#it could also have been bad if i didn't know to carefully wipe off burning grease/fat and *not* just rinse it

[ryanthedemiboy]

Shout out to every person who has ever drilled into me that when you burn yourself in the kitchen to freeze and put down what's in your hand(s).

Because if I didn't know that and jerked my hand or dropped my bowl of seriously-fucking-hot soup? I'd have more than a Tictac sized burn. And they'd be blistered and shit, it'd be bad.

[g-xix]

Scrambled Egg. Deji x reader x JJ x Simon [platonic]

IDEA: coming home from school w them and the parents aren't there, so you all try cook something. Too bad Deji and JJ try help. Inspired by Deji and JJ'sscrambled eggs in thesidemenSunday.

---

"We okay to come 'round to yours, JJ?" Simon turned his head to meet JJ's as he carefully placed his pencil case in his bag. The fabric besides the zipper had a small hole in it and Simon had been treating his bag with the uptmost care recently. JJ didn't seem to care as much, however, as he shoved his chemistry folder into his bag which donned a grand rip in the side.

"Oh yeah, as long as you just don't mind Dej." JJ shrugged, making you and Simon laugh as you all shut your lockers, jamming your lock on the turner and fiddling the code around.

You slung your bag around your shoulder, helping Simon pack his sports kit to hurry him up so that you could get back to JJ's to rush through your homeworks together and then take it in turns to play on JJ's laptop.

Stepping outside, the Winter air was frosty and made you zip your jacket up with a shiver. Noticing your shiver, Simon offered his gloves whilst Deji (who had joined before you'd left the building) plopped his beanie on your head- JJ making the group stop before you walked any further, so that he could properly put the woolly hat on- pushing it down the back of your head and over your ears as well- delivering a good headpat before continuing onwards.

It was a great relief when you all arrived back at JJ's, all letting out contented sighs as JJ opened the front door with a click of the keys and a pushing of the handle- though those greatful expressions were wiped clear off of your faces almsot instantaneously as the bitterly cold air rushed upon you as you stepped in- almost colder than the Wintery air outside.

It had turned dark by the time you'd all walked home to JJ's, and thus it was a struggle for you to trace your fingers across the walls and try find a light switch, having been the first to take your shoes off at the door.

"Here we go," JJ muttered after a moment, flicking the wall before they were painted within the warm white light of an overhead bulb, illuminating the many framed photos of JJ and Deji as children with their parents who all smiled oh so lovingly at a camera.

No matter how many time you'd return to JJ's house, seeing that photo wall would never not bring a stupidly soppy smile to your face.

"He looks like he's just sneezed there," Simon snickered and pointed out one where JJ's eyes were barely open- nose scrunched and face unattractively wide, almost in a perfect o-shape.

"He looks like he's just sat on Dej there-"

"Oh wait-"

"He did." You and Simon chorused and pointed to the picture before which indeed displayed a very pleased JJ sat on a crying, barely-toddler Deji.

"Oh piss off you two," JJ rolled his eyes but couldn't resist the infection grin from growing on his lips also letting out a laugh alongside all of you.

"Oi, JJ, Mummy and Daddy have gone out!" Deji exclaimed from the kitchen, his face popping out from behind the living room door with a chocolate-yoghurt drink to hand, and white ring around his lips.

JJ sighed at the sight of his younger brother. "Bloody hell, I've told you Dej, those chocolate snacks are useless for you- just... Just let me make something... Bloody Hell, I don't know why Mum gets those snacks anyways- they're stupid overpriced!" JJ kept complaining to himself/Deji (it was unsure who he was lecturing) as he walked past Deji and into the kitchen, turning the lights on and opening the fridge which could be heard as the vacuum was broken.

"Dej, are you allowed to cook when your parents aren't at home?" You furrowed your brows and asked the younger of the two siblings. You weren't familiar with whether either of these boys were any talented with a pan and spatula but you had heard a certain whisper of Deji accidentally burning his hand within the first food tech lesson in senior school and him being withdrawn from that class. Permanently.

Deji shrugged in response. "We've never asked."

"Can either of you even cook?" Simon was next to ask, causing Deji to chortle as he shrugged again, smile passing on to Simon as he heard JJ let out a louder shout at himself in the kitchen. "Shall we help him?"

"Well, I don't fancy helping him but it'd be fun to see what's happening over there."

The three of you trooped through the living room and to the kitchen behind, finding JJ with his hands on his head, a look of great stress creased across his face as he shook his head gaze plastered to the floor.

An egg had been dropped over the faux wooden and was slowly trickling further and further out of its shell.

"Mum's gonna be PISSED, you've wasted an egg!" Deji cackled, breaking JJ's trance.

JJ groaned and put his head in his hands, his frustration only making Deji laugh even more raucously- triggering JJ to launch an attack- lurching forwards, hands out as if trying to grab Deji, and subsequently planting his foot straight into the gloopy mess before taking his other leg off the floor with such momentum that he whizzed backwards and landed flat on his back, thumping against the floor and flicking egg-gloop up and onto Deji (who let out a scream) whilst yourself and Simon dodged to avoid JJ who sprawled across the floor with a loud shout.

You couldn't help but bite down on your cheek, resisting the urge to smile whilst JJ's back arched off the floor with a loud cry, Deji shouting about the albumen that'd slung onto his nose.

"You reckon we should help yet?" You turned to ask Simon, the sight of the wide grin on his face tugging the corners of your mouth up also.

"Not yet, I wanna see just who's gonna win this..." Simon watched and you could only nod in agreement... Until you saw Deji reach for an egg of his own.

At that point, you knew that someone had to step in to prevent world war three from starting for another few years.

"DROP THE EGG, DEJI-" You held Deji back from JJ with a hand whilst JJ simply scowled from the floor.

You lived to regret your words however, as Deji took what you said far too literally and loosened his grip over the egg- letting it drop to the floor with a CRACK.

"DEJI" The other three of you exclaimed whilst Deji just looked from one to the other with a look of surprise in his face, as though he were unbelieving that he was the one being targeted.

"Look," Simon decided to step in, only seeing the situation worsening by the second. "We'll clean this mess up, Dej and JJ, you two clean yourselves up, and then we'll try make something."

JJ looked begrudging to the idea of admitting defeat to his idea of cooking something for Deji, but had to shake his head and shrug, saying a reluctant "Okay then", and letting yourself and Simon look at the mess.

It only took about 5 minutes to actually clean the two eggs up, and Deji and JJ had joined you after another minute.

"What can we make?" JJ asked eventually, looking to you for help along with Deji and Simon. After all, you were the only one who took food tech GCSE and was actually good at it.

"I suppose.... Brownies aren't too hard...?"

Well, turned out they were for the Olatunji brothers.

Deji had some strange obsession with cracking eggs, but he couldn't do it very well- and in the end  you ended up with a mixture containing four too many eggs, and crunch texture (egg shells. Of course.)

"Deji, we physically cannot cook this. This just can't go into the oven."

"Can we just see what it makes?" Deji furrowed his brows and pleaded.

"Dej, you got banned from food tech and she's doin it for GCSE- if Y/n says that's not going into the oven then that's not going in." Bless JJ for reinforcing your words and plucking the tray from Deji's hands. You noted how the mixture had a strange goopy jiggle to it as JJ dropped it onto the opposite counter.

RING RING RING!

JJ jumped at the sound of the landline phone ringing, rushing to grab the phone and press it to his ear.

Deji, Simon and yourself all watched with interest as he spoke a few words before placing the phone back into the holder and turning around with a horrified expression.

"Mum's fifteen minutes away..." He near-whispered.

Deji's eyes widened as he let out a gasp, Simon and yourself wondering what was so perilous at the news.

"Oh she's gonna be pissed that we've wasted all the eggs and made absolutely fuckall..." JJ's hands found his head, sitting on either side of his face helplessly. You couldn't help but feel pity for the fact him and Deji were so inexplicably futile. 

However, after a quiet moment of mourning, JJ picked himself up and clapped his hands, springing into action and a "RIGHT," picking up utensils and tidying the general area.

"We cannot let Mum see the mess we've created, so Deji- you wipe up all the mess on the counter, Simon, could you please wash up the utensils with me?" The two boys nodded in agreement before JJ turned to you with wide brown eyes. "Any other ideas, Y/n?"

"I'm gonna work on getting all the ingredient out of your stove- otherwise when Mrs Olatunji tries to cook she'll set off the fire alarm by burning all that flour."

"Good thinking- thank you- so much," JJ's words almost made you feel sorry for him, and you reached over to collect him in a small hug, squeezing his side and rubbing up and down his arm comfortingly before patting and letting him go. "Don't you worry, JJ, it's been fun enough seeing you mess up as is."

With an eye roll and smile from JJ, you all rushed to do your own bits- scrubbing the spoons, scraping the counters, wiping the stove with a mini-cloth... You were all working at top speeds until Deji looked out the window and yelled-

"MUM AND DAD ARE PULLING IN!"

Thank God you'd finished your cooking, just as JJ gasped and turned around, realising-

"What excuse do we use for the eggs?!"

Everyone went silent in thought including yourself. 

JJ looked as though he could've pulled his hair out at that moment, until you had a brain-wave.

"DEJI, get me the last three eggs!"

Deji pulled the last three out and gave them to you so quickly you almost dropped them- meaning that JJ had to cup his hands under yours just to stabilise you and prevent (another) accident from happening. You could feel an almost dangerous warmth radiating from JJ's hands, his anxiety making his whole body heat up. Your hand found his arm, gently pressing in a comforting way your mum used to do to tell you it'll be fine, flashing a sweet smile before getting back to your cooking. 

"JJ, Deji, watch-"

You cracked each of the three eggs into a bowl without getting the shell in, whipping it up with a fork whilst Deji and JJ watched over either shoulder. Simon seemed to know what you were doing as he grabbed some salt and pepper and began shaking it into the mixture as you whisked. 

"Right, this is the quickest and easiest shit you can make with eggs-" You dashed some oil into a pan Simon had placed over the stove- igniting the gas and pouring the mixture from the bowl to the heating surface as Simon called "They're taking shopping out of the boot!" 

"Stall them!" Run out and ask whether they need a hand with getting it all in!" JJ leaned away from your ear to yell at Simon, which Simon duly noted and scurried outside, as indicated by the door shutting and opening.

Meanwhile you kept the boys captivated as Deji handed you a spatula and let you scrape the mixture from the bottom of the pan, forming soft clumps of scrambled egg.

"Chilli peppers?" JJ asked, leaning past you to grab the seasoning from the top shelf. 

"Be my guest." You allowed him to sprinkle a few on, still displacing the eggs with the rubbed spatula to keep the eggs forming.

"Hurry up!" Deji hissed nervously as he heard Simon's loud voice and the Dad's voice approaching closer and closer to the front door.

"I can't physically go any quicker! It's bloody cooking, Deji!" 

"Yeah, shut up Dej!" JJ reinforced your slightly panicked words, though a bit harshly.

"Sorry Dej, you know we love you..."

"God, I feel like I'm with parents right now..." Deji grumbled, making you roll your eyes as you looked to the left and caught the embarrassed look on JJ's face as well as his darkened cheeks. Cutie. 

The sound of the door opening at the front and Yinka's voice calling through the house: "JJ? Deji? We're home!" Was enough to make all three of you jump, however.

"Plate!" You hissed at the two behind you as they panicked to help you.

Simon was no less scared than all three of you- all too knowing what the Olatunji parents looked like when they were angry- and did his best to stall them even in the hallway as they took their shoes off. Not only could Simon feel his arms shaking from the weight of the plastic shopping bags (he'd been given the bag with three heavy milk bottles in it) but also his fingers tremoring in fear of what Yinka and Olajide Snr would see when they walked into the kitchen.

Yet there was only so much which Simon could do as Yinka walked on past him and followed the corridor into the kitchen, Simon rushing his shoes off to trail nervously behind and look over her shoulder as when he walked into the living room, holding his breath as he saw...

JJ, Deji and yourself stood- hands all clasped behind your besides at the table...

On which sat a plate of scrambled egg.

"What's this?!" Yinka exclaimed in surprise.

A porcelain white plate was presented with a raw, untoasted slice of bread beneath yellow curds of egg. The scrambled egg itself looked wonderful: seasoned; sprinkled with paprika and chilli flakes and soft and steaming, clearly fresh from the pan... The sight of all three students stood behind it like army cadets with backs straight and arms behind their backs was a sight to behold though.

Simon wished he had a camera to take a picture of them with. He'd take a picture and frame it so it could be pinned up on the wall besides the stairs alongside all the other pictures of the Olatunji siblings.

"Scrambled eggs!" Deji happily introduced, a great happy smile on his face. 

"You cooked without us home?" Their dad entered now, scanning the living room as if looking for a fire or some sort of kitchen disaster. Too bad you'd cleaned the latter before he could've seen it.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Mr Olatunji, Mrs Olatunji, that's my fault," You took credit. You knew Yinka had a slight soft spot for you, and hoped that she would be kinder to you if you took the blame. "We were just all quite hungry and afterwards, JJ and Deji really wanted to make something for yourselves also... I think they said they wanted to surprise you for when you came back..."

You internally fistpumped as Yinka's face broke out into a prideful smile at her sons.

"Did they really?" She was practically beaming with pride. "Oh that is too sweet- I'll tell you what- I'll just go put these into these bits I've bought into the cupboard then have it- thank you very much Y/n...

"What about us?!" Deji exclaimed. JJ elbowed him in the ribs for speaking out of turn.

"Yes, thank you to you and JJ as well," She pressed a kiss to either head as she walked past them and towards the cupboard.

Simon spotted a pan that was still out besides the counter, just behind Yinka. His eyes widened as he squinted his eyes and realised that pan was filled with gloopy, crunchy brownie mixture. 

"Dej!" Simon hissed quietly enough for it to go unnoticed by Y/n and JJ (who were exchanging victorious little grins and fistbumps whenever Yinka and Olajide looked away, also helping to put the shopping away). As Simon caught Deji's attention, Simon jerked his head at the pan allowing Deji to spot the mixture and widen his own eyes- rushing towards the metal pan and hiding it as any reasonable person would, by...

Shoving it into the oven.

Simon could've facepalmed at the stupidity of Deji, yet he chose to just display a thumbs up. At least the pan was out of the way; he could take it out and throw it away later.

"Have you kids eaten, yet?" Yinka turned around and asked the cohort as she put the final pack of pretzels onto the bottom shelf before shutting the cabinet. 

"Oh yeah, we made some eggs for ourselves, too." JJ reassured his Mum, and you internally smiled as you realised all complications were falling into place and smoothening out. Yes, you'd 'used' those eggs to make yourselves food... Not that you'd dropped two and wasted the other six on gloop-brownies-

Yinka and Olajide sat themselves down at the table with huffs, tucking their chairs in as Simon rushed to pick up a knife and fork for either and joined the line that Deji, JJ, and yourself had created opposite to the parents. 

As the knife sliced through the egg and bread, you were all holding onto your breaths- squeezing your hands tightly behind your backs in absolute tension as you waited their response. You could feel JJ almost shaking from besides you, and unclasped your hands- reaching to the right to find his and placing your hand over his. He exchanged a quick glance before turning his palm over to interlink your hands, his fingers tightly squeezing yours whilst you tried to soothe him by rubbing his outer hand with your thumb. 

You could practically feel the blush forming on your cheeks from your actions, and yet you were too nervous from the tension to care- everyone in the room was silent, awaiting as the parents raised their forks and knives laden with 5-minte-scrambled-eggs and bread...

The fork entered their mouths...

Five chews...

Hand slackens around fork...

Olajide's eyes go wide...

Yinka begins smiling...

Yinka swallows and gets up...

Yinka begins walking towards you...

"Oh wow, Y/n this is lovely! You said you made this? Wow, you've made it so nicely, thank you very much, kids!" 

You could feel your heart swelling as Yinka wrapped her arms around you, one hand resting on the back of your head and pressing you into her body maternally, whilst the other squeezed comfortingly around your back.

JJ and Deji were chuffed as well as they received their own hugs and well-done's, and Simon got a little hug of his own, too. 

The four of you raced upstairs after washing their plates and utensils, dancing around JJ's room ecstatically as you realised you'd gotten away with fucking up their kitchen, wasting eggs, and cooking whilst the parents weren't at home. 

You may have gone to sleep with empty, cruelly rumbling stomachs, but you also went to sleep with hearts overflowing with pride and joy.

BONUS SCENE!

"Kids!" Your neck snapped back as you heard Yinka's voice calling from downstairs.

"Yes, Mum?" JJ called back down to the kitchen.

"Can you come downstairs please?" Her voice responded, making you all groan as you paused the game, putting the monitor on sleep mode and trooping down the stairs to the kitchen whereby you knew Yinka would be.

You were first to step through the kitchen door and regret it most as you saw that the previous humour and happiness within Yinka had been wiped clean, replaced with a confused and almost horrified look as she wielded a pan in her hand.

"What is this, can you explain to me?"

The mixture inside was burned and charred completely black and somehow still seemed to have a jiggle to it as the tremor in Yinka's hand had the horror wiggling slightly. And not only that, but the whole room smelled of farts because of that "brownie" monstrosity Deji had created, with four-too-many eggs.

You looked to the side to make eye contact with the other three boys who were all partially responsible also, and whilst JJ's eyes were wide in fear, Simon's jaw hanging loose in disbelief...

Deji had taken flight and sprinted out of the kitchen, running two-steps-at-a-time up the stairs whilst Yinka shouted for him to COME BACK DOWN, NOW, DEJI!!!

BONUS BONUS SCENE!!!

(Wow, timejump from secondary school AU all the way to current!Sidemen era!)

You took the camera off of it's tripod, slipping the SD card out and handing it to Kon, handling the camera with upmost care as you slipped it back into it's case and zipped it up post-shoot.

A warm smile remained on your face, only growing bigger as you felt a hand slip around your waist, pulling you into your muscular boyfriend's body. 

"Nice scrambled eggs you made there, Jide," You grinned as you turned to see his own grin, dimples cutely pressed in at the corner of his mouth so sweetly you couldn't help but place a chaste little kiss there. 

"Learnt it from the best," JJ chased after your lips, wanting a better kiss which you couldn't deny, sharing a quick kiss on the lips before pulling back and laughing. 

"God, it's so ironic that after all this time the only thing you've learnt how to make is scrambled eggs..."

You cast a glance to the simple pile of egg amongst eight other well-crafted dishes. It was certainly the odd one out, and yet it also somehow looked like one of the most preferrable meals amongst the others. 

"You could teach me how to make something else, you know?"

"Oh yeah?" You quirked a brow and turned back to face him. "And what do you wanna learn to cook?"

"I don't know, what's the easiest."

You cast your memory back to the things you'd make as a child- some of the easiest recipes- until your mind found the item you'd once deemed easiest to make, and yet had watched as JJ and Deji had messed it up to beyond repair.

"Well, I suppose brownies aren't too hard..."

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

Ayup everyone. Thought I'd write something kinda unconventional in terms of the fact i feel like i always write fluff/smut/x reader oneshots, but the recent sdmn vid kinda j made me wanna write some platonic fluff, ygm? Vid in question is:

Hope you enjoyed reading!! Feel free to interact- whether that be a comment, vote or follow! Requests open, feel free to submit what u wanna see... Much love!!

To see more, here's my MASTERLIST

And here's my WATTPAD, with 50+ more oneshots to read

[ultfreakme]

"I'd burn down the world for you."

Jay laughs. That's an understatement, he cackles, chortles, folds over in his chair and nearly drops his tablet on the tile floor of his office. "What tiktoks are you watching?" he wipes his eyes.

Jon's neck heats. Even after over a year of dating, he keeps finding ways to stick his foot in his mouth. "What!" Jon raises his hands defensively. "I might!"

Jay levels him with a steady look. "You would not, be serious."

"I could," Jon tries again. "Like a little."

"Really convincing me here babe." He returns to his work, tapping away at an email meant for Daily Star, then switching to a secret personal project none of the Supers should know about (sans Jon and Nat).

Jon sits on the large table. Dark wood, covered in printouts, post-its, notes, and candy wrapper, he shuffles them back to make space for himself, not like he can make it worse. "I just wanted to try saying it. It's what everyone says, you know, even if they don't mean it."

Jay picks up his stylus, carefully scanning a document for The Truth. "Again, I don't know what tiktoks you're watching these days- or is it some anime? Are you watching crappy shojo anime?"

Jon grumbles. "I have excellent taste in shojo anime and you'd know if you at least tried to watch Monthly Nozaki-kun with me."

"Fine, fine I'll watch it," says Jay. "Point is, no one actually means it when they say they'd do dramatic and destructive acts of useless violence for someone."

"But they do," Jon insists. "There are people who'd put everything aside if something happens to their boyfriend. And I--I can't."

Setting the tab aside, Jay rolls his chair closer to Jon. "What really brought this on?" He looks up at him, warm, honey brown eyes, sharp with the focus of an interrogation. Jon resists the urge to lean down and cup his face. Where should he begin?

"I wish I could say stuff like that without thinking forever about, like, moral consequences and actual global devastation," says Jon. "Ivy would do it for Harley, and you know Harley would do it back. But I can't even say shit like that without some alert going off somewhere."

He does feel the urge, he felt it a million times with Bendix. The urge to just, end it. It would have been so easy, even if he knew it was wrong. The instincts battled but there was always a clear victor. He's seen The Aerie not give a second thought before dropping people from skyscraper-heights when someone got a hold of Wink. He didn't approve, he never will. But he wonders, sometimes, to let the power flow and not stop it.

He keeps thinking it; 'I'd let everything go to waste to keep you safe. You deserve the world, you deserve everything' to the point he feels sick and helpless with it. He would, but he can't.

"They also end up being apprehended by Batman for trying that shit. Threats of ending-the-world are bad."

"I know but-- just-- I feel like I'm not, fully here with you, for you. You know?" Like they're one side, he can say it all he wants but if things get messy, everyone would expect Superman to leave his boyfriend behind. He hopes to every higher force hearing to never put them in that position, but after Waller and Nia, he worries, he fears. All it takes is one person with a motive.

"I don't expect you to go nuts with your powers for me," Jay says easily, tracing circles on Jon's knee. "I'd actually fight you if you go 'I let the bad thing happen for you', like that's where it ends."

Jon bends down. "But what if I did it to keep you safe?"

"Same thing," Jay turns his chin up, their noses an inch away. "Lois told me once, you aren't just mine to keep. You've got a whole world, it's not just me in it that matters."

Sometimes, it feels like it's just Jay. But he is right, he knows the consequence of letting one person define fate of the world. He's seen it in the version of his father who did let the world burn in the name of his mom. She'd hate it, and so would Jay.

"I'll try my best not to let the world burn down for you?" Jon says.

Jay pecks a kiss on his cheek. "Getting warmer, I am totally seduced and charmed."

Jon places a quick press to his forehead and leans backs, kicking his feet. "So, what would you do?"

Stylus paused over the tablet, Jay watches ahead. "I'm not Superman."

Jon tilts his head and makes a questioning sound.

He chuckles and brings the tablet back to life, circling a sentence for a grammatical error. "I'm not for protecting anything and everything all the time," he says. "I've got to prioritize, and my priorities are based on what I care about."

Jon should probably discourage him and tell him no. No he can't just prioritize. No, he has to care about the rest of the universe too because superheroes, powers, responsibilities.

But it does feel nice to know someone would tear everything apart for him, selfish as it is. He wouldn't even hate Jay for it if he did it.

[gldrushsblog]

SUGAR AND SIN | JK

🧁✧ ˚. TITLE: Sugar and Sin.

🧁✧ ˚. PAIRING: Mafia boss! Jungkook x female oc

🧁✧ ˚. BLURB: Aurora’s bakery is running smoothly, but her secrets? Not so much.

🧁✧ ˚. GENRE: Mafia au, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, slow burn, dark romance, crime/thriller

🧁✧ ˚. WARNINGS: This chapter contains mentions of past violence and struggle with mental health.

🧁✧ ˚. TAGS: ocs struggle continues, day in ocs life kind of chapter, also ocs parents make an appearance

🧁✧ ˚. TAG LIST: @scuzmunkie

🧁✧ ˚. A/N: just talked with my friends and life is so good!!

CHAPTER 5: AURORA

The scent of freshly baked bread filled the air, warm and comforting, as the brunette pulled the last loaf from the oven. The sun had started to peek over the horizon, casting a soft glow through the windows of the bakery, more than sign enough that Sunrise sweets had started its opening hours.

Normally, the early morning routine would be enough to soothe Aurora's nerves, but today, even the the rich and robust aroma filling the air wasn't enough to still the oh so exhausting conflict of thoughts in her head. Wiping her hands on her pink apron that read - Feeling downie? Eat a brownie - she looked over at lia, her back turned to her, displaying her blond hair that met with silver near the ends tucked in a bun as she arranged pastries in the display case.

Lia had been her rock, her best friend and the person who let her use a shoulder to lean on after a rough day or a night soaked in alcohol since they were both were six and awkward, and from that day they had found it embarrassingly hard to let go of each other's company. Lia following her to this city and supporting a hand around in the bakery while she also engaged in modeling gigs to chase her dream of being one was proof enough.

It was ridiculous to the brunette how she hadn't become one already with her charming face all across the big hoardings and displays.

"You done with the bread?" She asked, not turning to her yet.

"Uh- yeah.. yeah. I'm done. I'm done with the almond croissants, too. Mrs. Lee will be in any minute, and you know how she gets if they're not ready," Aurora replied, the chuckle leaving her mouth sounding forced rather than something that came easy to her, making the blonde head turn to face her.

There was that anxiety and worry in her eyes that ticked Aurora. She had been giving her that look a lot lately even after Aurora's countless attempts at brushing it off ever since the night lia dropped by for dinner- the night before the hellish one.

It made her feel guilty. There used to be no secrets between them, but then again, she'd rather have that than drag her to this mess.

"Rory, Mrs Lee is gone on a vacation." Lia said carefully and calmly. A flush of embarrassment crept up on the brunettes cheeks at that. "Oh.." Her mouth parted before she covered it up with another chuckle. "Must have slipped out of my stupid head." She said, her fist hitting her head in a dramatic mannerism, and oh, she could gag at that.

"Things are slipping out of your head a lot more than what I consider normal. Is everything really okay?" She asked for what seemed like the 80th time ever since that day. Did she suck so bad at acting?

"Nothing to worry about! Just the usual stuff, you know? Rent, bills, keeping this place running smoothly." she tried to sound nonchalant, pushing the nightmarish memories away.

Lia didn't look entirely convinced. Yet her response was a soft hum and not another inquiry of her well being.

She sighed internally at that but before she could turn back to her croissants, a soft and curious voice spoke again. "Speaking of bills, how much more till we save up enough to shut that slimy's bastard's mouth up?" She didn't miss how her tone turned irritated at last.

"You've already got so much on your plate. You don't need to worry about saving up above all that." She sighed. Well, modeling did took a sweet amount of money and Aurora was content in making a deal with the devil than be a speed breaker in her best friend's path to her dream.

Lia's expression softened, but the worry didn't leave her eyes. "I just don't want you to carry this burden alone, Aurora. Especially not when it's a impossibly big one."

"Oh, lia." She breathed, crossing the distance between them and taking her hand in hers to squeeze it in affirmation. "You know I appreciate your concern. I really do." A thought crossed her mind- I want to tell her everything. Everything about the reckless deal she had made with a man far more dangerous than Mr Choi.

Instead, she swallowed the truth, hoping that her reassurances would be enough. "I've been exploring some options," she said, choosing her words carefully. "We might not have to worry about that creep for much longer." I will just have to worry about a blood thirsty demon.

Lia looked at her with suprise flickering in her eyes. "Really? What kind of options?"

Before she could think of another cover-up, the bell above the door chimed. She thanked the gods above for the interruption before scurrying away to attend the person behind the counter.

୨୧

The sky had darkened to a deep indigo, and the city lights were illuminating the streets with a faint glow. After a long day of dealing with all kind of sugary goods and making sure lia wasn't wary of when she'd sometimes zone out, her eyes lingering a little too long at the spot she saw a man's brains spill out, Aurora was making her way to her apartment.

Even the familiarity of the space she lived in was replaced by a chilling unease since the most unexpected series of events played out in the places she seeked comfort in the most.

So she opted for the next best thing.

"Aurora!" A middle-aged woman with comforting features spoke with a voice as warm and cheerful as ever, her eyes lighting up when she saw the younger verison of her behind the screen. "There's my girl!"

"Hi, mumma!" She greeted as she held the phone up to her face while sitting on the couch while holding a cup of hot cocoa in another, the tension in her shoulders easing a bit.

Before the older woman could start to go on and on asking about her daughter's well-being, another familiar face appeared in the frame. "Rory-bug!" Her father's face practically invaded all of the space on the screen as he pushed in with a grin before squinting slightly as he leaned back.

She couldn't help but laugh at his struggle with technology. "Papa!"

"How's the most handsome man in the world doing?" He grinned again at that. Daniel Beckett was a reserved man with a tough front he had made up in all the years he had served in the police yet was the softest around his two most favorite girls.

"Not good since my rory bug is nine thousand, six hundred kilo meters away from me." He said with a frown, making the woman beside him and in front of him break into a laugh again. He was extra like that.

"Your old man can be dramatic.." Her mother side eyed her husband, who only kissed her head in response, and Aurora regained her faith in unconditional love. She always did when she saw her parents together. They were a crucial reason why she had grown to be a hopeless romantic.

"But he's right. We miss you a lot, baby. How's everything going at the bakery?" She tried not to tense up at the mention of her bakery and forced her smile to keep in place. "Yeah, everything's going well. It's been busy, but in a good way."

Her mother's eyes narrowed slightly, the way they always did when she sensed something was off but softened again. "Well, that's nice to hear that you've been busy, but just don't push yourself too hard, rory. You've always had a tendency to take on more than you can handle."

"Your mom's right," the man beside her chimed in, his voice full of fatherly concern. "If things get too much, you know you can always come home for a bit. Take a break." There did not go a conversation with her father where he didn't tried convincing her to come back home at least once.

"I know, Papa. But I've got it under control," she assured them, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. "That's my girl." Her father encouraged, making her feel lighter.

While her mother gave her a gentle smile, the kind that always made everything seem a little better. "We just worry about you, baby. It's not easy being so far away, not being able to help you when you need it."

"I know, Mom. I miss you both so much," she admitted, her voice almost giving away the vulnerable emotions that had been overwhelming her. But she knew better than that, one hint of her in distress, and they both would be having a crisis of their own.

"We miss you too, Aurora," Daniel said. "But we're proud of you, you know that? You're doing something amazing with that bakery." Her eyes crinkled up. "Thanks, Papa."

"How's lia doing, rory? How's it going with her modeling? Aunt Ruby always seems to worry about you both out there." She was grateful for the change of topic her mother brought.

"She's doing well, mumma. Modeling agencies are soon gonna be lining up at her feet, so tell Aunt Ruby there's nothing to worry about." No wonder, lia is always exploiting her blood pressure. "We're both big girls." She added with her chin slightly tipping up, earning a laugh from her parents.

From there, she steered the conversation towards more mundane topics- Papa's most recent attempt at tinkering with that old car of his that he has been calling classic for the last twenty years, Mumma's gardening, their family dog's Pluto's health- things that connected her to the life she had left behind. Things that made her feel distant from the chaos that had been her life for the past few days.

But she was once again pulled back from the comfort of it all. This time, it was from a ring on her door.

"There's someone on the door.." She trailed on, making a movement to stand up and go attend the person behind. "I will have to go now, but I will talk to you guys later. Love you, mumma. Love you, Papa." She ended, finally turning to them with a departuring smile that was met with a load of "I love yous" and flying kisses sent across her way before the call ended.

Setting down her phone, she neared the door, but before she could twist the knob open, a crisp white envelope fell from the sharp, slit like opening at the bottom.

A frown twisted on her features, and she bent down to pick up the envelope.

Carefully pulling away the seal, she pulled out a single piece of paper that was mostly blank if not for the small, bold text written across the middle that read.

"Expect me soon."

To be continued..

→ Previous chapter.

[clone-whore-99]

Troublemaker

Chapter 10: A Nice Change of Air

The Bad Batch x f!Reader

Warnings: Mature-ish, some angst as usual, descriptions of fighting and sore muscles, Echos past, everybody gets to relax for once LMK if I need to add more

Authors note: I have been struggling to write. Like, crazy struggling. Like, I've only been able to add a few sentences a day and this chapter is shorter than I'd like, but I also just want it out by now. Hope you like it anyways ❤

If you like it, please do let me know by liking and commenting and maybe even reblogging, it would mean a lot to me 🥺👉👈

Arriving at Kamino

Work, Armor and... Clones?

Let it Out

You shouldn't have done that

Talk about it

The 20 Questions Game

Crosshair

Echoes of the past

The Fight

-

Sore Muscles

Heavy Rain Weights the Mind

Waste of Time

Your knees were burning from the constant friction against the padded floor. Sweat covered your skin in a thin layer, every muscle was screaming from soreness and your lungs felt like they were on fire from the nonstop panting and gasping.

"You're not done already," The mocking tone in Hunters voice made it sound more like a question than the statement it was. "You haven't even been able to lay a finger on me yet."

While sitting on the sideline, Crosshair felt the need to further fan the flame of your frustration. "Told ya, you need to build up your stamina." He smugly reminded you.

"When did you tell her that?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Obviously; that's why it was asked," Tech pointed out to his brother, but Crosshair just leaned back against the wall, with his signature toothpick sticking out from his arrogant smirk.

Slowly, you got back up on your feet, much to the disdain of your aching muscles. With arms as heavy as lead, you wiped sweat off your brow, before retaining eye contact with the man in front of you.

Hunter tilted his head back in a cofident way, a smug smirk plastered across his lips. "You're looking a little worn out, ad'ika. You sure you want to continue?"

The two of you had been at this for at least an hour - most definitely more though. It started out with your fighting stance. Hunter pointed out how unstable it was, demonstrating how easy it would be to topple you over. From that point on, Hunter had avoided everything you threw at him. Every punch, kick, push, bodyslam and whatever else you could think of, had been dodged, redirected, blocked or ended with him restaining you or throwing you to the ground. He never actually hit back and made sure not to hurt you in the process. The amount of times your head had been in contact with the ground was embarrassing. He hadn't even broken a sweat in the process, while you were drenched in it! The four men sitting on the sideline cheering, critiquing and betting throughout the fight didn't help much either.

You charged towards Hunter as fast as your tired legs would let you. You raised your fist into what would've been a left hook, but at the very last second when Hunter was ready to block it, you spun around to do a roundhouse kick instead.

Aaaaand your face instantly met the soft floor with a loud 'thump'.

Like he had so many other times, Hunter held your leg in his arm for a moment, so you couldn't as easily get back up. However, when the floor pads vibrated from your low groans of pain, he carefully put it down by its partner, then kneeled in front of you.

"Alright, you're done for today," he said through a caring smile.

"Noooo..." You half-heartedly protested into the floor. Hunter turned your head to the side, so you could more easily breathe and communicate. "It isn't fair. You're a soldier who has been trained for this your entire life, obviously I won't be able to beat you!"

The side of Hunters lip curled and his eyebrow was raised in a cocky yet questioning manner. "And the guy from the mess hall you nearly picked a fight with isn't?"

"He's a shiny, there's a difference."

"You know about shinies?" You could hear Echo question.

You let out a huff of air in exchange for chuckling. Very slowly and with your muscles aching in protest, you managed to pull yourself up into a sitting position. "It'd be rather impressive if I worked around you clones this long and didn't pick up on some of your linguistics along the way."

"Shiny or not, he's still trained in combat," Hunter stood up and reached a hand out to help you. You pouted at the hand, not wanting to move again this soon. "Come on mesh'la, we need to move on so the cleaning droid can get the room ready for the cadets. Plus, you really need a shower after all of this."

"What, you're not digging the sweaty look on me?" You finally grabbed the hand offered to you and Hunter pulled you up with ease.

"Mesh'la, look at how I live," Hunter said, with his arms out in a gesturing motion while heading towards his armor. "I don't care about a little sweat. I just figured a fancy civilian such as yourself wouldn't want to walk around all sweaty."

You scrunched your nose at Hunters mocking tone about your social status. "Fair point, I guess... What's the quickest way to the apartment?" You turned to face Tech.

"There is none. However, there should be a changing room with a refresher and a shower not far from here," Tech pointed out, while adjusting his goggles and looking at his datapad.

You faked a dry laugh. "No. You clones are sweet and all, but I'm not about to get naked in front of a bunch of you. And, it's not really like this place got gendered rooms, since the only women around here got their own apartments."

"Hah, don't worry adi'ka, we got a plan for that!" Wrecker got up from his sitting spot and went over to give you a comforting pat on your back - causing you to nearly stumble over in the progress.

These guys really had a plan for everything. Even undisturbed refresher visits.

Turns out, there used to be more clones like Clone Force 99 - more defective clones as they themselves put it. You still hated using that word for living beings. Anyways, some of the others had issues with how the 'normal' clones looked at them while in the 'fresher, so they constructed this whole plan.

Tech would slice into the system and mark the room as being under maintenance so nobody else would enter. Wrecker would stand guard to make sure nobody questioned it and Crosshair and Hunter would be on the look out for anyone checking up on it. That way, their brothers with deformations - and in this case, you - could shower in peace.

Only problem was, these showers weren't entirely like the one in your dads apartment. It was on most parts, but you couldn't find the soap or the towels. Something, you noticed way too late.

"Y/N?" A voice echoed through the durasteel walls. "I got your bag of clothes here."

You stuck your head out of the shower stall to give a proper thanks, only to burst out laughing at the sight you were met. "Thanks, but why the hell are you wearing your bandana like that?"

Hunter got a huge grin on his face by the sound of your laughter and began to soundlessly chuckle - the only reason you knew, was because of the movement of his shoulders.

"It's so there's no doubt I won't take a peak."

"You trust yourself that little around me?"

"It's for your comfort, mesh'la." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Now if that's all -"

"Wait!" You hurried over to grab his arm before he could leave. You waited until he turned around before continuing. "I, ehm... This is dumb, but I can't find the soap or towels... Since you can get around pretty well without being able to see, maybe you could help?"

A cocky grin came across Hunters lips. "Sure, if you'll turn off the water real quick so I don't get soaked," He said, pointing with his chin towards the stall.

You happily complied with his request and went to turn off the water. Not even a second passed from when it was turned off, Hunter appeared behind you and reached over your shoulder, careful not to accidentally touch your bare skin.

"I guess it's not like the one in your dads apartment?" His smoky voice was restained, yet warm. Out of the whole squad, he was the one who usually kept the most distance to you physically.

"Not really..."

With a quick touch on the wall, a sidepanel appeared and dispensed soap. The kaminoans were really practical and minimalistic with their designs. "That's how you get soap. As for towels..." His voice was right next your ear and you could see out of the corner of your eye that he was still blinded by his bandana.

With two simple steps, Hunter readjusted himself behind you, so he could reach further into the stall. Still, he kept making sure to be respectful of your boundaries and went out of his way to not touch you.

Though, that quickly changed when he touched a button right by the shower controls and warm air suddenly blew all around you. Shocked by the sudden impact, you took a step back and instantly collided with Hunter, who grabbed onto you for support but quickly let go again and stepped back.

"Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to..." He started, but you instantly cut him off.

"No no no, please don't be sorry, I stepped into you!" You corrected him, waving your hands in a dismissive way even though he couldn't see it.

Hunter sighed and rubbed his neck awkwardly. "I should've warned you. Instead of towels, they use hot air to dry you off. Less laundry and all."

You nodded thoughtfully. "Smart. Thanks for the help... Oh, and Hunter?" you stepped closer to Hunter, barely leaving any space between the two of you. Leaning up, you placed a small kiss on his stubbled chin. "Thanks for everything you do for me - all of you, really. I've never had anyone do even half as much for me as you guys. I really appreciate it."

In return, Hunter placed a hand on the back of your head and let his lips lightly grace your forehead. "It's no problem cyare. The feeling is mutual." His hand moved from the back of your head to your shoulder and he gave it a small pat before stepping away. "Let's discuss it when you're dressed again, okay?"

And just like that, you were left to your own demise again.

You returned to your shower, now knowing how to get completely clean.

Despite what it at times would seem like, you actually really liked it on Kamino. True, it wasn't as colorful or lively as Coruscant, but the air was unpolluted and the water was clean. On the rare occasion where it wasn't raining, you could actually see the stars in the sky and the nights weren't filled with police sirens.

It was a nice change of air.

The rest of the evening was surprisingly quiet. You had been too tired from the humbling fight session with Hunter to go to the mess hall, so Wrecker had been kind enough to bring food back to the barracks for you. He still vastly overestimated how much you could actually eat.

You could already tell your muscles were going to be sore the next day. Tech offered to give you a massage to help, but out of consideration towards Hunter, you had declined.

Right now, Tech and Crosshair were discussing whose bunk you were going to sleep in. Crosshair meant that it was best to stick with what you were used to, but Tech argued that after what happened that morning, it would do both of you good to sleep seperately. You decided to stay out of the argument. As long as you had a place to sleep, you were fine.

Instead you sat on the couch, doodling away on your datapad.

Wrecker sat on his own bunk, doing curls with the heaviest weights you had ever seen and watching the arguments between his brothers like it was the most interesting thing he had ever witnessed.

Hunter laid on his own bunk, headphones covering his ears, datapad resting on his stomach and with his eyes closed.

Echo leaned on the backrest of the couch, looking over your shoulder. "What are you drawing?" He asked.

You shrugged. "Nothing, really. Just doodling." Twisting your head backwards, your eyes met Echos. "Felt like I needed to do something but didn't want it to take too much thought or energy, y'know."

"Yea, I get that." He said with half a chuckle, then jumped over the backrest to sit next to you. "Can I see?"

You handed Echo your datapad. "There's not much to see. It's just dumb scribbles, really."

"Well, you're good at making dumb scribbles then." Echo offered you a smile and a small nudge to your ribs with his elbow.

With a roll of your eyes, you took the pad out of his hands and placed it on your other side. "You guys aren't half-bad artists yourselves. I've seen the stuff you paint on your armor and ships, it's pretty impressive."

A look of genuinity reflected in his amber eyes for a fraction of a second, before a teasing glint overtook it. Echo leaned back with his hands resting behind his head and his legs crossed in a really arrogant way. "Yea, I guess once this war is over, we'll always have a career option as artists."

You gently pushed him while rolling your eyes again. "Just take the damn compliment, you wiseass."

Echo laughed and jokingly held up his hand in a yielding manner. "Alright alright! Compliment taken."

Once the laughter and jokes between you had settled down, your eyes landed on the scomplink replacing his right hand. "Can I ask you something?"

"You wanna know what happened." Echo held out the scomplink so you could get a closer look.

"If it's alright with you, of course." You replied with a low gulp and a careful nod.

Placing his flesh hand on the back of your head, Echo let it slide down to your shoulder and gave you a light squeeze. "Of course it is, mesh'la. There isn't much for me to tell you, though. I was on a rescue mission to free some prisoners of war. I tried to get our ship so we could escape, when it blew up - and me with it." He shrugged. "Next thing I know, a year has passed when Captain Rex and these guys rescued me from CIS on Skako Minor. Turns out I survived the blast and the damn seppies had been using me to win their battles..."

The way Echo told the story was similar to how your dad used to describe work when he came home at night. Like it was just a normal day for him. Right until the last sentence. It was filled with anger and regret and sadness.

Your heart sank at the realization. Getting blown up in battle was a reality to these men, no different than going to the office was for everyone else. The painful part for him wasn't blowing up, it was being used against his own team.

Instantly, your arms were thrown around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug.

"You poor thing, I'm so sorry to hear that," You whispered into his neck. Tears were prickling your eyes.

Carefully, Echos arms reached around your upper body and held you in a tight embrace. You could feel the side of his lips curl against your head.

"It's not all bad cyare. Afterall, I probably wouldn't have met you if it wasn't for this happening."

"Oh ha ha," You said in a monotone, ending the hug with a friendly slap to his chest.

Upon getting back into your previous sitting position, you noticed that all the other men were staring at you. Even Hunter had removed his headset and leaning on his elbows to get a better view of the two of you.

"What?" You asked, shrugging your shoulders.

"Nothing..." They all replied simultaneously in their own way, then went back to their previous task.

You turned to look at Echo, who shrugged with just as confused a look on his face.

Dividers by: @eloquentmoon and @djarrex

Taglist: @zoeykallus @rain-on-kamino @thebadbatchscyare @thebahdbitch @salaminus @mybigfatspoonielife @tararosebloodthorn @chxpsi @coffeeandclaws @timothyshousefire @tazmbc1 @nunanuggets @rexandechosandwich @the-good-shittt @showerthoughtsonly @ashotofspotchka

Please let me know if you want to be added to the taglist (and if you want to be added to only this series or all my fics) ❤

[captaincravatthecapricious]

Sick Fic I Didn't Bother To Name

Post canon, Tim comes over to look after Jon while Martin is at work.

cw dizziness, fever, nausea, fainting, mentions of vomit, food mention I guess. Let me know if I should add more warnings, this is just a fluffy little sick fic it might have some light angst I don't really remember.

The thought of moving makes Jon want to cry.  All his muscles hurt.  The worm scars aching like the day they were made.  He’s just going to lie there here until someone makes him move.  

Which will probably be soon, because he’s positive Martin has asked Tim to come over and …water him?  

No, in all seriousness, he can’t exactly recall what Martin told him this morning as he was leaving for work.  Something about not letting him go in to work, no working online, no checking his email, something something Tim?  Not that Jon is feeling well enough to get his computer.  Let alone let it assault his over-sensitive eyes with the harsh light of the screen.  Which is unfortunate, because he thinks Martin probably left him a text about whatever he missed this morning.  

He really hopes Martin thought to email his students.  He’ll try to remember to ask Tim to check.  If Tim’s even coming.  

Christ, he’s not thinking straight.  

He thinks Tim is coming, but if not, he’s got paracetamol, his inhaler, water, a thermos of tea, some saltines, a little cup of applesauce, excedrin, a thermometer (Jon isn’t sure why Martin left him that, there is no way he’s going to use that he just… really really hates thermometers, they mean he’s ill and that meant no school and staying quiet alone and miserable in his room so ill to open a book if he was ill enough for his grandmother to notice, it was less bad when he got to go to the school nurse.  Actually got some medicine sometimes, but they often sent him home too, and then his grandmother was cross that she had to pick him up.  In any case, no thermometer if he has a say in it.), bin, tissues (again Jon isn’t sure why, he’s not particularly congested, but Martin is Martin and is taking care of him even when he’s at work which makes Jon feel warm to his core, not from the fever that he knows he’s running.), lucozade, and his cane.  Everything in easy reach.  

He should probably take some medicine, but even reaching that far feels like too much.  He’s just going to lay here, on top of his blanket pile until the fever chills take him back and he has to burrow under them again.  It’s been the challenge all night to find a comfortable enough temperature to sleep.  A challenge he’s mostly been losing.  Leaving him feeling gritty and heavy and with a headache.  

He just wants to sleep.  Drifting in and out of it with frantic almost laziness.  Rolling heat to biting cold.  He wishes he could get his laptop, willing to bear the brightness if only to get a distraction from his discomfort.  

He’s just managed a trip to and from the loo, when Tim arrives.  Jon’s collapsed back on his blanket nest on the couch when Tim calls out before keys jangle in the lock.  Jon’s too busy trying not to pass out to make out words.  He’s impressed he managed the loo without a surprise nap.  But, he can make no promises that he won’t pass out now.  

He comes to with the inside of Tim’s wrist pressed to his forehead.  With a quiet gasp.  And then a frankly embarrassing sound as he fully absorbs how wonderfully cool Tim’s wrist is.  

“Hey there, bud.  Hate to ask, but did you just pass out from just lying there, because if so, I’m gonna have to be a little worried?”  

Jon tries to focus on Tim.  “No… no got back from the toilet and surprise nap.”  

Tim looks relieved.  

Jon is just relieved that he isn’t alone.  Where he can too easily spiral.  Being alone and miserable leaves it too easy to slip into memories.  Especially with the impressive fever that he’s got to be running, if the agonizing walk from couch to loo and loo to couch is any indication.  His muscles are shaking from fatigue from that pathetically short walk, and he’d had a death grip on his cane and the wall to keep upright.  Christ, he’s really not well.  

Tim makes a big show of wiping his brow and breathing a sigh of relief.  “Hey think you can give me some of the couch?”  

Jon would love to, he nods, but consciousness flutters when he tries to sit up.  Losing his vision to the dizziness again.  Tim catches him against his chest, and gently holds him steady as he slips onto the couch, positioning Jon as best he can.  Jon snuggling against Tim’s hooded jumper.  

He still can’t believe he’s allowed to do this.  A few years ago, Tim didn’t want to be in the same room with him.  But …here he is.  Here when it counts.  (Although Martin would probably tell him that it counted earlier too, that Tim should have been by his side, a thought that he’s been trying to work through in therapy, and Jon is working through in reverse in his own.)  Jon could cry.  Might cry.  Fever’s high enough that he probably will.  

“Got a bit worried when you didn’t answer any texts.  Wanted to see if you needed anything.”  

“‘m sorry.”  Jon really hadn’t thought to check his phone, and even if he had, well not as if he’d been up to reading anything on a tiny bright screen.  Even the thought of doing so makes his head hurt more than it already does.  

“Don’t worry about it.  Have you taken some meds recently?”  

Jon has no idea what time it is, or when Martin left.  Can’t even keep track of how light it is outside with the blinds drawn and his face shoved into Tim.  “Had some before Martin left?”  

Tim’s got an arm around Jon.  He’s rubbing his back.  And there is a tightness in Jon’s chest.  It’s been years.  It’s been years.  It’s been years, and he still can’t believe that Tim is really back and here and cares.  Tim could hold him every moment he can stand touch, and it wouldn’t be enough.  Jon needs.  He needs the attention and care, and just needs his friend in general.  And if he didn’t feel so sick, he could happily live in this moment forever.  If he wasn’t dizzy and feverish and dreadfully queasy.  

Tim’s hand stills, and a shuddery breath escapes Jon with the absence.  

Tim’s heart lurches.  He goes back to rubbing Jon’s back.  He’s pretty sure this is Jon crying and not Jon about to puke.  Jon’s decent at letting him know these sorts of things, or at least is consistent in his physical cues.  “Hey, bud.  Just gonna get you some fever reducers, it’s about time, I think.  Marto texted me when he was leaving.  Sorry about leaving you alone for a bit.  Had to finish up my shift and grab a shower and grab some soup making stuff and some DVDs, in case you wanna watch anything.  But, I’m not going anywhere.  You’re stuck with me.”  

Jon huffs a watery laugh.  Or maybe it’s a sob.  it’s damp, but that’s okay.   

“You just gotta sit up a little.  Wow, Marto really stocked up the coffee table for you, huh.  He loves you a lot.  Also, he worries.”  

Tim tilts Jon slightly more upright, and wipes away the tears, before handing him some medicine and some lucozade.  Martin said Jon had been sick earlier (probably more due to the POTS flaring up, Martin hoped, and Tim also hopes.  Not that a POTS flare up is a good thing, but if he can keep Jon full of salt and keep his feet up, he shouldn’t have any trouble keeping fluids in him, which makes things easier), in any case, the electrolytes are probably a good idea.  

“You thrown up recently?”  

Signs ‘no.’  That’s good.  

“Wanna try some crackers?”  

Jon shrugs.  

“If you’re up to it later, I can make us some soup, ‘kay?”  

Jon nods, looking …faded.  Probably best to get his legs up and him cozy.  

“Mind if I get you in a more comfy position?”  

Jon doesn’t answer, just blinks dizzily, so Tim carefully gets up, and props Jon’s feet up with the decorative pillows that he knows Jon thinks are stupid, and tucks a couple of the blankets around Jon.  Not too many, not wanting Jon’s temperature to climb any higher, but he can’t just watch Jon shiver.  Hurts too much to watch.  

Reminds him of all the times he ignored him.  All the times he hasn’t been there.  And there’ve been many.  He should have been there.  

So he’ll risk a couple blankets, even though Jon is burning away.  Hopefully the fever reducers do their job soon.  He does, however get a damp flannel for Jon’s forehead while he’s up.  

He thinks Jon might be unconscious again, but he won’t worry about that unless he doesn’t come around in a minute or so.  

Jon’s awake again by the time Tim has himself settled back on the couch.  

“How about some TV?  You up for that?”  

Jon just whines.  

“We’ll start some, and if it makes it worse, we’ll turn it off, okay?”  

Jon wiggles a little, getting comfortable.  And Tim chuckles.  

“Okay, bud.  You get some rest, okay?  I’ll make you some soup later, if you’re up for it.  I got ingredients for your favorite.  Or smoothies, if that sounds better.”  

Jon makes a sound of complaint as Tim as started to talk over the intro music.  

Tim chuckles.  “Alright, alright.  Just let me know if you get hungry.  Martin will be home tonight, until then, you’re stuck with me.”  

Jon falls asleep within an episode with Tim gently carding his fingers through his hair.  

[pogueit]

First Aid Kit

Paring: Pope Heyward x Reader

Summary: You have an accident while attempting to do a new trick and Pope is the man for the job.

Warnings: blood ofc and general first aid stuff nothing too graphic tho!!

WC: 1,994

A/N: There's not enough Pope content!! SO I made some!! Pls enjoy some Pope and Y/N action!

THE GIF IS NOT MINE IT BELONGS TO @rue-bennett !!!!

Saturdays are not meant to be boring, but this scorching afternoon there was nothing to do. John B. went on his weekly date with Sarah, JJ scored a date with a kook he's been eyeing, and Kie was forced to go to a gala on the mainland, so it was just you and Pope alone in the chateau. He had been studying all day for an upcoming chemistry exam he has first thing Monday morning. You tried all day to get his head out of the books, but he was not having any of it. It wasn't until the late afternoon that you got him to go outside with you. Even though his nose was still deep in the piles of notes at least he was outside. You were skating on a horrifically uneven stretch of concrete that was oddly slathered in front of the chateau. Every time he could hear the wheels pop upwards he would snap his eyes to you, cheering you on when you stuck the landing. You were glad that he was far enough away to not be able to see how red your cheeks were. You've had a massive crush on the boy ever since Kie introduced you to the group. Your mom had just moved your ass down to the banks to get a fresh start far away from your poor excuse for a father. She managed to quickly score a job at The Wreck (where you were also forced to work part-time) as head chef. Your mom got on well with the Carrera's who only deemed it appropriate to force their daughter to hang out with you, being new in town and all. Kie wasn’t bothered at all and was glad to have another girl around. After hanging out with her for a single day, you wouldn’t hesitate to take a bullet for her. Kiara didn't introduce you to the knuckleheads right away, since she had taken a liking to you and didn't want to scare you away. The day that she did you remembered Pope had been the last one to say "hey" yet his was the warmest. After that day your stomach would erupt with butterflies whenever you'd even look at him and you would nearly die when your hands would brush against each other in passing. There was just something about him. Maybe it was how he didn't believe in stupid questions, except for JJ's of course, or how he would learn a new subject just to be able to help one of you ace an exam. It could be how the sun sparkled against his wet skin after a long day of swimming or surfing. How relaxed he looks sitting in the driver's seat of the HMS Pogue taking in all that the sun had to offer. You were glad the rest of the crew hadn't caught on yet, especially JB since he's already taken the role as your big brother, even though you're sure that you’re definitely older than him. He would never let you hear the end of it if he knew. The constant pestering, nudging, and side-eyeing would have driven you insane. Your mind slowly drifted back to the boy studying a few feet away from you. The thoughts of those hot summer nights in the cool water with him clouded your brain, so much so you nearly wiped out.

"You good!?" Pope's concerned voice made your head snap in his direction. You knew that the embarrassment on your face was very telling but you just shot him two thumbs up and got back on your board. You shake off any remaining thoughts from your head before attempting your new trick. You were sick and tired of random strangers, but mostly JJ and JB, yelling at you to do a kickflip whenever you were skating. After watching countless videos on kickflips you were basically an expert on them at this point and all you had to do now was actually stick the landing. You slid your right foot to the middle of the board so that your heel was just off the edge while your toes rested in the middle. You shifted your left foot to the tail of the deck and with all the strength you could muster you push down on the tail while your right foot flicked down on the edge of the board. It would have been a spectacular landing if it weren't for the random-ass pebble that your wheel landed on.

"Oh fuck, are you alright!?" Pope was by your side before you even realized you were on the ground. Falling came with the game and you were not fazed at all, since you've had grislier wipeouts than this, but that's before you saw the fountain of blood that poured out of your knee.

"Yeah, I'm fine dude-- I've had-- I need to--The bathroom--" you hobbled quickly into the bathroom at the chateau trying your darndest to not get any blood in the house. By the time you were able to sit down on the toilet, you were seeing stars. Your vision was slowly fading to black and you felt like you were going to vomit. You closed your eyes tightly as you pressed a clump of toilet paper to your knee, which pulled a hiss right from your lungs at the sensation. Promptly, you bit down on your bottom lip to keep yourself from letting out a scream. A light knock came from the door and it couldn't be anyone else but Pope.

"Are you alright in there y/n?" From all the pain you were in you could only hum out a yes as a response, but you knew that would not be a good enough answer for the boy.

"Yeah, just don't--" before you could even finish your sentence he barged in "--open the door, why don't ya". His eyes grew wide at the bloody mess you made in the bathroom, but then quickly softened at the sight of you. Your skin was flushed with developing perspiration clinging to your skin and your lips had gone pale as your lungs suddenly only knew how to hyperventilate.

"Uh, I don’t think it would be in your best interest to say that it looks like a slasher flick was filmed in here" his words made you squeeze your eyes tighter as bloody images flashed before you and it only got harder for you to breathe. Pope stepped inside the rather small bathroom and closed the door behind him. He picked up all the toilet paper you had used for your leg and tossed them into the trash bin before he crouched down next to you.

"Does it still hurt?" His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, as if you would shatter if he spoke any louder. All you could muster was a tiny nod as the pain took up most of your energy. His hands then gently pried your hands off of your injured knee and inspected it. Since the cut had almost stopped bleeding completely, Pope, was able to see that the wound was deep but not enough for it to garner any stitches and it was free of any debris. Lucky for you because JB had fallen there a couple of weeks ago and Pope had to whip out the tweezers to get all the gravel out of the bloody gash.

"Hey, it's not that bad-- I mean it is bad but it could be worse-- I'm gonna clean it now" the boy got to his feet and helped you sit on the edge of the bathtub with your feet sitting inside the tub. He then washed his hands furiously to avoid infection and gathered all the supplies he needed which consisted of antibacterial soap, antibiotic cream, gauze pads, gauze rolls, and unconditional love and support. Pope helped you undo both your shoes and removed them along with your embarrassing Winnie the Pooh socks. He sat with his legs outside the tub to have easy access to the supplies. After he checked to make sure the water wasn't too hot or too cold Pope moved your leg so your knee was underneath the faucet. The wound's contact with the water wasn't as bad as you thought, but it could’ve been you were distracted by his soothing touches as he held you close to him. Pope was careful not to get any of the soap in the cut just on the surrounding area and when he was finished he made sure to clean the rest of your blood-caked leg up as well. Once you were all cleaned up, he padded your leg dry before he attempted to put ointment on the tender flesh.

"Is it going to hurt?" You squeaked as he retrieved the ointment from the countertop.

"It might sting, but it shouldn't, '' he reassured you, as he brought the ointment-covered q-tip to your knee, but you couldn't help that your knee-jerked away from his touch.

"Ow, fuck!"

"Y/n, I haven't even touched you yet"

"I know, I know, sorry"

"I promise it won't hurt, y/n, and if it does you can punch me or something" even if it did hurt that bad you couldn’t imagine hurting Pope in any way. He once again leaned back in with the q-tip and sure enough, it wasn't painful at all. The ointment soothed the burning sensation of the area which finally allowed you to relax. He then carefully put a gauze pad on the injury, before wrapping your knee securely with gauze. You slid off the edge of the grimy porcelain tub and onto the ground while Pope stood next to the sink and neatly tucked everything back into the first aid kit.

"Uh, thanks--" your words got lost in your throat when your eyes met his warm eyes "--um, dude?" You felt stupid when it came out as a dumbfounded question and the heat quickly rose to your cheeks. If it was any time for you to die you wish it would have happened right then.

"Yeah, any time, y/n" he shot an endearing smile in your direction and you've never wanted to kiss a man so much before in your life.

You both let the awkwardness settle over you. The two of you riddled with hesitancy, but quietly yearned to confess your feelings to one another. He needed to get out of there. Pope gave you a curt nod and a tight smile, but as he headed towards the door there was vacillation in his movements. Before you lost sight of him from the doorway, he turned back around determined.

"Y/N, I gotta--" you were soon on your feet as the last bit of courage you had for your lifetime allowed you to meet him halfway. He didn't bother finishing his sentence as he decided his actions would speak for him. Pope cupped your face in his soft hands and crashed your lips together. The kiss was sweet, sweeter than anything you've ever experienced before. His plump lips gilded confidently over your timid ones. As the fire inside of you diminished your shyness you shifted yourself forward onto your tippy toes to deepen the kiss. Your movements caused you to pin Pope against the bathroom wall and you could feel him smile against your lips. His velvet tongue dragged against your bottom lip for permission to explore you further and you were more than eager to let him.

"Fucking finally!" The familiar voice of the rowdy klepto caught you guys by surprise causing both of you to jump away from each other.

"I guess I'm forty bucks richer, I knew you had it in ya, Pope!" JJ beamed as he walked towards the two of you and you playfully rolled your eyes at the blonde-haired boy.

"Fuck off!" Pope giggled and slammed the door in JJ's face before he turned to face you.

"Now, where were we?"

[shingia]

𝐒/𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐉𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐃

stay safe and warm up conscientiously my dudes <3

⤷  hinata, tsukishima, yamaguchi, suga, oikawa, akaashi

warnings : knee, ankle, shoulder injuries

↳ hinata (basketball)

▻ there were only five minutes left and karasuno was two points behind. now was the time to give your all as you went in for the jump that would hopefully block your opponent’s attack

▻ when you felt the familiar texture of the ball against your fingertips, you focused all your strength in your arm and smashed it to the ground with an unbreakable determination

▻ it worked. it worked ! a loud roaring from the stands reached your ears, stirring up the wild fire that was burning in you

▻ but sadly, this wild fire vanished in a matter of seconds when your foot twisted to the right and your ankle hit the floor full force

▻ you let out a piercing scream as a sharp pain was radiating from your ankle to your whole leg

▻ “that’s it. it’s over for me” you thought as tears sprinkled the corner of your eyes

▻ you had no idea how much time it took the first aiders to come to you, but it did not matter. right now you couldn’t think about anything else than your sheer disappointment in yourself. your mind was numb. it was all your fault.

▻ the first tear you let out was when you were laying on the observation table of the infirmary, an ice pack on your elevated ankle as the first aider was out calling your parents

▻ you hadn’t been alone for long when the door suddenly burst open. you immediately recognized your boyfriend’s ginger locks

▻ but when your eyes fixed upon his face, you realized that he looked nothing like the shōyō you knew

▻ his everlasting spark seemed gone and he was looking at you with worried and sorry eyes for the first time ever

▻ he was about to say something when you suddenly broke down in tears right in front of him

▻ seeing you like this truly broke his heart. he couldn’t even imagine how you felt, although he really wanted to. he wanted you to give him your pain

 ▻ however, he knew exactly what to say to make you feel better. he ran to your bed and wrapped his arms around you, holding your sobbing body tightly before saying as happily as he could : “karasuno won, y/n ! they won for you !”

▻ you looked at him with red and swollen eyes. his bright face that you knew so well was back, and the colossal weight of guilt that was crushing you was slowly starting to disappear

▻ “they’ll be here in a few minutes. and you’ll see that nobody’s mad at you... except yourself. but absolutely none of this is your fault, alright ? don’t let these bad thoughts get to you, please... or i’ll fight you myself”

▻ you let out a faint laugh, still wrapped in the tenderness of his embrace and not ready to let go just yet

▻ for the months that followed your injury, shōyō was more than happy to help you with rehabilitation. he also made you write down every single progress you made, so that you could read it whenever you felt down

▻ he insisted on accompanying you to every match your team played without you, because he knew how hard it could be for you to watch from this side of the gym

▻ also, he definitely tried your crutches and did tricks with them

↳ tsukishima (tennis)

▻ tsukki was not even supposed to attend your match. but daichi knew that the first and second years had to study for their exams next week and decided to end their practice early, which is why he thought it’d be a good idea to come see you play

▻ you were really good at tennis, but you tended to overwork yourself and always tried to push your limits. physically or mentally

▻ he had already told you that this behavior would lead you to an injury, but you were too stubborn to listen to him

▻ so obviously, he was not very surprised when he saw you fall to the ground while painfully holding your shoulder as you let out harrowing sobs

▻ he might not have been surprised, but that didn't mean he was not concerned. he was actually pretty worried

▻ however, he was sensible and knew better than to run to you impulsively and bother the medics ; so he kept his distance until your were taken in hand

▻ you were laying on the floor, still painfully sobbing from both pain and frustration when you felt a hand on your leg

▻ you wiped away the tears that were troubled your sight and recognized your boyfriend’s face who was looking at you from above with his brows furrowed

▻ “go ahead, say it” you sniffled “« i told you »”

▻ tsukki shook his head no with a scoff “i won’t. not now at least. what did the medics say ?”

▻ “i have to go for an x-ray and ultrasound to make sure nothing’s fractured” you answered after swallowing the lump in your throat

▻ he sat more comfortably next to you and kept rubbing circles on your thigh, telling you that he’d stay with you for as long as he’s allowed to

▻ he knew very well that you were going to be hard enough on yourself so, for once, he put aside his salty comments and focused on taking your mind off of the pain

▻ so he thought he’d explain to you why he had finally been able to come. he also told you that from the little he had seen, you had played better than ever, hoping that this would make you feel at least a bit better

▻ emotional support might not be tsukki’s forte, but during your convalescence, he helped in his own way by thinking about how you could still play a role in your sport while being immobilized

▻ he encouraged you to ask your coach if you could help train the younger players, which you started doing a week after the accident - and it was one of the best idea tsukki had ever had

▻ even if he couldn’t go with you to all your doctor’s appointments, he knew all the dates by heart and always called you afterwards

↳ yamaguchi (gymnastics)

▻ yamaguchi loved to see you perform your routines and was always amazed at how you made everything look so effortless. and you loved knowing that he was there for you in the stands

▻ however, when you lost balance during a jump over the bar and dislocated your shoulder while trying to grab hold of it, you thought that for once it would have been better for him not to come and witness that

▻ the pain was sharp, like your joint was trying to pop out of your skin at any moment. although your coach tried to be as reassuring as she could, you couldn’t help but imagine the worst

▻ and that’s when you saw him. deathly pale, tadashi was standing next to the stairs that connected the stands to the competition hall, visibly weighing whether or not he should come and see you

▻ three medics came in no time and carefully put you on a stretcher before taking you to a quieter room where you’d have to wait for the ambulance. your coach was still with you, but you knew she had to deal with the rest of your teammates

▻ “go back there, they still need you” you told her “but before you leave, my boyfriend is in the competition hall, could you-”

▻ you weren’t even done talking that yamaguchi burst in the room, looking absolutely terrified. he rushed to you and your coach decided to leave, you were in good hands now

▻ “i’m alright, tadashi, i’m alright” you lied with a forced smile

▻ he squeezed your hand, his jaw clenched. “stop preserving me, it’s my turn to reassure you for once. it’s okay if you’re not alright, i’m here”

▻ at his words, a single tear ran down your cheek which he stopped by softly brushing your skin with his finger. you smiled gratefully at his angelic face, which was still tensed with worry

▻ “w-will you come to the hospital with me ?” you asked, finally letting your fear show through your voice

▻ tadashi obviously accepted to accompany you. actually, he was there every step of the way, until your parents took over

▻ for quite some time after your injury, tadashi stopped talking about volleyball. he thought it was unfair to talk to you about it when you were immobilized for at least a month

▻ but hearing him talk about his sport was one of the things you enjoyed most so you asked him not to refrain himself. if there was something he wanted to tell you, you were more than happy to listen

▻ however, it did not mean that you didn’t have moments when your sadness and anger were too much to handle

▻ at first, you were reluctant to call him when it happened. but nobody could comfort you the way tadashi did and he often stayed on the phone with you until you fell asleep

↳ suga (track)

▻ it was the first time. the first time suga wasn’t there to cheer for you from the stands. and of course you had to get your first injury in seven years of practice during that time

▻ he had a practice match the day of your competition, but you assured him that you’d be alright without him. which was now a lie, obviously

▻ you were on your way to the hospital to have an ultrasound, which would let you know how much of your hamstring had torn, and you still hadn’t told anything to suga

▻ a call seemed like the easiest way to warn him, but you feared that it might interrupt him during his match so you opted for a text, trying to make it sound the less worrisome as possible

▻ but based on suga’s panicked tone when he called you right after his match, your definition of “not worrisome” was definitely not the same as his

▻ he told you he’d come to the hospital right away but you refused and told him to meet you at your house in about an hour

▻ he was at your front door twenty minutes later. just to be sure

▻ when you finally got back, he wanted nothing more than to run to you for the tightest hug of his life. but just as he was about to wrap his arms around you, he froze and took a step back

▻ “no. no touching. i’m not taking any risk” he stated

▻ you chuckled and told him that except for your left leg, the rest of your body was more than disposed to be hug. but seeing that he was still reluctant, you pulled him in for a hug yourself

▻ although he didn’t want to tell you about it, he felt extremely guilty that he had not been there for you. he knew that he would not have been able to change the outcome, but he could have provided moral support ; that was one of the things he was the best at

▻ so he made you promise that if you were to be in trouble again, you’d call him no matter what. and you had no other choice but to promise him (he could be dreadfully convincing)

▻ he made up for his absence by pampering you ten times more than before, which was no small thing to say since he was already very devoted to your every needs

▻ and his pampering included hours of cheering you up every time the fear of never getting back to the same level as before seized you

▻ however, he knew better than to just your sadness to the back of your mind, so if you ever needed a good cry, his shoulder was there for you

▻ “let it all out, it’s alright, pumpkin. i didn’t care about this shirt anyways”

▻ as soon as you were allowed to go for short runs again, you can be sure that suga went with you every single time in case something was to happen again

↳ oikawa (ice skating)

▻ tōru had the reputation of being rather confident and proud of who he was, and you loved that about him

▻ after dating for about a year, you were now one of the fortunate ones that tōru was as proud of as he was of himself. and this was especially evident during your figure skating performances

▻ your body was so graceful when it moved on the ice, he considered you a true piece of art

▻ as for you, you were proud to be loved by such an amazing athlete, and seeing him in the front row when you entered the skating rink never failed to boost your confidence

▻ today was the day of the qualifications for the nationals, and you were one of the favorites of the competition. the pressure was on and you had to give everything you had during the four minutes and thirty seconds you spent on the rink

▻ unfortunately, you gave more than you had. which was too much for your body

▻ as soon as you heard a crack in your knee, you knew it was over. and when your body hit the ice full force after your failed landing, everyone around knew too

▻ the pain, the frustration, the anger, the distress, tōru was familiar with those

▻ he grabbed his bag and your jacket that he had kept with him before running out of the stands and try to meet with you as soon as he could

▻ but sadly, the staff did not let him enter the room you were kept in while waiting for the ambulance. he was furious and this close to make a scandal. but luckily, he reconsidered it and decided to use his head instead

▻ and thirty seconds later, he was standing next to your bed, holding your trembling hand in his

▻ “if anyone asks, i’m your brother” he whispered while placing a reassuring kiss on your forehead

▻ tears sprinkled the corner of his eyes and he did not even bother to wipe them away. it broke his heart to see you go through something even worse than what he had to endure with his ankle

▻ but on the other hand, he knew what words you needed to hear right now and he wanted to be the support he did not have

▻ “i know... i know this seems like a nightmare. but it’s not over, you’ll make it through, honey. and you’re not alone, nobody here is stupid enough to give up on you.”

▻ you did not realize it yet, but his hand in yours was the only thing that kept you going through both physical and mental pain

▻ and even when his hand left yours, even once you were out of the hospital, he was the one that kept you going. he would not have allowed that his prodigious s/o gave in to despair and sadness

▻ “when you come to think about it, this was just your way of letting a chance to the others. how nice of you, sweetie” he told you one day as you were walking home from his practice

▻ but he could see that you were not sharing his opinion as you kept walking with your eyes looking down

▻ he immediately stopped and turned around to face you. both his hands were your shoulders and he looked at you dead in the eyes 

▻ “i know you’re strong enough to overcome this. and you know i’m never wrong ! sure, it will be long and difficult, but also i know you’re not afraid of that. just think about how ecstatic the crowd will be when you’ll win the selections next year ! you’ll get so much more credit than all these wannabes losers ! so don’t you dare chicken out now, alright, love ?”

▻ after a quick wink, he pulled you in one of the tender hugs that only he had the secret to. and as you let his familiar smell calm your nerves, it appeared that there was still a bit of hope after all

↳ akaashi (rhythmic gymnastics)

▻ akaashi did not understand. he did not want to believe it. ten seconds ago, you were majestically drawing spirals in the air with your ribbon while grabbing your leg from behind your neck ; it was beautiful, you were delivering the best routine he had ever seen. so why ? why did your ankle give up ?

▻ on his team, he was the quickest to make decisions, he was used to thinking fast. but right now ? he had absolutely no idea what to do and he hated to admit it that he didn’t dare to move from the stands for a few minutes

▻ but seeing your cheeks covered in tears as you were being taken out of the competition carpet was an electroshock. he stood up and ran as fast as he could to the corridor in which he last saw you

▻ he did not know the gym at all and had to ask many people before a woman was finally able to tell you where you had been taken. he thanked her about three times

▻ when he entered your team’s locker room, he was surprised and also a bit irritated to see that you had been left alone. but when you told him that it was actually you who had asked to be alone, he second-guessed everything

▻ “i don’t mind it if it’s you” you assured him as you tried to sit up straight

▻ when you winced in pain, he immediately grabbed your sides as gently as he could to help you sit against the wall. his eyes lingered on the ice pack on your ankle for a little while he softly replaced a few hairs behind your ear

 ▻ when he looked back at your face, you noticed a surprising amount of emotions visibly battling in his eyes. he was usually very good at looking calm and composed, seeing you getting hurt must have really shaken him

▻ after a few seconds spent staring at you, akaashi couldn’t hold on any longer and threw his arms around your shoulders before heaving a sigh of relief. you were taken aback and it took you a few seconds to hug him back

▻ “you scared me a lot. really” he said, his voice muffled against your shoulder. “it just... everything went so fast”

▻ “i scared myself too” you chuckled “but hey, we’re lucky it’s just the ankle. the medic said i’ll be up and about in less than a month”

▻ he broke the hug rather abruptly and sat back on the floor. his cheeks were starting to blush as he cleared his throat, looking away from you :

▻ “you���re right. sorry, i got a bit overwhelmed”

▻ there he was, the akaashi you were used to. you caressed his arm and his eyes finally darted towards you. when he saw you were smiling, he loosened up and a grin started spreading on his face as well

▻ the next monday was your first day of school with your splint and crutches and akaashi was extremely protective of you, especially in the hallways where he feared someone might bump into you

▻ he was also very protective when bokuto was around. he knew his friend was kind of an oaf and you had stopped counting how many times akaashi had to pull him by the collar when he got too close

▻ “he’s like a bull in a china shop, so no, he’s not allowed to come closer than six feet” 

[l-egionaire]

She Loves Me Not- Chapter 1-An Owl House Fanfic.

Willow had had just about enough.

When she first realized Amity's obvious crush on Luz it had been somewhat funny. Seeing her serious and studious childhood friend being turned into a red-faced stammering mess by the human girl couldnt help but cause her to snicker. But after nearly three weeks of seeing Amity practically swoon as soon as Luz so much as gazed in her general direction and her friend still being almost painfully oblivious to her affections, Willow decided something needed to change.

She knew that if she just told Luz about Amity's crush, the witch would personally sic her largest abomination on her. So she would have to help Luz figure it out on her own. Which would be difficult as it seemed like Luz was especially dense when it came to Amity's feelings about her.

Case in point, when Amity leapt up from their lunch table with her face the color of blood and Luz's only response was "huh, guess something didn't agree with her." Willow was tempted to bang her head against the table.

Thankfully, she found the perfect moment while the two of them where walking down the hall and Luz had started talking about a new piece of Azura fanfiction she'd read.

"So then Azura pushes Hecate out of the way and takes the blow from the burning heckhound! Horrified by whats happened to her friend, Hecate is filled with rage and power and defeats the monster with one powerful blast of magic!" Luz swept her arm in excitement, just narrowly missing hitting Willows forehead. She chuckled nervously after noticing. "Sorry. Anyway, Hecate runs to Azura's side and cradles her in her arms. Hecate asks "why would you do that?" And Azura says "I couldn't lose you." Oh, it was just so romantic!"

Willow raised a brow at Luz's word choice. "Romantic?"

"Yeah. I mean, the author isn't really a Heczula shipper but the way they interact in the story just gives such a really strong romantic vibe. I tried telling the same thing to Amity but she said she didn't really see it."

Resisiting the urge to smile at the irony, Willow carefully asked. "So, Amity isn't really into romance?"

"Oh no, she's actually a HUGE Heczula fan. In fact she even showed me some really great fan art she'd done. I actually asked her about working together to make our own special Heczula piece. Marry our skills so to speak."

She could just imagine Amity's response to that. Still keeping her expression as neutral as possible, Willow pressed on.

"Speaking of Amity and romance, has she talked to her crush yet?"

Luz frowned. "No. And I don't know why. I mean, I get that she was afraid of being rejected but its Amity. She's smart, talented, cute. No way someone would reject her."

Okay, Luz calling Amity "cute" wasn't a bad sign. "Maybe its because she's already got a relationship with this person. You know, like a friendship shes scared of messing up."

Luz immediately struck a hand out in front of Willow and they both came to a stop. The human girl gasped like a banshee, practically sucking in air.

"Of course! She's developed feelings for a friend and now fears her romantic attraction will end up damaging their friendship if she reveals it! Its such a common romance trope, how could've I have missed that?!" She gave another loud gasp. "Ogmigosh. I know who Amity's crush is!"

Willow couldn't help but smirk. About time.

"Its you Willow! Amity has a crush on you!"

Willows left eye started to twitch and she internally groaned at her friend once again drawing the wrong conclusion.

Mustering up as much effort as possible, she calmly asked. "What makes you think that?"

"Well it all fits. You two were close childhood friends before suddenly being separated. You've started rebuilding your relationship which probably caused her to realize that her feelings for you went beyond friendship and because things only just started getting better between you she's scared of admitting her feelings because she doesn't want to lose you again!" Luz declared, looking extremely pleased with herself.

Okay, that actually made since. "Yeah. But you know Luz...that could also apply to you too."

Luz's pride turned to confusion. "What?"

"Well, you two only recently became friends after not liking each other and she might not want to mess up your friendship since its so new." Willow said slowly, hoping it would finally sink in to her.

Luz stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter.

After a round of giggles, she wiped a tear from her eye. "Thats ridiculous. Amity couldn't have a crush on me!"

At this point Willow couldn't swallow the annoyance when she replied. "And why not?!"

She expected to hear "we're just friends " or "we danced at Grom" as Luz's defense but what she said next completely shocked her.

"Amity would never be interested someone like me."

Both the statement and the paradoxical chuckle Luz gave while saying it zapped away whatever anger Willow had at her obliviousness and replaced it with intense confusion.

"What are you talking about? Why wouldn't Amity be interested in you?"

"Because Amity is, well, Amity and I'm me." The way Luz said it, t as if it should be completely obvious, caused Willow to get a twisted feeling in her stomach. Before she could say anything Luz pressed on.

"I mean, Amity's a skilled witch, Hexsides top student, she's planning on being part of the emperors coven one day! Plus she's rich, popular, she makes great fanart. And me? I'm...barely able to do magic. And I can't even do it the right way like you guys thanks to my stupid human organs. I'm not even a real witch. I mean, if Amity had a crush on me, you really think she'd be afraid of me rejecting her?"

Willow just stared at her in stunned silence. She was waiting for Luz to yell "kidding" or say that this was just a joke and she'd known about Amity's crush the whole time. But the bittersweet smile on Luz's face told her that she was completely serious.

She couldn't believe it. Luz, quite possibly the nicest person she knew, the one who tried to help her with a school project at the risk of being violently dissected, the one who'd managed to get past Amity's walls and become her friend, honestly thought that Amity didn't consider her good enough to have a crush on.

"Luz, I'm sure Amity doesn't think that way." Willow argued. "You two are friends now! You have that book club thing you do together! She doesn't think of you as less than her! In fact, I bet if you asked she'd definitely say she would be interested in you!"

Hopefully that would kill two birds with one stone.

"I can't do that Willow. Like you said, things are good between me and Amity. The last thing I want is to scare her off because she thinks I got feelings for her." Luz looked to the side and muttered. "I don't want to end up losing another friend because I pushed too much."

Her voice was so low Willow almost didn't hear her. She couldn't help but notice her use of word in particular. "Another?"

Luz winced, clearly not having wanted Willow to hear her but seeing the look her friend was giving, she began to explain.

"Back at my human school I would sometimes manage to meet people who had some of the same interests I did, like Azura or Anime. We'd talk about it, meet up, it was almost like we were friends."

Luz sighed

"But eventually, I'd do something. Somthing too weird or too much. Maybe even something that ccidentally ended up getting us in trouble. And then...they didn't want to be friends anymore."

The whole time Luz spoke her voice cracked, and Willow noticed a twinkle in the corner of her eye. The defeated expression on Luz's face seemed almost alien compared to her usual beaming face.

"Luz.....".

Upon seeing the sympathetic look on her friends face, Luz cleared her throat, plastered a smile on her face and tried to unnoticingly wipe the corner of her eye.

"But, anyway, thats my point. Amity and I are at a good place and I don't need to go asking her questions that might make her uncomfortable just to make myself feel better."

Noticing that she hadn't managed to ease her friend, Luz added. "Hey, come on, relax. Its not like I don't think anyone could like me But Amity? Trust me, I think she's be a bit out of my league. Now come on, we should get to class."

"You go ahead. I'll catch up."

As she watched Luz walk away, their entire conversation replayed in her mind. She couldn't believe her friend honestly thought that way about herself. She truly thought she wasn't good enough for Amity to like.

Willow knew one thing, still felt like she had before. She'd had enough. She wasn't going to let Luz keep thinking like that about herself. She was going to do something about it.

And she knew just what that something was.

[giorno-plays-piano]

You were all I wanted Part 4

Pairing: mob!Peter Parker x plus-sized!Reader

Warnings: yandere, obsession, swearing, human trafficking, allusion to dubcon, minor character’s death.

Words: 3309.

Summary: You are bought by the head of Stark crime family for a kid he cares about.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

P.S. Peter is an adult!

_____________

That night he was restless.

It had already been a month since you left the auction in Peter's car and started living in Stark's Tower. The evening when the boy shot a drug addict on the street was forever imprinted on your memory.

Apart from that, things were quite simple. Each morning you were waking up in the same bed as him, having breakfast together, and then staying alone in the room while Peter was gone to do whatever Mr. Stark wanted him to. Sometimes the kid wouldn't leave at all, sometimes he'd come late and drenched in someone else's blood. You helped him shower and clean his wounds if he had any. Well, miraculously, for the past month Peter didn't need stitches or anything of that kind. But you knew he wasn't always that lucky - his back and chest were covered in ugly scars, his wrists bore strange circular shape marks. The only reason you hadn't seen them the first night was because you were so terribly drunk.

The boy whined softly in his sleep, and you tried to shush him. Today he returned beaten up, anxious, and exhausted. He and Rhodes were hunting down someone from the gang who had gone completely mad, but Peter refused giving you any details. You suspected something really terrible had happened since the boy was hard to frighten.

And now he was crying, tossing and turning in  bed. It was the first time you saw him like that.

"Peter, Peter wake up." You whispered, gently touching his shoulders. "Please."

It took you a few long moments before he had finally opened his eyes and stared at you, his breathing ragged, erratic.

"It's you. It's you." He mumbled, and you saw tears streaming down his face to the pillow beneath his head.

"Yes, it's me." You cooed at him and wiped the wet tracks with your hand, leaning down to kiss him in the forehead. "You're safe."

"Please, please don't go." The fear in his eyes made you stop as Peter gripped your hand in trembling his. "I'm not safe. I'm never safe."

What kind of nightmare was haunting him, making him shake so badly? He looked so scared, so vulnerable and defenseless, tearing up like a little kid. You had never thought you could pity a mobster, but you were wrong - you felt sorry for him.

Shifting on the bed that way that Peter's head came to rest against your chest, you buried your fingers in his disheveled hair and started caressing his head.

"You're safe with me, Peter." You whispered reassuringly, and he snuggled closer to you, throwing his hands against your body. "I'm staying with you. Come here, sweetheart."

He tried to nuzzle against your soft body so close as if he wanted to become a part of you quite literally. Peter let out a heavy sigh, and you felt the skin on your chest burning.

You spent a few more minutes in complete silence of the room, listening to each other's soft breathing. Although you had no intention of moving away from him, Peter clung to you as if his life depended on it. You were curious what he had seen in that nightmare of his, but you didn't say a word, knowing he needed time.

"It's so scary to be alone in the dark." Peter suddenly said, his grip in you getting a little tigther. "I need you to walk with me."

You blinked, unsure of what to say. Didn't he choose the darkness himself? Didn't he get accustomed to all the things he was doing? You remembered him killing that guy on the street without any regret. You were pretty sure Peter didn't feel anything. Were you wrong?

"If I came with you... Would you leave me there by myself after that? I'm scared of the dark, too."

He had finally let go of you upon hearing your words and gave you a bit of space, looking at your face intently.

"No, I wouldn't. I'm not Mr. Stark."

At first, you thought he was talking about Tony and his relationships with women, but then the realization hit you: Peter was referring to himself. It was him who was left alone. Despite you thinking he was very close to his patron - for God's sake, the man bought you as a present for the kid - things were rather different in reality. Maybe Mr. Stark treated Peter like a toy, too. Yes, the boy, surprisingly, had some authority in the gang as he was considered Rhodes equal, but maybe Peter didn't want that, or not only that. Maybe he wanted to be taken care of, to be shown some kindness for the things he was doing for his boss. It felt ridiculous suggesting that, but Peter's still wet face made you think that it could really be true.

"Do you know what are these?" Suddenly, the boy lifted his hand and showed you the marks on his wrist. When you squinted and shook your head, he smiled. "These are cigarette burns. I got them the first week Mr. Stark sent me to school here. I was twelve."

"Did he burn you?" Your gawked at his skin, shivers running down your spine.

"No, he didn't. The guys at school did. I hid it from Mr. Stark, but soon they crushed my head against the sink and I ran away bleeding." He chuckled at your horrified expression. "I thought Mr. Stark would come talk to the teachers or sent his guys, but instead he gave me a gun and said I had to earn my place in the gang. So I went to school with a gun in my backpack and shot one of the guys who bullied me."

You stared at him, hoping it was all about his very dark sense of humor - he had to be joking. Even though you knew what man Tony Stark was, how savage did he had to be to give a firearm to the twelve-year-old child who was bullied?

"Of course, Mr. Stark made it so the other kid was charged with the murder while I just walked away. After one month, I felt so guilty for what I've done that I attempted to end my own life by taking a whole a pack of sedatives."

When he brushed his hand against your cheek you realized you were crying at his words.

Sniffing, you brought his hand closer to you and lowered your lips to his wrist, kissing the marks on his skin. Peter's eyes went wide, but he didn't say a word at your gesture, and you touched each and every burn with your chapped lips while he watched you. Did it bring him any comfort? You hoped it did, because no words could describe how you felt once he finished talking.

No wonder you were the closest to a friend he had ever had. He wanted to have someone by his side so desperately.

"I will never do something like that to you." He whispered ever so gently, not smiling anymore. "Even if you're going to hate me or run from me... But please, please don't run. I need you. You don't understand, but I need you so much."

Slowly, you started kissing his fingers one by one, watching his eyelashes tremble. For some reason, you felt grateful for his sincerity as if it changed something. He was the only man to ever need you - and need you so desperately he was literally begging you to stay with him. It was stupid believing the one who held you captive here, but you still did.

You wanted him to need you more.

"I want to make love to you." He murmured, and one of his fingers touched your lower lip. "Can I? Please, Baby."

"What, now?" To say you were surprised would be an understatement. "But y-"

"Please." He breathed, and his finger slipped past your soft lips, forcing you to lick it, swirling it around your wet little tongue. "I wanna fuck your ass. You don't mind, do you? You took the toys so good yesterday."

You rolled you eyes at him, but obeyed, nonetheless, sucking his finger deeper into your mouth as if it were his cock. Well, you did like it when he kept playing with your ass the whole week.

"You're so good to me." His other arm was already lowering your pyjamas pants as Peter squeezed one of your buttocks, and then his fingers found your little tight hole. "I love you so much."

You grunted in response, feeling how he massaged the entrance with his fingertips, equally aroused and scared at his excitement.

_______________

One more month had passed. You were finally allowed to go out of your room all by yourself as members of the gang were assured you were completely harmless. The thought of coming back to your family had always lingered at the back of your mind, but you always pushed it away, knowing you might as well just go and shoot people you loved by yourself. Now you had seen what Mr. Stark was doing with traitors with your own eyes and you would never want to risk being in the same position.

Peter still treasured you. He had become way more creative in bed comparing with your first handful of weeks, but not that you could complain since giving you pleasure was among things he cared about the most. Besides, your relationship got even better as now he was slowly opening up to you about both his past and present. You no longer dreaded coming with him somewhere. The only thing that bothered you was a feeling that, somehow, Peter got even clingier, but you brushed it off. There could be nothing bad in his growing affection to you.

That day you were coming back from the communal kitchen - thankfully, most of the gang members didn't use it much as it was reserved for their women. The ones who came to cook there were more or less decent, so you weren't worried being close to them. Besides, the boy also gave you one of his guns. Just in case, he said.

Carefully opening the door to your room, you balanced with a heavy plate of chocolate chip cookies in the other hand and stepped inside. Instead of Peter you found Tony Stark sitting on the chair in his breathtakingly beautiful white suit. You held your breath and stilled, unsure of what to do. You had never faced Mr. Stark all by yourself. Were you even allowed to be here now? He clearly needed Peter, not you.

"I-I'm so sorry, sir, I'll return la-"

"It's quite alright, Y/N, come."

He remembered your name, really? It got you alerted.

You hesitantly closed the door, but didn't turn the key, leaving the plate on the top of the microwave standing on the side table. Did you have to offer the man your cookies? Would he be offended by that?

"I apologize, I didn't know you were coming, sir." You said softly, clenching the fabric of your simple cream-colored dress. "I'm sure Peter is going to return shortly... Um, w-would you like to have some cookies, sir?"

"Yes, please." He answered simply, and you brought him the plate immediately, feeling being something between a hostage and a servant to the crime boss. "Mm, not bad. My mother used to bake them, too."

"I'm glad you like it, sir."

You didn't know where to put yourself, knowing he watches you. Except for a chair near Peter's table and his bed there was nowhere to sit, but placing yourself on the top of the bed while there was a man in your room seemed to you absolutely indecent, so you awkwardly leaned on the wall. You prayed for Peter to come back soon, unsure of how you should behave with the most dangerous man you had ever known in the room.

He smirked at you, finally lifting his fancy sunglasses and hiding them in the pocket of his suit.

"I see you settled in nicely here. Do you enjoy living with the kid?"

You shivered, looking at his handsome face and nodding to him.

"Yes, sir, I do."

"Huh, is it Peter's gun you have there? Did he give it to you?" Tony pointed at the holster strapped to your belt - you knew it looked ridiculous, yet it was better to look ridiculous but have something to protect yourself, giving that you were living inside Stark's Tower. "Let me have a look."

"Of course, sir."

You didn't like taking the gun and giving it to the man, knowing perfectly he could shoot you right here and right now. You still remembered that perfectly innocent woman he murdered because she wanted to flee as well as all those ones he got rid of before her.

You did your best to look humble. In the end, you belonged to Peter, didn't you? He said many times that Mr. Stark wasn't taking back the gifts he'd made. If Peter was alright with you living here...

"I see he takes good care of you, dear. You look positively glowing." Tony had that odd smile on his face while looking at you.

"Yes, sir, he does. He's a very good man." You lowered your gaze to your shoes as blush spreaded across your cheeks. Although all this was definitely wrong, you still have very warm feelings towards Peter. Living with vultures for so many years, he was still able to treat someone with kindness.

You didn't see a subtle flash of anger on Tony's face, but he gathered himself rather quickly. Actually, he didn't come here for Peter. He sent him away to have a few moments with you instead.

It was true you were radiant when he was watching you from a far. What was the kid doing to keep you so happy? Did he give you pretty dresses? Jewelry? A car? Anything else? Tony made way more expensive gifts to his girls, but they were never satisfied, nonetheless. It seemed he was choosing some rotten whores over decent women over and over again despite all his efforts, but Peter got lucky with his first girl. Tony was almost ready to admit he was jealous.

So why were you special? He couldn't explain it with words, yet looking at your warm smile every time you saw Peter the man knew why his kid was so eager to return home every evening. Tony wanted to have this feeling, too.

"I could give you more than he does." The man said, and you choked on air, staring at him like a rabbit in front of a snake. "Peter's a sweet kid, but he's so inexperienced, you know. He has no clue what to do with a woman. I bet he doesn't even bring you to nice places or make you gifts, does he?"

Your heart was beating so fast you felt like it could stop any second. It wasn't good, oh shit it wasn't good for you. You had no idea how a man who was able to force the most beautiful women of the planet to attend to him could ever look at you, someone who wasn't even considered pretty by most people. Was it just because he wanted to see you suffer? Because he couldn't handle looking at a woman who was happy?

"But I already belong to Peter, sir. I am your gift to him." You smiled nervously, trying to be polite. "How do I dare to change my master?"

"Nah, the kid won't mind. I'll give him another girl, I promise." The man winked at you, and you realized he wasn't letting you go regardless of what you'd tell him.

You needed to run.

Before you reached the door he was on your back, grasping your hands in his and chuckling smugly. His other palm was already lifting the hem of your dress.

"Huh, you're not so submissive as you look. I like that." He whispered above your ear, grinding his hips against your ass.

"No, please, sir! I'm not good! I'm not good for you!"

He threw you on the bed you shared with Peter and took of his white suit jacket, watching you crawl away and smiling at your pathetic attempt to run from him. What a sweet little girl you were, he thought. You wanted to be loyal to someone like Peter when you had him offering you to take the place of his woman.

Before coming closer to bed he was taking off his pants, and you readied yourself to scream as loud as you could. Maybe Tony had your gun, but you had to do something. Maybe someone would come before the damage was done.

Who were you kidding? No one would come to protect you against the head of a crime family.

"Now be a good g-"

Before Tony finished the sentence you heard the lound crack of the door opening and then the sound of a gun. Although you intended to scream just a second ago, now you were silent, staring at the quickly growing bloodstain on his expensive white shirt. You suddenly remembered the drug dealer who died exactly like that.

Peter was standing in the doorway with his gun pointed at his own patron, and then he fired one more time. And one more. He seemed to calm down only when Tony fell on the bed, staining it's cover with his crimson blood. Once the boy looked up, you saw his hollow eyes as if he weren't even conscious.

"Peter." You muttered, your eyes full of tears. "He... Oh God."

He saved you. The boy shot that sick bastard before he could lay his dirty hands on you, but you weren't relieved. He killed Mr. Stark, the one who took him into the family and gave him roof above his head. Tony's people would tear Peter apart for his silly attempt to save you.

When he lowered his gun, you left the bed and came closer to him on shaky legs, swallowing your salty tears.

"Peter, you need to run. They'll kill you."

He reached out to your face and stroked your lower lip in awe. Apparently, he was as shocked with his own actions as you were, you thought, your eyes bleary with all those tears.

"Peter, please, you need to run. Leave me here, I'll be... a deadweight."

Before you could finish he had ushered you to come closer, pressing you against him and putting a hand on the top of your head like a parent to a crying child. His eyes were still hollow.

"Mr. Stark thought he could take whatever he wanted, but he was wrong." The boy whispered, and you cried out quietly at his words. "He thought you'd say yes, and I won't object, hahah."

"Peter, p-please. If you won't go..."

"Why should I go, Baby?" He left a tender kiss on your forehead, his tone of voice strangely calm, but frightening. "We can run Stark's family without a Stark in it, can't we, Rhodey?"

Amazed, you glanced straight ahead of you and saw heavy armed people waiting behind Peter's skinny figure. You recognized many of them as part of Peter's and Rhodes' team, but there were Tony's bodyguards and some other men you had never seen before. They stayed still, their eyes on the two of you and Stark's dead body laying on your bed. For some reason, no one aimed their guns at you. They just stood their and did nothing at all.

"No one's taking you away." Peter's voice turned sweet as he dropped his gun to the floor and his other hand rested on your back. "And I'm not going anywhere. You're my girl, Baby, and you gotta stay whatever happens."

THE END

______________

Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki @helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin @void-hoechlin @abyssaint @msruchita @opheliadawnwalker3 @ifntelyinspirit

[antigoneidk]

Everything I wanted to say:a letter to you|t.h.

a/n: I had this idea in my head for days but I was only able to write it now hehe. I hope you like it and I am sorry for any mistakes💞*gif is not mine*

warnings:fluff, fluff, a lit bit of angst(only if you are like me)

My love, my light, my life.

I have no words to describe how much in love i am with you. How fast my heart beats when i feel you're around. How my butterflies dance inside my stomach whenever you touch me. How I melt right in your hands everytime you squeeze my body, keep me safe in your arms. How the world stops spinning when you kiss me with those lips, that fit mine so perfectly.

I was convinced that true love didn't exist. That my parents kept lying to me through fairytales with princess waiting the prince with the white horse to take them away, show them love and affection. And both of them will fall for each other.

But as I was growing up and looked around me, everything proved them wrong. People are cruel, full of hate, shameless, unaware of how bad they can damage others. I just locked myself in four walls tired of it. Tired of not having someone to talk to. A real friend. An honest person, pure, innocent, loving, caring, kind, generous. The opposite of the majority.

And then you came into my life.

I am not gonna be able to forget the first time that I saw your face. You were smiling bright, the whole street lighting up. Your eyes were a little smaller. Your nose and cheeks had turned to a light red, as you were speaking to some people, fans. I wish I was closer that moment to picture in my head every detail, to paint your face and put it next to me each time you are gone. And you wore that blue sweater, my favourite one which I'm wearing right now, and that pair of black jeans, always looking good at you. Your hair were curly and every ten seconds your fingers were running through.

I heard your laugh from across the street, a sound that was playing in my mind for days. I had stopped there by accident before I searched around me curious from where the sound came from. That was all it took for me to just stand there and watch you, hug and smile to others, joking around, laughing, giving autographs. I wondered how you would smell every time you crossed your arms around somebody. I liked that you were happy, open handed, polite to them. I knew that you were different that day and even though you might not believe it,is the truth.

And then you glanced at me, taking my breath away. It was like the time had stopped, the world paused and the only ones with the power to move and talk were just the two of us. I felt your brown eyes looking at my soul, my life, my choices, my mistakes. I got embarrassed and scared. Scared that the fairytales were based on real life, that I might have found my prince. I know it sounds stupid, and now that I'm thinking of it, yes it is. But for a second I had that fantasy. My brain and heart stopped working, all my senses gave up. It was only you.

Tom then you smiled at me. ME. My walls that I was building for years fell down with that smile making me feel weak, not being able to process this. I've never had someone to look at me the way you did that day, I thought I was dreaming. Maybe it wasn't something special for you, you had people's eyes on you 24/7 but for me, you were the first. That's why I stood still in my place. I tried to enjoy every second.

I smiled back at you shyly and pulled my hair back, such a girly move. You looked down still with your smile at your face, then back at me and I swear I was ready to explode from all my emotions. I wanted to cry from happiness that finally something changed in my life but also from sadness because I knew that was for only a few seconds. Reality hit my face hard when a couple of men started shouting your name and dragging you to a different direction away for me. And that's when I said to myself that "it was too good to be true" and walked with tears in my eyes. If anyone else was at my place maybe they wouldn't care about it but I did.  I lived on the sidelines for so long and I had a chance,  I thought I had a chance but I guessed that i didn't deserved it.

And the time when I felt your hand on my shoulder and I saw you standing in front of me I pushed aside all of my negative thoughts and questioned if I was daydreaming and turning crazy. I felt my skin under my clothes burning from your touch, my heart losing control and my brain not working, only my eyes watching and my nose smelling your fragrance. I wanted to hug you just so I can smell it for the rest of my life. Then you talked to me asking if I was okay, your eyes following a teardrop making it's way down to my cheek and I felt so stupid that a boy, a stranger was seeing me like these. Do you remember that?

"Yes" he whispered to himself and turned the page to the other side wanting to read more.

Fast forward to our first date. I was so anxious all day, spending majority of my time in front of a mirror changing outfits, makeup, hair styles not satisfying with anything. I was turning to that teenage girl I always made fun of. I was making circles around the house practicing how I would act around you, how would I speak and what I would say.

You were the sweetest man I could ask for, such a gentleman. I couldn't get my eyes off of you, so confident and handsome, talking about the most silliest things and making me laugh all night with your jokes and random comments for the topic I was talking about. You held my hand and kept listening to me and laughed at my miserably jokes. I was the luckiest woman that night and to the ride back at my house I remember feeling so sad that I had to say goodbye to you even though i wanted to spent more and more time with you. By surprise you didn't stop and continued to drive.

We got to our favorite place now, yours back in the day. I never knew why you did that and although I want so desperately to know I'll never ask. Let that kind of mystery follow. We sat down and kept a deep conversation starting about our past. Well mine. I was battling with my self if I should had open to you or not and I'm glad I did. You listened carefully to what I was saying and held my hand the entire time, squeezing when I was about to cry. You have no idea how much strength you gave me with that touch and how much courage to keep going. I wanted you to know everything that I had been through. It was the only way to know if you would stay and not leave me alone. I was terrified but prepared to fight this feeling of loneliness again.

You kissed me.

I get butterflies only from thinking of it, of our first kiss.  Your lips covered mine and our tongues met for the first time exploring each other. Your hands held my cheeks and pulled me closer to you, giving me the warmth I was lacking for years. My hands shaking touched yours after a long time not wanting to let them go and the sensation drove me insane. My heart was exploding inside my chest, my blood was running through my veins faster that lightning, my brain was hurting from the situation and was wondering if this was actually true. I pulled away and opened my eyes. I found yours shut your lips pressed to one another. I thought that you regretted this, that it was stupid and that I seduced you to do this. Your half smiled then showed up, my heart skipped a beat, and you said that this was better than your imagination.  My inner child raised from deep down myself. I wanted to jump around, laugh and shout, kiss you again, hold you, hug you, feel you.

Days, months passed away and you stood by my side, making me the happiest person alive. I only had to listen to your voice and everything bad disappeared within a second. It's like you have that superpower to fight the dark inside me so easily. I admired you and still do to this day. I love how you push your problems to the side and listen to mine, it sounds selfish right? I'm always here to listen to you baby not matter what and yes there were times you opened up to me. I wondered if I helped you or not.

"My love.."Tom laughed and grabbed the other piece of paper from the table."..you always do" he mumbled.

But I wish you shared your problems more. I am willing to help you or even just listen to you if you just want to get rid of anything. You are a strong man but sharing your feelings is important, you are not bothering me you know.

Can you recall our first time? Damn I would never forget that, from the way you touched every single inch of my skin to the way I felt at the end. Your kisses and hands got me to placed I had never been before, so dreamy. You whispered to me how much you loved me and how i changed you to becoming a better person. I remember every of your words and I can still your voice clearly next to my ear as our bodies move in sync. You were my first.

If you only knew how much you mean to me. How my view for the world changed because of you. How I met incredible people through you. How I learnt to love, respect, share, laugh, fight, adore, live. How you teached me to finally see the colors around me. How life can be  hard, yet awesome. There are nights that we fight, we say things anger makes us too. But by the end of the day I know that I love you so much and that we can get over this. I try to remind my self every night that there are so many reasons to be happy and not sad for a foolish reason. And that's when I turn to you and open my arms for you to hug me and sleep calmly. But you are already waiting for me to do so.

This is my letter to you. I wish I could say those things to you but we both know that i get caught up by my feelings. We would have been talking for hours.

I am not going to be able to stop loving you and that's my weakness. I don't wanna see you cry or heartbroken and you make me melancholic when you are like that. If I could only make you feel the way you make me. I am not the best but I'm trying to I swear and I'll continue to do so every day till the last one.

I love you.

Sincerely yours,

y/n

He wiped away some tears that escaped his eyes and got himself up from where he was sitting to get to you. You had been waiting for him in your bedroom, with roses all around, food and a movie to watch. It wasn't any special day but you felt the need to spoil him with love. In your own way. But as the time went on you fell asleep, with the food at the bedside table and your body hugging his pillow, feeling safe.

Tom smiled at the sight of you sleeping with his pillow in your hands. His heart beat fast as he kept moving closer to you and left a kiss on your forehead.

"I love you too baby" he said and kissed your lips gently. With slowly moves he tried to laid his body next to yours, hugging your waist and pulling you close to his.

It was at this moment that he realised the power you had over him and he was surprised you couldn't notice it.

"I guess I have to write it to you" he laughed at himself and closed his eyes, falling asleep a few moments later with the thought of you at his mind.

[supercalvin]

I see your ficlets are open and I wanted to request more superhero!merlin . i didn't know i liked that until i read yours lol. preferably hurt/comfort because i love that too. also I just wanted to say your fics are amazing

I’m going to be honest @elizabethleestorms…I have no idea which superhero AU you mean, because I think I’ve written a couple, but that doesn’t matter, I’m delighted by this prompt. Sorry this took so long, thank you for waiting.

Really tried my hand at #whump and I ended up writing a very long ficlet again.

(Not intentional, I was writing this already before I heard about Chadwick Boseman. RIP to the King.)

Prompts + Ficlets

***

It had started small.

Merlin would use his magic to save an elderly couple from a mugging. A man about to fall onto the train tracks would find himself falling back onto the concrete. He would trip a bloke who was bothering a girl in the streets.

Magic was banned in Camelot and had been for over thirty years, and Merlin had grown up learning to hide his magic. Not even his closet friends knew. But when he started university in Citadel City, Merlin had felt an overwhelming need to use his magic. There were so many problems he could fix and so many people he could help.

So it started small and soon escalated into something a bit more complicated. He started going out at night, slipping on a mask to hide his identity, and saving people from whatever he could find. Most people thanked him and quickly ran off, freaked out by the sorcerer in a mask. But then word got around, gossip and whispers about the sorcerer who would swoop in at just the right moment. People would try to ask him who he was, so Merlin had to learn to teleport so he could get away from them.

Then he started to up his game. He would listen to the police scanners and seek out places he knew criminals loitered. He was becoming a bit of a legend. People had a lot of different names for him, up until a pack of wyverns attacked the city. That was the first time he had been spotted during the day and photographed. His blurry figure was all over the news for a week. It had been a hassle, but it had earned him a proper title. Dragon Lord.

It had been years since he had first started being ‘Dragon Lord.’ He had gotten into a routine. He worked at the police station during the day, gathered intel as a lowly administrative assistant, and then went out at night as ‘Dragon Lord.’ He was exhausted most days, with little sleep to spare, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. He was exercising his magic, helping people. and he had started a rather heated debate on the magic ban in Citadel City.

All was going well for Merlin.

Until his boss, DI Arthur Pendragon found out about his magic.

It had been an accident, of course. The only other person who knew about his magic besides his family was Deputy Lance DuLac, whom Merlin had saved from a fluke griffin attack back in his university days. Merlin had saved Arthur’s ass from a few operations-gone-wrong, but Arthur still didn’t know that his assistant and Dragon Lord were one and the same.

Until the night when Merlin had been out as ‘Dragon Lord’ having heard about an arms deal planned by Cenred Cain, an infamous crime boss. But apparently Arthur and his team had also been keeping an eye on Cenred, because they had stopped the deal before Merlin could interfere.

It was all a bit of blur. The adrenaline in his veins and the magic in the air making his memories fuzzy.

Dragon Lord and Arthur had been cornered as the building was about to come down, and although he was able to create a safety-bubble around them, the backlash burned part of Merlin’s disguise from his body and face. He woke up with a horrible headache and Arthur’s face hovering over him, looking equal parts horrified and furious.

After that night, Arthur hadn’t spoken to him about it. But to be fair, Arthur had not said much to Merlin at all. Arthur had sworn that he wasn’t about to arrest Merlin, but that didn’t mean they were friends. No, Arthur made it clear hat he was done with Merlin.

Merlin figured it was a fair deal. Merlin had saved Arthur’s life and in turn Arthur wouldn’t arrest Merlin for several acts of sorcery. It didn’t mean Merlin wasn’t heartbroken. He wished Arthur would understand that magic wasn’t evil and that Merlin just wanted to do good in the world.

So over the past week Merlin had not gotten much sleep, to say the least. After Arthur had found out, Merlin had trouble sleeping, which was never good because his night-and-day schedule. Then there was the fact that his magic had been exhausted after stopping a building from collapsing on top of him and Arthur. But that had never stopped him from going out. Crime didn’t stop just because Merlin was a bit tired.

So when a bulette attacked downtown Citadel City, Merlin was already off to a bad start. Bulettes were as large as cars and built like tanks with armor plating all over their bodies. They lived underground, and although the bulette was just minding its own business, it was causing buildings to sink into the ground and minor quakes to rock the city. So when Merlin had tried to gently coax it back out of Citadel City, it had only felt the need to defend itself.

Which meant it started attacking people.

Merlin would be the first to admit that he wasn’t at his peak power either. His magic was still tired from the week previous and his fight with Arthur had mentally drained him. He had coped by going out more at night, but that meant he had only accumulated a handful of hours of sleep over the last seven days.

It barely flinched at the enchanted spears Merlin threw at it. Moving the ground beneath it did little to stop it. Burning it only made it angry. His movements were slower, barely dodging it’s attacks. He made rookie mistakes by trying to attack the bulette’s armor in the first place. Normally he would be able to evaluate its attacks and predict its next movements, but his mind was moving too slow.

He was a wreck, to say the least.

Then the bulette used its thickly armored tail to slam Merlin into a nearby lorry, which rocked with the impact. Merlin remembered hearing the crunch of metal, but nothing until he woke up to someone shaking him.

“Dragon Lord, you have to get up! Please! Sir! Please! It’s coming back!” the voice sounded young and very frightened. Merlin opened his eyes to find a young kid, eyes burning gold as the boy tried to wake Merlin’s magic with his own.

Merlin gasped, his entire body aching as soon as he was conscious again. His vision spun in and out for a moment, and he felt overwhelmingly nauseous. Concussion, he thought dimly.

“You have to get out of here,” Merlin grunted as he tried to get up. His ribs were killing him.

The boy shook his head, “You’re hurt…”

Merlin had to hold his breath as he got to hit feet, the pain almost making him black out as his ribs shifted to the new position. He closed his eyes and tried to take deep breathes, although every inhale and exhale felt like a thousand knives.

“Get to safety,” Merlin said, letting his magic wash over him. It wasn’t a spell he used often. It took too much energy and he was already tired as it was, but he was desperate. The kid scrambled back as Merlin began to glow gold, rising above the crumbled asphalt.

Merlin’s vision turned entirely gold and he spotted the bulette’s weak point, right under its front legs, where the armor didn’t cover. With his last enchanted spear, Merlin gored the beast.

Merlin dropped to the ground, his head spinning and his vision going black. He couldn’t pass out in public. It was too dangerous. One last spell, he thought. Fingers crossed that he would make it back safely.

He teleported into his flat, recognized that he had made it successfully, and then he dropped to the floor like someone had cut the strings from a marionette.

Merlin’s whole body hurt. Even when he wasn’t entirely conscious, he was aware of that. The blunt force trauma had certainly broken his ribs and given him a hell of a concussion.

He was aware of someone moving him from the floor, arranging his limbs onto his bed. Then he felt someone open his mouth slip some pills onto his tongue and guide him to drink water, then wiping up his face when he choked on the water and it spilled it over his face.

When he woke again it was to a dull feeling that he recognized as heavy painkillers. He opened his eyes to find Arthur hovering over him, checking his pupils with a flashlight.

“You’re not a doctor,” Merlin mumbled, not coherent enough to fully process what was happening.

“No, but you refused to go to A&E. So here I am.”

“I did?”

Arthur sighed, turning to Merlin’s bedside table where there was a glass of water with a straw.

“Drink. You need fluids. You’ve been out of it for a day.”

Merlin obeyed, his mind too foggy to argue.

Arthur left the room and Merlin was left to stare at the ceiling, watching his vision blur for a few seconds before he drifted off again.

He was a bit more coherent when he woke again, this time to Arthur whispering, “I know it hurts, but I need you to tell me where it hurts.” Arthur pushed down the bed sheet and prodded his ribs, watching Merlin’s reactions carefully.

“Hold still. I’m going to give you some lidocaine, okay?”

Merlin didn’t think he had much of a choice, but if it would stop his ribs from hurting, Merlin wasn’t going to complain. After Arthur injected the lidocaine, he softly ran a hand over Merlin’s numbed ribs. “Better?”

Merlin nodded, although the movement hurt his head. He realized the only light was his desk lamp, and even that minimal light caused him to flinch.

“Why are you doing this?” Merlin asked.

Arthur’s face was in shadow, but Merlin could see the pinched expression anyway.

“It was all over the news, Merlin. The live video of Dragon Lord dropping like a stone. Then you disappeared after looking like you were about to faint. I rushed over to your flat as soon as I could.”

Merlin smacked his lips which were cracked and dry. Arthur lifted the cup of water again, angling the straw to Merlin’s mouth.

Merlin took a drink and then managed to say, “But I thought…Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Of course I am, Merlin.” Arthur snapped, “I’m furious that you would keep this from me. I don’t get it, and I don’t trust you, but…”

“But?” Merlin swallowed thickly, his head pounding.

“But you’ve been saving so many people. And this…” Arthur gestured to Merlin’s body. Merlin looked down, wincing at the movement. He had gathered a fair few amount of ‘battle scars’ over the years. Burns, lacerations, and general bruising came with the job. Currently Merlin’s entire torso was a horrible splotchy mess of black and blue with tinges of green.

“You’re putting your own life on the line for people who would sentence you to a life in prison… I don’t understand it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see right from wrong.”

Merlin gave a weak smile, “I think that’s you saying I was right for once.”

Arthur shook his head, “Merlin…”

“I know,” Merlin sighed, his ribs protesting at the heavy breath despite the lidocaine injections. “I just want to help. I just…My magic has to be for something, Arthur. All this power and I can’t use it to help people?”

Arthur frowned, his hand coming up to gently push back Merlin’s hair from his brow.

“We’ll talk about this later. You’re still too tired. Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up again.”

Merlin nodded fractionally, his eyes already drifting shut, watching Arthur get up and head for the door.

“Arthur…”

Arthur turned to look at him.

“Thank you.”

Arthur gave a small smile, “You too. Get some rest.”

***

Prompts + Ficlets

[animeyanderelover]

If you're not too busy may I request something: Ciel/Alois was barely alive when a little nurse came picked them from a dark alley and nursed them back to health. What she didn't expect is how they say thanks.

I went with Alois for this one and decided to turn it into a oneshot. This is the introduction to my first s/o. Here we go! By the way, I decided to split this part into more than one part because if I wouldn’t have done that it would have taken too long. I’ll write of course a second and if necessary a third part to it. I wanted to first of all write something different, but if you like this part and want the second one faster, I’ll concentrate more on writing it.

Warnings: Yandere themes, blood, violence

My little butterfly

Yandere aged up Alois x Sayuri

Sayuri didn’t really know why she ended up in this alley. Was it because she had thought that it could be abbreviation? Or was it because she just was incredibly stupid? Probably both after all she was a person who had natural a talent for making stupid decisions and today she was let out later than usual because she was ordered to help with a surgery and had just wanted to get home fast, taking a short and warm bath and then finally plop into her cozy bed. But for whatever reason she had went into this dark alley she hadn’t expected to find a young man in there beaten up blue and black with a knife stabbed in one of his shoulders. He was bleeding from countless wounds on his body and if it wouldn’t have been for the slight movement of his chest Sayuri would have thought that he was dead. “... Oh my god!!”, she shouted shocked and immediately ran to the boy. She carefully removed the knife from his shoulder, careful to not make him loose more blood than he already did. “What should I do?! The hospital is too far away from here, but if this wounds won’t stop bleeding he’ll die from blood loss!” Sayuri started panicking a bit before she slapped herself. “Get your shit together Sayuri!! You’re a goddanm nurse and have seen worse than this!” She took a deep breath to calm down and then carefully slid the man’s arm around her shoulder, supporting his unconscious body on her own. “If I can’t take him to the hospital, I’ll take him to me! I have everything I need at home to take care of those wounds!”

Like this she started stumbling her way back to her house, having troubles with not tripping with the additional weight of the boy. But somehow she managed to reach her house without stumbling or falling down once. She quickly unlocked the door and carried the boy to her bedroom, slowly letting him down. Then she quickly ran back and forth to get everything she needed. Then she slowly took off the boy’s jacket and top to take a closer look at the wounds and to take proper care of them. To her relief most of the wounds had stopped bleeding on their own, but her stomach twisted when she saw how much damage was caused to him. She could tell that all the wounds were made by a knife. Some were only scratches, but others were deep enough to leave a permanent scar. She carefully cleaned the blood around the wounds and applied an ointment on them to prevent possible inflammations. You froze when the boy groaned painfully, but continued to apply the ointment on all his wounds. After that you bandaged all of them. “That must do it for now, but as soon as he’s conscious again those stabs need to be sewn.” Now Sayuri had finally time to take a closer look at the man in front of her and she needed to admit that he was handsome. He had platinum blonde hair, sharp features and fair skin. He looked like he was in his early twenties and judging by his clothes and the ring he was wearing on his right index finger he was most likely someone from a high status, much more higher than her. “Was he attacked by some thieves? No, then they would have taken that ring of his. Or was it probably someone who wanted revenge on that man for something he did to them in the past?” Sayuri shook her head, deciding to worry about that tomorrow. She had focused her last bit of energy into saving this boy and felt the exhaustion from the day sinking into her. She dragged herself out of the bedroom, deciding to sleep on the couch. As she stepped down the stairs she suddenly tripped over her own feet and fell down, landing luckily only on her ass. She suppressed a yelp of pain, not wanting to wake the guest up. She rubbed her ass, trying to ease the stinging. “Whatever. I’ve experienced worse.”, she thought and continued her way to the couch. As soon as she reached it she just collapsed on it, sighing loudly into one of the pillows. She didn’t even care that she was still in her workwear that was smeared with the blood of the boy. She just closed her eyes and let herself sink into sleep.

When she woke up she didn’t know where she was at first before remembering what happened a few hours before. She was just about to go back to sleep when she suddenly heard loud screaming from above. Sayuri squealed surprised before hurrying upstairs, tripping a few times over the stairs. She slammed the door to her bedroom open and stormed towards her bed in which the boy was laying. He screamed and writhed in the sheets, Sayuri assumed that he must have a pretty bad nightmare. The problem was that due to his violently moving some of his wounds had reopened themselves and had already stained some of the bandages red. Sayuri quickly started shaking the man slightly, careful to not reopen any more wounds. ‘‘Wake up!!’‘, she yelled at him. Suddenly the man’s eyes, an icy blue, shot open and he sat up in a fast motion. ‘‘AAAHH!!!!’‘, he screamed loudly, causing Sayuri to flinch. She whimpered due to his shrill scream. The man’s head snapped in her direction and intense blue eyes stared directly at her. For a moment everything became silent and the both of them just stared at each other. ‘‘Uhhmm... Hi?’‘, Sayuri spoke up. The boy narrowed his eyes. ‘‘Who are you?! Are you one of the people who attacked me?!’‘, he spitted into her face. ‘‘No! I’m not!’‘, the girl defended herself indignantly. ‘‘LIAR! They’re all liars!! All they’re after is my money!!’‘, the boy screamed. Sayuri was for a moment speechless. This man had an unbelievable bratty attitude, but she was sure that she had just now sensed hurt in his voice. The boy tried to stand up from the bed, but winced and held one of his hands over one of his many reopened wounds. When he removed the hand and looked at his now bloodstained hand his eyes widened and his hand started shacking. ‘‘I’m bleeding!!!’‘ The boy started panicking and tried to rip all of the bandages on his body away. Sayuri quickly grabbed his hands to prevent him from it. ‘‘Stop it!!’‘, she called desperately. ‘‘Let me go!! You’re just like everyone else!! No one cares for me!! No one cares if I would die!!’‘ Suddenly Sayuri grabbed the boy’s face in both of her hands and forced him to look at her. ‘‘STOP IT!! I’m just trying to help you and this is how you choose to act!? I don’t know what makes you think like this, but I can guarantee you that it isn’t true that no one cares for you!! Your life is worth so much, don’t just throw it away!!’‘ She was gasping for air after her sudden outburst, but it had definitely effected the boy. He stared at her with wide eyes. ‘‘Then tell me, do you care?’’ The hurtness in his voice nearly broke Sayuri’s heart. ‘‘If I wouldn’t have cared I wouldn’t have taken you with me.’‘, she answered him softly,’’Now please sit down again and stay still so I can stop the bleeding and rebandage the wounds.’’ This time the boy actually listened to her and watched her like a hawk when she stopped the bleeding and bandaged everything again. Sayuri felt like he was burning holes into her. ‘‘Finished!’’ The boy quickly glanced down at all the new bandaged wounds and then looked at her. ‘‘It still hurts.’’, he whimpered. ‘‘Wait here. I have a medicine that should help to ease the pain.’‘ Sayuri wanted to stand up, but the boy grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. ‘‘No! Please don’t leave me!’’ Sayuri felt something wet dripping onto her cheeks and realized that it were tears from the boy. He was crying! She gently started to wipe his tears away and spoke with a reassuring voice:’’Don’t worry. I won’t be gone for long. I promise I’ll return as quick as possible.’’ The blonde looked really hesitant, but slowly loosened his grip around her hand. Sayuri hurried up to get the medicine and a spoon as quick as possible.

Whilst she was in the kitchen she also brought a glass of water and some selfbaked cookies with her. She somehow managed to not trip over anything whilst carrying all this upstairs. As soon as she stepped inside the room the boy’s facial expression brightened up. ‘‘Here. This medicine is really bitter so I brought some water along and some cookies if you’re hungry. I know that this isn’t what you’re used to, but I hope it’s alright.’’ She held the spoon with the medicine on it in front of the boy’s lips which he obediently opened. He grimaced because of the taste and quickly grabbed the glass of water, gulping it all down in one shot. Sayuri laughed lightheartedly at this. She offered him her cookies which he gladly took. Whilst he was munching them he refused to look away from Sayuri. She noticed that. ‘‘Ah! That’s right, I didn’t even introduce myself. My name is Sayuri. And you are...?’’ ‘‘Alois!’’, the boy quickly replied. ‘‘Alois? That’s a cool name!’’ For a moment it became quiet before a big yawn escaped Alois lips. ‘‘You must be tired. I’ll let you sleep, it was an exhausting day for the both of us.’’ She probably should have predicted his reaction from the first time when she tried to leave, but she didn’t and so a surprised yelp came from her when the boy grabbed once again her arm. ‘‘Please don’t leave me! Don’t leave me alone! You’re the only one who cares for me! If you leave me too I’m all alone!’’ Tears were once again threatening to fall from his eyes and the desperation in his eyes and voice was too much for Sayuri to take. His breathing was shakingly and fastly. She sighed and sat down on the bed, gently pressing Alois down on the mattress. ‘‘I won’t leave if you don’t want me to.’’ She started to gently stroke the boy’s hair in a comforting manner. Alois snuggled closer to her, hugging her waist possessively and slowly his breathing calmed down. Sayuri decided to ignore that he was hugging her waist.  After some time Sayuri could tell that he had fallen asleep. She herself felt really tired, but was scared that Alois might have another nightmare. His grip on her was also really tight and it would nearly be impossible to free herself without waking him up. So she decided to stay in the bedroom. Her eyes felt heavy and with each blink it became harder to open them again. After a few minutes sleep came over her. Unnoticed by her she had another visitor, one that wasn’t human at all. His golden eyes wandered from the girl to his master who was clincing onto her waist tightly. ‘‘That’s interesting.’’ He sighed and walked over to his master. ‘‘It will most likely be hard to separate him from this girl without waking both of them up.’’ He let his eyes wander around the room, noticing the plate, the glass and the other things Sayuri had carried with her to the room. ‘‘And after that I have to make sure to erase all traces of my master. But what kind of butler would I be if I couldn’t do that much?’’

The next morning Sayuri woke up with her eyes still closed. She didn’t want to move, it was so warm and comfortable right now. She burried herself deeper into her warm bed. ‘‘Wait, something isn’t right.’’ For a moment she didn’t know why she felt like she missed something before it hit her. She immediately sat up and her head snapped in all directions. ‘‘Alois?’’ No answer. She quickly jumped out of the bed and suddenly noticed that all the stuff she had brought here yesterday wasn’t there anymore. ‘‘W-what...what happened?’’ She looked down on her clothes and her breath hitched in her throat when she noticed that they were clean. Not a single drop of blood was on them. Her mind was racing with millions of questions and thoughts. ‘‘No...that isn’t possible! I couldn’t have imagined all of that!’’ Sayuri sprinted down to the kitchen and ripped open the box with her selfbaked cookies. A scream escaped her lips and she dropped the box. The cookies inside the box spilled all over the floor, but the girl couldn’t have cared less. ‘‘T-that’s n-not possible. I-I know that I gave this b-boy yesterday the re-rest o-of the c-coo-cookies.’’ By now she was shaking like a leaf in the wind. Her knees felt like jelly and her breathing was going faster than normally. She didn’t even notice when her legs gave away under her and she collapsed on the floor. ‘‘Was...was all of that a huge joke my exhausted mind played on me? Was this boy...was Alois just an imagination?’’

Left you on a cliffhanger with this one, didn’t I?

[diorsho]

glimmer in the dark

bingo slot: shaky hands

words: 2.2k

paring: bakugou x reader

warnings: talks about the LOV, nightmares, and death

"I didn’t scream."

"Yes you did, and it was loud too." Y/n snickered. Bakugou frowned, worried that everyone in the dorms had heard him. 

"Whatever. I'm fine." Bakugou looked at his feet and linked his trembling fingers together. She wasn't buying it and walked over to him, sitting down next to him and lacing her own fingers together. The blond male knew her enough to know that what she was doing was meant to comfort herself. Y/N only gripped her hands like that when she was worried or scared. He looked at her before deciding he couldn't meet her eyes and went to stare at the wall instead.

"Said I'm fine. Go back to bed, it's late." He angrily clamped his hands together, small explosions from his quirk filled the silence and the minuscule light the tiny pops caused barely lit the room.

"You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can't lie to me." He could hear the frown in her voice. Bakugou sighed.

"I'm not lying." She untangled her hands and put them behind her, leaning against them. Her kind eyes were on him, studying him. 

"Come on, Bakugou. I know something's up, and you're out of your damn mind if you think I'm letting this go." She let out a frustrated sigh and focused on him. He looked up and turned to face her, eyebrows raised and fists clenched until his blunt nails dug into his palm.

"Well you should cause nothin’s wrong. I'm fine." Bakugou stared at her defiantly, taking her in. She looked different than her normal, her hair was messy and she had pajamas on. Y/n never got ready for bed until she knew everyone in the dorms was doing the same. The sight of her in comfortable clothes made his cheeks heat up and Bakugou hated that he was affected by her presence. He even thought she looked somewhat pretty. 

Bakugou could faintly see the ends of her wet hair, signaling she had taken a shower not too long ago. He could see a faint blush dusting her cheeks as well. He didn't know why but there was something about her that just drew him in. She was always calm and patient with him but also didn’t put up with his shit. Bakugou never thought that this would happen. He didn’t do feelings or relationships. Kirishima and Kaminari would have a field day with this if they ever found out about his little crush.

"Bakugou, please tell me. I know something is wrong. I can see it in your eyes," she pleaded, tiredness dripping from her voice like honey. “And I know it’s hurting you and causing nightmares.” Bakugou ran his hands through his hair in annoyance. She got up from her spot and sat on her knees in front of him, placing her hands on his knees.

"Katsuki, look at me." He couldn't bring himself to look at her eyes, the use of his first name from her not even bothering him. He wanted to look at her but he couldn’t lift his head. Bakugou didn’t wanna seem weak—especially in front of her—but he also knew that he didn’t wanna be scared anymore. "Please. I'm here to help you, and I'm not leaving here until I do." Bakugou raised his head and swore his hands shook more at her close proximity. She tilted her head to the side and moved her legs to get comfortable on the floor. "Katsuki, let me in." She reached for his hands, "I want to help." He let her grab at his warm hands and she smiled and squeezed them to stop his trembling fingers. "Thank you, now please tell me what happened. What happened in your dream Katsuki?" She moved closer, her sweet shampoo flooded his nose. Bakugou huffed and released her hands, inching closer to her by dropping on the ground beside her. Y/N let her hands fall and watched him move.  Bakugou leaned against his bed while crossing his legs. She followed his actions, mimicking his posture. He reached for her hand this time, and she smiled at their intertwined fingers. 

"It was a bad dream." Bakugou said simply. His head hung slightly.

"What happened?" she asked, straight to the point like always.

"I keep reliving that night where those bastards kidnapped me at the camp. I can’t do anything," he sighed heavily and felt her squeeze his hands.

"Katsuki–"

"And then I’m at their hideout and those fucking lowlifes talk about how they want me to join their shitty league." Bakugou was the one who tightened his hold on Y/N’s hands now. If it hurt she didn’t say anything but that only meant he gripped her fingers tighter. "They ask me to help them kill All Might," he inhaled carefully, suppressing the lump in his throat. Bakugou couldn't cry in front of her.

"Katsuki, listen to me–" He interrupted her again.

"No, what do you not get! I’ve been having these nightmares for weeks and they’ve only gotten worse." He was practically yelling at her. “That stupid fucking prick thought I would help them cause my quirk, because he thought that I was evil.” She flinched slightly at his words but didn't move. The incident that happened almost two months ago was still as fresh as a gaping wound. The words seemed to pour out of him. “What would have happened if you guys didn’t show? What if you dumbasses got caught and I was the reason all of us, including All Might, died? What if he died because I wasn’t strong enough.” Y/n squeezed Bakugou’s hand before dropping it before kneeling in front of his crossed legs. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. Bakugou’s cheeks seemed to burn in her cool hands.

"I get it, Katsuki. But listen to me, please," she pleaded. "Katsuki," she let out a breath, and rubbed his temples slowly with her thumbs. "It was just a dream. Nobody died and everything worked out. You’re safe. Okay? You’re safe now. You can't let this get to you otherwise Shigaraki wins." Bakugou tried to hold onto her words as she moved pieces of hair behind his flushed ear. “I’m right here, Katsuki. I promise I’m not going anywhere.” Bakugou’s eyes closed almost involuntarily as her words washed over him. It was everything he wanted to hear but was too scared to ask for. He let out a shaky breath as she lightly traced his cheeks with the tips of her fingers.

Bakugou blindly reached his hands behind her and pulled her to him. Y/n toppled on top of him completely but she regained herself. He was hugging her. She moved her arms to rest on the back of his neck. The pair laid against his bed as she moved to straddle him, to get more comfortable in the tangle of shaky limbs. He pushed her body to rest against his, nearly desperate to have her closer. The moment between the two was innocent as Bakugou took comfort in her warmth. He let his hands rest on her waist, gently gripping her, pulling her as close as he could. Head buried in the crook of her neck and she ran her fingers through his hair. His nose brushed against her neck and he felt her shiver at the ticklish feeling. 

"Katsuki, please don't shut me out. I wanna be there for you no matter what,” she whispered, still threading her hands through his hair. He took a shuddering breath, suppressing his sob by biting his lip. The tears still flowed down his cheeks, dampening her shirt but she didn’t seem to mind. Y/n tightened her hold as much as she could. "You'll get through this. I promise. With everyone on your side, with me beside you. I know you’ll get through this." They stayed like this for a while, just holding each other in silence. Bakugou’s hands were no longer shaking as he clutched onto her.

A small thank you could be heard from the boy as he reluctantly let her go. His head hung and he wiped his face roughly against the back of his hand. She let her hands fall to the tops of her thighs and touched his hip lightly. He lifted his head, the white of his eyes were red but he seemed to be a bit better. She smiled at him and he rolled his eyes but still smiled softly.

"You're welcome." Y/N smiled sweetly on his lap. He wiped his hands on his pants and blushed at their position. She seemed to realize that she was still in his lap and coughed before moving off of him to sit on the floor. Bakugou stood up, suddenly embarrassed about how he acted. He looked down at her and offered his hand to help her up. The male saw her eyes glimmer as she took his larger hand in her smaller one. Despite holding her hand many times since she had come into his bedroom, the small act made Bakugou’s heart speed up. She let her hand stay in his as she rubbed small circles on the back of his hand. "Are you okay?" Y/n pushed some fallen pieces of hair behind her ear with her free hand.

"Yeah,” Bakugou whispered. She nodded and let his hand fall from hers. He stared at it for a moment, tempted to grab it again.

"Then my job here is done. Goodnight." She rocked back on her heels once like she didn’t quite want to leave him alone. Bakugou could read her so easily. It was like she was an open book. He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, waiting for her to say anything else. She didn’t. He watched as Y/N turned and began walking towards his door and Bakugou felt his heart drop. 

"Wait," he called for her and she turned around quickly, head tilting in curiosity. She hummed in response. "I don't think... I don’t think I wanna be alone right now." She stifled a laugh behind her hand as he blushed in embarrassment. “Can you please stay with me?”

"Katsuki, there's only one bed." Her voice was serious but her cheeks betrayed her.

"I know, it's just I'm–" He was starting to regret his earlier words as his heartbeat seemed to be in his throat.

"I’m joking. I’ll stay, don't get your panties in a twist." She scratched the back of her neck and put her other hand in her pocket awkwardly standing by his door.

"I'm not stupid, it's just... You're you and there are the dumb rules." He tangled his fingers together, gripping his own hands so as to not show his own nervousness.

“Are you trying to insult me now?" she asked. He could make out a tiny smirk in the darkness of his room.

"No but if you’re gonna be annoying about it then just forget I asked." He knew he didn’t mean it. Bakugou knew that if she left right now he wouldn’t get back to sleep. He would just stare at the ceiling and wait until the sun rose. She seemed to know that too because she quietly laughed at him.

"I'm just messing with you!" She walked over to his bed to sit down. Bakugou was confused but then was shocked as he watched her get comfortable on his bed. She giggled and smiled at his unmoving form. He sighed and sat on the edge bed of his bed. “Plus, I don’t care about the rules. I care about you.” He inhaled sharply at her words and she reached for him blindly. Bakugou allowed himself to fall into her grasp.

"Lay down, I won’t bite." She smiled and scooted to the side of the bed closest to the wall to give him more room. Bakugou soon followed after her in the darkness, slightly unnerved that he was in bed with a girl. The pair stared at the ceiling until she sat up to grab the blanket that was thrown near the bottom of his bed to cover both of their bodies. Y/N wrapped her arm around him and sighed softly. 

Bakugou’s body grew rigid as he felt her arm lay against his stomach. He had never been this close with anyone when it came to sleeping. Why was he suddenly so nervous? Sweat gathered in his palms and he worried that he would accidentally activate his quirk. His body tensed again when she rested her head in the crook of his neck like he had done earlier. Bakugou let out a breath in hopes of calming himself.

"Relax," she mumbled into his shirt. He closed his eyes before moving his arm around her to hug her closer as she snuggled into his side. In the passing minutes and the small circles she was tracing on his chest, Bakugou found himself melting into her. His eyes grew heavy with sleep as he struggled to stay awake. 

It wasn’t because he was scared of the nightmares returning, but because he wanted to hold her in his arms for just a little longer.

Sleep won in his tired mind. He fought the lull that accompanied the quiet drift but found that sleep was too tempting. Right before he was completely gone he felt the girl in his arms lightly kiss his chest. “Goodnight, Katsuki. Sweet dreams,” Y/N whispered and he could only hum in return.

~~~

taglist: | @bnhabookclub |

masterlist | bingo masterlist | kofi 

[go--ask--alice]

Ephemeris

Four

14 Days.

336 Hours.

20,160 Minutes.

That is how long it's been since I've spoken to my Joker. I don't know what happened.. I still don't know what the fuck is going on. We were suppose to temporarily move into this god forsaken townhouse together yet here I sit alone. It has taken me that long just to gather my thoughts enough to even write them down.

That morning two weeks ago started so normal. I woke up to find myself alone in bed which honestly isn't that abnormal in itself, J sometimes doesn't sleep and gets his best work done in the middle of the night. I did my usual morning routine hoping he would make an appearance as I stood in the shower under the scalding hot water. He loves to surprise me and join in for some early morning shower sex after a long night of insomnia. I had it set in my mind to give him a bit of a show since he hadn't appeared yet. I put on a modest yet cheeky outfit and set off to his office hoping to interrupt a phone call and tease him as he tried not to acknowledge me. It's a game I love to play with him and gets the most amazing reactions from him. But as I reached the wing his office resided in there was nothing. No Frost at the door, no yelling at incompetent goons over the phone, not even the soft sound of classical music that sometimes floats through the halls when he's deep in his plans.

All of a sudden this massive mansion felt empty, I knew in my gut that he wasn't here. There had been a handful of red flags recently that something bad was brewing but honestly I just expected him to ask me to cut him again. It's something we started doing last year to release some of his darker demons and as far as I knew it had been working. I try to let him come to me with the request rather than pushing. His madness is part of what I love about him and such a key ingredient in what makes him The Joker and I never want to change that.

After I took a few moments to collect myself I called J, maybe there was a perfectly normal reason for his absence? Maybe I had forgotten about a meeting and he left without me? We are rarely apart, even for a few hours, but it does happen.

9:32am no answer

9:39am no answer

9:56am no answer, not even voicemail

This wasn't like J. He may be a psychotic crime boss but he is still always available for me. Worse case scenario my missed called are answered by a text from Frost letting me know what's going on and oh boy was he next on my call list!

......Five missed calls later and I still didn't have any answers. I was ready to burn this place to the ground if someone didn't give me some information.

Finally at around 11am I got a text from Frost.

[Ms Alice, please be ready to leave for the townhouse at 2:30 this afternoon. Boss will explain later.]

My blood boiled as I read the text. It was so generic, so cold. I knew he was only following orders but I felt so betrayed by Johnny. He has become my one confidant in this crazy world I now reside in. He is the only other person who knows what it's like to be in the presence of The Joker's madness and not be a target of it.

I had no choice but to follow along and continue with the plan. My bags were already packed and in the trunk of my new and still barely driven Lambo Aventador. Apparently I would be driving myself seeing as both J and Frost were MIA.

I didn't even want to leave at this point. I felt like a child who has lost their parent in the department store. "If I just stay put they'll have to come back and find me right??" I didn't want to leave just incase J showed back up and I could get an explanation straight from him.

I spent the remaining time going over every red flag I've seen since before our wedding, anything to clue me in to what might be going on. It had almost seemed like J was apprehensive to come back from England, we both knew he needed to return and take care of business in Gotham but England had become a kind of safe house where all the everyday problems could be put on hold and his stress levels really did begin to mellow out in the last few weeks of our stay. From the moment we hit the tarmac here at home there was a noticable shift, the tension in his jaw was back and the twitch under his eye reappeared more quickly than I had anticipated.

I have learned that he lives his life as a series of distractions. Some good some bad but all carefully crafted to distract from the demons in his mind. He immediately began planning our wedding, looking into new properties to acquire, and most amusingly he began building and collecting model cars. If I ever need a good laugh I just like to stop and picture Johnny Frost, lethal weapon, standing in line at the hobby store with a basket full of paints and parts to replace the ones J had broken the night before!

I also thought back to his increased drug use. The coke has always been more of a last resort than recreational to help calm him but recently I know he's started using alot more often. It's a big part of the reason he hasn't been sleeping. I honestly attributed his more erratic behavior to the drugs and insomnia but maybe they were just side effects of a bigger problem? No matter what is going on he is always kind and gentle to me, a courtesy he does not extend to any other living soul. I have seen a level of violence I never thought possible in his presence, it's something I have started to become almost jaded by, but I will never doubt the evil that resides inside that beautiful damaged man. He has also recently taken to personally dealing with some of the lower level thugs in his employ, a task that has always been delegated to Frost or one of the other higher ranking bodyguards. I assume mainly so he has a constant supply of fresh meat for his experiments or even just target practice. I tend to not ask a lot of questions when it comes to the more violent aspects of his empire. If he does not explicitly involve me then I simply do not ask questions.

When the time was right I went down to the garage doors, my last bag in hand and expected to see my car in it's customary spot next to the Benz but it wasn't there. At this point I wasn't sure I could take much more of this bullshit and just began to cry. All the worry and frustration from the day just hit me like a ton of bricks and I didn't want to think anymore. I wanted my husband, I wanted to be clued into whatever the fuck was happening, and goddamn it if I had to leave I just wanted to get in my own car and drive away. After a few moments I wiped my eyes and grabbed my things before heading out the side door towards the front of the building. As I turned the corner a laugh bubbled up from me that sounded foreign and cold. There she was, my beautiful Ghost, J had teased me for naming my car but it's something I have done with every other junk car I ever drove so something as exceptional as this car deserved it too! She was running, her engine humming a low purr and the driver side door was open. This was starting to get even stranger.. I felt like I was in a movie and people were watching from behind the camera lens. That's when I spotted the blacked sedan, it's engine was also running and as I approached Ghost they flashed the high beams at me. It didn't feel like a trap or anything nefarious so I climbed in and slammed the door. My frustrating hitting record levels. On the screen the GPS was already programed for the townhouse. Just as I was about to put her into drive a text popped up on my screen, it was Frost.

[At the rear, head to the destination. -F]

My anger bubbled to the surface and in one swift move I rolled the window down and raised my middle finger as I hit the gas. My sharp black nails and wedding rings glittered in the winter sun, my rear wheels kicking up gravel as I pulled out onto the public road, the blacked out car following closely behind. I knew it was Frost behind the wheel but I had a terrible feeling in my stomach that J was in the backseat. Why was he doing this to me? All morning I had been trying to think of what may be wrong with him, now my thoughts turned to myself. Had I done something to cause this? Did I make a mistake or cross some line I wasn't aware of? From the moment we met it seemed I could do no wrong in J's eyes. Had he finally gotten tired of me? Did he think getting married was a mistake? Was this his way of getting rid of me? All these questions continued to race through my head the entire drive.

The townhouse is approximately 30 minutes outside of downtown Gotham, close enough to still feel metropolitan but far enough out to give the illusion of privacy. J had showed me the floor plan weeks ago as we planned for our extended stay. The building is a four story brownstone with an enclosed garden accessible only from our unit's kitchen. There are three other units on the block, all of which are owned by J, most are empty except for the far end that was occupied but I have no idea who actually lives there or if it's just a front for something else.

As I turned onto the block I hesitated, realizing I had no idea where to park. I never planned on driving here alone so the thought never crossed my mind. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Frost's black sedan take the corner alittle too fast and barrel past me. The back passenger window was rolled down a few inches just furthering my suspicion that J is in there too. I said fuck it and park right infront of the unit and storm out of the car. I stalked up the brick stairs and planted my heels at the front door. I had no key so someone needed to get out the fucking car and talk to me.

[Stay there, I have the keys. -F]

My phone buzzes with another useless text message. I stifle a sigh of annoyance as I see the door open and a visibly uncomfortable Frost make his way towards me. I've never seen him look so unsure of himself? My nerves flaired up again and he hands me a set of keys and a sealed envelope. My name is written in J's messy script and my heart thunders in my chest. I implored Frost for any information he can give and all I got was a nervous chuckle and a sidewards glance towards his car which was still idling halfway down the block. Before turning away he tapped the envelope clutched in my hands. "This is bullshit Ms Alice. Give it time." I didn't even have a chance to ask before he turned and quickly returned to the car. No use waiting for him to pull away, I unlocked the large wooden door and shuffled inside. As soon and the door clicked shut behind me I sunk to my knees and began to cry. All the tears I'd been saving up since this morning came pouring out, I let my emotions flow for several minutes until I saw J's letter discarded on the floor infront me. I took a moment to trace my name written in my loves scratchy script, almost as bad a doctor's, before tearing it open. Inside I found a short note. It was written in deep purple ink so I know it came from the stationary in his office at home.

"Darling, I need to be away for a while to deal with {multiple words scratched out} some sticky fingers at The Smile and Grin. {scribbles} I gave Frost the week off and now I need to handle some of the staff myself because someone’s dipping into my bourbon stash and I need to figure out who."

The whole thing was sloppy and disjointed, it looked rushed and made literally no sense at all. This was all so ridiculous.. The Joker is not a coward yet he couldn't come to me, his wife, and explain what ever the fuck was going on. I crumpled the letter and threw it across the room.

So here I am. It has been two weeks and still nothing. Thank God we had already hired a small staff for this place or I would be screwed.

This is all fucking worthless. When that clown finally shows his face back up here I'll give him a reason for that goddamn metal grill he's got.

-Alice

[smolblondedirector]

Just A Little More Time | 3

Annie Davies didn't know what to expect during her 6th year at Hogwarts, the memories of the summer being almost too much to bear. What she didn't expect was finding herself finding trust in Draco Malfoy of all people. Draco is secretive and does everything to push her away, but with his conflicting feelings eating him alive, he finds it harder to every time. As Annie does her best to put her past behind her, she also becomes determined to teach the Slytherin that he is no longer alone.

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Original Character

Warnings: mentions of abuse, anxiety attacks, mental health issues, trauma, suicidal thoughts, angst, slow burn, eventual smut

A/N: thank you Draco

CHAPTERS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

It had been a few weeks since her run in with Draco, but she had yet to forget it. Annie could not get the encounter out of her head. She had never seen Draco so upset before, couldn’t fathom that he struggled with panic attacks like she did. It just didn’t seem like someone like him would even have anxieties after the years of always bragging about how wonderful his life was.

Although, she guessed even people like Draco could suffer from something that you cannot control. She would have felt bad if he hadn’t attacked her the way he did after she was caught watching him.

Annie couldn’t deny how different Draco was this year. The boy who always made everything about him, teased and bullied Harry relentlessly, seemed to have completely faded. All that was left was what seemed to be an almost empty shell of the Draco Malfoy she had grown up with. One glance during potions class was all it took for her to see how much he had changed over the summer.

Everyday he would stare off into a trance, rarely ever paying attention to anyone or looking up from the floor. Those blue eyes that were once filled with mischief, now dull and emotionless. Annie couldn’t help but feel curious about what had happened to him over the summer, what could bring on such a drastic change. Of course she had heard the rumors that he was now following after his father and had become a Death Eater, but she still refused to believe it for herself. She wondered for a moment if he had gone through something like she had, traumatizing him to become how he was now.

Her body shuttered, the memories threatening to flood back once again. Her hands gripped her textbook as she watched Professor Slughorn explain something that just wasn’t making it to her head. She felt exhausted, still never really being able to sleep. Her heart always felt like it was beating too fast, making her chest ache. Her hands shaking and throat closing whenever anyone would ask her anything.

Annie was pulled from her deep thoughts as class was dismissed and everyone made their way to the door. She sighed before collecting her things and followed behind her classmates. She walked behind the famous trio, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all in a deep conversation about something she didn’t quite understand. Harry rambled on about something while Ron and Hermione listened carefully.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. Annie found herself between Neville and Ron during dinner, pushing around the food on her plate while Ron devoured his. Hermonie glared over at him, still hating how he ate without a care for nothing around him.

Annie looked up to Ginny who was sitting across from her, giving her a small smile.

“You’ve been so quiet lately, is everything okay?” Ginny asked, sounding concerned.

Annie thought for a moment about telling her everything right then and there. The younger Weasley was easy to talk to, always caring for everyone around her. But the thought of everyone around her listening made her throat feel like it was closing in again.

She quickly shook her head, forcing a small smile back at Ginny, “no no. You know how it is, sixth year, everything is a lot more busy and stressful. I guess it’s just getting to me a bit.”

Ginny examined Annie’s face for a moment, noticing how the small smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. But she could sense that now really wasn’t the time to push any further.

“Yeah I guess I have that to look forward to next year. If you do have anything else you want to talk about you can always tell me you know,” she said sweetly, hoping Annie would eventually follow her words.

“Thank you Ginny, I’ll remember that,” she smiled genuinely, feeling a sense of comfort that she needed.

After dinner they all headed back to the Gryffindor common room, chatting for a while more before heading to bed. Although the day had gone a lot better than most recently, she still could not get rid of the anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach. She quickly washed up and crawled under the blankets, curling her body into a ball and slowly drifting off into a light sleep.

Although, it didn’t last long.

Annie gasped away, feeling like she had just resurfaced from water after almost drowning. She felt sick, her body tense and her chest so tight it hurt to breath. Luckily no one else was awake, but she knew she couldn’t stay here in this state. Worried she would eventually wake someone up, she quickly stood and rushed out into the corridors, feeling like the walls around her in the dorms were closing in around her.

She walked quietly towards the bathroom, hoping that no one would be there this time. She felt relief as she entered and only Myrtle was there to greet her.

“You had bad dreams again?” Myrtle asked quietly, floating towards her.

Annie simply nodded, trying to hold back her tears. She couldn’t take this anymore. The constant anxiety, feeling so sick to her stomach as her haunting memories never left her mind. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself but it was no use. With her eyes closed flashes of what she had just seen in her dreams rushed back, bringing the sickness in her stomach back with them.

Annie quickly ran over to a stall and emptied her stomach into the toilet, sobbing as she gasped for air. Her whole body was now shaking uncontrollably and she gripped the edges of the toilet bowl, tears streaming down her face. Myrtle was behind her trying to comfort her, but nothing she was saying was reaching her, the white noise in her head blocking everything out.

It wasn’t until Myrtle mumbled a name that Annie was quick to turn and see who had entered the room.

Her stomach churned, of course it had to be him. Draco stood a few steps away from the stall, looking over at her with an intense stare.

“If you’re here to bully me again you can piss off,” she seethed.

As terrible and vulnerable as she looked, she would not allow Draco Malfoy to torment her at this moment. She shot daggers at him, her green eyes never looked so terrifying. Draco was taken aback to see such a reaction from her, after easily getting to her weeks ago. He kept a calm face and simply shook his head.

“I’m not here to do that. I heard some horrid noises coming from here so I just wanted to make sure no one was being murdered,” he simply stated.

There was a long silence between them as she looked away from him, still trying to calm herself down. The air felt tense and thick, making them both uncomfortable. Annie began taking deep breaths, finally getting her heart rate to slow down.

Draco took a step forward, “well are you alright?” he questioned, voice void of any emotion.

The Gryffindor didn’t look up at him, “I’m fine. Just a bad dream,” she sighed, using the sleeves of her shirt to wipe her wet cheeks.

He nodded, not sure what to say to her, especially after their last encounter had ended so terribly. He walked over to the closest sink, leaning against it while he still kept his eyes on her. Seeing her now, he felt a small pang of guilt for the things he had said to her last. She seemed to have calmed down enough and was now sitting on the tile floor as she stared at the wall blankly, deep in thought about something.

Draco tried to distract himself from the awkward tension by playing with his ring, not feeling right to leave her alone in this state, but also feeling like trying to talk to her would only make things worse.

Annie suddenly stood up, flushing the toilet and walking over to a sink. She turned on the water, cupping her hands and splashing it onto her face. Draco’s eyes followed her curiously, watching as her hands still shook slightly as she repeated the action again. She wiped away the remaining droplets running down her face before walking past him towards the exit.

“Wait, Davies,” Draco called, bringing her to a halt. The blonde turned her head slightly towards him.

“Here,” he said, holding out a vile towards her.

She stared at it for a moment before glancing back up at him, a confused expression in her eyes.

“It’s a calmness potion,” he stated, waiting impatiently for her to take it from his outstretched hand.

“Why?” She asked cautiously, still not trusting him in the slightest.

“You obviously need it. I suppose it's also kind of an apology for how I treated you last,” he mumbled. “Just don’t tell anyone I gave it to you, alright?” He stared intensely at her, hoping she would just take it and leave before it became even more awkward.

Annie finally took it from his hand, still unsure if this one of his sick pranks or not. She looked over his face, noticing how his blue eyes were completely blank, his features stone cold.

“Thanks,” she whispered, staring at him for a moment longer.

It felt strange that Draco Malfoy was actually capable of showing kindness, even if his face didn’t show it. Annie watched his eyes flicker with something she couldn’t identify. They were slightly mesmerizing, the blue always giving off a cold vibe, but they didn’t in this moment. She shook herself from her slight trance before turning away disappearing around the corner.

Draco watched her leave, taking a deep breath now that he was alone. His raging thoughts flooding back. In his heart he felt troubled, the once excitement of his mission now turning into doubt. It scared him. If anyone saw him like this, he and everyone he loved would be in grave danger. He pushed the doubt to the back of his mind, locking it away behind the wall he spent all summer building under his aunt’s cruel hand.

He had no choice but to do this, and that’s what terrified him the most.