#ive known this man for less than a month but he’s my husband and you can’t tell me different

[chryblossomjjk]

yup yup, that’s MY man (i’ve been atiny for two weeks) !!! keep walking buddy 👈👈🤨

[sansaorgana]

— LADY OF THE ROSES (IV)

PART ONE || PART TWO || PART THREE

PAIRING — Ser Gwayne Hightower x fem!Reader // Tyrell!OC

SUMMARY — Gwayne and his wife visit King's Landing with their children, who are very jealous of the fact that their cousins own their dragons and they do not. In the meantime, Otto Hightower wonders if his daughter-in-law is truly loyal to his house.

AUTHOR’S NOTE — It’s written as an usual x Reader fic without describing anything about the Reader’s looks but I still classified it as an OC as well since she is a Tyrell. + You don’t have to know the previous chapters to understand this one and it's the last one of this story. 😊💚 In the show Gwayne mentions that it took him three months to get to King's Landing but I was using some website while writing previous parts where it says that it takes a week from Oldtown to Highgarden and, according to the same logic, it takes less than a month from Highgarden to King's Landing – that's why I decided to make the whole trip only a month long here. 🤔

WARNINGS — Alicent slapping Aegon's face, Reader's child getting hurt (nothing major)

WORD COUNT — 6,870

ENGLISH IS MY SECOND LANGUAGE.

LADY OF THE ROSES (IV)

Past few weeks had been busy and spent on making all the necessary preparations before the long trip. Oldtown would be left without the Lord or Lady to look after it for around three months and it required lots of training and instructing all the servants and knights around the city what to do in your absence.

You had been summoned by your father-in-law and his daughter, The Queen Consort. They had invited your Lord Husband and you to King’s Landing to spend time together – even though you had a very weird feeling the sudden need to create a stronger bond within the family was dictated by some hidden agenda. Either way, you were rather excited for the trip even though it would take about a month on the road to even get to the capital city of Westeros.

What stressed you the most was travelling for so long with four children you had given Gwayne for the past few years. Your eldest son Edmund was twelve now and his brother William was ten. Your daughter Rosalynd was eight and her sister Florys was six. You were glad that the time when you had been pregnant nearly constantly was over now and you could enjoy the ups and downs of motherhood without many worries because your husband was a man devoted to his family. Gwayne had not only been raising his sons and teaching them all they needed to know about the sword but he also made sure to spend quality time with his daughters. And above that all, he was simply a caring and sweet husband. No matter how many years had passed.

Your trip started in the very early morning and you all were half asleep while getting inside the carriage. Rosalynd was sleeping with her head on your lap and little Florys was asleep in her father’s arms. Edmund and William were looking out of the window, excited and interested in everything that they were seeing although the road to The Highgarden was very well known to them. Because you lived so close to your parents, your children were often visiting their castle. 

What started peacefully, soon turned out to be a little nightmare. The children were very whiny and easily getting bored. When you reached The Highgarden a week after leaving Oldtown, you were seriously considering coming back home instead of going further down the Rose Road. 

“It is only the beginning of the trip and it is already exhausting,” you complained to your parents during supper when you were staying overnight at their place.

“You might not get a second chance to go to King’s Landing, my darling,” your father reminded you. “Endure it.”

“Easier said than done, I’m afraid,” Gwayne chuckled and shook his head.

“I do not understand,” your mother spoke up. “Look at them, my grandchildren,” she smiled at the four of your children eating their meals quietly. “They’re so well-behaved. Little angels, really,” she sighed lovingly.

“Perhaps we might leave them here for three moons, how about that?” Your eyes sparkled at the idea. “We shall leave for King's Landing on the morrow while you watch over them.”

“I would love to,” your mother grinned.

“I would not,” your father’s eyes widened at the idea.

“I do not think that is a good idea, my Lady,” Gwayne put his hand on top of yours gently and you looked at him, confused. “To spend three moons without my little ones would be a nightmare,” he explained and your smile dropped.

Gwayne was right. You would miss your children dearly, too. You were sending them sometimes to spend two weeks at The Highgarden with their grandparents and given the fact the trip lasted a week, it would be a month away from you. It was barely bearable already whenever it happened. Three months sounded like torture.

“My Gwayne is right,” you sighed and laid your tired eyes on your mother. “They must go with us. Also, just like Lord Father said, such a chance might not happen again. They should see King’s Landing, too,” you nodded.

In the early morning of the next day, you were already back on the Rose Road, which took you through the town of Bitterbridge to The Kingswood where you entered The Kingsroad and The Crownlands. You had never been there and only two times before you had been on the road for such a long time. Both times it had been to attend your sister’s weddings. One had taken place in Dorne and the second had been in The Vale. 

Once you entered The Kingsroad, it would only take you a few days to reach King’s Landing and you were more than grateful for that. Both you and Gwayne were exhausted after trying to entertain your children on the road and attempting to tame their tantrums caused by boredom and frustration.

The night before reaching King’s Landing you were sleeping at the castle of some lesser Lord who lived nearby the road. You had been given the guest rooms but you couldn’t fall asleep, both excited and anxious about the next day.

“What are you possibly scared of, my love?” Gwayne soothed you by caressing your face with his fingertips when you were laying in his arms and staring at the ceiling instead of drifting off to the land of dreams. “You had met my father already and he seems to be quite indifferent towards you,” he pointed out.

Otto Hightower had visited Oldtown a few times after your wedding to his son and what Gwayne had said was painfully true – he seemed to be indifferent towards you. Just like he was indifferent towards his own son. The only signs of affection you had seen in him were for your daughters. He hadn’t even thanked you for giving him two healthy grandsons and heirs – his attention had been fully focused on the girls. It was quite adorable, you had to admit. But it was also saddening for your husband and sons.

“What about your sister? The King? Will our children get along with their cousins?” You voiced out all your insecurities in a low whisper. “And The Targaryens… I do fear them, Gwayne. People say they are more gods than men.”

“I am sure they are men just like you and I,” Gwayne smiled and kissed your forehead while caressing your arm.

“They have dragons…” You sighed.

“We probably will not even encounter one,” he assured you. “And do not be afraid of my sister or her husband. Are you not always reminding everyone that you are a sister-in-law of The Queen? Now it is time to meet her personally,” he teased and you rolled your eyes.

You somehow managed to get some sleep on that night. In the morning you had your dress prepared already because you had been planning to wear it for quite a long time. Your maids helped you to put on the elegant green gown that was pretty low-cut. You were a daughter of The Highgarden and you had never stopped wearing such necklines. Your own Lord Husband had given up already on trying to change that – in fact, he enjoyed it. You decorated your exposed neck with a golden pendant of The Seven-Pointed Star to make Queen Alicent happy.

Gwayne found it quite funny but you gave him a scolding look.

Your children had green outfits, too. Pretty little green dresses on your girls and dark green tunics with The Hightower beacon embroidered on them on your boys. The Hightowers were coming to King’s Landing.

When you reached the city you were staring out of the window with as much curiosity as your children. Gwayne had been in the capital once before for the tournament when he had been very young so his excitement was not as big.

Lots of people were staring at your carriage with a hint of curiosity. They knew that The Hightowers were The Queen’s family and for that reason some of them waved shyly at you. You were trying to wave back but Rosalynd and Florys were the ones who actually enjoyed it the most – feeling like little Princesses greeting the crowd. So, you allowed them to have fun as you leaned back on your seat. Your hand found Gwayne’s immediately and you squeezed it.

“You better be on your best behaviour once we reach The Red Keep,” you told your sons. “All of you,” you laid your eyes on your giggling daughters.

“You do not need to worry, mother,” Edmund nodded at you and straightened his back, trying to present himself more mature.

“I cannot wait to train with my cousins,” William added. “Father, will we be able to?”

“I do think so,” Gwayne nodded with a smile at him and leaned in to fix William’s ruffled hair.

“I cannot wait to spend time with Princess Helaena,” Rosalynd sighed dreamily. “She must be so ethereal… A Targaryen Princess…”

“I want to see grampa,” Florys’ eyes sparkled and you chuckled at your sweet little girl.

You smiled nervously at your husband when you realised you were already entering The Red Keep’s courtyard and a few people were waiting for you. You spotted your tall father-in-law and that beautiful woman standing next to him had to be Queen Alicent herself. She had soft, curly hair in the auburn colour and her dress was of the same shade of green as yours. You sincerely hoped it would not be considered rude of you but you had no idea. There were three silver-haired children with them – two boys and a girl. They had to be Prince Aegon, Princess Helaena and Prince Aemond.

“Grampa!” Florys clapped her hands excitedly and already moved to the carriage’s door.

“Florys, mummy and daddy are leaving the carriage first,” you reminded her softly.

“Do try to behave like a big girl!” Her older sister scolded her. “We are in King’s Landing!”

“Rosalynd, you are not her Lady Mother,” Gwayne reminded his daughter.

In the meantime, the servant announced your family and opened the door of the carriage. You took a deep breath in and watched your husband get out before offering you his hand to help you. You took it softly and wore a nervous smile before facing your in-laws.

The moment your feet touched the ground, you felt something moving behind your skirts. It was little Florys jumping out of the carriage already and running as fast as possible towards her grandfather. Everyone froze for a moment and widened their eyes at the scene.

“Grampa!” Florys reached her hands out and Otto Hightower let out a nervous chuckle before crouching down to give her a tight squeeze.

“You are being impatient, Lady Florys,” he greeted her and she clapped her hands.

Rosalynd stood by your side with a sigh and an eye-roll. Meanwhile, your sons chose to stand by their father. Since Florys had broken all the protocols already anyway, you decided to simply walk up to The Queen without caring about the right order as you nodded at your husband. He nodded back and only then Rosalynd ran up to her grandfather as well to give him a hug, too.

You sighed and shook your head before walking up to Queen Alicent herself. Your sons followed you and Gwayne while Otto whispered something to the girls, which made their faces go serious as they joined your side, too. You all bowed down respectfully. 

“My Queen,” you greeted her.

“Sister,” Gwayne kissed the palm of her hand.

From the corner of your eye you spotted the older Prince yawning. Queen Alicent blushed and pushed him slightly with her elbow.

“I see we both struggle when it comes to disciplining our offspring,” she smiled at you but you noticed how she looked down at your low-cut dress and the religious pendant on your exposed chest. She chewed on the inside of her cheek at the sight but she decided not to comment.

“Lady Hightower,” your father-in-law kissed the palm of your hand.

“Lord Father,” you greeted him and he gave you a shadow of a smile.

At his son, he only nodded. Gwayne nodded back and clenched his jaw.

“My grandsons,” Otto approached your boys and shook their hands. “Let me introduce the young Princes to you,” he pointed at the silver-haired boys standing by Queen Alicent’s side. “Prince Aegon, Prince Aemond.”

“Lord Edmund,” Edmund introduced himself and extended his hand towards Aegon. Prince Aegon looked him up and down and after a while of hesitation, he shook your son’s hand.

“Lord William,” your younger boy introduced himself and reached out for Aemond’s hand. Prince Aemond shook it shyly.

“Are you Princess Helaena?” Rosalynd stood in front of the Princess with Florys hiding behind her. 

The silver-haired girl widened her eyes and looked pretty startled. She took a step back and Rosalynd furrowed her brow.

“Princess Helaena is of a… rather timid nature,” Queen Alicent explained.

“Let us come inside, you must be exhausted after the journey,” Otto pointed at the doors leading to the castle.

“Do not even get me started, Lord Father,” Gwayne chuckled. “And certainly do not get my Lady Wife started,” he added teasingly and you shot him a scolding glance.

The first day was pretty chaotic because everyone was exhausted but also excited to see as much as possible of The Red Keep. Otto Hightower gave you and your children a tour himself. The only place he avoided were the chambers of The King who was ill and you had already been told you would not see him most likely.

Gwayne had already seen The Red Keep before but it had been before his sister was The Queen so now he was allowed in more places. He joined your little tour and kept his hands on your sons’ shoulders, while your daughters were holding Otto’s hands. 

To your surprise, during the supper, you quite befriended Queen Alicent. Of course she was still frowning upon your dress but you bonded over the experience of motherhood.

“The Red Keep is so green now,” your father-in-law pointed out happily at the sight of you, his children and grandchildren by the long table. All dressed in green clothes to show off their Hightower surname. “It makes me glad. Gwayne, I would like to have a word with you after supper.”

“Tomorrow, father,” Gwayne shook his head. “We are tired after the journey.”

Otto didn’t say anything to that but he gave his son quite an unpleasant look. You squeezed your husband’s hand underneath the table and caressed the palm of his hand lovingly to soothe him.

You retired to your chambers pretty early because you were longing for the comforts of a bed. Your husband and children followed and you made sure they all found their rooms and beds before you went to your own chambers.

“What do you think is the matter he wishes to discuss with you?” You asked Gwayne while brushing your hair in front of the mirror by the vanity table. He was sitting up on the bed and watching you with admiration in his eyes as every evening. “Do you think it is something about Oldtown?”

“No,” Gwayne shakes his head. “Those instructions have always been sent to us by ravens. It must be something about… the future and its possibilities.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” You furrowed your brow and turned around to see his face better.

“You know that my father wants Prince Aegon on The Iron Throne, not Princess Rhaenyra,” your husband reminded you. “And The King might die soon. We are not even allowed to see him.”

“They say he is slowly decaying with each passing day,” you winced when you imagined such a thing happening to a person.

“That must be a terrible fate,” Gwayne sighed. “However, his death will bring the conflict of succession.”

“What conflict?” You asked. “Aegon is his eldest son.”

Gwayne squinted his eyes and then shook his head with a chuckle.

“My father is underestimating you, my sweetling,” he hummed to himself. “Now, come here, since we are sleeping in The Red Keep, I want to make you feel like a Princess,” he opened his arms for you to join him but you only scoffed and put the hairbrush down before fixing your hair with your hands.

“I am not a child anymore, Lord Husband,” you teased. “You shall make me feel like a Queen.”

You and Queen Alicent were sitting in the garden together and watching your daughters trying to befriend each other. Rosalynd and Florys were pretty grossed out and shocked to see Princess Helaena sitting on the grass and picking up all sorts of bugs and insects to examine with her curious eyes. She handed Rosalynd a spider once and your daughter nearly fainted at the sight.

Princess Helaena was of a gentle nature, though. She seemed to like her younger cousins and she was whispering to them all the details about every bug she was picking up. Florys was more interested in them than Rosalynd. Your eight years old daughter was often shooting you meaningful glances but you were only smiling at her in return.

The young princes and your sons were training together in the courtyard with Gwayne and Ser Criston Cole, whom you had recently met. You wondered how it was going, so you decided to finally put Rosalynd out of her misery.

“Shall we check on our sons, Your Grace?” You asked Queen Alicent but she seemed to be surprised.

“What for?” She inquired. “Are they not with the men who teach them?”

“I like to watch my sons while they train and cheer for them,” you told her and smiled softly. She visibly did not understand the appeal of it but she stood up from the bench and you followed. “Girls,” you looked behind your shoulder and extended your hand. “Come.”

Florys ran up to you to take your hand while Rosalynd and Helaena followed quietly behind you. You could hear your daughter desperately trying to start a conversation she was dying to have with a real Princess.

“You must own so many beautiful dresses, Helaena! What is your favourite colour?”

“Beige,” Helaena answered, clearly uninterested but also not wanting to make her cousin sad.

“Nice…” Rosalynd sighed and you could hear that she was disappointed in that answer. “Do you think you could give me some of your old dresses that do not fit you anymore?”

“Rosalynd!” You gasped as you scolded her.

“That is quite alright, Lady Hightower. We shall gift Rosalynd some of Helaena’s old dresses,” Queen Alicent nodded at you and caressed her daughter’s head lovingly.

“Thank you, my Queen,” you smiled at her and then you gave Rosalynd a meaningful look.

“Thank you, aunt,” the girl bowed down happily.

You reached the courtyard but to your surprise, your sons and the young princes were spending time together on their own, whispering and laughing about something, while your husband seemed to be in the middle of an argument with the other knight.

“Is that what you teach them, Ser Criston?” Gwayne was irritated. “Knights shall be chivalrous and rightful.”

“They are no knights, Ser Gwayne, for they are young princes,” Ser Criston answered.

“Gwayne,” you approached them quickly to stand beside your husband and rub his arm before intertwining yours with his. “How is the training going?”

“Oh, rather marvellous, Lady Wife,” he answered, his voice filled with irony and mockery as he looked Ser Criston up and down. “I have a fascinating conversation with Ser Criston here about the manners of a knight. Perhaps they do not teach them in Dorne.”

“You are from Dorne, Ser?” You tried to change the subject as you looked at the man standing in front of you.

“Yes, my Lady,” Ser Criston nodded at you.

“My sister Olenna married a lesser Lord from Dorne,” you told him. “A Toland,” you explained.

“I hope she has found her happiness with him, my Lady,” Ser Criston cracked a smile at you, which made Gwayne move uncomfortably.

“Barely,” you had to admit with a sigh and Ser Criston’s smile turned into a frown.

Before the conversation would become even more awkward, you were interrupted by Edmund and William running up to you and tugging onto your skirts, making both you and your husband turn around.

“What is it?” You asked them.

“Can we go to the dragon pit to see the dragons?!” William’s eyes widened out of excitement.

“I do not think that is a good idea,” you shook your head as your heart skipped a beat out of fear at the thought.

“We only wish to see them,” Edmund explained. “Father…”

“Your mother is right,” Gwayne agreed with you.

“But should not a knight be brave? I want to see a dragon and so does William!” Edmund insisted and sadly, the mention of the knighthood convinced your husband – especially after an argument with Ser Criston about the very same matter.

“Alright then, but be careful you two,” Gwayne nodded and you watched with terror in your eyes as two of your sons ran away to join their cousins and a few servants on the way.

“Gwayne…!” You gasped.

“Worry not,” Queen Alicent’s voice made you turn around. “The Dragonkeepers and the guards are there.”

After hearing this, your daughters seemed to be interested as well. Rosalynd gave you puppy eyes.

“Can we go, too, mother?” She asked.

“Are you a squire, Rosalynd? Or Florys – is she?” You shook your head.

“Let them go, my Lady. It is better to feed the curiosity instead of letting it grow,” Ser Criston spoke and you shot him a deadly glance but you were sort of forced to agree to your daughter’s request now.

You nodded, reluctantly and watched the girls run away to join their brothers and cousins. Princess Helaena remained by her mother’s side, though.

“What about the young Princess?” Gwayne asked her with a smile and lifted her chin up gently with his finger.

“I do not find pleasure in flying, uncle,” she admitted.

You quickly regretted your decision to allow your children to see the dragons. They seemed to be mesmerised by the creatures and they could not stop whining about the fact they did not have their own beasts to ride.

“They are our cousins, mother,” Edmund kept whining to you on your way back from the supper. “Vhagar is so huge… It is so unfair we do not have any dragons and they do have so many!”

“They are princes and you are lords,” you reminded him. “They are Targaryens and you are Hightowers,” you added. “There is no shame in being different.”

“We are not different, Lady Mother,” Rosalynd rolled her eyes. “We are simply worse.”

“I am not jealous,” Florys saved the day with her sweet confession although her siblings shot her a deadly glance. She clinged to her father’s hand and sighed. “Dragons are big and I am small,” she explained and you chuckled because you found her reasoning adorable.

“You are just a coward because you are a girl!” William pointed out.

“I am a girl, too!” Rosalynd protested. “And I am not afraid. In fact, I would surely have a bigger dragon than you!”

“That is enough,” Gwayne shushed them. “Go to your beds, all of you. Sweet dreams about dragons – dreams, only,” he pointed out with a chuckle but the children did not find it funny.

“Goodnight, daddy, mummy,” Florys nodded and dragged Rosalynd with her to their shared chambers. Your older daughter only mumbled her goodnight.

“Goodnight,” Edmund and William both nodded and walked away, still frustrated and offended by the injustice of life and your light treatment of their situation.

You and Gwayne looked at each other and chuckled before going to your own bedroom.

You were asleep in your husband’s arms. The bed you shared in The Red Keep was twice as big as the one you had in Oldtown but you still were sleeping close in the middle of it. Your face was buried in the thin fabric of his shirt and Gwayne had his chin on top of your head and his arms wrapped around you just like yours were wrapped around his chest.

Sudden, loud and rapid knocking upon your doors made you both startle in your sleep and open your eyes. Gwayne sat up and rubbed his eyes and you hid your yawn with your hand.

“What is it?!” Your husband grunted and left the bed to grab a robe laying on the chair and put it on loosely. You sat up as well and watched his silhouette approaching the doors in the darkness of the room. “Someone better be dying,” Gwayne opened the doors and looked the servant up and down.

“F-forgive me for the rapid interruption, my Lord, my Lady…” The man stuttered. He was holding a candle to light up the room a little. “It is about your children…”

Your heart skipped a beat at that and you jumped out of the bed to stand behind your husband.

“What is it? What happened?!” You inquired. “Which children?”

“Lord Edmund is hurt, my Lady. Lord William and Lady Rosalynd seem to be alright but they were involved in it, too,” the servant swallowed thickly after delivering the dreadful news.

“Hurt?!” You squealed and squeezed your husband’s arm out of fear.

“Involved in what?” Gwayne furrowed his eyebrow.

“Apparently, young lords and the lady attempted to claim their own dragons with the help of Prince Aegon,” the servant explained and you nearly fainted at the news. Gwayne’s face went a shade paler in an instant.

“Where are they now?” He asked.

“Everyone is gathering, my Lord. You are expected in the dining hall,” he explained and walked away.

“Gods…” You whimpered and grabbed the very first dress to put on over your nightgown. You did not care much about your appearance at such a moment. Your hands were shaking because you were worried about your children, especially Edmund who was hurt.

Looking presentable enough, both you and Gwayne hurried downstairs and straight into the dining hall. Queen Alicent was there, too and so were Ser Cole and your father-in-law. Your eldest son was being looked after by a maester while William and Rosalynd were standing behind him with their heads kept low. Florys was scared and clinging to Otto’s hand. Prince Aegon looked pretty terrified, too, and he was not even smirking or laughing as usual.

“What happened?! Edmund!” You left Gwayne’s side to rush to your son. Your heart clenched inside your chest at the sight of his cheek burnt slightly. His lips and eyes were unharmed and for that he was lucky but there was a long burnt line on his cheek that would surely not heal completely and leave a scar. “Oh, Edmund…!” You sobbed and pressed the good side of his face to your chest.

“I am alright, mother,” he whispered.

“What were you thinking?!” Gwayne lost his temper but you knew it was dictated by worry and fear. “Grown tired of living, have you?!” He addressed William and Rosalynd now and they both looked away, ashamed.

“I did not go, daddy!” Florys exclaimed proudly. “And I was telling them it was a bad idea!”

“Shut your mouth, Florys!” Rosalynd scolded her and Florys hid herself behind her grandfather. Gwayne clenched his jaw.

“Do not speak to your sister this way, Rosalynd. Do not speak at all, I advise,” he pointed his finger at his daughter and she looked down again. “Whose idea was it?!”

Both William and Rosalynd pointed their fingers at Edmund. Even Florys stuck her little hand out from behind her grandfather to point at her eldest brother.

“Traitors!” Edmund shouted at them.

You looked down at your son’s face. He winced while the maester was putting an ointment on his injury.

“You’re scarred for life,” you sniffled your tears back. “My sweet boy…”

“I have nearly gained a dragon,” he told you proudly. “And the scar does not bother me, mother, for I have survived the attempt. I shall try again soon.”

“You could never own a dragon, son! Only Targaryens can own and ride them! It is common knowledge!” Gwayne raised his hands up as if he was giving up.

Aegon moved uncomfortably while Edmund shot him a glance full of hatred.

“What is it?” Queen Alicent asked, already sensing her own son’s involvement in this whole thing being much worse than she had expected.

“It was Aegon!” Edmund’s lower lip trembled suddenly. “He told us we could gain our own dragons, too! That we can claim the spare ones or Helaena’s since she has no interest in it!” He confessed.

Now everyone’s angry eyes were laid upon the young Prince. He huffed with an eye roll but his cheeks turned crimson red.

“I did not know,” he whispered. “I did not know that only we can ride them.”

You were filled with rage. Your eldest son liked to pretend he was more mature than the rest of his siblings but he was only twelve after all – he was still a child. Prince Aegon was the eldest out of the cousins and he should had known better.

“You have cruelly teased my children to risk their lives… To… To possibly lose them and die!” You approached him angrily and began to shake him by his arms. You couldn't care less that he was a Prince. You wanted him punished. “And now you are playing a fool by saying such a stupidity! You insolent son of a–”

“(Y/N),” Gwayne stopped you as he rushed to you and put his hand on your shoulder but you shrugged it off.

“Edmund has a scar for life!” You sobbed again.

“Mother, I am alright!” Your son’s voice reached your ears.

“I did not know…!” Scared Aegon was trying to get out of your grip and Queen Alicent was attempting to help him by pushing your hands away.

“Lady Hightower, be reasonable!” She pleaded. “I shall punish my son accordingly but it is my punishment to give him, not yours!”

“My children could have died! All of them!” You screamed at her.

“Not me!” Florys squealed.

“Shush, my darling,” Otto scolded her gently. “All of us should calm down now. After all, everybody is alive, thank Gods,” he pointed out and you pushed Aegon away before angrily turning around.

The maester was no longer sitting by Edmund’s side and now you approached your boy to grab him by his shirt and drag him towards Otto.

“Look at him! My son nearly died!” You yelled at him. “Do not order me to calm down, Lord Father!”

“Mother, let go of me, it hurts,” Edmund whined and you stopped pulling him by his shirt but your whole body was trembling out of anger, fear and frustration. “Young Prince Aegon should learn how to treat other people, especially the weaker ones…” You patted your own chest with your fist and your son huffed at the word weaker. “...if you wish to put him on the throne!” You finished and the whole room went silent.

It was something that should not be said out loud. Thankfully, everyone inside the dining hall was on the same side when it came to the conflict of succession.

“That is enough, my Lady,” Gwayne shook his head and put his hands on your shoulders to walk you out of his surprised father’s sight. “I am sure Prince Aegon will be punished for his behaviour by his own parents.”

“I did not know, I swear!” Aegon whined. “I would not want cousin Edmund or cousin William to get hurt and especially not cousin Rosalynd!”

“Save it!” Queen Alicent scolded him angrily and slapped his face. “You have outdone yourself this time, Aegon!”

Gwayne was rubbing your arms soothingly and pressed you closer to his body by putting his hand in the back of your head. Your heartbeat was slowing down and your breath was coming back to normal.

“I think we should all agree to collectively remove Lady Hightower’s accusation from our memories,” Otto spoke calmly. “And that it is time to go back to our beds.”

All of your children approached you, clinging to your skirts, except for Edmund who felt stupid and guilty now, embarrassed. He was looking down and clasped his hands behind his back but Gwayne put his hand around his shoulders to pull him closer.

“Your grandfather is right, it is time to go back to our beds. If we manage to fall asleep after such a night,” he pointed out.

Prince Aegon did not show up for the breakfast and you were glad he did not because you would tear him apart if you saw him. Now, after taking a better look at your son’s injury in the morning light, you were heartbroken. His scar would probably look intimidating when he would become the fearsome knight he wanted to be but you were his mother and your heart ached for him. 

The breakfast overall was pretty quiet and after the meal Gwayne took your sons to the courtyard to continue their training while Rosalynd and Florys followed Queen Alicent to Princess Helaena’s chambers for the girls to embroider together. Rosalynd also hoped to try on some of Princess Helaena’s dresses. You considered not allowing her to take any as a form of punishment for yesterday's stunt but you eventually decided it would be too cruel.

You were asked by your father-in-law to see him after breakfast and you kind of dreaded the conversation because you had a feeling what it would be about. Gwayne wanted to accompany you but you disagreed because it would make you look weak and scared. You had to face Otto Hightower alone. Gwayne had reluctantly agreed but he had assured you that he would remain by your side no matter what your father-in-law would say to you.

On your way to his chambers, you walked past Prince Aegon’s room. The doors were ajar and he was sitting on the edge of his bed. At first, seeing him brought back all the memories from the last night and all the anger. But after a short while of staring at him, you noticed that he was… sad.

It confused you as you kept staring and in the meantime, he spotted your presence. He got startled a little, knowing that you were alone now since his guard was nowhere to be seen and his mother was not there to push you away if you attacked him again.

He approached the doors to close them but he kept glancing at you like a beaten dog and even dared to speak.

“Is my cousin alright, aunt?” He asked quietly, his voice filled with guilt and worry. Suddenly, you started to have a feeling he had not been lying. Perhaps he truly had not known about the Targaryens being the only people who could ride dragons.

It would not surprise you because your father-in-law had been complaining about Prince Aegon not wanting to study his books and his knowledge of High Valyrian was… questionable.

“Edmund is quite alright,” you nodded at him and took a step ahead before he would close the doors. “Can we talk?”

Aegon hesitated but he looked down and nodded, letting you inside. You entered his chambers and looked around, humming at the sight of a wine goblet on his nightstand table.

“I truly did not know about the dragons, I am sorry,” Aegon confessed. “I know I am of a rather careless nature but I would not risk my cousins’ life,” he added and you sighed.

After a short while of hesitation, you approached him and caressed his hair before putting a silver strand behind his ear and lifting his chin up to make him look into your eyes.

“I am sorry for my outburst, young Prince. I do believe you now,” you assured him with a soft smile. “It still was irresponsible and foolish but I see now that your intentions were not malicious,” you nodded and his eyes sparkled at your words.

“Really? You do believe me, aunt?” He couldn’t be convinced and it made you sad to see it.

“I do,” you moved your hand away from his face. “To see a scar on my son’s face is painful for a mother but I do realise he does not mind it at all and he is proud of how he gained it. Let it be then,” you sighed. “It cannot be undone anyway.”

A short while of silence occurred between you two and you smiled at Aegon before approaching the doors again.

“You should join uncle Gwayne and my sons in the courtyard, my Prince. They are training with Ser Cole and young Prince Aemond,” you encouraged him. “And I shall leave now to speak with your grandfather.”

Aegon nodded at you and you left his chambers to hurry to Otto Hightower’s room where he was already waiting for you. He gave you a scolding look when you entered.

“What took you so long, Lady Hightower?” He asked, sitting on an armchair by the fireplace.

“I was stopped on the way, Lord Father,” you explained calmly and he pointed at the armchair next to his. You took a seat there and waited for him to start the conversation.

“We shall speak about last night,” he started.

“I do believe it was your idea to remove my accusations from the memory,” you reminded and he shot you an unpleasant glance.

“I need to know where you stand,” he looked deep into your eyes.

“Where do I stand?” You furrowed your brows. “What does it matter?”

“You have a great influence on my son. Much bigger than a wife should have on any man,” Otto pointed out. “I need to know I can trust you.”

“Speak plainly, Lord Father,” you challenged him with a head held high. “And I shall tell you.”

Otto hesitated as he looked at the dancing flames for a while. You waited patiently until he eventually laid his eyes on you again with the most serious expression.

“Do you support Prince Aegon as the future King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men?” Otto lowered his voice – his whispers were nearly audible.

“I believe you wish to know if I support your treason,” you raised an eyebrow and Otto clenched his jaw. “I do,” you nodded. “Prince Aegon is half-Hightower and I shall always support my family,” you added and stood up. “Does that answer satisfy you, my Lord? I shall join my sons and husband in the courtyard. I have promised them to watch their training,” you explained.

“You can go,” Otto dismissed you and you turned around but then you stopped.

“Lord Father?” You looked at him one more time.

“Yes?” He looked up to meet your gaze with furrowed brows.

“I shall ensure that my own Lord Father – Lord Tyrell – supports King Aegon when the time comes,” you promised.

Otto only nodded at you and you nodded back before walking out of his chambers and hurrying downstairs to the courtyard.

You smiled at the sight of your boys being instructed by their father. Prince Aegon joined them in the meantime as well and you waved at them all before taking a seat on the bench as usual – to watch and cheer.

After giving your sons their instructions, Gwayne gave them some space and joined your side as he sat next to you.

“What did my father want from you, darling?” He asked, worryingly.

“He wondered about my loyalty,” you scoffed and looked up at your husband’s face to fix a reckless auburn hair strand falling onto his face. “As if I didn’t give him four grandchildren to inherit his wealth and titles. As if I didn’t run Oldtown in his name for years. As if I didn’t love his son with every heartbeat of mine,” you finished quietly and a slight blush brightened your husband’s cheeks.

“Last night must have frightened him,” Gwayne explained. “You were rather furious with Prince Aegon.”

“Every parent would be,” you rolled your eyes. “Were you not furious, too?”

“I was but I did not show it,” Gwayne pointed out.

“Every person reacts differently,” you shrugged. “Either way, such conflicts always happen sooner or later between the family members. I shall not take them outside,” you assured Gwayne and took his hand to squeeze it. “I gave birth to four Hightowers. How could I play on any other team?” You asked, genuinely.

Gwayne squeezed your hand back and moved a little closer to you, as much as his armour allowed him. You both watched your sons train with loving smiles on your faces.

At one point, young Prince Aegon looked at you and smiled at you nervously. You smiled back and waved at him even, which caused his own smile to grow wider. Poor boy had no idea what responsibility was being plotted to be put onto his back.

MASTERLIST

[sun-summoning]

part ii | part iii | part iv

after speaking to kido, sakura rushes home. when she calms down from the rage that nearly had her crush his throat, sakura can admit that she doesn’t really think this is him. he knew a lot about her for someone that was supposed to have been locked up all this time, but he seemed genuinely surprised to hear that sarada had been taken, if not disappointed. he fit the profile of what shikamaru and kakashi thought -- that someone wanted sarada for her eyes -- but sakura can’t stop the nagging feeling that somehow this runs deeper.

back in her apartment, megumi’s body is right where she left it, and sakura feels awful for having moved so mechanically. megumi was an orphan, but she was still someone’s little girl. ashamed, sakura lays a sheet over her and swears she’ll do more later.

she heads to her bedroom and begins her work. alone, she summons one of the cats she’d made a contract with shortly after her marriage. the black cat is sleek and holds himself confidently. he’s always been an efficient one, quick to do as she needs and be competent about it. he regards sakura with a cock of his head.

“sarada’s been taken.”

“your daughter.”

“yes.” 

the cat nods. “i shall inform the clowder. if anyone spots her, i will let you know.”

“thank you.” sakura pauses, self-conscious for needing to rely on everybody else for this part. “if you...if any of you are able to come into contact with sasuke-kun, can you pease let him know too?”

“of course.”

“thank you.” sakura promises to provide the usual exchange at a later time and the cat disappears with a puff of smoke. she heads to her bedroom and she begins to pack in silence. 

her movements are as meticulous as they are automatic, done just so she’s ready to leave the moment she knows where she needs to go. her medkit is stocked. her bag has scrolls, weapons, supplies, and sarada’s favourite toy. she changes out of her days clothes and into the leggings and turtleneck of a uniform she hasn’t worn in years. her cloak is in the front closet. she needs to change her boots. she’ll put on the boots now. she leaves the armour on her bed to don later. right now, they only hinder her movements. she goes to the drawer where her mask hides in plain sight among other trinkets and knick knacks, and on the dresser she notices a flower.

sakura stills as she takes in the detail she must have missed in her earlier haste. she considers the simple glass vase and the single red flower sitting in it. its petals curl at the ends and some are even missing. 

this flower has travelled and as sakura considers what it is, she knows it’s travelled far. 

-

konoha became unbearable by the time she tuned twenty. it's so petty and selfish and she'd never say it aloud, but she hated seeing everyone else so happy. she's happy too -- has so many reasons to be -- but she couldn’t help the nagging jealousy she feels when ino declined her invitations because she was going to see sai or when naruto prioritized her almost always only to head home to hinata.

she wanted to be someone's too. she wanted to be their focus and heart and home, but sakura already knew who her someone was and knew that on some level she was his too, so all she needs to do right now is wait.

most of the time, sakura wasn’t bitter. being apart from him wasn't unfamiliar, nor the steadfastness, nor the hope that one day this will pay off one day, nor the self reminders that what she felt was irrelevant as long as sasuke knew and was comforted by the fact that she would always love him.

to suppress her frustrations rather than confront them, sakura worked. she worked tirelessly and relentlessly and by nineteen, they'd named her the greatest medical ninja konoha has ever seen for her accomplishments, ideas, and innovations.

this took her to suna at twenty and to ame at twenty-one to help establish their own clinics.

“i have a gift for you,” ino told her before she left. 

sakura expected a ribbon or a piece of jewellery or that new book on poisons she mentioned she was interested in. instead, ino handed her a bag. its contents shift, imbalanced, and inside sakura finds a potted plant. 

“a flower?”

“not just any flower, you ungrateful bitch.” ino pointed at her accusingly and then at the plant. its petals are a bright red with darker flecks at their base. “i made it.”

“you made it?”

“yes. you know me, interrogating and mind-reading by day, splicing plants together and making my own by night.”

“that’s sad.”

“fuck you. you’re sad.”

sakura laughed and ino laughed too but it got a bit sad because ino probably definitely knew that sakura was sad. “anyway,” ino continued, “we’ll call it the sakuino flower--”

“how creative.”

“--and i expect you to keep it alive through all of your travels.”

sakura frowned at ino, wondering if ino understood that a potted plant had no place in her travels, but ino didn’t seem to care. moreover, this particular thing didn’t seem to have the ability to survive in the desert climate she was going to be living in for the next six months. 

when sakura expressed as much, ino waved the matter off. “deal with it,” she said, giving sakura one last hug. “you’re one of the brightest minds to come out of this village. you’ll figure something out.”

-

its common name is the fire poppy, having originated from the fire country but somehow managing to survive in the deserts of wind country as well. the flower is know for its vibrant red petals, eye-catching and jarring across the barren brown it’s normally found in. sakura had to play with the original plant’s physiology when she first moved to ensure it could survive the alternate climate. in her spare time, when she wasn’t working with the kids, she deigned to work with her plant, eventually working on cloning the original. at some point she’d given one to a nurse she worked with who much admired the first, and gaara asked if he could try planting them in his garden. from there, the spores began to spread.

“why the fire poppy?”

was this someone from suna?

sakura considers the obvious motivation of revenge, but who would even want that? there were people who didn’t appreciate her friendship with kankuro or any of his siblings. perhaps an apprentice of chiyo’s who blamed sakura for not saving her when she gave her life for gaara’s. worse, perhaps someone that once worked sasori who resented her for his demise. or maybe someone she, sadly, can’t even remember. a patient she lost during the war whose family hated her.

sakura truly cannot pinpoint a motivation for this, much less a person. 

especially a person that would understand the meaning of this flower for her. 

ino would never give her this flower. ino would have scoffed at it and created her own. sarada couldn’t have picked it today. and sasuke certainly couldn’t have left it for her.

someone was in her apartment. someone brought it here. 

was it here before?

sakura considers the poppy and forces herself to keep calm. stay logical, she demands. stay smart. was the poppy there before? no, she thinks at first. she would have seen it. she’s certain she would have seen it.

but, she can accept, it’s possible she might have missed it. sarada was taken. her babysitter was murdered. it wouldn’t be surprising if sakura missed it. but sakura doesn’t miss things. right?

“don’t gaslight yourself,” she orders. 

no, she knows. the flower was not there before, meaning in between her going to kakashi, going to the prison, and then running back home, whoever took her daughter came back.

or worse, there was a team involved and one was with her child and another came back for her. 

sakura curses, wishing she’d put on her black ops armour earlier, because whoever brought the flower here is now making their presence known. she senses two people before she sees them and is unsurprised to find sudden flares of strength.

the bedroom is small and they’re in a building. she needs to take this outside, but where? there’s too much risk for others getting hurt in the crossfire. that’s why this was supposed to stay quiet. that’s why this will stay quiet.

they step out of the shadows and sakura assesses them quickly. one male, one female, both fairly young based on stature and development, maybe early twenties at the oldest. they’ll have agility on her, but they won’t have her experience. 

the man holds a chokuto. good. an advantage. sakura is excellent at fighting against such a weapon. if they’re foolish enough to use her husband’s favourite sort of blade, perhaps they didn’t do enough research on her. perhaps they were hired? but if they were unprepared, then were they really here to kill her? 

are they here to distract her?

that thought fills sakura with dread. is someone trying to keep her busy so she can’t get to sarada on time?

the woman shifts, one leg sliding to the side as she raises her hands. she holds no weapons, therefore she is the weapon. sakura knows all about that. she’ll need to be careful with this one. but she still has a holster on her thigh. it’s thinner that the usual styles. maybe a couple kunai, but more likely a set of sebon. this one is smart then. she’ll know precisely where she needs to hit sakura to stop her.

“haruno sakura,” the man greets with a short nod.

so it is her fault.

if this was about sasuke, about the uchiha, they would know her married name. this is about her, and for that sakura feels worse. her baby was taken and why? just to hurt sakura before killing her? sarada was who knows where with surely no one that could be good and all just to hurt sakura?

sakura snarls, furious in a way only a mother could be, and she feels the chakra pulsing around her fists.

“where is my daughter?”

their masks hide any expressions. they remain at ease in the face of her rage, shockingly unafraid of this woman that can level mountains. 

good, sakura thinks. let them be brave. let them come at her like fools. 

she runs through the bedroom door to get to the living room where there’s at least more space to maneuver. the man leaps and brings his blade down upon her, but sakura manages to shift to the side. careful to not be forced into a corner, she spins out of his range and into the open middle until the woman runs past her partner and takes sakura on hand-to-hand.

she matches sakura’s punches and kicks blow for blow. she’s good, sakura thinks nervously. and she’s fast. she’s small, maybe half a head shorter than sakura, so she puts her weight behind every quick jab. sakura gives most of her attention to the woman, but keeps a wary on eye on the man who sheathes his chokuto.

what as he planning?

it takes that one moment for the woman to catch her unaware. 

sakura chokes on her breath as the woman thrusts a senbon into her shoulder. the shock from that slows her down enough so she can lodge in a second.

“shit,” sakura curses as she stumbles back. she rips the senbon out, but she feels her left arm begin to go numb from the struck pressure point. “what did you do--”

sakura’s eyes widen she she feels something foreign begin to course through her. she considers the senbon, dark with her blood and likely something else. there’s a metallic smell that isn’t from the weapon, and sakura knows she’s been poisoned.

however, her body doesn’t bother to fight it. 

sakura watches her opponents, trying to understand how she’s been poisoned with something she’s immune to and just what poison this might be. she’s immune to everything in konoha’s own collection, as well as the ones she shares with shizune.

which poison is this?

does that matter?

sakura scowls at the two people involved in her daughter’s kidnapping and reminds herself that she can take them on one-handed just fine. she pulls her right hand into a fist and charges. the man is closest, so she lunges at him with a chakra-laden punch that sends him barreling into the wall. 

she grabs the front of his shirt and as she pulls him forward, his mask falls away to reveal green eyes, cold and lifeless, and a black diamond under his left eye that makes her uneasy.

sakura stares at the man, confused, because she knows this face.

she knows him.

her fear and pain and worry makes it hard to focus, but knows him. 

focus.

finally, it clicks. 

“isao?”

she thinks she might have seen something like recognition in his eyes. that doesn’t long though. she left herself open, and his partner stabs her shoulder. sakura releases isao with a cry before the woman punches her in the back of the head and everything goes dark.

-

the sun is up when sakura begins to stir. she hears the birds chirping and people outside going about their days. but the buzz of the television is missing, as are the small thuds of sarada’s steps. where is sarada? sakura wonders hazily, lazily, not quite understanding yet.

where is sarada?

her eyes widen and she sits up so quickly her stomach rolls.

“careful.” tsunade comes into view, steadying sakura and checking her for any problems. “you’re still healing.”

she’s in her own bed. she’s not at the hospital. she got knocked out and the assassins got away. she should’ve done something to track them. dammit. was she so arrogant she didn’t have a failsafe in place for if she didn’t simply beat them? sakura punches the bed, earning a disapproving frown from shizune on her other side.

“there was poison in your system.” 

“it was one of ours,” sakura admits warily. 

“yes. there are very few people with access to those, much less this particular one.”

the one that the assassin used was meant to render a victim paralyzed but still able to feel. it was a dreadful thing, meant only for the worst of interrogations. or, more accurately, for torture. sakura concocted it in her darkest moments at fourteen under shizune’s watchful eye. since then, while they’ve both had small handfuls of keen students, they’ve probably shared poisons from their personal roster with only five people at most.

for this particular poison, sakura knows only two people they showed it to, and only one of those was a student of sakura’s.

“how did you find me?”

tsunade rolls her eyes. “shizune sent you off to a prison from kakashi’s office. i figured i’d have to check on you shortly after. and it’s a good thing i did, stupid girl.”

“thank you.”

“don’t thank me. i’m scolding on you.”

“did they find anything useful?”

“no one’s been able to contact your husband.”

“right.”

“and they’re still under the impression that this has to do with the uchiha blood.” 

“they would be,” sakura mutters, too tired and in too good company to be anything but blunt.

shizune sighs. “do you know who came after you last night?” the flower is still where she left it on the dresser. shizune follows her gaze to the fire poppy, and all knowing with plants as well, shizune determines its origins. “how did that get here?”

“i think it was to taunt me.” sakura grimaces. “you were right.”

“about?”

“i think this is my fault.”

shizune’s eyes widen and quickly soften with sympathy. “none of this your fault,” she reminds sakura. 

tsunade crosses her arms. “enemies of yours then?”

“no.” sakura looks sad. “people i once loved.”

-

tbc

[demivampirew]

I would give up everything for you.

A Charles Brandon x Mary Tudor (written as reader) (Henry’s sister) one shot

You can find more of my writings in the Masterlist

Warnings: Death, heartbreak, crying, unwanted arranged marriage (and talking about being consummated).

Summary: Shortly after becoming a widow, Henry summons you back to England for he has arranged a new marriage for you.

A/N (Important to understand the story): For those who don’t know, in the show they’d merged both Henry’s sisters into one: Margaret. In reality, he had two sisters, the one mentioned who ended up marrying the King of Scotland, James IV, becoming the Queen consort of said country (and after the death of her husband, Queen regent in name of her son for two years). Mary, the other sister, was married to the King of France, Louis XII for a few months, until his death and soon he was succeeded by his son-in-law Francis I -the King of France from the show, and his daughter Claude as Queen Consort- she couldn’t reign for the law forbid a woman to rule the country back at that time. Shortly after the death of the King, Charles was in charge of bringing Mary safe back to England, but in reality that was a secret plan for them to marry in secret in France, as Mary confessed to King Francis. It isn’t known when and how exactly they fell in love but it surely was before her marriage to the late King of France. They married in secret but then they had a public wedding because they suspected Mary to be pregnant and they wanted their kid to be legitimate.

For my story, I mixed a bit of the show’s plot with actual events. The main characters are the same from the show, except from Mary, written from a perspective of reader, who wasn’t on the show (Margaret’s story in this one-shot is the same from history and not the one from the series). I used the arranged marriage with the King of Portugal’s plot from drama purposes (this never happened in reality, because like I’ve said, Mary married Charles before going back to London, and she had married the King of France with the promise that she would marry who she wanted after that or she would become a nun - which Henry did not want because he would lose the Dowager’s money if she did that. -although in this story she doesn’t threaten him with becoming a nun.)

Disclaimer: English isn’t my first language and write in another period of time can be a bit difficult. I tried my best, so I apologize if I made mistakes.

Tag list: @lunedelorient @henrythickcavill @wolvesandhoundshowltogether @mary-ann84 @desperate-and-broken @peakygroupie @summersong69 @ivvitm1109 @madbaddic7ed @iloveyouyen @the-soot-sprite @hell1129-blog @whyyoudothistomecavill @thetaoofzoe @thereisa8ella​

"The Queen of France, Your Majesty" announced one of the guards as you enter the room. Henry was sitting on the throne. There were a few guards there as well as Charles and William Compton, who were standing next to the door. - Dear sister! - your brother exclaimed as he stood up and approached you, grabbing your arms and placing a kiss on your cheek. - My poor sister, I'm terribly sorry for the lost of your dear husband.- "dear husband"? It felt as if he was mocking you, after all the only reason you married the late King of France, Louis XII was because he forced you to for that marriage forced an alliance between the two countries.

Being married to an old man was not a pretty thing. Being forced to consummate that marriage and with a crowd of people to witness it. Luckily, it didn't last for long because not long after your coronation as the new Queen, on Christmas' eve your husband died for an illness. After his death, his son-in-law, Francis I, inherit the throne with his daughter, Claude as Queen Consort. Even though your marriage was short, you were a loved Queen and you could have stayed in France if you desire it, but your brother had other plans for you. For you to agree to marry the late French King, he promised you that you were going to be able to marry whom you choose after his death, but sadly for you, he had no plans to keep his word. He ordered the Duke of Suffolk to escort you safely back to England. Charles was a loyal friend to Henry, but you succeeded to confess your brother's intentions for your return to England - you knew that if he wanted you back so quickly was not because he missed his beloved sister, but because there was something he needed from you. "He wants you to marry the King of Portugal" he confessed finally succumbing to pressure. After finding out that your worse nightmare was a reality, you ordered everyone on the ship to leave you alone and you cried on the way back.

- As sorry as I am for your loss, I must admit sister that I would need you to put aside your grief and take the King of Portugal as your new husband. With the rise of power of the Holy Roman Emperor, we need new alliances and he is more than pleased to become out ally if you marry him. He's seen your portrait and is enchanted by your beauty.- he informed you with a smirk. You remained silent and made no gestures. - So, my dear sister, would you consent to marry the King? - My consent is not needed, Your Majesty, for the King always does what he wants.- you finally said, your voice emotionless. There he was, your older brother. He could be charming for a moment and a second later be the devil himself if you crossed him. He didn't like when anyone defied him, especially women. His face showed no signs of rejoicing anymore, just contained anger. - We are at war, my dear sister.- he explained angrily. - We could face an invasion from Spain and if that would happen, we will need soldiers and money and he could provide that to us. - You are at war, brother. This is all because of you. If the Holy Roman Emperor is planning to attack England, it is because you broke your promise, like you always do, and set aside his aunt, humiliating her all. And that's because you had fallen in love with another woman. In your eyes, dear brother, you are the only one allowed to marry for love and you do not care who has to pay for your desires.- you replied bitterly. -If you want me to marry that old man, breaking the promise you once made me, at least you could have avoided me the displeasure of seeing your face and should have asked the Duke of Suffolk to escort me directly to Portugal since you know that no matter what are my choices, at the end I must be a loyal subject and obey you or I'll suffer the traitor's faith.

His hands were closed forming fists; he was containing his rage. If there was something Henry hated more than anything else was being defied. If it was not for the fact that he needed your Queen Dowager's money and the perks that your new marriage would bring to him, he would have you banned from court.

- Charles, take her to her chambers immediately.- he ordered and walked away, returning to his throne.

You bowed to him and allowed Charles to escort you back to your bedchambers. Once in the room, he closed the door to be sure no one would hear you speak.

- The Queen would be wise not to cross her brother.- he advised you. He spoke softly, surely it was because he did not want to be heard, but there was another thing in his voice: worry. - Why not?- you asked; it was a sarcastic question, you knew exactly why you should no speak to Henry that way for he was a King before your blood. - He could vanish you from court or worse.- he explained. - Great! I would rather be banned from court or dying to have to marry another old King.- you admitted, sighing bitterly. - You should not say that Your Majesty.- he pleaded. - Charles, would you stop calling me Your Majesty? I have known you my entire life. I'm still the same Mary I have always been, just less trusting and much more unhappy.- you confessed. - But now you are the King of France, Your Majesty. I should treat you with nothing but the proper respect. - I am Queen Dowager, I don't have the same importance that an actual queen has. - You are soon to be Queen again.- he reminded you and a tear fell from your eye; you wiped it away quickly. He stared at you with sadness on his eyes. He was probably hurt that you had to go through that again. - I rather die.- you repeated and look to the floor -You are lucky Charles, you could marry whom you choose.- you sighed. - I cannot.- he said with sadness. - Who is that you want and can't have, Charles? -you asked sarcastically.

The Duke of Suffolk looked you directly into your eyes, giving you the answer to your question without even saying a word.

Before leaving England, the two of you were close. He was this ladies' man and you were the King's little sister, but you started to see him differently in the year previous to your marriage. He was sweet, funny and protective. It was clear that you were not a just his friend's sister anymore, but a smart, funny and delightful woman. You had long talks while you played with carts and spent a lot of time together before your departure.

Charles excused himself and was about to leave. You called his name and when he turned to face you, you ran into his arms and kissed him. He pulled you closer to him as he stopped fighting his conscience. He probably felt that it was wrong, but he couldn't keep denying his feelings. After the long and awaited kiss, he pressed his forehead against yours and sighed.

- Escape with me.- you pleaded. - What? -he asked confused. - We could go to France. Francis is not a fan of my brother and he had nothing but sweet thoughts about me. He will be delighted to have me back there and surely he will support us and protect us if Henry decides to seek vengeance. - you assured him.- Please, Charles. - I... I cannot do that, I am sorry.- he said avoiding to look at you. - I will not betray my King. - Is it because he is your childhood friend or because you do not want to lose your lands and titles, Duke of Suffolk? - you questioned bitterly. He did not say a word, but it was not necessary; his shameful look said it all. Your poor heart broke into a million pieces. Not only you would have to marry an old man once more, but the man you loved preferred his nobility and money over you and your happiness. No matter what the future had set for you, it surely would not be a happy one.

A month passed before you were set to leave for Portugal. As you demanded, Charles stood away from you. The days passed and all you could do was crying about your cruel destiny. If at least you could have the luck that your sister Margaret had of marrying a young King whom she fell in love with, but no, that was not your fate. You were meant to be unhappy for the rest of your days.

Charles' eyes met yours. You could feel his pain but you could not be sorry for him, after all, he could have had you if he would have been brave enough to fight for you and, surely soon he would forget all about you and find solace in another woman's arms while you had to be with a man much older than you whom you didn't know. You quickly look to other side making sure he noticed that you were ignoring him and stood there, waiting in the room full of people for your brother to show up to say goodbye.

Henry appeared shortly with Cardinal Wolsey by his side. He approached you a kissed you " My dear sister. Fare you well on your journey. Remember the King of Portugal, your future husband, loves you and respects you. You must love him in return." - he said faking affection when in reality it was a command and a warning. He looked into your shiny, watery eyes but that didn't seem to have any effects on him. After crossing him the day of your return to England, he must be more than happy to see you gone.

The King was about to leave the place when the Duke of Suffolk called his attention.

- Your Majesty, I would like to have a word" - Charles pleaded. Henry looked at him with confusion but gestured him to speak. He walked a few steps forward and got on his knee in front of his best friend. - My heart forces me to beg you to save your sister from this marriage for that would make her unhappy.- he said firmly. There were gasps among the people present. You were breathless and your heart was beating an at exhilarating speed. Henry stared at him, his eyes showed both shock and anger. - As a sign of gratitude for your kindness towards the Queen of France, I will resign to my title, renounced to my lands and accept to be banned from court and any other punishment Your Grace sees suitable for my outrageous request.

For the first time since your mother's death, you saw tears fell from your brother's eyes. It didn't come as such as a surprise to you, you might be his sister by blood, but Charles was his brother by choice; they grew up together and he was his most faithful companion and now he put him in a position Henry must have surely hated. If he agreed to let you escape from this marriage, he would have to punish Charles from defying him in front of people from court. If he rejected his plead, people would know that he forced you into a marriage you didn't want to and he would further loss the affection of his subjects, who were already unhappy about his decision of leaving the beloved Queen Catherine for Anne Boleyn. Whatever decision Harry took, surely it would not have a happy ending for Charles. You knew you were right at the moment your brother stormed out of the room without saying a word.

Anthony Knivert, one of your brother's closest friends, walked you back to your chambers after Cardinal Wolsey ordered him to do so. The trip to Portugal has been postponed until after the King came with a resolution about the matter. As impossible as it seemed, you were even more heartbroken than before. There was no way Charles could cross your brother like that and no get punished and all because of your fault. If you just accepted your destiny quietly and had not made him feel guilty for choosing lands and his noble title over you, this would not have happened. Now, because of your stubbornness, he could face death.

It was around midnight when you heard someone knocking at your door. After permitting to enter your bedchambers, Charles walked in. You got up quickly from your bed and ran into him. He hugged you tightly for a moment and then softly pressed his head against yours. You could feel his warm breath. His hands grabbing your face provoked you chills. - Charles, you should not have done that.- you regretted. - I should have done it before, but it is ok. I would do it again if necessary.- he assured you and tears rolled down your cheeks. His thumbs clean the tears and then he kissed you. - You are not only the Queen Dowager of France but also the Queen of my heart, Mary.- he confessed. You smiled at him and your lips met his again.

After a knock, the door opened and Will Compton warned Charles to hurry for someone was coming. He kissed you once more and disappeared.

The King summoned you a few days after. There were some noble people present, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk among others. Charles was already there waiting. About half an hour later Henry appeared with Wolsey and sat on the throne. He remained silent for a moment, as he inspected you. He knew; he knew his friend loved you and his love was reciprocated.

- Dear sister, I would like to apologize to you, for I did not know you were unhappy with the marriage proposal.- he said with conviction as if that would make it true- I desire nothing more than happiness for you, my beloved Mary. So I have decided that it should be you the one to decide who your future husband will be. You have my word and my blessing. Of course, he would make it seem as if you pact before marrying King Louis XII was his idea, but you did not care, as long as he granted you that you were not mad about him credit it to himself. - As for Your Grace.- he said looking at Charles- Your title and lands were given to you as a reward for bravely fighting by my side to defend your country and should remain at your disposal. Furthermore, as a sign of gratitude for enlightened me about my sister's displeasure for her now announced marriage, I would like to grant you my blessing to marry her, if that is her heart's desire and I hope you live the happy quiet life you desire away from court.

There it was, your punishment was being banned from court, but it was a slight price to pay for all the great things you had achieved. You were now allowed to marry Charles and live happily with him.

Maybe it was the fear that Henry would change his mind that made you marry that same day. In a private ceremony, with a few maids and his friends Will and Anthony to witness it, you promised to love each other forever.

You had the opportunity to have another wedding since you have not bled and you were sure with child, you had a public wedding to show the legitimacy of your future child. This time, you had it at court. Henry was a proud man, but even if Charles did what no other man would have dared unless they wanted to lose their heads, your brother loved him too much and trust no other like he trusted your husband.

Henry Brandon. That's the name Charles choose for your newborn. He was the living image of his father.

Not everything in your remaining life was happiness. Even though you had been blessed with another two children, Frances and Eleanor, by God's will your little Henry died when he was six years old. A year after that, another baby joined your family, honouring his late brother by carrying his name.

Charles was nothing but a loving husband to you. He stood by your side when tragedy hit your family and later when you got ill. You survived the sweating sickness but never fully recovered from it, and five years later you meet again with your loving son. It must have hurt your love, who never left your side until your heart stopped beating. He loved you much and would be sad for losing you, but you were glad he had your loving daughters and son to keep him company and help him move on.

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Why Lose Hope?- Chapter 2

Chapter 1 , Part 1 of the All the Little Things Seem so Insignificant Now Series

Jim ran from the transporter, his crew behind him as he raced to reach the bridge. The transporter itself being broken from the strain of trying to deliver seven people to another universe. 

He slid in his chair and lent forwards as if it would bring him closer to Bones. They'd somehow managed to get an image on the two versions of him in that universe and had been watching them for the entire ten hours he'd been gone. 

It was bittersweet watching him. Bones' smiles were sour and his movements freaked from the weight of the possibility he may never go home. Yet he carried on. He cared for Leonard, for the animals and crops all while telling tales of his universe, his ship all those miles away.

"Scotty, tell me you've got some good news,"

"Well, Captain, it's fixable but it'll take an hour minimum," The pain was obvious in his voice. "The most you could do is watch for the time being,"

"Thank you, Mr Scott," 

He knew what that meant for Bones, another year until he could see anyone he loved again. Although he had spent the entire time with the other Leonard McCoy, perhaps he loved him? Did it count as self love when it was an alternate version of himself?

It had only been a few seconds for them, but when he looked back at the screen,a week had already passed. Spock had done the calculations, a year for them is an hour on the ship, a month is five minutes and one and a quarter minutes was a week.

Leo, their Bones, was sitting on the porch covered in a blanket. He'd taken ill quickly, their hypotheses had been that a planet with worse technology than they had, even regressing back before the third world war, would be less equipped to handle severe illnesses. 

Leonard was sitting on the other side of the table with half a scarf hanging off his knitting needles. He was talking about something to do with their farm when Leo broke the calm, coughing and spluttering.

"Here," He handed him a glass of water. "Take a nice long drink and you'll be fine,"

Leo did as he was told and lent back in his chair, face a little paler from the exertion of his remaining energy. The weather had changed rapidly in the time he'd been away, everywhere was blue skies and sunshine.

"How about I give you something to take your mind off things?" Leonard asked, only getting a grunt from Leo. "When did you meet your Jim?"

The crew all turned to face him. Uhura giving an amused glance, Spock something actually questioning and everyone else seemingly on the verge of rolling their eyes.

"When d'you meet yours?"

"It was 2255, I was working on a starbase somewhere, a medicine focused one, and I rush over to see a young man, six years younger than me, trying to escape with an IV line in, bandages on, nasal cannula and osteocalcium cream on his legs. He was also on the verge of passing out and was politely yelling at the guard to let him leave," He looked at Leo. "That was when I met James T. Kirk,"

"Sounds pretty on brand for him," Jim tried not to be hurt by that statement, even if he knew it was true.

"I saw him pretty much every day for about eight months, he was recovering from a serious injury involving radiation, an explosion and some angry octosquidarians. Became quite a good friend of mine even when he got transferred out of the ICU. He left, of course, everybody did on that starbase, yet we still managed to keep in touch and when he had his own ship and needed a CMO, well there was only one man for the job," He said and smiled to himself.

There was something about his age, his grey hair and wrinkles that made his smile more heartfelt. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he'd had more years with his Jim, more loving moments and annoying mishaps. He had nostalgia in his eyes as he sighed and turned to Leo.

"How'd'ya meet your Jim?"

"On a shuttle to Starfleet Academy, I was being forced out of my place in the bathroom-"

"Bathroom?"

"I have aviophobia," He nestled into the blankets further. "Jim's face was covered in blood, he'd been in a fight, and I was kind of drunk and spouted all the ways we could die on the thing and how my wife took everything. Then when we landed I found out he was in the same student apartment as me,"

"He was little shit most of the time, but he's also my best friend and the love of my life," 

He stopped and stared out for a moment. Jim was glad, he couldn't take it anymore. It had only been a few hours without him but he knew it had been so much longer for Bones. 

Part of him wondered while they were waiting for the transporter modifications if he'd even love him anymore. Ten years could change a lot in a person, he would know. He went into town and could've easily fell in love with a local, but he didn't. He still loved him and he still loved Spock.

Speaking of which, the other Leonard asked their Bones another question, "When did you realise you loved your Spock?"

"You remember how I had to resurrect Jim?"

Leonard nodded.

"Well, with Spock being a scientist in multiple fields, he could help me in making the serum. He took my place when I was on the verge of collapse from fatigue or hunger or emotion, and I ain't told anyone this, but I meditated with him on the little time I had off and it actually helped," 

Jim smiled at Spock at the image of the two. Bones probably complained that it was useless for an overthinker like him or about the sitting positions being too convoluted for his old joints. Spock had suggested they all meditate together, one of the few couple activities Vulcans were known to do. 

"And when Jim woke up and I couldn't handle the pressure of caring for him and the tabloids calling me Dr. Frankenstein and the looks from all the other doctors and pharmacists and every other medic in the hospital. So Spock listened as I ranted and cried and-" He stopped and took a few deep breaths. "And I realised, oh shit, I think I'm falling for him,"

"Well that's very romantic. When did you tell Jim?" 

"There was a mission involving loss, they made us see supposed ghosts of people we lost and Spock was determined to say he wasn't affected. But Jim invited him over and after a few hours of awkward silences and denying the connection we were feeling, we admitted our feelings to each other,"

"How about you?" He said.

"Spock had a thing, a Vulcan thing that meant he had to go home-"

"Pon farr?"

Leonard nodded, "Things happened, to survive we had to fake Jim's death, Spock didn't know but when he realised he was alive they finally admitted their feelings for each other. Unfortunately for me I realised I loved the bastards," He carried on knitting with a little more ferocity. "It wasn't until we found a giant space amoeba and Spock won our 'Who's going to sacrifice themselves for the sake of science argument' that I realised I should've told him,"

He chuckled to himself, "Well, we managed to save him, of course, and I took that as a sign and told them they had my heart. And apart from a little bump after the five year mission, we ain't never looked back,"

Jim and Spock smiled at each other. They'd visited Ambassador Spock and willed him to tell them his stories like children on Pesach. About peaceful Sunday mornings when he'd meditate and they'd secretly watch their Leonard get ready for church. And about many trips to Vulcan where the Ambassador would show them off like trophy husbands.

They could tell he missed his Jim and Bones, a nostalgic look always distant in his eyes and his house filled with the various photos and videos he kept on his PADD when he went through the black hole. 

At the time, they didn't understand what that felt like, to miss someone with every fibre of your soul. But after watching their Bones survive years and years alone without them, they realised how strangely comforting such an ache was.

The screen in front of them sped up as time drifted on. Relative as ever. Jim took a deep breath as Yeoman Rand handed everyone coffee and settled back in his chair for a long few hours.

I've managed to put a few headcanons of mine into this, like old married mcspirk's habit of Spock meditating, Bones getting ready for church and Jim smiling goofily as he watches his husband get dressed in his sunday best. Also I made up a few things for TOS Mckirk's meeting but the main idea I got from memory alpha is that Jim got hurt in his pre-captain days and met Bones. I would very much like to see this meeting somehow.

This fic will get weirder quite quickly and the schedule I think I might go with is one chapter in the farm universe, one in one of the crew's universe's, back to the farm universe and one in the other crew's universe.

And finally, I added Yeoman Rand! I'm very much in the camp of "I'll add all the recurring characters in tos into aos because someone (JJ Abrams) didn't" so I hope you enjoyed her cameo!

[unexpectedcronchiness]

Pt 7 i think we’re at im just vomiting ideas heck yeah more wolfstar

Based on a text “ sirius is put in an arranged marriage with a pureblood witch or it can be muggle au but with a female (he's gay in this) and remus is the wedding planner “

no warnings on this one either it just fluffy

arranged marriage, who even thought of shit like that? still it wasn't remus' place to question. He walked into the room, prepared to give his "Ok so theme ideas, what do you like, what actually looks good" speech but he stops dead in his tracks

first off, theres a man alone here

usually both partners are together

and secondly hes absolutely gorgeous

this was going to be problematic, remus rarely thought anyone was attractive, but when he did, he fell hard

the man noticed him and stood up, and held out his hand

"sirius orion black, i see you have the, ah, pleasure, of working with my family on getting the union from hell organized"

remus couldn't help it, he laughed

he'd seen arranged marriage cases before, but legally he wasn't allowed to do anything, trust me, he checked

but never were people so blatantly outright in their discomfort or annoyance

honestly it was refreshing

laughing was unprofessional and he was being paid a hefty amount of money to make something tasteful yet elegant, so he steeled his face and started his speech

-----

days passed and he found himself spending more time than necessary with sirius

he couldn't help it

at first he was just curious but then it was something more, it was intense and new. Sirius was funny, charming, kind, witty and so much more

yet there was something subtle, something dark shadowing his features

something that remus couldn't help but be pulled to

he had his own secrets of course, being a werewolf was hard enough, but then managing the top wedding planner office in the wizarding world and trying to keep it all a secret was unbearable

yet he loved it

he loved secrets and the way they kept you warm, the way you were allowed to be possessive and cautious and no one thought any less of you because everyone has secrets. It's universal and completely personal at the same time

so he held onto his newfound secret that he was undeniably genuinely attracted to this sirius orion black.

------

" i was thinking for the flowers maybe something like an acacia blossom" acacia blossoms meant concealed love, amoungst other things, but concealed love was what he was going for but it's not like he would know what it meant

yet the way sirius looked at him after he said it unsettled him

his mouth agape, eyes wide in realisation

then he said "i rather like ambrosia" shit. Ambrosia, your love is reciprocated.

shit shit shit

what was he doing flower flirting with the heir to the blacks, one of the wealthiest pureblood families in the wizarding world

and ya know, that thing how he was going to GET MARRIED And remus was supposed to be helping him

"hmm maybe white lilies" it's heavenly to be with you but, "but, you'll probably like stephanotis better" stephanotis, happiness in marriage

sirius laughed

"do i look like i'd enjoy stephanotis better? besides, women aren't really my type. How about sterling silver roses?" Love at first sight, oh merlin

Remus couldn't resist

"so what is your type then"

sirius grinned cheekily

Dr.Remelems-the fluff monsterToday at 7:47 AM

"hmm, well let's see, men for starters, in case you didn't get my extreme subtlety. Camelia" you're a flame in my heart, shit he was good

he continued

"gold eyes, dirty blond hair, that shimmers in the sunlight, incredibly sexy scars, a nice sense of humor, an understanding of flowers is also deeply important, Carnation" My heart aches for you, admiration. Oh merlin he was in deep

"don't know where you'd find a guy like that he seems impossible, and aren't you supposed to be getting married. Gardenia, white heathers" You're lovely, secret love and wishes could come true, protection

remus hoped it conveyed everything he was willing to risk for this man

he would willingly risk an affair, he would protect this man, give him everything no matter what and he'd only known him for a month

sirius, as remus learned had absolutely no control of his emotions on his face, but at least he knew that he knew what it meant

sirius feigned casualness

"let me one up you, orange blossom, peony.... stehphanotis but with viscaria?" eternal love, marriage, happy marriage, happiness in marriage but when combined with viscaria, will you dance with me, did he, was he understanding this right

unable to play games any longer remus choked out

"did- did you just propose to me in flowers?"

sirius looked bashful

"well i mean uh yeah, but uh I'd need your help in getting out of this current uh, marriage thing if you wanted to do this i know thats not a yes but it would be difficult and i just-"

Remus cut him off

"jesus merlin and morgana yes."

"i do" he said solemnly

sirius looked happier than remus had ever seen him, no shadows, no undertones

"ok so i don't know how to get out of this current ya know marriage thing, i haven't made an unbreakable vow or anything, well yet at least and-"

"Sirius you brilliant man you, you've given me an idea"

----------

It was the day of the wedding. Sirius was standing at the alter, whatser name getting ready in one of the back rooms. The flowers they had chosen, spider flowers (elope with me, sirius and remus both thought it was funny) and remus was ready, in a suit that was probably more decorative than a wedding planner needed, but little did they know, he was probably underdressed

it was his wedding day after all

Remus went over to sirius, walking intentionally down the aisle as he did. It was on purpose yes, but everyone else didn't look twice as the ceremony had yet to start. silently, he gripped his wand and cued the music.

everyone turned to face remus in shock, sirius beamed, as a man should look on his wedding day. Cries of rage came from the black family as it clicked what was happening.

walburga black began to leap up, brandishing her wand but was stopped by an invisible force keeping her to the chair, and the chair to the floor. or ya know, a sticking charm

they'd figure out how to get it off eventually and he only needed a little bit of time anyways

being a wedding planner had perks

he reached the altar and grabbed sirius' hands.

The clergyman looked shook, but also suddenly understood the vague wording in his contract, shrugged, and went on with it

if remus was being honest, he didn't remember much of what the clergyman said, he didn't remember the cries of outrage from the black family

what he did remember was the look in sirius' eyes, the smile that was so large it threatened to come off his face, the tight, nervous grip of his hands

remus remembered that most of all

remus remembered hearing sirius say i do, tears in the old saps eyes, and then he remembered hearing it from himself

screams of protest and indignation sounded like music to his ears but then suddenly he heard clapping and cheers

he turned around in shock and saw that whatserface was in the aisle, in jeans and a hoodie, leading her family in appluase

*applause

as would later be explained to the black family. Remus had not taken an unbreakable vow to marry or love sirius for ever. neither of them could promise that. but what had happened however was meridith (as he learned her name was) and sirius had made an unbreakable vow to never marry eachother

turns out meredith was undeniably gay and had a girlfriend 

and so in the confusion they were wed, and the blacks could do nothing of it, for worries of risk admitting they were beanboozled by a their heir and his husband, or worse that they had made the worst match in all of pureblood history with two incredible gay queens.

yet something gnawed at remus

one day,  a year later, he went up to sirius

it was time, the secret didn't feel as warm and personal anymore

instead it felt dirty and aggressive, mean, harmful

he walked up to sirius

shit he was not crying, he was not crying but he started to speak

"i-i think it's time-time for you to know- and- and i just want- i just want to say to you, i love you so much, more than anything and imsosorry and"

"honey whats the matter, is this about your uh, 'furry little problem"

remus blinked

what

the heck

sirius couldn't help but chuckle

"darling you're hardly inconspicuous, ive known since we were 'dating"

remus couldn't help it, he bawled

sirius pulled him into his arms, tenderly holding him

"hey, hey, hey shh, hey, single full bloom roses, pink rose, rose leaf" i love you, i still love you, perfect happiness, please believe me, you may hope. Remus translated these automatically and allowed himself to finally feel content

THE END

-bonus- after the whole debacle purebloods thought twice about arranged marriages and let their kids be for a while, and so meredith took advantage of this and her girlfriend and her got married, (remus was the planner, they had all turned out to be quite good friends)

[suitofvibraniumarmor]

The American Initiative

Part Ten

Summary: Grace Cleveland and Eleanor Baker both thought their lives were over, until they became part of something much bigger – the Avengers. Pairing(s): Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC Word Count: 1897 Blanket Warnings: Death, mentioned a couple of different ways, but not detailed; canon divergence; more based on Marvel movies. In the infamous word of Steve Rogers, “Language.”

Masterlist Wanna be tagged?

Without Grace to keep her busy in her downtime, Ellie had more time to think – about a lot of things. She found out more about herself in the first couple of days that Grace was gone than she had in a while. Furthermore, she discovered that she wasn’t the kind of person to bottle up her feelings; she could be in control and not let on to them, but she wasn’t going to hide them from herself, either.

This realization prompted her to cautiously broach the subject of relationships with Steve.

“I don’t mean to make things awkward, for either of us,” Ellie assured, “I just — I’m trying to figure out how to handle it now, I suppose.”

Steve nodded. “That’s perfectly understandable, Elle. Even if you remembered things from before, being an Avenger is a whole new can of worms.”

Ellie smiled at his analogy. “Something like that.”

“I don’t know much about relationships overall, to be honest. Before the injections, I was a scrawny Brooklyn kid with asthma and zero allure. After the injections, there was Captain America — but there was also a woman. Her name was Peggy; she was part of the initiative, I suppose. Smart and tough and kind – not a lot unlike you, actually. She had faith in me when no one else did. I suppose there was something between us, but then I had to put that airplane in the ice and everything else happened …”

Steve trailed off, a nostalgic sheen glazing his eyes. Ellie bit her lip and looked away, giving him a moment of privacy with his memories.

“Did you ever think about finding her, you know, when you woke up?”

Returning from his trip down memory lane, Steve chuckled, albeit sadly. “I thought about it, sure, but life went on without me, Elle. Peggy would be an old woman by now.”

“Oh, right …”

The two of them had lingered in silence for a few moments after that, before Ellie showed him some mercy and changed the subject. The thought occurred to her that, old woman or not, Steve was still in love with this Peggy woman – perhaps he would always be. For that reason, though she had accepted her feelings, Ellie decided it was best to keep them to herself.

Grace shouldered the one bag she had with her, pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head, and walked down the streets of Boston towards the last place she had known Joel to live. Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D intel, she knew he wasn’t there anymore, but she figured it looked less conspicuous if she didn’t go to a place Joel assumed she didn’t know about.

Taking a deep breath, Grace hurried up the steps of the apartment complex, heading straight for the place she had called home, for a while. Another deep breath before knocking, and then there was no turning back.

A familiar man opened the door. “Gracie?”

“Heya, Frank. I’m lookin’ for Joel.”

Frank smiled and hugged her tight. “I told the ole boy you’d be back before we knew it. Joel don’t stay here anymore, though.”

Grace frowned. “Where’d he go?”

“C’mon in here,” Frank said, pulling her out of the hallway. “I’ll call him. He’s in hiding, ya know.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

She sat on the couch – the one she and Joel had picked out together for the apartment – dropped her bag on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. Frank spoke in a hushed voice in the kitchen not far away, and Grace could hear every word. When he disconnected the call, he came back around.

“Gimme ten minutes, Gracie. I’ll take you to Joel.”

Grace nodded, focusing on the TV while Frank went in the other room to change and get ready to leave. Her heart was racing, and she was hypervigilant of her situation. Though she knew how secure S.H.I.E.L.D was, there was part of her that feared he knew what she had been up to the last few months.

“All right, let’s go.”

Frank hit the power button on the remote; the cessation of sound broke Grace’s train of thought. She shouldered her bag again and followed her old friend out the door.

Amidst her routine of getting up to date with intel, a regular training schedule, and otherwise occupying herself, Ellie did her best not to think about her feelings for Steve. His heart was taken, that was clear. Ellie could only hope that, in time, her feelings would wane and she could move on.

She was sitting in a conference room on her own when Natasha came to meet her. Ellie smiled a greeting at the other woman and put her hand on the brown file folder in front of her.

“Thanks for meeting me. I think I’m about ready to do this, but I didn’t want to do it alone.”

“What is that?” Natasha inquired.

Ellie took a deep breath. “My entire life, up to the point that Fury came to claim me at the hospital. I haven’t looked at it before, and I only know a few things from what I’ve been told about how I came to be part of The American Initiative. Something someone said to me recently – I’ve been thinking about life after we’re gone. I’ve been wondering how my family is getting on, and who all is left. I want to know the things I don’t remember.”

Natasha pursed her lips together and picked at her nails. She re-directed her focus to Ellie, but couldn’t make herself ask the question.

“You think this is a bad idea?”

Natasha shook her head.. “No. Not if it’s something you feel the conviction to do, Ella. I just – are you going to be able to handle all of the things in this folder? You don’t know what’s in there, and – you make the decision for yourself, I’m here if you decide to go ahead. Sometimes though, I think it’s best to remember that the things left in the past, are left there for good reason.”

Natasha’s advice was good advice. Ellie took it all into consideration, and finally decided to open the file. The first page was all about her.

“I was a teacher,” Ellie smiled. “US history, for a high school.”

Natasha smiled, too, and continued to do so as Ellie went through all the things in her background. She listened as Ellie talked about her parents and her sister, about family pets she didn’t remember she ever had.

As Ellie came to the end of the section on her family, her jaw dropped and her eyes filled with tears. She shoved the file away and stood, fleeing the room and eventually the building.

Natasha pulled the file in front of her, her jaw going just as slack as Ellie’s had as she took in the information in front of her.

“This is some shady shit, Frankie,” Grace muttered as they walked down a concrete staircase. “What the hell is going on?”

Frank glanced at her, but said nothing before turning forward again. A single light bulb dangled from a wired fixture at the bottom of the staircase. Grace watched it swing back and forth a couple of times before Frank got the heavy door unlocked and motioned for her to enter.

Her jaw went slack as she entered the makeshift laboratory; it wasn’t entirely unlike the S.H.I.E.L.D lab where she had been enhanced. This place, however, lacked the technology to be up to par with the agency’s facilities.

“Gracie?”

The voice broke through the silence, causing Grace to turn and face the man she knew so well. He was bigger now, taller and more muscular — she wondered what else had changed about him.

“Joel,” she said, letting his name out on a breath of feigned relief.

He opened his arms and Grace dropped her bag, running to him. The couple embraced, and Joel lifted her face to his, kissing her roughly.

“I missed you — how did you get out?”

Grace swallowed hard. “They cleared me, put me in witness protection. I got the drop on my guards.”

“Always a runner,” Joel smirked, pushing the hood away from her. “Your hair got longer.”

“Yeah … Joel, what is all of this?” Grace gestured to the machines and computers around them.

He stepped away from her, took a deep breath, and sighed. “After I was dropped from the enhancement program, I couldn’t let it go. I found someone within the agency to sneak me the serum — I have to take it via IV, which is apparently changing the way the serum works. It’s better in some ways, but taking time in others. But — it’s happening. I’m becoming the man I was always meant to be.”

Grace smiled as she stepped up to him again. “I always said you had great potential.”

Joel chuckled and kissed her again. “C’mon, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

As soon as Natasha showed him the file, Steve took off in a full run to find Ellie. A mix of emotions swelled in his chest; pride that she had the courage to open the file was churning with heartache at what she had just discovered she left behind.

He found her near the archery range. She was standing but with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Steve slowed and reached out a hand to her shoulder.

“Ellie …”

Her head lifted and she sniffled as she turned to look at him. Stepping right up to him, Ellie bit her lip as she took Steve’s face in her hands and pressed her lips to his.

He knew he shouldn’t respond, but he couldn’t stop himself from returning the gesture. The saltiness of her tears combined with her own sweet taste; the scent of her invaded his nose. Steve never wanted to let her go.

Ellie was the first to pull away, stepping back and out of his reach. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just done that out of the blue. But, Steve, don’t you think that if I had a — a husband, who died in the same wreck I was in, and a little girl left behind, I should have felt some sort of guilt in kissing another man? It should have sparked something about my former life. But it doesn’t! I read this file of this person who has my name and my face but I don’t know her. It’s like — it’s like I ruined everything!”

She dissolved into sobs again, but this time, not alone. Steve stepped towards her again, pulling her against his chest and promising her that everything was going to be all right.

[ladyboltontoyou]

Arthur Morgan x Reader: Farmer’s Daughter. 3

Ask: OH MY GOD IMAGINE THE READER IS A GIRL FROM A GOOD FAMILY, SHES WITH ARTHUR FOR A WHILE NOW, THE PARENTS WANT TO MEET HIM. THEY’RE HAVING FAMILY DINNER AND THE COWBOY MAN JUST CANT KEEP HIS HANDS TO HIMSELF UNDER THE TABLE oh my god if your request are open and you would write that i would probably, most likely die...oh btw i love the “farmer’s daughter” story OH MY GOD MAYBE THIS COULD BE THE NEXT PART AAAAAAAAH SHIT! okay okay i’m sorry i just got excited! love your writing, have a great day!

Warnings: Cursing, probably. Slightly public sex, ya get fingered at dinner ok? 

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x Reader

A/N: YEEHAW MY FELLOW SLUTS! ENJOY! Also, idk what they called panties back then so I just went with panties, ok? 

Two months later and you had fallen completely in love with the man. You both had told yourselves you wouldn’t let it get that far but it was nearly impossible. Every time you would see each other he had something to give you, be it a new drawing of yourself, wildflowers he had found out in the woods, or some suspiciously expensive jewelry that he wouldn’t talk about.

He hadn’t planned on any of it, really, but multiple times a day he would see something that reminded him of you and he just knew he had to take it. Even the jewelry he had stolen from the folks who were unlucky enough to start a fight with him.

After a while of successfully sneaking around the day came you’d both been expecting. Your father caught him. 

It wasn’t in the way you’d thought it would happen, thankfully. He didn’t walk in on the two of you or catch Arthur climbing up to your room or sneaking out of it. It was more subtle and less suspicious. The two of you, like the fools you were, were out in broad daylight at the stables on your property. You would go out there regularly to spend time with your horse so you knew your parents wouldn’t question you being down there. 

You should have known being that comfortable sneaking around was just asking to be caught. And sure enough, you were.

“(Y/N)? Who is this?”

You fucking twitched. When you turned around you saw your father standing behind you with a look of concern on his face and one of the stable boys watching the whole thing go down. You had given him some money earlier to keep his mouth shut and he sure was getting more than he asked for.

“Howdy mister!” Arthur waved and stepped past you. “Remember me? I stopped by here a while back to ask for some directions.”

Your father squinted and reluctantly shook his hand. Suddenly realization spread across his features as it all clicked. “Oh! Yes!” He laughed and clapped Arthur’s shoulder. “How have you been? Ever find your way?”

“Sure did, thanks to you. I was in town and was asking around, looking to buy some good horses, and a few folks told me you were the man to talk to.” You looked at Arthur with parted lips, in shock at how good of a liar he was. He turned a potential disaster into the most casual and normal interaction without the slightest effort. It was kind of scary.

Your father laughed and nodded, crossing his arms proudly. “You’ve come to the right place, follow me.” 

Arthur tossed you a wink and you had to smile then, dumbfounded by how smoothly the whole thing went.

***

After your father had whisked Arthur away to the expensive section of your stables you went back home. Your mother was preparing dinner along with one of the ranch hands, which surprised you. When you questioned why he was there she explained he was making his mother’s famous gumbo, your mother insisted upon it after she had sent some over to your family. 

When dinner rolled around your father made it back just in time, a surprise guest at his heels. 

“Jane, you remember this man, don’t you? He was the fellow on the white horse who asked for directions to-”

“Of course I do!” She wiped her hands with a kitchen rag, walking into the main room where the two men stood. 

You stood up from the kitchen table to watch the whole thing play out, locking eyes with Arthur who just shrugged.

“He came down today to buy a horse from us!” Your father said as he closed the front door behind them. “And to congratulate him on his purchase I’ve invited him to stay for dinner.”

Your mother smiled happily, it wasn’t often you had visitors that weren’t your families prude friends or relatives. “Good! We’re having gumbo tonight, Thomas is cooking his mother’s very own recipe.”

“Oh!” Your father raised his brows. “The one she sent over yesterday?”

“That’s the one.” 

“Brilliant! I loved that.” 

The two of them talked for a while before Thomas announced the soup was done and your mother went back into the kitchen to help him serve. Your father excused himself to wash up, telling you and his guest to have a seat in the dining room.

You sat down next to Arthur and gave him a look. 

“What?” When he finally noticed you looking at him he furrowed his brows.

“How did you manage that?”

“Manage what?”

You snorted, rolling your eyes. “Come on. You’re the best liar I’ve ever met.”

Arthur shrugged, taking the glass of water that Thomas set down in front of him.

 “You must not of met a lot of people then.”

“All right, then. Keep your secrets.” 

He chuckled and set the glass back down on the table after taking a few generous sips. “Before we almost got ourselves killed, I was going to give you somethin’.” Another gift? He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. “Don’t let anyone see that.” He added with a whisper since Thomas had walked in with the rest of the drinks. 

You smiled at him and slowly unfolded the paper in your lap under the table. Once you had it done you squinted before realizing it was upside down. You flipped it the right way and your face was suddenly burning. Your breath caught in your throat as you took it all in, quickly folding it back up when your mother walked into the room carrying the giant pot of soup. 

The urge to punch him was strong. Why did he have to give that to you then? Why couldn’t he wait? You slipped the paper in the front pocket of your dress and cleared your throat. 

Arthur chuckled and took another sip of water, smiling sweetly at your mother as she started filling everyone's bowls. “Thank you, ma’am.” 

It was impossible to get the image out of your head. It was a drawing of you, completely naked, lying on your stomach with your head resting on your folded arms, your legs kicked up and locked at the ankles. You were looking directly into the viewer’s eyes with a wicked smirk on your face, some of your hair in your face. Once again you looked utterly magnificent, your body drawn in a way that accentuated every part of you perfectly. If it wasn’t a drawing of you, you probably would have gotten off to it. You probably would anyway, knowing Arthur was the one who drew it.

“What horse did you end up buying, Mr…”

“Arthur. The young brown mustang, think your husband called him Taro.”

Your mother nodded and sat down at the opposite end of the table when she was finally done serving. You wished she would let you help with dinner but she was firm in her belief, not allowing you or your father to help her in the slightest.

It was another ten minutes before your father finally joined you, taking his seat beside his wife. “Please excuse me, got carried away with my hair again.” He laughed and eagerly started eating. Your mother shared a laugh with him, chiding him lightly about how vain he was.

Most of dinner was fine, you all talked about the usual dinner subjects such as work, the weather, and town gossip. You barely paid attention though, the image of you drawn naked was stuck in your mind, along with the idea of Arthur drawing it. You wondered if he had done it in the heat of a lust filled moment or if it was just something normal to him.

What finally snapped you out of your thoughts was the feeling of a hand on your knee. You brushed it off at first, it seemed innocent enough, he had done it plenty of times before when the two of you laid together. It wasn’t inherently sexual.

But then he moved his hand lower, brushing his fingers against the hem of your dress. You looked at him with a subtle glance but he refused to acknowledge you at all. 

Crossing your legs you tried to get him to stop but that didn’t deter the cowboy at all. He pulled your dress up just enough to slip his hand under the fabric, then let the hem fall back down over his arm. You wanted to curse him out but you held your tongue and tried to act as natural as possible, taking another spoonful of soup into your mouth. 

“So, Arthur, you never told us what you do for a living.” Your father said after sending one of the kitchen maids to bring out a bottle of wine.

His hand traveled up to your thighs, his fingers gently rubbing circles over your skin. “Oh, well, it’s nothin’ excitin’. I work for a man collecting debts from people. Good money.”

“Oh!” Your father acted impressed, shrugging and exchanging a look with your mother. 

“If that isn’t exciting, I wonder what is to you!” Your mother laughed and so did your father.

‘Maybe fingering your daughter five feet away from you.’ You thought as you shifted in your seat, thankful for how high the table was. If it was any lower surely they would see that the lower half of his arm was extended towards you.

Slowly, extremely slowly, his hand continued it’s journey upwards. You forced yourself to keep a straight face, even when you felt the tips of his fingers brush against your panties. ‘No problem,’ you told yourself, feeling him pull the fabric aside so he could touch you better. ‘No big deal.’

Arthur rubbed slow circles into your clit with a firm amount of pressure, but not quick or firm enough to get you anywhere fast. And he knew it, too. He ate his second bowl of soup just as normally as he did the first, showing no signs of the fact that his fingers were about to be stuffed inside of you. 

You liked to think you looked just as calm as he did. You had finished your soup and were waiting for everyone else to so your mother could bring out dessert, and then you could finally leave the table. If only Arthur would hurry up and finish his meal. 

The small talk carried on and left almost no silence which worked to your advantage. If they were quiet they probably would hear how fast your breathing had gotten, especially when Arthur pushed that first finger inside of you. You had to practically bite through your tongue to keep the moan silenced. 

“(Y/N), you’re quiet, for once. Are you sick?” Your father joked and everyone laughed, including Arthur. That bastard. 

“I’m fine, just like listening to you all talk.” You said quickly, surprised at how even and calm your voice sounded. Almost as if you weren’t being finger fucked. 

That seemed to satisfy them enough and they carried on with conversation.

Normally at dinner, you rarely drank any wine, since you were never able to just have one glass. It always led to two, or sometimes even three, and you would end up passed out on your bed hours before you usually would. But tonight you happily drank, finishing the second glass right as Arthur had two fingers curling inside of you. 

As hard as you tried not to let yourself orgasm you could feel it approaching rapidly. Arthur could too, noting how your chest rose and fell and how you were twitching around his fingers. He slowed down momentarily, allowing you to catch your breath, before he was right back at it, quicker than before. He had a hard-on of his own but with his belt and gun holster in the way, no one would have the slightest idea, even if they looked right at his crotch. Lucky him.

“Are we ready for dessert?” Your mother's voice scared you out of your wits and you jumped. 

“Yes!” You laughed to draw attention away from the fact that you almost spilled your wine. 

She left along with the kitchen maid, directing her to get together new sets of dishes. 

His fingers curled quicker as he sipped on his wine, keeping his eyes anywhere but your father or you. Your father kept up the small talk, allowing you to give yourself the time to focus on having a discreet and quiet orgasm. 

You slowed your breathing as you felt it coming, gripping Arthur’s arm under the table with your left hand as you curled your other hand into a fist around your dress. He looked down at you for a split second, savoring the sight of you as best as he could before he forced himself to look away as to not look suspicious. He gave you a few more deep pumps before you came. The heat and tingles exploded, rippling from your clit and inside your body to your entire form. You bit your lip and looked down, sinking your nails into the skin of his arm. The waves of pleasure that coursed through your body were enough to make anyone scream but you kept your mouth shut and posture still. 

When it finally finished you sat back in your seat, running a hand through your hair as you sighed, wiping the sweat off your forehead when your father wasn't looking. Arthur smirked at you and you threw him the angriest glare you could, but you couldn’t keep it for long. When he chuckled you broke out into a smile and you had to look away so you didn’t laugh.

“Here it is!” Your mother said proudly as she carried the pecan pie into the dining room. “Took me all day!” 

Arthur made a show of looking impressed and your father praised your mother's cooking to no end, telling her that she was the best cook in the whole west. She smiled proudly and served everyone's plates. Thank god you had already came and Arthur’s hand was back where it belonged.

“I’m going to make you regret that.” You whispered to Arthur as your mother talked about how hard it was to find enough pecans. 

“Lookin’ forward to it.”

[frozenprocedural]

TDOE, Day 3

Here we go! 

Rating: K+

Alarik, Dag and Jenny belong to @patricia-von-arundel.

Leisel belongs to @couragedontdesertme. This is set in her “Fight for Something” verse- go check it out!

Breaking the Dam

The constant beeps and chirps emanating from Dag’s monitoring station had, thankfully, settled into little more than background noise, and Alarik was grateful the sounds were less bothersome. The tubes and wires, however- those never ceased to cause him a sense of unease. He knew their purpose- he was a doctor, after all- they ensured his son’s health and safety, as Dag had been born a month early. Knowing did nothing to change the wrongness of seeing them snake about Dag’s tiny form.

Alarik shook his head, forcing the bleak thoughts away as he reached down to scoop Dag into his arms. Settling into the nearby rocker, he cuddled Dag close.

“Good morning, min lilla gubben. We got some good news today- it looks like your Mama will be able to come down to visit you. How does that sound?” Alarik ran a finger over the downy cap of hair atop Dag’s head. “I’m so sorry you haven’t been able to see her yet.”

My fault. The dark thought wormed into Alarik’s mind, and he grit his teeth, struggling to drive it away. Ever since that awful night four days previous, his inner cowardness and self-degradation had dug their claws into his very being, further exacerbated by his lack of sleep and the harrowing memories surrounding Dag’s birth.

Anna’s scream echoed throughout the entirety of the house, startling Alarik from where he’d been sitting at his computer, drafting an email to the head of the pediatric department.

“Alarik! Alarik!”

He’d run down the stairs faster than he’d ever known he could, coming to the living room to find Anna kneeling next to Elsa. She lay curled on the floor, her eyes shut tight and face contorted with pain.

The floor surrounding Elsa’s legs was covered in blood.

Dag’s quiet whimper pulled Alarik from his thoughts, and he made himself smile.

“Hungry again? Just a minute, little man. Let me get things set up here.”

Alarik maneuvered Dag back into the incubator, then went to retrieve a bottle of milk from the in-room refrigerator. Another part of the situation that felt wrong- Elsa had found such joy in nursing Jenny, but with the number of medications she’d been on since Dag’s delivery, they’d had no choice but to feed him with formula. 

As he settled Dag back into his arms and coaxed him to latch onto the bottle, more memories flooded Alarik’s mind.

Kristoff drove like a man possessed, tailing the ambulance as it screamed its way to way to the hospital. Alarik sat in the passenger seat- Anna had remained at the house to look after Jenny- staring at the flashing lights in front of him. The paramedics wouldn’t let him ride with Elsa- they needed the space, they explained- and Alarik couldn’t stop thinking about the sight of her, lying on the stretcher, the oxygen mask doing little to muffle her moans while her body arched and spasmed. She hadn’t even had the capability to respond when he’d kissed her forehead and promised to be right behind her. He hoped, prayed that wouldn’t be the last time he saw her.

“Alarik.”

He jumped, cringing when Dag whined in protest. Leisel, Elsa’s obstetrician, friend, and his one-time intern, stood before him, her face drawn. Alarik sucked in a breath, and half-rose, tucking Dag more security to his chest as if to protect his son from whatever news Leisel brought. 

“Elsa… has something…” He couldn’t finish the sentence.

“No, nothing… physical. However, she just told both the nurses and myself that she couldn’t let herself come down to see Dag today.”

“But you said that she would be healthy enough to come down, right? Why wouldn’t… oh. Oh no.” Alarik freed an arm from around Dag to wipe his hand across his face. “She’s blaming herself for the birth again, isn’t she?”

Leisel nodded.

Alarik sighed, feeling a new heaviness weigh on him. He knew how much Elsa struggled with her blame- he’d seen it on her face the moment she’d come awake after her C-section. He’d hoped that seeing Dag- perhaps not healthy, but growing stronger- might work to assuage her blame, but it was not to be. Seeing that Dag had finished his meal, Alarik wiped his son’s mouth with a cloth and reluctantly set him back into the incubator before walking to the door.

“I’ll talk to her. Thank you Leisel.” Alarik paused when Leisel placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently.

“Alarik, it may be time to look into contacting a professional to help Elsa. She’s… she’s not in a good place right now. Please know, it’s nothing against you…”

“No, I know, I know. I’ll… I’ll see what I can do.” Alarik pulled away from Leisel’s hand, his heart heavy.

…….

When Alarik arrived at Elsa’s room, she was facing away from the door, curled into a tight ball. Alarik bit back another sigh, knocking on the door frame. 

“Elsa?”

She didn’t turn, but he did see the tension in her body release somewhat. He stepped into the room, pulling a chair next to her bed. He didn’t touch- not yet, not when she was suffering. He was pleased to see that she was free from restraint- save for an IV port taped to her nearest arm, she was no longer tethered with tubes and wires. Perhaps a sign of improvement.

“I can’t see him, Alarik.” Elsa’s voice was quiet and hoarse. “It’s my fault he was early. I can’t be near him.” 

Alarik’s shoulders slumped, and he dropped his face into his hands. What could he say? What words could he offer that he hadn’t spoken the minute she’d come around? “I’m sorry”? “It’s not your fault”? As if he wasn’t just as much to blame… and then a thought struck.

“I… I blame myself every day for what happened, Elsa.” He heard her shift, and he raised his head to look at her. Her back was still facing him, but he knew she was listening. Alarik ran a hand through his hair, letting the words spill out. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be in this situation. If I had just controlled myself, showed any kind of control, you wouldn’t be here.” At that, Elsa rolled over, her eyes wide.

“Alarik… no…”

He shook his head. “Sure, the rational part of my mind knows none of it is true. But that doesn’t change the fact that every time I look at you and Dag all I can think about is that if I had just taken better care of you, of my urges, then neither of you would be in this situation. And I know that those thoughts aren’t going to go away on their own.” A breath, praying that what he was about to say would make sense, that it would help. “Look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I have all the answers. That’s ridiculous. But what I do know is this. I can’t be the best I can be anymore, not without help. And if I refuse that help, then I’m not the husband you deserve nor the father our children deserve. All I’m asking from you is to consider doing the same. I understand you might not be ready. But know that I am here, and I will do everything in my power to support you.”

While Elsa still remained turned towards Alarik, her eyes would not meet his. For several moments, Alarik feared that he had gone too far. That was, until she lifted her eyes once more and reached out to grasp his hand. 

“Okay. I’ll talk to Leisel, she said that she knew some people.” 

Alarik gave Elsa’s hand a squeeze, blinking away the tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. “Thank you, darling,” he whispered. He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing them to the ring circling her finger. Elsa sighed, then reached over to press the call button. After a moment, a voice came over the device’s tiny speaker.

“Can I help you?”

“I would like to try to go down and see my son, please.”

Hope blossomed in Alarik’s chest.

………

For the second time that day, Alarik opened the door to Dag’s room, but this time, Elsa accompanied him, sitting in a wheelchair that he pushed. From his vantage point, Alarik could see that Elsa was leaning forward, straining to get her first glimpse. When she caught sight of him, Alarik could hear her gasp, and he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. 

“Oh, Alarik, look at him!” He could see her hands tighten on the arm rests, and he picked up his pace.

“Hold on, darling, let’s get you to the chair first.” He maneuvered the chair into position, and then helped Elsa into it, despite her protests that she was not an invalid. He ignored her objections, turning instead to retrieve Dag.

“Hello there, lilla gubben. Ready to meet your Mama?” Dag’s eyes opened at Alarik’s voice, and he let out a small sound, question-like in nature. As careful as always, Alarik took Dag out of the incubator and brought him to Elsa. Her eyes were wet and wide, and her body shook, but when he offered Dag, she reached out immediately and tucked her arms about his tiny body with practiced ease. Elsa brought him close, a tentative finger moving to stroke his downy cheek. 

“Hi.” Her voice was little more than a whisper, watery with unshed tears. Alarik took the opportunity to drag a chair over and sat down, wrapping an arm around Elsa’s shoulders. She didn’t so much as glance at him, enraptured as she was by their son. When Dag began to squirm, Elsa started to rock, humming a soft lullaby Alarik had heard her sing to Jenny four years previously. Dag settled, his eyes fluttering closed as Elsa continued to hum, and beneath his arm, Alarik could feel her relax, and she even leaned back to rest her head on his shoulder. 

They would be alright. It would take time, but they would be alright.

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

Heart of Steel - IV

Description: Sir James is known throughout the lands as the most fearsome and honorable warrior. Ballads have been written about him. Men fear him. He is the most trusted knight of the King Henry. So why has he given up the glories of war and pledged his loyalty to Princess Y/N?

Pairing: Medieval AU -Knight!Bucky x Princess!Reader

Word Count: 3,285

Warning: If you’re a history buff, probably don’t read this because the historical inaccuracies will most likely drive you crazy. 😅

Series Masterlist

The castle was in an absolute frenzy as servants prepared for the ball.

Usually it was the princess’ responsibility to arrange and plan such affairs. But Y/N just couldn’t bring herself to care. Maybe if the ball wasn’t all for her, she’d be able to swallow her pride and play her part.

She managed to convince Tony to take a ride with her. It was only after Bruce told him it would be good for her that he finally agreed.

Now it was the two of them, along with a small army of guardsmen. Bucky, Sir James Rupert, Sir Clinton, Sir Samuel, Peter, and Sir Harold trailed behind the royal siblings. They pretended to give them some semblance of privacy.

“I think this is the longest time we have gone without speaking, sister.” Tony teased, but there was worry in his eyes.

“Hmm?” She hummed. “I apologize, Tony. I am just trying to breathe the fresh air.”

“You know, whenever you out here, you act as if you have not seen the sun in years. You breathe the air as if you will never get a another chance.” Tony’s tone was humble, yet serious.

“Do you ever wish you were born a commoner, Tony?” Y/N asked before she could stop herself.

“I think it would be unwise for me to answer that question.”

Y/N laughed lightly, “You have always been better at playing the game than I, dear brother. Sometimes I envy you for it.”

“If your wish were granted, if you were but a mere commoner… what would you possibly do with yourself?” Tony asked.

Y/N smiled at the thought. “I would explore, never stay in one place, see as much of the world as possible. Learn as much as I possibly could and share my new knowledge with whoever wished to hear it. I would seek out the most famed philosophers and painters and poets, and I would ask to hear their stories.”

Bucky smirked as he overheard Y/N share her dream.

“Why can you not fulfill all of these wishes as a princess?” Tony challenged.

“You forget I was not born a man, Anthony. I am not a prince, like you. I cannot go exploring for months on end. I cannot leave my kingdom whenever I wish. It will be even less so when I am married. I will have to look after a castle and a husband... and someday children. My life will be only be an extension of my husband’s. My work will be only that which serves my new King.”

Tony frowned and looked away, knowing not a word she spoke was a lie. He was not one for serious talks such as this. Prince Anthony was known as a rebellious and charming man. His wit and cleverness were just as renowned as his title.

Now he could not give words to lift his sister’s spirits. So Tony did what he did best.

“Are we done feeling sorry for ourselves now, princess?”

Y/N smiled and giggled at her brother’s lack of sensitivity.

An hour or so later, Tony received message that his fiancé Virginia had arrived to the castle. She was visiting for the ball, but their wedding was only months away.

He looked torn on leaving his sister. Who knew how many more rides like this they would share?

“Go!” Y/N urged him. “You look like you have been struck by cupid’s arrow. I will not keep you from your beloved, brother.”

Tony smiled at her teasing. Then his eyes shifted to Bucky.

“You watch over her for me.” He warned the knight evenly.

“Always, Your Highness.” Bucky bowed his head.

Tony took most of the guards with him, leaving Y/N with only Bucky and Peter. The castle was in sight and they were in the safety of the royal grounds. Y/N didn’t need more escorts.

Y/N leaned her head back and closed her eyes as she absorbed the sunshine.

“I think I wish to walk from here,” she announced.

Moon whined as soon as Y/N dismounted. But he nuzzled his shoulder as she started leading him into a walk.

Peter waited for Bucky to follow before getting off his own horse.

“So, when is our next lesson?” Y/N asked Bucky with a grin.

He narrowed his gaze. “When the entire castle is not swarming with servants and visiting royals.”

Y/N humphed in a pout, but knew he was right. There was no way they could sneak around with all the new company.

“Why do you wish to learn how to wield a sword anyhow, Your Highness?” The young squire asked curiously.

“Peter!” Bucky scolded. “You must learn to hold that tongue of yours.”

Y/N chuckled at her knight’s harsh tone. It invoked fear in just about everyone but her.

“It is quite alright, Sir James. He means no harm.” She calmed him. Then the princess turned her attention to the young boy. “Peter, did your mother or father ever tell you not do something when you were a child?”

Peter nodded.

“And did it only make you wish to do it even more?” Y/N continued.

Peter nodded again.

“Well, that is part of it.” Y/N sighed.

“And the other part?” Peter asked.

Y/N frowned at the question. “Have you ever felt powerless, Peter? Ever felt so incapable that you began to feel weak?”

Peter wanted to nod, but the gravity of his princess’ words chilled him.

Y/N stopped walking Moon so she could face the boy head on. “I do not wish to feel weak any longer.”

Peter swallowed thickly from being addressed by the princess so directly. He managed to nod his head and then look away from her intense stare.

Y/N then continued walking forward.

Bucky lingered for a moment to glare at his squire. Then he smacked him on the back of the head when Y/N was far enough away not to notice.

“What?” Peter gasp.

But Bucky just shook his head in disappointment and marched forward.

————

Y/N had made a point not to venture out of her wing when all the the guests had arrived. Every spare room was filled with nobles or royals. She had no intention of socializing with them any more than she already had to.

But as she got ready for the ball (or rather as her team of servants and seamstresses dressed her up as if she were a giant doll) Y/N slightly regretted it.

Her heart was racing from the anxiety and pressure. She knew the people touching and fidgeting with her could feel it. But they would never dare say anything.

Only Wanda watched her with a sympathetic look and tried to give her a reassuring smile. It was moments like these that made Y/N wish she could switch places with her.

Then they were practically shoving her out the door. The party had already started and the King and Queen had specifically requested that the princess come later. 

Y/N had rolled her eyes at their dramatics, knowing they wanted her to make a big entrance. It was just more pressure on her.

Wanda held the door open for Y/N. Bucky and Sir Samuel were waiting patiently for her exit. 

After the incident with Prince Brock and the castle being filled with foreigners, Y/N’s guardsman had been ordered by the King to keep an even more watchful eye on the princess.

“Sir James, Sir Samuel,” Wanda greeted with the bow of her head. She didn’t miss the way Bucky held his breath at the sight of Y/N.

“You shall be the most beautiful woman at the ball, Your Highness.” Sam said with a bow of his head and confident smirk.

The teasing gave Y/N a small relief and she smiled a little. “Thank you, Sir Samuel. But you have not seen the guests of the ball, so your compliments are premature.”

“Oh, I do not need to see the others to know,” Sam corrected with a wink.

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh. It felt good. She doubted she would have another on this dreadful night.

Her eyes fluttered over to Bucky, half expecting him to compliment her, as well.

But he remained silent. Y/N sighed and lifted her skirts, “Shall we?”

Sam nodded, and Bucky started walking without saying anything.

As soon as they arrived at the great hall, Y/N’s breathing became shallow. She was so lost in her own head that she missed Bucky watching her with great concern.

When the herald spotted the princess, he sent a servant to quiet down the music. 

Suddenly the trumpet group started playing the royal fanfare. All of the guests inside were shushing and quieting down in anticipation.

Y/N took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing and rapid heartbeat.  

Sam gave Bucky a warning look when he saw the man shifting back and forth, physically in pain from not being able to give Y/N some sort of comfort.

“Her Royal Highness, Princess Y/N of Zamora.” The herald called out. 

Sam and Bucky flanked either side of her, just a step behind, as Y/N slowly walked forward. Her head was held high and all signs of anxiety and nervousness were utterly concealed. Y/N moved with a grace and confidence that was unparalleled.

Finally she made her way to her small throne beside the King and Queen. Anthony sat on the other side of their parents. As soon as she sat down, the music began playing once again and the guests resumed talking, but at a much quieter volume.

Bucky and Sam stood in the shadows just behind her throne, keeping a watchful eye out.

Y/N’s own gaze flickered around the room, taking in as much information as possible while also keep a stoic expression. She recognized old faces and saw the new too.

Almost immediately, royal families started approaching the throne and either greeting the King and Queen or introducing themselves.

To Y/N’s shock, the first were the Asgardians. 

Their kingdom rested in the hinterlands. They were isolated and distant, staying out of affairs that did not directly involve them. There were always whispers of the family practicing magic. But Y/N found it hard to believe it could ever be the dark kind with the way the eldest son, Thor, appeared. The man was a giant. But reminded Y/N more of a loving dog than the fierce lion she heard about. He had kind eyes and a warm smile.

His older sister and younger brother hardly even looked related to him. Icy eyes and greasy black hair. If anyone practiced dark magic, it was them.

“Princess Y/N, it is truly an honor to make your acquaintance,” Thor greeted with a deep bow.

“We do not see much of the Asgardians, Prince Thor,” Y/N greeted. “I am honored you made the long and tiresome journey for Zamora.”

“Not for Zamora,” he corrected, “for you, Princess Y/N.” Prince Thor said with a charming smile.

Y/N smirked at his charm. It was entertaining… for now.

King Henry shared a look with Thor’s father. “We shall speak more privately later in the evening, King Odin.”

Just like that, the responsibilities of the night were brought back to the forefront of Y/N’s mind.

Y/N forced herself to sit up even straighter. “You will save me a dance, Prince Thor?”

Her forwardness and charm caught Thor off guard, but he quickly bowed his head in agreement and walked slowly away with his family. But not before looking over his shoulder to catch another glimpse of Y/N.

The only other family that had made a longer journey than the Asgardians was the Wakandans. It must’ve taken them at least a week to arrive Zamora.

Y/N was immediately fascinated with them. King T’Challa was surrounded by female knights, not a male in sight. However, Y/N feared them more than any man in the great hall.

“They are called the Dora Milaje.” Sam whispered into Y/N’s ear before they approached. “They are the world’s fiercest warriors and the king’s most loyal companions.”

Y/N’s eyes lit up at the information. All of the women’s head were shaven and they wore bright red armor, which was unlike the dull greys and blacks Y/N was accustomed to. 

However, Princess Shuri, dowager Queen Ramonda, and King T’Challa were dressed head to toe in black. It was another peculiarity for Y/N, since the royals she knew illustrated their wealth with bright colors and expensive jewelry. T’Challa bowed his head. There was a quiet confidence to him that Y/N respected. Somehow she already knew he was wise beyond his years.

“King T’Challa you have made such a journey to a land so foreign from your own,” Y/N greeted him. “I fear we will only disappoint.”

T’Challa smirked at her modesty, “Nonsense, Princess Y/N. Your beauty is worthy of a journey three times longer than our own.”

“No need to flatter me, King T’Challa. Your mere presence is an honor in its own.” Then her eyes flickered to the Dora Milaje that stood behind him. “I know so little of your kingdom, I hope you will appease me and open my mind to the mysteries of Wakanda.” Y/N answered with a radiant curiosity in her eyes. It was one of the few things she would say tonight that was genuine.

T’Challa nodded with a smile of his own. “It would be my pleasure, Princess Y/N.”

After they moved away, Y/N’s mother gave her a reassuring smile, proud of her daughter’s grace and manners. But Y/N hadn’t surprised herself, she knew how to play her part in all this.

The pattern continued for the next hour. Y/N received royal family after royal family. Her hand was either kissed by a man or she was given hollow compliments. It grew boring, and Y/N slowly became mentally and socially exhausted. She already planned to lock herself in her wing after tonight and speak to no one for a week.

Thor gave Y/N the dance he promised. They spoke polite and buoyant conversation. Y/N didn’t mind him at all. In fact, she rather enjoyed his warm presence. But it was nearly impossibly to know if she could share a life with a man she had just met.

There were also horrible conversations. Egotistical princes and kings, who were of the same breed as Rumlow, just less threatening and evil.

After a few hours, Y/N needed a moment to herself. She gave a look to Sam and Bucky, telling them with her eyes to stop anyone from following her.

She rushed out to the gardens that were luckily undiscovered by the guests.

The cold, fresh air worked miracles. Y/N closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

Y/N knew she should’ve listened to Wanda when she tried to force her to eat beforehand. Now she had a stomach filled with wine and no supper. It did, however, make her relax quite a bit.

The princess was broken out of her alleviation when the sound of heavy footsteps were heard from behind her.

“If another prince compliments me on my beauty, I shall surely be sick.” Y/N grumbled, thinking it was Bucky, sent to lead her back to the ball.

“Well, then I will be sure to keep my distance,” a deep voice replied.

Y/N’s eyes widened when she realized it was not Bucky and did not recognize the voice. 

She quickly whipped around to find a tall, handsome man standing before her. His hair was uncommonly short, but his eyes were a blue that could rival Bucky’s.

“Please forgive me,” Y/N bowed her head. “That was very improper of me. I mistook you for my guard.” She hated losing at this game.

The man chuckled, “I quite enjoyed it actually.” There was no lie in his tone.

“But it is I who must apologize. I startled you and have now not properly introduced myself.” He stepped forward and bowed slightly. “I am King Steven of Midgard.”

Y/N curtsied, but her mind was racing with this information. The King of Midgard? It was the only kingdom bigger than her own. She could have sworn it was King Joseph who ruled. Y/N scolded herself for not being more informed.

“And you are?” He asked in return.

Y/N realized she had rudely not given her own name. But then she recognized that King Steven actually did not know who she was.

“Do you truly not know?” She asked him carefully.

“I do not. But the longer you keep it from me, the more infuriated I become with my ignorance.” Somehow it was not charm, but blatant honesty.  

Y/N was not used to blunt conversations, especially with royals. She found it oddly refreshing.

“Y/N,” She muttered in a voice that was her own and not a forced voice of a royal. She didn’t know why she left out her title.

King Steven’s eyes widened, immediately recognizing his mistake. “You are Princess Y/N of Zamora?” 

Then he looked behind them at the ball; the ball that was solely being thrown in her honor. What a fool he was.

But Y/N let out the loud laughter her mother tried to rid her of and nodded.

Steve seemed in daze from hearing her laugh.

Then he opened his mouth to speak, but changed his mind and closed it.

“What is it?” Y/N asked, proving that she’d caught it.

“I intended to pay you a compliment,” King Steven explained, “but then I remembered your initial grievance.”

“I have robbed you of a man’s only device for luring women. Whatever shall you do?” Y/N teased.

King Steven glared at her playfully, “I have an inclination there are far more things to worship about your character than something so obvious as your beauty.”

Y/N’s smile was wiped from her lips. Once again, his words felt like a transparency rather than a charming line.

“I apologize. I have made you uncomfortable.” He said quickly, clearly having misread her reaction.

Then Y/N took in his clothing.

For a king, he was dressed rather modestly. He chose to wear muted browns and leather, rather than the bright velvets and plush furs of most royals. However, the clothing did nothing to hide his build. 

There was a sword strapped to his waist. It wasn’t uncommon to see on a king; but it was usually more for show than purpose. Though Y/N had an inkling that King Steven knew how to use it quite well.  

“I must confess, I am not very good at this.” King Steven added. Her silence seemed to make him nervous.

“And what is that exactly, King Steven?” Y/N asked gently.

“Courting women,” he confessed. Then his eyes widened in horror. “But you are not just a woman! You are a princess. Please, forgive me. I have done nothing but make a fool of myself since being graced with your presence.”

To his shock, Y/N giggled.

“Please, you need not apologize. I find it rather endearing... if I am being truthful.”

Before the King could say anything more, they were interrupted.

“Your Highness, the King has requested your return.”

It was Bucky.

Y/N’s smile dropped at the sight of him.

Why did she feel like Bucky had caught her doing something wicked?

The guilt ate away at her.

Then King Steven turned around to address the knight.

“Bucky?” The man said in absolute astonishment.

------

Part V

Okay this will now be the 4th chapter in a week. so write me a novel of thoughts, feelings, and reactions. make me happy ❤️

[livvywrites]

the debate

ive been complaining about not being able to pick a wip for nano so i thought i’d let you guys see what im debating between! 

under a cut :D

pirate’s bane

the martyr queen sequel

been tagging it as weavers bane but that’s not... quite right

not sure i want to do this for november, might save it for april bc that feels less stressful! <3

Lyr and Ava have spent the last year overseeing the building efforts in Sylfae, the Slaeyr’s new home. It’s a lot of bureaucracy and not much of anything else, which is why they jump on the chance to entertain old friend Asa Veranus. However, it isn’t good news Asa brings. It’s been over six months since he last heard from Aishlynn, and he’s beginning to think something terrible has happened to her. To quell his worries, Lyr reaches out to Talitha Jade, the last person seen with Aishlynn. However, her response is... strange. 

The trio decide to leave Sylfae in other capable hands and investigate... only to find that “strange” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Aishlynn is missing, and there is something truly wrong with Talitha. Intent on finding out what happened, and how to fix it, they visit Mynera’s Sage--and find the last person they ever expected to see again: Alinora Mynerva. 

Alinora has spent the last year training as Death’s Champion, under Elaena’s guidance. Just as she’s starting to get the hang of her new powers, disaster strikes. Fate’s Champion, Kaltain, has attacked the Grand Library, celestial stronghold of all Eldoran knowledge. While investigating, they find out that one of its most prominent members is missing. Specifically, Viviana Westerguard: a powerful witch who just might know the key to defeating Fate. The remaining members know that she’s still alive, somewhere on Eldora, but not where.

With Death’s blessing, the two return to Eldora and head to the only person Alinora knows who might have a clue to where Viviana is: Mynera’s Sage. 

overmorrow

start of a sci-fi series (tho its more like “fantasy but in space”) 

temporary title

the original concept of the series was one i had at 9 years old, and started writing at 13. i’ve changed a lot since then & it’s been on my mind more and more lately 

not sure i can handle two series at a time, though

Years ago, the Kyrithians attacked the [starbeing] homeworld Larissa. Their victory left thousands of people without a place to call home. At the direction of the [starbeing] royal family, these refugees settled on their golden world: Atlantea, and have done their best to eke out a living since. However, there are some unwilling to accept their defeat... the most vocal of whom is Lilyana Orialys, crown princess of the [starbeing] empire.

This vocal nature leads to her living on the fringes of galactic society, spending her days working as a mercenary and drawing up support and plans for a way to retake Larissa. When her mother goes missing, however, she’s called back to Atlantean soil. Grimfaced, she arrives, set to take the throne and call an army to get her mother back--and lay in motion the plans to take back Larissa... but instead, the council informs her that, despite her birthright, her long absence has left them doubtful of her suitability. As such, she is to be measured against other heirs.

Unwilling to accept this, Lilyana calls together her most trusted allies. Her claim to the throne must be airtight. The only way to ensure that... is to get her hands on the legendary Larissa’s Crown. It was lost long ago, before her people had even thought of space travel... but Lilyana is confident they can get it back. Her brother, Valen, is possessed of the unique ability to see the afterimages of history. Using this, they can find the crown. It’s getting into enemy territory that will be the problem.

Which is why she’s called together her fiancee, highly trained member of the Royal Guard, Rex; fellow mercenary and skilled sharpshooter Sirtheena; her cousin and field medic, Clarice; and her cousin, engineer-slash-berserker, Arachnia. 

from the ashes

standalone fantasy novel

partially inspired by Dragon Age 2

lots of worldbuilding to be done so forgive the missing & placeholder names!

Twenty two years ago, Giselle fled [x] on the tails of trouble within the [supernatural/fae/something] community. In [county], she met and wedded a young man and had three children with him. She left her past behind, working hard to help support her family and take care of her children.

Until tragedy struck. Her husband died. Her village was burnt to a husk, and she and her, now mostly grown, children were left homeless and near penniless. With a heavy heart, she writes to her brother, Ghislain, and returns to the home she fled so many years ago. There, she does her utmost to protect her children from learning of the city’s magical denizens... only to have it all ripped out from under her feet when she comes face to face with the daughter she abandoned years ago.

Josephine, known by “Jo,” to most everyone, and “Josie” to her family and beloved girlfriend, is highly respected both in town and among the city’s magical nightlife. If you have a problem, you find Jo. It’s a good life, if a dangerous one, and one that’s gotten her more scars than she cares to admit. However, when her mother returns to town after a twenty two year absence, she also re-awakens an old evil: one Jo has researched for years.

Unable to avoid it, she shows up on her mother’s doorstep, intent on warning her of the coming disaster... and comes face-to-face with the half-siblings she never knew she had. This, and the sight of her mother’s face, brings up wounds she thought were long buried. Wounds that, if left to fester, might bring about her downfall at the hands of their enemy...

valkaryn

standalone fantasy novel

despite all of my excitement over it, i’m finding this one very difficult to write? & while i might be able to push through it for nano, i’m not sure. it might need to go back on the backburner for a bit... 

the wip intro is here, ‘cause after all that ^ i don’t feel like writing another summary xD

[whiskeyxcola]

The American Initiative

Part Ten

Summary: Grace Cleveland and Eleanor Baker both thought their lives were over, until they became part of something much bigger – the Avengers. Pairing(s): Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC Word Count: 1897 Blanket Warnings: Death, mentioned a couple of different ways, but not detailed; canon divergence; more based on Marvel movies. In the infamous word of Steve Rogers, “Language.”

Masterlist

A/N: This was the first Marvel fic I ever started, and I’m super excited to share it with you all! Thanks to @captain-s-rogers​​ for your help, approval, and encouragement on this one!

Tags: @captain-s-rogers @the-murder-strut @delicatecapnerd @life-of-a-nerd

Wanna Be Tagged?

Without Grace to keep her busy in her downtime, Ellie had more time to think -- about a lot of things. She found out more about herself in the first couple of days that Grace was gone than she had in a while. Furthermore, she discovered that she wasn’t the kind of person to bottle up her feelings; she could be in control and not let on to them, but she wasn’t going to hide them from herself, either.

This realization prompted her to cautiously broach the subject of relationships with Steve.

“I don’t mean to make things awkward, for either of us,” Ellie assured, “I just — I’m trying to figure out how to handle it now, I suppose.”

Steve nodded. “That’s perfectly understandable, Elle. Even if you remembered things from before, being an Avenger is a whole new can of worms.”

Ellie smiled at his analogy. “Something like that.”

“I don’t know much about relationships overall, to be honest. Before the injections, I was a scrawny Brooklyn kid with asthma and zero allure. After the injections, there was Captain America — but there was also a woman. Her name was Peggy; she was part of the initiative, I suppose. Smart and tough and kind -- not a lot unlike you, actually. She had faith in me when no one else did. I suppose there was something between us, but then I had to put that airplane in the ice and everything else happened …”

Steve trailed off, a nostalgic sheen glazing his eyes. Ellie bit her lip and looked away, giving him a moment of privacy with his memories.

“Did you ever think about finding her, you know, when you woke up?”

Returning from his trip down memory lane, Steve chuckled, albeit sadly. “I thought about it, sure, but life went on without me, Elle. Peggy would be an old woman by now.”

“Oh, right …”

The two of them had lingered in silence for a few moments after that, before Ellie showed him some mercy and changed the subject. The thought occurred to her that, old woman or not, Steve was still in love with this Peggy woman -- perhaps he would always be. For that reason, though she had accepted her feelings, Ellie decided it was best to keep them to herself.

* * * * *

Grace shouldered the one bag she had with her, pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head, and walked down the streets of Boston towards the last place she had known Joel to live. Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D intel, she knew he wasn’t there anymore, but she figured it looked less conspicuous if she didn’t go to a place Joel assumed she didn’t know about.

Taking a deep breath, Grace hurried up the steps of the apartment complex, heading straight for the place she had called home, for a while. Another deep breath before knocking, and then there was no turning back.

A familiar man opened the door. “Gracie?”

“Heya, Frank. I’m lookin’ for Joel.”

Frank smiled and hugged her tight. “I told the ole boy you’d be back before we knew it. Joel don’t stay here anymore, though.”

Grace frowned. “Where’d he go?”

“C’mon in here,” Frank said, pulling her out of the hallway. “I’ll call him. He’s in hiding, ya know.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

She sat on the couch -- the one she and Joel had picked out together for the apartment -- dropped her bag on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. Frank spoke in a hushed voice in the kitchen not far away, and Grace could hear every word. When he disconnected the call, he came back around.

“Gimme ten minutes, Gracie. I’ll take you to Joel.”

Grace nodded, focusing on the TV while Frank went in the other room to change and get ready to leave. Her heart was racing, and she was hypervigilant of her situation. Though she knew how secure S.H.I.E.L.D was, there was part of her that feared he knew what she had been up to the last few months.

“All right, let’s go.”

Frank hit the power button on the remote; the cessation of sound broke Grace’s train of thought. She shouldered her bag again and followed her old friend out the door.

* * * * *

Amidst her routine of getting up to date with intel, a regular training schedule, and otherwise occupying herself, Ellie did her best not to think about her feelings for Steve. His heart was taken, that was clear. Ellie could only hope that, in time, her feelings would wane and she could move on.

She was sitting in a conference room on her own when Natasha came to meet her. Ellie smiled a greeting at the other woman and put her hand on the brown file folder in front of her.

“Thanks for meeting me. I think I’m about ready to do this, but I didn’t want to do it alone.”

“What is that?” Natasha inquired.

Ellie took a deep breath. “My entire life, up to the point that Fury came to claim me at the hospital. I haven’t looked at it before, and I only know a few things from what I’ve been told about how I came to be part of The American Initiative. Something someone said to me recently -- I’ve been thinking about life after we’re gone. I’ve been wondering how my family is getting on, and who all is left. I want to know the things I don’t remember.”

Natasha pursed her lips together and picked at her nails. She re-directed her focus to Ellie, but couldn’t make herself ask the question.

“You think this is a bad idea?”

Natasha shook her head.. “No. Not if it’s something you feel the conviction to do, Ella. I just -- are you going to be able to handle all of the things in this folder? You don’t know what’s in there, and -- you make the decision for yourself, I’m here if you decide to go ahead. Sometimes though, I think it’s best to remember that the things left in the past, are left there for good reason.”

Natasha’s advice was good advice. Ellie took it all into consideration, and finally decided to open the file. The first page was all about her.

“I was a teacher,” Ellie smiled. “US history, for a high school.”

Natasha smiled, too, and continued to do so as Ellie went through all the things in her background. She listened as Ellie talked about her parents and her sister, about family pets she didn’t remember she ever had.

As Ellie came to the end of the section on her family, her jaw dropped and her eyes filled with tears. She shoved the file away and stood, fleeing the room and eventually the building.

Natasha pulled the file in front of her, her jaw going just as slack as Ellie’s had as she took in the information in front of her.

* * * * *

“This is some shady shit, Frankie,” Grace muttered as they walked down a concrete staircase. “What the hell is going on?”

Frank glanced at her, but said nothing before turning forward again. A single light bulb dangled from a wired fixture at the bottom of the staircase. Grace watched it swing back and forth a couple of times before Frank got the heavy door unlocked and motioned for her to enter.

Her jaw went slack as she entered the makeshift laboratory; it wasn’t entirely unlike the S.H.I.E.L.D lab where she had been enhanced. This place, however, lacked the technology to be up to par with the agency’s facilities.

“Gracie?”

The voice broke through the silence, causing Grace to turn and face the man she knew so well. He was bigger now, taller and more muscular — she wondered what else had changed about him.

“Joel,” she said, letting his name out on a breath of feigned relief.

He opened his arms and Grace dropped her bag, running to him. The couple embraced, and Joel lifted her face to his, kissing her roughly.

“I missed you — how did you get out?”

Grace swallowed hard. “They cleared me, put me in witness protection. I got the drop on my guards.”

“Always a runner,” Joel smirked, pushing the hood away from her. “Your hair got longer.”

“Yeah … Joel, what is all of this?” Grace gestured to the machines and computers around them.

He stepped away from her, took a deep breath, and sighed. “After I was dropped from the enhancement program, I couldn’t let it go. I found someone within the agency to sneak me the serum — I have to take it via IV, which is apparently changing the way the serum works. It’s better in some ways, but taking time in others. But — it’s happening. I’m becoming the man I was always meant to be.”

Grace smiled as she stepped up to him again. “I always said you had great potential.”

Joel chuckled and kissed her again. “C’mon, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

* * * * *

As soon as Natasha showed him the file, Steve took off in a full run to find Ellie. A mix of emotions swelled in his chest; pride that she had the courage to open the file was churning with heartache at what she had just discovered she left behind.

He found her near the archery range. She was standing but with her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Steve slowed and reached out a hand to her shoulder.

“Ellie …”

Her head lifted and she sniffled as she turned to look at him. Stepping right up to him, Ellie bit her lip as she took Steve’s face in her hands and pressed her lips to his.

He knew he shouldn’t respond, but he couldn’t stop himself from returning the gesture. The saltiness of her tears combined with her own sweet taste; the scent of her invaded his nose. Steve never wanted to let her go.

Ellie was the first to pull away, stepping back and out of his reach. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just done that out of the blue. But, Steve, don’t you think that if I had a — a husband, who died in the same wreck I was in, and a little girl left behind, I should have felt some sort of guilt in kissing another man? It should have sparked something about my former life. But it doesn’t! I read this file of this person who has my name and my face but I don’t know her. It’s like — it’s like I ruined everything!”

She dissolved into sobs again, but this time, not alone. Steve stepped towards her again, pulling her against his chest and promising her that everything was going to be all right.

[mearcatsreturns]

We Part Only to Meet Again, ch. 9

A problem springs up with Luka’s work visa and he is on the verge of having to leave the country. Abby can’t stand the thought of him leaving and offers a solution: a green card marriage. It might kill them both, but they're committed. 

Luka and Abby continue to enjoy each other, sometimes in ill-advised places at ill-advised times. The ER receives a letter and they mourn as a group.

And @somekindofflowergirl and I are back with the 9th chapter of our marriage of convenience AU! Sorry about the delays--between starting a new job and then having my blog deleted, writing only happened sporadically. But we’re glad to be back.

It’s also on ao3, if that’s more your speed. 

Ch. 9: A Letter and Consolation

Luka couldn’t help but smile as he made his way into the ER. He and Abby had slightly staggered shifts today, so she was already there, and he couldn’t wait to see her.

It had been about a month since they’d found their way back together. To bed, that is. Well, beds, couches, counters, and on one memorable occasion, an office printer at work. He was almost used to the eye-rolling from their coworkers at this point.

He and Abby had even met their neighbors, who were less than enthusiastic about how loud living next to them had gotten. That had been a little embarrassing, but he’d since had someone come by and improve the insulation, which had helped (so had the apology cookies he’d given them).

It should have gotten easier to bear, the heat between them, but it was as if indulging it had just made their hunger for each other stronger. Not that Luka had any complaints—nor did Abby, it seemed—but it might have made it simpler to do things, like, oh, work.

“Morning, Jerry, Frank,” he greeted them after clocking in. Frank just made an annoyed sound, and even Jerry shook his head as Luka walked past.

And there was Abby coming out of trauma two. Even though she was a mess, she lit up when she saw him.

He grinned back at her, resisting the urge to kiss her passionately in the middle of the hall. “Are you done in there?”

“Yeah, it was an MVA, but we got the guy stabilized and Romano took him up to surgery.”

“Want to help me out with my next case? I think it’s just a simple fracture.”

“...do you need my help?” Her mouth was twitching as she tried to hide a laugh.

Helping her untie the used smock (if he took the opportunity to slightly and subtly grope her, so be it) and throwing it away, he shrugged. “Well, you never know. Maybe it’s more serious and I just won’t be able to see it.”

“See, to me it sounds like you’re just flirting and trying to seduce a poor, innocent nurse.”

“Maybe I am, but do you have anything else urgent?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go with you.”

It did indeed look like a simple, straightforward break. They took the patient up to radiology. Certainly, both of them didn’t need to go, but the way Abby gasped when he surreptitiously ran his hand under her scrub top as he passed by her might have played a role in convincing her to “help.”

Once the patient was in with the radiology tech, Abby said she was going to get a few things from the supply closet while they waited, giving him a long look. Luka quickly offered to help. The tech rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, but waved them away. “Just be back in like half an hour for the patient, okay? I’ll send the films down.”

He didn’t care, just hurried after his wife, following her into the supply room.

She was facing the door when he came in, and she wasted no time in flinging herself into his arms.

Meeting her lips with a quiet groan, he reached down to lift her up into his arms. He walked them back up against the counter, her legs wrapped around his hips.

“You sure this is a good idea?” she asked when they pulled back for a breath.

He cupped her jaw and lifted her lips to his in an all-consuming kiss. “I am,” he said.

Abby didn’t waste time disagreeing, reaching for him and fumbling with his belt. He tugged at her scrub pants, pulling them off as quickly as he could and bringing her to the edge of the countertop.

She succeeded in getting him free, and he moaned into their kiss as she wrapped her hand around him, stroking him until he was fully hard.

Luka stepped between her legs and thrust into her without much preamble. He felt the familiar thrill of satisfaction at how Abby clutched at him, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, wordlessly encouraging him to move.

He set a quick pace, knowing that as thrilling as the semi-public location was, every minute they continued they risked getting caught. He reached between them, trying to help Abby along. It didn’t take her much longer before she was gasping his name, pushing him over the edge after her.

With a sigh of regret, he pulled back from her after a minute or two, and they hurried to clean themselves up. When Abby reached for the door to head back out, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him, giving her a lingering kiss.

He finally slipped out into the hallway when Abby yelped in surprise. Rushing out to see what had startled her, he started heading toward the elevator. Then he heard the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat, and Luka turned to face a very disapproving Susan, standing with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

He could feel his entire body turning red. “I was, ah, I was grabbing something from storage.”

“I don’t want to know what the ‘something’ of Abby’s was. Anyway, one of your patients needs you, and the films are ready for your radial fracture.”

“Okay...I’ll...I’ll just go see to that.”

Susan sighed. “First, I’d make sure your shirt is buttoned properly, okay?”

He looked down. Sure enough, his buttons were askew.

“Just...no more...boffing at work, please.”

Luka nodded and fled as quickly as he could.

&&&

Abby was tending to a patient in sutures when she felt Luka slide behind her, his hand slipping down to give her hip a squeeze. She gave him what she hoped was a quelling look, but probably wasn’t. She couldn’t get enough of his hands and his answering smolder said he knew it. He apparently hadn’t gotten her into enough trouble today already.

Ugh, he shouldn’t be so attractive when he was smug. But dammit, he WAS, and he had REASON to be.

Still, there were protocols they ought to be observing at work. Silly ones, such as, oh, don’t have sex in the ER, and also, probably, don’t flirt and fondle each other in front of patients.

Abby was only a woman. One with a very handsome husband who enjoyed enticing her into breaking the rules. Repeatedly.

Luka efficiently checked the wound and asked for the suture kit, which Abby had at the ready. Haleh poked her head in to let her know she needed to change the IV on her diabetic patient.

“You good here?” She checked with Luka.

“I’ll miss you, but I’ve got this.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she ignored his grin and aimed to be stern with her reply.

“Behave, Dr. Kovač.”

He stared back at her with his eyes practically twinkling. Was he seriously turned on right now? Their earlier rendezvous was only a couple hours ago.

Abby watched him in disbelief before shaking her head and turning to go. On the way out, she heard the patient.

“So I guess that stuff about nurses and doctors is true, huh?”

Luka laughed at the older man in response.

“Well, in this case anyway. She’s my wife.”

The pride in his voice nearly made her turn around to kiss him.

&&&

A few hours later, Abby was standing at admit, listening to Carter read Dr. Greene’s letter. He sounded remarkably upbeat, considering. That was the power of getting away from County and sitting on a beach, she guessed. Or, more likely, he was doing it for their sakes, focusing on the positive. That sounded like something he would do.

Luka came over then, coffee mug in hand.

“What’s going on?” He bent toward her ear.

“It’s from Dr. Greene.”

Damn, the man was on the beach in Hawaii and longing for a trauma. “The day I start fantasizing about critical procedures is the day I leave, too.”

What followed sounded like a goodbye to all of them, and Abby guessed it was. She shifted so she could lean back against Luka. He slid a comforting hand onto her shoulder.

Carter stopped reading and Luka urged him to continue. “Go on.”

There wasn’t much left, just an endnote about his daughters finding a shell. Feeling a need to lighten the mood, Abby joked with Haleh about macadamia nuts. After a moment, she felt Luka tense, so she jerked up her head to look at him and followed his gaze to Carter. Oh god. She knew what he was going to say.

“What?” Susan knew, too, Abby could hear it in her voice, how her question wasn’t really a question.

Carter could hardly get the words out. No matter how weird things had been between them, she ached for her friend.

“This next part’s from Dr. Corday… ‘Mark died this morning.’”

&&&

The rest of the day was rough.

As much as Abby respected Dr. Greene and appreciated how gentle he was with patients and his coworkers, she hadn’t expected to feel personal loss when he died. But she did. Luka did too, she could feel it in how he gripped her briefly after they heard, could see it in the dark look in his eyes.

It wasn’t their tragedy, though, not really. So Abby tucked away her own shock and hurt over it and tried to comfort the ones who had known him longer and better.

After Carter faltered in the trauma with the dad from an MVA, she gave him a long look and followed him to the vending machines. He was moving forward, trying to get through the day, but his eyes showed how wrecked he really was.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. No. I…”

Abby tried to find the words to help him. They’d kept their distance when possible, ever since he’d found out about her marriage to Luka. Not out of guilt, but that day had made it clear that Carter had still had feelings for her. She could at least give him the space to get over it. Plus, he had really pissed her off.

None of that mattered at the moment.

“If you want to talk…”

“I can’t…not right now.” He closed his eyes. “Not...not because of you...I just need to put my head down to get through the rest of today.”

“Okay, you know where to find me.”

He nodded and started back toward admit.

Abby turned to see Luka coming toward her as she grabbed her soda.

“Is he okay?”

She looked up at him and gave a weak attempt at a smile.

“I don’t think anybody is today.”

“Yeah.”

He looked like he was going to say more, as he worked his jaw, but he thought better of it and put his arms around her instead. She buried her face in his chest and breathed deep, focusing on the smell of him and the warmth, his heartbeat thumping beneath her ear. A small shudder went through him before he relaxed, sighed and kissed her head, running his hand down her back.

“Susan wants to go out for drinks after work. What do you think?”

Luka pulled back to eye her carefully. “Will that be okay for you?”

Abby wanted to scoff and say of course, but made herself stop and consider.

“I think so. As long as you come too. I know you have to stay a little later, but I’ll be alright for a little while. I think...I think she really needs someone to be there tonight.”

He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before answering.

“Okay, if you’re sure, I’d like to go. And we can leave whenever you need to, even if it’s as soon as I get there.”

The trust in his eyes loosened something inside her.

“Thanks, Luka. I don’t really want to go home by myself tonight either.”

Luka gave her another gentle squeeze before taking her by the hand and walking back toward admit. Carter was there, in front of the board, and she caught him looking at them. He looked away, his expression inscrutable.

“Let me know before you leave?”

“Yeah.”

She looked back to her husband and swiped her thumb across the back of his hand before letting go. Before she left, she would make a quick trip to OB to let Janet know her plans for the evening.

&&&

Abby and Susan had a quiet L ride and stroll to the Lava Lounge. It was an, um, interesting location for a wake. The tiki bar atmosphere made Abby feel even more depressed.

She wanted Luka. Taking a deep breath, she refocused on Susan. The others were supposed to trickle in soon, but it was just the two of them for the moment.

“I feel like asking how you’re doing is really stupid, so I’m just going to say you can talk to me instead. If you want to.”

Susan nodded and sipped at her enormous tropical drink.

“God, this sucks.”

“Yeah,” Abby agreed, swirling the straw of her club soda with lime.

She thought back to the sexual harassment seminar, and Carter’s insistence on Susan and Dr. Greene having feelings for each other. Susan had seemed genuine in her denial, and Abby hoped for her sake that she was. They must have been on the same wavelength because Susan started talking about it.

“Mark and I. We, uh, we never went out. That was true. But we did have feelings for each other, before. Neither of us said anything until I was leaving. I always kind of thought of him as the one that got away.”

“Wow, that...that sucks.”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m not still there. I fell in love with Dix, he fell in love with Elizabeth, and we both moved on. I just figured some things happen for a reason. But part of me can’t help but wonder what might have been different if we hadn’t. Or if nothing would have, and I’d be the widow trying to raise a baby and stepdaughter by myself.” Susan shuddered and took a big gulp.

Abby hadn’t been able to think of Corday all day without pain. She couldn’t help but imagine how hard this must be, especially with their separation. For a split second, she imagined losing Luka like that. She could barely breathe at the thought. How much worse the reality of it would be.

Luka. God. He’d gone through that, and so much worse. At least Corday still had Ella, still had her to love and care for. Damn, she needed to hold her husband.

Looking to her new friend, she tried to picture things from her perspective. If she and Luka hadn’t reconciled, and then he’d died...he would never have known she did care for him, she’d never have known he cared for her. What would she have needed to hear?

“I don’t know that I really believe in meant to be. But I do know that Dr. Greene and Corday loved each other. I know you were a good friend to him, and I am sure that meant a lot.”

“Yeah,” Susan answered hoarsely, wiping her eyes.

“I’m sure there’s someone out there for you. You’re a good friend, you’re great with kids, you’re a great doctor, you’re pretty—you will find someone. It just wasn’t him.”

“Part of me feels...relieved that it wasn’t. You know? It hurts like hell just to lose my friend.”

“Yeah,” Abby whispered back.

Her own eyes watered as she watched Susan try to get herself back under control. It took a couple minutes of wiping her eyes with a napkin, taking deep breaths, and a gulp of her drink before she turned to Abby with a weak smile.

“Okay, enough of that for now. So, really, you don’t believe in fate or meant to be? Despite your newlywed, clearly cannot keep your hands or anything else to yourself phase?”

Abby flushed bright red. Had it really only been that morning that Susan had caught her and Luka trying to sneak out of radiology, obviously post-coital? It felt like a week ago.

“Uh...yeah...sorry about...that.”

Susan laughed a little. “I wish I could say you were the first, but at least I didn’t actually catch you in the act. Just make sure you’re always far away from the emergency call button. That’s how we caught Mark and Jennifer.”

Wow. Alright then. “Did that really happen?”

“Yep, we rushed in with the defibrillator and everything.” Susan laughed at the memory.

“That would be…” Abby couldn’t imagine living that down. They had to knock it off, or it was bound to happen. If it had been someone else who caught them, like Dr. Weaver, they probably wouldn’t still have jobs.

“Hey, I get it. I just can’t believe I never saw how much chemistry you two have before. It’s hard enough to work near you two sometimes, I’m sure it’s hard to hold back.”

Ha. If she only knew how many times Abby had held back.

“Yeah, it’s just...I think it would be easier if I did believe in fate. Because I still feel scared sometimes at how close we came to losing that.”

The vulnerability was uncomfortable, even though Susan had been just as open. She joked, trying to get back to safer ground.

“Plus, Luka’s really hot, so…I don’t know, can you blame me?”

Susan giggled at that and then burst into laughter as Abby joined her. It hadn’t been that funny, and the laughter was a bit hysterical, but it was a relief to release some of that tension.

“What’s this about?” In the commotion, Abby had missed Luka, Gallant and Haleh’s approach. She sighed and placed her hand on top of the one he laid on her shoulder, and she immediately felt grounded.

“Your sexual prowess,” Susan responded then cackled. Abby giggled at Luka’s horrified look and shook her head at him in answer.

The others sat down and Susan pulled herself together. Gallant went to grab drinks and Abby looked at Luka in question as he asked for a Coke. He merely winked in response and turned back to the conversation.

He didn’t have to do that, and she’d remind him later, but it was nice that he cared that much.

They all talked. Kerry and Sandy showed up, too. The others shared some memories, and they did some toasting. It was nice, but the melancholy started hitting Abby hard. She wasn’t exactly craving a drink, but she was becoming more and more aware of how easy it would be. With the day, the reminder that anything terrible could happen at anytime, to anyone, it would be so easy to slip. But Abby just wanted to go home and have Luka hold her. She settled for laying her head on his shoulder.

“You alright?”

Her half-hearted smile didn’t fool him. He turned to the others.

“I guess we’ll see you all at work. We’re going to head home. Been a long day.”

They said their goodbyes and Abby stopped to share a sad smile with Susan. “If you need anything…”

“Thanks, Abby. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Luka wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she snuggled into him even as they walked toward the door side-by-side.

“Do you need to stop anywhere or call Janet or anything?”

She looked up at his earnest, eager-to-help face. There wasn’t a single trace of judgment there, and she wanted to kiss him for it.

“I just need you.”

Luka startled and looked down at her with a cocked eyebrow.

“Not like that, perv.” She smacked his arm, laughing. “I want to go home and crawl into bed and be held. Can we do that?”

He hummed in response and kissed her head.

“Absolutely.”

&&&

They nearly ran into Carter in the alley. He was heading in to the Lava Lounge, hands tucked into his pockets, lost in thought.

Luka narrowly avoided a collision, reaching out to grasp Carter’s shoulder. “Sorry.”

“Oh...no, I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

He glanced over and saw Abby smile sadly at Carter. “It’s okay.”

The three of them stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to say. Finally, Carter cleared his throat and broke the silence. “So...you two headed out?”

Abby nodded. “Yeah, it’s—well, it’s been a long day, and people are starting to drink, so we’re out, but pretty much everyone else is still inside, and they’d love to see you.”

“Haleh and Kerry both asked after you,” Luka said, squeezing Abby’s arm. God, he loved her. Loved how supportive she was, even when she was hurting too.

“Okay, thanks. Well, you two have a good evening.”

They told him good night and were continuing on their way when Carter called out, “Luka, wait.”

He looked over at Abby quizzically, and she shrugged in response. He patted her on the shoulder and turned back to face Carter.

Carter took a deep breath. “I—I know it’s belated and I should have said it sooner, but...congratulations. You two seem happy together.”

Huh. There was nothing like a reminder of the fleeting nature of life to bring things into perspective, Luka supposed. He stuck out his hand to Carter, who shook it with a brief smile. “Thanks. And...take care of yourself, yeah?”

“Will do. Thanks again.”

Carter made his way inside, and Luka hurried to catch up with Abby.

“What was that about?”

“He just...well, he said congratulations to us. I think it’s been a hard time for him.”

“A little late,” she said with a snort.

“Better late than never, eh?”

She beamed up at him and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Yeah, that’s true.”

[demivampirew]

I’ve been quite obsessed with the war of the roses and the Tudor dynasty and also with the show (The Tudors). I’ve watched many documentaries and historians talk about that period of English history and I wanted to share my opinions on what are, in my opinion, the biggest mistakes the show made (changes that they made compared to history) and also explaining why I do understand why they probably made those choices.

Let’s start in this post with the number one mistake the series made:

 merging both Henry’s sisters into one. 

Henry had two sisters: Margaret and Mary. Margaret married King James IV of Scotland when she was 14 years old (he was sixteen years older than her). She became Queen consort of Scotland and later after his husband death’s fighting the English, she became Queen Regent for two years in name of her 17 months old son, James V (her constant shifting of alliances between the French supporters and the English supporters of the country made her lose power and the custody of her son). Her marriage to James IV was key in history for their son James V was the father of Mary Stuart, known as Mary, Queen of Scots and the mother of James VI, the successor of Queen Elizabeth I and first monarch to rule both England and Scotland at the same time.

Mary, on the other hand, married King Louis VII of France when she was 18 - she is the youngest of the Tudor siblings; and said king was 52 years old. Contrary to the show’s plot, Mary was keen on the idea of becoming Queen of France - actually, even if her time as Queen consort was short, she made everyone call her Queen of France for the rest of her days, instead of Dutchess of Suffolk. With that being said, she knew that the king would die eventually -he had gout and was ill, so she agreed to marry him as her brother desired without making a fuzz but made him promise that after that she’d able to marry whom she chose or she would become a nun - Henry agreed to that, on one hand, probably because of her good disposal to follow his desires without defying him - he was quite a monster to the people who dare to defy him (Catherine, his daughter Mary being huge examples), but he rewarded the people who followed his commands without complaining. On the other hand, even if offering her as a wife would have been beneficial for him, he couldn’t risk losing her Queen dowager’s money, thing that he’d do if she became a nun. Shortly after her marriage and a month after her coronation, King Louis XII died and Francis I became the new King of France - he was the late King’s son in law, who married said King’s daughter on his command so Francis could rule -because he only had a living daughter, Claude, and by the laws of the time, women could not rule France. - Fun fact: during Mary’s coronation, Francis was the one holding her crown during the entire ceremony for it was too heavy for her.

Charles Brandon was sent by King Henry VIII to France to return her sister home. This is an important thing to keep in mind. It was said that many people at court knew about the love Charles and Mary had about each other, including Henry himself. So, this would mean that he didn’t oppose their marriage as it’s believed and the series show. Yet, that didn’t mean that this marriage wasn’t a dangerous one, for many people important at court did not like Charles - the Duke of Norfolk being one of those, and they had money and big armies and could confront him if they wanted to for marrying the princess when he was made a Duke and no being born with noble blood - there are no records as far I as know from my research on what moment Charles was named Duke of Suffolk, so my guess is that it could have happened shortly after his father’s death - he was in charge of taking care of the King Henry VII’s horses and since he was a horse-man, the king became close friends to him and then he died defending his king and friend in battle. For this reason, the King raised Charles alongside his son and made him receive an excellent education. The young boy probably received the title of Duke as a reward for his father’s sacrifice.

Going back to the marriage deal, it was dangerous for Charles, but he married her anyway - he even lied to King Francis I when he confronted him to know if he was there to marry his mother-in-law, Mary and he denied it even though Mary had already confessed him the truth and angered said King by marrying without his consent when he promised that if they waited he would intervene to help them. Charles would later write a letter to Cardinal Wolsey to plead for his help to allow them to have a court wedding as well because they believed Mary was pregnant and they didn’t want anyone to question the child’s legitimacy.

Why this marriage was a big deal? Well, on one hand, it shows that it wasn’t an impulsive decision like in the show, but they had feelings for each other for a long time and that he really loved her if he was willing to risk his head to marry her. Also, Charles having many mistresses was a show plot, because it is said that they have a happy marriage until her death 13 years later. On the other hand, the importance of their marriage is on one of their daughters, Frances, because she was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, who would become Queen of England after the death of King Edward VI (King Henry VIII’s son with Jane Seymour) -for this name his cousin Jane the legitimate heir to the throne when he learned that he was dying of his illness and as a strong protestant, he wanted to avoid his sister Mary becoming Queen and making England being under the Pope’s authority once more and since he knew that Elizabeth wouldn’t agree to skip Mary of the succession, he felt that he had no other choice than to skip both of his sisters and name his protestant cousin and her heirs the next rulers of the country. Unfortunately, this Queen would have an extremely short reign, for after not even two weeks on the throne, she was executed so Mary could become Queen. - so yeah, Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor, Queen of France were the grandparents of a future Queen of the English throne, even if it was for a short period of time.

Now, let’s get to the part of why I understand these changes - even if I think they were a huge mistake.

Mainly, I think those changes were made due to budget and looking forward to the series to being picked up.

Usually series would film a pilot and those pilots would have screen tests and if they are successful, they got to film complete seasons. I think they thought that the competition between two young Kings was an exciting plot for the series so they started the show with that. The problem with that is that they left out the Mary marriage to King Louis XII aside because it could have made the plot complicated. Also, I think that would have to include the explanation of was Francis ended up on the throne and it’s a complicated one and it would have taken the show more screen time.

As for the Margaret marriage to King James IV was taken away from the series because of the same reasons, it’d have taken much screen time to explain the whole thing. So merging the two sisters into one could be a wiser decision as far as budget and screen time and also make the plot less complicated. Also, the plot was centre mostly on Henry VIII’s marriages and religious battles rather than the political wars.

Probably, to avoid any confusion, I’d had been easier to avoid adding any sister into the show - which was probably the original idea, since it was said the Charles on the show was going to be a small character, but then they probably realised that Charles was an important person in Henry VIII’s story because he was his most loyal friend to the very end and his relationship with his friend’s sister was quite important for his storyline.

I understand as well why the change of the king she was supposed to marry - first, King Louis XVII was already dead, since Francis was on the throne. Secondly, since they chose Margaret instead of Mary to be the one to appear on the show - probably because she was the eldest one of the two sisters and the age gap wasn’t so big (Mary was 18 and Charles was 31 (ish) when they married. They clearly needed a much older king to make it more dramatic. since if they made it 50 and she around 25, it wouldn’t have had the same impact - another important fact: that king is fictional. Manuel I was the King of Portugal at that time, he was around 50 and he was married to one of the daughters of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my Ted Talk (?) and soon I’ll do another post about other big mistakes that the show made. I don’t post it here because this is already a long-ass post 😂

[kacchanislife]

hi! welcome! my good friend sent me here, so why not? may I please get a scenario of Bakugo's very pregnant s/o that got bitten by a venomous snake and is like a life or death situation? that would be awesome! thank you!

 I got you!!! Also thank you so much for the request, I love you already. I hope I do right by you on this scenario. 

Warnings: angst, cursing, death of a baby/stillborn

Quick mention: this is gonna x reader, so I will be using ‘you’ and stuff!

This totally slipped from my hands, I’m so sorry. I hope you enjoy and that it’s good!

It was just like any other day for you, the same as it always is on a Saturday morning while Bakugou was off being a hero, a stroll through the park (a really lose term you use because it’s more like a miniature forest with a path and some benches) you lived by before getting some sweets from the local bakery. It was getting a little harder for you to do the same walk you always did due to the very present and large bump in your stomach marking you as pregnant. 8 ½ months pregnant to be exact and with a certain explodo man’s child as well. 

So there you were, perfectly content on your stroll through the park, just like every Saturday morning. You pause to take a mouthful of water from the water bottle you brought and enjoy the calm ambiance of the tall trees and grasses around you. It was soothing and a very stark contrast to your husband’s personality, but you do cut him a little slack on that front because he’s been trying very hard with you being pregnant. After taking another gulp of water, you screw the cap back on and resume your walk. The standard Saturday. 

You had nearly finish your walk when you feel a very sudden and sharp pain in your calf. You glance around quickly and before you even you, a pro hero, could comprehend what was happening another sharp sting hits your leg. This time you see exactly what causes the pain, a snake, a Mamushi snake to be exact and you start to freak. Your body finally kicks into high gear and you start sprinting for your life, the nearest hospital is 30 minutes away and you are at least 5 minutes away from any civilization; which doesn’t seem like a long time until you remember that a Mamushi is the most venomous snake in Japan and while only roughly 10 deaths occur a year and you are heavily pregnant. 

You are not only fearing for your life but also your unborn child’s life, which might’ve been the only thing making you sprint faster than you have ever been able to since you being pregnant. You know you don’t have a long time until the venom really starts to kick in and you wished with all your might that for once you weren’t so stubborn about routines and stayed in bed today. Minutes later you came careening into the first person you saw, spluttering, “Call an ambulance!”

No one disagreed with you, a very distraught pregnant woman with hair flying up everywhere. It wasn’t until they saw the blood on your leg did they seem to realize the severity of your distress and the situation. You could see multiple people whip out cellphones and multiple more coming to your side to help you calm down and to wrap the bite mark. Ice in a little baggy was brought to you to press against the bite marks, but you could feel the venom spreading in your body already. It burned and you would no doubt be unable to walk on your leg for weeks. 

Tears flowed down your cheeks as you were carted off to the hospital, the swelling in your leg was worse than the time you broke it and that terrified you. Shaky and sweaty hands texted Bakugou, but you were sure he was already being contacted once they got ahold of your ID. An oxygen mask was put around your face and that was the last thing you remember other than the pain before blacking out. 

—-

It wasn’t until several hours later that you awoke. Your head hurt, your mouth was dry, you leg hurt- in fact your entire body hurt in a way that made you panic. The heart monitor jumped and that’s when you noticed Bakugou, still in his hero outfit, jump up from a chair he was sitting in to hold you in his arms and cry. Yes, your husband who was known as the angriest hero around who never showed a weakness, much less cry, was crying. You were crying then too, holding on to him as tightly as your weakened body would allow you to. 

“You fucking idiot,” came his ragged voice. He clearly had been crying before this too. “What did I fucking tell you? What did I say about that fucking park you love to walk in so much?!” You knew he wasn’t really angry at you, you knew he was more upset at himself than anything that you were ever in any danger- pro hero yourself or not. 

You couldn’t force any words from your throat and only grip him tighter. You were so scared and you were tired and in pain, but he was here and you knew you could get through any of the effects with him by your side. It didn’t help that you noticed a disturbing amount of closeness between the two you, something you haven’t been able to experience since you hit 6 months. 

You didn’t even have to look to know. You just knew, you knew, and you hear the heart monitor rise and start beeping uncontrollably. You lost your child. You felt it in your bones, no wonder your body hurt so much. It was grieving the loss of a part of you. You didn’t want to imagine the pain your baby must’ve been in or how lifeless they looked being pulled from your body. You didn’t want to imagine how Bakugou must’ve felt all by himself seeing it all. 

More tears escaped your eyes and you were sobbing in his arms while his tears dripped into your hair. The noise of feet rushing across the floor hit your ears and soon nurses and a doctor were in the room to see the sad sight. You lost your child and you hadn’t even gotten to see them, you lost them and you still don’t know if they were a boy or a girl because you wanted it to be a surprise. The doctor knew there was not separating Bakugou from you and vice versa, he had to deal with the angry man from the start of the horror, but you did need to calm down and he had nodded to a nurse to administer some sedatives through your IV. 

You saw Bakugou’s pained and tear stained face as you started to lose consciousness again. He kisses you softly on the forehead before whispering a name in your ear as you black out, “Akane.” 

A baby girl. 

[eleanor-writes-stuff]

sign up now for a free trial! [part vi/vii]

Ben catches feelings and decides to take things to the next level with his long-time roommate, close friend, and occasional hook-up. Rey, ever the more sensible half of the duo, decides that they should make sure a relationship between them won’t be a total disaster first.

What they need is a trial run.

Featuring: awkward run-ins with a family member, even more awkward holidays with the whole family, and fluff. So much fluff. All the fluff.

It’s Christmas! In the penultimate chapter of REYLO FLUFF FAMILY FLUFF ALL THE FLUFF: Leia ambushes Rey with questions! Han and Ben nearly ruin Christmas lunch! AND BABY PICTURES, SO MANY BABY BEN PICTURES.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V Also available on AO3.

On Christmas morning, Rey hesitantly ventures down the stairs on her own after a good half hour spent trying to get Ben to keep his eyes open for more than two minutes at a time.

She finds Leia alone in the kitchen, staring out the windows at the far end of the room as she sips on her coffee. It’s just past eight, and it is Christmas morning, but somehow she’s still jarred by the sight of the famed Senator in her pajamas with no make-up and her hair pulled into a single braid.

“Merry Christmas,” Rey says quietly, to keep from shocking the older woman with her presence. To her relief, Leia doesn’t jump or tense; she turns around slowly, a smile blooming on her face as she spots Rey by the doorway.

“Rey,” Leia waves for her to come in. “Merry Christmas. I take it my son is still dead to the waking world?” She turns slightly to her left, and that’s when Rey notices a tray bearing a pot of coffee, five mugs, and a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream.

Leia follows her eyes and offers her a shrug. “Hey, it’s Christmas. If that’s not an excuse to drink in the morning, I don’t know what is. Besides, this barely counts.”

“Oh, no, that’s not… honestly, I think I’ll join you,” Rey tells her, taking a seat opposite Leia. If lunch is going to be anything like the night before, she might as well get a head-start on mellowing out. “And yes, Ben’s still asleep. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him anytime soon.”

“That’s fine with me,” Leia says, sliding her a cup of coffee. “I’ve been wanting to spend some time with you anyway, and God knows there’s no way Ben will let that happen while he’s conscious.”

She’s known Leia for two years now, idolized her for basically half her life, and on top of that her grandfather had always spoken highly and warmly of the woman in front of her. All of that means that while Rey should not fear a quick chat with Ben’s mother, she knows better than to let her guard down around the Senator.

“Oh,” she murmurs, buying herself some time by trying the coffee. It’s warm and sweet, much milder than Poe’s version of Irish coffee which is really just equal parts black coffee and the cheapest whiskey they have on hand. “This is good,” Rey comments, and it’s not even entirely a bid to distract Leia from the coming interrogation.

“Tell that to Han,” Leia snorts. “He takes one look at the stuff and just pours his precious Corellian whiskey into his mug instead.”

“Ben seems equally fond of it,” Rey says unthinkingly, prompted by the memory of a bottle hidden away on the highest shelf in their kitchen.

Leia takes the opening and runs with it, her eyes the tiniest bit narrowed as she leans closer. “So, how long have you two been seeing each other? You don’t have to tell me, of course, but I like to think I would have noticed the difference in him during Thanksgiving if you were already together by then.”

“Difference?”

“He’s… softer, this time. Happier, I think, though I wouldn’t know,” Leia’s voice lowers, and she seems to age right in front of Rey’s eyes as her shoulders slump. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ben happy, not as an adult. It’s gotten better in the last two years, of course, but he was only… content, never really happy.”

Rey thinks of the man she’d first gotten to know when Poe introduced them to his childhood friend, of the quiet, broody new roommate she hadn’t quite gotten along with, of the fact that he apparently used to have nightmares when he first moved in. He’s certainly come a long way since then, but Rey thinks she sees what Leia means.

After all, she’s noticed a similar change in herself this week. That’s not to say that she hadn’t been happy before, or that she’d been miserable until this past week – she’d been content, just like Ben. But now there’s… this feeling of things being right, of that last puzzle piece finally falling into place, of her life being complete.

“But then he shows up for Christmas for the first time in years, and he brings you along, and everything’s just… different, this time,” Leia continues. “I think this is what happiness looks like on my son, and there’s no way I could have missed it when I visited for Thanksgiving, which means this has only been going on for a month, at most. But you two are too comfortable around each other for that,” she mutters, almost as if to herself.

Leia gets the exact same crease in her forehead that Ben does when he furrows his brows, when he’s puzzled or worried or uncertain. Rey wonders if that’s why she gives in, an instinctive response to seeing that familiar look of concern and needing to do something about it.

“It’s been less than a week, actually,” she quietly reveals, focusing on her mug while she tries to come up with an appropriate version of events for Leia. Finally, she settles on, “We’ve been seeing each other casually for a while, and this Saturday Ben suggested that we make it more… permanent.” That’s more or less accurate, isn’t it? “So it’s only been a week,” Rey looks up and meets Leia’s curious eyes, “but at the same time I guess it’s been longer than that.”

She resists the urge to look away or blush or fidget under the weight of Leia’s scrutinizing gaze, and when the other woman finally speaks it’s almost a relief.

Almost.

“Okay, so what you’re saying is… you might have slept with my son before this, but you definitely weren’t together before Thanksgiving, right?”

Rey nearly falls off her chair. “I– no, that’s not– we didn’t–”

Leia dismisses her sputtering and flailing and blushing with a casual wave. “Honestly, Rey, I don’t give a shit about that. Han and I had Ben within a year of getting together, do you really think I’m here to judge you for living in sin with my son?”

“That’s not–”

“Besides, you’re forgetting who you’re talking to. If anyone can understand what you went through, it’s me. Solo men are fun to mess around with,” Leia smirks, she actually smirks, and Rey wishes she’d just stayed in bed and avoided this conversation altogether, “but God is it exhausting to actually be in a relationship with them. I don’t blame you for wanting all the fun and none of the messy parts. Hell, if that had been an option with Han I would’ve gone for it.”

“I… um…” Rey takes a gulp of coffee while she tries to figure out an appropriate response to that. By the time her mug is empty, she’s still speechless.

“Seriously, Rey, forget all of that,” Leia reaches for her cup and pours her a refill. “All I want to know is, did you and Ben properly get together before or after Thanksgiving?”

“Um, after,” she says, taking the cup from Leia. “Just this past Saturday, like I told you.”

Leia’s whole face lights up in delight. “Ha! I knew it!” she exclaims triumphantly, nearly causing Rey to choke on her coffee. But it’s nothing compared to what she says next, her voice smug as can be:

“Luke and Han owe me five hundred dollars.”

Lunch is a small affair compared to the party from the night before, just the four members of the Organa-Solo-Skywalker family along with Chewie, Maz, and Rey.

Leia sits at the head of the table with Han on her left and Luke on her right; Ben sits at the very end of the right side, as far away from his father as possible. Rey sits between him and Luke while Maz takes the seat right across the table, with Chewie between her and Han.

For the first twenty minutes, the clearly planned seating arrangement seems to be working just fine. Maz keeps up a steady stream of conversation with Rey and Ben while the others engage Han in mostly one-sided conversation, and Rey can’t see anything going wrong as long as everyone plays their parts.

And then–

“So, Ben, do you know what you want to do yet?” Maz asks just as there’s a lull in conversation on the other end of the table, and in the sudden silence Han’s quiet snort is deafening.

“Han,” Leia warns him quietly just as Rey places a hand on Ben’s thigh and wills him to stay calm. There’s a moment when he almost looks like he’s about to say something, but he backs down when she murmurs his name and takes her hand in his own instead.

Ben laces their fingers together and turns back to Maz, and the table seems to breathe a silent sigh of relief until–

“What, are we going to pretend the kid can be trusted to make his own choices?” Han grumbles at Leia. “Last time we let him do that, he nearly murdered me.”

Leia is full-on glaring at her husband, and even Luke looks the slightest bit disappointed and weary as he stares Han down. Chewie remains silent, and so it’s left to Maz to try and defuse the tension.

“Han Solo,” she chides, shaking her head at him. “You and your exaggerations. Reminds me of that time you filled my staff’s head with tall tales about–”

“Not now, Maz,” Han cuts her short, finally turning his attention to Ben. “I’d rather hear what the kid’s got up his sleeve this time.”

Rey squeezes Ben’s hand in desperation, turns her body towards him and wishes she were big enough to block the rest of the table out, even briefly considers abruptly pulling him away from the table and leading him back upstairs to cool off.

“I’m not a kid,” Ben growls, and Rey thinks she hears Leia mutter a very quiet well, fuck under her breath.

“Fine, we’ll stop treating you like one then,” Han fires back. “Two years I’ve been pretending that everything’s fine, because your mother told me you’re not ready to talk about it. And now suddenly here you are and we’re supposed to pretend you didn’t try to run me over with your fucking car just because that old creep told you to?”

Ben is shaking with the force of his anger, and there’s nothing she can do to steady him. “I didn’t–” Rey squeezes his hand again and he stops, breathes, lowers his voice. “I didn’t try to run you down. Snoke wanted me to, but I didn’t do it.”

“But you almost did, didn’t you? You followed every single order that piece of shit gave you like his goddamn lapdog,” Han snarls. “You nearly ruined your mother’s career because you were too busy being a blind, stubborn rebel!”

“You would know all about ruining Mom’s career, wouldn’t you, Han Solo the smuggler, the outlaw, the–”

“You goddamn–”

“That’s enough!” Leia snaps, her chair scraping against the floor as she stands. “I will not let that man come between our family again, and you two are idiots if you do. Ben,” she turns to her son with an almost apologetic look. “I know you’ve changed and I know you’re trying to move on and forget all about that, but at some point you’re going to have to at least apologize to your father. I’d ask you two to talk things through, but I stopped believing in miracles a long time ago,” she adds wryly.

“And you!” She turns to Han and slaps his arm, an actual hit if the way her husband flinches is anything to go by. “We’ve discussed this! You know what drove him away the first time, are you really going to make the same mistake twice?”

Han’s eyes flit to Ben before he points his eyes heavenward and crosses his arms. “Fine,” he huffs, taking his own sweet time before he turns to his son. “Sorry I brought this up,” Han mumbles, as though that’s the heart of the matter, as though that solves anything.

At least Ben is gracious enough to let it slide for now. “Sorry I thought about killing you,” he offers in return, and Rey thinks she could live for a hundred years and still not understand Solo men because father and son catch each other’s eye and after a moment, they start laughing.

“S’okay, kid. Hell,” Han chuckles, his voice gruff. “I’d be surprised if there’s anyone at this table who hasn’t thought of killing me.”

Ben turns to Rey, his laughter fading into an amused smile, and the rest of the table follows suit. “I don’t think you’ve given Rey here any reason to hate you… yet.”

“Give it some time,” Chewie suddenly speaks up. “He always finds a way to piss everyone off.”

“What the hell, Chewie?” Han demands with a scowl at his oldest friend, to which Chewie merely shrugs.

Luke launches into a story about that one time he actually came really close to physically strangling Han for one mishap or another, and under the table Ben keeps their hands together.

“You okay?” Rey asks quietly while everyone else is laughing at Luke’s story.

Ben smiles and presses a quick kiss to her hair. “As long as I’ve got you.”

After lunch, Rey is almost scared to leave Ben alone while she helps Leia with the dishes.

“It’ll be fine,” Leia assures her when she picks up on Rey’s reluctance. “Han and Chewie always spend at least an hour in the backyard, drinking and talking and God knows what.”

“Besides,” Luke chimes in, the third member of the clean-up party. “Maz wants to talk to him. That’s the only reason we’re not making him do this too,” he reveals.

“Well, if you think he’ll be okay…” Rey says slowly, watching Ben look away from Maz for just a second to shoot her a smile.

“Okay, look,” Leia reaches out and pulls Rey into the kitchen, her voice the slightest bit impatient. “Do you or do you not want us to show you embarrassing childhood pictures? Because Maz can only keep him distracted for so long.”

Rey blinks, and then a slow smile spreads across her face. “Well, in that case…”

She and Luke get started on rinsing the dishes and loading them in the dishwasher while Leia retrieves the photo albums she’d hidden in the kitchen earlier today for this exact purpose. “It’s the first time he’s ever brought a girl home,” Leia explains when she catches Rey watching her. “This is my only chance to do all the embarrassing mom things a mother is supposed to do when her son starts dating.” She finally pulls out the last of the albums, and Luke tells Rey to go ahead and get started while he finishes up with the dishes.

“We’ve got a lot of material and very little time,” Leia says, selecting the first of seven albums. “And no matter how badly you want to, do not laugh out loud. That’ll definitely make him suspicious.”

It’s all a lot of fuss over something that doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to her, but then Rey catches sight of the first baby Ben picture and knows she’ll do anything Leia says if that means seeing all of these.

The pictures are arranged in chronological order, and the first album is limited to Ben’s infancy. Ben, squishy and red and still not quite used to being in this world. Ben, slowly looking more like a tiny person who came from Leia and Han. Ben, with his familiar ears and eyes and curls. Ben, learning to smile and laugh and crawl.

“His first word was dada,” Leia whispers as the pictures slowly move to Ben’s second year of life, a soft smile on her face as she traces the outline of her tiny son stumbling towards his father on wobbly legs.

Luke puts one hand on his sister’s shoulder in a silent show of support, and Leia shakes the memory off and goes back to sharing all of young Ben’s mishaps. Rey watches him start to resemble the man she knows today, watches him start preschool and meet Poe (she snaps a few pictures on her phone for Finn) and build race car tracks with his father. She watches as Leia starts appearing less and less in the photos and something inside Ben breaks, too, but those observations she keeps to herself.

They’re just about to move on to Ben’s third year in elementary school when the man himself enters the kitchen, face drawn in suspicion as Leia immediately closes the album.

“What are you guys doing?”

“Nothing,” Leia says easily, stacking the albums up and collecting the pile in her arms. “Just talking about how you and Rey should come visit more often–”

“Are those photo albums?” Ben lunges forward and snatches one from his mother before she can move out of the way. “What the fuck, Mom?” He demands upon flipping the album open to find a picture of his awkward seventh-grade self.

Leia shrugs. “Rey deserves to know every part of you,” she sniffs, setting the albums back down. “Besides, she thinks they’re adorable, don’t you, Rey?”

“You were the cutest baby ever,” Rey grins, reaching for the first album. “Look at you!” She flips to a random page and holds the album up to Ben, pointing at a picture of him laughing directly into the camera, all chubby cheeks and gummy smile. “I have literally never seen a baby this adorable.”

Ben’s ears start to flush, but it’s nothing compared to the matching blushes that tint their cheeks cherry red when Leia casually says, “Oh, just wait till you see your own. All parents think their babies are the cutest.”

Rey meets Ben’s eyes for just a second before she turns back to the album and pretends to be utterly engrossed in it, but it doesn’t help that the smiles in the pictures remind her of the soft, barely-there smile she’d glimpsed on his face in that split-second, doesn’t help that now she’s picturing a baby with his hair and her eyes.

“What is this I hear about babies?” Maz asks, finally wandering into the kitchen in search of Ben. “Leia Organa, you slow your horses. Rey is only twenty, and she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“What? I didn’t say anything–” Leia claims innocently, drawing a scoff from Maz and a quiet chuckle from Luke. “Okay, fine. Who wants to see more pictures of Ben?” She holds up another album.

Ben groans, his ears now thoroughly red as he steps forward and takes the album Rey was looking at. “If you guys are going to embarrass me, I’d like to at least be there to defend myself.”

That’s how they end up in the living room, all of them sitting on the floor while they pass albums around and Ben does his best to filter which photos actually get to Rey. There are less and less pictures as time goes by, to the point that nearly all of Ben’s teenage years are contained in one album, and he makes a point of quickly snatching that one up and sitting on it for the rest of the evening.

“Maybe next time,” he eventually tells a persistent Rey, and they both know it’s not lost on his family that he’s just implied there’ll be a next time. For once, though, the twins show some discretion and don’t comment on it, and Maz merely smiles approvingly at them.

When Han and Chewie finally join them, the pictures begin to come with more stories – all the blanks Leia stopped being able to fill in after Ben turned six, all the memories only Han was there to witness. Eventually the albums are forgotten as the evening turns into Luke, Leia, and Han reminiscing about the old days, with Chewie occasionally jumping in to correct Han here and there.

They end up having dinner right there in the living room, everyone balancing plates and cups on their laps while conversation flows. With her side pressed against Ben’s, Rey can’t help but notice how comfortable he is, how every part of him is as relaxed as can be, how freely he smiles and laughs and speaks.

At some point after dinner they find themselves squished into a too-small loveseat, Ben’s arm around her as she rests her head on his shoulder. Maz takes the armchair, Luke remains cross-legged on the carpet, and the other three take the couch. Someone suggests a movie, and then a while later there are cards and board games, and much later there are murmured conversations and warm drinks.

Rey burrows closer to Ben, smiles sleepily as she feels a laugh rumble in his chest at something his father said, and allows herself to drift off to sleep.

The next morning they leave right after breakfast, with Rey promising Leia she’ll definitely come back soon and Ben tentatively extending an offer for Han to call him if he’s ever in Coruscant.

As they drive past the We hope you come back to Alderaan soon! / Welcome to Takodana! sign, Ben turns to her with a smile.

“So, did we pass the ultimate relationship test?” he asks, his eyes flitting between her and the road as if it’s not that important of a question, his voice carefully casual as if the answer doesn’t mean everything to him.

But his eyes are nervous when they meet hers, and there’s the slightest hint of insecurity in his smile, and his voice carries an undertone of fear – because of course this means everything.

Her heart is warm with the memory of his arms around her and full with something she’s not sure she’s ready to name, but they have time now. Time for her to name those feelings, time for him to admit why this is so important, time for them to figure out their future together.

Rey smiles and reaches for his hand, waits for him to look at her before she declares, “I think we’re going to be just fine.”

This is a bit later than usual - sorry about that! Daily updates are really starting to take a toll on me, but that's okay because we've only got one chapter left anyway.

This was both a joy and a monster to write, and at 3700+ words it's the longest chapter this fic will ever get. There's so much I wanted to include in this that didn't end up making the cut, and so much that was never in the original draft but just came to me as I was writing. I hope the final version is one you'll all find satisfactory.

All that's left now is the weekend, I suppose. It's really more of an epilogue than a chapter, but we will be getting a more detailed explanation about Snoke and Ben's past, in case that was driving anyone crazy. We'll also have them sit down and tentatively discuss a long-term plan, because I'll be damned if I leave these two without setting them up for a long and happy life together first.

As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting. You guys have really been the driving force behind my output this week, and it's been such a joy to write for you. Feel free to reach out if you’ve got any thoughts/comments/reactions you’d like to share.