#i'm always a half second off and it DRIVES ME NUTS | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

daydreamgoddess14 · 1 year ago

Text

Hot Water

MASTERLIST

Roy Kent xF!Reader

5 Times Roy Kent ends up on your doorstep even though you know it can't keep happening.

~~~

I feel like this was dragged from me kicking and screaming. It started out just a little smutty one shot and now it's a slightly longer one. I do hope you like it, I'm not sure I do but hey ho, there's always the next one! 🙃

~~~

Well. This was really fucking inconvenient.

You’re literally laying on the bathroom floor. Underneath the fucking bath. Something, somewhere, somehow has sprung a leak and you’re resolved to fix it. You’ve even got your dad’s old toolkit out in the hope that wielding a tool might help. It hasn’t so far. It doesn’t help that you know approximately zero about plumbing. This is all just capping off a pretty fantastically awful couple of months to be honest. And although it’s a work day, and therefore your biggest problem is at the forefront of your mind, you’re going to have to forget the main reason behind your shitty time recently. Because this leak ain’t going to fix itself. You’re doing a masterful job so far - real professional. You’ve remembered to turn the stopcock off which is a big bonus. You nearly broke your hand doing it, but it’s done. You give your spanner an experimental jiggle over what looks like a loose nut, but as you do so, a spider runs over your hand. That little fucker is the catalyst for everything else. You squeal and pull your hand back, whacking first the pipe and then dropping the spanner onto your forehead. Whacking the pipe leads to the spider's little spider buddies coming out to find him, and you soon have one on its way up your arm and one in your hair. All limbs and spanner and spiders, you’re dragging yourself out from under the bath and shaking the little bastards off. Crying, of course, because what else are you meant to do when there are 3 spiders on you and you’ve just hit yourself in the face with a metal tool?

It’s already 7am, you need to be getting ready for work so there’s nothing else for it, you can shower at work. Luckily, luckily , if you head out now you should be early enough that you’d be alone there. The lads won’t be there til 9am anyway, so it’s only the staff and possibly coaches who might be there any earlier. The showers should be free. You try and give yourself a spider once over, throw on a pair of joggers and a jumper over your PJ shorts set and shove half your life in a bag. You’re only a 10 minute walk from Nelson Road so you don’t bother driving. You head straight in through the side door and shout hello to the cleaner who’s at the top of the stairs to Rebecca’s office. Passed the locker room, and into the depths between the gym and the training pitch are the showers. You put your bag on the bench and pull out a towel and some Richmond kit to wear afterwards. As one of two sports massage therapists for the team, you live in joggers and Richmond vests. Boring but functional. You’ve seen no one, heard no one, but you’re still not keen on the idea of stripping off in a men's shower room so you’re absolutely keeping the knickers on. One less area to have to cover up. You hang up the stuff you need, put away the under bath grimy stuff you’ve just taken off, and switch the shower on. Colin was not wrong about that water pressure. You’re OK. It's OK. This was the right thing to do. A scalding shower with pressure hard enough to feel like you’re being clapped on the back by The Rock sounds like bliss. While the shower heats up, you strip off (except the knickers, of course) and grab your shampoo. That little bastard spider is not leaving babies in your hair. No fucking way. As a second thought just before you get under the water spray, you switch Spotify on your phone so you can drown to the angry sounds of Olivia Rodrigo. You’re getting pretty good at the speed on Good 4 U, though sometimes scream singing it does leave you feeling like you’ve run a marathon. You’re better at the unhinged wail you can really give to ‘bloodsucker, famefucker’ on Vampire, it just hits different at the moment. The hot water hits your body and you finally relax.

~~~~~~

You wish you weren’t so outwardly affected. It was always going to go this way, you could have done more to protect your heart though - it would have saved you looking so foolish, and it would have saved a ruined friendship. That was the hardest part to deal with. You’d joined the staff under Ted Lasso and had built a great rapport with the players and the coaching staff. You considered them friends - all of them. Sure, you harboured a pretty big crush on Roy Kent, but it didn’t affect your work. You ignored those feelings, trampled over them and focused on getting on with your job. Notoriously slow to win over, he eventually became as good a friend as everyone else. The night of the West Ham game was insane. Ted was leaving, everyone was bouncing between elation over finishing second in the league and the prospects that would bring, and losing Ted. There were tears of joy and laughter one minute and tears of devastation the next. Ola’s could barely contain the emotion everyone was feeling. You’d decided to hit the road, everything was winding down anyway and the players were going on to an exclusive club which they’d invited you to as well - and you knew full well you wouldn’t have to buy a drink all night, they’d never let you do that when it was £25 for a double gin, but you didn’t want to carry the party on. You’d kissed whoever you could reach, hugged as many as you could see and air high-fived Sam from across the way. You stepped out into the late May night, it was still warm so you lingered outside with your drink while you waited for the taxi.

“Oi, how come I didn’t fucking get one?” Roy asked, stepping out to join you by the window.

“Hey, you going to the club? Get what?”

“A hug.” He nudged your shoulder.

“That’s my taxi. You always get a hug.” You slipped your arm across his back and leaned up a little to reach him better. “See you Monday.”

“You can’t go back in a taxi on your own?”

“Course I can, I always do.” You laughed, pulling open the door. He held it open while you sat in the backseat and slipped in after you.

“C’mon, I’ll make sure it gets you back ok.” You haven’t moved quite far enough along the seat so as the taxi driver rounds each corner, you're pushed further into Roy. “So everyone else gets hugs and kisses eh?”

“Only the people I could reach. Also, you just had a hug, stop complaining.” Another corner taken at a higher speed than necessary smushed you into his side. “Jesus, is this guy ready to finish or something.” He put a hand on your thigh,

“You ok?”

“Yeah fine.” The heat of his hand lit up your skin, the addition of far too many drinks made you feel flushed. You both looked at his hand on your leg and then back to each other, the streetlights illuminating you both and then sending you into darkness again. You didn’t know if it was an unconscious move or deliberate, but his thumb brushed gently in small circles on your bare skin. You’re sure he must be able to see your heart pounding through your dress. As he leans forward into you, his hand moves up just another inch and as you gasp at the sensation, he lightly kisses you.

“Here we are. That's a tenner please, love.” Roy goes for his wallet but you push his hand out of the way and hand the driver a note from your bag. He has to open the door to let you out, “you coming back in, fella?” the driver asks. He looks down at the hand which he held out to help you from the taxi to find he’s still holding it.

“No thanks, mate.” You’ve barely got the front door closed behind you before he’s pushed you up against it and kissing you with a fierceness you hadn't realised you were so desperate for. Your hands worked fast, pushing his jacket down his arms and onto the floor with a thud, and pulling him back to you by his t-shirt. The dress Keeley suggested for you is flattering, but a little more revealing than you’d usually wear. Shorter than you’d normally go for and with a low neckline too. He’s got one hand up in your hair and the other is back on your leg, halfway up the skirt while he kisses your jawline. His body presses against you and you can feel him, hard through his jeans. You bring up the leg he’s got a hand on and he hooks it over his hip, it tilts your lower body further into his and he is so close to where you need him it sends you dizzy. It's impossible to disguise the neediness of your moans and the hand that's up your skirt is moving further up to grip the fleshy soft spot between your hip and thigh.

"God, Roy -," you whine, you rock your hips towards his,

"Sure you want this?" You nod against his shoulder, "Talk to me, babe," he asks.

"Yes, yeah I'm sure," you're pulling at his t-shirt, dragging it over his head.

When he mutters "good girl," against your collarbone, you're certain you could come there and then. He traces the line of your knickers with his fingers, feeling just how ready you are for him, "fucking hell," he says, wrecked. He slips his fingers inside you and presses his thumb to your clit. He seems to know exactly what you need and just when you're at the brink, grasping for the release that's just out of reach, he kisses you. It's hot and rough and sends you right over the edge. He gives you a minute, a slightly softer kiss, but you don't need it, you only want him. Your shaking hands fumble with the button of his jeans until he takes over and does it himself, he's dug out a condom from his wallet. You're still fully clothed, still wearing the high heels that, with his help, have you at exactly the right height for him to push into you. It's everything. Everything you've fantasised about since the day you were introduced, he's the only thing that stands out from your first day at the club. In a room full of high-profile, well-paid, gorgeous footballers, he's the only one you see. He thrusts into you using your hips as leverage, the spike of your heel grazing the back of his thigh. Your hands hold fast to the back of his neck and his shoulder,

"Roy, fuck, you feel so good." Your name is reverent on his lips as he comes and on hearing, you're there too. His pace slows as his hips stutter, and your head rests in the crook of his neck while you catch your breath. All at once, he's gentle again, carefully bringing your leg back down and making sure you're steady on your feet. He looks a little sheepish as he steps back away from you, taking you hands to help you stand up away from the back of the door,

"You ok?" He asks, while you straighten your dress and pull it back down into place.

"Yep, all good. You?"

"Yeah, yeah fine." He looked like he couldn't get out of there fast enough, his hesitation and unease rubbing off on you. "I should go though,"

"Yeah, no I figured as much."

"It's just been a fucking long day, y'know?"

"I know. Lots of crazy emotions." He must have seen the look of hurt cross your face,

"Not that it was a mistake… but maybe, probably shouldn't have happened? Fuck, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a fucking dick-,"

"I get it Roy. It was fun but it didn't mean anything." It didn't mean anything . Probably the biggest lie you've ever told and it's out of your mouth like you knew it had to be said all along.

~~~~~~~~

On Monday morning, you were all notified that Roy would be named as the new head coach for Richmond. He obviously knew beforehand, so within 36 hours you'd gone from sleeping with a colleague to sleeping with your boss, and the sudden distance and desperation to get out of your flat became clear. Along with the knowledge that it definitely could not happen again. Not that he gave the impression that he wanted it to. The following week, you took yourself on holiday for a week with some of the team and friends, just a big villa and a private beach in southern Spain. You'd relaxed, eaten your weight in fresh seafood, and consumed more sangria than you should have. All week, Instagram was full of you and your sunkissed friends having a whale of a time. You returned feeling better about yourself and ready for a few easy admin weeks before the start of the season. And then Roy had shown up at your door.

"Nice holiday?"

"Not bad… can I help you?" You're on your guard, holding the door closed against you.

"Right. Thought I should check in, see how you are?"

"As my boss, or?"

"Can I fucking come in or not?" You hold the door open but keep your arm in the way, childishly making him duck to get through. "Did the lads behave?" He asked from your kitchen.

"Oh yeah. I slept with Jan in the pool, Richard on the beach and shared a bed with Moe and Tommy all week."

"Fucking funny," he didn't look amused.

"Do I look like I'm laughing?" He did a momentary double take. "Course I'm joking. Bad enough that I've fucked the boss, isn't it? Jesus if word got around I might as well quit."

"Don't say that." He growled.

"True though isn't it? You knew, and that's why you left in such a hurry. Quick and dirty. What was it? You'd wondered what it would be like, so thought you might as well give it a go before you started the top job?" He didn't say anything. "And now you're worried that I've been off having too much fun with one of the lads? Like you have any say whatsoever?"

"No. Fuck no. You can do whatever you want."

"I know."

"See whoever you want."

"I know."

"Will you stop arguing with me on this?"

"I'm agreeing with you. Boss." Somehow, you'd managed to square up to each other like you were about to hit him. It was still a reasonably high possibility until he closed the gap and kissed you. Horny traitor that it is, your body gives in immediately. "We shouldn't do this again," you hiss as he bites your shoulder.

"So tell me to fucking stop." He grabs at your loose sleep vest and pulls it off, surprised to find you don't wear anything underneath. "And if you really do want me to stop, then you'd better tell me right fucking now." Instead, you walk him back a step to the sofa and push him to sit down. As soon as he does, you straddle him.

"Do not fucking stop." You warn him, pulling off his t-shirt. It's the same needy, desperate and hot sex that you'd both craved last time, at least this time you already know that it shouldn't be happening. The difference is that it makes it even more intense. He does the same disappearing act as last time, leaving you doubting your life choices and questioning your sanity.

~~~~~~~~

It happens again the next week. With so many people on holiday, Keeley organises a karaoke night for those who are around. It's lairy and a lot of fun, you sing a few songs including a duet with Nate. Soon, the challenge becomes choosing songs for other people. You can't even place the song Keeley has picked for you until the music kicks in, it's not until you're singing it and reading the lyrics that you realise how apt they are.

"I'm yours to keep

And I'm yours to lose

You know I'm not a bad girl

But I do bad things with you

So it goes

Come here, dressed in black now

So, so, so it goes

Scratches down your back now

So, so, so it goes"

You catch his eye as you're singing without meaning to, and it's like lighting a fire in your belly. You know it's going to happen again. You still don't make it to a bedroom. Instead, you get to your knees for him just inside your flat and this time he's the one sounding needy and desperate. You've never heard Roy Kent of all people sound so wrecked and affected. Ever giving, he's utterly confused when you reject him afterwards and send him home without letting him touch you at all.

It's this which brought him back to your door the last time, just over a month ago. You've been in a bit of a downward spiral ever since. It had been over a week since the karaoke night. Pre season training was due to start and you knew you'd be busy with rusty footballers who tried to rush their first decent stretch in weeks. You were exhausted after the first day back, your hands ached and you'd half forgotten what it was like to be on your feet all day. You're yawning your way through a takeout menu when the door goes. Once again, Roy is on your doorstep, but this time he has a bag of food with him. He brushes straight past you and into the kitchen where he manages to plate up two meals despite not knowing where anything is kept and you becoming mute.

"Why are you here?" You mumble.

"I saw the appointment list for today. Thought you'd be fucking knackered." Once you’ve finished eating, he leads you to your own bedroom where he sits you on the bed. "This ok," he asks.

You nod first, then follow up with a hushed, "Yes." He undresses you slowly, taking his time in a way he hasn't any of the other times before. He lays you back on the bed and settles between your thighs, you're in pieces even before you feel the wet slide of his tongue against your clit. He holds you down with one hand as you cant your hips towards him with a whispered "fuckkk," he gives your thigh a bite,

"Hold fucking still," you can feel him smirk against you. It doesn't take much for him to have your legs shaking, your hands are in his hair, dragging through the curls that have grown out over the summer break. You practically wail his name as you come, and if you've learned anything from the hurried, rough trysts you've had so far with Roy, it's that you definitely weren't prepared for the time he actually gets to take his time with you. He's watching you come down, boneless from your first orgasm, letting you think he's done with you before he goes back for more. By the time he's crawling back up the bed to you, the need to have his skin against yours is sinful. You can barely form full sentences, speaking only in single word requests, "clothes, more, now". He laughs, a low rumble that you feel against your ribs. He's equally as eloquent, but out to take an agonisingly long time with you. He pushes into you in long, slow strokes, his whole body weighted against yours. The closeness is both intense and intimate, and when he kisses you it feels so much like a promise your heart could break. Unlike the previous times, you don't part immediately while you both catch your breath. He shifts off you slightly but stays with his nose against your jaw and his hands coveting your body. He's the first one to say it.

"This can't keep happening."

"We both keep saying that and yet here we are again." You sit up against the headboard, mindful to cover yourself up.

"I know."

"But, you're right, we can't." You decide you need to be firmer, "I can't keep doing this." He nods and gets up to dress.

"I'm sorry." He mutters as he leaves.

~~~~~~~~

Roy is always consistently early for work. A byproduct of being awake at stupid o’clock to train Jamie, yes, but before that, he’s just always been early. Now he’s head coach, he uses the time to get the coffee going or makes sure Will is on top of everything in the boot room. Has a wander around and checks the gym or the showers for lonely socks, earbud boxes, or hats. More recently, he's just sat at his desk and moped for an extra half hour before anyone arrives and calls him out on it. Today, though, he puts the coffee on and starts in the gym where he straight away finds Isaac’s favourite sweatbands, Moe’s sunglasses, and one of Dani’s socks. It’s like picking up after a bunch of fucking kids. He dumps the loot in the middle of the locker room and carries on. He can hear singing as he gets closer to the showers and assumes that Jamie must have chosen food over cleanliness and has decided to save time by coming straight to Nelson Road after breakfast.

“Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy

Not me, if you ever cared to ask

Good for you, you're doing great out there without me, baby

Like a damn sociopath!

I've lost my mind, I've spent the night crying on the floor of my bathroom

But you're so unaffected, I really don't get it

But I guess good for you”

Yeah. That's not Jamie. But it's already too late, he'd been rounding the corner as he'd heard the singing and now, well… thank fuck you've got your back to him. He tries to back out of the room, but manages to crash into the bench and sends your phone crashing to the tiles, the music stopping abruptly. The noise has you covering as much of your body with your hands as you can while you scream like a banshee, the sound echoes off the tiles, and what the hell is the lump on your head?!

"Roy! Fuck me, turn around!" His brain manages to click into gear enough to let him do that at least, but then it goes manic on what he's just seen. Or not seen really, his memory fills in the blanks though. "Fucksake what the hell are you doing?” You’re shaking, he can hear it in your voice. He truly scared the shit out of you. “I need to finish washing my hair, can you be trusted for 5 fucking minutes if I move my hands?" You ask, a little calmer.

"I heard singing, thought it was one of the lads."

"Oh so jumping them in the shower is also fine? Don't move. I'm nearly done. Ouch, cocking shitting fuck." Your voice catches and he thinks you might be crying.

"Jesus, are you alright? I've never heard you swear like that."

"I'm fine," you reply quietly. "Hit my head." He turned quickly, too quickly for you to cover back up, "Oi!" His eyes initially went exactly where you’d expect, then they flew up to yours and didn't move, but it didn’t stop you covering yourself up with your hands again.

"Sorry, sorry, I-" he crossed the room and brought a hand up to your temple which was sporting a painful looking purple bruise. “Was it me, did you hit your head when I came in?” You shake your head with a grimace,

“No, it’s been a fucking awful morning. I just-,” he’s close enough now that he’s going to be right under the shower head in a minute, and he can see that you are close to tears. “You’re gonna get soaked. Could you just go away please?”

“Don’t worry about me,” he goes back to the bench and retrieves your phone from the floor. He has the good grace to look ashamed that the screen is smashed to bits. “Fuck, sorry.” he kicks off his sneakers and turns back to you, “turn around.”

“No, I want to be left alone. Let’s not pretend you give a shit, Roy. Just go.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. This is getting stupid.

“Of course I fucking give a shit. Please. Turn. Around. You’ve hit your head, you’re freezing cold, you-”

“Fine.” You glare, “fine.” You turn to face the wall, no idea why. It becomes clear as he comes to stand right behind you, under the stream of water.

“Head back.” You lean your head back as he asks. His height over you means he has a direct line of sight down your body so you keep your hands in place as he washes the shampoo out of your hair. He avoids the lump in your hairline far better than you did, and now you’re back under the water, you’re warming up a bit. He takes his time, and as you close your eyes, his are drawn to the path the droplets of water follow over your skin, like memories of where his mouth had been. “Did you need to do anything else?” he asks softly. You shake your head, moving your hands and arms so you can still cover yourself but also bring a hand to cover your face, trying not to cry. He reaches past you to turn the shower off. He moves away but he’s only gone long enough to get your towel from the hook. He holds it out for you and turns his head so you can move your arms and step into it. Then he leads you to the bench and pushes your shoulders gently to sit you down. He disappears and comes back a couple of minutes later with a towel for himself and another smaller one which he passes you for your hair. You use it to blot the majority of the water out of your hair, breathing in the soothing lavender softeners Will uses. He’s busy watching you but you’re staring at the floor. With your hair a little dryer, he brushes his fingers through it to move it away from the bruise and take a better look. “That looks really fucking nasty. What did you do?”

“Spanner.” You mumble. He’s not speaking so you know he’s waiting for you to elaborate. “I have a leak under the bath I was trying to fix. A spider scared me so I hit the spanner off my head while I was trying to get out and then there were like three other spiders all over me and I fucking hate spiders and… I just feel like shit.” Saying it all out loud, you realise it all sounds a bit feeble, that you’ve overreacted.

“Get dressed before you get a cold. I’ll be back in a minute. I’ll shout this time before I come in.”

~~~~~~

You don’t rush. You sit for a minute and try to gather your thoughts. Of all the people in the entire club, he was the one you’d least want to see you half naked in the shower. He’d have probably been top of the list only a month ago. You’re not even sure by this point what he actually did see, but it’s also too late to care now. It’s done so there’s no undoing it. And it's not like he hasn’t seen it all before anyway. You dry off and pull on your sweats, you’re just reaching for your Richmond t-shirt when he calls out to let you know he’s on his way back. He’s been to get changed,

“I’m fine, you might as well get back to work. Everyone will be here in a minute.” He goes to challenge you again but you just don’t have the energy. You haven’t even had a coffee yet this morning, let alone breakfast. “Please, Roy. I’m fine.” You throw your wet towel in your bag and check you’ve got everything before squeezing past him and back up to the treatment room. You avoid everyone all morning, Katie offers to go outside for training so you can stay in. She goes out just before 10am, meeting Nate in the corridor. You have to pop to the main office to sign for a delivery and when you get back, there’s a mug of coffee and a paper bag with a pastry inside on your desk, along with some painkillers. The rest of the day seems to settle down. You work your way through the list of players who need some time with you. Jan Maas is last on the list with a niggle he picked up in training that morning. You’ve got your hands high up on the back of his thigh when Roy taps on the door,

“Hey coach.” Jan mumbles from face down on the treatment bench. You manage to get your thumb right where he needs it and he lets out a low groan. Roy raises an eyebrow,

“Alright Jan. You good?”

“Yes, she’s a genius” He hops up from the bench with a big smile. “You should let me buy you a drink, to say thank you.”

“I’m fine thanks, Jan. Take it easy on your leg.” When he leaves, Roy moves to sit on the bench. He takes your wrist as you walk by him, pulling you to stand in front of him where he can check your forehead again.

"How's it feel?"

"Like I hit myself in the head with a spanner."

"Are you done?"

"For the day or generally? Because the answer is yes to both. I'm going home. I need to… not be here." Not be around you . Is the follow up you'd like to add. I can't ignore it like you can, can't just pretend I don't feel the way I do. It’s getting harder every day.

"I think you have a concussion. I'm pretty fucking sure you didn't want to vocalise those thoughts?" You go to slap your hand to your head, but he stops you just in time. "Don't make it any fucking worse." He rolls his eyes when you glare at him. The off season was so much easier. The need for contact between you both has steadily increased over the last month with the team returning. Daily meetings and progress reports on injuries old and new, the only saving grace is that he's stopped coming to you for his own recovery sessions.

"I'm going home."

"Let me drive you."

"I'd really rather you didn't. Look, I'll be fine. I'll get over it, I just need to do it in my own time." You don't wait for a response. You take your bag and leave him sitting on the treatment bench alone.

The first thing you do is fix the leak. It would be much easier if you were in the right frame of mind, which you're not, but you manage. There are no more spiders, but you end up soaked from the water left in the pipe which bursts out when you loosen rather than tighten the nut. You really don't know whether to laugh or cry from the calamity of it all. You're about to go for cry, but the doorbell goes and you're surprisingly unsurprised to see Roy. Again.

"You know, it would be a lot easier for me to get over whatever this," you motion between the two of you, "is, if you could just fuck off and leave me to it?"

"Can I come in?" You turn to let him in, looking expectantly for him to continue. His hand rubs his beard and up through his hair, cut shorter since the last time he was in your flat - the curls gone. "Fucksake. You act like this is easy for me."

"Well you make it seem like it is."

"It's not. It never fucking has been. Why do you think I kept coming back even though I knew, I knew it was a bad fucking idea?"

"You tell me? You're the one who walks out of here without a care in the world once you've got what you want?" A look of hurt flashed across his face, you knew it was a low blow, you had no idea why you'd even said it.

"Is that really what you think?" He asked quietly. You shook your head. "All this coaching job has done so far is make me fucking miserable."

"It's only been a couple of months. You'll figure it out."

"It's making me miserable because I lost you in the process. You said earlier that I shouldn't pretend to care, but I don't need to pretend. I do care. Too much, that's the fucking problem." He sighed heavily.

" We can't keep happening, you're my boss now."

"Well, I've been feeling like this a lot longer than I've been your fucking boss, and I don't regret any of it."

"Feeling what, exactly? Because if you're about to fuck up your future-"

"I love you." You close your eyes. Your head is pounding again.

"Roy, think about what you're doing -"

"Tell me you don't feel the same, and I'll go." You shake your head,

"I can't," you whisper. "I can't. I'm in love with you too." He crosses the room and cups your cheek, checking the bruise on your forehead again before he kisses you. You sigh into him, "What are we going to do?"

"I'm the boss. As long as I'm not fucking you in the treatment room, I think it'll be OK."

"That's a shame. Not even after hours?"

"Don't tempt me. Any objections to me waking you up every couple of hours to check you really don't have a concussion?"

"Depends how you plan to wake me?"

"I'm sure I'll think of something." He smiles, letting you lead him to the bedroom.

~~~~~~

FIN

#ted lasso #ted lasso fanfiction #ted lasso fic #roy kent #roy kent x reader #roy kent fanfiction #roy kent fic #roy kent fluff #roy kent smut #roy kent x you #roy kent imagine

390 notes · View notes

itwasntimethatdidit40 · 28 days ago

Text

Forget the horror here.

Pairing: Javier Peña x f!reader

Words count: 1445

Rating: Mature (but there’s only allusions to smut this time)

Warnings/Tags: Javi’s POV for Poison and Wine, Internal conflict, sad thoughts, mention of Javi’s work, sweet Javi, bad at feeling Javi, love bites my friends, sad ending.

A/N: Poison and Wine can be found here, I promised a second part from Javi’s pov and here we are. I hope you’ll like this.

Titles comes from one of the most beautiful gut wrenching song I’ve ever listen, Spanish Sahara by Foals.

Archive tags: @pedrostories ♥️

You are the easiest thing I deal with during the day. A relief, a safe haven to return to.

When I approached you for the first time I did it almost without thinking.

It had been a terrible day, I had lost half of my men in an ambush and that piece of shit had managed to escape again. The drug lord, may the devil take him.

I had entered the bar with an unbearable weight on my shoulders. I should be used to it but I'm afraid I never will. How could I get used to seeing death and destruction all around all day.

You were at the counter, you were wearing a dress that slid down your hips in an absolutely crazy way, you were breathtaking.

You were laughing, talking to the bartender.

I had nothing to lose, I ordered a tequila and spoke to you.

We chatted for a while, you seemed so spontaneous, confident, funny.

And you were beautiful, you have eyes that could stop time.

I felt almost clumsy in front of you.

Like a young boy.

A really weird feeling for someone like me, I usually just take what I want.

I've paid for sex several times, I'm certainly not a saint.

I'm not even a total asshole, so I tried to treat you with respect.

I'm sure you knew exactly what I was looking for so I didn't look for excuses, it would have seemed to me to offend your intelligence.

You are a smart, proud, free and independent woman. Fierce and incredibly charming. You smell like sugar and taste like heaven.

I figured it all out that night and it hit me hard.

That's how it started.

I was convinced that it could be a loophole, a distraction.

I ask you to see me to shake off the images of devastation that I have to face every day.

It's easy not to think of anything else being with you.

A glance is enough for you to understand what I need.

I would never tell you about my job, I can't and in any case it wouldn't be fair.

That's not what I want to do with you.

I don't want to talk.

I don't want to analyze anything.

I just want to let go and forget the rest.

There’s too much pressure on me and I feel liberated with you.

I always try to be cautious and watch my back for my own safety but most of all because I would never want to put you in danger. You have always lived here so you know well what the situation is like in your country. You are certainly not clueless and you have your own problems to take care of, you don't need mine.

I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.

I leave you in the dark about this but I hope you have understood it.

You did, right?

Sometimes I think you're too much for me, I don't deserve you.

You are disarming.

The way you melt under my hands drives me nuts.

The way we have sex is amazing, every time.

When I’m with you, I feel like I finally find peace.

Your skin is soft and warm, your neck so delicate, your lips turgid and delicious, your breasts beautifully designed to fill my hands, your legs toned and sensual, your sex wet and sweet under my tongue.

And your eyes.

Your eyes are so intense, deep, every time I stare at them I feel a fire burning inside.

I noticed how they try to discover me, to understand something more about me, some secret that I try to hide from myself too.

Every damn time I sink into you I feel like I've been pardoned by God or whoever for him.

I don't know how else to describe it.

We are in a shabby motel and you radiate beauty around even in a place like this.

I fucked you right away, without a word, it was one of the usual horrible days and I wanted to leave it completely behind.

I know I'm not an easy man.

My bad temper gives some problems even at work sometimes.

I wish I could be more serene, have a more stable life, be able to offer something more than sex.

I wish I could take you to dinner in a nice restaurant, give you flowers, make you feel like I care.

I would like to take your hands and tell you that you are the best thing that has happened to me in years.

I would like to tell you how much you are helping me.

I don't even know how I can think of certain things when the situation makes them impossible.

I became a sentimental fool.

Sometimes I feel like you want to ask for more and every time I hope you don’t.

I can't, you know I can't.

Should I put up with seeing the same look on Connie's face as she watches Steve leave without knowing if he'll return?

Yes, I am a coward when it comes to this, my courage is all absorbed in work, even though I often feel like it's all for nothing.

I run from one side of the city to the other in an attempt to achieve something, to at least partially solve the chaos, the fear, the guerrillas.

Every small victory pales into insignificance in the face of another death.

This place has a lot of hidden secrets, I can't imagine them all.

If I succeed in eliminating a small part of its evil, I know that there is still so much that it wouldn't take two lives to defeat it completely.

I feel like I will never be able to hold anything in my hands, like I will never get close to the end.

I only feel some kind of comfort when I'm inside you.

I've been with a lot of women but none has ever made me feel like you do.

I can't tell you that.

I can't risk it all.

I can't let you walk into my life any more than I already have.

What if I let myself be totally vulnerable? What if you lost me? What if I lost you?

I closed my eyes to make you think I was sleeping.

You were watching me, I could feel your eyes on me.

You looked away so I wouldn’t notice, but I know.

Damn it.

Please don't do that.

It crushes me.

I'm quickly getting attached to you and I feel it's the same for you.

I have to back off.

I have to be able to leave you out of all the crap that grips me.

From the horror that haunts me.

Your eyes are fixed on a point on the wall, seemingly careless.

I still feel your warmth, the taste of your skin, the sweetness of your body, your moans of pleasure.

You have a power over me that makes me restless, hungry, eager.

I reach out to stroke your arm and you give me a smile that hurts my soul.

God, you are so beautiful.

I would like to start all over again.

I would like to grab your waist with my arm and draw you back to me.

I can't get enough.

Every time I touch you, every time I kiss you, every time I hear your tongue dancing with mine, every time I bite your neck and feel your smile on my skin, every time I smell your fresh and flowery scent, every time I sense you tremble with pleasure, every time I hear you scream my name I hope it never ends.

I get up without saying anything.

It's time for me to leave.

I take my clothes from the chair, while I hate myself.

My fucking stubbornness, my fear of getting close to anyone for fear of hurting them, my obstinacy in living a lonely life.

I hate all this.

I have to live with it but it hurts like fucking hell.

I get dressed feeling like a bastard.

I just wish everything was different, easier, I wish I could have you every day.

I’m the fury in your bed.

One day I'll just be a ghost in the back of your head.

Tagging @aurorawritestoescape and @thundermartini that were both so kind and encouraging and enjoyed the first part of it ♥️

Thank you so much 🥰

#javier peña x reader #javier peña #javier peña x f!reader #javier pena fic #javier pena x you #javier pena fanfiction #javier pena x reader #javier pena narcos #pedro pascal

28 notes · View notes

darknight3904 · 8 months ago

Text

A preview to the third part to my gojo fic. Sorry, it took so long to get out.

"Hey wanna play a drinking game? We could all name the things we love about Satoru Gojo!" He suggests like he always does when alcohol is on the table

"No!" Everyone groans in unison.

"Thanks, Nanami." You huff as you slam the passenger side door, effectively trapping Gojo in the car

"Are you sure you'll be able to get him in the house by yourself?" Nanami asks, eyeing the drunk sorcerer who has his entire face pressed up against the window

"I'll be okay...I think. Megumi is at the house with Itadori, they're having a sleepover... Not sure why they couldn't just do that at the dorms. Anyway, I'll just have them help out if I need to." You say

"Alright. I'll see you later then. Goodnight." Nanami says

He's as polite as ever as he walks down the sidewalk to his own car. Somehow you swear Nanami came into the world with good manners and matching clothes on. Seriously, how do all of his outfits always look good?

"Who knew he was this heavy?" Itadori laughed as he supported Gojo's legs

"It's all those sweets he eats. He's probably secretly 900lbs or something." You groan, "Megumi are you even supporting your side?"

"Of course I am." He says, "Just walk faster, my arm is cramping"

It's an entire ordeal to get Gojo into the house. Megumi and Yuji help you toss him onto the couch before bidding you goodnight. You have a feeling they're just going to lock themselves in Megumi's room and watch horror movies for hours. But hey, what else would you do on a Friday night at 15?

"Nghhh."

Damn, you were hoping he was out for the night.

"Satoru?" You ask, crouching down to be eye level with him as he lays on his side on the couch

"Nanamin?" He asks

"Nope. Guess again." You smile

"Shoko?" He asks

"Wrong." You laugh

"I give up, tell me." He groans, his eyes remained closed as he lay there.

"It's your girlfriend." You say

"Suguru?"

Now you don't know if you should feel insulted or feel bad for him.

"Whatever. Let's get you out of your clothes and put something more comfortable on." You say, pulling his zip up off and reaching for the t-shirt he had underneath.

"Hey!" He suddenly gasps, shooting up so he's sitting upright

"What's wrong?" You ask, concerned

"I'm taken. Besides you can't just strip me without my consent. I'll call the police." He says, holding his hands across his chest like he was a woman, "No means no."

"Satoru, I'm the one you're dating. Now let's go put our pyjamas on." You say, maybe he could follow you so he could dress himself upstairs

"You want me to follow you after you just tried violating me! What kind of sick pervert are you?!" He asks, his hands remaining over his chest

"The sickest there is." You joke, "By the way you don't have boobs to cover up, stop sitting like that."

"I'm in a vulnerable situation!" He defends

You didn't have the energy to do this and drunk Satoru was driving you nuts,

"Right vulnerable..."You sigh before walking over to the bottom of the steps "Megumi! I need help with him!"

"Can I use a Shikigami this time?" The boy calls back

"Sure!" You say

A half second passes before Megumi and Itadori clamor down the steps to reappear in the living room to take in the "violated" 28-year-old manchild who remained set on remaining modest with his hands on his chest.

"Um...Zenin-san what's he doing?" Itadori asks

"He thinks he's got tits to hide or something." You sigh, too tired and a bit drunk to deal with all this.

"Rabbit escape," Megumi says, and before you know it the living room is filled with little white rabbits.

"Woah, Fushiguro these guys are super cute!" Itadori says, picking one of them up and petting it.

"Right? I was so excited when he showed them to me for the first time." You smile

"Carry him," Megumi says to the rabbits, ignoring the two of you.

The rabbits move in sync and surround Gojo before pushing him off the couch and onto their many backs so they can carry him up the steps.

"It's kind of like he's crowd surfing," Itadori observes

"Ha!" You laugh as you watch Satoru slowly make his way up the steps by rabbit back.

"Should they put him on the bed?" Megumi asked

You think about it for a moment. Drunk Satoru was always cuddly but he often vomited and you didn't want to clean that up.

"Just...leave him on the floor at the foot of our bed." You suggest

"Heh, like a puppy dog." Itadori laughs

The rest of this is out now. Check it out here.

My Masterlist

74 notes · View notes

buglyknight · 1 year ago

Text

501) Hyena

Got pulled over driving home from work

I hear the K9 barking as he stops

I watched him make a loop

Around the parking lot at work

Then he followed me

With his lights blaring I waited

Speeding only 5 over

That's normal, ain't it?

Well, he let me off quickly

Maybe it was the time of night

Found me sympathizing

That I was heading home

Maybe he saw my birth date

I don't know

Half-wanted him to shoot me

Angela was staying late so I

Stayed in her office

Spoke in a micky mouse and

Cockney accent

Angela was impressed before saying

'of course you can do a Mickey Mouse impression,

Why wouldn't you be able to?'

Trying to help Dena

Answer your fucking emails Dena!

I'm trying to help you!

We sent you the startup email!

Dena you got me in tatt'rs!

I'm gutted Dena!

Rome fell because they spoke Latin

It's a dead language, y'know

No wonder they didn't make it

They're all speaking Latin and not English!

Ridiculous!

Saying things like Post Meridiem time

No wonder they couldn't keep it together

And I joke that

I need these customers to love me

I love you, Dena, email me back!

And I joke that

From now on I don't need women to complete me

Death to all women!

And Angela says all I eat are nuts

Yeah, I don't eat much

Wait a second,

You callin' me gay, lady?

Just cuz I dated a dude once?

And I joke that there's no growth to be had

Going to be stuck in the same place

That I've been in for ten years

And we laugh

Romans are so stupid, huh

She tells me I should write skits

That I jump to conclusions like some women do

In a humorous way

I tell her I'll just waste my talents

Working tech support forever

Today, my brain is a livewire

Rapid-fire impulse mouth

Laughing at the stupid shit that comes out

Ridiculous!

Who needs water?

The only thing I drink is pussy

Up high, guy

Am I right?

(Me: body count of one)

Wanna see a cool vape trick?

I blow the smoke out of a straw

'wow, you look like you've perfected that'

Yeah I'm a bad boy

I sell vapes to high schoolers

Make myself rich

I wear leather jackets and ride motorcycles

I know, I'm pretty cool, I guess

Sara comes in and yells at me

For calling her beautiful and deleting it

"CAN I HELP YOU?"

So immediate after I sent it

Me and Angela are dying laughing

Sara sends me some mosquito emojis and deletes those

"WHAT DOES PULCHRITUDINOUS MEAN?"

I can't help but always think of you

I joke about someone giving their all for something

'yeah I tried to do that once.'

'For what?'

'Love.'

'Huge mistake. That's a trap.'

Yeah.

I'm trapped alright.

Again, I hope you're alright.

I wish I could share laughter with you

I love making people laugh

I just want to hear you laugh again

Your little Hyena giggle.

#writing #poetry #poem #spilled ink #twcpoetry #poeticstories

7 notes · View notes

breannastewart · 1 year ago

Note

stewie’s looked so upset the last few games! :( i feel bad

sorry I'm getting to this late. but I do have some thoughts on this

I don't think it's so much being fully upset, but I do think she's been frustrated. she's a very serious person out there, she's as locked in as they come. and while the big smiles and nice words have come after games and wins, that's expected, in game I think is more telling and she hasn't looked as... idk, pleased perhaps. she likes winning and she likes dominating but I don't think she expected to have to do it on her own as much as she has with this new york team. she was for sure the top option in seattle, but those teams were far more tight knit, willing to play their roles, etc. on those teams she was number one but it didn't ALWAYS have to be her, there were other options that could take that on in different ways. those really good seattle teams they were not flashy star studded stacked teams like all this superteam nonsense, but they were stacked in the right ways, right styles, right temperaments. new york? I don't really see it so far. you can have all the talent in the world you want on paper but that does not mean it's going to translate the way you think. people run through those guards like it's nothing. defense is nowhere to be seen when you should close a team out. and sure maybe sometimes sab gets hot and scores, but even the ones she gets hot in, not all of them have been easily closed out games. take that game against the fever before closing the first half. they couldn't finish that off when they should have at all. you've had sloot in post game after a loss being like it's our fault stewie doesn't get the ball enough in games like that. that's cool, but then you see her in a game later on looking dead at her while stewie's calling for the ball, and she looked to pass another way. that would drive me nuts honestly. JJ has been completely nonexistent to me and at some point it's gotta stop being about returning from injury, I just don't think she fits in this team or system. and more often than not in the end it has been on stewie to take over and finish a game off. as impressive as that second 40 point game was, there's no reason to be taken to the brink by the last place team when you're supposedly so stacked and you end up contributing like 40% of your teams scoring for the game, like... yikes. and I don't think they are stacked in the fundamentals or things that don't show up in a stat sheet. and it ends up falling on one player's shoulders like that, ie stewie's. all of that would be grating and frustrating frankly and I do think at times so far, she has been.

#we'll see what the second half holds but yeah #and that's just that on how it all makes me feel watching so far #breanna stewart #wnba #answered #anonymous

6 notes · View notes

halliescomut · 2 years ago

Text

Secret Crush on You Ep 7

Okay, it's a new day and we're back at it. I think I'll probably watch at least 2 eps. Looking for gifs for the last post I caught some definitely from this episode so....I'm excited.

-Opening credits note: they show like 6 adults in the cast (like not university students I know technically everyone on the show is an adult) and we've seen none of them so far I don't think. I'm curious who they are and how they're related to Nuea or Toh

-Poor Touch is so confused at why Nuea started being so cold to him. Like I bet if he said he likes Toh, the Touch would be like 'go for it dude.'

-Nuea being gruff with Toh is not going to help him.

-Toh just 'not noticing' the 3 fully grown humans wearing Easter bonnets behind the cart...😂😂

-Still with the unsafe driving. Nuea look at the damn road!!

- Does Prao really think she's gonna treat Jao that way??? (Google: How do I throw hands with a TV character?)

-That's right Som. Fuck 'em up!!!

-Oh this other bitch is about to get it too. These hands are rated E for everybody!!

-Oh yeah Sky!!! He's far nicer than I would have been. Talking to Daisy like that. 😠😠

-That one chick just frozen...idk what that's about, but it's crazy her friends just left her there.

-Now Toh punch Nuea in the dick 😂😂😂 Poor guy. Both of them honestly.

-Toh almost fully letting his crazy out. 😬 Nuea's gonna get wise dude.

-Oohhh Waterfall ...excellent ☺️

- Jao being so shy again.

-Nuea says....I don't want my friends lusting after you.

-Tell you what I'll take Touch if they're not gonna pair him off... dude's hot...and very nice.

-Fon and Kwan are so cute. I'm glad we're finally getting more of them.

-Whoopsie...Toh's wasted again 😂😂

-Prao needs to take a fuckin hint. Nuea is being very clear!! Jesus!! Oh you know you fucked around before, but now you're serious as soon as you realized Nuea was over you??? How about that's what happens when people figure out they deserve better.

-I mean, I don't love a nonconsensual kiss, but Toh stepping in when Prao tried to kiss Nuea against his will...I'll allow it. She deserves it.

-Their refusal to be offended by Prao is pissing her off so bad and I love it. 😂😂

-Nuea being mad because he wants kisses...so precious.

-Nuea is barely holding back after those kisses.

-Op...no I guess he's not holding back. 😳 Yes Toh I would also collapse to the floor. Relatable.

-I love Daisy's confidence. Be you babe.

-We love a soft montage. Excellent.

-🍌😂😂

-Toh's glasses are always so dirty. As a glasses wearer it's driving me nuts. Whether Seng really needs glasses or not, how is it not driving him crazy??

-Yes Sky!!! Don't let Jao get stuck in his insecurities.

- I love the feeding each other trope. It's always so cute.

-Well... it's cute til you accidentally feed someone an allergen. I'm glad it just apparently makes Toh narcoleptic and not anaphylactic.

-The cuddling!!!🥺🥺🥺🥰🥰🥰

-Excuse me...when did this become a WHORE HOUSE?!?!

-"Do you like it?" My dude, Toh is on the fucking EDGE right now. What do you think???

-🐸 voyeur

-Sun protection is very important. It's nice to see Jao showing some concern for Sky.

- I really can't tell if Touch is being nice or actively flirting with Toh. This is why I'm glad I'm Ace, I don't have to be able to figure out if someone's flirting.

-Ahhh so he is just being nice....

-And we're back to he waterfall ☺️

-He's really spelling it out for him this time thank CHRIST!!!

-Yes Toh!!!! Finally a real confession!!! But what is the second half of the season gonna be about??

#secret crush on you #nueatoh #billyseng #skyjao

4 notes · View notes

halothenthehorns · 2 years ago

Text

Chapter 7: EVERYBODY HATES ME BUT THE HORSE

"Oh I'm sure that's not true Percy," Alex told him in a completely unhelpful tone of voice as Jason read the new title. "Chiron's likely hacked off at you too for losing the game and fighting with Thalia."

"Thanks Alex," Percy resisted the urge to throw her from her chair on purpose this time. That surely wouldn't help the fact everyone in here probably hated him too for nearly killing them every five minutes.

The least the Oracle could've done was walk back to the attic by herself.

"No!" Will looked at him aghast. "The less she uses this midnight stroll ability, the better!"

"I didn't hear you volunteering to take her back up there!" Percy huffed.

Rachel was biting her lip to stop herself laughing at Will too just a bit. She was used to the Apollo cabin being overtly nice to her and always thought it was some connection to their dad, she'd never realized it was because they were just so relieved to have the last one gone.

Instead, Grover and I were elected to carry her. I didn't figure that was because we were the most popular.

"And here I was always a little upset I'd never gotten a yearbook before," Percy rolled his eyes, "now look at me, winning a whole competition!"

"I'm sure it's a great honor?" But Jason looked a little queasy too at the idea of this.

"Watch her head!" Grover warned as we went up the stairs. But it was too late.

Bonk! I whacked her mummified face against the trapdoor frame and dust flew.

"Cursed," Alex and Magnus said together.

"I was born cursed," Percy sighed. "I'm sure she can't do any worse to me."

"Let's just hope the curse isn't following you around giving you everyone's prophecies," Rachel mock shivered.

"Ah, man." I set her down and checked for damage. "Did I break anything?"

"I can't tell," Grover admitted.

We hauled her up and set her on her tripod stool, both of us huffing and sweating. Who knew a mummy could weigh so much?

"Be grateful she doesn't go around in a sarcophagus," Alex shrugged.

I assumed she wouldn't talk to me, and I was right. I was relieved when we finally got out of there and slammed the attic door shut.

"Well," Grover said, "that was gross."

I knew he was trying to keep things light for my sake, but I still felt really down. The whole camp would be mad at me for losing the game to the Hunters, and then there was the new prophecy from the Oracle. It was like the spirit of Delphi had gone out of her way to exclude me.

"That is exactly what happened," Alex agreed. "I'm sort of impressed."

"At least somebody is," Percy told her indulgently. If everybody in here did hate him too, they weren't acting like it.

She'd ignored my question and walked half a mile to talk to Zoe. And she'd said nothing, not even a hint, about Annabeth.

'She's alive, she's alive, she's a live...' Percy was starting to drive himself nuts he was repeating that over and over, but there was no other answer out there, apparently not even a magical one!

"What will Chiron do?" I asked Grover.

"I wish I knew." He looked wistfully out the second-floor window at the rolling hills covered in snow. "I want to be out there."

"Searching for Annabeth?"

He had a little trouble focusing on me. Then he blushed. "Oh, right. That too. Of course."

"Wow, I thought he and Annabeth were friends," Will seemed mildly offended. He knew life goals and ambitions were important of course, but he'd have still thought Grover would want to be looking for Annabeth more than Pan.

"Why?" I asked. "What were you thinking?"

He clopped his hooves uneasily. "Just something the manticore said, about the Great Stirring. I can't help but wonder... if all those ancient powers are waking up, maybe... maybe not all of them are evil."

"You mean Pan."

I felt kind of selfish, because I'd totally forgotten about Grover's life ambition.

"It's not that selfish," Thalia promised with a look of fond exasperation that was still quite strained on him, and possibly Grover. "Annabeth's been missing for days, Pan's been missing for thousands of years. We prioritize the warm cases before the cold ones."

"He did almost die for that quest last summer though," Jason shrugged, "I can see why he's still so invested."

The nature god had gone missing two thousand years ago. He was rumored to have died, but the satyrs didn't believe that. They were determined to find him. They'd been searching in vain for centuries, and Grover was convinced he'd be the one to succeed. This year, with Chiron putting all the satyrs on emergency duty to find half-bloods, Grover hadn't been able to continue his search. It must've been driving him nuts.

"Nuts and berries," Magnus echoed a little sullenly. Maybe if Grover did find Pan though he'd grant him a wish, like saving Annabeth!

"I've let the trail go cold," he said.

"You were kidnapped and nearly married to a cyclops," Nico corrected. "It was an understandable diversion."

"You are trying to replace me as Grover's best friend," Percy grinned at him. He couldn't think of a thing to say to him, at least that would have been something!

"Hardly," Nico muttered.

"I feel restless, like I'm missing something really important. He's out there somewhere. I can just feel it."

I didn't know what to say. I wanted to encourage him, but I didn't know how. My optimism had pretty much been trampled into the snow out there in the woods, along with our capture-the-flag hopes.

Will gave Percy a smile brimming with confidence though and said, "well the bright side to losing the game means the Hunters might be in a better mood now. Maybe they'll talk to Grover without slapping him?"

"Thanks you two, I'll hide you around the corner next time I need to cheer someone up," Percy gave a reluctant grin.

Before I could respond, Thalia tromped up the stairs. She was officially not talking to me now, but she looked at Grover and said, "Tell Percy to get his butt downstairs."

"A classic," Alex snorted.

"Better than shocking his eyebrows off," Magnus muttered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Did he say something?" Thalia asked Grover.

"Um, he asked why."

"Dionysus is calling a council of cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy," she said. "Unfortunately, that includes Percy."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't send Tyson in my place," Percy told her snidely.

She hesitated like she was still going to give him the same treatment now, but then gave a brave smile and snipped, "see, everyone comes up with the best ideas out of the moment." Mostly she was just stung for a spurn Percy couldn't even know. She didn't have any siblings to send in her place if she didn't want to deal with something.

The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room.

Jason looked as if he'd been stabbed in the gut and yet couldn't tear his eyes away from the carnage as he got to hear more of this strange setting.

Dionysus waved his hand and supplied snacks: Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine. Then Chiron reminded him that wine was against his restrictions and most of us were underage. Mr. D sighed. With a snap of his fingers the wine turned to Diet Coke. Nobody drank that either.

"It was diet!" Percy emphasized to some of their confused faces.

Mr. D and Chiron (in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoe and Bianca di Angelo (who had kind of become Zoe's personal assistant) took the other end.

Nico pushed his seething resentment aside hard to try and appreciate the moment Zoe was taking his sister under her wing...and turning her into a man hater who probably would have grown to loath him if she did survive. Gods this letting go shit was hard!

Will gave him an uneasy smile, clearly wishing he'd speak his mind, but Nico pressed his lips firmly together instead. Bianca was his businesses, and while he occasionally still got sympathetic looks from everyone, most often Percy, for her being mentioned, nobody had yet asked him how it was having a long distance sister for a huntress and he wasn't going to be talking about it any time soon since he wouldn't be able to avoid it in the near future!

Thalia and Grover and I sat along the right, and the other head councilors—Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers—sat on the left. The Ares kids were supposed to send a representative, too, but all of them had gotten broken limbs (accidentally) during capture the flag, courtesy of the Hunters.

"I'm pretty sure they actually bragged about that to their siblings when they got back," Will told them. "It's some kind of badge of honor in there to get the most injuries you can walk away from in a fight. They still argue about it though since the whole cabin wasn't there, but it's on record one of the highest broken limbs in any game."

"I'll sow them a patch," Thalia smirked.

They were resting up in the infirmary.

Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note.

"Wait, that was everyone?" Nico asked in surprise. "Why weren't you there?"

"I wasn't the head of the Apollo cabin at the time," he reminded with a very, very sad smile. He was busy in the infirmary, and Kayla had later said she didn't have the heart to go and sit around a table wondering who wasn't coming back. "Most of the cabins don't have year around campers for all the kids to get a voice." He couldn't help thinking how ironic it was Nico seemed surprised by this, since he'd never been at camp long enough to represent as head of his cabin. Bianca was unintentionally filing the roll now, marking the first and only time in camp's history they'd had a child from each of the big three there to direct a quest.

Will had a chipped tooth, Nico noticed, and there was something about the way he was being studied that made him want to blush. "Maybe I was watching the orientation film again," Will added cheekily.

"You're obsessed," but Nico found himself smiling back at this guys effortless good mood.

"This is pointless."

"Cheez Whiz!" Grover gasped.

"Not the rebuttal I would have used," Rachel grinned.

"Let's see if it got through to her," Jason chuckled.

He began scooping up crackers and Ping-Pong balls and spraying them with topping.

"There is no time for talk," Zoe continued. "Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately."

"And go where?" Chiron asked.

"West!" Bianca said.

"That is a very vague direction," Percy spoke from experience, "usually in no straight line."

"I'm sure you could write a book on your worldly advice," Thalia said grimly, and she was so distracted she seemed to miss the obvious about the literal book she could have been waving under his nose. If Percy was hacked off at her now, he was probably going to be royally pissed at the entire universe when he remembered he wasn't even supposed to go on this quest until he invited himself along.

I was amazed at how different she looked after just a few days with the Hunters. Her dark hair was braided like Zoe's now, so you could actually see her face. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, and her dark eyes vaguely reminded me of someone famous, but I couldn't think who.

"Lame!" Alex shouted, studying Nico's eyes now in hopes for a hint.

"He'll probably remember it after they tell us who their mortal parent is, typical," Magnus shrugged before looking curiously at Nico too. It actually made quite a bit of sense that a lot of demigods would have famous parents, those put on pedestals in society would be most likely to catch an immortals attention.

Nico quickly looked away from the both of them and tightened his jacket around himself, fighting back the urge to scream at all of them to buzz off. Their speculation was natural, but it didn't mean he liked being on trial. Jason mercifully kept reading instead of directly asking to his relief.

She looked like she'd been working out, and her skin glowed faintly, like the other Hunters, as if she'd been taking showers in liquid moonlight. "You heard the prophecy. Five shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get five hunters and go."

"Yes," Zoe agreed. "Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her."

"You're missing something, as usual," Thalia said. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No!" Zoe said. "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"You'd think somebody as old and wise as her would know better than to fight these things," Thalia still scoffed a bit at her stubbornness. They would have gotten on well if Zoe had lived.

"Your," Thalia grumbled. "Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times."

Zoe hesitated, like she was trying to form the word correctly. "Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

"So she went from Ye Old English to Southern Hick English?" Rachel chuckled as Jason, poorly, tried to imitate a drawl. "Poor thing has nothing on some of the dialects I've heard trying to imitate us." Her dads wide array of conference calls were occasionally fun to listen in on to mock at the very least.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Forget it."

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," Chiron said. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" Mr. D mused, swirling his Diet Coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet.

"What other interpretations are there?" Jason asked eagerly. "For once this one was pretty direct, I can't imagine a lot of surprises to come." He seemed to be missing the glaring detail some of those literal directions were two deaths and a vague point on a compass.

"You keep thinking that man," Percy looked at Jason strangely though, considering the last two had some pretty obvious twists at the end. Nico was glaring at the book too, as if just waiting for it to jump up and bite him, while Thalia was twirling her bracelet around. Percy swallowed and hoped he was wrong this time.

"One shall be lost. One shall perish. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"Mr. D," Chiron sighed, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

"I wasn't aware gods had to pick a side," Alex rolled her eyes. "They're on their own side, and he wants all of you dead."

"Dude," Percy groaned even if he did agree.

"Dudett!" Alex challenged back this time rather than waiting for him to correct himself.

Percy stared at her for a moment, before shrugging and saying, "yeah, sure, whatever."

Dionysus raised his eyebrows. "Sorry, my dear centaur. Just trying to be helpful."

"We're supposed to work together," Thalia said stubbornly. "I don't like it either, Zoe, but you know prophecies. You want to fight against one?"

Zoe grimaced, but I could tell Thalia had scored a point.

"My one and only," Thalia agreed with mock pride.

"We must not delay," Chiron warned. "Today is Sunday. This very Friday, December twenty-first, is the winter solstice."

"Oh, joy," Dionysus muttered. "Another dull annual meeting."

"Don't let him lie, it's his favorite time of year for getting to leave, hence the cheez whiz," Will shrugged.

"Artemis must be present at the solstice," Zoe said. "She has been one of the most vocal on the council arguing for action against Kronos's minions. If she is absent, the gods will decide nothing. We will lose another year of war preparations."

Jason still looked a little tongue tied reading that like he struggled more with the concept of the gods as bickering idiots than he did half of the monsters. He still slipped up and stuttered over the Greek names and more than anything, even appreciating greatly Diana seemed odd but not as backwards as the rest of them, Jupiter himself wasn't leading these war preparations.

He kept plowing on though, stubbornly determined to finish what they'd started and not pass up on his killer headache just to read like everybody else managed.

"Are you suggesting that the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" Dionysus asked.

"Yes, Lord Dionysus."

Mr. D nodded. "Just checking. You're right, of course. Carry on."

"Jeez, you weren't kidding about his good mood," Percy said to Will, frowning why she didn't get the glowing eyes of doom even if he did agree too.

"I must agree with Zoe," said Chiron. "Artemis's presence at the winter council is critical. We have only a week to find her. And possibly even more important: to locate the monster she was hunting.

"I don't see how that's more important," Magnus grumbled, trying not to look at Jason with betrayal just because he read it. "If the Goddess of the Hunt couldn't find the thing before getting caught, we focus on her first, then the killer beast."

"If the beast kills all the Olympians first than none of the gods will be anybody's problem," Jason said practically, clearly agreeing with what he read anyways.

"They need to get to Annabeth and Luke first," Magnus insisted, "find out what their master plan is, not just stumble around looking for it."

"You think he'll just tell now because he was caught?" Jason said in a very practical way, but it still sounded condescending to Magnus's ears. "They should circumvent around what they're being forced into, not walk into the obvious trap. Going looking for the monster first-"

"Hey!" Percy and Thalia said together to break up the growing tension as Magnus still opened his mouth with a familiar, only to them, stubborn Wise Girl comment.

Thalia continued earnestly, "I wasn't lying to Oceanus, we do enjoy your insights, but this did already happen," she gestured at Percy who now had a seemingly permanent gray tone to his skin as he struggled against the headache of who was right and what they did do. "Arguing about our past won't help us get out of here."

Jason and Magnus sat back to let it go, while Alex looked a little disappointed at them being cut off. She liked seeing Magnus this passionate.

Now, we must decide who goes on this quest."

"Three and two," I said.

Everybody looked at me. Thalia even forgot to ignore me.

"I swear you could annoy the god of peace into not ignoring you," Thalia brushed off, "it's no major accomplishment."

"Five seconds," Rachel mock stopped a stopwatch. "It took you two five seconds to go from agreeing to snapping at each other again."

"Not even close to our record," Percy shrugged.

"We're supposed to have five," I said, feeling self-conscious.

Oddly enough, not a first for him, Nico was smiling to himself he wasn't surprised anymore Percy wasn't leading the meeting and dishing out orders how to save everybody.

"Three Hunters, two from Camp Half-Blood. That's more than fair."

Thalia and Zoe exchanged looks.

"Well," Thalia said. "It does make sense."

Percy grinned at her she was now actually agreeing with him, but she only smiled faintly back. She already knew which five were supposed to go wasn't going to sit well with him.

Zoe grunted. "I would prefer to take all the Hunters. We will need strength of numbers."

"She's just fighting this every step along the way," Will said in exasperation.

"It's a miracle she's even waiting around anymore rather than sneaking off to do this herself," Thalia agreed. Without Artemis's last request for them to remain at camp, Zoe likely would have been doing exactly that.

"You'll be retracing the goddess's path," Chiron reminded her. "Moving quickly. No doubt Artemis tracked the scent of this rare monster, whatever it is, as she moved west. You will have to do the same. The prophecy was clear: The bane of Olympus shows the trail. What would your mistress say? 'Too many Hunters spoil the scent.' A small group is best."

Zoe picked up a Ping-Pong paddle and studied it like she was deciding who she wanted to whack first.

"I vote herself," Alex offered, "you can't guarantee how good a weapon is without first hand experience."

"Please tell me you've never tried to cut off your own hand?" Magnus asked.

"Nah, but it is a very sharp wire, that I have tested," she grinned. Magnus decided he didn't want to know.

"This monster—the bane of Olympus. I have hunted at Lady Artemis's side for many years, yet I have no idea what this beast might be."

Everybody looked at Dionysus, I guess because he was the only god present and gods are supposed to know things.

"Are they?" Rachel gave a bemused smile. "I can't get a straight answer out of Apollo when Elvis died, I'm not sure I expect them to know everything."

"I swear he was just there to watch us argue, he missed his family," Percy rolled his eyes.

He was flipping through a wine magazine, but when everyone got silent he glanced up, "Well, don't look at me. I'm a young god, remember? I don't keep track of all those ancient monsters and dusty titans. They make for terrible party conversation."

"So when are you supposed to discuss politics and religion exactly?" Nico asked with a faint smile. "Not at party's, not at dinner?"

"It doesn't sound like it would make great pillow talk either," Alex nodded seriously. "I think it should be reserved for rallies when everyone's shouting at each other."

"I can't tell how much you're joking, but I do know now isn't that time," Thalia sighed.

"Chiron," I said, "you don't have any ideas about the monster?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "I have several ideas, none of them good. And none of them quite make sense. Typhon,

A horrible pain erupted in Percy's mind, causing him to twitch uncomfortably. He had a really bad feeling about that name.

for instance, could fit this description. He was truly a bane of Olympus. Or the sea monster Keto.* But if either of these were stirring, we would know it. They are ocean monsters the size of skyscrapers. Your father, Poseidon, would already have sounded the alarm. I fear this monster may be more elusive. Perhaps even more powerful."

There was a heavy current around the room, and for once it wasn't from Percy. It was now twice mentioned that things should have been stirring down in Poseidon's domain, and the god of the seas truly seemed stretched thin keeping it all in order. Even Thalia, Will, and Nico weren't entirely sure what they were doing down here now that could lean towards any good news.

"That's some serious danger you're facing," Connor Stoll said. (I liked how he said you and not we.)

"Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that," Will grinned.

"It sounds like at least two of the five are going to die."

Nico couldn't decide in that moment if he wanted Percy to glance at Bianca, to notice if she was upset or dismissive of that. She shouldn't have gone, she was to new, she was just trying to impress the Hunters... How she'd even gotten herself onto this quest was a question he'd never thought about long enough to wonder on. It was like ripping claw's out of his chest even trying.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain," Beckendorf said. "If I were you, I'd stay out of the desert."

Jason gave an uneasy laugh as he tried to pull up a map of the US in his mind, but it wasn't very accurate he was sure. Places, locations, he was sure there were giant blurry patch's all over, but he was confident enough to say, "it's not exactly as if you're going to get a choice if you're following a specific trail, but if you stay to the north you might have a better chance."

"Define land without rain though," Alex reminded. "Under the ocean could technically be a land without rain, any location that's gone more than a few days could be a land without rain. It's the dead of winter, half the continent could be a land without rain while it's snowing."

Will watched Nico take a shuddering breath and shift something around in his pocket. Gods he wanted to just ask what he was thinking, but he seemed to be taking their speculation in stride. At least, it wasn't making him feel worse as far as he could tell, or he was so lost in thought he wasn't paying attention.

There was a muttering of agreement.

"And the Titan's curse must one withstand," Silena said. "What could that mean?"

"Even in a group, there's a leader of the quest," Jason said confidently. "It's likely only one of the five will have the answer."

"Maybe not even one of them, it could be Annabeth or Artemis, anybody associated with the quest," Magnus stubbornly reminded.

Jason nodded peacefully to that, he wished there was somebody around that was known to interpret prophecies. He again glanced at Will and away, there really was something about him that should be clicking in his mind.

I saw Chiron and Zoe exchange a nervous look, but whatever they were thinking, they didn't share it.

"Typical," all eight of them muttered.

"If anybody actually spoke what was on their mind without prying it out of them, save for Percy, these books would end in half the time!" Alex groaned.

"And Chiron is the worst," Percy agreed.

"One shall perish by a parent's hand," Grover said in between bites of Cheez Whiz and Ping-Pong balls. "How is that possible? Whose parent would kill them?"

There was heavy silence around the table.

"I think the easier question would be who's parent would save them," Alex whispered morbidly. She watched as Magnus winced, the fact that he had no clue about his godly parentage was probably driving him nuts. Jason was in the same boat and tracing the lines of his tattoo with a familiar look of frustration.

Even Percy wasn't immune to this, because his mortal mother was the only answer to her question.

I glanced at Thalia and wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was. Years ago, Chiron had had a prophecy about the next child of the Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades—who turned sixteen. Supposedly, that kid would make a decision that would save or destroy the gods forever. Because of that, the Big Three had taken an oath after World War II not to have any more kids. But Thalia and I had been born anyway, and now we were both getting close to sixteen.

I remembered a conversation I'd had last year with Annabeth. I'd asked her, if I was so potentially dangerous, why the gods didn't just kill me.

Some of the gods would like to kill you, she'd said. But they're afraid of offending Poseidon.

Could an Olympian parent turn against his half-blood child? Would it sometimes be easier just to let them die?

Thalia could have answered that one from experience, and the resigned sigh that passed her lips was the answer.

If there were ever any half-bloods who needed to worry about that, it was Thalia and me. I wondered if maybe I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie for Father's Day after all.

Rachel at least still got a laugh out of Percy's random sense of humor.

"There will be deaths," Chiron decided. "That much we know."

"Oh, goody!" Dionysus said.

Nico began mentally imagining melting his Wine Dude figurine next. He'd definitely hunt down his card again just to rip it in half at minimum.

Everyone looked at him. He glanced up innocently from the pages of Wine Connoisseur magazine. "Ah, pinot noir is making a comeback. Don't mind me."

"If we could we would," Percy assured.

"Percy is right," Silena Beauregard said. "Two campers should go."

"Yeah, the gods enthusiasm of this aside," Jason muttered.

"Oh, I see," Zoe said sarcastically. "And I suppose you wish to volunteer?"

Silena blushed. "I'm not going anywhere with the Hunters. Don't look at me!"

"A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at," Zoe scoffed. "What would thy mother say?"

"Learn to pick your battles?" Will offered without hope.

"Only if you get her good side," Nico corrected with an eye roll.

Silena started to get out of her chair, but the Stoll brothers pulled her back.

"Stop it," Beckendorf said. He was a big guy with a bigger voice. He didn't talk much, but when he did, people tended to listen.

Percy felt a funny feeling in his mind trying to connect some dots there, but he couldn't imagine what.

"Let's start with the Hunters. Which three of you will go?"

Zoe stood. "I shall go, of course, and I will take Phoebe. She is our best tracker."

"The big girl who likes to hit people on the head?" Travis Stoll asked cautiously.

"Don't we all?" Percy asked innocently as if he had no idea where this was going. For once he had a pretty good guess though that didn't resort in a headache for future knowledge, but prior.

Zoe nodded.

"The one who put the arrows in my helmet?" Connor added.

"Yes," Zoe snapped. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Travis said. "Just that we have a T-shirt for her from the camp store." He held up a big silver T-shirt that said ARTEMIS THE MOON GODDESS, FALL HUNTING TOUR 2002, with a huge list of national parks and stuff underneath. "It's a collector's item. She was admiring it. You want to give it to her?"

"Well Phoebe's going to die," Magnus sighed.

"Nah, they've never killed anyone," Will tried to reassure, but hesitated a moment to long and reluctantly added, "um, I think."

I knew the Stolls were up to something. They always were. But I guess Zoe didn't know them as well as I did. She just sighed and took the T-shirt.

"And Chiron didn't stop this!" Magnus yelped.

"Learn to pick your battles," Will repeated in exhaustion. "If the shirt explodes, it'll mostly likely be on the bus."

"Remind me later Will, we might need to work on your encouraging speeches," Thalia sighed.

"There's no help to be given when it comes to them," Will shrugged.

"As I was saying, I will take Phoebe. And I wish Bianca to go."

Nico had gripped the hilt of his sword and was moving before the third syllable had left her name before Will grabbed him and pulled him back down.

"You'll regret it later if you stab Jason while spearing that book," Will promised him, his hand still warmly encircling his wrist.

Nico decided he had to trust him on that right now because it didn't feel like it...but at least Bianca hadn't volunteered.

No, he'd have rather she did! That she'd wanted to do this, to prove herself, not be told to do it by the upstart who'd dragged her into this in the first place!

Will was rubbing soothing circles into the back of his wrist though and it was finally distracting enough he jerked his arm away and muttered, "fine." Unbeknownst to Nico, the shadows on the wall stopped shifting about, but mercifully nobody had realized it was him again. They were all looking at the ceiling and the door for the culprit of Oceanus popping up again. Jason wasn't even looking at him in anger or fear for his life being threatened as he casually went back to reading. Why Nico wouldn't want his sister on this quest wasn't hard to guess. If he'd had a sister, he'd be worried about her going off on this dangerous mission too.

Bianca looked stunned. "Me? But... I'm so new. I wouldn't be any good."

"You will do fine," Zoe insisted. "There is no better way to prove thyself."

Thalia watched miserably as Nico shook his head furiously as if to chase the words away. She couldn't claim she'd have made the same call, she wouldn't speak for Zoe's motives if she could. She knew how badly this was hurting Nico though, and she couldn't say anything to him. She'd lost her little brother to the unknown, but she had asked and begged and demanded from every deity until she couldn't feel anymore what had happened to him. Nico had vanished when they'd returned, gods knew what he felt about his sister never coming back. He wasn't giving much away now except a lot of anger.

Bianca closed her mouth. I felt kind of sorry for her. I remembered my first quest when I was twelve. I had felt totally unprepared. A little honored, maybe, but a lot resentful and plenty scared. I figured the same things were running around in Bianca's head right now.

"And for campers?" Chiron asked. His eyes met mine, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Me!" Grover stood up so fast he bumped the Ping-Pong table. He brushed cracker crumbs and Ping-Pong ball scraps off his lap. "Anything to help Artemis!"

Zoe wrinkled her nose. "I think not, satyr. You are not even a half-blood."

"Is she going to protest every person there?" Alex asked in exhaustion. "She shouldn't even get a say, who put her in charge here?"

"Herself," Thalia reminded with a very understanding grin. She had a tendency to take lead in all groups too. "Chiron won't let her dictate the meeting," she promised, otherwise Zoe wouldn't have sat down in the first place.

"But he is a camper," Thalia said. "And he's got a satyr's senses and woodland magic. Can you play a tracker's song yet, Grover?"

"Absolutely!"

Zoe wavered. I didn't know what a tracker's song was, but apparently Zoe thought it was a good thing.

"Very well," Zoe said. "And the second camper?"

"I'll go." Thalia stood and looked around, daring anyone to question her.

Now, okay, maybe my math skills weren't the best, but it suddenly occurred to me that we'd reached the number five, and I wasn't in the group.

"Slow clap for you pal," Jason smirked.

"I will break your fingers if you try," Percy scowled not at him though, his sea green eyes locked on her suddenly averted blue ones on the floor.

"Whoa, wait a sec," I said. "I want to go too."

Thalia said nothing. Chiron was still studying me, his eyes sad.

"Oh," Grover said, suddenly aware of the problem. "Whoa, yeah, I forgot! Percy has to go. I didn't mean... I'll stay. Percy should go in my place."

Percy kept forcing himself to breathe through his tight chest as he strained his neck to look at the book and back to her. This wasn't right, and she knew it. He wouldn't be happy going on this quest without Grover, but if that was how it had to be...

"He cannot," Zoe said. "He is a boy. I won't have Hunters traveling with a boy."

"You traveled here with me," I reminded her.

"That was a short-term emergency, and it was ordered by the goddess. I will not go across country and fight many dangers in the company of a boy."

"What about Grover?" I demanded.

Zoe shook her head. "He does not count. He's a satyr. He is not technically a boy."

"Hey!" Grover protested.

"I have to go," I said. "I need to be on this quest."

"Why?" Zoe asked. "Because of thy friend Annabeth?"

Yes. Was that so awful of him!? He'd already been denied his own quest, by that useless God and the Oracle herself, no way was he going to sit aside and pass this up!

I felt myself blushing. I hated that everyone was looking at me. "No! I mean, partly. I just feel like I'm supposed to go!"

Nobody rose to my defense. Mr. D looked bored, still reading his magazine. Silena, the Stoll brothers, and Beckendorf were staring at the table.

A torrent of water surged through the room and created a new crack on the ceiling at the betrayal trying to rise fast in his throat, that his friends whom he'd known before Thalia even fell out of that tree wouldn't even side with him over this, but he forced it away and locked himself on the book not to impact anything again as the water steadied around them.

Chiron then, Chiron must see he was the best bet to go!

Bianca gave me a look of pity.

"No," Zoe said flatly. "I insist upon this. I will take a satyr if I must, but not a male hero."

Chiron sighed. "The quest is for Artemis. The Hunters should be allowed to approve their companions."

Percy couldn't stop himself this time and whipped around to look at Thalia so fast she flew out of her seat by the force of the ocean, sprawling on the floor as Percy slowly, carefully unclenched his hands from fists but didn't apologize. Jason kept reading rapidly, a reminder the words were their only way out of this. Percy could barely hear him through the buzzing of his ears as he waited for Thalia in the book to say she'd back out then, force Zoe into no other choice.

Thalia sat up slowly, brushing her dripping hair out of her face as she watched her friends glower carefully.

My ears were ringing as I sat down. I knew Grover and some of the others were looking at me sympathetically, but I couldn't meet their eyes. I just sat there as Chiron concluded the council.

"So be it," he said. "Thalia and Grover will accompany Zoe, Bianca, and Phoebe. You shall leave at first light. And may the gods"—he glanced at Dionysus—"present company included, we hope—be with you."

Percy closed his eyes gently, trying to reach out for his father again as he prayed for guidance, 'please let her be alright.'

Nothing. No sense of warmth, no presence other than the icy cold depths of the ocean around them. He didn't know what he'd done to gain his dad's attention before but wish for Gabe's death, but he wasn't going to do that now as he slowly looked back at Thalia and tried to say as calmly as possible, "You couldn't just let me have this?"

"What was I supposed to do Percy, hide you under my jacket?" Thalia clearly still thought him nothing but an idiot as she stubbornly refused to see any other answer. She crossed her arms but remained on the floor, eyeing her chair in case it came pelting towards her more than looking at him.

"You could have opted out, like my friend offered to do!" Percy missed Grover like a physical ache, but even his best friend had more value on this quest than just some boy.

"Zoe never would have let you come! I had to be there, you of all people should have understood that!" She was trying so hard to reason with him, but it was doing no good, they could all tell he was only getting angrier as his hands spasmed in frustration, but he was valiantly still keeping a lid on it not to drown her, or them all.

"Right, because you should always get first picking on a quest and I get left behind! Sent back to my mother!" It was petty, and just mean to throw that around, but he was tired of them all looking at him with envy because he had a home to go back to when Annabeth was out there, perhaps not even knowing he knew she was alive, that he wanted more than anything to be looking for her.

"I had no where else to go! Back to a school where I was flunking every class, getting attacked every weekend, had no one else? Stay at camp alone? Chiron's my friend, but he's not- she was my only family!" Thalia lost her own fight and shouted back now, slamming her fist on the floor, a crackle of electricity arched only between her fingers and linked several plankton into a dead sparkling trail as they floated to the floor around her when she slowly drew her fist back.

Deep down, Percy knew she was right, he didn't hate her, but he couldn't look at her right now as he stormed out, every muscle tensed. He felt someone move behind him and snapped, "I need a sec, alone!"

...

Percy stood on the terrace over looking the dark ocean beyond. It was a circular walkway, crumbling even before the cracks they'd added in the domed ceiling behind him as he paced the length, a pathetic resemblance of intricate iron bars mostly vanished with time. He'd tried willing himself just an inch off the ground from every pebble of this place and it was doing him no good. He could not leave.

He'd known that when he came up here, and still he blamed himself.

He could remember a lot from his past now, little things that had been trickling in over the past few days. His mom's teary eyed smile when he brought home his first assignment with a C+. A few years later, her proud promise he'd keep getting better when he cried all night because he failed a test he'd really tried to study for, before Gabe called her off to do some cooking.

He remembered riding Pegasus at camp and training with all the cabins, Chiron continuing his teachings about Latin when he could hold his attention, and Annabeth.

Her architecture books, a scar she had on her foot from her first archery practice, brushing out her hair in the sunshine. She taught him how to bake a pie, and he went home that semester to do it for his mom, bringing that tearful, joyful smile to her face once more he so rarely saw. Annabeth was so patient with him studying no matter how many times he got the answer wrong. She still sometimes stepped on his face when they climbed the lava wall together, and he was pretty sure it was on purpose at least half the time as she giggled from the top and reached a hand down for her eleventh win in a row.

Moments, memories he was to young to understand why he clung to them so dearly now in fear they'd slip away again.

His harsh pacing increased, he was creating more cracks on the walkway from how hard he stomped every step as he looked on into the darkness. Watching the disformed sea life, the plankton, but nothing. Not another soul for miles. He knew he should go back in there, apologize to Thalia because this wasn't her fault, but the idea of just sitting there knowing he was useless on this quest, of all quests, was going to send him into a frenzy state.

Nobody came up though.

If it was a Titan's plan to make him weak, hateful to the gods for never seeming to get anything right, it was starting to work. If Zeus had just believed him when he was eleven, Luke might have been destroyed by now!

If the plan was to make him hate this strange group of kids, his friends, it wasn't. Percy knew if he sat up here for a week they would respect the space he'd asked for.

It would get him no closer to an answer though.

Thalia was his friend, he respected the hell out of her in just the few, short months he'd come to know her for all she'd been through. Bickering over the campfire together how to make the perfect s'more while Annabeth sat between them laughing. Whispering during practice of all the techniques they couldn't use on anybody but each other, they were the only swordsmen at camp who could match each other. Then getting in the ring and having it out, laughing off every bump, bruise, and scrape. She got a quiet, haunted look in her eyes when she gazed at her tree to long and went still. Sometimes he remembered those dark days of his first time at camp thinking his mother was dead, only to shake it off and see her watching him with a knowing, sad smile.

Gods Annabeth had been right about them.

...

Magnus was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs with a bag of blue candy.

He was sitting on the bottom step, his blonde hair and hunched over profile as miserable as Percy felt as he offered the bag. Percy's mind glimmered a taunting image of Annabeth, alone and dying under a pile of rubble as he slumped down beside him. 'She's alive, she's alive, she's alive...'

And Thalia would get her back, even if he couldn't.

"Thanks," Percy sighed as he took it, popping three different shades of blue jellybeans into his mouth at once. "Sorry, I really needed that break."

"I know you're angry at her, I kind of am too," Magnus nodded as he dug around for a blue piece of chocolate. The idea Percy was only going to keep up with what they were doing on the quest in fragments of nightmares terrified him, what else was going to be covered in this book in the meantime would be just as trivial and frustrating to them all. "Just, wanted to know if you had anything else you needed to get off your chest before we keep going. She doesn't expect you to come back not angry at her, but still."

"I don't think poor Jason's innocent ears should hear the cursing I want to remind him of on her," Percy glibly answered around another mouthful of sweets. He took his time chewing, then swallowing before saying again, "thanks, but I kind of did say it. I know it's not true now, not the way she's been my friend since I woke up down here, but when I look at her all I think of is how perfect she acted. Annabeth never shut up about her, now she might be going to join the hunt with her savior all those years ago? Chiron expected her to be the child of the prophecy, and I'm kind of relieved about it, but also I sort of suspect she came up with the perfect solution and I just got dropped at the of bottom the ocean to be forgotten about. Maybe Poseidon's using this as some kind of do-over? I sound crazy."

"No, you don't," Magnus promised. "Trust me, I've met people who literally pass the crazy test. You sound like a really confused guy who's trying to get your memory back one word at a time like some cosmic joke."

Percy watched his gray eyes for a moment, as something bubbled on his tongue he only could have said to her, had she been here. It still felt rotten to say to him, of all people. "I'm making myself finish this for my mom, I have to get back to her, but Annabeth too. Just to know she's alive, okay out there somewhere as more than a feeling."

He'd expected the sadness to creep over Magnus again and still felt the guilt full force when it did. He almost hoped Annabeth's cousin would tell him the unspoken hurt he'd been carrying around in here the entire time.

He didn't, just dug out a blue cookie and munched on it until Percy got back up and Magnus rose with him.

Percy flopped down without invitation between Rachel and Thalia once more, with a sheepish look at the dark haired girl. "Sorry, for taking that out on you. Again."

"Wasn't the first, probably won't be the last," Thalia shrugged with an already forgiving grin, and a punch on his shoulder that probably had a little more zap to it than any other friend would get. "Honestly Percy, I'd have probably just killed you if you tried to go on this quest without me, so," she shrugged in a 'what can you do' way.

He wondered if that whole immortal thing is what gave her such patience, but hoped it was that they didn't want to kill each other by the end of this quest. Either way, he waved for Jason to keep reading again to get to something he could look forward to.

I didn't show up for dinner that night, which was a mistake, because Chiron and Grover came looking for me.

"You're lucky Percy," Rachel told him gently as he sat crumpling and tearing at an empty bag in his hand without any hint of going to get seconds. "I know it doesn't feel that way right now, but not everybody does hate you."

"Yeah," he agreed, but it didn't make his frustration any less when Thalia winced. He knew what she wasn't volunteering, her preparation for this quest. Something else he'd barely gotten his first two times. Somehow she'd gotten more notice than he'd ever gotten and had probably packed the perfect solution to everything they stumbled across.

He shook off the begrudging thoughts though and elbowed her. "I bet you never get advice from a pink poodle or get to ride Rainbow."

"If we start comparing quests we're going to be here for a long time," Thalia chuckled, resisting the urge to brag about her kill of the five Daemones of Ceramici by herself.

"Percy, I'm so sorry!" Grover said, sitting next to me on the bunk. "I didn't know they'd—that you'd—Honest!"

He started to sniffle, and I figured if I didn't cheer him up he'd either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset.

"Grover's not a horse, so I don't think everyone hates you right now," Alex helpfully reminded too.

"He's the one being the least like a jackass around there," Percy agreed, though he was sitting there waiting for it now. For Chiron to tell him what that look during the meeting meant, and he wasn't going to like it.

"It's okay," I lied. "Really. It's fine."

Grover's lower lip trembled. "I wasn't even thinking... I was so focused on helping Artemis. But I promise, I'll look everywhere for Annabeth. If I can find her, I will."

I nodded and tried to ignore the big crater that was opening in my chest.

"That damn tracking song better be something special," Percy scowled, not understanding Thalia's odd snort.

"Grover," Chiron said, "perhaps you'd let me have a word with Percy?"

"Sure," he sniffled.

Chiron waited.

"Oh," Grover said. "You mean alone.

"People usually reserve single words for group efforts, Grover's mistake is understandable," Alex smirked.

Sure, Chiron." He looked at me miserably. "See? Nobody needs a goat."

He trotted out the door, blowing his nose on his sleeve.

"He needs a hug," Will sighed.

"He needs a box of tissues," Jason said more critically, "is that what they eat for comfort food?"

"Credit for trying," Will chuckled.

Chiron sighed and knelt on his horse legs. "Percy, I don't pretend to understand prophecies."

"Yeah," I said. "Well, maybe that's because they don't make any sense."

Chiron gazed at the saltwater spring gurgling in the corner of the room. "Thalia would not have been my first choice to go on this quest. She's too impetuous. She acts without thinking. She is too sure of herself."

"Wow," Thalia mock pressed her hand to her heart, but the smile tugging at her lips meant she was aware of all those traits.

"Would you have chosen me?"

"Frankly, no," he said. "You and Thalia are much alike."

They exchanged indulgent smiles now and even shrugged at the same time. Another unmistakable trait of theirs, moods shifting fast enough they could ease in and out of the flow as needed from wanting to kill each other to laughing it off. Nico still sort of admired them both for that, even if it made him feel like an alien again for somehow never being anything like them.

"Thanks a lot."

He smiled. "The difference is that you are less sure of yourself than Thalia. That could be good or bad. But one thing I can say: both of you together would be a dangerous thing."

"We could handle it."

"The way you handled it at the creek tonight?"

I didn't answer. He'd nailed me.

Alex mock raised a bow and arrow to emphasis the point while the two exchanged sheepish looks at each other for that.

"Perhaps it is for the best," Chiron mused. "You can go home to your mother for the holidays. If we need you, we can call."

"Yeah," I said. "Maybe."

I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and set it on my nightstand. It didn't seem that I'd be using it for anything but writing Christmas cards.

"I'm just imagining you going around plucking cards off the end of your sword as your signature now," Jason informed him.

"Better than any Christmas gift I could think up," Percy admitted. Annabeth would probably laugh at him if he found an old cigarette lighter to flick on for her underwater. Somehow she'd kept the cool souvenir from their first quest. Maybe he could go steal her a Waterland T-Shirt?...like that would make her want to stop from joining the hunt if she survived.

When he saw the pen, Chiron grimaced. "It's no wonder Zoe doesn't want you along, I suppose. Not while you're carrying that particular weapon."

Percy smiled at the wide arrange of 'huh's,' and 'what's' and Alex verbally complaining already she doubted Chiron would explain himself for what that could mean. At least he wasn't always the one in the dark.

Only Thalia, as usual, bit her lip and looked away indicating she knew what was up with this particular weapon, but he gave her a poke with the pen now and laughed off, "don't tell me I've finally found a Hunter's secret weapon, their penmenship!"

Thalia groaned entirely authentic for the awful pun but mock-swiped it away as Percy easily switched it behind his back. "You're handwriting would send anyone insane!"

I didn't understand what he meant. Then I remembered something he'd told me a long time ago, when he first gave me the magic sword: It has a long and tragic history, which we need not go into.

"Did I not say that would come back and bite you in the ass!" Alex said in exasperation.

"I said that," Magnus corrected.

"Yeah, but I agreed," she shrugged.

"You did not," Magnus was not blushing faintly he remembered in vivid detail every time Alex had spoken to him in here.

"I was thinking it," she assured.

Jason gave a resounding sigh and kept reading loudly over them. It really was a mystery how they were ever going to finish these.

I wanted to ask him about that, but then he pulled a golden drachma from his saddlebag and tossed it to me. "Call your mother, Percy. Let her know you're coming home in the morning. And, ah, for what it's worth... I almost volunteered for this quest myself. I would have gone, if not for the last line."

This answer, at least, they knew. It wasn't an easily forgettable detail Percy's teacher's father was the enemy. Chiron would basically be volunteering himself for slaughter if he went on this quest with that line hanging around, and yet Percy and Thalia exchanged disappointed looks. If he'd insisted on going with Grover, Zoe would have likely, if just as reluctantly, accepted that.

And they both would have snuck out. It wasn't even a question to them as they tore their troubled looks away back to the book. If one was pissed at the other for being left behind, they never would have accepted co-captaincy of sitting around camp just waiting for Chiron to get back!

"One shall perish by a parent's hand. Yeah."

I didn't need to ask. I knew Chiron's dad was Kronos, the evil Titan Lord himself. The line would make perfect sense if Chiron went on the quest. Kronos didn't care for anyone, including his own children.

"Chiron," I said. "You know what this Titan's curse is, don't you?"

His face darkened. He made a claw over his heart and pushed outward—an ancient gesture for warding off evil.

That got a collective smirk out of all of them again though, as they remembered that door slamming on Gabe once more.

"Let us hope the prophecy does not mean what I think. Now, good night, Percy. And your time will come. I'm convinced of that. There's no need to rush."

"The actual worst thing he could have said," Nico grumbled. Was it a staple all adults said that to them at some point?

Percy gave him a similar smile of frustration for this, and Nico smiled tentatively back.

He said your time the way people did when they meant your death. I didn't know if Chiron meant it that way, but the look in his eyes made me scared to ask.

Then Percy's eyes flickered to him again, and stayed there! Nico felt his heart shriveling up in his chest as those sea-green eyes bored into him, that Percy would always associate death with him first like everybody.

"Percy," Rachel rolled her eyes, "would you stop making everything gloom and doom, especially the centaur!"

"Maybe if a unicorn shows up," he snipped back. It wasn't his fault he'd been plagued by nightmares and zombies after Annabeth went missing, he wasn't exactly in a sunshine mood!

Nico gave her a grateful, if surprised look and she gave him a cheerful grin back. And he'd always thought she'd throw him under the bus at the first opportunity, his dad cursing her Oracle and all.

I stood at the saltwater spring, rubbing Chiron's coin in my hand and trying to figure out what to say to my mom. I really wasn't in the mood to have one more adult tell me that doing nothing was the greatest thing I could do, but I figured my mom deserved an update.

Percy patted his pocket now, but as usual the only thing there was his pen. He wished he could update his mom now, even if she had no more advice on the situation than his friends. Just to see her smile out of a memory again.

Finally, I took a deep breath and threw in the coin. "O goddess, accept my offering."

The mist shimmered. The light from the bathroom was just enough to make a faint rainbow.

"Show me Sally Jackson," I said. "Upper East Side, Manhattan."

And there in the mist was a scene I did not expect. My mom was sitting at our kitchen table with some... guy. They were laughing hysterically.

There was a choking, spluttering, very concerning noise from Percy heard under the snickers of the room almost replicating the moment.

It was almost a tinge sad though, that he'd be so surprised to see his mom so happy with someone her age.

There was a big stack of textbooks between them. The man was, I don't know, thirty-something, with longish salt-and-pepper hair and a brown jacket over a black T-shirt. He looked like an actor—like a guy who might play an undercover cop on television.

Thalia however was smiling in relief Paul was finally on the scene. Even Phoebe had grudgingly admired the man's knowledge of literacy when they'd had to use the Jackson house as a waystation one turbulent night in need of a patch up. Percy hadn't even been there, he'd been out with Annabeth that night, but Sally hadn't batted an eye as she ushered the half a dozen girls in and offered them drinks and snacks as they bandaged up their wounded and caught their breath. Paul had been right beside her the whole time engaging them in different authors he was doing a study on and regaled them over a bit for Virginia Woolf he was currently chest deep in.

I was too stunned to say anything, and fortunately, my mom and the guy were too busy laughing to notice my Iris-message.

The shock that slammed into Percy would have been funny if Thalia had actually done it, instead she hid a wince. This was the last thing he needed right now, of all the times for him to see this. Now the kid was even going to start feeling outed in his own home!

The guy said, "Sally, you're a riot. You want some more wine?"

"Ah, I shouldn't. You go ahead if you want."

"Actually, I'd better use your bathroom. May I?"

"Down the hall," she said, trying not to laugh.

The actor dude smiled and got up and left.

"Mom!" I said.

She jumped so hard she almost knocked her textbooks off the table. Finally she focused on me. "Percy! Oh, honey! Is everything okay?"

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

She blinked. "Homework." Then she seemed to understand the look on my face. "Oh, honey, that's just Paul—um, Mr. Blofis. He's in my writing seminar."

"Teaching it?" Alex asked with a siliceous smile. "It's never a shame to ask for homework help."

"Fellow student," Thalia corrected cautiously as she glanced at Percy so as not to remind him of his profession.

He wasn't paying them much mind anyways, attention solely on the book, and a strange smile on his face.

"Mr. Blowfish?"

"I think your mom has a type," Rachel grinned, "first your dad, now him?"

Percy's smile melted away as he realized Rachel didn't know about Gabe, but he didn't want to mention him with that bright smile on his mom's face. "Whatever makes her happy," he instead shrugged.

"Blofis. He'll be back in a minute, Percy. Tell me what's wrong."

Percy smiled again, a somber thing with his head tipped curiously to the side. How she could always do that. Everybody in the world deserved a mother like his. Sally was his.

She always knew when something was wrong. I told her about Annabeth. The other stuff too, but mostly it boiled down to Annabeth.

"Those who are surprised, please raise your hand," Jason's teasing was light, he didn't pause to see the nonexistent hands, just for Percy's indulgent laugh.

My mother's eyes teared up. I could tell she was trying hard to keep it together for my sake. "Oh, Percy..."

"Yeah. So they tell me there's nothing I can do. I guess I'll be coming home."

She turned her pencil around in her fingers. "Percy, as much as I want you to come home"—she sighed like she was mad at herself—"as much as I want you to be safe, I want you to understand something. You need to do whatever you think you have to."

The God of Test Taking couldn't have appeared in this room to make them any more gobsmacked. Not a joke could pass Thalia's lips about wanting some alone time with her new boyfriend, or a sarcastic comment from Alex about Sally finally joining the Hate Percy club. Jason just shook his head that every single aspect of Percy's life somehow always surprised him as he kept going.

I stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you really, deep down, believe that you have to help save her? Do you think it's the right thing to do? Because I know one thing about you, Percy. Your heart is always in the right place. Listen to it."

"You're... you're telling me to go?"

My mother pursed her lips. "I'm telling you that... you're getting too old for me to tell you what to do. I'm telling you that I'll support you, even if what you decide to do is dangerous. I can't believe I'm saying this."

"I can't either," Percy promised, prodding around his ears to make sure water hadn't leaked in there.

"Maybe your mom's just pulling your leg to see that look on your face," Magnus tried to reason out, but his voice was faint. All he could think was his mom checking his gear when they went hiking no matter how many times he assured her he remembered everything. Somehow the extra sunscreen always still made it into her bag.

"Mom—"

The toilet flushed down the hall in our apartment.

"I don't have much time," my mom said. "Percy, whatever you decide, I love you. And I know you'll do what's best for Annabeth."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because she'd do the same for you."

Percy traced his fingers end over end on his pen, studying it with the same intense look his mother had given him as a rock caught in his throat. He hoped so.

And when had she ever been wrong before?

Was rescuing her into the arms of the Huntresses the best for Annabeth? He'd better start getting used to it.

And with that, my mother waved her hand over the mist, and the connection dissolved, leaving me with one final image of her new friend, Mr. Blowfish, smiling down at her.

It wasn't a smile Percy was used to people bestowing on his mother either. That polite, indifferent look of customers and cashiers alike as they walked New York. The disgusting, grimy smiles Gabe's chapped mouth had managed when he spoke.

Paul's smile had been the same kind as the last he'd seen on Annabeth's at the dance. Cheerful, excited, Paul couldn't wait to keep talking to his mother about whatever their homework was about. There hadn't even been tears of joy in her eyes, no hint of sadness in her good mood. His mother was just happy.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I remember the dream.

I was back in that barren cave, the ceiling heavy and low above me. Annabeth was kneeling under the weight of a dark mass that looked like a pile of boulders. She was too tired even to cry out. Her legs trembled. Any second, I knew she would run out of strength and the cavern ceiling would collapse on top of her.

Percy longed to see that smile now rather than this! Her strained, sweating face, paler than the Oracle. Her hair had been the color of those boulders, gray and dark and hung around her face in an unrecognizable mass, her eyes rolled back into her head with pain. She was going to die.

"How is our mortal guest?" a male voice boomed.

It wasn't Kronos. Kronos's voice was raspy and metallic, like a knife scraped across stone. I'd heard it taunting me many times before in my dreams. But this voice was deeper and lower, like a bass guitar. Its force made the ground vibrate.

Jason hadn't needed that description. It came back with a deceptive ease like nothing yet had. He didn't have to struggle a single second to hear in his traitorous mind.

It didn't stop him continuing. It only caused a slight hitch in his breath before he kept going with an almost freighting intensity once more, the same they'd seen of him on Circe's island. Jason knew of this place, even if none of them understood why.

Luke emerged from the shadows. He ran to Annabeth, knelt beside her, then looked back at the unseen man. "She's fading. We must hurry."

Yet another crack appeared on the floor in here, with the ominous, heart stopping sound of a block of an iceberg falling into the water. They could start playing hopscotch soon if Percy didn't recreate the building crumbling on them first.

The hypocrite. Like he really cared what happened to her.

Thalia was replaying the feeling of kicking him off that ledge a couple more times with a few extra jabs of her spear so as not to add any further structural damage. It was a ripping sensation to hear heart every single time, but it soothed her need for these few moments.

The deep voice chuckled. It belonged to someone in the shadows, at the edge of my dream. Then a meaty hand thrust someone forward into the light—Artemis—her hands and feet bound in celestial bronze chains.

I gasped. Her silvery dress was torn and tattered. Her face and arms were cut in several places, and she was bleeding ichor, the golden blood of the gods.

The clasp on Thalia's bracelet was in danger of snapping she was twisting it so hard as she willed herself into this dream of Percy's too. Let herself rush forward days earlier than they'd managed, to get Annabeth free, to save Artemis this terrible fate only this lifeform deserved!

"You heard the boy," said the man in the shadows. "Decide!"

Artemis's eyes flashed with anger. I didn't know why she just didn't will the chains to burst, or make herself disappear, but she didn't seem able to. Maybe the chains prevented her, or some magic about this dark, horrible place.

"Both," Thalia and Jason whispered together.

They looked at each other, and a horrible idea began forming in Thalia's mind. He very well could be her little brother Jason, risen back from the dead by some twisted magic of Krono's. Some old, unplayed ploy to gain her to their side, her little brother all aged up, and hidden away on Mount Tam, the one place she'd never dared searched for him. Why would Hera have taken Jason to Krios? Some extra punishment to Zeus?

The moment was broken by Percy making a desperate, painful noise as he strained against causing any more damage during this nightmare, and Jason only batted those blue eyes at her an extra moment before he continued with the same single-minded focus to get back every detail of this.

Thalia shook her head slowly at herself, she was being nuts. Even knowing Artemis was safely out of this entrapment, some base instinct of hers was going literally crazy at her goddess in chains and causing her to lose it.

The goddess looked at Annabeth and her expression changed to concern and outrage.

"How dare you torture a maiden like this!"

"Our sentiments," Alex muttered, though she liked to think anybody with a heart would be outraged at any woman or man in this situation.

"She will die soon," Luke said. "You can save her."

Annabeth made a weak sound of protest. My heart felt like it was being twisted into a knot. I wanted to run to her, but I couldn't move.

"Free my hands," Artemis said.

Luke brought out his sword, Backbiter. With one expert strike, he broke the goddess's handcuffs.

Artemis ran to Annabeth and took the burden from her shoulders. Annabeth collapsed on the ground and lay there shivering. Artemis staggered, trying to support the weight of the black rocks.

The man in the shadows chuckled. "You are as predictable as you were easy to beat, Artemis."

"You surprised me," the goddess said, straining under her burden. "It will not happen again."

The frustration, the yearning for more knowledge bubbled around the room as they all longed to know for their own reasons how this had come about. Who this otherworldly figure was to take a Goddess, hear Zoe's dream for themselves.

And yet it was possibly a nightmare no half-blood could live through knowing.

"Indeed it will not," the man said. "Now you are out of the way for good! I knew you could not resist helping a young maiden. That is, after all, your specialty, my dear."

Artemis groaned. "You know nothing of mercy, you swine."

"On that," the man said, "we can agree. Luke, you may kill the girl now."

Every one of them went stiff as a corpse at that, even the four who knew she was alive and okay. The question remained how she'd gotten out of this, it didn't seem like Luke to disobey after he'd been the one to put her in such a vulnerable position.

"No!'" Artemis shouted.

Luke hesitated.

Jason couldn't believe the words out of his own mouth, nobody could quite trust their ears for several moments before Will sighed in relief and grinned.

Thalia fought the urge to punch him for it as her hand tensed. Luke's hesitation after he'd pulled this stunt meant he'd only regretted the final straw. Not the betrayal. Not the heartless way he'd tricked her and left her there. Will had a curious look in his eyes as he watched this book, like he was considering showing this to Annabeth as if it would give her some peace. Thalia would burn this book before she let that happen.

"She—she may yet be useful, sir. Further bait."

A very obvious lie any of them could spot. Percy narrowed his eyes distastefully, but he couldn't bring himself to want Luke dead that exact moment any longer. They had reason enough to go save Artemis and hope Annabeth was still there. Luke was being selfish keeping her alive for his own twisted reason, like they were still on the Andromeda and Luke was carelessly waiting for her to get with the program and join him no matter who got hurt in the meantime.

In that moment though, he was the only one keeping Annabeth alive.

"Bah! You truly believe that?"

"Yes, General. They will come for her. I'm sure."

The man considered. "Then the dracaenae can guard her here. Assuming she does not die from her injuries, you may keep her alive until winter solstice. After that, if our sacrifice goes as planned, her life will be meaningless. The lives of all mortals will be meaningless."

How it was possible anybody could still be on Krono's side after a statement like that left them all flabbergasted, let alone Luke not immediately defecting. Stabbing this voice and taking Annabeth far away.

His whole motivation for listening to the whispers in his dreams had been he wanted more credit, to be seen by the gods, his hatred of them had stemmed from how little they cared about their own kids. Percy sat there in boiling frustration how Luke could continue on like this.

Luke gathered up Annabeth's listless body and carried her away from the goddess.

"Percy," Rachel gave him a vigorous shake to his shoulder and he blinked to see the red in his eyes was real, the floor was glowing, the heat radiating from beneath their feet through the fissures. He quickly clamped back down on his anger and the boiling water receded, but even so, Jason rushed to finish this already.

"You will never find the monster you seek," Artemis said. "Your plan will fail."

"How little you know, my young goddess," the man in the shadows said. "Even now, your darling attendants begin their quest to find you. They shall play directly into my hands. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a long journey to make. We must greet your Hunters and make sure their quest is... challenging."

"No, no you mustn't," Alex was twining her hair between her fingers with her own pit of unease growing as she didn't take her eyes off the floor. If anything else happened to Annabeth over the course of this, Percy was going to literally kill them. She was going to be pissed if she died.

The man's laughter echoed in the darkness, shaking the ground until it seemed the whole cavern ceiling would collapse.

I woke with a start. I was sure I'd heard a loud banging. I looked around the cabin. It was dark outside. The salt spring still gurgled. No other sounds but the hoot of an owl in the woods and the distant surf on the beach. In the moonlight, on my nightstand was Annabeth's New York Yankees cap. I stared at it for a second and then: BANG BANG.

Someone, or something, was pounding on my door. I grabbed Riptide and got out of bed.

"Hello?" I called. THUMP. THUMP. I crept to the door.

"Hooves," Percy murmured, his hand relaxing away from his pocket on instinct for the vaguely familiar sound in his mind from all the times Grover had come knocking on his door.

Somehow he knew it wasn't his friend back in the middle of the night. A horse, something he should have been remembering about a horse, and it wasn't Chiron...

I uncapped the blade, flung open the door, and found myself face-to-face with a black pegasus.

Magnus grinned in delight while Alex snorted with shock. "I think you should just strictly stick to making friends with livestock, it seems to work out best for you."

"The Minotaur would disagree," but Percy was smiling along too for the friendly house call rather than another disaster.

It was still lackluster, the turn around from his newest grave nightmare was a permanent scar on the floor, but Nico watched with the same anger he'd felt for Bianca at that ping-pong table as he studied Percy trying to smile and keep going. It wasn't quite as admirable as it had always been to him at the beginning, just another facet of Percy to him he understood and could never be himself.

Whoa, boss! Its voice spoke in my mind as it clopped away from the sword blade. I don't wanna be a horse-ke-bob!

Its black wings spread in alarm, and the wind buffeted me back a step.

"Blackjack," I said,

"Who?" Jason asked, thumbing through the pages in his mind to see if he'd missed something.

"That pegasus that escaped Luke's ship," Percy reminded him, for once, in exasperation. "He kind of took to me,

"He?" Alex interrupted, more in surprise than outright offense. Percy had yet misgendered her, on purpose, and it seemed strange he was doing that to a horse.

"Oh, yeah, Blackjack's not a mare, I guess, he definitely sounded like a male now when he called me boss," Percy agreed with a shrug.

Alex considered this for a moment before saying, "Some fish can change gender. Poseidon created horses, therefore horses are fishes."**

Percy looked at her for a long moment before turning away so his brain didn't explode.

"Anyways," he continued to address everybody and rather pointedly, "I guess it hadn't been mentioned yet," he messed up his hair as his scalp tingled with the settling of memories. "He'd showed up a couple of weeks after we'd returned to camp during lunch in the middle of the pavilion, much to everyone's surprise. Nobody would quit fawning over his coloring. Silena volunteered to put him in the stables, but he just followed me around for days until finally I convinced him to start trusting others. The apples, sugar cubes, and donuts all the campers slipped him helped a lot with that. Now he just shows up at all hours, calling me boss and telling him to help with sea life."

"How'd he get the name Blackjack?" Magnus asked eagerly.

"He said he spent the first few days free flying to Vegas," Percy chuckled. "I don't know, Blackjack was what came to mind and stuck, he never protested." He cheerfully recalled as he relaxed in his seat.

This wasn't the first time this had happened, and Percy was almost smiling again for at least some familiarity around camp again, even if it wasn't with Annabeth rolling her eyes and shooing him away to go help some otter pups while she went back to her voluntary studying.

relieved but a little irritated. "It's the middle of the night!"

Blackjack huffed. Ain't either, boss. It's five in the morning. What you still sleeping for?

"Are horses nocturnal?" Was Jason's brilliant interruption of that stunning silence.

"Pegasi aren't," Percy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "This one just seems to be literal!"

"How many times have I told you? Don't call me boss."

Whatever you say, boss.

"I like him!" Alex laughed at once.

"He's very likable," Percy agreed indulgently, "when it's not 5AM!"

You're the man. You're my number one.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and tried not to let the pegasus read my thoughts. That's the problem with being Poseidon's son: since he created horses out of sea foam, I can understand most equestrian animals, but they can understand me, too. Sometimes, like in Blackjacks case, they kind of adopt me.

See, Blackjack had been a captive on board Luke's ship last summer, until we'd caused a little distraction that allowed him to escape. I'd really had very little to do with it, seriously, but Blackjack credited me with saving him.

"Would you rather he follow Chiron around calling him boss?" Thalia grinned.

"Yes," Percy reluctantly smiled along. He was sort of kidding anyways. As annoying as it could be, Blackjack was too good a friend to even think of passing along anyways, even with the misguided credit.

"You called that pegasus a mare though," Alex reminded. "Am I missing something?"

"Their voices aren't an exact science, it doesn't sound like ours," Percy gestured between them.

"That horse reared though, couldn't you see-"

"Dude," Percy cut in with exhaustion, "I didn't sit and study-"

"Dudett," Alex snipped back, "you have a bad habit of-"

"Dear gods make them stop!" Rachel cut in loudest of all with a winning laugh.

Jason was on Rachel's side and kept reading as they made silent faces at each other.

"Blackjack," I said, "you're supposed to stay in the stables."

Meh, the stables. You see Chiron staying in the stables?

"Well... no."

Exactly. Listen, we got another little sea friend needs your help.

"Again?"

Yeah. I told the hippocampi I'd come get you.

I groaned. Anytime I was anywhere near the beach, the hippocampi would ask me to help them with their problems. And they had a lot of problems. Beached whales, porpoises caught in fishing nets, mermaids with hangnails—they'd call me to come underwater and help.

"Are you applying for saint hood?" Nico asked with a weirdly teasing smile Percy wasn't used to seeing on his usually stoic face. Not that Nico would admit this was how he'd spent those days imagining Percy at all hours, doing exactly these good deeds at the drop of a hat, any time or day as he swooped his hair aside. Bianca loomed in his mind, but he wanted to be what she'd asked of him, and he'd never before taken the time to talk to Percy without the impending guilt of just watching him a moment to long before. Not that this could possibly be what she'd want for him either, though he'd never the opportunity to ask...

"Only if it's the saint of naptime," Percy sighed, making Nico chuckle. Will was grinning at the sight and Percy decided not to question it, at least he wasn't glowering at him and creeping him out.

"All right," I said. "I'm coming."

You're the best, boss.

"And don't call me boss!"

Blackjack whinnied softly. It might've been a laugh.

Percy gave an exasperated sigh at all of their little grins, but he'd had worse experiences lately than getting mocked by a horse and his friends.

I looked back at my comfortable bed. My bronze shield still hung on the wall, dented and unusable. And on my nightstand was Annabeth's magic Yankees cap. On an impulse, I stuck the cap in my pocket. I guess I had a feeling, even then, that I wasn't coming back to my cabin for a long, long time.

"I swear your impulses are going to make or break the world," Jason told him with excitement as he passed the book along.

"Fingers crossed it's make," Percy shivered as his hand was still reaching uselessly for a cap that was not here, a hand that his fingers could not find. Constantly sitting on the edge of his seat waiting for the next thing to drop in his head was leaving him with a persistent, sick, dreaded feeling in his gut he was starting to wonder if he'd ever shake.

PJOPJOPJOPJOPJO

*Keto is later depicted as the Goddess of All Sea Monsters in Mark of Athena, making me wonder if RR meant for this to be Cetus, which is a sky-scraper-sized sea monster. In general the likely answer as with all the plot holes in this series is he probably just changed his mind later and depicted her differently.

**Suggestion offered by LaytonJr, the answer made me laugh to much not to put it in.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #nico di angelo #will solace #rachel elizabeth dare #Magnus Chase #alex fierro #reading the books #fanfiction #hoo #rick riordan #Titan's Curse #How Do You Say Gods #HDYSG

1 note · View note

delusion-of-negation · 2 years ago

Text

"wow. okay." bro please don't read my phraseology as aggressive, people keep doing this no matter how many posts I make saying that I'm autistic and I'm in constant agony from slowly dying, I barely sleep and I'm grumpy, and tone is hard enough over text for the normies. people getting what I'm saying so backwards is annoying, so I tell them that they were wrong. it's not aggressive and I'm sorry it reads that way.

"I do think it’s possible for a character to be written badly."

this is where we're disagreeing. I explained it. you end it there - the post is about how you shouldn't do that. there is no inherently bad characteristics, only bad execution or ill-fitting contexts, and a critic's job (not yours, you're a random tumblr user idgaf, the post is about critics) is to explain why the character being written that way had a negative effect on this story. so many critics lately have been saying "she was rude. I don't like her. protagonists are supposed to be likable and relatable. this is bad writing." and that's the extent. and I mean the extent. that's all the depth. and that's pathetic. that's not how characters or stories work at all. some stories do rely on you being able to connect to and like the character - they want you to put yourself in their shoes, like them, enjoy being "in their company" so to speak, and that drives a lot of the emotional weight of the story, leaving it hollow for those who didn't connect (a lot of YA literature does this, superhero media often does, etc - if you don't put yourself in their shoes and find them quippy, charming, and blorbo, the emotional weight starts to get more and more hollow). that's the sentence a critic needs to be able to expand upon and express adequately. you're not acknowledging how that was my issue here, you're saying that there are inherently bad qualities to have in a character - specifically, being not worth investing in. that's not true at all. things like blackadder give us protagonists we can root against and also like in comedy, absolutely, and I prefer that personally, but we've also had quite a few (for example) british slapstick comedies with characters that you fundamentally aren't invested in - like, you don't even hate these guys, they're gross and weird, sure, but you just turn your brain off for half an hour while they get hit in the nuts, there's no investment in them deserving to get hit in the nuts, no moralising effort to make you truly think they deserve it (british comedy does not do that as much as american comedy anyway, especially not ones as old as this). I've barely thought about the show enough to remember its name, but there was one where these two guys wanted to go on a date, and over the course of the episode they got beaten up, mauled by dogs, and blew up their flat. at no point was I invested in seeing them succeed or fail, I wasn't supposed to be, their character traits were non-existent beyond whatever was most likely to get them hurt this next second. that isn't inherently bad writing, because the purpose of the show was not to make me invested in these two guys getting hurt, it was to make dumb puns and kick some dudes in the nuts for half an hour. the context in which the character exists matters for whether a particular feature is bad or not. so when you say that unlikable means you're not invested, you kick the ball further down the road - you say "okay, so you're right (if they were using it how you say) that it's not bad to be unlikable that way, BUT if you're unlikable THIS way then that is always bad" when I was specifically saying that it bothers me that critics fall back on catchphrases of fake rules, instead of elaborating on why a particular feature wasn't working here. what about this story makes it unenjoyable when you don't relate, and what about this character or writing style made it hard to do so? of course there are trends - generally a character will work better if they're likable because that casts a wider net and doesn't alienate average joe who's been sold moralising fiction his whole life, and it means you can afford to fail other things because the audience is rooting for the protag and that can carry you, like generally you don't want to "show your audience 4" you want to "show them 2+2". for the most part, as a writer, you can sail by thinking of those as sort of unwitten and mostly true rules. as a critic, you need to be able to assess a story much deeper than repeating a mantra that's only really useful if helping an author spot common ways their story could flop.

edit: hence the ought/is comparison. I thought that would get my point across. this is a post against rules and categories and quick catchphrases. and for seeing stories as a web of moving parts that might fit together and might not, and a critic's job is to analyse it thoroughly, not to shrug it off by saying it didn't tick the boxes. if a critic can't ask "what is the thing trying to achieve?" I do think it's lazy critique and ultimately not helpful to the audience.

the two sentences "this character isn't an ideal protagonist for this book that relies on us liking them to drive emotional weight, which leaves much of the book hollow because they're really unlikable" and "protagonists are supposed to be likable, this one is not likable, so the book sucks" are different. the latter is incorrect. and lazy. the protagonist of berenice is not a likable person - he's gloomy, he's obsessive, he literally steals someone's teeth. hamlet. lolita. death note. rick and morty. greek mythology. grimm's fairytales. these aren't likable people... they're interesting people. and the stories get their emotional weight and tension in ways other than holding our favourite meow meow over a fire. it's sad that so much media analysis has devolved into shallow "protag was unlikable therefore story bad", instead of the deeper analysis of how and why the story fails to carry emotional weight when the reader doesn't find this person cute, charming, funny, or whatever. or if they aren't able to project themself onto this person. tbh most good stories are "hey everybody, look at this fucked up sack of wet potatoes, sure would be fucked up if they self-destructed in a way that harmed everyone around them :)" and somebody analysing media should be aware of that. just think a few steps deeper about these sorts of things.

73 notes · View notes

ivelostmyspectacles · 7 years ago

Video

tumblr

#relatable

but really

*looks into the camera like he’s on the office*

#FFXV #Final Fantasy XV #Noctis Lucis Caelum #Prompto Argentum #Assassin's Festival #Noct you are not a real assassin #but you are just as good or better than them #precious boy #why can't i ever fucking trim anything right #i deleted it so i couldn't redo it #i'm always a half second off and it DRIVES ME NUTS

98 notes · View notes

jkbabiey · 3 years ago

Text

YOU KNEW IT , HE KNEW IT // JJK [sequel]

Pairing: tattooartist!jungkook x doctor!reader

Word Count: 3.9K

Genre: fluff, angst

Warnings: mentions of rough sex, JK hurts Y/N :(, smoking, prepare for just a little bit of heartbreak - not telling you how it ends :) I hardly revised this so MY APOLOGIES FOR ANY MISTAKES!!! please, read this first <3

Nothing had changed.

Jungkook was a hard nut to crack and after that night his shell had become harder - you were back to being a quick fuck for him.

He would shoot you a 'u up?' text that took him just a little more than one second to send at 10 PM (after he was done with work) and in two seconds he'd get a 'yes' as an answer. After thirty minutes of driving from his studio to your place, he'd be at your door. And after hours of sex, he'd be on his way to his own bed.

You could reinforce the fact that little words were exchanged from the moment he walked into your apartment to the second he walked out. You could barely hear a 'how you doin'?' after the systematic 'hey' between messy kissing against the wall nearest to the entrance door sometimes.

And, let's make it clear - Jungkook had never been the most talkative, but after the years you two had met each other he had gotten more and more able to talk to you. All the topics were rid of the awkwardness that accompanied any conversation you two dared to try to have in the first months of your 'arrangement'.

But now it was like you were back at stage 0. Tonight it was as if you hadn't even.

"Kook, calm down," you moaned as he furiously rammed inside you. Jungkook hadn't texted you tonight and neither did he compliment you, he just showed up and attacked you straight away.

And he didn't listen to you, keeping up the speed and force of his thrusts against you. "Shut up," he growled as he pulled his face away from your neck to kiss you. The kiss, just like the rest of him, was raw and cold. Nothing about it made you feel loved, nothing made you feel like it used to.

"Stop," you whispered and felt your eyes get teary. "Jungkook, stop!" you yelled, understanding he hadn't listened the first time. Jungkook raised his head, to look you in the eye, startled, and stopped his ministrations automatically.

"I'm sorry, I didn't-" he started but the last thing you wanted was to listen to him.

"Just get off me," you said and he rolled off you. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" you asked, the anger clear in your voice.

"I'm sorry Y/N, I-I didn't realize how rough I was getting. I didn't- I'm sorry!" Jungkook stuttered, his gaze locked on yours as he sat on your bed, his naked torso exposed and his bottom half covered by your white sheets. "I should go," he muttered, getting up and starting to dress.

"Oh wow, you're really doing that again?"

"Wha-What do you mean?"

"It's what you always do now. You come here, you use me as a damn fucktoy, and you never even dare to ask how I'm doing!" you yelled as Jungkook shook his head as if you were delusional.

"You're talking as if you don't enjoy it," he chortled humourlessly.

"Well, tonight I didn't-" you yelled with tears in your eyes and he turned towards you, with fire in his eyes, walking towards you with large steps.

"And I'm sorry about that! I already said I'm sorry!"

"But are you really?!"

He rested his hands on his hips, running his tongue over his pierced bottom lip. His eyes ran over your face and stopped on your teary eyes. "Of course I am." You stepped closer and rested your head on Jungkook's chest, feeling his arms, hesitantly, wrapping around your shoulders. "Of course I am, Y/N," he repeated using a way softer tone than before as his hand rested on your hair, caressing the back of your head.

It was as if Jungkook from ten minutes ago was never in the room with you, now left with a soft-toned Jungkook that kissed your forehead and tamed down your wild post-sex hair. Moments when this Jungkook showed up were what kept you from throwing him out of your bed and your life.

There was this guy living in the apartment next to yours, your balcony was next to his and usually, he smoked at the same time you watered your plants. He smoked shirtless and with messy hair as if he had just stumbled out of bed due to an intense addiction to cigarettes.

Today was no different. You were watering your beautiful purple Iris flowers when you heard the door next to yours that provided your neighbor access to his balcony open. "Morning," you chanted and he answered, sending a pretty and tired smile your way.

"How're the flowers?" he asked, still squinting his eyes from the bright sunlight.

"Watered, how're your lungs?" you asked playfully, amused that he was actually trying to start a conversation with you.

"Ouch..." he laughed, and paused, lighting his cigarette. "Are you an anti-smoker or something?"

"No, just like to remind you that you're killing your lungs every morning," you answered with a wide playful smile plastered on your face.

"Aren't you dating a smoker? I've seen him out here," he questioned, his smirk less playful and more provocative now. You sent him a glare and shook your head.

"I'm not dating anyone," you answered, placing your watering can on the shelf on your balcony and resting your forearms on the porch rail your balcony shared with his. You watched him raising an eyebrow as he expelled the smoke from his lungs through his pink lips.

"Is that so?" he teased and watched you nod with a tight smile. "What's your name?" he asked, changing the topic that he knew was a sensitive one - it's not like you hadn't kept him awake nights in a row.

"Y/N. What's yours?"

"Felix," he answered and smiled.

What a pretty smile he had.

Felix was a genuinely good guy. He had his mind and heart in the right places and he knew how to treat a woman. He was such a gentleman and even opened the car door for you when he took you out to dinner. He also made you caramel popcorn when you walked across your apartment's floor to watch a movie in his. He held your hand every time you two walked side by side on the streets.

He congratulated you and was genuinely happy for you when you told him you had received an offer from a prestigious hospital in another country to execute your neurosurgery residency. He was more excited about it than you expected he'd be and when he noticed the hard expression on your face, you told him about your worries about keeping a long-distance relationship. Felix was quick to reassure you that he was way too invested in you two to actually let you give up on it before even giving it a try.

No, you and Felix weren't dating but you acted as if you were. You two knew that the next logical step was him asking you to be his girlfriend or you asking him to be your boyfriend. This proposal of doing your residency program across the world made that a lot more difficult and upraised a lot of doubts in your head. Was this what you really wanted?

Felix was the exact opposite of Jungkook.

Jungkook never opened doors for you, neither did he make you caramel popcorn. He never held your hand. God, he never even walked with you in the streets, in the public eye.

And still, you couldn't help but wonder what Jungkook's reaction would be to this news.

Jungkook and you hadn't seen each other again after the night he went too far with you. He hadn't reached out and neither had you. And that made everything much more simple for you. It helped you focus on Felix and how much of a great guy he was. It worked for a while until you received this invitation and all you could think was that you can't leave without telling Jungkook you're leaving. You didn't even spare Felix a thought.

That explained why you declined Felix's initiation to try a long-distance relationship. You couldn't be that dishonest and selfish towards a guy so sweet as Felix. You couldn't tell him you wanted to be with him while thinking of another man. It was cruel and he didn't deserve it.

It also explained why you were standing by Jungkook's door, ringing on his doorbell, the night before your flight.

He opened the door with a pencil behind his ear and a naked torso, staring at his phone screen. "Oh, hi..." he said, after directing his gaze, from his phone to you. "Come in!"

And you did, watching his living room's floor full of crumpled pieces of paper and rough sketches - you presumed Jungkook was in the process of drawing a new tattoo design. "I'm just trying some new stuff here for work. You can seat on the sofa or something, or you can help me-"

"Jungkook, I need to talk to you," you interrupted, pushing a strand of hair behind your ear as he stopped in his tracks and looked at you.

"Alright, let's talk. Do you want something to drink? Coffee? Water? Wine?"

"No, I'm fine," you answered, seating down on your couch as Jungkook sat next to you, closer than he had been in the last three months you hadn't seen him.

"So... What's up?"

"I... I wanted to talk. I got accepted to do my neurosurgery residency program like I wanted."

"Oh yeah?" his eyes widened and he smiled, remembering the nights you two had stayed up talking and you had told him about your passion for neurosurgery. "Such a smartass," he teased, pinching your cheek. "Congratulations, Y/N," he said, laying a soft kiss on the cheek he had just pinched.

"Thanks..." you answered, timidly and playing with your own fingers. "I got an offer from a great hospital to do my residency."

"That's great," he smiled. It looked and felt to you like there was a sense of pride on his smile. Would Jungkook ever say he was proud to have you? To have you as whatever it was you were to him?

"Yeah..."

"You wanted to tell me that?" he asked, and you looked at him, hesitant.

"The offer is from a great hospital across the world. I'm going away and I'll stay away. Probably won't come back here."

Jungkook was having a good day. You could imagine he'd had a day off and had spent it on new designs for his clients. He had probably spent all day shirtless, on the floor of his living room, just drawing and throwing drawing away when they didn't seem good enough, then, drawing something new. You could even imagine how he had probably skipped most meals to not lose the string of inspiration that he had found that morning.

But as soon as he heard the words that had come out of your lips, his smile disappeared and his proud gaze dropped from yours, staring at the ground beneath his feet. "When are you leaving?" he asked.

"Tomorrow morning. I've got everything packed and I'll be at the airport at about 7 AM."

Jungkook didn't answer. Just stood up and walked towards the kitchen. You followed him instantly, watching him chug down a glass of cold water. "You only tell me now?" Jungkook's tone wasn't aggressive or upset just inquisitive and that disappointed you more than you were willing to admit.

"Figured I couldn't leave without telling you. Even though we haven't talked in months," you muttered the last part, hoping he'd listen anyway. He smiled your way, supporting himself with his hands on the marble countertop.

Jungkook felt different from when you last saw him. More mature. Less aggressive. You, initially, thought it could be because he's having a drawing-focused day and that always relaxed him. But even after hearing the big news, he seemed to be dealing with them well. Not angry with you for not telling him before that you were leaving. You were expecting an earthquake of yelled offenses thrown your way as soon as you dropped the news, but you had gotten none of it.

"I don't know what to say," he whispered, looking away from you. You walked towards him, and he quickly straightened up, turning his body towards you. He opened his arms, inviting you for a hug. You rolled your arms around his waist and he enveloped your shoulders in an affectionate manner. "I'm gonna miss you."

"That's just what I wanted to hear," you answered and he chuckled.

Maybe Jungkook had grown up during the three months you two spent away. Or maybe he just didn't feel anything towards you anymore.

You two didn't have sex. Never even talked about the three months you two just decided to ghost each other. Didn't mention your last encounter. And he didn't question who was Felix and why he was calling you to ask if you wanted him to drive you to the airport in the morning. When you left his apartment, you weren't crying from the aggressiveness you were expecting.

But you cried as soon as you got in the elevator.

ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜs ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ

"Kook! Come in, I'm in the kitchen!" Jungkook heard his long-lasting best friend yelling from the kitchen. "I've got so much beer for tonight. You better chug all this shit in or Irene is gonna kill me for wasting so much money on alcohol!"

Jungkook laughed as he entered the kitchen, he fist-bumped Taehyung and chuckled when he saw the whole top shelf of the fridge filled with bottles of beer. Tae didn't laugh with him, instead, focusing his gaze on Jungkook's face, with a slightly disgusted expression on his face. "Dude, you look awful. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. Haven't been sleeping much," he dismissed having to talk about what was wrong since he was pretty sure all his feeling were wrong and Jungkook wasn't the guy to talk about his own feelings.

"And you thought the solution to your sleep problems was spending a night drinking with your buddy?" Taehyung laughed and Jungkook quickly joined, running a hand over his tired features. "Come on, bro, just talk about it. You'll feel better."

"Let it go. I'm not here to talk about my proble-"

"Is it Y/N?" Taehyung interrupted, opening two bottles of beer and handing one to Jungkook.

Jungkook didn't answer for a while, just following Taehyung when he decided to walk towards the living room, where he had left an opened bag of chips.

"Yeah," Jungkook whispered after some time, to which Taehyung hummed knowingly. "I was awful to her last time."

"What did you do?" Tae asked, with a mouth full of chips, just before taking a sip from his beer.

"We were, you know... having sex," Jungkook started, leaning back on the comfortable couch. "I lost my fucking mind, Tae," Jungkook muttered, a disappointed look on his face, as Taehyung. "I was going too hard and she wasn't enjoying it. I made her feel so bad, hyung."

"Dude..." Tae said, noticing how inconsolable his friend looked. "Did you say sorry?"

"Of course I did. But that doesn't fix how I must have made her feel."

"Right," Taehyung muttered, looking at his friend. "Why did it happen, kook? What was on your mind?"

"I'm just stupid, Tae," he chugged almost the entirety of his beer in frustration, with furrowed brows and pouted lips. He stood up and walked towards the kitchen to get another beer, Taehyung supposed. "This client I had in the morning asked for my number after I did a tattoo for her, and I said no because of Y/N! And the girl was hot. Great ass. And I still said no because I was thinking Y/N would hate to know I had given my number to some other chick! Can you imagine that?! What the fuck! Spent the whole day thinking about that and had to take it out on someone."

"Bro..." Taehyung mumbled, looking at his friend with angry eyes, "You're such an asshole.".

"What-"

"Y/N is a great girl. You have no idea what that girl has gone through because of you, for real. And she really likes you. She does. And you just keep treating her like shit."

"It's not my fault I don't feel the same-"

"That's the thing! You do feel the same! And you just keep dismissing your feelings and treating her like crap to try and convince yourself that you really don't feel the same! You tell yourself you feel nothing for Y/N, that she's just a quick fuck, but you're still here, on my sofa, sobbing like a fucking 4-year-old because you hurt her feelings! If that's not caring for her, I don't know what is!"

Jungkook didn't answer. He wouldn't dare face his friend right now - not only because an angry Taehyung was the worst person you could face, but also because he was right. Jungkook knew Taehyung was right but he couldn't face that truth.

"So, my advice is, man up! Get your shit together! Y/N's an amazing girl. She's smart, and she's pretty, and she's has a strong personality - opposite to the basic girls you have been with. I'm surprised she hasn't dumped your ass yet because she deserves so much better! Fucking grow up and own up to your feelings, or let her go because you can't let her suffer for someone like you," Taehyung finished, letting out a long angry sigh. "I need another beer."

That had been the day Jungkook decided he'd let you go.

"Why do you look awful?" Dr.Seokjin asked and you chuckled at his bluntness.

"I've been here for like 36 hours. I think I'm about to pass out," you said, chuckling in pity of yourself, already scrubbing in to assist Dr. Jin in a tumor dissection.

"Go home Y/N, get some rest. I'll page some other resident-"

"What? No, I'm fine! Really!"

"No. Go home. Can't risk you doing a mistake here because you're exhausted. Go."

And you were out of the hospital and in your car in 15 minutes.

You were already in your second year of residency. A lot of time had passed, but it never got less tiring. Not much had changed from the time you had left home to study abroad.

"Y/N!" you heard Felix screech from the other side of the line as soon as you picked up your phone. Felix was a sweet guy and he insisted on keeping in touch with you, calling you every single day. "How you doing?" he asked and you smiled in delight at his care for you, knowing he couldn't see it.

"I'm fine. Tired but fine. Going home now, after 36 hours in the hospital," you said and heard Feliz gasp in shock.

"You spent 36 hours up?" he asked

"We have on-call rooms, but there's never much rest done before you get paged again in here," you chuckled and Felix tsked, in disapproval.

"Alright, then you should get home and sleep. I'll talk to you later!"

"I'll call you when I wake up."

Your place was less than five minutes away from the hospital you worked in. You'd kept that in mind when you searched for a renting apartment to stay in. And you loved your place. It wasn't big or luxurious, but it was cozy and full of your little flowers. Your love for flowers hadn't changed - you still kept your balcony full of those little pretty plants.

You were looking forward to coming home to spray some water on them, but you were left standing at the end of the dark corridor that would lead to your apartment's door, at 4 AM, when you saw a dark silhouette crouched by it. You couldn't see anything but the dark figure, due to the lacking of lighting.

You walked in slow, careful steps towards your door, trying to feel the light switch on the wall. And when you finally felt it underneath your fingers, you took a deep breath before tapping it.

Jungkook.

Jungkook was sat down beside your door. His sleepy eyes opened, looking up and locking with your shocked ones. "Hey..." he whispered, before looking at his phone screen to check the time. He grimaced at how late it was and looked back at you. "Sorry for showing up without saying anythin-"

"What- When did you get here?"

"I've been here for a while, got here yesterday around 3 PM. I'm sorry. I just felt like seeing you. A-and I- I just- I missed you..." he stuttered and looked at the floor beneath your feet. "I know I was a son of a bitch with you, but I- I really like you Y/N. After 2 years, I still spend days thinking of you. And I feel like I'm ready to have you as a... as anything you'd like to be... That's if you want to be anything at all. You can say you don't want anything, or that you already have someone and I guess I'll get on the first plane back home," he chuckled, sending a tentative look your way, but your face was expressionless, he couldn't read it so his gaze got back to the floor. "Sorry, this was a really impulsive decision, to be honest. I just felt like being with you-"

He was cut short by your arms around his neck in a tight embrace, pulling him down, closer to you. He took a while to rationalize what was happening with his eyes wide in shock, but shortly after, his arms were also around your waist and your body was impossibly flushed against his. You hid your face in your neck, inhaling the familiar natural scent of his body. "Missed you," you whispered against his skin as you felt him place a soft kiss on your hair, "so much..."

"I missed you too," Jungkook said back, pulling away from you, to lock eyes with you. And it all felt so familiar, it all felt so good. Jungkook felt like home. And so, you softly pressed your lips against his, feeling him smiling against your lips. One of his hands, which was, previously, around your waist, was placed on the back of your head, deepening the kiss.

"Wait," you pulled away, chuckling at the way his lips followed yours in an attempt to keep kissing you. "We can't make out in the hallway, let me open the door," you laughed and he joined as you turned your back on him to open the door to your apartment.

When you heard the door closing again, you looked over your shoulder, to see a smiley Jungkook staring at you, with his hands behind his back, on the doorknob. "Took you long enough to come looking for me," you teased and he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Figured you must miss me too much already," he answered, making you laugh with hearts in your eyes.

People were hard to figure out. Jungkook was the hardest you'd ever known, but you were willing to try your hardest to crack his shell. Because Jungkook was in love with you and you were in love with him, and to you, that was enough.

It was love, you knew it and he knew it.

#ykihki #jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook scenario #jungkook scenarios #jeon jungguk #jungkook reaction #jungkook fanfic #jungkook masterlist #jungkoo #jungkook doctor au #doctor!reader #tattooartist!jungkook #tattoed!jungkook #bad boy jungkook #goodgirlxbadboy

158 notes · View notes

miyuhpapayuh · 4 years ago

Text

Where You Belong.

It'd been two weeks since their breakup— if you can even classify it, as one.

Their relationship wasn't always rocky. Y'lan did everything to make sure that she was happy and taken care of and she did the same for him, but Cici began to feel neglected as time went on.

His job started to become his main focus and petty arguments became an everyday occurrence, until she got tired and moved out of his apartment, and into one of her own.

As of late, she's been enjoying being single, cumming and going as she pleases.

"So... when do I get the pleasure of seeing you, again?" Standing at the bottom of the steps, Cici and her new favorite man candy stand centimeters away from each other's lips, underneath the orange hued sun.

"Hm, you might be luckier than you think." The smitten man peers down at her, placing wet kisses on her lips.

"Mm., yo pretty ass better call me."

"Maybe I will....," she steps away from him and towards the door, her hand placed on the handle. "Maybe I won't."

"It's like that?" He asks with a raised brow.

"Always. Goodnight.," she sing-songs, unlocking the door and disappearing behind it.

Kicking her furry slides off, she sighs as the fluffy rug aides to her aching feet. Her phone starts ringing as she makes her way down the hall.

"Hello?," she answers, not even caring to look at the caller ID.

"So, you movin' on and ain't think to tell me?," Y'lan's irritated voice sounds through, causing her to roll her eyes.

"We gotta do this, tonight? I just had a great day and you're ruining it."

"Well, excuse me for being a fucking inconvenience.—"

"Yes., excuse you. You know, you got a lot of fucking nerve, calling me just to fuss at me about some shit that don't even fucking concern you.—"

"Since when does this not concern me?”

"Since your job became your whole fucking like, Y'lan!, are you kidding me?!" The huff that sounds on his end, further pisses her off.

"You just stopped caring. You were always working and always tired and I tried my hardest to be present, while you just sat there. You weren't the man that I feel in love with, anymore."

"Cici, I've been trying to apologize for the longest time, now. I know I wasn't there, like I should've been."

"Well, it's too late for that."

"Why?"

"Cause, I've been doin' this song and dance with you for too fucking long!," she leans against the wall by her bedroom. "I'm sure you out there fucking 'who knows what', so stop worrying about what I'm doing."

She hangs up and heads into her room, face planting onto the sheets and instantly knocking out.

Somewhere around midnight, Cici’s awaken by incessant banging on her front door.

"Ugh!", as she saunters down the hall, the banging grows louder, instantly annoying her. "Okay... either shut the fuck up or wait for me to open the door."

"Open it up, then." Rolling her eyes, she unlocks it and snatches it open, watching him walk in like he owns the place. Closing and locking the door back behind herself, she turns and leans against it, crossing her arms over her chest, her cleavage damn near spilling over.

Y'lan stands a few feet away from her, giving her a hard glare. "Can I help you?" She asks.

"You wanna help me understand why you hung up on me? You know I hate that shit."

"You're such a fucking baby. I didn't give enough of a shit to hear you explain whatever it is that made you act like I was no longer your girlfriend. I moved on and you should too, quit—"

"What?!," he cuts her off. She holds up her pointer finger in his direction.

"—quit!, calling me and harassing me about what and who I'm doing." His brow raises.

"Oh, so that's why you been hangin' up on me and shit. You got a new man in them walls and forgot, huh?" He strides over to her, now just a few inches from her face.

"I'm not a woman that waits. You know that. I've got needs and you weren't fulfilling them. Where's your roster of hoes at?"

"You really think I'm just out here fucking? That's all I'm about?" He questions, a crease in his left brow.

"That's how you used to be, who's to say that it still isn't?"

"Me!," he yells, pointing to his chest. "What's wrong with you?"

"You're what's wrong with me. I hate you.," she snarls, pushing him back. He grips her wrist, beaming back, this time closer to her face.

"You need that attitude fixed."

"Fix it, then."

————

A thick, sticky air shrouds the two bodies inside their bedroom. Pants, moans and grunts compete against the incessant slapping of their skin.

"Fuuuckk.... you feel so damn good, baby," she moans, taking her bottom lip between her teeth, again.

"Wet ass pussy.... I should fuckin' kill you." He grunts, before wrapping his large hand around her neck, thrusting deeper into her.

"Ahn! I'm sorry!"

"Shut the fuck up." Her hand reaches out for his thigh, as he begins to hit her spot.

"Oh fuck! You're gonna make me cum!"

"Cum on this dick." Her body jerks twice, while her pouty and swollen lips allow her foul praises, through.

"Come're." Pulling her up by her hair, his thrusts pick up speed, leaving her mouth to hang ajar.

"He gave it to you like this?"

"Nooooo.... fuck!" She quietly answers, making him move his hand back around her neck, tightly.

"I can't hear you, baby.... say it again." He grunts, dipping his hips into hers.

"No, baby!"

"He make you cum like I do?"

"No— unh!" Her toes curl, feeling him slow down some to dig into her.

"Then, why you keep fuckin' playin' with me, baby?" Moving his hand up to grab her chin, he speeds back up, the clapping of their skin refills the room.

"I'm n-not playiiiiinnng!— unh!, unh!, unh!,..." her fingers grip onto the foot board for dear life.

"I'm sorry!," she cries, feeling another orgasm brewing.

"You sorry, huh?!"

"Yes!"

"You sorry for givin' Daddy's pussy away?" Her eyes roll back as every thrust begins to hit her spot.

"Fuck— yesssss,"

"For tellin' Daddy how much you hate him?" He emphasizes his pained question with a rough stroke, sending a scream through her.

"I didn't mean it, Daddy! Fuck, I love this dick!" Her head hangs forward.

"Ohh fuuccck.... aah! I love this dick, babyyy— I love you!"

"I love yo bratty ass, too. Throw that shit back on Daddy." She bounces back on his lap, feeling him throb against her.

"Feels so good, Daddy!" One hand grips his forearm and the other searches for something to latch onto.

"You boutta cum again, baby?" He taunts in her ear, slowly dragging his girth in and out of her tightening cove.

"Ffff—" her eyes roll back as her peak begins to rear its head.

"Talk to me, babygirl."

"Yes! I'm gonna cum!" Her body hunches forward as her essence drips down her leg. She reaches back for his thigh, pulling him closer.

"Don't st-stop," her top half goes limp on the bed, giving him more leverage to demolish her without a fight.

"Fuck!, I'm gonna cum, again!" Her legs begin to tremble as he third orgasm rushes through, just as quick, making way for another. She presses a hand over her clit, hissing at the overstimulation.

"–—shhhiiiiiit!" Her quaking frame almost hits the ground as she cums again. His big hands hold her up, continuing to dig into her.

"Okay, baby!..... I can't take it— fuck!, ooh!, ooh!, ooh!...." replaying like a broken record, she squeezes against him. He moans in response, stilling for a second.

"You can't handle it, huh?"

"You're killing me, baby... I need a break—" pulling her up from the bed, he presses her against the wall and wraps his hand around the front of her throat.

"You don't deserve a fuckin' break.," the venom in his speech makes her thighs clench around him. "You gon' take all this dick, you understand me?"

"Yes, Daddy,." The lust in her eyes doubles for him. She grabs the back of his head and smashes their lips together, moaning as he grips her fat ass with both hands.

Reaching between them with her free hand, she guides the head of his dick back between her slit, her mouth dropping open as he slides back inside.

"All that shit,..." he reminds her, digging as deep as possible.

"Oh shit...,—it feels so good, baby!" She wraps her arms around his neck and hides her face.

"Shit... you test my patience... all the fucking time.," he growls in her ear, causing a smile to break out on her lips.

"Only, because you let me." Laying her head back on the wall, she stares at him, biting down on her lip at the way his muscles flex.

"I got you that spoiled, huh?" He asks. She nods, closing her eyes as the pleasure begins to slowly build.

"Yes, baby." Pulling her away from the wall, he lays her back on the bed, beginning to move against her, like a serpent. Her hands latch onto his back.

"Oh!," her lips part, her moans swallowed in his many kisses. "Fuck, baby!"

"You feel me, girl?" He grunts against her lips.

"Yes... I feel youuuu!"

"You want this nut, babygirl?"

"Yesss, gimme that nut....," lifting her legs up, she grips the back of her thighs, giving him the leverage he needs.

"Unh,.... such a fucking brat." His hands fall above hers, gripping her flesh as he drives into her, madly.

"Fuck meeee!," she moans, digging her nails into his thighs.

His deep moans multiply as he gets closer, the muscles is his back working overtime, flexing underneath the streetlights outside her window.

"Shit!, I'ma bust all in this shit, you hear me?"

"Yes baby!," she screeches, clenching around him.

"Ah shit... uh! Fuck.... mmmm!," his pounding comes to an abrupt stop as his orgasm rushes through him. His head lolls back at the feeling.

@soufcakmistress @504queen @ghostfacekill-monger @hearteyes-for-killmonger @uzumaki-rebellion @l-auteuse @blowmymbackout @blktinkerbell @supersizemeplz @chaneajoyyy

@captainsaveasmut @nahimjustfeelingit-writes @daddy-killmonger @killmongerdispussy @browngirldominion @issahyland @honeyandpeaches @nxxstybrat @write-fromthe-start @emjayewrites

#miyuhpapayuh #blackwriters #poc writers #smut #ylan noel

422 notes · View notes

dabifixation · 4 years ago

Text

see you later

pairings: dabi x fem!reader

warnings: smut, fluff, angst, major character death, mha manga spoilers, slight gore, MINORS DNI

summary: Dabi knew he had to end things soon before they got out of hand. He knew this wasn't supposed to last long, he told himself that everytime he left your apartment in the early hours of the morning. Until he found himself back here again, in your arms and lost between your thighs.

word count: 4.7k words

"... We encourage everyone to stay at home tonight, as there is a possibility of a severe thunderstorm, along with it flashfloods all over the city..."

The television only served as background noise for you as you moved around your kitchen. Cleaning up the dirty dishes and utensils, a small smile on your lips after the friendly company you had tonight.

It's been a while since you invited your friends over for some supper after the long depressing week you had. You needed that, the entertainment and companionship only they could offer you. You've never laughed or cried so hard in months, telling each other about your sorrows and thoughts for your futures ahead.

Being an adult was never easy, especially in a world full of rejected heroes.

You were so lost in your thoughts that you hadn't heard the warning cough behind you, or the tap against your kitchen counter. But you did give a short shriek when you felt someone wrap their arms around your waist, their chin resting on your shoulder, inhaling your scent.

You relaxed once you felt the familiar warmth of who it was. Only one person in the entire world could be dubbed a walking, breathing furnace, and it was him.

"I missed out on a big meal didn't I?" He drawled, his warm hands rubbing soothing circles against your stomach.

"Maybe if you didn't pop into my life every few months, I would've saved you a plate." You sarcastically replied, but you didn't miss the way how you sounded partially hurt.

You weren't expecting much all those years ago when you found him bloodied and passed out behind your childhood home, and you weren't expecting much now.

You never asked questions, and he never pried in your personal life. You were quite fine with that. Not everyone was an extrovert and had their whole life story ready to be dished out. He was a very private person and you respected that.

He ignored what you said and continued to nuzzle his face into your neck. Using one hand to push your hair over your shoulder, exposing your neck to him.

You suppressed a sigh when you felt his warm lips give short kisses against your neck.

"I've missed you." He breathed cold air into your neck, making you stiffen at those words. He's never said something like that before, not once in the six years since you've known him.

Dabi noticed you stiffen in his arms, but he didn't say a word. He wasn't lying. He did miss you, achingly so.

He missed your stubborn attitude, the sarcastic replies that were on par with his own, the homemade cooking you offered to teach him countless of times that he doubt he'd pay attention to cause he wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself. But most importantly he missed you. The way your touch lingered even days after his monthly visits, the way your lips would pay close attention to the magenta scars all over his body, and the different ways you'd say his name depending on what he was doing to you.

God, he was going to miss all of this once he leaves for the League of Villains.

"I've missed you too." You shyly said, you've never admitted these words aloud before and it felt good to tell him that.

"Turn around for me, I wanna see how good you look." He whispered in your neck.

"Dabi I'm wearing nothing but my puppy printed sweater." You deadpanned.

"It doesn't matter, you always look good no matter what." He playfully nipped your ear, making you roll your eyes despite the heat in your body relocating to your cheeks.

You turned around to face him, a beaming smile on your face that was only ever directed at him. Your heart always soared whenever you looked at him. He was beautiful. The most beautiful man you've ever had the pleasure of laying your eyes on. His eyes were the most vibrant blue you've ever seen, little specks of grey dancing in those pretty blues that were half lidded but always calculative and aware of his surroundings. He licked his lips, bringing your attention to the plump flesh that were an interesting contrast between soft and jagged, and the pink tongue residing in his mouth.

Your eyes were transfixed on his appearance, making sure no hair on his head was missing or any new injuries to his increasing collection. You rested your forehead against his hard chest once you found nothing out of place, letting out a sigh of relief when you finalized that he was okay, and not sporting a limp or any other injury.

"Damn, I stress you out that much huh doll?" You could hear the smirk in his voice, but didn't have the energy to make a snarky remark, only offering him a small smile.

"Your visits are becoming less and less you know, the last time I saw you was five months ago. I was..." so worried about you, you wanted to say. You were so worried that you stayed up everyday, two hours after your initial bedtime hoping that he'd at least show up once in those five months. He didn't, and you were beginning to think he never would, until tonight. You didn't want to tell him that.

He wouldn't care.

You felt embarrassed that you were crying to your friends about him earlier on. Scared that you'd never see him again, not because he's moved on from you as you know there's nothing keeping him here other than sex and a warm bed to crash in, but because you were worried he'd get himself injured or worse. And you didn't like dwelling on what worse could imply.

"I kno–" Dabi's words were cut off by a small sneeze he muffled into his arm. Sneezing twice more before he regained his composure.

You only noticed now that his clothes were slightly damp and heavier than usual. It made your eyesbrows furrow.

"How long were you in the rain Dabi?" You questioned, knowing you wouldn't like whatever answer he'd come up with.

"Ever since your lady friends came by."

"That was over two hours ago? You've been sitting in the rain this entire time?!" You felt your blood pressure rising when he only shrugged at your accusations. It was like arguing with a toddler sometimes.

You sighed again, pinching the bridge of your nose. "I've got a box of mens clothes laying around here somewhere. Go take a shower and I'll get them for you and make you a cup of hot tea."

He quirked one eyebrow up, staring intensely at you.

"What?" You averted your eyes away from his, embarrassed that he was searching your face for something.

He shrugged again, rolling his battered coat off his shoulders and started stripping the rest of his clothes off. You turned around before he could go any further. Busying yourself with getting his tea ready.

Dabi stopped undressing, standing there with nothing but his jeans on. Watching you as you got the correct items in order to make him tea, muttering to yourself about which biscuits he might like with it.

He liked the butterscotch ones, but he didn't bother opening his mouth. Too memorized by the way you moved around so frantically as if he was dying instead of coming down with a small cold.

He liked that about you, he liked a lot of things about you. Especially the way you cared about the simplest things pertaining to him even during moments of intimacy. You treated him like glass even if he didn't offer the same treatment in return, not because he didn't want to, he just didn't know how to go about it.

He frowned.

Dabi was only ever vulnerable around you, and you didn't even realize it. You didn't know the power you had over him, and he'd like to keep it that way. Afraid that you'd use it against him and he wouldn't be able to bring himself to hurt you for that. He could never hurt you.

He found himself walking towards you on impulse, hugging your waist once again. This time pressing his body flush against yours. He heard you gasp and that pulled a smirk out of him.

"Do you know what you do to me?" He gripped your hip with one hand, and snuck the other hand underneath your shirt. His lips against your neck, right above your pulse point.

Your stomach tensed when you felt his hot fingers rubbing soothing circles against it. He pressed you further against him, making you feel the growing length against your ass. You bit your lip, stopping yourself from whimpering too early.

"The way your nipples are perking up so nicely for me in this shirt that's practically transparent is driving me nuts." He snaked his hand further up your shirt, brushing the skin underneath your breasts gently. Your breath caught in your throat as you gripped the counter tightly.

Your panties were clinging to your pussy uncomfortably, you could feel the material getting wetter with each passing second. You tried rubbing your thighs together for some friction, but Dabi wasn't having any of it. He clicked his tongue out of irritation, the hand on your hips falling towards your inner thighs, parting your legs. His hold was strong enough to prevent you from rubbing your thighs together, you wanted to whine when he didn't place his hand right where you wanted them.

Just a little higher.

"I asked you a question doll." He spoke into your hair, taking a deep breath from the rooibos shampoo you used. The smell turned him on even more.

"W-what question?" You whimpered, resting the back of your head onto his chest, sighing out as he brushed the pads of his thumb against your hardened nipples.

"I don't like repeating myself." He growled, pinching your nipples harshly causing you to whimper pathetically in his arms. He continue to tweak at your nipples roughly before groping your breast and fondling it the way he liked.

"Dabi... " You mewled.

"Don't. Don't say my name like that." He gave your nipples a warning pinch.

You bucked up into his hips, involuntarily grinding against his cock. The swollen head rubbing in between your ass despite the jeans restricting him. Making him choke back a groan.

Dabi was just as impatient as was it in his nature to tease. He took his hand away from between your thighs to quickly lick the tips of his index and middle finger, bringing them back towards your aching pussy. You were such a good girl, not once taking the opportunity to touch yourself or rub your thighs together.

He wasted no time in pushing your thong to the side, sucking a deep breath through his teeth when he rubbed his fingers through your slit collecting the thick moisture gathered there. You always got so wet for him.

After coating his fingers in your arousal, he moved his fingers towards the bundle of nerves that had been pulsing ever since he rocked up at your house.

You let out a breathy yes, eyes rolling to the back of your head as Dabi rubbed your clit just the way you liked, grinding it down in tight circles that had your toes curling. He pinched at your clit piercing, knowing how much you liked it when he played with the metal and how easily it could make you gush for him. The pleasure was overwhelming and had you feeling light headed.

Without warning, Dabi plunged those same two fingers into your tight pussy. You bit back a scream as your body jerked and writhed against him. Hips chasing after his fingers as they thrusted deeper into your spongy walls, the palm of his hand grinding against your clit. The stimulation was too much for you.

"Fuck!" You shouted out, bringing your hand down to his, gripping on his wrist tightly so he could go deeper and faster. He could get you cumming around his two fingers alone, he didn't need more than that.

"Dabi please." You begged.

"Please what?" He asked curiously, knowing exactly what you so deeply craved.

The hand around your breast disappeared. He reached for his jeans so he could unzip it and pull it down. A short relieved sigh left his lips once his jeans were pulled down his thighs, just enough to free his heavy cock from all that pressure. He gripped his cock in his free hand, he wanted to feel you around him so bad but he had to be patient, as much as he hated it.

Dabi watched you from underneath his dark lashes, the way your body responded to him in delicious squirms and moans drove him mad. He added pressure to your clit, grinding his palm hard against it. Your body rocked back into him for more, a high pitched wail leaving those beautiful lips he couldn't wait to claim.

"I want you ins- shit shit shit!" He watched your body shaking silently against him, thighs trembling, pussy clamping so hard around his fingers he hissed as he pulled them out and quickly replaced them with his angry, pulsing cock.

"Fuck." Dabi let out breathlessly in your ear, feeling you clench and gush around him as you came. He wasn't prepared for this. To feel you around him after five long excruciating months. He loved the way your pussy gripped onto him after all these years, as if it was the first time all over again.

Dabi pulled your head back by your chin so he could look into your eyes as he drove you into your next orgasm. Ignoring your pained whimpers of pleasure from being overstimulated like this. He dragged his cock slowly out of you, holding back a gasp as he slid out of your warm walls, missing the snug warmth around him, and then slammed right back into you without warning, making you cry out.

Your ass bounced against his thighs as he gained momentum, making him cuss underneath his breath at the squelching noises that came along with it and the mess you made on his jeans. Your hands fell down to Dabi's thighs, gripping them tightly but not tight enough to leave your mark, as he practically seethed from the power trip of fucking you after so long.

The drag of his cock inside you had you nearing your second orgasm so soon, and with the animalistic grunts Dabi let out, you could tell he wasn't too far behind. He usually lasted longer than this, way longer, he underestimated how much he truly missed you it seemed.

"Dhabi... Phleasinside... Please!" He could barely make out what you were saying, a stroke to his ego at fucking you so silly to a point you couldn't use your words properly.

"What doll? Use your words." There was a slight wheeze to his words, your pussy clenching so tightly around him had him close to losing his breath.

"Please cum inside... fuck your cum inside me please. Please!" You momentarily gained back your speech long enough to form coherent sentences. You screwed your eyes shut as you felt your orgasm nearing.

His grip on your hips tightened immensely, no doubt leaving his fingerprints there for days. He wouldn't last much longer and you knew it, the telltale signs of his thighs tensing and the urgent bucking of his hips told you he was close.

Dabi let out a groan so deep from the very depths of his stomach, goosebumps began to rise on your sore arms from the intense sound alone. He forced your head to the back so he could kiss you as he came, making a sound so damn carnal it had you cumming alongside him.

The two of you came together in perfect harmony, your pussy clenching down so hard on his cock it had you lurching forward from the force, breaking the heated kiss. Long strings of hot semen shot up into your awaiting womb, dripping down your thighs when it had no more room to go.

Your breathing was uneven, your chest and throat burning from your screaming session. Forever grateful that you didn't live by your parents anymore, back when you had to muffle all your moans from when you and Dabi used to fool around even back then.

He was no better, his breathing shallow and unsteady.

Dabi didn't pull out just yet, savoring the moment of the two of you being joined as one. His fingers traced the long line running down your back, not caring how sweaty you were as he kissed your shoulders gently in gratitude. After awhile he pulled his softened cock out of you, groaning from the oversensitivity while you winced from the evidence of what took place running down your shaky thighs.

The high from sex quickly came crashing down on him. He wasn't here to have sex with you, it just happened. Guilt began to chew at his mind from what he was about to do next, but the way you looked at him, with those caring eyes someone like him didn't deserve, made him drag this moment out far longer than it should've been.

He wasn't a ''now rather than later'' kind of guy after all.

"Let's get you cleaned up." His stomach churned when he watched you look up at him in confusion.

That's right, Dabi never cared about aftercare or basking in the afterglow. He thought it was unnecessary, but couldn't say he hasn't wondered how it would feel to have you running your fingers through his hair and humming childhood lullabies the way his mother used to do to him.

A pang shot out to his heart at the thought of his mother, quickly stomping those traitorous thoughts from making an appearance tonight. Not now, he thought. Returning his full attention towards you and your warm hand grasping his own. Squeezing it gently to bring him back down to earth.

Usually after he was done he'd leave, not that you were bitter about it or anything. That's just how it was. A small smirk would grace his two-toned lips with a "See you later" sent your way before he left your apartment. It was a little tradition shared between you two, the first time he said it you were still 16, applying ointment to his injuries after you found him in your parents backyard. He abruptly left without so much as a thank you, only offering those three words.

Now whenever he left, he'd always say those words to ease your brewing anxiety in promise of seeing you next time. And he never broke that promise.

He didn't speak to you about it, but you could tell he risked everything by coming to your place every once in awhile. You were not ignorant to the things Dabi did, some part of you knew he was involved with some shady things. Things you didn't want to bring up with him.

A man didn't get that many scars in their 23 years of life by being a good samaritan.

You reached your shower, stepping in while Dabi adjusted the settings to both of your liking, joining you once he was satisfied. You've come to love the heat as much as him, hot showers always reminded you of the flame user.

The water ran hot against the both of you. You looked up at Dabi, surprised to see him watching you. For a short moment, you held his gaze. Wondering what could possibly be running through his head that had him looking so defeated.

He wanted to tell you then and there that he'd have to leave for good this time. The League weren't people to be taken lightly, especially with that unhinged brat as their leader. He wouldn't be surprised if the creepy fucker was the type to kill the loved ones of people in order to maintain compliance.

But Dabi kept his mouth, and reached for your blue loofah instead. Squirting some of your lemon scented body wash onto it, scrunching it up so it could get more soapy. He worked in silence, scrubbing your body gently with utmost care and concentration.

Hell would freeze over before Dabi allows anyone to touch a single hair on your body. He didn't care who it was, even if it was the League members, he'd make damn sure their life would end with them being nothing but dirt underneath his shoe. He had to stop coming over after tonight, he was heading into dangerous, unknown territory afterall and he'd rather avoid killing the people he needed to exploit. His plans were finally at his fingers tips, and he wasn't about to throw them away over sex.

No, it was more than sex, no matter how many times he tried convincing himself that he was only here for one reason, he'd just end up fooling himself. At night when he'd look for shelter on the streets, when his quirk couldn't keep him warm the way he wanted, you'd plague his mind with your sweet smile and honey voice. Scolding him for not taking better care of himself and that he could crash at your place if he needed to get back on his feet.

That's why Dabi stopped scrubbing you just as you began to relax at the newfound comfort. You felt his hands tense against your body, making you turn around in concern.

"Hey. Is everything okay?" You were so concerned about him, his chest tightened. Why did you care so much about someone like him. You were so ignorant and stupid. Could you not see the blood on his hands from all the innocent people he convinced himself he killed out of pleasure. It infuriated him to no end, but he could never get mad at you. Not really. He tried pushing you away before, but you were as stubborn as him so he gave up on that method.

Your shoulders fell from his lack of response.

You were too grown to be playing guessing games with him, it was cute entertaining it before, but not now. Not when you were just coming to terms with... with what exactly?

You had an inkling of what was going on, but didn't want to push further. If he was going to tell you, he would. So you asked the next best thing.

"When will you be back?" You asked hopefully, water running down your face. He flashed you a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. His fingers brushing your wet hair out of your face. He learned in, placing a soft kiss against your forehead, his lips lingering for a moment.

"You're so important to me and I don't want you getting hurt because of my suicidal actions." Was what Dabi wanted to say, but he didn't.

So Dabi did what Dabi did best, deflect from the situation and push his true feelings down. Just when you thought you were making progress (as small as that progress was) in this twisted relationship you had with him, you were right where you started.

"I don't know when, I can't tell you exactly. But just know it won't be anytime soon." Or ever.

"Okay. Just... just stay safe." You whispered, placing your hand above his chest, where his heart was. You could feel the way his heart was beating ferociously against his chest, like a caged animal.

He brushed his thumb against your cheek, wanting to remember how soft your skin felt underneath his fingertips, wanting to remember everything from tonight before he left for good. He gave you one last kiss, this time on your lips. A quick peck that said a thousand words, and got out of the shower getting ready to leave. You stood still underneath the scorching heat of the shower, for the first time in years it actually made you flinch in pain.

You watched as he dried himself off with your towel, not paying any attention to you as his hand reached for the doorknob. Much to your relief, he spared you a brief glance that said everything you needed to know in that moment.

"See you later."

It's been ten months since you last saw him, almost a year. And in those ten months you've moved out of the city, got a new job and apartment better than the last. You were happy, content with how life has been treating you lately. Your skin was healthier and glowing, you made time for the gym and started toning your body to your liking. Everything was perfect.

It's been ten months since you last saw him, until you finally did.

There Dabi was, or as it said on the news headline, Touya Todoroki, all over your television. Standing above the ruins of a burning building. His clothes were torn, and his body full of cuts and bruises. You didn't even notice the white hair until the news reporter pointed it out.

There was a ringing in your ear as the camera zoomed in on what looked like a teenage boy emerging from one of the ruins, sporting dual coloured hair. Shouto Todoroki was his name they said, Dabi's younger brother who was a 1st year student at UA High School.

Dabi burst into those beautiful blue flames that you admired so much, while the young boy's left side burst into flames of red and orange. They appeared to get ready to fight, the entire country watching with bated breath.

And then everything happened so fast after that.

You don't remember when the tears started falling, but you do remember the loud sob that tore out of your throat as you watched Dabi's flames engulf him from over-exerting his quirk. He fell on his knees, face twisting as he screamed in pain. You couldn't hear what was happening as the mic from the camera crew melted from the overbearing heat of the two flame users, but you could tell that the pain he was going through was excruciating.

You didn't even recognize your own scream when his body swayed as his flames ate away at his flesh. The staples holding his two skin types together, melting into his flesh. You felt sick to your stomach.

Dry sobs continued to leave your sore throat as you watched the man you've known since you were 16, the man you were afraid to admit that you loved so deeply and finally came to terms with it after six years, slowly dying on national television as the entire world watched and didn't do anything about it.

The anchorman's voice was muffled as you watched your lover fall down, face first into the concrete. His body immobile. Your throat clogged up in pain, all you could do now was cry and watch as his little brother tried reviving him using CPR. A failed attempt, but what else could a 15 year old with zero experience in the medical field do.

A part of you felt like it was being ripped out as you watched heroes rush to the scene trying to pry the young boy away from his older brother. You watched as he pushed them away baring his teeth at them, tears streaming down his young face. You watched as a stretcher rolled by, two medics picking up Dabi's burnt corpse and putting him in that black body bag, zipping it up and slowly moving away from the scene.

The screen went blank, offering nothing but silence as you came to terms with what just happened, before the news anchor popped up, a nauseating smile on his pinched face.

"... The villain Dabi has finally been defeated by his own quirk. A win for hero society against their fight with the villains!!"

You were too numb to tell how many hours passed by as you sat there all alone in your room.

While the country celebrated his defeat, your entire world came crumbling down.

You would never be able to feel his warm hands cup your cheeks, pecking you all over the face while he praised you. You would never get to kiss him again, the type of kisses that left you weak in the knees. You would never get to do things with him that you always wanted to do, simple things such as falling asleep in his arms after a long day of work.

But most of all, you would never hear those three special words of his again, the words you didn't even realize until now, were his way of proclaiming his love for you.

"See you later."

#dabi #touya todoroki #touya #touya x reader #dabi smut #dabi x y/n #bnha smut #bnha imagines #manga spoilers #dabi headcanons #dabi fanfiction #mha fanfictions #anime #mha spoilers

200 notes · View notes

catzula · 4 years ago

Text

a/n: I just love Suna so much *screams*

honorable mentions: crackfic-like? The handsome-stranger-you-meet-at-the-airport au, swearing, 1.2k

It's a night flight.

Suna always preferred night flights, anyway.

Suna doesn't like flying. Sitting in a cramped seat for hours can't be anyone's favorite hobby, but he hates flying with a passion. For starters- it's unhygienic. The air has a strange smell to itself, as well, and it never fails to give him goosebumps and an urge to stop inhaling altogether.

He hates the tasteless coffee they serve, and the little packets of nuts remind him of the day he had discovered his nut allergy in a flight like this. The leather seats making him feel sticky with sweat, but the air conditioning brings him on the brink of hypothermia.

If there was an injection of sorts he could take that would put him in a coma during the flight, Suna wouldn't think twice before taking it, and based on all this, it's fair to say he can get a little cranky in airports.

As someone with not too much energy to spare, airports are exhausting for him. He already doesn't like running, but Kita is a little too punctual to let him rest or buy a coffee from Starbucks. The twins' fighting about something new every other minute never already driving him mad, but being surrounded by overly stressed people doesn't help, either.

"I will jump out of the window if I have to sit next to Atsumu on the flight." Suna had told the captain months before, the exact moment he had heard he would have to fly with the team.

That was the very reason the middle blockers seat was all the way in the back, located next to the window and a stranger. Suna can't be happier- all he wants is some peace and quiet, anyway, to wear his sleep mask and headphones and cut ties with reality as much as he can.

"You good there?" Suna barely hears Atsumu's irritating voice through his headphones, lips curling in annoyedly as he turns to the boy to send a glare- but to his surprise, the fake blond isn't looking at Suna.

"Oh, I- ah fuck- yeah!" He hears a voice, and it takes him a second to notice you who stands before the seats, arms reaching up for the overhead cabins and successfully blocking Suna from his seat. You must be the stranger he'll have to spend the next eight hours with, he supposes.

The tired gaze looks you up and down, you who is fighting a bag half your size- shouldn't that be under the plane?- and trying to push it into the overhead cabins. It's apparent you're struggling, arms shaking with the heaviness of the bag, biting your lip to muffle the sounds of your wrestling.

Despite your words, anyone who has eyes could tell you are, in fact, not fine.

In desperate need of a pair of longer arms, you peek at the tall brunette standing next to you; he's huge, broad shoulders and a height that makes you wonder if he hit his head on the way here. He looks familiar- if you weren't in as much of a pinch- you might've let out an audible gasp when you realized why he looked so familiar.

He's the stranger you'd seen earlier that day, standing in the line across of you, looking tired and black-painted nails scrolling down his phone. The all-black fit he has only adds to the mysterious aura surrounding him, arms slumped forward nonchalantly. You remember thinking if you'd ever see him or anyone as handsome ever again, making scenarios in your mind as to what kind of a man he is. You never thought you'd ever meet him again, though.

Suna notices the silent cry of help you have in your eyes, even when you avert your gaze away from him and mask your desperation- but he's no fool, he can tell when someone lookshim with an open need of help.

Well.

Suna admits he's no saint, either.

He can help you out, and you both can sit your seats, but he doesn't really care, nor has the energy to help you. All he wants to do is to sit down already -even though it would suffice if he just pushed the bag with his fingertips, but Atsumu beside you smiling at you does look a little more eager to help than he does, anyway. There you go, a prince charming ready to help.

Suna seems unfazed by the glare you send his way -any scenario you've created falling in disappointment, too, really? He wouldn't even offer to help?- as he bends in half to slip through the triangle-shaped gap you've created with your arms, slipping underneath them to get to his seat and-

A shriek outs your lips as you watch the bright blue bag slide from your fingertips, it's almost like slow motion, watching the object fall right on top of the boys' head.

"Ah! What the-" Suna groans in pain right after hearing a loud thump caused by the crash of the luggage and his skull. "What the fuck?"

Fox-like eyes are quick to find you, going between your panic-stricken and slightly amused face and the bag resting before your feet. "I-I'm so sorry!" You exclaim, but your strained voice sounds more like you're holding back a laugh instead of guilty.

Well. Karma is a bitch.

"Here, let me help." Atsumu offers maybe a little too late as he lifts your bag off the ground -Atsumu hopes he managed to hide how much he struggled, too. Honestly? What do you have in there?- and places it in the cupboard. "Thank you." You at least have the decency to look grateful at the blonde, giving him a pretty smile. "I'm so sorry," you repeat, turning your focus back to the brunette, who is rubbing his head in pain. "It just slipped out of my hand!"

To your dismay, Suna doesn't even spare you a glance as he mutters a "Whatever." Frowning and finally plopping himself down on his seat.

You narrow your eyes but stay silent as you do the same, too, settling in the seat, accidentally elbowing him one too many times as you try to get your damn jacket off.

You can feel his dissatisfied glare as the flight attendant brings the man sitting beside you a packet of ice, and you ignore the "tch!" sound he makes as he places the ice on the crown of his head.

"Bye, Suna!" The blonde you've seen earlier waves a goodbye at the stranger sitting next to you- Suna, you think, a pretty name for a man as cross as him.

"Are you okay?" You mutter under your breath, raising your gaze to take a better look at him. His face contorted in pain- he's the type of handsome you only get to meet in an airport. It's unfair how good-looking the man is, his shapely lip rolled between his teeth, deep-brown locks tousled and messy, and he has the prettiest eyes you've ever seen in your life.

Suna doesn't answer your question, but he makes it clear he's heard you with a scoff, eyes rolling in annoyance, averting his gaze to his phone. It makes you feel angry- being ignored as if you're a six-year-old kid.

"I'm not sorry, actually. You had it coming." You huff pettily, lips pursing when he keeps his silence.

"Okay, I'm a little sorry." You mutter after a few awkwardly silent seconds, suddenly feeling guilty. You did drop a heavy ass bag on his head, after all. "But not much."

You turn your eyes away from him when he sighs, annoyance evident in the sound. "And?" He hums, voice monotone and deep. "Which answer I give will make you stop talking to me?"

Suna knows that was unnecessary as hurt and embarrassment flash across your face- he notices that's the first time he even looked at you that night. Well, he can get unreasonable at airports, he agrees.

"That was rude." Suna comments after a few awkward seconds.

"It was." You agree. "But I was rude, as well."

"You kind of were."

To his answer, you can't hold back a lighthearted chuckle, the oddness of the situation dawning on the both of you. "This might be in the top 10 strangest ways I met someone." You chuckle, he does, too, but with a sarcastic quirk of his brow.

He has a pretty smile, plump lips curving just enough to show you a glimpse of his white teeth, enhancing the sharp features of his face. "Only top ten? That's a shame."

You don't speak as Suna closes the sleeping mask over his eyes -it has a cat print on it too, how cute- as a smile still lingers on his lips. "Good thing I have eight hours to at least make it into top five."

#haikyuu x reader #suna x reader #haikyuu x you #hq x reader #suna rintaro scenarios #suna rintaro imagine #suna x you #suna x y/n #suna fluff #haikyuu suna #haikyuu imagines #haikyu x reader #haikyuu!!

174 notes · View notes

tinyboxxtink · 3 years ago

Text

"Weird Secret Friends" *Chapter 2*

Part 1

Part 3

Y'all IDK what it is about this story but I can just write and write and write. This one ended up being 11 pages [on a google doc] And I only stopped because it's 2:15 am.

I hope you guys like this, but I just want to clarify: This isn't a Barisi fic. I'm sorry, if you're looking for that, just...this isn't it. I mean they do interact and it'll be fun, but they will not be ending up together.

That being said, enjoy this new chapter! I'm debating on how pathetic enamored Sonny is, I don't think I'm gonna go that deep. No worries, people.

As always let me know if you want to be added/deleted off the tag list!! <3

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

-------

"Y/N, I'm so happy for you and Barba. You make the cutest couple," Sonny beamed at you while you were wrapped in Rafael's arms, huge smiles on all of your faces.

"Thank you Sonny, that means so much." You gave him a warm hug.

"Yeah….and you'll make the cutest couple in HELL!" All of a sudden Sonny pushed both you and Rafael off a cliff.

You were falling to your death when you woke up to your professor glaring at you.

"Have a nice nap, Miss Y/N?" He scowled at you.

"Um," You cleared your throat and straightened up at your desk. "Yes sir,"

"Good," he huffed as he headed to the front of the classroom once more. "Maybe now we can continue without your snoring,"

You heard the students around you snicker at his comments as You sunk lower into your desk and waited for class to end. It had been a long train ride home and then a drive to your apartment last night, you hadn't gotten home until around 2 am and had this 8 am class. As soon as the professor dismissed your class you booked it out of the class and out into the parking lot of your community college.

"Ugh, could this day get any--" before you could even finish your thought you got your answer. Your phone beeped with a text from Rafael:

RAFA: Hey killer, how's the bullshit county? 😉

That was the nice thing, then just as you were about to text him back your phone lit up.

SONNY BOI CALLING

"Shit!" You hissed to no one. "How does he know?!"

"Ahem….Heyyy, cuz," You answered it with your best nonchalant voice. That of course sounded totally chalant.

"Hey sunshine," His voice sounded relaxed, thank God.

"What's up?" You tried keeping your tone light as you neared your car.

"Well y'know I was just thinkin, I feel real bad about standing you up last night,"

"Oh, Son it's no big deal really," the fact that he felt guilty about anything made you feel even more guilty.

"No, I know you have a busy schedule and it takes a lot to get into the City and I just blew you off," He kept on with the guilt train.

"You didn't blow me off Son you had work. I get that--" You unlocked your car and got in, starting it so your windows would thaw. And your whole body.

"Well I wanna make it up to you," He cut you off.

"Oh?" your voice fell short. This couldn't be good.

"Yeah, my boss-- well he's not really My boss but Mr. Barba--"

Oh shit. Barba? Was Barba having a party? Why wouldn't He tell you that? Wait why WOULD he tell you that? Stupid. Wait, what was Sonny saying?

".... birthday, so you could be like my date," you caught the tail end of his invite.

"Birthday?" You repeated like a parrot. It was Barba's birthday? Oh god. You were really trying not to focus on how old he was. Don't ask. For the love of god don't say it Sonny.

"Yeah don't worry you don't need to get him anything, I got it covered," Sonny assured you.

Well, that was one way you could figure out just how much your cousin cared about his "idol". The more expensive the gift, the stronger the feelings were. You wondered whether you should ask him now or wait for the surprise. Maybe you should ask now, then his answer should tell you what you'd be getting into.

*So what did you get this 'non boss' of yours?" You asked slyly.

"Oh," now Sonny's voice dropped. "Well I, I don't wanna say,"

Fuck.

Don't panic. Do not panic.

"Oh come on Sonny," you did your best to keep a joking tone. "What am I gonna do, tell him?"

Should you joke about it? Hidden in plain sight, right?

"No I guess not, it's not like you know him,"

Whew.

"It's just kinda embarrassing…."

Oh god.

"O-Oh?" You tried to stay calm. "Why's that? Is it a gag gift?"

Please be a gag gift.

"Actually it's a new briefcase," He replied.

"Oh why is that embarrassing you goof?” You gave him a hard time. What was that in the emotional baggage department? Pun intended.

"I mean, it's more expensive than the one I own," You could hear the shrug in his voice.

Fuck. Don't ask why. Don't ask. But if you don't ask, that will be even more suspicious wouldn't it?

"Oh Son," You asked softly. "Why would you do that?"

"Well the one he has is as old as dirt, I think it's probably the first one he ever bought. I wanted him to look snazzy in court." He replied with a super eager tone.

"That's sweet," you were pounding your steering wheel in frustration. Say it.

"Seems like a lot of work for a mentor though," You closed your eyes mentally killing yourself.

"Yeah well," he laughed uncomfortably.

Say it.

"Sonny…” You didn’t want to do this.

“Yeah?” He was oblivious.

“You know you can always talk to me,”

“Yeah of course,” He assured you.

“About anything,” You scrunched your nose.

“Yeah I know, sunshine,” He half laughed.

“ANYTHING,” You reiterated

There was a long awkward pause.

“...Sonny?” You made sure he hadn’t hung up on you.

“Yeah, I'm here,” He replied softly.

“So?” You waited for the bomb to drop.

So…. He sighed. "I just want him to like me,"

Dammit.

"....Yeah," You nodded, cursing yourself.

"Yeah, its stupid. I'm stupid." He laughed again.

“You're not stupid,” you laid your head on the steering wheel in shame.” I mean the heart wants what it wants right?”

“What?! Oh my god, Y/N,” He scoffed. “I'm not gay,”

“….Sonny it's 2021,” you shook your head. “Sexuality is a spectrum,”

Right well. He laughed defensively. "I'm on the p in the v scale,"

“Ugh, Sonny,” you made a face.

“Sorry sunshine,” He apologized. “I just...why would you even think that?!”

“Uh…” You paused.

Maybe he wasn't fully aware that he had romantic feelings for Rafael. If you started pointing out the signs, he might realize it. But then you'd have a cousin going through gay panic AND then finding out it doesn't matter anyway.

"No reason," You lied.

"I just want him to like him so he'll give me a good recommendation once I graduate Fordham Law,"

"Oh" you smacked your head. "Duh. Right. Of course,"

That was completely legitimate. Maybe you had been misreading this whole thing. Now you just had the whole overprotective Gotti side of Sonny to worry about.

"Well I guess I could spend the weekend in the city," You shrugged as you pulled out of the parking lot.

“Absolutely!” He exclaimed. “My couch is always open,”

Not exactly where you were thinking of sleeping, but you weren't blowing your cover over the phone. Wait, maybe you should. Then he couldn't kill you over the phone. Wait, he's presumably at work right now. You didn't know how closely he worked with Barba, but you figured it would be a hell of a lot easier for Sonny to get to him before you could stop him from killing Rafael.

"Sure sounds good. I'll see you then cuz,” You smiled and hung up the phone.

------

Friday arrived, and you once again found yourself standing outside Forlini's. You debated heavily whether to go in or not, but you told yourself you were going to wait for Sonny outside this time, no more risking a sexy bar rendezvous.

You hadn’t really responded to Rafael’s texts the last few days, and you certainly didn’t tell him you were coming. Maybe you should have told him. You grabbed your phone to text him when you heard a familiar voice behind you:

“Y/N?”

You spun around to see Rafael dressed to the 9’s, smiling at you. He smelled delicious, mixed with the food aroma wafting out of the restaurant and the smell of freshly fallen snow in New York City.

“...Happy Birthday, Counselor,” You bit your lip nervously.

“W-What are you doing here?” He stared at you as if he thought he was dreaming.

“Sonny invited me,” You nervously smiled.

“Seriously?” He laughed.

“Seriously,” You nodded with a laugh as well.

“Did-- did you say anything to him?” He asked you worriedly.

“Are you insane?!” You hit him. “No!”

“So why did he invite you here?” He asked.

“He said it was to make up for ditching me the other night,” You shrugged.

“...The irony,” He smirked.

“Mmm,” You nodded with an amused smile.

“Well this is a very happy birthday indeed,” He smiled, pulling you closer into his coat similar to the night you had met.

“....Just don’t ask which one it is,” He warned you while staring at your lips deviously.

“Deal,” You nodded in agreement before he pulled you into a hungry kiss.

“DUDE!!” You snapped back before his lips were on yours for more than a millisecond. “Are you nuts?! Sonny’s gonna be here any second!”

“It’s my birthday, carino,” He made a pouty face. “Don’t yell at me,”

“Oh lord,” You rolled your eyes. “Alright, man child,”

He was about to go for another sneaky kiss when you both heard a voice from behind you.

“....Sunshine?”

“Oh!” You jumped ten feet away from Rafael when you turned to see Sonny standing there with a huge gift bag, staring slack jawed at the two of you. “Sonny! I um, we--”

“I was teaching your cousin a lesson in New York safety,” Rafael talked over you, his face completely stone. God he was a good liar.

“Excuse me, counselor?” Sonny raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of you. You just stared in speechlessness.

“She was standing on this curb holding her bag out for any miscreant on these streets to just wrestle away from her, I was just demonstrating how,” He gestured to your open purse.

“Barba I really think this ain’t that kinda neighborhood,” Sonny half laughed.

“...You never know,” Rafael shrugged. “Now let’s all get inside, I’m sure everyone is anxious to start celebrating me,”

You and Sonny both rolled your eyes with smiles; too similar of smiles, you noticed. Thankfully, he did not. You both followed Rafael back to a private room where a bunch of fancy dressed people were mingling with drinks in their hands while two long empty tables stood in the middle of the room. They all stopped and clapped when Rafael walked in.

“Oh, for me?” He feigned surprise and humility.

“Yeah right Barba,” A woman laughed sarcastically. “You’re the one who invited us here,”

“Touche, Rita,” Rafael smirked as he began making the rounds around the table greeting everyone.

“So are we allowed to eat now, I’m starving,” An older man asked.

“And I’ve got a son waiting,” A red headed woman chimed in.

“Right, right,” Rafael nodded as people began to take seats. “Sorry everyone, you know I love to make a dramatic entrance,”

“Oh trust me we know, Barba,” Another man called. “Your catwalks into the courtroom prove that. I think we have a montage of them,”

“Ha Ha,” Rafael rolled his eyes, then turned to you and Sonny.

“Sonny,” He put a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t you sit next to me?”

“R-Really, counselor?” You saw Sonny’s eyes light up like Christmas tree lights.

Fuck. You knew he was only asking him so that you would sit next to him as well. And while you loved the idea, you knew how much this was toying with Sonny’s feelings.

“A-Are you sure, about that Mr. Barba?” You gave him a look.

“Absolutely, Miss-- I didn’t catch your name?” He played it so cool.

“Y/N,” You held out your hand as you re-introduced yourself.

“Right, well--” He shook your hand then turned his attention to Sonny who was still beaming like a kid on Christmas. “I don’t know how much Carisi has told you, but he is quite the promising mentee of mine,”

“....R-Really, Rafael?” Sonny blinked in disbelief, causing Rafael’s smile to falter for a moment. Sonny had never called him “Rafael” before, it was always “Barba”. Shit, maybe he had given him too much praise.

“I mean, you know, for a lap dog,” He quickly added with a snarky tone and a smirk.

“Mr. Barba!” You tried not to raise your voice at the birthday boy. “That is my cousin you’re talking ab---”

“No, no it’s fine Y/N-- th-that’s how we work isn’t it, counselor? He just gives me jabs, I know he doesn’t mean it,” Sonny laughed nervously, staring at the floor. He knew not to get too comfortable with Barba, why did he even try it?

“Indeed,” Rafael nodded in agreement. “But, I still request you sit by me-- at least I know you don't poison my food. Which is more than I can say for many of my esteemed ‘guests’,” He eyed the tables of people before him.

“Then why invite them to your party?” You quirked an eyebrow.

“I get that Jersey doesn’t have the social classes of Manhattan, Miss Y/N,” He smirked. “But here, you’ve got to do things to keep up appearances,”

“Oh do you?” You practically growled.

“Yes,” He nodded while a waiter brought him a glass of scotch. “Even if you don’t like someone, if they serve a purpose for you than you do what you must to keep in their good graces,”

“Oh is that so? So you’re only kind to people who can ‘serve’ you?” You crossed your arms and narrowed your eyes at him.

What kind of Danny Zuko bullshit was this?! This was an entirely different Rafael Barba you had met the other night. He was kind, flirty, endearing. This new Barba was snarky and condescending, and you were not amused at all.

“Y/N, chill,” Sonny hissed at you. “This is just how Barba is, he’s harmless,”

“Yeah well you might not mind being his doormat Sonny, but I sure as hell won’t be,” You angrily stomped off.

“Oh my god,” Sonny muttered, wondering if he should run after you or not. “Barba, I am so so sorry about her,”

“It’s fine, Carisi,” He watched you stomping away, trying to hide the guilt in his voice. He was just trying his best to throw Sonny off the trail. He may have overcompensated just a tad.

“I-I should go check on her, She’s just a kid--”

“No, allow me,” Rafael put a hand to Sonny’s chest. “It was my faux paux, I should apologize to her myself. I was being a bit of an ass,”

“Yeah but that’s just you, Barba,” Sonny chuckled, trying not to blush at Rafael’s hand on his chest.

“True, but I forget not everyone knows me as well as you do, Carisi,” And now he was trying to be extra nice to Sonny to get on his good side, while cluelessly egging on his feelings.

“That is very true,” Sonny laughed even more nervously. “I’ll uh, I’ll take a seat and get our drinks ordered,”

“Excellent,” Rafael smiled at him, probably one of five times in the entire time they’d known each other. He gave Sonny one more pat on the back before walking after where you had stomped off to.

He found you right before you hit the front door, his hand catching yours before it could grab the handle. You turned and scoffed at him, your scowl still present after stomping off.

“Oh, come to appease me, counselor? How can I be of service to you?” You snapped.

“Please, Y/N,” He gave you apologetic eyes as he pulled you closer to him. “I’m sorry, I just-- I didn’t want Carisi to think anything was off. He already caught us being handsy, I had to make it look like we disliked each other,” He explained.

“Oh I think you’ve done that above and beyond, jackass,” You huffed. “First I’m too stupid to not get robbed in the city, and then I’m too uncultured to understand ‘high society’ manipulative bullshit?”

“I’m sorry, I may have gone a little over--” He started.

“But that wasn’t even an act, was it?” You interjected angrily.

“What do you mean?” He asked you curiously.

“Your line of you having ‘use’ of a person? I assume that is why you have a room full of powerful people you dislike as opposed to a room full of sycophants?” Yeah, you might just go to community college but you knew big words too.

“I mean, that is how it works--”

“Jesus Christ,” You shook your head with a laugh. “You know I understood for about half a second why my cousin is so infatuated by you, but I am losing that belief real quick,” You turned and started to walk away again.

“Y/N come on,” He grabbed both of your arms this time and pulled you close into him, your noses almost touching.

“Look I’m-- I’m sorry, that I’m---this,” He gestured to himself.

“But that’s just how I have to be in their world,” He gestured back towards the room. “I’m telling you, it’s a room full of sharks. If I show weakness or misstep in decorum, I’m nothing but chum to those people,”

“The guy you met the other night, that’s the real me,” He put a hand to your cheek. “I never get to be that guy, not in public. That’s why I was so attracted to you,” He put his other hand on your waist.

“I don’t have to be ‘Rafael Barba, the snarky ADA with a silver tongue,’ I can just be…’Rafa’,” He gave you an earnestly sad smile.

“I’m sorry,” You blinked in confusion. “I know I’m not helping myself but what exactly is the ‘ADA’?”

Your question brought that familiar amused grin and a laugh. “See, this is what I’m talking about,”

“Oh yeah I know, the ignorant girl you can placate--”

“No,” He put a finger on your lips. “The earnest, normal, gorgeous girl,” He kissed your forehead. “I’m sure if we took a poll in here right now the majority of the room would be with you, not knowing what an ADA is,”

“Which still doesn’t answer the question,” You pointed out.

“I…” He tried to think of a way to explain his role in the Manhattan judicial system. “Well, the DA of the county is like-- the King of Lawyers in that section. Or queen, as my boss is Rita,” He shook his head with a laugh. Oh Rita Calhoun, the stories he could tell about her.

“So, you’re her king?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Eh, I’d say Prince but she’d probably say Jester if she heard this metaphor to be honest with you,”

“Mmm I like that,” You finally let yourself smile at him.

“A Prince?” He grinned.

“The Jester,” You gave him a tongued smile, settling against his chest.

“Well, I’ll gladly take that title if it makes you happy,” He kissed your forehead. “I’d do anything to make you happy right now,”

You looked into his green eyes, they were now their usual sparkling green hue, and you remembered very quickly how you had gotten yourself in this mess in the first place. He really was a sweet, charming, gorgeous guy. And then you remembered those were probably all the reasons Sonny fell for him too.

“Ahem.” You straightened up and stepped out of his grasp. “Well, what would make me happy right now is getting back to my cousin,”

“Oh,” Rafael’s eyes softened into a sad gaze.

“Rafael, I think he really likes you,” You bit your lip with guilt. “And you toying with him just now isn’t helping!”

“Toying with him?” Rafael’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion? “I wasn’t toying with--”

“Sit by me, Carisi? You’re important to me, Carisi?” You imitated his questions in a mocking tone.

“I had to ask him that so you would--” He started to explain, but you already knew.

“I know!” You stopped him. “I know, that’s why it’s so fucked!” You put your hands over your face.

“Carino…” Rafael walked over and pulled your hands from your face and held them.

“I’m hurting him every second that I stand here with you, and I--” You bit your lip trying not to cry. “I’m still doing it! I can’t walk away!”

“So don’t,” He squeezed your hands with an even sadder look.

“This is just--” You broke free from his grasp once again and wiped your eyelids. “We need to get back before Sonny comes after you,”

“....So where does this conversation leave us, then?” He asked you cautiously.

“I don’t…” You gazed into his puppy dog emerald eyes. “I don’t know, I don’t want to think about it right now, okay?”

“Fair enough,” He put his hands down in concession. “...But we really need to--”

“Yeah, I know,” You nodded softly as you walked back to the private room, Rafael trailing behind you.

All you could think on the way back was how in God’s name were you going to make it through the rest of the night.

#rafael barba #rafael barba x you #rafael barba x reader #rafael barba fanfiction #rafael barba imagine'#sonny carisi #law and order svu #weird secret friends

72 notes · View notes