#i spent so long on this trying to Get It Right i had to prohibit myself from making the other muses bcs !! it'd take forever

[handgiven]

Make your muse as a dragon !

breed: skydancer primary gene: starmap secondary gene: bee tertiary gene: soap element: light

tagged by: @burdenedwithfaith tagging: whoever might have fun with this .) (tag me so i can see !!!)

[fuckitwebhaal]

Piety Lore

Piety is a Mephistopheles tiefling born in a place and time that they can no longer recall. Much of their life before entering the Feywild is fragmented and disjointed, but he recalls this much: he once had a sister who loved him very dearly, and it was for her sake that they went wandering into the realm of the fey. It was perhaps for love that they lost everything in the land of whimsy and dreams.

The Feywild is an ever-changing, ever-tempting place, and its denizens are much the same. A mortal in the land of faerie, they stood little chance the further and further they wandered; eventually, Piety was lost, and he became as much part of the Feywild as it was of him. Fey-touched, one might call them, and one would be correct. His appearance in the realm is half-mortal, half-fey, and entirely strange.

Piety knows not how long he spent in the Feywild. They cannot recall how many feasts in which they partook, nor dances that they shared with satyrs, nor secrets whispered between pixie and boggart. Piety cannot recall how often he was called upon to sing and perform for fey lords and knights, nor can they recall how many loves they harbored, drunk on faerie-wine and stealing kisses in rings of mushrooms. It was not until they met another mortal—a sorcerer whose wild magic mistakenly surged and brought them to the Feywild—that Piety realized how they had been tricked.

What followed was a series of ill-gotten deals with lesser fey and their lieges. So much was traded, in fact, that Piety can no longer recall their True Name, and many of their memories from before their time in the Feywild have been stolen or lost. Desperation sharpened him, however, and so he abandoned his position in Titania’s Summer Court and fled, mistrusting the Seelie, and ran right into the Winter Court. He could not have known how much worse the Unseelie Court would be.

There, Piety brokered a deal with the Archfey known as the Prince of Frost. Although contemptuous of mortals, he is known to broker pacts with warlocks (who are known as Long Night Scions), provided they can help him further his aims of bringing about an eternal, endless winter. Piety’s pact, and its goals, are more inscrutable, and its terms are such that they are reluctant to share.

In simple words, their pact is clear: Piety must serve the Archfey for 1,001 days, and upon completion, they are free. He is able to return to the mortal realm and live out the rest of his mortal life as he always wanted. Any breach, however, and he is doomed to serve the Winter Court for 1,001 years. 

This was sealed by an icy kiss upon his forehead, and he was given a cold iron sword as proof of his pact. It is painful to other fey who might try to prohibit his work on behalf of the Prince of Frost, and it is inscribed with a countdown of the days remaining in service; every morning, the writing changes.

Unlike devils, Piety signed no contract, and dealt with no clauses. Instead, their pact was swore in the form of a poem, and sealed in the form of a kiss. Fey are tricky creatures, and as much as Piety might try to find a loophole to get themself out of the deal, so might the fey have a loophole to keep him in it. For now, he has served as piously as he can.

But the Fey are also jealous, and mercurial. Despite Piety growing closer and closer to the end of their servitude, and despite their struggles with the tadpole and the growing threat of the Absolute cult, so are they noticing representatives of the Prince of Frost hounding their steps. Rumors have begun to reach his ears; rumors that his Archfey patron has memories that belong to him, memories that he can get back. With the fey, however, nothing is truly free.

“Fare thee well, Son of Summer For thine lips ne’er knew another; I grant thee days in the sun And number to them: 1,001; Mind thy step and keep thy path Lest thee herald winter’s wrath; Thy freedom be what is held dear Render my service by thine year; Thou shalt not scorn nor turn to bliss I seal thy fate with winter’s kiss.”

[ask-serendipity-sky]

Story time- Making Music

Gather around the bonfire, it's story time, (not just because because I want to inform you all about my life, this has a purpose for reals lol).

Anyways, let's get it...

When I was a wee teenager, I decided to join the church's band with other teenage people. I was around 17ish.

Now, this church was insanely conservative and insane, in general, and dating was prohibited and if you dated anyone, people would watch you like a hawk and make up rumors, and try to break you until you repented.

(I know...this place was toxic but I went because my parents took me and I didn't know any better.)

So as time went on, I began spending a lot of time with guitar boy....

Guitar boy had hair the color of gold, played soccer, and he had a six-pack.

We clicked right away. We had chemistry. Our voices were complementary. Like puzzle pieces. Our instruments blended together.

I thought he was the funniest person I'd ever met.

I felt all butterflies in my brain. Even the sky had a prettier shade of blue.

I would see him practically everyday and I couldn't get enough.

We liked each other bad.

And this was all while having eyes on us at all times.

So to escape those eyes, we began doing duets. Just me and him practicing for hours and hours. Hiding behind the excuse that we needed to practice so we could spend time together and be able to be ourselves without anyone judging. We would use any excuse to work together.

Christmas? Say no more, we can put some songs together.

New Year's? We got you covered.

Birthday? We can get you some music for that.

We spent so much time together that it was inevitable.

We fell in love.

We had no label for a while because it was all scary and that way if they asked if we were in a relationship, we could easily say no.

But it was thrilling.

Since we couldn't openly hug, kiss, or hold hands in public, we would sit next to each other.

We would hold each others pinky fingers because we thought that didn't look as suspicious lol

He would come to me so he could tune his guitar and lightly brush my hand when I was giving him the key to tune to.

We would sneak out of our houses and take a blanket to the park so we could watch the sky. We had a list of promises to each other about the future. We knew each other's deepest secrets.

All of this went on for a long while...and no one found out until years later.

After doing well on a song, we would glance at each other. It wasn't just to let each other know we did well on the song, but to transmit our feelings to each other.

People thought that it was just us acknowledging that we had done a good job, but it was more than that. It was magic and love and all those pretty things.

So when I see Jikook, I think "Yeah, it's exactly like that."

Anyone who has fallen for a band mate and for some reason couldn't be in a relationship with them will understand. And they will see it immediately when they see Jimin and Jungkook interact.

There is something about making music with the person you love. It's unexplainable.

Music becomes the axis your relationship gyrates upon.

For guitar boy and me, it was permitted because we were just making music, it's not like we were making love.

But here is the catch, for a musician, those two concepts are pretty much the same thing.

[greypetrel]

Something Fishy

Ok, part two of the prompts asked by @ndostairlyrium. For a moment I thought of making Emile de Launcet the King, then I had an epiphany.

Tis the prompt list

16. Courtly/medieval "for the raccoon of our hearts and/or bearded king Garrett (but the king/queen is someone unexpected OO:)"

“I hate you so much!”

“Shut the fuck up and catch it!”

How the little rowboat they rented was still floating on the right side and didn’t break, flip or sink in the commotion that was happening on it, was honestly something that made Raina fill with a renewed surge of burning faith.

Or well.

It would have, if she hadn’t been busy trying desperately to aim the harpoon, balance on a boat that was swinging madly and had water to her ankles, and if the damn fish hadn’t been keeping on moving and slapping his fins on the surface and try to escape, slam the rowboat away, do something.

Become a knight, they said.

It would be fun, they said.

Sure, until you’re ordered to catch a fish in full summer, when fishing is prohibited, there’s no one around to help you set the trap up and the fish you need to catch is bigger than you and your brother tied together.

Your stupid, stupid brother who convinced you, all that long ago, that this would have been an easy job, easy-peasy lemon squeezy, the kingdom has been in peace since years, go figure, they’ll pay us for doing nothing all day.

Yes.

Doing nothing and risk getting killed by a sea monster in an artificial enclosure she and Garrett spent the last five days trying to put up.

Because it was summer, every one in town was busy on the salt mines, and all they could bargain for was paying extra money for the tools, set up the nets by themselves with not many instructions, the whole village that looked at them with suspicion, as two people that were there just to trouble the peacefulness of the community and destroy precious nets.

And the fun thing was that if they didn’t catch that stupid gargantuan fish and brought it to the king, they would have been left without a job and without a penny too, since they had just enough to get back to Amaranthine eating one meal per day.

So, Raina grinned her teeth, moved her foot on the side when Garrett swatted her ankle and went on using the bucket to pour out the water they were boarding, and tried to concentrate.

The fish shifted and moved, and for a moment, the woman was there, looking right into a big round eye full of fear and rage.

She felt honestly very sorry for the poor beast.

“I’m sorry, buddy.”

Unfortunately for the fish, Raina had a family to maintain, needed the job, and worked for a ruthless ruler.

She launched the harpoon in the water, with as much strength as she could, and prayed.

---

“I hate you so much.”

Raina reiterated, as she finished tying the stupid fish on the stupid cart, and her stupid hands slipped on the buckle because they were slimy from handling a fish that weighted more than her with armour on.

Garrett, in an equal state of misery, wet and slimy all over, black hair spiking in every direction and beard uncharacteristically ruffled and untidy, peeked from the other side of the fin to look at her in the same way their mother did… Well, most of the time.

In the same way their mother had looked at her when Raina had declared, bag already on her shoulder, that she was following Ser Meeran as a squire for his mercenaries. At least, the way Leandra had looked at her daughter before understanding that it wasn’t a joke, that Raina was indeed leaving.

“We would have been on the first line in Orlais, if it wasn’t for this job, my dear sister.”

“We wouldn’t smell like Hell’s own armpit, if we were in Orlais.”

Garrett groaned, fishing a handkerchief out of one of the bags and cleaning his hands and face, as much as he could with the little strip of cloth.

“It was your idea to enroll with Meeran, if I recall correctly.” He grumbled, weaving his hands in a circle and muttering a spell under his breath.

The space between his palms shone blue, and after a while, when the magic had started tinging blue the mage and reflecting on the scales of their prey, he moved them to pass over the fish, minding to cover it all. It took its time, seen how big it was, but it would have kept it fresh and good until they got back to the Castle. Raina, who forgot her handkerchief at home, back in her nice, cozy, warm, not smelling like Hell’s own armpit room, rubbed her hands on the back of her breeches. The part still more or less clean. It didn’t do much, but it was better than before. She ignored the urge to unsheathe one of her daggers and cut all of her hair. It was already short and cropped in a masculine way, but right now, filthy with fish, she wished she had gone bald instead.

“We could have been knight-errants, but oh no, let’s enter the service of the Red King, the Scourge of Amaranthine, what could ever go wrong!”

She tossed her hands in the air, stepping towards the front of the cart. The mare they had wasn’t old and complacent enough to not whinny as she smelled the woman approaching. She also kicked back, having Raina jump away from the hoof, cursing aloud. The one thing she missed today was a good horse kick.

She flopped heavily on the seat, crossing her arms on her chest and waiting for her brother to reach her. He did, after a couple of minutes, the fish oozing waves of cold from behind her, prickling the back of her neck.

“Well, I could be back home and have my pumpkin fields.” Garrett grumbled, getting comfy as he could on the stiff sittee of the old wagonette. “We’re both at a loss, so you could as well stop being a bitch with me.”

He took the reins and clicked his tongue on the palate, whipping the leather to get the mare in motion. Nobody said anything, letting the road take them inland. Nobody turned to cast one last look at the sea, and sea daffodils soon left space for fields of sunflowers, bent downward and dried in the hot summer sun, almost ready for harvest. The sun, gentle and still hot from the day, soon dried them, and even if both sported two different shapes of the same shade of black, thick hair sprouting in every direction and no order, it put them in a better mood.

“I’m sorry I was a bitch.”

“Don’t be. You’re always a bitch.”

Raina swatted Garret’s shoulder, not caring to be gentle about it. He chuckled, rubbing the offended point.

“Well, your being a bitch got the job done.”

“Wow, thank you, my pride is so much better now.”

“Just use your bitchiness and silver tongue for buying me a pumpkin patch, and I swear I’ll stop dragging you in the silliest, smelliest missions.” Garrett sighed, dramatically, leaning on the side to lean over his sister, affectionately.

She laughed, elbowing him in the ribs. Playfully, this time. He did the same.

The rest of the journey back was not as bad.

---

“Sir Raina Hawke and Sir Garrett Hawke, returning from the coast, your majesty!”

Seneschal Varel announced to the whole throne room, filling the vast space in Vigil’s keep with his shrill voice. The two siblings marched towards the throne, cleaned up and donned in their best court clothes. They still smelled faintly like fish, but at least the worst of it was gone. Raina ignored a particularly hateful Lady who fanned herself eloquently when she passed close.

Alas, it was a woman who always did fan herself when they passed, not agreeing to take commoners as knights in the court.

Luckily enough, tho, it was true that the Crown of Amaranthine cared little for the provenience. And was easy enough on its subjects and knights. So, the siblings ignored everything and kneeled, obediently, in front of the tall ebony throne, heads bent down in respect.

“Let the prize be brought to the King!” The Seneschal announced again, and the whole room stilled.

Two sets of steps echoed in the room, skittering quickly from a side door to the dais. One page, Raina saw peeking from one eye, brought a small table of marble and gold -a table fit for a king- that he positioned in front of the throne, bowing deeply as he did so and never turning his back to the King, as etiquette and good sense wanted. It bode not well, for everyone who turned their back to the Red King.

The other page walked more calmly, with the utmost care, bringing in both his hands, outstretched, a plate of the finest china the castle could offer, delicately painted in flowers and trimmed in gold, with a thick, fat fillet of the fish Raina and Garrett caught the day before exquisitely plated in the centre.

The dish was carefully situated in front of his majesty, and the second page bowed and ran back as well, walking backward.

No cutleries nor napkins were brought, but the king needed no such pointless fineries.

The whole Court caught their breath as His Majesty got closer to the dish and the offering. Raina’s heart beated fast, as her irritation grew.

And then-

“Mrowl.”

The silence was broken by the shrill noise of the finest china in the castle being shattered on the stone floor.

Someone gasped in the crowd behind the siblings, a Lady swooned with a loud whine, and the court started to buzz.

The king had refused another meal.

The king would starve.

“Loyal knights, raise.” Another voice rose from the dais.

Raina rose on her feet, looking up at the throne with a challenge in her eyes. Sitting on its hind paws on a velvet pillow with golden tassels at the four corners, His Majesty was morosely licking the paw that pushed the dish to the ground, without seemingly a care in the world. His orange tail, tipped in white, snapped left and right behind his body, signalling his displeasure, and a triangular ear on top of his round, fluffy face, flickered in irritation.

“His Majesty, King Pounce-a-Lot, third of his name, the Red King of Vigil’s Keep, the Scourge of Amaranthine, has refused the meal you brought to him.” Anders announced, standing tall on the right of the throne. “Let it be known that tuna doesn’t please the king!”

“Please.” Raina muttered under her breath, pissed off with the whole charade.

The whole room, tho, chanted in choir, as Garrett elbowed her strongly and casted her a reproaching look.

“Tuna doesn’t please the king! Long live the king!”

Raina looked back at her brother, with the same reproach. But Anders cleared his throat and called her back to attention.

“I apologize that Tuna revealed itself to be not the delicacy it was famed to be.” She bowed again, deeply, hating every centimeter she lowered her bust. “How could we humble knights make amend for bringing him a morsel not fit for his palate?”

She looked up at Anders, who kneeled down and offered his ear to the King, to hear his voice. The cat sniffed twice at the mage, and rubbed his head against his temple, left and right. With another delighted gasp from behind, his majesty also licked Anders, before raising on his four paws and curling on the pillow, head resting on his crossed front paws.

Anders rose back, raising both his arms towards the crowd.

“Praise king Pounce-a-Lot, for He has been magnanimous!”

“Praise the king!” The crowd chanted, again.

“For fu-” Raina stopped with another elbow in her ribs from her brother.

“Your service, loyal knights, has been appreciated. You can dispose of the tuna as you see fit, as well as you do outside the King’s Castle. And that will be your compensation” Anders nodded at them, with a smirk. Raina tightened her fists, casting a firey glance at the man. “And let it be known that his majesty, through his Spokesperson Anders, declares all tuna banned from the Kingdom!”

The crowd cheered. Less enthusiastically than for the great rat banishing of two years prior, but that was a hard comparison, by everyone standards. Raina, forced herself to smile and clap as well, brain going blank as Anders kept on stiling punishments and fees for every fiend who was caught in the act of housing the offending tuna. Fucking Anders that kept on glancing down at her with a challenge on his face that made Raina wish her position at court was strong enough to jump up and strangle him.

The ordeal finally ended, and court was dismissed. The Seneschal came to scoop up the royal pillow from the throne, with His Majesty still curled on it. But the royal feline was offended by that gesture too. Maybe the Seneschal was too brusque, maybe he jostled the pillow too much, maybe the damn cat just wanted to take a nap on his throne to mock his nobles. In any case, the cat meowed with displeasure, unfurled and jumped down the pillow.

As His Majesty trotted towards the main stairway, tail raised proudly up to show the royal butt and jumped the steps two by two, the Seneschal paled, looking at Anders with terror in his eyes.

A moment of silence: displeasing King Pounce-a-Lot could mean death.

Anders, tho, huffed and dismissed the old man with a swirl of his hand.

“Be at peace, Varel. His tail was up, it’s all right.”

Varel sighed, relieved, before going too up the stairs, following quickly the running cat.

Raina, finally, relaxed, as the room beside her and her sibling did the same, and chatting began to fill the atmosphere again.

“An easy job.” She grumbled.

“Think that thanks to the banishing, we won’t ever need to fish a tuna ever again.”

“Sure, until his royal shit will decide that he wants to try tuna another time because he got tired of sardines.”

Garrett covered his mouth with a hand. Making fun of the King as if it was just another cat was prohibited. By Anders, but the confine between him and the Royal Cat wasn’t that clear. Without being too open about their amusement, tho, in a very practiced game, they did some greetings, faked an important mission, and quietly slipped away from the throne room, avoiding much of the fuss.

The courtyard outside was another kind of busy, and the kind of busy they both liked best. People who worked, people who ran the castle and allowed the citadel to keep on living. Clang of hammers on metal, carts of food headed to the kitchens, guards walking on the ramparts, pages and maids and workers.

“So.” Raina said, as they hopped down the stairs.

“Mh?” Garrett answered, not looking at her.

“We got a tuna to sell. What do we do?”

A deep sigh from her right. Finally he was starting to yield too, apparently.

“I have no idea. Eat it? Give it to Wade and hope he’ll be inspired?”

“And having then to wield smelly weapons? Oh no no no, Wade is the last person we should give it to.” She snorted. “What about bottling it and selling it?”

“How do we bottle tuna?”

“I don’t know! It must be soft, invent some spell to make it so. So soft you can cut it with a breadstick.”

She illustrated, upkeep about it and about the slogan. Garrett looked cold about it, shrugging it off with nonchalance. They turned, headed to the tavern in automatic, by now. It was still a little early for the full revelry to unleash inside, but nobody really cared.

“You should really try and make a poker face when we’re at court, tho. Anders is going to notice, sooner or later.”

“Notice what? That I am a dog person? What a novelty.”

“Insulting the King will get you into trouble! Will get us both into trouble!”

“So what? It’ll be revealed that it’s really Anders ruling the land, there’ll be an uprising and I’ll be the one to its head, wait and see.”

Raina entered the tavern, strutting in like she owned the place. And seeing how they spent most of their free evenings there, with their group of friends and Raina bullying the minstrel to make her sing, she could as well. People made her pass, greeting her, and she waved at the host with familiarity. A boy noticed them enter, and was quick in skittering away from their table, as they approached, apologizing profusely for occupying their spot.

As regal as a queen, indeed, Raina flopped on her seat, crossing one leg over the other dramatically and sighing heavily.

“And what would you make with the throne? You? Miss I don’t want to lead the family and run the farm so I’ll enter the service of the first mercenary I meet instead?” Garrett quipped, sitting as per his usual, in front of her.

His sister rose one eyebrow.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“What?”

“I’ll put Beowoof on the throne and laugh when aristocrats will shit their pants because they didn’t find a suitable stick to throw him.”

She earned a look full of disbelief and reproach -Garrett was all too similar to their mother- and smiled amiably at him, thanking Corff for the pint and taking a sip with her best manners, bowing her head to her brother.

“And you complain about Anders.”

“I’d find him extremely reasonable and a genius if he didn’t force us to fish a fucking sea monster and then pay us with the banned carcass deprived of its tastiest cut.” She shrugged.

“And you would be different because…?”

“I wouldn’t. Never said that.” She looked up, deadly serious. “Beowoof would be less of an asshole than King Pounce-a-Lot.”

“He would need a bigger throne, for sure.”

“See? Now we’re talking! Now, we just need a convincing slogan and some promises… We could gain some popular consensus with the tuna, and then-”

“Wait.” Garrett interrupted her, a hand coming to rest on her arm. “You’re serious.”

Raina blinked twice.

“Of course I am.”

“What the fuck, Raina?”

“Listen. Listen.”

She placated him, pushing on both his arms to make him sit back down on his chair, when he tried to raise up and walk away. Groaning aloud, Garrett sat, leaning in on arms crossed on the table to be closer to his sister, who did the same. His damn older sister who had way too many ideas.

“If Anders can rule, I can too, no? If the nobles accepted a cat, they would better accept a dog.”

“What makes you think so?”

“It’s fucking Ferelden, Gee.”

A moment of silence.

“… You’re not wrong.” He had to admit, through his teeth.

“Oh, don’t make that face, see the silver lining.”

Garrett groaned again, falling back against the backrest of his chair, butt sliding forward, and taking a big gulp of his pint, savouring it and dragging it long. Raina waited for him, patiently, with a big smile on her face.

“What’s the silver lining in you organizing a coup?”

“I could give you the biggest field of land and order you to grow pumpkins on it. The biggest pumpkins you can get, because King Beowoof wants them huge.”

The two stood silent, looking one at the other and thinking about it. Garrett squinted at his sister, who just replied by widening her smile and bending her head gently to the side, wiggling her eyebrows at him. The stall lasted all of two minutes, but as it went most of the times, it ended with the brother groaning aloud, and massaging the bridge of his nose with a hand.

“So?” Raina asked, antsy.

“… I hate you.”

“You’re my favourite sibling as well. In or out?”

Garrett looked at her, raising one eyebrow.

“I want Esmerelle’s lands.”

“Now we’re talking. So, you need to find a way to bottle the tuna, and then-”

[thebindingofpillo]

Belial

Despite looking like a run of the mill demon (and a pretty weak one at that!) Belial is actually a fallen angel.In his angel days, he was very peculiar, being some sort of double angel, like a weird French playing card. They had four wings, two halos and four arms, and were, by all intents and purposes, considered a single entity by everyone else. While types of angels and choirs are pretty standard, outliers are still possible! Like humans, angels come in all shapes and sizes, so even very unusual angels like Belial can exist. They’re not treated any differently (as long as they stay true to their purpose and continue to serve God). Some angels might be born without body parts, or with extra body parts. I might need to update the angel lore post aaaah oh no what have I done.

Before falling, Belial was a Dominion, and as such was tasked to watch over human civilisation, and aid where necessary to help humans evolve towards the best version of themselves (civilisation-wise, biological evolution was another thing entirely) BUT while helping humans was permitted, directly interfering with their lives (even to make them better!) was strictly prohibited. Belial could, for example, inspire a human to do the right thing (with a prophetic dream, or a vision), but he couldn’t outright push them in that direction. And, not being an archangel, he couldn’t directly speak to humans either. This displeased him to no end, but while one half of him understood that humans were creature of free will, and he couldn’t force them to follow the path of God, the other half was not having it. If humans didn’t have free will, then they wouldn’t engage in wars, or made eachother’s life worse! There would be no hate, no cheating, just good little sheep, following God as they should.

The two halves fought constantly, and this caused them to split in a pretty gruesome way. This is also what caused Belial to fall: his insistence of steering humans in the right direction and interfering with their free will caused him to lose his status as a Dominion but he didn’t fall like a normal angel! His wings were given to his other half, as well as his halo. While his halo wasn’t broken into horns, this still severed his connection to God and limited his powers. In the fight that preceded the split, he also lost an arm, that was later given to his other half as well.

What once was one, now was two: Belial is now both the shadow that roams Hell, longing for the power he once held, and the weird half angel with two halos and three arms, still watching over humanity.

More lore under the cut and his connection to Judas.

Once fallen, Belial found himself extremely weak, even more than an average demon. Most of his time was spent trying to survive in Hell, and trying to find a way to get to the human world. Belial still felt a twisted love for humanity, and if those stupid angels were so hellbent on stopping him, he would find his own way to get those stupid humans on the right path. He just needed people. A whole army of them, to spread his message and push humanity on the right path. And who knows, even change those angels and God’s stubborn ways. ANYWAY since he’s basically half a fallen angel, he’s too weak to do basically anything. He can manipulate shadows, but it’s more an illusion thing, he can’t really fight with them, and even his brimstone is weak as shit. To acquire power he needs a host to possess - and that’s where Judas comes in (and others too, but Judas is important and we’ll talk about him at length later). Finding a host is usually easy - he targets vulnerable people, outcasts, people in desperate situations etc. so he can get close to them and possess them at once in a moment of weakness. While Belial is a fallen angel, a possession works differently for him, he can actually bind himself to a human (like a demon does) and physically get inside their body to control it (this is also because he doesn’t have a traditional physical form like all the other fallen do). Anyway why would Belial need to possess humans? Even a possessed human is no match for a powerful enough demon. The only way for Belial to acquire any sort of power is to have a big enough army of followers, and this is where the Children of Belial come in (I swear I’m not gonna make this weird, bear with me).

The phrase “sons of Belial” (beni beliyaal) is used in Hebrew to mean “worthless people” such as idolaters or the people from certain cities or groups. Just know, that whenever I’ll refer to the “children of Belial” it’s actually a metaphor for the people who follow him, and not his actual children. The Children are basically a massive cult of brainwashed people. Belial is not powerful enough to actually take away a human’s free will, so he just resorts to indoctrinate people the old fashioned way. The indoctrinated humans are then sent on their way to recruit more and more people into Belial’s army, and by using the powers of their human souls combined, one day he’ll be able to take down both Heaven and Hell and establish a new way of life. In his eyes, he’s already doing something good by bringing people to his side. His followers do not fight with one another and he’s convinced they’re living in perfect harmony, without crime and violence. And while harvesting their souls will mean killing all his followers, that’s a necessary sacrifice to make. The first army of Children of Belial was wiped out (I don’t know if I should attach a biblical event to it, but maybe maybe Jericho) so now he needs a new one and THAT’S WHERE Judas actually comes in!

Judas was already on Belial’s radar since he was Jesus’s best friend, and Belial still held a huge grudge against God because he killed all his children and set his plan back by centuries SO getting closer to Judas was a no-brainer. He first tried to entice him with promises of knowledge and riches, but what Judas really wanted was to get together with Magdalene (HAHA sappy), since he was jealous of all the time she spent with Jesus, which was even better for Belial! He could get Jesus’s two best friends, getting back at God in the best way possible. So Belial struck a deal with Judas, and bound himself to Judas’s soul. Now he just had to get the girl and get to work. Betraying Jesus was just the icing on the cake. Only that Judas hung himself, mad with grief for having caused his best friend’s death, so Belial’s grand plan to rebuild his army went to shit real fast.

BUT while Belial needs Judas’s soul to gain his powers, he can’t really harvest it yet, since his plan is far from being over. Judas’s soul doesn’t belong to Belial yet, and this is why Judas can still get to Heaven! (that, and being God’s best friend. We will also get to that). Sadly Judas is a little bitch, and still feels unworthy of heaven after all these years, so he keeps coming back to life (I need to elaborate on that too, and actually explain why the cast keeps getting reincarnated but I’ll do it in a later post). Anyway, God keeps giving Judas new chances at life because He loves him very much and wants to see his friend happy for fucking once, and Belial is caught in the middle, always trying to get his way in the meantime. He wouldn’t even need Maggy to get his plan in motion, but over the millennia he’s become slightly obsessed with her, as a point of pride. What better way to get back at God than using His two dearest friends for his plan? She’s THE Mary Magdalene, like come on. He needs her to be the first follower of his new army, as a last fuck you to God. Only then he’ll move onto other people, she has to be the first. And it’s gonna work this time, for sure! He’s been preparing for this moment for millennia, nothing is gonna stop- Wait, Judas killed himself before he could even start thinking about his plan? GODDAMN-

Note: as being said, Judas can still get to heaven because his soul doesn’t belong to Belial just yet. This could change if he were to harvest Belial’s powers, even to do good (or maybe not, I still need to think about that). This also puts Judas’s suicides over all his lifetimes in a new perspective, since now he doesn’t kill himself over and over again to escape Belial, but also to protect Maggy.

Very small tangent on the Book of Belial The BoB is basically the sacred text of Belial’s new religion, but also a collection of magic formulas, spells and dark, forbidden knowledge. He put it together himself the first time he possessed a human, and since it’s all blood magic (the same kind monster use!) it taps directly into a human’s life force, and can be therefore used by humans too. Belial usually entices his prey with promises of infinite knowledge, and then works his way into their minds. Now that Judas has made a deal with him, the book is his property, and Belial always finds a way to make him find the book, in every single life. The book itself is incredibly old, and has been copied over and over again to preserve its knowledge. Only the first 100 pages or so are actually written by Belial tho, the rest of the tome is actually written by Judas, like some sort of fucked up diary. Judas is a nosy little shit, so he kept taking notes and writing down any weird supernatural occurrence he’s seen and occult creature he’s come across. Kinda like the three diaries from Gravity Falls, Judas is Stanford.

[avictimofthejazz]

Withering in the Shadows--Melody & Street

@timeguardians​ (Melody)

Continued from HERE

Silence reigns for several painfully long minutes, enough that Street starts wondering if he really has hallucinated the voice, and that he is starting to lose it. Even if he is not taking the medication, no human mind is meant to exist under these conditions. Guys who spent too long alone tended to go a bit crazy—he saw it with the POWs, he saw it in the VA hospitals, and he saw it in the jails. Now he gets to live it—and try not to let his mind go spiraling away without him. Then, to his endless relief, the woman’s voice comes back, and confirms that she can hear him. Not only can she hear him, but she can hear him clearly. Rolling onto the side that is closer to the wall, he props his head up. Just hearing another person, who is not one of the creepy doctors, is enough to brighten his countenance slightly. If anything, this is something new, something different he has not experienced since he came to this hellhole. Then… she goes silent again. He strains his ears, trying to hear if someone in the hall heard her speaking, and entered her room to investigate. The medication carts have squeaky wheels, but when the nurses walk around without them, they can move almost silently. Like everything else in this place, talking between patients is probably prohibited as well. Street can hear nothing in her room, no doctors arguing with her or the snakish nurses suggesting she rest or take some new medication they want to shove down her throat. After the unnerving pause, the woman speaks again and asks who he is.

He answers promptly. “Officer Jim Street—I’m with the police. I’m a SWAT officer. Who’re you?” Unlike Melody, there has been no attempt to change his identity or personality. Whoever arranged to lock him away here does not care if Jim Street lives or dies—they just care that Jim Street is out of the way. So, he is left alone to rot for the most part, except for the ever-predictable medication rounds… and now this mysterious woman speaking to him from the other side of the wall. Her second question prompts the first smile he has made in what feels like ages. If that question had come from Dom or TJ, he would not be able to resist a quip about zombies or monster movies… but this poor woman has grounds to ask it, and wonder if she is speaking to a human or a ghost. They nearly are ghosts in this place, so it is an honest mistake to make. “Yes, I’m still alive. If I could get my arm through the wall, I’d let you feel my pulse to prove it.” Her second question is more rational, if harder to answer. Street frowns. “I think,” he places stress on the second word, “That it’s Monday the 23rd. We should still be in April if I’m right.” He pauses a few seconds before adding doubtfully, “I was keeping track of the days by counting the medication rounds—but two days in they drugged me up. I started counting again since I woke up, and it’s been five days, but I don’t know how much time I lost to the drugs. It might have only been one day, or it could have been a few of them.” That means he has been here at least a week, possibly closer to ten days. If he knows his boss, Hondo is already turning the city upside down looking for him. LA is a big place though, and who would think to look for him here? Gently turning the question back toward the woman, he clears his throat. “Do you have any idea how long you’ve been here, ma’am?”

[northropi]

this is terrible advice for anything except in retrospect, and even then i don't even know how right i really am, but i probably should have dropped out earlier. i'm probably gonna have to start making loan payments soon and frankly the job i have, which is pretty nice, seems like one i could have gotten on community college education- and meanwhile embracing my "get a real job" mentality during that time has kind of fucked me over royally. now that i'm not quite stable but getting there, art is sort of all i have emotionally, and, well, yeah i'm sorta in the worst art mood i have been in for a long time.

it doesn't help that we're sort of in a new generation of prodigies who are often too young to even be able to view the stuff i post, picking up modeling and code from an actual early age. yeah the TikTok ten-videos-at-once thing seems dystopian but frankly the kids are alright and i'm left envying that.

i have no portfolio. everything i've done outside of the last four years has been pen-and-paper sketches. while, like, yeah, valid, go traditional artists 'n' all, getting those online would be prohibitively complicated. Page after page to scan, page after page that's been rubbing together for years in a cheap sketchbook, my already faint linework rubbing away, eroding into nothing. so much must already be just lost to time. and in those four years, what have i done? not fucking much. Haven't been able to find the time, and when I find a bit I can't apply myself.

everything i do has an entirely different workflow as i try again and again to get somewhere fucking functional, and i've become acutely aware of how drawing for establishing concepts rather than for scenes and characters has left me with, and say that i'm good at <x> all you want it doesn't change the fact that i'm not good at <y> and <y> just so happens to be really fucking important, an extremely unbalanced skillset. i can't really draw the same thing twice- every drawing of a given character looks like a different fucking character. my perspective is wonky, and after that first attempt i don't know if i'll ever be able to do animation. and somehow i still have sameface issues!

writing dialogue comes out fucky because i can't make a character naturally sound like anything but myself, i don't know how basic shit like speech bubbles should look, there are huge gaps in my knowledge of the software, and, just, why was i not doing what i'm doing now seven years ago? fuck, why wasn't i on this site? i'd have been bopped by the porn ban probably but it'd have been good to have my foot in the door- i know i had a phase where i was all "ewww Tumblr" but i was never that bad.

i've often expressed when asked about how i think of my life that i've spent it. not doing things but on things. that it was consumed and given away in a transaction in hopes that i could start it later-but-better. and for all that life i spent, i was explicitly promised that the next phase of it would be easier. that really high school was harder than college and it was all just to test you, that the laid-back pace of university would be easier than my college once i transferred, and that jobs would be so easy to come by after university and so laid back that my life would be a breeze. each time was a lie- well, maybe it'd have gone better if i could have finished uni, but somehow i doubt that it'd fix my free time issue.

it was five years, and i proceeded to spend an additional two rotting at home. imagine if i spent those with some friends nearby, someone i could move out with on a basic job. nope. never made any. imagine if i had spent the years of unemployment at least being able to work on things- but no, i was being prodded at to get a job even in spite of diminishing returns, kept under so much stress that even on days where i had done my due diligence i couldn't focus. now i have a job, and it's devouring my time with the drive to get there and back, and this isn't even full hours yet. can't find the focus or time to get art done- but at least my high WPM and depressive episodes mean i can get bursts of writing done and look like a sadsack to the rest of the world, huzzah.

every day it becomes easier to look at something i admire and compare myself to it, but harder to learn from it. it's like i was born yesterday with nothing but snippets of trivia to my name- enough to let me fake it halfway through a Mechanical Engineering degree. and, yet, i feel old. i don't know how else to describe it. past my prime, like my brain isn't able to wire in new habits and like my time to work with what i have is sorely finite. i keep asking myself if life sorta just sucks- if anyone is able to really do anything off the clock or if all these people i want to be like are some privileged few blessed with more time than us dregs. and as for practice, hoooh boy, did i mention the family predisposition to dementia? how i suspect even my mother has succumbed to it at some point in her conspiracy rabbithole between the ages of 30 and 50? plus my liver being funny? the hole in my brain that's just fucking there? yeah i give myself until 50, and gonna be 26 in a month, so, shit, dude, at this rate, how much art can i do in my life? like being generous i'm halfway good, and it seems like i might be halfway dead, so doing the math i don't have a ton of hope.

at what point do i stop being stubborn and just comm someone better than me to do everything fuck

Anyways, yeah, like, between the stuff I took on in High School and higher education, that's, like, a decade of my life just... Poof. Gone. And now it's... maybe some background help I should be grateful for? But right now it feels like it wasn't fucking worth it. I could have made something. I could have really... Made something. Something not exactly real, but something good.

Do you know how deluded I was in that engineering phase? I thought I'd be designing planes just as casually as I drew them. I was aware on some level that I wasn't that good, but that lie of being gifted, it strung me along into thinking that, with enough training, I'd get there, because that's totally how the aerospace industry works. Oh, and working for fucking LockMart or some shit? No moral qualms there. Just like Gramps, the one you never knew because even your abusive mom considers him abusive, who worked on the T-28's ejector seat (a specific part of a modification to a preexisting design and he didn't even do that alone and yet your dumbass was just like "yeah I'll just build a plane from a sketch every week," you fucking megalomaniac), and then died in his house with his dog that always puked every time you saw it only like 10% lucid some months after threatening his social worker at gunpoint- yeah he's one of the dementia points btw.

You know how I feel? You know, like, shows, right, movies where the character isn't having a great time so they see a vision and it's like "wow glad that's not me!" It feels like there's some version of me out there that's, you know, starving artist, poor, wondering if she made the right choices, and she's looking at me right now, like, still pretty poor, but also fucking miserable and probably not gonna be remembered after she's gone, and looking at the genie or whatever the shit that brought her in like "wow! I appreciate my life much more now! Clearly artistic pursuits are worth pursuing over job security, even within the crushing confines of the capitalist system!" And like, Djinn, buddy, like, it's been 25 years in this weird AU you made to prove a point, doesn't feel like it sometimes, but can you do me a favor and just sort of merge this timeline back into that one so I don't have to see this through? Or, like, are you gonna show her my neglected, crumbling headstone too to really drive the point home?

Or maybe this is the good timeline, but that just raises further, darker questions.

...

I kinda want to believe I made the wrong choice, really.

[lamentingwclf]

Three weeks of throwing himself in to basic training, of rigid structure and routine, had done wonders for him. It had calmed the storm that had been raging when he left. When he was able to stop and think, a lot had been put into perspective for him that left him feeling raw and full of shame. It left him dreading to come home, and he had almost jumped on the opportunity to ship out early to Paris - they had wanted him to, they wanted his sniper and tactical abilities - but he knew there were things he needed to get straight at home first.

So why he put this encounter off so long was on him, and him alone.

He only had two days, and spent the first putting his affairs in order. Rebecca and June were given the money he'd been saving to send them to school and given explicit instructions on how much of each of his checks were to continue going towards it. But when he started detailing out their budget, June had stormed off, stopping only long enough to take off her shoe and thrown it at him. She proved to have the same impeccable aim he did when it hit the back of his head rather solidly. Rebecca placed a hand on his shoulder, simply told him they got it, and went after June.

Things with his mother hadn't gone much better when Winnifred could barely even bring herself to look at him until he'd taken off his hat and jacket. Even then, she looked just past him, a spot on the wall, just above his left ear. "You have to try." He implored her. "You have to get up every day and make sure they are taken care of. I don't care if you just go outside and sit on the porch, you have to try for them."

Her response had been to lightly touch the sleeve of his shirt and a flat, That's nice, dear.

The icing on the cake had been finding Steve in the alley of the movie theater hiding behind a trashcan lid as he picked yet another fight. Bucky hadn't thought twice about intervening, even if fighting in uniform was strictly prohibited and a disciplinary offense. But he left for three weeks and everyone seems to have lost their damn mind.

Day two was meant to relax, enjoy Brooklyn's finest and head to the world fair and see whatever technology Stark was showcasing. He'd been utterly fascinated watching it - whether Howard felt it was a failure or not, it got gears turning in Bucky's head that he itched to get his hands on the machinery and take it apart. Maybe he'd chosen the wrong specialty, or maybe he should have fought harder for what he wanted. Instead, he was being dragged away by an insistent date on a promise to go dancing.

He felt constantly torn between what he promised, what he wanted, and Steve trying to run off and join the army again. It made for a shit goodbye with his best friend, but maybe there never would have been a right one. Maybe that's why he was at her door now, having left two women disappointed that he couldn't give a shit about. But he did give a shit about this - about righting a wrong.

He only gives the time about a two second consideration before knocking on her door, and the two second consideration makes him feel like an idiot when she answers wrapped in silk and he's left swallowing thickly, but it's not like he can leave and have this conversation tomorrow. Not when he's out at 0800.

"Don't be too impressed, they hand titles out like nobody's business. I think it has to do with the desperation to get men to serve." He says, stepping past her into the apartment - thankful she's here not her parents. Bucky takes the hat from his head and runs a hand through his hair. For a moment, he just watches her before he opens his mouth again, "Gwen, stop fussing, please. And don't lie to me. I highly doubt you'd have come tomorrow, and it's fine. I deserve that, but you didn't deserve how I behaved last time.

It wasn't fair for me to unload on you the way I did. I'm sorry."

The weeks go by an agonizing blur. She threw herself into her schooling, into her father's political affairs, and she and Harry's mother's wishes of planning her "dream" wedding. Yet, no matter how hard she tries, she can't get Bucky's words out of her head. "I'm not your anything." "It would always come to this."

Every now and again she'd stop by and drop some food off for Steve, make sure the stubborn and relentless blonde wasn't sick, beaten, or in jail. But even their encounters felt off now, from her own doing of course. June had urged her to find her peace with Bucky, Rebecca had once tried to apologize, but Gwen couldn't hear it. She needed to forget- WANTED to forget. But then she got that goddamn phone call from the jeweler, something she'd completely forgotten about, but suddenly a stark reminder of James Buchannan Barnes sat on her vanity.

But she couldn't get herself to seek him out. Maybe it was better this way, besides he needed this time home to say goodbye to his family- Steve included. His affairs needed to be in order, and all she'd do is get in the way. She'd show up to the bus station tomorrow morning, say goodbye if she could find him in the crowd, but...she needed to leave him alone.

The whole night she was sick with worry. With dread. She'd tried writing Harry, but she couldn't even force herself to do that. Instead she focused on her rituals. Study, write, read, have supper, read more, bathe, and get ready for bed. And she's just about to put her curlers in when she hears a knock at the door.

Brown hues flicker to the clock, her brows creasing when it read 10:04 pm. Quickly Gwen reaches for her robe and slips it over her silk nightgown, shuffling on some slippers before she goes to the door, her eye coming to the peephole, and she could have crumpled to the ground at the sight.

A man in uniform.

A deep breath is forced before Gwen slowly opens the door, her features tired and sad as she looks him over, a sob nearly wailing from her lips as she notices the details on the uniform. But she forces a small smile. "Sergeant, huh? Why am I not surprised?"

Her gaze lowers to her hands before they pull the door open even more, stepping to the side to let him in to her apartment. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your family? Um...Would you like some tea?" Without an answer or hesitation, Gwen quickly hurries to the kitchen, desperate to keep herself busy. "I....I was going to come to the station in the morning."

[kalopses-sonderes]

Sonders YanTober day 4

Not Coffee

Yandere! Espresso x Reader

Warning/ Tags: Drugging, kidnapping

You and Espresso met when you were both in school, you both were the best of friends. You parents forced you to move away because they didn’t want you practicing magic. They chose a private school in a far away kingdom. Espresso was heart broken when you left, you never told him you were leaving you just disappeared. He went to your house to see a ‘for sale’ sign in front. He asked your friends and family that are still in the kingdom, but they didn’t know either. Once he graduated, he went searching for you in near by kingdoms just to turn up empty handed.

He believed you would never forget him, that you’ll come back to him once your studies are done. He continued to practice dark coffee magic and get a job at your dream school, Parfaedia Institue, so once you come back he can the one to teach you everything you need to know.

You were an adult now. You still missed Espresso, you missed learning magic, and you definitely missed having the opportunity to go to your dream school. So, you decided to go back to see what changed.

Does Espresso still live in this kingdom? You thought as you were walking in to the kingdom you grew up in. Probably not, hes probably some magic genius in a well known kingdom.

You walked through the street, stopping and talking with old friends. Until, you spotted someone familiar. He had the same hairstyle and big glasses like Espresso, but could it really be him? He walks into building with a coffee bean in front. You decided to run after him. You open the builds doors and see brewing equipment.

“(Name)?” Espresso said with wide eyes.

“Espresso!” You run over and jump into his arms. “I’ve missed you so much!”

Espresso holds you tight, “Ive missed you much more.” You whispers into you ear.

You let go of him, “What have I missed?” You say with a toothy grin.

Espresso cheeks flush, he hasnt seen you in forever and you remember him? Its like a dream come true for him! “Not much, but do tell, what happened when you moved?”

You forgot you never told him about moving. “Well, I went to a school to prohibited magic.” You try to laugh it off.

Espressos face has a look of displeasure written over it.

“Dont be to upset! You stil learned dark coffee magic, right? Cant you teach me?” Espressos eyes lit up when you said that. You’re still avoiding to tell him that you cant stay in the kingdom for long, only a week.

As the week progressed, he taught you the basic magic spells. Since you still remember the things you learned from last being in the kingdom it all went smoothly.

The week was coming to an end, you leave tomorrow afternoon. You had to tell Espresso this time and not let me suffer with you leaving randomly again.

You and espresso where hanging out in his office, he had some paper work and you decided to tag along.

“Is everything alright? You’ve been on edge this entire time.” Espresso says, still looking at his paper work.

You take a deep breath and tell him your leaving tomorrow. Espresso stops writing and you both sit in awkward silence that lasted seconda but felt like hours.

“Well, before you leave. Could I take you out to get coffee? I made anew batch and I want to try it at least once.” Espresso looks at you and smiles.

“Well, why not!” You say, your racing heart starts to slow down.

That night, espresso spent it all working on a love spell. He loved you so much and couldn’t let you leave him again. Lattes body is in the basent for trying to flirt with you, no one can have you besides him!

Once he perfected the love potion, it was about time for you both to meet for breakfast and coffee. He started some normal coffee and the coffee with the love potion infused into it.

Knock

Knock

That was you, you both decided to meet at espressos house so you can have coffee fresh from the pot.

“Welcome (name).” Espresso greets you, he smelled of strong coffee.

“Hello Espresso! Im glad we decided on an early time, my mothers carriage will be here earlier than planned to get me.” You walk into his house, the coffee smell is even stronger than before.

I guess I must move faster than planned, he thought. “Well thats just fine, everythings already ready.” Espresso leads you to the dining room, the table already set.

You both sat and talked, he said the coffee will be just a little while longer. Once he brought it out, you couldnt help but take sip instantly. The flavor was oddly sweet and not bitter.

“W-wow! Um, may I ask whys it sweet?” You say, not trying to be rude.

“What do you mean dear?” Espresso says smiling.

The world began to spin and you saw stars. That was definitely not coffee. You began to cough, “What was in that?”

“My love, you think I would just give you up so easily? I finally have you after all this time, you owe me this.” He picks you up bridal style and carries you off as you fade out into unconsciousness.

Taglist:

[lil-sweater-slut]

Harley’s In Hawaii

Doctor Strange x f!Reader

Warnings- 18+ indefinitely,  Unprotected sex, minor Dom!Strange moments with bratty reader, fingering, oral (f receiving) use of pet names i.e ‘Little one’, slight pervy Strange vibes (listening to reader masturbate), drinking, choking, hair pulling.

Word Count: 3.5 k

A/N: reader in this is supposed to be 21+ since it’s mentions drinking, but I know not every country is like that so if your country allows 18+ drinking rock on you’re the better part of the world. This is also one of my first fics where I tried not including Y/N and spent a long ass time on making it detailed as I could. It is also song inspired so if you wanna listen the version that made me think of this here's the link

“I’m not the kind of man that goes out once a week you know.” Stephen exasperates behind you as he adjusts the collar on his dark blue button down. “Especially to some tiny bar that’s never been cleaned, and you can feel the old beer sticking to your shoes”.  You clicked your tongue in response to his poor attitude, “Oh don’t be such a diva Strange.”

 Popping your lips to evenly blend your lip gloss. You took one last glance at yourself in the hallway mirror as your darling friends yelled for you to hurry up downstairs, “by the time we get there, the line is gonna be to the Kamar Taj!” Shang yells up. Turning on your heel, you looked up at Stephen, putting his chin between your index finger and your thumb, “Try to relax and have some fun, won’t ya?” You blew him a kiss with a wink and headed for the stairs, slightly swaying your hips, knowing damn well that his piercing blue eyes were trained on you. It was little behaviors and things like these that got him riled up, his pupils dilating with lust and his blood pressure so high it’s worrisome.

You had hit him like a semitruck during an ice storm. You haven’t left his mind since you became apart of the sanctum. You were inherently talented, graceful-ish, and you were down right the most beautiful creature he has ever seen.

He had tried to keep any impure thoughts he had about you at bay, it wasn’t necessarily the hardest thing for a while considering all you wore around the sanctum were robes but he heard you pleasuring yourself in your room one day by mistake.

He was only walking around the sanctum to clear his head on a problem, coming down your hall he heard the soft moans behind your bedroom door. He tried not to listen; he really did. But then his ears perked when he swore, he heard his name fall from your lips. It must have been a trick of the ear. So, he stayed and listened, no. It was not a trick; you were saying his name like a prayer as you played with yourself.  Your moans got progressively louder as you got closer and closer to your climax, Strange only getting harder by the second. He shook his head, disappointed with himself and left your door to go relieve his own issue.

You moved into a lovely house with lots of trees and plants with Wanda after a few months of gaining your own independence and learning to have more responsibility with your powers. Soon after some discussion with the new Avengers, joined the new group of heroes. The open flirting started shortly after. It was at that playful area where it’s sort of clear you are just friends but standing in a room, the sexual tension bounces off the walls like a tennis match.  You often tease him with shorts, low cut tops/tanks. Things that make him stare at you for a prolonged amount of time that makes you worry sometimes that he could pounce at any moment.

But tonight, you had up the ante when you came out of your new shared bathroom with Wanda, wearing a white halter top and a pair of light high waisted flare jeans that accentuated the curve of your ass so perfectly. On top of whatever you just did grabbing his chin like that…he’s never been the one to be made submissive. An action that won’t be prohibited later…

You had decided to invite the whole team out for a night out, free crappy drinks all night if you pay a small fine at the entrance. The bar you decided to go to was one that led downstairs to a big open dancefloor, lots of flashing lights and a speedy crew of bartenders. As Strange said, yes it wasn’t the cleanest of places in town, however, they played relatively good music that you can dance to, and the bartenders were nicer than at the other places.

Arriving outside the bar the group of you including Wanda, Strange, you, Shang, Sam, and Bucky waited in the line that went halfway across the town square. It was at the beginning of February so you can imagine how badly you cursed yourself for wearing your chosen top, and of course discouraging the idea for a jacket because “the people need to see the fit.” Strange smirked down at you in arrogance as your arms wrapped around yourself in attempt to keep you warm. You scowl up at Strange as he chuckles, “Oh I bet you think this is sooo funny, don’t you?” Nodding in response, Stephen leaned towards your ear, his hot breath fanning over your ear as he whispers, “say the magic word and I can give you my jacket…” shivers traveling down your spin, you chalk it up to just being cold. “I’m not begging for you Strange…” Your jaw twitching in defiance. Strange then places your chin between his index finger and thumb, your eyes never breaking contact with his sharp blues, “We’ll see about that later won’t we little one?”

He released your chin with a satisfied smirk as you gulped and kept your eyes forward. Strange did wrap his jacket around you in a move of chivalry that earned a scoff from you, you stopped immediately when Stephen gave you a look of disapproval for the attitude followed by a slow shake of his head. Waiting in line was agony, almost thirty-minutes of it. The team groaned in annoyance every now and then, you assured them that this place was worth it regardless of the wait time. Here and there some guys would walk through the line between everyone to get to a different bar, some of them touching your waist to get you to move which would earn them a glowering look from Strange. He was insanely protective for someone who hasn’t even had the pleasure of having you underneath him. Your mind started wondering to flashes of what he might look like on top of you…

His dark hair falling in his face...

Muscles contorting with every movement he makes…

How rough or soft he might touch you…

The little whimpers and moans he could make as he slides so nicely into you-

“Helloooooo” Wanda waves her ringed hand Infront of your face, your eyes blinking rapidly out of your daze, “I- “clearing your throat to stop it from wavering, “sorry, what’s up?” Wanda giggles, her bright smile bringing you back to reality, “come on darling we’re being let in now.” She links her arm in with yours, ID’s being checked by security when your welcomed by the bass pulsating in your chest and purple lights setting the vibe for the evening as you walk down the circling staircase. The bar itself was set in the middle of the building with dimmed warm lights, to the back were tables and several love seats for people to sit, and off to the right was the dance floor as a few stragglers started to fill it.

Wanda and you approached the bar, your eyes wandering for the rest of the group. She assured you that everyone has gotten their drinks by now and were probably off to the side avoiding the crowd since they all weren’t the socialist of butterflies. Well except maybe Shang who was already on the dance floor double-fisting two drinks. “Someone’s gonna have to keep an eye on him you know…” You mention to Wanda, her eyes following yours to the dance floor where Shang was, “Neh, I’m sure he’ll be fine but it’s not like he won’t be on the floor alone for much longer.” She encouraged you. You cheer your drinks and sling them back, the alcohol momentarily burning your throat, with that you two started ordering a few more rounds to loosen you up for the dancefloor.

Strange was off to the side with Buck and Sam. The two arguing about best tracks, Stephens eyes rolling in annoyance, he refocuses his attention on trying to find you in a vast sea of people who were all too close to each other. A fire of jealousy sprouted in his chest as his mind wandered to you dancing, a man getting dangerously close to what’s not his, or even just the looks you must be attracting from the way you look, the way you dance,

hips rocking back and forth…

His jaw grinding at the thoughts in his head. A tap on the side of his arm brings him back, “relax man, she’ll kill anyone that gets too close for comfort” Sam smiles trying to comfort him. Strange smiles half-heartedly, “Yeah I know…I’m just- ““protective.” Bucky interjects. Strange nodding slightly as he finishes off the rest of his drink.

The bar was playing music that ranged from the late 90’s to early 2000’s and some songs that were hits from now. Strange kept his eyes trained on the wave of people on the dance floor, hopping to even just catch a glance at you. People started leaving the dancefloor as a remixed version of ‘Harleys and Hawaii’s’ by Katy perry started to play. The beat reverberating from his feet to his chest, eyes following people leaving the dancefloor for more drinks. The lights on the dancefloor faded from rouge pinks violets and Carolina blues.

Another tap to his arm pulled his attention to Sam who nodded his head in the direction of the dancefloor “Don’t look now but there’s your girl” Strange whips his head, peering at the cramped stage with people and flashing purple and blue lights to see you back-to-back with Wanda butt bumping into each other, one arm above your head, your body moving along with the beat and hips swaying back and forth. He just stared at you, time slowing in his head to help capture this moment, your skin gleaming with a sheen of sweat, the biggest grin on your face.

His heart seizing in his chest watching you, butterflies erupting in his stomach, heat rising to his cheeks and moving down his shaft as a mischievous smile spread across his lips. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me…” He smiles to Sam, handing him his drink. He stuffs one of his hands into his gently pressed slacks, as ‘Closer’ by nine-inch nails starts fades in, Strange’s strides landing on beat with the music as you unsuspectedly drop your body low and sway your hips to the song as the alcohol floods your system, making you feel more comfortable with yourself on the dancefloor.

Strange dodges multiple people trying to block from getting to you, waving each young woman from his direction, eyes never leaving your body. You turned your torso, rolling your body when you opened your eyes, stunned to see Strange no more than seven feet from you, standing and leering right into your soul. You continued to sway your hips, Stephen’s eyes roaming from your ass to your eyes, white and green lights flashing behind you. When Strange makes eye contact with you again, he motions with his pointer finger for you to come to him, beckoning you to him.

You immediately felt heat come between your legs at the motion, your mouth agape in awe as you strut your way to him. As you got closer and closer, you couldn’t help but notice how attractive he looks under the colorful lights, his top couple buttons undone peaking some black chest hair underneath. He looked stoic as ever as you approached, completely unreadable and that frightened you. “Yes?” you inquire at him innocently with doe eyes, he clenches his jaw as he narrowed his eyes at you, “What do you think you’re doing little one?” You shrugged, taking a sip from your beverage as you continued to play innocent. “It’s called ‘having fun’ Strange…. you should try it sometime.”

You tried to move away from him when a firm grip on your wrist stopped you, you looked down to see Stephen’s scarred hand wrapped tightly around your lower arm. You glanced back at him through your eyelashes, raising an eyebrow as if questioning if he’s gonna do what he’s always wanted finally. He leaned forward, close to your ear, “If you don’t get your ass to the car immediately…so help me God, I will defile you on this dancefloor right here, right now.” His voice vibrating to your chest as heat floods between your legs once again. You nodded your head as you hurriedly went up the stairs as Strange followed closely behind you, giving your right ass cheek a slight smack, which earned a squeal from you.

Stephen opened the back door for you to settle yourself in as he went along behind you. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders as he asked for the driver to take you two back to his house. The driver nodded in response and Strange put up the privacy screen. You bit the inner part of your cheek knowing what was probably coming next. Stephen moved his hand to your cheek, forcing you to look up at him and into his eyes, his face was inches from yours, you could smell the whiskey on his breath, “Before we do anything both of us may regret…I need to know if this is okay…you’ve been drinking, heavily, for that matter. Is this what you want?”

His eyes wandering yours for any hint of hesitance, as your heart swells at his question. In response you smash your lips to him, a surprise noise escaping Strange’s throat but then giving into the kiss knowing it was okay. His hand traveled into your hair, bringing your face closer to him as his other arm travels down and wrapping around your waist, urging you to straddle his lap. You do so compliantly, tongues meshing together in a battle of dominance.

You settle yourself down on his slacked lap, your clit sliding down against his hardened cock underneath you as a moan came from your lips. “Oh I love that sound…give it to me again…” He whispers, thrusting up against you. Another strangled moan comes from you. He grins and pulls your lips back to him.

Your hands are wandering over each other’s clothed forms when the car stops outside Stephen’s apartment. The agonizing wait up to his room in the elevator was hell in itself, he couldn’t keep his hands off of you as his hands wandered up your stomach, over your breast and finding a comfortable place at your neck as he ravished your neck with bites and replaces them with soft kisses, his goatee tickling you a little. Once getting to his door and getting each other inside, it was fair game now. Stephen pried your top from your body, letting out a breathy “oh…” taking in the fact you weren’t wearing a bra. You looked down at your breasts and back at him as he ogles you. He blinks quickly when he grabs the back of your head, pulling you in for another passionately heated kiss.

Fireworks were shooting off in your stomach, you knew that you must have been so soaked through your panties, you couldn’t wait. Didn’t want to wait. You ripped open Strange’s button down, black buttons flying every which way. You did imagine him in your head correctly, muscular with some chisel around his chest and abs, black chest hair and a happy trail with some silver hairs scattered here and there. He grabs your chin forcing you too look up at him, he kisses your lips one last time before he nods, knowing exactly what you were thinking.

Wrapping your arms around his neck, his wrapping around your waist, you lead each other to the white love seat in his living room, the large open window letting in enough moonlight for you to see each other without the distortion of the dark. You raked your fingers through his dark locks as your other hand fumbles around with his belt, “Stupid…expensive piece of shit.” You mumble in between lip bites and pecks. You finally undo the belt and pull his slacks down along with his black briefs to reveal his illustrious member. The head was an angry red, leaking with precum as it bobbed in your presence. It was large and wider than you would have imagined. You licked your lips as you prepared to take it all in your mouth before Strange grasped your face in between one of his hands, squeezing your cheeks forcefully

“When I cum tonight, it will be deep inside you…. not down your throat…not tonight anyway…” He finishes caressing your hair. You nod in response, “Now…lay down. Don’t move.” You lay down on your back on the loveseat slowly, afraid to break eye contact with Stephen.

When you get yourself comfortable, Strange prowls over your body, he kisses your lips, moving down your neck to your breasts, giving each one a great amount of attention between his teeth and tongue. He moves lower down your body, leaving bites in his wake when he is staring right at your pretty pussy in front of him. He looks up with his lust blown blue orbs for permission, nodding hurriedly at him as you brush back some hairs back that escaped from their gel holds. He starts slowly, giving soft kitten licks to your clit, circling it with his tongue, seeing what gives you more of a reaction. You moans grow louder and louder with each different movement, closing your eyes in ecstasy.

Strange slowly moves his hands, one wrapped underneath your thigh while the other moves up to your core. He tests your reaction when placing on finger into you, loving the way you arch your back at the new penetration. He smirks into you as he adds his ring finger into you, fucking you with his fingers that he so desperately hated in the past, now loving the way they pull moans and pleads from your lips. He moves them in a “come here” motion just gingerly touching that soft spot inside, his tongue still expertly circling around your bundle of nerves. You arched your back, bucking your hips, grabbing anything you could in this moment. “Oh Fuck yeah Stephen just like that…yes…”

You moved your hand back down to Stranges hair, pushing it back as you grinded you hips into his face. You heard the lewd noises that came from you, the squelching that came from below you as Stephen fucks you into oblivion with his fingers, cleaning up his mess with his tongue. Surely the man was going to drown with how wet you are. You panted trying to get his attention, you tried pulling his face up only for him to smack your hand away, stopping to look at you menacingly, “Don’t.” Your eyes widened, hands up in defense. He wrapped one of his muscular arms underneath you, rolling you on top of him, straddling his hips once again. Your slick dripping down on his hardening cock. He leaves his arm around you, his hand tangling in your hair once again, “You’re going to cum on me while I fuck into you…You will not try to run…you will not tell me to stop or to slow down. Do you understand little one?”

You agree with a small nod, your eyes hazy and lust blown. Strange tugs on your hair slightly, “Words Darling. Use your words.” He tugs back again, his head now teasing at your entrance, “Yes sir…” You whisper. Stephen lets out a deep breath as he thrusts up into you hard and fast, the impact making you scream out in a mixture of pain and pleasure, your head falling back as Stephen lets out a strangled moan. Slowly he starts picking up the pace once he thinks you’re ready, using the strength of his thighs to thrust into you, his cock bottoming out into you.

His cock was dragging along your walls, perfectly hitting that spongy part on your walls. You could feel it, that coil was ready to snap at any minute as he continued to fuck up into you, your moans were garbled between praises, begs and Strange’s name…

“Yes, just like that...it feels so fucking good”

“Oh don’t you dare stop…”

“Stephen…Stephen…”

He could feel it, you’re clamping down on him so fucking hard, his mind flashes back to you in your room with your toy, “I know for a fact that you can be a hell of a lot louder than that.” He snaps up into you, moving his hands to wrap around your throat. You instinctively wrapped your hand around his wrist, getting closer and closer to your release. With another hard thrust hitting your cervix and brushing against your g-spot, you arched back, as white flashes behind your eyes and the coil finally snaps. A guttural moan ripping through your lungs.

Strange sat in awe of your current state, a few more thrusts and he followed closely behind you, as his cum fills you to the brim, eyes never once leaving your shambled form. You fall forward onto his hot, sweat slicked chest as it rises and falls, Strange burying his face in the crook of your neck, placing soft kisses along you jaw and cheek in praise as you attempt to catch your breath yourself.

“Good Girl…You did so well for me...” He whispers.

You move back far enough to give him a quick peck on the lips, “Don’t expect that every time Strange…”

[sugarakis-p2]

All Knight and day must die Ch13

Mothman Shigaraki is the new king, so much on his shoulders and wings. Nothing better than to use Ur (Aka Ur Name x reader) to relieve his stress as he plots to destroy the Order of the Azure rose.

Oh my, a sweet date night. Shigaraki is really trying here, he wants everything to be perfect when he tells you his secret. He's even trying his hand at romance. Of course, date night is interrupted and things are never easy.

@lovingbadguys @balanceisrelative @nut-in-me-jojo

Warning: Delusional yandere Mothman Shigaraki. Yes: super fluffy with rough sex. Death threats.

Chapter 12 <previous

Chapter 13

Shigaraki has done his best to be a good mate.

Bent over the bucket of piss, he waited. It was difficult at first. He had to learn the hard way and from the children to be patient. He still had to encourage you to talk since he had prohibited it at first. Shigaraki has played games with his sweet girl, listened to your voice read stories, smelled your fear dampen with each passing day. He has fought for you. Loved you. Loved the children.

You would shyly smile at him give him a coy side-look when you wanted to mate. The golden wheat stick has soaked long enough. You will play with his hair and give him that look beyond afterwards, and he wants to drown in it, drown in you.

He had to understand weakness to embrace strength. He had told you he no longer wanted you to travel that far to the privy for a piss in the dark. You did not like the bucket but gave in like the sweet lifemate you are.

His mate is his weakness and strength, and he embraces it. He pulls out the wheat stick and turns it, lightly blowing.

More waiting, waiting for when he can be one. He needs you to be one with him because his body doesn’t belong to him anymore. The day he blood bonded to you, Shigaraki gave you his everything. His heart, lungs, wings, sanity, blood where his kind believes the spirit lies.

Maude and Lyra are still the banes of his existence. He actually had to have a meeting where he displayed you, his lifemate, and his in-laws to the entire court because Maude was making decrees. The fools couldn’t tell you apart and were following Maude's orders. He ordered the humans to leave Dabi’s mate, Lyra, be or become food. Dabi had spent too much time burning the humans they fought so hard to get.

He stares at his cursed finger; the black vein has reached his second knuckle. Not time to panic yet, but he would prefer to not have to worry. The branch started to flower, beautiful tiny green blossoms with yellow stripes.

It was so beautiful he almost cried. He hid it in his robes, quickly flying to his nest where you are attempting to knit. A skill a girl named Suki knew and agreed to teach any females who wanted to learn. You forced your wingless nest sisters to go and promised to practice if they did.

You cursed out loud as you held up your work and saw several holes. You ripped the sticks out and started to unravel your knit. Shigaraki watches you fail, then try again; he loves that about you. He buzzes his wings. You look up, smile, and give him that look beyond. He melts, chirping. He almost tells you his little secret right then.

He comes over and kisses the top of your head. Pulling you to his lap and resting his head on top of yours.

“Your heavy,” you giggle.

“Heavy is my crown,” he teases. He had been holding onto that one for a while now.

“Wow, you are amazing. You learn so fast. Even making jokes now. I truly envy you. I am awful at this,” you hold up the knitting. Shigaraki laughs at you, a hissing sound you tsk him over with no bite, “Want to play that new game? Invite the kin and Dabi over, so I can watch all of you get drunk and lose to Lyra and me?”

“No. Tonight we go out. Date. Special date. Moon is full. Time to see more of my world. Good part,” he reassures. You look up at him with that curious sparkle in your eyes he has seen the children give. It’s adorable, and he wants to fuck you right then and there. But he holds back. He has control and patience. He finds his winter furs.

Bundling up himself and you in the furs. Making you both look like Yeti. You put on your eyepatch, complaining how it gets cold and you can’t see out of it anyways. He smiles. Boy, does he have a surprise for you. He snaps to get your attention and holds out his arms. You jump in them, kissing him, making him chirp and trill in surprise. Yours has a hood on it, which he pulls up.

“Naughty mate,” he says, kissing back. He grabs a large bundle of fur wrapped and overly tied as he carries you under one arm. You cling to him, shrieking as he flies at sunset. He has plenty of time. Little eye shut as you press your face in his fur collar. Here it is, the spot he was found as a grub, “Keep eye closed,” he instructs.

He unwraps the bundle and starts a fire quickly. Lifting his sweet little mate and placing her in his lap.

“Ok, open eye,” he rasps.

You open your eye to see the entire land is bright white blanketed in snow. The overhang looks onto a frozen lake. The Moon looks large, as if they are in the center of it. A well-used pit is spit-roasting meat and potatoes.

“Wow, what is this? Is this snow? I have never seen snow,” you go to touch it, and it’s cold, melting on your fingertips, “It’s beautiful. I love it. Who has been teaching you about dating and romance?”

“You are beautiful,” he says, pulling you back to him, “Toga help a little. But most is my idea. See the Moon?” You nod, smiling up at him. He’s staring at it with reverence.

“Story about Sun and Moon. Day creatures are born of the Sun. Night creatures are born of the Moon. When they were young, they had a child, our world. The world is delicate. It has day creatures and night creatures. Both parents needed. They argued how to raise the child. The Sun is harsh, overbearing, not want provide for night creatures. The Moon loves all couldn’t bear the suffering, so she reflected some of the Sun's light on the night creatures. The world wept. They decide for the good of baby they split time. I am born of the Moon, and you born of the Sun,” he says. He had been practicing and dreaming of this moment. Heart pounding, he reaches in the folds of his furs and pulls out the blossomed wheat stick.

“Our children will be born of the Earth,” he says, watching you intensely. Your face scrunches in confusion about what you’re looking at. Then it dawns on you, and you explode with joy, face lighting up with a radiant smile.

“Am I pregnant?” You shout. Shigaraki nods with a fanged grin. He wasn’t excepting you to throw yourself at him. Squealing and giggling as you kiss him as you both fall back on the fur. You press your forehead to his. Closing your eyes, “I-I-I love you.”

He's a little annoyed because he wanted to say it first. But his heart is swelling with all the good feelings he hasn’t had for so long in his life helps him get over it.

“I love you,” he growls deeply. He grabs you and rolls on top, kissing you deeply. He wants to hump you within an inch of your life. But now is not the time for that. He has so much he wants to say first. He needs you to know you are more than just some breeder to him. He pulls away, eyes lidded with lust. You play with his hair, and your face scrunches again.

“It’s longer and paler. Your ruff is getting that way too. Like your changing color,” you tell him. He grins wide. This was perfect. He pulls you up and reaches back into his furs again, pulling out a small mirror. This is why it had to be tonight; he needed the light.

“You have been changing too. Look, take eye patch off. Used magic. You like?” He asks. Holding the mirror up for you to look at your eye. You look at it, and it does look different. It’s prettier with your lashes growing back. And it has a star in the corner.

“How did you do this?” You ask.

“Had wizard help. It's magic too. Do you like?” He questions, feeling your hesitation.

“I like it. But,” you begin biting your lip and trailing the sentence off. Shigaraki cups your cheeks in his hands and makes you look at him. His face is serious, his eyes are soft around the edges and hooded with love.

“I lift talking rules. I no punish for talking to me. You are lifemate. We blood bound. You can tell me, and I no punish. Partner. Equal,” he rasps. Hoping that his limited language will still convey what he means.

“But I don’t want my body altered anymore without my permission. Other than that, I love it too,” you say in a small frightened voice.

“Understand. Never again,” he nods. Embracing you tight, “Forgive me?”

You are so surprised that he is even asking you to forgive him. You didn't think he knew the word even in his own language. He has changed so much. He reaches up under his ruff and takes off his necklace. Showing it to you.

“Moths are death. Death embodies change, ending so that others can begin. Forgive me. I will be better lifemate,” he says, putting it around your neck. You smile because you recognize the design from your village. You know about the symbolism of moths, death and rebirth were very popular in your village, since there is so much death. These necklaces are meant for mourners. You smile and show him something he didn’t know.

“I can forgive you. Look, it’s a locket," Opening it, showing him the body unhinges, "Can I have a lock of your hair?” you query as you fiddle with the locket. A sly smile is tugging at the corner of your mouth. He can smell your arousal. He compulsory flutters his wings and forces them to stop. Not yet.

Dates are supposed to end with that according to Toga, Magne, Lyra, and basically any female he asks that are not Mothwoman. He is not ready to have this end yet. You said it. He finally had her heart, and he wanted to hold the fragile little thing in his hands a little longer. It fluttered in his hands and didn’t decay like his family. He swears he will take care of it.

He uses his sharp claws and cuts off a piece of his hair for you. He ties it in a knot for you. You take and curl it in your new moth necklace. Opening a sachet, he sprinkles the food with spices as Kurogiri suggested, and they eat contently together. He, of course, blows on your food and feeds you. Some things will never change. You give him that side look, and he flutters his wings.

“No. Dirty tease. Naughty mate. That at end of date. Not end yet,” he growls.

“What?" you ask innocently. When he narrows his eyes and doesn't give in, you smile, "You are full of surprises tonight."

He pulls you into him, sitting together on the fur as he nuzzles and names stars for you. Since he is a night creature, he navigates in the dark sky using the stars. A gust of cold wind lets him have an excuse to wrap you closer to him in his fur. His antennae caught the whiff of predators and humans that were not his.

“That one over there is the tail of the dragon. It points to the hive,” he explains. He is teaching you how to find the hive. In case you are ever separated. He quickly doused the fire, snatching you up and using the wet fur and rope to tie you to him.

“What’s wrong?” you ask. Frightened, Shigaraki feels it, and it sets his nerves on fire with desire.

“Werewolves. Order use, hunt bear in winter. They bold, come to my lands, winter or not. Sssstupid. Back to nest,” He says, jumping off the ledge. It made you shriek in fear. It was worse when you hear the whistle of arrows, but it’s the sudden burst of light and someone screaming “DIE!” that scares you more.

You are tumbling and twisting in the air to the ground. Landing in a snow bank with a whump. Shigaraki used his own body to protect you from the fall. He is knocked out, eyes fluttering as you shake him, and you are panicking.

“Shigaraki, wake up. Wake up. Please, I don’t want to spend my life with anyone else.” You hear a howl that freezes your blood. Your fear has ramped up another notch as your heart feels like it is trying to escape your chest. A sudden spike of pain in your eye makes you scream in pain.

You can see out of it. You have a brief moment of giddy laughter that dies when you notice you see the world differently out of it.

Lines and ghostly images are helping you see what you must do so clearly. You wrap his wings and head, tying him in the fur. Sprinting, lifting a rotten log, you find black fungus. Shoving the fungus in your pocket, you run back to Shigaraki, who is coming to. Panting, you cup his face and look deeply into his crimson eyes.

“No matter what happens or what I say, I love you! I love you!” You shout in his face. Grabbing the end of the rope.

A young man with wheat hair and red eyes along with werewolves run-up. Followed by an ogre hybrid, a child with green hair, another spikey red-head boy, and a mousy-looking plain girl. You raise your hand out in a stopping motion; it is also the Order of the light greetings.

“Halt! I am Lyra Starlighter, Arcane healer for the Order of light,” You lie through your teeth.

“Under the article of Iza thirteen-two, I enact captor rights over Dabi of the Firefly hive.” You announce smugly and arrogant, just like you imagine Lyra would holding up the rope for them to see.

“What doing?” Shigaraki hisses.

“Quiet!” you shout at him. Kicking snow in his face, “Remember what I said.”

You yell at him, trying to apologize with your eyes, yanking on the rope to tug him along. Another adult comes up, they talk for a moment before hailing you back and signaling you to come forward.

“I never saw her. But I did see that one at the attack three years ago,” The ogre said to the adult wearing a mask and cowboy hat.

“I didn’t either, but they said she had a personality trait that was hard to miss. You think they would have mentioned the eye,” The other responded as you walked up to them.

“Thank you for the rescue. But by the gods, we must really be in dire times,” you say, eyeing the children, “I see we are just letting anyone join.” The reaction to your harsh words was varied, and you managed to keep a straight face. It was kind of freeing, saying anything you wanted.

“Yeah, that sounds like Lyra. Sorry, but to confirm your identity, we will have to take you and him back to the temple,” the masked man says.

“I see you have a lack of manners as well as knowledge of sacred laws. I’m Lyra, and you are?” You huff. They managed to look embarrassed.

“I’m Sniper, this is Klaus, and class one-a, we are taking you to the temple to verify your identity,” the masked man says. A pack of werewolves is behind them.

“By all means, escort me to the firefly hive that way. It is a few days' walk, and you will be able to identify me there with our alliance. Under the Iza act, I am allowed quick established rights.” You are surprised by what you are saying. Lies you didn’t know were true. Somehow you saw it, you are so scared, saying things you don’t know about. Stressed, they will figure it out any moment. Shigaraki just looks mad, but not at you; thank the gods for small miracles.

“That goes right through Shigaraki territory. We no support,” the werewolves say.

“I am fine if you are not,” you say as Lyra. Turning to walk away with Shigaraki.

“Wait!” the ogre hybrid says. They talk amongst themselves when all you want is to go home and be held by Shigaraki. The ogre came back sighing, “Alright, you’re as big of a pain in the ass as they say you are. We will escort you to the hive. Let’s go now.” You nod and follow.

You are not used to trudging through snow. Which also made the travel slow. Even better, but anytime someone touched you, Shigaraki would get aggressive, and they tried to hurt Shigaraki for it. The child with red eyes wanted to hit Shigaraki; you had to step in.

“Don’t you dare,” you snarl at him. A part of you really wanted to knock this kid out, you turn to the green boy, “He knows that I don’t like to be touched. Although it never stopped him. Tell your boyfriend to back off!” The Green boy gets flustered.

“We’re not dating,” he squeaks.

“Yeah, I could do better than Deku!” The brat shouts.

“Oh, sorry. I just assumed by how submissive you are to his abuse, and you calling him Kacchan, that you were an item,” you say, watching the group of kids get flustered or shout at each other.

You really just want to go home. They tried to get a look at Shigaraki's face in daylight, and you had to shove them away and argue at how the knights are being brutes. He growled deeply in pain as his skin burned. When they reached an edge of the forest, Shigaraki and the werewolves refused to go further.

“Mate with child. Too dangerous at night. No risk,” He rasped, freaking out most of the group.

“They can speak!” someone screeched.

“Of course, they are not mindless animals. Don’t you study alongside magic creatures? Offensive. We have to stop anyways. Dabi and I sleep during daylight. I’m exhausted,” you tell them. They set up camp, edging around Shigaraki and the werewolves. You go and check his face. This ignorant group really disgusted you. Lyra may be hateful, but she never once thought they were simple beasts.

Shigaraki’s eyes are brimming with rage. His body is tense and vibrating with it. You point to your eye. They are boiling some kind of stew, and you throw in the fungus. Stirring it to the bottom. The werewolves are watching you, and you look them straight in the eye, walking away to sit next to Shigaraki. Your necklace popped out, you slowly put it back.

“Pretend to eat the soup,” you whisper to him, pretending to examine his burns. His antennae gently stroke over the back of your hand. You wanted to kiss him and tell him you love him some more. You hope he can forgive you. As it gets dark and everyone settles in to eat. The Green boy hands you a bowl.

“My knight name is Deku. I have heard a lot about you, Lyra. I know it must have been hard for you. If you need to talk about it, we will be here to help. Can I talk to him?” he asks, pointing to Shigaraki. You are about to say no when Shigaraki snorted laughter.

“Why ask her? Ask me. Right here, Deku,” he grins. The boy mumbles nervously and then nods.

“Ok, a few friends of ours went in search of their missing brother. He had two-toned hair, red and white. Have you seen them? Do you know what happened to them?” He asked with intense eyes.

“Don’t know, probably dead,” Shigaraki shrugs. The boy is panting, clenching, and unclenching his hands.

“Why did you attack us?” Deku asks in a shaky voice.

“No. Not right question,” Shigaraki hisses and chitters at him. Deku considers this and asks a different question.

“Why are kidnapping human women?”

“Why else? For hope of future. You shorten our nights and cull our females. Only right we take to survive,” Shigaraki replies.

“What do you mean?” Deku asks. You are both looking at him, confused. You thought it was because Mothwomen are nuts, but you heard that from ignorant locals who thought lavender would keep Mothmen away.

“Ask All Might! Ask him about the cleanse! Ask him about operation piercing light!” He roars, red eyes blazing.

“Enough,” you tell Deku, “He is just trying to get a rise out of you. I don’t want any problems while we travel. Quit agitating him. They tend to be total liars, so take whatever he says with a grain of salt. Ok? You should eat and calm down.”

He nods. As he walks away, you pretend to feed Shigaraki. You are tense, adrenaline pumping, getting ready to run. Everyone is talking and eating except for the werewolves and you. So far, everything is going exactly how your eye saw. A part of you can’t wait to tell Shigaraki.

A little time passes when stomachs start rumbling. Then there is moaning as they run in different directions.

“Run!” you shout at Shigaraki. You both run as fast as you can away from the camp, stopping to quickly untie him, “Are your wings dry?”

“Yes,” he hisses, flapping his brilliant wings. They look darker too. You don’t have time to dwell on it as he snatches you up. Tying you to his middle on his back.

“I would kill, if not scattered and healthy werewolves. Must protect mate and grub first,” he growls, twitching with disappointment. Searching for the tallest tree.

“I know. They are just children,” you reason with him.

“Humph, kill like men, though,” he snarls, climbing swiftly. Claws dig into the trunk as he barrels through twigs and branches. Werewolves circle the trunk at the bottom.

“My eye saw things, and I knew what to do. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me,” you squeal, gripping him tighter, lowering your head and closing your eyes, bracing against the falling debris and his anger. When he reaches the top, he shouts down at the wolves.

“She granted mercy. Stay out of territory. Be gone before elites arrive!” He growled.

"Lucky to have a loyal mate!" One shouted up. He snorts 'I know," jumping and spreading his wings. You shriek between his beating wings they are terrifying and loud. It’s hard to breathe as the wind and snow swirl’s past. It reminds you so much of the first time, but Shigaraki is so much faster, taking sharp turns that make you feel sick.

He comprises altitude for swift agility he is reluctant to risk another attack from the explosion brat in the open. Enraged with himself. He wanted to kill them all. He doesn’t bother going to his nest first. He lands at Dabi’s door screeching for him with a warble. He is there immediately.

“The order is hunting on our land with two knights, trainees, and werewolves. One asked me about your brother. They are near the Emerald lake at the edge of banshee woods,” he says rapidly. Dabi nods, taking flight and shouting. Shigaraki sees Nomu and orders them to guard Dabi’s mates.

He  takes you back to the nest, swiftly stripping you and fussing over your body.

“I’m sorry,” you weep as he insistently goes over your nude body, “I was so scared, and then my eye showed me what to do. I didn’t want to behave that way. Please don’t kill those kids. I’m so sorry,” He stops and pulls you tight to him. Trembling in relief that you are safe. He just wanted one nostalgic moment. He underestimated the tenacity of the Order, but never again.

He would never tell you this, but it is a fact he feels profoundly in his soul that you are never to blame for the ugly taint he smeared all over you the moment he picked you. You are such a sweet creature that protected him protected the nasty youth of the Order. He doesn’t deserve you, but you are precisely what he needs in his life. You are too fragile, and he should have taken better care of you.

“No. I love you. Wolves move them. No kill them today. Need more patrols. Should stay here. Ruined date. Ur perfection. I bad mate. Forgive,” he trills.

Falling to his knees, kissing the belly where his child is growing. It was stupid of him to risk it. The eye was masterful. After landing in the snow, his wings would have been too wet to fly. He would have had to try to fight all the cougars and other predators along the way. No way Ur would have survived. At least with the brats and werewolves, you were safe. His mate was wonderful. He wishes he knew the words.

“You didn’t ruin anything. Our date isn’t over yet. Remember? It only ends one way,” you tease lightly, testing the waters of his rage. Thankful that he doesn’t want to hurt or kill you. He gets thrilled, wings and antennae quivering in delight that you want to continue.

“Stay,” he orders, going to grab food. He comes back with a shield piled with meat and fruit like the first time. Stoking the fire, tossing down several furs, handing you a book to read while he feeds you. He snuggles you to him, humming and keening. He seems like a different person now that you are pregnant. You indulge him for a little while.

Setting the book down, you look up at him, and he purrs. Clearly wanting to finish the date correctly. A lot of questions are swirling in your mind. You want to get your eye to do that thing before, but it’s not. Maybe it has to do with your emotions? Shigaraki is putty after sex if you ride him hard enough.

You turn, crawling over him, and he gets that look in his eyes that you love seeing like a scared little boy seeing a predator for the first time. Whimpers slip from him as he watches open his fur top, pulling the laces free with your teeth. His breathing becomes heavy as his cheeks redden like his eyes.

To him, you look like a tigress, clawing your way over his bare chest, running your tongue along the way. He adjusts his wings so you can pin them under him. When you reach his collar, he is entirely trapped in the spell you cast over him like this. Your fingers drive deep in the fur, shoving your face in the soft hair to inhale his scent.

“Have I ever told you that you have pretty eyes? Your scent makes me think of a mix of foreign lands and home,” you say honestly. It just slipped out, he tsks, looking away as he reddens more. Brazen, bold, naïve little female, he thinks.

“Stupid female words,” he hissed at his little mate. He gets lazy with his speech when he is with you.

His words are harsh, but you know it was those stupid female words that made him soften for you. You can feel his cock hardening and twitch under you through the thick fur britches. You smile and catch his ear lobe with your teeth and nip him. With a sharp intake, his hips buck. He chitters in his own language. His sharp fangs are clicking.

“I don’t know the details of a lifemate. But it should mean this female gets to play and explore my lifemates body, right?”

He hisses and complains in his own language some more, but you can feel the heat radiate from him, mumbling about more stupid female words. Fluffing his ruff so you can burrow in your fingers deeper to touch the flesh of his neck, he shudders in satisfaction.

You must be careful, tease him too much, and he will be rough with whichever hole he can get. You rack your nails down his chest and abdomen, quickly undoing his pants. He looks good like this; you want him to keep his pants on. His cock springs free. You catch it and dart your tongue out to lick that metal present.

Shigaraki tenses and snarls a warning, shaking his head. More of his own language, vicious sounding. You are sad he won’t let you do this and explain why. He wraps his arm around your middle, shoving two of his fingers between your legs, expertly playing with your clit and wet fold. Staring at you straight in your eyes.

“Kiss. Kiss with these lips,” he insists. Chirping like a depraved bird. Rubbing his gift right over your clit, making you whimper and moan. You can’t refuse when he asks so sweetly and makes it feel so sweet. Shivers of delicious pleasure tingle up your spine with each contact of his hoop on your bud. He still looks tense as you grind and slide on his length. You feel heat pooling in your middle.

“I’m about ready to cum. Stop,” you whine.

“Good, cum. Soak lap,” he encourages, bucking his hips.

“Want to make you feel good too,” you maneuver to have put him in your sopping pussy. He whines and shakes his head, looking nervous again.

“The little grub could be hurt?” he questions. You almost laugh out loud. You are not an expert, but even you know and have seen couples copulating well after the woman is showing.

“We should be fine for a long time. Need to be gentle later. Lay back and let me have you,” you order tenderly. He looks anxious again but lays back. Closing his eyes, lightly squirming as you grip him and lower himself on his length. He fills you wholly, and as you start to rock on him, he stifles whines and pitiful moans, holding his tongue between his teeth.

He quickly sits up and wraps one arm around your waist, grasping desperately with four fingers at the fur beneath him as he pulls you up and down in his cock. Not letting you bottom out and ride him like you want to. Taking control from you.

“Hey, I wanted to make you feel good,” you complain. A string of curses escapes from your mouth as he starts at a gentle pace, taking all his self-control to not pound you. He doesn’t bother to answer you as he pumps you up and down on his length. It had been a moment since your last physical intimacy. He wanted to take his time to make you feel good. He knows he fucked up, and he wants to make it up to you.

He was much closer to cumming than he wanted to admit whenever you were on top. It was also another thing Maude had made him afraid of, a thing he wanted to admit to but not now. He can see you are angry, he can smell it, and he wants to put you in a better mood. You are begging him to stop, but he is not listening. He knows what you like. Bracing himself, gritting his teeth, he softly rotates as he thrusts up. It kills his back, but the sweet little gasps and moans from you are worth it. He loves watching your chest jiggle with each downward push.

“I love you,” you pant, slacked jawed from him repeatedly hitting the sweet spot inside you. Sending sparks up your spine, electricity dancing over your skin, coming undone for Shigaraki. Your orgasm hits hard with no warning, a flood of warmth pooling over his lap and stomach. The clenching of your cunt makes him knot outside of you, “Dammit!” you shout, embarrassed and squirming away from the knot. Worse, he started to beat his pinned wings sending overstimulating vibrations through your body.

“Why mad. You liked, see,” he laughs, lifting you to see the glistening mess you made. Although his knot is not inside, his cum spills out and over him, which he is disappointed in. He sees you are unfulfilled, too, sensing you are still pissy. He flips you on your back, reaching out his hand to touch the cold floor. He grins, amused at your expressive face twisted in annoyance. He just made you cum, and you're irritated by it.

He used the cold from his hand to crush and deflate his knot enough to shove it in his angry little mate. His sadistic nature is being fed by your pleas for him to stop. Not because he took control back but because he was shoving his large reduced knot past your resistive hole. You weren’t just squirming now. You are smacking and trying to shove him off while you beg, tears at the corner of your watery doe eyes. He has never seen you be disobedient or struggle against him. A sick primal part of him loves it. Watching you writhe at the sensation of stretching past your limits.

He knows he shouldn’t, but he lets the carnal animal in him loose. Freed, he is ruthless in working his knot in you. You scream and jerk as he finally slips his knot in. A burning sensation where your flesh gave in to his.

“It hurts, too much, your too big,” you whimpered.

“Good mate. You can take,” He cooed softly into your ear, pressing the toned muscles of his chest against your soft breasts. The moth necklace nestled between, a reminder he can always ask forgiveness after you are both in the grips of bliss. Pressing tender kisses with his rough lips to your spilling tears. You continued to mewl under him until he bottomed out and was fully buried inside you, her cunt still trying to milk him. Your muscles continued to contract tightly around him. Your body is painfully tense. He sits up with his knees under your shaking thighs.

The soft clap of wet skin filled the quiet nest. The size of his palms was enough to wrap halfway around your waist, pulling you into each thrust. He continued his steady pace, enough friction on his knot to satisfy him but not push him over the edge. Wanting it last longer, to drown in your pleasure and pain before his own.

His wings and antennae quiver in a mating display not of his own volition. Your moans grow louder, the pretty colors mesmerize you while the vibrations overstim you further. The crushing and fluttering feeling of your cunt makes him mentally salivate. He maintained his steady pace and control. Your entire body tightens as you burn in the flame of desire. You gripped at his wrists tighter than he thought a soft human was capable of.

That was until you arched into him with a broken moan bruising his wrists. Wrapping your legs around him. No longer fighting him but giving into him. His grip tightened as he pulled you to him a little harsher. It isn’t enough for him. The glance you gave him of beyond lust, along with a sly smile tugging at the corner, broke what little control he had left. His pace became brutal as he snarled in delight.

Owl pattern wings spread out in full glory, shaking and dancing like a peacock, his eyes shining like twin blood moons in the flares of fire of the firelight. He began to drive into you with wild abandonment. His eyes watch the bulge in your abdomen move back and forth, his cock disappearing and stretching you with every thrust. His hips slapped against yours over and over, the skin turning red from the impact.

Bruises formed from his grip, your nails digging in, leaving marks on the skin for weeks to come from both your passions. He treasured the idea of you marking him if only you could tear through his flesh. The curves of your body are enthralling to him. Your cunt swallowed him, gripping at him harsher each time he pulled back, forcing his knot to stay firmly inside you. He threw his head back and went feral, chasing his building need to knot.

You threw yourself screaming as you arched up and writhed. Tearing at the fur, your muscles trembling as he kept his steady harsh bucking to ride you through it.

“Fuck! No more!” your wobbly voice wails, signaling that a third climax was close. Sweat dripped as he pounded you into the floor. Your arousal and previous releases create a pooling mess over your thighs and ass, his cock drenched in you. You reached up, catching his fluffed ruff, and yanked him to you. Your carving deep bleeding grooves as you bit him hard enough to feel the sting. He can feel your heart pounding against his chest.

“Love you. Ur perfection,” he snarled. His climax followed quickly because of your rough marking. His knot painfully expands, shooting hot lust in you in thick ropes. While you shudder in his embrace, the beating of his wings sends fiery bolts of ecstasy through both of you. His eyes rolled in the back of his head.

A string of drool dribbled from his lips, short pants struggle for air, teeth clicking, threatening to mark you back in the last few moments in coming down from his high. Shigaraki is still buried deep inside you, still fully engorged as your pussy intensely squeezes and sucks in all his cum. The inflation is causing a little bump where you are carrying his grub. Fuck, that can’t be good for the grub, he mentally laments. Last time he will have rough sex like this. Next time he will pound your ass, he considers. You go limp under him.

Pressing fleeting kisses on your salty skin as tears still flow, you both jerk from the heavy panting.

“I love you,” He whispered softly on repeat, praising you for how well you did. He carried your moaning limp body to the tub. Finally, he went soft enough to pull himself out of you, a predatory growl leaving him to see the mixture of your passion leaking from your abused hole on his inner thigh. It lit a primal need inside him, to leave you ruined and filled with his seed, belly growing plump with his babies.

Your hand cupped his jaw, a contrast of sharpness in the softness of your palms. He ran his claws through your wet hair before gently placing you in the warm water. You groaned in pleasure as you hung over the edge of the tub. He started lathering up soap, nuzzling your head while he scrubbed your back.

“Shiggy, are we going to war?” You asked. You probably shouldn’t ask now, but you are so exhausted from him turning the tables on you. A part of you feels like you had it coming. You did kick snow in his face. He stops nuzzling and growls low.

“Who talk to? Lyra? Maude? Who?” Shigaraki scowls.

“It’s all the humans talk about. Then that whole thing we just did. I am scared for you. I am confused about my eye and scared for the father of our baby. I know something has to happen because you took my village. Do we have to go to war? Can’t we open negotiations and trade?” You ask.

You look at him with those large sad eyes. He can feel his resolve weaken for a moment. It becomes like a diamond when he thinks of his and your past and the future of your children. At some point, you would have found out about the war. He is glad you don't know of the army. Like medicine sweetened with honey, you will go along with the transition army after the fact. He looks at your black eye and grins.

“Beautiful like Moon. Light up, guide my life like shooting stars. So sweet, kind, nothing like me,” he whispers. Making you turn bright red, “War cannot be avoided. More than village. More than females. The Order of the Light took night away from us. Culling and killing us for too long. Remember story? Long ago, the sky was shared equally by both parents, Sun and Moon. The Order shortened our night to six hours. Our babies deserve better,” he rasped.

It was a struggle to stay awake. After he dried you, dusted you, and worked in ointments for your bruises. He wrapped you up and nestled against you. It was pure loving warmth and comfort that you forced yourself to wriggle out of. You quietly padded your way with the glow lamp to the stack of old textbooks until you found the ancient farmer's almanac.

Flipping through pages until you found it. Your heart is sinking. There used to be twelve hours of the night and twelve of the day. You bit your lip in fear. Shigaraki will not let this war go. The Order will not let this war go. Eyes watering, tears spill, your nose runs as you stifle your sobs. You cry because you can never win.

You need to see Maude right away.

Chapter 14

[remade-man]

We had gas at $ 2.29 a gallon when Trump left the White House. A robust economy plenty of jobs, had not fully recovered from the Pandemic lockdowns, but the country was beginning to hum again. During 2020 Trump made sure people had groceries with "Farms to Families". Those weekly food boxes helped a lot of us. We were truly Energy Independent from buying Saudi or Iraqi Oil.

Right after Biden took office he signed a group of executive orders shitting down construction on the Keystone pipeline. Prohibited off shore drilling. New leases for drilling in the US.

Basically killed energy independence in the US of A. We have had gas prices at record highs to decrease the cost of gas before the mid-term elections Biden used our Strategic Oil Reserves to flood the market and depress gas prices. The cost is on it's way back up right now.

I live in Texas and our electric bills doubled last summer. We just signed a 25 year deal with a solar company to try and cap our electricity bills. We are over retirement age and live on Social Security. We saw electric bills of $395.00 a month last year. There is no natural gas on this street. Biden says we need to buy an electric car. We can't get a loan for that and the fact is an electric car would increase our electric bill.

Groceries cost on average 40 percent mot in some cases 50 per cent more so that 13 per-cent raise can't keep our heads above the water of the financial pool of ever increasing prices.

You know; Sea levels have not risen in accordance with the Global Warming Alarmists schedule. What is drowning us is Not Sea levels. It is the increase in National Debt that is depleting the value of the Social Security Trust Fund meanwhile inflation is also destroying the valuation of Seniors 401K's and any other savings we had.

There is absolutely No Valid reason for any IRS Agent outside of a Protective Detail to carry a firearm at all.

Biden told more lies in the State of the Union address than any President. Not even Obama was a prolific with lies as Biden.

I say all this to ask one question are you better off now with Biden in Office or, Were you better off when Trump was in the Oval Office.?

For my home, Trump was better for us. I like the fact he has had business failures and success. That informs me that he is at heart a business man and knows what will help businesses thrive. Biden has spent 45 or 50 years in public office. It is time we get Trump back in office and put Biden and the Socialist Democrats a long needed permanent vacation

[mrsmaybank]

Crushing - Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

“Reid, stop giving JJ’s intern bedroom eyes. It fuckin’ weirds me out.”

A/N: I love baby genius, season one Reid so much. I wanted to give him a soulmate. Soulmate is you: shy and also a baby genius. Okay, thanks for reading. This was honestly just for me. 

CW: Implied Smut, Mild Cursing, shitty writing 

“Who...Who is that?” Dr. Spencer Reid, debatably the wordiest boy Derek Morgan had ever met, was suddenly at a loss for words. Maybe it was your perfectly sculpted face, your shoes, the copy of The Kreutzer Sonata held to your chest, your chest, or maybe a mix of it all.  Whatever it was, at sight of you walking through the office doors, he was stripped of his ability to speak. 

“That’s JJ’s new intern.” Morgan said plainly, before noticing the completely enamored look on his friend’s face. “What, pretty boy?” Reid couldn’t even be bothered to reply. He was too busy studying every detail of your frame. 

“You think she’s cute or something kid?” Morgan playfully jabbed his shoulder, Spencer’s face instantly flushing an embarrassing shade of red. 

“What?!” He shrieked, “I-no! That’s not..No!” That’s a lie. 

“I just..I didn’t know JJ was getting an intern.” That though, was true. 

“She’s supposed to be pretty impressive. Let’s go meet her.” he started in the direction of the coffee stand, where you and JJ had begun chatting. Before Spencer could protest out of his shyness, he was being dragged along. 

“Morgan,” JJ smiled, “Spence,” she nodded in his direction, “This is Y/N Y/L/N. My godsent savior.” JJ beamed in your direction.

You smiled more sheepishly then you would’ve liked, muttering a “Hopefully.” that got a laugh from Morgan and a “Oh, please.” from JJ, but nothing from the man in the glasses. You did your best not to read into it. 

“Derek Morgan.” the muscular agent extended his hand to shake yours, an offer you timidly but happily accepted. 

The taller, lankier, younger, incredibly cute man next to him stuffed one of his hands in his pocket and shifted uncomfortably with a small wave, “I’m uh, Doctor Spencer Reid, oh! Uh, you don’t have to, uh call me Doctor. No..” He shook his head, “Just Spencer is fine.” He looked at you with wide eyes that sent butterflies berserk in your stomach and swiped his tongue in between his lips that only made them go crazier. JJ had told you all about the team. About the magnificently brilliant Dr. Spencer Reid, his 3 PhDs and eidetic memory, and all the other quirks you’d have to know in order to work with him, but had failed to mention how utterly hot he was. You felt a crush hijacking your system already. Dear god. 

“It’s nice to meet you both.” Your hands gripped your book tighter as you shifted onto your tiptoes, “I’ve heard really exceptional things.” 

The conversation was set to continue, but Morgan and JJ were summoned by Hotch to the closed doors of his office. Leaving the resident genius and you starting at each other with tight lip smiles. 

Spencer started first, “The Kreutzer Sonata is great.” He excitedly continued, “It uh, it actually used to be a pretty bold book to carry around. After the work had been forbidden in Russia by censors, there was actually a mimeographed version that was widely circulated. Then in 1890, the United States Post Office Department prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized installments of it too. Theodore Roosevelt even called Tolstoy a-” 

His enthusiasm was beyond endearing. You finished for him with a soft smile, "Sexual moral pervert.”

Spencer’s lips upturned in a smile. It was rare somebody in the office could finish his sentences. And he couldn’t help but replay the crass words being said in your soft voice. He felt a crush hijacking his system already. Dear god.  

“Most people don’t recognize it in the original Russian.”  Spencer heard you say. 

“Most people probably wouldn’t recognize it in English.” he retorted.

You laughed, “Yeah, you’re right.” 

Spencer wasn’t even kidding. “I’m not joking.” He shook his head. “It’s unfortunate how many people aren’t even vaguely familiar with Tolstoy.” 

“It is.” you agreed. “You went to Caltech, correct?” 

He smiled, “Yes.” 

“I almost did too. Decided last minute on Columbia.” 

“You went to Columbia?” he asked. 

“I just graduated.” 

“How old are you?” he asked before quickly correcting himself,  “I’m sorry! That was forward! I am not...I’m not trying to undermine your studies with your age, I promise. I’m just curious.” 

“No! It’s okay!” You got out fast. “I’m 19. I graduated high school a little bit early.” 

“Me too.” He smiled. “12, actually.” 

Your eyes went wide, “12?” 

“Yes, um, in a Las Vegas public high school.” He winced, but the self-deprecation somehow came out charming, “I uh,” His eyes narrowed, “didn’t go to a lot of parties.” 

That made you wholeheartedly laugh. “Me neither! I graduated at 15, which you know is the age everybody else starts. It created a really weird dynamic because the older kids in my grade didn’t like me, but the underclassmen my age really didn’t like me.” 

Instead of the laugh you were expecting, Spencer just gave you a pensive stare. 

“Um..I can’t see why. I think you’re very likeable.” The compliment would’ve been strange exchanged by anybody other than Spencer to you.

  “Wait till you get to know me.” You said it through a smile but so softly you were afraid he might not be able to hear it, but he did. 

And that was confirmed when he flashed you the most incredible, toothy grin you’d ever seen. “I uh, I doubt there will be any change in opinion.” 

“Well, um, I’m sure- I think! You’re very likeable as well Dr. Reid.” you said. 

“That’s what you say now.” He retorted in the same coy tone you had earlier. 

You shook your head, “You’ll find I can be insufferably stubborn.” 

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

After two weeks, there was little Spencer could do to hide his massive crush affinity for you from the team. 

In the bullpen: 

You guys had locked eyes and were mouthing out exchanged of No’s and Yes’s from across the room. There was an ongoing half-serious dispute about whether or not Xanthippe slept with Plato. 

Morgan glided in his wheeled chair to whisper into Spencer’s ear. 

“Reid, stop giving JJ’s intern bedroom eyes. It fuckin’ weirds me out.” He said, shoving files into the cabinet below Reid’s desk. 

“I’m..I’m not.. I--what? Bedr--No!” Reid whisper-shouted back. 

On the jet: 

“Reid?” Gideon called Spencer, “Chess?” He motioned towards the board. 

“Yes, sure. Just give me a second. I’m almost done. I’m reading Infinite Jest. I don’t usually enjoy literature if it isn’t classic, even less so if it’s American. But..” Spencer smiled, “Y/N likes the author.”  He continued his fast-paced reading of the third-to-last chapter of the book. 

Morgan and Gideon exchanged glances. 

Even in front of you: 

You opened a sugar packet and began stirring. 

“De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium is still some of the best work on  heliocentric theory out there, I think. Copernicus knew what he was talking about!” You spun on your heels to see Reid’s face contorted in disagreement. You giggled, “Don’t give me that face! I’m right!” 

He took a sip of his coffee as to keep himself quiet. “Listen, cosmological theory is for…” 

But the pair of you were interrupted, it was Elle, standing behind you and in front of Spencer. 

“New skirt?” Elle asked as you turned, back now facing Reid.  She was pouring herself a cup of coffee too.

“Yes!” You excitedly nodded. “You like it?” 

Elle looked up and down, but not at you. The judgmental eyes were for the man behind you. She pursed her lips, “Not just me.” 

The only face redder than yours was Reid’s.

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

Nights spent in a bar after a case that had dragged on far too long was nothing new, but the energy tonight was especially light. Gideon had refused, but everybody else was just relaxed, even Hotch, and the team just got happier at each other's happiness. It was great, really. As Hotch and Morgan sipped on whiskey, JJ and Penelope had already downed four sugary, colorful cocktails and were in a whispered fit of giggles. Elle and Spencer settled on a tamer option of an IPA Spencer couldn’t name. 

“SPENCER!” Penelope excitedly shouted, “Y/N is literally you! You’re both adorable! You’re both geniuses! You’re both young!” She drew on her rant, “And if you have a crush on her you should just tell her!” JJ’s eyes widened in embarrassment as she tried to cover Penelope’s mouth. 

Morgan and Elle erupted in soft laughter while Hotch cracked an uncharacteristically amused smile. 

“Spence, I swear, I didn’t say that! I just...I may have mentioned how happy you get every time she’s around! And how you guys can talk for literally hours!” JJ defended, her words slurring in silly drunkenness. 

Spencer rolled his eyes. This wasn’t the first time they teased him about you, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time either. 

“I don’t have a crush on her! We just….we like the same things! It gives us a lot to talk about.” 

“Yeah?” Morgan said through a laugh, “And what is it that boy and girl wonder talk about so much?” 

“Well, uh.. a lot of things. But I find she gets the most excited when we are discussing the theories of postmodernism, in that apparent realities are actually just social constructs and veritable realities are subject to change, and uh... we like to talk about linguistics….political philosophy….history... mathematic theory...and uh, oh! Doctor Who.” 

Spencer was blushing and spoke about you like a teenage girl did their boyband crush, and the team noticed. They didn’t even need to say it out loud. Spencer gathered from the way they looked back at him. 

“I heard she lent you a book too, Reid.” Hotch said before taking a sip from his glass. 

“Yes! She did!” He smiled, “It was her copy of Pale Fire. She has an impressive collection of 19th century Russian literature. All in its original dialect! Some of it’s even annotated, which usually would annoy me but since it’s her thoughts and notes I sort of find it endearing.” 

“Dr. Reid is endeared!” Greenaway shrieked.

“Yeah,” he nodded, pushing his glasses up a little higher on his nose, “I find her incredibly endearing.” 

“Y’all that sounded like a dorky love confession.” Morgan said as the team erupted in laughter and Reid’s head fell in a smile. There was no point in denying it anymore: He really, really liked you.

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

Within two months, you and Spencer had finally put your shyness aside, and spent a very lovely evening at watching an orchestra at the Smithsonian Music,  and sharing noodles at your favorite Thai restaurant. And then you guys spent some time on your couch. And then in your bed. And then in the shower. And then in the kitchen. You were both very sexually frustrated. 

For the following two months, as soon as you both stepped out of the office, it was very, very hard to keep your hands off each other. Could either of you help it though? Teenage geniuses don’t experience parties, or football games, or clumsy sex. The time was perfect to make up for it. 

And you guys did. The sex part at least. “Football involves a lot of dirt. And germs. And sweat.”

“Oh my god!” you shrieked. His hands were in a place they found themselves more and more often: Your pants. 

“Does it feel good?” he asked, continuing his pattern of small circles on that particular bundle of nerves. 

“It feels great.” You nodded. 

“I uh, I’ve been researching the female anatomy.” 

You closed your eyes and nodded your head, but trying to focus on your boyfriends newfound intellect. “It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” 

He watched your undoing with boyish adoration and curiosity before swallowing, “Very.” 

“Oh fuck!” Your legs began to shake, “Spencee...I’m gonn--” 

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

You and Spencer just understood each other. 

[blackswan18]

Too Good To Be True - Ch. 54  kth(m)

Summary: Kim Taehyung is a world famous idol in the hit K-pop group, BTS, and you are his personal stylist. Per your contract with Big Hit, he is absolutely, 100% off-limits, and yet, you are completely and hopelessly in love with him. You’ve spent years trying to shove your feelings down, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore and hide them, especially considering the way Tae always treats you. He’s affectionate and protective and sometimes outright flirtatious, but that’s how he is with everyone, right? Confused, frustrated, and lovesick, you find yourself wondering if it might finally be worth risking your career and your heart to find out.

pairing: Taehyung x reader

genre: Idol! au, fluff, angst, eventual smut, friends to lovers, slow burn

rating: 18+

word count: 5.5k

warnings: pure unadulterated joy

Chapter 54: Too Goo To Be True - Part 2

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You turned towards Tae and found him already looking back at you, an expectant, slightly nervous expression on his face. Wordlessly, he brought your hand up to his lips and pressed a tender kiss to your fingertips. The small, but intimate gesture meant the absolute world to you for you knew exactly what he was saying: no matter what happens, I will always love you. After giving your hand one final, encouraging squeeze, he released it and then peered down. Following his gaze, you stared at the mysterious envelope for several moments before you finally took a deep, steadying breath and broke its seal. Slowly, with trembling hands, you pulled out a document which you recognized immediately.

Your contract.

Initially, you were relieved that you were not holding what you previously thought might be court papers detailing the lawsuit Big Hit was filing against you. However, a heavy blanket of unease settled over you as you considered the possibility that Bang PD intended to go through your numerous contract violations before officially serving you. As you sat there, wincing as you tallied them all up in your head, your heart began hammering in your chest uncontrollably.

“Could you please turn to Section IX on page 15,” Bang PD asked in a calm voice which did absolutely nothing to settle your nerves.

Knowing exactly what was outlined in that section, your heart sank as you realized your suspicions were likely correct. You nodded your head in reply, not trusting your voice, and then silently flipped through the pages until you came to the one in question.

On the original paper version of your contract, which was at home tucked away in a drawer somewhere, this page was dotted with blotches of smeared ink. It was almost illegible in some places, the letters from one line bleeding down into the next, but that mattered not. By the time the words were sharp enough to draw tears, they had already etched themselves onto your heart. Even now, after months spent trying to ignore their existence, you could recite them from memory in excruciating detail.

Section IX: Idol / Trainee Fraternization Policy

In order to protect the well-being of all employees and retain the professional working environment at all times, Big Hit Entertainment Co. Ltd. upholds a strict fraternization policy regarding the formation of relationships between staff members and idols / trainees.

Staff members are encouraged to develop and maintain professional relationships with idols / trainees, and may even develop personal friendships, so long as these relationships do not interfere with the work performance of either individual or with the effective functioning of the workplace.

However, romantic relationships and/or sexual interactions of any kind are expressly prohibited between staff members and idols / trainees. Such relationships put at risk the fundamental interest of every employee to work in an environment free from conflicts of interests, favoritism, and/or exploitation.

Failure to comply with this policy will result in immediate termination of employment. Employees may report suspected policy violations anonymously through the online portal.

Those were the words that had haunted you for years, the ones that echoed in your mind and stifled the growth of that tiny flicker of hope every time Tae said or did something sweet. They were the words that reminded you again and again of just how much you had to lose, the ones that bound your heart in fear and doubt and hesitation. They were the words that almost kept you from the love of your life, the ones that still sought to tear you apart.

However, they were not the words written on the page before you.

You stilled, your breath catching and the erratic beating of your heart coming to a sudden and jarring halt, as the realization hit you like a freight train.

This was not the contract you signed three years ago.

This was a new contract.

A new contract with new rules.

The first time you read through the words on the page in front of you, you refused to accept they were real, convinced that your mind was playing the cruelest of tricks on you.

The second time you read them, you did so slowly and skeptically, terrified that at any moment they would vanish like disappearing ink, taking with them the very last shred of your sanity.

The third time you read them, though, tears welled up in your eyes as you finally allowed yourself to acknowledge their meaning.

Section IX: Acknowledgement of Pre-existing Relationship with Idol Kim Taehyung

Big Hit Entertainment Co. Ltd. acknowledges the pre-existing romantic relationship between the contractee and idol Kim Taehyung and hereby exempts it from the idol / trainee fraternization policy which prohibits romantic relationships between staff members and idols / trainees.

The aforementioned relationship will instead be subjected to the general workplace fraternization policy outlining the appropriate conduct for coworkers engaging in consensual romantic relationships as detailed in Section XI.

All relationships between the contractee and other idols / trainees will be subjected to the idol / trainee fraternization policy as otherwise upheld.

“Jagi?” Tae softly called from beside you, his voice laden with concern.

“Sweetheart, what does it say?” he asked a moment later as he reached over and took your hand again, carefully lacing his fingers with yours.

“It…it says...,” you began before a lump formed in your throat and words failed you entirely.

“It says she can stay,” Bang PD finally answered for you, his voice warm and gentle.

“What? ” Tae breathed out, sounding completely awestruck.

“Y/N can remain here at Big Hit as your stylist and continue being in a relationship with you,” the older man explained as a small smile crept onto his face.

“A relationship that doesn’t have to be a secret,” he then added.

“Y-You really mean it?” Tae asked in disbelief, his eyes wide and pleading. “We…we can be together?”

“You can,” Bang PD assured him.

Reading the words on the page had been one thing, but hearing them spoken from Bang PD himself was something else entirely. The moment they left his lips, tears started pouring out of you. It all just felt so surreal, the idea that you were going to be allowed to be with Tae and also be with him. It was something you had only ever imagined in your wildest dreams.

After scooting his chair closer to yours, Tae reached over and wrapped an arm around you and pulled you close. As you buried your face in his shoulder and continued to softly cry, he placed loving kisses on the top of your head. You remained there like that for almost a minute before you regained your composure. Lifting your head up off of Tae’s shoulder, you wiped away your tears, took a deep breath, and looked over at Bang PD who had been patiently waiting this whole time.

“T-Thank you,” you said, your voice hoarse and shaky. “This is such an incredible and generous offer. It’s truly beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.”

“But, are you...are you sure?” you then asked quietly. “You said you were worried about the optics and the potential backlash and I...I am too. I love my job and I love Tae and I want nothing more than to stay here with him, but I don’t want to cause trouble for you or for him or for anyone else.”

“Y/N, I do appreciate your concern, but please believe me when I say that I am very sure of this decision,” Bang PD said, giving you a reassuring smile. “The person I met with this morning convinced me that having you here with Taehyung will be best for the two of you both personally and professionally and is also confident that news of your relationship will be generally well-received.”

“They think you complement each other very well and make a great team,” he began explaining. “They feel you’ve played an integral role in his ability to withstand the stress and pressure that comes with being an idol and that you’ve helped him stay grounded and motivated over the years. They also think he has helped with your development as a stylist and that your creativity and confidence has blossomed in part because of his influence and support.”

“If the purpose of the rule barring involvement between staff and idols is to maintain a safe work environment and ensure that everyone can stay focused and perform to the best of their abilities, then it really doesn’t make sense to apply it in this situation given that you’re clearly in a loving, consensual relationship which brings out the best in both of you and helps you do your jobs exceedingly well,” he then stated rather bluntly.

“As for how others will respond, my informer actually doesn’t think people on the BTS team will be all that surprised to learn you’re together,” he went on to reveal with a little chuckle. “It might not have been obvious to anyone that you began legitimately dating, but it has apparently always been obvious that you’re extremely close and rather affectionate towards one another, you in particular, Taehyung.”

“Honestly, they think people have suspected for some time you were at least harboring crushes on one another, if not deeper feelings, which partially explains why everyone was so shocked when Tae and Jisoo began ‘dating’,” he continued thoughtfully. “They said that people long ago accepted your relationship, however informal it might have been and despite the fact that it was technically not allowed, and that they believe people will be equally accepting of it once it’s official and contractually legal.”

Initially, his words caught you off guard, but as they sank in you realized that this assertion really wasn’t all that far-fetched. None of the other guys had been surprised when you told them you were dating. The only thing they were surprised about was that it took so long for it to happen. Jimin was the only one to whom Tae actually expressed his feelings about you, but the others managed to pick up on everything all on their own.

Thinking through things, you decided that Eunji and Donghae were another two people that likely would not be all that surprised to discover you and Tae were together. Strangely enough, they had been incredibly sympathetic and even somewhat angry when Tae and Jisoo revealed their ‘relationship’. At the time, you just thought they felt bad that you were being forced to spend time with someone so unpleasant, but looking back now, you realized there was clearly more to it.

During that long and terrible month the two of them frequently inquired about your love life and also encouraged you to set up more Tinder dates and get drinks with them after work so you could meet someone. They often did that right in front of Tae in what was now a painfully obvious attempt at making him jealous. Their scheming was, of course, quite unnecessary given that you two were actually already dating, though, it definitely still had an effect on him, evoking a possessiveness which manifested in the most pleasurable of ways when you got home.

For years they had playfully teased you about your relationship with Tae, noting how often he flirted with you and also calling you out for flirting right back. You always brushed them off, and assumed they regarded your flirtation as totally harmless, but perhaps they had suspected more than they were letting on. They were, after all, your best friends here at Big Hit. If anyone was paying close enough attention to see the truth, surely it would have been them.

However, even people outside of yours and Tae’s close friends seemed to have caught on over the years, the most notable being none other than Hyun. A few weeks after the incident on the roof, he had contacted you and asked if you would be up for grabbing coffee sometime, not as a date, but just to talk. You agreed and met up with him a few days later down in the café at Big Hit.

The first thing he did was apologize again for his behavior, but he also then said that, while he still deeply regretted his actions, he was grateful that he now had the opportunity to learn from his mistakes and do better. He asked if you would be willing to answer some questions about how you felt when he said or did certain things over the years and you said yes. The two of you then spent an hour talking about a host of topics related to dating like the different ways people express interest, the assumptions often made on both sides, and the pitfalls for miscommunication. It ended up being a really great conversation, one that you felt was truly productive for both of you.

Towards the end, Hyun mentioned that Tae had come to see him in the editing room the Monday after everything happened. While he didn’t specifically use the word ‘threaten’, he did say that Tae made it crystal clear that he would no longer have a job at Big Hit, or anywhere else in the entertainment industry, if he ever touched you again or made you uncomfortable in any way. You were honestly shocked to learn that Tae had done that, not to mention incredibly flustered, but Hyun, however, did not seem the least bit surprised.

“He’s always been very protective of you,” he said matter-of-factly, giving you a knowing smile.

“It’s obvious he cares a lot about you,” he then added thoughtfully, his expression growing slightly wistful before he continued. “And, that you care a lot about him.”

At the time, you convinced yourself that the affection Hyun thought you and Tae felt towards one another was strictly platonic. The alternative was just too painful to even contemplate given that Tae was busy recording the song with Jisoo and your love had never felt more unrequited. Worse than that, though, the alternative was dangerous. If Hyun realized your relationship contained romantic feelings, even if they sadly were only one-sided, he could end your career in a heartbeat.

In hindsight, it was overwhelmingly obvious that Hyun knew the true nature of your relationship, even if it remained unbeknownst to the two of you for another few months. He had seen how jealous and protective Tae grew whenever he asked you out. He had realized that every time you turned him down because of your ‘busy schedule’, you were really choosing Tae over him. He had witnessed you two together, off in your own little world, talking and laughing and flirting as if no one else existed, least of all him. He had known.

And yet, he had said nothing. He had not reported you. He had not attempted to blackmail you. He had not caused trouble in any way, shape, or form. He had just accepted it and moved on. Realizing this monumental fact, you allowed yourself to hope that, in time, others would do the same.

“The fact that it’s you, Taehyung, and not anyone else, also makes all the difference in this situation,” Bang PD went on, pulling you back to the present moment. “You are one of the most adored and respected idols here at Big Hit and are also already known to be family-oriented and, self admittedly, a hopeless romantic. You falling in love with Y/N, but waiting three years to tell her and then hiding your eventual relationship because you were afraid of losing her honestly just makes you all the more endearing.”

“If we tell people the truth, that you couldn’t bear to be separated from your pregnant wife who you deeply love and want to take care of, what is anyone really going to say?” he then questioned.

Upon hearing those words, you and Tae immediately turned to look at each other, your eyes wide in shock. You had not mentioned your news to anyone other than Jisoo, and thought you had been discreet at the hospital last night, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Turning back to face Bang PD, you saw a guilty expression clearly written on his face.

“Sejin accidentally saw the pregnancy test on the bedside table just before you left the hospital,” he revealed, sounding deeply apologetic.

“He did not tell me this when I spoke to him last night,” he went on slowly, choosing his words carefully. “He only shared the news this morning when I called him to discuss your future here at Big Hit. I asked him point blank how soon he thought you might be looking to start a family since Taehyung mentioned last night that you were already discussing children. He was caught off guard and didn’t know how else to respond other than to tell the truth.”

“He feels extremely guilty to have discovered and shared this highly personal information without your permission and I too feel guilty that I have discussed it and now taken away the opportunity for you to tell me yourselves,” he admitted as he bowed his head in remorse.

“However, I do feel it’s important that you know the decision to allow you to stay was made with this precious knowledge in mind,” he then said sincerely. “I want you to know that I am fully supportive of both your relationship and of your soon-to-be family.”

In the last few minutes you had already felt a flicker of anxiety about how and when you would tell him the news and if it would make him regret his decision to allow you to stay. The fact that he already knew and was genuinely supportive was a massive relief. You were about to thank him for providing you with this much needed peace of mind when he suddenly pulled something else out of his desk drawer.

“I also want you to know that Big Hit is going to be fully supportive as well,” he then said as he spread the papers in his hands out across his desk.

“These are the floor plans for the new building we will be moving into next spring,” he went on, a hint of excitement in his voice. “I think you might be interested in what will be located on the North end of the third floor.”

Confused and curious, you peered over at the paper in question. It took a few moments to orient yourself and figure out where to look, but when you did, you immediately knew what Bang PD wanted you to see.

“A childcare center,” you whispered as fresh tears welled up in your eyes.

“Yes. Starting next spring, Big Hit will offer onsite childcare services to all of its employees,” he explained. “With several of our idols now married or soon-to-be married and thinking of starting families, and many staff members having children already, it was an easy decision to make. Anyone who chooses to have their children cared for at the center will be guaranteed time throughout the day to visit with them. When the time comes, the two of you can take that time together or separately, whichever you prefer.”

Discovering you were allowed to stay had been overwhelming enough as it was, but this revelation was almost too much to handle. You were barely holding it together, filled with so much joy and gratitude that you thought you might burst, and you knew Tae was fairing no better. After taking one look at the floor plan, he dropped his head into his hand and began to softly cry.

Having this kind of support from Big Hit would be monumental for you both as new parents. It would make your transition back to work so much smoother and help you find that elusive balance between career and motherhood. It would also enable Tae to be that much more present in your children’s lives, allowing him to easily and safely spend time with them even when the schedule was busy. This development alone had already seemed life-changing, but what Bang PD said next made you realize it had only scratched the surface.

“Taehyung, for you and the rest of the members of BTS, family support will also extend beyond this building,” he began tentatively.

At the sound of those words, Tae looked up at you, his eyes wide in wonder and anticipation, before turning to Bang PD.

“From now on, you will be allowed to bring your families with you whenever BTS travels for extended periods of time,” he revealed, pausing for a moment to let the immense weight of that statement sink in. “The finer details of everything are yet to be worked out, but they will likely travel with you on your chartered flights and will stay with you as well. Big Hit will provide childcare whenever necessary and tutoring too when the time comes.”

“We will, of course, have to be extremely careful so as not to allow any information about your partners or children to get out, but I am confident we can handle it with proper planning and increased security,” he continued thoughtfully.

“Obviously, we will need to make some special arrangements for the upcoming tour, though,” he then quickly added.

“Y/N, may I ask when you are due?” he questioned gently.

For a second, you forgot how to speak. Your brain was still going a mile a minute as you struggled to comprehend everything he had just said. The idea of your children being allowed to travel with you and Tae, of you all being together as a family, was truly mind-blowing. It was honestly never something you considered to be even a remote possibility, even in your wildest dreams. It simply was not something that happened in the K-pop industry. Idols were expected to either put off having a family until they retired or have one that they rarely saw. There was no in between. No compromise.

That is, until now.

“July 15th is my expected due date,” you told him bewilderedly.

He nodded his head and was quiet for a few moments, no doubt running through the tour schedule in his head to see where exactly your due date fell. The tiniest amount of worry crept into your mind as you wondered if he was going to be upset with how unfortunately timed your pregnancy was, but once again he surprised you with his compassion and composure.

“It will be entirely up to you and Taehyung to decide how much of the tour you participate in, if any,” he finally said. “If your doctor clears you for travel and you are feeling up to it, you could come for the North American leg of the tour and maybe even part of the European leg. Obviously, you would need to be home by mid-spring and would then remain there once your child was born.”

“We would, of course, have someone on the medical staff oversee your prenatal care while you were traveling, but if you would be more comfortable staying home throughout your pregnancy that is perfectly fine,” he then assured you. “We could have you temporarily transferred over to another group that isn’t on tour until you take your maternity leave this summer.”

“Taehyung, you will also need to decide how much of the tour you’ll participate in,” he added, turning his attention back to Tae. “If you could make it through Festa and Muster in June and then possibly attend a few shows in September that would be great, but if you need more time off before or after the baby is born I understand completely.”

Of all the incredible revelations this meeting had brought, this one was perhaps the most earth-shattering. It was one thing for accommodations to be made for when Tae was busy with BTS commitments, but it was something else entirely for him to be released from those commitments altogether. It was a huge deal for a member to miss any event, let alone a concert, and was something that only happened in dire circumstances. And yet, here was Bang PD, saying Tae could miss a month or two of their world tour without consequence.

Unsure how to even begin to express the tangle of thoughts and emotions inside you, you glanced over at Tae, hoping he might have found the words to say, only to discover he was infinitely more overwhelmed than you were. He was staring at Bang PD with an absolutely astonished expression on his face, his eyes wide, mouth agape. For a whole minute he said nothing, just stood there in utter disbelief, barely even seeming to breathe, until he finally broke the silence.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, his voice little more than a whisper.

“I-I’m so grateful for it all, truly, but I just…I just don’t understand,” he stammered as his voice began to waver and his eyes filled with tears once more. “When we signed you said the rules would never change.”

Bang PD drew in a long, deep breath before letting it out very slowly. As he did, his gaze traveled all over the room, taking in the sight of the numerous photographs and awards and mementos that lined the walls, most of which commemorated some notable milestone or accomplishment BTS had achieved. Looking back at Tae, a somber expression on his face, he cleared his throat and began to speak.

“I have been reconsidering a number of Big Hit’s policies for some time now,” he admitted as he leaned his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers in front of him. “I know other members have also experienced hardship in their relationships, but what you’ve gone through with Y/N has been particularly eye-opening. It’s painfully clear to me now how near-impossible you felt it would be to have and maintain a healthy relationship with her if she wasn’t with you because of her job at Big Hit.”

“Obviously, I’ve always known that BTS’s schedule is very demanding and that it interferes with everyone’s personal lives, but I didn’t realize it was to such a large and heartbreaking extent,” he went on, letting out a deep sigh before he continued. “I want you all to be committed to the group’s shared vision and success, but not at the cost of your current and future happiness.”

“The rules were established before you debuted, back when you were all so young and inexperienced, but so much has changed since then,” he acknowledged. “You’ve grown, and will only continue to grow, not just as artists, but as individuals and as men, as husbands and fathers someday too.”

“Bit Hit needs to grow with you,” he then said with a note of finality.

“Thank you,” Tae said after a few moments of silence, his voice soft and sincere, as he bowed his head respectfully. “Your kindness and support means more to me than I can put into words. I deeply appreciate all that you have done for me over the years and all that you continue to do for Y/N, myself, and our unborn child. I promise to never take the incredible opportunity you’ve given us for granted and to continue performing to the absolute best of my ability as a member of BTS.”

“You are most welcome, Taehyung,” Bang PD said back with a smile. “You have dedicated over a third of your life to BTS and given myself and Big Hit so much. It is my pleasure to offer this to you in return.”

You were about to say something as well when Bang PD’s phone suddenly started to ring. After glancing down to see who it was, he said he unfortunately needed to take it. The call was brief, he gave little more than a few ‘Hmms’ and ‘OKs’, and before you knew it he was hanging up.

“I do apologize, but I am urgently needed at the police station with Jisoo and our lawyer,” he said regretfully, standing up from his desk.

“Why don’t we plan to meet again in a couple days,” he then suggested as he put on his coat. “That way you can take some time to absorb all of this and talk through everything together. Y/N, assuming you decide to stay, we’ll need to discuss when and how to reveal your relationship with Taehyung to the rest of Big Hit. There are also a couple of other things we’ll need to go over like security and NDAs and the like.”

“Please stay here as long as you’d like to collect yourselves before leaving,” he added gently. “I know it’s been an overwhelming and emotional afternoon.”

You and Tae both stood up and bid him farewell, shaking his hand and thanking him again for everything. He had opened the door, and was just about to step through and leave, when Tae suddenly called out to him.

“Sir, was it Namjoon-hyung?” he asked hesitantly.

This question had been on the tip of your tongue since the moment Bang PD said someone came to visit him this morning. Like Tae, you had assumed it was Namjoon, your guardian angel. He was the obvious choice, having been in your corner right from the very beginning, which is why Bang PD’s response came as such a surprise.

“No,” the older man said after a moment, a small smile playing on his lips. “The person I met with this morning, the one who convinced me you two should remain together here at Big Hit, was Mrs. Choi.”

With that, he took his leave, giving a final wave before stepping out into the hallway. The second the door closed and you and Tae were alone, the reality of everything that had transpired in the last hour finally hit you.

You weren’t being fired. You weren’t getting sued. You weren’t even being punished at all. Instead, you were being given the most precious gift anyone can ever ask for.

Time.

Time with Tae, the love of your life and your best friend, the father of your unborn child and your soon-to-be husband. Time spent talking and laughing and being with him. Time spent growing with him and learning from him and discovering a million more reasons to love him. Time spent watching him and his brothers follow their passion and change the world.

Time spent with him and your children. Time spent playing with them and teaching them things and showering them with love and affection. Time spent watching them discover they had the most wonderful, caring, and incredible father in the entire world. Time spent together as a family, one that was happy and whole and not separated by time zones and thousands upon thousands of miles.

Looking over at Tae, and seeing his own eyes already filled with tears, you lost it. In an instant, he wrapped you in his arms and pulled you as close as possible, enveloping you in his warmth and comfort and love. As you sobbed into his chest, absolutely overcome with emotion, he pressed endless kisses to your temple and rubbed your back in the most soothing, loving way.

“You can stay, Jagi,” he whispered as his own tears freely fell. “You can stay.”

“You can stay and we can be together,” he went on, gently rocking you in his arms. “Our family can be together.”

“I’ll take care of you and our baby, sweetheart,” he then vowed, his voice soft but resolute. “No matter where we go, no matter how crazy things get, I’ll take care of you both. I’ll keep you safe and make sure you’re healthy and happy and so, so loved. I’ll be the best husband and father I can be, I promise.”

Moved by his words, it took you a few moments to gather yourself to the point that you could speak and even then your voice was breaking over every other word.

“I’ll take care of you too, Tae,” you promised, pulling back to look at him. “I’ll take care of you and support you and love you always. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I love you so much,” you then told him as the joyful tears continued to pour out.

Though his eyes were still glistening with his own tears, he looked almost as happy as he did last night when you first told him you were pregnant. After gazing at you for a few moments, he reached up to cup your cheeks and rub away your tears with his thumbs before leaning forward and pressing his lips to yours. The kiss was soft and sweet and truly magical and, when he pulled away and looked at you so adoringly, still holding you so tenderly, you knew without question that this was the happiest moment of your entire life.

“I love you too, Jagi,” he confessed, giving you a shy, boxy smile. “I always have and I always will.”

~~~

Author’s Note:

Thank you all for following along with me on this incredible journey. When I started writing this story in my head while out on a long run back in January, I never dreamed it would have evolved into what it has now become. It has truly been a labor of love writing this and I thank each and every one of you who took the time to leave comments and send me messages. Your feedback and support meant more to me than I can put into words.

There were will an epilogue to this story that I hope to publish sometime in the next month. I am also planning on releasing drabbles every now and then. They will be of both past and future events and will also be from Tae's POV on occasion.

Part of the reason why it took so long for this last chapter to be released is that I've already started writing another story. I tried to hold off on beginning it until this one was done, but I got too excited lol It will be another Tae Idol!AU, however, that is where the similarities with TGTBT end. The title is 'Shattered Glass' and, like TGTBT was loosely centered on Tae's song 'Sweet Night', the new story will revolved around 'Stigma'. It will be angsty and smutty and honestly quite dark. It will be a roller coast for sure - friends to enemies to friends to lovers! I'm having a blast writing it so far and hope to have the first chapter published in the next month or so.

Thank you again for your love and support! 

Borahae 💜

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[robininthelabyrinth]

Spilled Pearls Extra 1

- ao3 -

Lan Xichen spent a lot of time learning his family’s rules.

They were important to his uncle, who raised him, and that meant that they were important to him. They were his heritage and his birthright, and anyway he loved his uncle and it made him happy which was good enough for Lan Xichen, but that didn’t make learning them easy or anything. Each rule had to be learned both by itself and in context with others; it wasn’t as simple as memorizing a list and calling it done. You had to learn them and know them and then live up to them to the best of your ability, and that was the work of a lifetime – which Lan Xichen, now six years old, had been informed was an awful long time.

Moreover, though his uncle had never said so, Lan Xichen had heard from the other people in the sect that learning the rules was important because following the rules would make sure he didn’t turn out like his father, who had let down so many people in their sect. Many of the elders said things like that when his uncle wasn’t around, though his uncle never did – his uncle spoke well of their father, although in abstract tones, but sometimes he looked sad about it, too, and therefore Lan Xichen was determined to listen and learn the rules well so that he would never disappoint his uncle the way his father had.

Of course, there were other advantages to learning the rules.

The commentary, for instance.

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

1

Talking behind other people's backs is prohibited.

“Unless it’s really funny,” Lan Yueheng said, and – as always – seemed not to notice the way Lan Xichen’s uncle glared at him. “Oooh, actually, let me give you an example, I just heard the best story –”

-

“If you don’t understand those around you, you will be at their mercy, rather than they at yours,” Wen Ruohan said, perfectly poised and with a sharp smirk, just the way he always was unless he happened to be talking to Lan Xichen’s uncle. “How better to learn to understand people than to know what others say about them when they are not around?” His smirk widened. “Look at what people say about me.”

-

“What are you supposed to do if you don’t?” Lao Nie asked, grinning wickedly. “Say mean things about them in front of their faces instead? I can do that!”

-

“I mean, if it’s news, it’s not gossip, right?” Cangse Sanren said, tapping her cheek while pretending to be thoughtful as if it would hide her great big smile. “I’m sure that’s how I learned it, and I was a very good student – no, no, don’t listen to what your uncle says!”

-

“Well, I wish my mother would do less of it,” Wen Xu said, rolling his eyes. He’d come along to visit with his father again the way he always did – he was always tagging along with his father, really, and his father indulged him more often than he probably should, according to both sects’ elders. Not that Wen Ruohan listened to anyone but Lan Xichen’s uncle. “Sometimes I think that’s all she does! It’s boring!”

-

“If you mean what you say and say what you mean, then your friends will never doubt you whether you are in front of them or not,” Nie Mingjue said, then frowned. “I mean, I think?”

-

“Listen to A-Jue,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said when Lan Xichen reported on the discussions, throwing up his hands in disgust. “He’s the only one of the lot of them worth anything.”

“It’s his mother’s contribution,” Lao Nie opined.

“It’s certainly not yours,” Wen Ruohan said. “Anyway, what was wrong with A-Xu’s answer? It was accurate.”

“It has nothing to do with the rule!”

“That’s because I’ve already mastered it years ago,” Wen Xu said cheerfully. Surprisingly cheerfully, given that Nie Mingjue was sitting on him again; maybe he’d gotten used to Nie Mingjue always winning.

Lan Xichen’s uncle rubbed his forehead. “A-Xu, if you really want to go copy the rules on humility a few more times, you don’t have to wait for me to instruct you to do so –”

“He’s right, though,” Cangse Sanren cackled from her husband’s lap. “Madame Wen is an amazing source of gossip, but it does get a bit boring sometimes. You can’t punish him for being right!”

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

2

Do not succumb to rage.

“Unless there’s a very good reason,” Lao Nie said, picking Lan Xichen up in one arm as if he weighed as little as a feather, and Nie Mingjue in the other just as easily, even though he was much bigger. “In the world there are many injustices, and it is your duty to fight against them with everything that you have – if you are wholly above the feeling of rage, then you have forgotten your empathy, and soon will follow the crooked path into indifference.”

-

“The issue is succumbing to rage,” Wen Ruohan said. “You can be angry, or even furious, but you should always maintain your self-control. Once you’ve mastered yourself, you can master others.”

-

“He means get revenge,” Wen Xu said knowledgably. “You get angry, then you get even.”

-

“Oh, rage?” Cangse Sanren asked, rolling up her sleeves. “Well, as it happens, I’m going to go have a chat with your mother, I’ll give you a good demonstration of –”

“You are doing no such thing,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said, exasperated. “Get back here.”

-

“It’s a waste of time,” Lan Yueheng said. “Getting angry takes time and energy. Why not be happy instead?” He thought about it. “Well, I mean, sometimes cursing a little bit when something goes wrong is nice. Even the calmest concoction needs to blow off steam sometimes to retain its equilibrium!”

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

3

Do not disrespect your elders.

“And I,” Wen Ruohan said, looking positively gleeful, “am the eldest.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said at once. “Xichen, you hear me? Don’t listen to him.”

-

“There’s a difference between disrespect and disobedience,” Cangse Sanren said. “Being old doesn’t mean being right, it means that there’s a greater probability that they’ve encountered something in their lifetime that will give them an insight you lack. You should honor and respect their insight, but always make your own decisions in the end.”

-

“I mean, you could always listen to me, instead,” Lao Nie said. “I’m your elder too, aren’t I?”

-

“Don’t listen to either Uncle Wen or my father,” Nie Mingjue said, looking long-suffering. “They both like to play tricks.”

-

“Wait,” Lan Yueheng said. “I’m an elder? Since when? That’s a terrible idea!”

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

4

Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others.

“Don’t listen to Wen Ruohan,” Cangse Sanren said.

-

“Don’t listen to Sect Leader Wen,” Lan Yueheng said.

-

“Definitely do not listen to Hanhan,” Lao Nie said. “At all. In any way.”

-

“Probably best not to listen to A-Xu’s dad,” Nie Mingjue said, and glanced over apologetically.

“No, no, you’re right,” Wen Xu said, nodding furiously. “He’s kind of awful about these sorts of things.”

-

“They’re all being absolutely ridiculous,” Wen Ruohan said. “I’m perfectly reliable on such matters. After all, what’s the point of working so hard to obtain and maintain power if you don’t oppress those that deserve it? If you don’t take advantage, who will?”

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

5

Do not make assumptions about others.

“I used to assume that Cangse Sanren was  a normal human being,” Lan Yueheng said. “Goes to show what I know, right?”

-

“I used to assume that Wen Ruohan was a perfectly normal self-absorbed murderer that would keep his greedy hands to his own people,” Cangse Sanren said, sounding irritable. “And not have perfectly ordinary rogue cultivators followed around by complete weirdos because he’s secretly worried about them like a mother hen!”

-

“I used to assume that people would be grateful when someone rescued them and their husband from near certain death,” Wen Ruohan said.

-

“I used to assume that the funniest thing in the world was watching Hanhan argue with your uncle,” Lao Nie said, chin on his hands. “Little did I know that adding Cangse Sanren to the mix made it even funnier.”

-

“Grown-ups are stupid sometimes,” Wen Xu said. “That’s why you have to verify everything they say for yourself.”

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

6

Embrace the entirety of the world.

“By being righteous,” Nie Mingjue said.

-

“By taking it all over, as far as I can tell from my father,” Wen Xu said.

-

“Depends on what you define as the world, doesn’t it?” Lao Nie said.

-

“Be ambitious,” Wen Ruohan said. “Define it broadly.”

-

“I mean, I don’t think your arms are quite long enough yet, the world’s pretty big,” Lan Yueheng said. “But I pick you up and swing you around, maybe they’ll stretch a little. Want to try?”

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

7

Do not associate with evil.

“I mean, it’s true, but you have to think carefully about what you categorize as evil,” Lao Nie said. “Just being a man-eating nation-destroying inhuman amoral nine-tailed fox isn’t automatically enough to qualify, right?”

-

“That’s, uh, a really weirdly specific example,” Lan Yueheng said. “I feel like at least three of the things on that list probably rise to the level of evil? Or have I missed something?”

-

“Lao Nie said – oh no, not again,” Wen Ruohan said, and patted Lan Xichen on the head before he stalked out the door. “I’m the only evil you should associate with, you hear me?”

-

“I bet she’s got teeth in interesting places,” Cangse Sanren said. “I’ve got to meet her…hmm? Evil? Does that really matter? It’s going to be funny.”

-

“She’s not evil,” Nie Mingjue said. “She’s pretty nice, actually. She calls me ‘meatball’ and ‘pork bun’ and says I’m so cute that she wants to eat me right up.”

-

“I’m pretty sure she means it literally,” Wen Xu said. “Gear up, Xichen! We’ve got to go save Mingjue!”

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

8

Do not tell lies.

“People don’t believe the truth, so why not tell it?” Cangse Sanren said.

-

“Using the truth makes your misdirections more believable and your critiques more devastating,” Wen Ruohan said.

-

“Why would you even want to lie?” Nie Mingjue asked, puzzled.

-

“There’s a difference between not telling lies and not having the slightest bit of tact,” Lao Nie said, rubbing his face. “Maybe you can help A-Jue figure that out.”

-

“Silence is always a good alternative when you don’t want to admit to stuff you’ve done that maybe, just maybe, might annoy some people,” Lan Yueheng said, looking over his collapsed laboratory with a wince. “Not that I’d know anything about that, of course.”

-

“Telling a lie will only get you into more trouble later when they figure it out,” Wen Xu said. “Because then they’re angry at you for what you did and for lying about it. It’s just not worth it!”

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

9

Do not disregard the rules.

“Unless they’re really stupid,” Lao Nie said.

-

“I mean,” Nie Mingjue said, wrinkling his nose. “As a general rule, yes. But it’s different if following the rules would permit injustice to happen, that’s for sure.”

-

“It’s a matter of picking what rule is the relevant one,” Wen Ruohan said. “Be thoughtful, and you can have the moral high ground in any situation…your uncle is irritatingly good at that.”

-

“You’ve got to know what the rule is before you break it,” Wen Xu said. “That way you can decide if it’s worth the cost of breaking it or not.”

-

“If there’s any you think are wrong, you should say something,” Lan Yueheng said. “The rules are a gift handed down from our ancestors and ought to be respected, but each of us has a duty to put in our own thoughts as well – our contribution to the next generation down. Anyway, your uncle will probably be able to put together a reasonable argument as to why changing the rule is appropriate and truer to our sect’s principles than the version carved on the wall. He’s good at that!”

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

10

“I want the rules to be a foundation under your feet,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said. “They should give you confidence in your actions and pride in your family and sect; they should not feel like they are binding you. If they are, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

Maybe if it was just Lan Xichen and his uncle, the two of them and maybe also little baby Lan Wangji and the rather unreliable Lan Yueheng and the even more unreliable Lao Nie, Lan Xichen would immediately and unhesitatingly agree, and then never say anything anyway no matter what he felt. He loved his uncle so much, and every one in a while his uncle seemed so sad; he couldn’t bear to be the one to add more pain and burden to his uncle’s shoulders, already weighed down with the expectations of the sect that should have been his father’s responsibility and would one day be Lan Xichen’s.

But it wasn’t just them, and Lan Xichen frowned a little, really thinking about it. “Maybe,” he said after a while. “Or maybe I’d tell Uncle Wen about it, and then he’d find a way to fix it, or to tell you about it in a way that didn’t make you sad. Does that work, too?”

His uncle looked amused.

“Yes,” he said. “That works. Just remember –”

“Don’t listen to him about ‘oppressing others’?”

“Exactly.”

[filmmies-writing]

Past, Present & Future

pairing : ex!avengers reader x Zemo

word count : 1.3k

warning : mention of death

summary : you used to visit Zemo at the prison after the event of civil war but then he cut you off because he started to have feelings for you. Now that Bucky’s going to break him out, he needs your help babysitting this bad guy.

a/n : hello guyssssss <3 It's been quite a while since I posted my debut one shot. I really do appreciate every like, reblog and comment from my previous work (for anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, here you go!)THANK YOU🥺 At first I was thinking of making a short fanfiction, 3 parts was the first thought that came to my mind but I really enjoy writing this so maybe it’ll be more than 3 parts I suppose. You can also leave your ideas for the next part in the comment or what you think of this chapter, I’d really love to read them :) And fyi, your likes, reblogs and comments are what keep me going so pls 🥺🥺😂😂 Sorry if there’s any mistakes, English is not my first language. Also I’ll pin my masterlist on this blog as soon as I finish making it :))))) 

|

“And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be

Right in front of me

Talk some sense to me” 

(I Found - Amber Run)                                     

“Do you still visit him?” Bucky asked through the phone, his voice steady and calm, like he already made a decision in his mind.

“After I’d blipped back I might have been there once or twice, but the last time was last year I guess” you said and you shrugged your shoulders as you walked around your apartment trying to find a chocolate you just bought but forgot where you put it at.

Yes, you’ve visited this criminal several times and some of your teammates know it. After you were informed about why he started all of his demeanors, about his motivation, as a person who doesn’t have any family left and witnessed everything that happened at the battle of Sokovia with your own eyes, you strongly have sympathy for him. 

You see him as a man who let his emotions and anger take over his intelligent-self and just tried to do what he thought was right, what he thought it’ll make him feel better after he achieved it. And now that he succeeded his plan, deep down he still feels pretty empty. You can tell just  from looking at him in the eyes, even there’s a thick glass between. And you bet he had taken some steps back to see his work and spent some time with himself, thinking. And you know he could see it too. Nothing changed, his family is still gone. Only thing new to him is that he now has to spend years after years rotting in German prison, which allows him to have more time to think about his family and his past actions. He was about to go insane.

But thank god you went to visit him.

You started to visit him for the very first time after six months of the airport battle. Bringing him some books considering how boring he would feel behind bars. But you were quite confused when you saw that his cell is more superior than the others. Even though it may seem dark and lifeless like the other cells, his cell is a lot bigger compared to others. He also has privileges to read all the up-to-date newspapers and books given from the guards that he seems to  be paying extra for.

In the beginning, it was him who always started a conversation by questioning you. According to his genius mind’s calculation, he never expected any Avengers to visit him and especially to be this nice to him after what he had done, what he had caused. And clearly he was wrong, so he needed to know why you’re doing all of this since he thought he can never be wrong. Maybe you want to take revenge at him? Or could it be that you’re just really nice? 

“Why being so nice to me?” he asked directly, wanting to see your reaction to his action.

“I just feel bad for what happened to you” you didn’t lie but kept looking down to the ground to avoid his gaze on you. You’ve heard about his reputation, how good he is at manipulating and you didn’t want to be his another victim.

It took only a few more times of visiting him for you to realize that you unexpectedly bonded with your friends’ greatest enemy and surprisingly enjoy spending your time with him, he would always tell you stories from his many journeys, but still not the private ones. He never wanted to share any of his family’s memories with anyone and he intended to keep it that way.

After getting to know him a lot more than you should, you soon realized that he’s a Baron after all, a royalty, which answered your curiosity perfectly about why he can still access so many privileges even behind the bars. 

In return, you shared with him how you feel to be an Avengers, pressures and expectations you had received during that time. A hard decision you made that still haunts you in your sleep every night. 

You two sometimes share your opinion on books you bring to him. You went back to the prison countless times with a handful of snacks, sweets and books. That’s why he thinks you’re too nice, too good for him. 

Although he’s in prison, he still manages to spoil you with many presents that have been sent to your door time after time on  special days such as your birthday and Christmas. 

For Helmut, at first, these acts were only to return your kindness. At least that’s what he convinced himself since he doesn’t want to admit that he started to have feelings for you. He keeps telling himself he’ll never love again, but you make it hard for him.

And for you, no one has ever cared about you as much as he did. But still, you persuaded yourself he’s just a friend, a good friend. 

But when it came to the point that Zemo cannot lie to himself anymore, he decided to face the truth and deal with it in a very definitive way. He cut you off. Completely.

He added your name to the list of people he prohibited to visit him. You were heartbroken when you first found out but maybe it’s for the best that things didn’t go any further than this, you cajoled yourself. In the first few months, it was hard for you not to think of him, but now that it has been almost a year, you’re finally doing fine.

To clarify his action, his mind keeps telling him that after what he had done to you, he doesn’t deserve you. You deserve to be happy, to live your life with someone that’s not stuck in a prison like him. Someone as good as you. Not a state-criminal like him. Another reason for him would be because he doesn’t want anyone to replace his wife. Even after so many years she has passed away, she still holds a very special place in his heart and he would never want any memories with someone else to replace those precious memories he has left of her.

“And do you think it’s gonna be fine if he’s out of the prison?” Your eyes automatically blinked, starting to feel terrified by what Bucky just asked you.

“I... I... I don’t know, I can’t reassure you anything, I mean I believe that he’ll be useful to your case but he can be very manipulative so you must be careful when he’s out” You said what you could think of at that moment. You can never think straight when it comes to the Baron.

Bucky replied with silence for a moment but not too long until he continued the conversation and said “Wanna do your old friends a favor?” 

You know he wants you with them in case things go wrong with Zemo since you seem to be the one who knows him best compared to them. Also in Bucky and Sam’s aspect, your fighting and investigating skills would be really helpful to the team. And who knows what the new cap is about? So it’s clearly better to have you included in this little team.

“Sure..” To be honest, you’re quite afraid to face the Baron again but you can never say no to your friends and plus you want to do something in return for them since they always taking a good care of you, they’re like older brothers to you and you couldn’t let they go out there on their own knowing that you can help them.

“See you at the prison tomorrow then, I believe you know your way there already” Bucky replied before hanging up.

This is going to be a hell of a journey!