#i will draw bai long ma soon

[ningadudexx]

art trade with my bro @stitchedsuguru (ollie4maze on bluesky)!!! go check my dawg 🔥🔥🔥 these are our monkey sonas having fun

guess who is my favorite character. just try . 1 gazillion zollars reward for the lucky winner

[hahawasabi]

LMK OC Refs and story i guess

THE AO BROTHERS

Ao Lujiao

The youngest between the Ao brothers. Descendant of Ao Lie and great-uncle of Mei. He acts alot like her, energetic, impulsive, struggling to meet family connections.

In Pre-JTTW, he ran away from home due to personal issues with his brother about his behaviour.

Moreover, he was jealous of his brother and wanted to take his position and prove him wrong. But however, he disagreed and these two got into a large argument about Lujiao's behaviour and future, which caused him to snap and run away from his family to join The Brotherhood.

Now his apperance in after JTTW is a whole different story. During JTTW, Lujiao attacked Sun Wukong and his travelling partners (due to ties with him being a former member of the brotherhood). He was also wanting to meet his ancestor, Ao Lie (Bai Long Ma). However, Sun Wukong struck him down and made him lose his memories (and maybe his eye, whoops.), so he spent his time wandering around in the waters mindlessly.

(NOTE: I WILL DRAW HIS PRE-JTTW FORM MORE, ITS REALLY FUN TO DRAW.)

Ao Haiwang

Now, time for the older brother between them. The great-grandfather of Mei.

Haiwang is stoic, cold, and quiet, however, he wasnt always like this. Before, he was more emotional and fun, and he loved Lujiao with all his heart. However, due to connections with his brother and the pressure of becoming a bigger and better person within the Ao family, he was forced to bury away his emotions and passions to become the image his family wants.

(he has a past form which i forgot to draw, oops.)

He is one of the leaders of the Ao family, in which Lujiao wanted to take his position to prove that he can be just as important. He has a strained relationship with his brother, not just after the argument, but also his affilations with the Brotherhood.

Unlike Lujiao, he held a Dragon Blade, because he proved that he can be important in his family too. But at what cost?

He idolizes his ancestors and wishes to be like them (or better than them) when he grows up. Despite his cold and emotionless facade, he was a little jealous of Lujiao after he found out he got to meet their ancestor Ao Lie, because he strives to meet and become like him one day.

and thats it i'll probably change the lore soon.

[platinumrosetail]

Yandere shadowpeach dbk freenoodles sliktea greenflame spider Queen and Nezha x baby night fury/light furry mix reader

Like we are one of the eggs of toothless and his mate light furry.

But we end up get taken druing a fight and

Our egg is on a ship but somehow our egg rolls into a potrly and is in lmk world

and how the others find us is us hatching and they're stuck is so we end up in imprinting on them ( haha you are the father haha ) and they have to explain to there lovers what happened ( sun trying to explain his to his mate she did not cheat

Dbk the same to his scary wife tang to pigesy mk to Mei)

And they we see our mama and slowly turn into our human form which was still most likely look more Dragon then anything and sneeze end up doing a plasma ball lol that hits our Father lol

I always have a hard time when drawing a nightfury for when I wanted to make oc haha lol but anyway that’s off topic let’s get to it!

Warning: noob author, dark theme, female child reader, yandere platonic characters, and others.

Characters: shadowpeach, dbk, freenoodles, waterspider/silktea, greenflames (mk x mei), spiderqueen, nezha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadowpeach:

He had found you when he was fighting a demon who was dumb enough to try and kidnap his master and apparently that very demon had the egg you’re currently in, so they decided to bring you along for safe keeping until you hatched.

(I’m deciding to do this in the past since I didn’t really have a way to put sun in a fight that much plus I thought it would be a good and fun idea.)

You had hatched soon after and imprinted on sun some time into the journey later, they couldn’t do anything about it so they decided to go to sun’s home. When they all finally arrived to sun’s kingdom; flower fruit mountain, they weren’t expecting another monkey like sun but black aesthetic to punch sun in the face making him drop little (Y/n) who landed safely on the ground confused on what’s happening and don’t know what to do.

It was Tripitaka who was able to cool down his disciple mate and explain to him that sun did not cheat on him but actually in reality saved the little one when they came across a mishap on their journey which lead to macaque getting embarrassed and softly apologized to sun, who didn’t really care just as long as his mate know he wouldn’t do something that terrible to him and added how macaque looked hot when he punched him.

You look at the other monkey who wasn’t your father and soon declared him as your mother by talking in their language, which you had somewhat swiftly picked up on the argument from pigsy and sun along with everyone in the group are speaking to each other.

Before y’all got to flower fruit mountain; pigsy and sun was having a argument in front of you while you sun bathe which annoyed you because all you wanted was sleep and they weren’t letting you so you did what you could only do and followed your instincts; which lead for them to have a face being hit by a plasma blast shot from you before you went back to sleep now finally able to have the quiet of it that you needed to do so.

They all soon agreed to one, never mention that again and two, to never fight in front of you even if you’re not sleeping yet, cause they don’t know what else you could do and don’t want to find out; for such a young hatchling you certainly have a powerful plasma blast that even the great sun wukong don’t won’t to face again.

Macaque soon grew attached to you and now saw you as his daughter and would only let Tripitaka, Sandy, sun, and bai long ma be near you, no pigsy as he speaks loudly and you’re usually asleep when he’s around and macaque don’t want you to go through the trouble of shutting pigsy up so he makes sure he doesn’t happen.

Dbk family:

Dbk had found you in a forest as he was just taking a walk to calm his nerves and decided that you would be a big surprise to his and pif anniversary.

He had kept you a secret for the most part with only redson knowing and doing normal check ups to make sure you’ll hatch all healthy.

You had soon hatched and quickly latched onto dbk, imprinting on him as your father and soon followed him wherever he went which was hard for him to keep you a secret but apparently not good enough.

Pif had soon found the hatchling, and thought the worst; she at first thought that she could just ask her husband about it but with how hormonal she’s gotten from her period she soon grew anxious about the outcome to that which lead to her growing angry with her husband.

(I don’t know if demons can have periods or something similar to it but let’s just go with it for the post.)

Dbk forgot that it was his wife hormonal week with how excited he was about his gift for their anniversary, it wasn’t until redson had point out that it was in fact her hormonal week.

When you noticed pif it was then that you made the conclusion that she was now your mother and started cuddling with her making her settled down with your purring before her husband was finally having a chance to explain about you.

Redson mostly spent his time studying you and also playing fetch with you; he studies you because he want to make sure that he can understand the things you need, like, and other things like that, one time he was drawing on the dirt ground of the garden they had before you came over and observing what he was doing before grabbing a big enough stick before drawing yourself, one you were done you felt proud of your work before noticing redson was going to step on it and started growling at him which made him lift his foot before doing it again and seeing it result in the same reaction to when he first went to put his foot down on a line of your drawing before going around the liners and ended up to you which you jumped on him and yelled brother with a proud and happy look on your face.

Freenoodles:

Pigsy was just getting ingredients for his food that he sells in his shop when he found you about to be kidnapped while you’re in your egg not even hatched yet, which being out his overprotective side out and make the culprit regret deciding to do that.

When tang first saw the egg he had many thoughts mostly logical but then he started going down the deeper and more anxious thoughts before asking pigsy why he has a egg in his hand softly with his head down.

Pigsy was worried about his husband reaction and noticed how his shoulders would shake a little, starting to panic he quickly explained how he had saved you from some kidnappers and decided to bring you back home with him so that the two could raise together like with how they did with mk.

Tang was relieved but made pigsy let him have free noodles from now on as a way to make up for scaring him like that; he somehow doesn’t know how to react to that but relented anyway to make it up to tang.

You hatched soon afterwards and imprinted on both of them. You would tear the seats that was in the shop which lead to tang having to always carrying you so you wouldn’t be able to do that or get a reason to do that.

Tang had accidentally bought catnip and was going to bring it back for a return but you seem to have got a hold of it and now was doing things similar to how cats do when they’re on this stuff.

Tang and pigsy noticed how you seem to be more like a cat and decided to see if you would do more cat stuff with toys, pushing stuff and other things like a cat would, but it wouldn’t be long before you started to grow human features, not much but just enough to make it show. Your wings had crashed into many things which lead to you being told to do that outside when it gets stiff, and of course to ask permission and make sure you bring someone that they know they can trust; like mk, sandy, redson when he visits for his boyfriend.

Waterspider/silktea:

You had meet him when you barely could open your eyes; he was searching for a missing cat that got lost and was close to where you were, apparently the cat wasn’t exactly lost but had sensed you and wanted to see what was what, which lead to him finding you hatching from your egg and eyes meeting resulting in you imprinting on him as your new father, plus finding the cat.

Huntsman was skeptical about you since you’re a dragon and are more damaging than a cat is but sandy won him over by saying how the two could teach you on how not to do things that would damage the boat or anything else along those line.

They took noticed on how you acted like a cat so they went from there with a few changes since you aren’t really a cat. They also got a laser just to see how you would react to it; never again are they using it as he has being chaos.

They see that you like fish and nothing more so they tried to get different fish for you so you wouldn’t get tired of it so fast which probably wouldn’t matter as that’s your species usual diet, but they do try to spice things up with ingredients that they knew you might like and wouldn’t harm you.

You then start growing more hum an features as you stay and live with them which was new since you only had dragon features before so they decided to meet up with mei to see if she possibly know why you suddenly stared growing human features.

She said maybe is was because of how long you stayed with the couple and started to gain characteristics from the two which would make sense now that they think about it. Then they left for home while saying goodbye to mei along with thanking her as well.

They started teaching you more human/demon like teachings and how to live in the city while keeping you close to them as a dragon demon is rare and only mei’s family and herself are the only ones they knew about so you might get kidnapped if the two weren’t careful about protecting you from people who would do that.

Greenflames (mei x mk):

Mei is the one who had found you since your egg was in her garden and she was just going for a little walk to past the time before her boyfriend would come over and tan sight of you in a field of small flowers of light colors; and with how your egg shell was a very noticeable color it was super easily to spot you, that had made her a little worried about any trespassers that would sometimes come to either sill something from them and if they spotted you before her, she wouldn’t know what to do of that thought as if wold bring some paranoia.

When mk’s girlfriend; mei, had shown you to him he at first didn’t know what to think as the thought of finding a dragon egg was both awesome and worrisome. Awesome because that would mean a new friend she you hatch and he can teach you a lot of things like a dad would, and worrisome as something terrible would have happened if mei didn’t find you first.

Since mei’s family is descendants to bai long ma the dragon horse that had accompanied Tripitaka and his disciples she pretty much was raised to know how to take and raise any kinds of dragons if that sort of scenario happened as weird as that is.

You had hatched a few weeks later after that and that brought a celebration in order; when they brought out a substitute for the cake you apparently blew fire in reson’s face on accident, good thing he’s fire resistant and a demon or else his face would of melt by that plasma blast that you threw at his face.

You like to swim in the pool that your new mother family own for fun, and sometime your parents would add some fish as well as change the water for you and the fish that you like to practice catching in.

They would grow protective as they both have a few possible enemies that would like to weaken them at any moment wether it’s to kill you or kidnap you; the enemy best hope it’s just kidnapping cause if anything happened to you while in the enemies hands then they are done for and not just by you, they would have mk and mei to deal with.

They would bring you to the gravity arcade a lot as it’s a fun place and thought you would have a blast and they would be able to teach you some moves on how to get prizes and tickets for the prizes and y’all would get to spend time together as a family would.

Spiderqueen:

Your egg had found it’s way into her lair and was resting in the other eggs not being found out about until you hatched from that egg. Syntax was the one in the area and so he quickly alerted his queen of this new discovery which she had found amusing very much.

She was glad of this knew discovery and was thinking this was some kind of sign of her finally getting what she always dreamed of; total control of this place and hopefully soon the world, and if that happened it would be the year of the spiders all the time then.

She likes how you have more color schemes to her as it seems almost like you were meant to be under your care than any other who would fully and foolishly miss the potential that you would gain as you grow to adulthood, which is why she usually have herself and her most trusted and only minions be the one to take care of you.

She wouldn’t let you go anywhere outside the lai in fear of losing you as she ha d grown to think of you as her own daughter and child and even then you have a tracker imbeddedinto you by syntax just in case something bad happened or if you decided to wander off forgetting you mother’s words.

If anything bad happened to you then she would make sure that the culprit regrets even thinking a lost dong that then turn around to scold your for forgetting to bring strong spider, huntsman and, and syntax and your bodyguard.

You would get everything that you would want as long as log as you’re patient and if it was in her capability to get it; she would even get the head of sun wukong if it was possible and when sh get stronger than before.

She was glad that she lived somewhat close to the ocean for yoyu to get your fish as that seem to be the species diet from what she and syntax could understand as they learn from watching you follow your instincts.

Nezhaa:

You were brought to the jade emperor who thought it was wise to give you to Newhart; who was skeptical at this outcome but ended up agreeing to the jade emperor’s orders as the jade emperor is in human terms his boss.

It was a new occurrence for him to have to watch both you and the map at the same time but he was able to get used to it some time later and since you wouldn’t be able to anything at this stage of your growth so he didn’t really have that much challenge from you.

But when you did hatch it certainly became difficult for him as you can be rowdy when bored and hungry, he was able to get some things from a store in the human realm over time that would cure your boredom and huinger thankfully.

He noticed that you hav characteristics form that of a cat so h decided to see if you would play with cat toys ;Ike a laser that he can control by hand and a mouse for you to play with while he’s busy at the moment.

You soon gain human features as you grow; finally being able to stand on two legs that look like a human rather than a dragon who would be on four legs usually though you seem to have still have dragon features that now m,Ames you a half dragon.

When you had used you plasma blast for the first time it was at him when you had became grumpy by him not being able to spend time with you; and with how you’re still young and very much playful he needs to entertain you but you don’t realize how big his responsibility is right now but he still tries to raise you.

If anyone tried to take you away from him then she will make it a very painful death, even if that person is of higher wing than him; he will make sure that it was some kind of accident musta to make sure he’s able to keep you as his daughter.

(A/n: i didn’t do them all the same because some i had already put down and then remembered about the request and some of them didn’t seem like they would do that sop I hopes that was ok and hope you liked what i did with it anyway😁 hope y’all liked it as well and hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[ceruleanchillin]

When You're At The Function F***in It UP And Your Man Walks In (Mayans)

Warnings: Implied sexual content, language, fighting

Characters: Angel, Coco, & EZ

A:

You’re on thin ice as it is sis. The little forest-green dress with the the deep plunge front and slit sides, the one that ended up purchased after your friends hyped you into it. That’s supposed to be in the trash according to one Angel Reyes. That, or reserved for private nights in.

Currently, it was wrapped around your form, helping you grab envious/admiring glances from around the room.

Your hips twisted to the layered bass, using the random behind you for stability. Your friend next to you cheered you on, her inner hype man on full display. There’s a breakdown in the song, and you lose yourself in the rhythm. Suddenly, you hear a familiar voice telling you “Superstar mama, say hi for the gram!”.

Your eyes zone in on Gilly, eyes wide. Everyone knew the Mayans rolled deep when they went anywhere. Where there was one, there was the rest. Especially when it came to the three musketeers and their wrangler, EZ.

Like you were busted sneaking back into your room as a teen, you froze. You narrowed your eyes at your friend who shrugged and mouthed sorry before disappearing.

“Gilly fuck off!” You hissed, moving away from the random. Your eyes scanning the crowded den.

Gilly laughed, tucking his phone into his kutte. “Ayy, don’t get mad at me,” he fluttered his eyelashes and fake coughed into his hand. “I don’t feel so good baby, I’m just gonna stay in tonight.”

You narrowed your eyes at his high-pitched mimicry of your last conversation with Angel.

He wasn’t even supposed to be there. Your friend swore she nixed all Mayan related invites, just for that night, on your behalf. All you wanted was to be able to turn up like you did pre-relationship. Normally you could at clubhouse parties since Angel trusted everyone there with his life. Any party outside of that was a gamble, and Angel could referee like he got a check for it.

Your eyes finally met said man’s across the party and a chill and went down your spine. Angel was propped against the wall across the way, eyes on you.

The rest of party fell away as you made your way over to him, schooling your features into your ‘what did I do daddy?’ pout.

“Nah, don’t come over with that lip poking now.” He shook his head, speaking when you were in range of him.

“And what are you doing wearing this fucking pillowcase out here? What did we talk about?” He pinched the thin strings of your dress.

“Nooo, don’t be mad. I was walking through my closet and it fell on me. Besides, you liked it when I modeled it for you.”

Angel scoffed, refusing to even entertain your comments. Coco chuckled from his spot next to his friend as he lit a cigarette.

“I thought you had club shit, I didn’t even know you’d be here.” You cringed as soon as the words left your lips, the shots you’d taken earlier still putting in work.

“I didn’t know you’d be here either. I thought you were sick. There’s some soup in the car that thought it was getting dropped off. Apparently wrong thoughts is the theme of the night.”

Petty by Angel Reyes.

“Soup? Baby, that’s so sweet.” You tried to pet his cheeks, but he was keeping you at bay.

“You aren’t even sick! Imma give that shit to Gilly.”

“Nooo.” You whined again, still trying to get him to let you touch him in some way.

“Get that bitch you were dancing with to buy you soup.” It was his turn to pout, but there was fire in his eyes as he tracked the guy you’d been dancing with. “It’s all he’s gonna be able to fucking eat in a minute anyways.”

“Sorry I blew up your spot ma, I just wanted to see my plug and get out.” Coco opened the palm of his hand not holding the cigarette and revealed a small bag of weed.

Angel snapped his head towards him, expression incredulous. “Don’t apologize to her, she lied to her man! She gave some puto hope! Get on code!”

“I love you hermano, but this is your guard dog-ass fault.” He pointedly ignored his friend’s heated glare as a girl in the doorway caught his interest, slipping away when she positively returned his gaze.

Angel’s attention was claimed by you once again when you pulled his head down towards you. You smothered his cheeks in kisses, to which he was physically unresponsive.

“I don’t know if I want you kissing on me querida.”

You rolled your eyes. Petty or not, everyone knew Angel’s life force depleted the longer he went without touching you. Even in your tipsy state you could see his fingers literally twitched with the need to take their rightful place on your hips.

“I just wanted to dance like I used to, and you don’t dance. Then you beat down guys who want to. You left me no choice, so let me have kisses.” You locked your arms around his waist, successfully avoiding his half-hearted attempts to push you away.

He scrunched up his face. “How the fuck am I catching strays in this situation? I’m the victim!”

“I’ll make it up to you later if you stop being a hatin’ wallflower and let me grind on you.” Your hips found the rhythm of the slow wind song thumping through the room.

His hands encircled your throat, drawing you closer to his person. Your pupils blew at his darkened expression, your lower half squirming with interest. He pressed his lips to yours, and the party faded to nothing again. His fingers flexed around your throat before closing just enough for him to draw the subtlest gasp from you. He felt it more than heard it over the noise, but it was enough.

He pulled away, licking his lips as you tried to remember where you were and if sin always tasted so good.

“You’ll make it up to me right now in the traitor’s car.” he held up keys you recognized to be Coco’s.

You started to protest on principle, but your body was going through withdrawals from a lite touch (for Angel). He could see the wheels turning, but you were letting him lead you out of the room, palm openly covering your ass.

“Who are you texting?” You asked, more annoyed with how his hands were no longer possessively roaming your body than a real answer.

He quickly pocketed his phone and returned his hands to you. “No one baby.” definitely not telling his boys via group chat to handle the random for him. “Stop worrying about anything other than how you’re gonna get around at work tomorrow.”

--------

C:

It was bad enough you couldn’t make it to New Orleans due to work, and Old Lady “responsibilities”, but this petty fight you were in with Coco was the kicker. You couldn’t even remember how it started, but it escalated back and forth until you weren’t speaking and were back staying at your apartment.

Poor Letty had been reduced to messenger girl, especially now that she had a car. A tug of war with your point being “she was my girl first, that’s how we met” and his point being “she’s my kid, blood first ma” had broken out. You didn’t know what was going to wear through its welcome first, your lack of Coco, or Letty’s patience, but they were competing. It wasn’t like Coco was doing any better if your daily updates from Letty were any indication. He was impatient, tense, chain smoking, and was getting closer and closer to going through with the apology call he was openly fighting.

It wouldn’t be long before you were back to getting your back arched out of shape if that was anything to go by. Not a moment too soon if your own miserable habits were anything to go by. You wanted to use the party to distract yourself, hoping Coco would break first the following day. If not, it was sure to be you.

You spent the whole day throwing your frustrations into decorating your best friend’s backyard. It looked like the French Quarter threw up its best years, but it was the perfect backdrop to lose yourself to some bounce music.

Normally, you could goad Coco into being your twerking post, and that resistance (plus his turned on bi-lingual hypeman compliments in your ear) was everything missing at the moment.

You pouted and weaved your way out of the crowd to your friend who was busy playing good hostess.

“Ah ah, no whining. If you wanna really make it Mardi Gras, shake your ass on a dude.”

You narrowed your eyes, annoyed she shut down and solved your problem before you could whine about it. “Coco hates that shit! Plus he’s spoiled me, it won’t even be the same.”

“Coco isn’t here, and it doesn’t have to be the same, it just has to do.” She turned away from where she’d filled two shot glasses for the two of you. “Besides, we both know your ass is gonna be all in his neck crying about how you miss him tomorrow. Do your thing before you go out sad.”

She clinked shot glasses with you, pleased at her accurate assessment and your sourpuss face.

“Fuck you.” You laughed, voice rough from the burn of the shot.

“Save that for Coco.” She smacked your ass, draped one of the many beaded necklaces hanging off her shoulder around your neck, and sent you on your way back to the crowd of writhing bodies.

It was nothing to find dudes to grind on, and you fell into the synergy. You couldn’t count how many fast paced songs you’d thrown it back to, or how many guys you’d danced with. The stack of beads you’d acquired gave some idea though.

Meanwhile, Coco’s skin was alive with the kind of anger he felt. He’d been seriously contemplating coming to your place and forcing out admissions of how his life wasn’t right without you in it. He couldn’t remember who or what started it, but it didn’t even matter when your scent was starting to fade from his pillow, and his touch starvation was acting up.

All of that went careening out the window when he stumbled upon a pouty Letty, huffing and sucking her teeth at her phone. Turns out you, and “everyone in the goddamn world but me” according to Letty, were at your friend’s blowout Mardi Gras party. Coco knew it was your favorite holiday, but it was news to him that you had any plans since you couldn’t officially go this year. News he didn’t welcome at all, since all of the videos he saw you in you were throwing (his) your ass on multiple dudes. Did you think he wouldn’t fight everyone???

He was already on his bike before he’d even registered leaving the house. He sent a quick summoning call in his boy’s group chat, your friend’s address the destination.

The party was louder and wilder than the videos let on. He’d already spotted his boys by their kuttes, mingling in their respective ways, but didn’t seek them out. They’d find him if he needed them to. Coco on the other hand, needed to find you.

His eagle eyes picked apart the crowd until he spotted you twisting yourself to the rhythm. Coco didn’t know whether to shoot the asshole behind you, or take you away to deal with the feelings you were bringing out of him.

You knew he loved when you brought the South to the West Coast with your hips and ass.

He charged into your space, his hands immediately going for the guy’s arm and snatching him towards him.

“Make a choice cabrón. Get the fuck out, or be an expensive bill and sad memory for your moms by morning.” He pressed his kutte to his person, emphasizing that he was strapped.

The guy raised his palms and quickly exited the scene. Unwilling to test what clearly was a warning that Coco would happily make good on.

You tugged on him, trying to get him to move away from the crowd. Scanning those around you to see who saw or heard, you noticed more than you would’ve liked. They wouldn’t make a fuss, noting his kutte, but still.

“Stop it. What are you even doing here?” You hissed, tugging his arm harshly for his attention.

He turned his gaze, wild with adrenaline and arrogance at his victory, on you. “You should’ve stopped yourself before throwing it back on random fuckers for the internet. This is on you.”

“No, this is on you. If you hadn’t done what you did or said what you said…”. You trailed off remembering that you couldn’t recall what had happened, just the frustration.

“What did I say or do (y/n)?” He noted your visible annoyance that he’d chosen to use your real name instead of a pet name, and with a smirk, he walked you backwards until your back gently hit the fence.

Between not recalling what started the fight, and your man looking amazing, you settled on a pathetic. “You remember.”

“No I don’t, and neither do you.” that familiar prickle of intensity sparked between the two of you.

Everything between you and Coco felt like a live wire dancing back and forth. High energy moments usually ended in either great sex, or separation (sometimes by the force of your friends) to let things cool down.

“I know you’re gonna catch a case if you keep moving like that Johnny. Is that what you want?”

“Nah mujer, that ain’t what I want. I want you home where you belong, but you’re out here playing me instead.” Slender fingers tugged sharply at a few of the beaded necklaces in your stack.

You sucked your teeth and turned your head, ignoring the warm cheeks and butterflies in your stomach at his on-brand admission of missing you.

He placed a hand on the fence next to your head, grasping your chin to turn your attention back to him.

“You’re being a drama queen. I thought I was talking to Angel for a second.”

He threw his head back as laughed, and you got an almost overwhelming urge to kiss him. Or at least bury your fingers in his soft curls, they were begging for it at this po-

“Fuck that, he’s still got me beat. Wait til you see the tantrum he’s saving for you for not getting invited tonight.”

“He was, I just told her to can it because of you. He should be mad at you.” You pouted, but your tone was teasing.

“I could put in a good word for you…you know, if you’re done being petty.” He leaned in, running his lips over the shell of your ear.

“Or I could just offer to throw it back on him to make him forget.”

It was your turn to laugh when Coco tensed, and pulled back from where he’d been teasing you with light touches. You didn’t love him no longer touching you, but faltering him made it almost worth it.

“Or you could take me home and we could both forget…” you clutched at his kutte, leaning into him.

He pulled your hands away by your wrists, his thumbs rubbing over your pulse points.

“Nah, if dancing is this fucking important to you, come on then.” He pulled you after him.

“Cocooo,” you whined, more interested in getting him to touch you again. “Take me home already.”

“My lady wants to dance.” He sat on the outdoor wicker couch and patted his lap. “So dance.”

You stood there in confusion for a second, before what he meant became clear. “I’m not doing that here!”

“You didn’t have an issue earlier, move those hips ma.” He looked between you and his lap again.

Could’ve been the way he was biting his lip, or the laid back way he rested against the couch, but that coupled with lack of access to him, had affirmative words running through your mind.

You playfully rolled your eyes, faking like his request was that expensive. “Only because I want to get you home, and I know you’ll never quit whining if I don’t.”

You slipped onto his lap, the action already drawing attention from partygoers just for the potential of what was to come.

He grasped your hips to still you before you started to move, his palm pressing you back to him by your throat. “And don’t half-ass it yeah…or I might do the same when I get you home.”

--------

E:

It wasn’t until Creeper hit his shoulder and informed him of how hard he was smiling that EZ realized his cheeks ached. He couldn’t help it, he loved watching you dance more than anything.

As soon as you heard a melody you liked, you came alive to it, and stole everyone’s attention. You could find the beat on anything.

That wasn’t his sole reason for cheesing so hard though. Tonight had been the first night you brought your closest friends around the club, and he knew it took great trust in him, his brothers, and your relationship to do that. Your family was on the East Coast, so your friends filled that role for you. Coupled with EZ, they were your world and he thanked you everyday for letting him in.

“Gonna stop calling you boy scout if you keep enjoying the show this much.” Creeper took the seat across from him, half blocking his view.

“Oh you didn’t know how EZ gets down?” Angel’s lips formed that mischievous grin, his eyes taking on the same glint. “You should’ve seen him begging me for tales from Angel’s crib.”

“She and her girls look good out there. Might be too much for you junior.”

EZ rolled his eyes at the ribbing from his brothers, his grin still intact. “At some point I’m gonna be patched, I’m happy to make a cage date for that day. Pretty sure I can take both of you.

Creeper and Angel exchanged exaggerated incredulous expressions.

“See what happens when you go easy on the help?” Angel scoffed. “You sound like you’re hurtin’ for work prospect.”

“Could use some more water.” Creeper shook his water bottle at him, just barely missing splashing him.

EZ rose from his seat, empty beer bottle in hand. “Just remember that day is coming.”

Angel and Creeper laughed raucously at that.

“Don’t get your ass beat in front of your woman lil bro!”

EZ shook his head, choosing to ignore his dumbass older brother. and tossed his bottle in the trash. Slipping through the moving bodies until he was near you, he gently patted your friend who nodded and stepped from behind you.

You jumped, surprised at his sudden appearance, but settled back against him.

“Hey baby.” You gently encouraged him to follow the sway of your hips as he placed his head on your shoulder.

“Hey. I’m back on the slave clock, you want anything?”

You turned to him, his arms instinctively encircling your waist. “Hard tea please.”

“I gotta go to the trailer for that, and get the variety hour table over there a drink. I’ll try to be quick.”

“Don’t rush, but remember, you owe me a dance.” You cupped his cheeks and pressed a kiss to his lips.

He grinned goofily, his attention solely yours until he felt your girls draping themselves over him.

“Can you get us some too Zeke? Thanks.” “Preciate it Z.”

You giggled pushing them off him, but you knew he didn’t mind. You guys were a package deal and he’d take whatever you came with. At least their requests came with pleasantries.

“Sure ladies, not a problem. Don’t let anyone take her while I’m gone.”

They laughed, giving affirmative replies while you rolled your eyes pushed him towards the side door.

Once he began his drink fulfillment quest, it was like every brother wanted something from him. It was a full house that night and he should’ve known once he was no longer under Angel’s break protection, he was back to errand boy status.

Every task he completed was met with teasing about how his rushed pace clearly pointed to him wanting to get back to you. He didn’t argue the fact, just moved faster every time you were mentioned.

Finally, he was able to to focus on your request when he stopped being flagged down.

He was heading to the trailer when one of your friends stopped him.

“One of the other charter’s guys is annoying our girl. She doesn’t wanna make a fuss cause’..you know.” She gestured to his vest to signify his prospect status. “But I know she’s not feeling it.”

He could feel the the muscles in his jaw flex in anger, feet carrying him across the crowded yard. People moved before he could plow through them, which was just as well, because he wasn’t fully in control at that point, and didn’t think he could slow down enough to sidestep them.

The clubhouse had filled considerably since his absence. He scanned the room for you, finding you in a crowd of moving bodies. Your friend was right, you had a good poker face, but your man knew you.

He didn’t waste time physically separating you from the Yuma patch member. He gently put you behind his person, feeling your small hands press against his back through his vest.

“I’m good baby. He agreed this was the last dance.” Your voice belied your annoyance despite your words.

“I’m guessing he said that more than once.”

“I don’t mind, I know clu-“

Yuma interrupted you. “See, she doesn’t mind. Go find something to do with yourself prospect.”

“I’ve got a project in mind.” EZ pushed you back a little more to give himself room to work with.

“Be smart bare vest.” Yuma smirked, his eyes saying how much he’d love for EZ to make the mistake he was thinking about.

In the span of the next few seconds, Yuma’s vest and shirt was covered in beer and Coco had appeared at the same time. If the obvious way he was holding the bottle didn’t give away he did it on purpose, his dry “my bad” and shrug did.

Yuma swung on Coco who anticipated it and dodged it, before firing back with a successful punch of his own. A sea of Mayans of mixed charter filled the space and EZ quickly pushed you behind the bar before he lost you in the shuffle.

Understanding what Coco had done, he got in the middle to give the Yuma patch what he’d been asking for while he was covered by the chaos.

It didn’t last long before the presidents stepped in, but it didn’t have to. He was happy to take the few licks he’d received, because he was pretty sure he’d broken Yuma patch’s nose, and would get away with it.

His brother’s words against theirs, and the presidents didn’t feel the need to make it a drawn out issue. He pretended to have played bouncer instead of active participant, and it all ended with a basic chewing out.

His only thoughts were of you once his rage had subsided, and he could think clearly again. Had he scared off you and your friends? Embarrassed you?

He was happy to find that hadn’t. Your friends couldn’t help but fawn over him and how “perfect for you” he was. He especially enjoyed reveling in the jealousy of Coco, Angel, Gilly, and Creeper. Coco slightly less salty when he got praise for his efforts.

He got his admiration from you later when you patched him up in the trailer, soft voice telling him how sexy he looked to you, and how you appreciated him thinking of you in his position. You held his face and gently went over everything you could find, while he said on his makeshift bed content to let you.

He couldn’t stop grinning, the one that always got him mercilessly mocked because it was now associated with him thinking of you.

“Seriously EZ,” you dabbed at the final cut you hadn’t attended to. “Thank you.”

“I want you to feel safe with me, it’s only fair if you can accept all this shit.”

You grinned down at him, hair framing your face, and he had to remind himself to breathe at the sight. “I do, all the time.”

He cupped the side of your face, unwilling to fight the urge to kiss you any longer.

You laughed speaking between kisses. “I’m not done.”

“It’s ok, I’m good.” He chased your lips, unashamed to want you so badly.

“Ok,” you returned his kisses, your fingers dancing down the nape of his neck. “But I’d like to cash in that dance you owe me…you know, before we get too busy.”

He rose to full height, hands finding both of yours. “I can do that.”

AN:

I don’t speak Spanish, so if I made a mistake feel free to hop in my messages and let me know and how to fix it please. You’re more than welcome to.

1.) I remember seeing a meme vid about this years ago, and finding it hilarious. I could see this happening with these dudes and their personalities. That, and I just really wanted a lil southern culture in a Mayans drabble. 🤷🏾‍♀️

2.) I did a rewatch of the whole series (including the original), and I’m back on the obsession train. Just tryna to be happy before S4 kicks my shit in.

3.) I kept telling myself I wouldn’t end up writing for these fools and here I am in my Ringling Bros. best🤡.

[13uswntimagines]

Always Have a Place (Preath x Teen!Reader)

Request: learning to love part 2 with reader being super attached to Chris and Tobin then someone coments about it and reader starts to feel insecure about it again and Tobin and Chris has to reassure her again

You pulled the blankets tighter around you, padding through the chilly apartment towards the sound of your mama’s voice. The cold Manchester weather wasn’t quite agreeing with you, and paired with the holidays, you had been a bit on edge for the past few days. 

You never understood what the big fuss around Christmas was (as you had never been visited by Santa when you were younger), and Christmas Trees kinda freaked you out (Forster father number 3 had sent one through a window on your first Christmas with them). Though Christen and Tobin tried to show you some holiday traditions, you just didn’t understand why making cookies and drinking hot chocolate were supposed to put the world in a more giving mood. 

You rounded the corner, glancing to the left where Christen was sitting on the couch, and Right where Tobin was talking at the dining room table. You thought it was strange they never did video calls from the same room, but if it made them happy then who were you to judge. 

You sighed, deciding that Christen looked more cuddly, and began shuffling in her direction. She glanced over the top of her laptop at you, opening her arms to invite you in as she took in your tired form. 

“Hmm, you’re warm,” You mumbled, wigging into the woman to find your favorite spot. Christen giggled, wrapping her arm around you and pulling you closer, placing a kiss on the crown of your head. The two of you had grown close (almost as close as you and Tobin) in the past few months, and while you and Tobin bonded over art, you had become her cuddle buddy. Plus with the bad feelings the holidays always dredged up, you had been a bit more clingy than usual (not that her or Tobin were complaining) and her calming figure had put you at ease. 

“I’m glad baby, just a few more minutes and then we can all go to bed alright?” Christen asked softly, running a comforting hand through your hair. 

“You don’t have to rush, I’m comfy now,” You mumbled, allowing your mom’s scent to relax you. Now that she was here to ward off your nightmares, you were finding it difficult to stay awake. 

“Awe, is our favorite designer in training tired?” Megan jested from the screen, and you stuck your tongue out at her. 

“In training? My design sold out in less than a day,” you grumbled. You had been honored to work with your Ma on the popsicle capsule and were super excited that your work had done well. It was nice to know your art was appreciated, even if it wasn’t the typical portraits you did. 

Megan laughed, nodding in concession, glad you had warmed up to her. You were making amazing strides with not only the women that had become your moms but with the team as a whole. 

“The time change is a little much for us all I think,” Tobin said, glancing over at the two loves of her life from the kitchen table. God, you had come so far, had grown so comfortable coming to them when you weren’t feeling alright. 

“We all know the truth, that kid is just super attached to you, and probably can’t even sleep by herself,” Kling laughed, not noticing how you flinched slightly. You didn’t know Kling as well as you knew Megan or any of the other members of the USWNT and you weren’t quite sure how to take her teasing. 

“I can attest that Y/n is pretty cuddly. I don’t know how you detach her to train sometimes,” Pino shrugged and your eyebrows furrowed. Did Pino think you were too clingy too? Did she think you were holding your mom’s back? If they couldn’t train, they couldn’t be the best. They wouldn’t want you anymore if you were hindering them. 

You twisted slightly uncomfortable, pulling away from Christen’s comforting embrace. 

“I’m gonna go back to bed,” You mumbled, tucking your Batman blanket tighter around you. 

“You sure babe?” Christen asked, brushing a strand of hair away from your eyes. 

“Hmm,” You hummed, shuffling off to go and cuddle Roary. Hopefully, he could keep your nightmares away (not missing Tobin’s “Nice going, Kling,”). 

****

You woke with a start, sitting bolt upright and clutching your blanket tightly to your chest. You gulped down the bile that rose in your throat. You ran your hand across your forehead, pushing the sweaty strands of hair from your clammy skin. 

You blinked at the red number of the clock, the little 2 mocking you. It was the 4th time this week. Every part of you longed to go find the comfort your Mom and Mama always offered when you had a nightmare. But you couldn’t bring yourself to disturb them. Kling was right, how the hell were they supposed to play well with you bothering them every time you had a little scary dream. You were 14, not 4. 

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose and smoothing your thumb over both of your closed eyes in an effort to chase away the images that plagued your sleep. You were never going to get back to sleep now. 

You leaned over and grabbed your trusty drawing pad, before quietly tiptoeing out of the room, and down the hall. You paused as you passed the slightly ajar door to your moms’ room. They never complained about your frequent visits to their bed or pushed you to tell them which ghost from your past had made you end up there. 

You shook your head, taking a second to convince yourself that not going to them was going to benefit you in the end. If you stopped bothering them, being so clingy, they wouldn’t get tired of you. They wouldn’t get rid of you. 

You continued down the hallway, bypassing the kitchen in favor of turning into the living room. You stared out the bay windows, wishing for a minute that you were back in Portland. That you had the balcony to stand on and collect your racing thoughts, and the cool night air to ground you back in reality. Alas, you were here in the UK instead. 

You sighed again, curling up on the little window seat, staring listlessly at the drizzly night sky, and flipping mindlessly through the pages of your sketchbook. 

You settled on a blank page, mindlessly tapping your pencil on the paper. Your thoughts wandered, taking in the skyline as though it would tell you what to draw, how to set your mind at ease. The movement of your reflection in the window caught your attention, and suddenly you knew exactly what to draw. How to get your brain to stop obsessing over them leaving you. 

****

Tobin sighed as she entered the living room. It was the 5th time this week she had walked into the same sight of you slumped against the living room window, your pencil paused over your coveted sketchbook, which was balanced precariously on your knee. 

“She’s out here Chris,” Tobin called quietly down the hallway. How they had gone to waking up with you almost always cuddled between them (or on the foot of their bed) to you virtually pulling away entirely they weren’t sure. It hurt to see the brick wall around your heart rebuilding itself in front of their eyes. 

Christen padded up next to her, wrapping her arms around Tobin's waist and resting her head on her shoulder. “Again?” She asked, the sadness evident in her tone. They thought they had gotten over the hurdle of convincing you to come to them for help, plus she was starting to miss her cuddle buddy. 

“Hm, we need to get to the bottom of this,” Tobin mumbled, leaning back into her wife. It wasn’t healthy for you to be awake all night, even if you were processing your emotions through art, if for you to be pushing them away. They tried not to push you too hard, tried to let you come to them, but you clearly weren’t. They were going to need to intervene soon. 

“I’ll make the coffee, if you want to wake little miss up,” Christen murmured into her neck, placing a soft kiss before heading off towards the kitchen. 

You may have been her cuddle buddy, but you always had an easier time opening up to Tobin. Her chill demeanor set you at ease. 

Tobin nodded making her way over to you, making a mental note to put an extra blanket on the window seat in case this was going to continue. 

She crouched in front of you, carefully maneuvering the dangling sketchbook out of your hand, barely glancing at the still open page as she set it on the coffee table, and placing a gentle hand on your knee. 

“Hey kiddo, it’s time to wake up,” she said softly, rubbing your leg to rouse you. 

“Hm, what time is it,” You asked, pushing your forehead against the cool glass and blinking sleepily at the woman. 

“Just after 8. What time did you come out here?” She questioned softly. 

You shrugged, yawning loudly. “Like 1:30. I couldn’t go back to sleep after my dream so I decided to come out here for a bit,” You lazily gestured towards your sketchbook “thought I could work through it and I guess I fell asleep,” 

“Why didn’t you wake Me or Mom up, we would have hung out with you until you could get back to sleep,”  The woman pressed, cupping your face and running her thumb over your cheek, brushing the dark circles that had grown more prominent under your eyes. You leaned into her touch, allowing it to ease your fears for the moment. 

“Didn’t wanna bother you. Your both starting today,” you said. 

Tobin squinted at you, her head tilting to the side. You were more important to them than any starting position, they thought you knew that. It was a piece to the puss me that was this change in your behavior, but she couldn’t seem to put her finger on the rest. She couldn’t quite see how it fit. 

“You could never be a bother to us babe, we love you and want to help you. And you’re our priority, never worry about soccer when it comes to stuff like this. If one of us has to sit out, it’s no biggie,” She said, looking you in the eye, repeating the words that had become their mantra to you. 

You hummed noncommittally, abruptly pulling yourself out of her grasp, looking away from her piercing gaze. That was too close, and you didn’t want her to make a promise you knew she wouldn’t keep. It would hurt less later if you didn’t believe her. 

“Is mom making pancakes?” 

*****

Christen was worried. Very worried. She hadn’t meant to go snooping, but the sketch on the page of your open notebook had caught her attention, and once she started she couldn’t stop. 

It was a striking image. The drawing of the view from their apartment was nice, but what really caught her eye was the reflection of you in the glass. There was something about your expression that tore at her very soul. 

You drew what you felt, and if you had this much disparity, then something was very wrong. 

“Have you seen this,” She asked her wife breathlessly. Tobin glanced at the page, nodding once. It had been the same sketch 4 days in a row, the only thing that changes were the expression. The eyes growing emptier, the shadows getting bigger. She bit her lip. 

“We have to let her come to us, babe. All we can do is try to be there for her,” 

And try to be there for you they had. They increased their touches (trying not to feel hurt when you pulled away), Tobin scheduled extra time for the two of you to work on the capsule together. Hell, Christen even started leaving hot chocolate in the window seat for you. But nothing seemed to be working. You were slowly slipping away and neither of them knew why. 

Christen sighed, glancing back at the sketch, so beautifully haunting. “I just want her to let me help,”

“She will, you just have to let her sort through whatever it is first,” 

*****

Your moms were on their feet mere seconds after your first shriek, racing across the hall and into your room, searching for the threat. They released a breath they didn’t know they were holding when they saw you alone in your bed until another strangled cry left your lips. 

“No, I’ll be good, please don’t leave,”

That was all it took for them to jump into action, Tobin flipping on your bedside light, and Christen crawling into bed beside you. 

“Hey baby, wake up, it’s just a bad dream,” your mom said, wrapping you up in her arms and rubbing your back to rouse you from sleep. 

“Mom?” You asked disoriented, trying to fight the gentle hands keeping you from accidentally hurting yourself. 

“Shh, I’m here, you’re ok,” Christen said, pulling you into her lap. You buried your face in her neck, gripping her nightshirt so tightly the cotton was straining in your grasp. 

You sobbed into her neck, your tears making the skin sticky. “Don’t leave me please,” You begged, the words garbled by tears and your adamant refusal to pull away from your favorite hiding spot. Christen shushed you, rubbing your back with one hand and cradling your head with the other, sharing a worried glance with Tobin over your head. The other woman stood next to your bed, her hands opening and closing, shifting foot to foot unsure how to help you. 

“Never baby. We’re not going anywhere,” Christen soothed, gesturing for Tobin to take your other side. She did, hugging you from behind to let you know that she was there too. 

They held you as you cried, whispering sweet nothings over your unintelligible whimpering. 

“I’m sorry I’m too clingy. That you can’t practice as much as you used too,”

“No baby, we don’t feel that way at all. We love you, and we want to be here for you,”

“But Kling and Pino-“ You protested, only to be cut off by Tobin solemnly shaking her head. “Were joking, they didn’t mean anything by it. They’re both glad that you are opening up to them,” 

You stared at her in disbelief (and Tobin made a mental note to murder her friends for being assholes. They needed to learn that even though you felt comfortable, your fears and insecurities were not something to be picked on, even with the best intentions). 

“And so are we. We’re glad and honored that you’ve opened up to us, and let us see your goofy side, and your amazing art,” She added, brushing a wild curl from in front of your eyes. 

“Really?”

“Absolutely. We love how cuddly you are- it makes up for the 13 years we didn’t get with you,” Christen said, squeezing you tighter just to prove her point. It had taken you a long time to let them in, and though it was still a work in progress, they were honored you trusted them. That you had let them in further than anyone before. 

“Will you stay?” You asked in a small voice, almost afraid of the answer. 

“Always,” Your moms answered together. Tobin pulled back the covers, allowing Christen to maneuver the two of you inside before joining you. You sighed, reveling in their safety. Here, wedged between the women, you knew you would always have a place. 

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2021 #5: Freebie - Passion (Aberrant pt 2) NSFW

((Since some of y’all are thirsty and let’s face it I am deep in this backstory))

Corran fumbled with the door to their room, managing to get it open without dropping Emelia. “Don’t slam it!” She admonished as he kicked it closed behind them.

It was only a few steps to their bed, to drop her on the mattress and follow her down, kissing her once more. Gods, the shape of her mouth fit perfectly against his, and her taste was more delectable than his favorite meal.

She broke the kiss, preventing him from chasing her with a hand against his chest. “Lock the door,” she panted.

Corran grunted in frustration, but got up to do as she bid. As much as he hated pausing now, it was better than possibly being walked in on by their small son; the lock would keep him at bay for a brief time.

Corran yanked his shirt off as he crossed the room, the night air doing little to cool the fever in his skin. He threw the lock and turned back to the bed, eyes already adjusted to the dim light, his breath caught by the sight of her.

“Stop,” he ordered as she finished removing her dress, leaving her in her flimsy petticoat and chemise. Emelia blinked at him, head tilted in her usual quizzical expression while letting the dress fall to the ground. Corran stalked forward, unlacing his breeches. “I want to undress you myself,” he told her, his voice pitched low. He was gratified to see her shiver in response, waiting while he removed his boots so he could drop his pants, left only in his smalls. He saw the tip of her tongue flick over her lips as her gaze took in his arousal through the thin fabric.

Corran fell on her again, mouth finding hers once more, tongue plunging between her lips. He made his way down her neck as he untied and unhooked her remaining clothes, freeing her shoulders to kiss along them. Emelia’s cool hands smoothed over his back and sides, and she made sweet little sounds of pleasure as his lips and teeth raked over familiar sensitive places. “You feel hot as an oven,” she murmured. “Are you all right, love?”

“More than,” Corran replied, freeing her breasts. He cupped and squeezed one, her head falling back as he nipped the stiffened nipple of the other. They weren’t large breasts, but perfect for being held, or taken into his mouth. The shape and feel of them had changed after being used to feed their child, but Corran couldn’t recall anymore how they used to be and he liked them just fine now.

He pushed her clothes down her slender torso and over her hips, which she lifted for him. He pressed kisses to her ribs, her stomach, her sides. His tongue traced along her stretch marks, teasing the sensitive places they led to. She had been so worried about the effects carrying and bearing a child had on her form, but Corran thought the lines and altered shape of her abdomen lovely--further reminders of the love and life they had created together.

Her fingers raked through his hair as he found the waist of her smalls and pulled them down along with her petticoat. He had not quite freed her legs but his impatience won out, helping her kick off the tangle of fabric as he nipped at her inner thighs and over her hips. A needy whine came from her and destroyed what was left of his resolve, his mouth covering her sex.

Emelia arced beneath him, a small cry passing her lips. He grinned against her softness, relishing the scent and taste of her desire as he laved his tongue along her wet folds. He thrust his tongue into her as deep as he could, knowing it wasn’t enough for her but gods he loved how she tasted, how she spread her legs further, inviting him closer and deeper. He made his way up to the sensitive nub at the crown and covered it entirely, sucking and licking at it. She practically wailed, one hand gripping the sheets, the other his scalp. He knew exactly how much pressure to use, how to use his tongue in long strokes to push her swiftly to the brink.

“Gods, Corran, I—” she was writhing in his grasp, breath catching. He hummed an affirmation against her, unrelenting. Usually he liked to draw this out, taking his time while slowly ratcheting up her tension, ensuring she was ready to take him in, but tonight he needed to drink from her and hear her scream for him.

She did, calling his name while her hips bucked as much as he would allow, the heady scent of her release filling his nose, her taste filling his mouth, finally overpowering the aftertaste of Avengret’s blood as he pressed his tongue into Emelia again. He looked up, breathing heavily, watching her. Her midnight hair pooled around her head on the skewed pillows, chest heaving, golden-brown skin slick and shining with sweat as her sparkling dark eyes returned his gaze.

“Perfect,” he growled, rising up to kiss her again, her arms and a leg eagerly wrapping around him as she responded with equal fervor, working his smalls down his legs to free and stroke his throbbing cock.

“Gods, Em,” he moaned, her touch making him dizzy. “Soon as you’re ready—”

“Take me, Cor,” she urged, guiding him. “I need you inside.”

He needed no further encouragement, shifting position and thrusting into her, hilting himself in one swift motion. She gasped, nails digging into his shoulders. Corran groaned against the curve of her neck; she felt so damned good, wet heat tight around him, soft muscles fluttering and clenching along his length.

“Oh, gods,” she exclaimed as he drew back and thrust again, setting a quick, hard pace. He lifted himself, arms straight with elbows locked, watching her, knowing just the right angles to keep pressure on her clit while also dragging himself over that sweet spot inside her. Emelia’s head tossed, face scrunching, breath coming in gulps and gasps with each rough stroke and her body’s own responses, rocking to meet his every motion. Her nails left scratches down his arms as their bodies slapped wetly against each other, the bed frame creaking and squealing and slamming against the wall.

Her hips stuttered, internal muscles clenching and fluttering wildly as her breath came shorter, her tension building. Corran grinned, sweat dripping from him to splash on the pillows and her. “Th-that’s it,” he managed. “Come, Em; lemme hear you.”

“Cor—!” She lost coherence as she cried out, lifting toward him, her release pulsing around him as he continued his hard pace, falling to his elbows as he did not, could not, let up, his own tension building until the rush of blood in his head nearly drowned out all other sound. She gripped the nape of his neck and his back now, her nails digging into his skin and cutting through the haze of sensation. He reached down and hooked his arm under her leg, opening her further, taking him deeper as he needed more of her, more, more…

There!

He shouted her name, vaguely aware he had pushed her from the previous orgasm to yet another peak as he spilled inside her, Emelia crying out again and clinging to him for dear life as she shook like a leaf, body still jumping against his as they both slowly came down.

Corran rolled and fell to the side, pulling her tight to him, stroking her hair and back, burying his face in the crook of her neck again, idly licking the bruising bite mark he had left there, claiming his mate. He was heaving for air and sweating like the sinner he was, but the raging firestorm in his veins had abated, the Song merely a faint echo in his head and drowned out by the little sounds his wife made as they recovered.

“L-let me up,” she finally said, still shaky.

He growled and held her closer.

“I need to clean up,” she insisted, finally extricating herself while Corran pouted. She could barely stand, wobbling as she snagged her robe and unlocked the door to make her way to the wash.

Corran lay on his back, arms splayed, staring at nothing, head blessedly free from the earlier buzzing, empty of thought beyond the growing awareness of the aftermath of their lovemaking. He eventually forced himself up to pull the soaked coverlet off the bed--they hadn’t even gotten underneath it to the sheets--leaving it in a ball in the corner to be dealt with in the morning. He filled a glass from the pitcher she kept on the nightstand, drinking it swiftly and pouring another to drink at a more normal pace.

By the time Emelia returned, their discarded clothing had been picked up and hung on the correct pegs along the wall to also be dealt with on the morrow while Corran lay among the turned down sheets.

She slid into bed next to him, hands remaining a cooling balm as they ran over his chest. “Zaine’s still sleeping, somehow,” she said. “Though we were loud enough to rouse the dead.”

“Didn’t hear you complaining,” he teased, pulling her close once more.

“Certainly not,” she answered, looking down at him. “Though I am curious what brought that on.”

For a wild second he thought of telling her, but dismissed the notion before it even finished forming. He brushed strands of damp hair away from her face and smiled. He would continue to keep her as far from his people’s war as possible; he had decided that from the beginning. “Can’t a man want to swive his beautiful wife he adores with all his heart now and again?”

She laughed, that easy blush blooming on her cheeks once more. “I suppose he can; I know I enjoyed it. Although,” she yawned and settled against him, using his chest as a pillow.

“Although?”

“We were reckless; I’ll have to track myself for the next moon.”

His heart paused for a moment as he realized what she meant. While she often took a medicine to regulate her cycles, he usually wore a skin, or finished outside of her to be on the safe side. That...had not happened tonight, and he wondered how much of that was the dragon’s influence versus his simple, instinctual need for his beloved after the day’s events.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing,” he said, not realizing immediately he had said it out loud, but then she tilted her head up.

“You want another baby?” She asked, tentative.

Could he maintain his responsibility to the cause, reaffirmed just this day? Probably, though it would be difficult. He had waited long enough, while life itself, he was finding, did not. “Do you?”

She hummed a little, snuggling in again. “It could be nice,” she replied. “I think Zaine would like a brother or sister.”

“Well,” Corran said, licking his suddenly dry lips. “If tonight doesn’t do it, I suppose we’ll just have to try again.” He tilted her chin up to kiss her one more time--gods, he really did love kissing her--and smiled. “Assuming you’re agreeable.”

“I’m sure you’ll convince me,” she replied, lips brushing his as they spoke. They laughed together, and he continued to stroke her back as she settled back down to using him as a pillow.

It took time for Corran to fall asleep, aware of Emelia’s steady breathing and her soft form alongside him, cooling the remaining heat in his blood. When he finally did close his eyes, he dreamed of her laughter while dragon wings beat through the sky.

---

(Direct sequel to Aberrant, Day 2 prompt for the FFXIVWrite2021)

[mego42]

Are you working on any brio fic that we might get soon? :)

hey anon! unfortunately, i have some p crazy life stuff going on rn and haven't been able to write for a couple off weeks now for a bunch of reasons so i am currently effectively dormant, though hopefully not for long.

but here! have a (rough) (totally unedited) (nsfw) snippet from the thing i was working on before i took a break that may or may not make it into the final fic if i give in to my urge to do a total mulligan (i won't) (probably) (i don't think) (that would be insane) (laughs nervously)

“You still locked in for that seat on the Port Authority board?” Rio asks, his own voice light, almost giddy, making Beth’s pulse trip in response.

“Announcing it on Monday,” Beth breathes, and it hitches a little on the end when his hand slips between her thighs, gently nudging them further apart.

“Then we’re set up,” he says, his fingers ghosting over her swollen clit.

Beth sighs, her eyelashes fluttering. Her hips rock, chasing his touch. “So, what’s my cut?”

Humming, Rio answers her by pressing down, his fingertip circling, and Beth swears she hears static crackling in her ears as she jerks against him. “Li’l late to be negotiation’, ain’t it?”

“Please,” she gasps. “It all falls apart without that piece of paper. I can’t think of a better time. ”

He laughs softly and Beth can hear the warmth in it, the pride and approval making her glow, the firm, steady stroke against her clit setting her on fire.

“Thinkin’ fifteen percent, yeah?”

Beth’s eyes fly open and he’s grinning, his teeth bright white, pressing into the lush pink of his lower lip, and it’s only the repressed laughter sparkling in his eyes that keeps her temper at bay.

“You’re funny,” she says, the effect of her deadpan tone almost ruined by the whimper she just manages to swallow back when his hand slides lower, parting her lips.

“What? You want thirty?” The very tip of one finger teases her entrance, the heel of his hand solid against her clit, giving her something to grind against, and when she does, shuddering at the sharp, zipping bite of the friction across her over-sensitive skin, he smiles wider.

“Try again,” Beth says, her hands flexing against the sides of the tub, fighting the urge to grab his wrist and hold him against her, to beg him to stop playing with her, running his fingertips along her, around her, carefully staying just shy of what she needs.

“Forty’s pretty steep, ma.” He dips the very tip of his finger inside her, then out, drawing a straight line up to her clit and tapping lightly. When he scrapes his nail ever so slightly across the nub and not even her locked jaw and clenched teeth are enough to stop the thin, high-pitched noise that ekes out.

“Nope,” she says, still managing to pop the p.

Rio pulls back and Beth has to bite her tongue to keep from making a sound when his hand recedes. Arching an eyebrow, he purses his lips, mock stern, but Beth can see the way the muscle at the hinge of his jaw twitches, can tell from the gleam in his eye that he’s holding back a grin. This isn’t a new game, not really, they’ve been playing a version of it more or less since they first met—though it’s never been quite as fun as it’s become recently.

“Fifty for a piece of paper?”

“A piece of paper that leads right back to me.”

There’s something birdlike about the brightness of his eyes, in the angle of his head cocked head when he looks down at her. “Oh yeah? You puttin’ your name on it?”

Beth wrinkles her nose. “Deborah’ll know who asked for it.”

Now he’s shaking his head slowly. “Told you, darlin’. It doesn’t matter what they know, only what they can prove.”

The smile playing around the corners of his mouth just knowing enough that a lick of genuine irritation has Beth straightening up, the water sloshing against the sides of the tub as she reaches for her drink.

“Legally,” she snaps, taking a sip. “Knowing’s enough to make it hard to ask for favors.”

His shoulder lifts, drops, the slightest acknowledgment of her point at odds with the utter lack of concern in his tone. “Everyone’s got a price.”

“And mine’s fifty.”

The click of her tumbler against porcelain seems to echo, underscoring the finality of her offer. A sharp contrast to the soft lap of the faint currents his arm drags through the water as he runs his fingers along her inner thigh.

“Fifty’s a big number.” His eyes are dark on hers as his hand slips back between her legs.

Beth swallows back a groan as he strokes gently over her clit. “Not for a partner.”

“Kind of a one-sided partnership when you take into account who’s doin’ all the legwork.”

“Not my lane,” Beth bites out, the strain equal parts from his fingers—dipping lower, closer to the pulsing center of the fire crackling inside her—and the bright grin that flashes across his face, the victory of turning his words back around him, of him recognizing it, stoking the heat just as much as his touch.

“You need me,” she reminds him, her eyes darting back and forth, tightly focused to catalog every micro reaction. And she sees it: the way his eyes change, the deep, dark brown turning almost black, liquid, fathomless.

“Yeah,” he says, the low rasp of his voice as tangible as the rough scrape of the callus at the base of his thumb against the soft skin at the very top of her thigh. “I do.”

Then two of his fingers are inside her, a husky cry ripping free of the back of Beth’s throat as her back arches, sending water sloshing over the sides of the tub, dark patches blooming across Rio’s shirt and jeans. Her hands scrabble, slipping off the slick porcelain, as he slowly pumps them in and out.

“So, we have—” Beth breaks off with a ragged gasp when Rio hooks his fingers up, pressing into that one spot he’s so, so good at finding, but doesn’t let him deter her. “We have a deal.”

His teeth flash, bright and white and sharp, his knuckles pressing into the soft curve of her thigh as he re-angles his thumb, pressing it down on her clit. Beth’s pulse pounds and eyelashes flutter, everything in her begging her to let her eyes shut, her head fall back and give in to the electric heat spiking through her, but she refuses to look away until he says it.

And he knows, of course he knows, because somewhere along the lines they’ve started learning each other. It’s such a jolt every time, something bubbling, sparkling, rising inside her stomach, her chest, her throat, warming her from the inside out whenever she realizes it—that he sees her, knows her, understands her.

“Yeah mama,” he says, his voice a deep rumble that rolls over her, stroking her and setting her alight just as surely as his fingers working inside her. “We have a deal.”

[mexcraziness-art]

Monkie Kid/JTTW OC: Liang Xingti

Okay, so this bio is going to be pretty messy, mostly because I’m really tired these days, but also because I’m still reading Journey to the West, and still waiting on the new seasons of the show. So I can’t go into details too deeply until I find out more, this is more of a general outline of what I have in mind for her so far!

Name: Liang Xingti (亮星体),Tong Bi Yuanhou (通臂猿猴) Nickname: Gab Gender: Female

Liang Xingti, also known as the Long/Magic Armed Gibbon or just „Gab”, much like Wukong, she’s one of the Four Spiritual Monkeys, see the one and only mention in Journey to the West:

„The third kind is the magic−armed gibbon that can catch the sun or moon, shrink mountains, see what is auspicious and what is not, and fool around with heaven and earth.”

History: Xingti was born from a cloud after a full solar-eclipse, as the circumstances of her birth concerned Heaven she was soon taken in by Taibai Jinxing, the Gold Star of Venus, as a discipline. She grew up in the Heavenly Court, and was trained in combat by Erlang Shen. Despite now being a Heavenly Warrior she was mostly running errands for Jinxing and the Jade Emperor. After Wukong showed up in Heaven she was really intrigued by him, as she never met a monkey like her before. She developed a strange mix of appreciation and irritation towards Wukong as time went on, and after he became the Great Sage Equaling Heaven the two of them became semi-friends, usually sparring together. Wukong also showed her a new perspective on life, and she began to internally question her life and role in the heavenly court. When Wukong rebelled against and rampaged through Heaven she tried to fight him as well, and meanwhile normally they were pretty evenly matched, she didn’t stand a chance, as her doubts held her back and Wukong’s rage filled War Form was simply way out of her league at the time. After the Buddha trapped Wukong under the mountain her doubts in Heaven increased, now with added guilt on top. After Heaven banished Sandy, and their treatment of Bai Long Ma, she finally had enough and tried to leave Heaven. She was warned by her master Jinxing that Heaven might take this as an act of rebellion, so she was forced to stay, but she took more and longer trips to Earth. When she heard Wukong was freed she occasionally visited him and his company of their Journey, though his situation left a bad taste in her mouth. After this she spent the next few hundred years doing the same, running errands for Heaven and fighting demons on their orders.

(The following is mostly relevant to the 4+1 Monkeys AU)

In the present day she was sent by Heaven to Earth to find Wukong and get help to investigate and try to capture Macaque for reasons the Jade Emperor didn’t share with her, this lead to her being suspicious about her mission from the start. When she went to Flower Fruit Mountain to get Wukong’s help, she ran into MK, and soon found out that Wukong trains him as his successor, which lead the two of them to having a fight, and Xingti leaving to capture Macaque alone. However she was followed by MK who offered to help her, which she accepted, endangering MK in the process. Of course Wukong showed up last minute and the two of them captured Macaque. Later Xingti revelaed she doesn’t want to turn Macaque over to Heaven until she finds out more about their motivations, so she decided to stay on Flower Fruit Mountain with Macaque as their prisoner until they find out more, which left Wukong less than impressed.

Personality: Having grown up in Heaven, Gab was a model discipline, she never questioned authority, or the orders she was given. She was trained to be level headed and controlled as Heaven was vary of her possible wild nature. After she met Wukong and started to question Heaven she slowly became more rebellious, second guessing her orders and asking too many questions. As she spent more and more time on Earth and away from Heaven, she developed a loud, brash and snarky personality, she has a crude sense of humor, and likes to mess with people for the fun of it. She’s playful but likes to see just how far she was push someone by annoying them before they get pissed off. However also having grown up in Heaven, she grew up pretty isolated, and making meaningful connections is pretty hard for her. She doesn’t handle rejection well, and gets quickly angered when she feels confused or conflicted about something, specially if it’s relationship related. She also uses this to hide her sensitivity, which she views as a weakness. She mostly tries to show the affection and fondness she has for someone by being an absolute pest in their lives, and hope for the best.

Powers and Abilities:

She has all the standard abilities of a Spiritual Monkey and a Heavenly Warrior, including: -Immortality -Super strength and super speed -Chi manipulation -Cloud Generation -Flight

Other Abilities: -36 Heavenly Transformations (much like Wukong, she can’t change her tail) -Cloud Clones -She can use the essence of the Sun and Moon for various spells and magical abilities, she can also cause full lunar and solar ecplises by forcing the sun and the moon to move in place, this gives her a full power boost however this is also one of the things that can kill her. -Size changing of objects: She can change the size of anything to any size at will. -Fortune Sense/Opportunity Sense: She can sense how favorable a situation/decision could be.

Weapon: Her staff, made out of a droplet of Sun and Moon, is her signature weapon. She usually keeps it in her belt on her back, in it’s basic Handle form. She can command it to grow into a staff, which is how she usually uses it in combat. And at it’s strongest, she can summon a Sun and Moon blades on each end, as it’s third form.

Relationships:

Sun Wukong: She has sort of a back-and-forth relationship with Wukong. She loves to annoy and pester him and constantly challenge him to sparring matches, as they’re one of the few people who actually pose a challenge to the other. She likes to get a rise out of him, to knock him down a peg from his high and mightiness. She also loves to constantly remind him of his embarassing events in Heaven. Generally she’s just a little shit towards Wukong, but in a friendly, familiar way. To Wukong she’s more of an unwelcome nuisance that he’d rather avoid, but at the end of the way they both hold a fondness for eachother, just locked away deep, deep down, due to their shared experience with Heaven, and really both of them would rather die than ever admit it out loud.

MK: Much like Wukong, she likes to bully MK in the friendly way. She constantly pesters and makes fun of him, sometimes even „showing him some fighting moves” just so she can knock him around a bit. She sees the potential in him, how powerful he could become, and how he’s better than any of them ever were. However this is also the reason she doen’t go easy on him. Despite all this she has a soft spot for MK, when she’s not messing with him, she’s always telling him cool stories of her and Wukong’s old days, that didn’t make it into the legends. She also always makes sure to tell the embarassing bits about Wukong.

Macaque: Her relationship with Macaque is… complicated and a massive WIP to put it simply, so this one will be super brief.

After they captured him, Xingti basically became his de facto prison warden. She constantly followed him around and just kept an eye on him in general. Because of this she soon became super intrigued by him, not only beause he was the second Spiritual Monkey she ever met, but mostly because she felt as if they were on a common wavelength. After Macaque’s initial escape attempts, and various arguments with Wukong, she set out to try to understand him and his past. As time passed and Macaque actually warmed up to them they grew pretty close. As it turns out they have a similiar sense of humor, and both of their favourite hobbies is making Wukong miserable, she quickly grew a soft spot for Macaque and before she even realised it she had all but developed a crush on him. Macaque had soon noticed the obvious changes in her behaviour, and as he had been faking his redemption this whole time, he decided to take advantage of her feelings for him. He played along and peretended to fancy her as well, they have even developed sort of a romantic relationship, (this whole thing of course didn’t leave Macaque as unaffected as he liked to believe) and things were actually pretty good, until Macaque saw an opportunity to betray them and make it hurt. This of course left Xingti more than emotionally devastated, and she swore to make Macaque pay herself. This is pretty much what I have in mind so far, I'm sure I left out a lot, I'll add them later when I remember them! And hopefully I'll draw a ref of my other OC, Mandy, the 4th Spiritual Monkey soon as well!

Art by @mexcraziness-art

Liang Xingti and 4+1 Monkeys AU belongs to @mexcraziness-art

Monkie Kid belongs to Lego

[marvelousstevetony]

Hi! Just wondering if you could write something with Bucky sneezing For 47. Hiding sneezes and/or 52. Did you just sneeze? Any pairing/relationship is fine. 😊

Ahh, I love this so much for Bucky! Thank you, anon! Seeing as TFAWS is coming out later this year (and I can’t wait!!!), I decided to do Sam/Bucky for this prompt, with a hopelessly pining, sick Bucky. Hope you like it <3

As if going on a mission in the middle of fucking nowhere wasn’t bad enough, Bucky curses internally, they are now stuck in a small cabin miles away from civilization for who knows how long. The blizzard had hit them by surprise, and before they even had time to think about it, Sam had been sent coordinates to the nearest safe house. They got there just before the snow made it impossible to drive on the roads safely. Sam had been so relieved when they pulled into the driveway, Bucky too, but he’s still a little hesitant even as he got out of the car.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the cabin. It has a functional kitchen and bathroom, a fireplace in the small living space, and though both of them had doubted it, it had electricity. So yeah, it’s sufficient.

There’s just one, small problem, though. There’s only has one bed and the sofa is just about big enough for the two of them to sit upright in. They can, if they’re really squeezed together, but even for just one person to sleep on that, it would result in severe back aches for days.

“We’ll just share the bed,” Sam had said and shrugged nonchalantly before lighting the fireplace.

Okay, so maybe there’s more than just one problem.

Bucky has slept next to a lot of guys, even in smaller beds than this one. He and Steve did it all the time before the, and sometimes during the war there was just no other choice than cramming up. On a previous mission he’d even bunked with Barton, and though it wasn’t necessarily comfortable, it could been worse. This couldn’t get any worse.

No, because the difference is that Bucky has never been attracted to any of the one’s he slept next to. He didn’t have the desire to swing his arm over their waist and pull them close, to bury his face in their neck and whisper sweet nothings. With Sam, it’s different.

With Sam, Bucky wants to do all that, wants to have Sam’s fingers thread through his hair. He wants to wake to see Sam’s relaxed face, how his lips are slightly parted and just how peaceful he looks when he sleeps. But that would never happen. Sam simply doesn’t like him like that, and Bucky can handle that just fine. When they’re not pressed together like sardines in a tin, that is.

The third problem, and Bucky wants the world to swallow him whole, is that because of the drastic weather change, Bucky is ninety-nine percent sure that he’s come down with a cold. His nose has had that runny-itchy feeling all day, and his head is starting to feel stuffy, the way it always gets when he has a head cold. If he’s going to be sleeping next to his crush— no, the guy he’s in love with, he would prefer to do it when he’s not all sniffly and full of germs.

He’s been trying to downplay it for the last few hours, rubbing his nose tentatively with the cuff of his sweater, stifling a few sneezes when Sam hadn’t looked. It was getting harder to keep the sniffles at bay, though, with how the cabin was being heated by the fireplace and how his colds always get worse in the evening.

When Sam decides to look through the cupboards to look for something to make for dinner, Bucky excuses himself to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, he notices the pink tint to the tip of his nose and the apples of his cheeks. He looks like a child, Bucky thinks. His Ma and Steve had always said he looked so young and innocent and that it was really cute how his face flushed that way when he was sick. Bucky couldn’t see it back then, but he does see it now. Fucking perfect. A man with blushing cheeks and a nose channeling Rudolph is just what Sam’s looking for. Bucky rolls his eyes at himself, and pulls some toilet paper from the roll to blow his nose into.

It triggers a few coughs that Bucky desperately tries to mute, not wanting Sam to hear it. He flushes the paper and goes back out to Sam, raising his eyebrows in surprise when he sees Sam stirring something in a pot.

“Soup,” Sam explains when he catches the questioning frown on Bucky’s face. “Thought it seemed fitting,” he adds and glances out at the steadily increasing layer of snow.

They eat at the small table in the kitchen. The soup tastes nice, from what Bucky can taste, anyway, especially considering it was from a can and not homemade like his Ma used to make it. Maybe it’s because Sam made it that Bucky likes it. Not that he says that out loud.

Bucky offers to clean the dishes, but Sam insists he’ll do it himself.

“Can’t blame me for not doing anything if you won’t let me help you,” Bucky says, earning a small grin from Sam.

“I like doing dishes,” Sam says. “It’s domestic. Simple… you’ll just owe me a favor instead.” Sam smirks at him with a mischievous glance. Bucky’s breath catches at the twinkle in his eyes. They’re beautiful; a rich chocolate color, full of depths and warmth and life.

Bucky shakes himself out of the trance. Get a grip, Barnes.

He rolls his eyes at Sam instead and snorts. “You wish, Wilson.”

Bucky is amazed at how well he’s managed to conceal how badly this cold is affecting him. By 9 pm, he had a splintering head ache and his nose is completely clogged up. He can’t pronounce his consonants right and trying to avoid words that include n’s and m’s is downright exhausting. When Sam suggests that they head to bed, Bucky is both relieved and absolutely terrified.

“I’ll just take the couch,” Bucky says stiffly. He doesn’t want to sleep on the sofa, he really doesn’t, but an aching back is better than having Sam listen to him sniffle and sneeze and cough throughout the entire night.

Sam glares at him with crossed arms. “We both know you’re never going to fall asleep on that thing,” Sam states. “The bed’s big enough for both of us.”

Bucky swallows around nothing. His throat’s dry, and it’s not just because of his cold.

“C’mon,” Sam says and waves towards the bedroom.

Bucky hesitates, but it’ll seem even more suspicious if he keeps refusing to sleep in an actual bed instead of a 40-inch wide sofa.

“Which side do you want?” Sam asks, looking over the bed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Bucky mutters and goes to the left side of the bed when Sam moves for the right.

They pull out their sleepwear from their bags. Both of them brought a pair of sweatpants, but Bucky took an old henley while Sam chose a plain t-shirt that’s slightly too small for him. He looks sinfully good in it, according to Bucky.

“Do you want to use the bathroom first or?”

“Uh… no. No, you can go first,” Bucky answers and begins pulling off his jeans and shuffles into his sweats when Sam nods and leaves through the door.

When Sam’s out of sight, Bucky sighs and buries his face is his hands. This is going to be a nightmare. Maybe he’ll be able to sneak out of the bed room later, but Sam has to fall asleep before he can do that. On top of that, a tingling sensation is beginning to build at the back of Bucky’s nose. He tries pinching the bridge of his nose, rubbing his septum against his shoulder to impede the tickle, but it lingers, unable to fully disappear or even just coax it out. He sighs again, in frustration.

“Tired?”

Bucky’s head snaps up; he hadn’t seen nor heard Sam entering the bedroom. “Um, y-yeah… I guess.”

“Me too… the bathroom’s all yours.”

Bucky mumbles a quiet thanks and goes to brush his teeth. He tries blowing his nose, but that doesn’t rid the persistent itch either.

When he comes back into the bedroom, Sam’s tucked up under the covers, arms behind his head as he stares at Bucky when he walks through the door.

“Stop staring at me,” Bucky grumbles, “it’s creepy.”

“Sorry,” Sam laughs.

Bucky feels a mixture of disappointment and ease when Sam does look away. Bucky likes when he Sam looks at him, even though he blushes like a school girl when they gain eye contact. He just always looks so happy, a wide smile plastered on his face and that characteristic shimmer in his eyes. But Bucky wants that to be for him, because of him, and that’s… that’s not the case. Instead, it makes him feel sad, knowing that there’s a reason behind that smile that isn’t Bucky.

Bucky shifts as he gets under the covers, being careful not to touch Sam as he lays down, but even though bed fits both of them, it’s not big enough for them to be sprawled out without touching each other. Bucky turns his back towards Sam, who’s still lying on his back, looking towards the ceiling.

“Night, Buck,” Sam says, a casts a glance at the back of Bucky’s head, the long brown hair falling loosely onto the pillow.

“Night, Sam,” Bucky echoes.

They lie in silence for a while, and Bucky thinks that he might just me able to fall asleep, but of course, because he’s just that lucky, the tingle in his nose flares up again. He tries to stop it by wrinkling his nose, pushing his knuckles against it, even pinching it shut, but it’s still there, becoming more intense with every passing second.

Soon enough, he draws in a breath, grabs a handful of the duvet and crushes his face into it, stifling the sneezes to make them as quiet as possible.

“ng’tCHh! HNgx!”

Bucky’s body jerks slightly with the sneezes, and it feels horrible holding them in like that. He always gets super congested when he’s sick, which makes his sneezes really strong and stuffy. He gives an experimental sniff and exhales warily.

“Huh?”

Bucky stiffens. Shit. “What?” He asks, feigning ignorance.

“Nothing,” Sam says. “Thought you said something.”

A couple of minutes pass before the tickle resurfaces. Bucky tries with every inch of energy he has left to swallow the itch, but he already knows it’s futile.

“hngxt! h-h-H’tsngshh!”

He stifles the first one successfully, but the second one slips a the end.

“Was that a sneeze?” Sam asks and Bucky is mentally slapping himself.

“Ndo,” he lies, but it sounds unconvincing, even to him. It doesn’t help that a sudden sneeze creeps up on him before he gets a chance to react, either. “hh’ttsch!”

“Bless you,” Sam says, his voice soft.

“Sorry,” Bucky sighs, and now that he’s already blown his cover, he might as well just give up. “snffSNFF! Than’gks.”

“Are you sick?” Sam asks and now he just sounds concerned. He’s propped up on his elbow, a hand placed on Bucky’s shoulder. It feels nice, so nice, when Sam touches him like this, softly, naturally, because Sam’s always been a very tactile person, and Bucky would be lying if he said he didn’t spend hours thinking about all the small touches they share, like when he pats him on the shoulder after a mission, or when their fingers brush when they both reach for the coffee pot.

And apparently, Bucky has these masochistic tendencies, because he think about Sam all the time, even when he’s not right here, and it’s killing him. And Bucky’s selfish, because even just the the thought of Sam touching someone else like this makes him furious, makes his face burn with unjustified anger.

“Ndo, I’m fi—“ Bucky tries to answer, but he’s cut off by a harsh coughing fit. Sam winces and squeezes his shoulder.

“Buck,” he murmurs, voice impossibly softer.

“I’m okay,” Bucky assures. “Just a cold.”

Sam hums and lays back down. After a few minutes, when Bucky thinks Sam’s fallen asleep, Sam suddenly says, “Is it just me or is it really cold in here?”

“Uh… I think it’s just you.”

Sam hums, but he shivers violently. Bucky hears him draw in a breath, but he hesitates and it’s only after a few seconds of a pregnant silence that Sam speaks. “You remember that favor you owed me? For doing the dishes,” Sam clarifies, and Bucky huffs a laugh.

“I owe you ndo such thidng. snff! But sure, what about it?”

“Can I, maybe, cash it in now?” Sam’s voice sounds uncertain all of a sudden.

“What is it?”

“Warm me up? Please?”

Bucky freezes and it’s like his brain has short-circuited. “Uh… y-yeah— I mean… okay. Sure,” Bucky manages, and Sam quickly scoots closer to Bucky, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s middle and places his face in the crooks of Bucky’s neck.

“Mhmm,” Sam sighs contentedly. “’S nice.”

Bucky doesn’t know how to answer other than nod and follow Sam’s lead, hugging the smaller man closer to him. “Are you sure about this?” Bucky hears himself ask, just because he can’t let himself have anything good. “I mean, I’m kinda sick.”

He waits for Sam to withdraw himself from his grasp, but contrary to Bucky’s beliefs, Sam snuggles in closer, nosing his face into the long, dark hair, lips brushing against his jaw.

“I don’t care… I’ll take care of you,” Sam whispers, and warmth pools in Bucky’s chest, fluttering with happiness and affection. He wants to tell Sam how he feels, right this second, but there’s too many things to say, and he doesn’t know where to start, and… and then Sam’s breath evens out.

Bucky exhales. He’ll tell him everything tomorrow. Tonight, he’ll just enjoy the closeness of Sam, how perfect this moment is. Maybe a cabin in the middle of nowhere with only one bed was exactly what Bucky needed.

[boarchasers]

July 27th – family or apotheosis [x]

Officially, civilians were not permitted to approach dragons in the event of an attack. Most people were all too happy to obey this decree from the Whiterun Guard and after an initial few months of panic, it had now become second nature, upon hearing that earth-ripping shriek, to duck into cover and wait for either a triumphant horn from the battlefield, or the flapping of wings followed by a long silence. There were always those who wanted a good stare, however, or to tell their grandchildren, should they survive to have any, that they had fought off the dragon menace single-handedly.

Trond, who refused to wield a bow after The Incident and didn't fancy standing in a field underneath a dragon while frantically waggling a sword in the air, often ended up tasked with keeping this would-be audience at bay. He huffed behind his helmet at the latest person to approach and readied his shield, until he recognised the dogs racing at the figure's heels.

'Haaki, get back!'

'I'm going to help.'

'Get back, troll brains!'

A crossbow bolt seared past his ear, missing the dragon by a several feet. The beast dropped low, over the ruins of an old watchtower, and its talons skimmed across what was left of the stone. A chunk of masonry landed with a thud in the dirt.

'That's helping, is it? Aye, I see, really helpful.'

'Shut up.'

The second bolt found its mark on the dragon's soft belly, but had about as much effect as the miss. A blast of fire tore along the river bank. The dragon ignored every hail of arrows from the guards, Haaki's crossbow bolts, the indignant barking of the dogs, and continued to sweep across the landscape carving out a path of blackened, smoking ruins. Nothing could persuade it to land.

'Joor zah frul!'

One thing could persuade it to land.

The sound of fifty tonnes of dragon crashing onto the plains echoed against the mountains, off the earth, down into Trond's core. He ignored it and ran forwards, drawing his sword, already knowing who he would find on the other side of the battlefield. Beside him, keeping pace, Haaki dropped the crossbow and unhooked his axe from his belt.

Trond's guess was right. As he drew alongside the dragon, someone skidded past him, nocked an arrow and fired with considerably more accuracy than Haaki at the dragon's eye. There was no time to congratulate her on the shot before she was off again to line up another shot. Trond wasn't sure if he could have got the words out anyway. This was not the Arlain he knew.

He could happily have stayed where he was, on the edge of the fight, sword pointing purposefully but not actually doing anything, if it hadn't been for Haaki. Not to be outdone by his sister-in-law – or erstwhile nemesis, Trond didn't know which Haaki considered Arlain these days – he was swinging his axe towards a knee, and only a last-second dive from Trond, shield raised, stopped him being bowled over by a wave of rubble coming in from the side. Haaki didn't appear to notice. He muttered some words Ma Boar-Chaser would have been shocked to hear in her baby son’s mouth and charged forwards again.

Between them, and with the constant fire from the other guards, they brought the dragon to its knees, although how long it took Trond couldn’t guess. Towards the end, panting, exhausted, bleeding in at least three places, he watched the arrows sailing overhead, and although they were lead by Arlain's shots he noticed another, errant arrow, coming from a different direction. As the dragon stooped and whined, finally brought down by – what else? – Arlain skimming her shield towards its knee, he dared to pause and follow this other trajectory, squinting his eyes against the raging light gathering around Arlain. At the edge of the treeline, Hjolrin nodded to himself and fastened his bow into its place on his back.

None of the guards saw. They were crowding around their old colleague, some too awestruck to speak, others whispering. Those who used to work alongside Arlain, the same ones who had refused to train her as a rookie, were now vociferous in their praise. Loudest of all was Jorvin.

'Dovahkiin! Coming back to help us! By all I hold sacred!'

The memory of Jorvin stood in the river, soaked to the skin, smelling of sewer water, while Arlain rescued his stolen scarf was one which still served to keep Trond warm at night. Hearing him grovelling should have been equally satisfying. Instead, Trond saw Arlain's shoulders stiffen, saw her mouth set, heard her total silence, and pushed his way to the front of the throng.

'That's a pile of mammoth dung. She's not The Dovahkiin. She's Arlain. She's one of us. Part of the guardsman family. Right, Arlain?'

She said nothing. Jorvin, unwisely, kept talking.

'She defeated the dragon! No mere man could bring down that beast!'

'She did that? She did? All right, maybe she helped, but it's got nothing to do with being dragonborn. It's all to do with me training her. Isn't that right? It's all because she got a good guardsman's training under her belt. We killed the dragon. And we'll be celebrating it at the Bannered Mare tonight. Someone go and tell the Commander.'

Mention of the inn successfully derailed the argument, and the guards began marching, in ragtag fashion, back towards the town walls. They were in no hurry. With enough dawdling, their shift would be over by the time they got back, and nobody wanted to chase petty sweetroll thieves around after taking down a dragon, not when drinks at the Mare were in the offing. Trond waited until they were gone before he turned to Arlain.

It was then he remembered Haaki, who stood like a wraith behind her, almost as sullen and quiet as Arlain herself. Trond regretted his haste. Maybe the guardsmen family was easier to handle than his real one, after all.

'Look, if you two are going to kill each other, can you wait until I've gone? Otherwise I'll have to explain it to Hjoll, and it'll be awkward, and I'm tired. He's over there, by the way.'

'I know.' These were the first words Trond had heard Arlain speak – the first words not in an ancient Dragon language, anyway – and somehow he wasn't surprised. She glanced towards the trees, where Hjolrin, satisfied that he wouldn't have to deal with strangers, was making his way towards them, then turned to Haaki. Her face was stony. 'Thanks for y'help. Y'did... good.'

Trond could almost see the word thanks sticking in his brother's throat, resulting in a half-hearted mumble. Dog and Splendid, however, were more forthright with their thanks, and at least when they nuzzled affectionately against Arlain's hand Haaki didn't call them off. It was a step towards reparations, at least, and quite a large one for Haaki.

Their reunion didn't last much longer. After exchanging a few words with Hjolrin, and getting a promise from the pair to have dinner together soon, both Haaki and Trond returned towards the city. Haaki separated at the turning to the Boar-Chaser Farm. Trond carried on through the gates and, after a brief detour to change out of his uniform in the barracks, up to the Wind District, and home.

He was so lost in his thoughts that the bundle of stickiness and blonde hair which barrelled into his knees almost knocked him over. Amelie bounced in circles around him while he caught his breath, evidently unconcerned by the bloody smears and bruises.

'Pa! Pa! There was a dragon! Is it gonna eat us?'

'No, sweetroll, it's dead now. You know who killed it?'

'You!'

It never got old. Trond nodded and swung her up into his arms.

'That's right. With some help from Aunt Arlain and Uncle Haaki.'

'Auntie Arlain always fights dragons, doesn't she?' Amelie squeezed her arms around his shoulders as he carried her through to the kitchen. 'Is she a god?'

The question took Trond by surprise, so much so that he almost neglected to give Joldi a kiss in greeting. As punishment, she held the ladle of soup away from him and refused to let him have a taste, waving towards the table instead.

'Hello, dear. You can wait for your dinner like everyone else.'

'But--'

'It's nearly ready anyway.'

Wary of crossing anyone who would provide him with food, Trond sat down next to Amelie. She hadn't forgotten her question, more was the pity, and poked his sleeve with her little wooden spoon.

'Pa? Is Auntie Arlain a god?'

'No. No, she's not a god. She's your aunt, she can't be a god.'

'But you said she shouts dragons outta the sky!'

'Aye, well, she does, but--'

'I never sawed anyone else who shouts dragons outta the sky!'

After the reaction of the guards, who used to consider Arlain as one of them, and trying to smooth things over between her and Haaki, this was the last thing Trond wanted to deal with, especially when Joldi was setting out hunks of freshly baked bread on the table. He took a deep breath.

'Listen, Amelie. She's your aunt. She's family. And even if she was a god, which she isn't... family comes first, sometimes.'

The rest of the meal carried on as usual. Trond snuck in an extra kiss on Joldi's cheek when she leaned forwards with his bowl of soup, which appeared to make up for his earlier faux pas. She batted his shoulder and added some extra bread on his plate. Conversation moved on to how her work had gone in the marketplace today, the customers who annoyed her, the recipe she'd come up with, which Trond offered to taste test. Neither of them noticed Amelie thoughtfully swirling her bread through her soup, staring out of the window in the direction she had seen the dragon flying earlier that day.

[hermankopusortizorsumshite]

Just Another Day in Paradise

Based on the song by Phil Vassar.

WARNING: EIGHTEEN PLUS! 18+! Y’all, the end is basically crappy Angel porn, sorry if the end sucks. I love the break your heart put it back together kind, I just feel like I suck at the romantic, sexy part. Anywhom, a glimpse into life with Angel Reyes as your husband. Enjoy!

TAGLIST:

@woahitslucyylu @gemini0410 @starrynite7114 @claytoncardenasbabymama @phoenixhalliwell @angelreyesgirl @dazzledamazon @cind-in-real-life @whyisgmora @mheart27 @ifoundmyhappythought @choppedgalaxynerd-blog-blog @angelreyesgirl

Angel wakes with a rough start, hearing your second youngest child shrieking through the house at seven in the morning. As he pads into the kitchen after his shower, he greets you with a kiss to the lips as the six year old comes sprinting through the kitchen. With the baby on your hip you give him a defeated smile. He just chuckles, reaching into the fridge and grabbing the milk carton. Tipping it back he takes a big drink and he spits it in the sink, his face screwing up as he coughs and gags. Twisting the cap on, he hears you giggling behind him and turns to face you. With a little smirk on his lips, he shakes his head at your hand half-covering your mouth to hide your smile.

“I’ll be home at six. We have dinner at eight tonight at Giovanni’s. You still up for it?” He asks, his hand resting on your cheek.

“Yeah! I’m out at three today, I’ll drop the kids at mom’s. I have that thing at the school tonight at six but I’ll be home in time to change.” She assures, pressing a warm kiss to your husband’s lips. He smiles at you, snagging your baby boy from your hands and spinning him around. You disappear into the wash room to switch laundry over and find the floor sopping wet. With a groan, you kick the washer.

“I love you, mamacita! Baby’s in his swing!” Angel calls.

“Angel! The washer’s leaking again!” She shouts, kicking it again.

“Baby, don’t kick it. I’ll fix it tonight. Along with the dishwasher.” He assures, sweeping you into his arms and kissing your lips rather passionately.

“Thank you, mi vida.” She whispers, hugging his waist.

“Te amo, mi reina.” He heads towards the door as your six year old daughter grabs his thighs in attempt to keep him home.

“Papa! No!” She whines. With a shake, he’s gotten out the door and your daughter stands in the window bawling as Angel mounts his bike. You can’t help but smile and remember a time before your kids, when you’d climb on the back and ride for hours, no destination in mind. Chuckling, you pick up your screeching daughter and hug her, promising her papa would be home soon.

“Mama?” She asks, sniffling as she hugs a teddy bear that Angel sprayed with his cologne.

“Yeah?”

“Can I watch the video of you and papa again?” She asks. Your daughter was enamored with your wedding video and you couldn’t help but laugh, putting in her favorite movie, arguably.

As you get to the school, the line for kindergarten sign up is literally out the doors and today’s the last night. Giving an eye roll, you watch your watch as an hour runs up. Another fifteen minutes, you’re almost to the door. Another fifteen. You had a half-an-hour until you were supposed to be Giovanni’s for dinner. And you were still in this morning’s jeans and crappy tee shirt.

You get done in record time, speeding home to change and flying to Giovanni’s. As you pull in, it’s eight-o-five. Fucccck. You slap the steering wheel as you climb out and meet Angel at the door. Of course, he’s grinning. And you’re frustrated as hell. You had dropped off the kids at Felipe’s and he offered to watch them until nine.

“Hey baby, you’re a little late. Everything okay?” You sniffle and feel the tears welling in your eyes. Of course you’d be late. Shrugging in attempt to keep the tears at bay, you fail and they start to pour. Drawing you away from the door, he holds you against him as you sob.

“Angel, I’m so sorry hunny. There was some fuck up at the school and it took forever.”

“It’s okay baby. Let’s get a pizza and go home, eh?” He chuckles, leaning away to look at you.

“You promise?” He nods leading you to your car and climbing on his bike, clicking on his helmet. You both stop at the local pizza shop and get a deluxe and head home. Changing into your cute pajama shorts and silky tank top, Angel pulls on his black pajama pants and you two pad to the living room. You had two hours before Felipe would be there to drop off your babies. You were determined to make every second count. Just as you get comfy, Angel disappears, and you hear clanging that sounds suspiciously like him trying to fix the washer.

“Hunny?” You call, tiptoeing to the wash room. There he is on the floor elbows deep in the bottom of the washer. Sighing, you grab the nearest flash light and try to help. After successfully getting you and himself covered in grease, you both sit up and he grins at you. You can’t help but blush, feeling like teenagers again.

“Baby, you look so beautiful.” He whispers, leaning across the tools spread along the floor between you and kisses you passionately. Sliding your shorts down, he picks you up and sits you on the dryer. His lips never leaving yours, his grease-blackened hands massage your breasts as you hug his neck. Just as Angel slides away from you, he dips down and presses a soft kiss to your tummy and heads towards your aching center. Just as his tongue flicks against your clit, a knocks sounds at the door. They hadn’t really spent two hours fixing the washer, did they? Angel bolts upright and looks at her with a ‘I’m so sorry’ smirk before he heads to let his Pop in. Just before Angel swings open the door, he can’t help but laugh as he hears you give a defeated groan and your heels hit the dryer.

“Querida! Let’s not break the dryer too, ya?” He calls and swings the door open. “Hey, Po—Ez?” He asks, confused to see both children with his brother.

“Pop was sleeping when I got there. Your princesa is a real handful.” He chuckles, heading into the house to see a disheveled you pouting in the kitchen as you finished the dishes.

“She’s pretty pissed, eh?” He nods to you as he walks through the house, gently dropping your daughter into her princess bed and the baby into his crib.

“You have no idea.” Angel chuckles, leading Ez to the kitchen for a beer.

“Well, hey! I could take them tonight if you want.” He offers hand on the beer, but hasn’t taken a sip yet.

“You’d do that?”

“Sure, she looks pretty pissed.” Ez gathers your children back up and heads out the door, winking to his brother. As Angel pads into the bedroom, finding you sexily sprawled across the bed grinning at him.

“Eh, mamacita? You look so beautiful.” He whispers, crossing the distance between them in a couple strides. He all but yanks those pretty dusty pink shorts off as he drops his pants on the floor to expose to throbbing hard cock.

“Aye, Papi, please.” She whimpers as Angel presses seducing kisses against your cheeks and throat, kissing between your breasts. As his lips ghost over your sensitive buds, you haul him to the foot of the bed, taking control. “Just fuck me like we’re seventeen and we’re in the back room at the clubhouse.” You growl. With husky chuckle, Angel flips you and hastily slides in. Taking a moment to get used to the sweet, sweet stretch you longed for so dearly, you let out a whine of pleasure.

“Damn baby girl.” He growls in your ear as he slams sloppily into you over and over.

“Angel...Angel...Goddammit. You’re so hot.” You moan loudly, gripping the sheets as he flips you over.

“Ass in the air ma.” He demands, hearing a little gasp that escapes you. His calloused hand cracks against your ass and you can’t help but give an excited giggle. He smacks your ass again, loving the shake that reverberates. You look back to see him licking his lips as he takes your ass in both hands and kneads the soft supple skin.

“Papi,” you moan, watching as he strokes his cock before resting at your wet pussy before painfully slowly sliding in. Your hips rock back to meet his and he grunts. With his hands gripping your hips, the sound of skin slapping together fills the room, and your moans as Angel hits your g’spot perfectly with every rocking thrust. “Angel, baby. I’m so close already. Shit.” You gasp, planting your face against the sheets and reaching back. Angel sees your hands and grips them tight, sinking somehow, deeper, into you and hitting your high so fast you quaked in euphoria. Angel tumbles shortly after, slamming hard into you a couple more times before he fills you.

“Babygirl,” he whispers, rolling next to you and pulling you against him.

“Angel Reyes, I love you so much.” She grins, fingers sifting through his damp, thick hair.

“Baby, I love you too. You’re amazing. You’re amazing, dealing with our kids and the house while I go to work.” He praises as they lay on their backs staring at the ceiling.

[rae-is-typing]

Universal Language

Description: You, music and the Avengers

Characters: You, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, Bruce Banner, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, Peter Parker and Pepper Potts because I love her

Warnings: Mentions of PTSD, mentions of little Stevie getting beat up, and mild language. If there is something I missed, please let me know.

Disclaimer: Some are longer than others, some have dialogue, and I couldn’t think of anything for Rhodey (I’m so sorry!) Tell me what you think, I was trying something new for this one. If you want something more in-depth, lemme know :)

Word count: ~ 2.5k

Tony took you in when you were a toddler. He knew jack shit about raising a child, and enlisted the help of a nanny,. That is until Pepper made him realize how much he was missing of his daughter’s life. He didn’t even know you started crawling. However, he knew the only thing that got you to stop crying was music. He also knew that banging on things rhythmically was your favorite pastime. From then on, he knew that he was going to have a little musician on his hands.

Tony

In Tony’s opinion, the only good things your mother gave you were life and your knack for the arts, especially music. Rhodey and Pepper saw it, too. You took to music the way Tony took to mechanics. He loved your adorable pout when you were figuring the notes out, and the way your face brightened the room when you finally played it right.

The first thing he got you was a toy xylophone when you were three. He would watch you try and replicate the music he was playing over his speakers. You’d look up at him with tearful eyes when you couldn’t get it. He would gently take the mallet from your hands and copy the music, then he’d give it back to you so could copy him. Your giggles of glee when he played were something he’d never forget. He used his knowledge of the piano to help you learn music.

You were six when he got back from Afghanistan. Even at that young age, you knew things would be different. Your father had been gone for months. His arm as in a sling and he looked sick. He pushed you away for a few weeks after that, only staying in the lab, not even letting you stay in the child-proof area he had set up all those years ago. You didn’t understand why he was different, you only understand that he was different.

One night, you were playing in the main room. Pepper was done for the day, and Obadiah was far away and wouldn’t be back for a really long time; you were all alone with only JARVIS looking after you. You were trying, and failing, to play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. You kept hitting the wrong keys and messing up the rhythms. Frustrated, you huffed and crossed your arms.

Unbeknownst to you, your dad was behind you. He smiled softly, walked closer to you, picked you up, set you on his lap and played the phrase you were trying to. You demanded he play the rest. Soon enough, he had a sleeping kid in his lap.

You were eight when you had your first performance with an audience. It was a piano recital in a small auditorium at your school. He sat in the front, unashamedly cheering for you and loving you. He was there whenever you had solos, and he cried for a lot of them, not that he would ever admit that to anyone but you or Pepper. He records all of your performance, e even has videos of your progress from a four-year-old you playing Mary Had a Little Lamb to sixteen-year-old you busting out Beethoven like its nothing.

Now, he asks FRIDAY to play back recordings of you singing or playing. It helps him calm down, knowing he’ll always have a piece of what matters most to him with him at all times.

Steve

You met Steve when you were ten years old. It was the aftermath of the Battle of New York. Steve and the rest of the team, excluding Thor, had moved into the tower. While you were thrilled to see Natalie-Natasha again, you were a shy kid, opting to stay with Pepper or your dad and away from the others. The larger-than-life Captain America intimidated the shit out of you.

It wasn’t until you saw him sketching in the common are you began to consider him an actual human and not a walking action figure. You had been trying your hand at drawing for months, and while you had made considerable progress, your work always looked off for some reason. After watching him draw for weeks, you managed to snatch his sketchbook, flip through it when left to go get something from another room. He cleared his throat, startling you into dropping the book. You picked it up, heat in your cheeks, and sheepishly handed it back to him with a small, almost scared, “Sorry,”

He only smiled at you, ten-year-olds weren’t all that subtle when it came to spying. He sat you down on the couch, and began showing you all of the drawings he felt were appropriate. Some of them were memories of war-ravaged battle fields, and he didn’t want to give you nightmares. There were lots of old-timey Brooklyn, a man named Bucky, a vaguely familiar, but very beautiful woman named Peggy and Steve’s Ma, Sarah.

You pouted and explained that whenever you tried to draw, it never came out right. He nodded, then smiled. “I’ll tell you what, you help me learn Piano, I’ll help you learn to draw.”

Clint

Clint is a vent-dweller and, much like everyone else on the team, he struggles with PTSD. He uses the vents as a safe space, a way to escape the nightmares and the heartache from the past. However, he doesn’t like to feel alone. He often says above the lab to hear Tony’s loud music, snarky banter with his AI’s, and his empty threats to the ‘bots. Other times he’ll stay above the gym if he knows that Steve or Natasha are doing late night workouts. The soft grunts and the sounds of the equipment are sufficient to keep the loneliness at bay. On very rare occasions, he stays above the kitchen to hear Vision mutter to himself while attempting, and generally failing at cooking food.

Soon enough, he found the music room. Well, art floor.

You were up late, practicing a solo that you couldn’t quite get, but weren’t ready to give up on. He paused, getting clear tone with his hearing aids in. He soon found himself up above the floor whenever you were playing late. The music was a nice distraction, and he could feel himself become happy with your progress, small feelings of pride swelling in his chest at your success. One night, he even left a note on the piano asking you to learn and play Clair de Lune for him. The next week, you told him to be there at midnight, and sure enough, the beautiful piano tune floated up to the vents.

Natasha

You’ve known Natasha since she was Natalie. You mostly kept your distance until one day. You were struggling to play something. You fumbled with your instrument, while penciling something onto the sheet music. She watched you for a couple minutes before asking if you  needed help. You huffed out a petulant “No,” before proceeding to struggle for another five minutes. Defeated, you asked for help. She managed to help you figure out the fingerings and the accidentals.

You took up dancing a little later on, and she began helping you after your regular class. With her guidance, you quickly became one of the best dancers in your classes, always rising to the challenge with the work-ethic she helped instill in you.

Even later on, you became her pupil once more when learning to fight. She knocked you on your ass more times than you can count, and still does all the time. But, with her help, you’ve learned how to kick some serious ass.

Thor

It’s no secret that Thor is a big guy. He doesn’t know his own strength,and often breaks things when he wasn’t careful. Out of all the original Avengers, he intimidated you the most.

One day, you saw him holding your violin, examining it like a specimen under a microscope. You panicked, dropped everything and ran to him.  

You demanded he stop, resorting to pulling the bow from his hands. He was confused at the tiny child pulling the interesting midgardian play thing away from him.

“Let it go, Thor! You’ll break it!”

Thor frowned, still holding the violin.

“My apologies, young Stark. I do not know what it is, I was merely trying to find its function.” He says, handing it back to.

You relaxed a little, the initial panic wearing off. “It’s a violin, it makes music.”

“How?”

You got into position, put the bow to the strings and drug across the strings. A note rung put, and everything seemed to click in Thor’s mind.

The next time Thor came to visit, he brought Asgardian instruments for you to learn, try and play. You may or may not have cried out of joy.

Bruce

Bruce is a ball of stress, and that is evident to anyone that’s spent any amount of time with him. He uses music as an outlet, letting the sounds wash over him and makes some amount of stress go away. But there are days that things get too overwhelming, there are days where the headphones and opera don’t work, there are days where he needs something more.

Bruce knows that you play, he knows about your talent, and he’s even gone with Tony to watch you perform. There was a day when he shyly asked if he could watch you practice. You were all for it. You practiced in front of him, and he calmed don a lot more.

It became a routine of sorts, you playing, him offering some constructive criticism when he could and you even taught him a few songs on the piano.

Sam

You took the initiative of catching Steve up with modern music. One day, he sheepishly handed you The List, Working your way down, you finally landed on Marvin Gaye. Steve called his friend Sam in so you both could gush about the icon.

You and Sam ended up screeching singing Ain’t No Mountain High Enough for him, and managed not to scare him off. You called it a successful day.

After that, you had put together a playlist for him, and had your dad create a portable sound system for his wings so he could fly listening to his fave.

Bucky

Bucky came to the tower after his time in Wakanda. Tony was wary, anyone in his situation would be. He wanted you to stay away from the ex-assassin indefinitely, and you didn’t blame him. You knew what Bucky did. However, you tried not to blame Bucky either. Steve explained the situation as best he could to you, and you understood that Bucky had been taken advantage of, used and manipulated.

Now that he was in the tower, Bucky wandered around the tower when he couldn’t sleep which happened to be most nights. One night, he heard something familiar, something that tugged at his chest in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Somewhere over the rainbow,”

He remembers a warm breezy day, the alley he pulled Stevie out the night before, reaming him for fighting more than usual because of the big day they had coming up. He cleaned him up. He remembers holding a washcloth to a small blond Steve as he tried not to hurt him too bad while he berated him for fighting again that week.

“There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby,”

He remembers walking with Stevie to the theater, paying too much for the tickets and sitting beside his best friend watching color appear on a screen for the first time. Bucky smiles, letting the feeling of nostalgia and the longing for a simpler time linger for a moment longer before heading to another area of the labyrinth to explore.

Wanda

Wanda moved in when you were 13. You were so happy that you had another female in the tower to bond with. When she expressed interest in music, you jumped at the chance to teach her something, anything really. You tried a few things. You started with woodwinds, she couldn’t figure out the embouchure. You moved onto brass, she didn’t like the sounds. You settled on stringed instruments. Her choice was the acoustic guitar, and she was good. She picked it up almost immediately, easily learning the fingerings and chords.  Her favorite thing were duets with you, and you often played together whenever you two had time.

Peter

You saw how good Peter was for your dad. He finally had a mentee to teach. Tony really tried to get you into science, he really did. It didn’t work the way he thought it would, and damaged your relationship for awhile until he back off, letting you do you.

You were jealous, admittedly. You weren’t used to sharing your father’s attention with another person your age.

Then you got to know him. You found out through your dad that he was in marching band, and you needed to know more. You began spending a little time together, swapping band stories and laughing at memes. Soon enough, Peter hung out with you before going to working with Tony in the lab for a few hours. It was fun.

You learned the Mii Theme, the Kahoot theme and even put together a duet of meme music to annoy your dad with together.

Pepper

Pepper is your mother. No, she didn’t birth you, and you didn’t call her mom, but she has been there for you through everything. Through your father’s time in Afghanistan, the battle with Obadiah, your first day of middle school, whenever your dad was busy and you were upset, your first period. It didn’t matter, she was with you. She listened to you when you worked hard on a piece. Hell, she even helped you pick out your first professional grade instrument, despite knowing very little about them.

She encouraged you when were feeling less than, she helped pick you up when you were down, she taught how to act around the business assholes in Galas and events.

Pepper loved you and you loved her.

When the proposal happened, Pepper asked you to sing at the wedding. You took this role very seriously, singing ‘A Thousand years’ by Christina Perri and ‘Future Looks Good’ by OneRepublic.

When Morgan was born, you sang to her whenever you could. When she was old enough, you’d sit her on your lap and let her smash the piano keys like Tony did with you.

Pepper couldn’t think of a better older sister for her baby; she couldn’t think of any better daughters.

[seasonofthegeek]

A Fortress of Your Own Design, Part 1

I made a post about how much I would like to see Max as the Guardian of the Miraculous and it made me realize I wanted to do a story with all the heroes grown and trying to juggle the hero gig and adult life so here we go. :D

___

“Perimeter breach,” Hawking squawked in his artificial voice. “Initiating security protocol alpha-three-tango--”

“It appears King Monkey is paying us a visit,” Markov interrupted, swinging over to Hawking’s charging bay. “Override security protocol.” The floating AI turned to his creator. “I’ll make a note to have his body scans put into the security system so his perimeter breaches can be ignored. Hawking’s hasn’t learned the difference between friend and foe yet. We need to reconfigure his knowledge banks.”

Max watched his friend stroll towards the building on the security feed, the large fence with its prominent NO TRESPASSING sign at his back. “He knows better than to try to sneak in. He doesn’t get any special treatment. Hawking, initiate the security protocol.”

“Max!” Markov’s digital eyes slanted in disapproval. 

“It’s a lesson he needs to learn.” He rolled his chair to a bank of monitors. “Bring up the last ten calls over the police scanner please, Olivia.”

“Yes, sir,” the computer replied in a pleasant tone. “Listed in order from oldest to most recent and will update for the next hour.”

“Thank you.”

“He’s taken down the shockbot you posted by the door,” Markov announced with a hint of amusement in his tone. “Knocked it against the wall with the back of his hand and laughed. I don’t think there will be any piecing it back together.”

Max ignored him. “Olivia, more information on line five please.”

“Silent alarm tripped in the Louvre Museum, exhibit four-nine-seven-bee,” she replied evenly.  “Police have been notified and are in route.”

“Security footage?” Max sat forward in his chair to watch as the grainy night vision footage played across the screen closest to him.

“Firewall is temporarily keeping me out on the inside but street and perimeter cameras show five possible perpetrators.”

“Five is a lot for a quick heist. Chat’s on patrol. I’ll see if he can swing by in case the police need help.” He held out his hand and Hawking crossed the room to  drop a tablet into his palm and floated back to its station. Max opened the communication app and moved back to his computer bank to pull up the security feeds around the museum as Olivia brought down the firewalls. “Chat Noir, do you copy?”

“Loud and clear. I was just finishing up my route, and I have the sneaking suspicion you’re going to tell me that’s not the case,” Chat Noir answered back. Ambient city sounds filtered in behind his voice.

“Louvre break-in. I can see if someone else is nearby.” Max pulled up the contact list on the tablet and checked GPS coordinates. “King Monkey is currently breaking in here so I can easily send him.”

“Sounds about right. You trying to electrocute him again?” he chuckled over the line. "I don’t mind swinging by the museum.” 

“He knows what to expect when he comes here.” Max felt his lips tug up in a smirk as he watched the paw print icon on one of his monitors change direction to head to the museum. “If you’re sure you can handle it on your own, I’ll hold off on calling in reinforcements.”

“Hey, been doing this longer than you have, Oracle.”

“Not my name.”

Chat Noir laughed over the comm line. “Sure, sure. I’ll let you know what I see when I get there. Ladybug is busy tonight though so don’t bother her.”

“I’m aware and I’ll be waiting to here from you.”  Max muted his line and leaned in to review the security footage Olivia had sent to his screen. “Any I.D. scans come through?”

“Running partial face scans through databases now. Currently no hits.”

“Hmmm.” He sat back in his chair and the springs creaked. “Big move for first offenders.”

“Hey, are you going to let me in or do you want me to break this door down too? I know you’ve been watching me, man,” Kim bellowed from the other side of the steel door blocking passage to the room.

“You didn’t follow protocol,” Max replied, opening up the video line so he could see his friend on the other side of the door.

Kim stared up at him through the screen with a confused expression. “Huh?”

“No one is supposed to come here except for emergencies. Is there an emergency?”

Xuppu stuck his tongue out from his place on Kim’s shoulder. “This guy,” he scoffed. “Are we sure he’s really the Guardian?”

“The emergency is I bet you haven’t eaten anything except those power bar thingies you keep in there and I know for a fact you haven’t been home in a few days. I checked with Marcus. He’s the best doorman ever. He even gave me one of the donuts he was eating during his break.” Kim lifted a paper bag and grinned. “And I brought something really good for you for dinner. Let me in, Max.”

“Code names,” he reminded him with a sigh. “And I’m fine. You might need to meet up with Chat Noir at the Louvre. There’s a break-in.”

“Cool. Let me in and I can meet up with him after I make sure you eat this.”

“I’m not a child. I know the exact amount of nutrients I need to function at my best level. Actually I knew that as a child as well. I was the one telling you what to eat, if you’ll recall.”

“Come on, Ma...Pegasus. Just let me in.”

“This place is supposed to stay secret. You can’t keep drawing attention to it by visiting so much.” Max shook his head. “Make sure you aren’t seen when you leave.”

“It’s an old office building with a construction fence around it. No one is paying any attention,” Kim whined. “Come on. I miss hanging out with you. You’ve been holed up in there for ages.”

“He has a point,” Markov chimed in to the irritation of his creator. “More human interaction would be good for your overall well-being. I can bring up statistics if you would like.”

“All the calculations show that it’s safer if I stay here for longer and varied bouts of time so an observer couldn’t pinpoint my schedule since there isn’t one,” Max pointed out. “I have everything I need. I’ll let Chat know you’ll be meeting him, King Monkey.”

Kim stared into the screen for a long minute before his shoulders dropped and he sighed. “Fine. I’m going to leave the bag outside the door so if you don’t get it soon, it’s gonna start smelling up the place. Your mom says hi, by the way. She misses you too.” He turned without another word and faded into the darkness of the hall.

“He’s trouble, that one.” Kaalki stretched and rose from the pillow she’d been napping on. “But I think I rather like him.”

Max watched the empty screen and tried to ignore the familiar lonely feeling creeping up on him.

___

“The wine and cheese is lovely and all, Marinette, but do you want to tell us why you really called this emergency girls’ night?” Alya set her empty wine glass on the coffee table and looked to her best friend expectantly.

Marinette stood and smoothed her dress down in a nervous gesture. “Right, uh, well, so here’s the thing... So there was this, um, offer, I guess? Wait, maybe I need to go back further than that.” 

Alix snorted. “Come on, just get it out. It’s not going to be as bad as you think.”

“Wait, you’ve been to this moment? Can you just tell what to do?” Marinette perked up hopefully. 

“Nope. I like to keep the future in the future. It’s safer that way.” The other woman grinned and plucked a piece of cheese of the tray. “But you’re going to be fine so go ahead and spill the beans already.” She popped the cheese into her mouth with a self-satisfied hum.

“You know whatever it is, we’ll support you,” Mylene added with a gentle smile.

“I was offered a job with a fashion house. Like a real position, not just an internship.” Marinette bit her lip and tensed for the reaction.

“That’s amazing, girl! Why wouldn’t you want to tell us that?!” Alya got off the couch and pulled her into a hug. 

“Well, um, it’s not exactly local.”

“How not local?” Rose asked.

Marinette winced, feeling Alya’s arms around her loosen. “New York.”

“Is there a New York in France now? Because I hope that’s what you mean.” Alya stepped back. “New York, really?”

“I never thought they would call me back,” Marinette explained in a rush. “I was looking for job openings and sent in my portfolio, and seriously, never in a million years did I think they would actually want me, but they called for a phone interview and then they called for another one and then the third one was today and the head designer herself offered me the job and I just...” She took in a shaky breath and met Alya’s eyes. “It’s an amazing opportunity.”

“You’ve had three phone interviews?” Alya raised an eyebrow. “And you didn’t tell anyone, not even...?”

“No...”

“But she’s telling us now!” Rose interjected.

“Right, uh, now we know,” Juleka added after a nudge from her girlfriend. 

“Are you mad?” Marinette asked aloud but it was obvious who the question was meant for.

Alya shook her head. “Surprised but not mad. You deserve something like this, girl. Your work is amazing and you’re amazing and I think you already know what your decision is.” Marinette pulled her into tight hug, murmuring thanks into her hair.

“So now that that’s settled,” Alix stood and stretched. “Who wants to go grab some real food?” 

“We should crash Kagami’s lawyer gala downtown,” Mylene teased. “Chloe would have a conniption.”

“We mere mortals can’t be seen among the royal elite of Paris.” Alya flipped her hair dramatically while still keeping an arm around Marinette. “I could kill for some pasta though. I’ve been craving it all week.”

“Ooo, I think Japanese sounds good. Some teriyaki chicken maybe?” Rose added.

“I was just talking about a pizza or something,” Alix shrugged.

“Call in night?” Marinette suggested, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes after finally releasing her best friend. 

“Yes!”

___

“Wait, did Max send you too because I’m starting to feel a little self-conscious about his faith in my abilities.” Chat Noir looked over at Carapace as he settled down beside him and King Monkey. 

“Nah, Wayzz and I just needed to get out of the house and spotted you guys on the app. What’s going on?”

“One of the exhibit alarms was triggered and five perps were seen breaking into the museum on camera but the police haven’t found anything out of the ordinary,” he reported.

“So we’re waiting in case they’re hiding inside until they think the coast is clear,” King Monkey finished. “And at least you guys want to hang out.”

“Still no luck getting Max to leave his Guardian fortress?”

“Not so much,” he sighed. “I worry about him in there.”

“He’ll be okay. I think he’s just taking his role seriously.”

“You don’t know him like I do. He gets too caught up in stuff. He has to be reminded that there’s more to life.” The bigger man shook his head. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, but it’d make me feel better if I could get him to take a break.”

“Maybe we can storm his fortress and kidnap him,” Chat Noir suggested, amusement in his tone. “I just don’t want to get electrocuted or shot or something.”

“Eh, it doesn’t hurt as much as you would think.” King Monkey grinned at him. “I think I’m starting to like it actually.”

“That’s troubling.”

___

“Looks like we’re in for the night. Spotted three heroes staked out across the street. We’ll wait ‘em out.” The leader of the museum heist made a show of stretching his arms over his head. “All right, let’s get back into the wall. No need to get caught now when we’ve already gotten what we came for.”

“It’s so cramped in there, man. Can’t we just leave one at a time?” Another thief complained.

“Sure. You get caught and see what she does to you. I’ll see ya at your funeral.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

A third thief visibly shivered. “I’m just ready to be done with this job. The client gives me bad vibes.”

“Says the criminal,” the leader scoffed. “A job’s a job and this one pays well. Now shut up and get hidden with the others in case security comes sniffing around again.”

___

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[ch-dld-bft-brit-omm]

Bob Dylan - The Ginsberg Tapes (Live Recordings From 1965 - San Francisco / San Jose)

CHAPTER SELECTION & INFO BELOW: Here are the complete recordings that Allen Ginsberg took of Dylan's concerts in the Bay Area in December of 1965. Everything, including the interviews, is in chronological order. I highly recommend allocating some time to listen to the entire video, maybe splitting into four parts. It’s certainly a worthy listen; the conversations with Dylan are very insightful, and so are the fan interviews. When I listen to this, I feel like a fly on the wall (or in this case, Ginsberg’s shoulder).

CHAPTER SELECTION: 

  0:00 - INTRODUCTION - Includes 35mm film footage of Dylan's infamous San Francisco KQED press conference. 

 DAY I: SAN FRANCISCO (Masonic Memorial Auditorium, Dec. 11) [could be one of the best shows of his career] 

  1:14 - BACKSTAGE CONVERSATION - Ginsberg sits with Dylan backstage before the concert. The Band can be heard rehearsing in the distance. Dylan's first words on this tape are, "Your eggs are boiling to crisps," which I thought was funny. Highlights of the conversation: The $500 tape recorder Ginsberg is using (2:05); a fan comes to give Dylan some sort of gift (4:05); Dylan's visit to Hollywood and meeting Marlon Brando and Phil Spector (4:55); Bonnie Beacher, an old friend of Dylan's, shows up and Dylan tells his manager, Albert Grossman, to tell her that he can't find Dylan. Grossman clearly does not want to deal with this. At 10:30, Ginsberg plays for Dylan a recording of Jefferson Airplane performing "Go To Her" from one day prior at the Fillmore Auditorium. 

ACOUSTIC SET: 18:50 - To Ramona 24:17 - Gates of Eden 31:55 - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 37:44 - Desolation Row [one of the best live versions I've ever heard. The audience is on the edge of their seats] 48:23 - Love Minus Zero / No Limit [hilarious audience interaction: Dylan starts strumming, someone claps, and he goes, "How do you know what this is?"] 53:20 - Visions of Johanna [first recorded live performance and in the conversation for the definitive live version, epic, introduced as "Freeze Out" and "Alcatraz to the 9th Power Revisited"] 1:03:15 - Mr. Tambourine Man (rivals Sheffield as the definitive live version. Harp solos are angelic] 

 ELECTRIC SET: 1:11:00 - Tombstone Blues [cuts in at first chorus] 1:15:18 - I Don't Believe You 1:20:28 - Baby, Let me Follow You Down 1:24:19 - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 1:29:34 - Long Distance Operator [badass performance] 1:33:15 - It Ain't Me, Babe 1:38:45 - Ballad of a Thin Man [swinging tempo and singing] 1:44:35 - Positively 4th Street [best version I've heard, just incredible singing] 1:49:05 - Like a Rolling Stone [epic version, tremendous finish] 

 DAY II: SAN JOSE (San Jos Civic Auditorium, Dec. 12) 

  1:54:49 - FAN INTERVIEWS BEFORE CONCERT - 

 ACOUSTIC SET: 2:43:49 - She Belongs to Me 2:48:01 - To Ramona 2:53:56 - Gates of Eden [incredible phrasing & enunciation] 3:01:51 - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 3:07:26 - Desolation Row 3:18:36 - Love Minus Zero / No Limit [spends two minutes tuning his guitar and then uses that famous line, "This never happens with my electric guitar!"] 3:24:11 - Mr. Tambourine Man 

  3:31:52 - BACKSTAGE CONVERSATION DURING INTERMISSION - This section of the tape is a little hard to understand, but some parts are pretty clear. At 3:33:52, he tells Ginsberg, "What you see now is a typical concert, last night was wild, I sort of felt who they were out there." Bob is referring to the extraordinary San Francisco concert. He then goes on a rant about audience members coming up close to the stage to take pictures. 

 ELECTRIC SET: 3:48:00 - Tombstone Blues 3:53:06 - I Don't Believe You 3:58:26 - Baby, Let me Follow You Down 4:02:33 - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 4:08:16 - Long Distance Operator 4:12:16 - It Ain't Me Babe 4:17:56 - Ballad of a Thin Man 4:23:56 - Positively 4th Street 4:29:10 - Like a Rolling Stone [fun to hear Ginsberg or his partner yell, "BEAUTIFUL! BRAVO!"] 

  4:35:27 - FAN INTERVIEWS AFTER CONCERT - Ginsberg finds some college students to speak with. The reactions to the show are positive overall, though some kids express that they prefer Dylan's earlier "rambling bum" persona. The sound quality in some sections is sub-par, but it all clears up pretty well at 4:54:56 when they start talking about Dylan press conference, Woodie Guthrie, the meaning of Dylan's work, and his appearance on the Les Crane Show a year prior (the audio of this appearance still exists and I will be uploading it soon). At 4:57:30, Ginsberg seems very impressed with a student's knowledge of poet William Blake, who draws fascinating comparisons between his work and Dylan's "It's Alright Ma." Interesting comparisons between John Lennon's poetry and Dylan's poetry come up at 5:02:20. 

 END

[goldstonegolem64]

Book 1 Hope returns  Chapter 46 Vanguard By goldstonegolem64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9HJV1Ben6k

Galra central command

It had been about  eight teen hours since Root rot was sent to conquer and Zarkon was starting to get frustrated  with how long it was taking. 

“ Any word from the weed or any of the ship captains that were sent with him?” Zarkon asked 

After a few second of wait one of the transition officers spoke”  No my lord We are getting nothing but static . But before he did go dark we did receive a message from Root Rot group saying that they had run in with the Valkyrie. “ .

‘ I know that but it was seventeen vs one how could one man take on so many at once or maybe Voltron and or that titan was there as well  “ Zarkon said as he got up from his throne 

“ Should we send the twin or Skyver to assisted Root Rot in his mission?”

“ No he either succeed or he dies. I would rather not send those three to their  deaths. We will deal with at in do time “   Zarkon said as he was leaving the room “ Recall any Sub-commanders and commander that nearest to us, call back the nearest mobile repair bay and tell every refinery to double their work load we are going to need as many mans on deck just in case we are attacked In the coming days” Zarkon left the control room and walked towards Haggar’s lab. As he moved he walked passed dozens of soldiers  each one moved out of his way as they could see he was visibly angered by the failure of his commanders for not capturing voltron, for not stomping out the rebel cells that had been cropping up recently after voltron showed back up.

But then again he had grown complacent over the centuries believing that no foe could stand up to him and the empires might . But that all came back to bite him for not handling this problem himself. But that what project Titan was for .Zarkon stopped in front of the door way to Haggar’s lad then entered the room. As he entered the room he found Haggar looking out of a window .

“So how is the constructs of the Titan project going “   Zarkon said as he walked over to look out the same window 

‘ We are putting on the finishing touches from the data we’ve collected from ever battle that both the Valkyrie and Voltron had been in the past two months and have made the proper adjustments to face both of them at once but there is a draw back  to this upgrade.” 

“ And what is that my dear  “

“  You will need a full on neural link for it to control so if titan is destroyed it will most likely kill you.”

“Well we have the Lazarus protocol . Now on the statue of Root Rot and his men ?”

“All but two are alive and counted for. K-38 and K-2″

“So Root Rot Is dead then”

“ No he is most likely still alive,recovering and adapting  from this defeat. Now should we send a recover team to collect him along with an invasion force to the planet ?” Haggar asked 

“ No We have lost already to many men and recourses on one world and if Voltron and The Valkyrie are there we will lose so many more and with the twins and Skyver mechs being rebuild and upgrade and the new batch of Kurons being grown  and trained we would most likely lost . Speaking of which how is batch two training coming along?”

“ Worst then the first . We tried to lean more into the silver paladins altean d.n.a But this as caused those to come out mindless.”  Haggar walked over to her desk and showed a video of a Kuron in its test tube it looked liked an Altean with tan skin, red cheek marks and pink hair in their mid teens . They were just floating there in it’s pod doing nothing but growing  then the monitor at the front of the pod started to glow red. Then the scientists  in the lab moved  toward the pod and tried to figure out what was going on. Then the Kuron inside started to violently  morphing from a normal body and into a  gray scaled beast. It then Burst through the pod’s glass and attacked the scientist and ripped then apart. It then let out a roar that caused the surrounding kuronsin there pods to start to change as well. They then burst out and started to rampage through out the lad ripping into each other.

“   It seems like they have reverted to a more primitive Mind set if you remove the human D.n.a and try to fill in the gapes with Altean or Galran D.n.a.” Haggar said as she stopped the video 

“ So the silver Paladin is human and Altean so there are other Alteans still alive on the planet Earth then “  Zarkon said as a smile came across his face

“ Yes and no. The Silver paladin dose share some D.n.a with the black paladin but there seems to be small changes to their d.n.a . Like how the Silver paladin heart pumps blood slower then the Black paladins that tends to happen a kid is born in zero or artificial gravity.”

“So he was born on another world then. But there was no other planets in that solar system that could host life.” 

“ Well the first humans we had captured were on the ninth planet of their system. So there ma be colonies on other worlds or moons.”  

“ Alright then we’ll send a scouting ship to find this colony. Now have you found the traitor in are midst yet

“No I haven’t. “

“But we have “ Another voice said 

Both Zarkon and Haggar turned to look at the voice and were supriesd by who they saw.

Else where in the universe

Jay was sitting in the Med bay playing a game of chess against Pidge 

“  Are you sure your ok jay “Pidge  asked as she moved one of her pawns 

“ I’m fine my suit took most of damage and I’ve been through worse “ Jay replied as he moved his knight

“Jay your skin is bright ready and your smoking still are you sure your fine” pidge said as she moved another pawn .

“  It’s fine I’ll just shed of the dead skin of next time I shower next “ 

“ Wait you shed like a lizard  “ Pidge had a strange image in her head of Jay shedding like a snake 

Jay looked up from the chess board and looked perplexed by pidge’s statement “ Yes like a lizard would. “  Then he remembered pidge was not from mars “Sometimes I forget we come from different planets. So something normal to me is weird to you  and Vic-versa”  

“ That is true but still are you going to be alright after all that happened yesterday “ 

“Pigeon I’ve been sitting in this room four hours . I think I’m good at this point. Also Checkmate “

“What. “ Pidge looked at the board and saw that jay had moved his  rook right in front of her king then notice that the queen was behind it and had the bishop that move on black spaces was also aimed toward the rook” Uh didn’t see that coming.Good game jay “ 

“Finally after six game I won once and now I retire on top” Jay said as he shot both his hands up in joy.

“ Alright then so what do we do now “

“ We will jst a bit more before the others show “

“And what do when they ask about the big one sitting just out side of the city’s limits “

“Will let the others deal with at when they get here “ Jay replied 

‘[Captain The castle of lions as entered the planet’s orbit and Allura wishes for both of you to meet them at the as soon as possible}

“ Speak of the devil i guess we should head out then” jay said as he got up from his seat . “Hey Val did you leave the speeder here or is it still in your chest “ his said in his minded 

“ I left it just out the Prometheus’s cargo by door.” Val said 

“ Thank you” Jay said as he and pidge walked out of the med bay 

“ Your welcome  ‘ Val replied  

“ So were taking the not the green lion. “ Pidge asked 

“ Pidge it’s “ looked at his phone” 5 in the morning and people are sleeping so the bikes will do for now” Jay said as he walked down the ramp and saw his silver speeder which he called quick Silver. As he sat down and wait for pidge he saw the castle of lions slowly starting to descend from the clouds  on the other side of the city. As he watched the castle. Pidge riding her speeder” Alright lets go” Jay said as he and pidge drive towards where the castle was landing.

As the castle landed both Jay and Pidge arrived

“ So how do you think the others are going to react to see the big one ‘ Jay asked still sitting as the castle landed a few feet away 

“Don’t know but it’s going to be fun when they learn what happened here. Also do you wonder what happened on their missions “ pidge said as the door they were in front of started to open

“ Why don’t we ask them are selves “ Jay replied as he walked into the castle of lions  followed by Pidge the two walked onto the kitchen first and Found most of the crew  which was Matt, Hunk , Nyma, Rolo , Keith and Shiro sitting  at the table eating the food goo” Sup Guys how did your missions 

Adam spoke first “ We had some trouble but it was a” Adam was cut off by  a blueish green furred ferreteped  as Jay called them suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the face which kind hurt do to the electrical burns he suffered from the fight 

“ Oh no we truly are in the worst possible reality to be in . Unless it the reality . . What is your name boy “ Slav asked

Jay with his cheeks being stretched out spoke “ Jay Sorin and I’m guesting your Slav ” he replied 

“ Yes .Also if our here now then this realty still has a chance “ Slav said then he was grabbed by the back of the collar by Shiro and was pulled away

“ Sorry Jay He’ s been raving about of end of the world ending conspiracy theory the moment We said anything about the Valkyrie.”  Shiro said as he put Slav down

“ It’s not a Conspiracy it’s a strong possibility” Slav Counters 

Shiro and Slav started to argue about this while Jay and Adam watch and laughed a bit  

“So Hunk Keith Rolo, Nyma how did your mission go?” Pidge asked

“ Keith made a friend with a GAlra pilot “Hunk said

“ They were no my friend I just helped them out see as the five of us were inside of a giant space worm.” Keith replied 

“ but they liked you the most “ Nyma said jokingly 

“ Maybe Galra just know when their in the presents of one any other “ Hunk said 

“ That is true but only for pure bloods seeing as they are all fucking purple “  Jay yelled

“ Thank Jay for the info “ Keith said 

“ So they just were being polite because Keith saved them ok if it comes back to bite us in the butt that’ s on Keith then agreed ” Hunk said 

“ Agreed”  Everyone said 

“ That’s fair .Now Pidge What did you and Jay do while we were away ?” Pidge asked

“ Fought some robeasts and the guy who took my leg nothing to big “Pidge said like it was no big deal 

Everyone was quite for a few seconds before Matt speaking up “  Are you alright did you have a panic attack . Jay where were you during all this”  Matt asked as he looked towards jay 

“ I was being electrocuted for info you shmuck. Also I to was having a panic attack but no one asked if I was ok “ Jay said and that was followed by everyone asking what happened, Why the empire was here did they find out about the plan. As Jay and Pidge were bombard with questions 

“ Ok well answer all this questions but first we need everyone here to fully explained what happened here “ Pidge said 

In the bridge of the castle of lions Allura and coran were talking 

“Princess I have sent a message to the blade and Asmo  telling them about are success on all three of are mission. Is there anything else you would like me to do”   Coran asked 

“  I would like to Have Pidge, Jay, Beau, La-sai ,N-7 and Ace here to get me their mission nreport Also I would like to Talk with Ryner and Isara seeing as she and the Queens Sayers are hear. But besides that I’m good”  Allura said 

Coran could tell something was up with her.” Allura what is wrong you seem off’

Allura bite her lower lip then spoke “ I’m just a little bit worried about the Mission coming up . Maybe we should wait a little bit longer and train more so we can truly be ready for it”

Coran knew that wasn’t the full truth ” I feel the same they have only been paladins for a few months now and they lack the train or at time maturity, Hundreds of years of experience of fighting massive battles. But  I have watched them be on the same level of the original Paladins and I believe that they could be better then them and lead the universe in to a better tomorrow “ Coran smiles thinking about it”  

“ You know just what to say to put me at ease Coran.”She smiled and looked up to coran “ But I’m still worried about the others their so young and I kind of fell like I forced them into this roles with out truly thinking this through. Each one of them nearly at less once on this journey and I’m sending them into a Fight that decide the fate of the universe. “

“I may not know much about humans but from what I’ve seen they have sir pasted all of my expectation and beat ever challenge that came to face them. An I will bet on my life that they will beat this next challenge with flying colors  “ Coran said as he pulled Allura into a huge

“ I hope your right Coran I hope your right.” Allura said 

As the two hugged The door to the bridge opened to revel  the rest of the crew with Pidge and Jay at the front 

“ Hi boss sorry to interrupted but we have something important  to tell you.” Jay said 

“ What is it  “Allura asked 

The team wait for the rest of the crew to join and when they did Jay and Pidge explained what had happened from when they arrived to the fight with Robeast and the squad of copy Valkyrie then the fight with the Thunder Bird and Dread wing. Then the Battle with Root Rot. Everyone stood there in shook as they listened to how Jay was for the second time was nearly killed by the plant man again.

“ So This IronWood guy Called you Dad ?” Lance said just a little weirded out 

“Yeah an the other guy black thorn said like me when I was a teenager witch confused me as well . If they were still alive we could have asked them about that but we still have one of those pilot’s still alive hows that memory collecting going anyway ?”   Jay asked Coran 

“ It’s been going fine and we will fine out soon what that pilot knows in about two more days .” Coran replied ]

‘Ok Is there any thing else you too want to tell Us “Allura asked as she looked at the both of them .

“ Oh that  Jay call Val “Pidge said 

“ On it “ Jay said before talking in his mind “Val It’s time” 

“ We are on are way” Val said This was followed by Music started to play over the comm and the world started to shake 

“ What is that “ Shiro asked

“ That would be are Ace in the hole “Pidge said as she walked up to the terminal punched in a location and a scan appeared showing the Vanguard walking from a massive crated that had something in it covered in Ice and Vines.”   Ladies and Gentlemen we give you the colossus Vanguard the unbreakable and Allura she would like to speak to you and Voltron I don’ t know what that means but I think Shiro might know” 

“ I Do Pidge. Paladin to your lion “ shiro said as he and the rest of the paladins left the bridge

Back a Galra central command 

Thace had decide to move the chip he place in the control room .As he walked to the control room  he felt for just a moment that someone was watching him again. HE looked behind him to see no one behind him. This sent a chill down his spine but he continued to walk towards the control room as he entered the control room. Some one tried to stab him. He quickly grabbed the wrist of his assailant and was about to punch them only to have his free hand grabbed  by someone else in the room followed by a knife stabbing into his leg. He fell to his knee and then was punched in the face. He looked to his right to see Harley smiling at him Then he looked to his left to see Quinn. Both were standing over him. Then they started to whale on him . Each punch  cracked against his face and he could fell his skull crack and his jaw being dislocated. after a few minutes of being beaten on. With his jaw busted he could only say one word “ Why?” 

Quinn moved in closer and whispered in Thace’s ear  “Sorry about this Thace but it’s the only way to make whatever your planning work in are favor “  

Then Harley leaned in “ Look around the room “ 

He looked up again to see serval things about the room. The first thing was that the cameras were destroyed and there was a body of a control room officer knocked out. Then he noticed that the console in the room had a familiar  looking blade in it. Then something clicked in his mind he remembered that there was two blade members that started a family they had kids twins. Both parents dead on a mission leaving the twin. The blade wanted to take the twins in but sadly they had disappeared before and could be found. “  You”

“ Yes we are but we aren’t going to join your little group we just want out of the empires control “Quinn whispered as she and her brother picked up and dragged him out of the room towards Lady Haggar’s lab 

Back with the Paladin

Voltron flow towards the Vanguard with the Valkyrie in toe

Allura stood in the cockpit of the black lion and started at the colossal purple Knight as it stopped and looked up towards the two mechs 

“Shiro before we talk to the Vanguard my I ask when pidge said  that the vanguard wanted to talk to Voltron and you knew what she meant. I just wonder how”

“ I though you knew about me seeing as you are bonded lion” Shiro replied

“ No I don’ t maybe your bond with the black lion is deeper then my own.”

“ Yes and no. You know how Val is Different from the Valkyrie.”  

“ Yes “ Allura replied as she started to see where this was going 

“ Well besides the lions that live in each part of Voltron I’m guessing he is the “

“ I am the Lions young Shiro “ Leonidas said out loud in all the lions  

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds before Hunk spoke up 

“ Who the heck was that?” Hunk asked 

“ I am Leonidas the prideful or as you all call me Voltron “ 

“ So You final decide to reveal yourself good I was tired of waiting “Val said

“ So this guy is the same as Val right . So dose that mean he can fight on his own when were not around to pilot the lions?” Lance asked 

“No I was not build that way.  Where The Valkyrie can pilot  herself do to the fact that she doesn't  have to split herself into five different pieces. But I make up for that by being more flexible with my pilots and each pilot will unlock different abilities. “  

“ But I can manipulate time and I can scan anything and turn it into a weapon. “ 

“ I can rip a hole in the fabric of reality “

Everyone could felt tension between the two that only sibling would have. It was a little awkward until the Vanguard spoke over the comms 

“ And I can open portals to any where I’ve been to which is all of what you called the know universe. Make barriers around me and I can came gravity balls that can pull in and destroy it. “ The vanguard sounded happy to be able to take to other of their kind and completely missed the tension between the Valkyrie and Voltron. “ Sorry if I interrupted what you were doing I’ m just happy to finally meet more of my own kind after being alone for so long a can’t wait to hear everything you’ve seem the past billion years “

“  Before we do that Lady Allura must ask you something” Val said 

“ Yes this is of most important that we know your awnser “ Leonidas said 

“ Oh ok” Vanguard replied 

“ Your up Princess” Shiro said as he turned on the Black lions Outer p.a System 

Allura then spoke “ Hello Vangaurd I am princess Allura of Altea and I request your in are battle against the Galra Empire You do now about the empire right?” Allura asked

“ Thank you for asking. They are current in control of 80 percent of the knew universe and have been draining world of their quintessence to furl their war machines and to keep their Leader and  his wife alive for the passed ten thousand years. And I would like to join you in stopping them. But I will save this I don’  t like fighting all that much. I only fight in self defends and to protect the animals that live inside of me . But what I can do is open wormhole that allow you and the rebels you work with to any place you want to go and any planet or place you want protected I can do that. But I will not put the creatures I care for in harms way but if yo are in dyer need of my help I will fight but only as a last resort  ”   Vanguard said 

“Well at least they know their boundaries . “ Lance said 

“ And where their loyalty lay “ Keith replied 

“ Ok as long as we can count on you when we need you must. That is fine by me “  Allura said 

“ Ok with that out of the way can I ask Both Val and Leonidas a few things ?”  Vangaurd asked 

“ I see no problem with That” Val said 

“ Neither do I”  Leonidas add 

“ Alright time to wait a the next few hours while this three talk “ Pidge said 

As The Vanguard , Val And Leonidas started Talk they switched to a Language that the universal translator couldn’t  understand. But that didn’t really matter to the paladins at the moment they were just happy to have the Vangaurd now truly on there side. But Allura still felt nervous about the battle to come.

Else where in the Crate the cyclone covered in ice and Vines lay there motionless but near the head there was the sounds slamming and sizzling as Root Rot started to break free of his frozen prison . As he burst free from the finally layer of ice. he let out a roar of anger and  as his body had turn from green to brown do to how cold it was. He started to pull  himself out of the exit hole he made and As he did his legs broke of as he continued to pull himself out and crawled to the edge of what remained of the Cyclones head and rolled himself of and ihit the ground hard shattering most of his body leaving only his left arm and head in tacked 

“Cold I H-h-hate the cold” He tried to regrow his missing limbs only for nothing to happen. His body was dying and he need to reset.So he unraveled himself and started digging into the soft earth that the rain and the melting ice had made for him .It would take a few years for him to heal completely  from this fight but it would be all worth it as while he rested he would adapted to the cold an along with that he would start to grow a new colony for his clan with the only thing fueling them is Revenge Bloodlust and a need for fresh meat 

[marvel-redemption-omega]

Of Outlaws and Family

https://marvel-redemption-omega.tumblr.com/post/620348987402256384/of-outlaws-and-familyChapter Seven: Ride of Passion

A/N: AHHHH I am happy we are here! This was such a treat to write! Being this is a story, obviously things are not at all accurate (you’ll see what I mean once you read it) buuuuut it is a story so, yeah. Shh we’ll just play it off as super high pain tolerance? Yeah, that’s what we’ll do, lol. Don’t judge me for my choices, I’m living vicariously through my own writing okay? Oh, guess I should mention this is High Honor Arthur, it’s the only way I’ve played him. Haven’t done my Low Honor run yet. Unbeta-d, all mistakes are mine.

Warnings: Cursing, gang violence, sexual references/innuendos, domestic violence, threats, character injury, character death (O’Driscolls), worried/protective Arthur, protective John, asshole Jessie, 18+/sexual themes: ADULT THEMES; IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 TURN AROUND; GO AWAY; DO NOT PASS GO; DO NOT COLLECT TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS

Start here: https://marvel-redemption-omega.tumblr.com/post/620167374619951104/of-outlaws-and-family-chapter-one-new-beginnings

Last Chapter: https://marvel-redemption-omega.tumblr.com/post/620348987402256384/of-outlaws-and-family

Please enjoy! Hearts and repubs are greatly appreciated!

My work is not to be posted elsewhere; I will post it to my AO3 and dA if I so choose.

Word Count: 11,300

“Want me to ride with y’all part of the way? I ain’t got nothing to do the rest of today and nothin in the mornin,” Jessie offers as he helps James into the saddle of his grey-blue Arabian between Fancy and Shamrock. Scarlet climbs into her saddle on Shamrock, glancing over at him.

“Can he, Ma? I’d like to spend some more time with Pa,” James asks, chocolate eyes warm and happy. She feigns an irritated sigh and nods, gesturing to Fancy.

“Might as well since you’re here. I hope you know I can’t take that Arabian with us. I have too many horses as is,” she explains as her son’s father slings himself into the saddle, making Fancy prance to the right to keep from stumbling into the Arabian.

“I think I’m gonna call her...Storm!” James cheers as the filly tosses her head.

“I can’t believe you bought him a new horse. I get that you wanna be in his life more but he won’t be ridin by himself anytime soon, surely you know that? An I can’t keep anymore, be it for him or not. I have full stables,” she angrily whispers to Jessie over James’ head. He shrugs and pets Fancy’s neck.

“Come on. We have a long way back from here,” he answers, brushing off her concern. James hesitantly kicks the Arabian and holds tight to the reins as she starts to walk forward. Fancy, seeing James moving, immediately follows and rides beside him. Scarlet gives Shamrock a kick, her spurs digging in more than her heels could, and rides on the other side of the Arabian so James is blocked in by them.

“Yeah, that’s cause someone wants to live in Saint Denis to be close to his parents,” she snips as she unties her hat from the saddle and puts it on. A red neckerchief, her rodeo gift from Arthur, sits proudly around her neck. Jessie sighs, not knowing exactly what life she’s been living, after reading about her burned down house.

They ride in silence from Saint Denis until they reach Rhodes. As they enter Lemoyne, Scarlet notes the Raiders watching them and talking rapidly to each other in hushed tones. One of them points and she feels her stomach twist.

Jessie is currently teaching James how to train Storm to listen to neck-reining, demonstrating on Fancy. The bay mustang snorts and flattens her ears at him, biting at her bit, but listens if only for James’ sake. James follows the instructions and laughs when Storm listens.

The farther into Lemoyne they go, the tighter the knot in Scarlet’s stomach gets. She slows Shamrock, grabs Storm’s reins and halts her too, much to the Arabian’s dismay. Fancy and Shamrock flick their ears and look around, both side-stepping closer to James and Storm.

“It’s too quiet. There’s not even any birds. No owls, no deer,” Scarlet murmurs as she looks at the setting sun. Rustling to their left startles the Arabian and she bolts with James on her back, yanking the reins from Scarlet’s hand.

“James!” Jessie and Scarlet yell as they kick their horses to follow. Fancy and Shamrock sprint after Storm, crossing the border of Lemoyne and New Hanover.

They run up on a small group of riders in front of James, who is trying to see past the horses of the men blocking him from his Arabian. Scarlet tenses as she notes their coats. There’s at least twelve of them.

“Storm? Storm!” James cries for his horse.

O’Driscolls, she thinks. Dread seeps into her bones as she pulls up on Shamrock until he’s trotting. Fancy follows Scarlet’s orders, despite Jessie urging her to a gallop. They stop when one of the riders, the leader of the group, slips off his horse, pistol in hand. Scarlet’s hand grabs her revolver out of reflex, slowly un-holstering it as he steps close to James.

“What’s the matter, Boy?” The man asks, nodding his head to the men behind him. Two of them break off and head to the left, where Scarlet glances and sees Storm eating grass. The duo lasso the Arabian and start to lead her back.

“My horse, she got spooked and ran then threw me. I need her so I can go back an ride with my parents, Mister,” he meekly replies, stumbling back with each step forward the man takes.

“Oi! Leave my boy alone!” Scarlet yells, making Shamrock walk forward. James turns around and smiles, a happy shout of “Ma!” from him as he sees his parents. The man takes two quick steps and snatches a hold of James, gun pointed to his head.

“Mama!” James cries, eyes wide as both his parents ride closer. The man behind him cocks the hammer and presses the barrel into his temple. He whimpers and keeps his eyes on his mother. “Don’t let them take me, Mama.”

“Well, well, well boys, would ya look at what we got here. Miss O’Hara, didn’t know you had a son, nor a husband,” the O’Driscoll man sneers and starts to drag James back towards his horse. The other men laugh as the two from earlier ride up with Storm, filtering into the back of the group.

“Give me my boy and the horse and maybe I’ll let you snakes go,” she seethes, hammer cocked as she brings it up to aim at the man, straight between his eyes. Jessie stares in horror, eyes about as wide as his son’s, as he watches Scarlet slip off Shamrock’s back and walk forward.

Shots ring loud as Scarlet pops off three shots. Three men fall off their horses, who all spook and run off, dragging their dead riders as their feet are stuck in the stirrups. The man with James aims his gun at her and fires, the sound momentarily deafening James. He brings his hands up to his ears, around the man’s elbow grip on his throat; he stumbles as he’s dragged backwards even more. Scarlet slides behind a boulder off to her right, peeking out and aiming at the two who have Storm.

Storm rears and starts bucking, yanking the two men from their horses as she bolts. They grumble and holler, letting go of the rope, figuring the horse a lost cause. They scramble to their feet and draw their rifles from their horses. Scarlet curses the Arabian’s fear and sends her last three bullets into the closest O’Driscoll.

Fancy keeps her gaze on James, ignoring Jessie’s many attempts to get her moving. She stands firm even when he digs his heel into her side, snorting in warning. Shamrock rears and stomps the ground, neighing and riling up the other horses who weren’t spooked by the gunshots. Fancy snorts and neighs angrily as the man shoves James to one of the men in the back who hogties him and tosses him on the back of the leader’s horse.

“Not a chance. You want him, you can join him or come and get him. I’m sure Colm will be rather pleased to see you. We’ll be at Dead Man’s Keep, out by Hanging Dog Ranch,” the leader jeers and shoots at the rock, barely missing Scarlet as she ducks just in time. She pops her revolver open, dropping the hot and smoking shells, and fumbling to add another six. A string of curses flies from her lips as she clicks it closed and spins it. She drags the hammer back and aims at the leader, shooting him between the eyes. There’s a storm raging behind her eyes and she drags the hammer back again, moving to aim at one of the others.

A loud crack echos through the valley and Scarlet tumbles back. Searing, scorching, burning pain races from her shoulder and down her arm and chest. She cries out and glances down to her right shoulder. Blood’s soaking through her shirt and staining the blue material. She looks up and locks eyes with the man who shot her, he climbs onto the leader’s horse and snaps the reins as he turns the horse.

Scarlet stumbles back to Shamrock, left foot in the stirrup as she starts urging him to go. Fancy tosses her head and starts galloping, leading the stallion. Scarlet swings into the saddle and curses as she struggles to holster her gun. Once she does, she snatches the reins and snaps them, kicking Shamrock at the same time. He whinnies and turns his gallop into a run. Fancy follows on his heels, reins pulled from Jessie’s hands. He’s frozen in the saddle for the most part, his reality shattering as the realization dawns on him that his son’s been kidnapped. He grabs the reins and posts himself to Fancy’s run.

“I’m gonna get him back. I need you to get someone for me. Fancy!” She yells, turning slightly to look at the duo. The mustang flicks her ears towards her owner, patiently waiting for orders. Scarlet purses her lips and lets out reverse wolf whistle. Fancy stretches her stride and breaks off from Shamrock, taking the trail to the left.

“You can’t go alone!” Jessie yells at her as Shamrock slows for a moment.

“I have to. You ain’t got any guns! You’d be useless to me!”

“You just got shot!”

“I’ll be fine. I’m goin to get my son back. Just tell’em that O’Driscoll’s ambushed us got James and I went after them. Tell’em to meet me at Dead Man’s Keep! HYAH!” She squeezes her thighs while simultaneously kicking Shamrock. The mustang-thoroughbred tosses his head and sprints away from Fancy, the mare picking her run back up as they separate.

Jessie struggles to keep in the saddle as Fancy only seems to be going faster with each stride. He can hear her panting and tries to slow her a few times, only for her to turn her head and nip his his foot or leg and continue her relentless pace. He throws one arm up as a shield as she runs right into a section of trees. Twigs snap under her feet and brittle branches break on his arm, leaves smacking him in the sides and face. He vaguely hears someone shout out a warning and then he’s on the ground.

Fancy’s bucking and causing a riot. Jessie notices there are other horses that are getting stirred up and joining her in her chaos. He glances around and swallows as he sees all the tents and wagons around, one he recognizes as the one he got Scarlet. He looks back at Fancy.

“What in Sam’s Hill?! Dutch growls as he hears Sean yelling for someone to stop their horse before he shoots. He, Hosea, and Arthur share a look and get up, guns drawn as they head over to the horses. Dutch motions for Abigail to get Jack to the back of camp.

“Hey, that’s Fancy. Where’s Scarlet? And who the hell is that?” Arthur mutters crossly.

“Dunno, but we’ll find out,” Dutch responds and readies both his pistols. Arthur nods and heads over to the horse, knowing Dutch and the others can handle the one man, who he assumes was the one who rode Fancy into their camp.

Jessie feels the gun before he hears the click of the hammer. He slowly stands when instructed and turns to face the assailant. His eyes bulge when he turns and comes face to face with none other than Dutch Van der Linde and his gang. He looks over at Fancy, who’s being called by a man in a tan jacket and black hat, a hat that looks similar to Scarlet’s. He watches for a moment as the man easily grabs Fancy’s reins, pulls her from a rear, and has her calm in a matter of seconds. She snorts and paws at the ground, nudging the man and then pulling towards Jessie.

“Who the hell are you?” Dutch’s voice is thick with malice as he keeps his gun trained on the man.

“Jessie.”

“I don’t care about your damn name, Son. Who the hell are you? Why are you ridin Scarlet’s horse?” He growls in warning, cocking his pistols. Jessie holds his hands up as he backs away from Dutch, into the cold barrel of Sean’s rifle behind him.

“I-I-I, umm, there was this gang! We was riding an one of the horses spooked and we ran from Lemoyne to here but were ambushed. Just outside Emerald Ranch. Please, Mister, you gotta help me get my boy back.”

“That still don’t tell me who you are, Boy. I won’t ask you again,” Dutch warns as he and the others press close in a circle around him. Jessie looks around the group of men, eyes settling on the man who calmed Fancy.

“They said they’d be holding them up at Dead Man’s Keep! I don’t know much about this country. I’m from Saint Denis, honest! Uhh, the name of the gang...she said O’something… O’Malley?” He stutters, trying to remember the name of the gang Scarlet had shouted at him.

“Dead Man’s Keep?” Arthur mutters to himself, trying to figure out why that name sounded familiar.

“Strike one, enamigo,” Javier trains his gun on the trembling man’s chest.

“Umm, O’Desry?” He tries again.

“Strike two.” Sadie states; a few other guns cock as Jessie looks back around the group.

“Fuck! Scarlet said to tell y’all she was goin to get James back! Said them damned O’Driscolls got him!” He snapped and took a step towards Sadie. Dutch lowers his guns, but just barely. Arthur grabs Jessie by the front of his shirt, balling it up and bringing him so they’re face to face.

“So you let her go alone?! What’s wrong with you?! Why didn’t you go after him and send her here?!” He bellows, face red in anger. Jessie blinks and tries to pull himself free of Arthur’s grip.

“I didn’t let her do nothing! She did one of her special fucking whistles and Fancy took off! The damn mare wouldn’t listen to me! I tried to stop her but she almost bit me when I did!” He yells back. He stumbles and falls on his ass when Arthur shoves him away.

“Dutch, please?” Arthur’s hands tremble in anger as he moves to the gang leader. Dutch puts his guns away, everyone else following suit, some reluctantly. “Let me go after her?”

“Go. Take who you need. Get her and that boy back in one piece. And take him with you. I don’t want him left in my camp. Send someone back if you need more people than you’re taking,” Dutch replies, eyes hard and cold as they glare daggers at Jessie.

“John, Sean, Charles, Lenny, Kieran, will you ride with me?” Arthur asks, voice projecting as he stalks towards Smoke. Fancy prances behind him, nickering and nuzzling his back. Arthur turns to pet her, carrot in hand. There’s a chorus of cheers and positive hollers as the five all whistle for their horses and mount up.

“Arthur!” Sadie walks up to him, gun in hand. He raises a brow but waits to see what she’s going to say. “Let me ride with you. I’m a good shot and I can help you. Besides, she’s my friend!” Arthur nods, he knows the duo have grown close.

“Oh alright. Get your horse.” Arthur pets Fancy, stroking her neck. “I need a favor if you can, Girl. Think you can ride with us to get your owner back? Jessie here needs a ride,” he asks the mare. She flattens her ears as she looks at Jessie and perks them up when she looks back at him before bobbing her head in what Arthur takes as a yes. He motions for Jessie to climb back on, who hesitates for a second, and Arthur pulls himself onto Smoke. “Let’s ride. Hyah!”

“Ahah! You really thought we would let you follow us here without se’tin up somethin?” One O’Driscoll laughs at Scarlet. She pulls on the rope that’s cutting into her wrists, throwing her body forward. The man holding her laughs as he easily holds her back. When she stops walking, he shoves her forward, he kicks the back of her knees when she doesn’t budge. Her knees buckle and he lets her hit her knees in the mud.

“Where’s that husband of yours? Some man,” another jeers as she is dragged back to her feet and pushed towards the house. She clenches her jaw as she slowly moves, her whole shoulder throbbing. She takes a deep breath, holds it for a moment, and lets it out slowly. She hasn’t seen James since she got here and she can feel her heartbeat nearly out of her chest.

“Not my husband…just a friend,” she manages to breathe out before she’s backhanded. She grunts and spits out blood as she steadies herself again and readies herself to go up the stairs of the porch. She’s only partially thankful for the man walking behind her, partially disgusted. He keeps brushing his hand on her lower back, hips, and ass and she’s about ready to punch him when the door opens. Colm walks out, dragging James by the arm.

“Well if it isn’t Scarlet O’Hara! What a wonderful surprise! An isn’t he just another great surprise. Tell me,” Colm drawls as he walks up to her after passing James to one of his lackies. He grips her chin harshly and forces her to look at him. “Was he born before or after the first time I met you an you denied me? Is that what that mutt a yer’s come runnin out from the bedroom to bite me fer? He why you shot my men?”

His breath smells of rotten tobacco, so she tells him as such. He backhands her hard enough she falls to her hands and knees. He snatches her up by her hair and brings her close to his face, grinning as his eyes light up with something she can’t quite place.

“How bout you come spend the night with me? After all you did ride into my camp here,” he drags her inside by her hair, stopping momentarily in the doorway. “Make sure he’s taken care of; food, water, whatever he needs. Keep him somewhere for a while. Me and Scarlet here’s gon’ have some fun.”

“Mama?” James whimpers, the man holding him by the arm pulls him back as he tries to run to her. She looks at him, eyes watering from the constant tugging of her hair, and smiles.

“Easy, my son. We’ll be ok soon. We’ll be safe, I promise you. They’re coming, they’re on their way for us,” she bites her tongue as Colm yanks on her hair, pulling her into the house. She tries to keep as close to him as she can so he isn’t tugging so hard she loses hair. Colm thinks she’s slowly caving, finally. He herds her through the hall and up the stairs to the master bedroom.

Arthur puts his binoculars away and turns Smoke to face the others. Sadie sits up straight on the blood bay that Scarlet gave her. John and Lenny look up from cleaning their guns. Kieran, Charles, and Sean all climb off their horses and join the others, all stocked to the teeth with their guns and ammo; Arthur slips off Smoke.

“Alright, they’re takin James to the barn. I’m not sure what they’re plannin on doin with him. Lenny, John, Kieran, and Jessie take the barn. Sadie, Charles, Sean, you’re with me. Remember, we don’t know what they’re gonna do if they find us here. Keep it quiet, move fast, and let’s get Scarlet and James outta here. Let’s move,” he  relays his plan. Jessie furrows his brow as he tries to comprehend what was just ordered. Lenny pushes a pistol into his chest, letting go once Jessie has it.

“You do know how to use that, right?” He asks as he leads John and Jessie down towards the barn. Jessie scowls but nods, gripping the pistol.

“Course I do,” he rolls his eyes. Kieran glances back at him and scoffs at his pompous attitude. John pulls out several throwing knives from his pocket and hands them to Jessie.

“We go in quiet first. Don’t wanna kick any trouble up if we can avoid it,” he tells them as they hide in the uncut wheat, bow drawn.

John leads them around the back of the barn to some wooden scaffolding. He helps Lenny climb up before following, Kieran and Jessie in tow. They slip in through the hayloft door and make their way to the edge of the loft, waiting for the O’Driscolls and James.

It’s not long before the barn doors are pushed open and the man shoves James forward, making the poor boy trip and stumble into the hay. He whimpers and turns to face them, crawling backwards as the few gang members press in on him. “Mama!” He yells, scared. They close the barn doors.

“Now’s our chance! Let’s go,” John whispers, motioning for everyone to get into position. He draws his bow, Lenny his knives, Kieran his hatchet, and Jessie the knives John gave him. “Steady.” He waits for the five men to move into range. “Now.” He releases the arrow, dropping one of the guys, knives and hatchets following and downing three others. The last one whirls around and aims his pistol into the loft, firing four shots into the hay. John and his team all lean against the bales and hold their breath in wait.

“Where are you?! You’ll pay for this! Either with your life! Or the boy’s!” Jessie goes to leap up but John yanks him back down, shirt clenched tight in his hand.

“Listen to me!” John hisses, keeping his voice low to keep their position secret. “He’s trying to draw us out. I understand you want James ba-”

“How could you possibly understand?! You don’t know wh-”

“I have a son!” John snaps, yanking Jessie closer, sneer on his face. “And I know that if Arthur told us to keep quiet it’s for good damn reason! Now sit down, shut up, and let me work on a plan to get your son, my nephew, back!”

Jessie stares wide eyed at John, his words sinking in and striking a nerve. He clenches his jaw but nods as John shoves him back into the hay. He points to Lenny, “go scope out the other side with Jessie here,” he orders and peeks over the bale. He points at Kieran as he drops back down when a bullet flies by. “You’re coming with me. We’re gonna try and flank this sunovabitch,” he urges Kieran to their right as the four split and make their way silently among the hay bales.

“I’ll give ya to the count of three to come out! Then the kid gets lead right between his pretty green eyes,” the O’Driscoll calls as he holds one pistol trained on James and another scanning the loft. He fires another shot as he sees movement between some bales. He quickly reloads his revolver; James is curled up in the stall with Storm, the grey mare nickering and nudging the boy in comfort.

Arthur leads his small group towards the front of the homestead. There’s a cattle pen full to their right and a sheep pen full to their left, Arthur sends Sean and Charles to the right and tells Sadie to follow him through the sheep. They slowly make their way up to the house, silently taking out any O’Driscolls they see.

He has Charles stay behind to guard the door to the house as they move in. Sadie paves their way, checking each room before waving Sean and Arthur through. She halts them as she slowly pushes the kitchen door open, revealing four O’Driscolls at the table, drinking and playing poker. She puts a finger to her lips and draws her knife. Arthur follows her lead and pulls two throwing knives from his pouch.

“Sean, get your knife ready,” Arthur orders as they get into position. Sean nods eagerly and draws his knife as he goes where Sadie tells him. Arthur sinks his blades into the chests of two of the four as Sadie and Sean grab the other two and stab them until they go limp in their arms.

“What the hell?!” The trio whirl around at the yell, an O’Driscoll standing in the doorway. He glances over his shoulder to the stairs and makes a break for it. Sean leaps at him, being the closest one to him, and tackles him. Arthur and Sadie cringe at the loud thud that resounds throughout the house. Sean rams his knife into the man’s neck as he struggles to get free.

“Best ta get goin, Boss. T’at ruckus probably alerted whoever was upstairs, Art’ur,” Sean ushers Arthur passed him and up the stairs.

“Now you know ain’t no one coming for you, why would you say something like that to the boy? Get his hopes up?” Colm coos, though it’s anything but sweet. He runs a hand down her chest, over the dress he’s forced her into. Scarlet scrunches her nose in disgust, looking up at him from her spot on the bed, the rope cutting into her wrists, binding her to the bed frame.

“He needed to know that I would be fine with the likes of you. Needed to be told somethin so he’d stay calm. Don’t want him hurt. Forgive me for tryna keep my son calm,” she snips at him, eyes defiant. Colm turns to her with a glare.

“Don’t you disrespect me!” He snarls and stalks over to the bed. She struggles to pull herself up as he backhands her again, causing her to yelp in pain. He smiles as he leans over her. She leans back as far as she can from him, her back and head pressing against the wall. A loud thud echos upstairs and Colm jerks away from her as the door busts open.

“Colm! You gotta go! Dutch’s Boys are here!” One of Colm’s men shouts. Colm grits his teeth and shoves off the bed, grabbing several bags and his pistols. He turns back to the bed and starts for it, bringing his right hand up. He swings down as his man drops dead in the doorway, intentions set on knocking her out and taking her with him. Arthur, Sadie, and Sean all appear just as Colm looks up, the diversion making his hand move lower than he wanted and cracks Scarlet good in the chest.

She gasps as the air is forced from her lungs and pain spreads like wildfire through her veins. Sean’s the first to get a shot off, missing Colm as the gang leader whistles and climbs out the window. He jumps onto his horse and kicks it, making it rear and run away from them and homestead. Arthur runs over to her, knife making quick work of the ropes as Sadie and Sean cover him, Sadie shooting out the window at Colm’s shrinking figure. She growls as he disappears from sight, several men on his tail.

“How’s the Lass?” Sean asks as he slowly moves towards the bed, hearing Scarlet’s heavy breathing as she tries to get a full breath. She waves the Irish man off and grips Arthur’s jacket tightly as he scoops her up in his arms.

“She’ll be fine. Just cover me,” he barks and makes his way down the steps, cradling Scarlet carefully against him, minding her head and legs as he passes through the doorways. Charles greets them outside and stares in disbelief at Scarlet, earning a glare from her. He chuckles and nods to the rest of the group, all walking from the barn. Jessie has the Arabian mare on a lead and John is talking with James, arm over his shoulder as they bow their heads in conversation.

“James?” Scarlet croaks, pulling Arthur’s attention. He glances at her and nods, gesturing with his chin to their right. She sighs and closes her eyes, breathing still a little ragged.

“Scarlet,” Jessie breathes a sigh of relief.

“Mama?”

“She’ll be alright, but we need to get back to camp. And you need to go back to wherever it is you live,” Arthur growls to Jessie, hold on Scarlet tightening slightly. Jessie glowers at him and gives a stiff nod. James breaks away from John and rushes Sadie, murmuring with her, trying to see what was wrong. Sadie doesn’t tell him, offering comfort by telling him his Ma is just tired. They all follow Arthur to the tethered horses.

Arthur helps Scarlet onto Smoke, the thoroughbred nickering in question to the semi-conscious female. She mumbles something to him, as she slumps down onto his neck, breathing still slightly labored. He follows her quickly, sitting behind her in the saddle, and pulls her so her back is to his chest. She opens her eyes and murmurs something he doesn’t make out.

“Hey, c’mon. Eyes on me,” he tips her head back so he can look at her face. Her green eyes meet his and she smiles, relaxing back against him. “There ya go. You good?”

“I feel like shit. He hit me pretty good,” she rubs at her eye, flinching slightly at the pull in her chest. He takes off his jacket, slipping it over her and takes her hand, leading it to the horn, where he has her hold.

“Yeah well don’t worry bout him. Little shit ran when he saw us comin. Now let’s get you guys back to camp. Dutch was pissed when you sent your….sent James’ father to camp on Fancy.”

“He’ll get over it. I have some information for him anyway. Dumbass O’Driscoll was prattling on bout some money, sounded like a lot,” she murmurs and let’s her eyes close. “I wanna sleep, please?”

“Alright. I’ve got you. It’s a long ride back to camp anyway,” Arthur agrees and takes the reins in his left hand, right arm around Scarlet, hand on hers to help keep her steady. His right hand holding hers on the horn. “Let’s get!” He calls to the rest of the group.

Sadie helps James onto Fancy, takes her reins, and ties them to Buckeye before climbing into her saddle after tying Scarlet’s bedroll onto Smoke. She just winks at John when he gestures to the bedroll. His eyes widen a bit and he tries to cover his slip of laughter into a cough, smirking as he looks between Arthur and Scarlet.

They ride in silence, everyone worn down from the raid. James and Jessie are the only ones talking, well Jessie tries to but James just asks why he didn’t try to help his Ma when they were shooting at her. He asks why he didn’t come after him in place of her. Arthur’s still alert, his adrenaline still rushing as his mind plays over different outcomes that could have been. He tries to slow his racing heart so he doesn’t wake Scarlet.

Scarlet startles awake, having only been in a very light sleep anyway, and groans as she leans back against the warm chest behind her, closing her eyes again. She reaches her left arm back and rests her hand on his thigh; opening her eyes as she realizes it’s not Jessie she’s riding with. Quickly, she tilts her head and shyly smiles up at Arthur.

“Hey, you,” she blinks.

“You alright? Took a nasty hit with that pistol,” he says softly, glancing down at her.

“Yeah, he hit my sternum. Still feel like shit though,” she manages and rubs his thigh, squeezing when Smoke abruptly sidesteps and whinnies. “Shh, hey boy, you’re good. It’s just a snake,” she soothes, letting go of Arthur’s leg to reach up and pat Smoke’s neck. He tosses his head and turns his head a little to see her, ears forward.

“That’s my boy,” Arthur murmurs to him scratching his back just in front of the saddle so he doesn’t lean on Scarlet. Smoke straightens and resumes his trot. “But you’re alright otherwise?”

“Yeah. I’ll probably be bruised but I think I’ll be fine. Bout as bad as bein trampled,” she shakes her head as she leans back into Arthur, grateful for his warmth. “I did get shot in the shoulder though, that hurts like a right bitch.”

“I’ll bet,” Arthur shifts behind her slightly, pulling her closer to him in the saddle. “If you want, we can stop and I can take a look at your shoulder, see how bad it is. You need to get alcohol on it so it don’t get infected.”

“Mm, nah. Let’s get back to camp. Don’t wanna be out here with them still milling about,” she attempts to scoot closer to him, shivering when she feels him, half hard against her rear. Her heartbeat flutters and she lets out something between a whimper and a moan. “Why, your jeans are rather tight Mr. Morgan. Are you alright?” She lets her hand fall back onto his leg, mindlessly drawing random, invisible patterns. Her head slides to his left shoulder, tilting back so she can look up at him. She smiles when she hears him curse under his breath and slows Smoke to a walk. He’s made his decision.

“Hey, Charles! Make sure everyone gets back safely? And make sure he doesn’t follow. You heard Dutch, he don’t want him back at camp. We’re gonna stop so I can tend to her shoulder; she got shot,” he explains as Charles moves up in the formation. Charles nods and takes Arthur’s position.

“Stay safe and stay warm,” Sadie hollers as she passes them, winking at the duo. James waves to them as Fancy follows Buckeye, nickering at her owner. Shamrock’s following easily behind Fancy, nickering and nudging his mother every so often.

Jessie stops the Arabian by them, eyes angry at Arthur before softening when he turns his gaze to Scarlet. John and Lenny bring up the rear, passing by Jessie as they catch up with the group, calling out to be safe and hurry back.

“I’m sorry you were shot. Do you want me to stay and help?” He offers sincerely, prepping to dismount.

“No. No thank you. Why don’t you just go back to Saint Denis? I’ll, uhh, I’ll write you when James wants to see you again. Arthur’s got me covered,” Scarlet answers for him. She squeezes his leg again as he rocks into her back slightly, looking as though he were shifting in his seat.

“Oh, umm, yes. Alright. Okay, I’ll do that then. I’m sorry, Scarlet. This isn’t how this should have gone,” he apologizes before clicking his tongue and kicking the mare.

Once he’s out of sight she rocks back against Arthur, hand rubbing down his thigh to his knee and back. She repeats this as Arthur moves Smoke into the clearing on their right.

“Can I get the tent and our bedrolls set up at least?” He groans, the uneven ground causing them to grind against each other, she whimpers.

“Sure. Maybe that will give me enough time to wash in the creek. I feel dirty, feeling his hands on me,” she retches, sticking her tongue out as she fake gags.

Arthur nods and stops Smoke, slipping from the saddle. He picks Scarlet up and sets her on her feet, handing her one of the shirts he has stored on his horse. She smiles and thanks him, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before wandering down to the creek.

The water is just high enough that she can sit comfortably and rinse off the dirt, grime, and blood from her chest and shoulder. She takes her time as there’s still a pull when she reaches too far with her left arm. When she’s done, she shakes the water off the best she can, using parts of the dress she cuts to press against her shoulder as a makeshift bandage.

Arthur sets up the bedrolls and pitches the tent. Once he’s done, Scarlet walks over in just his long sleeve shirt he handed her, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. It’s big on her but his heart still jumps a little at the sight.

“C’mere,” Arthur says, hand held out in invitation as he holds open the tent flap with his other hand. She takes it and follows him into the tent, minding the small fire he has going just out front of it. Arthur shuts the flaps and pulls her to him, catching her lips in a searing kiss. It stuns her for a moment before she’s pressing herself against him, hands roaming his chest above his shirt.

He pulls back and sits down with his back to the back of the tent, a tree just on the other side stabilizing him. He gently pulls her down into his lap and cups her face, kissing her again. She pulls back from him, hands resting on his shoulders as she pulls her knees to either side of his legs, lowering herself to sit back.

“Thought you was gon’ help me with this wound?” She teases, taking his hat and tossing it onto the bedrolls on the side. He lets his head fall against her chest as she runs her hands through his hair. He grumbles and presses kisses to her left collarbone.

“Fine. Come on then,” he pats her thighs, signaling her to get off his lap so he can grab what he needs. She complies and sits on her bed, waiting as he steps out the tent. She can hear him rummaging through his saddle bags, muttering to himself. She laughs as she makes out ‘damn woman’ and ‘why she gotta tease’. He pushes the flaps aside as he maneuvers back inside. He pats his lap when he gets settled, his pouch sitting open beside him. She moves back to him, straddling him.

“Whatcha got there?” She wonders aloud, watching as he takes out an unopened bottle of whisky. He passes it to her and pulls out some cloth and wrap.

“Drink up, I’m gonna need to use some of that to pour in that wound, clean it out,” he explains as she pulls the cork out with her teeth. She stares at him, eyes widening.

“That’s gon’ burn like hell.”

“Unfortunately. Then I’ll cover it and wrap it,” he starts undoing the buttons on his shirt she’s wearing. Scarlet takes a large gulp of the alcohol, coughing slightly at the after-burn in her throat. She passes the bottle to Arthur, who sets it aside for now.

She goes to help him unbutton the shirt, but he lightly smacks her hands away, catching her eye. They stare at each other a moment, the only sound being the rustle of clothes as Arthur continues to pop the buttons. She can see how dark his eyes are, pupils dilated almost completely. He’s staring at her with lust, adoration, and something she isn’t quite sure. She knows he can see lust and adoration in her eyes too, hoping the love and bliss is contained.

Her breath hitches slightly as his hands undo the last few buttons at the top. Arthur murmurs softly to her, keeping her gaze as he slips his hands under the shirt and gingerly slips it off her shoulders and down her arms. She pulls her wrists out and he tosses it by his hat. Arthur tries not to let his eyes wander, but it’s hard when she’s bared to him, in his lap. He gulps and brings his hand up to her right shoulder, resting it on the top as he inspects the bullet hole. She rests her left hand on his shoulder and lets her right hang by her side so he can move it if he needs to.

“It’s a clean shot, went straight through. It’ll scar but you should be fine,” he assesses and reaches for the whiskey. She moves off his lap and leans back, on the opposite side of their beds. She nods when she’s ready and he moves over her, slowly pouring some of the alcohol on and in her wound. She bites her lip as she whimpers at the burn; it’s nowhere near what she felt when the bullet ripped through, but it still hurts. She pants as he dabs at the excess whiskey and puts one of the cloth pieces over the front. “Turn over for me? I need to get the back,” he whispers softly to her, brushing her hair behind her ears.

She nods and takes a second before rolling herself onto her stomach, holding herself up from the ground. She feels his scruff on her back before the burn, his lips trailing soft kisses along her left shoulder and neck as he cleans the exit side of the wound. She lets out a shaky breath when he presses another piece of cloth to the back, dabbing at the excess liquor and blood, helping her back into his lap.

“Shh,” he soothes, running his hand down her back as the other holds the cloth in place on her shoulder. He removes the cloths and grabs a small, metal file from his bag. He lets her rest on the bedrolls as he steps back out the tent, coming in a few moments later, the file red and hot. Her eyes widen a bit. “I need you to trust me, okay? Come here, this is gon’ hurt,” he soothes as best he can, rubbing her side when she crawls back into his lap.

She rests her left arm around his neck, bringing her shoulder and body close as she waits for him. He presses a few kisses to her face before holding her tight with his left arm about her waist. He works the file into her shoulder, making sure there’s nothing left in the wound. She whimpers and cries out against his shoulder, her muscles tightening as she clenches her stomach and legs, letting out a baited breath.

Arthur sets the file aside and pulls a bullet from his satchel, prying it open. Scarlet lets her head rest against the crook of his neck, her heart racing. She can feel the blood pumping through her veins, feel the rush as it pounds through her head. Arthur shifts her to his side to leave the tent. He returns with a small branch on fire. When she looks at him, puzzled, he gestures to the opened bullet and then to the burning stick. Her face pales a bit and she swallows, her throat feeling dry all of a sudden.

“Hey, it’s okay. Come on, I’ve got you,” he soothes as he pulls her back to his lap, letting her sit with her back to his chest. He dumps a little of the gunpowder in her shoulder, bringing the flame to it. There’s a soft popping sound and Scarlet slumps against Arthur, chest heaving. He soothes her by pressing kisses to her temple, cheeks, and neck, whispering praises and telling her how good she was doing for him.

He turns her so she’s facing him again and repeats his previous steps, cradling her as she loses consciousness for a moment from the shock. He takes the moment to toss the burning stick back out into the fire, readjusting Scarlet against his chest and packing his tools. He leaves the cloth and whisky out.

It’s a few moments before she’s back with him, her body aching, coming off the adrenaline rush. She groans and opens her eyes, looking up at him. She can feel his growing excitement under her legs, as he has her sitting sideways across his lap.

“You ready for me to wrap it?” He asks, voice quiet as he nuzzles his face into her neck, nipping and leaving sloppy, teasing kisses. She shivers in his arms and nods her head once.

“Arthur,” she whimpers, turning so she’s straddling his hips again. “Wrap my shoulder later. Please? I just- I can’t- I need-” she struggles to find the right choice of words. Luckily he seems to understand as he lets his right hand hold her left hip, rolling his hips up into her as he gently pulls her down for another kiss. She whines against his lips, her hands making their way under his vest. He helps her get his vest off,  his bandolier going with it, leaving him in his shirt and jeans.

Her hands are on him again immediately, popping the buttons on his shirt. She pulls the bottom from his jeans to undo the last few, trailing kisses down his neck. He lets his hands fall naturally, one on her hip and the other tangled in her hair at the back of her head, cradling her to him as she grinds down against him. He grunts and pulls her head back, bringing her back to him to kiss. She slows her hands, taking her time in unbuckling his gun belt, minding the pull in her chest when she pulls the belt from the buckle.

Arthur licks her bottom lip, silently asking for permission. She groans against his lips, parting hers for him. He curls his tongue around hers, coaxing her to a fight for dominance. She responds, hand moving to tangle in his hair while the other works on getting his suspenders undone. Arthur pulls back and rests his forehead against Scarlet’s, both breathing heavily.

“We can stop if you want, if your shoulder,” he starts. She shakes her head, removing his suspenders and pushing his shirt back and over his shoulders.

“Don’t wanna stop, wanna feel you,” she breathes, eyes locking with his. His breath catches in his throat, seeing her green eyes blown with lust makes him moan. He nods and toes off his boots, shrugging out of his shirt.

“Okay, okay,” he replies, nodding as he gently pushes her from his lap, “we’ll keep going.” He strips out of his pants and underwear as she moves to their beds, sitting up on her knees.

“Are you okay, Arthur?” Her tone is teasing and she looks as though she’s about to jump him. He nods and moves his shirt to join the rest of his pile of clothes, leaving his hat on the bedrolls.

“Better once you get over here again,” he mumbles, motioning for her to lay with him in the middle of the beds. She shakes her head and lets him lay down first, straddling him again.

“This won’t pull so much,” she shyly admits, eyes bright with something Arthur’s not familiar with.

“You sure you don’t wanna lie down? You’ve been through a lot in the past few hours,” Arthur murmurs against her ear, licking the shell of it. She shivers and he smirks; he knows it’s not from the cool breeze seeping into the tent. He trails his hand down her stomach, but she smacks his hand away lightly, shaking her head.

“No teasin, don’t wanna wait, been too long,” she grumbles, hand slipping between them to stroke him a few times. He groans at the contact, letting his head fall back against the pillow. He pushes himself up onto his elbows, watching her as she pushes to stand on her knees, lining him up with her entrance. He swears as she sinks down onto him, moan slipping from her lips as her hands fall to his chest where she digs her fingernails in.

“Christ,” Arthur breathes as he moves one hand to rest on her hip, holding himself up with the other. “How long is too long?” He slowly rolls his hips up when she grinds down on him. Green eyes meet his for a split second before she’s looking at the bed to the side of him.

“Shortly after James was born,” she quietly admits, raising herself before sinking back down. “Now hush that mouth before I do it for you.” She leans forward to recapture his lips, tugging on his hair when he sucks on her bottom lip. She feels the vibrations of his chuckle through his chest and against her own at her keen moans he’s swallowing.

She keeps her pace in rhythm with their kisses, slow and drawn out. Arthur seems content with it as well, bucking and rolling his hips every other time she lowers herself back onto him. He groans when she shifts her weight and bounces on him, moving one of her hands from his hair to brace against his forearm.

He has one hand on her hips, the other gently stroking up from her navel to her breasts. He runs his thumb over one bud, watching as it hardens when he takes the warmth of his hand away. Scarlet whines when he tweaks it, rolling the hardened bud between his fingers. When she’s mewling and arching her back into his hand, he switches to give her other breast the same treatment.

“Arthur,” she moans, widening her legs to pick up her pace. He lets go of her hip, slowly letting his hands rove from her side up to her shoulder, down to her stomach, finally cupping her breasts, squeezing them gently. She curses under her breath as she looks down at him, nails digging into his arm, surely leaving crescent shape indents.

She grips at his hair, tugging gently to pull his gaze from where they’re joined to her face. He smiles up at her, face and chest flushed with heat. She smiles back at him and leans down, meeting him halfway for a kiss. He gives her boobs a final squeeze before reaching over and grabbing something with his left hand. He holds her gaze until he drops his hat on her head, smirking up at her mischievously.

“Show me how well you really ride, Cowgirl,” he orders, grabbing her braid and tugging. A strangled moan leaves her lips as she stutters above him.

“Fockin’ ‘ell,” she swears, adjusting his hat so it won’t fall off before she shifts her stance to ride him faster. He tugs her braid again, rolling his hips up into her as she moves down. She gasps and tilts her head down at him as he repeats the action, hand tight on her hip. He rocks up into her in time with her movements, one hand cupping her jaw and forcing her to look as she lowers herself down. She lets out a groan at the sight, one hand pressing on his stomach as her back arches. “Fock, Arthur! There,” she whimpers, scratching down his chest. He moans at the feel, watching as her nails leave white streaks on his flushed skin.

“Darlin’, you keep ridin like that an I ain’t gonna last much longer,” he bites out, panting as he meets her eyes. She nods and slams down on him, throwing him off her pattern. He easily picks it back up, yanking on her braid. He slides his hand to the start of her braid and buries his hand, tangling it in her copper strands.

She only hums in response and tightens her stomach muscles as she slips off him, making him yank her hips back down as he slams up into her. She smirks down at him until he clenches the hand in her hair into a first and tugs her head back and to the side. He leans up, pulling her close as he holds her head back, nipping at her throat, teeth dragging across, leaving angry, red marks.

“I don’t know what you just did, but you need to not do that if you wanna finish first,” he growls, kissing her hard, their teeth scraping together. She lets out a few whimpers as their tongues fight for dominance; she gasps when he angles his hips, hitting her just right and dragging sweetly as he pulls back. She allows him the win as she breaks the kiss, panting and opening her eyes to look down at him.

“You mean this?” She asks coyly and clenches her stomach so she tightens around him as he’s pulling out. A string of curses leaves him as he thrusts his hips faster, pulling her down with a little more force when she moves.

“Scarlet, I- where-?” He can’t get his words out, but she seems to understand what he’s asking. She clenches around him again and nods her head.

“Wherever you wanna, Cowboy,” she murmurs, earning a yank to her hair. She curses and stutters above him, losing her pace momentarily. She picks it back up easy enough and licks her drying lips, trying to hold in a moan.

Arthur slips his free hand to cup her jaw, thumb brushing over her lips. She darts her tongue out to brush over the pad of his thumb, contentedly humming when he pushes it into her mouth; she sucks on it, running her tongue over it as she stares into his eyes.

“Gonna make you come undone for me,” he grunts as he bucks into her, earning a meek mewl around his finger. “Then I’m gon’ fill you up, so you remember who can touch you,” he growls into her ear as he sits up with her still in his lap. He tips his hat back on her head so he can rest his forehead on hers, their breaths mingling as he rolls his hips forward.

Maybe it’s the feral look in his eyes, or maybe it’s something about the possessive way he says it, but whichever it is has Scarlet gently biting down on his thumb as she slows down on him, her walls clenching tight around him as her orgasm rips through her. She’s aware of his hands on her hips again, feeling as he pounds into her, whispering praises to her.

“Such a good girl for me. Doing so well. Gonna take it all when I fill you up nice?” He coos to her, lips brushing against the joint of her neck and shoulder. She shivers and he bites down, his hips sputtering as he empties into her, her walls clenching and milking him for all he has.

Arthur holds her close to him as they come down from their high, their breathing slowly evening to a more normal rhythm. He kisses the mark he’s left on her neck, untangling his hand from her hair as he tilts her chin up to look at her. She’s smiling, lips parted in a slight daze, as she meets his eyes. She leans in and pecks his lips, sighing in content as he rubs a hand down her back, the other moving behind him for him to lean on.

“You good, Darlin’?” He asks after their breathing returns to normal. She nods and leans against him, her body pressing to his, her left hand gently scratching down his right side and tracing the path back up. She lets her hand repeat the pattern as she feels him soften and slip from her, a whine pulling from her throat as she feels the evidence of their activity dribbling from her core. She sets his hat by the pillows and shifts so she’s lying on one of the bedrolls. Arthur moves down to lay beside her, on his back.

“Y-yeah. I’m fine, we’re fine,” she murmurs against his chest, placing a light kiss to his collarbone. She wraps her right arm around his torso and snuggles against his chest, listening to the sound of his rapidly beating heart. His hand traces small circles on her back and he sighs as she nuzzles her face into the crook of his neck, laying almost fully on him.

Arthur wakes to a very warm body curled into him, his right arm wound about Scarlet’s waist where she’s holding his hand tight by her breasts, and a very noticeable friend. He kisses slow along her neck until he feels her push back against him, a small gasp leaving her. She rolls slightly so her right shoulder is almost touching the ground and brings her left hand up to his face, cupping his cheek and thumbing over his scruff.

“Good mornin.”

“Mornin, Darlin’,” he greets and presses a kiss to her wrist.

“Thank you,” her voice is quiet as she averts her gaze, cheeks flushing bright red as she remembers what happened last night. She looks back up at him, eyes alight with mischief. “So about that round two?”

“Christ, Woman. We just woke up,” he laughs and rolls so he’s hovering over her, arms caging her head between them.

“Exactly. So I reckon we better call it round one then?” She teases and bends her legs so they’re on either side of his waist. “Besides, you look like you're rearin to go.” She glances down at him, lying thick and angry against her stomach, before meeting his eyes again. She bites her lip and he loses it, capturing her lips in a tender kiss.

They rinse off in the creek before getting dressed. He wraps her shoulder and hands her his blue shirt she partially wore last night along with a spare pair of jeans he had stored in his saddlebags.

The ride back to camp is a silent one, Scarlet riding just as she was the night before; on the front of the saddle, leaned back against his chest. Smoke keeps his gait even as he gallops, ears forward as he senses the utter contentment of his riders.

They make it to camp by noon, Arthur slowing Smoke so he walks up the path, calling out to Lenny it’s just him and Scarlet. They’re greeted by a few of the members, including Dutch, Hosea, Sadie, and Charles. They all flash knowing smirks at the duo as Scarlet slides up the saddle for Arthur to get off first.

She flushes and tips the brim of her hat down to shade her eyes. Arthur chuckles and helps her down, his hands lingering on her waist, something Dutch notes to ask him about later. He also notices she’s wearing a set of Arthur’s clothes, something he definitely wants to breech later.

“Glad to have you back, Miss O’Hara!” Dutch greets, pulling her into a hug by her bad arm. She yelps and pushes against him. He immediately releases her arm, eyes narrowing. “You’re hurt?” He inquires and ushers her to the medicine wagon, despite her protests. The small welcoming group follows, Arthur, Sadie, and Hosea at the front. Dutch gently pushes her to sit on the back of the wagon.

“I just-it’s just a gun shot. I’ll be fine, it’s cleaned-” she tries to assure Dutch but he won’t have any of it. He snaps and points at her, tapping the belt buckle too big for her.

“Shirt off, now. Let Miss Grimshaw an the others take a look at it,” he commands, tone leaving no room for argument. She huffs but pulls the fabric from her borrowed pants and starts unbuttoning it under his watchful eye.

“Yes, Sir,” she sasses, eyes meeting his in challenge until she flinches when she brings her arm up to remove the sleeve. Arthur moves to her side, holding her arm as he gently pulls the shirt from her right shoulder and arm, leaving it on her left side. The bandage he put on earlier that morning tinged red.

“Get those bandages off her, Arthur. We’ll get it cleaned and dressed. Sit tight,” he orders, pointing a knowing finger at Scarlet. When Dutch turns his back, she sticks her tongue out at him and blows a raspberry.

“I’m fine, really. This ain’t the first time I’ve been shot an pistol whipped” she grumbles, holding still as Arthur unwraps her shoulder, cutting the wrap from around her chest in the process. Dutch returns after a few moments, Susan in tow with the other females. Mary-Beth, Tilly, and Karen gasp at the dark bruising down her chest and the blotchy, red bruising starting around her shoulder.

“What’s that bruisin on your chest from?” Dutch asks, kneeling in front of her, tilting her head up so he can see how far it goes. He lets her go and turns to the females. “Get that gun shot wound fixed up, we can’t do much about the bruises,” he confirms, nodding for Arthur to follow him.

“I’ll find James, let him know we’re back and that you’re busy and will come see him as soon as you can, alright?” Arthur murmurs into her ear as he leans down, removing her hat. “Round three after you’re done here?”

Scarlet pushes his face away, laughing at his question. She shoos him away from them as the small group of females each look at the entry and exit holes. Scarlet slips her other arm out as they move her from the back of the wagon to Susan’s extra bedroll, leaving her chest exposed.

“I saw that mark, Arthur. Anythin you wanna tell me?” Dutch interrogates, pacing his tent as Arthur sits in the chair he provides. The outlaw looks at his father figure, confused at just what he’s getting at.

“Whatchu mean, Dutch?”

“That bite mark ain’t from no O’Driscoll. You do remember I know how you are after an evening of fun, right?” The gang leader questions, chortling as realization dawns on Arthur. He picks at Scarlet’s hat, pretending it’s a little more interesting than Dutch.

“And?”

“How long have you been together?”

“We’re not. Well, we uhh, we slept together last night but we’re not...we haven’t discussed what we are,” he expresses, finally looking up at Dutch. Said man stops pacing and moves to stand in front of Arthur, kneeling with his hands on Arthur’s legs.

“Son, she could be your second chance,” he muses, eyes bright like they haven’t been in awhile. Arthur still isn’t sure what Dutch is completely on about, but nods slightly.

“I don’t want another Eliza,” he whispers in admittance. Dutch leans back on his heels, nodding as he pushes to his feet. He stays silent, not sure what to say. Arthur gestures with Scarlet’s hat.

“I best find James, let him know we’re back and his momma’s alright,” he excuses himself with an approving nod from Dutch. He finds James with Jack by the horses, Kieran showing them how to properly brush a horse. He approaches and tells James the news, calming the excited child with promise to have her come get him when she’s done.

The ladies have Scarlet lay on her stomach but she shakes her head and tries to get away from them, struggling in their hold. She breaks free of everyone but Sadie, attempting to crawl under the wagon.

“What is goin on here?” Arthur’s voice makes her freeze in place. She looks over her shoulder at him, eyes pleading as she scrambles towards the wagon when she sees movement in her peripheral.

“I’ve already had whiskey dumped on this wound and now they’re trying to use moonshine!” She whines, hoping her crying will get him to help her. She sighs in relief when he picks her up and pulls her to his chest. She startles when he lays her back down on the spare bedding, chest up with his hand on her sternum -minding the bruising- and on her hip to hold her. “Traitor,” she says.

“Would ya just let’em help ya?” He asks as he holds her gaze, distracting her as Sadie pours moonshine on her shoulder. A sharp yell leaves her lips as she turns to glare at Sadie, curses flowing freely.

Once Susan and Sadie give the okay, Arthur helps her back into his shirt and he picks her up, carrying her over to his wagon, sitting her on his cot. She rubs her sternum and winces a bit, shaking her head.

“Where’s James?”

“He was with Kieran and Jack by the horses when I left him. Want me to go get him?” Arthur asks, kneeling in front of her, removing her hand from her bruised chest. She nods and lets out a deep breath, closing her eyes.

“He hits like a kid, the gun hurt worse,” she manages as he helps her rest back against his wagon. He hums and pushes to his feet, heading for the horses. James is brushing Fancy down, the mare bouncing her head and pawing the ground.

“Hey, James!” He calls, waving the boy over. James pauses in his brushing, even Fancy looking up at him. “Your Ma wants to see you. She’s over at my wagon, if you wanna go see her,” he offers, patting Fancy.

“Sure! Thank you, Mr. Morgan,” the boy squeals in delight and passes him the brush as he rushes across camp.

“Slow down!” Arthur hollers after James, chuckling in amusement at his enthusiasm to see his mother. He picks up where the boy left off, getting the last of the dirt off Fancy’s back, seeing as how James couldn’t reach. Fancy nuzzles him after he puts the brush away in her saddle bag. “Good girl,” he coos to her before heading back to Scarlet and James.

“You good?” He asks, hands up and holding on the awning railing. James scrambles off the bed and wraps his arms around Arthur.

“Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for coming to rescue my momma, and for sending Uncle John, Bubba Lenny, and Bubba Kieran to get me with my Pa. I was scared,” he whimpers into Arthur’s stomach, hands clenching tight onto the back of the cowboy’s shirt. Arthur looks at Scarlet, whose eyes are glassy with unshed tears, and his arms automatically wrap James up tight, letting the child cry against him.

“Of course, Son, y’all are family now. We’ll always come for you,” he reassures the distraught James. He locks eyes with Scarlet, nodding to her. “Come on, let’s let your Momma rest, alright? How’s bout you an me go play dominoes?”

“S-s-sure. Can I, Momma?” He pulls away from Arthur, drying his eyes with his sleeves. Scarlet holds out her hand, a silent order to come here, and pulls him close when he takes her hand. She presses a kiss to his forehead, then cheeks, then his nose, causing him to laugh.

“Of course. You behave for Arthur, ya hear me? And if you see anyone who was there, send them my way please?” Her request is for Arthur, who nods his agreement. James smiles and thanks her before walking over to the table and setting up the dominoes.

“Here,” Arthur offers, stepping close to her and helping her lie down and cover up with his blanket, “just rest. I’ll come wake you later when dinner is ready.” She grabs his arm when he goes to get up, preventing him from doing so. He turns back to her with a questioning look before she sits up slightly and pulls him down to press her lips to his in a quick kiss.

“Thank you, Arthur. Fer everythin you’ve done the last few days,” she smirks up at him as she lies back down, hand trailing down his arm. He smiles and pats her leg, as he gets up.

“You’re welcome, Cowgirl. Now rest. I’ll be by later, and I’ll watch James. Don’t worry,” he soothes as he goes to join aforementioned child for dominoes.

Swanson stops by to see her, Dutch having informed him of Scarlet’s condition. The reverend sits with her for a while before offering her morphine for the obvious pain she is in. He gets his things set up and has her stretch her arm out for him. He pats her head as she thanks him, arm curling on her chest, pulling Arthur’s blanket close to her as she finally drifts off into a content sleep.