#if we do. will I be here or will She come back? we’ve had false alarms before but it’s mostly been decided that it’s my front my life

[cherrysnax]

havin the weirdest crisis of my life

[shierajones]

Rise of Red

So I’m watching this movie and doing Simone Biles levels of mental gymnastics to make this all connect to the original story and have the plot holes fill in. Here are my attempts at cohension from the beginning:

SPOILERS!!!!

It’s been 30 years since Auradon was founded.

The math isn’t mathing but sure, let’s say after D3, everyone went on adventures, Ben and Mal got married and they all took time to mature and grow in their roles. As the years have passed, they recognize what a terrible job Beast did as a leader and they want to increase trade and foreign relations with other countries.

Uma says that Ben and Mal put her in charge of everything while they (along with Evie and Jay) are making alliances with other countries.

Of course! Because Beast sucks as a leader so they don’t trust him to take back over even if only temporarily. Gil and Harry (and most of the pirates we’ve seen) are missing from Uma’s crew, because she asked them to help Ben and Mal on their journey. Hook is serving as Captain in Uma’s absence and Jay and Gil have grown very close since traveling Auradon together through the years so it makes sense.

Chad is Cinderella and Charming’s son, but Chloe will one day be queen of Cinderellasburg.

Cinderella and Charming had fertility issues at first and Chad is adopted. Chloe is their miracle baby and, though younger, is the true-born heir to the throne. They love and support Chad in all things and have pampered him his whole life. Given the struggles they had to conceive, they don’t regret showering Chad with love but they recognize he’s a bit spoiled and not fit to be king one day.

The future shows Red and the Queen of Hearts ruling on the throne together. I guess we’re assuming since she’s black and red it means she’s evil.

We never actually see that this future is prevented. The ultimate endgame may still be the same, that Red rules with her mother. I’m going to say, this future was not prevented, just that the Queen of Hearts turn to evil was delayed.

In the past, many of the heroes and villains that we know are in high school together.

Many but not all. This is just a blip in their histories and the stories to come in the future are still canon. We don’t actually see any of the villain/hero pairs (Maleficent & Aurora) (Hook & Peter Pan) (Hades & Hercules) so outside of two couples being established (Jasmine and Aladdin in love and Ella and Charming flirtation/mutual pining) there’s nothing that makes some of the stories automatically false. I’d say some of the events in high school just blacken their hearts more and turn them into real villains.

Bridget and Ella’s personalities seem to be switched (with a more evil skew on Bridget’s end as an adult). This one is long.

Ella was Bridget’s only friend and because she was grounded, she wasn’t supposed to be able to make it to the Castlecoming. She cancels on Bridget and leaves her alone. However, Fairy Godmother is also friends with Ella and has been practicing her magic more and is now in possession of a powerful spellbook (more on that later). She wants a way to help her and is finally successful casting an enchantment that gets Cinderella to the dance for a short time. When her curfew hits, the spell will be reversed and send her home. When she gets to the dance, instead of finding Bridget, she gets caught up in Charming and after the song playing changes to So This is Love, they share their first dance. The two are so engrossed in each other and discovering their feelings are mutual that she doesn’t notice anyone or anything else. However, Bridget sees her and is excited at first until she realizes Ella isn’t seeking her out. She’s stuck on Charming. The song playing when Ella walked in is Shuffle of Love and Bridget is trying to focus but makes a mistake. She turns again to Ella to see if she’ll jump in and help but she’s still too distracted by Charming. Left heartbroken she moves and just watches them on the dance floor while staying isolated on the sidelines. She tries to ignore her feelings because she should be happy for Ella but she can’t stop crying a little. She should’ve been there for her. Isn’t that what friends are for? Then, Uliana comes to talk to her and seemingly comfort her. For a second, she thinks she’s coming around to be her friend. She doesn’t think twice when she offers her a cupcake. Suddenly she’s transformed to a monster and everyone around her starts laughing. Ella and Charming’s attention is finally broken from each other and they turn to see what’s going on. Upon seeing this monster, they laugh too thinking it’s just a prank—with no idea who the monster is. But Bridget’s last shred of hope is broken seeing her only friend laugh at her pain after ignoring her the whole night. When Ella finally realizes who it is, she tries to run after her and loses her shoe. She almost catches her to comfort her but then is whisked away by Fay’s spell and finds herself back at, sitting in the barn. Ella, still grounded is left feeling a mixture of joy, love, pain and regret from the events of the night. She can’t contact Bridget or see her until school starts again on Monday. By Monday it’s too late. Bridget, having spent the weekend with no one to talk to or comfort her decides Love Ain’t It and takes on a new mantra for her life. She looks into the Looking Glass and sees her evil future with her daughter. Fine, if that’s what she becomes, why try? At school, Ella tries to apologize and beg for forgiveness but it’s too late. She tries to tell her how her kindness made her strong, how she’s always respected that about her and loves her like a sister but it’s not enough. She tries to show her with her actions. She takes on the persona Bridget always had because it was good, it was kind, it was true strength. She doesn’t want to suffer for one mistake and doesn’t want Bridget to allow that night to define her, but again, it’s too late. Bridget already knows how this story ends and it’s not with love and friendship. She decides to let the fear and power be her friend and becomes the worst bully they’ve ever seen.

Uliana and her crew were troublemakers so would never have been able to open the spellbook and prank Bridget.

Before Red and Chloe showed up, Uliana and her crew were going to lure someone else in to get the book. Fay! They manipulated her with fear and hope—the promise that she could use the Sorcerer’s book when they were done to perfect her magic. So she did it, just like her daughter tried to take the wand in D1.

Merlin just lets Red and Chloe into school, partners them with their mothers “coincidentally” and sees the open window after the break in but doesn’t try to find out who else was able to escape.

He’s aware that Red and Chloe are time travelers and knows there’s a reason to change the timeline as they have. He knows what’s to come with Beast banning magic and shipping off the villains. He wants to change that story too and these girls are the catalysts. This change in history is going to open the doors for magic to be welcomed back to Auradon in the future as they return and have to fix what they’ve changed.

[ladykailitha]

Icarus Part 19

Hey guys! See? I can be consistent some of the time and I promise this one will be out once a week until it's done.

In this one we get the fallout from the last chapter, Vickie takes charge, and Steve and Eddie talk about the cracks appearing in their bands.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18

~

And of course the incident went viral, because there had been someone filming a bachelor party and caught the exchange in the background.

Fans rallied around the band especially when the two dudes could be heard saying the band was making shit up.

And despite Vickie keeping a deft hand on the situation, charges had to be filed. She called the band into the bus, having flown out the night before.

“Right,” she said, clasping her hands and leaning her elbows on her knees. “This was a scary incident and I was able to steer it in the right direction. But if you had told me right after it happened I could have gotten ahead of it.”

The members of the band just looked at her in shock.

“It’s just a problem we’ve always had,” Spence said. “It happens so often it’s just a part of being The Fallen, you know?”

Vickie cocked her head to the side. “You do understand that you’ve come normalize to assault, right?”

Steve let out a shuddering breath. “We knew it was bad. Of course we did. But we thought it came with the price of fame.”

“Famous people have to put up with a lot of bullshit,” she said shaking her head, “but assault is not one of them. They’re people too, they aren’t objects to be used and consumed by their audience and then spat out.”

They all shifted in their seats uncomfortably and avoided looking her in the eye.

“I think we all learned from this experience,” Robin said. “We learned the new hoods work, we learned to tell Vickie when something goes down, no matter how small we think it is or if we think it was handled. Because that’s why I didn’t say anything. Hopper had the guy delete it from his phone so I thought that was the end of the matter, only for it to appear online anyway.”

“And I learned,” Vickie finished, “that as unique as you guys are, you still experience the common problems most famous people have.”

They talked a little bit longer and everyone came away from the meeting feeling better about the incident going viral.

It did have the unfortunate side effect of Eddie being aggressively protective whenever the two bands would go out. Which would be fine, if it was just ‘Abbadon’ he was fiercely protective of, Steve being his boyfriend and all.

But nope.

Because Eddie didn’t want questions about why he was only protecting Abbadon, he went full mama bear. Barking at some chick that got too close to Azrael’s hood when she was flirting with him. Slapping away some guy’s hand that looked like it was going for Astraeus’s mask. He even got between a guy with a phone and Asmodeus. Who looked like the one guy in the band you wouldn’t want to fuck with.

That was when Steve decided to talk to Eddie about. Because they both had security and no one had gotten past Hopper since that first time.

“Hey, baby,” Steve said softly, slipping into the hotel room.

Eddie jumped and almost fell off the bed. “Stevie! Are you supposed to be here?” He scrambled to get back on the bed.

Steve joined him on the bed and slid as close to him as possible. “If anyone asks, I’ll just say you thought you were having a medical emergency but it was a false alarm.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “I think that would cause a bigger stir than me sleeping with an EMT, sweetheart.”

Steve laughed and crawled up onto his lap to kiss him senseless. Eddie let Steve slowly lower him on the pillows as they made out.

“How much time have you got before you’re missed?” Eddie breathed, grinding their bodies together. “I really need you.”

Steve knew they would be taking a huge fucking risk, but he needed his boyfriend, too. He needed be filled up and worshiped. “A while,” he panted into Eddie’s mouth. “I want you to fuck me, please?”

Eddie groaned because that sounded like heaven to him. “Anything for you.”

Steve’s shirt was off and Eddie’s hands instantly came up to his belt to start unbuckling it. Steve sighed at the release of pressure against his zipper as Eddie pulled it down.

“Look at you, honey,” he panted, “you aching for me?”

Steve nodded, pressing his lips together to stop the moan from escaping his lips. Then he stood up and scrambled to get out of his clothes and Eddie took the opportunity to do the same. Soon they were lying together with Steve on top, kissing.

The sex was slow and tender and everything Steve needed in that moment and he felt Eddie did too. Once everything had been cleaned up and they were lying next to each other did Steve speak up.

“I think we have a couple of things to talk about,” Steve murmured into Eddie’s neck. “About Brian and Gareth, and you biting that fan’s head off tonight.”

Eddie sighed and held Steve closer. “I’m sorry about tonight. It’s just after that incident with the assholes and Astraeus, I guess my protective instincts that drove me to pick up lost sheep in high school went into overdrive.”

Steve nuzzled Eddie’s neck. “Which I do get, but let me tell you of the four of us, in character Asmodeus really is the last one you need to defend. He uses his mask as a way to be braver then he is normally and will absolutely knock a guy out and then freak out about it later.”

Eddie chuckled. “I already have a good idea of who’s who, but thank you for cinching for me that Simon is Asmodeus.”

Steve huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah, that one was a gimme, I’ll admit. But who do you think are the other two. You have a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.”

He thought for a moment, really trying to put all the clues together. “Spence is Azrael and Shane is Astraeus. For the sheer fact that they make the least amount of sense and thus throw people off.”

“Right in one,” Steve confirmed with a kiss. “And yes, that’s why. Our personas are deliberately not like who we are in real life. I play more to my feminine side more as Abbadon because I’m your stereotypical boy next door.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh. “You’re way more than that, sweetheart. But I get what you mean.”

Steve sat up and pulled his knees up to drape his arms around them. “Did you want to talk about what happened with Brian and Gareth about the tour. I kept meaning to bring it up because there would be odd little moments where the tension would suddenly ramp up between you guys and it would be days before it went away. It seems like it’s only gotten worse since we’ve gone on tour.”

Eddie sat up too, and moved away from Steve, crossing his arms sullenly. Steve let him. He knew this was a prickly subject and if Eddie didn’t want to talk he wasn’t going to make him. So he waited him out.

Sure enough a few minutes later, Eddie let out a put upon sigh. “Yeah, okay. It’s gotten so bad Chrissy is talking to the label about what would happen if we broke up on this tour.”

“Jesus Christ,” Steve breathed. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

Eddie chewed on his bottom lip and nodded.

“I remember Brian saying he thought not letting Gareth on this tour was wrong,” Steve said, “but that everyone including Gareth disagreed.”

“He made a promise,” Eddie said softly, pulling his knees up to his chest and burying his face between his knees. “No drinking, in therapy, and having actual fucking progress on both the alcohol dependence and the abandonment issues and he’d get to tour with you guys.”

Steve raised a eyebrow. Eddie had said things like this before. That even though Gareth wasn’t a fan of Steve he had posters of Abbadon in his house and especially his studio. As he hadn’t seen it, he had to take Eddie’s word for it.

“And then he went on that bender when no one could find him...” he murmured, remembering that night.

“Yeah,” Eddie let out a shuddering breath, “thank god both Dustin and Gareth are the same flavor of nerd.”

Steve cracked a small smile.

“So he shouldn’t have been able to come,” he reasoned.

“Yeah.”

Eddie gripped his hair as he continued. “It’s in our contract. Everything has to be agreed on by all four members otherwise it doesn’t happen. We’ve lost out on some major opportunities because one of us held out. Did you know that the latest Batman movie wanted to use ‘Jaded Hearts’ for their soundtrack?”

‘Jaded Hearts’ was about a bad break up Jeff had. He thought things were going well, even bought a ring talked to her dad about proposing. And then suddenly she turned around and said things weren’t working out between them and just moved out of state. No rhyme or reason to it, just left.

“I didn’t,” Steve admitted.

“Yeah...” Eddie’s voice cracked on the bitterness of it. “Gareth didn’t want to because he thought it would cheapen its meanihng. While Jeff, the guy that wrote the damn thing was freaking out that they wanted his song in a movie about his favorite super hero.” He grimaced. “Jeff’s still salty about that one.”

Steve’s eyebrows raised. Yeah, he would be too.

“So what was Brian’s reasoning for waiting until Gareth was out of rehab?”

Eddie let go of his hair and let his feet slide off the edge of the couch they were on. “Addiction is a mental illness and we wouldn’t punish any of us for needing physical therapy if we broke a limb or whatever.”

Steve let his eyelids flutter shut. He felt that. He did. Both Simon and he had parents that were alcoholics. Hell, his own mother did cocaine. Addiction was a disease, but not one that should be catered to like that. He opened his eyes and saw that Eddie was curling in on himself slowly but surely.

He grabbed Eddie by the wrist and pulled him into his arms.

“What’s going on with Gareth scares me,” Eddie murmured as he soaked up his boyfriend’s comfort.

Steve let out a deep breath and said gingerly, “I think Shane is a sex addict.”

Because while Shane hadn’t been late since their little intervention, he just got better at hiding his hookups. He figured he was the only one who knew because Hopper and Robin hadn’t said anything about it.

Eddie looked up at Steve, his big brown eyes wide in confusion. “I thought he was getting better at showing up on time.”

“Oh he shows up on time,” Steve muttered darkly. “But sometimes he shows up smelling of cheap cologne and expensive wine, like he hasn’t been to bed yet. And like with you and Gareth, what’s going on with Shane terrifies me, too.”

Eddie snuggled in closer. “Fame is a cruel mistress and she is giving our friends the beating of their lives.”

“I think after this both bands should take some time off,” Steve murmured, “and just be people for a minute or three. Three records in three years is insane for even the most seasoned bands and I think Corroded Coffin could really benefit not being in each others’ pockets for a bit.”

Eddie sighed and really thought about it. He nodded. Even if the other members said no, Eddie was willing to just walk away from it all. Go solo maybe. Because after twelve years of nonstop running he was starting to fall apart.

The only thing that was keeping him sane right now was the fact Steve was by his side and he understood what he was going through.

“Yeah, baby,” he said, “let’s do that. Maybe you and me will travel the world a bit, really see it, instead of a blur through the windows of a tour bus.”

Fuck did that sound perfect. No band, no obligations, just him and Eddie and an adventure of a lifetime.

“Sure thing, rockstar,” he whispered. “Let’s do that. Plan a trip of Europe or whatever and just see the sights for a change. And not just the sites that would be good publicity either. The wacky museums, the weird curio shops, five hundred year old bars.”

Eddie sat up and looked him in the eye. “Wait, what? You’d really be interested in doing that? I mean, I’d love that. But none the guys like that shit. Not like I do and you’d want to do that kind of stuff with me?”

“Of course I would,” Steve said and then kissed him deeply. “I love that kind of shit too. And yeah maybe I didn’t always, but Robin has been a very good influence on me.”

Eddie laughed. It was so free and happy, Steve wanted to bottle it up and keep it for shit days.

“Maybe we should bring her with us,” he said with a grin. “That way people will be less suspicious about you and me going on a trip and reading too much into it.”

Steve let out a sigh, his mood a little dampened by the fact this couldn’t just be a romantic getaway. But then again, he really didn’t want to leave Robin home for that long, either. He kissed Eddie.

“Yeah, Eds,” he said sweetly. “Let’s do that. She’ll love it.”

~

Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25

Tag List: CLOSED

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10- @sadisticaltarts @urkadop @chameleonhair @clockworkballerina @garden-of-gay

[shutupineedtothink]

It’s about Self-actualization, not Sacrifice

I can’t overstate how much I Do Not Want Agatha to sacrifice herself and/or die at the end of this series, and tbh I’m mad that people are even floating that idea out in the ether.

I don’t care if her sacrificing herself for Billy or anyone else is making a different choice from how she couldn’t save Nicky or stealing witches’ powers, and is therefore “narratively satisfying.” I don’t care if her dying means she gets to be in some kind of eternity with Rio. I don’t care if she was some kind of ghost figure in the comics and we could see her specter in future projects. I do not want Force ghost Agatha.

I want living, breathing, transformed Agatha to come out of this more herself than she ever has been before. Freed from the hold her past and her limiting beliefs and her reputation has had on her for the last several centuries. I want this to be a new beginning of her journey, not the end.

Fortunately, I think Jac and the writers have my back on this. (Please, god)

The journey here on the Road is not about sacrifice. Because a) I don’t believe and have never believed that Agatha actually sacrificed Nicky for the Darkhold. Red herring, it didn’t happen that way. So there’s no narrative reversal to be had there in the first place. And b) the various deaths, the witches’ stories we’ve seen play out so far have not been about Sacrifice either, at least not primarily.

Alice ended up sacrificing her life to save Agatha, but that was not her story in that moment. That was not the narrative we were meant to see.

Alice saving Agatha in that moment was about her stepping into her power, her highest self, the Protection witch she was always meant to be free from the generational curse. Someone who cannot stand by and watch others in pain if she can do something about it. That’s her highest self.

Lilia’s sacrifice wasn’t her true journey either. Her story was about embracing her power, becoming the Traveler, playing out her story in the way she saw and accepting her gifts for what they are (your task is not to control but to see). She too, regained her full power, her full self in that moment, and took out at least five of the Seven with her. She took her power back from the fear that had been holding her for so long, and became the highest version of herself, the Queen of Cups.

Agatha’s journey isn’t about sacrifice either, it never was.

Agatha’s journey, as I’ve said in other posts, is about finding her true self, her true power, unmasking herself from all of the facades she’s worn over the years to protect herself and hide her pain. Answering the question, who IS Agatha, all along? It’s about dealing with her trauma so that she can exist as her true self, and be seen by others as her true self.

We’ll find out in the next couple episodes what that looks like but I can already tell you she’s NOT inherently evil, or inherently good. She is a woman shaped by heartbreak, grief, and sorrow. She has made choices, some bad, some good, and she is capable of making new choices. She is capable of transformation, of peeling away all the false versions of her to find who her truest self is — which I believe, is a leader, a mentor, a guide. The Mother, in many ways.

In that case, sacrificing herself for Billy or the coven or whatever isn’t the play here. It’s teaching Billy (probably, and maybe Jen) what he’s capable of and how to access his true power. It’s the same role she played for Wanda, only this time, when Billy realizes what he’s done (create the Road, probably) she’s going to help him, not fight him for his power. There’s probably also some element of them trusting each other and working together, having seen each other’s true selves.

I’m not going to try to predict the specifics, but my point is that Agatha dying at the end is simply not the move. And if she does, the only way it works is if it’s a dying on the Road to be reborn in the real world type of situation (so everyone else lives too). In which case, fine, I guess, but I still don’t want her to die. I want her to choose life. I think with everything she’s suffered, death is the easy choice. Living and changing and growing and letting people in is much harder.

Besides what an absolute fucking waste it would be of Kathryn Hahn’s talent to just kill off Agatha here and not have her show up later and irritate the shit out of some Avengers.

[throneofsapphics]

i know we’ve all been requesting so much poly rowaelin lately but i was thinking of a drabble with rowan spanking reader and aelin holding her down and wiping her tears 🤓

if/when you have time and feel like writing this, of course 💕

stay still

Rowaelin x f!Reader 

Summary: Aelin helps you stay still. 

Warnings: spanking, light dacryphillia, nsfw, smut, d/s dynamics, implied subspace - this really is pure smut, no plot. minors dni!

A/N: I’ve been trying to write this for a few days but I kept sweating every time I thought about it, but now I'm drinking wine from the bottle so here we go! thank you for the request <3

Your leg kicked up involuntarily to try and cover your ass. Rowan seemed to delight in shoving it back down, in pushing you closer to submission with each strike. The next one hit right where your ass met your thighs, and your legs close together, hands flying back to try and cover yourself. 

A snarl comes from him, pressing into you, pants rough against your raw skin, your hands now pinned to your back as his body folded over you. “I thought you said you could stay still,” his voice is in your ear, breath warming your neck.

A whimper is your only response. You had said that, and trying to defend yourself would only make it worse. Rowan snorted, his hand gripping your hair, arching your head back at an uncomfortable angle. “You know what to say if you’re done.” 

Safeword. You shook your head, you wanted the pain - wanted the pleasure that came with it, wanted anything he would give you. The door opened, but he kept your head at an angle you couldn’t see. You didn’t need to see to know who it was, her presence and the scent of jasmine and lemon verbena gave it away. Besides, Rowan wouldn’t let anyone but Aelin in here during this … at least you thought so. Maybe if you pissed him off enough he would shove you down in front of everyone and spank your ass raw. That idea thrilled and terrified you, but he was possessive enough it would never happen. 

Rowan’s grip released, but a smaller hand wrapped around your chin, tilting you to meet Aelin’s eyes. 

“Can’t stay still?” She purred. They must’ve had one of their silent conversations.

Words were too difficult, especially with Rowan slowly running his hand over your ass, deceptively gentle, so you shook your head as best you could. 

She hummed, dropping you. Your cheek hit the comforter, and you had a few seconds to breathe, still keeping your eyes on her. 

A wicked grin appeared on her face as your forearms crossed parallel over your back, one of Aelin’s hands pinning them in place - shoving you further into the bed, her other hand running through your hair. “Will you stay still for me? Be good?” She asked softly. The look on her face told you she wanted words, and you dragged them up the best you could. 

“I’ll try.” 

No more false promises. 

“At least you’re honest,” she clicked her tongue, looking away from you. 

Gods, you’d almost forgotten about Rowan. 

Crack. 

A half sob left you. He was hitting harder, and kept changing his rhythm - sometimes hitting the same place twice, others alternating, slowing to lull you into false security. You knew what he was waiting for, for the final proof of your submission - tears. 

“You’re doing so well,” Aelin cooed, pushing away the strands of hair starting to stick to your face. 

Crack. 

You finally screamed, tears flooding in earnest, burying your head into the comforter, face rubbing against the soft fabric. Rowan’s hand gripped your hair brutally, forcing you to look at Aelin.

Her eyes were soft as she brushed the tears away with her thumb, gasps still leaving you. Pushing her thumb between your tips, instinctively you parted, tongue swirling around, sucking eagerly. 

“Perfect, love,” she pulled her hand away, and glanced behind you. At Rowan. He released gently this time, Aelin’s hand left the small of your back - but you didn’t move. Couldn’t. 

Your legs were shaking, your entire body shaking as you tried to center yourself. 

Whimpering, you were tugged up the bed, raw skin rubbing against the fabric of Aelin’s pants as she held you close to her chest. You were keenly aware of the wet pooling between your legs, of the coil starting to build inside of you, and her hand trailed down your body as you pressed closer to her, twisting you bury your face in her chest. A small laugh, and you jerked as her fingers brushed against your core, gathering your arousal. The touch was gone as soon as it came, and you lifted your head just enough to see her extending her fingers to Rowan. His eyes on you as he took them in his mouth, tasting you on her. 

Something like satisfaction in his eyes, that the pain he gave you turned into that. “I think she’s earned her reward.” 

There wasn’t time to think further, no time to even throw out a thanks as Aelin’s skilled fingers found your center, slipping inside you as the heel of her palm ground into your clit. Rowan’s lips swallowed your moan, his canines tugging at your bottom lip as Aelin set a leisurely pace. You could taste yourself on him, he consumed you fully - his hand cupping your jaw to tilt you to the perfect angle for him. 

“Please please please,” each word slipped into the other, mumbled against his lips like a prayer. 

“Go on.” 

Three harsh thrusts, and you were clenching around her - your entire body exploding, thrown over a cliff, head thrown back in something between a moan and a scream, maybe their names, you didn’t know. 

Then you were falling, half present as your mind slowly crept back to the present. Underwater, voices muffled around you. All you felt was content, safe. 

Minutes or hours later, cradled between two bodies, your head felt clear again.

“Hello,” you mumbled, looking up through half-lidded eyes at Rowan, Aelin curled behind you, snoring softly. You made a mental note to make fun of her for that later. 

“Hello, love,” his thumb brushed across your cheekbone. Had he been watching you the entire time? “Good to have you back,” he pressed a kiss to your forehead, before tugging you - away from Aelin and into him. A disgruntled grunt behind you, followed by a snarl - you were oddly pleased that woke her up.

Exhaustion hit you, and even with their bickering and mini-territory war, you fell asleep against him.

[imtryingbuck]

Family Dinner

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OFC!Theo

Summary: Bucky has to marry a woman who surprises him more and more as their story goes along.

Word count: 1,842

Warnings: angst. Swearing. Dot and Eliza. Insecurities.

Masterlist   Series Masterlist

As the door comes open Bucky takes a hold of Theo’s hand rubbing his thumb across her knuckles a silent way of letting her know that he’s right by her side. Reassuring her that she is not alone.

“Welcome” Bucky greeted their guests. God he hates this. They’ve not even been here for ten seconds and he already wants them to leave.

“It’s about time you invited us for a dinner” George says shrugging his coat off and handing it to Martha.

“Hi son, it’s been quite some time since we’ve seen you” Winnie then says, greeting Martha with a hug and a kiss to her cheek before finally moving to Bucky, giving him a hug.

“He’s probably just been busy Winnie with his wife, you know how it is” Michael says before Bucky could say anything to his mom. No one reply to what Michael says, no one says anything else until Martha moves everyone’s coats to the closet.

“Right well, let’s have dinner then” Bucky said already walking into the dining room with his hand tightly holding onto Theo’s.

As everyone settles down in their chairs Nat and Wanda notice Eliza eyeing Theo in disgust as Bucky slides her chair closer to the table. When Eliza felt the cold gaze from the two redheads she looked down at her hands, two sets of green eyes roll in tandem.

Conversation started to flow between everyone else whilst Theo was sat silently keeping her head downward, her fingers tracing patterns on Wanda’s dress. Her head snapping up towards Bucky when she saw his hand on hers.

“You okay?” He asked gently.

“I’m-“

“She’s always rude Winifred, don’t mind her” Eliza’s voice cuts her off. Winnie replies with a scoff before looking back at Theo.

“I said that I like your dress, where did you get it from?”

“I-Its Wanda’s Miss”

“It’s suits you perfectly” Winnie smiles, no hint of sarcasm in her words.

“T-thank you” Winnie smiles, whilst Wanda winks at her.

Soon enough dinner is brought out everyone but George, Michael and Eliza saying thank you to Martha as she puts their plates in front of them. The only sound being made in the dining room is the scraping of cutlery against the plates.

For Bucky and his friends it’s the most uncomfortable dinner they’ve ever had.

All of them wanting it to be over with quickly.

As soon as Bucky swallowed the last bit of his food he was getting ready to stand so he could get their guests coats so they could leave. Despite that fact that no one else had finished eating. That’s how bad he wanted them gone.

“Ah son we need to talk business” George informs whilst putting his knife and fork down.

“Tonight?”

“Yes tonight. Michael’s here so we can talk”

“Right-“

“Winnie, Eliza take his wife into the living room so we can talk” Bucky rolls his eyes at his dad interrupting him.

“Her name is Theo, father.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Ladies leave”

Bucky clenches his jaw at his father’s dismissal, he stands up pulling out Theo’s chair and helps her stand. “I’m sorry Angel” he whispered in her ear before placing a kiss to her cheek. Winnie stands and smiles at her son, holding her arm out for Theo to take they leave Eliza behind.

In the living room alone with a woman she didn’t know and a woman who spend years tormenting her Theo sat awkwardly on the couch with her head down. The two women didn’t say a word to each other only sharing false smiles when they caught each other’s eye.

“So Theo, how are you finding married life?” Winnie speaks breaking the uncomfortable silence. Truthfully she wanted to find out if her son was being a better husband than her own. Theo goes to reply when Eliza’s voice is heard.

“Winnie I know you hate me”

Looking at Theo, Winnie rolls her eyes “I don’t hate you”

“You do. I know you do and I’m sorry, please don’t hate me”

Winnie’s eyes roll once again at hearing the fake distress of her voice. “I don’t hate you Elizabeth”

“Matt”

At hearing her brother’s name Theo’s head snapped up towards Eliza then to Winnie whose face held no emotion whatsoever. Winnie looked Eliza dead in the eyes and smiled. “In order to hate you Elizabeth it would require me to think about you which is something I do not do. In order to hate you it would mean that you would have affected me in such a way that requires hatred towards you, again you have never affected my life even in the smallest of ways. So like I said, I do not hate you”

Theo had to fight off the smile that wanted to make an appearance on her face at seeing Eliza’s face drop and pale. Never before had she ever seen Eliza be pushed aside in such a way. She had never seen or heard someone other than Michael talk to Eliza like she was nothing. It was hard not to smile even if she didn’t know why Matt her sweet older brother had anything to do with why Winnie would hate her. Winnie turned to Theo with a soft smile on her lips and informed her that she needed to go to the ladies room and she’d be back in a moment.

There was no smile wanting to appear now that she was going to be left alone with her tormentor.

The door had only just closed before Eliza started on Theo. “Why hasn’t James asked your father for a divorce yet?”

“I-I don’t k-know ma’am”

“Have you shown him your body? Asked for sex?”

“Yes ma’am”

“And?”

“H-he didn’t say anything ma’am”

“Dot wants to be his mistress and you’re going to let that happen. Is that understood?”

“He said he doesn’t want one ma’am”

“He’s a man and all men wants to have a mistress”

“H-he said he doesn’t want one though ma’am”

Sighing and thinking on how to respond, Eliza smirks “My daughters will be having his children you have gotten that through your thick skull right?”

“He doesn’t want them too ma’am”

Frowning Eliza hisses “I don’t give a shit what he wants Theodora! You make it happen or you will regret it. Do you understand me?”

The next word out of Theo’s mouth has not only Eliza shocked but herself. For the first time she’s not scared in front of the woman who hurt her more than Bucky realised. Though she knows the moment that that word spilled out of her mouth she was going to receive a beating she felt proud of the fact that she finally stood up for herself. “No.”

“No? What you mean no?”

“James has a say in this matter as-“ Eliza lunges at Theo cutting her off but stops herself when another voice cuts in.

“Lay one hand on my daughter in law and I will kill you myself. Do you understand? I asked do you understand Elizabeth.”

Eliza stands up to her full height and looks over to where Winnie stands by the door and smirks. “Your dear husband wouldn’t allow you to do that”

“My dear husband wanted to put a bullet in between your eyes all them years ago, it was me that stopped that dear husband of mine from doing that.” It was Winnie’s turn to smirk and for the second time that night Theo has to fight off the smile at seeing Eliza’s once again being put in her place.

“Y-your lying”

“No I’m not. See the difference between you and I Elizabeth is that I don’t make the other woman in my husband’s life suffer, why? Because I have and always will be the stronger woman out of the two of us. Now, if you want to see if my dear husband would come in here and stop me you are more than welcome to go in to where they are and get him.” Winnie smiles stepping away from the door, clearly giving Eliza the opportunity to go and get George.

Eliza huffs knowing that what the other woman is saying is true. But not only would George not do anything but neither would Michael. Looking at Theo then to Winnie Eliza huffs once more before walking past Winnie trying and failing to knock her shoulder into the other woman’s but fails when Winnie moves out of the way.

From across the hallway they both hear Eliza complaining to Michael that she wanted to go home now. Michael reluctantly agreeing. “Are you okay darling?” Winnie asks.

“I-I’m okay, Miss.”

“She’s a wretched one isn’t she?”

“I-“

“Come on love, time to go home” George says interrupting what Theo was about to reply with. Winnie nods and crosses over to where Theo stood and wraps her arms around her.

“It was lovely meeting you, next time I’ll have to come here alone and get to know you better.”

“I would like that Miss”

“None of that darling, call me Winnie”

Bucky helps his mom put her coat on, giving her a kiss to her cheek he moves over to where Theo stood. Only Winnie says goodbye to Theo as Michael and Eliza had already left.

“Time for dessert” Sam exclaims already on his way into the kitchen.

Everyone follows behind him but Bucky who hangs back with Theo. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay”

“Did she say anything to you?” Theo thought about lying to him but worried that Winnie might say something to him about what had happened so she tells him word for word what was said not only between herself and Eliza but the conversation that his mom had. Bucky’s blood boiled at hearing what Eliza had said, grown confused about what Matt had to do with anything. Then he felt proud of the fact that she had stood up for herself.

“I like your mom” she says after finishing what she was telling him.

Bucky smiled placing a kiss to her lips “she likes you too, come on let’s get some dessert before Sam eats it all.”

He knew he was going to have that conversation with his mom about Matt, he needed to find out why Eliza would think she would hate her because of his wife’s brother but until then he wanted to sit down with his family, with his wife right by his side and enjoy the homemade vanilla cheesecake.

On the other side of town Eliza’s in her walk in wardrobe on the phone to Dot. Both of them thinking about a way to destroy the marriage between Theo and Bucky. Dot herself knows that Bucky would never take a mistress or “accidentally” cheat on a woman, there’s only one way to have him all to herself.

Eliza smirks whilst agreeing to Dot’s plan. Dot gets what she wants and Eliza makes Michael suffer even more.

It’s a win-win for the pair of them.

“I’m going to have her killed”

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Tags: @sapphirebarnes @bellabarnes1378 @unaxv @skulliecadaver-blog @mrsnikstan @sebastians-love @pattiemac1 @julvrs @undf-stuff

[iwritefandomimagines]

MORE THAN THAT — ROBERT CHASE

masterlist

pairing: robert chase x reader

description: when one of your best friends turns up at the hospital with her daughter unwell, you introduce chase as your colleague. considering you’ve been seeing each other for nearly five months now, he does not like that one bit. [based on a request]

warnings: swearing, a tiny bit of sad!chase so hurt/comfort, fluff galore after that

author’s note: robert chase i <3 u ! this was based on a request for insecure chase so i hope this was ok!

“Y/N!” your best friend cried out for your attention as she saw you and Chase approaching down the hospital corridor, “Hi, hi— Lola is with a doctor now, Mark’s in there with her because I was away for work so I only just got here.”

You frowned immediately, worried about what might be wrong with her daughter — your goddaughter.

“Is she alright?” you pouted, hoping it was nothing serious. You were so used to dealing with life-or-death situations that you tended to catastrophise, “Do you need me to convince House to help?”

She shook her head with a small smile, “No, no, she’s okay. Stomach pain but it’s nothing serious, she’s had a few tests and it’s just a bug. She’s being discharged this afternoon, I just wanted to be here with her.”

You heaved out a sigh of relief, pulling her into a hug, “Thank god. What room is she in? We’ve got some files to drop off really quickly and then we’ll come and see her—, oh, sorry, I’ve not introduced you guys.”

You glanced across at Chase now, who looked shy now that he had finally been brought face-to-face with your lifelong best friend.

You’d been together for almost five months now, and he’d not met any of your friends from outside of the hospital.

He already worried that you were embarrassed by him, but you were both so busy that he’d eventually let himself resign to the fact that that was probably why.

“Y/B/F, this is my colleague Dr. Chase,” you gestured between them, emphasising the word colleague because your best friend knew about the mysterious doctor you were dating and you wanted to gently let her know it was him, “Dr. Chase, this is Y/B/F, my best friend since we were literally crawling.”

Chase looked down at the floor for a moment, shifting on the balls of his feet uncomfortably.

“Hi, it’s lovely to meet you,” he forced a tiny smile that you recognised immediately was false, but Y/B/F was smiling broadly enough for the three of you now.

“Amazing to meet you, Dr. Chase. I’ve heard great things about you,” you sent her a shut the fuck up look at that, not wanting to give away that she knew about you, and not realising that Chase had been relieved when he’d heard that, “One of the best doctors here, hm.”

That sunk his heart again — were you really so embarrassed by dating a work colleague that you couldn’t even tell your best friend?

He gulped awkwardly, chuckling, “Ah, thank you. Not at all, though. Well, I’d better get on.”

“Not without me,” you touched his arm, smiling softly up at him before returning your gaze to your friend, “I’ll see you in fifteen, OK?”

“See you in a bit, Y/N. Lovely to meet you Dr. Chase. Hopefully I’ll see you again very soon!”

As soon as she began to disappear down the corridor, you headed back to your office with a sad looking Chase at your side. You didn’t pry until the door to your office was closed behind you.

“Babe, what’s the matter?” you frowned, hand rubbing up his arm soothingly as he looked at you like a kicked puppy, “Sorry if that was awkward.”

“Nothing, no it was fine,” he mumbled, pretending to busy himself with looking at the papers he’d been carrying, “She’s nice.”

You narrowed your eyes confusedly, “You seem upset, please tell me what’s up. I’m sorry if you felt uncomfortable.”

He shook his head, “I just… I—,” he seemed to be contemplating whether or not to be honest with you, and your brows furrowed further in concern as he sat down on the edge of your desk defeatedly and placed down his files, “Are you embarrassed by me, Y/N?”

Your heart lurched at that, practically breaking at the notion he would even consider that you would be embarrassed by him.

“Embarrassed? Why on earth would I be embarrassed by you?” you flew to stand right in front of him, watching his glossy eyes avoid contact with yours briefly.

He shrugged sadly, “I just— I figured you must be if you won’t even introduce me to your best friend. Well, not as more than your colleague, as you so kindly emphasised.”

You let out a small gasp, “Oh, babe, no! I emphasised colleague because she does know that we are far more than that so I wanted to subtly let her know you were you. I just didn’t feel like in the busy corridors of work was the best place to talk about it properly… I was going to invite her and her husband Mark over for dinner with us next week so you could meet them properly.”

He looked up at you hopefully now, his racing heartbeat thudding in his ears as he saw the sincerity of your expression.

“You’re not just saying that to be nice?”

“Robert, why the hell would I be embarrassed to be dating you? You’re amazing,” you leaned to peck his lips quickly, “I’ve told Y/B/F everything since our first date… She just works away a lot so I’ve not had a chance to have a proper introduction.”

You could see the relief practically wash over him as his hands snaked around your waist, “Well now I feel embarrassed for being so awkward.”

You leaned in closer to him, pushing his hair from his face and cupping his cheeks to kiss him gently again. He held you close to him, deepening the kiss for a moment.

“Don’t be, I can see how it would come across like I was deliberately avoiding telling her, so I’m sorry,” you twirled his hair around your fingers at the back of his neck, “I’ve been desperate for her to meet you as my boyfriend. I just thought you might find it awkward in the middle of the hospital corridor. I didn’t want it to be too much.”

His thumb caressed the base of your back comfortingly as he stared into your eyes, “It’s alright. Now I understand why she said, ‘hopefully I’ll see you again very soon’, because that did confuse me.”

You laughed, “Yeah, I can see how ominous that sounds… She’s been really excited to meet you. I think you and Mark will get on really well, too. I can’t believe you’d think I’m embarrassed by you… I’m punching so hard.”

He pulled a face, “Are you kidding me? You’re perfect, Y/N. I’m the one punching. And lucky for me I have House to remind me of that every single day so i don’t forget it.”

You chuckled at that, knowing how much stick he got from House for your relationship and how often House would tease him about you being out of his league.

“Uh, I see that and I raise you the fact that pretty much weekly when we’re on a case together someone asks me if you’re single,” you scoffed, thinking of all the times patients and their family or friends had cornered you for your boyfriend’s number, “Although I do get a lot of satisfaction out of telling them you’re not. Just wish it wasn’t unprofessional to tell them you’re alllll mine.”

The exuberance in your words warmed his heart, pleased that you were just as proud to be his as he was to be yours.

In the time you’d been together, he’d fallen completely and utterly head over heels for you.

“All yours, huh,” he smirked smugly, pulling you closer by your waist so that your noses touched from the proximity, “I like that.”

You smirked back, kissing him once more and taking a step back, “Mhm.”

He stood up straight now as you moved away, “Sorry for getting so weird, I just got a little worried.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologise for, baby,” you shook your head, biting your lip as his expression had fallen a little, “But you’ve also got nothing to worry about. I love you. And I’ll tell that to anyone who’s willing to listen.”

At that, he was beaming again.

You’d not exchanged I love yous yet, but to have you say it first had made his fucking day — given that he’d been fighting the urge to tell you that for weeks now.

“I love you too, Y/N,” he grinned, watching your every movement with intensity, “More than anything.”

“I really wish the day was almost over, I just want to spend time with you now,” you pouted exaggeratedly, knowing that you wouldn’t be working with him for the rest of the day, “But I’ll see you later, yeah? Gotta go check on Lola.”

He nodded, “See ya later gorgeous. I love you.”

“I love you too, pretty boy.”

———

thanks for reading !!! i feel like this was total dogshit but i saw the request and kinda ran with it lol please let me know what you thought :-)

here is my masterlist! feel free to request too <3

[httpscomexe]

Barnes has to protect the new girl which he despises but after spending time with her he realises he loves her.

Okay this isn't EXACTLY what you asked for, I changed it up a little, but it works.

Pinky Promise

Summary: Barnes is set up on a mission by Steve Rogers with the person he claims he hates so dearly. Everything is fine until after they realise everything is about to set fire, and the soldier is once again awakened.

(Find what I'm currently writing by checking my pinned post)

Parings: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Smut, light choking, fighting, yelling, nothing too big in this chapter. P/V sex, mentions of drugs, mentions of child trafficking. One of my first times writing smut, it's bad.

Word Count: 3798 (Find all chapters HERE)

“Barnes.” Tony Stark approaches the soldier, his hands in his pockets, and the expression on his face unreadable. “Now, I know we’ve been through some tough times, hating each other back and forth.” He pulls his hands out of his pockets and crosses them in front of his chest. “But we have a job for you. It should be easy.”

“Just spit it out already, Stark.” The soldier carefully drops the heavy load he’d been holding with his left hand, and his arm hums as it recalibrates.

“Your mission is to protect the new girl. My daughter.” Tony spits out, hating even the thought of James Barnes, the famous killer, to protect his little girl. “She has a mission where she needs to steal a phone, she's a master pickpocket and the phone is in the pocket of a man who’ll be in a very crowded room. A masquerade ball, to be specific.” He sighs, shifting on his feet uncomfortably.

“Okay. When?”

“Tonight.”

“Well thanks for the short notice, Stark.” Barnes says angrily before grabbing up his package again and turning away to leave.

“You have a suit sitting on your bed ready for you. Be ready by seven thirty!” Stark calls after him. Worried for what the outcome of this mission would be.

Hey, I’m Y/N, Mr. Stark's daughter. You must be Bucky? Was the first thing you had said to him as you had stuck your hand out for him to shake. Yea. Was all he had said as he stared down at you, observing your face and body as you awkwardly shoved your hand back into your tactical pants and he walked away, getting seated in the limo that your dad had rented so you followed after him, still craving to be friends with him.

“Stark, your target is about 6 '2, his hair is black, curly, and is usually tied up. He was last seen 15 minutes ago at the ball wearing a black tuxedo and his masquerade mask.” You made sure your weapons were concealed as you shifted in your seat, your long pink dress hides your thigh holster well.

“You look good in pink.” You giggle quietly as you look up at Barnes, dressed up in the pinkest tuxedo you’ve ever seen, and he was visibly angered by your constant teasing and taunting of his apparel. “F.R.I.D.A.Y? Did you not receive a picture of my target?”

“No ma’am. The only thing we have as of now is a description of your target. He’s normally crowded by women, so I believe you should approach him with a false attempt in seducing him, and then pickpocket him. But you are the professional.” The led lights above you flash as F.R.I.D.A.Y speaks.

“We’ll see what the best approach is when we get inside.”

“Do we have to wear these stupid masks?” Barnes finally speaks to you, holding up his matching pink masquerade mask, but instead of answering him, all you can do is laugh to yourself, his face doesn’t even attempt to curl into a smile as the limo finally pulls in front of your location. A large mansion, at least three stories with a pool and multiple fountains in the front. You want to be impressed, but you know the riches come from drug and child trafficking, so you can’t even force yourself to be impressed as you take Barnes’ hand, playing your parts as lovers well as he gently takes your hand and helps you out of the car, then you both place your masks on your faces, putting you into work mode as you hook your arm through his, then make your way into the mansion, your heart skipping immediately when you walk in as your eyes are met with hundreds of people already dancing and drinking, each of their identities concealed with a mask, but your eyes know exactly what to look for.

“Stark? What-?” The food. You leave his side, casually speed walking to the long tables that are filled with desserts and drinks that you’ve never even heard of until now. Your needy fingers immediately reach out and pick up a small bowl of strawberries that were covered in white chocolate and sprinkles, and just before you put the sweet mouth-watering strawberry into your mouth, you feel an iron grip around your wrist, preventing you from biting into it. “What are you doing?” He growls in your ear, his left hand gripping your left hand to the point where your fingers went numb.

“I’m hungry…” You whisper to him, looking up at him through your lashes as he stares down at you with a hard expression, then hesitantly, he releases his grip on your wrist and wraps his arm around your waist instead, gently guiding you towards a different direction to continue looking for your target as you munch on your strawberries. “That's him.” You say quietly, nudging him gently as your eyes catch sight of a taller man, his fingers and wrist covered in golden jewels, and he has tattoos reaching up from out of his suit, creeping up his neck. You’d recognize a drug dealer from anywhere. “Hold my strawberries.” You hand Barnes the bowls, and work your magic…

“See that was easy.” You tell him, holding up the man's phone in your right hand before Barnes snatches it and shoves it into his pocket. “Hey!”

“Don’t fucking flaunt it are you stupid? What if someone sees it?”

“Like whom?” You stop in the hallway you were walking in and face him with your arms crossed. The hallway is completely empty. You were told the restrooms were in this direction, but you swear the hallway never ends. But your heart skips as you hear approaching footsteps. Realistically, you weren't supposed to be back here.

“Shit.” Barnes grabs you by the back of your neck and pulls you towards him, then opens a random door and steps inside, the automatic lights turning on, causing you to jump. “Fuck.” He mumbles, knowing the light would give you away, so he drags you over to the far wall. “Play along.” He grumbles, quickly undoing his tie and loosening his shirt just slightly before reaching towards you and messing your hair up, then he leans forward and his lips land on your neck.

Your whole world was suddenly spinning as you felt his lips touch your skin, it was like your body was on fire and your eyes rolled slightly as his hands squeezed your waist and he kept you pressed to the wall with urgency.

“Hey, you two aren’t supposed to be in here.” A man walks into the room, and you could see three others behind him. One of them was your target.

“Oh, we're sorry, we just needed some…” Barnes looks down at you, you couldn’t make it more obvious how dazed you were. “Privacy.” He tells the men before gently brushing your hair back and fixing his suit. “But we’ll get going, sorry.” He takes your hand and you both brush past the men, who were most likely planning their next attack, which you’d get all of the details on from the man's phone.

“But I want to drive.” You whine, trying to push past Barnes to make it to the driver's seat, and he was becoming more visibly frustrated with you.

“I said no-!” He grumbles, his teeth clenched to prevent himself from yelling and catching unwanted attention. His hands had gripped your upper arms, tight. Then he slammed you against the pink sports car that was parked a little way away right next to some other sports cars, including a black tesla with dark tinted windows and an orange Ferrari, but still close enough to not be suspicious. It was your 16th birthday gift from you dad, and you loved it. Even if the pink suit and dress for tonight's mission was in spite of making Barnes look bad, your dad still knew you loved all things pink.

“Okay!” You squeal. “Okay… I’m sorry Barnes… please let go, you're hurting me.” You ask him, his grip tightening, and his face mere centimetres from yours, you could smell the hint of peppermint on his breath and the cologne on his clothes. Then he slowly lets go and backs away from you before opening the passenger door and watching you slip into the car, then he rounds the car and gets into the driver seat before starting the car.

“Get comfortable, it’s a long ride to the hotel.”

“Okay…” You mumble, shifting in your seat and getting comfortable as you remove your dress so you’re only in your shorts and a tank top.

The next few hours fly by like they were nothing, and your eyes are continuously focusing on anything it could be occupied by. One moment you're focusing your eyes on passing trees and the next you're pretending there's a little ninja jumping over little obstacles and swinging from power lines, moving your fingers in your peripheral to enhance your imagination.

But that's when your eyes turned and focused on Barnes, and the way his hands gripped the wheel. His left arm hung out of the driver window which has been rolled down since you’d gotten onto the freeway, and he was focused purely on the road. As you approach a red light, you observe how when he flexes his hand, the veins in his hand move in the most attractive way possible, his muscles growing under his pink tuxedo as he stretches a little.

“That car looks familiar.” He snaps you out of your trans and you turn your head in the direction he's looking in only to see an orange Ferrari, behind it was the black tesla with dark tinted windows.

“Yea, they were parked next to us at the ball.”

“What’re the chances they’re going to the same hotel?”

“Not likely considering we’re going to one that's four hours away. Why wouldn’t they stay near where the ball is?”

“Because they’re following us. Where’s the phone?”

“In your pocket.”

“Get it out, I’m going to take some random ass turns to see if they’re following.” You listen, immediately reaching over to take the phone from his right pocket, but when you reach in, it’s not there. Shit. 

“It’s in your other pocket.” You say before unbuckling and reaching over his lap as he moves his arms to make room for you to crawl around him, then you dig into his other pocket and pull out his phone. As soon as your back up straight with the phone in a hidden compartment, you buckle and Barnes presses on the gas, allowing you to move ahead of the Ferrari, who's speed doesn’t change, but the tesla continues to follow, both of them taking the same exit as Barnes turns the wheel, still going in the direction of the hotel. “Yea no they’re definitely following us.” You point out as if it wasn’t already obvious. “Are you sure you can drive well? I mean you were dead for like-”

“Shut up. I’m gonna pretend I’m getting gas.”

“What-?” He turns the wheel, pulling into a 7/11 before parking next to a pump and getting out of the vehicle with his gun concealed in his dress pants, then as expected, both of the cars pulled into the gas station.

Shit, shit, shit… You watched as a man steps out of the Ferrari, dressed in a suit as he begins to press buttons for the gas pump, and then suddenly all of your worries leave your body, replaced easily by hunger and thirst, so when Barnes isn’t looking, you leave the car and make your way into the gas station.

“Welcome.” The man at the front desk says as you enter the store, and immediately head to the chips and soda.

Back at the car, Barnes finishes pumping the car with gas, and he gets back into the driver seat, feeling the threat isn’t serious anymore, until he realises you’re missing. “This fucking girl Stark.” He mumbles to himself, then looks around the parking lot until his eyes land on you, innocently searching the candy aisle inside of the gas station.

Should I get starbursts, or Twix…? You ask yourself with your arms crossed, the candies sitting side by side as you make the hardest decision of your life, almost as hard as the hand that wrapped around your waist.

“He’s taking pictures of you.” You turn and look up at Barnes as he also pretends to search the candies, and your eyes dart to his right where a man in a hood, which you could tell he was huge from his frame, was looking down at his phone unashamedly, and you could see him scrolling through different pictures he had just taken of you with his thumb. You felt Barnes hand tighten around your waist, warning you to look away before you were suspicious. “And I don’t like it.” He whispers, sending chills down your spine that felt amazing, so you grab the starbursts, the pink pack, then you walk to the registrar, Barnes presence never leaving you as he presses his front against your back and places a drink on the counter, then slips the man a twenty before grabbing both items in one hand and your hand in the other, practically dragging you out of the store and back to the car.

Arriving at the hotel, you could see the visible frustration on Barnes’ face, almost like he was written in anger, but you weren’t sure what was wrong. The mission had gone well with no casualties, and you stole the item that your mission had listed. So why was he so angry?

“Barnes.” You say his name peacefully, as if you were about to make an offering. “Barnes?” You repeat when he doesn’t answer as he throws his bag of clothes on the floor and plops onto a couch. You toss your bag on the couch and sit opposite from him in the recliner. “Why’re you mad at me?” You finally ask. His head looks up at you slightly and his eyes flash with anger

“Why? You really need to ask me that? After everything that’s happened tonight, you just fucking disappear. No explanation, no warning.”

“I was just getting a snack… It’s not a big deal. We had the situation under control.” You explain bluntly, and a frustrated growl comes from his throat as he looks away from you before slowly standing up from the couch, and you copy him, expecting a heated argument, but of course, you didn’t know James Buchanan Barnes, and he wasn’t for any arguments.

“That’s not the point!” He yells, his posture becoming stiff and angered as he approaches you, and you back away in fear, you're back hitting the wall and your hands pressing flat against the wall as well as you squish yourself against the flat surface.

You can see him trying not to lose control. Why would you approve a mission with me and him as partners dad? You wondered as Barnes sighs and leans in closer to you, his face only mere centimetres from yours as he whispers, aggression still clearly in his voice. “You have no idea… what could’ve happened to you, or what I would’ve done if something had happened to you…” You don’t respond, only staring at the floor to avoid his eyes as you keep yourself compressed against the wall. “I was scared, Y/N.” He says softly, and you feel his hand reach up to brush a strand of hair behind your ear, his gentleness was something you never saw in him. “You know what it feels like to be scared, don’t you?” You only nod, you try to speak but your lips only part before his thumb rests on your face, gently stroking your cheek as he leaned in closer, trying to coax you to just look into his eyes for once, and to get rid of your fears of him.

So, you do.

Your eyes meet his and both of your lock. Your heart skips a beat as you feel his arms wrap around you, pulling you close and flush against his body and his forehead rests on you. “I’m sorry…” He whispers, hurt in his voice.

Did he just apologise?

All these years, your father and so many other people have made him up to be a monster, but he just apologised to you. But for What? He didn’t do anything wrong.

“Why are you sorry…?” You say finally, and you feel his arms wrap around you more protectively.

“I just…” He sighs. “When your dad gave me the mission to protect you…” Protect me? That’s not why he was given the mission… “I wasn’t happy about it. Not because I don’t like you, but because I was scared you wouldn’t like me.” He says, gently letting go of you, then he holds your face in his hands and stares into your eyes. “I know everything that people say about me. Some are brave enough to say shit to my face, but others prefer to fear me behind a phone or a computer.” He begins to gently stroke your cheek again, and you realise it's a comfort method of his. “I might seem like it doesn’t faze me, but it does. It really does, Y/N. So, I took the job in hopes that at least one person wouldn’t see me as a monster. I was hoping we could even get along.”

“Barnes.” You interrupt. “You are not a monster. Hydra is. And I know they are, I’ve experienced it myself, but you’ve gone through so much worse.” You gently pull his hands off of your face and hold his hands in yours. “I don’t know you as the Winter Soldier Barnes. As a matter of fact, I’ve looked up to you ever since you joined the team. You’re my role model, I used to dress up as you for halloween for fucks sake.” You chuckle, recalling your costume from last year that you’d perfectly tailored to your size, and you see a smile creep up onto his face. “You’re not a monster, and anyone who says you are, haven't met you. You’re misunderstood, and that's it. But I want you to explain something to me.”

“What?” He asks, his voice so soft you might start crying yourself.

“What do you mean you were assigned to protect me? On my assignment it says you’re only my driver.” You watch as his face contorts into confusion.

“If you needed a driver then they would’ve assigned you with someone else… Not me, I’m not a professional driver.”

“Exactly, that’s weird.”

“Who assigned the mission?” You ask, then you both let go of each other as he reaches for his bag, pulling out a printed paper slip with every mission detail.

You both examined it. Your eyes peeled on who assigned the mission and what his mission details were.

“Why would Rogers assign me with you? He never creates anything but when he does it’s this?” Barnes remains quiet. He knows exactly why.

“Hey… Y/N?”

“Yea?” You watch as he shoves his mission slip back into his bag, most likely crumpling it.

“You really don’t see me as a monster?”

“No, of course not. I think you're actually kinda cute. Just misunderstood.” You tell him again, as honestly as you could.

Then he walks closer to you, your arms crossed loosely over your middle as his hands reach up and gently cups your cheeks before leaning down and pressing a gentle kiss to your lips. And you feel yourself explode.

His lips explore yours, softly and with care at first but then he becomes more hungry as his hands find their way around your waist and one of his hands cup your ass, pulling you up closer to him as you hold the back of his head. What the fuck are you doing? You think as his lips trail down to your neck, lightly biting your skin and he gently hooks his hand behind your knee as he lifts your leg to hang over his hip, your centre now against the growing bulge in his pants. The pink pants and suit that he still hasn’t taken off.

You reach up, easily undoing his tie and unbuttoning his suit and then he continues to kiss you, pushing you gently against the wall as his hands reach up behind you to unclasp your bra and he left it fall from your top as he brings his hands up to gently massage your breasts, drawing moans from your lips.

Your hands find their way into his hair, pulling gently as he begins to remove your clothes, tossing your top to the side before quickly removing your pants and panties, leaving you completely exposed. Not long after did you begin to remove his clothes, working until you were skin against skin, but the only thing that ran through your mind was dad would kill me if he found out I was about to fuck the Barnes of people. 

“Fuck I need you.” He groans, lifting you to gently lay you down on the couch before making his way between your legs, but just before he’s about to pound into you.

“Wait!” You shout suddenly. “Do you at least have a condom?” 

“We don’t need one, it’s fine.” He argues, but before you can argue back, he’s already inside of you. He still for a moment, savouring the feeling of being inside of you, and your legs wrap loosely around his waist like a koala. “Fuck…” He growls, then he begins to move inside of you. Slowly at first, but then his pace picks up until the couch is basically rocking, and part of you feels bad for whomever is below you, but the rest of you feels amazing. It’s total ecstasy and probably the best feeling sex you’ve ever had as your eyes are already rolling because he pounds into you like it's the best feeling he’s ever had.

With your legs wrapped around his waist and a growing feeling in your stomach, you gasp and moan as he moves so he's able to wrap his metal fingers of his vibranium hand around your throat, squeezing just enough for it to feel amazing. As he reaches between your bodies, gently rubbing your clit, you feel your stomach tighten and he groans as you tighten around his cock.

“Fuck…” He groans, then you both cum. The best orgasm you’ve had in your life as he spills inside of you and you clench around him, milking every drop of his cum.

[the-girl-wh0-cries-w0lf]

You're waiting for a train... (8)

A Son's First Hero; A Daughter's First Love

Robert Fischer x reader

description - Y/n's conversation with Robert is filled with more reality than should be in their dream.

word count - 3k

warnings - self-harm, physical violence (fake), tears, shitty parents, Robert Fischer's trauma.

a/n - so sorry this part is so late but I wanted it to be perfect so I've been working on it lot's and now I'm really happy with it!

Previous Part Series Master list Master list

If you want to be added to the taglist - here

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I furiously wiped away the unforgiving tears. Fearing my weakness would be obvious to those around me. I had to pull myself together and set out on the task at hand. Dad said Fischer would remember me but, in your dreams…well…anything’s possible.

“Eames. I need some help.” I pulled myself up onto the table where he was busy working. He looked up at my cheeky face, already excited for whatever idea spilled out of my mouth.

“Is that so?”

“I want to show my dad that I can do this.” I spoke.

“You know you don’t have to.” His voice gave away a sympathetic lilt. But my sincerity lingering in my eyes made him abandon his qualms about my well-being. Instead, he braced himself for the details of my plan.

“We both know that he may be the one dreaming, but we control the visual.” He smirked, sensing my direction. “Yes, he saw my face. But maybe, for this moment, we could just…alter it?”

“Ah, come with me my young Picasso.” He led me to a three paned mirror he’d set up on a rickety desk which would give way at the slightest touch. He firmly pressed my shoulders down into the even flimsier desk chair. “Let me teach you the art of disguise.”

“So, he won’t recognise me at all?” I managed to whisper out. And grasped the hand heading for my face.

Eames smiled down at me and squeezed my hand in a gesture designed to evoke a feeling of security. “We’re not changing your whole face, just mushing it up.” He spoke. “It’s like when you see a face in a dream; you know it’s a face, but you can’t quite make out the features.”

“Like a silhouette.” I softly agreed. My mind flitted back to the man from my own dream. How his indiscernible features had subtly begun to meld, and I already felt their final product. His eyes were now as familiar to me as ever.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

*Eames pov*

I’d offered Y/n time to psych herself up for her next role in this so-called game. She couldn’t ever throw herself in, she required prep and time to create her character which would be placed into the subjects story. But as I walked away, I chanced a glance at her form which had simply walked into the room, no character necessary.

But I needn’t dwell on it for too long; I trusted Y/n. Speaking of which my firm walk was directed towards a certain leader who I needed a few words with.

Cobb and Ariadne stood locked in thought. Cobb fiddled with an object out of sight, but his hunched shoulders betrayed his nerves. If he had been stood to my liking, he would have been destroyed in the corner sobbing his little heart out. I approached from behind, a droll cough announcing my presence and more importantly, my desire to talk.

“May we have a moment, my darling.” I shot a smile Ariadne’s way. She responded to the over-enthused expression by retreating quickly. Cobb did not meet my gaze which had tracked on to him. He grasped his object even tighter with each new hand placement. He clearly already knew the topic and could feel my reaction.

“You have some nerve.” I spat.

“She nearly put this whole mission in je—” He defended with a surprising amount of conviction.

“No don’t give me that!” I fumed at his official attitude. Scoffing at his apparent corporate nature. “She made a mistake. We’ve all made them.” I tilted my head towards him in an unspoken statement. “But for some reason she is held to a higher standard than us all.”

His mouth opened in silent argument, but his false words would give away no sound.  I went to turn, feeling my anger was misplaced due to the severity of this mission. For Cobb and Y/n. But I just couldn’t. I came back and leaned in further so I could attempt to meet him face to face.

“It’s all well and good you accusing her of being a child, but don’t you forget that she entered into our world a child.” My voice kept its hushed tones, but the severity seeped through it. “Whether it was her choice or not, you still let her do it.” My finger was shoved into his face, and he minutely flinched at this. I calmed myself, feeling relieved at releasing that before we continued on this mission. My head hung low when even I felt the sincerity of my words. I loved Y/n like she was my own sister, but I couldn’t deny how sick I felt when she was here with us. And now with this new revelation, I feared that Cobb, Arthur, and my self’s efforts at protection would not be enough.

I now leaned against the table, complimenting Cobb who had ignored his object in favour of supporting his hunched frame on the desk. I broke the tense silence between us.

“Do you know why she liked talking to Fischer and didn’t immediately run off.”

“Please enlighten me to the inner thoughts of my daughter.” Cobb huffed out in severe annoyance.

I took a beat, almost relishing in his cocky attitude.

“Because for once she wasn’t in the shadows anymore.” I stormed off away from the man in shameful realisation.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

*your pov*

I had placed myself centrally in the door frame, staring unforgivingly at the locked steel door. Breathing was tricky in my emotional state but the little gasps every so often at least confirmed the living state of my body. I’d altered my clothes to seem more faded and dishevelled. Cuts and bruises adorned my body, but I had forgone the use of the dreams mechanics to create that specific look on my skin. My nails still had specs of my blood underneath from where I’d dragged them down my smooth skin. Feeling pain on my unblemished skin in this fake reality spurred on my adrenaline. The lack of numbness would work in my favour. There was something about squeezing into my flesh until it speckled with purple and blue which tricked my mind into believing this reality. Then maybe I could believe what was about to happen.

Footsteps clacked up to my frame, and I turned to see Arthur, adorned like a true criminal. Gun cocked, mask prepped. I couldn’t help but bite my lip seeing his body constrained in that that dusky brown leather. My mind was flipped back to our first solo mission and the memory of embracing him and feeling that jacket beneath my fingertips. He had delivered a swift kiss to my hairline but had left in another second hoping it would slip my mind.

His hand reached to clasp my forearm, but he faltered. His eyes instead met the side of my head and eventually his lack of movement confused me so I turned to see what was the issue. His face spoke a thousand words yet his lips delivered none of them. He eventually decided upon a few.

“You don’t have to do this.” I understood the hidden end of his sentence. We both knew it was more than the simple task at hand.

“I know. But I do.” I assured him with a little smile. Hoping it would convey enough normalcy to calm his nerves. He once again took my arm and I slightly winced at the contact. His steely gaze landed on our point of contact and look of regret spilled over his features as his thumb lightly traced my skin. His hand landed on the look but before he could turn it another though bubbled up.

“Are you okay?” He looked up at me piercing through his gaze.

“Yes.” I firmly said with a softer edge. “Do you trust me?” I teased but there was a slant of sincerity within it.

“Forever.” He stated and he punctuated the end by ripping open the door, mask on, and dragging me inside.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“Thought we’d bring you a little treat.” Arthur grunted out through his fake voice. I stumbled alongside upping the part of the damsel. The act was tied up through a calculated throw to the ground and a well-timed yelp from me. As soon as my body crashed with the floor, Robert scrambled towards me and lifted me up. We found ourselves in a position we’d been in many times before. As he took my hands to gently place me in a more comfortable position, I finally let my eyes flit up to his. But once our gazes locked a flicker of familiarity danced across his features.

My heart dropped.

The flicker burned out.

“Miss, are you okay?” He looked over my body. Took in my tattered clothes, my physical anxiety. As he landed on my various cuts and bruises, his expression darkened. It confused me to see him as he brushed his fingers over my injuries. As if willing them away with a darkened anger bubbling up. His conclusion of who I was settled on his soul.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I stuttered out. “Well, as fine as I can be.” Laying it on thick. I added a few extra shakes to the mix but he mistook this for me being cold. He quickly ripped off his jacket and softly wrapped me in it. The gesture floored me where I forgot my character as I sunk into the fabric and let my head fall to my shoulder to breathe in the unique scent.

“Why have they taken you?” Okay good, he has already assumed I’m a fellow victim.

“They’ve had me for months.” I whispered out as if trying to evade my captors wrath. “I was taken because of my father’s debt.” His face fell at the mention of my father, sensing a shared trauma between the two.

“Turns out I’m not even worth ransom.” I spluttered out a laugh amongst my crocodile tears. Seeing this he brought up his hand to wipe them away, not bearing to see me in pain.

“They could’ve killed me. They probably should’ve.” I said. “I guess they just like something pretty to look at.” My head hung. “That’s all I am; to my colleagues, to men,” My breath caught in my throat. “and to my father.” The lump in my throat dropped and I managed to muster up a sympathetic sob. Upon hearing this he carefully gathered me in his arms. Instead of waiting for permission or fearing consequences; he sensed what I needed and had relished in giving me it. I let off a few minutes to fulfil my tears and let them drip onto his shirt. But as I lay in his arms I could no longer differentiate anymore and struggled to decide whether I was lying or not.

I pulled away when I felt dried out. I giggled at the wet patch that had formed on his chest.

“I am very sorry.” I continued laughing, pointing at his shirt. He laughed once he looked down and noticed. “I dread to think how much it cost.”

“It was sacrificed for a worthy cause.” He cupped my cheek and felt the dried up tear tracks.

“It’s nice to talk to someone for once.” I spoke.

“Really?” His face fell upon hearing this.

“Yeah, even before this I didn’t really have anyone.” I shook my head to wipe away his sympathy. “I worked for my dad, but I never really felt taken seriously. Like I was a part of it. Rather just a moveable doll to be used for whatever.” I giggled out at the almost lie I had forced myself to tell.

Robert chanced a look when I had let my eyes fall to the floor. His brow furrowed at the strain of taking in my various features which were so blurry. But it was something about my voice that struck a deeply hidden part of his mind. My dulcet tones had seemed to pierce our intricate layers.

“I feel like I know you.” My heart struck cold. And the most base bodily movement ceased. “You’ve been in my mind a lot recently.” I turned to face him. My lip trembled at the possible subtext of the words he was speaking. We seemed to be locked together for an eternity, neither feeling comfortable in pulling away.

“Anyways,” I brushed off his previous thoughts by trapping him with my dozy smile. Each time I smiled he became transfixed, and it was addicting. “Apparently you’re an old hand at the father stuff.”

He nodded his head through a teeth gritting smile.

“They talk a lot when they think I’m asleep.” I feebly gestured to the locked steel door. And I turned back to see the life had left his bones once he’d considered what I’d said.

“Well, his ability at business could not be faulted. Absolute inspiration and a hard-working and powerful individual. But in the father department, there was a lot to be desired.” He shifted his position so we were now turned to face one another, with our knees gently kissing.

“Growing up, seeing my dad like that was transcendent.” He laughed thinking back fondly. “He was a god.” His head fell. “but I didn’t want a god. I wanted my daddy.” His voice took on the note of child as if that desire had halted the ageing of his heart.

My fingers creeped toward him, betraying any logical strategy in my head, and I linked them together in a silent show of comfort. His eyes crinkled when our hands met and he spoke his thanks through a gentle squeeze.

“You know.” The words fell past my lips before I could stop. “Sometimes, I think my dad is afraid of how much I love him.” I waited until he looked at my face before continuing. “But I don’t know how to do anything else, because it’s all I’ve done for the past 5 years.” I smiled through the pain at how foolish I could be.

“If he truly doesn’t want me in my life.” I searched around the room to find the end of my comment. “Then I don’t know how to live like that.” I gasped out through an unconvincing laugh.

“My love is wasted on him,” Robert hooked on and decided to alleviate me by sharing some of his own. “It only serves to hurt me more.”

“I get that.” I offered him another smile and I was greeted with the sweetest relief of his own cheerful face, even if it is only for a moment. “But love is meant to hurt. It is only the deepest wounds which have the most lasting pain.” I spoke inwardly, forgetting the conversation I was supposed to be having.

“I don’t think I’m capable of love.” He shocked me back to him with this statement. My brow furrowed at the lifeless face he beheld. He met my concerned face. “Well, those are the traits you learn. You watch from a young age, your parents and their displays. I don’t think my parents ever gave me that.” I shuffled closer so our sides met. I hoped the proximity gave him comfort. I knew my next move but I doubted everything about it. Finally conceding I lifted my hand to grasp his chin, and tilted his face towards my own. And I met it with my other hand.

“I see your capability.” I began with a whispered tone. “I see it in your eyes.” My sincerity seeped even further through my disguise. “That longing desire to be loved that only comes when one has a great amount of love to offer.” Our lips were inches away and with a slight lean we would be locked in a kiss. My neck strained to go further but I had to stop. I was being risky enough as is it is.

“Maybe we both need to realise the burden of our love for our family.” Robert softly stated and as soon as those words hit my ear, the world stopped. We’d both felt it too. The tiny sparks dancing between each point where our bodies met.

The door was ripped open and Arthur stormed in. He grabbed my arms and began to drag me away. Robert firmly protested. Trying to run after despite the threat of being shot. He pleaded with them for my safety and as I was forcibly thrown out, I noticed something in his eyes. Something I’d seen before but never this intensely.

“just do what they say.” I spluttered out before I was safely behind the door with Arthur.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Once Arthur had removed his mask, we both stood as I caught my breath from the stressful exit. He placed his hand on my shoulder in a bid to calm me down.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah. Perfect.” I gasped out.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Not hurt, or he didn’t –” His eyes ran over me during his uncertain questioning.

“No. Course not. All fine.” I half-way grinned up at him. We stood in silence, as Eames walked past all ready for his role as Browning. He opened the door and went in.

“I heard you in there.” He said through a small laugh.

“Oh really?” I tried to tease but my heart wasn’t fully in it.

“Yeah. It was a bit flowery, no? Bit poetic.” He laughed out. I joined in the humour but my eyes remained stoic.

“Yeah, I guess.” I became uncertain in my skin and my erratic hand movements betrayed this. “I don’t know he liked it.” I tried to show Arthur the humour behind my words and he seemed to buy it’s surface. After the laughter died out we walked back to the group. Despite the insincerity of our discussion, it felt like I had Arthur back. I liked it.

Once we reached the group, Dad immediately ran to meet us.

“Sweetheart, well done. Thank you for that—” He reached out for my arms but I never broke my stride and simply brushed past him. Arthur followed my lead.

Cobb was left standing aimless, before grasping his rejected hand into a tight fist.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

a/n - What do you guys think of the chapter? Is Arthur redeeming himself? What about Eames defending poor y/n? Are we liking Robert and y/n's interactions?

taglist: @jonsncws @h-l-vlovesvintage @theethy @fashionki11a @felicity1994 @bearchermer @idkyoutellmesmh @mimimarvelingmarvel @butterfly-lies-chase-them-away @neotanpopper @deliriouslybi @folklorde24 @thefandomdiaries07 @viarosemcmissile @noirrose21-blog @thepoeticfirefly @xoxo-gothic-girl @skeletonwrite

[morsesnotes]

I found this interview from when Shaun Evans was promoting S3 of Endeavour in 2016 and thought it was one of the more interesting ones as he gets asked some different questions. I particularly liked seeing him talk a bit about his peers and how he views his career.

Shaun Evans talks Endeavour series three, Hollywood and whether he'd star in Doctor Who

As Morse returns, the star of the hit ITV drama reveals what's next for his career By David Brown - Radio Times

Falsely accused Endeavour Morse was last seen languishing in a prison cell after being framed for murder. But fans of the hit ITV drama needn't despair - Shaun Evans is back on the case for a third series beginning this evening. Here, the actor talks about life as the Oxford detective, why Morse has endured for four decades and what the future holds...

So what has brought you back to Endeavour for a third series? I didn't feel like we should have left it where we did last time. It would have been odd. As a viewer, I would have been dissatisfied to have left it there because you'd have only been telling half the story. Luckily enough, we had the opportunity to come back to do some more and I think the stories are really good - particularly the final one. It goes along at a lick. It's a bank heist but it's also a love story. And it's heartbreaking. I think it's great and it ends in a really satisfying way.

The character of Morse has now been around for 40 years - why has he endured? A good story well told will stand the test of time. And if you throw in an unusual character - someone who is in a world but not of that world - then that's intriguing.

The original series of Inspector Morse did episodes in Australia and Italy - would you like to do an overseas Endeavour? Well, they keep telling me that the character is going to Spain. But I can take myself to Malaga. I'm joking, but I'm being honest too. There is a Spanish idea, but I'd want it to be right. I don't want this job to be a jolly or something that we take for granted and phone in. There are so many variables to that kind of thing: would the locations be as good? Or the actors? Granted, it would be a laugh to go away with Roger Allam, but would it serve the show?

Does Endeavour Morse become more like you as the series goes on? I think that’s a danger, definitely. The more comfortable and confident you get with something, the easier it could be to be less diligent about creating a character. But then you’d be taking shortcuts that you might not have done three years ago. So I try not to be complacent about it. I want to be even more diligent than I was when I started. But I admit that it's a tricky one.

Having a two-hour slot for a drama seems like a privilege these days - do you worry that viewers' attention spans could be too short to cope? I don’t worry about it at all. I feel like the work we’ve done so far has been very good. Some have been better than others - as would be the case. But I feel pleased with it. Now if audiences change and they feel that the episodes are too long, boring or complicated, then we’ll just stop. That’s OK. But I've seen some crime dramas that try to tell the story in an hour and, for me, it just doesn't work.You’re tyring to set up a killer, set up a world, solve it in an interesting or dynamic way and put in some character stuff as well. It’s nigh on impossible to do in an hour. I don’t think you can do it in a satisfying way. That’s my impression as an audience member.

Fans would be up in arms if you decided to stop Endeavour! No. I don't think that'd happen. It's just work. And they'd just fill it with something else. There'll be another brilliant show.

I think you'd make an ideal Doctor Who - would you like to play that role one day? I’ve never seen it! I think Matt Smith is a brilliant actor. And David Tennant also. But it just wasn’t my thing growing up and I feel like I’ve missed it now. I was in Moscow a few months ago and someone asked me about Doctor Who. And she thought I'd make a good Master. So if you’re offering me a part, then I’ll play the Master.

What about playing James Bond? Well, everyone wants to play James Bond, right? He always gets the girl at the end. And in the middle. And at the beginning, come to think of it. But I think that Daniel Craig would be a tough act to follow. He brings something really interesting to it.

Do you ever look at contemporaries like Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne and think, 'I'd like top billing in a Hollywood movie'? I know both those lads and I like them. But I never really think of my career like that. Of course, you want people to see your work, but I'm not interested in being the next so-and-so. It doesn't attract me. Mainly because it's short lived. It's better to keep working and do interesting stuff.

So being a big Hollywood star isn't all it's cracked up to be? I don't know. I suppose if you had enough clout to guarantee finance for a story you wanted to tell, then that would be a good thing. From a business point of view. But I don't spend my time being envious. There are so many variables in all that bollocks! When you desire fame or fortune - which are ephemeral things - you're building your house on sand, aren't you?

Do you have a dream project that you'd like to do? I'd love to do something about poets or photographers who have done interesting things and left an impression on their portion of the world. Someone like the American photographer Walker Evans. Or the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. 

So what's next for you? I'm purposefully having some time off. I've been busy and I'd like a bit of time to read some books and just study. I want to educate myself on writers, photography, filmmaking and poetry. I'm very lucky that I've now got enough money to have a bit of time to myself and study. I'm very lucky to be in that position.

[yourwosogirly]

Struggling with change - Alessia Russo

I’m sorry In advance

Word count : 1.3k

The sky darkened outside your home in Manchester as Alessia stood on your doorstep nervously, knowing this could go one or two ways but she felt dread.

The news had come out today that she was leaving her rightful home of Manchester United for Arsenal, which came with great opportunities for the striker but breaking your heart wasn’t her plan.

But she dug her own hole when she promised you that she wouldn’t leave Man U for you but it was just an offer she couldn’t deny which came the consequences of ruining your relationship.

Her heart was heavy with regret as she knocked on the door, hoping for a chance to make amends, but she also understood that she had broken the trust between you.

As you opened the door and saw who was standing there, you rolled your eyes. “Alessia what are you doing here?”I asked, keeping a firm grip on the door, not wanting to let her through.

She bit her lips, her eyes filling up with tears. She knew you didn’t mean it and just high on emotions but she had to talk to you sooner rather than later. But that didn’t mean what you were saying didn’t hurt her.

But she hurt you first.

“Please, hear me out”she begged, almost getting on her knees for you but you didn’t want to hear it. “I know I fucked up big Time, but I can’t let things end like this, not after everything we’ve been through”.

You took a deep breath, not emotionally prepared for this. “I trusted you, Alessia. I was vulnerable and you gave me false hope and promises but you lied and betrayed me, I don’t know if that can be forgiven.

Her tears spilled over once again, loosing hope a lot quicker than she had anticipated. “Baby, I never wanted to hurt you”Alessia said, her voice trembling . “I just didn’t know how to tell you and before I knew it I got caught up in the excitement and the news was already out”

“That’s not a good enough reason, Alessia. There is no reason for betraying me like that” I shook my head.

“Please Y/N, forgive me or just let me in, we need to talk” she pleaded and I gave her a tight-lipped smile.

“No”

And with that, I slammed the door in her face.

A few weeks later

“What do you want?”I ask coming face to face with Ella Toone as I entered the coffee shop just down the road from me.

It has been a few weeks since Alessia had shown up on my front door. I guess technically we were still together but she had been spamming me none stop to meet up but I had blocked her on everything.

And I was doing pretty well without her, trying to distract myself with work and other things including coming to this coffee shop which was a comfort place for me.

“Maybe we should sit down,” she said coldly as I rolled my eyes.

“Fine” I gave in, sitting down at a small table not too far from the door.

“Well talk then!”i exclaimed with an attitude raising my arms, after sitting in silence with nothing being said.

“Please forgive Alessia” she pleaded and I leaned back in my seat.

“Ain’t gonna happen,” I told her stubbornly shaking my head as she sighed.

“C’mon Y/N please, she doesn’t deserve this” She leaned forward and my mouth opened in shock, I was flabbergasted.

“She doesn’t deserve this? I’m sorry, but if I remember correctly I was the one who was left out, lied to betrayed and she was the one who promised me she was staying at Utd and then goes to fucking Arsenal” I argued, letting out deep breaths from not breathing when I was talking.

“Wait, she didn’t tell you about going to arsenal? She told me she told you?”Ella’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“So she’s been lying to you too huh?”I asked, clicking my teeth and standing up, leaving without my coffee.

A couple hours later

I hear the door slam outside, bringing my attention from the tv, where nothing was on but I was staring into space nonetheless, Alessia was at my home.

It was giving me real deja vu right now, and it made my blood run cold. I could recognise her from any point of view even with a door in between us.

Why was she here?

I was in no way ready or in the right state of mind to face her right now. Yes it had been a few weeks and she gave me time, I guess but it wasn’t enough.

Not long after, I heard the sound of her car locking before she was entering the home, making my heart race unintentionally.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, closing the door behind her. Shit, I forgot she owned a key to my house.

"Hm," I mumbled stubbornly, not having the energy to be civil with her right now without punching her square in the face.

I turned my head to the side with my arms crossed against my chest, I was acting like a child who had been put on the naughty step, refusing to give up but I couldn't care less.

I was mad.

And she knew it.

“Y/N, are you ready to forgive me yet?”she sighed, as if she was tired making me turn my head towards her, narrowing my eyes.

“No, Alessia, I’m not,” I told her as she sighed exaggerating and the noise that left her body sounded as if she was groaning.

“Well then when will you? Because I’m tired of this ‘I need time’ shit” She put air quotes around her last words and I couldn’t lie her words were breaking me bit by bit.

“Your tired of this? I’m sorry but it’s been 2 weeks and a half weeks, if you want to be with me and try to work this out I’m gonna need more time than a few weeks to get over this” I started to stand up as my words got louder before sitting back down again.

“I’m sorry Y/N, I didn’t mean that, I let things get the better of me and I’m sorry for everything I just want everything to be perfect my career and our relationship” she was starting to say the right things as I suck in a breath.

“You do know what you’ve given up by doing this right?” I questioned, crossing my arms against my chest.

“Yeah, I know and I’m sorry, giving up the opportunity to play with the love of my life and of course my best friend, and obviously we have to do a bit of long distance but it isn’t that much I know it’ll work out” she shrugged and her words kind of make me want to laugh at her assumptions.

You took a deep breath, looking up at Alessia for the first time with tears in your eyes.

"That's not what I meant, With doing this you've given up this, us, me".

A look of realisation took over on Alessia's face as she shook her head and dread as she tried to get her words out, all she managed was,

"n, no, Y-Y/N no you can't, you won't do this, I won't lose you".

I didn't say anything.I stood up from my spot, heading upstairs and into my bedroom. Alessia followed me. She tried to do anything, say anything to get me to forgive her but I wouldn't listen.

She sighed as she leaned her head against the door, hearing me fall asleep as she cried quietly falling against the door, knowing she would have to leave eventually, but ultimately refused until she convinced herself I was no longer hers.

Yes, she had made one of the best decisions of her career which could take her places.

But she lost me in the process,

Forever.

[prettyyoungandbored]

Family - Dr. James Wilson

Pairing: Dr. James Wilson x Fem!OC

Summary: Wilson and Odette get two bad pieces of news…and a new member of the family.

Warnings: Minor angst, fertility struggles, mentions of death

NOT MY PHOTO

Wilson heard the sound of his office door opening and didn’t bother to look away from his paperwork.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” he said.

“You could say that again.”

He froze. That was not House’s voice and it was unusually stuffy. He looked up to see Odette closing the door behind her. When she turned her head, his heart sunk at her blotchy red and face tear stained.

He shot up from his chair. “Sweetheart-.”

“It was a false positive. Doctor confirmed it.”

Wilson’s heart shattered into a million pieces that trickled down to his stomach. His mouth hung open, words failing him.

Odette shook her head. “If I had taken another test at least I…” her voice trailed off.

Wilson made his way to her, tightly embracing his wife in his arms. She buried her face into his chest as she sobbed.

“I’m so sorry-.”

“For what? You have nothing to be sorry for,” he told her. “You did nothing wrong. These things happens.”

“I could’ve done another test.”

“It could’ve been a faulty test too. It’s not your fault, ok? We were both excited and we just…”

He sighed, pulling her back into his arms. She gave him a squeeze, realizing even in her devastation that he needed to be comforted too.

She shut her eyes tightly, wishing this could be a bad dream. One where she would wake up and be pregnant with the baby she and Wilson wanted.

The process was taking longer than she’d thought and before the positive test, she’d began to wonder if something was wrong with her. If there was…would it ruin their marriage?

“What if I’m broken and I can’t give you kids?”

She didn’t mean for it come out yet she felt no shame. Maybe the conversation needed to happen and this was the moment.

Wilson’s mouth hung open, eyes furrowing. “What if you’re- Odette, you’re not broken. Why would you say something like that?”

“We’ve been at this for a year and a half-.”

“It takes time.”

“What if I can’t give you kids, Wilson? What if I can’t get-.”

“We will figure something out and we will figure it out together. Odette, I’m serious. You will not do this alone.”

He pulled her in for hug, hand cradling the back of her head. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He pulled back and kissed her forehead, his hand rubbing her lower back soothingly.

“Why don’t I take off early and you and I have a nice dinner out?” he suggested.

“You have consultations and meetings-.”

“Actually I finished all my meetings an hour ago. Besides, I don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone like this.”

She cracked a small smile. “Your boyfriend might kill me.”

“House can live without me for one night. C’mon.”

=================================

Dinner had been the perfect distraction. Wilson knew exactly what she needed to lift her (and his) spirits and it made Odette grateful to have him in her life.

Wilson was pulling into their neighborhood when the couple noticed the blue and red lights flashing outside their apartment complex.

“Why is the police outside our apartment?” Odette asked.

“I have no idea,” Wilson answered as he parked.

Odette’s eyes scanned the scene. “There’d an ambulance here too.”

Wilson shut the car off. “Stay in here.”

Odette watched as he walked over to the cop near the police tape. Her eyes shifted to the body bag being rolled out on a stretcher out of the building.

Her heart sank. Someone had died, but who? She ran through the list of neighbors she knew and thought about the last time she’d seen them.

The tap at the window broke her from her thoughts. She turned to see Wilson standing there. She got out of the car.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Mrs. Johnson passed away,” Wilson said. “Heart attack. Her daughter’s in the apartment now.”

Odette sighed. Mrs. Johnson lived across the hall from them. She was a sweet old woman and a favorite in the building. Wilson and Y/N kept an eye on her when her daughter, Joyce, was unable to see her.

Odette got out of the car and followed Wilson into the apartment complex. The two got into the elevator.

“I feel terrible,” Odette spoke up.

“Sweetheart, she was in her 80s.”

“I know, but still. She was so good to us, you know? Remember when you got called into work on Christmas and she and her family invited me over and they made you a plate?”

Wilson smiled at the memory. “She really made this place feel like home. I remember when we first moved in and she was so adamant about making our first meal here.”

“Her famous lasagna,” Odette remembered with a small smile. “I’m really gonna miss her.”

The doors opened and a couple officer stood in front of Mrs. Johnson’s old door. Joyce stood there, tears falling down her face.

She turned to see Odette and Wilson and excused herself.

“Joyce, I’m so sorry,” Odette said opening up her arms to hug the woman. “She was such a wonderful neighbor and person.”

“I’m sorry you two had to find out this way,” Joyce sniffled. “You both were so kind to her and our family.”

“Is there anything you need?” Wilson asked.

Joyce sighed. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do about Sarah.”

Sarah was Mrs. Johnson’s beloved cat. She was sweet and cuddly, always greeting Odette and Wilson whenever she was in the hallway.

“I can’t take her because my husband’s horribly allergic to cats,” Joyce continued. “Plus, the poor girl needs special medication and-.”

“We’ll take her!” Wilson spoke up.

Odette and Joyce turned their heads to him. Odette’s eyes widened as Joyce lit up.

“You will?” she asked.

“It’s the least we can do,” Wilson said. “We would love to have her.”

=================================

Wilson and Odette sat on the couch as they watched Sarah wander around the living room.

“My next call with my mother should be interesting,” Odette sighed. “No grandbaby, but hey, we adopted a cat.”

Wilson cracked a smile. “We did the right thing though. Poor girl wouldn’t have stood a chance at the shelter.”

Sarah made her way to Odette, rubbing against her leg. Odette stroked the cat with her fingers.

“We did,” Odette smiled. “Besides, she can be our baby while we wait for a human one.”

“I like that idea,” Wilson agreed.

Sarah jumped on the couch, forming a loaf between Wilson and Odette as she reveled in her new family.

[ravencoloredroses]

All That Matters

Nyx x Reader (Eris’ daughter)

Summary: Nyx and Eris’ daughter have known each other their whole lives. With a new alliance forming between the Autumn Court and the Night Court, their hatred towards each other will be challenged as they are forced to grow closer.

Word Count: 6,445

Warning: Swearing

A/N: request by anonymous: “Nyx and Eris' daughter!!!! Idk why but the idea of it is just so exciting for me. Since there dads are friendly (kinda) high lords they've known and seen each other around alot but are enemies to lovers” I love these characters so much! I might make another story with them… something like romeo and juliet maybe??

——————————————————————————

The last time my father wanted to see me in his office was when I was being sent away to boarding school. I’m not as naive as I was back then, but I know that whatever he has to tell me, I will have little to no say in. That's how it’s always been and always will be.

Being the only daughter to the High Lord of the Autumn Court, I’m widely considered a spoiled brat who gets everything she asks for, which isn’t necessarily false. But people don’t realize, or don’t even want to realize, that every decision is made for me. What I wear, what I eat, how I talk, how much I talk, what events I go to and who I’m allowed to be seen with.

My older brother is the heir, the golden child, he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants without anyone questioning anything. It pisses me off and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

I take a few deep breaths to try and calm my nerves, emphasis on try, then push open the office door. My father has an unreadable expression on his face as he tells me to take a seat.

“Good morning sweetheart, how did you sleep?”

He’s stalling

“Good morning father, it was alright.”

I take note of his stiff posture, the stacks of documents on his desk and the mountain of crumpled pieces of paper in the garbage can. This can’t be good.

“As you know, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of our people here in Autumn and sometimes that responsibility falls onto you. Alliances are an important part in ensuring our people are safe, especially in times of war.

“I’ve spoken with my advisers on this matter, but the final decision is mine to make and I’ve decided an alliance with the Night Court is in our best interest.”

I’m not quite sure what any of this has to do with me and my confusion must show on my face because my father elaborates.

“Rhysand, Feyre and I have come to an agreement that you will marry their son Nyx, before the week is out.”

“W-what? Father, you can’t be serious.” This has to be a joke, there is no way he’s actually suggesting I marry that Night Court piece of shit.

Nyx is slightly older than I am, meaning we’ve seen each other at almost every event for our entire lives. He’s never been nice to me, not once. Even when we were really little he was a bully, the type of kid to ‘fall’ off the swing set and then go crying to mommy blaming you for it.

As an adult he’s not any better, walking around like he’s better than everyone and has girls practically falling at his feet when he just looks at them. I don’t blame them though, when you look in his eyes it’s like you’re deep diving in the ocean and will never run out of air. I’ve never seen anything like it and if he ever looked at me the way he does some of them, I don’t even know what I would do.

But he only looks at me with eyes of disgust and hatred, which is fine by me, the feeling is mutual. He might be the most attractive male I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the worst people I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. And now I’m marrying him.

“I know it’s out of the blue and a little rushed, but this has to be done, it’s already been decided.”

Right. It’s not like I’m gonna be spending the rest of my immortal life with him, so why does it matter what I think?

“Nyx is okay with this?” He shrugs his shoulders.

“You will be moving to the Night Court with him and when Rhysand and Feyre pass on, you will be expected to rule alongside Nyx and produce an heir.”

There’s nothing I can say or do that will make any of this better, so I just put my head down and shut up. I can, and will, cry my eyes out later.

“Yes, father.”

“Perfect. Now, go and enjoy your day, the weather looks lovely.”

This day is going to be anything but enjoyable. As I make my way back up to my room I pass a couple members of our staff, they must be able to tell that I wish to be left alone because they don’t even make eye contact with me. I’m appreciative of that, I don’t think I could handle sympathy looks right now.

Closing and locking my door behind me, I collapse on the ground and let my tears fall, holding my hand over my mouth to control the noise. I sit like this for hours, at least it feels like hours, and when my tears have finally dried up, I head over to my bathroom. I avoid looking at myself in the mirror, turn the faucet on and start to undress.

Normally, a bath with my favorite soaps will soothe me, but this time it does absolutely nothing. I wait for my fingertips to prune to get out of the tub, then change into my nightgown and head to bed; I just need this day to be over.

“You look lovely, dear.” My stylist asks me to twirl so they can view my whole look. I have to admit, I do look lovely, but none of that matters right now, today is the day where I lose whatever remains of my freedom.

“Can I have a minute with my sister?” My brother slips into the room and I give a small nod to my staff.

“Did you know?” I’ve been curious about this since my father told me, he always talks to my brother first.

“I did.” He looks down, ashamed. “Nyx is a good male, he won’t harm you.”

“You can’t possibly promise me that.” He closes the distance between us and grabs my hand.

“You are my favorite sister, if he even pulls a hair out from your head I will knock a few of his teeth out.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m your only sister and you won’t even be living with me anymore, how will you know if he harms me?”

He cracks a smile and releases my hands. “I have my ways dear sis, I have my ways. If you need to, look at me in the audience, I’ll be in the front row.” He winks and walks back out the door, which is soon opened again by a staff member.

“It’s time, my lady.”

I’m handed a bouquet and suddenly I’m walking towards the altar on a flowered path. I round the corner and I feel about 1,000 pairs of eyes on me so I look down and focus on not falling. I make the mistake of looking up and see Nyx standing there waiting for me. His eyes run over my body and I swear there was a smile on his face, but it’s quickly replaced with a blank stare when we make eye contact.

He extends a hand to help me up the small staircase while a member of my ‘bridal party’ takes my bouquet and fixes my dress. I’m mad at myself for the way my heart beats faster because I know it’s just an act for him to appear like a gentleman. I stare down at our joined hands and zone out for a while until I hear Nyx’s deep voice say “I do.” My eyes jump up to meet his and I realize everyone is waiting for me.

“I do.”

“You may now kiss the bride.”

Fuck. I forgot about this part. Nyx pulls me close and presses his lips to mine. I try not to think about how soft they are or how long this is lasting, but it’s pretty damn hard to do that as his hand moves to the back of my neck and presses me closer.

Is this all for show too?

When he finally pulls away and faces us towards the audience, my eyes search out my brother. He’s watching me with somewhat of a proud expression. I notice Nyx’s family -my new family- looking at us with watchful eyes, that’s not surprising based on the little knowledge I have of these people. I’m surprised Rhysand agreed to this if I’m being honest. The Autumn and Night Courts have never gotten along, but once my grandfather died of ‘natural causes’, Rhysand and my dad became friendly with each other.

Nyx walks me back down the aisle without dropping my hand and then we head off to my new home, the Night Court.

It takes longer than I thought it would to get there, but it might have just been because it was dead silent the whole time. I thought that we would be living in the same house as the rest of Nyx’s family, but apparently we have our own place. Maybe it will be better this way, maybe this will give Nyx and I time to get along.

On the outside it looks like just a small cottage nestled into the mountains, but the inside is incredibly spacious and already filled with everything we will need. Newly renovated kitchen and bathroom, a cozy living room, an office and a bedroom with a walk-in closet and an attached bathroom. A bedroom. Singular.

“I’ll sleep on the couch.” He announces while walking past me into the bathroom. Well, that settles that I guess. I change out of my uncomfortable dress and into a large sweater and leggings, then begin to unpack my things. When Nyx re-emerges from the bathroom he has changed as well, trading his tuxedo for a simple cotton t-shirt and sweatpants. I meet him in the hallway and start to ask about what’s next, but he doesn’t let me.

“I don’t care what you do, so long as it doesn’t involve me. I will be gone all day and only return for sleep to appease my parents. Do whatever you want.” He walks out the front door and flys away. Isn’t your wedding supposed to be the happiest day of your life?

I noticed multiple bookshelves when we first arrived, but I didn’t get the chance to see what books were on it. I find one that looks good and sit down on the couch to begin reading.

I didn’t notice the sky getting dark, but as I finish my book my stomach growls and I realize I haven’t eaten since this morning. I go into the kitchen and find a can of chicken noodle soup in one of the cupboards. I grab a pot and start to warm it up. Once it’s at a good temperature, I grab a bowl to pour it in and sit down at the table to eat.

Just as I get up to wash my bowl, Nyx marches through the door. He walks right past me into the bathroom without even a glance. When he comes back out, he plops down on the couch. I sigh and start to get ready for bed. Is this what the rest of my life is gonna be like?

Three days. The same routine for three more days. It’s been almost a full week since our wedding and he’s completely avoiding me.

It’s around dusk when a loud knock sounds at my front door. I mark my place in my book and open the door to find my brother standing there.

“Hey! What are you-“

“Where is he?” He pushes right past me into the house.

“Nyx? He’s. He’s um.”

“You don’t know, do you?” He spins around to face me and I shake my head in embarrassment. “How long has it been since you’ve seen him?”

“Three days.”

“That fucking asshole. Who does he think he is? The fucking king?” He starts to pace around the room and keeps spitting out insults about Nyx.

“Why are you here, brother?” I ask to stop him.

“I told you I’d be checking up on you, I’ve been seeing you doing the same thing everyday. That male has no right to keep you here locked up while he goes out doing mother knows what!”

He’s right. I know he’s right, but why do I feel this urge of protectiveness towards Nyx? He’s probably just busy, right? He’s the heir so he has a bunch of important things to be doing. But all day?

“Don’t worry, I’ll go find him and put an end to this.” He doesn’t give me a chance to reply before he’s storming out the door and slamming it behind him.

It’s not until I’m about to go to bed that I hear the front door open. I sit on the bed and listen for footsteps. They stop outside the bedroom door, I hear a sigh and then a light knock.

“Come in.” I call out, Nyx slowly pushes the door open and steps inside. He looks like he just got punched in the face. His left cheek is already starting to bruise and his eyes are red and puffy. Has he been crying?

“Nyx! What happened?” I go to get up but he puts his hand out signially me to stay sitting.

“I’ll be okay, but-“ He takes a deep breath. “We need to talk.” No good conversation ever starts with that phrase.

“Oh- okay. About what?”

“I want to apologize.” He says as he sits down on the bed next to me. I was not expecting that. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting. It’s not fair to you and it was wrong for me to treat you that way. I know you have no obligation to accept my apology, but I’d at least like to have the opportunity to start over. If that’s okay with you.” He takes a deep breath and looks up at me.

“Did I do something to make you hate me?”

“No!” He rakes his hand through his hair and sighs. “When we were kids, I was intimidated by you. You had everything I’ve ever wanted, independence, confidence and I hated you for that.” He looks up at me. “I treated you like shit to make myself feel better. It was dumb and I was an idiot and I’m so sorry. I know that this relationship was forced on both of us, but if you would allow me to, I’d like to actually give it a try. I’ve um- I’ve had feelings for you for a while, and for the longest time I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t true. But it is true and I feel like I ruined any chance that we had and I completely understand if you want nothing to do with me anymor-“

“Nyx.” I cut him off and slowly move my hands to grab his, giving him enough time to pull away if he wanted to. He doesn’t. “I accept your apology. I’m not going to lie, a lot of the things you did hurt me.” I take a deep breath. “But it’s nothing that we can’t work past and I feel like starting over is a great idea.”

I give his hand a slight squeeze and then let go. “Would you like me to grab the first aid kit?” His face has only gotten worse since he came in. He gives me a small nod, I go into the bathroom and come back to hand him the box.

“Thank you.” He whispers and I know he’s not just talking about the kit.

“You’re welcome.”

It’s around time for dinner when I finish putting all my stuff away. I haven’t seen Nyx since we've talked, but I think he’s in the office, so I gently knock on the door and wait for an answer. I hear soft footsteps approach and he slowly opens the door. “I was just wondering if you wanted to eat dinner… with me… soon?”

Nyx looks behind him at the clock on the wall and then steps out into the hallway with me. “Sure.”

I must have been staring at the kitchen for a while because Nyx moves into my vision.

“You’ve never cooked before, have you?”

I shake my head and look down at my hands. “No.” I only know how to heat things up. I’ve never cooked anything so I can already tell this is gonna be embarrassing.

“I can teach you. If you want.” I look up at him, shocked. “My mom, she taught me. It’s not as hard as it seems.” He walks over to one of the cabinets and pulls out a pot. “How do you feel about spaghetti?”

“I think that sounds great.” He gives me a small smile, places the pot on the stove and walks back over to me.

“Okay. Step one, you're going to have to pull your hair up.”I subconsciously reach back to touch my hair.

“Right. I- um. I don’t have a hair tie…” He gets up and walks into the bedroom, then comes back with a scrunchie in hand. I expect him to just hand it to me, but he twirls his finger asking me to turn around. His fingers graze the back of my neck as he picks up my hair and I hold in my shiver. He separates it into three sections and begins braiding. It doesn’t take long before he’s securing the end with the scrunchie and then steps back to view his work.

“T-Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He coughs then steps around me and heads to the stove.

“Step two, boil water.” He picks up the pot, goes to the sink and turns on the faucet. When it’s full he carefully carries it over to the stove and turns on the burner. We stare at it for a while in awkward silence until I hear bubbles popping, which I assume means it’s boiling.

“Step three, noodles.” I remember seeing the box of spaghetti in the pantry when we first arrived, so I go grab it and hand it over to him. He grabs a handful and drops them in the water. “Now we wait.” He says as he puts the box back and grabs a jar of sauce.

It was actually really interesting to see how the noodles slowly fall into the water as they soften up. “How do we know when they are done?”

He looks over at me with a smile on his face and grabs a wooden spoon. “Like this.” He picks up a noodle and throws it at the wall. It falls straight to the ground. “Ah. Needs a couple more minutes.”

“Um… What did you just do?”

“If it sticks, it’s done.”

“Oooooh.”

He laughs. “What did you think I was doing?”

“I honestly have no fucking clue.” Now we’re both laughing and it feels amazing. “Can I try the next one?”

He nods and hands me the spoon. “Go for it.”

I fish around for one in the pot, then fling it onto the wall. It sticks.

“It worked!” I place the spoon back on the counter and turn to face Nyx.

“You didn’t believe me?” He asks, jokingly and grabs a strainer from the drawer behind me. “Can you turn the burner off?” While I do, he dumps out the water leaving just the spaghetti in the strainer. “Okay. Step four, sauce.”

I try to be helpful and open the jar, but I guess I’m not strong enough so Nyx comes over to help me.

“Here, let me.” He opens it on the first try, then pours it over the noodles. “Now we eat.”

I grab two bowls from the cabinet as we head over to the table to eat.

“Thank you for teaching me. I’ve always wanted to learn how to cook.”

“You’re welcome. Spaghetti is pretty easy, next time we can try something a little more difficult if you’d like.” I smile as we continue to eat in comfortable silence. When we’ve finished Nyx offers to do the dishes while I clean up the table. After we’re done we get ready for bed and I come into the bedroom, finding Nyx staring at the bed.

“You don’t have to, anymore.” He looks at me confused. “Sleep on the couch, I mean. The bed is pretty big, so we can share it.” He gives me a small nod and heads into the bathroom.

I’ve already changed into my nightgown by the time he comes back. “Um, because of my wings I have to sleep on my stomach. I hope that’s alright.” I look over to find that he’s shirtless, just wearing loose sweatpants that are basically falling off. My eyes trail over his defined abs and the v-line that leads down to his-. My eyes jump back up and I see that he’s smirking at me. I turn my head away and clear my throat.

“Ye-Yeah that’s fine.” I never thought about how Illyrians sleep, but it makes sense that they can’t sleep on their backs. He pulls back the covers to get in and I follow shortly after.

His wings are tucked in and it looks super uncomfortable. “You can let your wings rest. I won’t mind.” He looks up at me surprised, I give him a small smile and a nod. I lay down on my back and he flares his wings out as we both drift off to sleep.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

I wake up to the light shining in through the window and a heavy weight on top of me. I slowly open my eyes to find a huge wing laying over my chest, then I notice that I’m pinned underneath the body that wing is attached to. We’re Cuddling. Even if I wanted to push Nyx off of me I couldn’t, but for some reason I don’t even bother to try. His face is nuzzled into my neck and he’s wrapped an arm around my waist. He smells so fucking good.

I lay there wide awake for who knows how long before he starts to stir. He wakes with a yawn and hugs me closer. He must realize what he’s doing because he quickly jumps up, scaring the shit out of me.

“Oh- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-“ His face is bright red.

“It’s okay. I didn’t mind.” He gives me a nod and heads into the bathroom. I get up to fix the covers on the bed while I wait for him to finish. He comes out with sopping wet hair and a towel thrown loosely around his hips. I hurry into the bathroom before I can do something I’ll absolutely regret later.

I splash cold water on my face about twelve times before I actually begin getting ready.

When I come back out, Nyx is sitting on the bed holding a note. “What’s that?”

“It’s from my mom, she wants us to join them for dinner tonight.” He looks up at me and hands over the letter.

My dearest Nyx and Y/N,

I hope this isn’t too late of notice, but we would really love to see you both at our family dinner tonight. The table isn’t complete without you.

~F.

I sit down and give him the letter back. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I can come up with an excuse, it's no big deal.”

“We can go.”

“Something like we have obligations elsewher- wait what did you say?”

I turn my body slightly to face him and lightly chuckle. “I said, we can go. It will be nice to meet your family.” I think. Actually wait on second thought... No, it’s gonna have to happen eventually, might as well get it over with.

“Okay, yeah. We can go. Um, I just feel like I should warn you.” Uh-oh. “My family is different from most, it can be overwhelming. Everyone has very watchful eyes, they will be tracking your every move, especially my uncle Azriel. He has… history with your father and will probably not like you at first. The same thing goes for my aunt Mor, so please don’t be offended if they don’t open up to you right away, it’s nothing personal.”

Nothing personal. I’ve heard stories of the hatred between the Autumn and Night courts, but I normally just have to deal with rude stares or nasty side comments. I’ve never eaten dinner with people who hate me.

He grabs my hand and looks over at me. “If you ever want to leave, just tell me and we'll go. No questions asked.” I nod and slightly smile. I wasn’t nervous before, but now I’m second guessing saying yes. “I promise nothing bad will happen.”

You can’t possibly promise me that.

“I have nothing to wear.” I say standing up.

“That box is addressed to you, from my mom.” He points to a box sitting on the floor that I never noticed. I place it on the bed, undo the ribbon and open the lid. Inside is the most stunning dress I’ve ever seen. Dark, navy blue suede with ¾ length sleeves. Night Court colors. Beneath a layer of tissue paper are matching heels, that thankfully aren’t too high.

Nyx leans over on the bed to peer into the box. “Oh I have something that matches that perfectly!” He runs over to the closet and returns with a suit the exact same shade.

“It’s perfect.” I look up to find him already staring at me.

“Let’s get ready, shall we?”

I brush out my curls to loosen them up a bit and move over to look in the mirror. The dress fits me perfectly, it accentuates my curves but still looks elegant. Unfortunately, even looking as good as I do does absolutely nothing to help my nerves. My hands are slightly shaking and I doubt there is anything I can do to stop it.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Nyx softly knocks on the door, his way of letting me know that I’m taking too long. One glance at the clock behind me says he’s right, we have to leave soon.

I turn around and head towards the door, Nyx has already opened it and is staring at me with an expression I can’t quite determine.

“You- You look beautiful.” His eyes roam over my figure in a way that seems far too intimate, but I love it anyway.

“Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself.” I feel my cheeks getting hot, but that’s the least of my worries at the moment. I reach out to take his hand, but hesitate when I see that mine are still shaking. “Are you ready?” I just need to get this over with.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He extends his arm out for me to take and then winnows us off to his parents house.

“Remember, you want to leave and we leave. No questions asked.” Nyx assures me as we walk up the pathway. I give his arm a squeeze as my response because I’m saving all my energy for what’s to come.

He doesn’t knock on the door, just walks right in and the chatter that I heard from on the porch abruptly stops. Silence. Just the sound of my heels clicking on the tile.

Two dark figures round the corner, one shorter than the other but both exude power. I already know who they are before they come into the light.

“Mom, Dad, thank you for inviting us over.” Nyx lets go of my arm to give his parents a hug while I stand by myself awkwardly.

Rhysand breaks away first to greet me. “Y/N, welcome to our home. We’re so glad you could make it.” He gives my hand a slight shake and then escorts me towards what I presume to be the dining room. I’m greeted with seven unhappy faces, each one more angry than the first.

Four females, one who is doing her best to not meet my eyes, one who looks ready to chop my head off, one who looks like she has better places to be and the last one seems to be as terrified as I am. There are two winged males at the table as well, one with long hair who has a watchful gaze and the other who seems to be assessing all the ways he can kill me while these black things float around him. I already hate it here.

“Y/N, these are the members of our family. Mor, Nesta, Amren, Elain, Cassian and Azriel.” Feyre says behind me as I give a smile and take my seat between Nyx and Cassian with Azriel across from me.

“Alright. Now that we’re all here, let’s eat shall we?” Rhysand gives a small gesture towards the table and all the plates are filled with food. I don’t even bother to see what it is, I just need my hands to be doing something before I go crazy, so I begin to eat right away. Everyone else follows suit and it takes about 5 minutes before Feyre breaks the deafening silence. “Have you been enjoying the Night Court since your arrival?”

“I haven’t seen much of it, but what I have seen is beautiful.” I take a small sip of water.

“Oh that’s a pity! Nyx, why haven’t you taken Y/N out to see more?”

“We really haven’t had the time, Mom. We will soon though.” And the game of silence begins again. This time it’s broken by Nesta slamming down her silverware.

“So, Y/N. How is your father doing?”

“Nesta.” Rhysand warns.

“No, I want to know. Because he puts everyone through so much shit just so he can keep living the high life. So tell me, how is ‘Daddy Dearest’?”

I choke on my water slightly while I’m desperately trying to come up with an answer. “I’m not quite sure what you are referring to. My father is well respected in my Court.”

She scoffs. “He is, is he? You don’t even know what happened, do you? What he did to Mor?” Everyone is staring at me now and I have no idea how to respond. I’ve heard that my father and Mor were in a relationship when they were very young, but nothing more. I glance over at Nyx to try and catch his eye, but he’s looking down at his plate.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t been told much of my father’s past.”

I feel a brush of something swimming up my leg, my side, then wrapping around my throat and I suddenly can’t breathe. Azriel stares at me with so much hatred in his eyes, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.

“All you Vanserra’s ever do is lie. You know exactly what your father did. Your father hurt Mor, left her for dead, you and your brother are the exact same as him, evil. Why did Nyx have a black eye the other day? Did you honestly think we wouldn’t find out?” Nesta stands up from her seat.

Tears are streaming down my cheeks as my hands grab at my throat, desperate for air. My vision starts to get blurry and then Azriel releases his shadows. I gasp for air and quickly stand up. “Can you excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.” I run off crying.

Splashing cold water on my face does absolutely nothing for me. I slowly sink to the floor to sob and sob and sob. No one comes to check on me. No one believes me. Not even Nyx. Why hasn’t he said anything? Done anything? He knows that I wasn’t the one who hurt him, yet he stays silent.

Gods. I feel like the world's biggest idiot. I thought Nyx and I were getting along. He promised nothing bad would happen. I should have known better.

I notice a rather large window that I can easily fit through. So that’s exactly what I do, and then I’m running. I have no idea where I am, but I know where I need to go. Home.

I’m passing through some sort of market and nearly run into someone. I take a second to catch my breath. “Excuse me, sir. Could you please tell me how to get to the Autumn Court?”

The male points me in the direction I need and then I’m off again.

“Y/N!” I stop. I’ve been running through this forest alone for over 3 hours, who is calling out for me? “Y/N! It’s me!”

My brother. He runs right up to me and pulls me in for a hug. “What the fuck are you doing?!!” And that’s all it takes for me to break down again.

“I can’t do it anymore! I don’t care what alliance this marriage brings to father. I can’t be married to him, I just can't!”

“Shhhh. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. Take a deep breath.” He rubs a comforting hand up my back. “I’ll take you back home, okay?” I feel a slight gust of wind and look up to see that I’m in the home I share with Nyx.

“No! Why did you bring me back here? I can’t stay here! I need to go home, back to Autumn!” I start to panic.

“You can’t go back to Autumn. Father will find out and everything will only get worse.” He lightly pushes me down so I sit on the couch and then brings me a glass of water. “I need you to stay here. I will be back to check on you, but you must stay here.”

“I will, thank you.” I’m too tired to argue. Now I’m alone, again. I know Nyx will come home eventually, but I can’t even think about that right now, I just need to go to sleep. I triple check that the doors are locked, then grab every knife from the kitchen and barricade myself in the bedroom.

I wake up to the sound of pounding on the bedroom door. “Y/N! Y/N I know that you’re in there. Please, just come out and talk to me.”

“Go away!” The banging stops and then he’s standing in front of me. “What the fuck? You can’t just winnow in here?” He kneels down on the floor as I sit up.

“Please. I just need to talk with you.”

“I don’t think we have anything to talk about. You left me there! You left me there while he was choking me! I trusted you! What happened to ‘we leave whenever I wanted’? What about your promise that nothing bad would happen? Was that a lie too?” I take a deep breath and continue.

“Was everything a lie? Everything you said? How you were sorry, that you wanted to start over and your feelings for me? Everything was a lie!”

“What? No! No, I didn't lie about any of that!”

“Then why didn’t you help me? You sat there and watched me get choked and then never bothered to check on me.”

“I wanted to! But they wouldn’t let me. The minute you left, uncle Az pinned me to the chair with his shadows. I couldn’t get to you.”

Is he lying to me right now? “From the second we walked into that house, you acted like I didn’t exist! Why?”

“Because I was scared.”

“Scared? What could you possibly be scared of?”

“I was scared that my family would find out.”

“FIND OUT WHAT?!?” If he doesn’t get to the fucking point-

“THAT I LOVE YOU!”

“You- you what?”

“I love you. I have for a while, but I thought that you hated me. I figured the only way to be with you was to have an arrangement made, so I asked my dad to-“

He looks at me with wide eyes, he's said too much.

“You asked your dad to do what?” I ask slowly, scared for his answer. He takes in a deep sigh.

“I asked him to ask your dad about arranging a marriage between us. He’s the only one who knows, not even your father. I- I’m sorry. I should have told you.” I take a step back, this can’t be happening. “Y/N, please. Let me explain.”

“No.”

“Please. I understand that I-“

“Nyx. I don’t want you to explain. Just give me an answer to my question. Just one.”

“Anything, I’ll tell you anything.” He’s begging now.

“Do you love me?”

“W-what?”

“Do you love me? Truly love me?”

“Yes! Yes, I love you!” He stands up and faces me. I can’t explain it, but I believe him. Maybe all that running I just did is messing with my head. Him asking his father to arrange our marriage is fucked up and I hate him for it, but I love him too.

“Then kiss me.”

He hesitates for a second and then slowly moves closer to me, giving me enough time to change my mind. Then finally, he places a hand under my chin, closes the distance and he softly places his lips on mine.

His lips are so soft, so gentle, like he’s afraid I’m going to break. My hands find their way to his hair as the kiss deepens. I trail my tongue across his bottom lip causing him to moan and move his hands to my hips.

We break for air and just stare at each other. Our foreheads pressed together, breath mixing between us, eyes searching the others. “I love you, too.” I realize I never said it out loud and based on his reaction, he wasn’t expecting me to. “I don’t want to start over. I just want to keep moving forward.”

“That sounds perfect.” He caresses my cheek with his thumb and gives my forehead a kiss. “Would you like to go to bed?” I nod as my response and he lets me go to pull back the covers. I get in first while he gets undressed.

There is so much we still have to work out. So many difficult conversations we have to have. But as I lay here with my head on his chest listening to his steady heartbeat, I can’t help but smile. I’m looking forward to those conversations. Looking forward to finding out as much as I can about Nyx. Regardless of what his family thinks of me or what mine thinks of him. We’re going to be happy, and to me, that’s all that matters.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hallo! I'm not sure if you've already discussed or talked about the Obliviation spell and how memory magic works in general in HP already, but I think that'd be pretty neat if ever.

Hello!

So, I talked a bit here about pensive memories and how I think there's more than one spell involved. Now, mind magic in general in HP aren't talked about that much, but I have some thoughts about it (like I have about everything in HP).

I'll start with something I mentioned here regarding mind magic in general, and that mind magic seems to be the opposite of spells like the Patronus Charm or the unforgivable cures. While the unforgivable and the patronus required emotion, Snape says Occlumancy requires a clear mind:

“Clear your mind, Potter,” said Snape’s cold voice. “Let go of all emotion. . . .” But Harry’s anger at Snape continued to pound through his veins like venom. Let go of his anger? He could as easily detach his legs. . . . “You’re not doing it, Potter. . . . You will need more discipline than this. . . . Focus, now. . . .”

(OotP, 535)

I assume all magic that has to do with the mind requires a clear mind to work correctly. Like, you can obliviate someone without a clear head, but you might delete too much or too little. The clarity of mind is necessary for control and precision which is also required for Legilimency (or to at least understand what you're seeing with it).

Now, we know that pensive memories as I mentioned here can be collected and physically removed from one's mind, as Snape does in his Occlumancy lessons with Harry:

Snape merely raised the wand to his temple and placed its tip into the greasy roots of his hair. When he withdrew it, some silvery substance came away, stretching from temple to wand like a thick gossamer strand, which broke as he pulled the wand away from it and fell gracefully into the Pensieve

(OotP, 533)

But Obliviation doesn't seem to work the same way. We know from Dumbledore that you can try and retrieve obliviated memories or memories buried by false ones that are implanted:

“Never,” said Dumbledore. “He gave, as I say, a full and boastful confession.” “But he had this real memory in him all the time!” “Yes, but it took a great deal of skilled Legilimency to coax it out of him,” said Dumbledore

(HBP, 367)

Lockhart, too, after obliviating himself, still retains some of his memories and mannerisms:

“We’re doing autographs!” Gilderoy told the Healer with another glittering smile. “They want loads of them, won’t take no for an answer! I just hope we’ve got enough photographs!” “Listen to him,” said the Healer, taking Lockhart’s arm and beaming fondly at him as though he were a precocious two-year-old. “He was rather well known a few years ago; we very much hope that this liking for giving autographs is a sign that his memory might be coming back a little bit

(OotP, 510)

This suggests that unlike what Snape did with the pensive Obliviate doesn't really remove the memory from the mind, just severs the connections to the memory within the brain, but it's still there and could still be retrieved partially (or even fully) by a skilled Legilimence (Like Dumbledore) or the mind healers at St. Mongos.

Even so, the memories that return aren't perfect. Dumbledore couldn't get the full memory back from Morfin's mind, likely because Tom hid certain parts better than others. Memories returning, even if they are still present and not fully removed, is no easy task. It requires careful coaxing to not damage the mind and memories further.

Then we have false memories that can be implanted:

“I see we are of one mind,” said Dumbledore. “Certainly, there are many similarities between this death and that of the Riddles. In both cases, somebody else took the blame, someone who had a clear memory of having caused the death —” “Hokey confessed?” “She remembered putting something in her mistress’s cocoa that turned out not to be sugar, but a lethal and little-known poison,” said Dumbledore. “It was concluded that she had not meant to do it, but being old and confused —” “Voldemort modified her memory, just like he did with Morfin!” “Yes, that is my conclusion too,” said Dumbledore.

(HBP, 438-439)

This magic is different from both Legilimency and Obliviation but requires the same clear mind (I assume). What I expect it does is the opposite of the spell that removes a memory entirely to be placed in a pensive. Essentially placing a new memory in.

Now, we know memories can be edited once they're outside someone's brain (be it a copy or the actual memory):

As several of the boys tittered, something very odd happened. The whole room was suddenly filled with a thick white fog, so that Harry could see nothing but the face of Dumbledore, who was standing beside him. Then Slughorn’s voice rang out through the mist, unnaturally loudly, “You’ll go wrong, boy, mark my words.”

(HBP, 370)

So, I think making a false memory works the same way. You take a memory from yourself (a copy) or remove a memory from the target, edit it as heavily as necessary, and then place it in someone's mind the way you would a removed memory. It is probably the same spell Snape used to return the pensive memories to him after the Occlumancy lessons:

and hurried toward the office door. As he opened it he glanced back at Snape, who had his back to Harry and was scooping his own thoughts out of the Pensieve with the tip of his wand and replacing them carefully inside his own head.

(OotP, 538)

Now, a bit more about editing memories. This is a complex skill and not something everyone is doing. Memories in HP are more like frozen fragments in time than just memories. We see it in SWM that Harry can listen in on the Marauders when Snape isn't near them. The memories are perfect in detail and "remember" more than a person naturally would. So, even though in SWM Snape wasn't listening to the Marauders, he still heard them in his pariphary. So their conversation was in his memory even if he couldn't actively recall it.

Basically, calling them memories is a little misleading. They are memories, but they also perfectly capture a moment in a way human memory almost never would. It captures everything your senses get from the scene, even the bits your brain would usually filter out because you don't need all that information.

That's why editing them is probably so hard. Because there is a lot of detail and it all has to be perfected if it's to be viewed in a pensive.

That being said, if the memory is placed in someone's mind without the intention of them viewing the memory outside their own recollection, it doesn't have to be perfect. As I mentioned, compared to how the pensive shows memories, human recollection is very flawed. If something is missing from your memory of a scene a few years ago, you won't get suspicious someone replaced it, you'll think you forgot a detail.

So editing memories into someone's mind is much easier than memories that go into a pensive. It's possible Slyghorn's edited memory wouldn't have felt edited inside a mind, since the brain would fill in the lack of visuals on its own (the brain just does things like that) but in a pensive, there is no human brain to finish his work for him, so the edit is glaringly obvious.

This is, like, all I have to say about mind magic off the top of my head, I believe, hope this answers your ask.

[pumpkinmetaphor]

opinions on tamakao? :P (through and through kyokao shipper here but im curious)

I'm a middle school crush Kaoru -> Tamaki truther

Actually, have this snippet from a draft of a fic I wrote and never finished/posted in March 2022

―

“I think,” Kyoya says, “we have things to reconsider.”

Hikaru and Kaoru both look over. They’ve become accustomed to Tamaki’s bouts of depression, dramatic flairs and posturing, but usually they intend to cause it for humorous effect. Today’s episode, causing him to cultivate a woodlouse farm amongst the sheets of piano music in the back cupboard, was entirely unintentional. 

Kaoru doesn’t really feel it’s their fault. Hikaru didn’t mean to spill the coffee, after all. He hadn’t carried a tray before. And the girl he splashed made an awful lot of noise about the bottom hem of her dress being marked by the spillage. If she’d been paying more attention to her surroundings and less to insulting his brother, she would have seen Kaoru pick the pitcher up before he doused her in lemon water. And after all, how else did she expect to clean her dress? And if her friend paid more attention to where she was going instead of trying to grab the front of Kaoru’s uniform, then she would have seen Hikaru’s foot shoot out before he kicked the legs of her chair out from under her. And really, if the girls wanted to be treated like princesses, they surely shouldn’t have picked the hosts whose whole selling point is their mischievous, boyish charm.

That’s what Hikaru said, and Kaoru copied, anyway. Kaoru does a very good job at mimicking Hikaru’s unaffected cadence even as the guilt gnaws away at him. He’s not guilty about the girls, not in the slightest, but he can’t help continually glancing over to the cupboard. This was not behaviour that Tamaki was proud of.

“It wasn’t very nice,” Hani says. He makes the bunny toy do an approximation of an apologetic gesture, which they both cringe at. 

“They were regulars,” Kyoya says, making another note, “Were, being the operative word. They’re unlikely to return.”

“What a loss,” the twins sound, sardonically. Kaoru comes in a beat late and Hikaru gives him a look. 

“So, your sole achievement here has been delivering us a net loss of customers,” Kyoya responds, sharply. “If sabotage is your new USP, you’re welcome to leave. I can personally escort you back to the middle school building.”

Kaoru feels the guilt rise sickly in his throat again. He looks towards the cupboard once more, before looking down at Hikaru’s clenched fist. This is how it’s always going to end with them, after all. They both know that. Kaoru knows he wasn’t the only one lulled into the false sense of security that having friends for once gave them, and it betrays him more to see betrayal written on his mirror image than to feel it on his own face. Hikaru’s eyes flash towards him, and the feeling is mutual. 

“Well, yeah?” Hikaru stands sharply. Kaoru joins, in belated unison. “So what? This is a bore anyway. We’ve better things to do than sit around here and be lectured. We're leaving."

“No, no, no!” Tamaki all but tumbles out of the closet, hands waving. Woodlice are displaced in a frenzy and Hani yelps, covering his plate with his hands. He points, dramatically, at the twins. Hikaru sighs and sits back down, preparing for a sermon. “I simply won’t have it! Mommy, Mommy! Are you going to let them leave??”

Kyoya looks mostly nonplussed, but visibly relents. “I was considering writing them out of the will.”

“And you!” Tamaki jabs Hikaru in the chest before then, for equality’s sake, jabbing Kaoru as well. Both frown and sit, rubbing the forming bruises. “I will not have you two walking out on this family!”

This posturing isn’t uncommon either. The first time he heard Kyoya referred to as “Mommy,” Kaoru watched his brother almost swallow his teeth. Kaoru had a similar reaction the first time Tamaki pinched his cheek and called him his “son.” He seems to be under the impression that the club is a makeshift family, like those off American sitcoms Kaoru and his brother think are inconceivable, obviously some cultural abnormality. They’d been happy just to have a few friends who were, for the most part, worthy of their time. Family hadn’t really been on their radar, and yet they appear to have got it nonetheless.

However, both he and Hikaru make the same face when Tamaki calls them his “sons,” so Kaoru knows it must be for the same reason. Whatever that is.

“No, I won’t have this! I didn’t raise you two to be such ungentlemanly devil children!”

“You didn’t raise us at all,” both retort.

Tamaki continues, unperturbed. “I’ll just have to teach you! We’ll change direction! If you can’t be nice to girls then we’ll have to make use of who you can be nice to!”

Kaoru’s brain immediately goes to the only other gender he can think of on the fly. “Hah?”

There’s a finger flying and pointing in his face. Tamaki looks gleeful, grin spreading from ear to ear. “You can be nice to each other!”

Ah, Kaoru thinks. That makes more sense. 

“Great plan. How does that help us host?” Hikaru asks sardonically. Kaoru second-guesses himself. Actually, this doesn’t make much sense either now that he thinks about it but it makes decidedly more sense to him than flirting with boys. That would make them gay, from what limited knowledge Kaoru has researched on the subject. 

“Ye of little faith,” Tamaki simpers, hand to heart. It’s comical, really. “You have so much to learn about women.” Kaoru is with him there. He’s researched girls even less. “Women like a man who’s in touch with his own emotions. Women especially like men who are in touch with each other’s emotions, if you catch my drift. And the fact that you’re identical– that just means you have an advantage over the competition!”

“The competition of other guys pretending to be gay, you mean,” Hikaru says, drolly, at the same time Kaoru says, “That’s what girls like?” because, really, you learn something new every day. 

Hikaru looks at Kaoru. Kaoru looks at Hikaru. “Hard pass,” they both say, deadpan.

Tamaki tosses his arms in the air and wails, wails, before falling to his knees. This is extra comical, and the two stare at each other, lips pursed as they try to restrain themselves from bursting out laughing. After all, this is a serious subject. It’s a serious request. One that they have no intentions of honouring.

Kyoya clicks his pen. “Tamaki forgot to mention how funny it would be.”

Tamaki stops, mid wail, and gives Kyoya a curious look. The twins stop tittering. Many unspoken words are exchanged through a series of covert glances between people for whom telepathy is genetic and between those for whom it’s contagious.

“On second thoughts,” Tamaki says, tearing his gaze away from Kyoya’s to look back at the twins. He wipes his eyes. “Maybe that’s not a good idea. After all, it would be rather mean to take such advantage of the girls like that. It just wouldn’t be honest. The worst sort of prank really.”

“Prank,” Hikaru and Kaoru repeat, cautiously. 

“Well, yes, I suppose that’s how you could describe it.” Tamaki sighs, dramatically, before shooting them the most obvious look they’ve ever seen. “It would really involve tricking these poor girls. They’re just, hm, too gullible for that. It wouldn’t be nice.”

It’s obvious. It’s painfully obvious. They both lean in further. “Okay. We’re listening.”

“No no, it just wouldn’t be right. I’ll come up with something else. Something so very boring, something that isn’t a fun game at all.” Tamaki turns away, the back of his hand resting wearily against his forehead. He cracks an eye open and looks over his shoulder, instantly giving the act away. 

“Besides,” Kyoya supplies, smiling almost menacingly, “You wouldn’t be able to do it.”

They’re being wound up. They’re being baited. It’s reverse psychology 101. They fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. “What? Yes we could!” Kaoru insists. 

“It couldn’t be that hard,” Hikaru continues.

“Bet we could do it in our sleep,” Kaoru adds. 

Tamaki barks a laugh. “I don’t think we need to hear about what you do in your sleep,” he says slyly, and Kaoru for a sinking moment thinks that he knows before coming to his senses and realising that, unlike Hikaru, Tamaki cannot read his mind and cannot know about the carriages. Which brings Kaoru up at a loss for what he could actually be referring to. 

“It’s not easy,” Hani comments, “You’ll have to keep it up for nearly four years! It’s a toughie to keep an act going that long.” He sounds like he’s talking from experience, and the twins share a look. Perhaps this whole cute shtick is just a creepy cover. Hani proceeds to shovel a forkful of cake at the toy rabbit’s mouth and they determine that no one could be that good at acting. Except maybe themselves.

“We can do it,” they say, in unison. 

“Excellent! Superb!” Tamaki cheers, twirling once before plonking down between them. They were sitting thigh to thigh, so he mostly lands on their laps and both grimace as they’re forced to scooch to make room for him. 

“Now, the first trick is to perfect the physicalities of the move. The context will change depending on the conversation, but the move– the move has to be a signature.” Tamaki snaps his fingers in Hikaru’s face and Hikaru looks like he might bite them if they were any closer. “Watch and learn, my protégé.”

He turns to Kaoru and presses his thumb to the dent of his chin. Kaoru, in turn, swallows hard and goes cross-eyed staring down at the imposing digit. “Eyes up,” Tamaki coaxes, quietly, and Kaoru obeys. “You have to be able to look at each other like there’s no one else in the room.”

Tamaki leans in and, he’s right, there’s no one else in the room. It’s just Tamaki and Kaoru. And Hikaru, of course, but always Hikaru. This close, Kaoru can count every one of his eyelashes if he had the time. They’re blonder up close, and he has three sunspots under the bottom eyelid of one eye. Tamaki’s eyes are so blue, not sea colour so he may drown in them but verging on violet so as they may prove detrimental to his overall health this close. His focus isn’t on lip reading, instead honing in on the cupid’s bow arch of his upper lip, barely moving as he speaks so softly that Kaoru can’t hear it over the blood rushing to his face.

He understands then, with complete clarity, why girls choose Tamaki and choose for him to look at them like this, even with insincerity, every day, time and time again. It’s overwhelming to feel, even momentarily, this entertaining.

The girls have better impulse control and Kaoru’s never wanted anything he couldn’t take. Before he can remember to breathe, he closes the gap between their lips and kisses Tamaki, square on the mouth. 

There’s dead silence. 

Kaoru moves back.

Tamaki looks stunned, speechless for probably the first time in his life. Over his shoulder, the telltale vein is throbbing in Hikaru’s temple and he’s fisting his hand in his uniform trousers. Kaoru doesn’t look around, doesn’t care to see what anyone else’s reaction is. There’s only two people in the room that he cares about, and the sickly, guilty feeling starts threatening to gain legs and crawl its way out of his throat, regurgitate on the floor in front of them as an apology because he’s never had to apologise for anything before in his life and doesn’t know if his mouth is physically able to form the words. 

Tamaki stutters, once. That’s all he has time for before Hikaru reaches around, grabs him by the tie, and yanks him around to kiss him on the mouth too. 

Hikaru pulls back quicker, or at least seemingly so. Kaoru felt like his lips were joined with Tamaki’s for an eternity, but watching it happen in his reflection appears less cinematic, more grade school monkey bars. Tamaki looks like he’s going to short circuit, staring at Hikaru in grey-faced, stunned silence. 

Hani giggles sharply in the background. 

Slowly, Hikaru’s face spreads into an almost menacing grin and, slower, Kaoru’s face lifts to match it. Tamaki’s gaze flits between them, index finger hovering mid-air, halfway between accusatory and revelatory. He sputters, and their faces light up in synchronised entertainment.

“They can’t do that,” Kyoya says. He hasn’t even looked up from his clipboard. “The board will complain.”

[eliza-and-her-monsters]

Lucy and reader going on a winter walk with readers and looking at Christmas lights

we could leave the christmas lights up until january

Lucy Dacus x reader

Summary: A grumpy Christmas hater with a girlfriend who’s obsessed with Christmas. Reader knows she’s going to have a difficult time getting her into the season. It’s hard not to be happy surrounded by a bunch of lights though.

Contains: grumpy x sunshine trope, subtle deep conversations, and looots of fluff :)

This is my first time writing for Lucy solo so I really hope I did it justice! I’m still not so sure it turned out the greatest- definitely not my best. But I hope you liked it regardless! :)

I knew Christmas time was going to become a thing of compromise in Lucy and I’s relationship. A stereotypical Christmas hater who grumbled about every little decoration getting put up mildly early and every little holiday display. Miraculously the moment she first saw the tall tree I dragged in every November she didn’t complain. Just gritted her teeth while dragging it along with me and questioning how on earth I ever could’ve pulled it in myself.

With every little tradition though I was slowly chipping away at her hard exterior. At least the one that formed whenever November & December rolled around. And if there was one thing I wouldn’t compromise on… it was the city’s winter light display. Over 6 million lights, 45 light displays, and a massive 20 foot ice fountain that seemed to be the highlight of the whole event.

“So… you see these lights every year? Even whenever you were by yourself?” Lucy questioned as she trailed behind me, our hands laced together as I dragged her along.

“Oh, especially whenever I was by myself. I needed that companionship… even if I was truthfully alone. Because in that moment we were all on the same planet celebrating the same thing. At least, sort of.” I shrugged, my cheeks heating as I tried to slow my speed walk to a somewhat stroll. “Luc, I- I don’t want you to have to force yourself to be here or anything so- i-if you really want to we can always go home and I can come back another day.” My smile slightly faded as I glanced up at her.

I tried to hide any forms of sadness though, that maybe this was just another Christmas activity that we just wouldn’t align on. I didn’t want her to feel manipulated in any way, like she had to do this just because her girlfriend was a Christmas obsessed lunatic. But sometimes I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt.

“Love…” Lucy frowned, sliding her hand from mine only to wrap an arm around my shoulders to pull me in. Our height difference allowing me to snuggle right into her chest as she bundled me up into her embrace. Lights twinkling around us as Christmas music played softly over a speaker, but not loud enough to be overwhelming. “As long as I’m with you, it’s not forced.”

A weak smile settled into my heart, the same warm feeling that always seemed to seep into my chest the moment she spoke those magical words. “So… I’m not too much for you?”

“Anyone who tells you you’re too much should go find less.” Lucy stated as she slid her arm around my waist just before continuing to venture forward. “I’ve been really rotten to you these past few months over this season and… I really am sorry about it, y/n. I shouldn’t do that.”

“You definitely shouldn’t… but all things considered I feel like you’ve done a pretty good job with a Christmas-obsessed girlfriend.” I chuckled weakly, tangling my hands into her coat as we stepped into the glittering halo of lights. “And to be fair I do see why, you know, people wouldn’t like it. We’ve strayed pretty far from the true meaning after all.”

“Oh god, please don’t tell me that it’s actually about the birth of Jesus because Julien already told me that that was false.” Lucy groaned a bit causing me to burst into laughter.

“Oh yes, I, of all people, am going to tell you that Jesus was born on December 25th.” I rolled my eyes just before giving her a playful nudge. “No, Christmas is about giving, and love, and selflessness, and celebration with all of your favorite people! I mean, just think about it!” I exclaimed, whirling around to face her as I threw my arms out to my sides. “This is a completely free event, Luc! Someone did all of this for no other reason than to spread all of the joy of the holidays!”

My cheeks went bright red again as I shrugged and pranced back off towards her, trying to ignore every strange look we received from passerbys. “I- I know you probably found that very cheesy but-“

“On the contrary, baby, I actually found it very cute.” Lucy grinned just before I found my way back into her arms. “I guess it is kind of cool- I mean I’m sure they get donations but-”

“That also go into, I don’t know, helping the less fortunate? Something else Christmas is about but also frequently gets forgotten?” I nudged her with a little roll of my eyes.

“Okay okay- I get it, point taken.” She sighed a bit before sliding her gloved fingers back into mine just before I could notice the way her eyes seemed to light up at one of the more popular attractions. “No way, is that- a massive light up caterpillar tunnel?”

“You’re damn right it is! See, you like it!” I teased with a bright laugh just before tugging her off towards the rings of various shades of green.

“I guess… slightly, I wouldn’t mind this tradition.” She snickered just before shooting me a small wink. “Care to kiss me underneath the giant caterpillar tunnel?” She questioned just before tossing a firm arm around my waist to practically twirl me into her embrace.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I grinned, and gripping the lapel of her jacket I rose up to my tiptoes to plant my lips on hers.

Credits: @strangergraphics dividers :)