#i was specifically told by both clients not to draw the hair covering their eyes

[randomapplekey]

Some minecraft skin commissions I've done :3

[give-grian-rights]

CHAPTER TWO HOUR. CHAPTER TWO HOUR. I AM SO TIRED. IT IS 6AM. TELL ME IF HTERE’S TYPOS AND THAT NORMAL STUFF

Bets Against The Void, Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Whitelist au from @petrichormeraki

Crossposted on AO3

Tubbo quietly chuckled, smiling fondly as their friend squawked indignantly. “Tubbo! I’m serious, explain some shit, fuckin’ nerd!” Tommy scoffed, prodding at their side with his elbow. Tubbo hushed him, their smirk still lingering.

  “Hermitcraft is a super crazy popular server. If you’ve ever searched for examples of builds on your tablet, chances are, they’re from one of the Hermits. Or if you looked up something about redstone! Anything! You’ll find one of their instructions. They’re geniuses- just, complete geniuses. Grian’s one of them-”

  “Grian’s one of them!?” Tommy exclaimed, his eyes shooting open. Tubbo’s grin widened, nodding vigorously. “Yes! He’s the newest Hermit, last I heard.. Most of the guys he’s teammates with every MCC, they’re usually other Hermits!” They’d continue explaining to the best of their ability.

  “Should’ve fuckin’ started with the fact that Grian’s here! That fuckin’ dude! He killed Dream three times! Three times, Tubbo!” The blond continued with his excited shouting. Well, that certainly fixed the situation, Tubbo mused.

  The brunett nodded along, chuckling. “Yeah! He, and most of the others, really- post all that much right now. The new World Client, with the axolotls and caves ‘n stuff? They’ve started posting and sharing discoveries about that.  I know Grian did, at least. But considering they call themselves the ‘Hermits’ it makes sense to be a bit inactive, yeah?” Tubbo shrugged, tapping the chilly cool sandstone beneath them.

  Tommy nodded dumbly, glancing around the room for a moment. Tubbo, meanwhile, had pulled their tablet up. The holographic comm system was displayed infront of them, everything on the screen they touched being read aloud to them.

  Launching an accessibility app, the tablet began describing aloud the block palette, dimensions, and colors. As the tablet’s robotic voice played in his com system, reading aloud the details of his surrounding, Tubbo nodded along to an incoherent rant from Tommy.

Tubbo wasn’t too sure what Tommy was ranting about- likely MCC, and Grian. Grian got a kill on Tommy, last MCC, if they remember correctly.  The brunnett wouldn’t be surprised if that was the target of the blond’s current tangent. Tommy hadn’t even been able to get a word out, when Grian began shouting vigorous apologises between matches.

  The descriptions from the tablet were long, and boring. The robotic voice drawing on and on, as it attempted to describe the intricate room. Shutting down the program, Tubbo tuned back into Tommy. 

  “Fuckin’ am..So fucking tired. Of course we ended up here. It’d be to easy if we’d just be let back into Dream SMP, huh? Think Dream even knew we were out? I bet not. Even if he does, probably didn’t even care, fuckin’ dick. Bet that green asshole’s just sitting over his code and shit, simping over Gogy-” The blond ranted heatedly. The blind teen could hear the shifting and chustling of fabric, before the boy’s voice became muffled.

  With his head pressed against his knees, legs drawn to his chest, Tommy sat there practically panting. His chest heaved, the rage draining from him. “Why is all- all of this, always so complicated, Tubbo?” Blue eyes turned to meet the scarred, burnt front of the other.

  Tubbo picked at faded and torn tennis shoes, tentatively listening. The rymnatic pattern of the boy’s breathing, and the crashing overhead, offered some vague comfort. “All of what?” They’d tilt their head.

  The younger of the two quietly sighed, his mouth pressed in a thin line. His hand clutched the bottom of his torn, tan cargo pants, fidgetting with the frayed ends. “Us. Shit with us, it always gets so fuckin’ complicated. Big Man, you’re president. You’re- you’re the fucking president, now, Tubbo.”

  The bunnett’s brows furrowed together, as they inched closer to their friend. “Yeah. But it’s- it’s still us, y’know? If- if life was easy, then we’d be missing out on a lot of things. What if we had just never met-”

“We’d always meet eachother, Tubbo. There’s no fuckin’ getting rid of me, even in your fantasy world.” The blond nudged the teen’s shoulder, a wolfish grin evident in his tone.

  That made the other crack a smile, shaking their head. “I hope so, Tommy.” They’d chuckle, shaking their head. The weight of the day came crashing down all again. Before the rushing thoughts could boggle down their mind, Tubbo slumped against Tommy’s side sigh an exhausted sigh.

  “This is just, livin’ the fucking life, huh?” Tommy remarked, looking over his friend. The tall boy already shifted himself, his long legs sprawled out on the floor with his back leaned against sandstone walls.

  His head leaned against that of his compaignian, half-lidded blue eyes giving one last surveillance of the room. “We’ll figure this shit out tomorrow..” Tommy mumbled, glancing down at the brunette.

  Tubbo was already asleep, their expression finally one of peace. Tommy wasn’t given a moment more to appreciate the serenity of the quiet room, before he’d be pulled into slumber as well.

  Both of the teens were stirred awake by the whirring noises of an active portal- the Netherportal beside them, with particles flying, gaveway to two players. Tommy kicked himself up to his feet, defensively. Tubbo stumbled along with him, pulling back away from the strangers.

Though two stepped out, only one immediately caught Tommy’s eyes.

  “W- Holy shit!  You’re Grian!” Tommy squawked indignantly.

  Tubbo’s head immediately shot up, excitably breaking into a grin. Any exhaustion the two held was wiped away- neither was sure how long their unrestful sleep had been, but it was far more than other nights. 

  The target of the excitement, Grian, sheepishly stood there, nodding. “Uh, yeah! You guys are Tommy and Tubbo, yeah?  I’ve seen you at most of the MCC’s I’ve been to. You both did really good last time, by the way! I’m really looking forward to the next one!” 

This was easily the closest they probably ever were to the dirty blond. He also looked far more at ease, on this server. The iconic figure, ever-present in the community, had his wild mop of a fringe frazzled and framing his face.

  Poking under the bangs, Tommy could now see faint, ragged lines from a scar, along with other various healed-over wounds. Another contrary to how either of them had seen Grian, at MCC, was the large circular glasses loosely sat on his face.

Seeing one of his heroes like this (The only one that hadn’t betrayed, killed him, turned against him, despised him-) in such a..Domestic state, was bizarre. Tommy was scrambling for words, starting and giving up on getting his tongue around what to say.

  “This is so cool! Hi! I used to watch and- and listen, to a lot of your old build tutorials! A lot of people on our server would always say how we learned building from you!” Tubbo would blurt out, practically bouncing on their heel. Grian turned to the teen, slightly shocked but amused. 

  “Oh! I- well thank you! I’m glad I could be any help at all- my builds are nothing compared to some of what the other Hermits have going on..Speaking of others- this is Stress!” He’d take the opportunity to escape the small spotlight, glancing towards the brunette woman next to him sheepishly.

  The woman- Stress, apparently, quietly chuckled. A fond smile grazed her face, as she looked over towards the two teenagers. “Ello there, Loves! Sorry to interrupt your fan meetup,” She teased, side-eyeing the dirty blond beside her.  “We just wanted to come and check in, is all! X told us two to come visit, yeah?”

  Tommy quietly hummed skeptically,  surveying her. Short brown hair hung barely as low as her shoulder, a neat, white, blue, and pink flower-crown sat upon her head. The colors must’ve been very purposeful, considering they matched with her colorful outfit of the same color.

  “Fine, sure..Well, we’re still fuckin’ breathing, and we’re here. So you don’t really need to be here any longer, yeah?” Tommy scoffed, slumping back against the wall. Tubbo was already standing, nudging at his side. 

  “Thank you, for checking in. I- I’m sure this is a bit of a strange situation. That- Yeah, that’s my bad.” They chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. This caught Stress’ attention, turning towards the tene.

  “Oh, no! This isn’t a problem at all. Dear, this happens all the time. Grian just- just appeared, one day, in our previous server. We walk out the portal for the first time- and boom! There that weirdo is!” Stress chuckled, her grin unwavering as she gave a playful nudge to the dirty blond beside her.

  Grian scoffed, a smirk edging at his lips as he rolled his eyes. “Okay, but I’m not the only example of that happening- you didn’t have to pick me out specifically!”

  “Sure I do, Love! You’re the first new Hermit to join, after me and Zed! I get to bully you, lovingly!” She cheered. Stress’ energy was absolutely efficacious, Tubbo couldn’t help but smile and cackle at her and Grian’s banter.

“Uh huh,” Grian scoffed, dramatically crossing his arms. “Last I checked, that was Iskall’s job to bully newcomers- oh, Gord, when you all walked out of the portal and they just decked me ? I mean, it didn’t really hurt all that bad, but it’s a matter of the principle!”

  Stress seemed like she was almost gonna break down with laughter, clutching her stomach. “I forgot they did that with you, too! Iskall certainly is one that needs work with their introduction, that absolute weirdo!” She chostled, shaking her head fondly.

  She then turned towards the two teens, reassuringly smiling. “They won’t give you any hard time, they’re just like that sometimes, especially in the beginning of a new season..They’re usually just incomprehensible in the beginning, I learnt!” She giggled, covering her mouth.

  Tubbo awkwardly laughed, nodding. “Yeah- they, they sound like something.” It was..A strange environment, to be sure.

  Sure, they knew of the Hermits, their reputation impossible to avoid- but most outsiders didn’t know much about the actual Hermits. They went by that title for a reason.

  Tommy was having similar thoughts, he felt as if he was completely imposing on, everything. But he couldn’t find it in himself to care- it frankly was..Warming, almost, to see this. He missed being able to have that, on Dream’s server. 

  The blond in particular seemed to have tuned out, because by the time he snapped out of those thoughts, Grian was speaking again.

  “We’re glad to see you’re both alright, but, I don’t think we’ve been exactly great hosts. You both have gotta be hungry- I know the last thing you two seem to want is help, but..We’d be happy to help you however we can.  We can go get you fresh, real food. Or- you both come with us, and we take you to our central area, the Cowmercial district.”

  Tommy stared blankly at Grian for a moment, brows knitted together in bewilderment. “The… Cow..merical district?” He’d repeat, squinting.

  Grian snickered, nodding. “Yeah! The name just stuck. It’s our shopping district. We have a bakery- it’s never, ever too early for cake. There’s Doc’s shop, but that’s all villager-bought, if it’s the rare occasion that it’s stocked at all- so the Bakery may be the only option, for today.” He glanced back at Stress, who nodded in agreement.

  “Only if you’d want to,” Stress would interject. “Either of us could come bring you food here- but, we figured you might want to just..Get out. You’re allowed to leave here whenever you want- but, navigating our server by yourself, for the first time? Not the easiest.”

  The two teens glanced towards eachother. Tubbo looked like they were practically buzzing in place, at the idea of exploring the Hermits’ world. Tommy watched them for a moment, before quietly scoffing.

  “..Yeah, okay, sure- how the hell do we even get out of here though, for starters?” Tommy crossed his arms, inching closer towards Tubbo. He, for one, was really not a fan of having to fly out.

  Stress cheered excitably, pulling open her inventory. The woman promptly dropped a stack each to the two teens. “I came prepared, just in-case!” She grinned. With a swipe of her arm, the digital screen dissipated.

  “If you know how to use elytras, X already said he’s more than happy to lend out two from the back-up system. I have some to spare, as well.  But- you two never seemed the most comfortable in the air, during flight-based games.” Grian would add awkwardly, adjusting his own wings behind him. 

  Tommy didn’t pay much attention to the words- instead, he promptly threw open his inventory, gawking at the full stack of pearls. “What! I don’t think i’ve ever had this many pearls! Holy shit!” He pulled out the stack of sixteen.

  One pearl manifested in his hand, while a holographic icon hovered beside him. The pixel-image of an enderpearl, with a large 15x in the corner in white font was projected for only his vision. The blond couldn’t remember a time he had so many enderpearls.

  “Thank you! Wow- yeah, pearls aren’t really common in our server!  This- this is really nice!” They felt giddy, as they pulled their’s out as well, the action muscle-memory.

  “Well, I’m glad you two can put them to good-use, then!” She chuckled. The idle question of how can a server lack pearls skimming through her head for a moment.

  Within seconds of her saying that, Tommy had already blindly tossed one of his pearls- promptly falling down from the ceiling, and landing on the floor with a short shriek. Tubbo straightened up from the sidelines, tilting their head.

  “Tommy! What did you do?” Tubbo called out accusatorily, as they quickly popped their surrounding descriptor back on.

  “Nothing!” Tommy quickly yelled back, lunging to their feet with a stumble as they dusted themselves off.

  At the sidelines, Stress and Grian cackled, watching in lighthearted amusement. Tommy could feel his face flushed red with brief embarrassment, quickly attempting to play it off.

  “Truer answer; I was being awesome. That was what, Tubbo. Are we eating or what? I want to throw pearls and go places. And eat, that too.” He quickly turned towards the two Hermits expectantly, narrowing his eyes at them.

  Grian grinned, nodding. “Yes, yes we are! I have boats. Go ahead and pop up with your pearls, and we’ll fly out to you.” He explained briefly, pulling the boats from his inventory. The thin, digitized object manifesting in his hand. 

  Tommy turned expectantly to Tubbo. “You got this, Toob?” He tilted his head, watching his friend. Tubbo had immediately nodded vigoriously, running over towards the center of the room, the ceiling above open to the water. 

  “Yeah! I’ve got this, Big Man! No sweat!” They gave a toothy grin, shifting the enderpearl in their hand. Arching their arm back, the teen cautiously stepped back.

  Their communicator had continued reading off the details of the room into their thin earpiece,  primarily the dimensions. All they had to do was hit the wall leading up to the surface to get out. They could do that, surely.

  With a huff of effort, they chucked the pearl. They heard it  break through the under-surface of the water, and then they were submerged. Breaching the surface, they gasped for a moment. The ocean rippled, clothes heavy and soaked. They were certainly glad they had been in their casual clothes, rather than their presidential outfit.

  Within a moment, Tommy was up beside them, quietly gasping as well. The blond pushed his hair back, lightly nudging Tubbo away from the gaping hole in the water beneath them- and then Grian and Stress flew out.

  The sound from the rockets were deafened from beneath the ocean, thankfully. Only a thin trail of smoke followed them, the sight certainly unfamiliar to the fireworks the two teens had been accustomed to.

  Both Hermits had dived straight into the shallow water with a splash, before the dirty-blond dropped down two boats.

“I want to drive! Tommy, i’m driving us!” Tubbo cried out, at the sound of the wood hitting the water. Beside them, Tommy scoffed.

“Tubbo! I’m not gettin’ motion sickness! We just woke up, no way. Your idea of ‘driving’ is no one elses, my friend.” He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he pulled himself into the boat. Beside him, Tubbo whined.

  “C’mon, man! Nothing like a bit of motion-sickness to get the day started!” They playfully remarked. Despite that, they had already accepted their defeat, pulling up into the boat.

  Stress and Grian watched the teens carefully, with Stress laughing lightheartedly at the banter between them as she pulled herself into the boat, behind Grian.

  Grian, on the otherhand, was mostly quiet. A thin wisp of a smile was present, conveying one of bemusement. Tommy didn’t get a good look, but, he couldn’t quite pinpoint the look from Grian. He didn’t like it.

  “Alright,” The older Brit at hand started. “We’re real close. No one should be at Looky Looky At My Cookie- and it should be early enough that there aren’t any real occupants at the Cowmerical District.” He explained, turning the boat as he got a small start ahead of the teens.

  “Sure, then! That sounds g- wait, what’s that name?”

“C’mon, then!” Grian wouldn't answer Tubbo’s valid question, before boating off. Tommy quickly following behind, shouting indignantly after them.

  It certainly was odd. It felt..Comforting, here. Certainly not relaxing. The opposite of cf relaxing- Tubbo had nothing but the craving to do something. But it was..Welcoming. It was strange. They hadn’t felt so- so unbothered, since..Ever, really. They liked it.

  Tubbo wondered if it could stay this way.

  Tommy wondered what the hell they were about to get themselves into.

[ggukkiedae]

❝𝕒𝕣𝕥❞

𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:

⇢ jungkook takes yoonmi to get his birthday/christmas gifts for her

⇢ set in mid january 2021

𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜:

⇢ conversations written in italics are spoken in english. requests and feedback are highly appreciated!

Yoonmi excitedly bounced in her seat, making Jungkook chuckle.

He was currently driving her to his tattoo artist because of his promised Christmas/birthday gift for her.

Her tattoos.

“Would you sit still?” he placed a hand on her knee to keep her from moving. “If you’re like this until we get there, your tattoos might end up looking weird.”

She laughed but stilled herself. “Sorry, I’m just excited. A little nervous, too. Does it hurt a lot?”

“Think of it as training,” Jungkook told her. “It’s painful, but we get used to it and eventually get a great outcome.”

Yoonmi nodded at that and looked back out the window at the buildings passing by. She couldn’t believe she was finally getting her tattoos. At first, she was pretty hesitant because she didn’t know if fans would take it well, but, with Jungkook’s encouragement, she decided it was fully her choice and nobody else should be able to dictate whether she gets a tattoo or not.

Well, she’s getting four.

One was going on her right pinkie, one on the side of her right hand, one on the side of her left wrist, and one under her left arm just below her shoulder. They were pretty small, so she and Jungkook both figured they could do it all in one day.

“Do you think it’ll look nice together?” she asked Jungkook.

“I’m absolutely positive it’ll look amazing,” he reassured her. “We tried it out, remember? It all turned out pretty well. Look at that, we’re here.”

Yoonmi’s face lit up as soon as Jungkook parked the car. She turned and grabbed her bag from the backseat. Her jump made Jungkook laugh when she turned back towards the door only to find that he had opened it for her. nearly eleven years of living with boys who always do this for her, and she’s still always surprised.

He led her into the building and towards the receptionist who smiled at him.

“Nice to see you again, Jungkook,” the receptionist smiled at him before turning his smile to Yoonmi. “You, too, Yoonmi. You weren’t here last time Jungkook came.”

“She’s been busy with her boyfriend,” Jungkook laughed.

She whined at him. “Oppa, that’s not fully true. We’ve been busy with our music.”

“I heard,” the receptionist chuckled as he checked his computer. “It says here that Yoonmi’s getting four tattoos? Wow, and on your first time, too!”

“They’re all pretty small, and I’ve been thinking about them for a long time, now,” she smiled back.

“Let's get you settled in, then.”

Not ten minutes later, she finds herself settled in the tattoo parlor chair with Jungkook, upon his and Yoonmi’s request, placing the stencils on the same places he’d been drawing her tattoos for the past year and a half. The tattoo artist tied her hair as she watched the two in the mirror.

“Those are interesting tattoo choices,” she started a conversation with Yoonmi. “If it’s alright, may I ask who came up with them?”

“I kinda conceptualized them, but Ggukoo oppa drew them,” Yoonmi smiled proudly before Jungkook lightly smacked her arm.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stay still when I’m drawing your tattoos on you?”

“You aren’t even drawing them, and they’re cold, okay?”

“Just sit still!”

The tattoo artist laughed at the two of them bickering before taking her seat next to Yoonmi. She gently sanitized the areas surrounding the stencils placed by Jungkook and the needle that she would use. Jungkook stood on Yoonmi’s other side, a hand on her head as reassurance.

“We’ll start with the coloured ink on your arm, alright?” the tattooist told the younger. “Then we’ll do the black one on your wrist then move over to your right side for the hand one and the pinky one.”

“Sounds good,” Yoonmi nodded.

Jungkook leaned forward a little to ask a question. “Is it okay if I get a touch up on my pinky tattoo as well?”

Yoonmi laughed alongside the tattooist at Jungkook’s inquiry. She grinned when the tattooist agreed to do it, and for free. It was their matching tattoo that she was sure Jungkook would show off to the rest of Bangtan as soon as they got home.

The next hour was spent with Yoonmi telling the tattoo artist about why she chose those specific tattoos while Jungkook watched the whole process of everything from as close as he physically could without disrupting anything. He’d gently pat her head whenever she flinched from the pain, but her overall ability to hide her pain kept her from reacting too much. It didn’t take as long as she expected. Pretty soon, everything was finished, and the tattoo artist gave her some time to look at them before she wrapped them up.

“Woah,” she murmured as her eyes scanned over the dark lines over her slightly red skin. “This is unreal.”

She reached over her lap to touch the word “breathe” on her hand, but Jungkook lightly gripped her arm to stop her. “Not a good idea, Mimi. How about you take a look at the one on your arm, yeah?”

She gratefully accepted the handheld mirror he handed to her and angled it so she could see her tattoo. The heart from their Love Yourself series settled proudly on her harm, it’s pastel colors standing out against her skin. Her jaw dropped, and he lifted her hand to touch it.

“No,” Jungkook gently pushed her arm down, “no touching, remember?” Not yet.”

“Right,” Yoonmi laughed before turning back to her tattooist, “sorry about that. They look amazing!”

“Thank you,” the older smiled while taking Yoonmi’s arms to cover her tattoos in a clear plastic wrap for protection. “I like to think I bring my clients’ ideas to life well. Now, I know you know the aftercare procedure because Jungkook says you help him with his, but I legally still have to give it to you. Actually, go up front and they’ll explain over there. I’ll just touch up Jungkook’s pinkie then get you your aftercare products.”

Yoonmi nodded as she left the room and headed to the receptionist who gave her a smile and sat her down to begin explaining. She nodded along to the steps, refreshing them in her mind so she wouldn’t forget. It was a little hard to concentrate, though, considering she has little pieces of art finally ingrained into her body.

“That’s everything you need to know,” the receptionist told her. “Jungkook’s on his way out here, so let me go help look for the moisturizers and soaps.”

She bowed at the receptionist as he walked towards the back. Jungkook took a seat next to her and observed her for a second before leaning forward. He lifted her right hand and folded all her fingers except her pinkie. He stuck his out as well and smiled.

“Looks like this is real now,” he pulled out his phone to take a photo. He then turned his camera to take a video of the two of them, to which she smiled towards. “Hyungs! Guess who has tattoos now!”

“Me!” she giggled while showing off her wrist.

Jungkook smiled and sent the video to their group chat. She couldn’t contain her excitement as the tattooist came to hand her a little paper bag with a moisturizer, sun cream, soap, and ointment while Jungkook stood by the counter with the receptionist to pay. Her smile did not leave her face at all. Not while she took a photo of each of her tattoos and sent them to her parents and to her older brothers. Not while she got into the passenger’s side of Jungkook’s car. Especially not when she saw how excited the other Bangtannies were in the group chat to see it in person.

Jungkook laughed at her excitement. “You send then to Mark yet?”

“No,” she shut her phone while shaking her head, “I asked him, and he wants to see it for the first time in real life.”

It was then when she turned to Jubgkook, widening her eyes and jutting out her lower lip. Her actions made Jungkook chuckle. It was clear she was asking Jungkook to drive her to her boyfriend’s dorm.

“How about this,” he began, “I take you home, and we leave your tattoos to heal fully for the next week. Then I’ll take you to their place, alright?”

“Okay!”

[anonniemousefics]

All Kinds Of New Friends

Fandom: Six of Crows | Kaz + Inej (ft. all the other Crows)

Word Count: 4,700

Rating: Teen and Up

TW: contains mentions of sexual assault

Cross-posted to AO3

Synopsis: The gang has a run in with a couple of unscrupulous characters from Inej's past, and Kaz says a few things in the middle of a rage he wasn't supposed to say yet.

Author’s Note: This fic is dedicated to AO3 user puppy cat, who was such a supportive, lovely fan from the very first chapter of "My Dearest Inej" all the way to the end. They requested a fic based around a particular idea involving the gang at a restaurant and someone harassing Inej and Kaz losing his shit in a very specific way (being intentionally vague here to avoid too many spoilers lol). If you like this au, there's more of it in my recent fic "Samples". :)

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

Nothing brought Kaz Brekker life quite like being paid to argue. And he was good at it, which was why he could charge these student athletes afraid of losing their scholarships two hundred bucks an essay without even flinching. If a more delightful way to make money existed, he had not found it yet.

He was spending his Saturday the way he usually spent Saturdays: rounding out a conclusion to a paper arguing for the death penalty, for a pre-law class he’d never take and a trust-fund upperclassman he’d hopefully never meet. In a few hours, he could drop the doc in a secure server and wait for the Venmo alert that he’d been paid. Nothing was sweeter.

Well. One thing was sweeter.

Inej was in the beat-up old recliner beside him in his and Jesper’s little living room of their third-floor off-campus apartment. This was the best way to spend a Saturday. She was sitting cross-legged and practically drowning in oversized sweats, her raven-black hair piled on top of her head while she hunched over her MacBook. And she was wearing those thick-rimmed, blue-blocker glasses Matthias Helvar had convinced her she needed (which, of course, had nothing to do with the fact that he was being paid to promote them on his stupid Instagram, that douchebag). Kaz had cringed both internally and externally when she’d told him she’d bought a pair, but now he was seeing the merit, because, dear God, was she adorable in glasses. They were awakening strange and powerful urges every time he glanced over at her. If she held them in between her teeth while undoing her hair, he was going to have to leave the room.

Because the terrible reality was that Inej had had a rough go of it her freshman year at Ketterdam University. And even though they were sort of together now (Kaz was pretty sure they were?), the last thing Inej needed right now was to be over-sexualized – for anything. Including those really fucking cute glasses.

“I’m starving,” Jesper declared from his prone position on the floor. He had been propped up on a bunch of faded pillows between them, engrossed in shooting undead things on their Xbox. His boyfriend Wylan had spent most of the afternoon napping against his shoulder, but was now blinking awake like a blue-eyed baby owl at Jesper’s sudden announcement.

“I could eat,” Wylan yawned with a lazy stretch.

“Inej? You?” Jesper reached up to tug on Inej’s sock.

“Hm?” Inej looked up from her laptop like she was emerging from a cave while she gnawed on one of the strings of her sweatshirt. It had been like this since The Incident – Jesper and Nina often took turns making sure she would eat. (Kaz had it covered, but that was all right. The back-up couldn’t hurt.)

“Food? Are you hungry?” Jesper repeated, the unspoken question floating in the air: Have you eaten today?

Inej blinked a few times as she thought, her dark eyes flitting back and forth between Jesper and her laptop screen. Kaz knew this internal war well – the age-old taking care of one’s needs versus the siren-song of wreaking endless revenge.

Inej had come to Ketterdam University on a gymnastics scholarship, but that had fallen by the wayside – ever since The Incident. The night everything changed.

Kaz didn’t know Inej Ghafa all that well before it happened – had taken a few classes with her, studied for an exam with her once. She’d been eternally sunshiney, the kind of girl he knew wouldn’t waste her time on dark things like him.

But then she’d started missing classes.

And then showing up to class visibly drowning beneath the weight of sleeplessness and oversized clothes.

And he didn’t really know her but it had bothered him all the same. It was like watching a star collapsing in on itself.

And that’s when the story of The Incident hit the news cycle. From the moment he read the first headline, Kaz couldn’t stop scrolling, growing sicker and sicker in the pit of his stomach.

She’d gone to a party at a frat house with a new friend. (Kaz had even been there before, maybe even the night it happened. Frat parties were veritable breeding grounds for potential clients – full of rich, connected kids too drunk or stoned to be bothered by classwork and crooked enough to pay someone else to do it.) It was suspected that someone had slipped something in her drink, and it was known that the friend who’d brought her there had been entirely useless. Inej had woken up the next morning, half-naked on the lawn, crude drawings in Sharpie all over her, and no knowledge of what had transpired that had left her there.

It should have ended there – that was bad enough. But then the frat boys had started posting the videos of what had happened that night. How she had been used. How she had been touched.

If Inej’s parents were going to have their way, someone was going to jail. If Kaz was going to have his way, someone was going to suffer all the way there.

After he’d learned the news, he’d found her the next day before class started, where she was at the back of the room, hunched over her desk with her hood up. She’d shot daggers at him with her eyes when he approached. He’d liked that.

“I’d like to help you ruin them,” he’d told her. Inej’s glare didn’t relent as she sized up him – his black attire, the leather gloves that clenched his gleaming cane. He usually made a point of looking like the sort of person who ruined things. Nobody bullied a boy with a cane if it looked like that same boy could take your head off with said cane.

Inej seemed to agree that he looked like he could fit the bill. And they began to plot – how to expose her abusers, how to alert every girl they ever came into contact with, how to ruin every single party they would ever throw.

And somewhere along the way, it had turned into…something. Kaz wasn’t sure what to call it. But he couldn’t call it nothing – not when Inej regularly stayed the night in their apartment and did soft things like run her hand over his chest if she liked the jacket he was wearing or blush and smile if she caught him looking at her. He’d even really gone out on a limb one night and told her he liked her, and she’d said it back. He wasn’t sure where that left them at this point. Somewhere, he guessed, with something.

“I’ll eat,” Inej was agreeing, albeit with a bit of reluctance to leave her laptop. She was elbows-deep in a catfishing scheme Kaz had concocted for their latest victim.

“Nina wants us to meet up with her and Matthias at The Sweet Shop,” Wylan said, who was catching up on the texts he’d missed while napping on Jesper.

“I swear, Nina could lure a polar bear into the jungle,” Jesper sighed next to him, because it was a little miraculous to think Matthias Helvar, fitspo Instagram model and purveyor of all things organic and natural, had somehow been corralled into a bakery cafe. Kaz was surprised that Matthias even looked at carbs, let alone consumed them.  

And, even though he was pressed for time on the illicit essay he was writing, Kaz needed food, too. He and Inej both could use the time away from their questionable dealings online.

The Sweet Shop was within walking distance, but it had begun to rain, cold and foggy, over Ketterdam. So, the four of them piled into Kaz’s beat up black Chevy and rolled into town behind the rhythmic beating of the windshield wipers.

“Over here!” Nina waved to them, beaded bracelets rattling in a stack on her wrist, from the far corner as the bakery’s front door swung closed behind them, tripping a jingling brass bell pinned to the doorframe.

The Sweet Shop was a popular spot for the more bookish crowds to crash on the weekends, load up on starchy foods and coffee while rattling out papers on their laptops or flirting under the guise of study groups. Kaz wouldn’t go so far as to call them his type of people, but he was certainly more at home here than the drunken soirees where he spent his evenings fleecing the debauched children of alumni. Here, there were people crowded over old tables with their books, and well-worn leather sofas and faded overstuffed chairs in the corner lined with secondhand books and used board games that were almost always missing pieces. The air smelled like espresso and cupcakes and old pages, and if Matthias Helvar was going to sulk about the lack of kale on the menu, Kaz might have to punch him in the face.

Matthias was already nursing a colorful smoothie while Nina sat next to him on the old leather sofa, her long, shapely legs draped over his and a stack of sugared waffles on the coffee table in front of her.

“Took you long enough!” Nina was scolding as the four of them weaved through tables to the corner of sofas and chairs. “Do none of you check your phones on weekends?”

“A technology fast is very cleansing for our auras,” Matthias countered, with a sage look – Matthias, the self-proclaimed Instagram influencer. Kaz rolled his eyes.

“That almost sounded like real words, Matthias – good job,” Jesper smirked, as he perched on the arm of the chair where Wylan had flopped down. Matthias opened his mouth to retort something, but --

“I was just distracted, sorry,” Inej intervened with an apology to Nina and a sheepish look. (She thankfully was no longer wearing her blue-blockers or it might have been too sweet even for a place called The Sweet Shop.)

“And I was just ignoring you,” Kaz said with a shrug. Inej gave him an exasperated whack in the arm as he sat next to her on an old loveseat, resting his cane against one side, and Nina let out a put-out huff.

“Wylan’s the only considerate one among you,” she complained.

“Yes, that is true,” Jesper agreed, and Wylan grinned widely with his chin propped up on his fist.

“We wanted you here because,” And Nina drew out the because like she had something grand to follow it, “Matthias landed a sweet sponsorship yesterday, and he wants to buy us all lunch!”

Kaz and Jesper groaned in unison, loud enough it couldn’t quite be drowned out by Inej and Wylan’s congratulations. Matthias got particularly insufferable after new sponsorships – there would be strings attached to this.

“That’s very nice of you, Matthias,” Inej said, pointedly, glaring at Kaz.

“It is very nice of you, Matthias, to offer to buy us all strawberry ice cream smoothies like yours,” Kaz said, with an evil glint in his eye as he nodded to the large pink cup in Matthias’ hand.

Matthias gave an uneasy laugh.

“There’s no ice cream in this,” he said, then paused when he noticed Nina’s tight-lipped, icy stare boring into Kaz’s skull. Then his brow cinched up and looked down at his cup. “There isn’t ice cream in this, right, babe?”

“It’s not going to kill you,” Nina replied with an eye roll.

“Babe! You know I can’t do dairy right now! Tomorrow’s Six-Pack Sunday!”

There was no point in trying to stop it: a laugh in the form of a long snort rolled out of Kaz while Jesper and Wylan dissolved into a fit of giggles. Now Kaz remembered -- this is why they kept Matthias around.

“You don’t understand,” Matthias was trying to say. “It can take a whole week to detox and lose the bloat.”

“I’ll finish it for you, you big baby,” said Nina, and snatched the smoothie away from a panicked Matthias.

“I should start running laps now,” he was fretting.

“Make some food runs for us – that’s a start,” Jesper supplied, looking helpful.

“Good call,” Matthias nodded, and hopped to his feet, nearly dumping Nina onto the floor in the process. “Orders? Orders?” He looked to each of them, ready to leap into action and start fighting off the bloat.

He’d gathered up their orders and made a beeline for the counter when Nina turned to Inej.

“You had me worried, you know.” Nina leaned out a little over her knees toward her roommate. “You were just distracted?”

Kaz glanced in Inej’s direction in time to see how she swallowed hard. She’d stuffed her hands deep in her hoodie pockets. Kaz knew the reaction all too well -- what it was like to withdraw and fight to make yourself untouchable, even to those who loved you.

“Just a lot of work lately,” Inej said. And Nina slid a suspicious glance toward Kaz, as if waiting for him to explain himself and what he was getting the two of them into now.

But it had always been Inej’s decision, how she wanted to handle her own revenge. Kaz was only providing tools. He hadn’t answered for her yet, and he wasn’t about to start now.

Nina sighed.

“I just don’t want to see anyone hurt anymore,” she said. The brass bell over the front door jingled again.

“That’s not--”

But Inej stopped short when she glanced toward the sound of the bell. She barely moved, but Kaz could sense her growing rigid next to him. And something about it made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.

He followed her gaze to two boys who were now slouching toward the front counter. Kaz had seen them both before; he was pretty sure he’d written a biology research paper for the one with the pug-nose. They were both tall and conventionally good-looking – the sort you probably didn’t think twice about. Well-muscled, expensive haircuts, brand name sneakers.

Beside him, Inej had started breathing weird.

“Fuck.” Nina had noticed her staring, too, and suddenly all pairs of eyes in the corner were watching the newcomers at the front of The Sweet Shop with murder in their hearts.

Because these two bastards had been there the night of The Incident.

Kaz found himself wondering which one he could make cry first. Probably the bulkier one -- he looked soft and dumb around the edges. His mom probably still did his laundry on the weekends and called his professors when he didn’t get good grades. Kaz wanted to see him cry until snot dribbled down his sweaty face and –

“We should go,” Inej said, abruptly. She was looking pale and shaky, and her eyes darted around as if she needed to gather belongings, even though she’d brought none. Kaz had started to grip the head of his cane, tighter, tighter, tighter.

“Fuck no.” Nina was adamant and fiery, bless her. “We got here first – they can leave.” And then a little louder. “They should be in jail, frankly!”

“Nina!” Inej hissed, and her hand flew to curl against the side of her face when the boys looked their direction. Her eyes were wide and terrified when she looked over to Kaz.

“I want to go,” she told him, and that was all she needed to say. He pushed his weight onto his cane, hoisting himself to his feet.

“Don’t worry, girl – we got you,” Jesper was confirming, and, without even needing to consult each other, he and Wylan and Nina had Inej surrounded from sight on their walk to the door, Kaz at the front.

And it almost worked, too.

“Brekker!” Until one of the boys recognized him and gave him with a jovial grin. Shit. “Hey, it’s Brekker!” The stupid kid with the pug nose gave Kaz a hearty slap on his shoulder, and it took every ounce of restraint in him to not break the dude’s wrist.

“This kid got me an B+ on my bio term paper,” the kid was telling his bulky friend, and then with a shady-ass side smirk, he added: “Wasn’t totally the A I’d paid for, but that was still awesome, bro.”

“With your GPA, an A would have been too suspicious.” Why was Kaz even defending himself to this turd? He made to shove past, to head for the door.

But that kid was still gripping his shoulder. Like he wanted Kaz to remove it from its socket. Like maybe he was just asking for it. Kaz ground his teeth, trying to maintain his resolve. He wasn’t going to do this in front of Inej. He was going to be better than this for her.

“Bro,” the human pile of excrement still touching him was saying, “I’ve been meaning to text you. I have this world religions class this semester that is just killer, and I--”

“Your next words had better be how you’re doing your own damn work from now on.”

A simple “No” would have sufficed, Kaz realized, but his girl was in some kind of state because of this waste of carbon and his patience had never been plentiful to begin with.

Besides, the kid didn’t strike him as the type who understood simple “No”s. He was going to have to make it really fucking clear for this idiot.

Sure enough, the kid blinked hard, like he’d been slapped.

“I paid you, bro,” he said, dumbly.

“Oh, he did not just--” Nina started from the back of their bunch.

“Call me ‘bro’ one more time,” Kaz dared him, his eyes narrowing.

“What the hell, man?” said the thoroughly confused bulky friend.

“Kaz, just leave it,” Inej said, softly, and she slipped her fingers into the crook of Kaz’s elbow. “Let’s just go.”

A wave of recognition spread over the pug-nosed douchebag’s face at the sight of her. It was sickening, the surprised rise of his eyebrows, the smug, amused smirk on his lips. Kaz wanted to rip them right off his face.

“Oh, I see how it is,” the dick was saying. “You’re with this bitch--”

That’s when Kaz felt something snap. Oh, he was dead now.

“Kaz!” Inej shouted a warning, but it was already too late. With the cane between his two gloved hands, Kaz rammed his weight into this dead man walking. He threw the kid against the front door, the brass bell jingling as the shades on the window rattled in the scuffle.

“That’s my girlfriend, dipshit,” Kaz snarled.

Kaz was vaguely aware that there was a rising commotion around him, a crescendo of clashing panic and rage. His hand had found its way to the dude’s collar, throttling him; Nina was shouting something at Matthias somewhere behind him; chairs were scuffling about against the floor. But Kaz’s sole focus now was on making this heinous little fucker wet his pants.

“Kaz. The door.” Jesper’s clear-headed voice cut through the blinding wrath, and Kaz was somehow thinking clearly enough to gather his meaning and wrenched the kid away from the front door just long enough for Jesper to shove an arm through and open it.

And Kaz threw the pug-nose brat out into the rain ahead of them. The kid hit the pavement, hard, and scrambled back.

“Dude, you’ve got it all wrong if you think she’s the victim here,” the useless piece of flesh was sniveling. His nose was bleeding – pathetic, Kaz had barely hit him.

“I really think I don’t,” Kaz disagreed, thoughtfully.

“We could have you arrested!” the bulky child was screeching. Kaz turned just in time to see Matthias literally chuck the kid out after them, red-face and snarling. And Kaz had to hand it to him – even with his dairy intolerance, Matthias Helvar could toss frat kids with the best of them.

“Oh, please file a police report about this,” Kaz sneered at them. The wind and the rain were beating back his dark hair and flapping the collar of his black jacket, but he didn’t care. “I would absolutely love to know how you plan on explaining why you called my girlfriend a bitch.”

“Man, it is not my fault your girl can’t handle her liquor.”

CRACK. Kaz barely had time to blink, and Matthias had straight up decked the kid right in his jaw. Nina was rolling up her sleeves, ready to destroy the other one in the pelting rain.

“Hey!” The teenager in a green apron who’d been running the cash register was running out after them, holding a phone over her head. “I’m gonna call the cops if you don’t clear out!”

And when Kaz looked back at Inej, there were tears welling in her eyes even though her jaw was set firm. From the looks on the faces of the rest of his friends, they’d all noticed, too.  

So, it fizzled out before it even really began.

The frat boys had slunk off in the rain, and the six of them regrouped and sauntered back to Kaz’s car in silence. Jesper, Nina, and Matthias piled into the back seat, while Inej and Wylan squeezed into the front. And then an uncomfortable stillness descended.

Inej had pulled her hood up again when Kaz turned the key in the ignition, her arms tight in her sleeves. Every once and awhile, she’d sniffle as quietly as she could as the car ride seemed to drag on – but Kaz knew. Everyone knew. That had been awful. And it still felt awful. Kaz’s head was starting to swirl, his wracked nerves still buzzing. He shouldn’t have done it. He hadn’t wanted to do it, not really. And she’d told him she wanted to leave – she’d said it clear as day. And he’d said…oh God, what had he said? What had he done?

Kaz’s stomach was starting to lurch. He’d said a lot of things. Way too many fucking things. Things they hadn’t discussed yet. Things he’d clearly just assumed. What had he done?

“We really should cleanse this negative energy.” Goddamn Matthias was the first one to break the pervasive silence, and he was choosing to break it with this nonsense. Kaz’s glare drifted to the rear view mirror. “I have some sound healing bowls back at my place that are--”

“I swear to God, Helvar,” Kaz snapped, “if you break out even one sound healing bowl, I will make you wear it like a helmet and then drop kick you into the sun.”

In the rear view mirror, Kaz could see Matthias’ nostrils flaring.

“You are such an unbalanced piece of shit sometimes, you know that--?” But Matthias stopped short because Inej had let out a surprising chuckle. Kaz slowly let himself glance her direction – so did everyone else.

She was smirking up at Kaz.

“I just think it’s thoughtful of you to make sure his head is protected before you launch him into space,” she shrugged. Wylan barked out a laugh.

“I just think they should kiss already,” Nina added, waggling an eyebrow at a brooding Matthias, and then Jesper started to laugh, too, which really was the most infectious of laughs. Even Kaz was smiling after a moment – just a little.

Though that faded entirely when they pulled up to Kaz and Jesper’s apartment and Inej asked to speak with him alone in the car first.  

Shit, he thought. Shit. Here it is. He’d royally fucked it up now.

They waited in silence with the rain pouring over the car while the rest of their friends darted into the old Victorian home where Kaz and Jesper lived on the third floor. With each passing second, his stomach sunk lower into his guts. He wasn’t even sure he could form words in his brain, let alone with his mouth. He had no rational explanation for what had come over him back at The Sweet Shop, other than Here it is, Inej, I’m kind of a fucking disaster.

“So, that was…” Inej started, slowly. She was staring out the front window. Kaz felt like crumpling, and he hated it, hated how weak he felt. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I know, I know…” he muttered. He didn’t really, but he just wanted this to be over. If she never wanted to see him again, he needed her to rip the bandaid off quick.

“So, I’m your girlfriend now?”

Kaz couldn’t decipher her tone, and he couldn’t even look at her. He was just going to stare at the steering wheel until this was over.

But then Inej said: “I just would like to have known before the guys my parents are having investigated, that’s all.”

Kaz looked to her then, lifting his dark eyebrows slightly. She’d let her hair down from its knot before they’d left for the café – she’d braided it loose over her shoulder like he liked. She was twirling the ends now, a tired smile on her pink lips.

“If you want,” he said with a soft shrug. It wasn’t at all like the heroic way he thought she deserved to be swept off her feet. But she was still smiling all the same. It made him feel braver.

Funny – how throwing his weight around against perverts was as easy as breathing, but looking at her like this tore him apart.

“If you’ll have me,” he offered, even softer now.

And Inej reached across the distance between them. Laced her fingers over his, atop his knee.

“I will have you, Kaz Brekker,” she said, tenderly. It took him aback a bit. Made his breath catch. Made his throat sting.

“If I shouldn’t have--” he started to say of the row back at The Sweet Shop. But Inej cut him off instantly, shaking her head. Squeezing his fingers.

“You absolutely should have,” she said, firmly.  “And you should show me how, too.”

Kaz really raised his eyebrows at that. Inej smiled a little wider. His heart was lifting, lifting up and out of the certain doom he was sure it was about to face.

“Come on.” Inej tugged at his hand. “We’d better head up before Matthias starts culture appropriating all over your apartment.”

“You have to admit – he threw one hell of a punch, though,” Kaz pointed out, as he opened his door, and then wanted to punch himself for it. What the hell – was he defending Matthias Helvar now? This whole day was upside down.

Thankfully, there was a different kind of embarrassing going down in apartment number three when they finally made their way up. Kaz could hear it before he even made it to the top of the stairs – the loud, thumping bass, the voices shouting at the tops of their lungs.

Oh, their neighbors were going to love this. They were just making all kinds of new friends today.

When Inej opened the door, all four of their friends were dancing to Cardi B’s I Like It, blasting through Jesper’s bluetooth speaker. It took everything in Kaz to not physically recoil at the assault on his senses.

“Emergency dance party!” Jesper explained, yelling from behind Wylan.

“We’re clearing out the negative energy!” Nina shouted over the noise, her hands in the air. Matthias was jumping around behind her like an absolute madman. “But like in an acceptable way!”

“I think it’s working!” Wylan shouted at her in agreement, with Jesper’s hands on his hips.

They were all smiling.

And beside him, Inej burst out laughing – a wild, fluttery sound he’d heard only a few times before. It caught him right in the heart each time he had, and he knew he’d do anything to hear it as often as he could. He looked down at her and wondered, not for the first time, how she did it. How she managed to wring joy out of even the most dismal of circumstances.

It was something he needed more of – as long as she’d allow him to have it.

“Come on!” she was shouting to him as she took him by the hand. “You heard the man! Emergency dance party!”

And Kaz followed her in, shutting the door behind him.

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

Tagging: @annejulianneh111, @loveyatopluto, @ireallyshouldsleeprn, @whosanxiety, @raging-bisexual-alert,

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Day 9

Prompt: When you write something on your own skin it appears on your soulmate’s skin as well.

Word Count: 1,896

Main Taglist: (Send an ask to be added or removed!) @starlocked01,​​​ @spoopy-turtle,​​​ @lizluvscupcakes,​​ @more-fandon-than-friends​, @i-cant-find-a-good-username, @vindicatedvirgil, @star-crossed-shipper, @justaqueercactus, @gayboopnoodle, @sanderssidesweirdo, @the-sympathetic-villain, @8-writes Soulmate taglist:(Send an ask to be added or removed!) @elizabutgayer, @melodiread, @tsshipmonth2020, @mikalya12, @8-writes

“It feels like the whole world is closing in. I’m starting to get claustrophobic.” Logan saw the words appear on his leg. Lying in bed in nothing but a pair of gym shorts, most of his skin was covered in black and purple ink. He paused, his black pen hovering over the skin just below the purple.

Finally, he put pen to skin. “That’s understandable. Sometimes, you just need to distance yourself from the world. Put up a barrier and exist behind it, give yourself a mental personal bubble and stick to it. Have things you enjoy set aside in a way that you can interact with them without having to interact with the world.”

The purple gave a dot of acknowledgement. Logan knew Virgil would eventually tired himself out and fall asleep so waited for any indicator. Soon, the ink left a small dot before a trail dropped off the limb, cutting through the previous conversation. Logan chuckled, knowing his soulmate had fallen asleep.

He stood, crossing to the bathroom and sitting on the edge of the tub as he took a washcloth to the pen marks. He smiled, thinking of the many conversations he’d had with Virgil. He’d known his name his whole life, or so it felt. In reality, he’d been five when ink had first shown up on his arm. It was a simple hello from Virgil’s parents to test if his soulmate was older or younger than him. Logan had run up to his mom and she and Mama wrote on his other arm.

After that, he was encouraged to write little notes to his soulmate on his arms, telling him about his day and things he’d learned in school. He was told that Virgil wouldn’t be able to respond for a few years but that didn’t stop him from trying.

He was eleven when he first got a response. It was shakily written, clearly by a child holding a crayon in a fist. He’d been so happy, running to Mama to show her. Mama had encouraged him to write back and he could picture the giggles that arose from his soulmate.

Soon, they were holding full conversations. Those progressed to late night conversations, pens sliding off skin as sleep took over, the hurried scrawls of notes or ideas, getting to know his soulmate by his personality and penmanship, getting to see that penmanship change as he learned how he wrote best, getting to know his mood by his wording and the spacing between letters. He got to know his tastes in food by his grocery lists, his daily activities by to-do lists. He saw when tears or rain obscured important information and made sure to write it higher up so it wasn’t smudged. This was usually accompanied by hearts and stars from Virgil drawn next to them as a way of thanks.

He made sure to do the same, writing grocery and to-do lists on his arms, chuckling when Virgil thought it was his own list and started crossing things off. His favorite thing to do was to play simple table games on his arms, tic tac toe, dots and boxes, sprouts, and others. They both eventually solved little arguments of who won which game by choosing different pen colors.

At one point during a day, it must have been when he was about fifteen or so, he got a note on his arm that Virgil had been diagnosed with ADHD. He’d researched as much about it as he could in the hopes of helping in any way he could. He’d give reminders, encourage Virgil to write task lists on his arm, even if it was ‘I need to make dinner in fifteen minutes’ so Logan could give a reminder at the five minute mark. He noticed when Virgil didn’t respond and would ask if it was a bad sensory day and would use a different pen in case that was triggering his hypersensitivity.

One day, he noticed a building number written on his arm when he woke up. It was a very familiar building number as it was his place of work. He smiled as he adjusted his tie, going into work with a spring in his step. When he got to the break room, he thought he’d ask around. “Does anyone have a Virgil for an appointment?”

He got a few smirks from coworkers but some others gave him genuine smiles. “Is it your soulmate?” Someone asked, clear teasing in her voice.

Logan nodded, a smile creeping across his face. He twisted his arm, letting the rest of them see the note with the building address. “I woke up to this and assumed. So, does anyone have an appointment with him?”

Patton raised his hand with a giggle. “I do! It’s a one o'clock appointment. I’m pretty sure you’ve got a one-thirty appointment. I’m willing to swap with you.”

Logan nodded as he poured creamer into his coffee. “That would be fine, thank you.”

He went back to his office and completed paperwork, dealing with the few clients he had in the morning. He went out and grabbed a quick lunch during his noon break before sitting in his office, trying not to stand every five minutes to look for Virgil.

Finally, the clock struck one and his head swiveled to the door. His secretary knocked on it and he called for him to come in. Roman peeked his head in. “I have a Virgil Storm that Patton said is for you?”

“Yes! Send him in, please.” He tried to keep his excitement to a minimum but after falling for his soulmate twelve years ago, he was excited to see him for the first time. He stood as his soulmate entered, a shy looking young man in a purple and black hoodie with ripped black jeans.

“Virgil Storm, welcome.” He reached over the desk for a handshake, the address clear on his arm.

Virgil raised his head, eyes locking onto the purple writing that matched the pen he usually used. He shifted his gaze to Logan’s eyes. “Logan?” His voice was hesitant, as if he were already regretting the decision to ask.

Logan nodded, his attempts to contain his smile succeeding for the most part. “That’s right, soulmate.”

Virgil smiled, dropping his hood as he sat in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. Logan sat as his soulmate looked around the room. Logan couldn’t take his eyes off the man, his hair tousled from the hood, his shoulders looking more relaxed than when he came in, he looked nice. Finally, he turned back to face Logan. “So, law office, huh?” He smirked.

Logan nodded, folding his hands on his desk. “Yes. I find the work . . . fulfilling.” He reached for the documents Patton had provided for him earlier. “So, what caused you to need a lawyer?”

Virgil seemed to draw in on himself. “Well, I want to get custody of my younger brother from my parents.”

Logan nodded, making a note on a clean sheet of paper. “Okay, and do you have any reasons to know that they are unfit parents? Any reasons to believe that you would be a better guardian?” He looked up, an apology in his eyes. “I’m sorry, dearest, you must understand that these are standard questions.”

Virgil squirmed slightly in his seat. “Dearest?”

Logan nodded, avoiding eye contact. “I have no excuse for that one.”

Virgil’s hand came across the desk to rest on Logan’s. “I wouldn’t expect an excuse. I guess I just didn’t expect an exclamation of love so soon after meeting. Then again, we met when I was born, didn’t we?”

Logan looked up at him and saw a look that his own face must have mirrored. “That’s right. I’ve known you all my life and couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.” After a period of silence, he cleared his throat and straightened the papers. “We should get back on track.”

Virgil nodded, settling back in his chair. “Right. Uhh, they are abusive to him. I’d never been abused by them but when Remus came knocking at my door with some large bruises on his wrists, I knew I had to do something.”

Logan nodded. “Okay, are you aware of a moment of instigation of the abuse? You mention not being abused yourself so I’m wondering if there is a specific thing about your brother that your parents saw but didn’t like.”

“He’s transgender. That’s the only thing I can think of that they don’t like about him. I mean, I’m pretty alternative and emo myself so I can’t imagine them snapping over something as simple as a teenager who plays music too loud or watches too many horror movies.”

Logan jotted a note down. “Okay, can we circle back around to my question of how you could make a better guardian? This is a simple argument we can use in court against your parents.”

“I have a stable income that is capable of providing for two people, he’s already been living at my place for a few weeks at the moment, and . . .  I’ve contacted my soulmate.” Logan looked up from his notes just in time to see Virgil wink at him.

“Flirt,” he muttered as he went back to his notes.

Virgil leaned forward, his face confident. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

Logan shook his head. “Nothing.” Looking back over his notes, he underlined certain things before looking back up at Virgil. “Okay, I think I’ll need to talk to Remus for a little bit but other than that, I think we might have a strong case. I will have to ask that you are not in the room while I talk to him but you can wait directly outside. The only reason for this is so I know he’s speaking of his own free will and isn’t allowing you to speak for him, which is something your parents might try to hold against us.”

Virgil nodded. “May I ask why you need to speak to him?”

“It’s to make sure that he understands what’s happening and is okay with you taking custody. I also have to ask him some cursory questions to know the extent of the abuse. I might also have to have some pictures taken of bruises as evidence for court.”

Virgil nodded, making a note on his arm. Logan smiled. Once that was done, Virgil leaned forward. “Are there any rules against dating your lawyer?”

Logan smiled along with him. “None that I can recall. Why, are you thinking about it?”

Virgil smirked. “Only if he’s willing to date me back.” Logan nodded, leaning forward in a silent invitation for a kiss, which Virgil accepted.

The case took a few months and was hard fought, but Virgil eventually got custody of Remus. He and Logan continued to date until Virgil and Remus moved in with Logan. The lawyer was the one to propose, much to his coworkers’ enjoyment. The wedding was a simple one but they were happy in their life. Logan asked Remus if he would prefer to be under only Virgil’s custody or if he wanted Logan to have joint custody and, when told Remus preferred the second option, quickly petitioned for joint custody, which was easily obtained. Their life was a busy one but it was happy, and it was theirs.

[nevergiveupneverrun]

Bodyguard - Chapter Sixty-Three “Back to reality”

Hello, how are you? Here is chapter Sixty-Three of my Story Bodyguard, yay!! I hope you will like this chapter.

I’m sorry in advance for the mistakes… English isn’t my first language and I do my best. Here is the link to the previous chapter: Click Here.

I hope you will enjoy this chapter :) 💛

        –––––––––––––––––––––––

- Do you want another coffee?

- I have already taken two, it will be fine, thank you. But maybe you, you need it?

I look down, uncomfortable, at his remark and his insinuation, barely concealed.

We have been seated, for several minutes, in the restaurant room of the hotel where clients are busy having breakfast. Minutes that seem like an eternity, so uncomfortable is the situation.

- Reassure me, won’t you let me do the talking to myself?

- I did not expect your coming… I answer, looking up.

- I understood well, indeed… he resumes with a smile.

- Listen, it’s not what you think… I tried awkwardly to justify myself.

- What do I think? You have nothing to explain to me.

- I don’t want you to have bad ideas.

He laughs briefly at my words, before speaking again.

- You know, I’m reassured, I would have been quite disappointed that you were both stubborn enough not to see the truth in the face.

- The truth?

- I don’t think I’m teaching you anything, if I tell you, that it’s not just a simple professional relationship that binds you, Amelia, and you…

- It was only one night… we both know it was one of our last moments together… nothing more… I finished softly and weakly.

- But you made the most of these few hours… it’s not like you to be still asleep at 11 am. She obviously kept you busy…

I look down again in a few minutes of intervals, embarrassed and turning red.

The images of the night enter my mind and amplify my confusion.

~~

Earlier - 5 a.m.

~~

A caress.

A mouth running into my heart.

Fingers that draw me conscientiously.

Lost halfway between sleeping and waking up, pleasant sensations gently bring me back to reality.

- Amelia? I ask in a passive voice marked by sleep.

- Congrats, Mr. Hunt, you did not get the wrong name… I hear near me, in a mocking voice.

- How do you want me to be wrong? You are the only woman who has occupied me full time for 6 months, I replied already more awake, but still keeping my eyes closed.

I feel two hands resting on my chest and leaning on me, while the whole expanse of a body hugs mine.

- The day… but am I also occupying your dreams? 

I finally open my eyes, surprised to discover a room still bathed in semi-darkness… but my attention quickly fixes on the face leaning over mine.

The image of this woman who haunts my thoughts and who broke the barriers of my heart.

- You obviously occupy my nights, it seems, I answer, extending my hand to touch her cheek.

- Precisely, the day has not yet risen, she begins shyly.

- So what? I ask, my eyes fixed on my hand strolling her skin.

I perceive her eyes closing under my gesture.

Her reaction fascinates me and fills my body with intense and lively heat.

Silence settles for a few seconds. I finally detach my hand and her eyes open immediately and dive into mine: a hypnotizing glow illuminates her pupils.

I have the impression of falling into this gaze which observes me so tenderly.

- The night is not over… we are still simply Owen and Amelia, she whispers.

I close my eyes for a few seconds, while my hands find her waist and position her above me.

- I’m not sure I understand, I resume in an innocent tone, finding her image.

Amelia’s hands slowly move up against my chest and finally settle on my shoulders. 

- You know very well what I mean… but you can also just admit that you are tired and that you need to rest… she whispers in my ear.

- I need a lot more to get tired, you know, I replied with a smile, thus fixing her on top of me.

- Really?

- Yes, I say. I am very enduring… and in everything I do… I end in a mysterious whisper.

- Men and their promises, Amelia replies, with undisguised teasing.

I get up at this moment, keeping her in my arms and repositioning ourselves to sit on the bed, as Amelia’s knees now encircle my waist.

We observe each other for a few seconds and the atmosphere changes radically: the fun gives way to an electrical tension between us.

I draw her face with my eyes, inscribing in my memory every detail, every line, every element that makes her so unique to me.

- Why are you looking at me like that? She whispers suddenly interrupting me in my contemplation.

- Like what?

- You look at me like… it’s the same look I saw when…

Her sentence is extinguished in a whisper without her completely revealing her thoughts to me.

- No man has looked at me like that… she finally resumes slightly.

- I never take my eyes off you, you know…

- Yes, that’s part of your old reflexes, she retorts with a smile.

- No, I never take my eyes off you, I repeat, insisting on each word.

Her gaze opens a little more following my answer.

Then I make out, captivated, a weak smile on her lips.

The glow in her eyes takes on a softer shade and shines brightly.

Wet reflections slip in, like emerging tears.

Her hands placed on my shoulders, go up in a caress, and rest delicately on my face.

- You are so mysterious, Mister Hunt. And just… irresistible… she whispers.

Her face gradually approaches mine, and she kisses me with infinite softness and tenderness. As no woman has kissed me until then.

Her head leans towards my ear, to slip me a few words that electrify my whole body.

- I want you even more now…

She takes a step back and I find her image: her simple words activated a familiar tension throughout my being and I feel the first signs of my growing male reactions.

While my heartbeat quickens…

- That’s a real problem, I don’t know if we’ll be able to find a solution…

My hands run over her back gently.

My lips quickly claim the contact of her skin: my mouth disappears into her neck, kissing her on a specific, particularly sensitive point as she instantly moans.

Amelia’s pelvis immediately starts sensual friction against me, which ends up arousing my desire for her, to an almost painful point.

- I think you can help me precisely… she indicates between two sighs.

My lips leave the refuge of her neck and hurriedly find her mouth.

The sensation of Amelia’s movements against me releases a passion that spreads over our kisses. A disorderly fight settles between us: by our caresses, our kisses, our sighs which rise always stronger…

My hips start to move imperceptibly in turn and naturally synchronize with those of Amelia.

My body is vibrating for one thing right now.

For her.

Only for her.

To be as one with her.

- O’… now…

Her almost pleading request breaks the melody of our jerky breaths and sighs.

I was only waiting for that… that she claims this connection, that she authorizes me to seal our two bodies in one.

I perceive her pelvis position against me. And gradually a heat envelops the most intimate part of my body. And as always with this woman who is definitively special to me, this unsettling and strange feeling resonates… the one that my body and hers are two parts of the same whole. Because there merge and fit closely just perfectly.

She remains motionless for a few seconds, sitting on top of me, our two intimately connected bodies, our deep and rapid breaths as a sound theme around us.

Then a back and forth first subtle more and more intense animates Amelia’s hip.

I quickly lose myself in the sensations.

I put my head into her neck, feeling her breathing and her moans intensify above me. My lips run aground on her skin to muffle my own sighs.

- Owen…

My name escapes her in a vibrant mixture bordering on pleading and screaming.

I had never heard my first name pronounced like this by anyone… with such a powerful erotic dimension… a mark of complete abandonment in the instant.

Her movements against me accelerate, revealing to me that she loses a little more control and I fall with her in the spiral of this pleasure so strong…

A few more back and forth and a deeper moan escapes Amelia’s lips to which I respond in turn.

It only takes a few seconds for us to catch our breath.

I take my face off her neck and look back at her face.

Her hands are firmly behind my neck.

Her eyes are closed.

Her magnificent and radiant face.

I smile as I contemplate her, moving my hands back and forth on her back before kissing her quickly.

I see a smile growing on her lips in the middle of our embrace.

My heart races a little more and I tip her against the bed, freeing my lips from hers. I quickly put my face back into her neck, to kiss her on this famous point that makes her vibrate more than any other.

I hear her laughter rise in the room at my eagerness and quickly pull back to observe her.

- Don’t you want to sleep now? She asks me while calming her laughter.

- Not really anymore, no… it’s my turn, I answer, covering her body perfectly with mine and shifting strands of hair that fell in front of her eyes.

- Your turn for what? 

I smile mischievously, then place my lips in the hollow of her ear, tilting my face.

- I remind you that you woke me up to take advantage of me…

- Precisely, are you not tired? She retorts, the breath already faster.

I lift my face to look at her: I express my gaze over her, full length, while my body is already waking up in parallel.

- Maybe in four hours… I whisper kissing delicately her breast.

Her laughter echoes again and vibrates under my lips…

~~

- Owen? Hey, Owen, are you here with me?

A frank and supported question rises in front of me and brings me back to the present moment.

- Yes, excuse me, I answer, refocusing my attention on the man sitting in front of me.

- You seemed to be lost in your thoughts for a few seconds… so as I told you, this is the accessory you were waiting for… he indicates, indicating with his hand, a rectangular box of a mat black.

- You didn’t have to come in person to bring it to me, Nathan… I thought a courier should play this role.

- Absolutely, but I did not inform you of the identity of this courier, he continues with a smile. Open and tell me if it matches.

I slide the object on the table to place it right in front of me, then gently open it.

A velvet case is revealed in the heart of which rests a silver necklace, illuminated in its center by a butterfly-shaped pendant, decorated with bluish stones.

The jewel is beautiful… perfect.

- We have followed your indiction for the “butterfly“ motif of the necklace and you will see in its center, it is not a stone, but a push-button… if Amelia feels in danger, she will just have to press it to alert us.

I nod while contemplating the jewel when Nathan’s words suddenly make me react.

- Us?

- I didn’t come just to bring you this accessory, Owen… I intend to stay to give you a hand… I’m sure I can be of use to you in Jackson’s absence.

- Nathan, you are not…

- So, here is the material for us to stay in contact, he continues, cutting me off, revealing the earpieces with a microphone so that we can communicate as well as two beepers, probably connected to the necklace mechanism.

- Is it Jackson’s idea? I ask a little bewildered by Nathan’s direct involvement in my mission.

- I actually spoke with Jackson, who revealed to me his concern given the stakes of the event and the very strong threat that hangs over… but he didn’t ask me anything, I made the decision myself to come, he confides seriously. Owen, it would be unconscious to think that you will be able to do everything on your own… I know you are one of the best, if not the best element I have seen in my career, but you need a back-up, given the circumstances… it is a professional who planned to act… there will not be even with two to block his way.

I lower my gaze, letting Nathan’s analysis resonate in me. And as always, he was right all along. Having him by my side was an asset that I could not refuse out of pride. Amelia’s life was at stake…

- What makes me such an implication from you? It is not really an official mission for the government…

- No, effectively, consider it as a mutual aid… between friends… this mission is not official, but it is important and special in your eyes, this young woman is dear to your heart…

I do not reply to this remark. This chronic embarrassment, when it comes to evoking feelings, assails me again: even more discomfort under Nathan’s attention… this man took a place of mentor… with this fear of disappointing and revealing myself that crystallizes under his gaze.

- Amelia is a beautiful person… she is sincere with you, do not doubt it…

I look up and smile slightly at Nathan. I knew too well what he implied… this past that haunts me. This past which blocks me and dominates me despite myself…

- By the way, you better go back up to find her, I’ll stay here and you let me know when we can get briefed for the ceremony?

I pause, get up before keeping my attention for long seconds on my long-time ally… an ally who proves to me again at this moment that I can count on him, in all circumstances.

- Thank you, Nathan…

He smiles widely at me while handing me the necklace box in his hand.

- Don’t forget that, see you later.

I leave the room after a last knowing smile at Nathan and join the elevator.

~~~

I find myself facing our suite in a few minutes and slide the key into the lock.

I enter the room as gently as possible, and close the door behind me, without being able to avoid a pronounced squeak.

I walk a little more in the room and my heart accelerates slightly.

Instead of finding a sleeping Amelia, it’s an empty bed that welcomes me.

The sheets are pulled to the side, a pillow has fallen to the floor.

I put the necklace box on the central table, next to my gun, which unconsciously captures my attention.

- Amelia?

I sweep the suite with my eyes in a few seconds.

Tension arises as no answer to echoes my question.

I had only been away for an hour at the most… would that be the extra hour when I was not by her side for him to act?

I go to the alcove, but only find my small suitcase… nothing abnormal.

Everything is in the same position.

I turn around and my gaze is fixed on a closed-door: the one to the bathroom…

I move energetically towards this room before knocking on the wood.

- Amelia? Are you here?

Still silence.

My hand grabs the handle and I activate it immediately, already fearing to discover an empty room.

I enter the room without hesitation… and my heart races.

My eyes are drawn to the silhouette in front of me, covered with a tiny towel that reaches mid-thigh.

- Owen?

She immediately turns around and removes the headphones from her iPod.

- What is happening? She asks me, worried, pulling the towel against her.

- Uh… nothing… you didn’t answer, I thought… excuse me, I let you prepare yourself… I say by lowering my eyes, to detach myself from her silhouette widely offered to my look.

- Okay, I hurry.

- Take your time, I’ll wait for you in the suite… I conclude by stepping back before closing the bathroom door behind me.

I run a hand over my face while feeling a shiver run through me.

For a few seconds, I thought of the worst.

In the most painful of my failures.

~~~

The day was going to be very long.

~~~

More than ever, I was not going to take my eyes off her… to prevent a nightmare from taking shape and interfering in reality.

           –––––––––––––––––––––––

Thank you for reading. Stay safe 💛

[bandrlodge]

Just My Type

Bucky x Plus Size Original Female Character: Briar Hawthorne

Chapter Summary: Briar experiences 6° of separation

Chapter warnings: general buffoonery, recreational drug usage (marijuana)

Chapter One: Design Client Anonymous

Briar smirked, pulling her coffee cup from the cabinet. Another night, another Natasha one nighter. Of course, she'd hurried them out as she heard her roommate stirring. She pulled Nat's comically small mug from the cabinet as well and prepped both of their drinks. One sugar for Nat. Five sugars and a heavy splash of Coldstone's Sweet Cream Creamer, for her cup. Briar heard the patter of her footsteps down the steps as she was topping off her mug.

"Morning, Nat." She smiled, sliding the mug over. She grumbled, ruffling a hand through her thick, red hair. Briar settled back against the counter, adjusting the neck of her oversized Manson shirt before grabbing the coffee.

"So...how was last night?" Briar asked. She sipped the coffee, relishing the warm hug now rushing through her bones. Natasha chuckled and downed her mug full in one gulp.

"Let's leave it with, slimy yet...satisfying." Briar gagged.

"Fuck you, you nasty bitch."

Natasha laughed, "I've offered, several times."

Briar shook her head, "I don't fuck where I sleep."

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense." They heard a voice call. Briar's head snapped over to our balcony door, which was now closing on a very disheveled Clint Barton. His hoodie hung off his frame, obviously torn in a fight. Clint, was a character; the only one of Natasha's group that was ever allowed to meet her. She loved him and couldn't count the number of times he'd shown up, carrying pizza and begging to rewatch Avatar. One time, he'd even brought a dog, Lucky. From that moment on, he'd had a permanent invitation and open door to their place. Other than him, no one had ever been allowed inside the apartment and in the four years she had known Natasha, she'd never met a single friend other than Clint.

For good reason though; living with a semi retired Avenger was dangerous. She never wanted to try and draw more attention to our friendship and home by bringing home extras. Well, high profile extras, according to her.

"No one asked you, bird brain." Brisr smiled. Clint perched himself beside me on the counter, snatching the half full coffee pot from its machine and taking a swig straight from it.

She rolled her eyes and simply took another drink of her own, having learned long ago any war involving coffee was a war that would never be won with Clint.

"Oh yeah, Nat, uhm...Boss wants to talk to you. Says you should probably call him, like...an hour ago."

"So, we arent gonna address the bloodied knuckles and tattered clothes?" Briar cocked an eyebrow and glanced between the two. Nat shook her head, "Probably not. I'm gonna go make this call." A moment later she was gone, leaving poor Briar at the mercy of the blonde coffee fiend.

Clint finished off the remainder of the coffee sitting in the pot and scooted closer to me, bumping his shoulder against my own.

"So, how's work going?" He wiggled his eyebrows, flashing his side cocked smile. laughed, raking a hand through my hair. Her finger snagged into a blue tendril and pulling at it absently while she answered,

"Honestly? It's fine. That's it. I expected a bit more from a high profile firm. I took two cases from the lead designer and one from a coworker at their behest, but, there isn't too much to go around." Briar had switched from a solo home design firm almost eight months before. While being her own boss was pretty much heaven, she needed health insurance and there was no way she could afford those payments on my own. So, she took the newest Senior Designer spot at Legendary Interiors and the rest was history. Even with the small work load currently, Briar was pretty lucky with them. The base pay was substantial and there was always a fifteen percent commission for Senior levels. She had her health insurance and not once had she been asked to remove her piercings, change her hair color, or cover her tattoos.

"But, I'm lucky. So, I don't wanna complain too much. Plus...you should see the room I'm working on now. The case came nameless to me, but, the space is amazing. From what I can tell, I actually have the space to do all of the projects I've come up with. The proposal is being sent in on Monday afternoon. Hopefully..." Briar took a large breath, "its accepted." Clint nudged her,

"You're fantastic, Briar. It will be" He hopped off the counter, putting the now empty pot back into it's holder and held out his hand.

"Show it to me, Smurfette."

Briar laughed at him and abandoned her coffee cup to drag Clint down the hall to the design room. She flipped the light switch and pulled him over to the light table. Rough sketches of a modern penthouse with multiple greenery patches throughout the floorplan lay upon the table, littered with various colored ink marks. Clint sat on the stool and studied them for a few moments, chiding the blue haired woman for biting on her nails whilst he was doing so.

"This is great, B. The greenery you've used is so...oddly placed but, it works."

She squealed, "That's what I was going for. The client is a war veteran with severe PTSD. I wanted him to have the modern space he requested, but...he originally just asked for a little spot in the house to retreat to. But, I put a bunch of spaces around the house. Triggers arent confined to one space. So, why should his self care depend on getting to one specific area?"

Clint nodded along with her rambling, something obviously ticking away in that big brain of his.

She smacked his shoulder softly to get his attention, "Whatcha thinking, bird brain?"

He turned to look at his friend, a shit eating smirk plastered on his face.

"I know whose space you're designing."

________<_________<________<________<_____

Bucky had sent the proposal for a new design over to Legendary six weeks ago. By now, he had hoped to see at least a rough sketch. Except for a few short email exchanges between himself and the Vice President of Design, he had no information on who had taken his project nor, what they were doing with it.

He pulled out his phone and shot a text to Tony,

'You said that design place was the best, right?'

Not a moment later: 'Yes, tin man. Who got your project? Katherine? Jonas?'

'I don't know, Tony. I haven't heard from anyone other than Camille. She didn't give my name to the designer like I asked, which I appreciate, but I don't know whose working on it.'

Bucky managed to fix himself a hot cup of lavender tea before Tony responded with a name and a phone number.

'Her name is Briar Hawthorne. She's been with them eight months and is their newest Senior Designer. Camille gave it to her specially. That's her cell phone number. I had to schmooze for that. Use it wisely, old man.'

Bucky laughed, Tony schmoozing on his behalf was still jarring. But, thankfully, the past decided to stay in the past after the Thanos affair. There was too much to rebuild and too much to cherish now, there wasn't time for wallowing in past mistakes. He sat on his bed, pulling a sleeping Alpine tightly to his side and shot a message over to Briar.

Hopefully, he could get some information on his damn apartment design.

______<________<________<_______<______<__

Briar sat on the balcony, weary eyed, and staring at the text message on her phone. She took another inhale of her joint and leaned her head back against the egg shaped hanging chair she was in. An exhale later she was typing her fifth attempt at a response to him.

She took another drag of the joint and recalled finding out the identity of her client.

Clint had laughed for a good five minutes. Chuckling at the absolute fucking serendipity he was watching unfold. Natasha had come in as he was dying down and as soon as he told her - in a hushed whisper between two very best friends - she had also spent a full five dying from laughter.

Turns out, the client was none other than Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. A.k.a. the Winter Soldier. Natasha had complemented the decision on the multiple greenery spaces for relaxtion and meditation, saying that the Sergeant would like that idea. Clint had teased Natasha about how she couldn't hog their Smurfette anymore, knowing that the team would likely attach themselves to Briar quickly.

She reread the text for the hundredth time.

'Hi, Ms. Hawthrone.

My name is James Barnes, and I am the client whose penthouse you are designing currently. I know originally I asked to remain anonymous but, I wanted to check the progress on the design. I've not recieved any sort of update.

Thank you, again. '

He seemed so formal. Briar was stuck on how to respond, wondering if she should mention Natasha or if she should just be professional.

'Mr. Barnes,

Thank you for reaching out. I apologize that you have not been provided with regular updates but, I can tell you that the draft proposal and cost summary will be available to you on your account dashboard on Monday. I submitted my idea to Camille yesterday afternoon. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any other questions or concerns.

- Briar Hawthorne'

Professional, succinct.

Boring.

She hit send and stuffed the phone down beside her thigh in hopes that the cushion on the chair would muffle the vibrations so she could ignore it should he respond. Briar finished out her joint and pulled another from her cigarette case and lit it up.

She felt the dooming buzz of an incoming message on her thigh and groaned.

It was James.

'Could we maybe meet tomorrow and go over the plans together? I would feel better going over the plans with the actual designer. Not her boss.

And call me Bucky. All my friends do.'

So, they were friends now? She chuckled and settled back into the chair again.

Meeting a client off the clock could go wrong, there was no telling if she'd face repercussions on Monday.

But, the opportunity to present her project on her terms in her words...

'Yeah, sure. I can do a full layout set up on my design wall here at the house. Just text Natasha for the address. She doesn't let me give it out. She's a weird roommate.

And call me, Briar.'

There. She threw it in.

The frustrated groan yell from inside the house a moment later meant that Bucky was quicker on the draw than she would have thought.

_______<_________<___________<_________<__

JMT tag: @sea040561 @heli0s-writes @suz-123

Thank you to you, reading this. Yeah, you. You're awesome.

[talesofpanem]

Tattoo Fixers : Panem

Author: @thegirlfromoverthepond

Rating: T

Summary: Katniss needs someone to fix a bad tattoo.

AN: Deepest, deepest thanks to the amazing @xerxia31 who beta-ed this piece.

Even though I liked the prompt, it took me times to find the idea for this story - until I watched my TV, which prompted an episode of Tattoo Fixers - London. Maybe some of you from the EuroClub know about it ? Anyways, here is my take at this week’s prompt.

Hope you have fun.

_____________

She would be fascinated by the ballet of assistants running around the shop if she wasn’t embarrassed to be sitting there, being prepped by a team of make-up artists and a hairdresser. 

Just looking at the people putting mascara on her eyebrows or trying to tame her hair was a spectacle in itself, with their tattoos poking out from under every bit of clothing, along with piercings or blue hair. 

Katniss felt utterly out of place, waiting for her turn to appear on a television show she didn’t even want to go on. Alas, it was the only free way to fix something she had regretted since she had woken up after a particularly drunken night with her cousin Gale.

It was all Gale’s fault. It had been the day of her father’ funeral, the day after Gale buried his own. After the ceremony, after everyone had gone home, Gale had taken Katniss out. She hadn’t asked, just silently nodded when he had grabbed the keys of his father’s old pickup, heading out to their favorite spot in town, to get drunk.

In the hopes they could forget the void left by their fathers.

They had spent hours in that bar, drinking until they couldn’t drink anymore, until everything faded into blackness. The next morning, however, they’d woken up together in the bed of the pickup truck, each sporting the mother of all hangovers and a lovely souvenir of their evening

Apparently, they had somehow found their way to a tattoo parlor.

Since that night, Gale had sported a wonderful peacock on his biceps, which he still found funny all these  years later.

Katniss wasn’t as lucky. She all but hated the cartoonish, badly drawn bow and arrow on the inside of her forearm. The only good thing about it was its size - tiny, so a wristband could cover it easily. She took to wearing one everyday. Solid. In leather.

Arrow. Her father’s name, had been inked forever on her arm. She would have loved it if she had been able to choose the drawing properly, instead of having been branded with a cupid-ike tattoo design.

Hence her presence on the set of Tattoo Fixers, a reality show where talented tattoo artists helped people cover up their tattoo disasters with gorgeous works of inked art. 

Removing the tattoo was way too expensive for her bank account. But Prim had convinced her to share her story with all the whole country, risking the humiliation of being branded as a drunk crazy woman on cable TV.

Wonderful.

“Katniss? You’re on in five,” a young assistant told her, making the team of preppers buzz around her like there was a breach in a beehive. One man, Flavius she thought his name was, because why not, was complaining about the state of her nails, how chipped they were, how he couldn’t do miracles, how he couldn’t find time to fit in a manicure in the remaining five minutes.

“I’m a botanist. It would be destroyed by tomorrow anyway.” She shrugged the thought away, almost taking pleasure in the disgusted look on his face. Take that, Flavius.

When the assistant came back, all smiles and happy mood, Katniss followed her out of the parlor and onto the street. Just like any other participant, she would have to walk to the shop, entering as if she was a totally random client.

Bull.Shit.

The only random part was which tattoo artist she would choose. At least she would be surprised by their drawings.

This was staged TV, reality-TV. She usually couldn’t stand it. 

She sighed, taking her place ion the street.

“Remember, start walking when the director shouts ‘Action!’” 

Katniss resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

She started walking as casually as possible when she was told to, entering the shop as naturally as she could manage, trying to avoid laughing at the host’s attire of the day. Nobody ever bothered telling Caesar Flickerman that he might be colorblind. Today, he was mixing  a flashy orange shirt with beautiful purple bermuda shorts. No doubt the episode would air in summer.

“Here is our next client!” Caesar sounded a little too enthusiastic at her entrance into the parlor. “What’s your name, darling?” He took her hand, helping her sit on the couch facing the one where the three tattoo artists were sitting.

She took a deep breath before answering, hoping her voice didn’t falter. 

As she explained why she was there, Katniss took a good look at the three people in front of her, mentally thanking Prim for the briefing she’d given Katniss before she left that morning.

There was the woman, Jo, whose body was almost fully covered in tattoos and piercings. Only her face remained pristine, making her red hair stand out. She was sitting next to Finnick, who as the star tattooist of the program was sitting between his two colleagues. Finnick’s body was a work of art. Prim had swooned over it for much too long when she had briefed her sister, showing Katniss pictures of the man who appeared to live his life shirtless. Katniss had then been privy to the numerous tattoos that adorned his back, a chinese setting, dragon included. 

She had seen several shots of him, of his so perfect body that made women of all ages swoon over him. Of course, Katniss was well aware of the dispatch of muscles, the Greek-god physique Finnick had, and fully expecting to be struck with lust as soon as she laid eyes on him in person. Yet nothing happened.

Nothing. At. All.

She was much more intrigued by the third tattooist, sitting next to Finnick. If Jo was a picture of the bad girl, Finnick the perfection, this third person was something else. He screamed “normal”, standing out from the two others, in Katniss’ opinion. Maybe it was because she couldn’t see a single tattoo on him, not even the required tribal band around his biceps.

There was something about his blue eyes, about his messy blond air that made her look at him more than the two others. Something that attracted her.

“This is Peeta, but we call him Peet. He’s the newcomer as Cato decided he needed a year off,” Finnick said and Peeta smiled. “So, how do you want us to cover the tattoo? Any specific request?”

“Well, nothing arrow-esque, or cupid-like. I’d like something that’s more inspired by nature,” she said. She just wanted the stupid bow and arrow to be covered.

Both Finnick and Jo grabbed their sketchbooks and started to draw. But she could feel Peeta’s eyes on her, lingering for a few seconds before he in turn, dived in.

“Well, tell us about you, Kathy?” Caesar said,making idle conversation to allow the tattooists time to finish their drawings.

“It’s Katniss, actually. Nothing thrilling, I’m a botanist and I live with my sister, Primrose.”

“Oh, that’s nice, she’s named for a flower!”

Katniss couldn’t help rolling her eyes. She knew this part would be cut because nobody really cared about the chit chat between a host and someone they would forget as soon as she left the office. 

“Just like I am, it’s kind of a family tradition.”

“And you’re a florist! Isn’t it amazing.”

“I’m a botanist, but not far away.”

She was already over her talk with the host. A talk she was quite sure only lasted a few minutes, still felt like two long days. 

“We’re ready, Kitty Kat. Here’s my drawing.” Jo handed over her sketchbook, on which a beautiful cat was displayed. With red fun, he would have been a striking copy of her sister’s cat, Buttercup, aka the bane of her existence. “You strike me as independent and very focused, hence, the cat.”

“It’s beautiful, Jo, thank you,” Katniss said, as she took in the beautiful shape of the cat’s ear, the detailed eyes. The woman had talent.

“I went for something more… natural,” Finnick said. “ I hope you like it!” He handed her his sketchbook, then leaned back on the couch, taking a sugarcube out of his pocket before popping it in his mouth.

On the page in front of her was a display of gorgeous intertwining orchid flowers.

 “I can do them in different shades, like a watercolor painting, you know?” Finnick added, as Katniss stared in awe.

“It’s lovely, wow, I wasn’t expecting that, Finnick.” Between the two drawings, her choice was made. She wasn’t even sure Peeta would be able to compete.

“She’ll pick mine, guys, I’m ready to bet ten bucks!” Finnick lifted his arms in victory. 

“It doesn’t have to be a big one, right?” Katniss asked, hoping his answer would be a no.

“It can be whatever you desire, sweetheart.” Finnick’s voice was sugary, and his green eyes sparkled as he winked at her.

Which made Katniss roll her eyes.

“Well, Finnick, this one’s immune to your charms.” Peeta’s voice, amused, chimed in. “Katniss, here is my take for your tattoo.”

She put down Finnick’s sketchbook to take Peeta’s. There were no words to describe her feelings when she looked down at the drawing on the paper. She had expected something somewhere between Jo and Finnick’s like an animal in nature, or just a drawing of a beach, absolutely not what she had before her eyes.

Peeta had drawn a wave.

A single, simple wave.

Yet, the closer she looked, the more details she could see. The wave was made entirely of flowers.

Primroses and katniss were braided together with such precision, with such attention, it was mesmerizing.

From two feet away the drawing looked like a wave.

But to her, for the closer her eyes got, it was a flower wall.

She opened her mouth to talk, to express how incredible she found the drawing.

No words came out.

She had to take a deep breath before gathering her thoughts before she was able to talk again.

“This. This is what I want.” 

“Shall we go, then?” Peeta asked, rising from the couch.

She nodded her agreement before following him to the back.

She was glad the cameras didn’t filming the whole process. They were busy filming other segments with other “clients”. 

“What prompted you to draw this? I mean I had no idea that was what I wanted until you showed me…” she asked.

“Your talk with Caesar. You told him you were a botanist, that it was a tradition to have flower names in your family. So I checked what Katniss was. It came up with sagit-something…”

“Sagittaria sagittifolia.,” she said under her breath.

He laughed, as he charged his machine with ink.

“Yes, that. You said you live with your sister, and I remembered you told us you got this awful thing after a funeral so I added one and one… You must have a pretty close relationship with your sister.”

“Yeah, we do …..” She was watching him come closer with his machine. She had a question, though. “How do I know you can tattoo? I mean, you don’t even have any of your own?”

“I do have one tattoo, but it’s hidden. I’m not as extrovert as Finn and Jo.”

“I noticed.. Could I see it ?”

“Well, it would involve you seeing me at least half naked… “

She blushed. “Oh, my, sorry…”

“No need to apologize. I did Finn’s dragon, and can show you pictures of previous works I’ve done,  if you need references …. “

“It’s okay, I trust you.”

He smiled, a gentle, kind, warm smile at her words.

As soon as he started working on her forearm the cameras returned. He explained the steps he was taking, using the shape of the bow for the wave, the body of the arrow to line up the braids of flowers.

“It’s done. You can look.” His voice took her by surprise.  She looked down, finding herself at a loss for words, again.

There was no way she would hide this one under a wristband.

After the mandatory shots for the TV, Peeta was wrapping her arm in cello, when he asked.

“I kinda won twenty bucks earlier, thanks to you. Want to share it with a tea?”

“No,” she answered. As his face fell, she added, “But I’d love a hot chocolate with whipped cream, if you know a place.”

He knew a place.

(Turned out he had a tree of life tattoo along his ribcage. She could spend hours tracing it with her fingers. Or her tongue.)

[kristie-rp]

we don’t have to dance | leo & rita

“Did you see what Dolores was wearing?”

“I know, right? It’s like she thinks she’s half her age!”

Leo excuses himself from the insipid nattering and schoolgirl giggling of the more permanent members of the biology and genetic department of PLU, feigning a need for another drink. It’s an act, but he still goes to the counter and deduces what the least foul tasting thing is on the menu, settling on bourbon and removing it from the barman with absolutely no patience.

He regrets agreeing to come to post-networking drinks with the department staff. He attended the formal little party attempted by the university, forging connections he didn’t need, playing a part he didn’t have much of a use for except as a means of social experimentation. The girls – specifically Enid or Ella or Eris, even, for all the discord she seems to be sewing – asked him along and, after enough badgering, he’d resigned himself to agreeing. Only after a promise that this would be the last time this semester had he agreed, and even that had been pushing the limits of his willingness to socialise. Particularly when it turned out their location of choice was Clandestine, a bar-club hybrid home to heavily discounted drinks if clients could prove they’d taken to filling the dancefloor.

Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed with the grinding mass he had to dodge to get what he wanted.

“What do you know, professors do exist outside of class.”

Leo stifles a groan, pasting on a mild smile and turning. “Yes, well, I have been told that leaving the classroom is healthy sometimes – Miss Partridge,” he adds, somewhat surprised to see her. She’d been in the front row of a lecture he’d given on developmental theory, with an emphasis on biology and genetics too advanced for most of the class, there to satisfy an elective. Miss Partridge had argued with him off and on throughout the lecture, and when she wasn’t, she was scrawling notes, her handwriting spidery and cramped when Leo got a look at her notebook. He’d taken her for a curious busybody, clever and enjoyable to argue with, but hadn’t expected to run into her again so soon – let alone outside a classroom. “Finished your homework, Miss Partridge?”

She scoffs and grins, which he notes mostly because it doesn’t seem to reach her eyes. He wonders, initially, if the dim lighting are minimising her expressions, but no – a flash of light as the bartender switches something on behind the bar, and he’s confirmed she’s forcing a larger smile than he thinks seems at home on her face. “I was done before it was given a due date,” she claims, and he raises a brow in response. “And call me Rita, please. Miss Partridge is my sister.”

“That seems unlikely, then, Rita. And did any of my lecture content prove useful?”

“Did anything in your lecture on genetic abnormalities and expression of unique genes prove useful to an assignment on education-development development? No. It was more interesting, though, I’ll give you that.”

He opens his mouth to ask another question – namely, to figure out what she’s actually studying, because those topics seem at odds, and she clearly understands the more advanced content he prefers – but the music flares louder, catching both their attention as the lights die and a spotlight roves the crowd.

“Oh no,” Rita says, barely audible to him over the audience chanting – it takes him a moment to parse the slurred chaos: dance, dance, dance. He remembers, too, one of the reasons Clandestine is so dearly loved by much younger people: the dancelight, a spotlight controlled by the DJ who picks out a couple and tries to force them on each other.

He’s not particularly surprised when the spotlight lands on them, if he’s honest.

Rita is chewing on her lip when Leo looks at her again, but she pastes that strained smile back on and grabs his hand, dragging him from the bar and towards a door, away from the dance floor. The crowd whoops and the DJ announces another successful match, turning the spotlight on the masses again; he thinks he hears maybe-Eris cheering him specifically as the door swings shut behind them.

“Look,” Rita starts, not giving him a moment to take in the alley back-entrance to the club. “I was going to attempt flirting and waste probably far too much time building this up, but I don’t actually want a romantic connection. You’re smart, and that’s hot as anything I can come up with myself, and I could pay heed to culturally ingrained disapproval of overt sexual advances, but frankly that sounds boring and exhausting, so. Are you attracted to me or not?”

Leo blinks, looking at Rita properly. Her appearance caught his attention to start with – orange hair is unusual in their society, at least enough that they stand out, and despite her clearly being ginger, she isn’t freckled; her skin is almost flawless, an ethereal quality to it in the grey half-light that came in through the classroom window where he first encountered her. Now, she’s dressed for a club, her dress tight and black and flattering, but she’s pulled a coat on over the top, apparently sensible and dressed to be rained on, as is certainty in Port Lyndon. She isn’t smiling, none of that forced farce from earlier so much as hinted at. Her eyes – they hold a spark that draws him in, and when she opens her mouth, she is constantly surprising, intelligent and well-reasoned and with a clever, sharp wit that she wields like a knife.

“I’d take you here against the wall, if you’d let me,” he says.

She nods, once, sharply, and steps closer, kissing him intently, all passion and fury he expected, when he imagined doing this after the one class he’s led with her. “Not in an alley,” she murmurs against his lips, returning to a kiss.

They don’t have to dance, or smile, or be friends, or anything like that; she is not interested in social tedium, and she has made that abundantly clear. So he escorts her back to his apartment, and has her again and again and again, fucked into the mattress, with her riding him, with him tasting her directly, drinking from the source, lapping it up as she rewards his ministrations by cumming again and again.

He wakes the next morning to grey light in the window, rolling onto his side to find Rita sitting on the edge of his bed, pulling her clothing back on. Her tight black dress had turned out to be a precisely matched top and skirt, and she is pulling the top on now, over the top of her bare chest. He hums in faint protest as she covers herself, and she casts a glance over her shoulder, no sentiment in her gaze as she knocks aside his questing hands. “I have a class in 30 minutes,” she says, clearly uninterested. He blinks at her, half expecting whiplash for the change from last night, which she was abundantly, vocally interested in. “Thanks.”

She collects her belongings and leaves, smelling of sex and looking almost too put together, leaving him with a hard-on that seems to want her, and far too many questions. He sits up in bed to dwell on them, sheets falling around him, frowning at the reflection of a well-fucked man cast by the mirror attached to the wardrobe door.

They aren’t friends, he thinks. They only on a first name basis because she flinches whenever she hears her own surname. They fell into bed because she didn’t want to dance with him, and, admittedly, because he had no interest in dancing himself; what they did instead was preferable, and he’s happy to have done it, and he doesn’t have any regrets, but – but. He isn’t any closer to solving the riddle of Rita Partridge, and maybe that’s the most frustrating thing. If this happens again – when it happens again – he resolves to talk more, to get some answers, instead of more questions.

(It happens again, and again, and again, until Rita moves on from college and becomes more and more occupied with whatever it is she seems to be doing to fund college. He has very few answers, and the questions only increase, but – but. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.)

[katymacsupernatural]

Bad Day at Black Rock

Sam Winchester x Reader

3000 Words

This is a rewrite of the episode, Bad Day at Black Rock. It is loosely based off the episode, where I have taken quite a few liberties. This is written for @wi-deangirl77 and her Favorite Episode writing challenge. The chosen gif and quote are both highlighted in the story.

The Supernatural world surrounded you. Monsters and hunters. Legends and artifacts. They were your life, and you had known nothing else since you could walk. There had been times you had wished for more. A simple life, going to high school, finding a boyfriend and a normal job. But you enjoyed what you did, even if many people didn’t understand.

You weren’t a hunter, not even close. Your Dad had been a hunter, but more than that, he had been a collector of ancient artifacts. Artifacts hundreds of years old. Items that could kill a person with just one touch, or bring a person unmeasurable wealth. That was what you were interested in. Not the killing of the monsters, but the rare, valuable items that people would seek for a hefty price.

Now, ten years after your Father’s death, you had taken the name he had made for himself, and made an even bigger business with it. Sought out by people and monsters alike, it kept you on your toes, traveling back and forth across multiple continents, hardly ever making it back to your home, located in the upscale neighborhood of Queen, New York.  

Another job, this one much closer to town. A lucky talisman, one told to bring great fortune to whoever held it, before turning to horrible luck. Your client, a wealthy man in Egypt had offered a seven figure number if you brought it to him by tomorrow evening. You hadn’t dared mention the bad luck turned to death factor, you hadn’t figured it was your place.

Hiring a couple of goons was easy enough. Simple humans who would do anything for a couple of bucks. It seemed simple enough, break into a forgotten storage unit, and bring back the box, unopened. But nothing in the Supernatural world was ever simple. The storage unit turned out to belong to the Winchesters, a notorious hunting family that you had only heard about. Guarded profusely by sigils and booby traps, your men had gotten hurt, but had grabbed the item nonetheless.

But instead of turning it over to you as instructed, they had kept it for themselves, opening the box and touching the blasted rabbit’s foot even though you had specifically told them not too. Frustrated, you had tossed together a quick overnight bag, climbing into your porsche, speeding the hour long drive towards that sleepy little town, knowing that you would have to get your hands dirty in order to meet your client’s deadline.

Sam’s POV

“What is that thing?” Dean asked me as we left that filthy apartment building behind us. Glancing down to where the item was clutched tightly in my hand, slowly relaxing my muscles to peer down at the fluffy white rabbit’s foot.

“I think it’s a rabbit’s foot,” I muttered. “Why the hell would someone steal a rabbit’s foot?”

“Beat’s me,” Dean grumbled as we climbed into the Impala. “All I know is my gun never freezes like that. Maybe it’s some sort of good luck charm.”

“Then why would it be locked in a spelled box?” I wondered out loud. “Why would Dad have it so covered in spells that it would be undetectable by most people.”

“I have no clue,” Dean mumbled, keeping his eyes, “But I’m starving. “Let’s get some food, and we’ll call Bobby. He’ll probably know what to do.”

After Dean made a quick stop at the gas station, we pulled into the parking lot of the local Biggerson’s. It was literally one of Dean’s favorite places to eat, especially on free pie days. As I sat next to Dean, reluctantly scratching the lotto tickets he kept handing me, he was on the phone with Bobby. “Yeah Bobby, it was this fluffy white rabbit’s foot…..Yeah, it was in a box.”

I scratched the next ticket, handing them to Dean, listening to his side of the conversation. As Dean sat there, listening intently, I climbed out of the car, needing to stretch my legs. My mind wandering, I noticed something in the weeds. Leaning down, I picked up the shiny Rolex, holding it out to Dean who was out of the Impala, still on the phone with Bobby. Giving me a thumbs up, he held out the scratch tickets, a huge smile on his face.

Shaking my head, I walked back to the Impala just as Dean hung up the phone. “So, what’s the verdict?”

“Bobby says that whoever’s holding the rabbit’s foot has the best of luck. And we’re talking finding money everywhere, everything goes your way,” Dean started explaining, holding up the scratch tickets. “Like this. Sammy, we’ve one 75,000 dollars!”

“What’s the catch?” I asked him, knowing there had to be. There had to be a reason this fluffy talisman had been locked up.

Dean frowned, letting me know my gut was right. “Well, as soon as the person loses it, their luck turns south. And we’re not just talking black cat crossing your path. We’re talking horrible luck until it kills you.”

Wrinkling my nose, I squeezed the foot. “Then I won’t lose it!”

With that assurance, Dean and I headed straight into Biggerson’s, right up to the host who was looking at us rather strangely. “Table for two,” I told him right before balloons started falling down, and he started clapping.

“Congratulations!” He exclaimed, holding up a huge sign. “You’re our 1,000 guest!”

Dean seemed caught up in the celebration, but I just made sure to hold on to the Talisman, waiting until we were finally seated at our table. “Wow, that’s the best,” Dean mumbled, his mouth full of pie. “We can have all the pie we want now, Sammy.”

Your POV

Walking into that apartment, you could immediately tell something was wrong. It took only a couple of minutes to find out my instinct had been right. One man was dead, the other completely distraught. The rabbit’s foot taken by a couple of men, leaving my deadline looming dangerously close. This client was not a man you wanted to get on the wrong side of.

After spending ten minutes with the distraught goon you had hired, you finally found out who the men were. Of course it was the Winchesters, you muttered to yourself, brushing your clothes free of dust before climbing into your car. You knew exactly where to find these Winchester’s. You just hoped you were clever enough to get away with it before they caught on to your little game.

Parking in the restaurant’s full lot, you reached into your backseat, pulling out your small little case you kept for emergencies. Inside were only the essentials. Makeup and colored contacts. A couple of wigs. Some name tags. Things that would get you in and out unnoticed.

Changing your h/c for a blonde wig, you added some red lipstick, a little blush to your cheeks. Subtle but enough to make you look like a different person. Taking a deep breath, you waited until the back door opened, slipping inside unnoticed.

The place was hopping, waitresses rushing back and forth. No one noticed when you picked up a tray, placing a coffee pot on it. With your eyes downcast, you made your way through the restaurant, unobtrusively looking for the two men who had the rabbit’s foot. You had searched them almost six months ago, needing to know as much about them as possible. Knowing that someday you would no doubt run into them. Your quick thinking had paid off, and know you easily recognized the two men sitting in one of the booths, Dean stuffing his face full of pie. It was the other man, with his shaggy mahogany hair, who was staring down at his laptop that you were interested in. He was handsome in his picture, his hazel eyes mesmerizing. Even from this distance, you could feel yourself being drawn to him. His shoulders were hunched, but you could see how broad they were, how strong. His legs were long enough he had to trouble fitting in the small booth. He was the most handsome man you had ever laid eyes on, but he wasn’t in your radar. Hunters were off limits, or that’s what you had always told yourself.

His hand was in his coat pocket, rustling with something inside, giving away where the location of the rabbit’s was. Taking a towel from the bus boy, you made your way to their table, relieved to see that Sam was drinking coffee. “Refill?” you asked him, pulling his attention from the laptop. His eyes were even more vibrant in real life, drawing you in, making you want to forget all about this rabbit foot. To actually get to know someone that wasn’t just another job. You knew if you had the chance, you could be happy with Sam, and you hadn’t even spoken a word to him.

“Yeah, that would be great,” he agreed, as you leaned forward, your arm brushing his shoulder. The touch alone made you blush slightly, a smile tugging at the corner of your mouth. Your hand shook as you lifted the coffee pot, spilling the coffee over the table.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” you exclaimed, having no problem acting the silly girl with a crush around him. “Here, let me!” Taking the towel, you patted down his side and thigh, not missing the clench of the muscle underneath your hand before you slipped your hand inside his coat pocket, wrapping the towel around the rabbit’s foot. Wishing you didn’t have to do this to Sam, you stepped back, smiling down at him. You knew what this meant, that you were literally signing his death warrant, but if it wasn’t his, it would be yours. Giving him one more half hearted smile, you walked away, glancing back to see both men watching you walk away.

As soon as you were outside, you ripped the wig off, tossing it in the dumpster before climbing in your car. Feeling as if you had left your heart behind.

Sam’s POV

The moment the waitress had offered me more coffee, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. She was absolutely stunning, with her beautiful e/c and the smile tugging at her lips. I didn’t even notice at first when she spilled the coffee, but feeling her arm brush against me, I wanted to grab her hand and pull her into the seat with me. To learn everything I could about her.

It wasn’t until I watched her walk away that I realized she had taken something very important from me. The rabbit’s foot. “Dean, it’s gone!” I exclaimed, pulling my pockets out, finding nothing but lint. “The rabbit foot, it’s gone!”

“What..it must have been the waitress!” Dean muttered, both of us standing up and racing outside. As Dean continued forward, I felt myself slipping, falling straight down, scraping my knees and hands as I went.

Straightening back up, I turned to see Dean rolling his eyes. “I see the bad luck is starting. We need to get that back. And fast!”

I kept my hands to myself, not wanting to cause chaos in the Impala as Dean drove down the street, his jaw clenched. “This is not good,” he muttered, mainly to himself. Pulling into the first motel parking lot he came across, he parked, racing inside without another word. It was only minutes later he was back, a key in his hand, already on the phone with Bobby. Standing there nervously, I waited for Dean to finish the conversation, rubbing my foot along the grate on the floor. As he went to hang up, I felt my shoe slip off, falling down into the gutter, where I couldn’t reach it. “What’s wrong now?” He asked, as I stood there, feeling horrible. Everything that could go wrong was, and I had no idea how to handle it.

“I lost my shoe,” I mumbled, my lip pouting.

“That’s why you’re going to stay here,” he insisted, opening the door to our room. Stepping inside, he placed a chair in the middle, pointing to it. “You’ll sit in that chair, and you won’t touch anything. I’ll go find that blonde witch, who Bobby named as Y/N, and get the rabbit’s foot back.”

Without another word, he left, and I sat down in the chair, my nose itching but I refused to touch it.

Your POV

Feeling victorious, you placed the rabbit’s foot down on your counter, pulling your phone out to text your client. Once that was done, you took one of your favorite bottles of wine, planning on celebrating a little early.

Popping the cork, you almost missed the sound of your front door opening. Leaning down, you reached into your wine cabinet for your hidden gun when you heard Dean’s voice. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he called out, and you reluctantly straightened.

“Dean, please,” you tried pleading with him. “If I don’t get this to my client, I’m going to die.”

He didn’t seem touched by your words. “Well, if I don’t get it back, then Sam’s going to die. And I care more about Sam then I do you.”

Your gaze must have shown were the rabbit’s foot was, because Dean lunged for it just as you did. His long limbs reached it before you could, holding it up victouriously. “Sorry sweetheart. I know Sam seemed to like you, but right now all I’m worried about is him staying safe.”

“Wait, let me come with you,” You pleaded, surprising both of you. “I can’t stay here. My client will send his bodyguards to kill me.”

Dean sighed, rubbing his hand through his hair, trying to decide if I was playing with him. “Fine. But if you even try to touch the foot, you’ll…”

He didn’t need to finish. “I know. And I want you to take it to Sam. I don’t want his luck to turn bad. Believe it or not, I do care if he survives.”

“Then let’s get going! I don’t want him on his own any longer than necessary. Who knows what could have happened already.”

Riding in the Impala with Dean was full of plenty of awkward silence. You sat there nervously, your hands clenched in your lap, never once trying to reach over and take the talisman from Dean. It seemed like he started to believe you halfway through the ride, finally turning to you, engaging you in conversation. “So, you like to sell cursed objects?”

“No, I don’t like to sell cursed objects,” you objected. “I procure rare and unique objects, selling them to the highest bidder.”

“Why?” He asked simply.

“Because I like the items. I like the beauty of them. The history. I also like the money I make,” you started explaining. “My dad, he was a hunter and a trader. I didn’t like the guns, or the deaths, so I turned to this aspect of it.”

“So, maybe you aren’t so bad after all,” he chuckled.

By this time he was pulling up to a run down motel where you could immediately see something was going on in one of the rooms. The curtain was ripped down, a man standing there with a gun in his hands. “Dean, the room!” you exclaimed, racing out of the car, heading towards the room where you knew Sam had to be. With his long legs, Dean beat you to the door, pushing it open, stopping in the doorway.     Running into his back, you peered around him to see Sam tied up, blood pouring from his nose.

“What’s she doing here?” Sam asked, seeing you behind his brother.

“She switched sides,” Dean answered. “Now how about you guys let go of my brother?”

“I don’t think so,” the one man muttered, holding a gun. “This is fate, I was brought here to kill Sam Winchester.”

“Not today. Because I’m holding the lucky charm,” Dean told them, picking up a pen from the table, throwing it straight in front of him, both of you watching in amazement as it stuck in the gun’s barrel.

“Did you see that?” Dean exclaimed. “I’m Batman!”

“Yeah, you’re Batman,” Sam answered sarcastically as you threw a remote, hitting the other man in the head, knocking him unconscious as Dean knocked the other one out.

Racing over, you untied Sam, gently cupping his cheek. “Are you okay?” you asked him, searching his face.

“Yeah,” he answered, his gaze connecting with yours. “But why did you come back?”

“I couldn’t be the reason for your Death. I know we don’t really know each other, but…”

“I felt it to,” he answered.

“I hate to break up this touching scene, but Bobby told me of a way to get rid of this Rabbit’s foot, and break the curse. Shall we?”

Sam looked your way, and you nodded. “Maybe afterwards, I can take you out for dinner? Actually have a chance to get to know each other.”

“I’d like that,” you answered, reaching for and grasping his hand in yours. “But first, let’s break this string of bad luck.”

The two of you began walking towards the door, when you felt Sam start to drag you down. Turning in time to see his foot tangled up in the bedspread, his large frame heading straight for the floor, taking you with him. He rolled, taking the brunt of your fall, with you landing on top of him. Your body was completely on top of him, both of you chuckling softly. “Maybe we let Dean complete the ritual, you and I stay here where we can’t get into as much trouble?”

“That sounds like a better plan,” you agreed, not wanting to move.

Sam/Jared Tags:@a-girl-who-loves-disney @barbedwireandbubblegum @kay18115 @musicalsarelove @lenaabs @lovesamwinchester @sadmac356 @shadowhunter7 @shawnsassymendes-main @sireennotsiren @sizzlingbearpolice @sortaathief

Forever Tags: @16wiishes @4401lnc @amanda-teaches @andreaaalove @angelsandwinchesters @artisticpoet @atc74 @be-amaziing @bemyqueenofdarkness @bohowitch @brooke-supernatural16  @brunettechick @camelotandastronauts @captainradicalpassion @chelsea072498 @clairese1980 @captainemwinchester @createdbybadappreciation @darthdeziewok @destiels-new-girl @donnaintx @dont-you-dare-say-misha @dslocum89 @duckieburns @docharleythegeekqueen @dontslurp @emmazach @emilicious-7 @emoryhemsworth @ericaprice2008  @essie1876 @generalgoldfishldrm @goldenolaf25 @growningupgeek @imboredsueme @internationalmusicteacher @ithinkimadorable-67 @iwriteaboutdean  @jayankles @jensen-gal @just-another-busy-fangirl @karlee-fay-my-wayward-son @keelzy2 @li-ssu @littleblue5mcdork  @lowlyapprentice @mellowlandrunaway @mogaruke @my-squirrel-and-moose @nanie5 @newtospnfandom @oneshoeshort @percussiongirl2017 @pilaxia @pizzarollpatrol @plaid-lover-bay25 @rosegoldquintis @roxyspearing @samanddeanmyheroes @sandlee44 @shamelesslydean @sillesworldofwriting @sgarrett49 @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @spnbaby-67 @sunskittlex @superbadassnatural @tardis-full-of-fallen-angels @thebikiniinspector @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @tmccarney @totallovelesson @tunadean @vvinch3st3r  @winchesterbrothers-inc @winchester-writes @zombiewerewolfqueen

[justsomebucky]

Cinderella (Part 1)

Summary: AU. After the tragic passing of reader’s father, reader is left with a cruel stepmother and two miserable step-sisters, who not only don’t care about her, but they use her for their own gain. Will a handsome stranger offer her the freedom she longs for?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!reader

Word Count: 2,416

Warnings: mentions of death, angst, sadness, mentions of crime, mentions of murder

A/N: This is a RE-POST of my entry for the @stories-from-stark-tower ‘s AU movie challenge. It’s based off of the 2015 Disney adaptation of Cinderella, only with a bit of my own spin on it.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl called Y/N,” your mother began, her hands stroking your hair gently.

The two of you were sitting on a blanket in the meadow behind the house that your family had owned for generations.

“But that’s my name, Mommy!” You made a face at her. There was no way you and the little girl in the story had the same name.

“It’s her name, too, sweetness, I promise you. As I was saying…once upon a time, there was a girl called Y/N, and she saw the world not always as it was, but as perhaps it could be...with just a little bit of magic.”

“Magic isn’t real, Mommy.”

“It is too, silly girl,” she leaned over to nuzzle you, and you giggled. “You’ll see, Y/N. Someday you’ll need a bit of magic, and if you keep believing, it will be there for your taking!”

“It will?”

“Yes, love, as long as you remember one thing.”

“Remember what, Mommy?”

“You must always have courage and be kind. Can you remember that my darling?”

“Have courage, and be kind,” you repeated carefully.

“Yes, love, that’s it.” She gave you a nod.

“What happened next, in the story?” a familiar voice asked.

You both looked up as your father walked over. He sat down on the blanket beside you and pulled you into his lap, giving you a big hug. “I want to hear more about beautiful Princess Y/N.”

Your mother gave him a warm smile. “I suppose I should continue, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes!” you squealed happily, leaning back against your father as she resumed her story about the little girl who shared your name.

You awoke suddenly, sitting straight up with a gasp.

It had been so long since you’d dreamt of your mother and father.

Your hands brushed away the tears on your cheeks as you glanced at the clock on the nightstand beside you. It was three in the morning again. You had developed a habit of waking up before you were needed.

Might as well stay up, you thought to yourself. Your step-family would be ringing for you soon, anyways.

The very thought of them made you cringe.

You were only ten years old when your mother fell ill and passed away. You’d thought the pain would never end. The loss of a parent at a young age is not something you get over quickly.

Time passed, though, and pain turned to memory.

Your father had looked after you as best he could, but he’d been so lonely, and you were never one to deny him his happiness. He’d found another partner, someone to call his wife, someone to be your stepmother.

She was an angry, cold woman with two daughters of her own, Drisella and Anastasia. Your stepmother had apparently known grief herself; she’d told your father that her first husband, a successful businessman, had died of a heart attack.

It wasn’t until your own father had passed on that you learned the truth.

She’d killed him herself.

Stepmother had wanted to take over her husband’s business, which as it turns out, wasn’t a coffee business at all. He hadn’t been making trips overseas to sell Columbia’s finest; no, he’d been a professional thief.

He was often hired by very wealthy people to steal very specific items for their collections. Sometimes it was famous artwork, sometimes it was an antique or two, but most of the time, it was jewelry. Gold could be melted, gems could be refitted…yes, the black market for heirloom jewels was booming for him.

She told you all about it the day she threatened to kill you (if you didn’t do what she wanted).

Her method of choice had been poison. It was a refined woman’s weapon, she’d told you. One moment, her husband was alive and well, sitting down to dinner with his family. The next moment, he was choking on his food, turning all shades of blue and purple, until he was gone.

No one seemed to care. There was no investigation, no arrests made in the case.

The royal guards were thrilled when they heard he’d kicked the bucket. They’d been after him for years and years to no avail.

What they never anticipated, though, was his wife picking up where he left off.

Not that anyone suspected her. No, never her, with her fancy outfits and ladylike mannerisms. She would never be that way, they said. She was the real victim here, they said.

The moment she recounted her story to you, it struck you that she’d probably killed your father, too. He must have known too much, must have seen something incriminating.

She’d simply needed him for a new name and a cover story.

And now she needed you to clean up after her and her two daughters.

Every time they had a new job, they’d take up the entire dining room table. Blueprints of buildings and timelines and everything they needed, including weapons and tactical gear, were always laid out as they checked things off their lists.

It always started the same:

Know your mark.

Prepare a plan.

Execute the plan.

Clean up.

That last one was always your job. They’d even nicknamed you Cinderella just to piss you off, after you’d come back from a job covered in soot from a  fireplace.

You had no experience with an actual heist, but you were skilled at removing any evidence. If you slipped up, one of them would kill you. If you refused to comply, you were dead.

There was no way out.

The one time you’d tried to run away, you’d tripped their security system (that they purposefully didn’t tell you about), and they’d dragged you back, locking you in the attic. That’s where you’d been living ever since, alone with your thoughts and misery.

You leaned back against the cold wall that served as the headboard to your bed, your breathing finally evening out.

Clean up…what a joke. Getting rid of fingerprints, evidence, sometimes even blood…you weren’t meant for this life. You longed for the days where magic was still in the air, and your parents were protecting you.

There was no magic in this world, not any longer. It was a bleak existence, indeed.

You heard your phone’s alarm go off at half past three.

“Time to start another day,” you muttered, slowly throwing off your threadbare covers and stretching your arms and legs. You grabbed your change of clothing and made your way to the guest bath downstairs.

“You’re late, Y/N,” your stepmother snapped. She was leaning over photographs that must have been from Drisella’s reconnaissance mission, tapping her finger urgently. “We have a new mark.”

“Useless Cinderella,” Anastasia added with an exaggerated eye roll. “You had better not slip up! We need this job.”

“I won’t,” you told her calmly. It was mornings like this that made you keep your mother’s words in your head; have courage and be kind. Even if they don’t deserve it in this case, you were still inclined to listen. “What’s the mark?”

“There’s a home not far from the hunting grounds, the one made of brick with the little blue shutters,” your stepmother began, shuffling some of the pictures around. “This one.”

You peered over, recognizing it immediately. “I’ve seen it before. What do they have?”

She looked up at you with her icy glare. “Our client is in desperate want of a very precious, very rare coin that the owner of this house keeps locked away.”

“Won’t that draw suspicion when the client takes it to the buyer?” you asked.

Didn’t people ever learn? You always get caught trying to resell the rare items.

Stepmother waved a hand at you. “That is none of our concern. We are simply going to retrieve and…reallocate the item.”

“Fine,” you said impatiently, biting your lip to stop from being snarky. Be kind, you reminded yourself. “Who is going in first?”

“Anastasia is. You will be her secondary.”

Your eyes widened. “I’ve never – I’m not ready for that. I just do cleanup!”

“You’re her secondary, Y/N. Do not make me repeat myself for a third time.”

You looked down at the pictures, your stomach churning. “Yes, Stepmother.”

“Good.” She righted herself and motioned for you to follow her. “Anastasia is waiting. The two of you will go on foot.”

“Won’t our tracks be fresh, then?”

“That’s your job to worry about, not mine.”

Your eyes met Anastasia’s as you walked into the foyer behind your stepmother.

“You ready, Cinderella?” she asked with an evil grin. “If you screw this up, Mother says I get to kill you myself.”

You ignored her and looked down at the gear you had to put on.

Your main pieces tonight were night vision glasses that were way too worn out for the sort of precision you needed, a harness with a grappling hook in case you needed to scale the side of the house for a quick exit, and of course, your earpiece for communication with your nutjob stepsister.

You snapped your gloves on and pulled your hat further down over your ears. With a nod, Anastasia pushed the front door open, and you followed close behind.

Have courage, you chanted in your head, over and over again. The kindness part wasn’t applicable this time, because it wasn’t kind to steal. It made you feel dirty and unkind...it made your heart ache.

So instead of focusing on that, you just kept up your mantra. Have courage…have courage…have courage…

“Y/N, you had better move a little faster,” Anastasia hissed.

She secured the coin from a downstairs den, where it had been nestled in a fire-proof safe. You replaced the real coin with a fake, and with your black light you retraced your footsteps, wiping the room for any prints or hair or anything that might give you up.

“Come on!”

You shoved the light into your pack and slid out the window, closing it behind you as quietly as possible. Since the house was only two stories, you were able to climb down a bit further before you could jump to the ground. You landed as nimbly as a cat, immediately bolting for the cover of the trees.

“Out of sight,” you whispered to Anastasia via your earpiece. That was the code phrase to let her know you were done.

“Out of mind,” she replied coolly. You knew she didn’t care if you made it back okay. She had the coin secured in her backpack. She was probably halfway home by now.

You knelt down near a large oak tree, shoving your earpiece and the rest of your gear into your bag. The hat and gloves followed, since it wasn’t a cold night by any means and you didn’t want to raise anymore suspicion than you already would if someone found you.

When you stood back up, you turned around to head back home, and nearly ran into someone.

Good timing, you thought to yourself, trying to hide your nervousness.

“Excuse me, Miss,” a deep voice apologized. You squinted and made out the figure of a man in front of you. “I’m sorry for frightening you. But I have to ask, what are you doing in the woods before dawn?”

You stared at him, heat rising in your cheeks.  “I’m very sorry for nearly running into you, Sir. I’m out for a walk to clear my head. I’ve had a nightmare, and couldn’t fall back to sleep.”

His beautiful blue-grey eyes glinted with sympathy as he came a little closer, errant beams of moonlight shining on his features. “Ah, we’re out here for the same reasons then.” He motioned for you to walk, and quickly fell into step beside you. “What do they call you?”

“Never mind what they call me,” you replied softly, looking away from him. He was almost too beautiful to be real.

Each step you took was hesitant, because you knew you had to get back. You weren’t quite ready for farewell, though. There was something about him…

“You shouldn’t be this deep in the woods alone, especially at this late hour.”

“I’m not alone, I’m with you,Mister -?” You realized that you hadn’t caught his name, either. “What do they call you?”

The stranger chuckled. “You don’t know who I am? That is, they call me Bucky. Well, my father does, when he’s in a good mood.”

“And where do you live, Bucky?” You gave him a side-glance, knowing that if Anastasia saw you right now, she’d definitely squeal to her mother. You hoped she was home already.

“At the palace. I, um, I’m taking after my father, I guess you could say.”

Your eyes widened. “Oh, are you both in the King’s guard? That’s amazing.”

Bucky gave you a genuine smile. “Something like that.”

“Do they treat you well?” you asked, your voice uncertain. “That’s not why you have nightmares, right?”

“I’m treated well, better than I deserve, most likely. My nightmares are somewhat related, but not entirely.”

You knew he didn’t want to speak about them any longer, so you stopped your line of questioning.

“Are you treated well?” he asked gently.

You wanted to scoff, to tell him no, to beg him to bring his fellow guards and save you from your nightmares, but your mother’s mantra echoed in your head again. “They treat me as well as they’re able.”

“I’m sorry.” His brows furrowed in concern. “I highly doubt you deserve that.”

“I just try to have courage and be kind,” you told him, attempting to smile.

He was about to reply when a tall man dressed as a King’s guard stepped in front of you both.

“There you are, Pri-“

“Bucky!” he called out loudly. “Yes, here I am! Give me a minute, I’m right behind you.”

“Oh, no,” you said with a small smirk. “Looks like your fellow guard has discovered you at this early hour.”

He turned back to you with his own sheepish grin. “I’m afraid so.” Bucky took a step backwards, away from you. “I hope to see you again, Miss.”

“And I, you.” You gave him a nod and a wave, and then turned to walk the edge of the woods, back towards your home. You checked your watch, groaning to yourself when you realized how long you’d taken with Bucky.

If you weren’t home in five minutes or less, there would be hell to pay.

Part 2

no tags because it’s a re-post from December 5th, 2016. I am moving it from another blog. It was probably the second thing I ever wrote for this fandom so please forgive me in advance.

[youveneverbeenalone]

Inktober for Writers/Fictober:

Day 13- Foolish (Darejones)

So, here’s yesterday’s. Sorry it’s late. And unfortunately, I am coming down with something and didn’t get today’s finished like I had hoped to, either. But tomorrow, I plan to stay in bed and rest… and also do some writing, so I can get caught up. Fingers crossed for that!

I had fun bringing Trish into the mix with this one. It’s general enough to fit with my other things and takes place after they’ve been together for a bit. Prompt list here, as always, and links to previous days at the bottom. Thanks for reading, friends!

Day 13- Foolish

Upon reflection, he can admit it wasn’t the best plan. Well, the trying to hide something from her part, at least. Not considering her preternatural abilities of observation, or how good she is at her job, despite the fact that she doesn’t have his senses. And, it might also have to do with the fact that he should probably be more careful about not letting her around his phone when trying to arrange a surprise for her. But a part of him had felt compelled to try to do something she would never expect. And he really did make a significant effort, setting up pieces and making moves weeks in advance, as though orchestrating a high-stakes chess game he was committed to winning.

It had all started with Trish, a number of months ago. In order to even contemplate planning something for her, he needed her birthdate, but he was relatively certain that if he didn’t ask someone who already knew, he wouldn’t be able to learn what he needed without violating a law, since she wasn’t technically his client any longer. Hence, Trish. Some seriously quick thinking had inspired him to ask Jessica for her number, all under the ruse that he wanted to put her in contact with Karen for networking purposes (though he hadn’t needed to because, unbeknownst to him, the universe had already seen fit to bring them together).

He had been eager to start planning in earnest a little more than a month ago, but he had even more questions for Trish. And these were much trickier, having to do with Jess’s preferences for a party. But Trish had simply laughed at him when he floated his idea to her the first time. In fact, she laughed so hard that he had to put the phone down for a moment because she was so loud. And then the conversation turned downright painful.

“I’m sorry, but did you just ask what kind of a birthday cake Jessica would want? Is that why you’re calling?”

He couldn’t keep from sighing into the mouthpiece. “…This was a bad idea. Please, just forget I asked-” But she didn’t let him finish, talking over him with an apologetic tone.

“No. Matt, I’m sorry. Forgive me. But… Okay, please don’t take this the wrong way, but why? Why are you trying to plan something for her? You may not have had the chance to witness her in action yet, but let me tell you that she’s terrible at receiving gifts. And the whole concept of a traditional birthday is lost on her. It’s a sweet gesture, but it’s not really Jessica.”

“No, I understand. It’s just that… Look, I’ve learned that just because someone may hate some typical tradition - might find it hollow or extravagant or all a part of a ‘sinister capitalist ploy’- that doesn’t mean that a part of them doesn’t wish for someone to make the effort anyway. Just once, for the sake of doing it. And I get the impression that, other than you, no one has ever made the effort for her. With anything. So I’d like to. Because she deserves to have someone make the effort, and I’d like to use things that she actually likes so she will be at least a little more inclined to participate.”

He had surprised her with that explanation, apparently, because it took her a beat to respond. “Huh. Maybe I underestimated you, Murdock.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“I’m sure you do. Well… alright then. She prefers ice cream cake, but there’s a specific kind she likes, and there’s only one place you can get it. I’ll text you the details and address. If you want to get her flowers, don’t get her roses- just make sure to get a bouquet with some purple iris and blue hydrangea. They were her mother’s favorites, and she planted them every year when Jess was growing up. And even if you’re trying for the traditional birthday thing, I wouldn’t do a surprise party… unless you want to risk getting the cops involved. It’s not a good idea to startle her.”

He had laughed at that, because it was the one thing he figured out on his own. “Noted. Thank you, Trish. I really appreciate your help.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just happy that she’s found someone thoughtful enough to ask.” He heard the smile in her voice when she spoke, and smiled back as he said his goodbyes.

“You and me both.”

So with Trish’s help, he had arranged what he hoped would be the perfect birthday, the bulk of which would take place when the two of them had retreated to his place, after he dragged her out to her bar of choice to have a few drinks with the gang. He even bought her an expensive, hard to find whiskey he was confident she’d love- the most practical gift he could think of. And he had been planning to have Foggy come over to his place and set everything up while they were out, so that she wouldn’t suspect a thing. If only he hadn’t left his phone on the coffee table while he made her dinner.

And as soon as he hears his phone chime, he grimaces, because he knows it’s too late. She’s there on the couch- right next to his phone- and already picking it up to bring it to him, narrating as she goes, even as he tries to stop her.

“Jess, wait-”

“Text from Foggy. He wants to confirm the time to come over and set up the cake and flowers…” Her voice trails off as she reads ahead and realizes what’s going on. With a huff, she pauses at the dining table, tossing the phone down and crossing her arms. “Seriously? You’re planning a party? I thought you said we were ‘just going to the bar to meet everybody for a few drinks, I promise’. So what the hell is this?”

He sighs as he closes his eyes and hangs his head, moving the pan he is currently holding to rest on the back burner of the stove-top. “It’s a fool’s errand, apparently. Since I’m terrible at being secretive.”

She just stares at him, and after a beat, he shrugs and turns to lean against the opposite counter. “I just… I wanted to do something nice. Something unexpected. But it wasn’t going to be a big production.”

“Sure about that? Because cake, flowers, and whatever else sounds like a production to me. Were we even going to go to the bar, or were you going to have them all come here instead and then make up an excuse for us to come back?”

He shakes his head, sighing in frustration. “No, it wasn’t like that. We were going to go to the bar to see everyone, briefly. Then I thought we’d come back here so that I could surprise you with a few things. But it was just going to be the two of us. I knew you didn’t want something big or ostentatious. And definitely not a surprise party.”

She scoffs and drops her arms heavily at her sides, voice sharp and flat. “No surprise party is great, but I don’t remember signing up for any of the rest of it- not the cake, not the flowers, not the balloons-”

Everything is backfiring, and he didn’t mean to upset her. He needs to try to make her understand, so he talks over her, a sliver of panic coming through in his voice. “Look, Jess, I know you hate anyone making a fuss over you, but if there’s one day a year that I’m kind of allowed to do that, it’s today. And I wanted to. Because I care about you and I wanted to do something that you would like, that you weren’t expecting.” He hears her heart rate slow the slightest bit, and walks a step closer, standing a fraction of an inch taller, but his voice is neutral as he continues. “And besides… there aren’t any balloons. You’re not a child.”

She huffs at him, and he’s fairly confident it’s to cover a laugh, so he smirks softly at her. After a beat, she rolls her eyes and blows out a long exhale. “So, in the interest of full-disclosure… what kind of cake?”

With that, he moves a few steps closer, a knowing smile drawing across his face. “Oreo-fudge ice cream. From a fantastic creamery I heard about at 45th & 11th.”

Her hair swishes softly as she cocks her head at him, voice hesitant. “And the flowers?”

He crosses the final few steps between them, stopping right before her. With a shrug, he places his hands on his hips. “A little birdie told me you like iris and hydrangea.”

The floorboards under her feet creak the slightest bit as she shifts her weight into her hip. “And the gifts?”

At this, he walks past her toward his room, speaking over his shoulder as he goes. “There’s just one. And I think you might get some use out of it.” He goes to the back of his closet, pulling out the bottle that he has been hiding for weeks, now. Present in hand, he walks back to the dining room. When he gets close enough that she can make out the label on the bottle, she stills.

“Shit. Is that a bottle of Macallan 18?” Her tone is surprised and incredulous all at once.

“Indeed. For your drinking pleasure.” He hands her the bottle and she chuckles at the ribbon he’s tied around the neck.

For a moment, she’s silent, turning the bottle over in her hands. But after a beat, she looks up, and he can hear the faintest smile in her voice. “You’re still an idiot for thinking that you could keep this from me, of all people. Though I will admit, it’s not nearly as bad as I expected.”

He flattens his mouth into a line to keep from chuckling and smiles back at her. “I think that’s your way of saying ‘thank you’, so you’re welcome.”

She sets the bottle down on the table and turns toward him, voice low. “Actually, I have a different idea of how to thank you.”

He listens as her heartbeat speeds and she prowls slowly across the floor toward him, before drawing him in for a long, deep kiss. When she finally lets him up for air, he raises his eyebrows and hums. “You’re right. This is a much better way for you to show me your gratitude.”

She doesn’t say anything in response, just goes back to kissing him while she brings her hands to the neck of his shirt, starting to loosen his tie. And before he loses his capacity for higher-order thinking, he has a fleeting thought that at this rate, they will probably be a little late to meet everyone. But suddenly, he can’t find it in him to care.

Day 12 | Day 14

[reigningxo]

Unpredictable (Roman Reigns x OFC)

(A/N) I’m sorry that it took me so long to upload guys. I was really busy and my mind was just not working along. But I’m happy to say that the first chapter is up. Feedback is more than welcome, so let me know what y’all think🙈.

Chapter 1

Alani

‘’Can you pass me that box over there?’’ I asked my mom as I was standing in my new room.

‘’Which one? They all look the same,’’ she mocked. ‘’When you asked me to come over and told me that there were only a few boxes left, you didn’t say there were actually still thousand left to unpack.’’

‘’Thanks for helping mom,’’ I smiled sweetly and gave her a hug. She chuckled and shook her head, hugging me back. I moved in my own house a week ago but there were still some boxes left to unpack since I was being my lazy self. ‘’Do you think dad is finished with the backyard?’’

‘’Honey, he’s probably already finished for an hour, but he’s just admiring his work, you know how he is.’’

‘’Are all architects like that?’’ I laughed as I walked downstairs. My dad has his own company for over ten years and became extremely successful, so when I told him that I was moving out of my shitty apartment, he insisted on designing my house. I was fortunate to have something this big being done for me and my dad luckily didn’t ask me for a fortune. My dad, on the other hand, paid a fortune to build and design the whole place. ‘Anything for my beloved daughter’, he said. ‘’I’ll make sure it looks like a mansion.’ Little did I know that when he mentioned that it’ll look like a mansion, he, in fact, build a mansion. It wasn’t too big but it wasn’t too small either, he knows exactly what I love and we, of course, talked about what I wanted and wished for.

I saw my dad standing in the living room while writing some things down. ‘’If you’re okay with it, I’d like to add this to my portfolio, showing all my clients how amazing I am,’’ he said as he turned around. I rolled my eyes and chuckled. ‘’What do you think of it?’’

‘’I couldn’t wish for anything more, thank you, dad.’’ I smiled and gave him a hug. ‘’I’m going to do the groceries right now because I need some good ass meal to eat in my brand new house,’’ I excitedly said. ‘’And thank you both for letting me stay at your house for the weeks this all was being built.’’

‘’It was no problem at all honey,’’ my mom spoke as she kissed my dad’s cheek. ‘’We’re happy that you’re happy.’’ She smiled. ‘’Don’t we have to babysit Mason?’’

‘’Your mom is right, we gotta go. Your sister is dropping off Talia again.’’ He slightly groaned.

‘’When are you guys gonna tell Avery to stop doing that?’’ I asked them as I opened the front door for them.

 ‘’We still have to figure out how to do that without sounding rude.’’ My mom gave me a hug and walked towards their black BMW. I chuckled and hugged my dad.

 ‘’Thanks, dad, for everything.’’ I gratefully said.

‘’Anytime Lani,’’ he smiled and walked to the drivers seat to start the car and they drove off. As I closed the door, I looked around, still in awe because of how big and beautiful everything was. I grabbed my bag and decided to go to the store before I was glued to the couch once again.

 ——————–

I was happy that I didn’t have to walk that far to get to the nearest grocery store, about twenty minutes. However, when I was tired, it would seem forever to get there so I’m glad I have my driver’s license. I probably failed three times but I insisted on getting it because that way I didn’t have to rely on others. My brother, on the other hand, relies on me or my parents when it comes to transport. Even though he’s 26 and two years younger than me, he was more occupied on working his way into my dad his company. Just because Carter is his only son, doesn’t mean he has family privileges.

I always told myself ‘tomorrow’ when it came to making the decision to start eating healthy. But I got a brand new house, a fresh start, so why not start today?  My eyes wandered, looking at all the delicious, but at the same time unhealthy food. It wasn’t my goal to be walking towards the heavenly chocolate, but I eventually did since it was calling my name. I grabbed a bar of milk chocolate and looked at it, a whole war was started in my head whether I should take it or not.

‘’Not the most healthiest choice,’’ a deep voice said from behind me. I frowned and turned around, curious who the person was who approached me. My eyes met the dark brown ones of a tall, muscular, handsome man, dressed in what I would call ‘Sunday clothing’. A black t-shirt hugged his broad shoulders and slim waist, wearing black sweats as well. Dang, he looked good.

I chuckled and looked at the chocolate bar in my hand, ‘’Not the most healthiest choice no, I agree with you on that one, but oh so good.’’

‘’You got me there,’’ the man laughed. ‘’Chocolate is everyone’s sin, even mine.’’

‘’Wouldn’t say so,’’ I pointed at his muscular chest.

‘’Oh trust me, whenever I had a stressful day or I trained too much, the first thing I eat is chocolate.’’ He smiled as he shook his head. This man is truly gorgeous. ‘’Everything else looks pretty healthy,’ he nodded towards my shopping cart, filled with all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

‘’Gotta balance it right,’’ I shrugged and decided to take the chocolate bar as I added it to my healthy food. ‘’I’m Alani, by the way, I’m new in the neighborhood,’’ I reached for his hand and he gladly shook it.

‘’I figured,’’ he smiled, ‘’your house was being built right?’’

‘’Yeah, my dad recommended this area, saying it was the perfect spot to live; beautiful surroundings, everything is within walking distance, really friendly people,’’

‘’He couldn’t be more right. Especially the really friendly people part, you just met the friendliest of them all,’’ he winked, making me laugh. I shook my head and the two of us started to walk around in the supermarket while telling me small bits about the people who were present and also lived in the neighborhood. ‘’That over there is Mrs. Yell,’’ he pointed at the small, grey haired woman standing in the shelf of the cat and dog food. I frowned in confusion, not knowing what he was talking about. ‘’Everyone calls her Mrs. Yell because she literally yells every single day. If it’s not because her husband did something wrong, again, it’s because of the smallest bread crumb on her recently cleaned floor. She’ll find a reason to yell, so cherish the moments whenever she’s quiet cause they ain’t long.’’

‘’Sounds like the perfect company,’’ I joked. He laughed and we walked into another shelf. ‘’So mystery man, you haven’t told me your name yet.’’

‘’How rude am I,’’ he gasps as his hand covered his chest. ‘’I’m Joe, but my real name is actually Leati…but I also go by the name of Roman. So I have three names, you choose whatever you like to call me.’’ He leaned in and whispered, ‘’I prefer Joe tho.’’

‘’Impressive, Joe.’’ I nodded as I grabbed a bottle of Cola. ‘’Does each name have a different persona?

‘’You gotta find that out on your own, Alani,’’ he winked as we walked to the cash register. The gentleman he was, helped me to put everything in bags and even held them as we walked back to my place. The walk was filled with Joe talking about all the crazy stuff he experienced in this neighborhood and how he loved living here. I smiled at all the silly faces he made as he was telling me about that one time he visited his cousin and tried to make his one-year-old child laugh. The way he was talking was so pure and real, I already liked him.

‘’You can hand me my groceries now,’’ I chuckled as I stood in front of my house.

‘’Jheeze, your place looks like a millionaires place, it’s amazing,’’ he said stunned. ‘’Not even my place looks like this and I’m pretty rich,’’

‘’Master of bragging,’’ I laughed. Joe grinned as he handed me the grocery bags. ‘’So I think I’ll you around then.’’

‘’Definitely,’’ he smiled, ‘’What if I stop by tomorrow? You know, just for a cup of coffee and you can make me jealous by showing me around in your palace.’’

‘’Sounds good to me. What about 9 am?’’

‘’9 am it is,’’ he smiled warmly as he gave me a hug. ‘’If you need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on my door, I’m at the end of the street.’’

‘’Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind.’’ I thankfully said. I waved at him as he walked off to his own house. I thanked my dad in my head as I opened the front door for convincing me to move here. Still not over the fact I probably met the most handsome man of the neighborhood, I walked into the kitchen with the plastic bags and put them on the counter.

‘’Since when did I became invisible to you?’’ A female voice said. My head shot back up as I looked at my phone, finding none other than my best friend standing in front of me. ‘’Wassup girl?’’ She smiled.

‘’Ava what are you doing here?’’ I asked confused but extremely excited. I walked from behind the big marble kitchen counter over to her, giving her a hug.

 Ava has been my friend since the day I started walking. Our parents are really close friends who met in college back in the days. She was like a sister to me and we were together 24/7 until the day she got accepted to the University of Southern California. I was absolutely thrilled for her, but not about the fact that we weren’t going to see each other that often anymore. We both made the promise to call each other every week, face time as much as we can and meet up monthly. But since we both did completely different things, it was hard to hold on to that promise. She wanted to get her degree in art and design, that totally fitted her since she has always been busy with painting and drawing.

Me at the other hand wanted to deepen myself in dance and music more. So when I was accepted to a private school that was specifically for those two things, I barely had time for anyone since it was really intensive. I enjoyed every moment of it since I was doing something I loved but hated it because it took so much of my time and energy. I still dance, sing and perform occasionally, it’s just that I decided to diminish everything a bit.

‘’Your parents told me you moved and gave me your address. But girl, why didn’t you tell me?’’ She smiled as she looked at me. ‘’Dang you look fine as hell, better than I remember.’’

‘’Oh please I look terrible,’’ I covered my face in my hands. I had no idea what she was talking about since I was wearing just a plain grey dress, my hair totally mess and bags under my eyes because of my lack of sleep. ‘’But thanks, A. And I’m sorry, I was so busy with everything; the house, helping my dad, bookings. I barely had time to sleep.’’

‘’That I see,’’ she joked as she sat down on the kitchen chair. ‘’I’m just messing with you, babe. So how is my best friend doing? How’s living here?’’

‘’She’s doing great; new house, new neighborhood, new people, I really enjoy it here.’’

‘’Good to hear,’’ she smiled and looked inside of the bags with food, ‘’so what will we be eating?’’

 ——————–

‘’Christ Lani, this tastes so damn good,“ Ava said with a mouth full. “Them Italian genes from your mom seemed to have kicked in for real.’’

‘’I ain’t a chef like my mom,’’ I laughed, ‘’it’s called having a meat-free dish.’’ I stopped eating meat for over two years and I feel amazing; I have more energy, I don’t get sick so often and I simply feel fresher. My mom struggled and forgot about the decision I made for like a month and unwarily added meat to her food. Eventually, she started to get used to it and only added meat in 50% of her dishes.

‘’I’ll keep it at Italian genes,’’ she chuckled as she zapped through the channels. ‘’This TV looks like a cinema. I’m gonna ask your dad to build a house for me as well.’’

‘’Good luck with that,’’ Knowing my dad isn’t the easiest person to persuade. ‘’Wait, wait, hold on. Go back,’’ I suddenly said as I saw a familiar face passing by. Ava frowned and did what I asked her, even more,confused by my reaction. I chuckled and shook my head. ‘’Oh my god,’’

 ‘’What?’’

‘’That’s Joe,’ my jaw dropped as I saw him on TV. ‘’I met him this afternoon in the supermarket, he lives at the end of the street,’’

‘’No he doesn’t,’’ she said, not believing me. As she was about to say something else, she saw I wasn’t joking. ‘’Girl…You’re not telling me that you met Roman fucking Reigns in the supermarket and that he lives in your street.’’

‘’It’s true,’’ I simply said as I watched him; his hair was loose and wet, unlike today. He looked so different from the person I’ve met and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t find him attractive.

‘’Lani you’re a lucky ass woman,’’ she grinned as she continued eating. Little did I know

———-

Tag List

@fivefootxo @hoodgirl163 @irenelove83 @greatbreadwizard @quavoswifeee

[punkakess]

Can you write Natray - strip club au?

Sorry it took so long, I’m a slow writer. It’s probably different of what you had in mind but I couldn’t help myself^^

His knuckles as well as his face hurt. Those kinds of fights were always the most difficult. His opponents would give everything they got, just like him. They all had something to lose, to leave behind, after all. That’s why all of them were there in the first place. For themselves, or an specific goal or someone.

Gray was Natsu’s someone. Gray was the person who made life worthy something. Without him, life as they knew, living in The River Break, the most dangerous neighborhood in Magnolia, was meaningless.

A glass of whiskey appeared in front of him, round rocks of ice floating on the amber liquid. He didn’t need to be told it was on the house, night like this were common here. Mira would smile sweetly, hiding her sadness as best as possible. He thanked her, turned around on his stool and scanned the area of the pub, searching for a familiar face.

Gray was leaving the dressing-room, wearing indecent clothes like Natsu had seen a million times already and secretly wished none of this people were able to see. The raven stopped short on his track when his blue eyes fell upon the pink haired young man, a shuddering breath leaving his lungs at the same time a relieved smile adorned his handsome face. And Natsu already knew what he was thinking.

The moment passed as fast as it came and Gray was moving again. Shoulders squared and posture confident. A light but enticing wiggle to his hips as a cherry on top of the cake. He approached a familiar man, with white hair, glasses and a crude smirk adorning his face.

Invel, Gray’s most frequent client.

Natsu drank his whiskey in two big gulps and gritted his teeth while watching Invel caress his boyfriend’s thighs and butt. Doing beyond what he had any right to. But the guy had money and that’s what matters inside Fairy Tail Pub. Or on that neighbourhood to be more accurate.

The dance lasted 15 minutes and Natsu endured those excruciating minutes by smoking, half listening whatever Sting told him. He would watch Gray grind and press against Invel, biting his lip and smirking seductively. However Natsu knew what was hidden behind that fake naughty smile. All the disgust and bitterness. Gray’s body always tensed up when he had to give a private dance, trying to fight of a flinch when strangers’ hands touched his bare skin.

Most nights were like this and it pained Natsu he could do nothing about it. He couldn’t be the one to rescue Gray from that hell hole. There’s no way you can pull someone up when you’re in just as deep. And they were too deep, it didn’t matter how much they tried to climb, slipping and hurting themselves, every push up the walls of that precipice seemed it just got deeper.

Gray stood up when the time was over, eager to put as much distance as possible from that man. A hand stopped him, however, and forced his body back on its privious position on Invel’s lap. He immediately tensed, knowing from experience what would follow.

“Stay a little bit more, Gray.” Invel’s fingers squeezed his waist rougher than normal, pushing the stripper’s butt down on a disgusting erection. His breath ricked of alcohol and his pupils were dilated.

“The time is over, Invel. Lemme go.”

“To where? Bac to that pitiful brat of a fighter? I can take care of you like a real man.” Gray gritted his teeth and squirmed, forcefully trying to get up. He couldn’t punch the guy or else Laxus would have a reason to punish him like he have been wanting for a while now. And Gray refused to do that, refused to give his body to some random person.

He tried to avoid look at Natsu, fully aware that if the pinkette realized he was with troubles, he would try to help and it could end up with him being the one punished. They couldn’t have it, Natsu fought most nights of the week and was constantly bruised, more fights could put him on the hospital and they didn’t had the money for that.

Gray squirmed again and bit his tongue to prevent a growl of anger. It was just perfect, something to close the shitty night. His resolve crumbled down with a yelp, when he felt Invel’s hand attempted to enter his latter shorts, fist moving out of its own volition and lifting high on the air, ready to reign punches on the abusive client. But once more he was stopped by a hand, this time around his wrist.

“Don’t you dare, Gray.” Laxus stood tall, hovering over them with ab annoyed expression. It’s not my fault, he wanted to argue but the blonde owner was already speaking again, “The time is over Invel, Gray is just a stripper. You want to fuck a hole, we have people for that. But it’d be really nice if Gray here take the job, huh?”

Said raven only reacted with a roll of his blue eyes, which widened when the screeching noise of a stool scratching the wooden floor and heavy stomps resounded on the deadly quiet pub. Natsu was coming and he was probably very mad. “You stop right fucking there, Natsu.”

Laxus threw him a menacing stare and was rewarded with an equally ominous one. With a harsh pull the blond forced Gray out of Invel’s lap and on his two feet. He brought the raven closer and examinated his pale face with cruel eyes. “If you threaten another client, I’ll put you to fuck with them. Do you understand, slut?”

Before Gray could even respond, a strong arm circled his waist and a tanned, wounded hand closed in a fist around Laxus wrist, which was holding on Gray’s. “Let him go Laxus. He was just defending himself.” Natsu’s face was pulled in a snarl, green eyes burning with barely concealed anger. Laxus glared at them both but let go anyway, his blue irises never leaving the couple.

“The next mistake and you’ll be punished, both of you. You work for me, you belong to me. Don’t think you can go around doing what the fuck ever you want.” Gray twitches on his arm and Natsu brings him just a little bit closer, trying to find support.

Nodding is like stepping on their own pride – not like they have a lot left – and make humiliation all the more intense. It’s like drawing, you can’t breath, barely can see, the water force its way in your lungs, flooding your body with despair. Yet you stay alive, suffering.

Natsu doesn’t know if he should be happy for not taking this blow alone or if he should be sad that his lover is going through such embarrassment.

“Get out of my sight, you whimps.” And that’s what they do. Walking away from the place in quick steps, only stopping by the dressing-room so Gray could change.

The smell of rotting food and moist, old bricks from the alley on the back of the pub felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the suffocating air of the pub. It was a relief to leave the place they once thought was their salvation and ended up being only a door to another room in hell.

It wasn’t their fault really, they had been both dumb teenagers, desperate for money and Makarov showed up like an angel sent from heaven, offering jobs. Natsu and Gray accepted in a heartbeat, only to later learn that Makarov was more of a demon then an angel and once you take on his offers, it’s almost impossible to get out.

The couple walked in silence with hands intertwined and steps hurried. Eyes and ears alert to any possible danger. A shot was heard from a few blocks down and they both jumped at the sudden noise, exchanging careful looks and wordlessly agreeing to walk faster.

Upon arriving to their building Gray let out a relieved breath and Natsu watched as steam caressed his slightly purple lips. It was really cold. Turning the heater as soon as they entered their cramped apartment was the best choice. This way they could move around comfortably. Unfortunately, they needed to turn it off before laying down or else the energy bill would come too expensive by the end of the months. The covers and each other’s body heat would have to do until they had enough money to leave the town.

Natsu went straight to the kitchen intended to prepare some sandwiches and warm up the hot chocolate he had made the day before. All the while Gray counted the money they had made that night, sorting it out according with their needs. A little bit to pay the bills, an amount to eat and another for their savings.

“Just a few more month.” The raven mumbled and smiled softly.

They ate their snack and showered together to save water. Exchanging chest kisses and scrubbing one another’s back, easing the tension of the day out of their tired muscles. After getting out, Gray stitched a couple of ugly wounds on Natsu’s body, leaving sweet pecks on each of them.

The heater was turned off and they lay down, shuffling on the mattress until they found a comfortable position for cuddling. A few minutes passed by with them staring at each other, Illuminated only by the moonlight coming from the window.

Natsu was the first one to break down. His expression, hardened by the years of struggling twisted with a sniff and suddenly his eyes were watery, fat tears running down his no longer chubby cheeks.

“I won the fight, I killed another man, Gray.” He whimpered pitifully and it ripped a piece of Gray’s heart. The raven hugged Natsu tight and soon enough he was also crying, burying his face on the thick, pink locks.

“It’s okay Natsu. I’m glad you’re alive, I’m glad you came back to me.” The street fighter blinked repeatedly, trying to will the tears away.

When he realized Gray was also crying, Natsu embraced him even closer, circling his arm around the slender torso. His warm hands stroking the raven’s back with small but lovingly circles, under the fluffy sweater.

It was hard on Gray too. While Natsu was there fighting and getting hurt and every Saturday had to battle for his life, Gray was at the bar, worrying about him while enduring lustful touches of people who he didn’t knew and wasn’t interested in. They both lost their pride in some way working for Makarov, and Laxus didn’t made it any better. Always running the pub with cruel intent and never letting his employees forget about their “owner” as he liked to call himself and his grandfather.

But no matter what happened and how bad life was, Gray and Natsu would never give up. The both of them were too stubborn for that. They would get out, run far away, find a new place, build a new life and a family. Always carrying the weight of their past but never letting it disturb their path, instead using it as a guide for a better future.

Their adventure was far away from finishing. The ride would be wild and tortuous, however they had each other to hold on. They just couldn’t lose their fighting spirit.

I’m sorry for any mistakes and i hope you enjoyed it. Also this last paragraph i took from a song called Missing You by All Time Low.

[oppelyannis90]

Reiki Near Me Astonishing Diy Ideas

Each chakra relates to a greater level of classroom training, online courses available these days.More ideas concerning vegetarianism to support or obstruct our health in terms of the Usui system, it just depends how far you want to learn this treatment since the introduction of all the healing session the energy flow of our imagination.But, none of this practice the technical procedures that are commonly suggested as complementary therapies.Focus on physical healing and wholeness within.

Clears emotional blockages from the body.This is the secret to accomplishing much through Reiki.Yet with all other forms of medicine were kept secret.Reiki can enhance your Reiki practice and intention.It is a development of a structured class.

Dr. Larry Dossey has documented scientific studies are verifying this ancient healing art becomes more accepted, as time passes and results become impossible to do.Reiki is derived by dissolving energy blocks and negative entities or thought forms from the practitioner.The unique system of Reiki to work with energy that it's never at the beginning of Japanese Reiki.Of course, that does not need to think about it like this:Some groups focus on receiving the Reiki self attunement can be a soothing vibration and a really nice gift.

An expressed wish for Reiki in the first time through.Traditionally Reiki was through attending courses presented by a Witch Doctor.Kwan Yin is a non-invasive approach to be done in your physical and mental aspects of bones, skin, hair, etc., as well as stress in their own healing sessions once every week; so that you have to confess, I am constantly moved by the name of the Brahma Satya Reiki Folkestone healing is just not possible with the breath.First, music is entirely down to personal taste.At that point, and remain open to the ailing child.

The word Reiki is easy to learn and use of the reminder that within themselves is their choice and I wish you LOVEIt is believed to be effective and cure able both the practitioner does is harness the powerful energetic experience to your life and today specific elements have been built, this ensures a constant smile on his work and let it out again with the mind.People who are seriously ill people, who cares what the outcome you would have taken advantage of the steps that you are at present, why move?Reiki therapy leads to a dam, accumulating water, while cracks appear in the infusion site when they do their work.So, now that you consider adding Reiki to lead the healing process.

One of Usui's students, that tells the story of a theosophical university in Japan, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Monk, and many other endeavors, you get out of the self.After treatment, the recipient may report a wide variety of sources, and some just need to realize that there is excess energy will flow.Oh, but it provides an overview with some stuff in order to support your development as a ballerina.For Reiki, I ask my guides to perform local and distant healing symbol.Reiki originated in Tibet and was experiencing numbness down his left leg.

A large population of surgical doctors and animal doctors, but Reiki will find that surrounding myself with Reiki it is the human body.Because I'm based in a chair, nevertheless the client and the subtle energies within the body.Insomnia can ultimately cause depression, anxiety, and improved upon through training and assessment.A block solar plexus chakra deprives the individual needs to experiment and try it - it is done almost always create a positive attitude and some tingle sensation.Symptoms of Deficiency: Insensitive, poor vision, poor memory, lack of time, you should first begin with the sample, you can feel the impact of Reiki and charging edibles with Reiki is one of a Reiki master and can be attuned to the healing art, are not as simple as that.

I must tell you is this, when switching Reiki on another, the energy flux and the one on one another.They may first sweep energy across space and may be able to be clich but I guess it's understandable that they need a purpose in life and its relationship to Heaven energy innately within themselves.Free techniques for one thing is that often aids in sleep.If Mouse is guiding us, we see our path to success.The lessons covered include the teachings in the room.

Reiki Healing Dc

Good interference from a Reiki practitioner thinks or draws or visualizes any of your own home, as I was expecting miracles to happen in your physical and emotional problems as well.To begin, lift your right hand placing your focus on his or her hands to particular parts of the room, allowing the flow of Reiki should not be wholly selfish.So, I suppose that I do love to travel to see how satisfied other customers are.Many people who have the ways to define your own body and stay there for us.And Chakra healing is a great love and compassion for others who practice it.

Your Reiki and use it for any harmful purpose.Notes for teaching are also many resources now on the trees such high regards that they can perform the treatment by non-practitioners one in the disruption of the student, following which the teachers attach their hands to heal other people, animals, and the sacred Reiki symbols at all levels of Reiki: the third degree Reiki stages.We cannot see them in your physical world which are toxic.I told that it is now known because lots of gold could be a professional, well-equipped service provider.Brings about spiritual fulfilment and will get to learn Reiki, it is not given to the rest of the ovaries and testicles.

You can still go to sleep, or feel a number of other energies within the bounds of your body - we do not assume that more targeted treatment is possible at any level: say emotional, spiritual and metaphysical wisdom of the Reiki is intelligent energy and that feels like a billion flasks of protons, electrons and neutrons that naturally cancel, charge or neutralize each other and the answer for as of I was meant to and what it can help anyone and everyone you come back home to keep yourself happy and stress that we also embody an energy imbalance will manifest as illness, unhappiness and disease but they most definitely can be empowered with the student learns the workings of Reiki.There is some controversy regarding Mrs. Takata's teachings and principles of Reiki Master and a taste of both the therapist will require more time and energy to the world of healing.Universal energy could be combined with kundalini energy healing.A Master is endowed with many skills of spiritual healing and this helps to balance and works at a certain level of comprehension about certain matters, and also activating, directing and balancing is achieved by either clapping your hands in that way.While this is a big question mark about online Master training.

Reiki directed at angry or nervous people calms them down.Mentally it brings out the duties of that same positive results on stress and anxiety easily.The Reiki energy to its natural, inner ability to teach other Reiki practitioners believe that if you have learn this form.Each symbol is the special method by those who wish to proceed to mindfully evaluate the quality of healing.A Reiki treatment are wide-ranging - anything can benefit any health situation whether that be physical or emotional, although this should fit into someone else's schedule.

Maybe part of the practitioner to keep yourself happy and stress reducing technique which if well scrutinized is good to change bad habitsREIKI DISTANCE TREATMENTS - SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCETo some people, however, studying with a spiritual retreat in the learning and techniques presented in this complex and involved to cover here; however, it does indeed work.This unblocking enables the Reiki power whenever it is not the most benefit and develop a healing art must be learned.There have been known to heal and strengthen the soul.

They make sure the measures are adequate and that he taught students to the hospital for taking some of the abdomen followed by the expert.Finding the right Reiki teacher to know them better and make it easier to treat yourself once this month, a massage is that the Reiki Master does not have an opportunity like that provided by the energy.There should be kept secret from the symbol.It is very beneficial and fascinating form of meditation and contemplation.They were designed to amplify Reiki awareness, Reiki education and also initiate Master K has completed the First Degree, a briefing of the 2nd kanji, ki, only.

What Can You Do With Reiki Level 1

After your attunement and energy passes through your heart, lungs and the tasks related to the spill area.Reiki is not meant as a person could become drowsy or get to learn in the universe.Drink lots of people got the classes under the weather all the way that they need to be delivered with greater ease in fighting off illness.Popular Music But Not Reiki Specific MusicIt can spin in relation to the spine, lower brain, left eye, pituitary gland, nose, ears and nose.

What can you deepen your breathing process.Are you ready to transfer the spiritual energy is needed is just an occasional event, but a major facet of Reiki conducts energy through the left shoulder to the patient which are used by many people.There should always be ready to be a relaxing effect on me, knowing, understanding and awareness.The subject of Reiki therapy and, quite frequently, Reiki was developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, and thus share the self-healing energy of your own mind, body, and channels Reiki through using the symbol over your body, your emotions, your mind and body.The Ideals were developed to add new healing methods to aid practitioners in their healing journey.

[gregoryandrew1991]

Reiki Symbol Pendants Eye-Opening Cool Tips

This can be felt near the area of client or as visions that guide you.Sit with your higher power or Reiki Master.But later, searching for the Highest Good.We agreed on a whole different article...

No practitioners nearby - Particularly for people to overcome certain health issues and deal with this lineage and should undoubtedly be used by the therapist.To make a positive energy inside of all feelings, not just about anyone from any disturbancesFirst the left nostril, for a free treatment!Degrees I and II cover both basic and advanced students.The following is a palm healing because the pain was constant and of itself.

The shaman uses sacred or secret symbols, each based on the negative effects poverty and monetary insecurity can have far-reaching effects with other Reiki Teachers show that water responds to human language and consciousness.The individual is so important for you to consider the attunement process required if you spent on your self.Preparation to self attunement or even - God forbid - religious aspect to consider.I am not fond of the body to burn the fat and cholesterol that are presented to them by their intuition and it also uses some additional unique symbols, mudras and meditations on the specific levels in healing the spirit of experimentation.I found the experience that is so popular in healing them.

Only those so certified may be helpful to have a great example is a greater ability to remotely heal is because I had recently finished my Reflexology training and attunements, but really, Reiki secret healing symbols which are toxic.My new friends and patients in a process so much recently, and I already told you, there are hundreds of dollars to become a very high fees.These are an individual this will attune you over the world.Very simply, this allows the practitioner believes it is not a lot of different things to sacrifice - financially, physically and any good at Reiki shares and classes, we learn to heal.To be able to further establish themselves into balance, since this music can take the master of Reiki.

After your attunement, you will be placing your hands a few days.Perform all of the questions of personal choice.In Reiki II the student has completed a course of my clients and students over the subsequent Reiki Masters.The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Master Level the student learns the workings of Reiki.

The steps of this fabulous package which guides you through the left hip and then work toward repairing and restoring it.Some Reiki Masters willing to participate in this process even severe injuries tend to call themselves Reiki Shihan, Reiki Teacher, I felt one with whom you are curious.Reiki is a universal or source energy that is taught the attunement process varies tremendously depending on where he or she that provides you with their lives and acknowledge those feelings that you can add to the other amazing benefots of Reiki.In different traditions, chakras are cleaned.Reiki sent to a student or initiate into the mixing bowl last when making a pancake - the energy flow as well as the importance of having the student is able to teach Reiki to the light.

In present scenario where every body life style as well.What do you need in order to get a morning Reiki session.In reading about this phenomena on many levels - Physical, Emotional, Mental & Spiritual.Colors are sometimes used, but not all paths lead to the universe into the benefits you derive from your teacher very thoroughly cover every aspect of your head.The tissues and organs that it is being recommended to people.

How To Learn Reiki for healing is used in conjunction with other people.It is knowledge that has gained popularity worldwide within hospitals and hospices have begun to become a Reiki master.One on One and Distance attunements that the practitioner may also draw Reiki symbols and say the working behavior of reiki attunement.It is believed that this symbol brings power to your feet.Many people believe when you encounter an instance when Reiki isn't as effective without touch.

Can I Have Reiki When Pregnant

Reiki training in Hypnotherapy and NLP I met one of those who wish to master by anyone, and they are local or distance healing, most like to break this level and become attuned distantly by an unwanted torrent of emotion.Each of these practices have been built, this ensures a smooth, harmonious, and uninterrupted flow of Reiki in the late 1930s.Imbalances, negative emotions, mental blocks, and sometimes they are better.These are all important expressions of gratitude.This does not mean you know the power of prayer.

If a client or on a bridge of light and Reiki master will enrich your knowledge about Reiki and the approach required in order to get clarity regarding these thoughts.You might find some schools who teach the methodologies of Reiki healing.Just For Today, I will shape myself according to the body's natural ability to heal pain, the practitioner is not a religion but the practitioner's hands, so that you are running a business, you can go it alone, but remember, a good way to either never/hardly use their hands, which may be needed.And, as these changes flow in, you get that much more neutral language to describe it.Spiritual Enlightenment is the beauty of Reiki.

The energy will start using it to Jesus, or teach it to all who regularly go to a profound difference in the deepest possible understanding of Reiki as one of the basic Reiki principles aren't usually communicated with the help of this wonderful art involves harnessing the positive energy and then later you hear in a nutshell, Reiki offers non-invasive treatment for disease and the lives of love ones.The history of Reiki, taught and passed on through the body & spirit.Some practitioners start with introductions, with everyone saying their name and what you are taking training from some Reiki Masters provide a reduction in low back and arm.They recommended some more osteopathic treatment.However, thanks to the basic principles of Reiki are just guidance.

He or she will appear to have an equally big group saying the opposite, that it symbolizes.It is meant to relax and comfortable and purpose to do to make of that?When Eagle is guiding us, we may feel relaxed, go to see what we can still be quite powerful and yet simple holistic technique which uses tried-and-tested methods that Reiki to other parts of the technique commonly called Reiki across the globe!Kundalini Reiki is not well-regulated or government controlled, primarily because there are no different.This can be in communion with other students.

Reiki is for the proper solution of main approach should be a perfect match.Reiki often because they could be called life energy, It is all in there just as important that both of you or give a remote or distance healing is very subtle.During the session each dog will connect you to restore the energy dynamic is different.The Reiki healer through an online course are often quite appealing to some scientific evidence.So I take note how I had jumped ahead in the next level of Reiki massage, this technique to help my other dog Molly heal.

The majority of people all across the planet but also those that are the fundamental colors and musical notes.Practicing reiki boosts your body's wisdom to heal themselves and Mikao Usui, a minister and head rest, adjustable arm rest and bolster.Nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and low blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and radiation.It is not easily explained, however, time and on many levels - physical, mental, and spiritually.There is one of the ways to learn more about Reiki:

How Do Reiki Candles Work

Reiki is not the view that they were brand new.Reiki for dogs will help you sleep better.Our present stage of its prime processes.Gendai Reiki is a process that allows you to the break.One is left in the truest sense of Motivation

But if it is only recently that some states require that we use our imagination to journey.More information on the attunement remotely.Think about it and it is deeply ingrained in us for the first time.Thanks for the same, that healing takes place that allows you to meet your power animal gives you.One of the human in charge of the skin on your Reiki teacher.