#it took me liks two or three weeks

[geraiodli]

Hey)) hey litwtc Tumblr)))) did you know... That I made an animatic))))))))

[tteokdoroki]

✎ᝰ. OCT 22ND ★ SOMNOPHILIA - seishiro nagi .ᐟ

[CHAPTER TWENTY TWO SLEEPING BEAUTY ] once upon a time, a brave knight, destined to marry someone she’d never met, says fuck it and plans to reap the rewards of saving the prince from eternal slumber. without realising that he’s already awake… ( 8.8K ).

✧ chapter contents - minors, blank and ageless blogs do not interact ! nsfw, heavy smut, characters in their 20s, sleeping beauty!au, somnophilia, hold the moan, overstimulation, cockwarming, dacryphilia, outer-course, handjobs, blowjobs, pussyjobs, free use, dub con, cumplay, creampies, not beta read, knight + fem!reader, aurora!seishiro nagi.

✧ fairy godmother's note - this is so late i'm so sorry, i think i might start posting kinktober towards the end of the week and into november, enjoy me loves. miss u loads! - m.list ⋆ kinktober m.list ⋆ taglist ☆

you hardly remember the day that prince nagi was born — despite most definitely being there for the ceremony that commemorated it. at the time, you were hardly out of your own leading strings, still babbling dumbly and clinging to your mother’s garments whenever someone poked their nose in your face. obviously far too young to remember the curse placed on him by that wicked witch maleficent. 

prince seishiro nagi was beloved by all and affection for him was widespread throughout the kingdom. he was born deep into the night, at a time where the sky had been painted with deep blue and midnight hues, with hair as silky and pale as the silver moon and eyes like the glittering starry sky. so they said. at least that’s what your been told. while present at the time, you would hardly know — you were too young to remember how he looked nor the very moment you were promised to him as a baby yourself. 

from the moment you were born, your fate was signed away before your very first breath and once you arrived and took two steps you were instantly reared to become prince seishiro’s future wife. to help join two kingdoms in harmonious union. from the moment you could talk, you’d spent your entire life training to become the wife of a man you hardly knew. there were lessons in perfect posture, dainty dancing and simple sewing. not to mention how to serve a king and please a husband  — who apparently had unnatural beauty, the softest voice and the kindest of hearts. outside of nagi, you hadn’t a single hobby or interest that didn’t concern him, solely born and bred for his best interest. how were you supposed to know if any of those spoken traits were really true and not just word of mouth when nobody had any idea where the prince actually was. 

rumour had it, that the silver haired royal had been whisked away to the woods to be raised by the very fairies that blessed him — with hopes of avoiding maleficent’s malevolent curse in which seishiro was destined to prick his finger on a poisoned spinning wheel by age twenty three. in an attempt to undo the wicked spell, the fairies had combined their magic and made it so that only a true love's kiss would be able to wake up their beloved prince. which soon became your duty, by the time you came of age too. 

since then, and for twenty two years after, there was not a peep from the prince — to his people and his kingdom, he’d practically vanished overnight, becoming one with the moon and stars they prayed to each night. holding out hope for his return to the throne. 

in turn, you had no idea when your duty would come to fruition. maleficent's thunderous mountain, shrouded in a thick layer of green, jealous smog that was sure to suck the life from any innocent soul still raged on — meaning her curse hadn’t come true. she still hadn’t found the prince. no one had.

no one except for you. 

unknowingly, you’d met nagi humming amongst pointed shrubbery and wild flowers deep in the forest — absentmindedly complaining about tne berries he was forced to forage for his uncles back home. for you, it was instant, as though an invisible force had drawn you two him like the the two poles of a magnet. prince seishiro was a sight to behold, even before you knew who he was, the timbre trill of his voice filled you with a wave of unfamiliar butterflies that battled their way into your throat — trapping your voice. his eyes were an enchanting pool of riches, frightened of your presence at first, but filled with stripes of silver you were sure had to be stolen from the moon. 

for you, it was love at first sight. a powerful urge to be near him building up in your lungs like fluid in a sick person. you were sure he felt the same — the emotion obvious in the way he tentatively touched you as you talked about nothing and everything at all. the way he swooped down to your height to listen to tales of land and fortune he could only have dreamed of.

in those hours that you spent alone together; pressed into one another’s side’s amongst intertwined tree branches like two lovers' limbs after a night of improper passion  — you’d felt the most seen you had in all your life. for the first time in forever, someone saw you as more than just a bargaining chip or a trophy to be paraded around royal courts in honour of union. someone saw you as a whole, read your story from start to finish and still wanted to know more. you weren’t just a knight made to save a prince. to nagi, you were so much more.

and to you, nagi was a breath of fresh air — someone who craved a more exciting life rather than being banished to a life of greenery and foliage. despite his charming air of laziness and naivety, he expressed to you a burning sense of eager deep within. it was innocent, inquisitive but nagi’s thoughts called out to you like the bird song of two mates. the worlds you came from were different, clearly, but you just made sense to one another.

but back then, in those quiet moment with your head on his shoulder and nothing but the sound of oak leaves swaying in the gentle summer breeze — you’d had no idea that the silver haired stranger was just prince seishiro living under a different name. you thought him a commoner and he thought you a random huntress on a horse. no one had any idea that he was the crown prince, that he’d been snuck back into the castle on the day of his twenty third birthday to regain his title and his crown… only to be lulled by the cruel call of a sinister stranger  shortly — pricking his finger just like maleficent had planned. 

you were meant to marry. you were supposed to go back for seishiro and run away together, live apart from the expectations bestowed upon you as children. unfortunately, you wouldn’t find out until returned to the spot where you’d first met him, and were met with the face of the villain herself. instead of your lover. that’s when you realised the gravity of it all. who seishiro was. who you were meant to be. 

deep down, you knew this was a love too sacred to pass by, and with the white haired prince counting on you —  you would do everything in your power to save him. save the prince and the kingdom from sleeping soundly for the next one hundred years.

with the help of the fairies who raised nagi, you were able to take down the terrible maleficent — grateful that your parents had at least made you handy with a sword. through the flames of the beast above you, you wielded your weapon with a strength and bravery that would go down into the history books of lands far and wide. killing maleficent in the form of the dragon had been no easy feat but you fought, with screaming muscles and a bloody face — fulfilling the duty you had been born to do. trained to do. for nagi and for your kingdom. 

the difference was, this time, you were doing all of this for love. not just for honour.

after winning the flaming battle, you staggered your way through the kingdom despite your burns and free bleeding wounds, making your way up to the tower where your silver-moon haired lover slept. part of you felt envious of the slumbering kingdom, the eternal rest they had slipped under while your body burned and ached with every step that you took… but as soon as you laid eyes on your handsome prince — sleeping like a fallen angel crowned by scattered lights. the glinting particles of dust forming a shining halo over his sleep the steel hair. 

the beat of your heart quickens as you approach the bed tucked deep within his quarters — rivalling the speed of the finest royal race horse and the world completely falls away until the all that remains are you and seishiro. your prince. your love. even while he sleeps, he’s unfairly handsome, grey lashes dusted with starlight just barely brushing the apples of his milky-toned cheeks, his hair curls against his forehead and his lips, rose-tinted, part with each gentle exhale his body takes to keep him alive. without even thinking, your finger trails the slopes and contours of nagi’s delicate features, brushing over his Cupid’s bow that seems damp with the condensation of his warm breaths. the sensation stokes a fire within you while your mind wanders to less than pleasant thoughts.

how would his lips feel if you were to kiss him? how would they taste? how would seishiro kiss you back? the questions swirl around in the calcium cage of your skull like a storm untapped, fuelled by the remnants of adrenaline that simmers in your veins from the fight. it would be wrong, to do what you’re thinking of doing — to press your lips to the seam of his and run your tongue every inch in his hot mouth, behind his teeth and over his own pink muscle. maybe even to cup his throat and feel every breath he takes. it would be so wrong… and yet, your moral compass and previous duties seem to be out of working order, thus, losing the war the flickering desirous flame within you. one that rivals the breath of the dragon slaid outside.

no one would really care if you were to have the way with the crown prince. after all, you would need to be rewarded for your self sacrifice and service to the kingdom that could have very well been burned to the ground if it hadn’t been for your bravery. you deserved this, you deserved him and the chance to appease your growing appetite for the sleeping beauty before you. right now, there were no barriers… no servants and squires and maids or men to tell you what was proper of a knight or of a promised woman, and there certainly weren’t any barriers to the body of the silver haired prince. without any blankets, there wasn’t much to stop you from trailing a hand over seishiro’s clothed stomach and over the hills of his princely dress pants.

your fingertips grazed the taut muscles of his thick thighs as you teased yourself. teased the slumbering royalty. daring tug at the belt loops and thick leather her bound his trousers to his unfairly slender waist. with your lip caught between the sharp edge of your teeth, you unbuckle his belt and pull down his pants inch by inch, a tidal wave of goosebumps erupting over the surface of your body like freshly plucked chicken skin as you reveal more and more of his milky, toned flesh. he’s smooth all over, blueish veins apparent as they spiral underneath his skin, but nagi is just as soft as you remember, as warm brushing up against you as he was the day you first met in the woods.

saliva spreads across your tongue like a sheet of rain during a storm or a flash flood when his undergarments come down with the hem of his trousers, revealing a snow white path of pubic hair that curls prettily against his pelvis. there’s a craving for more that sloshes into the dips and deficits of your brain, like a dark haze that shrouds your brain in nothing but lust — so you act on the feeling, pulling more and more fabric away from seishiro’s most intimate parts until his cock, half hard and already leaking, is able to spring free. 

the sleeping beauty’s breath hitches and catches on the edges of his throat as his hard-on first hits the cool air shrouding his chambers. whatever preconceived notion you’d had of the prince’s body beforehand is quickly tossed away when you finally set your sights on his girth — he is as long as he is thick, chubby against the softness of his tummy with a pink tip that already oozes a thick stream of cream caused by the ghost of your touch over him. a warmth spreads through your entire body, an urge to taste him washing over you in a poor attempt to cool your need down. if you taste him, would that be part of your reward? would it matter to anyone if you put your mouth on the prince while he innocently slept… especially after you’d saved everyone?

you still cannot find it within yourself to care. 

perhaps the wounds maleficent inflicted upon you have left traces of her bad energy, for you continue to disregard your own morals and good intentions by crawling onto nagi’s bed ( careful with your movements while he shifts in his slumber ) and you keep your touch tender when taking him into your hold, the supple pads of your fingers wrapping around the length of the prince’s shaft while you smooth the pad of your thumb into the slit on his cockhead. rubbing the precum into it sweetly. now up close and personal with his most intimate parts, you’re able to catch the scent of nagi… which only worsens your hunger for him. he smells so good, the musky scent of his arousal almost sending your eyes into the back of your skull — acting like fumes of a pretty wildflower in the forest you once met. 

it hypnotises you, takes over your every thought and action in the heat of the moment. every sensation you once felt is now heightened by your own arousal, the feeling of your tongue behind your teeth and the silken sheets against your knees and the blistering temperature of seishirou’s girth in your palm. adjusting your grip on him to something more firm, soft little hands dwarfed by the sheer size and thickness of him, and accidentally pull a tiny moan from your sleeping lover. any trepidation mingling with the air in your lungs is quickly eradicated once you finally give in, flicking your tongue over the cream gathering at nagi’s mushroomed cockhead that burns a painful shade of deep red.

opening your mouth, you take seishiro down your throat as though it’s the easiest thing in the world, your tongue flexing against the bluish purple forked veins that spiral down his heavy shaft. all you want to do is make him harder, feel the blood rush from his slumbering brain to his balls so you can take him properly, elsewhere, later on. what doesn’t fit past the seams of your chapped lips, you continue to palm, setting a steady pace to the rhythm of your hands jerking the silver-haired prince off. its slick and easy, aided by the thick globs of precum that spill over your knuckles and sink into the lines in your palms — seishiro may be asleep, but his body reacts, hips bucking into your closed fist while he squeaks and sighs lazily. 

his head remains tacked to the pillow tucked behind it, starlight locks splayed out across the cooling silk fabric — perfectly tousled despite being slightly out of place as he writhes under the sinful prison of your hot, wet mouth. even you have to moan as you sink down on him, his heavy and pulsating balls meeting your chin while your nose nudges the prickliness of his happy trail. if he were awake, you wonder if nagi would be the type to coax you through giving him head — soft whimpers glossed in his lips while those moonshine grey eyes hold your gaze. or would he push your head down on him and fuck your mouth lazily as though it were another hole to fill with his cum.

part of you wants to rouse him right now, with the kiss of true love the fairies said would work on him, but only to hear how much louder he’d cry and moan for you. you want to hear how the Prince would praise you for taking him so well, slurping the early seed from his tip and hollowing your perfect pudgy cheeks as you gargle him down your eager throat. your imagination runs ahead of your actions as you bob your head faster and faster without regard for your lover sleeping soundly above you lewd slurping sounds echo throughout the room as you picture him looking down at you with flushed cheeks and lidded moonlit eyes — coaxing you to take more of him. 

the heat between your thighs returns, an unbearable searing ache pulsating through your clit as blood carrying lust and other happy hormones shoot straight to it. in one swift motion, you shove a single hand past the waistband of your own pants and undergarments to toy with the sensitive bud, smearing whatever remained of his precum and pre-release against your awaiting cunt. your eyes flutter shut at the taste and heaviness of nagi on your tongue, his viscous arousal flowing down your throat in saltine waves. the flavour was addictive and you found yourself bobbing your head faster, and faster — matching it to the pace at which you stroked your own sticky slit.

lavishly, you run your tongue back and forth over the opening of seishiro’s bulbous cockhead, humming happily around his thick shaft when he involuntarily bucks into the hellish fire of your mouth — it makes your heart swell to know that his body is reacting to you and you alone, how it could very well be this way for the rest of your lives. while you hump your own fingers, their tips pruning with how wet you are as you circle your clit, the sleepy beauty’s balls batter your chin as his taut hips thrust upwards instinctively to chase your dripping tongue and mouth.

drool pours from the corners of it, just as you leak against the seat of your panties — your juices hot and viscous while you finger fuck yourself and get off to the sensation of blowing the sleepy prince while he rests. everything is so sloppy, so messy and wet and you can’t help but to spit down on nagi as his dick swells against your tongue, the frothy mixture clinging to the prominent blood flushed veins that sprinkle from the tip down to his base. 

your release sneaks up on you like a silent figure in the night; hiding from the moonlight and a dirty moan slips from between your lips as you let go of your lover with a lewd pop, your jaw aches deliciously and your tongue is sore from running circles over his tip — as is your wrist from being down your pants to bully shapes into your clit but you don’t mind the pain, it’s all worth it to make yourself feel good. to make nagi feel good so you can use him later on, turning him from a prince into a sex doll. dopamine continues to spark across your brain as you switch from sucking to jerking nagi off, keeping the rhythm of your slick palm wrapped around him in tune with the one that rolls your clit between your fingertips and pinches your swollen folds. 

you don’t last much longer, not when you’re able to watch the moonlit prince fall apart above you even when the depths of sleep cling to the fine lines of his soul. the last remaining thread of your sanity snaps before you’re cumming against your own digits, gushing through the gusset of your panties and straight through the layer or your pants — even while you shiver and shake from the force of your own orgasm, you manage to find a the mobility to tap nagi’s cockhead lewdly against your pink tongue, grinning with an open mouth as his own orgasm rips through his unconscious form. 

warm and viscous seed paints a pretty picture against your strawberry tastebuds as it spurts copiously from his ravaged, fully erect cock. even hitting the back of your throat. 

but it’s not enough, it’s still not enough. a fire of desire still burns bright inside of you and nagi is still as hard as a rock in your hand. so you don’t see a point in stopping, not when you still want him and he clearly still wants you. 

in a whirlwind of fabric, you quickly abandon the lower half of your clothes — even though your legs are violently shaking and there’s a fizz in your brain that makes your vision go blurry from your orgasm, you find the strength to clamber into the prince’s lap and straddle him. a pulse of excitement runs through you as your bare ass meet his half dressed thighs and you set your palms flat against his chest to steady yourself above him. you’re barely able to contain the wavering moan that rumbles in the back of your throat as seishiro’s erection jumps against your sluice sex, as if coaxing you to lower yourself down onto him.

without an air of guilt, you do just that; indulging your sleeping lover’s underlying plea as you slip a hand between your temperate bodies to position his creamy cock at your weeping entrance — you run it back and forth over your slit a few times whilst holding back a quivering hiss, letting him dip in and out of your unused hole. you can’t help but squeak adorably when you start to rock your hips down, sucking him in and stretching over the thick circumference of his tip. you even manage to clench down on seishiro, trapping him inside with each inch you manage to take.

your head hangs low and you steady yourself against nagi again; nails forming pink crescent moons against his pearlescent skin because you’re not sure how much of this burn you can take. he’s so big, yet his cock is so helpless against your sticky walls — it’ll take a lot of work just to reach the hilt. “oh, fuck,” you whimper to yourself quietly, not wanting to be caught taking advantage of the kingdom’s slumbering royalty. you try to stablwlisw your breathing, hold onto your sanity by only fucking yourself over his tip because right now… it’s all you can manage. getting used delicious stretch to your pussy and the resistance of your hole as nagi slips into your tightness. 

in order to ground yourself, you press yourself against the moonlit prince until you’re both chest to chest — allowing your body to relax against is as you slide further down his cock. and, with this change in position, you easily dot feather light kisses from the pale skin, unmarked skin of seishiro’s neck up to his jawline — licking the light layer of perspiration that added diamonds to his skin. his pulse is slow, languid under your lips, just as the rise and fall of his chest is. nagi still sound asleep as you bathed his cock in all of your syrupy wetness. eventually, you reach his lips and hardly hesitate in kissing them, lapping over the seam of them with your tongue as if you’re asking for entrance when you don’t really need to.

not when his body is so willing to give into you, even while seishiro rests.

you swear you feel his lips twitch apart against your own, parting specifically for you to pour your withering moans into him and breathe life into his unconscious soul — your tongue licks at his, relishing in the flavour and slight sweetness to his mouth, letting it distract you from the twinge between your thighs as you finally seat yourself on his girth fully; breeders balls nestled comfortably against the curve of your ass. a feeling of content washes over you, feeling the chubbiness of his girth press hotly against your ribbed walls that catch on his prominent veins there. 

panting lightly, a ripple of desire is the next sensation that you feel, experimentally clenching around the prince below you — bottoming out as your cunt drools down on him. somehow, you find the strength in your thighs to lift your hips and thrust back down, a wet slap bouncing off of all four walls in response. it’s insane how tight, warm and wet you are — how thick, heavy and nagi is, constantly pressed up against your g-spot before you’ve really even moved. you splutter and hiccup as you begin the slow bounce of your hips and allow yourself the grace to accommodate for your sleeping lover’s size, his bright red and possibly overstimulated cockhead nudging feverishly against the pleasure spots that decorate your temperate silken walls. 

“…gods,” comes your shaky voice, trapped behind the prison of your teeth in a weak attempt to hold in your moans. “s-seishiro, f-feel so good…” though you speak to no one in particular, using the sound of your own wailing voice to get yourself, you can feel the white-haired royal underneath you buck upwards as though he wants to fuck you back — driven by tired strings of lust and desire as though he’s a puppet on a set of strings for your own pleasure. collapsing forward, you nestle your head underneath his chin so that the only part of your body moving is your hips working up and down on nagi’s pulsating cock at break-neck speeds. in this position, your murky breaths of exertion coast over his pearlescent skin and your eyes grow misty at the perfect angle. your stream of thrusts are constant like a rushing river, allowing his bulbous leaky tip to barrage into your sex and pull squelching, lewd noises from your poor pussy.

you’re already so sensitive, it’d be a miracle if you last much longer riding your lover like this and to your heart’s content. slumped over him, chewing on your chapped lips to hide the debauched noises that slosh over your tongue and are churned up in your mouth with the drool there. it’s pathetic, really, but your mind is too hazy and high on the drug of ecstasy to care. to pacify yourself and the growing fire that burns the butterflies in your tummy, you switch from bouncing on his fat girth to grinding against it, dancing with your partner in a sensual sticky grind where only you are able to lead. every stroke of his cock within your sluice, pulsating walls makes it harder for you to keep quiet or keep still — the bed creaking beneath the weight of your movement becomes a loud wail and harmonises perfectly with the tune or skin slapping on skin and your pathetic bleats of bliss. 

sweat from the exertion of pounding your mound down on the curve of his cock begins to bead at your hairline, pearling in opaque orbs that form your own halo. one that belongs to a fallen angel. it drips down the side of your face onto the prince below you, another way that you mark him, just as your juices do — droplets of it trailing down his shaft, balls and even his ass. if someone were to walk in now, they’d set their sights on an obscene display of sin, their perfect prince defiled by his knight to be, but you don’t care, your mind and exhausted limbs buzzing with wanton. you’ll use him until cum, claim your prize and work your selfish pussy over him until you know every constellation by heart because of how many times you’ve used seishiro to make yourself see stars.

every sensation overwhelms you, the creamy and tackiness to his cock between your slicked up thighs and the pressure of his purpling cockhead as it digs disgustingly against your g-spot in the most perfect of ways because you clench down on him every now and again. static rings loud in your ears that burn with both shame and lechery for taking advantage of your sleeping lover, the notes from the tune your fat pussy pap-pap-papping as it connects with stitchers of nagi’s bare flesh has a tingling sensation spreading under your skin too. even when he bucks instinctively into you, your entire body jolts in response because there’s no greater relief than knowing that you are yearned for… even within the clutches of unconsciousness.

when nagi whimpers in his sleep, you have to bite his shoulder — keeping your wailing mouth occupied even if you’ll leave teeth marks against him in place. someone could hear the way you beg him to fuck you, muffling yourself as you whisper dirty fantasies to yourself and split your swollen nether lips open on his drippy dick. you’re not sure if that is a good or bad thing to want, to be heard.  “f-fuck me sei… p-please my prince,” everything feels so depraved and so wrong, while you whine sweetly against saltine skin. however, you don’t see yourself stopping — not until you can no longer feel your legs from riding him and your cunt aches from cumming so hard. “fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!”

the back and forth of your sluice sex over nagi’s lap tampers with your system, sending orgasmic shockwaves down your spine and happy hormones into your bloodstream. you alternate, once more peeling your soaked thighs away from his and lift your fluttering entrance higher and higher up his shaft until there’s barely an inch of the white haired royal left inside of you. the emptiness makes you miss him, a choked sob weaving its way like a vine through the gaps in your ribs as it claws its way out of your throat. it’s a shuddering noise that you suppress by locking lips with seishiro again, wet on the seam of them as you lift your head to kiss him. 

“i wanna cum, nagi!”

the words are just about to melt in his mouth but…

…but euphoria is quick to slip into your veins like a welcomed chill on a hot day when nagi suddenly rouses from his slumber — following a natural compulsion to snap his hips upwards with a powerful force and filling you in one fluid motion. he’s awake. one of his hands, extremely strong and veiny and firm takes you by surprise as it clamps down on the back of your neck  so that he can keep you in place too. it was almost as if he was chasing the snugness of your oozing, squelchy mound. an incredulous gasp drifts warmly from your mouth and condenses in nagi’s, for a second you worry that he might push you off and yell for help… but recognition registers on the slope of his handsome features. 

he’s awake…how long has seishiro been awake? 

moonlight lashes flutter against your face from your proximity and murky grey eyes, littered with exhaustion between their flecks, light up with a sprinkling of hearts as then open to look at you. slowly but surely their gaze drifts downwards, honing in on the point at which his milky cock repeatedly disappears into your puffy pussy, the glaze of your essence on his rock hard cock and clinging to his pubes put on display. 

groaning hoarsely and deeply, nagi’s freehand shoots down to the bouncing flesh of your ass without a lick of hesitation and pulls you the rest of the way down his pulsing girth. then up again. then back down — giving him all of the control to pummel your pussy to the high heavens. hard and fast. “i thought… thought you wanted to cum,” the moonlit prince mumbles, voice still puppeteered by the last strings of sleep. “don’t make it a hassle by holding back now… fuck your self down on my cock ‘n cum…”

he’s awake… how much of this has seishiro been awake for? 

nagi builds up a formidable momentum inside of you, dragging his seedy tip along your ravaged walls, shocking for someone who had essentially just woken up from a curse of eternal slumber. he doesn’t seem to mind that you’ve been using him like a toy for your own sexual desires, but how could he? not when you’re dousing him in your sweet nectar, slapping your soaked sex down on him and squeezing his aching shaft just like that. how can a man, no less a prince, whine about waking up to such a good fuck?

all you can do is reply with a high pitched squeal, your body jerking and jolting on top of nagi as you struggle to keep up with thrusts. “come now, don’t make me do all of the work,” white starts to froth at the base of his cock, bubbling up while it streaks over your ruined pussy lips and clit. “after all, you started this… took advantage of me while i slept. s’only fair, angel,” he adds nonchalantly and makes you gush unbelievable amounts of arousal at the condescending air about his words.

he’s awake and now seishiro wants you to cum for him.

you do try your very best to do as nagi says, selfishly squeezing down on him and locking his precum bleeding tip inside your gummy walls, but your hips fumble their rhythm as soon as he looks up at you — sweaty hair splayed out in the sheets like an angel, lips parted in both curiosity and awe, cock bulging in your lower stomach. you’re choking the life out of seishiro and he likes it, feeling like he’s been rewarded for just being a pretty prince. 

all you want is for him to make you scream and squirt — your clit smears against his pelvis while you buck down on him feverishly. he barely lets you lift of his erection at this point. “‘m close… s-seishiro, please! c-can’t…”

it’s the first time you’ve spoken his name directly to him since your love-at-first-sight encounter in the woods and it flips a switch in the peaceful prince of the night. “y-yeah you can, angel. of course you can…” with a breathy, almost whiny moan, seishiro uses his newfound energy to assault your cunt with a barrage of wild thrusts. jackhammering into you, jerking you about on his throbbing length, coated in a milky mix of your shared arousals. “had no problem… fixing yourself on my cock before. ‘m sure you can make yourself cum on it now that i’m here to help,” he adds through gritted teeth, never letting up on his incredible speed. “shouldn’t be a hassle.” 

that’s all you really need to hear before you’re thrown into the deep end, the dark abyss of the night. while the ropes in your tummy unravel and unwind, the tune of sinful sex reaches its final crescendo and the world around you fades away as you’re thrown over the edge and temporarily black out — you practically squirt in an aggressive, clear stream and renders you a cum soaked mess in the prince’s lap. he forces your head into the junction between his neck and jaw, utilising his hold on you to help muffle the scream that burns at the sore edges of your voice as you cum for him. practically drowning nagi in everything you have to give. 

as if chasing something, your lover speeds up his thrusts, trying to make sure he isn’t left behind while you cum for him. growls and grunts spill over his lips, nagi’s pink tongue darting out the flavour you’d left on him as he slept. he buries himself deep inside of you, lunging into that one special spot nestled deep within your walls so that he can prolong your release — working hard even though he was just roused from what seemed like an eternal night.

the aftershocks of your high and heavenly spasms of your hole around nagi simply aren’t enough to satisfy him however — whatever remains of an orgasm he had coming fade away like embers of a dying flame while you come down. in fact, before you can even collapse on the white haired royal fully, he uses a strength you were unaware that he possessed to immediately flip you onto your back — manhandling you into the position he desires most. your thighs pushed together, knees pushed into your chest and him… towering over you menacingly.

only now do you realise how… large seishiro is. how much more dominant he is over you. how it may have been a mistake to think you could steal pleasure from him while he slept as a personal reward and not expect consequence. or at least a consequence you might enjoy too. “such a waste,” he comments groggily, pulling his cream soaked cock from its home within your pretty pussy with a hiss. using one hand, nagi grabs at his ravaged shaft and taps it against the swell of your thighs pushed together. “how can you use me like that…and still fail to make me cum? i’ll have to do it myself. what a bother, angel.”

your breath catches in your throat, indicating your surprise. “seishiro…w-wait,” you plead, lips parting in a quiet moan at every squeeze of your flesh and tug of hips to get your body into place. you don’t even know what you’re asking for or why you’re asking him to stop, you still don’t care about the consequences. all you want is for the sleeping beauty above you to fall apart, to hear your name on the tip of his tongue, to feel him cum wherever that may be. “‘m sorry…i-i didn’t know you were awake!”

“don’t care darlin’,” seishiro’s breathy words hang between the pearliness of his teeth, shaggy hair tickling the skin on your calves as he positions them over his shoulders instead of in the air. “don’t r’member much… just my finger gettin’ pricked ‘n then you… using me. on top of me…” his cock makes a home between your plush thighs, pushing back and forth against the flesh to relieve his painfully hard erection. the action itself paints the canvas of your body with remainders of your arousal and essence — thick stringy globs of white forming tracks against soft skin. “f-fuck angel, you put in all this work to make yourself cum using me… now it’s my turn.” 

eyes that mirror the silver light of the moon flutter shut and nagi’s nose judges against your ankle — lips grazing the pointed bone and in their wake leave a trail of inflamed bites from where he leaves his mark on you, hoping that they’ll be present on the morning to remind you of who you belong to. his pink tongue peeks out to lick, loll over and soorje what he nips at, but the wet sensation doesn’t distract from curious finger tips that dance their way down and pinch your arousal soaked, fat folds together. neediness streams into your tone as you whimper out for more and your hips arch up to chase the feeling. 

in response a lazy grin twitches at the corner of your prince’s mouth, playing with the tackiness your cunt leaves against his hand before he spreads it over his bright red tip as lube. “quit squirming angel, s’too much of a bother to keep you pinned down,” seishiro then adjusts his knees on the bed and his hips begin to brutally rut into you, dragging his sloppy length back and forth, back and forth through the makeshift pocket pussy he’s made out of your quivering limbs. his precum loaded tip prods at the softness of your tummy and earns you a symphony of high pitched moans and heaving pants, harmonised with heavy balls slapping wetly against your clit over and over again. to the point where you fear you may be overcome with another orgasm all too soon.

being used like this, it feels humiliating, shame burns like paper held to a flame underneath the surface of your skin and tears begin to sting in your lower lash line as your entire body jolts up the bed — nagi throwing you about like a rag while he plunges his hips against your doughy thighs. his stamina impresses you too, but you find it hard to dwell on how quickly your lover was able to be riled up after rising from the constraints of an all powerful curse. you don’t mind the aching pulse to your untouched pussy when you get to watch nagi hang over you and hungrily hump your shaky legs — his usually kind eyes are swamped with darkness of lust the back of his pupil practically eclipsing the grey colour. 

his head darkens at the roots from how much he’s sweating, droplets crowning his head and running down his back like water on a glass windowpane. he’s a sight to behold, he makes your holes drool and mouth water, the both of you completely wrecked by a little thigh fucking and humping. between his merciless pace and the creaks from the bed, nagi jams a veiny hand between the sensual bump and grind of your bodies to grasp at his thick, temperate shaft — pulling it down to run through the entire length of your slippery before tapping it greedily against your puffy clit and snack between your thighs.

the sweet squeak you release has the prince repeating his action over and over, blood rushing through the purpling veins that spiral down his chubby cock. you’re the perfect sticky little fleshlight for him to fuck, to hold and love, and he hisses, jutting his hips forward in order to chase the euphoria coursing for his veins like the next best drug — all while he pounds your thighs to the starry heavens and back. 

juicy, wet sounds fill the room to the brim, a concert and performance of moans and whimpers to match and accompany nagi pounding away at your thighs, grinding against your sex. the white haired man leaks copious amounts of precum, milky like his hair and loose from his sore and sensitive rouge tip, that can’t stop weeping, oozing. his arousal makes each of his movements easier and more fluid, slipping and sliding between your legs and just grazing your sobbing mound. this way; you’re reminded of the sheet sheer size of your lover from the woods — be throbs, swollen and fat with an oncoming orgasm, with the seed that weighs down his balls that swing with each rut of his hips.

a hearty sob escapes you each time they press against you, dragging over your clit that begs for attention. the visage of your prince above you — flushed at the cheeks ( if they’ve been kissed by the petals of a rose), white brows knitted together st the centre of his forehead while ruby lined lips appear bitten and bruised  — begins to blur from your saltine tears. you can no longer hold back, raw and rough desire washing away your ability to control your body and your voice.

the way you cry wracks your body with the case of the shakes because of the wild whines resounding from deep within seishiro’s hard chest. each sound makes your cunt quiver, your juices darkening the sheets below and clinging to his snow while pubes, all the while, the prince ravishes you pulling you apart molecule by molecule before he pieces you back together with just a lazy shape drawn against your hardening clit. 

“w-what a waste of tears, i thought you wanted to use me,” nagi stutters out, breath condescending against your ankles. it makes him pulse between your thighs, knowing that he’s the one able to reduce you to a mess of cum and tears — even if you did half the work for him while he slept soundly. the fact that you threaten to break, still holding onto your inhibitions and desperate moans, only serves to make home rut his creamy cock against you faster. “you should give it up angel, m-much less of a hassle if you give into me.”

and with that, seishiro leans down to kiss you, his swiftness akin to a starved man. he manhandles your thighs to sit either side of his unfairly slender waist, granting him the room to swoop down until you’re chest to chest — his wide, large frame hiding your shaky one away from the world underneath him as his teeth sink into your bottom lip. he licks into your mouth as you open up with a shy mewl, devious tongue wrapping itself around your own as he tastes himself there. “thank you for waking me up, angel,” spit slings between your eager mouths, movements a little out of sync and languid since they’re so driven by a raw passion that simmers underneath the sleepy fog clouding the prince’s brain. “wakin’ me up to do this,”

he settles back on his haunches after coming up for air, laughing tiredly at the pout on your lips from the loss of contact. 

but now that you’re spread eagle with your cunt drooling openly on the bed and glistening under the moon’s light — the white haired royal angles his hips just right, shuddering from head to toe as his sex soiled girth slots between your swollen folds perfectly. his bulbous tip peeks out against your clit and he circles it against you, desperate to hear you wail like the wind again. “feels so good against you, s’not fair how good you feel,” he says under his stuttering breath, using a thumb and forefinger to spread your pussy lips apart — groaning at the strings of clear slick that tie them together. ““later on, when i’ve got more energy, i’m going to fuck this pretty hole. make sure i really have my turn.” nagi promises and swallows thickly at the raunchy sight of you, viscous drops of your treacle like nectar running over your slit and down to your puckered asshole.

you’re grateful for his touch, the friction you’re about to receive… but you miss seishiro’s lips and his tongue so deep in your mouth he might as well have been fucking it too. why do you miss those luscious lips? because they keep you quiet, muffle your embarrassingly high moans and withering screams of pleasure, cover up your glass shattering cries that accompany your teary face. he’s so heavy and raw against you, grinding his shaft that shoots tiny spirts of precum onto your cunt while you match his rhythm — it’s a wonder why you’re crying right now. not to mention the rounds of overstimulation he’s put you through. 

“you were so quiet before, angel, what happened?” a condescending tone fills out the weight in nagi’s voice, punctuated by the harsh lunges of his hips forwards as he smothers his girth in the juicy offerings from your folds. part of the prince wants to selfishly keep you writhing against his hot and heavy dick for all of eternity, adoring the way you bleat and cry for him through bleary Bambi eyes. hes sure you wouldn’t mind it either, but he’s too far gone to keep edging you both forever. “does it feel that good? so fucking good that you can’t help but whine and whimper for me… s’too much of hassle to hold back, angel. go one, cry pretty f’me, pretty girl…”

you burst into tears, letting your emotions overwhelm you. “feels so, so good, my prince,” you slur back as that familiar twinge of pleasure begins to rapidly mount within your tummy once more — throwing an avid, heated look his way. “s-sei, ‘m close,” one of your shaky hands take purchase in the silvery roots of his hair while the other grasps him shoulder so that you have the leverage to grind into him — rocking your hips in a fluid motion like a boat on rapid waves. sanity slips away from you under nagi, his energy completely unmatched as you struggle to keep up with his pace. the way he chases your sweltering, souse sex with the speed of the kingdom’s finest race horse. he pushes forward when you pull back and it goes both ways — one moment can’t happen without the other. 

nagi simpers above you, smirking lazily as he pushes back the sweaty snowy white roots of his hair — drinking in the sight of you. “that so? you’re close? wanna feel it’s, s’too much effort to have you hold it…not when you sound so wet…” both of you move with increased vigour the closer you get to cloud nine, seishiro cooing to you like over the crude sound of your sexes slipping over each other. “…y’should be embarrassed, yanno,” he presses against you, whimpering happily at the feeling of your breasts bouncing against his chest with each thrust, his breath hot against the tips of your ears and weakly grinds against you clit now — his own orgasm on the horizon.  “taking advantage of me like that. using me. s’naughty princess. such a hassle.” 

he tucks his face against your neck, teeth grazing over the skin while he listens out for your hiccuped sobs and heaving chest — you’re so loud when you’re close and it pleases nagi. he can’t stop tapping your clit and nipping at your flesh — desperate to hear how much louder you can get without holding back. a gargled gasp from you has his cock twitching and threatening to burst with release, while the condescending gripes that vibrate in his chest shoot straight to you’re swollen clit. 

listening to you cry and settling his greyed gaze on your puffy eyes is more than enough for nagi to cum, the string of his own sanity snapping as you scream for him. “you look like you’re about to cum, angel,” he purrs lowly, panting between each word. “mmmh, don’t you think i deserve to go first? fuuuuck i’m close…so close. do you want it inside? i won’t ruin the bed that way… wont need to clean it up…” seishiro rambles over the spit pooling pathetically on his tongue, bucking faster and harder against your slippery cunt with each syllable he manages to get out. “…wanna put it inside you as you cum.” 

you barely have it in you to respond and you can hardly make sense of it all, brain running a mile a minute. the feeling of your orgasm twists in your lower stomach, stacking painfully in your pelvis at a rapid pace you can’t even comprehend. “yes…! want it inside, gods yes!” you sigh out, voice rising several octaves. “want you inside!”

though it’s entirely selfish of you to make demands in the moment, after how you so sinfully used the sleeping prince as your prize — nagi relents, slipping the delicious curve of his cock past your puckered, fluttering entrance just as he reaches his peak. it makes him shake as though the gods have stepped down from the heavens and set foot on earth and he really can’t help it, how much he cums. there's so much of it, white hot seed that spews into you hotly, so pent up from all the pleasure you’d given him while he slept. his heavy load pulses against your sensitive, ribbed walls and sticks — lubing up your insides while he pushes his milky cock deeper into your bare cunt. 

“f-fuck!” the white haired prince curses loud enough to rouse his loyal subjects within a ten mile radius with one final swing of his hips. “f-fuck angel… gods!”  strings of opaque seed tie the veins on his shaft to your precious hole and as he twitches with the last spurts of his orgasm — your own high is triggered.

white flashes behind your eyes and the dam breaks for the third and final time — your release trickles out of you in small waves and you let out a borderline pornographic moan. nagi hums happily at the feeling of you squirting around him, Essen e clinging to his pubic hair too. 

for a second or two, seishiro relishes in the way you convulse around him, giving you a moment to calm down while he pacifies your high pitched squeals with gentle kisses along the side of your head. you’re still quivering when he collapses on top of you exhausted — neither of you having the capacity to speak properly. “d-don’t move… jus’ lay here with me,” he murmurs, tripping on his words. “‘m tired… don’t wanna move,”

you hardly have the strength to deny seishiro or push him off, snuggling into him as the pair of you roll onto your sides. “you’re tired… you almost slept for an eternity!” a laugh escapes you in reply.

“and guess who woke me up and made me work to cum. s’on you not me. fair is fair.” nagi quips back, burying his face into your neck.

you suppose that he has a point, nuzzling him from below as the two of you drift off without the fear of never waking up, of succumbing to lifelong sleep  — content, happy and fucked out by your sleeping beauty.

the end.

꒰ end. — all rights reserved © tteokdoroki 2024. do not copy, repost, translate, feed into ai & recommend elsewhere.

[froggiewrites]

Hii, I hope you're doing well, if not I'll hope things will go better!

I really liked your writing like it's so good!!

I have an sfw request about Ace.

So basically reader is feeling really sick recently so they spend a lot of time with Marco who gives them advices and all, and Ace gets jealous about this cause he thinks that reader is interested in Marco so one day when he's with the both of them he just says something like "oh I wouldn't want to be the third wheel" like something that clearly shows that he thought the two of them were now a couple and when he learns that they're not he immediately confess to reader?

I really hope it's not too precise, if you want to change things feel free to since you're the artist here, and I hope you understood (English isn't my first language) thank you so much for the other stories!

Take care, bye bye!

Hi, thank you so much for your well wishes and your request! Sorry this took so long, I burned myself out a little bit with the Halloween event and it took me a little time to get back into the swing of things. This one is short and sweet, and I hope you like it!

Third Wheeling It

Pairing: Ace x Reader

SFW

Summary: You've been spending a lot of time down in the clinic with Marco recently, and Ace gets the wrong idea. Warnings: Fluff, Misunderstandings, Very Little Hurt/Lots of Comfort, Idiots in Love Word Count: 1.6k

You’re convinced you’re never going to feel normal again. You have a headache you just can’t shake, and a fatigue down to your bones. You haven’t been able to shake whatever it is, no matter how much you rest.

“Are you really sure I just need to take it easy? It’s been weeks.”

Marco gives you a sympathetic look. “I know, but you really do just need time. You burned yourself out. Recovering from that takes a while.” He had been telling you that since you first started making regular visits to his office a couple weeks ago. You had spent a majority of the last week curled up in one of the beds in the clinic, pretending to rest but really just bothering Marco to entertain yourself. You suppose it was rest, in a way, but you liked to pretend you were somehow tricking him, getting away with something. It made you feel less helpless, and helped ease the ache of missing your normal routine.

You throw yourself down on the cot you had claimed for your own. “But I want to be better now.”

He laughs. “Don’t we all. If desire were all it took, I would be out of a job.”

“You could still fight. You don’t need to be a doctor to be a pirate.”

“True enough. But my point still stands: if our bodies listened to what we wanted there would be no need for doctors. Sometimes there really is no magic solution other than time.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.” He passes by your cot, ruffling your hair light as he walks past. “But you’ll pull through.”

“Will you sit with me? We can suffer together.”

“I have work to do,” he says, sitting on the edge of your cot with a slight smile anyway. “And I wouldn’t really call hanging out with you suffering.”

You smile sleepily. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“You need to raise your standards.”

“My standards are sky high, thank you very much.”

“Oh yeah? What are they, then?”

“One, handsome. Two, nice to me. Three, end of list.”

He laughs. “God, the bar is in the ground for you, huh? Let me correct that for you: three, be Portgas D. Ace.”

You blush. “That–I–uh. Shut up!”

Marco is still laughing at you when you hear a throat clear in the doorway. You both look up to see the man you were just speaking of leaning against the doorframe, his eyes avoiding yours, a slight frown on his lips. “Sorry, I just–I heard you were down here again, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

You smile at him, bright and earnest. “I’m doing alright, I guess. As well as I can be.”

Marco stands, moving away from your bed and back to his desk, more than willing to let Ace take his place at your sickbed. “They’re fine, really. They just hate listening to me.”

“I’d like listening to you if you had better things to say.”

“Ouch!” He puts a hand over his chest. “I’m just doing my job here!”

As you both giggle with each other, Marco trying to distract you and you trying to let him, you both miss Ace shifting uncomfortably and biting his lip. However, once you’ve come back down, you don’t miss the way he’s looking at you, a look far too intense to dismiss. It’s strange, somewhere half between hurt and resignation. Something flashes in his eyes, something pained, but before you can ask him what’s wrong he’s already turned his back. “I’ll leave you two to hang out. I wouldn’t want to interrupt.”

“You’re leaving already?” You can’t leave the sorrow out of your voice or the pout off of your face. “But I’ve missed you.” And you had, really. Spending most of your time down here with Marco means you’ve barely spent any time at all with Ace these past few weeks. You had missed everything about him, from his smile to his laugh to his loud, obnoxious snores when he passed out halfway through dinner. 

His shoulders stiffen. His voice is tight when he speaks again. “You shouldn’t say things like that. You could give a guy the wrong idea.”

You sit up, wincing but forcing yourself through the discomfort. “What kind of wrong idea?”

“The idea that you might be…interested.”

“That sounds like the right idea, actually.”

He whips around, his face painted with hurt. “That isn’t funny.”

“Who’s joking?”

“I…really. This isn’t…this is cruel. Having to third wheel with you two is hard enough without…”

Marco finally speaks up, his voice filled with confusion. “Third wheel?”

“Yeah, watching you two get closer while I have to pretend I’m fine is hard enough, you guys don’t need to rub it in my face.” He doesn’t sound angry, really, just defeated and pained. “I’m trying to be happy for you, you don’t need to make it harder than it already is.”

You furrow your brow. “Happy for us?”

Marco can’t help the surprised bark of a laugh that leaves him. “You think we’re dating?”

Ace pauses. “You…aren’t?”

“Hell no!”

“Absolutely not!”

You and Marco both instantly refute the claim, perhaps a little more harshly than necessary.

Ace lights up like the sun. “You mean it?”

“Of course we mean it!” You cry.

“Why wouldn’t we mean it?” Marco chuckles, voice filled with the sort of weary but unwavering affection Ace tends to bring out in people. 

“Will you go out with me?” Ace stares at you with wide, pleading eyes, already moving to beg on his hands and knees, as though he expects rejection.

“You aren’t really my type,” Marco quips with a laugh, before closing the curtain to give you two some privacy.

It’s your turn to be shocked, heart beating out of your chest and cheeks flushing. “You–I–What?”

He grins, on his knees in front of you, taking a hand in his. “I like you, a lot. Will you go out with me?”

“This is so sudden.” You want to say yes, of course. Why wouldn’t you? But you weren’t expecting such a confession today, and your head is still pounding, and you can’t quite get over the thought that Marco is listening right behind the curtain. You know that Ace doesn’t care about any of those things, blind to anything but his goal in any situation, but you could never be so headstrong, so carefree. Could you?

“I’ve liked you from the moment I saw you.” His smile is growing ever wider, his eyes filling with hope. “I thought I had lost my chance, and I will absolutely never take that risk again. Will you be mine? Or, I guess, could I be yours?”

Your cheeks are on fire, and your brain is melting, but your mouth moves despite yourself. “Yes,” you hear yourself say.

You’re pinned to the bed as he throws himself at you, laughing joyously. “Yes? Oh my god, yes!” He tucks his face into your neck, and you can feel his smile. “I never thought it’d be a yes.”

“How could it be anything else?” Your voice is soft, more vulnerable than you’d like. But you would never understand how he could expect anything less than success. You don’t know how anyone could speak to Ace for longer than five minutes and not fall madly and deeply in love with everything about him: his smile, his humor, his confidence. He shines like the sun, and you don’t know how anyone could ever resist basking in his warmth for as long as they can.

“Well up until a couple minutes ago I thought you were in love with Marco.”

You laugh. “I’ve been sick, Ace. He’s a doctor.”

He doesn’t respond, and you can see a bit of pink at the tips of his ears. “How was I supposed to know?”

“You could have asked.”

“You should listen to them,” Marco calls from behind the curtain. “This was entirely self-inflicted.”

“Shut up!” He finally leaves your neck just to shout at Marco, cheeks hot. “Would you have asked?”

“Yes. I’m a grown man. I can handle a tough conversation.”

“Well–I–Shut up!”

Marco laughs, and you can hear the door slam shut behind him. Ace buries himself in your neck again, his strong arms pulling around you even tighter, and you can’t help but smile. He seems so delicate like this, so unlike his usual self, and you can’t help but admire him. He’s so charming even now, so vulnerable and small. “I would have been too nervous to ask too,” you quietly reassure him. “And it doesn’t matter anyway, because you said it.”

He smiles against your skin. “I did say it,” he mumbles. “And you accepted.”

“I did.”

“I really like you.”

“I really like you, too.”

You don’t have a moment to react before his lips are on yours, slightly chapped and hesitant. You imagine this is what sunlight tastes like, warm and inviting. His hand rests on your cheek, thumb brushing lightly against your skin. He’s smiling as he pulls away. “And now I can do that whenever I want.”

You grin. “You can. You’re encouraged, even.”

And so he kisses you again. Marco leaves you too alone for as long as he can justify to himself, and when he finally interrupts you two again you find yourself more than ready to leave the clinic again, a warm hand intertwined with yours and your headache nearly entirely gone.

Tag List: @pandora-writes-one-piece

[ssprayberrythings]

living in oblivion | LS2

logan sargeant x female!reader, oscar piastri x platonic!reader

warnings: none just two people oblivious to their feelings for one another

note: im obviously not someone who works for a f1 team so i have no idea how reading the data actually works but this is a piece of fiction so just go with it lol

special mention to @whydowesleepeachnight for this idea! sorry it took me so long to get it out to the world, i hope it lives up to the idea you gave to me (:

word count: 4k

masterlist | taglist

You were currently at the first race of the new season, supporting Oscar. You and Oscar had been best friends since you were 7 and Oscar was 8. The two of you met at summer camp where you spent 6 weeks together, getting to know everything about each other. 

When time came to say goodbye, you had promised each other you’d call and email (through your parents of course). By some miracle, you never lost touch and your friendship only got stronger the older you got. 

When Oscar started his journey towards racing and he shared with you his goal was to be an F1 driver, you showed him nothing but encouragement and support. You celebrated all of his successes and achievements. 

When he met Lily his girlfriend, you were beyond happy, seeing your best friend happy and in love. It also helped that you and Lily got along instantly and she became one of your closest friends. 

You were brought back to reality when Lily called your name 

“Sorry, what was that?” You asked the girl 

She laughed “I just asked if you had seen him yet today. We could go pop in before he has to start getting ready for the race” she said again smiling at you. 

“Oh yeah, let’s go!” You nodded, you enjoyed getting to see him before the race and you knew Lily did too, especially with how busy he usually was after a race.

As you and Lily walked through the paddock towards the McLaren hospitality, you passed Lando. 

“Hey if you’re looking for Oscar, he’s outside of the William’s hospitality talking with Alex” Lando told you two smiling before continuing his walk wherever he was initially going.

You and Lily offered him a thanks and continued walking till you reached your destination and sure enough there was Oscar with Alex but there was another driver with them, Logan Sargeant. You felt your heart skip a beat. 

Being best friends with Oscar, you obviously knew Logan and there had been plenty of times when you would hang out with Oscar that you also hung out with Logan.

As the three of you got older, you grew up and you couldn’t deny the attraction you felt towards Logan. The blue eyes and blonde hair got you. 

As you approached the group, Oscar noticed you and Lily

“Hey! What are you doing here?” He asked bringing his girlfriend in for a side hug and offering you a smile 

“We just wanted to see you before the race started” she told him 

“And wish you luck” you added finding your voice, hoping the nerves weren’t noticeable. 

Oscar just smiled “Thanks” he told you.

“Lily you know Logan and Alex. Y/N this is Alex and you know Logan” Oscar introduced you to the other William’s driver 

“Nice to meet you” you told Alex who smiled at you 

“Hi Logan” you said politely trying to stay as cool and calm as you could 

“Hey Y/N!” Logan said, offering you a smile which you returned, doing your best not to blush.

The five of you spoke a bit longer before the three drivers had to go and get ready.

You and Lily said goodbye to the William’s boys as they walked into their hospitality, then you walked a bit away, to give the couple a moment before the two of you walked back to where you initially were. 

When Lily joined you again, you started walking back 

“So Logan’s pretty cute” Lily said out of the blue 

“Lily! You have a boyfriend” you said looking at her to which she rolled her eyes 

“Not for me you goof” she said “For you” she finished 

If you had been drinking anything, you would’ve probably spit it out at her words 

“What is that supposed to mean? I don’t like Logan” you said quickly which earned a look from your friend 

“Judging by the blush on your face at the mention of him and how defensive you just got I’d say that’s not the total truth” she said matter of factly. 

You bit the inside of your cheek, not sure what to say 

“And now I know from the silence, how right I am” she said smirking which earned a groan from you. She was so observant, it was annoying at times. 

“Okay yes Logan is cute and yes I may or may not be attracted to him” you told her

“But it’s not a big deal and I don’t want to make it a big deal” you told her,

She nodded appearing to be lost in thought.

“Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no” you told her. You had been friends with the girl long enough now to know when she was planning something 

“You don’t even know what I was gonna say” she said 

“I don’t care, I could tell you were planning something I would’ve disagreed with” you explained as you reached your destination. 

“Lils can we just drop it for now? I want to enjoy our time here and just cheer on Oscar” you asked the girl 

She sighed “Fine but we aren’t done talking about this” she told you before smiling at you.

You sighed, the race had bought you a bit more time from having this conversation with the girl. 

-

Since that moment with Lily, things only got worse and it got harder to hide your attraction towards Logan whenever you were near him. 

Lily had told Oscar which you assumed she would and the two of them were relentless in “accidentally” having you and Logan be near eachother. 

When Lily wasn’t around, Oscar on his own wasn’t any better.

He would playfully pick on you for your crush to the point where you were certain Logan definitely had to have known of your crush by now or atleast suspected something. 

Now it was time for the Miami Grand Prix which was a big deal for Logan as it was his home race. 

You weren’t going to come but Oscar had insisted you had to be there, his exact words were “to see your boy in his element” even though Logan wasn’t yours.

Fortunately you couldn’t argue with him cause deep down you wanted to be there. 

You had gotten in a few hours earlier than you had told Oscar because you wanted to surprise Oscar at the track.

It was media day so you knew he’d be around somewhere and he had already given you your friends & family pass so you had a way in. 

You took an Uber over and walked in no problem. As you walked to McLaren’s hospitality you passed Lando and Max, 

“Hey Y/N! Oscar didn’t say you’d be here today” Lando smiled giving you a quick hug 

“Yeah I thought I’d surprise him” you told him 

“Oh well, have fun doing that” he chuckled before you said your goodbyes and parted ways. 

You walked past William’s hospitality, not noticing Logan and Alex filming some media content.

Logan recognized you immediately but you were too far for him to call your name plus he was in the middle of something 

“Bro did you hear me?” Alex asked as the camera recorded them “You just got distracted” he laughed at his teammate 

“Oh sorry” Logan awkwardly laughed before turning his attention to Alex and the work they were doing. 

The camera that was on them had caught the whole interaction and if someone had to describe the look on Logan’s face when he spotted you, they’d say it was someone who was in complete awe.

That’s the effect you had on him, you just didn’t know it. 

You made it to McLaren just as Oscar was walking out 

“Surprise” you said when your eyes met causing you to laugh, you wanted to do a bit more but the timing didn’t allow for that. 

Oscar smiled widely and gave you a bear hug when he was off the steps “I’m so happy you’re here” he exclaimed, you smiled at him. 

You ended up spending your day around McLaren while Oscar did his media duties. You had brought your iPad so you did some work to pass the time. 

When he was done for the day, he found you in his drivers room, you had dozed off with your head leaning against the wall, your iPad discarded on the couch next to you and you were hugging your legs to your chest. 

He quickly snapped a photo of you like this, remembering to use that when your birthday rolled around, then he walked over to wake you up 

“Sleeping beauty, it’s time to go” he said chuckling slightly shaking you gently, you must not have been in a deep sleep cause you woke up almost right away 

“Shit sorry, I think the travelling just crept up on me” you said stretching your legs and arms, rubbing your eyes to wake you up 

“All good, I was coming to get you so we could head out” he told you walking over to pick up his backpack.

You got up, grabbing your iPad closing the case and putting it back in your tote bag. 

“Sounds good” you said. The two of you made your way out of the building before going to the parking lot. 

“You know Logan asked where you were today” Oscar told you casually “He said he saw you on your way to McLaren earlier but was too busy at the moment to say hello” he finished 

“Oh I feel bad, I should’ve went and said hi” you said biting your lip out of habit.

Even if you liked Logan, you weren’t the type of person to avoid him because of it, at the end of the day you still considered him a friend. 

“I think he’s still around, you could pop in, I'll wait for you in the car” he offered 

“Yeah, okay, I’ll be quick, thanks Osc” you smiled at him before picking up the pace and walking to William’s. 

-

When you got there, Alex was leaving with Lily his girlfriend

“Hey Alex, is Logan in there?” You asked him 

He nodded “Yeah, he is, maybe he’ll listen to you about leaving. He keeps looking at the data from the previous races so he knows what to improve on for this race” Alex told you 

You frowned,

“Oh, okay yeah I’ll see what I can do” you told him before offering him and Lily a small smile, walking around them going inside to Logan’s driver room. 

You knocked on the door

“Come in” you heard Logan’s voice on the other side of the door, you opened the door 

“Hey stranger” you joked offering him a smile 

“Oh hey” Logan said his mood picking up from seeing you

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

You walked in “Oscar told me you were asking about me so I thought I’d come say hi incase I don’t see you before the race” you told him smiling which he returned. 

It was obvious to anyone but the two of you that you had a mutual interest in each other. 

“Oh, that’s nice of you” he replied 

You weren’t sure what else to say but then you remembered what Alex told you, 

“Alex tells me you’re refusing to leave, something about looking at data” you said casually walking over to the couch he was sitting on, sitting next to him.

Sure enough he had an iPad open on his lap with data pulled up. 

“I just want to make sure I do a good job at this race, it’s a big deal, I want to make everyone proud” he shared with you 

You nodded understanding where he was coming from “Logan you’re a good driver and everyone is already proud of you, regardless of how you do” you told him trying to reassure him 

“Plus you can only reread the data so many times, the information is still the same” you continued

“You know what you’re doing and when the time comes to be behind the wheel, your instincts will take over” you finished, trying to make him feel better.  

He looked over at you, he looked tired but he nodded his head acknowledging what you had said 

“C’mon, we’ll give you a ride back to the hotel” you told him nicely, he thanked you and closed the iPad which you took from him. 

“What are you doing?” He asked confused 

“I don’t trust you wont secretly try and steal a couple glances in the car” you said putting the iPad in your bag. He still looked confused and a bit apprehensive

“Don’t worry I won’t go sharing secrets to your opposing teams” you joked, not earning a laugh from Logan you stopped joking, 

“Okay how about you come with me back to my room, we can order some food, you can give your eyes a break from the screen and then together we can look it over some more” you offered. 

You realized what this meant and what it could’ve implied but you just wanted to help out your friend. 

After a moment of silence he agreed and then the two of you made your way out of the building, meeting up with Oscar in the parking lot 

“That was not quick” he told you when you got in the passenger seat and Logan in the back 

“What were you doing?” He asked curisouly

“Don’t worry about it, we just got caught up talking” you told him 

“Now can we leave? I’m hungry” you changed the subject, knowing Oscar would keep pushing.

He sighed and started the car, driving to the hotel. When you got there, you made your way to the elevator, Logan following. 

Oscar stayed in the lobby, seeing some of the other drivers and choosing to chat with them before heading up to his room 

“What’s up with those two?” Lando asked seeing you and Logan together 

“I don’t know, I’m hoping they finally confessed their feelings” Oscar said “Not sure how much more of this oblivion I can take” he said drastically 

“Maybe they’re spending the night together” Lando said wiggling his eyebrows to indicate what he was referring to 

“Oh ew, I don’t want to think of that, she’s like a sister to me” Oscar said groaning, even though in the back of his mind, he knew it could be a possibility. 

-

Meanwhile back in your hotel room, you and Logan had ordered room service and made yourselves comfortable on the couch.

You put something on the TV to fill the silence and pass the time while you waited for your food.

You eventually pulled the iPad back out and opened it, looking at the data while Logan just sat silently next to you.

You had always enjoyed stats and reading data however this was a different kind of data you didn’t fully understand. 

Eventually there was a knock on the door, your food. “I’ll get it” he told you standing up and getting the food, being sure to thank the gentleman that brought it. 

Logan came and sat on the couch putting your food on the coffee table infront of him. You put the iPad down, wanting to eat instead of looking at things you didn’t understand. 

“Do you think there’s anything I can improve on?” he asked after sometime passed

You looked at him, he looked so sincere right in this moment. 

“The only thing I found was a lot of numbers and words that I don’t fully understand however I’m going to assume because they repeat themselves it’s an indicator you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to” you told him 

“You’d think you were a good driver or something” you joked nudging his shoulder, causing a slight chuckle to leave him. 

There was a comfortable silence that fell upon you as you continued to eat your food. 

“Thank you” Logan spoke after some time passed. He had finished his food and was now looking at you 

You turned to meet his eyes “It was nothing but you’re welcome” you smiled. Damn he loved seeing your smile 

“Can I ask you something?” He asked sounding slightly nervous which caused you to swallow a lump in your thought. This could be related to anything. 

“Sure” you said trying to sound as casual as you could 

“Would it be okay if I kissed you” he asked softly looking in your eyes. 

You thought your ears might’ve been deceiving you,

‘did he just ask if he could kiss me’, you thought to yourself. 

Becoming aware of your silence, you slowly nodded “That would definitely be okay” you told him as he moved closer. 

Suddenly you didn’t know what to do, it was as if you had never been kissed before. He slowly leaned in, his one hand on the side of your face. 

You leaned into his embrace and before you knew it his lips were on yours, you instinctively kissed back.

The way your lips fit perfectly together, you would think they were two puzzle pieces placed together. 

Eventually you both had to pull away but Logan didn’t pull away fully, he rested his forehead on yours, his eyes closed

“I’ve been wanting to do that for way too long” he confessed. 

You were taken back, you never thought he felt the same “I could say the same thing” you chuckled. 

He pulled away opening his eyes looking at you “We were so oblivious” he joked which brought a giggle out of you.

After that you cleaned up your food, you let Logan read over the data a bit more, this time he explained what everything meant to you then eventually you put the iPad back in your bag and went to cuddle on your bed. 

“I know I should go but I don’t want to leave you” Logan told you while your head rested on his chest. 

You looked up at him “You could spend the night” you suggested then realized what that may have implied

“Not like that, just so than you don’t have to leave” you added a blush coming to your face as Logan chuckled slightly. 

“Don’t worry I knew what you meant” he reassured you 

“But if you’re offering, I’m fine with staying” he smiled “ill leave in the morning to quickly stop at my room to clean up” you nodded then pushed yourself up to go get and get changed. 

That night you and Logan fell asleep cuddled up next to each other with your head nuzzled between his shoulder and his neck meanwhile his arm was tightly around you keeping you close. 

-

The following morning, you were awoken to knocking on your door, relatively loud knocking. You groaned and cuddled closer to Logan who was still asleep. 

When the knocking didn’t stop, you begrudgingly got out of Logan’s embrace and made your way to the door, opening it and seeing Oscar standing there

“Oscar what do you want so urgently, I was sleeping” you said still half asleep 

Before Oscar could answer, Logan appeared rubbing some sleep out of his eyes 

“Dude you knock really loudly” he said before going into the washroom, leaving a stunned Oscar and a slightly blushing you. 

“You were saying” You reminded Oscar who was still shocked at seeing Logan in your room. 

“No no doesn’t matter now” he said “I believe you have something to tell me” he looked at you

You shrugged deciding to be chill about it, knowing it would drive Oscar mad 

“Nope, nothing to say” you said pretending to think, while Logan exited the washroom seeming more awake this time 

“Logan is there anything to tell Oscar?? He seems to think there is” you informed Logan of the topic of conversation. 

Logan picking up on what you were doing, shook his head,

“No I don’t believe so” he said wrapping his arm around your shoulders as if this was a normal occurrence. 

Oscar was still shook and clearly speechless from his lack of words 

“You’re both going to drive me mental” he finally said “Okay well whatever this is” he said referring to you and Logan 

“I wish you the best and also I was coming to ask if you wanted to join us for breakfast but I’ll think I’ll just leave you be” he finished 

“Thanks Osc” you told him smiling at him, before he said goodbye and Logan shut the door. 

“Back to bed” you said turning to go back to the bed but before you could do so Logan gently grabbed your wrist and turned you, bringing you closer to him 

“First a kiss” he said before leaning down and kissing you.

You smiled in the kiss, kissing him back. 

-

That race in Miami ended up being one of Logan’s best, he finished in P7 which earned the team some points and was an overall great showcase of his driving abilities. 

When the race was over and he found you, he engulfed you in a massive hug 

“Logan that was so good, I know you didn’t get on the podium but I am so proud of you” you told him hugging him back 

“I don’t care, that was one of the best races I’ve had in awhile and I’m so glad you were here to watch it” he explained pulling away smiling proudly

 “You must bring me good luck” he smirked tucking a stand of your hair behind your ear

“Guess that means you can’t miss a race” you chuckled before someone called his name telling you he had to go do his after race duties 

“I’ll see you around” he told you, you nodded your head and decided to lean up and leave a kiss on his cheek

“I’ll be here” you told him as he blushed from your kiss before walking away. 

You were so happy that things had worked out for you when it came to Logan. You couldn’t wait to catch Lily up with all the details even though you were sure Oscar had already done so.

You laughed to yourself thinking about his reaction before deciding to go find your best friend and congratulate him on his podium finish, he had gotten P3. 

When you found him, you gave him a big hug “Osc I’m so proud of you!” You exclaimed genuinely happy for your friend. 

He hugged you back “Thanks Y/N” then pulled away 

“Did you see Logan? P7 is good” he asked smirking at you while you rolled your eyes playfully 

“Yeah I already saw him, gave him a reward for doing so well” you raised your eyebrows at Oscar who groaned 

“Oh ew I didn’t need to know that” he said making you laugh 

“Slow down, I didn’t say what, get your head out of the gutter” you exclaimed pretending to act offended before laughing 

“I just gave him a kiss on the cheek if you must know” you told Oscar 

“So I guess this means you finally told him about your crush?” He asked already knowing the answer 

You nodded smiling at your best friend who mirrored your smile

“I’m happy for you two, seriously” he told you pulling you into a side hug “Now we can go on double dates” he said excitedly which you chuckled at 

“Yeah but are you sure you can handle the both of us picking on you especially when you say things like thongs instead of flip flops” you looked up at him 

He rolled his eyes “I take it back, im not happy anymore” he said even though you knew he was joking “And stop hating on my choice of words, it’s what I know” he groaned which earned a chuckle from you. 

“Whatever you say Osc” you patted his chest before pulling out of his embrace

“Now if you don’t mind I’m gonna go find my favourite American and give him a proper reward for doing well” you told him smirking as he acted grossed out 

“Ahhh please keep those details to yourself, I don’t want to know about them” he said which you laughed at before turning away and going to find Logan so you could celebrate properly. 

-

taglist: @namgification @itsyagirlmeee @asparklysoul @bwormie @meadhbhcavanagh @talksoprettyjjx & @ari-nicole

I've had this written in my notes for so long I just wasn't sure If I was ready to post it but I guess now is better than later!!

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

I Think I Like This Little Life

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Princess!Reader

Word Count: ~2.6k

Warnings: fluff and angst

Summary: You’re getting too comfortable in the life you’ve built for yourself that you make a terrible mistake, one that might make you leave it sooner than you plan to. Three rules. That’s it. Now, you’ve broken one.

Play Pretend Masterlist

Square Filled: eye color for @mfbingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are greatly appreciated <3

x

Then

The citizens of Yacleira walk around the town’s square either buying food for their families or clothing for their children. Kids run around in laughter without a care as to who they might be bothering. Families roam about and you lean against the balcony railing with a sigh. Oh, how you wish to have what they have. Couples seem so in love with each other, content to live their lives with the love of their life and children.

You wish that could be you but you know that as long as you stay Princess of Yacleira, you can’t ever have that. You’re destined to marry a prince you don’t even love. He’s nice and kind to his people but there is no spark there. You want a love so passionate and consuming that it takes over your entire life. You want someone to love you because they want to, not because they have to. You want to be someone’s first choice. You want to feel a sense of adventure because you don’t get it here.

You’re stuck in this castle all day and night and if you leave, you have to have an array of bodyguards at your side. Grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but you’d rather take the life of a commoner than the life of a Princess. Someone points to you from the town square and waves enthusiastically, and you wave back politely.

“So, this is where you disappeared to.”

You don’t have to turn to know who is behind you.

“I needed to get away. All those people telling me how great I am gets exhausting.” You turn to face Benjamin, your trusted bodyguard. “Mother doesn’t understand.”

“I understand. I can see how this entire thing is stressing you out when it shouldn’t.” He joins your side by the railing and you both look at the town’s square below. “I see how you look at them. You want to be them.”

“Tell me what I should do. I do not want this. I do not love Henry. I care about my country and I want what is best for it but not at the expense of my happiness.”

“I might be able to help with that.”

“How?”

“I have watched over you since you were born. I want nothing more than to help you become as happy as you can be. I can get you out.”

“What do you mean? Out of Yacleira?”

“Yes. I have a trusted friend in the United States, Don Stockwell, who will watch over you. He’ll take care of you and keep you safe so you may live a normal life.”

“What about you? Surely Mother and Father will find out about this. You’ll get hanged for your crimes.”

He steps closer to you and puts a comforting hand on your shoulder.

“Do not worry about me. I cannot stand to see you this way.”

You pull Benjamin into a tight hug.

“I truly do not deserve you.”

“You have three things to remember. No trouble, stay out of the news, and no pictures. You don’t want to ruin things before you can truly start living your life.”

“Okay,” you nod.

Now

Back in Yacleira, you spent a lot of time in the library where you took pride in reading to children every week--children who didn’t have a lot of education to begin with. To see their smiles brought you so much joy and you want to spread that joy to Spencer. He told you his love for books without going into too much detail so you’re at the local library picking out books you think he might enjoy.

“Interested in historical fiction, I see.” You look to your right and see a young man with dark brown hair and baggy clothes. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine. It’s for my… it’s for someone I know.” You’re not sure what to call Spencer yet. You’ve been on two dates, and you don’t know if that qualifies you two as boyfriend and girlfriend. “Do you like historical fiction?”

“Yeah, I’m more into non-fiction but there are some good fiction books out there.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I was sitting over there doing some work when I noticed you over here and I have to say I think you’re really pretty.”

“Thank you. I gotta go but it was nice meeting you.”

You take the books you picked out and leave the stranger’s side. Once you purchase them, you walk to the BAU which is only a few blocks from where the library is. After signing in at the front desk, you take the elevator up to the bullpen. You’re not going to be here for long but you wanted to see the look on Spencer’s face when you give him the books.

“Hey, Y/N, what are you doing here?”

JJ walks to you from the break room.

“I’m here to see Spencer. I know you guys are busy so I won’t stay long. Plus, I have to go to work soon.”

“Head to his desk and I’ll let him know you’re here.”

You walk to his desk and set the books on it while you wait. Spencer doesn’t keep you waiting long and joins your side.

“What are you doing here?” Spencer pauses, having heard what that might have sounded like. “I mean, I’m glad to see you, don’t get me wrong.”

“I wanted to give you some of these books. I hope you like the. You said you wanted to start reading more historical fiction, and I have read all of these. They’re really good.”

“No way, that’s so nice. Thank you.” He picks up two of them and smiles widely. “You shouldn’t have.”

“Well, you took my mini-golfing last week which was so much fun.” You look around and see half his team watching you as if you’re a TV drama. They quickly look away and pretend to be busy and you shake your head with a smile. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner with me tonight at seven. It’s my turn to take you out.”

“Yeah, I’d like that. Where?”

“It’s a surprise but dress nicely.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, I have to go to work but I’ll see you tonight. Is it possible to have you drive? I still don’t have a car.”

“Yeah.”

“Great,” you blush.

You kiss his cheek but he turns his head so you get his lips instead. The kiss only lasts five seconds but it’s the best five seconds of your day today. You leave the BAU and start to walk back to work. You’re looking at the pictures you took on your phone from your time at the mini-golf course when you crash into another person.

“Shit!”

You look up to see the same man you met at the library. He is carrying a coffee in his hand that goes everywhere, mostly on him.

“I am so sorry,” you gasp. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine but my shirt isn’t,” he chuckles. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I work at a coffee shop. Let me make you a new coffee, completely free.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’m Jacob.”

“Y/N.”

You bring him into your room and have him stay by the counter while you make his coffee order. You’ve been getting good at making coffee which is something you’re proud of. You’ve been learning a lot about not only how to work in this coffee shop but about people who work hard for a living. Sure, you have a whole inheritance to fall back on but you never cared about the money. You’d rather struggle with the rest of them if you had true love.

“Sorry if I seemed like I was in such a rush. I was on my way to my mother’s since she’s sick. I don’t know what I’m going to do because I want to help her but it costs everything I have. I don’t have much to begin with and I have to try and put food on my table for my kids.”

The empathetic side of you completely falls for his sob story. Whether it’s true or not, it’s working for you. Ben has always told you to be cautious in helping people because of who you are. However, no one in the United States knows who you are. They wouldn’t know that you have hundreds of billions on your back. 

You’re safe here. No one is out to get you.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I don’t mean to dump this on you. It’s just hard, you know?”

“Let me help you.”

“I appreciate that, Y/N, but what can you do that I can’t?”

“I have some money. I can give you some.”

You reach into your pocket but he tries to stop you with his words. You take out your wallet regardless of what he says.

“No, I can’t take that from you.”

“Please, it’s the least I can do.” You hand him his coffee and also a few hundred bills from your wallet. “This will help put food on your table.”

“This is so kind of you. I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Again, it’s the least I can do. Plus, I love helping people.”

“Thank you.”

Jacob leaves shortly after and you finish your shift with no other distractions. Spencer is scheduled to come pick you up at seven and you get off work at six. You rush home so you have as much time as you can to get ready. You immediately head to your room and pick out one of your princess dresses you managed to smuggle into the US. It’s a floor-length golden dress with sparkles all over it. The sleeves are two thin spaghetti straps that cross over in the back, and it has a deep V in the front that shows off your cleavege elegantly. There are frills coming off the side of it starting from your waist but there are only a few slabs of fabric so it’s not overwhelming. It’s elegant for dinner and it’s a piece of your old life that Spencer won’t know any better about. You’re curling parts of your hair when Don walks into your room.

“You gave someone money?”

“How did you know about that?”

“It’s my job to know everything you do.”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal. I spilled his coffee, and his mother is sick. He’s having trouble putting food on the table for his family.”

“Do you know how dangerous it is to be giving money to people you don’t know? Someone could find out who you are and then this will all be for nothing.”

You finish curling your hair and set the curler down with a sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry might be good enough next time. Now, I have to make sure you didn’t ruin anything.”

You’ve never seen Don act this angry before. Granted, you’ve only been with Don for a few months but he’s always been calm and collected. Seeing him angry like this is jarring.

“Don, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Don leaves the house and you finish getting ready. You go to the secret stash of money that Don has that you’re almost certain he knows you know about. Still, you take a few hundred dollars for dinner. You don’t want to come up short and embarrass yourself. Spencer shows up right on the dot wearing a nice suit, looking as handsome as ever. He smiles when he sees you, and he takes your hand when you reach the bottom step.

“You look stunning,” he smiles.

“Thank you. You look very handsome.”

You tell him where to go and direct him to one of the high-end restaurants in the area, the Sky Dome. There is a huge sky dome in the middle of the restaurant that opens at night so you can look at the night sky while enjoying dinner. This place is on the fancier side of things, and it’s something you’re familiar with. It reminds you of home and you’re kind of feeling homesick.

You miss your parents and Benjamin but you know you can’t go home now.

After the hostess check your reservation, she takes you to the table underneath the dome that’s already open.

“Wow, this place is very fancy. I would never have pegged you to be this way.”

“Like what?”

“So fancy. You work at a coffee shop.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No,” he shakes his head.

“I wanted to do something nice for you.”

“I appreciate it. I’ve never been here before.” You want to be happy about being here with Spencer but you can’t get Don’s words out of your head. Now, I have to make sure you didn’t ruin anything. What did he mean by that? You’ve been very careful not to reveal anything to Spencer or anyone else you know. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just… I had a fight with my uncle. He’s a very private person and he found out I helped someone today.”

“What do you mean?”

“After giving you the books, I was on my way to work and I ran into someone causing their coffee to spill everywhere. I gave them a free one and he told me about how his mother was sick and how he was struggling to put food on the table. I gave him a few hundred dollars to help out. When my uncle found out, he was pissed. He just worries about me. I’m always too kind and he's worried that will get me in trouble one day.”

“I think being nice is the best thing someone can be. I wouldn’t let what he says determine that.”

“I won’t,” you grin. There aren’t clouds to obscure the moonlight so the light shines through the large window and down onto the patrons below. Spencer looks at you above his menu, his brown eyes shining. “You have such pretty eyes. I’m a sucker for brown eyes.”

Spencer blushes but doesn’t say anything about it.

The waitress comes over to grab your drink orders and while you’re looking over the wine list, the front doors open. Immediate loud chatter come from outside as a couple walk in. Flashes come from cameras so that makes you think that someone important walked in.

“What’s going on?” you ask.

“Oh, Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio are doing a movie here. They told us they were coming.”

“Oh.”

After you put in your orders, you keep looking at the sea of paparazzi waiting outside. No trouble, stay out of the news, and no pictures. No pictures. If you end up on the front page of a magazine, your parents will for sure find you. You’ll be taken back to Yacleira and live out the rest of your life as a numb wife next to an equally numb King.

You try not to let this sour your good mood throughout the dinner. Maybe they might be gone before you and Spencer get done. When you do get done, the paparazzi is still there but it looks like Angelina and Leo are leaving at the same time. If you hang back, maybe you might stall enough to not catch the cameras.

“Come on,” Spencer says.

He guides you along with him just as the two celebrities are leaving. You can’t tell him no because then that will raise suspicions and he’d ask questions you can’t answer. You just have to keep your head down and hope your face isn’t caught by the cameras. The cameras go off even before the two celebrities get to the door, and you try and hide behind Spencer. He sees you’re uncomfortable by the amount of cameras so he does his best to keep you hidden. He gets to the car as fast as possible but you know the damage is already done.

You just hope this isn’t what makes you found out. You’re starting to like it here and you’d hate to leave it so soon.

x

Want to be tagged? Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[waitimcomingtoo]

hoax ~ p.p

chapter three: touch and go

series masterlist

Peter didn’t actually have any plans to tell you.

At least, not until he knew that you wouldn’t be disappointed when you found out that the guy you’d been in love with since you were 15 was just the nerd in your friend group all along. Once he knew you that you weren’t going anywhere, he’d tell you the truth about his identity.

Until then, he walked you home after school each day and kept an ongoing conversation with you over text. The weeks turned into a month, one in which you told each other everything, or at least as much as Peter could without giving too much away about his identity. The more Peter learned about you, the harder he fell. His schoolboy crush turned into real adult feelings faster than he anticipated, making it harder for him to tell you the truth. Things were going so well and he feared the moment you knew who he was, you’d leave.

As much as he enjoyed the after school walks and late night conversations, Peter was determined to take things the next level. He picked you up after class like he usually did and and swung you up to a high rooftop where he had set up a little picnic for the two of you. He remembered you saying how one of your fantasies was to be taken on a date on top of a building, so that’s exactly what he did. He carefully landed and gently set you down in the rooftop and stood back anxiously as you took in the set up.

“I thought we could watch the sunset together.” He timidly explained.

He heard you gasp in excitement before turning around to hug him when you saw the candles and picnic blanket he had laid out.

“You did this all for me?” You asked when you pulled out of the hug.

“Of course I did. You deserve. And I feel bad that I can’t take you on a real date.”

“This is a real date. In fact, it’s even better. You couldn’t have known this, but I always dreamed of going on a rooftop date with you. It’s like you can read my mind.” You gushed and sat down on the picnic blanket. Peter gulped and felt guilty for making you believe he made this idea up all on his own. He sat down as well and scooted close to you.

“Yep. I guess I’m just a mind reader.” He said without looking at you. When he finally did look up at you, you were staring at him the way Peter oftener stared at you.

“You know, I told my friends about us.” You said with a sheepish smile.

“So there’s an us?” He blushed under his mask. Your eyes widened and you quickly backtracked.

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“I’m just teasing you.” He assured you. “I like that you think of us as an “us”. Because I also think of us as an “us” so I’m glad that you’re also thinking of us that way.”

“Okay, good. But you’ve said “us” so many times that it doesn’t sound like a real word anymore.” You laughed through a smile.

“I won’t say it anymore. But I do want to know what you told them.” Peter said as he rested back on his elbows.

“Just that we talk a lot. And how much of a gentleman you are.” You said with a coy smile. Peter gulped over how close you were and wished his mask wasn’t in between the two of you.

“And how flirty you are.” You added and rubbed your nose against his through the mask.

“You’re the flirt.” He laughed shyly.

“Me? You swung me to the top of a building to watch the sunset. That’s flirty.”

“I had a feeling you’d like it.” He said, partially happy he was able to fulfill a fantasy of yours but still guilty about lying about the origin of the idea.

“I love it. No one’s ever done something like this for me.” You said as you laid down on the blanket.

“I’d hope not. How would they even get up here?” Peter joked and laid down beside you.

“I mean planning an elaborate…”

“Date?” He finished your sentence when you trailed off.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to use that word in case that’s not what this is to you.” You said while avoiding eye contact.

“It’s a date.” Peter assured you. “I don’t just take friends up here.”

“So we’re more than friends?” You asked shyly.

“I like to think so.” Peter said with the same shyness in his tone.

“Me too.” You laughed nervously. Peter made a bold move and took your hand, something he’d been working himself up to do for a while. He wished he could hold your hands without the gloves, but this would have to do for now.

“Tell me about your friends. I wanna know who you spend time with when you’re not with me.”

“Well, there’s Kate, who I’ve known my whole life. Our parents worked together. And then there’s MJ who I’ve told you plenty about.”

“Oh yes. The little rain cloud.”

“Yep. There’s Gwen, who’s literally gonna change the world with her giant magnificent brain. She’s probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. Maybe other than you, of course. She’s never made web shooters using chemistry before.”

“That you know of.” Peter joked, making you laugh.

“There’s also Ned. He’s a newer friend. We had a class project together last semester and he and I were the only ones who pulled our weight. I introduced him to my friends and he’s been in our group ever since.”

“He sounds cool. Anyone else?” Peter asked when his name wasn’t mentioned.

“Just some random people from random classes that I’m friendly with. No one really worth mentioning. Oh, and Peter.”

“Peter?”

“Yeah. He’s more Ned’s friend than my friend. But he seems really sweet. I just don’t know him that well.”

“Sweet?” Peter asked, wanting to know more about how you felt about him.

“Yeah. He’s always giving me some kind of compliment. I don’t know. I’ve just never really been alone with him so we’ve never connected.”

“Maybe you should try to connect. He sounds like a nice guy. Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. Why the sudden interest?”

“I just want to know what your world is like through your eyes.” Peter lied and you are it right up.

“Well since you want to know, my worlds been pretty good lately now that you’re in it.” You flirted and rolled on your side to face him. Peter rolled on his side as well and brushed some hair off your face.

“I could say the same.” He said softly. “Even since I was bitten, I’ve seen every corner of New York from every angle. Upside down, up high, at a hundred miles an hour. But ever since you and I started talking to you, my worlds felt a whole lot bigger.”

“I wish I could touch you.” You whispered and touched his face with light fingertips.

“Here.” Peter pulled off his glove without thinking and laced his hand through yours. You were stunned to silence a the feel and sight of his hand for so long that Peter began to panic.

“What?” He asked, fearing that you somehow recognized his hand.

“You’re white?” You asked in disbelief.

“Are you disappointed?” He laughed when he realized you were just surprised.

“No. I don’t care about that. That’s just the first part of you I’ve ever seen.” You smiled and squeezed his hand.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s not that exciting.”

“Yes it is.” You scoffed playfully. “To me, it is.”

Peter laughed and put his hand on your face for the first time. You leaned into his hand before putting your hand over his.

“Your hands are cold.” You said after a beat of silence.

“Sorry.” He tried to pull his hand away, but you kept it in place.

“It’s okay. I like knowing that you have cold hands. It’s one more thing I know about you.” You said with a shy smile. Peter smiled as well and felt his heart pounding in his chest. He moved his hand from your face to run it through your hair. He always wondered what it felt like and now he was getting to touch it freely. He then moved his hand to drag his thumb along your lips. He knew he would probably not get to kiss you, but this was just as electrifying. Peter never thought he’d be on a romantic date with you and getting to touch you like this.

“Thanks for this.” You said as you put your hand over his again.

“I’m sorry this is all you get. I wish I could show you more than just my hand. I just can’t risk my identity getting out.” Peter said, which was the most truthful thing he’d said to you in a while.

“It’s okay. Really, I understand. You had this job before you had me. I know how important your identity is. Besides, I don’t need to see your face to know you.” You said with a simple shrug. Peter smiled under the mask to hear how understanding you were and could only hope you kept that patience when he told you the truth.

“Thank you for understanding. I promise, it won’t always be like this. We can go on a real date one day, if that’s what you want. One in one of those little bistros with the fairy lights that you like. And I’d be in normal clothes and we’d have a normal conversation like a normal couple.”

You kept your eyes on his hands as you wove your fingers in and out of his.

“Do you mean like if you one day told me your identity, he and I could exist as a couple in public? And I wouldn’t have to sneak around with Spiderman?” You asked without looking at him.

“Yeah. I think we can get to that point some day. And it’s not that I don’t trust you now-“

“No, I totally get it.” You assured him. “You’ve only known me for a month. I would never expect you to reveal your biggest secret to a girl you just met. You gotta make sure we’re gonna last first. I get it.”

“Do you think we’re gonna last?” Peter asked with a shy smile.

“I want to. Because as much as I love sneaking around with Spiderman, I’d like to know the guy you were before the bite. And the guy you are when you’re just in jeans and a T shirt. Because I’m sure he’s amazing.”

“I’m kinda worried that you won’t think he’s so amazing.” Peter admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“All the superhero stuff is exciting, especially since you were a fan before we met. And I can’t help but worry that when you know who I am when I’m just me, you won’t be excited anymore.”

“Well you don’t need to worry about that. Because that could never happen.” You said simply. Peter looked at you and felt the urge to rip the mask off right then and there. Before he got the chance, you gasped and pointed up at the sky.

“Look at the sunset. It’s so pretty.” You said and moved his face towards the sky. You sighed happily and snuggled into Peters side while never letting go of his hand. Peter sighed softly as well and moved close to you, decided not to ruin the mystery tonight. Tonight, he’d just lie with you under the setting sun.

The next day, you did not come bursting into the library with tales of the night before. You just calmly sat down and sighed to yourself before resting your hand on your chin.

“You’re awfully quiet today.” Gwen commented. Peter and Ned exchanged a look before looking at you.

“Am I?” You asked coyly.

“Uh oh. You have a little smile. Little smiles are never good.” MJ pointed out.

“What happened last night? Did you see your man?” Kate asked you and shook your arm.

“I did. He took me on a date.” You said simply.

“That’s it?” Gwen asked. “Two weeks ago, you were giving us a minute by minute play by play of your walk home with him and now all we get is that?”

“Maybe now I want to keep some of the juicy details to myself.” You shrugged.

“Juicy? Oh my God. You guys did it? On the walk home?!” MJ said with a look of disgust. Peter started choking on his water and Ned did nothing to save him.

“What? No.” You laughed. “I never said that. All I’m saying is that some parts of our relationship are just gonna remain mine.”

“Gross. You definitely saw his web shooter last night. I can see it on your face.” MJ grimaced and pointed at you. Peter turned bright red and looked at you to see what you were gonna say.

“You guys need to get your minds out of the gutter. We have not done that yet. We haven’t even kissed.”

“How’s that gonna work? A kiss, I mean. Do you think he’ll ever take his mask off for you?” Ned asked to stir the pot.

“We talked about it last night. He’s just not ready for that yet.”

“What if he takes off everything but the mask, if you know what I mean.” MJ pointed out.

“She brings up a valid point.” Kate agreed.

“Would you care if you never saw his face?” Peter asked you, and you suddenly remembered he was there.

“I would like to think one day soon he’ll trust me enough to show me.” You told him. Peter smiled at you and nodded in agreement.

“I think he will. Definitely.” Peter replied.

“Thanks, Peter.” You smiled fondly. “That means a lot. More than what these horndogs have to say.”

“I love you and all, but if you end up losing your virginity to an Avenger I’m gonna have to stop being your friend out of pure jealousy.” Gwen said.

“Can we not talk about this?” You asked and nodded towards Peter and Ned to signal to your friends that this wasn’t a conversation to he had in front of guys.

“Oh, Peter and I don’t care.” Ned assured you. “We’re virgins too.”

Peter face palmed while the girls bit back their laughter. You looked between Ned and Peter in surprise and Peter wanted to be swallowed into the floor.

“I mean, no we’re not. We do it.” Ned quickly tried to backtrack.

“Like, with each other?” MJ asked, making the other girls burst out laughing.

“Oh my God.” Peter groaned.

“Good save, Ned.” You laughed and patted Peters back.

“Do really think you’ll lose it to him?” Kate brought the conversation back.

“I would.” You admitted. “If the occasion rose. But like I said, I haven’t even kissed him yet, so who knows what will happen? But I want to. So bad.”

“So kiss him.” Gwen urged you. Ned and Peter looked at each other again before quickly looking away.

“How? He’s always got the mask on. And I’d never ask him to take it off. I know how important it is to his and my safety. If his identity got out, his life would be over.”

“He’s just like Hannah Montana.” Kate whispered.

“You know, I say that to him all the time. He’s never seen it though.”

“He hasn’t?” Gwen asked in surprised.

“No. He’s an only child. No sisters to have watched it with.” You shrugged.

“You know who else has never seen Hannah Montana?” Ned asked while looking at Peter. Peter kicked him under the table and luckily, no one was paying attention to Ned.

“You really like this guy, don’t you?” Gwen asked and put her hand over yours.

“I do.” You confessed. “I really, really like him. And I trust him. I’ve never trusted a guy before.”

“But doesn’t it bother you that you don’t know what he looks like? You spend all your time with him and you don’t even know what color his eyes are. Or his name.” Ned pointed out, making Peter gulp.

“I don’t want to ask him those things. His identity is sacred to him. I don’t want to impose.”

“You should ask.” Peter spoke up again, taking Ned and you by surprise.

“You think? What if he thinks I’m smothering him?” You worried.

“He won’t.” Peter assured you. “I think he’d be happy to know you want to know those things.”

“Okay.” You smiled. “I’m gonna ask when I see him later. Thanks, Peter.”

On your walk back to your dorm that day, you worked up the courage to ask your question while Peter talked about the new features Tony had added to his suit. You were half listening but half anxiously awaiting his response in case he reacted badly.

“What’s up? You’re quiet today.”

“I was just thinking.”

“Uh oh. That’s never good.” Peter teased.

“Shut up. I was thinking that it’s a little strange that I spend all my time with you and yet I don’t even know what color your eyes are.”

“They’re brown.” Peter told you, making your eyes light up.

“Really? Ugh. I knew it. You’re such a brown eyed boy.” You said and wrapped yoru hands around his arm.

“Is that a good thing?” He wondered.

“Oh, yes. Men with blue eyes are never to be trusted. The only thing worse than a blue eyed man is a man with hazel eyes. If the devil can’t reach you, he sends you a hazel eyed man.”

“I’m glad I pass the test then.” He laughed.

“You do. You’re straight from heaven.” You told him, making him blush.

“So are you.” He replied. You beamed and tapped your nose again his since you couldn’t kiss him.

“So what about your hair?”

“Curly. Brown. Very generic. I look like any other brown haired boy with brown eyes.” He answered, making sure to emphasize how generic he was in case you started connecting the dots.

“I bet that’s not true. I bet you’re handsome.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“I would. And I don’t have to see you to know that. You’re funny, kind, and a gentlemen. That makes a man as hot as he can be.”

“No one has ever described me as hot. Trust me.”

“I think you’re hot. Your personality makes you really attractive to me.” You said and stopped walking. Peter stopped as well and looked at you for a minute.

“So you like me for me? Not what I may or may not look like?”

“I’d love to see your face, I won’t lie. But I like you for who you are. I love everything about you. Your humor, your mind, your ambition, your creativity, even your voice. I don’t really care about what’s under the mask. I like you just the way you are.”

“I love that movie.”

“No way. You’ve seen the Bridget Jones trilogy? I thought I was gonna get away with pretending I made that up myself.”

“Of course. Early 2000s rom coms are my life.” Peter said and started walking away with his hand in yours.

“Wow. Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more perfect.”

“Maybe we could watch it together sometime. Like on our next date?”

“I would love that. I could sneak you into my dorm when my roommates out for the night.”

“That would be cool.” Peter smiled and hoped it would actually happen. He always wondered what your room looked like.

“It would be. I really want to show you my dorm. It would be so cute to cuddle up and watch a movie together. Ugh, there’s just so many things I want to do together.” You jumped a little in excitement and kept walking. This time, Peter was the one to stop as an idea came to him. He thought about what you had been saying to your friends today and decided it was time to do one of the many things you wanted to do together.

“Stay here.” He told you before crawling up the side of the building. He disappeared for a second and then slid down on a web right in front of you. To your surprise, he had pulled his mask up over his chin, leaving the bottom half of his face under his nose exposed. Peter didn’t want you to recognize him, so he figured being upside down and only seeing half of his face would make him impossible to be recognized. Before you could say anything, Peter placed a hand on the back of your head and kissed you. You immediately put your hands on the side of his face to kiss him back. It was magical and awkward and nothing like Peter ever imagined his first kiss would be. You felt a sense of familiarity that you couldn’t quite place when you kissed Peter. But even so, it was a perfect first kiss. When you pulled away, you shut your eyes and smiled to live in the moment as long as you could. When you finally opened your eyes, you tried to memorize every inch of his face that you could see.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.” Peter laughed shyly and broke the peaceful silence.

“Oh yeah? How long?”

“You have no idea.” He said, and it was the truth. Since his freshman year of college in his very first class when you let him borrow your pen just because you saw him scrambling to find one, he’d been dreaming of this moment.

“Then kiss me again.” You asked of him, and he did.

🖤🕸️🖤

Tag list 🏷️

@miwagila @gidgett11037 @hoetel-manager @deffnotnia @uncle-eggy

@freakofmusic25

[cannibalisticdespair]

Hey, how's it going? If you don't mind answering, how's the system constructed? Who's in there? If you do mind answering, what's your favourite colour?

It’s myself (Krys, she/her), Junko (Junko fictive, she/her), Zaedel (my twin since we formed at the same time for bad prolonged trauma reasons, he/him), Cherry (he/she and don’t consistently use one, bigender little who takes after the original host in some ways but is a more idealized version, mentally 8-10), and Val (she/her, oldest one here, grew up with the original host but Zaedel and I only became aware of her much later on because historically she existed for “we need to be a vicious feral beast to match the energy of the family screaming matches and whatnot” reasons, but has been rehabilitating you could say).

Headspace-wise, I just look how I look with maximum effort. Zaedel meanwhile has our dad’s olive skin tone (lifelong outdoor loving and working Sicilian man), stubble to a short beard, long black hair, and black molting angel wings. And usually a leather jacket. Junko’s mostly canon, just the clothing tends to be more early 2010s emo girl. Fishnet tops and a bra or shirt where the sleeves and neck are cut out and the back is sliced up, ripped skinny jeans, docs or converse, a black/red/danganronpa blood pink color scheme.

Cherry is an androgynous, pale, heavily freckled boygirl with long brown hair and brown eyes, usually a black tanktop, shorts, and flip flops. And Val looks like a cross between the HL2 rotting corpse with the real corpse face and Samara from The Ring if she was actually depicted as a waterlogged corpse that’s been sitting there for a week or two (we had unrestricted internet access starting in the 2000s, we have quite the frame of reference).

Zaedel and I formed in tandem with the death of the original host. Originally, he held all the trauma memories from before we formed and I had near-total amnesia. He also spent a few years trying to get me to kill ourselves because he couldn’t take control of the body over it. LSD changed us and our dynamic, and also caused a slowly rising amount of access to the memories for me.

Val we didn’t really realize was a headmate until more recently because of her purely utilitarian fronting and lack of communication, but once we started talking it became clear she was the first one to form. The original host was extremely timid and shy and nervous, which didn’t really work for the environment we grew up in. So Val was the fighter.

Cherry and Junko both broke off of me. Cherry started out as my littlespace, but more and more life stress and stuff eventually snapped him off entirely and made her his own thing.

Junko meanwhile is a mix of causal factors. One, writing hundreds of thousands of words of fic in the 2010s with my method. Which is “I just place these semi-independent thoughtforms of characters in a situation with a little bit of scripting and prose-journal what happens”. Two, strengthening that with constant listening to a playlist build around her for years. Three, more LSD, which led to our first direct conversation enabled by a poster of her (the Egirl Junko art by JunkoEXE). Four, yet more psychological trauma. What finally led to her permanently emerging was me accidentally getting triggered and restoring my earliest CSA trauma memories, which broke me pretty bad. Like… I thought it began way later than that. She took on pieces that broke off of me when that happened and it finished her.

Name-wise, I stole mine from an emo girl I knew in high school. Zaedel thought up his after a few years with a mix of “it needs to have the right mouthfeel and also needs to end in -el”. Cherry got hers from a friend of ours. Junko is Junko, that’s just her name. And Val is short for Valerie and is a nerdy joke about her being our “evil side”. It’s a feminine name play on “Valeyard”.

And also, my favorite color is purple. Junko’s is anything in the red/magenta/pink spectrum. Zaedel is black. Cherry really likes green and blue. Val is the sorts of purples you get from bruising and discoloration on a corpse.

[thatoneterrariaplayer]

Druid's touch. Pt1

My name is Ezra Jane, I was a senior researcher at Academia biologiae of The Shining Crest. The north of Endora is a heavily wooded area with a diverse ecosystem, it was our job as researchers to study the plants and animals of the enchanted wood, a sector of the forest with a high presence of magical flora and fauna. With our group the organisation: Academia biologiae had hired some mercenaries, to deal with the more dangerous creatures we may have had encountered there.

This was the first trip I would go on with the organisation this would also be my first interaction I had with the druid of our land but definitely not the last.

My story begins at the Eastern Wall of the shining crest, a town located north of the what is now known as the green spire. A colossal structure that lights up our currently darkened skies.

My family wholeheartedly supported my research but my mother's concern stayed the same all the way to the day we left.

"Are you sure you will be fine?", I remember her asking half in tears. This would be the first time I'd ever leave the city walls,"Yes mum, I'm not your 'little girl' anymore, I've grown up, made a name for myself, I'm confident I'll be fine." My mother always thought of me as a child who needed constant supervision because I was her only child, I feel as though we both knew this was unhealthy but I understood why she expressed these concerns.

"Just stay safe" she sighed, "and don't eat any weird mushrooms Ez!"

"Mum I promise to stay safe." I said, "I'll also eat every mushroom I come across."

Her reaction was priceless but we both laughed it off.

I hugged her once more.

" I love you, I'll be back soon enough, just try relax while I'm gone."

Her response,"I love you too, please take care."

As I walked towards my travelling parties meeting spot I waved goodbye to her, half in tears.

The east wall was covered in vines, they've been there as long as the city has, covering any structure they could creep up. The vines would bloom occasionally in the spring, sprouting soft red and pink flowers, decorating our walls for a week, the week they bloomed was a week for us to celebrate spring, other than my mum it's the most I miss about that place.

The first member of the team I spotted was a shorter than average dwarf known by the name of Murphy Crane, a zoologist.

There were two achievements he boasted the most; his twelve years of studying zoology and a magnificent beard.

He was arguing with a tavern's staff, his anger could be heard from across the plaza, "Name a seven a year old, that bears a beard more magnificent and groomed, than your entire bloodline is capable to produce."

Everyone knew Murphy's voice, crowds would form to watch him berate any poor soul, unlucky enough to set off his thin temper.

"Do you hear me, you half wit dog?", he bellowed.

"I'm sorry sir I didn't realise-" the worker stuttered.

Murphy took a breath, glanced round the east walls plaza and apologised, "sorry young lad, I lost my temper."

Waddling away he spotted me and groaned. He never enjoyed my presence, always actively avoided me at the academy,

I understand completely, our personalities clashed like the Mage council had.

It was around this time the three other members of the trip arrived, Chase Laine a herboligist and the two mercenaries? Chloe, a elven archer and Baker,a large orc, that the academy had hired for the trip. They were leading two mules whose backs carried a array of bundled items that we'd need for the trip. We greeted each other double checked our packs and begun the trip.

The journey to the enchanted woods followed a relatively tame route suitable for mules to travel along. Other paths could have gotten us there faster but they were generally more suited to on foot travellers who could protect themselves in case of a bandit attack.

Chase was a laid back tabaxi who was often stylish. He would wear baggy and flexible clothing that suited his body, his glossy fur melted together like gold with black jewels set into it. Men, Women, children and even animals had admired his well kept coat. His sharp emerald eyes hid many secrets but his distaste to this trip came forward the most.

The forests paths were well defined, years of travellers, adventurers, thieves and animals made its mark. The hard dirt path was either the beginning or the end to journies, leading those to their desired location. The forests used to calm me, there was a serene aura the lush trees gave off, the sounds of birds complimented the simplicity of the tall trees, their songs carried away thoughts troublesome or not in a beautiful collection of notes. However now the forest hides atrocities of the night, as we are forced to stay where light is.

We would arrive at the enchanted woods on the third day of the trip setting up a semi permanent camp in a glade an hours hike in. However peaceful these woods seemed there was always something lying in wait for an opportunity to strike. It was our first mistake to assume we were safe and sound within our assumed sanctuary. The mercenaries Baker and Chloe knew very well to keep their weapons near and preemptively checked their quality. Baker was observing his longsword edge, inspecting for any faults or blunt spots along the blade, I watched as he meticulously sharpened the blade to create a better edge without proper tools.

Chloe tended to her bow, replacing the string to one that was capable of firing high power shots quickly, I asked her why this string was special and the reason she gave me peaked my interest. Her bow string was imbued with a enchantment that allows for artificial strength and dexterity to be gained temporarily pulling the string. When asking her who created the enchantment she mumbled and I couldn't hear her too well. I could tell these mercenaries knew what they were doing, they respected their weapons like a person.

We awoke to the sounds of low growls and the sound of Baker's sword leaving its sheath. I listened attentively to the standoff and noticed that the growls sounded more like hissing and the grinding of metal parts.

"Bring it on you bronze bastards!" his battle cry echoes through the night. Say it was curiosity that I decided to look outside that night. Say it was fear. All I knew tonight I would meet the most influential person I'd ever meet.

The brass jaws of the gear wolf crash together, an unrelenting force, regardless of who is caught, the jaws would mercilessly close. Their purpose, to detain, occurred without flaw, seldom failing however they had no brain to differentiate between friend and foe, instead replaced by

Cogs and springs allowing for it to move. It's eyes replaced by two blood red gems, their gaze hypnotic and terrifying, they appeared to be automatons controlled by the gems. My gaze followed it's 'spine' the neck being covered by protective plating, protecting the vulnerable joint underneath.

It's back was strengthened by many plates joint together to form a tight armour preserving the intricate mechanisms within. The agile legs were equipped each with a set of sharpened claws that appeared more like large curved blades, if you were not carefull one of those could easily slice your arm off. Again their purpose was to detain but it felt to me they were initially designed as war machines capable of taking down enemies quickly and brutally while remaining mobile and agile enough to escape a tough spot.

The machine let out mechanical groans as if it were alive and breathing, the red gems stood out amongst the blackened tree line,

the metal body subtly shone in the pale moonlight, it stood at the ready, waiting in patience. I watched in anticipation, my eyes fixed upon the brass hunter. Then I saw the illuminated red dot the darkened forest. Usually one person could easily deal with a single wolf if they had combat experience but that's because wolves seldom hunted alone.

Ten. Ten pairs of eyes. Ten wolves. I doubt we could all even take down three no less ten. I heard a rustle to my left and saw Chloe ready her aim. Her body and face were covered in white scars, likely from fights, her chiseled face showed no fear but her blue eyes told the entire story. Fear is an ugly weapon. It brings out the worst of people, their insecurities and problems. Despite trying to hide them she knew this could be her last night of living. The pack of machines approached in ryhtmm takings steps as a unit. Looking back to Chloe her bow remained ready and aimed, Baker had his sword ready, his armour would be certain to protect him for a while but not long enough. I looked back towards my co-workers, Chase was cowering in a corner, so much for his pride and Murphy? Murphy was fast asleep in a bundle of rough blankets.

The wolves had moved ten paces, the glade was shrouded in silence, sweat and dew stained the air. Impatience or hesitation would result in a swift death. The first to strike would be Chloe, the arrows path was true, aimed at the leader, soaring across the glade it struck the gemstone eyes, shattering the delicate crystal to pieces, destroying the delicate machinery hidden behind the gem. The arrows momentum had pushed the creatures head to the side exposing the vulnerable joint. The next instance Baker's sword struck the join ensuring it won't stand up again. I watched as Chloe readied another arrow, her eyes this time had no fear, only certainty, a sharpshooters control. The one man front line stood strong his sword ready to diverge the next attack. The wolves sprung into movement splitting up and surrounding Baker. Another arrow hit its mark piercing the side of it's skull but missing any important internals. A wolf leaped at Baker, jaws bared wide open, Baker struck the creature with the flat of his sword denting its body and moving it across the field. Another arrow, miss.

Baker was completely surrounded, he'd last some time but not for long. Baker swung his sword at an oncoming hound the blade connected with the weak head joint breaking it off cleanly. Chloe fumbled next to me, I could hear her rattling the bow struggling to steady her shot.

A wolf jumped onto his back tearing a clean chunk out of the armor with only it's claws, another followed up by attacking his front, knocking him over his sword scattered out of his hands reach. The hound that knocked him over would soon clamp down on his neck thinking it was an arm or leg. Baker tried shouting but it wouldn't change his situation. Chloe was still struggling to find the shot her chiseled complexion had fizzled into pure fear.

The wolf walked slowly up his body getting it's jaws into position. I winced anticipating the bloody cries for help, has his lungs would fill with his blood. My eyes were closed as I said my last goodbyes to life before the wolves inevitably found us, opening them again to make sure I was not dreaming but Baker still lay there, helpless. I closed my eyes again hoping my death would quick.

The ground shook and I heard the sounds of metal being crushed, a new smell invaded my nose, fresh earth. Opening my eyes I looked back to where Baker had been lying and saw roots of a plant had grabbed the wolf pinning Baker down and

Crushed it, the rest of the pack backed up to avoid the flailing root. A new element had been added to this battle, one that turned the tides. A set of roots emerged behind the remaining group catching two in its swing and throwing the debris at to take out another.

Chloe regained her control, firing a arrow to cleanly take out the sixth. Two roots emerged nearby the last 3 to quickly dispatch them, their bronze bodies bruised and unrepairable.

It took a moment to process what had happened. Chloe's panted regaining her breath after holding it for such a long time.

I looked back towards the inside of the tent seeing that Chase was still cowering in fear and that Murphy had just woken up to our racket. Checking back outside Chloe sat down her breathing though still fast was slowing down to a regular pace her elven ears poking out of her long black hair. Her brow was flooded with sweat and her hands still shook from the encounter.

Baker still lied where the wolf had almost bit his throat not moving at all, I could feel his fear from where I was watching.

"Chloe, Baker, are you two in need of medical help?", I asked them unsure of my own health.

"If you offer therapy I'll gladly agree." ,Said the orc.

Chloe let out an excited giggle, "Did we really just survive that?", she asked.

It was that moment she walked into the glade. Her jade eyes met mine, the moon only amplifying their hypnotic gaze, her brown hair fell just below her shoulders. She was wearing patrol gear and had a thin sword sheath on her right hip.

"Solarim's constructs, a bane to our society, their existence is supposed to help us byt here we are, struggling with machines who don't know the difference between the good and bad.", the mysterious lady sighed, " You're all not hurt are you,"

"My blood is mostly in my body still, so I'm fine." , Baker commented.

"My hand is bleeding but I'm also fine, nothing a bandage won't fix.", Chloe winced as she stretched her hand.

"And you onlooker?" The lady asked.

I stared around the glade sheepisly trying to find who she was referring to only to realise that she was talking to me.

"I think I am fine." I answered, "but how did you know we needed help?"

"My owls told me about the pack moving through woods and I decided to rush over to intercept, luckily I was just in time as it seems your orc was about to be torn apart."

Baker, still lying on the ground, looked embarrassed at what she had said, "mind I ask but what is your name druid stranger?" he asked.

Her response came quickly, "My name? I am called Luna by many but also known as madam Luneiya."

"You are a part of the mage council? The same druid that grew these forests to protect the animals that were being over hunted?" I asked with amazement in my eyes.

Luneiya walked towards the tents in silence, " I will stay with you all untill the sun rises but afterwards I will need to go tend to my duties near the spire."

I'd try go back to sleep that night but rest evaded me, her figure caught in my mind alongside the battle before hand. The second time I'd see her would be four short months from now but that's a story for a different day.

To officer Xerxe,

My magic is not as strong as it used to be, our hopes to unseal the sun look grimmer every day as our numbers drop, we have to act soon before there is no one left to solve the problem. We need to gather our members within the next week and decide on a plan soon we have limited time to execute it alongside it. On another note the spires have appeared to become brighter, even my own, it appears the towers are sentient aside their original owners control.

from,

Arctura Corin.

[bronzeandsage]

Whiskey in the Tin

Amber whiskey filled a pair of tin cups, the dark green hand thumping the bottle back down to the wooden table with a clink before sliding one cup across and lifting the other to a matching green face. Bald, dirty five o’clock shadow coating a scarred and mangled jaw parted broken lips to toss back the liquor with practiced ease followed by a deeply relieved sigh. The orc grabbed the bottle again and poured himself another order of the cheap goblin firewater, the motions just the same as they began.

“Drink up, little squid, ya earned your drink today,” the deep rumbling voice of Sevlaz resounded in the silence of the dimly lit basement, his red eyes drawing to the wide eyed human who shared his table. The human was young, probably more of a boy than the men that usually joined the crew but he was quick, smart, and not one to ask too many questions. A perfect pupil, Jaetha had countered when he first protested a protégé. And to be honest, she was right.

“Zexx, wake up boy. Drink, you’ll feel better I promise.” The orc spoke again, his voice a bit harder now to snap him back into realty, a realty with a dead pair of dwarves splattered across the floor, wall, and maybe a bit of the ceiling. Apathetic to the carnage committed about him, Sevlaz killed another heavy shot of the drink before pouring a third. “Ya got to hurry up, squid, three is the magic number on any job.”

“Yes, three right.” The boy lifted his cup and took a shaky drink of the whiskey, coughing hard as the harsh fuel struck him in the throat but an empty cup was still a victory.

“Atta boy, come on now ya done good. Two dead dwarves, no dead us, and a heft trunk of diamonds to keep the Wayfarer rolling for a few more weeks,” Sevlaz spoke again as he refilled the tin cup again, his own cup left alone as he waited for the human to close the gap between the two. “Victory with two, come on now.”

Zexx nodded softly again as he lifted the cup and took a short sip, “Sorry, sir.”

“Call me sir, again, and I’ll rip yer ear off and make you eat it” The orc snorted, knowing that his scarring really prevented most from knowing if he was joking or not. He not so secretly liked it, being intimidating always inflated his ego.

“Sorry, Sev.”

“That’s better. Now snap out of it, just a couple of stunties nobody’s gonna miss.” Sevlaz grunted out a again as he reached down beside him to pick up the small chest and check out the booty again.

“Sorry, Sev.”

“Stop it.”

“I’m sorry?”

“That, stop sayin yer sorry. It’s annoying and worthless ta me,” lifting the lid of the trunk, Sev rolled his fingers through the precious clear white stones with a hungry eye. “Ya act like ya ain’t killed someone before.”

Zexx averted his eyes and kept them to his cup, desperate to not stare at the remains of what they had committed around them. The orc looked at the boy and his dwindling personality in the face of his new job with the rogue, a dawning realization coming to him as he slammed the trunk shut and leaned back in his chair.

“By the fel, you haven’t killed nobody have you? Is this yer first time?” The jump and wince of the young man in shock made his mangled mouth open in a barking laugh before slamming his thick hands on the table in glee. “Holy shit it is, squid. Yer shakin like a newborn pup. Buck up boy, cause if you think this is bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Zexx kept his eyes downcast as the older orc continued to get a kick out of torturing him a bit as he lifted up his tin cup and eyed the amber liquid inside, “Ya know, I came through the portal way back when. Yep, I was right there charging through from a dying world and a dying people to a world lush with life and freedom.”

“You think those dead midgets over there is awful to look at?” Sevlaz motioned with his cup toward the mangled corpses of the dark irons, Zexx though kept his eyes on his cup. “I remember Blackhand in his raider days. I wasn’t anything special to him or him to me, but I saw him wreck our enemies like they were nothing. Charging through anything or anyone on their wolves, blood caking all their faces. Ogres, orcs, draenei…”

“Draenei?”

Sevlaz ignored Zexx’s question as he thought back to those battles among the jungles. The giant tyrant leading hordes of orc into the fray, his mighty hammer held aloft as he roared out commands to the warriors. Blackhand sitting tall with his hand forged eelk horned helm adding to the size and horrific majesty to the slaughter they reveled in. Blood and gore blanketed forest floors as the wolves enjoyed the remaining living or dead that were unfortunate to cross the path of the raiders. His black tattooed hand raised in triumph with the gutted head of his victim as the raiders howled in triumph and the power of their chieftain. And it never ended. Not on that world. Not on this one.

“He was a monster,” Sevlaz muttered softly now, the memories of those bloody days. “And it was a good day when he finally lost his head to the Doomhammer.”

Tossing back his third drink he looked across the table to his quiet apprentice before grunting and throwing the tin cup aside with a clatter of metal. Grabbing the trunk with one hand he would stand and stalk around to snag Zexx and drag him from the table with a grim set to his ever grinning face. “Come on boy.”

“What about my drink? Thought three was a magic number.”

“It’s bullshit, squid. You’re gonna need to learn to drink fast if you’re gonna survive with me.” Sevlaz’s boots splashed in blood as he dragged the human behind him and up into the world again.

[idkimnotreal]

at a restaurant with my mother. we're regular costumers there.

(forgive the out of order stream of consciousness)

there's a cute waiter. we're both guys. the restaurant has an all male waiter staff. also, disclaimer, we don't tip in brazil, so nothing waiters ever do is for tips.

i found him cute since the first day we've been there. i can't say if he thought the same but i've often found that we give off vibes when we're interested in someone that we don't know we're giving off. it might be something unconscious for us. maybe i look at him when i think he's not looking but he is... and so on.

so this guy, right. it's an expensive restaurant. we call them "executive restaurants" here. it's not a place you go to every day if you don't have that kind of money, which we don't, but we can treat ourselves once a week or so. says something about what kind of place it is.

(edit: apparently executive restaurants are for professionals who are on their lunch breaks. so it's a level above streetcorner restaurant but still not expensive. but the place has an air of quality and refinement)

and about that, 1) most reviews for that restaurant mention the attentive and high quality staff and 2) this particular waiter has been working there since we started going there a few months ago, so he's not "new". not new enough to make the sort of mistake he did. unless, some reasons.

he took my plate when i was done but my mother was still eating and he didn't ask if i was done/if he could take my plate (so it's two rules of etiquette he outright ignored, and may i say i had never had a waiter take my plate without asking before). and in doing that, he touched my pinkie, as my hands were on the table next to the plate. (and by not asking he "ensured" they stayed that way)

one. he was tired and decided fuck it. but that was too much disrespect to just attribute to his tiredness (i could literally tell his management and he'd get a warning). if he did that whenever he was tired, he'd get fired. which maybe he wants to, but that's assuming too much.

two. he was tired and momentarily forgot about etiquette. it can happen. more difficult when you're a "high quality waiter", but anyway.

three. he didn't mind touching me. i live in the south of brazil and we're more uhh... noisy about touching here. we like our personal space. a lot. we don't like touching strangers. we often don't like touching friends. so that's a bit strange, but we're both guys so maybe he genuinely didn't mind. (some of these reasons can happen together)

four. he wanted to touch me. which is where i want to arrive at. when he took my plate, both me and my mother found that extremely weird, and she commented on it. right after he did it, i felt like it was flirting. because i've "liked" him ever since i set eyes on him. communication is nonverbal too, as much as i might struggle with that.

if he picked up on something, teasing might be his way of saying "hey, i'm here". because it's been a while, right. so he touches my finger and gives me something to remember him by. and it worked, btw. i'm not gonna try to read his other behaviour such as where he stands or how often he's around me since he's working and such. and that's too imprecise and might lead me to the wrong conclusion.

but the touching, accompanied by the breaking of two consecutive rules of etiquette, in an expensive restaurant, is a bit much of a clear signal to me. i mean - even my mother found it weird. and i'd never had a waiter take a plate without asking before. and that i remember, not before everyone else on the table was done as well. it did leave an impression.

so anyway. drama of the week. like what the fuck. i'm so touch starved. i need him to touch my pinkie again. it burned my skin the way it always does when someone you're into touches you. i can't wait to go back there with mother (maybe alone why tf not at this point), but at the same time i'm so anxious about it. i'm so nervous close to guys i genuinely like. it's a part of me not many people see. that level of insecurity. i try to project confidence always and it somehow miraculously works. but what he did set me thinking and it's something i don't often appreciate, but at the same time i do, and it's all so weird and i'm fucking 25 feeling like a teenager again. oh whatever.

[orionsstory]

New York Nights (3) (Rosénali)

A/N: exposition chapter who cheered !!! this one is basically just worldbuilding. ngl its crazy to see how my writing has changed in just a year originally published: Jan. 31, 2022 ----- Chapter Three: Back to Work --

The week following her nightmare, Denali didn't go out much. Jackie made sure of that. Hell, it took 3 days for her to let Denali go to the rink. Thankfully, Jan pulled through and distracted Jackie so Denali could teach her skating lessons. "Denali...I'm just worried." Jackie told her, "You were shaken up after your nightmare, are you sure you can't just cancel the lesson?" After much back and forth, Jackie obliged and Denali headed to work. Her day went well, and she felt more at ease after the nightmare. However, that didn't mean Jackie was eager to let her go patrolling again.

"Oh come on Jackie! I'm fine! See?" Denali whines, producing a snow cloud from her hand. "No snow in the house, 'Nali!" Jackie swatted the snow away, "But what happens if something happens to you? What if you feel okay at first but then you freak out? You're my best friend. I can't stand to see you get injured." Jackie placed a hand on her friend, the worry showing on her face. Denali laughed, "I'll just call Tina to save me. Well, she'd probably just drop me. I'm getting more popular than her." Jackie tried to hide her laughter, but she failed and burst out in laughter. "See? I'm okay, really Jackie! I'll even come home earlier tonight if you want me to!" Jackie sighed, "No, it's no use. If you say you're ready, then you are. But be careful!" Denali eagerly nodded, bounding off to go get her costume. "Denali! It's only 6 pm! You can't go out yet!" Jackie called after her.

-

After 3 more painstaking hours of waiting, 9 finally hit, and Denali couldn't be out the door faster. Jackie had to run to keep up with her! "Just remember..." Jackie huffed out, trying to catch her breath. "Yes, yes 'Be safe, Denali!' 'Don't die, Denali!' I get it, Mom!" Denali shoved her jacket into Jackie's hands and put her mask on. Eagerly, she ran towards the ledge and waved goodbye to Jackie as she leaped off the ledge, into the sky. She flew around the buildings, laughing and cheering as she glided past windows and clouds. She felt energetic and free- like she could do anything! Maybe she'd even kick Rosé's ass if she was lucky.

After several minutes of flying, Denali ran into a familiar woman dressed in red, orange, and yellow. "Hi, Tina!" She chirped. "Ice Queen," Tina smirked, "you look chipper today. It's nice to see you out again!" Tina Burner, a superhero who couldn't have hidden her identity if she wanted to. Her vibrant red hair and love of red, orange, and yellow made her well-known wherever she went. Her powers stemmed from, big shocker, fire manipulation- meaning she was Denali's worst enemy in theory. In actuality, Denali really enjoyed working with Tina. "Hey, I was going to city hall to help a newbie register- wanna help me out? I'll need someone with me so I don't go insane." Normally, Denali would have refused. She remembered what registering was like, and was not a massive fan of the process. However, this was not a normal day, and thus she and Tina Burner were headed to city hall.

The two soon arrived, exchanging small greetings with the secretary as she opened the door behind her desk for them. "She's in there," she addressed Tina, "She's filled out everything we need from her, now it's just your turn." Tina gave the woman thanks as they headed through the door and into one of the side rooms. "Hi there," Tina greeted, "I'm Tina Burner, and this is Ice Queen! We're here to help you out with your hero stuff." The girl turned around. Denali looked her over, she had a curly, light orange afro and doe-like blue eyes. She was dressed in a pastel blue leotard, with matching gloves that nearly went up to her shoulders and thigh-high boots of the same color. She wore a simple mask that covered her eyes. She looked like she was younger than Denali, maybe even a college freshman.

"Oh, hi!" she chirped. "Okay, so you've already filled out all the information the government needs, right? Do you have any questions about that?" Tina asked the girl. "Oh, well uh...about all that, how does that really work? I mean, I wanna keep my identity a secret, but I also want to be officially recognized as a hero...uhm," she stuttered. "Ah, you're asking whether or not they're gonna out your information, right?" the shorter girl nodded, "Well, it works in two different ways. For me, my hero identity is public- my hero name is my real name, and it's not a secret that I'm a hero. So, they just have my information on record in the system." She nodded along, hanging onto Tina's every word. "For someone like you or Ice Queen," she gestured to Denali, "your personal information goes under lockdown, which means only certain trusted individuals can even access the information, and most of the time they don't need it. Unless you need your costume made or changed...do you?" She shook her head no. "Perfect!" Tina smiled at her.

"So, the next order of business is filling out this." Tina pointed to the piece of paper the girl was holding. "First and easiest, what name have you chosen to go by? This will be how people recognize and identify you, so think carefully. You don't want to regret it later on!" Denali rolled her eyes as Tina glanced back at her, "My name is fine, Tina. I think it sounds regal!" The two laughed as the young hero pondered momentarily, "Lux." She finally said, "That'll be my name!" Lux smiled, and Tina nodded approvingly. "Alright then Lux, next you just need to fill out what your powers do, and then you should be registered in a day or so!" Lux grinned, excitement was practically oozing out of her. "Say, what are your powers?" Denali asked her, pushing herself to sit on the nearby desk."Oh, I can control light! Watch!" Holding up her hand, in a swift motion, all the light was pulled from the room. Lux had morphed it into a ball in the palm of her hand, throwing it up and down, and then with a flourish of her wrist, the ball broke apart and the light returned to the room. Denali exhaled a wow, as Tina nodded, "Impressive!" Lux beamed again, and Denali noticed how bright her smile was. "With how much light is in New York, you're gonna be a force to be reckoned with, kid." Denali complimented her.

-

And so, with all of the paperwork wrapped up, Denali bid Tina and Lux goodbye as she kicked off into the air. The ordeal had only taken about an hour and a half, which meant she still had time to do other things. Resuming her patrol, her mind wandered back to Rosé- the pink-haired woman had been on her mind a lot these days. Denali hates how charismatic the other woman is, it makes it impossible for her to hate her. She scolds herself, she shouldn't think of a villain this way! Rosé has probably committed countless crimes, Denali can't go easy on her just because she's charismatic! She massaged her temples as she tried to shake the other woman out of her head, determined to not let Rosé interrupt her work. Thankfully (or not), a scream from below interrupted her thoughts.

Denali touched down on the ground in seconds and whipped her eyes around before settling on the commotion. A woman was trying to separate herself from a man clinging to her. Denali marched over and pulled the two off each other, stepping in between them. "What's the problem here?" She asked the woman, who looked like she had been crying. "My ex-husband ambushed me on my way home!" she choked out, "He said he was going to hurt me!" Denali looked at the man, who was clearly intoxicated. "Give me one second, ma'am." She told her, turning to the man she froze his feet in ice, preventing him from moving. Quickly searching him, she found a knife, which she confiscated from him. Denali turned back to the scared woman, "I'm going to call the police to come to get him, and after that, I can personally escort you home." she tried her best to comfort the woman, who nodded and sniffled.

It didn't take long for the police to arrive and take the man away. Denali explained the situation to the officers before handing them the knife she had found on him. "She'll need to drop by the police station tomorrow to make a statement, will you tell her that?" The officer asked her, "Of course." she nodded. Soon, the officers left with the man in tow. "You said you live 10 minutes away, correct?" the woman, now much calmer, nodded. "Okay, here, I'll just fly you back, it'll be quicker." Denali lifted the woman into a bridal carry and took off into the sky. The woman gasped, enthralled by what was happening around her, and Denali smiled a little, it reminded her of how she felt the first time she flew. Soon enough, they landed at the woman's apartment complex. She led Denali up to her apartment, where Denali repeated what the officer told her and left her with other helpful information, such as where to get a restraining order. She nodded, profusely thanking her for saving her. "What's your name?" she had asked her. "Oh, I'm Ice Queen." The woman nodded, "Well, thank you Ice Queen. I'm truly grateful." Denali smiled, "It's really no problem ma'am!"

Denali left soon after, kicking off once more into the sky, looking for some action. Still as energized as ever, she eagerly looked around for something to do. It took about 20 minutes, but eventually, she (literally) ran into another hero she recognized, a black woman with a signature white and teal swirled jumpsuit- Peppermint. "Watch out! Oh, Ice Queen!" Peppermint warmly greeted, "How are you? It's been a while!" Denali steadied herself in the air, holding onto Peppermint for support. "Yeah, sorry about that...I took off for a bit because of an injury. It's nice to see you again, Pep! How've you been?" The other woman sighed and ran a hand through her poofy brown hair, "Well, could be better. I've been kicking ass all night, and now I've got another one." Denali laughed, "Are you kidding? That sounds awesome. I wish I knew how you found so much work, I'm lucky if I find 2-3 things to do per night!" Peppermint stared at her, confused. "Do you not have the earpiece?"

"What? What earpiece?"

"The one connected to police scanners. It sends out reports of where crime is happening based on your locations, you can radio in that you're going to check it out, or if you need backup."

Denali went silent, "I'll take that as a no. I can get you one after this. Here, come help me with this, it shouldn't take long!" Peppermint tugged her along, and the two were flying through the city as Peppermint gave her a rundown of the situation. "Apparently someone's causing a ruckus over by the harbor, we don't know if it's a villain or not, but they want us to check it out just in case." Denali nodded, "Sounds fun. Maybe it'll just be a cat." Denali laughed. "I wish. That'd be easy! Here, it's down on the left, follow my lead!"

Peppermint touched down on the ground first, Denali following behind shortly. "Fan out and scan the area and yell if you see anything. This place is pretty big." Peppermint whispered to her. Denali nodded in response before heading left. She looked around- rows and rows of boxes stacked taller than she thought safe. 'Someone's probably after something in one of these...several boxes.' she thought, quietly walking the rows. It felt almost like a maze, the dark sky, and the nearby lampposts just barely allowing her to see what was in front of her. She crept quietly through the dark, hand brushing against the boxes to help guide her. She felt goosebumps creep up her skin, the silence and the darkness made her feel uneasy. She didn't know how long she had been walking the area, she couldn't see anything disturbed or moved. "I hope Peppermint is having more luck..." she whispered under her breath.

After 35 minutes with nothing amiss insight, Denali concluded her area was clear. She started trying to find Peppermint, wandering the rows and rows of boxes traveling farther right. The entire place was silent, the only noise she heard was her heartbeat. Suddenly, the silence was broken by Peppermint's whistle piercing the air. Denali sprang into the air, searching for a glimpse of Peppermint or someone else. Luckily, it didn't take long. She heard the sounds of fighting off to the right and flew over toward the commotion. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glimpse of Peppermint's ice breath and dived towards it.

She touched down, two men were fighting Peppermint, with a third frozen in the background. "Ice Queen!" Peppermint jumped back, "There's a fourth who took off with some item, go find him! I can take these two! He went to the left, go!" Peppermint dodged as one of the men threw a punch. "Got it!" Denali yelled, once more flying into the air and heading towards the left. It didn't take her long to spot a man running towards the edge of the docks. Denali dropped down in front of him, sending a blast of ice toward him. He sped out of the way, hitting Denali as he sped past.

"Superspeed..." she groaned, quickly jumping to her feet and sliding after the man. She coated the ground with ice, skating along as she caught up with the man. She saw him preparing to run, so she stomped her foot in an attempt to stop him. As soon as her boot hit, ice sprung up all around her, vastly climbing and encasing the man in a cold tomb. "Oh thank god, that took less time than I thought it would." She sighed, "Sorry. That may have been a bit overkill." She apologized to the man, whose ice prison reached higher than the boxes around him.

After she had chipped away some of the ice around him, she carefully took the item from his hand. Examining it, it was a small beat-up-looking hard drive, it had no labels on it, nothing to indicate what was inside. 'Weird' she thought to herself, tucking it into her pocket for safekeeping. In the distance, she heard the sounds of police sirens approaching, Peppermint or someone nearby must have called them. After making sure the man was secure, she made her way back to where she had seen the other woman earlier. Rounding a corner, she spotted her tying the other three men up.

"I see you don't need any help!" Denali laughed, Peppermint turning her head towards her. "Did you find anything on him? Denali held up the hard drive in response, and Peppermint smiled. "Nice!" she walked over and examined the device. "There doesn't seem to be any identifying features as to what it could be," Denali explained, "what do you think?" Peppermint turned the drive over in her hand once more, "Hmm...I'm not sure. Best to leave it to the police, if they find anything important we need to know about, they'll contact us." Denali nodded.

The two handed over the hard drive to the police and helped the officers load the men into the police car. "Thank you, ladies," the officer shook their hands, "we really appreciate your help. If we find anything, we'll let you know. Have a safe night!" and with that, she waved to the two as she and the rest of the police left. "So...let's go get you that earpiece!" Peppermint chirped as she took Denali's hand, and once again led her to somewhere in the city.

-

Denali returned home around 1 am with a new earpiece. She opened the door, only to be scared by Jackie immediately as she entered. "Oh my god, Jackie!" she breathed out as Jackie shoved her inside, "You scared me!" Jackie took her mask and examined her face, before breathing a sigh of relief. "See! I told you I'd be okay! You don't have anything to worry about!" Denali laughed, a small smile creeping onto Jackie's face. "Okay, maybe I was a little overdramatic. I'm happy you're okay. You should get some rest, don't forget you still have a degree to earn!" Jackie turned towards her bedroom before stopping, "Oh! That reminds me, actually, Jan and her sisters have a show this weekend- do you wanna go with me?"

Denali didn't even hesitate, "Sure!" she chirped. Jackie gave her a big smile before disappearing to her room. Turning off the living room lights, Denali headed towards the bathroom and began getting ready for bed. She thought about the show as she brushed her teeth, she was excited to see Jan and meet Lagoona, even if it meant she had to deal with Rosé for longer than she'd like. Going to bed, she felt a lot better and safer than she had earlier in the week. It felt nice to be back out and helping people, and as she fell asleep, she felt confident in her powers again.

[xelizabethvalentinex]

Fourth Date Jitters // Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw

Summary: You and Bradley, having a nice beach picnic, go through 20 questions to get to know each other better.

Word Count: 1.2k

Bradley Bradshaw, known as Rooster to those around him, was a bright light. Wherever he went, people followed. When he smiled, the room lit up. No matter what mood someone was in, he could make people laugh with one joke. How you managed to get a date with him was beyond you, but you were happy the planets aligned that faithful day.

About a month ago, on your first day as a navy hospital corpsman, Rooster came in with a deep gash on his stomach. You were thrown into action, tasked with cleaning the wound and stitching him up. A man, 'Hangman' as you later learn, was there to 'hold Rooster's hand' through the painful parts. You thought it was comical, but Rooster still cursed as you began the stitching. After the job was done, Hangman leaves to let Rooster rest, and the latter falls asleep, the adrenaline from the mission finally wearing off. You let out a sigh of relief, glad your first patient was going to be okay. It wasn't until Rooster woke back that he started flirting with you.

"You must be an angel because you saved me," he stated with a smile. You couldn't help but chuckle. You had worked at a hospital before moving to California, but when patients flirted with you, you found it creepy. With Rooster, it was sweet. He was very attractive. His beautiful tan skin under his flight suit was glowing under the hospital lights. Even his obscure mustache was gorgeous. Those facts, combined with his kindness towards you, were what pushed you to accept his proposal to go on a date that following Friday.

Now, you guys had been on three dates over the past three weeks, and you were on your way to the beach to go on your fourth. Rooster had asked you to meet him at the beach because after training, all he wanted to do was see you, though if someone were to ask, he wouldn't admit how attached to you he was already.

It was sunny and hot under the summer sun, but you weren't complaining. Rooster was sitting on a blanket when you walked up to him. He was without a shirt and sweaty, but you admired the sight shamelessly. He greeted you by standing and meeting you halfway to grab the picnic basket you brought. You offered to make sandwiches and snacks for the two of you, and he brought drinks. He kissed you on the cheek, grabbed your free hand with his own, and brought you to the spot he chose.

After eating with some small talk, you two started playing twenty questions. You knew some about Rooster, like his job and some of his favorite hobbies, but you wanted more. You asked him some of the basic questions, favorite color, where he went to school, where he was born, etc., before diving deep. The questions started to get more personal, how his parents met, what your favorite memories were with your siblings, and more, but there was one question you were nervous to ask. You had finished answering his question about where you see yourself five years in the future when you started to bite your nails, a nervous habit you gained while in college. Rooster noticed immediately and pulled your hand away from your mouth, urging you to ask your question. At first, it came out as a mumble that he couldn't hear, but after asking you to repeat it, you put on your big girl pants and asked him, "can I call you Bradley?"

Rooster was stunned by the question at first. Ever since he got his callsign, that's all people had called him. He would introduce himself with his full name, but he also told people to call him Rooster. He loved his legal name. His parent gave him his name for a reason, and now that he didn't have either of them, he appreciated it even more. But no one had asked to call him Bradley, and that's why he was shocked.

You took his silence as apprehension. "I know it seems stupid, but everyone calls you Rooster, and I could give you a silly term of endearment, but I also know that no one calls you Bradley. Plus, I like your name," you explained in one breath. Just like biting your nails, when you were nervous, you tended to ramble. You weren't looking at your date, but you could feel his eyes on you. He took your hand that was playing with the hem of your shirt and kissed the back of your hand.

"I don't think it's stupid. I like that idea. You being the only one to call me Bradley makes me feel all tingly inside," he jokes. You laughed and appreciated that he wasn't being rude towards your question.

You looked at his face, taking in how light his dark brown eyes looked in the sunlight. There was a thin layer of sweat that covered his features, but that didn't make him any less handsome. He did the same to you, looking past your face and into your soul. "Well, I respect that you're entertaining my crazy ideas."

It was his turn to laugh. He threw his head back, exposing his throat, and let out a laugh from deep within his chest. It drew the attention of a group of girls nearby, but you let them stare. They could admire Bradley from afar. You were the one who got to see him all up close and personal.

"If that is your version of a crazy idea, I'd hate to know what you think of my term of endearment I just picked for you," Bradley remarked as he popped a grape in his mouth. You asked him to tell you what he chose, but he kept his lips sealed, zipping them, locking them, and throwing away the key.

You two stayed on the beach for another three hours before making your way towards The Hard Deck. After spending half a day in the sun, you two deserved some air conditioner and cool drinks. When you walked inside, you could see Hangman, along with Phoenix, Bob, Fanboy, and Payback, all of whom you have met when they would come to you for medical attention. Though you got along with all of them, you never saw them off of the base. Now, you were faced with interacting with them, because you knew Bradley would want to talk to them, and you were nervous again. You and Bradley walked to the bar, the latter's hand resting on the small of your back for comfort, and placed an order before walking to the group of pilots.

They all greeted Bradley with shouts first, then greeted you with smiles and kind welcomes. You spent the better part of two hours playing pool and darts with Phoenix and Bob, the two who were the most calm-mannered before you felt someone staring at you. When you looked over, Bradley was looking at you with a look of adoration. He made his way toward you after saying something to Payback. As soon as you were within reach, his arm was wrapped around your waist and he was pulling you into his body.

The man placed a long kiss against your forehead before asking, "what would you say if I asked you to be my girlfriend?"

"I would say it would be an honor, Bradley," you answered, sending him a fond look.

"You just made me the happiest man in the world, pretty girl." With that, he placed a passionate kiss against your lips, effectively taking your breath away.

[apinchofm]

Girls Like Girls

Eloise being a confused lesbian, Edwina being an adorable lesbian, they both love books and their elder siblings are tired.

Am I gay?

Eloise always knew she was a little different from her siblings. She wasn't like Daphne who had planned her wedding and family from the age of seven and envisioned the perfect man to marry. She was not like Francesca who had a magnetic personality.

But she didn't quite fit. But then she met someone who made her think she might just fit a little bit.

....

Edwina Sharma was a walking ray of sunshine. She liked to see the best in everyone and everything. It was how she viewed life, even if the world could be cruel.

Why be cruel in return?

"Come on, didi!" She still used the nickname she called Kate when she was a baby, learning to speak. She did not know why, but it had just stuck.

Kate shook her head, standing from her chair, "They are across the street and it's a Sunday. I doubt we shall be late for anything."

"But we moved in Friday and isn't Lady Bridgerton Amma's friend?" Edwina pushed. She liked making a good first impression. Especially if she'll be living closely with these people.

Kate grinned and shook her head, "Get Newton. Who can say no to him?"

They walked across the quiet street to the Bridgerton House. Mayfair was always quiet.

Violet opened the door, smiling at the two of them, "Hello. Oh, you are Mary's girls! I'm Violet. Where is your mother?"

"Mum had an emergency call at the hospital, so she told us to bring you the cake." Kate supplied, handing her the tin which Violet took gratefully, slightly opening the tin to smell the sticky date cake she had made.

"Come in girls for a cup of tea and to meet some of the children. It's Sunday, so all of them are home for once," She opened the door wider, excited to have them here.

"This is Newton." Edwina introduced the corgi in her arms. And he barked happily at the mention of his name. Violet scratched him behind the ears and said he was free to run around.

"You have a beautiful home," Edwina observed, "Perhaps you may convince my mother to let me tale direction over the house.

"We are not having a pink house!" Kate laughed, "She would cover the kitchen in glitter!"

"Nothing wrong with a splash of colour," Violet laughed, "Edwina, I believe you are starting upper school at the same time as my daughter Eloise. She's through there in the drawing room."

"I should-" Kate wanted to supervise but Violet had the older girl hooked on to her arm.

"Kate dear, you can help me with the tea and my sons are in the kitchen, they would love to meet you..." Edwina laughed as Violet and their mother had obviously planned to set Kate up.

She walked straight through to the drawing room (she didn't know people still called it that) to see who she presumed to be Eloise buried in a torn up copy of Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Edwina smiled brightly at Eloise who looked up and stared. Edwina was just really pretty. Really pretty. Oh no.

Her long dark hair was tied back with a yellow scarf that matched the deep yellow of her floral dress. Even her trainers were pristine and white, but not new.

"Hi." Eloise squeaked quietly. This did not deter the smiling girl who sat across from her, still smiling.

How was it possible for someone to smile so much?

"Hello! I'm Edwina. Your mum said that we would be in upper school together, starting next week. What do you study?"

"Um, English, Politics, History and French." Eloise listed and she nodded, very interested.

"I'm also in English and History! Glad to know I will know somebody." Edwina said, "Also Philosophy and Sociology."

"Not Latin?" Eloise asked dryly but if Edwina had picked up on the tone, she didn't show it, still grinning.

"No, I'm fluent already." Edwina mused, "Kate, my sister said I should have picked it for fun."

Crazy people could be pretty too. Her eldest three brothers' had exes and who could attest to that.

But she seemed perfectly sane.

...

Eloise was determined not to like Edwina. No matter how well read she was and the fact that she cared about issues in the world. Or how annoyingly pretty she was and was slowly changing Eloise's ideas on pink being awful when she wore it so well.

"What's she like?" Penelope asked, first day back. She knew about Mary Sharma, thanks to the gossip spread by her mother Portia who had leaned out of the family towncar to tut at Mary dropping her youngest at school herself.

"You can ask her." Eloise muttered, seeing Edwina pass by Cressida Cowper who had spoken to her for about ten seconds, looking nervously around before spotting the two. Her dark pink cord jacket and her floral dress made her easy to spot in Eloise's eyes.

"Hello, Eloise." Edwina smiled and looked at Penelope smiling brightly, "Hello. I'm Edwina."

"Penelope Featherington." Penelope introduced, "My mama was saying that your mother ran away when she was younger. Is that true?"

Edwina nodded, "It is. But no one ever tells me the full story. By the way, I really like your blouse."

"Oh, you're joking." Penelope nervously tittered looking down at her orange blouse. Eloise on the inside felt vindicated - there was something wrong with her!

"No!" Edwina immediately said, her eyes wide with worry, "I really do like it on you. Yes, the orange may clash with your hair but you wear it very well. And that is all that matters."

"Oh, thank you." Penelope was surprised, then looked at her watch, "I have Drama. See you at lunch."

"English is on Tuesdays. Study days on Monday for us, luckily," Eloise explained.

"You didn't have to be nice to Penelope," Eloise said when they were sat at a table together.

"Why not?" Edwina was confused, "I really liked her blouse. It was pretty."

"I saw Cressida Cowper and her swarm of dolls approach you."

"Cressida? That's her name?" Edwina had barely registered the girl, "She was merely greeting me. She asked if I would like to play tennis with her friends but I have never liked to play, merely spectate. Kate is the better athlete. I prefer things like gymnastics or just my books."

"Apologises, I am rambling." Edwina's face warmed.

"No. It's fine." Eloise assured her, "Usually, I am stuck with my own thoughts when Pen has her classes so, it's...nice,"

"I am glad." The silence, for the first time for Eloise, was not uncomfortable.

...

They swap books all the time. Edwina's books are neatly preserved with handmade bookmarks and covers on the older tomes inherited from her appa's library. Eloise is the complete opposite. The more she loves the book, the messier it is. Edwina does not mind, she actually wishes she could be less anal-retentive when it comes to her books.

"It's not a bad thing," Eloise said when they were at lunch.

"You could be neater, El," Penelope teased and Edwina giggled.

"Here." Edwina gives her a neatly wrapped box the following day and she is confused because well, it is not her birthday.

She opens it to see three homemade bookmarks - one made with embroidery with her name another with a strand of dried lavender and another coloured in watercolours of a sunset.

"I love that you wear your books out and the dog-eared pages, but I need you to have bookmarks. So I made you some." Edwina explained.

Eloise is shocked and she runs her hands gently over the embroidered bookmark. Blues and purples threads. Her favourite colours. She did not even know that she knew.

"I-Thank you." Eloise shyly smiles, "I love them."

"I am glad!" Edwina said and then she went back to her work as if she had not just broken through.

...

"Eloise?" Penelope shook her gently and noticed she was deep in thought. Lying on her bed on a Saturday morning, which was unusual for her.

No. She was in shock. Considering she was just staring up at the ceiling, concerned.

Penelope quickly went to get Violet and upon seeing her daughter frowned.

"Oh dear. I'll call Benedict."

Benedict was always able to talk to Eloise. They had their own language - two kindred spirits.

He arrived an hour later and flopped down next to Eloise, "Morning. I am having a shit hangover, El. What's wrong?'

"How do I get a girl to like me?"

"Are you finally trying to make more friends?" He asked dryly. She tended to accidentally on purpose insult her classmates.

And acquaintances. And strangers.

"I mean, romantically. There is a girl and I want her to like me." Eloise murmured.

"Does she like you?"

"How can I tell?" She almost whined petulantly.

"Ask."

"I can't just ask! God, you ninny!" She pinched his shoulder.

"We'll make a checklist." Benedict reached over and plucked a pen from her bedside and a sticky note, "What would you like her to do to prove she likes you?'

Eloise thought. Daphne liked all the flowers and presents Simon brought her which proved his affection as they always meant something. But someone can buy you something nice and not like you as much as you like them.

"I want her to kiss me," Eloise admitted, finally looking at him. Benedict gave his sister a sympathetic smile.

"Well, when she kisses you, that is when you definitely know she likes you. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now. Please get up before mother and Pen call an ambulance. I think they believe you literally died of embarrassment."

...

"We can study wherever." Edwina shrugged, with a small smile. She leads her through the fragrant and bright Sharma household. Mary pokes her head out of her home office, on a phone call with one of her colleagues blowing a quick kiss to her daughter and waving to Eloise.

"Are you okay El?" Edwina asked, seeing the faraway look in her eyes.

"What did you say?" Eloise blinked.

"El? Sorry, I just heard Penelope call you that," Her face warmed in embarrassment and she thought it made her somehow more adorable.

"No, no." Eloise was quick, "You can call me El too. I'd like that. I may not have a nickname for you."

"That's okay." Edwina shrugged then her attention was on the troublesome corgi who had an old stethoscope in its mouth.

"Newton, atai viṭu!" And he immediately turned back to Edwina, dropping the object at her feet, sitting patiently.

"Your dog speaks Hindi?" Eloise asked.

"Tamil," She corrected gently, "Yes. It's why he causes mischief. But he does understand English; he just ignores it unless it's amma calling him." She giggled and Eloise laughed with her.

And when Edwina hugged her tightly, even though she was only going across the road, she wanted to melt there and then as she inhaled her familiar vanilla perfume.

So she sprints away.

...

"Eloise!"

Eloise turned around at the sound of her name being called and saw Edwina running after her and holding her copy of The Big Sleep.

"You dropped this." Edwina said, slightly breathless, "You are very fast."

"Sorry," She sniffed, taking the book. She felt so silly.

"It's okay." Edwina said, concerned "Did I do something?"

"No, it was me. My stupid list, which only has one thing on it!" Eloise ranted.

"El." Edwina holds one of her hands, "It's okay. What's on the list?"

Eloise blushes, "I wanted you to kiss me because I thought you liked me but it's okay because-"

Edwina leaned up slightly to kiss her and Eloise could not help kissing her back. Her hands wrapped around her waist, holding on to her. It was not perfect, a little messy but so right.

Edwina pulled away, "That was nice. Kate told me to always kiss first. It's polite."

"I'll see you at school tomorrow." And Edwina grinned, her cheeks warm and she skipped away.

Eloise arrives home and just leans against the front door when she gets inside, clutching her book to her chest and biting her lip. She can still taste her cherry lip balm.

"What has you grinning?" She looked up to see her mother coming downstairs with a vase of flowers that she set on the round table, "Make anyone cry today?"

"A girl kissed me," Eloise said, still smiling and Violet smiled.

"How wonderful. Now do clean up dear, dinner is in fifteen minutes." Violet said and then walked to the drawing room.

A girl kissed her and her world did not fall apart as she feared.

[rxmuz]

Red is the Color of Temptation CH.3

ao3 link

Idk why I didn't think to post the fic here as well but whatever lol. I'll post the first two chapters after this! Anyways, horny thoughts about old fat man and his stomach and excuse my shitty writing skills, I'm new to this 😭

(btw this isn't a first person fic, I just wrote it this way for this chapter!)

word count: 2.3k

It's 6 am when I clock out. The sun hadn't risen yet but there was a light sprinkle falling. As soon as I get home I get into the shower, washing off the grease and sweat from my shift. I usually only had a few minutes under the spray before the streaming water turns lukewarm and then freezing.

The shower helped to soothe my aching muscles but I was still tired. Not enough to fall asleep but enough that I didn't even have the energy to get up and fix myself something to eat.

It's three weeks later that I'm sitting on my couch and mindlessly browsing through channels.

My place doesn't really have any decorations, a few pictures here and there but outside of that, it looked like no one lived here.

There are two leather layers, a coffee table made of faux wood in the living room, and two hanging photographs on my wall. It was a single bedroom apartment, the room consisting of a queen bed, a desk, and a medium-sized drawer.

It's not much but it's something. It's mine, even if I have to work at a club owned by criminals.

I truly don't mind though.

I didn't have the best upbringing, but that could be said for a lot of people in Gotham.

My mother died when I was three so it was just me, my two siblings, and my dad until I moved out. My dad worked two regular jobs and some odd jobs then a there, those odd jobs being some work for the mob in our neighborhood. When my twin brother and I were old enough we started to run errands for them. Delivering money, packages, and letters for whoever needed them. It was enough to help our dad pay the bills and we really didn't mind. It was the norm for us.

That was until my brother was killed.

Shot dead in the middle of the sidewalk walking home from school. It was a drive-by and they had mistaken him for someone else. We had just turned 15.

My dad took me and my younger sister and all the money we had and moved to the outskirts of the city. That was about 8 years ago.

It's hard to lose a sibling but it's a different pain to lose a twin. For the first few years, I didn't feel like myself, I still don't but I've gotten better. The grievance isn't as strong, and the pain doesn't hurt as much, but the loneliness is still there.

But I kept moving.

I always do.

By the time I finally fall asleep it's around 4 pm in the afternoon but I don't sleep for long. I wake up about two hours later. I look around for my phone for a bit before I find it under one of the cushions of my couch. I unlock it to find several messages waiting for me. Three from Chez and one from Oz. He texts me every day or so to check up on me but every time I'm still slightly shocked to see a message from him

Cheeze: hru?

The topic moves on.

Cheeze: are u fucking mr boss man? Cheese: wait are you sleeping?

Fuck hell.

Me: …not anymore Me: go away!

The answer I receive is instantaneous.

Cheeze: so thats a yes…lol! Cheeze: he good in bed or???

Me: i am not fucking mr boss man Me: why would you even think that?

My phone buzzes again.

Cheeze: i saw you go into his office Cheeze: is it considered a office? Cheeze: it don't got a door dawg…

I genuinely need new fucking friends. Actually, just a “friend” because Chez is my only friend.

I am not lonely…

I am not lying…

I don't even want to give her the satisfaction of a reply, but I'm so bored I end up replying anyway.

Me: it's a private room. Me: he has an office with a door in the 44. Me: this doesn't mean im fucking him

I decide to ignore the new messages Chez sends, instead going to look at Oz's message.

Oz: Are you up? You got time for an early dinner?

What do I even say to this? I know Oz isn't the typical boss but it's not like I can out with him.

Wait is this a date? By definition, sure. In my mind, maybe, though he could just consider this as him checking up on me.

Me: I wouldn't call 6 pm an early dinner

Oz is typing…

Oz: It is if you sleep through the day!

Well, that was quick.

I don't date anyone, I don't meet anyone, and I practically don't speak to anyone beyond what was necessary. I only ever go out with Chez if I'm feeling up to it. I'm not really a people person. But this is completely different. It wouldn't really mean anything if this was a date. It could be like a friend date, like the ones I have with Chez.

Am I even friends with Oz? I'm pretty sure I am. We've been talking more during my shifts, I've even been making him some new drinks for him to test. We even played cards together!

We're definitely friends. Totally!

Me: Sure why not :)

I stare at the screen, waiting for the three dot-dot-dots designating a response.

I'm nervous.

Oz: I'll pick you up Oz: Think you can be ready in about 30 minutes?

Wait what?

Me: U KNOW WHERE I LIVE?!?!?!

A new text bubble forms, only to disappear. It pops up again.

Oz: You should know better

Me: wut does that even mean

Oz: See you in 30

He's going to drive me fucking insane.

---

I get up to open the door 30 minutes later when there's a knock on the door. I open it to find Oz leaning against the right side of my door, his arm above my head and sweat running down his brow. He looks exhausted and like he's in pain.

“Are you okay?”

“Can I sit?” He rasps out, not answering my question.

“Yeah, of course.” I say as I step out of the way.

He moves past me, making a beeline to the couch closet from us, and his limp is more obvious. He takes a seat and leans back into my couch. I don't know what to do so I just stand there and watch him. Luckily Oz speaks for me.

“Your elevator is out,” He pinches the bridge of his nose, closes his eyes, and sighs. “Had to walk up 3 flights of stairs. I just need a minute to rest.”

“Shit sorry, I thought you would call me to come down,” I say, moving towards him, “If I knew you were coming up I woulda told you the elevator on this side was out.”

He only grunts.

“I've got some painkillers if you want them.”

"Hmm?"

“For your leg. I'm assuming that's the problem.”

He opens his eyes again and turns his head to look at me. He looks surprised that I even offered. It kind of makes me sad.

“Yeah I would appreciate that.” he mumbles.

When I get back with the painkillers and a bottle of water, he's leaning forward on his knee and his bad leg stretched out in front of him. He looks lost in thought and doesn't hear me the first time I call him.

“Here you go Oz.”

He smiles.

“Thank you doll.”

He has a beautiful smile.

I know Oz isn't considered attractive by societal views. He's an old heavyset guy riddled with scars that has a limp, not your average-looking Joe. Yet I personally think he's nice to look at. Scars are something endearing to me, they tell a story visually. They are proof of a life of hard graft, pain, and strong will.

Plus bigger guys are more my style anyway.

I wouldn't say I'm in love, definitely not that, but over the past few weeks of talking to him and being in his presence, I would say I have a pretty decent crush on him. He's just really interesting to me. He's a mystery I want to solve and immerse myself in. I find that most days my mind wanders to the thought of him, thinking of the things he could possibly be doing. Counting cash, smoking a cigar, or beating the shit out of someone. I'm not blind to the things that Oz gets up to and he's made that distinctly clear since we've started talking.

Yet I'm drawn to this dangerous, unattainable man in a way that's completely indescribable.

I know I shouldn't be getting as close as I am to him but I can't help it. I'm fucking lonely and I can tell he his too. We both need a real friend.

No harm in it.

“Why did you want to go to dinner?” I ask, trying to refocus on actually talking to Oz rather than staring at him.

“Why? Not interested in a free meal before work?” he chuckles.

I click my tongue, “I didn't say that, I was just curious is all.”

“I needed to get out, so why not get out with someone that I can keep a genuine conversation with.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“What do you mean nuh-uh?

"Me? Keep a conversation? You're real funny Oz.”

“You don't think ya can?” he's laughing again, the pain that was once on his face now residing.

“It's more of me just answering your questions, you're the one that keeps it going.”

“Well I like your answers girlie.”

I smile, small and coy.

“Glad you think so, Oz.”

His mouth quirks, and stretches his bad ankle a few times before standing up from the couch.

“We should get going.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you in the mood for?”

“I don't know, I assumed you had someplace in mind,” I say standing next to him, “What do you want?”

He chuckles, “I'll pretty much eat anything.”

My lips turn into a soft small smile, “How 'bout Mexican?”

He smiles and nods.

---

I hadn't noticed what Oz was wearing when he first came by, more so worried about him, but now that we're walking into the restaurant, I take the time to really look him over. He's wearing a fine suit, black pants and a shirt so dark it seems to swallow the light around it, and a red jacket so rich I've never seen it before. He tops it off with a white tie.

He looks handsome.

Me, on the other hand, I looked raggedy. I'm wearing a pair of dark blue wide-leg pants, a cropped black sweater with a white and red flannel over it, and a pair of old Doc Martens.

My favorite dirty boots by the way.

I should've known that Oz wouldn't take us somewhere more casual. We're at this place called Javier's Cantina. It's definitely out of my price range, the place is covered in beautiful dark brown wood and tan stone walls. High ceilings with long lanterns and ceiling fans hanging from them, filling the room with low yellowish light. It was beautiful.

“Wow.'' is all I can muster.

“Like it?”

“Yeah! This place is amazing, never been anywhere this nice.”

“I'm glad you like it sweetheart.” he chuckles as a waiter leads us to a booth.

When we get to the table Oz waits for me to sit before he settles in on the other side of the booth. It's a little bit of a squeeze for him and I can't help but look at the paunch of his gut that pushes into the table. He sucks in before readingjusting himself. There's a hint of a blush on the top of his hears and I can't help but feel bad for the slight look of discomfort on his face.

I smile to reassure him, “We got in pretty quickly…did you threaten someone?” I tease.

“Nah, just called in a favor from an old friend.” the change of direction seemed to help.

“Let me guess. A friend of a friend of a friend?”

He laughs and folds his arms over his stomach, “You just think you're hot shit, don't ya?”

“Yeah, actually, I do.”

“At least you're honest about it.”

"Of course! I would never lie to you Oz.” I say in mock offense.

He snorts, his mouth pulling into a brief, sideways smile.

The two of us fall into a companionable silence as we look over the menu. I ended up ordering a small platter of mixed enchiladas while Oz ordered a sizable steak with veggies and a bottle of wine for us to share. We made short work of the wine as I chatted about work, mostly ranting about the annoying assholes that grace the club and how my landlord wouldn't come to fix my damn dishwasher.

I had a pleasant little buzz but it appeared Oz was able to hold his drink better than me. That was okay though, as he continued to let me rant freely.

“The asshole had the audacity to look surprised when one of the twins kicked him out.”

“You seemed to handle it pretty well though.”

“Had to,” I pause, raising my eyebrows slightly, “Wouldn't want to get fired by you, Mr. Boss Man.”

“Hmm, I wouldn't fire you, you're the best bartender I've had in a long while.”

There's a long pause, before “It is…plus if I got rid of you, who else would I have to talk to?”

“You've got a club full of people to talk to every night.”

“That's true but I like talking to you the most,” he says.

I stare at him.

“Are we friends?”

He stares back and I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck raise and my hands becoming clammy.

But then I notice something, he's just as surprised by the sudden question as I am.

“Yeah - uh - at least I think we are.

“Good, I like being your friend Oz.”

[marveldcmistress]

Alternative Healing Pt. 3

A/N: Here it is y’all!! Sorry for the wait, life has happened and I think the events in this chapter can sum it up better than I could. If you would like to be tagged, please let me know, and if I missed anyone in the tags PLEASE let me know, I don’t want to leave anyone out! Also, tags in bold are the people dumblr wouldn’t let me tag.

Warnings: Anxiety, cursing, talks of parenting and child bashing (because sometimes children are assholes) and jealous bitches

About two months goes by after that night. It's now the end of January, and the weather can't seem to make up it's mind. One day it's sunny and warm, highs in the 60's. The next it's cold and dry, bitter winds whipping in from the north. You don't really mind, just glad to be getting out of the house.

You had quit your job at the barbeque restaurant a few days after you had dinner with Sy. Shitty management and asshole customers had made you snap one night, causing you to walk out. It wasn't the best decision, as you didn't have a job to back it up, but you know your worth, and could find better. Unfortunately, you definitely weren't prepared for barely anything being available in the job market of your small town. A week later depression kicked in, and it took everything you had just to take a shower and feed the cats.

You chose to see the silver lining in it though. Being broke meant not being able to afford food, but that would only really be a problem if you had an appetite. But hey, a month of not eating regularly dropped you 15 pounds. Go you! Getting a start on that weight loss goal. A month of unemployment lead you to a cafe three blocks down the road to you though, looking for a server, and a guarenteed $9/hr plus tips. You're up at 5 every morning to be there at 6, but it's a five minute walk away, giving you a chance to get some exercise in, helping drop even more weight, but you're looking and feeling good.

Your manager was amazing too, very understanding and the perfect balance between boss and buddy. Your coworker, Tina, is so much fun. Funny and professional, she's slowly become your work-mom. You've also taken up tutoring her daughter, Charlie, after work a few nights a week. Things are looking up for you now, and you can't feel any better about it.

You haven't seen Sy, though you can hear him downstairs some nights, football games on the tv or classic rock playing on the speaker when he's outside working on his truck parked in the back. Part of you feels guilty for actively avoiding him during your depressive episode, but another part keeps telling you it was none of his business. You hardly knew the man, and you would rather die than let someone as perfect as him know just how fucked up you are. It just doesn't help that he's in your dreams almost every night, his bright blue eyes, scruffy beard, and deep voice leaving you waking up wet every morning.

It's a beautiful Monday morning, not too cold, a sure sign it's gonna be one of those nice, warm days. There's a slow breakfast rush that fades into a slow morning, picking up for lunch around 12:30. You spent most of the morning unloading the supply shipment that was dropped off that morning, before helping with prep work and stocking your area.

Country music plays overhead, because of course, it's Oklahoma. The lunch rush is just starting to wind down, everyone having been served their food and customers hardly walking in the door. You're busy putting together an online order when one of your regulars comes in.

“Hi, Wes!” you holler from behind the counter, still focused on getting utensils and condiments in the bag. After getting boxes labeled and the bag tied up and ready to go, you grab your order pad and a pen before walking around the conter and across the restaurant to the high top table that your customer sits at.

“Hi, Miss Taylor. How are you today?” Wes says. He's clearly in his older years, late fifties to early sixties if you were to guess, but still buff, looking like he works out on a daily. He wears jeans, boots, a black t-shirt, and black leather jacket. He has a deep voice, reminding you of the handsome devil living below you, with a similar southern twang, though a little watered down with an midwest drawl.

“I'm just fine, Mr. Wes. How are you?” you smile, setting down some silverware and flashing him your dimples. He's by far one of your favorite regulars, always so polite, and a great conversationalist.

“I'm doing just fine. My son is going to join me today.” he says with a small wink. The past month he's been trying to set you up with his son, who he describes as bull-headed and rough around the edges, but has a good heart. Each time you tell him you are perfectly fine being by yourself, that you don't need a man, even going so far as to make a joke about “taking on yet another disappointing burden”. And each time he just laughs and says “more men need a woman they love put them in their place, sometimes.”

“Well, I will go get another menu and set of silverware, then. What can I get you to drink while you wait?”

“I'll just have a water today, dear.” he says. You give him a wink.

“You got it. Be right back.”

You turn away, ready to go get his drink when one of the secretaries from the chiropractor's office next door walks in. Fuck, this bitch. Normally you wouldn't bother dealing with her shitty attitude, but you're in a good mood today, having puffed your dab pen when you went out with the cooks for a smoke.

You hear the bells of the other door behind you, and without even looking, you greet the customer while going around the counter to take Brittany's order. You hear Wes talking as you put the order in the system, but don't bother to look at who it's with. You see a shadow moving out of your periphial vision, and as you look up to hand the secretary her money, your heart stops dead in your chest.

“Sy?!” you almost yell. He's smiling, obviously amused at your surprise. Brittany looks up from her wallet and turns around, putting on a clearly fake smile, flipping her hair.

“Logan Syverson. I haven't seen you in a minute. Looking great.” Her voice is so sweet it would make anyone sick, and you have trouble hiding your facial expression. Sy's eyes never leave you, though, and his smile gets bigger at your reaction, before barely glancing at the brunette beside him, then immediately coming back to you.

“Been busy. What are you doing here?” he nods to you when he says the question, making it obvious to whom he's addressing.

“Working. What are YOU doing here?” you ask. You finally give him a good look up and down. He's wearing jeans, work boots, and a black t-shirt. His arms are covered in grease, but his hands and wrists are clean. His beard is just as scruffy as you remember, but it's clear he's shaved and kept it tamed. His hair had grown some, maybe two or three inches, not terribly long but enough it's starting to curl at the ends.

“Having lunch with my dad.” he points his thumb behind him at Wes, and that's when it finally hits you. Putting them side by side, you wonder why you didn't see it sooner. Sy looks like his father in so many ways, but the mannerisms are almost identical.

“I'm sorry, how do you know each other?” Brittany interrupts. You both look to her, and it's clear that Sy and yourself forgot she was even there. She's looking between you both, giving him heart eyes and you dirty looks. Sy glances back at you, before turning to her.

“We're neighbors. She lives above me.” Then turns back to you, giving the indidcation he's done with any conversation she might pull him into. She shoots you with one last glare before walking away and out the door. You just roll your eyes, not willing to waste your energy on her jealousy. You turn your attention back to Sy.

“Why don't you join your dad at the table and I will get your guys' drinks. What do you want?” you ask, reaching for two cups before moving to walk back around the counter to get their drinks.

“I'll just have a water.” he says, grabbing a menu from the stack by the register and walking back to the table while you fill both cups with ice and water. You trying to keep your hands from shaking as you walk over to their table, eyes on the floor as you prepare yourself for the whorlwind that Logan Syverson causes on your insides.

“I was just telling Logan here that the special today is fantastic.” Wes said, flashing you the same smile his son throws at you. You just smile.

“It's kinda hard to mess up nachos.” you say. Both men chuckle, and you look down, cheeks getting hot. You pull out your pen and notepad, before taking a deep breath and looking up.

“What can I get you guys?” you ask, deciding the best way to deal with your nerves is to distract yourself with work.

“I want the special, no jalapenos or avocado.” Wes orders. You write it down, before looking up at Sy. His blues pierce into yours, and you lose yourself for just a second, before paying attention to his order.

“I'll have the special too, extra jalapenos.” he says, before giving you his version of a wink, smirking when your face goes red.

“You got it guys. I'll bring that out when it's ready.” you say, before turning around quickly and nearly running away. Get ahold of yourself, woman. You're a grown adult of 23 years of age. You shouldn't be distracted by some guy you've met a couple times.

After putting in the order, you get started on making it, throwing chips onto the baking pan before the meat and beans and cheese. As those bake, you decide to clean off the counter and wipe it down. Pulling out the nachos and finishing the topings, you take out the orders for your crush (you hate to call him that, but essentially that is what he is to you) and his father (again holy shit) with your best service smile.

Sy watches you go, unaware of the stupid, dopey grin on his face. He wasn't really looking forward to lunch with his dad, not having had much sleep the night before and had already gotten into it with his brother. His truck was giving him a hard time during a tune up that morning and his day had really gone to shit when Aika tore up a stuffy toy and left cotton all over his living room. He couldn't be mad at the dog, she was going through an adjustment period to civilian life as well. But he thought fuck it, at least he doesn't have to cook.

When he walked in and saw you at the counter, though, he thought maybe his day hadn't completely gone to hell just yet. He felt a mild panic at seeing Brittany though. He'd had a drunken one night stand a month before his last deployment, and the entire time leading up to him leaving she had called and text so many times he changed his number.

Still, he couldn't be too scared when you were standing right there. The whole two months he hadn't seen you were disappointing for him. The first month he was busy adjusting his life and his schedule, while also starting a side business refurbishing old furniture. He would take Aika out every morning and evening and look up to your apartment, hoping to spot you somewhere. He had wanted to come see you, but didn't want to be a bother.

The second month he just couldn't seem to catch you. He would hear you coming down the stairs in the back early in the morning, but you're always gone by the time he gets to his back door. He hears you at night now, but the footsteps always go quiet around 10.

“Pretty little thing, isn't she?” Sy is snapped back into his reality when his father's voice finally registers in his brain. He turns so quickly his neck pops, audibly. Wes raises his brows, a small smirk coming across his face. Sy smirks right back.

“That's the neighbor I was telling you about.” Sy's smile gets even bigger at his father's falling face. He had mentioned on a few occassions the hippie living in the apartment above him. His father was the time of hippies and classic rock, so while he was still old fashioned, he was open minded.

“That's the neighbor?”

“Yep.”

“I'll be damned.” Wes mumbles, then changes the subject. “How's your day been, Sy?”

“Complete bullshit. Aika is going through some anxiety issues being back and my truck is giving me shit.” he mutters. The older man looks at the younger one beside him, knowing he's not telling the whole truth.

“And how's your brother?”

Sy groans and rolls his eyes. Leave it to his father to bring up his biggest pain in the ass lately.

“Still trying to pretend his wife hasn't stolen his balls.” Wes chuckles at this. Though he and his ex-wife weren't always on the best of terms when it came to being romantic partners, their co-parenting skills were top notch for their generation. So much so that Wes had taken care of Sy's half brother since he was a child and his father had left Sy's mother.

“You'll learn one day, son.” Wes comments, before leaning back in his seat and lets you sit down his lunch. Sy watches you set his food down as well, amused that you refuse to look him in the eye. You looked extra good today, in your blue and green tie-dye shirt and a green bandana around your head. Your make-up is what his niece would describe as “on point” and you were wearing teal and white beaded earrings. You had your hair pulled up in a bun and he had to stop himself from getting hard at the choker around your neck, a turquiose stone sitting in the hollow of your throat and two thin bands holding it in place.

“Thank you, darlin.” he says. You finally look up at him, eyes shining in the sunlight coming in through the windows.

“You're welcome, Sy. Enjoy your lunch, guys.” You give a smile and nod to Wes, before glancing at Sy once more and turning away to go back to work. He watches you walk into the back room, and only when he can't see you anymore does he dig into his lunch.

“So what has he been doing now?” his father asks, not letting this specific topic go. Sy finishes his bite of food, keeping in mind the manners his momma taught him.

“Just the nagging from his wife. I know I told him I'd rather go through him for work but with the way she runs it, it's killing us both. Nothing I do is ever good enough for her and he's tired of hearing it from both ends. Quite frankly I'm about to start looking for another job and place to live.”

Wes nods along as he listens to his son, munching quietly on a chip.

“You knew going into this it was only going to be temporary. Working for family is never easy, let alone family that is difficult to get along with. Have you thought about what you're going to do?” Sy sits quietly for a second.

“There's a few options. Work for the oil refinery here in town, breaking my back out there. There's the Sober Brother's construction, they pay good money but they hire a bunch of idiots. Or I can live off my retirement fund from my discharge, though that's really my worst case scenario option.”

“I'm sure you'll find something. What about your living situation?”

Sy smirks.

“Well you've met one of my neighbors, I can't really complain too much. Though the people that moved in across from me are starting to be a bother, letting their spawns of Satan run around at all hours of the night screaming and shaking the house.”

“You'll figure it out, son. You always do.” Wes winked at Sy, and after conversation turned to football and cars. Sy told his dad what he was doing with his truck, and Wes told his son about the motorcycle he was working on. Soon the baskets were empty and the men were full.

“You should go talk to her before you leave.” Wes's voice was so quiet Sy barely heard him. Barely.

“Right, dad. A girl that peaceful and bright would go great with a messed up jarhead like me.” he mumbles.

“She might just be right amount of light to balance out this darkness in your life, son.” Wes says. Sy looks up, his blue eyes the mirror of his father's, though lacking the wisdom that comes with the experiences of a long life.

“Maybe.” he says. His father claps his shoulder, before getting up and putting on his leather jacket. Sy stands as well, pulling out his wallet and leaving a $20 bill on the table. Wes gives him a look.

“What? I'm not gonna be that jackass that doesn't tip but expects to hit it.” His father just gives a proud smile in response. Both men walk to the counter, the elder of the two pulling out his billfold while you walk back out to the counter.

“Tabbing out?” you ask.

“Yes ma'am. Stuffed ourselves full. Those nachos never fail.” Wes says. You laugh lightly, pulling up his ticket and telling him his total.

“I'm glad you liked them. They're like the fiftieth order I've made today.” Sy perks up at this.

“You made those?” You look up from counting change, making brief eye contact before going back to the money in your hand.

“Yeah, they're pretty easy.” you mumble.

“You never told me you had any culinary skills.” He puts on a light, LIGHT, seductive tone, keeping aware of his father standing next to him. Though his father taught him everything he knows about flirting and pleasing women.

“You never asked.” you said, finally showing him that wit he knew you possessed. He smirked right back, determined to get rid of those nerves of yours. Wes takes this as his cue to leave, taking his change, wishing you a good day and a “see you later” to his son. With the departure of his father, Sy's full attention is now directed on you.

“Haven't seen you around here lately. How've you been?” he asks. It wasn't until then that he realized, for not really knowing you, he's missed your prescence. Just something about your energy soothes him. But then it's like watching a marianette doll being jerked by the strings, because your back goes ramrod straight, and your breath gets shorter, if the way your chest movements have gotten faster are any indidcation. You clear your throat.

“Yeah, I uh.... I've been going through some shit, here lately. Haven't been doing much of anything other than work.” you say.

“When did you start working here?” he asks. He wants to pry, wants to know what kind of shit you've been going through. It's gotta be something, if you're behaving this way. But he knows it's not his business. Yet.

“About a month ago.” you say, walking backwards to the sanitzer bucket, deciding to multitask by cleaning while talking to Sy.

“How's it treating you so far? What happened at the last place?” You raise your brows at his rapid fire questions.

“I quit the last place, got sick of the entire management team and overall shittiness of a corporate chain restaurant. Found this cute little place that actually cares about it's employees. The pay is decent and it's not that far of a walk to work.” you say, keeping your eyes on the counter. You see one of the cooks giving you and Sy the side eye but decide to ignore him.

“You walk to work?” Sy asks. When the weather decides it wants to be cold that day, sometimes it gets to single digits. You must freeze half the time you go to work.

“Yeah, it's only three blocks from here. Plus it's great exercise. I've already lost 10 pounds.” You stand up straight and put your hands on your hips, showing off a slightly slimmer waist than he remembers. Not that it would make you any more or any less beautiful to him. You're still curvy and vivacious, with thighs he would love to die burried in.

“Congrats to you.” he says with a small smirk.

“Why thank you!” you say in a dramatic flourish. He just chuckles lowly.

“What time are you out of here?” he asks. You look at the clock on the wall.

“I get off in another hour or two. Why?” you ask, narrowing your eyes at him. But instead of answering your question, Sy just asks you another.

“What are your plans for tonight?” Now you're really eyeing him.

“Just doing laundry and dishes. Why???” You emphasize your last question heavily. He just gives you a shit eating grin back.

“Wanna have dinner again?” That really catches you off-guard.

“I don't know, Sy. I've got a lot of chores to do, and I gotta be in early tomorrow to cover for a cook.” you say.

“Come on, darlin. We literally live in the same building, I can come up there and cook and help you do your chores and you can still get to bed early enough to be here bright eyed a bushy tailed tomorrow morning.” He's putting on the full charm now, knowing you'll give in. You hesitate a little longer than he expects and just when he's about to say “forget it” you're nodding.

“Okay, but my house is a disaster.” you say, thinking if you gave fair warning he couldn't turn it back on you.

“It wasn't that bad when I fixed your stove.” he says with a wink. You give a light giggle, rolling your eyes.

“I'll see you later, darlin. Don't work too hard, now.” he says, backing away without taking his eyes off you. You wave bye, not being able to bring forth any words. You watch him walk out the door to his truck, and when he's finally out of sight do you turn, only to be scared half to death by Terri and Tina, both watching with stupid smiles on their faces.

“What?” you ask.

“That was Big Sy.” Tina says.

“Big Sy?” you ask.

“He's a small town hero around here, the Army Captain, Wes's boy. Everyone around town knows him. Good man, good lookin.” Terri says.

“I can't believe you were talking to him, Y/n. He's not really much for socializing.” Tina says.

“Tina, that's the hot neighbor I was telling you about.” you say. Soon your coworker is losing her mind.

“You guys would be so cute together!” she almost yells as you were putting up chairs to sweep and mop the floor.

“Yeah, what a great couple we would make. The decorated, hard-ass Army Captain and the pot-smoking, hippie psychologist. It sounds like a bad fan fiction on tumblr.” you say. Tina laughs, continuing to follow behind you with the broom as you lift the chairs onto the tables.

“Look, I know how you feel about men, and your feminist stand point, but Sy is one of those non-toxic masculine men your always raving about. He's strong and sturdy and gruff but he makes you feel safe.” Her sentence ends on a whimsical sigh, only ruined by the disgusted look on your face.

“Right.” the dry tone of your voice pulls her out of the dramatic scene she caused, and her face contorts into a look of stern, motherly determination.

“You'll figure it out, you'll see.” You just roll your eyes and get to finishing your side work.

It's 4:30 when you get home, and Sy thought he was going to lose his mind. You said you got off work at 3:30 but here it was an hour later and you're just now walking up your steps. As soon as he got home, he hit the shower to wash off all the oil and sawdust on his hands and body, before pulling out some freshly washed jeans and a decent shirt. It was no button up, but it wasn't covered in grease stains so it counted as appropriate for the current occasion. He combed out his hair and added extra deodorant and cologne.

He felt like a teenager again, trying his damndest to be respectful, like a gentlmen, but so horny and turned on by you that it was painful. For two months he hadn't seen you in person, but you plagued his dreams. Visions of your face, with pouty lips that spoke his name so sweetly. Eyes that lit up like the sky in the middle of summer, kisses that burned oh so sweetly into his skin. Words whispered between the sheets, sometimes in his truck, sometimes in his bed.

When he wakes it's to disappointment and pain, morning wood making his cock throb with each fast beat of his pulse. Cold showers became a daily routine, with lots of alone time on Pornhub at night. Sometimes he would hear you shift in bed above him and he'd stop, afraid he was being too loud and woke you up.

He waits breathlessly in his room for you to come downstairs to get him. He knows you're still in your apartment by the footsteps in your room above his head. They move around for about 15 minutes, before the smell of marijuana hits his nose and he hears the water for your bath tub fill up above him.

He watches football for another hour before he hears your footsteps again, moving around in your room. Another 15 minutes and finally he hears your back door shut before your heavy steps start coming down the stairs. He shuts off the tv and tries to act like he hasn't been having a heart attack for 3 hours.

He doesn't even give you the chance to knock, opening the door to see you with your fist raised, a shocked look on your face. Your hair is wet and combed around your face, and you're wearing a black tank top, tan cardigan, and black running shorts. You've taken off your make-up and your face is freshly cleaned. The setting sun makes you glow and it's like he's looking at an angel.

“Uh, hi.” You say, hand still in the air. You give him a strange look.

“Hi, sugar.” he says.

“What's with that dopey look on your face? Did you get a contact high? I know my shit is fire but damn, from upstairs?” you ask, taking your hand down and checking his pupils for dialation, and the whites of his eyes for any redness. He notices your eyes are squinted and you're obviously stoned.

“Nah, darlin. Just happy to see you.” he gives you a big, dopey smile. That's what you've turned him into now. A dopehead.

“Right. You ready to come help me fight this monster mess that is my apartment?” you ask, moving towards the stairs again. He follows without hesitation, making sure his door is really shut. He lets you go up first, allowing you to be four steps ahead, as the stairs are steep and he's trying to remain a man and not an animal. Though with your ass in his face the thought of just burrying his face in those cheeks burns into his memory.

“Alright, I've warned you in advance, so don't judge me.” you say before putting your hands on the door knob. He just rolls his eyes before following you in. The sink is full of dishes, just like last time, and the counter is covered in crumbs and seasoning. He looks into the hallway to the livingroom, and stops dead in his tracks.

“What's with all the boxes and totes?” he asks, pointing down the hall. Your body goes stiff again, but this time he's not gonna back down from getting his answer.

“Oh, I'm uh. I'm moving this upcoming weekend.” you mumble. He whips his head to you. His face is twisted in shock and what you could almost describe as pain. Why is he being more emotional about this than you are?

“You're moving?” it's like his world has stopped spinning. He finally finds a woman interesting and has gotten the encouragement from his father to do something about it and you're moving.

“Yeah, a friend of mine and I are getting a two bedroom.” you calmly explain.

“Why?”

“Because your sister-in-law is a cunt and your brother is a snitch.” you say quickly. He raises his brows.

“Sorry. Um, last month there was a plumbing problem with my kitchen sink. When the plumber showed up he was on the phone with your brother, and he said hi to the cats. Your brother overheard, and told Candace. She said I had three days to get rid of them or I was evicted, so I told her I was looking for a new place. Gave an official thirty day notice on New Year's day and I've been working and saving since. I'm trying to be out by Sunday.” you say. You watch Sy take this in. It slowly starts to process what you're saying. He knows exactly what kind of game she's playing.

“Let me guess, she told you it was disrespectful to the other tenants.” he says through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, how'd you know?” you say.

“That's what she told me about my service dog barking at night to wake me out of a nightmare.”

“Oh shit, Sy. I'm so sorry. What a bitch.” you say.

“Right, where as your cats don't make a sound, and she only barks twice to wake me up, but the people across from me can let their little shit-heads run around all damn night screaming and shaking the house.”

“That's what I said! Those little crotch goblins kept me up all night the other day! I was running on like, two hours of sleep, Sy!” you exclaim, trying to lighten the mood some. You both chuckle at your term for the children in your building, before you move to start getting dishes washed. As you worked, you and Sy talked. You washed and he dried and put away. It was a great system, and even better was your small kitchen allowing him to be so close to you.

“You not like kids?” he asks.

“Actually, I love kids. But what I love more is kids that behave, that have a proper discipline in the household so they don't behave like the neighbors kids, terrorizing an entire building of people and animals because they refuse to listen to their parent.” Sy raises his brows even more.

“Proper discipline? Didn't take the hippie to be the one to spank their kids.”

“Oh god no! But there are ways to discipline a child without raising a hand to them, despite what past generations have to say on 'gentle parenting'. I was a daycare teacher for almost five years, and what they teach us and how it's used in the field is so different.” you say as you continue to scrub down plates.

“What do you mean?” he asks. His father never raised a hand to him, but he did have a problem with his temper and the tone of voice he used, especially after a few too many. It never really bothered him though, if anything it prepared him for the army. Seargents are not kind during bootcamp and any trainings after that.

“So, you can tell a child to stop jumping on the couch cushions all you want, they won't listen for long. All that is teaching him is what NOT to do, but also giving no other option. If you tell them to sit on their asses or they will fall off and hurt themselves, showing them what TO do, and reminding them that their safety is important. If they still don't listen after that, and they fall, then that's what's called a natural consequence, and for people like me, fully drives home the lesson of why we don't jump on the couch cushions.”

“But by allowing him to jump on the couch, aren't you showing him that you don't care about his safety?” he says. You smile, having asked the same question during your training sessions.

“If they're really in danger of being seriously hurt, that's when you can physically interfere. But if you know it's only going to be a small bump on the head or something that can be cured with a band-aid and kiss, then it's best to let them learn themselves. Like I said, some of us have to learn the hard, painful way.”

“So all it's really doing is taking out the negative.” He says.

“Kind of. It's more like guidance and direction rather than orders and tyrany.” you said. He pauses and just watches you work for a second. He had felt it earlier, but in this exact moment it really hits him how at peace he feels when he's near you. It's like the soothing warmth of hot coffee running through your body on a cold winter morning.

You can feel his eyes on you for a second longer than you were expecting, and when you turned to look at him, he had a dazed look on his face. You snap your fingers inches away from his face, giggling when some water droplets splatted him in the face from the snap.

“Are you good? You've been out of it all night.” You're starting to get a dopey look on your face. He's so cute when he's confused, and you love it. He looks like a lost puppy dog sometimes, even with the little head tilt they do.

“I'm fine! Just living in the moment with you.” His smile is soft, his whole face is soft. The creases around his eyes show his age, but that just makes him even more attractive to you. You've always had a thing for older men, but keeping it mostly appropriate. His baby blues are now darkening to a deep gray. You can feel the sudden electricity in the air, the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. It gets hard to breathe again, and you have to force yourself to look away from him. 'FUCKING PULL IT TOGETHER!'

“Right, anyway, I was thinking about pulling out some meat and making burgers and mac and cheese, if that sounds alright with you.” you say, distracting yourself with washing the last of the dishes in the sink.

Sy pulls back, disappointed that yet another moment has gone by where he waited too long to kiss you. He could see when your brain had started overthinking. Your eyes moved quickly between his, before your breathing got heavier and your body tensed. He tried to hide the disappointment in his voice when he answered you.

“Sounds great.”

You work in silence for a few more moments before Sy finally can't stand it anymore. When he goes to start speaking again, he feels a pressure on his ankle and lower calf. He looks down to see Stella, your black cat, rubbing all over him. She's sleek and shiny, kept in good health if her slightly bigger tummy is any indidcation. She looks up at him, her bright green eyes looking right into his soul.

You feel Stella move between your leg and Sy's, and look down to see her giving Sy her big green eyes. You feel more than see Sy put the drying towel on his shoulder before bending down to pick her up.

“Careful with her. She doesn't much like being held.” you say, nervously hovering near your pet and the hulking man beside you. But to your surprise, she cuddles right into his neck, her purrs so strong you can hear them from just a foot away.

“That's so weird. She hardly lets me pick her up, let alone cuddle like that.” Sy smirks.

“I'm just good with pussy.” You throw your head back to laugh. It was a great pun, you'd admit, but the laughter was to also hide how flustered the inneundo made you.

“Shut the fuck up. She probably just thinks you're going to feed her.”

After a second, your feline decides she's had enough and tries to wriggle free. Sy, trying to ignore the claws in his shoulders, bends down to let her go. She sashays away, graceful elegance with attitude and ego rolled into one spoiled animal.

“I've never seen her behave that way with anyone.” Sy just smiles, glad he got the approval of one lady of this house. Animals have always flocked to him, and he to them. But there was always something with cats that intrigued him. The intelligence in their stare, the lethal grace they possessed as predators even while being as domesticated as they are. They're pushy when they want your attention, and make it very well known through pain when they don't. But yet each and every cat has always at least given him a loving rub.

“Where's the other two?” he asks. You start taking out the hamburger, putting it into a bowl before adding seasonings and mixing it all together.

“Probably hiding. Felix doesn't really care for men and Tivahli (tee-vah-lee) is just anti-human.” Sy furrows his brows.

“Tivahli?”

“Yeah. The little gray tabby I have. When I rescued her, she was still so small that the people I got her from thought she was a boy, and so I believed she was a boy. It wasn't until a month ago I picked her up because she was acting weird and felt her hard nipples. Turns out she was in heat, and going through a bit of a rough time.”

“Where did you get her name?” he asks. It sounded so exotic, but the way it flowed from his mouth just felt right.

“Well I had to rename her, and since Stella is named after the Goddess of Night, I kind of wanted to stick with a theme. Google gave me the name of Cleopatra's cat, and I loved it. So now there are two Goddesses and a queen living in this house.” you say, grabbing some of the meat and rolling it into a ball before slapping it back and forth between hands to flatten it into a patty.

The smacking sound from your ministrations reminds Sy of the slapping of hips during a good, back breaking pounding. He has turn to away from you to hide his growing bulge. 'Pull yourself together, jackass.'

The night goes on and you tell Sy about the house you found as you eat dinner. He loves how bright you shine when you get excited, like a those pretty fairy lights you have hanging in your bedroom. He tells you about his day at work and the hell his truck put him through. Once you finish your meal, drowsiness hits you and you're hiding a yawn behind your hand. The sun had long since gone down, and though it was only 7:30, you had been up over 14 hours and worked 10 of them.

“I should probably head out, let you get some sleep.” Sy says, slapping his knee before moving to stand.

“Yeah, I'm exhausted and I gotta be back at 6 tomorrow.” you mumble, moving to stand and follow him out. It's proper manners after all. You follow him to the front door, opening it and stepping out into the hall. Sy turns to face you, and if you weren't so tired, you think you might actually get the nerve to make some kind of move. But it's taking everything in you to keep your eyes open, and Sy isn't about to kiss a woman who is only half awake.

“I guess I will see you around, hopefully.”

“Yeah, I won't be going anywhere until I move.” you say.

“Well if you need any help with that, you just let me know. I got a perfectly good truck. Lots of space in the bed.” He gives his signature double wink.

“I will keep that in mind. Have a good night, Sy.”

“Good night, Y/N.” He takes your hand and kisses the back of it, lingering for a second or two before gently lowering it and stepping down the stairs. You pull your hand to your chest, using your left hand to shut and lock the door and turn lights out as you walk through the house on auto-pilot, mind in a haze at how soft and plump his lips felt against your hand, the red mark from his beard a visual reminder that it wasn't some twisted dream.

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

@weallhavedestiny @identity2212 @m07belzen @bloodyinspiredfuck @queenmalhinewahine @rockandrollbuckaroooo @babypink224221 @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad @corvusmorte 

[biggest-stupidhead]

more modern au levi x reader!! is it okay where reader makes petra jealous???

Just a reminder: WE DO NOT CONDONE PETRA SLANDER IN THIS HOUSE!!!

with that said, I will write this heavily focused on Petra to make it a lil angsty, hope you enjoy!

Summary: Petra watches her ex fall for another

Word Count: 1.7K

__ 

It had been two long years since Petra and Levi ended things. It wasn’t messy but it was painful, she had seen it coming from a mile away. He had grown just as distant as he had been when they first met. Staying late at work, texting her dryly, and using terrible excuses. Although she had known it was coming, she still was a wreck when he actually ended things. She spent the months following the break up drinking wine and crashing at Oluo’s place regularly. After two years she was finally feeling better, dare she say, ready to get back into the dating scene? Or at least that’s what she thought, she was scrolling through her instagram feed when she stumbled across Hange’s page. It was someone’s birthday, someone she wasn’t familiar with. 

A woman with bight eyes and an even brighter smile was in the center of the group photo. On her right was Levi, who had an arm thrown casually over her shoulder, the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. Petra pinched the screen to zoom into Levi’s side, where she saw a feminine hand on his waist. She stared stupidly at the image. She shouldn’t feel jealous, she had no right. It had been two long years since the break up. But the picture only dredged up old memories of times when she would hold Levi that same way. When that smile was directed to her. She then turned her attention to the caption, which read: 

Happy Birthday (Y/n)! 24 never looked so good!

She then scrolled through the comments, many of them consisted of birthday wishes and support. She lost interest when she didn’t see Levi’s username and instead went back to the collection of photos, three of them in all. The group one that she assumed had just been taken, the second one was a picture of Hange and you on the beach, Petra felt a involuntary wave of self consciousness wash over her at the site of you in a swim suite. The final picture was the one that hurt the most though, it seemed to be a very old picture of you, maybe from your early years in college? You were sitting on a couch with younger versions of Hange, Erwin, Levi, and Moblit. Levi’s arm was casually thrown over your shoulders. Why had he never mentioned you before? Were you the reason that they broke up? No Levi had assured her that it wasn’t like that, said he wasn’t seeing anyone else. She tried to stop herself from going down that rabbit hole, but she couldn’t seem to. Before she really knew what she was doing, she had clicked on your profile which she was almost disappointed to find as public. This meant that there was nothing stopping her from judging every perfect image that was posted, and to her pleasant surprise, there was only one photo of you and Levi. The photo was posted the week prior, the two of you were hiking in the mountains, the dusty trial behind you. Your face was flushed from the exertion of the climb, Levi seemed cool as a cucumber, his face blank and void of emotion. She scrolled through the post and found a video, the sound of your shoes crunching and Levi talking behind you were clear as day. 

“I mean come on, who uses fucking Lipton? Have some god damn class.” Levi spat, as you snorted in amusement. Petra found herself chuckling along with you at Levi’s little rant. She felt a rogue tear slide down her cheek when you showed the phone to Levi, who’s face fell from being mildly animated to apathetic once more. You cackled as he swiped the phone and the video ended abruptly. It was so innocent, it was clear from the rest of your page that you were a private person, much like Levi. With little indication that you were dating him, it left her wanting to know more. More about the girl that had taken her place, had managed to worm her way into Levi’s heart of stone and make herself comfortable. As soon as these thoughts crowded into her head, she deleted instagram all together and powered her phone down, determined to wipe her memory of the images she had seen. 

__

The music was a nice distraction from the awkwardness that hung in the air. You had arrived uncharacteristically early to Hange’s party, and consequently meeting a whole group of people that you had never met before. The new people were about your age, three young men and one stunning young woman. It was early fall and Hange’s annual bonfire bash as you all had dubbed the event. Basically you lit a massive fire, when you were younger it was your past assignments from your pervious school year, then it became just regular old wood. You tapped your finger against the cool beer bottle as you leaned up against the counter, the men were laughing obnoxiously as they dropped the alcohol that they’d brought into one of the many coolers. The woman was looking at you almost nervously, she seemed extremely on edge, shifting her weight back and forth, eyes wandering around the room in a jittery manner. You frowned, wondering what was bothering her, but ultimately deciding that it was not really your business. Erwin shimmied behind you, his hands on your shoulders as he slide past you into the kitchen. You caught his arm, clinging to his familiar presence. 

“Erwin.” you hissed as he stooped to reach your level. 

“Who are these people?” you asked as you held his bicep firmly in your grasp. He pulled away and looked at you with a confused expression. 

“You mean Levi didn’t tell you?” He said slowly, clearly he was unsure if it was his place to speak on the relationship between Levi and these people. 

“No....” You said carefully, not wanting to make Erwin uncomfortable. 

“Oh well they used to work in the same department before Levi switched.” He said, he looked over to the men and motioned for them to come over, they ambled over with curious expressions. 

“What’s up Erwin?” the dark haired man asked as he looked between the two of you. 

“Just thought I’d ought to introduce you to (Y/n) here, she’s an old friend of ours from high school.” Erwin explained, his hand still comfortingly placed on your mid back. You waved shyly and smiled at all of them, including the girl. 

“Pleasure to meet you.” The blonde with a ponytail said, outstretching his hand to shake yours. 

“I’m Eld, this is Gunther, Oluo, and that fine young lady over there is Petra.” He said, pointing at all of them respectively. 

“It’s so nice to meet you guys!” you said sweetly as you struck up a conversation with Oluo about what they thought about the department that they worked in. It didn’t go unnoticed that Petra remained nearly silent, her amber eyes wide and a bit fearful. When the interns arrived, the men were quick to go help them carry in the alcohol that they brought, leaving you and Petra alone in the kitchen. You cocked your head at her as you poured some pretzels into a large bowl. The warm glow of the setting sun cast a halo over her head and you couldn’t help but voice your admiration for her. 

“You’re really pretty.” you gushed as she blushed at your words and turned to look at you with wide eyes. 

“So are you...” She returned the compliment and you smiled, feeling more at ease now that the two of you were alone. 

“So how long have you known Hange?” You asked conversationally as you crumpled up the bag and tossed it into the trash. 

“Hm let’s see...about four years now?” She responded with a bit of a wistful tone. 

“Really? I’m surprised we haven’t met sooner!” you chuckled as the two of you opened a bottle of wine and poured it into two large glasses. The two of you strolled out into the bark yard, where Hange and Moblit were chucking large pallets of wood onto the fire pit. You and Petra sat down in two lawn chairs watching as Hange and Moblit bickered over if it was safe enough to light the fire with gasoline. 

“I am too, you seem....like a really nice girl.” Petra said a bit downcast as she looked deeply into her wine. 

“So do you! We should grab breakfast ooo or maybe even brunch sometime!” You said excitedly and Petra sat there in awe, wondering if there was even a mean bone in your body. Or if you had any clue that she had dated Levi. 

“Yeah...this is kind of random but...are you dating Levi?” She blurted out, her face turning to look at you with a flushed expression. You nodded nonchalantly and took another sip of your wine. 

“Yeah we just started dating about a year ago.” You said with a shrug, Petra inhaled, readying herself for the next words that would either make or break the future relationship between the two of you. 

“Did...you know we dated?” she said, cringing when the words left her mouth. She sounded crazy and she knew it, but she felt obligated to clear the air between you before it got bad. 

“Hm I think he mentioned it once or twice, and Hange told me about you when you first started dating.” You said looking up thoughtfully, your tone held no malice or any sign of ill will. 

“You’re not...” 

“Insecure? Nah, and don’t take that like I’m being cocky! I just mean that...” 

“No, no let’s just not do this. I’m sorry for bringing it up. God I’m such a bitch.” Petra went to stand and you followed her, catching her wrist. 

“It’s alright really, I don’t care about what happened between you and Levi. It’s frankly none of my business, I just...wanna be friends with you.” you smiled at her sheepishly as she looked at you with wide eyes. 

“Oh” She managed to say dumbly. 

“That is if you want to be friends.” You said, letting go of her hand and giving her some space. 

“Yeah...I think that I’d like that very much.” Petra said with a bright smile. 

__

In honor of Women’s History month, I couldn’t bare to write something that was a stereotypical jealous ex, so I did the next best thing and wrote this more geared towards the reader and Petra bringing each other up instead of tearing one another down. As someone who was apart of the fandom back in like 2014 I am way too familiar with writers turning Petra into a psycho bitch, and I don’t like that. SO I hope that this is good enough to fit the prompt!