#if you or someone u know has open comms or they will be open near the end of may pls tell me 💖

[hag-darling]

whomst has open commissions. I have brainworms

[candlestickbud]

Worthy of Betrayal Pt.1

Howzer x Jedi!GN:Reader [Ep.11 Spoilers]

Description: After the bad batch drop off the weapons to a client of Cid’s, she calls them in for a favor and asks them to help some royal Twi’leks on Ryloth.

Warnings/Notes: I'm predicting that this fic will have 5 parts. Possible smut in the future. Mentions of guns and child kidnapping, minor cussing. Sorry if the story is a little off, I was in a rush to finish. Hope you still like it though!

“What do you mean we have to go back!”

Hunter rose his voice at Cid from the comms on the ship. We were on our way back to Ord Mantel after dropping off weapons to some Twi’leks, a client of Cids. As they were already halfway to the destination, Cid called up the batch to inform us that we had to go back, but this time the location was on Ryloth.

“Hey, you still owe me, remember? Now tell goggles over there to get to Ryloth. I need you to rescue this kid named Hera Syndula, the twi’leks, her parents run Ryloth so we’ll be getting some big bucks, so I suggest you get moving, got that?”

Hunter sighed, “Mind telling us what we have to do to get out of dept?”

“Tell you what, let's say you don't mess this up, and you'll be out of debt. Just fell the big guy to ease up on the mantel mix, wouldya, ” Cid said before hanging up.

Hunter rubbed his face trying to shake off his tiredness.

“What's the word, Sargent, ” Wrecker asked.

“Tell Tech to relocate the route to Ryloth. We have another mission, but this is a mission we can't mess up. We need to save some senators kid.”

“Another senator? They aren't a separatist, are they? There's no way-”

“I didn't ask, and either way we have to take this job to get us out of that debt, ” Hunter cut off Echo, “and besides it's not a senator, just their kid.”

Echo glared at Hunter, “Well you should understand why I plan to not work with separatists, ” he said pointing his cybernetic socket arm at Hunter.

“Wait so who are we saving, ” Omega asked from her room.

Hunter pushed his way past Echo to talk to Omega, hearing Echo scoff as he walked away.

“That kid from earlier,” Hunter said softly.

“Hera? I knew she was in trouble! How can I help,” Onega exclaimed excitedly?

“I’ll let up know once we land. The empire will be there based on what that client said earlier. That's what they needed those weapons for.”

“That could mean that Crosshair would be there, ” Tech yelled from the piloting seat.

“Good! We need to talk some sense into him, get him home, ” Wrecker said.

“I don't think he wants to come home, ” Hunter said coldly.

“Doesn't matter, we need to get him back and remove his chip or whatever.”

Hunter opener his mouth to say something back, but instead walked away to the pilot's seat.

“We should at least try to save him, ” you said sternly.

“Cant save someone that doesn't want to be saved, ” Hunter barked back.

“In case to haven't noticed, we don't know what he wants. That chip is controlling him!”

“I agree with Y/N, ” Wrecker barged in.

“That's not the mission.”

•••

Howzer took off his helmet to ruffle his hair. It was a humid night on the planet of Ryloth, and he's been running around trying to capture a child named Hera with a squad of clone troopers.

“Hey boss, do we stun her or shoot.”

“Stun! She's a child, has some empathy. Besides, I'm sure they want her alive, otherwise, we have no leverage over Cham.”

“You got it, captain.”

There was silence as the squad walked through the place, flashlight in hands and visors on night vision mode as they searched for the child. This seemed very wrong to Howzer. What would the empire want with a child if they already have Cham? Leverage, but for what? They don't plan on hurting the kid, do they?

“What do you think they'll do with the kid, ” Howzer asked his squad.

“Who cared, she's a traitor to the empire. She's lucky she isn't dead yet. Speaking of traitors, don't we have orders to kill whoever betrays the empire?”

“What? That's ridiculous, we should just imprison them, and still, she's a child, soldier. We aren't killing her, ” Howzer scoffed.

The squad quietly whispered to each other. Suddenly a ship hovered over them, landing a few feet behind where they were.

“Stay cautious, that could be their backup.”

“Shoot to kill or stun, ” a trooper asked.

“Stun. I won't tell you again, ” Howser said through gritted teeth.

“Whatever you say, Captain, ” the trooper said with an annoyed tone.

Howzer placed his helmet back onto his head, getting his gun ready and placing it in stun mode.

“I have eyes on them!”

The troopers began shooting blindly at a group of troopers, a Jedi standing in front of then reflecting the shots with a child behind them.

“Hold your fire, ” Howzer exclaimed.

The troopers ignore him.

“I said, hold your fire!”

The troopers looked at each other in confusion and disgust.

“They're wanted by the empire! We need to kill them, they're traitors.”

The troopers began shooting live rounds at the squad.

“But they have a child with them! Stop!”

Howzer put his gun in the gun holder that held itself on his waist, pushing a trooper back. One by one, the trooper squad of 5 became the squad of 2.

“You're not fit enough to be Captain! You're a trait of to the empire! We have to kill them, now!”

“No! This is wrong and you know it! Snap out of it how can you not see that this is wrong, ” Howzer said before being pushed to the ground by Hunter.

“See what you did! You're a traitor, ” the trooper said trying to shake out of Wrecker's grasp.

“You, be quiet, ” you yelled at the trooper.

You walked up to Howzer, cocking your head to the side slightly.

“Hunter, there's something wrong with his chip.”

Hunter looked up at you, scrunching his eyebrows together, “How can you be so sure?”

“He seems...different I can feel it.”

Hunter looked at you and then back ah Howzer, grabbed him by the shoulders, and pushed him up to his feet. You walked towards Howzer and removed his helmet, eyes widening, surprised with how attractive the clone was. You looked at him, placing your hands on his face, inspecting him. Howzer attempted to back off, but Hunter held him in place. He flinched as you placed a hand near the left side of his head, closing your eyes as you felt his chip through the force. You opened your eyes, staring into his eyes, only for him to nervously look away.

“He has his chip, but it's damaged, ” you looked at Hunter as if you were asked for permission.

“Fine. You deal with him. We cat have him running back to the empire to inform them of our arrival. We can't have any attention, this is a stealth mission. We need to focus on saving the kid, ” Hunter said, shoving Howzer towards you.

You caught Howzer and placed your lightsaber close to his face, only for him to flinch against it, his head laying on your shoulder, “Try anything stupid and I'll kill you on sight, got that?”

“I thought that wasn't the Jedi way, ” he said with caution.

You retracted your saber and placed it back on your holders, “There is no Jedi way, ” you scoffed, putting his helmet back on. You knew it would possibly be a distraction to you.

“What do I do with him, ” Wrecker asked, picking up the trooper he held captive.

“Woah, ” the trooper yelped.

Hunter looked at Howzer and then the trooper.

“His chip is active,” you said.

Hunter paused for a second in thought, “Stun him. Look, we’ll look over here, you and Omega look over there, that way we’ll have a better chance of finding the kid.”

“You got it. Cmon, Omega, let's get ahead of them. I think Hera will be pleased to see that you're the one rescuing her, ” you said as you pushed Howzer forward, grabbing Omega’s hand as you led her away, Hunter stunning the clone from behind.

You and Omega stared at Howzer as you walked through the gravel trail.

“Uhm...Why do you two keep starring at me,” he asked.

“To make sure you don't try anything funny, ” you lied.

“Your chip isn't working. That's pretty rare for a clone, ” Omega explained.

“What is this chip that you guys keep talking about?”

You sighed, ” Well, the clones, you included, have these chips that were implanted in you when you were, I think a stage 1 embryo?”

“Stage 2,” Omega corrected.

You chuckled, “A stage 2 embryo, and these chips were implanted in you by the Emperor to have you murder the Jedi. Nearly all of them were killed during order 66. I survived it by chance.”

“Oh…so that’s what that was. I’m sorry.”

You looked at Howzer in confusion, “W-What?”

“I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard to go through I had no idea. When I was out on a mission, we were working with a Jedi and just out of no where, everyone aimed their blasters at the General. They had told us they were traitors to the republic, betrayed the Chancellor.”

“Yeah, that’s because we found out he betrayed us. He was working with Count Dooku.”

Howzer shook his head in disappointment, “You must hate us then, clones.”

You looked at Howzer, sighing as you let go of his shoulder, “No, I don’t. The clones, it’s not their fault, what they did. They’re all being controlled by these chips, being controlled by the empire. I made my peace with the clones once I got informed of this by the batch.”

Howzer walked by your side, “So those troops back there, their chips are also defected?”

“They were, but we got help with removing them. Having the chips mean that’s you’re still a threat. They could activate at any time.”

“Why not stun me? Like him back there.”

You thought for a moment, “Just because your chip isn’t activated doesn’t mean your not with the empire. For all we know you could still be loyal to them. We didn’t wanna risk the possibility of activating your chip, and we couldn't have you go off to the empire.”

“Oh. What do you uh plan on doing with me once you find the kid?”

“If I’m being completely honest with you, I’m not sure.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” he chuckled nervously.

He scratched the back of his neck, looking at you as if hesitant to ask a question.

“I can feel you looking at me. What is it?”

Howzer looked away, “U-Uhm I was just uh…” he stuttered, “Uhm, where were you? During order 66.”

You smiled at his struggle, a smile still placed on your face when he asked the question.

“I uh I was actually in my ship. It was on a mission I was in with my droid to Ord Mantel, I was supposed to get intel on this bounty Hunter I’ve been hunting down. My droid saved me from the clones.”

“Lucky you weren’t assigned with a squad.”

You chuckled, “Yeah really.”

You and Howzer heard rustling from a bush that was up ahead. Howzer got in front of you, trying to take a closer look.

“Come out! We know you're there,” Howzer yelled.

You grabbed Howzer’s shoulder, “Maybe you should keep it down. If it’s Hera, she could be scared since you are supposed to be hunting her down,” you rolled your eyes in his idiocy.

“Oh, uh, right, ” he backed up.

Howzer removed his helmet. He's very well aware that citizens are often scared of the armor rather than what's underneath it. You glanced and him in admiration until you heard the bush rustle again.

“Hera? It's me and Omega, remember? We were selling those weapons to your uncle, ” you said calmly.

Slowly peaking out from the bush, you saw Hera’s head, “Omega?”

Omega waved at her, “Hello,” she smiled.

Hera got out from the bush, “What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to rescue you.”

Hera looked at Howzer with wide eyes, “H-He’s”

“Not with the empire,” Howzer said confidently, “Not anymore that is.”

“They’ll kill you,” Hera said walking towards Howzer.

“Not unless they catch me,” He smiled, patting her head.

You smiled at his kind act, “Hunter, we found Hera. We’re on our way back,” you looked at Howzer, “What are we going to do with...,” you whispered into your commlink.

“Hey! I never got your name, ” you said nervously.

“Oh! Uh, the name’s Howzer, ” he smiled, “What about you?”

You chuckled, “In your dreams, pal.”

“What are we going to do with Howzer, the clone.”

You heard Hunter sigh into his commlink, “We’ll stun him when we leave. Take him back with you in case we get spotted.”

“Hunter, we can't just leave him here. Hera knows him, he could be useful to us.”

There was no reply.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah, ” he sighed, “I'm here. Look just get over here we’ll talk when you get back.”

You walked over to Howzer with a smirk on your face, “Lucky you, Hunter doesn't want to kill you, ” you swung your arm over his shoulders, “Now you're really fucked.”

Howzer looked at you like a confused dog, “What do you mean? What you think I can’t handle a couple of clones and a Jedi?”

You laughed, “We ain’t your typical squad,” you smirked.

He got in your face, “Try me. I’ve been with many squads. What’s so different about you guys?”

You inched closer to his face, “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

There was a pause until the both of you burst out laughing.

“Cmon, we gotta get back to them.”

“You got it, General.”

You stopped in your tracks, looking back at Howzer. You were going to say something but decided to let it go.

“Cmon girls. We have to get back to the ship.”

“Coming, ” they said laughing.

•••

“I never noticed how nice your hair is, ” you said ruffling Howzer’s hair.

He kindly swatted your hand away, “Thanks, ” he said while rolling his eyes.

You looked at his face, eyes scanning over his scars. You choose not to ask him about them. Not yet anyway. The girls whispered and giggles to each other throughout the walk to the marauder.

“What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing, ” they chuckled devilishly.

Both you and Howzer looked at them questionably, the at each other.

You shook your head, “Kids, huh?”

“Reminds me of my younger days, making fun of brothers for having a crush. Of course, that was before order 66. Good memories.”

The four of you continued to walk and began to see the ship, with Hunter sitting at the entrance of the ship.

“Took you long enough, ” he said as he got up, “We need to talk.”

You nodded, “Ladies, ” you smiled down at Omega and Hera, “into the ship. Omega show Hera our little secret since she’ll be with us for a bit.”

“Ooh! Good idea. Hera, follow me.”

The two children ran their way into the marauder, Howzer squatting down on the floor, patiently waiting for an invitation inside. Hunter grabbed you and pulled you off to the side, away from Howzer.

“Look I don't want to take him with us. He seems sketchy.”

You sighed and nodded in agreement, “Yes, I know but I'm sure he means well. I'll look after him but Hunter, something tells me that we can trust him. Howzer seems like a good guy. Hera seems to trust him and she knew him when he was working with her dad.”

Hunter looked at Howzer to see him awkwardly wave at him.

Hunter cursed, “Fine, but if anything and I mean anything, happens, he's off the ship.”

You nodded, giddily walking over to Howzer, then clapping your hand on his shoulder.

“What’re you doing just standing here like an idiot? C’mon,” you snickered.

“Well, excuse me for trying to be polite, ” he smiled, Hunter glaring him down as you all entered the ship.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “For Cosmetic Purposes.”

Hope everyone enjoys the story and has a wonderful Tuesday.

Three shuttles skimmed across the open sand, kicking up clouds of blue dust into the shimmering heat. The Sun beat down from above through the hazy green sky. The sand shimmered in the heat and a gentle wind blew streams off the top of dunes.

“Alpha one to Bravo one, seen anything yet?”

“Negative alpha one, still searching.”

“How about you charlie.”

“Nothing yet.”

“You would think with the tracker he'd be easier to find.”

“Ts all the dust in the atmosphere interfering with the signal. Generally it should be able to pinpoint him to within ten feet, but with the dispersion, that ten foot circle has become more like ten miles.”

“Ten miles is still better than a whole galaxy.”

“Think he's alright, if he got caught in that sandstorm…..” The comms went quiet, the marines unwilling to think of what that might mean.Admiral Vir was…. Well a survivor. He had served so many things that to think a sandstorm could have taken him out was almost preposterous. He was like a fixture on the galaxy, and to loose him would be like losing the part of the universe that was human.

It was just then that the three shuttles crested over another low hill, only to see a glint of darkness against the blue sand.

“Hold on, i think we got him.”

The black sport was moving, just cresting u the next rise, walking slowly back towards civilization.

IT turned as the three shuttles rolled forward.. 

He stood against the green sky, boots planted on the blue sand. He had a scarf wrapped around his head to keep the sun out, and a delicate wind rippled the cloth. The only thing visible was his eyes.

They pulled to a stop coming to rest on the soft blue sand of the dune.

The door opened and Ramirez walked forward to greet the Admiral as he strowed over the sand and into the shuttle.

“Where’s Su-”

The Admiral brushed past him without so much as looking at him, marching to the front of the shuttle. He trailed sand as he went, the little blue particles were crusted into every inch of his visible clothing, seeming to have integrated themselves into the very fabric itself.

“Adam?”

He paused by the pilot’s seat, looking down at the young man with an expression that could could have crystalised the blood in the young man’s veins, “You’re in my seat.” 

The young pilot quickly scrambled out of the seat and stood at near attention beside it as the admiral took his seat and strapped in, is clothes making a painful creaking sound with their heavy sand content.

“Adam wha-” “They took her.” The man said, “They took her.”

“What, who did they take…. You mean…. Sunny?”

Adam didn’t answer, but engaged the ship’s engines and lifted them off the sand. Ramirez and the young pilot were forced to stagger back and strap themselves in to the seats.

The man’s movements were quick and precise, but somehow hinted at an ever increasing violence underneath.

Adam as he had been was no longer here.

***

Sunny awoke with a pounding head and a sandy tongue. Her throat and breathing holes were so parched that she had trouble breathing and certainly speaking as she wheezed to life. She tried sitting up but immediately bashed her head on something hard and metal. She winced leaning against the ground and looking around,

It was dark, and difficult to see, but reaching out with her four hands she could feel the walls of a metal box end clothing her from all sides. Her heart hammered as she realized, and the air in the box seemed to grow heavier as she pressed against the sides, trying to push the box open.

When that didn’t work, she pressed her face up against a single airhole, just about eye size and sucked in some cool clean air. Her body was shaking, but she forced herself to calm down and lay back, arms lying crossed over her chest. She was going to be ok, if she could just calm down.

She took another deep breath and listened hard.

Through the box she could feel the rumbling of the ship's engines unfamiliar to her seeming ominous where the rumbling of the Omen might have been calming. And then, just above that, she thought she could hear voices. She leaned her head forward, pressing the side of her head against the hole allowing the sound to funnel down to her..

“And this stuff really has medical value.”

A snort, “Of course it doesn’t, do you think rhino horn had any benefit other than  witchdoctor shit.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“I don’t know, it's supposed to  be full of calcium or some shit. Whatever it is, its colorful and shiny, and people like to take it in pills, and then you can grind the rest up into a powder and mix it with nail polish. Supposed to last months.

“But that's all bullshit.”

“So is crystal healing and fumigating your anus, but people still do it.”

The other voice grunted in a half laugh, “Alright, alright I get your point. How much does one bottle go for.”

“If we keep scarcity up, than about 100,000”

A squeak of shock, “That much!”

“Well since diamonds are so readily available these days, they had to come up with something more interesting. Now capturing a live Drev and grinding them up into beauty products is a pretty dangerous task, so hence, the price goes up.”

Sunny sat back in her containment, wide eyed.

So it was true than.

All of the stories and rumors.

And now she was on the receiving end.

“The blue one will fetch a nice price I think. Seems healthier than the others.

“Take her out of the cage, make sure she’s gassed good before you try. Drev are worse than humans when it comes to captivity. They’ll do anything to break your neck.”

Sunny heard footsteps approaching across the floor and scrambled inside the box kicking and clawing at the lid desperately trying to get out.

“She’s lively!”

She heard a sharp, cachunk as something was attached to the outside of the box, followed by a sharp hiss. Almost instantly she felt her body go limp and she flopped back against the metal unable to move as the lind was pried open and light assailed her eyes.

A grinning human stared down at her from above, bright blue eyes and dark black hair.

The smile was the kind of malicious smile humans get when they mock you.

“Hello little scarab, are you ready to make us lots of money.”

They weren’t covering their faces, and that is when Sunny knew that they didn’t plan to let her go. The man leaned down, hooking some chains under and against her arms before motioning to someone outside her view.

There was a whirring, and the chains were raised, her with them.

Her carapace scraped against the box.

“Hey, don’t damage the merchandise!”

“Sorry boss.”

She was stopped, hanging vertically as the two men stepped forward and began to examine her, tapping against her carapace.

One of them tapped a nail against the front of her thigh, “Looks like someone’s already taken a piece, look, she's missing some in through here.”

“A pity, but the back will do well enough

“Take off a little from her shoulder, grind it up and see how it looks.”

Sunny rotated slowly on the chains as the men moved to get their tools, and as she did her eyes fell on something… something she didn’t want to see, something so horrible she wished she could look away, but only managed to close her eyes, moaning in horror and fear.

That was her fate.

***

The three shuttles touched down on the Pirab docking station and when the doors open, admiral vir stepped into the sun sand grinding against his skin. The marines followed behind him, scrambling like rats as he made his way across the tarmac to where the Tesraki docking master was talking to a set of Rundi guards.

The admiral completely bypassed the guards stepping up to tower over the Tesraki.

“Where are they!” he demanded 

The Tesraki backed away his hands raised.

“Where are who.”

“The smugglers, where are they. I know they were heading to this docking station. They would have come in during or right after the sandstorm.”

“I assure you. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The marines yelped and lunged forward as the admiral reached down and grabbed the Tesraki by the throat, hauling him into the air, “You are impeding a GA investigation. Now tell me again WHERE THEY WENT!” Rtamirez grabbed his hand, and pried it off as the Tesraki fell back to the ground choking and mewling.

“I don’t know.” He stammered out, “I don't know. They came in early this morning and left on their ship. I can give you the tag numbers and their general heading, but that’s all, I swear.”

Adam snarled, and the tesraki squealed scrambling to pull up the information on his holopad.

The marines looked on in shock and concern.

“Admiral.”

Adam held up a hand silencing Ramirez.

“here , here, just take it.” The Tesraki pushed the holopad into the human’s hands and then scrambled the pack. Adam stared at it for a few moments as the information uplinked to his own implants, and then tossed the holopad onto the sand where it sent up a could of dust. He then turned and marched back towards the shuttle with the marines running after him.

“Admiral.” Maverick tried this time, but he ignored her entirely, stepping ont othe ship and focing himself towards the font of the bockpit.”

He was so angry his hands were almost shaking, and only moving, only action could keep him from his fear… the fear that she was dead…. Or worse.

As soon as he stopped moving he knew the tears would come, knew the fear would paralyse him, so he kept his mind focused and forward on one single goal.

He had to rescue Sunny.

He had to.

There were no other options.

***

Sunny screamed in agony as the whirling blade ground through a piece of her carapace. 

If she could have moved she would have kicked and struggled against them, but it was no use. The blade whirred to a stop and she panted in pain and fear.

One of the men pulled back taking the chip of her carapace and handing it over to the other man, who brought it across the room to where a large machine stood.

He dropped the piece in through the top, and she listened to the grinding sound as the carapace was ground into dust, all while her eyes were fixed on the horrible sight to her front.

Drev, Drev hanging in chains, in various states of tortured.

The one on the right looked almost whole, but the one on the far left…. She couldn’t even look.

She hissed in quiet disgust and fear at the carapace-less Drev hanging listless and broken against the chains, every last inch of him stolen from what he once had been. 

That was going t obe her

That was her fate.

And now she couldn't move, couldn’t fight.

Please, Adam….someone…. help.

[haravath0t]

A Christmas Heist Pt. V - Confrontations

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: inaccurate depictions of technology, depictions of violence, flirty Bucket, an actually big word count 

Hi guys! This is it! The final addition of “A Christmas Heist”! I am so so glad to have been able to write this out! Of course, this part will be a bit longer than the previous parts, as this is the final part after all. I must thank @world-of-aus​ immensely for going above and beyond for these action scenes! Without her, this part wouldn’t be what it is! Thank you once again to @hailhydra920​ for putting this wonderful request in for the holidays! It was a nice request to kind of dip my feet into the water, as this is my first mini-series! There will be an epilogue to be an official end to this mini series! That shall be posted Monday night! As always, feedback and commentary are deeply appreciated! What did you like? What did you not like? What do you guys wanna see? I’d love to know! Thank you and enjoy reading!

A Christmas Heist Masterlist 

Main Masterlist

“So you wanted to take a look at the MacBooks that we offer right, Miss?” Steve asks with feigned enthusiasm, keeping up the facade until you two were for sure alone on the table, far away enough from anyone to hear. Steve takes a look around one more time before he whispers, “Okay, so… this should be the section I think. I tried looking for it on the other two tables to your left, but they weren’t there. The serial numbers were getting a bit close, but not quite.” Bucky lightly clears his throat and looks around, adjusting his cap. “Well, it’s the last table with the MacBooks, we can take a look here for sure.” You take another cautious look around, resisting the urge to take the different colored wig that you have on off. “Well, why don’t you two pretend that you’re looking at MacBooks? I have a feeling that it could be here.” You whisper softly. Steve looks at you and nods. “Well, be careful Y/N. I double checked these employee drawers too. No luck anywhere. Shelves may have to be it.” You nod in understanding and waste no time into searching for this darned hard drive.

“Well these MacBooks are said to be our highest selling so if you’d like to take a close look at each one,” Steve offers, voice raised slightly as another employee walks by the three of you.

“That’ll be perfect, thank you,” Bucky gruffs, “should we need any further help I’ll send my husband to find you,” you add. Steve nods and keeps up his raised voice, “No worries, ma’am. Take all the time you need. And umm… and yeah, just take your time,” Steve says softly, turning red as he stutters the last part. You shook your head in embarrassment as you turned away from the blond super soldier who was scratching his head. You look cautiously through the display, pretending to look through the specifics of the MacBook on display before looking at the settings to examine the serial numbers. The search kept going, you were on the brink of bursting due to your frustration, until. “Got it,” you whisper, trying your hardest not to show a huge smile as you notice the serial number perfectly aligns with the serial number that you had written down on your little piece of paper. “You got it?” Bucky says with a hint of excitement as he goes to you, Steve following suit. “Yeah! It should be the one!” You say excitedly. “The hard drive from what I remember should be in these shelves behind us,” you whisper, motioning at the products behind you.

“I’ll cover for you,” Steve offers, with Bucky nodding in approval. “Yeah so will I. I think you know this techy thing more than I do.” You playfully roll your eyes, starting the search from the box of airpods that were stacked along the shelf. “It’s just a different type of package that we’re after, Buck. Nothing much really.” Bucky only scoffs as he keeps pretending to look at MacBooks with Steve, looking around cautiously. However, his eyes widened. “No… oh hell no…” He grunts under his breath. “What is it, Buck?” Steve whispers, looking around even more cautiously. But then his answer was arriving at full speed. 

It was Rumlow, striding his way into the store, eyes looking around the store, but for what? You three would not even know. “Shit.. shit shit shit…” Bucky mutters in frustration. “Y/N, sweetheart, if you have found that damn packaging, you might as well tell us now.” He whispers in a harsh tone into the comm. “Seriously, Buck? Don’t rush me, I’m about more than halfway into the stock!” The two men hear you say into their earpiece. “I think we have every right to rush you right now, doll. We’ve got company. Your 6 o’ clock.” You hear Steve say in a pressing tone, causing you to turn around right behind you to see Rumlow approaching what must be a fellow Hydra agent. Your eyes widen, rushing your process on that shelf. “Oh come on… come on..” you tell yourself, heart beating fast as you try your hardest to find that packaging. But then you soon see it, a white box of the same size, but no, it did not show the image of a pair of AirPods, it was just blank. No little text, nothing. 

“Y/N… Y/N, come on let’s go.” 

“Y/N! Stop. Put it all back.” 

You couldn’t. You couldn’t stop now, you’re so close.

You were about to reach for it, but quickly jumped when you felt a tap on your shoulder. 

Shit.

You sighed in relief when you see Bucky, quickly tensing up when you see his stern face. “Did you not hear me and Steve? We gotta put this back.” he orders, stealing some of the boxes to place quickly back on the shelf. 

“But Buck I almost got i-”

“Yes you did. But this isn’t the time and place to obtain that right now. They can’t know that we know!” He hisses, holding your hand after putting away the last of the box, leading you to Steve. “We’re lucky if they do not plan on moving this out of this section, do you u-” Bucky continues, but you hush him. “Steve, come on, escort us out.” “Don’t you dare interrupt me, sweetheart this shit’s dangerou-” 

“Shh! Rumlow is near…” you whisper quietly, rubbing your nose. Steve wastes no time when he fakes to reorganize the MacBooks in their rightful place. “Right, I’m so sorry we could not fit your needs, ma’am. I do hope you do reconsider.” Steve says and you both nod. “It’s alright. Give us time to mull it over today, Andy. I think I can get my husband to change his mind. Thank you.” You get more weary when you see Brock looking at the three of you with a suspicious eye. You were glad when you saw that the other two noticed. “Thank you for coming to the Apple Store. I hope you enjoy your day,” Steve says as he walks you both out, making it clear to the employees. “Alright, I found that there’s an alternate route to get out. If you want to go to the parking lot, try to go through Bloomingdales, walk around the building, cross the other plaza, and then the lot is on the right.” Steve whispers hurriedly and you two nod, trying your best to go out as smoothly yet swiftly as possible. 

“Steve, I need you to keep watch of that package. We gotta see where they move it. Please.” You whisper into your comms shakily, clinging onto Bucky’s gloved hand as you quickly walk into Bloomingdales. “I think you need to keep watch of something worse. Or someone.” You hear him say, causing you and Bucky to look at each other in realization. “Fuck,” You groan as the two of you quicken your pace. “Yeah… I know… Rumlow heard from a fellow agent you two were going near the package. If you haven’t gone through Bloomingdales. Now is the time.” You hear Steve say imperatively. The pace has quickened, the strides were longer, and your grip on your boyfriend’s hand is long gone as you two made your way down the escalator to the first floor quickly and out the door. 

Once you two were out, the walking quickly turned into running. Bucky hears the door hurriedly open as well as fast footsteps. “Shit, sweetheart. Come on let’s go through that outdoor mall. It might be a shortcut,” He grunts, you two quickening the pace as a whole group of pedestrians start walking across the street, you two blending in quickly in the middle of the group. You turn around to see Brock a bit far behind you. But this was not the end.

You had to keep up the strides once again, trying to avoid bringing the security into the mix, so you stayed with the crowd of people. Luckily it came to the point where everyone was squished against each other’s bodys, you weaved through the crowds alongside Bucky, getting yourselves closer and closer to the parking lot. “Drop your jacket.” Bucky orders, you look at him in shock. “What?! Why?! What for?” “Misdirection, sweetheart,” He says grabbing your hand once you take it off, leading you towards an empty alley, making you have a run for it. “You’re so crazy! I love this jacket!” You hiss, your heels clicking against the concrete as you ran alongside bucky. “Oh shush, I’ll buy you another one. Drop it… now.” He says, resulting in you throwing down the jacket as you sharply turned to your right when you got to the sidewalk of the busy road beside you. Sure enough, you hear Brock’s hurried footsteps echoing far behind you. 

You two quicken your pace, hopping into Bucky’s motorcycle, you in front of him, his arms wrapped around your torso. The engine roared before you two quickly zoomed out of the farthest exit possible, quickly weaving your way onto the busy road and hiding the two of you behind cars. “You know, I should be driving that so you don’t gotta worry.” You hear Bucky remark. You smile. “Sometimes, your girl needs a turn. Payback for making me let go of that jacket.” You couldn’t help but snicker at how lost Rumlow looked around running in frustration with the jacket of yours clenched in his hand on the sidewalk. He may have been smart and burly, but boy, was he clueless out in the open. You knew Bucky saw it two as the lights turned green, starting on your journey home. 

“He must be so lost.” You remarked, giggling as you concentrate on the road. You smiled when you felt Bucky’s chuckle rumble onto your body, playfully groaning when Bucky playfully kisses and nips at your neck. “I bet… you ran fast on those heels of yours two… proud of you…” You playfully huff, shaking your head. “Well I’m supposed to be mad at you. You know that jacket is Christian Dior?” Bucky only chuckles into your neck. “Like I said, I’ll get you another one.” A smile cracked on your face, shaking your head. “How are we like this after what just happened?” “It’s our job, sweetheart. Sure it’s a bit panicky when we are on the field, but hey… there’s nothin’ you and I can’t do.” He says into your ear. “Yeah… you’re right…” you chuckle, turning a right to go inside the parking lot of the apartment complex. “Let’s just hope he has doubts that it’s you. He must know it’s me for sure.” You snort. “Nah… Wore a cheaper perfume today in case of run-ins like these.” 

“Jesus, you’re a genius, sweetheart.”

“Can you two remember that I am still on the comm with you guys? At least turn it off.”

You called the manager to say that you were going to be late today. Bucky promised that he’d stay alongside the pouty Santa Claus to make sure no one apprehends you or Steve. You sigh shakily as you watch Steve unlock the door. “Deep breaths, doll. I know you hate the idea of being in public doing this, but we are here a good hour before opening time. So you can do this with no problem. You’re disguised. So let’s hope. We ran through this plan three times last night. Trust your instincts.” Steve reassures you as he opens the door for you. You nod, thanking him as you quickly went to get the small box. Fury knows. They’re waiting for you guys to finish this.

“So it was in there, huh?” Steve asks, as he sees you hurriedly make your way to a laptop that he just turned on. He’s already getting flustered at how the default home screen turned into another black screen filled with numbers and letters. You only nod, concentrating on the task at hand. “What are you doing?” Steve asks softly, as he looks around, trying to find a way to pass the time. “Altering the firmware to install a backdoor.” You simply respond as you type furiously at the keyboard. 

Steve only nods, shaking his head and scratching the back of his head. “Shouldn’t have asked… no idea what that mean-”

“Done. Okay next.” 

His eyebrows raise. “A-Already?!” 

“I hope you have your shield in handy just in case.” You mutter as you keep on going. “I do… Yeah, Buck has it in the case Brock goes after ‘im.” He responds, visibly confused at your work. “What are you gonna do, Y/N?” He keeps questioning, preferring to know what you are doing than sitting in silence. “We’re gonna load surveillance and let headquarters control their softwares at boot up. They can have cont-” 

All thoughts were halted when the glass doors burst open, showing a couple of men and women storming through. “Shit,” you mutter, “I got it,” Steve grunts as he moves forward, “you keep working I’ll keep them off you as long as possible.

Steve wasted no time as he rushed forward taking on the first man that ran at him.

Your eyes fly back and forth between the men rushing at Steve and the screen.

“You good?!” you call as he’s kicked to the floor only to jump right back up. He licks the blood from his lips glaring at the men in front of him body guarded as he keeps them from getting to you.

“Keep going Y/N,” his eyes meet yours, “I could do this all day.”

You want to make a remark but the middle goon runs at him, and Steve’s legs sweep up and out sending the man arms up and spread out right into the other two. Your eyes dash back to the computer screen, “Give me two minutes!”

“Don’t worry about me,” he grunts, “get it done!” Your fingers continue to clack against the keyboard, muttered curses falling from your breath as you will the damned machine to hurry, Steve could only go so long against three men with the other two standing guard by the door.

The machine beeps, “I got it Steve!”

“Gr-” he takes a fist to the face, the force enough to send him back towards you. A gasp leaves your lips as you fall away from the device.

Your hands are reaching for your friend, but one of the men gets brave as he rushes you, his hands fisting into the back of your shirt. He sends you flying back, your body skidding away from Steve and into the two by the door way. You have but a second to react, the two standing guard by the door now moving at you. Deft fingers reach for your hidden holster, your fingers hooking around the taser disk as you quick flick it to the goon that had sent you flying back.

They may be quick but you’re quicker.

He goes down in a shock before he can reach the computer, “Steven the hard drive - AH!” you get out, “You’re not going anywhere, rat,” the girl by the door hisses as she pulls you back. “Looks like we have more than one rat,” the other calls out as he kicks the hat from Steve’s head, the kick sending him back into the displays. The goon turns his head to the others, “Take her out,” he mutters, “Let’s worry about this traitor here.” You’re scrambling on your feet trying to find some leverage against the pain radiating from your scalp as you are thrown from the store.

You’re not up quick enough as they lock the door, the grey walled barricade coming down, a sinister smirk kissing the lip of the hydra goons.

“Steve!”

“Steve’s not the one you should be worrying about, Mrs. Claus, or should I say Agent L/N.”

Chills creep up your spine, and you’re turning slowly on your heel, eyes hard as you glare at the man before you.

“Rumlow,” you grunt, he wipes at blood splitting his lip. “Gotta say agent you all almost had us, but that sly trick of yours,” he steps forward, “You know... the one where you took my keys, that agent that’s where you really fucked up, did you really think I wouldn’t notice,” he tsks, “figured you all might be smarter but then again, think I prefer it like this, you’ll be easier to take down.”

Rumlow advances on you then, his body slamming into yours as he takes you down around the waist. You scrabble to get leverage, the base of your palm meeting his nose.

“Bitch,” he grunts as he falls off to the side, your body moving to stand. Your eyes fall to the store where the commotion is even louder.

“I wouldn’t worry about your friend there,” Rumlow spits a grin appearing on his face, “he’s not going to last very long.”

You’re the one charging now as you creep closer, your body dropping slightly as you let your leg sweep out and send Rumlow right back onto his back.

“You won’t last long out here either.”

“We’ll see about that,” he growls his fingers pressing to his ear as he mumbles something foreign to your ears. Your head snaps to the side where the grey gate is slowly lifting, the goon that had thrown you from earlier waiting for the gate to fully lift.

Shit.

You watch as Rumlow pushes to stand on his feet, his stance unfaltering as he waits; it’s not long before the door to the store is being pushed open, the goon falling out, grunts and crashes coming from within the store.

“You see agent, you all thought you were slick, but really we knew all this time, just like Fury sent in his rats, we’ve sent in ours.”

Your eyes widen at the news, “Oh don’t look so shocked, it was never going to end well for the lot of you, though I wish it would have, you’re not such a bad kisser,” he smirks, “we could have been something you and I, but I guess maybe in a different world,” he hums. It’s a split second before they’re both charging at you, one leg swings out as your foot meets the agent’s chest knocking him back only slightly as your hands grip at Rumlow.

You climb the burly man, your fingers reaching for the garrote hidden in your boot.

You hook the wire around Rumlow’s neck, tightening it around your fingers as you pull roughly. Rumlow chokes as he tries to knock you off, you don’t see that the goon has gotten his bearing and is now charging at you,  but it’s not like he would have made it a step closer.

“Y/N!” you hear Bucky scream, “Duck!”

Your eyes flash up, seeing Bucky running at you shield in hand, the jingle of the bell from his hat and shoes being heard. He stops mid stride to throw the vibranium shield towards you. Your fingers tighten on the metal string in your grip, your body tilting back as you and Rumlow fall to the side, the shield whizzing past you.

It takes the goon in its path down, knocking three more in its way out.

“About damn time Buck,” you hear Steve shout out, the ping of the metal meeting face reaching your ears.

You couldn’t help the hopeful smile that appears on your face as you see the blond super soldier run to the door and catch it successfully, using it to knock out the other agents coming at him. You try to get up, making the wire retract on its own, the main objective to get back into the store. You yelp when you feel a strong hand grab onto your ankle, making you thud face first against the tiles of the mall. By instinct, you kick your heel against the face, hearing Rumlow groan as you get up. You hear a crack and you look behind in shock, seeing the burly elf pinning Rumlow in the ground, landing a hard punch at him, the blood from his face matching the redness of the Santa costume. “Go! Go get that thing and let’s get out!” You hear Bucky exclaim to you, you only nod and push through the glass doors, hopping over the unconscious bodies to get to the laptop, taking the hard drive out of the port for good measure. Sighing in relief, you tuck it in a secure place and quickly run to Steve as he gets his shield. 

“Come on, let’s go,” Steve says as you nod, paging headquarters to quickly get the agents that had participated into custody. You two run out and see Bucky throw one final punch before Brock is unconscious, bloody face and nose evident. “BUCKY STOP! COME ON!” You exclaim as you and Steve make a run for it. It is only a few seconds until Bucky catches up with you, quickly running to the car. You three quickly left, more than ready to go straight to the med bay.

Permanent Taglist: @world-of-aus @world-of-aus-reads​ @whew-oh-em-gee​ @tomholland-96​ @lordyitsjordy​ @letstalkaboutsebbaby​ @thee-soom-soom​ @lookiamtrying​ @vesper852​ @hailhydra920​ @buckybarnesthehotshot​ @heyiamthatbitch​​ @rodrikstark​​ (If you would like to be included in a tag list let me know via ask! ❤️☺️)

Previous

Next

[yeetussfetus]

hehe thawn

ok ok ok so ik that this was an idea so long ago but i wanted to write something and like this is all i could come up with pls dont come @ me 

Eli looked at his comm, which beeped out a “NOT RESPONDING, NOT RESPONDING” every few seconds. He let out an angry sigh and shut it off, too tired to think. You weren’t responding to any of his calls and he was going to need you on the bridge soon, and he wanted to make sure that Thrawn wasn’t the one who has to go and find you, since Thrawn was always lenient with you about these things.

Truly, he had no idea how a man of such elegance and high standards fell for someone so feral, but oh well. It’s not that you didn’t do your job, it was just more of your personality. He remembers someone describing you as a raccoon in someones trash bin at 3 am, and honestly, that description fit you just well. From waking up in the early hours to make a full course meal, to climbing through the vents instead of walking through the halls, it was a wonder how you even got into the navy. Even more of a wonder on how you befriended so many higher ups.

He turned to the nearest lieutenant, and said, “stay here, I’ll try and find her. If you don’t hear from me by the time Grand Admiral Thrawn comes back, tell him to find her himself.” As he left, he let out a tiny strew of curses towards you and your little stupid antics. Of course, he still was your friend, but he was tired of having to remind you about how to be an adult.

He looked down at his command and saw that you were in… a stormtrooper living area? No, wait, you were in a nearby hallway. What the-

Now more curious than tired, he almost rushed past other officers towards the lower levels of the Chimera, not really caring about how late he was to the meeting.

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

Finally, reaching the hallway, he turned and surprisingly, the door was closed. It wasn’t locked, though, so Eli opened it: just in time for a shopping cart to be launched straight at him. He slammed his fist on the control panel again, and the doors shut, and a few seconds later, he heard a loud BANG from the other side of the door.

He opened the door again to reveal that it was none other than you in the cart, and you almost looked happy: almost. But when you turned and saw Eli, you were expecting a tirade of concerned mom friend instincts and for him to drag you back to the bridge, telling you that Thrawn wanted you or that you were late to a meeting. What you were not expecting was for him to enter the hallway, close the doors, and say, “I’m going next, or else I’ll snitch.”

Realizing that he was serious, you said, “Oooohhh, Eli, you know snitches get stitches-” 

“Did I stutter.” 

“... no and fine, but then give the rest of them a turn.” Eli looked behind you to see maybe 4 stormtroopers who were very confused on why a commander was there and why he was talking to you, but then again, you had asked to join them on their fun, and you worked close with the Grand Admiral of the ship, so it wasn’t the weirdest thing they had seen.

Rushing the cart back to  top of the almost slanted hallway, Eli hopped in and grinning like a madman, you launched him down and for once in his life, he didn’t really care about what anyone would think about his unprofessionalism.

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

Thrawn was checking the clock every minute, wondering why not only you, but Eli was late, which for you, wasn’t that much of a problem, but for you and Eli? Something was up, or at least, something was wrong. He looked around the room, to see that every officer in the room seemed… tired. Deciding to reschedule the meeting, since it was more of an optional one, he told the officers who arrived to take the rest of the day off, and that the meeting was to be rescheduled another day. Then, he headed out of the office to find you and Eli.

Following both of your comms was easy: what he wasn’t expecting was for you two to be near the stormtrooper quarters. Why would you be there? At this point he was almost concerned about why you would be there. He walked a little faster trying to wrap his head around the fact that you would be there of all places, but hey, it's you, he couldn’t figure you out if you had a list of things you would do on a daily basis.

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

Reaching the hallway that your comm stated that you two were in, he hears- a wheel. A few wheels of some kind being dragged away from the door. Then, it suddenly stops. He listens closely and he was able to hear your voice, and then Elis. It sounded like you two were arguing. Of course, he wasn't able to figure out what it was about. Thrawn decided to open the door, and take a look at what you were doing. However, he chose the wrong moment to open the door, because unlike Eli, he didn’t have time to close the doors, as he saw you and Eli in a shopping cart, rolling down straight for him. 

Realizing he couldn’t just close the doors, he slid against the walls as you and Eli rushed by him with the shopping cart. He looked up the hallway and saw that whoever you two were with leaving already. He sighed and decided to let it go for them, but of course, not for you two.

He stood back in the middle of the doorway as you hopped out of the cart. Eli tried to follow, but you motioned for him to stay in the cart. He slumped back down in the cart, knowing that he could just pin the blame on you, but instead he just crossed his arms, waiting for you to say something since it seemed like you had a plan. Thrawn straightened up and stared you both down, before asking one simple question.

“Where did you get the shopping cart?”

You held up a hand with your pointer finger, and at first Eli was expecting some bullshit lie, since it wasn’t actually you or Eli to acquire the cart, but it was actually the troopers.

What he wasn’t expecting was for you to grab the handle of the cart and start booking it to wherever Thrawn wasn’t. He felt himself go to one side of the cart then another as you twisted your ways around the halls. Thrawn simply sighed and then, too tired to deal with your bullshit, he started to chase after you two. 

Eli looked behind you to see Thrawn running after you two and started to panic. “_____, why the hell is he chasing us?” “For fucks sake, you think I know- wait he's chasing us.”

You looked over your shoulder to see that yes, Thrawn, your boyfriend, was chasing you and Eli through the ship. What was even scarier was that one, he was tall, he did actually look like a murderer, and two, his face was darkened, and the only thing you could see from this far was his blood red eyes. 

Enough to scare you, you turned back to continue your way through the ship as Thrawn chased you down the many hallways, and Eli was the one with the most terror in his eyes, since Thrawn seemed to be gaining on the two of you.

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

Tarkin walked to the bridge of the Chimera, expecting you to be there. However, surprisingly, you weren’t, and neither was the deformed fruit Thrawn. His mood quickly decreased as he turned towards the nearest officer. “Where is commander _____?” The officer stood there for a second, before he explained, “Well, sir, she is… um…”

Tarkin was about to insult the man for his slowness in responding, when Kallus appeared in front of the doorway. “Commander _____ is pushing Commander Vanto in a shopping cart while they are running from Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

Tarkin turned towards Kallus with a confused look. “What?”

Kallus pulled out a datapad that showed a few security footage that were picked up, showing you pushing Eli in a shopping cart at full speed, while Eli was screaming at something behind you. Suddenly, Thrawn came into view, running straight for the two of you. Tarkin immidialy started to move out of the room, mumbling something along the lines of, “I’m gonna beat that son of a bitch to death” as he walked out of the room. 

Kallus stood there for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and moved on with his life. This wasn’t the weirdest thing he has seen happen with you two.

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

lmao pls take this i had to shoot myself in the foot to get this /s. anyway if yall wanna send in a ask i guess just send it in. is it technically request?? idgaf just send it in and ill try my best. 

oh also big thanks to @fallenrepublick u really helped me get inspired for writings

[unholyplumpprincess]

The Bet

Anonymous commission !!!!!!

Summary:��It should have just been a quick win bet to let you finally get your fix of Revenant again. 'Become champion' shouldn't have been too hard, considering you'd nailed him and his squad before he could get you in the past. And yet, of course, Revenant wants to always win. And he will win, especially if it means you're up on the table for him to have. Or. In which you and Revenant have a FWB situation and he's been teasing you for weeks with no relief. So you come up with a bet to mutually solve your issues, totally set on winning. How hard could it be?

Reblogs > Likes. It costs zero dollars to reblog the fics u like!

!!!Minors and ageless blogs dni or you will be blocked on sight!!!

Fandom: Apex Legends

Relationship: Revenant/Reader

Warnings: R18+/NSFT, Revenant has a dick attachment, Reader is gender neutral and has a vulva, mentions of canon typical violence, relationship is shown more as FWB than romantic.

Words: 2.9k

_____________________

As far as anyone knew? Revenant was not a person who played well with others.

That was something he liked to keep up, a good face at that. He was good at growling out hate filled things of how pathetic a person was, mowing down people with a good hearty laugh about it, and making the cameras love him more and more. The Syndicate wanted to keep their little...falter under wraps. The fans all around thought him to be a ruthless killer with nothing but sadism and glee for it in his metal little heart- or rather, lack thereof. It drove them wild with excitement.

However, you knew better. You knew him in ways people couldn’t even fathom.

~Rest under the cut~

You knew of Revenant at his most vulnerable moments. To the way he didn’t immediately resort to violence if you so much as touched his shoulder, to the way he liked being under someone, to the way he squirmed under the lightest of brushes against a sensitive wire. You knew him to be sadistic as everyone else saw him, that may have been true, but what they didn’t get to see was him at his weakest points. Where weaponry was not needed besides a sharp tongue and painful wit.

No, you knew him on his knees, optics swirling with dangerous emotions as you cupped his cheek and told him what a good boy he was. You liked it that way too, that you were the only one who could see him like that. Of course, it wasn’t a strictly one on one relationship, nor was it a relationship at that. Friends with benefits wasn’t the right word either, not with the way he snarled his possession of you- even if he knew better than to stake a claim.

You were an addiction to him. An obsession. Revenant couldn’t get enough of you, and there was power behind that statement, wasn’t there?

The problem to that statement, however, was his want to tease. He wanted you as addicted to him as he was to you. One of his activities and games he liked to pull being making you forced to think about him. And what else better to make you do it than to limit your pleasures of his form? He’d thought it to be a brilliant idea.

You’d thought it to be infuriating.  

But, in the end, it worked, so maybe he was in the right.

It starts as a little game, something you could have laughed at and brushed off. Your sponsors had wanted you paired up with someone different, your chemistry with Wattson and Octane was always something to be excited about. Revenant had been paired up with Caustic and Wraith for the next two weeks of the season. This wasn’t an issue, though you two worked well together, you often butted heads. The issue with this?

Revenant had no issues going solo. And he certainly had no issues antagonizing you throughout firefights.

Out of the corner of your eye you always seemed to see a black and orange lit figure nearby, lit much like the fresh spread of lava. The amber glowing eyes in the darkness out of the corner of your eye always made shivers run down your spine. You knew his totem only allowed him to go so far, but much like a ghost he’d appear and then disappear when you’d finally whip around to aim a gun his direction.

Wattson had taken note of your behavior and the callouts of ‘enemy’ being nearby and had paused your squad’s trek to ask if you were alright, if you needed to take a second. You felt like you looked paranoid, not to mention it was a distraction technique- the bastard.

But, hard to think you’re imagining things when not a minute later you’re lagging behind and feel a smooth metal hand trace up your side from behind, a presence lingering behind you. A snarl in your ear and the growl of a voice box, “I could have my way with you right here-”

But when you whip around and press your wingman into his chest and pull the trigger, only a dark laugh follows as he zips back to his totem.

Fucker.

The sudden gunshot gets your teammates attention in question, Octane throwing up his hands in a ‘what the fuck’ gesture to you to which you reply with a half shrug as you speak into the comm, “Shot a cargo bot, missed.”

Even with goggles and a mask he doesn’t look convinced.

--

It happens again and again and again. Revenant likes his games, especially likes it when you’re waiting for him at any turn with your gun ready and your haunches pulled up like a flighty cat. He waits, and waits, and waits until you’re alone or lagging behind before he seems to find you. It’s little things, just a touch, a whisper, almost like a ghost is haunting you and driving you up a wall.

A hand brushes your side promisingly, another squeezes your hip or ass, a gruff voice growling in your ear- nothing above a whisper to never let the comms hear, “What a delicious example you would make if I fucked you open in front of all these cameras.” Wattson caught him that time, having only seen him sneak up behind you before she fired her sentinel perfectly into him and over your shoulder.

Another day, another haunting touch up to your chest, a skim of metal digits up the front of your throat, “A pathetic little toy you’d make for my squad, don’t you agree?” Before you’d managed to whip around and shoot a bullet right between his eyes. Your aim was getting better, but it’s only met with a delighted snarl as his ghost zipped back to his totem.

Every day, for the next week, he avoids you. Well, almost avoids. Revenant catches you in the hall sometimes, but before you can grab him and demand something, he skims right past you with a brush and a grunt of amusement. He’s playing you- playing you like a damned mouse to his cat. His plan is working, you’re fired up, near desperate to have him do the things he promises. But, there was just one, teensy little thing.

In your relationship? Whatever it was? You didn’t give up control. You were comfortable in it, liking to make him your bitch essentially. You liked him on his knees, liked him sounding desperate, hell you’d like him saying ‘please’ if he wasn’t so stubborn.

And he was very, very stubborn about politeness like: ‘Thank you’s and ‘please’s.

So, for him to come at you saying things like that? That was...new. You figured he was taunting you, maybe trying to spur you on, so you try to call him out on his bluff the next time you see him.

And the next time you see him? You don’t let him walk past you.

You push him to a nearby wall, pent up on no sexual relief but even more pent up in irritation. Revenant’s face doesn’t move, no muscles to really pull anything, but he does look at you with a look that must be curiosity- or hunger.

“You think you’re so funny,” You start with a growl to your own tone. It would never be as impressive as his own, but it gets his attention well enough. The way he tilts his head only serves to make your eyes narrow, mocking the same movement with your own head. Your eyes flicker across his face, licking your lips and gnawing your bottom lip briefly. “Fine. You want to be a tease? Play ghost? I’ll play games too.”

You hear him grunt in amusement, his optics hypnotically seeming to spin with deeper shades of oranges. You wait for him to gain interest before you continue, your hand stays twisted in his scarf, keeping him to the wall. It’d been weeks since you’d last fucked, you almost demand it, but instead you huff in amusement back at him. “A bet.”

The word makes him perk like a cat, his metal skeletal fingers wrapping around your wrist idly as you wait for him. Your eyes flicker between his optics as Revenant makes a soft noise in his chest, something that would sound like a rumbling purr on a big cat in contentment. “And what...sort of bet did you have in mind?” He almost sounds like a cartoon super villain the way he purrs it out, his thumb idly stroking along your pulse point. A quiet threat.

“The next person to be the champion is the winner. If you win, you can top next time, do whatever you want to me,” You start slowly, you’d had time to think of giving up control, but even you weren’t so confident as it comes out of your mouth. Almost tight in your throat. But the way he snarls in his chest tells you that that interested him enough.  

“And if I win- and I will win,” You begin again, tugging on his scarf to get his attention again. “You let me do whatever I want to you. Please and thank you’s included. You’ll be a good boy and do whatever I say. Do we have a deal?”

With too good of a bet on the table, of course he agrees. But, you know he’ll eat those words. He’ll be under your heel soon enough and give you that ‘please’ you’ve always dreamed of hearing. You’ve kicked his ass every round thus far with a bullet to the chest and the head.  

This would be a piece of cake.

--

It was not a piece of cake.

It seemed the bet WAS really too good because his kill count racks up higher than you’ve ever seen it get. You don’t even place top three with your own squad, maybe fifth in line and watching with a growing, gnawing feeling in your stomach as he climbed the ranks. Each shot perfect, his want for blood seeming to mellow out with his need to win.

Revenant becomes the champion that round, and you hear very quickly from mutters of other legends that he’s refused to do interviews and let his squad handle that part.

It’s not a surprise to you when a hand snatches you and yanks you into the hall as you quickly speed walk to your bedroom. You yelp, regardless, as you’re dragged to someone else’s bedroom.

Revenant’s chest almost hums with his voice box rattling his inner systems with his dark laughter. He doesn’t even make it to the bed with you, slamming you to the door, a hand around your throat and his leg thrust between yours. You make a choked sound, face flushed, and your heart absolutely pounding in your chest.

There’s only a brief moment where he leans into you, growling in your ear, “You did mean what you said, yes? I’d hate to have your screams be of pain.” It’s...almost sweet the way he’s asking for consent- even if it’s quiet. It could sound like a threat, but you understand his quick hesitation. You weren’t-- you’d never been beneath him.

Your quick nodding doesn’t shake him into believing you, he hisses under his breath for you to say it so he can hear you and you quickly chirp like an eager bird, “Yes! Yes- yes, a bet is a bet- have me. Any way you want. S-same safe word I use for you if it’s too much.”

The process from there isn’t slow. You knew Revenant wouldn’t be one to take his time if he had you in his clutches, and only proven to you when in no time you’re being stripped. It’s a bit of a blur, the first few moments. Your brain tries to wrap around it and make sense of it. Metal fingers cruelly squeezing your chest and toying with your nipples, a hand yanking your hair and forcing your head back so you couldn’t watch, the sharpness of metal teeth at your throat- the desperation of yanking your clothing off.

You’re naked before you realize it, back against a soft bed rather than a wall. He’s fit between your legs, hovering over you much like a starved spider, tracing his fingers up your inner thighs and making you quiver from the sensation.

His laugh is fitting for the situation, low and dark and sending shivers up your spine, “Always giving punishment to me,” He begins, his voice deep and resonating throughout his chest with the reverberations of his voice box. “That’s what you call it, isn’t it? And yet, who knew you were punishing yourself...” His voice trails off, his palm resting atop your mound so his thumb can trace from your hole, up through your lower lips to your clit.

The sensation is beyond anything you’ve felt. Though Revenant’s digits are metal and ribbed to allow joint control, they don’t feel sharp nor like they’ll catch. A unique texture experience. You can’t help it when your hips lift up, a sharp exhale leaving your nose as he circles your clit.

Fuck, did he find lube somewhere or were you just this wet?

“Rev-” You start shakily, feeling two of his fingers tracing down through your slick and to your hole. One presses in, almost like a ribbed toy is the way you’d describe it. Your thigh muscle twitches as you resist clamping your legs down on his arm, instead resting a hand in your own hair to ground yourself as you whine.

“If only you let me do this sooner,” He murmurs as his finger presses deep inside of you- fuck it was long- curling just right and testing the waters before fitting a second inside of you. “Could have found what a little, needy bitch you were a lot sooner.”

You would kick him if he wasn’t right. Revenant’s pumping his wrist now, fucking you thoroughly with his two fingers, rendering you ineffective. You knew he wasn’t much for foreplay, but even you’re thankful he’s prepping you. You bite back a sound when a third finger is introduced, his thumb stroking your clit in time and making your inner walls contract in time with the way you sob out a swear.

In no time, his fingers move from you, wiped on your inner thigh unceremoniously. Bastard. But, he introduces your favorite part.

His cock attachment today was something you had picked out. It matched his plating appropriately, a black coloring with deep amber nodes framing the sides and glowing much like his eyes. It was thick, maybe about as thick as your wrist and seven inches long. The ribbed sensation on it made it uniquely shaped with a rounded head leaking the light red coloring of his lubricant reserves.

You throw an arm over your eyes and turn your head as one of his hands grabs your hip tightly, the other guiding his cock inside of you. You bite your bottom lip when Revenant growls, pushing inside of you in near one go with the help of stretching you and how his lubrication helped with the slide.

Your toes curl, pressing your heels into the backs of his leg’s plating, already feeling on edge. “Rev-” You start once more, your voice shaking as you lose focus.

A yank of your arm makes you whine, trying to tug it back, but his hand snatches your jaw and forces your head towards him. “Look into my eyes when I fuck you raw. Remember who you belong to.” He snarls, your eyes fluttering open near on command and meeting deep amber optics. They swirl hypnotically, a hint he’s recording this for his own database. Bastard.

But, you can’t find it in you to care. Letting him hold your jaw to keep you there, his thumb tracing your lower lip as his hips slam into you again and again. He’s always sensitive, he won’t last very long, and you were already on edge.

His pleasure is expressed through huffs and growls, his voice box mimicking a moan only to branch off into something static-filled as if losing connection on the phone. Choppy, echoing, and yet his optics never leave your half lidded eyes. Your lips are parted to express your own pleasures, eyes fluttering and near rolling back into your head as his hips slam into yours again and again. It’d bruise you, that much you knew, but you can’t find it in you to tell him to be gentler.

“Reven- Rev—cu-cumming, don’t stopdon’tstop-” Your voice shakes, edging off into a wail as you start to cum with jerks of your hips. His groan is music to your ears, a low sound reverberating in his chest as his back hunches inwards, looking ever so much like a spider as his hand slips from your jaw to wrap around your throat. He’s cumming with you, his cock jerking and emptying at least half his reserve in you.

You’re panting, dizzy and euphoric. A soft laugh leaves you, gently nudging at his chest, “Should- should have let you top earlier, huh?” You laugh playfully, breathy and unfocused.

“Who said I was done with you, little thing?” He snarls back at you, shoving you right back down onto the bed and crossing an arm over your upper chest to keep you down.

Revenant intended to milk out his winning. All night if he needed.

He intended to make you scream loud enough for the whole compound to know appropriately what this ‘thing’ was between you two.

That you were his.

[guigz1-coldwar]

'Western Brick in the Wall : Part 1' : New chapter for "Always for the greater cause..." is out !

Chapter Summary: The first real mission for Stitch's team can finally begin: infiltrating West-Berlin and track down two enemy agents who got their hands on important documents...

To read it on AO3, click here!

Taglist: @snowgoldwaylon , @clxudtea , @efingart

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

23rd February 1981

Yirina 'Bell' Grigoriev, Ex-KGB, Perseus

In the U-Bahn under East-Berlin, Line 6, in the direction of West-Berlin

I thought that we were going to enter West-Berlin by normal means through one of the few checkpoints with fake identity papers for the mission but instead, we had to use the U-Bahn system of the city to actually make our move, something that Stitch has planned for us, knowing that it would be safer for us. After hours of preparation and when the evening came to set down on the city, it was time for us to get out of the safe house to join the U-Bahn.

When we arrived in one of the East-Berlinese U-Bahn stations, the whole team directly installed itself right in the last wagon of the metro that we took, getting ourselves prepared discreetly as they were still a few people in the wagon, descending from time to time to the stations on Line 6. I was installed near the door leading to the second-to-last wagon, Knight was near me, Bellamy was in the middle, standing up as he got to cede his seat to an old woman as Stitch & Wraith were hidden at the end of the wagon.

"For fuck sake, I really had to cede my seat," Bellamy sighed as the last person that wasn't part of the team left the wagon, leaving the full team inside of it. "And to an old woman, come on," He added, wanting to take his seat back but he didn't do it despite the urge on his face.

"At least, you were generous," Knight scoffed, going up from his seat to lock the doors that were leading to the other wagon.

"Oh, just fuck you, Knight," Bellamy cursed loudly, pointing his hand towards Knight that was having his back turned around to lock the door, making me rise from my seat in case.

"Are you two going to stop this or not?" Wraith said from across the wagon, freeing her seat to join the middle near Bellamy. "You two are still acting like fucking children, behave yourself, we've got a job to do!" She clarified as I was staying near Knight, my hand towards his chest, gesturing to not move before shaking my head.

"Yes, that's the thing now," I joined up Wraith on this point, focusing on Bellamy as he was the one starting it. "We're on a mission,"

"Bell is right, I don't want anything from you two over the comms, arguing, understood?" Stitch spoke up, walking towards us from his seat and the two nodded in approval, realizing the situation...for good, I hope. "Are earsets good?" He asked, making everyone check-up the little earset hidden in our ear, me tapping it gently in my right ear.

"I'm good," I replied to him.

"Same for me," Wraith told him as Knight & Bellamy only gestured with a thumb up.

"Okay, knight, light out," Stitch ordered, making a sign to Knight who directly moved towards the control panel of the wagon, shutting down the lights of the wagon, plunging it in darkness. "Wraith, do you have everything good?" He demanded and she nodded. "Everyone remembers their roles tonight?" Everyone nodded to him.

"And if something changes?" Bellamy questioned him, peaking his eyes outside the wagon. the lights of the tunnel and the passing of the other trains lighting up a bit in here.

"Then, we get along with it," I responded to him clearly, Stitch looking at me with a little smile before Wraith looked up.

"We should be in a few seconds in West-Berlin," She guessed as I have remembered to have view the U-Bahn map after our discussion for a long time to prepare exactly & precisely the mission...a true pro...

"Good," Stitch breathed before he starts to walk slowly towards the back door of the wagon, gesturing with his hands to me to follow him. "I & Bell are jumping first to observe the moves of Katinka, Wraith & Knight, you're taking shelter to the store in front of Katinka's hideout and Bellamy, you're assuring the extraction," He reminded everyone before he opens the door with his hands, the noise of the train been heard louder than before as he knelt on one knee. "You're ready, Bell?"

"Of course," I said, nodding at him.

"Let's go then," He told me, tapping the back of my shoulder gently before he jumped first from the train.

I took a deep breath before I jump off the train too, landing on the rails of the tunnel...and almost fall because my feet tapped against one of the wooden planks on the ground, feeling so ridiculous as Stitch was looking at me and it was unsure if he was laughing or not on his face even if he was without a mask. The only thing he did was shake his head, his eyes rolling up.

"Here's the ghost station, it's our entrance to the West," Stitch exclaimed, taking out a silenced pistol as we were walking on the rails discreetly.

"Sure that it's safe?" I asked, staying behind him as he was the one leading the way to me.

"The HVA was using this ghost station to slip some of their agents in West Berlin, abandoned by them a year ago and even the Americans didn't spot it," He replied, reassuring me as we entered a little maintenance room to join the bay of the station, finding actually no one that could disturb us in our moves, not even on the other bay as the train was covering us in case. "There should be a ladder inside," He pointed out towards another locked door that he opened easily.

"I'm climbing first," I volunteered myself as there was a black ladder at the end of the room and Stitch nodded, approving my choice.

I put down my gun for the moment as I put my hands on the ladder to climb up slowly to reach the surface and when I was going to arrive near the trap of the surface, I was able to hear what was the weather outside: all rainy, hearing the sounds of the drops falling on the manhole...the same time we're been having for days now and West-Berlin has to have it too...things are never changing here.

It's with a sigh that I opened the manhole from the inside, getting greeted by the heavy drop of rain on my face, causing me to put on the hood of my blue sweater before actually got up back on my feet, finally breathing some fresh air from the outside...feeling so good but also good enough to catch a cold. I took a breath before turning around to help Stitch that was going up from the ladder, offering my hand to help him.

"Thanks, Bell," He said, taking my hand in his, helping him to get on the surface before passing his hands on his pants, cleaning up some dust on it. "Welcome to West-Berlin," He scoffed, closing the manhole behind him once he was done.

"Not changing from the East for the moment," I stated as I was looking around, we were in a small alley that was surely near the Berlin Wall, finding it in the same state that was around the safe house.

"The Germans..." Stitch sighed before he took a look around with me, his eye getting on a locked door, "We should get to the roof before someone caught us here," He exclaimed, starting to move towards a red locked door as I was staying behind him, him trying to discreetly open the door without making too many noises.

"I thought that we were going to be stopped by guards," I said to him, my silenced M1911 in my hands, my eyes on the way to get to the street.

"Me too, Bellamy said that the West-German police was somehow going to be on alert because of a leak," He revealed to me, the talk seemingly making him less focused on unlocking that door and it was looking like I was going to force open it with my feet if he was going to be this long. "We stay aware and...finally, it's open," He told me, able to open the door without me and let me enter the building.

"We're near Checkpoint Charlie, right?" I demanded to him.

"Yes, Krypto & Katinka are meeting in the bar nearby, we're here to make sure Katinka has the briefcase and that the meeting is taking place," He responded, closing the door and locking it again to make sure that no one was going to come here. "Lead the way, I'm behind you," He ordered, making me get upstairs as the first thing I saw when entering the place was directly that.

I complied as I moved up on the wooden stairs before arriving at a locked door, opening in less time than Stitch did before and again, back into the outside air, finding myself on the roof and having a big view over the Berlin Wall, seeing its full layout, a No Man's Land between two big walls, patrols with dogs & watchtowers with spotlights, watching over the area to search any person trying to pass the Wall but it would be suicide.

"The Soviets did really make quite a job," I spoke to myself as Stitch was arriving behind me, closing the door again before he took up the lead, walking towards the ridge at a few meters while avoiding the spotlight that was trying to light up the roof but the red sign with letters on the roof allowed us to move without any problem, the ridge out of sight from the spotlight.

"In time," Stitch sighed, kneeling on his right knee near the ridge, overlooking the checkpoint that was at its full usefulness. "Bell, take your camera, see if you can spot Katinka," He ordered, prompting me to take out the camera I was given by Wraith for the mission. "Try to watch any person that could hold a briefcase," He clarified as my eyes were looking right through the camera.

I was looking at everything around the side of the checkpoint, seeing only the car that was getting frisked along with its occupants by the American guards, thinking at first that I was finding that Katinka before I moved a little to see the person that wasn't using a car, spotting a woman with blond hair, with a black briefcase & a brown umbrella in each hand, walking towards the checkpoint.

"I got her: the woman with a brown umbrella," I announced to Stitch, pointing my hand discreetly towards her position she was as she got stopped by a guard by the moment she arrived near the checkpoint.

"The guard is letting her pass," Stitch commented after Katinka pulled out something from her white coat with her right hand to the guard before he let her pass after moving away from her. "Must have been important, the Americans can't let her pass despite the alert they are," He added.

"That's also meaning that she got what we need," I raised my shoulders, still looking at Katinka that was walking towards the bar of the meeting before moving my eyes away from the camera, putting it back inside my jacket, "Do we move?"

"Yes, we had to," Stitch got up from his spot before quickly walking away and following him out of the roof, taking another direction to leave it, passing through some stairs inside the building before we landed on the ground, inside another alley, with a path towards the street. "Shit, it's looking like the police are on high alert," Stitch said, seeing the multiple policemen around the street.

"It might be too dangerous for you to get in that bar, I presume?" I presumed, meaning that it was the first change of plan of the whole mission, Stitch could be recognized by some around and we couldn't risk that.

"Yeap but I know that you can do it, I'll stay here to watch over the place," He assured me about my skills as I took a deep breath, walking with Stitch near the street. "My contact inside is from the Stasi, he's wearing a black leather jacket, brown hair and has a red umbrella," He explained, giving me better details about the person that we were supposed to meet together.

"I'm on my way," I breathed, leaving Stitch alone to engage myself inside the street sidewalk.

The police were looking very suspiciously and I couldn't let myself got stop by them, having no fake identity papers with me, just an earset and a silenced M1911 in my jacket but hopefully, my clothes weren't looking too much suspicious, much adapted to that side of the city. I walked through the pedestrian crossing of the street to join the bar where this Zasha and Katinka were supposed to meet, the name of the bar wasn't so important for me now.

I took a quick look inside through one of the main windows, perceiving Katinka with her back turned against the front door of the place, sit on a table and all alone, having put her briefcase and umbrella near it before I decided to enter the place, passing the front door and removing the hood of my jacket after having it on top of me since I stepped out of that manhole cover.

My eyes went directly towards the end of the bar, having found with them, the contact that Stitch mentioned to me: a man with brown hair and having a red umbrella leaned against the table he was staying on, making me walk to him.

"Hey, good to see you," I faked to know the man, having to act like normal friends with him.

"Oh, that's you, have a seat," The man greeted me with a smile, offering his hand for shaking and I complied before he pointed at me, the seat in front of me, sitting down on it. "So, you're 'Bell'? From Stitch's team?" He asked me clearly in a low voice.

"Yes, and you?" I asked him back,

"Franz Kraus, affiliated with Volkov, ex-Stasi," He replied to me, putting his hands on the table, palms against it. "Are your team listening?" He demanded, gesturing with his head to my ears.

"Of course," I reassured him, putting my hand above my right ear. "Is the sound clear for everything?" I questioned the others through the earset, receiving a big yes from Stitch, Bellamy & Knight, and an all nice for me from Wraith...very different from the others, I can say.

"Katinka Goodman is at the table near the entrance, you should have seen her when you come in," He said, keeping his eyes on me as I was making furtive looks to where Katinka was, still seeing her alone.

"Do you know why the police are looking agitated?" I demanded at him curiously, seeing through the window near us, the police cars outside.

"Rumors said that the police are after some HVA agents, our informant inside the BND still in East-Berlin managed to tell us about it," He responded to me, tapping with his left hand on the table as, near it, there was a little plate with cute snacks on it, giving me the idea to take them for me. "Apart of it, I shouldn't be here in the West," He added, probably talking to himself, profiting that he was looking away to take those snacks inside my jacket. "But anyway, it's part of the job, got a kid & a wife to take care," He sighed, pulling out of his jacket a pack of cigarettes, taking only one after I gestured that I didn't want one.

"Katinka is looking rather nervous," I suggested, seeing her from afar, tapping with her feet on the ground, her hands on the table.

"To what I heard from her, she needs to be taken seriously, she ain't someone to joke with," He explained, his voice actually meaning it and he was looking sure of his words at me. "She's..."

"Wait, there's someone coming to look at her," I interrupted him as I could see a man dressed in black, directly going to whisper something inside Katinka's right ear before he left, soon followed by her. "Shit, she's leaving," I cursed.

"Bell, get out, the police is coming in," Stitch warned me as the second after he speaks that four policemen entered the bar, "I'm going into hiding," He added before his earset went shut on all the team.

"Bell, join me at the store near Katinka's hideout, Bellamy told me that she's walking back to it," Wraith ordered to me, me trying to not panic as the policemen were starting to check up everybody.

"Don't worry, I've got something," Kraus reassured me before he looked in the direction of the bar counter, a group of three men dressed in blacks like the other man, and Kraus made a sign to them with his head before one of them starts to walk towards the policemen group.

"Hey, asshole, take that," The man shouted before he literally throws a punch on the first policeman he approached, causing a brawl to spark inside the bar, Kraus's men engaging the policemen.

"Go, now!" Kraus ordered to me and I nodded, having given me the perfect opportunity to leave the bar without any problem.

That brawl was going to put some attention to every cop around in the sector, passing next to it and not taking care about who was winning or losing before heading out the bar by the same door I came in as some cops were coming in to help their friends in needs, not paying attention to, and then, I needed to go into the store where Wraith & Knight should've been waiting for me.

I thought at first that I was going to get myself lost inside the streets of West-Berlin as Katinka's hideout was a few streets away from the bar but thanks to having studied the layout of the sector with some maps back at the safe house instead of staying on my ass on a chair as Bellamy did, I managed to remember the way to get to the store, avoiding, of course, the few cops that weren't running away to calm the brawl at the bar.

It took me 5 minutes to get myself to the store, passing in front of the place where Bellamy was waiting for us before arriving near a grilled door, Knight at the other side of it and by seeing me arrive, he opened it widely.

"Here you are, you did nose or what?" He asked me in a serious voice, letting me enter the alley he was waiting in. "They're talking about a brawl inside the bar," He clarified himself about what he was asking about.

"Yes, Kraus's men did one to let me away without any suspicions," I replied to him before he closes the grilled door, and then walking next to a door.

"Wraith is inside, she's waiting for you," Knight told me as he opened the door leading inside the store. "I'll be waiting here in the case for Stitch," I nodded to him before I stepped inside the store, looking like an electronics store but then, as I was walking to get to Wraith that was near the window, earsets around her head and holding a strange device, something weird happens.

There were one of the TV that was shut off completely in the middle shelf but when I approached it, it suddenly goes on, showing me pictures of...various things...Rebirth Island...a red door inside a big hallway...some archives from the Vietnam War...and then....

"Bell! Bell!" A voice spoke up, getting me out of my thoughts as I could see Wraith, standing near me, looking worried, her hands on my right arm. "Hey, you're okay?" She asked me.

"I...this TV turned on by itself," I said, gesturing towards the TV in question that was now shut off.

"Bell, are you sure you're fine?" She questioned me, keeping her hands on me to reassure me.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine," I told her, shaking my head, thinking that it was just my head messing up, knowing that it was some side effects of my one-month coma as reported by Stitch before. "Uhm...what's the situation?" I demanded to her, finding a better voice for me to talk with.

"Katinka just came back and got called by Smirnov, the meeting's place has changed," She answered, gently tapping my right arm before she walks back to her spot, kneeling with one knee on the ground. "Someone warned them," She added.

"Shit," I muttered, looking at my feet. "But we aren't aborting, right?"

"Nope, we need someone to enter her apartment and put a tracker inside that briefcase she's holding around," She confirmed her determination to do her job, taking out from a bag that was posed on the ground near her, a green hood along with a little tracking device. "You're the one doing it, you got the lockpicks," She exclaimed, handing me the two things in my hands.

"And the hood? What it is for?" I was curious about its usefulness here, taking it nonetheless.

"It's to use when you will enter her hideout, we can't risk having our faces recognized," She explained to me as I was looking hesitant to actually go inside her hideout. "Listen, Bell, I know that you can do this, you're the best," She affirmed, myself wanting to say that I couldn't be the best but it was nice from her anyway.

"Okay, I will do it," I grinned at her, getting the hood and the tracker inside my jacket before taking a look at the window Wraith was focusing her strange device, that was in fact a listening device to hear discussions from afar...very stupid from me..."I'll do my best," I admitted before taking a deep breath and joining the front door to get on the street...

"Bell," Wraith's voice stopped me in my moves, just having my hands on the front door handle, looking worried on her face but still with a little smile...

"Don't worry, I'll be your eyes, I've got hope on you,"

[zer0desuu]

Dance of Flames Until Death

Note: Flamebringer x Unspecified Dokutah. My first completed work in a long time, so please be nice! I only recently got into Arknights cuz of my crazy friend @veedraws. I have yet to bring Flamebringer home, so I’m not super familiar with him, so all this is based on his files and Vee’s fangirling XD. Also, sucks that he’s terrible in the game meta, but he’s supposed to be super OP in the story :c

-------

Night has now fallen in the outskirts of Lungmen. The battle has gone on forever. The squad barely made a dent in the enemy army. Everyone was at their wits’ end.

I chew on my lip, frantically trying to come up with a strategy. The squad was exhausted and being pushed back by the enemy forces. 

“Doctor… It’s time.” Flamebringer’s low voice comes through the comms. “Send me out there. There’s no other choice. I’m the only one who can take down this many enemies.”

I hesitate, looking into Flamebringer’s eyes. Flamebringer is notorious for losing control of himself, at the cost of his health. But he was right - he was the only one capable of dealing with this many enemies and surviving.

“...Alright, prepare for deployment.” 

Flamebringer salutes me and exits the control room for the helipad. Moments later, Flamebringer drops down from the deployment copter right in the middle of the frontlines. 

“So…” Flamebringer draws his dual blades from his scabbard. He readies himself, pointing his katana at the hoard in front of him. The katana blade glows like a flame, illuminating the shadows with an orange glow. “Who will be my next opponent?”

Flamebringer lunges at the enemy front lines, blades reflecting the soft light from the full moon above. The glow from his katana and the strips of cloth hanging from his broadsword swirl in an entrancing dance of blades. Each and every swing and stab is meticulously accurate, something only a master of their art can do.

All the other operators on the field are frozen in their spot. Once Flamebringer starts, he cannot be stopped. He will cut down anyone who gets in their way, even allies. The air of the night is filled with Flamebringer’s howls, growing more and more wild with every enemy reduced to ashes. No matter how many times I see Flamebringer fight, I am always stunned by the beauty and carnage. 

Blinking to clear my head, I yell a command to everyone in the field, “Flamebringer, lead the charge. Snipers and mages continue supporting him from behind. Defenders, brace for any enemy charges that leak through!”

The squad puts their all in the fight, their morale renewed by the arrival of reinforcements. The hoard of enemies gradually dwindles. The enemy frontline begins to retreat. We were winning.

“Doctor! Flamebringer’s vitals are reaching dangerous levels! Heart rate is exceeding normal values, blood originium levels have increased sharply.” Ansel shouts from his post in front of the the medi-screens. 

As if on cue, Flamebringer collapses to the ground, one hand clutching his chest. His other grasps his blade, using it as support, struggling to keep himself upright. He gasps for breath, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Perfumer rushes to his side, hands quickly reaching for him, ready to use her healing magic.

“Flamebringer!” I shout into my comm. “Retreat now!” 

“N-No…” Flamebringer swats Perfumer’s hands away. He pushes up off the ground using his sword, his body swaying. Flamebringer brings one hand up to his face, swiping the blood away. The black crystals embedded in his skin had spread further up his neck. “Not until you…”

“There’s no way you can continue in this state. Retreat immediately! This is a command!” 

“No…” Flamebringer’s voice trails off as his knees give way. He drops to the cement, unmoving. 

“Deployment choppers, retrieve Operator Flamebringer immediately!” 

“That idiot!” I hiss, slamming my fist into the desk, seething with anger. Flamebringer always pushed himself to the brink, as if he didn’t care whether he dies. But I cared. He is one of the most valuable Operators on the team.

I try to push thoughts of Flamebringer to the back of my mind while my squad finishes off the rest of the enemies. It goes smoothly due to Flamebringer greatly thinning the numbers. 

Once the rest of my squad boarded the choppers back to Rhodes Island, I run down to the medical centre. Flamebringer lay in a medical bay, with his eyes closed, not moving. A medic-droid removes the final electrode stuck onto Flamebringer’s bare chest. Another droid stands near his bed, tapping away at his medical log displayed on a holoscreen. My heart sinks, bracing for the worst of the news. 

There is some silence as the medic-droid finishes up filling in his information. Finally, it spoke, “We managed to stabilize him. His blood originium-crystal density has increased by 0.03 u/L and his cell-originium assimilation level has increased by 0.06%. Recommended actions include rest from battle to slow further increases. This concludes Operator Flamebringer’s medical report.” 

“Thank you.” I say to the medic-droid. It flashes its eyes in acknowledgement before gliding out of the medical bay. 

I slowly sit down on the stool next to the bed. Flamebringer’s face looks peaceful as he sleeps, different from the scowl or the smirk he usually has. The crystals have grown, some new growths emerging from his skin. 

Flamebringer stirs and slowly opens his eyes. He starts to sit upright, but I place a hand on his chest to stop him. “You need to rest, you idiot.” 

He lays back down, frowning at me in protest. 

I sighed. “You did it again. You pushed yourself way too far.” 

“It’s nothing new to me.” He gives a small shrug. 

“But the more you do this, the worse your health will get. What if you lose yourself again but the infection progresses too much for your body?!” I catch myself, realizing that I had raised my voice. I took a shaky breath, my throat unable to say the next words. “You’ll die…” 

“I don’t care. I already know what will happen to me. I don’t have anything left in this world anyway, so why not go doing what I love?” 

“But what about your plants? Who will take care of them if you’re not here?”

“I guess they’ll just die with me.”

“W-What…What about me…?” My trembling voice was barely a whisper, my heart pounding in my chest. The tears in my eyes threatened to fall. I look down at my hands clenching the hem of my jacket. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t around, you idiot.” 

Flamebringer’s eyes instantly shot in my direction. His face was frozen in a state of shock as he processes what I just said. He slowly sits upright. “What…?”

"I can't imagine what it would be like without you!” Tears slide down my face as I look up into his eyes. I was always so irritated about how he treated life with such nonchalance. I knew it was dumb of me to feel this way for someone who was dying, but I couldn't help it. "Stop running towards death, you idiot."

Flamebringer's expressions change rapidly as he made sense of what I am saying. Finally, his face softened into a small, sad smile. He reaches for my face, brushing away a tear with his thumb. I lean into his hand, grateful that it's still warm, like a fire is still burning in him. 

He leans forward, pulling me closer to him. His lips brush against mine hesitantly, as if I would shove him away. It seemed like he had a bad relationship with me prior to my memory loss. When I don't protest, he kisses me with more strength. 

"Doctor…" Flamebringer pulls away and rests his forehead on mine. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I will always be by your side, even when I'm gone." 

"Idiot." 

[bonsaiiiiiii]

FabFiveFeb 2020 - Gordon, week 2

No clothes- prompt 4

(Made another one with @gumnut-logic 's prompts! It's a bit longer than the other. Hope you enjoy it!)

Today was a big day. And not in a positive sense.

But at least it started good.

It started with me and Virg cuddling, well, like always. We were cuddling in bed, kissing sometimes, and talking about irrelevant things just to pass the time together.

It was useful also, because I learnt something from him, naturally he learnt something from me too, like my drive-by shooting and other things that made me take sleeping pills to not be taken by my sleep paralysis demon. He's the only one that knows that.

It was a bit painful opening up about this event, but I learned so many things..

For example, that Virgil has a flower-shaped birthmark on his right butt cheek.

Could you ever guess? Yeah, me neither.

So we were in his bed talking and kissing when we heard some screams and a loud thump downstairs. We looked at each other in the eye, to then rush downstairs, where the sight was horrible.

Two of the chairs of the dining table flew to the terrace, the little white rose that I planted fell to the floor, making a mess and leaving a big trail on the floor; but what preoccupied me the most was the flower pot broken, its pieces shattered on the floor, and some of them...

"Scott! What the hell happened to you?!" I shouted in horror; his face was all bloody, and that's where were some of the pieces of the pot I couldn't clearly see on his forehead. Implanted there. "Come with me.."

Virgil looked at me apprehensively; he knew that I was going to remove the pieces and not him, and he gave me his full permission because he trusts me to put my hands on his big bro. That's what he trained me to do also, and well..also because apparently I have a surgeon degree and I have to use it at some point in my life?

Scott on the other hand was completely and totally okay with me 'operating' him, because he trusts me like Virgil does, and he has faith that I can be good and excel in what I dream for. This makes me tear up, because for once in my lifetime I have someone caring for me and supporting me, and I'm glad for that.

"Who did this to you?" I asked him while I started cleaning and disinfect his face; he made a grunting noise practically hugging my torso, mumbling something I could decipher as "it hurts".

"Resist until I'm done." I affectionately said patting his head. He slowly nodded.

"Gordon." He said after a moment of pause.

What has Gordon got to-ah.

"Why did he do this to you?"

"Well..he came to me, asking me if he could swim again after his hiatus, I mean professionally, and I told him that this wasn't a good idea, with all he's got to do now."

"Yeah, but I mean, you must have told him something else that made him explode like that. You know he is angry often for what you always say to him; but I've seen him explode just two times, and this was one of these two." I said, starting to remove carefully some shatters.

He grunted again. "I think it's the tone I used with him; I was harsh and violent, just because I don't want any distraction now that we found dad again."

"You shouldn't have used that. Don't you think that he wants his dad too, as much as you want him to come home? Maybe swimming is a way to express his emotions, like always. Reconsider this, and take in also the others' emotions apart from considering yours." I said sweetly but sternly to him, removing the last pieces of shatters from his head. Once I was done, I put 2 stitches to his head and one on his bottom lip, along with some bandages. "Please avoid to chew your lip, or I'll find you and castrate you after everything I've done."

He widened his eyes for a second, to then hug me affectionately, this time normally. "Ah, if you want to search for Gordon, he took a pod and got away from the island, I have no idea of where he is. I'm not searching for him because I know he doesn't want to talk to me."

I hugged him back. "I will talk to him when he returns back, but after that you will need to do it. Don't be harsh, okay? He has too much on his platter just like that, don't add fuel to the fire."

"Okay, thank you, Litchi."

"Don't call me like that! I'll personally break your head!"

🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊🏝🌊

Now we're in the middle of the afternoon, and I'm baking a cake. The others got in a compicate rescue, and won't be there until dinner time. Now it was 4 PM, and I just got the vanilla cake in the oven. I sat on the kitchen chair, finally relaxing, when I heard a loud thump again.

Gordon.

I got up, and the more I was approaching to the living room, the more the air smelled like...mayonnaise?

I finally got to the living room, and what I saw left me shook.

Gordon was sitting- well, he was sprawled on the couch of the living room, naked as the day he was born.

"Oh gosh, Gordon!" I whispered, immediately covering my eyes. I made him the sign to lower his voice because grandma was sleeping upstairs.

"Hhhhiii, t-t-turn down the lighsssss.." God, he's so drunk. The curiosity took the better of me, and I looked at him though my fingers. I noticed just now that he wasn't completely naked; his body was all covered in...what are these?

"Are you kidding me? Froot Loops?" I looked at him with my hands off my face.

"Cheeee-ros were ov'r."

"And I assume you're covered in..mayonnaise?"

"Y'h" he scrambled his eyes. "The lighssss." He asked me for the second time in 5 minutes.

I got to the light switch, turning it off. He immediately made a squealing sound, demonstrating happiness.

"Can I ask you why in the world you're with no clothes on? And drunk asf?"

"Clothesss, impeding airrr. You'r hair, issooooo pretty!" He got closer to me, but I put him back down on the couch. He pouted.

"Don't change the subject, pufferfish. Why are you drunk?"

"Bec'se Scott's an ass." He scrunched his eyes and nose again.

I huffed. "Wait here for me."

I got upstairs and to his room. Gosh, this man is a mess, just like his room. I walked around, avoiding clothes and suits of all sorts, and got to his closet.

"Umm, let's see.." I took out an oversized shirt he likes to wear when he sleeps, then I got to one of his drawers and took out a pair of boxers. "It should be okay." I then got to his en-suite bathroom and got two clean towels. I soaked one of them in cold water; then I got downstairs.

I gave the clothes and the towels to Gordon, instructing him to wash himself with the wet towels, then to dry himself with the another, them dress up. He grunted.

I then got to the kitchen, taking a beer glass, one of these capient 0,6 cl, and filling it with water. I got back into the living room, giving the glass to Gordon. He looked at me with wet eyes.

"Th'nk u." he drank the water, starting to feel better instantly.

I was about to sit, when John's hologram popped up. "Alice-"

I raised a hand, gesturing to him that we would talk later. He smiled to then nod and close comms. He knows me what it takes to know that it's not the ideal moment for him to interrupt me.

"Do you think...that-that I am a failure?" Gordon said with his eyes full of tears. Goshhh, he started with his sentimental side again. Last time I found him drunk he was hugging a table crying.

"No. You're the best pufferfish I ever knew, and I'm honest." I paused for a second, sitting near him on the couch. Eugh, I will need to take a shower later. "I talked to Scoot, you know?"

"I don't wanna hear from him."

"He didn't mean to be violent to you, he just wants his dad back, and he behaved badly. You know the Aries, how stubborn they are."

"Yeah..I will need to talk to him, later. Now I just want to swim. I wanted to ask that to Scott for a long time but I never found the courage to do it.."

"You can swim now, but not after a shower, puffy. You smell."

"Thanks." ??? What? Why?

"Um, you're welcome?"

"Thank you for assuring me that I'm not a burden..a failure.."

"You def aren't. Who would be my best twin in the world?"

"Me?"

"Yes bro." I hugged him affectionately. "Love ya."

"Love you too. Y'know, you're like mom."

I paused reassuring him, looking at him, breathing.

"Just- just because I'm born the same day as her, it doesn't automatically make me your mom. I'm nothing like her."

"That's not true. It's the way you behave. You have mom's way to solve problems. You have mom's way to care for the others. You have mom's way of talking and reassuring. Even if I'm the same age as you, I am and will always consider you as mom. You didn't take her place, you just filled the empty place mom left us. Everyone thinks that, even Virgil."

He paused when he saw tears coming down from my face. He knows how much did Virgil shout to me for his mom's incident, but that's a story I don't feel like talking right now.

"I know you had your problems on being accepted by him, but he told me the other day. What we all were thinking since the day you came here, he is certain of now. I ask you only one thing, don't change your personality, because we all love you for what you are, and not for what we expect you to be, even because we don't expect nothing better than yourself."

I hugged him practically crying. Gosh, I was supposed to make him feel better but he was actually the one to reassure me.

"I'm sorry." I said. "You probably feel like a shit right now, but you still reassured me."

"It was my choice to. I actually feel better right now, so don't worry. And I know you needed that; it's one of the reasons you take your sleeping pills for."

I paused breathing again. "How the f did you know that?"

"Intuition." Someone told him that. "I won't tell anyone, talk to the others when you feel to."

"Okay." Just then I noticed he was starting to feel better. An idea flashed inside my head. "You're feeling better?"

He looked at me, then nodded. "Yep. Like nothing happened."

"Good! Then take a freaking broom and sweep all of this shit from the floor, put the chairs back behind the table and FUCKING REPLANT MY ROSE, YOU STUPID BIT-" I was screaming, but now it didn't matter, I heard grandma walking upstairs a few minutes ago.

"OKAY! I will do it! Look, I'm going!"

"Go faster! I'll break your head if you touch my flowers again!"

He nodded repeatedly, to then stop in his tracks.

"Don't you smell something burning?" He turned to me.

"Your next 10 minutes if you don't mo- OH, the cake!" I forgot about it! I rushed to the kitchen while Gordon was laughing; he stopped when I threw him a shoe.

(Should I continue? I didn't want to reveal too much of Alice until my main fic is out, but eh, idk. I tried my best :D)

[heartbxnd-blog]

Anonymous has sent: 1 3 4 6

Munday Memes; Your Opinions [Accepting]

DISCLAIMER: This post contains opinion! If you can’t deal well with these things, either don’t read this post, come talk to me about it privately or block me. This post isn’t aimed at anyone, don’t let someone’s opinion on the internet hurt your feelings.

1. Is there anything that currently worries you about the rpc?

// At the moment? Not much that I can think of actually!

At least not anything unique to the pokeRPC sorta of speaking. From people who can’t distinguish reality from fiction, the purist culture, to those who feel the need to shove their agenda down others’ throats. These aren’t exclusive to this community, and they always worry/annoy me because people who are wrapped up in this mess- lack any kind of basic knowledge/morals meaning the chances of them TRULY hurting someone else are extremely high.

I’ve learned my lesson, and now I know best to avoid these people and look out for the signs of them.

3. Is there anything that you will absolutely not rp?

// Besides really weird shit? That most folks I talk/rp with tend to say no to?

One thing should be pointed out is that: I’m WAY more open to things privately with people who I trust on, than on my tumblr blogs.

I like to see myself as someone who is pretty open about what could be done in fiction, because I honestly don’t care what happens in it- and so long I’m not forcing it/hurting my partner then who cares?

Even dark heavy subjects like Inc.est, ra.pe, etc. I wouldn’t be fully opposed to delve into for a story. Because if they are used correctly, they can establish and create quite the compelling story.

IKR It’s such a complex concept- the idea of an author, not really condoning/supporting what they write.

OF COURSE, when it comes to RP this is something that my partner must be okay with it as well. Because guess what? I won’t force anything on anyone, in fact whenever I start any discussions/plotting I ALWAYS ask them to tell me what are their boundaries and to always tell me if we should skip something/etc for their own comfort. This is meant to be enjoyable for both parties after all.

Ironically if I were to list out what I would outright deny, is actually gore. Depending on the severity, I can feel physically sick with imagery and detailed description of it. I guess I wouldn’t be able to write a full on ra/pe scene? Eh again, most of the time depends on how I’m feeling.

4. What is your opinion on call out culture or general discourse within certain rp comms?

// 99% of the times it is silly, stupid and unnecessary for both callout culture AND discourses. 

I understand that a call out in its theory, should be used to warn people of ACTUAL threats to the community’s users. Be it for a scam, or virus going around, to possible pedophiles and overall really toxic individuals (WITH REAL EVIDENCES OF IT- AND NOT DMS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT).

But what it is used for in ALL the cases (minus like once or twice throughout all of my 5~4 years of RPing here) is to nothing but instigate a mob mentality to go out of their ways to harrass and bully people. Yeah no sorry, I can’t stand nor will support this kind of crap.

People who write callout posts, have a goal in their mind: To ruin the person’s reputation, and chase them out of the community for whatever BS. If anything, these are the people we should be avoiding and be warned about. They don’t care about whatever SJ bs they will try to cover their intentions with, their goal is to destroy and make someone’s time/life miserable.

Discourse is something that shouldn’t even be near RP IMO to begin with, because I’m here to escape reality. Besides- who’s their target demographic again? Are they helping ANYONE? Oh and god forbid if you disagree with them. Now my darlings, this is what we call a keyboard warrior.

It’s unnecessary, nobody asked for these, and they really aren’t making ANY difference y’know besides making those who they don’t agree with lives hell.

TLDNTR: If you support callout culture, and try to shove an agenda down my throat. You can fuck right off from my blogs.

6. What is your opinion on how OC’s & female muses are treated within the rpc?

// One thing: You’re on Tumblr.com I don’t think there is a more progressive hellhole like this one in the internet. 9/10 times I see the supposed “female mistreatment” in the RP community, just looks to me like a miscomunication between the partners.

Either one party wasn’t clear or the other misunderstood what they meant.

If anything I’ve had in the past, female muses mistreat/belittle/harrass my male muses. All while passing it off as “being a strong female muse right here uwu”. Let me tell u, it sure wasn’t funny for me to see my male muses being reduced to supposed sexism just because they wouldn’t be friendly/etc. Even though I’ve stated to the mun countless times, how they were going to react to certain things.

But hey what do I know right? Am I not the elitist- canon rper who only seems to write dudes???

Jokes aside though, obviously I won’t allow these bad experiences ruin my general thoughts on them. This is the prime example of OOC behavior, putting me off completely to even glance at the muse.

As for OCs- my dudes, I’ve rped/written some OCs in the past. I understand and I wholeheartedly agree, it is not fun feeling ignored or left out over characters that everyone else knows. But here is there thing, you kinda of signed up for this challenge the moment you pick an OC- no one knows your character, and you as its creator needs to sell it to others.

It is only natural that people will gravitate towards the pre established characters’ blogs. But don’t let it put you down from your creation, you’ll find people who are genuinely interested in your OC- it is all a matter of finding your people.

[wordscanburnarchive]

@oliverqxeen​  –  because we love pain .

the petite blonde  laughs  at the words of the acquaintance before her ,  shaking her head slightly as she brings her coffee to her lips .  thumb  dragging  lightly against the plastic of cup as she allows her gaze to   s t r a y .  her eyes search through the spread of people attending the street festival ,  ranging from their corded off  VIP  area to the more   congested   crowd several yards away .  she supposed there were  p e r k s  to being an  important person  to a  V I P .  in addition ,  it was a perk for someone who’d helped  plan  it .  after all ,   star city could use some more  fun  at the cusp of summer and fall .  and what was better than a street festival with food ,  live music ,  and booths selling everything ranging from handmade  bracelets  to  spa packages  to  cardboard cutouts of your favorite celebrities .  she wraps her other hand around her cup ,  a finger subconsiously   t r a c i n g   over the wedding band on her left hand ,  the smile on her lips on   g r o w i n g   slightly .  until her eyes finally meet the gaze of who she was looking for .  her blue eyes shine and her smile widens ,  teeth  bared  before she turns back to the woman before her to easily brush her off before turning away .  she raises her coffee to her lips to take a final sip from the straw before tossing it into a trash can as she steps off the sidewalk onto the street .

peyton’s smile doesn’t waver as she meets the eyes of her husband again ,  raising a brow slightly in   s i l e n t   question as she glances between him and the  over-dressed  older couple he’d been cornered by .  even in the   early  stages of their relationship ,  when neither of them were  interested  in even calling it as such ,  peyton had been skilled at getting him out of   UNWANTED  conversations .  and as they went from lovers to to more ,  they’d developed a   system .   a way for oliver to let her know when  HE  needed to be rescued for a change .  but with the wink in her direction before the  mayoral  smile was turned back to the couple before him ,  she knew that he didn’t an excuse to walk away just  yet  .   so as she approaches him she simply   a p o l og i z e s  for interrupting as she loops her arm through his ,  and   e n t w i n i n g   their fingers together as she settles herself against his side .  she  leans her head against his arm shoulder and allows her attention to  drift  .

it had been been merely a few   m o n t h s   since they’d   tied the knot .   since she’d retired her father’s name to become a   queen  .  a few months since she’d made the leap she’d never thought she would be capable of .  she can’t help but believe this is exactly what   real   love is meant to be .  real love is meant to help you realize what you are  REALLY  capable of .  to help you realize your   full   potential ,   rather than just live within the bounds you put on yourself .  peyton liked to think she’d pushed him as well ,  but she wasn’t sure  who  had the greatest change within .  but as she   t i l t s   her chin up to look at him ,  to watch him speak ,  she realizes she doesn’t particularly  care  .  because regardless of what demons they’d faced ,  despite the flaws they both still had  . . .  they were here .  together .  and they’d always have that .  there was no doubt in her mind that they would always have that .  they’d   ALWAYS   have each other .

that is when their day  s h i f t s  .  her brows furrow in time with his as he checks his phone .  she doesn’t need to  read  the text over his shoulder to know that something was   wrong  .  but before she can ask oliver has excused them from the conversation and begun to steer them towards the office building .  her lips  d i p in a frown ,  her hand squeezing his tighter on   i n s t i n c t  .                ‘         what’s wrong   ?          ’               she asks as she follows quickly at his side ,  allowing him to lead  —  that is ,  until they reach the glass doors for the building .  she swings around him to stand in his way ,  her hand playing  flat  against his chest in attempt to catch his attention in a way her words  hadn’t .                ‘         HEY ,  i’m not going any farther until you tell me what’s happening .          ’

brows �� r i s e   slightly at his words ,  her frown deepening as her eyes   flit   briefly from his face to the crowds along the streets .  but she doesn’t have a chance to reply before she’s being pulled into the building .  she let’s oliver pull her to the elevator and bring her to his office ,  without question or complaint .  not because of   fear  ,   more so out of   s h o c k .  out of surprise .  the day had been  . . .  normal .  and the last few months had been as   NORMAL   as they could be .   sure ,   even with oliver’s efforts to keep her   o u t   of all things green arrow , she’d still managed to get herself into  u n s a v o r y  situations .  found herself on the radar of some people she and oliver would   both  prefer didn’t know she existed .  however ,  she’d never been truly  shaken  by anyone  . . .  until this   PARTICULAR  adversary .

of course ,   she’d never admit that .  to   anyone .  but as her jaw   tightens   and she still holds oliver’s hand securely in her own in the elevator ,  she knows he can probably  guess  .   because they both know the  taunt  was meant for not only oliver  ,  but her as well .   her name didn’t have to be  mentioned  for them both to know that she was at risk .  just by being anywhere  near  this festival .  and despite her knowledge of this ,  despite the anxiety that  t o i l e d  in her stomach ,  one feeling reigns over any of worry .  anger .  anger that she can’t do anything to   HELP .  anger that some sorry excuse of a person was able to make her feel at   a l l   helpless .  anger at   HERSELF  for even letting the idea of helplessness to enter her mind .

‘         what can   i   do ?          ’                 peyton asks as their hands unclasp as the reach the floor of the mayor’s office .  she follows oliver out of the elevator ,  keeping pace with him as he heads to his office .                   ‘         and don’t just tell me to   stay here ,   because i can do more than that .  let me  help  .          ’                she says ,   vehemently trying to keep the   d e s p e r a t i o n   from her tone as they enter his office .   but she doesn’t even have to wait for him to  speak  to know what he’ll say .  she only has to look at his face .  her lips   twist   into a scowl .  while she knows the words don’t come from his lack of   faith  in her .  it comes from wanting to keep her   safe  . . .  and if it wasn’t for the   knowledge   that her being anywhere near street level  would simply be a dangerous   distraction   for him ,  she would have fought .  but instead ,  she let’s him go .  her eyes falling  shut as he preses a soft kiss to her forehead .  a promise that he’d be   b a c k  .   but she needs more than that .

the second he is gone ,   runs to his desk across the room .  she swings her purse arond to rest on it , flailing around within it briefly before finding the earpiece within it .  a   wedding gift   from  john .  a way to have ease some of the  worry  on days like today .  she presses it into her ear ,  turning it on with a   t a p   of her finger .  suddenly the  loud  chatter of voices on the line .  searching for the  threat  .  searching for the bomb .  peyton   slumps   into the chair ,  pulling up a knee to hold against her chest as she listens .  at the sound of oliver’s voice coming over the comms   r e l a x e s   her slightly ,  and she leans back in the chair ,  spinning it around to face the large wall of windows that gave her a perfect view of the festival bellow .  she slides the chair forward and looks down ,  watching the bustle of people stories bellow .  the people who have no idea what kind of danger they face  ,  if they  DON’T  find the bombs .

minutes pass ,  the   chatter   continues .  bombs are found and disabled ,  the tension   rises   as the timer continues to go down .  but   relief   begins to edge into the teams tones as they find the last bomb .  the relief in oliver’s tone as he disables the  final  bomb .   and a relieved  laugh passing her lips at  his words directly to her .   telling her she can stop  eavesdropping now ,  everything was    o k a y  .   and for a few blissful seconds ,  it was .  she could see their day ending well .  she could see oliver returning to her ,  taking her hand ,  and returning with her to the festival .  the danger for the day  averted ,   allowing them to relax .  they could dance to the live band that was to play into the evening ,  and then they could return home .  they could retire to their bedroom and spend the night  reminding  themselves how grateful they were to have won another day together .  she lets her lips pull into a small smile ,  her eyes still shut .  but then the  BOOM  rattles the building ,  rattles the ground  ,  rattles her world .  and the comms go   dead .

blue eyes shoot open and she launches herself out of the chair and against the window ,  her eyes wide as she looks down to the ground .  or what she  can  still see through the rising cloud of    smoke  and   dust .    she barely has the capacity to  react  to it before she finds herself sprinting out of the office .  she's down the hall ,  then to the stairwell .  as she runs down the steps ,   s k i p p i n g  the last few steps at each flight as she goes .  she reaches into her pocket to pull out her phone ,  and hits her most recently called ,  pressing her phone to her ear and skips another few steps as she hurries.                    ‘         please pick up ,   please pick up ,  please pick up ,          ’                  she practically   p l e a d s  the mantra on repeat with each   b e a t   of her feet against the stairs .  but there is no answer .  but it doesn't go straight to voicemail , which means his   phone   is okay ,  right ?   that  HAD  to be a good sign .   she had to believe that was a good sign .  as her feet hit the ground floor she hangs up the call and shoves her phone into the pocket of her jacket before busting through the stairwell door .

she only pauses for a moment as she takes in the scene before her .  the crowd of  coughing  bystanders ,  covered in dust and debris as they bled into the lobby of the building .  her heart  stops  in her chest and she finds herself running again ,   r u n n i n g  for the doors .  but just as she is about to reach the door ,  a  firm  hand grabs her by the arm and pulls her back .  she spins around ,  a verbal  lashing  ready on the tongue to cuss out whoever was getting in her way ,  but as he eyes meet those of a familiar face the words die on her lips .  when she looks up to see    john diggle  standing before her ,   she visibly relaxes .  a   relieved   smile relaxes her face and she steps closer to him ,  placing her hand on his .                ‘         oh thank god  ,    you're all okay ,         ’               she breathes out before she looks away from him to search the crowd .  if he was here ,  oliver must be too .  she just needed to find him.               ‘         where's  oliver ?   i'm going to   KILL   him for this, he fucking scared me .         ’  

when john doesn't answer she looks back to him ,  brows   f u r r o w e d .   but they only stay that way for the second it takes to read the  grief  and   worry  on his expression .  all emotion falls from her face ,  only the slight quiver of her lips as she pulls away slightly .  she stares at him ,  but she can't hear him .  his lips are moving but the only word she manages to gather is the  name  .    she shakes her head ,  words falling from her lips as she looks away from him ,  the world seeming to   SPIN   around her .                     ‘         no …  no no NO ,          ’       she says ,  her breathing coming in   short  as she tries to pull herself together .  and before she even registers her actions ,  and before he can grab her arm again as she pulls it away ,  peyton is   r u n n i n g   for the door .  she pushes through the door .   she doesn't hear john yell after her ,  and she doesn't  care  .  she just runs down the sidewalk and into the the dust clouded street . 

peyton caughs as she inhales the aerial mixture of  smoke  and  debris  and squints through the smoke .             ‘         OLIVER ��?!   OLIVER  !          ’            she calls out into the indiscernible smoke ,  her breaths  short  and her vision  blurred  by the tears of   p a n i c .   she call his name again and begins to  run .  she doens't know where she's running ,  but she keeps  going .  and  stops ,  and  yells ,  and runs more .  she coughs  d e e p l y  as she pauses when she thinks she sees something moving in the deep smoke .  her breathing is  heavy  ,  attempting to steady her breathing .  trails of tears painting lines through the dust that had begun to cake onto her face .  and then through the dust ,  she spots a   f a m i l i a r   green suit .   she freezes in her steps for a moment ,  and then she  RUNS .

she runs at him ,  no  words  making it past her lips as she   launches   herself onto him .  she wraps her legs   tightly   around him as if he was about to  d i s o l v e  into the smoke and dust that surrounded them .  her arms wrapped tightly enough for her to be sure it's  REAL .   

[stone-man-warrior]

June 14, 2019: 12:26 pm:

This is the black Volvo I explained about yesterday. I did not see the driver, there was a child in the passenger seat. The child waved at me as I took this photo about thirty minutes ago. I don’t know any more about the car or driver other than what I explained yesterday. Today, this car came with an airplane accompaniment flying low and slow over my house.

There is more to say about yesterday, I will be brief, no one is paying any attention so it’s just to maintain my memory of the events that occurred.

Yesterday, at about 3:30 pm I walked to the corner, the corner of “MyStreet and MyStreet” where the road goes in two different directions. I was there only one minute before Sparacino’s came down the road. I reported here the other day that I thought Nicole had been killed behind my chair, apearantly I was wrong again about the identity of the intruders. Nicole was driving in ONE of teh Sparacino’s new cars. A brand new, dark brown crossover style vehicle, I don’t know the make or model. What I observed there while at the corner and seeing Sparacino’s coming towards me, was a man across the road from Freeburgs 535, near the driveway for Joan Phillips 507. The man was disguised, did not look like a human, I cannot describe the costume. That man may have ignited from Nitrous Oxide ignition, which is why I went to the corner. I heard someone saying “C’est Chaud!” very loud, so I went to look, just then Sparacino came down the road, and the man ran across the road in front of their car, saying “Alto, Alto, Nos fier!”

Sparacino’s ran over the man right there in front of me and kept on driving. The car went all the way over the man, at least three of the wheels ran the man over, and Nicole did not even touch the brake as far as I could see. That happened about 150 feet away from where I was standing, looking directly at what was going on. I stepped aside a bit, but wanted to get a good look to see if it really was Nicole “Nix” Sparacino driving, and it was. In the passenger side was Sean (pronounced “Say-in”). Sean was propped up in the passenger side with a stick from the floor to his chest, Nicole had two sticks, similar to broom handles, on her lap, and across Sean’s lap. The end of the two sticks appeared to be attached to Sean’s wrists.

Nicole drove that car to the mailboxes and stopped there. I yelled at them “you have no balls Sparacino, you gave no balls!” as I often do.

She stopped at the mailboxes, and then spoke to the comm device that is inside at least one of them, it used to lead to Joan Phillips at 507, but I have not seen Joan in many months. Best guess is the comm is connected to Sandy Monroe at 434 since she is ALWAYS at the residence there. So, I heard Nicole say into the mailbox, from about fifty feet away, “who did I hit?”, the reply was “it was Freeburg”.

Nicole lingered there at the mailboxes. Those two sticks attached to Sean’s wrists were used to pretend to open her mailbox. This was done such that the passenger side of the car was nearest to the mailbox, and she used the sticks to maneuver Sean’s arms out of the window of the car, touch the maulbox and make a bit of noise, and then pull the arms back into the car. I watched this happen from fifty feet away while walking closer, until I was about twenty feet away from the back of the car. I could see her use the sticks to move the arms of Sean Sparacino the same way that a marionette is maneuvered.

I believe Sean is dead, and has been taxidermied.

Ellis Taxidermy on Merlin Gallice Road does human taxidermy, in association with Myers at 560 “MyStreet”, that much I am certain about. II don;t know who else has access to taxidermy of human beings locally, but I suspect that Freeburg’s do. As I have explained before on this account when it was on Google+, taxidermy is useful to terrorists who do not want to reveal that their cell members have been killed or otherwise are dead. The dead terrorists are propped up in the passenger seat and they ride around with them. The taxidermy also works when American victims are killed and taxidermied. The Victims are put into cars and are driven around for the purpose that they are seen by someone who knows them. That way, the victims do not appear to be dead.

Also, the terrorists around here have put remote control on their cars. Any car with Cruise-Control can be easily converted to remote control, and the parking brake or vacuum assist cylinder is also incorporated into the remote operation of vehicles. I believe that the Sparacino’s Dodge Dakota is remote control fitted, and so is their Toyota Rav-4. This explains alot about what I have been seeing lately. Sean drives by often in the Dakota, but his head never moves, he never looks at me even if I am within a few feet of the car, and he is always looking down. This happens when he is alone in the Dakota. Then, he goes to the bus stop at the end of “MyStreet” at Russel to pick-up his kids from the bus. The always ride in the bed if the truck.

In order to understand any of this, you also have to know and accept that the Three Rivers School District does not teach regular, approved lessons anymore. That stopped in 2003 or even before that. The schools began to be taken over by the SDA terror army in about 1998. There are three schools nearby, Manzanita Elementary, Flemming Middle School, and North Valley High School. All of them were taken over about a two year time frame. By 2003, the schools were completely terror controlled, and the children all killed an replaced with the kids of the terror army, or, some were held captive and trained as terrorists at the school. The children, my children, were subject to seeing their school mates beheaded and shot with Thompson machine guns if they did not do as they were told. My children were terrified, and they could not tell me why, instead, I had to find out at the schools myself. I have seen as many as fifty middle school students slaughtered with a machine gun in the locker room. I have seen over one hundred dead and dying High School students in a pile near the Auto-repair classrooms at North Valley High School.

No one would help then. No one will help now.

Also, yesterday, I saw what looked like Lindsey Bell launch of Nitrous gas ignition from the backyard at 434 to someplace behind 520 or perhaps 560. That included something I have b=never seen before. I saw what I though was an airplane, it was not, it was a human terror soldier, I saw that the terror soldier had very big and fluffy blonde hair, and it was wavy hair, like Lyndsey Bell has. What was different, was that the flying terror soldier, while launching, was moving slow, they usually move very fast when they launch, this one was going slow enough to see details. But that is not the different part, I have seen slow launch before, the different thing was that the terrorist that launched was accompanied by a drone. A small white drone was following the launched terror soldier about fifty feet away, moving in unison, at exactly the same rate of speed as the launching terror soldier. Then, the terror soldier took off very fast, as usual, and the drone stayed at the treetops in front of my driveway. So, first the terror soldier launched into the air above “:MyStreet” from the backyard at 445, looked like Lyndsey Bell. That happened just as Steve Bell was checking his mailbox, and had made a U-turn to go back to his house. The launched terrorist went up, but did so slowly, and was accompanied by a small white drone that mimicked the movement of the launching terror soldier until the Nitrous tank burst, or conditions otherwise changed, such that the rate of speed changed, and the terrorist was gone nearly instantly after that. The drone hovered above the tree tops. I was almost directly beneath this activity, directly in front of my driveway, and it happened while Steve Bell was approaching in his grey Dodge truck with matching shell. Steve Bell waved at me, as what looked like his wife, was launching towards 520.

That activity happened some time between 4:00 and 6:00 pm, or thereabout.

No one will help. None of my family answers their phones anymore, but return calls happen on occasion from terrorists who pretend to be my family members. I have not been advised of their death, and I have not heard from them in many years. My father passed away last year, and left an estate that would be of some value, and there were personal belongings at his home. Some other people have taken control of the Estate, and the personal belongings are gone, I am told by the Las Vegas attorney involved in the theft of my father’s home and assets, who handling the take-over.

The terrorists just take, they do it with the aid and blessings of the courts, which have also been taken over.

[nancywheelxr]

Batfam Week: Day 2 - Trapped

through different colored glasses

The Justice League, Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen in particular, love to say that Bruce is too serious.

They say he needs to lighten up. They say he is too anal about things. They say he is too strict. They say a whole lot of things.

But Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen do not have to deal with things like this.

“Bruce, I’m telling you,” Tim says, frantically, “this is in no way my fault. If I had to blame anyone, it would be Dick anyway!”

“Me?” Dick cries, scandalized that his brother would throw him under the bus like this, and almost lets the ice pack slip from his black eye, “why is it my fault?”

“I don’t know,” Jason drawls, sounding utterly bored by the whole situation, “I think I agree with Replacement on this.”

or, alternatively, Bruce confiscates Jason's rocket launcher and sets off a chain reaction, Dick somehow gets dragged into Jason's mess, Tim wishes his brothers weren't maniacs, and maybe it's really a matter of points of view

The Justice League, Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen in particular, love to say that Bruce is too serious.

They say he needs to lighten up. They say he is too anal about things. They say he is too strict. They say a whole lot of things.

But Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen do not have to deal with things like this.

“Bruce, I’m telling you,” Tim says, frantically, “this is in no way my fault. If I had to blame anyone, it would be Dick anyway!”

“Me?” Dick cries, scandalized that his brother would throw him under the bus like this, and almost lets the ice pack slip from his face, “why is it my fault?”

“I don’t know,” Jason drawls, sounding utterly bored by the whole situation, “I think I agree with Replacement on this.”

Bruce should intervene before it escalates further, he really should. Even if it’s nearing four in the morning and he has a board meeting at 8 am. Alfred wouldn’t be happy if Bruce just went back to bed and left them to resolve this on their own. He sighs, rubbing his eyes, “keep your voices down, Alfred is sleeping. Good. Now, start from the beginning.”

Dick and Tim immediately begin talking over each other. He doesn’t know what else he expected, really. “One at a time.”

“Fine,” Jason says, leaning against his rocket launcher, “I’ll start.”

*

All Jason wants is to get Roxy back.

Honest.

She is an integral part of his arsenal and she has so many memories attached to her. The emotional value is priceless. Like, remember that time he tried to blow up an entire building with Black Mask inside? Good times, he knows.

So yeah, Jason wants Roxy, his beloved rocket launcher, back.

And in all fairness, Bruce had no business confiscating it this time. He hadn’t been planning on firing her against Penguin’s stupid warehouse. It was just for intimidating purposes, mostly.

But getting her back, it’s not gonna be easy, Jason knows. Since the last time, he bets Bruce won’t simply lock her in the armory.

Since asking is not an option, and apologizing is entirely too unfair on his part, Jason does what he has to do. He waits until everyone is out on patrol and Alfred is down in the Cave, and sneaks into the Manor.

It’s quite easy, in fact. Less than fifteen minutes and he’s silently roaming the empty hallways.

You’d expect more, it being Batman’s house and all.

The tracker says it’s not downstairs. Jason walks around aimlessly, watching the tiny red dot blinking on his phone as it grows and shrinks with each turn.

Not in any of the bedrooms, not in the living room, not in the pantry. The second floor, past the music room, past another row of unused bedrooms, past Bruce’s study, past–

Finally. In one of the old ass broom closets.

Jason opens it slowly, cringing at how loud it creaks in the otherwise silent house.

Peering inside, he sighs in relief. There she is. Cue in shitty cliche music. Roxy, in all her rocket glory, stands in the corner of the room, the only shiny object among all the dust-coated, forgotten things.

Ah, how long have they stood there? Forsaken by mankind, refused by society. Sitting in a shrine of dust and cobwebs, never to see sunlight again–

*

“Oh for the love of god, Jason,” Tim kicks him in the shin, wincing when the movement jostles his sprained wrist, “quit bullshitting, your prose sucks.”

Bruce feels the beginning of a headache growing at the back of his head. Stress then. “Jason, please,” he sighs, “just cut to the chase.”

“Fine, fine. Jeez, talk about a tough crowd.”

*

Anyway. Where was he?

Oh, right.

So, Jason steps inside. And promptly dies a little more inside. Cobwebs stick to his everything. They get in his hair, on his clothes, even on his damn shoes. Of all the days to leave his helmet behind.

But he powers through. All for Roxy, do it for Roxy, he tells himself.

Finally, after crossing miles of disgusting cobwebs, Jason is reunited with his baby. She looks as gorgeous as the day he bought her, shiny and cool and deadly.

With his mission accomplished, he steels himself for the trek back.

In a totally unrelated note chain of events, a vase is knocked out by something– that may or may not have been Roxy as Jason turned around, but no one can prove that, so– and ends up falling to its side, knocking out a row of boxes that had been beside it on the highest shelf in the process, and then, as it topples down, one of the boxes falls open, letting a bowling ball roll away.

And, in a true feat of the Universe deciding to fuck over Jason, the ball hits the door. Or, more specifically, it hits the doorknob. Breaking it right off.

“Fuck no,” says Jason, with feeling. He hugs Roxy closer, cursing every god in existence and a few fake ones too, just because. If this was anyone else’s house, he wouldn’t think twice before kicking the door down.

But, as previously stated, this story is set on Batman’s house. Jason doesn’t trust an of the doors not to have some freaky sensor thing that’ll alert the big, bad Bat of any disturbance. He’s half convinced it already might have. For all he knows, Bruce could be a second away to breaking it down himself and yelling at Jason.

Even ignoring that particularly upsetting prospect, there’s a lot of ways he could open that door. He could pick the lock, he could unscrew the hinges, he could blow it off with Roxy. The only problem is that all of them are way too noisy for this way too silent place. At this hour Alfred is probably back upstairs, making post-patrol snacks. He would most definitely hear any attempt of messing with the door, Alfred has superhearing when it comes to the Manor, everybody knows that.

And Alfred Pennyworth’s wrath is way worse than Batman’s.

Jason checks the time. While breaking in had taken no time at all, wandering around certainly did. If tonight was slow, and it sounds like it was, they will all be back soon. He turns on his comm, just to check. Tuning in the frequency, he listens as Dick babbles about his stupid day job. Jason turns it off, cursing. If the idiot is babbling that much already, they must on their way back.

Now there really is no way out. Nothing that Jason knows would be fast enough to get him out before they all arrived. You can’t outrace the Batmobile. He is trapped.

Sliding down the dusty, moldy wall, Jason wallows in well-earned, very justified, self-pity, and waits.

Time seems to slow down to spite him further, a way for the Universe to fuck you in big, bold, neon letters. Well, fuck you too, buddy. He waits and waits and waits and waits, but nobody comes his way, because Bruce lives in this unnecessarily, ridiculously giant ass Manor with an unreasonable number of empty ass rooms.

Fed up with the whole situation, Jason ponders his options. On one hand, he could stay there forever, trapped in this tiny, disgusting broom closet, which by the way, has no brooms whatsoever, and waste away into eternity. Maybe he could live off the spiders for a bit, rats if he’s lucky. His arm too, he won’t need two to live in a closet. It might buy him a few months. Or, on the other hand, he could swallow his pride and call someone to come let him out of the damn closet.

He eyes the cobwebs on the upper right corner. Yeah, no, too disgusting. He can’t eat spiders, too creepy, too many legs, too many eyes. Nope, not gonna do it.

Calling someone it is.

Bruce is a no-go, obviously. The Brat, too. He would lord it over his head forever. Alfred? Nah, he would give Jason his disappointed look and shake his head in that sad way, and Jason would be left feeling like the worst person ever. Cass? Fuck, no, she’s still in Hong Kong. Tim, then? Maybe. The kid would definitely be the less annoying option. But he would also be a little shit about it, Jason would never hear the end of it. So that leaves… Dick? Really? Is he that desperate yet?

Let’s be real, he is.

But then again, Dick can be persuaded not to tell on him. If Jason uses the brother card right, maybe he can convince the idiot to keep quiet.

Yeah, he can do this. He survived being exploded, he can survive this.

So he sends him a text, help pls.

To which, Dick answers with a call. Jason declines, they’re operating in stealth mode here. Cant talk, u at the manor?

Yeah where are u? Whats going on? Are u hurt? His phone is thankfully on silent, buzzing with the new messages.

fine, he sends. Then, come to the broom closet next door to the next study after Bruce’s.

what?

quick no time for questions

Sighing deeply, Jason buries his hand on his hands. This is a nightmare. This is all his bad karma kicking his ass. This is hell, this is purgatory– in fact, this is the lovechild of hell and purgatory.

Then, just as he was about to despair, there’s a soft knock on the door. “Jason?”

“Shhh,” he winces at the loud voice, “in here.”

Dick opens the door unceremoniously, not bothered by the creaking hinges. He stands in the doorway, disheveled in his stupid pajama and looking confused like a stupid, lost duckling, “Jason, what do you think you’re doing? At this hour?” He asks, hands on his hips, sounding just as stupidly confused.

“This is an ongoing rescue mission,” Jason explains slowly, because it’s important not to rush Dick, best to let him process things on his own time, “and I needed you to bust me out.”

“What.”

“I’m bringing Roxy home, but the doorknob fell off on my side.”

“Oh,” Dick steps inside, examining the other side of the door to confirm that, in fact, the doorknob had indeed fallen off and Jason hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing, “it really fell off,” he says dumbly.

“Yeah, well, thanks for opening up the door,” Jason gets up, dusting himself off and then picking up Roxy, “and I’d appreciate if you would keep this, you know, between brothers? Great, now it’s time to scram.”

“Uh, Jason,” the idiot stammers out, looking panicked at Jason and pointing, “don’t freak out, but there’s a huge spider on your shoulder.” He takes a step back, totally freaking out, and bumps on the door. Slamming it shut. “Uh, this is bad.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Jason glares at him, easily flicking the small spider from off his shoulder, “congratulations, now we’re both stuck.”

Then, Dick wails in despair.

*

“Jason, that is not what happened!” Dick launches himself across the bed, trying to reach his brother but only managing in scaring Tim into climbing up the headboard, “stop telling everyone I’m dumb!”

“To be fair,” Jason says, watching amused, “you make it real easy.”

“Stop jostling the bed!” Tim complains from where he’s perched, cradling his injured wrist. He is going to fall, and it’s going to hurt, mattress or not, but Bruce doesn’t have the energy to get him down himself.

“Tim,” he warns, “if you fall and aggravate your injuries, you are going to tell Alfred yourself tomorrow.”

The teenager grumbles, sending Bruce a betrayed look, but slowly climbs down, scooting as far back as possible.

“Fine,” says Dick, frowning. He and Jason hadn’t stopped bickering yet, but Bruce hadn't expected them to. “here’s what really happened.”

*

Staring at the door, Dick can’t fathom what the hell Jason could be doing inside an unused broom closet. True, his brother can be a unpredictable at times, but this a new level of random.

He knocks at the door, just to be sure. Prank wars aren’t that rare around the Manor.

“In here,” Jason calls quietly. That’s never a good sign.

The door opens with noisy hinges that would probably make Alfred cringe. Dick takes in the scene. Jason is sprawled in one corner, hugging a rocket launcher. Near his feet, a bowling ball sways. Weird, he didn’t know Bruce used to go bowling.

Right. To more important things, “Jason, what the hell?”

“I’m rescuing Roxy,” Jason says unhappily, as if offended that how come Dick didn’t immediately jump to that totally reasonable conclusion, “and I needed you to bust me out.”

There are so many things to address, Dick isn’t sure where to begin. What even. Okay, first things first, “you named your rocket launcher Roxy?”

“That’s what you got from what I said?”

“Would you rather I focus on the fact you were trapped in a broom closet?” Dick rolls his eyes. Tonight patrol had been almost dull, suspiciously so. He should’ve known better.  Clearly, Gotham seen Jason hiding in there and had taken pity on Dick, knowing the kind of wravoc Jason is undoubtedly going to bring down. On that note, “how did you manage that, by the way?”

Jason makes a non-committal noise, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the door as he gets to his feet with dramatic groans. Dick steps inside to take a better look at the thing, almost tripping on the bowling ball and sending it rolling to the other side of the room. The doorknob is missing and the metal is dented around where it should be. Really? How the hell did he break the whole thing clean off? “It fell off? How?”

“Sometimes,” Jason says, “it be like that. Now, if you could keep this just between us, I’d really appreciate it.”

Dick snorts, already expecting that, and shakes his head, turning around in time to see his brother dusting himself off and grimacing at the cobwebs sticking to his fingers. Gross. But then, something catches his eyes. Crawling its way up Jason’s shoulders, a black spider is quickly reaching his neck. Dick shudders, resisting the strong urge to check himself for any insect, “hm, Jason?” His brother looks up. “Don’t freak out, but there’s a spider on your shoulder.”

And, of course, Jason loses it.

“Shit, I said don’t freak out,” he rushes to stop him from tripping over anything or knocking any of the shelves down. Jason keeps trying to bat the thing off, but the cobwebs stick to his hand, leaving the spider dangling in the air, almost landing on his leg. “Hold still, stop squirming, you’re gonna– jesus christ.” In his frantic flailing, Jason manages to hit him with a painful elbow to the eye, causing Dick to stumble back and almost lose his balance.

Unfortunately, backing away means bumping right into the door. It closes with a loud thud.

“Okay,” Dick sighs, “this is bad.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Jason says, having stopped his ridiculous flailing around, “congratulations, now we’re both stuck.”

They watch in silence as the tiny black spider crawls across the room and up the wall. She’s surprisingly fast, and it makes him think of Wally, even if his friend would probably disagree with the comparison. Well, Wally isn’t here to see the little eight-legged speedster himself, therefore, he has no base for opinions, agreeable or not.

“I’m not eating spiders,” says Jason, out of nowhere and with no context whatsoever, “or my arm.”

“That’s good, I suppose,” Dick shrugs, because what else is he supposed to say to that, “cannibalism is generally frowned upon in most societies. And spiders are generally gross, even when they’re like Wally.”

“I really don’t wanna know,” he frowns, sitting back down where Dick first found him and beginning to check his rocket launcher for any damage, “but anyways, you wouldn’t know if Bruce boob-trapped the door, would you?”

Dick wants to say no, he does, but after spending his teenage years in the Manor, he can’t honestly say that’s not something he wondered in more than one occasion. Bruce’s absolute perfect timing used to border omniscience. It was almost supernatural. Every attempt at sneaking out after curfew was foiled before he could even make it to the gates. “I mean, I don’t think it’s going to blow up on our faces if we try to pick the lock.”

“But it might trigger a silent alarm,” Jason concludes, sounding resigned.

“How pissed do you think he’s gonna be?”

“With you? Very. With me, though? Astronomically.” He sighs, rubbing his eyes, “I don’t really feel like being lectured at three in the morning, how ‘bout you?”

“Think I’ll pass, too.” Dick should’ve been sleeping now. On his bed. Getting some rest before his shift tomorrow. He should’ve been sleeping, not sitting on a hard, dusty floor.

“Guess there’s no other way then, uh?” Jason says, like Dick is somehow supposed to know what the shit is going on in his head. Dick stares blankly at him until he huffs, annoyed, “we gotta call the Replacement, he’s the only one left.”

“No, wait, don’t wake him up.”If Dick remembers it right, Tim should be fast asleep by now, safely tucked in his room. No need to drag him into this disaster in the making. “God knows it’s an uphill battle to get him to actually sleep.”

Jason snorts. “Too late. He’s on his way.”

“What?” Son of a– ,“he was already awake, wasn’t he? Damn it. I really thought Alfred put something on his coffee.”

“Sounds healthy.”

A knock on the door echoes loudly on the small room, startling Dick. He glares at Jason snickering at his side, and calls, “we’re in here!”

The door swings open silently for once, revealing Tim still on the frankly way too coffee-stained sweatpants he found earlier in the cave and a baggy NASA shirt. Specifically, a NASA shirt that belongs to Dick. A NASA shirt he distinctly remembers going missing years ago. And when he says years, he means before Tim had even stepped inside the Manor. Which means–

“Oh my god, you little shit,” Jason is saying accusingly to Tim, “that shirt is mine!”

Dick hadn’t been doing anything at the moment, but he screeches to a halt all the same. In spirit, if you will.

“No way,” Tim crosses his arms, “I’ve had this shirt since forever.”

“Fuck off, Replacement,” Jason points a threatening finger, “I remember tearing that hole trying to climb down the window.”

“How dare you,” Dick finally gets his voice back, whirls on Jason, “how dare you, you hypocrite lying liar who lies.”

Jason gapes. “What the fuck.”

“That shirt was mine and you know it,” he can’t believe this. No, no, actually, he can. Easily. “I distinctly remember asking you if you’ve seen it, and then you looked me in the eyes and said I don’t know, I ain’t your housekeeper. And then you flipped me off.”

To be fair, Dick mostly remembered that day because it had been one of the few times he had been visiting the Manor before Jason, you know. Passed away. So yeah, he remembered it.

Now, though, seeing his shirt going from thief to thief, Dick isn’t feeling too charitable, death or no death.

He realizes Jason had gone quiet, looking as if trying to recall the incident. “I don’t really remember,” his brother finally says, “but it does sound like something I would do.”

“Oh my god, I hate you.”

“I mean,” Jason raises one of his hands up in a placating gesture, the other still cradling his stupid rocket launcher, “it’s not like you’re my favorite person either, Dickhead. ‘Sides, I wasn’t the only asshole back then.”

Shame and guilt rise in tandem, swallowing his gut in acid. Jason’s right. Dick has no right to sit here and call him out on being a jerk, not when he’d been just as guilty. He had been so caught up–

“Can we please skip the guilt trips?” Tim asks tiredly, “it’s almost four in the morning and your argument is moot anyway. The shirt is mine.”

It’s a testament for how tired he is that Dick doesn’t immediately restrains Jason when he goes silent. And, to be perfectly honest, that shirt is not freaking his.

“Jason, put the rocket launcher down,” Tim continues, unfazed, or maybe reaching the apathetic stages of lack of sleep, “you know how Alfred feels about weapons upstairs.”

*

“Why does everyone think I don’t sleep!” Tim glares at the ceiling, shifting so he can stretch on the bed more comfortably and kick Dick on the side, “I do sleep! All the time!”

“I don’t know,” Jason shrugs, wincing. He hides it well, but now that Bruce is paying more attention, Jason is leaning rather stiffly against his rocket launcher, standing as still as possible without being too obvious about it. Bruce sighs, he should’ve suspected; Jason has always been one to hide injuries. “Never seen it. Methinks the lady doth bullshits too much.”

“Jason,” Bruce begins cautiously, he doesn’t want to spook him. “Why didn’t you say you were hurt?”

It’s the wrong choice of words, it comes out more accusing than he intended, and Bruce can see Jason shutting down, face going blank. “I’m not hurt. And it wouldn’t be any of your business if I were anyway.”

Dick is giving him a sad, disappointed look. Completely unnecessary, Bruce knows he screwed this up. It seems to be a pattern when it comes to Jason. “If you sprained your ankle, there’s a perfectly good bed for you to sit.”

“Oh yeah? Good thing I ain’t hurt then.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Bruce sees Dick burying his head in his hands, ice pack forgotten beside him on the bed, already melting and soaking the covers.

“Jason,” Bruce tries again, taking a moment to find a better way to phrase it.

Before he can say anything else, Tim kicks the rocket launcher, forcing Jason to put his weight on both legs to regain his balance. He curses loudly, clutching the bedside table to stay upright, and glares at his brother. Dick still refuses to look up.

“Get on the damn bed, idiot,” Tim scoots over, making space, and pushes Dick further down to the foot of the bed, “you know Alfred will have our heads if he finds out you were standing on that ankle.”

Jason grumbles and huffs, but climbs on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re such an asshole, Replacement. This entire fucking family, I swear to god. All assholes. Except Cass. And Duke. Probably because it hasn’t been long enough for them yet. Fucking assholes.”

“Language,” Tim elbows him, “now all of you, shush. It’s my turn.”

*

Tim watches them argue with little interest. This shirt had been down in the Cave when he found it and thus, by the unspoken laws of the Manor, had been fair play.

It’s his now and Jason and Dick can both cry him a river.

Honestly, it’s just a shirt. A remarkably comfortable one, sure, but just a shirt. Besides, NASA shirts are all the rage now. Walmart probably sells them at a reasonable price.

Tuning back in the conversation, Tim catches the tail end of Jason’s retort and the beginning of Dick’s knee-jerk reaction to all things before. Crushing guilty and vitriolic regret. And it’s always worse in times like these, when Jason isn’t trying to kill anyone, when it almost feels like family.

Either way, Tim should stop them before it inevitably spirals into a real fight. Which would be so not good in such a tiny room and with Jason holding a rocket launcher. “Can we please skip the guilt trips?” He pauses, resigned. “It’s nearly four in the morning. And it doesn’t even matter anyway. This shirt,” he points down at his own chest, “is mine.”

Jason falls silent, and that’s not a good thing, but Jason is also thankfully very, very predictable, so Tim simply raises one eyebrow, “Jason, put that damn thing away,” he yawns, unimpressed by the rocket launcher aimed at his face, “you know how Alfred feels about weapons upstairs.”

He grumbles, muttering under his breath, but lowers the ridiculous thing back on his lap. Dick looks vaguely ill, scooting away from the rocket launcher. Tim supposes that’s fair, although he doubts it’s loaded. For a brief moment he entertains the idea of calling Jason’s bluff, but dismisses it in the end. Dick would probably have a stroke.

On that note, “how did you get a black eye?”

“Oh shit,” he raises a hand to gingerly touch the rapidly bruising skin, wincing, “is it that bad?”

“Yup.” Tim pauses, decides he doesn’t want to know, “now, are you two getting out today or…”

Dick and Jason scramble up, dusting themselves off. Cobwebs stick to their clothes, and something runs from where they had been sitting– Tim wrinkles his nose, figures it’s better not to mention it.

“How the two of you managed to break the doorknob is beyond me,” he comments as they pass him, “but somehow, I’m not surprised.”

“Whatever you say, Replacement,” Jason waves him off, stretching, “but damn, it’s good to be free.”

“You know what’s gonna be even better?” Dick asks, his question trailing off in a yawn, “sleeping in a real bed.”

“Shit, did you hear that?” Jason stops mid stretch, frowning, “shit, shit, someone’s coming.”

They all look at each other panicked. Tim doesn’t even know why he’s panicking, he’s done nothing wrong here besides letting himself be talked into helping these two morons out. Which he now sees was a terrible mistake, worse even, a rookie mistake. But maybe it’s being awake at 4am wandering an empty hallway that gives off this feeling, like he’s doing something he’s not supposed to do. It reminds him a little of the times he snuck out of his parent’s house after lights out to shadow Batman and Robin around.

Or maybe it’s the fact Jason is still carrying around the damn rocket launcher like a newborn baby. That definitely would count as a bad thing on Bruce’s point of view. And no matter what they might say, the man would certainly write Tim and Dick off as accessories to the crime. Well, they did learn of the crime after it was committed and they are kind of aiding the criminal in scaping.

Sighing, Tim lets himself be dragged back to the broom closet by a frantic Dick. He adds helping the criminal conceal the crime to the list. The door closes with a soft click just as the footsteps get closer. Whoever it is, probably Bruce by the heavy steps, turns the corner, and then walks past them. Somewhere still uncomfortably near, a door opens, then closes.

“He’s in the study,” Dick sobs, “and we’re stuck here again.”

“We’re never getting out of here,” Jason says, sitting down again, “one day Alfred will finally come clean here and find our decomposed bodies.”

“Gross,” Tim wrinkles his nose at the mental image, “come on. Let’s just pick the lock.”

“No!” They whisper-shout at the same time.

“What the fuck.”

“It’s booby-trapped,” says Jason.

“There’s silent alarms,” says Dick.

Oh right, all of his brothers are paranoid lunatics at heart, how could Tim have ever forgotten that. “This place looks like nobody used it since before either of us were born. Why, oh why, would B put it under surveillance?”

Silence. Jason hugs his rocket launcher closer, sharing a look with Dick. Great, and they’re a united front now. “Listen, fine. You don’t wanna pick the lock. Fine.” It’s always best not to contradict a crazy person, let alone two. “What do you suggest, then?”

“Living off spiders.”

“Call Damian.”

“One, gross. Two, I’d literally rather die.” He begins, “three, you all are useless to me.”

They need a plan, and they need it fast. Before one of those two finish spiraling into cabin fever. Looking around, Tim tries to think of it as any other mission. There’s a small window in the on the right wall, probably connecting to the adjacent room, which Tim thinks might be a bedroom. It was probably a leftover of some old renovation, it might’ve led outside once upon a time, but now it’s likely their only way out. It’s very small, Tim might go through it with little problem, Dick too, but Jason is too broad shouldered, he might get stuck. If only they could remove all the bars, it could give them just enough space.

Okay. They have an exit. All they need is way to get up there and the tools to deal with the bars. He turns to his brothers, “I think I can get us out. There’s a window behind that shelf.” He points at the glass visible between two boxes, “but I need some sort of ladder and a tool box.”

Apparently the prospect of a real plan is enough to shake them out of their stupor. Jason jumps to his feet, begins rummaging through the scattered boxes. Dick busies himself with pushing the shelf out of the way, clearing the path to the window. Satisfied, Tim begins digging inside the nearest box in search of anything useful.

By the time Dick manages to push the shelf out of the way, Jason has found a hammer and a phillips screwdriver. He did find a crowbar too, but that was quickly discarded and buried under a pile of old books. Deciding the boxes are sturdy enough, hopefully, to hold their weight, Tim piles them up in the best makeshift stairs he can make.

Is it wobbly? Yes. Are they going to fall and break their necks? Probably. But better be dead than ask Damian for help. The little demon would never let him live it down for the rest of their lives and probably in the afterlife too.

Once again tuning out his brothers, Tim begins the quickly climbing up the boxes. It’s more stable than he expected, so he starts unscrewing the metal bars–

*

“Of course it was stable!” Dick exclaims, throwing his hands up and then falling down on the bed, “we were holding it in place!”

“You weren’t even listening to us, you ungrateful–”

“I got us out, didn’t I?” Tim snaps, “god, everyone’s a critic. Can I go back to the story, please? I’d like to finish telling it before sunrise.”

“God, yes, please.”

*

Anyway.

The metal bars and the stained glass panels fall apart easily, as expected from such old, unused things. The space left looks wide enough to let them through, maybe. If they’re lucky. “Okay, I’m already up here, so let me go first.”

“Wait–”

Tim doesn’t wait. He hoists himself up, diving face first through the window. It gets him a mouthful of dust and sand, and then he’s free falling–

There’s a second of panic, in between falling and landing, where Tim recognizes waiting might’ve been a wiser course of action and that maybe he should have looked before jumping.

–right into a bed.

He had been right. It did lead to an old bedroom. The bed was covered in sheets, just like the rest of the furnitures, but it works to break the fall, even if a cloud of dust rises in the air when he lands, coating his lungs with filth.

Laughter bubbles up, a little hysterical, a little relieved.

“Are you okay?” Dick’s head appears through the hole, “are you hurt?”

“My wrist hurts a little, I think I sprained it when I tried to break the fall,” Tim shrugs, rolling off the bed, “but I’m fine, really.”

“Hold on, I’m coming through.”

Dick falls with a huff, his breath knocked out of him in the landing. He groans, “shit, that’s gonna bruise.”

“Cool, you’ll get a matching set,” Tim gestures his black eye, “but you might wanna make space, it sounds like Jason is on his way.”

And true enough, as soon as he had forced himself out of the bed and limped away towards Tim, a rocket launcher lands on the bed with a heavy thud, and then Jason appears. Although only half of him makes it through. He dangles, arms swinging uselessly, stuck in the window. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously?”

“Oh my god,” Tim wheezes, “tell me someone has a camera.”

“I feel so much better already,” Dick giggles.

“Oh come on,” Jason snaps, flipping them off with both hands, “a little help here? Assholes.”

To be fair, it only takes a little wiggling and a little pulling to get him out of there and into the dusty bed. By now the air is more dust bunnies and promises of allergies.

“Tell me it’s over now,” Jason says, then changes his mind, “no, no, no. No one say anything, it might jinx it.”

“Please leave,” Tim tells him, “you have an apartment, I know you do. Please.”

“Are you kicking me out, Replacement? Really?”

“You just put me through the most traumatic hour of my life and I don’t even know why. So yes, please.”

“What he means,” Dick intervenes, “is that–”

“All of you have a lot of explaining to do.” In the now open doorway, Bruce stands, looking like your regular angry father if your regular angry father was the Batman.

“Oh crap,” Jason says, and Tim wholeheartedly agrees.

*

“And the rest is history,” Tim says, yawning, and then turning to Jason, “I can’t believe all of this was because of your stupid rocket launcher.”

“Excuse me,” Jason sounds affronted, “Roxy has emotional value.”

“Your unhealthy attachment to that thing gave me a sprained wrist so excuse me for being a little salty.”

“Can you guys not fight for ten seconds, please,” Dick, in turn, sounds tired.

“I don’t think I need to say in how much trouble all of you are, do I?” Bruce finally says, gathering the attention of the three. He glances at his watch, it’s nearing five in the morning, then back up at the bed. Jason is laying with his leg propped up in a pillow, looking harried and tired and less antagonistic than before, Tim is at his side, curled up around a pillow and his injured wrist carefully cradled on his chest, and the story seems to have drained the last of his energy, as his eyes close for longer and longer periods of time. Dick is sprawled at the foot of the bed, laying sideways and currently wrestling a pillow out Jason’s grip.

Bruce looks at the scene in front of him, three of his children together at peace, or the closest thing to it they’ll ever get, and something inside him softens. Seeing them like this, getting along, no trace of masks or capes, it feels almost like a normal family.

It feels warm and golden.

Unwilling to disturb the fragile peace, he gets up from the armchair, heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” Dick, the more awake of them, asks, “aren’t you gonna yell at us?”

“As I said, you all know you are in trouble,” Bruce answers calmly, “but there’s going to be time for that tomorrow, at a more reasonable hour.” He suppresses a smile, “I am going to retrieve some blankets. It looks like you’re not going back to your rooms tonight.”

Dick looks around him, finding Tim already asleep and Jason yawning. He smiles, “you might be right. Thanks, B.”

Bruce nods, but as he leaves the room, a thought suddenly occurs to him, “oh, and Dick?”

A sleepy noise comes from the bed.

“You were all wrong.” Another inquisitive muttering, a little more awake now. “That shirt? It used to be mine. It was a special edition, confectioned after the moon-landing. You stole it from me.”

Shaking his head, Bruce prepares to leave, but a voice stops him just before the door closes, “I know, but you know the rules. If it’s down the Cave, it’s fair play.”

Laughter echoes quietly in the hallways at the Manor, bouncing off the walls and filling all the empty spaces.

*

[goldstonegolem64]

Book1 Hope returns Chapter4 Down the rabbit By goldstonegolem64

note: I rewrite this chapter do to  small mistake that I notice along with other things I notice and also I add on to it has well.    

The Mine’s entrains was foreboding to the duo even though the two were armed and ready the fear of the unknow was nagging at the back of their mines.

So are you ready to go Jay asked has he turned his head to look at Adam

Adam was wearing jays Spare suit Do to it giving him more protection then his standard garrison but he keep his helmet after he had replaced the cracked visor

I’m ready when you are he replied.

As the two descended in to the jay hit serval bottom on his wrist. Four small bird like drones roar to life and flew after the two men illuminating the dark cave hallway. Going deeper and deeper down mines the signal was getting stronger .Over the comms Beauregard's voices was heard  saying the signal is about two kilometers away so just keep go straight down and you will be fine. Half an hour later the two found themselves staring at a dead end.

Hey beau we were following the waypoint you set for us and it just send us straight to a dead end Jay said 

That doesn't seem right Beauregard said lets me rescan the mines.

on the surface the cargo ship named Prometheus facing the cave fired a bright blue ball that exploded releasing a massive shock wave that shook the surrounding area, In the mine Adam and Jay feel the earth rumble under they feet.

Hey is it safe to do that w Adam asked with concern in his voices 

its perfectly safe Jay said confinity as the ground gave out beneath. oh fuck Jay let out as he fell into the hole  

Adam watch in fear as jay fell down the newly uncovered hole in slow motion then realized that he was falling down the hole really slow. Walking over to the edge he saw Jay starring at him as he slowly descended arms crossed Adam couldn't see Jay’s face do to the mask he wear but he could tell he looked annoyed at the situation he found himself in

So what was that about it being perfectly Adam said with a smile .

Flipping the bird  to his friend Jay said while holding back a laugh come follow me down the rabbit hole my friend. 

Adam laughing a little jumped down the hole after his pal.

Has they fell static started to coming out of the comms

h-y do --u r-ad m- th-r- -s a tra---sson from -ars sa--ng .

the rest of the message was cut off.

Beauregard do you copy Jay said Repeat do you copy!

only Static filling the fed.

the two starred at each with a mixite of confusion and fear. The two keep falling for ten more minutes before Adam saw a light at the bottom of the hole.

hey Jay turn around there is a light Adam said.

Turning around to see the light slowly get closer and closer to see what looks like the begin of a  hallway from the view point of someone in venation system. The moment he saw the room clearly he felt his body push thought something  then he felt weight return and fell face first on to the metal ground with a loud thud. then he felt Adam slamming in to him knocking the wind out of him. 

Sorry Adam said getting off him then giving him a hand to help him get up.

Taking the hand Jay notice his helmet saying that the room had oxygen in it.

Hey Adam I'm going to take off my helmet jay said 

What no don't do that is suicide Adan yelled.

Jay removed his helmet before Adam could stop him and took a deep breath the air was stale but breathable. Adam took his helmet and starred at him confused.

What happened to beau one minute we hear him fine the next static Adam said concern 

I don't know but this room seems familiar jay replied

as the duo talked the four drones enter the hallway waiting orders.

what are we going to do with then? Adam asked

I will send squawk talk and buzzer back to ship to see what beau wanted to tell us. while ratbat and lazerbeck stay with us. he answered as two of the drones felt.

Did you name your drone after transformers? Adam asked 

And what if I did their me drones and lets focus on the task at hand and fined that signal and a exit Jay said.

We could start with that door at the end of the hall Adam stated.

Jay turn to see a familiar door way yet he couldn't place where he had seen it. As the group walked toward the door it open on its on to show a huge laboratory. entering the room it looked untouched by the and of time. As the group explored the room Adam walked over to a decks and lets a scream in surprise. Jay ran over to Adam pulling the drum shotgun from his back and point it toward what Adam was starring at and so the skeleton on a person on the floor.

who is that Adam asked? 

I don't know by I do know that he is Altean he said. As moved the body to see the blue mark on his face.

How long do you think he's been here Adam Asked ?

no clue but he wasn't shot because there is no exit or entrains wounds and no blood stains on the floor so he die of poison or natural causes Jay answer.

As they checked the body a hologram appeared in front of them.

Hello if you are watch Is I am dead. but that doesn't matter at the moment what dose is the information I'm going to give you. I was once A great architect for the royal family of altea and I was task in helping build a great weapon called Voltron its purpose was to help keep the innocent safe. but I know something would go wrong so I build a weapon to counter Voltron If it fell in to the wrong hand called Valkyrie. Has I thought something did go wrong but not what I had predicted. Zarkon the emperor of the galra attacked us. in the last moment of are planets life a group of saviors tried to escape the destruction of are home world with no Voltron or battle ships to defend them I jumped in to Valkyrie a acted as the vanguard to them. but unknow to me the quintessence need to power Valkyrie was to much for my body to handle so after that I spend the last three years of my life to find the prefect pilot for her and I found them a subspecies of Alteans called Berserkers warriors who could handle huge amounts of quintessence going though their body's for long periods of time with no fear of death. in their berserker form they are bigger stronger faster and more durable but at the cost of their minds the hologram said.

 has the two proceed the new information a huge amount of picture appeared showing different thing with information like an altean man with four red marks two on cheek  transforming in to a massive red skinned lizard creature with cat like feature. others showed Voltron and the loins that made it up. but most of the  picture  showed the Valkyrie a dragon like machine That changed in to a humanoid woman with a spear in one hand and a bow in the other. 

one last thing before you go you most take this. A door at the side of the  open to reveal a suit of armor and a weird looking item. the Bayard is a weapon that will change to fit the user. The hologram said

Adam looked to the hologram then to jay and asked did you know of Voltron or was that something your government hide from the people he asked with a look of concern for Jay as he starred at the picture of the berserker.

No I didn't know about Voltron or the fact that I was a berserker. but that doesn't matter at the moment because during the little video we just watch Ratbat found information about the Kerberos mission and its crew

Adam starred quietly with tears starting to take form. show it to me now. walking toward the console Adam began to steel is nerves as he was about watch his fiancé last moment before his death. But the screen showed something different it showed that Shiro and the other had made it safely to Kerberos. Adam felt a weight on his heart being lifted. but as he watched the view changed to show a ship just appear out of no where. jay get over here now Adam said with fear in his voice. 

The moment jay got there he watch in horror as the galra ship fire a beam of light that sucked up anything the light touched and the three small people trying to out run the light in vain. 

when was that ? jay asked the hologram.

About a year ago the hologram replied.

fear ran through  jay’s face as the relation hit him if the galra were here they might come back and find his home and  the earth. Adam we need to get back to mars and warn them about the galra invasion that is on its way. 

But what about the garrison and earth they need to know too Adam said 

We will handle that later right know mars has to be informed first jay counted hey where is the exit to this place we need to go now.

I'm way ahead of you my friend the hologram said. the moment he said that the ground began to shack as they felt themselves going up.

As they ascend beau’s voices came back saying what is going on down there first they go silent then a huge dragon thing lands in front of me and know this weird building is coming out of the earth what is today.

Hey beau can you hear me.Jay said .

oh thank the goddess your alive but right now I most tell you.mars is tell all traders and salvager to get back now a galra cruiser was see hand to earth.

What why are they head to earth Adam yelled.

Maybe because of the blue lion is there. the holograms said 

What now jay said confused 

About twenty years ago a ship crash on earth with the blue lion seventeen years later the same ship left. the blue lion location is in the middle of a desert near a Garrison base.

wait how do you now that Adam asked 

Valkyrie like to know everything that goes on in the system so I record anything that is important or new and let her know. the ai replied.

ok Adam I know this conversation is important to you but there is a giant robot dragon I'm going to pilot so lets get out of here jay said while he was putting the new armor on.Then grabbing the Bayard the moment jays hand grasped it the white and silver item glowed and turned in to a  hand cannon then It changed back to its original form. 

That was cool I have to admit Adam said starring at the Bayard.

Has the two headed for the exit when beau’s voices came over the radio saying we have in coming. 

[dystovian]

Can you do a lance x reader where the reader and the rest of the crew throw him a surprise party then he gets all sentimental cause he misses home but he realizes he has a family in space as well? Just cute sentimental lance please

HOHOHOHHH BLESS U FOR THIS REQUEST!!!!!!! Also I feel like the beginning of this isn’t as good as the end but I really enjoyed writing this for my favorite son

You flipped the page of Pidge’s homemade calendar into July, tilting your head. Lance’s date of birth hadn’t shown up for six months. And it made you wonder if maybe you’d gotten his birthday wrong, and it wasn’t in July. You slowly began to search through the months, before becoming very confused, resulting in you now frantically searching for it.

“Oh my gosh. Hunk, why isn’t Lance’s birthday on here?”

“What do you mean? It just hit July, it should be in there. His birthday is the 28th.” He said, walking over to you and searching for himself. Pulling his hair in frustration now that he realized it in fact wasn’t there. Hunk said that it was probably because he didn’t want anyone to do anything for him, or he didn’t want to seem like he wanted that. It broke your heart and left you thinking all night.

“Shiro, please, come here.” You said, jogging toward him with Hunk close behind. A few weeks ago you gathered the others, not including Lance of course, and discussed a plan for his birthday. But, it appears you haven’t thought about how you would surprise Lance. And now you were in panic mode.

“Oh, hey Y/n! What’s up? Something wrong?” Shiro asked, turning to look at the two of you, eyebrows furrowed with confusion and a slight pang of worry. You caught your breath, wondering how the hell Shiro could manage to walk as fast as he did; was he even walking? He was definitely sprinting.

“Lance’s birthday is tomorrow. And I completely forgot that in order for it to be a surprise party. It needs to be a surprise.” Shiro looked at you, trying his hardest to suppress a smile as what you said was very obvious. Even hunk raised his eyebrow at you.

“Well, we need to get him out of the castle!” You whisper-shouted, becoming agitated as you glared at the two of them. Shiro mouth opened as he realized, and a plan already began to form in his head.

“Come with me.” Shiro said, walking off. You ended up bumping into Coran and Allura, Shiro asking them to call the others.

“Okay. So, today we have a small mission. Of course it won’t be huge because we need to lay low. Lance, you and Y/n will be going into a village to get some ingredients for Hunk. Alright? We’re on our way to the planet now.” He said, looking at Lance for any sign to a nod of approval. He nodded, smiling over at you before standing.

—

“You ready?” He asked, leaned slightly toward you as you neared the village. A list of alien foods in your hands. You smiled, nodding while jogging ahead. Excited to see the village and the aliens inside.

While the two of you searched mercilessly for foods that most likely didn’t even exist, the others were busy setting up the party. Hunk and Pidge had gotten supples a little over a week ago when they took a short break on a planet. Remember how Shiro said they need to lay low? Pidge and Hunk stole those things at a store and had the Galra after them.

“Y/n. You and Lance can come back now. Just tell him we found ingredients somewhere else.” Allura said from your communication device. You nodded to yourself, before tapping his shoulder.

“Allura said we can head back, they found the ingredients on the ship. Someone must’ve put them in the wrong spot.” You said, shrugging.

“Why’d she tell you and not the both of us? You know, to come back?” He said, confused as to why she couldn’t tell the both of you. It was strange.

“Oh. Maybe your comm stopped working?” You shrugged heavily, walking back with him as you created small talk. Eventually you all arrived, entering the castle just as the two of you would any other day. Though, it was quiet, and no one greeted you at the door.

“Lets check the dining hall, maybe they’re there.” You said, walking off nonchalantly and not at all worried. Lance glared at you, confused as to why you weren’t even the slightest bit worried. You were ahead of him as he searched his brain for any reason as to why it’d be so quiet.

“Surprise!” Lance jumped out of his skin, almost grabbing his bayard before he realized the neon colors decorating the dining hall. His heart came to a halt and climbed into his throat as his mouth gaped like a fish. He stared at the smiles adorning their faces, a rare occasion among the teens.

“W-what?” He whispered, seeing your hair in his peripheral vision bounce over to the others. Shaking your hands and grinning like no tomorrow. His emotions quaked within him, and they boiled up until they reached his eyes and spilled out; like water inside of a boat on stormy waters. The stress he had been feeling lately was gone, and he felt relief wash over him as tears fell down his cheeks. Memories crashed into him like an angry Bull and he felt like he was being lifted off and carried away. The others’ smiles vanished, watching as Lance leaned to the side, his shoulder pressed against the doorway. Perhaps, this wasn’t much of a good idea; you realized, watching as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Ohh.” You said, taking the makeshift birthday hat off and jogging to him. Enveloping him in a warm hug. Your arms slipping under his and pulling him into you. The others joined, wrapping around them and warming him as he cried. Remembering whenever his mother would surprise him like this. When she would pretend the people on the other end of the phone were people from work, when it was really a relative. She’d do it no matter how old her baby had gotten, even if he had realized long ago she’d forever do it. Lance would do anything to hear that same phone ring, and that same voice and that same glance she’d give him. He’d do anything if it meant going home, even for just a second.

“It’s okay, Lance. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He heard, though he didn’t know where it came from. His head was flooded with thoughts but at the hearing of those words the thoughts drained away. He was being lifted from the bottom of a hole he had made himself, grabbed at by his friends.

By his family.

He felt frozen in time as he looked at those around him, this time he cried again. But he was happy, and now he was laughing even though tears were dripping over his lips and into his mouth. He felt safe, and he felt that warmth of his mothers hug radiation from everyone around him. He was remembering still, but he wasn’t upset. Because he knew that you and the others would take care of him, and they’d take care of him.

He was home.

Bonus:

Lance looked down at you, light from the stars they passed shined through the window near the two of you. You lay on his chest, sound asleep and gentle.

“I love you.” He murmured, shifting his head to kiss your temple. He pulled back and looked at your facial expression, a content smile on his face as he promised the two of you would come home safe and sound.

[ilyasvieltrevelyanshepard]

You are precious to me

Another drabble wrote during the Mass Effect Writing Circle

Is a fluffy fic from a prompt that my hubby said me today *_*

Sorry if the fic is not as good as it must be but is 5:30 AM in the morning and I’m still awake ^^U

The link, in case you prefer to read it in A3O:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11983275

Joker is sitting on a sofa on the Purgatory. Shepard has done it again. She did the impossible, curing the Genophage and closing a deal between Turians and Krogans. Hackett has ordered a full day of shore leave for all the crew, and she has insisted on bringing all the group to the club. Kaylee is having fun, moving from the couches to the bar, and then to the dance floor. She even tried to coax him to dance with her, but he declined, as always. Why he has to taste what will be to be her partner? He has learned to live with their actual ‘friends’ relation, no need to give his mind more reasons to fall for her. EDI was here with him, but he coaxes her to pay a visit to Traynor, and enjoy the night for a bit. He will be okay. Damn, they are in a bar, surrounded by allied forces and with half the crew sitting on the couches around him. When at last, she stands and move to sit beside Traynor, the comm specialist’s smile brightens the bar. Shaking his head, Joker leaves the couch, taking off his hat to pass a hand through his hair. He needs a drink, a strong one, and get drunk enough to get an excuse to leave this party and stop seeing the smiling face of Kaylee appearing in front of him every ten minutes.

He was nursing his second serving of old Terran whiskey when Kaylee appears at his side. “Hey, Joker! Are you sure you don’t want to come up and dance with me?”

“Vrolik syndrome here, Shepard. What do you think dancing with you will do with my bones?” He finishes his drink in a long gulp, raising a hand to order another as soon as he rested the glass on the counter.

Kaylee leans on the bar near him, ordering herself one glass of the same he was drinking. “Well, I know that you can’t dance the mambo with me, Joker, but there are many types of dance. But if you didn’t want, I will not force you to do it.”

Joker drinks his whiskey quicker than planned, feeling the warm feeling extending to his fingers at high velocity. “Is not that, Shepard. It's just-- look at this people! They had to survive a Cerberus attack to begin to believe that the war was real. They are not celebrating like you, they are desperate, trying to forget what happened and return to their normality, pretending to be ok again.”

Her drink is in her hand, and she empties it with a single gulp. “Maybe is the only way they knew to deal with what happened, Joker. Damn, I’m trying to forget this shitty day drinking and dancing. I can understand them.” She stands at the bar, ready to go when Joker sees something suspicious. In his fogged mind, it looked like a knife, but it can’t be, right? Looking again while Shepard looks at him with a surprised frown, he looks again and sees the blade clearly sliding from the concealed slot on the jacket of the woman. She is walking directly to Kaylee, and he can see the death in her eyes. Just before the assassin reaches Shepard, he jumps from his post, positioning himself between them and receiving the blade on his side. When Kaylee turns and sees what’s happening, her powers activate, and the blade of her omnitool appears on her hand. Joker uses the adrenaline running through his veins to grab the assassin's hand, keeping her in Shepard’s range. The Commander lets the rage take control, and she charges against her, piercing her shoulder with the blade and twisting it, making the woman cry in pain. Less than a minute later, the rest of the team had the attacker pinned on the floor, without any care of her injury, while Kaidan contacts C-Sec.

Seeing that Kaylee is perfectly fine and the rest had the situation under control, Joker lets his body fall to the ground, landing on his knees hard enough to hurt him even worse than the blade that is still piercing him. He hisses when he moves a hand to the hilt and moves the weapon an inch out. Shepard is on her knees beside him as soon as she hears his grunting. “Damn, Jeff! Don’t touch it. What the hell are you thinking?” Her voice is hard, and her mouth is closed in a tight line, but her hands are soft, taking off his hat while she manoeuvres him to lay on her, helping him to unfold his legs. Her hand moves to put some pressure on the wound, while Kaidan comes closer, medigel ready to apply on his omnitool. “Really, Jeff. Why did you do it? You can have warned me. I can deal with an assassin on hand to hand combat without a breaking a sweat.”

Joker raises his eyes until he locks his gaze on hers. “Easiest answer of the year, Shepard. Because you are someone precious, who deserves to be protected more than anyone, even if you can do it for yourself.” His little speech is cut abruptly when Kaidan extracts the blade from his body. A weak cry leaves him, but Shepard expected him to endure worse the pain, being a pilot and not a foot soldier. He pants a bit, but as soon as the medigel begins to do its magic, he takes a couple of deep breaths before keep talking. “Besides. Now we are even, Kaylee.”

The deep frown on Kaylee’s face has changed to something sweeter, but he can’t catch the meaning of it. Kaidan finishes the scan, touching Joker’s shoulder. “You will be fine, Hero of the night. Let’s take you to the Normandy and get some rest, and tomorrow, the doctor will recheck it.”

A soft smile appears on Kaylee’s face when she looks at him, but he lost sight of it when she turns his attention to Kaidan. “I’ll take him there. After the surprise party from Cerberus, I’m ready to call it a night. I’ll let you fill the gap with Bailey if you don’t mind.”

Shrugging, Kaidan just stands and helps her to put Joker back on his feet. EDI is already there, waiting to help them, but Kaylee insists again that the team has earned the party. Sliding an arm around his hips, Kaidan positions Joker’s arm on Shepard’s shoulders, and he and Vega walked with them to the rapid-trans outside the club.

With all the care she can muster, she makes him sit on the sky-car before turning to face the other two men. “Have fun tonight guys, and tell Bailey that I’m sorry, but at least now C-Sec had an assassin in custody. See you tomorrow.”

Kaidan nods and takes a step back to the club, but Vega closes the distance to Shepard, looking intently into her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“I am.”

Clasping her shoulder, he winks at her before using the hand to push her inside the sky-car. “Then, buena suerte, Lola.” James lowers his voice to avoid to be heard outside the car. “Try not to break our pilot.”

Closing the door, she points the car to the dock where the Normandy is waiting for them. Joker keeps passing a hand over the wound and flinching every time. Kaylee slaps his hand away, charging another half dose of medigel and applying it. “Stop that, you moron. You have been stabbed, of course, it will hurt and sting.”

Another grunt, but this one is half pain, half disgusted noise. “You are welcome, you know, for saving your life and getting myself stabbed to protect you. No need to call me a moron. I’m not accustomed to having myself stabbed, shot, dragged, pulled, punched-- well, you know what I mean. Let me complain about it for a while.”

She giggles with him, letting her hand rest over the wound, some kind of heating program running on her omnitool that eases a bit the pain. “You can complain as much as you want, just don’t touch it for a while. I will dress it when we reach the Normandy and you will feel better, my hero.”

He turns to look at the window, hiding the soft blush on his face from her eyes. The docks were relatively close to the Purgatory, and they reach it in a couple of minutes more. He keeps his silence while she maintains the hand on his side.

Once the sky-car reaches the dock landing zone, Shepard leaves the car, helping him and returning her arms to his waist. “I can walk alone.”

“Are you sure about that? It will hurt like hell if you rest your weight on that side of your body.”

“Completely. I can endure som--holy fucking shit!” She has let her arm fall, leaving his body to carry itself, and as soon as he screams, she returns it to its place with a knowing smile on her face that is screaming ‘I told you’. Joker groans to her but puts his arm on her shoulders. “Fine, you can carry me, my knight in purple armour.”

They cross the waiting area, a lonely C-Sec officer sitting behind the desk with bored face waves to them when they passed in front of them, but besides that, he even examines who they are. The IV of the station scans them before opening the doors to the ship, and EDI unlocks the door of the Normandy just when they reach it. Shepard moves directly to the elevator, but instead of pulsing the button to the crew quarters level, she pushes the one to her quarters. “Emmm, Shepard, why are we going to your place?”

“Surprise?” As soon as the lift’s door opened, she moves to her inner sanctum, carrying a reticent Joker. The lock detects her biosignature and opens the door, and she steps inside, helping him until they reach the couches area. Kaylaa makes him sit facing the bed and moves aside the coffee table. “Wanna a drink while I prepare the items to dress the wound?”

He feels nervous, didn’t know why because she is just being Shepard. She will take care of him and then will help him to reach his bed. “A whiskey, if you have any, if not, whatever you have.”

Moving to the nightstand, Kaylee opens it and recovers a hip flask, giving it to him while passing beside him on her way to the stairs. “Enjoy it. It's Scottish. The real thing. Anderson smuggled it into my quarters on Earth. Joker can hear her searching in the cabinets of the bathroom, and opening the flask, just closes his eyes to enjoy the scent of the whiskey. Taking a sip, he let the liquid warm inside his mouth, the earthy notes mixing with the ones from the barrels, giving it a special and distinctive flavour.

When he opens his eyes, Kaylee is in front of him, with a lopsided grin on her face. “Glad you like it. Now, give me the flask and take off your shirt. I’ll help if you can’t do it by yourself.”

Joker bites his tongue to avoid the groan that is forming in his throat. ‘God, your sense of humour is awful.' Moving a hand to his head, he notes for the first time, that he isn’t wearing his hat. Kaylee seems to see it, and shows it to him, before putting it back in her back pocket. The excuse of the hat gives him the chance to groan this time, and she just chuckles. Joker closes the flask and puts it aside, and begins to open the closings of his uniform.

When he has the zip opened, he tries to take off the shirt without disturbing the wound, to no avail. Leaning in front of him and leaving the items she carries in the couch, Kaylee helps him to undress. They work in silence, and she risks a glance or two to him, only to find him looking at her intently. Blushing softly, she takes the garment in her hands and put it aside, sitting back on her heels to take a good look at him. Just as she has imagined, his upper body is well fitted. Not an ounce of fat on him. Big arms, strong shoulders good abs. With a sigh, she moves to recover the items she had retrieved from the bathroom. “I’ll apply a variant of medigel that Mordin developed for me. It has some anaesthetic agents that calm the pain and let you make regular life until the wound healed completely. Then I will dress it to immobilise it a bit. That way you will not hurt yourself while moving.”

Sliding to the end of the couch, Jokers turns slightly to his left to give her better access to the wound. She stands on her knees and begins to apply the medigel directly to the wound. The smell of it fills their nostrils, but Joker is more preoccupied on controlling his body when her hands touched his skin. The heat of her fingers is spreading through his body, and he needs to rein it. Luckily, the medigel is applied easily, and he moves to the next stage, bandaging his mid body and crossing it across his unwounded side’s shoulder.

Kaylee finishes with it and cleans her hands with a wet wipe before putting all the items on the coffee table behind her. She remains on her knees and smiles and him, before recovering the hat from her pocket and putting it on in his head. “There. Almost like new, my hero.”

Joker expects to her to move back now that he is ready to go, but instead of it, she leans closer, planting a kiss on his cheek with a muttered ‘Thank you’. His hand moves to touch the spot she has kissed, making her giggle. “Just tell me a thing. Did you mean what you said at the bar?”

“What? That you are the most precious thing, we have? Ehm, yeah? Of course, I mean it. Why did you ask?”

Lowering her gaze to his knees, she fidgets with one of the pockets of his pants. “Alcheera. You always wanted to know why I did it. Why I risked my life for you. Just for the same reason than you stepped between a sword and me today. You are very precious to me, Jeff.”

“You can be saying what I think you are saying.”

Her gaze goes up to lock with his, while one of her hands moves to cup his face. “What? Can't I fall in love with my best friend? With my anchor in the middle of this nightmare? With the only person that has been here for me since the first days of the Normandy?”

His eyes closed, breath catching on his chest while his brain tries to find a second side to her words. Not finding any, he still can’t believe it. “This is real? Why now? Why not during the Collector's’ missions?”

Kaylee lets her hand fall and sits back on her heels, looking defeated. “Short version? I was scared. What if you didn’t feel the same? What if I scared you and lost my only friend? I needed you too much to risk to push you aside. But then everything goes FUBAR when the Reapers attack and seeing the end so close… I don’t know. I just didn’t want to leave this life with the doubt in my mind. Vega has been trying to compel me to talk to you since we left Earth. Shit, it sounds so stupid when I say it aloud… I can face a Reaper, on foot, while a Thresher Maw fights with him and I dodge brutes, but I can talk with you about my feelings.” Taking a deep breath, she stands on her knees again, leaning both hands on his knees. “Death will not catch me with this trapped inside me again. I’m in love with you, Jeff. I’ve been since Noveria. And please, if you didn’t feel the same, just don’t let this knowledge stole my only true friend here."

Joker can believe his ears. His brain is still deciphering her words, but his heart has read the lines without problems and is beating like crazy inside his chest. “Damn, you are serious, right?” She nods, biting her lower lip, waiting for his response. Instead of answering her, he moves his hands and let his fingers delve in her head, pulling her closer until she can feel her breath directly over his lips. “I love you too, Kaylee. Almost since the first day we meet.” Closing the distance, he let his mouth ghost over hers, giving her lips soft peaks. Several heartbeats later, she reacts, moving a bit closer and wrapping her arms around his chest while nesting herself between his legs. The kiss deepened, and Joker’s tongue teases her lower lip until she takes the hint and opens for him, moaning softly when their tongues dance inside her mouth. The unique taste of him mixed with the old Scottish is making her dizzy.

She breaks the kiss, resting her forehead on his. “Glad to hear it, Jeff.” Moving a bit back but leaving her hands on his shoulders, she bites her lower lip again. “As much as I want to ravish you until I scratched the crave of the past three years, you are injured, and I didn’t want to make it worse.”

When Joker sighs, defeated, she giggles. “Tomorrow, Doc will close the wound, and you will be perfectly fine for the night, to be mine to begin to catch up with all the loose time.” Leaning closer again, she plants a kiss on his nose and steals the hat from him. “Besides, no one has said that you can’t sleep here with me. I dreamed waking up in your arms for so long…”

Grabbing her hands, he brings them up, kissing every knuckle on it. “Lead the way, Commander, and I will follow, as I always done.”

The morning finds them with Joker sleeping on Kaylee’s shoulder while she plays with the hair on his head and beard, a smile that can shine a full planet system plastered on her face. They are together, at last, at the end of all things.