#in case she ever needed a lever on you. yeah. also they really need to audit the wizard university finances.

[potatoesandsunshine]

everybody thinks they have the best tabletop campaign but actually me and my friends are doing it better than it's ever been done.

[theminecraftbee]

Joe has been wandering around Cogsmede recently. The way he figures, he's set up an apartment and everything. If he's going to be living here for the foreseeable future, he needs to explore, after all! It wouldn't do to be a citizen of a nation he knows nothing about. He's got to have proper civic consciousness! Has to get the lay of the land!

He's also very nosy. Like, okay, the thing about civic duty is true, but he's also nosy, likes flipping levers, and has been very curious about everything going on here ever since he did that job for False. Like, okay, he gets why False hasn't explained yet, given that she has memory loss and everything and like, had been asking Joe to figure it out because she didn't know either? But... he's nosy. There's gotta be more going on here, right?

So he's been wandering. He's been hitting levers. He's been curious. He wants to know what he can find.

He finds something one day when, while wandering through a storage area, he sees a lever, and he hits it, and a hidden block opens.

Now, Joe knows all about people trying to keep things secret. He tries to keep things secret himself. He only sometimes succeeds? People go through his things all the time even when they are a secret. That's just, like, what having friends is about.

He goes inside and -

Okay. So Joe is friends with Cleo. So this shouldn't be - she has a collection of heads herself. Joe even gave Cleo a lot of them. So this really isn't that concerning, he thinks, glancing back at the tunnel he'd crawled through before looking forward. False's head is in a glass case, true, which - is that self-harm of self-love, he's, he's very much avoiding looking at the thing that's thrown him off and that's fine, his eyes can keep on skipping over that. Like, okay, listen, this is basically nothing compared to what Cleo amassed in Season 7, and everyone had loved that!

It's - his eyes keep skipping over the thing he very much doesn't want to look at - not that bad of a collection. Some of them are still a bit - gorey - which. He can probably even... give advice on how not to do that! To get the nice clean player heads, instead of, uh, messy. Messy decapitations and trophies. That's - it's fine. He's not looking at it. There are some rare heads here, like that guy who came to visit and help them build that undersea kingdom. Like that!

Joe remembers that. That had been a business-as-usual, playing sort of getting someone's head. It's nice and clean and intentional and a player head, not a -

So, look, the thing he doesn't remember is -

He rubs at his neck. He's just. Sometimes that's what someone gets for wandering around, right? They find things they don't want to, like about six of his own head, in various states of clean-to-mangled, carefully catalogued. It's - really, he's friends with Cleo. This shouldn't bother him! And, like, surely they have traders here, right? Yes. Wandering traders sometimes, uh, have player heads, although they're normally less - well, they're normally more the fun kind and not - well - he doesn't want to look at it.

Maybe they just have very violent traders here. He's not sure... how or why they'd have - it still doesn't really explain why Joe doesn't remember - well, it would, theoretically, except injuries like that could have only been sustained while alive and Joe really, really thinks he ought to, given the fact some are, uh, those injuries are - are more than a decapitation is all he's saying some of them are - he doesn't -

He yelps as he hears a thump behind him, realizes the narrow passage was the only way out or in, and turns around to see False.

"Joe?" she says. She sounds concerned.

"Uh, hi False!" Joe says. "Sorry, I tripped on a lever, you know how it is. Do - do you know -"

He cuts himself off, because he's not. Really sure what he's asking about? He rubs at his neck again. Yeah. Not really sure...

"Awfully high to trip on, don't you think? Don't worry. I can help you get back to your room," False says.

"Oh, good," Joe says. "That's good. I, uh - I mean, I can't help but notice -"

And then Joe wakes up back in his room.

He blinks. His head hurts. He's lying on his pillow. There's a note on the dresser; he must have caught something. That's - he doesn't remember how he got back here, but he must have fallen ill. He's been working very hard. False has left him some tea. It's nice of her. It'll feel good, since his throat hurts so much.

His throat really hurts too. It's hard to describe. Like something's been pulled through the inside of it. Or he's been screaming.

He'd remember if he'd been screaming, though. After all, what is there to scream about?

Best to wait until he feels better. Then he can get back to exploring, and picking up new jobs, and leading cats to help open the Rift. Yeah. That makes sense. His head still hurts, and everything is awfully foggy. At some point, he lost his levels. He's been doing that a lot lately. He's not sure how.

He's sure it's fine.

[maswritingblog]

The Arrangement - Part Four

Summary: After their first failure, Lucy and Marcus continue with the schedule as planned and hope for the best. 

Warnings: Smut (18+ ONLY!), Oral (f receiving), mentions of trying to conceive, mentions of fertility, pregnancy tests (in case that is triggering for anyone) Unedited because I literally finished it and wanted to post it, so sorry for any mistakes.

A/N: Here is the next part! I hope you all enjoy it and I once again apologize for the long wait for this chapter. It’s a long one, coming in at about 7k words.

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Lucy’s phone chimed on her desk beside her, pulling her attention away from the email she was composing. She had been needing a break, her eyes starting to get tired from staring at her computer screen all morning. She took the opportunity to draft the email and sat back in her cushy office chair, unlocking her phone to view the notification.

Ovulation day!

The two words were framed by little flowers from the theme for the dumb cycle tracking app she’d downloaded a few days after she had started sleeping with Marcus. She hadn’t realized it was her ovulation day and she cursed inwardly; not only was it Tuesday, she also had to work late tonight, so spending an extra night at Marcus’s wasn’t an option.

Dammit. She sighed heavily, placing her phone back on her desk as she thought for a moment. She couldn’t afford to not stay late tonight, but Marcus couldn’t afford to lose one of the best days they had. That really only left one option…but she wasn’t sure if Marcus would agree to it, or if she was up for it either.

She debated it for a long few minutes before she decided it was a risk she was willing to take, and she grabbed her phone to send Marcus a message.

Meet me in the parking garage in five minutes. Level 8.

She hoped she wasn’t being too crazy, that he wouldn’t think she was out of her mind when she revealed her plan. Honestly, she was out of her mind for even thinking about doing something like this at work.

Marcus’s reply came back almost instantly. Everything okay?

Instead of answering, she dropped her phone on her desk and pushed her chair back. She made sure her computer was locked and secured before slipping out of her office and heading towards the elevators. She tried not to look into Marcus’s office on the way, though she knew he must be confused about the situation.

She wanted the mystery to work in her favor.

Level eight of the parking garage was one of the levels that didn’t get much traffic. It was where the extra government vehicles were parked and agents would use them occasionally when they couldn’t use the ones assigned to them. The secluded level would be perfect so long as there weren’t any agents needing a temporary vehicle.

Lucy rode the elevator to floor six and got off, walking quickly to the SUV she’d been issued for her team but didn’t get to use that often. It might as well get some use now, even if it wasn’t exactly what the big-wigs had in mind when they’d handed her the keys.

Driving up to the eighth floor, she moved down the two rows of matching black SUVs and finally parked at the end of the row on the left side. She only hoped it was far enough away that nobody would notice anything.

She tried not to think about the fact that she was slightly turned on by the idea of doing this. Maybe it was the thrill of getting caught, of the consequences of being found doing something so inappropriate on government property.

Stepping out of her car, she walked around to lean against the back end as she waited for Marcus. It only took another minute before the elevator dinged and he stepped out, looking around with a look of confusion on his face before he spotted her and headed her way.

“Lucy? What’s going on?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of her, his brown eyes searching her face for any kind of answer.

For a brief moment, she almost wanted to chicken out. It would be easy to change her mind, even if she would have to come up with an explanation as to why she had dragged him to the parking garage in the middle of the work day.

“So, it’s Tuesday,” she started slowly, trying to decide how to approach the situation.

He nodded slowly. “…yes…”

Lucy laughed lightly, more at the situation that she’d put herself in more than anything else. “It’s Tuesday, and I have to stay late tonight to work on the briefing for tomorrow. But the thing is…I’m ovulating. Today’s the highest chance for pregnancy according to my stupid app, so I didn’t want to miss the chance to try.”

As she rambled, he seemed to put it together. His eyes widened nearly comically and he glanced around the parking level as if someone would be lurking in the shadows watching them.

“You—you want to do it here?” he asked, voice laced with surprise. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

She nodded quickly. “I know it’s crazy, but this could be the day and this is the only time we’ll have to try. We don’t exactly have time to drive anywhere offsite, and I’m not about to do it in a bathroom or a supply closet where anyone could walk in. I figured this would be the best place since nobody really comes up to this level.”

Marcus sputtered, seeming to lose all ability to speak. “W-What? How—How?”

She wondered if he was flustered because he thought she was nuts, or if he liked the idea. She had to admit that the prospect of getting caught had an affect on her in a way she hadn’t realized before; perhaps it had something to do with breaking the rules.

“The back seats lay down, leaves a good amount of room in the trunk. But we don’t have to do this if you’re not comfortable with it; I just won’t be able come over tonight and I didn’t want to miss an ovulation day.”

He was silent and she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. Sometimes she felt like she could read Marcus like a book, and sometimes she felt like he was locked in a safe and she didn’t know the combination. As he eyeballed the back of the SUV, she wondered if she had truly lost her mind when she had thought this was a good idea.

Finally, he gave her a pointed look. “Are you comfortable with this? I don’t want you to think you have to do this just for me.”

Of course, he was being a gentleman about this. Of course, he was putting her comfort above his. It was so on brand for him, and yet that didn’t stop her from being surprised by it. She appreciated it, while also wishing he would think of himself more often.

She chuckled, shaking her head. “I’m the one suggesting this, remember?”

Marcus paused in thought for a moment, his eyes moving from the SUV to her multiple times before he finally nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He agreed.

She wasn’t sure why she was surprised, maybe because she thought public sex was a line he wasn’t willing to cross. If she were being honest with herself, it wasn’t a line she had ever imagined crossing either. Desperate times called for desperate measures, though, right? Something told her this wasn’t what the person who had coined that phrase had in mind.

“Okay.” She echoed, moving to one of the back doors and motioning for him to go around to the other side.

Pulling the door open, she reached for the lever to lower the seat on her side and watched as Marcus did the same. With the back row lying flat, there was plenty of room for the two of them to lay down, which seemed like the best way to not be spotted should anyone actually come to this level. Climbing in was a bit awkward, but they managed to get the doors shut behind them. Kneeling in the back of the SUV, they stared at each other for a beat.

“So, how do we do this?” Marcus wondered, asking the same question she had been mulling over in her head.

She didn’t know why she had to have the answer for everything, but it could have something to do with the fact that she had initiated this encounter. She had been confident about this idea when she’d come up with it, but now she found herself blanking on the next step. Perhaps she didn’t have it in her to be this spontaneous?

“I didn’t really have this all planned out…” she admitted slowly. The awkwardness felt like the first time all over again, and it almost made her laugh.

Marcus nodded. “Okay, so I don’t really want to be caught buck naked at work, so I’m thinking that we stay as clothed as possible.” He suggested.

It was something she could agree with. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. So, pants only then?”

“Pants only.”

Lucy reached down to work on her belt and he did the same. Once her pants were undone and she’d pushed them down her thighs slightly, she sat fully and started pushing them down her legs. It wasn’t the easiest task in the back of the SUV and she found she had to lay down a bit to even get them to her knees.

Marcus’s hands were gently pushing hers away then and he pulled the tight slacks down her legs.

“If I had known this was gonna happen, I would have worn a skirt today.” She joked, slipping her shoes off so he could pull her pants off and push them out of the way.

“Definitely would have been easier.” He teased as he slotted his hips between her thighs and leaned over her to press his lips to hers.

His belt was hanging open, the cool metal pressing against the skin of her inner thigh and making her jump slightly. Their tongues tangled and she wanted to run her hands through his hair the way he liked, but she didn’t want to make it obvious what he’d been doing away from his desk. Instead, she reached down and finished opening his pants for him, lowering the zipper and slipping her hand inside to palm him over his briefs.

Marcus groaned into her mouth, pressing his hips into her hand as his teeth nipped at her bottom lip and then her chin before his lips returned to hers in a heated kiss. He rolled his hips against her palm and she squeezed him gently, pulling another groan from his throat, followed by his hand grasping her wrist in warning.

Lucy chuckled against his lips, beginning to squeeze again only to be surprised by his next move.

The grip on her wrist tightened and he yanked her hand from his pants, pinning her wrist down next to her head. He pulled away to stare down at her, his chest heaving as his eyes narrowed playfully at her.

“What?” she asked in feigned innocence, stifling a laugh.

For a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he simply shook his head at her with a laugh of his own. He released her wrist and supported his weight on his hand next to her head, the other reaching down to begin pushing his pants and briefs down.

Taking it as a cue, she reached down to do the same with her underwear, sliding them down her legs as best she could as he pushed his down to his knees.

“Can’t believe we’re actually doing this.” He commented as he situated himself between her legs again, his erection bobbing against his stomach where he’d pulled his dress shirt up out of the way of any potential messes.

She wanted to ask him if it was as exhilarating to him as it was to her, but she thought that maybe he didn’t see it that way, that he’d find it weird that she did. She’d discovered a lot of things about herself since they’d begun sleeping together, a lot of things that excited her despite the fact that she’d never considered them in that light before. Perhaps she was more depraved than she realized.

“We don’t have to.” She reminded him, just in case he was having second thoughts. She wasn’t sure if he was given the way he was already so ready, the tip of him already leaking. Despite his body’s reaction, though, she wanted to give him the chance to back out.

Marcus’s met her gaze, and his voice came out soft despite the way his eyes had darkened with lust. “I want to.” He reassured her while silently asking if she still wanted this as well.

There was a long beat of silence as she stared up at him. She admired his handsome features, the way a lock of his perfectly styled hair had fallen onto his forehead and the way his nose curved down towards his plump lips. That single dimple that she found so endearing.

It still baffled her how he didn’t already have a beautiful wife and family.

She found herself unable to respond verbally, so she reached up to pull his mouth back down to hers.

He got the hint, pressing his body down close to hers as he reached down to position himself at her entrance. He slid his tip up and down her folds a couple of times, gathering her wetness before pressing into her slowly. He eased in until his hips were flush against hers, both moaning in unison as their lips parted, their foreheads pressed together.

There was no going back now; Lucy’s knees brushed against his sides as she hitched her legs up further on his hips, pulling him deeper inside her with a soft sigh against his mouth.

His hips drew back slowly and then he slid forward again, repeating the movement a few times. As good as he felt, as good as the slide of him inside her walls made her feel, she knew they didn’t have the same amount of time they usually did and anyone could come up to this floor at any time.

“We have to hurry.” She gasped as he filled her again.

He pulled almost completely out of her and paused. For just a moment she thought he might stop, but then he thrust forward, driving into her hard and fast, wasting no time before he did it again, and again.

Lucy clung to his shoulders, hands fisting in the material of his shirt as she held on, small and breathy moans escaping her each time he filled her. She knew his shirt might be wrinkled by her hands, but at least he could cover it with his suit jacket if he needed to. For now, all she needed to be focused on was the pleasure rolling through her with his movements, and the hope that the risk they were taking would pay off in the end.

The rhythm they had created had the SUV rocking gently; if anyone saw they would definitely know what was happening inside.

Marcus was hovering over her, supporting his weight on one hand as the other hooked under her right knee to press her leg closer to her chest. The new angle had him driving deeper inside and brushing against her just right; the slap of his hips against hers as he worked at a bruising pace only echoed by their sounds of pleasure.

One of Lucy’s hands scrambled down from his shoulder, desperate for purchase. She gripped at his side where his shirt was raised, nails biting into the skin as she rolled her hips up to meet his.

Marcus groaned above her in response to the scratch of her nails and as he thrust forward again, he took a moment to grind his pelvis against hers.

“Oh, fuck.” She gasped, reaching up to cup his jaw and pull his mouth back down to hers.

Their tongues tangled as they moaned into each other’s mouths, hips working together to get them closer to their release. Just as Lucy felt herself approaching the cliff, the ding of the elevator startled them.

They both jumped, freezing their movements as Marcus hunched over her as if he was trying to shield her semi-nude body from any prying eyes. His head lifted slightly to peek out the window and Lucy waited with baited breath for someone to catch them.

They would surely be fired if they were caught having sex at work.

Marcus’s brown eyes were locked on whoever had arrived on the parking level. The sound of voices filled the concrete structure and Lucy thought for sure things were going to end badly.

Unexpectedly, Marcus slowly rolled his hips against hers, causing her eyes to flutter involuntarily.

“Wha—?”

“Ssshh.” Marcus shushed softly, eyes not leaving the window as he pulled out slowly only to fill her again at the same pace.

Was he really doing this? As he rocked his hips again, it seemed he was.

His eyes never left the window as he moved slowly over her. She could hear voices on the parking level, although they were several vehicles away. Each push and pull of his hips had him brushing up against the sensitive spot inside her and it only served to drive her closer and closer to the edge.

Although she tried to stop it, she couldn’t completely hide the small moan that escaped her as his hips ground against hers. She knew she needed to keep quiet for both their sakes, but it just felt too good.

Marcus gently shushed her again, the tips of his first three fingers pressing delicately to her lips to keep her quiet.

God, there was something about the need to keep quiet that had her so close.

The soft thudding of car doors shutting echoed through the parking garage and Marcus used the opportunity to snap his hips against hers just a little harder, pulling another whimper from her throat as her eyes fluttered closed.

An engine started before the vehicle could be heard driving down the ramp exiting the level and Marcus pulled his hand away from her mouth, driving his hips forward as he returned to the pace they’d set before the interruption.

Lucy tried to ignore the way she missed his fingers over her lips, choosing to drag his mouth back down to hers for a heated kiss, lifting her hips to meet his hard thrusts as one of his arms wrapped around her to hold her body against his.

“Fuck.” Lucy gasped against his mouth, feeling herself once again on the precipice. One of her hands fisted in his shirt again, while the other seemed to have a mind of its own and slid around to grasp a handful of his backside as if it would help guide his movements. She couldn’t think straight, all she knew was how good he felt, and then she was tumbling over the edge with a string of moans.

Marcus buried his face in her neck, working her through her orgasm with a groan of his own at the way she pulsed around him. His arm tightened around her, fingers digging into her ribcage as his thrusts become shallow and deliberate as he desperately chased after his own release.

Lucy’s hand left his shirt, reaching up to smooth through the hair on the back of his head as if she was encouraging him to let go. Her nails dug into his backside as she gently tugged on the soft locks of hair, eliciting a moan from where he was tucked into her neck.

A little encouragement was all it took and he was there, warmth blossoming inside her as he filled her with rope after rope. He moaned slowly, nuzzling against her neck as he came down from his high.

They laid there like that for a minute or two as they cooled down, tangled up in each other despite the fact that they didn’t have the luxury of their normal wind down time. Even though they needed to get back to work before anyone noticed they were both missing, neither of them moved. Perhaps it had been the fact that they had almost been caught or that they had done this at work, but it had made this time more exhilarating, and in turn had exhausted them.

Regardless, Lucy didn’t mind a little extra time with his arms around her.

After what felt like five minutes or more, she rubbed both her hand up and down his back slowly. “We have to get back to work.” She spoke softly, her voice raw.

Marcus nodded against her throat. “Mmhmm.” He mumbled, arm squeezing around her tighter for several seconds before he slowly pulled back to look down at her, his eyes darkened with something other than lust.

Lucy’s fingers brushed over his cheekbone and she glanced at the fogged over window over their heads. “We totally missed the opportunity to recreate Titanic.” She noted with a chuckle.

He laughed lightly, brushing her hair off her forehead. “Maybe next time.” He offered, still slightly out of breath from the exertion.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. “Hmm…are you trying to get caught with your pants down regularly?”

“Well, I was thinking we’d park somewhere more discrete, but if you wanted to do it in the middle of the road, that’s fine too.”

She shook her head at him, rolling her eyes playfully. “As thrilling as it was to almost lose my job, I think we should stick with discretion in the future.”

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. “Oh, it was thrilling for you, huh?” he teased.

Another eyeroll. “Getting less thrilling by the second.”

He snickered, leaning down to press his lips against hers in a chaste kiss that quickly turned heated.

She allowed it for a few seconds before pushing against his chest. “Okay, okay, we gotta get back to work.” As much as she would have enjoyed potentially going for another round, she knew they could both only be away from their offices for so long before it became suspicious.

“I know, I know.” He sighed, taking a second before he slipped out of her and rolled onto his back, beginning to put his clothes back together.

Lucy reached for her underwear, pulling them back on before moving for her pants. It was a bit awkward trying to redress in the back of the SUV, but they quickly got themselves presentable.

“Okay, I’m gonna drive this back to where I originally parked and you can go back to your office. That way we don’t show back up at the same time.”

He nodded as he opened the car door and climbed out. “That’s probably a good idea. Don’t want anyone getting suspicious.”

She rounded the back end of the car and reached up to fix his collar before smoothing her hands over the wrinkles on his shoulders from her hands. “Well, I think they’ll probably figure it out when I get pregnant.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

Marcus paused, eyes widening slightly as he took in her words. Lucy didn’t seem to register what she’d said, adjusting her own shirt as best she could using the reflection in the car window.

“When?”

She turned at the surprise in his voice, finding his face open with awe. “That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it?” She teased him with a chuckle. Inwardly, she too realized that she’d said when instead of if. Maybe it was just positive thinking, or maybe she just knew it was going to work out for him. As good a guy as Marcus Pike was, he deserved to have a family and surely whatever deity reigned above would see that.

“Y-Yeah,” he swallowed hard. “I guess it was just different hearing you sound so sure about it.”

“Look, I know I’ve been sort of a Debbie Downer the last few days—”

“—No! It was rough when things didn’t work out, I understand why you were upset. I was, too. It’s just nice to hear you feeling positive again.”

Lucy grinned at him, stepping closer and resting her hands on his hips. “Well, that would be the endorphins, probably. You know, from the mind-blowing sex we just had?”

He couldn’t help but laugh in response, nodding his head in agreement. “Well, I suppose you’re right.”

“I always am.”

Stretching onto her toes, she pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss before she stepped away. If she let it go any further, they might end up in the SUV again.

“Okay, get back upstairs before someone notices.”

“As you wish.”

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Peeing on a stick always felt so weird to her. She’d had her fair share of pregnancy scares in college, so it was nothing new, but the act of trying to land as much urine on the tip of a stick as she could was always odd. Having to stop several times to use multiple tests was just as strange, but soon she was standing in front of the bathroom sink with three pregnancy tests in front of her.

Two minutes and she’d know. Two minutes and her life would either change for the better or continue to be stressful for the short amount of time Marcus had left before his surgery.

“Are you sure it’s not too soon?” the man in question asked from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed.

She’d opened the bathroom door after she’d peed on the sticks, not wanting to wait for the results alone.

“I don’t know, these tests say you can take them as early as ten days after unprotected sex.” She said, studying the box again. “I mean, we’ve done it plenty of times since the SUV, but something about that time felt like it worked.”

“Probably just those endorphins.”

She gave him a wry look, rolling her eyes even though she knew he was probably right. She couldn’t explain it, but something about that time felt right. And, yeah, maybe it was just the rush she’d gotten from almost being caught or the fact that it had been one of their best moments together, but she still needed to check. Besides, the only harm that could come from a negative result would be disappointment, and she was already chalk full of that.

“It’s been two minutes.” Marcus said softly, breaking her from her thoughts.

She took a deep breath and stepped closer, leaning down to check the tests. Her shoulders slumped.

They were all negative.

When Marcus spoke again, his voice was closer, in the room with her. “Maybe we did it too early.” He offered softly.

Lucy sighed heavily, scooping up the tests and dropping them in the trash can with a loud thunk. This was the first time they’d tried actually taking tests—the first failure had come in the form of her menstrual cycle—and she had hoped for the kind of excitement that happened in movies all the time where the couple takes the test and see the positive result and cry in each other’s arms; that was a sham.

“Hey, hey,” He seemed to pick up on her mood shift immediately, his hands moving to rest on her shoulders. “It’s probably just too early. Don’t worry, we still have plenty of time.”

“Plenty of time? Marcus, you only have like forty days before your surgery. I thought this would be easier. Like…I know that people struggle with this stuff all the time but we’ve also been having a lot of unprotected sex. How could one of those times not have taken?”

He maneuvered her body to face him, his hands returning to her shoulders where he continued to squeeze reassuringly. “Sometimes it just takes time, remember? Don’t get so stressed out, it doesn’t help.”

“It’s hard not to be stressed when your clock is running out.”

There was a long silence between them before he perked up. “Let’s go out tonight. Blow off some steam, have some drinks. It’ll be good for the both of us.”

Lucy shook her head. “We’re not supposed to drink, remember?”

He rolled his eyes. “One night won’t hurt us, I promise. We both need to relax a little.”

For a moment, she thought about it. What could it hurt to have some fun for one night? If the stress was already ruining things for them, then alcohol could only help, right? If it loosened her up and made her less stressed, that had to help a bit. Perhaps it was a good idea.

Finally, she caved. “Okay, okay. Let’s go out.”

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Lucy couldn’t contain the giggle that escaped her as they stumbled into her apartment a few hours later. She was lingering somewhere between tipsy and fully drunk, feeling good after a night drinking away her worries; they weren’t supposed to drink while trying to conceive, at least according to all the research, but it had been nice to unwind after feeling so stressed out. Stress wasn’t good for conceiving either, so she figured alcohol wouldn’t hurt this once.

Marcus, who was equally feeling the effects of the alcohol, locked the door behind them and ushered her into the kitchen. He immediately went for the cabinet he knew housed her glasses and pulled one down, filling it with water from the faucet and taking a gulp before handing it to her.

Even wasted he was a gentleman.

Their eyes locked over the rim of the glass as she drank and she slowly lowered the glass to the countertop, eyes never leaving his. The silence was palpable, the tension in the room so thick she could cut it with a knife if she wanted to. She reached for him and he met her halfway, their mouths meeting in a searing kiss.

His hands were all over her as hers bunched in his shirt, their tongues tangling, and Lucy was reminded once again that she wasn’t as good at keeping things casual as she would have preferred. She wondered if he felt the same or if this was easier for him.

He trailed kissed down her jaw and neck, nipping at her skin gently and soothing over the spots with a flick of his tongue as she panted, a whimper escaping her as he sucked lightly on that sensitive spot beneath her ear.

He didn’t stop there. He pressed kisses to her collarbone and then her chest, moving lower until he was kneeling in front of her. His hands brushed against the skin of her thighs and slipped beneath the hem of her skirt, his eyes turning up to meet hers as he pushed the fabric until it was bunched around her hips.

She gasped as his lips pressed against her inner thigh, light as a feather as he trailed kisses upwards. In all the time they’d spent together, they hadn’t done this—they’d been more focused on getting straight to the point—and she felt like her heart was about to explode out of her chest.

Fingers slipped beneath the waistband of her panties, his eyes on hers once again as he began to drag them down her hips and thighs until they fell to pool around her ankles. She stepped out of them, kicking them aside as she gripped the edge of the counter in anticipation. She was already soaked.

His hand gripped underneath her left knee and he lifted the leg to hook it over his shoulder. His eyes finally left hers as he began trailing kisses up her leg from her knee until he reached the spot she wanted him most. There was a moment of pause as he seemed to take her in, before he leaned forward and dragged his tongue through her folds in one smooth stroke, ending at the bundle of nerves, which he circled slowly with the tip of his tongue.

Lucy gasped, one hand leaving the counter to thread her fingers through his hair. Her eyes fell closed as she relished the feeling.

He certainly knew what he was doing as he got to work, and before long she was moaning breathlessly as she clung to him. She canted her hips slowly against his mouth, and she wasn’t sure which she liked more: his tongue on her clit or when his tongue trailed further down and his nose rubbed against it just right.

Her right leg was shaking as it tried to support her weight as she verged on the edge, her body was on fire. She wanted to ask how he’d gotten so good at this, but she didn’t want to think about the women in his past too much either.

His tongue flicked her clit once more before his mouth closed around it and he sucked lightly. It was all it took to send her over the precipice with a whine. Her fingers tugged on his hair and she struggled to stay upright, and he gripped her hips to keep her standing as he lapped at her center and slowly brought her down from her high.

“Shit.”

Marcus chuckled against her, pulling away to look up at her once more; his face was shiny from her wetness, and he licked his lips before wiping his face on the back of his hand as he stood.

She reached for him, pulling his mouth back to hers for a kiss, tasting herself on him. That had definitely sobered her up. She could feel his hardness pressing against her hip and although her legs were shaking, the release sent a thrill through her and she reached down to quickly undo his belt.

Perhaps he was still feeling the effects of the alcohol, or maybe going down on her had sent him into a frenzy like some kind of shark, because he gripped her hips and turned her around to face the other way. As her hands landed on the countertop, she could hear his belt jingling and then the unzipping of his pants. Her teeth bit into the pillow of her bottom lip in anticipation, still amped up from her high.

The rustling of fabric told her he’d freed himself, and then his hands were on her hips; he pushed the skirt of her dress up higher and stepped closer, the heat radiating off his body sending shivers down her spine. There seemed to be a moment of hesitation and then he asked with a raspy voice: “Is this okay?”

It was something she found she really loved about him—he had already brought her to orgasm with his tongue and they’d had sex numerous times, but he was still asking if it was okay to take her from behind. Anyone else would have laughed, but she found it to be very attractive.

“Yes.” She replied, barely over a whisper at the thought of what was to come.

He nudged her feet further apart with one of his and then she felt the tip of him brushing through her folds. She leaned forward over the counter more and angled her hips better and then he was pushing forward slowly until he was fully seated inside her.

She moaned softly at the feeling, pressing back against him.

Marcus pressed his face into her hair, inhaling her scent as he remained still for a moment as if he was collecting himself, or maybe gathering the strength to continue. Then, ever so slowly, he withdrew until just the tip was left inside of her. He paused again, adjusted his grip on her hips, and then thrust forward quickly to fill her completely. He repeated the motion several times until he was pounding into her.

She wasn’t quite sure how he managed to be gentle and rough at the same time, and the pace he had chosen surprised her; not that she didn’t think he had it in him, but that it was new. If it stole the breath from her lungs, she wasn’t complaining. He mouthed at her neck and shoulder, where the thin strap of her dress had fallen down her arm. The contrast between the gentle grazing of his teeth on her skin and the brutal thrusts inside her had her weak in the knees.

“Fuck.” She moaned, doubling over to press her forehead to the countertop, relishing in the cool surface against her heated skin.

Marcus’s hands were gripping her hips tightly, his own hips meeting her backside over and over and creating a delicious noise that echoed off the kitchen tiles, the grunts and groans spilling from his lips matched her own. One of his hands smoothed up her back and he gripped her shoulder, angling his hips on the next thrust and pulling her back against him.

Lucy’s breath left her again in a string of moans as the new angle hit perfectly every time.

“Stop that racket!” a voice shouted from the other side of the wall, along with a fist pounding.

She couldn’t help but laugh at her neighbor, an elderly man who made tons of noise but hated when anyone else made even a peep. She heard Marcus chuckling behind her, but the intrusion only seemed to spur him on and his hips smacked harder against hers. It had her moaning louder, and she realized that had been his intention all along.

Though she probably wouldn’t admit it, she liked that he wanted to antagonize her neighbor.

The hand that had been at her shoulder slid down her side and around her front, dipping between her legs to circle her clit with the pads of his fingers. As she reached to grip the edge of the counter, her arm knocked into the forgotten glass of water and sent it tumbling to the floor where it surprisingly didn’t shatter. Neither one of them paid it any mind as their releases approached rapidly.

The neighbor was pounding on the wall again, but it was doing him more harm than good as the sounds echoed louder against the tiles.

“I am going to call the landlord!” the elderly man yelled on the other side.

“S-So call them!” Lucy shouted back, just as her orgasm hit her like a freight train. If the neighbor hadn’t made such a big deal, she would have tried to stifle her moans, but instead she lifted her head from where it had been resting on the countertop and let him hear it just because she knew it would infuriate him.

Marcus’s face was buried in her neck and his warm breath huffed against her skin as he laughed at her reaction. His movements were frantic, desperate, as he chased his own release and it didn’t take long for him to stiffen behind her. He pressed his body close to hers and groaned into her ear as he filled her.

They were still for a long moment, panting as they came down.

“I don’t think your neighbor likes you.” He joked, pressing a kiss to her neck.

Lucy laughed out loud, knowing it would also annoy the man in question. “I don’t really care.” She shrugged the shoulder his head wasn’t resting against.

“I’ll leave earbuds on his doormat.”

“No, let him listen. It’s probably the most action he’s gotten in decades.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s a Tuesday night two weeks later that it happens. She’s reorganizing her bathroom purely due to boredom and she stumbles across a box of pregnancy tests. She peeked inside and felt her heart race a little; there was one test left.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she pulled the test out and debated using it. They had been keeping up with their schedule, meeting at his place minus a couple of times when they really wanted to annoy her neighbor. Even though the three tests she’d taken two weeks ago had been negative, it didn’t mean she wasn’t pregnant then. False negatives happened all the time if the test was taken too early.

Maybe now is the right time.

She ripped the plastic wrapper off the test and moved to the toilet, glad she hadn’t used the bathroom yet. As she finished and set the test on the sink so she could wash her hands, she glanced up at herself in the mirror.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Luce.” She whispered to herself. She knew if it came back negative, which it more than likely would, it would only hurt more.

She had to step out of the room because she knew it would only make the minutes go by slower. What was that saying? A watched pot never boils? So, a watched pregnancy test never develops? She moved to the kitchen to start putting away the dishes in the dishwasher. By the time she finished, five minutes had passed.

It was time.

“Shit.” She whispered to herself, shuffling nervously towards the bathroom.

What was she going to do if it was negative? Marcus didn’t have much time left, if it wasn’t going to happen then that would break both their hearts.

But what if it was positive? It was what they’d wanted all along, but she couldn’t help but feel her stomach flip with nerves at the idea that all their efforts had paid off. It wasn’t because she didn’t want a baby, but because she did.

The test was sitting upright on the counter, all it would take was for her to step forward and she’d know. One step forward. It was just one step.

Knowing if she didn’t do it now, she’d never do it, she stepped forward quickly and snatched the test up, lifting it to stare down at the tiny plastic window.

Her heart jumped into her throat.

It was positive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I didn’t add pregnancy on the list of warnings because I didn’t want to spoil it. But also, if you are reading a fic that is specifically about getting pregnant, that is kind of a given.

Tag list: (strikethrough means it wouldn’t let me tag you)

@absurdthirst @meanperegrine @hopeamarsu @bison-writes @giselatropicana @melispunk @hnt-escape @cheekygeek05 @bluemoon-glen @star-wars-hell @lawfulgranola @underwaterwonderscapes @words-way-of-life @kesskirata @rosiefridayrogersunday-reads @nicolethered @fangirl-316 @finnisrioting @janelongxox @hellovanessax @a-trial-run-on-paper @christina-loves @moonlightburned @generallybrontidefeelings @shakespeareanwannabe @griscka75 @neganwifey25-blog @tacticalsparkles @daffodin @fastandfeminist @valentinasubmarina @a-skov @ptutts @librariantothejedi @janebby @redsilentwolf28 @tuskens-mando @spideysimpossiblegirl @skeletonstwins 

Please let me know if you would like to be added to (or removed from) the tag list!

[rizlowwritessortof]

Driving Miss Baby

Dean decides you need a driving lesson in Baby.

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2319

Warnings: Just the usual smut (like that’s a warning) 

Divider by @firefly-graphics​

“Are you kidding me? Right now?” You stare up – way up – at Dean from the floor, where you sit surrounded by the contents of the pantry. You finally had a couple of days to clean and organize, and you’re in the middle of several projects at the moment. Perfect timing.

“Yes. Now. It’s not gonna take long, and you just keep stalling every time I ask, so – let’s go.” You roll your eyes, shaking your head at the mess that would be waiting for you when you got back. You take his hand and let him help you to your feet, looking up at him like a petulant child. He gives you one of those smiles you can never resist, bends to kiss you gently, and you follow him with a reluctant sigh.

“You know, I’ve been driving since I was 16 years old, Dean,” you grumble, shuffling along behind him on the way to the garage.

“I know. But you’ve never driven a big old beast like Baby. And I just want to make sure you can handle her if you have to.”

“Like you’d ever let me drive, anyway,” you mumble under your breath, and he stops dead in front of you, making you run into his back.

He turns to face you with a serious expression, but there’s a sparkle in his eyes. “I heard that. And you’re right – usually. But what if something happens? Sam and I get hurt, or we need you to go for help? I just want you to be prepared.”

“I know,” you say begrudgingly, and follow him as he starts down the stairs to the garage.

He tosses you the keys and climbs into the passenger side, watching as you slide behind the wheel. You sit there for a moment, looking things over, realizing that there’s a problem. God, you don’t want to say it. He’s gonna laugh, he’s never never going to let you live it down…

“What’s wrong? Just start her up.”

You refuse to look at him, your voice barely audible. “I can’t reach the pedals.”

“What?”

“I said, I can’t reach the pedals!” This time you almost shout it at him, then turn to look, just daring him to laugh. He’s biting his lips together, his face twitching as he fights the urge, and if there was anything within reach for you to grab, you would have thrown it at him. “I knew this would happen. You are gonna make fun of me through this whole thing, I knew it.”

He really is struggling to control it, a few little snorting sounds escaping before he clamps down on it and turns to look at you. “I’m sorry, baby – I don’t mean to laugh, you – you’re just so damn cute.”

You both bend to reach for the levers to move the seat, and you mutter vindictively, “I hope your knees go up your nose.” He can’t help himself now, he’s laughing as he helps you get things set to where they’re comfortable for you. Then he leans close to show you where things are – the blinkers, the lights, the wipers – before kissing you cautiously and moving out of your space to settle back into his seat.

“Okay, sweetheart, she’s all yours.”

You start her up, and you can’t stifle the little smile at the sound of her engine. “Okay, girl – you be good to me, and I’ll be good to you.” You take her out of the garage just fine, heading for the gravel road that leads to the highway.

She actually handles like a dream, like she knows where she’s supposed to go and you’re just sort of guiding her a little. You make the turn onto the highway without a hitch, and check the mirror to see if there’s anyone around. There’s not. So you punch it.

Dean’s grinning as you turn Baby loose, the engine growling, the tires singing against the asphalt. Yeah, you can see why he loves this so much. You can feel the power thrumming through her, your hands on the wheel vibrating slightly, and you smile over at Dean.

“See, she likes you.” You go on for a few miles, reluctantly admitting to yourself that this was a good idea, and you were actually enjoying yourself. After letting you settle in, Dean speaks up again. “Okay, turn off somewhere, I just want you to get the feel of the brakes.”

“Yes, Grandpa,” you tease, and he just grins. Hard to tell who’s having more fun, him or you. You spot a country road up ahead, and start slowing down. The brakes don’t slow her down as fast as they do on your car, and you realize that you’ll be taking the next turn because with the speed you built up, you’ll never make this one. Dean laughs softly, and you stick out your tongue.

“See what I mean? She’s got a lot of weight behind her, and she doesn’t stop on a dime like those little cars.”

“Yeah, I get that,” you chuckle, making the next turn without a hitch. “So, where to now?”

He squints his eyes a little in thought, then points ahead. “Couple of miles this way, pull over into the orchard when we get up there.”

You nod, then glance over at him. “You – you’re not gonna make me drive around trees, like an obstacle course or something, are you? Because no.”

He throws back his head with a full-on laugh. “No. I promise. No obstacle course.”

You throw out a quote from The Wedding Singer - ‘They were cones!’ - and you both laugh all the way to the orchard. You start slowing way sooner than you need to, probably, but you make the turn and pull in amongst the trees, putting her in park and shutting off the engine.

“So, is this the part where I tell you I ran out of gas?” You wiggle your eyebrows at him and let your eyes roam over him in an exaggerated leer, and he shakes his head with a grin.

“We’ll work on your lines some other time,” he teases, then opens his door and steps out into the pleasant shade of the trees. You follow his lead, coming over to wrap your arms around his waist and standing on tiptoe to kiss him softly.

“Sorry I was such a pain in the ass about this. Thank you, it was fun.”

“Yeah. It was.” He kisses you back, taking his time, and you’re in a happy daze when he pulls back, brushing your hair away from your face. “Hey, they have some bing cherry trees in here somewhere. Let’s go steal some.” He takes your hand, and you set off on your quest.  

When you finally head back to the car, you’ve both eaten more than a few cherries, and Dean’s overshirt is wrapped around a load to take home. He grabs the keys and opens the trunk, setting them carefully inside, and turning to you as he closes it. “Hey, one more thing I wanted to show you. Hop in the back.”

“The back? I’ve been back there a million times. What...” You see the gleam in his eyes, and stop arguing immediately. “Oh. Well, then.” You climb in and slide over, patting the seat. “Please, Dean, show me the secrets of the backseat. That I need to know, you know, in case of an emergency.”

He slides in beside you, a seductive smile curving his lips. “Well, there are emergencies – and then there are emergencies.” He looks around, mischief in his eyes. “Wow, there’s a lot more room back here when you drive.”

“Shut up!” you laugh with a half-hearted punch at his shoulder, and then you climb onto his lap, knees spread wide so you can snug up close against the rapidly rising bulge behind his zipper, and it punches a little groan from deep inside him.

“C’mere,” he growls, one hand on your hip and the other cradling your face as he kisses you, warm and hungry. You let your hands drift up his biceps and shoulders, then behind his neck to hold him close, your fingers dancing through the soft hair at the back of his neck. His erection is hard and insistent, nestled in the apex of your thighs, and you grind against him with a moan. “You think that feels good, just wait,” he rumbles next to your ear, nipping and kissing his way down your neck, stopping to mark you as he reaches the slope of your shoulder.

You tilt your head, your skin flushing hot as his hands begin to roam your body, pulling impatiently at your shirt until you lift your arms and allow him to remove it. One hand is kneading at your ass, pressing you harder against him, the other is squeezing at your breast as his lips devour yours again. You let go of him long enough to reach back and undo the clasp on your bra, pulling it off and dropping it to the floor, and he growls softly as he leans you back enough to wrap his lips around your nipple. You brace yourself on Baby’s roof as he sucks and tugs and nips, leaving you gasping and desperate. Your body has settled into a rhythm, thrusting and grinding your core up and down on his rigid cock, and he stops for a moment, just watching you.

“Get it, baby. Take what you need, get all hot and wet for me,” he urges, his eyes glowing with heat as you look at him.

“Dean…” you whimper, and he puts both hands on your hips, aiding the friction a little more.

“Come on, baby, give it to me.” He leans close, his lips next to your ear. “Come for me, sweetheart, I wanna fuck you so bad right now...”

His words push you over the edge, and you let out a desperate cry, your back arching as your orgasm takes you. Dean wraps his arms around you to hold your trembling body close, whispering praises into your ear.

Once you’ve caught your breath, Dean captures your lips with his, ravenous kisses that have you aching for him. You reach down between you and work at the button of his jeans, then his zipper, and he sighs into your kiss at the release of pressure. “I want you inside me, Dean, please,” you beg, undoing your own jeans and sliding back from his lap to awkwardly work them and your soaked panties down until you can kick one foot free. He never moves his eyes from you as he lifts up from the seat, shoving his jeans and boxers down as far as he can manage, then ripping his t-shirt over his head and dropping it to the seat beside him.

“Climb on, baby, let’s go for a ride,” he says, his voice rasping and wrecked, and he helps guide you over him, his eyes fluttering closed, a soft ‘fuck’ slipping from his lips as you sink down on him slowly.

He is rock hard, hot and throbbing as you take him in, your desires warring with each other as you want to make the erotic sensation last, but you also long to just drop down and take him in to the limit, all at once, have every inch inside of you. You are whimpering as you finally settle fully against him, your thighs quaking. He swears under his breath, his head thrown back against the seat, every muscle taut with the effort of holding back, waiting for you to signal that you’re ready.  

You finally shift a little, and he lets out a moan that sends a wave of goosebumps over your skin. He begins to move, pushing and grinding, and you fall into the cadence with him, balanced precariously on the edge. Your breathing is ragged, your arms beginning to ache as you keep your hands on Baby’s roof, pushing you down, keeping him buried deep inside you, so deep it almost hurts. He whispers your name, filthy words of praise, and muttered swearing in a constant stream, his lips next to your ear, his voice a low rumble that you can feel vibrating in your chest.

Finally he pulls you close, gripping you tight with a growl. “I’m gonna come, baby, you gotta let go for me,” he says almost desperately, and his hips begin bucking up hard, making you cry out as he drives himself into you, your nails digging into his biceps.

He fucks into you twice, three times, and you lose your mind, his arms the only thing keeping your body in place. You’re shouting his name, then sobbing your release as he pounds you mercilessly, unable to hold himself back any longer. You feel him swelling, pulsing inside you, and you ride the waves of pleasure to yet another peak, dizzy and quaking.

“Dean,” you whimper, collapsing weakly against his chest, his arms holding you tight as his body jerks him upward a few more times, aftershocks that leave him spent as well. His hands stroke your back as he whispers to you, his touch tender and soothing.

You could lie against him forever, his hands caressing your skin, his fingers combing through your hair.  When you finally move to look at him, he just gazes into your eyes, then leans in to kiss you, soft and slow. “So much for the back seat lesson, huh?” he teases, and you smile sleepily in response.

“Did I pass?”

“With flying colors, sweetheart.” He kisses you again, and you snuggle against him, unwilling to move. “So, want me to drive home?”

“Yeah. In a minute.” You nestle your head on his shoulder and let your eyes drift shut. He grabs his t-shirt from the seat beside you and drapes it over your back.

“Ok, baby. In a minute.”

Tags for my lovelies (if any of you are still out there, it’s been ages since I’ve posted something):

@saenalife    @deanscarlett    @jensensgotyoudean    @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis​    @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog​    @geeklibrarian​    @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid​    @aprofoundbondwithdean​    @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan​    @mrswhozeewhatsis​    @littlegreenplasticsoldier​    @sleep-silent-angel​    @darcia22​    @winchesterprincessbride​    @cavillanche​ @ellen-reincarnated1967​    @eyes-of-a-disney-princess​      @deanslittleangel2y5​    @melanie451​    @lovin-ackles​    @spectaculacular-sammy​     @bookchic20​    @jodyri​    @selma-jean​           @savingapplepie-eatingthings​    @angelofwinchester17​    @kittenofdoomage​    @masked-maiden42​    @lean-mean-deanwinchester​    @ericuhlorain​    @undecided-garden​    @ceeceewinchester​    @typicalweirdbookworm​          @callmesweetheartifyoumeanit​    @youtoldalie​    @tanithlowisabamf​    @deandoesthingstome​    @jxackles​    @nerdwholikesword​    @soivebuiltupaworldofmagic​    @kreweofimp​  @gabavaldman​    @chaos-and-the-calm67-blog​    @darkx143​    @disassociativedogma​    @ioanashalala​    @jencharlan​    @deansthirstblog​     @dorky-and-i-know-it​    @mischief-maker1​   @winchestersandwordprocessors​    @percussiongirl2017​    @bringmesomepie56​   @akshi8278​    @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester​    @torn-and-frayed​    @sandlee44​  @wingedcatninja​  @evansrogerskitten​   @emoryhemsworth​  @peaceinourtime82​

[pumpkinpot]

Hoshi

A/N: this is part of the Citrus Dome Sci-Fi collab. this is also pure fluff. no smut, no real angst. just spooky summer vibes and poly love. I hope you enjoy. (I’m sorry for grammatical errors in advance.)

synopsis: since beginning your relationship with Katsuki Bakugou and Ochako Uraraka you’ve developed a love for exploring abandon places with them whenever you three have time to explore. This time, so happens to land on a derelict observatory. (additional head canons for this story on my tik tok under pumpkinpots)

“It says here it was abandoned in the mid-nineteenth century due to the spike in light pollution with the growth of the city,” you say, pointing to the dome at the peak of the building. “All of the mobile telescopes were transferred to the university's observatory, while this placed rotted away.

Uraraka half listens, levitating sheetrock from the doorway and discarding them in the nearby field.

“Why just abandon it?” Katsuki asks, fiddling with varying lenses in his camera bag. “Couldn’t this have been a museum or something?”

“Yeah,” you agree, shifting a glance to make sure Uraraka doesn’t need help. “It looks like it was bought by a merchant in the eighties who wanted to turn it into a house, but he was indicted for tax evasion before the renovations ever finished. It hasn’t been touched since.” 

He scoffs with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “Rich idiots.”

Uraraka brushes specks of dust off her palms across her cut-off shorts before urging us alone. “Shall we?” 

It takes two and a half pushes to nudge the door wide enough to squeeze through. The observatory opens to us with a groan of whining metal and the scratch of loose dirt on concrete. 

Centered in the main foyer, a gaping mural of blue and white cobblestone depicts a dusty map of astrology stars. 

Katsuki has to be coaxed with a promise to be flashed to pose under the Taurus constellation for a picture, meanwhile, Uraraka floats just above Pisces with a cute puffy cheeked expression. 

Names, small sayings, and symbols decorate the wall in vibrant graffiti, the place a cocktail of color and wild Ivy.

"It's a lot more lit than I thought I'd be," Uraraka says, stuffing her flashlight into her bag. 

Katuski keeps the light attached to his camera lit as he weaves in and out of rooms, zooming in on old books and broken equipment. 

We follow him through a puzzle of what seemed to be living quarters and small classrooms, ending in a half oval auditorium. 

At the center of the stage a white globe balances on a pillar of cement. 

“What’s this?” Uraraka asks. 

You touch where someone had attempted to derail the sphere like a baseball before trailing your eyes above the layered seating. “It's a projector ball. Technicians would likely project light from there into the ball to make it seem like the planet or star they were studying. That's why it's,” you knock on the sphere's cool solid surface. “Crystal.”

Uraraka shines her phone’s light into it, the shattered pieces reflecting shapes in a dim glow.

Katsuki points the camera into the orb, the bluish tint reminds you of the similar one in the abandoned lighthouse you’d explored with them two years ago. Though that one would have lit from the inside. 

Quickly you explore the base and second levels, eager to get to the actual observatory. It's evident where the renovations to make this a home had been started and never finished. Small cracks in the floor, sealed with caulk, loose wooden planks pillaring knocked in walls. 

It could have been a beautiful home, you think to yourself. 

Up the second flight of stairs gradually more and more light fills the space until you are bathed in the orange glow of early dusk. A large open scare slits the dome, edging with rust and ivy. The circular room holds nothing of true value, nothing left behind but broken tables and a ladder to the viewing balcony tailing the opening of the dome. 

“The big telescope that would have been here-” Uraraka says, fiddling with the screw holes in the floor, “- would have been a refracting telescope. It uses small bits of glass to magnify what you’re looking at, then is bent back through the telescope hitting the eyepiece. The other kind is a reflector,” she continues, “It's got a primary mirror at the bottom of the lens into a second mirror than a third eyepiece mirror. This one is mostly used to see the different parts of a star to see what it's made out of.”

Katsuki and you exchange looks of pure astonishment. "how do you know all this?" you ask.

She fishes a gum wrapper from one of the holes, tossing it to the side. “Before I was accepted into UA I was really considering going into astronomy. I thought it fit so well with my quirk, but the courses were too expensive.” 

"More expensive than UA?" Katuski asks, refocusing his camera. 

She nods, seeming just as dumbfounded as us. 

“Do you think it could work on my explosions?”

“If you were in space maybe,” you hypothesize, “but in that case, we probably wouldn’t see it for a long while.” 

He seems semi disappointed as if his evening plans had been somehow derailed.

You run your hands across the walls of the dome, dusk sun baking its metal frame like a soup pot. 

For a moment you just watch them. It’d been so long since the opportunity arose for the three of you to go exploring. With you still temporarily stationed in the American hero commission and those two workings in Japan it was rare to find time to skype let alone go on adventures. You were lost in the bliss of having your partners so near without having to scream about a lost wifi connection when your hand hit something protruding from the wall.

“What are these?” you ask, inspecting circular gears attached to a crank.

“It looks like the wheel to turn the dome,” Uraraka says.

Katsuki zooms in on the puzzle of rigid plates. “This bitch turns?” 

“Yeah, that slit doesn't move so the dome has to, to accommodate where in the sky they were looking.” 

Katsuki fingers the gears a moment, mapping its track all across the sphere. He traces along the parts not layered in rust until he’s back at the start. “Do you think it still works?” 

“Not without some serious lube and strong arms.”

“We’re one for two,” you suggest. 

Katsuki hands over his camera to Uraraka, positioning himself opposite you to push the lever, while you pull left.

At first, the dial stays put, its stance unforgiving, but after a bit more pull than push a deafening whine reverberating through the entire observatory. 

No visible move happens until the second crank roundabout when the shift of light against concrete becomes clear.

Katsuki’s eyes light with sheer amazement as the entire dome rotates around you. We are halfway through a full rotation before Uraraka shouts for you to stop. 

You push on the lever stilling its movements as quickly as you can.

She holds a finger head tilted to the side. “Do you hear that?” 

Your breath balloons in your chest as you lean in closer. The tiniest of whimpers echo around the dome from the viewing balcony. 

One after another you file up the ladder, hopping on the edge of the dome. Balancing on the concrete crease between the moving track and the rest of the building you search for the sound. 

“Here!” Uraraka yells from the other side.

 You sprint as much as you dare, teetering along the two-story edge. 

She squats over the body of a squirming animal, a tuft of fur caught in the track of the dome's rotation. She coddles its little frame, before reaching a hand out to you. “Y/n, your knife-”

Hesitantly you hand it over. She snips away the stuck pieces muttering thanks that none of the actual tail got caught. She folds the blade back into itself, pinching leaves and sticks from the animal's fur and tossing them over the side. 

She holds it up, floppy ears and a black nose making it a nearly recognizable creature. A puppy. 

He looks to be light brown, but that could be the soot. 

Katsuki checks around the dome for any signs of a litter or mamma, before joining us with a shake of his head. 

The pup squirms and with an open mouth, letting all sorts of noises tumble from his dirt-covered tongue. 

Uraraka floats the puppy to the floor of the dome, as we file down the ladder. You empty the contents of your water bottle into a cup for drinking and the rest onto its back for cooling.  

His fur peaks through white and brown spotted under layers of grime. 

“Well,” Uraraka says, “we’ve been talking about wanting to expand our family.” 

“I suppose there’s no better place to start,” you add, both of us looking to Katsuki for consensus.

He passes glances between the three of us. “Fine, but I get to name it.”

“Alright, but we get veto power.” 

“Explosion-”

“Veto,” you say in unison. 

He looks around puffy-lipped. “I didn't even get to finish.” 

“Explosion nothing,” Uraraka clarifies. 

He’s silent for a long moment looking around the space. “Hoshi?.” 

“Star?” you confirm.

“This observatory was used to study the stars, wasn’t it?” He bats.

You and Uraraka exchange a satisfied, yet surprised look. You hadn’t expected something so- normal. This is after all the same man that made you name your golden pothos “boom boom boi” in his honor. 

“I like it,” you say.

“Approved,” adds Uraraka. 

We better take our picture before it gets too dark,” he says, turning away so you can’t see the blush on his cheeks. He switches out his filming camera for a smaller polaroid, propping it up on the edge of a broken table. 

He runs back as the timer ticks down. He slides to your right side, Uraraka on your left. Their arms link behind you as you hold Hoshi up to your mid-chest. Clicking down from five you all give your cheesiest grins. A rectangular card spits from the bottom of the camera. 

Ochaco shakes it a few times, swapping you a picture, for a puppy. 

You wait for the picture to pixelate before opening the ninety-cent notebook of film slips and position it in the next available spot.

Urarka’s cut-off shorts and Katsuki's tanned shoulders are a stark contrast to the puffy blue coat and chunky knit beanie from the last abandoned mansion expedition last time. Before that, the three of us accidentally matched our windbreakers to Midoryia during a tour of The Ghost Candy Shop in Kyoto. We look like a group of tourists. 

The small book seemed to be filling quickly despite the rareness of time to get away. Memories pile up from when it was just Uraraka and Katsuki to when you became a staple to their adventures. They’d given you responsibility for the book to garner your importance to them in their relationship until the reasoning for the gift became nothing more than routine. You were theirs, and they were yours. 

Now a new member had sprouted in your little family, and if you squinted, you could imagine the rest of the pages being filled with the pup in aged years to maybe more as time goes on.

 Right now, you were happy with the three and a half of you.

[troop-scoop]

Youth I

Chapter One -  Pilot

Word count: 2k

Series Summary: On a family trip to your dad’s home town of Hawkins, Indiana, you make a series of decisions that result in you ending up in the year 1983 with more questions than there are answers presently available. 

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Female Reader ( slow burn ) 

Chapter Summary: You go through what’s become your new ‘normal’ at Hawkins High School

⟛⟛

Nothing about your current situation was settling right in your stomach. There were no answers as to how you got here, and you didn’t have any questions that could easily be answered. A series of unfortunate events resulted in the attitude you carried. You used to be sweet, all smiles and laughter unless someone did something to make you upset.

What happened to that girl? The girl who grew up never experiencing fear to the point where it worried her parents and made teachers concerned because she’d climb so high on the playground that if you fell, you’d surely break something.

You’d climbed so high on something, and you fell into this situation, and something did break. Your bravery, your fearlessness, nothing physical, but those two things were shattered, and your ego bruised.

Nothing was like what you were used to. To you, everything in this school hallway was dated. The fashion, the haircuts, the textbooks, and the tech.

The stereotypes.

“L/n!”

You shook your head, already knowing whose voice that was. A teenage boy who fit the typical ‘jock’ stereotype that everyone knew. The kid who hated his small town, he got around, played a sport his father probably hated, who would likely never get out of said small town he hated. Yeah, you knew the pattern. Everyone, where you were from, did.

“No.”

You continued on your trek to the locker, but you could hear the slight squeaking of the soles of the older boy’s Nikes on the linoleum floor trying to catch up. Where you were from, people would be staring at this type of occurrence, but because none of the students surrounding you even batted an eye at the basketball player or you for that matter, told you that it wasn’t abnormal for him to be audacious.

“Hey now, I just wanna talk.” He defended, finally catching up to you, walking alongside, but a little bit behind so he didn’t get in anyone’s way.

“Harrington, the last time you wanted to ‘talk’ was when you needed my math homework.” A chuckle escaped you as you said it, finally stopping at your locker.

“In my defense, you don’t look like a sophomore.” He tried, standing next to you as you were spinning the knob in the locker to get it open.

“Whatever, what do you want?”

“Wow, you’re grumpy. Anyways, Tommy H, Carol, and I wanna hang out but my parents don’t leave for another week, and we can’t be at Carol’s place because her mom hates Tommy, and well, you know how Tommy’s dad is.”

You hummed in amusement. “Yeah, he’s a dick, how does that involve me?” You had your binder and pencil case in one arm, staring at him with your hand inside of your locker, holding onto the cup of coffee.

“Can we hang out at your place?”

Rolling your eyes you kneeled down, placing your things down on the ground before standing upright, grabbing the collar of his jacket and pulling it towards your locker, placing it inside before closing the door on it. “Not happening.” You responded, a bright smile on your face as you grabbed your things, taking a step to walk away.

“Y/n! This isn’t funny!”

“I’m gonna correct you on that, it’s not funny to you.” The situation was probably the funniest thing you’d encountered in weeks, and considering your day to day life before used to be full of laughter and playfully teasing, that then went to quiet days spent alone and pondering, this was a nice change.

“Unlock it or I’ll tell Mrs. Jensen!”

Steve’s threat caused you to laugh, holding your things closer so you didn’t drop any of them. “A tattletale? You always did strike me as the type to tease kids in elementary school, but you never did seem like a snitch, you do know the saying right? About snitches?”

“Yeah, from you!” he responded, and although he had a serious face, you knew he was fighting back a smile as well by his voice and how his brows weren’t furrowed in frustration or anger.

“Snitches are bitches, who get stitches and end up in ditches.” it wasn’t intentional for both of you to say it at the same time, but you had, but in two very different tones of voice. Your’s was more ‘matter of fact’ and he was amused.

You stared at him for a second, your smile remaining before you stepped forward,  turning the dial of your lock to open it, and once you lifted the lever for the door, Steve got himself out, standing up straight and staring down at you, his hands finding the pockets of his jacket as you closed the locker door again. “That wasn’t fair, you look innocent,” he mumbled to himself.

“I’ll see you later?” Steve asked after a second.

“We have study hall together, so. . . maybe,” you told him, stepping away from the locker and heading down the hallway to your English class.

Bulletin boards on the walls, spaced out between each other, with thumbtacks keeping flyers and announcements up for students to see, lockers for students to keep their things throughout the day. It was all odd.

At your previous schools, lockers weren’t available. That was until your freshman year where you had to pay five dollars a year if you wanted one. And instead of bulletin boards, flyers and announcements would just be taped to the walls, or given during morning announcements, or emailed to students and parents. You were pretty sure your previous high school got rid of lockers in the late ’90s when drugs became prominent in your area and then got rid of bulletin boards when one student sent the other to the hospital with a thumbtack to the wrist, but those types of stories always had a few details in them that never made sense, allowing you to cast doubt on them. But maybe the story had just been told so many times that detail got twisted, the truth of what happened got misconstrued. Like a game of telephone.

Reaching the English classroom, you found your seat, with your anxiousness rising as you sat down, placing your coffee at the upper corner of your small desk, keeping your school supplies close to your chest.

You’d been a happy kid growing up. You didn’t have very many friends, but you had your parents, your little brother, and a condo that you’d been brought home to as a newborn that you knew was a safe place. Unlike the few friends you did have, you never really experienced anxiety or symptoms of depression, but you knew the signs, your closest friend, Mandy, dealt with it, and she confided in you often about how it felt and what it was like, and you often did your own research on it to know what you could to help her.

There were weekends where you spent a good few hours learning different breathing techniques to help her whenever she would have a panic attack, but now that you were dealing with moments where your heart sped up, your hands shook and you felt like something was terribly wrong, it was like all of those hours had been a waste because you couldn’t use them without getting more anxious.

“You okay?”

Looking to your left, you were met with a curious glance from your partner on the English project. Giving an unconvincing nod, you looked down at the top of your desk, eyes tracing over the wood pattern, lines connecting that looked like they shouldn’t, forming shapes and allowing you to distract yourself as Jonathan set his things down as well, taking his seat next to you.

Mrs. Jensen went over the usual, giving instructions for the project that everyone already knew, before leaving everyone to work, with her sitting behind her desk, a book in hand and a container of what you assumed were grapes by the purplish color. Though they could have been large blueberries.

“What’s so important about a quote?” Jonathan mumbled to himself, though it caught your attention from your own worksheet, looking over to him.

“In what context?” you asked, taking a sip from your drink as he began speaking.

“We’re talking about Romeo and Juliet, everyone knows what it’s about, you don’t really need a quote to explain things.”

You nodded when he looked over to you. “A lot of people only really know that it was written by Shakespeare and it’s about two star crossed lovers who kill themselves in the end. Mrs. Jensen probably knew that’s all anyone really remembers, she wants to make sure people know what’s actually happening.

“It’s pretty obvious, ‘Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ she’s asking where he is.” He shrugged a bit, placing the book down on the desk, pages open and light reflecting off of the glossy pages.

“No, she’s not,” you told him, getting an odd and questioning look from him. “Well, this was written in the 1500s, English is practically a new language at that point, getting its own footing for once, paintings of historical figures wouldn’t have the English spelling of their names, and English is a language that’s taken a bunch of different parts from other languages, mostly german. If you ever see a period piece that’s set around this period of time, if a child says ‘lady mother’ when they’re addressing their mom, they’re not acknowledging that their mother is a female. They’re acknowledging her title. So her husband is likely a lord of a piece of land, which makes her the lady of that land as well. It was an archaic way of showing respect to their mother by also saying she had a title.”

“How does that relate to the quote?”

“Well, early modern English had many different phrases, and things have changed, we’ve come up with ways to say things that are far more simple. While we think she’s asking where Romeo is, she’s actually asking why he’s Romeo. Why out of all the people she could have fallen for, it had to be him. The enemy. You could use that in the analysis, a bit of how it shows we don’t choose who we love, even if we know we shouldn’t love them.”

Jonathan blinked before looking at his worksheet, picking up his pencil and writing something down, paraphrasing what you had just said and only moments later the bell rang, signaling the end of the class period.

You grabbed your things, leaving as quickly as you could without looking like an idiot, trying to get away from what caused you to be so nervous and make you feel like you could be sick at any moment.

Growing up, you weren’t afraid of many things if any. But maybe you just needed something like this to make you afraid of everything and anything around you. To make you jump at the sound of a drop of water from outside your motel window landing on the metal railing of the stairs and walkway.

But you were terrified, and you wanted to wake up in your own bed, at home, with your dad gently shaking your shoulder to get you up and out of bed. You were terrified you’d never see your parents again, that you’d been too mean to your little brother growing up, and that the last memory he’d have of you was you being mean.

You hadn’t even been afraid to sleep on your own as a kid, and all the things that you weren’t afraid of as a child that you should have been, always seemed to worry your dad. But what would he say and think now? Would he be worried now that you lived in a constant state of fear? Just looking at clothing racks scared you.

Since July you’d been trying to act normal, trying to pretend everything was okay, trying to be your normal self, but your normal self would be odd to everyone else, you knew random things no one else did, you liked things no one even knew about yet, and if you tried to talk about those things, you knew it wouldn’t be a good outcome, not a sour one, but not happy.

⟛⟛

Add yourself to the taglist!

tagging who i know would want to be - 

@stonersteve​ @ilovebucketbarnes​

[eleventhdoctorsangel]

You will be found

Summary: I couldn't remember my life before the mandalorian that I would come to know as Din Djarin save me along with a small baby. Now we have become a small family of sorts so that the we wouldn't be found.

“You should get some rest.” Mando said. “I really don’t feel tried if it’s alright I rather stay here.” I said. Mando just gave me a small nod as he went back to his seat. I took the small ball from the baby. “Here you can have this back since the baby is asleep.” I said as I held out the ball to Mando. “Thank you.” Mando said as he took the ball as screwed it back on to lever. “Do like to be called Mandalorian or Mando?” I asked. “Mando is just fine.” Mando said. “May I ask you something?” I asked. “Depend.” Mando said. “Are you ever allowed to take off the helmet?” I asked. “No. There is no living human has seen my face since I took on the mandalorian creed.” Mando said. The baby let out soft snores as he curled more into my stomach which made me laugh softly. “Were you always a mandalorian?” I asked. “No I was a foundling.” Mando said. “What’s a foundling?” I asked. “Children that are adopted into the mandalore way.” Mando said. “Am I annoying you by asking all these questions?” I asked. “No you’re not annoying me. Who know how long it’s been since you’ve talked to another human.” Mando said. “What was your name before? Wait no that is probably too personal. Just forget I asked that.” I said. “No it’s alright. It’s Din.” Mando said. “I really like that name. I’ll only use your real name if I’m in danger. If you want me to.” I said. “You may call me Din.” Mando said. “But what if someone hears me call you Din. Wouldn’t that go against the mandalorian way?” I asked. “It does but if it would make you more comfortable around me you may call me Din.” Mando said. “I’ll think about it.” I said. We talk well we made small talk was more like it until I ended up falling asleep.

I woke up to the ship shaking which jolted me awake very quickly. “What happening?” I asked rubbing my eyes. “Way to go kid you woke her up. I told you not to do that.” Mando said. I heard the baby start to coo. “How long was I asleep?” I asked. “Not long. The kid woke back up around the same time I took him from you so you could get some rest. But it seemed he to like touching stuff. I will watch him you can go back to sleep.” Mando said. I saw the baby looking back to me from Mando’s lap. He held his arms out towards me as he started to cry. “Come on kid she needs to get some rest. I’ll watch you while she sleeps.” Mando said. But this only made the baby cry more. I let out a sigh as I got and went to go grab the baby from him. As soon as I picked him up he stopped crying. “You know you can’t be by my side all the time little guy.” I said. The baby looked up to me with his big eyes and put a hand on my face. “Oh no don’t play the cute card with me.” I said. The baby put his other hand on my face and cooed. “Alright fine you win this round.” I said. The baby smiled up at me like he knew. This made me laugh a little. “He really seems to like you. You also seemed to be the only one he listens to.” Mando said. “Well I’m not so sure about that.” I said as I went to sit back down. “He cries if he can’t see you or hold him.” Mando said. “He’ll get over it.” I said. “Easier said than done. Get ready we’re about to land.” Mando said. I got myself and the baby buckled in.

The land was just fine and I unbuckled the baby and I. “Now wasn’t that fun huh.” I said to the baby. The baby looked up at me clapping his hands and giggles. I smiled and poked his nose. He grabbed my finger and started chew on it. “Now what have I said about chewing on things that are not food.” I said taking my finger out of his mouth and wiping it on my shirt. “Now listen you two. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to look around. It shouldn’t take too long. Now you don’t touch anything.” Mando said pointing to the baby. “I’ll keep him out of everything.” I said. “I’ll find us some lodging then I’ll come back for the two of you. You stay right here. You stay. Don’t move. You understand. You be good for her.” Mando said. The baby grunted back at him. “Great.” Mando said and walked out of the cockpit. The baby looked up to me and it was almost like I knew what he was thinking. “Oh no. You heard we gotta stay here.” I said. He cooed and got down from my lap and followed behind Mando. I jumped up from my seat following the baby. I found him standing by Mando with the back hatch open. The baby was looking up at Mando cooing. “I’m so sorry he wanted to follow you.” I said as I picked up the baby holding him close to me. Mando let out a sigh. “Oh what the hell? Come on.” Mando said. Mando was first to walk out and I followed behind him holding the baby to me.

As we walked closer to the cantina the baby started to squirm in my arms. “What do you want down?” I asked. The baby squirm more in arms. “Okay I’ll let you down.” I said as I sat the baby down on the ground. He started to waddle around with a smile. “Keep up with Mando and I okay.” I said. Mando was a bit ahead of us I kept closer to the baby in cased  something happens. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the baby walked around. We walked inside the cantina. I kept to make sure that no one stepped on or kicked the baby. Then the baby saw this cat looking creature and started to walk up to it. The creature ended up lunging and hiss at the baby. But I quickly picked him up holding him to my chest. He let out a cry as he gripped my hair. “It’s okay little one.” I said as I caught back up with Mando.

We walked over to a table I sat the baby down in one of the three chairs and I sat down next to the baby. Mando sat on the other side of the table. Then one of the people who works here came up to the table. “Welcome travelers. Can I interest you in anything?” She asked. “Bone broth for the little one and the lady and a jug of water.” Mando said. “Oh well you’re in luck. I just took down a grinjer so there’s plenty. Can I interest you in a porringer of broth as well?” She asked. “Just the little one and the lady.” Mando said. “Very well.” She said. “That one over there. When did she arrive?” Mando asked. That’s when I noticed a lady over on the other side of the cantina. “I’ve seen her here for the last week or so.” She said. “What’s her business here?” Mando asked. “Business? Oh well there’s not much business in Sorgan so I can’t say.” She said laughing a little. This made Mando throw a sack of credits on to the table. “She doesn’t strike me as a log runner. Well thank you sir. I will get that broth and jug of water to you as soon as possible and I will throw in a flagon of spotchka just for good measure. I will be right back with that.” She said as she picked up the sack of credits and walked away. When she did Mando was quick to get up. “Stay here.” Mando said and walked away. Not long after she came back with the stuff Mando ordered for me and the baby. “Can I get you two anything else?” She asked. “No we’re fine thank you.” I said. “Alright if you two need anything let me know.” She said. “I will. Thank you.” I said. She nodded and walked away. I handed the baby his little bowl of bone broth. “Careful little one it’s still hot.” I said as I gave him the bowl. He smiled and took it and started to slip at it. I rubbed one of his ears then I pour myself some water. I took a drink and when I took the cup away from my face I noticed the baby was gone. I started to choke on the water. This caused quite a few people to look over at me. I got up from the table and went over to the lady who brought us the broth and water. “Did you see where the baby went?” I asked. She nodded. “Yes I saw him follow the man the two of you came in with outside. I’m sure that he’ll bring the baby back in. He probably just wanted to go find dad. So mom just go sit back down. It will be fine.” She said. I nodded and went to sit back down knowing that she was right he probably just went to find Mando. A few minutes later Mando walked back in with the baby in his arms and the woman he wanted to know about following him. “We need to get him to stop wondering off.” Mando said as he sat the baby back down. I nodded. “He scared me but she told me that he followed you.” I said. “Did he get you while you weren’t looking?” The woman asked. “He better not make a habit of it.” I said laughing a little and poke his nose. “This is” Mando said but stopped. “Cara Dune.” Cara said. “Y/n.” I said. Cara sat down and started to talk to Mando and I.

“Saw most of my action mopping up after Endor. Mostly Ex-imperial warlords. They wanted it fast and quiet. They’d sent us in on the drop ships. No support just us. Then when the imps were gone the politics started. We were peacekeepers protecting delegates suppressing riots. Not what I signed up for.” Cara said. “How’d you end up here?” Mando asked. “Let’s just call it an early retirement. Look I knew you were guild. I figured you had a fob on me. That’s why I came at you so hard.” Cara said. “Yeah that’s what I figured. Well this has been a real treat but unless you wanna go another round one of us is gonna have to move on and I was here first. As for you little one you better start listening to your mom.” Cara said as she finished drink her broth leaving the empty bowl on the table and walked away. Well I guess it’s official I’m the little one mom. “Well looks like this planet’s taken.” Mando said. The baby looked over to me holding up he’s arms. “Alright some here.” I said picking him up. He wrapped his little arms around my neck the best he could. I felt as one of his hands griped my hair then I could hear his soft snores. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Looks like someone had a long day.” I said. “Come on I should get you two back to the razor crest.” Mando said as he got up. I nodded and got up while trying not to wake up the baby.

[fl0ating-tree]

Fanfic prompt: everyones first visit to Dream in the prison (specifically Puffy, Sapnap, Punz, George, and/or Niki)

OOH i really hope we get to see these actually happen because my heart is gonna snap when it does happen. im gonna do george + sapnap and puffy bc this would be super long if I did them all. 

george is probably OOC because we don’t really have an example of how he is when he’s in character. also fair warning for puffy’s part, it might come off as a little c!dream sympathetic. that’s not the intention, it’s more to show how even dream still has emotions even thought he’s awful, but if that stuff really upsets you maybe don’t read puffy’s part. it’s barely there but still. 

George and Sapnap

Sam rarely stood guard outside of the prison. After all, it’s inescapable and he’s the only one with access. After locking Dream away Sam reassured them all that he built safety features in that no one but him, not even Dream, knew about. Sapnap called him paranoid when Sam told him that over lunch one day, now he couldn’t be more thankful.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Sam asks as he leads both Sapnap and George towards the only occupied cell. “He’s...he’s not exactly fun to be around at the moment.” Sapnap cringes at that. He feels bad that Sam is the one who has to bring Dream food and water, but no one else was particularly jumping at the opportunity to be around Dream after what happened. He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget Punz’s panicked urges for him to find anyone on the server and meet up at the Nether hub. How Punz led them through the Nether in full sprint, giving them all the vague explanation of “Dream is going to kill Tubbo and lock up Tommy” and nothing else. Sapnap wouldn’t have believed him if he didn’t walk in on Dream laughing at a despondent Tommy, holding a sword to Tubbo’s neck. Seeing the walls lined in trophey cases labeled for his friends and allies belongings (and even loved ones, was Dream really going to put Skeppy in a cage just to get to Bad?) 

“Sapnap?” Sam asks again after Sapnap doesn’t respond. 

“Yeah, sorry,” Sapnap shakes his head and continues walking, glancing at George to his left, “I’m sure.” George says nothing and continues walking. He hasn’t said anything since he logged on asking where Dream was. It took an hour of nearly everyone on the server telling George what happened for him to believe it. Even after everything Dream had done, George was still loyal to a fault. 

“George?” Sapnap presses and George’s shoulder stiffen.

“I need to see him for myself,” George says flatly and Sam and Sapnap share a look before continuing down the halls. Sam brings them through locked doors, redstone contraptions, pad locks after pad locks and at some points he even has George and Sapnap be blindfolded so they can’t see the inner workings. Sapnap was worried, as were others, that Sam would betray them and simply let Dream escape. But the fury in Sam’s eyes when he saw the cage built for Fran, when he heard Dream blew up the Community House, that squashed any thoughts of betrayal still lingering. 

“Wait here,” Sam tells them and Sapnap can smell redstone lighting and pistons firing before Sam’s now muffled voice calls out to them. “You can take off the blindfolds now,” he calls and they both do.

Before them is a large blackstone box, the wall between the cell and the corridor being made of obsidian enforced glass (Sapnap didn’t even know that was possible to make until Sam told him about it.) It was well lit and inside the cell was a decent looking bed, a door in the far corner presumably leading to a bathroom, a desk with papers and blunt markers, a round table with only one chair, and lastly, Dream. All things considered the cell was nice, nicer than Dream deserved, but Dream himself looked terrible. His mask was gone, destroyed by Tommy, and it made him so...human. Out of the corner of his eye Sapnap could see George studying Dream as well. His clothes were disheveled, deep bruises still on his face from his fight with Tommy and Tubbo, and where there was a normally calm and sophisticated aura surrounding him, Sapnap saw nothing but unjustified anger. 

“You’ve got visitors,” Sam says unnecessarily from where he stands by the lever to open the cell. George flinches at how detached Sam sounds. The normally kind and bright man sounded almost disappointed in Dream. 

“Yay me,” Dream snaps back, it’s Sapnap who flinches this time.

“You two wanna go in, or just talk through the glass?” Sam asks and Sapnap looks to George for an answer. He doesn’t give an answer, only stepping closer to the glass. Dream leans up from his relaxed position on the bed, intrigued. 

“I’ve gotta say Gogy this is probably the biggest thing you’ve slept through yet,” Dream teases, his voice friendly and open and Sapnap hates how badly it makes him want to break Dream out of this terrifying prison and pretend like nothing bad has ever happened.

“Were you really going to kill Tubbo?” George asks, voice quiet and void of emotion.

“Why do you care?” Dream growls, and Sapnap remembers why he can’t pretend like this is the Dream from months ago that he built the community house with, “You never gave a fuck about what was happening before, why do you care now? Cause Sapnap told you to care?” The mockery in Dream’s voice builds tension in George’s shoulders.

“He’s 17, Dream,” George’s voice is thick and Sapnap takes a step forward, having his own questions for Dream. 

“Why did you do any of it?” Sapnap asks, “Taking everything everyone loves? Controlling Tommy, trying to kill Tubbo, why did you do it?” 

“None of you get it!” Dream screams and even Sam jumps in surprise, “This is my server! I’m in control here, not Tommy, not Tubbo, no one but me!” Seeing Dream this...lost, this out of his element, without the mask is unsettling. His face is too raw, too many emotions on display from the man Sapnap always knew as calm and collected and one step ahead. Sapnap turns away, not baring to see his once best friend so far gone. 

“I’ve seen enough,” Sapnap tells Sam quietly, and the man nods. He guides Sapnap towards the exit, the two of them glancing back when George doesn’t follow. Dream seems to notice as well.

“Not gonna follow them Gogy?” He laughs, crazed and maniacal and hauntingly similar to a certain dead president. 

“You don’t get to call me that,” George snaps, voice fierce and shoulders tense. “You lost the right to call me that a long time ago.” 

The three of them say nothing else as Sam leads them out of the prison, even as Dream’s screams echo down the hallway and echo in their minds for the rest of the night. 

Captain Puffy

It started out as a joke, if Puffy was being honest. Dream had followed her around one day, carrying extra supplies for her, listening to stories of her old pirate adventures, and helping her with her daily tasks. She’d later find out that he was having a really terrible week, stressed from events he wouldn’t disclose (she’d later find out about those “events” as well, to her disgust) and not wanting to talk to anyone but needing something to occupy himself. Puffy joked around, calling him her “duckling” and let him continue doing it. It helped her and him, so she found no harm in it.

Months passed with their small routine. Dream would have a bad day or simply not want to be around the others (Puffy would, again, find out later that it was more that others didn’t want to be around him) so he would follow her around, helping out with her daily tasks or just spending the day with her. It reminded her so much of one of the younger boys on her long abandoned crew, cured a small amount of homesickness, and slowly it became less of a joke and more of a true friendship. The day Dream slipped up and called her mom, even thought she’s only two years older, used to be one of her favorite memories. Emphasis on used to be. 

She was hesitant when she heard rumors of Dream’s villainy. This was Dream they were talking about, the kind guy who came to her when he had a bad day and helped her with anything she asked. She saw him build up those walls around L’manberg, and she heard the murmurs of how he wouldn’t let anyone go see Tommy in his exile, but she passed them off as hyperbolic or flat out lies. She wonders if she was more attentive to what Dream was doing could she have prevented some of this pain. She doesn’t think she’ll ever recover from seeing Dream, her duckling, seconds away from killing a child and further traumatizing another. 

“We’re here,” Sam tells her solemnly as she hears pistons move and unties her blindfold. She could care less about how the cell looked, or how impressive the redstone was. All she could focus on was Dream, standing close to the glass, looking terrible. His mask was gone, showing his emotions clear as day. His eyes screamed sadness and anger and betrayal all in one. His hair was tangled and there was still some blood matted in it from where Tommy had fought him. His shirt was wrinkled and he didn’t even have any shoes. He was simply stood looking heartbroken and entirely human in this cell and it took ever ounce of willpower in Puffy to not cry to Sam to let him out. He looks nothing like the monster who manipulated and controlled others, he looked like her Dream, her duckling, her friend. 

“Dream...” Puffy starts but the words die on her tongue. 

“Puffy, please,” Dream starts and without the mask she can see tears welling in his eyes, “I know it looks bad but you know how bad these past months have been for me, you’ve always been there for me, you have to understand.” 

“I don’t...” the air in the room feels suffocating, “Dream I saw it with my own eyes. I saw it with my own eyes. How could you?” She watches as anger overrides Dream’s eyes but a mournful look still stays on his face.

“Puffy, Cara, you know me,” Puffy can’t hold back her sob when Dream uses her real name. The only other person she told that was Niki, and after their recent fight over what to do with Tommy, Puffy really didn’t want to think about Niki right now. “You know I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have a reason. I’m doing what’s right, I’m making sure there’s no more fighting. You’re smart, you know me, I wouldn’t do this.” 

Puffy looks at Sam who looks an awful combination of guilty, furious, and depressed. Sometimes she forgets Sam has been here since the beginning. She wonders if Dream has always been evil, if he was always this manipulative, in the beginning. 

“When you would help me,” Puffy starts, still not looking at Dream, “when you were my duckling, was that just a cover? Was that just you trying to use me, too?” She turns back to meet Dream’s eyes, the mask no longer there to hide the way his eyes scream that he’s lying. His face is a dead give away for what he’s doing, Puffy wonders if that’s why he always wore the mask. 

“No, Cara,” Dream lies through his teeth, “I’d never use you, I promise. You have to believe me.” 

The three of them stand in silence, Dream leaning on the glass with fake tears in his eyes and real tears in Puffy’s. Sam is deathly quiet in the corner of the room, watching and not intervening. Puffy can’t tell if she appreciates that or not. What she can tell is that she can’t stand to look at Dream another minute. 

“I really did care about you, Dream,” she wipes her tears on her sleeve and turns to Sam, “I’m done.” Sam just nods and leads Puffy towards the exit. 

“Puffy, please! I wouldn’t do this, don’t you see it!” Dream pleads, voice morphing from sorrow to anger, “I did what I had to! Puffy listen to me! CARA!” 

Sam still says nothing as he sets a steadying hand on Puffy’s shoulder as she sobs, guiding her out of the prison and away from her duckling. 

[caithyra]

A lot of people claim Kagura (and by extension her "siblings") was a full demon, but am I alone in thinking that she was always a half-demon/hanyo because she was an incarnation of Naraku, who was also a half-demon?

First a disclaimer: I view Naraku’s incarnations very different from the rest of fandom, like I do with most things in this manga.

Naraku’s incarnations fans might not like my interpretation... Oh, and it only pertains to the manga.

TL;DR: They are likely as yokai as Sesshomaru’s severed arm. Except Muso. (Skip to the bottom of this post if you want the elaborated, quick answer of my interpretation and then the probable canon answer, which is different. I just have an interpretation of canon that I haven’t seen anyone else suggest before that...)

Anyway, first we are going to go through what Naraku is before he creates his incarnations:

Onigumo, a human, who is devoured by a yokai horde that becomes Naraku.

Naraku is then a hanyo capable of absorbing other yokai and their power, which he presumably does a few times before he tries something as big as absorbing a daiyokai like Sesshomaru (which he fails at), given his attempt at Sesshomaru, we can presume that at least a few of these yokai were powerful even if they were not daiyokai, since going from lesser yokai to greater yokai without anyone inbetween is very foolhardy, given how weak Naraku was at the time (he also used manipulations mostly during this time).

So up to the point that the manga starts, Naraku is a mostly yokai hanyo made up of literally hundreds of yokai of various powers and strengths.

Then, before he begins creating incarnations Naraku is nearly killed by Kagome (this is an important part of my interpretation) and cannot restore himself without turning towards a dark type of magic called kodoku.

Kodoku is a magical ritual/art called “gu/ku” in Chinese in which various toxic creatures are put into an enclosed space to absorb one another until only one remains. This remaining creature (also called Gu/Ku/Kodoku) is considered supremely toxic and powerful and with various abilities such as pestilence, manipulation (Naraku/Kanna/Infant?), transformation (Naraku), and a number of other things that falls well within Naraku’s sphere of power.

Anyway, Naraku absorbs the kodoku and is restored, and also made up of even more different kinds of yokai. And he holds a large chunk of the empowering Shikon no Tama, courtesy of Kikyo.

And that’s when he begins creating incarnations (分身 - bunshin).

That word, bunshin, is a funny thing. In Naruto, it is the “clone” part in Clone Techniques (such as Kage Bunshin/Shadow Clone which Naruto uses all the time), and as a common word, has been used in many manga/anime/games.

Here’s the definition of Jisho.org for example:

ぶんしん 分身 common word Noun 1. other self; alter ego; part of oneself (in someone or something else); representation of oneself 2. (Buddhist term) incarnations of Buddha​

Kotobank.jp translates it into “double/doppelgänger” and has this to say:

1. One divided into two or more separate bodies. 2. (Buddhist term, similar to above.)

But basically, a bunshin is not a separate person from what they are a bunshin of most of the time in pop culture (or they are re/pre/incarnations like in Buddhism, but no one suggests Kagura is to Naraku what Kagome is to Kikyo, so... *shrugs* Lets got with the other definition!). They always exist in relation to the original (Naraku). Other translations simply call them detachments, which has the implication of parts of Naraku that he’s cut off and given life for his own purposes.

I will be skipping Muso since he is an aberration among the bunshin, and likely the most hanyo of the lot.

The first bunshin Naraku creates is Kanna, who has no will, no emotions and no drive of her own. She solely does Naraku’s bidding, no more, no less. (There is a sole exception of her death scene, but that was more to inform the heroes of Kikyo’s light, which curtails with how the story began bending to fit Kikyo as a tragic heroine... Don’t even get me started...)

Then he creates Kagura, who is the opposite extreme; freedom is her greatest aspiration and she continuously backtalks Naraku and tries to act against him, yet, in the end, everything goes as Naraku wants when it comes to Kagura (this is also important).

Lets look at these two extremes and lets pretend that these are not Naraku’s incarnations; they are toasters.

Kanna is the toaster that Naraku must put the perfect settings in every time before use and push the toast down with a lever. Then he must wait and push the eject button, because Kanna wont do it herself.

Kagura is the fancy toaster with all the bells and whistles and more settings than anyone needs, including sensors to tell when the perfect toast is done to be ejected. She even automatically lowers the toast into the toasting slots when you put them in. In theory, Naraku doesn’t need to do anything else; Kagura knows exactly what to do to make the toast Naraku wants. Except fancy gadgets like these malfunctions and are temperamental and has the wrong settings put in and, yeah, Kagura doesn’t want to make Naraku’s perfect toast, but Naraku has rigged a big, complicated Rube-Goldberg machine to push her eject button before she can irreparably burn his toast, so it doesn’t matter.

All the different incarnations are on a sliding scale of these, except for Hakudoshi, who is an even fancier version of Kagura and capable of making grilled cheese sandwiches, and what more, Naraku wants Hakudoshi to burn some of his toast, because of the risk/reward that one day, Hakudoshi will not burn Naraku’s toast, but instead will make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich for Naraku to enjoy.

Byakuya, by contrast, is the perfect blend of obedient Kanna and the ability to make tedious decisions and act on his own like Kagura.

It’s like with computer programs; some require a dozen clicks to complete a task, another, that has been further programmed (given personality and motivation), only require one.

In short, I do not see them as separate people from Naraku, which is where I diverge from most of fandom; they have no pupils, which are signs of possession/not having their own minds in many anime, which is also a yokai trait (like Koga), but is egregious when it comes to everything else. It should be noted that most of Naraku’s bunshin are obedient to Naraku, but that in order to arrive to the perfect blend of independent action plus unquestioning obedience that is Byakuya, he experimented with giving more or less free will, individual desires and so on.

And it was Kagura who led me to believe that:

First; she is given the appearance of “Sesshomaru’s ideal woman” according to Takahashi who believes that all men want Kikyo or someone like her (”Sesshomaru’s ideal type of woman” is “like Kikyo” according to her according to some interview I’ve seen quoted around, but I would like an actual source, please...), including Sesshomaru, so she makes Kagura a young woman like Kikyo named after a dance that miko, like Kikyo, dance.

Second; she is given a sympathetic motivation “freedom” but at no point do we get a clue as to how she feels about “freedom” other than something to attain. She does not daydream about it or what she will do with it, she does not envy others’ freedom overtly (nor resentfully watching them), there’s literally nothing except her nebulously wanting “freedom” being “the free wind” when she passes away.

Third; she is obviously and loudly antagonistic towards Naraku, and, indeed he, the great villain, holds her heart literally in his hand to torture her with. Don’t you want to save her? Give this pretty lady freedom?

Fourth; she really wants Sesshomaru to save her, despite the fact that Sesshomaru has never come close to killing Naraku and always refuses to save Kagura.

Fifth; but when Kagome, the only person to ever come close to killing Naraku in the entire series at this point, offers to protect Kagura, Kagura refuses and still goes to Sesshomaru. Even though Kagome is not just the person whose power Naraku fears, but also someone with a history of taking in her foes as friends (unlike Sesshomaru).

Sixth; Tenseiga did not even react to Kagura “dying”.

None of this makes sense, unless one thinks of Kagura as a part of Naraku that he has “programmed” specifically to mess with Sesshomaru. In that case, Kagura refusing Kagome’s protection while still being infatuated with Sesshomaru who refuses to do anything and has proven nothing as her supposed savior, and the lack of psychopomps at her death and Tenseiga having no reaction, makes sense if Kagura is little more than something like a living tentacle of Naraku’s, given a pretty face, personality and “programming” to go hard for Sesshomaru and then, use her final moment to upset him (by this time, everyone knows Sesshomaru’s complex with his father’s swords, so if his sword wont work when predictably would he ask it to... Cue upset Sesshomaru. Too bad Inu no Taisho did one up on Naraku on that front by ensuring Inuyasha got the Meido after Sesshomaru and Rin nearly died in front of Sesshomaru’s mother for Sesshomaru to get it... Naraku’s manipulations got nothing on InuPapa’s beyond the grave...).

It would explain her undeveloped motivation (the abstract “freedom”), why everything still goes as Naraku wishes despite a few hiccups and so on, and, of course, why she had no soul for Tenseiga to save...

Naraku might as well have told Kanna “fall in love with Sesshomaru and plead with him to give you freedom” and Kanna would do her best to obey, but because of her non-personality, the emotional manipulation would be obvious (even more so once she refused Kagome, since, after all, it is Sesshomaru who is to give her freedom). But Naraku would have to micromanage her extensively to do so as well as make her a mature body. Far easier to just create a new detachment with slightly more free will and so on with the “programming” installed.

Does Kagura know this? Maybe she suspected it by being around her “siblings” and noting how different their levels of sapience/sentience/free wills were (and she even tells Hakudoshi that his plans will come to naught because Naraku wont allow it, suggesting she believes Naraku’s will is absolute over the incarnations), but she probably felt like her own person, and would have been “programmed” to think of herself as such and dismiss any suspicions to the contrary.

It would fit very well with the body-horror aspect of early Inuyasha and Naraku’s character as a whole. But would also be a bit too much for a children’s comic magazine in an action series...

So what are Naraku’s incarnations on the human-yokai scale?

They are likely yokai, like Sesshomaru’s severed arm, with the exception of Muso who had Naraku’s most human part in him and would likely be considered hanyo on a DNA test. They were likely made from the yokai parts of the hordes that make up Naraku after the kodoku, but aren’t separate people (like, the parts of a crane yokai would have been used to create Byakuya, for example, while oni parts would have been used for Goshinki). They are just more advanced dolls made of purely yokai parts IMO.

But that’s just my extremely niche interpretation of the manga and the inconsistencies with the story.

In canon, it is much more likely that the simpler explanation; that they are separate people who are also yokai (except Muso), is the answer.

I just don’t like the inconsistencies it creates within the story and made my own interpretation and rambled on and on in this post. Sorry.

[mischiefandspirits]

Last Laugh (2 of 3)

“Oh, I noticed,” Red X said lowly, tossing the staff aside. “What that idiot was thinking letting Flamebird send you all the way across the country right after Batkid got blown up, I’ll never know.”

Robin flinched back at the accusation before his fists clenched at his sides. “Then you’ll be happy to know no one sent me here. It’s just where I ended up when Batman decided he didn’t want to work with me anymore and tossed me out.”

The story of how Dick ended up with the Titans in Batkid and Robin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason once told Dick that he spent months after he’d come to the manor worrying he’d be dumped back onto the streets at any minute. As a result, he’d kept go-bags hidden around, ready to go at a moment’s notice in hopes that he’d have time to grab one before he was sent away. They each had water bottles and food stolen from the kitchen, bandages from the infirmary, a backup set of clothes, a good blanket, a knife, and some cash he’d save whenever Bruce would give him any.

The others had known about them, of course, but hadn’t said anything. Jason had only known because Bruce would sneak some extra cash into them and Selina would slip in things that could be useful on the streets that he hadn’t considered while Alfred had checked them every so often to refresh the food and make sure he wasn’t filling them with junk food.

Once he’d gotten more comfortable, he’d started giving them up. By the time Bruce had disappeared, all the bags Jason had hidden had been unpacked. He never let go of his need to be prepared, though. So in place of the bags, he had four briefcases. Bulletproof, fireproof, blast-proof, and with encrypted locks, they were filled with paperwork for Jason to use in case he ever needed to go on the run. Each had everything necessary for a fake identity, including corresponding bank account information. All were created outside the family’s influence just in case the reason he needed to lie low was mind control.

Dick had never seen what was inside the first two, didn’t even know where Jason had stashed them, but he knew the third had a file for Casey Jacob Dickinson. Only because the fourth held the file for Casey’s half-brother Ryan Emil Dickinson.

The latter is the one Dick took when he snuck into Jason’s room and pried up the loose floorboard hidden under the dresser in the closet. It was their special secret, something only they shared. Something Jason had trusted Dick and only Dick with.

“Thanks, Jay,” he said, replacing the floorboard. He pushed the dresser back into place then moved to leave, but paused when he spotted the brown jacket hanging by the door.

Dick had gotten it for Jason to match his own red Batkid hoodie. He’d accidentally gotten it in a larger size than Jason usually liked to wear, but that hadn’t stopped his brother from wearing it every time the two of them hung out with just each other.

Running his thumb over the red robin patch on the shoulder, Dick stared at the jacket for a moment before pulling it off the hanger.

They wouldn’t miss it. No one had been in the room in over a month.

Case in hand and jacket slung over his shoulder, he snuck back to his room. He opened the case and pulled out the file. He slipped the ID and debit card into his wallet before putting the file into the lockbox. He carefully folded the jacket and set it into the case along with the small photo album Selina had helped him put together. It held pictures of everyone in the family, including the photo Tim had given him of himself, his parents, Damian, Jon, Duke, Tim, Steph, Jason, Babs, and Cass from that night.

It was the only picture he had of his parents, thanks to the people who ran Gotham Juvenile Detention losing almost everything he’d taken with him from the circus. He had another copy on his nightstand back at the house he, Damian, and Jon shared -- had shared -- in Somerset. The family he’d lost side by side with the family he’d gained. It made him sad every time he saw it, but it was still his favorite.

Except now they were both families he’d lost.

At least if Bruce gets his way.

Dick slammed the case closed and stuck it into the duffle bag next to the lockbox. He locked the box then piled in the clothes he’d already gathered. He tossed his wallet into the bag then zipped it up and shoved it back under the bed.

One last thing to do.

He was halfway to the closest cave entrance when he bumped into Bruce and Selina.

“Hey there, songbird,” Selina greeted.

“Hey.”

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Bruce said and reached out to ruffle his hair.

Dick stepped away before he could, then walked past them. “Not hungry.”

“He heard the news, then?”

“Hm.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“I will. I’m the one he’s mad at.”

Dick stomped into the library, ignoring his tail.

“Dick, let’s talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I know you’re upset, but -”

“Then leave me alone.”

“Please just let m-”

“I get it,” Dick snapped, spinning to face the man. “You got what you wanted. You didn’t want Damian to -” To foster him, to bring him into Bruce’s home, to try and make a place for him in the family. He’d heard enough snippets of the arguments Damian and Bruce had had when Bruce came back. He’d always thought Bruce thought Damian was the problem, that he didn’t trust Damian with Dick and planned to take Dick in himself. He’d also thought Bruce had finally accepted that Damian was keeping Dick. Had he been wrong on both counts?

Or had Dick’s actions ruined everything?

“Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?”

“Dick,” Bruce sighed. He knelt in front of Dick and set his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I just want what’s best for you.”

“Anything to get what you want,” Dick snorted and pushed the hand off so he could turn away before Bruce could see his tears.

“Dick, wait.”

A hand caught his wrist and Dick…

He was losing his family again. Jason was dead. Bruce had taken Robin. Damian was sending him back. His only hope was that the others would fight for him, but would they?

If they didn’t, he’d be alone.

Again.

And it would be his fault this time.

But it would also be because…

Dick spun around and hit Bruce right in the jaw.

Then he ran.

Tim and Jason had both long outgrown the small vent hidden above a tall bookshelf in the far corner of the library and Dick had never needed to use it, but it still swung easily on the hinges the second Batkid had installed after discovering the hidden nook.

He climbed through and let the vent swing silently shut behind him. He crawled down the shaft until he reached a similar vent. He dropped down into a thin, dusty hallway. Down the hall, around a corner, then down another hall was a small door halfway up the wall. A makeshift ladder led up to it and a hidden lever opened it, revealing Bruce’s study.

Dick dropped out of the hidden passage, letting the door swing shut behind him to meld unnoticeably with the rest of the wall. He twisted the hands of the grandfather clock on the opposite wall and disappeared down into the cave, heading for the vehicle bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick left while the others were all patrolling and Alfred was taking a break. He used a bike that he’d removed the tracker from and kept all his devices off. He went to a hotel in the Bowery that he knew was shady enough to look the other way when a fourteen-year-old rented a room on his own, but not shady enough to take advantage of it.

He gave it a week, then two, before sneaking onto a roof in Coventry on a night he knew Oracle wouldn’t be working. He turned on the comm he’d brought and listened in. For the most part, everything was just the usual reporting in. However, things changed just before one.

“I’m moving in. Going dark,” Batman said.

“Got it, B-man,” Batgirl chirped. After a moment, in a more somber voice, she said, “So…”

Black Bat groaned and Orphan said, “No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask!”

“We haven’t heard anything, and we’re not getting involved,” Black Bat said shortly.

“Not our place,” Orphan agreed.

“I know that! I was just wondering if Flamebird’s changed his mind,” Batgirl huffed.

“It’s for the best,” Orphan said after a moment.

“I get that,” Batgirl sighed. “I’m just going to miss the kid. I already miss him, and I know Oracle and Pup do too.”

“We all feel that way, but… I feel bad that he’s losing Robin, but he needs to get away from all this. After everything that’s happened… Flamebird’s right,” Black Bat said softly.

“Robin will be better off there, no matter how much we miss him,” Orphan insisted.

“Yeah, yeah. Have you guys gotten any leads on where he could -”

Dick didn’t hear the rest of Batgirl’s question as he yanked out the comm and smashed it on the ground.

He’d thought… He’d hoped…

But they agreed with Bruce. They agreed with sending him away. They weren’t going to talk Damian around.

Dick pressed his face into his knees and screamed.

He couldn’t stay in Gotham. The Bats would eventually find him, and now he knew that’d be a one-way ticket back to juvie.

He left the hotel in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robin had been hesitant to stay with the others. There was no way the Bats hadn’t noticed his involvement in the invasion that had brought their team together. It was better for him to move on as soon as possible

He really hadn't wanted to, though.

They had been an amazing team and had quickly become friends. He also knew they would understand his past if he told them since Wonder Girl was an outcast among most Amazons as a result of her Brazilian heritage, Impulse was dealing with the fact her father was currently lost in the Speed Force, Virus was still trying to reconnect with his people now that he’s free from the Mawlix, and Nightstar had run away from home to get away from her absentee mother’s shadow.

That was the only reason he stayed as long as he had while they began to put together their base using the remains of Virus’s ship.

He was working up to telling the team he had to leave when he stumbled upon Impulse and Wonder Girl talking in the common area.

“It’s a shame, really,” Impulse sighed, clutching a magazine.

“Boohoo,” Wonder Girl snorted, not looking up from her book.

“I’m serious.”

“He’s one boy, and not even a worthwhile one from what I’ve seen.”

“Speedy said White Arrow and Silver Canary have met him, though, and he’s super sweet.” The speedster shoved the magazine towards her face. “Plus, just look at him!”

Wonder Girl shoved it away, rolling her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked hesitantly.

“Impulse is crying because some famous pretty boy is going away to boarding school.”

The speedster shot her a look then turned sad eyes on Robin. “It’s Richard Grayson!”

Ice shot down Robin’s spine. “What?”

“Yeah, the Waynes are shipping him off to some school overseas,” she said, waving the magazine towards him and he took it. “The family wouldn’t say where since they wanted…”

Robin fell back on his training to keep his face blank and his hands steady as he scanned through the article.

They knew where he was, and they were covering it up. They had come up with a grand lie about him going to school in England to explain his absence.

They weren’t coming for him.

“Poor guy,” he said, closing the magazine and handing it back.

“See, Robin gets it!” he heard Impulse say as he turned and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Small Easter Eggs: The briefcase from Teen Titans episode "Revved Up" and Dick punching Bruce from The New Batman Adventures episode "Old Wounds".

[binniedeactivated]

saint. || soobin🌪(5)

🖤┊𝔰𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱 . ೄྀ࿐ 𝖕𝖆𝖎𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌: 𝖘𝖔𝖔𝖇𝖎𝖓 𝖝 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖗𝖊: 𝖘𝖒𝖚𝖙/𝖆𝖚 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖙; 1847

you sat at your desk feeling sleepier than ever. It was a late night but studying for your quiz wasn’t optional. If you had any low grades your parents would be more than disappointed in you. your mother walks in though, and watches you doze off every five minutes trying to focus on a page. 

“hey get some rest. you need it. you’ve studied enough in your study group right?”. 

barely awake you nod your head and stare at her. 

“okay you should sleep”. you nod your head once more and climb in your bed grateful to finally feel your pillow. once your head touched it you felt asleep almost instantly. your mother stares at you in awe, she was happy that she was lucky enough to have such an obedient daughter. 

well at least to her knowledge.

while the day was breaking soobin was replying to text messages from his friends. They all happened to be in one big group chat that was filled with nothing but gossip. “are you at her house yet?”. one of his friends had asked, to which soobin replied, “yeah i’m in her driveway”. the chat was spammed with laughing emojis until one of his friends texted, “I’m happy you’re doing this for us soobin, she’d never kiss our ass like that”. soobin quickly sends eye rolling emojis. “but on the brightside, at least we’re all getting something out of it”. one of his friends texts. before he could type his next message though Mia opens her front door and spots soobin’s car. Soobin waves in a friendly manner. She smiles, wearing the tightest shorts she could possibly find. Her long dirty blonde hair swayed in the wind until she finally sat in the passenger seat of soobin’s car. 

“Hey baby”.  she cooed kissing him on his cheek. Soobin looked at her and cocked up an eyebrow. “so? you wanted me to come over?”. she crosses her legs and traces her finger on soobin’s chest. “you know, it’s my parents’ date night and I was kind of thinking maybe we can..”. she trails her finger down soobin’s chest and stops at his crotch. she winks. 

“couldn’t wait until tomorrow huh?”. soobin grins. she shakes her head no like a pouty baby before she unzips his pants. soobin pushes down the lever and pushes the chair back, making room for her to go underneath him. And that she did. She climbed over and sat on the car floor underneath the steering wheel. She pulled down his boxer briefs and let his dick spring free. She smirks before she pushes the head of it into her mouth, making soobin curse. 

the boys texted soobin at the perfect time to say, “did she suck your dick yet?”, with thousands of laughing emojis. with Mia fixing her shorts and trying to clean her hair from cum whilst she walked to the door, soobin snarkily replied, “hell yeah”. and the group chat went into an uproar once again.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. ˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩.

you didn’t really want to go after all the things that happened. but you had to. it was a school requirement. you went and sat in the confessional box. soobin was watching you from the pews with the dumbest grin on his face. they were all supposed to be praying but of course soobin had to take the extra mile and let his eyes follow you. 

“good afternoon”. he called out. 

“good afternoon father benjamin”. 

“Is there anything you’d like to confess?”. 

you sigh. welp. this was the moment soobin was waiting for at least. 

“I don’t know if it’s because i’m a teenager. but i’ve become...really dirty recently and I just hope i can be forgiven for it”. father benjamin chuckles.

“of course you can be forgiven. it’s completely normal for a teenager to have these kinds of feelings at this age”.

“really?”. you ask. 

“of course, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do”. 

you frown and palm your face. 

“I know. I’m probably on my way to hell aren’t I?”. father benjamin laughs again. 

“of course not. you can always be forgiven by your father”. 

well that’s a relief. 

“but you must remember to not take advantage of forgiveness. taking it for granted can be very dangerous”. 

“I understand. thank you father benjamin”. 

“no thank you, my saint. enjoy your day”. he replies. you get up and allow one of the sisters to lead you back to your row for prayer. soobin just looks at you with that same grin again and you wanted to punch him. 

“shut up soobin”. 

“were you forgiven for being a bad girl?”. 

“were you given detention for not praying and focusing on me?”.

“nope”.

you roll your eyes pressing your hands together to pray. soobin could be so annoying sometimes. but he was cute so it was always hard to stay mad at him. how can you possibly stay mad when his smile and dimples brightens the whole room? it was odd that he had such an angel face yet he was such a jerk at the same time. 

“i think she likes soobin”. Olivia, one of Mia’s best friends whispers to Mia. Olivia was pretty also. Her skin was a cocoa brown complexion and she too also had these almond shaped big brown eyes and a bright white smile to die for. Her hair was always worn big and curly. She was beautiful but she was also prissy and arrogant too.

mia looks over at the two whispering to each other and scoffs. 

“she could never make soobin feel the way I make him feel. what does she know anyway? she probably never got laid in her precious religious life”. 

“that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want soobin to be the first person to have sex with her”. 

mia rolls her eyes. 

“soobin would never fuck anything that looks like that”.

“and how are you so sure? he’s the best looking guy in the whole school. and guys would have sex with anything and anyone”. 

mia huffs her breath glancing over at them once more. 

“so what are you trying to say?”.

“i’m trying to say that mrs. saint over there is trying to lose her virginity to your man”.

not once has mia ever worried about competition. but once she saw soobin laughing and smiling with you, she was ready for every single match. 

“I don’t know why I’m talking to you anyways. this is the same person that is dating someone he doesn’t like”. 

soobin chuckles again. 

“like i said before, we don’t date”. 

“keep believing that soobin. there is no one on earth that can tell the whole school that you and mia aren’t a match made in heaven”. 

“if that’s the case then maybe I need to pray a little more because their matching skills isn’t following up. that isn’t the type of matching i want”. 

you laugh at his stupidity. 

“then what do you want, choi soobin?”. 

soobin utilized this moment of silence to give you that glare that always makes the world revolve around the both of you. you swore each time he did it it became more intense than the last. he was speaking to you through his eyes and it made your cheeks bloom red. you wanted to tell him that staring at you couldn’t fill in his blanks but that would be a lie. you felt something whenever he did it. 

you rushed to finish your history exam before finally slipping it in the slot when you were finished. you’d been studying all night for it and you hoped you had just enough information stored in your head to pass. You quickly grabbed your bag and stuffed your notebook in it, getting prepared for dismissal. mia watches you and follow slowly after. pretending as if she were turning in her own paper she grabs yours and crinkles it before stuffing it in the garbage. Olivia shook her head and disbelief with a quirky smile. almost as if to say, ‘I can’t believe you just did that’.

but mia didn’t care of course, especially when she was going on a date with soobin she felt like she was at the top of the world now. he picked her up at the time she suggested wearing nothing fancy at all. just a plain t shirt, some jeans and sneakers. in stark contrast with mia who looked as if she were going to attend the grammys. she allows the wind to trickle through her blonde bouncy beach curls while she sits at the table across from soobin. “do you remember the plan?”. the group chat texts. soobin quickly texts, “yes” before shutting off his phone knowing mia could be a bit nosey sometimes.

“the girls are texting me. wait until they find out im on a date with you”. mia jeered across the table from soobin. 

“you told them?”. he asked. Mia was really annoying. 

“yeah why not? we’re like the most popular people in the whole school”.

“so what. that doesn’t mean you tell the whole school that we’re a thing”. 

“are we not?”. Mia asks, keeping the plan in mind soobin freezes and catches himself. 

“well, at least not yet. I don’t think we should officialize it right now”. mia rolls her eyes. 

“well fine then”. and soobin nods, letting her eat her meal until they were ready to go. 

“my parents are probably going to come back in town early”, soobin lied.

“so I want to take you to a hotel tonight”. mia’s eyes lit up. 

“really?”.

“yeah why not?”. soobin answers, pulling into the hotel parking lot. “here”. he texts to the guys. “room 517″. they replied. He took mia into the hotel lobby and told the administrator the room number that had been already paid for. she gifts him another key to the room. he bows and says thank you while going up.

meanwhile mia is taking as much pictures as possible. she was feeling herself before but boy, was she feeling herself now. A night out with the cutest guy in school, fancy restaurants, and a fancy hotel? you couldn’t tell her she wasn’t practically a celebrity. soobin pushes the key card in it’s designated slot and opens the door to a suite. Mia squeals and runs around it looking at everything. she takes her jacket off and makes herself at home. It took little to no time for the boys to come down the steps that lead to the upstairs.

“oh my god i can’t believe you bough--”. mia cuts herself off at the sight of not only soobin but his friends. They were all smirking like idiots and soobin waves. She was beyond confused as to what was going on. 

“have fun mia. I know you’re a fucking slut so you’ll probably enjoy this”. and with that soobin slipped them the key card and left with a closing door. 

“don’t go so hard on her guys😂”.

soobin texts before he drives off. 

[rexcoatlarchive]

Rider Reunions

*post f/zero event*

Waver: so master, you think using my catalyst from the 4th hgw will allow us to summon Iskandar?

Rikka: sure I do. It seemed to work for Rex and Quetz over there

Me: hey

Quetz: hi!

Rikka: so I'm sure it'll work for summoning Iskandar

Waver: I wasn't sure if this summoning system worked with catalysts the same as in a hgw, but it would seem to be the case. It's been so long since I've seen him, I'm embarrassed to say but this is a bit nerve wracking.

Rikka: want me to start it up for ya?

Waver: ...yes, if you would please.

Rikka: alright.

*Rikka places the small tattered piece of cape on the center of the summoning circle.

Rikka: alright *places her hand on the lever* here goes nothing! *pulls on the lever*

*the summoning circle lights up with the column of light, showing the rider symbol briefly*

Waver: there's the rider symbol! It might actually be him

*soon the summoning concludes and there in the center, in his divine chariot is Iskandar*

Iskandar: oh you have done well to summon me! Iskandar king of conquerors shall carve out your path!

Iskandar: *notices Waver* wait a minute *getting off the chariot* boy, is that you?

Waver: it's been a long time hasn't it rider?

*the two embrace each other*

Iskandar: hahaha! It really has been a long time boy! You've grown so much since then! Hmmm, still pretty skinny tho

Waver: I'm not really the working out type

Iskandar: oh come now boy! You'll never get anywhere thinking like that!

Me: wow, that's a pretty touching reunion

Quetz: si. It really warms the heart.

Me: you think we'd ever have such a heartfelt reunion?

Quetz: I can imagine but I don't think I want to be separated in the first place

Me: me either

*Anastasia lost belt, shortly after the battle against Ivan*

*Rex is using the blood of fallen demonic beasts to create a summoning circle*

Da Vinci: *over comms* are you sure this is a good idea?!

Me: yes I'm sure, we need Quetz! Now more then ever!

Da Vinci: you don't have to it like this! You could just use a temp rider summon to get to twins and the briefcase!

Me: they're dealing with Anastasia and Kadoc right now! If those 2 see me trying to summon with they'll definitely try to take me out!

Holmes: are you sure it's not just desperation to see her again?

Me: can it Holmes!

Gordy: who even forms such relations with servants! It's foolish!

Me: you can it too Gordy! Besides, Quetz is a near perfect counter to Anastasia. She's a sun goddess that could definitely destroy an ice dutchess! And her noble phantasm, Xiuhcoatl, can prevent the use of enemy noble phantasms! This lostbelt Anastasia without the use of that familiar...

Gordy: ...will be rendered completely defenseless! I might've underestimated your ability boy!

Me: thanks for the vote of confidence

Da vinci: but even still summoning her in this way, she'll likely not remember you! Are you sure you want to deal with starting that relationship over?

Me: *finishing up the circle, and placing down the catalyst* yes! I'd do it a thousand times if I had to

Da Vinci: you're really determined to do this aren't you?

Me: yes!

Da Vinci: then do it! Summon the love of your life! Summon the goddess Quetzalcoatl!

*the summoning circle begins to glow, and the pillar of light appears once again, showing the symbol of the rider class*

Me: come on, bring her back to me. It's been too long

*the light dissipates and there standing at the center, is Quetzalcoatl once again*

Quetz: Hola! The goddess Quetz- eh? Master Rex?

Me: hey there Quetz

Quetz: MASTER REX!

Me: QUETZ!

*we embrace each other, and Quetz lifts me up and spins me around once again*

Me: it's so good to see you again! And I can't believe you remember me too!

Quetz: of course I remember you! I love more than anything!

Me: REALLY?!

Quetz: si! I love you even more then Lucha Libre!

Me: that's probably the best thing you've ever told me!

Da Vinci: I hate to spoil the reunion, but we still have a situation to deal with.

Me: right! Quetz, I didn't just summon you because I miss you, even though the main reason. I also summoned you because I need your strength!

Quetz: of course master! I'll always be ready to provide my strength for your cause!

*they fly off on the feathered serpent, heading towards the tree of emptiness*

Me: *thinking* I can't believe she still remembered, despite what should've happen! You know... yeah I'm gonna do it! I'm going to propose to her when we finally get a proper base again

*Rex ends up hugging Quetz even tighter while thinking of this*

Quetz: master, your hugging super tight! Is something on your mind?

Me: no, I just missed you.

Quetz: I missed you too!

And that's the story. I wanted to do one of those power of love type stories, while also kind of doing parallels to the Waver/Iskandar relationship. I hope I didn't mess up Waver or Iskandar's character in anyway. Hope you guys like it

@panyum because why not

[olliepig]

Centre Stage chapter 6

It feels like a long time since I posted the last chapter, thanks to Christmas, lockdown and the joys of homeschooling. Massive thanks to the wonderful @willow-salix for her cheerleading abilities and for betaing this thing. 

As always, it’s available on AO3 here.

****************************************************

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking - ”

“Who are you talking to, you big idiot?” Cat laughed, reaching over the control console to smack Scott playfully in the arm. “Have you got a brother or two stashed back there or something?”

“Shut up and humour me, OK?” he pleaded with a grin from the pilot's seat, thoroughly enjoying himself. “I’ve always wanted to do the proper announcement and nobody else would let me.”

“Fine, on you go, then,” Cat rolled her eyes as she shook her head in mock defeat, willing to let him get away with pretty much anything as a thank you for letting her sit in the cockpit with him.

“Welcome on board this Tracy Airlines flight from London Farnborough to Richmond, Virginia.”

“Wait, you’re taking us back to Richmond?” Cat interrupted in excitement, having been completely in the dark about Scott’s plans for the weekend until the day before. Even then, all she had been told was to make sure she had her passport and an overnight bag ready for a chauffeur to pick her up and take her to the airport.

“Sure am,” Scott grinned, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. “I thought it might be fun to go back to where it all began.”

“Aww, that’s such a lovely idea,” Cat smiled, reaching over the console again and giving his hand an appreciative squeeze, losing herself for a moment in the blue of his eyes as the radio crackled to life.  

“Taxi to runway two-four left via bravo three, cross charlie.”

“Roger that, control.” Scott’s attention immediately snapped back to the task at hand, his professional mask slipping perfectly into place as he took control of the plane, throttling up the engines to start their short journey to the runway.

Cat watched in rapt attention. He’d only flown her once before but that had been in Thunderbird One which was a very, very different experience, and not just because it had been the day that they had finally got together. Being in the world-famous rocket plane was a dream come true, but it was also completely alien to her. This was much more normal, or at least, a normal that she was more able to comprehend.

“That’s the first one of those messages that I kinda understood,” she commented as they moved away, watching as they followed the markings on the taxiway. “Bravo means B doesn’t it? So we’ve to follow the signs that say B and they’ll take us to the runway?”

“We’ll make a pilot out of you yet,” joked Scott, a twinkle appearing in his eye as he glanced over at her before turning the jet onto the runway. “It won’t be long before you’re flying me places.”

“Not a chance,” Cat squeaked. “Even my sat nav is too complicated for me. I think I’ll stick to things with less buttons and switches, and that stay on the ground, if it’s all the same to you.”

“Tracy zero-one, cleared for takeoff runway two-four.”

“Cleared for take off runway two-four, Tracy zero-one,” Scott repeated back to the control tower, confirming their readiness to depart before turning back to Cat, a massive grin plastered on his face. “Ready to go then?”

Cat took a deep breath, taking in the long expanse of runway ahead of them, the bright lights trailing far into the distance. It was a view that always spoke to her of freedom and escape, and whenever she flew she always craned her neck to see that very view out of her little window in the cabin before the aircraft turned and it was lost to her. Never in a million years did she expect to be sitting in a cockpit with a perfect, uninterrupted view of it, about to take off in a private jet piloted by her boyfriend.

“Let’s do it,” she agreed with a grin, her heart rate accelerating in anticipation.

With a small nod, Scott pushed the throttle lever forward and the engines roared to life, pushing them back into their seats as the nose of the plane lifted and they took to the skies.

As the jet climbed toward the clouds, Cat sat back, allowing her mind to wander as she watched Scott speak with air traffic control and deal with the myriad of buttons and switches that seemed to require his attention. This chance to watch him as he worked was something that she hadn’t expected and she marvelled at the sheer professionalism he gave off as he concentrated, having only ever been privy to media footage of this side of him before now. Aside from her thrilling trip in Thunderbird One, she’d always seen the much more relaxed, casual side to him and it made her smile to be one of the few who knew both his private and public personas.

Seeing the small frown crossing his face as the plane was buffeted by crosswinds as they speared through the clouds, her smile widened as she remembered her first sight of him that day, leaning casually against a wall outside the airport, looking effortlessly cool as her car had pulled up. The knowledge that he could be anywhere in the world, yet had chosen to be there waiting for her, having planned a secret weekend escape for them both, had sent a thrill of excitement through her that she hadn’t yet fully gotten over.

The whole experience of the day so far was something she knew she’d not forget in a hurry. She flew a lot thanks to her work taking her all over the globe but, at best, she occasionally got to fly first class, still having to go through all the usual controls and checks at the airport before boarding the plane. Breezing through all of that and simply walking out onto the tarmac to a private jet that sat waiting to take her to an unknown destination was an indulgence that she wasn’t sure she would ever get used to.

The more she thought about it, the more Cat realised that it had just confirmed to her that she really had no idea how she had been so lucky to find someone as incredible as Scott. She knew that she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that she found the private island and jet amazing, but the reality was that it was him that she was completely in love with, more than she had thought it possible to be in love with anyone. She had fallen for him long ago, before the island or the jet were even a pipe dream, and her experiences during the time they had spent apart had only served to solidify in her mind how amazing he was.

The best part of it was that she absolutely knew that he felt the same. Even though they weren’t able to spend a lot of time together, the time they did have was so special that there was not a shred of doubt in her mind about his affections. It made a nice change from other relationships that she had been in, where she had been left guessing and scrambling to try and read mixed signals for a hint of what was going on. Smiling to herself, she realised that this was actually the second relationship she had been in where she had felt completely secure and cherished. And the best part was that the last one had been with Scott too.

Feeling her eyes on him, Scott flicked the autopilot on, a small smile playing on the corners of his lips as he looked up to meet them, enjoying the now familiar flutter in his heart as he did so. “What?”

“Nothing,” Cat smiled lazily, making his breathing quicken in anticipation. “Just thinking about how damn sexy you are when you’re flying.”

“Oh, is that so?” Scott grinned, very happy with the turn the conversation had taken. “In that case, I’d better fly you places more often then.”

“Be my guest,” laughed Cat. “I could definitely get used to having the world’s most eligible bachelor as my personal pilot, even if he is off the market now.”

Scott’s stomach lurched at her words. Even though Cat had been incredibly understanding about the sensationalist newspaper story that had been published a few days previously about him dating Selene, he was still not allowing himself to believe that she was completely OK with it.

“Yeah, I'm sorry again about that,” he apologised, his troubled eyes betraying the forced brightness of his tone. “You know what these papers are like. They’ll print anything.”

“You don’t need to apologise,” Cat exclaimed, taking in the change in his demeanour, amazed that he could possibly think that he had done anything wrong. “I know it’s a frustrating thing to have to deal with, but as far as I’m concerned the papers can publish whatever they like. I know nothing would ever happen between you two and when I actually looked at the story, their only evidence seemed to be a picture of you hugging your best friend before a press conference, which is pretty flimsy if you ask me. Selene and John are clearly perfect for each other so it never even crossed my mind that there could be any truth to it.”

“My heart just sank when I read it and I was so worried that you’d be angry, but then I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or offended when all you did was laugh when I called to tell you,” he joked, as a wave of calm washed over him, lightning his mood.

“Yeah, sorry about that, but I don’t know what else I could have done to be honest,” Cat smiled, glad to see the familiar twinkle returning to his eyes. “I guess cos I know Selene, I know she’s not a threat, but I can’t see why anyone would get worked up about a press report like that without talking to their partner first. It makes no sense to me at all.”

“That’s how I’ve always seen it too,” Scott smiled, beyond relieved that they seemed to have the same opinion on it, “but you never really know how someone’s going to react until it happens.”

“That sounds like it’s come from experience,” Cat observed, hitting a little too close to home for Scott’s comfort as he turned away to check a dial beside him, trying to keep his expression neutral. “But it’s a fair point. Aside from the fact that he was a fuckwit, one of the main causes of stress in my last relationship were press reports trying to link Mark and I together so I totally understand how it can cause problems.”

“See, I knew that,” Scott recalled, unsure of how he hadn’t remembered Cat telling him about her jealous and insecure ex until now. “I don’t know why I got so worried.”

“I think it’s probably natural,” Cat reassured him, meeting his eyes, losing herself in their blue depths and smiling as her heart skipped a beat. “But seeing as I’ve had experience of it from both sides now, I think I can honestly say that you’ll never need to worry about that sort of thing OK? I trust you.”

“See, this is why you’re so amazing,” Scott replied sincerely, holding her gaze and wishing there was a way he could get closer to her, their hotel room suddenly seeming a very long way away.

Reaching over the console between them, he took her hand, lifting it to his lips and pressing a soft kiss onto it.

“Thank you,” he murmured, barely audible over the noise in the cockpit.

“You’re very welcome,” Cat grinned. “I’m glad we’ve cleared that up. Now, are there any laws about me getting up and exploring back there?” she added, turning to gesture to the rear of the plane. “I’ve never been on a private jet before and I’m very nosey.”

“Be my guest,” Scott laughed at her honesty. “I need to stay here, I’m afraid, but feel free to explore to your heart's content. You’ve got just under an hour before we land so have fun.”

Left alone in the cockpit, Scott sat back in his seat, dropping his face into his hands with a sigh before looking over all his instruments once more. Content that everything was as it should be, he closed his eyes and allowed the relief that their conversation had brought wash over him, his mind calmer than it had been in weeks. He couldn’t help but feel that her easy acceptance that things reported in the press should not be believed without question shouldn’t have affected him as much as it did but the reassurance that it had brought him was tangible. Being in a position as one of the most recognised men on the planet could have its advantages, but he had also found that it came with costs too. Costs that he did not wish to repeat.

I trust you. Those three little words reverberated in his head, equal in importance to the other three little words she had said to him for the first time only a few weeks before. He commanded trust every day from those he was helping, but to have it given freely from someone who’s life was not literally in his hands was something he had learned the hard way was not always guaranteed. He had never questioned it with Cat before now, but the publication of the story about his supposed relationship with Selene had thrown him, bringing back memories that he had spent years trying very hard to lock away.

Feeling hands on his shoulders, he was jolted back to the present, looking up to find Cat standing over him. Held captive by her gaze, happiness washed over him as he took her in, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight streaming through the window, turning her hair to strands of fire as she flicked it over her shoulder. Leaning down, she placed a soft kiss on his forehead before wordlessly turning and wandering back to the main cabin of the plane, leaving him breathless.

The rest of the day couldn’t come soon enough.

*****

“Scott, I think this suite is bigger than my entire flat,” Cat gasped, dropping her bag on one of the sofas as she looked around, taking in the elegant decor and multiple doors leading off the main living space. “I can’t believe you brought me here.”

“Well, we always used to wonder what this place was like, so I thought it might be fun to find out,” Scott grinned as he surveyed the room, delighted at her reaction to his choice of hotel for their time away.

They used to frequently walk past the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Richmond on their way to their favourite restaurant and, as they passed the imposing building, their conversation inevitably used to turn to what it must be like inside and how fun it would be to stay there one day. Funds had prevented them from finding out at the time but since they'd gotten back together, Scott had been determined that they would finally tick off something that had been on their bucket list for over a decade.

“Well, on first impressions, it’s definitely fancier than I thought,” Cat mused as she peeked into the lavish bathroom before following Scott into what looked like a dining room. “Did you see the chandelier when we were coming up the stairs?”

“It was hard not to with you elbowing me in the ribs and pointing,” Scott laughed, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her in for a quick kiss, enjoying the warmth of her as she pressed into him, making him think of all the possibilities they had with so much uninterrupted time together.

“You might have got me there, sorry about that,” Cat conceded with a grin as she wriggled out of his arms, leaving him bereft as she wandered over to the windows and peered out, her nose almost touching the glass. “Oh my God, we’ve got a full on balcony out there, complete with furniture and I think there’s actually flags on the flagpoles!”

“And a dining table in here, let's not forget about that,” Scott added from somewhere behind her, attracting her attention back to the interior of their room.

“That thing wouldn’t even fit in my kitchen,” Cat exclaimed, her eyes wide. “This place is insane. Do you think people have full on banquets in here or something?”

“Seems like they might,” Scott agreed, investigating the small bar that stood in the corner as Cat made her way back through to the lounge. “I don’t know why else they’d need such a big table for one bedroom.”

“Oooh, come and look at this,” Cat called, making Scott hurry after her, finding her sitting at a baby grand piano that they had somehow overlooked on their first investigation of the room.  “We can take turns serenading each other. Although I have to admit I only know how to play chopsticks.”

“It’s a deal, but only if you agree to lounge on top of it looking sultry while I’m playing,” Scott grinned, running his fingers over the top of the instrument, his eyes glinting dangerously.

“Only if you return the favour,” Cat giggled, as an image of Scott balanced on the lid of the instrument, clad in one of the fluffy robes she had spotted in the bathroom earlier popped into her head.

“Not fair. I’d probably break it,” he objected with a pout that even Alan would be proud of.

“Well if you’re not willing to return the favour, there’ll be no sultry lounging for you, I’m afraid,” she smiled with a small shrug, closing the keylid and standing, feeling his eyes tracking her every move.

“Spoilsport,” Scott grinned, pulling her into him and gently brushing her hair away from her face before pressing a soft kiss on her full lips.

“So, what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” Cat asked as she wound her arms around his waist and snuggled into his embrace.

“It’s really up to you,” Scott smiled, enjoying the scent of her hair as it tickled his nose. “I thought we could maybe chill out here for the afternoon, then I booked us a table at Tarrant’s for tonight.”

“Really?” Cat squealed in excitement, pulling back to look at him. “That’s amazing! I wasn’t sure it would even still be there after all this time.”

“Well, luckily for us, it is, and from what I can see, it’s not changed much since we were last there,” Scott grinned, pleased to have been able to surprise her with a trip to their favourite restaurant. “But we’ve got a few hours before we need to go so it’s up to you what we do. There’s a pool in the hotel somewhere, or we could just relax here for a bit. It’s up to you.”

Cat fixed him with a gaze that made his heart rate quicken. “I think here sounds good to me. We could always have a swim tomorrow, but I feel like we’ve not really investigated the bedroom yet,” she smiled, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

Scott didn’t need to be asked twice. He’d been dying to get his hands on her since he had first seen her climbing out of the car, but the downside of piloting his own plane meant that there was very little time for relaxation on the flight.

“Well then,” he smiled, dipping down to kiss her again. “I think that’s something we’d better remedy now isn’t it?”

“I think so,” Cat grinned as she pulled away from him, sliding her hand down his arm from where it had been resting on his shoulder.

Held captive by her gaze, Scott felt her fingers intertwine with his own as she turned and led him towards the bedroom. His breath quickening, he obediently followed behind, absolutely lost to the woman who had stolen his heart.

*****

“Do you think this’ll do?” Cat asked, giving a little twirl that sent the hem of her dress swinging out around her knees.

“It’s perfect,” Scott replied as he slid the knot in his tie up around his throat. “You look stunning, as always.”

“Why thank you,” she grinned, doing a little curtsey that made Scott chuckle. “You’re not looking too bad yourself,” she added with a wink before sashaying around the bed and grabbing her evening bag.

Shaking his head at her slightly backhanded compliment, Scott watched in the mirror as she made her way around the room, transferring belongings into the smaller bag before disappearing into the lounge of their suite to wait for him. Left alone, he put the finishing touches to his hair as his mind wandered back over their time together, allowing himself the time to make sure it was styled exactly how he liked it.

It was almost intimidating how polished she was now, he mused. She had already taken his breath away when she stepped out of the car at the airport and, when he thought back, he couldn’t think of a time when she looked anything less than flawless. He remembered her always being stylish, but while they had been apart, that style had clearly been honed and now, even when she was just relaxing in her flat in what she would describe as her comfy clothes, she never looked like she had a hair out of place.

With a smile, he realised that perhaps the same could be said in reverse. He got no end of teasing from his brothers about always looking his best, but making sure he was well put together had been a habit he had picked up when he realised that the girls tended to like boys who took care of their appearance and he had never quite shaken it since. Sure, he liked wearing clothes that were designed purely for comfort sometimes, but he was always careful to make sure that they suited him and were, at the very least, clean, unlike Gordon and Alan’s total disregard for what anyone else thought about their outfits. Sometimes, he found himself wishing he was a little less fastidious about how he looked but it was a part of him now and it didn’t seem like that was going to change.

He was almost glad that Cat seemed to feel the same about always looking good, but the little voice niggled at the back of his head, continuing to remind him that she had not always been like that. Perhaps their time apart had revealed a different side to her, making him wonder what else might have changed, and whether she dressed the way she did in the expectation of more than he was giving.

Sudden doubt flooded his mind as to his choice of restaurant for the night; it had seemed like a good idea when he had come up with it and she had reacted exactly the way he had expected when he had told her his plan, but it was not a place that could be described as high class. It held sentimental value, sure, and that’s why he had chosen it, but a seed of doubt had been planted as to whether it was truly where she would choose to go if given the opportunity..

Trying to distract himself from his thoughts, he grabbed their coats from the wardrobe, laying them carefully on the bed for when they were needed later. Turning back to close the doors, a flash of colour caught his eye and he reached in to stroke the emerald material, wondering what it was and how he had missed it earlier. Intrigue took over, and he pulled out a beautiful, floor length evening gown. It took his breath away and, even with his limited knowledge of ladies' fashion, he could tell that it would cling to Cat in all the right places.

His mind started to race once more as he stood, staring at the dress as if it had committed some horrible crime before stuffing it back into the wardrobe and slamming the door, unhelpful voices suggesting that if she had brought it with her, then clearly she was expecting to wear it, and he hadn’t organised anything that would require such a fancy dress. Breathing deeply, he tried to calm his thoughts as he stood motionless, unsure of what to think or how to feel.

Giving his hair one final smooth over, he shook his head to clear his uncertainty, choosing to trust her actions over his own insecurities. Yes, she had brought an evening gown with her, but she had given no hint that she was anything less than delighted with his decision on their venue for dinner so he vowed to think no more of his doubts and concentrate on enjoying their time together without overthinking everything.

Turning on his heel, he strode out of the bedroom, ready to scoop her up in his arms and start their evening on a positive note, but, as he entered the lounge, her whole demeanour stopped him in his tracks. His well developed instinct for trouble, honed by years of dealing with teenage brothers, screamed caution at him as he took her in, hunched over her phone, her body language radiating hostility.

“Are you OK?” Scott asked tentatively, taking in the set of her jaw and the way her eyebrows were practically knitted together as she typed furiously, her phone screen taking the brunt of her anger.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she huffed, finishing her message with a flourish and dropping her phone onto the sofa dramatically.

“You don’t look fine,” Scott pressed, cautiously crossing the room and sitting next to her, his earlier worries resurfacing at her refusal to tell him the cause of her anger. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Cat snapped, sighing as she picked up her phone again, a loud chime alerting her to another message. “I was just messaging Penny that's all.”

Scott watched her closely as she typed, knowing that no matter what she might have told him, something was most definitely going on. Something that he intended to get to the bottom of if it was making her this angry.

“Is Penny OK?” he asked cautiously as she dropped the phone onto the seat between them once more, trying to eliminate the various options for her anger that did not involve something he had done.

“She’s fine,” Cat snarled, her eyes glittering dangerously. “Just leave it, Scott. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“OK, OK,” Scott agreed, holding his hands up in defeat. “If you don’t want to talk that’s fine. I was just trying to help.”

“I know you were,” she assured him, taking a deep breath as she stood up, shooting him what she hoped would be a reassuring smile. “Just give me five minutes on the balcony to cool down and I’ll be OK.”

“No problem,” Scott agreed, having learned the hard way that giving Cat space when she was angry was essential. “I’ll be here when you’re feeling better, and then we can go for dinner, OK?”

“Perfect,” Cat agreed, flashing him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes as her phone chimed again.

Watching her typing furiously again as she stalked out of the room, Scott flopped back onto the soft cushions and ran a hand through his hair, remembering as he did so that he’d only just finished styling it and it wasn’t yet set in place. Cursing, he hauled himself back up, trying very hard not to put his hand down anywhere as he headed back to the bedroom to sort out the damage.

Taking a deep breath, Scott did his best to calm his nerves as he fixed the damage he had done to his hairstyle. It was just a coincidence, he told himself. Just because she was angrily messaging her best friend while they were away for the weekend didn’t mean that it was because of anything he had done.

Sighing, he sat heavily down on the bed, causing the springs to creak under him. He didn’t know who he was trying to kid. Penny was perfect and not likely to be the cause of any anger, especially not when she knew that they were away on a break. That only left one option that he could see: she was angry because of him. Given her unwillingness to talk, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do to fix it, but her anger plus the beautiful dress in her wardrobe combined to make him think that she had been expecting something more than he had arranged for that night and was upset that he hadn’t known her well enough to anticipate it. Pulling out his phone, he started the task of finding an alternative place to eat that might be more to her taste.

*****

Finally having taken care of everything she needed to, Cat left her bolt hole on the balcony and wandered back into the lounge, surprised to find it empty. She felt terrible at how she’d talked to Scott and the fact that the room was empty didn’t bode well for how he was feeling now. Her first instinct was to seek him out but, knowing that she was not alone in needing some time to herself to cool off when angry, she decided to wait it out for five minutes, then go and find him if he’d not reappeared by then.

Crossing to the window, she rested her head on the cool glass, watching the traffic go past on the street below as her thoughts continued to swirl. Sighing, she wished her friend hadn’t put her in the position that she was now in. She had always known that Penny could be difficult in a relationship and her behaviour had been the source of many disagreements between them in the past, but she had hoped that this time it would be different, especially as she clearly liked Gordon so much. Unfortunately, based on the messages she had just received, it seemed like that hope was misplaced and there had been an argument that was entirely Penny’s doing.

Now she found herself stuck in the middle, having clearly worried and upset Scott by her reaction to the messages but not being able to tell him why as it was not their place to meddle. She had already taken care of ensuring Gordon was OK, having sent a message to Selene to alert her to the situation and making sure that he wouldn’t be alone to deal with the fallout, but she couldn’t help feeling bad. Keeping anything from Scot didn’t sit well with her, but she knew how protective he was over his brothers and she desperately didn’t want to ruin their weekend away by bringing in someone else's relationship drama.  

Hearing movement behind her, she spun around, taking the time to enjoy the sight of the man walking towards her, their coats draped over his arm. He didn’t seem angry, she thought, relief flooding through her. A little anxious, perhaps, but she hoped that could be alleviated easily enough and allow them to enjoy the meal that she had been so looking forward to.

“I was wondering where you had got to,” Cat smiled, crossing over to meet him in the middle of the room and sliding her arms around his waist, reaching up to give him a gentle kiss as he pulled her into him in an awkward one armed hug. “I’m sorry about all that.”

“That’s OK,” Scott smiled, trying to cover up his discomfort as he disentangled himself, laying his coat over the arm of the sofa. “Shall we go and get some dinner?”

“Are you alright?” Cat pressed, the reversal of roles from 15 minutes previously not lost on her as he helped her into her coat, the tightness of his jaw and the fact that he wasn’t meeting her eyes telling her that something was bothering him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Scott assured, slipping his coat on and checking to make sure he had the room key before holding the door open for her.

Walking down the hallway, Scott’s mind whirled with indecision, genuinely unsure whether he should broach the subject of where they were going or not. Cursing himself, he realised that it would have been better to talk in the room when they would have a chance to change instead of waiting until they were already out, but he hadn’t taken the chance and now it was too late for that. Choosing his words carefully, he took a deep breath.

“Are you sure you’re happy going to Tarrant's tonight? I found another place that’s a bit fancier that we could try instead if you’d rather? Or we could always eat in the hotel?”

“Scott?” Cat asked, confusion written across her face. “What’s going on? I thought you booked us a table?”

“I did, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed if you’d rather go somewhere else,” he countered, not wanting her to think that they had to go there just because he’d been pushy enough to book a table for them without even consulting her.

“Well, I think going there is a great idea and so that’s what we should do,” Cat decided, reaching up to place a small kiss on his cheek as they waited for the elevator.

“Really? Are you sure you’d not rather go somewhere a bit nicer?” Scott pressed, not yet convinced that she was truly happy with his choice. “There's a couple of nice looking places that are just around the corner too.”

“Would you rather go somewhere else?” she turned his question back on him, bewildered as to why he might think she’d not want to go somewhere that held so many happy memories for them.

“Not at all, I just thought you’d rather go something a bit posher than Tarrant’s, that’s all,” Scott shrugged, he hoped in a way that seemed nonchalant and not betray the tension that was holding him rigid.

“No, thank you,” Cat declined firmly, irritation creeping into her tone as she wondered what on Earth had caused this sudden change of heart and why he kept pressing her on it when she had already made her preference known.  “I don’t know where this has come from, but please don’t try to decide what I want. Going to our favourite restaurant is a lovely idea and you’ve already booked a table there so it’s precisely where we should go.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Scott replied doubtfully, the anger in her voice warning him that if he kept pushing, it would end in an argument that would see them going nowhere at all for dinner.

“For the thousandth time yes, I’m sure,” Cat sighed as a flash of exasperation surged through her. “Now, can we please go and eat? I’m bloody starving.”

Not waiting for an answer, she slipped her arm into his, practically dragging him out of the hotel and up the road towards the restaurant. It was by no means the first time that she had witnessed Scott worrying about a decision, and she strongly suspected that it wouldn’t be the last. Her only hope was that he would be able to relax and enjoy the rest of their night together now that he had gotten whatever it was that was bothering him out of his system.

[dershloopmain]

End Of Everything - Chapter 2

‘’Jesus,’’ Casey said, looking down at the broken fence with multiple zombies, all in different states of living, tried to claw their way out of their barbed wire and wooden confines.

‘’Tell me about it. I knew they were dumb but I thought they were supposed to have dope eyesight? Doesn't look like it to me,’’’ Raph scoffed, pulling his own splintering baseball bat out of his bag, poking the arm of the closest trapped zombie.

‘’Won’t Donnie want a sample for his tests? Don't poke em too much what if they come free you ass!”

‘’They won't come free! I dunno I thought he was good for all that.’’

‘’I dunno either but shouldn't we at least ask him? Besides, we need the help,’’ Casey said with a shrug, ‘’and stop poking em Raph!’’

‘’What? You can ask him, but if I show my face in that lair before this is done, Leo will end my life so you’re going,’’ Raph said, pulling back from the undead recipient of his abuse.

‘’Fine, I’ll go alone then.’’

‘’Don’t say it like that you’re making it seem like you're going out into a haunted forest. You just gotta drop down the sewer pipe and walk like 100 feet then you’re at the turnstiles.’’

‘’I know! I also know I am, just as susceptible to Leo’s… whatever we’re calling them.’’

‘’First of all, when did you learn such a big word Jones and second just text him then you big dope,’’ Raph rolled his eyes, turning back to his undead victims, beginning to poke and prod at their bodies.

‘’I said stop fuckin’ poking em dude!’’ Casey said, pushing Raph away from the fence with his foot as he tapped out a text to Donnie, ‘’And it's surprising what hanging with D all day makes you learn.’’

‘’Hey! Rude. They're not gonna hurt anyone they're stuck as anything in there. Besides, I’ve been hanging with Don for years, you won't get smarter in a couple of months. Half his ramblings are gibberish at this point,’’ Raph said, sitting up and continuing to poke the zombie. Casey rolled his eyes, realising he wasn't going to win this.

‘’I dunno. I guess I just actually pay attention to him,’’ Casey said with a glare.

‘’Oh sorry,’’ Raph said with a sarcastic high pitched tone, ‘’What is he your boyfriend now? Why’re you getting so defensive?’’ Casey shot another glare at Raph, ‘’Yikes, touchy subject then. I’ll support you no matter what bro, and if you wanna kiss some time, just let me know,’’ Raph said, standing and pouting his lips while moving towards his friend.

‘’Dude stop it,’’ Casey laughed, pushing Raph back, ‘’No he isn’t either I’m just saying, maybe you’d be less of a bone head if you actually listened to him.’’

‘’Nice to know I’ve still got a chance with you then,’’ Raph said with a smirk, ‘’And who are you calling ‘bonehead’ Casey Jones, you’ve got more skull than cells.’’

‘’Alright alright I get it you’re gay for me, its hard not to be, just don't let Mona hear or she will kill both of us. I’m also just gonna ignore that last part but what I said still stands you’re a bonehead.’’

‘’I show you bone head,’’ Raph said, diving at Casey and tackling him to the ground, locking him in a headlock, ‘’Say I'm not a bonehead and I’ll let you go.’’ He said with a smile.

‘’Never!’’

‘’Well then, I hope you like the taste of dirt and sweat because I ain’t moving until you say it!’’

‘’Children, children, come on stop it,’’ Donnie said, rolling his eyes as he pulled himself out of the sewer. Raph looked up at his brother and smiled, allowing Casey a moment to flip Raph up and off of him. He landed on the dusty, cracked tarmac with a shout of surprise, before huffing and pulling himself and Casey up off of the floor, ‘’Now then. What’s the problem?’’

‘’We need help and Case was wondering if you needed new samples to test,’’ Raph said, pointing at the hole in the fence and multiple zombies clawing at the floor in an attempt to pull themselves free and feast on the 3’s flesh.

‘’Right… I’m guessing Leo said you couldn't have help right? That’s why you texted me?’’

‘’Yup.’’

‘’Thought so,’’ Donnie said softly with a small grimace on his face. A grimace that didn't go unnoticed by Casey and Raph. Nothing was said regarding it but yet… they all understood. A silent yet ever-present cloud hung over them all but not a word was said. Raph cleared his throat.

‘’Right then,’’ He spoke, rubbing his hands together readily, ‘’Let’s get on with it.’’ With that, the moment was over and the cloud disappeared, however not completely. It still loomed over them, threatening to take over their beings at any point. Donnie and Casey nodded, pulling their splintering boe staff and baseball bat out respectively and begun to shift the monsters, pushing them back from a safe distance.

‘’How long have our defences been compromised?’’ Donnie said, straightening up and letting out a deep breath.

‘’Not sure,’’ Raph said, copying his brother, ‘’But they’re really stuck in there so it must’ve been at least a couple of days. Probably longer.’’

‘’Why did Leo only send you two to do this?’’

‘’Your guess is as good as mine. He probably still hates me because of what happened.’’

‘’He can’t be still hung up on that. It’s been 3 months.’’

‘’I know,’’ Raph let out a shaky sigh, lifting his hand and pinching the bridge of his nose, ‘’He's not the only one who lost someone important though. We all lost something but we aren't all tyrannical megalomaniacs.’’

‘’You know how close Usagi and he were though. You can’t be mad at him for missing him.’’

‘’It’s past ‘missing him’. Fuck, I miss Mona too but it’s not my fault it happened I just- I just hate that I can't stop loving him. He's my brother, no matter what he does to me. I nearly died on that supply run, if it weren't for Casey I wouldn't be here but… no matter how mad it makes me I can’t stay mad at him,’’ Raph bit his tongue, his shoulders sinking in defeat, ‘’I’d do anything to get him back.’’

‘’I know Raph. I know,’’ Donnie said softly, moving towards his brother and wrapping his arms around him, rubbing his shell comfortingly. Casey didn’t say a word, he only followed Donnie’s lead and wrapped his own arms around his friend.

‘’Fuck me, man, there's something about the apocalypse that's making us all sappy,’’ Casey laughed, pulling an arm away from Raph and wrapping it around Donnie, who evidently also wasn't taking the entire situation well, but was just a lot worse at talking about it. He could tell from the turtle's physique that it’d taken a toll on him. Initially, while he had always been relatively thin, any muscle mass he had had before was gone, leaving nothing but skin, bone and organs. The eye bags Donnie had always sported seemed deeper and more rooted in weeks of sleepless nights rather than days of late nights and early mornings. His face was sallow and thin, his cheekbones protruding through his skin, almost pushing to escape their green confines. But he never said a word. Not to him. Not to Mikey or Raph. Not even to April. He was a silent sufferer, he wouldn't say a word to anyone but yet everyone knew. One of these days, Casey thought, he was going to have a proper conversation with Donnie. A proper talk. Even back before all this, they hadn’t been insanely close. Always at war over something or other yet something drew Casey to Donnie. He wasn't sure what yet but he’d figure it out. Eventually.

‘’Guys you do realise there's still zombies literal centimetres from us,’’ Donnie said, glazing towards the green-grey decaying hand reaching out for Raph’s ankle.

‘’Oh shit yeah,’’ Raph and Casey said in unison, pulling away and starring down at the writhing mass.

‘’How are we gonna move ‘em then?’’ Raph said, pulling a broken hockey stick out of Casey’s bag and poking the creatures again.

‘’My God Raph you’re like a 6-year-old. Stop. Poking. The. Fucking. Zombies!’’ Casey said angrily, ripping the hockey stick out of his hand and shoving them firmly back into his bag.

‘’Well, by the looks of things,’’ Donnie said, crouching down and levering the creatures up using his staff, ‘’They’ve been impaled by the fence. Pushing them back is just going to lodge them in even more and break the fence even more. We need to create some kind of lever system to lift them up so we can push them off the fence and out of our perimeter,’’ He stood up again, stretching his legs out and giving them a small shake, before looking over at Raph and Casey.

‘’This is why you’re the brain’s and I’m the brawn D,’’ Casey said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pushing him down into a headlock.

‘’Cut it out Casey,’’ Donnie said indignantly, squirming in an attempt to get out of Casey’s arms.

‘’Yeah Casey, cut it out. We gotta sort this out before ‘Nardo throws his rattle out his pram,’’ Raph rolled his eyes and Casey grimaced, loosening his grip and allowing Donnie to pull himself free.

Without another word, Donnie pulled a small toolbox out of his bag and placed it on the floor not too far from the creatures writhing in the barbed wire and jagged wood. Opening the box gently, he pulled out a small, clean-looking glass syringe and a neatly folded wet wipe.

‘’Ok,’’ He said finally, ‘’I need you two, and its imperative that you listen and do exactly as I say because I’m your only hope for a cure and if I get turned you’re all doomed so,’’ Donnie pointed at the pile of zombies, ‘’hold them down and away from me. But under no circumstances are you to do ANYTHING that could kill that one. If they die, their sample will be tarnished and it won't be effective,’’ He finished, a stern and serious expression on his face.

‘’Got it, Don,’’ Raph said, walking towards the pile and pushing his foot down onto the head of the creature Donnie had said, ‘’Casey, can you hold the others back while try and sort this one out?’’

‘’I’ll try,’’ He said sheepishly, looking down at the 3 or so other zombies laying at his feet before quickly composing himself and beginning to use his hockey stick to lift them up and pushing them back and away from his friends and home. Stepping over the barbed wire and broken fencing, he jammed his hockey stick back into his bag and pulled the splintering bat out, moving towards the now free pile of freaks.

‘’You want me to kill em, D?’’

‘’Can do,’’ Donnie said flatly, not looking up from his test subject.

‘’Uh- You know what never mind I’ll just kill em,’’ Casey said, swinging his bat in a downward arch, smashing the creatures’ skulls in, killing them all instantaneously. Mushy brain and dark, viscous blood splattered on his sneakers and jeans, coating them in another layer of grit and grime. He had to admit, the idea that these were once living people was disturbing to him. They’d once had lives, jobs, families and friends. They’d been like him once. Alive and free. Would everyone have bashed his skull in if he’d been infected? Or would he have been corralled and used as a test subject for Donnie to find a cure? He hoped the latter but… He wasn’t sure. After what’d happened, he wasn’t sure Leo would’ve been insanely happy with the idea of keeping zombies in the lair, especially not him. Being low on the hierarchy had its perks but not having Leo on his side in regards to anything was not one of them. He sighed, shaking the viscera off of his shoes and bat before stepping back into the borders of their home.

‘’Nearly done Don?’’ Casey said, crouching near him. He glanced over at his

‘’Nearly and… there we go done,’’ Donnie said, wiping the mucus and deep red blood from the small wound he’d just created, smiling at his work.

‘’Why’d you wipe it after. They’re dead their entire body is infected,’’ Raph said, removing his foot from the creatures head and letting Donnie back up before dropping its arms and dashing around to the other side of the fence.

‘’Force of habit,’’ Donnie said quietly, clearly uncomfortable with what was about to happen.

‘’We have to do it, Don, I know you don’t like it but we do,’’ Raph said, walking over to his brother and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Donnie looked away, gently placing the syringe into a ziplock back and putting it back into his toolbox.

‘’I know you do I just- I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing them be killed. They used to alive and through no fault of their own, now they’re monsters I- I don't know how much more of this excessive violence and murder I can take,’’ Donnie said, his eyes filling up with tears.

‘’Hey, hey don’t get upset. Crying’s healthy and all but if you start, I’ll start and even Raph might start- hey ow!’’ Casey exclaimed, whipping around and shooting Raph a death glare. Raph snorted, a mischievous smirk plastered on his face. Donnie laughed, wiping away yet another batch of unshed tears.

‘’Sorry it just… gets a little much at times,’’ Donnie shook his head, rubbing his elbow nervously.

‘’Don’t apologise for having emotions you big dummy,’’ Raph said, walking to stand next to Casey, ‘’I gotta say, me and Casey aren’t exactly peachy. I doubt Mikey and April are either. Don’t even get me started on Leo. It’s ok to feel like this Don, just stop bottling it up. That’s where it’s not healthy.’’

‘’I can’t believe for once WE are the one's schooling Donnie,’’ Casey said, crossing his arms and shaking his head jokingly. Raph rolled his eyes, as did Donnie.

‘’Now the sentimental shit’s over, let’s just finish up here and go down, I seriously doubt ‘Nardo is gonna be happy with how long we’ve been,’’ Raph said, trying not to think about what was inevitably to come.

‘’Tell me about it. D, we’ll deal with the creature and you can like, close your eyes and ears if that’ll help, then we’ll get started on the fence,’’ Casey said, trying to add an air of enthusiasm to his voice to bring up the mood, however, even he could tell it wasn’t working.

‘’Sure,’’ Donnie said, walking back to the manhole cover and looking away, covering his ears as Raph and Casey pulled out their respective weapons and began pulling the zombie out of the barbed wire and splintering wood, replacing it out onto the dusty street. Then, Raph stepped towards the thing that was slowly attempting to crawl back towards them and slammed his sai down into its head, cracking its skull and killing it, once and for all. He felt the vibrations up his arm as the metal of his sai clashed with the concrete, causing him to shiver a little, before pulling himself up and shaking the remnants of blood and brain off of his sai.

‘’Ok D, all done,’’ Casey shouted over, turning around to his friend and giving him a reassuring smile, who offered a small, shaky smile in return.

With that, Raph tucked his sai away and stepped over what was leftover of the small portion of the fence.

‘’You got any nails in that thing Donnie?’’ Raph asked, gesturing at the toolbox.

‘’I should have a few, I brought some hammers too, I figured you two wouldn't have remembered to bring any with you,’’ Donnie said, opening the toolbox and pulling out a handful of nails and handing them to Casey, before pulling his backpack around so it hung over one shoulder and rummaging through it for a couple of seconds before pulling out 3 relatively clean hammers and handing one to each of them.

‘’Well then, let's get to it,’’ Raph said, swinging the hammer around and grabbing a couple of nails from Casey’s outstretched hand, before picking up one of the wooden boards and beginning to bash it back into the wooden post that protruded from the tarmac. Casey and Donnie soon followed suit, before finally beginning to carefully pick up the barbed and wrap it around the makeshift fencing.

‘’That wasn’t so bad,’’ Raph said, grinning at their handiwork.

‘’Definitely a lot quicker with you here D,’’ Casey said, smiling at his friend.

‘’No problem Casey. I know how Leo can be, so just text me if you ever need help with anything. He already doesn't like you coming down to my lab. Thinks you’re stopping me from working or something,’’ Donnie said with a sigh.

‘’Well, I’m not gonna stop coming unless you tell me to. I don’t care what he thinks,’’ Casey said defiantly, putting his hands on his hips as if he were some hero.

‘’A real modern-day revolutionary you are Casey Jones,’’ Donnie said, rolling his eyes with a smirk.

‘’Should we head back? It’s getting cold,’’ Raph said, wrapping his arms around himself and rubbing them in an attempt to preserve any sort of body heat he could.

‘’Jesus it is. Must really be September,’’ Casey said, stuffing his hands deep into his hoody pockets.

Donnie nodded, flexing his fingers before pulling them back into a fist multiple times.

With that, the three headed towards the manhole cover and climbed down back into the sewer. It was surprising how much you learned about New York’s bathroom habits after 6 months of the apocalypse. Raph had always assumed that there’d always be greywater down here, no matter how many humans lived up top yet somehow, the sewers had run dry. Remains of final faeces and bathroom breaks lay dried up or non-existent along the floor of the sewer. It was almost impressive yet disturbing. The world really was ending. Or, as Donnie had put it ‘’Humanity's end as the dominant life force on earth’’.

‘’Bite your tongue Raph. If Leo says anything, don’t bite,’’ Donnie whispered as they hopped the turnstiles into the lair. Raph swallowed in a desperate attempt to dampen his dry tongue, failing miserably. He could feel his stomach turn in knots and any food he’d eaten in the last 24 hours was churning in his stomach, threatening to make a reappearance.

‘’Raphael,’’ Leo’s deep voice filled their ears, Raph flinched, ‘’I trust your supply run went well.’’

‘’Yeah. Got more medical supplies. There wasn’t much else we needed though so that was it.’’ ‘’What about our defences. Are they secure now?’’

‘’Yeah. Casey and Donnie helped me patch it back up so it should be fine.’’

‘’Donatello helped? I thought I told you that you and Casey were to do it alone.’’

‘’Yes, I know, I’m sorry but he was already up there to get another sample from the zombies and he had stuff on him to help so…’’ Raph trailed off, his eyes trained on the ground. He refused to look into Leo’s cold, uncaring eyes. If he did, he already knew he couldn't hold himself back.

‘’Hmm. Donatello? Is this what happened?’’

‘’Yes, Leo. I promise you, they didn’t ask me to help them. I asked them if I could come up to get a sample for my studies,’’ Donnie said sheepishly, looking up at Leo, trying his best not to let his fear be shown.

‘’Fine. I’ll believe you. You may all leave now.’’ Leo said plainly, glaring down at Casey and Raph, both of whom were starring at the ground still as they walked away, shoulders hunching slightly.

Leo nearly felt himself crack. He wanted to stop them, tell them he was sorry and wanted everything to go back to normal but… he couldn't. He couldn’t stop hating them for what happened. He couldn’t stop his blood from boiling every time he saw Raph walk past him to leave the lair. Maybe time would heal all wounds, but for now, he was perfectly content blaming and hating his younger brother for what he’d done. Not just because of what he'd lost. It's what all of them had lost. It was how reckless and immature Raph had been and HOW he'd caused it. All of it added up into a pit of rage that had been brewing for years. The number of times he'd been kidnapped or injured because of Raph's idiocy and complacency and arrogance. What had happened had broken him, the small, sane and happy, innocent part of him had snapped. Maybe if Usagi returned that part would be reconnected but… he knew that wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t happen. And it was all Raph’s fault.

[katherinemallory]

#3 The departure

Hell is empty and all the previous chapters are here: #1 #2

I couldn’t believe I had overslept. When I looked at my alarm clock, it was a few minutes after 9 A.M., meaning I was nearly late to my medical.

Quick, I murmured to myself. I had less than half an hour to wash and dress up, so I didn’t have enough time to eat a proper breakfast.

When I was drinking my everyday cup of Earl Grey, I checked my phone just to notice one unread message. Damn, I thought, it could have woken me up, if my phone wasn’t on silent mode again... The text message has been sent from an unknown number:

Thanks for spending the evening with me. Now don’t let M scare you. Good luck, Kath.

JB

The message amused me. So, he knows my phone number already, I thought, trying to remember if I ever gave it to him. No, I definitely didn’t. That’s the kind of things they teach you at the SIS: how to spy on a girl you like.

Quick, Kath, I kept repeating, as I tried to brush my hair. After a few minutes I was ready (thank God I’ve never worn any make-up... such a waste of time). I picked one of my black suits, grabbed my coat and ran outside.

I rapidly opened my car’s door - it was pretty cold for a December day in London - and I checked my look in the rear-view mirror. Not bad, I said out loud, as I started the engine. There were 10 minutes left until my medical. Step on it, Kath. Direction: MI6 Headquarters.

I’ve been driving as fast as I could, so naturally I caught the eye of a one younger male driver when we stopped on a red light. I didn’t mean to show off (I just wanted to arrive at the SIS as soon as possible), but the look on his face was quite satisfying.

But my mind was elsewhere. I’ve been still analyzing my date with James Bond... It went far better than I could expect and I had to admit that Bond had made a pretty good impression on me. Let’s sum it up: he’s reasonably older than me (to hell with my preferences, surely Bond was more suitable for a thirty-something woman just like me than a man twice older than her...), he’s witty (this is his greatest quality without a doubt...), he’s bloody handsome (honestly, I’m not very much into blondes... or am I?), he’s a true gentleman (so far he appears to be one - there are not many gentlemen left in this world)... And don’t forget about the charm...

When I finally arrived, I glanced at my watch: two minutes to 10 A.M. Perfection. As I passed by the guards and then took the elevator down for my meeting with Q, I continued to consider Bond as my future life partner.

Yeah, Bond seems to be nearly perfect except for... his womanizing and the fact that we work together. No, Kath, let’s be realistic: you could never be with someone who’s got a never-ending dating history... Not for real... And this service at the double-0 section thing... It also doesn’t augur well.

The amount of time I had spent thinking about Bond surprised me. Before the date I was able to resist the man, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore. Did I really fall for his charms? Damn. It felt really strange.

The elevator’s door opened. I’ve seen a vast "room" full of shelves and any kind of machinery you could think of. The walls were made of brick and the furniture was rather raddled. The "room" had no windows and there was pretty dark there.

A young-looking man approached me.

“Hello. You must be 002, M’s told me about the medical.”

He had short, dark hair, and in the room’s lighting his eyes seemed to be grey. Despite his deceiving appearance, I presumed he was older than me. He was wearing a brown corduroy-collared suit and a red tie, all making him look like someone who dresses elegantly, but only to such extent no one could say he doesn't care for the job. He was smiling.

“I’m your Quartermaster,” he continued as I didn’t react to his greeting. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hello, Q”, I replied. “Yes, I’m 002, but you can call me Kath if you wish,” I added politely.

“You know, Kath is not a bad idea,” he said, “I’m not a big fan of all this official stuff.” He paused for a while, glancing around the room as if he was looking for something. “Shall we get started?”

He picked up his glasses from one of the shelves and we went through a very long corridor. It turned out that Q took me to a small room with a single chair in the middle, and a few computers on the ground. There was also a desk and some lever arch files lying on the floor. I sat on the chair, ready for the upcoming instructions.

“I will have to ask you to take off your jacket,” said Q, “and roll up the right sleeve of your shirt.”

I did as requested while Q was looking through my files.

“It seems you’re fit as a fiddle.”

“That’s the job,” I quipped, but stopped smiling when I saw a machine that resembled a huge driller. Q was holding it in his right hand. “What is it?” I asked.

“Nano-technology. It allows us to monitor your movement anywhere,” he said and paused, looking into my eyes. “I’m afraid this will hurt a little...”

“It’s alright. Do it qui...”

I didn’t finish my sentence in time. I couldn't, because I felt a strong prick that made me dizzy.

“OUCH!” I yelled, and immediately I had a scowl on my face.

“I’m sorry, Kath. It’s all over now”, he said as he gently stroked my shoulder. Then he gave me a cotton swab. “Hold it there for a few minutes and follow me. It’s time for the more pleasant part.”

We went through another long corridor made of brick walls. After a few minutes, I had absolutely no idea where I was. I felt like I was lost in a some kind of labyrinth.

“Here we are”, Q announced when he unlocked some colossal metal door. He seemed to be excited when we stepped into another strange-looking room. There was nothing there but all kinds of wardrobes. Q opened one of them and chose a black box from the middle shelf with the note "002" written on it. “Open it”, he encouraged me, smiling.

“Wow!” I exclaimed. I’m sure I sounded like a little girl who was finally allowed to unwrap her Christmas present. “I *love* it!”

“Who wouldn’t?” asked Q, still smiling. “The Walther PPK/S 9 millimetre short. It’s been coded to your palm print, so only you can fire it.”

“Thanks, Q,” I said, still in delight. “Anything else?”

“No, that is all. It was nice to have met you. Good luck, Kath.”

There he was: standing in front of me, with his hands on his hips and a smile all over his face. Even though my mind was a mess at that time as I had many doubts about certain people (about *that* one person, to be more specific), I knew one thing for sure. Q is the most lovely guy of them all.

“See you later in January,” I replied and hesitated. “And, Q... have a wonderful Christmas.”

...

After the medical, I headed to the M’s office. The hallway on the last floor was full of people walking around and carrying some documents.

“Morning, Eve,” I said, while opening the first door. “Such a busy time of the year... Can I see M?”

It was really nice to hear her sweet, warm voice.

“Morning, Katherine. Just a second,” she replied and picked up the phone. “Sir, 002 is here.”

I noticed how patiently her eyes observed a little white light above the leather maroon door, with the phone still near her ear. When the light disappeared, Eve allowed me to come inside.

“Morning, sir,” I said and stopped by the door. I saw Mallory sitting in one of the leather armchairs next to this desk.

“Morning, 002,” he replied as he stood up to greet me. “Please, have a seat,” he said in his semi-friendly manner, but to me his words still sounded like an order.

I sat in front of him on a huge old sofa. The natural lighting made me focus on his clothing (again...). He was wearing a deep sky blue shirt and a dark grey suit trousers. His jacket was draped over the chair that was standing behind his desk. I tried to memorize his every move when he straightened his navy tie. He made sure the tie looked perfect, and then Mallory’s right hand landed on one of his braces. My supervisor looked surprisingly good for a brief appointment with his two double-0 agents.

“Very conscientious of you to check your e-mails, 002,” M said curtly and pointed to some documents that were lying on a coffee table. “Your medical record’s fine. Q has already assured me that you’re ready.”

He looked at me in a way that only a supervisor could look at one of his subordinates. I felt obliged to reply.

“Yes, sir, I’m ready.”

“Good,” he commented in his cold voice, and stood up as the maroon door opened suddenly. “002, meet 005.”

I turned my head and couldn’t believe my own eyes. What is more, I couldn’t accept my reaction to what I’ve just seen. My first thought has shocked me. A woman?

There was a slim female standing in front of me. She was probably a bit older than me, but it didn’t change the fact she was stunningly beautiful. Her light blonde hair was longer than mine - down to her shoulders - and she was wearing a black suit, just as me. I was surprised that I immediately started to compare myself to her.

She extended her hand.

“002,” she said, giving me a small, but warm smile. “I’m looking forward to working together.”

“005,” I replied, shaking her hand. “The feeling’s mutual.”

“Well, so don’t mind me,” taunted Mallory, clearly irritated by our short conversation. “Please join us, 005. We are about to start.”

005 sat next to me on the sofa. I usually didn’t get jealous of other women, no matter how good they looked like, but this time it felt a little weird. I wasn’t comfortable sitting in front of Mallory with a woman who was far more attractive than me, but luckily he didn’t seem to notice any changes in my behaviour. For him, we were just another pair of double-0s going on a mission together. He didn’t care about our looks. What interested him was how we would cooperate.

“You leave tomorrow for Geneva,” he stated, “and will remain there as long as necessary. Although I do *not* think you’ll need more than two weeks to finish the case,” his voice sounded more and more stern with each sentence. ”Your mission might turn out as incredibly dangerous, even though right now it appears just the opposite...”

Bond was right, I thought. M tried to scare us. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure we would take the mission seriously, but why the lecture? We knew everything we needed to know from the files.

I got distracted, while staring at Mallory’s hands going up and down his braces. I recognized he didn’t wear a wedding ring. Maybe he wasn’t married after all...?

Out of the blue, someone has cleared his throat. I glanced at Mallory’s face and then realized he was looking directly at me with those exceptionally green eyes.

“Are we clear about the rules, 002?” huffed Mallory. He sounded quite offended.

“Yes... sir,” I stammered.

He gave me a disapproving look and then resumed.

“Your liaison awaits you in your hotel in Geneva. He’s aware of your arrival... and I need hardly remind you that you’re expected to report daily.”

“Yes, sir,” said 005.

“That’s all for now,” announced Mallory as he stood up. He went up to his desk.

“Good luck.”

...

When we got out of the M’s office, Moneypenny wished us luck as well. 005 turned to me.

“Let’s meet at the airport. We’ll talk about everything tomorrow.”

“Seems reasonable,” I added. “The name’s Katherine, by the way.”

“See you later, Katherine. I’m Amanda,” she replied and left the room.

I stayed with Eve.

“You know Eve,” I struggled with words, “I would like to ask you something.”

“Ask anything you want,” she said, hiding her curiosity.

“Christmas are coming... and... I wonder...” I hesitated, “... if the double-0 section ever gave M a Christmas present?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she answered after a few seconds of silence. “At least not since I have been his secretary. The common opinion is that he wouldn’t like that.”

“And what do *you* think?” I asked in a provocative tone, suggesting my view on the matter is different.

“I think it wouldn’t hurt,” admitted Eve.

“Right, because I even have an idea...”

...

I came back home and started packing. I even looked through the case files again while sitting on my bed in my pyjamas. Time passed really quickly the next morning and I was sitting with Amanda on a plane to Switzerland before I knew it.

Our flight was quite pleasant. Amanda turned out to be a very kind companion and it didn’t take long for me to confide in her. I told her *everything* about my date with Bond. It wasn’t responsible at all - I should have known that as a secret agent - but I assume I just needed to vent to someone. We continued the conversation even when we arrived in our hotel in Geneva.

“... and you know, I have no idea what to do. I didn’t want anything from him and now I kept recalling the date and I miss his voice and...”

“Oh, I think you *do* know what you really want,” Amanda interrupted me.

“I do?”

“Yeah,” she said. “If you want my opinion, Bond is not the one you’re interested in.”

“How so?” I asked, still in shock. “I’ve told you every detail of our date. If I am not interested in him, then why I think about him all the time?”

“This has nothing to do with Bond,” Amanda said calmly as she continued to place her clothes in the wardrobe. “You’re a secret agent for God’s sake. You don’t have time for real love. That’s why you think about Bond that much - cause he gave you something you had missed for many months now, a *real* romantic interest.” She turned around and looked at me, “Even if it’s genuine from his perspective, don’t go for it now. You don’t love him. What you feel is temporary.”

I remained silent for a few seconds. Amanda has known absolutely nothing about my crush on Mallory, but she hit the nail on the head.

”You know what, Amanda? I’m going to wait just as you suggest. There’s no need to hurry. If it’s really going to happen, it will.”

“No need to thank me,” she said and started to laugh. “Would you mind if I went to the shower first?”

“No,” I replied. “I’ll report to M.”

I turned on our laptop and started typing:

M,

We arrived at the hotel on time and met our liaison. Nothing suspicious so far, but we’ll keep our eyes open. We’ll look around the place and report again tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

002.

I hesitated, not sure if I should add any Christmas wishes to my e-mail. No, Kath... remain professional, I thought. Mallory’s going to know we deeply care about him when he receives his gift from the double-0 section. He wouldn’t approve mixing up our private lives with our career lives.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind it... if you know what I mean... I couldn’t stop to think about Mallory since my departure, even though I have gone on a date with James Bond the day before... Bond was on my mind quite frequently in the recent hours, but deep inside I was aware of the fact that my attraction to him was purely physical. And I never followed physical instincts, apart from a very few my weak moments on a very few missions.

With Mallory... it was different. Obviously I’ve found him extremely attractive from the beginning, but that was not the main case here. My boss was so intimidating that I felt paralyzed every time I spent even a brief moment in his presence. But most importantly, I developed a high level of respect towards him. And there has been a recurring pattern in my life: when I respected a man for real, he would often become my fascination, and later on, my love interest.

By the evening I was sure I slowly began to fall in love with Mallory... who was my supervisor. Not a very responsible way to go into the double-0 section. I knew it was pretty stupid... I knew it was unthinkable to develop any kind of relationship with Mallory. It was even unthinkable to have a crush on him, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

I was never a Christmas enthusiast, but... for the first time in my life I felt that I would have loved to spend Christmas in London. I would have loved to see Mallory’s face when he opened his present from the double-0 section. I was sure that Eve was able to get what I suggested just on time, and I wondered if Mallory would want to know who came up with this idea...

I sent my e-mail and went to bed, hoping to have some dreams of Mallory that night.

***

To be continued.

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Come on Home

A/N: Surprise! I know you probably thought I vanished or sunk into quicksand or something else 2020esque, but I’ve just been wallowing in writer’s block misery for ...well the length of time doesn’t matter because I’m out of the pit of despair and back in the game with another Play the Hand You’re Dealt prompt. This one is for Ryan and it takes place in the future for PT Ryan and Reader, roughly a year and a half from the current timeline. 

(title and overall theme of this one inspired by the song Long & Lost by Florence and the Machine.) 

Word Count: 2,563

Prompt From: @suchatinyinfinity​ - Ryan, angst, memories or photographs & Reader’s POV 

Ryan! You’d know that gait anywhere, from any distance, posture slouched more to the left than the right under the burden of his guitar case, long legs talking sure steps towards where you were perched on the covered porch of your father’s house. The second that you saw him you felt a weight shake free of your shoulders, his smile, even from a few yards away, brightening the fading light of the day. You ran down the stairs to wrap your arms around his neck, locking your lips to his as he set his case down to hold you. “Hey, Junebug,” he murmured into your mouth. “Miss me?” Always. 

Your hands moved up to take his face between them, beard longer than you’d seen it last, the hair course beneath your palms. “Missed you so much, Ryan Brenner.” You missed him whenever you weren’t together. It wasn’t often, but it always shocked you how quickly it set in. Missing Ryan was unlike anything you’d felt before, because it wasn’t a hopeless yearning or an empty feeling. It was knowing how it would feel to have him back. You ran your thumbs along his cheek, following the line of his beard, and leaned in for another kiss which he eagerly returned. You felt his hands climbing your back, over your shoulders and up to your wrists, wrapping his fingers around your wrists. He kissed you once more before pulling back, a questioning look in his eyes. 

“What’s this?” He peeled your hand away from his face but brought your thumb back up to his lips, pressing another kiss to the rough, torn skin there. He dragged it across his bottom lip and you closed your eyes, what was left of your breath escaping you in a small puff and you shrugged. You know what it is, Ryan. 

You knew he’d notice as soon as you touched him. Ryan was the most observant person you’d ever known by a long shot. There was no detail too small to matter to him. He appreciated the cracks in the cement as much as the scrawny weeds that pushed up through them, It was part of what you loved about him, this ability to see everything. Every dew strung line of a spiderweb, every shade of yellow in the petal of a sunflower, a smudged fingerprint on a piece of glass all caught his eye as much as the sweeping panoramic views he took in while traveling as many miles of the country as he could. 

He was also more touch focused than you thought possile. His hands were large and strong, built and conditioned for gripping and lifting. Hard, manual work. But they were nimble and light, and delicate enough to coax magic out of an instrument, and when he touched you, you felt every note he’d ever played. When he wanted you to, you felt the cold steel of every ladder rung he’d ever clung to, the smooth leather strap of any bag, pack or case he’d ever carried, every lever or rope or chain he’d ever pulled. Brushing his knuckles innocently over your cheek or bringing you over the edge, every touch had purpose and intention, and the things he couldn’t find words for, he found other ways to communicate to you. 

Ryan knew your hands like the back of his own. Your fingers and palms were as familiar a feeling to him as sunshine on his skin, so the hardened cracks between the loops and whorls in the pattern of your thumbprint against his lip were impossible to ignore. Picking at your thumbnails and cuticles was a habit, or a compulsion really, that only manifested when you were stressed or anxious, which meant that in the year and a half that you’d been with Ryan he’d only seen it a few times. It’s never been this bad though. His lips twitched downwards in a small frown as he pressed another kiss to the meat of your thumb. And he noticed. You folded your lips into a thin line. Of course he noticed. 

He’d only been four days behind you, staying the extra time in Morehead, KY to help his old friend Nate and Nate’s teenaged son Julian pack all of their furniture into a rented truck. You’d been happy to help with some of the smaller things- wrapping dishes and picture frames in newsprint, folding and packing clothing into boxes-  when the man, who you’d learned had been Cowboy’s cousin, had called Ryan the previous week to see if he could lend him a hand with their move. The timing and distance had worked out perfectly, as it almost always seemed to for Ryan, the trip lining up with your plans to return to New Jersey for the remainder of the summer. You would have gone out of your way to help Nate and Julian though, Ryan. You’d seen him change a tire in a grocery store parking lot for a visually stressed single mom, and you’d been there when he volunteered to carry a stack of two by fours out of a hardware store for an older gentleman who had been struggling. He didn’t have a lot to offer, but he always offered up all he had if it could help someone. You knew by now what kind of man he was, and it was another of the countless reasons that made falling in love with Ryan Brenner so simple and unavoidable; his capacity for kindness and his inability to turn a blind eye to anyone that could benefit from his help, especially if they meant something to him. And Cowboy’s family is his family. 

He would have even offered to help with the driving- Nate and Julian were moving clean across the country to a suburb of Phoenix, and Julian didn’t have his license yet. “That’s a lotta driving for one person,” he’d told you on the phone as he made his way out of Morehead. “I’d help him out but I’ve got somewhere to be.” You had smiled then, some of your anxious nerves melting as you heard his smile through the speaker. “Somewhere important.” 

It is important. And overdue. So long overdue. Tomorrow’s date had been blocked off on both of your mental calendars for several weeks, though it had been a recurring blip on the edges of your emotional radar for far longer. You knew that it was as important to Ryan that he be there with you as it was to you to have his support. Shy of a natural disaster, you knew that he wouldn’t let anything get in the way of being by your side when you finally reunited with your brother after several years of estrangement. You hadn’t seen or spoken to him since your mother’s passing and your subsequent departure from his and your father’s lives. When you’d come back home to the Garden State last summer to see your father again, Eli hadn’t been ready to reconcile with you, stating that he needed more time to wrap his head around you suddenly becoming a fixture in his life again. And his daughter’s life.  

“Because you’re not a fixture,” he’d told you. You could hear sadness layered beneath the anger in his voice as you cried silently on the other end of the phone this time last year. “You’re here today and gone tomorrow and I can’t…” he sighed then. “Natalie’s mom-” 

“Carolyn?” You interjected the woman’s name, desperately trying to partake in the conversation. But the second her name was out of your mouth you swore at yourself for interrupting him. You’d known that you had a niece only because your father had told you, but he hadn’t shared who the girl’s mother was and it just dawned on you that Carolyn was the only  one of Eli’s girlfriends’ names that you could remember. And they dated right after highschool. It’s not her, just shut up and let him talk.

“What? No, Carolyn?” He scoffed. “You really have been out of the loop, haven’t you?” Ouch. Yeah, Eli, I have. It was warranted, the venom in his tone, and you’d expected it. But it still hurt and you’d flinched as he spoke, Ryan close by, shooting comforting, sympathetic glances at you as the phone call continued. “No. Nat’s mom- you don’t know her- her name is Kate, but that doesn’t matter because…” he sighed again, and the acidic burn you felt in your heart spread at the exhaustion and loneliness in his next words. “She’s gone.” He sniffed. Oh, Eli...I’m so sorry.  You’d closed your eyes then, tears slipping from beneath your lids. “Packed up, picked up and left. Left me, left Nat… she left. She left the night before Natalie’s fourth birthday. Didn’t say where, just… just that she couldn’t do it anymore.” You didn’t know what to say, or if you should say anything at all, so you waited for him to continue, nodding to Ryan when he mouthed the question you okay? “You know, I get it if she didn’t...y’know, if she didn’t love me anymore. If she didn’t want...if she couldn’t do us anymore. But Natalie? She’s… she’s old enough to remember her. Old enough to ask questions. And I…” 

You understood. It stung, like salty sea water lapping against the small scratches on your legs and arms that you used to get from tumbling in the waves as they crashed onto the shore, shards of shells, stone and gritty sand scraping at your sunburned skin. But you understood. “You can’t have anyone else leave her.” Or you. “I get it, Eli. I do.” You had tried your hardest to keep your voice from cracking, but it fell apart on his name. I’m supposed to be his big sister. I’m supposed to be there for him. I did this. “Take your time, Eli. Take however long you need. Whenever you’re ready I...I want to try to make things right. And I want to…” You fought the thickness in your throat as Ryan came to sit beside you, finding your empty hand and pulling it into his lap. You looked down at your fingers as his laced between them, strong and sure. “I want to meet Natalie.” 

The conversation had ended with both of you agreeing to talk over the phone on a semi regular basis, taking the small steps necessary towards making the progress that you both wanted. He’d told you that he missed his sister, and your heart had caved and folded in on itself at that. Once you’d gotten off the phone, Ryan took you into his arms and let you cry wordlessly against his chest for as long as it took for your tears to run dry. “S’okay, Junebug.” He spoke softly, lips lost in your hair, the fine strands getting caught in his beard. Hands running up and down your back and over your side, he calmed your sobs until your lungs found rhythm again. “S’alright, he just needs some more time.” You slid your hand over his shoulder, curving it around the back of his neck as you tucked your face more tightly into him. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”

That had been almost exactly 365 days ago, and for the most part it had been alright. You’d kept up your relationship with your father, and you had made tremendous progress in rebuilding things with Eli. He’d even sent you pictures and videos of your niece. One in particular had made you glow with a warm, hopeful happiness, a very different set of tears glistening on your cheeks as you showed Ryan the video of Nat singing and pretending to play guitar. The song was one that you and Ryan had recorded together the caption on the message reading She takes after her Aunt Junebug. 

But now that just a mere 24 hours separated you from your reunion, you were starting to feel that uneasy swimming feeling in your stomach, a tight clenching feeling in your chest and throat. You’d absently reverted to your nervous compulsion, picking the skin on your thumbs raw as you sat on the porch of your father’s house, waiting for Ryan to get back to you. Now that he was, you felt a little better, a little more ready to face Eli and take the next step in getting your brother back. It was only four days but damn did I miss him. You’d practically launched yourself at him as he came up the walkway, the pinkish light of the yawning sun overtaking the yard and painting purplish shadows on the siding of the house and the rundown detached garage and Ryan’s cheeks. 

He pressed his lips to your peeling skin again. “This because’a tomorrow?” He dropped your hand and brought both of his to frame your face. You closed your eyes as his fingers combed a few wild curls back, the tips skating over your temples, and inhaled a slow breath through your nose. Sunscreen, smoke, salt. You nodded and he leaned in to kiss your cheek. He always smelled of wherever he’d been, whether he’d been gone a day or a week or longer. His beard raked over your skin as he brought his lips to your ear, and you took another breath. Coffee, fabric softener… you felt a flutter in your chest as you caught the scent of the lavender soap you’d taken from the last motel you’d slept in. He always smells like home, too. A warm current swept around your heart as he pulled away from your face, and even though your mind was still hung with clouds of anxious doubt, you could feel him cutting through like sunshine clearing the skies after a storm. 

“I’m nervous, Ryan.” You shrugged. What else is there to say? “I just…” you sighed. “I’m…” 

“I know.” He ran his hands up and down your arms, his thumbs tracing the thin skin on the underside of your forearms. It soothed you almost instantly, and you knew that he knew it would. “I know you’re nervous. I know this means a lot to you.” He did. He knew the guilt that you carried for leaving Eli to deal with the loss of your mother. He knew the pain you felt for the last year knowing that your brother wasn;t ready to meet with you, that he didn’t trust you not to cut and run again. Giving a light squeeze to your biceps, he locked his soft brown eyes on yours. “It’s gonna be okay, Bug. He wants to see you as much as you wanna see him. You know that, right?” It was true, you knew that Eli was looking forward to seeing you again. You knew it meant a lot to your father to have his children back together. You knew how much you all wanted to be a family again. 

You knew that none of it would be happening without Ryan, and you knew that with him, it would be okay It would all be okay in time. “Yeah, Ry, I know. C’mon, let’s go inside. You can get cleaned up and…” You started to turn back towards the house, but swiveled to face him again. “Welcome home, Ry.”

He grinned and tugged you back into his body. “Good to be home.”

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