#like all these moments are just like painkillers which numb the pain for a few hours and then the pain will be back

[anticapitalistclown]

Clownie can I request lookism boys helping their s/o on their period. Like their s/o is having heavy flow and keeps ruining pants and underwear (samuel, gun, Jake, and any other characters you would like the add) tysm 😊

omg sure!

Samuel, Gun and Jake helping reader on their period, scenarios

Samuel

You were feeling terrible, your legs were numb, your head was giving you a stabbing pain, your ovaries were absolutely killing you and on top of that, you had the heaviest flow, all of that made you feel like you could die.

With all your efforts, you walked through your apartment in order to throw your stained pants inside the washing machine. A stabbing pain made you crouch down on the floor, just in time for your boyfriend to come in.

Samuel was fast, and he caught you with his arm, you grabbed at him and gave him an apologetic look "today I'm not feeling really well to go out, got my period, sorry" you never knew when or how your emotionally unavailable boyfriend would surprise you "I know" Samuel gave you a plastic bag, inside there were different chocolates and candies also a lot of sanitary products "I don't really know which ones you use, so I bought the ones with best reviews".

Your eyes became teary, you couldn't hide your emotions "Samueel" you sobbed "I love you a lot" Samuel sighted and smiled "what would be of you without me?" and there it was, his lil shit side of him, even though this time you couldn't deny that this detail was actually so helpful "thank you a lot" he denied "it's nothing".

You threw your pants into the washing machine, Samuel giving you some advice about how to remove blood stains, and then you both cuddled on the sofa, watching some TV and you enjoying your candies, maybe this man is the chosen one?

Gun

You are one of the few lucky ones that can visit his place, you are dating after all, and even though you both barely have been dating two months, the previous friendship and connection made him trust completely in you. So when Gun asked you to come over his place, you always appreciated that trust and went, even if your period is killing you inside.

You were talking to him while he was making dinner, in a moment a stabbing pain made you crouch down, your wince of pain alerted him, Gun rushed next to you helping you to stand up he was confused until he saw your hands traveling on your lower stomach, knowing the source of your pain made him feel more relieved "do you need some painkillers?" you nodded "sorry" you tried your best to not ruin your date, yet your body was betraying you, Gun rushed to the shelf where he keeps the medicine "if you don't mind I'll go to the bathroom" Gun nodded "sure".

You went to the bathroom, yet your period gave you another obstruction to make your date go well, you looked frustrated at your stained pants and underwear "shit" Gun knocked on the door "are you alright? I have a glass of water and the meds" he opened the door, but you stopped him "wait, things got messy" Gun sighted and opened the door, you forgot your boyfriend is stronger.

Gun arched an eyebrow, "this little stain is the mess?" you nodded to him with a pout, your cheeks red from the embarrassment. Gun gave you the glass of water and the painkiller "give me your clothes, I'll wash them, and I'll give you something from my closet" you gave him your clothes "if you're uncomfortable I can clean it myself" too late, Gun already took your clothes "do I look like some blood will gross me out?" you lowered your head "get in the shower I'll join you in a few minutes" you lifted your head your eyes sparkling, making him smile, Gun gave a peck to your forehead "I love you" you mumbled, he kissed your lips "get comfortable, I'm your boyfriend, ok?"

Jake

Jake's love language is acts of service, knowing that a little detail can just make your life easier, make you happy, motivates him to keep caring for you. So when you texted him, "I'm on my period :(" it just took minutes for him to appear at your place with all the supplies you needed: chocolates, painkillers, sanitary products...

You welcomed him with a big hug, his arms lifting you and taking you to the living room, I love yous falling from both your mouths "I love you, I love you a lot" Jake laughed and hugged you tightly "I love you a lot too" you gave tiny pecks to all his face, your man just felt so proud of himself for making you happy.

You ordered him to sit at the sofa, and you started to arrange the products he just bought "but I want to help" you scolded him "you helped enough, don't make me angry" Jake sighted "alright" he looked at how you arranged everything and then he spotted a little stain "babe" you kept organizing "hm?" "don't get upset, but you have a stain on your pants" you froze, your cheeks were burning and you just looked so upset "again?" you cried "this is the third I ruined today" oh poor baby, Jake's heart broke at your expression he quickly got up from the sofa and reached you, his hands caressing your cheeks "It's okay love, Sinu taught me how to clean blood properly, I'll wash it, fine?" you nodded "fine" he smiled "then we can cuddle" you hugged him "I need your hugs".

[tar-thelien]

Chapter 4 of Rethië

Summary:

Maedhros request some candles before panicking and Fingon gets to talk with Fingolfin TW: flashback to Alqualondë (Fingon)

Words: 1667

Fingon´s POV

Findecáno attempted to sneak a glance at Nelyafinwe, who was tossing and turning. Yet every time Nelyafinwe noticed Findecáno looking, he paled even more and started to hyperventilate, and tears of fear welled up in his eyes. Paralyzed with fright, he would remain motionless for what seemed to Findecáno like an hour had passed.

He easily found himself wishing they could have brought one of the grand wall clocks from the bustling streets of Tirion along them.

Nelyafinwe had made the decision, the day after receiving praise from Findecáno regarding his health that he no longer required any medication. He started declining any food that carried medicine he could smell out, gazing at Findecáno as if waiting for approval. Although his behavior was tiring Findecáno tried to not make it show and just smiled a half smile down at him. He hoped this behavior was a sign of independence, but he couldn´t shake away the back thought that it was something deeper.

In an attempt to make it easier for all involved, the healers had tried to withhold medication from his meals a few days earlier. Initially, this tactic proved successful for a brief period, but soon Nelyafinwe found himself back in severe agony, so much that he couldn´t even breathe without whimpering, and shortly thereafter, his anguish became so intense that he had exhausted himself to the point where he was no longer able to express his pain but small spasms and whimpers. The agonizing wait for the medication to take effect, when they hurriedly gave him some again, was a harrowing experience for them all.

Thankfully the healers had been able to make a stronger numbing cream and had sneaked some painkillers into the tea without being noticed after he had smelled it out in his soup.

"Russo, is something bothering you? You seem troubled," he inquired as Nelyafinwe's left arm, which had been seized by what appeared to be a severe cramp, finally ceased to lay weakly by the high king´s side.

Nelyafinwe wearily strained his neck to glance at him before swiftly averting his gaze and stubbornly shaking his head. His tired eyes conveyed a sense of exhaustion and reluctance as he refused to meet Findecáno´s face.

"Come Nelyo, something is weighing on your mind," Findecáno attempted to lighten the mood with a laugh, as if wanting to laugh all the worries and troubles away, "please tell me so that I may offer my assistance and support."

Slowly turning his body to lean forward Findecáno´s chair Nelyafinwe began murmuring, “light… light so bright.”

Findecáno inquired with a puzzled expression, "is the brightness causing you discomfort?" as moments passed in silence with nothing happening, Nelyafinwe's began to nod eagerly.

Humming Findecáno pondered the situation carefully. Nelyafinwe, being of Valinor descent, was supposed not to be bothered by the light, yet memories of when the radiant Anar rose after Isil haunted him. Many of his people had suffered from, what they called it, light sickness, an illness that targeted the eyes, and in severe instances, even the skin, causing it to blister. Thankfully it was fast to cases and once you had had it you didn´t get it again. But then again, the high king's tent only source of light was the occasionally opened opening, to the main part of the tent, and a few dim lanterns. Adding to the intrigue, Nelyafinwe's secluded abode within the Bell Tent, set apart until his complete recovery, was partitioned off by a thick fabric wall from the main area reserved by healers for storage and Findecáno's space, typically used as his lounge or a meeting room and never was Nelyafinwe´s part open while the opening in the main tent where to, so he had only seen Anar when on the cliff.

“I can switch the lanterns out with some candles?” he asked tryingly, Findecáno himself didn´t want the only light to come from their eyes, too much like the ice, and it couldn´t be healthy to Nelyafinwe, with all the time he had spent in the dark iron halls, “I will do that, yes! But I will have to leave you alone for a short moment, is that alright Nelyo, you just stay there and I´ll be back, yes.”

Hurrying out to search for candles, he was unexpectedly blocked on his way by his father just as he emerged from one of the supply tents. The hurried mission to acquire candles was abruptly interrupted by the presence of his father, who waited for him right outside the tent with an emotionless expression plastered to his long face.

"Yón," Nolofinwe interrupted Findecáno just as he was on the verge of leaving the shadowy tent, asking, "have you been with Russondol?"

read the rest on AO3

[iamdrowninghelpme98]

Entry 2:

2023

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been 23 days since my daughter died, and I feel completely shattered. My therapist suggested I try typing out how I feel, so I guess this will be like my anonymous online journal, a place to pour out all the things I can’t say out loud. The truth is, I’m devastated. I’m numb from the painkillers, but somehow the pain still seeps through, cutting into me like a knife. There’s no escape from it, no matter how hard I try.

I haven’t had my phone in months. My husband took it away while I was pregnant, saying it would only add to my stress, which wasn’t good for the baby. What a load of bullshit. It wasn’t about stress—it was just another way to isolate me, to make sure I had no one but him. I had to go through my entire pregnancy alone, trapped in the house with no one to talk to, no one to reach out to. He barely let me leave, and the one time I managed to sneak out for a walk, he punished me by tying me to the bed with a rope. He left me there for a week. Eventually upgrading me to a longer rope, I could reach the bathroom finally at that point. I’ve never felt so pitiful and shameful in my life. He says he doesn’t trust me and wants to keep our baby safe. 

My husband is mean. He is cruel.

He left me to deliver our daughter alone. He left me alone in the hospital surrounded by unfamiliar people, random doctors and nurses, he left me to go get high. It was agonizing, and I had no one. I was in pain the whole time, I didn’t understand what was happening, what was wrong. I had just felt my baby moving around inside only days prior, and now they’re telling me that something has happened, she is gone. When they placed her in my arms I knew that would be our first and last moment together, if there were a chance of saving her they would have rushed her off immediately to be treated by the doctors- but that’s not what happened, the room was silent, no cries from my little girl, just silence as they placed her on my chest, no quick motions to save her life, just silence. She was already gone.

I can’t remember how long I held her, it was hours. Not long enough though. 

Eventually my husband came back, he was high and silent. I couldn’t stand the silence any longer, I wanted someone to cry with me, to acknowledge the pain I was feeling, but he sat there barely looking at me, barely looking at our daughter. He had betrayed me many times before, but it was then in that silence that I knew we would never recover from this. I would never forgive him for leaving me during my worst moments, for leaving our daughter.

They kept me in the hospital for a couple days, my husband never returned to be by my side, after the first night I only saw him again when he had returned to pick me up, I left there without my baby, the only thing in hand was a death certificate and the promise of receiving her ashes eventually. 

I was out of the hospital for less than 30 minutes before I had a needle in my arm again. So yes world, I relapsed, I have given up. My husband knows, I haven’t told anyone else- honestly there’s no one left who cares anyway. My family has long since moved on without me, and my “unofficial adopted family” doesn’t like me anymore, everyone can see I’m more trouble than I’m worth.

After being off my phone for so long, it feels like the world has moved on without me. No one even bothers to message me anymore, probably assuming I’ve disappeared for good. I’m still here though, is there anyone out there? I’m stuck in this dark, lonely place, trying to find a way out but feeling like I never will. The loneliness is suffocating, and I don’t know how much more I can take.

I’ve spent the last few weeks curled into a ball on the floor of what should be my daughter’s nursery. 

I want to die. 

I want to die. 

I want to die.

[someonestole15]

It takes about the half-life of Polonium for me to write one post.

Dead are not silent.

In the dead of night, you can truly hear their whispers, each of them asking the same question. Why in a million years would I be the one to leave so soon? I keep thinking on an answer to that question but so far, I have found nothing but static, dead air. Radio crackling from the dying signal, I allowed it to slip loose from my grip and fall into the void beneath me. Bright light ahead, forming into a console somewhere within my OS.

>>CPU impact detected, checking system status... >>Unit condition compromised, Damage within acceptable limits. Proceeding with reboot

From my dreams back to reality, a voltage coursed from my powercells through to my heart and CPU, kick starting everything and sending most sensors to 11. Hurts like hell, I tried to keep my breathing calm as the shock faded into a blissful numbness with the safeties cutting off the data flow. Sensory input returning slowly and the numbness subsiding, I hazily got on one knee as my gyroscopes started calibrating. Which way is down, gravity pull this way so that must be it, right, now how does one walk again...

Systems calibrating to my weight, one leg at a time I stood myself up and took in the surroundings, my scanners painting the forest around me in wireframe before the optical systems finally calibrated, allowing color to return to my vision. Rain, navigations messed up so no idea how we got here, I patted down my jacket and noticed my pistol and shotgun were still in their place and the hazmat suit, despite a few scuffs, was still intact.

Booting up my scanners, I felt them spin around for a bit inside my skull before settling in to the front and scanning the zones around me. No active hostiles, the scan came up with four tags near me, it took a moment for the identifier to read their tags. Rest of X-ray, status: alive, a faint sigh of relief got through my filters as I glanced up to see cooling towers visible above the trees at a range of approx. 300m, my rangefinder could not get an accurate reading.

Slow and steady to where Valkyrie was lying, the rest of squad not far from her. Red visible even through the hazmat gear and her scanners quietly ticking away, I gently pulled her over to her side and gently shook her.

“Hey, you better not be dead on me.”

 “Who...” Dazed but alive, she grabbed onto my jacket shortly before identifying me. “Oh it’s you. Where were you, what happened?”

“Not sure, seems I caught a close look at a rifle stock if I read my logs correctly.” I responded as I gave her my hand and helped her up.

“We had a similar tale from what I can remember; the security team took us down as soon as we got out of the range of the cameras.”

“Things are not adding up, but we have more important things to figure out what is going on.”

“Alright, I got your six.” She said while racking back the slide on her handgun, the faint red glow from her eye shining through the mask.

Speculation as the only thing to rely on, we moved from marker to marker, waking up our remaining squad members. One by one, the tracker on my HUD filled up and once we had all five, we took shelter near a service cabin close to the edge of the clearing, using the piled up logs as cover. Rations and medical kits to recover and bind up the few wounds, the weather started to clear up but the mood in the squad was clearly down.

“So now what?” Oscar asked, grabbing the pack of smokes from his vest pocket once again.

“I need to think... What did you find inside?” Richter asked, holding onto his bandaged arm. Likely painful even if just a graze, it would take a moment for the painkillers to kick in.

“It was more than a leak, the entire section was contaminated and the traces were consistent with a chemical weapon we found on that haul a few weeks back.”

“Right, they knocked us out once we were out of camera range... Played me like I was some damn boy scout.” Richter said with bitterness in his voice and pacing around, kicking away small rocks and sticks as he walked.

“Breathe. Don’t get angry, get even.”

“Even? All right... We need to get through to Control.”

“I think... Yes, I am getting a signal through; whatever they were using for jamming is not active anymore.” Diana said, followed by a round of testing from the rest of us. Hazy signal but it did connect; Richter grabbed hold of his radio with a pained grunt before switching over to his working arm.

“Control, this is X-ray, do you copy?”

“Control copies, thought we lost you X-ray.”

“Situation update, stand by.”

“Copy, send traffic.”

Traffic sent, data packages from smaller pieces coming together, the radio remained quiet until Richter had relayed all the information, responding only with a quiet “Copy that.”

“X-ray, this is Control. Listen up; it is clear from what you said that the mission objective could still be completed. We will dispatch a backup team to assist in both containing the hazardous materials and securing the plant. Going to be a hell of debrief...”

“Roger that control, what are our orders?”

“Secure the front gate for a rendezvous with the backup team and continue operation Pale Flame. We’ll look into who or what might have caused the guards to turn on a rear echelon unit.”

“Got it, X-ray out.” Richter said into his radio before turning to the rest of us. “You heard the man. We will secure the front gate for our backup unit. Phoenix, are you able to take point?”

“Ready and able.”

“Good, rest of you, spread out and cover the flanks. Clear? Good, execute.”

An arrow cutting across the clearing and onto the forest road leading back towards the plant, scanners like flashlights leaving no place to hide as the road beneath our boots shifted from gravel to dirt and finally asphalt. Arriving at a row of garages and shutter doors, we cleared corners and moved through the area, avoiding a few blocked off paths and reaching the road leading to the plant itself. Short jog from here to the reactor complex, I grabbed cover as Richter gave the command to halt.

“Anything on the scanners?”

“All quiet.”

“Same here.”

“I would have expected a patrol by now, something is certainly not right.

“That many guards for a lone power plant... ”

“Take cover. Time to kick the hornets’ nest.” Richter said under his voice as he drew his pistol and removed the magazine, firing one shot towards the sky. Echoing throughout the forests and sending a flock of birds scattering from the trees, I could hear the faint clicking from my sling mounts as we waited for anything to appear on the scanners. Loud to silent again, the wind rustling the fabric on my jacket and nothing on the scanners, just as on the way here.

“Clear. Double time, head on a swivel.”

Steady pace across the opening and into the plant complex, we double-timed it across the parking lots and access paths until we reached the front gate. Our truck was still parked there, partially covered by a blue tarp, almost as if someone had tried to hide it. Security cameras and motion trackers offline beyond the fence, the container command outpost had been dismantled, but the handler was nowhere to be seen. After confirming that the gatehouse was empty, we kept our eyes on the plant and waited for the backup team to arrive.

Boot tapping gently against the concrete to the beat of the track, my scanners picked up movement along the road. Pause, the faint hum of an engine reached my audio systems as the radio signal came through.

“X-ray, this is Gamma, do you copy?”

“This is X-ray, we hear you.”

“Copy, we are approaching now, how’s the situation at the gate?”

“Gate is clear.”

“Glad to hear X-ray, Gamma out.”

Faint humming to a low-pitched growl as an APC pulled through the gate and parked up near the middle of the parking lot, deploying a squad of CTO soldiers before a large transport truck followed it in. Hauling what I would guess to be a mobile laboratory, it passed us and stopped behind the APC, deploying a smaller crew of CTO soldiers, one of them wearing an orange armband over his dark hazmat suit.

“2-2 takes security. 2-3, on me.” Voice muffled by the mask and with an electronic buzz to it, the man seemed to be quite carefree despite the situation at hand.

“Looks like we got here just in time, you haven’t burned the place down just yet. Lieutenant Ryan Gray, Gamma squad command, here to assist.”

“Glad to have you Gray, I trust Barnett gave you the details?”

“Chemical weapon on the loose and we’re here to help in containing it. We gathered the ones who weren’t busy or dying, so you got all hands of 2-3.”

“We managed to secure a scan of a sample before the guards turned on us, shouldn’t take too long to work out what works.” Diana said, pulling up the chemical formula on her PDA.

“Alright, Davis and Carlson, lend her a hand. Richter, stage is all yours.”

“We had a team recon the inside of the plant. So far, it seems the contamination is localized inside this section of labs here.” Richter explained while setting up a small holographic mapping tool and pulling up the plants blueprints on it.

“These kinds of laboratories usually have an external sprinkler access point, so all we have to do is locate it once we have figured out what we need.”

“External, so outside... It seems to be clear out here but we cannot be sure about the inside. If the security team is hunkered down in there, they could potentially cause more harm than just a chemical leak.”

“Indeed, I think we form three teams, one per reactor and secure them. We have enough soldiers to have at least three soldiers from 2-2 in the squads.”

“I’ll take one.”

“You sure Richter?”

“I’m sure; a busted wing is not going to keep me down.”

 “Full of piss and vinegar that one... All right, two more.”

“I’ll take a team; I was on the team doing internal recon so I have a basic layout in my memory.”

“I didn’t catch your name.”

“Phoenix.”

“Think I’ve heard that somewhere... If Richter is fine with it, then so am I.”

“All yours. Bring them back alive.”

“Will do.”

“Oscar, I want you on the third team.”

“Yep, I might be a bit rusty on the team leading but I’ll give it a run.

Plan coming together, we divided into our teams and rearmed, the empty medical kits to full and damage to the equipment patched together. Richter in charge of Alpha, me running as the lead for Beta and Oscar taking Gamma’s name for his squad, easing up the communications as everyone behind was now under the X-ray squad marker.

Cassander, Alexander and Demetrius, three old kings lending their names to the three reactors inside, I felt the faint feeling of claustrophobia creeping in as my filters settled in place and the squad communications came online. Richter’s team headed for Cassander and Oscars made their way to the Demetrius, leaving Alexander for us, I reminded myself of the basics of squad commands and took point with Valkyrie and the rest of the squad behind me. Trust takes time and I am glad to see Richter having enough to let me run this squad in here, Ryan stayed behind with the laboratory and comms, losing both our contacts to the CTO command, although not something I’d do every day... I have enough in keeping Valkyrie and myself alive, having a third member ended up in a dead dog. Shake myself back to reality; we got a job to do.

Déjà vu walking across the corridors, a trail of dusty footsteps still visible on the floors although faintly, we made our way through with multiple red warning lights and a low tone alarm making the entire area feel more eerie than before. Reports of warnings and alarms matching what we heard from the other teams, we carried on deeper inside the utility corridor; the radiation readings remained low, almost too low even for an inactive reactor.

Blast door spanning across the corridor, bringing us to a halt, the squad took positions to guard the rear and sides while I pointed one of the soldiers to open the door via the terminal.  Quick fingers and equipped with the required access keys, the soldier, tagged on my HUD as Fox, got through the doors security and unlocked it.

“Nice job Fox. Pack up, we’re moving.” Valkyrie and two others through the door, Fox stopped me before I could pass through and handed me their tablet.

“Sir, I think you’ll want to see this.”

“Lay it on me, what am I looking at?”

“I managed to get into the main control systems to see the reactor status and the percentage there shows zero fuel.”

“What?”

“All the control rods are fully deployed and the turbines are slowing down, likely running on trace steam from the reactors cooling system. It will likely last a few more hours but after that this place will go dark.”

“And no sign of the security teams anywhere... There is no way they could have hauled off that amount of fissile material so either they are still in the core or moving it out now. Let’s get a move on, relay this to the other teams.”

“On it sir.”

Past the blast door and through a few security doors, we reached the reactor control room. Servers recording data in separate rooms and more switches than there are days in a year, another pair of soldiers, tagged as BAT and HOUND, split up and started running down the reactor checklist. No direct access to the reactor core but a large steel shutter covering the window with several radiation warnings and instructions written on it, I felt the faint buzz of radiation emanating through it.

“Can you get this shutter open?”

“Working on it, the system keeps locking out on me.” Hound stated, tapping on the keyboard and responding to Bat as they ran down the checklist. Eyes darting across the screens, Hound finally let out a sigh as he tapped enter one more time and the shutter started opening.

“There, this thing is antique. Bat, next item.”

“Right, next on the list is...”

Small increase in radiation on the scanners but again, not enough to match a running reactor, the core hanged from the mounts above a pool of coolant with all of its shielding open, the control rods lowered and all the spots where the fuel was supposed to be, empty. Therefore, the data was right, and with no guards in sight, it was as if they had taken the fuel with them, running the possibilities through my head, I grabbed hold of my radio and contacted Richter.

 “Richter, it’s Phoenix, we got an empty reactor housing here.”

“Same over here Phoenix, zero fuel. Logs say it was running this morning so there had to be fuel here.”

“Oscar, anything on your end?”

“Same with our reactor, no rods.”

“Roger that, secure any information and logs you can find then bring the reactor to a shutdown state. After that, rendezvous back at the front gate. Richter out.”

“You heard the man, pull the plug and copy the drives.”

“On it.”

Voice over the PA, announcing the reactor shutdown protocol before the shielding lowered back into place and reducing the radiation readings to near zero. Bat and Hound brought the reactor down and confirmed the shutdown had been completed and everything related to the core was in standby, would not want the pumps flooding the place with nothing to cool down.

Needle back to zero, terminals scoured for information and sensors recorded before securing the control room with rolls of warning tape and leaving the facility, reuniting with the rest of the team and meeting back up with them by the front gate.

Cataclysm event incoming with 26 tons of nuclear material missing, I do not want to see someone setting this place on fire.

Then again...

Hey there, sorry I've been gone again.

Life has been a lot for a while now and I am battling writers block even as I post this. Being sick and having no voice from the coughing left me with few options for things to do, so here I am.

The heat is also getting to me but staying hydrated has somewhat helped with that and I urge you to do the same.

Starting up the next post soon enough, hopefully the waiting time between then and now won't be that long.

Catch you later. Harry

[satoransky]

.

[deepwoundsandfadedscars]

I wish you'd write a fic where cal kestis falls off a cliff and gets hurt while exploring and his friends search for him desperately before it's too late 👀

What should've been a short writing exercise became a month long 1,800 word fic, I apologize for taking so long but in my defense I've only had 5 days off in that month and 10-16 hour long work days 😆 Hope you enjoy, and thank you for the prompt 💚

Read on Ao3!

He woke to a shrill beep and something nudging against his hand. When he managed to pry open his eyes,  a small vial with bright green fluid rested in the palm of his limp hand and he could see two more in the grass next to it. It was familiar, he knew he needed to do something with it, but the pain radiating up and down his spine and around his torso was too intense. A little droid bounced from one foot to another until it squatted down and pushed against his fingers with its head again. He curled his fingers as much as he could and tried to bring it closer to his face to investigate with blurry eyes.

The tiny movement made pain explode through his neck and he succumbed to the blackness again.

The next time he wakes there’s a voice in his ear, slightly out of breath but speaking calmly. A woman's voice, he knows she sounds familiar but he’s so disoriented he can’t put a name or a face to it. The words don’t make sense either, like his brain isn’t keeping them in the correct order as they travel from the device in his ear and all the way into his mind. Slowly it starts to fall into an order that makes a little bit of sense.

“It’s okay, Cal. I just need you to wake up. Merrin and I are almost there.”

There? Where is there? Does she mean here? Where he is? Where is here? It’s dark, wherever here is. Or are his eyes closed? He can’t gather the strength to even test that theory. Is she even talking to him? She said Cal, is he Cal? That sounds right… 

He hears that beeping and trilling again, somewhere nearby. It makes the pain in his head spike, a little bit too loud. Somehow the woman must be able to hear it and her voice returned. “BD, he’s awake? Are you sure? Cal, can you hear me? Say something, please.”

She had to have been talking to him, right? Now if only he could put words together…

He managed a groan, which was apparently all she needed to hear. “Cal!" Too loud, which makes him groan again.  "Hey, stay awake for me, okay? We’re here, we’re right above you!”

Above? That doesn’t make sense… And there goes that beeping again…

There were two soft thumps, one in front of him and the other on the ground behind him where he felt a presence there moments before a hand landed on his upper arm.  “Oh Cal…” The voice he heard in his ear was real this time, not being distorted by the comm link anymore. She was right here, he could see who it was if he just managed to open his eyes. But he was so tired, and everything hurt, it would take too much effort…

A warm hand gently pried his fingers open, removing the small vial he had forgotten about from his hand and shortly after there was a hiss and warmth flooded his arm. He sighed as the painkiller worked quickly, the sharp pains in his head and spine turning to a dull numbness, and relaxed further into the grass. Even without being able to move he hadn’t realised how the pain had kept every muscle in his body so tense.

He revelled in the numbness for a few minutes, feeling like he was almost floating somewhere above his own body, separate from the injuries that still riddled it. He could hear quiet murmurs nearby and the occasional trilling beep. 

Slowly he came back to himself and noticed the sensation of someone rubbing their hand up and down his arm. The same person was quietly pleading with him to wake up again. He heard more than felt the quiet hiss as they administered another vial, this time in his thigh. Opening his eyes didn’t feel like such a daunting task anymore and he finally managed to drag them open just as the voice said something else he didn’t quite catch. His field of vision was mostly green grass and black dirt, some of which was wet with red. He couldn’t think of why, but it didn’t seem like a good thing.

He managed to turn his head ever so slightly and the little droid leapt nearly a foot into the air, beeping happily. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned further to see two blurry figures quickly swapping places around him. The figure in front of him dropped to their knees and leaned close to his face. Recognition followed by relief flooded his mind as her face came into focus and he let his head thump onto the ground again. “Cere…” 

A pained smile flickered across her face and she squeezed his arm. “We’re here. Try to stay still.”

In spite of her request he craned his neck to see who knelt behind him and he caught a glimpse of Merrin’s familiar green magick. She conjured a small cloud around her right hand and placed it against the back of his neck, placing her other hand on his cheek so he wouldn't turn any further. The hand on his neck slowly trailed downward, he could feel the magick slipping along his spine, like the pins and needles feeling he got in his legs when he meditated for too long.

Her hand on his cheek was cool and grounding. He tested moving his hand and when nothing instantly screamed in pain at the movement, he raised it to wrap fingers around her hand, holding it in place. She squeezed his fingers in response and he closed his eyes again, waiting for her to finish. 

“He has broken ribs and strained muscles, but I don’t sense any damage to his spinal cord.”

He heard Cere exhale heavily, as though she had been waiting with baited breath for the Nightsisters report. He had to agree with her relief, he couldn’t tell on his own, numb as he was. The pain had been overwhelming and blinded him to any particular focal point, and now with the painkilling numbness of the stimpack, he couldn’t say for sure. His head still felt floaty, as though if he just allowed himself to, he would fall asleep right then and there.

He felt Cere’s hand on his forehead, pushing his hair back and he wearily opened one eye to look up at her. 

“Can you move your legs?”

He closed his eye again and let his head turn back towards the dirt, brow furrowed as he thought about it. “‘m tired.” 

“I know you are, but I just want to check. Can you try?”

It took a moment for him to focus, but he managed to wiggle the toes of his boots, scratching divots in the mud. 

“Good, that’s really good Cal.” 

He hummed and started to drift off, satisfied in a job well done, as little as it had been. One of them was carefully moving his hair, and the familiarity was a lulling comfort. Before he could fully fall asleep again the side of his head was suddenly shrouded in warmth and his eyes flew open in surprise, looking up to find Merrin’s hand gently pressing down the edges of a bacta patch over his head wound. 

“Sorry,” She shrugged sheepishly. "I should have warned you."

“‘s ok,” he said, lifting his hand to wrap around hers again, capturing her fingers to keep her hand pressed against his cheek. Her skin was cool against his own, his whole head felt like it was too hot and her contact gave him some relief. “‘s ok,” he muttered again and relaxed into the mud again, content for the moment to stay exactly where he was.

He could hear Merrin and Cere talking above him, but he was starting to float away again, unconcerned about whatever they were talking about. Occasionally Greeze’s voice crackled through the comm link, but Cal was too out of it to listen to him either. It was comforting hearing their voices, reminding him of quiet downtime on the ship, exhausted after a long day spent on a planet and relaxing on the couch around the table, drifting off to their conversation. Back on Bracca, silence was rare, even off the jobsite. In five years, he never had a room to himself, and none of the others living in those rooms had much care for what everyone else's schedules were like, if they were sleeping or not. Loud conversations and disagreements and clambering about while getting ready for their shifts were something Cal learned to sleep through, so much so that after his first exhausted night on the Mantis, he found it hard to fall asleep in silence. The thrum of the engine below his bed helped somewhat, but some of the best sleeps he had on the ship were on the couch surrounded by his crewmates as they engaged in conversation. Sometimes they would lower their voices if they noticed him nodding off, but usually by then he was well on his way to a deep sleep.

Cere’s voice got louder in his ear, as though she leaned down to speak directly in his ear to wake him up. “Cal, we’re going to try moving you, ok? Greeze is almost here, he’s going to land as close as he can, but Merrin and I will still need to get you up.”

At some point Merrin’s hand had escaped his grasp and he found his hand flopped back into the mud in front of his face. Cal couldn’t think of when that might have happened. He must have fallen asleep without even realising. 

He felt Merrins hands on him, one on his hip and the other looping under his arm from behind. In front Cere cradled a hand under his jaw and the other on his side and together they started to slowly roll him onto his back.

As soon as they did, pain shot through his rib cage and his jaw and eyes clenched shut with a strangled groan. He reflexively reached for his own chest, as if he could do anything to stop the pain or keep himself from falling apart. Someone was pushing his hair back from his forehead, gingerly avoiding the bacta patch and apologising in his ear. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Cal, but we need to keep going.”

Before he could protest he was being pulled into a seated position and from there his companions hooked one of his arms over each of their shoulders and hauled him to his feet. He choked on a scream, his chest felt like it was on fire and his head spun with every small movement. They barely made it three steps before it became too much and Cal felt himself slip off into the blackness.

[rngknsk]

The Aftermath

Chapter 1: Consciousness

Sanemi Shinazugawa/Reader (F)

You find yourself alive at the Butterfly Estate beside your closest friend after the final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji. You both are hurting over the loss of your comrades, so you must find a way to comfort each other.

**THIS SHORT STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE DEMON SLAYER MANGA. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE MANGA.**

Tags/warnings: Shared trauma, angst, survivors guilt, slight tw, comfort, slight fluff, reader is a Hashira

You can also read here on Ao3. Enjoy!

It’s not your time yet, young one, you still have a long journey ahead of you.

Be sure to live a life that will inspire others every day, please know that I will always love you.

We will always be here, watching you, waiting for you. We know you will do great, we are so proud of you, Y/N. Live on.

✾✾

Rain pattering gently against the window stirred you from your dreams. You blinked a few times as you peeled your eyelids apart, feeling the discomfort of the built-up eye-crusts that had grown as you slept for the past few days, to which you didn’t realize just yet. Your mouth felt dry as you slowly smacked your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Your tongue felt swollen. Staring up at the dimly lit, wooden ceiling of the building that protected you from the rain outside, you took a few moments to try to recall where exactly you were. You remained in a numb physical state, or so it felt; you just needed to fully wake up. When you did, all of the memories came flooding back.

You tried to pull yourself upright in the bed you found yourself on, but immediately froze as the pain shocked and ran through every nerve in your body. You shut your eye and let out a sharp inhale through your gritted teeth that interrupted the silence of the room, trying to ease the pain. It was then that you realized your left eye was covered. Slowly, you brought your bandaged hand up to your face, pressing your scarred fingertips to your cheek. Your head had been wrapped several times with a bandage that ran at a slight angle across your face and over your eye.

It was a long, final battle between the demon slayer corps and the demons. The war that was fought for centuries, even millennia, had finally been won, and because you remembered your victory, you were able to slump peacefully back into the bed you laid upon. You laid for a few long moments, the ringing in your ears starting to fade away, allowing you to finally relish in the serene sounds of the rain against the roof.

“You’re finally awake,” came a familiar voice to your left. You hesitated for a moment, tears welling up in your uncovered eye, realizing who the voice belonged to.

You slowly turned your head towards the voice before gasping out his name, “Shinazugawa-san?”

He met your alarmed gaze with a kind smile that made your heart feel warm and fuzzy, and it just might have been enough to cure the aches among the rest of your worn-out body. You wanted to tear the blanket right off of your figure and throw yourself upon him in a triumphant embrace, you wanted to bury your face into his neck and cry, but neither of you were in any physical condition for that.

Your fellow Hashira lay sitting up in his bed, covered in bandages from head to torso, arms to shoulders. He was certainly in a rougher state than you, but for good reason. Sanemi Shinazugawa risked his life for the sake of humanity against the demons, and the most feared of all, Muzan Kibutsuji. He was ruthless in every battle he’s fought, but until he butted heads with Kibutsuji, you’d never seen him so merciless. At the end of the fight, you were sure he’d never pull through. Before you passed out from exhaustion and blood loss, you caught a glimpse of his bloodied figure sprawled across the ground. The last thing you saw was Kibutsuji crumbling away, and with that sight you allowed yourself to finally drift off, to that you imagined would be death.

But it wasn't.

Instead, you woke up next to the man whom you’ve come a long way to care so much about. He was such a tough nut to crack, but you and Sanemi had become so close, and you were sure that you’d meet him in the afterlife along with many others, but rather, you woke up just a few feet away from him at the Butterfly Estate. With that you were beyond thankful at another chance. This time you were sure that you’d tell him how you’d truly feel. Now, finally, you’ll be able to express to Sanemi how important he is to you without any worry of an unexpected end, unlike the last time you opened your heart to someone.

“I’m surprised, you slept longer than I,” he continued. “I was thinking for sure that I’d never wake up, and instead I woke up to you still napping.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at his comment. You figured he was trying to make a lighthearted joke, so you thought you’d at least react somehow. “I’m sorry, I thought I wouldn’t make it either.”

“You’re a tough girl, I knew you’d be just fine, unlike the others,” he slightly turned his gaze to the floor, a solemn expression curtaining his face.

Before you could ask, three Kakushi rushed into the room that you and Sanemi were resting in, audible gasps coming from behind their masks.

“S-She’s awake!” one cried as he ran out of the room. The other two hurried to your side to take your vitals.

“Please sit back L/N-sama, don’t strain yourself!”

“Yes, your wounds are still fresh and healing, don’t try to move until the nurses arrive!”

✾✾

Hours later, your bandages were rewrapped after you enjoyed a nice bath with the help of the Kakushi. They had given you an extraordinary painkilling formula that had been invented by Shinobu Kocho, the Insect Hashira and outstanding pharmaceutical expert, prior to her death. It was almost as if she created the formula in preparation of Kibutsuji’s attack. You had learned of the deaths of many, including the other remaining Hashira, with the exception of Sanemi and Giyuu Tomioka. You prayed to them as you sat in the bath after the Kakushi gave you some time to soak alone. You cried, for they weren’t as lucky as you to be able to know a world without demons, to know a world in which you could live free. However, each and every life that was lost during the battle against Muzan Kibutsuji belonged to those who fought valiantly and believed in the freedom that you were so fortunate to experience.

It was evening now, and the rain had finally stopped. The colorful pastel clouds were moving out of sight, and the falling sun gleamed brilliantly between the damp leaves of the trees it tried to hide behind. The dew drops sparkled against the rays before they each slid off of the leaves at their own individual pace. You slowly walked yourself outdoors to the engawa, which is where you found Sanemi. He was sitting by himself, a single leg hanging off of the engawa edge while his other was propped up in front of him. You’d never seen him so quiet and peaceful looking, even with his back towards you. You didn’t want to startle him or disrupt his alone time, but you wanted to talk to him. You wanted to know what he was thinking; what was going through that mind of his?

“Shinazugawa-san,” your voice gently hit the breeze, carrying your greeting to his ears. His head slightly perked up, but his gaze remained forward. He didn’t respond, but rather patted the wood floor beside him. After a moment of noticing his gesture, you stepped forward to slowly lower yourself next to him, gritting your teeth to suppress any signs of pain from your injuries. Once seated beside your friend, you glanced out of the side of your eye to see a single tear rolling down his cheek. The sight punctured your very soul. After all these years, training and fighting beside this battle-hardened man, you never thought you’d see him cry. Of course, he lost his younger brother during the battle, so it seemed he was taking this time to grieve; you were just surprised that he allowed you so close to be able to see him in such a state.

“Genya would have liked this view, don’t you think?” Sanemi broke the silence, fighting away the cracking of his voice. “When we were kids, we would always watch the sun set in the evening. It was one of the things that really helped us forget how shitty the world was for us back in those days. Seeing his bright, wide eyes and that happy expression was what pushed me to continue forward every time. But now…” he finally turned away, wiping his remaining tears with his sleeves. “I just wish he could be here to see it, to see the sun set in a world where we don’t have to fight for our lives anymore.”

You didn’t know how to respond. It seemed as if the best option would be to let him talk and express how he was feeling. It was, after all, better than him bottling things up, similar to what he’s done for his entire life. Genya wasn’t the only person that Sanemi has lost. You couldn’t forget what he had told you about, what had happened to his family, what he had to do to protect Genya way back then. He’s lost family, friends, others… And you did too, but this wasn’t about you. Right now, you had to comfort someone who was very dear to you.

“I wish he was here too,” you spoke, leaning yourself towards him to rest a hand upon his shoulder. You hoped your gesture would help ease him. “I wish… everyone was here. Our families, our friends,” you lowered your head for a moment in respect, saying a silent prayer for those who had been lost. When you looked back up you found that he had turned to your direction, and you locked eyes with him. His expression was absolutely pitiful. You could feel him tense up when you began to involuntarily squeeze his shoulder faintly. “But we must live on. Live on for them, or else their sacrifices would not be worth anything. Please, Shinazugawa-san, know this,” you rested your other hand upon his, which was laying atop his lap. “Every person that you have ever loved is always watching over you, and they are so proud of you, including myself,” you smiled warmly as you concluded your words of reassurance.

Trapped in each other’s watery eyes, there was a sure understanding between you both. You knew how he felt, and he knew that of you. Ever so gently, Sanemi leaned forward to rest his forehead upon yours. His hand reached up and rested behind your head, pressing you even closer to him. As you both sat there beneath the dimming purple skies, you quietly thanked whatever higher beings allowed you both to survive hell and finally find paradise. Stars began peeking through the pastel-colored atmosphere, and the air felt fresher than it ever had before. You both shared a smile.

“Thank you for everything, L/N-san.”

✾✾

[doctoranon]

No Magic In The World.

Written for the Maribat? Get In! Civil war.

This is a direct sequel to I Must Be Dreaming so it would be best to read that. Though it works easily enough by itself.

TW: Mentions of sex, alcohol, driving under the influence and vague suicidal thoughts.

Waking up in another unfamiliar bed, Jason's head was banging with a raging hangover. Rolling over and out the bed he stumbled to the sink in the hotel bathroom to retch. This was becoming a bit of a regular occurrence. But the welcome oblivion of no dreams kept his heart from breaking over and over again every time he woke up and realised Marinette wasn’t going to be laying in the bed next to him. Dreams of her were a sweet torture, and he’d quickly decided no dreams of her were worth the moment of bliss he felt before reality intruded upon his waking mind.

Leaning over the sink he felt rather than saw as two slender arms held him from behind, and for a moment he dreamed of familiar arms and the smell of apple blossoms, before roughly pushing the woman away.

“What the fuck are you still doing here for?” he sneered, looking at her over his shoulder in the mirror. He took the woman in, icy blue eyes and a dark brunette. Looks like his drunken ass couldn’t even get that right. Then again, no one would ever come close to Marinette's fierce beauty.

The woman stuttered in confusion at him. Bless. She thought this was more than a drunken tumble and a subpar substitute. Holding a hand to his banging head he scoffed at ther, pointing at the door. “I don’t give a shit. Fuck. Off.” 

He knew, somewhere in his mind, that he was treating the poor woman awfully. Unfortunately his self disgust at touching another woman but her had him taking it out on her. Flashes of the night before came to mind, and mixed with his already nauseous stomach he threw up what little he had left in his system.

Hearing sobs from the other room and a slam of the door he grimaced. Not his most shining hour but he didn’t give a fuck right now. He’d cheated on Mari, fuck the fact she was- shaking the word from his head he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

He was in a sorry state. Pale skin, dark red rimmed eyes. He’d even lost some muscle mass and weight. He was a shadow of his former self. Splashing some cold water on his face, he moved to the other room, dressing as he found articles of his clothing.

Sitting on the edge of the rumpled bed, one which he refused to look at, he took out a cigarette, lit it and took a drag. What the fuck was wrong with him? This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten hammered and fucked his feelings away with a poor substitute and it disgusted him. How could he ever take someone else into his bed, drunk or not? He physically shuddered as another bout of nausea rolled through his stomach. It always left him feeling unclean. Unworthy. 

He groaned when the silence of the hotel room was broken by the ringing of his phone. He took it in his free hand and scoffed at the displayed name.

Incoming call. Dickhead.

Rejecting the call and throwing it back on the bedside table, he finished his cigarette before lighting a second one straight away. Seeing a mostly empty bottle of whiskey on the dresser he staggered over and picked up a packet of painkillers and proceeded to wash a few down with what was left, relishing the burn at the back of his throat. 

Looking around for another bottle he scoffed at the litter of empty ones. Not one had any left in it. Looked like he was making a trip to the liquor store very soon in his future. 

In the background his phone had started ringing again, be he wasn’t up for his sympathetic older brother to offer a shoulder to cry on. He was fucking done sitting on his ass and crying about it. There was nothing he could do to change it.

He had begged Tikki and Plagg. Gotten down on his fucking knees and begged them. He would never force them- no, Marinette would never forgive him if he forced her beloved Kwamii to act against their will. But it had hurt that they weren’t willing to save her.

He had accused them of all sorts, that they didn’t actually care about her. That they had never loved her. At one point he had even pointed his gun at Plagg before he had destroyed it. He had broken down again in that moment, curing fetal on the floor as he wept for his love to come back. The kwamii had joined him, sharing his grief. But still, ultimately, swore off letting him make the wish. The had told him there was no magic in the world that could bring her back. He had replied she was all the magic in his world.

Now he was travelling, looking for someone, for something, that could bring her back. He wouldn’t believe the Kwamii until he had exhausted every option available to him. Except the pits. He refused to use the pits; to owe Talia something. He would never taint Marinette like that anyway. She was all things good and beautiful and pure in his life, he would never make her like him.

Hearing his phone start ringing again for the umpteenth time, he picked it up and answered.

“What the fuck is so important? Huh?” he answered, face twisting in a rage that was aimed at himself for his actions both last night and this morning. “Six missed calls, Dick. Didn’t you get the memo? I didn't want to fucking talk to you when I rejected the first fucking one!”

The silence that greeted him down the line had his stomach twist in guilt. He knew Dick was only worried for him. Heck even the Demon Spawn had shown worry for him and treated him like fucking glass. It was one of the reasons he had to get the fuck out of the manor. But even then, he couldn’t return to his and Maris' apartment. She was everywhere, in the fabric swatches on the table to the post it notes on the fridge. Their bedding smelled like her and her perfume lingered in the air. It repulsed him.

Everything about the place repulsed him. It was a home made for two. One set of his and another set of hers. Other things that were theirs. Except there was no theirs anymore. It had taken one look in her office room, to the zipped up garment bag he knew held her wedding dress for him to grab his bikes keys and get the fuck out of dodge. At the time he’d simply not wanted to be in that apartment. Ten minutes later he was on the road out of Gotham and no plans of returning any time soon.

“Jay-” he could practically hear his brother trying to figure out what to say to him, could easily imagine his shoulders would be hunched and tense as he deliberated. It was something he did when planning his next move in the field. Mentally he snorted. Did that equate him with a battle or an enemy? Either sounded right to him to be fair.

“Are you going to tell me where you are today?”

“I couldn’t tell you even if I felt like it.”

“Jay please.” he could hear the frustration in the acrobats voice, but he couldn’t really give a damn. “Come home.”

“Home, Dick?” he questioned, licking his chapped lips and picking up his bikes keys. He didn’t give a shit if he was over the limit. Death would reunite him with Marinette, and if he made it to his destination the liquor would help with that too. “I have no home anymore. She was home.”

“Then tell me where you are, Little wing! Please!” he closed his eyes shut tightly, gritting his teeth together. He hated that his family was hurting. But he couldn’t give up. He had to find a way to bring her back.

There had to be some magic somewhere that would give her back to him. He’d seen it happen for everyone else, so why couldn’t it happen for him? For them? Why couldn’t they have this one piece of happiness? Just this once?

“I can’t do that, Dick. You’ll try and stop me, bring me back to Gotham.” He paused as he opened his eyes and swung his leg over the bike. “I won't stop looking for a way to bring her back to me until I know I’ve exhausted all possibilities. Because I owe her that much. And if I die trying, well I owe her that too.” he told him, smirking sardonically.

“That’s not true, Jay! Marinette wouldn’t ever want you to do this. Please, Jason, this is killing you.” Dick begged him down the phone. “Come home. We can still search from here, but please, come back, be with your family.”

Putting his keys into the bike and revving the engine he grinned dryly. “Sorry, Dickie bird. Not today.” he hung up then, turning the phone off and pocketing it. Kicking up the bike stand he took off, he was sure he remembered the nearest booze shop was only 5 minutes away, and even that was five minutes too long.

The conversation had flared up the pain in his chest and it needed numbing again. Sweet oblivion here he came. 

[tiredshaman]

pov: Eyeless Jack is the best doctor in the world

- Ay, that's fu... - Yasuda bit his lip to keep from swearing.

- What a rich vocabulary you have, however. - Jack grinned hoarsely, threading the needle through the skin. - Others give me whole obscene monologues, but you still hold on.

- When will the painkillers already take effect? - Yasuda exhaled, wiping the cold sweat on his forehead with a trembling hand.

- When, will work then will work. Be grateful that I gave it to you at all. - Jack checked the first few stitches and muttered thoughtfully to himself. - My reserves are not infinite. Considering that you get injured at an enviable frequency, it's surprising that I have anything left of the medicines.

Yasuda leaned his head back on the iron table and shuddered violently, the surface was cold, as well as all the basement rooms. Jack growled something, and asked irritably:

- What's in my words "don't move, otherwise I'll fucking pierce you in the wrong place", don't you understand?

- Yes, everything is clear to me. - Yasuda winced once again, feeling the needle move in his wound. - Simple... It's cold in here.

- But corpses don't rot so fast. - Jack chuckled and ordered, - Now shut up. Don't stop me from working.

Yasuda squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe evenly. However, it was not necessary to close your eyes, considering that the room was almost dark. There was only a thin strip of light under one of the doors. In fact, why would a blind person need light? He's doing just fine without him. How well the wound is being sewn up for him, it even seems, with some professional negligence.

The pain was dulling, Yasuda almost did not feel the needle in his skin anymore. Breathing has leveled off.

- Let go of the table.

- What? - Yasuda asked, suddenly realizing that his throat was dry.

- Let go of the table, I'm telling you. I need you to turn around. - Jack repeated with tired irritation.

Yasuda unclenched his numb fingers with difficulty.

He didn't even notice that he was holding onto the table all this time.

Jack continued to stitch up his wound.

It was getting sleepy, but Yasuda tried not to move once again, so as not to annoy Jack even more. And then you never know. Toby told that he was once tied to the operating table. He was not himself, and tried to resist too actively. Then walked for several days with terrible bruises from the ropes.

Footsteps echoed hollowly down the corridor. The voices got closer and became more distinct. It seems, Masky and Hoodies. And the first one was clearly very unhappy. It looks like Hoodie was delaying his visit to Jack again until the last moment. Speaking of which.

- Why is Hoodie so afraid of you? Did you really take a bite out of him after all?

- I'm going to take a bite out of you if you don't shut up.

- And when will I be able to remove the stitches? - Yasuda couldn't bring himself to be silent for some reason. Maybe a side effect of the painkiller?

- I haven't sewed you up yet, and you're already asking about the removal of stitches. - If Jack could, he would probably roll his eyes right now.

- Well...

- When I tell you, then you'll take it off. Now shut up. - Jack shook his head irritably. - You're just like Toby, that jerk talks all the time too. Next time, I'll inject you with a double dose of painkillers, you'll fall asleep and at least you won't bother me.

- The main thing is that I would not fall asleep forever. Yasuda muttered, looking at the opening doors.

English is not my native language, so I apologize in advance for mistakes.

Written based on: "pov: your room is next to eyeless jack's (background noises)"

This author makes really great playlists!

[tuonne-roskiin]

I am alive.

At the Helsinki Töölö hospital. They performed my back surgery yesterday and all went well.

I had a massive herniated spinal disc at my lower spine which was compressing my spinal cord. I also have discus degeneration in there on multiple discs.

These things cause my legs to be partially numb from knee down. I can’t lift them much, walking with crutches is hard and painful and I can’t stay on my feet on my own cause my feet won’t work properly. Oh and the pain. The pain is the worst. We tested many, many pain killers and nothing eases it even a bit.

ANYWAY.....

I was taken to the operating room at about 4pm. Preparations was the worst part and very soon I was just a crying, wailing absolutely hysteric mess, only trying to focus on breathing and staying still. And yes, they had put maximum amount of different sedatives and painkillers to me, but it was still so unbearabe.

After waking up I asked how long the preps took, and they said it was 1h 30minutes - and then they knocked me out. The surgery part took 2 hours. Normal time for this surgery is 1 hour.

I'm so thankful for this hospitals staff as even it was such an awful experience, everyone was trying to encourage me as much as possible and I felt how much they really cared and how sorry they were for making me go through it. They held me, caressed me, supported me and kept saying encouraging things to me all along through it. 🥺

I woke up in recovery room at 11pm. I was the only patient there and I kept talking with the nurse sooo much. I even apologized for talking to him so much and told him it's my way to keep my anxiety at bay. He was very friendly and we kept having nice conversations until I was awake enough to be moved to the ward. I kindly asked if they could wait a little so I could send a voice message to my mom, dad and sisters Whatsapp chat. They let me do that, and after I got to the ward I was on my phone for a moment and chatted with few friends of mine before gettin more sleep.

It's 7am right now and I've been somewhat awake for an hour or so. My legs are still partially numb and the left one is still very weak. I still can't move it's ankle for more than maybe 5-10%, but I'm not even feeling worried about it. Nurse told me it was normal and that everything will most likely start to work normally after few days.

[therewasatale]

Instinct

On Ao3.

That was not the plan. They both knew that this should not have been happened.

The fire had already engulfed almost everything and spread throughout the house. The roof was turned into a searing hot crimson carpet, moments away from collapsing.

"Anderson!" Alucard looked around anxiously. His crimson eyes almost glowed as he tried to find man's trail. "Where are you, you damned priest?!" He hurried from the bedroom to an adjoining room. One of the windows crackled and the glass exploded from the heat.

"Anderson!"

He needed a couple of seconds to realized that he had to calm down if he wanted to find the priest. As much as he could, he began to focus on the noises and sounds around him.

Then he heard it. As the heat crackled and popped, there was someone's cough and angry grunts mixed in with it. The sound could probably come from somewhere downstairs.

Alucard looked down and decided to take the fastest way.

With his weapons, he simply began shooting the already weakened floor and fell down to the lower level as pieces of debris accompanied him. He followed the sounds into the kitchen as quickly as he could, from there through a door down he hurried down to the basement. He paused for just a moment as a large plume of smoke erupted from below, right into his face. Something cracked down there. The flames had already reached the basement too.

"Anderson!"

"Here…" the response was stifled by a strong cough. The priest seemed to have fought for every single breath.

Alucard ran down the dilapidated stairway, which collapsed after his footsteps. He found Anderson almost immediately. The iscariot was trying to free himself from being trapped under a two-doored closet. But he was completely stuck.

Their eyes met for a moment.

He wouldn't die, Alucard was aware of that. Maybe he would fry black, and his lungs would fill with smoke, but his healing ability would drag him back to life. And within a few hours, the iscariots would dig him out from the rubble.

Anderson gave out big, labored breaths, coughing, his eyes became dull for a second.

He wouldn't die, but he would feel the smoke suffocating him, and the fire eating into his body again and again…

The vampire's hands trembled.

"God damn it!" Quickly he put away his guns.

He grabbed the edge of the closet and only had to strain a little to raise it up. It was then that he saw the bear trap which caught Anderson's now utterly broken leg.

"There!"

Alucard followed the man's gaze.

As he picked up the bayonet, the blade began to burn his hand.

"Cut it off!"

Anderson bit his lips.

Alucard hesitated for only a second.

A clean cut slashed off the injured leg, leaving a bloody stump behind.

The pain flashed through Anderson's whole body making him wince. A sharp yell escaped from his throat, but he still remained conscious. He had to gather all his strength to at least try to push himself to one leg, he started by turning onto his stomach. From the smoke his eyes burned and his entire left side throbbed with searing pain, but that was nothing compared to the heat that slowly constricted around them.

Two hands grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up. Then an arm closed around him, holding him steady on his one remaining leg.

He opened his mouth trying to protest, but the vampire was faster.

"You can kill me later, let's get out now!"

The father nodded weakly.

"To hell with it." Alucard held the man closer. Shielding him from the inferno the best he could. He leapt up to the ground floor, and from there he hurried to the nearest window. Something must have fallen behind him because he could feel the heat on his back, but he was just watching straight ahead. He threw himself out the window, dragging the priest with him.

"Damn..." they weren't safe just yet. The main beams of the house signaled the end of their fight against the heat with a loud crack.

"Let's get out of here, Father." Putting his arm around Anderson's shoulder again he jumped away from the house as fast as he could. The man's head was drooping down, but he was still conscious.

"Alright, maybe here." Alucard carefully laid him down at the trunk of a thicker willow tree, and with a heavy sight he leaned against it next to him. Both of them need to took a few deep breaths.

The house to which they were both sent was built beside a river. It looked like an ordinary abandoned vacation house at first glance. Now, in the glistening mirror of the water, the flames consuming the house illuminated the trees growing on the bank.

In addition to the crackling of the fire, a new, dull rumbling could be heard.

It was evening, but as the vampire looked up through the crown of the trees, he could only see the thick layer of clouds. The smoke rising from the burning house mixed up in it. A lightning bolt crisscrossed through the clouds, then the angry rumble was audible again.

"Great…"

The rain swept down without warning.

The branches of trees rattled in the icy wind. Leaves got torn off and danced in the air as thousands of raindrops began to blanket the area. It was impossible to decide where the river ended and where the sky began.

Anderson took a few slow breaths. His eyes were just throbbing instead of burning and his smaller injuries were starting to knit themselves together, but his leg was still bleeding. He needed time, and for once he would have given everything for a couple painkillers. With a big sigh, he threw his head against the tree and closed his eyes.

"Hey, don't say that a little fire and a missing limb is enough to kill you?" Alucard had almost managed to hide the concern in his voice.

"Silence." The answer came after a couple of seconds which seemed hours for the vampire.

"Good."

They watched in silence as the rain and raging fire fought for dominance. The tongues of flame burst into the sky again and again, but from the few corners of the house Alucard could already hear that characteristic hiss as the onrushing water started to extinguish the fire.

"I thought it would have collapsed by now. We might have had time to take out the-"

The roof of the house buckled in, then with a huge crack and a loud snap could be heard, the top floor also fallen on the ground floor.

"Never mind."

Then the crackling of fire, and the pattering of rain was the only sound that remained.

Father Anderson took in a deep breath of ice-cold air. His lungs slowly cleared and the burns finally healed. Even the gunshot wounds stopped throbbing in his side. Only the pain from his legs refused to subside.

He gripped in his trouser leg with one hand. He just had to wait.

Over the years, he has learned that pain is always temporary, no matter how unbearable it may seem at that time. When they were testing the effectiveness of his healing ability, and even more so its limits, he had to endure much more serious wounds and for longer time.

There were two things, however, that he could not ignore. He wished his body would stop trembling. Even he felt the exhaustion, the aches, and cold gusts of wind. He tried to sit still, but his body shuddered betraying him.

Alucard watched the man tremble beside him out of the corner of his eye.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." A weak murmur was the answer. If he had not worn his gloves, his fingers would have become numb by now from the cold. "It just needs some times…to grow back."

Alucard looked over him and watched in silence for a few moments. Then he glanced down at himself.

"Alright, move."

"What?" Anderson glanced blankly at the vampire's hand as it gently touched his shoulder and then tilted him slightly forward. Finally, a red coat fell on his back, covering his body. "I didn't ask for your pity."

"I wouldn’t have given it because of pity." Alucard shrugged and sat back beside him only in his black suit but didn't look at the priest.

Anderson blew out an angry sigh. He couldn't decide what was worse; that the vampire had helped him out of pity, that his help really did stopped his shivering, or the fact — and what he thought was most unbearable — he felt grateful for the damn bloodsucker.

"I didn't think they would be equipped like a small army."

Anderson snorted. "Someone must have told them we were coming."

"Hellsing only knew of a few odd occurrences. People missing in the area, two weird strangers lurking in the woods most every evening." He glanced at the man's slowly re-growing leg. "But according to this, the Vatican had no idea about the situation either."

Anderson shook his head in response.

"Hm," the vampire rubbed his face and grinned. "Then we're dealing with something interesting here."

Anderson snorted again, and his body twinged in pain. For now, it would be better if he stopped being jumpy.

They both watched the rain and the burning house again. The flames began to lose the fight against the rain. It was a miracle how well the willow tree's crown protected them from the rain.

Anderson hid himself into the red material even more. "I would have been able to get out" there was a pause. "Sooner or later."

"I would say later, and maybe your kids would have had to dig you out."

"That damnable vampire lured me into that trap and then he rushed me."

Alucard glanced at Anderson. "Did it slip out of your hands?"

Not even the rain could suppress the priests affronted snort.

"I tore out his heart," he glared down at his injured leg. "But by then everything was aflame. Where did the fire start at all?"

"Upstairs. Several cans of diesel were hidden everywhere in the house, and I think they were connected with some kind of ignition device."

"Did you not smell the diesel?" Anderson glared at him.

"I did." Alucard grinned. "I just didn't care. I was wondering what they were up to. Two old vampires versus a priest and an old vampire."

"Well, not much remained of them."

"Mh, I'm just disappointed I haven’t managed to bite one. He must have had some interesting memories." The vampire leaned back and sighed.

"And now what?"

"And now we wait."

The father glanced towards him again.

"I thought you can move through the shadows."

"I can."

"Then why are you still here?" He muttered again as he gazed at the remains of the burning house.

Alucard shrugged slightly. He had been thinking about the same thing for the last few minutes.

"The reason is same as that why I helped you. I'm a genuine monster who only listens to his instincts and his own head, and other similar things Integra always say." He moved his hand in the air. "My instincts told me to pull you out, and now they are telling me to stay here."

The vampire tried to suppress the small voice within himself, which only subtly whispered that he had not completely followed his instincts for the past hour or so. Huffing softly, he buried his fingers into his dark hair.

Anderson listened quietly then just sighed.

"Do what you want, but my students will arrive soon. Don't you dare to hurt them."

Their eyes met.

"I won't, I promise."

Anderson blinked in surprised when he saw the softness in the vampire's eyes.

Alucard turned his gaze towards the house once again. "But for now, I think you should rather rest."

The priest rubbed his face into his hand. He was blushing. There were more and more thoughts charging around in his head, but for once, and this he himself hardly believed it, he listened to the vampire. He slowly relaxed his shoulders and slightly rubbed his thigh as a pang of pain ran down his legs.

The two of them watched as the fire slowly fizzled out, then they listened to the noises of the rain in complete darkness.

[animeyanderelover]

Another prompt coming your way! 50 with Sebastian? Thank you on advance!

Yes, my lord.

Warnings: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, mentions of kidnapping, self harm

Prompt 50: “Tell me, is love supposed to be...this passionate?”

There had been once a time where you had thought that death was the scariest thing in this world, but you had changed your mind. Sitting in a corner curled up in a ball with an angry demon towering over you was far more scarier than death. Why was he angry you might ask? Well, you had tried to escape him again, but had failed once again. This time you had been smarter at least, trying to escape during the day when he was with this boy he served as a butler for. But that all would have normally simply annoyed Sebastian a bit, but the fact that angered him so much was that you had hurt yourself.

To be honest, you hadn’t planned to do it, but when he had started to chase you and had found you in no time you had started to get panicked, wanting nothing more than to escape him. And in either a moment of pure bravery or pure stupidity you had jumped into the river. If you thought about it now it had been most likely pure stupidity. Had you seriously expected he wouldn’t jump after you and drag you out of the water? And on top of it all you had somehow managed to break your left leg in the water, most likely because the water had pushed you against one of the rocks in it. You still remembered the blinding pain after you had rammed into it and how you had wanted to scream in pain before remembering that you were underwater. But by then it had already been too late and water had started to flow in your lungs. If it wouldn’t have been for Sebastian you would have drowned there. But he was quick to bring you back on land and took immediately care of you, quickly helping you to get rid of all the water you had swallowed. He had carried you fastly back to the small cottage, careful to not hurt your leg and as soon as you had gotten ‘home’ he had bandaged it and had given you some painkillers so that by now the only thing you felt was a numb throbbing. Only after he had ensured that he had helped you with everything, he had started to scold you what led you to your current situation.

“What were you thinking?! Did you really think that jumping in the river would help you?! If you did, I hope that you’ve learned your lesson now!The only thing you’ve gained from this is a broken leg!”, he scolded you angrily, his eyes glowing dangerously and a dark shadow raising behind him, filling nearly the whole room out. You on the other tried to make yourself even smaller what was a bit difficult with one leg broken, but that was the only thing you could think of now. Normally you would have run away, but that was not possible with one leg not working as it should. You didn’t respond, just staring at the ground, at your broken leg, anywhere, but him. You knew that he was right with what he had just said, you hadn’t gained anything from your action. But he wasn’t the one being captured, he wasn’t the one locked up in a small house, he wasn’t the one who felt the desperate need to be free again. “Just shut up. How can you possibly understand how I feel? How can you possibly understand why I did this? You don’t know what it feels like to be locked up in a house, unable to see your loving family again. You know why you’ll never be able to understand me? Because you don’t have feelings. For you humans are just food. You don’t view them as equal and it might be true that many people are pretty bad and selfish, but you aren’t any better. You took me for selfish reasons as well.” You had actually planned to yell at him, but it seemed like you had no energy left for that.

The tension raised palpable after these words were spoken and you could hear how he took a few steps closer to you before he slowly bent down until he was on eye level with you. Not in the mood to face him you just hid your face in your arms, but even that didn’t seem to help since you could still feel his gaze glaring holes in you. “Look at me.”, he told you with a firm voice. You stubbornly shook your head, starting to feel a throbbing pain in your head which seemed to get stronger with every passing second. Great, were you getting now sick too? Sebastian seemed to somehow notice how you started to grip your head tighter in an attempt to stop the pain. He sighed and suddenly pulled with his one hand your arms away so that you couldn’t hide your face in them anymore. He layed the other one quickly on your forehead, checking the temperature. “Just like I feared. You got sick because of your little trip.” His aura immediately disappeared and his eyes turned back to normal. You let a relieved breath out from which you didn’t even know that you were holding it in. He swiftly lifted you up in his arms and carried you to the bedroom, tugging you gently in the sheets and leaving you for a short moment alone before returning with some medicine and a spoon in his hand. “Open your mouth.” You shook your head and pressed your lips together. “No. I don’t want to take this.” You were acting like a child and you knew it, but you didn’t care. You knew what this liquid tasted like and you simply refused to taste it again. Sebastian chuckled amused. “Should I force you? Because if you keep acting like a child, I’ll treat you like one.” You knew that he meant it and you didn’t want to find out what he would do then, but you could only imagine how humiliating it would be. So you opened your mouth and tried to gulp the medicine as quickly as possible down. Your face twisted into a funny expression. At least Sebastian hurried to get you a glass of water which you gulped down quickly.

“You should probably get some rest now. I’m sure it must have been a hard day for you.” You didn’t miss the slight teasing in his voice. “What an asshole.”, you thought to yourself and let yourself sink into the soft pillow, closing your eyes and waiting for him to go away. But instead you felt only a few moments later the mattress sinking in right next to you. “Ooh. Are you serious?”, you whined and opened your eyes to look in his red ones. “I just want to make sure that I’m right next to you in case something should happen.” “Give me a break.”, you scoffed and turned your head in the opposite direction, closing your eyes and trying to ignore him as good as possible, but you couldn’t. He was still looking at you, you just knew it, and somehow you felt like he wanted to say you something. With an annoyed sigh you asked without looking at him:”Spit it out. What do you want to say?” “You know I was a bit hurt when you told me that I’m no better than all these other humans and that I don’t have feelings. Believe me, I have them.”

This surprised you a bit and you decided to turn around and look at him. You raised an eyebrow and asked with sarcasm lacing in your voice:”Where were your feelings when you killed all these people who came too close to me? I don’t think I saw any kind of regret or guiltiness on your face when you killed them.” Sebastian shook his head slightly and questioned in an almost disappointed tone:”I’ve told you so often I love you and you still don’t believe me?” You scoffed and replied:”Sorry for not believing a creature that eats the souls of humans and doesn’t show any signs of feelings when he tells me he loves me.” Sebastian hummed and started playing with your hair. You wanted to slap his hand away, but his next question made you stop. “Tell me, is love supposed to be...this passionate?” You were dumbfounded for a short moment. “Huh?”, was the only thing you were able to answer. “It’s true that demons don’t have feelings for the most part, but there have been cases where a demon fell in love. I’m not very experienced with feelings, but I think humans don’t feel it that intensely when they fall in love. Do they?” That was...unexpected, but you were fast to reply snarky:”I’m pretty sure that persons who are in love don’t kidnap their lover, lock them up in a small house somewhere in the forest and kill everyone who makes them jealous. So my conclusion is no. That suggests that what you feel for me isn’t love.” “I guess you’re right,”, Sebastian replied,”what I feel for you is far more stronger than love.”

“...Can you leave me now alone? I want to sleep.”

“I don’t feel like it. It’s nice in here.”

“I hope you know that you’re an asshole.”

“Think whatever you want.”

“Hmmpf.”

[solara-bean]

Screw Periods!!!

Grimmjow x Reader

( Reader has a uterus but their gender is of course up to you. )

You laid on your couch as still as a corpse. In fact you felt close to death thanks to your vagina having it's monthly tantrum. God did the cramps hurt like hell! And it must've been your lucky day since your heating pad broke and the painkillers were taking forever to kick in. At least it was a Saturday so work wasn't a problem.

Wait ... it's Saturday?!! You thought.

Right then a flood of spiritual pressure invaded your senses. In came the former epsada from your apartment's balcony. Although he was obviously angry he took care not to break the sliding door. Or anything for that matter. He knew better.

When it came to you at least.

You didn't bother to peak out from your comfy blanket burrito as he stalked up to the couch like the overgrown cat he was.

" You missed our sparring match. " He said in a low tone. There was no doubt a scowl on his face.

Despite how normal you may appear, you’re actually quite powerful. In the past, you’ve been able to take on all types of foes along with Ichigo and the rest of the gang. Although, you were a bit late to the party and weren’t able to get much experience before everything died down to a more peaceful state. Thankfully Grimmjow was more than willing to battle a worthy opponent since Ichigo was too busy with his education and trying to have a more normal life. Thus began your weekly sparring sessions, normally in Hueco Mundo or Urahara’s bunker. But today you were only willing to move as far as your bedroom to the living room and occasionally the bathroom. 

" I know. Sorry. " You grumbled. " Forgot what day it was."

" Tch. Since when do you forget what day it is? You sick or something?...Wait," his voice got closer to you. " Did someone hurt you?" He said with a mix of worry and deadly intent.

" No."

" Tell me who it is and I'll kill em."

" No! Grimm I'm fine."

" Hm. Then why," he tugged the blanket away from your face and raised a single brow. " Do you look like shit?"

You glared at him as best you could.

“ If you must know. I’m on my period.” You tugged the blanket back up. “ Now leave so I can suffer in peace. We’ll fight next week.”

Things were quiet for awhile. For second you thought he had left. Then..

“ Whats a period?”

Your eyes went wide under cover. You peaked out at him with an unbelieving eye. 

“ You know. Mensural cycles?”

His face scrunched.

“ Mental what?”

You looked at him fully.

“ You really don’t know what periods are???”

“ Yeah. I mean. Maybe? I don't know! It sounds kinda familiar.”

Hmm. You thought. If Grimm died at the age that he looks now then he definitely knows what periods are. Maybe he doesn’t fully remember.

“ I guess hollows can’t have them since you don’t reproduce.”

“ Huh?” more confusion showed on his face. “ What does that have to do with anything?! Are you...Are you having a kid?!!!”

Watching him panic over a mini-you running around would’ve been hilarious any other day. But today you just wanted to nap. So if he was ever going to leave you be he needed to know what was going on

“ Hand me my laptop.” You sat up with an audible groan. “ And no. I’m not pregnant.” 

It took a little over an hour to show him articles and YouTube videos about the wonders mensural cycles, plus answering questions about how yours worked specifically and a little chat on the birds and the bees. He got a bit upset with you feeling the need to explain the last one but you were playing it safe.

“ So you’re going through all this pain and gross stuff. Just because you have feminine parts, you’re not pregnant and you’re not fifty or older?” He said slowly from his seat on the carpet in front of the coffee table that held your laptop. 

“ Yeah pretty much.”

“ And this is every month?”

“ Yeah.”

“ For a week?”

“ Yep.”

“....That’s shitty.”

“ Uh huh.”

“ Like. Seriously whose fucking bright idea was this?!”

“ No clue. But they better stay out of my line of sight.”

“ Tch,” he scoffed and folded his arms. “ Well whoever it is deprived me of a good fight.”

You scowled at him.

“ Oh you poor thing. It must suck to have male anatomy privilege. How about you whine about it somewhere else while I attempt to get some sleep.” You rolled over in a huff. “ And for the record. I’ve fought you plenty of times on my period and won. It’s just being a bitch today.” 

You were in silence once again. Maybe now sleep would come. But no. The pain still came back every minute like a clawed hand slowly squeezing your guts over and over. Then all of a sudden warmth formed on your lower stomach. 

“ Hm?”

You looked down to see Grimmjow’s hand on you. It had a slight red glow indicating that he was using his cero. Though it was much more like comforting heat than a scolding laser beam. 

“ I didn’t know it could do that..”

“ It helps with sore joints and stuff. Is it numbing the pain at all?”

You rolled over. He had a soft look in his eyes. He was worried.  

Big softie kitty.

You smiled and pressed his palm closer to where it hurt the most.

“ Yeah..” you sighed. “ Feels a lot better.”

After a few minutes of slight dozing off, you felt him pick you up gently. Before you could ask he was already under you and laying you on top of him. He reached under the cover and past the hem of your shirt so you could feel both of his cero-warmed hands. You couldn’t but sigh in delight from the relief and nuzzle into the chest that was exposed from his black jumpsuit.

This might’ve been odd if you two hadn’t been getting closer lately. To no one’s surprise the feral arrancar was extremely touch starved. But with your sparring came respect. And with respect came the showing of vulnerability. After many long months of course. Eventually touching and being close to each other was second nature. Cuddling was new though. But he was basically a big cat so you knew it was bound to happen. 

As you fell asleep you heard the start of a purr. You didn’t know how long you were asleep but when you woke up he was gone. 

Guess he got bored and left. 

Your were about to feel sad and little lonely when a patch of blue hair poked itself through the balcony door. In came Grimmjow with a hand full of snacks. He made his way to you and plopped them all on the table.

“Ok I couldn’t go to a normal store for obvious reason so I went to Urahara’s.” he began to pick up each item one buy one. “ I got those sour gummies you like, some sodas, some water, a few cases of chocolate bars, a pack of caramel, the last of the good chips which I had to kick Jinta to get - the little bastard. And Urruru lended me some pads but I’m nut sure if they’re the kind you us-”

Before he could finish you wrapped your arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

“ You’re the best! Thank you so much!”

He was taken aback for a moment then hugged you back with a smug smirk on his face.

“ Hey you wanna stay and watch a movie with me? I can’t eat all this by myself.”

“ Sure.” he shrugged nonchalantly. Though you could see a small smile on his face.

You sat snuggled up and watched an action comedy as you ate. You were half way through the movie when something hit you.

“ How’d you pay for all of this?”

Grimmjow chewed lazily a blueberry sour gummie, not bothering to take his eyes off the screen. 

“ I told Urahara that your vagina was trying to kill you. So he let me take it for free. Never saw him that quiet before.” 

“..........Yeah I’m definitely kicking your ass next week.”

“ I’d hope so.” he grinned.

[imposterellie]

Impaling - Day 4

Peter Parker wakes up with a horrid headache. On a normal day, he'd go to sleep for a long time in a very dark room. Parker luck dictates this absolutely will not happen.

Alternatively: what happens when you swing through the streets with an aura migraine

*TW: swearing, major injury, impaling, talk of blood, passing out, pain, panic*

@febuwhump

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

Peter had woken with a terrible headache that morning. Since the bite, he didn’t often get headaches anymore, but when he did they turned into full blown killer migraines. He’d been to school with them before though, and he knew he’d be able to carry on as normal, just in a bit of discomfort all day. He thanked his lucky stars that May was out working an early shift when he left the house which meant he could grab some water and a few of his enhanced painkillers before dashing out the door to school.

The day dragged by. He spent many of his classes nursing his head, completely ignoring the teachers and trying his best to take part in conversation with MJ and Ned. It was clear they knew something was up. They kept shooting him worried glances when he zoned out mid conversation or winced when someone shouted. They finally said something when he stopped in the corridor on route to math class and leant against the lockers, his face pale. He was breathing heavily with his eyes screwed tightly shut.

“Peter. Man, you look awful,” Ned commented, awkwardly patting his friend’s shoulder. “Maybe you should go home. I’ll get notes for you.”

“It’s fine Ned, honestly, just a headache.” Peter said, trying his best to stand up straight and look as normal as possible. He still looked like death warmed up despite his best efforts.

“Dude. Go home, you’re not doing anyone any favours being in this state.” MJ reiterated, genuine concern for him on her face. “And you’ll ruin the team’s reputation if you sit in for practice today.” She grinned at him, “we don’t have slackers on our team.”

Peter smiled at her, immensely grateful for his friends.

“I love you guys, so much.” He adjusted his bag on his shoulders and turned towards the exit. “I owe you one for this.”

As Peter began the journey home, he contemplated calling Happy for a lift but he couldn’t face talking to the guy and having to endure all the noise of the car. So he walked. All the way home.

It took him far longer than usual to walk the few blocks to his apartment, probably due to his eyes being so sensitive to the light, he had to stop every few blocks just to squeeze his eyes shut and prevent his headache causing some serious vertigo.

Once he arrived back at the apartment, after fumbling with his keys for a few minutes, he went straight to his room and flopped facedown onto his bed, backpack still on. Peter laid like that for what felt like hours until he finally started to drift off to sleep.

Then his phone beeped. Then it beeped again. And again. And again.

Peter groaned and fumbled in his pocket, squinting at the bright screen, his head throbbing even more. He sighed softly when he realised it was notifications from KAREN telling him about incidents downtown that needed assistance. A huge part of him begged himself not to respond to the notifications but that niggling little voice in his brain knew just how guilty he’d feel if anything happened to anyone. So that settled it. He’d be attending that call.

Peter dragged himself off the bed, chucking his backpack onto the floor and starting to strip his clothes off. He quickly shoved his spiderman suit on, took a deep breath, and climbed out his bedroom window. His vision swam as he swung through the city but he was determined to get to the incident. He arrived in the nick of time. A car pileup on the main road was the issue, smoke everywhere and the cars minutes from going up in flames. He put all thoughts of the headache aside and leapt into action, yanking car doors off their hinges and pulling men, women and children out of the cars. He was pulling the last woman out of a car, her head steadily bleeding, when it caught on fire. If he’d been any later she would have been trapped in there.

Peter left the woman safely in the hands of the firefighters and waved at the growing crowd before swinging off into the city. The smoke and movement caused vertigo to slam into him out of nowhere and he shut his eyes for just a moment to try and stop the wave of pain and dizziness.

“Shit!” Peter exclaimed as the web he’d forgotten he was shooting missed the building he’d forgotten he was aiming for and he careened towards the ground. He had no time to do anything but brace himself for impact as he crashed through the front window of a museum, crushing a suit of armour that was probably worth more than his whole apartment building in the process.

He laid there for a second, dazed, surrounded by broken glass and the sound of an obnoxiously loud alarm blaring through the building he’d just accidentally broken into. The wave of nausea that suddenly hit him made him want to curl into a ball and cradle his head. The impact must have caused a mild concussion on top of the glaring headache he’d been nursing all day. And yet, he found that he couldn’t move, no matter how much he wanted to. He tried to haul himself up but yelped when a sudden pain shot through his stomach.

Peter gingerly ripped his mask up over his mouth as he started to hyperventilate, trying to control the pain. His ears were ringing but his hearing slowly started to come back and he could hear the distorted voice of his AI saying his name.

“Peter? Peter! It appears you have taken extensive damage to your head, ribs and abdomen. My recommendation is to ring Mr Stark. Would you like me to do that for you?”

“No- no.” Peter gasped out “No St-rk. ‘m fine.”

“I’m afraid the baby monitor protocol insists that I ring him in a grave emergency, and my scanners show that this is the case. I’m sorry Peter.”

Peter groaned as the AI ceased talking and a phone line opened, ringing in his ear.

“Traitor.” He whispered as the line clicked.

“Peter? What’s going on kid?” Tony’s worried voice echoed into the suit. “Who’s a traitor?”

“Hi Mis-r Stark.” Peter slurred, gasping between sentences. “I din rob a m-seum, ‘romise.”

“I’m on route kid, hang in there okay?” Peter could faintly hear the sound of the suit clicking into place and the thrusters starting up. Tony sounded panicked; Peter couldn’t figure out why. Maybe it had something to do with the throbbing pain in his head. Peter closed his eyes for a second, trying to numb the pain a little, when the sound of the suit landing beside him woke him from his dazed state. Tony’s face filled his field of vision and peter looked up at him as Tony’s face drained of all colour. Tony spoke softly into the suit but Peter didn’t catch much of it; he just caught something about a spear? Which made absolutely no sense.

“Underoos…?” Tony said slowly, “what the hell happened?”

“Fell. ‘eadache an’ I missed building.” Peter grinned a little at the memory, the pain was sending him a bit loopy.

Tony looked grief stricken. “You gotta promise me you’re not gonna move.” He took a deep breath, “I’m trying to get some painkillers, the Quinjet isn’t far off.”

Tony surveyed the scene. An ancient medieval spear from the suit of armour that Peter had crushed was sticking out from Peter’s midsection. He’d been completely impaled on a stupid knight’s weapon. It was just Parker luck that he’d manage to damage the suit enough in the car wrecks that the spear had hit a weakness and was currently turning the kid into a human kebab.

“It doesn’ even ‘urt that bad, ‘onest.” Peter said, the expression on his face betraying that complete lie.

“Just- just don’t move kid. I’m gonna get you out of this.” Tony ran his hands through his hair, his nerves running haywire. Peter wasn’t losing any blood as the spear was blocking up the wound but tony knew that the second anyone pulled the kid off that spear, he’d start to bleed to death almost immediately.

Peter nodded, losing his ability to form words. Tony’s face was blurring out in front of him, dizziness and vertigo suddenly taking over. Tony noticed the glazed look that Peter was giving him and panicked further.

“Kid, you’ve got to stay awake. Keep those eyes open for me,” Peter obeyed, looking confused but a little more aware than he was a moment ago. “Just keep listening to me okay Underoos? I’m gonna get you out of here alive if it’s the last thing I do.”

Peter smiled softly at Tony, he wasn’t fully aware but knew that the voice that was talking belonged to someone who loved him, and would always take care of him. That thought, instead of keeping him awake and aware, sent him into the darkness. He felt safe. And that was all that mattered.

“Shit,” Tony said, his panic being sent into overdrive when Peter stopped responding. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and Tony caught Peter’s head in his hands before he fell completely to the floor.

An age seemed to pass of Tony barely holding himself together, holding the dying kid in his arms, when the quinjet landed in the wide street in front of him. The wheels had barely hit the ground when the door was opening and Bruce Banner launched himself out of the aircraft, followed quickly by Dr Cho and a team of medics holding a huge array of medical equipment.

Tony’s hands had gone numb. He barely registered Bruce gently pulling him away from Peter’s limp body. All he could feel was slick blood drying on his hands. There were people all over his kid, touching him, hurting him. He fought Bruce without even realising he was doing it.

“Tony! Tony stop, we’re helping him, we need space.” Bruce forced tony to look at him. “Go sit on the ship, get some water. Just calm down, we’ll be there soon.”

Tony nodded slowly, resigning to the man’s words.

“I promise we will take care of him.” That sentence did it for Tony and he got up, staggering towards the Quinjet before sliding down onto a chair in the main body of the aircraft, his whole being numb. This situation felt familiar. He’d done this many a time with his kid, always when Tony could have fixed it, could have prevented it. But he didn’t. And Peter got hurt every time. Tony put his head in his hands and began to sob.

The medical team worked on Peter for several long minutes out in the street before deeming him stable enough to be transferred to the aircraft. Once on board, they kicked into flight immediately and headed straight for the compound, never straying from Peter’s side. Monitors beeped and flashed, wires everywhere, pumping drugs into Peter.

There were several points on the journey that one of the monitors flatlined.

They got him back each time, but they were very quickly losing Peter and Tony had never felt anything like the guilt and loss he was feeling in that moment. None of the team dared breathe a sigh of relief when they reached the compound. Although the most difficult part was over, they could not guarantee that Peter would survive the surgery to remove the spear. He had hit a vital organ and his internal bleeding was practically fatal. It was due to Peter’s incredible healing ability that he was even alive at all.

Tony ran by the side of the gurney all the way into the building before he was forced into a seat in the private waiting room by a harried Dr Banner, who then disappeared into the operating room without a backward glance.

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

Pepper came dashing into the room after the first hour of Peter being in surgery, clutching her phone, and ran straight to Tony, hugging him as tightly as she could. He barely felt it. Barely noticed the time passing at a snail’s pace as he waited for those damn doors to open.

He didn’t know when he had nodded off but when he woke, he was laid on Pepper’s lap, her hand stroking his hair. She was talking quietly and tony glanced across the room to see who had joined them. Sat in the chairs opposite them was Happy, clutching the hand of a quietly crying May.

Tony didn’t speak, he had no idea what he could possibly say to make the situation better, so he opted to say nothing at all. He was working up the courage to stop pretending to be asleep when the doors to the OR eased open.

“Tony.” Bruce said quietly.

He was up like a shot, holding his breath in case the news was bad.

“The surgery went well. We lost him a couple of times on the table but he’s a strong kid. He’s gonna be okay.” Tony felt relief like he had never experienced before flood through him and he lost control of his legs, dropping to his knees in the middle of the floor. He heard May burst into fresh, happy tears, and Pepper sounded as though she was thanking something for answering her prayers.

“It’s going to be a very long road to recovery, but he will be okay.” Bruce smiled at the scene, feeling complete exhaustion take over him, but pleased he could save the kid that meant so much to the people in front of him. He’d never known Tony as he had been since Peter appeared in their lives, and he’ll thank the stars every day for that blessing.

Bruce said his goodbyes whilst Tony thanked him profusely, before heading off for a well-earned rest. Tony immediately found out if he was granted permission to see his kid. He was in the ICU, but stable, according to Dr Cho, and could have one visitor. Tony offered it to May but she refused, claiming it would be too hard for her, so Tony took the opportunity.

He approached the door to Peter’s room with a sudden sense of nervousness, he didn’t know what faced him in there and he barely dared imagine it. He steeled himself and pushed open the door. Peter was surrounded by wires, pipes and machines, all working to keep him alive whilst his healing ability fixed what it could in his comatose state.

Tony sat in the chair next to his bed, gingerly reaching to hold Peter’s hand, trying his best to avoid jostling the wires. Tony finally let himself truly cry, the events of the day catching up with him.

Once he had calmed, he spoke softly to Peter. The boy looked so fragile, and Tony knew he would never let the kid get hurt like this again because of a flaw in something he built.

“I promise I will always look after you Underoos, I know you’ll never stay away from danger but I will protect you with everything I have.” Tony smiled softly, listening to the constant beeping that filled the room for a moment.

Finally he whispered, “I love you, kid.”

[hongism]

mists of celeste ➻ three

➻ pairing: ??? x fem reader ➻ genre: space au, pirate au, space pirate!ateez, angst, eventual smut ➻ Word Count: 4.1k ➻ Rating: M ➻ Warnings: language, violence, guns and weaponry, blood, future warnings tba ➻ summary: Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you

⇐ previous | next ⇒

mists of celeste act one ➻ part three

​

"First order of business," Yunho starts as he gets up from his stool. "I need to run some basic scans on your arm to gauge the injury and infection. Then a full-body scan to see how far the infection has spread. How long have you had the injury?" He moves around the bed you're placed on with quick steps, a tablet in hand.

"Th-Three days," you stammer, watching him work. Spectre cuts in, and you almost forgot he was standing nearby with a brown belt in hand.

"Four days. Today is the fifth," he says. Yunho glances over at him, eyes wide in question.

"How do you know…?"

"She was on the bridge of the HMS Revenge. Considering that Hongjoong destroyed the ship four days ago, this is the only logical explanation." Spectre motions towards you with his head. "I noticed her on the second day, to be honest. I only wanted to see how long it would take for her to reveal herself. Until I saw the blood trails, at least."

"Ah yes, that makes sense." Yunho nods before bringing his tablet to hover over your arm. Blue light emits from the bottom of it, a faint stream of light that cascades over your bare skin.

Now that your military uniform has been stripped, you can see the injury better, although you don't particularly want to see it. It's bruised black and blue, blood all around the hole that is shiny and fresh. It oozes a bit still, although the liquid is not all red, and you're certain that it's the infection mixed in as well. Not something you would like to look at but the blue rays coming from Yunho's tablet are quite fascinating to watch as they dance over your arm. You don't feel the touch of the light; you can only see it as it moves as though on its own accord. Sure you've had injuries time and time again, but the treatment methods for them were never like this. No fancy tablets with strange lights. Although the military has always had a more traditional approach to everything they do.

"Hm. The bullet is in there pretty deep, huh? It… uh, it's in an awkward spot. The bullet tore right through your brachialis muscle along with a bit of your bicep. Moreso, the nerves all around the path of the bullet itself seem to be a bit fried? I doubt that makes any sense to you, but in layman's terms: two muscles have critical damage, and that's not something we can immediately fix. I can remove the bullet with an emergency operation to cut the arm open and take it out, which is the best course of action. The nerves can be… I'm not sure how to say this in a way that will make sense to you. Hm, well. The nerves can reconstruct themselves over time. When I do the surgery, I can help them along a little bit but I don't think it's needed. Nerves try to repair themselves by shrinking back and resting for a period of time. After the rest period, they grow back as they were. Muscles can do the same sort of thing but not in cases of extreme trauma. A muscle damaged in extreme trauma creates these gaps that are too large to fill on their own so scar tissue forms in the gaps as a way to compensate. Does that all make sense?"

"I have an infection-induced fever," you state. "I don't understand anything you're saying." Yunho raises his brows.

"I'll take that as a no." Yunho lifts the tablet higher and drags it through the air above your head all the way down to your feet. The blue rays conform to your body as they move, widening and contracting with the folds of your clothes. "San, could you do me another favor? I need you to go get Woo so I can have an assistant to run the operation."

"No, no, I can do it," Spectre answers with haste. His eyes dart between you and Yunho. "Woo won't be necessary. I can help you." Yunho stands up straight, pulling the tablet back to his chest one the light retracts from your body, and stares at San. He looks ready to argue about the topic but never opens his mouth to retort. Instead, he releases a deep sigh: a sign of relenting. San's lips quirk upwards into a small smile of victory.

"Fine. Get the anesthesia injection, a scalpel, tweezers, and gauze." Spectre turns away from the bed upon hearing the command. You watch him walk out the corner of your eye, thinking over Yunho's words.

"Anesthesia?" You repeat. "I thought you said you didn't want to use anesthesia on me."

"I didn't want to. But that was before I ran the scans and saw the extent of the damage to your muscle. I'm not getting this bullet out without trouble, so numbing it is pretty much the only comfort I can give you." 

"Wait San – the belt. I need it." San passes said object to Yunho by tossing it across the bed. Yunho folds it in half. "Here, you're going to want to bite down on this." He holds it out to you, and you take it between your teeth, glancing up at Yunho as you do. He then reaches around you to pick up the bottle of vodka from his table. "Please – well, please try not to jerk your arm while I do this."

Yunho grips your arm at the elbow, a small effort to keep you steady as he tips the bottle towards your wound. You clench your teeth around the leather belt before the alcohol even touches your skin. Anticipating the worst helps quite a bit, in fact, because the second the first drop of alcohol lands on the wound, you're screaming around the belt. If not for the death grip Yunho has on your elbow, you would be thrashing. It's the worst pain you've ever experienced. Far worse than being shot, far worse than burns or frostbite, hell even getting shot by a laser hurts less than the pain you're in at the moment. Yunho keeps the steady stream of alcohol going, flushing the wound out. The mix of blood, infection, and alcohol is causing a grotesque foaming mixture that drips from your arm to Yunho's hand and onto the bed.

"Hang in there, I'm almost done," Yunho mutters, voice barely audible behind your muffled screams. He continues pouring alcohol over the wound until it runs clear but the pain doesn't let up even after he stops. "See, that wasn't too bad!"

His cheery tone and optimism only make you want to punch him in the nose. Luckily for him, your punching arm is out of order at the moment and you're in so much pain that you can barely feel the limb. All you can do is spit the belt out. Yunho catches it before it hits your lap. He inspects the leather, a small laugh escaping his lips as he sees the indentations of your teeth along the belt. You all but bit through the leather on both sides.

"I hope you didn't like this belt too much, San," he calls to the man who stands on the other side of your bed. He's gathered the materials that Yunho asked for, all piled up with the other stack that Yunho already had.

"Oh, I didn't. Captain did though."

"You took this from Hongjoong?" Yunho asks, voice rising as he gapes at the other man. He grins like a Cheshire in response. "On god San, you're fucked if he finds out."

"That's why he won't find out. Can't miss something you forgot you had."

"That's not the way h—"

"Anyways." San passes the shot of anesthesia over to Yunho, interrupting his train of thought.

"Yea, yea. We need to work fast to get the anesthesia in so there's enough time for it to kick in and wear off before the 47 hours are up." Yunho takes the shot in one hand, his other hand squeezing around your elbow. He pokes at the skin a few times then presses so hard that you release a loud noise from the sudden pain. The needle enters your arm so quickly that you barely feel the pressure. Warmth is the only thing you feel for a moment, a cozy yet uncomfortable sensation that spreads down to your fingertips and all the way up your arm. "Okay, we'll need to give you a bit of time now. The anesthesia will take a bit to kick in, so in the meantime, I need to run an IV drip for dehydration. Just for putting some fluids back into your body that you've lost through all the sweating and vomiting. Not to mention you probably haven't had a lot of water in the past few days. I'll also do a drip later for narcotic painkillers once the anesthesia begins to wear off. Okay? All standard protocol for an operation like this, I promise."

"Let's just get it over with," you murmur back. He frowns at you, a small "okay" leaving his lips before he continues his work on you. 

The combination of your fever and the pain is bringing a piercing headache. You don't notice that Yunho moves around the bed until his hand reaches for your left arm. You yank it away as though burned. His eyes go wide at the forcefulness behind your action. A moment later though, he tries again, fingers closing around your wrist. You try to tug away but his grip is a bit too powerful this time and you fail to release your arm from his grasp.

"I need your uninjured arm for the IV. There's too much damage on your right arm to get these fluids into your bloodstream."

"Use my right arm or no arm at all," you hiss back. Your fingers clench into a tight fist, knuckles going white from the pressure.

"I already saw it," Yunho whispers. There is no point in whispering, as the room is silent aside from his voice, so San can hear the words as well. Still, you freeze. The tension leaves your arm and you let it fall limp in Yunho's grasp. "I'm sorry. I saw it when we were getting the uniform jacket off."

"Whatever," you say, looking away from the man. The plain, white wall before you is suddenly much more interesting. Despite the length of time that has passed since you received the brand, the memory always remains fresh. The sensation of searing hot metal being pressed against the inside of your wrist, the pain that resonated through your whole body, and the feeling of five pairs of eyes glued to you as you received the brand. It's all too real and present in your mind. Just the thought of someone seeing the brand is enough to send you headfirst into those memories.

"How… how did you get it?" The healer inquires. His voice is quiet again, no doubt hesitant and uncertain about asking the question. You barely feel the next needle that enters your arm.

"That's none of your business," you respond without looking his way.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry for intruding. I'm just – just trying to make conversation to distract you from the pain."

"Well, talk about something else. Not my past."

"Understood." You catch sight of Yunho's small smirk out the corner of your eye. Despite your confusion, you decide against asking him about it and wait for him to contain what he's doing instead. He places small round patches on various points around your chest, deft fingers dipping under the fabric and back out without you even feeling it. "These are just for keeping an eye on your heart rate. It's good I checked too because your heart rate is awfully slow. Could be due to the infection or your body is trying to conserve. Normally I only see it this low if the patient is asleep though."

"Need anything else?" San asks. He steps forward, hands coming to rest on the foot of the bed.

"Not right now. I think we're – wait. Wait." The level of panic in Yunho's voice does not comfort you one bit. Especially when Spectre's face shares the same level of concern. "Something isn't right." Yunho swipes furiously at his tablet, fingers moving so quickly over the screen that you can't tell what he's trying to do. "She was shot in the arm… outer arm with no exit wound, the bullet still present in the brachialis muscle right against the humerus. Why does she have pneumothorax too?"

"English please?" San asks.

"Punctured lung. It's a punctured lung that could collapse at any minute. Yours looks to be a pinhole, meaning it's small and acute. You should recover just fine without any treatment if you were a healthy adult but there's a serious infection running through your blood and that means it could cause complications if not treated. More importantly, I can't do an emergency operation like this if your lungs aren't fully functional. I'd need to put you on an oxygen mask just on the off chance that your lung collapses during the surgery but a one percent chance is still a chance."

"What caused it? I haven't noticed anything." You try to sit up a bit to look at Yunho's tablet but he pulls it away before you have the chance.

"It depends on all sorts of factors. Do you know how long you've had a lung problem?"

"I didn't even know I had a lung problem," you retort.

"She's been on the ship four days, Yunho."

"Okay, okay. We can worry about that in a bit. I need to get the IV drip in now." You glance forward as Yunho approaches your arm with another long needle. San is blocking your line of sight. He doesn't look back at you; instead, his eyes are fixated on your arm, rather your wrist where the chain brand resides. Subconsciously, you turn your wrist away only to have Yunho resituate it again as he inserts the long needle.

"You're looking pretty pale again," San comments. You take a deep breath but find yourself unable to respond. All the white in the room begins to blur together. All the strength left in your body is ebbing away. "Yunho, she's looking pretty fucking pale!" The man's voice climbs in volume as his form blurs into nothingness. Yunho keeps working on your IV, securing the catheter and tubes with a piece of tape.

"Shit, hey. Hey. Hey, stay awake." Yunho reaches over, patting your face with his palm. You push him away with a weak shove as a wave of coughs overwhelms you.

"Is this normal? What do you need? What's wrong with her? What do we do?" San rambles. Yunho rubs at the skin between his brows as San speaks.

"Shut the fuck up, San. If Woo were here, he would know what to fucking do since he helps me ninety percent of the time." San leans forward, smacks Yunho's hands away from his face, and grabs hold of his collar.

"If you don't want my help, then you're on your own," San hisses as he yanks Yunho forward. A weak laugh escapes your lips.

"Do you all fight this often or am I just special?"

Yunho sighs at your half-hearted jab and pushes San off him. He reaches for his ear, beginning to speak again but this time it's not directed at San.

"Wooyoung to the med bay for emergency operation assistance." The moment his hand leaves his ear, San is back in his face.

"Call it off!" He yells. Yunho deflects San's anger with a surprising sense of calm.

"I'm not letting a girl die simply because you don't want him to be seen. The fact of the matter is you don't know what the hell you're doing so you're of no use to me."

"Your damn savior complex is going to be the end of everyone on this ship."

"Then we were doomed the minute I set foot on the ship. Wooyoung is the only one who knows how to help me conduct emergency operations and laser surgeries. You need to fuck off and let me do my damn job. It's my job to save people, no matter the cost. Yours is only to kill them. So, why don't you listen closely and hear the wheeze in her breaths? The sweat on her forehead? The residue from her arm? If I don't get to work quickly, then you'll have a body to haul out. Do you want to be responsible for her death?"

At those words, San stands down. He leans back and stands up straight ahead, the fury dropping from his features as he moves. He turns away from the bed but something in you causes you to lunge forward with a sudden bout of strength and catch his wrist. He glances down at you with widened eyes.

"Thank you… for – for saving my life." San's gaze softens. A smile almost crosses his lips but he stops it before it can show too much.

"I did nothing except prolong the inevitable," comes his response. The words are spoken in a cold and emotionless tone, much different from the tone he used with you previously, but you no longer have the strength to even think straight. Your hand falls away from San's wrist as you fall back against the bed. Yunho lets San leave the med bay without exchanging further words with him.

Instead, the healer finishes connecting all the IV tubes and fluid bags.

"You're probably going to pass out," he mutters, bending over you and resting his palm against your forehead. "We'll try our best to work quickly and keep you under during the operation, okay?" You can only nod against the pressure of his hand. He eases you further into the bed and makes sure you're flat against the mattress. The action is like the magic touch for you to fall unconscious. Before your vision goes completely black, you see a new form enter the med bay, one with tanned skin and hair that looks like coal and ash. You don't have the chance to look over the rest of his form before the darkness overtakes you.

✦          ✦          ✦

Waking up again takes far too much effort. Your whole body feels as though it's made of pure lead, and you can't even open your eyes easily. You can't recall what happened before you fell asleep or where you are; the confusion only grows further when you're finally able to crack your eyes open.

White. The color is all you see for a few moments before your vision clears up some. The brightness of your surroundings blinds you. You shift and push your head to the left. Wires and tubes are all around you, two lead to your arm and another to your face. You try to feel around but you aren't able to; the strength hasn't completely returned to your body. All you can do is move your head from side to side for the time being. You check your other arm. There's a large white bandage wrapped around your bicep and you can't recall what's underneath it.

The clink of metal distracts you. It resounds from somewhere in front of you, and as you twist to look in that direction. A man with tan skin stands near a sink. You peer at him. Something about his figure seems familiar but you can't place it. Seeing him brings reality back to you, however, and you recall how you got here, a Cheshire cat finding you in a crate, the gentle giant healer who helped you.

"Wh-Where am – where am I?" You stammer out, voice cracking and hoarse as you try to talk. The man jumps at the sound of your voice. He drops what he's doing and turns towards you, eyes wide and curious as he looks over at you. Now that you're more awake, you can see more clearly and get a better look at the person with you. Besides the caramel tan, he bears dark hair that's almost black but not quite. The color is more between silver and grey but the color of his hair is the least interesting thing about him. There is a metal collar around his neck, a thick block that stands out against his skin, and you peer at it in curiosity. A collar? I don't… You don't have time to look at him, however, because he's rushing towards you a second later.

"Oh, you're awake!" He chirps as he comes closer to your bedside. "You're aboard The Horizon, ship belonging to Captain Kim Hongjoong. I'm not sure whether you remember it, but you were awake for a little while before the surgery." At his words, vague memories of a healer and a man with a strip of white hair float to the forefront of your mind. "You had a pretty awful fever though so it might be a bit hard to remember. Yunho – the healer, if you remember him – patched up the pinhole in your lung and kept it from collapsing with quick laser surgery. We also removed the bullet in your arm and drained the infection. He patched it up with stitches as best he could. He said that it was hard to close without some skin grafting, but he didn't want to do that so he just closed it without the extra graft."

"How – hold on, how long have I been here?" You ask. The sudden barrage of information catches you off-guard. You're still waking up, brain not coming back to full functionality, yet this man doesn't seem to care about that one bit. 

"Oh! Hm, I think you've been on the ship for maybe a total of seven days? If you include the first four stowaway days, that is. Otherwise, you've been asleep for three days."

"72 hours," you mutter to yourself. You remember something about the captain telling Yunho that he only had a certain amount of time to fix you.

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

"72 hours… but the captain gave Yunho 48 hours to fix me."

"47 actually!" The man corrects with a bright and blinding smile, his teeth shining under the yellow light above your heads. "Captain only gave 47 hours to fix you, but it only took Yunho 17 so."

"Wh—What do you mean?"

"We were up for 17 hours trying to fix you up. Captain was impressed at Yunho's speed so he said that you could have extra recovery time. Oh, if you pretend to still be resting, you could get longer recovery time!"

"Why is everything in this room so damn white?" You mutter as you push yourself into a sitting position. The man shakes his head.

"No, no, no! You shouldn't get up!"

"Why not?" You protest, swinging your legs over the edge of the bed. "I'm fine, I feel fine, and nothing is going to rupture. Laser surgery doesn't leave tears or stitches either so it doesn't matter."

"No!" The man argues, voice climbing in volume. You blink up at him, eyes wide from the sudden outburst. "Yunho told me not to let you leave, and I won't go against what Yunho wants. If he says you stay here, then you stay here."

"This is ridiculous. Now I'm being kept here against my will? Am I a captive now?" You scoff as you continue to get to your feet. The man moves with surprising haste. He leans across the space in front of you, snatches up something from the table, then grabs your head. You try to fight back but he has already caught you and overwhelmed you. Something sharp pierces your neck. You cry out at the pressure but waves of warmth wash over you next. You stumble backward when he releases his hold on you. The backs of your knees hit the edge of the bed and you fall back onto the mattress as your strength leaves your body again. 

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry but I had to do it. I won't go against what Yunho says." His voice sounds somewhat remorseful. You're losing consciousness so fast that the world spins around you and as you glance over at his hand, you spot a large shot. You'd recognize that almost anywhere. The military use them religiously, a typical weapon that you would brandish when dealing with insurgent civilians. High grade emergency sedative shots.

"Y-You…" You can't finish the sentence before the exhaustion overwhelms you and you pass out yet again.

✧  ✧  ✧

a/n: hello hello it’s that time~ new chapter! i hope you all enjoy it! please let me know what you think so far and what your fav part has been or anything about the story!! i know things are moving rather slowly at the moment bUT i promise it’ll pick up in the coming chapters, we just gotta get through this ish first !!

consider sending me a ko-fi!!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

[teamhook]

Un-Kissable CS AU::never been kissed

Hello. I know it has been a long time but I’m going to finish this. I’m aware I have a lot of WIPs but if you’re patient and stick around I will finish them all. To those who have stuck around and the new readers thank you. Okay so here we go. This is the last update of my older fics. Since it has been so long I will share a link to the first chapter and to the current.

I want to thank @ultraluckycatnd for being the lovely beta she is. Art by @herhookedhero

FFN |CH1| |CH6|

AO3 |CH1| |CH6|

Will Scarlet stands outside of Storybrooke High. He enters the school, turning to face the security guard and nods. He swaggers down the hall only to come face to face with a beautiful woman. She is a petite brunette with blue eyes. Will's heart stops. "Excuse me, ma'am?"

The lovely brunette turns to him with a soft smile. "Hello, may I help you?"

"Lass, I'm looking for the Principal's office. I'm here to pick up Killian Jones."

"Oh," she smiles, "I can walk you to the office."

"I'd appreciate it, thank you," he says, smiling.

They walk in silence.

All Will knows is that this woman is the most beautiful creature he has seen in his life. He is speechless, which is an uncommon occurrence. They arrive at the office and for a mere second, they awkwardly stand in silence.

She clears her throat. "We're here. This is it." She smiles at him.

They gaze into each other's eyes one last time before the clerk breaks the moment between them.

"Sir, how can I help you?"

Belle smiles at Will. "She'll help you." She hesitates for a second and turns to leave.

"I'm here to pick up Killian Jones. I was called to come to pick him up."

"Oh, yes. He is with Mr. Hopper and the nurse. One moment please." She picks up the phone. "Mr. Hopper, they're here for Mr. Jones. Yes, sir." She smiles. "Mr. Jones, could you follow me please?"

Will's eyes widen, and he nods and follows her. They enter the office of Mr. Hopper, the principal. He gestures for Will to sit down.

After an apology from the kind man, Will and Killian emerge from the office. Once they're out of earshot, Will comments. "Mate, you could have at least tried covering your face." Will winces as he looks at Killian's face.

Killian laughs and winces. "Bloody hell, it hurts when I laugh. Let's go."

"So, I'm Jones now?"

"I couldn't let them call Liam," Killian defended. "You know he acts like if he was my father instead of my older brother."

Killian looks at Will, who is distracted.

"I just encountered the most beautiful creature," Will sighs.

"Wait, I thought things were going well with Anastasia. Didn't you just invite me to go out with you lot to meet her and her friends?"

Will turned red. "I was trying to get you laid. Besides, she made it clear that she isn't interested in me. She invited her new boyfriend. So although I wasn't the only man there, I wasn't exactly wanted there. Her friends looked at me with pity, Killian, but this girl takes my breath away. I just hope she is not a student here."

Killian grimaces as they continue their walk.

"So what happened?" Will asks.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"I suppose. So, do I drop you off at your place?"

"Aye, Shadow will keep me company."

"I don't know, maybe I should take you to the hospital or a doctor? You might have a broken rib or something."

"Nurse Ratched checked me and didn't find any severe damage. Although she did enjoy prodding me a bit too much." Killian shuddered as he remembered the exam the nurse had given him.

Once Emma is in her classroom, she becomes distracted. The school isn't known for violence, but there are a few bad eggs. She chooses to see the best in everyone, but right now her anger for what had happened to Killian was blinding her. Yes, she cares for all her students, but Killian is different. She wonders if anyone in her class is responsible. Oh yes, she knows Peter and Felix are bullies. She had caught them when they picked on Henry. She had sent them to Principal Hopper's office on several occasions and to the counselor, but they were obviously not taking the warnings seriously.

She smiled as her eyes landed on Henry. He was such a sweet kid. He had eagerly attached himself to Killian. She had been so happy to see him make a friend.

"Class, I'm sad to say that one of your classmates, Killian Jones, was attacked and will be out for a couple of days." She looks around the classroom and gauges their reactions.

Henry looks disappointed as he turns to Killian's empty seat. His big brown eyes become wide and suddenly a smile begins to form. "Miss Emma, I was wondering if we could make him a get-well card? Or maybe buy him some flowers?"

Peter and Felix snicker. "Cause he is a pansy just like Henry."

Emma glares at Felix and Peter, shaking her head. "Henry, that sounds like a lovely idea. Isn't that right class?"

The classroom erupts in agreement except for the grunts of the two scowling trouble makers.

"Alright, class. we have work to do." Emma smiles at the class. She is happy they are so welcoming to the new kid. Keyword kid, she has to remind herself.

After Will drops him off at home, Killian feeds Shadow. He was tilting to the side to offset the pain. He takes an ice pack from the freezer and stops by his medicine cabinet for some painkillers. He hates staying still, but that's his only option. He lays down on his bed with the freezing pack pressed to his side. He hissed as he feels the cold numb the pain, Shadow purring next to him waiting for his attention. Killian smiles. "Shadow, I'm sorry mate I can't spoil you rotten right now." The piercing eyes show understanding as he meows and purrs contently, nuzzling his head on Killian's hand. Killian unconsciously pets him until his eyes start to close.

The next morning, Liam decides to check in on Killian. He hasn't told him how his assignment is going, which makes him worry. Killian had been so eager to tell him about the assignment and then nothing. Liam opened the door with his emergency key and notices the room is as quiet and neat as ever. His little brother was compulsive when it came to tidying up the place. He waits for Shadow to show up and attack. That little cat was ferocious and even more protective of Killian than him; Killian had once called him his little guard cat. Liam walks into the bedroom to find his brother sleeping. He approaches to wake him up because it is late and very unlike Killian to oversleep. He was going to be late for school. He notices the bruises on his face and the melted ice pack next to him. Liam shakes his head. "Killian, wake up."

A groggy Killian shifts in his sleep and mumbles, "Leave me alone, Liam."

"Killian, you're going to be late for school," Liam says as he waits for the words to get through his brother's sleep-addled mind.

Killian jumps up, startling Shadow and breathing heavily as his eyes land on a cross-armed Liam glaring at him.

"Brother, do you have anything to say to me?" Liam asks patiently.

Killian winces and falls back on the bed. "Liam, what the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"Killy, what happened?"

Killian sighs. "Nothing. I fell."

Liam laughs loudly. "I didn't fall for that when we were younger. I'm not about to start now. Try again."

"Fine, but promise me you will not overreact."

Liam's jaw clenches. "I can only promise to try."

"There are some bullies at school and I suppose they are not my biggest fans." Killian shrugged.

"Killian, did you at least try to defend yourself?"

"No Liam, I just tried to cover my face. Do you forget I'm an adult? I would get in trouble at work for blowing my cover and for hitting a minor."

Liam shook his head in disbelief. "No story is worth your safety. I think you should quit. I don't want you putting yourself in danger."

"Liam, this is my chance."

"You need to be more careful. Killian, you shouldn't need to risk your life for a story in a high school."

"Liam, so tell me, brother. How would it work if I ever have a serious story? Hmm? I would have to tell Sidney I can't because it's dangerous and my brother doesn't want me to? If I can't do this, then why would I want to be a reporter?"

Liam sighs. "I get it. I'm not exactly living my dream. There's no need for both of us to be miserable."

Killian smiles. "Thank you."

"I suppose you're staying home today. I'll bring you something to eat. Just relax and focus on getting better. Wait, should I take you to the doctor or the hospital?"

"The school nurse checked me thoroughly. I don't think Nurse Ratched takes her job as a joke."

Liam simply nods as he walks back to the freezer for another pack to help soothe his brother's pain. "Alright, I will be back."

Liam left with one thought on his mind. He needed to find a way to protect his little brother.

Henry had called the day after to check on him. He was proving to be a good friend. He wanted to drop off his class assignments, but Killian had quickly asked him if it was alright for his brother to pick them up. Killian hated lying to him about his true identity, but how would he explain living alone? He also wanted to prove himself. Not once had Killian thought that taking this assignment would have the possibility of changing his personal life as well as his professional one. Killian remembered the concern he had seen on Miss Swan's face while she cared for him, but now was not the time for silly crushes. She surely couldn't possibly feel the same.

Killian returns to school after a couple of days at home recuperating, his bruises fading into a purplish-black color which makes his eyes more vibrant. His face has a fuzz due to not shaving for days. He looks older and there is also a hint of danger to his appearance. He also has to resort to wearing his contacts because he had lost his glasses the day of the attack.

He can feel Peter and Felix keeping an eye on him. Days pass and there are no new attacks. Miss Swan had asked him if he saw anything, but he lied to her saying no, but he had a feeling she knew he was lying.

After two weeks, Sidney finally calls him to his office, furious.

"Killian, can you explain to me what this is?" Sidney hands him his iPad to read an article.

Killian mumbles as he reads it. "I agree. Skull Rock is where all the cool kids hang out."

"Hmm. Can you explain to me why, no, how you were scooped by The Author? Killian, you've been at this school for weeks and have nothing to show! I want you to hang out with the cool kids; if they go to prom, you will be with them. That's where the story is. Is that understood?"

Killian tries to explain, but Sidney's glare warns him it is better to stay quiet.

Killian left Sidney's office deflated. How was he going to make that happen? What could he do to fit in with the cool kids? He had to come up with a plan, and fast.

@rumdrum91 @itsfabianadocarmo @xsajx @hookedonapirate @kmomof4  @searchingwardrobes @seriouslyhooked @profdanglaisstuff @let-it-raines @revanmeetra87 @snowbellewells @hollyethecurious @kymbersmith-90 @branlovestowrite @thejollyroger-writer @shireness-says @ilovemesomekillianjones @thisonesatellite @thesschesthair @winterbythesea @stahlop @resident-of-storybrooke @superchocovian @lfh1226-linda @artistic-writer @thislassishooked @shardminds @winterbaby89 @xhookswenchx @ultraluckycatnd @gingerchangeling @laschatzi @wellhellotragic @xemmaloveskillianx @courtorderedcake @pirateherokillian @optomisticgirl @darkcolinodonorgasm @andiirivera @djlbg @nikkiemms @jennjenn615​  @scientificapricot​ @officerrogers​ @imlaxdris71​ @therealstartraveller776​ @kday426​ @allons-y-to-hogwarts-713​  @donteattheappleshook​ @spacekrulesbians​ @lassluna​ @carpedzem​ @captainodonoghue​ @killian-will-do​ @jarienn972​ @tehgreeneyes​ @demisexualemmaswan​ @queen-serena88​ @swanslieutenant​ @tiganasummertree​ @whimsicallyenchantedrose​ @bethacaciakay​ @ohmakemeahercules​ @jrob64​ @klynn-stormz​ @mariakov81​ @sals86​ @elizabeethan​ @brooke-to-broch​ @hookedonhiddles​ @onceratheart18​ @the-darkdragonfly​ @veryverynotgoodwrites​ @jonesfandomfanatic​ @wefoundloveunderthelight​ @cocohook38​