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strawberrymochin · 5 months ago

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A Letter.....Long Lost!

kyojuro rengoku x fem!reader

word count- 12.2k

synopsis- the discovery of an old letter from kyojuro rengoku's room shakes the world of tanjiro. he thought he fulfilled every wish of rengoku. however he missed one. tanjiro needs to deliver it to the one it was written for; but the letter has nothing written except a name 'y/n'. who is y/n and how will tanjiro find her?

genre/warnings- post war timeline/ mentions of death/ slice of life/ angst/ fluff/ lots of flashbacks/ kamaboko trio going on a quest to find reader/ emotionally unavailable parents/ just read it i swear it wont disappoint/ comfort/ scenes of rengoku and mitsuri training/ mentions of mugen train

a/n- i had this idea in my head and i literally wrote this in two days. Loosely based off a film I'm obsessed with...this is my first time writing a long fic. im hella nervous. it will have a sequel with a reincarnation au and smut. not fully proof read, ignore small errors.

Nezuko chimed in as urokodaki made his appearance. Soon more people will join in. Kanao and aoi are helping in the kitchen, making several dishes while inosuke is trying to get aoi give him some to taste.

Tanjiro and zenitsu are spreading out the mats for people to sit and get comfy.

“urokodaki sensei! Please come and join.” tanjiro said noticing his former teacher, carrying a huge basket wrapped in a cloth with water patterns similar to his haori. Nezuko trails behind him bringing another basket.

“i brought some mitarashi dango and some hanami-zake for everyone.” said urokodaki with a soft voice, that made nezuko wonder if he was smiling under his tengu mask.

It's been 2 years since the war ended. People lost their dear ones with a pain bearing smile. Some endured injuries that would sustain through out their life marking them as ‘crippled’; while some sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

Seasons changed since then.

So did several people.

People who turned their hearts into stone, heavy from guilt of their family dying; who suffered from the culpability of being protected…

“giyuu san’s here too, please sit inside with the others while we get the stuff ready.”

“yeah how's your sister? I brought her some new kimonos”

A mild smile forming on his lips.

Tanjiro’s eyes widened a bit. It's kinda still new to him seeing such a soft side of the guy who barely used to smile.

……have let their guard down, allowing themselves to move on, now that there's no more threat hanging in the air.

People who had been afflicted by the remorseful long sleepless nights of trauma; killing the one who once bore them in her womb; whose eyes had become dull and frantic, dying inside in agony…..

“oi tomioka! Move outta my way!” grumbled sanemi, throwing a box wrapped in a delicate green cloth in tanjiro's direction as he catches it with difficulty. Having a hand crippled like an old man is sure a poor thing, not that tanjiro minds that.

“ahh the scary guy's here again! Don't touch the box tanjiro. It must've been poisoned!!!” shouted zenitsu, panicking around, hiding himself behind tanjiro.

“What did you just say?” Sanemi’s eyes narrowed at zenitsu, veins becoming more prominent, ready to throw a first at the blonde head's face.

“Goddamn shinazugawa! Don't scare the kid…” said giyu, grabbing his wrist and pulling him inside. “Wh-you’re such a creep tomioka!”

“Kk.”

“Stop giving me that kanroji face!” sanemi said as shivers ran down his spine. Somehow a smiling tomioka was scarier than muzan to him.

…have let go of their distraught, accepting the dreams which they wanted for their loved ones. Fulfilling it in their place.

“Both of them are creeps!” Zenitsu said digging his nails into tanjiro's skin as he spit curses on them. “Zenitsu they are gone now, can you please give this box to kanao san, it smells of fresh ohagi.”

“I'm telling you…it's fuckin poisoned”

“It's not, zenitsu…don't be like that” tanjiro pushed him away with the box. He then took up a broom and started sweeping any other leaves that fell down from the trees.

Pink flowers blossomed everywhere, now that another peaceful season had arrived.

Kanao had suggested nezuko and aoi that they should spend time together this hanami festival. Nezuko and aoi agreed to that instantly. Thus this is how they ended up inviting everyone at tanjiro's, whose house was surrounded by a lots of cherry blossoms.

Kiyo chan naho chan and sumi chan were playing with tengen’s baby as Suma kept pestering urokodaki san for loosening his face mask (I can't blame my lil curious mommy). Makio was sure annoyed at her behavior while hinatsuru just chuckled. Murata sat stiff in the presence of four former hashiras.

Almost all of them had arrived. Except the rengokus.

Aoi brought them some appetizers, as they kept on chatting. After decorating the food all of them would join outside admiring the moment of bliss.

“Senjuro Kun and shinjuro san ain't here yet right?” Asked tengen.

“They haven't made their arrival yet” announced aoi, “however tanjiro san is waiting outside for them, the food is almost done, we can start after they get here”

“HAHAHAHA…. RUSHING IN LIKE A BOAR!!!” inosuke dashed in with a sakura onigiri in his mouth, from the kitchen. “WAhahhh scar guy!! Fight me!” As expected from inosuke, nothing could ever stop him. At first he was a bit spooked seeing a lot of people at once and sticked to aoi till his normal composure returned.

“Still that dumb boar head! Will he ever get mature?” Sanemi grumbled lazily. “I agree” said giyu, smiling at sanemi, which almost made his stomach churn. Tengen bursted out in laughter, “I see you are still in spirit huh? Quite flamboyant of you.”

“YEAH THE GOD OF MOUNTAINS INOSUKE SAMA IS ALWAY—” Aoi smacked him on his head and dragged him away while muttering some apologies to the hashiras.

“He's still much of energy…and his voice has become much hoarse ain't it? I still remember taking those kids on that mission. And this kid in particular was such a ruckus.” Said tengen, stretching his arms.

“Isn't it good to see all of us after so long without having to fear losing someone?” Said hinatsuru, makio and Suma smiled at each other.

“But we had already lost many people.” Sanemi sighed. He wished he could apologize to genya. If life ever gives him another chance he would like to be a little less aggressive.

“If you keep sulking like that, your brother will definitely curse you from heaven.” giyu took a gulp of the matcha tea, sanemi sent at tanjiro's a month ago.

“Now that there are no demons, you two get along with each other quite well don't you think so?” Tengen threw the snarky question at them.

“what the—”

“I wish rengoku could have seen you guys like this…remember the one time himejima san told us that oyakata sama wanted to see giyu smile….”

“See me smile?”

“Yeah, what a waste of time i swear.”

“Rengoku disappeared for a while to buy glasses in order to make giyu smile.” laughed tengen.

“It didn't work though and then kochou emotionally blackmail me to make him laugh.”

“Oh so this is why you wanted to have sake daikon with me?” Giyu smiled again at sanemi.

“I swear if you make that kanroji face again at me, I will kick you on your balls.”

“Everyone food’s ready, let's go and sit outside!!” Said nezuko halting the heated nostalgic conversation of the two.

Murata finally lets himself relax a bit as the hashiras start moving out. Urokodaki slammed a hand at his back, as he felt his stiff posture return. “Don't be so stiff we aren't gonna ask you to duel.” murata’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment as urokodaki laughed off at the kid's nervousness.

These days are indeed peaceful.

Senjuro made his appearance a bit late. He apologized for his fathers absence, blaming on his health. It's not been that best for a few days.

“Oh goodness, is he really going to be fine, we can go run a check up on him you know?” Kanao offered an idea, worried about the shinjuro’s health.

“Thanks a lot. Actually there's something that has been troubling us for a while.”

“Is everything okay?” Tanjiro's asked with concern lacing his eyes. Sanemi noticed, he had always been kind. He was kind to his brother. During hashira training when tanjiro stepped over the line, it actually made sanemi kinda happy and relaxed. Atleast genya had someone in life he could rely on.

Shinjuro's put down his bowl and chopstick on the mats as he brought his hand to his knees.

“There's something we found a month ago….while cleaning aniki’s room.”

Not only tanjiro but tengen, giyu, sanemi, zenitsu and inosuke froze for a second. The untimely death of the young guy was such a sad event that has ached their hearts for a long time.

Tanjiro could smell senjuro’s emotions and it was odd. It wasn't sadness, or guilt, or anger. It was pity. And somehow it stinged tanjiro, the same way it did years ago.

Senjuro took out some bunch of old papers from the sleeves of his yukata.

Tanjiro's throat felt dry and uneasy. It were a bunch of letters.

All of them looked like they were forgotten for months. The letter envelopes had stained yellow and some even have their edges teared off. But it sure emitted a strong smell. The smell of kyojuro rengoku. Tanjiro's still remembers the distinct hints of his aura. And it somehow still lingered around these letters. Especially the one which was sealed.

“What is it?” asked aoi, finally breaking the deafening silence. A strong gust of wind blew the pink petals along with the letters from senjuro's hand. It's scattered around the mats as all of them tried to collect them.

“Y….y/n?” read nezuko aloud. She hold the sealed letter in her hand as tanjiro extended his palm to grab it. It had tear stains. One side of it had brush marks written ‘to y/n’. The ink has now blurred a bit. But it was still readable.

“What's the meaning of all this?” Tengen asked, grabbing one of the opened letters in his hand. Giyu had hold of one reading in pure shock, while sanemi pondered from the side. Eyes as shocked as giyu’s.

“What happened tengen-sama?” asked makio, seeing all of their disturbed expressions. Zenitsu tried to snatch away the papers from inosuke who was trying to eat it.

“We found these letters from aniki’s room. A lady named y/n had sent those letters to him. An—?”

“And that lady was his lover?” asked giyu.

“What nonsense!”

“He never mentioned any of that to me.” frowned tengen.

“Nor did aniki said anything about it at home. At that time our father didn't pay us any attention. He was drowned totally in despair from the death of our mother. Seeing us only infuriated his anger and sorrow. Aniki would train or be at missions and he was rarely at home. He never told me anything about that….”

‘A letter?’ thought tanjiro. He started sweating all of a sudden. He thought he fulfilled all his wishes but—

“Rengoku san! Please think about yourself, can you stop the bleeding with your breathing technique?” Tanjiro has muttered those words back then, panickingly, devastatingly.

He wanted rengoku to say yes. He wanted him to live beside him, fight beside him, eat beside him. But he didn't get that as an answer.

“No, very soon i'll be dead. Before that happens, i need you to hear me out. I have a younger brother named senjuro. Please tell him to follow his heart. And walk down the path he feels is right.” Rengoku’s face had the same content smile, which warmed their hearts up. He continued, “And tell my father to look after himself…and lastly…”

Rengoku went on and expressed his views on nezuko. It felt like a warm hug. Someone has accepted nezuko. Not because they pitied her but since they saw her true potential and that she was no harm to humans. And now when he remembers it clearly, there was something rengoku whispered before his heart stopped pumping.

It was a faint whisper. So subtle that tanjiro thought it was his ears ringing. But now that he recalls, after he said he trusted them as a slayers, he whispered a few words

“and the lette—”

Rengoku stopped mid sentence as tanjiro kept weeping. He wasn't looking at tanjiro but something behind him. It made him smile as he took his last breath.

“Oni-chan? What happened? Are you okay?” Nezuko pulled tanjiro out of his daze. Everyone was looking at him worriedly. Even sanemi was worried.

“I've not fulfilled rengoku san’s last wishes. I- i haven't. I haven't delivered…how can I be so dumb!!”

“What? Tanjiro san! Calm down! You told us everything aniki wanted to say to us.” Senjuro tried to comfort tanjiro.

“No…before dying he whispered something. I thought my ears were ringing but he did whispered something. It was about a letter.” tanjiro kept on babbling as everyone felt dead silent even senjuro couldn't move his hands.

The sealed letter stayed in tanjiro's hands.

Something that belonged to the girl named y/n.

Something probably dear to kyojuro rengoku.

Some words which were waiting since 3 years.

But…..who is y/n?

The rest of hanami festival gathering went by silent. Senjuro entrusted the letter to tanjiro as per as his request before leaving early since he need to be home before sunset to check upon his father. Murata and urokodaki san accompanied him on the way.

“That's completely ridiculous. None of us have any idea who the fuck this y/n is? how are the fuck are you even planning to find her?” Sanemi spit out bitter words at tanjiro, sitting on the porch, watching the sun slowly turn a deep shade of orange. It reminded him of rengoku’s odd hair colour. It's funny how not only he, but his tsugoku also had weird hair colour— a colour which was dear to Iguro obanai.

Tanjiro lowered his head, smiling a bit. Sanemi changed a lot, even if he speaks harshly, he can only smell pure concern. “But I can't start a new life without paying my debts. Rengoku san saved my life. Whoever lady y/n is….I need to deliver this letter to her.”

“I get what you're saying…but there's no address in any part of the letter. Moreover you are being hesitant on opening it. How do you think you will find her then?” Tengen spoke from the back, alerting the former wind hashira and tanjiro. Both wondered how long he's been eavesdropping them. They expect nothing less. He was a hashira and before that he was a ninja. Even after losing one arm and one eye, he still holds the same power.

“Honestly, I've no idea. But I just can't sit and let it slide.” said tanjiro.

“you’re getting married to kanao next year. Better focus on that. Don't get into useless troubles hanging her off.” sanemi said lazily, yawning and getting up to his feet, stretching a bit. “I will be leaving then. Take care.” Tanjiro didn't reply to him.

Tengen shared a look with sanemi. His eyes shooting a mischievous look filled with pride. Tengen has been in a mission with tanjiro and he knows how stubborn he can be. He knows how pure of a heart he had. And how he even had empathy for demons. He knows sanemi have to surrender infront of him.

Annoyed, sanemi rolled his eyes, “if you're that insistent on finding the girl, then why not refer to kasugai crows. Rengoku's crow might know something about the girl.” He suggested as tengen was in literal awe. He never thought sanemi could ever think logically with his brain. Tanjiro’s head perked up in joy at his idea. Now he finally has a path to look up. Sanemi felt awkward and took his leave, avoiding to look in their eyes.

“Ah! Shinazugawa san! Thanks for the idea!!”

“That brat finally seems to work a bit humane ain't he ?!” A deep laugh bubbled up tengen’s throat.

“I’m happy that he has softened a little now that demons have perished. However, about rengoku san’s kasugai crow, do you know where do I get in contact with it?”

“About that, i would recommend writting letter to kiriya sama. I'm sure he would know.” Tengen patted his head with a reassuring smile.

Soon he took his leave with his wives and giyu, since they were going to an onsen. Basically makio Suma and hinatsuru dragged him along forcefully. Giyu looked a bit tired but he was happy.

Things changed and improved rapidly in a short time. Zenitsu and nezuko got married last year. Murata also got engaged. Tanjiro couldn't help but wonder if the lady named y/n had moved on or not? Will rengoku san be happy if she found someone else? Will he be sad? He looked at nezuko smiling at zenitsu as he played with kiyo, naho and sumi. He looked at inosuke giving his shiniest acorns to aoi. He looked at kanao, smiling delicately, just like shinobu did.

He was happy.

But was the lady named y/n happy in her life?

Kanao looked at him and smiled. She came near him and took his wrinkled hand in hers. “Tanjiro san, you know I would really like you to deliver this letter to y/n san before we start a new life.”

“Even if it takes time?”

“Even if it does. I will wait for you for an eternity.” Tanjiro chuckled as red tints his cheeks. How pure kanao’s heart is? How did he get so lucky to have her in his life? God knows.

“Then I will write a letter to kiriya.”

After a few days, a letter arrived from ubuyashiki's. Along with that two kasugai crows were found circling over the house. Among them one belonged to tanjiro, when he was a demon slayer— tennoji.

The other was the one who accompanied rengoku till his last breath. Kiriya felt sad for rengoku and wrote his kind regards to tanjiro sending the crow to him. His name was kaname.

The crow looked pretty much normal and wasn't as hot -tempered as tennoji.

This was the first time tanjiro had seen him. “Hello, kaname san. Sorry for summoning you all of a sudden. But I wanted to ask you something…” the crow didn't reply, but tilted his head at tanjiro.

“I-ahh- do you know anything about a lady named y/n?”

The crow remained quite for a while, as if reminiscing the days which followed great sorrow. “Master's…y/n sama…master's lover…letters…”

His words were what tanjiro was expecting. Tanjiro finally saw a path clear.

“Can you tell me where she lives?” Asked tanjiro hopefully.

The crow shaked his head,“i don't know.”

Slightly disappointed, tanjiro started asking how she looked. The crow wasn't exactly able to describe her. Accepting his defeat, he asked the crow where he saw her for the first time. Maybe if he goes there, he will be able to find her.

“tokyo…capital…mission..”

the crow wasn't that helpful, they only got to know two things.

First- whoever this y/n is, she was rengoku's lover.

Second- rengoku's crow saw her in tokyo, the capital.

This indicates maybe rengoku and the people who went to the mission in tokyo as said by the crow, if alive, they might know something about it. Tanjiro wrote updates to the others.

A few days later, giyu’s letter came along with some sweets. In that he wrote that rengoku went to tokyo for a battle with lower moon 2 back then. Oyakata sama had assigned him to that mission, before he was a hashira. There were a bunch of people accompanying him, one of them being kanroji mitsuri.

Oh! Mitsuri kanroji was his tsugoku, tanjiro almost forgot about that, he got excited to ask her when reality struck him down. She died after the war. Even if she knew y/n tanjiro couldn't ask her.

He continued reading the letter from giyu as the path which formed in his mind started getting blurry.

Upon hearing from tanjiro, kanao dropped by at the kamado’s. She said she might have one way to get to know about y/n. Tanjiro's eyes perked up at kanao’s remark, which almost made kanao’s heart jolt since he was so cute.

Kanao explained, when shinobu was alive, she had once told her that mitsuri was close to a kakushi couple. She further said that mitsuri used to write letters to them about her missions on a regular basis. Those two even came to congratulate her when she was promoted to hashira. She said it was nice to see that a girl around her age so lively.

Tanjiro wrote a letter to kiriya again. And next week when tanjiro went out with inosuke to sell some charcoal in the city, a couple came to visit them.

Nezuko welcomed them, while zenitsu narrowed his eyes on them, especially upon the male.

When tanjiro returned home he was delighted to find the kakushi couple still waiting for him. They didn't hide their faces anymore. Dressed normally as regular citizens. Honestly they were pretty young, and tanjiro admired how they served the corps group keeping them intact.

“I'm so glad you both came.” Tanjiro bowed infront of them in gratitude.

“Oh no, that's completely fine. We are happy to be of any help. Oyakata sama said you wanted to know about mitsuri.” said the woman.

“Ahh not exactly about her, but for instance, do you have any idea if she ever mentioned a name called ‘y/n’?” tanjiro said pulling inosuke back beside him as he kept munching on the snacks for the guests. The guy gave him a creeped stare as he focused back on tanjiro's words.

“y/n? No I don't think so….she ever mentioned that name. Did she tanaka san?” The woman said.

Tanjiro felt anxious as the guy named tanaka tilted his head to think a bit.

“Nope I don't think she did.”, he clarified.

“Oh….” Tanjiro's voice was barely a whisper, that even inosuke sat straight checking if he's alright.

“Is there something else we can do, tanjiro kun? You look upset.”

“No no…it's fine. I was just trying to deliver a letter to rengoku san's love—”

“Rengoku san? Kanroji san’s master ain't it?” Tanaka spoke before tanjiro could finish his sentence.

“Yeah.”

“Oh my god? The one whom rengoku san loves was y/n?”

“You guys know her?” Hope shined bright in tanjiro's eyes. So did a fervent fear. Fear of disappointment. Fear of not being able to pay his debts. Fear of not fulfilling rengoku san's last wish.

“We didn't know about her name but kanroji san used to tell us about her…isn't it shimi san?” The guy turned to his wife with a fuzzy smile on his face.

“Yeah, she seemed so happy, wanting to have a love like them.” Said the wife.

And for the first time till now tanjiro wasn't let down. “Really? Did she lived in tokyo? Rengoku san's crow said he saw her for the first time during a mission.”

“A mission? No.” The wife let out a chuckle, “it started way before that. Kanroji san said….. ”

“Ahh! Master! Can we please have a break! I'm tired from hitting the sword, my limbs are sore.” Mitsuri cried barely holding another strike from her master.

“Haha you got tired this fast, we haven't even started.” the blazing hair resembling fire, moved swiftly as the guy attempted another strike on mitsuri, but thanks to a call outside, he stopped midway.

“Wait a bit, I will be back in a while.” Said kyojuro rengoku, her master. ‘i will be happy if you don't come back for a while.’ she thought as she collapsed on her knees, to exhausted to move.

“Ahh senjuro kun! Bring me some snacks please!!!” She shouted hoping for the little kid to hear.

A bit later, rengoku comes back. Senjuro looked at his elder brother, frowning while holding a letter. Mitsuri sat beside senjuro, who brought her some onigiris.

“What's that master?” She asked, stuffing another onigiri in her mouth.

“Even I'm confused. It's a letter but it wasn't delivered by a kasugai crow but by a postman.”

“Huh? Maybe it's from some neighbour wanting to lower your voice while eating.” Senjuro said shrugged off his shoulders as mitsuri suppress her laugh bubbling on her throat, almost choking on rice. It wasn't an irregular thing that neighbors anonymously complained about kyojuro shouting ‘umai’ every time he ate.

“Open it.” Said senjuro, curious what type of sarcastic words they might have chosen now.

Kyojuro did as his little brother requested. However kyojuro didn't reacted after reading the letter.

“Today's practice is over. You can relax.” He, then ordered senjuro to boil him some bathwater, shooing him away.

Senjuro obeyed his brother, while mitsuri felt kinda odd, yet she was happy to have a day off.

As soon as both of them left the backyard, rengoku blushed like crazy. The letter was still in his hand as he tried to digest the words.

“A love lett—” a big palm shut mitsuri’s mouth, preventing her from shouting. Yet she was squealing. “I thought you left! You've gotten quite quick in sly footing didn't ya? I'm impressed.” He finally removed his hand from mitsuri's mouth.

“Ofcourse you made me practice for 23 hours without sleep. Anyways, what's written in that?”

“Do you want me to make you practice for 2 days straight?”

“Naah I'm fine! But master, I'm happy.”

“Okay.”

“And curious too. Please let me read it.”

“No!”

After shooing mitsuri out of the backyard he tucked the letter in his sleeves. This letter was sure weird.

“Rengoku san thought that she didn't read the letter, but she had a strong memory and could remember each word after seeing it once. She was so excited telling us about that.” said the wife, looking outside the window at the moon.

The flame of the lantern flickered a bit. “So that might mean that the letter should be among those papers…”

“Woah zenitsu! I thought you were asleep?!”

“How am I supposed to sleep if you're talking that loudly idiot!”

Yeah the paper. There were a lot of papers. Some were smudged and unreadable, so they didn't read all of them. Tanjiro went over their cupboard and brought the bunch of papers.

“Can you identify the letter among them?” He asked the guy to inspect. The couple looked at each other. “Maybe we can try but the writings aren't clear.”

“Please if you can. I need to deliver that letter.” tanjiro bowed his head down begging to the couple.

“You're a nice kid, Tanjiro kun. We will surely help you.”

It's been more than twenty minutes since they are reading each and every paper. Inosuke got bored and slept on the tatami mats. Nezuko was already asleep so they didn't wanted to bother her.

“Yeah maybe this one. From what Kanroji san had explained, this seems to be the one.” The guy tanaka handed the delicate piece of paper to tanjiro.

“However, in each of these letters, she referred herself as his wife…I didn't know he was married…?”

“Huh?” Tanjiro frowned upon the man's words. ‘what?’ he checked the letters again. And the guy was right, y/n did refer herself as his wife. They didn't read the papers as carefully since they were long, they just assumed she was his lover. But rengoku san wasn't the one to hide such crucial information.

Tanjiro was confused, they were so focused on finding the address of y/n that they ignored reading the letters, which could provide information about her.

Tanjiro spent the entire night reading each word carefully. Fingers running across elegant handwriting and smudged ink. As he kept reading those with a pain in his heart. There were in total 7 of those letters, which were written to rengoku. And the one which tanjiro kept seemingly in care— the sealed one; one which has a strong smell of rengoku’s aura; one with tear stains.

The couple spent the night in their house and left the next morning after breakfast.

This helped but not that much. However the path had become clearer.

He knew that the girl was from a nice family who had hands in education from the curves in each characters of her words.

Second, she had mentioned that he had saved her and her friends from a fire, in yokaichi.

“I'm leaving for yokaichi.” Said tanjiro during breakfast.

“Eh? Oni- chan?”

“Don't worry nezuko, oni-chan will be back soon.”

“I will also go!” Said inosuke, “inosuke-sama will protect kamaboko gonpachiro, his minon from any harm.”

Tanjiro chuckled at how inosuke shows his care for him, “fine then.”

“Zenitsu san you also go with them…”

“Ehh, but nezuko chan won't you be lonely without me? I know you will be lonely without m—”

“I won't. You guys will be back soon. Till then I will be at butterfly mansion.”

“B-but nezuko channn!!!!” Inosuke dragged him away as nezuko watched the poor soul. She felt bad but she wanted him to be with her brother. She just felt that the three of them should go together.

The three of them finally reached yokaichi town. It was small but quite dense in population. Tanjiro felt that this was an advantage for them since they stories and folks might spread fast in a vast social surroundings.

“Inosuke, zenitsu let's ask the older citizens first, since they might be living here for a while, they must have known about any fire incidents.”

“I was about to say the same thing as you.” Snorted the board masked guy rushing off in the east direction. Zenitsu simply nodded and went in the opposite direction, sulking. He has been giving tanjiro silent treatment since he had to leave nezuko alone.

Tanjiro sighed as he started finding old citizens nearby asking about a fire incident.

After asking a few of them, he sighed, it didn't really do any help, since many weren't able to hear and some weren't able to remember. When he asked the youngsters, they ran away seeing his old crippled hand.

Tanjiro, let down, returned to the spot where they had started searching. Inosuke was already there tapping his feet as he was waiting for the others.

“Did you find anything?” Asked tanjiro.

“Nahh! They were mere cowards. Running way from me. Though I liked it! Everyone should fear the great inosuke sama.” As expected from inosuke, zenitsu was yet to return. Both of them decided to wait till he comes back.

After a while, zenitsu came back. His sulking still hasn't tailed off. “Ahh zenitsu! Did you find anything? You took so long!!”

Zenitsu didn't reply.

He stared at him with dead eyes.

Oh god! Zenitsu’s moody phases are the worst, especially if it's an urgent task. The whining and sulking from a few years ago flashed in front of tanjiro’s eyes.

“You turned mute or what?” said inosuke, already having enough of zenitsu’s tantrums.

But the only reply that came from the blonde was an eye roll. Inosuke got pissed, ready to throw hands at him if not stopped by tanjiro.

“Zenitsu, I will get nezuko chan make sweet washagis for you when we get back home.”

“Really!! You better do that. I can't even explain how much I've missed my dear wife nezuko chan. She must be so lonely without me.” Babbled zenitsu, finally speaking for the first time till they left home.

“She won't.”

“Stop making snarky comments you stupid boar head. What do you even know about pure love between me and nezuko chan?!!!”

“Ahh zenitsu! Did you get to know anything?”

Zenitsu considered tanjiro a while, before giving in, “At the very west of this town, there's an inn. People said it almost burned down about four years ago…I looked for its owner but they said he will be back late.”

Tanjiro let out a breath. If that's the case, then the owner might remember the incident clearly. If only he could provide any useful information.

“Btw do you really believe whoever this y/n is…she's still alive?” Zenitsu scratched the back of his neck, shooing away the mosquitos ready to feed upon his blood. It's been long three of them are waiting in front of the inn for its owner to arrive.

“Let's just not lose hope.” The inn did looked like it suffered severe consequences from whatever happened 4 years ago. Most of it has been repaired but the aura and the smell can still be recognised. There are still some wooden planks with burn marks which are yet to be repaired.

“May I ask who you three are?”

A chilly voice turned their attention. There stood a thin, frail boy, barely an adult. His eyes were small with hair falling down on his brows. He speculated about them with a suspicious look in his eyes(especially on the boat masked guy). Was he the owner? He looked too young for that.

“Ahh good evening! I'm tan—”

“If you're wanting to stay the night, go somewhere else, I'm not opening the inn today.” He replied coldly before tanjiro could even introduce himself.

“Ahh no, you're misunderstanding…. actually we are here to ask you something about the incident four years ago…”

The look on the boy’s face changed from suspicion to disgust.

“Well…I don't wanna talk about it. You guys can leave.”

“No please, at least hear our questions. It's really important.”

“As if I care.”

“Hey fucker! If you don't answer I'll break each and every bone in your body.”

“Stop it inosuke!” This isn't going any better. It's almost night, they also need to find a place to stay.

“tanjiro can you move aside a bit” said zenitsu, without waiting for his reply, he went to the kid. Apparently he whispered something in his ears which seemed to have creeped the guy out.

Tanjiro gulped. He must be desperate to go home and see nezuko. Sometimes he forgets that their coward friend can be hell scary when it comes to nezuko.

“Okay. He's ready to spill anything he knows.” The look on the kids face made it clear he didn't wanted to recall anything about that incident. However tanjiro had no choice but to push him off the edge.

“Hey I'm sorry if we're causing you any trouble, but you know we really need to know anything you know about a girl named y/n.”

“Y/n?”

“Yeah. Heard it before?”

“No. There were none with this name.”

“Eh? Can you try to recall. There must be someone. A girl who was saved by rengoku san. A guy whose hair was similar to fire.”

“Kyojuro rengoku you mean? He pretty much saved everyone. The inn you see here, is small. Before the incident also it was small and not that popular. Only a few people stayed here occasionally. So I can be sure there was no one named y/n.”

An ‘oh’ is just what tanjiro could manage. The boy got inside the house behind the inn. The night fell and they were still in the same position as before.

Inosuke was throwing tantrums in hunger, so they decided to go to an udon shop nearby. Perhaps they should not lose hope. Thinking empty stomach is not always the best option. This they were sitting in the shop waiting for their order to come.

“But she did mention in those letters that she was saved by him. How come the owner doesn't know anything about that?”

“I already told you we should have broken his bones, monjiro.”

“I think it's useless, let's just go back home to my nezuko chan.”

“Zenitsu! What if you were in place of rengoku san? Would you be happy if your last words don't reach nezuko?” zenitsu went silent at that.

They stayed silent till three bowls of hot udon were placed infront of them. Tanjiro and zenitsu thanked the server for the food whereas inosuke just shoved his head into the hot udon bowl. “You guys seem a bit tense, is everything okay? Asked the old man, the owner of the udon restaurant.

“Yeah we're just a bit disappointed.” Said tanjiro. “Haha and why so? Got rejected by a girl? Can't blame her, it's your hand.” The old man pointed at tanjiro's crippled hand. “What happened that's it's such in a bad condition?”

“Oh! It's…from…from a fight.” Tanjiro smiled, it's hard to offend him anyway,“ i already have a fiance and we are getting married soon.”

“Oh my god! Please forgive my mean words then. I wish you both happiness.”

“Thank you.”

“Then why pull a sad face. My udon tastes the best when you eat it with a good mood, ya know?!”

“Haha, I'm sure it will still taste good. Actually we were here wanting to acquire some information about the fire incident 4 years ago.”

“Oh that was such a bad one. If there wasn't that guy everyone would have lost their life…”

“Rengoku san? You mean?” Tanjiro's eyes perked up. “I see, you know kyojuro. Yeah, that boy was a regular in my shop. Although it's been more than three years since he last visited, i wonder how he's doing? Tell him to visit once, the old man misses him.” the man bursted in laughter while the three of them couldn't even managed to smile even once.

How are they even supposed to tell him, tell him that, “rengoku san died three years ago while saving us from…” zenitsu's voice trailed down into nothingness. So did the old man's. They didn't knew if he's aware about demons so they didn't exaggerated it anymore.

No one spoke for a while.

“I see. What did you guys want to know then? I'm sure you were close to him if he gave up on his life for you all…”

“do you know anyone named y/n? I need to deliver this letter to her.” tanjiro took out the yellow stained letter and handed it to the old man, who squinted his eyes on the writings, drawing a wrinkled finger tracing it's shapes.

“Y…y/n…..yeah she asked me to send some letters to his residence. The kid was young and beautiful.” he returned the letter back to tanjiro.

“She did?!”

“Yeah…that kid almost begged me to not tell kyojuro anything about that.”

The three of them looked at each other. “Can you tell us more about her?” “Do you know where she lives?” “Can I get a refill?” The three of them threw questions at the old man's face, whose lips creaked a bit. “Hmm, I don't know where she lives but I can tell you about her.” He said taking inosuke’s bowl to the counter for another refill.

The restaurant was almost empty so they went and sat on the round seats opposite of the counter.

“It was about four years ago when she appeared in my shop after kyojuro left….”

“umm excuse me…” you said

“Yeah young lady, what would you prefer?” asked the owner pointing at the chart hung on the wall which displayed all the items on the menu.

“I will take a hot tempura udon please.” said the girl beside you.

“And you miss?” The owner directed the question towards you. “Umm I will take anything you prefer.” “Ehh is that so? Fine, I'll make you the tastiest bowl of my special udon.”

“Just tell already…!” The girl beside you whispered into your ear, which was audible to the owner, he chuckled a bit. “Can you shut up….!!”

“I will if you say it…!”

“Okay fine!”

“Umm…if you don't mind, is there any way you can ask the address of the man who just left a while ago?” you asked hesitantly, fiddling with your fingers.

“Kyojuro you mean? I already know his residence, he made me deliver udon to his place before.” the owner said trying to keep his composure, young kids are just so bold nowadays.

“Is that so?” your eyes shined dreamily.

“Why harbored a crush on the man you saw a few mins ago? Hahaha!!” you felt blood rush to your cheeks as you couldn't find words to answer his question.

“She wants to thank him for saving her.” said the girl beside you. “Atsuko!” Atsuko just gave a smirk, ignoring how she threw you in such humiliation.

“Ah…if you don't mind then can you please deliver this letter to him anonymously. Don't tell him I asked you to send it. Please…I can pay you for that..”

“I don't need any payment. I will do that. You can just come and enjoy my special udon sometimes.” the owner accepted the letter from your hands, tucking it in his sleeves. “And maybe watch that man you talked about…he comes here around weekends.” The man hinted you the place which kyojuro normal has his lunch. And if you weren't blushing any harder, you felt your entire face burn with embarrassment. But you want to do it anyway.

Atsuko giggled beside you excited to see what happens next.

“So you delivered the letters in her stead?” asked zenitsu.

“Yeah…she kept coming back with letters for a good six months, if i remember correctly. Maybe kyojuro replied to them…”

It fell silent for a while. The only sound echoing was of inosuke slurping on the noodles.

“So, while you delivered letters rengoku san didn't knew her?” The guy with red eyes pointed the question at the owner.

“No i don't think so, she never came when he used to visit, that is, the weekends.”

“Can you tell us what was the name of her friend again?”

“Atsuko…if I remember correctly..”

“Can you describe how she looked?”

“Ehh? I can't really remember people's faces clearly, but she was very beautiful, big eyes with a nice soft skin. Her hair was long and dark. She had a soft voice. She looked like she belonged from a privileged family. So did her friend.”

“Oh is there anything specific you remember about her?”

“Hmm…let me think…if I'm not wrong rengoku once mentioned her name to a boy who tagged along with him. If you go to him i believe he could provide you some answers.”

“Really? Who was he?”

“His name was….daisuke I guess. He used to wear a similar black sort of uniform like kyojuro.”

After finishing their meal, tanjiro payed for everyone and thanked the old man for all that information. They went to a nearby inn and spent the night.

Tanjiro wrote some letters updating each one of their current status. And he sent a crow to kiriya requesting him to take a look if there's any former slayer named Daisuke and used to frequent his missions with rengoku.

The next day around afternoon, tennoji returned from ubuyashiki's. He said there was indeed a slayer named Daisuke. He had suffered severe injuries from the war and now lives in his village.

As directed by tennoji, tanjiro's crow, they went to the south east from their current position. After two days and one night of sleeping in the jungle without the fear of demons, a village appeared. It wasn't that populated. After asking a few kids, they showed the path which led to Daisuke’s hut.

“Umm excuse me? Daisuke san?”

“Yes, wh— ta…tanjiro….aren't you tanjiro?” the guy said, he was blind from one eye similar to tanjiro, with a missing arm and a limp leg. Tanjiro felt sorry for him.

“Yes, they are inosuke and zenitsu. Sorry for being a bother….”

“Oh no please come inside. I will get tea for you…” he said excited.

“Oh, you don't have to. It's fine. Actually we wanted to ask something….”

“Yeah? Please come in. I will surely help you as much as possible.”

They entered the hut and sat on the tatami mats. Even after pleading not to bring any snacks, Daisuke brought some rice crackers for them.

“Please have them.”

“You didn't have to.”

“Oh it's nothing. Now what did you wanted to ask about?”

“It's about y/n.” Tanjiro said as the rest simply focused on rice crackers. A hint of familiarity glistened in Daisuke's eyes. “Y/n? You mean the one rengoku san was madly in love with?”

Madly in love with? Tanjiro felt a pinch in his heart. Rengoku san must have adored you. The sealed letter had tear stains. Did rengoku cried while writing that?

“Ah…yeah…I need to deliver this letter to y/n but I don't know where she lives. Did rengoku san ever mentioned where she lived?”

“A letter? Why sent a letter when he was so adamant about that?”

“Adamant?”

“Yeah…he said that the pages limited his words to her. He was so desperate wanting to see her that he spent like 2 weeks searching for her without taking rest after his missions.”

“Seriously? So how are you supposed to recover from those injuries?” Daisuke said to his senior with an exasperated expression.

“It will heal when I get to see her face.” Said rengoku, bandaging the cut from a demon's blood arts whom he just killed.

“You're gonna exhaust yourself from build up fatigue.” The sun rays kissed the soil painted in crimson from the shedded blood.

“I will be fine. You go and take rest.”

“I can't believe you're going to find the creepy girl sending you creepy letters claiming herself as your wife.” Daisuke let you a sigh at rengoku's stubborness.

“In that case I gotta meet my wife.” Rengoku's laughter echoed among the vast field.

It still echoed in Daisuke's memories.

“So rengoku wasn't married…?”

“Naah. Honestly I think, after rengoku san’s mother died, he had faced severe neglect from his father. He was the oldest son of the family, so he had to be strong for his sibling. But sometimes we forget, even the strong needs someone to back for them. Even they need some kind words to let go all their tiredness and have a tight sleep. Even they need someone who assured them that they have a bright future…”

That's right. Tanjiro had seen how shinjuro, rengoku san's father, disrespected his sacrifice. He was so lost and depressed in his wife's loss that he forgot about the ones who need the most care— his kids.

Daisuke continued, “when the letter came from y/n, rengoku san must have read comforting words for the first time since that. He used to reread those letters a thousand times when he was free. Sometimes I wondered if he ever got bored doing that…but I knew he didn't. A starved man will eat anything. And I knew he was emotionally starving.”

Zenitsu and inosuke stopped eating rice crackers. Rengoku's death solely hurted them as much as it did to tanjiro, but they never thought it was that deep. That it was something beyond his life as a demon slayer.

Zenitsu could relate. After all he was an orphan. And rengoku was too, being in a situation similar to him, where his only parent was emotionally unavailable for him. He felt sorry for him.

No one dared to say anything. The silence was piercing their hearts like splinters of iron.

“Fun fact was that he did find her,” Daisuke chorted a bit before continuing, “and he literally begged her to marry him…”

Rengoku searched from cabin to cabin in the steam train. In the last letter you mentioned you were going to aomori to visit your relatives by train.

After a bit of negotiation he learned that there was only one train which was going to stop at aomori. This is how he ended up buying tickets at the last moment getting in the train, to find you.

He hasn't seen you before. He wondered how you would look. Even more beautiful and kind than your letters. Even more beautiful than the slight hooks of the curved kanjis you had written his name. Even more beautiful than the blazing sun.

He had checked almost the entire train. The content smile on his face has now thinned into pursed lips. He was nervous. What if he fails to find you? What if he never gets to find you? What if he never gets to see your face?

What if he didn't recognise you?

He flashed all the passengers in his head before lowering his head. None of them carried the same demeanor your letters did. He couldn't imagine any one of them being you.

He entered the last cabin. It was empty. However this cabin seemed a bit different. It had a narrow passage on the right with doors while the opposite side had small rooms. It seemed private. One previously booked by someone.

Rengoku turned back to return to his cabin when the door beside him shot open.

Inside was a girl, who seemed to have frozen for a while.

“Y/n?”

The girl’s eyes widened at the name which left rengoku's lips. She shut the door close, but it didn't closed, something was blocking it. The girl looked down, realizing rengoku had slipped his feet in to prevent her from doing that.

He barged the door open. “Y/n right?”

The girl remained silent for some time.

“I apologize to you with all my might rengoku san. Please forgive my intrusiveness.” you said, lowering your head, nervous at the sudden appearance of him.

“God you're even more beautiful than I thought…” you shoot your head up only to see him looking with such dreamy eyes at you as if you're the only thing he's ever wanted to look at. And it made your stomach churn. Guilt rushed in each of your veins.

“Rengoku san, i shouldn't have wrote those letters to you.” You say. Your friend had warned you before. You didn't listen.

“Why?” He took a step closer.

You gulped before answering,“i wrote nonsense, pretending to be your wife I'm very sorry yo—”

“Then don't pretend anymore.”

“Huh?”

“Be my wife.” Rengoku suggested. His face now inches away from yours.

“And then she ran away?” Said daisuke, barely containing his laugh.

“Yeah…did I do something wrong?” Rengoku said with visible confusion plastered on his face. It was rare to see any expression other than his smiling face.

“Of course she would run away.”

“and why so?”

“Rengoku san, a girl thinks about her future first after marriage. She knows nothing about you.”

“But she wrote me lett—”

“Which you didn't answered….since you thought you couldn't fit your words in papers.” Rengoku couldn't say anything in his defense. It was true rengoku never replied to any of your letters. When he received the first one he thought someone was pranking him. But then the letters came continuously, one each month. He slowly fell in love with those. He fell in love with your letters. And somehow, he fell in love with you.

“Then what do I do?”

“Be honest, tell her about your salary and your job, tel her you can take care of her needs.”

“Yeah? Kk I'm going then…”

Rengoku stood at the aomori station waiting for you to get on the train for your return. Upon spotting you, he called out for you. The train had a delay and he had a good 1 hour to make things clear.

“Eh? R-rengoku san!”

“I work in demon slayer corps. And currently I'm in the highest rank which is kinoe. I get a decent salary of 42,500 yen. I live with my younger brother and father. My mother died a few years ago from illness. I spend my day training, slaying demons and rereading your letters,” guilt rushed through your veins again. “I promise, I will fulfill all your needs and treat you like my queen.”

“rengoku san...”

“sorry i didn't replied to any of those, I just couldn't express myself much in writing. If possible I would like to crawl into a hole. However you don't need to worry. I will make sure that I keep you happy.”

You frowned at his words, unable to explain him. How could you do that to him?

“Y/n san, let's make the words on the letters true. Let's be husband and wife. I know that I work in an organization that isn't approved by governm—”

“Rengoku san, shall we walk while talking? We are blocking the road.” you change the topic, not wanting to talk about it.

“Sure.”

Rengoku continued telling you everything…everything about him. From his childhood till his mother's death. From his father's neglect, to his way up to kinoe, from his sword to the number of demons he slayed. You didn't believe in demons before, but now that rengoku tells you about this, demon folks is something you want to believe. You wanted to believe in everything he said. Even if he's telling the dumbest thing, far from reality, you wanted to believe it.

“Y/n san! Look here!” You turn back to rengoku.

Click.

“And did she said yes?”

“Maybe. He didn't mention her answer. He was so happy that finally he met her.”

“You must have seen her then…can you tell us how she looked?”

“I think I might have a photo of her. Rengoku san, asked to recieve a photo delivery, since he had a mission from the previous oyakata sama.” Daisuke got up limping to the one of the backrooms of his hut. He returned a few minutes later, handling a black and white photo to tanjiro.

Inosuke and zenitsu peeped from the sides to take a look at the long awaited moment, when they finally get to see y/n.

The photo was black and white, but tanjiro felt it was still colorful to rengoku san. In the photo there was a girl, young, with long beautiful hair, in a loose braid. She wore a flower hair ornament, which must have shone in gold back then. She was just how the udon owner described her, big doe eyes, pretty mouth, she looked educated. She was dressed in a floral patterned kimono. Zenitsu wondered what sort of colour the kimono would have been. He wondered if he could get a similar one for nezuko as a souvenir.

The girl was beautiful. Inosuke thought, she had similar smile to shinobu, he wondered if his mom’s smile was like that.

The girl's reflection reflected in several mirrors behind her, and one of the mirror had caught the reflection of the one clicking the photo— kyojuro rengoku.

“The last I heard from rengoku san, he said she wanted to meet him before taking the mugen train mission. He seemed happy, maybe she agreed eventually to marry him….if only he didn't…” Daisuke didn't finished the sentence, considering his surroundings.

They sit in deafening silence for a bit.

A bit later tanjiro thanked Daisuke for the rice crackers and his help. He asked if it were okay to take the photo with him. Daisuke had no problem with that. After bidding farewell they continued their journey, unsure what to do next.

After two days of staying at an inn, cluelessly with no idea how to find y/n, inosuke suggests to go to the station from where they got on mugen train.

“If we go to that lord's land and ask the people over there and show this painting of this long haired girl, then some might recognize her.” He had said.

“First of all that's a train station, second it's a photo. How can you still be the same stupid even after 3 years?” zenitsu cringed hard.

“wha—”

“Inosuke’s right zenitsu, we should go there and ask the people over there.” tanjiro said halting the cat and mouse fight which was about to start between the two.

Daisuke had said rengoku was about to meet her before the mission, which means before getting on the mugen train. Even if it is difficult, some locals must have seen even one glance of her.

The next morning, as per inosuke's idea, three of them left for the station.

“Umm excuse me…” said tanjiro, forwarding the photo in front of the local he stopped on his way, “can you tell me if you've seen this girl?”

The man gave a disgusted look at tanjiro. “no I haven't.”

“Ehh? Are you sure you haven—”

“I don't have time for bullshit.” He went off ignoring tanjiro. Strange. People here are less friendly, some even get irritated if stopped on their way.

It's almost lunch time, zenitsu and inosuke had tried to stop the locals as tanjiro asked them about you. It was clear that this ain't ending soon. Especially when they've got nothing good in hand.

“Let's go buy something to eat.”

“YEAH! I'M HECK HUNGRY!!”

“I saw a kid wearing glasses, selling bentos…let's buy some then…she went in that direction.”

Upon seeing the kid, tanjiro asked her to give them three boxes of bentos. It seemed similar to the ones they had three years ago. The girl was about to leave after receiving her payment, but tanjiro's instinct told him to stop her.

“Wait!” The girl turned back to him as zenitsu and inosuke watched him, confused. Tanjiro put his hand inside the sleeves of yukata, taking out the only photo they had of you.

“Have you ever seen this girl around here?”

The girl squinted her eyes behind the round glass frames,“y/n san! Isn't she y/n san…”

Zenitsu’s eyes popped out, he wondered if tanjiro's a mind reader or something, how can he be so quick?

“Yes! You know her? Can you tell us where she lives?” Tanjiro asked desperately.

“She never mentioned that to us…” the girl said frowning her eyebrows.

“Oh…how did you know her then?”

“Well, a demon slayer who saved us three years ago, requested…”

You waited for kyojuro to come. The sun shone brightly above you. The empty roadway started getting crowdy. You've had enough.

“Y/n san. You wanted to see me?” kyojuro had become a hashira now, and amongst his tight schedule he barely had time for you. It's not like you were disappointed, but still…you and kyojuro often talked through phone booths, after you've suggested that casually one day while strolling with him. Last week when he called you, after what felt like years, you said you wanted to meet him soon. ‘fine meet me at the near hinakawa station, I will be waiting.’ he'd said.

Though it was you, waiting for him to come. You've felt distant from him. And you didn't like it.

“I ran away.” You announced looking in his honey drizzled eyes. Though you aren't sure if it were your overthinking but those eyes seemed a bit dull today.

Kyojuro didn't say anything, maybe confused how to interpret your words.

“my family's against us. And I'm against them. I left the old relations to form a new one. With whom I love. Let's get married.” You said taking his hand in yours.

Kyojuro said nothing but wrapped you in his arms. You hugged him tighter, never wanting to let go. “I'm not alone anymore.” He said before nuzzling his face on the crook of your neck.

Yes. You've always wanted to hear these words from his lips. You've wanted to let him know that he's not alone even when he thinks he is. You wanted him to know that there's someone who will always support him even if he's father thinks he has no talent. This was the reason you wrote him letters in first place. This was the reason you let yourself get tangled in a world far different from yours— in the world of kyojuro rengoku.

He left soon saying he will be back after completing a mission. He said he will send someone to you and asked you to wait for him till then. And you agreed gladly. About half an hour later a girl wearing round steel rimmed glasses along with her grandmother appeared.

“Y/n?” You nodded your head at them. “Rengoku sama asked us to keep you safe till he gets back. If you don't mind then you can come home with us.”

You got to know from the grandmother, how the rengokus had saved their lives two times. You've never seen kyojuro fight, but you knew he was hella strong. Still your heart sinks into your stomach whenever he mentions a mission. You've never encountered demons, once you didn't even believed in them, and now here you are nodding at each of those demon tales of the grandmother.

It didn't mattered anyway as long as he comes back safe. You have to wait for a while for him to comeback….after all you weren't done….you still had an important thing to say.

“Then?”

“Then days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, the slayer never made its return. She left eventually, thanking us. We told her to wait for a while more…but she was too stubborn.” said the girl, fixing her specks again.

Tanjiro couldn't believe what he heard. Rengoku had so many things going on in his life. He had more priorities than him and his friends. Someone who was more important. Someone who left her entire family for him.

Yet.

And yet.

He chose to save them sacrificing himself.

He wondered if the you hate him now.

Zenitsu and inosuke were too stunned to speak. All of them were on the verge of crying. To think…that he couldn't return because of them. To think that they played a role in ruining you happiness. That he died saving them.

“She said she was going to asakusa at her friend’s house, named atsuko.”

Tanjiro bowed at the girl, he couldn't manage thanking her, since he knew if he draws one more breath trying to talk, he would break down right there.

The three of them took a train to asakusa after eating those bentos. They looked similar because rengoku had bought the same boxes from that bento girl 3 years ago.

Inosuke was oddly quiet inside the train. The other two also barely chatted before reaching their destination.

Tanjiro had visited asakusa before and he didn't liked that experience very much. Especially the narrow lanes. This time the city looked more developed than before. And it was more crowdy too. They made their way as the girl has previously informed, that atsuko works as a teacher in a big school for aristocrats.

Coincidentally, tanjiro found the same vendor from his last visit. Back then nezuko wasn't able to savor his ramens since she was a demon. He wished he brought her along. They ordered a steaming bowl of ramen, as the vendor was delighted seeing tanjiro again.

“Where that bamboo girl you carried along with you?”

“She's at home right now.”

“Don't give my wife stupid Nicknames.” ,shouted the blonde at the vendor. Tanjiro apologized in his stead as he kept fuming. “So why are you three here all of a sudden? It's been long ain't it?”

“Yeah we're looking for a girl named y/n. She has a friend who teaches in a big school named atsuko.”

“Y/n never heard that sort of peculiar name…”

“are there any big schools in this area, where aristocrats study?”

“Umm…there are a lot of big schools, you could go and ask at the library. There's only one library here and all the school students or teachers borrow books from there. They must know something about that.”

“Oh really! Thankyou very much.”

Without any further do, the three of them went to the public library after eating.

“Woah this is so big.” Tanjiro said.

“It has so many books shall I borrow some for nezuko chan” zenitsu got lost in his dream world. Inosuke was quite whenever he gets in a new environment with a lots of people, so tanjiro didn't bother checking at him.

However, inosuke tugged on tanjiro's yukata pointing at something with his boar mask tugged on his head. Tanjiro could see his eyes popping out.

“What happened tanji—” zenitsu choked on his spit. Tanjiro’s jaw dropped, his mouth open wide. Inosuke was pointing at a picture hung on the wall. Tanjiro took out the photo hurriedly from his sleeves.

There's no mistake. This was indeed the same girl. Underneath the painting was written ‘princess akiko’ in bold letters carved carefully on metal.

“But isn't her name y/n?” Said zenitsu. What's going on? Before tanjiro could say anything, a woman in her twenties bumped into them while rushing.

The photo slipped out from tanjiro’s fingers.

“I'm so sorr—” the women's words halted as she looked at the photo lying on the ground in front of her. She picked it up before tanjiro could.

“Where did you get this picture from?” She asked as if it were a taboo to have this.

“Ahh you know y/n?”

“Y/n?”

“She looks similar to the girl in that painting” the boy with the boar mask declared.

“For the hundredth time inosuke it's a photo.” said zenitsu.

“She doesn't looks like her. She is her. She is princess akiko. The youngest daughter of the imperial family.”

What?

Three of them couldn't believe their ears. “But her name is y/n…” whispered tanjiro in a low voice.

“Just who are you?” She looked at the picture carefully, as if hiding it from the world, “isn't this rengoku?”

“You know rengoku san?”

“That's the man who saved us from a fire incident in an old town. And then became the main reason of the storms in akiko’s life.”

Tanjiro's eyes widened at the mention of the fire incident “Are you atsuko?”

The women nodded, surprised they know her name. Tanjiro, then explained the whole matter.

“I see.”

“This isn't right akiko…you shouldn't have continued writing letters to him in first place.” Atsuko said trying to persuade her not to run away.

“I can't. I can't live here. They will never accept him. And I can't live without him.”

“Akiko, try to understand…rengoku loves y/n.”

“And i am y/n!” The sound of the rain pouring down increased.

“You are princess akiko. Y/n is just a fake name, you created to hide your real identity when decided to write him letters. I supported you then since i thought it was a one time thing.” Atsuko shook the girl's shoulders trying to bring her to the path she considered right.

“But I don't wanna be akiko. I wanna be y/n…y/n rengoku.” Tears fell from the eyes in front of her as sobs escaped her lips.

“You're playing with rengoku’s feelings. Even if you run away, how do you intend to tell him the truth? You can't pretend to be y/n your entire life akiko.”

The girl didn't answered atsuko. That day slowly came to an end along with the rain. And Akiko did run away to rengoku, away from her pointless life, being a puppet in her family's hands.

“She returned a month after she ran away. When I asked him about rengoku she said nothing. Soon her brother came and took her away.” Whispered atsuko in a voice so doleful, that it was clear, it hurted.

“Did rengoku san knew she was a princess?” Zenitsu asked.

“He probably didn't. Akiko's family arranged several politicians later to set her up but she caused such a ruckus that her family gave up at last.”

“Do you know where she is now…i need to deliver this letter to her.” Each word tasted like bile to him. He couldn't even imagine how miserable it had been. You literally rejected a crystal palace only to live a normal life with him. Which didn't even come true. How feverishly would it have hurt? How apathetic fate was…

“She lives in osaka, running an orphanage. You would find her there. Shall I get someone two drive you three over there?”

“That will be very thoughtful of you” said tanjiro.

Atsuko arranged a driver, who would drive them to the orphanage, they expect to find you in. The car ride was even more silent than the train one. Inosuke, even, didn't make any fuss seeing a car for the first time.

‘So this is where princess akiko lives.’ thought tanjiro. The building was similar to butterfly mansion, nothing that luxurious but quite spacious. The driver left soon after dropping them.

They crossed several corridors of children buzzing like bees. Laughter echoed among the hallways. How wonderful of a place for someone who lost their parents. Similar to them. They wondered if they would have grown up in this orphanage if they were born here.

Finally they reached to what seemed like an office. Similar to one shinobu used when researching herbs, the one which kanao uses now. They entered with a knock.

“Y/n san?”

Your head perked up at the name, which once your beloved used to refer. That beloved who never came.

Your heart ached a bit expecting kyojuro. A melancholic smile forms on your face seeing three kids infront of you. Of Course it wasn't him.

“yes?” you said gently, trying not to give in to your emotions.

But tanjiro could smell it. He smelled the intense grief bubbling within you. He could imagine how long you've bottled up your emotions.

Without saying much, he took the letter out of his sleeve placing it on your desk.

“It's been waiting for 3 years.”

“Huh?”

“Rengoku san wanted me to deliver this to you. Sorry this took so long.” your hands froze at his name. Your chest heaved without even you realizing as you grab the letter.

A single drop of tear fell on the spot which had been previously stained with tears. Tears of kyojuro rengoku.

Your fingers shaked tracing your name on the letter. The name which he used to call. Y/n not Akiko.

You teared the seal, taking out a paper. It was filled with words. Words, he never thought he could express on paper.

Dear y/n,

If you're reading this, then I'm sorry. I might have broken my promise of protecting you forever because by the time you read it— I will be dead.

Y/n i wanted to tell you, that I've loved you. I have loved you from the very beginning. Before even I saw you. You were the one who protected the flame in my heart. While others told me to set it ablaze, you made me learn how to keep the flame burning.

You were as beautiful to me as the rising sun. So bright, so clear. You were the epitome of my life. I wanted to live a peaceful life with you, in which my father let's go of his depression. In which your family accepts us. In which we don't have to hide from others. I wanted you to have my surname.

Your words were like the first rain of summer to me. You saved me from quenching my thirst by your words. I have been starved…. starved for so long that I forgot what being hungry for love feels like. Until you came into my life. you healed my heart, handled it as if it's porcelain.

I thought papers were something I would never choose to express myself with. But look at me now. Haha. I don't know why I'm writing it now, but I just feel like, the time’s soon going to be over. And I feel like I will be gone without seeing your face.

Please don't hate me for that.

If I get to spend my life with you I will probably burn this off, but if this letter somehow unfortunately finds you…I want you to know, I gave my best. I gave my very best to save the ones surrounding me. That I fullfilled my duty till the end. So don't feel sad.

I still can't believe you chose to love me. If possible I would like to meet you in another birth, in another universe without demons, where I will be yours, completely yours. You're the best thing that happened to me, y/n. You're just perfect.

But I must say….you’re dumb for choosing a man who bets his life for others, leaving the silver spoon you had in your mouth.

Sadly, our time was limited in this birth. Good bye princess akiko.

~ your kyojuro

The letter fell from your hands. Your lips quivering as you barely contained your tears, which stained the letter.

You just managed a smile at the kids who brought you this letter. He was no more. And you couldn't believe that. He knew you were Akiko not y/n. The truth you weren't able to tell him.

“I'm sorry for making this long. Rengoku san died saving us from a demon, 3 years ago” said tanjiro, tears staining his cheeks. So do the others, barely containing their emotions.

“oh! But i-im glad you all are safe. H-he fulfilled his duties right?”

“Does it hurts?” Tanjiro asked.

“A lot.” And if he wasn't seeing things, he saw rengoku for one second with a silly smile on his face, maybe wondering how to comfort you.

The second he blinked his eyes he was gone. What remained was his letter. Tanjiro handed the photo to you before leaving. He wondered if in another birth he gets to see the both of you reconcile.

He took a deep breath wanting to return to kanao. Maybe he would just ask her to marry him this year. He doesn't want to waste anymore time away from her.

“Where were you?” Asked zenitsu to inosuke, who went missing for a while. They are currently waiting for a train to go back home.

“To buy this.” Inosuke showed a butterfly hair pin decorated with blue crystals. It was beautiful.

“Woah. Who did you buy it for?”

“Aoi.” Tanjiro chuckled at his bluntness, while zenitsu smirked. It's funny how inosuke still gets both of their names incorrect but he never made a mistake in saying aoi’s name correctly. Who knows they might have two weddings…

Now that tanjiro had finally payed off the debt, he wished you happiness as he looked forward to a happier future. He will remember you, not as princess akiko, but as y/n.

“Let's go! I can't wait to see nezuko!!”

“Zenitsu watch out your way!!”

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ohdeerfully · 10 months ago

Note

hiii! this is my first request on tumblr but i jus love alastor sm and there is NOT enough fics for me out there. so im asking u❤️

what abt alastor being jealous of someone else in the hotel? for example: angel dust, he puts on music and you two are dancing with eachother happily not noticing the red eyed demon with a tight grin. 🥰

Hii! Honestly after writing this I realized I didn't follow the prompt exactly, less jealousy and more Alastor being overprotective. Oh well! Hope you like it anyway :D!

Be Back Soon (i)

alastor x reader (fluff? alastor is just overprotective) part i TW: Cursing/Angel existing if you want tagged in the next part, lmk! join my discord! ═══ ◈ ══════════ ◈ ══════════ ◈ ══════════ ◈ ═══

Your fingers dragged down the skin around your eyes as you let out a long sight, sitting at Husk’s bar with shoulders propped on the cold counter. What a day it had been, running around in the typical chaos of the hotel as Charlie tried to get some group bonding activities finished. It was getting late, and you just finally had a moment of peace.

“‘Ey, toots!” The chipper voice broke your peace and you couldn’t help it when another audible sigh escaped you. The culprit of the broken science paid no mind.

Turning your head, you narrowed your eyes and made eye contact with the lanky pink spider. You were a little salty at him in particular, being one of the main catalysts to the everyday insanity. He had an easy grin played upon his lips as he stared back down at you with his multicolored eyes, one pair of arms on his hips that jutted out a little too unnaturally in a mischievous pose. His golden tooth glinted under his light grin with a similar air of “hey I’m up to no good right now.”

“You look fuckin’ tired!” He barked a laugh, dramatically squeezing his eyes shut in a theatrical show of laughing in your face. It really wasn’t that funny, and you couldn’t stop the frown that touched your lips as you watched him. He took pride in being the way he was. Annoying.

“No thanks to you, Angel,” You clipped back. You turned your head to watch Husk, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. He had become an expert in ignoring the spider demon’s presence, which was how he managed to stay sane with said demon’s constant flirting and sexual nature.

“Anyway,” He waves away your targeted words with a wave of his hands as his eyes roll up. “I was thinkin’ we get outta here for the night? Me and Cherri were gonna have a “girl’s night.”” You briefly thought about the humor in Angel admitting to being ‘one of the girls,’ but pushed the thought away to consider his invitation. “It wouldn’t hurt ta get some fresh air. This place is real stuffy sometimes, and a huge snooze fest,” he persuaded. He rested his face on one pair of hands, fingers laced under his chin, as he leaned against the bartop in anticipation for your answer.

You purse your lips in thought. It wouldn’t hurt, right? You didn’t go out clubbing a lot, and with Angel and Cherri with you surely nothing wrong would happen. They looked out for their friends, and you would (maybe regretfully) consider yourself Angel’s friend. You glanced at Husk for a moment, as if looking for advice, but his eyes remained close and his lips had an annoyed curl. Maybe you should get out of his hair.

“Okay, okay,” You grinned, a little sheepishly. While you couldn’t really consider ‘fresh air’ to be a feature of Hell, you agreed that you needed to just Get Out of this place. Running errands for Charlie got mundane, even with all the strange characters that cycled through the place. One tends to get used to the chaos.

Angel stretched his arms up in a cheer, which earned a one-eyed, aggravated look from Husk. He uttered something under his breath before grabbing a bottle and walking to the other corner.

“Alright, sweet lips,” Angel cooed at you. “Let's get you dressed! You got anything decent up in your closet?”

Your hand found its way to the back of your neck as you answered sheepishly, “Eh, not really… At least, not for a night out. I don’t really do much outside of the Hotel.” Angel frowned at the response, tapping his chin in thought.

“Lemme take a look,” With a swipe of his arm, your hand was suddenly being held as he dragged you up the steps toward the floor of your room.

Walking down at the same time, you briskly passed by Alastor, who had his eyes closed and a hum in his mouth. His blazing red eyes peered open as you and Angel rushed past him, a quizzical furrow in his brow seeing the connection between your hands. You shot him a shy grin and craned your head back to shout a quick ‘I’ll explain in a minute,’ before you disappeared around the bend of the stairs.

You didn’t miss the dark gleam in his eyes.

Angel, in an attempt to dramatically burst through your door, slammed full body into the entrance. “Ah- the hell?” He cried, roughly jiggling the handle.

“I keep it locked,” you snickered at him and the disheveled look in his usually preened hair. You saw him take his hands to brush it out as you fiddled with the lock, an annoyed mutter of words escaping his lips. The second the door clicked, Angel shoved past you and reattempted his dramatic burst through the entrance with a bit more luck this time around.

He went straight for your closer, rummaging through this and that. What a breach of privacy, this guy is, you thought with a strained smile as you stepped up next to him to try to guide him through your very Ordinary and Plain clothes.

You felt a prickling sensation on your skin, and you swear you heard a frequency of low static, but when you whipped your head around nothing stood there. Did that shadow just move?

Shaking your head, you looked at the piece Angel held proudly in his hands, one pair of arms gripping the top and the second pair pulling the bottom out to really get a full inspection.

It was incredibly simple, but still a bit more revealing than anything you were used to wearing. A deep red top, so cropped it may as well be a sporty bra, with a couple eye-catching accents of rhinestones. Connected with thin straps was a similarly tight pair of booty shorts. Your face flushed at the thought of wearing this. It was practically lingerie.

“Isn’t it a bit, uh, tacky?” You tried in an attempt to dissuade him from this getup. He acted offended, one hand going and pressing against his fluffed chest. You didn’t miss the way he took this as an opportunity and pressed up against himself to perk up his mass of chest fur.

“Babe, I wear shit like this all the time! You tellin’ me,” He started a rant, shaking the clothes in a fit of mock rage. “You tellin’ me I’m tacky? Hah! Me! Angel Dust!” He wiped away a fake tear in his laughter.

Your face flushed again looking at the getup. With a defeated mutter you swiped it from his hands and trekked painfully slowly to the restroom. You ignored Angel’s urgency for you to ‘hurry the hell up’ because it was almost time to get going.

You slowly stripped yourself of your day clothes, gingerly stepping through the tight shorts and tucking your arms through the straps of the top. You didn’t even remember buying this thing, it had been stuffed far in the back of your closet. You couldn’t help the feeling of dread thinking about the other embarrassing things Angel might have seen in there. Though, you doubt anything could phase that guy.

You had to admit, looking at your reflection, that it did accentuate your curves, even if you didn’t have much to begin with. The rhinestone accents glittered in the bathroom light, obviously designed in a way to bring attention to the chest. The straps that connect the two pieces fit snugly against your exposed torso. You were suddenly glad Hell never got that cold.

“Almost ready!” You snapped at Angel calling from the other side of the door. You quickly threw on some touches of makeup, trying your best to compliment the shades of your outfit and adding some glittery makeup around your eyes. You quickly dragged your fingers through your hair to style it comfortably.

You ripped open your door just as fists started banging on it. Angel stood there with two arms raised, stopped midair to keep himself from decking you in the head. You glared up at him, trying to maintain your earlier sourness to hide the fact that the outfit had grown on you.

“Hey, sexy lady!” Angel teasingly leaned himself against the doorframe with a smirk. “Let’s fuckin’ go! You took too damn long! Cherri hates waitin’.”

Grabbing your hand again, he ushered you out of the room. As you raced down the stairs, you tried to continuously preen your hair to keep it from flying out of shape as Angel practically drug you down each step.

He slowed at the bottom, releasing your hand, and stepping towards Husk’s bar to aggravate and flirt with the cat one last time before heading out. You tuned out his sexual innuendoes as you tried to glance over yourself one last time.

“My, what a dame you are!” Alastor’s recognizably radio-afflicted voice ripped your attention away from picking at a loose rhinestone. He stood over you, a slight bend in his waist and an unnatural crane in his neck. His smile was there, but tight and uneasily wide as he examined you through squinted eyes. He leaned his weight against his cane.

Swallowing your unease, you examined his expression. You knew Alastor didn’t care for such… promiscuous outfits. Especially on what he considered his. You knew his compliment was satirical, and you didn’t miss that glint of anger flash through his expression.

“Heyy, Al,” You drew out your words, unintentionally accentuating the awkward tone between the two of you. He paid no mind, keeping up that seemingly cheerful grin of his as he just… stared at you. His fingers tapped impatiently on the radio of his cane, each tap bringing a warp to the frequency that always surrounded him. “I’m going out with Angel tonight. Y’know… to get some air…”

“My dear,” His eyes closed in a laugh and he straightened himself out. “Why would you ever go out there for fresh air? Now, you know those demons would just eat you right up.” A dark sneer infected his smile, lips curling and exposing the line of his black gums.

“‘Ey c’mon, Smiles,” Angel stepped up next to you and lazily threw an arm over your shoulder. You saw that sneer only deepen as Alastor watched the spider get way too close to you. “Give ‘er a break! She’s always runnin’ around doin’ shit for this bum-ass hotel! It makes her… boring!”

You didn’t know whether or not to appreciate Angel both defending and insulting you. You decided to just ignore his comments as you watched Alastor’s expression get darker and more sinister. You felt a cold sweat prickle at your neck as that static-y frequency of his became more prominent and aggressive as his eyes swept over the two of you, lingering on your exposed abdomen with a frustrated twitch in his brow.

“Why, of course!” He suddenly cheered, brandishing his hands to his side in a slight bow. “But…” He stepped towards you, looming over you. You felt that nervous tickle again. His right hand raised and, with a quick motion, a fairly modest jacket materialized around your shoulders. “All better! Wouldn’t want greedy eyes seeing what’s mine!”

How bold, you thought. He was from the ‘30s, though, and very old fashioned. It made sense that immodest wear bothered him. Plus, you looked down at the jacket. It had a similar color scheme, and was light enough to not be too warm. At least it goes with my outfit. How sweet.

You felt a bit giddy at the permission Alastor had given you–not that you needed it. (You did). You’re a grown ass adult. (It doesn’t matter). You shot him a smile of thanks before dashing out the door, meeting Cherri who had been frequently laying on the car horn for you to Hurry the Fuck Up.

Before Angel Dust could follow, a tight grip on one of his wrists stopped him in his tracks. He hissed, yanking his arm but to no avail. Alastor’s grab was like iron, and his nails began to dig into Angel’s skin.

“Hey you fuck, let me go! I gotta get out there before Cherri starts blowin’ this shit up!”

Alastor pulled Angel in closer, a sneer-like grin crossing his expression. There was a maddening look in his glowing red eyes.

“If she comes home with even the smallest scrape,” He said in a low tone, the garble of his radio slightly distorting his voice. “I’m going to make you wish you never came to this Hazbin Hotel.”

Alastor’s grip didn’t yield as Angel tried again in a futile attempt to release himself. He had a nervous laugh in his voice as he tried to act unintimidated by the Radio Demon’s threat.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, you creepy red fuck,” He gruffed back, “Me an’ Cherri will stick right by her. You don’t gotta worry about nothin’.” Alastor’s expression shifted in an instant, his cheerful grin reappearing. He stood up straight and smiled down at Angel. “Good man! Now, don’t be too long,” He shooed Angel out of the lobby, who was more than glad to get the fuck out of there. He heard a faint ‘I’ll be watching’ from behind as he slammed the car door shut, muttering curses under his breath.

He knew Alastor would send that damn shadow of his to keep a close eye, so why the fuck did Angel have to babysit you in the first place? Plus, you weren’t some weak, naive fool. Whatever. He knew Alastor would take any excuse to cause some entertaining mayhem.

He sighed as he looked at you, who had a nervous but excited grin as Cherri rambled and cursed about something.

Maybe he shouldn’t have invited you out. He knew he was in for a long, stressful night. Good thing there would be a bar.

#alastor #alastor x reader #alastor x you #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #angel dust #ohdeerfully #cursing #fluff #alastor is overprotective #reader isnt weak tho #he just cares too much i think

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therealslimshakespeare · 8 months ago

Text

Masters of the Air Fanfiction

Requested: yes…Virgin!Gale + Maureen/Gale bonding

Universe: Friends in the Crucible (pacific au)

Summary: “Get laid, Buck.” Doc Egan prescribed with his peculiar brand of deathly serious compassion, “Hell, I’ll write you a prescription for it, if it soothes your conscience, but I’m serious. Serve your jitters better than any syrette or Amphetamine.”

Warnings: all the sex! 18+.|| both tender and feral || Doc Egan being a unorthodox but loving menace, a theme of ptsd and body tremors/insomnia -poor Gale is going through it after a whole war, drug mentions, erectile disfunction, Maureen is aggressive but everything’s consensual, usage of the word “Jap”. Graphic descriptions of Gale’s virginity loss, male overstimulation and an amusing amount of thought given to Bucky’s existence during the act … im sure that won’t lead to anything when Maureen returns to base and reports to Egan about it, right? Hahaha of course not, that would be craaazy

Word count: 10k

“Buck, come on now, it’s not a prison sentence, it’s just a little time off.”

“I don’t need time off.” Gale reiterated, a panicked sort of fierceness creeping into his tone as his appeal now stretched into something longer than the usual flippant favors Egan was customarily so eager to dole out.

“Those hands suggest ya do.” John gave a not unkind glance of sympathy at the twitching fingers rattling on the armrests of Cleven’s chair.

12 rescue missions in 15 days. Flying upwards of ten hours each. He’d done worse before, but then again, that had been when he was fresh, younger, less banged up from the head hitting the cockpit wall.

“Sending me to go watch flamingos and contemplate sand or some shit isn’t gonna make me steadier.” Gale very much feared his gripes were beginning to sound like begs, “Don’t send me off like this. Don’t.”

“Petrified of flamingos?” John hummed, glancing down at his chart as if contemplating making a note of this new malady, “Maybe if your dad had taken you to a zoo once or twice as a kid you’d not be scared stiff of the prospect.”

Cleven stared back at him with the most hurt eyes John had ever seen. He balled his own fist up to remember the rightness of his point, even if he’d delivered it about as clumsily as a marriage proposal at a funeral. “The hell would you say something like that?” Buck whispered, not even angry, just utterly lost.

“Buck, I’m just sayin’ -inability to slow or be alone, it’s classic symptoms of battle fatigue.”

“I don’t wanna sit on a beach when I could be helping, I’m perfectly capable of still helping! You know it!”

“But you can’t sleep.” John circled back to where this all began, with Gale asking if there was anything to knock a fella out when 82 hours of insomnia wasn’t sufficiently exhausting.

“Give me something, you’re a doctor! Goddamnit, John!” Gale finally broke, voice raising and fists clenched.

“Surgeon, technically.” John gave him a wane smile, “And I can’t dope up an active pilot.”

“Just an active surgeon.” Gale sneered, tit for tat on the insults.

John nodded grimly but murmured, “The day Gale Cleven becomes John Egan is a day this whole operation can pack up and go home.”

“So you're being the better man,” Gale scoffed, “-sending me to watch flamingos.”

“I’m not givin’ you shit.“ he confirmed, “Unless it’s an assignment.”

“Will it keep me outta the flak asylum?”

“If you comply to all the regulations, maybe.” Egan shrugged.

“Go on?”

“Get laid, Buck.” his friend prescribed with his peculiar brand of deathly serious compassion, “Hell, I’ll write you a prescription for it, if it soothes your conscience, but I’m serious. Serve you better than any syrette or Amphetamine.”

“That’s your ultimatum?”

“No, no, my ultimatum is that you go on a little sabbatical with one of my nurses, she’ll keep an eye on you and you can make yourself useful, helping her unload heavy shit at the aid station they’re setting up at Peleliu. My recommendation is that when she comes into your room at the end of the day and drops her knickers, you lay back and think of Wyoming.”

Major Cleven had thought of a million and one ways to bribe or ally the prospective nurse to his side of the deal once he knew which unfortunate female Egan was going to pick for this deplorable detail. Calling his friend a pimp and a bastard had done little good, threatening malpractice and a hardness of heart towards Gale’s own principles -even less. So Gale figured when the time came he’d just gently turn the well meaning comfort gal away and maybe pay her off to lie that they’d done it: for his hand’s sake.

After all, if she was willing to do this, was she even a nurse or was she someone Bucky dressed up in Red Cross arm bands like some sleazy fantasy? Gale didn’t think any of the nurses he’d encountered would be willing to go along with such a sordid “assignment.” Sure, some of them were -carefree. Indulgent. Easy, as the men sometimes called them before getting a stinging cheek that proved them wrong. But they were a proud bunch and they had earned it.

Rolling a toothpick in his cheek, Buck pondered these things while sat on the bench of a Goony Bird waiting for his nurse to hop into the cargo hold with him and off they’d go to Pelilu. The situation was made worse by the suspense of who it might be and the insulting foreignness of being on a plane but not piloting. It made Gale feel an odd sort of feeling close to self pity that he hadn’t felt in ages, not since he was a kid and the nostalgia of it wrung him out of all energy. He made himself sit on that metal bench motionless as the heat index rose on the tarmac and made up a fun little game involving trying to see if he could get his hands to stop tremoring for five seconds straight.

So far he’d lost his own wager each time. He told himself if he could make it to five seconds then the nurse Bucky had sent would be a gray haired matron and this really was just a sabbatical to lift boxes and breathe ocean air and get Gale to laugh at himself.

Then Maureen Kendeigh climbed into the hold and squeezed past their cargo of medicine crates and plopped down right next to him, leg bumping his and breathing like a race horse. “I have jogged here the entire way from administration.” she wheezed, tugging at the collar of her shirt where her glistening throat was bobbing in thirst. “Sorry I’m so late, Major. Am I late?”

It could have been Bucky sat next to him: the choice of phrasing was so familiar, the damnable ability to force forgiveness for tardiness with a single smile so predictable. Gale found dread knotting his stomach at the realization it would be her, even as a warmth spread all over him at her sweet presence that had the odd effect of steadying his hands despite the panicked fuzz of his brain at her proximity.

Oh he didn’t want this. No, no, no. He’d like to think of Maureen very much apart, apart from anything but her heroism, not her wide spread stance on the bench beside him or the idea of her dropping her knickers and making him think of Wyoming. He preferred her very much not attainable in the deeper ways and very much not what he saw himself with when all this was over. Whatever she and Doc Egan had was between them and he’d held it up like a shield to keep himself in check, a boy's code of honor about not encroaching on his friend’s girl. Even if said friend didn’t have the decency to make said girl “his” girl.

But to have Maureen dished up to him on a platter by John when John must have suspected some of Gale’s appreciation for her professional merits -it was somehow worse than any dressed up floozy or the easy new intern. He’d not be able to pay Maureen off without insulting her. Or outing Egan’s intent. Maybe she didn’t know. What if Gale spilled the beans and she was as harmless as himself? What if—

“God, Major, did you sleep at all?” Maureen’s steady fingers were gripping his expressionless face and suddenly turned him towards her, one thumb swiping a tender crescent in his under eyes.

Gale’s eyes seemed to forget blinking was a thing, they grew wide and stayed wide at her inspection and the sandy wind blowing in from the tarmac stung at them as they dried out. “No,” he found his voice and it came out more winded than hers, “you’re not late.” he lied.

Once they get to the island, touchdown and unload, there’s then three hours of driving around the pitted old warzone to the aid station. There’s more foliage the more they go, less mortar pitted earth, but the increasing tropical paradise surroundings put Gale on edge. Maureen drives them to their unexplored destination as confident and recklessly as Bucky would, little surprise there. Gale can’t help glancing at her with unabashed amusement for the way she keeps her pistol propped on top of the steering wheel with one grip, facing out like a top turret for their hood, while keeping the map balanced on her thigh.

He cradles his own BAR with loose arms, ready to use it. Sure they secured the island months ago, but still, not infrequently some Jap comes out of his hiding hole, a cave, or whatever fucking tree he resides in and surrenders. Or, conversely, some of them have charged with guns blazing or sword drawn, deciding to go out and a bang of glory and take with them whichever hapless American happens to be nearby. That Emperor worship shit ain’t happening on on Gale’s watch, and so Maureen gets to drive -she didn’t have to beg like that, he was going to let her- and he shoulders the duty of keeping his eyes peeled for the next bush becoming animate and running at them, pulled pin grenade in hand.

“Some relaxation.” he jokes as their jeep lurches into another crater. If it’s not the bomb pits it’s the massive roots crawling over the smashed earth the Marine Corps call a road.

“It’s a reverse strategy!” she informs, grin wide as a shark’s and Gale could almost draw a little pencil mustache above that top lip and pretend it’s Bucky torturing him thus -hey, that might be a good mode of thought to keep everything strictly professional- “Like when nothing else works, you kick the broken thing.” Gale politely ignores the urge to argue about being broken, that’s not her point… he hopes, “You’re all shook up,” she goes on, voice raised to be heard over the rev of her driving, “and calm hasn’t worked, so why not shake you up worse?!”

He squints at her, fully aware he isn’t being chummy like she is trying to be, knowing he’s being a stick in the mud but he’s dying under the uncertainty, chafing under the pretense. Does she know? Or does she not? Five times today he’s resisted the urge to slap her chest like he would Demarco’s and ask her levelly, man to man, if she knows. “If this doesn’t work then what?” he asks anyway, sober as hell despite the comedic jostling and even Maureen’s joviality dims in the face of his dour mood.

“Then we’ll have to get real unorthodox.” she replies, allowing something close to annoyance at his attitude to seep into her own expression and Gale refuses to pull his eyes off her.

Do you know? He wants to ask.

“Stop scowling at me and watch for Japs.” she snaps at him so suddenly and so heated he genuinely spooks and turns his body back towards their horizon.

It’s worse than he thought. Worse than he imagined on the times he lost the bet with his hands and let his mind go somewhere besides a practical joke from Bucky and a gray haired spinster nurse as his companion. The aid station is on the edge of the new camp, far off enough to be genuinely secluded from both sights and smells of the navy station. It’s a tiki hut, thatched roof and swinging mesh door and lovely little veranda and palm trees and waves lapping up the back steps.

It looks like the sorta place people advertise for honeymoons and Gale stares at it with a 100 yard stare once Maureen grinds the gears to park.

“Jesus.” he knows his mouth is curling in disgust and beside him Maureen huffs in disgust with him.

She jumps out of her side of the jeep, not a shred of amusement left on her face. Gale sits and stares and listens to the roar of surf and the clinking of the cooling engine.

“Not bad.” she grunts under the burden of a crate which Gale should be lifting if he could just make his legs work and his mind obey. “But I bet it’s gonna be a bitch to keep the gnats out though, so much foliage around.”

Her hips sway like a tantalizing pendulum when she jogs up the bungalow stairs, her waist somehow accentuated by the way her arms are lifted to keep the crate hoisted on her strong shoulder and Gale has the perfect seat to watch it. How did he never notice the lines on her before she was doing hard labor? Then he recalls, she’s mostly been in flight suits around him, he’s never seen her paired down to collared shirts and belted pants. How’d he never notice the lines on that gi-

“Don’t make me drive this thing in the surf to wake you up.” her slap on his listless forearm rouses him to realize she’s back out at the jeep, standing beside him looking at him as he sits here catatonic like the mental case he’s showing symptoms of being. “And take your jacket off, you’re gonna get overheated being so formal.”

“Are you in on it?” he snaps suddenly as she grins at him over his first crate. He can’t tell if she’s mocking him or not but he’s damn tired of it.

“In on what?” Her face falls.

He can’t do it. He just can’t do it and he hates himself for being such a coward. “This.” he chooses vagueness and it tastes foreign and awful on his tongue.

“It’s a week out of the cockpit in paradise, Cleven,” Maureen’s own expression holds back no disdain for his pissy attitude, “man the hell up.”

What Maureen, Gale and five other technicians had loaded into the jeep and it’s buggy in the course of two hours, takes the mere two of them close to four to unload. And that’s even with Gale keeping a rapid pace to his work like a sweating maniac, feverishly wanting to stop thinking for once. His jacket and shirt are thrown over the chairs that are actually provided as furniture in the place and Maureen’s tie lays discarded on the accompanying desk. The rooms are bare but there’s two beds in the bedroom with crisp sheets that have only a bit of pollen dusting them and there’s a desk, as mentioned, three chairs in the main room and Maureen insists they can use crates for a table.

The back room is for the actual medical aid, and Maureen insists nothing gets moved into it until she can sanitize the whole place. So they stack the boxes in the main room and in the bedroom and when the sun gets lower they’re relieved to find there’s some dubious provisions for electricity in the place.

“I can get it to work.” Gale decides as Maureen tries flicking the light switch ten times as if to see if the bare bulb will grow a will of its own and turn on for her. It reminds him so much of Bucky’s brand of idiocy that Gale almost forgets himself and reaches out to swat her hand away from the futile flicking.

“Ok, then you do that while I keep unloading.” she insists, “Won’t be able to do anything if it’s pitch dark in here.”

So Gale drags a chair over and begins to fiddle with the wires tacked to the ceiling, risking electrocution so Maureen Kendeigh can see her way around as she tromps past him again and again in the same path with yet another crate.

He’s good with his hands. Excellent, in fact, judging by how one bulb flickers then stays steady, then another and another until the inside of the bungalow is aglow with cozy light: enough light for Maureen to appreciate his sweat soaked singlet and the way it rides up his belly when his arms are up and how it’s bright enough for her to scrub the exam room effectively when laying in a room with an insomniatic Gale Cleven gets to her at 3:00 am.

As it surely will. God! -the man is as impossible as he is beautiful, and while she doubted she’d manage it with him before, the sheer amount of fury she feels towards him right now leaves no doubt. She’ll shake him up. Like a Fuckin’ Martini. And he doesn’t have to like it, probably won’t, but they’ll both feel better after. “In on it” -he’s got the gall to ask but not the balls to spell it out, she can’t abide a quasi gentleman and so far Gale Cleven’s been nothing but the genuine article. Until now, now when he can’t accept certain human things about himself like fatigue or attraction, and he takes it out on her with a sullenness belonging to a much older man.

Maureen’s fine with that, she thinks as ogles the glowing golden skin of his sheened shoulders on one of her passes with a crate, she can take her mad out on him, too. And she’s got a lot of it. More than John Egan was ever able to lick away.

By 15:00, and some change to the second hand, Gale Cleven was still awake. Little surprise there, not to him, but even though it didn’t matter he found himself thoroughly annoyed and taking it out with a lethal glare at the vague gray ceiling, lit by a massive moon over the ocean. Wire and chairs but no curtains -an oversight about the furnishings. It wouldn’t have mattered, he knew that, and still the racket Maureen was making put his teeth on edge. It wasn’t Benny’s snoring or John’s drunken mumbling but it was a consistent *swoosh, swish* of industry that had Gale feeling a mixture of guilt and determination to keep lying here while she scrubbed.

It had not occurred to him she might’ve needed this break, too. Such as it was, effective as it was not proving. He knew she’d seen some combat in the beginning at Manila, maybe even worse than Iwo but long hours doing what she was doing now, where she was doing it, was no joke.

The urge to get up and help her was strong but then, so was the crippling fear of being around her in the dead of night and inviting any more of the bossy familiarity she’d tucked him into bed with. A magnesium capsule! She’d made him take three of the maternity horse pills and told him to calm the hell down as if he didn't have ample reason to be on edge with her laying a foot away on another bed, stripped down to her cotton slip. Of course Gale would cite war horrors if anyone asked why he couldn’t sleep but to be frank, he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t managing it these days and it had started awhile ago. Before Maureen Kendeigh glowed sweaty and luminous in the moonlight while gripping his cheeks and puckering his protesting mouth and plopping pills on his lolling tongue.

Thinking of it made his face flame with embarrassment for such a childish resistance. But god, her nursley familiarity sent a cross signal to his brain each time she helped herself to his flesh and no amount of berating himself while sweating in these rough sheets could dislodge the reaction. Closer to fifteen hundred than was remotely chivalrous, Gale threw off his sweat soaked bedding and tromped into the glow of light outside their bedroom, shuffling blearily into the little exam room. He faltered for a brief ten seconds at the doorway watching her undulating movements with sponge in hand and knees on the floor, white slip clinging like a second skin from the sweat.

He felt the sudden medical urge to lick her like the cattle back home lick at the salt block, a strange way of quenching thirst. Was ninety two hours without sleep considered genuine grounds for insanity? He felt like maybe he should be keeping a diary of these fevered thoughts to report back to John and see if he needed to get turned in. This wasn’t horniness, this was salt cravings. Yeah, yeah that’s what it was.

“You hypocrite.” he felt emboldened to tease and his voice came out rough and lower than even he expected, the disuse of laying there for ages taking a toll.

Maureen looked up like she’d been spooked herself, a slip and stall of her scrubbing, hair hanging about her face so unprofessionally he realized he’d never seen it in such…disarray. “Oh, the baby’s awake.” she grinned back and he felt an indulgence settle in his gut for her he didn’t know existed, “I see my magnesium capsules were a cure all.”

“Oh yeah, knock a horse out.” he agreed derisively.

“Your eyes are droopier.” she found a silver lining and as if reminded of the grit in them, his large fists came up and rubbed them meanly.

Like a little boy, she thought, watching him in the harsh light of the bare bulb, warm wood all around him the same color as all that sweaty skin and those skivvies hanging onto the lithest set of hips she may have ever seen. Looked as if one deep breath of that lean belly and the fabric would be goners, slipping down to the floor dramatically like a woman’s pantyhose in those unfortunate comics where that’s always occurring just when she wants to cross a busy street. Maybe if she could make him belly laugh-

She wished she knew how. She wondered if he knew how.

“Got another Sponge?” he asked and she was reminded why she liked him so much.

“Top crate, there, left, there that one.” She directed him with jerks of her chin until he was at the right one, “I’m using antiseptic.” she warned.

“I know,” he answered, dropping to his knees beside her and making use of her bucket to dunk his sponge, “smell’s been givin’ me a headache.”

Maureen’s mouth twitched at his tired grumpiness, more endearing now he was still putting effort into being near the caustic shit and the way his golden hair flopped on his forehead with his scrubbing movements. If his hips were that fluid, that rhythmic in cleaning a floor, how much more could she teach him to be—“Yeah, I’m sure it’s the anti-septic giving you a headache.” she snarked.

They ate sandwiches he’d gotten from the navy camp’s mess on the back porch, letting the sea water lap at their feet. A little stale but it was a much needed breakfast and Gale brought fresh water back, too, and a report that they were nice fellas and entirely too undressed for her to ever go see. That suited her fine, they’d be a pest if they knew a woman was up here and personally speaking she only needed one man for company, crate lifting, and doing the job well. And she rather had her heart set on it being Gale Cleven. Especially now she got to stare at him under the bright morning sun with a tropical breeze and more skin on display than at a swimsuit contest. He’d put on a singlet, as if to mark that a day had begun even if they hadn’t slept the night, but that was promptly sweat soaked and tiny nipples were pebbling under it from the breeze.

“Did they ask if a nurse came with you?” she pressed him between bites.

“Yeah.” he swallowed his bite thickly and licked at the mayo collecting at the corner of his mouth with typical precision, “And I lied.”

“Well, well,” she cooed, making him roll his eyes, “how’d that feel?”

“I have lied before.” he balked.

The look he gave her was both thunderous and remincent and she repented that line of questioning, used to distinguishing in her patients whether a wound was from wartime or stemmed from childhood. “Well who’d you say came with?” she asked.

“A technician.” he mumbled, blushing for some reason.

“Mm, someone nice and hairy and stinky-“

“Stop.” he begged.

“-not anyone they’d wanna meet.”

“I did it for you!”

“-if that makes you sleep at night, Cleven.” she humored him and like lightning, the back of his hand had flicked out and thumped her on the sternum, hard.

“Shit!” Maureen clutched the place, more in surprise than pain although he’d walloped her good and well.

“Shit!” He parroted in mortification, holding his hand like it was an offensive weapon.

“What was that for?” she laughed, “Do I remind you that much of Benny? Are you missing him that bad? Is that who you pretended was with you up here? Huh? Huh? Benny Demarco, now that’s a beauty to hide under a bushel-“

She was crowding him in on the steps and he was teetering towards falling off, too alarmed at his own outburst to trust his instincts now to shove her off without causing harm -and she knew it. She pressed her advantage and crawled over him with her teasing comments about Demarco until his long body had bowed so far away from her’s it was levitating and then toppled predictably into the surf.

“Fuck it’s cold!” he wheezed out as the embrace of the old pacific drenched him and rolled him about at her feet for a few delightful moments before he got his footing and rose, shaking his hair out of his eyes and grabbing for the steps.

“Sea bathing was in doctor Egan’s regimen.” she informed remorselessly before extending a merciful hand to help him up. He was slippery and shiny as an eel coming up and the grip of his hand was as strong as she expected. And still she found it intoxicating, the duality of him as he stood there pouting and bitchy over being cooled off. “Stay right there baby, I’ll get you a towel.” she patted his chest, right where he’d smacked hers, and went inside.

“I’m not your baby.” She heard him holler to her through the door-less porch. “I’m not your baby.” he reiterated vehemently but lower again when she came out with the towel.

“Yes you are.” she argued, “For this week you’re my baby, whether that’s a literal infant or not is your choice -and don’t start arguing, you’ve got to stop it, no one’s making you do a damn thing.” she insisted, hand raised and his mouth closed satisfyingly as a result, “You’ll be my baby. I know you already had a baby, no? Our baby? Shared her with ten other men, that’s generous of you-“

“-Ensign!-“

“-so I’m not gonna be your baby. You’ll be mine and you can find me something to be for the week.” she watched closely as recognition of her logic began to dawn and settle on him, “I could be anyone. I could be Benny Demarco, for instance. If that’s who you wanna lay next to.”

Gale didn’t speak for a long while, eyes off to the side watching the surf lap at the steps and she was still standing there, holding his unused towel. “Who do you want me to be?” he asked finally and his grave perception just about winded her in its raw honesty.

“You.” she replied honestly, “Whichever version of you made it here with me.”

“An infant -a baby.” he scoffed and she was suspicious those eyes were watery. And too delayed for it to be from the salt.

“My baby.” she replied, “Never had one before.”

“With respect ma’am, that’s Bullshit.” he argued in a fierce hiss, “I know you have, with John and -and-“

“I’ve been somebody’s,” she clarified, “but I think I’ve grown out of that. You’ll be my baby, huh? It’s not marriage, Cleven, it’s a week in paradise and hopefully some shut eye, too. So do you want me to be Benny?”

Those watery eyes let one single tear go trickling down his pink cheek alongside the rivulets of ocean water dripping from his hair and Maureen had never felt a single thing heat her up quite like it. “No,” his chuckle was thick and he sniffed, “not Benny. Maybe uh, God, I dunno, I’ve never had anyone.”

“Then we can make it up entirely.” she was pleased by the idea of not being a stand-in, although god knows she and John could sympathize more about the need for that than anyone. “We’ll be castaways.” she suggested, sitting back down on the porch now the confrontation was dwindling and in full confirmation of her suspicions, he sat again beside her without fuss.

“Marooned.” he disagreed, chin resting on his hands and a boyish tug pulling up the corner of his lips. “Something insane you did landed us here.”

“Mm, took liberties with the captain's daughter, perhaps?” she teased, daring to run a finger along those golden shoulders and collect a few salt drops. He shuddered under her but stayed put.

“I’m not playing fair maiden for you.” he retorted but his eyes were fond.

“Mm, I’ll believe it when I see it.” Maureen was still impossible and Gale felt his gut burn in a bizzare sort of drive to prove her wrong. He’d hardly ever felt this even with all the jokes from the boys, not even with all the temptations from the girls, it just hadn’t seemed something that needed proving. Every flea and salmon could do it, he never doubted when he got married he could manage it credibly enough.

“Mr. and Mrs. Jones.” his voice sounded like he’d come to a decision and Maureen squinted at his profile until it clicked.

“I’ve never been married before.” she observed breezily.

“And I never planned on being married for just a week.” he replied.

“Isn’t there a film about this?” she asked, “Cary Grant gets stuck on an island and he marries his castaway but then they get rescued and there’s a first wife?”

“Yeah, I think so, actually.” he thumbed at his bottom lip in contemplation and Maureen found it endlessly distracting, along with the bird song and the ocean crash and the sunshine.

“Mr. and Mrs. Jones.” she agreed then, settling back on her elbows to stare up at the sun and let it add a few freckles, “And when it’s over and you’re rescued, I’ll be the better woman and let Our Baby have you.”

“You’ll always be the best of women, Maureen.” he sounded like the admittance took every fiber of his resolve to say, but she’d heard it before in his voice weeks ago when she was patching him up.

If a tear slipped out the corner of her shut eyes and down a sun warmed cheek, she wasn’t going to make a deal of it, not until she felt his finger catch it tenderly before it dropped from her jaw and rolled it back up.

She felt her lip wobble traitorously and perhaps there were more tears planning to follow and betray her but the shivering shock of his full lips, pressed to her bare shoulder, stemmed the flood. Maureen held her breath and kept her eyelids sealed, an orange glow of sunshine behind them as all her senses attuned to the drag of his caresses up to the juncture of her shoulder, the press of his body next to her on the porch boards, the suspenseful absence of his hands. They were soft as marshmallows, those lips, and a stray tip of his tongue caught her clavicle as he worked his way up a path that almost seemed premeditated, as if he’d thought of doing this a million times but held back. Now he allowed himself and the assured intimacy of his mouth made her body heat soar almost beyond her endurance as he crept up her throat and onto her cheek.

A kitten lick to that tear track down her cheek and Maureen was whimpering from something else entirely, breaking ranks and turning her head to gaze at him, nearly stunned by how close he was, how alive, how beautiful, how blue. There were his hands now, one propped beneath her shoulder, the other cupping her cheek. Her lips were tingling with anticipation by the time he’d lowered his face far enough and brushed her mouth with his.

Maybe he’d done his fair share of kissing the girls back home goodbye, or maybe it was a talent given along with this impossible lips, or perhaps she’d wanted it so long that the final having of it sent Maureen spiraling with something oddly like obsession.

Kissing was enough for the longest time, the shore sounds and the squawking of ocean birds and the feel of Gale Cleven laying more and more atop her as his tongue met hers and danced. She scratched the back of that tanned neck like she dreamed of doing a dozen times, little scritches to his hairline that had him sagging against her kisses to the point of crushing.

She allowed herself the liberty of running her hands along his lean sides, taking in the graceful taper of his waist, the dip of his back, the sopping wet waistband of his briefs. She wondered if this is how men feel with a young girl, when there’s so much loveliness one wants to maul it and mark it and watch it respond. Anything to make him moan again into her mouth, wrenched and helpless and appreciative of her all at once, anything for him to hump his hips against her thigh in a manner so mindless he didn’t seem himself at all.

When he pulled away, dazed and winded from his own exertions, he seemed to have left behind all his inhibitions, stark need written on his face and only some doubt of what he was allowed yet remaining. “Are we gonna?-“ he trailed off, raspy voiced and trembling with suspense.

“Going to what?” she couldn’t abide it any longer, his demureness, “Say your mind, Cleven.”

“Do it.” he let out with a wince.

“Well I don’t know, Mr. Jones, you tell me. Are we gonna?”

Gale huffed and threw his head back, trying to regain some sense of mind, lip savagely pulled between his teeth. “Yeah. We are.” he decided.

“Then finish your sandwich.” she patted his waist and pushed him off.

“I can’t!” he begged with a groan from where he’d spilled out on the porch like a boneless dummy. “Not now.”

“You’re gonna need it, the water too, trust me on this.”

“Are we gonna -make love? Or go for a forced march?” he protested but lifted the canteen to his lips anyways when she gave him a look and proceeded to drink it dry.

“How would you know the difference?” she teased and he had the good humor to roll his eyes. If all went according to Egan’s plan, they oughta hibernate for twelve hours of sleep afterwards and she wanted him hydrated and ready for that. Maureen had a plan of her own, which certainly might lead to such a sleep, but it also involved not getting off that boy for love of God or money until he was as useless as a wet rag and the impertinent gnawing between her own legs was replaced by a good ache.

Cleven was staring at his sandwich remorsefully, “I can’t get this down, Maureen.” he declared with sudden finality and then, without preamble he threw it into the sea. “C’mon, Mrs Jones.” he held out his hand for her as he stood up, something close to an excited grin taking over his face.

He was so confident now, having come to a decision, and Maureen found herself naturally bending to his direction, placing her hand in his large palm and allowing him to haul her to her feet as gently as a dance partner. “We’ve got a bed.” she reminded blissfully into another kiss, anchored to his face by the persistent hands snarled lovingly into her salt tousled curls: this hair Maureen, this hair drove me mad.

“And we’re gonna use it.” he agreed, walking her backwards up the porch until he feet were skidding over the threshold, his tongue still sucking her own.

She stopped him there with a hand to the willowy plane of his belly, a regulated, principled woman to the last, and snapped the still soaked waistband of his drawers. “Off, you’ll make the sheets wet and sandy.”

Their sweat would accomplish dampening them enough in this muggy heat, they didn’t need sand and ocean water to boot. Maureen ducked beneath his arm and went back out to grab the discarded towel.

“I don’t want a trail of drips on our clean floor.”

Gale smiled softly at the usage of “our” -it felt right somehow, to share things with her. They’d been at it for some time, it came naturally like it had with Bucky and the few other boys who he knew would be something special and unlike anything else after this. It was a little bittersweet to know he was living the best days of his life, right here and now, enviable, irretrievable moments of raw connection slipping away with each drip, drip, drip onto the threshold. It was a heartache in the making and it was a spur for the moment. Back home they’d never understand, and any old observer would see nothing unique, but Gale could allow himself the rightness of sharing just one more thing. Why not cement it fully, irrevocably, as the closest brush he’d ever come to with another soul- he’d asked himself the same with Bucky, knew it was already an established fact.

Maureen’s lips were warm where they pressed to his back, the space between his shoulders, towel held to his waist. “You’re not shy of me, are ya, baby?” she whispered in his ear, thumbing at the still worn briefs.

He could feel himself this past hour hardening and softening, so many times in the space of so many minutes he was dizzy with it, the way his brain would have the upper hand and then, suddenly no, it all rushed south. Which now left shyness as the only real excuse for the way he burned and shrank and burned and shrank in turn at each of her touches.

“You gonna give me the towel?” he asked instead.

“Once it’s safe to do so.” she replied primly, in her familiar nursing voice, and he hated the shudder that tore through him. She stepped under his arm again, around him and into the house, and stood in the shade of the it with the towel spread invitingly, tauntingly. A whole yard and a half between then and she’d decreed no drips past the threshold. Gale’s cheeks burned as did his eyes, smarting with brimming tears from an odd frustration he’d only ever felt over a botched mission, an anger at not being able to bomb his target and make it worthwhile, a petty frustration he always felt before the cold rage of lost men fully registered.

Futile tears: Gale yanked the skivvies down and stepped out of them efficiently.

Maureen wasn’t smiling at him from the shade anymore, not even a smirk, she looked hungry. She looked like Bucky, taking in “a view.” Gale didn’t know ladies ticked that way -or maybe they didn’t, maybe only Maureen did. The blush in his cheeks ran down his chest and spilled onto his belly and his fists clenched without thought.

“When the man of the house,” Maureen was reciting some inane pamphlet she no doubt did not heed or else they’d never be here, “respects the whims of the lady in small matters, he will find the lady more submissive to issues of larger stake such a-“

Gale made a dash at her, to shut her up, and she fled from him to the bedroom, feet smacking on the hardwood and cotton slip fluttering up her thighs -his towel with her.

“I want you bare.” he told her when he had her, struggling in his arms before the bed, a lush friction where he pressed tightly behind her.

“Then sit,” she sounded genuinely breathy, trapped to him and he had never heard her like that before, it made him want to hold fast, “and I’ll make your dreams come true.”

It was just a slip, no garters and no braisere or girdle, yet still Gale sat himself on the bed and Maureen bit her cheek to keep from laughing at the modest way he deposited the towel on his lap, covering what she’d been eyeing and thanking her luck for. A cock as pretty as his face -now if she could just make it stand up fully.

“You ready?” she deferred to him as she stood there before the bed, being looked on with all the reverence and trepidation of a goddess by this seated acolyte.

“Please,” he nodded furiously, “please show me.”

It felt a little wrong to expose oneself in front of such an angelic being, curtainless windows throwing in the sun on him all golden and untouched, white scratchy sheets and white draped towel making it a bower of innocence for a brief moment. It also felt right, to throw off everything but what they’d been born with. Off went rank, obligations and expectations, as easily as dragging the slip over her head.

She tossed the article of clothing behind her for good measure -and dramatic effect- then noted with satisfaction the bleary eyed comprehension of her charms from Gale Cleven where he sat with his mouth hung so slack he was liable to drool.

“Incredible.” he muttered, husky and a little slurred, his hand raising without his own volition to beckon her closer, a plea, command.

Maureen swayed on her feet, nearer and nearer until she was standing above him, between his parted legs and she shuddered as he laid that broad palm on her hip and dragged it up her side in an admiring swath, thumbing at her belly and catching her ribs in his hold.

“Those flight suits of yours, they don’t…they don’t let show the half of it.” Gale declared, mesmerized, face hovering closer and closer until his lips were pressing against her flesh, right under her sternum, his forehead pressed to the underside of one pendulous breast, nuzzling as he became aware of that, bunting like a calf at her breast with his face, gone silly with access.

“Whadda ya think?” she giggled, the silliness of Gale Cleven gone stupid over making yams jiggle being the exact sort of thing that made life worth living, and being a woman exquisitely satisfying.

“They’re so goddamn soft.” he moaned around a bit of the underside, still hadn’t worked his way to a nipple. He seemed too preoccupied with their give and bounce to make a more calculated use of them. Maybe if men hadn’t been told what to do with them, they’d do what Gale Cleven was doing and rub their face against them and let them rest on their foreheads. There was a charm to this ignorance as he licked the salty sweat from their undersides with a surprisingly brave tongue.

The clumsy misuse was oddly effective for Maureen, what Gale lacked in skill he made up for in unstudied appreciation and nothing got her quite so ready as being appreciated to the point of foolishness. Her first conquest had been a boy at school who hadn’t minded tripping in his track shoes, day after day, to try to catch up to her on her bicycle, just to give her a flower or trinket. He was laughed at for his devotion until he broke the school track record next year, and Maureen was sure to remind him of her role in his success. They’d soon found a mutually beneficial reward system and Maureen had adopted that attitude as a maxim for the future, her dates and conquests may have been many but each of them in their own way had been appreciative -or else she was jumping out the window, damn the twelve foot drop out the dormitory.

No one, however, had looked quite so gifted by her mere existence as Gale Cleven did while he clutched at her hips and smushed her flesh between his hands like it were some fine dough and he was an artisan.

Discreetly, and it was easy to be so with his face buried in her bosoms, Maureen glanced between them at the tool she had such hopes for and found it, unsurprisingly, twitching and dribbling against his thigh, half hard but flapping about like a fish on dry land, the discarded towel no match for its movement. He’d need a hand, literally and metaphorically, and as she raked her nails through his blond curls and directed his slick mouth to a nipple, she felt him sag even further into her hold. Maureen weighed her next step carefully, trying to tamp down her own wants. She’d need to be sure but slow, careful not to spook him, or antagonize or embarrass.

She wondered if he even realized the same banged-up-head condition that sent him out here was most likely responsible for the jitters that kept him flopping. She wasn’t so conceited as to assume he’d not bedded a woman yet out of mere dysfunction, Cleven was a man of principle and strict notions regarding how the world should be, and he wasn’t one to build those notions on passing medical conditions.

“You like ‘em?” Maureen teased him, shocked at how hoarse her own voice had gone in the interim.

“Gonna make a home in here.” he mumbled in the affirmative, slack grin molded to the valley between them, blue eyes wide as the skies outside peering up at her.

“Got a job for you, baby.” she murmured, thumbing at the scar on his cheek.

“What’s that Mrs. Jones?” his voice alone made her mad with need, as did the saucy turn of his mouth so wonderfully foreign she didn’t know how she’d control herself until he was ready.

“Need you to lick a little landing strip, right here.” she ran her finger along the somewhat tacky skin between her breasts, sweat and his sloppy kisses having partway done the job already.

“What for?” Gale asked, hushed and curious.

“You’ll see soon enough.” she recalled how effective her nursing voice had been on him, and pulled it out now it seemed beneficial.

She had been right, with only a hesitant spark of aggravated defiance, Gale dipped his head and stuck out that pink tongue, lapping a swath up between her breasts as directed, flaming eyes locked on hers as she shivered from the breeze on spit slicked flesh.

“Again.” she told him, and his hands came up to hold her breasts apart as he did it again, and again and once more under his own direction until it was shiny and messy and his nose was gleaming, too.

“What’s it for?” He demanded once more, pink cheeked and swallowing hard as his mouth had dried out from his efforts.

“I told you, silly,” she replied casually, “it’s a landing strip.” and with as little fuss as possible she got to her knees before he’d registered the absence of her standing above him. “Gale, let go of the damned towel.”

She held in a laugh of delight at the tortured color he had grown to, veins running like so much ivy up and down him and a vibrant pink tip that matched his lips. Maureen wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to look him in the face again without thinking of this drizzling little pink mushroom.

“You oughta count your blessings, Gale Cleven, it was a close call, my coming along at all.” she informed him soberly while his mind visibly vacated his body at the repeated sighting of his sputtering cock emerging from between the pillowy press of her breasts, “It was pretty touch and go there for a bit, I was quite sure in fact, that Bucky was gonna help himself to this assignment.”

“Maureen!” Gale thundered, except his usual imposing ire was much diluted by his quivering belly and hoarse voice.

“What?” she brushed off his scandalized displeasure with a grin, feeling cocky herself as he hadn’t flagged on her in minutes and was beginning to gush in earnest, “Bucky loves the beach.”

“Sure, Maureen.”

“In the end he decided I had what it takes.” she went on conversationally, ignoring the inhuman sounds that came out of him when she casually spit on his tip, the better to work her lips around him, “These.” she clarified, pressing her breasts to his thighs as she wrapped her mouth around him and sucked.

“Fuck, hell, Maureen! Sorry, sorry, oh fuck!” -not even Gale Cleven had expected his hips to fly up that hard and fast, knocking on the back of her throat.

She laid her hands on his squirmy hips and did her best impression of a Listerine gargle round his tip, which sent a shudder through him so strong she thought he might’ve climaxed already.

“Maureen, Maureen come on, get up here, please.” now he yanked at her hair, desperate for once and that was a pleasure to hear.

“What baby?” she pulled off him.

“Gotta kiss you.” he told her firmly, and hauled her bodily up by her armpits, rolling her under him in the bed.

Kisses -sure, Gale, kisses.

He was moaning atop her, wiry and flexing his hips against her, wriggling to get between her thighs and she let him, hungry and expectant when he slotted easily in place. He pressed his lips to hers ardently, then reared back in shock at the taste of his own precum in her mouth and on her lips.

“Salty.” he whispered as if to himself before licking his lips and going back for more. “What do I need’to do?” he whispered urgently against her mouth as she rocked against him and he rocked back until they’d frustrated each other thoroughly with mere caresses.

“Put it in, my baby.” she whispered back.

“First though, don’t I need to-to do- something? Something first?” he could barely think straight but he’d heard enough talk about this, about gentlemen and the necessity of some form of chivalrous preparation. The way discipline and intuition set apart an average pilot from an excellent one. Bucky had talked a lot about getting girls ready, making them squirm, revving them up, for all his apparent disinterest during the topic, Gale had been listening.

“You’ve done it already, Mr. Jones.” she giggled, reaching between them to drag him more firmly through the wanton swamp he’d made of her. “I’m ready, I’m so ready.”

“Oh fuck, s’wet.” he mumbled the obvious before willingly letting her guide him in, his body following her tug like his cock were a leash.

“Jesus,— Gale!” Maureen choked as he bottomed out in a sudden plunge, shocked at the stretch despite the gauging of his size. “You’re so deep, oh baby you’re a big one aren't ya.”

“You ok?” he whimpered, shuddering on top of her again and again at the incomparable feeling of being inside another’s body.

“Oh yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she gasped, “Hurts so good, you can move, baby.”

“You’re so warm.” he sounded close to worshipful he was so drunk off her, and Maureen spared a moment to smirk at the fate of man: come tearing their way out of a woman to begin their lives only to spend the rest of it trying to and needing to get back in.

He did try to move, she’d give him that. And while Maureen was more than half expecting it, still, it was mildly comical to see the confusion flash across his blissful face right as the buildup was snatched from him and he was suddenly shaking into the real event before he knew it, betrayed and euphoric all at once. The muscles in his belly and back and neck seized and his hips lunged in a series of uncoordinated pumps and she could read the panic in his eyes right before they rolled back -a begrudging admittance that this was nothing at all like the steady predictability of his hand.

“That’s it baby, that’s my baby, feel nice, huh?”

Gale didn’t answer her, too occupied whimpering with a taut throat and jaw clenched so tight he could snap a hinge like that. He was shaking worse than before when the spasms subsided and the tiniest pressure to his sweat slicked neck had him buckling to lay pressed against her, half senseless from the force of his release.

Maureen had always loved this part of sex, the pliable, bewildered, smushed man atop her like she’d sucked his soul out, when he’d rendered it up to her so willingly, so desperately, forcefully even, chasing his own eventual weakness. Long limbs aligning on top of hers, the hot pants of winded breath against her breasts, the hands listlessly holding on wherever that had last tried to grip and control her. The view from above with Gale Cleven was something additional, beautiful and glistening with bronzed swaths of sun exposed skin and the pale whites of his thighs and ass making a perfect little outline of absent shorts, his golden hair tousled beyond salvaging and that luscious mouth, drooling like a babe’s.

“So this is what Bucky’s been talkin’ about.” he mumbled into her breast, cheek smashed and enunciation shot to hell.

Maureen laughed in disbelief, “Thinking of him even now? Really, he’s going to be impossible if we tell him.”

“Just sayin’, now I know.” he defended, lazily rubbing his partly softened cock inside her with a shimmy of his hips that was quickly followed by an overly sensitive mewl.

“You don’t know anything, Angel boy.” she insisted and Gale raised his head at that, sour that she’d still contradict him after thirty seconds of vigorous pumping. “Let me see your hands.”

He had some trouble recalling where he put them but eventually he found them under her hips and withdrew them from their warm shelter to present them, warily. “Well, damn.” he muttered to himself, somewhat shocked by just how badly the shakes had worsened. “Looks like that treatment backfired.”

“More of a dose dependent case, I’d say.” Maureen corrected and circled each wrist with her hands and brought them up to her lips to kiss.

Gale’s face smoothed at her softness and a shy smile lit up his bleary eyes while she felt a twitch of his spent cock deep inside her, swishing about the mess he’d made like a dog’s tail after getting pats. “You have the most beautiful hands.” she informed him earnestly and balls deep inside her she watched as one single innocuous compliment sent him scarlet with a blush. “And they’ll be yours again soon.” she promised.

His gentle expression and bright red cheeks crumpled rather suddenly and before either of them seemed to expect it, fat teardrops had escaped the blue of his eyes and rolled down the crimson flesh of his face.

“Goddamnit.” he cursed hoarsely, in an absolute rage at himself, regaining his hands from her grip insistently to bring them up to his own face, hiding from her behind harsh fists that rubbed at his wet eyes like he could grind the grief and weariness out between his knuckles.

Unbalanced as he was without hands to support him, and legs gone jellied from his fast fading pleasure, Maureen chose to capitalize on it as a nurse would a brief state of insensibility to move a patient to a cleaner cot. Remorselessly she pressed at his shoulder and lifted their still joined hips until he tipped over, rolling onto his back beneath her. “We’ll have none of that.” she told him with loving adamance from her new perch, prying his hands away and pressing them to the sheets beside his head. “The hiding, I mean.” she clarified and he looked all of hardly past twenty laying there with wobbly lips and wet eyes unobscured, “I’m a very great proponent of crying,” she went on conversationally which confused him more but kept him too preoccupied to stifle his tears, “De-sanguination is still a highly esteemed practice, you know, it means to drain the body. One type of draining often triggers the other.”

“You gonna start bleeding me?” he asked wryly.

“Oh, maybe, you’d look so pretty all streaked up.” she teased and ran a sharp thumbnail over his pinned wrist.

Well, that got him hard again. Fascinating.

“You know what’s got your hands like this-“ she whispered softly, “-probably the same reason you flop, too.”

“Huh.”

“Pretty common.” she assured.

“Quit tellin’ me I’m common.” He growled, tickling her sides and she grabbed his hands, pinning them again playfully.

“Nothing common about you, sweet baby.” she swore, leaning down to kiss him and enjoying the way he met her strongly, surely, “Gale, can I move?” she asked, half strangled by the taut string of need coiled in her belly, tugged to madness by the bulk of him still resting limply inside.

“Move?” he was perplexed.

“I’m going to die if I don’t get some friction.” she whispered, somehow shy to admit that in the face of his innocent bewilderment, “God -please tell me someone has informed you women finish, too?”

“Bucky says they clamp up so tight you can’t help but blow.” Gale recited dutifully, “Which is what just happened, right?”

Maureen grinned wide and wicked before dragging her hips up till he was barely in, then plopping down into the cradle of his hips, making him let out a “oomph.”

“Maureen?” he questioned, half knowing already he had been mistaken but hell, to go again? “Maureen- I’ll die if we go again.”

“What a way to go.” she muttered, her pace atop him increasing as did the tortured gasps tumbling from his lips. His spunk was making terribly wet, lewdly sloppy sounds of suction each time she slammed down on his cock and the visual of her exerting herself on top of him was something so blatant and jiggly he could hardly endure the visual feast of it.

“Shit, shit I can’t-“ he growled while his trembling hands latched onto her hips in a grip that was anything but dissuading. “Maureen.” he begged her for…he knew not what.

“Come on Mr. Jones,” she clasped her hands around his face and aligned their noses, rubbing like a kiss with each movement of her lower body, “you’re not one to leave your missus needy, I know you’re not. Not when you’ve got such pretty hands-“

-a shudder from him.

“and a clever tongue-“

-a whine from him that sounded close to a wounded dog’s it was so lasting.

“-or a tool this capable.”

“Maureen.” he groaned.

“Baby, my baby.” she begged, “You’ve got what I need, come on, take me apart.”

Like he trusted himself for the first time since they began this endeavor, she felt his body bow up beneath her, his arm flexing strongly across her hips, his legs braced beneath her and a heavy hand clutching her neck, then he was driving up into her with a wild abandon she only ever hoped was simmering beneath that cool exterior. When she finished he hadn’t stopped, and Maureen found herself crying out like a feral thing into the hollow of his clavicle as the brutal pummeling went on, satisfaction drug out of her over and over in harsh ruts.

“That more like it?” he panted the harsher he grew, a hand around her jaw pushing her face away from his so he might see the damage he was doing.

“Yes, yes oh baby, yes!” she swore through clenched teeth, it had been too long and each blissful peak only aggravated her further, made her hungrier, that and the fact he was so proportioned as to be a constant delight just shy of pain, “Hell Gale, do ya hear us?” she gloated, propping herself back on his thighs to watch the shiny pink of him flash in and out of her wet sheath.

Mesmerized, Gale didn’t reply, but he dragged a hand up her belly and felt for the way it tensed at each intrusion, the span of his fingers an incredible thing across her skin. “Can’t believe you can take it, easy as that.” he marveled, his thumb straying and pulling apart her petals the better to watch.

“Thumb it right there.” she directed gently, reaching down to move his calloused finger over her bud, right above where he split her apart, “That’s it, ya feel that too, huh?”

“Fuck you’re tight.” his voice cracked and his eyes shot wide again.

“Are you -?”

“Maybe.” there was a wobble of blissed uncertainty in his voice until she stopped her movements and he let out a sob before he could catch it. “Maureen, please.”

“Please what, baby?” she was chuckling at him, pushing his hair off his sweaty forehead, “I let you-“ he pleaded, still thinking things worked that way, “-now I need, please Maureen...”

“Oh you can.” she assured and his face lightened but his eyes stayed wary, “But just know, I won’t be stopping.”

“What?”

“You remember how that feels, don’t ya baby?” she reminded, gently pushing him to lie back and beginning their movements anew, “So good you can’t stand it, so messy and easy for me, so tender and much for you?”

“Jesus.” he wheezed, his lean belly caving in with his heavy pants, but she felt him throbbing inside her and his pupils were large as saucers, “You’re as mean as Bucky.” he whined, voice gone high in panicked pleasure.

“Thank you, but really I’m not.” she laughed, gently thumbing away an errant tear that rolled down his cheek. “Not quite.”

“Maureen, please, please you’re too pretty!” he begged nonsensically even as his hips began to snap into hers, invigorated and forceful.

“Hold it Gale, try to hold it.” Maureen gasped, staring down at the prettiest face she’d ever seen as his brow began to furrow, “Or don’t, all the same to me.”

“I’m gonna flip you.” he swore and a few seconds of inaction passed, marked by the slam of her hips down onto his, and she thought he didn’t mean it until she gave him a daring look and suddenly she was careening backwards, head jolting against the sheets and body laid out firmly beneath him.

“Goddamn.” she swore at the way he hadn’t dislodged an inch during the whole maneuver, suddenly pressed just as deeply as before, his hips working like a piston and his hands tight and strong on her neck. “Goddamn baby. Oh goddamn that’s good.”

“S’good?” he begged her to repeat, some dizzying natural force propelling him harder and faster and needier.

“You’re so good.” she was adamant as she hung about his neck and locked her ankles in the small of his back. “You’re so good I’m - I’m -gonna-“

“What was that about holdin’ it?” he hissed, smile cocky and smug.

“Bull ain’t out of the gate yet Cleven,” she cautioned but her hips had begun to lift of their own accord, a tremble taking hold of her, “But I’m close, I’m, i'm real cl- oh God!”

“Come on sweet Maureen, wanna make ya -wanna do it for ya. Give ya what you need, Mrs Jones.” Gale’s hoarse and sweet nothings poured hot and breathy in her ear and Maureen found herself locked and gripping him before she knew it, moaning into his neck as he moved in and out, in and out as she’d only ever dreamed of.

When she cracked her dazzled eyes open again he was panting above her, the clink of his dog tags gently bumping her chin with each sway deeper, lashes batting in a golden flutter as he too began to lose himself, slower, more drawn out and yet every bit as desperate as the first time.

“Look at me baby, look at me when ya do.” she pleaded, gently gripping his chin as his mouth fell open in a series of little noises of effort that went straight to her belly grown hot and molten with the feeling of him spurting inside.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh,” Gale was working atop her in pained delight, lips so smeared and face so sweaty he looked like he might melt at any minute, “thank you, oh fuck, thank you, sweet Maureen.” he chanted low and dreamy, again and again until he drove in once more and stayed.

Those clear blue eyes fagged in an exhausted ecstasy, his head dropping impossibly further with each ragged pant until his face was barely hovering over her breasts, neck bent and forhead slowly pressing into the swell of them. His forearms gave out and those hands of his stayed trapped beneath her shoulder blades.

“Sleep Angel baby,” Maureen coaxed, hand cradling the back of his dear head to her breasts, feeling a low lazy peace settle over her at the feel of his dead weight plugging her up and the lovely wringing out she’d just endured, “let’s just sleep, dear boy.”

Hope you enjoyed! Feedback is a writer’s lifeblood, please feel free to scream in comments or the inbox, I love it and wanna hear it all. Trust me, nothing is “too dumb”. Your thoughts mean the world to me.

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#masters of the air #mota #mota fanfic #mota fanfiction #masters of the air fanfiction #the pacific #friends in the crucible #mota smut #gale cleven x oc #gale cleven #gale cleven x john egan #hints of at least #Gale x Maureen #Gale Cleven fanfic #austin butler #austin butler fanfiction #austin butler smut #austin butler imagine

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prettyboyjohnny · 9 months ago

Text

JOHNNY VOICE LINE TRANSCRIPT 🥩

I wrote these out a long time ago but never posted them anywhere! Based on [x].

>Nancy's voicelines<

Notes:

• I could've copied the game subtitles, but I didn't 'cause they suck.

• I haven't played enough Johnny to know where some of these lines start and end. Please let me know if I've made any mistakes in that regard!

• I was gonna include tone indicators, but tone is subjective. No one wants me to mark the Feed Grandpa voice lines as "Flirty."

Thanks!

VOICELINES

Encounter Start

Now look at this! Somebody's ready to fight!

This is gonna end... Very badly for you.

Yeah-ha-ha! Oh, that's it! Hit me...

Imma gut every single one of y'all! [Inhales, laughs under breath] Come on... Come on!

Exit interaction

Nobody leaves until I say so!

Ain't nobody leavin' just yet!

Got it.

Nobody's leavin' alive! Y'all not fast enough! ... Good try, though.

Feed Grandpa

Get your fill, old man.

It always tastes best when it's fresh, don't it?

Here you go, old man.

You're lookin' better already... Now help us!

Oh, you're thirsty today.

Victim found

HA HA! It's playtime!

Heh heh, it's playtime...

Hahahaha, I always find 'em!

You should know better than that! ... Come on out, now.

Hey there! [Laughs]

Well! Look who we got here! [Laughs]

Hit victim

Oh! Now I got ya!

Yeah! Take it! Take it!

It's better if you die right quick! Trust me!

This would be simpler if you would sit still!

Yeah! You gonna be leakin' after that hit.

Idle

Nobody escapes me.

How the hell did those kids find us? [Sighs] I should've been more careful.

If Grandpa was able, this would be over by now... I better go feed him.

Damn it, Johnny... Get your head straight! Come on, now!

I gotta fix this... Now!

Cook seen

I'd watch that tongue of yours, old man... It might go missin' one day.

I thought you knew how to run this household... THIS is a mess!

Damn it, old man! Put those ears of yours to use already!

Where are they?! How the hell did they get loose?! I can't fix this by myself, old man.

Stop barkin' orders at me! You ain't gonna like the results.

Hitchhiker seen

Surround the property with some of those traps already! This is getting outta hand fast!

You're one shifty little sumbitch... I'll give you that. [Laughs]

How you make those weird ass traps of yours, anyway?

Would you. Settle. The Hell. Down already. You're scattering all over the dang place. We gotta focus!

Grandpa is gonna tan our hides if we let them get away. Spread out!

Leatherface seen

That's it, boy... Go kill someone now.

Go on, put that saw to use, big boy! What're you waitin' on?

If I were you, I'd go and check out Grandpa. We're gonna need his help!

Let's go now, boy! Grandpa ain't gonna be too pleased if you let them escape.

Just get outta my way, boy... I'll show you how real killin's done.

Sissy seen

Are you gonna help me out, or just stand there lookin' pretty?

If it ain't askin' too much, before you go and run off again, would you mind helpin' me out?

Before you go runnin' off with those back-house hippies again... Can you PLEASE find these damn kids?!

Sissy, what the hell're you waitin' on? Get to it!

Sissy... Are you even listenin' to me? What's goin' on in that head of yours?! Damn!

Lose enemy first

Aww, you leavin' so soon?

It's alright, big boy's gonna be wearing your face soon enough... After I'm done with you, that is. [Laughs]

You know... I was actually kinda fond of that girl, I-I didn't really wanna hurt 'er... But, as they say... Family first, y'know?

You ever watch someone die? Oh... You ain't never quite the same after that, lemme tell ya.

Ohohoh, you can run all you want... It ain't gonna matter much longer.

Lose enemy sub

[Scoffs] You're all gurgle and no guts! I thought you were tougher than that!

I'm gonna find you... I will! I promise!

You wanna know how your friend died? I can show you!

L-Listen now! E-Everybody's time comes eventually!

The bad man's in me... And you gonna meet 'im real soon!

Lose enemy long

Your little friend put up a better fight than this... Come on... Make it interesting, will ya?!

They always try to hide... It's always the same game... [Laughs]

You folks don't know who you messin' with! Nobody ever gets away from me.

You're just delayin' the inevitable! YOU HEAR ME?

Come on out now, let's play.

I got plenty of space in the cold room for you.

Match start

It's time. [Chuckles] Seems they've got some fight in 'em after all.

I knew I should've handled this myself... I'll fix it.

That's what I get for taking it easy on them. Time for them to join that little friend of theirs.

See blood trail

Oh, this is gonna be easy.

Hey, you okay? You seem to have lost a bit of blood!

Now... let's see where you scurried off to.

You know... Bleedin' like that ain't gonna help your cause!

Don't bleed out on me yet! I need you awake!

See enemy first

Don't worry. I like it when they run.

Look, you're gonna want this to end fast. Trust me on that.

Well, don't run! I just wanna see how it feels.

There you are! [Chuckles] You kinda remind me of your little friend.

See enemy sub

This is pointless, you know. Quit stallin'.

Don't worry... I'll find ya.

[Growls] I'm gonna see your insides before this night's through!

Oh, you ain't gettin' away! I'm keepin' you.

Come on back, now.

Got something I wanna show you! [Laugh]

See family member

Well! Look who decided to lend a hand!

Check the doors and generator. We can't let them leave. You hear me?

Y'all need to start pullin' your weight around here. This is gettin' old!

Grandpa's gonna be in a fit if we let them escape. Start searchin'!

Would y'all... Help me already. PLEASE!

See trapped victim

We gotcha! [Laughs]

You ready to meet the bad man?

You got one!

Looks like you might be hurtin'. Might wanna be watchin' where you're steppin'.

[Laughs]

See victim escape

Maybe I can still catch 'em. Yeah, down by the tracks.

Damn... They're free... For now.

This isn't gonna be good.

Damn it, Johnny! [Scoffs] ... The old man's gonna be riled up now.

Use ability blocked

Ain't no tracks here...

Nah... got nothin'.

Better wait a minute.

Not quite yet ... [Inhales] Almost ready.

Use ability

Time to play. Now... Where did you go?

I'll find ya. Don't you worry about that.

Go ahead and hide... It ain't gonna matter.

Where'd y'all run off to?

Use ability success

[Hums] ... There you are.

They always leave a trail. Always so careless. [Chuckles, inhales] ... This is too easy.

I'm on your tail now!

Execution

You're gonna look real nice... Next to that friend of yours!

That's it... Die for me!

This... Is only gonna hurt... For a minute!

You should've never came here lookin' for that girl!

You ain't gettin' away! I'm keepin' you!

[Last edited March 2024]

#It's about making things accessible okay? Everyone benefits from having things available to them in more than one format/medium.#johnny slaughter #tcm game #txchainsawgame #texas chainsaw massacre #tcm #johnny sawyer #transcript #subjectspeaks #greedy #queue #I also wrote out Sissy and Nancys but thats for another time

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tr4gictea · 23 days ago

Text

Smoker Trail [Aizawa+Smoker!Teen!Reader]

❥Masterlist

Tags: Underage smoking, angst to comfort, implied domestic abuse, Dadzawa

Including: Shota Aizawa, mention of Katsuki Bakugo

word count: 1.3k words

A/n: Im really getting into MHA rn and I will be doing a lot of that now so if you have any request for My Hero, send a request pleaseeee. Enjoy <3

You were standing on the rooftop of the U.A. dorms, leaning against the railing with a lit cigarette between your fingers. You blew out smoke into the night air blissfully unaware of your surroundings. The rest of the class was asleep in their rooms, none would be awake to see you. Suddenly the roof door opens, mid inhale, to reveal your teacher, Mr. Aizawa. You quickly flick the cigarette off the roof and cough the smoke into your jacket.

He turns towards you, “Y/n? Kid, what are you doing up so late?” he says raising an eyebrow.

Fuck, he has awful timing. You were scared by his sudden appearance that the smoke got caught in your throat. “Hi Mr. Aizawa, cough, I was just-, coUGH-, out here for uh, breather, COUGH, COUGH.” You wave him over, trying to play it off as if you just needed some space. But the residual smoke in your lungs made it hard to breathe.

He sighed, shaking his head disappointed. He’s seen this happen before, too many times with students to believe your words. He walks closer to you, still keeping a distance from you.

“Don’t give me that ‘breath of fresh air crap’. Why are you out here? Really?”

“I told you I came out here for some quiet,” You tried to redirect the conversation, “Bakugo was yelling at me for what happened this morning during training.” You say rolling your eyes at the memory. You recall the scruffy blonde yelling at you after a training incident. You were told to destroy your assigned training dummies. But that objective went out the window when you decided to use a new special move you came up with and accidentally knocked out all of yours and Bakugo’smachines in one go.

“Trust me if I didn't take a breather out here, we would be in Principle Nezu's office right now for fighting and property damage,” you said chuckling.

He sighed, looking back at you. "I'm sorry to hear that. Bakugo is hotheaded and I’ll talk to him about it afterward.. But you're not supposed to be out here. It's 1:56 am and you have to get up early in the morning for school."

“Yeah I know, well I should be heading to bed then…” This conversation has gone on for more than you would like, so it's time for you to roll up outta here! “Well, goodnight Mr. Aizawa I will see you in class tomorrow!” You start walking towards the door to leave, “I hope you have a good night and-”

Aizawa stops you by your shoulder, preventing you from leaving. “Hold it kid, you can't pull crap like that on me. Sit back down.” He says gesturing to a metal box next to him

Shit.

You sit your ass back down. You didn’t need to look up at his face to know that he was less than displeased with you. His eyes were practically burning into your head. You haven't seen this side of Aizawa before, and it was scary.

“Now, give me the pack.” he holds his hand out in front of you.

“What do you mean? Mr. Aizawa I-” You try to defend yourself but he cut you off not letting you speak.

“Stop talking hand them over.” You're caught, and you know it. “You're on thin ice kid,”

You fumble threw your pocket trying to find the box, you just finished the pack that night so you weren't worried about losing it. But what did make you worried was the look on Mr. Aizawa's disappointed glare was bad enough as you placed the red box into your teacher's hand.

He takes the box in his hand and places it in his pocket. He moves to lean back on the railing as he looks at you. “Y/n, you know we don’t tolerate this stuff here. I understand training can be tough but you can’t be pulling crap like this.”

“I know,” I say lowering my gaze.

“How long were you even out here?” He questions.

I recall the actions that led me here in my head: Well, I came out here after Bakugo and I had a screaming match, and that was at 10 I think… “Since 10 probably,”

“10...” He groaned and rubbed his nose. “Okay, okay, how do you get your hands on these?”

“I found them..” You lie through your teeth.

“You found them? Hm, you just found cigarettes lying around?” He questions unconvinced by your answer. “Seriously Y/n you’re not gonna get into any more trouble by being honest with me right now. Spill.”

“Well… I'm not lying, I did find them.” You admit shifting uncomfortably in your seat, “They're from my family... they leave the packs lying around and I just steal them when they're not looking.”

Aizawa was beginning to get rather annoyed. He was tired, as were most of the staff, and finding a student on the roof smoking was just the cherry on top. “You know that smoking on campus grounds is punishable by expulsion?” He stated, crossing his arms. A look of fear shot into your eyes. Expulsion?! "And if said family found out you were expelled for this, where would that leave you?"

“I…” you take a moment to think about how angry your father would be if he found out. You don't know what would be worse: if he found out about the stolen cigarettes or the fact that they got you expelled from the top hero school. “Well, I don’t know…”

“You don’t know…” He sounded angry, maybe a little concerned. An awkward silence fell over the two of you until Aizawa spoke again. “Listen, kid, your lucky it was me who found you. Any other teacher would have reported you on the spot. But, I for one, don’t think its fair for a student’s future to fall apart after one mistake. So, I'm giving you one chance to get clean.”

You look up at him with hopeful eyes, “Really?”

“Yeah, you’ve got potential as a hero and a good heart. I’d hate to see it go down the drain. You got one chance to do better or I won't help you the next time you get caught.” After a brief moment of silence, he speaks up again.

“You’ve got a good head on your shoulders kid, use it.”

By this time tears have been threatening to spill from your eyes. You have been feeling so many emotions at one time. You can’t help yourself as you dive to hug Mr. Aizawa.

He jumps a little, taken aback by the sudden affection. “T-thank you Mr. Aizawa,” You're now sobbing into his black shirt as relief washes over you.

He places one arm around you and the other on your head, gently patting it. “Don’t mention it kid..” You both just stay like that for a little bit, him holding you while petting your head. Whilst you calm yourself down. You pull yourself away from the hug wiping your tears, “Seriously though, don’t mention it. This could get both of us kicked out of U.A.” His tone turned more serious.

You let out a little giggle at the sudden change in tone, “Of course Sensei.”

He hums in response, “Tonight I expect you to hand me over any extra pack of these,” he says while tapping the cigarette box in his pocket, “And tomorrow we are going to recovery girl to help heal some of the damage done to your lungs. She owes me a favor so she’ll be discrete about it.”

You nod, “And from now on you have to be on your best behavior and not lie to me anymore, alright?”

“Yes, Sensei,”

“Alright, get back to your room and hand me over any extra packs, and then go to bed. You’ve already lost enough sleep as it is.”

More MHA/BHNA Stories *ੈ✩‧₊˚

https://www.tumblr.com/tr4gictea/756555235100704768/masterlist?source=share

More Aizawa Stories ೃ⁀➷ https://www.tumblr.com/tr4gictea/766187185887215616/class-1a-extras?source=share

I would like to apologize to you guys because links are not working at all for me right now and I'm trying to fix whatever is going on. The best I can do for right now is just regular links. Again so sorry for the trouble. 🙏

REMEMBER TO SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON, OBLITERATE THAT FOLLOW BUTTON AND, REQUEST FOR A SHOUT-OUT IN MY NEXT VIDEO 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥

#my hero academia #mha #mha x reader #dadzawa #bhna x reader #bhna #aizawa shouta #mha aizawa #eraserhead #platonic aizawa #tr4gictea

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saintlesbian · 1 year ago

Note

we HAD the three musketeers w/ trina spencer and cam before, and they all had strong enough character development on their own that managed to blend into a unique and fun friendship dynamic where they managed to all stand as equals. but now the writers are trying to have this joss-centric musketeer trio consisting of Basically Carly but Worse Somehow, her underdeveloped arm candy that is just leeching off her same smug aura, and the one actually interesting character that’s had her relationship and character development now sidelined to prop joss. the personalities don’t mesh like the old trio did and it feels entirely unbalanced,,, and overall unpleasant to witness...!

I do not fuck with this 3 musketeers bullshit they are trying to force on us with Trina, Joss, and Dex. I do not fuck with it at all. It reeks of bad optics of having the black girl be a sidekick and be a third wheel to her white counterpart bestie, who by the way somehow ends up with the dudes Trina is rejected by,and her jackass boyfriend.

Agreed! No one asked for this!

#general hospital #pentababbles #hi i hate it here :)#sorry for another GH rant but its been a while and now that im catching up rn i gotta get this off my chest #i really don't think joss and trina should be friends. like they are nothing to me #i really want the two of them to have a big falling out at some point #like. i wish trina would stop biting her tongue towards joss and let her know how inconsiderate shes been at times #i think trina should have other friends. esp other BLACK friends #friends who treat her well and put her first instead of getting wrapped up in their own bs #and have that be what contrasts against her relationship w/ joss and makes her realize she deserves better #trina could either slowly pull away from joss bc she doesn't want conflict w/ her so called bestie #or just finally take off the rose tinted glasses and give joss a stern talking to and let her go #and. wishful thinking but let that be the moment that joss gains some self awareness #and either she could grow and change be a kinder person drop some vendettas stop nagging people etc #or just go face heel turn and fully embrace being a spoiled bitch #but like pick a side girl damn #and dex... should not be hanging with this crowd.#like the YA group is not even old enough to drink. still in college barely adults themselves #but dex is a grown ass man no college degree fresh outta the military w/ no higher aspirations #and hes fucking his boss' stepdaughter for what??? when he could be with other adults in his age range #like around other criminal adjacent characters im sure hed be a fine enough guy #but around younger girls trina and joss he seems like a creep and a bum. and is just a worse jason #like. stop trying to make fetch happen! its not gonna happen!!!

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seven-004 · 2 months ago

Text

Get Off my Car!

Red Hood x Reader (f!)

Scary vigilante or not after a 12 hour shift anyone would be annoyed with someone refusing to stop using your car as a seat

Warnings: Mild banter and a few innuendos, blood and mild panic

🚫 DO NOT USE FOR ACCURATE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR PROCEDURES OF ANY KIND IM NOT A TRAINED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WHATSOEVER 🚫

Taking on a considerable amount of under paid overtime was less than ideal. More so as a fresh med grad at a Bowery hospital. But you needed the hours and more than anything the experience

Slightly regretting it when needing to cross the dark parking lot after a graveyard shift. In a City brimming with vigilantism and villains. They just had to give the worst shift to the newbie huh

It was a dreadingly long walk to your car that felt like a lot longer than it probably was

But here you were nonetheless. A very large obstacle in your way. Something that not only had your mouth gaping open but also incredibly irritated. Red Hood was using the back half of your cars roof as a seat. Said half visibly closer to the ground than the other. While audibly playing some kind of shooter game on his phone

"Uhm- Red Hood can you-" the current irritation was lower than the fear while you clutched your satchel gathering your courage "please can you get off my car sir?"

He was secretly offended you thought he was old enough to be called sir and it may have influenced in his response

He gave you the finger and promptly resumed his game. Not that he'd even paused it to begin with. You were too tired to deal with this after such a long shift. Your keys were already clutched between your knuckles throughout the walk to your car and accessible. You simply got into your car and in a burst of courage? tiredness? irritation? it could of been anything honestly

Regardless of the reason, you simply put the car in reverse and satisfyingly watched him roll right off. No middle finger now huh

Rolling your window down, he lay on the floor twitching. The adrenaline was certainly there now realizing what you'd done and quite honestly expecting to see a gun pointing at your face through the window

However, Red Hood was now laughing loudly from his position on the floor

"You're crazy! Sure caught me off guard"

He continued to squawk on the floor. Leather jacket visibly crinkling with his movement. Not exactly what you were expecting but you'd take it over a gun to the face any day. Peeking curiously out your window with baited breath just waiting for something else to happen. For anything else to happen

Finally sitting up. His day had been less than ideal and rolling off of a car certainly wasn't something he planned on doing today but it somehow didn't make the day any worse. Especially not when you, a cute person in scrubs watched him intently form the driver seat

"Hey-" you visibly flinched "I'll take ya home" still frozen in your seat as he got off the floor and walked over to your passenger side door

Only turning to look at Red Hood when he knocked on the window. Narrowing your eyes at him. He chuckled. "I won't do anything weird, swear" putting a hand up as if saying an oath. Barely convinced and still suspicious, you very slowly moved to unlock the car

"Try anything funny and I'll run you over as soon as you get outta my car"

He laughed again slipping into your passenger seat "Got it. I'll just see you home"

Your already tense shoulders were now on the verge of cramping. "Put your seatbelt on" Red Hood only stared. Realizing it was a stupid request but persisting anyway now that the words had left your mouth "wouldn't want another incident involving my car now would we"

His presence was both releaving and unnerving. Pro, scariest vigilante was here to protect you should anything happen. Con, a huge buff man was now sitting in your passenger seat in the dead of night with no witnesses should anything happen

He was incredibly amused but still complied. You were extremely gutsy and he applauded that. Meanwhile you had no idea where said courage was stemming from

You began the drive home, Red Hood going back to his game. It wasn't a long drive or an eventful one either. Soon pulling into the apartments parking lot "Alright this is it" he didn't make any effort to move. Your shoulder brushing his broad ones when you gathered your satchel and keys

You'd realized how much his shoulders spilled over the seats width when he first took a seat. But it made you feel small nonetheless

You got out of the car and took a few steps towards the stairs leading up. Red Hood was already half a step behind you without really noticing him get out of the car, proceeding to lock it "That won't really do much"

"Yeah I know... it's more for comfort I suppose?" Shrugging absentmindedly, if you were to get robbed not much could stop it unless there was someone there in the moment brave enough to do something about it

He got in the elevator with you, more than you already expected for little ol' you. Accompanying you all the way to the door "Thank you for escorting me?... accompanying me all the way here. Sorry about the car. Genuinely. Omg I didn't apologize sooner I'm so so so sorry. Are you alright? I'm a terrible person- I'm a terrible doctor." His chuckle brought you back up to earth from that downward spiral

"I'm alright-"

"Are you sure! Should I examine you?"

"Oh? "

"What- no wait not like that" if Red Hood had been amused before by how you rolled him off your car he was more amused now seeing you flustered

"I'll see you around" he waved and simply walked off leaving you dumbstruck and flushed red at your apartment door

"I'll see you around? What a dork"

"Shut up dickhead or I'll punch your teeth in" is heard down the hall and you wonder if he was talking to another tenant

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —

It'd been a few nights now and there hadn't been any vigilantes in sight. Until tonight at least. Similarly as the first time you approached your car after another long shift and there he was on your car roof again

Irritation bubbled up like pasta water reaching a boil about to spill over

"Do I have to roll you off again!" A scowl evident under the street light in the open lot

"Oh no not today haha" he slipped off the roof with a practiced elegance a white paper cup in hand, another next to where he was just sitting

A lid immediately placed on those boiling noodles effectively suffocating all irritation originally there "Coffee?" Not exactly what you were expecting making it quite the pleasant surprise

"Oh sorry, I'll be going to bed soon but thank you though" you felt bad, sheepishly turning him down with pink cheeks

"Oh right, it's decaf!" Red Hood quickly reached for the cup on top your car to present it to you, the sticker on it in fact saying decaf

"Aw thank you, that's really sweet"

There was a slight awkward pause. You took a sip of it, the coffee itself was really good although plain. But still hot making you wonder how he'd done it when it seemed like he'd been sitting there for a bit waiting for you

"Ah can I?"

You pointed at the driver side door. Which he was standing in front of

"Oh right, sure" "Smooth "

"Shut up!"

"Excuse me?"

"Not you! Ugh" he seemed to press a hand to his forehead? Brow? It was hard to tell with the helmet "the coms, ah communications" he pointed to the side of the helmet presumably where his ears were

"Oh I understand, cool... you're not crazy then" you tried to dissuade the awkwardness

Red Hoods shoulders eased down and he chuckled "Something like that" he left it open to interpretation and it made you smirk. You liked his humor

"Right..." You teased moving to try and unlock your door. He didn't move much, shadow cast by the street light engulfing your figure. "You going home with me today too?" He snorted, realizing what you said "No! Stoppp it not what I meant" you attempted to shove him out of the way but struggled which only made him laugh "Meanie"

However once unlocked he opened the door and stepped aside for you, it'd been a long time since someone had opened a door for you "Than- thank you" he nodded

Once both of you were seated "Why so nice all of a sudden?" he hummed mulling over the question while you started the car

"I guess I was in a bad mood?"

You snorted "Aren't you usually" you snarked back without much though "Sorry!" You squeaked "Don't shoot me please, you're just easy to talk to I didn't mean to"

He laughed fully and it made your face heat up in embarrassment "I don't mind, you've got guts I like that" he stretched in the cramped seat bumping your shoulder. Sending a wave of heat upon contact, said heat collecting in your face

Hiding your face behind the cup of coffee "Ah, I wasn't sure how you liked it..."

"Oh it's fine, it's really good coffee"

"Yeah, I know a place"

"Open at this hour?"

"I called in a favor"

"For me?" You spared a quick glance his way, but Red Hood was avoiding your gaze looking out the window. A hand rubbing the back of his neck. It made you feel special

The little of what was left of the ride was silent, until he was seeing you off at your door once more "Would you like to sit and finish the rest of your coffee?" You opened the door inviting him in

Red Hood pondered it but realized that required taking off his helmet to do. Knocking on such "Oh right! Sorry" you bumped your forehead gently with a fist "Thank you for the coffee again" remembering something and gesturing Red Hood to wait while you run into the apartment for a short time

Re-emerging with a small tupperware container with a red lid "A snack for your coffee, I can reheat it for you if it's gone cold if you like" some of that heat radiating off of him crawling up his neck

He takes a seat on the ledge of a nearby roof, removing the red lid to reveal what look like homemade tumb print cookies wrapped in a cloth napkin "Ouuu can I have one?"

"It's alright thanks though" you hand him the container and wave him goodbye

"Fuck off Dick" he hides them in his leather jacket from the other vigilantes view

"Pleaseeee, c'mon Jay I let you borrow my electric coasterrr"

The older of the two whining "Fine just one tho" he keeps them hidden however until his helmet is off and he's had one. Only then does he offer one to the blue and black sporting acrobat

"Oh these are good! Bring me some too next time"

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —

"Hood!" You smile seeing his bulky figure sat on top of your car. You could get used to his presence even if just for the short ride home, maybe look forward to it sometimes after a couple nights without seeing him

You approached you car with a slight pep in your step. None of that initial irritation present

"Hey!" Red Hood perked up from his seat where he was previously looking at his phone. "Think you can share that cookie recipe?" He says hopping off

"Of course, I can show you how to make them if you'd like"

"I would actually" you can hear the smile in his voice even through the modulator and it ignites a familiar heat in your face "are you free tomorrow?"

"Yeah, what time works" now you had more to look forward to as you approached the car more

"I can come around noon or sometime later if you'd like"

"No that works just fine" it'd been a particularly long shift and the slight chill to the night air made the exhaustion evident with the large yawn

"Here, I'll drive"

"It's fine I don't mind"

He didn't budge, only holding his hand out waiting of your keys. "What, don't think I can drive" he teased and you begrudgingly handed your keys over. Both of you made your way over to the passenger side and he opened the door for you again. Tossing his leather jacket on you once you were seated

You were about to protest but he gently closed the door and made his way over to the drivers seat. Laughing at him when his knees pressed against the dashboard

Not missing the way his suit fit tightly or how his forearm looked while he held the wheel. The drive was incredibly smooth making it easy to doze off quickly. More so when wrapped in the jacket. It was comfortingly warm and smelled lightly of cologne

Red Hood quite liked how you looked snuggled into his jacket. Made him want to snap a picture but thought against the idea not wanting to seem weird

Soon he pulled into the parking lot but you were still sound asleep. Not wanting to wake you up he gathered your things and with the utmost care picked you up bridal style. Making sure to keep you wrapped up in the brown leather

He felt bad going into your home, more so looking around for your bedroom but he didn't want to just leave you on the couch

He set you gently on the first bed he found. After only peeking into the bathroom. Red Hood decided to leave his jacket too telling himself he'd just pick it up when he came to bake. In reality he just didn't want to risk waking you up. Leaving a little note on the dresser before locking up on his way out

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —

Stirring awake face still shoved under the covers. You didn't remember going to bed

But here you were under the covers, shoes removed in the guest room. But still in your scrubs. And also a brown leather jacket. The one Red Hood gave you before driving you home

Turning to face the edge of the bed and sitting upright, noticing the slip of paper on the dresser

You fell asleep in the car, sorry to barge into your house like this but I didn't wanna wake you. I left your bag in the living room before I locked up on my way out

With a poorly drawn version of his helmet in red pen. You left the guest room with a smile on your face and tidied up slightly before going into your room to shower. You'd slept in slightly and only had a chance to do that before you heard a knock at the door. Rushing, you opened the door in an oversized shirt and still wet hair "Oh I can come back later if you want"

He was in a t-shirt and jeans, still wearing his helmet, tupperware in hand "oh it's alright, if you don't mind waiting a little bit" he nodded and you showed him to the living room. Taking a look around and getting a better look at things now that he wasn't reaching in the dark like last night "make yourself comfortable I'll be right back, you can leave that wherever"

You disappeared into the back room and put on a pair of leggings and patted out your hair down with a towel some more before brushing it through another time "I slept in a bit and didn't have time to get things ready sorry" he's sitting awkwardly on your couch hands on his knees

"It's alright" you go back into the kitchen and he follows you awkwardly. Digging around a cloth cabinet where you keep the clean dish rags and cloth napkins

"Aha!" You hold two aprons proudly "take your pick" the more used looking one is black with white lettering saying I don't know what I'm doing which was tempting but the more colorful one had Kiss the cook

"If I pick that one will you do it?" He asks pointing at the pastel tie dye apron in your left hand

"Depends if your cooking is any good" you challenged with a smirk tossing it to him

He caught it effortlessly "I'll hold you to that" you laughed nodding, tying your own appron and going to fetch the ingredients and preheating the oven

A little bit of chaos and shenanigans ensued. But all small messes and a lot of fun. He was surprisingly good in the kitchen, grasping what you showed him fairly quickly

"Now we can make the jam while the dough chills"

"That was homemade too?" You nod chuckling slightly at the awe in his robotic voice "It's really not that hard"

"It isn't ?" He was being suggestive again and you rolled your eyes at him

"Oh shut it or I won't give you any to take home"

"You wouldn't dare!" He holds a hand to his chest dramatically

"Fuck around and find out" he gasps crumbling to the floor in fake sobs and you laugh getting some strawberries and raspberries from the fridge "now go wash your hands again so you can help me cut these strawberries"

He mock salutes from the floor and kicks up into a standing position going to do exactly what you asked, washing the few dirty dishes leftover from when you were making the dough not long ago

"Oh you don't need to" you try to tell him when you notice but he finishes washing them anyway before rejoining you at the kitchen island to finish cutting the strawberries into 4's. Once that's finished you have him squeeze some lemon juice while you get the berries in a sauce pan with sugar and the lemon juice once he hands it over "now just bring to a light boil and stir constantly"

"And we can blend them or mash" he scavenges a drawer you point at and hands you the masher "now we just let it cool"

You turn off the stove and remove the pan before grabing the dough from the fridge "we can roll and cut the cookies out while it cools" you grab a pair of cookie cutters and rolling pins sprinkling a bit of powdered sugar to the kitchen island before grabbing the two dough balls from the bowl

Showing Red Hood to what thickness to roll it out to, him mirroring as you do it. Same when you cut out the circles and reroll the dough to make more

"Now just press your thumb into it a little bit" you snorted as he pushed holes through the first two before getting the pressure right. Now fetching the sauce pan with the jam and two spoons

"Just scoop a little bit into the indent"

He didn't fill the donuts he made and the first he overfilled but the rest came out nicely, it wasn't long before the two batches were in the oven "So about that kiss?"

You'd forgotten all about it "Hmm I'll give the kiss of approval once I try one"

He grumbles but agrees

"Oh I didn't get a chance to wash your jacket sorry" he hums curiously and you go back to your room to fetch his neatly folded leather jacket

"Oh don't worry about it"

The smell of the cookies began filling your apartment and the timer you set once they were in the oven went off

"Alright moment of truth" you grin, grabbing a hand towel and opening the oven to remove the trays setting them on the stove top to cool "aww they look good!" You smile at his single print and your heart print cookies

You grab one of his and blow on it a couple of times to cool it off faster before popping it into your mouth. "Mmm~" you sigh content "that's good" you nod approvingly

"So... does it get the kiss of approval?" Once you finish you lean up to place a peck to the cheek of Hoods helmet

It almost made him want to take it off

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —

It'd been a couple of days since you'd baked together and he'd stopped by to drive you home most nights since. Hood hadn't stopped by tonight however

It made the drive home rather lonely

More so when GCPD had closed off a street and you'd had to reroute the way home. It made it seem longer than it probably was. But you made it home nonetheless

Readying for bed but not able shake off a slight unnerving feeling. The ruckus from the reroute had since settled but you couldn't. Already in your pjs but unable to go to bed instead pacing your living room in the dark and basking in the yellow fridge light every so often. Nearly jumping out of your skin when you heard a tap on your living room widow

Should I look, what if it's nothing or just a stray cat or something. It could be a psycho clown. Or or or maybe it's Hood?

There's another tap only this time it sounds more like an actual knock. Your brain is saying no but your gut is telling you to go look. You end up listening to your gut and rip open the curtain

It is Hood. He's hunched over and his helmet is cracked open on top. A jolt of electricity shooting out of your chest and into the rest of your body

"Hood!" You rush to open the window and climb out onto the fire escape. The bars of the platform are cold and dig into your bare feet. You struggle to lift such a tall dense man and help him inside

He collapses on your floor and you mildly panic "okay okay" you rush to turn the lights on and grab the closest medical equipment

His helmet is cracked open and there's a puncture wound on his abdomen it's not big but it is deep. You snap a pair of gloves on and begin to cut his suit. Cleaning it out and taping a gauze over it. There doesn't seem to be damage to any organs or internal bleeding for the time being, at least not that you could visibly spot without any scans. Now his head "I- I have to remove your helmet alright" he nods off "don't move your head alright" you quickly and carefully take it off, there's a red domino mask over his eyes

God he's gorgeous- not the time! Not the time!

He's bleeding a lot, it looks like repeated trauma to the head. It's no wonder his helmet broke. But the bleeding is a good sign it means it's not gathering in his head building pressure. You go to get a towel to soak up some of the blood

His knee is dislocated! How did he even get here

You get a small hand towel and fold it "Bite this, I'm going to push your knee into place. It's going to hurt alright" he clenches his hands above his head and you adjusted everything "alright one, two, three-" applying enough pressure to pop it into place a muffled cry following soon after

The bleeding on his head seemed to subside and you began to evaluate for a concussion. Then cleaning and bandaging his head

He had lost a lot of blood from his head wound and was starting to loose consciousness but you tried to keep him up until you made sure the head trauma wasn't fatal "I need to remove the mask to see your eyes alright"

Hood could no longer consent to procedures as he slipped further and further into unconsciousness. Guilt heavy on your heart, you peeled off the last physical thing protecting his identity

Prying open his cerulean eyes to examine. They were the most beautiful shade of blue, but clouded by a dizzy haze muddling his head "I'm going to get you through this alright" it was hard to tell if you were comforting him or trying to reassure yourself. Regardless the trauma to his head didn't seem fatal upon an initial, thorough examination

Now that Hood was stable for the time being you began clean up. Mostly the pool of blood seeping out of the towel that was supposed to be collecting it

The adrenaline only barely beginning to ware off now. The cleaning wasn't as thorough as your treatment was but it was efficient. Trembling hands wiping the last remains of the crimson stain that would certainly persist long after this

Now how could you make Hood more comfortable? Attempting to lift him onto the couch or spare bed in the guest room was out of the question. You could hardly lift him WITH his help. Not to mention the risk in moving him would pose to his injuries when done incorrectly, which would be the likely outcome

Deciding it was easier to bring the bed to him you went into the guest room and began to strip the mattress. Tossing the comforter and pillows carelessly to the floor and proceeding to yank the mattress off the base. It was almost as heavy as Hood but far less delicate. Manhandling it onto its side and easily sliding it out of the room across the wooden floor

Was it collecting all sorts of dust and nasties? Most certainly. But you didn't care, you could buy a new mattress cover later. Letting it fall flat behind the couch. Now the next issue. Getting Hood on the mattress

Simply getting the damn thing into the living room was a workout in and of its own right. Doing it like at the hospital would be the easiest, now scavenging your apartment for a sturdy blanket or towel that could fit Hood

Settling for the comforter on the guest room floor. And rolling it the long way under Hood and steadily lifting him one part at a time. This was infinitely easier with another person helping on the other end but this would have to do

Firmly grabbing the quilted fabric by his head and lifting his upper torso half onto the mattress making sure his head rested securely on it. Then going around and doing the same with his feet. And again pulling his upper torso to the middle of the mattress and running back to do the same with his feet and lastly planting yourself firmly on the floor and pulling on the middle of the comforter to straighten him out

You were now running on fumes. And still went and gathered a couple of blankets and the pillows from the guest room floor as well. The blood loss made Hood loose a large part of his natural body heat and you had to make up for it with a thick fluffy blanket that you, with great effort spread on top of him

The adrenaline had now fully worn off and that last twelve hour shift began to take its toll along with all the stressors and grueling labor of this rescue

You wanted to do more for him, you had to. But your body gave out, making you slowly sink to the floor next to the mattress. Curling into the little bit of the blankets that spilled over the edge

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —

The following afternoon he began to stir awake. Groaning at the soreness, everything was hazy until he noticed you. Still laying on the floor near his bed, head resting on a folded arm doubling as a makeshift pillow, other arm tucked away under the thick layer of blankets. One you reached out sometime in your sleep

You had had a rough night he could tell that much. He couldn't remember much from the previous night and a brain splitting headache shoved it's way to the forefront making him try to hold his head

The movement woke you up, immediately reaching for a trashcan you'd dragged closer before collapsing onto the floor and placing it by the edge of the bed

Not a moment later does he begin to hurl. You try helping him sit a bit more comfortable and rub circles into his back until he's finished "Nausea?" he tries to nod but winces, holding the uninjured side of his head

"Yeah" you put the bin down and help him lay back down

"Remember anything from last night?"

He scrunches his face "I remember- patrolling, and then a fight I think"

"It's alright, you sustained a mild traumatic brain injury so your memory can be a bit spotty." You get up and move to the other side of the room to get new bandage for his head, stretching out a few kinks and aches along the way "I'll change your head wrap okay?"

"Yesss Dok" he slurred slightly. Frowning when you returned to his side noticing the dry blood on your shirt, and then pants "were you... bleeding?" He looks between the large stain and your face worry heavy on his features

You smile gently at him, taking a seat on the floor where you were previously sleeping and leaning in to check the bandages on his head "no, you were bleeding"

"Oh, m'kay" you begin to remove the bandage that's covered in dry blood. Gently cleaning the wound again and beginning to wrap it in a clean gauze and bandage. Those same cerulean eyes never looking away, only now it was a conscious effort. He wasn't used to such delicate touches

Once nice and snug "I can get you some pain meds if you like?"

"Tryna get me high?"

"Tryna stay miserable with that headache and the lot?" Hood scoffed pouting slightly at your raised brow "Yeah that's what I thought" you disappeared into the bathroom to see what you could give him, returning to the living room with a little orange bottle "I've got hydrocodone well it's Vicodin... I just can't give you anything for the nausea if I give you any prescription painkillers"

"Thas fine"

Getting a glass of water for him and handing him two pills. The absolute menace to society dry swallowed the pills "You psycho" he cackled before you made him drink the water anyway

Complaining about it after every sip "I'll make you drink another one later" he groaned loudly

"I'm sure you could short stack"

"Well this short stack popped your knee into place and I'll pop it right out, don't forget I know where all your wounds are" a shutter ran down his spine, sending small ripples across his skin. He guessed you were kidding but your side eye made him not want to find out. There was also an attractiveness to the way you threatened him. Though he wouldn't be admitting that out loud, brain injury or not

Going to put the glass and medication on the coffee table "Don't move your knee at all I'ma go find a knee brace" Disappearing into a hallway and returning with a black bulky contraption in hand

"No"

"You're worse than the kids at work you big baby" he flushed pink and groaned again as you slid the thing on his leg, painfully aware of your proximity. Your hands tracing the defined muscle under the tactical pants and realizing just how toned he was. The comforter pooling by his hips as he sat up more, revealing his bulky arms and chiseled abs. Something you somehow didn't notice in the busy haze that had been patching him up

"There, it's not so bad" he huffed pouting, it truly was adorable but you couldn't fold on a patient

"Hungry?"

He tries to nod again but the swirling pain reminds him of the injury very much so still present on his head

"I in fact do not have hospital food for that wound but I can make you a smoothie if you don't mind the noise of the blender?"

"I'll manage" Hood wasn't sluring at all now which was a great sign. Becoming somewhat more at ease with Hoods condition you focused on pulling some fresh fruit from a basket and a few more ingredients from the fridge. All while Hoods piercing blue gaze followed you around the kitchen. Intently tracing your every move, in the all too calculating manor he knew

You were trust worthy, you hadn't given him away yet. You hadn't searched him for anything other than injuries from what he could tell "Hood?" You still called him by his alias so you didn't know his name

"Yeah?"

"Green apple and pear okay?" He hummed in agreement and you began to slice the fruit and toss it into the blender with a splash of milk and sugar "Alright I'm going to turn the blender on now okay" and true to your word the infernal whirring and crackling of the mashine filled the room

Hood gripped his hands over his ears. Acutely aware of the growing pain in his head. Only realizing it was over when you placed a gentle hand over his, a glass with a spoon in the other. Instantly relaxing under the soft touch "It turned out a little more like apple sauce than it did a smoothie, I hope you don't mind too much"

He smiled, chuckling slightly. Only to grimace at the increased pain in his abdomen "Easy there" he swayed a little and you helped hold him up steadying the room for him. "Let me get you a few extra pillows" you stacked the few that you'd already brought out and left for a few more to help Hood into a supported sitting position "better?"

Having learned his lesson for the time being he "mhmm"ed instead of nodding. Taking a seat on the floor once more and setting the apple sauce in his hands "What? You're not going to spoon feed the sick patient?" He teased, face looking too innocent for his tone

"Next you'll be asking me to kiss it better" you grumble amused

"Would you?" He batted his eyelashes and you laughed openly, the gesture catching you off guard. Beautiful. Your laugh left him awestruck. Dick was right

"I'll think about it" you smiled, feeling so much more at ease than only a couple hours prior. Hood was being his own suggestive flirty self and for some reason that brought you a lot of comfort "Hood?"

He looked up, spoonful of the light green smoothie sauce still in his mouth. It made you chuckle before a slight air of seriousness returned

"Why'd you come here?"

He drops the spoon into the large cup gently and he seems to ponder the question "I'm not exactly sure, I can't remember what happened well or what I was thinking at the time. But I suppose I just felt like I'd be safe with you" tears begin to well and sting your eyes

The entirety of having not just a life but his life in your hands and only your hands hit you like a sack of bricks. "Hey hey I'm sorry" his voice had become so soft and gentle unlike anything you'd heard in a long time. He sets down the cup and effortlessly scoops you up into his lap

You shake your head no and immediately crawl off as gingerly as you can "Your- no your knee and- and the wound I need to bandage it" but he pulls you back into his side a firm secure arm wrapped around you

"It's okay" he soothes squeezing your shoulders, radiating warmth again. That same faint smell of cologne you'd picked up from his jacket comforting "Thank you"

"You big dummy" you sniffle into his side finally wrapping your arms around him, careful to avoid the taped on gauze. The physical touch grounding you again. Specifically his warmth that had been lacking for most of the night. No longer cold and bleeding out. A warm bare chest against your cheek that echoed in your ear with the constant drumming of his heart. You kept him alive "You're so lucky I have equipment at home"

He chuckles and the deep rumble of it reverberates in his chest. His face, his voice, his laugh all weren't nearly as intimidating anymore without the distorted muffling of the helmet. You pull away wiping a stray tear "Alright I really do need to bandage you up now, no stalling" he gasps feigning offense

"How could you suggest such a thing, I would never" but that handsome, devilish smirk betrays him

"Yeah yeah yeah" you begin to fully pull away, but the arm that was around your shoulders falls to your hips and pulls you back down when you're halfway off the mattress "Hooood" you groan trying fight back the smile that wants to make it's way onto your features

He lets his arm drop and you crawl off the mattress once more to where the first aid kit and more medical supplies still lay sprawled out on the floor. Opening the kit and retrieving a rolled up bandage as well as a new gauze from the messy floor

You crawled back over to his side "Be gentle with me, I'm delicate" Hood batted his eyelashes at you once more and you snorted

"Clearly" you mused snapping on a new pair of gloves

He gasped once more, but didn't get a chance to put on more theatrics. Cringing at the feeling of the gauze with both dry and new blood being peeled off. You examined the wound once more, there was still no sign of internal bleeding or damage to any organs like in your first assessment. As well as no sign of infection

The object was somewhat blunt and most likely not meant to be used to stab someone with, it was an absolute wonder it didn't get infected because of the object or on the way here. Regardless you clean it again with a saline solution and open a new gauze to place over it. Securely and skillfully holding it in place with the bandage you wrap around Hood

Not noticing the way his set cerulean eyes trailed along. Seeing how serious and focused you became and how your hands pulled around his torso to wrap the tan fabric snuggly into place

Only when you pulled back to see his face did your eyes meet. The way he was already staring at you flustering

He couldn't help but lean in, drawn to you like a moth to an open flame. Clumsily and a little roughly pressing his lips to your forehead "H- Hood?" Your voice soft and cheeks pink at the unexpected gesture of affection. You couldn't deny he was attractive or that you liked how his lips felt "I thought- wasn't I supposed to be the one that- that's kissing it better?" You mumbled timidly

He chuckled, that same deep rumble from before. "So doctor, what do you prescribe"

"Stop teasing me" you pout and punch his chest playfully and he falls back on his elbows in response. "I'm prescribing lots of bed rest and less whining hmph" he gasps in offense again "I, however need a shower and change of clothes"

Hood remembers the blood crusting up the pijamas you're still wearing "Yeah of course" you smile gently at him

"I- do you want to change too? I'm not sure I have something that fits but I can take a look around?"

"Don't worry about that I'm fine" he smiles in return

"Okay, I won't be gone long. Don't move- well just don't hurt yourself more" you give his large hand a squeeze before scurrying off into your room

You desperately needed a long hot shower after everything that happened. The adrenaline long gone and sore tension taking it's place in your muscles. Especially after sleeping on the floor in that awkward position

Once under the water you can feel some of the aches drip away with the dry blood and some grime. A couple more pains being scrubbed away with the body wash

Your hair tangled, as you work shampoo into it trying to ease the knots out with your fingers. Letting the hot water run over your face for a couple seconds after you've rinsed the shampoo out

You're not entirely sure how long you've been in there but decide it's been long enough. Having the urge to check if Hood hasn't dislocated his knee again or the like "Oh, did you call off of work or something? I hadn't realized how late it was"

You see Hood still in bed "I missed my shift and I'm getting fired" you shrug and the look on Hoods face makes him look like a kicked puppy "I'm kidding, just your luck you caught me on my day off" but the look doesn't leave his face

"You spent your day off taking care of me?"

"Yeah?" You return to his bedside and place a gentle kiss on his head "What of it?"

He shrinks in on himself and gnaws at his bottom lip. Guilt evident "Hey-" there's a stubbornness in the way he refuses to look up at you until you guide his chin up "seriously Hood, I'd do it all over again if it meant you'd sit on my cars roof again another night"

The quiver to his lip has your heart seized in its embrace. A grasp you can't pull away from, and his eyes. His eyes so desperate and vulnerable, a vast sea you're drowning in until a glimmer of emerald makes you question if his eyes are truly blue

You don't have time to question it further before he's squeezing them shut and you've snapped out of the trance. Instinctively rubbing your own eyes

"I should do a short cranial nerve exam!" you blurt out suddenly. Realizing you should have done one earlier, he chuckles a bit appreciating the dissipating of the tension that had built up a little too quickly . There was an unexpected swirl of the pit within him that he'd felt with the sudden vulnerability. It'd settled quickly and that he was grateful for, especially with the subject change "I'll get a couple things"

He hums and you retreat down the hall and come back with a small basket of items

"First I'm going to test your sense of smell okay" you take a seat on the edge of the mattress and set the basket on the floor. He's about to glance into the basket when you catch his chin in your hand and stop him from turning his head

"Oh-" he looks flustered

You hadn't meant for the gesture to be as smooth as it had been "Sorry!" Hood doesn't respond but you feel the heat radiating from his face "no peeking, can't have you cheating"

You place a cheap sleeping mask over his eyes that you'd gotten in a bathset as a gift and he pouts "Smell this-" you grab a small brown vial and twist the cap off before bringing it up to Hood's nose hiding the label with the way you're holding it just in case he can peek under the bottom of the mask

"Mint?"

You nod before realizing he probably can't see "Yes good job." You cap the essential oil you'd nabbed from the bathroom

The blush doesn't leave his face at the praise and he only hopes the mask obscures it a bit

You grab the next vial and do the same as the first "Okay, tell me what this one is" he takes a sniff and scrunches his nose in a way that makes you think he'll sneeze but doesn't

"A citrus... orange?"

"Yes" you double check the label to make sure he's right "Alright last one" you retrieve the last little vial of the essential oils "What does this one smell like"

"....laaavender"

"Very good" his heart flutters, never would he have guessed he had something for praise "I'm going to take off the mask now so it'll probably be a little bright" you gently begin to pull away the fabric from his eyes. They remain closed for a bit before he begins to blink to get adjusted to the light again

"Next I'm going to do your eyes" you adjust yourself to be sitting in front of him "I'm going to feel around your eyes first okay?"

"Yeah"

"I'm going to get a bit close-" he's a bit dumbstruck until you gently press your thumbs to his cheekbones "does this pressure hurt at all?"

"No"

"Okay, is it uncomfortable at all?"

"No"

You move your fingers to press gently a few more times repeating the questions. Once satisfied you scooch back "Now I'm going to hold two fingers up. Look at my nose and without moving your head or looking away tell me which finger is moving"

There's a slight confusion at first with your left being his right that you both laugh at before you determine his peripherals are better than you'd expect from someone with a mild traumatic brain injury

"Now tell me when my fingers leave your field of vision okay"

You hold both index fingers together up by his nose before beginning to slowly pull them apart horizontally "Now" you nod and bring your fingers back to their initial staring point to repeat the same motion "Now"

"Okay good"

You repeat the motions going vertically as well as diagonally. His field of vision is reduced very mildly but it's not too serious all things considered

"Cover one eye" you repeat the same exercise with the one finger and then ask him to follow your finger as you trace a square in the air "Perfect, now the other" he covers his other eye "same thing, tell me when my finger leaves your field of vision"

One eye has a very slightly decreased field of view but it still traced movement perfectly

"I'm going to use this pen light to see your eyes okay. Make sure the pupils are dialing and responding to light as they should be. Let me know if you're experiencing any light sensitivity though and we can either take a break or move on"

He gives the okay and you flash the light enough for the pupil to constrict before pulling it away and watching the pupil dilate again. There's an odd comfortable intimacy with the proximity. One that lingers as you continue the tests. All requiring the same proximity that has him smelling the mint of your breath, he can only guess you brushed your teeth when you left to shower

Even as you make sure his facial muscles are functional he can only think of your gentle touches, hands warm and a bit dry. Probably from all the times you have to sanitize and wash your hands at the hospital. Your nails short and filed smooth, for the latex gloves he deduces

He drinks up all of you, every last drop a detail he savours with great reverence

You take a firm hold of his jaw and it makes his mouth run dry. Palms sweaty yet a raging fire lighting up his cheekbones "Say ah" your voice is smooth and it washes over him like a cool breeze but it does nothing to soothe the heat he feels just beneath the skin "What does this taste like?" You bring a dropper up to his lips and place a couple drops of the flavor on his tongue. He swallows, hard

"Its- it's strawberry"

Voice strained and eyes half lidded, he's all but putty in your hand "Yes, very good" releasing his jaw it's like he's able to breathe again. A function he hadn't realized he'd lost during that short period

"Lastly hearing, ideally this would be done with a tuning fork but I don't actually have any so we're gonna use my super legit singing bowl" Hood snorts at the small metal but very professional piece of equipment "yeah yeah yeah you're laughing now but it works"

He only rolls his eyes looking amused but complies when he has to shut his eyes

"Well-" you tap your fingertips together, your lips in a thin line "to no ones surprise I'm sure, you have a concussion. It's about a grade 2 but I'm no neurologist"

"Thank you" you smile at him and reach out for his hand

It's large and calloused but warm "I'd say anytime but I'd prefer if you came crashing down on my fire escape not bleeding out and loosing consciousness"

Hood only chuckles and pulls you into bed with him "Noted"

The first day of any recovery process was usually the most difficult but in-between the good company and some playful banter it was more than bearable. You had offered your apartment for him to stay in while you went to work the next day as well but he insisted he needed to go and check in with the rest of the bats and birds which you understood

#dc universe #dcu #dc comics #dc #red hood x reader #red hood #x reader #reader insert #reader #vigilante #dick grayson #nightwing #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #doctor reader #reader doctor

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nhothicket · 7 months ago

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ON MY KNEE IM IN LOVE WITH YOUR BAND AU ON MY KNEES BEGGING FOR ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE TO SPARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A FANFIC, FANART, JUST A SIMPLE LIKE ANYTHING TEXT POST SOBBING AND WEEPING AT YOUR FEET!!!!!!!!

I decided to do both some art and a fic because you asked so nicely!! Thank you for the nice ask, I hope this is what you were looking for ^v^

I couldn't come up with a good title for this fic whoops.

Words - 1.4k

No warnings, they're gay and they act gay

Summary - Etho finds himself dragged away from the safety of his tour bus and into the den of very scary and very cool rockstar, Bdoubleo.

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

"Wash up on your six." Pause lightly elbowed Etho with a snicker. "Comin' right for ya."

"Hurry up then." Etho tried to push his bandmates into the bus, but the chase was over before it began.

"Etho!" The threat approached.

"Beef, move-"

"Sorry man, you're on your own." Beef climbed on and turned to give him an entirely unapologetic smile. "You guys have fun now."

"Hey-" The bus door shut right in his face. "Beef! Pause! Hey!"

"Ethooo!" Two arms slung around his neck from behind, awkwardly pulling him down and backward. Etho gagged and turned around. Face to face with the tiny menace of the festival grounds. "Long time no see!"

"Hey, Bdoubleo."

"So formal, you're no fun, sweetheart." Bdubs puffed his cheeks out. "It's been like a y- like whole year, c'mon, loosen up!"

"It's been a few months and I'm busy."

"No you ain't. I saw your buddies ditch ya." Bdubs offered up all the charm he could muster. "Wanna hang out in my van?"

"Not creepy at all." Etho's protest was weak willed. He leaned down and ruffled Bdubs' hair without even thinking about it, it came as a second nature at this point. "Yeah, sure."

"You just can't deny me. I'm irresistible!"

"Uh-huh."

"Your sarcasm is no use!" Bdubs dragged Etho across the lot to his shabby old van. Etho would judge, but if it weren't for Beef and Pause, he'd be touring out of the back of his ancient pickup. Bdubs threw the back doors open and hopped inside. "Didya see my set this morning? I know it was a bit early for someone like you."

"Of course I did." Etho gracefully ignored the last comment. Perched on the edge of the trunk, Bdubs' enthusiasm was contagious, his prideful smile was so genuine it made Etho smile a bit under his mask in a shallow imitation. "Loud as always."

"You know it!" The back of Bdubs' van was surprisingly clean. Two seats sat on each side and a mini fridge was pressed into the back corner. A soft mat was rolled up opposite to it, presumably Bdubs' bed. Bdubs got up to flop onto a seat and pat the spot next to him. "Beer?"

"Uhh..." As soon as Etho sat down an arm settled around his shoulders. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"

"That's what I like to hear." Bdubs opened up his little fridge and tossed Etho a can. He refused to remove his arm from Etho's shoulders and instead used his teeth to crack his own can open, kicking the fridge shut. "Off with the mask! I'm not some fanboy, I'm the real deal! Itsh been so long, I've missed seeing your dopey face."

"Bold words coming from the goofiest solo act I've ever seen."

"I am not goofy! I'm hard!"

"Oh?" Etho pulled his mask down just to show Bdubs his smug smirk.

"Don't- don't give me that! You know what I mean!" Bdubs growled. "I'm a rockstar!"

"You were like decades ago."

"And still going strong!" Bdubs took an obnoxious gulp from his beer. "You are awfully mouthy for a man who plays a freakin' keytar, what decade is it for you?"

"You'd know, old man."

"I am not- Okay, old lady! Fresh outta the 1600s!"

"Boomer."

"That's my name! Don't wear it out, Ethel!"

They glared at eachother for a moment, locked in a silent staring contest. Bdubs and his obnoxious doe eyes were forever unbeatable though, and Etho was forced to blink. A very ungraceful winner cheered and crushed a can to further punctuate his manly dominance.

"I'm never forgiving Pause for telling you."

"Aww, but its so cute." Bdubs pinched Etho's cheek. "What, your parents wanted a girl or something?"

"Sure, something like that." Etho sipped from his beer, sliding a bit down the seat so Bdubs could more comfortably pull his charm. As small as Bdubs was, it was always comical watching him stretch to take up the more dominant flirting positions. Etho knew he'd sit there with his arm up around his shoulders until it went numb if that's what it took.

"You haven't told me you missed me yet."

"I forgot I even knew you."

"Ouch! Rude." Bdubs leaned closer and winked. "I think about you all the time."

"Yeah, because you're the most jealous person I know."

"Guilty as charged!" Bdubs chirped. He easily slid right back into joking when his attempt at flirting was met with more banter; Etho wasn't sure he'd be able to recover that quickly himself.

"Plotting my downfall, huh?"

"I'll get you some day."

"I'm rooting for you."

"Thank you, sweetheart! You're always on my side." Bdubs tapped his can to Etho's. "To ruining your career."

"To ruining my career."

The pair fell into a lull, Bdubs kept chatting, but it was mostly white noise. Bdubs talked just to talk and Etho listened just to listen. It was only a few beers later and the lull transitioned into a comfortable buzz. Bdubs got a bright idea. He reached over the seats in the middle of the van, clumsily pulling over his decorated acoustic guitar.

"Any requests, Easy?"

"Anything but one of your own." Etho absent-mindedly dropped his arm around Bdubs' shoulders, reestablishing the connection that had been broken when the shorter man went to get his instrument.

"You are so mean to me." Bdubs puffed his cheeks out as he thought. "We should do some music together sometime."

"You'd be eaten alive." Etho considered the reputation Bdubs had. "I can see it already— you fighting with all the people online."

"It'd be worth it." Bdubs played a few random chords. "We could do a love duet."

"With Pause? I'm not a vocalist, Bdubs."

"You didn't deny being in love with me."

"I wouldn't have to love you to sing a song with you."

"I'd write it about us, baby."

"Uh-huh." A brief silence started to build, but Bdubs quickly broke the tension with a snicker, Etho followed suit. "You're an idiot."

"C'mon! You got a good voice. We could do an epic rock ballad."

"I'm good."

"Your loss!" Bdubs turned back to his guitar, but Etho could see the mischief brewing on his face. "You still like Paramore?"

"Don't play it."

"I learned a song just for you!"

"Don't play it, Bdubs." He already knew what the sappy romantic had in mind.

"You are so unappreciative. I go out of my way to learn a nice song from the 'music' you like." Bdubs threw up air quotes and Etho just rolled his eyes. How a man who'd sold his soul to the system could stand to be so critical of what counted as music was beyond him.

"Give me your guitar."

"No!" Bdubs got two chords out before Etho pulled it from his hands. "Hey! Hey! Give it here!"

"I'm not letting you try to serenade me with a song you heard on the radio."

"You know it would work! C'monnn!"

"Absolutely not." Etho held the guitar away from Bdubs, but regrettably, he couldn't hide his smile when his mask was around his neck.

"You come into my house! Sit on my bed! And dare disrespect me like this?"

"We are in the back of a van, Bdoubleo."

"My home away from home!" Etho leaned across the trunk and dropped the guitar onto the other seat. Bdubs immediately tried to lunge for it, but Etho caught him in a bear hug before he could even stand up. In fact, being hugged instantly stopped Bdubs in his tracks. "Woah, hey- guess I didn't need to serenade you at all!"

"Sure." Etho pulled away so he could see Bdubs' face. Alcohol warmed cheeks, dark eyes, and a stupid smirk.

"Like what you see?"

"Maybe."

"Shomehow, you manage to dry text when you talk." Bdubs rolled his eyes. He leaned up and kissed Etho, his patience worn thin in his buzz. Etho pulled him closer. "I missed you."

"Me too." Etho finally admitted. They sat with their foreheads pressed together.

"You could afford to text back more often, I know you ain't that freakin' famous."

"Isn't the anticipation more fun?"

"Don't play coy! I know you're just lazy."

"Guilty." Bdubs pressed a flurry of kisses to Etho's jaw.

"You're lucky I even allow you in my pre- in my presence, I don't usually kiss fans."

"It's a good thing I don't care much for sellouts then."

"Kiss my ass."

"Ohh, the bad boy said a curse word."

"Get out of my van, I'm sick of your stupid face already." Bdubs grumbled. Yet, his arms stayed locked around Etho's waist. Etho made no attempt to change that.

"Gonna be at our set tomorrow? It's past your bedtime."

"You're worth stayin' up for." Bdubs cooed. "Better dedicate a song to me."

"We'll play twinkle twinkle little star for you."

"On your nerdy little fake guitar?"

"On my nerdy little fake guitar."

"Adorable."

#dreading needing to come up with a title when I inevitably add this to my Ao3 oneshot book #this is my first time directly putting fanfic onto tumblr - i hope I did it okay #band au #bdubs #etho #pause #beef #birdie art #birdie writing #bdoubleo100 #ethoslab #bdouble100 fanart #ethoslab fanart #ethubs #hermitshipping #hermitcraft

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daryltwdixon · 1 month ago

Text

The Promise of Us: Chapter 11

warnings: violence against mfc, also im so sorry for my terrible writing when it comes to action scenes.

You

The door creaks open, and your stomach twists with dread, thinking the tall man–the Governor–is back. But when your eyes come up and meet the icy blue ones at the door, your shoulder slump just an inch. You’re still unsure when Merle comes walking in the room, but it's still a relief to see him. What if after all this time, the pain you caused Daryl all those years ago was still fresh in his mind. And he was going to take it out on you now?

“Well, well, well... ain’t this somethin’.” Merle’s gravelly voice cuts through the silence, dripping with his usual sarcasm. The door slams shut behind him, and he saunters into the room, his boots scuffing the floor as he approaches.

He’s standing there, grinning like he’s just won something, but his eyes flicker with something else—something softer, buried deep beneath that rough exterior. He won’t show it outright, of course. Not Merle.

“Didn’t expect to see you here, sweetheart,” he drawls, crossing his arms as he leans casually against the wall, his metal prosthetic gleaming under the bright lights above you, “Guess you couldn’t stay outta trouble, huh?”

You don’t answer, but you can feel his eyes on you, scanning for any sign of weakness. There’s a teasing gleam in his eyes, but there’s something else too. Relief, maybe? It’s hard to tell with him.

“Still playin’ the silent type, huh?” Merle chuckles, shaking his head. “Ain’t nothin’ changed since I last saw ya.” His voice softens just a fraction, barely noticeable. “Thought maybe you were smarter than this—gettin’ yourself caught up with the wrong people.”

You roll your eyes, but the tension doesn’t leave your body. “Could say the same about you,” you mutter, refusing to give him the satisfaction of rising to his bait.

He chuckles, low and rough. “These guys found me when I was in a real rough state, honey.” He takes a step closer, his usual swagger a little less pronounced, but his grin doesn’t falter. “Hell, look at us—reunited like some kinda twisted family reunion. Shame little brother ain’t here to see it.”

At the mention of Daryl, your stomach tightens. You wonder if Merle knows he’s alive, but his expression doesn’t give anything away. He steps closer, his eyes flicking to the ropes still around your wrists.

“You look like hell, girl,” he says, his tone rough but lacking the bite it usually has. “Guess I’ll have to keep your ass outta trouble, huh?”

You snort. “Don’t need your help.”

He smirks, amused. “Sure you don’t.” His gaze lingers on you, just for a second too long, before he shakes his head and looks away. “Lucky for you, I got some pull ‘round here. Ain’t nobody gonna mess with ya while I’m around.”

You found that hard to believe when you still felt the ghost of the breath on your neck from the man who just left minutes ago. Merle moves to the chair in the corner, dragging it noisily across the floor as he plops down into it. He kicks his feet up on the table like he owns the place, leaning back with that signature cocky grin plastered on his face.

“So,” he says, crossing his arms behind his head, his voice a little too casual, “you gonna tell me how the hell you ended up here, or am I gonna have to drag it outta ya?”

You glare at him, refusing to answer. He just laughs, shaking his head like you’re a joke he’s enjoying too much.

“Fine, fine. Keep your secrets, sweetheart,” he says, his voice softening again, almost affectionate, though you know better than to take it at face value, “But don’t think I’m lettin’ you outta my sight. Ain’t no way I’m losin’ you again. My brother would kill me,”

Something stirs in your chest at his words—just for a second, the familiar warmth of the Merle you once knew. Despite all his rough edges, all the damage he’d done, a part of you still cared for him like family. He was, after all, someone you’d loved like a brother, even with his many flaws. He never wanted you to leave for college back then, never wanted Daryl to be stuck alone at home with their father.

But that was a lifetime ago.

Now, things were different. Merle was in a strange position of power here—dangerous, unpredictable. He wasn’t the same man you once knew. Sweet or not, there was an edge to his words, a darkness behind his smile that made your skin crawl. He was too unhinged to be fully trusted, even if his words tugged at memories of who he used to be.

“Merle,” you whisper, your eyes on his, “Where are Glenn and Maggie?”

He looks down with a smug smile, “Now, girl. You gotta understand, the Chinese kid wasn’t playin’ very fair back there. Wouldn’t tell me where he’s camped out. You’re with em, right?”

“He’s Korean, asshole,” you roll your eyes, but sigh, thinking of the state they must be in nearby, looking to the wall as if you could see them through it, bloodied and bruised, and hang your head.

“Y/N,” he calls gently, and your eyes come up to him again with tears in them, “you know where my brother is, don’t ya?” it’s barely a question, just a statement.

Your chin trembles, but you nod slowly. The weight of everything—the capture, the fear, the thought of Glenn and Maggie—sits heavy in your chest. And now, the mention of Daryl brings a wave of guilt and longing crashing over you. You can’t hide it from Merle, not now.

Merle’s smug smile falters, just for a second. He leans forward, his eyes narrowing. “Figured as much,” he grumbles, the rasp in his voice rougher now, “But you ain’t said nothin’ ‘bout him. Why’s that?”

“Why do you think, Merle?” you snap back, your voice shaking. “You think I want to talk to you about Daryl? You think I wanna tell you how he’s doin’? Look where I’m fuckin’ sitting,”

Merle’s grin fades entirely now, the cocky veneer slipping. He looks at you with a hard expression, but something else flickers in his eyes—regret, maybe, or something close to it.

You swallow hard, blinking back the tears that are threatening to spill over. “You don’t know him like you used to, Merle. He’s different now. Stronger, yeah, but… he’s got people who care about him, who depend on him.”

“And you’re one of ‘em, huh?” Merle leans back in the chair, crossing his arms, his tone unreadable. “You two always had a way of stickin’ close. What’s the deal now, huh? You finally screw my little brother or what?”

You don’t answer, just shake your head, rolling your eyes again. You’d almost forgotten how much Merle could give you a headache with the constant eye-rolling his words provoked.

“God, Merle, you’ve really always had a way with words,” you mutter, your sarcasm laced with the frustration you can’t fully hide.

“Aw, baby, I miss’d ya too,” he chuckles, leaning back in his chair with that familiar grin, clearly enjoying himself.

A long silence follows, stretching between you. Merle may be taking it easy, but your mind is racing. You weren’t going to get out of here in one piece, maybe not even alive, if you left it up to The Governor. You can feel time slipping through your fingers. You had to figure out where the other two were, and fast. Your pulse quickens as you glance at Merle again. He may be toying with you, but he’s your only chance. Could you trust him again? Even after all this time? This world changed people. You just hoped Merle still had loyalty to you and his brother.

“Where are they, Merle?” you ask again, this time more urgently. “Glenn and Maggie. What’s he gonna do to them?”

Merle shifts in his seat, rubbing the back of his neck. “The boss wants info. Where your camp is, who’s left. Kid wasn’t spillin’ nothin’. Pretty girl’s tougher than she looks too. They’re holdin’ up, but… let’s just say the clock’s tickin’.”

Your heart races. Time is running out, and you know what that means for Glenn and Maggie. For all of them.

“You gotta help me get them out,” you whisper, leaning forward, your voice pleading. “You can’t let him hurt them.”

Merle chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “And what exactly do I get outta that? Huh?”

You hesitate, the weight of what you’re about to suggest pressing down on you. “If you help me get them out safely… I’ll take you to Daryl. I’ll tell you where our camp is.”

Merle’s face hardens, the grin disappearing completely. He stands slowly, pacing a few steps away from you, his mind working over what you just said. The promise of seeing his brother again, after all this time… it’s almost too much for him to process. But then, something darker creeps into his expression, a shadow of doubt.

“And how do I know you ain’t gonna screw me over the second you’re outta here? You’re clever, Y/N. Always were.” He turns to you, his eyes cold. “What’s to stop you from runnin’ back to lil’ brother and leavin’ ol’ Merle to fend for himself?”

You meet his gaze, the fear in your chest almost choking you, but you push it down. You need him. “You know I’m not that kind of person,” you whisper. “And if we don’t get out, you’ll never see him again. We need each other right now, Merle. You know that.”

He watches you for a long moment, the gears turning in his head. Then, with a heavy sigh, he leans against the wall, his arms crossed, the knife at the end of his bionic arm reflecting the fluorescents above you, “Alright, girl,” he drawls, the cockiness returning just a little. “We got ourselves a deal. But you better not be lyin’, ‘cause I’m doin’ this for him.”

Relief floods through you, but it’s short-lived. There’s still one more obstacle to overcome.

“If we’re gonna do this… it has to look real,” you say quietly, your voice trembling.

Merle’s smirk fades, his eyes narrowing as he takes in your words. “What’re you sayin’?”

“I’m sayin’… if you don’t make this look like you interrogated me, he’ll know something’s up,” you explain, your stomach twisting. “The Governor. He can’t suspect you’re helpin’ me.”

Merle’s face hardens again, and for a moment, there’s a flicker of something close to pain in his eyes. “I've never been afraid of my baby brother, ya know, but he would kill me if I hurt ya, baby,” he says, his voice rougher, more strained.

“It doesn’t matter, Merle,” you say, your own voice unsteady but firm. You can see Daryl’s pained eyes behind your own now, the way he always hated seeing you hurt, but you sigh as you continue, “Neither of us will ever see him again if you don’t make this look legit.”

He stares at you for a long moment, and you can see the conflict in his eyes. For all his bravado, you know this is weighing on him—hurting you, even just for show, is too much, but that's more than he’s ready to admit. But he also knows you’re right. If the Governor doesn’t buy it, they’re all as good as dead.

Merle swallows, the lines on his face deepening as he nods slowly, understanding settling in. “Alright,” he mutters, his voice low and grim. “But don’t expect me to enjoy it.”

You nearly scoff, a small wry smile coming to your lips, “Please, the amount of times I kicked you in the nuts growin’ up, I’ll consider it Karma comin’ back to get me,”

❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥

Daryl

The sun has completely dipped below the horizon now, leaving only the pale light of the moon to cut through the suffocating darkness around them. The group moves quietly, swiftly, weaving through the maze of abandoned cars that lie scattered ahead of the imposing gates. Daryl’s heart pounds, the tension in his muscles building as they creep closer to the towering walls of Woodbury. The walls loom large, casting long, intimidating shadows in the moonlight. There had to be a way in. There’s movement behind him, and the woman that was with them is off, slithering through the dark, keeping in the shadows. Rick tries to call after her in a hiss, but it’s no use. She’s gone.

“Dammit,” he whispers, backing up between Oscar and Daryl, “alright, we need to downsize,”

“Ain’t no way we’re gonna check in all them buildings,” Daryl says quietly, “not with all them guards there,” he looks up to watch the men walking back and forth, surveying. But then, a twig snaps behind them and they all turn quickly. The woman–Michonne, is back. Oscar, Rick, and Daryl all look at each other, and nod to follow her.

Slinking through the darkness, keeping up with the shadows, they make their way forward.

❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥

You

The pain reverberating in your head has only climbed higher with each punch Merle’s thrown. His fist connects again with your jaw, and you feel a sharp crack, a new wave of agony shooting through your face. Your cheekbone throbs, the skin hot and swollen where his knuckles landed hard.

Merle steps back for a second, his breathing heavy, looking down at you with a mix of frustration and regret. His face hardens, though you catch the brief flicker of guilt in his eyes. “Ain’t no other way,” he mutters under his breath, almost like he’s convincing himself. “You know this. We gotta sell it.”

You nod, swallowing down the taste of blood pooling in your mouth. You both know the plan—the Governor can't suspect anything. If you don’t look the part, this whole thing could blow up in both your faces. But knowing doesn’t make it hurt any less.

He throws another punch, this time aiming for your gut. The impact is brutal, forcing the air from your lungs with a sharp gasp. You double over instinctively, feeling the bruises already forming beneath your skin, every muscle aching from the force of it.

“Sorry,” he growls, his voice low and hoarse, his hand shaking just slightly as he pulls it back again. He hesitates, and for a split second, you can see the war waging inside him—this isn't easy for him, either. But you nod again, pushing through the pain, urging him to finish what he started.

His fist comes down one more time, connecting with your cheekbone. The blow sends a sharp, white-hot flash through your vision, the skin splitting under his knuckles. You can barely keep your eyes straight, vision blurring as you blink, your hands instinctively twitching, wanting to fly to the side of your face where the impact hit hardest.

Merle steps back, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his expression unreadable now. “That’s enough,” he mutters, more to himself than to you. He lowers his fists, his hands trembling slightly. “It’s gotta look real—but it ain’t gotta kill ya.”

Your body aches, every movement sending shockwaves of pain rippling through you, but you straighten up as much as you can. Blood trickles from the corner of your mouth, dripping down your chin, and you know you look the part now—battered, beaten, broken.

He steps closer, not with the same aggression but with something softer in his eyes. He grips your shoulder with his hand, helping you steady yourself, even though you wince at the touch. “You good?” he asks, voice low and rough, barely audible.

You nod, spitting out a mouthful of blood, trying to breathe through the throbbing ache. You swear you see him flinch at the idea of hurting you, but he cups your face in his one good hand, his palm under your chin. With his thumb on your cheek and forefinger under your jaw, he lifts your head to get a good look at your face, “Well–nothin that will change the way you look once you’re all healed– think Daryl would kill me if I did anything to that face,” he pauses, a grin ghosting over his features and your eyes meet his, tired and resigned.

But that’s when you see it—the apology, the regret etched in his hardened eyes, a flicker of the brother you once knew. “Really am sorry, darlin’,” he mutters, his voice gravelly and low. And he drops your face and leaves the room without another word.

❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥・・❥

Daryl

They move quickly through the darkened buildings, and after running into a Woodbury citizen in the first one, they finally make their way out into the town. Gunfire cracks through the air, coming from across the way. Daryl’s pulse quickens as they press into the shadows of the houses, peeking around corners. Firelight flickers off the streets, casting a glow from a bonfire, and Daryl can just make out what looks to be a main building. It looks more authoritarian than the others, which are all smaller houses and old refurbished shops. The group stills while he checks around the corner, and on his OK and they fly through the streets unseen, and slip into the building. Filing down the halls with stealth between shadows, through the maze of metal walls and supplies, they come to a barrier, and crouch quickly when they hear voices.

“...Glad we could catch up,” a voice echoes from the other side of the wall, footsteps and orders coming in a rush. They’re in the way. No time. Daryl throws the flashbangs, the hallway bursting into chaos. Smoke billows, and they charge in with weapons raised.

Daryl grabs Maggie’s arm as Rick pulls Glenn. There’s gunshots, shouting, utter chaos, but they got them. There’s no stopping—no room for hesitation. Daryl’s stomach knots as they sprint toward the exit. Y/N’s not here. Not with them. He can’t find her in the smoke. His mind screams to panic, but he shoves it down. Not now.

Once back outside, they hug the walls, slipping through the shadows like ghosts.

“Inside, quick!” Rick hisses when they hit the town square, all of them squeezing into a cramped shed.

Daryl drops Maggie’s arm and heads to the back, searching for a way out. He runs his hand along the wall but comes up short. “Ain’t no way out back here,” he growls.

Behind him, Maggie’s voice trembles. “Rick, how did you find us?”

Rick ignores the question, his eyes coming around to Glenn. “How bad are you hurt?”

“I’ll be alright,” Glenn mumbles, his voice thick with pain. Daryl gets a clear look at him now—shirtless, one eye swollen shut, blood dripping down his battered face. It twists something deep inside Daryl. Glenn looks barely able to move.

“Where’s that woman?” Maggie blurts, her face pale, eyes blown wide in terror. Daryl’s eyes scan the group. They’re one short.

Rick’s jaw tightens. “She was right behind us.”

Daryl’s heart hammers as he steps forward, voice sharp. “Was Y/N with y’all when you were taken?”

Both Maggie and Glenn shake their heads. Daryl’s stomach drops. His mind claws for hope—maybe she’s still out there. Maybe she made it to the woods. He swallows hard, praying she did.

“Daryl–” Glenn says suddenly, his voice cutting through the room, loud and raw. “This was Merle.”

Daryl freezes, the words not registering at first. He stares at Glenn, wide-eyed.

“It was him,” Glenn repeats, scowling. “He did this.”

Daryl blinks, trying to catch his breath. “You saw ‘em?” Rick asks, his voice taut.

“Face to face,” Glenn nods, anger simmering beneath his bruises. “Threw a walker at me—was gonna execute us.”

Daryl’s mind reels. “So—so my brother’s this governor?” The words feel wrong in his mouth, like he can’t believe he’s saying them.

Maggie answers, shaking her head. “No. It’s somebody else. Your brother’s his lieutenant or something.”

“Does he know I’m still with you?” Daryl asks, disbelief creeping into his voice.

“He does now,” Glenn growls. “Rick, I’m sorry, we told him where the prison was. We couldn’t hold out—”

Rick cuts him off, shaking his head. “Don’t. No need to apologize.”

The conversation shifts around Daryl, but he can’t focus. They’re getting Glenn to his feet, talking about their next move, but Daryl’s thoughts are spinning—Merle is alive.

“Hey—if Merle’s around, I need to see ‘em,” Daryl blurts, desperation creeping into his tone.

Rick gets in his face, his voice tight. “Not now, we’re in hostile territory.”

“He’s my brother,” Daryl snaps, his breath quickening. “I ain’t—”

“Look what he did! We gotta get out of here, now!” Rick shouts.

Daryl’s eyes are wide, and they turn pleading. “Maybe I can talk to ‘em. Work somethin’ out.”

Rick shakes his head fiercely. “No, no, no. You’re not thinkin’ straight. Look—Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna get out if we get overrun by walkers or the Governor catches up to us? I need you. Are you with me?”

Daryl’s chest heaves. His mind is a war zone, torn between Merle and the group. He clenches his jaw, weighing the options fast. Finally, after a long beat, he meets Rick’s gaze and says, “Yeah.”

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