#if anyone else has suggestions I’d like em
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
thebookworm0001 · 7 months ago
Text
Fun Sized - Banter Update
Rating: T for innuendo
Summary: Ellana is short. Really short. So of course her companions have to tease her about it.
Link: AO3
Sera: You’re short. Like. Really short.
Ellana: What? I had no idea. I’d spent this whole time thinking everyone else was just exceptionally tall. 
Sera: [Giggles] That would be a trip, wouldn’t it. Wonder if that’s why dwarves are all… like that.
Ellana: The taller the ladder you need to reach your own cabinets, the grumpier you are. It’s just a fact.
(cont. under the cut)
Sera: But you’re not grumpy. Most of the times, at least. 
[if The Iron Bull is in the party]
Bull: That’s because she’s got a good view.
Ellana: I can promise you, that has nothing to do with it. 
Bull: Hey, you can enjoy the painting without wanting to eat the bowl of fruit.
Ellana: Funny, I don’t see any works of art around here. 
Bull: There’s some kitchen servants who might disagree with you. 
[Otherwise]
Ellana: [Laughs] You should say that to my sister. I’m sure she’d have some stories to tell that say otherwise.
Varric: Anyone ever ask you if one of your parents was a dwarf?
Ellana: Oh, very original. Never heard that one before. Are you going to ask if I stunted my growth by sitting in my aravel for too long next? Got kicked in the head by a Halla?
Varric: It’s a serious question. Usually the people I see eye-to-eye with have more than a passing affiliation with the Merchants Guild. 
Varric: With the right contacts and some clever paperwork, you could make some serious coin.
Ellana: Are you… asking if I want to con the Merchant’s Guild?
Varric: No, no, not at all.
Varric: Just saying, when all this is over, you have options.
Ellana: I’m sure my vallaslin won’t cause any problems in this plan of yours.
Varric: Evidence of a forbidden romance. People love a good tragedy - even better if you can scrape out a happy end despite it. 
Varric: They’ll be eating out of the palm of your hand.
Vivienne: I was speaking with our Lady Ambassador earlier, and she informed me you had rather firmly rejected her suggestion of incorporating heels into your ensemble.
Ellana: I did. 
Vivienne: Might I inquire as to why?
Ellana: Is it not enough that I simply do not want to wear heels?
Vivienne: Desire is reason enough to do anything, my dear. That does not make it wise.
Vivienne: You are an image for all of Thedas to aspire too, and your battle for legitimacy is not one that will be easily won.
Vivienne: It might help ease the process if those you wish to impress do not have to literally look down their noses at you. 
Ellana: Perhaps. Though I doubt anyone who already dislikes me will have their minds changed by a pair of fancy footwear.
Ellana: Anyway, any respect I gained would be quickly lost the minute I tripped and fell on my ass in front of a room full of dignitaries. 
Ellana: Or even better, I caught my new armor on fire. That would give everyone something to talk about.
Vivienne: Yes, well. Perhaps you are right. Some clever tailoring, then. And posture lessons.
Vivienne: One does not need to be imposing to command a room. 
Bull: Hey Kitten, you ever get lost, just look for the horns. Can’t miss ‘em.
Ellana: And where do you think I’ll be getting so lost that I’ll need to use you as a landmark?
Bull: Oh I don’t know. The crowds in Val Royeaux can get pretty nasty. Then there’s the ramparts, wrecked towns, corn mazes, overgrown fields. Really, just about anywhere.
Ellana: I- I’m not going to disappear into the grass like a lost girl in a child’s story. 
Ellana: What, should I leave a trail of bread behind me? Find a dog to guard me from the Dread Wolf?
Bull: I hear those Ferelden dogs come in pretty handy, actually. But no.
Bull: We might want to put a bell on you though, just in case.
Ellana: Think it’ll rain today?
Bull: Depends.
Ellana: On?
Bull: If you’re aiming at my height or my bad ankle.
Ellana: I could just be making small talk. Plenty of people talk about the weather.
Bull: Yeah, but most people aren’t wringing their fingers for an hour trying to come up with a clever way to ask about it. 
Ellana: My sister was always better at jokes than I was. 
Bull: That’s alright. You’ve got your own strengths.
Bull: For example, I think you’d make a very talented armrest.
Ellana: You know I can set you on fire, right?
Bull: Don’t worry, Kitten, you’re very scary.  
Inspired by @shift-shaping 
Bull: Solas, did you hurt yourself in our last fight?
Solas: I do not believe so. Why?
Bull: You’ve been rubbing at your neck more than usual. Thought you might’ve tweaked it after that one move. I’ve got some tips that could help if it’s sore.
Solas: I thank you for the concern. Your advice would be appreciated. 
Bull: Well, first off, you’ve got to start lifting with your knees. The Inquisitor’s tiny, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hurt yourself picking her up. 
Solas: Excuse me?
Bull: Oh, and you should probably invest in some cushions, maybe those feathery ones the Orlesians have. It’ll help you stay on your knees longer.
Solas: That is none of your concern.
Bull: It is when I get between you and the next templar that takes advantage of your stiff back. 
Bull: Those charging bastards hurt, you know.
Ellana: What information do I have to pass along to the Qun to get you to stop?
Bull: What? It’s friendly advice. If he keeps bending over, he’s going to get stuck that way. 
Bull: I’m just saying, It’s easier if he comes down to your level. 
Ellana: Please just tell me who Josephine needs to blackmail for this to end.
Bull: [Laughs] Now where’s the fun in that?    
    
Blackwall: So, you and the Lady Inquisitor, how does that work?
Solas: Much like any other relationship, presumably. 
Blackwall: Most relationships don’t have one party towering over the other. 
Solas: Really? That is your concern?
Blackwall: Not a concern. Just curious, is all. 
Blackwall: I mean, it can’t be easy. It looks like she’d need to climb scaffolding for anything to line up properly.
[If Cole is in the party] 
Cole: She is precious, held wholly in the palm of my hands. Sweet, small like the frilly cakes she brings me from the kitchens. 
Cole: He likes how small she is. He thinks it’s cute.
Blackwall: Well wasn’t that just adorable.
[Otherwise]
Ellana: Oh is that a dragon I see overhead? No? Pity. I would have appreciated being eaten right about now.
Blackwall: I’m sure Solas would be happy to oblige, my Lady.
Ellana: [Groans] Kill me now.
70 notes · View notes
444m777 · 6 months ago
Text
MJ BOOK CLUB: The HIStorians is LIVE!
Tumblr media
Based on the voting results we’ll be reading a book on Michael! 55.6% voted for a book about Michael and 44.4% on a book he’s read.
Tumblr media
By joining the group you get full access to:
—(bi)monthly meetings
—the chance to select the next book (everyone who joins gets a chance ofc but we’ll make use of a random selector)
—seasonal giveaway (more deets will follow soon)
—FREE seasonal digital MJ bookmark which you can print or just collect (and I just might make special physical ones if y’all like ‘em and I’ll ship it to you)
The meetings will take place monthly. However, life gets in the way sometimes that’s why I want everyone to update how far they are with reading. I’ll do a reader check-in every week so I know if the meeting is still doable for everyone or we might need more time (depending on the length of the book/personal time constraints). But for the most part if you didn’t finish it on time but would still like to join the discussion (and not mind spoilers) then that’s also ok! There’ll be space to just chat and discuss but the main group meeting will encompass the book we all read and the question(s) I posed in the group (and if anyone else has any prompts/questions). No pressure ofc! This is all supposed to be fun and a safe space to spill our thoughts and feels about these books.
I’d love to kick off everything during Michael’s birthday month. So, I’m keeping it simple with these **7 titles. We’re open to title suggestions and we’ll have a list in the group so everyone can keep track of what was read and what’s been added to the list. This list will include both books on/about Michael and books Michael has read. The man had a personal library of over 10.000 books! So, the next member that gets selected will reveal the following book title at the end of the meeting and it’ll be highlighted in the group and on tumblr.
For those who do not wish to join the group/can’t but still want to read along, I’ll be posting updates here on tumblr on what book we’re currently reading. You just won’t have full access to all the options members would have.
I don’t want to make this any longer than it needs to be. The official schedule for reading will be decided once the title is chosen. We kick off reading by last week of July/1st of August 2024
**This book club is about accessibility and I want everyone to be able to read regardless of financial circumstances. I will do my best in providing you with digital copy and if possible a physical copy as a keepsake :) If you cannot afford any of these books and you’re a member of the group please contact me directly (if you’re a minor and the adults in your unit can’t afford it, I’d still need one of them to reach out to me about that so then I can discuss/get their permission). If anyone else is interested in helping let me know.
10 notes · View notes
maetheartist · 8 months ago
Text
RESIDENT EVIL 4 REMAKE ROLEPLAY CALLOUT: REWRITTEN!
Hi I copy and pasted my last rp callout for Resident Evil 4, if you noticed, no you didn’t
Hi there! My name is Mae, pleasure to meet anyone who happens to come across this post- I am a young artist, hopping right back into Resident Evil 4 after the hype died down- yes, I joined last minute, I know… but I may or may have not gotten attached to a certain someone and am down horribly for- Major Krauser - AHEM. BUT ANYWAYS, I am looking for some people to rp with for the drama, romance and ships alike! I am dying to find fellow people who share my interests and are willing to hear me out on the concept ideas I made for Resident Evil 4! But nonetheless, let’s get right into it, ladies and gentlemen! :DD and yes, I rewrote my shit, new rules!
Tumblr media
So here are the rules
Lets start off with requirements and rules!
Self-inserts are welcome!
Have a semiliterate writing style, proper grammar, and use quotations marks.
I roleplay on discord, I will not be role playing anywhere else.
Do not try and convince me to do anything that goes against what I have as my personal rules… if you are a decent human being, I humbly ask of you to please respect my boundaries, and I’ll respect yours!
If you want to have an rp… please send me a writing sample of yours so I can get an understanding of how you write, and see if I wanna work with it. It’s not required! But highly preferred and appreciated!
No…
No Mary Sues or Gary Sues, please, it is literally not any fun if your OC is too OP and has no weaknesses, just no, I will point it out in the RP if it Happens.
No Incest or Sexual Assault themes in role plays, a hard no.
No smut. If there is to be a smut scene in an rp, there will be a time skip to after the scene, no during it, no nada, only before and after scenes, I will NOT be writing two of our characters doing the nasty baby making ritual. 😭
No… but…
No Smut, definitely not… but suggestive and flirtatious dialogue is allowed! If there are to be any sexual scenes to happen, there will be time skips.
No controlling my OCs! but I can understand describing things like rain on their skin and certain pains they feel on their body.
No one sentence or very short replies… but I understand a small sentence or two, but don't do it the whole RP.
Do not keep the whole spotlight only to your character and their ship Partner, it is not Fair.
My writing style is Semi-literate, I prefer semi-literate writers over text talk writers unless it’s OCC.
Don’t what that is? Here!
Semi-Literate example:
The Moon goddess her lake from the bridge, sighing in contentment as she turned her attention to the moonlight reflecting the water’s surface with a soft gaze. "The best place to be for the silence is here..."
Text-talk example:
*Suijin looked at her confused* what do you mean? *She raised a brow*
Stuff I do and prefer!
I enjoy roleplaying fluff, romance, platonic relationships, action, and or comedic stuff!
I accept OC x Cannon, OC x OC and Cannon x Cannon ships! I also heavily encourage self-serts!
AUs are welcome! Though when I say AUs, I mean the fairly common ones like Yandere AU, Enemies to lovers AU, etc, etc. BUT! I’ll always be open to hearing out whatever you bring to the table!
Paragraphs? WHERE?!? Paragraphs are something I am absolutely down for, and I love them in roleplays! Especially when they are very detailed! I do em too and I would love it if someone else did as well!
If you know what Resident Evil 4 is all about… then you already know, violence and gore is definitely allowed, lol. Dark elements too, as long as they fit under the resident evil dark category.
Characters I’m able to play!
Leon S. Kennedy
Ashley Graham
Jack Krauser
Ramon Salazar
Luis Sierra
Bitores Mendez
Lord Saddler
Ada Wong
Ingrid Hunnigan
The Merchant
Characters I’d like you to play, if possible!
Jack Krauser (Top of my list because I’d very much would like to do an OC x Jack Krauser ship, lol)
Lord Saddler
Bitores Mendez
Ingrid Hunnigan
Ada Wong
The roles can be negotiated before an rp, we can switch stuff up depending n what you’d like to rp, I am flexible with who I play as! but I fear the only ship I will not be doing is Jack Krauser x Leon S Kennedy, I don’t know, it makes me uncomfortable as I see them with a Jim Hawkins and John Silver relationship, sorry! (I hope someone out there knows treasure planet to know what I mean.)
If you worry about getting responses back to me late- don’t get too worked up over it, we all have lives outside of the internet, and we just have to accept the fact that we can’t always be available! But do keep in mind that it’s good to let your friends online know that you may have to disappear for it bit, it also lets me know you’ll be busy for a bit! :D
If you want to RP with me, that’s great! I rp in Discord as it helps to organize everything, and if you’re interested and would like more questions- shoot me a dm, and I’ll answer when I can, thank you, and a have a wonderful day!
7 notes · View notes
noxexistant · 2 years ago
Note
For your consideration:
Blink is regularly trying to upstage Jack and prove he can be a good enough leader (he stepped up when Jack was in the Refuge, why did he have to step back down?). He gets angry at times and can't always make rational decisions under pressure. There's a reason he's not usually leader.
But Jack starts asking his thoughts on things, getting his opinion when he's in a headspace when he can think clearly. Letting Blink feel like his thoughts finally matter. And Blink starts to feel like maybe he doesn't need to be leader, because Jack still values him.
oh i loooove this
blink is constantly chasing after the position of leader because he feels like he has to - sometimes because he wholeheartedly believes (when delusional) he deserves it or is meant for it - but when he’s clear-headed he’s not entirely sure he even wants it. he just…wants to have it, wants to be worth that, wants to prove that he’s just as good as jack. he’s not worth anything if he’s stuck behind him, below him. he wants to be worth something.
but he also knows that he’s not a good leader. not a consistent one, at least. he has moments of being good, and he really does try, and he sincerely loves everyone else in the gang, but then he gets stressed or angry or overwhelmed. he starts getting paranoid that the others are talking about him, resenting him, because he’s different - not one of them - when he’s leader. he makes impulsive decisions that put himself and the others at risk, he gets aggressive when any of them challenge him or even just don’t do as he says immediately, he sees anyone - but especially racer and crutchie, jack’s favourites - as competition. he starts hating jack, and he doesn’t like that. he doesn’t want to be like that, feel that way about his friends, be stuck between this overwhelming pressure or absolute worthlessness.
it helps so much when jack starts asking for his input. at first, blink doesn’t really understand it. he thinks maybe jack’s mocking him, maybe trying to use him, but if blink makes a suggestion and jack likes it he’ll announce it to the room just like that - “‘ey, blink’s got a good idea! he says—“
and the others, like they always do, start to follow jack’s lead. blink knows some of them are a little afraid of him, especially since his few stints as leader and the outbursts he’d had during that time, but steadily they start trusting him and coming to him for advice. jack won’t finalise decisions until himself, race, and crutchie (and davey) are all in agreement, and suddenly blink finds himself on that committee too. if he doesn’t like something, the whole thing gets put on hold until jack can work something out with him. suddenly, blink doesn’t feel like he has to overcompensate for not being jack, and that in itself helps him keep a clearer head.
“why’re you askin’ me?” he asks gruffly, on a rougher day, when jack asks him what they should do about something. “you’re here. you’re the leader, jack. you don’ need me.”
jack scoffs. “‘course i need you. i needs all’a youse. ain’t any use tryin’ to be a leader all by myself. i don’t got many good ideas, you guys gotta fill in the gaps.”
blink doesn’t really know what to say to that, doesn’t know how to rationalise jack so openly admitting as their leader that he doesn’t always know what to do - that he relies on them too. jack must notice it, because he steps a little closer and claps a hand on blink’s shoulder - on his far side from his bad eye - and squeezes. “‘ey, we all got each other’s backs, blink. you back me up, i back you up. i trust you.”
blink swallows the urge to tell him that he shouldn’t. that blink’s dangerous at best. instead, he manages a tight, lopsided sort of smile.
“so, if i says we should soak ‘em?”
jack grins back at him, amused. “i’d at least hear you out.”
16 notes · View notes
brokenmusicboxwolfe · 1 year ago
Text
Good grief, what the hell was I thinking??
There I was shopping and this guy I’m friendly with at Walmart comes up and asks if I can tale a pot belly pig.
Now I DID tell him I have more than enough animals. But then he starts telling me how a woman he knows might be moving to another state, and can’t take her pet pig. She doesn’t know where to find a home for it, and he knows I have a pet pig and a ton of other beasties, so one more shouldn’t be a problem…
I actually felt guilty for saying no! Me, who sometimes skips on food for me to feed the menagerie I already have!
So I say, well, the pig would have to move in with Ryoga and that might not go at all well. I mean, sure, I’ve always wished he had company, but for a full grown hog with tusks to have a much smaller pot belly pig move in might be dangerous. Ryoga has NEVER had to share anything but my attention. He’s had his own house, his own food, and when I’ve been by his lot he gets 100% of the petting. Ryoga is happy with me sharing oranges or bananas or (currently) grapes with him, but I’m outside the lot and literally the hand that feeds him. For all I know sweet Ryoga might want to kill someone, ahem, “hogging” things!
So I explain I’d be very worried about it working out. And what does the guy say? “Oh, I’m sure he will adjust.” Yeah, YOU are sure! Easy to say when you don’t even have a pig!
But then it’s the sob story, the whole “nowhere to turn” thing, suggesting the very life of the pig is at stake if a home can’t be found, etc.
And I can’t stand it.
I am such a fucking sucker! Why do I have a pet hog? Why do I have five dogs? Why do have about twenty cats on the farm that I take care of? Why did my family have almost every single pet we ever had? Because we are suckers!!! A stray shows up or someone turns to us in desperation because they need to get rid of a pet, and we can’t just say “ Not our problem. Let ‘em die if the shelter can’t find them a home. Or let ‘em fend for themselves. Not our responsibility to save them”
Hell, we once ended up with a rabbit because the owner got sick of them and threatened to make them into stew if we wouldn’t. Seriously, all they had to do was threaten the furball’s life and we went “FINE! We’ll take them!”
But damn it, this time I do NOT have the money to feed another mouth, and I can NOT build another lot just for a new beastie, and NO the pig can NOT move into my house!
**sigh**
Like I said. I’m a sucker.
I let the guy have my phone number so the woman can call me about it if she does end up moving.
I just couldn’t stand the thought of the poor homeless pig in this area where people so casually joke about killing any animal that isn’t a dog (cats included). I mean, they might not threaten to cook him like they do ALL the time about my Ryoga, but I don’t trust people around here to actually love pet pig. Since I’ve had Ryoga I’ve had too many casual chats in stores with people that had a beloved pet pig when they were little that their parents had killed.
But DAMN, this is a BAD idea!
Oh, PLEASE let this woman not move!!!!! ‘Cause if she calls and starts telling me she can’t find anyone else I might find myself with major snouted problem!!
I hate being a sucker for anyone, regardless of number of legs, that seems to meed help….
2 notes · View notes
scyllas-revenge · 1 year ago
Note
Hi there! I was reading your Burn Like Cold Iron fic and so far it’s AMAZING!!!! 😁✨ I was wondering if you could tell me, if you’re able, how you were able to figure out your story with the language difference with Beatrice and her only speaking English and being in Middle Earth where they speak literally like, everything else? (I’ve only gotten up to chapter 4 so far.)
I know you were able to use Saruman’s mind using his translation method thingy XD Which was so seamless and cool! I’m wondering what was your process for figuring it out? Did you look into lore or anything? Rn, I’m writing smth with a similar plot of someone modern being thrown into Middle Earth (miraculously, I ran into your fic, which has helped me a ton!) but they’re thrown into Mirkwood instead. I’m stumped on how can I believably have my character communicate with elves? Any ideas, suggestions or somewhere you could point me?
I’d appreciate it a ton and sorry if this question is convoluted!
- Mithril Anon
Oh my gosh thank you so much! I'm so glad you like the fic so far and I'm flattered you reached out to me about yours.
I definitely took the easy way out with the language gap! I wasn't personally very interested in writing extensive translation/language learning scenes, so if I hadn't run into the convenient wizard-needs-her-to-speak-Westron-asap loophole, I probably wouldn't have distinguished them at all.
(Slight spoilers but not really) I did consider later on in my fic that maybe once Saruman loses his powers and Gandalf takes his staff, maybe Bee would lose her innate ability to understand Westron- but again, I didn't really want to go there in my fic, I'm lazy, so that plot twist never came to be.
I can try to offer some advice for how to go about it in your fic- and I know there are people who follow me who read modern-OC-in-middle-earth fics, so if any of y'all read through this enormous answer and have anything to add, please do!
The main ways I've seen authors go about it are
You can have some magical explanation hand-wave it away (what I did). For instance, I've seen authors have the Valar grant the OC language skills to translate between their native language and Westron as they hop over to Middle Earth. Maybe they have a magical amulet or something. Go crazy XD
You can have your character learn Westron from scratch- it's an entirely new Tolkien-approved language and your poor OC knows none of it. Of course that's super time consuming and can slow down a lot of other aspects of your plot (your OC can't rush off to go adventuring or fall in love when they can't communicate with anyone!). But if it's done right, you can develop characters, worldbuilding, and relationships in those scenes. I vaguely remember the fic Home with the Fairies doing this really well.
You can just ignore that Tolkien wrote Westron/Common to be different from English, and just have them be interchangeable. Frankly I like this just fine, I know a lot of other readers who do too- and what Tolkien doesn't know won't hurt him ;) I doubt you'd get any complaints about it from readers (and if you do, you can tell them ol' scylla wants to speak to em)
Since your OC will be interacting with elves, that adds a whole second language into the mix, which is a LOT to deal with. So I'd lean toward option 3, so your OC can at least speak to any of the elves who know Westron (Thranduil and Legolas definitely do, and I'm guessing a lot of other well-educated elves or anyone who has to travel, trade, or go near their borders do too).
So at that point you could have your OC learn elvish at a more comfortable pace, and the plot doesn't have to be on hold while they learn.
If not a lot of the Mirkwood elves your OC meets know Westron or speak it very well, maybe there are resources in Thranduil's library that could help them (you just know he's got a fancy library in those caves). Or maybe an elf your OC befriended could take them to speak to other characters who do know more Westron, like prisoners in the dungeons, border guards, tradesmen in Dale, etc. You could get some good plot development out of that, depending on where you want your fic to go and who you want your OC to interact with.
And of course the way they teach your OC elvish can also help drive the plot forward- I've read tons of fics that have the love interest confess their love knowing that the OC won't understand, or translate a romantic song or tragic poem and oh there's so many parallels between us and the song, isn't it sad?? Maybe the language gap could be used to keep or learn secrets, or give your OC a leg up in Mirkwood society since they'll be able to communicate better with the men of Dale than a lot of the elves can.
Sorry this answer is so long and rambly, but I hope it helps a bit! You'll have to tag me when you start posting your fic so I can read it!!
Omg I just remembered as I was about to hit send that canonically, the spiders in Mirkwood do in fact speak Westron, so if all else fails, your OC can talk with them XD (I'd read the hell out of that fic)
2 notes · View notes
tigerisout · 2 years ago
Note
Advice: This may not cover a whole lot, but small amounts can add up and still help out. Are you eligible for a grant for top surgery through some of your local and/or state LGBTQ+ centers? (My local center offers grants for gender affirming products/procedures, which made me think of this.) You might need to specifically look up 'grant' alongside the center name.
Topsurgery.net and Southern Equality also have (non-exhaustive) lists of national organizations who offer grants. Topsurgery.net didn't get updated this year but the links do mostly click through to the grants for this year.
https://www.topsurgery.net/costs/top-surgery-financing.htm
https://southernequality.org/resources/transinthesouth/funding-your-transition/
I have looked into quite a few grants, some of which I don’t qualify for, and others have openings for application only beginning in December / January, so I’ve marked them to apply then. I’ve looked into a couple local organizations online, but they don’t state resources for surgery. Thinking about it now, I could maybe contact them n ask, though. You never know 🤞
0 notes
gendercensus · 4 years ago
Text
On fae/faer pronouns and cultural appropriation
HOW IT STARTED
I had a handful, a very small handful but more than two, responses in the Gender Census feedback box telling me that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative. The reasons didn’t always agree, and the culture that was being appropriated wasn’t always the same, but here’s a selection of quotes:
“Fae pronouns are cultural appropriation and are harmful to use“ - UK, age 11-15
“I’m not a person who practices pagan holidays but, my understanding is that pronouns like fae/faeself are harmful because the fae are real to pagans and is like using Jesus/jesuself as pronouns“ - UK, age 11-15
“I know you've probably heard this a million times, so has everyone on the internet, but the ''mere existence''of the fae pronoun feels really uncomfortable for some of us. I'm personally not against neopronouns like xe/xim, er/em and the like, I am a pagan but apart from the, imo most important, reasoning of that pronoun being immensely disrespectful, I worry as an nb about people who banalize the usage of pronouns ''for fun'', and I'm quoting what some people have told me.“ - Spain, 16-20
“I don't agree with fae/deity pronouns just from a pagan perspective it's very disrespectful to the cultures they come from. Like Fae are a legit thing in many cultures and they hate with a fiery passion mortal humans calling themselves Fae to the point of harming/cursing the people who do it“ - USA, age 16-20
“only celtic people can use far/ faers otherwise it’s cultural appropriation, many celts have said this and told me this“ - USA, age 16-20
So that’s:
❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.
❌ Someone who definitely isn’t pagan.
✅ Someone who is pagan.
❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.
❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.
So, just to disclose some bias up-front, I am English so I’m not Celtic, but I do live in Wales so I am surrounded by Celts. The bit of Wales that I live in is so beautiful in such a way that when my French friend came to visit me she described it as féerique - like an enchanting, magical land, literally “fairylike” or thereabouts. Coincidentally I have also considered myself mostly pagan for over half of my life, and I can’t definitively claim whether or not the Fae are “part of paganism” because paganism is so diverse and pick’n’mix that it just doesn’t work that way.
To me the idea that fae/faer pronouns would be offensive or culturally appropriative sounds absurd. But also, I am powered by curiosity, and have been wrong enough times in my life that I wanted to approach this in a neutral way with an open mind. Perhaps what I find out can be helpful to some people.
So since we only have information from one person who is definitely directly affected by any cultural appropriation that may be happening, the first thing I wanted to do was get some information from ideally a large number of people who are in the cultures being appropriated, and see what they think.
~
WHAT I DID
First of all I put some polls up on Twitter and Mastodon. [Edit: Note that this post has been updated with results from closed polls.]
I specified that I wanted to hear from nonbinary Celts and pagans, just so that the voters would be familiar with fae/faer pronouns. I asked the questions in a neutral way, i.e. “How do you feel about...” with “good/neutral/bad” answer options, instead of something more leading like “Is this a load of rubbish?” or “are you super offended?” with “yes/no” options. I provided a “see results” option, so that the poll results wouldn’t be skewed as much by random people clicking any old answer to see the results. And I invited voters to express their opinions in replies.
Question #1: Nonbinary people of Celtic descent (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany), how do you feel about non-Celtic people using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]
Question #2: Nonbinary pagans, how do you feel about non-pagans using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]
The Twitter polls got over 1,100 responses each, and the Mastodon polls got over 140 responses each. With a little bit of spreadsheetery I removed the “N/A” responses to reverse engineer the number of people voting for each option, combined those numbers, and recalculated percentages.
Obviously this approach is not in the least scientific, but thankfully the results were unambiguous enough and the samples were big enough that I feel comfortable drawing conclusions.
Celts on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-Celts (561 voters):
It's good - 42.5%
No strong feelings/other - 44.0%
It's bad - 13.5%
Pagans on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-pagans (468 voters):
It's good - 47.2%
No strong feelings/other - 39.5%
It's bad - 13.3%
Here’s how that looks as a graph:
Tumblr media
The limitations of polls on these platforms means that we have no way to distinguish between people who have more complicated views (”other”) and people who have “no strong feelings”, so we can’t really draw conclusions there. If we stick to just the pure positive and pure negative:
Celts were over three times as likely to feel positive about non-Celts using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.
Pagans were over three and a half times as likely to feel positive about non-pagans using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.
So Celts and pagans are way more likely to feel actively good about someone’s fae/faer pronouns, even when that person is not a Celt/pagan. That’s some strong evidence against the idea that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative, right there.
~
CORRECTIONS
To be clear, I haven’t done any research about the roots of fae/faer or the origins of the Fae and related beings, but my goal here was to get a sense of what Celts and pagans think and feel, rather than what an historian or anthropologist would say.
On the anti side, here were the replies that suggested fae/faer either is or might be inappropriate:
“I only worry that not everyone understands the origin of the word outside of modernized ideas of fairies.“ - pagan
“As a vaguely spiritual Whatever (Ireland), I think a mortal using "fae" as a pronoun/to refer to themselves is asking for a malicious and inventive fairy curse (on them, their families and possibly anyone in their vicinity, going by the traditions). I have not heard of this term before, so this is an immediate reaction from no background bar my cultural knowledge of sidhe/fae/term as culturally appropriate. My general approach is people can identify themselves as they want.“ - Celtic
So we’ve got a pagan who’s wary that people who use fae/faer (and people in general) might not have a fully fleshed out idea of the Fae. And we’ve got a Celt who doesn’t mind people using fae/faer personally, but based on what they know of the Fae they wouldn’t be surprised if the Fae got mad about it. No outright opposition, but a little concern.
There were not a lot of replies on the pro side, but not because people weren’t into it, judging by the votes. There were a lot of “it’s more complicated than that” replies, many of which repeated others, so quotes won’t really work. Here’s a summary of the Celtic bits:
“Fae” is not a Celtic word, and Celts don’t use it. It is French, or Anglo-French.
“Fae” can refer to any number of stories/legends from a wide variety of cultures in Europe, not one cohesive concept.
There are many legends about fairy-like beings in Celtic mythologies, and there are many, many different names for them.
The Celts are not a monolith, they’re a broad selection of cultures with various languages and various mythologies.
And the pagan bits:
Paganism is not closed or exclusive in any way. It might actually be more open than anything else, as “pagan” is a sort of umbrella term for non-mainstream religions in some contexts. A closed culture would be a prerequisite for something to be considered “appropriated” from paganism.
From my own experience, pagans may or may not believe in the Fae, and within that group believers may or may not consider the Fae to be sacred and/or worthy of great respect. (I’ve certainly never met a pagan who worshipped the Fae, though I don’t doubt that some do.)
And then we get into the accusations. 🍿
“this issue wasn’t started by Celtic groups or by people who know much about Celtic fae. It was started primarily by anti-neopronoun exclusionist pagans on TikTok.“
“[I’m] literally Scottish [...] and it’s not appropriative in the least and honestly to suggest as such is massively invalidating towards actual acts of cultural appropriation and is therefore racist. Feel like if this was actually brought up it was either by some people who seriously got their wires crossed or people who are just concern trolling and trying to make fun of both neo-pronouns and of the concept of cultural appropriation and stir the pot in the process.“
“It wouldn't be the first time bigots falsly claim “it's appropriative from X marginalized group" to harass people they don't like, like they did with aspec people when they claimed "aspec" was stolen from autistic language (which was false, as many autistics said)“
“It's been a discussion in pagan circles recently ... People were very quick to use the discussion as an excuse to shit on nonbinary people.“
“I think it would be apropos to note that the word "faerie/fairy" has been a synonym for various queer identities for decades, too. The Radical Faeries are a good example.“ (So if anyone has the right to [re]claim it...)
A little healthy skepticism is often wise in online LGBTQ+ “discourse”, and some of these people are making some very strong claims, for which I’d love to see some evidence/sources/context. Some of it certainly sounds plausible.
~
HOW DID IT START?
I had a look on Twitter and the earliest claim I can find that fae/faer pronouns are cultural appropriation is from 18th February 2020, almost exactly one year ago today. Again, tweets are not the best medium for this, there was very little in the way of nuance or context. If anyone can find an older claim from Twitter or Tumblr or anywhere else online, please do send it my way.
I have no idea how to navigate TikTok because I’m a nonbinosaur. (I’m 34.) I did find some videos of teens and young adults apparently earnestly asserting that they were Celtic or pagan and the use of fae/faer pronouns was offensive, but the videos were very brief and provided nothing in the way of nuance or context. For example:
This one from October 2020 with 29k ❤️s, by someone who I assume is USian based on the word “mom”?
This one from December 2020, that says “I am pagan and i find it rather disrespectful. It’s like using god/godr or jesus/jesusr.” That’s probably what inspired the feedback box comment above that refers to hypothetical jesus/jesusr pronouns.
If anyone is able to find a particularly old or influential TikTok video about fae/faer pronouns being appropriative I’d really appreciate it, especially if it’s from a different age group or from not-the-USA, to give us a feel for how universal this is.
For context, fae pronouns were mentioned in the very first Gender Census back in May 2013, though you’ll have to take my word for it as the individual responses are not currently public. The word “fae” was mentioned in the pronoun question’s “other” textbox, and no other forms in the set were entered so we have no way of knowing for sure what that person’s full pronoun set actually is. This means the set may have been around for longer. The Nonbinary Wiki says that the pronoun set was created in October 2013, as “fae/vaer”, later than the first entry in the Gender Census, so I’ll be editing that wiki page later! If anyone has any examples of fae/faer pronouns in use before 2013 I would also be very interested to see that.
~
IN SUMMARY
Obviously I can’t speak for everyone, as the Twitter polls are not super scientific and they only surveyed a selection of Celts and pagans within a few degrees of separation of the Gender Census Twitter and Mastodon accounts, but I can certainly report on what I found.
For a more conclusive result, we’d need to take into account various demographics such as age, culture, location, religion, race/heritage, etc.
As far as I can tell based on fairly small samples of over 400 people per group, a minority of about 13% of Celtic and/or pagan people felt that use of fae/faer pronouns is appropriative.
A much higher number of people per group felt positive about people who are not Celts or pagans using fae/faer pronouns. The predominant view was:
It can’t be cultural appropriation from Celtic cultures because fairy-like beings are not unique to Celtic cultures and Celtic cultures don’t call them Fae.
It can’t be cultural appropriation from pagan cultures because paganism is not “closed” or exclusive in any way, it’s too broad and open.
~
If your experience of your gender(s) or lack thereof isn’t described or encompassed by the gender binary of “male OR female”, please do click here to take the Gender Census 2021 - it’s international and it closes no earlier than 10th March 2021!
2K notes · View notes
fanimesenseiwrites · 3 years ago
Text
The Brothers React To Other Demons Wanting a Pact With MC:
Mammon overhears (was totally eavesdropping) MC talking with another demon one day and the demon asks MC for a pact. MC does not outright refuse the demon and instead tells them that they'll think about it.
Mammon freaks out and goes and tells all his brothers, who all have very interesting reactions...
Lucifer:
"It's nothing to worry about, calm down."
He definitely tries to seem chill about it, pride and all that, but on the inside he's seething
The thought of someone else asking MC for a pact is almost laughable
Like, who does this demon think they are?
Who do they think he is? That they think he would allow this to happen? That he would allow a lesser demon to ruin the prestige of what MC has with him and his brothers.
He won't say anything outright, but make no mistake, MC will not be forging a new pact.
Mammon:
Sharing MC with his brothers is bad enough, but with some other lesser demon who he doesn't know or like?? Out of the question.
He wants MC all to himself and he's not going to share, and he plans on telling them that!
Then he starts to feel a little insecure...
Did he do something wrong? Does MC not like him anymore?
Maybe he'll wait and see what MC does first...
Leviathan:
He's a little surprised at first to hear what Mammon has to say.
He's actually a little jealous, who is this demon who thinks he can just ask MC for a pact?
Then he gets in his own head...
I mean, of course he's not good enough for MC. Why would he be?
He's just some gross otaku shut-in, MC probably wants some normie demon who actually leaves their room and participates in society.
This is just more of a reason to stay in his room forever.
Satan:
"Certainly, there's more to this story than meets the eye," he tries to rationalize what his brother has told him.
But on the inside, he's kinda freaking out.
He's also pretty insulted.
And kind of amazed at the audacity of this lesser demon (not in a good way).
What could this demon possibly offer MC that he or his brothers could not? Why is MC even considering this?
He is not happy at all, and will be very grumpy until he learns of the outcome.
Asmodeus:
What is MC thinking? This demon asking for a pact isn't even that cute!
Who else could you want when you have a pact with the most beautiful demon ever?
Asmo is, of course, the one to blab the rumor to MC.
"MC! What are you thinking??? Why would you possibly want a pact with anyone else? I mean, you making a pact after you made one with me was already mind-boggling, but at least it was with my brothers..."
MC: "Wait, what...?"
The Twins:
They have a pretty similar reaction when Mammon tells them.
Belphie: "Why do I care who MC makes a pact with?"
Beel: "We can't tell them what to do."
Mammon: "Ya really aren't worried?"
Beel and Belphie: "No."
Except that they totally are.
When Mammon leaves them, they'll try to ignore it but after a while the anxiety wells up in the both of them to the point that they feel sick.
Belphie goes to his twin to demand cuddles.
Beel gladly obliges him and asks what they're both thinking: "Is MC not happy with us?"
Belphie doesn't respond, afraid of the true answer.
The twins will console each other until they figure out what the MC has planned.
The brothers will all go to confront MC together (after Asmo spills the beans, of course) about them supposedly forging a new pact.
"Hey MC! What's this I hear about you forging another pact?" Mammon is all too happy to confront MC.
"Where did you hear that from?" MC asked slyly.
"Oh. Well, I... uh..." Mammon hesitated.
"Maybe you talk to me first before you start assuming things," MC suggested.
"But he did hear it from you," Lucifer interjected.
"What?"
"I heard you talkin' to another demon and they asked you for a pact," Mammon told them.
"Yeah, and what did you hear me say?" MC asked with crossed arms.
"That you'd think about it! What do you even have to think about?!" Mammon sounded really upset.
"Are we not enough for you?" Asmo asked pitifully.
MC frowned. "Hold on now, calm down. I told him that I'd 'think about it.' That's just a nice way of saying 'no.' Don't you guys know that?"
The brothers all just stared at the MC.
"... humans are weird," Belphie declared quietly.
"That is not a euphemism we use down here in the Devildom," Satan informed MC politely.
"Oh... So I have to actually go tell him 'no,' don't I?" MC asked them.
"That would be best," Lucifer advised.
MC nodded. "I'll do that at school tomorrow then."
"So... you're not going to make another pact?" Beel asked.
"No. I have no intentions of making another pact right now, probably not ever," MC assured them.
"Oh good!" Asmo cried as he threw his arms around MC.
MC chuckled and hugged back.
"Asmo, would ya get off of 'em?!" Mammon cried.
"You get in on the hug too, Mammon," MC goaded. "In fact, group hug!"
The rest of the brothers willingly went in to hug MC, save for Lucifer who was pulled into the hug by Beel.
MC hummed happily. "I love you guys."
"We love you too!" Asmo was more than happy to tell how they all felt, knowing that most of his brothers were unwilling to share their true feelings in front of others.
And for just a few minutes, things were peaceful in the House of Lamentation.
535 notes · View notes
oh-for-fic-sake · 4 years ago
Text
It’s A Match Chapter One
Tumblr media
Masterlist
Disclaimer
Summary: Filming is over and Henry returns home to and empty house. And he doesn't like it, things are getting to him and he doesn't want to be alone anymore. Then his brother suggests online dating, it sounds mad but henry decides to give it a shot. If worst comes to worst he just deletes the profile. He has nothing to loose right?
Warnings: Angst, Swearing, Cheese, Self Indulgent Fic, Rpf, Plus sized reader.
A/N: so I wrote this before the whole 'girlfriend' shock and everything that has followed. I was of two minds whether to ever post it but honestly, this is my blog and I've clearly stated that i am going to continue writing Rpf. I want to do a little ficlet/mini fic and well here we go. It wont be smutty just  somewhat angsty then fluffy. Enjoy~
Taglist: In Reblogs.
Tumblr media
Henry slumped back on the seat in his conservatory and sighed, from here he could see his brothers and their wives outside, each snuggled up on the out door wicker sectional he had got to have the family over. It was the first family get together for over a year. He was happy, god it was amazing to see them but... He couldn't help being a tad envious.
They all had a family, wife and kids to go through this shitstorm in. He had no one, well he ha Kal. But that was it he sighed and looked away sipping from his cup slowly takeing a moment for himself. He needed to just chill, but it was getting hard... This year had really knocked him back he was at an all time low he hadn't felt like this for a long time. He knew he was depressed, he felt stupid there was no reason to be but there we go.
Henry had been getting himself all twisted for a while now, filming the Witcher helped but now that was over and he was home alone. Left with his thoughts in a big empty house.
"Sooo little brother want to tell me what's going on or am I gonna have to get mum in here?" Henry jumped at the voice and spun around to face his brother who was keeping a safe distance at the door. Wiping his hands down clearly just having washed them again.
"I ah its nothing, you know me I'm a worry wart" he said waving off his older brother he didn't want to bring down the mood of the small gathering, it was why he had come in here to take a breather.
"You called us all here for a visit hen, out of the blue when lockdown is still being eased out. Its clear you don't want to be alone, yet your sitting in here alone." His older brother said leaning on the door frame folding his arms trying to figure out what was really going on. He could see his little brother was hurting he wanted to help.
"I've got Kal" Henry said with a chuckle and looked about for the bear only to frown and sigh seeing the room was empty apart fro  him and his brother.
"Kal's outside with the kids hen, what's up? You can tell me you know" henry sided as his sibling  moved sitting in the small seat across from him. He knew that his family would listen but he felt so... spoilt like he was asking too much and was being selfish. It wasn't like him.
He grunted leaning back choosing not to look at his brother instead focusing on the cup in his hand. He spun it slightly then heaved a sigh. He wasn't getting away with not speaking about it, he was going to air out his worries one way or another. With his brother or his mother, and he loved his mother but this was? He wanted to keep this issues close to his chest. So far only Kal knew about his problems.
"I... I've had enough... just had enough of fucking covid and being alone... i felt isolated before all this shit kicked off and now?" He vented releasing all the fears he had. It was tough, he was a family man without his own little family, he hadn't managed to find anyone to share his life with and it got to him. He tried being sincere and polite, he took care of himself and tried staying true to himself but... something was missing it had to be! On paper he was a safe bet a good man! Yet his relationships never worked. There were different opinions or his other half couldn't handle the life style or they tried changing him or they couldn't put up with the way he loved so furiously- so openly wanting to always hold and kiss them. It just never quite worked.
"Its- fuck everything has just caught up with me...worries I've had for a few years now I could ignore them you know? I had other stuff going on, was always out and about meetings and press tours I was busy! But now?" He tried putting his feeling into words but he was conscious, he didn't want to whine or bitch about his life. He loved his work and the life he had made for himself he just? Wanted someone to share it with.
"Now after covid you've got all the time in the world to think?" Henry nodded agreeing with his brother. Covid had made him face these fears head on. He has been alone for the best part of a year with the uncertainty of his work and filming quarantines and isolations.
"Yeah, it hurts I'm... I'm in deep and I? I don't know how I'm getting out of this slump" henry finally said outloud, his brother dipped his head listening to him as he ranted. Started letting out all the frustration and anxiety out but stopped short with another growl closeing his hand around the cup tightly hissing in frustration then looked away.
"And what's caused it? I know you hate being alone but?" Henry sighed shaking his head as his brother tried coaxing more out of him. He drew in a shaky breath wanting to cry, he was just so lost and upset over being upset and alone.
"Two lock downs... Two alone- I? If this carries on for the next few years I don't... I don't want to be alone anymore! I want to settle down, I want an actual personal life! A relationship a family and? How? How am I gonna find all that? They want fame or money or something! Women never seem to want me for me, they say the do then judge me for my hobbies- I'm a geek I like tech and games and fantasy! And women don't like that" he spewed the words like they were venom, half ashamed of being so dramatic but the fear was real. Henry was scared, he wanted love. He wanted a family of his own, and it seemed impossible, now more then ever.
"I want to meet someone who will take me as I am, for me and I just I'm giving up. I'm giving up on it I can feel it, almost forty and look, alone unmarried no kids-I have no one to share my life with, it hurts am I not good enough for that?"  He hung his head as he spoke the final words put loud. He felt so vain and full of himself when he said them out loud, his skin crawled.
But it was how he felt, being the muscular decent looking man he was didn't go with his personality. He was a geek and the woman who were drawn to him didn't want that. And the woman that shared his hobbies normally weren't confident enough to even speak to him. Society's views on acceptable couples had put Henry in no mans land.
"What about online dating?" His brother spoke up but Henry just grunted rolling his eyes frustrated.
"What? No I cant do that I'd be fucking swamped" he hissed in irritation frustrated at the mere suggestion of him trying to date online.
"Whoa hold your horses let me finish I mean come on Hen there's bound to be hundreds of shy sweet women on there, I mean girls that are into your hobbies and stuff aren't usually the ones out and about partying and stuff, so its more likely they will be online" his brother quickly explained before Henry could pop off on one and shut him down.
Henry opened his mouth and stopped himself. That was a good point. Many of the women he would click with weren't going to be in bars or fancy parties. They were normally shy and at home most of the time reading or playing games.
"I... You really think i could meet someone? Meet the one online?" He asked in a small voice warming to the idea. His sibling smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes little brother, your a down to earth guy, just make a profile and have a look, if you don't like what you see you can delete the profile" henry nodded slowly thinking it over. There'd be no harm if he failed well he'd be no worse off, a little disheartened but that's about it.
"Look write down a few things you want in your dream girl, have a pseudo name like fucking I don't know Hank! Or something and say your a runner on set or something" his brother spoke up quickly as Henry sat back and actually thought about it seriously. He was right, henry could tweak things and be careful about what he shared and if he did meet the one then she'd understand... He could explain the predicament he was in. That he just wanted someone who liked him for him. And he would only reveal himself to her if she was the one and he was sure she would understand. As long as he was himself and honest about everything else in his life then there was no harm... and if he used proper photos of himself just... half cropped out then? It wasn't catfishing? Because he was being himself just using the nickname his mother used to call him.
"O-okay so be myself but... Just tweak a few things? So they don't know its me?" He reiterated to his brother still trying to figure out the morality of this whole idea.
"Yes! No full on pictures, no photos of Kal either new photos henry not old, maybe of your eyes up or something? Girls love blue eyed boy- not your right that brown will give you away... you could even fuck em up with a behind the scenes character photo? I mean come on how many men use a superman photo for their profile these days?" He encouraged wanting more then anything to cheer up his little brother.
"I yeah... That could work ,thank you- I'm sorry I got so worked up it... Its just getting to me now" henry apologised but his brother shook his head and chuckled standing up to go back outside to the others that were all happily chatting in the garden.
"I know Hen, look just give it a go, you might be surprized... come on lets get back out there, after all you are the host~ you cant just run off and hide" henry grinned standing and following his brother. It was decided, he'd give online dating a go!
Tumblr media
A week later Henry sat at the computer everything was ready, he'd taken some precise photos and had spent the last half hour writing a profile up. He had felt a little guilty about this... Was he lying? Technically it was him, he was going by Hank which was a nickname his parents gave him as a child, luckily this site didn't require a surname because honestly? He had no clue! To fend off some guilt he had thrown in a behind the scenes photo of himself as superman it wasn't much but it helped take the edge off. The other photos were cropped and there were a good few just so that the women knew he wasn't technically a catfish; he even did one with him covering half of his face with a piece of paper with Hank scrawled across it. At the time he felt silly but it helped with his anxiety over the whole thing.
He paused for a second eyeing the screen rereading the profile over and over trying to make sure it was alright and honest. And it was, he had explained a little about himself, his hobbies and interests and his job... Only brushing over he worked for the film and tv industry recently working for Netflix he hadn't exactly explained what he did but there was enough information.
With a deep breath he clicked the button his mouse hovered over going live with the profile. Now all he had to do was wait and hope he caught a good womans eye. Within moments a few profiles popped up, matches. He scanned them flicking through some of the profiles and felt his heart crack. They were all full of badly filtered photos and used slang that to be honest he didn't even understand. What was so hard about using plain English?
He growled growing frustrated clicking through what were clearly a bunch of wannabe sugar babies. Each profile had a main photo a little bit of info then a few more pictures added to them. He scanned each one quickly going through the motions judging each one. 'Too far away... Your clearly not even eighteen?... Oh you like dc? Really hate to break it to you but thor is not a dc character' Henry grunted as he bypassed what felt like hundreds of women each with their own 'duck face' selfie most advertising their Instagram pages some even ballsy enough to add their only fans pages.
'Wait a second who was that?' He paused and scrolled back up and eyed the image on screen. It was a face on photo a cute woman smiling uncomfortably. Unlike everyone else's there was no distorting blur or heavy editing, the only make up was in the form of eyeliner in a set of black slightly uneven cat eyes. A slightly skewed black flicks making a point of no editing on the photo.
She was a full figured woman with proper kissable round cheeks and a sweet nervous grin. Her eyes were what got him, they were kind and genuine he could see she was uneasy about the photo but she was beautiful. She lived about half hour away which wasn't to bad.
Henry clicked the profile and scrolled down she didn't smoke, drunk occasionally and had no children. She did however have a college education in animal care and ran a small business. Centred on dogs by the looks of it. He moved further down reading the profile.
Tumblr media
Y/n, 30, business owner, e/c, 5'4, curvy
I'm shy so will take a while to warm up to you. A honest woman, sometimes to honest I don't seem to have a filter 🤗 I'm laid back and tend to be sarcastic and I love animals I'm a kc certified dog breeder as well as run a small successful business that caters to dogs. So if you are allergic or don't like dogs then leave now but thank you for clicking🙃
I spend most of my free time gaming or reading. I enjoy the fantasy genre and love dc and marvel (though I love dc just a tad more🤫)
I have one fur baby in the form of my lovely girl Amii who is a three year old malamute. Yes malamute not a husky or Akita so again if you don't like dogs or big dogs I'm not the girl for you.
I'm looking for someone to have fun and maybe build a life with. Covid has been tough being single and decided that it was about time I tried this whole online dating thing. If you want to chat pop me a message 🥰
I do not have a personal Instagram, snapchat or only fans! Stop asking for pictures!😠😠
Tumblr media
Henry's face split into a huge grin. She seemed to good to be true. She was wholesome, successful in her own right and looked fun. She didn't seem to be full of kale and bullshit. Just genuine and? Henry couldn't put his finger on it but there was something drawing him to this woman.
True to her word there was no Instagram link, no only fans or snap chat or anything. He scrolled further seeing photos of her and the biggest fluffiest dog he had ever seen in his life. She was sitting down next to who he assumed was Amii her dog and he melted. Y/n looked happy and content, living her best life.
There was nothing that sent alarm bells ringing, no racey photos or 'Netflix and chill' innuendos. The profile was clean and genuine.  He was right the woman was a little chunky but extraordinarily beautiful. The curves suited her and made her look more... cheerful and he could tell she was strong aswell, you had to be to have a huge dog like that about you.
There were photos of her walking a large pack of dogs in the wood; that he recognised! They were the very same he took Kal to only ten minuets down the road, he even recognised the small logo of her company on the jacket she wore. He had seen dog walkers wearing the same jacket so he knew of her brand. I he remembered correctly the company offered dog walking, grooming and kennel facilities as well as offering Breeding services helping stud dogs and stuff. They also helped advertise registered breeders and took in rescues for rehoming. It was a brilliant little company that he had even used for Kal once or twice to get his teeth cleaned and nails clipped, because Kal was a bugger for his pedicures!
He moved further down seeing more photos of the woman a small section with the games and tv she liked. Witcher was in both the tv and games category aswell as peaky blinders, Vikings and a few other shows.
Henry paused as he saw the chat button. Should he? He but his lip twisting on the spot in he chair rocking from side to side. What harm is there? He could just send a message she looked like a fun loving woman, he shared the same interests and stuff... so why not?
His fingers hovered over the keys ready to type out the words. But he choked. His mind ran blank what does he say? Hi? I saw your profile? Does he ask for a date? What does he do?
He let his hands fall and growled. Then scanned over the side of the message bar seeing a few pre-typed responses.
'It's a match!' 'You look fun, lets chat' 'I like your profile picture'
He winced they all seemed... wrong? Somehow they were polite and all but it- they wasn't personal or anything just... not quite right. He looked down as Kal came padding over and slumped next to him resting his chin on his foot with a loud sigh. With that Henry had an idea typing away a little message and hitting send before he could really think.
Tumblr media
You sighed typing away the latest wage slips and added up all the various overtime, you really needed some more staff on now that lockdown was coming to an end. Thankfully animal care was essential so you hadn't been hit too hard a few staff were on furlough as they were extreme high risk and shielding but you were going out of your way to make the premises covid safe. Luckily it wasn't too hard as much of the business was just a few staff and lots of dogs.
You frowned when a chat icon popped up in to corner of your screen. 'Hank?' You though trying to remember if you knew a Hank? Maybe a client or some old friend... but you honestly couldn't recall. You l saved your document and clicked the small icon bringing up a chat and frowned a you read the little message.
'I call my dog bear but he has nothing on Amii, Shes the fluffiest dog I've ever seen in my life she looks perfect for bear hugs😅'
'what the hell?' You cursed scrunching your nose up at the screen rereading the words. That's a bit random... you clicked his icon a small photo of half of his face then froze as a dating profile opened up. 'Oh... shit' you said seeing that your own profile you'd set up a few days ago out of curiosity had garnered the attention of the handsome blue eyed stranger. You swallowed biting you lip thoughts of finishing updating your records now gone as you scanned Hanks profile and a small smile crossed your face.
Tumblr media
Hank, 37, works in the film industry. Blue eyes, 6ft, muscular.
Decided to finally try this online dating, unsure what to say other then I'm looking for a life partner. I like to think I'm funny and laid back. I'm fit and active but that doesn't mean you have to be, but maybe my lady could come for walks with me and my four legged son? I promise he's my best freind and a good boy.
My job is tough and I'm away for long periods of time, but when I'm home I like to play games and am into warcraft. I paint miniatures when I can. Fantasy and superheroes are a big part of my hobbies so if you don't like all things geek then I'm probably not for you.
But if they are? Then feel free to message me, I will reply when I can.
Tumblr media
You read and re-read the profile And your hands hovered over your chicklet keyboard. Biting your lip, do you respond? He seemed sweet and real... if that made sense. You took a deep breath. What was the worst that could happen? Asking for a plane ticket? You decided to take a chance and typed back a reply hitting send whilst you had your nerve and then flushed.
"And they say fluffy dogs only lure in women~" You giggled to yourself  moving a hand over the huge fluffy girl beside you giving her pets whislt thinking of a reply.
427 notes · View notes
Note
I just saw this blog, and ooooohhhh my heart my boyyyy whom I loooooove could I pretty PRETTY please ask for but a SMIDGE, a CRUMB, of romantic headcanons for Wheatley and his S/O? Who's not Chell. Don't get me wrong, nothing against the ship, at least for me, I just feel we have enough Chelley and not enough X Reader stuff ^^; Anywho, whether it's just pet names he has for em, fluffy, spicy, go wild ! (Oh, also gender neutral if you could.) Thank you so much for your time !
Of course you can! I'm a sucker for romantic Wheatley headcanons, no matter who he's with. As someone who ships Chelley, i still definitely understand that it often overshadows any X reader ideas, and I'd be glad to give you some gender neutral partner headcanons. Thank you for the ask, let's get right to it!
Wheatley loves his partner and makes sure they know it
He loves any kind of physical touch, from playing with each others' hair, to cuddling, to full-on sex. He just likes to be able to feel his partner next to him in some way, feel their warmth and soft breaths. Especially Android! or Core!Wheatley, as he'd be much more intrigued with how humans and their bodies work and feel.
Big cuddler, always in the mood for a good snuggle
When cuddling, he likes to be big spoon (although not opposed to swapping), He likes to feel like he's protecting them and keeping them safe. He also knows how nice it feels to be in someone's embrace like that from when he was a core and humans (probable his partner included) would wrap their arms around him while they'd sleep or take a rest.
He watches them do ordinary things. Wheatley is an observer of anyone, really, as it fascinates him. But he tends to be much more captivated with his partner's actions. Because of this, he's caught many of their little habits and and routines.
Likes having his hair played with. It's just a really comforting feeling to him
His hugs are everything. He loves hugging his partner to show them how much he cares, embracing them tightly, and almost hesitant to let go. Even though he's not the strongest, they always feel safe and secure in his arms.
He often worries about losing them. He's not possessive or anything, but he's scared of somehow messing up someday and losing what they have. Of course, Wheatley wants them to be happy, but he also can't imagine life without them if they, one day, chose to leave.
Speaking of wanting his partner to be happy, he has a bad habit of forgetting to take care of his own needs and feelings, instead focusing all of his energy on their happiness.
So he sometimes needs to be reminded to take care of himself
Early on in the relationship, he was really shy about showing romantic affection. He'd be worried about making them uncomfortable, but they assure him they're fine.
Wheatley asks for consent. Be like Wheatley.
He now showers them in verbal and physical affection whenever he can, it's really sweet.
Gets excited when his partner comes home from somewhere (work, with friends, etc.). He'll hear the front door open and run out like an excited dog, sometimes stumbling down the stairs, to greet them.
Usually ends in a big hug once he gets there
Wheatley loves spending time with them. Even just being in the same room as his partner is time well spent
That could also have to do with the fact he hates being alone
They probably end up getting a pet, let's be honest
Idk what animal, but whatever it is, they both love it so much. It doesn't take long for Wheatley to get emotionally attached.
A happy family :)
Alright that was fun, thank you for the suggestion! If anyone else has a request/prompt, feel free to send it in as an ask, and I'll respond to it!
229 notes · View notes
wiypt-writes · 4 years ago
Text
You Cut A Mean Rug, Doll Face
Tumblr media
Bucky Barnes One Shot
Summary: It’s no secret that Bucky Barnes has women falling at his feet, but it’s very rarely the other way round. He’s the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, well according to Steve anyway. So, when you find him hiding to avoid a certain Private’s advances, it amuses you no end…until she shows up and you find yourself offering to be his ‘Fake Date’ for Stark’s upcoming USO Gala Dance.
Fake Dating in the middle of a war…what could possibly go wrong?
Warnings: Bad language words. Smut. (NSFW 18+)
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader
A/N:  So this is written as part of @anika-ann​’s 1111 Follower Challenge. Congratulations darling! My prompt was Fake Dating.
Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar reader and any other OCs that may or may not be mentioned. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.
 **********
“Hey, Steve.” You greeted the blonde super soldier as you walked into the little make-shift kitchen, deep in the underground London SSR HQ.
“Afternoon, Agent.” He nodded and you rolled your eyes, picking a piece of fluff off your khaki green uniform jacket.
“Seriously, after everything we’ve pulled together we’re still at agent?” You raised an eyebrow drawing a soft chuckle from the man in front of you as he poured a coffee into one of the tin mugs on offer, holding it out to you.
“Sorry, force of habit. Y/N. That better?”
“Much.” You nodded, taking the mug with a thanks, pulling a face as you took a sip. “God, all the technology we have and I still can’t get a decent cup of Joe.”
“Maybe you should have a word with Stark.” Steve shrugged. “He seems to be able to lay his hands on most things, rationing be dammed.”
“Well, you’re the man with the plan and he’s the man that can.” A smirk pulled at your face as you watched Steve fight the urge to roll his eyes. “Anyway, where’s Barnes? Colonel Phillips is riding my ass about a report he hasn’t filed. Keeps moaning on about us being unable to run strategic operations if we don’t actually do any strategizing.”
At that Steve’s face broke into a grin. “He’s hiding.”
“Hiding?” You frowned. “Chester isn’t that scary, he’s a pussy cat if you figure out how to make him purr.”
“Okay there are so many things wrong with what you just said that I’m not even going to go into.” Steve snorted and you flashed him a grin as he continued. “He ain’t hiding from Phillips, he’s hiding from Private Lorraine.”
“Why?” You paused, mug hovering an inch or so from your mouth.
“Well according to Stark who heard from Jones who heard from-“
“Yeah, yeah, skip to the interesting bit about why Barnes his hiding like the cowardly lion” You cut him off and he raised his eyebrows, his smirk growing wider.
“She wants him to ask her to that USO dance gala thing Stark is hosting.”
At that you felt the heat in your neck, jealousy, at the thought of the blue-eyed solider you’d been harbouring a crush on for months, like some love sick teenager, dancing with someone else. You carefully held Steve’s eyes and licked your lips, hoping you hadn’t given yourself away too much.
“Of course she does.” You shrugged, clearing your throat. “But that doesn’t answer my question. Why is he hiding?”
“He doesn’t want to go with her.” Steve shrugged, taking another sip of his drink and this time you did absolutely nothing to stop the grin that spread across your face.
“How come?”
At that Steve hesitated for a moment before he popped a shoulder again, slightly avoiding your eye line. "No idea."
You knew he was lying, he was notoriously bad at it, but before you could call him out, a deep voice spoke from the doorway.
"Sure your Ma told you it was rude to talk about people behind their backs, Stevie." Bucky grumbled as he walked into the room.
"Yeah, and I'm sure yours told you it was rude to do a lot of things that you still do anyway." Steve shot back and Bucky merely rolled his eyes, walking to the coffee pot and helping himself. 
"Well, I’m astounded." You looked at Bucky as he turned around, leaning slightly against the small units that lined the room. "James Buchanan Barnes is fanning a woman away."
"Yeah, I don’t make a habit of it, Doll Face." He eyed you shrewdly over his mug.
"Still, never thought I'd see the day." You hummed, sipping your drink.
Bucky rolled his eyes and gestured with his mug towards Steve. "Now you sound like him."
"So, humour me, Barnes. What is it about her that’s making you run for the hills?"
Bucky hesitated for a moment before he winkled his nose and answered you. "She’s not my type."
"Really? I thought every woman was your type." 
At that, Steve gave a chuckle. "She's got you there, Buck. I don't think I saw you without one before you shipped off."
"Shut up, Steve." Bucky bit back before he gave a low groan. "She's just..."
"Just what?" You scoffed. "Tall, blonde with big, come-to-bed eyes and pouty red lips? What's not to fall over? Dum Dum follows her around like a dog."
"Sweetheart, Dum Dum would probably chase a pig wearing lipstick if he thought he had a chance." Bucky looked at you his eyebrow raised and you heard Steve give a little snort of laughter. You turned slowly to him, and his eyes widened a little as you narrowed your eyes.
"What's your excuse?"
"His excuse?" Bucky paused, mug poised at his lips as Steve began to flounder over his words, a pink flush spreading into his cheeks.
“Yeah, he kissed her.” You informed and Buck gave a loud groan, placing his mug down on the side. "Peggy caught them, big time."
"She kissed me." Steve protested and at that Bucky sighed. 
"What has my life become? Seriously?" He shook his head, his eyes flicking between you and Steve. "I’m hiding because I don’t wanna go dancing with some broad whilst this punks beating ‘em off with a stick."
"Shield." You corrected as Steve made an exasperated noise in his throat.
"I’m in a nightmare, right?" Bucky finished.
"’Fraid not, Buckaroo." You placed your now empty mug besides his on the wooden counter. "But I suggest that you get your report to me on the Dresden raid or you really will be in a bad dream. Colonel Phillips wants them pronto and I'm not taking the flack because you're too lazy to do it."
Bucky groaned. "How am I supposed to think about that with all this other shit going on?"
"Nice to see you have your priorities straight." Steve scoffed and Bucky glared at him but before he could reply, a loud girly laugh filled the kitchen and you saw Bucky still.
"There you are!" Private Lorraine spoke and you exchanged a glance with Steve, a look of utter glee spreading across his face at his friend's discomfort. "I was beginning to think you were avoiding me, Sergeant Barnes."
"Now what on Earth would give you that idea?" You quipped. As usual, she completely ignored you and watched as Bucky turned to look at her.
"Well, you found me." He nodded, a false smile spreading across his face.
"Yeah, I did. So, err, this dance, do you have a date or..."
Bucky took a deep breath, "well, the thing is..."
"Yes, he does." You blurted out, before you could stop yourself. You stepped forward and slipped your hand into his, ignoring the shocked look he gave you as you stood by his side. "He's going with me."
"You?" Lorraine looked at you, her eyebrows shooting up so high they almost disappeared into her hairline.
"Yes, me." You smiled. "So, you'll have to find someone else to go with. I think Duggan might be free."
"Well, suppose there's no accounting for taste." The blonde woman in front of you looked you up and down and you bristled under her glare, your nostrils flaring angrily. Sure, you might not have her model looks, hell, you might not even be conventionally pretty in some eyes, but you sure weren’t going to make her let you feel like shit. You'd been brought up by a loving family who made you realise your worth and that despite what anyone else said, you were just as good as them. You continued to hold her gaze and eventually she licked her lips and looked away.
"Well, erm, that's..." she clicked her tongue against her cheek, before deciding to cut her losses and she left the room.
The three of you stood in silence before Bucky turned to look at you, a smirk spreading across his face. "You, are a genius!" He pressed a kiss to your cheek and you swallowed slightly, feeling the heat in your neck. "I owe you, big time."
"Yeah, you do." You shrugged. "You can start by doing that damned report. And then you’re buying me a drink at the Gala, seeing as we're, you know, fake dating."
"You got it, Doll." Bucky saluted, flashing you a wink.
"Fake dating?" Steve muttered, and you turned to look at him as he shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. "I've heard it all now."
You cleared you throat, and removed your hand from where it was still in Bucky’s and swallowed. "I need to get going. That report, Barnes. Don’t forget."
"Anything for you, Darlin'." Bucky grinned.
You gave him a last little smile, and then turned leaving the room letting out an inward groan.
What the hell had you just got yourself into?
****
“Why did I do this?” You sighed, looking at your reflection in the mirror, shaking your head.
“Because you’re sweet on him.” Peggy matter of factly replied and you shot her a look in the mirror. She gave you a knowing smirk and you sighed.
“I just felt sorry for him, okay?”
“Sorry for him?”
“Yeah, you know what she’s like, she wouldn’t leave him alone.”
“Admirable.” Peggy nodded, stepping forward so she was behind you, reaching up to fix another pin into your up do. “So what’s your master plan? Act the part tonight and break up tomorrow?”
You shrugged. “Haven’t thought that far.”
“I doubt you’ve thought at all.”  The brunette looked at you, her perfectly shaped eyebrow raising slightly.
“You know, you and Steve really are a match made in heaven.” You scoffed, stepping to the side as you smoothed down the dress you were wearing. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it traced your curves perfectly and made a nice change from the uniform you spent every day wearing. “Go take your righteous indignation and discuss it with him. That is if you’re speaking to him this week, I can never keep up.”
At that Peggy pursed her lips. “We’re not discussing me and Steve, we’re discussing you and how you’re going to get through the next however long pretending to date someone you actually want to date.”
“Well, it could be worse.” You shrugged.
“How?”
“I could be about to spend however long pretending to date someone I don’t like.”
Peggy looked at you for a second and you held her gaze, challenging her to say anything more on the matter. Eventually she merely raised her eyebrows before she turned and looked at the clock.
“We should go.”
With a deep breath you took one last glance at your reflection, grabbed the small clutch from the cot in your room and followed her out.
*****
The small dancehall in London's Soho District was packed with soldiers and civilian staff alike, and you accepted the drink offered to you by a waiter as you entered the main room, the Big Band already playing a bluesy-jazz number as background music, whilst people stood around the room, chatting. It didn’t take you long to locate Bucky. He was stood with Steve and the rest of the Howlies by the bar, all of them dressed in their best uniforms. Taking a deep breath, those pesky butterflies fluttering away in your stomach, you made your way over with Peggy and she let out an annoyed sigh as the men all blatantly looked the pair of you up and down.
“You’d think they’d never seen a woman before.” She mumbled and you scoffed out a laugh.
“Well, we’ve been running missions with them for that long maybe they’ve forgotten that we actually have boobs and a vagina.”
At that Peggy stopped to look at you, and the pair of you started to laugh.
“You are so uncouth.” She shook her head at you, as you linked your arm through hers and continued your path towards your team.
“Like I said, I’ve been in the field with these bozos for over a year, guess their bad habits are rubbing off on me.”
“Well, as long as that’s all that’s rubbing off on you.”
“Agent Carter!” Your mouth fell open in mock horror, turning to look at her as she continued facing forward, her lips quirked up at one side in a barely there smirk. “Now who’s being uncouth?”
“Ladies.” Dum-Dum greeted you with a tip of his bowler as you approached and you nodded to him, smiling before you turned to look at Bucky.
“Wow.” His eyes flicked up and down your form again, and you swallowed, a warm feeling spreading over you as his eyes took in your outfit and when his eyes finally met yours he cleared his throat and you gave him a small smile. “You err, look great. I mean, compared to how you usually look.”
At that Falsworth, Dum-Dum, Dernier, Jones and Morita all snorted as Steve let out a groan.
“Thanks. I think.” You frowned.
“No, I err…I didn’t mean it like that.” Bucky hastily began to back track as Dernier mumbled something in French, of which you caught the words ‘stupid idiot’, Jones hastily agreeing. “I just, well, it’s different to how I’ve seen you before.”
“Well a tight dress and courts ain’t exactly practical for hiking through woods and mounting stealth operations.” You shrugged, taking a sip of your drink. “But for the record, you look exactly the same as you usually do.”
At that the men all roared with laughter as Bucky sighed, dropping his head. “Guess I asked for that.”
Bucky watched as you gave him a small grin, before you turned to talk to Jones, and he took the chance to observe you properly. You looked good. You always did in his eyes but tonight, you were a knock out. Your dress hugged the curves of your thighs and hips, nipping in at the waist with a neckline that showed him just enough skin to leave him imagining what it would feel like to pepper your collarbone with kisses. Your hair was set in a perfect style, your lips rouged, you looked effortlessly stylish. He swallowed, sliding his finger in between the collar of his shirt and neck in an attempt to loosen the starched material as he suddenly flushed very, very warm. He felt timid, awkward, and that in itself made him feel a strange juxtaposition of irritated and amused. Bucky Barnes didn’t get nervous around women, that was Steve’s speciality. But here he was, flapping over how best to ask you if you wanted to get a drink whilst that punk was laughing away with Agent Carter hanging off his every word.
No, this wouldn’t do.
With a small cough, Bucky cleared his throat and dropped his hand to the base of your back. “You want a drink, Doll Face?”
You smiled up at him, blinking and nodded. “Yeah, thanks Buck. A gin would be great.”
Bucky waved over the bartender, placed your orders and had just turned back to you when he spotted the woman who’d thrown him into this mess in the first place, Private Lorraine arriving with some other poor, unsuspecting soldier from the unit. Bucky didn’t know his name, not that he cared.
“Hey,” he nudged you and you turned to face him and he jerked his head, “guess this fake date worked.”
You followed his eye-line and visibly bristled a little bit before you shook your head and shrugged. “Poor bastard.”
“You really don’t like her, do you?”
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Just a hunch.” Bucky smirked, passing you your drink, before he gestured with his arm for you to follow the group who were now moving away from the bar to find a table. “After you, Darlin’.”
*****
You had to admit, you’d had your reservations but as it turned out, the night was pretty fun. Whilst you’d been hyper aware of Bucky besides you, you felt reasonably relaxed. His arm had dropped round your shoulder at one point, pulling you in for a friendly hug, the way he often did out in the field, and you’d simply enjoyed being as close to him as you were.
Because, fake or not, a chance to date Bucky Barnes didn’t come along that often.
It was a couple of hours later when you both found yourself at the table with Steve who made an excuse he needed the bathroom and left. Bucky snorted as Steve headed across the room and shook his head.
“Bathroom, he must think we’re stupid. He’s gone to find Peggy.”
“Aww, don’t. I think it’s cute.” You smiled, turning to look at Bucky. “Don’t you? I mean we’re fighting a war and in the middle of all this bloodshed and horror, he’s found someone who…” you trailed off as Bucky was watching you, a strange expression on his face. “Or not…am I talking nonsense?”
“No, it’s not that.” Bucky shook his head. “I just, guess I never thought about it that way. But you’re right. Suppose none of us know how long we have left, especially at the moment.”
He trailed off, his eyes scanning yours for something, but what you weren’t sure. You felt your cheeks warm and you glanced down at your hands, before you turned to watch the dancing going on around you. It was crazy when you stopped to contemplate that, in the midst of all the devastation and destruction, life was still going on. Bucky was right, your time could be up in a flash at any point.
“Well, seeing as you put it so eloquently,” you looked at Bucky, jerking your head to the dance floor. “Wanna show me how it’s done in Brooklyn?”
“Do you mind if we don’t?” Bucky shook his head and your heart sank. “I just…well, I…”
“No, you don’t need to explain.” You hastily back tracked. “I just thought it might keep up appearances, that’s all.”
There was an awkward silence, Bucky studying you for a moment with an expression you really couldn’t place and then, well, it all became too much.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” You made the same excuse Steve had given moments ago, and before Bucky could say anything, you rose from your seat and walked away, as dignified as you could, trying not to let the tears that were stinging your eyes fall down your face.
*****
Bucky watched you walk away from him, your movements graceful as you headed round the tables placed around the edge of the dance floor, taking care to avoid the groups of guests as you went. He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. This was a mess. It had started out as a bit of fun, you helping him out, because that's what you did, but he'd been a wreck all night. Frankly, being in such close proximity to you was making his head swim.
He'd wanted to dance with you, he'd really wanted to dance with you, but he didn’t trust himself because the truth was he liked you. A lot and he had done so for a while. He wasn’t sure he could trust himself to hold you on the dance floor without trying to kiss the life out of you. So he’d said no, and let you walk away, and the look of hurt on your face was now burnt into his mind. With an angry snort he stood up and stalked to the bar, signalling for another drink.
He stood there, nursing his glass for what felt like an age, seething at his own stupidity until a familiar voice cut through his murderous thoughts.
"Did HYDRA scramble your brain or something, Buck?"
"What?" Bucky's brow furrowed as he turned to look at Steve.
"You’re missing a girl's signals."
"Signals, what are you..."
"Y/N, you dolt." Steve rolled his eyes.
"What about her?"
"She likes you, has for ages."
"I don’t think so, Steve" Bucky snorted.
Steve sighed and leaned against the bar as Bucky necked his scotch. "So explain the look she had on her face as she stalked passed me before.”
Bucky rolled his eyes. "She wanted a dance, dames love dancing. I said no.”
“And why did you do that?”
Bucky took a deep breath and didn’t answer. But he knew Steve could see right through him, the punk always could.
“Buck, what exactly did you think I meant that night at the bar when we first came to England a couple of months back? About Peggy having a friend? I meant Y/N."
Bucky blinked, his mouth dropping open. "What?"
"She's sweet on you. Falsworth told me. I was trying to give you a hint."
Utter frustration lanced through Bucky's entire body and he shook his head. "How in the name of Hitler’s left ball was I supposed to understand that?"
"Well, I thought it was obvious."
"No, no it wasn't, Steve!" Bucky groaned, his eyes flicking around, trying to locate you in the crowd but he felt his heart sink as there was no sign. "Oh, I fucked up, big time."
"Suggest you go fix it then." Steve shrugged, his voice a little slow as he himself was busy looking at Peggy as she walked towards him, smiling. He stood up straight and clapped Bucky on the shoulder, before he walked off, leaving his sergeant alone.
Bucky anxiously continued to search the room with his eyes, and felt his heart jump as he saw a flash of colour the same as your dress, and your familiar profile as you walked onto the dance floor, your hand in Howard’s as the man smiled at you, pulling you into a hold.
Oh, fuck you, Stark!
Without wasting another second, Bucky necked his scotch and moved, striding around the dancehall towards you, not watching where he was going which was why he collided straight into Dum-Dum.
"Woah, Barnes, where's the fire?"
"On the dance floor, I hope.” Bucky sidestepped round the broad man quickly, his eyes entirely fixed on you as he weaved his way round the various couples all in the middle of a reasonable slow dance until he reached the pair of you.
He cleared his throat, gently tapping Howard on the shoulder as your eyes fixed onto his, surprise etched across your face.
“Mind if I cut in?”
xxxx
“Did it work?” Peggy asked Steve as the pair of them stood to the side of the hall. Steve glanced over the dancefloor, just as Howard stepped away from you, kissing your hand in an over-the-top gesture before he turned and walked away. Bucky approached you tentatively, and Steve saw you give the faintest of nods, before his friend took you in a close dancing hold.
Grinning, Steve turned back to Peggy, jerking his head to the floor. “See for yourself.”
As the pair of them watched you and Bucky for a second, Steve’s eyes then fell on Howard who had paused to talk to someone. Almost as if he could sense the Captain’s eyes on him, Stark glanced over, a smug grin crossed his face, and he gave Steve the thumbs up sign.
Steve smiled into his glass, the irony at the fact that Bucky had tried and failed many times to fix him up with gals in the past yet he’d managed to turn the tables in a single try, wasn’t wasted on the Captain.
xxxx
“Funny looking bathroom.” Bucky cleared his throat as he steered the pair of you round in a gentle dance.
“Oh, well I got waylaid a little.” You replied. “And seeing as we’re not actually dating, I didn’t think it was an issue.”
“It’s not, I just…” He was quick to reply as he drew in another deep breath before he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
 “What for?”
“Before, saying no the way I did. It was rude.”
You took a deep breath, your heart racing as you glanced up at him. “So, is that the only reason you’ve come to dance now? To apologise?”
“Yes, I mean, no.” Bucky stumbled over his words as he shook his head. “No, I wanted to dance. More specifically I wanted to dance with you.”
His admission settled like a bubbling brook in your belly. You wondered why, so you asked, "why?" 
Your mind began quickly doing the math, adding up the moments and signals between the two of you, wondering if what you dared to think was actually what he was thinking too. You were nervous but you remained close in your dance, your eyes flicking between his and his lips as he spoke, the words drowning in your ears, his voice sounding like your head was under water. 
“Because I like you, Doll Face.”
Then, you felt it, your body leaning in just a smidge as you tilted your head upward as his moved just a pinch to look down at you. Your lips brushed his and the electricity took off as he pulled you in for a deeper, slightly less modest kiss, the hand that had been curled around your waist moved upwards at the same time his other released yours from his hold, and calloused palms and fingers cupped your jaw and cheeks. Despite the roughness of his skin, his warm hands felt soft against your face like the finest silk whilst his tongue dipped into your mouth, kissing you in a way that your Pappy certainly wouldn’t approve of.
But you approved, boy did you approve.
The sounds of the big band drowned out the mewl that bubbled from your delicate throat to those around you, but not to Bucky. He heard the elicit sound clear as day, and that was enough. He wanted to get you alone, away from prying eyes.
He pulled back, casting a quick glance around before he looked down at you, "let's get out of here."
It was a suggestion as much as an instruction, and he waited as you blinked, before you gave the slightest nod and he took your hand, turned, and led you from the dancefloor.
****
How the pair of you made it back to your quarters, you had no idea, but here you were, stumbling into the small room, heated kisses being shared as Bucky kicked the door shut, his lips still fiercely on yours. Your fingers were now deftly undoing the buttons of his jacket before you pulled it open with a flourish, shoving it down over his shoulders and arms as Bucky was quickly pulling off his tie and opening the collar of his shirt. Before long, that was also discarded somewhere on the floor and your hands slid up his strong biceps, down his chest, tracing the taught muscle before your fingers hooked into the front of his uniform pants and you turned your attention to his belt, breaking the kiss a little so you could look down.
“Eager, Doll?” Bucky mumbled as his nose nudged at your chin, pushing your head up. His lips trailed across your jaw line, and then down your neck and you tipped your head back, your eyes fluttered shut at the feel of his lips on your skin, relishing the feel of his soft mouth and the delectable gentle scratching of his five-o-clock shadow.
His hands slowly slid up your sides, before they moved round the back, his lips pressing to yours as you felt his fingers gently guiding the zip of your dress down. Once it was undone, you stepped back and allowed it to fall into a pool at your feet. Bucky glanced down and groaned as his blue eyes scanned the stockings, garter belt, lace panties and matching bra.
“Fuck, Sweetheart.” His lips crashed back to yours as he backed you towards the cot at the side of the room.  As the back of your knees hit the metal side of the frame, he gently lowered you down, positioning himself over you, caging you with his arms and his legs as his mouth continued trailing soft kisses down your neck and her jawline.
You were powerless to stop the soft noises of pleasure you were making, try as you might, conscious of the fact the walls in the Quarter-Hall were thin, something you cursed on a daily basis as you could hear the squeak of the cot which belonged to the neighbour to your right as she turned over at night. Luckily for you, your springs were untested so to speak, therefore didn’t make a sound, unlike you at that moment in time.
“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Bucky suddenly stopped, his mouth hovering by your ear and you stilled, tilting your head to look at him. “I mean, this…well, it aint proper really, but…”
“Since when did you give a damned about being proper with a Dame?” You teased, fingers wrapping in the chain of his dog-tags, but there wasn’t a shred of humour in Bucky’s tone or on his face when he answered.
“When that dame was you.”
You blinked, and looked at his face, finding nothing there but a genuine softness and you were overcome with the emotions and sensations you were feeling and you yanked on the chain in your hands, pulling his head back down as you crashed your lips back to his.
“Yes, yes I do. I want this Bucky, I want it so much.” You mumbled against his mouth and he gave a groan, before he stood up, quickly, reaching for his wallet. He pulled out the small condom packet, one you recognised as the standard issued to all soldiers to avoid them catching anything when they were putting it about during furlough, so to speak, and he sat back down on the edge of the bed, bending down to unlace his boots.
Bucky was mentally cursing the damned things as he felt you stir behind him, the hard mattress of your bed dipping slightly, and he stilled as he felt your fingers gently brushing over the back of his shoulders. Your touch was feather light as your hands gently felt across his broad back and he gave a sigh, tipping his head back slightly to catch your lips in a deep kiss.
“Doll, if you want me to do anything to you tonight, I gotta get these boots off.”
“So take ‘em off.”
“Stop distractin’ me then.” His accent dripped from his tongue as he chuckled, and your lips curled into a smile against his.
“You saying you can’t handle a job with a little distraction?” You gave a tut, but pulled away a little to allow him to finally get the damned things off. “And Steve says you’re our best marksman.”
“Well, what does that Punk know?” Bucky tossed the boots to the floor with a thud, before he quickly raised his hips enough to allow him to slide off his pants. Then, in a flash he turned, pinning you back to the cot, smirking at the giggle that burst from your mouth. His hands trailed down your body, flicking open the clips on your garter straps without so much as a fumble, before the reached up and snapped the hooks at the front of your bra.
He took a moment to appreciate you, the soft, supple lines of your breasts a complete contrast to your toned shoulders and taught stomach, both the result of an extensive training regime.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful.” He leaned over, kissing you softly, his lips tracing a track down your sternum before he softly took a nipple in his mouth, his tongue gently teasing, eyes flicking to your face to watch your reaction. 
You groaned at the sensation, rolling your head back on the pillow, hips bucking upwards as you let yourself go, barely daring to believe that his was happening, but just as you were questioning if you were in some elaborate dream, a low moan from above you caused your fluttering eyelids to jerk wide open. You could feel him hard, pushing against you and your hands moved round to his back.  You dragged your fingers up his spine, as his hand moved down, sliding into the waistband of your panties making your gasp as his fingers slipped into your folds. As he teased you, your hips began to move in time with his motions, groans falling from your lips as the heat began to build in between your legs, deep in your belly.
“Good?” Bucky’s voice was a rasp, and it was all you could do to do whimper softly, your head falling back further as your mouth dropped open, your entire body shuddering as the pleasure lanced through you. You reached down, grabbing his wrist and his eyes moved to yours, waiting.
“Want you.” You whispered softly. Almost as if he’d been waiting for that final bit of permission, Bucky’s fingers hooked into the top of your panties, gently sliding them down your legs, gathering your stockings as he went, a movement he had clearly perfected through goodness knows however many other clandestine liaisons. Discarding them to the floor, he wriggled his way out of his own underwear before he sat back on his heels and you moved, grabbing the packet he’d placed on the small bedside unit before.
Bucky groaned softly as your hands gently wrapped around his cock, sliding the condom down. It really shouldn’t have been as arousing as it was but he was almost ready to blow before he’d even started. Once it was on, he crawled back over you, his thighs gently parting yours a little further and with a steady, slow motion he slid into you, the sensation caused both of you to groan, your head falling back against the pillows as Bucky stretched you, his girth and length filling you completely.
"Fuuucckkk.” Bucky breathed out as your tight heat gripped him, his word little more than a whisper. He moved his hands to snake his fingers through yours, gently pinning your hands by the side of your head as he began to move his hips. He went slowly at first, picking up the speed slightly as you keened underneath him, his dog tags sliding in the valley between your breasts, the metal cold against your heated skin.
Your hips bumped together with every thrust he made and, with each rock into you, he was rubbing against that soft spot deep inside you. Your soft cries stuck in your throat, your senses completely overwhelmed as the fire in your body was raging white hot.
“James,” you whispered his name, and Bucky let out a low groan, his fingers tightened around yours as he gave a particularly deep thrust, making you purr in delight. He raised his head to capture your lips, plunging his tongue into your mouth before he released your hands, his own cupping your face as he continued to move.
In that moment, you could have been anywhere. In a hotel, surrounded by the finest silk sheets that money could buy or on some far away beach in the corner of the world, but instead you were led on a hard mattress in a military base, knowing full well you were in for some serious reprimand if you were caught, but you didn’t care. All that mattered was the man who was currently undoing you piece by piece as the two of you were tangled in your own private dance.
The more Bucky gave, the more you wanted, and as he hiked your leg up round his waist, his fingers curling round the back of your knee you choked out another pant of his name, “James,” as you felt yourself nearing that point where you’d drop over that oh-so-steep cliff edge. The tips of your nails dug into the skin of his shoulders, causing him to groan loudly, his head tipping backwards.
“You feel so good.” His voice was nothing but a whine, and at his praise you gave another low, sultry gasp, your breath now coming in ragged gasps. “God, Y/N,” he moaned loudly as you titled your hips, pushing back up against him, his head dropping slightly. “You close?” he gasped and you nodded softly, your lips falling open and once again he kissed you, hard, his movements speeding up ever so slightly.
“Don’t stop.” You begged, shaking your head as you grasped at his back, “please, so good.”
Bucky felt you shudder underneath him and a few thrusts later your back arched and a soft cry escaped your mouth as your eyes fluttered shut and your head tilted back, mouth open in a now silent scream. He could feel you tightening, pulsing around him as you came and that was it, enough to tip him straight over the edge behind you, the surge and ecstasy of his relief causing his whole body to stiffen as his hips faltered. A groan burst from his mouth as he gave a few final, sloppy thrusts before he collapsed forward, his head burrowing into your neck.
You both lay still for a moment, before Bucky regained enough composure to prop himself up, placing a soft kiss to your lips and as he pulled away slightly, he found you looking up at him, lips swollen from his kisses, heavy lidded eyes blinking slowly in your sated state, and he smiled at the fact you wore that just fucked look so damned well.
“You okay?” He asked softly and you nodded, a smile playing on your lips before you kissed him again.
“More than okay.” You grinned, your nails gently scratching at the nape of his neck. “You got moves, Sergeant.”
Bucky let out a chuckle as he kissed you again, his lips hovering over yours. “Well you weren’t so bad yourself, Agent.”
*****
 “Nice of you to show up.” Colonel Phillips looked at you as you walked into the briefing room. “Late night, was it?”
“Sorry, Sir. I didn’t get much sleep.” You mumbled, avoiding Bucky’s eyes as he looked down at the table, a grin on his face.
“Huh, I could have sworn I saw you leaving the dance early.” Dum-Dum quipped and you shot him a glare as you took up a seat next to Peggy who licked her lips, fighting a smirk.
“Whatever, I’m not interested.” Phillips sniffed before he tossed a file down on the table in front of Steve who reached over to take it. “We have word that HYDRA are intending to move Arnim Zola.”
“Do we know where to?” Steve asked, looking at the file before he glanced up and Peggy shook her head.
“No, this is hot off the press so to speak. Stark’s team intercepted their encrypted broadcast. All we know is that they’re nervous about moving, and that the route has been carefully planned to avoid any long, open distances.”
“They’re going through the Alps.” Phillips moved to a map at the side of the room. “Trying to maintain a cover so to speak. Our surveillance team still has Zola at his current location, but that could change at any time. Captain, I need you to co-ordinate and mount an operation to intercept that train and apprehend him.”
“If you know where he is why can’t we just bust in and get him now?” Bucky asked.
“Because you’ll never get there in time.” Phillips replied. “As we understand he’ll be moving out in a couple of hours. So we’re up against it. The window of opportunity lies about six hours into his trip where there’s a slight break in the mountain cover.”
“How do we know this is kosher?” Falsworth took the file from Steve. “They could be leaving a false trail.”
“We hacked a number of broadcasts, each saying a different thing.” Peggy answered. “But this one held the code words we know HYDRA are using today.”
“And our codebreakers have never let us down before, so I’m willing to take a punt.” Phillips nodded. “Get to it, we don’t have much time.”
There was a flurry of movement around the table as you all stood up, Steve barking instructions at you all to collect what you needed and head to the transportation hub immediately as Dum-Dum mentioned something about zip wires and ambushing the train from above. As you all sidled out of the room, a hand gently closed over your arm and you turned to see Bucky as he fell into step besides you.
“Just so you know, I don’t normally make habit of splitting before breakfast.”
“Oh, you normally eat first?”
“In a manner of speaking.” He smirked and you gave a chuckle. “I just didn’t want you thinking-“
“It’s okay, I get it.” You assured him, and you did. He’d left in a flurry that morning before he could get caught sneaking out of the small room you had in the female quarters and you didn’t hold it against him at all. 
“But, I’d really like to take you out, properly, I mean. When we get chance.”
“You asking me out on a date?”
“Yeah.” Bucky stopped, turning to face you. “A real one this time.”
You smiled and nodded. “I’d like that. Oh, but just so you know, I don’t put out on a first date.”
“No? Then what was last night?”
You hesitated, feeling the heat rising to your cheeks. In all honesty, you had no idea what had come over you last night. You’d never behaved in a reckless manner with a man like that before and taken him home so easily, for fear of getting yourself a bad reputation. That said, you didn’t really care either. You were in the middle of a war, running dangerous missions, any of which could be your last. Life was for living, and as long as you were breathing, you intended on making the most of it.
You opened your mouth to explain this to Bucky, but you stopped yourself and instead you simply smiled at him, your eyes looking straight into those steel-blues which were sparkling with mischief.
“Doesn’t count, it wasn’t a real date.”
“Oh, that’s how it is?” Bucky arched an eyebrow and you nodded.
“Yup, that’s how it is.”
“Well,” He took a deep breath as the pair of you continued walking, “guess I’ll just have to show you a real good time when I get the chance.”
You snorted and shook your head. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”
“It’s been said.” He grinned as you reached the end of the corridor. “But, first we’ve got a German scientist to catch. Think you can contain yourself around me long enough to run a mission?”
“Okay, first off he’s Swiss.”
“What?”
“Zola, he’s Swiss. I don’t know why you all think differently, it’s in all the briefings and his file-“
“Yeah, I don’t read those.”
“Well you should, you might learn something. And second -“ you held your hand up, finger extended, instructing him to keep whatever wise crack he was about to make to himself, “-you’re not that irresistible.”
Bucky blinked before he gave a laugh and shook his head. “You know, I actually learned a fair bit last night.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I learned that you cut a mean rug, Doll-Face.” He glanced around, before he leaned closer, his breath hot on your neck as he whispered into your ear. “And that you look even better with your clothes off.”
With that he turned and headed off towards the equipment store, leaving you staring after him, blinking with shock, but feeling an overwhelming sense of smugness that, even in the middle of all this bloodshed and fighting, you had something to look forward to when you got back.
440 notes · View notes
lyranova · 2 years ago
Text
Children of the Future:
Chapter 23: Battles and Breakdowns
Hi guys! Here’s chapter 23 I’m sorry it took so long to get this one out, I’m trying to get better at updating 😅. This one is a long one and it’s mostly OC centered (the next couple of chapters will be but it’ll be more 50/50 split). There are a couple of revelations in this chapter too, so I hope you all enjoy 🥰!
Taglist: @eme-eleff @thoughtfullyrainynightmare @simpingforthisonedeer @bowandcurtsey @elysianluv @vwdxwnsk @luminouslion @flow3rbudz @crazyclownthanos (if anyone else wants to be added please let me know!)
Word Count: 3,366
Warnings: Mild language, and mental break towards the end
———
The children blinked at Yami’s words. A versus battle? They looked at each other with a mixture of excitement, confusion, and a bit of fear.
“ Alright! This is awesome!” Hikari and Brielle shouted excitedly, their eyes lit up as though it were christmas morning. Josslyn snorted slightly.
“ This is going to be a bloodbath,” Josslyn said with a shake of her head, then she turned to look at Ezio. “ Rest in Peace Pinky.” Ezio suddenly looked at her eyes wide in disbelief.
“ ‘P-Pinky’?! Your hair’s pink too, Joss!” Ezio shouted, his voice slightly high pitched. Josslyn couldn’t help but laugh a bit.
Yami watched as all the kids had a mixture of responses, but his eyes landed on Alistar. The white haired man continued to have a calm look on his face, but when he looked at his Ki he noticed a slight nervousness in it. Yami almost laughed, the kid was probably afraid he’d have to go up against Yami.
“ Captain, I think you need to go into further explanation before the kids get too ahead of themselves.” Vanessa said with a small giggle, Yami sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
“ Yeah you’re right. Listen up!” Yami suddenly shouted, causing everyone to stand at attention. “ You’re not fighting against us.”
“ Aw really? That sucks!” Hikari and Brielle said in unison, both looking disappointed. Ezio let out a sigh of relief.
“ Well I did suggest that, but your ‘parents’ all felt it would be unfair to have you guys fight against us. Especially since most of you are kids.” Yami said as he looked at the ‘parents’ behind him, he felt that they were maybe underestimating the kids a little bit, but he did agree that having them fight against 3 Captains plus some other really strong mages was a bit unfair.
“ So, pretty much it’s just us fighting against each other?” Alistar asked as he placed a thoughtful hand under his chin, Charlotte nodded in confirmation.
The kids all looked at each other, they would be fighting against each other? That didn’t seem too bad, but considering they were all at various levels, was this really fair either?
“ Since there’s an odd number of you, someone will have to go twice.” William said as he pulled out what appeared to be lots. “ I’m sure you know how this goes but just in case we’ll all explain. Each lot has a name on it, we’ll pull out two names from the bag, and whoevers names are on them will be fighting against one another. Alright?” William asked, the kids nodded.
“ Actually,” Ace suddenly said with a raised hand. “ I’d actually like to take myself out of the mock battles if that’s okay?”
“ Why? You did really well when we were training yesterday.” Zora asked with a raised brow, Ace just shrugged.
“ There’s an uneven amount of us, which means someone would have to go twice, and to be honest I don’t think I’m ready to do a versus battle. I want to train a little more before I try this.” Ace said softly, Josslyn sighed before walking over to her brother and ruffling his red hair.
“ Let him watch for now, then he can participate next time.” Josslyn said, Zora frowned but nodded. He would try and talk to Ace later and see why he decided to back out of it.
“ Alright then, the first person is; Hikari and,” Charlotte pulled out another lot. “ Ezio.”
“ I repeat. Rest in Peace Pinky.” Josslyn said, turning towards the pink haired boy, this time putting her hands together in mock prayer. Ezio could do nothing as he gaped like a fish out of water, but Hikari smiled brightly at him.
“ This’ll be fun! Do your best out there Ezio!” Hikari said, Ezio just stared at her as his face paled. As Charlotte began to draw more lots Ezio muttered under his breath how he was too young to die.
“ Next will be; Maelie and Aloys.” Charlotte announced as she looked at the lots in her hands, Aloys immediately stepped forward.
“ No way. I’m not fighting against my sister.” Aloys said, Maelie walked over to Aloys and gently grabbed his hand.
“ It’ll be okay big brother,” She told him softly. “ I promise!” She added with a small smile, Aloys’s face turned a bright red.
“ F-Fine, I guess.” He muttered softly, but there was a very apprehensive look on his face.
Charlotte continued through the lots; Miku and Kaiyo, Mizuki and Brielle, then finally.
“ Alistar and Josslyn will be our final battle for the day.” Charlotte announced, Josslyn smirked and pumped her fist into the air excitedly.
“ Alright! I hope you’re ready to get your ass kicked Pretty Boy!” Alistar nearly snorted but he smirked as well.
“ I don’t think I’ll need to worry about that. Instead I’ll make sure your grave is right next to Ezio’s.” Alistar said in a light hearted manner, Josslyn glared.
“ What did you say-?!” Josslyn started but Yami cut her off.
“ Alright enough with the chit chat. Let’s get started!” He announced.
All the kids and their ‘parents’ began to move and create a border around a small area in the front of the house. The adults looked at each other, this wasn’t just to see how strong each child was, but they also wanted to see how they would strategize and how they’d handle fighting against different power types.
Hikari and Ezio walked into the center of the circle. Hikari was still smiling brightly, while Ezio looked so nervous that everyone was waiting for him to just port himself somewhere else. He looked over at his ‘parents’, Finral looked almost as nervous as Ezio while Vanessa just cheered him on.
“ Begin!” Yami suddenly shouted, signaling the beginning of the match.
Hikari pulled out her katana and began to use her Dark Spatial magic to attack Ezio, who used his Spatial magic to try and block or send her attacks somewhere else.
“ Ezio isn’t really an attack mage,” Aloys explained to Finral and Vanessa. “ he’s better for transportation or for defensive stuff like this. Luckily he’s pretty fast so he’ll be able to keep up with Hikari’s attacks for a little bit, but he’s pretty outmatched. She’s the strongest in the group.” Aloys finished and as he did, Ezio was suddenly knocked back and landed on the ground with a loud ‘thud’.
“ He lasted longer than I expected.” Josslyn said as she watched Finral and Vanessa walk over to their ‘son’ and gently pick him up off the ground. Yami and Charlotte walked over to Hikari.
“ That’s my girl! You did pretty good out there kid!” Yami said with a cheerful laugh as he placed a gentle hand on her head. Hikari felt her cheeks turn a bright red but she smiled at her ‘fathers’ praise.
“ Thanks, but is Ezio okay?” She asked as she looked towards where the pink haired boy was lying.
“ He’ll be alright, don't worry!” Vanessa said as she helped Finral pick their ‘son’ up and they carried him over to the side.
Yami, Charlotte, and Hikari walked out of the center. Charlotte couldn’t help but chuckle as Yami walked with his chest slightly puffed out, he was a proud papa that was for sure. They stood around the circle and watched as Maelie walked into the center.
“ Big brother? Aren’t you coming?” Maelie asked softly as she waited for Aloys.
Aloys stood off to the side, he really didn’t want to go in there and fight his sister. He knew how it would end and he wasn’t looking forward to it at all. He looked over as he saw Gauche and Grey approach him.
“ Aren’t you going in there?” Grey asked softly, the young boy nodded as his face turned slightly red, Gauche scoffed a bit.
“ What? You don’t want to fight against your sister in front of everyone?” Gauche asked, Aloys glared.
“ Would you want to fight against Marie old man?” Aloys asked, Gauche rubbed the back of his head. “ Yeah I didn’t think so. Besides, it’s not just because she’s my little sister that I don’t want to fight against her.” Aloys muttered before walking out into the center, Gauche and Grey looked at each other with a confused frown.
Shortly after that, everyone found out why he didn’t want to fight Maelie.
As the siblings battled the sweet, shy, and innocent Maelie that everyone came to know and love seemed to completely change. Her eyes grew cold and harsh, she mercilessly attacked her older brother.
“ Pathetic.” She muttered, her voice and mannerisms almost mirroring Gauches. Meanwhile Aloys’s began to mirror Grey as he transformed himself and items around him into various things to try and deflect his sisters attacks.
“ N-Now I see why Aloys didn’t want to fight her,” Finral said with a nervous laugh. “ She’s just like Gauche when she’s fighting, but when she isn’t she’s like Grey and vice versa with Aloys.” He added as they all watched the older Adlai sibling steadily try to dodge his sister's attacks.
Until finally Maelie had her brother surrounded by mirrors and effectively ended the battle.
“ Aloys! I’m sorry, are you okay?” Maelie asked as she rushed to her brother with Gauche and Grey, Aloys nodded as he sat up.
“ I-I’m fine Maelie.” Aloys assured as he stood up with a little help from Gauche. As the Adlai ‘family’ walked out of the center the others stood there shocked that Maelie, a 9 year old, had beaten her 16 year old brother.
——
The other battles went on smoothly, Miku was able to defeat Kaiyo with slight ease. Kaiyo had gotten better at controlling her Mercury Magic but still wasn’t a match for Miku’s wind magic, the next battle between Mizuki and Brielle was a little more challenging. But Brielle, with the help of her devil Herz, was able to counter Mizuki’s water magic and send it back twice as strong. Which ensured her victory.
Now, it was time for the final battle between Josslyn and Alistar.
“ How do you think this is going to go?” Yami asked William curiously, who only shrugged in response.
“ I’m not sure. Alistar’s plant magic is pretty strong, and Josslyn is pretty strong as well. So it’ll be interesting. But the problem is, Josslyn seems to be a bit hot headed, as opposed to Alistar which could either be her greatest strength, or her eventual downfall.” He said thoughtfully, Yami nodded in agreement.
Josslyn and Alistar both walked to the center of the circle. She held her head up high, she knew Alistar was strong, but she was stronger. She was even close to being the Captain of the Purple Orcas, there was only one thing holding her back from achieving that dream, but that was a thought for another time.
“ Don’t go crying to your daddy when you lose Pretty boy.” Josslyn taunted with a smirk, Alistar laughed softly, his calm smile still in place. Josslyn couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed by it.
“ Oh I don’t plan too, because I’m not going to lose.” Alistar said simply, Josslyn rolled her eyes at him. She really had no idea how Hikari could be friends with him, especially with how arrogant he was.
“ Whatever.” Josslyn didn’t even wait for Yami to yell ‘begin’ before she began to use her steam magic.
“ Ah, so we’re starting this battle off by cheating,” Alistar said with a nod before using his magic to block her spell. “ How very ‘on brand’ of you.” He added, Josslyn rolled her eyes.
“ All’s fair in war.” She pointed out, which Alistar nodded in agreement.
“ You’re right. So, I don’t think you’ll mind if I just do this real quick.” Alistar then snapped his fingers and vines popped up from the ground into sharp spikes, suddenly a bunch of runes appeared on the grounds. Josslyn growled, he had set off her traps.
“ Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to sense your traps?” Alistar said, his same smile in place.
Josslyn began to run quickly in the circle, curse words flying out of her mouth as she quickly tried to think of another plan. Alistar hadn’t moved an inch from where he had been standing, he used multiple plants and vines to either chase Josslyn or block her spells. She stopped for a moment as she tried to think of how to get around him.
“ Let’s try this!” She shouted before creating multiple illusions of herself, just like Nebra would. She then began to use them to help her attack him.
“ Really? I thought you were smarter than this Josslyn.” Alistar tsked as he blocked her attacks again and immediately dispatched all her illusions, Josslyn tried to move out of the way but felt something wrap tightly around her ankle. She swore again as she looked down. One of Alistar’s vines had wrapped itself around her leg and was beginning to wrap around the other.
“ Seriously?!” She shouted as she tried to use her magic to kill the plant, she frowned as it appeared to do nothing. She looked up, Alistar’s smile seemed to have widened slightly.
“ That is an Air Plant. They’re resistant to steam, humidity, and mist. So your magic won’t be able to do anything to it.” He stated matter of factly. “ This is why your Captain won’t promote you to Vice Captain, you could have easily dodged the plant, and while you did have some good ideas and traps, you got a little ahead of yourself by underestimating me. You need to control your ego and your temper, otherwise you’ll stay stuck forever.”
As the white haired man spoke, all Josslyn could do was glare. These were words she had heard from everyone; Hikari, Her Captain, members of her squad. All it did was annoy her, and right now she wanted to wipe that irritatingly calm smile off his face. A smirk grew onto her face, since she couldn’t beat him in ‘actual’ warfare she decided to give ‘psychological’ warfare a shot.
“ Seriously? You’re going to lecture me?” Josslyn then laughed humorlessly before continuing. “ The man who's only been Captain of the Golden Dawn for a few months is going to lecture me?!” She shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. She couldn’t help but smirk in slight satisfaction as Alistar’s eyes widened.
The adults all looked at Alistar, he was the Captain of the Golden Dawn? Then why didn’t he say anything? Suddenly things began to click into place with all of them. Him knowing the reason the kids were sent back, the scouts, him keeping all those secrets. It was because he was a Captain, and was probably well informed of everything because of the meetings he had attended.
“ Josslyn!” Hikari shouted, she had been trying to keep Alistar’s secret up until this point. He hadn’t wanted the adults to know, because it would lead to nothing but questions, and currently his title was a touchy subject for him.
“ We all know how you earned your title Pretty boy!” Josslyn continued, ignoring Hikari. “ whereas everyone else earned their Captain or Vice Captain titles through hard work and dedication. Meanwhile, the only reason you earned yours is because of your dear sweet daddy and his favoritism towards you!” She added and suddenly, she felt two more vines wrap around her arms and bind them to her body.
As Josslyn finished shouting she noticed Alistar kept his head down, she watched as he shoulders shook. Was he…laughing?
“ You really are hot headed,” Alistar said, his voice eerily calm. “ You just shoot off at the mouth without thinking. Like everyone else you’d rather assume it was favoritism instead of actually thinking it could be because of my abilities.” He said, his voice becoming colder as he spoke.
“ I guess I did bring this on myself, I’ve been going easy on you all day. How about I show you what a real Captain’s abilities are?” He suggested, suddenly raising his head. As Alistar did, everyone noticed he no longer had a calm smile on his face, it was replaced by a serious one, and he had an almost wild look in his eyes.
As Josslyn began to ask what he was talking about she felt the vines on her arms and legs tighten and watched the sky above them darken. She saw a slight green tint appear and suddenly vines and plants began to rain down like rain drops. The adults and children tried to block and dodge the best they could, but as they did, the ground also began to turn a similar shade of green. More vines popped up from the ground and began to capture everyone one by one. The only ones that had managed to evade them were Yami, William, and Hikari.
“ Alistar stop!” Hikari shouted as she, Yami, and William began to hack and slash at the plants. A very faint sense of deja vú struck her at that moment, but she shook it away. She ran towards the white haired boy, but as she did more vines and plants tried to stop her.
“ Do you finally get it?” He asked Josslyn, his voice still eerily calm. “ I got to where I am today because of me, not my father! It isn’t favoritism, it’s because I’m strong enough to do this job!” He added, Josslyn just stared at him, her eyes wide in fear as she barely recognized the person before her.
“ Hikari! You need to get Golden Boy before he covers the whole area in freaking plants!” Yami shouted, him and William still hacking away at Alistars magic. Hikari nodded and ran towards him again. But suddenly more and more plants began to pop up, she had seen this once before years ago, and as she looked at Alistar she noticed he suddenly frowned.
“ It isn’t favoritism right? It’s because I’m one of the strongest in the squad, not because I’m his son.” He began to insist, more to himself than anyone else.
‘Are you sure about that?’ A little voice suddenly spoke in Alistar’s head. ‘I mean think about it; you’re a 19 year old kid who loses control of his powers on a whim, just like right now, when there are lots of other qualified people to take control of the squad. Who in their right mind would make such a decision? Ah but that’s right, your father isn’t in his right mind is he? I mean, he is dying after all right?’
Alistar suddenly snapped.
“ No! Nono it wasn’t favoritism! It’s because my father believed in me when no one else did, it’s not because he’s dying! That’s not the reason why!” Alistar suddenly screamed, falling to his knees while clutching his head. That wasn’t it…that couldn’t be it!
Suddenly, a katana made of dark spatial magic was pointed towards him.
“ Alistar! You need to get a hold of yourself or you’re going to kill everyone!” Hikari shouted, this scene was all too familiar. A memory that had been buried began to creep to the surface. A memory where Alistar was in this exact same position, losing control of his powers and muttering to himself, she shook her head again.
“ I-It wasn’t favoritism! I earned my place, it wasn’t a decision he made just because he was dying…that’s not it!” Alistar muttered to himself, his hands shaking. Hikari put her katana away and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.
“ Alistar! Snap out of it please! You’re hurting everyone!” She shouted as she shook him, Alistar suddenly blinked before looking up at her.
“ You’re a Captain right? You’re supposed to help people, not hurt them. So please pull yourself together Alistar!” Hikari begged, Alistar blinked a few more times as he processed her words. His eyes became clearer and clearer, as the plants began to stop and slowly disappear is when she realized she had brought him back.
“ H-Hikari…?” Alistar asked softly, he began to look around and saw the destruction he had caused. Yami began to release Josslyn from the vines that trapped her, while William began to try and release the others.
“ W-What did I do?”
———
Thank you all so much for reading, I’ll have the next chapter out soon! I hope you all have a good day/night 🥰!
14 notes · View notes
urimaginespimp · 4 years ago
Text
Ivy
Alfie Solomons x Shelby Sister Reader where she’s betrothed by Thomas for a truce, now her and Alfie’s secret love affair is in thin line.
A/N: Here I go again, associating an Evermore track to Alfie. Sorry not sorry!
--------
The air was cold at dawn. You’ve been sitting alone in a cemetery since last night, dreading the moment the day was slowly breaking, and how it reminded you of how time of his arrival was getting nearer.
No, you weren’t there to visit a deceased loved one, but might as well have started grieving for yourself. This was the haven where you would often meet Alfie to either stay and talk in each other’s arms, or where he’d fetch you and bring you somewhere you could freely be with each other for a night.
A full year of secret meetups undetected led you both from solely enjoying each other’s company and wits, to being inseparable. Your special spot was a few feet away from the actual gravestones. It was under a huge tree nearby.
You knew from the start that your fondness with each other would never be accepted by your family. And the odds of them actually even coming close to being open on the idea of you both became slimmer every time Alfie would get power in his head and betray your family despite your friendship.
Months would pass of you ignoring his apologies and notes pleading to meet; To be only forgiven when he’s in Thomas’ good graces again. But it became increasingly difficult to be warry of him when you started feeling funny whenever he’d laugh at your jokes, or when he’d offer his coat for both of you to stay under when it starts drizzling and you both forgot to bring an umbrella.
He’s started a goddamn blaze in you.
Now how were you to tell the lone man you’ve ever loved that your brother was planning on marrying you off for a truce?
You only found out last night, leading to you throwing a fit for the very first time towards your brother who tried to calm you down and make you understand the benefit it would bring to the family – much like what he did to John. The way he told you sounded like it was a mere suggestion. But you knew better that he’s already fixed it.
In a fit of tears and frustration from not being able to give him the truth to why you refuse to concede, Polly barging in the study to intervene and ask what was going on was your take to leave and go to your room, shouting loudly that he better leaves you alone that night.
It took you the night trying to write everything down for Alfie. How you were to be married, and begging him not to intervene. Because as much as you love him, you couldn’t risk him and your family being in another war with the still unknown family you were to be part of.
Sneaking out later on, that’s how you found yourself in your favorite spot in the cemetery crying your heart out, and reminiscing all the memories you hold so dear with Alfie.
Taking a deep breath, your hand took the folded page of paper from your coat pocket. You almost crumpled it and wait for Alfie to tell him yourself. But you were a coward and just couldn’t bring yourself to tell him. Not when you know you wouldn’t be able to open your mouth without breaking down.
Taking a rock big enough to hold it in place, you placed your open letter under the tree and willed yourself to walk away from both your favorite place and your happiness that morning.
It’s been days and you have not uttered a word to your family. Still crying yourself to sleep every night, it became increasingly harder not to call Alfie and beg for forgiveness and ask him to take you away.
Alfie himself was sending your office missives after missives, asking you to see him at least. But all of it were left unanswered and kept in one of your desk’s drawers.
Tonight, was the celebration of your engagement and the first time you were to meet the man you were to be married to. You’ve learned from Polly that he was from a wealthy Italian family, about your age, and that he’s already seen you before and was actually the one to ask Thomas for your hand in marriage.
What a puss. You thought, He couldn’t even ask you and get rejected personally.
Well at least the dress he sent was decent. But hell were to freeze over before you would even consider wearing it.
Opening your closet, your hands skimmed through your numerous formal dresses, and finally landed on one that meant so much to you. It was beautiful, fit you perfectly, and it was a gift from Alfie.
They don’t know it’s from him, but you had to admit that wearing it in front of your family and future husband would be a satisfying last act of proclaiming your love for the King of Camden town.
The night began rather peacefully. It seemed that you were the only one miserable in the occasion thrown for you.
The man you were to marry was alright. He was polite, charming even. But he was a shy pup compared to a beast like Alfie. Sooner or later, you had to stop thinking about him.  
“What’s the Jew doing here, Tommy?” you heard your aunt ask Tommy discretely.
“I invited him, Poll. All bad blood in the past, he’s a good business partner.” He explained to your aunt.
But the rest of the conversation drowned out for you. He’s here.
For the first time in the entire night of the party, you moved from the corner you were sulking on, looking for the pair of opal eyes you were wishing to see. To hell with the Italian boy.
You were turning on every corner looking for him. If he really were in here, you figured he’d be in a corner somewhere like usual.
“I knew you’d look absolutely beautiful in that dress.” A voice called out just loud enough for you to catch. Snapping to the direction it came from, your eyes met Alfie’s.
He was dressed formally as asked, his beard was trimmed, and he had his hat on.
“Alfie I-“
“I’ll take a dance, yes.” He cut you off, not wanting to make you cry in front of the guests. Taking your hands in his freezing ones, he led you to the dance floor.
“I though you hated dancing in public?” you mused at him, placing your hands by his shoulders, ignoring the lump in your throat.  
“If this were to be our last one, everyone else be damned, yeah?” He answered, looking at you lovingly. You smiled. How could he still look at you so endearingly even after your cowardness?
“The wine’s shite by the way.” He commented, trying to make you laugh. He couldn’t stand looking so defeated anymore. You couldn’t resist breaking into a laugh, and bit your tongue from telling him the drinks are courtesy of your future husband.
Polly and Arthur were stood near each other, looking at the both of you dancing, when your aunt finally spoke up.
“She hasn’t cracked a smile ever since the night Thomas told her.” She told the oldest Shelby brother. “And all it took was for Solomons to dance with her.”
“Yeah, looking at ‘em makes me almost forget the bastard tried to kill me. It’s almost as if they’re…” Arthur didn’t get to finish what he was to say from the sudden realization. He knew that look. Yes, he’d never seen you look at anyone like that, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was - the color coming back to your face, almost as if it actually lit up at the presence of Camden town’s king.
Turning to Poll, she was already smirking at him. “She couldn’t tell Thomas the real reason she doesn’t to be married off for business. But you’re the eldest, Arthur, and when it’s on matters of your siblings’ personal happiness, you have to put your foot down.” Patting the back of his shoulder, she took her drink to go who knows.
“Is there somewhere we can talk, luv?” Alfie asked you quietly, sliding his hand on your shoulder, to your hand where he held it.
Looking around you, relief washed over when you saw that the guests were immersed in their own conversations and dance partners.
“Meet me in my room in a few minutes. It’s the third door at the right hall, and I’ll keep it slightly open.” You nervously told him, trying to keep your voice low.
Letting go of him, you acted natural, smiling at guests your way.
--------
In your room, you stood fidgeting with your fingers. The light from the crescent moon that peeked through your window was the only source of light.
What if he got lost and mistakenly entered Tommy’s office? Or that he decided to confront that fiancé of yours?
You were saved from the panic attack rising when your door finally creaked open bigger, and the silhouette of the man you love came in.
But before you could talk, his lips met yours desperately. Alfie hoped that his kiss would be able to tell you how much he’s missed you, how the past days felt like absolute hell, and how it led him to be willing in being a mister for you. A mister.
“Are you sure that brother of yours won’t be looking for ya? What if he found us out, pet?” He asked in between kisses to your neck.
“He’s gonna burn this house to the ground” you answered, gasping when he squeezed you in closer to him. You almost hated having to stop him. “Alfie, we came here to talk.” You weakly pushed him off you.
His eyes under the moonlight was glistening. It was only now that you realized he was crying. Taking his face in your hands, you held it gently, wiping his damp cheek.
“Alfie, I love you, okay? Everything that we had – no matter how it was only stolen moments, I’d live and die just to experience them again. But I can’t risk losing you and or anyone from my family for my personal reasons.” You tried to sound brave in front of him, knowing that the second you’d break, he’d take you with him.
He shook his head. “Now that’s just selfish of that brother of yours, pet. You know I could help settle any problem he has with ‘em Italians. He didn’t have to drag you into this.”
“And what, have him figure out why you’d go through great lengths for his sister whom you never seemed to care about?” Whenever Thomas was in the same room as you, the both of you would only resort to a formal greeting and not even try to converse. That was how you were able to keep it up so long. “It’s either I run or we dare come clean to him and see what we’ll become. He’ll find me either way, or he’ll shoot you dead.”
Alfie moved away from you, and walking by the window to take a breath and calm his nerves.
Suddenly the door to your bedroom was kicked completely open, revealing Arthur and Tommy who looked like they were ready to murder.
You didn’t know what came over you, but you immediately stood straight as if ready to block them before they could get to Alfie. But to your surprise, Arthur stayed standing by the doorway, and it was only Thomas who took a step closer.
“Alfie, you have one chance to tell me that what Arthur's saying isn’t true.” Tommy was seething, ordering him. “You of all people know my sisters are off limits.”
“It’s true, Tom.” You answered before Alfie could even open his mouth. If he were to push through marrying you off, at least leave him with the guilt for snatching your life away. “I love him.” Relief from finally being able to say it in front of your brothers washed over you.
“I am not gonna let you use my sister for whatever scheme it is that you fu-
“I was gonna ask her to marry me, you fucker!” Alfie growled from behind you, before finally reaching your side. You stood there gaping at him, having been clueless as well of his intentions.
“I went to meet her in our spot with a fucking ring in my hand, right. And what do I find? A letter from her telling me that some scum wants what’s only mine, and her cunt of a brother is allowing it!”
Arthur having been satisfied from what Alfie said, was smiling at you across the room. “And as the eldest of the family, I give you my blessing, so long as you promise to protect her.” He spoke, nodding at him. You wanted to run into your brother’s arms in gratitude, but Thomas spoke up again.
“Don’t celebrate yet, Alfie." He both looked at you with a stern expression. "There are Italians out there still thinking that there’s a marriage happening in a fortnight.”
Alfie scoffed at your brother’s statement. As if he hasn’t dealt with them before.
Taking your hand in his, he turned to your brother once more. “And what is expected to happen when I call off the marriage?” He asked him.
“I’m gonna start a war” you answered nervously.
Squeezing your hand, he turned to you. “Then it's gonna be the goddamn fight of my life, pet.”
508 notes · View notes
joviewinchester · 4 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
“You’re absolutely positive you can’t come with me?” Y/N asked Matt.
“I’m sorry, Y/N. I work that day. Maybe you can ask Ty or Stefan or something.”
“Yep. Been there done that. Stefan has plans to hang out with Caroline and Tyler has another wedding to go to by some stupid twisted chance of fate. I hate June.”
“You can…well, I’m not even going to suggest that torture.” Matt said cutting himself off.
“What? Anything is better than the torture of my family trying to set me up with someone.”
“You could ask Damon, but then again, he’s literally the worst. I guess pick your poison. Damon Salvatore or wedding set up. Personally I’d go with the latter.”
Y/N patted Matt on the shoulder and sighed. “You don’t know my family.” She exited The Grill and reluctantly drove to the Salvatore Boarding House.
She knocked, and Damon immediately opened the door. “You know, I was wondering when the tension would catch up to you.” He smirked.
“That is not why I’m here, Damon. I need a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
Y/N sighed and took a deep breath before starting her rant. “I need a date to my relatives wedding, and i’ve already asked literally everyone else i know, so i know you probably hate me, but please say yes. Otherwise they’ll try to set me up with someone, and they have awful taste.”
“And what do I get out of agreeing to this?”
“Um…I don’t know? The wedding is literally tomorrow and I have no other option so…I have no clue. Whatever you want.”
“Whatever I want, huh? I’ll let you know when I figure out what that is. What time does this wedding start tomorrow?”
“Wedding’s from 5:00 to 6:00 and the reception’s from 6:30 to 10:00, unfortunately, I have to help with setup, so I have to be there three hours early, it was almost five luckily I got out of that, but I’m not going to make you deal with that, so I’ll leave from there early, come pick you up around 4:30. Dress nice…but not too nice. You’re already going to outshine the groom. My cousin does not know how to pick em.”
“That was a very trivial way of you saying you think I’m attractive. I’ll be ready, and don’t think I’ll forget that you owe me.”
“I wasn’t saying that! And I didn’t think you would forget. Not even for a second. And one more thing, please don’t eat any of my relatives.”
“Oh I’m not that bad. Why would I eat one of them when I could eat you?” He said eying her from head to toe.
“Stop making everything sexual! I’ll see you tomorrow!” She exclaimed as she brushed her hair to cover her red face.
He watched her as she walked back to her car, because let’s be honest with ourselves, he loved to see her walk away, then he shut the door and poured himself a glass of bourbon.
“Did Y/N just ask you to her cousin’s wedding?” Stefan asked walking downstairs.
“Why yes she did, brother.”
“Then you’re welcome. I don’t actually have plans with Caroline tomorrow. I told her that so she’d ask you. Don’t screw it up.”
“Really Stefan? I could’ve gotten the girl on my own. I’ve had plenty of practice.”
“See? That’s what I’m talking about. Y/N is different. She likes you, but she doesn’t like you just because she wants to sleep with you. She likes you because she wants to be in a relationship with you. If you don’t want that, then don’t lead her on. Promise me you won’t lead her on.”
“Do you really think that low of me, Stef?” Damon asked placing his palm over his chest.
“I won’t hurt her. Believe it or not, I actually like her, and tomorrow I’m going to be a perfect angel around her family, and she’ll have no choice but to invite me to another family event. I will be the best fake boyfriend. Mark my words.”
The next day was absolute torture for Y/N to say the least. “Y/N, Mark and Angela have to be seated near the back. They have not earned the status of front and center. Move the cards.” Her cousin, Allison, was normally really sweet, but she was an extreme bridezilla.
Y/N rolled her eyes but did as she was told. She expected for Allison to follow her every order when her wedding came around.
“So, Auntie Bethany has invited a really cool guy to set you up with. His name is Reggie and he’s so much nicer than the last one.” Allison said taking a minute to rest, which did not bother Y/N one bit.
“First of all, I’m eighteen which is freshly out of high school, I don’t know why she thinks it’s so urgent for me to settle down. Second of all, mom is going to be real disappointed because I actually have a boyfriend now and I invited him. I mentioned him a few weeks ago to you.”
“Now that you say that, I remember you mentioning it.” Yeah, she didn’t say a word, but Allison bought it and that’s all that mattered. She’d been pushing her to get a date since the wedding was announced.
“Speaking of which, it’s 4:00 and I told him I’d be there to pick him up at 4:30. You don’t mind me leaving a bit early do you?”
“No. Of course not. Chloe, Lilly, and Amy will help me finish my makeup then I should be all ready! Can’t wait to meet this mysterious boyfriend of yours.”
Y/N waved at the other bridesmaids, who all glared back at her for leaving them alone, and got in her car to get Damon. She knocked.
“Just a minute!” She heard him call. He opened the door a couple minutes later.
She smiled brightly. “You look great.” She said.
“Yeah, and you look…gorgeous. Your cousin was very generous with the bridesmaids dresses.” Damon commented.
https://shoplook.io/outfit-preview/2847398
“Come on. If we’re late I will not hear the end of it.”
Once they arrived, there were literally like five minutes till the start of the wedding. “Shit.” She muttered. “Just sit down and avoid eye contact at all costs. I really wish she hadn’t made me a bridesmaid.” Y/N muttered the last part and got to her place.
The ceremony lasted forever. The only thing that made it tolerable was watching Damon mess with the dude sitting next to him.
“Oh my god. That was literally the longest wedding ever. Why the hell did she force us to wear heels?”
“On the bright side, you were definitely the hottest bridesmaid up there.”
She elbowed his side playfully. “Oh shut up. Now come on, we need to get going. If we’re late to the reception, my mom will kill me. I haven’t even got to talk to her yet.” Y/N to practically dragged Damon to the car.
Of course the reception was about as cliche as the ceremony. It was held in a big old barn decorated with fairy lights.
“There’s my mom. Come on, act coupley or whatever, and be on your best behavior would you?”
“Oh, Y/N I’m hurt. When am I not?” He wrapped an arm around her waist.
Y/N rolled her eyes, smiling slightly at his antics.
“Hey, mom.”
Her mother looked kind of upset. “Come on, Y/N. You should’ve told me you were bringing a date. Reggie is going to be disappointed.” Her mother motioned backwards towards a guy who was already making out with another bridesmaid.
“Yeah…that him? He doesn’t seem too upset. I wouldn’t worry about it. Mom, this is Damon, my boyfriend.”
They shook hands. “Hi, Mrs. Y/L/N. It’s great to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much, and can I just say, you look lovely this evening. Speaking of which, where’s the lucky man?”
“Oh, he’s just over there talking to the groom. I’m glad that Y/N has finally gotten a boyfriend. I was starting to think she was going to be single forever.”
“Mom, cool it, will you? I’m eighteen years old. I just enrolled in college. I’m not getting married anytime soon. I know that’s how people in our family usually do it, but I don’t want to be married and have three kids running around by the time I’m twenty five. Okay?”
“You may feel that way now, dear, but wait until the baby fever catches up to you.” Y/N rolled her eyes.
“I need a drink.” She mumbled with hostility.
“Y/N Y/M/N! You are not drinking any alcohol!” Her mother scolded after her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble. You just have fun. Raising a girl with that attitude must have kept you away from fun quite a bit.” Bethany laughed.
“You have no idea.”
Damon followed Y/N to the open bar, and found her with a wine glass filled to the very top.
“Dude, first of all you aren’t even of age, and second of all, do you really want to get drunk at a relative’s wedding? Answer, no. No you don’t.”
“You don’t know what I want, Damon. Just go charm off the pants of another middle aged woman.”
“I’m trying to be a perfect fake boyfriend so your mom will get off your back. Did you already drink one of these?” He asked taking the glass from her hands and swirling it around.
“Yeah, duh. Did you meet my mom? She makes it her mission to control every aspect of her life. I love her, but some alchohol would really help me love her even more. Here gimme that.” She said grabbing the glass from his hand. She downed the whole thing in one go as if it was just a shot glass.
“Y/F/N! No! You are banned from this bar for the rest of the night. Come on.” He hoisted her over his shoulder.
“Damon...what are you doing? You’re supposed to be the least responsible one in this fake relationship.” She whined.
“No. I’m supposed to be like a real boyfriend which means I have to keep you out of trouble and do everything I can to make your parents like me which is what I’m doing.”
“Come on. Just let me walk. I won’t do anything stupid. I promise.”
“No.” Y/N huffed.
“Fine. If you want some douchebags looking up my dress then whatever.”
“Fine! Okay fine. I’ll put you down, but only because I’m your douchebag, and I don’t want anyone thinking otherwise.”
They ran back into Y/N’s parents.
“Did you get her away from the bar before she went psycho?” Mrs. Y/L/N asked.
“No. I took away the wine glass and she took it back and chugged it.” Damon said glaring at her.
“I’m fine. See?” She walked in a straight line.
“Oh come on Bethany. Lighten up. If you think she isn’t too young to get married then don’t you think in that mindset that she isn’t too young to drink alcohol.” Her father, Chris, said.
Y/N snapped and pointed at her dad. “Yeah. He’s totally right? Ready to admit that eighteen is too young for someone to get married?”
“Fine. It’s too young. Now no more drinks for the rest of the night, missy.”
She smiled triumphantly, but then she started sulking again. “Rest of the night? As in I have to stay here for the rest of the night and not drink anything?”
“Fine. You can leave like an hour early, but come talk to me before you leave. Have fun, but not too much fun.”
Y/N smirked. “I thought you wanted grandkids?” Her dad choked on his drink.
“Y/N!”
“Kidding. I’m obviously kidding…mostly. Bye!”
“You’re a lot of fun when you’re not avoiding being killed by some type of villain. I like you when you’re not in serious mode.”
“I’m so so sorry that I don’t have any witchy woo or an immortal life, but you do have to admit, I am amazing with a crossbow.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Sure you are. Even though you’ve almost hit me multiple times.”
“Exactly. I’m amazing with a crossbow. By the way, Allison wanted to meet you. We should get that over with.”
“Okay. That was uncalled for. You can’t just change the subject after admitting to trying to murder me multiple times.”
“You would have healed. What do you want me to do? Fall at your feet like Elena?” Y/N asked clearly passive aggressive.
“Woah. Woah. Woah. Stop walking for a second. Are you jealous of Elena?”
“What?! No. Why would I be? I don’t…I don’t even like you!”
“This wedding has proved that statement otherwise. Come on. Admit it. You. Are. Jealous. You want to get with all of this! You want to go for a ride on the Salvatore train!”
“No! No! No! I don’t! I don’t like you! I don’t want you! You... you infuriate me to no end!”
“But you like that don’t you? You like it when I get you all flustered. And don’t think I didn’t catch you blushing earlier when I called myself yours, given I said I was your douchebag, but you still blushed. Not to mention the fact that you put my hand back on your waist when we were walking back from the bar. You like me.”
“No I don’t! Everything that happened here was for show! It was for show.” She defended.
“The only reason you didn’t want to invite me to this wedding is because you knew that I would get your heart racing. Yeah. I can hear that.”
Y/N ran her hands over her face in frustration. “Oh. Don’t mess up your makeup. I can do that for you later.” Damon smirked. So what? His plan to be perfect didn’t last very long, but this plan seemed to be working just fine.
“Stop. Stop saying stuff like that.” She whisper shouted.
Damon leaned in. His mouth was only inches away from her ear. “Why? Does it…frustrate you?”
Y/N gave him a glare and crossed her arms, huffing. Damon smirked. She grabbed his wrist and took him outside.
Damon still had a smug look on his face. “You wanna know how you really make me feel? Yes, Damon! Yes you fucking frustrate me! You make me question my existence on a daily basis and sometimes I even wonder why me?! Why does he like me?! I’m no Elena. I’m not the perfect annoying ass girl next door, and I still don’t know the answer, but you know what?! Since you’re deciding to push me and push me until I explode, I love you, Damon Salvatore! I fucking love you!”
After seconds of tension filled silence and staring at each other, Damon smashed his lips against hers. She immediately kissed him back. She felt his hands gradually slide further down her back, until they were groping her ass. She pushed him away out of spite. “No.” She stated crossing her arms defiantly.
“Really? You’re going to be like this? Now?”
“Yes. Yes I am. Say it back and maybe I’ll be more lenient.” She sassed.
“I thought it was a given. I’ve literally been flirting with you and pining after you for months, Y/N. Of course I love you.”
“Was that so hard?” She joked. She leaned in to kiss him again, this time resting his hands on her butt. He squeezed her ass making her gasp, and slipped his tongue in her mouth.
“Woah. Woah. Woah. This isn’t your honeymoon Y/N.” Allison had walked out of her own reception looking for her.
“Oh, shit. Sorry Alli. So what’s up?” Y/N asked slightly out of breath.
“Well, I was promised that I could meet your mystery man, but you were nowhere to be found. I decided to look for you myself. Aunt Bethany was complaining about your grandkids joke earlier. I didn’t think you were serious.” She joked.
“So, this is Damon. Damon this is my cousin, Allison.”
“Nice to finally meet you. By the way Y/N, I connected the dots, and I realized after getting out of the point where I was completely freaking out, sorry about that by the way, that this is the same Damon that you literally used to call me just to complain about on the daily.”
“Hey, now. Let’s not bring that up, especially the things that I said…” Allison cut her off.
“She used to call me and talk about how annoying you were. I believe one time she called you a flaming douche nozzle? That sounds about right. Every single call always ended with her saying he is so infuriatingly attractive. It’s not even fair.” She knew she was embarrassing her cousin, and to be honest she loved it.
“Hey! He doesn’t need an ego boost! Trust me. I would know.”
“Okay. Okay. All jokes aside, if you are leaving, your mom and dad wanted to talk to you. Oh, and I won’t tell them about this little encounter. I know how they can be.” Allison winked and walked back in the building.
“Was it just me, or did we just get permission from the bride to leave? Come on we have got to hurry up and talk to my parents so we can get out of here.”
“What’s got you in such a rush to leave?” Damon winked.
“None of that. Stop. No. No. Bad.” She said pointing her finger at him.
“Relax. I won’t be myself, but only for you.” They walked back into the reception making a bee line to her parents.
“Hey mom, we’re about to head out.”
“Y/N, your lipstick is a little smudged.” Her mom said. Damon had to look away to stop himself from laughing.
“Huh. Is it? Must’ve been from where I got a drink. Anywho I love you guys and we will see you later.”
“Wait a second. Damon would you like to come over for dinner this Friday?”
“Of course. I’d love to Mrs. Y/L/N.”
“Great. We cannot wait to see you again. Alright. I won’t keep you. Have a nice night.” They both waved goodbye to her parents and headed back to the Salvatore house. They walked in, and Damon poured a couple of glasses of bourbon.
“I have been accepted by your family. I’d say this calls for celebration.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed to drink, dad.”
“Oh shut up. You can do whatever the hell you want when your parents aren’t there to witness it.” Y/N rolled her eyes, and flopped on the couch.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m tired. I’m going to sleep no matter what you say.”
“Come on then.”
“Where?”
“If you’re going to sleep then you’re coming with me to a comfy bed, not the couch.” Instead of waiting for her to reapond or get up, he slug her over his shoulder and took her upstairs.
“Goodnight, Damon.” She said sleepily.
“Goodnight, sleeping beauty.”
266 notes · View notes
emilia3546 · 4 years ago
Text
The Rest of Our Lives - Nessian
Happy #nessianmonth guys! Thanks @illyrianet for organising!
Here we go with the first one: nessian’s mating ceremony, finally filling the gap that Sarah left us with at the end of ACOSF. 
*****
The temple was absolutely beautiful, Rhys really had come through on this one, this was sure to be the most extravagant party Nesta had ever been to, and that was saying something. She glanced around, checking that everything was ready, nothing could go wrong, everything was perfect, all she needed now was to calm her nerves and get on with it.
"Nesta?" Nesta whirled at the sound of Feyre's voice behind her, "Do you want a hand getting dressed?" Right, because she was supposed to already be dressed, had told Emerie that she was, even while she'd just been staring at the dress, nerves racing through her. She nodded,
"Thank you,"
"Come on," Feyre squeezed her hand gently, "Let the guys finish off here, everything's perfect, okay?"
"Okay," Nesta squeezed her eyes shut when Feyre winnowed them back to the River House, to the room she'd slept in last night, "I don't get the tradition of not being allowed to see him before the ceremony," she muttered,
"Honestly, me neither, but we don't want one of you to chicken out and you guys to end up mating beforehand, then to go to the ceremony with you both riled up with a new mating bond," Feyre chuckled, "Rhys was bad enough, but I dread to think what you two will be like,"
"Oh hush," Nesta muttered, "We're not that violent,"
"Not usually, but you never know," Feyre teased, "Dress, c'mon," Nesta nodded, turning her gaze back to the dress waiting for her, she gingerly took it from its stand, stepping behind the curtain to slip it on, but stepped back out to let Feyre help her with the clasps and ties at the back. She almost didn't want to look at the mirror, if she did, her nerves would catch up to her again, but Feyre offered a little encouraging smile,
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Nesta laughed, "I don't even know why,"
"You look stunning," Feyre breathed, "And that feeling's normal, I think," her sister was right, no matter what anyone could say, Nesta was beautiful, with the fitted bodice rising just above her breasts, cinched in the back to accentuate her figure, whorls of silver thread forming Illyrian runes across the bodice. Runes for luck, prosperity, love, Cassian might not be much of an artist, but she knew full well that he'd helped Feyre designing the dress, especially with the occasional rune for witchcraft, or more violent things having slipped past her sister's notice,
"You can't read Illyrian, can you?"
"No, Rhys has tried to teach me, but his particular style of teaching doesn't work so well with the runes, I know some, but not many, did I get one wrong?"
"No," Nesta laughed, "I'd just be surprised that you'd let Cass call me a witch on my wedding dress," Feyre flushed bright red,
"He what?"
"This one, it means witch,"
"It does not, he said that it meant loyalty," Nesta stifled another laugh,
"He lied, aww you believed him, he definitely lied to you about a few of these runes then, you should know better than to take his word at face value,"
"I did check with Azriel,"
"Oh he was probably in on it, knowing them, the idiots," she chuckled again, spinning around in front of the mirror, "I love it, and I would never have suggested he help if I didn't want something a bit less formal, it's not like anyone will be able to read the runes, it's just for us,"
"Right, sit," Nesta just about managed to lift the skirts of her gown before Feyre tugged her across to the chair waiting for her, mountains of cosmetics beside it, "I asked Elain what she thought would work, then Mor, and they're both wrong,"
"Is that so?"
"Mhhm," Feyre was hardly listening as she dusted something along Nesta's cheekbones, the tang of magic filling the air, "I'm just setting it in place, not even Cass can fuck this up later," Nesta snorted at that, but Feyre held her head still, "Stop it, you're going to make me mess up," she hissed just as the door opened,
"You told me you were already dressed!"
"I lied,"
"Shush, I can't do this if you keep moving," Nesta did fall silent, but held Emerie's disapproving gaze while Feyre finished, twisting her hair up onto her head in a knot of intricate braids, setting gemstones through it, Nesta had no words when Feyre span the chair around for Nesta to see her handiwork, those jewels caught the light, making her hair shine and glimmer as she moved. She almost couldn't believe the person who was staring back at her, she'd changed so much over the last year, the person staring back at her was beautiful, confident, tears formed in her eyes, "Nesta,"
"I'm okay, I just, it feels like some stupid dream and I'll wake up any minute back in that apartment," Feyre threw an arm around her shoulders,
"It's real, I promise it's real, enjoy it, Nesta, you've earned it," she glanced back at the female in the mirror, the way her eyes sparkled with life, her cheeks glowing with health, especially with the rouge that Feyre had dusted onto them. Feyre had painted her lips red, an almost sinful color, and she blushed at the thought of exactly what Cassian would be thinking when he saw her,
"There we go," Emerie laughed, "Dirty mind, she's fine,"
"Oh shush," Nesta laughed, but didn't deny it, "You're just as bad as I am,"
"While that may be true, I'm not the one about to get married." Married. She was about to get married, shit. She didn't know what she was doing. What if she tripped? What if she forgot her vows? What if she panicked and froze up? What if she embarrassed herself, embarrassed Cassian? "Deep breath," this time it was Emerie, "Still your mind," she did, closing her eyes, deep breath, deep breath, she was the rock against which the surf crashes, she was a Valkyrie, and she could not be broken, not by the Blood Rite, not by marriage. "Drink this," Emerie handed her a foul-smelling tonic of some sort,
"What is it?"
"Just an anti-sickness tonic, for your nerves, but you'll fine once you get there," Nesta wasn't so sure of that and downed it in one, the effect almost instant,
"Are you drugging her, Em?" Nesta almost spat it out at the sound of another voice, "Everything's ready, you look beautiful, Nesta," Azriel smiled as he spoke, "Cass won't know what's hit him,"
"Thank you," Nesta ran through the ceremony again in her mind, automatically finding everything that could go wrong, "Em, I'm gonna fuck up,"
"No you're not,"
"Easy for you to say, you've never done this,"
"I have," Feyre said, squeezing Nesta's shoulder, and Nesta almost winced at the memory that she hadn't bee there when Feyre and Rhys had had a proper ceremony, being too lost to her fears to care or even notice, "You'll be fine, Nesta," It's okay that you weren't there, you're her with us now, Nesta started at Feyre's voice in her mind, and she nodded, still not quite believing her, but if Feyre forgave her, she could start to forgive herself for everything she'd missed this last year. "Just ignore everyone, focus on Cass, okay?"
"Okay,"
"Step-by-step, walk up to him, let him say his vows, say your vows, exchange rings, food, kiss him, and walk back, you can do that,"
"Yeah, yeah I can do that, thank you, I'll be fine," she shot a grateful glance at Azriel as he offered her an arm, but she still squeezed her eyes shut when he winnowed them back to the temple, just outside the door,
"Ready?" Nesta took in one last breath and squeezed Azriel's arm,
"Yeah, and thank you,"
"For what?"
"This. Walking me down the aisle," she refused to allow herself to tear up at the thought that her father should be the one doing that,
"I'm honestly honored that you asked me,"
"There would be no-one else I would want to," she mumbled,
"Oh, so I'm the last resort, I see," Nesta chuckled when he finally stepped forwards, and was still laughing when they crossed into the temple. Everyone was there, everyone was watching her, but she remembered Feyre's words, gripping Azriel's arm tighter as she lifted her gaze to the end of the aisle, to Cassian. The moment she locked eyes with him, Nesta forgot to be scared, forgot that she was nervous, excitement taking over, and she lessened the vice-like grip on Azriel's arm, earning a soft chuckle. Each step took her closer to that dais, to Cassian. Each step took her closer to the first day of the rest of her life. Each step brought her closer to finally stepping out of the shadow of the war. Each step brought her closer to her mate.
At the top of the dais Azriel released her arm, and Nesta almost swayed on her feet, a sort of dizzy feeling washing over her at the prospect of saying the proper words, words that she had been waiting for longer than she'd care to admit to say. She clasped Cassian's hands in her own, holding on tight, reassuring herself that this was all real, that he was real. She hardly noticed the movement beside her until Rhys spoke,
"Nesta, do you come to this place of your own free will, with love in your heart to wed this male?"
"Yes," she breathed, "I do," she was still staring at Cassian and hardly registered the same question being asked of him, until he gently squeezed her fingers and started to speak,
"I, Cassian, swear to love, to cherish, and to protect you, when you actually need it," he added with a smirk, and Nesta had to hold back a fit of giggles, "I swear to love you through the best and worst the world can throw at us." With the official words said, he continued to add his own, "I never knew what was coming that day I first met you, Nes, when we arrived to ask for help, and I didn't find just a human woman, but an Illyrian without her wings, honestly I think I started falling right then, and kept falling with everything since. It didn't take long for me to figure out what you were to me, but long before that, I'd already decided that I wanted you, just you, mate or not, and I cannot thank the Cauldron enough that it saw fit to bless us with that bond." Nesta blinked tears out of her eyes, losing track of the murmurs around them, "You, Nesta, are everything I could have possibly dreamed of, and more besides, your courage, your strength, I don't know what I would have done without you at this point, I knew full well that I loved you when you refused to back down, when you made sure to protect your family from anything you thought was a threat, even me," Nesta let out a little chuckle at that,
"You didn't exactly correct me," she laughed,
"I'm not finished, Nes, it's your turn in a minute," she snorted, but allowed him to finish, "I have loved you through everything, but I never once believed that you could return that love and I promise, Nesta, that I will continue to love you until my last breath and beyond." Nesta couldn't stop the tears now flooding down her face, and thanked the Mother for Feyre's shield to protect her make-up from ruination. When he finished, she took a few breaths before beginning her own vows,
"I, Nesta Archeron, swear to love, to cherish, and protect you, because gods know you do need it." Nesta grinned at the mutterings among the few Illyrians chosen to represent their people at her changed vows, never 'obey', not for them, never for them, protect, yes, but never obey. "I swear to love you though the best and worst the world can throw at us." She grinned again when Cassian laughed, "I knew I loved you when I feared I might lose you, and I was so scared that you wouldn't want my love, that I didn't deserve yours, but thank the Cauldron that you reached me, I really don't know what I would have done this past year without you, and I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone. I promise to love you until my last breath and beyond, until this world is nothing but a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, until whatever end, I will love you."
Nesta's vision was still blurred as Emerie stepped to her side, handing her a ring, its partner in Cassian's hand as Azriel stepped back. She let her tears fall as Cassian slipped the ring onto her finger, a beautiful red stone capturing the light, surrounded by seven smaller silver ones, the reverse true of the one she placed on Cassian's finger.
"The red stone is hewn form my siphons," he murmured, "So that I'll always be by your side, I had them made specially," Nesta had no words as she held his gaze,
"Now, Lord and Lady Archeron, I declare you husband and wife now-" Nesta couldn't wait any longer, surging towards Cassian and showing him how she felt in the only way she really knew how. Rhys sighed as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "Do that, I guess,"
"Sorry, Rhys," Cassian chuckled when he stepped back, keeping a hold of Nesta's right hand as they both turned to face Rhys, taking the twin biscuits offered by Feyre and Elain. Nesta had insisted on the biscuits, just for the look on Cassian's face when he realized what she'd made,
"Witch," he muttered,
"Brute," she responded, breaking off a bit of the biscuit to feed him, hoping desperately that it tasted alright, but relaxed when he fed her piece of the other one, it was okay, nothing like Elain's cooking, but it was hers, she'd made it, for him. Cassian held her gaze as Rhys cleared his throat, the black ribbon in his hands the final piece they needed, the last thing before they could be declared officially mated.
Nesta wasn't sure that her heart was beating as he tied it around their joined hands, grinning, even when he met Nesta's eyes. Her brother, that was what he was, even more now, and she smiled at him as Cassian swept her into his arms to carry her back down the aisle,
"I can walk," she laughed,
"I know, I want to carry you," he laughed,
"Oh really, husband,"
"Yes, wife, I wouldn't want you trip, it's bad luck you know," Nesta laughed again as Cassian stepped outside, the first day of the rest of their lives, that's exactly what this was, and she wasn't scared anymore.
102 notes · View notes