#it's possible some mistakes still snuck in somewhere

[tristrattournament]

Overall Tournament Results

Here's a deeper dive into the tournament results and how each contestant fared! These results don't include the bonus polls, and in cases where two contestants moved on together (Benedict and Orlaea, Julio and Jens) I split their votes between them so that each received half.

I'll be doing some traveling soon so I probably won't start a new tournament right away, but I'm loosely planning to do another one sometime in the future. So feel free to stick around if you're interested, and either way, thanks again to everyone for participating! Running this has really been awesome, and I loved seeing everyone's thoughts on all the different characters. Until next time! :)

Highlights

Character with the most votes across all polls:

Frederica (200 votes)

Poll with the most votes:

Cats vs. Frederica (78 total votes)

Character with the fewest votes across all polls:

Zigmunt: (1 vote) tied with

Kamsell: (1 vote)

Poll with the fewest votes:

Frani vs. Thalas (21 votes)

Biggest smackdown:

Zigmunt vs. Orlaea (1 vote/41 votes or a 2.4%/97.6% difference)

Polls that ended in a tie:

Benedict vs. Orlaea

Jens vs. Julio

Honorable Mention:

Roland! As I was going through the numbers, I noticed that despite not making it to the semifinals let alone the finals, Roland earned third in terms of total votes, and 3/4 of Roland's polls that he was in were included in the top 5 most-voted polls. In terms of votes per poll, Roland was the most voted-on character.

All Results

All characters and their cumulative votes across all polls:

Link to spreadsheet with full results

All polls and their number of total votes:

Link to spreadsheet with full results

[takenbypeter]

Back To the Past

Words: 2655

Based on this request by anonymous:

Hi!Can I make a request?And yes it will be for Peter Maximoff. I recently revised Back to the Future, so I emphasized the idea of traveling to the past from there. The daughter of Peter and the reader, along with the son of Charles (and possibly Moira), who can travel through time, fall into the time of their young parents.(perhaps some villain has gone back in time and this is dangerous for the future of mutants🤷) In the past, Peter and the reader meet by chance.And the reader falls in love with Charles's son and the course of history may change.Therefore, the daughter of Peter and the reader needs to help her father win over the reader.And Peter is like, "What the hell is a girl, she's my best friend!?" And let the daughter of the reader and Peter also have silver hair, and Charles knows who these time travelers are. I don't know how, but I imagine it in the style of old romcoms with jokes and ridiculous situations))) P.S I apologize if there are mistakes or something was unclear, since English is not my native language.

Author’s note: this is the first time I’m writing a fic like this, in like the 3rd person so there may be a you that snuck in there somewhere. Also I haven’t written a long fic like this in years, writing this reminded me of how much I hate writing long fics cause it literally took me two weeks. Anyways this was still a great request I do love back to the future.

Peter and Readers kid’s name is Lena.

Charles and Moira’s kid is name Orson.

“Quick, grab your snack so we can get out of here,” instructed the silver haired girl. 

“Relax Lena, I got this.”

“I’m serious Orson!” And with that being said the boy shot her a wink and set off looking for his sweet treat. 

The girl tapped her foot for a moment before deciding to find something for herself. 

After all, the time travel mission was successful, why not treat herself to something good? 

She strolled through one aisle glancing at the products; some that she easily recognized and others that she’s never even heard of. 

Lena picked up a colorful packet and turned it over before wincing at the excess level of unhealthiness she read on the back. Staring at the contents she overheard a familiar tune in the next aisle. 

Someone was singing. 

It was quiet and clearly to themselves but nevertheless, someone was singing. The more she listened the more she recognized that voice. A smile crept onto Lena’s face as she glanced down remembering the story that she knew that came with that song. 

Was it now? Was this the moment she’s heard so much of?

As she was listening in, something unexpected happened; another voice joined and her smile instantly dropped.

No, no, no. Please no, she begged internally. 

She heard Orson stop after finishing the next line, “I love that song,” said the woman and Lena knew exactly where this was going. 

“Yeah it’s a good one. My friend’s parents listen to it all the time though, it kinda ruined the song for me.”

You heard her let out a light chuckle before saying, “What?! Don’t blame them for having good taste.”

Lena heard Orson laugh that dumb laugh he did when he found someone attractive. “Oh I blame them plenty, I know tons of better songs.”

That seemed to pique the interest of the woman, “yeah? Like what?”

Lena couldn’t just stand here and let this happen. 

So what did she do? She headed straight to the next aisle grabbing the boy by his ear, “I’m sorry this is my brother and he tends to get lost,” she emphasized growling at him before turning back to the woman, “you have a great day,” she said, walking away with Orson in hand. 

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow,” he winced as the silver haired girl yanked his ear through the aisles. 

“Are you crazy?” She asked once out of earshot from the woman. The poor boy held his ear in pain, “no, but you clearly are.”

“Don’t you know who that is?”

His nose scrunched and his eyebrows pulled downwards in thought.

“That voice. That song. You seriously didn’t recognize her?”

After a few moments of thought his jaw dropped as it all finally clicked, “that’s your mom? She was hot!” He shouted earning a slap on the back of his head from Lena. 

“I swear if you don’t want me to light your butt on fire, you’ll do the smart thing and shut up right now.”

He held his hands up, palms open in defense, “okay, okay. That’s your mom, so what?”

Lena opened her mouth but got interrupted when she spotted her mother walking in their direction again. “She’s coming, shut up, she’s coming,” you said, quickly switching your expression from anger to calm and collected as she drew closer. 

“Hi, excuse me sorry, I just wanted to give this,” she held out a little piece of paper with a name and numbers scribbled on it, “to…” she paused waiting for her blank space to be filled.

“Orson,” he said while Lena practically glared daggers at the boy who took it.

“Orson,” repeated Lena’s mother, “well maybe you could give me a call and we could talk music some more.”

Orson nodded and the woman smiled before heading towards the cash register. And while Orson watched her mom walk away he got another smack upside his head, causing him to yell another, ow! 

Lena tugged him towards the door, “you’re so stupid, don’t you realize what you did?”

“What did I do?”

They exited the convenience store walking until they stopped a few cars away. 

“Don’t you remember how my mom and dad met?”

“Yeah, she was singing a song inside the store and then when she came out, she heard Peter singing the next line outside…” his words faltered before he let out another laugh, “yeah but that wasn’t here that was at the North Side…” he started while Lena pointed at the name of the store, Orson’s next words faltering at the realization. He hissed some air, finally understating the crucial mistake he’d made. 

“But you don’t know, that doesn’t mean anything.”

The store’s door swung open and Lena and Orson instinctively hid behind the truck in front of them, peering over the hood, watching Lena’s mother walk right past, you guessed it, Peter who was lazily sitting on a picnic table too busy with the popsicle in his mouth. 

“You’ve killed me. You’ve literally killed me,” Lena concludes. All attention got distracted as the red truck they were behind started up and the owner shot them a dirty look before driving off. 

“Oh, no, no, no, no, we’ve gotta fix this.”

“Fix this? It’ll be fine, let's just go back.” 

“Are you mad!? What if we go back and I’m already gone.”

The two kids stood in silence, minds wracking for a good idea when Lena finally snapped her fingers, ”we’ve gotta find Xavier.”

Agreeing that Xavier was the safest bet they had, they traveled to the mansion (figuring it was in the exact same location, which it was). The mansion was small, at least compared to how it was in the present day. 

Easily hopping past the gates the two knocked on the doors. After a few moments the door creaked open revealing a man in well dressed clothes wearing glasses. 

“Can I help you?” He asked and at his voice the two shared a look recognizing Hank McCoy’s voice. 

Lena took the lead, “we’re here looking for Charles Xavier.”

Hank shut the door slightly, no doubt to prevent them from seeing inside, “I’m sorry, what is this regarding?”

“It’s alright Hank,” the door opened revealing Charles as he wheeled himself closer, “let them in.”

Once inside the four made their way to a more secluded area, passing a few recognizable mutants until they got to their destination. Once inside Xavier’s office, Hank shuts the door and joins everyone by the desk. 

Inside, the two begin to explain everything; the mission, the convenience store, the fear of what the future may bring. And throughout it all Charles listens intently, taking it all in, until finally at the end he gives his own thoughts. “This is a tough situation, and I’m no exact expert on time travel but I believe Lena is correct. Because right now we don’t know for sure if these two individuals do get together, you can’t precisely tell what’ll happen to Lena if you go back.”

The professor looks to Hank who still wears a confused expression on his face, “I’m sorry, I’m still a little perplexed, are we talking about Peter Maximoff?” Lena nodded while Hank asked another query, “he got hitched?” The question was more rhetorical as Charles shot him a look of amusement before turning back to the children. 

“I think your safest bet would be to somehow make the two come together naturally.”

“And how do we do that?”

“Well that’s for you two to figure out now isn’t it?”

“What? Us?” Said Orson.

“You’re the ones who got yourselves into this mess so it’s your job to get yourself out of it.”

After interrupting a few excuses from the two Charles sent them on their way. 

“Okay, think,” started Lena as the two now paced back and forth outside the mansion racking their brains for ideas, “how do we get them in the same place?”

“At least we have a way to get your mom there,” said Orson.

Lena turned to Orson, her paces stopping, “how?”

A smile widening on his face he reached into his pocket pulling out the piece of paper from earlier.

“You kept her number?! Why did you keep her number?!”

The boy shrugged.

“Get rid of it!”

“What? No, we need this, I’ll ask your mom out and she’ll go to…wherever it is and we just have to make sure your dad’s there too.”

“And how do we do that?” 

The two join in thought again, finding this part slightly harder than the rest. Orson claps his hands, breaking Lena’s thought process, “first we find him, then BOOM, you flirt with him.”

Lena’s eyes widened before she squinted them, “that’s disgusting, I’m not flirting with my dad.”

“Oh come on, it won't be that hard.”

“You’ve lost your mind—lost it.”

“Well if you don’t then we have to find someone else to help us.”

“Wait!” You shout making the boy stop, “why don’t we just get one of his friends to ask him to meet up at the same place?”

Orson snapped his fingers at your words, before his expression grew confused again, “but who?” The two stop and think as a familiar figure wearing a long yellow jacket conveniently passes by causing the two to share a look before they go after the figure.

“Let me get this straight, you two are from the future, and you messed up our time, so now you need to fix it by having Peter go to this arcade, roller rink at seven o’clock?” Jubilee asked, sitting at a picnic table with the two kids. 

Jubilee let out a single laugh, “you gotta know how suspicious this all sounds, it sounds like a trap.”

Lena held her hands out, “it’s not I swear.” Jubilee raised an eyebrow at the young girl. “Okay, the truth is we’re not just from the future, I’m Peter’s daughter and he,” she pointed at her male counterpart, “messed up big time. I just want to make sure everything goes back to the way it was, so I’m still…me,” she finished her head hanging low. 

Maybe it was because of how desperate Lena sounded, or maybe it was because Jubilee knew how it felt to make a mistake. Or maybe it was the fact that Lena’s gray hair seemed to back up her story of being Peter’s daughter. Whatever it was, Jubilee agreed. 

After Jubilee agreed Orson made sure to call Lena’s mother asking her out to the same venue and time. Now all the two had to do was wait. 

Once getting to the planned location ten minutes earlier than planned the two waited anxiously as the minutes passed by. 

“Okay I don’t think we thought this through enough,” Lena said, worry hidden in her voice.

“We got them together, what more is there?”

“Just because we got them in the same room doesn’t mean we got them together. What if they don’t talk to each other?”

Orson opened his mouth to say something but his gaze shifted past Lena before pulling her towards him as they hid behind a nearby wall. 

“Guess we’re about to find out,” he says as the two watch Lena’s mom enter the building. 

Watching from afar Orson fully hid as the woman glanced around. 

After not finding who she's looking for, she takes a seat at the tables near the arcade. 

After about two minutes in came Jubilee followed by Peter who headed straight to the arcade portion of the building. Jubilee instantly spots the two kids and once separating herself from the speedster she heads towards them. 

“Hey, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is you keep him busy for twenty minutes then you leave and we’ll try to get her,” Orson points across the building at the woman sitting all alone, “to him.”

Jubilee nodded before going back to Peter. 

Fifteen minutes go by while the two descendants try to come up with something, anything to say to get the woman to the other side of the building. 

When the two seem to not come to an agreement Lena stands up and walks to the woman herself. “Where are you going? Lena. Lena!” Whispered Orson as he hid behind the wall again.

Walking by her mom Lena faked a surprise expression before stopping, “hey, I know you! You’re the girl from the convenience store earlier.”

Her mom smiled, “oh yeah, good to see you again,” she paused looking around and it pained Lena to know who she was looking for. 

“Is your brother here? We sorta had plans tonight.”

Lena brought her eyebrows together acting confused, “that’s weird. I asked my brother to come tonight and he said he had a date with a friend of ours at the movie theaters.”

“Oh.” She sounded so dejected.

“But hey, he literally does this all the time, he’s just the worst. But just cause he’s dumb doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, there's a new game at the arcade you have to try, you point over to the silver haired boy, “why don’t you head on over and I’ll join you soon.”

She got up and did as told while you punched the air in a mini victory. Jubilee, noticing the girl coming over, told Peter she would grab a drink leaving the man alone. 

Both Jubilee and Orson joined Lena as they observed Lena’s mom watch her dad play. 

Lena taps her foot nervously, “this isn’t enough. What if they don’t talk?”

Orson put a hand on her shoulder, “relax I got this covered.” Without explaining any further he leaves evading towards the DJ booth. 

With nothing to relax her nerves Lena turns to the pair again. 

Over by the games Lena’s mom just watched as the silver haired boy was in the process of beating the hi-score. With her eyes and his eyes glued to the screen in front of them, she said “you’re really good,” half not expecting him to take notice, but he did.

“Nah, I just play a lot. If it were up to me I’d be here for hours,” he said.

A few quiet moments passed between the two before a familiar song played overhead. “Ugh, of course they play this song,” the girl growled under her breath.

That seemed to catch the attention of the speedster, “what’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, a guy just stood me up and we kinda met to this song.”

A light chuckle came out of Peter’s mouth, “you shouldn’t let someone else ruin a song for you.”

“Yeah, easier said than done.”

A silence fell over the two excluding the sounds of buttons and music, until Peter spoke up again, “you know what could distract you from all that?”

She says nothing except peers curiously as the boy’s hands leave the controller causing the game over screen to take over. He turns to her for the first time that night with a smile before saying, “a video game.”

Across the building the three watch as Peter gets off from his chair. “Wait, what’s happening?” Lena asks, looking on while her mother replaces where Peter sat. They watch as her mother takes the joystick in her hand while Peter talks, seemingly explaining how to play.

“I think…we just did it,” Jubilee responded. 

“…we did it.” Lena whispered, “we did it!” She repeated turning toward Orson who wore a smile of success on his lips. The two turn to Jubilee and thank her before collecting themselves. “I think it’s safe to head back now,” Lena says, turning to Orson who nods. With goodbyes to their new/old friend they wave with one last, “see you in the future,” from Lena, while Orson holds onto her shoulder. With that being said the two disappear with a spark, leaving Jubilee wondering how it all turned out. 

Guess she’ll just have to wait till the future to find out.

[dreamerstreamer]

Lucky Catch

Pairing: Dream / Clay x gn!reader

Summary: Being lucky has never been your forte, but a chance encounter with a stranger starts making you think otherwise.

Word Count: 3.0k

Warnings: mentions of being followed/creep behaviour (stay safe!)

A/N: inspired by a scary incident i had a while back (but i’m a-okay) that i thought i could spin into something happier!! i hope you guys like this little tid-bit :)

I must be the unluckiest person in the world, you thought to yourself as you turned another corner on the block.

Above you, the sky had only just begun to turn a pale shade of pretty pink, lavender seeping into the shadows of the clouds. The sun was slowly dipping closer and closer toward the horizon, and with each passing second, the footsteps following you grew a fraction louder—drew a fraction closer. Your heart tightened uncomfortably in your chest, your blood rushing through your ears.

Of all the people who could have been followed by some inevitable creep, you just had to be one of them.

The city was still as loud as ever around you, the streets full of bustling cars driven by tired people making their way home after rush hour just like you. At first, you didn’t believe someone was following you—after all, it wasn’t like you were the only person walking down the street. But the farther you walked, the closer the steps drew, and each time you snuck a glance over your shoulder, you caught the same face peeking back at you through the crowd.

You felt sick.

Your head spun with a million hazy thoughts, your brain just barely managing to piece together a plan with your pounding chest. Should I run home? You chewed on your lip. No, I don’t want them finding out where I live. What would my roommate do? I have my keys on me, but I don’t know if I could throw someone off me. I can try to disappear into the crowd.

You could feel a bead of sweat form on the back of your neck as you picked up the pace, the footsteps behind you following suit. Anxiety lapped at the pit of your stomach, fear crawling up the hollow of your throat and squeezing like a vice.

What do I do?

Up ahead of you, you could see the people filling the sidewalk start to die down a little, and your heart sank. Well, there went that plan.

But just then, a tall figure stepped out into the path a few feet ahead of you, and you felt a pair of eyes lock onto yours. Emerald green bore straight into you, and you blinked.

The man standing in front of you was tall, almost overwhelmingly so, his dirty blond hair gently tousled by the warm, summer breeze. Donning a simple lime hoodie, you watched with rapt attention as his gaze darted behind you, his eyes flashing before meeting yours once more. Although he didn’t utter a single word, it almost felt like he read your mind.

Do you need help?

Swallowing thickly, you nodded your head as subtly as you could, praying that the desperation was clear enough on your face for him to read.

Please.

In an instant, his pursed lips melted into an easygoing smile, and he opened his arms up in front of you. Recognition clicked in your head, and you suddenly began sprinting towards him. Sucking in a deep breath, you felt your heart do a nervous flip as you leapt toward him, your arms outstretched.

In one fell swoop, his arms were wrapped around your torso, catching you in a swift hold before pressing you close to his chest. You sank into his warmth, letting your shoulders go slack. The soft smell of pine filled your senses as you felt him spin your around once, a chuckle rumbling through his chest.

“Hey, there,” he said, and you were shocked by just how kind his voice sounded, “did you miss me?”

Leaning back, you gazed up at him with a look of wonder. God, he really was pretty up close, and you did your best to plaster a smile to your face and nod. “Did I keep you waiting for long?” you managed to warble, playing along the best you could.

The stranger shook his head at you, ducking down to press his lips to your forehead. Heat flooded your chest at the feeling, and your heart swelled.

“Not at all,” he murmured against your skin.

When he pulled back, you watched as his eyes flickered over your shoulder, his fingers still protectively curled around your waist. A moment passed with his hands still pressed against you, and then he let out a breath, his grip loosening.

“They’re gone,” he said simply, and you let yourself practically crumple with relief.

“Oh, thank god,” you breathed, stepping back with a grateful grin. You already felt the weight lifted off your shoulders, but an apologetic smile danced on your lips. “I am so sorry about this. I don’t know when they started following me, and I just didn’t know what to do—“

He sent you a crooked grin, and you felt your stomach churn with butterflies. “Don’t worry about it, really.” His eyes narrowed almost dangerously. “I saw them trailing after you, and I couldn’t just let them follow you home like that.”

Your entire front felt like it was on fire. Even though you were just a stranger to him, he was so kind, and the very thought made your gut erupt with butterflies.

“Thank you so much. You really saved me there…”

You trailed off when you realized you didn’t even know his name. How could it feel so natural to be in the arms of someone whose name you didn’t even know?

“Clay,” he suddenly said, his eyes snapping back to yours. Your soul burned with want. “The name’s Clay.”

You nodded your head, half-feeling like a broken bobblehead. “Thank you, Clay.” You reached your hand out toward him with a lopsided smile. “I definitely did this in the wrong order, but I’m [Y/N].”

The laugh that tumbled from Clay’s lips sounded like straight music to your ears. I could listen to him laugh forever, you thought distantly. Reaching over, he gripped your hand in his, shaking it warmly with a smile. Your fingers wanted to stay wrapped around his forever.

“It’s nice to meet you, [Y/N], and I’m glad I was able to help you out.” His eyes darted down to the watch on his wrist, and he raised a brow at you. “Did you possibly have somewhere you needed to be, by the way? I’d hate to keep you here.”

Your eyes shot wide open. “Oh gosh, my roommate is probably worried sick about me. I promised them I’d be back by now.”

His fingers twitched around yours for a moment, almost like he didn’t want to let go. But then, his hand was dropping away from yours as he sent you a fond, melancholic look. “Try to stay safe on your way back, yeah?”

You nodded, giving him another appreciative look. “I’ll do my best.” Rushing ahead of him, you waved over your shoulder. “Thanks so much, again!”

Clay waved back at you as you darted down the street toward your apartment, but as you tore you eyes away from him, you couldn’t help but feel your heart sink. You had only just opened the front door to your apartment when another realization struck you.

Crap—I should have asked for his number.

Even as your roommate shook you by the shoulders back and forth, concern etched onto her features as she began to interrogate you, all you could think about was the warmth of Clay’s arms circled around you and the tinkling sound of his laughter.

You really were the unluckiest person in the world.

“[Y/N], don’t lose me!”

You can only barely make out the sound of your roommate’s voice as you squeeze your way through the crowd. Why you agreed to come with her to such a busy event, you still don’t know. You hardly even knew what it was the event was about. Something about meeting a popular YouTuber? You could hardly remember, now.

“This is, like, the biggest event in the history of YouTube, ever!” she had yelled at you. “You have to come with me.”

And like the good roommate you were, you had agreed, but mostly just because she told you that there would be free food.

But now, a day and a half later, and there was no food to be seen—especially not the free kind. Instead, all you could see was an ocean of people, and you were absolutely positive you were drowning in them.

I’m hungry, you internally whined. Your stomach growled, and you rubbed your hand over your frontside with a muffled moan. This was a mistake.

Even as your stomach growled, you tried to focus your attention on the situation at hand. Biting back a groan, your fingers squeezed at your stomach—being hungry wasn’t the important part, now. What was important was that you had somehow managed to get pushed ahead of your roommate from within the throng of people packed into the massive atrium.

“At least try to stay with me, will you?” you grunted over the horde of people around you. You narrowly dodged an elbow being pressed into your face, blindly reaching your hand behind you toward where your roommate had been just a moment prior. “I don’t want to have to go looking for you later.”

As soon as your fingertips brushed against warm skin, you quickly latched your hand into the one you had just brushed up against, holding on as tightly as you could manage before tugging. “Follow me—I’m getting us out of here.”

There was no resistance behind you as you began walking forward, pushing your way through the crowd toward what you could only hope was the edge of the room. Why was everybody pushing towards the stage, anyways? Was there supposed to be someone important up there?

With a few more tugs forward and the occasional apology spilling from your lips, you found yourself bursting out from the crowd and into an open space, your shoulders sinking with relief at the lack of people pressing in against you. You grinned as you straightened, squeezing your roommate’s hand in yours. Was her hand always this big and warm?

“We made it,” you breathed, turning. “Can we get something to eat, no—”

The words died in your mouth as you looked up into the emerald green eyes gazing back at you.

Oh no. This wasn’t your roommate.

“Um, hi,” he said, offering you a lopsided smile. “Fancy meeting you here, [Y/N].”

Your eyes felt like they were about to bulge out of your head.

“Clay?” you blurted.

His grin only grew wider. “That’s me.”

Your gaze darted down to your connected hands, his fingers wrapped around yours warmly. Immediately, you stumbled back, looking and feeling like an absolute blubbering mess.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry. I was here with my roommate, and I thought you were her.” You sheepishly peeled your eyes away from him, your face growing hot with embarrassment. “I swear I don’t do this kind of thing on the regular.”

He barked out a laugh, and your insides felt fuzzy. You didn’t want to admit how much you missed hearing that laugh.

“I was gonna say,” he said, cocking a teasing brow at you, “both of our meetings have been pretty forward of you.”

You buried your face in your hands, letting out an embarrassed whine. “Do not remind me. I can’t believe I got you roped into my shenanigans, again.”

You felt a hand gently pat your shoulder, and you peeked out from between your fingers to see him smiling kindly at you. “It’s no biggie, really. I wouldn’t mind meeting you like this more often, or just in general.”

Your jaw dropped. “Really?”

He nodded. “Really.” Slipping his hand into his pocket, you watched in awe as he fished out his phone and held it out to you. “Here, give me your number. I’d love to take you out sometime.” He glanced up at you, looking almost shy. “Maybe we can even grab a bite to eat after this?”

Your heart skipped a beat. Was he for real? Was someone this handsome and this sweet really asking you out?

It looked like your luck had turned around, for once.

Gingerly taking his phone from his hands, you nodded. “That sounds nice.”

As you began entering your contact information, you felt Clay fidget next to you. “You said you came here with your roommate?” he prompted after a moment.

Your lips quirked. “Yeah—she begged me to come with her today. I kind of forgot who she wanted to see, though.” Your brows knitted together. “I think she said something about a face reveal?”

Next to you, Clay had gone oddly still for a moment, but as soon as you were handing his phone back to him, he brightened, a smile tugging on his lips. “Ah, so she’s a fan and you’re here to accompany her?”

You nodded. “Yep! But I don’t regret coming, since I…” You gulped, your face growing warm once more. “Since I got to see you.”

You could have sworn you caught a dust of pink colouring Clay’s cheeks when all of a sudden, a familiar face popped out from the crowd.

“[Y/N]! There you are!”

Before you could even blink, your roommate was barrelling into your side, her arms clutching tightly onto you. “Where did you go?” she whined into your hair. “I thought I had lost you.”

In front of you, you watched as Clay tried to stifle a laugh, and you gently pried her off your arm as you let out an awkward laugh. “This is what you get for bringing me to such a busy place and not even trying to stick with me.”

She sent you an apologetic look. “Sorry. I just got so caught up in the rush.” Glancing over to her side, she blinked in surprise. “Oh, was I interrupting something?”

You opened your mouth to reply, but Clay spoke first. “Ah, no. I actually have to get going in a second.”

Your face wilted. He had to go?

His eyes met yours once more, and he must have sensed your sadness, because not even a second later, he was gently smiling at you.

“But I promise I’ll text you right after.”

Just like that, and you had brightened again. Waving at you, he slipped toward the side of the stage, opening a door that presumably led somewhere backstage. Oh, you thought, maybe he’s working here for the event.

You were pulled away from your staring by your roommate’s tugging at your arm. “[Y/N], who was that? He‘s cute.”

You felt your stomach twist again, but this time, not out of hunger. “You remember the guy I told you saved me from that creep?”

Her eyes widened. “That was him? You didn’t tell me he was so good-looking!” You laughed at the way her grip on your arm tightened. “Did you give him your number? What’s his name?”

“Yes, actually,” you hummed, puffing your chest up in pride, “and his name’s Clay.” Your head spun with dizzy, pink affection. “He’s really sweet.”

Your roommate fell quiet beside you, her fingers suddenly going slack against you. At her silence, you turned to shoot her a confused look. “Did I say something wrong?”

Her face was pale, her eyes as wide as saucers as she blinked blankly. “Y-You said his name was Clay?” she croaked, sounding like she was forcing the words out.

You raised a brow at her. “Uh, yes? Are you oka—”

You didn’t get the chance to finish your sentence when the lights in the atrium suddenly grew dim and the room erupted into screams. A single spotlight shone on the front stage, and you watched a brunet man stepped out from behind the crimson red curtains.

“Thank you for your patience, everyone!” he called into his mic, his British accent echoing loudly through the speakers scattered across the room. “It’s been years in the making, but are you all finally ready to meet the world’s most popular Minecraft content creator face-to-face—to finally see the one and only Dream in the flesh?”

The crowd’s screams grew even louder, and you furrowed your brows. Dream? You felt like you recognized that name, but from where, you didn’t have a clue.

You peeked over at your roommate, who was still as pale as a sheet. You were surprised that she wasn’t screaming her own head off. “Aren’t you excited?” you whispered. “Isn’t this the guy you wanted to see?”

She stood stock still, her eyes still trained on the stage with frozen, unwavering attention.

“I already have,” she whispered, sounding absolutely star-struck.

What?

The man on stage smiled at just how loud the audience had grown, and he stepped to the side. “You all certainly sound excited.” Gesturing to the curtains, he dipped into a dramatic bow. “Then, without further ado, here he is!”

In a flash, the spotlight almost seemed to glow even brighter, and the curtains flew to the side. Out stepped a tall, blond man with the most dazzling grin you’d ever seen.

A grin you’d seen twice, now.

All of a sudden, all the pieces suddenly fell into place as Clay took a step forward, waving at the masses. The screams of the crowd had grown to become absolutely deafening, and despite their overwhelming volume, it felt almost like you could hardly hear them at all.

Oh, you thought, the realization sinking deep into your bones. Oh.

So that was why your roommate was absolutely losing her mind, gaping at the stage with nothing short of pure amazement. That was why Clay had seemed so surprised when you told him you didn’t know who this event was even about.

On the stage, Clay’s emerald eyes swept across the audience before landing on you. He must have caught the surprised look on your face, because a split second later, he was sending you a knowing wink from across the room. Someone in the audience screamed at the sight, and you couldn’t stop yourself from winking back, your heart doing a somersault between your lungs.

Maybe you really were luckier than you thought.

[natewriteslol]

The Wonders of Magic Pt. 1

Non magical!Twisted Boys x Witch!Reader

A/N: This has been sitting in my brain for a while since I have Little Witch Academia brainrot and I love snooty rich boys asdfljsfaj

Characters: Keep reading to find out!!

Warnings: Language and Y/N goes by she/her pronouns 

Summary: Dealing with magical adventures and society deeming magic as “flashy but worthless” doesn’t deter Y/N L/N from reaching her goal of becoming a powerful witch. However, what will she do when she has to find a way to stop the selling Calypso Academy? 

~~~

All your life you had dreamed of being a witch, however there was a slight problem. You weren't a magic user.

And as magic use had started to become more oppressed and scarce, magic schools were starting to open their doors to all walks of life. Making the most elite schools fall to their knees.

Either you lose your elite status or fall into debt.

So this was good opportunity for you, you managed to make it into one of the most renowned magic schools in the country, Calypso Academy. But it wasn't all peaches and cream, you weren't exactly accepted among your peers. Your family weren't magic users, nor were they wealthy. Yet you still pursued magic, there was a fire burning in your heart that just drew you in all your life. And you couldn't let your dream go just because of some mean girls. But this is the story of how you met some of your greatest obstacles.

 ~~~

It was the night of the great Ball, Calypso academy was having it's 350th anniversary. And you unlucky for you, you still didn’t know how to ride a broom since you were learning from the ground up. 

So there you were, by yourself, in one of the open fields of your campus. Trying to make this broom fly. 

And in your flight teacher Ms. Flint’s words, “If the broom doesn’t leave the ground, you can’t step a foot in the ball.” And so far, your feet have been stuck on the ground.

You felt horrible. I mean, what witch doesn’t know how to fly a broom? And while you were incredibly dejected

 from your failures, you knew you couldn’t just let it go. 

‘The trick it to be determined, yet feel as light as a feather. Be one with the broom’ your manifestation teacher, Mrs. Fairi had softly advised. You had to do this for for her, she already put so much faith in you, she would be so disappointed if she didn’t see you at the ball. 

“Nubes Volant ro!” You casted, pushing your leg to lift. Expecting your legs to come back down and for your shoes to hit the softness of the grass... but it never came.

You opened your eyes and there you were, suspended in air. 

Your excitement was indescribable, but you needed to be skilled enough to meet the requirements for Ms. Flint. So you tried and tried again, and while a little shaky you still managed to fly and do a stable landing! 

“I did it! Screw everyone in this academy who doubted me!” You  squealed a little loud, doing a little dance. You heard  footsteps and chuckling, but you brushed it off as some of your classmates. Too excited to care, you grabbed your things and ran off to show Ms. Flint.   But there was one problem, the entire point of this celebration was to both celebrate the anniversary but... it was begging as well. It was no secret that Calypso was losing money to pay taxes, but they were being pressured to give it all up. So to persuade the buyers, they had invited their son's to be enriched in witch culture and tradition. To prove them wrong and show that magic has value. However the students of the academy weren't aware of the true intentions behind the invites of the son's of these rich men. Many whispered in the halls about the upcoming ceremony. Talking about how handsome the young men attending were. But the day of the party was finally here! The banquet was absolutely incredible with 25 foot tables of food on both sides of the ballroom. Crystal chandeliers with floating candles illuminating and creating a heavenly golden light. And the great ancient tapestries that surrounded the room. There was no way that anything could mess up your night. 

But then, you heard a shout from a classmate in the crowd. "The nobles sons! They're here!" You stopped stuffing your face for a moment. Everyone cleared the way for the grand wooden doors as they opened, a red carpet elegantly draping the piece of floor it laid on. Designer shoes clicked as they touched the ground. Every girl eyes followed as they walked, you snuck past some trying to get a glimpse of their features. They were five of them being escorted by one older gentleman, all incredibly handsome young men. One had a bright smile that was genuine and waving at some of the girls in the crowd. While the other had a smirk not paying anyone any mind, as if he was calculating something. One held a solemn expression, yet was incredibly poised and graceful. The last two however wore scowls, one that showed he most definitely didn’t want to be here while the other just looked strict. 

They sat down in their seats in the front table that awaited them. Each seat was just as fancy as a king’s throne, with gold embellishments and velvet seats. 

It was a cookie cut scene, they were made for this life of luxury.

~~~

It was an hour into the ceremony, showcasing tricks and theatrical dances from every witch culture from around the globe. But it was almost as though nothing was satisfying them, besides the one with white hair. While he adorned a smile, there was something behind his eyes, as though he was doing some critical thinking. 

Nothing was enough for them. 

But it was toward the end and the noble’s sons were promised a tour. Every witch in the school was made to study up on knowledge of the campus. So that if you were the “lucky winner” you wouldn’t look like a complete fool. 

As you snacked on your chocolate filled croissant, Ms. Flint with her booming voice had called everyone’s attention to the center of the stage. Raising her wand, a split of golden light had displayed random names. 

Knowing your luck, you knew you wouldn’t be picked. I mean this was probably a tactic to get people to study the school’s magical history. It did work, as if there was a slight chance you were chosen you wouldn’t want to make a fool out of yourself in front of people like you usually did. But, Principal Hendrix wouldn’t be so irresponsible as to let a random student represent the school, right? 

Exactly. But even then, you sure did feel sorry for whoever was to give the tour-

“Y/N L/N!”

...

Remember what you said about shitty luck? 

Shocked was an understatement. Even though you had your two best and only friends Silva and Miete patting you on the back telling you congrats and to do your best, the hammering of your heart was too heavy for you to handle. 

Whispers broke out for a moment, a lot of girls were incredibly disappointed but cleared the way for you to go up the stairs and talk to Ms. Flint and Principal Hendrix. 

“Good job, Y/N. Now if you wouldn’t mind, please give these young men a tour of Calypso, would you?” Principle Hendrix said gently with a smile.

“Ha, ha, of course! But surely there’s been a mistake, I mean Lydia could probably recite the information without having to read a single book-” 

“No way, L/N. You were chosen, now do the tour please, the latest you can be back is at 9pm,” Ms. Flint replied, cutting you off sharply. 

“You’re an incredibly charismatic student, Y/N. Just keep them entertained,” Principle Hendrix whispered as you walked toward the table.

Be charismatic, not awkward! Got it!

“Alrighty then! Who’s ready for a tour?” you said, almost giving finger guns as a mechanism. 

“Oh, I am!” 

“Yes,  I’ve been wanting to see the range of this property in person.”

“Yes, I would like to get this over with. I have an appointment tomorrow and I would not like to miss it.”

Other than that, all you received was a nod and an eye roll. But it’s better not to pry and ask for more from them. 

Each getting out of their seats, you walked outside. Hearing cheers from the crowd and the occasional “Vil! I love you!” which made you a little embarrassed. 

Feeling the night breeze and seeing the stars poke through calmed you down slightly, it was 7:45 and all you had to do was blabber at them about the school until 9. 

Easy task, Y/N. Easy!

~~~

Once you got outside, the tour had been running smoothly for only a couple of minutes. But you couldn’t help but feel as though they started scanning you, as if they saw you from somewhere. Until unfortunately, the sunshine of the group’s lightbulb had went off. 

“Oh! You’re the girl with the broomstick towards the front of the school! You looked so happy practicing.” 

“There must be a mistake-”

“Are you sure? If so then I guess you have a doppelganger” the boy with glasses teased. 

“Didn’t you say, ‘Screw everyone at this academy’?” the short, red head questioned, persecuting your behavior. 

“Well some people here aren’t exactly the nicest. It was just an excitement of the moment thing, sorry,” You said, trying to get Mr. Non-Rule Breaker off your back. 

~~~

So... you had accidently overshared about your adventures on campus. 

It had all started when one of the boys looked shocked that the ancient Willow tree was thriving and looking beautiful as ever. When he looked at it from pictures given to him, it was completely lifeless and grey. 

“This tree, it looks completely different? It’s been sickly for years! How is this possible?” He asked, as his main piece of evidence the white haired boy gave to his father to buy this property was foiled. 

“Oh, that was me. They had willow worms in the roots that were ready to hatch and I accidently brought them out,” you said, a little prideful, yet it was quickly stomped out.

“That is highly irresponsible, you should’ve had a professional complete that task, not an inexperienced student,” the red haired boy scoffed, it seemed as though he didn’t respect this school at all. Yet the boy with grey hair and glasses paid him no mind, still incredibly astonished, but it was quickly wiped from his face and replaced with a somewhat of a sour look. As though you beat him at some game he was playing.

“...Interesting. I never knew magic could do something of that caliber,” he remarked,  pushing up his glasses. 

“Magic is incredibly useful, Mr...” 

Shit. You didn’t get their names...

“My apologies, I didn’t catch your guy’s names,” you said, placing a hand behind your head. 

You had never in your life seen a group of people get so surprised, besides the other white haired boy, who was happy to tell you his name. 

“I’m Kalim, Kalim-Al-Asim!” he said, shaking your hand with a vigor, “It’s a little funny that you don’t know who we are, but I like that about you!” 

How was it funny? You’ve never seen these people in your entire life? The blonde man was especially offended as you glanced at him for his name. 

“Vil Schoenheit. Actor, singer, dancer, beauty influenc-” 

“Hmmm, Vil I can’t help but feel that you’re angry at Ms. L/N for not knowing who you are,” the boy with glasses remarked before taking your hand, “Azul Ashengrotto, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

“I’m Riddle Rosehearts,” the short red-haired boy said.

“...Leona Kingscholar.” 

“Alright, I’m glad I got your names! Let’s get a move on! I have got to show you some more stuff!” you said before moving along, gaining more confidence as you talked to them. 

Maybe this tour wasn’t so bad after all!

~~~

Coming up:

“How did you not know who the noble’s sons are?!” Miette yelled, but her soft voice wasn’t exactly giving the shocking boom to emphasize her feelings.

“I’m sorry! Everything was completely fine after that, if this whole tour was such a big deal then I would’ve studied them more instead of the school,” you said, completely pooped out from last night. 

So much pressure on you made you very tired out, and all of these new details coming out made you feel even more guilty for your half-assed tour. 

[aminiatureworld]

Interest

Characters: Albedo, gn!reader

Word Count: 1,508

Warnings: None

Premise: Sometimes emotions can be confusing. In those times it can be easier to shut down. After all, wouldn’t finding the truth out be scarier?

In which the reader assumes their character is disinterested, and pulls away.

Author’s Note: It’s only been a week but it feels like ages! Too bad I only had time for one character tonight. I can’t wait to write for multiple characters again (hopefully tomorrow haha).

Anyways Albedo, you’re such a comfort character it was so wonderful to write you again!

Albedo

You didn’t become friends with Albedo in the “traditional” way. There was no moment when you two sat down and had a chat, neither one of you offered to go to the other’s house, and certainly there was no “want to be friends?” It was more that you had stayed and Albedo, in return, hadn’t chased you away. Eventually the idea of friendship just sort of became an implication. After all, if you hadn’t gotten kicked out already, safe to say Albedo didn’t dislike you, right?

No, you were quite sure Albedo didn’t dislike you. But did he like you? That question was a completely different one. And you were well aware of that fact.

At first you tried to find out the answer to the question. Observation: Albedo appeared neither to hold any particular affection for you, or any particular disdain. Hypothesis: Albedo doesn’t like being particularly affectionate towards anyone, so the fact that he’s let you stay on this long means he probably likes you at least as a friend, and might be open to more. Experiment: Try your best.

And you did try your best, looking back you really couldn’t say that you didn’t. Whether it was bringing flowers for him to study – then mash into paints – or making your way painstakingly through the papers he let you read – which usually flew half over your head – so that you could ask him questions about it the next day. You really did try. You were early to every meeting the two of you had, something Albedo seemed to copy after a while, and you were quick to offer your help in any way possible. Making yourself useful and always being there, surely Albedo would notice that. You even snuck in the occasional compliment, the occasional comment about how you were so happy to have someone like him in your life. Still, your experiment didn’t seem too successful.

Shouldn’t you just stop at this point? I mean, you probably could come to some conclusions after the weeks of “experimenting” you’d done. Albedo didn’t dislike you, he definitely didn’t. He thanked you when you brought him stuff and made sure to show up as early as you did to your rendezvous. He sometimes let you keep the flowers you brought him to sketch you instead of using them in his experiments, he even let you bring one of his paintings home. But how much of this really signified anything beyond friendship? It was hard to tell. Albedo certainly never dropped hints that he preferred your company especially. It was simply that you were there and that he didn’t have the want or the energy to send you away. Surely there were many other people who could say the same. Maybe it was time to move on.

Though your emotions certainly weren’t on board with this suggestion – the torch that you held for Albedo was not ready to burn out anytime soon – you did at least manage to rein in your actions a little bit. First it was no longer bringing this and that with you. The particularly small buds of lamp grass remained on their stalks, or pressed into books in your house, the fireflies that you had managed to awkwardly sketch on a piece of cardboard never made their likeness towards the alchemist. Then it was meeting a little less often, not that you didn’t retain the habit of going early when those meetings did happen. It was just, surely you didn’t want to annoy Albedo too much. He might end up kicking you out after a while. Then it was asking him less and less questions while you were there, when you were there.

The affect was more depressing than you cared to admit, before you knew it the idea of going off to find Albedo became almost painful, something that would involve crossing a gulf that somehow grew wider every day. Days turned into a week, turned into two, turned into three. Every day you’d wake up, the idea of going to see Albedo at the forefront of your mind, and every night you lay in bed, scolding yourself for avoiding the person you most wanted to see. And every day the gulf widened a little more.

Perhaps things would’ve continued on like that indefinitely, a never ending circle of guilt and dissonance and going to bed feeling like you’d somehow failed something, like now certainly Albedo wouldn’t want to talk to you. Yet somehow fate had a different idea. Whether or not you were grateful for its interference, you couldn’t tell over the apprehension at the beginning, the relief after the fact.

There was a commission on your list: Pick up salve from alchemist’s lab and deliver it to Sonja before the end of the day. At first you had considered trying to pawn it off onto someone else. After all, this was a rather easy commission, and surely some of the less experience Guild members would be grateful for easy legwork. Still as you were rationalizing all this away in your head, wondering what sort of commission you might get in return, you found that your legs were already moving onto the familiar route you had walked so recently before unsurety and dejection had clouded your actions.

Standing in front of the alchemy lab you felt your legs still as Albedo appeared in front of you. At first you wondered if you might be able to duck somewhere else, to evade detection. Yet your legs which had been so happy to move before suddenly felt leaden and incredibly useless, and all you could do was stare as Albedo glanced up from his papers, his eyes landing on you, the placing blue of his irises widening slightly.

“I hadn’t expected to see you here.”

“I’m here to pick something up.”

It was a bit lame in terms of opening lines, but it was a start.

“Ah, I see,” Albedo replied, looking down at his papers. Stepping towards you slightly he tilted his head. “I thought you might want to see me again.”

“I do! I mean, well, yes,” you coughed awkwardly, feeling as if you had just verbally fallen flat on your face. Still Albedo did nothing but smile, something which eased your nerves slightly.

“I’m glad. I thought I might have done something, and that you no longer wished to talk to me.”

“You didn’t! It was my fault, I’m really sorry I went so long without contacting you. Really, really sorry.”

“There’s no reason to apologize. But are you sure that it’s only you? Are you sure I didn’t do something to make this happen?”

“Well,” you paused. What was the correct answer? Yes didn’t seem right, but no also stuck in your throat. “I, I don’t know.”

“Oh?”

“It’s just, I don’t, I sometimes, I have a hard time knowing what you think of me Albedo.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, am I a friend? Do you like me? I know that you don’t dislike me, or at least I hope you don’t since you let me trail along so often. But still… I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s because you like me, or because I’m not enough of a bother to send home.” It was close enough to the truth.

“I’m sorry if I ever made you confused,” Albedo’s voice was warm, but there was an urgency to it that broke the usual calm. Looking up into Albedo’s face, having been examining the ground previously, you watched as flashes of emotions crossed the alchemist’s face. “I didn’t realize that I didn’t make my feelings clear. I don’t dislike you. I very much like when you’re around me. I, I think you’re my friend.”

“You think?” How come everything was so confusing?

“In truth, I find classifying relationships difficult. It’s not like alchemy, it’s too messy. So, sometimes I don’t even know how to classify my own relationships. But if there are people in this world who would consider me a friend, who I would consider a friend, you are certainly one of them.”

It was all you could’ve asked for in the moment. Letting a smile erupt across your face, you closed the space left between the two of you. “Thank you for telling me! I’m sorry I was being so selfish by hiding away.

“You weren’t being selfish,” Albedo replied. “You were completely within your rights.”

“Thank you,” you murmured. Gazing up at Albedo you found the words coming out of your mouth before you could stop them. “May I say something that might be selfish?”

“What is it?”

“I’ve fallen in love with you, a little bit.”

You watched as Albedo’s eyes widened in surprise. At first you thought you might’ve made a mistake, leapt and fallen into the gulf. However before you could continue that train of thought a smile bloomed on the alchemist’s face in front of you. Taking your hand Albedo leaned over and whispered into your ear.

“Und ich auch.”

[haruroki]

Yandere Todoroki Pt 2

Synopsis: After being kidnapped Yukine tries to adjust to her new life.

Pairings: Todoroki Shoto X OC [Haruki Yukine]

Warnings: dark themes, yandere, kidnapping, drugs, isolation, hallucinations, murder, angst, obsessive themes, mentions of suicide and attempted murder

Word Count: 4.3K

Part 1

Note: Unedited, please excuse or correct any mistakes. Enjoy!

Todoroki sifted through the list of butlers and maids, crossing out each name of those he did not approve of.

Hiring a butler for her was out of the question. He simply would not allow another man, other than himself, near her. He only allowed Sato because the man was much older than him, even older than his father, so instead he gave his attention to getting a maid. That way Yukine could also have a friend and perhaps she wouldn't feel so lonely when he wasn't around.

Finally, there was one that he seemed to like. Setsuna Natsumi, she had been working for his family for just a little over eight months now. He told Sato to put in a transfer for her as soon as possible.

Todoroki ended up in front of Yukine's room. He opened the door to find her still chained up. "Yuki, love, have you been good?" He reached for her face and Yukine didn't flinch or make any attempts at moving away from him now.

This pleased him greatly, soon he'd be able to hug her and kiss her without Yukine trying to push him away. It's been two weeks since she had been kidnapped by her best friend. She'd gotten used to him trying to touch her though he never forced himself upon her. If she didn't want him to touch her then he'd stop.

Every now and then he'd let her walk around the house as long as he was there. Slowly he started building up trust in her, and today was the day he was going to let her walk around freely, even if he wasn't there.

Todoroki inserted his key in the chains and unlocked them. The first two weeks were hard, Yukine made many attempts to end his life and even her own, though she tried to kill herself more than the former.

After she tried to cut her wrists, she was caught before the blade could even touch her wrist. Todoroki had taken every sharp object in the house and melted them.

At one point she had tried poisoning him. Yukine had mixed in some rat poison in his food, and once again he had found out. Surprisingly he wasn't angry or upset with her. In fact he treated her attempts like an annoying problem.

After that Todoroki got rid of anything poisonous, harmful or dangerous mostly for her own protection. Of course he punished her, keeping her away in her room for one or two days but it wasn't a problem for her. Yukine's an introvert so spending a day or two locked in her room without having to see any of the butlers or Todoroki himself was great.

Todoroki would always lecture her. Saying things like "heroes don't kill people." "They don't try to hurt others on purpose." But now that she had been captured she couldn't be a hero, Yukine belonged to Todoroki now and he would never let her be a hero, simply because it was so risky. So many heroes die in the line of duty and he couldn't risk her being one of them.

Yukine massaged her ankle while Todoroki left the room. Once the coast was clear, Yukine snuck around the house. She wanted to try and find something to use against Todoroki, not a weapon, but evidence of some crime. Her date, if he did what she thought he did, then the date's body should be around her somewhere.

There was no awful smell in the house, she couldn't smell anything decaying. Yukine had searched the whole house from top to bottom discreetly but she found nothing. Did he bury the body already?

Yukine knelt on the grass outside. This would be so much easier if Subzero was working. She could have used her ice to uproot the ground and see if there were any bodies but Todoroki had been slipping her drugs mixed with her food or drinks which subdued her quirk. Then again, Yukine figured it was for the best, who knows what she would have found. What would she do if she found more than one body?

Suddenly, arms wrapped themselves around her chest and she was pulled back into someone else's chest. Todoroki. She knew his smell anywhere, he smelt like a warm campfire. It would have been comforting had he not taken her against her will. Todoroki tucked a white strand of her hair behind her ear.

"What are you doing out here?" He whispered into her ear. Too close. Her body unwillingly shuddered. "Looking for something? Come on. You can tell me. I promise I won't be mad."

Reluctantly Yukine told him what she planned on doing. If she didn't tell him now, he would have found out sooner or later. Somehow he always did. She could never outsmart him.

They sat in the garden on their knees, Yukine's back pressed against his front. Slowly, Todoroki's hand dragged down the side of her body and he laced his fingers with hers.

A small smile playing on his lips. "Love, I'm so impressed. You're so much smarter than I thought." His voice a hoarse whisper. His face buried inside her neck and he continued to press small kisses against her skin. "But you see, I've already disposed of the body. I burnt it to ashes."

Yukine's heart jumped to her throat. He was always one step ahead of her but she never knew how. Yukine was always smart, top of her class, the perfect student academically, practically and physically. But in front of him, she was dumb. He was always one sometimes three steps ahead of her.

"Let's go. You'll catch a cold out here." Todoroki knew she could never catch a cold but he enjoyed taking care of her, deluding himself into thinking that Yukine needed him every single day. That without him, she was nothing.

Sato had called him about the new maid he had transferred. Todoroki pressed a loving kiss to her cheek before he got up and walked back inside the house. Yukine followed soon after.

"You must be Setsuna." Todoroki was greeted by a fairly short girl with green hair that ended at her shoulders and matching emerald green eyes. "Right this way."

Setsuna followed Todoroki and Sato around as they showed her around the house. She'd signed a special waiver which had a lot of terms she didn't even understand. But Setsuna needed the job so she agreed after skimming over most of the instructions. From what she understood, her sole duty was to take care of and provide anything that someone named Haruki Yukine asked. It didn't take much for her to realize that this Yukine person meant a lot to her new boss.

Sounds simple enough.

"And this is Yuki's room. You'll give her anything she wants, money is no object. If she asks for it, you will give it to her, as long as it's nothing harmful." Todoroki explained everything and once the tour had ended Setsuna was left in front of Yukine's room.

She knocked once on the door and a small "come in" was heard. Setsuna pushed past the door and found a girl about her age sitting on her bed hugging her knees. She was beautiful, white hair cascading past her chest up to her waist and blue eyes that would make sapphire gems jealous. Immediately, she understood why this girl meant a lot to Todoroki. She could only describe the girl as a goddess with breathtaking beauty.

Yukine didn't smile nor look at the girl. "Young miss." Setsuna hesitated, unsure if she should be speaking to Yukine. "I'm Setsuna Natsumi. Pleased to meet you."

Yukine nodded.

A few more weeks passed by just like this. Yukine regained her freedom but only inside and outside the house, of course under Todoroki's supervision. Sometimes he'd leave but still she stayed. Yukine didn't have any evidence to convict him so without that she couldn't do anything. He could easily pay off the police force or lawyers.

Over the weeks Setsuna grew closer to Yukine. Yukine did not reciprocate the same feelings, she let Setsuna think she trusted her with anything. Yukine gave small bits of information up, things most people knew about her but she made it seem like they were great secrets that only Setsuna knew about.

Setsuna believed she was Yukine's closest confidant. The person Yukine could trust the most but Yukine was just using her as a pawn in her big escape. She'd been planning it for days now. It was near perfect.

Yukine watched when the butlers changed shifts, who left the house at what time and she figured out there was a ten minute slot in between shifts when butlers were alternating their stations. Todoroki was away with his friends on a mission which meant she was all alone in the house now.

She rang the bell that would bring Setsuna to her. Of course Yukine felt bad for using her but she needed her freedom. Setsuna had done so well for the last few weeks. She took care of her, got her whatever she wanted, shared gossip she heard from the butlers. She had almost become a friend even if Yukine didn't want to admit it. But Setsuna was also an important piece to her great escape.

The girl swung the door open, she doubled over heaving and trying to regain her breathing. "Natsumi, my shoulders hurt. Could you please rub them?" With a smile the girl complied.

Only two of the Todoroki family's employees had access to the Yukine. The rest thought Yukine was living with Todoroki permanently. She didn't know what lies he fed them but she did know that meant the two employees were the only ones with keys to her cuffs.

As soon as Setsuna sat down behind her, Yukine flipped the girl over and pinned her to the bed. Her hands searched Setsuna's pockets and she eventually found the keys. No matter how much the girl struggled she could not overpower Yukine, someone who was training to become a hero. Yukine was much stronger.

Yukine held Setsuna down with one hand wrapped around her throat as the girl thrashed underneath her. Her free hand made its way down to her ankle and she unlocked the cuff.

"Young miss. You can't. You mustn't!" Setsuna pleaded, but Yukine had transferred the cuff from her ankle to Setsuna's wrist. She had to escape, even if she had no evidence against Todoroki she still wanted her freedom. Yukine figured she'd just get a restraining order or something.

Yukine ran out of the room with Setsuna calling after her. She flew down the stairs and out the cabin where the door was already open. It was like God was on her side, telling her to escape.

The forest was right there, she could make it and disappear into the forest never to be found again. Yukine was so caught up in her escape that for a moment she forgot about her surroundings and the sound of footsteps chasing after her.

Yukine's path was blocked when she ran face first into someone's chest. It was Sato, she turned around to sprint off into another direction. She could anywhere because the whole cabin was surrounded by forest.

Sato grabbed her wrist and hauled her over his shoulder. He carried her back towards the cabin while Yukine pounded her fists against the old man's back, screaming at him to let her go. Of course the Todorokis wouldn't hire a normal butler, especially for the favorite son.

Soon she'd given up trying to fight back and Yukine went limp over Sato's shoulder. "How did you know?" She asked, curious about his answer.

"The young master suspected you would pull something like this." He sighed, he didn't want Todoroki to be right. He wanted to believe that Yukine had chosen to stay. "I'm sorry, young mistress. I really didn't want to do this to you. But the young master is waiting for you. He misses you dearly."

Sato carried Yukine back inside and towards her room. Finally he set her down and Yukine spun around ready for whatever punishment Todoroki had planned for her. But no amount of mental preparation could prepare her for what she saw next.

For in the center of her room stood Todoroki. His right hand was covered in blood all the way up to his wrist. His shirt and face are decorated in blood splatters. And poor Setsuna's body, bloody and ruined lay in the middle of it all. He'd cut her life short.

Yukine's eyes went wide and a scream was stuck in her throat. Todoroki smiled at her, he walked towards her wiping his blood stained hand against his pants. His arms made their way around her and he pulled Yukine into a hug. "I missed you, love. I'm so happy you're back."

Terrified and frozen in fear, Yukine couldn't move. She couldn't scream, she couldn't run because Sato blocked her only exit so she did nothing. Yukine only whispered, "you killed her."

"Oh that? She didn't follow my orders. You could have been hurt, Yuki. She would have hurt you." He pulled away from her, his hands resting on both shoulders. "Don't worry about the mess, Sato will clean it up." Sato bowed and left to get his cleaning supplies.

"You broke a rule, love." He pulled her into his chest again. "Do you know which one?"

Yukine nodded against his chest. "Rule one: don't attempt to leave." Todoroki ran his fingers through her hair, staining it with streaks of red.

"Good girl. You know I'll have to punish you, right?" He asked her. Yukine nodded solemnly. If she had known this would happen, that someone would lose their life because of her then she never would have tried to leave.

Todoroki eventually pulled away from her. His hand laced with hers and he pulled her down the stairs into the living room. "Come sit, Sato will clean your room and then your punishment will begin." Todoroki sat on the velvet blue chair near the fireplace.

He used his quirk to light a small flame and pulled Yukine towards him. She'd gone numb after seeing her maid's body lying lifeless on the ground. It was her fault. Todoroki pulled Yukine into his lap and guided her head towards the crook of his neck. Yukine wasn't responding, her eyes glazed over and she looked like she wasn't even in her body. Todoroki continued to play with her hair, whispering compliments to her and sweet I love yous.

Moments later Sato came down the stairs holding a bucket filled with blood and a mop sticking out of it. He also had Setsuna's body wrapped in white sheets, tossed over shoulder. He bowed to both Todoroki and Yukine before leaving the house to dispose of the body and any evidence.

"Come, love. It's time for your punishment." Todoroki held her hand and led her back up the stairs. He was explaining her punishment to her but Yukine was so numb she didn't hear a word he said. The door creaking open brought her back and Todoroki nudged her inside. "Now, be good for me and I'll let you out soon." He pressed a loving kiss to her forehead.

Todoroki closed the door and it was just her and her thoughts now. Yukine slumped against the wall. Who knows how long she would be in there. Usually he never kept her longer than two days, maybe two and a half. But those were minor rules. This was the first rule and the biggest rule.

Depressed, Yukine pulled her knees up to her chest. The night passed quickly, not a peep was heard from Yukine. She didn't try to escape, she didn't yell or curse at Todoroki. Yukine had fallen asleep pressed against the wall on the floor. She was too mentally drained to go to bed. Todoroki would have done it, carried her to bed, if he wasn't punishing her.

Silent tears rolled down her cheeks until she cried herself to sleep. At night she was plagued with nightmares. Setsuna would chase after her with the same gaping hole in her stomach, blaming her for everything.

After the nightmare she would bolt up on the floor covered in beads of sweat. Yukine wouldn't be able to sleep after that and soon morning would come.

The window showing the outside told her that two days had passed now but not a word from Todoroki. There was a slot in the door specifically used when punishing her. It was used to provide her with food so she wouldn't starve to death. But only two meals were provided in the day, one in the afternoon and one right before bed.

Like clockwork the slot opened and her tray of food was pushed in through it. Yukine grabbed the tray and sat on her bed, staring blankly at the meal before her. She picked up the spoon given to her and dug into the rice and beef curry dish. There was also a glass of water but that's it. Normally, Todoroki would have ordered Sato to make her lavish meals fit for a queen, but now she had plain boring meals. Well it was better than nothing.

There was a strange tangy flavor to the rice in each bite but she convinced herself that she was just imagining things. Maybe being responsible for Setsuna's death made her imagine things. So Yukine ate everything, she couldn't leave anything. For one, she was really hungry and two, she didn't want Todoroki more upset with her than he already was.

Yukine placed the tray back where it came from and it was taken away as soon as she finished. Yukine had no contact with the world in the last two days, no one came to visit her and no one spoke to her. But she had been through this before so she could definitely do it again.

A few more hours in isolation passed. Yukine wondered if Todoroki was even going to come and get her today. She really messed up. Someone died and now she was suffering too. No, she should suffer. Yukine deserves it, someone's life was cut short because of her selfishness.

Her vision started to blur and a headache started to form. Yukine's eyes were screwed shut trying to get the headache to stop. Her eyes remained closed even after the headache subsided, thinking it might come back if she opened her eyes again.

But when it didn't come back, Yukine slowly started to open up her eyes again. She stared at the ceiling. But her nightmare from last night was far from over.

It started quickly. First came the whispers. Words whispered in her ears: "kill yourself. Kill yourself. This is your fault. You did this. You killed her. You're a murderer. Murderer. Killer."

Yukine sat up in her bed with her hands covering her ears trying to drown out the voices. The guilt was clawing at her, eating her up and Yukine wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to fight it off.

Because right before her eyes stood the same dead Setsuna with the same gaping hole. Blood pooled around her feet, a sickly sound of liquid hitting the ground and she began dragging her feet forward. Yukine backed herself against the bed with wide eyes. She blinked furiously hoping the illusion would go away but the would-be dead girl still dragged herself towards Yukine.

She had to call for help. "Hel-" Setsuna's bloody hand clamped down around Yukine's mouth. She could taste the metallic taste of blood on her tongue and its sick smell invaded her nose.

"Shhhhhh." She silenced her. "Look at what you did to me. You killed me." With silent tears Yukine. Maybe if she acknowledged the blame Setsuna would leave but it didn't work.

Setsuna grabbed Yukine's hand and placed it against the wound in her stomach. The same one she had bled to death from days ago. "Now it's your turn. I'll drag you to hell with me!"

Yukine ripped the girl's hand off her mouth and screamed as loud as she could. Her clothes and face smeared with blood as she continued to scream bloody murder. Yukine hoped Todoroki would come, if he loved her as much as he said he did then he would come and save her from the monster before her eyes.

But he never came.

Todoroki's head snapped in the direction of Yukine's room. He was ready to march in there and protect her from whoever dared tried to hurt his precious love. Sato blocked Todoroki's path.

"Young master, you must not go there."

Todoroki didn't like being ordered. He was the one giving orders. Not the other way around. "And why not?"

"She's hallucinating. It's not real. I slipped some hallucinogens in her lunch this afternoon. Mixed a few together so I really don't know what effect it might have on her or you." Sato explained. Todoroki was pissed, he took long strides up to his butler who already knew what was about to come.

Todoroki struck him across the face. "I don't remember giving you permission to do such a thing."

Sato held his face as the stinging sensation blossomed. "I apologize. But you must understand, it will help her and you in the long run. I just want you to be happy with her."

He wasn't pleased with the response. Sure, Sato was thinking about their happiness and he appreciated that much but this was going too far. "Go to your room and stay there. No dinner and I'm deducting your pay. Try something like that again and I won't be so nice."

He had everything planned to a T. He expected by next month Yukine would love him back. They would date a few years. In typical Japanese culture a couple would get married after a year of dating but he figured he should give Yukine two or three years to adjust. So they'd date two years and by the age of 22 they'd get married with the most beautiful view, honeymoon in Paris, the most beautiful city. Of course, if Yukine wanted to go somewhere else he would do it in a heartbeat but this was what he had planned. By 26 they'd have two, no three, wait four, maybe five kids and a cat and a dog.

Everything was going to be perfect.

He wanted a good wife, someone he could protect and love completely. Someone who would stay home with the kids and greet him with a hug and a kiss when he came home.

A few more days passed. Six in total. And each of those days was worse than the last. Her hallucinations got worse and Yukine spent most of her time hiding under her blanket hoping the apparitions would vanish. Setsuna got worse, took the shape of a deformed monster but would disappear before she got too close to Yukine.

Spending a little over a week in the confines of her bedroom, Yukine wasn't sure if her hallucinations worsened from isolation or drugs. Or both. She couldn't take it anymore! The voices, the hallucinations, isolation everything. It was killing her on the inside, so she did the only thing she could. Yukine turned to the only person who would protect her no matter what.

Yukine pushed herself to her feet, her feet shuffled across the floor and she knocked on the door asking to be let out. At first there was no answer and she was starting to get desperate. Tears welled up in her eyes again, she hated crying but she'd been doing that a lot lately. Who wouldn't in her situation?

Todoroki stood on the other side of the door as he listened to Yukine knock. He was hesitant, what if he opened the door and she pushed past him and tried to escape again? Or what if she yelled and cursed at him for leaving her in her room for a week? What if she hated him now?

No matter, he would win her over again. Todoroki's hand reached for the handle and he unlocked her door. It creaked open and without hesitation Yukine flung herself at him.

Her arms wrapped around his body. Yukine buried her face in his chest while she cried. Todoroki's eyes were wide, he never thought Yukine would be the one to initiate physical touch. His arms instantly returned her hug.

They wound up on the same chair before the fireplace where Yukine kept muttering apologies. She still hadn't let go of him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Shoto. Please don't lock me up again."

He ran his fingers through her soft hair, twirling white strands around his fingers. "Okay, I won't. You know I had to punish you, or you wouldn't listen to me. I really didn't want to, but I had no choice." Distraught, Yukine only nodded.

He spent the next few minutes comforting her. Yukine sat in his lap, her arms wrapped around his neck and she refused to let go.

"I know that me taking you all of a sudden was hard for you, and you still struggle with it. I don't ever want you to be unhappy, I hope you know that. I did this so we could be together without anyone getting in the way. I promise I'll always take care of you."

Yukine nodded again. She was being so obedient and compliant. It was perfect, just the way she was supposed to be.

"You'll be my good girl, right? My lovely housewife?"

Again she nodded. "I'll be your housewife."

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. He'd take care of her, she wouldn't have to even lift a finger. Yukine would have whatever she desired, the best clothes, extravagant food, lavish houses and more.

Delighted with her obedience, Todoroki captured her lips in a surprising kiss. It took her a moment to realize what was happening but then she kissed him back.

It was over. Todoroki had broken Yukine's mind. He'd won. Yukine was his now, forever, just like he had said she would be.

"I love you, Yuki."

"I...I love you too."

[starbuckie]

𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤

challenge: time travel challenge by @justagirlinafandomworld​

prompt: “we’re divorced?” 

pairing: sirius black x reader

words: 5.7k words

warnings: FOURTH WALL BREAK!!(sorry im very excited about that), lots of angst, almost smut(hehe), sirius lowkey has a breeding kink, sirius is an asshole for a bit, the smallest bit of fluff, fix-it, and the same time travel theory as back to the future

summary: an unnatural occurrence lets a woman go back in time to try and change everything she’s known for the past twenty years.

a/n: wow, i normally don’t write for harry potter so this was a nice change. anyways, this is for yvette’s time travel writing challenge, and everybody say HAPPY BIRTHDAY YVETTE! i’m so sorry this is late, it got deleted and i needed to re-edit, but i truly appreciate your friendship and your lovely, amazingly beautiful self, and I’m so so glad that we became friends :)  this fic is not beta-read at all, so if you see any mistakes tell me, but otherwise i really hope you enjoy this fic<3

main masterlist || harry potter masterlist

It still wasn’t over. After all she had lost, more specifically everyone she had lost, and the shitty cycle that she had to call her life, it still wasn’t over. The people she had watched the life drain from, the screams of those suffering from the loss caused by the Dark Lord, and yet life still hadn’t had its fill of torturing Y/N. Grimmauld Place felt empty without the kids, without the Weasleys, but they had gone back to their home and soon enough she would have to as well. Harry had gone back to Hogwarts with Dumbledore, though she’d argued to hold onto him just a bit longer after-

After Sirius had died. 

Time had passed, maybe two or three weeks, but no matter what the woman couldn’t bring herself to get out of Sirius’ old bedroom, simply staring at the ceiling with her tears at bay. Her and Sirius had been a complicated thing, to say the least, a topic nobody had brought up since 1983, when she had banned it. Not as if there was much to talk about after the divorce and Sirius going to Azkaban. After Lily and James had died, after she had fought with Dumbledore for custody of Harry, after she had become a professor at Beauxbatons and moved to France without a second thought. Sirius had been locked up after he’d hurt her in the worst possible way, and Y/N’s heartbroken soul found no other reason to return to England. 

But, she pushed those bad memories to the back of her mind. It seemed so trivial, looking back on it. Not the broken house, of course, that had been his own mistake. But Y/N had many regrets, all of them seeming to revolve around the mischievous black-haired man who she had fallen in love with as a teen. The night it went down, the night their relationship had fractured at the seams and fallen down, was her greatest one however. It had been so stupid, so, so stupid, but they’d both gotten caught up in the moment, and Y/N had let him die without knowing how much she was sorry for that night that they let their fears consume them. 

The cries that she had tried so hard to contain finally broke free from the restraints of her heart. “I’m so sorry, Siri,” she whispered into the air, “I couldn’t save you this time.” As the hot, salty tears ran down her cheeks, Y/N shuffled across the room, letting her feet drag her to the old Black family room, the dark green walls embracing her rainy emotions. 

A little gasp escaped her lips as she looked at the portraits among the wall. The Black family tree was faded along the age-old wall, but what she was really looking for was the burned out image of her raven-haired love. There, right next to Regulus, was a black spot, scorned and scarred by the prestigious family for being a blood traitor. Y/N smiled and traced the burn with her finger, remembering their fourth year when she had accompanied him home for the holidays so he wouldn’t be completely alone in the hellhole he had to call his house. Sirius had snuck them up to this room and spent the night talking in hushed whispers sworn secrets. “I’ll be yours forever, Siri, and I’m sorry for fighting with you. I wish-” she sniffled, glaring at the spot in the wall as she tried to garble out her words, “I wish, I could go back in time, and just fix it. Just me and you, and that stupid night, with the bloody fight about children because you deserve it all, darling.”

“Ah, I think you can.” 

Y/N turned around, her eyes wide with fear. That was not Kreacher’s voice. There stood a younger woman, around nineteen, a scroll of paper and a quill in her hand. There was a whisper of a smirk on her face, brown eyes glittering even in the dimness in the room. “Who the hell are you?” Y/N looked at the door, which was still closed as she left it. She cast her wand out, pointing it at the stranger who did nothing but smile. “How did you get in here? Are you with the Lord?”

“With Voldemort?” The woman simply laughed. “Dude, I’m not with ‘the Lord’,” she added with air quotations. “Also I’m not really even here, so don’t you worry about that. My name’s Malia.”

Malia held her hand out, but Y/N kept her guard up. “You’re American. What brings you here? Are you a muggle?”

“Oh, nope, not a wizard, I’m just the author of this story.” Malia confided. “I’m here to tell you that you can fix this.”

“Fix… what?” Malia just rolled her eyes and sighed, staring up towards the ceiling as she spoke.

“God, did I write you to be hard of hearing now, too? I ought to fix that when I get back.” The woman blankly stared at the strange girl, wondering what the actual fuck she was talking about. “I can give you the chance to go back in time, Y/N. It won’t be for long, it’s really not gonna be interesting for more than two hours at most, but that should be enough time to tell the gang about what’s to come with Voldemort.”

“Like... time travel?” Y/N asked. The only way she knew how to time travel was the time turners. “But all of the ti-”

“Time turners were destroyed in the Department of Mysteries, I know, I know. Trust me, I’ve read Harry Potter more times than I’ve said ‘I love you’ to my parents.” Malia smiled. “I’m the author, I make the rules, and my rule is that I’m giving you two hours in 1978 to talk to Sirius so he can fix the emotional fucking mess left behind by J.K. Rowling.”

“Who’s J.K. Rowling?” Malia shuddered at the name.

“A raggedy-ass, transphobic bitch who wrote y’all into existence, but she’s not of importance right now.” She checked the small, rectangular box in her hand, which glowed and provided little light in the darkened room. “Let’s see, it’s currently eleven-forty, so you have until one-forty to find the Marauders and fix this future. It may not be fixed in the books in the future, but if you are able to do it here that’s all that matters.” Malia’s brown eyes were downcast, her bright and loud personality dimming for just a moment before returning to Y/N’s confused gaze once more. “Try not to screw up too much while you’re there, just enough that you defeat the Dark Lord the first time. Tell Sirius all you know and that should be enough for him to fix all the mistakes, but do not under any circumstances let him or anyone else know who you are. I wish you luck, Y/N, it was nice to meet ya in person.” 

And with a peace sign in front of her face, she disappeared into a flash of neon pink light. 

“Bloody hell! Fix my future? Talk to Sirius? If this even is time travel, then how am I supposed to get there- AH!” Y/N’s body felt like it was turning inside out, her guts being torn from her stomach and back into it again. A delirious giggle arose from her lips in the black void she was pulled into, and a soft chatter could be heard, like voices at the end of a tunnel. 

“Blimey, looks like we got ourselves a nutter on school grounds.” Y/N’s arms flailed around, desperately seeking some sort of grounding surface to hold on to when her back hit a rough surface. There was an audible crack somewhere in her body, but she felt so sick that she couldn’t tell where. 

“Are you okay, ma’am? You just appeared from the sky and hit the ground.” Warm, brown eyes met Y/N’s, a familiar mess of black curls resting atop of the boy’s head. Large, rounded glasses sat perched on the tip of his nose, and an impish smile, one she used to know so well before he died, met his lips. 

“James,” she sighed. The boy stared at her strangely, and only then did she notice the three other boys and girls each behind them. Remus, Peter, Sirius, Lily, Marlene, and Alice. 

Sirius.

The sight that met her eyes made her nearly emotional. It had technically been only three weeks since she had seen him, but here was the young boy she had fallen in love with. The one who charmed her with his smart words and witty retorts to her brush-offs, who used to hold her in his arms in the most intimate and gentle ways. His grey eyes sparkled with curiosity, the infamous Marauder mischief swirling within the silvery pools.  

Seeing him so young tugged at her heartstrings, and though she wanted nothing more than to hold him in her arms and never let go, a small, niggling feeling at the back of her head held her back. Was there something wrong?

“You know me?” Oh right, she was currently thirty-five. Looking around she noticed that she was outside the quidditch pitch, and there were other students, staring at her with widened eyes. No one knew she was Y/N L/N, their fellow schoolmate and probably one of the very few of them that survived the Death Eaters attacks. None of them were aware how it ended, or how it was currently going for them back in 1996, and in this time there was the first Wizarding War going on and they had every right to be terrified for their lives.

James now took a more defensive stance, standing tall and holding his wand out. “Who are you?”

She couldn’t give him the answer, instead letting her mouth gape open as she stared at him with wide eyes. Y/N looked across the grounds for the nearest exit, which was down by Hagrid’s hut and into the Forbidden Forest. It was her only choice at this point, to hide in the dark, creepy space, maybe just until the students went away so she could find Sirius and talk to him alone. It’d be hard to separate him from the boys, but if Lily were occupied with James it sure would be easy. 

Her younger, seventh-year self didn’t seem to be in the audience, thank Merlin, and with that knowledge, she got up and ran, ignoring her screaming muscles. That time travel really did a number on her. 

As she ran through the crowd, shoving people aside, she heard the students mutter, too much in shock and disarray to stop the crazy, old woman who knew James Potter.

“This is dodgy.”

“Someone ought to tell Dumbledore about this.”

“She kinda looks like Y/N L/N.’

“Don’t insult the poor girl like that, that wonker is ages old.”

“Come back here! Who the bloody hell are you?” Y/N’s heart beat quickly in her chest, threatening to burst out. Only three minutes in the past and it was all going straight to shit. “Stupefy!”

Shit. “No, James, please don’t-“ Her body hit the ground and her eyes closed, the last thing she saw being the pumpkin patch by the hut.

-

“I see you’re awake now, Ms. L/N.” Dumbledore stood above Y/N in the hospital ward bed, his grey beard dangling in front of her face. Her first instinct was to start blaming him for everything that had happened, starting from Lily and James’ deaths to Sirius’, already opening her mouth to call him an old, senile cow, but then she realized that Harry hadn’t been sent to the Dursleys yet, much less been born yet, so none of it would have an effect on him. Y/N’s second instinct was to question how Dumbledore knew who she was in 1978, but her former Headmaster started to speak before she could do so. “I must admit, it’s very courageous, that stunt you just pulled. I don’t think Ms. Louie will be too happy about that.” Y/N sent him a questioning stare. “Malia, the girl you met earlier. Malia Louie.”

“Headmaster Dumbledore, how did you know it was me?” She was dressed in a white gown that went to her knees, and behind him she could see her blouse and jeans folded and clean. Ah, the Hospital Wing. She had brought the boys here more times than she could count in her years at Hogwarts. “I don’t exactly look as young as I used to.”

“Ah, don’t worry Ms. L/N, you’ve kept your good looks quite nicely, even in your older age.” He stroked his beard thoughtfully, his wrinkled eyes sparkling with joy. “And speaking of young, if you are still worrying yourself about your younger self, you can put that to a stop. I am aware that you are not able to tell anyone who you are, and time travel is exceptionally dangerous if you are seen by the other version of yourself. I’ve already told the students that you were just a stray witch, misguided in your ways and that you were well taken care of. However, I think that brings us to the question of what your intentions are in the past, Ms. L/N.”

“Headmaster, I don’t think I can tell you about my business here. I’ve already messed up by letting the school see me by letting everyone see me, I don’t know why that girl even sent me here, it’s clear that this was a mistake.” Y/N sat up on the headboard, feeling her eyes fill with tears once again. The tall arches of windows let the sun in the room, and she could see the specks of dust swirling around in the golden light. It had to be close to the end of the year for them, maybe sometime around April or May, near the end of N.E.W.T.s at least. She could imagine that it’d be easy for her to get out of Hogwarts for the day, with all the students studying for the stressful exams in the library, maybe she'd make her way to Hogsmeade and walk around or visit Hagrid under a false name to have some tea. He was always open for a nice cuppa with strangers on any free day he had. “Thank you Headmaster, for your kindness, but I really ought to be going. I-it was nice to see you.”

Y/N started to help herself out of the bed, swinging her feet over to touch the cool stone ground. Bones cracked with pain and fatigue, her muscles stretching sluggishly. Merlin, that she was not expecting that much hurt from the fall, but she should have never underestimated James Potter. No one ever should if they want to keep their good mind and sanity. 

Dumbledore handed her her clothes, cracked lips set in a straight line as he nodded solemnly. “I hope you accomplish whatever it is you are here to do, Ms. L/N, but I have no doubt that you will.” With a sly wink, he added, “You were always one of our most ardent and bright students.”

Y/N let herself smile, and with a wave, swiftly brought herself to the door. “Thank you, Headmaster.”

After slipping outside, she ran down the corridors, echoes of her feet ringing lightly behind her. The courtyard proved to be empty and she quickly ducked behind a column and tugged her jeans on hastily, making sure that no professors came walking past. Though the sky proved to be bright and cheerful, a slight breeze carried through, making her fall off balance and fall on the cemented ground. 

“Are you okay, darling? You look like you’re in need of a little help.” Y/N looked up to the speaking figure, one that she both loved and dreaded to see. 

She gathered herself quickly, her mind running fast and heart beating out of her chest as she tried to get out. “Yes, I am okay, thank you for asking. I think I’ll just get up and going now, I don’t need to take time out of your day like this-”

“I know who you are, Y/N.” 

Y/N came to a full stop, going against her brain that screamed at her to run away. Sirius looked downtrodden, his grey eyes watering despite the small hint of a smirk on his face. Though he was always one for playing around and not taking anything seriously, she knew when it was time to stop pretending and get real. “How’d you know it was me, Sirius?”

“You really don’t look bad for your age, darling.” He offered her a hand to help her up and she took it graciously, eyeing him nearly guiltily and forgetting about her promise to Y/N. But that was useless now, this moment with her first love was much more important. “Also you have the tattoo on your chest. I knew it was you the moment you landed on school grounds.”

She traced his gaze to her left collarbone, where a paw print, just barely visible beneath her low-cut blouse, sat. It was his, or Snuffles’, paw print, and at this point in time they had probably gotten it done about three months before. He had one for her too, a horseshoe for her horse patronus, right on his left side of his chest too. So they’d always be right next to each other’s hearts, as cheesy as it seemed.

But they were dumb, lovesick teenagers, and they acted the part well too. Their love was all-consuming, shagging in under the bleachers at the quidditch pitch and making out under the stars. It was fast, everything was fast, decisions, ideas, classes, all of them under the impression that they had to do everything right then or they’d be dead before they got to actually live. They had dreams of marriage, and a big, big family, obviously so far away from his family so they could never hurt their children’s lives the way they had hurt his. 

They were fantasies, Y/N had known that well enough when she and Sirius got divorced, but it was something that eighteen year-old Sirius Black held close to his heart. No matter how shitty his life got, he was always a firm believer in a happy ending. In their happy ending. 

“How am I right now?” They now stood over the Black Lake, staring into the glittering depths of the water where some mermaids could be seen sneaking peeks at the handsome boy and the strange lady who had fallen from the sky. 

Sirius stared at her questioningly for a moment. “How are you doing right now? I mean, I believe that I should be asking you that ques- oh, Merlin, I’m such a git, you meant your younger self.” Y/N laughed at that, her heart lifting with the goofiness of the old Sirius relieving an ache in her heart that she had had for so long. Not that old (it felt weird to say that) Sirius had been anything less than silly and snarky, but it was never directed towards her. It was nice to have the resemblance of their old relationship back, even if it was just for a fleeting moment. “I suppose that you’re okay. You didn’t see, well, your big moment on the field, but at this point Lily has probably opened her big, fat mouth and told you. N.E.W.T.s are just finishing up, so you’re much more light-hearted than during the study season.”

“I really did have a stick up my arse during exam time, you always told me to loosen up-” 

“Y/N, cut out the small talk, I think it’s okay for me to ask how and what is happening.” Sirius cut in.

So she told him. Y/N had always been upfront with people about everything. Or rather, she had learned how to be upfront with people after her and Sirius’ divorce. Without details of the deaths, she explained how she was sent back into the past to fix it in some conceivable way. However, she did tell him about the fall out. Maybe she wanted him to understand her pain, even though it was a younger him, but she had to admit to herself that it was because she just wanted Sirius, in whatever form life gave her to hear out her grievances and apologies. 

Since her Sirius was dead before she could.

“We’re divorced?” Sirius looked about ready to break down into tears, almost as if the concept of them breaking up or separating was foreign to him. “What exactly did we fight over, Y/N? That doesn’t seem normal for the two of us.” Sirius asked.

“Well, to be fair, it wasn’t a normal predicament for us. either…”

Sirius slammed the door shut, efficiently pinning her against it with his white button up ruffled up, navy tie hanging from his neck loosely. Y/N’s arms were held down tightly against the oak wood, the sensation of the cold door burning into her rather warm skin making her squeal. Her husband’s tongue worked its way through her parted lips, low groans rising from the back of his throat from the way she moaned in tandem with his hips pushing into hers. Legs wrapped around his tapered waist, the pink, floral skirt Y/N wore rising high on her thighs, revealing more of her flesh to the lust-filled man. Both of their giggles echoed off the hallway walls of their small cottage home, just four miles west of their best friends’. 

As the twenty year-old man threw his wife unceremoniously on the bed, he shed himself of his shirt and swiftly unbuttoned his slacks, throwing them haphazardly across the room. Merlin, Y/N looked ethereal laying spread out on the bed, panties around her left ankle, swollen lips parted with short puffs of air leaving them. “You just get right down to business, don’t you, Black.” 

Crawling over his body, his hot breath hit her neck as he growled against her skin. “Could say the same thing about you, darling.” Sirius’ lips made their way down every inch, every curve, nook, and cranny of Y/N’s body, smoothly slipping her clothes off as he did so. Her sweet gasps filled the bedroom, back arching off the bed to meet his chest. “I’m going to put a baby in you tonight, sweetheart, we’re-”

Y/N sat up straight, her eyebrows trained in confusion at her husband. “What? A baby?” 

Sirius’ heart pounded in his chest. “Yes.” He remarked in a clipped tone. “Is that not what you wanted?” 

Her mind recalled her words from earlier that day, as she chatted happily with Lily about the news of her pregnancy. “Siri, I said I may one day enjoy having a kid of my own. Not right now, of course, but later. After all, we only got married a few months ago, don’t you think we should hold off a bit on that? We’re twenty years-old, Siri, there’s so many years for that.”

Rage filled Sirius’ blood like a spreading fire. In all honesty, it wasn’t so much about his anger as it was his hurt and fear. Fear that she had realized how fucked up he truly was, fear that she realized what he had known all along- that she deserved better than him. “So you don’t want a baby with me?”

“I never said I didn’t want that, Sirius, I just said that I’m not ready!” Y/N yelled back. At this point both of them stood on opposite sides of the bed, faces hot with tears. “We’re in the middle of a bloody war, people we know, people we love, have lost their lives, and it is not the ideal environment to raise a child, Sirius! Just because James and Lily are ready to have one doesn’t mean that I am too!”

“When will you be ready, Y/N? When will it ever be enough time for you? When will I be enough for you?” The heartbroken girl tried to interject, but her voice was cut off by her husband’s quickly enough. Sirius climbed onto the bed, holding her chin harshly with one hand. “Tell me, did you ever want to be with me in the first place?”

“Yes, Sirius, of course I wanted to be with you.” His heart hurt looking at the love of his life in tears, but even that was able to melt his cold facade. “I love you more than anything in the world.” 

“Then fucking prove it, Y/N.” With that declaration, he removed his hand from her face and gathered his clothes, slamming everything in their shared room as Y/N quivered, knees ready to buckle on the spot. “I’m going out, don’t wait up for me.”  

As soon as the front door shut, she fell to the ground in tears, the laughter that once filled their home replaced with the sound of her shattered heart. 

Y/N had done her best to not tear up during her explanation of the events that had taken that night, but Sirius' eyes watered, refusing to believe the truth. “No. No. I didn’t do that. Y/N, tell me,” he gripped her biceps with trembling hands, “please tell me I didn’t really do that. I can’t believe that I-I, that I-”

“You were drunk, Sirius, I don’t think you truly knew what you were saying at the time.” She sighed, “But people always say that drunken words are just sober thoughts.” Y/N rubbed her arms, just shivering slightly in the Scotland breeze. “You came back two hours later punching the wall and breaking it, and that’s when I knew that we wouldn’t last.” 

The raven-haired boy’s head started to shake, even more mortified of the actions that his future self, the man he’d be in just two years' time, had done. “I packed up my things, not that there were many, we’d only moved into the house a month before, left, and I sent the divorce papers a week later. It was probably better that way, you would’ve divorced me if I hadn’t done it first.” Y/N had gotten used to telling her sob story to colleagues at Beauxbatons, to her family, but it felt different with pre-divorce Sirius. Of course, she had never thought she’d be in this citation either, so no one could really blame her for feeling weird. “You signed them easily, and my lawyer made sure that I never had to see you again.”  Until Lily and James died.

“Until…” Sirius led on.

“Merlin’s beard, Sirius, you’ve always been able to read my mind. Shouldn’t have doubted it for a second.” He smiled at the sentiment, gesturing for her to continue. “I can’t tell you, Sirius, I hope you can understand that.”

“Why, Y/N, what happens that can be any worse in the future?” Oh dear, Sirius, you really do not want the answer to that question. She needed any way out of this conversation, after all running away was what she did best, and her eyes already searched for several routes to which she could run. Not that Y/N could ever outrun Sirius in his animagus form, but it was nice to have the belief that she could. The boy sensed her distress and grabbed hold of her hand. “You don’t have to tell me, darling, but I have to admit that I am a bit worried, just in the slightest.”

Y/N let herself calm down, squeezing Sirius’ hand and noticing his watch. She had actually given him that watch, gold-plated and dark grey metal, but it wasn’t the beauty of the gift that caught her eye, but rather the actual time on it. One-thirty. 

How had that much time gone by so quickly? She was going to be sucked into the black void of time travel again in ten minutes, and that wasn’t nearly enough time to unload nearly twenty years worth of history onto Sirius. No, he would go insane from that much knowledge, which was exactly against what Malia had advised. 

“I don’t have enough time to tell you everything that happens in the future, Sirius. But what I am about to tell you is vital, absolutely vital for the good of all of us in the future.” Sirius nodded with a serious sort of smile on his face. “Don’t let Peter be Lily and James’ secret keeper. When the time comes that they move away, I’m not going to tell you where yet, do not under any circumstances let Peter be their secret keeper. I know he’s one of our best friends right now, and do not tell anyone about this, but he’s going to betray us in the worst way possible.” 

While Sirius was shocked, he nodded solemnly and ran a hand through his long hair. “I won’t tell anyone, Y/N. Can I fix us, Y/N? I don’t know if you should be letting the key to a happier future rest in my hands.”

“I full heartedly trust that you’ll do some good, whatever the outcome may be. As for fixing us, I hope you can, but depending on what happens we’ll just have to wait and see.” She sighed, “If you want my opinion on it, I think that we both should have waited longer to get married. It was right after James and Lily got married, but we aren’t and never will be them. We both had a lot of growing up to do, so I would take it slowly. Communicate your wants and needs in the relationship and in the end it may not even be us together. But I know you, Siri, don’t let this get in the way of your entire life. The most important part is that you tell James and Lily about Peter.”  

She glanced back up the school grounds where students could start to be seen leaving their classes. “You better get back to the castle, Sirius. McGonagall is going to come for your arse and this time the boys aren’t going to be able to cover for you.”

“If they knew where I was, darling, I don’t even think they’d believe me.” Sirius chuckled.

Y/N nodded in agreement and pulled Sirius into a tight hug. “You can do this, sweetheart, and even if you can’t, it will not stop me from loving you any less. Maybe the future wasn’t meant to be changed, but regardless of whether that is true or not, I know that you will try your hardest, Sirius. Just try not to die, okay?”

The boy was still clutching onto her tightly, his tears soaking her rose-colored blouse. “I’ll do my best, darling.”

With one last kiss on the forehead, she smiled at him. “I know you will, Siri.” 

-

Y/N’s arse hit the floor once again, her spine cracking once again. “What’s the year?” She yelled out, reaching for the walls of the black family room. 

But it wasn’t there. Upon opening her eyes, she saw James, Lily, and Sirius sitting at a wooden table in her old white cottage. A nice tea set, her grandmother’s as she realized later, sat in the center, along with a large stack of letters. “Y/N, what the bloody hell happened to you, I’ve been worried sick!” 

Her red-headed best friend scurried over to her, brushing invisible dirt off her shoulders and pulling her up abruptly. James fixed the glasses on his nose, cleaning them off with his striped jumper. “You look a little disheveled right now, Y/N, what ran you over?” 

“You know who she reminds me of right now, Jamie? That crazy witch friend of Dumbledore’s that made her way onto campus back in seventh year.” Lily giggled as she hugged Y/N.

“Merlin’s beard, you’re right!” James walked over to the woman of the hour, ruffling her hair with a smirk on his face. “If you were about twenty years older I’d have no trouble believing you were the same person.”

While Lily and James recalled their memories from the strange woman all those years ago at Hogwarts, Sirius pulled Y/N aside, an arm wrapped around her waist. The warmth radiating from his body was nice, embracing her in a comfort she hadn’t felt in so long.

“I’m going to go ahead and believe that I did something right?” Sirius grabbed her hand, and only then did she notice the coolness of metal sitting on her left ring finger. There sat the single band of gold, a small ruby encased in its plating. She had once joked that diamonds were too overrated, and he went out and got her the most vibrant gem he could find, claiming that it was just like her. But regardless of its shape, size, or type of gem, it was there.

“Yeah, Siri,” Y/N replied with tears in her eyes, “you did good.” 

“Oi, Blacks, stop making out and get over here, we got a letter from Minnie!” James yelled, making both wives chuckle. “Harry’s gotten himself in detention for punching Malfoy again.”

“Oh, thank Merlin, the boy deserves a few more good hits.” Sirius laughed. 

“McGonagall still talks to us?” Y/N asked in amazement. “You’ve got to get me caught up.”

“Don’t worry, darling, we’ve got all the time in the world.” Sirius gently placed his lips onto hers, and for once in nearly twenty years, Y/N felt at peace. There were no more hasty warnings of the future, no psychotic old men coming after her family, no young girls rushing in to tell her how to fix her screwed up life. Cracked, pink lips moving against her own, his tongue delving into her mouth, and Y/N knew she was finally off the clock.

[elvish-sky]

It's Not a Wedding Without a Food Fight {Éowyn x Reader}

A.N: So the slouching thing was inspired by another request I got, but the request was for platonic Legolas and Aragorn and this is not so I will be writing another more in depth one with that! But this was great to write- I haven’t written much lately so this was an awesome piece to get back into things with. I really hope you guys like it!

Requested by Anon on Tumblr: hhhm can I request any female character x fem!reader? the fandom desperately more femslash content sjfjsgsk

Word Count: 1,823

Summary: You and Eowyn are about to get married.

Pairings: Eowyn x Fem!Reader, Aragorn x Legolas

Warnings: Fluff, Humor

****

It’s Not a Wedding Without a Food Fight

Laughing, you strolled hand in hand with your fiance down the hallway. Tomorrow was your wedding day, and as you were the adopted sister of the newly crowned King of Gondor, and Eowyn was the Princess of Rohan, it was going to be quite the event.

But tonight, the night before, was just for you. You were headed to a small family dinner with the Fellowship, Eomer, and Faramir, one last gathering with them before you were married.

As a fun surprise, you and Eowyn had picked each other’s outfits for the night. She was wearing a light yellow dress that matched her hair, embroidery-less but cut in a way that accentuated her perfectly, with a golden circlet crowning her head. You were her opposite, in pale blue with a silver circlet that matched the one she wore while still paying homage to your brother. You had laughed at each other’s clothing choices when you first saw them, chuckling at how somehow you matched.

Reaching the end of the hallway, you pushed open the double doors to see all your friends sitting around a table. Merry and Pippin were at opposite ends of the table (as everyone knew that you had to separate them if you wanted an event to be slightly less chaotic- although they were sitting together at the wedding tomorrow. You hoped that wasn’t a mistake). Boromir (who had survived his wounds at the hands of the orcs), Faramir, and Eomer had their heads bent together in some deep discussion, and Frodo and Sam were contently sipping their ale with Gandalf. Legolas and Aragorn seemed to be bickering about something, and Gimli, seated between them, just looked annoyed.

You paused in the doorway for a moment, holding Eowyn back, just looking at all your friends alive and happy. You wouldn’t have thought it possible that you’d all be here, and that you yourself was getting married. To the most beautiful woman alive.

Eowyn noticed your thoughts drifting and squeezed your hand, bringing you back to the present to see your brother smiling up at you, no one else having noticed your presence.

And then, with Pippin’s shout of, “Y/N! Eowyn! You both look great,” everyone was pushing back benches and stools and coming over to hug the both of you and escort you to your seats.

You sat between your brother and Gimli, Eowyn next to Eomer and Boromir several seats down.

“What’s going on?” You asked Gimli, gesturing to the elf and human arguing over your heads.

“It’s the posture thing again, lass. They’ve been at it for ten minutes.” The dwarf shook his head.

Ahhhh. The posture thing. It had started in Rivendell when the Fellowship had first formed, and had been going on ever since. Even when the two had started courting, the human still bothered the elf about it. Aragorn was very bothered by people with bad posture. You had grown up with him constantly nudging your back whenever you slouched, and the constant whisper of “Postuuure,” in a singsong voice. You felt bad for Legolas, but you had to admit Aragorn’s nagging had helped you. Your back literally never hurt.

“Seriously, Legolas, stop slouching,” Aragorn hissed.

The elf sighed. “Aragorn. You leave me no choice.”

You watched, wide eyed, as Legolas grabbed a handful of food and smashed it into Aragorn’s hair.

“FOOD FIGHT!” Came the expected yell from Pippin, and with that everyone was standing and grabbing food and throwing it at whoever was closest.

Even Gandalf was participating, somehow managing to hit Pippin repeatedly in the back of the head with roasted potatoes. Aragorn and Legolas were attacking each other as fiercely as they would orcs on the battlefield, smashing food in the other's face.

Laughing, you ducked under the table for a moment to catch a break, and found Eowyn with a stockpile of food.

“I was waiting for you to come down here!” She had a mischievous smirk, and you quirked an eyebrow.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m waiting. When Pippin got up and yelled I grabbed all the food I could and hid under here. Want to surprise attack everyone?”

You nodded. “This is why I fell in love with you!”

She laughed. “Three, two, one!”

On one you exploded from under each side of the table, hurling food at anything that moved. You hit your brother right in the face, got Legolas’ hair covered in something, and backed Boromir and Eomer into a corner with the amount of food thrown at them, Faramir laughing in the background.

Finally, after everyone was completely covered, you and your soon-to-be-wife climbed onto the table.

“Who are the champions?” Eowyn asked.

Boromir groaned. “You are. You are very much the champions.”

You grinned. “Now that we’ve established that, who wants to help us clean all this up?”

Everyone rose, and helped you clean up the huge mess you’d made. After, everyone made their way to their rooms, tired.

You entered your bedroom and closed the door, leaning against it. Tomorrow you would be married. To the best woman alive. You smiled as you went to your wardrobe, donning your nightclothes while gazing at the wedding gown you couldn’t wait to wear. You fell asleep with the wardrobe still open, eyes fixed on that symbol of your future.

“Y/N! WAKE UP!” Was the first thing you heard the next morning, accompanied by a cacophony of knocks at your door.

“What,” you groaned, rolling over.

“It’s Pippin! Sam’s with me! We brought breakfast!”

“Fine. Come in.” You sat up, rubbing your eyes as they opened the door.

The smell of eggs and toast wafted in with them as Sam set the tray at your desk. You got up and padded over, sitting in the comfy chair.

“Thank you both very much for this!”

The hobbits beamed.

“That’s not all, Y/N!” Pippin told you. “Frodo and I are both very good at doing hair, so Frodo and Merry went to Eowyn to give her breakfast and do her hair, and we came to you!”

You beamed at them. “That’s awesome! I have absolutely no plans for my hair, so go right ahead.”

Pippin nodded at you and set to work, him and Sam keeping up a stream of cheerful chatter.

Once finished, Pippin showed you to the mirror and you gasped. The hobbit really knew what he was doing, it looked lovely.

“Thank you both so much!”

“Happy to, Miss. Y/N! Now, we’re going to let you finish getting ready. Aragorn will come by and get you once the ceremony is about to start,” Sam told you.

You waved as they closed the door behind them, then set your eyes on the dress. It was time to finish getting ready.

You slowly rotated in front of your mirror, admiring yourself. The white dress was long enough to hit the floor in the front, with a train that stretched back. The bodice had silver edging along the v-neck, and you knew that Eowyn’s was edged with gold.

Hearing a knock at the door, you opened it to see Aragorn, crown gleaming, waiting for you.

“You look beautiful, Y/N. Eowyn’s going to love you.”

“I know!” You laughed, looping your arm through the one he offered and setting off.

You walked down the aisle on your brother’s arm, beaming at your soon-to-be-wife who stood next to Gandalf at the front. You glided past friends whispering words of congratulations, gripping your bouquet with one hand and Aragorn with the other, up past the Fellowship seated at the front who had become your family. As Aragorn took your hand, placing it in Eowyn’s, you looked into her eyes and knew the two of you were going to be so happy together.

After the ceremony, after you had kissed your wife with petals raining down on you, you made your way to the party together. When you opened the double doors, cheers rang out and the two of you kissed once more.

You drank, and sang, and ate, and generally had a lovely time. You were torn out of a conversation with Legolas by Eomer shouting out for silence.

“In Rohan, we have a tradition that anyone who is not married gathers together and the bride throws the bouquet over her head. It’s said that whoever catches is will be the next to be married!”

You looked over to Eowyn, who smiled and gestured for you to join her as Eomer corralled everyone into a group at the other end of the room. He counted down, “THREE, TWO,” and on “ONE” you and your wife threw your bouquets in synchrony.

Turning, you burst into laughter as you saw who held the bouquets. Aragorn, looking a little amused but mostly very nervous as he held one bouquet, was staring at Legolas, who stood next to him with the other clutched in his arms, an identical expression on his face.

Boromir whistled, laughing with you at the two of them. “Guess we’ll be hosting another royal wedding soon enough!”

Aragorn was blushing like mad, glancing over at Legolas shyly. You didn’t think you had ever seen Aragorn be shy before. But as you looked on, Legolas strode over and pulled Aragorn into a kiss, fingers tangling in his hair. Another cheer went around the room as they broke apart, both flushed.

As you made your way over to your brother to make fun of him, you heard him whisper to Legolas, “But don’t think you’re off the hook with that posture.” You laughed.

The party wound down later, people leaving with congratulations to you and your wife and wishes for a happy marriage. Aragorn and Legolas had snuck off somewhere after the whole bouquet thing, which you were not at all surprised by, and the rest of the Fellowship had headed out or looked ready to do so.

You grabbed Eowyn’s hand, and with a wave to Gandalf, Boromir, and Eomer, the only people left, the two of you exited the room. You made your way through the halls to the room you would now share, that had been prepared by your families.

Opening the doors together, you gasped in unison. It was perfect. A door led to a balcony and you walked out hand in hand. The moon shone down like a spotlight on the two of you as you turned back to look at your room.

“So, my wife, what do you think?” Eowyn asked.

“I’m shocked that our brothers were able to make something this beautiful, but I love it. Also, I suspect Legolas helped.”

Her laughter rang through the air, and then she leaned in. In the moment before her lips touched yours, she whispered “I love you.” And then you kissed.

When you broke apart, the only thing you could say was, “I love you, too.” And then you kissed her again.

Everything tag ❤️: @entishramblings @itgetsatadhazy @boyruins @anjhope1 @kumqu4t @katbby16 @thewhiteladyofrohan @kirstenscaffeinateddisaster @beenovel @shethereadinghobbit @guardianofrivendell @hey-its-nonny

[just-dreaming-marvel]

It’s Always Been You ~ 144

OUT OF TIME MASTERLIST

IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 2,660ish

Summary: The time travel mission gets started.

Notes: You must read Out Of Time in order to understand this. The chapter numbers continue from Out Of Time.

“I’m going to look the suits over one last time before looking my reactor over,” Tony whispered to Y/N. “Are you going to be okay alone for a little while?”

“I’ll be fine,” she responded. “I need some time alone anyway.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you too.” 

They shared a brief kiss before Tony headed for the lab and Y/N went outside. She was craving a run, wanting time to short through her thoughts. She began with a slow jog, slowly increasing her speed the more she thought about everything that had happened and could possibly happen. 

Rounding the track for the seventh time, she noticed Steve waiting. She rolled her eyes and pushed herself to run faster passed him. Too bad Y/N wasn’t a super soldier too, he quickly caught up with her.

“We need to talk,” Steve said, running beside her.

“I’m done talking,” she retorted, trying to push herself harder.

Steve sighed and easily caught up with her again. “Well I’m not. Can you stop for a second?”

“No.”

“Y/N, I just want to talk.”

“And I don’t want to listen.”

“Please.”

“Steve, I really don’t want to do this—“

“I’m sorry.”

Those words had Y/N skidding to a sudden stop. She was panting, too shocked to turn around. As soon as the words left his mouth, Steve had stopped. They were a few feet apart, but it felt like miles.

“What?” Y/N breathed out, slowly turning around.

“I’m sorry,” her brother repeated. “And in saying that, I know that it’s not enough. But… I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for exactly? Bringing me along with you back in the 40s? Me waking up before you? You not accepting that I’m different now then I was, and that’s okay? Or for you not trusting me? For doubting me?”

“For all of it. I’m sorry that I brought you along on that world tour. I’m sorry that you fell from the ship and I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry that you had to spend years without any family members, believing that Bucky and I were dead. I can’t—“ He shook his head. “I can’t even imagine how lonely that felt. Because I woke up and I still had you. Though, you had changed…. And I’m sorry for not accepting it sooner. I… I guess I’m just hurt because you kept those things for me. Out of all people, you kept all these things from me, your twin. Your abilities, Coulson, your knowledge of the Stones… you knew so much, yet you didn’t share it…. And… And I guess I’m jealous.”

“Jealous? Of what?”

“You’ve found someone who loves you and fights for you. And you fight for equally in return. You guys lean on each other through everything, which is so admirable. And you have Morgan, who is the greatest thing. I love her so much.”

“She loves you too.”

“I want what you have… and I haven’t been able to find it. It’s killing me… the only person who I’ve ever wanted a family with was Peggy. And that’s not an option.”

“You’ll find someone better than her. I know it’s hard to believe, but you will.”

“I’m sorry, for everything. I really am.” Y/N was hesitant to believe Steve, and he could tell. “I don’t want to go into tomorrow, whatever may happen, without having cleared things up with you. I don’t want to do tomorrow without you knowing that I do love you and I do trust you…. Can you forgive me?”

Y/N bit her lips and looked away, trying to keep the emotions at bay and failing. She looked back at her brother and took a deep breath. “Yes… I forgive you.”

Steve rushed up and bear hugged his sister. She quickly wrapped her arms around him as well.

“I’m so sorry,” Steve whispered.

“I know,” she replied. “I am too. Let’s try and not be at each other’s throats constantly.”

“I think I can do that.” He pulled away, still holding onto her arms. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Putting up with me.”

“Well, I haven’t exactly made it easy on you either.”

“Right. Have you called Morgan yet tonight?”

“I haven’t, but she’s probably already in bed.”

“Do you think we could try? I want to see her, before anything happens tomorrow.”

“Good thing I have her on the line right here, Cap,” Tony stated, walking towards the twins.

“Uncle Steve!!!” Morgan squealed from the phone.

“Mo!!” Steve quickly swiped the phone from Tony. “How’s my favorite niece doing?”

“Good! Happy and Pepper let me swim in the lake today!”

“What?!” Y/N exclaimed, pushing to get into the view of the camera. “It’s October!”

“I didn’t— Morgan give me the phone,” Happy ordered. He swiped it from the little girl. “We didn’t let her! She snuck out.”

“Way to go, Mo!” Tony cheered.

Y/N smacked his arm. “Don’t encourage this,” she scolded.

“Sorry.”

“I’m sorry, momma,” Morgan said sadly, taking the phone back from Happy. 

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Y/N replied. “I just don’t want you to get sick. Okay?”

“Okay… when are you and daddy coming home?”

Y/N made eye-contact with the men surrounding her before looking back at her daughter. “Hopefully tomorrow night, or the next day.”

“Yay! Will Uncle Steve be coming with you?” Y/N looked at Steve.

“Of course,” Steve answered. “I need some time with my biggest fan.”

“Yay!!!!!”

“Okay,” Tony took the phone, “it’s time to go to bed, little miss. We love you.”

“Love you 3000!”

“Love you baby,” Y/N said as Tony hung up the phone. “This is going to work, right?” She looked at the men, pleading with her eyes. “We’re going to get the Stones, bring everyone back, and no one is going to die…. Right?”

Tony cupped her face and her hands when to grab onto his wrists. “Nothing is going to happen,” Tony promised her. “We are all going to be okay. And we,” he paused for a brief kiss on her lips, “are going to get back to Morgan safely.”

“Tony’s right,” Steve agreed. Tony broke contact with Y/N’s face, bringing an arm around her waist and pulling her into his side. “We’re going to get through this.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

~~~

Tony and Y/N said goodnight to Steve and headed straight for their room. The door had barely shut before Tony had her up against the wall and his tongue in her mouth. Y/N willing grasped onto him, letting him take control.

“I love you,” he murmured against her as they worked together to tear their clothes off. “I love you… I love you.”

“Are you trying to make up for us not having sex when we said we would?” She panted ever so slightly.

“Maybe,” he smirked, lifting her up. “Or maybe, I just want to show my wife how much I love her before we head off to the past tomorrow.” He gently laid her on the bed and he knelt over her. He ran his fingers down the side of her face. “I love you,” he repeated.

“And I love you… now, are we doing to do it? Or are you going to make me beg?”

~~~

The Team could feel the weight of their mission when they woke up in the morning. Getting geared up, everyone checked everything over numerous times. Scared to over look anything. The Team headed to the platform together, with Steve leading the charge. Bruce stopped at the control panel as the rest walked up onto the platform. They each took a position around where the opening would be, Y/N in the middle of Steve and Tony. They all looked at their Captain to say something before they headed off. With a sigh and a second to get his thoughts together, Steve began:

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends… We lost family… We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win.” Looking passed Y/N, Steve and Tony shared a look. “Whatever it takes. Good luck.”

“He’s pretty good at that,” Rocket commented.

“Right?” Scott agreed.

“Alright. You heard the man,” Tony said. “Stroke those keys, jolly green.”

“Tractors engaged,” Bruce responded.

Tony reached over to Y/N and tugged her into him, landed a loving kiss on her lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she responded.

Bruce joined them on the platform and the quantum realm opened up. Tony and Y/N separated, looking down at the swirling colors. Natasha was smiling excitedly.

Turning to Steve, she said, “See you in a minute.”

Steve gave her a small smile in response before the Team’s helmets formed and they shrunk, entering the quantum realm. They were all together at first, until their GPS’ split the groups up to where they were heading. Tony, Steve, Y/N, Bruce, and Scott landed in New York 2012, in the midst of the Battle of New York. Their suits disappeared and Y/N immediately gasped loudly, stumbling back. Tony and Steve were quickly at her side to stable.

“Honey? Honey, talk to me,” Tony urged as Y/N’s breathing matched her rapid heartbeat. “What’s going on?”

“Th-The Stones,” she gasped. She could feel the connection forming once again. “They… I can…”

“Can you control them?” Steve questioned, trying to see if he could see what Y/N was trying to get at.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Do you need to sit down?” Tony wondered.

“I’ll be fine. I just…” The buzzing began, making Y/N cringe. “I just need a second. But you guys can start without me. It shouldn’t be hard for me to catch up.”

“You sure?” Steve asked.

“I’m sure.”

“Alright then, we all have our assignments. Two Stones uptown, one Stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock.”

Suddenly 2012 Hulk passed by their alleyway, smashing everything along his way. Bruce put his hand on his face, embarrassed. Steve looked at him.

“Feel free to smash a few things along the way,” Steve said.

“I think it’s gratuitous, but whatever,” Bruce muttered. He looked Y/N’s way. “You coming?”

“Yeah,” she responded. She leaned over and kissed Tony, pulling him closer by his neck. “Please be save.”

“Always,” he smirked. The two shared one last kiss before Y/N broke off and headed Bruce’s way.

“Need a lift?” Bruce asked, tearing off his shirt.

“Nah,” she grinned, opening a portal behind her. “I think I have a better way.”

“Jealous!” Scott exclaimed. “Do we have to— Ahh!!”

Scott failed to finish what he was saying, due to the fact that Y/N had opened portals beneath the others. She waved and blew a kiss as they fell through, landing them behind the Tower. She chuckled as she went through her portal, Bruce following. Closing the portal, Y/N and Bruce looked to see that they were in the Sanctum where they had met Dr. Strange.

“Hello?” Y/N said. “Is anyone—ah!”

Her trick was played on her and Bruce. The two of them falling through a portal and onto the roof.

“Careful,” the Ancient One warned. “I just had the floors waxed.”

“I’m looking for Doctor Strange,” Bruce said, him and Y/N standing up.

“You’re about… five years too early. Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery about twenty blocks that way.” She pointed. “But you should have known that already.” She looked right at Y/N. “What do you want from him?”

“That, actually.” Bruce pointed towards the necklace around her neck.

“Ah! I’m afraid not.”

“Sorry, but I wasn’t asking.”

“Maybe we should—“

“You don’t want to do this,” the Ancient One interrupted Y/N.

“Ah, you’re right, I don’t,” Bruce responded. He made a grab from he necklace. “But we need that Stone, and we don’t have time to beat it—“

The Ancient One quickly pushed Bruce’ astral form out of his body. Bruce, who now looked more human, stared at the Ancient One horrified.

“Let’s start over,” the Ancient One said, “shall we?”

“You know who I am?” Y/N asked.

“I do. But, do you know who are?”

“I’m getting there. And I’m so sorry to bug, but we really need that Time Stone.”

“No.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I do.”

“Then you know why we need it.”

“Still, a no."

“Please, please,” Bruce, still in astral form, begged.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you two. If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I’m dooming my own.”

“With all due respect, I’m not sure the science really supports that.”

The Ancient One created a projection of a long ray, simulating the flow of time. Projections of the Stones hovered above it.

“The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one Stone and that flow splits,” she explained before she plucked the Time Stone projection away and pointed at the diverging line. “Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one… not so much. In this new branched reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, can your science prevent all that?”

“No, but we can erase it,” Bruce retorted. “Because once we are done with the stones, we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically,” he held the Time Stone projection, “in that reality,” he set it back, “it never left.” The diverging line disappeared.

“But you are leaving out the most important part. In order to return the Stones, someone would have to survive.”

“We will. I will. I promise.”

“I can’t risk this reality on a promise. It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone.” She turned away.

“Then, why the hell did Strange give it away?”

She turned back, shocked. “What did you say?”

“Strange, he gave it away,” Y/N repeated, surprised that the Ancient One didn’t know since she seemed to know everything. “He gave it to Thanos.”

“Willingly?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We have no idea,” Bruce answered. “Maybe he made a mistake.”

“Or I did.” She returned Bruce into his body and opened her necklace, revealing the Time Stone. “Strange is meant to be the best of us.”

“Ancient One, please trust us,” Y/N pled. “I am realizing now you only know so much, but you know what I am meant to do. And I cannot do it without the Stones. They were destroyed and I have no access to them. We need the Stone so that we can bring everyone back and… and so that I can complete whatever calling the Stones have put upon me… Strange knew the calling as well. So he must have given the Time Stone away for a reason.”

“I fear you might be right.” She handed Y/N the Time Stone.

“I’m counting on you two. We all are.”

“Thank you.” 

Y/N handed the Stone over to Bruce, who had something to put it in. Bruce nodded before pressing a button and disappearing. Before Y/N could follow after him, the Ancient One called out to her.

“Y/N.” Y/N stopped and turned. “Before you go, you might want to check on your husband and brother.”

“What? Is something wrong?”

“Just go to their meeting place. And, Y/N, be careful.”

next chapter >

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[slyttherins]

Quidditch camp (part 2) | Fred Weasley x Reader

Summary: You and Fred attend quidditch camp like every summer, but, this year, there’s been a mistake in the cabin and rooming situations. In other words, they’re short of bed and you and Fred will have to share.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Reader

Word count: 1800

-

You hadn't talked to - or even looked at - Fred since the kiss.

Once you pulled away from the kiss, you had made a beeline for the bathroom, no longer caring that there was no hot water. A cold shower would do you good - and it was apparently very beneficial for the skin.

Anything to not be in the same room as him.

At supper, you sat with Angelina and Katie. You talked about the afternoon training session, which will cause your legs to ache in the morning and the latest gossip going around in the girls' cabin. Apparently, a girl had snuck into Cedric Diggory's cabin last night - according to Angelina the suspect was Cho Chang - and Madam Hooch was furious.

Most importantly, you didn't tell them what happened at the cabin.

Unconsciously, as Katie was telling you about a new broomstick trick she learned this afternoon, your eyes drifted to the redhead Beater - and the kiss you had shared. The same kiss that had left you wanting more.

Although Fred was three tables away from you, you could still feel his hands on you, strong and firm but not too rough, smell his woody soap and hear the soft sounds of appreciation leaving both your mouths as his warm tongue slipped past your lips and easily found yours. You couldn't believe you had let it escalate to that. At least no clothes had been removed - Fred was just in his shorts, but it still counted.

.

After supper, you left and went to your cabin, faking a headache. You'd usually follow the girls to their cabin and hang out until curfew, but not tonight. You needed time to think and, most importantly, get your mind off of Fred Weasley. Perhaps reading a book would help?

That didn't work for long because the twins walked in the cabin less than twenty minutes later, laughing about some prank they had pulled on one of the younger campers.

''It was brilliant, Freddie! Who knew Chambers could scream that high pitched,'' George said, talking about the prank.

''That image is forever engraved in my mind. Spiders! Spiders! They're gonna get in my pants!'' Fred mocked, imitating Chambers. ''It was hilarious.''

''How did you find so many spiders?''

''There's a whole colony behind Ron's cabin. I lured them into a cup and-'' Fred stopped himself when seeing you on the bed, his mood dropping and changing.

''Hey, Y/N,'' George greeted with a smile, going to his side of the cabin. ''You're here early.''

''I wasn't feeling good. I think it's the heat,'' you explained. If you were consistent with your lie and told everyone the same thing, no one would suspect it was a lie.

''Well, get some rest. Tomorrow's game day. We play against the Phoenixes.'' George fished for his toiletries and slung his towel on his shoulder. ''I'm gonna shower.'' He looked between you and Fred. ''Try to not kill each other while I'm in there, alright?''

Fred sat on his brother's bed and waited until the shower was running to speak. ''So...are we going to talk about it?''

''Talk about what?'' you asked, faking ignorance.

Fred gave you a stern look. ''Don't play that game, Y/L/N.''

You sighed. Forgetting it happened would've been so much simpler.

It's not like the kiss meant anything. It was just that, a kiss. There was no need to make a fuss about it.

''There's nothing to talk about.'' You closed your book and stood, slipping on your shoes and headed outside for a walk.

''Where are you going? I thought you had a headache.''

''I do, but hearing your voice makes it worse.''

.

The match against the Phoenixes was not going well.

McLaggen was sick, therefore he was sitting out this one, which left his keeper position to one of the younger - and less skilled, campers. Much to their bad luck, the young boy had let in five goals in a row. Five! He was probably nervous for his first time on the field, but five goals was a lot of points.

You were scheming the field, trying to spot the snitch, but, much to your luck, the only thing in your vision field was Fred's abs - which was distracting. To your defense, it was Fred's fault for bringing the bottom of his quidditch jersey up to his face to wipe away sweat. The little fucker also purposely flexed his abs a little every time he did it. You tried to look away, but those abs were difficult to look away from. Damn you, Fred Weasley!

Fred's exibitionist manners caused you to miss the snitch and, by the time you had snapped out of your staring, Cho had caught the snitch.

.

''Maybe McLaggen is right. Maybe we should fuck,'' Fred declared after the match, removing his protective gear.

You almost sputtered your water all over yourself. ''Excuse me?'' you asked, hoping you had heard wrong.

''You and me. We should fuck.''

A laugh left your lips. ''Did a bludger hit your head?''

''You were looking at me, weren't you? That's why you didn't see the snitch.'' A smug smile curled on his face. ''Do you have a crush on me, Y/L/N?''

''Wow, that bludger must've hit your head really hard, uh?''

''I'm not going to tell the team...if you accept to have sex with me.''

What?! You couldn't believe what you were hearing.

''Are you blackmailing me into having sex with you? You know that's sextortion, right?''

Fred shook his head. ''No. I'm saying, it's been proven that sex raises endorphins and other hormones that boost mood. Perhaps if we release those good hormones we won't be at each other's throat and picking fights during games...or staring at the other. It would be for the team's sake.''

You scoffed. ''The team's or your dick's sake?''

''I'm being serious, Y/N. Think about it.''

.

The time had been set. Friday, during the campfire, while everyone's attention would be occupied, you and Fred would slip to your shared cabin and...do it.

You didn't want to let it get to your mind, but it was all you could think about throughout the day. While the plan could work and ease the tension between you two, there was a possibility that the sex would go wrong - or be bad - and make things worse inside the team. You were also worried that it would be awkward afterward or that Fred would tell everyone.

During seeker training, you weren't flying your best. Madam Hooch had noticed that your mind was elsewhere and questioned you about it. You lied about not getting enough sleep the night prior and vowed to not stress yourself over tonight.

It was only a big deal if you made it one, right? To prove yourself, you didn't dress special - other than matching your underwear to your bra. It was just Fred, you didn't need to impress him. You didn't even put on lipgloss!

You started with kisses, slowly getting comfortable with each other, but quickly wanting more. His ginger hair smelled of smoke from the campfire and his lips tasted something sweet - roasted marshmallows. You hummed, slipping your hands under his shirt, feeling the curves of his abs and back. Merlin, you loved those.

''Did you lock the door?'' you asked, not wanting to be walked in on by any of your cabin buddies.

Fred hesitated and you sighed, going to lock it yourself.

When you returned to Fred, he had discarded his shirt, leaving him shirtless and you had to hold yourself back from biting your lip. Damn, that body.

Seeing as it was unfair that he was the only one who had taken off clothes, Fred helped you take off your top. You should've felt exposed, but it wasn't the first time he saw you in a bra and it wasn't much different than bikini tops, right? But, this bra was a little sexier than the sports bra you usually wore and, by the look Fred was giving you and your body, he didn't hate it.

''Ohh, I didn't know you owned other things than sports bras, Y/L/N,'' he teased, gliding the pad of his finger on the edge of the black lace.

You swatted him and he laughed.

His lips found their way back to yours, hands exploring each other's bodies. You felt the backs of your legs hit his bed and fell back onto it due to a not-so-gentle shove from Fred. You narrowed your eyes, but Fred joined you, crawling on top of you.

Small moans left your lips as he kissed the side of your neck and your hands went to his hair, keeping him there. He was probably going to give you a bruise and it could be a bitch to cover up, but you'll worry about that later.

No. No more kisses. You were running tight on time.

You snapped out of your bubble and pulled Fred off of your neck. If you wanted to be finished before anyone realized you two had vanished from the campfire, you needed to get straight to business and not fool around too much.

Sparing you both some time, you arched your back off of the mattress and unclasped your bra, throwing it somewhere in the room. You took a mental note to pick it up later to not give Oliver another reason to complain about sharing his cabin with a girl.

As you laid there, topless under Fred, the boy couldn't help but stare at your breasts, hunger in his eyes. He bit his lip and covered them both with his large hands, thumb brushing against one of your nipples, watching it harden.

''Weasley! Less ogling, more fucking. We don't have all night.''

.

''If you talk to anyone about this-'' you warned, pulling on your denim shorts and buttoning the button.

Fred emerged from the bathroom, having discarded the proof of your sexual intercouse at the bottom of the trash to cover your tracks. You couldn't let any of the boys see the used condom.

He scoffed. ''Don't flatter yourself, this was nice, but I'd rather no one knows.''

Was he embarrassed of having slept with you? It couldn't be. It was his idea - technically it was McLaggen's - to have sex.

''Because, you know, we'd get in trouble if Madam Hooch found out,'' he continued explaining, slipping on his shirt and running his hand through his hair to fix them.

Yeah, sure. That was the reason.

Everyone knew having sex on campsite was strictly forbidden and had great consequences - aka, sitting out matches - if Madam Hooch found out, but that didn't stop campers from sneaking around and doing it.

''I mean, it was fun, but you're not worth sitting out matches for.''

[sumu-samu]

Broken

“Hi i saw that you were gonna start writing stories and we're looking for ideas and things,, maybe a Luke x f!reader oneshot around the time of The Lightning Thief. I think it would be cool if the day before he snapped and revealed himself as the thief,, he confessed his feelings to someone or took an s/o on a special date as a type of "goodbye" without saying anything. There's not many luke fics and his TLT story is so fun to explore :3″

Pairing: Luke Castellan x daughter of Poseidon!f!reader

Genre: Angst basically. Some fluff, but angst.

Warnings: non that I can really think of

A.N: Literally listened to The Lightning Thief musical while writing this.This was super fun to write ngl, I also may have gotten carried away with the back story and such but meh :3. I also took a few freedoms and made you Poseidon’s daughter, hope you don’t mind it too much, and I changed the ending of the book a bit because I can’t remember exactly how it ended, just the basics, and I can’t find my book to fact check myself. Hope it doesn't bother you too much and that you like it.<3

Y/N sat at her cabin table, her newly found brother had just come back from a stupid quest he had to go on because her uncle was throwing a fit (as he usually does) about someone stealing his lightning bolt, and he immediately blamed it on her family. She knew all about the prophecy and the whole half-blood child of the big three turning sixteen and having the power to either save or destroy the world. Thing was she had already turned sixteen (if you’re not sixteen yet, just go along with it please) and nothing special really happened, so when Percy showed up at camp and killed a minotaur on the first day, Her and Chiron had been a bit weary of the new half-blood.

When Percy was claimed by Poseidon you’d think she’d be happy that she had found family, after losing her mother at five and never seeing her father, but she wasn’t, She was more worried than anything. Worried that she would lose the family she had just found. And when Percy left to go on the quest, Y/N felt like she couldn’t breath. She didn’t know him very well, but Percy was a good kid, she could just feel it, and she wanted to get to know him more. The thought that he may not come back from this quest in one piece terrified her. And what made it even worse was that he brought Annabeth with him. Annabeth was like Y/N’s little sister.

Ever since the day she found the seven year old blond they had been through alot together. She had run away from camp after getting into an argument with Chiron, she soon learned that it was a big mistake, then ran into the little girl somewhere in Pennsylvania. She then met Luke and Thalia, and then ran into Grover. The five had been through alot, especially when they lost Thalia, she was yet another pice of family she lost. She hadn’t walked into the camp with the other three, she just stayed and watched as Thaila’s body formed into a tall standing pine tree. She cursed Zues for letting this happen to his own daughter.

As the years went by she took care of the spunky little blond, and Luke liked to help every now and then. Feelings grew for the blond boy, no doubt about it, but she also remembered how Annabeth would squeal to her and rant about her little crush on Luke.

When they came back, all three of them, in one pices to say she was relieved, was an understatement. There had been a lot of events that happened after they were back, her favourite being the look on Clariese’s face when she heard that her father had stolen the bolt. The whole cabin was angry and Percy, and the fact that he had made their father look like a fool. But what she really cherished was right now. She was able to catch up with her brother and everything. Talk about his life, get to know him and how much of a good kid he really was. They talked about the prophecy and how he was confused about being betrayed by a friend and failing to save what matters the most.

“People who know nothing about prophecies may say something like ‘oh well you know the prophecy is crazy and could be wrong in some way,’ but, I know that isn’t the case. So I’d say, that the prophecy isn’t done with you yet.” She shrugged.

“Oh, how great.” he rolled his eyes.

“Hey, Y/N” She heard the smooth deep familiar voice and looked up to meet bright blue eyes. “Right before curfew… could you uh,” he scratched the back of his neck. “Just, meet me by the lake.” he quickly stated then walked off. She sat very confused, she had never seen Luke like that before. He was usually a cocky, joking fellow. Seeing him shy and flustered,and maybe even worried, had concerned her.

When the sun had fallen, and curfew was about twenty minutes away, she snuck out of her cabin and went down to the lake. “Luke?” she called out not seeing him anywhere.

“Y/N.” she then heard from behind her. Turning around she saw a familiar silhouette, She couldn't see his face due to the lack of light but she knew it was him.

“Hey, what’s up?” She walked towards him.

“I-” He looked around and took her by the arm to drag her further away from the cabins so that they could be somewhere where he knew they were truly alone. “I have something to tell you.” He sounded sorrowful and serious. This made Y/N’s heart race faster in worry for the boy in front of her.

“What is it Luke?” She moved her hand to his cheek so he could look at her. He just stared into her eyes for about a minute. He was dazzled by her (e/c) eyes, that she had gotten from her mum and her dark hair that she got from her father. His hands moved to her waist before he viciously pulled her close to him, foreheads touching. Her heart sped up even more, this time from the closeness of the two rather than worry. “Luke?” she questioned.

“I’m so sorry.” He squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “I’m so… so sorry Y/N.” He wrapped his arms further around her waist, pulling her into a hug. She took in his scent as he did hers.

“Luke, I don’t understand, why… why are you sorry?” She pulled away to look into his eyes again.

“Y/N, I… I like you… I like you so much I think I love you. And it hurts me, ever since we lost Thalia, you were there, you were alway there. And I don’t know why I couldn’t be satisfied with just you and Annabeth, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out. But in the end, I want you to know that it was you, It was always you.” And that's when he did it. He made her heart completely stop, He leaned in and kissed her. His kiss soft and gentle, the kiss was passionate. She melted into it, wanting it to last forever but alas he pulled away. “I just hope you will forgive me at some point.”

“Luke, what’s going on? What do you mean forgive you?” She was seriously done with this mysterious way he was talking.

“I can’t tell you, not yet. Just, stay with me, for the night. Tonight only, sleep beside me, let me hold you one last time.” He pleaded.

“Luke, where are we gonna sleep, we can’t go to your cabin, because… well,” She thought of the cramped cabin 11 and how embarrassing it might be to wake up in the morning with all those kids around her laughing, or how maybe the twins would try playing a prank of them in their sleep. “Percy’s asleep in my cabin, and we can’t stay out here… the harpies.” She shuddered at the thought of being attacked by those bird ladies.

“Y/N, i’ve seen Percy sleep, there's no way he's gonna wake up before us. I’ll be sure to leave before he even knows I’m there.” He rested his forehead on hers.

She thought for a while. “Alright fine.” She smiled and they walked back to the cabin.

That night she had the best sleep she had ever had. Luke’s warmth,and his scent. It relaxed her in a way that she didn’t know was possible. But he held true to his word of getting out before Percy knew he was there. In fact, she had to sit there for a while trying to be sure it was real and not just a dream, because when she woke up, he wasn’t there. Her heart dropped. It was too vivid, too detailed, too… too real, to be a dream. She got out of bed, and got dressed before hearing a snore. She grabbed her pillow and threw it at the drooling boy, still asleep in his bed.

“Wake up ragworm. You’re gonna miss breakfast.” She said, waiting till he got out of bed and started getting changed to leave and go to breakfast.

They sat at the table eating their food when Mr. D. had stood up to tell everyone to decide whether they were staying for the year or leaving before noon. “What are you gonna do?” Percy looked at his sister.

“I'm staying here.” She shrugged as if not going home was something she was used to.

“You’re not going back to your family?” He sounded confused. But he too was confused if he wanted to go back and see his mum or if he wanted to stay with his new found family. He was kinda hoping she was gonna go so that it would make it easier on him.

“Have no family to go home to, Perc. This right here,” she motioned to all the other kids at their respective tables, “this is the closest thing I have to family.”

As the day had progressed the thought of what happened with Luke last night being real faded as Luke had avoided her all day. And as she was walking around Camp, enjoying her last day with some of her friends she saw some wood nymphs carrying a body wearing blue jeans and a bright orange camp shirt. “Percy.” she gasped as she saw the black head of hair. They carried him to the infirmary where he was tended to and given some nectar to recover.

Once he woke up he started ranting off nonsense. “Luke, it’s Luke we- we need to look for him.” he tried to get up but Chiron stopped him.

“What do you mean it’s Luke, Perc?” She was worried by the tone of her brother's words.

“The… the friend who was supposed to betray me… it’s Luke. He’s the lightning thief” At Percy’s words Y/N’s head went fuzzy, her stomach turned. “He’s serving Kronos, hes trying to bring him back.” she didn’t want to believe what she was hearing, “ Oh… and Y/N… he said that if I happened to survive, to tell you… he meant what he said last night, and that he is really sorry.” Percy said that as if it was irrelevant.

“No, you're lying. Luke, he wouldn… He isn’t... “ She shook her head trying to deny it but then something came back to her.

“I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out.” She ran out of the infirmary, tears stinging her eyes and her head steaming. She ran into the cabin, and without thinking rationally started to throw things around out of… well, she wasn’t really sure what she was feeling, she just needed to get it out.

Once she was done throwing things around, and the cabin was totally trashed, she knew exactly what she was feeling. She ran to the lake, feeling angry and sad. She took her shoes off and sat at the edge with her feet in the water. Tears running down her face.

“I just hope you will forgive me at some point.” Luke’s words rang out in her head. “I don’t think I ever can.” She thought. It wasn’t because of the fact that he had betrayed her friends, her family, betrayed her. It was more the fact that Luke was so selfish, so so stupidly selfish that he had to dump that onto her. He had to tell her how he felt and then go and break her like that. Because of that, she hated him, but at the same time, deep in her heart she still loved him, something small was telling her that this wasn’t actually Luke, that he was really the Luke that she loved and that something was controlling him.

She looked up at the sky, the clear blue sky. To anyone else, on any other day, it would have been a beautiful day. But no matter how much the sun shined, all she could see was grey. “Why? Why can’t I be happy? Why do you insist on torturing me constantly. What did I do to make you decide I don’t deserve happiness? Was it because I was born? It’s not my fault that my father can’t keep a stupid promise. It’s not my fault i’m alive. I never asked for this. So why do you do this to me? You petty little brat! I hate you with every bone in my body.” She screamed at her uncle. Zeus wasn’t listening to what his pathetic niece was saying, but someone was.

His chest felt heavy. Listening to what the beautiful broken girl was saying. He had wanted to hold her like he should have for every heart breaking moment of her sixteen years. “I’m sorry i couldn’t save you from that. But I gave you Percy. You have each other now. Take care of each other like I can’t.” Poseidon sighed.

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Peppermint and Pinewood

Peppermint and Pinewood (Draco Malfoy x Reader)

Premise:

Draco Malfoy x muggleborn, Slytherin! Reader

Although the time setting isn’t too important, I envisioned it taking place somewhere in the fifth year.

Warnings: none really? I mean, I guess bullying, mild angst, and fluff lol. I dunno if Draco goes a little off-canon character wise here but I tried to make his personality as close to the source material as possible.

Word count: 4,581

Note: This is my first ever fan fiction I’ve ever written so yea.

Read it on wattpad too:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/244556691-peppermint-and-pinewood

It was another bad day. After getting yet another berating from Snape due to putting one too many dried lavender flowers in the Calming Draught potion and subsequently losing five house points from Slytherin, y/n found herself once again the target of insults and sneers. As if being a muggle born placed in Slytherin wasn't bad enough, it seems like every single mistake made, no matter how simple or innocent it may have been, was held against her as if it was the highest insult to the wizarding world.

Following a long walk down the hallway to her next class, a cold and judgmental presence drew near. With his steely gray eyes, Draco Malfoy looked down upon y/n.

"Well well... looks like the mudblood lost us even more points! As if it wasn't enough of a plague upon wizard kind and the Slytherin House to have a mudblood part of it..." Draco leaned in towards y/n towering over her by at least 15cm (about 6 inches rounded up) and continued "we have to further suffer your utter lack of any practical skills in class. I mean, bloody hell y/l/n! We've been learning the calming draught for what, the past three days? And you still managed to screw that up. If it was up to me, your kind wouldn't even be allowed in the magical world much less Hogwarts; as pathetic as this school is."

After the cacophony of insults and belittlement, Draco continued onward, gesturing his cronies to follow...

Only, they didn't follow right away. Crabbe and Goyle decided that it was their time to shine and decided to push y/n around, knowing full well she wouldn't do anything to stop them. With some rude comments and pathetic chittering of a laugh, Crabbe gave y/n one final shove sending her onto the ground and spilling out her supplies including books, quills, and a jar of ink. Despite the squawking coming from Crabbe and Goyle, Draco looked more bemused than anything. While he should be laughing at a lowly mud blood getting what they deserved, he felt empty. He almost pitied y/l/n.

"Crabbe, Goyle, hurry up or we'll be late to D.A.D.A. and I sure as hell am not losing any house points because of you buffoons." Draco demanded, leaving y/n on the ground, scurrying to clean up the mess.

Eventually one Slytherin classmate and their Hufflepuff friend spotted y/n and helped her clean up.

"Scourgify! There you go! All better now!" The Hufflepuff chirped as the Slytherin handed y/n the last of her things.

"Are you sure you simply tripped and fell?" The Slytherin doubted y/n's story. "I mean, you aren't the most popular nor liked in Slytherin."

"Oh uh yea. I know where you're coming from but I promise it was just a little trip. Just me being clumsy is all!" Y/n fumbled through her response. "But thanks for the concern Mallory!"

Mallory was one of the few Slytherins who didn't despise y/n for her blood status. Coming from a home where her dad is a wizard and her mom's a muggle, not even muggle born, she found herself sympathizing with y/n.

"Hey y/n, promise us you'll come for help if you really need it, okay?" Susan Bones the Hufflepuff, a caring and hardworking witch who, while maybe initially coming across as weak and a pushover, is not one who is past fighting someone in order to defend her friends.

"Yea yea I promise I promise." Y/n chuckled. If only Mallory was in y/n's dorm room. Things would be a lot better for sure.

After a couple more minutes of reassuring Mallory and Susan that she was alright, y/n begrudgingly made her way to her next class with her fellow housemates of the same year, Defense Against the Dark Arts. While not her particular favorite due to the inconsistency of the instructors, y/n found herself enjoying D.A.D.A. more than most classes due to not only the wide variety of skills and spells learned, but the hands on approach of applying said new skills in practical situations. It was certainly a sight to behold when she transformed her boggart from Voldemort to a mere Pansy Parkinson, shackled by her ankles no doubt by Filch. Of course this only earned y/n more nasty comments hurled her way as well as an unappreciated "gift" from an owl left on her bed, but y/n felt that the site was worth it nonetheless.

D.A.D.A. was unfortunately highly uneventful that day as the class merely reviewed the basic defensive and combative spells from previous years (a shocking amount of students performed poorly on the review exam and thus the whole class had to suffer). On her way out of the class, y/n was met by another Slytherin, none other than the she-devil herself, Pansy Parkinson. As if on cue, the moment y/n stepped out of the classroom and was out of sight of any faculty, y/n was roughly pulled by the hand and pushed into the neighboring, empty classroom by Pany who promptly closed the door behind her, holding it shut.

"Hey let me out of here! Pansy you downright insufferable git!" Y/n burst out, an uncommon instance that was released due to pent up rage from days of harassment.

"Nuh uh! Maybe when you learn your lesson that Draco is mine and you'll neeeveeer be more than a pathetic, weak, and intolerable mudblood!" Pansy chortled in a sing-songy voice.

"Pansy I swear to Merlin..." y/n started before stopping themself to recompose and calm down. "Pansy, I'm asking nicely... please, open the door. I have no clue what you are talking about with Draco, but you don't need to worry. I want nothing to do with that cocky, rude, hair-gelling bastard, okay?!"

"Augh?! You think that pathetic excuse for an apology is gonna cut it? Nuh uh! Maybe you need some more time alone to think about your actions, y/l/n. Colloportus!" And with that, y/n heard the doors click locked, Pansy mumble the anti-alohomora charm, and the ever fading footsteps of Pansy proudly striding away.

Feeling all of her built up emotion come to a boil, y/n allowed herself to blow some steam off while she was alone. Casting one destructive spell after another, the classroom suffered greatly from the y/n’s rage.

"BOMBARDA! STUPEFY! DIFFINDO! INCENDIO!" Y/n proclaimed with much fervor before stepping back in fear.

The last spell carelessly cast quickly caught the ratted tapestry curtains over the windows, sending them ablaze. In the panic, y/n stumbled back to the door before pounding on it wildly for help. Fortunately for her, her absence in her next class and last class of the day was reported and McGonagall was passing by to look for her. Quickly reversing the rushed anti-alohomora charm on the door and then following up by unlocking it, the door swung open as y/n fell through, almost onto the ground before catching herself.

After extinguishing the fire with a quick flick of her wand and a mutter of 'aguamenti' and long winded conversation filled with explanations, denial, and intense pleading, McGonagall decided it was in the best interest to remove 100 points from Slytherin for the utter lack of safety and human decency.

Of course this didn't go well for y/n. That evening she found herself locked out of her own dorm room as her roommates found the blame for the points lost resting solely on y/n. Making her way to the empty common room, y/n sat on one of the couches in front of the green, crackling fire. Equipped with nothing outside of her button up, vest, and pants, y/n used her robe as a blanket and cuddled up on the couch.

At that moment, y/n's bottled up emotion overflowed and she sobbed into the couch cushion. Feeling more like a burden than a human, y/n repeated in her head the insults she's heard many times. "Hinderance. Pathetic. Weak. Worthless..." she choked out between sobs. "Filthy... little... mudblood."

Before y/n could even get one wink of sleep, a door creaked open revealing the prince of Slytherin himself, Draco. Only, unlike most other times, Draco was sans henchmen. Presumably, Draco snuck out for one reason or another and was only returning about now. As Draco stepped into the light, he noticed a covered figure on the couch. Draco glimpsed at y/n h/l h/c hair, quickly deducing it was y/n.

"What are you doing out here this late, y/l/n?" Interrogated Draco. "Shouldn't you be in your room?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Wandering about this late at night, you could lose us house points or worse depending on what suspicious activities you are into." Y/n mumbled as she tried to tune out the excess noise, not caring anymore about how she responded to Draco.

"Harsh, but fair." Draco let out a rare chuckle.

For some reason, hearing Draco chuckle sent warm tingles throughout her body from one hand to another. This is just barely a fraction of a side of Draco she wished she could see all the time. Before getting too caught up in daydreams, y/n remembered it was Draco's fault in the first place that she's even locked out of her room at all.

"Well, to put it short, I'm still a, as you say, a filthy mudblood and it would appear as if torturing me and locking me in an abandoned classroom wasn't enough for them so they decided to lock me out of our own room." Y/n vented with both a sense of exasperated relief as Draco stood silently, stiff as a board, as if he was shocked as to what he was hearing.

Draco took a moment to drink in y/n. Her e/c eyes, red and glossy from tormented crying. Even in this state she was still breathtaking. Wait, what? Breathtaking? Draco suddenly forgot how to speak as his mind raced from his sudden observation. She's not pretty, right? She's just a muggle born, a disgrace to the wizarding world! Is that all she is though? And only a muggle born, not a mudblood? Draco panicked internally for a brief moment before finally recollecting himself and regaining his composure.

"Oh." Was all Draco could manage at the moment. Appearing deep in thought, Draco organized a response. "As much as I would love to hear more of your life problems, I have a room to go back to. So... um... good night..."

Draco awkwardly turned around and shuffled towards his room, pausing only for a brief moment and throwing a quick glance over his shoulder as if he was contemplating something. He quickly shook off any feeling of turning back and entered his room for the night.

The school year progressed without much of anything significant happening outside of the common bullying and stress of the holidays approaching. It was almost winter break and, as usual, y/n would be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. Her parents always took a long vacation over Christmas break and figured they would save money by leaving y/n at school where she would still get food and housing without them having to pay for an extra plane ticket. Y/n didn't mind too much. She had always been pretty independent from her parents, but she loved them nonetheless. They all loved each other but they weren't very affectionate about it, a factor that probably contributed to her apathetic approach to most things. While always hopeful to be invited to one of her parents annual holidays, y/n also looked forward to the more or less peace and quiet of having the common room and school mostly to herself with the exception of the other few students who also remained for the holidays.

Unbeknownst to y/n, ever since their interaction at night in the common room, Draco has been secretly watching her. While seeing her in such a devastated state should logically make him happy as she is only a muggle born, Draco felt anything but happy. It was almost like looking into a mirror for him, seeing her broken. It reminded him of his many nights of anxiety and depression after getting an earful from his father about how he wasn't "good enough" or constantly feeling inadequate compared to the "chosen one", Potter. From that moment on, Draco avoided y/n. Y/n didn't really think anything of it except that she appreciated the extended periods of peace and silence between the other students' insults. This of course only prompted Crabbe and Goyle to try to make up for their ring leader's apparent avoidance and growing distaste of picking on y/n. Fortunately for y/n however, Crabbe and Goyle were quite dim witted and easy to outsmart or avoid. Another development for y/n was that, after her time in the abandoned classroom allowing her to let off some steam, followed by her mini rant to Draco, she found herself able to stand up for herself a bit more, much to the chagrin of Pansy Parkinson. Now when Pansy strode up to y/n with a cocky and mischievous smirk plastered on her face, y/n simply looked on with a strong and unavoidable expression of mere annoyance and anticipation of disappointment. Pansy would try to insult y/n only for y/n to retort with a simple motion of dismissal or a clever comeback.

"Well if it isn't the local mudblood of Slytherin!" Pansy would shout with falsely placed pride.

"Well if it isn't the local tramp of Slytherin!" Y/n would respond with a mock curtsy. "What an absolute honor to be in your presence. Oh, and of course the presence of all the guys you try to hook up with."

Pansy would only stare on, gobsmacked and dumbfounded. She would walk away trying to act as if y/n's responses meant nothing to her, but her embarrassment would be evident with the bright red burning at her cheeks. Y/n would always take a silent pride in herself when she managed to hold her composure and deliver lines to Pansy that would shut her up without the need to stoop down the Pansy's level herself.

The days progressed even more until it was eventually the last day before the Christmas holiday. As the other students were packing their things and saying their goodbyes, y/n spent her time in the library or in the Slytherin common room, sitting next to one of the many windows looking out under the Black Lake. Y/n would often sit by the windows and look at the fish and grindylows swim by, almost entranced by the aquatic life that resides within the lake. Y/n always hoped to spot the giant squid someday, but outside of the rare silhouette of a tentacle, she was disappointed. Of course her biggest achievement of her many nights of lake gazing was when she spotted a mermaid right outside the window. The mermaid smiled a soft and ethereal smile before singing a peaceful song, lulling y/n to a restful sleep. Y/n would constantly be on the lookout for that same mermaid each night, even more so than the giant squid, but was unfortunately commonly met with mere fish or the occasional grindylow that would give her a wicked smile. At the end of the day, students began to turn in for the night in preparation for leaving bright and early in the morning to go home or wherever for their Christmas vacations. Y/n, on the other hand, stayed up, sitting on the couch and watching the green flames dance and in the fireplace. A wave of contentment washed over her as she looked forward to a peaceful break. She had just been told by Mallory that, while she was leaving for the holiday, Susan Bones would be staying as her she had no family to return to (her family having been killed personally by Voldemort in the First Wizarding War) outside of her aunt Amelia Bones who was attending to business all holiday. Y/n looked forward to spending some time with Susan, especially knowing how hard the holidays are for her due to her family's past. She has already planned on taking her to Hogsmeade for some quality time as a “girls’ day” together and to make sure that, despite her circumstances, she would still have the best Christmas possible.

As y/n sat alone, mesmerized by the fire and picturing her plans to hang out with Susan, none other than Draco Malfoy once again stepped into the picture. He didn't directly approach y/n, more or less standing off to the side and looking outward at the lake. Y/n eventually directed her attention away from the fire and noticed Draco staring out at the lake. He seemed a lot more fidgety than usual, almost as if he was nervous or dreading something. 'It couldn't possibly be he's not looking forward to going home, could it?' Y/n thought to herself as she observed Draco's body language. After a brief minute, Draco turned around as if to head to bed only to notice y/n staring at him.

"Ah! W-what are you doing here y/l/n?" Draco jumped slightly, caught off guard.

Y/n quickly looked away, feeling her cheeks burn in embarrassment from being caught. "I, uh, well..." she calmed down and recomposed herself, "if you don't remember, despite yours and most everyone else's wishes, I'm still in Slytherin so I have just as much of a right to be here as you!"

"Oh. Yea. I mean, that's not what I meant." Draco fumbled through his sentences, his nervousness becoming more and more obvious. "I meant, what are you doing here, here. Shouldn't you be in bed so you'll be ready for the holidays?"

Once again, y/n found herself saying, "I could ask you the same thing." Y/n gave a playful yet unconfident smirk.

Defying anyone's best guess, a faint pink rose to Draco's cheeks, completely catching y/n off guard. He quickly tried to laugh it off before continuing to uncharacteristically stumble his way through the conversation. "Uh, yea. My bad, sorry."

Once again, y/n was caught completely off guard. 'Did the Draco Malfoy just say, "sorry"?' Draco didn't even seem phased by the absurdity of what he just said.

Quickly moving on from what just happened, y/n spoke up, "Well, to answer your question. No. I'm not leaving for the holidays. I'll be here all Christmas break."

Almost as if without a second thought, Draco made his way over to the couch area, sitting on the chai directly across from y/n. His previous nervousness seemed to fade away as he responded, "So, why are you staying here? How come you're not going home or traveling somewhere?"

"Well, my parents like to go on big fancy trips for the holidays and they figure that they can save money by leaving me here."

"Oh. Does that bother you at all? That they just leave you behind while they go and have a great time?"

Y/n shrugged, trying to ignore how weird this whole situation is. "Not really. It's always been like this. They never really went on vacations outside of an occasional camping trip with me when I was still living at home and they wanted to take advantage of the situation of me being at a school away from home to go on a nice trip while I was being cared for. We still go camping over the summertime though, so that's fun."

Draco was amazed, listening intently to every word that came out of y/n's mouth. The concept of needing to save money was pretty foreign to him, but he found himself able to relate to her situation of not having the most affectionate family.

"So, what about you, Draco? Why aren't you in bed? No doubt your family has some extravagant plans for the holiday." Y/n asked, turning the tables on Draco.

As soon as she asked this, the previously present nervousness and dread returned to Draco's face. "Oh, uh, not tired yet. A lot on my mind..."

"Well, surely your family has something exciting planned. I mean, you are a Malfoy after all."

As if she just pushed a button, Draco seemed to flinch away at the mention of his family name. For a brief moment, his nervousness was overcome with an irritated, defensiveness as he snapped, "Well it's not all perfect like you so clearly think!"

Y/n flinched back as he shouted this, confused by the sudden change in attitude. Draco noticed her almost immediately shut down, losing any joy that previously graced her face.

"I-I'm... sorry... I didn't mean to shout." Draco sighed. "It's just that-"

"No, I'm sorry." Y/n interrupted. "I saw you were clearly uncomfortable at the first mention of your family and I shouldn't have asked again... you don't have to say anything you don't want to."

"Thank you." Draco simply said. He began to stand up to head to bed before y/n got to say one last thing

"Draco. I-", y/n cut herself off, questioning if she should really finish her sentence. "I'm... always here if you need anything. Okay? I may not know of your family's background or yours, but I'm no stranger to hardships. I'm always here if you need help with something or even just someone to talk to."

Draco looked at her with a face full of mixed emotions. Uncertainty, confusion, fear of letting someone in, fear of pushing her away, and more. He was quiet for about a whole minute as he stood there, looking at y/n.

"But, why? Would you care about me? I've been nothing but cruel and rude to you. Why would you care how I feel?" Draco suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Just because you may not be the most pleasant person in the world to be around doesn't mean you don't have your own battles and issues in life, nor does it mean your issues are any less valid than anyone else's. You're still a human and... I care about you just like anyone else...", y/n looked down at the floor as she quietly said the last part.

Draco stood there, silent and uncertain about how to respond. Another minute of silence passed and, without a second thought, Draco turned around and walked to his room. Y/n kept looking down, berating herself in her head. 'You went too far you idiot! You just had to push it and make him feel uncomfortable...'. Y/n lied down onto the couch and closed her eyes as she tried to fall asleep.

As Draco walked away, he stopped for a second and whispered under his breath, "Thank you... y/n. Merry Christmas."

The night was rough for Draco; he couldn't sleep as he replayed the conversation in his head over and over again. When the time reached 1:30 am, Draco decided to get up and go for a brief walk to clear his head. He opened the door from his dorm room and quietly snuck out so as to not awake his roommates. Making his way down into the common room, he spotted y/n still there, only asleep on the couch. He quickly deduced she must have been locked out of her room again and that was another reason she wasn't in bed yet when he first came across her. He quietly walked over to her and looked at her. Despite her messy hair and unconventional sleeping position, she had a peaceful look on her face as she slumbered. As he turned away to continue his short walk, he heard a noise come from y/n. When he turned around, he noticed her shivering in her sleep. The fire had died down since he was last here and y/n was without a blanket or anything else to keep her warm. He wanted to relight the fireplace but he also didn't want to risk the sudden light waking her up. He eventually turned back to head to his room as y/n laid there.

The next morning, Draco and his friends were getting ready to leave the school and board the trains. A smirk was plastered on Draco's face, one which did not go unnoticed by Pansy.

"Hey Drayyyy!" Pansy cooed in a sickeningly sweet tone of voice. "What's got you so happy this be-a-utiful morning?"

Even Pansy's annoying presence couldn't dampen Draco's mood. "Oh it's nothing. Just looking forward to leaving this joke of a school is all." Draco proudly lied, his thoughts clearly elsewhere.

Despite many more attempts of learning what the truth was from Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle, Draco remained silent on the truth.

Back in the Slytherin common room, y/n began stirring awake. Surprisingly, she slept through the commotion of the other students leaving for Christmas. Stretching and yawning, y/n stood up off the couch, accidentally dropping the jumper that was draped across her onto the ground. Without hesitation she picked up the sweater and slid it on, quickly leaving to brush her hair and get ready for the day to take Susan to Hogsmeade.

Once in Hogsmeade, y/n lead Susan to Honeydukes to pick out an assortment of sweets.

"Thank you so much for all of this, y/n. I really appreciate it." Susan beamed as she grabbed a chocolate frog with one hand as her other held a box of treacle fudge.

"Of course. It's my pleasure and it's a nice change of pace from a normal school schedule. And one never needs an excuse to go to Honeydukes!" Y/n responded gleefully.

After they made their way back to Hogwarts with their bounty of sweets and a few items from Zonko's, Susan led y/n to the Hufflepuff common room so they could indulge themselves.

After taking a big bite from a liquorice wand, Susan spoke out, "oh I've been meaning to ask you, when did you get that jumper? It's been cold all winter but I haven't seen you wear it all!"

Y/n looked down at the jumper. It was green and silver in the Slytherin colors with a big, snake S in the center. "You know what? I don't know... I just woke up this morning and it was draped over me. I'm not sure how I got it."

"Weird. Maybe you made an impulse purchase and completely forgot?"

"No, I don't think that's it. It's a little big for me too. Maybe Mallory bought it for me and left it as a surprise? I know she's a bit bigger than me so that would explain it."

"No that can't be. She got you a new scarf and matching mittens for Christm-shoot!"

"Susan!!!" Y/n burst out laughing.

"Oh no I'm so so so sorry!!! Please don't tell Mallory I told you! She's been planning this for a week! Please act surprised when you get it! Aghhhh I'm so dumb!" Susan panicked as her face flushed from embarrassment.

"Don't worry don't worry!" Y/n chuckled loudly. "I'll act surprised I promise!"

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Susan cried out as she stuffed her mouth with a pumpkin pasty.

The rest of the Christmas holiday was full of fun and funny times like this. For the first time in a while, y/n looked forward to getting up in the morning and seeing people. She would always wake up bright and early, brush her hair and her teeth, and slip on the mysterious oversized jumper. While it still bugged her and Susan as the jumper's origin remained a mystery, y/n was grateful to have it nonetheless on these cold, winter days.

It also had a pleasant scent of peppermint and pinewood cologne too.

[toovirgins]

Le Rêve - Part 5

Summary: John goes to a certain friend to seek advice. Paul has an eerily similar idea.

The door cracked open, and Brian stared back at him in surprise.

John pushed his way into the room, ignoring the flutter of guilt as Brian stumbled backwards. His eyes followed John closely as he crossed the room, surely taking in the unsettling blend of anger and nerves. Brian slowly closed the door behind him as John irritably shoved a stack of papers off of the armchair and lowered himself into it. It was then that he realized he must have been in a bad sort, because the action garnered no sour or disapproving glares.

“Everything all right, John?” He tugged self-consciously at the belt on his gown, pulling the fabric closer around him.

No. John scoffed. Everything is quite the opposite of all right, thanks. Making no attempt to hide the bitterness in his voice, John replied stiffly: “Eppy, I need your help with something.”

Brian took a seat opposite him on the edge of the bed, crossing an ankle over his knee apprehensively. John averted his gaze, seeing and hearing only Paul as the bed dipped with a creak. He fingered the fringe on the armchair, pushing the scene away and with it, hopefully, some of his animosity. It would be no use if he uncontrollably berated perhaps the only man he knew that could help him.

“Right,” Brian replied. John could practically feel the probing gaze burning into his side. “What is it?”

John stared back at him, dumbfounded. The idea that he’d have to explain himself to get Eppy’s advice had never actually occurred to him before this moment.

What could he possibly say? Hey, Eppy. Paul’s been having wet dreams about me, so we almost fucked. Did practically everything but the actual shagging. But we didn’t, because George walked in on it and ran to tell Ringo and God knows who else, while Paul and I screamed at each other and may have effectively ended the Beatles and also our lives.

John almost laughed. Oh, and one more thing. It was my idea in the first place, because I think I’m fucking in love with him.

He was buzzing with hundreds of thousands of thoughts, his mind never having felt so full. Dozens of clips played simultaneously in his memory: Paul’s stare, his shame, his wonder, his willingness, his arousal, his unraveling. His fear, his shock, his pain. And then nothing.

John would punch himself, if he could. Perhaps that’s what he should’ve done instead. Snuck out the back alley and taunted a right frightening lad, until he could get what he bloody deserved and be beaten to a pulp. It sounded far better and warranted than sitting in Brian’s room in heart-wrenching silence.

He had to be fucking crazy to suggest the reenactment. There was no other explanation for it; no one in their right mind would put their entire livelihood on the line for such fleeting pleasure. There were what-if’s about his future and the band’s endurance, of course. But they took the backseat to his concerns over him and Paul. As individuals, rather than bandmates or friends or even lovers. John’s mind knew all too well that their dynamic could never be: societally speaking, yes, but personally, too. Paul knew John—and was far too smart to chain himself to such a burden.

All of John’s fears that had developed over the past few weeks had looked him in the eye tonight and told him that they’d dreamt of having sex with him. They had moaned into his ear, the most beautifully obscene sounds expressed just for him. Just for him, and not some other bird; for a moment, there was no need to pretend anymore.

What might have been the most painful, John reckoned, was that they had let him kiss them. A shock traveled down John’s spine. Paul had let John kiss him, and Paul had kissed back. It was the first time in their sudden union that feeling shot somewhere besides John’s cock. When Paul’s lips nipped at his with abrupt insistence, John could’ve wept.

John could be stripped of everything he had, and still go on. Possessions, wealth, fame, dignity, sense of self—it was all meaningless. The only thing he couldn’t bear was the thought of losing Paul. A life where John could not cling to the hope of holding Paul tightly; of feeling Paul’s breath on his own; of cradling his head in his hands and ghosting his fingertips across sinfully sweet eyelashes and arched eyebrows that would taunt Marilyn and a nose sculpted by Phidias and lips that were made from the stardust on Mars; was not a life worth living.

For a long time, they were silent.

Brian was watching him with guarded apprehension. John could ask the practical questions that even then felt too incriminating. How do you know if you’re gay? When did you realize? What did you do? What do I do?

“I’m not sure how to help you,” Brian started, his voice careful and soft despite jarring John out of his trainwreck of thought, “if you don’t share what’s got you so worked up.”

John swallowed. The next part had to come very carefully, or his cover would be blown. Though he knew he was only delaying the inevitable, somehow, the fact that Brian remain oblivious to the details was crucial to him.

“I’ve done something I shouldn’t have.” He spoke slowly, refusing eye contact. “It was something I’d thought about, but I went too far.” A shaky breath. “A-and… I’m not sure—I don’t know if I can fix it.”

Something just short of clarity sparked in Brian’s eyes. John’s face grew hot with shame, albeit swearing he didn’t give away anything unnecessary.

“Well,” Brian opened. His eyes were too kind. If only he knew. “We all make mistakes. Even if you think you’ve never messed up this badly, it’s all right. Time moves forward and life goes on. You can’t change what’s been done now. But you can take your best shot at apologetics. If this person—if there is a person—and they really love you, you can always fix it.”

John’s heart gave an uncomfortable twitch at the mention of “love”.

Brian shifted closer to John, reaching towards the arm of the chair. He tentatively rested a hand on top of John’s, and though he knew the intention was reassurance, the gesture made him feel sick. An odd expression crossed his face, the twitch enough to capture John’s gaze, but it was gone before he could interpret it. John’s gaze flicked to Brian’s lips. They were pressed together tightly, forming a worried line.

A striking realization occurred to him. John could lean in, right now. He could pry the lips open with his own. A bit of a shift in his chair, and all he had to do was tip forward. Brian would let him; he knew that.

Then, as he deepened the kiss, heightened the circumstances, he would know. He wouldn’t have to try and ambiguously skirt around the problem to get Eppy’s advice. John would know, for sure. Whether it was himself, or whether it was…

“Eppy? Eppy, you in there?” Despite the rapid succession of about seven knocks, the voice wasted no time waiting for a response and slipping inside the door. John lurched back into the chair, despite not actually having gotten closer.

Whether it was just Paul.

“Eppy, I need your help with something.” The words tumbled out of Paul’s mouth, his back still turned to the room as he went to close (and lock, mind you) the door. When he turned around, his eyes immediately fell on John’s face and he went still.

“Oh,” he said, hoarsely.

John’s mind was absolutely blank, his stomach twisting grossly. His mind had lost the ability to spontaneously produce language as he gaped at the man in front of him. He hadn’t intended on seeing Paul for quite a while after tonight, and the shock of his presence right now was utterly baffling. The two stared at each other for far too long, neither making any effort to move or speak. It was only when Brian piped up that their stares finally shifted from the other.

“Paul?” The inquiry held much more than the one word. “Are you all right?”

John watched Paul’s head twitch a bit, almost as if he were about to shake it. Both boys very well knew the answer to that question.

Paul forced a distracted smile in Brian’s direction. “Right chuffed.”

Interesting choice of words, there. John’s nose crinkled into a scowl.

Brian’s gaze continued to drag between the two of them almost curiously. He was no fool; John knew he was sensing the tension that seemed far from their regular spats. He didn't intervene, though. Only watched.

Finally, John worked up the courage to spew in Paul’s direction. The words carried just as much bitterness as he’d intended. “What are you doing here?”

Paul blinked. “I need Brian’s…” He faltered. “Advice.”

John snorted. His heart was hammering so violently in his chest he was sure the room could hear it. The reality of seeing Paul again so suddenly was blinding. God, he wanted to hurt him. He wanted nothing more than to break Paul, to cut so deep that Paul could never in a million years guess what was truly going on in his head. “Ain’t that so,” he spat. “But, if you can’t tell, we’re in the middle of something. So kindly fuck off.”

“John.” Brian’s voice, a warning tone.

Paul’s expression twisted in sudden vitriol. His voice was low, directed entirely at John. “What is your fucking problem? I didn’t make you do a goddamn thing.”

Something cool settled in the pit of John’s stomach at Paul’s final quip. Don’t you think I fucking know that? he wanted to scream. Don’t you know that’s what I’m here for? To find out why?

Suddenly, the reality of the situation came rushing to him, and a newfound fury spiked his veins. Was Paul coming in here to tell Brian what happened? To tell him that John had made a pass at him, or something? John would be painted as the villain. As an attacker.

“Did you finish after I left?” John asked quietly.

The look on Paul’s face was a glittering trophy. Before he could answer, however, Brian abruptly rose to his feet. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but—”

No, no, no. “Don’t go,” John choked out hoarsely.

He shot John a warning glance. “—It doesn’t seem like any of my business. You two need to talk this out on your own.”

John hardly registered Brian grabbing his coat from the rack by the door and slipping out of the room. His eyes were trained on Paul’s, a vicious visual battle between the men that conveyed more than all words ever could. John felt Paul radiating towards him in ways that had no conceptualization, no name; just raw, unadulterated emotions. The pair had always been on that telepathic wavelength, though certainly it was no great pleasure for them now. The only identifiable sensation was vulnerability.

After a long time, Paul spoke. “John.”

John’s breath inexplicably caught in his throat. The words came out choked. “Don’t,” he rasped. “Don’t say it like that.”

Paul threw up his hands in exasperation, casting his gaze sideways. “I don’t know what you want me to do, John. I don’t know what you want from me. Do you want me to say I’m sorry? Is that what you want? An apology?”

It wouldn’t be until long after that John would realize it was an offer Paul never followed through on.

“It shouldn’t have happened. There’s a million reasons for that. I don’t know if either of us really even wanted it to. But it did, and you can’t—” Paul ran a shaking hand through his hair. “You’re not helping me figure this out. You can’t run away from this like it’s just another bother in your life, like… like I’m an inconvenience.” Paul’s lip trembled slightly. “Am I an inconvenience, John?”

John shrugged helplessly. It seemed like the wrong answer, but how do you give an answer to a question you don’t know?

“Fucking say something.”

John looked him dead in the eye. It was funny; Paul had always been teased for his eyes. They were droopy and wide in a cartoonish fashion, remarkably like that of a puppy, or a doe. His lips could form the most filthy utterances (as they often did, the cheeky bastard), but the meaning was washed away by the pure innocence of the eyes. They betrayed him at every turn; despite his best efforts, he would always be the “gentleman”, the “romantic”, the “cute Beatle”. A curse, or a blessing, who was to say? But it was different now. John no longer felt the childlike wonder they often conveyed, the underlying pep and charisma. They were blank now, laced with something quite sinister. They darkened, and rather than a warm pool of molasses John would dip into, they were an abyss. John wanted to claw away from them in a panic, but they had frozen him still.

Despite his mind screaming it was the right decision, it was impossible for John to swallow down the violent wrench of his heart. “Let’s just forget it ever happened.”

Paul’s eyes dropped to the floor, blinking rapidly. John dully noted the shine in them as tears threatened to breach the brim. Paul cleared his throat. “Okay.”

John offered a half-hearted handshake; a truce. It was a miserable attempt at reconciliation. Paul glanced at it with distain before shaking his head and turning on his heel.

John momentarily considered calling out after him. He took in a breath once, twice, but the words wouldn’t come. What could possibly be said?

Before Paul turned the doorknob, he glanced back in John’s direction. John’s stare raked over his form, and for the first time all night, the weight of the situation fully hit him. John’s vision blurred abruptly, and before he could make any move to stop it, silent tears began to slip out.

“John,” Paul started, his voice breaking. He paused for a moment, before wrenching the door open and leaving as promptly as he entered. There was nothing left to do, even if they tried.

They didn’t.

[zerotoxicdragon]

Decide doing Translation this fanfic from ao3

https://href.li/?https://archiveofourown.org/works/30040782

Some are mistake because google translation can be wrong…

False proposals remain proposals

— Grrr... That fucking KID! I swear next time I'm gonna put my hands on him and finally put him behind bars!

The few policemen who made the bad decision to accompany Inspector Nakamori on his way out to the bar had no choice but to increasingly seclude themselves in their seats in the face of the shouts of their superior. The only person present who seemed unfazed by the din of the man was nothing more or less than the one who organized this small event: the private detective himself Kogoro Mouri, who under the pretext of "it's your birthday" could convince the inspector and some poor devils of the squad to accompany him to one of his favorite bars in the city. Rather the only one who did not need to be convinced was Nakamori. The poor man was so stressed that he had not caught the famous thief in his last robbery two days ago that at the first moment he was offered a jug of alcohol he had already halved it.

- Sure, sure! the culprit interrupted him from his meeting, passing his arm through the neck of the birthday boy. You can worry about that thief another day, tonight is a night to drink!

While the only thing Kogoro was most likely looking for was a mate to get drunk, the officers said the peers couldn't help but think there was something more hidden beneath that "working friends" facade. The detective did not bother to respect the inspector's personal space, not only hugging him with one arm but also giving soft touches whenever he recounted something or a light jolt when the man appeared to stop responding briefly. For someone like Nakamori who considered their space very important... this acting just left them dumbfounded.

Now that you thought about it, haven't you been acting a little close lately?

"Ah, Kogoro..." Nakamori spoke, drunk enough not to remember his companion's last name but sober enough to remember

The detective just mumbled a weak "huh?" before looking at his watch on his wrist. He had to blink a couple of times to stop seeing cloudy and concentrate on the device needles, 1 PM? No, that was-

"One in the morning?" exclaimed suddenly, the adrenaline rush getting him a little drunk. Ran's gonna kill me if I come back so late!

Ran...? the inspector mumbled in confusion before connecting the pieces. Ran was his daughter. He also had a daughter who was probably waiting for him at home. Damn it, Aoko's probably in a rage...

The young cops just felt sorry for them. Like the young people they were, they could still stay at the bar for an extra hour. They did not want to go home, otherwise they would have offered to accompany either man to their homes.

"I'd better take a taxi," Kogoro quickly took his things and prepared to leave, before being stopped by Nakamori.

— Ah, Kogoro, we have to go in the same direction, do you think we could share that taxi?

"I don't see why not," he nodded. Let's go have one on the street, Ginzo.

The officers watched as the two men marched in step, Kogoro again playing his inspector by guiding him with one hand on his back.

Between the three of them looked at each other.

"Hey, don't you think...

— ...it will be possible...

— ...that remotely...

— ...Our inspector and Sleeping Kogoro are dating?

No one at the station seemed surprised to see Nakamori holed up in his office dealing with a powerful hangover. From the moment he entered the building with a face indicating that he was more eager to stay in his bed sleeping than to listen to the complaints of his superior, there was no person in the precinct who wanted to approach because of the fear of irritating him.

A small group of officers had gathered just outside his office, whispering to each other what appeared to be the latest new news from the precinct. The superintendent of Shintaro Chaki, well known for being almost always in a bad mood, was already fed up with his subordinates spending more time chatting like old gossips than concentrating on their daily chores; so he took the opportunity to appear behind the group to repress them.

— What is happening here? asked, very upset about the situation.

"Ah, superintendent! exclaimed the quartet of police among surprised and scared. We were just sharing the news with everyone.

— News? What news?

- You don't know? Inspector Nakamori and Sleeping Kogoro are dating! They are so close that they are even called by their names without honorees.

Of all the gossip I could have heard, the fact that Nakamori had gotten a new partner after so many years was really down the list.

"Oh, oh, oh, my head..."

Inside the Mouri detective agency, Conan watched something amusing as Kogoro bemoaned his hangover lying on his desk. The poor man found himself half-disheveled and with his suit badly worn and wrinkled, he was still wearing the same one from the night before.

"You're an amazing dad." Ran was still quarreling with his father, just as he had barely managed to set foot inside the house. First you're going to drink leaving us alone with Inspector Megure, then I stay up late waiting for you to come back and finally you decide to come back almost noon without even leaving a message on the phone or answering machine!

Yes, Kogoro loved his daughter very much, but the only thing he didn't need at the time was someone yelling at him in the ear at full volume.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she murmured as she massaged her temple. But I told you I don't remember anything from last night! I woke up an hour ago at a motel and I came straight here... I think my self yesterday was drunk enough not to remember where he lived and decided to sleep on the road.

The truth is that waking up there was a rather strange event. Few, very few, were the times when Kogoro did not remember how he had come home after having taken until he almost lost consciousness, but even on those occasions he always dawned in his comfortable bed. That's why it was so rare to have woken up in a motel relatively far from the agency, completely naked and also on the floor for having fallen out of a double bed. Worst of all, his body hurt. Moving, walking, anything was uncomfortable. And even if he was in his forties, there was no reason why Kogoro should feel sore after he had taken it.

"When I went to the front desk trying to pay for the room, the employee told me that I had nothing to worry about, that everything was paid for," she sighed. I wonder if anyone decided to guide me to a motel because he couldn't remember my address... he even bothered to fix everything.

Ran went on to berate his father, who simply tried to sink deeper and deeper into his desk to avoid feeling how every word drilled into his head. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when the agency's phone rang and, even if he was not in a position to take any cases, he immediately attended to escape even if it was an instant from his daughter.

— Detective Bureau Mouri, how can I help?

— Mouri-kun! a lively voice answered from the other side. I thought we were friends! I can't believe you didn't tell me something like this.

- Huh? answered in confusion. What the hell was Megure talking about? What was I supposed to tell you?

- Don't play dumb! -Inspector Megure's shout was so loud that even Ran and Conan across the room were able to hear it. How do you think I felt when I found out that one of my closest friends had started dating someone and he wasn't the one who told me?!

For one, two, three seconds.

"HUH?"

Ran had taken Conan to primary school and she was attending her own classes, so Kogoro was now alone at the agency. In theory he was to find himself alone, because in front of him, with his arms crossed and his frown frowned upon, a very annoying Ginzo Nakamori walked from side to side as if going from wall to wall would provide the solution to the problem in which they were.

"Then..." Kogoro began, making Nakamori stop for a moment to pay attention. Everyone in the police force believes that for some reason we are a couple.

"For any reason?" As I heard in the precinct, you couldn't keep your hands still! cried the inspector. Now my superior, Superintendent Chaki, wants me to take my "new partner" to lunch with him and his wife this Sunday!

Mouri snuck into his seat, looking to hide as much as possible from the elder's screams.

- W-but- why did you accept his invitation?

"I had a terrible hangover thanks to your departure last night! I could hardly tell what he was talking to me, I saw myself with no choice but to nod to everything he said. How do you expect that hours after I confirmed to my superior that I was dating, I would simply tell him that I didn't hear him for having the worst hangover of my life? Don't you know how unprofessional that is? I could be suspended!

The detective sighed. They were really in a difficult situation.

- Now what Inspector Megure said makes sense...said he.

"Huh?" What did Inspector Megure say?

- Ah! Well... apparently first he heard the rumors going around your division... And this morning I got a call from him saying that he happened to have to come early to the station and went by the Beika Motel, where he saw you come out first and within minutes of me from the place—he admitted something sad.

For a few seconds they both kept quiet.

But when I woke up in that room I was alone...

"Of course not!" I was just lying on the floor, probably because I fell somewhere in the night. That's why when you woke up you thought you were alone, you couldn't see me on the other side of the bed. Surely I woke up to the sound of the door when you left.

With a whimper of frustration, Nakamori dropped into one of the agency's sofas, too exhausted to think of all the problems that did nothing but pile up.

Everybody thinks we're dating, right? asked Kogoro, to which the eldest nodded. Then why don't we just go play along?

- Play along?

- You know! We had lunch with the superintendent and his wife over the weekend, pretended to keep going out for a couple more days and then we were done! Superintendent Chaki won't know you lied to him, Inspector Megure will continue to trust me, and the other officers will have something else to whisper about for the next two weeks.

Nakamori's first impression was to think that his companion had simply lost his mind. But the more he thought about his options, the only thing he saw possible was what Kogoro was saying. That showed how bad his situation was.

- Good! he resigned himself. On one condition. This will end as soon as possible after that damn lunch.

"Of course I do!" But I too must accept under one condition.

- But you were the one with the idea! Why should you demand something?

— But this must be beneficial to me too! "a sly smile was present on the detective's face." For all of us, we're just going out but there's nothing official yet, so... I want a great public proposal that can become a viral sensation! As today's young people would say: "Do it big or go home."

Nakamori was completely dumbfounded.

"Are you crazy?" Of course not! he growled. We don't have twenty years to do these things! Besides, why would someone like you care about something like that?

"Because," he interrupted, "you just have to think about this for a moment!" The fact that famous detective Mouri Kogoro starts dating one of Tokyo's most prestigious inspectors will be the most important news of the whole month! The public loves gossip," he continued. And, above all, gossip brings fame to those involved. My popularity will grow to the clouds!

For some reason, he wasn't surprised that someone like Kogoro had such a reason to stick with the plan.

— Also when we announce our separation, my mail will be filled with letters from nice girls who want to comfort me! In all those TV scandals it's always the fans who give support to their idols. I could even get an email from my dear Yoko-chan!

There was no choice but to accept.

Surprisingly, Ginzo's confession was a viral hit.

With the help of his daughter Aoko (who was more than happy to be able to participate in something like this) and his friend Kaito, the man managed to film a video in which, laden with gifts, flowers and alcohol, he appeared at the Mouri agency to declare his infinite love for the detective and how much he needed it.

By next morning all of Japan's newscasts were talking about the new Tokyo couple and how popular the two men had become.

Kogoro kept receiving letters from fans congratulating him on their relationship and a few of his love disappointments. Nakamori, meanwhile, was assisted by the detective to have lunch with Superintendent Chaki later that weekend. The man looked strangely happy during the event, even though at work he spent almost the whole day in bad temper it was clear he was quite sensitive to any love-related issue. He could even remember his words in firing the lovebirds in the afternoon: "I'm glad to know you can finally get by. I'm sure Mrs. Nakamori would agree that they make a beautiful couple."

Maybe that's why it was so hard to end that fake relationship after that. It just didn't feel right to do so soon.

The first few weeks Kogoro had taken the trouble to visit Nakamori when there was no customer to keep the farce and keep giving the impression of not-so-young lovers. At least that was his excuse at first, since one day he suddenly realized that the real reason for his visits was to spend as much time as possible with the inspector. More than staying home and watching some Yoko show, he longed more to travel to the police station and simply chat with his "partner" or accompany him until the moment he went home or had a beer at a nearby bar. Far from bothering him, Ginzo gradually began to appreciate every appearance of the detective in his precinct, even becoming disillusioned when he had no news of him for a whole day.

Within a month, when it was already quite safe to announce its breakup, another problem became present. And rather than being frustrated that they couldn't finish everything, deep down they were relieved.

"On the day of the sun, just as Artemis is at the highest point, I am going to take the jewel that is so jealously guarded in the heart of the city.

PD: I send a rose next to this notice to congratulate the inspector on his new relationship and to wish them well. I hope you both can attend my show to receive a surprise worthy of your love.

-Kaitou KID"

Kaitou KID's notices could not be kept secret for long, so just twelve hours after the police received it all the major Japanese media already announced the theft of the famous thief at the same time they used to revive the news of their romance and how they received blessings even from someone like KID. If they broke up now, they were only going to look bad.

The agreement was to wait a while longer after the robbery, until most had forgotten the subject and surprised them with the news of the separation.

But of course, nothing came out as they expected.

Boy, that white-gloved fucking thief had kept his word.

Kogoro ended up accompanying Nakamori to the Beika museum to protect the jewel and, even if he did not finish accepting it, because it had already become a custom for him to see his "partner" work. For some reason he loved to see how the man could control his squad with ease, admired the dedication he put to his work and really left a warm feeling in his chest when in his evening talks drinking at a Nakamori bar he confessed to him that there were few things he loved as much as his work. As promised, Kaitou KID showed up at midnight and stole the jewel in front of the entire police squad and mocking all the security measures taken. At the time of his escape, the thief activated a device that covered the museum's entire main room of confetti and colored papers, raining down even different types of colorful flowers. A bouquet of red roses fell right in front of the inspector, accompanied by a caption reading: "I wish you happiness." and signed by the typical KID cartoon stamp.

And, far from everyone forgetting their relationship, that event only served to make Japanese people want to know more about them and their personal lives. On several occasions the poor men had to deal with reporters and journalists who went to look for them at work or their home in an attempt to get an exclusive interview with one of the two most popular men of the moment. Of course Ginzo, being the professional he was, was always looking for an excuse to politely refuse and get rid of the annoying journalists.

Instead Kogoro...

"Why the hell did you agree to do that interview?" the inspector roared, whipping both hands hard at the desk where Kogoro worked.

- She was a very pretty girl! How could I refuse to receive it? he replied fearfully, aware at the time that perhaps giving an exclusive would not have been the best idea.

"But now all of Japan thinks we're getting married!"

Maybe during the interview the lie got out of hand...

- Sorry, sorry! he apologized over and over again.

Ginzo sighed. Now there was no chance of ending the farce and not being left as the biggest con artists in the whole country. He watched Kogoro give his speech about how he regretted talking to that girl, but he didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. For a few moments he let his mind wander.

Was this fake relationship worth breaking up?

Even if he was the one who was against the idea at first, at that moment the continuation with the detective didn't sound so bad. It could be a little loose, alcoholic, lazy, lazy... several of those were synonymous, right? But by interacting more personally with him over the last few months he had managed to see it in a new light. Aside from his daughter and a few co-workers, Nakamori now longed for someone else's company. Suddenly all the moments with Kogoro stopped being a nuisance to become something I was looking forward to. The subtle displays of public affection had ceased to be embarrassing to feel more special. And the congratulations they received at some point began to leave a warm feeling in his chest.

Would it be possible that...

Kogoro was shocked to receive a kiss on the lips, shutting his monolog instantly and covering his face with such intense red that anyone could mistake him for a tomato. Within seconds Ginzo parted, also blushing and breathing somewhat agitatedly.

- I'm withdrawing my condition. I don't want this deal to end anymore.

The detective still didn't know what to say, barely able to process what had just happened.

All I knew was that I agreed with the inspector.

— Do those journalists want a wedding? Then let's give her the best wedding in the whole region.

Before he could even give an affirmative, Nakamori had jumped at him again. And far from putting him away, the game followed.

[gkingoffez]

2020 RvB Valentines Exchange uwu

@rvbgiftexchange

My partner was MentalMaterial but I think they’ve changed their name to @linklebard ?

Anyway, here’s ur Tuckington mutual pining bed sharing as requested. Enjoy!

Words: 1833

Pairing: Tuckington

~~~

Tucker was fucked. He had to be- fucked in the head or the heart or the mostly healed stab wound in his side from that fucker Felix. Something had to be wrong, despite the fortified walls of Armonia around him, the Chorus truce, the energy sword in his bag and especially the ex-Freelancer standing beside him in the confined corridor who he hadn’t expected to be there.

“I’m sorry, sirs!” squeaked the young woman in front of them, a civilian wearing a military lanyard, pulling at her frazzled hair with one hand and frantically scrolling on her data-pad with the other. “There must have been a glitch in the program- you should have been assigned your own private rooms. I’m so sorry, our equipment is so outdated and it does stuff like this sometimes-”

“Please stop apologising, it’s not your fault,” Wash insisted gently. “We understand that this was just a mistake, but we’re tired and just want to go to bed?”

“Are you sure there’s no more spare rooms on this floor? A secret penthouse with a jacuzzi maybe? I’ll take it if there is.” asked Tucker.

The woman shook her head, frowning and tapping away. “I’m sor- I mean, no, not here, in fact there’s nothing else on this floor. “This hotel was only converted into officer accommodation a few days ago, and Locus was confirmed to have stayed here while in the city,” she explained.

“There are empty rooms further along that way, but we haven’t had time to do the same level of security sweeps on them.”

The woman gestured at the plain black door behind her, completely identical to the myriad of other ones lining the narrow corridor.

“This room does have a queen bed, sirs. The easiest solution might be that you can share it for the night and one of you can move tomorrow? I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than a possible security risk.”

“What?” spluttered Tucker. “Why aren’t there enough rooms? And What happened to all of us getting private-?”

“Thank you, that’ll do us fine for tonight,” interjected Wash loudly, glaring at him. “We don’t want to cause too much fuss this late in the evening, and definitely don’t want to stay somewhere that’s not secure. Don’t you agree, Captain Tucker.”

Tucker gaped, words escaping him under Wash’s gaze.

He was fucked. Because once the adrenaline had worn off discovering a manufactured civil war, transmitting that info globally, being betrayed and stabbed by Felix, confronting Hargrove and whatever else happened in the less than a week since he’d snuck off the New Republic base, Tucker suddenly had time and space for… thoughts.

Thoughts like how much he’d truly missed the man standing beside him.

Wash, who’d been a hardass in the canyon like he was being fucking paid for it, who’d kept them all fed and alive and together, and then he’d gone and done the heroic sacrifice play, like an idiot, and suddenly he was gone. It felt like all Tucker had thought about for the last several months was whether Wash was okay, whether he was in pain or alone or dead. At points he’d almost wished they’d swapped places, that he was taking the (in hindsight, non-existent) punishment from the Federal Army, and Wash was the one training the Lieutenants.

Then out of the blue, Wash was back. Wash was fine. Everyone was fine, and like a circle, the whirlwind of betrayal, civil war, stabbing yada-yada unfolded. Tucker had only just caught his breath again and was looking forward to actually relaxing for once, only to end up in this corridor, standing awkwardly in front of a room they’d both been assigned to.

Wash was staring pointedly at him with those stupid clear blue eyes that made Tucker’s heart jump, and it was clear something must have been wrong, because that wasn’t right. It was physical and mental exhaustion, not love. He wasn’t some hormonal teenager, he was a grown man who wanted to go to fucking bed and not have to deal with his fucking feelings.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go then,” Tucker said offhandedly, adjusting his sack over his shoulder and stomping into the room without another word.

It was small but glamourous compared to normal military quarters- the hiss of the sliding door muffled against thick looking carpet, one door presumably leading to a bathroom, a single kitchen cabinet with a sink and a lowboy with a television mounted to the wall above it.

The bed took up the bulk of the space in the far end of the room. Behind it hung thick mustard coloured curtains, although Tucker knew even without having to move them that they’d been covered barred with a bullet proof covering as part of the security sweep. What was the point of being a heroes of Chorus, after all, if a well-placed sniper could take them out through a hotel window?

“Home sweet home, I guess,” Tucker shrugged, ignoring his jumping heart as he unceremoniously dumped his stuff on the ground near the kitchen space.

“Thank you for stopping to help us. We’ll be fine.” Wash was saying as he backed into the room. “Good night.”

“Good night sirs!” the woman said, “And again, I’m so-!”

The door hissed shut, Wash’s hand on the button.

“What the fuck, dude,” cried Tucker, rounding on him. “You didn’t have to immediately say yes. I could have pawned Caboose onto someone else and taken his room or something.”

“Oh don’t bother Caboose, he’s probably already asleep and you’ll never wake him. It’s late. All we need is a bed and everything will be else sorted in the morning. One night in the same bed won’t kill us.”

Wash crossed the room and carefully deposited his own knapsack on the lowboy.

“Besides, I wanted us to stay together a little bit longer. To be safe, you know,” he added quietly, glancing Tucker’s way.

Now, of course, Tucker’s eyes had also joined the ‘fucked party’. Was it a trick of the LED lights, or was that a blush on Wash’s cheeks? There was no way to double check, as Wash quickly turned his back on him.

Tucker crossed his arms haughtily, huffing and shaking his head to reset it.“Whatever. I’ll take the right side.”

“Fine by me,” replied Wash, unzipping his bag and rustling around in it, still turned away. “I’m going to change in the bathroom. Oh, and Tucker?”

“Yes?”

“I swear to god if you sleep naked, I’m going to suffocate you with a pillow.”

“Not if I suffocate you first, asshole.”

Maybe ten minutes of bathroom time, brushing teeth and other general night activities later (Tucker was fully clothed in loose borrowed sweats), they were both lying in bed back to back in the queen bed.

“Well,” said Wash. “Good night.”

“Yeah, night.”

As soon as the light turned off, Tucker’s brain switched on like a fucking Christmas tree.

He was not in love with Wash. Love was for girls and people who hadn’t spent literal years on the shittiest military posting ever, then got knocked up, then spent years in the desert, then got dragged on a mission to kill the Freelancer Director, then crashed landed on a planet- well, anyone would get the point. Sure, he acted like a stud and a lady’s man, but truthfully, it had been a long, long time since he’d really loved anyone like that.

Wash had been a fucking Freelancer. Caboose and the Reds talked about him like he was the most capable, badass guy around (barring the time he’d apparently gone evil and shot Donut, of course). Not to mention, he was kinda hot. Sandy hair with streaks of grey, blue eyes, even the criss-cross of scars across his pale skin did things for Tucker. Like he was this put-together, experienced and handsome man next to Tucker’s immaturity and recklessness.

The sheets were feeling too tight and stuffy for his brain, and the slow pattern of Wash’s breathing next to him was not helping. He flipped over onto his back, pulling and rearranging them, staring up at the shadowed ceiling.

“Hey Wash, you asleep yet?” he asked quietly

There was a beat.

“If I was, how would you expect me to answer that?” came the annoyed reply

“I dunno. Snoring?”

Wash snorted. “Just go to sleep, Tucker.”

They were in the same bed. They were in the same bed. Wash was inches away, the kind of distance where Tucker could touch him and then easily brush it off as an accident of movement. Wash’s hand was right there, he’d only need to reach- but no. He couldn’t do that, it wasn’t right.

When Caboose first suggested putting the ex-Freelancer in Church’s empty armour, it hadn’t really mattered to Tucker that much. He was just a guy who’d been an asshole but switched sides in time to help them take out the Meta, may as help him not go back to jail after all. Months in the crash had changed that, and all that time of training and bickering and surviving together had made them friends. He’d bitched and bitched and then watchedWash sacrifice himself as a rockfall separated them had been devastating, throwing into perspective just how goddamn much he cared about all of them despite the fact that they were a bunch of Red and Blue idiots.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder or however the shit went. And Tucker had spent months wishing Wash was ok, wishing he was there, wishing a lot of things.

Maybe he had fallen in love with the man in that time. Maybe it wasn’t as fucked up as he was making it out to be, he’d always been pretty dramatic, after all. Dudes fell in love with dudes all the time, especially when they’d been through a lot together.

Oh for fuck’s sake, none of this matters! There’s no way in hell that he likes me too. Just go to sleep, idiot.

Tomorrow, Tucker could wake up and blame it all on stress, exhaustion and the computer system that had fucked up room assignments. For that moment, however, he felt himself drift off, eyelids heavy and breath evening out.

They had work to do tomorrow rebuilding Chorus and tracking down mercenaries, and the more sleep he got, the better.

The last thing he registered that night was the vibration and rustling sound of Wash twisting in place. However, he must have dreamed about the gentle, tender touch he felt on his face as he was just on the precipice of sleep.

That couldn’t be right.

~~~

A snapshot of the future- tangled limbs in a queen bed, dark on pale and scattered scars. A data-pad hanging limply in a man’s hand, the other gazing at him with an adoring expression. The first glances at the rapture in his lover’s face, and snorts.

“You’re fucked,” he says, jokingly.

“No, you fucked me,” replies Tucker. They laugh.

~~~

Ya’ll let me tell you about the absolute stress rollercoaster I’ve had these past few months. So first up, I completely forgot I’d signed up for this exchange, and was surprised when I got the message. Then I proceeded to have a family death, my birthday and the stress of having to search for a new place to live and start packing up my stuff, all while working my shitty full time job and being exhausted from it.

So to my exchange partner, I’m sorry for not reaching out at all, but my anxiety levels are pretty high these days. This was written pretty quickly, at the last minute and after not writing for probably a year, but I hope you enjoy.

I might have another editing run through it before posting elsewhere but it’s done somewhat on time so I’m happy (Valentine’s was actually yesterday for me and I have to leave for work in like five minutes.)

Anyway, happy love and bed sharing and mutual pining guys. Love ya.

[girlpornparadise]

At Your Doorstep

Pairing: Horacio Carrillo/f!Reader (Narcos)

Word Count: ~4000

Warnings: I Smut. I only smut. My brain is that cavern in the Little Mermaid, but instead of being full of thingamabobs, it’s full of smut. But maybe it’s a bit soft too. I dunno. 

Personal ramble: Don’t have much to say about this one. I was just in a mood. An I want a sexy murder husband in my life and this is what came out mood. Maybe it’ll be your mood too if you read it. 

It's late when you hear the rap on your door. You're tired and a visitor is not welcome at this hour, but you pad to the entrance all the same. The knock didn't have the insistence of an emergency, but rather a hesitation to it, as if maybe they realized it was late and didn't want to disturb you after all.

When you look through the peephole there's a figure standing there clad in green, looking down and to the left. It's the same man who occupied your evening yesterday.

***

"Just one drink, I promise." That was always his promise, and it was a promise he never kept.

"Not tonight Javi, I'm too tired." You knew he wouldn't be deterred so easily.

"Please, I need your help." Intrigue. This was a new tactic. 

"What could you possibly need my help with outside of work?" You asked with a tinge of exasperation.

Javier Pena was a sweet talker. You knew it as well as everyone else at the embassy. Most of all he knew it, and he was quick to leverage his charm to get what he wanted. A peek at a file, a scrap of information, a favour under the table. And occasionally a date when he was bored with the locals he cavorted with. 

"I need backup." He stated flatly.

"Don't you have a partner for that?" You asked, wondering what game he was playing at.

"Not that kind of backup. The social kind. The kind only a beautiful and charming woman such as yourself could provide." He smiled as he leaned over your desk.

Appealing to your sense of vanity AND intrigue. Smart. 

"So who's the mark this time?" You asked tentatively. You'd played this game before. It was usually a low level diplomat or a friend of a friend from stateside. Never anyone dangerous or unseemly. He knew better than to involve the embassy in those kinds of dealings. You agreed to these dinners or drinks because you knew you'd end up somewhere nicer than you could afford on your salary and he'd pick up the tab. 

"You'll like him. I promise." 

"That's what you said last time and he was a walking sedative. In fact, I don't know why I ever say yes, I never like them that much." You said shaking your head.

"You can't expect them to live up to the bar I've set." He said with a wink.

It seemed like a lifetime ago that you had been new to Colombia. Before you knew better. Javi had hounded you then, much the same way, but after a handful of unsuccessful dates you had landed somewhere between colleagues and friends.

You considered your options. There were cold leftovers waiting for you in your fridge. 

"Ok." You acquiesced, making a bigger show of it than you actually felt. 

"Great, I'll come grab you at 5. I promise, he's a good one."

"You always say that." You called after him as he strode out of the office.

The rest of the day passed quickly as you transcribed notes and prepared reports. It was a busy time with the hunt for Escobar escalating and the recent formation of the Search Bloc. There was so much information to process that most days ended with a long shower and a dumb tv show to reset your overworked mind.

At the agreed upon time Javi came by your desk to gather you. You had put the finishing touches on today's file and snuck off to the washroom to brush your hair and touch up your makeup. There was no time to go home, so you took off your jacket, unbuttoned the top button of your blouse and tried your best to flatten your skirt with your hands. It would have to do.

When you got to the bar you sat down at the booth and Javi slid in next to you. It was nicer than your usual haunts, but not the top tier you'd hoped for.

The waitress brought you some water and you drank it as something to do. You were running out of small talk with Javi when the mystery guest arrived.

You saw his figure before you could place it. A grey polo shirt and khakis were approaching, carried by a strong and commanding gait. You followed the dark hair down to a serious expression. You gulped. It was him.

"Over here." Javi said, catching his attention. You sank down in your chair slightly, intent on disappearing.

"Colonel" you managed to choke out after a moment, unable to conceal the surprise in your tone.

He smiled politely and sat down. You regarded him in a daze as he and Javi exchanged pleasantries, or what passed as such between two men whose work was so difficult.

As your panic subsided and your focus returned, you heard Javi making his excuses about having a date and leaving the table. Your heart sank into your stomach. As you watched him leave, still in disbelief, he mouthed the words "You're welcome." Before disappearing from view.

Your crush on Colonel Corrillo was the worst kept secret in the office. The handful of times he had come into the embassy you couldn't help but take him in with a sense of awe. Though the reports were largely dry and factual, they painted the portrait of a hero to you. A strong, steadfast, no nonsense leader who got results. A man morally uncompromising and determined in his mission. You thought meeting him would burst that bubble, but it had only added a handsome, rugged, sculpted visage to match the myth you had built in your mind.

After your first encounter, you found yourself tapping your pencil against your lip when you came across his name in a report. It was always accompanied by a smile to yourself and an ache in your chest. You'd hope to hear his commanding footsteps come up behind you so you could steal a peak at his arms straining on his uniform before he disappeared into one office or another.

Each time he passed your desk you smiled a little too widely and blushed a little too brightly at him. Though his demeanor was always serious, he smiled back, and you melted a little in your seat.

Now here he was, sitting across from you, you thought to yourself.

"What would you like to drink?" He asked.

"Depends, is Javi footing the bill?" A bit of mischief played at your lips.

He smiled and ordered a couple of drinks from a higher shelf than you're used to, mercifully saving you from making a decision for yourself.

You babbled a bit awkwardly at the start until the alcohol hit you and you started to find your groove.

The small talk revolved mostly around work, as it seemed his life generally did. He was polite, but distracted the entire evening and you couldn't help but feel disappointed that you couldn't hold his attention. You felt like this was a mistake. Maybe he just owed Javi a favour. Maybe you were as boring as you feared. 

At the end of the night he offered to walk you home, more out of concern for your safety than any desire to be invited in for a drink you surmised. He smiled politely and excused himself at your doorstep and you went to bed feeling a bit disillusioned and empty.

***

But here he is, standing at your door again one day later. 

You grip the silk robe you're wearing tightly to your chest and unlock the deadbolt and open the door. He looks up with a hesitation on his face. You weren't sure what you were expecting, but it wasn't this.

He smiles a half hearted smile and looks at you, considering. Somehow he seems smaller and less intimidating than yesterday. Maybe because this was your home and you had the advantage of the familiar.

The confident man who strides through your office, commanding a room by his mere presence is not the man standing before you. For the first time ever he looks unsure of himself. 

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come." He says apologetically. 

He turns to leave but you reach out and touch his arm. He hesitates. 

"It's late and I didn't mean to disturb you." 

"It's fine." You say, concern filling your expression. "Please, come in."

He crosses your threshold and for a moment, neither of you are sure what to say. You look into his eyes, searching for his reason, trying to decipher his intentions.

His expression has its normal hardness to it, but behind his gaze is something unsure. Wavering. He wants to tell you why he's there. He wants to find the words, but they don't come. 

He sighs.

You see a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he's on the verge of collapse. It's coming up on midnight and he's obviously come straight from work. The lines on his face spell out an impossibly long day.

The tension rising across the country is palpable and here stands a man at the center of the storm. You can't imagine the sense of responsibility he must feel and as your heart reaches out to him, so does your hand. An instinct takes over you and you grasp his palm in yours.

"I'm sorry" he starts "I...", but you place your other hand over his, sandwiching his strong calloused hand between your delicate fingers. It silences him and steadies you both.

Staring into his eyes you see a man who has run out. He has run out of energy. He has run out of cigarettes and drink. He has run out of the mental fortitude to spend endless hours listening to tapes of his nemesis, distilling scraps of information into hard won knowledge. But most of all he has run out of the willingness to bury his men.

You know the burden of an exhausted mind and are flooded with empathy. In your heart you feel what he has come here for, even if he can't articulate it. 

Still gently holding his hand in yours you squeeze it ever so slightly to bring his attention to the present moment.

"I was just about to take a shower. Join me." You say it softly. It wasn't a suggestion so much as a statement of things to come.

You notice his Adam's apple bob as he swallows thickly, but you maintain eye contact. He nods almost imperceptibly. As you look away to lead him down the hall, his gaze follows you, entranced.

You lead him to your bathroom. He doesn't protest, but follows obediently. You put down the toilet seat and sit him down. You kneel to look him in the eye, making sure he's comfortable and proceed to unlace his boots. You slip them off, followed by his socks and place them carefully to the side. He watches you silently but intently. 

You turn to the tub and fiddle with the knobs until they reach the spots where the desired temperature should flow from. The sound of the running water visibly soothes him, and you rest your hand on his knee to ground yourself to him.

When you're satisfied with the flowing water, you take his hands delicately and stand him up. His stance still has a military air about it, but he has begun to relax in your presence. You place your hands on his broad chest and look into his eyes. There's a trusting innocence there that he normally keeps locked away. As he takes in your features you glide your hands up to his collar. You carefully unbutton his uniform, breathing steadily as you untuck his shirt and undo the last button. You slide it off of his firm shoulders and hang it on the hook behind the door. You touch his arms and he raises them over his head so you can remove the green undershirt that clings to his torso. You do so carefully, as if tending to a wounded man. You are in a way doing just that.

His belt takes a little more effort and he helps you remove it from his waist. After tossing it aside, you unzip his pants and kneeling again, pull them down. You reach up and hook your hands in the waistband of his boxers and gently tug them to the floor. He steps out of the pile at his feet.

When you stand up again you can hear his breathing and see his chest rise and fall. He's not quite panting, but his mouth is slightly agape and as you step towards him you feel his hot breath against your skin. 

You cup his jaw in your hands and he puts his hands on your waist. You moisten your lips and plant a soft kiss on his mouth. He relaxes into your kiss and pulls you in tighter to deepen it, but you don't give into his wanting.

When you pull back, he releases your waist and you untie your silk robe and let it drop to the floor, revealing your naked form. He draws his breath inward sharply as his eyes feast upon you and you smile softly as he admires you. He licks his lips hungrily, a man starving for your touch.

As you cup his face again and pull his mouth to yours, your hands push their way back into his hair. You feel the day's work in it, sweat and dirt from the physicality of his job. His rough hands on your back pull you closer in return, pressing your naked breasts against his body. He savours your warmth and you tingle as his growing erection grazes your stomach.

His tongue circles yours, slowly and purposefully and with your eyes shut, you breathe him in. His scent is musky and grounded, born from the earth and the streets he had been running today. You knew from the report that had crossed your desk before you had left work that it had been a hard one with heavy casualties. When you pull back and look into the deep pools of his eyes, you can see the toll it has taken on him. The pain he has come here to forget.

You continue to be gentle with this solid block of granite before you. You know he could easily throw you down and take you if he'd wanted, but he needs something softer, more nurturing in this time and place.

When you break your kiss he searches your eyes once more, craving the contact you now deny him. You take him by the hand, gently guiding him once again, into the shower. 

As the warm water hits him, he is rejuvenated and his lust finds life. You kiss him again and taste the salt running off of his body as your hands wrap around to his back. His hands seek you as well, finding the small of your back, and trailing down to your cheeks, which he palms and grasps tightly, thrusting your hips into his fully erect cock. 

He has found his desire and it won't be easily quelled. You're crushed against him as his skin seeks as much contact with yours as possible. He is trying to consume you now with his hungry mouth, press your flesh to his until you become one. There's a desperate need to have you rising within him, and he expresses it by pulling you into him even tighter.

The pressure his muscular body exerts on you becomes too much and you push him back to break away. The force with which you do it concerns him, and he looks to you for reassurance that he hasn't hurt you. You give it gladly with your gentle smile and his desperation ebbs momentarily.

Instead of returning to his fever pitch, you take control of the tempo by grabbing a washcloth in your right hand. You pour a small amount of liquid soap on it, and wring it into a lather. You press it gently to his shoulder and as you massage the knotted muscle straining beneath it he relaxes into your touch. His breathing slows.

As you massage his aching muscles with one hand you run your other thumb along his jawline, feeling his days worth of stubble. He leans into the touch and as your thumb reaches his bottom lip, he kisses it gently.

Moving the same hand down to touch his arm, you indicate that he should turn around and he obliges. He gratefully lets you scrub his back and you work your way across the broad canvass with care and patience.  As you remove the sweat and dirt from his tense but exhausted body, his knotted muscles relax under your touch. He sighs and it sounds like he's releasing his thoughts and pain with the air in his lungs. He flexes and relaxes as you erase the day from his skin and sinew. You watch the water run off of his beautiful topography and hope it washes away any doubts he had about coming here this night.

When you finish he turns to face you again and his expression has softened. As your hands reach out to guide him once more, so does your heart, and you are filled with a deep need to protect the peaceful bubble you have ensconced the both of you in.

As you both step out of the tub and you turn off the water his hands rest on your hips. He doesn't want to let you go for fear that this is some dream his stress addled brain has conjured. You turn and rub his bicep reassuringly and then stroke the back of his neck, just at the hairline. 

You grab a towel off the hook and dry off his torso carefully. He watches your small hands work their way across his body with care. He takes the towel from you to dry his legs and you grab a second towel to dry yourself. You again work slowly, so as not to upset the calming rhythm you've established. He stands once again mesmerized by your hands and when he finishes drying himself takes your hands in his. He regards them as sacred instruments, capable of healing his cracks and breaks.

As you gently drop his hands from yours you glide to the exit. You go to leave the room but turn around in the doorway.

"Come to bed." You beckon.

He follows you as he has done all night and you sit him down on the edge of the bed. Standing above him, you run a hand through the waves of his short damp hair. 

"Let me take care of you, Colonel." You say, kneeling between his legs.

He takes your hands in his once more and looks into your eyes with a softness you had spent the night earning.

"Horacio" he says.

"Horacio" you whisper back. 

You let the intimacy of the moment wash over you.

You stroke his thighs slowly and he throws his head back and closes his eyes with a gasp. Bending forward you take his length into your mouth and gently suck. He murmurs as he hardens in your mouth.

You twirl your tongue around his tip, and he sucks in air with a sharp gasp. You grasp his length with your hand and continue to tease his shaft with slow, languid strokes while the warm moisture and hot breath in your mouth massage his throbbing head.

As you feel his legs tense you look up at him, mouth still firmly wrapped around his hungry cock. He looks down at you with awe. A man so unused to relinquishing control, completely at your mercy. His trust settles deep within your chest and you feel powerful, but benevolent.

His breathing quickens and the throbbing between your own legs feels more urgent as well. You rise from between his legs and straddle him. He looks up into your eyes with a desperate need, a craving of intimacy you can't deny him.

He grabs his shaft and guides it into your center as you lower yourself onto him. You both let out strained cries as you feel your bodies intertwine. He pulls you close to him, his hands on your shoulder blades and his elbows resting in the small of your back. In return you pull his head into your chest, gripping his hair.

You rise and fall with his slow, rhythmic thrusts. He takes his time, savouring the tight pull of your walls around him. You pull back his hair to tilt his head up to you and plant your parted lips on his open mouth. 

As you feel the heat swell at your core, he slows and cruelly pulls away from you. You whimper at his loss. But his strong hands guide you downwards, and he lays you on the bed. He slides himself into you once more and it makes you feel complete.

You stare into his eyes and he stares back, you've both lost yourselves in each other. You feel his weight on top of you, the heat radiating off of him, and he kisses you again. This time it's soft and caring. He studies you trying to find your pleasure.

He wants to please you, needs to please you. Needs to repay all of the kindness and solace you brought into his life tonight. He thrusts his hips slowly, incrementally increasing the pressure, trying to find your release. As he feels your chest heave harder and your body begin to tremble beneath him, he quickens his pace.

He draws the orgasm from your core and you squirm and twitch beneath his mass. You cry out his name as you reach your peak. To him it is a prayer, something sacred that he feels deeply and it brings him to his end.

He crashes into you and as he cries out he releases himself. Releases his pain, his anguish, his responsibilities and cares. As he spills into you, he lets go of the months of pressure that had threatened to break him, and is met with the sense of peace he so greatly desired.

As his spent body finds its place next to yours you smile and study his face. His shield of indifference has been lowered. He looks back at you with reverence, you are someone to be worshiped. To him you are the angel of mercy who welcomed him into her home, and welcomed him into herself.

You place your hand on his chest, and his heartbeat slows and steadies, not in the forced way like when his training takes over him, but in an organic way that he so seldom feels.

He shifts to wrap his strong arms around your waist and pull you tight to him. This man who washed up on the shores of your body, seeking refuge in your curves and coves, now nestled against your chest. 

He mumbles something in Spanish and though you can't make it out, it feels tinged with gratitude. He holds you tightly and you run your hand across his wet hair, and cradle him to you. He drifts off in the safety of your home, your bed, your body. As the world rages outside around you, you have both found peace in each other.