know maybe a little.” Adrien sticks his tongue out at you.

Your monitor stands up and walks towards the door before turning around, “Listen you two, I am going to get lunch, and I better see you two here when I come back or you’ll get worse than detention.” The teacher fixes you both with a long look before leaving. “They are a little stiff in the ass.” You chuckle resting your head on your palm. Adrien slouches in his chair to play on his phone, giving you the perfect opportunity to observe him. Your friend is attractive, that is something you’ve come to terms with a long time ago, hiding your crush away deep in your mind.

“You like to stare at me when you think?” His tenor voice startles you out of thought and you realize you now have his full attention. Your face is warm and for once you are glad you couldn’t visibly blush.

“Hey, Adrien? What did you mean by that last message you passed me in class?” You tried to pass the question off as casual but you could feel your heart racing as the room filled with daunting silence. “What do you think I meant?”

Suddenly Adrien felt too close and the room felt smaller. When you made eye contact with him, his eyes were slanted just like Chat Noirs on your drawing. “You tell me.” You said boldly. Adrien pondered for a while, green eyes observing your features, going from your eyes, down your nose before finally resting on your plump lips. “Well, I think it meant exactly what it said.” Adrien placed a hand on your thigh, squeezing the flesh in his palm. “So tell me why you like Cat Noir?” You stare at nothing, unable to compute the absurd request that came seemingly out of nowhere.

“What?” Adrian’s hand doesn’t stop moving on your thigh, heating your skin through your jeans. “Come on Mi, humor me for a moment.” You hum softly in an attempt at calming your heart rate. “Well, I like how he seems to enjoy what he does, saving people...” As you speak Adrien takes the time to scoot closer to you paying a sparing glance at the door your teacher left out of a moment ago. “What would you do if you met him?” His hands got closer to your inner thigh fiddling with your belt loops.

The urge to clench your legs together was immediate as the fire within you grew stronger. “I would thank him for his service and-” Adrien shushes you with the sound of your belt clinking a loose. “Let me rephrase, what do you want him to do to you?” Before you had comprehended your predicament, Adrien’s hand had found itself inside your pants.

You were sitting rigidly in your chair, lips parted in a silent exhale. Slender fingers focused themselves on your swelling bud, pressing soft circles on it in an effort to coax it out of its hood. Noting your tensed posture, Adrien tries to distract you. He’ll admit even to himself that this was a bold move on his part and he was surprised you hadn’t pushed him off at this point. “I can stop if you want me to?” You feel his fingers stop their ministrations and you quickly grab his wrist. “No!”

His concerned demeanor is quickly wiped away by a broad smirk as his fingers resumed their task. “Okay then.” He places a kiss on your shoulder through your shirt making you shiver. “You didn’t answer my question.” You nod and try to speak in a stable manner. “I would want him to- oh god!” Adrien’s fingers began to work overtime as they went down to your lips, now wet with your arousal. “I would want him to touch me there! Please.”

Lips latched lazily on your skin, sucking hard enough for you to feel it but not hard enough for marks to be left behind. “Where is’ there’ Mia? Use your words.” Your back arched in your chair when you felt his slick index finger playfully dip inside of you before returning to your clit. “Adrien~” Your soft moans were audible now, and every small whimper made his cock ache at the thought of being the cause of your sweet noises. Adrien mockingly hummed, “Oh I see now.”

“You want him to fuck that pretty pussy of yours don’t you?” You make a strange noise that is a mix of surprise and a moan. You’d never think words like those could leave Adrien’s mouth. “Y-Yes!” Adrien nodded moving to use both hands now, it was an awkward position but it was worth it seeing you fall apart by his hands. “I bet you think of him at night, kissing you slowly, while his hands roam your body.” Adrien sinks his teeth in your shoulder blade making you jerk as a particularly hard burst of pleasure racks your body. “You look so damn sexy like this kitty cat.’

You lean forward, holding yourself up by your desk as Adrien’s fingers move faster on your clit. “I can feel how fast your heart is beating, you gonna cum?” The teasing tone in his voice ignited the smallest ounce of competitiveness within you. You grit your teeth and shake your head, “Don’t get so full of yourself Agreste.” Your eyes clenched shut at the feeling of a finger finally entering you. Adrien looked at you with narrowed eyes. He wasn’t a fan when you got competitive, especially when you were obviously bluffing.

There was a thin layer of sweat forming on your skin as your orgasm got closer. Adrien focused on the way your walls quivered around his finger. Your choked-back moans cut the air as he pumps his finger faster. Your wetness was dripping onto your underwear and around his palm making squelching noises. “Are you sure you aren’t going to cum?” Adrien whispered close to your ear taking glee when a tremor passed down your spine. Your orgasm was too damn close for him to stop so you decide to swallow your pride just this once. “F-faster, Adrien, I’m close.” Those were indeed the wrong words to say. Adrien slowed his finger down to slow pumps while his thumb pressed harshly on your clit. He laughed as he could practically feel it throbbing, “I thought you said you weren’t going to cum?” You try to grind down on his hand, bucking slightly as his rough palm stimulated your sensitive lips. “Don’t be an ass ah-fuck!”

You grip the edge of your desk as you finally cum on his hand. Your eyelids flutter and Adrien marvels that the feeling of your cunt that was squeezing him so tightly he could neither tell if it was pulling him in or pushing him out.

You grunt as he removes his finger, when you look over at him, he is preoccupied with pulling his cock out while licking his fingers clean of your cum. Adrien whimpered around his fingers as his other hand jerked his cock sharply “Ah, you taste better than I thought.” Your eyes travel down his chest to meet his junior. It was thick and surprisingly long. You couldn’t help but feel sorrow for the angry red it was at the tip. But the vein traveling up the side made your mouth water.

His hips bucked to meet his hand desperately. Curses left his soft lips as he tossed his head back in pleasure. A deep warmth flooded your gut from the vibrant imagery of him fucking you with it. “Mia-ah shit.” You raise your head up to meet his eyes, your heart skipping a beat at how the green of his eyes was almost completely drowned by his pupils. “It’s not fair if I helped you get you off, but you won’t help me.” You scootch forward a little bit, swallowing your saliva, “What do you want me to do?” Adrien spread his legs with his hands holding the sides of his chair, “Come on Mi, I haven’t even fucked you yet and you’ve already gone dumb?”

A hand comes on your shoulder and gently coaxes you down to your knees. You feel small as Adrien peers down at you, gaze disrupted as his cock begins twitching in front of you. Nervousness enters your head as you quickly come to the realization of how large his dick actually was. “What, are you afraid Mia? Or do I need to get you into the mood?” Adrien sits up straighter, “Claws out.” Your tilt your head curious as he combs his fingers through his hair, revealing...cat ears? The sight of a green glow slithering around his body was almost as unnerving as the sight of his outfit changing right before you.

In little as no time flat, Paris’s neighborhood hero sat in front of you in all his leather glory. His eyes seemed even greener than before, and his personality seemed to change right before you. “Adrien you’re Chat Noir!?” The blond shrugs nonchalantly, gripping his cock and slapping it against your cheek. “Mi I am all for the formalities, but I am so close to fucking your brains out right now, that I think it would be in your best interest to start sucking.” While still being conscious of your hairstyle, Adrien...Noir, pulls your head closer to his groin.

You resist the urge to scrunch your face at the feeling of precum being smeared on your mouth and chin. This resistance only makes Noir chuckle, “Stick your tongue out for me.” As if it was routine, you do as he says and moan softly from the feeling of his tip tapping your warm muscle. “So fucking perfect for me.” The praise makes you clench and gives you the courage to open your mouth wider. You suck on his member making him release a pleased growl. His hand laid limply on the back of your head as you take the lead.

The salty taste while slightly unpleasant, wholly addictive. Feeling your growing comfort, Adrien begins thrusting to meet your mouth. The tip of his cock goes all the way to the back of your throat making you choke before dragging back but the sounds of you struggling doesn’t dissuade him. The feeling of your tongue grazing over his vein just before your throat constricted around him drove him wild. Your tiny whimpers made his balls vibrate as he moved faster.

You place your hands on his thighs in order to stable yourself as his thrusts got more brutal. Slob collected around your mouth before dripping down your chin and finally collected by his balls every time they hit your jaw. “Fuck I’m going to cum, I’m going to cum!” Adrien’s voice pitched higher as his claws scratched into the wooden chair of his seat. His head tossed back violently as his thrusts became sloppy, legs shaking. Loud sobs left his mouth as you bright him closer to the edge each thrust is accentuated by filthy words. “Your mouth is so. fucking. Tight. Fuck Mia!”

You felt cum shoot down your throat as Adrien holds your head painfully against this crotch. He weakly thrusts into your mouth a few more times before realizing you. Gasping for air, you wipe your mouth of saliva and look up at Adrien as he catches his breath. Rough hands grip your chin making you look up at him. “You looked wrecked Mi.” Adrien laughs as he wipes cum off the corner of your mouth. You stand up wobbly and albeit a bit light-headed, Adrien stands with you and kisses your lips, enjoying the taste of himself in your mouth.

“We are going to finish this later.” Before your brain could even prompt you to ask, the bell rings signaling that detention was over. Adrien deactivates his miraculous before grabbing his backpack and leaving detention hall.

#adrien agreste smut #anime smut #miraculous smut #chat noir smut #smut

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