#ivan: my fingers are cramped : (

[clonerightsagenda]

Well I guess I have to stop joking that Barrayarans don't know about female sexuality now that that was a plot point

[hollow-pocket]

[CW: this is a hunger kink story. contains painful hunger and accidental meal skipping. character is able to eat at the end]

[this is about my OCs Gracie and Isabella who I hope to do more with later :)]

Gracie sat down at her desk, relieved that she’d made it to work on time. Her alarm hadn’t gone off, and she’d been worried she would be late enough to get reprimanded by her boss, who, while nice, was an absolute monster about punctuality.

She opened the incoming file folder on her desk and booted up her computer. Gracie didn’t look like the type to enjoy bureaucracy—all heavy eyeliner, black clothes, and chains, not to mention she was a big woman, six feet tall and wider than most—but she loved it. The completion of the tasks satisfied her, and she was good at it.

She reached forward to get her computer monitor adjusted to her preferences, and as she pushed her arm forward it made her stretch from fingertip to hips. Her stomach, having been curled over protectively by her bad posture, took the opportunity of the new space to grumble gently.

Gracie winced, bringing her hand back to rest on it. Of course, being nearly late she hadn’t had time to eat breakfast.

It was just one skipped meal though, nothing she couldn’t handle.

Her boss, Ivan, came to check up about an hour later. “Hey Gracie,” he said, examining the pile of papers on her desk. “How’s it going? Lots to do today?”

She shrugged. “Not too much, that’s actually the finished pile.”

He raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Well, you’re flying through this. If you finish early and Diane says there’s nothing else to do you can head out, it’s a pretty slow day today.”

Gracie thanked him happily. Isabella’s commute was shorter than hers, meaning her girlfriend would already be home when she got back and they’d be able to spend more time together.

Just then, Gracie’s neglected stomach pushed in on itself again, aching painfully beneath her ribs. She reached up to rub the cramp on instinct, but the pressure her hand put on it caused it to unclench, and let out a long, whining growl.

Ivan raised an eyebrow, and Gracie was grateful that her darker skin hid her flush. “Was that your stomach?” Ivan asked.

Gracie nodded, embarrassed. “I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast this morning,” she explained.

Ivan nodded. “Well, it’s nearly lunch. Make sure you get something.”

“I will, thank you,” Gracie said, feeling her stomach twist again at the thought of lunch. Ivan nodded and moved on.

Gracie worked diligently until the clock hit 12:30, her hunger not strong enough to impact her work. She kept a hand on her belly though, pushing into it whenever a particularly sharp pang hit her.

When lunch hit, she opened her bag and started rifling around for her wallet. She couldn’t find it. After a couple minutes of searching, she was forced to conclude that it wasn’t there. She and her stomach groaned in unison. She sucked in, rubbing it again.

“Sorry tummy,” she muttered. “I’m hungry too, but looks like we’ll just have to wait.”

She managed to find enough coins in her purse to buy a couple granola bars from the vending machine, and resolved to save them until absolutely necessary. It was going to be a long day.

A few hours later, Gracie had checked, filed, and stored the last of her papers. Her fingers were starting to get shaky on the keys of her computer, and she was relieved Ivan had already told her she could go.

She went over to Diane’s office to make sure. “Oh, hi Gracie. Yeah, just this, then you can head out,” Diane said, handing her a folder.

Gracie bit her lip to stifle a groan, then headed back to her desk without complaint. She slumped down into her chair, stomach churning miserably. She felt painfully empty.

With a sigh, she opened the folder. She judged the work inside would only take about forty minutes, and grimly got down to it.

Half an hour later, she wasn’t even halfway done. Her belly snarled, deep and resonant. She was too hungry to focus. Her mind kept drifting to Isabella’s cooking, and how nice it would feel to have a warm meal in her hollow tummy.

She pulled out one of the granola bars and ate it. It steadied her, sharpened her mind, and she got back to work with relief.

Half an hour later she was done, and she headed out to her car. Her stomach wailed mournfully as she stepped in, and she sighed. The snack had helped with her energy, but it hadn’t dampened her hunger. If anything, her stomach seemed more upset that it hadn’t gotten anything more substantial.

Gracie pulled out of the parking lot, relieved to be heading home. Her stomach was growling near constantly now. It took quite a bit of food to keep someone of her size happy and satiated, and her body was not dealing well with the lack.

She pressed a hand into her famished belly, wincing as the she felt the ripples of an especially loud growl.

As she pulled onto the highway, she stared at the road ahead of her. The traffic was awful, worse than usual. Dismayed, she checked her GPS and saw that an accident had nearly doubled her hour long commute.

Another hunger pang hit her, and she dropped her head onto the steering wheel. Her stomach was aching horribly, neglected and angry about it. It felt terribly pinched and hollow, like it was trying to fold in on itself to make her feel less starkly empty.

She felt awful, and decided to call Isabella to let her know what time she’d be home.

Isabella picked up with a “hey baby,” and Gracie felt better almost immediately.

“Hi,” she said, smiling faintly at her girlfriend’s voice. “I got to leave work early but there’s a traffic jam on the highway so I won’t be back until around 6.”

“That sucks,” Isabella said sympathetically.

“Yeah. I really wanted to get back early today.”

“Aw, don’t worry babe,” Isa said gently, and Gracie could hear her moving around the house. “6 is still earlier than usual.”

“Yeah,” she said glumly. Her stomach rumbled plaintively, reminding her that it wasn’t early enough.

Isabella paused. “What was that noise?”

“Probably just the traffic,” Gracie said quickly. She didn’t want her girlfriend to worry too much about her. “I’ll be home in an hour or so.”

“Ok,” Isabella said. “I’ll see you then. I was just about to start on dinner, any requests?”

At the mention of dinner, the hunger pang that had been steadily building inside Gracie’s abdomen released, and her ravenous stomach roared, a deafening growl that trailed off into smaller gurgles.

She winced, knowing Isa had definitely heard that, and it would be hard to blame on the cars around her.

“Grace,” Isabella said, worry evident in her voice, “was that your stomach?”

“Yeah,” Gracie admitted, frowning as the starved organ immediately cramped again, gnawing away at itself with nothing else in it to digest.

“What did you have for lunch?” Isa asked, concerned.

“Forgot my wallet,” Gracie said sadly. “And I didn’t have breakfast because I was almost late and you know how Ivan gets.”

Isabella sighed. “How are you feeling?”

Gracie rubbed slow circles onto her aching tummy. “Really hungry,” she said softly. Her stomach grumbled again, and she amended, “starving.”

“Oh, baby,” Isabella said, and Gracie closed her eyes against the prick of tears. The hunger had made her lose her grip on her emotions a bit. “Only an hour to go right? And when you get here I’ll have dinner already waiting for you, how does that sound?”

“Good,” Gracie said, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Really good.”

“Okay,” Isabella said. “I’ll see you then. Do you have anything small you can eat so you don’t get too shaky? I don’t want you driving if it’s dangerous.”

“I have a granola bar in my bag,” Gracie said, realizing she’d forgotten about it.

“Eat that alright? I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah. Love you.”

“I love you too,” Isabella said, and Gracie hung up. Traffic was barely moving, so she had plenty of time to grab and eat the granola bar.

It made her feel less like crying, which she was grateful for.

A little under an hour later, she pulled into the driveway, feeling nothing but relief.

Her stomach rolled, groaning like a foghorn. Nothing but relief and hunger, anyway.

She walked inside and was greeted by the smell of Isabella’s cooking. It went straight to her empty and cramping stomach, and she had to lean against the wall to steady herself, abruptly dizzy.

“You’re home!” Isa exclaimed, coming over to hug her. Gracie hugged back gratefully.

Her stomach growled angrily between them, and Isabella pulled back to rub it. “Oh, your poor belly.”

She dug her finger in expertly, easing the worst of the hunger pangs by working them out through a vicious sort of massage.

Gracie moaned with relief, slumping into her girlfriend.

“Come on,” Isabella said, helping her to the table while still rubbing firm circles into her belly. “Let’s get something in your stomach.”

There was already a plate at her seat, loaded with noodles. Gracie dug in gratefully, her stomach starting a racket as soon as the first bite entered her mouth, demanding more.

The warmth of the noodles was wonderfully soothing in her hollow stomach, and soon she had eaten her fill.

“Feeling better?” Isabella asked with a smile.

“Much,” Gracie said, leaning over to kiss her. “What would I do without you?”

“Live on granola bars probably,” Isabella said with a grin, and Gracie laughed.

Even the worst days were less bad, when she could come home to this.

[kissingdeadgirls]

“It was a setup. I didn't seduce them, they seduced me! Wafted me upstairs to this amazing room—it had to have been all arranged in advance. God, it was, it was"—his voice broke in a sigh—"it was glorious. For a little while. And then I realized I couldn't, like, perform." "What did you do?" "It was too late to get out gracefully. So I winged it. It was all I could do to keep 'em from noticing." "What?” "I made up a lot of instant barbarian folklore—I told 'em a Vor prides himself on self-control, that it's not considered polite on Barrayar for a man to, you know, before his lady has. Three times. It was considered insulting to her. I stroked, I rubbed, I scratched, I recited poetry, I nuzzled and nibbled and—cripes, my fingers are cramped." His speech was a bit slurred, too, Miles noticed. "I thought they'd never fall asleep." Ivan paused; a slow smirk displaced the snarl on his face. "But they were smiling, when they finally did." The smirk faded into a look of bleak dismay. "What do you want to bet those two are the biggest female ghem-gossips on Eta Ceta?"

🫡

[picturespurple-68]

Written for @grayfeline34211 for the prompt of period sex with my dilf au.

Summary: Alfred helps Ivan out with his period cramps through sex.

Rating: Explicit 18+

Content Warning: Blood (menstrual)

On a Saturday night, a man his age should've been at a bar or club, getting wasted on cheap booze and bedding the hottest person who buys him a drink. Instead, Ivan's at his neighbor's house, cuddled up to the older man and complaining for the millionth time about his period cramps.

While yes, he's been taking testosterone and birth control for a long time now, once in a blue moon he'd still have his period come in to ruin his week.

Originally, he was expecting to stay at home and go to sleep early. However, once Alfred heard of his predicament, he lured him over with the promise of expensive chocolates, a heating pad, and cuddles.

It worked, obviously.

Laying here with the man felt nice but, the stabbing pain in his uterus made him whine and squirm unpleasantly.

"You know, I have one more helpful solution." Alfred gave his shirtless shoulder a playful nip as his fingers ran circles around the slight chub of his stomach.

Ivan knew what he meant and couldn't help but blush and point out, "Most men do not like menstrual blood."

"Giving me little credit huh?" Alfred teased, hand drifting lower to cup his crotch through his shorts.

"Ngh, does it really not bother you?"

He gave a short laugh, "Vanya, I watched my child be birthed, this really ain't anything I'm not used to. I promise~"

How could he argue with that? Ivan had no personal qualms with sex on his period and if Alfred felt the same why not?

First though, the two needed to prepare. While Ivan went to the restroom to clean up a bit, Alfred went about setting up a towel on the bed and washing his hands for his partner's benefit.

As soon as the two were ready, they fell to the bed in a tangled mess of limbs, lips locking and bodies pressed tightly together. Pushing Ivan's shorts down, Alfred shoved his hand between the man's legs and, with the help of some lube, ran his fingers up and down his slit.

"Ahh..."

Up...and down, up...and down, up...and down...

The slick gliding of his hand made Ivan shiver and moan as a lovely warm sensation built up in his pelvis. Alfred continued to nip and suck at the skin of his neck, happy with each mark that lasted more than a few seconds.

Up and down, up and down, up and down...

Gripping the sheets below tightly, Ivan let slip whispered little puffs of "Fedya" and "please". His hips began to rise with each brush flicking against his clit, leaving him wanting more.

Upanddownupanddownupanddownupanddo-

"Ghh!"

With no warning, two fingers sunk down into his hole up to the second knuckle. A shuddering breath escaped his lips as he adjusted to the pressure inside.

Alfred looked down with a bit of amusement as his fingers came back out with slight splotches of red and the shine of lube. "God, you're so wet baby. I probably didn't even need the lubrication huh?"

A lovely shade of red blossomed across his face at the comment. 'Silly, stupid man.' He'd never say it out loud but hearing the older man's praise in and out of the bedroom always made his gut delightfully burn. The sudden onslaught of large fingers thrusting in and out turned Ivan into a whimpering mess. It felt so good, Christ, he was close and just needed that final push.

"Ah- oww oww stop! Wait...wait...a moment." Ivan, face scrunched, pulled his hips away and grabbed at the arm between his legs.

Concerned, Alfred removed his hand and wiped it clean on the towel as he asked a flurry of questions, "What happened? Are you ok? I'm sorry, I didn't push too hard did I?"

Ivan shook his head quickly, breathing deeply for a moment before some of the tension in his body released. "Cramp." Was the only word he needed to say for Alfred to understand the situation.

He released a sigh, placing a chaste kiss to his forehead, Alfred cooed, "Aww, my poor sweet boy~ C'mon, spread your legs for me." He shifted himself to lay between the young man's thighs and pulled his boxers down to free his erection, "I promise I'll make you feel much better snowflake."

In a flash, he rolled a condom on with plenty of lube and Ivan let out a gasp when he slowly pushed in a few inches. "Hah, I am not made of glass Fedya, don't be gentle with me." He grabbed at the man above to pull him down chest to chest, "Zasun' svoy chlen poglubzhe, ya khochu pochuvstvovat' eto zavtra~"

Alfred couldn't stifle the whimper that came out at hearing this type of talk from Ivan. He loved the rare moments when the young man spoke his native language around him and would do anything to listen to more.

When their hips met, Ivan wrapped his legs around Alfred's to keep him in place as he grinded back against his dick like a sex toy. He felt goosebumps when Alfred moaned right in his ear and rambled, "Good boy, uhn that's it. Just use me, use me to cum, I wanna feel you squeeze so tight."

The legs around him relaxed for a second and Alfred took that as an opportunity to pull out and slam back in. With the condom on, he couldn’t exactly feel everything he wished he could but something he definitely noticed was just how slick and warm everything felt. His breathing grew erratic and Alfred could feel fingers digging into his back. Just as it was starting to really get good for him, Ivan bit into his shoulder and came with a shudder.

Pleasure coursed through Ivan, prolonged by Alfred's continual thrusting until his cries died down to deep pants. As Ivan laid in blissful warmth, Alfred lifted himself up and watched his erection pull out splotched with blood.

He hadn't cum but that was low on his list of priorities with cleaning up.

After discarding his condom, Alfred went to the bathroom to start the shower and convince the tired Russian to get up too. The towel they used had some small drops of red but it was old so he didn't mind it just laying in the dirty laundry to be cleaned later.

"Hurry up Fedya or I will finish without you!" Ivan called sickly sweet.

With the unsaid promise of getting to cum, Alfred rushed into the shower to end their night with a little more fun.

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

Translation - Zasun' svoy chlen poglubzhe, ya khochu pochuvstvovat' eto zavtra~/Shove your cock in deep, I want to feel it tomorrow~

[newberyandchai]

The One and Only Ivan (2013)

I’ll be honest — I’ve been on a bad luck streak with the Newbery books I’ve chosen to read lately. I finished The One and Only Ivan in Florida over Christmas, but I was so uninspired by it that Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry steamrolled to the front of the line in February. After that, A Single Shard was more recently on the brain.

The course of Ivan’s story is predictable, the solution to the book’s main problem is deceptively simple, and I just wasn’t impressed with the characters. I felt this one was a miss for me even before finishing the first half.

The main character is based on a real gorilla who spent 27 years in an enclosure in a shopping center in Tacoma, Washington. He became the subject of several animal welfare protests in 1987, and locals started boycotting the mall as a result. They raised a significant amount of money to have him moved to a zoo in Seattle, and… that’s the story. Gorilla used as roadside attraction finds new home.

In the book, Ivan has several animal friends that live in the same cramped conditions inside the shopping center. The book opens with the center’s owner acquiring a young elephant to replace Stella, an older elephant with an injured foot who can’t perform for visitors anymore. As her condition worsens, Stella makes Ivan promise that he will do everything in his power to help the new elephant, Ruby, live a happier life. In the end, Ivan comes up with a plan and manages to finger-paint a message that the custodian’s daughter sees and displays on a billboard by the road. People protest, and Ivan is found a new home so he can live with his own kind. The book ends with him moving to a zoo, meeting other gorillas for the first time since his childhood, and beginning to live with them, with Ruby at home in a nearby enclosure with her fellow elephants.

I think the main thing I didn’t like was that the book’s premise felt like a clickbait web article respun into a children’s book — and that’s not the fault of the book, but more my approach to it. I think it made me become more aware of how jaded my attitude is toward the plethora of “heartwarming” stories that are shoved in my face each time I log onto Facebook or Instagram. These kinds of stories, in my (admittedly cynical) opinion, prey upon people’s emotions to get pageviews for the advertisements they run on their sites; they tend to draw out the story much longer than needed with pointless text (“You won’t believe what happens next!”) and spread it across multiple pages that you have to click through, which just increases the ad space they have available to sell and profit from.1

The industry of emotion p*rn (can we still say that word on Tumblr?) might be well-intentioned in some aspects, but to me, I think it is always destined to become exploitative and play people for suckers as it becomes larger and more commercialized. Look at the monstrosities Hallmark (and its anti-LGBT counterpart Great American Family) put out each year, yet moms and grandmas hungry for happy endings in an unrealistic, overly simple fantasy world continue to eat it up year-round. (…Okay, maybe that was a little harsh.)

I get that Ivan’s entire real-life situation and how people teamed up to rescue him from the shopping center was noteworthy at the time because crowdsourcing donations wasn't much of a thing before the Internet. It was probably a real feat to get the word out to others and persuade even a small percentage of those people to give money — there were newspaper ads taken out and many signatures gathered to raise the $30,000 needed to buy him from the shopping center. However, people ask for double what it took to move Ivan to a new home every day for their dog with a broken leg or cat with cancer on sites like GoFundMe, sometimes even after accounting for inflation. Today, it doesn’t have the same “wow” factor when it comes to seeing what people are capable of when they toss in a few bucks for a good cause (“Especially when that kind of crowdfunding becomes so commonplace that it becomes easily exploitable,” Jaded Abby adds).

Additionally, I knew this book had been made into a movie before reading it. After finishing it, it felt like it was the ideal story to be adopted for a visual medium. I could see a young kid gushing about reading this book in class to their Disney exec parent, only for the idea to immediately be taken to a higher-up while other staff begins to assemble a makeshift team to write a script, make a wishlist for voice actors, create a budget, etc. “Poor/sad animal movie” (with or without a happy ending for the animal) is a whole blockbusting genre across multiple forms of media; Marley and Me, War Horse, Hachi, Old Yeller, Water for Elephants, Free Willy, Where the Red Fern Grows.

The trailer is exactly what I expected, too. In the book, barely any time is spent on what Ivan remembers of his time in the jungle with his sister, yet it appears to be a focal point of the movie as part of contrasting how sad his life is at the mall with how great it was in the wild. The movie also offered the perfect opportunity for an all-star cast (Danny DeVito, Angelina Jolie, Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren) to hook parents and establish credibility for the film — surely such esteemed actors wouldn’t work on a movie that wasn’t worth seeing, right?

It was also an opportunity (Jaded Abby is calling it an “excuse”) for Disney to show off their skills in the area of computer generation and motion capture and maybe seek some redemption. People have praised the animation style and contrasted it with the Lion King’s recent remake, in which the CG removed all ability for the animals to emote and diminished the emotional impact of the story, but I’ll have to actually watch the movie to assess it on that (and many other) fronts.

At this point, with my limited knowledge of the actual film, I have trouble distinguishing what’s a successful visual storytelling tactic and what’s a marketing ploy meant to capture our unsuspecting attention spans and stand out above the constant noise of other entertainment platforms. Maybe if a story is big enough and enough hands get thrown into the mix, it can no longer be something where the intention of sharing an inspiring tale excuses the cheap shots taken to make that story more appealing to the widest number of people. There’s a reason movie plots in major franchises (at least those without preexisting source material to draw from) are more general in plot and follow predictable tropes, often leading to lower audience satisfaction: global box office numbers are often over half of what a movie made in the U.S. makes, so plot nuances — the things that make movies special and memorable, at least in my opinion — that might not translate well in other languages or cultures are usually left out or cut. Record-breaking box office numbers just don't equal good filmmaking anymore; people will see big-budget movies regardless, even if they receive horrible reviews (just look at the Transformers franchise).

…Or I’m just an old man when it comes to feeling excited about new films, especially those meant for kids. Children’s books can have incredible depth and meaning,3 but children’s films and other visual media that stand the test of time and remain enjoyable for all ages are few and far between (looking at you, Illumination Studios — and what was Peacock even thinking with the blatant cash grab that was Megamind 2?).

In short, I’ll leave with some lyrics that half-relate to the personal dilemma I discovered in myself after reading this book: “Something kind of sad about/The way that things have come to be/Desensitized to everything/What’s become of subtlety?”

Rated 6/10, neither Recommendable nor Unrecommendable.

���———————

1 Not entirely relevant, but: I worked briefly with paid advertisements at a previous job and got to see the scummy backend of that necessary evil. All the ad reps I worked with wanted to know the CTR, or clickthrough rate, of their ads, which was just the number of actual clicks on their banner ad divided by the number of views. A "good" CTR is only around 1-5%, meaning that a $5,000 ad spot worth a guaranteed 100,000 views may only result in a couple hundred people clicking on the banner, and an even smaller percentage of those people making a purchase. So: every ad you see is scrambling for your attention in hopes that you will be the one person who both clicks and makes a purchase.2 They have a vested interest in using everything in their wheelhouse to stand out from the crowd and make you buy something, from ridiculous emotional appeals to outright lying and rage-baiting.

2 …And if you’re the website wanting to show off how valuable your ad space is to get more money out of an ad purchase, you’ll want to show off how through the roof your CTR is, so you might place ads in spots where a user might mistake them for something else or have them pop up in places where they can be accidentally clicked on. Don’t be a sucker, friends.

3 Incidentally, the author, Katherine Applegate, is the same “K.A. Applegate” who authored the Animorphs books, which are near and dear to my heart — and contain a lot more nuance that makes you think (…but also lots and lots of violence).

[fridayfirefly]

A Guardian in Gotham

Read A Guardian in Gotham on AO3

Masterlist

Written for Maribat March Day 19 - Guardian

Note: In this AU Master Fu gave out the Ladybug Miraculous to Marinette and the Black Cat Miraculous to Adrien before consulting the Kwami. Marinette turned out to be a true holder, but for the Black Cat Miraculous, not the Ladybug Miraculous. However, she and Adrien made it work and were able to defeat Hawkmoth anyway. After Hawkmoth's defeat she becomes Lady Noire full-time.

----------

Being the Guardian of the Miraculous was hard work. There were no family vacations, no sleeping in or going to bed early, no breaks. Marinette could not relax until Hawkmoth was defeated. Which explained why it was such a jarring change once the Miraculous Team defeated Hawkmoth.

Gabriel Agreste was behind bars. The citizens of Paris were free from the threat of akumatization. Tikki, Plagg, and the rest of the Kwamis went dormant in order to restore the damage done to Duusu's Miraculous. Marinette didn't exactly know what to do with herself. Suddenly it hit her that she was no longer the middle schooler who accepted the burden of Guardianship. She was in her final year of high school, nearly an adult. All around her, her friends were making future plans. Adrien was taking a gap year to help Emilie recover from her coma. Alya was accepted to a prestigious journalism program. Nino was DJing at one of the best clubs in Paris. Luka was releasing his EP. Kagami was training for the Olympics. Chloé took up an internship with her mother.

Marinette couldn't move on, the way all of her friends were able to. Marinette couldn't be a normal girl anymore. She couldn't go to university, start a family, live a normal life. She needed the rush of adrenaline that came from two little words - Spots on! or more recently, Claws out!

It was around this time that the Temple of Guardian got in touch with Marinette, offering her an opportunity to continue her work as a Guardian of the Miraculous. They send Marinette a box of old journals, dating back to the 18th century. The journals detailed the discovery of twin "wells of evil" located in the American cities of Gotham and Metropolis, then named Mortham City. The Masters of the Miraculous who made this discovery studied the evil and expressed the desire to find a way to remove it, but didn't have the chance to complete the task before the Temple of Guardians fell. When the Temple reappeared they believed that the Masters had managed to destroy the evil in Mortham, due to the reports of the city's recovery and renaming to Metropolis soon after, but were unable to destroy the evil in Gotham. The city festered, growing more and more troubled while Metropolis flourished. Marinette's task was to do her best to study and remove the evil in Gotham.

Marinette applied to Gotham University, feeling relieved that she might finally find her purpose.

----------

Marinette's dorm room at Gotham University was rather lackluster; it was the typical tiny, cramped American university dorm, complete with a stained carpet and a bathroom shared between six girls. Her roommate was a computer science major named Barbara Gordon. Barbara was older than Marinette, a senior while Marinette was only a freshman. It was a fluke accident that the freshman dorms had filled up before she was admitted. Secretly Marinette wished that she had been able to room with another freshman. Barbara was rarely in the dorm room, too busy with her coursework and her real friends to make small talk with her nervous roommate.

Marinette barely spent any time in her dorm room, either. She spent most of her time in class or at the library studying. Marinette had the ambitious plan of double majoring in both fashion and business, in order to start her own fashion company someday. Her classes overwhelmed her, and Marinette began to regret overloading her first-semester schedule. It gave her barely any time to work on her Guardian work, let alone join an extracurricular.

Marinette wanted to decorate the dorm and make it more of a home, but because of a plane delay, she ended up arriving at the university the day before classes started, giving her no time at all to go to the store and buy anything. Another unfortunate casualty of Marinette's late arrival was that she still hadn't figured out how Gotham's bus schedule worked, so she walked everywhere, even in the pouring rain.

Overall, Marinette's first week of classes was miserable. That was why Marinette was crying in her dorm room, alone, at six in the evening on a Friday night. It all started when Marinette saw a picture of her old class on social media. Alya and Nino were making faces at the camera; Marinette and Adrien were both grinning, Marinette's blue scarf wrapped around his neck; Ivan and Mylène were holding hands, staring into each other's eyes; Rose was posing, kissing Juleka's cheek; Alix was perched on Kim's shoulders; Nathaniel had his arm wrapped around Marc's shoulders; Max was holding up Markov so he could wave to the camera, Sabrina and Chloé were smiling, holding hands.

The photo had been taken years ago, on their first day of lycée. Marinette remembered it well. They had all been nervous about starting at a new school. There was no guarantee that they would all be in the same class. Max had calculated the odds for even half of their class staying together and it wasn't good. But that morning, when Marinette walked into her homeroom and saw all of her friends sitting there, she knew that it would be okay. Chloé revealed that she had gotten her father to provide a generous donation to the school to keep them all in the same class for the rest of their education. Marinette had been so happy to get to stay with her friends. Now she was on a different continent from them.

The tears started to fall, slowly at first, then more and more until Marinette was sobbing, face pressed into a pillow. How could she have made such a stupid decision? All of her friends were in France and she left them, all because she couldn't move on.

Two knocks on the door halted Marinette's sobs. "Babs? Are you in here?"

Marinette got up and opened the door, revealing a young man. He looked to be her age, tall, with black hair and blue eyes. "Barbara isn't here right now," she told the man.

The man blinked, looking at Marinette like she wasn't what he expected at all. "I guess I should have called her before I showed up. I'm Tim, by the way. I was just here to drop this off." Tim held up a container filled with chocolate chip cookies.

"I'm Marinette. If you want, you can drop the cookies off on her desk. I'll tell Barbara that they're from you, once she comes back to the dorm." Marinette wiped her eyes with her shirt sleeve, trying to get rid of the evidence of her crying.

"Are you okay?" asked Tim.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a little homesick. Nothing to worry about."

"You should come with me to get dinner," offered Tim. "I was just about to stop in at the dining hall."

Marinette shook her head. "I wouldn't want to impose."

"It wouldn't be an imposition at all. I hate eating alone."

Marinette gave him a wary look. "I don't know you. Why would you invite me to eat with you?"

Tim shrugged. "You look like you could use some company, to take your mind off of your homesickness. Unless you want to spend the rest of your night crying in your dorm."

Marinette bit her lip as she thought it over. It would be nice to get out of the dorm and get something to eat. On the other hand, Tim was a complete stranger whose intentions Marinette still didn't trust. Then Marinette remembered the photo of her friends and made up her mind. If she couldn't have her old friends here in Gotham she would have to make new ones. "Alright. Just give me a few minutes to get ready."

Marinette threw on a pair of jeans, a Gotham University hoodie, and her sturdiest pair of sneakers.

"So what's on the menu tonight?" asked Marinette as they walked out of the dorm building to Tim's car.

"Uncertain. I can't remember the last time the dining hall actually updating its online menu. I was planning on crossing my fingers and hoping that they would be serving something edible tonight."

Marinette wrinkled her nose. "Is the food usually edible?"

"It's hit or miss. If you want, we could go to a diner instead?"

Marinette nodded. "I don't want to spend my weekend with food poisoning."

"Good choice." Tim turned the car around and started driving into the center of Gotham.

"Are you a senior like Barbara?" asked Marinette.

Tim shook his head. "I'm a sophomore. How about you?"

"Freshman. This is actually my first Friday in Gotham."

"Where are you from?" asked Tim.

"Paris, 21st arrondissement."

"That must be a pretty big change. What made you choose Gotham?"

Marinette shrugged, not wanting to give away her real reason. "I figured all the supervillains and Rogues might remind me of home."

Tim looked confused for a second before a realization passed over him. "I forgot about Hawkmoth. It was a big deal here in Gotham when he first emerged because the Mayor of Paris refused to allow the Justice League to intervene. All because he was worried about 'damaging the historic buildings of Paris'."

Marinette let out a bitter laugh. "That wasn't the real reason, you know. I was friends with Andre Bourgeois's daughter, Chloé. She says that he didn't want the Justice League to get involved in the fight against Hawkmoth because he couldn't merchandise any of the Justice League members. Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the rest of the Miraculous Team, on the other hand, never copyrighted their images. Paris used the Miraculous Team to bring in billions in tourism and Bourgeois never paid them a cent."

Tim looked surprised. "You sound like you know a lot about the Miraculous Team."

"I got to know them all pretty well. My classmates were known throughout Paris as the 'Children of Hawkmoth' - as if it was our fault that Hawkmoth targeted my school at a rate astronomically higher than the rest of the city. Of course, when it turned out that Gabriel Agreste's son was one of my classmates the nickname got a bit more personal."

Tim let out a break. "I suppose moving to Gotham makes sense when you've spent that much time in proximity to superheroes and supervillains."

"Gotham is an improvement to Paris under Hawkmoth. At least none one your Rogues can mind control." Marinette shuddered at the memory of her friends and loved ones turning against her due to Hawkmoth's influence.

Tim pulled into the diner parking lot. The pair got a booth in the back and put in their orders. Tim and Marinette spent the night trading stories of the most interesting Parisian akumas and Gotham Rogues.

Tim was enraptured. He told Marinette that for years it had been difficult for outsiders to get any reliable information about the Miraculous Team, outside of what Andre Bourgeois used for his tourism campaign. So Marinette did her best to share all the little details that every Parisian knew like the back of their hand: That Valentines Day was the worst holiday because all of the akumas were love-based. That they were trained in school to either lock their emotions down or let them all out, if they saw an akuma, to try and diminish the akuma's power. That Ladybug and Chat Noir, once they realized that their fanbase was primarily children, made it a point to never swear during their battles.

By the end of the night, Tim and Marinette made plans to meet up the following day. Tim promised to take Marinette out into the city for the shopping trip that her delayed flight caused her to miss. Marinette went to bed that night hopeful for her future in Gotham, a feeling she never thought she would have again.

----------

Over the next few weeks, things got better at Gotham University. Marinette started spending more time out of her dorm room with Tim, and eventually, with her roommate Babs and Tim's brother (and Bab's boyfriend) Dick. Tim became Marinette's lifesaver after he taught Marinette how Gotham's bus system worked. Marinette finally got around to decorating her side of the room. Her new style and color scheme (navy blue and sunflower yellow, Gotham University school colors) suited her much better than the pinks and whites of her high school days. Her productivity increased as she settled into the school, and Marinette found that she actually enjoyed her classes. It wasn't perfect, but Gotham University began to feel a bit more like home.

Most importantly, Marinette had begun to make progress on her work as a guardian. It had taken a whole weekend, but she eventually located the epicenter of Gotham's evil, a rundown tenement building in the heart of Crime Alley. The basement of the building housed storage units, one of which Marinette promptly rented. She set up her workshop there, bringing out the Miraculous Box so that she could consult the Kwami. Tikki and Plagg both woke up from their hibernation and Marinette got to work.

"I can sense the evil," spoke Tikki. "It's overpowering."

"It's like going from the Sahara Desert straight to the middle of the ocean," added Plagg.

"It does feel similar to drowning," Tikki agreed.

"Do either of you have any idea how to get rid of it?" asked Marinette.

Tikki shrugged. "I wish I could tell you how to defeat it, but it's unlike any enemy the Kwami of your Miracle Box have ever gone up against before. But look on the bright side, we know that it can be eliminating. I can only assume that the Kwami were involved when the evil was eliminated in Metropolis."

"The solution is easy. We cataclysm the evil," said Plagg.

"We don't know what would happen if we use cataclysm against something that isn't fully corporeal."

"Then we use Sass's second chance until we get it right."

Tikki brightened up. "Oh, that is a good idea - using second chance, not using cataclysm irresponsibly."

"See! I do have good ideas sometimes. We could also use Pollen's venom to freeze the evil in place and stop it from fighting back."

Marinette could listen to her two favorite Kwami argue forever. She had missed them terribly. But she had a job to do, so she interrupted their banter. "Do you think I should use Mullo to wield multiple Miraculous?"

Tikki shook her head. "You'll need at least one other person with you. If you get hurt, someone else will have to use second chance."

Marinette pondered that fact. "Luka's going on tour next month. He's stopping in Gotham for a weekend. Chloé is only an hour drive from Gotham, up in New York City, so she could be here any time. If we plan everything right, we could have the evil destroyed before the semester is over."

Once again, Tikki shot down Marinette's plan. "This is too strong for Luka's second chance or Chloé's venom. If you want to do this right you'll need to use true holders."

Marinette winced. Finding the true holder of a Miraculous was a near-impossible task. Of her entire Miraculous Team, only Marinette and Adrien were true holders. While the Kwami could sense a person's aptitude, they needed to be within fifty feet to get an accurate read. There was no way Marinette would be able to find the true holder of both Sass and Pollen. "Okay, new plan. What if I get Mullo to multiply myself and then have each copy of me take a different Miraculous?"

Marinette brainstormed with the two Kwami for hours, desperate to find a solution to the problem that had plagued Gotham for centuries. However, they still couldn't come up with a plan in which Marinette would be able to rid Gotham of the evil without enlisting the help of at least one other true holder. In the end, Marinette decided to take Tikki, Plagg, Sass, and Pollen back to the dorm with her, hoping that they might stumble upon another true holder.

"I wish we had a better plan," sighed Marinette.

"Keep your head up, Marinette. The only thing we can do now is stay positive and hope for the best," advised Tikki.

It wasn't a good plan, passively waiting for someone to solve her problem for her, but it was the only plan they had. Marinette had no other choice. If she tried to take on the evil alone, it would overpower her. It was disheartening. Marinette rode the bus back to her dorm. The streets of Gotham felt colder on the return trip.

Getting dinner with Tim was the only thing that could cheer Marinette up, so she pulled out her phone and sent him an invitation to meet up.

Marinette: Do you want to go get dinner? I heard the dining hall has vegetarian lasagne

Tim: Sure! Be there in twenty

Marinette put her phone away as she got off the bus and started walking towards the dining hall, dodging the sidewalk puddles that never seemed to dry. Even when it wasn't raining, Gotham was a dreary city.

Tim and Marinette chatted about their classes as they ate their food. By the end of dinner, Marinette felt a little better about her disappointing day. Tim could always lift her out of a bad mood. Marinette considered it his superpower.

"I'll see you tomorrow," said Marinette as she got out of Tim's car in front of her dorm hall. She expected to get to her room without incident, but as soon as she got into the relative privacy of the stairwell, all four of her Kwami were circling around her head, speaking in rapid succession, too quick for Marinette to keep up.

"I can't believe it!"

"You've got some luck, Pigtails!"

"This is great news!"

"I can't wait to meet him!"

Marinette blinked as she tried to make sense of the Kwamis' words. "What's going on?"

Pollen's eyes were bright. "Tim is my true holder!" the Kwami squeaked excitedly.

Marinette gasped. "Really?"

"He'll make a perfect Bee. He seems so smart and funny and considerate. I bet he'll feed me loads of honey and get fresh flowers for all of his rooms and be my best friend." Pollen sighed dreamily, pure joy in her voice.

"Pollen, have you ever had a true holder before?" asked Marinette.

"Of course. It's been a long time, though - at least a thousand years since my last true holder died. I missed it a lot. But now I have Tim!"

Marinette smiled, overjoyed that she finally had the means to complete her mission, that Pollen finally got to meet one of her true holders again, that Gotham might be freed from the evil that had loomed over it for centuries. Mostly, she was overjoyed that she met Tim all those weeks ago, that he took the time to get to know her, that he was there for her when no one else was.

----------

"So the Kwami are little gods?" Tim stared at Pollen with an almost scary intensity, as if he thought looking away might make the Kwami disappear.

Pollen flew up closer to Tim to explain. "The Kwami are linked to certain aspects of humanity: creation, destruction, intuition, protection, et cetera. We have a certain amount of control over these qualities. I am the Kwami of Subjection, of control and mastery. I can give you the power to incapacitate your enemies."

"Incapacitate them how?"

"Using the power of venom, you will be able to freeze your enemies in place."

Tim wrinkled his nose. "That sounds a little morality dubious. How do you know I wouldn't use it for evil. This is Gotham."

Pollen rolled her eyes. "You're my true holder, Tim Drake. I trust you with my entire being."

"What does that mean, for me to be your true holder?"

Pollen's cheerful expression turned sad. "Of all the Kwami, my powers are the most often exploited. The power of subjection, of complete and total control over your enemies, is corrupting. However, you, Tim, are my true holder. Your self-control is strong, I can sense it. You will not be corrupted by the power I give you. You will wield it fairly."

Tim glanced over at Marinette, and she gave him her most encouraging smile. "I need you, Tim. I've needed you for a while. First, as a friend, when I was at my lowest, and now as my partner. There's an evil that resides in this city, that I have been tasked with destroying. I can't get rid of it alone. I need you to help me."

Tim's eyes widened. "You mean there's a supernatural reason for Gotham's condition?"

Marinette nodded. "There's a well of evil underneath the city. Using the Miraculous, I can remove it. But it's too powerful for me to do it alone. I know this is a lot to ask, but-"

Tim interrupted Marinette before she could finish her sentence. "You know, Gotham is well known for its distaste for magic-users and meta-humans." Marinette opened her mouth to protest but was interrupted once more by Tim. "However, I trust that you want to do what's best for this city. I'll help you."

Marinette's face brightened. "Thank you! I have a plan but I still need to fine-tune the details. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. For now, you should take the Bee Comb with you. You'll need to form an emotional bond with Pollen before you can achieve peak performance."

"You seem to know a lot about the Miraculous and the Kwami."

"It's my job to be knowledgable. I'm a Guardian of the Miraculous."

----------

"So how does a girl like you become a Guardian of the Miraculous?" asked Tim as they ate their lunch in the storage unit after a long morning of pouring over plans.

"I was chosen by the previous master. It's a long-standing tradition that the Guardian can only be a true holder, because true holders notoriously incorruptible except in the most extreme situations. I was the only true holder that Master Fu knew of, other than himself, so despite my age and despite the fact that I wielded the Ladybug Miraculous rather than the Black Cat Miraculous, the Miraculous I was the true holder for, he passed the responsibility onto me."

"How old were you when you became the Guardian full-time?"

Marinette tensed her shoulders. "I was fourteen. Master Fu wanted to wait longer, but there was a situation. I lost my only mentor, with only a fraction of my training completed."

"That sounds rough," Tim's tone was sympathetic. He placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"It was difficult," Marinette admitted. "For the longest time, I was mad at Master Fu for waiting so long to start training me. It wasn't until I got older that I realized why he was so reluctant to start my training. He felt guilty for stealing my childhood away from me. The situation in Paris was bad and tough choices had to be made. I don't blame him, but there are a lot of things I wish had been done differently."

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost my mentor-" Tim's thoughtful tone turned frantic. "Not that my experience with mentorship would compare to yours, because I wouldn't know anything about being a teenage superhero."

Tim's words were suspicious, but Marinette didn't have time to figure out what he was hiding. They had a job to do. "Well, it's time to get back to work. You need to practice using venom on non-corporeal objects. I want to see if you're able to freeze the wind."

"Sounds good, Bugs."

"Bugs?"

Tim nodded. "I figured you could use a nickname. Do you not like it?"

"No, it's fine." Marinette paused. "Actually, it's better than fine. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Tim."

"No problem, Buggsy," Tim teased.

"Okay, now you're pushing your luck," Marinette teased right back.

----------

Lady Noire and her partner Yellowjacket stood in the basement of a rundown tenement building in the heart of Crime Alley.

Lady Noire spoke the plan aloud, the rhythm of her words revealing that she had spoken them many times before in preparation for the event. "I'll start by drawing out the evil. As soon as it senses the power of destruction that I hold it will try and consume me. I need you to be ready to use your venom the moment it emerges. Once it is frozen, I will use cataclysm. Are you ready?"

Yellowjacket responded. "I'm ready."

Lady Noire closed her eyes and let out her breath in a drawn-out hiss. The shadows around her darkened and she let out a pained gasp as she fell to her knees.

Yellowjacket sprung into action. "Venom!" he shouted, thrusting his palms out to let his power fill the room. The whole room lit up with yellow light, bright enough to rid the room of all but the supernatural shadows.

The shadows, which had been growing exponentially, suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. Lady Noire got back up onto her feet, a vicious snarl on her face. "You have been terrorizing this city for centuries. No longer will I will allow this evil to haunt Gotham. Cataclysm!"

The shadows crumbled, leaving behind only natural darkness. The transformation disappeared from Lady Noire, leaving behind a girl, who gasped for breath. "Tim, we did it!"

"Pollen, buzz off," commanded Yellowjacket. He was so impatient to hug the girl that he had his arms wrapped around her before his transformation was finished. "It's over, Marinette."

The girl shook her head gently. "It's not completely over. The effects will surely linger - Metropolis still sees its fair share of villains - but it will be nothing like what it was before. I imagine the vigilantes that roam Gotham will have a much easier job, though."

The boy tensed up. "Speaking of the vigilantes that roam Gotham, I suppose there's something that I should probably tell you. I'm Red Robin."

The girl blinked once, a dumbstruck expression on her face then burst out into peals of laughter. "Just my silly luck that I ask a vigilante to be my superhero partner."

The boy grinned. "I am rather fond of your silly luck. It's what brought us together."

@maribatmarch-2k21

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 130

I am pretty excited for this chapter, not just for how it turned out but for what it sets up in the future. I don’t want to spoil it by saying anything more, but once y’all have read it, I would love to know your thoughts on it.

That said, I once again want to thank the people, coast to coast, who keep me going on this story: @the-raven-fae for being the original instigator and current podcaster of the story (check it out here!), @anotherusrname for being the best big sister a girl could ask for and for being the first person to publish any of this story in physical form (on a BLANKET no less), @baelpenrose for being my mutual beta and really egging me on more often than should probably be done, and @charlylimph-blog for... well for just being Charly. The real Charly, who is more chaotic than fictional Charly. And really, all 4 of the above for making sure I take care of myself.

“There’s some changes to the vendor list this year,” Hannah greeted as she arrived in my office.

I was still resisting the urge to cough, knowing that Noah had gotten all the chili powder out of me but nonetheless struggling against an imaginary itch in my throat.  Apparently she could tell, because she got a chai latte from the console for me as she took a seat and handed it over without acknowledging it. 

“From this list, I am going to guess that there is a huge fusion cuisine moment happening right now,” Parvati suggested.

“What gave it away? The Greek-Korean vendor, or the Brazilian-Icelandic?” Hannah joked.

I was extremely glad I had stopped sipping my latte as soon as Parvati spoke, or I would have choked on it. Yes! I thwarted the nefarious beverage! I thought to myself. “Do I even want to know how much fermented shark we are talking here?”

Parvati scrolled through her document and back to where she was, head tilted in scrutiny. “Probably not.”

“I’ll make a note to put them on the opposite end from the natto,” Hannah murmured. After doing that, she tipped her head back with a sigh. “This feels… I don’t know, empty?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, scrolling through a list of upcoming cultural seminars that we were considering.  Jokul’s suggestion to more aggressively share cultures had been a  phenomenally well-received one, and the Council had even recognized him for the way it had taken off. At this point, there were more than anyone could attend, and several requests for repeats.

My entire thought process came screeching to a halt when Hannah explained.

“We’re talking about a huge community event while also in the process of planning how to defend ourselves in the event that space pirates try to wipe out the last known members of humanity,” she pointed out. “While also being on a list of phrases I never thought to even consider being something I thought I would never say - it’s that far out there - the fact that we are still facing potential annihilation makes the Food Festival seem more like one last hurrah.  It’s kind of morbid, isn’t it?”

“I’m pretty sure the information Arthur and Charly got us demonstrated that we are more likely to be enslaved than exterminated,” Parvati added helpfully, earning a scowl from both of us. She just shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

“Yes, Vati, because that is so much better, thank you for reminding me,” Hannah quipped. “It still makes the Festival feel insignificant.”

“Maybe we should just cancel it - “

I slammed both my hands, palm down, on the table and surged to my feet. “Absolutely not.”

“Sophia - “

“No. This event is too important, we aren’t even humoring that notion.”

“I know that this is your baby, but hear us out…”

I shook my head vigorously. “I will not. This isn’t about me.” I pointed to both of them. “What you’re feeling right now? That’s exactly how nearly everyone on this ship feels. We are scared, and angry, and tilting ever closer to being despondent and just giving up. And that’s exactly why weeeee…” I gestured to the three of us, “can’t. We need stability, and something familiar, and a reminder of what it is like to live. To have fun.  To be as human as possible and stuff ourselves silly.  So if you think for one second I am going to let our own personal culinary Mardi Gras get cancelled, you are delusional.”

Hannah still looked reluctant, but Parvati’s expression changed so fast that it was actually terrifying. “You’re talking about raging against the dying of the light, aren’t you?”

There it was. The guerilla protester was starting to show.

Gracefully, she flowed to her feet, one finger tapping the side of her chin as she started pacing. “That’s an angle I don’t think we considered.” Without looking, she held up a hand to stop Hannah when the quieter woman opened her mouth to argue. “The Festival has always been about coming together, sharing, being peaceful. But, what if it isn’t this year?” She whirled, hair flying and eyes blazing. “The Festival will be two weeks into the next night cycle. We planned on soft emitters, retro style lamps and braziers for light. And we can still do that for the first two days. But day three…”

“Go all out,” Hannah ventured slowly. “Full on, wild, bright…”

“Yes! Blacklights, glow in the dark, fluorescents… Heavy bass in the music, the kind you feel in your chest more than you hear. Only the best dishes from each vendor, what they consider their finest achievements. Defiantly, loudly human.”

“Costumes encouraged?”

She scoffed. “Of course. Like those music festivals Before, only with food.  This isn’t our last hurrah, it’s going to be our rallying cry.”

Hannah seemed to be coming around to the notion, starting to nod with a focused expression on her face. “That would work. I can completely get behind that idea.  We’ll need Ivan.”

“And Charly Harper,” Parvati confirmed.

“Do tell,” I asked, not seeing where they were going with this.

“Ivan can help us with some of the metalwork we’ll need to reinforce the vendor’s booths. We want it to fit in with the theme, but still be functional.”

“And I don’t know where else to get enough glitter, or blacklight paint that doesn’t show under normal light.”

“Glitter…?” That terrified feeling was returning, and swiftly.

“So much glitter,” Parvati nodded seriously. “The kind that doesn’t set off sensory issues, and I know she has it at all times, I’ve seen it.  And flavorless food color, that stuff she uses in her ice cream and popcorn. I need all of it.”

I rubbed my temples as a headache started just from imagining what this was going to look like. She’s an artist, it will work. She’ll make it work, I know she will. “I put the Festival in your hands, you can do whatever you want except cancel it.”

“Just give Tyche a heads up so she can plan good costumes for you and the guys,” Hannah reassured, enthusiasm ignited at the idea of truly making the event their own.

The frown on my face actually gave me a cramp. “Why does someone else get to plan our costumes?”

“Because you wear really nice scrubs every day,” she pointed out without looking up.

“They’re comfy! But I’ll have you know I actually do know how to put together a costume, much less an outfit.”

Both of them eyed me skeptically, provoking a sigh of exasperation. “I am going to show you two, and you are both going to eat your words. Just wait.”  Deep down, under all the indignation, I was hugely relieved to have averted a crisis, especially since it wasn’t a matter of life and death for once.

I also could not wait to see their faces on night three.

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[deathbymassagebyamermaid]

She stares, and she stares, and stares, that piercing look again, like the first time Ed had placed gun to her head and demanded she listened to Stede, seeming to look through him,,,

The dagger clatters on the ground, her hand still trembling in the air where she’d let go of the dagger, fingers cramped as if in protest

She gets up, wide eyed still, still so haunted in expression, eyes darting around the room, not looking once at any speck of all the blood Everywhere

She marches to the table, grabbing the biggest bottle of fine drink Eadric had offered, hugging it to her chest like a shield between the world, and her heart

The door clatters behind her as she runs back to the Revenge, to her room. Her beautiful blue coat still lies on the ground, dropped when the fight had begun, the feather of her hat snapped and destroyed

The coat is a soggy mess of congealed brown and red now, not a single patch of its wonderful ocean-blue Color left

It’s so quiet

Slowly, quietly, Frenchie grabs the coat. "Can scrub this out," he mutters.

"I'll help." Lucius's voice is quiet. "I'm good at getting rid of bloodstains. Hate them on my clothes."

Buttons picks up the hat, plucking the feather out. Karl preens for a second, and then Buttons sticks a brand-new seagull feather into the brim.

Stede is still shaking at the back wall. "Was that my fault? What happened? I didn't- I couldn't see it-"

He had full view of it all. Ed gently takes his arm, knowing the shock will make him unbalanced.

Slowly, somberly, they all make their way back to The Revenge. Fang and Ivan hang back for a bit to gather some good loot.

Once that's done, Wee John sets off the canons. They all watch the ship sink (and notice what seems to be a flash of night sky swimming around in the blood).

Probably just a shark.

[lotusss-flowerbomb]

What We Have (3)

Viktor Drago x reader

Warnings: None for this chapter.

Summary: Reader is Adonis’ adopted sister, she and Viktor falls for one another.

Word Count: 2,505

********

You'd been visiting your brother every day while he was in the hospital. You were standing beside Rocky when he yelled at him. That made you even more nervous about him finding out about the kiss and now the toe curling, mind blowing sex.

When he was discharged, he and Bianca decided to stay with you and your mom since he needed a little help and she was getting far along into the pregnancy.

As the weeks went by and he was getting better. The tension started to ease around the house just a bit. You were in the kitchen talking to your mother when he stormed in.

"Aye, what's this?!" He tossed his phone in front of you.

You stared down at the screen and up at him.

"Shit, umm, I..." You stuttered and looked at your mother.

"This ain't cool. This man tried to take my life!"

"That was before the fight," you said as if that were any better.

"This ain't cool."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"It's too late for all that! But you wouldn't understand, because it wasn't your father that was killed!" He yelled and snatched the phone up.

"Hey! Woah, alright now!" Your mother interjected.

"Really, Adonis? You gonna throw the little adopted baby story in my face?" Your eyes filled with tears.

"I will not have that, sit down," your mom directed him.

"Nah, I'm good," he said before trying to leave the room.

"I said sit down and I will not be saying it again." She waited for him to have a seat.

Adonis may have been a six foot tall heavyweight boxing champion, but when Mary Anne Creed went into mama bear mode, everyone listened. Including him.

"Now, I will not have my children going at one another like this. We will sit here and we will work it out. Adonis, don't you ever, and I do mean ever, again throw her adoption in her face. She is just as much mine and Apollo’s daughter as you are my son." She silently reminded him that she’d actually adopted him.

"Look, I ain't mean it like that, aight?" He said to you.

"I know what I've done is wrong, but it's done. At this point, all I can do is —" you stopped mid sentence and jumped from your seat.

You raced to the trash can and threw up.

"Yo, you good?!" He ran over to you. "I didn't mean to upset you so much. I just got mad and I shouldn't have said that."

"I'm good, I'm cool," you said as you wiped your mouth with the napkin your mother handed you.

"Here, sip this, it should settle your stomach," she handed you a glass of salt water.

You took one small sip and then another. Your family stood by and watched as you gulped down the entire glass.

"Oh my goodness, I really needed that. Thanks, mommy." You set the glass on the counter top.

"Ugh, okay, I'm out." Adonis said and left.

Your mother looked at you oddly.

"Are you pregnant?" She inquired.

"What? No!" You said.

"Haven't heard you complaining about cramps lately."

"Well, that's because my period isn't due for another... like..." You counted your fingers.

Once you realized that your math wasn't adding up you pulled out your phone and looked through your calendar.

"Shit!" You ran away to your room, but you knew you'd only bought the one test that day.

"What's going on?" Bianca walked in and asked.

"I did something so stupid. So very very stupid," you covered your face.

"Again?"

"Hey!"

"I am far too pregnant to pretend... Oh," she grabbed her stomach.

"What's wrong? Are you —" you looked at the growing wet spot on her pants. "Mommaaa!" You yelled.

You stared at the results in your hands.

"Are you sure?" You questioned the nurse. "I can pee again just to make sure."

"We've tested you twice Ms. Creed, the results are accurate," she assured.

While your brother was a few doors down bringing his baby girl into the world, you were finding out that you weren't too far behind with your own.

What were you gonna do with a baby? A baby by Viktor Drago of all the people in the world. You thanked the nurse, folded the papers up as small as possible and headed back down the hall.

"Uncle Rocky!" You threw your arms around his shoulders.

"Hey, where you been?" He asked.

"Oh, um, I just needed to take a walk. All the excitement was getting to me." You straight up lied to his face.

"Everything okay?" Your mother asked. She knew where you'd gone.

"Yes, all good," you lied to her too.

The doctor walked out to give you all an update and invite you inside of the room. Baby Amara had been delivered safely.

You sighed with relief. Saved just in time before she could question you.

You saw Viktor challenging Adonis on TV again. Saying if he didn't agree to a rematch then he wasn't a real champion. That clip originally aired a week ago. You rubbed your stomach. Three months had passed and you were finally getting a little pooch. Pretty soon, you wouldn't be able to hide this.

You smiled down at your niece. She was such a happy baby. You talked to her even knowing that she couldn't hear you. You held her close, so that she'd learn the vibrations of your voice. She always smiled back.

"That's a good look on you," Adonis said from behind you.

You laid the baby on her play mat and waved him over to sit. You leaned your head on his shoulder.

"You're gonna fight him again aren't you?" You sighed.

"Yeah, I talked to B and unc is gonna train me this time." He confirmed.

"I have to tell you something," you felt the tears stinging your eyes. You weren't exactly sure how he'd react, but judging by the last time, you knew it wouldn't be good.

"What's up?"

You unzipped the light jacket you were wearing and stood up. His face dropped.

"Tell me it's not his," he rubbed his hands over his face.

"It is and I'm keeping my baby," you let him know before he could ask.

"I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" He punched the wall.

"Donnie—"

"No! I don't want to hear that shit. He used you to get under my skin and laugh in my face and you fell right into his trap!"

"What if everything isn't about you, Adonis? Have you ever thought about that? What we had was real, even if it was just for a moment."

"You really think he gives a damn about you?" He yelled.

The tears you'd been holding dropped. You didn't know if your feelings were actually hurt or if it was hormones, but his words hit hard. Of course you'd thought about that, but it's not something you wanted to believe.

You couldn't argue with him. You were far more upset than you needed to be. You kissed your niece and turned to leave.

"Don't think I'ma go easy on him either. Not after what he did to me." He huffed.

You kept going as he spoke to your back. You should've said something. Anything. Because you didn't know when the next time would be when you spoke to your brother.

You walked into the arena and went straight to your seat. You hadn't spoken to Adonis since you left his apartment that day. It had been almost two months.

"Did you go wish your brother luck?" Your mother asked.

"No, I didn't want to upset him and throw him off his game." You said.

"Mm, and how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, nervous, but okay." You tugged at the hem of the oversized hoodie dress you'd worn. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep your secret. Pretty soon you'd have to go ghost so nobody would ask you questions.

The lights dimmed and Viktor walked out. He had more than just Ivan by his side this time around. You snorted. They were riding his coattails, every single one of them.

He looked over at you briefly and then turned his attention to the other side of the ring. That's when you saw her. Ludmilla, his mother, sitting proudly on the sidelines. You willed yourself not to go over there and kick her square in the chest.

The lights dimmed again pulling you from your thoughts. Bianca started singing and Adonis and his crew walked out behind her. You cheered them on.

She walked past the ring and stood next to you and your mother. She gave your growing belly a discreet little rub as you watched Adonis climb in.

You sat down and took a deep breath when they touched gloves. This was it. The moment you'd been dreading since you woke up this morning. You knew one of them would come out of this hurt. It was inevitable.

When the fight started Viktor went in heavy.  You jumped back to your feet with the rest of the crowd. Adonis took some hits and avoided some. Your heart skipped a beat with every jab.

Adonis hits him with a quick combo and you cheered him on.

"That's it, D! Stay focused!" You yelled.

The two kept going after one another round after round. Split eyes, bloody noses. It seemed to be never ending.

Once round 4 was closing, you saw Viktor hold on to him and punch him twice in the ribs.

"What the fuck?!" You tried to get over to the other side, but security held on to you.

"How did you not see that?!" You yelled at the ref. "What the fuck is wrong with you Viktor?!"

He turned his back to you. You pushed the guard off of you and turned back to your family. The fight needed to be stopped, but you knew once again that Adonis wouldn't allow it.

You saw Viktor look over at Ludmilla just before the bell. The two men went in swinging once again. You could see Viktor going for Adonis' ribs again. He hit him and your brother dropped again.

"Get up, Adonis! You got this, brother, get up!!" You screamed.

You sighed with relief once he was back on his feet. He went at Viktor like a mad man. He dropped him, but Viktor got back up. He dropped him a second time and then you saw it. She was leaving.

Once again, his mother was walking out on him. He looked over while he was still down and saw the empty seats while he was pulling himself up. He went back in for more.

Adonis wasn't backing off. Hit after hit until he backed him into a corner. Viktor wouldn't stop. He was refusing to give up. Your heart dropped. Before you knew it, you were screaming at Ivan.

"Stop this, Ivan! He's gonna kill him, please!" You pleaded.

He finally threw in the towel. You were sad for Viktor, but you were happy for your brother. You, your mother and Bianca ran to Adonis to be at his side. You could see Viktor breaking down in the corner.

For the first time since you'd known them Ivan hugged his son. The Dragos left the ring, but you stayed put and kept your emotions in check as best you could.

"Aye, go check on your boy." Adonis said to you.

"No, Donnie, that'll look bad for you, I'll do it later," you declined.

"He needs you," his voice softened, "all of you."

You ran away to the locker rooms. You pushed past all of the reporters waiting for him to come out and banged on the door. Ivan pulled it open and stood in front of you as if he wasn't going to let you pass. The reporters shouted out questions as the two of you stood in a stare down.

Fed up, you squeezed past him. Now was not the time for him to act like a fool. You found Viktor sitting in a corner with his head hanging low. You stood beside him.

"Get out, you shouldn't be here," he said.

You could hear his soft sobs. You reached out to touch him, but pulled your hand back.

"You put up a good fight, Viktor... Even though you held on to him to crack his ribs again." You said to him. You wouldn't be you had you not mentioned it.

"I know," he exhaled.

You wanted to scream at him, but you couldn't kick him while he was down. So you lifted his chin up, so he'd look at you. His left eye was swollen shut, his lip was split and you could see traces of dried blood on his nose.

He gently pushed your hand away.

"She left me again," his voice was low. "She was ashamed of me and I would rather have died than fail."

"Oh, Viktor, baby..."

"You should go. Leave me like she did, because I don't deserve you."

"Sweetheart, I'll never leave you," you grabbed his hands and pressed them to your growing bump. "We will never leave you."

It took him a moment to understand what you were saying, but his eyes glittered with tears again once the realization set in.

"You're..." He started.

"Mmm hmm," you nodded.

"And we made this?"

"We did."

He placed kisses all over your belly.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" He asked.

"It was hard considering everything that was going on. I should have, but I didn't really know how." You admitted.

He couldn't take his hands off of you. He was already in love.

"Is it boy or girl?"

"I don't know yet. I figured we could find out what they are together."

"They?" He looked at you in shock.

You were so excited when you found out you were having twins, but you weren't exactly sure how he'd react to the news. First of you being pregnant and then the fact that you were having twins.

He stood and hugged you tight. He was happy. He silently promised to always be there for you and his kids.

Ivan cleared his throat. You'd forgotten that he was even in the room. Viktor stood in front of you like a shield as his father made his way over to you.

The older man stopped in his tracks when he realized what his son was doing. He understood why his first instinct would be to protect you, but he loved his son, so he'd never hurt you.

"Pozdravlyayu, congratulations" he hugged him and then gave you a nod.

"Wait, Ivan, was that a smile??" You asked.

He couldn't keep the grin off of his face. He was genuinely happy for his son. He'd have a family. Something that he always wanted. And after seeing his ex wife walk away from them again, he thinks it's time for him to move on as well.

********

@titty-teetee​

@bluestarego​ 

@marvelmaree​

@literaturefeen​

@fandomfavesss​ 

@savageiz​

@scoop93535​

@rochyu​ 

[neon-writing-pot]

ML Fantasy / Maribat Fantasy AU

Alright some quickie headcanons for a fic i plan to write and need to get these down while I still have them 

Character Headcannons

Ok so first off, the miraculous don’t exist and is going to be replaced with magic but tikki, plagg etc. exist as humans 

So Paris is its own separate little kingdom that is rather secluded and is one of many that does not allow magic within it’s lands, but this only happened after the first few magical attacks by an unknown sorcerer

This sorcerer who was dubbed hawkmoth after his magic that seemed to use moths as a carrier, with a moth landing on the person his manipulation magic would take hold of (note i will work on a better way of describing it but this is the best i’ve got)

Now moving onto the characters, 

Tom is a baker living and running his family bakery in the heart of Paris, while Sabine worked as a travelling blacksmith before meeting Tom

Mari was born with magic rather than learning it from a spellbook as most others did which was rather difficult for her family since random items appearing with their child would at least be a little concerning

While her family had never used magic and definitely weren’t accustomed to it they did their best to help her learn and control her abilities. It surprisingly easy to find information from anyone coming to their bakery, from druids to a man that knew more than expected gave them tips and advice to help their daughter

So all in all Mari’s life went on well until the hawkmoth incident which just made her life 100x more stressful

Now onto Adrien, Adrien comes from a long line of nobility and is training / is currently a knight. Gabriel, of course, isolates him from others aside from training and slowly forms him into his personal ideals along with teaching him magic

 Now Adrien is all in for the knight stuff, he can find love, adventure outside of his ‘cramped’ room, have glory but he absolutely did not like the isolation. Yet in a strange  way understood, he needed to be isolated to properly understand magic, still hated it though

One particular day he is fed up and desperate so after training quickly escaped to the town with another knight, Nino a knight he had barely spoken to due to his slightly immature nature that seemed to rile his father but at that point riling was exactly what he wanted

So the knights (the boys grab Max from the physicians quarters so he can take some time off studying) heads out and meet up with a group of nobles and their maidservants in the village and proceed to explore and have an all round decent time

Mari is out running errands for her parents and runs into the group, befriends Alya and knocks into Adrien

Mari is interested in him and becomes his friend BUT does not gain a crush mainly due to lack of interest and him being a noble shut in

Mari meets Ivan again the next day and helps him out with the attempt at courting, it fails and Gabe uses it to his advantage and stoneheart happens

Now since there are no miraculous this happens differently, now Mari senses to magic straight up and realises who it was and goes “yikes, kinda my fault imma go handle this” takes a set of dark red and black armour that her mother had been repairing and goes to town trying to help

Adrien sees this VERY differently Adrien after getting an earful spots this strange magical creature attacking the kingdom and sees this as an opportunity to prove he has full control of his magic and will prove to his father that he no longer needs to study something he barely understands, so being slightly underprepared grabs a set of leather training armour and a helm and off he goes

So Mari is handling things surprisingly well, a little one sided but she was handling it that is until someone else jumps in at first she's fine with it “Alright cool help, this is decent and he’s a skilled fighter” later on things go down hill when he brings out the magic and straight up panics when he just randomly uses destruction magic with no clue of his limits “Ok tf is he doing, wait- NO FUC- STOP THAT” 

It’s handled and Marinette is annoyed tells him off and when asked for a name stumbles and just goes with Ladybug before running off

After the point that Chloe is Akumatised magic is officially punishable by death

So things continues like that until things amp up and in an act of desperation gives a simplistic spell of illusion to Alya then retrieves it after they’re done, same happening with the others until Chloe where she is desperate to have control begs to keep the spell only for her father to find out leaving Chloe banned from leaving the castle and the hunt for anyone with Magic

So after years of dealing with Hawkmoth his last akuma is faced and he just stops, he had found a strong enough to heal his wife he admits this to the heros both Adrien and Mari don’t have the heart to kill him just after he got his wife back

meanwhile, Adrien had gotten fed up with constantly being turned down and desperate so he demands they meet after the incident. 

While Mari had figured it out quickly that Adrien was Cat Noir, Adrien did not, so as they meet he demands that they reveal themselves stating that once they truly know who they are she would love him 

Mari declines knowing that it could easily be used as blackmail and Adrien is pissed and in an act of desperation lunges for her and rips of her helmet

He is happily surprised to find the girl he had spent happy afternoons with was his lady and someone of his standard, takes off his own helmet and professes his love

Mari declines again

Enraged, he begins to threaten her, “You don’t have a choice, you’re meant to be mine my lady, I can easily tell the king who you are, explain how you gave magic to his own daughter and corrupted his own subject, besides who would believe the word of a baker’s daughter over that of a knight.” Mari’s not having it and flees taking her armour with her

So Adrien follows through, if he can’t have her no one can, and goes straight to his father’s ward a girl who was great with words and better with lies but was best is that she had the city around her finger

So together they slowly find every piece of evidence they could of Marinette having magic and used it to talk to everyone of her friends, reminding them of the food that came from nowhere, the free armour that they had never seen before and slowly they had a mob ready to convince the king

Quickly they all go to the king and Marinette is arrested, Chloe, Luka, Juleka and Nino doing what they could to try and get her out with little success

Gabriel catches wind to late to do anything but knowing she spared his life does the same in return, giving her a teleportation spell and informing Marinette, Luka and Juleka of a plan

As Marinette is tied up and accused she slowly recites the spell only taking long enough to narrowly escape being burned and into Juleka’s traveling home where they all quickly escaped. 

Now the story can go in two different directions,

Marinette flees to the kingdom of Gotham to work under an old family friend Tikki, the kingdom's physician where she ends up working under the royal family, mainly the heir to the throne Damian while still attempting to hide her magic and in hiding from the neighbouring kingdom

OR Marinette slowly builds her own kingdom within the ruins of another, protecting creatures and people of magic that have fled from other kingdoms while coming in conflict with Paris and meets the princes of gotham while they are on patrol of the borders relationships slowly building no matter how much they dislike it (or could be any other ship still working on it.

[leopardfang15]

My Charlastor Child Bio

Alright so, I can’t draw, so I’m gonna have to use the art of words to describe my boy. Kinda sucks cuz I always see these cool reference sheets and I’m sitting over here like “aww... I wish I could make those.” But hey, if anyone is interested in drawing one for me as a commission, I’d be interested in talking and working some prices out. Nothing too crazy, just a simple thing. Fair warning though, I’ve never commissioned anything before so... there’s that.

Now, to business.

Name: Dominic

Nickname: Dom. He is well aware of all the sexual jokes that can be made from his nickname, he’s heard them all and to be honest the lack of originality is the most annoying thing at this point.

Appearance: Physically, he’s inherited the blonde hair and pale skin from his mother. In his early teen years he wore it long enough to be in a braid but after awhile he was like ‘fuck it, too much work’ and wears it short as an adult. Dom’s very athletic and is actually a knight in Hell so he has a more muscular build. He’s a tall and red eyed boi like his dad and he gets the dial in his eyes that his dad has when he gets pissed off.

Another thing Dom inherited from his dad was his sense of style. While maybe not as flashy he is dressed formally when he’s not working out. (He’s not about to do push-ups or go at it with a punching bag in a suit you maniacs). Dom typically wears a long coat and works out by himself because he also inherited a fluffy deer tail from his father. Also like his Radio Dad, he does not like having his tail touched by random people.

His most notable feature would be the black, feathered wings on his back. That angel DNA from Charlie’s side has finally appeared. Dom’s got a wingspan of 12 feet and he knows how to use them.

Personality: He’s a fairly laid back joker. Whereas his parents are theatrical as fuck, he’s more of an observer than a performer. Of course his parents have taught him to sing and dance he usually does that alone to entertain himself or with other family members. Dom also enjoys playing small pranks around the hotel. He’s not one for outlandish ‘pretending to be dead’ or tripping someone down the stairs type pranks but more like sticking a deer crossing sign to his dad’s door.

He’s really family oriented and cares a lot about them. I do imagine him having siblings but I don’t have plans to make anymore but there are plenty already out there. #bestbigbrother. Dom is definitely a Mama’s boy. He will run errands for her and allow himself to be pulled into a dance or a song in public for her. Another fact about Dom is he is in fact an adrenaline junkie. His favorite activity is flying and he does things like jump from a 300 foot building for the sake of the rush.

Background

Childhood: Little Dominic was a tiny ball of energy, following both parents around like a puppy. Always asking what they were doing and wanting to help, if he could sit still long enough that is. Some of his favorite memories of his parents was his mother teaching him to dance and roughhousing with his dad. (Hard to imagine the Radio Demon wrestling with a child but he’d let him win and then play dead to see if he’d get an amusing reaction out of Dom. Dom would usually try to get his dad to ‘come back to life’ before he’d smile and say “I guess I get your stuff now” and grab one of his dad’s bow ties or something)

One of his favorite things to do was give his parents a heart attack climb up high places and try to teach himself to fly. Eventually Charlie gets Husk to teach Dom how to fly. He’s not able to do much until his wings fledge because before then he just has these two limbs full of fluffy and useless down. Fledging was a nightmare because because when his feathers came in he was super itchy but couldn’t scratch them without possibly breaking his feathers. He was absolutely miserable for a week before they finally came in. Dom eventually grew in Husk and he started looking forward to the little ankle biter to come running up to him saying, “can we practice flying now, Uncle Husk?”

Teenager: Ah, teenage rebellion. Dom went through that. In an effort to help him deal with all his energy (and keep him from sneaking out) Charlie got Vaggie to teach him to use a sword. But a teenage boy that likes to explore cannot be kenneled. He liked exploring Pentagram City, especially by air and seeing what knew place he could discover.

He eventually found places he could go to if he wanted to avoid his parents. If he wanted to avoid Charlie he’d go to some of the sketchy fight clubs in town and he actually learned how to fight there. If he wanted to avoid Alastor he’d go to some of the clubs that played heavier rock or metal. He typically wanted to avoid his dad more. While Charlie typically scolded him for doing dangerous aerial stunts but Dom could tell that was more about a worry for his safety. With Alastor, Dom felt like he just didn’t quite fit the mold his father expected of him. He saw a lot of differences between his father and himself personality wise. He eventually, more or less convinced himself that he was a disappointment to his dad and distanced himself from him. Alastor, figuring it was mostly just teenaged angst, just let Dom have his space and figured he’d come to him when he was ready.

Adult: Dom has mellowed out by now. He’s calmed down and is more comfortable in his own skin and with himself. He has carried a love of rock and roll and martial arts from his teenaged years into adulthood. Though I’m not sure how exactly yet, he has been knighted by his grandfather Lucifer. If a demon is avoiding a meeting with the Devil himself, Lucifer will pay Dom to find said demon and bring them to him. He’s kind of like his grandfather’s personal bounty hunter but does not take requests from anyone else. When he’s not chasing down demons for Grandpa Luci he works security at his mother’s hotel.

Dom’s relationship with his father is tense and very awkward at this point. He doesn’t hate his dad it just feels like the years of practical separation makes him feel like he has no way to relate to his dad. Interacting with him is usually short conversations like “How was your day?” “Good, how about you?” “Good.” (I got pleanty of ideas for attempts at rekindling their relationship)

Random Facts

His choice of transportation is obviously flying. Not only is it faster than driving but to comfortably fit in a car he has to retract his wings which isn’t very comfortable.

People seem to always want to touch him. His wings, his tail, his biceps and he does not like it. He’s a bit like his dad with his aversion to touch though that only applies to non-family members. If he doesn’t know you, please don’t touch him.

He doesn’t like overly crowded places because of people touching his wings. If he ever decides to go to a bar, or he has some kind of royal gathering he has to go to he has to think about what he’s willing to put up with; strangers touching his wings or the discomfort of hiding them away?

He has a one-handed sword that he can summon in a fight. It’s one of the few bits of more advanced magic he knows. Whereas some demons, like his parents will use magic in a fight, he’ll just punch a guy through a wall.

He can sing, though he doesn’t do it in public. By himself or around his family is fine. He typically sings rock and my Headcanon for his singing voice is Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch.

His wings are a great indicator of his emotions. If he’s feeling anxious or scared he’ll pull them in close to his body and if he’s happy or excited his wings will flap a little. His feathers also change themselves. If he gets angry or he’s ready to fight his feathers will actually harden and sharpen.

He can launch his feathers like projectiles and he can also slice through plates of steel when the feathers on his wings turn to blades.

He has taken up smoking in his later teen years. Per his mother’s request, he doesn’t do it inside the hotel.

When he was eleven his father taught him how to shoot a rifle. As an adult, he sometimes goes down to a shooting range to practice.

He likes to show affection with his wings. Ex: putting a wing around someone for comfort, wrapping his wings around someone when he hugs them or if he’s taking a nap with a sibling he’ll wrap them up in a feathery cacoon.

He usually sleeps on his stomach. If he lays on his back for too long his wings cramp up. He’ll take short naps on a couch in the lobby but if he’s going to be for the night he’ll lay on his stomach.

He knows how to braid hair. His mother taught him because he liked to play with her hair. It’s something he does when they’re just relaxing and he’ll braid his siblings hair if they ask.

He can take passengers when he’s flying. He flies targets to his grandparent’s castle and he’s flown his mother places. It obviously depends on the demon but on average he can take two to three adult demons on a flight with him.

Well, let me know what you think. I’d be willing to role play with Dominic if anyone is interested. If enough people want it, I’ll make a side blog for Dominic and Hazbin Hotel roleplaying specifically.

Also, @the-radio-princess I have two Charlastor fics in the works. One I was working on before you ripped out my heart so it will be in the EverythingsOkay!AU where Charlie ran off to New Orleans with Jaimie. The other one is from one of my ideas from my Charlastor Headcanons post.

[eryiss]

Blade of the Wanderer - Chapter Three

Summary: Laxus’ life was fine. Not comfortable, not as good as it could be, but fine. Then a stranger entered the walled town of Magnolia, a stranger named Freed Justine, and everything changed. [Fraxus Multi-Chapter | T for Violence]

Hey all! Here’s a new five-chapter fic for you all, and it’s a samurai AU. It’s part of the @ft-bb event, in which I’ve been signed up with @fyo-schiiwho’s made this amazing art!

You can read it on Fanfiction, Archive of our Own, or under the cut. And you can see all chapters right here. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter Three – Swindling Cities

Year: 1539x. Luna-cycle: 9. Day: 9.

He wouldn't admit it, but Laxus found himself incredibly intimidated.

A month had passed since Laxus had been exiled from Magnolia, and three weeks had passed since he had agreed to travel with Freed until they reached a city that Laxus could make his new life in. It had taken twenty-two days of near constant traveling – with only one night spent in an actual bed after they had stumbled across a town with a vacant inn – but they had finally arrived at the city nearest of Magnolia. And Laxus found himself very taken aback by it.

After spending his entire life in a village, a city was an entirely foreign experience. The buildings seemed to expand indefinably; the shadow of the towering castle located in the centre of the city was cast over half the buildings; and even from the entrance Laxus knew that the multiple alleys would make for a hellish labyrinth for anyone new to the city. Including Laxus.

"We should find somewhere to sleep for the night."

Laxus snapped his head to look towards Freed after he spoke. The other man seemed more at home than Laxus, though that wasn't surprising. Over the three weeks together, it had become very clear that Freed hadn't just travelled to Magnolia on a whim; he was a well-versed traveller and had probably seen every corner of Fiore.

Over the three weeks of traveling, their relationship had become almost exactly what Laxus had expected. They couldn't be categorised as friends, that would be too far, but the hatred that Laxus still slightly wanted to feel towards him wasn't right either. Tolerance was probably the most accurate term, but even that seemed a little too clinical for Laxus' taste. They could hold a conversation as they had three weeks prior, but it had felt like they were just filling silence whenever they did.

They were civil to each other. That's all Laxus could be sure of.

"I know of a cheap tavern here, the owner's fond of me so I can perhaps negotiate some long-term habitation for you," Freed continued, looking over his shoulder. "Unless you have any objections, of course."

"No, that'd be fine. Great actually, thanks," Laxus nodded a little. "You really think you can do that for me? Not exactly sure when I'm gonna get some money to pay for it. Probably not an easy sale for ya, is it?"

"If you're willing to do some physical work for them until you get a job, lifting beer barrels and such, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Although he wouldn't say it, Laxus was thankful. Not only was he completely overwhelmed by the city and knew he wouldn't be able to adapt on his own – not immediately – but he had also worried about what he would actually do when he found a place to live. If Freed could make good on his promise, then Laxus would not only have somewhere to stay for a little while but, if he did end up working for his stay, he could potentially turn that into a full-time job. It wouldn't be glamourous, but practicality was all Laxus needed.

The way Freed had offered his help was something Laxus was appreciative of as well. Despite Freed outwardly admitting he was taking pity on him before, Laxus felt a silent respect had formed between them. Nothing near admiration, just respect. So, while he could have been patronising towards him, he had simply offered Laxus a way to survive on his own.

"The tavern is a fairly long walk away," Freed continued. "There's a market on the way and I'm running low on supplies. I can point you in the right direction form there if you don't want to watch me shop."

"No, if I'm gonna spend time here, might as well get to know what it's like soon," Laxus said, not admitting that he also expected he would get lost in the city even with directions.

Freed nodded and started to walk towards one of the many alleyways that Laxus could see. They soon had merged into the busy crowd, something Laxus was thankful for. Even in the town's they had come across, they stuck out, so it was nice to have some anonymity. Well, they weren't entirely faceless in the crowds, Laxus only had one outfit other than the kamishimo that he had been exiled wearing, and it consisted of barely fitting clothes that were unwanted by the town's tailor as they couldn't be sold. The black pants, purple shirt and fur lined coat was a mismatch of colours that attracted the eyes of some passers-by.

Laxus hadn't yet admitted to himself that he had grown fond of the cape-like coat. This hesitance to admit it was only partially because Freed had insisted that he buy it whereas Laxus had been resistant to it.

They walked in silence, and Laxus tried to memorise the streets as best he could for future use. The seemingly endless rows of almost identical buildings made this difficult, as did the copious amounts of side streets and alleys that Laxus had lost count of multiple times. Laxus assured himself that he would get used to the new place in time, but something in his gut said that he was only kidding himself. He tried to shut that voice out.

After what Laxus guessed was fifteen minutes of walking, the relatively cramped streets opened up into a fairly large town square. It was shadowed by a cathedral and the cobbled ground was covered by a busy, bustling market town. People were eating, buying whatever wears they needed and talking with each other.

It brought a smile to his face. Although the memories faded slightly, this reminded him of how market days in Magnolia used to be before Ivan. Full of chatter and happy people. Looking across the almost familiar sight, Laxus found himself missing Magnolia for the first time since joining Freed.

"It shouldn't take long, I know my way around this market-" Freed stopped himself as he looked to Laxus. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Laxus looked towards him, snapping himself out of the daze he didn't know he was in. "Just got caught up in my thoughts. What are you looking for?"

"Not much. Some food, and my knife's starting to dull," Freed continued to walk again, going towards the busy market with purpose in his stride, as if he'd been there before. He probably had. "Is there anything you need, I can direct you to wherever you need to go."

"No, think I'm fine," Laxus replied, looking around with a small amount of intrigue.

The market, though slightly resembling the one that had taken place in Magnolia, was on a much grander scale. White stalls seemed to fill the entirety of the town's square, people seemed to cover all of the cobbled streets, and the intoxicating smell of the food vendor's goods wafted across the air and towards the two men. Laxus tried not to let his stomach grumble, he'd been hungry since leaving and this was the first-time real food had been attainable.

He shadowed Freed as he walked throughout the market, not seeing any point in interacting with anyone. The food was nearest the clocktower, then it faded into wears such as knives jewellery and such; and ended up with clothes and fabrics. Fairly easy to remember.

As Freed inspected a selection of knives that would make both a butcher and a warrior feel inferior, Laxus found himself tempted by the suddenly domineering scent of a roasting pig at a stall only meters from where he stood. He'd only eaten the cold food that Freed kept with him, not having requested anything cooked on the few instances where it was possible. Freed would have had to pay for that, as Laxus had no money, and the blonde refused to be in the man's debt any more than was completely necessary.

Soon the smell would get too much, and his stomach would start grumbling, so he tore his eyes aware from the food market and looked back to Freed. He had picked up a small dagger and was holding it against the tip of his finger, inspecting the blade with slightly narrowed eyes and a frown across his features.

"I'll have this," Freed eventually settled, looking to the vendor. "How much is it?"

"Three gold," The vendor's voice was gruff, leaving no room for argument. Freed clicked his tongue but reached into a coin pouch and handed in the money; obviously the dagger was worth it in his eyes.

"Thank you," Freed nodded. The vendor just nodded and looked away.

Again, Laxus only watched as Freed slid the newly acquired dagger into his belt. Freed seemed to be perfectly content with not speaking and allowing Laxus to follow him as he made his way around to the food part of the market. The blonde tried to focus on anything other than the pig slowly being turned atop an open flame, which was practically screaming at his senses and begging to be devoured… ignoring it wasn't going well.

Thankfully, a distraction from the food was offered in the foreign sound of a laugh. He looked towards Freed to see that, yes, Freed had indeed laughed. Furthermore, it seemed as though he had laughed at Laxus, if the amused expression aimed towards him was to be believed.

Before he could ask his travelling companion what he thought was so damn funny, Freed started to walk again. This time, he walked in an entirely different direction to where he had been going before, this time walking straight towards the hog-roast that was the subject of Laxus' desire. Confusion now undeniably obvious on his face, Laxus followed Freed and allowed his question to die on his tongue.

Almost as soon as they reached the food stall, Laxus' stomach got the better of him. An annoying grumble sounded and Laxus winced, purposefully not looking towards Freed as he almost knew he would receive a patronising smirk if he did.

"Two rolls, please," Freed said after a few moments, causing Laxus to look back towards him.

The vendor of the stall made quick work on their order, hacking away at the meat and filling bread rolls with generous helpings. He handed them both to Freed, and Laxus found himself unable to look away from the cooked meat that would – unless Freed truly was sadistic – soon be eaten by him. The idea of eating any hot food seemed fantastic after living off the bare essentials but having flame cooked pork was simply faultless.

"Fifty silver," The vendor requested, and Freed paid for it without complaint.

Soon, one of the rolls was handed to Laxus, who looked down at it with a small amount of confusion despite his desperate want to eat it like a wild dog. But he and Freed hadn't acted like this with each other; there had been no small favours, so why now.

"Eat it before it goes cold," Freed instructed with amusement in his voice. "It's not poisoned, if that's your concern."

"No. Erm, thanks," Laxus still was frowning towards the food. His confusion got the better of him. "Why?"

"To be honest, I was wondering how long you could go without asking," Freed said, annoyingly not answering Laxus' question. The smirk on the man's face was grating against Laxus' nerves as well. "Subtlety is certainly not one of your strong points, Laxus."

"The hell are you talking about?"

"Your looks whenever there's hot food nearby, the little sighs whenever you have to eat the same food for a third time in that many days, and a whole assortment of small things that you've been doing to show how much you need something hot to eat. You thought I hadn't noticed?" Freed chuckled. "I just wanted to see how long your pride would get in the way of you asking me to buy something for you."

Against his will, Laxus' face reddened a little. He hadn't realised he had been so obvious with his want for something other than cold meat pies, bread and the occasional fish. To be caught out and mocked because of it was not enjoyable.

"You know I would have brought you something if you wanted, don't you," Freed continued, still obviously amused. "To be honest, I thought about stretching your limits. I was half tempted to get a full meat breakfast at that inn to see if you'd want some for yourself or if you'd just sit and watch me eat. But perhaps that would have been too cruel."

Laxus knew he should have been annoyed, but he wasn't. He didn't waste time wondering why.

He simply brought the food in his hand to his mouth and took a large bit, savouring the flavour of heavily buttered bread, perfectly cooked meat and crispy wisps of fat as he ate. He all but moaned as the warm food set his taste buds alight, the first thing to do so since his last evening meal in Magnolia.

The two ate as they walked, and were back on track to where Freed was initially leading them before their detour. By the time the foot had been completely demolished by the blonde, his stomach felt more satisfied than it had in over a month.

"Worth the wait?" Freed said almost immediately in a mocking – or perhaps teasing was the better word – tone. Laxus was pretty sure he had been waiting to say it, with how quickly the words left his mouth.

"Asshole," Was his only reply.

"Perhaps," Freed agreed, still smirking a little. "But you brought it upon yourself for not being forthcoming. And, if you can handle me in a fight as well as you did, I think you're more than strong enough to handle some gentle teasing."

Ah, so teasing was the right term. Good to know.

They continue to walk through the market, Laxus no placated by the warm food he had tasted as well as the promise of something of a regular life on the horizon. He still found himself slightly intimidated by the busy market as they walked – the contrast was near impossible to believe – but he hoped he did a better job at hiding it than he did his need for a real meal. Freed didn't mention it, so he expected that he wasn't doing too bad of a job.

Still focusing on memorising the market for future use, Laxus saw a stall that Freed was walking towards and almost rolled his eyes. It was a preserves stall, therefore a jam stockpile. So Freed wouldn't be staying in the city for long then. Laxus probably should have expected that.

As they got closer, Laxus saw a young man standing at the stall who seemed to gauge their approach and smiled widely towards them. He could also see what he thought was Freed frowning a little, but it was from the corner of the blonde's eye, so it was entirely possible that he had misinterpreted what had happened. Either way, they continued to walk forward, and the stall's owner continued to look at them.

"Mr Justine, a pleasure to see you," The man greeted with a smile and fondness in his voice. "And a guest, fantastic."

"Rustyrose," Freed said, voice almost monotone. Laxus' brown furrowed a little. "Isn't your father here?"

"He's retired, I'm afraid. You can't expect an old man like that to work the cold mornings of the winter, that's practically medieval," The man – Rustyrose, apparently – said with an unneeded amount of flair. "I'm sure I'll make more than a good enough replacement."

"I doubt it," Freed said, picking up a jam and inspecting it. His voice sounded uninterested. "Your father is a man I respect. You're an intolerable cretin."

It took a considerable amount of self-restraint, but Laxus managed not to snigger. The expression on the stall-keeper's face was priceless, and it soon faded from a look of shock to one of annoyance. Freed looked up from the jar of jam and made direct eye contact with the man, almost challenging him to be offended. Rustyrose didn't take up the challenge.

"So," Freed continued. "I assume your prices are the same as last time?"

"Oh," Rustyrose suddenly perked up, voice overly dramatic again. "I'm afraid times are hard, and with father-dear not working we need all the money we can get just to keep him alive," Laxus had to doubt that. "So our prices may have inflated a little. I am sorry."

He wasn't. Neither Freed nor Laxus thought he tried to be sincere.

"How much are they?" Freed sighed. "And without the theatrics, if at all possible."

"The small jars are one gold and fifty silver, the larger ones three gold and twenty-five silver."

Laxus faltered a little. The same size jars from his town would have been more than half the price in Magnolia. He perhaps had expected a small price rise in the city, but certainly not this much. And, by the almost full glare on Freed's face, the other man hadn't expected the prices to be increased by this much either. At least that meant that Laxus wasn't completely naïve to the world outside Magnolia in this respect.

"Yer kiddin', right?" Laxus said, possibly cutting Freed off.

"Ah, he speaks," Rustyrose gleamed, looking towards Laxus with a grin on his face. "And I think the prices reflect the quality of the product."

As he spoke, Rustyrose motioned towards a sign that had been nailed against the back of the stall, which claimed 'the best preserves the imagination could conceive.' Laxus almost snorted at the claim; assuming he had been eating the man's products while traveling with Freed, he could prove quite easily that Mirajane's products were considerably better quality. He wasn't going to voice that though, as Freed's actions caught him off guard.

The other man pulled out his coin pouch again and fished out the appropriate money for two of the large jars. Laxus didn't exactly know why, everything he knew about Freed lead Laxus to believe that he wouldn't entertain the idea of paying for such an obvious scam. He couldn't really think it was worth the money.

"Raspberry and apricot," He demanded, voice portraying his annoyance.

"A fine choice, sir," Rustyrose sneered, and turned to pick up the correct jars.

Laxus watched, trying not to let his mouth drop a little at the interaction. Surely Freed wouldn't just accept that fact he was being grossly overcharged for some jam. It wasn't possible that this was the only place in the city that sold the damn jam he wanted. And why was he getting those two flavours? He always seemed to favour the strawberry one, Laxus had noted.

Why had he noticed that?

Despite Laxus' disbelief, the situation played out as if it was any other transaction. Rustyrose gave Freed what he wanted, Freed paid for it, Rustyrose gave them both a clearly snide goodbye, and they walked away. It took exactly seven steps before Laxus let his curiosity out.

"You seriously happy paying that much?" He grunted. "And from that guy? He was clearly an asshole."

"He was," Freed agreed.

"Then why the hell d'you let him win," Laxus turned towards the other man. "Guy needs an ego boost even less than you do."

"I know," Freed smiled a little. Laxus noted he didn't seem bothered by the insult. "That's the point. His ego got in the way."

"Yeah, this vague bullshit ain't explaining anything," Laxus muttered.

"He was too busy feeling proud of himself because he thought that he'd won our interaction, he wasn't paying attention enough to see a slight depletion of his stock," Freed said, fully smirking.

Laxus looked down when Freed opened the small bag that he kept. Sitting beside the two glass jars that he had paid for were two other jars, both filled with strawberry jam. Laxus continued to look down, processing the fact that Freed had stolen them, before he looked at his travelling partner with a small frown on his face.

He really hadn't expected Freed to be the stealing type. Sure, Rustyrose deserved it, but that didn't make it any less unexpected. Still, Laxus knew that the money didn't come from nowhere and a traveller could only do so many small jobs. Cutting costs down needed to occur, Laxus just hadn't thought about it until that point. It led him to wonder if Freed had stolen anything else while they had been traveling together. He obviously was good at it, given Laxus hadn't noticed and he was standing right beside him.

"I'd recommend we keep walking," Freed continued. "They tend not to like it when we don't pay."

Laxus didn't say anything, but he nodded slightly and the two continued to walk towards the nearest exit to the market. The blonde wanted to increase his pace, but Freed made sure not to let that happen. Most likely so they didn't look suspicious, they didn't need to stick out any more than they already did.

Their exiting nearly went well. They had managed to make it nearly out, but eventually heard the shrill exclamation that obviously belonged to Rustyrose; his voice really did carry. Laxus, probably against his better judgment, looked over to see the man looking directly at them.

"Shit," Freed whispered, looking forward.

Following his gaze, Laxus could see three men who were obviously guards looking towards them. He looked back over his shoulder to see another guard looking at them, as well as Rustyrose pointing at them furiously.

The guards started to walk towards them before either could do anything. The stalls made barriers either side of them, and the crowd was parting to let the guards through, so there was practically no escape that Laxus could see. The blonde looked down towards Freed to see the man's teeth were clenched and his expression slightly stressed, so obviously he couldn't think of a way out of this situation either.

This wasn't good. And the guards were getting closer.

"Show your hands!" One of the guards yelled. "NOW!"

It took Laxus a few moments to process the instructions, and he was only snapped out of the small trance when he saw Freed's hands raised in the air, the bag on the cobbled streets. The blonde slowly copies the action, not expecting this to have been their plan of action.

The guard's moved quickly after that. They went for Freed first, with the closest guard storming forward and slamming his fist into Freed's stomach. As the man was winded, the guard quickly brought him to the grown with neither finesse nor mercy. The traveller's head was brutally slammed against the cobbles, enough to cause a nasty bruise by Laxus' estimations.

But he had no time to think, as he was soon given the same treatment. One of the guards punched him in the stomach, hard. He then was given a kick to the back of the legs – from the guard that was behind them, probably – and he was then forced to the floor.

He blinked a little, head slammed against the cold stone. The force left him dizzy, and he was almost sure a bruise would be there to commemorate it.

Soon, he felt frayed rope wrapping tightly around his wrists, tying them together with no wiggle room. He was still being held down, both his stomach and his head being pushed against the cobbles as he tried to make sense of what was happening. From his position, he could only see the bottoms of the stalls and some boots of people who were watching, but he could hear that Freed was also getting his hands tied together by the guard.

As he heard the guards talking to each other, they said that the two prisoners – the name given to him and Freed didn't fill Laxus with hope – were to be taken to the local jail and their fates would be decided by the lawmaster. The blonde felt his stomach drop.

Freed was right. Shit, indeed.

-~—~-

Laxus had observed that many things in the city were more luxurious when compared to Magnolia. The market was bigger and had considerably more stock, the buildings were presented as spotless and clearly designed with an artist's eye, and the atmosphere just seemed to be more pleasant. Almost everything was an improvement, with a few small exceptions of course. One of which was the jail cells that Laxus found himself in.

Because of course that's where he would end up on the first time in a city.

The walls were damp and made of cracking, moss covered stone. The wooden benches were worn away and purposefully uncomfortable. The light flittering through the small, barred window highlighted the heavy layer of dust in the room. It was the antithetic of luxurious.

Laxus had been taken to the jail cells of Magnolia a few times, though never having been a resident of them. Ivan had taken him there to both intimidate the prisoners and to show Laxus is superiority over the rest of the town. Magnolia's cells were almost identical to the ones that Laxus found himself in, only the city had significantly more of them. He and Freed had somehow managed to be placed into the same cell though, which acted as a little comfort to the blonde as he sat and tried to rationalise the situation that he was in and calm himself down.

It didn't work. But it was nice to give himself the illusion of any control over what was happening.

He glanced to his left to see that Freed was sitting on the bench beside him, eyes closed and posture more relaxed than he should be, considering the situation. Laxus quickly got the impression that this wasn't the first cell that Freed had found himself in. Given his reaction to the guards back in Magnolia, Laxus probably should have guessed as much.

The blonde had to wonder if Freed was actually planning to do something. The moment he and Laxus had been shoved into the cell – with all the care someone might give a rabid dog – Freed's eyes were everywhere. He focused on the lock, the bar-covered window and the long corridor of cells that they had just walked down. And now his eyes were closed, and his expression suggested that he was in deep contemplation.

But he couldn't be sure. And the possibility of Freed somehow dealing with the situation didn't do much to calm his nerves. Not after the delighted way that the guards informed them both that the lawmaker of the town was close friends with Rustyrose, and that she was incredibly unhappy with their apparent disrespect to him.

Needless to say, the situation wasn't looking good for them both.

"So," Laxus eventually spoke, the quiet getting to him. "You wanna tell me how many times?"

Freed frowned and looked towards him. "Excuse me."

"How many times you've been in here, or bee in any fucking jail," Laxus grunted a little, still looking forward. "You ain't panicked at all, just kinda acting like it's just a nuisance that'll pass in a couple hours. So, how many times?"

The traveller beside him seemed to think for a few moments. Laxus watched from the corner of his eye as Freed leant the back of his head against the cold stone that made up the walls of the cell. After a few seconds, still with his eyes closed and expression filled with contemplation, he looked back towards Laxus with a neutral expression.

"I assume it won't be a comfort to tell you I may have lost count," Freed chuckled a little.

"Not really," Laxus laughed with a small amount of humour. "How did you manage to get locked up that many times. Other than today, you ain't really done anything that'd piss off a leader. Well, my dad I guess, but he gets pissed at anything."

"Really? He seemed like such a level-headed man when we met," Freed chuckled. "And I don't make a habit of breaking the law, but it sometimes becomes needed."

"Huh?" Laxus looked towards Freed, still wearing a frown.

"I started to travel when I was thirteen, and I haven't spent any substantial amount of time in the same place since I left," Freed looked emotionless as he thought back. Laxus wondered why. "I took some funds with me, but they could never last me forever. I try to do small jobs in towns and cities whenever possible, but sometimes I won't have the time for that nor the money to get myself food, so I sometimes had to steal it.

"It didn't go well at the start, and I got caught most times. Thankfully, lawmakers can be easily manipulated by a teenager who they think is down on their luck – which technically wasn't a lie – so I never spent more than a night in a cell. As I got better, I was caught less, so the cell time depleted."

Laxus nodded a little, glad that there was at least justification to Freed's breaking of the law. Although, it probably wouldn't matter if Freed was just a criminal for the thrill of it – or any other similar reason – as they probably wouldn't see each other after Freed left the city and Laxus started to create a life for himself here. So he wouldn't be traveling with him, knowing that he was a criminal for fun.

Although, he had to admit the idea of doing that was interesting.

Wrongly, Laxus had assumed that Freed was pretty much a square. Sure, he had pissed off Ivan when they had met, and had obviously proven himself to good fighter, but Laxus had just assumed that Freed was adapting to the situation because he had to. Knowing that Freed had a habit of being imprisoned, that put a different tint on their time together.

Maybe Freed had been behaving himself, for Laxus' sake. If that was true, the blonde had to wonder what their travels would have been like with this other side of Freed being shown to him. It was an amusing thought, one he kind of wanted to explore.

Huh. He was second-guessing himself.

But no, that wasn't the plan. The plan was to get to a city and live there from now on. Freed almost defiantly wouldn't want him for any longer than needed; he'd probably diminished the mans food reserves more than he realised, as well as making him spend twice as much on the inn they'd stayed at. No, he couldn't travel with Freed for any longer than needed, he would simply have to unleash his curiosity when they had the chance. And locked up together was as good a time as any.

"When was the last time you got arrested, then? Not including Ivan," Laxus asked, body now shifting towards Freed.

"A while, actually. Over a year," Freed smiled a little. "Shockingly, I'm not nostalgic about it."

"Shocking," Laxus mimicked with a small grin. "I'm gonna guess that part of the reason we ended up here today is because of me, if it's been that long."

"I couldn't possibly say," Freed chuckled a little, standing up and walking to the bars of the cell. Laxus couldn't see a reason for his sudden movement, so just assumed he needed to stretch his legs. "Would I have acted differently if I were alone, perhaps. Would I have been caught, almost definitely not. But don't feel like you're to blame for this."

Laxus rolled his eyes a little when he saw the smug, teasing grin on the traveller's face. The blonde was grinning a little as he muttered. "Asshole."

Well, at least he was teasing and willing to joke about the situation. Laxus would rather that than have Freed angry at him for getting him there. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen if Freed was genuinely angry at him.

Conversation trickled off a little, wit Freed still leaning against the metal bars and Laxus looking around the cramped cells. The fact that Freed had said he'd only spent the night in a cell when he was a kid as if it were a small amount of time, it probably meant that they would be there for considerably longer than that. He might as well get used to the place that would be his home for a short time. Hopefully not too long, though.

Eventually, Freed walked back from the bars and sat down on the cell's bed; well, is a wider wooden bench with a ratty pillow and a blanket could be considered a bed. He sat opposite Laxus directly and grinned.

"Well, I think we've been in here long enough to learn our lessons, don't you?" Freed was smirking.

"I guess," Laxus frowned. "You just gonna walk out? Don't think they'll like that."

"Probably not," Freed chuckled. "But I can get us out, if you want."

Laxus frowned and sifted a little so he was leaning forward. Why wouldn't he want that, unless there was a risk of making things worse for them both. "The hell are you talking about?"

"There's two things we can do, from what I can tell," Freed begun, Laxus leaning forward a little further. "We can stay here for as long as it takes, probably have some kind of punishment from the lawmaker, and we'll eventually be released. They'll also probably keep everything they confiscated from us and, somewhat ironically, we'll probably have to steal some food to survive. Adversely, you can go along with my idea and we'll be out in less than an hour."

"And I'm guessing there's a risk," Laxus sighed.

"There's a chance it wont work. Minimal, but a chance," Freed looked down a little. "And, for the first few weeks of living here, you might need to keep your head down. You will have escaped from a jail, so making yourself known will bring you back here."

"I can do that," Laxus nodded, leaning back against the wall. "So, what do you need me to do."

"Just follow my lead," Freed smiled. "And, in advance, you have my apologies."

With a frown at the last sentence, Laxus watched as Freed stood up again. Confusion was painted in the blonde's expression as he watched the other man shrug off his coat and placed it on the wooden bed, undid the buttons of his cuffs and pulled his sleeves up to his biceps. His confusion doubled when Freed instructed him to do the same, but he did as he was told, placed his coat alongside Freed's, and slid his sleeves up as well.

As he went to sit down on the bench again, Freed grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. Still confused, he allowed Freed to position him in the middle of the cell so that they were facing each other. Laxus really wasn't sure how removing their coats was going to get them out, and he was starting to think that Freed was just playing with him to pass the time.

"Again," Freed said, voice quiet. "I'm sorry."

And then the fucker punched him in the face.

Laxus staggered back a little, grabbing his jaw where Freed's punch had landed. It had been merciless, and Laxus shouldn't have been shocked by the power that was behind it. He knew the guy was strong, evident from both their fight upon meeting and the obvious muscles in his bare arms.

"What the fuck!" He yelled, looking to Freed while still cupping his jaw.

Freed didn't reply, instead he walked forward quickly and planted another vicious punch, this time in Laxus' stomach. Again, he stumbled back, this time winded. Now slightly hunched over and grabbing his stomach, he looked towards Freed with a mixture of anger and confusion on his face. Freed waited for a moment, and then he rolled his eyes a little and stormed forward, his expression going from a small amount of exhaustion to one of anger. It was honestly almost terrifying to see the expression aimed at him.

"So now you're quiet!" Freed suddenly yelled back. "But when a guard's around, you just love making noise!"

He grabbed Laxus by the throat and pushed him against the wall, the anger still in his eyes. The blonde grabbed the arms that were clasped around his neck, not sure if Freed was actually intending to crush his windpipe. By the strength he was holding him, there was every chance that was his intention.

However, when he looked back to Freed's face – which was uncomfortable close to the point where he could feel the man's breath on his lips – he saw the expression of anger was gone. In its place, Freed was looking directly into his eyes with a clear expression of purpose. When his eyes flickered towards the bars of the cell, Laxus followed them and saw a single guard sitting at the end of the corridor.

Just follow my lead.

When a guard's around, you love making noise.

Ah. Okay. They were getting the guard's attention. He could do that. Maybe this could be some overdue catharsis for when they first met.

With a small nod to show he understood, he placed his hands-on Freed's chest and shoved him back; he made sure not to hold back in the same way Freed had. The two looked at each other, both panting a little, and Laxus could have sworn he saw Freed smirking before his expression turned back to the look of anger. He decided not to think too much about why that happened, and instead got his mind back on the task at hand.

He thought back to how he felt when he first met Freed. The expression his father had worn when he lost the fight. His fucking father.

The punch was flying before Laxus knew it.

Slamming his fist into the side of Freed's jaw was weirdly satisfying, but he only felt that happen when he saw Freed grin again. Yeah, this was certainly going to be cathartic, even if it wasn't against the man he thought it might.

Mind now on the 'fight' occurring, Laxus grabbed the other man's shoulders and pushed them down, bringing his knee up at the same time to slam it directly into Freed's gut, winding him in the same way that he had previously been through. Again, once he saw that Freed had recovered, he felt a sense of enjoyment flow through him.

"Loud?" Laxus yelled again, hoping to get and maintain the guard's attention. "Maybe if you stopped fucking about being cocky, we might get shit done!"

"At least one of us has something to be cocky about," Freed retorted, voice a little croaky. Laxus was sure that it took a few seconds longer for Freed's smile to slip away than it had before. "Unless you think stumbling around is something you be proud of, you fucking ogre."

Throughout the jail cells, it was quiet. Previously, there had been the quiet sounds of other conversations or movement of other inmates. Now, all attention was on them. Laxus decided not to reply to Freed, instead listening to the row after he thought he heard the sound of wood scraping against the stone floor; the stool the guard was sitting on. In the silence, Laxus could hear boots walking towards them.

"He's coming," Laxus muttered, taking the break to catch his breath.

"He'll try splitting us up," Freed whispered back, chest heaving slightly. "When he's in the cell, focus on him."

With a nod, Laxus launched himself forward again and wrapped his arm around Freed's neck, pulling him down into a brutal headlock. He felt Freed struggle a little but kept his grasp firm as he heard the guard getting closer.

After Freed slammed his elbow into his stomach again, Laxus released him and stumbled back again. The elbow had landed in exactly the same as the punch from before, leaving him winded and trying to catch his breath. When he saw Freed glance outside of the cell and watched his pupils dilate a little, Laxus knew that he wouldn't be given this break and the fight would have to continue immediately if it were to look real at all.

The punch delivered to his face confirmed his suspicions.

"Asshole," He yelled.

This time, he grabbed Freed's hair. With a firm grasp, he dragged the other man to the wall of bars and forced his head against them. Now with an unhindered view of the corridor, he could see the guard only a cell away. He was looking directly at them. Good.

As Freed broke out of Laxus' hold again, Laxus stepped back to see the guard reaching for his keys. When he saw that the two men had stopped fighting for a few seconds, he obviously hesitated in unlocking their cell. Freed must have seen that, as he lurched forward again. Laxus only had time to wince before he felt the clenched fist against his cheek again. The fucker had a good punch.

"Hey," The guard yelled, key in the lock now. "The hell d'you think you're doing?"

"Giving this moron what he deserves," Freed practically spat. "Just leave us alone, you'll have one less person to deal with at the end of the day."

The door to the cell swung open, and the guard opened his mouth to speak again. Freed and Laxus, however, simply shared a glance and an almost unseen nod. A moment later, they lurched forward and Laxus slammed his fist into the guard's stomach. He stumbled back a bit, and couldn't stop Laxus from grabbing his head and slamming it into the bars with more viciousness than he had with Freed.

Huh. He didn't have to wait to see if the guy was okay before he felt satisfaction from the attack like he had with Freed.

As Laxus kept the guard occupied, Freed had reached around and grabbed the key that was still in the lock. He then quickly reached for the guard's belt as he was grabbing his stomach and pulling out the knife that was kept there. Laxus could only watch as Freed moved quickly, forcing the blade against the man's adam's apple, which bulged at the blade that was now in danger of cutting it. The speed in which Freed had moved reminded Laxus of how they had fought back in Magnolia.

Looking back to the guard, he saw the young man's eye dilate and his posture turn rigid. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to put up much of a fight.

"This is what's going to happen," Freed spoke with the same tone that he had used when addressing Ivan. Velvet smooth yet somehow threatening in a way that was hard to describe. Laxus hadn't been able to appreciate it before. "We're going to walk very calmly and quietly to the inventory room, we'll get our belongings, and we'll be on our way without so much of an issue.

"However, if you have any ideas of trying to fight back, I'll cut your throat. Then I'll lock you in that cage and we can see how caring your colleagues are," Freed smiled a little and forced the knife up, making the guard look directly at him. "Do we understand each other?"

The guard nodded, and Laxus was left to wonder if Freed would carry out that threat if needed. He thought it best not to ask, instead he picked up both their coats and simply stayed silent.

As the three men started to walk down the corridor, with the knife still resting against the guard's, Laxus could see the other prisoners watching them. He tried not to pay any attention to the eyes watching them as they passed, instead looking straight ahead and following the directions of the guards; even if they were stuttered and said out of fear. The blonde just wanted to get out of the place as soon as he could; the situation was just too foreign for him.

Thankfully, they soon found themselves in what Laxus assumed was the inventory room. Laxus quickly grabbed everything that he recognised was there's that had been taken when they were arrested. After he'd taken anything back, he looked to Freed for guidance.

"Well, my friend, I think it's time for us to depart," Freed chuckled, looking to the guard as if he was enjoying this. He probably was. "I assume that you won't cause us any further trouble."

"N-no," The guard stammered a little.

"Good," Freed smiled, and then released the knife from the man's throat and handed it back to him. "I wish you a good day."

Freed was quick to leave the room, and Laxus followed suit. The confidence in which Freed moved was somewhat comforting, and it seemed the other man had no worries about being caught by another guard so Laxus tried to replicate that.

Apparently, that confidence was not misplaced, as they soon left the building without any trouble at all. Either the guards in a city just happened to be lax on that day, or maybe Ivan was more regimental in his treatment of the guards than Laxus had thought, because walking out of the jail was easy. Perhaps it made sense, without being able to trick the guard into walking into their cell, the two of them would still be there and no guard would be required outside.

As they walked away from the building – at a pretty quick pace, Laxus noted – the blonde found his mind wondering. Wondering about how he would manage to live here after escaping jail, about how he was still a stranger to real society, about how he would probably not see Freed again after he left. It all left him feeling… wrong.

"Hey," Laxus muttered after they merged into a crowd, allowing them to slow down their pace. "I know you said you'd get me a place here, and I'm thankful for this," The blonde's cheeks were slightly red as he spoke. "But, I dunno, maybe this place ain't for me."

Freed paused and looked towards him, a small frown on his face. "You don't?"

"Just doesn't seem like my kinda place, y'know," Laxus found his hand had reached the back of his neck, and he couldn't seem to look Freed in the eye. "And, if the guards are gonna be looking for us, doesn't make sense being here. Not exactly the most subtle guy, am I?"

"I suppose not," Freed chuckled.

"Yeah," Laxus looked down. He knew he was just going to have to ask, dignity be damned. "Look, d'you mind if I stick around with you for a little while longer. I know you probably don't want me hanging around you or anything, but-"

"I enjoy the company," Freed cut him off. "Besides, it's a large choice to make, you shouldn't rush it. I'm sure you'll find a place you're comfortable with soon enough."

"Yeah," Laxus said, though he found himself unsure of his words.

Freed gave him a small nod, and they both continued walking down the busy street and towards the inn that Freed had spoken about. Again, as they walked, Laxus found his mind wondering. This time, however, his mind was entirely occupied by the man he was walking beside. And, unlike before, the feeling in his stomach was that of warmth.

A month ago, this man had turned his life around for the worse. Now he was traveling with him, and glad of it too. In fact, Freed really wasn't that bad of a person to be around; he was good company and pretty similar to Laxus. And, if Laxus was honest, not bad looking too.

Huh. That was new.

[neycrisbale]

Russia Baby Croatian Win *Luka Modrić imagine*

===========================================================

“Babe I’ve gotta go” Luka said as he peppered kisses on my face

I giggled trying to move him away, “Alright, alright one kiss is enough” I said a smile on my face

Luka smiled as well, “Today’s the day, the day that we’ve been working so hard for the past years and this as well” He said proudly 

“And everything that you’ve done in the past will show today and that win will be even greater” I said to him as I placed my hand in his hair. 

Luka bent down placing a kiss on my stomach, “Take care of Mama today, don’t give her a hard time so she can watch Tata” He whispered

He placed one more kiss on my stomach before placing a finally kiss on my lips, “I’ll see you at the game, I’ve asked for Lisa to be with you the whole time just in case anything happens” He said 

I nodded, “Don’t worry about me, everything will be fine you better get going before the bus leaves” I said 

Luka smiled once more, “I’ll see you two at the game” He said placing another kiss on my forehead

I chuckled, “Love you” 

“Love you too” He said as he walked out of the room

Placing a hand on my very large stomach I sighed, “Alright baby boy, let’s start getting ready before Tetkica comes” I said as I got up from the couch

(A/N:Tetkica means Auntie in Croatian)

By the time Lisa came into the room I had already gotten dressed and was just working on the finishing touches of my makeup. “So how are we feeling today?” Lisa asked as she went into the kitchen

I shrugged, “I generally feel good, and excited and nervous for Luka” I said

She chuckled, “Of course it’s only natural this is a big game for him” 

I nodded getting up from the seat and basically waddling over to her, “Whatcha making” I said as I gave her a hug

She hugged me back and smiled, “Well since today is going to be a long day, I’m making smoothies that I’m going to put in the little cooler thing for you. You’re gonna need some form of liquid and protein” She said 

I nodded, “Can’t I just order something there to eat?” I asked raising an eyebrow

“You said Friday that you didn’t like the food, and that it made you sick” 

Scrunching up my nose I nodded, “I did say that” 

We both laughed, “Therefore these smoothies will be coming a long with us.”

Getting my shoes I decided to go with sandals because it’s not exactly cold in Russia but it’s not as hot either and I want to be able to freely take my shoes off while I’m sitting down. 

Lisa had finished up making the smoothies, and then we walked out of the room locking it as we left. Lisa is Luka and I’s friend who lives here in Russia and is actually a nurse, and she was also the only person who Luka would trust with my life and our baby’s. 

We made it down to the car that was waiting for us, and got inside. The car ride to the stadium wasn’t long and we were there in no time. Once we’d arrived, we   were escorted towards the seats and instantly we were greeted by the other families, “Y/N aren’t you due any day now?” Raquel asked giving me a hug

I smiled, “Any second to be exact” I said returning the hug

Lisa and I sat down after saying hi and talking with most of the families, and instantly I spotted Luka on the field. I could tell he was looking around the crowd to see if Lisa and I had made it yet and when his eyes landed on us he smiled waving. 

I waved back, and he smiled. “How’s everything? No pain right?” Lisa asked

I shook my head, “Everything’s alright, but I don’t think I feel anything” I said

She nodded, “Let me know if you do” 

“Yes ma’am”

~~

“He does know he could’ve passed the ball right?” I asked  out loud

The girls chuckled, “You think he heard anyone?” Ivana asked 

I nodded, “He looked right at Luka and Ante, but took the ball up” I said 

The game was leveled at 1-1, and we were already in the second quarter. The boys were putting on their A-game to try and advance through the French defense. With each attempt they were getting closer and closer towards scoring but were just missing that little touch. 

I placed my hand on my stomach as I’d felt the baby move but along with it came like a sharp pain. “You alright?” Lisa asked looking worried

I nodded, “Yeah just a little bit of pain, right here” I said rubbing my side

She looked at me warily, “It could be the start of a contraction is it like a period cramp or just gas?” She asked

“Period cramp” 

She nodded and looked down at her watch, “Tell me when you feel another one” 

I nodded, and we continued to watch the game. My eyes wandered over to the game clock to see that we have 9 minutes left in the entire game and we’d need one more goal to break the tie and win the World Cup. 

Everyone grew anxious as Ivan took the ball up, and dribbled through some of the French midfield. Looking up he passed the ball towards Mario who took it out to the left side and crossed it inside of the box where Luka was standing and waiting. 

It seemed as if the time had slowed down on the game because, of how perfect everything was the ball connected with Luka’s foot and made into the back of the net. The entire stadium went up in cheers, and hugs Lisa and I both jumped up out of our chairs hugging each other and cheering for the boys. 

Luka smiled as he kissed his ring finger where his band normally was, and pointed towards me. They restarted the game, and the 9 minutes had shortened down to 2 and at this point the French Team had given up but were still managing to defend to avoid another goal. 

By the time the boys had made it closer to the goal the final whistle blew, and everyone everywhere in the stadium was cheering. Including Lisa and I, “Y/N did you spill your water?” Lisa asked

I raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t have water Lisa” 

She looked confused, “Then why’s there water on the- Your water broke!” She yelled

My eyes widened, and I looked across the field to Luka who was being carried away off the field by the guys. “That means-”

“This baby is coming now” She said 

I groaned, “Bad timing” I muttered

She chuckled, “I’ll tell Freddy to pull Luka” She said as she texted Freddy

Taking my hand, she led me out of the stands and down the hallway to the car and before we could even go down the hallway to the car someone was calling out to us. “Y/N!”

When we turned it was Luka still in his jersey and captains band on his arm. “Luka-”

“Don’t worry about them they can do the celebrations without me, my babies about to come out” 

~~

“Congratulations Mrs. Modrić, it’s a healthy baby boy” The doctor said

I smiled over to Luka as the baby was placed in my arms, “He’s beautiful Luka” I whispered

Luka placed a kiss on my forehead, “You did baby”

“We did it”

[knaveofmogadore]

First Second Meetings

I don’t think I’m ever going to get over these nerds! It’s been YEARS since I’ve put out adive content I think! This is a rework actually of one of my older fics since lost to time, adapted to the current state of canon. This is my, what? Third first meetings fic for Adamus and Five? Frey needs to let them argue already so I can stop writing these

Five kidnaps Adamus in the middle of his third night back at civilization, and that sets off the beginning of a beautiful friendship, with a side of drama, war, and Einar.

Adam sat down on the bed with a relieved sigh. Nearly two years in the arctic, a sudden evacuation of Alaska, a surprise pick up from his friend John Smith, a non stop sting of diplomatic meetings and legal and not so legal fights, and a stress fueled sparring smackdown with Nine all added to two years of terrible sleep and seventy two hours of virtually no sleep at all. His exhaustion was evident in the heavy way he moved, the effort it took to hold his head up. It did not, however, dull the feeling of sitting on an actual bed, in an actual house, in a room that was actually sort of his. Adam fell backward with a soft laugh and sprawled. His head almost hung over the edge against the wall and his feet were planted on the floor. Uncomfortable though the position was and odd though it felt to be on a clean mattress with intact sheets, it was the safest he had felt in years. With a Mogadorian warship and a peacekeeper army near enough to wage war in the Academy’s backyard, that was a bit sad. Ironic even.

Adam sat up when he heard Malcolm Goode appear in the doorway. He smiled in that fatherly way he had. His face screamed stressed, but it seemed to fade in the face of Adam being even marginally happier than he was when he got here. Even at this level of exhaustion Adam can't help but smile back. This place was new, the HGA not something he would ever agree with, but he still felt a little bit at home. Safe. Cared about for the first time in a long time.

“Settling in ok?”

Adam nodded, “It still feels weird, but I promise I'm fine.”

Malcolm nodded back, satisfied, and rested his hand on the doorknob.

“Sam and Six are just down the hall, and I'll be asleep downstairs in my office, probably,” Malcolm looked at Adam in a way that he hopes conveyed that that was an invitation for fellow insomniacs, “so you're not alone here. Try to get some sleep, ok?”

“Yeah, I don't think that sleep is going to be an issue. I feel like I haven't slept in years.”

That didn't help the stress and exhaustion ease from Malcolm at all. He clears his throat and moves to shut the door behind him, before he stops and snaps his fingers.

“Right! I know it's going to be hard, but try and get up early tomorrow. Lexa is coming over to review the security over breakfast and she wants your input.”

Adam nods, “I'll try my best to get up before noon.”

Tomorrow was a rest day for negotiations, a chance for everyone to take a step back and think over legalities, and a chance for the garde at the academy to strategize about other threats. They also hoped it would be a good chance for the mogadorians to not only rest, but curb the tempers that were beginning to run short.

Malcolm smiled one last time and shut the door.

****

Adam shifted under the thin blanket in his sleep. He squeezes the pillow provided in his arms, opting to sleep without one. The mattress was not the most comfortable, which helped Adam get over how weird it felt to sleep on one after all this time. It helped that he was too tired to stay awake without great effort. Twenty minutes of shifting and then laying still and he was out like a light.

He was not usually a deep sleeper, a habit he could never afford growing up with his brother Ivan and his unstable father. He never had a chance to pick it up, either. Especially not since the war ended. Sleeping through being ambushed and even stabbed was a terrible idea.

Tonight Adam was beyond being roused by the soft opening of a window, the lack of footsteps, the even quieter breeze. What did wake him was the metal hand that covered the bottom half of his face. His eyes blinked open, and then he tried to scream and reach around to punch his attacker in the neck. His fingers crack against a solid metal jaw. He is fully roused then, awake enough to notice that he and his now kidnapper were floating out of the window even as he put up a fight.

After the second time Adam almost made his attacker drop him, he realized that it maybe was not the best idea to make someone let hi go while they were suspended several hundred feet above the ground. He quieted instead, and allowed the rogue garde, and they must be a rogue garde, John would never scare him like this and no one else would dare, to carry him by his armpits. It was as terrifying and death defying as the first time he rode a flying garde into the early morning, but Adam still found himself sort of enjoying the sensation. He was not going to die right away, or he would have been killed at any point so far. He allowed himself to enjoy, just for the moment, the feeling of wind in his hair, the sight of San Francisco and all of her lights below him. If he was with a garde he trusted, Adam would have smiled.

The peace didn’t last long. Just as Adam’s shoulders were starting to cramp like they would be stuck that way, a ship came into view. Not just any ship, a skimmer, and one that was in pretty poor shape at that. It hovered mid-air above the city, waiting to land. Wires trailed from the underbelly and flapped in the wind, the paint job needed a serious retouching, and the ship was more dented than would ever be allowed by an self respecting engineering officer.

Adam’s mind was already running through escape plans. It would be easy enough to pilot the thing once he could lock himself in the cockpit, he had been flying skimmers since he was a child. He had the blueprints for the ship already clear in his mind, exhausted though he was he could clearly map his way on and off even the rattiest looking model. He figures if push comes to shove he could blow half of the floor away with the smallest seismic wave. Maybe even by just stomping too hard.

The rogue approached the ship and opened the doors from the air. Adam had hoped that the ship would land, but at least this way he knows that they are probably alone, and the garde is holding him by one arm. The keypad sparks and the doors open. Adam waits, and the doors slide closed behind them. Just a few more seconds, the garde is close to, and then Adam’s feet touch the floor.

With an acrobatic twist that would make Six proud Adam shoves his hand against the garde’s chest and puts enough of his legacy into it that the wave sends the garde sailing into the opposite wall, where there were already considerable dents. Adam lands lightly on his feet and prepares for a fight, casting his eyes around for something, anything he can hit with.

In the meantime his attacker is back off his feet already. He clutches at his chest, and between his rage and the pins and needles feeling in his ribs he doesn’t notice that his hood has fallen down. Adam turns full bodied to the movement, his cockpit plan forgotten for the sake of not dying before he gets there, and then he freezes. His face pales, his expression stricken, his stance stiff and off kilter with the realization of how many garde, exactly, both have more than one legacy and can fly.

Five’s nostrils flare and he growls. For a brief moment before his metal skin takes over Adam can see black scars snaking across his cheek from his neck. He is beyond unhappy. There is murder in his eyes, barely restrained. Adam’s realization and one fact turned lie overshadows all of that.

“Five! You’re alive!”

Five charged Adam and lifted him by his shirt to slam him against the wall of the ship, then took him away just to slam him again. Adam grabbed into Five's hand. He tries his best to maintain eye contact as Five tries to crush him into the wall.

“Five,” Adam wheezes, “listen to me..”

“I'm done listening! I know you, Adamus, I know how you like to talk! I'm not gonna listen to it!”

Adam grasps Five's meaty metal wrist firmly, but not to pull at at. He just holds it. Five has murder in his eyes but Adam is unruffled, unflappable. He reminds Five of Einar and through some conditioned response this calms him enough to listen anyway. He does not ease up his grip, forcing Adam to talk softly and breathe shallowly.

“You..you're angry. You're hurt. You feel like you have been abandoned, I know how that feels..”

It was too soon for empathy, Five smacked Adam's back against the wall for a third time.

“Like hell you know how this feels! You isolated yourself and they still welcomed you back with open arms! You betrayed your entire race and you're. Still. Here!”

With every pause Five slammed Adam into the wall again. A dent is starting to form behind him, and black spots are swimming in his vision. Time for the tough truths approach, he decided.

“Do,” Adam wheezed in a breath, “do you think that you scare me? Do you think you're the first person to attack me in my own home? The first to try and kill me in the middle of the night? The first to pick me up and beat the shit out of me?”

Adam can feel Five's metal fist digging its fingernails into his skin through his nightshirt. He shook his hair out of his eyes to the best of his ability and looks down at Five's fist. He moves his hands up to cradle it and sends just a tickle of his legacy into the metal flesh. Small waves, barely as strong as the force of a splash dive into the pool. He knows the force has Five's hand ringing anyway with pins and needles, the metal of his skin amplifying the effects of Adam's legacy. Five's fingers loosen enough to give him more breath and his grip doesn't tighten again.

Adam sucks in a deep breath with a quiet gasp. He savours the feeling of being able to expand his chest and he swallows, trying to clear away the stickiness in his throat. His ribs ache with the strain but his head clears. The ringing in his ears subsides a fraction. His hair falls back into his eyes and he leaves it, better than Five not see his face. Empathy seemed to enrage him, so tears would also, Adam reasons.

“My entire life has been like this, from the day of my birth to this moment. Always afraid of screwing up, always under threat of consequences, never good enough, never strong enough, never coming from the right place.”

Adam's hands begin to shake around Five's hand and he allows them to for the first time in years.

“I was afraid, and then I was angry. I was angry that he could never see how hard I was trying, I was pissed that they just used me and tossed me back onto the trash pile once they were done, I was so, so angry that they thought they could hunt children like beasts and I never stopped being angry, Five. I'm still angry. It's what my legacy relies on.”

Five looks down, stops trying to meet Adam's eyes through his fringe to look at his shaking hands. The movement is the most anxiety he's seen come from any Mogadorian. Not anxiety. Not anger, either. Exhaustion. Distress. His eyes snap back up when Adam composes himself and continues talking.

“So I do get it. I have always gotten it. You're angry, you feel used and discarded and hated, you think that no one cares about you and that you're all alone in this world because there is one group if people in this whole wide universe that doesn't love you.”

Five's hand begins to shake and it puts Adam on edge, but there was no stopping now. He plows forward and pays it no heed. He makes a point of not looking up at Five's face in case he was wrong.

“That isn't how the universe works, Five. Just because the people you want to love you don't show you what you want, that does not mean you are not loved, cannot be loved. We make our own lives, our own destinies, our own families out of whatever and whoever we want.”

Adam looks up through his overgrown bangs and sighs tiredly at Five. His eyes are downcast, his shoulders slumped. Tears shine from the corners of his eyes and threaten to show over his cheeks. Adam taps his fingers against the metal of his skin to gain his attention. Tink, tink, tink. He looks up and searches Adam's expression for deceit.

“Put me down, Five.”

Five's fist tightens its grip instead. His flesh and bone and scarred fist.

“What if I wanted to kill you instead? That was a nice speech, but I still think you're dead wrong.”

Adam is untroubled, though his voice comes out tired.

“If you were ever going to kill me you would have done it when you took me. You don't play with your prey, we both know that. You were never going to kill me in the first place.”

Five slams Adam into the wall one last time for good measure. A petulant, last ditch effort to make Adam feel like he is wrong about Five. His own odd way of trying to enforce his own self deprecating thoughts, his own self hatred. Adam saw straight through it, even if Five did not. Maybe not yet, but he thinks that someday he will. He does not smile, no, but he suddenly looks less tired, more hopeful. Five no longer intimidates him, forget scaring him.

The change in Adam’s demeanor suddenly puts Five on edge. No one apart from Einar acted like they weren’t afraid of them, everyone hated Five, or was scared of him, but Adam seemed practically at ease in his presence. He hated that, he decided. Adam had no reason to feel anything for him but hatred. He hated that he acted like he could understand any of this. He hated that Adam could understand. Five betrayed his own people, the people Adam betrayed his people to help. There are few people who have more reasons to hate Five than he does.

Five growls and drops him.

“Stop that!”

Adam braces himself against the wall and holds his chest in both of his arms. His ribs throbbed and his back felt like Five crushed it into dust. A bruise was loudly and angrily forming over his sternum. He was a little too preoccupied in that moment to listen to anything Five said, too focused on standing up straight and not passing out from how suddenly tired he was. He looked up, not bothering to hide his confusion, when Five steadied him with hands on his shoulders. He coughed and looked to the side, revealing more scarring down the back of his neck. Adam shoved down deep an urge to trace them with his fingers.

“...Thank you.”

Five shrugged, “It’s nothing. Um.”

“Why did you take me in the first place? The only thing you could accomplish by removing me from the equation is war, and I doubt you’re helping someone experiment on garde.”

Five looked more flustered by the second. The longer Adam’s penetrating stare examined him the more he felt like he was being dissected. Adam’s eyes were a scalpel and prod, and Five was on the operating table. He was never someone anyone could successfully lie to. Five is taken back, for a moment, to when he had first met the other Loric garde. If Adam had been there he would have never gotten away with any of it. Five gives up on any secrecy right then and there. He also backs away from Adam a step, just in case.

“Einar is hoping to convert you to his cause. He figures that if anyone would back him up about the Earth’s governments not having the right to control the fate of the world and all of the garde in it, it would be you. He thinks you can get all of your people on his side.”

Adam’s sigh carries so much exhaustion that it makes Five want to lay down on the floor and sleep. He pinches the bridge of his nose and takes in, then releases, a long breath. He starts to say something, then takes even more seconds to calm himself and rethink. He does that two more times before he knows he won’t have a complete breakdown where he stands.

“The kid’s heart is in the right place, I think,” he begins, speaking evenly, carefully, “but his techniques, his ideas, his schemes are unrefined. They are dangerous even, especially ones where he interferes in things he has no way of understanding. Einar may come from mogpro, but he has never met a Mog, he has no idea what he thinks he’s trying to accomplish here.”

“Adamus..”

Adam talked right over Five. He is using this moment as a sort of release for all of the frustration he has been forced to shove down from the past two years. Later, he will feel guilty about taking it out on Five. Right now his careful speech gives way to his mounting irritation and diplomacy flies out the window, shrieking and trailing feathers behind her.

“It was hard enough getting the mogadorians on earth to follow my lead in renouncing Setrakus Ra, and even then the ones being evacuated from Alaska are just a fraction of my people now. Getting Vontezza to even listen to me has been a headache! The children of my people are in more danger now than they were when Setrakus Ra was in power, the mogs are no closer to not succumbing to extinction, and now you are telling me some child wants to add his hairbrained schemes to the mix?”

“Adam…”

“Tell Einar that he can eat the general’s sword scrap by scrap if he wants a Mogadorian’s help in destabilizing the situation further, and that is my final word.”

Adam finally quieted and held his hand to his side to quell the fresh pain in his ribs from shouting. Five stood there, defeated and at a total loss. He figured out halfway through Adam’s speech that he was not the target, and now all he wanted to do was fix this. Tentatively he reached out and rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder. He looked down at Five through his fringe and was hit with a small pool of guilt in his stomach at the remorse in his expression. Adam has shot the messenger.

“Let me take you home, if,” Five winced, “since, since your answer is no.”

The flight back was in silence. Five carried him bridal style this time, with extra special care given to his ribs and back. Adam enjoyed the flight more this time, in spite of the ache. With his head clear of escape plans and fear of death it was easier to appreciate the lights of the city. The wind flipped his hair into a mess and pressed a chill into his skin. Without thinking he pressed closer to Five. Five without a word dropped his metal skin. Adam pretended not to notice the scar tissue he could feel through Five’s shirt.

In spite of the ache and the chill and the circumstances, it was pleasant. Quiet. Adam thinks, possibly, that he could grow to trust Five this time around. Five thinks, maybe, that he and Adam could become friends once all of this is over. With the HGA coming into view, it did not feel like a final parting. It wouldn’t be.

[imagine-loki]

A Warrior’s Life

TITLE: A Warrior’s Life

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter Seventy-Seven

AUTHOR: wolfpawn ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Viking Loki coming to your village, raiding, and pillaging, before deciding there is something about you that intrigues him and deciding to take you back to Asgard with him. There, you are forced to learn a new life and language, and though you hate what has happened to you, you learn that Loki is not as bad as you think.

RATING: Mature

Maebh sighed as she fixed more grain, blood and scrap meats to create the blood sausage. It was met with concerned looks on her first presenting it, but hunger won out, especially when the other men saw Loki eat it willingly. She looked at the old people in the corner, still terrified that the brutish foreigners that had taken their home would decide that they were of more use dead, but she had no intentions of harming them. Her original hunger, fatigue and fear had made her think it a good idea, but with food in her belly and warmth slowly creeping back into her, she thought better of it. It was bright outside the dwelling still but tired from all they had endured, she decided she would rest as soon as she had cooked some bread and blood sausage. She gave the first cooked meat to the old woman, who seemed wary of her but still ate it, then to the man. He studied her closely, as though seeing she was not like the men that surrounded her. She wondered if he realised she was Midgardian and not Aesir.

"Maebh?" she turned to look at her husband. "You need some rest."

"I will in a minute." She smiled tiredly.

Loki's attention fell to the elderly couple. "This place is in terrible condition, it has not been viable for a few years."

"At least a decade," Maebh agreed. "They seem to have chickens, a cow and some very basic vegetables. How they are alive, I do not know." she looked at them again. "They will not make it through the winter."

"So why did you spare them?"

Maebh shrugged, "It did not seem right."

"It could cost us."

"Because they are such a threat," Maebh scoffed. "They cannot get up unaided and I used my clothing to knot their wrists as well as the rope, as soon as they would unknot that, the rope will cut them, at their age, the blood will be easily spotted. Look at them Loki, they are older than Frigga, could you harm her?"

"She is my mother!" Loki stated in shock.

"They are someone's mother and father."

"You do not know that."

"They have a small box in the corner, she nearly wept when I noticed it, in it is an amber bracelet, like is used on a small baby to stop teething, it is as old as me a least. It belongs to someone of their kin."

"You are certain?"

"A mother senses these things, even if a father does not." Maebh smiled. "Watch that food, I need to go outside for a moment."

Loki nodded and went over to inspect the food she had been cooking, his tongue gliding over his lips as he thought of the bread and sausage again before they got some rest.

Having relieved herself, Maebh took a moment to look around and stretch her limbs. The dwelling was cramped and full because of their presence, so she cherished a few moments outside. She eyed the landscape carefully to ensure there were no signs of danger before heading back inside. To her surprise, she heard some commotion from the poultry that dwelled in one of the decrepit outhouses and moved forward slowly, trying to see what was causing the ruckus. Inside, she noticed a rabbit that had decided to try and steal some vegetable scraps that had been left out. Thinking fast, Maebh took her knife from her leg and stooped low, waiting to see what she could do. Immediately sensing danger, the rabbit froze, eyeing around it and finding the danger. With a kick of her leg, Maebh shut the door and leapt forward. Though the rabbit was swift; hunger and desperation, though they usually lead to sloth and fatigue, made Maebh the more determined party.

With the food cooked, Loki looked around for his wife, startled to see she had not returned to them. He got to his feet and walked outside, looking around worriedly. When he realised there was no other person around the dwelling, he called her name. "Maebh?" A moment later, his wife came into view with a small spray of blood on her cheek. "What happened?"

"I have good news," Loki stared at her in wonder, not knowing how blood could equate to good news. "How do you feel about a broth?" she held up the skinned rabbit.

"That sounds incredible," He smiled, relieved she was unharmed. "You are a little stained," he smiled, taking his own sleeve and cleaning the blood from her face.

"I have to slit an artery to get him quickly, he was fast."

"You are so cunning," Loki smiled proudly, his fingers touching her face softly.

"Loki?"

"Hmm?"

"Remind me the next time we are not fleeing for our lives to take care of you."

Loki's brows rose and looking around for a moment, he led her back into the outhouse she had caught the rabbit in. "Well with an offer like that, I have to insist upon it now."

"Now is not a good time."

"For a while yet to come that is going to be the case." Loki pointed out before hoisting her against the wall and moving their clothes out of the way before entering her. "I cannot wait that long." He groaned before his hands went to her ass and he began to move, Maebh biting her lips together to stop herself from moaning wantonly as he filled her.

*

Rested and fed, the group stretched as night began to fall. Maebh looked to the terrified couple who eyed them all as they readied themselves.

"How close are the closest neighbours?" Loki asked as he watched them.

"From the direction we travelled, an hour walk for one such as us, longer for them, but in the other directions, I cannot say," Maebh answered. "Why?"

"They could send for help."

"Even if they do, we will be long gone."

"That sort of talk can get a man, or indeed a woman, killed." Bjorn stated.

"Well then, be a man and do the job, but I will not, I do not concern myself with what they do after we leave, we will be gone. They have no horses, so they will have to trek far to tell someone in which time, we will have covered greater distances. Or we will if we ever leave. I do not kill the weak for sport, any who do is not a true warrior," Maebh walked over and took out a knife, cutting the ropes from them and watching as they rubbed their wrists. "We are losing precious darkness here."

"Saddle up." Loki ordered, "And leave them alone. The man looks like his heart is about to fail."

They left the homestead and headed in the direction of the stars Ivan had instructed them to. The night was cold and though they were fed and rested again, the chill still seeped into them through what pelts and they were wearing. The night was not overly clear, making their journey safer, though nothing was safe about their path. To get to where the Aesir had a stronghold, they had to pass through farmland that was highly populated, to go around it would cost them another day at least, and then, had the Midgardians been quick to see the smoke and flames, they would be already to their stronghold before they arrived. They needed to get there as fast as was possible forcing them to go through the most dangerous of the Vanir land.

Maebh and Loki paid attention to everything that surrounded them. They could hear cattle and sheep moving in the darkness, they avoided them as best they could and continued on. There were several homesteads, but again, the avoided them. The horses seemed to sense the need for silence and walked on quietly. Dawn was quick approaching, the roadway in front of them becoming more noticeable as they moved. Tired, Maebh focused on the path ahead of her as others looked for their shelter. Finally, they found more wooded area, but to get to it would require a canter, if not a full-on gallop before the sun would make them visible, the issue there being that there were homesteads not too far away, and thundering horses hooves would be heard, but they had little choice. The horses did as ordered and make their way swiftly through the last of the clearing.

Maebh hoped against hope that none of those in the houses heard them, the tree line felt like it was a hundred miles away. Finally, they made it in, covering their tracks as best they could before settling the horses and themselves. She stared out of the trees, using the shade as a cover, eyeing the farmsteads as they rose for the day. They did not seem to realise what was so close to them. She walked back to the horses and sat against a tree trunk to get some rest, yawning before she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

Maebh woke to a shout, which obviously made her realise there was something wrong, dragging herself to her feet, she looked around, the whir of something passing her caught her attention. A moment later, there was a thud which caused her to look around and see an arrow sticking out from a tree.

"We need to go," Ivan grabbed her shoulder.

Maebh was about to turn and run when she looked around, "Where is Loki?"

Ivan did not wait to speak. "He was on watch."

Maebh's heart felt like it was going to stop in her chest, she turned and ran towards where the watch would have been, another arrow barely missing her as she did so, but it did not stop her. She got to the tree line and saw not only farmers but what appeared to be hunters, at least twenty of them, making their way quickly to the trees. Looking around, her eyes scanned the shrubbery until they focused on a boot, she had cleaned her husband's boots enough times to know it was his, rushing over, she stayed in a crouched position and found Loki, face down in mud, blood on the side of his face and a Thor's fist sized rock next to him, obviously what they had catapulted at him, rendering him unconscious. Knowing that if she did not hurry, they would both be caught and killed, Maebh inhaled deeply and pulled her husband across her shoulders and turned to get to the horses. She walked as fast as she could, considering she was carrying a man far heavier than herself on her shoulders and did not focus on anything but getting there. On more than one occasion, she almost fell and her shoulders felt as though they were on fire, but finally, she made it to the horse she had been using; not even putting on its saddle, she threw Loki across the horse's withers, his upper torso on one side, his lower half on the other, and jumped up herself, before grabbing its reins and that of Loki's horse and turning them in the direction of travel. Just as she was about to kick, she felt herself being pulled from the horse and thrown to the ground, looking up, she saw a man eyeing her hatefully, a dagger in his hand, thinking fast, she used both her feet and aimed them both at one kneecap, leading to a sickening noise as she sent the joint into the other direction and the man to the ground, screaming in agony, grabbing the knife, she rose to her feet and jumped back on the horse, holding the reins in her hands and as well as trying to make sure Loki did not fall off, she got the horses to move.

She rode for a time until she saw the other Aesir in the distance, on their horses close on a rock face. "Where is Bjorn?" she asked when she finally made her way to them.

"An arrow through the heart," Ivan informed her. "He was on watch with Loki."

"We will rest here for half an hour."

"What of them?"

"I sent Loki's horse off on a muddy track, they took the bait and followed," Maebh stated, before dismounting. "He has not wakened but is breathing. Help me with him, I got pulled off the horse by some idiot, he did a number on my shoulder."

"I can imagine that it is more to do with the arrow lodged in it, your highness." Maebh looked at Ivan in confusion. "You have an arrow on your shoulder." He informed her.

Looking behind her, sure enough, there was the shaft and fletching of an arrow behind her. "Is it deep?" She asked, wondering how she never noticed it.

Ivan studied it. "Yes, I am surprised it did not break the bone and gone out the other side."

"What sort of head has it?" She asked fearfully, knowing that if it had a broadhead, she was in for incredible pain upon its removal.

"I cannot tell yet." Ivan went to inspect the wound.

"Leave it until we get Loki lying down, he needs to regain consciousness." She rushed to her husband, the men helping her get him and lay him on the ground. She inspected the wound, which was not very big, the bump on his head, however, was. She looked guiltily at Loki as he remained unconscious, cursing the Gods of his realm for harming him so.

"Your Highness, your shoulder…" Ivan began.

"Inspect it."

He pulled the clothing from around the shoulder and inspected it. "It is a broadhead." He confirmed.

"Well, then we know what to do." She stated plainly as she looked at Loki, knowing the pain she was about to suffer.

"Your Highness," She looked at Ivan, "You do know that considering what happened, and the journey that he had to endure there, the prince…he may not…"

Maebh looked at her husband, her own mind having come to that conclusion already. If the hit to the head was substantial enough, it could cause permanent issues. Inhaling deeply, she gave a nod and Ivan came over her shoulder with a knife, her gaze on her husband as she did swore to remain silent through the pain.

[tk-duveraun]

Title: Frozen Expressions 8/? Fandom: Star Wars: The Old Republic Rating:  T Genre: Romance & Adventure Summary: All Morathis wanted was to save his brother. Despite researching with an intensity to make any member of House Seris proud, it may have been a mistake to approach Lord Faximil for help with the endeavor. Notes:  @quizzikemen Oops? Previous Parts: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven

Despite Mardh’s words and the conviction behind them, Morathis spends the night in his own bunk. The sheets are rough and the mattress is lumpy, but they never bothered him before. He tosses and turns nearly as much as Fox because something is a writhing mess of feelings in his chest. If he could identify them, they wouldn’t bother him nearly so much, but they’re not as simple as anger or desire.

When the alarm on his chrono goes off, he feels like he hasn’t slept a wink. Morathis rubs his eyes with his palms and grudgingly pulls himself out of bed. He locks his exhaustion and lethargy behind a cold facade and appears at Fox’s left shoulder exactly when he should. The details of the next operation wash over him like so much water. Another relic acquisition, but Morathis can’t really bring himself to care. Tava is safe; it doesn’t really matter what Fox is up to.

In something like a trance, Morathis goes through the motions, even mechanically taking notes on a datapad, though if pressed, he can’t tell anyone what he’s written. Follow at the correct distance, nod in acknowledgement to anyone of sufficient rank, Fox said something with his business tone, copy that down.

He’s so determinedly on autopilot that he’s stunned still when Fox breaks pattern by abruptly turning around and putting a hand on his shoulder. Morathis looks down at the hand and then glances around the room. They’re alone in Fox’s private lounge and Morathis can’t remember where to or even when Mardh left them.

Fox eyes him up and down for a moment before asking, “Are you alright?

He lets a hint of his confusion show on his face. “Of course I am, why do you ask?”

“You’ve been acting strange all day.”

“It’s just business as usual, Sith,” Morathis says. He hasn’t been attentive, perhaps, but there shouldn’t be anything for Fox to pick up on. If not analysis, Morathis would say his specialty was rote professionalism.

But Fox persists. “Do you need to lay down?”

Morathis brushes Fox’s hand off his shoulder, but makes sure to let his fingers linger, so the other man doesn’t question it. “This is unnecessary. I’m fine.”

Fox leans in just a few centimeters before his pupils blow out and his eyes seem to unfocus. Morathis blinks in barely-suppressed alarm, but before he can decide on a course of action, Fox is gripping his upper arm and dragging him from the lounge. Fox walks him across the length of the ship before depositing Morathis in his cramped room with the lumpy mattress.

“We have work to do. I’m not ill,” Morathis insists.

“There is such a thing as emotional exhaustion. You can make denials for the rest of the day if you want, but you’re not working any more today.”

“You have no authority over me,” Morathis says. He knows that if he tries to make a denial, Fox will keep pushing.

“If you want to play that card, then neither of us will get any work done today.” Fox crosses his arms over his chest. “If I’m not doing anything, you have nothing to do.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

Fox gently takes a hold of Morathis’ upper arms. “You don’t have to understand someone caring about your feelings. You just have to accept that I do.”

Morathis looks away from the intense, blue stare. Conceding is easier than trying to pick that apart. “Fine. I’ll work on the encryption for calling Tava.”

“Thank the Force. Ivan gets cross when I cancel meetings. He’s simply insufferable.”

---

That night, Morathis makes his silent way through the ship and into Fox’s quarters. He wants to sleep in his own bed and avoid more uncomfortable conversations, but he’s certain Fox will come looking for him if he thinks he’s hiding. The bioscanner lets him into the receiving room and Morathis doesn’t hesitate to walk into Fox’s bedroom. However, at the threshold, he realizes Fox is in the middle of a holocall.

The holo figure is a man in simple Sith robes that turns immediately to Morathis and scowls. Morathis immediately bowed and took a step back. “My apologies, Your Lordship.”

“It’s fine, Morathis,” Fox says. “This is Oct, my good friend.”

“Fox,” Oct says, his voice hard with anger.

“His brother is home, you’d meet him eventually,” Fox says with a shrug.

“These things aren’t as simple as you like to think.”

“There are no coincidences in the Force.”

Oct makes another angry sound and ends the call.

Morathis raises both of his eyebrows. “Pleasant, for an Afflicted.”

“You met him on one of his better days. He’s rather tetchy.” Fox shrugs. “Are you feeling better?”

“I’m only here so you don’t come looking for me,” Morathis says.

Fox frowns and there’s a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows. “If you don’t want to be here, you should go.”

With a sigh, Morathis rubs his temples. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I’m a Sith,” Fox says as he closes the distance between them. He puts his hand on just next to Morathis’ temple and uses the Force to ease his headache. “I can bend people to my will out of fear and without meaning to. It’s something I have to consider.”

Morathis tilts his head until Fox is touching him. The way Fox’s expression changes at such a small thing makes Morathis’ chest ache. “What are we even doing?”

“Do you want the real answer or the one you’ll be comfortable with?”

“There’s a terrible thing to say. What kind of choice is that?”

Fox strokes Morathis’ cheek with his thumb. “I take it you want the latter?”

“I’ll just go without, then, if it’s all the same to you.”

“It’s going to drive you mad,” Fox says, his voice nearly a whisper.

“I already am. What’s another trip ‘round the bend?” Morathis says. He leans in and kisses Fox before he can keep talking.

---

Once Fox’s hair is tied back into something that actually looks like a function plait for the first time, Morathis settles under the blankets. After waking up the second morning in the same position, Morathis starts positioning himself like that when he’s trying to fall asleep. It works far better than it had any right to, what with his right arm pinned down and having a face full of auburn hair. But it does.

Fox’s warmth seeps into Morathis with a calm lethargy that relaxes him almost as much as the intercourse. He strokes the hot skin of Fox’s stomach and lets his brain turn off.

He knows he fell asleep, at least for a few minutes, but it can’t have been for too long, since the morning lights aren’t on yet. Morathis closes his eyes again and tucks his face into the back of Fox’s neck. Just as he’s starting to drift off again, he feels Fox’s hand squeeze his wrist.

“Don’t worry, cyare. It’s driving me mad, too. I’m just used to it, I suppose.” Fox’s voice is quiet, but frighteningly clear in the night. “The madness, that is. Not falling in love.”