#like at least the first few hours I'm awake will be sort of ruined when it's as bad as this one

[running-in-the-dark]

just had a nightmare that included:

explosions

dead children

had to stand there and make sure the other kids wouldn't see the dead ones

kids being randomly selected for a tournament that involved torture, starvation and team sports. also the losing team of each game gets killed

I was one of the kids/players

some tried to run away and got shot

the ones that lost had to choose their coffins

my husband forgot our cats in a hospital overnight (no idea why they were there to begin with. also doesn't seem as scary in comparison but it was in the moment)

the cats were also running around outside during the scary sports stuff so I also had to worry about them getting lost

how are you supposed to start your day normally when all that has just happened.

[bullyhunter--69]

can you do a markiplier x little sister ? i need some sort of e s c a p e p l e a s e

Snack runs at 2am

Pairing: (PLATONIC) Big Brother! Markiplier x Little Sister! Reader (I'm imagining the reader to be like 17/18ish but it doesn't really matter honestly)

Summery: Boring days lead to equally boring nights filled with sleeplessness and hunger. Since Mark stole all of your snacks for the video he filmed with Ethan that day, you figured he might as well pay you back, right?

T/W: none! Just some good 'ol fluff!

A/N: my first request! I absolutely love big bro Mark and stuff like this is always so fun to write, I hope you guys enjoy! 🖤

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

Bang

Bang

BANG!

Each of the kitchen cabinet doors opened and slammed shut, progressively getting louder to match your frustration. Did Mark really have to take ALL of your sacred snacks, just because him and Ethan were filming and needed something to fulfill their hunger during it? Why couldn't they have just ordered pizza-- or even gotten McDonald's!?

With a heavy sigh, you spun around and leaned your back against the counter top. It took all of 3 seconds for this new, glorious plan to form within your magnificent brain.

The gas station down the street was open 24-hours.

And Mark was going to take you and buy you anything you wanted.

It was the least a big brother could do after ruining your late night youtube binge session by being a hog and eating all of your snacks.

With hushed footsteps you ran as fast and quietly as possible up the stairs and to Mark's bedroom. All caution stopped though when you threw his door open and jumped onto the foot of his bed, bouncing slightly as the weight on the poor mattress was now being distributed between 2 bodies and not just 1.

You made sure to jump onto a spot that was far enough away to where his attacks wouldn't get you, and boy were you glad you did. The sheets were thrown off of the bed and big, hairy limbs went everywhere. Legs kicked and arms swung, followed by various curses and threats after the initial scream died down. It's safe to say, Mark was definitely awake now.

"--OR ELSE I SWEAR I'LL REENACT THE BITE OF '87 ON YOU-- (Y/N)?" His voice was softer now and heavily dripping with confusion as he rubbed his eyes and tried to make out the shape of you in the dark, but your giggles and snorts from his empty threats gave you away instantly.

"What, the fuck, was that for?" The bedroom lamp now on and illuminating the room with soft light showed his ridiculously messy hair, and his hoodie on your body that you stole because he kept the house insanely cold.

"Get clothes on. You're taking me to the gas station down the road because you and Ethan-you big pigs- ate all of my sacred snacks." You punctuated your statement by crossing your arms after throwing the shirt that was laying on the foot of his bed at him. "I think I deserve it."

Mark's face began to dawn the most deadpan expression you've ever seen on him. The bags under his eyes were darkened by the shadows and how his hair framed his face. Exhaustion filled every invisible wrinkle upon him. He looked completely wiped out from the day he had spent filming and editing, but honestly? You could still see his lips starting to bend into a smile as he pulled his shirt on.

Within the next five minutes, you were both seated in his car and on the way to the gas station, having opted to drive since it was cold outside. The radio station played softly as you cruised down the completely dead road.

After pulling in and parking in the spot right beside the door, you both got out and entered the gas station. You skipped right back to the aisle with the chips and candy as Mark made a B-line to the fridge with the energy drinks. You met up with Mark just a few minutes later, a mix of snacks, candy, and drinks overflowing from your arms. You never typically took advantage of the times Mark spent money on you, but this was different! He ate all of your necessary snacks so this was just him repaying you!

Dumping everything on the counter, the elderly lady behind the counter started scanning everything for you while striking up a sweet conversation with Mark, as she always did when you two came in for snacks or gas. Before you knew it though, you were back in the car with at least 7 bags filled to the brim.

You looked over at Mark as he buckled his seatbelt into place. "Thank you Mark, I know you ate all my snacks, but this makes up for it." You laughed, but it got interrupted by a yawn. Mark looked over to you and followed with a laugh of his own, reaching over to ruffle your head. "I'm sorry for eating all of your snacks, kid. Let's get back to bed, yeah?"

You nodded in agreement and buckled yourself in, relaxing back in the comfy seat as Mark started driving.

"I'm still gonna beat Ethan's ass, he isn't off the hook just because you are."

[forgotten-contract]

Voidtouched-blue--[prior]

One moment, sorry." She turned and began rolling up her sleeves to put the campsite back into the natural order they had found it in. Only, everything had already been done. She blinked, confused at first as to when that happened. At least while she had been awake, she didn't recall returning everything to its place. I didn't think he'd pay attention to that. Full of surprises, aren't we? The thought brought a small smile to curl at her lips. "Well my job's already been done for me it seems." She chuckled. "I'm not particularly hungry, unless you'd like something? All that's left is to pack myself into the carriage and we can be on our way." Cyra scratched the back of her ear, warranting a few slaps to the back of her hand as the ear flicked at her tickling fingers.

As he’d come to expect, the waking process of the young feline was filled with ample shakes of stretched muscles as sharp claws and paws wiggled free of the clouds of sleep; her soon-to-be-guest straightening from his lean to give her a bit of room as she began to collect her items - a paired frown on their lips as nails tapped against those fresh horns.

But considering she didn’t shudder with a deep convulsion of agony, he took that as a sign that they’d begun to heal to a manageable pain, at least he hoped.

With nothing to do Silvaire just watched in polite silence as he ever did as she wandered to get herself ready for the day, his brows furrowing for a second as she rolled up her sleeves to do something- before his face softened as that scar of hers lowered with the same expression instead at the sight of his work cleaning.

Her joking remark paired with that genuine smile brought a tempered heat to his skin as that ever present pride relished in the moment of idle praise of a job well done, though he found himself stalling for half a second at the question of food - knowing he’d not ‘eaten’ around her thus far… but she seemed more than eager to get on the road.

Secrets to unravel after all.

“I’m alright, I had, something. Earlier I mean.” Why was it suddenly more difficult to lie around her?

That is what honesty does.

A single taste and it ruins the pallet.

“To the road then, it shouldn’t be too much longer from the maps you’ve given.” It was with a gentle wave of a gloved hand the lord offered her once more to choose her seat, and once again found her in that spot of familiar comfort, the cushions no longer full of novels as they had been - put away for ease of unpacking and sorting later - so it was just the two of them within the cabin for the next few handfuls of hours.

This time, Silvaire didn’t feel that apprehension to the idea.

But the crawling feeling to the back of his neck had yet to leave, so his focus was all the same - tainted in that unknowing sensation. Perhaps it was just the Elementals themselves disagreeing with his presence, it wouldn’t be the first time they’d found the voidsent as some type of burden to their woods.

Golden eyes drifted to his companion as the light of the forest speckled across that tender blue in dappled shadows, his chin resting in his palm as he sat with crossed legs facing that latticed window, listening to the way she continued the idle work she was so prone to doing. Was there a time he’d seen her sit and rest? No, beyond being quite literally unable to move was the only time she’d not attempted to push herself to this obsession.

As ever, their time was quiet with only the idle sounds of pages turned, or the word of the wood ghosting across the path their carriage took, on occasion the kwehing chirps of happy chocobos flitted through the air in time with the birdsong that surrounded them. It was relatively peaceful, far different than the sounds of sand and wind that took over most of Thanalan. Almost a bit too noisy in his opinion - but he’d also been fond of the silence.

Small conversation was made as the hours passed, nothing drastic to answer either traveler’s innermost questions, but simple remarks of the scales of trees or the comments of differing experiences. She spoke of the forest as a home, and he wished to learn how to respect it… If he was to be her guest after all.

To learn the habits of all the paths he’d seen on her map, of all the places she knew in the more less traveled areas of the Twelveswood, of what discoveries she’d made during them - those stars always seemed to brighten when his queries of interest let her speak without fear of judgment due to her more untraditional topic-

In a single second, a flurry of events took place;

A punctuated BANG cut off any structure of thought that the man held - a sharp and unnatural pain shredding through his aetherial center as the Contract of his Driver was pulled taught as a wire and SNAPPED in that same instant; the body of that husk falling off the seat to drop past them, the gore of his head blown through by a distant long rifle-

The birds came next in panic, squawking panic and feathers as the unreined speed jostled the two inside, unchecked, uncontrolled, blinded animals running from the scent of bloodshed - two more violent shots were heard and the sounds stopped, but the velocity had been set; and it was only due to the height and reach that Silvaire had to brace himself that buried instincts kicked in to pull the near floating feline to him as the whole of the vehcile tipped and rolled head over lead, crashing into the unrelenting trunks of those vibrant trees.

Even if he wasn’t human; Silvaire could still feel the solid contact the walls made as he held her close, it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t all of her, but it was more controlled than the space would have treated her otherwise in the crash.

Soon, the moment of unchecked confusion passed, and a new one began.

He could feel her warmth on his chest as he lay against the wall that had now become the floor - the light from the window above stinging his skin as he lay, yet to move. With closed eyes his understanding of the world was far more than the reliance on such weak sight. It was here - even as he felt her move from his touch - that he listened to the world outside. Forgetting of the cabin, neglecting himself in that moment;

The aether of new blood was easy to detect.

It was the amount, and the type of weak magical sensation, that caught his breath.

Just from the few moments of deduction, it was the familiar formation and feeling of those Garlean soldiers that approached. Weapons trained, as if a threat loomed, though he could not see them, he could feel the weight that they brought in shrouds of metal. The feeling of the Elementals just as clear to him in that moment as one of the garrison of a dozen or more stepped forward to speak;

“Ul’dahn, you can either run, or die, for the Miqo’te in the carriage. You have five seconds to respond before we open fire.”

An unspoken wrath rose in his chest as his eyes slowly opened, staring at the light above - the clouds that drifted to shade the open clearing they’d fallen into stinging his eyes. His fingers shook for a moment as he rolled onto his side to feel the cool silk of his hair drift against his cheek. The unintentional snap of the death of a Contract hurt more than any of the physical bruises that he could feel starting to fade - by Altana above, being mortal was horrendous, making each moment his dark aether spun to fix the damage feel all the longer.

There was a pause as he looked to the terrified expression on her face as he lay on his side, wincing as his nerves forced the pain away to heal - without a doubt in his mind her terrors had begun anew, tormented by the world within.

…And through the silence that blanketed them he spoke with a half-functional mumble; not even aware he’d spoken.

“…It’ll be alright, I promise.”

[twjournals]

So Wrong It's Right

Sequel: What's Wrong is Right

Warning: dark!Peter Parker x reader, DUB-CON, manipulation, age gap, drinking

PLEASE READ MY WARNING BEFORE CONTINUING. I am not responsible for your media consumption. Any and all negativity will be blocked.

Word Count: 5.4k

Summary: You're an old troubled friend of May's. Your life consists of being a workaholic, a party animal, and bringing home the shittest of guys for a one-hit-wonder. Just when you get your life in order, you're knocked right back into your old habits. Peter has watched you suffer long enough. He can make it all better.

Your life was far from where you thought you would be. It was sad to say, but you were anything but a role model. Yet May still tolerated you, regardless of Peter. Maybe she used you as an example to show Peter what not to be or maybe she was just too good of a friend to leave you on your own. To say the least, your life was a mess but you could not be more grateful to have a friend like May.

"Peter, go get me a wet rag, please," May spoke quietly. Peter left your side once he helped May get you over to the couch. You were beyond the limits that someone should be drunk.

You were in a fit of hiccups, giggling to yourself as May bent down to take off your heels. You had far too many drinks, that much was clear.

"Maaay, you.." you hiccupped, "are suuuch a good.." you hiccupped again, "friend."

May shook her head with a sigh, taking in the drunken sight of you. She was not sure how you managed to let yourself get this far gone, but every time you would drink, this is how you ended up. Either you had zero limits or you loved to push the limits you did have.

"Pet-" May started to call over her shoulder, but Peter was already hurrying in the room with his hands full.

"I'm here, Aunt May." Peter reminded and she watched as Peter sat the trash can nearby the couch. He then placed the bottle of water on the table with some medicine for the headache he knew would come with your awake in the morning. He kneeled down beside you on the couch, pressing the rag to your forehead.

May only smiled to herself as she pulled the blanket from its spot on the back of the couch and pulled it over your figure. She didn't say anymore. Peter had seen his Aunt May take care of you many nights when you were so shit-faced it was a wonder you could still see faces.

Your head was propped up against a pillow on the couch as Peter wiped your forehead with the cool rag. Your skin was burning up. Peter could not help but wonder how you let yourself get like this. You were quite a few years younger than May, but it amazed him how different the two of you were to be the best of friends.

You were fast asleep in no time, making Peter smile as his eyes gazed over your face. He had always thought you were so beautiful. Too precious to be taken advantage of by the guys you went after. He witnessed many nights when you had told Aunt May about a new guy you had hooked up with. Everyone knew it was nothing more than a one-night stand, but Peter could not help but hate any guys that touched you only for only their benefit.

It was not until you had eventually settled down with a guy you had met from one of your nightstands that you finally stopped ending up on May's couch. You had moved on with your life, still keeping in contact with May every now and then. You were happy. Not just the sex but he was truly seemed like a guy you could see yourself spending forever with.

You had stopped drinking. You had stopped going out to parties. After the first year, you had moved into the city and got an apartment together. Another year later, you guys were engaged and everything seemed to fall into place. After 3 years, the wedding was right around the corner.

Your world moved at a quicker pace now considering all the things you needed to get done before the wedding. In between work and house chores, you were planning for your big day.

As time went by, you were so wrapped up in your own little world you did not notice the slow-burning flame in your partner slowly being put out. While your plans had been coming together, your relationship was falling apart. You had for the most part ignored all the signs and assumed he was having a bad day. It amazed you how many he was having. When you would try to talk to him, it seemed useless since you could never get him to talk about it. In reality, it all brewed into something bigger. It all hit you like a ton of bricks.

You had been working later hours than usual for extra money. It wasn't cheap, but you had told yourself it was okay to want the things you wanted. After all, this was going to be your first and hopefully wedding. You wanted everything to be perfect. You even tried to get opinions from your fiance to include his vision of it, but he insisted you were better at this sort of thing. You couldn't argue with that.

You wrapped up your work at the office fairly early so you decided to call it a night and surprise your fiance. You felt like everything was on track. One night worry-free was much needed. You had earned it.

You pushed open the front door to your apartment before walking through the living room into the kitchen. You sit your keys on the counter, placing your bag on the stool by the counter. You peered around the apartment for a moment. All the lights were off and it was quiet. Had he already gone to bed? You checked the time.

7:13pm

You were surprised you did not hear his game or at least him yelling at it. You started down the hallway to the bedroom you shared, staring at the closed door. Why was it closed when it was just him? You shook the thought a little too soon. Maybe if you had just thought a little longer, you would have prepared yourself for what was on the other side.

You pushed the door open just a little to see inside when you heard a faint moan from the other side. Your heart stopped. You stood in shock taking in the sight of the man you were in love with hovered over another girl in your bed under your covers. Your face was hot in embarrassment, anger. You were feeling so many things right now you could not think straight. You were hurt.

"Are you serious??" You blurted out, causing them both to jump to try and cover themselves.

"You're sick, Chris." She shoved his chest, pushing him off of her as she quickly got out of the bed. "He told me you guys were no longer together."

She scowled as she hurried to gather her clothes off the floor and pulling them on. If it were even possible, your eyes could have burned holes through the girl. You were in disbelief. Your jaw would have already been on the floor if it wasn't connected to your face.

"I'm so sorry." She mumbled, embarrassed as she hurried past you out of your apartment.

You were left to deal with Chris. You starred at him with tears kissing your eyes.

"I-"

You took a deep breath, shaking your head. "Don't."

"I can explain." He started to get out of the bed to dress.

"There's nothing to explain, Chris." You stared at him, trying to restrain yourself from coming across the room and punching him in the face for acting like an explanation could even justify his actions.

"She meant nothing to me." He started to walk over to you.

“You told her we weren’t together. How is that nothing?”

“It felt like we weren’t. You were so busy.” He tried to touch your arm but you shoved his hand away.

"Don't you dare think about touching me when you were just touching another woman." You looked at him with dark eyes, struggling to fight back the cry. He wasn't worth your tears. "I want you to get out."

"Get out?! Where am I gonna go?"

"I don't know." You shrugged your shoulders. "Maybe you could have thought that through."

He frowned, running his fingers through his hair frustrated. "It doesn't have to be like this. Can't we just talk this out?"

"No!" You shouted at him, making his eyes grow wide. You could tell he wasn't telling this as seriously as you. "I don't want to look at you right now." You turn to leave the room, but he grabs your arms to turn you to face him.

"Please. Look, I can- I can stay on the couch tonight. I'll give you your space and when you're ready we can talk about it. I was wrong for that. I fucked up and I'm sorry." You yanked yourself from his hold.

"You can give me space by leaving. Pack yourself a bag and go."

"I love you, Y/n. I never meant to hurt you."

You shook your head as your eyes wandered over the bed to where they once were before meeting his eyes. "You mean you never meant to get caught."

He sighed before hanging his head in defeat and walking by you to gather up some of his things. You didn't move from your spot. Only stared at the mess of a bed. The place you made love to him while he made love to another. You listened to the front door close behind him on his way out before you finally covered your face, letting the tears fall.

For days, weeks, all you could seem to do was feel sorry for yourself. You couldn't find the strength to get out of bed. No matter how many calls you received, you let them ring through to voicemail. Everything you had felt for him was in ruins. You changed for him. You let yourself grow for him and even that wasn't enough. After all the time you spent picking up after him, cooking, cleaning, planning, staying loyal for crying out loud. You didn't know what else he could of you.

You had called off the wedding in the time you stayed closed up in your apartment. Even took some time off of work to handle it all. You took that time to gather every piece of him scattered around the apartment and packed it up. You wanted to end this as painless as possible aside from the pain you were already feeling. You had thrown away the sheets and replaced them, even get a new comforter and it still didn't feel the same anymore to lay in your bed. You stared at your phone beside you as it lit up for what felt like the hundredth time. You finally sighed, lifting the phone. You knew without even looking at the name it was from him.

You canceled the wedding? It doesn't have to be like this. I still love you, Y/n. You were so busy with work and all the planning. You abandon me. Whenever I wanted your attention, you were always too tired to pay any attention to me.

It's like the girl I fell in love with was gone. Some time ago, you couldn’t keep your hands off of me now it’s like I have to beg you to touch me.

You're being selfish.

You can't be THAT mad, Y/n. I’m a man. I have needs. You were busy and she was willing to help. We can fix this. Don’t give up 3 years. Don’t give up on me.

There were loads more, but you could not care to bother reading the rest. You tossed your phone back down on the bed, rubbing your hands over your face. You didn't owe him anything, not even a response. The girl he was talking about was not gone. She was only on hold to plan a wedding by herself and it was more stressful than he knew. You wanted to forget everything that had happened. You wanted to forget you wasted 3 years of your life planning on growing old with this man.

--

You weren't sure how you had got this far and with that being said, May wasn't either. You had talked May into joining you to a night out at a club. She needed a night to herself and you needed a break from everything. Along with that, if you had stayed inside that house a moment longer, you might have gone insane.

"You're going to be hammered if you keep on like that." May reminded with a laugh, both of you clinging onto the bar and each other for the extra support. You thanked the bartender as he pushed your last round of shot glasses in front of the two of you.

You smiled, passing a glass to May before keeping one for yourself.

"We can only hope." You winked at the bartender who only chuckled before clinking your shot glass with hers and downing your shot.

Your throat was already numb from all the alcohol you had already numbed it with. May wasn't far behind you. You took your final shot, grinning and pulling May along with you to the dancefloor to get lost in the sea of people. You threw your arms around May's, moving your hips as you both danced to the music.

This was the therapy you needed. Sometimes you had longed for nights like this. You had freedom. You had no worries, aside from worrying who you might wake up beside. But you had fallen in love and even though you had grown up, you had not nearly grown out of this lifestyle. It was all too familiar.

"Hey! I'm going to the bathroom! I'll be back!" May moved closer to you, raising her voice to be heard over the loud music. You nodded, watching her pushing her way through the crowd of people to get to the ladies' bathroom before easing yourself back into your dancing.

You swayed, grinding your hips with the rest of the crowd. You weren't the slightest bit bothered to be dancing by yourself. You used to lose yourself on the dancefloor for hours days after days years ago.

"I've missed this." You heard a familiar voice speak from behind you, startling you when their hands landed on your hips with your sway. They pulled you back against them, catching you off guard. "I've missed you." He mumbled in your ear, sending chills down your spine.

You peaked over your shoulder to make sure your mind was not playing tricks on you. It wasn't. You prayed it was an old one-night stand, but of course, it was the one person you were trying to get away from.

"It doesn't work like that, Chris." You dropped your hands down to his on your hips, trying to push them off your hips but they only hold you tighter. "Get- get off of me." You gritted through your teeth as your eyes glared at him. "Get off!" You raised your voice.

"Now, now, let's not cause a scene. You've had quite a bit to drink haven't you?" He wrapped your arms around your figure, making your blood run cold as his body pressed to yours.

"That's none of your business."

"I'm your fiance. You are my business."

"Ex." You corrected him. His nose flared slightly.

"You really want to go there? You're nothing without me. You're shit-faced in the middle of the club and you can't even accept my help?" He growled and you pushed on his arms.

"I don't need your help."

"You're drunk. You don't know what you need." He spat.

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted your argument. "I think I've got it from here." You looked up to put a face to the voice, your eyes widening slightly.

"And you are?" Chris didn't budge while staring down Peter as if challenging him.

Peter was reaching his hand out for yours. "Her boyfriend." You stared up at Peter in shock at how much he had changed over the years and he smiled reassuringly.

Chris stiffed slightly and you could feel his eyes burning a hole into you. "Is that true?"

You didn't take your eyes off of Peter, taking a hold of his hand and letting him pull you out of Chris's arms. "Yes." Your voice was hushed.

Chris scowled. "Wow. I wish you luck there, man. She's a real catch." He laughed, making you look down. You couldn't believe he was really trying to ruin your night when he had already ruined everything else.

Peter only snaked his arm around your waist, letting his hand settle on your hip while his eyes never left Chris's. "She certainly is." He agreed. He gave your body a warm squeeze, grabbing you closer into his embrace. "Now, if you'll excuse us."

With that, he guided you through the crowd off of the dance floor.

"You okay?" He finally broke the silence once he got you back to the bar, sitting you down on one of the stools.

You nodded, letting your eyes wander up to him as he motioned the bartender over. "I'm just curious as to why you're here right now. Aren't you supposed to be in college?"

He smiled as he pulled out his wallet to pay your tab and you grabbed his hand, shaking your head. "No, no. I can pay for my own."

"What if I insist?"

"You don't have to, honestly. I have money."

You started to reach into your purse for some cash but Peter covered your hand, giving you another reassuring smile.

"You'll have plenty of other times to pay. I'll get it this time." He reminded you and you sighed in defeat, giving him a playful scowl. He only grinned, proceeding to pull some cash from his wallet to give to the bartender.

"You didn't answer my question." You continued as he turned back to you.

"I'm still college. I just sometimes stay with Aunt May on the weekends."

"And you just so happened to be here?"

Peter chuckled, pointing in May's direction as she stumbled over her feet returning back to the two of us. "Aunt May called."

You raised your eyebrow, looking over at May as she stood beside you now. "You called Peter?"

"Someone has to get you back home." She reminded you and you hit her arm slightly, tilting your head.

"May, I could have got a taxi or an uber. You didn't have to call him for me." You scowled at her and she shook her head in a tsking manner.

"No, no, no. I called Peter so I can rest assured you got home safely and not by some random stranger."

You rolled your eyes slightly and Peter butted in with an awkward chuckle. "I really don't mind. I don't consider this anything out of the way. I'd rather it be me than some stranger or someone." He noticed him giving the floor a swift scan around the three of you.

"Fine." You pouted your bottom lip slightly before rising from your seat at the bar. "You guys make me feel irresponsible or something." You grabbed a hold of May's arm and pulling her with you to the exit of the club while Peter followed behind the two of you.

"Are you coming?" You muttered over to May and she shook her head.

"Happy is here." Just as the words left her mouth when you started out the door, you spotted Happy parked in front of the building to pick up May. "Peter isn't too bad of a driver." You stopped in front of Happy's car.

"Oh goody, rest secured." You muttered and she laughed. Your arms looped around May's neck, hugging her tight. "I'm so glad to have you back. Message me when you get home." You told her and Happy a quick goodnight before letting her go.

Peter led you over to his car, unlocking the car and opening the passenger side for you. You settled comfortably in the front seat, leaning your head back against the headrest. You didn't like how it felt as if you couldn't take care of yourself, but you were in no position to complain when Peter Parker had yet again saved the day.

--

Peter glanced over at you in the passenger seat from time to time as he drove the distance to your apartment. He tried to keep the glances quick to keep you from noticing. You were just as beautiful as he remembered. It had been years since he had actually seen you, but you seemed like the Y/n he still remembered. Not that it was anything bad. He adored you then, and now a bit more.

He had always had the hots for you for as long as you remembered. Of course, you never minded when you ended up staying with him and Aunt May. You were always kind to Peter and he did his best to nurse you back to health to take on the hangover that awaited you the next morning.

He had never forgotten what you said to him one day while you were sick from the night before. You had been clinging onto the toilet and he had taken the opportunity to hold your hair back out of your face to keep from getting anything in it.

You sighed as he rubbed your back in soothing circles. You leaned against the toilet miserably. That was the day you learned to stay away from tequila.

"I hope I meet a guy at least half as amazing as you someday, Peter."

No doubt did the compliment find its way to his cheeks. He blushed a deep shade of red. He tried to restrain himself from making a big deal but it was a big deal to him. Though he knew he didn't stand a chance right now with his age, it meant if he had been of age, he had a chance. He thought about it even when you had stopped coming around so much. He knew this was all a coping method for you. You were hurting then and he could tell by the way you seemed toward the guy back there that there was more to that counter.

He noticed your shiver as you stared out the window. You mentally cursed yourself for wearing something this revealing. You rubbed your arms to try to warm yourself a little. Peter reached behind him in the back seat to retrieve a hoodie of his he always forgot in the car and handing it to you.

"Here." He offered before fumbling with the heat in the car. He smiled at your quiet thank you, putting your arms in the hoodie and pulling it close for warmth with putting it all the way on. He tried to control the big grin threatening to break across his face.

"I'm sorry you had to keep seeing me like this." You looked over at Peter as he kept his eyes on the road. He didn't realize how thankful you were for him in times like this. It was embarrassing how many times this had happened but you were still thankful Peter didn't think any less of you.

"You really don’t have to apologize.” He smiled at her before turning his attention back to the road.

“I really do though. I feel like you’ve taken care of me enough. I’m grown, you know? It should be the other way around.” You giggled and Peter glanced over at you.

“I’m 21.” He reminded you.

“And I’m pushing 30.”

“You’re 28. You’re still young.” He chuckled.

“Almost 29!” You huffed as he pulled into the parking lot to your apartment. “My point is- you know what my point is.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at your frustration. Your age didn’t matter to him. He could always settle for his MJ, his best friend, but seeing you tonight relit the flame to his crush for you. There was just something about you.

He parked the car in the parking lot, walking around to your side to open the door for you. You slid your arms out of his hoodie and leaving it in the seat as he helped you out of the car. You could feel the shots hitting you all at once when you stood. You stumbled out in your heels, grabbing onto Peter’s arms for support.

“Easy now.” He held onto your waist as he guided you to your apartment, asking for your keys. He took your keys when you dug them out of your pocket, letting you in your apartment.

You couldn’t help but notice all the little things he did for you. You kicked off your heels at the door, stumbling over your own two feet again as you wandered down the hallway to your bedroom. You could hear Peter in the kitchen getting you a bottle of water from the fridge along with some medicine from the medicine cabinet.

You sat on the bed when you hear his footsteps coming down the hallway toward the bedroom. You looked up at him, pouting your bottom lip out slightly when you saw him with a bottle of water and medicine for the headache to come.

He set them down on your nightstand, noticing your pout. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Peter, you’re seriously too good to me.” You sighed.

“How’s that?” He looked down at you as he towered over you.

You motioned over to the stuff he had placed on your nightstand and frowning. “All of this. You- you really didn’t have to do this for me.”

“You’re right I don’t. But I want to. I would want it done for me if I were ever in your shoes.”

You laughed slightly at the thought of Peter drunk and you smiled to yourself. “I would definitely be there anytime you needed me.”

You thought back to all the time you had ever been drunk, remembering all the time you woke up to water and medicine from him. Only from him. Even a trash can in case you were to ever get sick, but you never got that with Chris. You always took care of him, but no one ever took care of you. You shook your head with a frown. You had tried so hard to hold it together, but it felt like you were slowly falling apart. He wasn't worth your tears, yet he was always the cause of them.

He kneeled down in front of you, tilting your head up to meet his gaze. “Talk to me. Everything okay?”

You couldn’t stop the words from coming out. “Why am I never enough?”

His eyes widened at your words. “You are more than enough and anyone who doesn’t see that, who doesn’t appreciate you and the things you do for them doesn’t deserve you.” He corrected you, his thumb stroked over your jaw as he held your face to keep your attention.

You didn't know what to say. All you could do was stare. Your eyes scanned over his face before stopping at his lips. Don't. Don't you do it. You mentally told yourself. You couldn't control the effect the alcohol had on your mind and your actions. You tried to fight back the urge but the alcohol only pushed down the buriers you had built.

Your lips smashed against his firmly, catching him by surprise. He was frozen about your lips for a first, in shock, this was actually happening but he surely gave in the kiss. Your hands grabbed at the back of his neck and pulling him onto the bed with you without breaking the hungry desperate kiss. His body hovered over yours as your fingers curled against his shirt, gripping on it. You knew it was wrong. It was so wrong, but you couldn't bring yourself to stop.

Your smaller hands slid underneath his shirt, brushing your hands over his defined abs. He was sculpted by a God. He knew he should stop, but he couldn't find it in him to stop. He didn't want to miss his chance to prove himself to you. He wanted to take care of you.

Your lips parted for air even though you left like you could hardly catch your breath when his lips started to kiss down your neck. Your hands tugged on his shirt until you started to pull it up and over your head.

His hands pushed your tight dress up the curves of your body, tossing it beside the bed once he peeled it from your body. Your lips still tingled from the loss of his and you whined quietly, your hand grasped the curls at the nape of his neck to bring his lips back to yours.

He kissed your lips passionately and letting your lips mold together. He could taste the alcohol on your tongue but it didn't bother him any. He had dreamed of this moment since he was a teen. Your fingers worked desperately to undo his jeans, feeling his bulge already through his pants before your hands pushed his pants off of his hips along with your boxers.

You were so desperate. You couldn't stop the whine that escaped against his lips. "Peter, please..." His cock twitched at the sound of his name falling from your lips.

He dragged your panties down your legs swiftly, placing himself back between them when he spread them open again. He peppered light kisses to your lips as he dragged the tip of precum-coated tip through your folds, not wasting any time to give you what you wanted.

You cried out as you clung to Peter's bareback, feeling his cock stretching you in all the ways you craved. You moaned out, letting him swallow them in a kiss as his hips rolled into yours again and again. He sighed in pleasure against your lips as your walls invited him in. You were even better than he could have imagined.

He couldn't believe this was actually happening. His lips covered your body in his kisses, admiring every part of your body as it sang for him. This was nothing like what you used to. He pressed small kisses against your bottom lip, nibbling on it as your core ached with a building climax. Your legs wrapped around his hips, causing you to gasp at the deeper strokes.

Your head fell back against the pillows, a loud moan drawing from your parted lips. Your fingers held onto Peter's hair as he hit that spot over and over, making your eyes roll slightly. You needed so badly for him to stop, but you couldn't bring the words to the surface.

"Oh my god..." Your core tightened with every deep thrust. His cock touched parts of you no guy had ever. You had never felt a climax so fast or so strong. "Please don't stop..." You couldn't fight the words from coming out. Your grip tightened on his dark hair, feeling yourself falling apart with an orgasm with every thrust.

"You're so pretty when you cum." He couldn't stop even if he wanted to. He was not far behind you by the way your walls sucked him in, milking him for all he was worth.

"Do it again. I want to make you cum again." He groaned against your chest as his tongue dragged over your hardened nipple, flicking his tongue against it teasingly before letting out a groan against your warm skin. He didn't want it to stop. He didn't want it to end. "You feel so good, Y/n..."

His hand reached between the two of you, rolling his fingers over your clit in circles. You gripped onto his wrist at the overpowering feeling. You were soaked to the core. This man made you crumble.

"I-I'm gonna cum.." His voice cracked slightly as your walls clenched around him tight In your second orgasm, pushing him over the edge into his first. His cum filled you full, marking you as he pressed delicate kisses across your neck while praising you in the process. "So beautiful, so perfect."

Your eyes were heavy with exhaustion, smiling to yourself when Peter laid down on the bed behind you. He wrapped an arm around your body, pulling you back against his chest.

It only took a matter of seconds for sleep to claim you as Peter pulled a blanket over the both of you tiredly. It was only a matter of time before the morning came to rain on your parade. Bringing along the guilt and regret that followed.

[gaymershigh]

I'm really glad to find your blog! It's really rare to see content of male or gender neutral reader on this fandom. 💕

So, I was thinking, how would the Savanaclaw trio, Jamil and Idia react to a Male! Reader with a really deep/low voice that gets even deeper when they wake up 👉👈.

Ooooooh!! This sounds so interesting! Hearing a veeeery deep and I assume- sexy deep voice is one amazing thing to experience when you first wake up, I would love it but would be scared a tiny bit! (C_C)

Triggers: none

Leona, Ruggie, Jack, Jamil and Idia reacting to male s/o having a more deeper voice when he wakes up

Since it's Leona, it's impossible for him to wake himself up in time, so you have to him up yourself for the sake of him going to class and for the sake of helping Ruggie's sanity.

It took about 10 to 13 attempts to wake this man up, he would either shrug you off or try to make you go back to sleep. But that's because you were just poking him, no words or anything and you're still tired.

When you spoke, this man was fully awake. Not even a tiny bit tired now, he got a sudden tingling sensation like he heard some weird asmr or something.

He will stare at you with his eyes slightly wide but what you didn't know, his eyes were bugged out from the sudden deep voice.

He was a bit fascinated with your already deep voice but hot damn, he didn't even know it could get lower? He's loving it though.

Please keep talking or he might fall asleep but don't talk too long or he'll fall back to sleep. Balance is the key!

He really loves your deeper voice and he's not denying it but he won't say it to your face.

Hope he can hears your deeper voice everytime he wakes up, so of course he'll be both not and intentionally be lazier and making it harder to wake him up.

He's always wakes up you up first and you somehow always got the energy so you suddenly being still not fully awake is a new for him.

Your sudden deeper voice is also a new for him and its a pleasant one too.

The hyena was doing the usual, waking you up so you got a few time to spend before and seeing the usual Savanclaw early routines but for some reason, you just had to stay up late doing whatever.

He was getting himself ready and a few meters away from you so he might not get the exquisite experience Leona did but he still got something and it's still as shocking.

Your tired groan is enough to make his ears flick and tail stand straight up. He slowly turned to his bed where you are, seeing you rub your eyes innocently but your voice says otherwise.

You kept blabbering about how you want to go back to sleep and you're tired or whatever but he didn't listen- no, couldn't listen well. Your voice was so enticing and sexy, he wished he could listen to it forever.

He shook the provocative thoughts off and went about his day but your deep voice sometimes randomly pop up on his mind, causing him to blush out of the blue.

He always wakes up early to go jogging and other healthy things that you couldn't afford to do at five in the morning but he still respects you and your limits nonetheless.

He woke up as usual but there was a sudden obstacle he had to pass through. You decided to sleep in his room since you had to deal with some problems until midnight and you walking all the way home feels like an impossible task.

So of course you two cuddled to feel eachother's warmth (that sounded wrong) and just chatted for a bit until both of you fell asleep. So the current problem is, you wrapped your arms around his body and legs around his.

He really didn't want to wake you up but he neither doesn't want to ruin his healthy routine. Plus, he doesn't want to leave Vil exercising by himself and probably upset him. Life's hard, man.

He hesitated but he has to do so for the sake of fitness life or whatever. He took his arms of off you and asked you to wake up as he needs to move.

It took a while but you manage to open your eyes and take your arms off him. Your "good morning" caught him off guard. It was 10× deeper than before. He quietly gasped and his tail straightens.

He mentioned it to you and thought you were sick of something. He calmed down when you reassure him and the thought won't bug him that much like the others. Though, the feeling of vibration from your voice hitting his chest made him felt something. Putting your head on his upper torso was a very good idea!

He thought that your voice is very manly and awesome and wish to have a gruff voice just like yours. Want to stop or encourage him? Your choice.

You two usually meet up at the cafeteria very early in the morning because he always needs to pack up Kalim's foods for the day. You decided to wake up early and keep him company since it's kinda comforting, no?

You just couldn't help but think how lonely he felt waking up at about 4 or something to do simple things that Kalim could just learn to do it by himself if he wasn't so dependent? What a hell of a life. Not in good way, too.

You always manage to arrive as soon as he does or sometimes even earlier than him. This makes him happy, you genuinely care for him and he could him express all his bottled feelings more than anyone would ever witness.

However, today was different. He already arrived 15 minutes ago and you still haven't showed up. He was worried, are you ok? Did something happen? Or were you just not interested to meet up with him? Did you found someone else!?

He shook off the thought, you're probably just so tired and still knocked out on the bed. No human can keep an unnecessary streak for years if they got a choice not to do it and he accepted that. Not everyone is perfect, he thought. (but you still are to his eyes)

His eyes lit up as he heard the cafeteria door open and footsteps getting closer. He looked back to see the guest of honor: you!

He greeted like the usual, saying good morning with a soft smile but what he didn't expect was for you to greet back with such a low and kinda hot tone.

You were still sleepy, it's obvious since you weren't really talkative so he didn't mention about it until probably around lunchtime, anytime you were fully awake and not in this sleepy state.

He had mixed feelings about your voice. It was kinda scary and eerie to hear it at midnight or early morning, especially when it'd this dark and you were just lurking in the shadows when you said those words but it's very sexy and really likes to hear that voice again, he's confused.

You two would always game with eachother in his room. Either until sunset or wake up a bit early to have some time before getting ready for school. You would always have to hear Ortho nag about how unhealthy your midnight/morning routine is and all but at this point, who cares?

This time, you stayed at Ramshackle Dorm and both decided to play it at morning. It sucks since you didn't get enough sleep last night due to Crowley shenanigans or whatever but you still didn't want to cancel the plans with your boyfriend so you'll just have to hear an annoying alarm go off on your phone.

It felt impossible to wake up but you manage. An alarm going off with Grim complaining how noisy it was really boosted your energy but you were still tired and was too lazy to wash your face.

He was already waiting for you in a lobby and you quickly joined in. It seems like nobody else is in this lobby this time, which was weird but at least they don't have to hear you sound half asleep or something.

He greeted you like the usual, he sounded more energetic than you. Guess he took proper sleep this time like you. You greeted back and you can hear the gasp of shock and confusion from the voice chat. It was silent for a few awkward seconds.

But he broke it by saying how your voice was deeper and how sexy amazing it sounds. You awkwardly laughed about it and he started the game, still talking about your deeper voice.

He's too much of a chicken to admit it but he reallt loved your voice. Your current deep voice was already baffling and hearing you talk or even rant for hours feels like some sort of weird voice heaven. But your deeper morning voice? Oh dear, hearing it loud and clearly from the headphones gives him shivers down his spine, it felt so close lie you were whispering in his ear.

I had so much fun writing this. I woke up and the first thing I do is get straight to doing this request, don't know why but I like this sudden energy! (°∀°)b

-𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖎

[wastelandcth]

Better Love - cth

part two: the wild and us

summary: Maeve and Calum meet. The rain outside puts on a show. 

author’s notes: I hope you guys enjoyed the first part of this series! This part had one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written so I hope you enjoy! 

warnings: mentions of drinking, mentions of breakups, mentions of food. 

masterlist || request || join my taglist! 

part one

Staring in the blackness at some distant star The thrill of knowing how alone we are, unknown we are To the wild and to the both of us

"What are you doing in my hotel?" she asked shakily, her wariness prevalent in the way her voice shook as she stared at the man in front of her. 

The towel she was pulling closer to her body felt like nothing in the room with him. Maeve, who had only made it  back to the cabin an hour prior, had expected to be alone. She'd hadn't expected to walk out of her shower to find a tall man sleeping in the bed she'd rented out for the week. She also hadn't expected the rainstorm to be so bad, her weather app claiming her entire week here would be sunny and perfect for hiking, so finding a man in her cabin hadn't been in her plans either. 

And wow was he a sight for sore eyes. 

"What are you doing in my cottage?" he asked, Maeve's eyebrow raising as she heard the trace of an accent, "Mrs. Bagby rented this place out to me, she never said there was someone already staying here," he huffed, his eyebrows furrowing as he studied Maeve's. 

"Mrs. Bagby? Who the hell is Mrs. Bagby? I'm renting this from Mrs. Baird," Maeve said, "I was here first! You're the intruder!"

Maeve, who had always been prepared to debate with anyone, was not backing down no matter how exposed she was in front of a handsome man. She wasn't going to stand for a stranger barging into her space, she needed this vacation more than anything in this world and she'd be damned if she let this ruin it. She watched as the man in front of her opened and closed his mouth, looking like a fish out of the water as he tried to come up with a solution to the very obvious problem. If Maeve was honest, she had no idea how the confusion had happened or how they'd both ended up in this situation, but she didn't have much time to think about it. 

The thunder outside shook the walls of the small cabin, rattling the jars and the decorations on the walls throughout, and it wasn't until Maeve heard the crack of lightning that she realized just how bad the storm outside had become. The view outside the window had been fogged, the colorful autumn trees disappearing behind the wall of water falling from the sky as the landscape blurred into a mixture of grey and orange with red splotches. Maeve, whose attention had switched from the man in the green hoodie to the raging storm outside, had grabbed the pile of clothes she'd left on the dresser. Without another word, she walked back towards the bathroom and made sure to twist the lock before she let out a breath. 

The man in her bedroom for the week had been, breathtaking to say the least. His eyes, although wide and filled with confusion when Maeve had looked into them, were brown and shone even in the gloominess of the weather His hair was short, the tufts of blonde hair curling near the ends. Maeve guessed that his hair had been a darker color naturally, the roots she'd spotted proving her point. He looked like a kind person, maybe he was like Maeve as well, just another person looking for an escape. 

That's all her trip to this cabin was meant to be, an escape. 

Maeve's life had always been simple if you could call it that. She'd been born on a rainy afternoon, her mother liked to tell her it was because she was meant to outshine the sun itself. Her parents, who'd met in Scotland years before she ever came to take her first breath, had always told her about the magic the country had to offer. They told her stories of the forests so vast and large that even the biggest of problems could shrink down into pebbles that flowed away in the rivers. She'd grown up in a small town, dreaming of the wonders that Scotland had for her when she was old enough to see them. 

Maeve had moved when her time at university peaked when her nose was stuck in books that spoke all about the history and the cultures that made up the world. It had been the first time in her life that she'd been away from her parents, from the only home she had ever known, and it had been so thrilling. She went from only traveling to big cities for concerts or when her father had needed to run errands to living right in the heart of all the commotion. The quiet nights that had been filled with only cicadas singing into the night were replaced by the sound of a city, alive and cheerful at all hours of the day. Maeve had never experienced so much at such a fast pace and her life at her university flew by before she had a chance to slow down. One day she was unpacking her bags in her dorm and the next she was accepting her diploma and applying to jobs around the country. She felt the burnout, felt the way her brain tensed whenever she read through application requirements and the thought of having to pack up her life again. She felt the way her eyes forced themself open while riding the train to interviews. She knew that she needed a break, a few days off to remember who she was and what she wanted in life. To make matters worse, her relationship had been going downhill. She'd met James at a social event the school had put on, both of them were in the same program so it wasn't hard to make conversation with him. After too many history jokes and a trip to the campus bar, Maeve found herself awake in his arms as he slept. She'd laid there that first night, looking out at the stars through his window, wondering why she'd felt a pull towards a different place, a different person.

That feeling hadn't stopped since that night, she'd stayed with James, he was a nice guy who made her laugh and kept her company as they both studied. But he wasn't someone she saw herself spending the rest of her life with. She had a feeling that James felt the same way even if they were both too afraid to admit that the spark that had been there before was fiddling out. The arguments were getting worse, the silence lasting longer as time went on. It wasn't until one night when Maeve had been studying for a final exam that it had all exploded. Words were thrown around, tears were shed, and she was left feeling like something was wrong with her. She couldn't understand why she couldn't love James as he loved her, she'd turn distant and pushed him away until all that was left between them was a broken flower vase and tears.

That's why she'd jumped on the opportunity to fly to Scotland when it arose. She'd been sitting at her desk, scrolling through an endless list of applications and teaching opportunities when the email had popped up. She'd read through it a couple of times, making sure she wasn't imagining the words on the screen. Her professor, who'd helped her in more ways than one could count, had recommended her for a teaching job abroad. She would have to visit the school, make sure that it was both a right fit for her and for the administration, but it seemed like they were more than ready to offer her a spot and helping her make Edinburgh her home. 

Mrs. Baird, the lovely older woman who had driven Maeve up to the cabin and helped her unpack, had told her that she was glad she'd arrived a few days earlier after Maeve had told her all about why she was visiting Scotland at such an odd time of year. She'd been a curious soul ever since Maeve had stepped out of the taxi that had taken her from the train station out to the main residence Mrs. Baird had seemed to be the owner of. She'd asked Maeve all sorts of questions, which Maeve had taken as to her host just making sure she wasn't escaping from anyone dangerous or anything like that, it was a tough time to be a woman traveling alone.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll love the spot you'll be staying in then. It's very private, it'll be good for you to clear your head and relax before your big interview," she'd nodded as she packed up a few bags with groceries Maeve hadn't recalled reading about on the website. 

"Oh, um, I don't think I paid for anything like that, Mrs. Baird," Maeve chuckled and shook her head, "I was thinking of just popping into town and picking up a few essentials."

"Oh don't you worry, darling! It's my pleasure. Plus, the cottage is quite secluded so it'd take you almost half a day to get to the shops and back," she shrugged, "Let's get going, yeah?"

The drive up to the cabin had been slow and gave Maeve a chance to take in the sights. The forest was alive with colors that Maeve's eyes had craved to see. It seemed like everything her parents had told her about the place they'd met was still the same. The trees still sway in the chilly breeze and somewhere in the distance, a river flowed with a power that only came with years of flowing and receiving rain. The drive itself had been plenty enough to get Maeve excited about her days of rest but the second her eyes saw the stone bridge that led to her home for the next couple of days, she knew her life was about to change. After helping Mrs. Baird with bringing in all the bags and thanking her for the candles she'd also brought, telling her a rainstorm was predicted to pass through the next day, Maeve was alone. 

Her first day in the cabin had been spent unpacking and unwinding. Mrs. Baird had been kind enough to bring a bottle of Scottish whiskey, telling her," when in Scotland" and Maeve had sampled the liquor, letting it burn her throat as she stared out at the river flowing outside her bedroom window. Her trip had been going great so far, she'd successfully beaten jetlag, had managed not to burn the small kitchen down during her dinner, and she had taken a nice and relaxing show when the rainstorm had shown up the next day. She'd made sure to light a few candles around the place, not wanting to walk around in the dark if the power did go out. Then, of course, everything took a turn for the unexpected when Maeve walked out of the bathroom and was met by a man sleeping in her bed. 

By the time she'd walked out of the bathroom again, fully dressed and a little more confident in herself, the power had gone out and the whole cabin had been illuminated with an orange glow coming from the candles. The man was no longer in the bedroom, but the storm outside the window was winding up more and more as the seconds passed. She knew she couldn't make him walk out in the forest during the storm, it was too dangerous and mean in general to kick someone out in the middle of a downpour. So she'd let the guy stay until the storm passed and then they'd both walk down to the main residence and sort out whatever the hell was happening. 

"Calum," he mumbled, looking over as Maeve stepped out into the living room, "I'm Calum."

"Maeve," she replied with a nod, "You're not here to murder me, right?"

Calum chuckled and shook his head, which made Maeve warm and sent a shiver down her spine. His smile was nice, a murderer wouldn't have waited for her to get dress unless he was into that, she thought. She'd smiled at him, tugging the sleeves of her sweater down a bit as she looked around the living room. The candles gave the entire room a moody glow, the storm had stopped the sunshine from coming in through the windows and it had felt later on in the day than it actually was. 

"So...tea?" she asked softly as she motioned towards the kitchen. 

Maeve had found out that Calum, which was a very fitting name for the man sitting across from her watching the rain outside, had been in Scotland for a little over two weeks. He'd been traveling on his own, exploring the smaller cities and seeing what the Highlands had to offer. Maeve had told him about her interview, confessing that she wasn't the most prepared and that these few days before were to help her hopefully calm down. To her surprised, she’d learned that Calum was a professor at a university near his town, both of their widening at the confession of just how similar they were.

"That's exciting, what are you hoping to teach?” Calum asked, his eyes meeting hers in the candlelight, “I specialize in Art History.”

“History,” she nodded, a blush on her cheeks, her eyes glancing down to the cup of tea that had been warming her hands, “I’ve always loved studying it and I want to help others learn about it too.”

“Yeah? I get that. The history department at my school isn’t the best Some older man names Rainer runs it like it’s still warm times,” Calum chuckled, “He’s the worst.”

Maeve laughed, shaking her head as she thought about her fair share of professors who had yet to catch up with the times She thought about what kind of instructor Calum was. It was only his second year teaching so was he the one who made his students excited for lessons ahead? Did he use fun activities and assignments to incorporate them into his plans? Maybe he assigned cool projects, where the main point was to gain a bigger understanding of something a student has been wanting to talk about. Calum seemed like the type and from what Maeve had learned about the man in the short hours she’d known him, she knew he was kind and attentive.

“How was your hike up here?” Calum asked as he set the cup of tea down on the table, his legs stretching out as his head leaned on the back of the couch. 

“Hike?” Maeve asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked over at him.

“Yeah, I left around like five and didn’t get here until ten,” Calum chuckled and shrugged, “And somehow you look like you just took a leisurely drive up here,” he teased, sitting up as he saw the look on Maeve’s face, “Oh my god, you drove up here, didn’t you?”

"In my defense," Maeve giggled out, holding her arms up, "Mrs. Baird offered to bring me up here"

"Oh, and she forced me to walk for five hours and fall in the mud!?" Calum whined, shaking his head as he let out a groan, "She's so not getting a good review from me, whatever her name may be."

Maeve laughed softly, watching the way Calum ran a hand down his face and pouted over at her. She was surprised at how easily they both got along, usually, Maeve had trouble getting out of her own head and talking to new people. But with Calum things just felt so carefree. She wasn't sure if it was such a good thing, opening up to a complete stranger who had been booked into the same cabin as her, but the rain outside wasn't letting up and she was more than willing to work out a compromise to share with him until the rain stopped and they could take the quad bike Mrs. Baird had told Maeve about before leaving her in the middle of nowhere. 

"Do you want to go freshen up? I'm sure your five-hour hike up here more than justifies a nice warm bath," Maeve nodded, giggling as Calum glared playfully over at her, "I'll try and mix something up for lunch?"

"That sounds lovely, if the rain doesn't stop soon I'll make us dinner," Calum shrugged, standing up from the couch and walking over to the entrance of the cabin, gathering his bag and a pile of clothes that Maeve hadn't even noticed were on the floor before making his way over to the bathroom. 

The rain had not stopped by the time Calum had gotten out of the bath, much to Maeve’s pleasure since she’d heard his soft voice singing along to whatever song he’d been playing. The rain hadn't stopped while the two ate their lunch, a stew that Maeve had managed to throw together in the tiny kitchen. And the rain had, surprisingly, not stopped while Calum had been bustling around the kitchen a few hours later, making dinner while Maeve read through one of the many books she’d packed with her for her trip If she hadn’t known anything about Scotland before traveling there, she would’ve assumed the Earth was flooding and that her adventure abroad would end before it even started.

It wasn’t until a crack of thunder rocked the walls of the cabin that Maeve realized just how extreme the weather has turned. The window was howling against the windows, shaking the panes with the intensity of it. The power had yet to come back and as the day had gone by, the cabin had only grown gloomier and gloomier. Their only source of light had been the many candles that their host has left them, something Maeve would be eternally grateful for. They crackled and glowed in the darkness of whatever room Maeve would get up to look out the window through. Her shadows mixed with the firelight and danced across the dark walls of the safety she’d come to know in her short stay. The river outside of the house, which was louder now that it was filled with rainwater, had grown taller as Maeve would barely see the giant rocks inside of the river which had caused the small rapids earlier in the day.

It was all terrifyingly beautiful.

Nature had put on a show for her and Calum, letting them in on the secret dance the forest and elements did for one another. The trees danced with the wind, swaying wildly from side to side and switching directions when they pleased. The river water jumped over the stone bridge above it, splashing cold water onto the top and lowering as it sprinkled back down onto itself. The woodland animals, who would be hiding in the safety of their own homes, hidden somewhere Maeve couldn’t quite see but hoped they’d be just as amazed watching the show that the world put on for them. It was all so terrifying and violent, the rain submitting to no one but itself as he disappeared into the river only to come down harder from the clouds in the night sky. It wasn’t until the thunder, which had been singing a song for the forest itself, cracked again that the stone bridge took its final bow.

Maeve watched as the bridge crumbles. It started slowly, one of two big pieces crumbling into the river below as if by accident. But the water was cruel and greedy, splashing upwards and sending more and more stone into its hands. Maeve, who could do nothing more than watch as their only way back out to civilization crumbled and washed away into the river below, gasped and leaned against the window. The glass shook underneath her hands, the wind greeting her palms from the outside and howling in excitement as the once-solid bridge was split into two pieces, never to meet again, as the final act of nature’s show came to an end.

“Did you hear that?” Calum asked as he walked into the bedroom, where Maeve had been watching the show, “Maeve?”

She turned to face the stranger, her wide eyes softening as she was met with the definition of a word she couldn’t place in her brain. Calum had changed into a pair of joggers, the grey material hanging loosely off his hips and only held up by a haphazardly tied knot. His upper half was dressed in a warm green sweater, the color reminding her of the fields of green she’d seen on the train ride to the small town, his board shoulder stretching the fabric a little bit in the candlelight, he looked breathtaking. Maeve knew he was good-looking, it was one of the first things she’d noticed when he’d jumped up from the bed with tired eyes that had been filled with fear. He was beautiful and kind and…stuck with Maeve.

“T-the bridge,” she stuttered out, her cheeks flushing as she realized Calum was still standing in front of her waiting for an answer, “The bridge fell.”

taglist: @hoodhoran​​​ @finelliine​ @moonlightcriess​​​ @dinosaursandsocks @mxgyver​​ @calpops​​ @karajaynetoday​​ @notlukehemmo​​ @calumrose​​ @devilatmydoor​ @lyss-xo @lowkeyflop​​  @matchacal​​ @hemmo1996-5sosvevo​​ @myloverboyash​ @2fangirl4u​​ @multistann​

[chiliiscereal]

(This is preseason one to show you what the background is on the whole story)

(let me know if you think this should be published as a separate book!)

You and Steve had a rocky start to being siblings.

You were born four years apart.

He was born in a time when your parents actually loved each other. They had time for birthdays and family weekends together. They went out to the park on saturdays. They were a picture perfect family.

It just so happened that when you were born, your father stopped being quite so faithful to your mother. When you came into the world, your father was in Europe on a business trip. And he wasn't only up to business.

Little Steve had adored you at first. He always wanted to hold you or play with you.

But then their parents no longer had time for him.

It was always work... and taking care of you.

It slowly changed over the years to only work, as your mother could no longer trust your father. Steve was left to watch you for weeks on end. He was good at it at first. He used to watch you carefully. He used to make sure you were happy and well...

Until he could no longer see his friends.

He was ten. You were five.

He began to leave you at home. At first it was only for thirty minutes while he went to the park. Then it was an hour every day during his elementary school days while he went to the movies.

You were seven when you began cooking your own meals.

You TRIED talking to him. You really did.

You tried catching his sleeve whenever he breezed past. You tried showing him crafts you made. You tried playing music you thought he might like.

That ended with twelve year old Steve pushing you away.

It ended with your works of art thrown in the trash.

Your music cassettes were thrown onto the road.

Your mother made sure both of you knew to never walk into the middle of the road, so you could only cry as some unknowing stranger destroyed your wonderful music. The music you had saved up all your allowance for. The music that you had thought your older brother would like. The music that you thought might bring you two together.

When your mother and father returned, you tattled.

Steve was grounded for a whole week.

But he always needed to have the last say. So he sold your boom box and spent all the money on comics. He threw your sketchbook in the quarry water. He shoved you to the floor, saying that if you ever tattled again then you would join your drawing book in the cold water.

You stopped trying to give Steve your attention and love. You no longer wished he would spend more time at home. So you began exploring the town by yourself at the age of nine. You didn't really have friends to hang out with so you would browse through stores.

The arcade was your favorite place.

You loved showing up early on Saturday mornings, before Steve was even awake, and leaving behind a new high score on the dragons lair.

Why?

Because it always riled up a group of boys your age. They had no idea who kept beating them over and over. Every Sunday morning you watched them walk in... only to scream a few seconds later about how someone had beaten their score by ONE point. Again.

You loved having some sort of connection to them. Even if they didn't know it was you. Or even who you were at all. They were a weird little group, strictly sticking with only other A.V club kids. Besides, you hardly ever talked. What would be so special about you?

It also didn't help that your older brother had begun to build himself a reputation. When you were ten, he began to be known as king Steve. You knew he bullied one of the kids (wills) older brother while beginning to flirt with another's (mike's) older sister.

You knew this because your father began forcing Steve to drive you home from school. That was the rule he set when he gave Steve the car.

Every day you trekked to the high school, only to watch Steve hang around Nancy Wheeler and push Johnathan Byers. You would have intervened and told him that you really didn't want to wait twenty minutes (out of sight) for him to be done. But the last time he did that he made you ride the way home in the trunk of his car.

When you were eleven, you started hanging out at Melvald's convenience store in the town square. Your favorite time to go there was at 7:00, because Mrs. Byers would always work the morning shift.

Wills mother was really quite wonderful. Every time you walked in she greeted you with a smile and lowered her magazine.

——-

"Whatcha lookin for today, kiddo?" She smiled softly, leaning on the counter to watch you browse.

"Any new cassette tapes." You shrugged, fingering each music case that caught your eye. "Do you have any Clash? I... lost mine." You didn't lose it. Steve broke it when he heard you mutter about how much you hated Tommy H.

"Yeah, we got a new box of cassettes delivered this morning." She hopped up and waved for you to follow her to the back room. "I miiiight have snagged a Clash cassette for you when I saw it." She grinned as she held the door open for the young girl.

"You didn't need to buy anything for me!" You gasped. You knew that the Byers needed all the money they could get. "Can I pay you back?" You immediately began digging through your pockets for spare change.

She placed a guiding hand on your back as you both entered, pulling you away from your search. "Oh no it's fine! It's the least I can do for my most frequent visitor."

She plucked the music case off the shelf and handed it to you. "You go to Hawkins elementary, right? You should talk to my son. Will. He also loves the Clash."

You turned red and clutched the cassette. "I've...seen him around before. I don't know how to talk to him."

"Oh it's easy!" She grabbed the spare paper and crayons you always used when you visited. "You just need to find common ground. For example," she pulled up a stool beside her for you to sit at, "you both like to draw!"

You placed down the paper and got working on your art. "Will it make a difference if I draw cartoons and he draws realistic? What if the difference is too big for him to want to talk to me?"

"It'll give you more to talk about!"

——

So began your quest to pursue friendship.

You attempted to speak to Will and his friends in the hall.

They were talking too loud about their latest campaign to hear you.

You tried asking to sit by them at lunch.

They were too busy launching potato's at the ceiling to notice.

Right when you almost gave up... Will and you were paired together as partners for a history project.

——-

'Don't mess it up, don't mess it up', you told yourself over and over as you moved to sit by Will. 'Don't be weird. See if he'll talk first. Don't be clingy.'

Wills was equally quiet. He just read through the rubric of the project and stayed silent.

'What can we talk about... what should I say?'

A drawing poking out of wills bag caught your eye. It looked like a wizard casting some sort of spell.

"I like your drawing!" You blurted out, wishing you could just shut up.

Wills jumped, startled. "Yeah... umm.. it's from... uh... it's from our last campaign.." he began fiddling with his thumbs, unsure of what to say to a girl. "Our DnD campaign... I mean."

You nodded along. "I like to draw to! I've never... I've never played DnD before... so I like to draw people."

Will cracked a shy smile. "I'll show you my drawing if you show me one of yours."

You agreed hesitantly.

He took your cartoon and you took his master piece. You desperately wished you could draw like him. Your cartoons looked so simple, as Steve always said.

"You're a cartoonist!" Will smiled, holding the paper out in front of him. It was a caricature of Mrs. Byers. "You must be the girl my mom sees at her job!" His eyes were wide with recognition. "This is so good! I wish I could draw cartoons. But whenever I try... they look like potato's." He laughed.

You flushed a deep red. "I... I'm also the one that beats your scores every Saturday." You admit.

His jaw dropped. "No way. We've been trying to figure out who that was for months! We formed a whole list of people to interrogate!" He ran a hand through his hair.

You giggled. "I can prove it... if you want. Next Saturday I could show you and your friends? At the arcade?"

"Yeah! I'm totally down to hang out at the arcade!"

——

Will had brought you to the A.V club after to ask the rest of the party. You had protested at first. What if they didn't like you? What if they said no? You would look so stupid! You tried to use your brother driving you home as an excuse.

But if you brought Steve up... no. You couldn't start a potential friendship like that.

Will proposed the ideas to everyone excitedly.

It seemed that Lucas had a problem with it immediately.

——-

"Sorry Will, but we can't." Lucas shook his head. "We've got plans."

Your heart dropped.

"Wait," Dustin frowned and turned to his friend. "What plans? I wasn't aware of any plans."

Lucas crossed his arms. "Remember? Our campaign?"

"We don't have a-."

Lucas elbowed him harshly and looked at you. "Can you leave for a second? We need to talk. ALONE."

You nodded and stepped out of the room. "Yeah totally! Just let me know when-."

The door slammed in your face.

You know you shouldn't have but you pressed your ear to the door anyway.

"What's your damage?" Mike Wheeler hissed quietly.

"Don't you know who she is?" Lucas accused.

"No... should we?" Will whispered in confusion.

"That's Y/N Harrington!" Lucas spat out.

"Steve Harrington's little sister." Dustin stated, now understanding.

Mike groaned. "The douche bag my sisters hooked on?"

"Yes! What if she's exactly like him?"

"You mean a total mouth breather? A player? An absolute jackass?"

You sunk to the floor. Of course Steve ruined the only chance you might have of a friendship. How could she think that these kids would look past her family's reputation? No one ever did. Even her teachers expected her to be disruptive and rude.

"Guys." Will intervened. "I talked to her in history."

"What?!"

"Traitor!"

"What about the party?"

Will lowered his voice, causing you to lean a little closer to the door. "She doesn't act like him. She never called me any names. She never told me that I'm a freak. She tried to talk to me about art."

"Steve definitely doesn't appreciate art." Dustin mumbled.

Wills continued. "She's a cartoonist. And I think she might be like us. You know who kept beating our dragon lair record?"

"Who?"

"Please tell me it wasn't Troy."

"Y/N Harrington."

"WHAT?!"

"IT WAS HER?!"

"GIRLS PLAY VIDEO GAMES?!"

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

5 for Nuts and Dolts, because the hug in the trailer is still on continuous loop in my head and the only thing better than an angsty hug is an angsty hug AND KISS 8 for Data Farm, because I'm weak for the idea of Oscar being unexpectedly prince-like and making Penny feel like a princess (or the other way around) I can't remember the number, but the interrupted kiss for rosegarden No pressure to do all of these, I just couldn't decide on one ship because I love all of them

(as a brief refresher: Data Farms Fic Link, Rosegarden Fic Link)

...and here’s to finally being able to answer this ask and revealing the ridiculous (sort of) secret plan I’ve carried out over a month (or two maybe idk) and what’s now a six-chapter fic!

(no, I’m not joking, this (Rose Puppetry) was literally A Thing bc I’m Like That)

So, to explain, way back when I was doing requests for this kissing meme, it was around the same time that you introduced me to the Mechanisms music, and then the Magnus Archives after that.

Subsequently, I thought it would be really cool to make one of these three requests Steampunk-themed.  I decided on the Nuts and Dolts one bc, when I first listened to Once Upon A Time (In Space), I associated Ruby and Penny heavily with Rose and Cinders (I think it was bc the album was brought up in reference to Souls or something like that?  Also Rose Puppetry was my alternative solution to just derailing Souls completely into Being A Steampunk Fic).

Anyways, I started out with the intent to do a short oneshot where Penny breaks into a facility to save Ruby, which would be reminiscent of the final attack on Old King Cole that led to Cinders being reunited with Rose.

Except then I got carried away by world-building (bc it was so freaking fun) and Rose Puppetry became an entire multi-chapter fic all of its own.

For the record, I think I originally @ you when I posted the first chapter bc I was going to say that the fic was a response to this prompt and then quite literally forgot to actually say that anywhere.  I then realized that, if I kept quiet about it, I could turn it into a surprise, which seemed like a fun thing to do, so I went for it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the end of Rose Puppetry!

.

5. Throwing their arms around the other person’s neck, hugging them close before kissing them passionately on the lips.

...

Rose Puppetry Ch6: The Tale of Little Briar and the Huntress in the Cottage

Summary:

A century ago or so, Atlas set out to conquer the world.  Penny was built to be a spy, an infiltrator meant to find weaknesses in Vale’s defenses before the invasion.

She did.  Then she fell in love.  And rebelled against the kingdom that had created her.

Ch1.  Ch2.  Ch3.  Ch4.  Ch5.

Every child in Patch knows of the Huntress who lives in the cottage on the outskirts of town.  Their great protector, who keeps the dangers of the woods at bay so they can go about their lives safely.  No one knows, not really, where she came from.  The youngest kids among them generally want to ask, but their parents usually shush them before they can try.  It’s considered improper, prying into what should be left well enough alone.

Briar knows more about the Huntress than any of her peers, but you’d never catch her boasting about it in the school yard.  No sir.  She can keep a secret extremely well, she can.  Well that, and she doesn’t want the Huntress to be upset with her and ask her father to not allow her to make the weekly deliveries anymore.  Briar loves visiting the Huntress’s cottage, with its duck pond and its thick bramble of roses.  But, most importantly, she loves being let inside and allowed to watch the Huntress work for just a little while.

For, in addition to being their protector against the scary monsters that lurk in the woods, the Huntress is Patch’s one and only mechanic.  There used to be more, of course, but that was back before Briar was born and they all got called off to fight in the Great War against Atlas.

Briar once asked if the Huntress fought in the Great War, too.  She remembers how the Huntress fell silent, the gloomy expression that had seamlessly eclipsed the Huntress��s entire being, and quietly swore never to ask again.  It’s not important for her to know, Briar decided.  Not like learning how gears, cogs, and screws all fit into machinery and make things like the big clock in the tower in the center of town work.

It’s a sunny day.  A few wisps of clouds linger in the sky, but not many.  Briar skips home from school, humming a happy tune of her own creation as she goes.  She briefly pauses to scratch the noses of the cows who’ve wandered to the fence of their pasture bordering the road.  The cows moo at her and sniff Briar’s fingertips for treats.

“Sorry, I don’t have anything for you today.”  Briar giggles as their chin whiskers tickle her.  “If I have time after I visit Ms. Rose, I’ll try and bring you all back something, but I make no promises.”

She continues on her way, only stopping in the Mech Field to pick a collection of bright, cheerful wildflowers.  Briar pauses to consider the ruins of the old war machines, but Ms. Rose once warned her very sternly not to get too close to the fallen mechs without her supervision, so Briar doesn’t.  Instead, she takes a spare hair ribbon out of her school bag, ties it snugly around the stems of her wildflowers to keep them properly bunched together, and heads home.

Her mother has the weekly grocery basket for Ms. Rose waiting when Briar arrives.  She helps Briar securely fasten it to the deliveries bicycle and situate the flower bouquet on top so the bumpy ride won’t jostle them too much.

“Keep an eye on the time,” Briar’s mother gives her the usual warning.  “And, if it starts growing dark, have Ms. Rose walk you home.”

Briar rolls her eyes.  She’s big enough to come home all on her own, even after sunset, she thinks.  Still, she promises, “I will!” before taking off on the bicycle.

Smoke lazily drifts into the sky from Ms. Rose’s cottage’s chimney as Briar makes her approach.  The huntress’s dog, a great, big creature with a lumbering gait and a lolling tongue, appropriately named ‘Wolf’, runs to greet Briar as she approaches.  She slows her bicycle to a stop and dismounts.

“Hey, Wolfie.”  Briar scratches behind the dog’s ears, and gets licked enthusiastically for it.  She laughs.  Wolf dances excited circles around Briar as she walks over and leans her bicycle against the cottage.  “Stop that!”  Briar commands Wolf, only half serious.  “I have to get the groceries inside!”  She nudges the door open and walks into the cottage.

“Ms. Rose?  Are you here?”  Briar calls out.

“In the workshop, Briar!”  Ms. Rose yells back from somewhere deep inside.  Briar grins.  With some care, she shoves the groceries in the refrigerator.  Ms. Rose will organize them however she pleases later, after a few more hours of work, at least.

Briar goes to hurry through the kitchen, but remembers herself, and pauses at the sink to fill a pitcher with water for her wildflower bouquet.  She carefully lowers the flowers in and unties her hair ribbon from around their stems.  Then, after tidying the bouquet a little, Briar walks further into the cottage.  She doesn’t go immediately to the workshop, but to a room Ms. Rose only recently granted her permission to enter.

Briar pauses and takes a breath in the doorway of the bedroom.  It’s always a bit weird to do this.  She’s never actually met Ms. Penny.  Not back before, when she was awake.  Ms. Penny doesn’t know who she is.  Never had the chance to, really.

Regardless, flowers always make Briar feel better when she isn’t feeling well.  With Wolf padding loyally at her side, Briar approaches the bed where Ms. Penny serenely sleeps and situates the bouquet on the table beside it.

“Good day, Ms. Penny,” Briar speaks politely, for she’s never spoken to a mechanical person, or one who’s never woken up, before Penny.  Briar still feels kind of odd about that, but, since she first stumbled across Penny’s room, she’s been determined to try and make her feel better (if that’s at all possible).

“Spring’s here.  The first of Mr. Oobleck’s lambs were born the other day.”  Briar starts her usual, short, babbling update about life in Patch.  “They’re extremely cute.  I’ll draw you a picture, so, when you wake up, you won’t have missed seeing them.”

“She’d like that, I think.”

Briar jumps, and spins around.  Ms. Rose stands in the doorway, leaning against its frame.  She smiles softly at Briar, and joins her by Penny’s bedside.  “Penny never…I think she always lived in cities before we met.”  Ms. Rose takes a deep breath.  “I’m not sure she’s ever gotten the chance to see a newborn lamb.”

“Then this will be her first time,” Briar says confidently.

“Yes.”  Ms. Rose smiles sadly down at Briar.  “Run along to the workshop now.  I left today’s assignment out on the table for you.  Try to see if you can get started on your own.  I’ll be along in a moment.”

Briar does as she’s told, but not before stopping just outside the bedroom and sneakily poking her head back in to watch Ms. Rose gently smooth Penny’s long, soft copper curls and place a kiss on her forehead.

“Don’t wait too much longer to wake up, my love, alright?”  Ms. Rose whispers.

Briar slips away, feeling a little guilty about spying on such a private moment.  She doesn’t know why Ms. Penny sleeps, what caused her to fall into her lasting slumber in the first place, but Briar does know that Ms. Rose came to Patch to have a quiet, safe place to repair her.

The assignment Ms. Rose set out for Briar that day is a small music box.  One that had, in all likeliness, played a lovely melody at some point, but has long since worn out.  Repairing it shouldn’t be the hardest of tasks.  Not now that Briar is a handful of months out of transitioning from ‘kid who gets to watch the Huntress work’ to ‘unofficial mechanic’s apprentice’.

Ever so carefully, Briar removes a tiny, rusty gear from the music box with her tweezers and sets it aside.  She looks to Ms. Rose, who smiles reassuringly back at her.  Briar finds the replacement gear, plucks it up with the tweezers, and goes to insert it right where it needs to—

“Hello?!  Huntress are you here?”  A voice shouts into the cottage.  Wolf scrambles up from lying under where Briar’s feet dangle off her stool and barks loudly.  Briar jumps.  Her tweezers fall out of her hand.  The replacement gear goes flying.

“Just a moment!”  Ms. Rose calls back.  She helps Briar retrieve the gear from where it’s fallen to the floor.  “Think you can work on your own for a bit?”  Ms. Rose asks.  When Briar nods, the huntress wipes grease and oil smudges off her fingertips onto her leather apron and goes to see who has come asking after her aid.

Briar half listens to the ensuing conversation about a broken down car on the road as it drifts through the cottage to her.  Ms. Rose briefly returns to the workshop for her portable tool kit, and then leaves to go repair the automobile in question.  She promises she’ll check Briar’s handiwork upon her return.  Wolf ambles back over to Briar.  The dog circles a couple times to settle, and then returns to napping.

For the next couple of hours while Briar works, things are quiet and peaceful.  She finishes repairing the music box.  With bated breath, Briar winds it up and sets it down on the worktable.  A soft tune fills the air.  Briar can’t help but smile.

Too excited to wait until Ms. Rose gets back to show off her success, Briar carefully scoops the music box up in her hands and carries it to Penny’s room.  She puts it down by the wildflowers she brought earlier, and lets it play its song a second time.

So caught up on listening to the music box’s melody is Briar, she doesn’t catch when it’s joined by the sounds of other mechanisms whirling and clicking.  Ones that have long remained at rest, but, at the sound of a comforting song, rouse again.

Movement catches Briar’s attention.  Before she realizes what’s happened, a pair of bright, dazzling green eyes meet her own.  They almost seem to glow, as if they’re lightbulbs that have spent a long, long time charging up and want to celebrate the chance to finally illuminate.

“H-hello?”  The voice is hoarse, creaky with disuse.  It’s nothing like Briar imagined it would be.  “Briar?”

Briar blinks rapidly.  “You know me?” slips from her lips before she can stop the question.

“Of course.”  Tentatively, Penny moves to push herself up in a sitting position.  One of her hands slips before she can put weight down on it.  Briar rushes forward to help support her.  “Thank you.”  Penny smiles gratefully at Briar.  “To answer your question, I heard you.  The days you came and talked to me and brought me flowers.”  She pauses.  “I’d very much like to see Mr. Oobleck’s lambs.”

“Oh.”  Briar takes a minute to process this.  “I didn’t think…” she’s not sure what to say.  She’s imagined this moment hundreds of times, but, now that it’s happening, Briar’s mind is frustratingly blank.

“It’s alright.”  Penny gives her a small, soft smile.  “It’s not everyday someone you’ve only known as a ‘sleeping lady’ wakes up.”

“I-err-yeah…” Briar pauses.  “If you don’t mind me asking, how could you hear me all those times?  Since you were asleep?”

Penny inhales deeply and exhales, the clockwork of her body moving with the motion.  “It’s a bit complicated.  A short explanation would be that, even without enough power to function normally, I could still record audio.” Penny shoots a knowing smirk in Briar’s direction.  “I would love to give you the fully detailed explanation.  Later.  If you don’t mind, there’s someone who’s long overdue for a hug, I think.”

Briar’s eyes widen.  “Oh!  Ms. Rose!  Of course!”  She scrambles up to fetch Penny a walking stick to lean upon as she gets up.  “She went out to repair someone’s car.  I think it’s just down the road!”  Briar hovers, ready to support Penny if she needs help with walking.  When Penny makes it to the doorway on her own, Briar relaxes a little.

Together, with Wolf keeping pace with them (and Briar would swear the dog is keeping as much a careful eye on Penny as she herself is), they make their way outside.

Penny pauses, and looks up at the blue, blue sky.  She blinks.  If she were capable of crying, she probably would have.  “I never dreamed I’d see it again.”  Penny whispers.  She turns to look ahead, down the road she and Briar intend to walk, and sees someone coming toward them on it.  Penny gasps.

There is one sight that Penny dreamed of, longed for, during her oh so very long slumber.  One sight, her vague, ethereal thoughts could never quite capture, but tried to constantly.  The person she sees on the road doesn’t quite fit the picture Penny remembers.  The person is no longer a youthful maiden, but a full grown woman.  Her black-red hair is longer, kept in an untidy braid over one shoulder.  She’s wearing the garb of a mechanic, and not combat dress.  Branching scars, leftover from a (Grimm) time Penny would very much like to leave in the past, dance across her skin.

“Ruby.”

Penny breathes the name out at the same time Ruby sees her, stops, and stares.

A moment passes where no one moves, where the world is held frozen in shock.  Anxiety ripples over Ruby’s face.  Worry that needs no verbal words to describe it.  That Penny won’t love this older version of her.  That this person she had to grow into while she patiently waited for Penny to wake up isn’t someone Penny will be able to bring herself to love.

Penny takes a step forward, and then another.  Her walking stick is cast aside as she recalls how to push her legs into motion as fast as she can.  She runs, reaching Ruby in the blink of an eye.  Eager to vanquish all the anxieties she sees in her beloved, Penny takes Ruby up in her arms and spins her around and around.  She laughs, causing Ruby to laugh with relief too.

They’re together.  Nothing, no war or conflict or spiders who want to control them, can get in the way of that any longer.  They may have once been puppets in a grand scheme, but they’re free now.  Free to do whatever they wish, as long as they wish.

Penny stops spinning Ruby around.  She holds her close, drinking in the sight of Ruby’s sparkling, silver eyes.  Without thinking about it, they press their foreheads together and simply gaze at each other.

Later, they’ll let Briar commit a condensed version of their story down on paper.  A fairytale, it will be.  One only a handful will actually believe there’s truth to, but that’s just as well to them.  Right now, this moment?  This moment is just for them.

Ruby wraps her arms around Penny.  Penny leans in.  Their lips find each other.  Tentative, unsure, aware they have a lot to adjust to again with each other (but eager to get started).  The kiss is soft and sweet.  A promise of many, many more to come.

They don’t live happily ever after.  For Penny and Ruby’s story doesn’t end here.  It goes on, with many days full of love, and equally as many filled with struggle as they learn each other’s embrace again.  There are moments when the scars of the past threaten to consume them, and moments filled with nothing but laughter and joy.

Overall, though?

Penny and Ruby live together for a very, very long time, and that time together is largely marked by their shared happiness.

[thecompostpile]

I'm An Adult I Ordered Coffee Ice Cream

Ice Cream On A Friday Afternoon

A Bacon Nation

Whoa This Is Growing Up

Ice Cream Essay #2

It finally happened. I have been trying to outrun it for years. The long boney fingers of adulthood have finally grabbed me around the waist and thrust me up just a little bit closer to death and a lot bit away from childhood.

After years of looking at ice cream menus. Spent my entire life looking at each of the flavors. Reading the entire list and contemplating each flavor. Slowly testing to see which flavor I fancied most. Did I want sprinkles? Cup or cone? Sugar or wafer? Twenty-six long hard years of building up my ice cream identity. Probably hundreds if not thousands of scoops of ice cream.

Not once in all of these times did I ever want to get coffee flavored ice cream. It never even crossed my mind. Coffee flavored ice cream was something adults got. I certainly wasn’t an adult. When I was a kid I didn’t like coffee and I certainly did not want to find it anywhere near my ice cream.

It took me a really long time to even try coffee for some reason. I never thought it was cool to drink it in high school, so I didn’t. I am pretty sure it wasn’t until it was at least 21 where I started drinking coffee and it wasn’t until 2016 where I started drinking coffee regularly. My first “real” job was an internship at Subway Headquarters where they gave us free coffee. That’s when I really started drinking coffee.

I remember being sure that kids weren’t supposed to like coffee ice cream. .  I don’t remember where I got the idea. Someone had told me that. It sounds like something a cousin or a tv show would say “Coffee ice cream is a waste of good ice cream” or some joke like that. Right now, I think maybe Rugrats but my childhood memories are such a blur. It is crazy to think about what sticks in my little kid brain and what doesn’t. I know every Pokemon name but can’t remember most of the vacations I took. I have almost no memories from elementary school but I do remember almost every episode of Spongebob Squarepants. I don’t know brains are weird.

There are also all sorts of old wives tales about how coffee isn’t supposed to be for kids. Kids can’t have coffee. I don’t remember who told me it or where I heard it but I knew, kids couldn’t have coffee. Maybe that is why it took me so long to start drinking coffee. I was a kid. I wanted to stay a kid. Staying away from coffee would keep me a kid forever.

Now while I think about it I could have used a lot more coffee in high school or even my early days of college. I was always tired. But looking at it as an adult,  fairly leftist adult, I believe that the entire idea of coffee is bullshit. We are forcing a drug into our bodies to stay awake. Our bodies obviously don’t want it, just look at the many awful side effects of drinking coffee. Yet every single morning I drink at least two cups of the stuff. My body doesn’t want to be awake it much rather be sleep but capitalism demands it so I chug down coffee every single chance I get.

Coffee flavored ice cream defeats this entire point. It doesn’t have caffeine in it and if it does it doesn’t have as much as a cup of coffee does. The ice cream is just normal ice cream that tastes like coffee. Who asked for that? I drink my coffee black and  I don’t even think I want the taste of coffee in my ice cream. Why is this even a thing? Only an adult who loves their job and getting up in the morning so much that they would get ice cream that reminded them of going to work. Coffee ice cream is for adults

I’ve tried coffee ice cream before sure. I’ve tried someone else's. It was a favorite of my dad’s. He has even bought quarts of it and I thought it was interesting. Even as a kid who knew they wouldn’t enjoy coffee flavored ice cream I still had to try it. I had to know I didn’t like it. Really understand what about it I didn’t like. Constantly drawn to things just because I shouldn’t have them.

I am now much close to thirty than I am my teens. I drink coffee every single chance I get. I have given up on trying to stay young. A Hangover ruins my life. I can barely drink like I used to. Hell, I can barely eat sugary things like I used to. My knees always hurt. I am old. I did an adult thing I ordered coffee ice cream. I am now officially an adult now.

When I woke up on Friday morning I wasn’t planning on getting coffee ice cream. I had never gotten coffee ice cream before. Why would today be the day I changed my mind. I wasn’t even really planning on getting ice cream. Little did I know in only a few more hours I would change all that.

It all started when I went to get tacos with my brother. The tacos were great BUT there was no coffee ice cream there so we will skip over that part of the story. The taco place is close to my personal favorite ice cream place though Walnut Beach Creamery. As we drove by it my brother said the exact same thing that was on my mind.

“Can we go to the ice cream place?”

We could we certainly could. So I drove by to make sure it was open, even though I knew it was open and parked on the street. As we were walking over some guy yelled at us from his car. I didn’t hear him but I like to think he yelled something like

“Enjoy your ice cream!” or “They have the best ice cream!”

I’ll never know for sure though.

We stood at the outside window. All of their flavors were listed on a sandwich board but I knew all the flavors already. I had been there only a week ago when I realized they had opened for the summer. I had also been writing another Ice Cream Essay before this one and was reading their flavors. I knew I wanted to try Banana Bread ice cream. It sounded perfect I love fruit in my ice cream and I love banana bread. It was a match made in heaven.

Before I got the ice cream I had planned on getting I was going to pull a little trick. One ice cream, in particular, had grabbed my attention. It was called Morning Jolt. It was coffee flavored ice cream with chunks of chocolate covered bacon in it. While I couldn’t imagine getting a whole cone of that I was intrigued.

My plan was simple I would just get a sample of the Morning Jolt and then would get the Banana Bread ice cream instead. I asked the ice cream lady if I could have a sample of the Morning Jolt and she said sure. She handed me a metal spoon full, this was weird and I was very surprised by it and explained what was in it.  It was fine. Not my favorite but interesting.

“Can I have a small Banana Bread?” I asked. Her face got sad. Oh no. What could be wrong? Did she want me to get the Morning Jolt? Was it her favorite? Was she disappointed she could tell I didn’t like it very much? What had I done?

“We are out of the Banana Bread right now. I’m sorry” The ice cream girl informed me. I panicked. I hadn’t planned for this. I wasn’t sure what to get. Morning Jolt was still fresh on my mind so I got a sugar cone with that instead. I had done. I had paid my own hard earned money for coffee ice cream. I was an adult.

I didn’t hate my decisions at first. I was fine with it. I ate my ice cream as my brother ordered. The coffee ice cream was really good and refreshing. It was melting quickly from the heat so I had to eat it quickly. The chunks of bacon were interesting and kept me on my toes.

I don’t really know when everyone became obsessed with bacon. I mean bacon is fine. I have nothing against it. Culture seems obsessed with bacon. It is on everything. I personally blame the Bush Administration and the early aughts. I am not writing a thesis on bacon, just an essay about ice cream so I won’t dive deeper on this train of thought I just thought people should know I am not really an “OMG PUT BACON ON IT YOU STUPID BITCH” kind of person.

I don’t think bacon really belongs in or around ice cream. Let us imagine we are doing the same with sausage or ham. Obviously, I get that Morning Jolt is supposed to be a play on breakfast but I don’t see the point. The bacon was maple bacon which I really didn’t think went well with chocolate.

I took a chance went with something that sounded interesting. It didn’t really work out for me. Isn’t this most of adulthood though. Putting yourself out there, risking something trying something new, only to be let down. Melting ice cream as you walk away from the ice cream drenched in buyers remorse as I walk away from 20 other ice cream flavors I would have liked much more.

If adulthood is coffee ice cream. I want nothing to do with it. If adulthood is coffee ice cream it is bitter, pointless and a waste of good ice cream.

[tisfan]

Hope I'm hitting up the right author here - for the Communal kitchen verse, can I request a fic where (since they have many children now) bucky and tony are constantly interrupted trying to have teh smexy times?

cowritten by @27dragons 

A/N As might be obvious from the prompt, this fic contains a LOT of smut, grouped together by ridiculous situations. Almost getting walked in on by kids (no actual smut is going on while the kids are in the room, but it’s a close thing. Rikki is 20 in this fic.)

For Communal Kitchen followers; this story takes place after End of Tomorrow and is some silly antics to comfort you after a rough ride with EoT.

For NON communal kitchen readers: the plot to the rest of these stories is mostly irrelevant except to note the following relationships: Rikki, Jaime, and Sasha are Bucky’s children, as part of a Hydra experiment. Zoya/Zinobiya is Natasha’s daughter via Tony as the sperm donor (sort of… it’s complicated. Read Through Him, Me and Fertile Ground if you want the background on that)

Sasha/Sav is Inhuman, as well as being part supersoldier, so he has some interesting abilities. They don’t come up in this fic, but it’s what Jaime’s looking for; the coldcuff controls Sasha’s abilities and keeps him from setting himself (or other people) on fire

The Long Winter

The meeting broke up early.

Tony didn’t get to say that very often; in his experience,meetings tended to run over schedule, rather than under. But this meeting brokeearly, which meant Tony had two whole hours for lunch before he had tobe at some investor presentation on pain of having one of Pepper’s shoes shovedup his ass.

There were other, much more pleasant things to do with his ass inthe two hours he had, so rather than fuck around with traffic, he left Happy tobring the car home and took the armor instead. He called Bucky as he tookflight. “Hey babe, guess what? Meeting’s out early. You free for an earlylunch? Or… lunch?” Best to be at least a little subtle; these days,Tony never quite knew when an impressionable minor would be listening in.

“Oh, I think I can bring you a little somethin’,” Bucky responded.“Managed t’ get Sasha to eat and he’s actually napping.” There was ahasty scrambling noise before JARVIS cut the connection.

Tony didn’t bother with the doors or the elevator, either. They’dbarely had time for a parting kiss that morning before Tony had to leave forhis meeting, and Tony wanted to make the most of every second of hisunexpectedly long lunch break. He did one acrobatic swoop around the penthouse,because it was fun (and because he was pretty sure Bucky would already bewatching) and then dropped onto the landing gantry and let the automated systemstrip the armor off. It needed to be cleaned and checked for wear, anyway.

And if he put a little extra strut into his step, well, that washis own business, and his husband’s.

Bucky was leaning against the wall, partially hidden in theshadows, arms crossed casually over his chest. “Ain’t you a sight?” He steppedinto the light, the thin tank he was wearing still damp with sweat and histight workout shorts clinging to his thighs. He let the corner of his mouthtwitch up into a grin. “Wasn’t expectin’ to see you til dinner.”

“I wasn’t, either,” Tony agreed. He stepped out of the boots, thelast of the removal rig folding away, and another two steps brought him withintouching distance of Bucky. “Guess I just got lucky.” He dragged a fingertipdown Bucky’s arm. “Your turn to get lucky?”

Bucky caught Tony’s fingers, turned his hand and brought it to hismouth to kiss Tony’s palm. “With you, always,” he said. He sucked Tony’s indexfinger into his mouth, teasing, watching Tony’s face intently as he did so.When Tony’s eyes went half-lidded, he let go, tugging Tony in for a kiss.

Tony melted easily into it, hot and eager already. He slipped onehand under Bucky’s workout tank, dragging the calluses of his fingers acrossthe skin at the base of Bucky’s spine, teasing at the elastic of those shorts.“Probably we should take this inside before another news ‘copter catches us outhere,” he said when Bucky let him come up for air.

Bucky ran his hands down Tony’s back, took a long, lingeringcaress of Tony’s ass through the flight suit. “Let ‘em watch,” he said roughly,then shook his head. “Prob’ly right, though. Stevie’d have our heads on th’table if we’re in the tabloids.” He didn’t take his hand off Tony’s backside,though, even when they turned to go into the penthouse.

They were barely through the polarized glass doors before Tonystarted stripping off the flight suit. He’d redesigned it for easier egressafter the first few Bucky had ruined with eagerness, but it still took longerthan he’d like. He kept his eyes on Bucky, though, wondering if he’d ever betired of that view. It didn’t seem like it.

(more and all the smut below the read more… or catch the fic at A03)

Bucky peeled out of his clothes in seconds and was already tuggingon the autozips that ran down the side of Tony’s leg, pressing open-mouthedkisses on each inch of exposed skin, dropping into a squat. He lingered,fingers sweeping down Tony’s thigh and then gazed up, eyelashes lowered. “Mmmm,hey there,” he said, tongue flicking out to wet his lower lip. “Got somethin’for me, to whet my appetite?”  

Nope, Tony was never going to get tired of the way Bucky looked athim, hungry and predatory. Hnnng. “I bet I can find a little something for youto nibble on,” Tony promised, hoarse. He slipped his fingers into Bucky’s hair,curled the strands around them and pulled gently, watching Bucky’s expression.

Bucky ran his thumbs up the insides of Tony’s thighs, the flightsuit still around his calves, too impatient to wait. He dropped a line ofkisses over Tony’s belly, breath hot against Tony’s skin. “Mmmm, this is nice,”he said, voice low, almost like he was talking to himself. “Havin’ you homeunexpected-like.” Bucky rubbed his cheek against Tony’s hip, then licked downthe curve, making a beeline for Tony’s cock, already half-hard. “Gonna–” Andhis mouth closed, hot and wet and slick, over the head, tongue skating alongthe ridge. He pulled back “–enjoy this.”

“Good,” Tony managed. “Be worried if you– ohhhh.” He lostthe thread of his thought there, swimming in sensation. You’d think he’d getused to it, the things Bucky’s mouth could do. “Ohhh, yeah. I’m gonna enjoy it,too.”

The thud of preteen feet on the stairs was all the warning theygot; Bucky jerked back with a bitten-off curse and Tony started franticallypulling the suit back into place. Bucky snatched up his discarded clothes andbolted for the nearest door – the one that led back out onto the landinggantry. JARVIS politely shifted the polarity of the glass to hide Bucky just intime as Jaime came up into the penthouse.

“Dad? I thought you were in a meeting all day.”

“Several meetings, but one finished early,” Tony said, and he waspretty sure he even managed to sound mostly normal. “Did you need something?”

Bucky came back in the room, his tank stretched out a bit so thehem was brushing the tops of his thighs and his shorts were on inside out, butit probably wasn’t noticeable, as long as Jaime stayed on the other side of theroom. He scraped one hand through his hair, the back of his neck red.

“Sasha needs a new coldcuff and the spares are all lockedup,” Jaime said.

Bucky stared at him. “You live in a building full of spies andsuperheroes. No one can pick a damn lock?”

Jaime’s eyes rounded. “You said we shouldn’t do that anymore,” hepointed out.

Bucky made a disgusted noise. “So, now you’re listenin’ tome? Hell of a time…” He took a deep, steadying breath.

“I’ve got it,” Tony said, patting Bucky’s shoulder comfortingly.So much for Sasha’s nap – if he needed a fresh cuff, that meant he was awakeand in a seriously bad mood. “I’ll go get the cuff and see if I can talk somesense into the toddler. You… maybe get your shower or something.”

“Yeah, okay, right,” Bucky said, grumbling and pinching the bridgeof his nose. “J? Start the shower?” He glanced over his shoulder at Tony, thenadded, “better make it cold, okay?”

“Come on, baby,” Bucky said, after Tony had almost fallen asleepinto his chicken diane and green beans. A whole day’s worth of meetings – notto mention Angry-toddler Sasha, seriously Bucky’s youngest had taken theterrible twos and run with them for the better part of three years now – andTony was visibly exhausted.

(Tony and Bruce and sometimes Hank McCoy had been working onpre-developing the stims that Tony had managed to get addicted to in thefuture, but so far, they hadn’t been able to get it just right.)

Tony mumbled something sleepy, and Bucky sighed, then lifted him up.“I got ya, princess,” he teased, holding Tony close to his chest, feeling thatwarm, cuddly contentment all the way to his toes. “Gonna take you up to bedbefore you hurt yourself.”

Tony hadn’t gone quite limp in Bucky’s arms; he had one arm slung‘round the back of Bucky’s neck to steady himself and he was drawing lazycircles on Bucky’s pecs with one finger. There was a tenseness in Tony’s bodythat belied the half-sleeping pose he was projecting. His heart sped, just asBucky nudged the elevator summons, and so Bucky wasn’t quite surprised whenthat wandering finger circled his nipple, or when Tony’s chocolate brown eyesopened as soon as the door closed behind them.

“Faker,” Bucky accused his husband, letting fondness seep into histone.

“Are you complaining?” Tony wondered idly. He didn’t wait for ananswer, just leaned in to lick at Bucky’s collarbone, then nipped sharply,sending a shock of heat through Bucky’s body. “Besides, I think we had someunfinished business to attend to…”

“Yes, yes we did,” Bucky said, decidedly. He tried hard not toresent Tony’s business, as Tony himself said it more than once, someone had topay the bills around here, but it was hard (Bucky rolled his eyes at his ownthoughts. So hard!) not to miss him, when he was gone. They’d at leastlearned their lesson enough that Tony took the armor with him whenever Buckycouldn’t be with him (and Bucky scared the hell out of most of Tony’s businesspeers and clients). “Gonna demolish you.” Bucky shifted his grip untilTony was upright, legs around Bucky’s waist.

Bucky turned, pushing Tony against the wall of the elevator, mouthseeking Tony’s, eager to sample Tony’s lips.

Tony groaned and met Bucky’s mouth with his own, just as eager.His hips were already rolling against Bucky’s as his hands clutched at Bucky’sshoulders hard enough to leave small, regrettably short-lived bruises. “God,been thinking about this all damn afternoon,” Tony panted. “Boring fuckingmeetings, and trying to pay attention, but all I could think about was yourmouth and your hands and your dick. Jesus Christ, but I need you, baby.”

Bucky shuddered, unable to keep himself from rutting obscenelyagainst Tony’s body, felt the heat of him even through their clothes, whichweren’t going to last but a second as soon as he got the door lockedbehind them. God, god, Tony was writhing against him, climbing Bucky like agoddamn tree. His mouth sealed over Tony’s, mercilessly plundering the silkencavern, tasting. The elevator opened with a soft ding, and Bucky pushed intothe penthouse by muscle memory.

In the very small portion of his brain that wasn’t occupied withhis armful of eager husband, Bucky considered the distance to the bedroom anddecided that the chair was closer. He took two steps to the side and droppedinto it, Tony ending up straddling his thighs.

Tony glanced up as they dropped, grunted understanding, and pulledBucky’s shirt off quickly before going to work at his own buttons. Buckywould’ve preferred to just rip the thing off him, but he settled for helping,unbuttoning from the bottom up as Tony worked from the top down. Finally, theshirt was on the floor, and as Tony reached up to pull off the undershirt,Bucky surged forward to catch one of those sweet nipples and torture it. Tonygasped and fumbled off the tee, then curled his arms around Bucky’s shouldersand head, holding on for dear life.

“I gotcha, baby,” Bucky crooned, rocking Tony up, flexing histhighs to rub and press against the hot vee between Tony’s legs. He unhookedthe placard to Tony’s pants, tugged at one side and let the zipper slide downas he dipped his hand inside. He leaned back to watch Tony’s face as he palmedTony’s cock through his satin briefs. There was nothing – nothing –Bucky liked better than watching Tony come undone. So, so beautiful in hispleasure; all the little worried frowns and the wrinkled knot between hiseyebrows let go, and he was just… utterly divine.

Tony wriggled into a more secure position, tucked as close to Buckyas the chair would allow, and then leaned back, putting his hands on Bucky’sknees for balance. “God,” he sighed, “Bucky… yes, more, please.” Hisback arched in pleasure, the curve of his body as elegant as Clint’s bow. “Comeon,” he said, somewhere between begging and demanding. “Need you. Want you,honey, please…” His eyes flickered shut, then opened again to watch Buckyfrom under his eyelashes, unfairly sultry.

Bucky unbuttoned his jeans, heard the fabric tear as he pulled toohard on his own zipper. Shrug. He had more pants. Twisted in the chair, rubbingagainst Tony with entirely too much unnecessary wriggling, but that was okay,because oh, god, Tony felt so good, so eager and they were–

Knock. Knock knock knock. Thatwas the door to the kid’s floor.

Go away, Bucky’s brain snarled.

“No,” Tony whined softly, head dropping to Bucky’s shoulder. Hetook a couple of deep breaths, and let the last one out slow. “Maybe it’ll besomething fast and easy?” He took another breath, looked down – probably tomake sure they wouldn’t be exposing themselves to whoever it was – and liftedhis head to call, “What do you want?”

Sasha pushed open the door hesitantly, then signed, hands movinggracefully. The boy had learned to talk in the last few months, but particularlywhen he was upset, he regressed back to non-verbal. “Jaime’s sick.”

Bucky jerked involuntarily. Which, oh, god, was probably not thebest idea. “How’s he sick?” Supersoldier kids didn’t get sick. One ofthe perks of being a superhero-parent. No flu or chickenpox or ear infections.

Sasha twisted his fingers together and stared at his feet in anagony of indecision, then finally made a spread hand, thumb near his mouth, anddrew it down. Bucky blinked; that was the sign Sasha used for foods he didn’tlike and anything involving his brother’s favorite TV show, Adventure Time.But also the original meaning–

“He threw up?”

Sasha nodded.

Tony groaned, low in his throat. “Ug, okay, we’ll… Go keep aneye on him and we’ll be right there.” He waited until Sasha had closed thedoor, then rested his forehead against Bucky’s. “I swear…”

“My turn t’ adult,” Bucky said. “Get some sleep, baby. Maybe wecan get in a roll in the morning, yeah? You like that, little sleepy wake-upsex?” He couldn’t help pressing up against Tony, one last time, letting all hiswant and frustration grumble out of his throat.

“Mmm, yeah, that sounds like a good plan, babe.” Tony ducked infor a fast, hot kiss, a promise for Bucky to collect later, then slid offBucky’s lap with another wordless whine of complaint.

Bucky let the first few words of his commands whisper in his mind,just enough to bring himself down off the edge. He couldn’t push further thanthat, his kids were both in awe of, and terrified by, the Winter Soldier. Justenough frost to cool himself, and then he got up, scowled at his jammed zipper,and then tugged his tee back on. He paused to watch Tony walk, the sway of hiships captivating, into the bedroom, before heading down the stairs to find outwhat was wrong with his son.

Dark and warm and sleepy, Tony floated just below the surface ofwaking. It was there; he could feel it waiting, but he wasn’t ready for it yet.He could feel Bucky curled around him, one arm wrapped over Tony’s waist, afoot tucked between his ankles, breath puffing against his neck, hips snugagainst his ass.

And mmm, that might be a reason to wake up a little more, the heatof Bucky’s length pressed against Tony’s skin, already hard, rocking just alittle. Just enough to let Tony know that he was awake and ready for someaction. After yesterday’s little string of cockblocks, Tony was feeling prettyready for it, too. He swam through the sleepy lethargy to push back intoBucky’s body, to tip his head and turn it enough to see Bucky’s face when heopened one eye. “Mmm, morning, sweetheart.”

“Hey gorgeous,” Bucky answered. He was sporting some epic bedhead,long mahogany hair flat on one side and curling against his neck on the other.He nuzzled at Tony’s neck, breath stirring the fine hair at the back of Tony’sskull, sending flash-pulses of sensation across Tony’s nerves. His left handtraced a line, so soft, down Tony’s arm, across his ribs, and rested on hiship. The click of tiny, delicate plates in his fingers made an interestingcounterpoint to Tony’s pulse. He licked down Tony’s spine, slithering lowerinto the bed with each wet, warm kiss.   

Tony hummed with interest, his entire body waking up and comingalight one bit at a time, like watching a computer boot up. He slid his fingersover Bucky’s metal ones, feeling the little plates catch against his skin, thendragged a slow line up the arm toward Bucky’s shoulder, as far as he couldreach without rolling over to disturb Bucky’s progress. “And a good morning itis,” he purred, letting himself luxuriate in the electric zings of pure lustthat Bucky’s mouth was pressing into him.

“God, you taste good,” Bucky rumbled. “Could jus’ eat you alive.”He made it down to the base of Tony’s spine, licking that flat triangle there,hand firm on Tony’s hip, pinning him in place. He nipped the curve of Tony’sass and deposited a kiss on his buttcheek.

Gently, he rolled Tony over, ass up, fingers teasing at the backof his thighs, just under his ass, encouraging him to rut against the sheets.“Oh, god, I like to watch that, look at you, baby,” Bucky said, his voicehoarse with wanting.

“Look all you want,” Tony said, stretching his arms out andburying them under the pillows, “but more touching would be good, too. I’mdefinitely on board with more of the touching.”

“Uh-huh,” Bucky said. He sat up, smacked a light hand down onTony’s cheek, just enough to elicit a squeak. “I’ll take care of you,babydoll.” He ran a finger down Tony’s crack. He reached across Tony with theother hand, fumbling on the bedside table and found the lube. A soft snick, andthen Bucky was drawing a silicone-slick circle around his hole. “Like this,baby, you want it?”

“God, yes,” Tony said. Barely awake and already half-begging. Hedidn’t care; it had been too long and an even more torturous wait than usual.“Need you in me, want it hard.” He shivered at only the thought; hewanted to feel the ache for the whole rest of the day. And then go againtonight, maybe, too. Yeah, that would be… Mmm. He rolled his hips up,inviting more.

Bucky leaned over him, pushing and testing at the muscles there.“Tony, yes,” he growled, low and eager. “You got it…” Bucky made a soft,wanting sound as Tony clenched down on his finger. “Get up on your knees, baby,grab the headboard. I am gonna fuck you right through the mattress.”

“Oh, god yes…” Tony pushed up onto his hands and knees,then groped for the headboard. It shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was,but Bucky was teasing at his opening, pushing and tugging, and god…

“Sir,” JARVIS said neutrally. “I have rather an urgent call foryou both from Ms. Barnes.”

“We’re busy, J,” Tony gritted.

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS agreed, “but she says the matter will notwait.”

“I’m gonna cry,” Bucky complained, then, “put her through, voiceonly.” He took a few breaths, then, “What is it, Rishka?”

“Father, Tony,” Rikki said. She didn’t sound anything other thanmildly annoyed. “Ellie got a flash she thought you should know about. She says–” in the background, Ellie’s voice. Not her normal, smart-ass sarcasm, butthe sleepy, almost dreamy tones of the seer “–that you shouldn’t do what youwere about to do. Tony’s gonna break his wrist when the bed colla– OH, GOD,ELLIE, GROSS! You didn’t tell me they were fucking. Oh, god, oh, god,I’m hanging up now.” The line went dead.

“Is this a joke?” Bucky demanded of no one.

“Ellie doesn’t usually joke about her visions,” Tony pointed outreluctantly. He sat back on his heels and looked down at his hands. “I…really cannot afford a broken wrist right now.”

Bucky closed his eyes for a long moment. “Right, right,okay, yeah, I… no, that’s fine, Tony, you don’t, I know.” He blew out a puff ofair and then rolled to his feet, reaching for his clothes. He tamed his hairinto a messy bun. “I’m… gonna go find Steve and go for a run. An’… maybe weshould think about replacin’ the bed? I mighta… done some structural damage toit, or somethin’? I’ll… sorry, babe, I’ll be back soon.” He leaned over,quicklike, and pecked Tony on the mouth, before striding out of the penthouse,running shoes in one hand.

Tony watched him go sadly. “Structural damage, right. Project fortoday, I guess.” He flopped back down on the bed with a sigh.

The bed creaked ominously. Maybe it was for the best that they’dstopped when they did.

“Definitely the project for today.”

As if in agreement, the bed creaked again and then one side of itcollapsed, rolling Tony onto the floor. The headboard wobbled for half a secondand then collapsed the other way, and – yep, if Tony had been holding it wherehe usually did, it would’ve trapped his hand and probably broken something.

Damn it.

The bedroom was obviously cursed, that was the only fuckingexplanation for the last two days. And the shop, his usual back-up spot forgetting his husband alone and naked, was out because Jaime’s tutors had givenhim some fairly hefty projects and Jaime was in and out of the shop at allhours as inspiration struck.

Bucky was within an inch of stealing one of the quinjets forrecreational purposes, putting it on the ceiling on autopilot and nailing Tonyon the rather uncomfortable back benches. No one could accidentally walk in onthem at fifty thousand feet.

He’d gone down to the shop anyway to prompt Tony into rememberingthat eating was a thing, following along behind his husband like a junkyard dogand feeling miserable about it, when he spotted the weapons’ locker. No one wasever in there, except Bucky when he’d lost another pistol and needed areplacement in a hurry. Everyone had their specialty weapons, designed andmanufactured by Tony; these were just spares. So even if there was a call toAssemble, no one would come in there, at least.

Bucky nudged Tony, grabbing the back of his rock-and-roll teebefore he got into the elevator and raised his eyebrows, tipping his chin atthe door. “Wanna make a pit stop, babe?” He licked his lips, not quite meaningto, but god damn he was almost in pain from wanting Tony so bad.

Tony’s eyes flicked to Bucky’s mouth, pavlovian, and then to thedoor. “In there?” His voice spiralled with disbelief. A second later, his brainseemed to catch up with the rest of his body, and he nodded fast. “Yeah, yes,good idea, let’s– Oh, god, all the damn ‘blocks, I’m wound so tight…”He thumbed the lock and shoved the door open, all but tumbling through.

Bucky took care to lock the door behind them before pouncing onhis husband, kissing frantically, biting at Tony’s mouth like he was starving.He wasn’t even being gentle, necking with Tony like they were teens at a movie,one hand already on Tony’s fly. “Wanna taste you, baby, gotta, oh, letme,” he babbled. He stroked Tony a few times through his pants, feeling him up.Groaned as Tony stiffened against his palm.

Tony leaned back against the wall and spread his legs, and thatwas all the invitation Bucky needed. He fell to his knees and took hold ofTony’s pants–

There was a sound. At the door. Bucky froze.

“What is it?” Tony asked, whispering. His hand crept toward hiswatch, which had all kinds of protective toys hidden in it.

The pinwheel hatchlock spun, slow and unsteady. That shouldn’thappen; there hadn’t been an alert. Bucky reached over, his fingers searchinguntil he found the grip of a pistol. They were usually stored loaded, unlesssomeone had fucked up, at least. He stepped forward, letting Tony take up ashielded position behind him.

The door cracked, then opened…

A tiny person pushed into the room and slammed the door shutagain, giggling.

“Zinny,” Tony said, sounding somehow both exasperated andrelieved. “What are you doing in here?”

Zoya turned huge, rounded eyes up at them. “Shhh!” she commanded.“Hidin’ seep!”

Bucky thumbed the safety and tucked the pistol in at the small ofhis back. “The door was locked,” he pointed out. Of course, now one ofthe genius-spy-assassin-monkey-children could pick a lock. Of course.

“Best hidin’!” Zoya proclaimed happily. “You hide too, Unca Buckyan’ Unca Tony?”

“I guess so,” Tony said drily, obediently lowering his voice forher. “Who are we playing hide-and-seek with?”

The hatch spun again and Zoya squealed, running around behind oneof the archery racks, eyes wide.

Tash poked her head in the doorway. She was holding a bowl in onehand and had a fork wedged firmly in her mouth. “Zin,” she muttered around hermouthful, sighed in exasperation, and pushed the fork into a bowl of greens. “Notthe weapons room, I said –” She stopped, glanced at Tony and Bucky, then hereyes went wide. Her gaze lingered on Tony’s mangled shirt, the red and purpleof a rising lovebite visible against his bronze skin. She gasped, allexaggerated exasperation. “Yasha! In front of my salad!” She brandishedthe bowl at them.

Tony’s head fell against the back of Bucky’s shoulder as hegroaned. “We’re cursed,” he complained.

“Zin,” Tash said, holding out her free hand. “Come on, weaponsroom is off-limits. We talked about this. Let’s go before something shoots offin here.”

Bucky flushed, embarrassed, but refused to drop his gaze, even ifhe could think of absolutely nothing witty to say, knowing, knowing,that they were going to have to endure Tash’s sly humor and snide remarks allthe way through dinner, and it would be worse if they actually took thetime to finish anything. Heaven help both of them if they were ten minutes latefor dinner at this point. As soon as the door closed pointedly behind the twored-heads, Bucky almost squashed Tony against the wall. “Not. Fair.”

“Seconded,” Tony whined. “When they talk about how hard it is toraise kids, I didn’t realize how literal that was going to be…”

Cursed. They were absolutely fucking cursed. They’d triedhiding in Bucky’s bolthole apartment, and were interrupted by a squabblebetween the cleaning bots, who usually remained hidden but considered thebolthole their own personal territory thanks to Bucky’s training.

They’d gone to Tony’s executive office in the SI offices – afterhours; they weren’t animals – only to have Pepper come over theintercom to remind Tony that there were security cameras in there, and if theydidn’t put their clothes back on right now, she was going to destroyboth of them with her bare hands.

They went to a local sci-fi convention (and were almostrecognized, but played it off as being really good cosplayers) andchecked into the hotel, but were interrupted four times by someonepulling the fire alarm as a prank, until they gave up.

Bucky even tried pulling Tony into the vents, but Clint stumbledover them.

That wasn’t even mentioning the three separate occasions whenthey’d been nearly all the way undressed only to have the Assemble alarm sound.

All in all, it had been more than a week since they’d managed tohave sex, and if it had been a week where Tony was off on a business trip, thatwould’ve been manageable, but no, it had been a week of almostgetting to have sex and then being interrupted at the last. Possible. Second.Like an entire week of edging. It was maddening.

Tony flopped into the (new, structurally reinforced) bed thatnight and almost didn’t even want to try. He stared at the ceiling andwondered what was going to fuck things up this time. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Kids all in bed and asleep?”

“Sleeping soundly, sir.”

“Villain activity?”

“No unusual activity at the moment.”

Tony glanced toward the bathroom, where Bucky was. “Seal all thedoors and if anyone asks for us, send them somewhere else. I don’t even carewhere. No calls, period. I do not care if SI is on fire or Ellie sees mebreaking my leg. I will take the fucking broken leg if it gets me laid.And we’re not Assembling for anything smaller than the entire goddamn countryat hazard. If it’s just a city, the rest of the team can handle it. You gotme?”

“I understand perfectly, sir.”

Bucky came out of the bathroom, towel around his shoulders,wearing a fluffy terrycloth bathrobe that Tony had given him for Christmas oneyear, and he almost never actually wore, preferring, Tony thought, to showingoff his chest when fresh out of the shower and tempting Tony with a towel hunglow around his waist. His gaze flickered up to check Tony’s face, then back tothe window with its admittedly impressive view, but not really what Tony wantedhim looking at.

“Honey? Everything okay?” Bucky’s vision wasn’t as impressive ashis hearing, but it was better than Tony’s.

“Do you know, statistically speakin’, that there are, globally,seventy-nine million people having sex at any given minute of any givenday?”

Tony considered that. “That sounds about right,” he agreed. “Wantto come over here and join them?”

“Gettin’ close to th’ point where I might kill someone t’ be ableto take you to bed and stay there ‘til the job’s done,” Bucky said. He wasstill staring out the window, however, hadn’t even twitched in Tony’sdirection.

Tony got up and joined Bucky at the window, slinging his armaround Bucky’s waist and leaning into Bucky’s side as he, too, looked out overthe city. “Pretty sure that would just cause more interruptions, not fewer.”He glanced at Bucky, sighed. “If we give up, the terrorists win.”

Bucky shuddered at Tony’s touch, then pulled him closer. “Can’thave that,” Bucky said, mildly. He shifted a little, then tipped Tony’s chin upand lowered his mouth for a kiss. Soft, gentle, not demanding or rushing oranything, a tingling pressure of lips and breath and nothing more. “You know,it ain’t jus’… that. It’s more’n that, babe. Miss bein’ close withyou. Feels like you’re half th’ world away.”

Tony nodded. “I know. Hell, it might be easier if I washalf the world away. But hey, I know you heard me talking to JARVIS. I’m allyours tonight. Promise.”

“I’m all yours,” Bucky said. “All th’ time. Always.” Hesighed into Tony’s embrace, kissing him again, soft and easy. He cupped theside of Tony’s face, thumb brushing over his jaw, down his chin, urging Tony’smouth open for him. Teased at his lip until Tony leaned forward to meet him,and still it was slow. Exquisitely gentle. Like Bucky thought Tony mightdissolve into nothingness, float away on the breeze. “I ain’t so good withwords, doll. An’ I love you, so much. Sometimes, this–” he ran a hand lightlyover Tony’s chest “–this is the best way I know how t’ show it to you.”

It was sweet, and perfect, and unbearable. “Love you,” Tony said.“Forever, for the rest of my life, I love you. Come to bed, honey.”

Tony had never witnessed Bucky so tentative; each touch and caresswas deliberate, stroking Tony’s skin, dropping soft, heated kisses, but hemoved with heartbreaking caution. He kept his eyes on Tony’s face as he laidTony back on the bed. If it wasn’t for the way his hands were shaking, the wayhe worried his bottom lip with his teeth, Tony might have thought he wasdisinterested. He nuzzled at Tony’s throat, tonguing that spot where Tony’spulse throbbed. “God, Tony,” he murmured into Tony’s hair. “Baby,sweetheart, my life, my love.”

Tony combed his fingers through Bucky’s hair, trying to soothewhatever strange mood had gotten under Bucky’s skin. “I’m here,” he promised,“right here, just for you.” He took Bucky’s hand and laid it over his heart,pressing it down to feel each beat. “Just for you, but god… Touch me, Bucky.Need you to love me now.”

Bucky’s chin snapped up at that, and he looked at Tony with suchan expression of longing that it made his throat go dry. “Oh, Tony,” andthat came out choked and stricken, before Bucky kissed him, hard and wet, witha touch of wildness to him that got more aggressive as Tony opened up to him.His hands were everywhere, fingers tangling in Tony’s hair and tugging his headback to expose his throat, the metal fingers dancing down Tony’s side. With twofingers, so gentle, barely moving, Bucky stroked down the line of Tony’s cock,the polished metal slick and cool against his skin.

Tony arched into it with a gasp, letting Bucky move him whereverand however Bucky wanted him. Bucky was like a force of nature, unstoppable anduncontrollable. And yet if Tony breathed a word of complaint, Bucky would stop.Tony had no doubt at all of that. It was a heady sense of power.

Not that he wanted any of it to stop. He was desperate for everytouch, every taste, every sensation. “My soldier,” he whispered. “Yes.”

Bucky made a high, reedy, needy sound in his throat. He shuckedhimself out of the bathrobe, let as much of his skin touch Tony’s as possible.Then slithered down the length of Tony’s body, spread his legs to make room,paused to savor the moment, mouth mere millimeters away from Tony dick, waited.Watching Tony’s face intently. “Bucky, yes?” He lowered his mouth a fraction,lips opening.

Tony shuddered. “Bucky, more,” he begged, fighting to lifthis hips, to twist them, anything. “Please.”

Bucky waited just a little longer, eyes sparkling with delight,then…

He opened his mouth and took Tony in, all the way to the base inone slick, wet pull, tongue working in brushing strokes as he went. When he hadTony all the way back, his throat pulsed as he swallowed, sucking his cheeksin. He twisted his chin from side to side, giving Tony friction and brilliantsensation, then pulled back and almost off before sliding back down. His lipswere a tight ring over Tony’s dick and Bucky’s tongue was sweet, achingtorment.

Oh, god. “So good, Bucky, oh… Fuck, I’m not goingto last…” He’d been too keyed up for too long to let any kind of tease slowhim down. “Bucky, baby, honey, you are a goddamned miracle.”

Bucky slid back, reluctantly. He licked once, then again, at thesensitive crown. “Can’t have that, baby, you gotta wait for me.” He glanceddown and then groaned at the sight, Tony’s dick quivering and glistening.Tasted it again, like he couldn’t resist.

A soft whimper slid out of Tony’s throat, but he couldn’tdisagree. It was always best if they came together. Which did not stop him frombucking up into each lingering, careful touch in search of friction and heat.

He managed to pull himself together enough to twist around toreach for the drawer in the nightstand with the lube. “Fastest prep ever,” hesuggested, tossing the bottle down the bed. “I want to feel every bit of you.”

Bucky gave Tony a Look, with a capital L. “You know I ain’t gonnatake th’ risk in hurtin’ you, Tony,” he said. He wet his fingers, slid his handbetween Tony’s legs to tease and circle him, which, if Bucky was going tolecture him, at least he wasn’t leaving Tony hanging while he was doing it, andTony could ignore the scowl Bucky was giving him as he twisted and wriggled,trying to move Bucky faster, harder, now now now–

Oh Christ– Bucky slid one finger in, crooked it and stroked alongTony’s prostate, once, twice, three… oh, god, practically tortured it,rubbing and pressing, but just one finger… used his thumb to tease at Tony’srim. “I got you, Tony, baby, relax, honey, I got you…”

“This is not a relaxing situation,” Tony shot back. “Come on, Ijust… God, I need you so bad, Bucky, please. I know you love to makeme squirm but– fuck! –I’m begging, I just need you in me, come on…”

“I need you,” Bucky said. He added a second finger, scissoredthem, watching as Tony twisted, hissed at the pressure. “Need you so bad, wantyou so much. Want you t’ open up for me, there we go, yeah, like that, baby.It’s good, it’s good, I’m gonna give you what you need. There you are, baby.”He tugged, light, against the rim, then pulled his fingers out. Lubed himselfand lined up. “Oh, god…” Pressed the head of his cock in. “I got you, Tony.Bring me home.”

“Come on, honey,” Tony urged, rocking his hips up, pulling Buckyin closer. “Want all of you, every inch, as deep as you can go.” It ached inthe best way, that slow slide in. It was almost the same way his heart ached onthose rare occasions that he woke up and Bucky was still asleep and he couldwatch through those quiet moments. God, but he loved Bucky. “Love you,” hesaid, panting and wrapping his leg over Bucky’s hip. “My soldier. Come onhome.”

Bucky groaned, straining, and his metal hand came up to push atTony’s thigh, spreading him wider. The plate shifted, a sharp pinch, and thenheat spread from the bruise as Bucky switched his grip. And then Bucky buriedhimself in Tony’s body, thrust in all the way to the hilt, demanding and urgentand perfectly imperfect. “Oh… god.” Bucky leaned in, tucked his faceagainst Tony’s throat.  

“Yes,” Tony moaned, wrapping his arms and legs around Bucky. “Giveit to me, honey. Give it to me good, I need you.” It felt so good, likepart of him had been missing and was returned. And he still wasn’t going tolast.

Bucky rocked him, pushing deeper. He lifted himself up, hands oneither side of Tony’s head and ploughed into Tony, spine seemingly as flexibleas a snake’s. “Look at me, baby, lemme see you,” Bucky pleaded. And oh, god, itwas hard to keep his eyes open while Bucky was doing such delicious things tohis body, but at the same time – once he met Bucky’s eyes, near black withdesire – he couldn’t look away. “There you are… come on, baby, touch yourself,so close, I’m… oh, christ, fuck, Tony, you’re so…”

Tony thought he was going to come the instant he touched his dick,but he managed to keep it together, barely. He stroked himself nice and easy,maybe every three of Bucky’s thrusts, not wanting it over yet. “You feel good,honey? Tell me how much you like it.” Bucky had a bit of a love-haterelationship with talking in specifics during sex; pushing that button waseither going to speed things up or slow them down, and either way, it was awinner for Tony.

Bucky shivered, and the movement did interesting things to theplace they were joined together. “Yeah, you always wanna hear about it,” hegrowled, “you want me t’ tell you how warm you are, how slick and tight ‘roundme. The way you move, god, you make me th’ best kinda crazy, like I’m an inchfrom touchin’ eternity. Everythin’, everything you do, makes me wild. I c’nbarely keep my hands off you, an’ I…god, need you so bad, Tony. God, soperfect, look at you, god, how you take me, how much you want it.” He wasmurmuring in Tony’s ear, praise and worship and needy and eager, telling Tonyhow sweet he was, how good it felt, how every little twitch and flex wastranslated directly into his cock, his balls, how soft Tony’s skin was, howgood he smelled. “Baby, you’re th’ best thing I ever touched, can’t believe,sometimes, that you let me.”

Tony almost laughed at that. “We’ve been together for more thanfive years, sweetheart. You’re going to have to believe it eventually.” Henuzzled up under Bucky’s jaw to leave the sharp little bites that made Buckyshudder with sensation. “Mm, love it when I get you to talk dirty for me.S’when I know you’re wound up nice and tight.” He moved his hand faster,matching Bucky’s rhythm. God, he wanted to come; he could feel it buildingright at the base of his spine.

Bucky’s arm slipped under Tony’s back, yanking him down, pinninghim in place as Bucky slammed home. The intense, focused expression faded asBucky got closer to his own release, until he was almost sleepy-looking, eyeshalf-lidded, breath speeding. “Tony, oh, god, you feel so damned good, I… youunravel me. Oh, god, Tony, Tony, come on, I’m…” Bucky threw his head back, hiships moving reflexively, working in Tony with abandon.

“Yeah, honey, let it go, come on, I’m…” Tony’s breathing wasgetting rough and raw, and electricity built in his balls. He was going tocome, any second, just one… more… push– The world dissolved into fire, andhe was pretty sure he yelled something. Maybe Bucky’s name, maybe justnonsense. Didn’t matter, didn’t matter, not with the way his bones were turninghot and liquid, oh god, it felt so good…

Tony’d been flattened by his supersoldier before; at least thenewer mattress was somewhat softer, so he could still breathe. “Oh, god, Tony,”Bucky managed. “Christ.” He heaved a few deep, almost sobbing gaspsbefore he shifted his weight. He rolled off and sprawled out, taking up morethan his fair share of mattress. He kissed Tony’s forehead.

“Fuck, I needed that,” Tony sighed. “I love you.” He didn’t reallywant to move at all, but he groped around enough to hook his ankle underBucky’s leg.

“Needed you,” Bucky said. “I was this far–” he held out hisfinger and thumb about an inch apart “– from spontaneously combusting.”

Steve was leaning against the fridge, arms crossed over his massivechest with his very best Your Captain is Disappointed in You look plasteredacross his face.

Bucky stopped dead. Tony was following so close behind, theirhands twined together, that he actually ran into Bucky’s back.

“What th– Oh, hey, Cap. What’s… with the face?”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. He knew they’d told JARVIS not tointerrupt them, but surely if there’d been an assemble call, J would have said something.Which meant that Bucky had no idea why Steve was looking at them like he wasgetting ready to chew steel and spit staples. And assign them both to KP orsomething.

Steve unfolded his arms. “I’m interested in your explanation forthis,” he said shortly. “Pepper is going to stomp on us with cleats forthe bad PR.”

Bucky actually turned and looked behind him, to see if someoneelse – Clint, for instance – might be following, and therefore a betterreceptacle for Steve’s anger. “Um, what’s this?”

From his back pocket, Steve withdrew a folded piece of newsprint.He flattened it carefully, then slammed it down on the kitchen table. “This.”

Bucky took a few more steps into the kitchen to look.

Oh.

Oh, crap.

Tony leaned around Bucky’s arm to look as well. “Oh. Well, crap.”

The article itself was wild speculation, headline coyly suggestingthat the Winter Soldier was cheating on his meal-ticket husband and had dodgedout of sight when Iron Man returned unexpectedly.

But there was Bucky, on the front damn page, buck-assed naked onthe Avengers Tower landy gantry, backed up against the door to the penthouse –from a week ago, when Jaime’d chased him outside in a hurry. Those telephotolenses were pretty damn good, too, because it wasn’t a grainy, fuzzy image,either, but rather high-def. He was high-stepping into his shorts, one leg bentto shove his foot through the leg hole, body facing the camera while he lookedback over his shoulder. The metal arm particularly stood out.

Tony, all but immune to Steve’s face, hummed thoughtfully and saidwith an audible leer, “At least they got your good side.”

They’d pixilated out his dick, at least, for the front page, butBucky would be willing to bet that somewhere, some paparazzi had the fullmonty. Which meant that either some yellow journalist was going to be coming toTony with a hand out for a big payout, or Bucky’s erection was going to end upall over the internet.

Tony chortled, pointing at the caption. It’s going to be a longwinter.

[sonneka]

Hi! I'm your new follower and I love your blog! (Besides, I'm from you country!) For the fanfic thing, Komahina 1 or 27?

(Waaaah, sos de Argentina? Lloro. Ya no me siento tan sola en tumblr :’D ♥)

Welcome to my blog and sorry for the late answer!! When people want me to choose between 2 prompts I actually end up using both, so I wanted to try that! (Though probably I wrote more for the second one than for the first one this time >w

1. A Sweet Kiss & 27. Accidentaly Sleeping In

Inside the boat’s cabin it was difficultto tell whether it was already morning or still night. There was almost nolight in there since the only window was really small and Komaeda and Hinata decidedto close it every night before going to sleep.

Yes, they shared cabin, justlike everyone else. There was no doubt that Hinata would choose Komaeda to behis partner, since he was reallyclose to him now.

After so much time trying andfailing, he got to understand him at last. He loved Komaeda, much more than he probably showed, and knowing heloved him back even after everything that happened between them, it was such agift.

Hinata opened his heavyeyelids, blinking slowly as he was getting his thoughts together. As per usual,the room was dark and he felt a warm weight over him, which was the reason whyhe couldn’t move too much. He looked down and remembered, of course.

Komaeda was sleeping, holdingonto Hinata as if he were a plushy or something like that. Not that he was complainingthough. Every night, as soon as they went to their respective beds, Hinata wouldturn the lights off and say a tired “good night”. And every singlenight after that sort of ritual, Komaeda would leave his bed to ask Hinata tosleep with him instead.

He was still wondering whyKomaeda waited until they were about to sleep to request that, but Hinata cameup with the conclusion that he was always too embarrassed to even ask for thatwhen the lights were on.

However, when it came to themsleeping together… Actually, they wouldn’t sleep at all.

Again, Hinata didn’tcomplain, he was happy with Komaeda’s presence and with all the sweet behaviours they were starting to have: Kisses, hugs, sickly-sweetpraises to each other, and more…

Those were good nights. Butin the morning, the lack of sleep was pretty palpable.

Hinata wanted to stretch hisarms and legs, but it was impossible to move if Komaeda was so peacefullysleeping on his chest and they were, basically, tangled. There was no way Hinatawould wake him up. He would patiently wait for him to do so, since it wasn’tboring at all to stare at his face, even if he had to look at it for hoursuntil the other woke up.

No matter how many times hestayed staring at Komaeda’s features, he’d always find something new andinteresting to look at.

He was truly beautiful.Hinata carefully moved his arm which was huggingKomaeda with and slowly brought his hand closer tohis pale face.

White locks of hair coveringmore than a half of his face, not letting the best view for Hinata to see, buthe had to admit it was still cute. Komaeda’s hair was so strange, so fluffy andmessy but, even so, soft to the touch. Hinata loved brushing his curly hair,his fingers playing with its inexplicable texture. It didn’t take long for himto brush away those locks hiding his face, and he wouldn’t ever regret theoutcome.

His face was angelical, asstupid as it sounded. Hinata muffled a laugh when he saw the little thread of drool escaping the other’s lips.He could have wiped it away, but he looked really cute that way and doingso would only ruin the moment.

And it was better that hedidn’t try it, Komaeda started twitching his nose and even frowned, as if therewas something bothering him in his sleep. Well, it was time for Hinata to stopplaying, it seemed.

But it wasn’t like he had to wake up yet,even if he didn’t know what time it was and was unable to look at a clock, hewas pretty sure that if Komaeda wasn’t awake yet, that had to mean they had along time to stay in bed yet.

Hinata moved slightly, in anattempt to get more comfortable without disturbing the other boy’s sleep. Hewent back to wrap his arm around him, feeling their skins brushing. It wasweird, but he was getting accustomed to them sleeping like that, almost naked. The dark cabincould be cold, but their bodies wouldn’t.

A few nights ago, Hinata wasvery embarrassed to sleep with only his undergarments on and, besides, with Komaeda. But soon it becamesomething normal, even something they needed to do to sleep better.

Hinata got to finally feelcomfortable. He stared at Komaeda’s face, an angel’s sleeping face, and after afew seconds, he smiled and didn’t hesitate to kiss his forehead before closinghis eyes again, hoping to sleep some more time.

He was about to do it, he wasabout to fall asleep again when some knocks on the door suddenly broke thesilence. Hinata felt so lost that almost thought it was a dream or somethinglike that, but then the knocks sounded again, louder.

“Hey! Hinata! Komaeda!What the hell are you doing!? Are you still asleep!?”

That voice, it had to beSouda…

Wait.

Why was Souda waking him up?It was always the other way around. Hinata raised an eyebrow, completelyconfused yet too sleepy to get a clear idea of the situation.

He only growled, knowing thatnobody would hear him. Well, almost nobody.

“Hi…nata-kun?”

Crap…

Hinata started to feelannoyed. The knocks on the door that once had stopped were now back again, andthis time Komaeda would probably wake up.

What the hell was wrong withSouda?

“Hey, dumbass, don’t actas if you were sleeping and hurry up!” This time, it was Kuzuryuu’s voice.

Seriously, what the…

“I guess we’ll have togo in…”

“What!? But he surelyhas the door locked.”

Hinata still couldn’t believewhy these idiots were so persistent in this. It never happened, there was noreason for that.

Or… Was there?

His eyes suddenly widened and he even nearlyforgot about wanting Komaeda to keep sleeping, because he almost gave a jumpoff bed.

Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn…

Of course… It was theday, the day they would finally arrive to the real Jabberwock Island againafter so much time abroad.

He even told everyone a fewnights ago that they had to be careful about that, about knowing when they werearriving. And this not being enough, he also claimed that he’d have everythingunder control by himself.

It seemed impossible, but he absolutelyforgot.

“Okay, Hinata, Komaeda…You left us no other choice!” Souda’s voice sounded again, and Komaedatwitched his nose at the mention of his last name.

“We’re getting in!”Kuzuryuu’s voice sounded even louder.

“What!? No!”Finally, Hinata reacted. Screaming with his hoarse and dry voice.

It would have been funny ifthe door had a lock, but they didn’t use the key of the room since nobody everhad woken them up before. Actually, they were the ones waking everybody upevery single morning.

This wasn’t funny, what wouldKuzuryuu and Souda say when they found out how Komaeda and Hinata were—?

And the door opened, as ifthey kicked it. It sounded so brutal that Hinata barely had time to do somethingabout that. Komaeda was still kind of asleep with all his numb weight over the other boy and…

Well…

“Hinata, damn it you—What!?!?”Souda couldn’t continue with his complaints, as soon as his gaze reached thebed, only panic could be seen on his face and a terrified scream came out next.

“Seriously, you two…What the fuck are you doing!?”Kuzuryuu at least only sounded annoyed.

“Well, ummm…”Hinata didn’t know where to start, he kept his eyes closed and pinched thebridge of his nose with his fingers, wanting to stop feeling tired so he couldexplain himself better.

However, this poor attemptwould soon be ruined. Komaeda finally moving away from him, lifting his sleepyface to find Kuzuryuu and Souda staring fixedly at him. “Mmm… Guys…?What a surprise…!”

“Whaaa….! And you’reeven naked! What the fuck, Hinata!?” It was even funny how Souda wantedexplanations from Hinata and not from Komaeda.

“Huh? We’re not…”the white haired boy even checked under the sheets, as if he really wasn’t sureabout his statement. “Yeah, we’re not.”

“We don’t want toknow…” Kuzuryuu shook his head, avoiding his gaze at Hinata and Komaeda.

“Yeah, Komaeda… They, don’t want to know.” Hinata didn’tusually feel embarrassed, but right now he couldn’t help burying his face ontothe pillow.

“Hey, don’t just staythere! Didn’t you tell us you’d be the one controlling the ship for when wearrived?” Kuzuryuu sounded just like an angry mother.

“But I forgot…”His face still pressed on the pillow.

“Don’t fuck with me! Yousurely are also the Ultimate Clock or some shit like that, you can’t forgetabout it, idiot.”

“Yeah… You forgetthat, but you don’t forget to take your clothes off when you’re withKomaeda…” the latter laughed at Souda’s response.

Hinata lifted his head to givea piercing glare to Komaeda, still he even had the guts to smile at him. “What?Hinata-kun, don’t be mad… It’s too early to be angry!” And even if hewanted to keep being negative, he couldn’t help smiling when Komaeda, lookingmessy and tired, was encouraging him.

“Not to be a partypooper but… It’s half past eleven,” Souda rubbed the back of his head.

At that response, Komaeda andHinata  stared at each other, shocked.“What?” even their answers came out at the same time.

“Yeah, so just hurry up.Get up and… D-Dress up, you dirty assholes.”

“Yeah…”

Kuzuryuu turned around andleft the room, followed by Souda. Then the door shut, silence and the sound ofthe sea waves crashing onto theboat being the only things that could be heard in that dark room, again.

“Well,” Komaeda turned hisgaze towards Hinata. “Good morning, Hinata-kun…”

He was again over his chest,and it didn’t take long for him to press his lips onto Hinata’s. It was along and slow kiss, deep and full of feelings. A kiss that could reach theheart.

Hinatacircled Komaeda’s waist with both arms, pulling him closer. They didn’t wake upin the best mood, but it was easy to forget when they were tangled in such alovely embrace.

However,it wouldn’t last forever. “Can we sleep a little bit more? I’m tired…” Komaedanuzzled Hinata’s shoulder. He really enjoyed being on top of him, didn’t he?

“Wecan’t… Didn’t you hear what Kuzuryuu and Souda said?” Hinata couldn’t helpbrushing the other’s hair with this fingers.

“Aboutus being naked?”

“No,Komaeda… are you really that sleepy?You didn’t hear anything?”

“Hmm…”he kept staying where he was, and that wasn’t okay.

“Komaeda…Please. We have to get up.” Hinata grabbed the other’s chin, making him lookup. “They’re already mad at us, didn’t you know?”

Komaedajust laughed. “I get it, but… Would it be too bad if I stay here a little bitlonger? I mean… you can go but I’m just too tired…”

Hinata’scheeks blushed. Right, if Komaeda claimed to be tired, it was better to leavehim be. He started to move away, feeling bad when Komaeda was the only oneresting on the bed. He stared at him for a moment before searching for his clothes.

Oncehe was finished dressing up, he gave a last glance to Komaeda, who seemed to beasleep again. Hinata smiled and got closer to him, sitting on the bed andcaressing his cheek with his thumb.

Hewould obviously kiss him again, briefly, knowing the other was probably alreadyasleep. He kissed his mouth, his cheeks, his forehead, every single feature onhis face. His skin was so soft yet so fragile. He loved it, he loved Komaeda.

Reachingthe door, he turned around once again. “Hey, Komaeda,” he shouted.

“Hmm?”maybe the other wasn’t sleeping at all in the end. Had he simply let Hinata kisshis whole face while pretending to be asleep? Hinata felt his cheeks blushingagain.

“D-Don’tthink you can sleep all day, I’ll come back in a few minutes to wake you up… Noexcuses, we are arriving soon.”

“Mm…”that was the only answer he received, and he couldn’t help laughing beforeopening the door.

However,he stood there, as if he still needed to look back to check on Komaeda one moretime. And when he did, he muttered a little “I love you”, sure that the otherwouldn’t hear him.

Butwhen he was about to leave…

“Ilove you too, Hinata-kun…” Komaeda mumbled, as if he was talking betweendreams.

Hinatasighed, yet he smiled. Feeling that if he could, he would stay with the otheruntil both of them felt in better conditions to wake up. But, well, they had somany more nights to do that after arriving the Island, and now it was better toleave Komaeda rest.

Hinataturned around and closed the door, leaving the dark cabin behind.

“I love you too, Hinata-kun…”

Whata good way of starting a brand new day.