#i react so much more than just big bug eyes and leaning forward

[pastelmuppet]

Yes.

does anyone else have a favorite tv character where whenever they’re on screen you just

[rosemaidenvixen]

Between Daylight and Darkness

Chapter 7

<Previous Next>

Ao3

Jim shifted uncomfortably under the uv light; part from the slimy, crawling sensation the light gave and part from the extended period of strained silence. He really wasn’t sure how he’d expected these rock guys–

Trolls. They’re trolls, he’s a troll, you’re a troll–

To react when he showed that he was really a human. Shock was understandable but the dead silence and bug-eyed stares were starting to worry hi–

Abruptly the older looking troll leaned down to hiss something in Blinky’s ear, Jim had just enough time to see Blinky’s eyes widen before he broke away and bolted out of the cave. Before he could even start to process that a large, gray hand filled his vision. The big mossy guy slowly reaching out towards him.

“Human…”

The second the purple light touched big guy’s hand there was a soft sizzling sound, big guy jerking his arm away with a wince. Wait was that smoke coming up from–

A loud snort pulled his attention back to the big blue spiky guy, who’s expression had gradually shifted from shock to seething rage, standing there panting through gritted teeth while he straight up stared daggers at Jim. All that combined with the nose ring reminded him of an angry bull–

It suddenly hit him just how much bigger these troll guys were than him, and how much more breakable his spine was in this shape.

“Hey Tobes I think you can kill the light now,”

“Whoops, sorry, got it,”

The uv light and the slimy sensation vanished, Jim shifting back to his blue shape, letting out a small sigh of relief.

His relief was short lived as the older looking troll pushed past the angry spiky one and stalked towards Jim.

“So you claim to be human?”

“Uhhh…..yeah?”

The old troll tapped the tip of one of Jim’s horns, making Jim flinch.

“You don’t appear human at the moment,”

“I can kinda change back and forth,”

“Change?” the old looking troll whipped down until his face was inches from Jim’s, his milky gaze narrow, Jim shrinking under the scrutiny “How?”

“Well that’s a bit of a complicated st–”

“How now changeling!”

From out of nowhere something flew in and smacked Jim on the face, sending him staggering back, clapping a hand to his cheek.

Whatever it was that had hit him fell to the floor with a clang. Jim slowly peeled his hand away, the blow had been far more shocking than painful, looking up to stare at Blinky, who was staring right back with all six of his eyes blinking.

“Umm ow!?”

Blinky swept forward, grabbing the object off the floor and pressing it, startlingly cool, up against Jim’s face.

The beginnings of a low growl rumbled out of the back of Jim’s throat before he caught himself, stepping back and shoving Blinky away from him. With the distance he could finally see the object in Blinky’s hands.

It was a horseshoe.

Blinky looked at Jim then down at the horseshoe “Well that was…unexpected,”

“Actually I think that was a very expected response to having a horseshoe thrown in your face,” Mary said snipily.

Blinky– well, blinked at her “Horseshoe?”

“Never mind that,” the older troll gave an impatient wave “Blinkous, the rest of them,”

“Ah, yes, of course,,”

Without warning Blinky surged forward and pressed the horseshoe against Mary’s cheek.

“Hey!” she slapped him away “What the hell!?”

Blinky ignored her and moved towards Claire with the horseshoe. Claire frowned and tried to step back only to be blocked by the big mossy guy standing behind her. Allowing Blinky to touch the horseshoe to her face as well.

Toby and Darci didn’t try to run, allowing Blinky to tap them with the horseshoe with matching grimaces and a muttered ‘personal space much’ from Toby.

“Ok seriously,” Jim stomped towards Blinky “What is with the horseshoe!?”

“Well you see–”

Blinky was cut off by the old troll deftly plucking the horseshoe from his hands and tucking it into his waistband.

“No matter, we might not be certain of what you are but now we are certain of what you are not,”

“Ok enough with the cryptic answers,” Claire approached them, hands on her hips “What’s going on he–”

“He can’t be the Trollhunter!”

Everyone, human and troll, whipped around towards the big spiky guy, who somehow looked even more pissed off.

“He’s not a real troll!” he slammed a fist into the side of the cave wall, making the whole cavern shudder, tools on the table rattling.

The older troll rushed to his side, grabbed him by the horn, and yanked his head down “Lower your voice!” he hissed “Do you want to alert all of Trollmarket of this…irregularity,”

“Trollmarket deserves to know that the amulet is in the hands of–”

“While I admit the amulet’s choice is…unprecedented,”

Old troll and spiky troll shared a look at Jim that made him more than a little uncomfortable.

“But while I’m not sure of what exactly he is, we know he isn’t–”

The next word was something coarse and guttural, not in english, something completely unlike any other language Jim had heard.

“And I will not risk inciting mass panic by having the entire market speculate otherwise. So as far as the rest of Trollmarket is concerned, our new Trollhunter is an ordinary stripling, albeit one that keeps…peculiar company,”

Jim frowned “Hey, leave my friends out of this,”

Old and spiky completely ignored him, spiky too busy gawking at old’s words “You expect me to conceal the truth like some kind of–”

“Conspiracy!”

They all whirled at Blinky’s shout, two of his hands clasped to his cheeks in horror, a third hand pointed accusingly at the old troll.

“Can it be so!? Am I witnessing the birth of a dreaded conspiracy orchestrated by our market’s elder himself right before my six eyes!?”

“See!?” spiky threw a hand towards Blinky “The scholar agrees with me, Trollmarket must know!”

The old troll pinched the skin– stone between his eyes. Jim was still figuring out how to clock trolls’ facial expressions, but he didn’t need to be an expert empath to tell that this guy was completely done.

Abruptly the old troll looked sharply back up at Jim “You, Trollhunter, is there a sanctuary you can rest at on the surface?”

“Ummm…yeah?”

“Good, go there with your companions, AAARRRGGHH will escort you to the surface. Return to the bridge tomorrow at dusk, we will discuss more then. In the meantime I will smooth things over here,”

Spiky scoffed “You can’t truly expect us to–”

“One conspiracy breeds more, today the Trollhunter’s a human, tomorrow gnomes will rule the market!”

The big guy– AAARRRGGHH presumably, gently nudged Jim’s shoulder, urging him towards the exit. Stretching his considerably long arms out to herd them all towards the exit of the cave. Confused but eager to get away from the yelling, which was steadily increasing in volume, Jim complied, and after glancing and making sure AAARRRGGHH wasn’t being too rough with the others, allowed the large troll to herd them out the door. 

AAARRRGGHH took a different direction than Jim had coming here; old, spiky, and Blinky’s shouts fading behind them as he led them through a narrow stone corridor– well narrow for his size, you could probably drive a truck through this hall. Eventually leading them back to the crystal staircase towards where they’d come in.

“So uh…” Toby craned his head back, trying to get a glimpse at the top of the stairs “You guys don’t happen to have some magical version of an elevator? Or maybe even an escalator?”

“El…ooh…vay…tor?”

Toby huffed a deep sigh “Of course you don’t,”

Despite literally everything Jim could help but crack a smile “Relax Tobes, I can give you a lift,”

“Not on your life,” Toby clamored up to the first step “Do you know how many points this is worth on my chubby tracker? I’m doing this,”

“Hey if you’re offering free rides I’ll take you up on it,”

Jim started and glanced down, spotting Mary standing right next to him staring up at him completely unashamed.

“What? It’s a miracle I didn’t break a nail during our run from tall dark and ugly, no way am I risking my manicure over stairs,”

“No problem,” Jim crouched down, allowing Mary to climb on his back “But say one word about a hair care routine and I’m dropping you,”

They began their ascent, Jim taking an easy lead even while carrying Mary. The others were a lot slower, having to use all four limbs to scale stairs that were clearly made for much larger creatures, even Jim had to do a little hop between steps. AAARRRGGHH could have probably easily outpaced them all, but he hung back, bringing up the rear with no doubt deliberate slowness.

Soon enough they reached the top, Jim letting Mary down while Darci eyeed the entrance uneasily “So the guy who tried to kill us earlier is gone now right?”

AAARRRGGHH nodded “Bular gone,” he reached out holding a pointed, glowing orange crystal, drawing a glowing arch in the wall with its tip. Once it was complete the wall beneath the arch crumbled away, revealing the empty canal on the other side.

Jim and the others cautiously stepped through, the second they were through the wall started rebuilding itself. AAARRRGGHH waving at them from the rapidly rematerializing wall “Bye, see tomorrow,”

Then the wall was sealed and he was gone, leaving the five of them standing in the canal. No trolls, no Trollmarket, no glowing crystals, no nothing. Bare concrete lit with sickly yellow streetlights. A car rumbled on the bridge overhead.

For a few seconds they stood there in silence, glancing around at each other with uncertain looks. Mary opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out a loud series of chimes and beeps filled the formerly silent canal. All five of their phones going off simultaneously. They all scrambled to pull them out while Jim held still. His phone was sealed up in his armor, honestly he was still trying to figure out the physics of where his clothes went when the armor appeared, but he saw Toby pull out his phone, and saw who all the notifications were from.

Jim winced, oh this was not going to be good.

“Here let me,” he held out a hand “It’ll probably be better if I’m the one who talks to her,”

Toby plunked the phone down in his armored hand with no hesitation “Better you than me dude,”

In the time it had taken Toby to hand off his phone it had chimed five more times. Too many texts and voicemails to check, better just call right away and rip the band aid off. Swallowing hard, Jim pressed the dial button, lifting the phone to his ear as it rang, the other side picking up in just two rings.

“Hey mom,” he spoke up before she could get a word out “Some stuff happened but we’re all fine. We’re underneath the bridge on Main, can you come pick us up? I can explain more face to face but we uh….we learned a lot…”

[bestiesenpai]

and there was only one bed! - Sukuna

Wow who would have guessed my first curse!Sukuna fic would be this? Not me lol so sorry if it sucks! Femme reader, everyone is aged up 18+

TW: dubcon, somnophilia, overstimulation, one (1) use of the word daddy, squirting

You and Yuji were great friends. Ever since he came to the school you were joined at the hip. Bugging Fushiguro, getting into crazy schemes with Inumaki and Panda - there was always something the two of you could get into together. Being so close throughout the years, it was only natural that the two of you would go on missions together as well as you got older. Spending a few days away from the school was all fun and games, and the added luxury of having your own private hotel rooms didn’t hurt either.

And the fun didn’t stop after you graduated, with Gojo still being in charge of booking your accommodations even though you’d been out of school for a while.

“Oh, so there’s only one bed this time…” Yuji mumbled as the two of you walked into the Airbnb that Gojo had booked for you. The house was nice enough, a quaint one bedroom on the edge of the city you were to be working in in the morning.

Through the open bedroom door you could see that there was indeed only one bed.

“I’ll sleep on the couch.” Yuji announced with a slight sigh under his breath.

“We’re here for three days, no way will that be comfortable.”

“Well I won’t let you sleep on the couch.”

“We can just share the bed then.” Taking his suitcase from him, you dragged it and your own towards the bedroom.

“No, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” Getting a hand on his luggage before you got too far, Yuji stared at you with narrowed eyes.

“Yuji, we’re best friends, it’ll be fine.” Swatting his hand away, you shuffled a little bit closer to the door. “We can put the couch pillows between us, plus look!” Getting into the room, you gestured towards the massive mattress. “This thing is huge anyway, we’ll have plenty of space to spread out!”

“Well…” Worrying his lip, Yuji looked between you and the bed. “Alright, but you have to tell me if you get uncomfortable.”

“Please, it’ll be fine.” You waved off his concern. There really was no reason to be nervous about anything; Yuji was a respectable guy and you knew he slept deeply anyway. The only real concern you had was if he would violently toss and turn like Fushiguro said he did.

Hours later and the sun was down, you and Yuji had both showered and were now climbing into bed. There was a good wall of pillows from the couch between you two, and Yuji had insisted over and over that you tell him if you weren’t comfortable.

“Goodnight bestie.” You giggled childishly, turning your back to him and closing your eyes.

“Night.” Yuji giggled as well and the two of you got quiet, taking slow and even breaths until you fell into a rhythm and went to sleep.

A few hours later, the feeling of hot breath on the back of your neck and something molding to your body from behind had just slightly roused you from sleep. Something was poking the spot right below your ear, forcibly quiet breathing just barely audible at the edge of your mind.

The sweat collecting on your skin from the heat of what you presumed to be Yuji’s body attempting to smother you in his sleep was beginning to drown you, and you threw the blanket off your chest to gain some reprieve.

Settling down again, you didn’t feel the hand creeping up your sleeping shirt and grabbing a handful of your breast. Deft fingers rolled your nipple as another hand slid across your hips and pulled you flush against another body.

Pushing past the band of your bottoms, the hand pushed your thighs apart slightly and dipped between your folds, slowly rubbing your clit. The pleasure was beginning to reach you and your unconscious body reacted in kind, rolling your hips against the friction and eager to get more.

What woke you up, however, wasn’t the slick gathering between your legs, it was the body beginning to crush you from behind.

“Yuji...roll over…” You slurred sleepily, attempting to push away the heavy arm that lay across your body. A deep, shuddering breath sounds in your ear, but the arm didn’t move. “Yuji, you’re crushin’ me.”

“Sorry baby.” A voice much deeper than Yuji’s replied, and a kiss was placed on the back of your neck as the pressure was released.

“S’okay.” Yawning softly, you were about to let sleep overtake you once again, and then the squeezing fingers on your breast got a little tighter, and laughter resonated behind you.

“Such an easy little thing, aren’t you?”

“Huh?” Rolled onto your back, you opened your eyes in time to be face to face with Sukuna. Your mouth opened to scream, but instead of a piercing cry, you began to choke; Sukuna had shoved two fingers into your mouth.

“Quiet now, don’t want to wake the neighbors.” Even in the low light of the bedroom, you could tell it was him. The voice, sharp nails attached to the fingers in your mouth and the overwhelming amount of cursed energy were enough.

Your clothes were ripped off in an instant, leaving you completely bare before him. Withdrawing his now wet fingers, Sukuna brought them down to your cunt, using the added lubrication from your saliva to push into you.

The stretch made you hiss between your teeth, the slight burning sensation that came with nearly completely edging out the pleasure you’d just been feeling a few moments ago. Sukuna sunk his fingers in halfway before withdrawing and beginning a languid stroke.

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t wake up.” He chuckled, using his other hand to go back to your breast.

“Stop!” Grabbing his wrist, you tried to pull it off but it was no use.

“Aw c’mon baby, don’t act that way! You were enjoying it a minute ago!” To punctuate his statement, Sukuna brought his thumb up to your clit and smirked when you jumped, your walls clenching around his fingers. “See, this pretty pussy seems to be enjoying it.”

“Sukuna let me go!” Your feeble cry was music to his ears and Sukuna nearly moaned at the sound. He could see the frantic desperation on your face mixing with the arousal that had seeped into your mind.

“But if I do then you won’t get to cum! And that wouldn’t be very nice, would it?” Letting go of your chest, he smacked his hand onto the pillow beneath your head and leaned over you. He kissed you before you could answer, his hand coming to wrap around the back of your head.

Shoving his tongue into your mouth, Sukuna overrode any thought you had in your brain. He was domineering, forcing your lips to stay locked with his as his tongue explored every inch of your mouth.

His other hand refused to lay idly and all it took was a few flicks of his wrist and a firm thumb pressed on your clit to get you to start whimpering into his mouth. Your knees knocked together at Sukuna’s sides, hands gripping his shoulders as he finger fucked you.

Sucking your tongue into his mouth, Sukuna pulled away slowly, thin strings of saliva connecting you two together before breaking off and dropping onto your chest. Sukuna kept his face close to yours, close enough that the breaths from your exasperated moans warmed his face.

“S-Sukuna stop-” You whined as you came, moaning pitifully as your cunt spasmed around his fingers.

“After that, I don’t think I can stop now.” Pulling his fingers out, Sukuna used two to rub your clit in tight circles, hurtling you into overstimulation and making tears prick at your lashes. Your knees pressed even harder into him as your thighs tried to squeeze together to get him to stop.

“It- it hurts- Sukuna!” Tossing your head back, another orgasm was forcibly brought forward. This one was edged with pain, and embarrassment slowly trickled in as your cunt clenched around nothing and you found yourself wishing his fingers were inside you again.

Smoothing his hands on your inner thighs, Sukuna smirked down at your spent form. Just watching your chest heave as you calmed down had his ego boosted. Reaching a hand down to fist his cock, he let out a shaky breath as a bead of precum dripped out and onto your skin.

“I’ve been waitin’ for this.” He mumbled, pushing your legs further apart so he could get closer.

“Wait, it won’t fit!” You didn’t know the size of Yuji’s cock, but you could tell it had been made much bigger by Sukuna’s appearance. Pushing your hands onto his chest, you couldn’t keep Sukuna at bay for very long.

“Don’t worry baby, daddy will make it fit.” The tip of Sukunas cock pushed into you as he spoke, the bulbous head already much thicker than his fingers. Your nails dug into his chest the further he went, nearly drawing blood as he slowly bottomed out.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Sukuna smirked, holding himself still to not only allow you to get used to the stretch but to bask in the moment as well. Forcing air through your lungs, it was a struggle to try and get used to the feeling of almost being split in half.

Sukuna clamped his hands on your hips as he slowly dragged his cock halfway out. Snapping forward, the light slap of skin against skin began to build in the room, muffled only by the light gasps leaving your mouth.

“S’too much!” You whined, screwing your eyes closed and shaking your head a little. “Too big, Sukuna- please-” Laughing under his breath, Sukuna pressed his fingers on your clit again, circling in time with his thrusts.

“You’re so whiny, baby, I bet you’ve never taken a cock this big before.” With every swipe of his thumb, he could feel you tighten up around him and the drag of his cock against your walls got easier.

Letting go of your hip, Sukuna slid his hand down your leg, hooking it under your knee and pushing it up toward your chest. The added angle allowed him to get deeper, practically hitting your cervix every time he pushed in.

You let out a loud, girlish squeal at the change and your hands scrambled to push against his lower stomach. The new position felt too good, immediately assaulting your senses with a toe curling pleasure.

“Sukuna, no!” The tips of your fingers pushed at him, stopping him a little short of completing a full thrust. Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Sukuna grabbed both your wrists in his hand, forcing your arms straight and keeping your hands away from him.

“Quit your whining, you can take it.” Pushing your knee down even further, Sukuna dug his knees into the mattress and slapped his hips against yours, ignoring any further squeals or whimpers.

Giving your wrists a bruising squeeze, he let go to grab your other leg and hike it up as well. He wouldn’t be stopped by the hands pushing against him, begging him to slow down or to change positions again.

“I’m gonna- Sukuna-” Your orgasm was building quickly, getting rid of any rational thought as pleasure shot up your spine and had nearly all the muscles in your body tightening up. You were so close to cumming, but there was another feeling behind it as well. “Sukuna stop, I’m gonna- pee!”

“Ha, you nasty girl. Go right ahead then.” Putting all his focus into his hips, Sukuna pounded into you, making sure you felt every inch of his cock. He nearly had you bent in half, his upper body leaning dangerously close to yours.

Whatever cries you had left were reduced to mindless babbles, overwhelmed tears threatening to fall as you came again. There was the rush of an orgasm coursing through you, making your cunt spasm and milk Sukuna for all he was worth.

But there was another feeling, one much more wet than you anticipated. With every forward thrust of Sukuna’s hips, a gush of liquid was forced out, coating everything within reach.

“Dirty girl, squirtin’ all over me like this.” Letting your knees fall back down to your sides, Sukuna pulled his cock out and stared down at his body, dripping with your release. “Even made a mess of the bed.” Sitting up on your elbow, you could see the dark stain forming on the bedsheets and feel the moisture begin to seep into your skin.

“M’not...not dirty.” Your tongue feels heavy in your mouth, about as heavy as your head and you fall back down onto the bed, vaguely aware of some stray tears that have fallen onto your face.

“Yes you are.” Sukuna immediately counters, a sick smile on his face as he pushes his cock back inside you, a low whine emanating from the back of your throat at the stretch to your sensitive walls. “You’re my dirty girl, and we’re gonna have a fun three days together.”

[chefdoeuvre]

Aftermath

Jay Halstead

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Sister!Reader

Description: People always tend to forget about the aftermath.

Words: 2,122

Requested: yes by anonymous; second, if it's ok i wanted to request a part two to the imagine? i was wondering if you could just explore the aftermath of her assault, as she continues to heal and accept what's happened to her. by this i mean experiencing ptsd and having nightmares, flashbacks and dealing with certain triggers. also, maybe she could still sometimes turn to substances as many survivors do, and just break down sometimes. obviously since it's a halstead sister fic and i love the support system in the last story, i'd love to see jay helping her through everything and being super protective + some scenes with the rest of intelligence? but it's obviously up to you. thank you so much <3

Warnings: mention of drinking, sexual assault, drugs, language, PTSD, Jay Halstead and all of Intelligence being the best.

A/N: This is the long awaited part two to Infliction, and by long-awaited I mean like a month later. I tried to make the end light hearted because it seemed like a good way to go. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors.

—

It had been a few weeks since the party and things were beginning to look up. You and Brayden started hanging out more and it was safe to say the two of you were on your way to becoming best friends. The group of guys had all been arrested and sent far away from you. You, Jay, and Will have been having more frequent family movie nights instead of them heading out to Molly's every free night they got. Intelligence had basically adopted you as one of their own and even went out of their way to hang out with you. Kim and Hailey had girls nights away from the ever-annoying guys they work with. Adam and Kevin practically chauffeured you to hangouts with Brayden and took you out to your favorite diner on the weekends. Even Hank had called you once in a while as a check-in and to keep you informed about your case. Overall things seemed to be getting better for you.

Except for one little detail. Your PTSD was hitting you like a truck. Of course, the only person who even remotely knew what was happening was Brayden because he was the one person you spent most of your time with. Thankfully he was there to help ground you and calm you down when it all became too much for you. This wasn't sudden, it's been building up since it happened and clearly you needed to work on accepting it rather than shoving it all down. That's one thing you and Jay had in common, the two of you always had trouble addressing your problems no matter how big they became.

Currently, you were laying in bed and staring up at your ceiling that Jay had covered in stars for you. If there was one thing about you is that you still are a child at heart. You had been shocked awake by your recurring nightmare. It always followed the same premise of the night of the party but every night there were either different people, points of view, or different actions you took that still led you to the same outcome. There were dried tears staining your cheeks that you hadn't bothered to wipe away and every few moments there would be a soft sniffle to break the eerie silence.

Having enough of staring up at your ceiling you let out a low huff and pushed yourself up to a sitting position. You turned to the side and looked at the clock resting on your nightstand. The clock read 4:19 AM which was clearly too early for you to be up but too late for you to try and go back to sleep before Jay's rustling while getting ready would wake you up. Reaching over to open the drawer in your nightstand you checked the small bottle hidden under the glasses case that held your blue light ones. It was three-quarters full of vodka you had inconspicuously stolen from Jay's cabinet. You kept promising yourself that you wouldn't drink anymore, but clearly, that wasn't really panning out in your favor. Sure you would have a swig or two before braving yourself and heading off to school but it was to take the edge off, not to get drunk.

If Jay were to check through your drawer he'd probably think otherwise. You had stopped with the pills since he had found you, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him so you continued to drink. Obviously, it wasn't a lot and definitely not enough to get you drunk off your ass. You just wanted to be buzzed enough to have the courage to walk into your dreaded school every morning and deal with the numerous triggers you kept on discovering.

Eventually, it was time for you actually start getting ready for school. Jay had already left for work a while ago, leaving a kiss on your head before stepping out the door. You pulled on a random outfit that was comfortable and your usual pair of shoes before throwing your backpack over your shoulder and walked downstairs. Deciding against your worst judgment you made the choice to brave the day without the buzz of alcohol. Waiting at the front entrance of your building was Brayden. Like every morning the two of you would walk to school together if Jay had to go into the district early. If Jay only had paperwork that day he would drive the two of you to school instead, but that didn't happen very often.

The two of you walked to school silently, only exchanging a few words of greeting. Once you had made it to the large building you both had to split up for your classes. The day went on like usual, boring teachers droning on about upcoming assignments and tests. Lunch had arrived after what seemed like forever and you sat at an empty table practically half asleep. You held your head in your hand as you kept your eyes from slipping shut at the exhaustion.

"You not feeling too hot there?" One of your classmates from English asked as he passed by.

You froze at the familiar words before shaking yourself out of the memory.

"Fine, just tired." You brushed off their comment as he nodded with an understanding smile before continuing to his table.

Moments later the door opened and you picked your head up reluctantly. It was a few guys on the football team.

"You not feeling too hot there?" One of the seniors asked you.

You simply shook your head which only worsened the pain in it. The boys walked a few steps closer before placing their hands on your shoulders. They shoved you back onto the bed and immediately your body began to react.

You kicked and punched aimlessly to get them off of you but your movements were uncoordinated and your mind was foggy. There were too many of them and they began to overpower you, their hands wandering to unwanted places.

“Y/N?” Brayden’s voice pulled you out of the flashback.

“Huh?” Your teary eyes darted around his face before focusing on his concerned expression.

“Let’s head to the library, all right?” Brayden suggested already standing up from his seat across from you.

You nodded silently before hiking your bag over your shoulder and walked to the library beside him. Luckily at your school, they were lenient enough to let you head to the library during lunch. Usually, the kids didn’t take advantage of it but it was an unspoken spot of peace for you and Brayden.

The two of you sat at a table near the back and Brayden pulled a chair up beside you.

“Want to talk about what happened back at lunch?” Brayden asked softly.

You bit your lip in contemplation. This had been happening for weeks and every time you’d shake your head and change the subject. But the fact was it wasn’t getting better and you just needed to tell somebody that you weren’t okay. A few tears slipped out of your eyes which led to quiet sobs escaping from your lips. Brayden offered you a hug with outstretched arms, making sure to check if you were okay with it. You leaned forward into his embrace and squeezed his waist tightly. He held you there while rubbing soothing circles on your back until your cries stopped. You lifted your head off his chest and wiped away the remained tears on your cheeks before speaking up.

“Uh, flashbacks. I’ve been getting them for a while. I thought they’d go away, but they haven’t.” You explained with a sigh, avoiding his gaze and instead taking interest in your hands.

“Okay first, if they happen again tell me, or pull on my sleeve and I’ll get you somewhere quiet. Got it?” Brayden bent his head to try and get into your eye line.

You nodded your head with a hum before he spoke up again, “since they haven’t gone away maybe you should talk to someone. Preferably a professional, but if you’re only comfortable telling me then I’m all ears. Although, I’m not sure that I can cure you with magic, wish I could though.” Brayden tried to lighten the mood with his magic comment.

“Thanks, Brayden. Jay actually has been bugging me about seeing a therapist. Said it helped him with his PTSD, I think I might take him up on it.” You looked up at the boy with pursed lips.

“That’s good. Just know we’re not trying to force you into anything, we just want you to feel better however long that may take.” Brayden gave you a soft smile.

“You are wise beyond your years, you know that?” You smiled back with a small laugh.

“I try, I try.” Brayden shrugged nonchalantly.

“Can you come with me to the district after school?” You asked cautiously.

“Of course, not like I’d rather do my homework.” Brayden laughed.

“And there’s the Brayden I know.” You smiled widely.

Soon enough you and Brayden had been making your way to the twenty-first district to talk with Jay and probably the rest of Intelligence. The air was lighter between the two of you once you had finally started to open up. Of course, you hadn’t spilled everything but the little you had told him made the weight on your shoulders lessen slightly.

“Ah, baby Halstead and company, what brings you here?” Trudy greeted from the front desk with a tight-lipped smile. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she had a soft spot for you.

“Can you ring us upstairs? I need to talk with Jay.” You asked.

“You’re lucky they haven’t caught a case today.” Trudy walked out from behind her desk and led you and Brayden upstairs.

“Thank you, Trudy.” You smiled and followed the woman.

“I have a special delivery for Detective Chuckles.” Trudy spoke up once the three of you reached the top of the steps.

Jay’s head snapped up from his desk with a look of confusion when his eyes landed on you. He quickly stood up and scanned you over for anything.

“What happened, are you all right?” Jay cupped your cheek in concern before sparing a glance at Brayden for any sign of something bad.

“I’m okay, I just needed to talk to you.” You reassured him.

“All right. You wanna head into the kitchen?” Jay asked.

“No, we could talk at your desk. They’re all gonna find out anyway.” You gestured to the rest of the unit who was watching the two of you intently.

Jay nodded his head and led you to his desk. You reached out and held onto Brayden’s arm as you pulled him along to take a seat and sit beside you. Of course, at this, the entire unit had gathered around with concerned faces once you started to explain to them. Jay’s expression was held with soft eyes as he listened to you agree with wanting to try therapy and asking for help.

Once you were done Jay stood up and placed a kiss on the top of your head before whispering into your hair, “I’m proud of you.” Jay pulled away to give you a warm smile.

“All right come here you little muffin.” Kim held out her arms with a smile.

You stepped forward into her embrace as she squeezed you tightly, she rocked the two of you from side to side eliciting a small giggle out of you. Hailey joined the hug with a laugh once Kim pulled her by the arm.

Antonio placed a hand on your shoulder once you, Hailey, and Kim pulled away, “I’m proud of you, kiddo.” He offered you a kind nod.

“So proud.” Kevin gave you one of his signature bear hugs.

“Okay, it’s my turn.” Adam squeezed his way to stand in front of you. Which caused everyone to laugh at his eagerness.

“I could never forget about you, Ruz.” You wrapped your arms around his shoulders as he lifted your toes off the ground.

“Are we done yet? You guys are treating my sister like an attraction.” Jay sassed.

“You’re just mad that you only got to kiss me on the head and not a hug.” You retorted from leaning back into Brayden with a smirk.

“No, not true.” Jay shook his head with furrowed brows.

“Yup, totally jealous.” You nodded convinced.

“How did we go from a serious topic to Halstead and mini Halstead having a sarcasm battle?” Adam questioned with a confused expression.

“I learned to stop questioning it.” Brayden shrugged from behind you.

“It’s how we cope. Halstead thing, I guess.” You said with raised brows.

“Fair enough.” Jay sighed.

[theamberwriter]

Hi so remember “ Nesting Fever [Alpha!Pro!Katsuki Bakugo]” that you wrote? I hope so cause what if you made a part 2 were it becomes a poly relationship!!!

[Nesting Fever]

A/N: Thank you so much for requesting!! I wrote this all in one sitting, lol I was suddenly hit with inspiration. I hope you like it!! Also, I hope this comes off as a poly relationship. I've never written one before, but I tried!

Word Count: 3,059

Warnings: Always cursing lmfao

~

It was wrong. You could feel it. You knew what you wanted. But it was wrong. You scolded yourself over and over. This had been going on for months. Far too long and more than you'd like to admit.

"I shouldn't want both of their scents in here," you groaned, flinging yourself into your nest.

After the nesting conundrum that took place in your apartment just seven short months ago, your everything had changed. Kirishima had become a very big part of your life. After scenting him to spite Katsuki during a fight, he now seemed determined to win you. Even if he didn't notice. Eijiro basically lived in your house now.

He made you feel safe. His scent soothed you in just a whiff. You almost felt like you were falling in love all over again. You didn't love Katsuki any less. But you were falling in love with Eijiro. You wondered if maybe you'd always been. He was so easy to fall in love with, after all.

The intrusive thoughts you'd had about your new house guest had been growing. Before, they were peppered in. Just an occasional thing. Easy to brush off. But now you'd been properly fantasizing about how he tasted. About how his hands would feel against the skin that only Katsuki and yourself had ever touched.

You wondered how he'd fit in with your family. How they'd react to you having not one, but two Alphas. You wondered if you were being greedy, wanting them both. But you did, vehemently so.

This was not good.

How could you explain that to your mate of a year and a half? The man you'd been talking about marrying? How could you tell him that you were still head over heels for him - while also loving Kirishima the same way? What would he even think about that?

"I could never ask Katsuki...." you muttered. "He would never...."

But the fact that your boyfriend had had a little crush on Kirishima was never a secret. Not to you, at least. He claimed it was because they were best friends. But you didn't act like that with normal friends. Maybe Katsuki wouldn't be opposed....but would he be willing to share an omega? That was the kicker.

Alphas were possessive. They wanted what they wanted, and who was theirs was theirs. The two had been at each other's throats over you. Alpha vs Alpha. Could you really ask them to share you?

Kirishima was a near permanent fixture in your home now. He had never been in the way. In fact, it felt like a piece clicked into place. Your home had felt brighter and been filled with more laughter. Everything was amazing - when the two were behaving.

But the tense air between the two alphas was choking. There were times they both let their guards down. Times when you already felt like you had a dynamic. Those times were amazing. You leaned on Katsuki and Kirishima cuddled against you. Katsuki and Eijiro would act couplely, even when they hadn't meant to. You wanted to just smother them both in kisses.

But you couldn't.

What were you going to do?

You groaned loudly and threw a pillow at the door. A burst from your quirk made it hit harder than you intended. In a flash the door was open and the warm, delicious mixed scent of Katsuki and Eijiro flooded in. They were very alert. Their eyes were wide, scanning for danger.

"The hell is going on?" Katsuki snapped. His shoulders were tense, the tendons in his neck standing out. He was a coiled snake ready to pounce.

Eijiro hesitated in the door. You caught as he stepped forward then immediately retreated. "Are you okay?"

You sighed heavily. "I'm fine. Just...having some issues. - Katsssuuuu...."

You held your arms out and he went to fill them. He kneeled and took you tightly in his arms. He hid his face in the crook of your neck. You relaxed your arms around him.

"Something isn't right," you muttered. Then locked eyes with Eijiro. "My nest is missing something important, it isn't complete."

Eijiro froze, you could see it. Every muscle tensing. His face grew red. But he didn't break your gaze. He swirled his own pheromones in with Katsuki's, as if testing the waters. You had a feeling he caught on. You smiled, reclining your head against Katsuki's shoulder in response and taking in a large sigh.

You were going to have to talk to Eijiro about this later. Maybe, if you could get him on board, talk about your feelings, then it would be easier confessing to Katsuki. Maybe he'd even do it with you.

Eijiro bolted off and out of sight. While Katsuki held you tight. Your eyes lingered a moment longer on the door frame. You had wanted them both in your nest so badly. You wanted them both to hold you, to protect you, to tell you they love you. But it wasn't that easy.

You gave Katsuki a tight hug in return. Your nerves soothing surprisingly well, despite how conflicted you were. But this was Katsuki. The last few months, he'd been verging on an Apex Alpha. He was very conscious of everything you felt. He'd some how figured out how to turn his pheromones into the most relaxing, lulling, mouth-watering mixture. You didn't know what he'd done, but you became absolute putty in his hands in one whiff.

You always wanted to be putty in his hands. But you wanted to putty in Eijiro's too.

Katsuki relaxed you to sleep. You'd been up early anyway. You napped for a few hours. Your dreams were laced with the most potent caramel scent. But soon, a musky, warm scent invaded. And your body felt like water. You were on cloud 9. Everything, everyone, you wanted was bottle up in those two scents. You wanted this delicious mix in your life forever.

When you woke up, you heard the TV on. Along with the faint sound of sizzling. Giving a whiff, you could tell Katsuki was cooking. You tottered out , still stumbling on your slumber legs. You smiled to yourself as you looked into the room.

Katsuki stood with a pan and an apron. He was completely absorbed in whatever Eijiro was watching, even standing very close to where he was sitting. The red head was sitting in the chair you'd occupied for your little tantrum. He had his knees to his chest, totally lost in whatever was on.

It was adorable.

After a minute you yawned loudly and went in. Both of their eyes snapped to you. Eijiro grinned, but looked away quickly, his face staining red again. Katsuki smiled that in love, puppy dog smile he got when he thought no one was looking.

"There's my Omega," Katsuki cooed. "I'm making dinner, since Shitty Hair can't cook."

"I can too!" Eijiro tossed back.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. "[Name] likes my food better anyway."

They both looked at you expectantly. You felt like you shrank. You wanted to dive back into your nest. All you could think was, please don't give me those eyes!

"I like you both," you said, awkwardly laughing as you tried to fix your statement. "I think you both are really good cooks."

"Osha. Whatever," Katsuki scoffed. "Oi, you two run to the store. Get some dessert, whatever you two want."

"But you want vanilla - something, right?" you asked, more teasing than anything.

Katsuki gave you a seductive smirk, then licked the end of the spoon he was holding. "I want anything that tastes like vanilla. The sweeter, the better."

Heat coursed through you. Damn him. Katsuki gave you a wink then went back to the kitchen. You turned back to Eijiro. You saw his jaw clench, and his eyes take one desperate drag up your body. You'd never seen him do that before. You turned quickly, going to throw on some actual going out clothes.

Eijiro was bouncing anxiously by the door when you got back. He caught your eye then darted through the entry.

"We're going Katsuki," you called. "Love you, be back in a bit. Text me if you remember anything!"

"Don't you two miss me too much," he called back. "Don't make me wreck the supermarket because you idiots."

That was Katsuki for I love you too. Please be safe, I will protect you til my dying breath.

"We'll try," you laughed and shook your head.

"Oh, and ask Shitty Hair if he wants anything else in this. I already know what you'll want. Fucking predictable."

"I will. I'll text you."

Then you were out the door. Eijiro was waiting in the street below for you. His hands were stuffed into his pockets and his head was ducked. You'd really messed up, hadn't you? Maybe you should've taken it slower....

"So," you started, bumping his shoulder with yours. "What do you want for dessert."

Eijiro's eyes flicked to you then the ground. He shrugged and headed down the sidewalk. It was quiet as you walked. Tensely quiet. You hated it. Eijiro should've been his usual self. Talking happily about whatever. He couldn't even look at you.

It was wrong, but you were glad to be this close to him. To his scent. Even if it was weird right now. You'd smelt that turmoil once before, months ago as you sat on his lap and scented him. Eijiro smelt like that now.

What was he thinking?

Eijiro still hadn't said a word as you reached the store. He'd nearly walked into the door he was so distracted. He followed blindly by your side as you walked through the aisles.

"Uuuhhh," you mused. Trying to think of what to say. "Do you like bed we set up for you? I know it's not the newest mattress but -"

"What did you mean?" Eijiro asked, coming out of stupor. "About your nest?"

You were quiet. A little too ashamed to admit it out loud. What you'd meant. What you were trying to say in one longing look. You kept your eyes forward, going down one aisle then the next.

"[Name], please....it's been bugging me all day. I have a theory, but....I want you to tell me."

You stuttered and stumbled. Trying to put together a semblance of a sentence. He watched you and those crimson eyes, so much softer than Katsuki's own rubies but just as gorgeous, made you nervous. You felt like a kid with a crush who'd been called out. You supposed you were, in a way.

"I," you finally managed. "It's hard to explain. Can you feel the exact same way about two people?"

Eijiro's mouth flattened into a line. "I guess that depends on the feeling."

There was something in his scent that changed then. It egged you on. Made you braver. Something that made you think he knew exactly what you were talking about.

You slowed your pace. "Can....Can you be in love with two people at the same time and love them an equal amount?"

You saw Eijiro swallow. His whole body seemed flushed. His eyes on you intently. You met them with equal intensity. Everything felt like it balanced on a delicate scale.

"That's a very serious question," he said, his voice a low murmur.

You nodded. "It's a very serious feeling."

Eijiro grabbed your wrist, tugging you a few aisles. And then there, right in between the Chex Mix and the Honey Graham's - he kissed you. You could actually feel his heart thrumming against his chest. Yours met his pace. Then quickly your mouths found their rhythm. It was hot and needy, and he tasted just like you'd expected him too. Only better.

A slight bit of shame chewed at you as you separated. You wanted this. You wanted him to be your Alpha, along with Katsuki. Honesty, Eijiro could probably teach him a thing or two about being an Alpha.

"Do you really mean this...?" Eijiro asked, and his face was more serious than you'd ever seen.

"That's been my issue," you muttered. "I love Katsuki. To absolute bits and I'd be lost without him. But I've fallen in love with you too. I love you to bits. I'd be lost without you. I've been happier these last couple months, and I think Katsuki has been too.

"But I'm worried. An Omega isn't supposed to have two Alphas. I'm not supposed to love two people, not so deeply, anyway. And I don't know how to tell Katsuki any of it. What if he thinks I don't love him as much? What if he thinks I want to leave him?"

Eijiro chuckled, then kissed your forehead. "Who said you can only love one person at a time? And who said it was illegal to have more than one Alpha? There's a lot of amazing people in the world. You can love as many of them as you want, with as much of yourself as you want. - Maybe it's a bit unmanly to admit, but I've kinda had a thing for you both for a while. If Katsuki's down for sharing you, having it be the three of us, then so am I. I just want you both to be happy. Even if that's without me."

You shook your head, you could barely stomach the thought. "I don't think I could be happy without you both now. It's hurts to much to think of either of you leaving. I think I've been falling in love you while I was also falling for Katsuki. So don't think it's just because you're around more."

"So....what do you want to do?" Eijiro was serious again. He held you closely, as if you'd always been like this. You caught as he momentarily warned an Alpha who was eyeing you up. A little change in scent was all it took for them to turn tail.

You groaned. "I don't know. I need to tell Katsuki. If I keep this secret in, I'll burst. And it's not like I want to cheat on him with you. I want it to be the three of us. My two favorite people."

"We could sit him down tomorrow, if you want. I'll wake up early, make breakfast. And we could talk."

You nodded, Eijiro made it sound so easy. "It's as good as any. - Now we better hurry before he calls asking where we are."

You two began towards the dessert section, then silence much more comfortable now.

Eijiro knocked your shoulder. "Oh, and Katsuki was right. You know? About the vanilla."

You groaned and momentarily hid your face in your hands. If things went too, you'd now have two people embarrassing the hell out of you.

You quickly fetched your desserts and the two of you went halfsies. Mostly because Eijiro left his wallet in his other pants and could only pay with what he had on him. You'd given him another kiss for how cute he was. You remembered to ask about Eijiro's garnish on the way back.

You and Eijiro were all smiles as you got back to the apartment. You worried. Would Katsuki think something was wrong? Or that something was going on behind his back? He didn't say anything, even if he did. Dinner was amazing, as you were expecting. Every bite was an absolute thrill to the taste buds.

Maybe Katsuki should give up heroing to a full time professional chef!

After dinner, you and Eijiro offered to do dishes. It was the least you could do since Katsuki cooked. You were washing and Eijiro was drying. Katsuki leaned on the doorway between the living room and kitchen for a while.

"Hey," Katsuki started awkwardly. The dishes were nearly done. "You don't have to worry about cooking breakfast tomorrow, Ei. Butt dial here basically told me everything themselves."

The plate in your hands clattered into the sink. You and Eijiro both stared at Katsuki. He didn't look mad or anything. More amused. He held up his phone and pressed a button. The entire conversation in the cereal aisle played out, right up until the vanilla comment.

"Katsuki," you rushed, drying your hands. "I promise, I still love you all the same -"

He came and pushed a gentle kiss to your lips. Katsuki's puppy dog smile came back as his eyes bounced between you and Eijiro. He grabbed the back of Eijiro's head and pulled him to kiss his forehead. Then left wordlessly out the door.

Eijiro put a hand on his forehead. A little grin coming. Then he laughed and grabbed you, pulling you close to him. He planted a few sloppy kisses on your cheek.

So it was a yes. Everything was fine. Katsuki wanted you both like you wanted them. There was nothing wrong with you. Nothing about this was bad. It was a possibility you hadn't thought of, with a better outcome than you could've hoped for.

Later that night, after Eijiro fell asleep on you for the millionth time, you finally talked to Katsuki.

"You really don't mind?" you asked. "About sharing me? About the three of us -"

"If I was going to be stuck with any idiots forever," Katsuki started. "I rather it be you two than anyone else."

You leaned up to give him a kiss. He put a hand on your cheek. That sent butterflies raving through your stomach.

"And you may have been fucking right," he admitted hesitantly against your lips. "I....might have a stupid thing for Shitty Hair. But that doesn't mean I'll ever love you any less."

You shrugged. "Lots of love to share."

"I'm not fucking sharing you with anyone else but him," Katsuki growled. "You're still my Omega. And it doesn't matter how I feel about him, if he even thinks about hurting you -"

You shushed him. "You'll wake up Eiji."

It took you both to carry Eijiro to your bed. You figured now was as good of time as any jump head long into this. Eijiro immediately clung to you, and Katsuki squished you in between. This felt amazing. This felt right. This is where you were supposed to be. In the arms of the Alphas, of the men, that you loved more than anyone else in the universe.

~

[sebstanns]

Deserve

Summary: You broach a tricky subject with Bucky. Recovering / soft Bucky x female reader. Angst / fluff / smut.

Warnings: 18+ for sexual content. Unprotected sex. Language.

A.N: I kept meaning to write for Steve but this happened. I usually write for Boyd Holbrook characters on my sideblog - Masterlist.

I didn’t tag anybody but let me know if you’d like to be, possibly a part 2 or a prequel to this. I’d like to thank @ionlyjoinedforboydholbrook​ for her constructive feedback! It’s my first time writing for Bucky so please be kind!

Your heart skips a beat when you see Bucky waiting outside your office building, holding a bunch of flowers no less. He's awkwardly leaning against a wall, eyes darting around searching for you.

"You shouldn't have." You smile as you approach him.

"I was just passing." He murmurs, cheeks flushing as you kiss him.

"Passing a flower stall too?" You ask, accepting the blooms.

"Yeah, I guess so." He smiles.

"Mr Barnes, sorry to bother you." A voice pipes up. You turn and vaguely recognise the guy, you've seen him in the office building. What does he want with Bucky though?

Bucky eyes him warily. "Do I know you?"

"Oh no, I'm uh....I'm a big fan." the guy stammers, starting to sweat.

"So you're a fan of my work as the Winter Soldier or...”

"No no, I mean since then. Saving the world and everything."

"Sure, thanks." Bucky sighs.

You kind of feel for the guy, Bucky wasn't exactly known for accepting compliments, you know that better than anyone.

"Hey, can I get a selfie?" the guy asks, pulling out his phone.

"He's off duty, sorry." You say diplomatically, taking Bucky’s arm. "Let's get going."

"I'll never get used to that, " Bucky mumbles, as you steer him away from his fan. "I spent so much effort trying to hide and now..." He trails off.

"You saved the world, that's what people know you for now." You say, determined to put a positive spin on things.

"It wasn't just me." He says, as you cross the street. He moves his arm and grabs your hand instead, squeezing lightly. He's wearing gloves as is usual in public, concealing his gleaming hand in black leather.

You fall into a companionable silence as you head in the direction of your apartment. You can't help noticing that you're taking the route that happens to pass Bucky's favourite diner - where you first met in fact, a little over four months ago.

"Feel like coffee and pie?" He asks casually.

You grin at his predictability. "Sure."

Your flowers sit on the table in a kindly donated water jug as you and Bucky tuck into pie and ice cream, apple and cherry respectively.

"This...is...the...best...pie." Bucky says between mouthfuls.

"I knew you were going to say that." You tease.

He smiles, his eyes twinkling and crinkling at the corners. Oh, he seems so happy and relaxed, you impulsively decide to broach a tricky subject, figuring now to be a good a time as any.

"So, you know my sister's getting married in a couple of weeks." You begin, glancing at him as you toy with your food.

Bucky's eyes flicker and he fills his mouth with pie. "Hm-hmm." He mumbles.

You take a deep breath. "Well, I was wondering if you'd consider coming with me, as my plus one?"

He pales a little and offers a tentative smile. "I don't know sweetheart."

"Clare wants to meet you, that's all. You don't even have to stay for the full day, just to say hello."

"Sounds more like a family thing." Bucky says tightly, shifting in his seat.

"Well yeah," you swallow, feeling yourself flush. "But you are my....I mean..."

He sighs. "I don't think it's a good idea, you saw what happened outside your office. Imagine that times a hundred."

"Everyone will be focused on the wedding, my family won't bug you, I promise. They aren’t like that.”

Bucky scoffs. “You might be surprised how brave people get after a couple glasses of champagne.”

You sigh impatiently, feeling something inside you break. "What are we doing here Bucky?"

"I thought we were eating pie." He half-smiles.

"You know what I mean. Us." You hated to push him like this, you really did, and you already knew that he wouldn’t react favourably to it, but your developing relationship had seemed to come to a standstill lately.

"We agreed to take things slowly, didn’t we? One day at a time." He says quietly, reaching for your hand.

"But that was four months ago, I thought that we might have progressed beyond that by now. It's like one step forward two steps back with you." You say, your voice cracking with emotion.

"You're not my shrink, ok?" He snaps suddenly.

You slide your hand away from his and reach for your bag, tears forming in your eyes.

"I'm going home." You say softly..

"Don't go, please. I'm sorry." He says, looking up at you, a note of quiet desperation in his voice.

"Enjoy your pie." You sniff, not looking at him. You’re halfway home before you realise that you've left the flowers on the table.

X - X - X

By the time you get home you're angry with yourself more than anything else, cursing the fact that you even mentioned the wedding. You had agreed to take things slowly, but the truth is that you’re falling for Bucky and you want him to be a bigger part of your life. The wedding seemed like the ideal opportunity to introduce him to your friends and family, but on reflection, you realise how overwhelming it might be.

Half an hour later when there's a knock at the door, you know that it's Bucky. He's carrying the flowers, still in the water jug.

"The waitress said we could have this, I think she just felt sorry for me." He chuckles dryly, following you into the living room.

You can’t help but smile at the image of him walking down the street with the flowers.

"I'm sorry." You murmur, setting the flowers on your coffee table.

"Why are you sorry? I was a jerk back there." Bucky frowns.

"I shouldn't have pushed you like that."

"You weren't pushing." He sighs.

"I spooked you.” You say softly, looking up at him.

"Yeah." He smiles. "A little. Look, I’m still trying to figure this out."

"I know. Me too. I've never been in a relationship like this."

"I should hope not." He says wryly.

You chuckle, fighting the urge to just throw youself into his arms.

"I like you, so much." Bucky murmurs, his eyes searching yours as he strokes your face. "But I can't help thinking that you'd be better off with someone else."

Your stomach drops. "No, Bucky-”

"I mean like someone who doesn't get spooked when you want to do regular relationship stuff, it's not fair on you." He says, brow furrowed.

"Look, forget the wedding, I'll ask one of my friends to come."

"It's not just the wedding though is it?" He sighs.

“I don’t want anybody else.” You state firmly, placing your hand on his chest - you can feel his ever present dog tags through the thin material of his sweater.

"You've been so patient with me, it's more than I deserve."

"This is what you deserve." You say, and kiss him gently on the cheek. "And this." then corner of his mouth. "And this." finally the hollow of his throat.

He lets out a soft groan and grips the nape of your neck, kissing you deeply, opening your mouth with his tongue. He tastes of cherry and vanilla, his lips soft but insistent.

"I want you." He breathes. "I want you."

Without a word, you take his hand and lead him to the bedroom. Bucky was so gentle and hesitant when you first started sleeping together, terrified of hurting you with his strength and self-conscious of his arm. You managed to convince him that you could take - even sometimes desired - a little roughness. He loved to take his time undressing you, kissing and touching your soft flesh as he went. And when you reciprocated, he'd been touch starved for so long that the feeling of your hands and lips on him was almost enough.

Tonight he didn't deviate, pulling off your clothes and kissing you everywhere as you laid on the bed. He hovers over you, still half dressed, and you stroke his hair, fingers entwined in the short strands as his lips travel down your body, making you squirm. Finally he kneels between your legs and tugs at your panties, eyes dark with lust.

"James." You sigh, touching yourself, wetness coating your fingertips.

"You're so beautiful." He says gruffly, eyes focused on you as he removes his jeans. You'd seen him naked a number of times now but you never failed to be impressed by his magnificence, even his cock, now hard and leaking at the tip, is a thing of beauty.

You hold your hand out for him to return to the bed but his hands reach for your waist, indicating for you to turn over; you comply and he moves behind you, lifting your hips and pushing into you in one swift movement. You cry out as he fills and stretches your pussy, digging your fingers into the mattress as you back up against him.

"Does that feel good, sweetheart?" He growls.

"Yes, please...don't stop." You mewl, as he buries his cock to the hilt.

Bucky’s flesh hand is between your legs, fingering your aching clit, while his metal one still grips your hip. You place your hand over his, interlacing your fingers with his vibranium digits.

The rhythmic clink of Bucky's dog tags and the sound of your soft cries fill the air, he continues to work your clit in tight circles as he moves inside you, leaning down to pepper kisses on your shoulder - it isn't long before you feel the familiar tightness building at your core.

"Oh, Bucky, I'm going to-" you trail off as he drives into you harder, making you come apart and you moan loudly as your orgasm rolls through you in hot waves.

Compared to you, Bucky's almost silent, quietly panting and groaning, his hold on you tightening as you feel him throbbing into you.

Afterwards he spoons you, his bionic arm around your waist like a vice, kissing your hair.

"Look, about the wedding-" He starts.

"We don't have to talk about it now." You yawn. “Let’s leave it until tomorrow. One day at a time.”

“One day at a time.” Bucky repeats, softly.

[peonyneko]

Hi! I love your writing so far, and I hope you don’t mind if I send you a request :) I was wondering if you could write something with Tenya Iida x the reader? I was thinking a situation where they’re on a class trip to the beach and he sees mineta bugging the reader with flirts because she’s wearing a bikini. I would love to see how Iida would react. Thanks in advance!

Buzz Off, Pop Off | Tenya Iida x Reader

I am making the class’ ages slightly ambiguous because I know a wide age range of people read fanfics. However, the story makes more sense in a high school or university setting. If you are older, you can make UA a hero university and 1-A one of the hero classes there. Also I apologize over how long this took to do. Hopefully, if you're reading it you like it.

Words: 1791 words | Fluff

Warning: Inappropriate comments, uncomfortable comments

“Say cheese!” Mina exclaimed as she attempted to capture pictures of everyone in the class. A scream emits from my throat as she tackles me into the water. Somehow, we managed to stay up. I hold up a hand covering part of face and body to avoid a full capture.

“Come on! You look absolutely amazing. It’s for the memories,” she pouted while crossing her arm.

“Hm... Try beating me in game of volleyball. We’ll see then,” I challenged her.

“Game on!”

“Pick your team. May all the luck be with you,” I bowed towards her, making her laugh at my response.

“Hey, everyone! We both are playing volleyball. Does anyone want to join?!” Mina shouts while pointing at the both of us. I instantly hear a series of ‘yes’ and ‘me’ throughout the beach.

Looking around, I made sure everyone was in their position. Iida is on my team... Wow. Okay, calm down. Don’t panic. Luckily (and obviously), this portion of the beach was reserved for the class only. The teachers were all still visible talking amongst themselves. As soon as the whistle blew, my focus turned towards the ball.

“____, you look quite hot with your bikini!” And there he goes.

“Wow. I wish you jumped towards me like that.” Dude, let me concentrate. Crap, the block was good.

“How about you and I go somewhere after this?” No thank you. Crap, I need to be careful with my spikes. It almost went out.

“Hehe. I know you’re interested, ____. You keep look at me.” No. I am looking at you with disgust. And I’m focusing on Iida, who is BEHIND you.

Before I can say anything Iida blows the whistle, indicating that we take a break. I try to catch my breath as the group rests. In the corner of my eye, a figure walking towards another captures my eye. I listen into their conversation.

“Mineta, I suggest you stop that disgusting behavior of yours. Can’t you see you are ruining her day?” Iida began. His confrontation immediately warms my heart. He didn’t have to do that but he did.

“Nah, you’ve got it wrong. She’s just chilling. Plus, she keeps looking at me. She’s interested.” Mineta responds while waving his hand up and down to dismiss Iida.

“I’m not.” I instantly blurt out with clear distaste.

“Your comments are still detestable. Her behavior shows discomfort not attraction. You need to stop.”

“Iida, calm down. Things won’t always go your way.” Mineta rolls his eyes.

“Then, I guess you leave me no choice.”

“Both teams, please listen up!” Iida drew the attention to himself.

When both teams gathered near him, Iida laid out a suggestion.

“How about we switch players? Mineta can switch with... Ojiro.” Both teams instantly went into consulting amongst themselves. Despite a few disagreements, the suggestion was not hard to accept. Since my team is aware of his behavior, they had no problem with agreeing with Iida.

The next thing I know, break ends and the games starts once again. We played three sets total. My team won the first set, Mina’s team won the second set, and now we were on the last set. Despite being on the other side of the net, Mineta continued to make suggestive face gestures. He also made some comments towards Mina. However, in response, she shot her acid at him, making him instantly regret his words.

Now, my team was one point away from winning.

“_____, are you okay? Are you able to concentrate?” Iida was focused on the game. Still, he made the time to ensure my state of mind. I reply with a quick ‘yes’. Right then, I see the ball rushing towards me.

“I got it!” I push my arms out to receive the ball, which I managed to do.

“Nice receive, ___!” Iida complimented while setting the ball towards Izuku.

Midoriya was there within a second, harshly slamming down the ball right besides Mineta’s position. The wind that emitted from it was otherworldly. My eyes widen in surprise. My eyes only grew when I saw Iida smiling to himself, then making a happy expression towards Midoriya. Did they plan- No. It’s probably because it’s our winning point.

“Ah! No! Mineta, it was right there!” Mina complains.

“Well, I could’ve died!” Mineta stood there in fear with his legs trembling.

I only chuckle to myself. My team cheers over our win. Soon enough, everyone begins to disperse.

“Aw, I really wanted a picture of you,” Mina whines, trying to convince me with her eyes. I just shake my head and whisper in her ear.

“Peer pressure but fine. Only after you know who leaves.”

Mina vigorously and happily shakes her head up and down.

After the exhausting sets, I decided to go in the water to cool off. I close my eyes, feeling the water against my legs. Suddenly, I heard voice.

“Just one date. What about it?” Mineta was, yet again, near me. Before I can respond, a blast of wind hits my fast. I look up and Iida was towering over me with Mineta in his grasp.

“Now, what did I tell you back there?” he sounded angrier than earlier.

“Uh. That she was not liking what I uh said,” Mineta was visibly panicking against his grasp.

“Do you think this is a joke?” Iida eyes darken and he tightens his hold on Mineta’s arms.

“No.”

“Then, I am sure you know what to do. Please, do not make me repeat myself,” he lowered Mineta back on the ground. Mineta quickly rushes towards the beach house. I also see others going back inside. It is starting to get a bit dark. Cold too.

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Iida looked worried. He kept his distance from me as if he wanted to make sure I am comfortable.

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry. You were able to keep him away from me. I was about to say something but you flew in.”

“Oh, I do apologize. I did not mean to enter your situation. You just looked uncomfortable with his presence,” he fixed his glasses. My heart was beating rather quickly. The cool breeze against my skin was not helping the heat on my cheeks and neck.

“No! You’re alright. Thank you!” I quickly responded.

“Since it is getting cold,” Iida reached for his bag and pulled out a blue shirt.

“Here you go,” he hands me his shirt.

I take it into my hand and unfold it to put it on. A slight blush builds on his face after seeing me put it on. We continued to simply gaze at each other until I looked at the water.

“You look- Well, you see- I- For a while now,” I was confused with Iida’s tense composure. I closed his eyes and breathes in, then breathes out.

“I do not want you for feel pressured. Please tell me to stop when you begin to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable. I simply need to get this off my chest,” he began. What?

“I’ve liked you for a while now. I can’t help but feel the need to take care of you. Though, I am full aware that you’re completely capable taking care of yourself. When Mineta made those crude comments, my irritation only tripled. I want to be able to fully stop that without making you feel surprised with my sudden interference. I have never wanted to be with someone as much as I have wanted to be with you. We still have a long way to go in life but I can tell that my feelings are serious. Will you be my girlfriend? Will you make me your boyfriend?” he looked calm but his red ears hinted otherwise.

My mouth was slightly open in surprise. My mind was trying to process all the information. I looked at the water, once again. What are you doing?! This is your chance. You’ve like him for a long time too. Do not ruin this for yourself.

“I won’t rush you so take your ti-”

“I like you too!” I interrupted him. He steps back at my sudden confession.

“I have liked you for a while too. I just didn’t know what to do. So yes, I’d love to be partners,” I smiled at him.

His eyes widen and glimmer with light. His face grows a big smiles and his chest swells. He puts out his hands but does not lean forwards.

“Can I hug you?”

“I don’t see why not”

As soon as those words left my mouth, I felt his warmth around my body.

*click* Huh? I internally shrug off the sound that I heard.

Upon entering the beach house, I heard the class talking amongst themselves.

“I told you so! You owe me a hamburger,” Denki told Jirou.

“Hm. Seems like you were right after all, Midoriya,” Todoroki says. Bakugou ‘tsk’ed at both of them.

I was in utter confusion until I noticed the image in Mina’s hand. It was a polaroid of Iida and I hugging.

“And here you were lecturing me about my actions,” Mineta looks at Iida.

In return, Iida only crosses him arms and glare at him.

“Mr. Aizawa wants to have a word with you. I suggest you do not lie. He already saw your actions and I did not leave out any details,” he replies. There were a few giggles from the students.

“Also,” the classroom is completely silent.

“I’m her boyfriend so buzz off, pop off.”

Not even a second after Iida’s confession, the classroom began screaming and laughing. The reaction towards the his changed relationship status and use of vocabulary was undeniably loud. Mineta’s mouth opens with shock at Iida’s words.

Iida gently takes my hands and pulls me towards the main room’s couch.

“Now, tell us everything!” Mina exclaims flopping the polaroid around as she walks near us. The rest of the class, except for Mineta, also gathers around to hear the story.

“Ah! That’s so cute. I didn’t know that’s when you started liking ____.” Me neither.

“Why did it take you so long to realize, huh?!”

“You shouldn’t be talking, Bakubro. You denied their attraction first.” Oh, no.

“Dude, you’re right but I don’t think you should have- Hey, wait! I didn’t mean it like that.” I hope he is okay.

“With the way he looked at her when he and I walked together, I was sure of it.” Always the observant one.

“I love you” I whispered at Iida, underneath all the noise.

“I love you just as much” Iida whispers back into in my ear.

-----

Please leave any suggestions or requests. Not beta read we upload with the 5% of confidence (not even) we have.

[solarwonux]

8. “We need to talk about what happened last night.”

25.  “It’s an office with huge windows, everyone can see.” “So?”

marketing director!mingyu x f!reader

w.c: 2.6k

warnings: a little bitt of angst, a little bit of fluff, suggestive themes like voyeurism briefly mentioned

note: ngl, I’m sorry not my best work but I TRIED. Let me know your thoughts it would really help me out a lot. Thank you for reading.xx

masterlist || prompt list

Kim Mingyu - Marketing Director

The nameplate on the door sends a shiver up your spine, knowing that the man you had accidentally pulled in for a drunk kiss the night before during the weekly company bonding dinner, was sitting just behind the door. He was pissed, had pushed you away, made a big deal in wiping his mouth with the back of his hand in disgust. Causing you to sober up quickly and regretting it.

It’s no secret that God had taken his sweet time when creating Kim Mingyu Marketing Director of GoSe Enterprises. He put all the Greek Gods you spent your free time reading about to shame. You’ve been crushing on him since he sat in the cubicle next to yours for years. The two of you had developed a nice easy-going friendship. He was sweet, funny, and always offered amazing advice, both on personal and professional matters. You were practically head over heals for him.

Then the promotion came, granting Mingyu with an office on the southside of the company building. Huge windows overlooking the city below, and the office. A nice fancy gold nameplate with his new job description underneath it. Naturally, the two of you grew apart, ripped from one another without a warning. He was no longer rooting for you and your ideas. Instead, he was the one turning down all your project proposals. He was the one assigning you the revision tasks he knew you hated doing. He was the reason for the random spikes of anxiety throughout the workday. He was no longer your friend, he was your supervisor. His soft demeanor and fleeting touches were nowhere to be found. Lost amongst piles of paperwork surrounding his desk. 

You took a deep breath holding your laptop close against your chest, eyeing the nameplate on the large dark wooden door that took your Mingyu away from you a year ago. You were nervous. He only ever called you down to his office if you had a proposal revision due, which this time you didn’t. 

The last idea you had pitched two weeks ago was turned down before you could finish your sentence during your first PowerPoint slide. He didn’t even give you the chance to improve it, simply said, “trash it, it’s not worth wasting your time when it’s not a plausible option.” So, the only other option left and the one that made sense was your slip-up the night before. He had called you down to ask for your resignation letter for breaking company policy. 

“If you keep staring at the door it won’t magically open,” Chan spoke next to you making you jump. “I’m just saying.” He shrugged sheepishly and opened the door, walking in with confidence. “Mingyu I have the copies you asked for.” 

You filed in after him, situating yourself close to the wall and by the door, while Mingyu instructed Chan on where to set down the copies. Your heart was beating rapidly against your chest, watching as the two of them laughed about some inside joke they had. The anger along with jealousy boiled with fever deep within you. 

This was the problem. Mingyu had only changed when it came to you. With everyone else he was the same Mingyu you once had the pleasure of knowing, and that not only confused you but it made you angry. “Are we still on for guys' night this friday?” Chan asked the older male pointing finger guns at him. 

“Yes, of course, drinks are on Seungcheol this time, which makes my wallet really happy.” Mingyu clapped Chan on the back and led him towards his office door. “Same bar with the cute bartender?” He emphasized, his angry gaze falling on you for a second. 

Subtle you silently scoffed rolling your eyes, holding your laptop as close to your body as humanly possible.If he didn’t make his distaste towards you obvious by his reaction last night, he surely made it painfully clear just now. 

“That’s the one.” Chan nodded, sending you a pitying look, one you didn’t need. You knew you were fucked. 

Everyone knew about your painful crush on Mingyu. Everyone had seen you grab the collar of his dark maroon shirt last night and plant a wet alcohol filled kiss against his lips. Everyone had seen the way he reacted, yanking his suit jacket off the back of his chair and walking out of the bar pissed. So, you didn’t need the various pitying looks you were getting since the moment you walked in that morning.

“Alright then I’ll see you then, don’t forget to turn in your proposal by tomorrow night, Jeonghan keeps bugging me about it.” 

Chan sighed, hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand, “shit, I’ll have it done by tomorrow morning.” He said quickly before speed walking back to his cubicle. Leaving you alone to face the problem you had caused. 

Mingyu laughed lightly, shaking his head as he shut the door to his office, “I knew he forgot.” He mumbled before straightening his back, the scowl you were used to seeing appeared on his face once again. He walked past you to his desk, taking a seat next to his name plate. You stayed put, looking down at the floor, only counting the tiny dust bunnies that were visible to your eye. 

Mingyu cleared his throat, “We need to talk about what happened last night.” 

You raised your head pushing yourself off the wall and walked to him. Stopping behind one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “Don’t need to, It’s my fault for breaking company policy. I’ll hand in my resignation letter to Jeonghan tonight.” You kept your eyes trained on the skyscraper reflecting through the window behind him. Anything was better than looking at him right now. 

He sighed, running a frustrated hand across his face. He pushed himself away from his desk and took a step forward. “I didn’t call you in here to ask you to resign.” 

Confused, you tore your eyes from the building behind him and looked at him. The bags under his eyes that had started to form from lack of sleep and overwork were now more prominent than before. It made you wonder if he hadn’t slept last night because of you, but then you remembered the huge project he was currently working on, so you casted that thought aside.

“Oh then...I-umm, why am I here?” 

“Do you have any idea the position you put me in last night?” He furrowed his brows, placing a knee down on the chair in front of him. He leaned his forearms against the back of it, closing the distance you purposely kept between the two of you. 

You took a step back, scrunching your nose, “I don’t understand. You don’t want me to resign. If I’m not getting penalized then why am I here?” You dropped your arms in defeat. “If you called me in here to tell me you’re not interested in me, you don’t have to. I already know.” You finished swallowing the lump that had formed at the back of your throat. 

“That’s the problem.” Mingyu pointed an accusing finger at you before retreating it. “I am interested in you, more than interested in you. I have strong feelings for you and I can’t act on them because I don’t want everyone to think that I favor you, because I do.” 

I’m dreaming, you thought pressing the palm of your hand against your heated forehead. You had to be dreaming, life has never been this giving to you, “wait I’m confused...you ran out last night, literally pushed me away, disgusted. Do you have any idea how that felt? I had to sit down and face our co-workers with a fake smile on my face because I didn’t want them to see me cry.” 

Mingyu’s face softened, he gripped the back of the chair hard enough for his knuckles to almost turn white. “I know and I’m sorry but if I had stayed then I would’ve kept kissing you. You have no idea how badly I’ve been wanting to do that.” He dropped his head releasing a shuddering breath. “Every time we stayed here working over time, the only thing I could think about was how easy it’d be if I just leaned over a little more and kissed you. No one would be around, no one would see, it would just be our little secret. But the stupid company policy always seemed to find it’s way into my head and I never let myself cross that boundary.”

“Mingyu w-why are you telling me this now? Even if we have feelings for one another, my job is important to me and I don’t want to risk getting fired because we’re together.” You blinked rapidly, now was not the time to cry. You could cry later in the communal bathroom across the hall, or on the bus ride home, just anywhere but here. 

“Well,” Mingyu rounded the corner of the chairs and made his way to you, finally closing the distance. “I talked to Jeonghan -”

“Wait you told him we kissed?” You were sure your eyes were bulging out of their sockets as the realization hit you. Of course, Mingyu wasn’t going to fire you, he was saving himself the burden and having Jeonghan do it for him. 

He chuckled, placing a hand against your hip making you jump, “Just how drunk were you last night? Jeonghan was there when it happened. He called me and threatened to fire me for leaving you the way I did.” He whispered, circling his arm around you and pulling you close, making you stumble from the sudden impact. “H’said, fuck company policy and that I was stupid for following it when no one does.” 

“Wait are you saying th -” 

“Yes we can be together as long as we keep our work and personal lives separate, so, no sex in my office.” 

You gasped hitting his chest lightly, this lewd side of Mingyu was one you had never seen before. Or at least you had but in a much more subtle way. “Well of course, we can’t do that. That was never going to be part of the deal.” The thought of him pressing you against his desk after hours sent a thrilling shiver up your spine. You bit your lip, shaking your head. No, not allowed, focus. 

“Why not? I’ve slept on the couch here a few times. It's pretty comfortable.” He reassured, hooking his thumb in the belt loops of your dark slacks. “And your ass looks so good in these pants, I literally have to make it my mission to not stare.” 

“I’m flattered, I guess. But look around Gyu.” His gaze followed your hand as you waved it around in front of him. “It’s an office with huge windows, everyone can see -” 

He pulled you closer, eloping your body in both of his arms, “so?” He tilted his head to the side, a smirk playing against his lips. You had forgotten how much he liked to tease you. 

“So?” You rolled your eyes, “were you not listening to what I was saying everyone can see.” You emphasized, poking his cheek with your index finger. 

Mingyu bit his bottom lip trying to suppress his laughter. He forgot how easily flustered you could get, especially when he would say something out of pocket to you. Sure, half of the time you would ignore him, sometimes you would simply roll your eyes, focused on whatever you were working on. Other times he would leave you at a loss for words.

“Frankly, I don’t see the problem. We can just wait until everyone goes home and then give whoever is walking by a free show.” He finished raising his eyebrows suggestively at you. 

You rolled your eyes, pushing him away and walked to his door. “I can’t believe you’re already thinking about having sex with me and you haven’t even asked me out on a date or to be your girlfriend.” You pushed his door open and walked out, “the audacity you have Kim Mingyu.” 

He felt panic surge through him, his big mouth getting the best of him once again. “Woah woah wait I was getting there, you didn’t give me the chance to ask.” He followed you out the door, trying to keep up with your hasty steps. Who knew you could walk so fast in heels. 

Once you were at your cubicle you sat down, placing your laptop on top of your desk, waking it up. “Too late, company policy says we have to keep our work and personal lives separate, guess you’re going to have to wait a while.” You look at the digital clock on your desk, “Five and a half hours to be exact.” 

Mingyu threw his head back, frustrated. As much as he enjoyed teasing you, he had forgotten that you were equally as evil if not worse. He had waited to ask you out for more than two years and now that he could, he literally couldn’t wait five and a half hours.

“Friday, after work?” He whispered, covering the side of his mouth with his hand to make it look less suspicious. It wasn’t working.

“What about guys night and that cute bartender?” You smirked, clicking around your computer opening the files you were working on earlier. 

Mingyu took a deep breath and grabbed the back of your chair, swinging it around ripping you away from your computer screen. “Fuck guys night honey, I’m taking you home, cooking you the best meal you’ve ever had and then -” He stopped peaking over your cubicle. Everyone that had tuned in to your debacle, quickly scrambled to focus on whatever they were doing before you and Mingyu walked in. He nodded once before leaning down, his lips close to your ear, whispering, “then I’m going to fuck you against my window so everyone can see that you’re finally mine.” 

You bit your lip to keep yourself from moaning.You put your hand on his chest and leaned in, placing a soft kiss against the shell of his ear. “Kinky, ask me again in five and a half hours.” You gave his cheek a gentle pat before pushing him away, returning your attention to what you were doing. 

Mingyu grumbled, shoulders slumped as he dragged himself back to his office. You stifled a laugh, the butterflies you had once felt for him returning. 

“You know I heard all of that.” Soonyoung spoke, peeking his head into your cubicle, his eyes wide like he had just seen a ghost, or something utterly disgusting.

Fuck! Mingyu! You whined silently before turning to face your cubicle mate. “I’ll buy you lunch if you pretend like you didn’t hear anything.” 

He put a pensive hand on his chin before sticking his hand out for you to shake. “Deal, I suddenly have been overcome with amnesia, whatever happened in the last five minutes I do not remember, that’s only if you promise to also finish revising this project proposal for me.” He waved the large packet of white copy paper in front of you. 

You groaned, “that wasn’t part of the deal we just shook on.” 

He sucked in air, “I don’t remember that.” He pouted. “I have amnesia, remember.” 

“Fuck fine.”

[blueskrugs]

Turning Out | Jack Hughes

long story short: I made myself extremely emotional with this song, told @nazdaddy about it, and together we made it worse. over two months later, this fic was finally born. title from the AJR song of the same name. (are we really surprised it’s a song fic at this point?)

tagging:  @marcoscandellas​ @stlbluesbrat21​ @dembenchboys​ @poltoncarayko​ @robthomissed​ @letmeplaytheblues​ @troubatrain​ @ayohockeycheck​ @blackwidowrising​ @aria253264​ @antoineroussel​ @starswin​ @glassdanse​ @ch-ristiane​ @majdoline​ @nazdaddy​ @hockey-more-like​ @thebestoffanfiction​

length: 3.6k

I thought I'd recognize when love was true But I'm confused

It was summer in Michigan, and you were laying in the hammock in the backyard with Jack. You could feel your nose getting burned, and you were sure his was already on its way to burnt, too. School was out, the summer stretching endlessly before you. 

Well. There was the matter of the draft. It was only a couple of weeks away now, and all conversations led back to it.

“I’m proud of you,” you murmured during a lull in conversation. Your head was on Jack’s chest, one arm draped around your shoulders and the other behind his head.

He laughed. “Wait until I actually get drafted by someone first, eh?”

You scoffed and twisted to look up at his face. He was blushing. “Okay, sure, whatever, Mr. Hotshot Top Prospect,” you teased, reaching up to poke Jack right beneath his arm where he was ticklish. He flinched, and the hammock swung wildly.

Jack grabbed onto your hand and wrenched it away from his side, tightening his other arm around your shoulders.

“You’re so mean to me,” he complained, but he was grinning at you. He didn’t let go of your hand. 

“I mean it, though,” you said.

“God,” Jack groaned. “Stop it.”

It wasn’t that the draft was a sore subject, exactly, but you knew Jack was getting more than a little tired of hearing about it constantly. You just couldn’t resist teasing him a bit more.

“Are you gonna forget about me once you’re off in some big city, being an NHL star?” you asked. 

Jack scoffed a little and wrinkled his nose at you. “I could never forget about you, Bug,” he said softly.

Bug. You called each other that, had for years, but you’d mostly grown out of it. It was nice to hear it again. You poked Jack again, for no real reason, just to get him to squirm, maybe.

“You mean it?” you asked, just as softly. The birds and cicadas were loud around you, but you two were in a little bubble of your own in your hammock.

Jack scoffed again. “You’re my best friend. We’re gonna be together forever,” he said.

Forever was a long time, but Jack sounded so confident, so sure of the future, that you let yourself believe him. 

Am I ready for love Or maybe just a best friend

You might’ve cried a little as you watched Jack get called first overall, but you were still in Michigan while they were all off in Vancouver, so there was no one to call you out on it. Jack texted you almost immediately, just a row of exclamation points, which made you laugh. He called you later, too, but you couldn’t hear much over Turcs and Cole yelling. 

With the craziness of it all, you ended up having to wait to have a real conversation with Jack until after he was back in Michigan, and he ended up at your front door, looking a little like he hadn’t slept since before the draft. 

“Hey, you,” you said, but Jack was already stepping forward and pulling you into a hug, burying his face in your neck, despite the fact that he was definitely taller than you. “Wanna go on a walk?” you asked him. 

Jack grinned and nodded eagerly at you, which is how you ended up strolling through the familiar streets of your neighborhood, not really talking, just a comfortable silence between you. 

Until you got to the local park and Jack flopped down in the grass with a sigh. You laid down next to him, looking up at the white clouds skidding across the blue late-June sky. 

“I thought I’d feel different for some reason, you know?” Jack said finally. “Like being drafted first would change me somehow or something.”

You laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll always be our Jacky,” you told him, just for the way he rolled his eyes at you. Still the same Jack, same blue eyes and floppy hair, same kid you’d known for years. Jack was still looking at you, serious in a way he never was, and you just wanted him to smile again, because then everything still would be the same. “Jack,” you said, made him look at you. 

“You know I love you, right?” Jack blurted, and the words you’d been about to say died on your tongue.

You were going to say that nothing had to change, but maybe you were wrong. You’d fallen in love with your best friend a long time ago, but you’d long since resigned yourself to being nothing more than a best friend. It was easier to keep him in your life that way, rather than risk ruining everything.

“Duh, you’d be lost without me,” you joked instead. It made Jack smile, just for a moment.

Jack sat up then, leaning his weight back on his hands so he could keep looking up at the sky. “I wish you could come with me,” he said quietly.

You sat up and mirrored Jack’s pose. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” you tried to joke. It fell flat. You weren’t really sure you knew how to get through life without Jack by your side. Maybe it would be a good thing to get some distance, actually. 

Jack was staring at you. You couldn’t read his face. It turned out that you didn’t need to, because the next thing you knew, Jack was leaning forward and pressing his lips to yours. It was a quick kiss, and you’d barely had time to react before Jack was pulling away again.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, but he looked more apologetic than regretful. 

“Oh,” was all you could say. 

“It’s not fair,” Jack said, and you weren’t sure where this conversation was going anymore. “We’re gonna be so far apart, and you deserve better.”

You were at a point in your life where you were expected to be more grown up, but Jack had never looked younger. You had never felt more lost. 

“I just don’t wanna break your heart,” Jack said. It was a little late for that, you thought, but you didn’t say that. 

“Yeah,” you murmured finally, which didn’t really make sense, but Jack accepted it. 

He laid back down in the grass next to you, and after a minute of watching him yourself, you laid next to him again.

You say I turned out fine I think I'm still turning out

The first time you visited Jack in New Jersey was over Christmas his rookie year. He picked you up at the airport, wrapping you up in a hug like no time had passed at all. He took you back to his apartment, and it was like you were in high school again.

You went to the game the next night, and meeting everyone else was mostly a blur of names and faces.  It wasn’t until you were all heading down to the family room after the final buzzer that you realized that you didn’t know who Isabella, who’d been talking to you all night, was dating. You never quite got the chance to ask, either, but it didn’t matter in the end. Jack emerged from the locker room and made a beeline for you and Isabella. He gave you a quick hug before turning to Isabella and giving her a hug and a kiss.

Ah, so that’s how it was. You felt your heart stop in your chest, but you forced on a smile and let Jack wrap an arm around each of your shoulders. You’d been expecting this, you could handle it. 

You loved Jack, and he loved you, just not in the same way. He’d fall in love with someone else, and you’d get used to it eventually.

When Jack called you a few months later and told you they’d broken up, you comforted him, tried to pretend that you weren’t a tiny bit happy. You just reminded yourself that there would always be someone else.

I hope you stick around We're gonna figure it out Who can I turn to now?

Your phone was ringing. It was late, and there was only one person your phone rang for after midnight. You fumbled for it in the dark, eyes still heavy with sleep, and answered it without looking at the screen. 

“Hi,” you said, or tried to say. Your voice hadn’t quite woken up with the rest of your body yet. You rolled onto your back, blinked up at the dark ceiling.

You heard Jack let out a sigh on the other end of the line. “I woke you up,” he said. He sounded tired.

The Devils were somewhere on the West Coast, and you’d fallen asleep before the game had ended. You probably didn’t want to know.

“I hadn’t been asleep very long,” you lied. Jack made a noise like he definitely didn’t believe you. 

It was quiet for a moment. Then, “Did you watch?” 

“No,” you admitted. 

Jack huffed. It might have been a laugh, except you knew your best friend, and he was fighting to keep his voice from breaking. “Good,” he told you.

“You should stay off Twitter,” you said mildly, and this time Jack did laugh at you, but there wasn’t any humor behind it.

You’d seen the comments, the tweets, the articles. You know Jack saw them, too, stayed up too late reading them, even when you all told him not to. Jack Hughes: first overall draft pick, USNTDP scoring phenom, underdeveloped, too small, and, well, a bust. 

“What if they’re right, though?” Jack said quietly. You wondered if he was in his hotel room, curled up against his pillows, trying not to wake his roommate, or if he’d wandered out into the hall, found somewhere to be alone. 

“Oh, Bug,” you said. It slipped out really, but you heard Jack’s shaky breath. You didn’t know the last time you’d called him that. 

“I miss you,” Jack blurted. You wiped at your eyes. The Devils had hit Detroit just before healing west, and you’d made the trip down to see them. It had only been a few days. But this was more than not seeing each other for a while. It was growing up too fast, the world changing whether or not you were ready for it, not realizing that everything was different until it was too late. 

You missed Jack, missed seeing him every day, trying to help each other with homework and then laughing too hard to actually get anything done. You missed hockey games and the certainty that you’d be friends forever. Forever was a long time when you were young and naïve. 

You tried not to think too much about forever these days, or how you’d still turn to say something to Jack, even though he hadn’t been by your side in a long time. He didn’t need to know any of that.

“I miss you, too,” is what you said, feeling it aching in your chest. Your eyes burned, and it wasn’t because you were tired. 

I'm a little kid, and so are you Don't you go and grow up before I do

He was always the first person you called. When you failed a test, when you were sick, when you got your heart broken.

You hadn’t stopped to think about where Jack might be, and you panicked a little when the phone rang endlessly. You were about to hang up and give up when Jack answered, just before it went to voicemail.

“What’s up?” He sounded like he’d been laughing, and it was loud around him. You were pretty sure you could pick out P.K.’s loud voice.

He was out with his team, having fun, and you were crying alone over a broken heart. You shouldn’t have called.

“Never mind, you’re busy,” you said, already pulling the phone away from your ear to hang up. You didn’t need to bother Jack with this, not now.

“Wait, wait,” Jack stopped you. He paused, and you heard a door close, and then it was quieter. “I always have time to talk to you,” he said, and you cried harder. “Hang on, are you crying? What happened?”

You took a steadying breath. Tried one last time to get the tears under control. “He broke up with me, Jack.”

Jack swore under his breath. “I’m sorry, Y/N,” he told you.

It hadn’t been a great relationship to begin with, you’d always known that. There was no real future in it, but it had been fun for a while, something to distract yourself from the fact that the guy you really wanted to be with was on the other side of the country. But it had fallen apart, just like it always did. Somehow it had still blindsided you, in spite of the missed calls and blown off dates, which is how you found yourself shattered on your bedroom floor now.

You weren’t sure how much longer you could rely on Jack to pick up the pieces.

“Talk to me,” Jack said quietly, and you choked back another sob.

“I hate this,” you murmured. Hated being so far away from your best friend, hated crying over a guy you didn’t even love. “I miss you so much,” you added. You felt like you’d been saying that more than anything since Jack had been drafted. 

Jack hummed, distracted. You could still hear his teammates yelling somewhere on the other side of the door. “You should come visit,” Jack said after a moment. 

You laughed. There was no way you’d be able to drop your life and fly out to New Jersey, no matter how badly you might’ve wanted to. It just didn’t work like that.

“I should let you get back to the guys,” you said instead of answering. Jack made a protesting noise on the other end of the line, but you hung up before he could get a word in. 

I'm a little kid with so much doubt Do you wanna be there to see how I turn out?

Your cap and gown hung on the back of your bathroom door. You stared into the mirror for a minute before you reached to tug them on. It felt strange to be graduating college. You still felt out of your depth most days, and now you were being let loose upon the world. Supposedly you were ready for it now. You weren’t sure you’d ever be ready, really.

You searched the crowd for your parents as you made your way to your seat. You had hoped Jack would’ve come, too, but he’d hit you with some excuse about how he’d still be stuck in Jersey. You tried to pretend like it hadn’t hurt. 

The graduation itself passed in a blur. You hadn’t tripped over anything when you’d gone to collect your diploma, and honestly that was all that mattered. 

You were searching for your family in the madness outside when you heard a voice yell, “Hey! Bug!”

You spun around, clutching your cap to your head so it didn’t fall off. There was only one person who’d ever called you that. Jack was making his way towards you through the crowd, hair windswept and smile bright. 

“Jack!” you yelled back, already launching yourself at him. He caught you easily, sweeping you up in a tight hug. You buried your face in his neck, no longer caring if your cap fell off. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

Jack pulled back to give you a look. “You didn’t really think I’d miss your graduation, did you?��� You shrugged, and Jack frowned a little at you. He bent over to pick up your fallen cap. “You dropped something,” he said, but when you reached to take it from him, he just grinned and shoved it on his own head. It was crooked, and the tassel was falling in his face. “C’mon, your parents are over here,” he told you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and tugging you along with him. 

“I’m proud of you,” Jack said later that night, laying next to you on your bed. The TV was on, but neither of you were really watching it. 

“I’m supposed to say that about you,” you said, poking him in the ribs. The Devils had had a good season, led to the first round of the playoffs by Nico and Jack. (They’d gotten their asses kicked, but they’d made it.)

He squirmed away and grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers together and resting them both on his chest. “Whatever,” he scoffed. “You’re all smart and graduated now,” he told you.

It was your turn to scoff. “That doesn’t mean I know what the fuck I’m doing.” Jack turned to look at you, one arm behind his head, and you were suddenly reminded of a moment just like this, so many years before, with the summer and the rest of your lives stretching out before you. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” you admitted. With life, but also right here, lying in bed with your best friend. 

Jack turned fully, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at you. His hair flopped in his face, and you reached up absently to push it back. 

“You should come to New Jersey,” he said, face dead serious. It was far from the first time he’s said that to you. You’d always laughed or brushed it off, unwilling to admit that, while terrifying, back by Jack’s side was the only place you’d dreamed of being for years. 

“I-” you started. You didn’t know what was going to come next. Jack was still staring down at you. You reached up to poke the mole next to his mouth, just to see if you could get him to smile.

He did, but he batted your hand away before you could do it again. “I mean it,” he said. You rolled your eyes. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” you said. You tried to roll away from Jack, away from this conversation, but he grabbed your wrist, settled his weight on your legs so you couldn’t escape. 

He was frowning at you. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re my best friend.”

“Yeah, exactly.” Jack’s frown deepened, and the crease between his eyebrows was frustratingly adorable. “I’m your best friend. And that was enough while I was in school, and you were still trying to figure out the NHL.” Jack did let you roll away from this time, and you curled up against the wall, not meeting his eyes. “But I don’t think I can be in the same city as you, watching as you find some pretty girl to fall in love with until you leave me behind. I don’t think I can watch as you become everything I want for someone else.”

“There isn’t anyone else,” Jack said slowly.

You huffed out a sigh. “Not now, maybe. But there will be.” There always would be, for you and for him. 

Jack rolled his eyes at you, and that hurt a little. “There hasn’t been anyone else for me but you, not for a long time, not really,” Jack told you.

You weren’t sure if you wanted to laugh or cry. You were pretty sure he’d had a girlfriend at the beginning of the season this year. It had been years since that day he’d kissed you in the park, long enough that you nearly forgot about it. You didn’t think his feelings had really changed after all these years.

“Don’t give me that look,” Jack said, flicking you on the leg. “I mean it. It just- we were still kids and then I was off in Newark, and one of us always seemed to be dating someone else, and I could never ask you to just fucking move across the country for me-” Jack was rambling, and you cut him off by poking him with your toes. He grabbed onto your foot and looked up at you. “I’m not sure I know how to love anyone else but you,” he admitted.

“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” you asked. You reached over to grab a pillow so you could hit Jack with it. He spluttered and looked offended. “I’ve been in love with you since we were kids, Jack.”

Jack’s face softened. “Did you listen to anything I just said? I had reasons!” he tried, but he was grinning at you now.

“Please just come here and kiss me,” you said.

Jack didn’t need any convincing, and then he was leaning forward and tangling a hand in your hair to pull you in for a kiss. He pulled back and rested his forehead against yours to catch his breath; you whacked him with the pillow one more time for good measure.

“Hey! What was that one for?” Jack asked, already trying to wrestle the pillow away from you.

“Got a lot of years to make up for, Jacky,” you said.

Jack gave up on getting the pillow away from you and settled for pinning you to the bed with his hands on your wrists. You kneed him gently in the ribs. 

“I hate you,” Jack sighed, but you knew him too well for that. The look on his face was just fond. You’d seen that look a lot over the years, and now you were realizing that there was something else to it. Love.

“Nah, you don’t,” you said.

Jack smiled at you and bent down to kiss you again. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “I could never.”

[capt-spooki3]

By The Witch's Grace

Route Unlocked: Phil

Chapter Four: First Lesson

A Sbi "choose your own story" fanfiction

Click here for story description

Warnings: cursing, fainting

4.4k words

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Y/n stepped down the stairs on the porch, they decided on going to go find Phil because they were eager to ask him all about magic. As they walked down the last step, Wilbur hopped up with the guitar in hand and a big smile when he saw them.

“Hey! Uh Y/n, good morning, I was going to ask if you could help teach me guitar?” He held the instrument up in his hands, gently like he was afraid to break it. “You seem like you’d be a good teacher.”

“Oh, yeah, I can teach you sometime. I’m going to go find where Phil went off to, but there are music books on the shelf if you want to get started!” They smiled at him, his face falling a little and shoulders lowering before a small smile returned and he stood, looking a little too tense.

“Of course! Of course… have fun Y/n.”

They waved to him as they walked away, feeling a little guilty to leave him like that, but brushed it off as they approached the tree line and heard soft humming from within the trees.

“Why in the world does he have to be all the way in the woods- hey, Phil?” They stopped before the grass was taller and waited to see if they would get a response, but they got nothing. Right as they stepped forward to walk into the taller brush, a flicker of blue light illuminated from farther in the trees. “Using magic instead of words… of course.” They couldn’t help but smile and scoffed but continued forward into the forest.

A few paces in and they spotted him sitting in a clearing they were sure wasn’t there before, just watching a floating blue light right above the palm of his hand. There was a thin line of blue light that shone dimly around the area of the clearing. He almost seemed to be actively ignoring their presence until they took a step into the circle and he turned to them just before they tripped on seemingly nothing. Losing all sense of balance in an instant, they fell forward flat on the ground. They slowly opened their eyes up, groaning softly, but quickly realizing they weren’t in the forest anymore. The circle he had been sitting in had turned into a pasture on a small hill that overlooked an overgrown piece of land and instead of being morning, it was night now. Crickets sang softly and lightning bugs glittered the area and even the air smelt of dew and coldness of the night.

“What the hell…” They got to their feet slowly, looking around in awe while Phil watched in silence. They walked forward but stopped at the softly glowing, blue circle that seemed to be the same area of the clearing they saw before stepping in. “What is this… Phil?” Turning to him, they watched his hand enclose around the blue light he was holding, and it burst into little blue embers before disappearing before he stood up to join them at the edge of the circle.

“Peaceful isn’t it?” He spoke softly so as not to disturb the quietness around them both. “It’s magic in case you couldn’t tell, I’m surprised you couldn’t feel it before you stepped in.” He said with a little laugh, quietly surveying the area with a smile.

“What do you mean?

“Hm?”

They gestured aimlessly with their hands.”What you just said- the.. ‘couldn’t feel it’ bit. What does that mean?”

“Oh! Right, my bad mate” He laughed at himself, taking a moment to sit down again though beside them this time before he explained. “Let’s see, how can I explain this in a way that would make sense… so magic has a feeling when your soul is in tune to it, you’ll have a sixth sense in a way once you work on being able to feel it. When you get close to a magical area or even a person that uses magic, your soul will react.” Y/n looked at him like he was crazy when he said that but his smile just grew wider. “It feels warm like you’re standing near a fire on a cool summer night. I’m sure you’ll get a hang of the feeling quickly though so don’t worry. You know what! Let’s start on that now.”

He turned himself to face them and crossed his legs, patting the area in front of himself as he looked up at them to urge them to sit. They took another look out at the millions of fireflies that simply mesmerized them before sitting in front of him with their legs crossed as well. He reached over and took both of their hands in his and held them gently. Y/n just watched, confused but incredibly interested. They didn’t say a word and just watched him. 

Phil closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath and blowing it out. Slowly, his hands began to emit a gentle yellow that glowed the brightest in his veins nearest to his hands. The color started to crawl onto their hands around where he held onto them like it was a tiny fire spreading from his hands onto theirs. As his light grew slightly brighter, they felt a comforting warmth begin to bloom in their chest. Just like Phil described, it was like a fire was surrounding their chest but it didn’t burn it just protected and warmed.

“Do you feel it yet?” He opened one eye at them while they stared back, eyes wide and gleaming from the dim magic.

“You feel this all the time?”

“Not all the time, just sometimes. Like when we first met you, you were very warm, I could sense the magic from your home before you even opened the door. I swore you’d be able to feel my magic too, but I guess it makes more sense now that you couldn’t.” He slowly let their hands go, the glow falling away from their hands as well as his shortly after. “Is the warmth gone yet?”

They put a hand on their chest, watching it while they focused on their chest for the feeling, but it was long gone. It saddened them a little, but they looked back up to Phil and nodded. “Yeah, it went away as soon as you let go. How did you do that? What did you do?” 

“I condensed a lot of magic into my hands and boosted your aura with it. That’s the little thing surrounding your soul that lets you sense that magic, we’ll have to train yours if you want to sense magic on your own. Though…” He trailed off, holding their gaze a moment before he looked over at the star-littered sky. “That may take a while. As much as I want to encourage you to have time to spend with my sons and bond with them, this is an important part of learning. I’d have to ask you to spend most of your days with me until we’ve mastered this.”

“That’s fine!” They replied immediately, startling him as they leaned forward in excitement. “I want to learn! I’ll gladly give you all my time, I want to learn as much as I can. Like… like how to do this.” They said, gesturing to the projected area around them. “And… I don’t know, how to turn people into pigs or something.”

Phil burst out laughing which carried over to Y/n, making them giggle along with him. “Who are you? Circe?” He joked but they just ended up looking at him with confusion. “She’s a goddess who is well known for turning men to swine. Though… in all honesty, you do kind of remind me of her now that I’ve connected the dots. At least from what I have read of her.”

He left the topic on that note, not giving any indication of explaining his thoughts either. He taught them, quietly, in ways to feel natural magic. He explained to them the ways this earth held its own magic and if you were in tune with your soul, you could feel it in strong magical areas. There was even a promise to show them what he meant once they could feel his magic without aid.

Time passed while they sat together within the realm he made. It could have been hours and Y/n could have never been able to tell as the moment they were living in under the moonlight never seemed to end. The peace was everlasting and they couldn’t complain, this was the first time they have felt so at peace and safe with another person in years. Phil was patient with them in their confusion with this magic he was clearly well versed in, he calmly eased their mind when they grew frustrated and offered a new way to try and learn their soul. 

When they finally began to feel dim warmth in their chest again, he seemed much more excited over it than they were even when he was just teaching them. He questioned them on how it felt and if they could enhance the feeling along with other questions that made no sense to them as he used words that held no meaning in their mind.

“You made a lot of progress today, I’m proud of you. I think you need a well-deserved break though, we’ve been at this for quite a while.” He said to them while getting up slowly to stretch his legs and even his wings as he unfurled them, stretching them out for a moment before pulling them in to offer Y/n his hand to help them up.

They took his hand, standing up slowly as their legs ache from sitting in the same position for so long. “It feels like we’ve been here for hours.” They complained, looking up at him. “ How long… have we been in here?”

“I’d say it’s been all day.”

“Wha- hold on, all day!? Oh no, I told Wilbur I’d teach him guitar!" Y/n ripped their hand away from Phil’s when they ran to run out of the magic domain and apologize to Wilbur. They had no intention of stopping until Phil yelled out in a panic.

“No, wait- Circe!” It was too late by the time they heard him as they were already halfway out of the illusion, but as soon as they felt the chilled air on the other side, their vision darkened. The last thing they could feel was their fall being stopped by hands grabbing their arms and holding them most steadily by the waist. It didn’t seem to take too long for them to regain consciousness as their eyes settled on the treetops around them, hardly outlined against the night sky.

“Hey there, are you with me?” They turned their vision to beside them, being met with Phil’s face. He smiled at them despite the worry that was prevalent in his expression. The pounding in their head hit shortly after, holding their forehead with one hand as they groaned softly as they were pushed up into a sitting position though Phil kept his arm on their shoulders for support.

“What just happened?” Y/n mumbled out, tears were starting to prick their eyes from the pain. Phil ran a hand over their head to smooth out their hair, tending to them in a caring manner. “I assume… I shouldn’t have tried to leave that fast huh.” The realization had come slowly and he laughed softly at them, now holding their gaze.

“It was a bit too strong for you, that would be my fault. I should have warned you much earlier about that, the drastic change in magic around all around you to nothing but small traces of natural magic is enough to take anyone down especially after being surrounded by it for so long like we were.” He got his feet under him and stood up but kept a slight lean as he held both hands out to help them up. It took quite the effort to pull them up since their body still felt weak and their legs were jello, but they were standing at least with the help of holding onto Phil for dear life. “Wanna head back to the house? I’m sure Will has already started cooking and we can get you some medicine.”

They sighed, dropping their head onto his chest. “Yeah… that’s fine. I need a minute though.” Each time they moved so they could adjust their position, their legs nearly gave out so they didn’t want to risk collapsing on the way.

“Do you need me to carry you?” He offered, leaning his head to the side to see their face but they just laughed.

“No, no I’m fine.”

A couple of moments passed by and he started to push them off of him but consoled them quickly when they started to panic. “You’re fine, just let me pick you up okay?” He waited until they nodded that it was okay and slowly scooped them up into his arms since it was the easiest way to carry them other than on his back as his wings made that a bit difficult. They kept an arm around his neck to feel more secure and leaned into him a little, head resting on their arm over his shoulder. He didn’t prompt them to talk since they were visibly tired so that gave them time to just think while he made his way through the brush and trees.

They hummed softly before muttering. “Phil?”

“Yeah mate?”

“Why did you call me Circe?”

“Oh, yeah I guess I did huh?” He chuckled at his carelessness and glanced down at them though they only matched his gaze last second before he looked away to watch where he was going. “I’m sorry about that, I’ve been thinking about you and your resemblance to her since I mentioned it. I guess it fits you better than expected so I felt compelled to call you it.” He trailed off, the silence being filled with the crunching of sticks and leaves still on the ground from autumn that hasn’t had time to decompose since that year’s winter had come on too fast. They had begun to space out but snapped back when hearing him whisper to them. “I won’t make the mistake again, don’t worry.”

“Actually… it’s okay.” They moved their head a bit to watch the scenery pass as Phil walked, finally getting past the treeline “It’s endearing.”

Phil looked down at them and laughed softly. “You like it?” They nodded their head, not being able to help a smile. “Hm… I might just continue to use it then how’s that sound-” Right as he finished his sentence they both were startled by the door of the house being slammed open. They looked toward the sound to see Technoblade standing there with a hand on the wide-open door, looking slightly disheveled and worried.

“Phil! There you are!” Techno ran down the stairs and to the two, grasping Phil’s shoulders and checking him over feverishly while Phil watched amusingly. He looked Y/n over once he was sure Phil was okay. “I didn’t know where you two were, I was worried and- why do you both reek of magic? Did something happen? Are you okay? Why are you carryi-”

Phil cut him off “Hey hey, mate we’re fine! We are both okay, calm down.” He tenses up his wings and gives them a little shake before relaxing them again. “I was just teaching them and they left my realm illusion a little too fast and they aren’t used to strong magic changes like that.” He adjusted them in his arms and glanced at them. “They are just a little weak. If you want to help though, can you carry them into their room for me? I might be strong enough to carry them, but not for a long time.”

Techno took Y/n from Phil quickly and without a word, letting them get comfortable in his arms like they were with Phil. He waited to head toward the house until Phil started walking and made sure to keep to his side, he was acting just like a dog who hasn’t seen his owner for a little too long. He asked little questions on what the two were practicing and listening intently to Phil as he explained, though Y/n had to close their eyes at this point as a wave of drowsiness washed over them as they listened to the two talking. The deep rumble in Techno’s chest every time he spoke was oddly comforting, almost equivalent to that of a cat purring.

It seemed they dozed off because they were being gently laid on their bed the next thing they knew. The pillows had already been propped up so they could sit up easier. They sat back and looked at Techno once he had set them down. He gave them a light smile, patting them on the head to mess their hair up a little.

“Phil’s gonna be back soon, he’s getting you something to eat.” He said before turning away to talk out the door.

“Uh- Technoblade? Could you tell Wilbur to come here for me?” They sat up straight, waiting for a reply as he looked back at them. With a little laugh, he gave them a thumbs up and left the room with a small wave to them.

A few moments passed by while they waited, in that time Poppy raced into their room to offer nuzzles and lay on them to make everything better. They had become so focused on the cat and giving her attention that they didn’t notice Wilbur in the doorway until he knocked. Looking up at him in surprise, he waved with a smile and slowly walked over to their side with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hey, I heard from dad what happened. How are you feeling?”

“Tired?” They laughed, watching as he sat on the side of the bed while they spoke. “I’m doing okay, I’m sure I’ll be fine by morning. Speaking of, Will I’m so sorry. I meant to come and help you learn guitar today but Phil kept me so busy that by the time he said to stop, it was night.” They leaned forward to emphasize their seriousness. “Tomorrow, bright and early, We’ll go down in the basement and I’ll help teach you okay?”

“Only if you’re feeling up to it alright?” He reached over, petting Poppy and making the cat lean into his hand and roll over to get more pets. “I don’t think anyone here wants you overdoing it.”

“I will and I promise, we can spend the whole day if you want.” They told him, glancing up when they noticed movement by the doorway again and seeing Phil with a bowl and a piece of bread.

He walked over and set it on the night table which was on the opposite side of the bed that Wilbur was on. “All day?” He asked, looking at Y/n who turned to him.

“Is that alright?”

“Hm..” Phil put his hands on his hips, dramatically taking his time to think. “I guess so, you probably want to have a day to recover from this huh.” With a small laugh, he rubbed their back lightly before heading out of the room. “Eat up and both of you sleep soon, it’s late.”

“Goodnight Phil!”

“Goodnight!” Wilbur echoed, watching him go before he looked back to Y/n. He looked like he had something he wanted to say but took a deep breath and smiled at them, getting up off the bed. “Hey you better enjoy the soup, I made it. And if I do say so myself, I did a great job on it.” They giggled a bit at him and he sighed with a little shake of his head. “You’re a really great person… I’m glad we met you. Ahem! Good night dearest Y/n and I’ll reconvene with you in the morning!” Making a show of bowing to them and standing up tall with his hands behind his back, he saluted before sharply turning and walking out the door.

They called after him with a laugh. “Sleep well, Wilbur!” Watching him go, they smiled to themself and with a few pets for Poppy they focused on eating so they could sleep and be ready for the day tomorrow.

-

“Now Y/n remember, I’m sure you won’t be using any magic but be wary alright?” Phil stood in front of them, holding intense eye contact before looking down at the eye of ender around their neck. He brought a hand up to hold it and examine it while they watched him. “I’ve been worried about this and I don’t know exactly how it’s going to affect you once we start playing with magic more. I could feel it sapping my magic from me yesterday…” He shook his head and let go of it, holding their arms. “Just… come to me if you feel off, okay? I’ll be right in my room with Techno.”

He sent them off with that, heading to his room where they assumed Techno was waiting for him. Wilbur was outside with Tommy since he demanded Wilbur come to see the sheep he has made friends with since everyone but him had seen. Y/n had Tommy tag along that morning when they went to feed the animals and he excitedly showed them how close he had gotten with some of the sheep and even a couple of the chickens. It warmed their heart to know he had something to fill the childish part of him that he wasn’t able to express when training to be in the guard.

They headed down into the basement to wait for Wilbur and decided to catch up on some reading. All of the talk of magic with Phil brought back their interest in it big time. They searched through the shelves, trying to find one that seemed like it had a lot of useful information that could help when Phil was teaching them. Standing against the bookshelf, they flipped through a book, stopping to read a page or two every once in a while until the front door closed and there were hurried steps down the stairs.

“Sorry for being so late, Tommy was telling me the names of all the sheep he named- I hope you didn’t already have names for them because he is all about this one being named Karen,” Wilbur said with a laugh as he got down the basement and looked up at Y/n who had the book in their hand, watching him. “Heh, uh hope I didn’t disturb your reading.”

They snickered, closing the book with a thump and sliding it back into its place on the shelf. “Oh, not at all.” Walking up behind one of the two plush chairs they had, crossed their arms on the back and looked up at Wilbur. “So, what all did you learn yesterday?”

“Oh! Well uh…” He grabbed the guitar up from beside the bookshelves opposite of Y/n where they kept the music books and sat over on the bottom step of the stairs. It took him a few moments of remembering out how to hold the instrument again, but once he had that down he strummed a few chords out of place before playing the standard ‘hot cross buns’ and after getting praise from Y/n he played ‘mary had a little lamb’ and ‘good king wenceslas’ which was a favorite of Y/n’s when it came to easier tunes to play.

“How did I do? That’s all I got to teach myself yesterday.”

Y/n walked over to him and knelt down where they adjusted how he held his fingers on the strings. “It’s easier to play and better on your hands this way. I think you did really well, better than I was and I learned just by listening to someone play and watching how they did it.”

He perked up at that, seeming to forget they knew how to play despite wanting them to teach him so desperately. “Do you want to play something? I’d love to see you play.” He offered the guitar to them to which they looked at it, seeming hesitant.

“Oh I don’t know, at this point, I think you’re better than me. It’s been a long time since I’ve played.” They touched the wood of the guitar, thinking back on when they last played. “I stopped making time for it when the hunters got bad. I guess I just fell out of it after that.”

“Well… maybe you can try again?” He met their eyes and pushed the guitar towards them again. “I know you’re learning new magic things, so maybe you can do something cool with that.” They took a moment to think about what he said and looked back at the instrument. Finally, they reached to take it from his hands and he seemed eager to give it up, pushing it onto them as soon as they had it.

They couldn’t help but laugh and sat back on the ground and crossed their legs as they situated the guitar, strumming a few chords and getting comfortable with the feel of it again. “Hm.. let’s see what I can remember here.” They strummed a few chords until something finally came to them. “Oh! I’ve got one, okay… I’m not sure how good this will be but…”

Humming softly as they started, they bounced their foot a little to keep time. They had to restart once with a small grumble but seemed to get the hang of it better with the second start. “Alright, so I think it goes a little bit like… I can feel it on my tongue. Brick and mortar, as thick as scripture. Drawing lines in the sand and laying borders, as tall as towers. I babble on until my voice is gone.” They sang, getting a feel for the music more as they went through as soon as they were singing the next verses they felt eyes on them. Other than Wilbur’s of course. They glanced up past him to see Phil, leaning against the doorway on the top floor of the house just listening. When realizing they were looking at him, he just smiled and waved a little before giving a gesture to tell them to continue playing. They smiled a little and gave a glance back at Wilbur then to their hands as they focused on playing.

“‘Cause like constellations a million years away, every good intention…”

___________________________________________

taglist:

@can-i-fangirl-yet @spitrot @sproudi @omgthatonenerd06 @acemt @wahman @m-etr3m8 @pog-sad-muffin @quiche-inoya @lea-the-foxe @sbi-is-my-onlysanity @smol-spoopy-trashcan-blog @confused-soot @p1gst3p @silvemistxe33 @cl0udy-grey @sweetchillipeppers @sharpcheese @aplaintart @thegeekisheere @vampirestrawberries @ishouldhavegonetobedsixhoursago @butter-lunch @logsteadshire @perytavern @sourparrot @childaintit @aikochan4859 @lukathecrime @fallxnly @novelist2 @ahmya-4 @little-gremlin-in-the-walls @supersecretsmutandco @the-flowerghost @cawcaw-pretty-thing @l1ttlepup1 @elias-code @ineedsomeconfidence @danielles-artroom @pineapple-banana-pie @ohnosiren @azilne @simp-of-newyork @shiroships @spac3goblyn @dominickle @whatever-happened-to-the-ducks @theseventhreincarnation @amibismexy

[that-random-one]

Ice Skating

Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

Warnings: Swearing

Date Posted: 2/17/21

A/N: I actually really liked writing this. I dunno why. Maybe it's cause Katsuki needs help to learn something instead of Y/n needing help from him. Plus this was cute, at least I think so🥺 Honestly I think it was the ending for me. I wasn't even planning on adding it, but why the fuck not. Also I have no fucking idea how to ice skate, or skate in general I'm a clumsy bitch but I think it always looks kinda cool.

You have finally reached your limit at staring at your phone. You wanted to go out and do something, something fun of course.

You were currently laying on your boyfriend's bed facing the wall. You rolled over and saw that he was still at his desk studying.

You knew that Katsuki's grades were important to him, so you usually didn't bug him whenever he was studying. Personally, you didn't study. You had almost straight A's with one B ruining your perfect score.

When you told him that you don't study when you were first dating he didn't believe it. So he made you go to one of his study sessions and you ended up failing the test. The next test you passed getting one question wrong without studying. To say the least, Katsuki was baffled at how your mind works.

It's been 4 hours and you were finally starting to lose it though. Especially since both you and Katsuki had nothing to do today. You crawled out of his bed and shivered when the cold air touched your skin. You grabbed one of his blankets and wrapped it around you.

You walked behind to where Katsuki was sitting and looked over his shoulder. You hugged him from behind and put your head on his shoulder, wrapping the blanket around him in the process. This got his attention and he slightly turned his head to look at you, raising an eyebrow to silently ask what you want.

You huffed and hurried your face into his neck. "Let's go on a date. You've been studying for 4 hours. Take a break." You said, your breath on his neck making his shudder a bit.

"I still need to study. I don't want bad grades like you." You looked at him and he poked you with the end of the highlighter he's using in your forehead.

"B's aren't that bad. Plus, you retain information better by taking breaks." You mocked glared at him.

You watched him chew slightly on the inside of his cheek. He was considering your idea, but wasn't fully there.

"Please? It's been a while since we both haven't been busy. I know I see you in class and I don't wanna sound needy or anything, but I miss you." You confessed, slightly furrowing your eyebrows and looking away from him.

That's all he needed to hear before deciding that maybe taking a break isn't so bad. "Fine. Where are you dragging me this time?" He glared at you, but you could tell that there's no bite to it.

You smiled up at him, happy that he agreed to take a break. "It's a surprise."

~~~~~~~

After getting ready for your date and dragging Katsuki in random directions, or at least to him, you finally showed up to your destination.

"Ice skating?" He said in what most people would see as disgust as he looked at the rink with a bunch of people skating around. Some people were in big groups and some were in pairs. After knowing him for a while you could tell that it wasn't disgust and that it was almost uncertainty.

"Yeah. Every year my family and I would go ice skating together. I haven't gone this year so I figured we could do it together." You beamed up at him, obviously excited.

Seeing your face look so happy and hopeful that he would like the idea, he knew couldn't say no to you. He wordlessly walked ahead of you and gently tugged on your arm to get you walking with him.

He went up to the lady in the booth to get the both of you your ice skates. After getting your ice skates and paying you made your way to a bench with Katsuki right next to you.

You flawlessly and quickly tied up your ice skates, half from excitement and half from experience. You looked over to see Katsuki struggling a bit.

"You want some help?" You tried to stiffle your giggle, but failed a bit. He shot you a glare at the sound.

"Shut up, dumbass." He looked away from you. His cheeks were slightly flushed from embarrassment and from the cold.

"Katsuki, have you ever been ice skating before?" You questioned. You didn't get a response back so you assumed that he hasn't. "If you wanna do something else then that's ok, you know. I just wanna spend time with you." You sat forward to see his face and poked his cheek.

He huffed and turned his head so you could see his side profile. "I may not have been ice skating before, but I'm not gonna do something else when. This clearly makes you happy."

Your heart skipped a beat at his words. You were thankful for the cold so it could hide your blush. "Can I teach you then?" You asked feeling giddy about the idea of teaching the Bakugou Katsuki, someone who knows how to do practically everything, something.

He only nodded, not wanting to verbally ask for help. You giggled and the sound never fails to have butterflies fill his stomach.

You got up and bent down in front of him. "First, you have to tie your shoes correctly."

He watched in slight awe at hiw perfect and fast you tied his shoes up. You stood up and held out your hand.

"Next, you gotta get up." He grabbed your hand and pulled himself up, almost losing balance. He grabbed onto your shoulders to steady himself, making you laugh.

"Fucking hell." You heard Katsuki mutter.

"You ok?" You chuckled a little and grabbed his waist to help steady him.

"Fucking peachy. How how the hell do you move in these things?" He grumbled.

"Ok, if you say so. I'm gonna start moving now." You warned him as you started moving backwards. He tightened his grip on you and looked down at your feet in surprise. How the hell can you go backwards?

You both finally got to the ice and Katsuki immediately slipped. He would have fallen if he wasn't holding onto you.

When he finally regained his balance and could stand he slightly relaxed his grip on your shoulders. Suddenly, you ripped yourself away from him, making him lose his balance again. You slid close to him and steadied him, laughing in the process.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!?!" Katsuki screeched making some people look at you both. You just giggled and slowly removed yourself from him this time.

He only noticed what you were doing when it was too late and you were out of his reach. All he could do was to try to stay upright while you were going around him slowly in circles. "You're fine, Kat. Just do what I do."

You went by his side and showed him what to do. He started to get the hang of it, but he got too comfortable too soon. He slipped again and fell, but he grabbed onto you and pulled you down with him. He landed on his back and you landed on your stomach next to him.

You started laughing till you couldn't breathe anymore. Katsuki laughed a little, but he had a big smile on his face. When you finally caught your breath, you stood back up. You held out an hand for Katsuki to take. He took it and you helped him regain his balance again.

You interlaced your fingers together instead of letting go and slowly started skating forward. You looked over to your hot headed boyfriend and saw him looking down at his feet.

"Relax. Don't think about it too much." You gently smiled at how cute he looked when his head turned toward you.

"Kinda hard to not think about falling, idiot." He huffed and gently flicked your forehead. Your just scrunched up your nose in return.

"Think about something else then, dummy." You flicked his forehead back. He sent a mock glare at you.

Katsuki gently bit his lip as if he was considering something. All of a sudden you were being pulled forward, going much faster than you were a second ago. You realize that it's Katsuki pulling you.

You let go of his hand and started to pick up more speed. You quickly passed him. You turned around and gave him a taunting wave. Being who he was, Katsuki couldn't refuse a challenge. Even if it was about something he barely knew anything about or how to do.

He picked up his pace, still aware of how bad he is at ice skating. He decided to fuck it and went as fast as he could to catch up to you.

You slowed down a lot wanting to have Katsuki catch up to you. You heard someone going really fast behind you and you turned around just to see Katsuki coming at you. Before you could react you were tackled into a hug and fell to the ground again.

You opened your eyes to see Katsuki panting above you with a victorious grin on his face. You raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Why the hell did you do that?' but still smiled with him.

He leaned down and gently placed his lips against yours. It was a small kiss, but it was enough to make your heart flutter. "Ice skating isn't as shitty as I thought."

You laughed and kissed him one more time before gently pushing against his chest to get him to get up. You both spent an hour or two more ice skating and messing around.

~~~~~~~

You and Katsuki entered his dorm after going on your date that the both of you needed. You flopped onto his bed again thinking he would go back to studying after the longer than expected break he took. What you weren't expecting was for him to roll you over and lay down next to you and bringing you into his chest.

"What are you doing?" You looked up at him with furrowed brows.

"Is it illegal for me to hold my girlfriend?"

"No, I just thought you were going to go back to studying. I'm more than happy with this though."

"I thought about it but I don't think I'd be able to focus on studying right now."

You hummed already feeling half asleep. You wrapped an arm around his waist and moved closer to him. "Thank you." You mumbled quietly.

Before Katsuki could ask what for he felt your breathing even out. "I love you, Y/n." He gently whispered so he didn't wake you. What he didn't know is that you heard him say those words before you drifted off. Your last thought was that you knew that no matter what happens in the future Bakugou Katsuki will always have a piece of your heart.

~~~~~~~

"Mommy!! Mommy!! Look I'm doing it!!" Your 6 year old daughter looked up at you with her beautiful red eyes. Her small hands holding yours as she slowly slid across the ice.

"MOM!! HELP HE'S GONNA MURDER ME!!!" You looked up at the words your son screeched out. You see him skating to you away from his father who was chasing him. He hid behind you in hopes that you'd protect him.

"Katsuki, murder my son and I'll mrder you." You smiled as your husband skated to a stop in front of you.

"That damn brat. He said that you love him more that you love me." He grumbled, slightly pouting.

You looked at your 9 year old son, that looked like a carbon copy of his father, with an eyebrow raised. He sheepishly smiled at you.

"He's not lying." You left with that, taking your daughter more around the ice ring.

[askthekuvaqbrothers]

Seagull giving Rufus hell over wrecking sth. and the brothers (and Hermes) reacting to that. Your choice if you make it angsty, mischievous or hurt/comforty

(TW: Blood, Injury, Child Abuse (Seagull is a bad human))

“Now, this is going to the mayor-”

“I'll take it!!"

Rufus leapt from his seat, dashing and jumping for the box that was much too high to reach.

“Now Rufus, this is fragile, so I don't think-"

“Pleeaaaase! I promise to be careful! Promise promise!"

Cletus swung his legs, absently patting Poisonous, “Why do you really want to go?"

“I wanna go see the Mayor! He's a big important guy who found clean water and made all of Kuvaq! Dad says we should be thankful to him for giving us a home, and I bet he has all sorts of neat stuff in his house.”

“And there it is, stuff.” Cletus rolled his eyes at his brother’s kleptomaniac tendencies, but Rufus seemed undeterred.

“Pleeeeeeese!”

Hermes stared down into those pleading eyes and felt himself melt. He knew he’d gotten soft after building the prototypes, but playing the role of Father to these three had been swaying his objective views to subjective ones.

“Alright, but be careful.”

He rested the item in Rufus’ hands, not letting go until he was sure the boy had a secure hold on it. Rufus grinned up at him, and with a small skip in his step, hurried out the door. Neither Cletus nor Argus spared a look, but Hermes' gaze lingered after.

“…Could you two please follow after him? I worry-”

Cletus sighed, “That's all he brings-"

Argus snagged his brothers’ sleeve, fixing him with a ‘don’t start’ look.

“We'll go.”

With an audible groan, Cletus let himself be dragged out the door. The two didn’t have to travel far to catch up with Rufus, who had quickly given up on the more energetic movement, and was now slowly strolling across town, twisting his delivery in hand.

“If you break it, Dad won’t trust you with anything anymore.”

Startled, he almost dropped it, but managed to resecure his grasp and glare over his shoulder.

“Why are you here?”

“Dad sent us to keep an eye on you because, you know...” Cletus made a general gesture to his hazardous brother, though Rufus didn’t look to understand.

“He doesn’t trust you.”

Argus’ blunt words got through faster, and now Rufus chose to get upset.

“Why would he not trust me?! I’m SUPER trustworthy!”

There was an intake of air from Cletus, which was quickly stopped by an elbow to his ribs. Choosing the option of least argument, Argus pushed Rufus and dragged Cletus along, following the most direct path to the mayor’s private residence. It was a separate building behind the Town Hall, though almost equally large, apparently filled with belongings that didn’t fit in his office. A steep ramp angled up to the front door, where Rufus stopped their parade at the bottom. He turned to his brothers, and pointed to the ground.

“Wait here.”

“What? After coming all this way?!”

“Yes, Dad put me in charge of this, and I don’t want you messing things up.”

“Me-?!”

Cletus got a hand over his mouth, while Argus’ other hand waved Rufus on.

“Yeah yeah, hurry up.”

With a wide smile Rufus dashed up the ramp, knocking on the mayor’s front door. After a moment, it was opened by the mayor’s secretary Plovera.

“Delivery for Mr Mayor!”

The lean woman stared down, expression entirely blank, save for the eventual twitch in her eyebrow.

“Oh, please come in. The mayor won't be long.” She ushered the boy inside, “Please refrain from touching anything. You may wait on the chair over there.”

She pointed to a lone chair next to a statue of a large, furry beast. As Rufus wandered in, completely distracted by everything before him, Plovera closed the door behind them.

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

Time was passing slowly without their whirlwind of a brother around.

Argus kicked at the dust and Cletus plucked at a loose thread on Poisonous, neither particularly focused. Due to the heavy metal sheets that built up the walls, they hadn’t heard anything from inside, though normally not even the laws of nature could prevent the sound of Rufus’ destructive force. Cletus opened his mouth to suggest they wait in the comfort of their own home rather than the filthy outside-

There was a ground shaking THUD, ringing through the metal behind them. The two shared a look at finally hearing a typical Rufus caused noise, though the sound of someone else shouting was growing louder too.

As Argus and Cletus turned towards the mayor's dwelling, the door flew open, and the body of their brother came tumbling down the ramp, stopping as an unceremonious heap just past the end.

“YOU INFERNAL LITTER BUG!”

The booming voice of Mayor Seagull called out as he stormed down toward the boys, furry in his face and posture, and a sudden burst of flames licking at his heels from the building behind. Both Argus and Cletus recoiled at the unbridled rage he radiated, stepping back in time with his own steps forward. When their heels collided with Rufus’ twisted limbs, they both snapped out of their trance.

Argus turned enough to check his red-haired brother, carefully making out the shaky rise and fall of his chest. Alive- good, but hurt, the sight of blood and fast forming bruises triggering something in his mind. He glanced up to check on Cletus, but his green-haired brother was already gone, so his attention returned to Seagull. Something deeply ingrained in his core was telling him how to act, reminding him of the two things he’d always been aware of;

Directive One: Protect and Serve Elysium(?) Hermes.

Directive Two: Protect and Serve the Organon(?) his brothers.

At this moment, with his brother lying still, Directive Two was compromised, so counter action was called for. Argus knelt and plunged his hand off the side of the walkway, clenching a fist around the first thing it touched, wrenching a piece of metal free from the rest of the junk. It was rough edged and not very long, cutting into his own hand, but it classified him as armed and that was all he needed to run at Seagull. The man seemed to startle at the intended attack, but quickly recovered and stepped aside, easily avoiding the boy’s short reach.

They both turned back to face each other, and Argus charged again. The large man was ready for him this time, kicking as he came into reach, foot colliding with the boys’ upper arm and sending him flying.

“The INSOLENCE, the AUDACITY! Has no one taught you MANNERS, BOY?”

Argus picked himself up, adjusted his grip, and charged again. Seagull didn’t move this time, grabbing the arm with the weapon when it came in reach, holding it out to the side as he glowered down at the struggling child.

"Pay attention when your elders are talking, boy.” He twisted the limb enough to make him drop the improvised weapon, “I should have recognised from the start that your family was more trouble than it’s worth. Nothing but discarded scrap!”

He had nothing to say to the man, and his wriggling failed to loosen the grip, so instead Argus curled himself in on Seagull’s arm. He dug his free fingers into the soft joints of the trapping hand and wrapped his teeth around the largest soft space, earning him release and a shout of pain. In the free moment, Argus retrieved his weapon and swung it with all his strength into Seagull’s thigh, breaking through fabric and skin.

“YOU MONGREL!”

Seagull swung downwards, fist colliding with Argus’ brow. Skin split and flecks of blood flew, but Argus caught himself before he completely dropped, glaring up through the haze of red slipping into his eye. Seagull pulled back and moved to swing a kick, but found a weight around his ankle.

Looking down, Rufus was awkwardly wrapped around the mayors’ leg, uselessly biting into his pants. With a growl of frustration, Seagull added enough power to swing the boy along with his leg, colliding brother with brother to send them both tumbling away. When they came to a rest, Argus forced his clear eye to open, only to see the mayor swiftly approaching again. From his position sprawled over his chest, Rufus coughed, showering Argus’ arm in red flecks.

Seagull was towering over them again.

Metal piece still in hand, Argus threw it at the man’s head, hoping for the throat or an eye, but only managing to catch him in the cheek. In response, with a loud growl, the man drew a leg up and brought it down on the two of them, drawing out a strangled noise as the air was knocked from their lungs.

“What is going on here?!”

Hermes and Gizmo arrived on the scene, with Cletus closely trailing behind. Both men looked shocked at the sight before them, with Hermes paling when his eyes fell upon his bloodied sons. Gizmo hesitated in the moment, but when Seagull went to swing at the downed children again, he flicked to law enforcement mode and stepped in to restrain him.

“Stop! This is excessive force!”

Seagull writhed in the hold, pointing towards Rufus, “This is self-defence! That one almost killed me!”

Gizmo did spare a look between the child and the flames still flickering in the building, but he remained firm in his first choice.

“Hermes, take your boys to my clinic and do what you can while I secure the mayor.”

He snapped out of his shock, “R-right, of course.”

He quickly moved in, stooping down to pick up the worryingly still Rufus. Cletus moved with him and offered a hand to Argus with controlled reluctance, lifting his brother to his feet. Hermes spared one look up into the face of the man who had once offered shelter and work to a complete stranger, before the hateful glare became too much. He stood without further delay and headed directly to the ever-familiar clinic.

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

Hermes fumbled with a roll of bandages, muttering under his breath as he failed to untangle the length. There was a shake in his arms, and his old heart felt as though it would give out if it continued to beat at its current rate. He couldn’t get that angered face to leave his mind, and it was dredging up memories he’d longed to forget.

“Dad?”

He was doubting everything again, all his life choices he’d made to this point. He was trying to do better, trying to do what he could to better the lives of those around him, but still he couldn’t find a solution to make everyone happy. If he couldn’t even help this settlement, how could he find a new solution to save both Elysium and Deponia-?

“Dad…”

A small hand laid atop of his own. Hermes stopped fiddling, raising his gaze to Argus. He was sitting on the edge of the examination table, eye swollen closed with blood still dribbling down to stain his now torn shirt. Despite his injuries, his expression remained determined, and his posture was taught, ready for another fight.

“…I don’t believe it’s safe here.”

“What tipped you off?”

Cletus was seated on the floor by the clinic's entrance, similarly ridged with Poisonous in a death grip. His eyes flicked wildly anytime there was a noise.

“It’s okay now, Gizmo is handling the mayor. We’re fine.”

Neither of the boys relaxed. Seeing them like this truly reminded him what they were: children in form, but programmed soldiers, made to serve their purpose to the death. It had been wishful thinking they would break their instilled nature with a bit of civilian life. He rolled the ball of fabric in hand, and it unravelled.

“To remain would be too great of a risk.”

“And where do you suggest we go? Find a hole somewhere?”

They spoke around him. Standard Organon would follow procedure and upper command, but these three had more free thought that conflicted with each other, letting them discuss and plan. He carefully began wrapping Argus’ head, the boy ignoring the action.

“There are other settlements.”

“That are very, very far away. And could potentially be worse than here.”

“A potential threat is better than an imminent threat.”

“A hundred potential threats are MUCH worse than one manageable threat. Besides, you haven’t really proven yourself capable of even defending one little idiot from a threat.”

As Hermes tied off the bandage Argus dropped his head, glancing back at Rufus who was lying behind him. His external injuries were covered, but he was still breathing shallowly. They had to wait for Gizmo before they could find out what internal damage there really was.

“…”

After checking the damage to his boys, Hermes understood what they were talking about. He’d put trust in Seagull, and ignored the man’s shortcomings over the generosity of a home and job, but he knew deep down there would be no forgiveness from the mayor. He would now be a constant antagonist in their lives should the grudge hold, and they’d have to watch their step at every point in town. Perhaps it really was time for them to move on. The only settlements he knew were close to Ascension stations, and therefore Organon bases, but maybe this was a sign he should return and try to convince Ulysses and the Elders once more. The only problem would be what would become of the three-

Rufus groaned, which suddenly became coughing as he stirred. Argus spun to inch closer to his brother, putting his hands down to stop him from trying to sit up. Hermes did similar, though he chose to rest a hand on his head, avoiding the suspected broken bones and bruised organs.

“Shh, it’s okay. Just stay there, don’t move. We’re here.”

The coughing continued, and when he managed to turn his head a trail of spit and blood ran from the corner of his mouth. Hermes grabbed a rag to wipe it away, waiting as seconds ticked by before the coughing subsided into shaky breaths. Argus remained still watching closely, and to Hermes' surprise, Cletus was now standing by the bed too. Finally, Rufus managed to open an eye.

“… ‘s wr-ng ..ur face?”

Cletus snorted, though his shoulders relaxed a little, “Should I fetch a mirror?”

Argus made a shooing motion, but kept his eyes fixed on Rufus, “Can you tell us where you’re hurt?”

Lips twisting into a slight pout, Rufus subjected his family to an agonizingly slow blink, long enough that Hermes almost considered shaking him to check if he was still conscious. Once they were open again, his gaze fell somewhere in the distance.

“…’vrywher-?”

“Very helpful.”

Hermes allowed himself a small smile, glad to hear his son's banter again, but his nerves were still running his heart. They were made to be hardy, but internal injuries were still a potentially fatal thing, and Gizmo was taking longer than he’d hoped. He patted Argus on the shoulder.

“Don’t let him fall unconscious again, best to try to keep him talking. I’m going to find Gizmo.”

Before he could turn a hand grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, while another balled around his trouser leg. The looks of concern he got were both heart-warming and eerie, with even Rufus managing to swing his eyes over. They were probably worried about him coming across Seagull.

“Please, it’s okay to worry about yourselves, I’ll be fine.”

Their looks continued, tiny fists grounding him on the spot. The longer he looked, the more their wide eyes shimmered, flicking to each sibling briefly, and after a long moment it began to dawn that he was wrong.

They were worried about themselves, about each other.

And they were looking to him for guidance, for reassurance as a figure of authority- no, as their guardian.

He’d thought he’d gone soft and was playing the father role well, but it was now clear that wasn’t true. He’d still been Hermes the Engineer this whole time, trying to do his old work in a new environment, still hung up on his past failures, still seeing his creations as things when right now it was clear that they were children; hurt, scared, unsure and looking to the one person who had always been there for them.

He had to realise that he wasn't responsible for the world’s problems; he had his own little world right in front of him.

And he needed to make them his priority right now.

He needed to be their father, first and foremost.

[cassiaa]

Metanoia BTTB2

warnings: asking for sex; mentions of sex; manipulating; slight seducing and mentions of seduction; alcohol;

All of Namjoon's muscles clenched immediately, his body taut as a bowsting.

She didn't elaborate or explain. She stared directly into his eyes with that fire of hers smoldering and waiting for an answer.

Was she really looking for some quick fuck? Was this what had her down that past two hours? Or was this her way of distracting herself from the real problem at hand?

From what Namjoon had dug up, his sweet little jagi was exactly that, sweet and innocent. She didn't party, only drank on special occasions, he could only guess had never done drugs from her perfect school records and she hadn't been allowed to date or go out with strange boys.

Her fathers leash was tight around her neck, it had made his blood boil when he came to that conclusion.

That was another thing he'd be changing soon, he would take the studded choker off her neck and place his own there. His was much softer, much more loose, allowed more freedom and gave her even more luxuries that she already possessed.

Namjoon had no immediate plans of denying her, though he did want to know exactly where this came from, so he could make sure she wouldn't be out propositioning to just any pathetic little boys she could meet. He was more than willing to fuck her to her little hearts desire. Until all she knew was him, until she couldn't form any coherent sentences, let alone remember her own name. His was all she'd be able to say by the time he was done with her. He'd make sure to fuck her so good she would know better than to run to anyone else for something only he could provide her.

With those thoughts that had his mind racing and muscles coiling, ready to pounce, he smoothed his expression into slight confusion, maybe a bit of amusement in there and calmly said, "excuse me?"

"Really?" She nearly rolled her eyes. "You don't seem dense to me. Maybe I was wrong." She huffed, finally breaking eye contact, looking rather annoyed and mostly with herself. He could see the warring behind her eyes.

"Do you often go up to people asking them for sex?" Namjoon asks calmly, one side of his mouth kicking up as he leans back in his chair, exuding power. His movement drew her gaze back to him, and she unconsciously bit her bottom lip and Namjoon felt low growl hum in his throat at that combined with her innocent expression and the way she shifted in her seat. He just knew she was getting turned on already. He'd have to work hard not to break her.

Her eyes widened, no doubt hearing the noise and finally she answers. "No-"

"Then why approach a random man and ask for sex?" As he spoke, he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table, his hands clasped in front of his mouth and glasses slipping down his nose just a bit. It didn't help the heated gaze he pinned on her. "This isn't a club," he added when he saw her swallow, it seemed she didn't know what to do with his full attention on her. He'd remedy that quickly, his angel always had his attention, even when it seemed she didn't. "Or a bar. Why here? Why now?.... why me?"

Her eyes dropped to his lips as his voice dipped lower and quieter with every word.

"If you don't want to do it," she paused, trying to regain the control of the situation that she thought she had, taking a breath and steeling herself, eyes losing a bit of that glassy glaze they developed. "Then you don't have to. I'll just go to either of those places and find someone who will. Can't be that hard."

She said it with a bratty attitude that Namjoon instantly found arousing and annoying in the same moment and his mind immediately supplied a dozen ways to make her lose it.

Annoyed, she stood and slid out of the booth, not expecting him to follow. He did, smoothly and with much more elegance. A closed off look on his face as he rebuttoned his suit jacket. He dwarfed her in size, she looked between five three or five four in her flat shoes. In shock, she took in his appearance, seemingly appraising him and liking what she saw as her eyes lit up and she swallowed again.

"Shall we?" He asked stepping close enough to her to invade her personal space, past what social etiquette deemed fit, but not far enough to be overly intrusive and scare her or make a scene. Out of the corner of his eye he had been watching the cook and the waitress, an older couple who seemed protective of his jagi. They had kept an eye on her the entire time, the older woman had held a short conversation with his jagi when she first came in and the woman had even brushed back Ava's hair during the course of her meal. His jagi hadn't shown any signs of being uncomfortable with the motherly gesture so Namjoon had let it be. But the way that they watched him with such distrust, Namjoon was debating on whether or not they'd need to be dealt with or not. If they wouldn't become a problem for him down the road he could maybe even use them.

Ava nods slowly. Almost disbelieving that what she had asked for she was getting. "My place or yours?"

Namjoon was a bit disappointed that she was offering her own bed to a stranger, but perhaps she felt safer there instead of trapping herself in an unknown place. Namjoon couldn't follow the knowledge (or lack there of) that she was using to make the decision.

But he knew she lived alone. No chef, no maid or any help of any kind, no security, other than what her building supplied at the main entrances. It was easy for him to get to her personal space, but that meant it was easy for others too.

Her father was a fool, he had made many enemies in his time in the illegitimate side of his business, and once again Namjoon felt his dislike for the man swelling deeply at his negligence. He broke his thoughts, paying for his drink and tipping generously. He gestured with a hand for them to go and placed a hand to her back that was neither too low or too high. If she was having second thoughts, he didn't want to scare her into running. He'd really have to woo her.

"I'm only in town for the weekend," Namjoon supplied, opening the door for her and stepping close enough for his jacket to brush against her as they exited together. "I'm staying at the Baccarat Hotel in Manhattan-"

"My place then." She interrupted. "I'd rather not be seen going into that hotel with you. It looks... bad." She carried off, fingers playing with the hem of her babydoll dress.

Namjoon nods, humming his approval. His smart girl. She was protecting her image, their were plenty of reporters that hung out near the richer hotels. And Namjoon only stayed at the best. She must've pieced together that he was well enough off by the way he dressed and the hotel he was staying in.

"Lead the way." His grin was perhaps a bit to sharp as she looked up at him with big round eyes.

He had to act as if he had never been near her place of dwelling though, so even as she seemed to take the long way he didn't correct or give any hints that he was on to her as he made polite conversation the whole way. In fact, he was soaking up all he could from this time he had with her, he wanted to build a relationship with her. One that was more than just sex- though that was something he did look forward to. She was quick to offer up her first name. But not her family name. Ava. He acted politely, as if it was brand new information and then he offered his whole name just as readily. She repeated it carefully and Namjoon's body reacted to his name falling from her pretty pink lips, and he didn't stop the sudden urge to press his lips to hers in a heated kiss as they were stopped on a crosswalk at an intersection. He swooped down to her height, the hand on her back crushing her chest tightly to his and his free hand wrapping around the side her slender neck as she gasped and their lips met. Her neck was small enough for his thumb to tilt her jaw up and for his fingers to cup the back of her neck entirely and pull her face even closer as he dominated her mouth swiftly making it a bit more passionate and stealing all her breath away.

He pulled away from the heated kiss first, leaving her clutching his front and gasping for air. Her eyes went down immediately and Namjoon watched with a growing smile as she tried to compose herself.

He dipped close enough for his lips to touch her ear and whispered, "shall we?"

Everywhere his lips or breath touched rippled with goose bumps right away and he admired the skin their, how smooth and creamy it looked. He couldn't wait to mark it up. He placed a sweet kiss to her ear, humming in satisfaction when a shiver went down her body.

It didn't take long before they were in her penthouse. Namjoon had found deep in many, many files that the penthouse was a gift from her father on her eighteenth birthday. A bit of freedom for her so long as she obeyed. Namjoon had already had Taehyung and Hoseok sweep the place for any sort of bugs that could've been hidden. Namjoon took in the room with out rudely intruding. He eyed the entrance in distaste. It was a bit of an annoyance and disgust that Americans didn't remove their shoes upon entry into their homes. They walked all over their messy cities and then tracked it through their house. He wondered how he could convince her to abandon that habit.

"Make yourself comfortable I suppose." She said, heading into the kitchen, "feel free to look around." She shrugged, not looking over her shoulder.

Namjoon shook his head, his smart girl could be so naive. She just invites a strange man into her home all alone (for sex no less) and tells him to 'make himself at home'. It was clear she had never brought anyone home with her before. He grinned again, taking in the rooms slowly, even though he truly already knew the place inside and out. He did take more time to look in depth at the pictures on the wall and on each table. His beautiful jagi. He grinned. His innocent virgin baby girl. He had no doubts at this point that she was a virgin. And with the way her body reacted to his touch, he doubted anyone had ever touched her at all.

He found her pouring a glass of dark alcohol that she pulled up to drink quickly. Not seeing or hearing his approach, she was shocked when he pulled the glass from her hand, giving an amused expression and raising a brow in question. Her eyes narrowed in what seemed to be annoyance or perhaps defiance as her eyes flickered to the bottle on the counter. Namjoon once again wanted to rid her of the brattiness. He took off his glasses slowly, folding them closed and setting them beside the drink before caging her against the counter and overwhelming her with just his presence alone. He waited a moment, for her to push him away or tell him no, and when she didn't he leaned down and connected their lips in the softest touch he could manage. He didn't make any move to deepen the kiss, or escalate it in any way. He just moved his lips softly against hers. Coaxing her into the kiss until she was breathless again before he pulled back. He smirked proudly at what he had managed to do to her with just a kiss. Her chest was heaving as she worked on slowing her breathing, and it took her a moment before she opened her eyes, they were clouded and it had Namjoon humming in satisfaction.

"I need you sober, baby." He said softly, voice smooth as velvet as he cupped her jaw gently, he stroked a thumb over her cheek as he spoke. "If you don't want to do this you need to tell me now...." her eyes focused a bit at that, the hand that had tangled in his jacket gripped a little tighter, unconsciously begging for him already. "Once I start I'm not sure I'll be able to stop, beautiful." He added slowly, with a light nip to her ear.

He kissed the skin under it gently at first, a light peck before moving down a bit, kiss by kiss until he found her soft spot and started sucking and biting. He kept it more lips and tongue rather than teeth, knowing she wasn't ready for anything too rough. He was going to take such good care of his jagi. The breathy moan she released accompanied with the death grip she had on his jacket and arm had him grinning in her neck. "Are you ready jagi?"

She was whining low and needy, nodding her head and not letting go of him as he pulled up and stood straight. He unbuttoned his jacket, shrugging it off his shoulders and her hands fall away from him. He held her in place with nothing but his gaze alone.

"Always use your words," he instructed, folding the jacket in half and setting it down with care. "When I speak to you, I expect an answer."

His sweetheart nodded at first before stuttering out an 'okay'. He tugged her hand, having her stand and helping her take off her own jacket. "Where's your room jagi?" He asks, hiding his grin until she turned to lead the way. He squeezed her hand a bit. "Words angel."

"My room is up the stairs and down this hall." She supplied quickly, eager to please him, "along with my office, and my closet and bathroom. Down the other hall is two guest rooms, a sitting room and another bathroom."

Namjoon made a noise in the back of his throat, nodding his approval and gripping her hip as they went. Her room only held a bed, a very big bed, a chair in the middle of the room facing the floor to ceiling windows and a bedside table. Though she did have a pair of panties and a night dress thrown against the wall but neither cared as Namjoon spun her around, both hands against her waist and kissing her again. She gripped his arm and neck, excited and wanting more but Namjoon was prepared to take his time. He was going to have her begging for him before all her clothes were even off, and considering she only had on a few items it would be a challenge. But one he was more than willing to take head on. He sucked another mark into her neck, loving the way her head fell back and she moaned. It was going to be a long and beautiful night, he grinned.

[bunnys-beetlejuice-blog]

come on in, folks, i got some kind of goof ass Beetlejuice/Evil Dead crossover for you to enjoy.

He’s eighteen, and it’s Saturday, which means that he and Lydia are wandering around Manhattan, looking for trouble to get into. Lydia, eleven and ever his little shadow, is standing next to him, as they take a moment, on the busy New York street corner, to sip their boba and think about their next move. They were meant to be watching some horror movie that had looked alright from the previews, but ended up being so stupid, it wasn’t even fun, and the Deetz siblings had found themselves walking out, one hour poorer but a bucket of overly butter saturated movie popcorn richer. “I still can’t believe how bad that was,” Lydia says, again, huffing, because they’d actually paid money to see that stinker, instead of sneaking in, which is their usual habit. “Ya get one big name attached an’ everyone apparently stops givin’ a shit. Musta figured th’ droolin’ masses would eat it up,” he agrees, and he slurps up the last of his tapioca balls, and then proceeds to eat the plastic straw. “Is it too much to ask that characters actually be interesting, and, I don’t know, behave like normal human people?” Lyds bitches, as BJ takes a bite out of his cup, too. She glances up at him, dryly. “I mean, I guess maybe my standards for normality are low, but still.”

He grins at her. “Whatever could you possibly mean, sister dearest?” he puts on a posh, almost transatlantic accent, and she rolls her eyes, and sucks boba up in her straw, then shoots the pearls at him like a pea shooter. He snorts and laughs.

It’s a good day, despite the letdown at the movies. It’s nearly that time of year, just about the start of his seasonal depression, as the sun becomes shy and things go cold and gray. Still, there’s some time left with the sunshine, so he’s drinking it up, savoring it, and it feels good, to stand here with Lyds, and talk about nothing. “Alright, come on, let’s second act it,” he grins, and she perks up. “I think Wicked’s playing!” “Wicked’s always playin’.” “Well, I’m not sitting through Hamilton, it’s a Saturday. I’m not learning if I don’t have to.” “Totally fuckin’ fair. Music Man, maybe?” “Hugh Jackman’s weirdly brick shaped head freaks me out.” “There’s gotta be a show we can sneak into,” BJ frowns, scratching at the scruff of his chin, and then he catches a scent he’s never smelled before, as Lydia puzzles through their remaining options. It’s like death, sort of, but not. Like death warmed over, or death, refried. He takes his sister’s hand, and leads her away from the street corner, following the smell, nose in the air, pupils blown wide, and Lydia laughs. “Great, time to go poke a dead thing. That’s more fun than The Last Four Years, at least.” She’s seen him go like this before, and thinks she knows what to expect.

Neither of them know how to react when they follow the scent down an alleyway and see the violent fight happening in front of them.

Parked at the far end of the alleyway is a car, some 70’s make that he doesn’t know enough about such things to name, and between it, and the Deetz siblings, is an one handed man absolutely going feral on a group of three refried dead smelling zombie… things. “Deadly-vu,” he hears Lydia whisper, as they watch the man perform a scissor kick that sends a zombie head flying. It bounces like a basketball against the brick wall that makes the alleyway, rolls, and lands at the Deetz sibling’s feet. There’s a beat, as they stare at it, and it stares back, before the head on the ground opens its mouth and speaks. “DEMON!” it shrieks, and then it makes the life ending choice to roll at Lydia, teeth bared, and his boot is going through it, crushing through the skull like an overly juicy bug under his heel. He takes a second to wipe the gore from his sole onto the pavement. “Maybe Wicked could be good,” he turns and says to Lydia, who responds by ducking behind him, because the body the head formerly belonged to seems to be stumbling at them, clutching something in it’s boiled and infected and puss covered arms, and it thrusts the thing at BJ, before falling down and collapsing into dust. It’s a book. Some kind of creepy old demon book, from the look of it. He wrinkles his nose in vague disgust, and then takes a sniff. If the zombie things are refried death, this thing is a whole fucking Mexican food buffet of it, and it makes his head spin in a way he’s never felt before. He kind of likes it. He’s about to give the cursed reading material a tentative lick before a boom rings out from in front of them- the one handed man has pulled a sawed off shotgun off his back, and dispatched another corpse thing. There’s one left, and it’s circling the man, who by this point is so blood covered, he looks like he was tricked into being prom queen, or something.

“Is it just me, or do you freaks just keep gettin’ uglier?” the man quips, and the corpse lunges, a stumbling move which earns it the butt of the shotgun to the jaw, which goes flying. The zombie is shot through the gut, and drops, but is a twitching, squirming mess. BJ’s seen enough horror movies to know that thing is getting back up. The stranger has apparently, too. He takes a moment to reload the shotgun, then double taps, blowing clean through the thing’s skull. He blows at the slightly smoking barrels of his sawed off, twirls it, and holsters it, re-slipping it onto his back. It’s a pretty cool move, actually, and the siblings watch in rapt attention. It takes the three remaining people (well, two people, one demon,) in the alley a moment to actually focus on each other, and there’s silence, before the stranger speaks. “Uh,” says the man, covered in blood, and Lydia peaks out from behind BJ, and stares at him, with big eyes. “Kids,” he hears the man mutter. “Great, just what I need, a coupla kids, gettin’ in my way.. Hey, kiddies,” he says, louder, with a smile, which might be really charming when he’s not soaked in rot and blood, but the effect at the moment is not as sincere and friendly as he clearly thinks it is. “Looks like you two little heroes managed to wrangle my book away from those deadites. You wanna do your pal Ash a favor, and hand it over?” He makes a “come here” motion with his stump arm, and then seems to realize that’s not so appealing, because he tucks that appendage behind his back, worried, suddenly, about scaring them. As if a man with a missing hand is the weirdest thing they've seen in the last five minutes.

“What the fuck,” Lydia says, and BJ can’t help but agree with that sentiment. Also, he feels a vague sense of sudden responsibility for this weird old tome. It doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of thing a human should have. Maybe those zombies… deadites? Maybe they were trying to get back what was stolen from them. Though he’s not charitable enough to assume that they’re the good guys in this feud. The stranger, Ash, takes a careful step forward. “It’s alright,” he says, like he’s talking to a wild animal he’s trying to tame, and not a teen and preteen, respectively. “I’m not gonna hurtcha. Just need to get my book back.”

A sudden screeching wind roars down the alleyway, and both living humans react, ducking, as it bellows and swirls around them, kicking up dust and trash and chunks of leftover deadite. “Demon! Aid us!” BJ feels a presence in front of his face, something he can’t see, but a great, ancient something, reaching out to him, demanding, begging, pleading, for him to assist in whatever macabre goal it wants to meet. He responds by sticking his unglamoured tongue out at it. “Ewww, gross. No.”

The thing shrieks again, and makes a beeline for Lydia, which is just about the stupidest thing it could have done, because he drops his glamour fully and snarls, gives the ancient being a psychic push back, and he sends the thing that cannot be seen flying, out of the shady darkness of this alleyway, past what he assumes to be Ash’s car, and out onto the city street, into the sun. It shrieks and moans and curses him. He flips it off, as it dissipates. The vibe in the air, however, tells him it’s not “dead,” just gone.

Ash straightens up and looks at him. BJ’s already slipped his human disguise back on, so the effect is that Ash has just seen what seems to be a slightly too pale and definitely overweight human teen somehow push back an ancient evil, totally unaffected. Now it’s his turn to let out a confused, “What the fuck?”

“Come on, BJ!” Lydia grabs her big brother’s arm and pulls him away, running from the gore and the confused zombie slayer. “Wait, kids-!” Ash rounds the corner, after them, but the Deetz siblings are already gone, disappeared into thin air, flash stepping the span of blocks in the blink of an eye, and they don’t stop until Lydia, sick from the teleportation, gives his hand a squeeze. They appear on a rooftop, confusing and traumatizing some pigeons that had been roosting.

“Wait, why did we run?’ BJ asks, and Lydia looks at him like he’s a moron. “Because that guy was clearly a monster hunter! And kind of really good at it!” she says. He mulls that over, and smiles. “Worried for your big bro?” he bats his eyelashes at her, and she responds by slugging him in the gut, which he reacts the barest amount to. “Last thing I want is to explain to mom and dad how you ended up with a shotgun blast through your skull,” she says, and crosses her arms, before leaning forward, to study the book he’s still holding. “So. What is that?” He grins. “Wanna open it an’ find out?” Read the rest of the first chapter here!

[geekygoddesss]

You (Part 9)

Summary: After Tom breaks the longest relationship he’s ever had, both of them seem to handle the breakup in a completely different way.

Words: 8k

NOT CORRECTED - possible typos along the text.

January 20th - Two weeks and a day after the break-up

There could be more than one reason on why he was waking up so early that morning. 

It was hard to know what was happening to him right away, because he was really confused and not feeling his greatest enough to wonder why the hell was he even awake at this time. He didn’t know what time it was, but it felt early. Maybe it was that light coldness that ran through his bedroom, or the unusual silence that overpowered the room a moment ago, he had a feeling that he should be sleeping at this time, but whatever was happening, something was calling for him at unusual timings and he really was not in the mood to talk to anyone or even worst, help anyone. 

He really felt like shit. 

No exaggerations intended, he felt like real shit from the moment he opened his eyes and he didn’t know why. His body wasn’t prepared to go through another day. 

Again, he really didn’t know what it was that was waking him up at this time, maybe because he was just waking up from the deepest of his sleeps and it was hard to acknowledge the world around him, but also, it was like everything was happening at the same time, and it made him completely confused for a good minute, confused enough to make his head spin. 

At first he thought it might be that pressuring feeling in his stomach, one that felt painful and stronger than any other time, it was atypical and he couldn’t guess what was the reason for such an uncomfortable feeling; then he thought it was that constant tossing and turning, coming from someone laying right beside him, he couldn’t remember who was, just bits and pieces, but whoever that was, they were moving a lot for his liking; finally, and after a good minute of thinking about it and stupidly ignore it, he came to the conclusion that it might be because of the barking of his dog coming from outside the room, sounds that were muffled by his closed door, but still were just as uncomfortable. That was definitely what was bugging him, it couldn’t be any other thing, Tessa’s bark wasn’t the quietest of bark’s, even with the door being closed it was annoying. 

He had the moral duty of getting up to go see what was happening, it was his dog after all, if the world was falling apart outside his window maybe Tessa would be the reason why he would find out about it, he couldn’t just ignore that something was happening and making her react, he had to get out from the bed and take a look. 

It was more difficult than it seemed. 

At first it was easy to turn to shake the covers out of him. His body was reacting slowly, slower than he’d like, but it was too early to be awake and he couldn't properly function. The second step was to open his eyes, thing that became a little difficult at first, but that after a couple of blinks and a bit of rubbing, it was done. Now he had to deal with the rest. 

Seeing the real world open in front of him made him realize of a couple of things he wasn’t aware of. And all of those seemed to be equally as inconvenient. 

Number one, He was very naked. 

Number two, there was a girl sleeping right beside him, whoever that was, her face looked familiar, but it didn’t matter, it was a girl. 

Number three, and more importantly, he had a boner, a painful one, and he really didn’t know where that was coming from. It was just… there. 

He didn’t know what situation to manage first, everything was happening at first and he didn’t know what to do. Leaving all the unconformities aside, he decided it would be a wise decision to prioritize things, so with a bit of effort and quick thinking, he grabbed his side of the covers and placed them over his lower body, reached out for the pair of sweatpants he usually stored under the bed (for especial situations and emergencies), and with a couple of swifts moves, he sat on the bed and slid them on; trying his best to avoid the small pulsing feeling in his head, and moving on to see what the hell was happening outside his door. 

His feet felt cold as he walked towards the door, he wasn’t the one who usually walked around the house barefoot, and adding to the series of annoying feelings, this was definitely one of them. He tried his best not to be noisy as he moved around the room, he didn’t want to wake the snoozing girl in his bed, but also didn’t feel like bugging himself with noise when he was already dealing with so much first thing in the morning, he tried to be discreet and quite. It was better for everyone. 

The first thing he noticed when peeking outside of his bedroom (almost afraid that something big would pop up) was Tessa’s tail moving around like crazy, as her paws moved around and jumped in place while she continued barking at the door. He figured out the matter sooner than he thought, mostly before he heard the sound of a door knock just seconds after seeing Tessa acting crazy. It was pretty intuitive. 

He really didn’t want to see anyone right now… 

He really hoped it wasn’t any of his neighbours, though, they hated him already, he wasn’t  in the mood to treat with any of them at the moment. 

“What’s up, Tess?” he said quietly, leaning down to touch her back and calm her down a bit “Stop that” he mumbled, making her quite down and moving her aside, as he moved forward to take a look through the door’s peephole.  

It was hard to focus on the image in front of him for two main reasons, one, the first thing that crossed his sight was a big mane of hair showing right in front on him, which made him doubt on who could exactly be, since he had a couple of options, but once he looked closer and thought about it, he didn’t even need to ask for a double check, because there was only one person he knew that had such a piece of hair, soft and prominent, and the second he knew who that was he just wanted to get it over it, because he sensed trouble and he wasn’t sure he could deal with it right now. 

The moment he opened the door and peeked to see who it was, seeing those blue eyes looking directly at him made him confirm his theory, the guy in front of me was unquestionably more handsome and looking better than he could possibly be at this time. He was wearing a small smile, dark clothes and suitcase right behind him, he really couldn’t guess what he was up to, it was difficult to think, but he had a lot of questions and not many answers. 

“Morning” Frank greeted, a side smile showing in his face as he gave a single wave. 

He had to blink twice just to make sure he was seeing things right, he didn’t really expect Frank to be passing by his apartment at this time, especially when it was the only person staying there was just him. 

Tom nodded once. “Morning, hi” he mumbled, hiding behind the door and rubbing his eye, in a poor intent to have a clearer view. “what a surprise, how are you, mate?” he asked, raising his eyebrows softly. 

He still wanted to be friendly, after all, he was like family for him, he’s known Frank for a while, he deserved nothing but a nice treatment from his part. 

“I’m good, how’s it going?” Frank nodded as he shrugged. 

Tom nodded back.  “Good, good, good, it’s all good...dandy, you know?” he answered quickly, trying to get a smile out of him but not really being able to, he was barely a person now. 

He was not going to lie, this was becoming fairly uncomfortable for him.

Small talking… not his jam. 

 He had a problem he needed to solve now, he had a girl sleeping on his bed and he definitely needed to put some clothes on, he couldn’t be chit chatting and making short talk with his girlfriend’s cousin, he needed peace and tranquility, and he wasn’t getting any of it.  

He needed to solve one problem at a time. Somehow he wasn’t half into the conversation and he already felt like he was losing his time, he had nothing better to do, but still had shit to get done. He needed to get this out of the way. 

“Can I help you?” he kindly asked, pressing a small smile out of him as he looked up at Frank. 

Frank smiled back. “My cousin is running out of supplies and she’s -like- driving me crazy, I just need to fill this thing” he mentioned, pointing at the suitcase beside him. “Do you mind?” 

His mind flashed and woke him up in less than a millisecond. 

How could he not notice until this day that she hasn’t sent anyone for her stuff?

And she had to do it now? so early? And at the worst possible moment? 

That was anything but nice, he didn’t want her to be picking her things at all, but he didn’t want to be covering things like a high schooler either, just like he was about to do… the different was, he really had no clue how he was going to manage that. This was ridiculous. 

Why did everything had to happen to him at the worst timings? 

“No, I don’t, absolutely” he answered fast as he looked back and mumbled. “would you give me just one second? I’ll move Tess to the bathroom and she won’t bother you, it’s just a second” he excused, moving to close the door. 

“She knows me, I don’t mind” he reminded Tom, making him stop in place before he closed the door in his face. 

“But she barks and I don’t want the neighbours to be complaining later, you know…” he tried to explain, laughing awkwardly “Just a second, I’ll be back”

He didn’t even gave Frank the chance to say something or stop him from letting him into his apartment, because the moment he closed that door he found himself rushing into his bedroom, swearing on everything he could and finding himself so torned over stupid things that it was hard for him to think straight about anything. 

First thing he had to take care of, that girl, he had to get rid of her in some way. Doing that without being rude seemed difficult, but he had 0 time to be worrying about how could he make everything more smooth, he just had to get shit done before letting Frank in, not be loosing time and making everything seem more weird and suspicious than it already was. 

He climbed onto the bed and sat right next to the girl, that even with the noisy environment around them seem to still be sleeping soundly and in peace, like a baby. He felt bad. He didn’t want to be bothering her after he brought her here, he didn’t want her to be freaking out or worrying on why he was doing this shit. He didn’t want to do this now. It was hard to get himself to explain the situation when it was this sudden and this inconvenient.

Either way, he would end up looking like an asshole no matter what he said, he knew that already. 

“Hello there” he mumbled quietly, leaning into to shake her body slightly in an attempt to wake her up gently. “Wakey Wakey” he mumbled, shaking her gently a couple of times in an attempt of waking her up. 

Good thing of living for so many years with a girl, he knew he would be expecting two things when waking a girl up: one, a pacific and quite behaviour, and two, a very angry one he shouldn’t question much. He already knew how to manage both situations, so he felt pretty lucky, it made the job a lot easier. 

The girl stored on the bed just a couple seconds later, he felt grateful that she actually woke up quickly. She opened one eye and looked at him, closed it again, sighed, opened both eyes with a lot of effort and smiled at him a beautiful smile.

She was in a good mood. Good.

“Hey, you” she mumbled, smiling at him as she leaned on her elbows. “What’s up?” 

“I am so sorry” he instantly mumbled, before saying anything else “but can you please come with me for a second?” He rushed, leaning in to grab a shirt from his side of the bed and passing it to her without giving much context.

She frowned, clearly feeling concerned by his behaviour and sensing something was off. He didn’t want to be throwing her off like this, but he had no other option, he had to present things with honestly to evict confusions, the situation was already pretty stupid, he didn’t want to make it worst. 

“What’s going on?” She asked as she grabbed the shirt without saying much and slid it over her head. 

“My girlfriend’s cousin, if he sees i’m with someone he’ll probably choke me, so, It’ll just be a minute, stay there” He explained, grabbing her hand and leading her to the bathroom that was only a couple steps away from his bedroom. “Stay here, It’ll be quick, I promise” 

“Girlfriend? Excuse me?” She asked, frowning as she looked up at him, not looking very happy about his statement. 

“Ex!” he corrected himself once he noticed all the nonsense that came out of his mouth “ “It’s complicated, sorry, I forget, I just- Ah, one  minute” 

He didn’t think he could babble this much until all the words finally left his mouth, whoever this girl was, she didn’t look convinced enough, and he could only blame himself for being so bad at speaking and producing, but he could only hoped she cooperated with him, because otherwise it would have been a very uncomfortable situation. 

“Sure” she narrowed her eyes, sat down on the toilet seat and crossed her leg over the other “but you own me breakfast” 

He let out a deep sigh. “Thank you” he said with honest words, moving forward and closing the door. 

That was easier than he thought, he thought, some others might as well put up a fight, but this seemed pretty reasonable, that was good. One less thing to solve on the list, now he had to deal with the most obvious one, the one that worried him the most. 

He looked down. 

His boner, it was showing, it wasn’t hiding. This was not normal. 

It was too painful and noticeable, sweatpants were not working as well as they usually did in other situation, this time was odd and very out of hand, he didn’t know why, but he just… couldn’t relax, and it showed, it was embarrassing. He didn’t even know why he was like this, it usually happened, but he could manage this kinds of things easily. 

Why was it not working?

Why didn’t it go down?

“I don’t have all day!” he heard Frank’s voice yell from outside. 

He could have sworn something in his head had blown off the moment he heard that. It was like everything was happening at the same time and he just couldn’t think, maybe because it was too early, or how strange he felt, but his head wasn’t really working right and he was… sweating, he didn’t know why he felt like this, it was weird. 

He ran to his front door, wanting to get this all of the way already and letting Frank in the apartment. He didn’t even care about his little (big) problem, he just wanted to kick some stones out of the way so he could be left alone and try to figure what the hell he could do to stop feeling so weird, but having other people around him while this happened was stressing him out, and he was sure this didn’t help the situation in any way. 

“Sorry, come in” he apologized, letting Frank inside his home and moving aside, giving him the greenlight to make himself at home. 

He knew Frank knew that he was onto something, because the moment he stepped in the apartment the look he shot his way and burned him alive was not very discreet, in fact, he could have sworn it was completely intentional, to make him feel bad on purpose for acting so weird, but that wasn’t his fault, it was just… the timing, it was completely wrong for everything. 

“Tessa’s out” Frank pointed out, looking down and waking into the living room, like it was usual. 

Tessa. 

He completely forgot about moving Tessa somewhere else. 

Good thing she knew him already, because she was running around and jumping at the sight of his presence, so it was a good thing. At least she wasn’t going to bark because there was a stranger inside his house or something. 

“Yeah” he sighed deeply “it’s just-” 

“Oof, boy, calm down” Frank sighed, interrupting him completely and making him stop in place at such a gesture. 

He didn’t even need to ask, he was already blushing. 

Frank laughed at him shamelessly as he leaned in to caress Tessa’s head and at the same time looked over at Tom’s pants, that were obviously showing too much and he couldn’t do anything about it. Frank found it hilarious for some reason, and didn’t even try to mask the fact that it was there and he was looking at it, he was such an open person that he didn’t even mind acknowledging its presence openly, and that was so embarrassing. This was embarrassing.

 He couldn’t believe this was even happening. 

 “I hope that’s not me, I’m taken” Frank laughed, standing up straight as he shamelessly stared at him, laughed some more and shook his head at the joke of the year. 

And he couldn’t calm down, not even now. 

“No- no, no, no, no, no” Tom stuttered right away, shaking his head and finding it hard to speak. “I’m into other things”

Frank laughed. “Oh boy, don’t I know that already” he let out, took a step forward and palmed his back twice. “just, uh, I’ve got class, if you don’t mind, where’s the closet?” he asked, raising an eyebrow in question and showing him a small smile. 

Tom pressed his lips together. Almost wanting to give an explanation before he went in to whatever he had to do, but something inside of him told him maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea, maybe it was better to shut up and let it pass. 

He would do that, he didn’t know what else was viable, anyway. So he shut his mouth, closed his eyes and pointing towards his room, silently giving Frank permission to go over there and get whatever he needed. 

“Merci” He thanked, palming his back again and walking directly to his room. 

Something inside of him told him that maybe it would be a good idea just to stay back and let him look for whatever he needed inside of his room. The other part of him thought of that girl, just sitting there inside of his bathroom and waiting for a green light to come out, and feared that Frank would cross paths with her at some point. The other part of him (deep down) thought: maybe it would be nice to go an have a talk with Frank, after all, he thought if there was anyone who knew about his girlfriend’s state, that was him, he knew her better than anyone in the world, he must know what is going on inside her head most of the time. He was dying to know what she was up to and how she felt, maybe it was that time to have that conversation and he should go ahead and ask him. 

Now, now is the time.

It was the smartest thing he could think of at the moment, going up there with Frank would assure him two things: making sure he wouldn’t go anywhere he didn’t need to, and talk to Tom about (Y/n). In his head it seemed like a good plan, so he would carry on with it. 

With nothing else to say or do, he just went up to his room right after Frank. He walked slowly and discretely, following his steps until he made it into his room and set up the suitcase in front of the giant closet before him. Tom just sat down on his side of the bed, looked down at his lap and took in the deep silence that was summoned in the room. He just sat down in there and shut his mouth, it was hard to bring himself to say anything when he couldn’t even think straight, all he could do was sit there and watch him move around his bedroom with freedom, like he was specifically instructed where to look and how to move around, because he clearly was, and he seemed to remember every detail. 

The silence was so pure and dense you could cut it with a knife, none of them had anything to bring up into a conversation, and there was some clear tension above them that wasn’t letting any of them act like they used to do when everything was in peace. At least on Tom’s side, he didn’t really feel capable of bringing something into the table, something over them was winning and intimidating him to the point of keeping him silent, it was very unusual, but it was happening, and it was the reality of things they were facing. 

But even when Tom wanted to get some words out of him, he just couldn’t, because he couldn’t think. That suffocating pressure inside of him was so annoying and exhausting that not only was he sweating but he was also finding it difficult to be coherent with himself and what he’d like to say. He didn’t want to seem like a fool after that weird encounter, especially with the record he was already creating for himself; he wanted to have a descent conversation with Frank, someone who was so close to get and was also the most honest person that inhabited this planet, it was a big deal, he didn’t want to fuck up. He had to keep is head clear and relax in order to produce a decent conversation… he just had to relax. 

He breathed in...and then out. 

In, then out. 

In, out. 

In, out.

In, out. 

In…

It was not working, it was not even helping in the slightest bit. He didn’t know what was happening. He was starting to feel something was seriously wrong, and he couldn’t get his finger on what exactly was doing this effect on him.

Last night was pretty much blurry, if he could only remember...

“Why didn’t she come here herself?” he found himself saying out of the blue, breaking the ice from all sudden and just getting words out of his mouth just like so. 

This was one of those times when he would feel like something bigger than himself and that was looking down at him was writing down his words and making him say them out and clear, like he was an actor on his own life, and he had to recite everything that he was told to, in order to get to places and situations. He didn’t know how he got himself to say that, but he did, he walking into sketchy conversation easier than he thought he could. 

“Because she doesn’t want to see you, genius” Frank mumbled, getting a couple of clothing items in his hands and leaving them over the bed “Also, she’s busy, she wasn’t going to waste her time coming here”

“Oh” he mumbled, looking down at his hands as he said. “I mean, I wouldn’t have mind...” he spoke, a nervous chuckle escaping from his lips as the words left his mouth. 

“Yeah, but she kinds of wants you to be out of her perimeter” Frank explained, looking at him and shrugging. “I don’t know if you understand it” 

Somehow it seemed like Frank tried to paint a picture to a little boy in order to understand a situation. 

He was not in any way a little boy, and he understood this situation to perfection. He created it after all, he knew exactly what was going on and how he was standing in this whole deal. The least he could do was try to make things right and care while they were dealing with this, he didn’t want to be the bad person between them, and he didn’t want to know she was doing bad, because he loves her and all he wants for her is the best of the best. He just wanted to know how she were, that was all, at least in the slightest bit, he wanted to care for her in everything he could.

“Is she really mad?” he asked quietly, not bothing to look up at Frank at any moment. 

He heard him hiss at his question. 

“She said you’d ask” he mentioned, being careful with his tone as he kept digging in the closet. “and I should be saying that she hates your guts, but that’s not true, I should also be saying, she’s much better alone, but she’s a nerve wreck and I am not a liar, and I also should be saying, you should really go relax because this is getting creepy and I’m oddly feeling the need of getting out before I see myself involved in this” he said, now turning his tone into a more confident tone as the conversation scaled. 

It was hard for Tom to focus from one point of the conversation to another. When he looked up at Frank, he noticed he was looking at him with a teasing smile, almost trying not to laugh at him, and made him turn his attention back to the problem inside of his pants, that even when he wished for it to not exist at the moment, it was there interrupting the situation in the worst way possible. 

It was making it impossible to have a normal conversation. 

“You’re extremely attractive, by the way” Frank mentioned, winking at him and going back to his businness. 

He sensed that maybe all this teasing and mentioning the obvious in the conversation was only done on propose to annoy him, and it was, but not in a bad way, not in a good way either. He just found himself conflicted to maintain a normal environment while being like this the entire time. 

“I am relaxed, Frank” he made clear, reaching out to grab a pillow to cover himself. “Just-“ he tried to say, signaling him to turn around and continue doing whatever he had to do. 

“Okay. okay” Frank raised both arms, turning around as he was told to and not saying anything else “she specifically asked for her yellow hoodie, and I see… anything but that, where is it?” he asked, looking around, as he grabbed more things from the cabinets. “Geez, how many clothes does she have? This is too much, now I get why you have two closets, How did you allow this nightmare?”

For some reason Tom found himself chuckling at that question. It was a very good one. 

“I bring her hoodies from everywhere I go, we always collect a thing or two from around, mine is just as big and we have space, it’s a win-win” he shortly explain, shrugging as he looked back at the big closet in front of him.  It was true that maybe their closet was a bit too big for only the two of us, but for them it was the right amount of space for them to store the best memories and things they could found joy on.

 Clothing was one of their common joy, along other things, but this was one of the most meaningful for both of them. 

“This is impossible, I’m just taking the important things” Frank sighed, taking a couple more things from one cabinet, as he turned to look over his shoulder and muttered. “Hoodie?”

Tom nodded. “That’d be on my side, last one” he pointed towards the left door and allowed him to continue. “you might want to take the black skirt that’s right under it, or the jeans” he mentioned, just putting the fact out there and letting him decide. 

“Why?” Frank asked, in a bit of a confused tone, but still following his instructions. 

Tom shrugged. “I don’t know, she looks cute when she wears it all together” he mentioned shyly “I like it on her” 

“Right” 

Maybe it was stupid to say so, but he had to admit that he would miss seeing her throw that specific set of clothing on her in the mornings, right before leaving for school and he also had to leave for anything he had for the day, he would miss those moments. It was the little things around him that made him miss having her around, maybe this was one of them, and seeing that Frank was picking up so many memories didn’t make him feel any better, in fact, he was feeling very nostalgic right now. 

It was really happening, he thought, she was leaving, she was picking her things. She could leave for real. 

He took a moment to watch Frank collect everything he was commanded to from the floor and close the closets door as he packed everything inside of that suitcase. He took a peak at her side of the closet while it was still open, a lot of her things were still there, good, but she was slowly getting everything back to her, and it felt weird, it was like slowly he was becoming more alone that he ever expected. 

As Frank finished collecting everything inside of the case, he grabbed it in both hands and placed it up in the bed while it was still open, revealing all of the unorganized pieces of clothing he just grabbed, all placed everywhere and ready to go. It was a shame just to look at that, he never thought he would even be staring at this, so soon. 

“Sorry for the mess, but this is quicker” Frank excused himself, standing in front of the suitcase laying on the bed and starting for fold everything in, so it would be more or less organized. 

Tom waved a hand, not minding it at all. He didn’t mind about him some extra couple minutes to organize himself, after all, he was just doing a small part of the job, this was only a little piece of work. 

 “So…” Frank mumbled, as he grabbed the yellow hoodie and held it between is hands “Are you going to tell me why is it still standing, or not?”

Tom pressed his lips together. 

Apparently he was not going to be able to have a normal conversation until that topic wasn’t covered. Frank was either evading the topic, or just trying to embarass him more than he already was. 

He didn’t even care anymore, he wanted this topic to be over, not be asked about it again for the rest of the morning, if it was even possible. 

“Because I can’t relax and you’re here, give me a break” He groaned under his breath, not finding any other good explanation, mostly because there wasn’t one. 

Frank laughed. “You’re straight, why would my presence prolonge your erection?”

“Because I took a pill and now it doesn’t want to go down” 

Suddenly it all made sense. 

Suddenly he remembered all of it. 

Now that is what was happening. 

The human mind was incredible. He couldn’t remember about that fact just as easily as that, but his mind just popped that memory out of nothing and now he was regretting every single part of his decisions. All of them. 

Suddenly he was able to remember how Harrison was inviting him out last night, how they were drinking and having a good time, and he told him before he left the bar the trustiness of the effects of that blue pill, and how it turned a good night into a better night from one moment to another. 

He remembered to be drunk enough to accept that stupid proposal. Stupid.

He couldn’t even believe he was up to that. He was such an idiot. 

“You’re kidding” Frank scoffed, stopping in place. 

“I wish”

There was no doubt that she will be hearing about this story once he confessed it all, but it was the sad truth of this situation, it was really happening. He felt very ashamed. 

“Say no more!” Frank yelled, covering his mouth with two hands as he laughed at his small confession, apparently finding it to be the best joke he’s heard in the entire day “That’s on you, oh man”

“It’s not supposed to do this!” Tom argued, pointing at the problem, suddenly feeling completely frustrated.  

“Thomas” Frank stopped him, taking a moment to sit on the bed and look at him with the small bit of seriousness still left on him. “I don’t want to be a pain in the ass, or put my nose in your business, but you do know that Viagra is only supposed to be given if necessary, right?” he asked, again, acting like if this was a joke and holding a laugh.  “And I don’t think you need it, I know that from facts”

Tom couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I know, I know...”  he mumbled. 

“Then how...”

“Harrison told me it would only last a couple of hours and that it made you more... energetic” he tried to explain, as if that was reasonable enough, or even valid. “I didn’t thought I would wake up like this”

Frank rolled his eyes harder than he could ever do it, that is when he knew he was too innocent to handle something like Viagra, he was a kid trapped in the body of a 23-year old adult, he didn’t know about life, he was naive enough to think that would make sex better for him, like if he needed that at all. 

Stupid.

“Bro, Morning woods, it’s normal; if the drug is still on your blood you can’t do much, you are the problem in this equation” Frank explained, moving over to keep organising the case as he kept speaking.  ‘How many?” he asked, clearly examining the situation. 

Tom tried to remember well… Remember if he wasn’t having some kind of overdose for being an idiot. 

“One” he mentioned quietly. 

“Okay, an hour before?” Frank asked. 

“Right before the act”

The biggest laugh left Frank lips after he spoke.

Tom wasn’t sure if he was enjoying this or not, on his side, this was not even funny, but apparently after being an idiot and having a bad time, people laugh at you, and they enjoy it, it’s like revenge. 

“You idiot! you haven’t drain it, at all, your penis could literally fall off from that shit!” he exclaimed, laughing even more as he spoke. Tom hands went cold and he turned to look at him. 

Did he just say....

“I’m kidding, actually, it’s not that dangerous on a normal dose” Frank said, after finishing his stupid (and not funny) joke. Tom was really stressing himself over this. “How was it anyways?” Frank asked raising his brow. 

He wished he could explain it clearly, but he couldn’t remember how it was exactly. He remember feeling normal, and then, a couple minutes after, feeling like a rush was going through his body for a specific amount of time, his heart beating, his body telling him to move. He didn’t know. It was a mix of thing, he couldn’t get a grip on any specific detail. 

“Weird” he explained, trying to be clear. “You’re chill one second and the other is like... like the shot of adrenaline you’ve never had” he remembered, trying to bring back to his mind that weird memory… but he could only gather bits and pieces. 

“Dear god” Frank hissed at that story. “Geez, my balls hurt just from hearing that, oh man” 

Tom couldn’t help but glance at him for a second. If that was supposed to be some moral support, it really wasn’t helping…

“You’re a nurse, aren’t you?” he asked, once that fact came to mind “How do I… you know”

It was only wise to ask something like that, because he didn’t want to be hearing later that the only thing he could think of doing was the one thing he wasn’t supposed to do. He just wanted to make sure. He’s never been or heard of any horror stories from this, so he might as well ask someone who might have some notion on the human body, before he got into places he couldn’t control. 

“There’s only one way out, buddy, you know it already” Frank reminded him with a smile. 

“Meditate, relax, let it out”

Nothing he didn’t know already. Good to hear, but at the same time, very weird. 

“Thank you” he nodded his way, offering his smile as a small thank you. 

Frank nodded back. “I think I’m done” Frank stated, staffing all the clothes on top of the case and pressing them in, closing it quickly as he said. “Thanks for making my day, and also, have a nice meditation” he winked, pulling the case his way and walking back. 

He didn’t even give Tom any time to say anything else, he just grabbed what he needed and made his way out, leaving him with one half covered topic and a couple questions still unanswered, questions that he needed to get over with before going on with his day. He could just be left like that, he needed answers. 

“Hey, Frank! Hold on” he exclaimed, jumping off from his bed, following Frank before he could leave his bedroom and stopping him in place. 

He needed to get things clear between them. 

“Yes?” Frank mumbled, in a bored tone. 

Tom stopped for a second, not really finding the right words to say to get out of this situation. 

“Can you give me advice?” He asked softly, trying to be delicate with the situation and as reasonable as possible. 

“On what? Exactly, I’m getting creeped out again” Frank mumbled, standing up straight. 

“Well” Tom sighed, trying to find the right way to say it  “Leaving this aside and all that just happened” he started. “How is she? How is she doing? Do you think it’ll be a good time to call her soon?”

Maybe those were a lot of questions at the same time, but it was really everything that was on his mind, he felt like maybe it was right to leave it out there, before it was too late.

“What for?” Frank asked, now in a serious tone. 

Tom shrugged, now really starting to get nervous. “Talking, catching up, you know” he explained shortly. “I don’t know if you know about the other night, I feel like too many things were said and maybe now we aren’t on the best terms...”

“Uh huh” Frank nodded, listening carefully to his vague explanation.

“I know she’s probably busy, can’t blame her, I’ll be busy too in a couple of days, but what’s on my mind is... do you think maybe I should call her or something? Before I left town” he asked, hoping to be careful enough to get a yes for an answer. 

Deep down he hoped he would, even when it was very idealistic. 

“What. For?” Frank asked again, being more harsh with his words. 

Tom went speechless at the hardness of his words, he didn’t know how to answer that politely, so he didn’t, he sensed that he might have asked things he shouldn’t have, and now he was being told off for it. 

He couldn’t have said anything else to elaborate on his question, because right when he was about to speak, Frank stood up straight, looking taller and more serious, making him shut up without saying a word. 

“Listen, she starts working tomorrow, she is nervous, saturated with things to do, and over the moon for this shit; over my dead body you’re going to step in and mess up her mind, right when she’s one step ahead of a nervous breakdown” he warned, sounding calm but at the same time making his warning clear like water. 

Tom sighed. “Mate, I’m worried, I want to know what she’s doing, last time we saw each other we argued, I feel terrible” he excused. 

Frank scoffed. “You did this, I’m just representing her side of this break, If you expect me to tell you you’re allowed to call her, I’m sorry, but you’re not” he stated, starting to walk out, but Tom stopped him.

He couldn’t leave yet. 

“I can call her now if I fucking want” Tom let him know, just making that clear. 

“Yeah, right” Frank warned, taking a step (and just a step) towards him. “Hear me out, if you’re worry is you’re leaving town without saying goodbye, then fine, leave her a message or something, but make it short and sweet, buddy, I don’t want you to fill her in with your bullshit, she’s stressing enough and doesn’t want to hear from you, at all: It’s not a good mix” he mentioned, very quietly “but if what you want is fix things, right now, then go take a fucking walk, because if I hear your voice, hear that you spoke to her or see you coming anywhere near her perimeter, I’m going to punch your bloody face so hard, I’m going to break your pretty nose and I’m going to feel better than ever, I don’t even care; and I don’t care how much it’s worth or who’s going to sew me, I’m warning you now, you come near her and you’re toast” he warned, being very clear as he whispered. “I used to box, do I need to say more?”

Tom gulped. 

He could have sworn his veins went cold from hearing that, it was seriously intimidating. He feared that it might be true and not just something to scare him off.

Frank didn’t offer joke about things like this. 

“Then, when it will be a good time?” Tom asked quietly. 

“Oh gosh, ask yourself that, how many girls will you be able to fuck before my cousin makes some time in her precious agenda, so she can hear your bullshit... hm...” Frank said sarcastically, making his way to the front door. “You have my number, when your head is clear, you can call me” he mentioned, opening the door and mumbling “Au revoir, handsome”

Tom closed his eyes, his voice was hard and completely serious, he just couldn’t believe he has come to a moment when someone like Frank would speak to him like this. 

He was just left standing in the middle of his apartment, speechless and blank, not being able to anything else but to pity himself and be left alone, like it was now usual. Because he was alone, and he couldn’t help but to feel terrible about it. 

And he couldn’t even ask about her… his girl. 

Turning his head to the side, he was able to see the girl he invited in peeking her head through the bathroom door and looking for him, waiting for an answer. He almost forgot about her, if he was honest. She was his company for the night, and he almost forgot about her… he was terrible. 

“Sorry, that was my ex’s cousin, it’s all clear” he excused, walking back to his room as quickly as he could and going to attend the half naked girl inside of his bedroom. 

He wanted to be a good host, at least. 

“No worries” she chuckled. “Do you happen to have an Advil? My head is messed up” she asked, reaching down to grab his dress from the bedroom floor and sliding it over her head. 

“Yes, of course” he nodded, walking straight to his nightstand and going to pick a couple of those. 

If there was one good drug he kept with him, that was Advil. It helped with everything, unlike other things… the least he could do for that girl was to offer her one. 

“I think you left your phone in the bathroom, it’s ringing” she said shyly, walking towards him slowly and handing it to him. 

He frowned for a second, looked back at his nightstand and realized that, in fact, his phone wasn’t there and he never noticed. It must have been silenced. 

“Thank you” he smiled softly, passing her the small pill and taking the phone in return. 

At first he thought it must have been Frank the one who has been blowing his phone off with calls, since apparently he was the one to think it would be a good idea to show up at his home so early, but once he checked his message, he was able to realize a couple of things he wasn’t aware of before. One, his phone was indeed blown off with messages, and number two, it wasn’t Frank, but his parents calling, and it seemed to be like he was forgetting something, and not only that, he apparently was already late, like he was for everything. 

It wasn’t even a surprise, he already felt terrible about it. 

Golfing day, it was the family golfing day. 

And he forgot… Idiot. 

“I’m so sorry” Tom spoke softly, directly referring to the girl as he said. “it was a good time but I have to ask you to leave, sorry, Lori” he mumbled.

He didn’t want to know how he was able to remember her name. He just wanted her out. 

“Lola” she corrected him softly. 

“Yes, sorry” he snapped out of it, turning to her and trying for once to be polite. “Taxi, do you need a taxi? Here’s some cash for the taxi, and breakfast; sorry for the bathroom thing” he spoke quickly, taking a couple bills from his nightstand and handing it to her without a single hesitation. 

Again, he didn’t know what he was doing, he just wanted her out. 

“No need and no worries” she chuckled nervously, sensing the weird environment around the room. “I live across the street, don’t worry” she shrugged, picking up her thinks as she asked. “Are you alright?”

“No” he simply answered, shrugging her way and looking away from where she was. “Close the door when you’re out”

Somehow, she felt like it was her responsibility to make that question; but just like it was her responsibility, he felt like it was his responsibility to be honest with her, and he would be, because he didn’t feel like covering things up with lies and just wanted to be left alone. As easy as that. 

He heard her sigh. 

“Thank you, by the way, it was a great night” he thanked her softly, before she would think otherwise. 

“Thank you, hottie” he heard her mumble, as she stepped back. “see you around”

It was only a matter of time until he was left alone again. He took a moment just to stay there and wait to hear the door close behind her until he was completely alone inside of his apartment. Like always.

A million thoughts ran inside of his head, and none of them were any good. After what he did, after what he has said, he just felt like the worst person in the world, at least for his girl, he felt like the worst person in her life, and he didn’t like that. He felt alone, and terrible… it’s been a while since he’s felt like this. He deserved it. 

No matter what just happened, he just had to deal with his misery. 

Today he had to do what he always did, what he lived for. He had to put on a happy face and pretend. It was what he did best, and today was not exception. 

Maybe with that he will believe he wasn’t this alone, but it would be a lie… just like all of the things he’s learn to say so easily. 

Taglist: 

@lovely-geek​ @greatpizzascissorstaco @halparkebitch @antigoneidk @clarissa-hunter @let-me-luve-you @joyleenl @delicateslover @aussie-holland @cherrysruin @jmstravel @elamvlfoy @trumpettay @vhs-taped @twinkletommo-blog @thevelvetseries @witchything @lowkey-holland @idk123906 @peterparkersthot​ @lola-bunny-00​ @softholand @tomsirishgirlx​ @xxxxdelenaxxxx​  @radolenscent​ @yoongi-holland​ @itstaskeen​ @hipsterlungster​ @tyffanynguyen03 @leximarie66​ @frustratingpaperclip​ @alex231infinity @mychemicalimagines​ @gabiconstellation​ @aa-ronpa @nightxshadex201​ @heyo-lego​ @xeniarocks​ @juliebean247​ @morbiddanvers​ @dudde-44​ @in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh​ @captainr0mania​ @panicattheeverywherekid​ @unbelievableholland​ @mismatched-lovers​ @lu-morningstar​ @sspidermanss​ @hollanddolanfangirl​ @lukesbabylon​ @letsloveimagines​

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

someone behind me was tracing my steps / maybe you’re better off this way

Fandom: Kamen Rider Ryuki

Characters: Asakura Takeshi, Kido Shinji

Songs: "After the Fall," October Project & "Passive," A Perfect Circle (playlist here)

Takeshi’s sitting against the wall, bleeding out, and the mirror guy—Kanzaki, right—is standing over him, mouth twisted in something he vaguely recognizes as dismay. “I can’t use this, there’s barely any energy left,” he says, not to Takeshi, and there sure as hell isn’t anyone else in the room. “I’ll have to reset.”

“Hang on a second.” Takeshi coughs and feels his mouth fill up with the taste of copper, which isn’t such a bad flavor when you get down to it. “What about my wish?”

Kanzaki doesn’t even look at him, already fucking around with the mirror. “You don’t want anything, there’s no point.”

“Sure I want something.”

“…what on Earth could you want at this point? It’s all going to be reset anyway.”

Takeshi grins up at him, knowing that it’s sure to be an unnerving sight with his teeth all over blood. “Lemme remember.”

“Out of the question. Giving one participant unnecessary foreknowledge would interfere with the procedure.”

“Nah, nah, I’m not gonna interfere with shit. It was just a hell of a time.” Takeshi looks up just as Kanzaki is looking down and grins his bloody grin a little wider. “I like to remember times when I had fun. Looking forward to doing it over again. Let me remember.”

---

It’s not until he graduates university that Shinji realizes that he’s missing something.

Slightly after, really. He graduates, he works some shitty part-time gigs, he does some freelancing, and then Ookubo gets in touch and offers him a job at Ore Journal. That’s all fine, but when he steps through the door of the Ore offices he’s hit with a wave of déjà vu so powerful that he nearly trips and falls face-first into Reiko’s desk. Fortunately he catches himself before anyone notices. It had been bad enough trying to explain to his mother about the girl who lived in his mirror when he was thirteen; he can’t imagine how the people here would react to, “I remember walking into this room for the first time at least eight times over.”

He gets a grip on himself, but the feeling of loss stays. He’s missing something, and he doesn’t know what. Sometimes he’ll get a glimpse of it, he’ll pass someone on the street or overhear a snatch of conversation and a fragment of memory will overwhelm him, but he never gets everything.

From the bits that he sees, he’s not sure that he wants to get everything. It might be better to be missing something than to remember.

---

Takeshi’s known that he’s missing something for a long time now, and whatever it is, he wants it back.

He’s not exactly an educated guy, but he knows himself pretty well, and the idea that there’s a big chunk of him missing is galling. He can feel its absence. He can’t tell what it is, it hasn’t got any kind of useful shape, no edges that he can detect, but it’s his. And since he wouldn’t just go carving out part of himself, that means he’s been robbed.

He doesn’t take kindly to being robbed.

Mostly, though, he can ignore it, the way you ignore a hole in the wall that you don’t feel like repairing yet. He does what he likes, gets what he wants, eats when there’s food, and doesn’t think about it unless he reaches for something in his mind and finds that it isn’t there.

And then he sees the journalist.

Some sweet-faced kid, he is, showing up at a bar that Takeshi likes and bugging the regulars about a local ghost story that Takeshi knows for a fact is bullshit. He doesn’t try coming over to Takeshi’s corner, because the bartender visibly warns him off, but he’s talking to everyone else. That suits Takeshi fine. He can just sit with his drink and watch and remember, in shards and splinters, tantalizing and incomplete.

Kido Shinji is what’s printed on the business card he swipes from the bartender once the journalist leaves, with the address of a tea shop written on the back in pen.

Now there’s a name that rings a bell.

He stares down at the card for a moment, not sure whether he’s pleased or furious, and then heads out. Guy couldn’t have gone far.

---

Shinji gets through the door and is immediately handed an apron and a bandana for his hair. “Dishes.”

“What—Ren, I just got here.”

“Yeah, and there are dirty dishes. I don’t have time to deal with them, there are customers.” Ren squints at him for a moment, frowning. “What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

Shinji pauses in the middle of tying back his hair, uneasy. “I’ll tell you once there aren’t customers. Where’s Miyu—he’s still working, ok.”

Ren rolls his eyes. “Apparently that middle schooler who was here last week told all of her friends about him, he’s been busy all day.”

There are a lot of dishes piled up, and it keeps Shinji busy until Ren’s shooing out the last customers of the day. Atori’s different without the old lady, but it’s not a bad different; hopefully she’s happy in whatever warm place she moved to after she sold the shop to Ren. She’d certainly never seemed happy here.

He’s happy here. In a stable place, with a little bit of stable work apart from Ore, with people who inexplicably love him for reasons that none of them quite remember clearly.

When the last customer is out the door, Ren leans back against the counter, arms folded across his chest, and says, “So something’s bothering you, spit it out.”

Shinji frowns down into the dishwater. “I think someone was following me again today.”

“What, again? How long’s this been going on now, two weeks?”

“Three and a half. Ever since that thing I was looking into about the ghost, do you remember that one?” One saucer in the dish rack, start washing the next piece. “Maybe I pissed off the ghost.”

“You said there wasn’t a ghost.”

“Well, yeah, but what if there was and now it’s following me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not being chased by a ghost.”

Shinji glances nervously over his shoulder, as if he’ll see his ghost reflected in the tea shop window. “How can we be sure, though?” He picks up another dirty cup and starts to wash it. “Some of the things I remember…”

Ren’s arms wrap around him from behind, chin resting on his shoulder. “They aren’t here,” more softly and gently than he usually speaks. “No ghosts. Just you, me, and Miyuki.”

“No ghosts.” Shinji takes a deep breath. “You’re right. No ghosts.”

---

The place isn’t tough to break into. Decent locks, but nothing Takeshi can’t get past with a crowbar. He lets himself in and looks around the vaguely-familiar tea shop with interest before heading past the counter and to the back. Stairs lead up to the apartment above, and sure, they creak a little, but that’s nothing to worry about. After all, he’s still got the crowbar if he really needs it.

Upstairs, the place is chaotic in sort of a cute way, decorated as it is by three people with clearly pretty different sensibilities, fragments of three very different lives on display. It smells faintly of frying oil, too. Someone made something good for dinner tonight. On a whim, he checks the fridge, finds a container of leftover gyoza, and eats them absently as he contemplates the shopping list stuck to the freezer door. Eggs, rice, sliced pork belly, in neat handwriting that definitely isn’t Kido’s.

He finishes the gyoza and the tail-end of a carton of milk, leaving the empty containers behind on the counter and picking up his crowbar again as he heads toward the back of the apartment.

There are three bedrooms, and none of them are marked, doors closed against the darkened hallway. Checking each one would be a hassle, and might lead to more trouble than Takeshi feels like getting in right now. Instead he just remembers how jumpy Kido seemed even before Takeshi started following him and lets intuition lead him to the room closest to the fire escape.

The door swings open, and the first thing he sees is a cloth square on the wall. A covered mirror.

There we go.

Kido’s asleep, sprawled across the bed with his head tossed back and his hair spread out on his pillow, throat pale and exposed. Alone, which makes things a little easier. There’s a computer desk set up in the corner of the room; Takeshi grabs the chair from it, drags it over next to the bed, and sits, resting the end of the crowbar on the floor as he’s saying, softly and cheerfully, “Hey, Kido. Wake up.”

A shift, an irritated mumble, “Not time to—” and then one eye opening halfway and the jolt, Kido scrambling upright in the bed, one hand flung out to the side reaching for something that isn’t there.

What isn’t there?

Splinters reform into another regained memory: a deck of cards in an elaborate case, gleaming purple metal smooth and cool in Takeshi’s hands. There’s a name that goes with it, or maybe more than one, faint and still lost but centimeters from the tip of his tongue.

Kido’s gone white as a pan of milk, hand still empty because they’re in a world with no decks, now, no monsters that Takeshi suddenly remembers with fondness, not nearly as much fun, and Takeshi leans forward on his crowbar and smiles, friendly, like, and says, “Come on, Kido, I remember you being more interesting.”

---

Shinji can hear his heart beating over the ringing in his ears. There’s a bit of light coming in from between the mostly-closed curtains, just enough to see by, and with his hand coming up empty and his unwelcome guest illuminated so that only golden hair and white teeth are visible, he is assailed by memory.

He knows this man.

From the corner of the bar where he’d been looking into that ghost story, sure, the one the bartender had told him not to bother, but also from before, from ten befores or more. A killer, vicious and cheerfully so, dangerous to be around, but beneath the adrenaline thrum Shinji can feel another pulse, pity, pity, pity, perhaps misplaced but still there.

He fights to get his breathing under control and says, “Asakura. What are you doing here?”

“You took something of mine.” Asakura’s head tilts slowly to the side, semi-friendly grin still visibly. “I came to get it back.”

“I don’t have anything of yours.”

“Never said you did. I said you took it. Didn’t say I thought you had it.”

“That…you know that doesn’t make sense, right?”

“None of this makes sense, Kido. We live in a world that revolves around a guy like you.” Asakura leans forward, one hand darting out to grab Shinji’s chin, ragged nails digging into his skin. In the dim light his eyes are flat and dark and predatory as their gazes lock, only taking on any gleam as he drinks in…something, whatever he’s getting from looking at Shinji like this. Shinji nearly asks, in fact, but he can’t quite speak, and anyway Asakura’s talking again, still as cheery and conversational as he has been. “Used to be, I got the deck in my hands and I’d remember all of it. That was the deal. Don’t know how the mirror guy finally bit it, but whatever happened, you’re the key to everything now.”

Shinji’s considering shouting for Ren, because even if he did have a dragon at his beck and call, the mirror is covered. Then, of course, he notices the crowbar. And Asakura continues to look at him, searching for something that Shinji is apparently giving him.

“Pathetic.” Abruptly, Asakura lets go again. “You used to be fun, Kido.” He stands, shouldering the crowbar like a baseball bat, and heads for the open bedroom door, only pausing briefly to say, “Call me if you ever decide to get the band back together, yeah?”

Shinji remains frozen for what seems like a long time after he’s gone, dizzy with memory and his heartbeat noisy in his own ears.

He doesn’t remember the end of things. None of the ends of things, actually, and he’s not sure if the others know that it happened more than once, how many times they were put through the same wringer. Whatever it was, though, whatever he or they finally did, it was permanent.

He never would have expected someone to resent him for it.

Finally he finds the focus to move, raising a hand to rub at the sore spots on his jaw before getting out of bed.

Miyuki’s bed is disturbed by unoccupied, and this fills him with a banked and indistinct dread until he comes to Ren’s room and finds them both there, Miyuki sprawled as inelegantly as always and snoring lightly at Ren’s side. Ren is awake, barely. “Bad dreams all around tonight, I guess,” he slurs as Shinji closes the door, and moves over to make space. “Wha’ was yours about?”

Shinji curls up beside him and says, softly, “Just ghosts.”

---

Takeshi strolls down the middle of the empty street, crowbar on his shoulder, in such a good mood now that he’s very nearly whistling. It’s a damp night; the streetlights make shadows in the fog that look like old friends he now remembers, any number of enormous beasts stalking him as he walks. Which makes him want to laugh, and so he laughs, and the sound bounces off the buildings and the fog in an echo that could go on forever.

“Goddamn,” he says to a fog-reflection that shifts and changes with every step he takes, now a vast snake, now a rhino, now a stingray. “That was a good time, wasn’t it.”

The fog makes no reply, but the shadow continues to follow him down the street as the echoes of his laughter die away, and after a moment, feeling almost jaunty, he starts to whistle.